Lee Ardis

Chess Federation Bans Trans-Identifying Men From Women’s Events

The International Chess Federation (FIDE) has updated its handbook to ban trans-identifying males from competing in women’s competitions.

FIDE, the international governing body for the sport, provided new guidelines to address transgender chess players and how it would handle titles such as Woman Grandmaster, Woman International Master, Woman FIDE Master, and Woman Candidate Master amid transgender players, Mediaite reported.

“In the event that the gender was changed from a male to a female the player has no right to participate in official FIDE events for women until further FIDE’s decision is made,” the rule read. “Such decision should be based on further analysis and shall be taken by the FIDE Council at the earliest possible time, but not longer than within 2 (two) years period.”

“Titles. If a player holds any of the women titles, but the gender has been changed to a man, the women titles are to be abolished,” the guidelines added. “Those can be renewed if the person changes the gender back to a woman and can prove the ownership of the respective FIDE ID that holds the title.”

“The abolished women title may be transferred into a general title of the same or lower level (e.g., Women’s Grand Master may be transferred into FM, Women’s International Master into Candidate Master, etc.),” it continued, noting that there “are no restrictions to play in the open section for a person who has changed the gender.”

Exclusive: Florida Fines Medicaid Providers For Using Tax Dollars To Cover Trans Treatments For Minors

Five Medicaid healthcare insurers have violated Florida’s rule against using taxpayer funds to provide transgender treatments, and the state is now fining them for the action. It’s the first time any state has taken this step in regard to gender transition coverage.

Among the procedures one of the plans covered was a double mastectomy on a 16-year-old girl. The other plans paid for puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for minors. Florida health officials sent out letters informing the providers they were being fined over the violation late Thursday.

“These plans recklessly continued to cover these services with permanent, harmful effects, after the rule was adopted,” Jason Weida, Secretary of the Agency for Healthcare Administration, told The Daily Wire news podcast Morning Wire. “[They] will not stand in the way of our fight to protect the innocence of Florida’s kids.”

Though a federal judge recently blocked a new law in Florida that banned transgender surgeries and medications for children, a rule from the Agency for Health Care Administration still required the state’s Medicaid plan providers to deny coverage for all such treatments.

The rule went into effect last August after the agency performed a systematic review of the medical literature on treatments for gender dysphoria in children, including surgeries, puberty blockers, and cross-sex hormones. It determined they are not medically necessary. But in December, well after the agency says Medicaid healthcare plan providers were notified of the rule, the five providers covered the trans treatments anyway. The violations were caught as part of a routine audit of the Medicaid system.

Typically, Medicaid rule violations occur when providers refuse to pay for treatment that should have been covered. Paying for procedures and medications that have been banned is extremely unusual, raising the question of whether the providers’ decisions to provide coverage were politically motivated. Weida told The Daily Wire he doesn’t want to speculate about their reasons but “they’re certainly going to be on notice now.” He added that his office would consider more drastic penalties for any further violations.

Simply Healthcare, the provider that covered the mastectomy, is facing a $30,000 penalty and will be sanctioned. The other providers face smaller, unspecified fines, but the non-willful sanction is the more serious penalty as it places a black mark on a provider’s record that must be disclosed when it competes for contracts. Providers who have been sanctioned are much less likely to be awarded other state contracts for 10 years until the sanction expires. According to the Agency for Health Care Administration, Simply Health has already replaced the team that approved the mastectomy coverage.

Weida told The Daily Wire that he’s grateful Governor Ron DeSantis empowered his office to issue the rule blocking public money from going to transgender surgeries, and he doesn’t see it as a question of politics but of ethics.

Archaeologist Discovers the City of Sodom

Many people are familiar with the account in the biblical Book of Genesis about the two sin-filled cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and their cataclysmic destruction.

Yet many in this modern, scientific age struggle — or outright refuse — to accept that the cities ever really existed, much less that God wiped them out with fire from heaven. …

But last week — and again this week — on THE ROSENBERG REPORT, I sat down for an exclusive interview with Dr. Steven Collins, the archaeologist who claims that he and his team have actually uncovered the Biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrah in the Kingdom of Jordan.

