Research financed by the International Olympic Committee introduced new data to the unsettled and fractious debate about bans on transgender athletes. A new study financed by the International Olympic Committee found that transgender female athletes showed greater handgrip strength " an indicator of overall muscle strength " but lower jumping ability, lung function and relative cardiovascular fitness compared with women whose gender was assigned female at birth.
Yuval Noah Harari: Israel is facing a historic defeat, the bitter fruit of years of disastrous policies. If the country now prioritizes vengeance over its own best interests, it will put itself and the entire region in grave danger. read more
Andrew Feinberg reports on a $50 million ad campaign focused on reaching out to Trump loyalists -- and whether it has a realistic chance of changing the outcome for Biden read more
The Freedom Caucus' Floor Action Response Team, shorthanded as "FART," aims to guard against an unannounced request to pass resolutions that would stealthily limit their leverage against leadership, according to two Republicans with direct knowledge, who were granted anonymity to speak candidly. read more
Arizona Republicans celebrated Wednesday after swatting down Democrats' fourth attempt in two weeks to repeal the state's near-total abortion ban, which the state Supreme Court upheld last week. read more
Hmm, I'd call it a little more than a scuffle and isn't Murkowski an independent now?
Background info:
These Climate Activists Make People Uncomfortable " And It's Workingwww.rollingstone.com
Last week, guerilla activists at Climate Defiance recounted the powerful people they've made uncomfortable, and used that power to raise real money
Activists and donors, young and old, packed into a luxury co-op on the Upper West Side last Wednesday to celebrate the one-year birthday of Climate Defiance, a disruptive climate action group that is quite good at making powerful politicians, government officials, and corporate executives uncomfortable " with the goal of trying to end our reliance on fossil fuels.
Climate Defiance Executive Director Michael Greenberg put this power on full display at the event, as he gave supporters an excruciatingly hard sell, for what felt like an eternity, asking them to fund the organization's in-your-face climate activism " and help take it national.
Background to MTG's amendment:
Hungary far-right would lay claim to neighbouring region if Ukraine loses warwww.reuters.com
BUDAPEST, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Hungary's far-right Our Homeland party would lay claim to a western region of Ukraine that is home to about 150,000 ethnic Hungarians if Ukraine loses its statehood due to Russia's invasion, the party's leader said late on Saturday.
Our Homeland leader Laszlo Toroczkai made the remarks at a conference where the party, which has six lawmakers in the 199-strong Hungarian parliament, hosted far-right leaders from Germany's AfD and the Dutch Forum for Democracy, among others.
"Regarding the war in Ukraine, our message is very simple: immediate ceasefire, peace and a resolution through talks," Toroczkai said in a video posted on his party's website, calling for autonomy for ethnic Hungarians in western Ukraine.
"If this war ends up with Ukraine losing its statehood, because this is also on the cards, then as the only Hungarian party taking this position, let me signal that we lay claim to Transcarpathia," he said, drawing applause from the crowd.
MFA:
That data, which also compared trans women with men, contradicted a broad claim often made by proponents of rules that bar transgender women from competing in women's sports. It also led the study's authors to caution against a rush to expand such policies, which already bar transgender athletes from a handful of Olympic sports.
The authors cautioned against the presumption of immutable and disproportionate advantages for transgender female athletes who compete in women's sports, and they advised against "precautionary bans and sport eligibility exclusions" that were not based on sport-specific research.