If he is right, Collins is responsible for the most dramatic — and controversial — archaeological find of the 21st century. …

As Collins explained in the interview, he first rejected the notion that Sodom and Gomorrah are fictional, mythical cities that were made up by ancient writers. …

Second, Collins said that the wealth and size of Sodom as described in the Bible meant that Sodom would have been one of the largest and most influential and powerful cities of its time. And thus hard to make up to ancient audiences who knew the history and the geography of the region well.

Third, Collins noted that the apocalyptic destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah ought to be verifiable, if the cities really existed.

So, Collins told me, he simply followed all the location clues laid out in Genesis and boom — he uncovered the biggest Bronze Age city in the entire Middle East, a city that comports with the Biblical account of Sodom in every respect, including its sudden and cataclysmic annihilation. …

Another clue the Bible gives regarding the location of Sodom, he told me, is the description of the meeting between Abraham and Lot before they parted ways.

“The proper question to ask in the location of Sodom is, ‘Where was Lot standing when he lifted up his eyes and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan was well-watered?’ It was Bethel and AI,” Collins explained. …

All this led Collins and his team to dig in a site called Tall el-Hammam, with the permission of — and under the supervision of — the Kingdom of Jordan.

And what did they find?

A massive series of cities, including the biggest and wealthiest city of the Bronze Age in the entire region.

What’s more, they found a massive metropolitan city that was completely wiped out in a sudden firestorm and then uninhabited for the next 700 years. …

Crucified ‘Jesus Ken’ and ‘Virgin Mary’ dolls relaunch amid ‘Barbie’ movie craze sparks outrage

The planned relaunch of religiously-themed Barbie dolls in Argentina, dubbed “Barbie Virgin Mary” and “Jesus Ken,” has sparked outrage globally, especially among Catholic groups in Buenos Aires, the birthplace of Pope Francis.

This comes after the international success of Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” movie, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, prompted the creators, local artists Emiliano Pool Paolini and Marianela Perelli, to reissue their contentious collection.

As reported by Jam Press, the artists’ original “Barbie: The Plastic Religion” exhibit in 2014 received serious death threats for representing important religious figures, including Catholic saints and the Virgin Mary, as dolls.

Despite these threats, at least one toy shop in Argentina has allegedly agreed to stock some models of the revived collection, with the artists planning to showcase their dolls in an art show in December, according to the New York Post.

The previous exhibit, “Barbie, The Plastic Religion,” drew ire worldwide, according to USA Today. Priest Adrian Santarelli from St. Thomas More parish in Buenos Aires at the time questioned the appropriateness of the dolls, saying their representation of sacred images might damage a child’s understanding of the sacred.

It included Barbies depicted as Joan of Arc and Virgin of Guadalupe, among others, and Ken as Buddha and Moses. It notably avoided dolls representing Muslim figures due to Islamic prohibitions on such depictions.

In response to the controversy, the artists insist that the exhibit is purely artwork and not intended to cause offense. Paolini insists that the creations were “simply the union of the two most popular elements of history: the Barbie doll and religion.”

“Frankly, we don’t understand why we’re being attacked,” the New York Post quoted Paolini as saying. “Religion has always depicted virgins as the most beautiful women,” he added. “Today, the most beautiful woman is Barbie.”

The exhibit reportedly planned for December is expected to draw about 400 visitors, according to the organizers, with police presence to ensure security.

BRICS will discuss a new currency and possible de-dollarization during the summit: Report

As leaders of the BRICS nations-Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa prepare for the group’s summit from August 22-24 in South Africa, discussions of creating a new BRICS currency to offset the dominance of the US dollar are gaining momentum.

“One of the main topics on the agenda, other than the group’s expansion, is a push to conduct more trade among BRICS nations in local currencies and reduce the reliance on the US dollar,” Alarabia reported.

The bloc has been working to reduce its reliance on the US dollar for more than a decade, but after Russia invaded Ukraine, when the US imposed severe economic sanctions on Moscow, the concept of de-dollarization—or lessening the US dollar’s dominance in international trade and finance—became more popular.

“The BRICS countries are trying to accelerate the process of reducing their reliance on the dollar,” Papa, a Senior Fellow at the Fletcher School, Tufts University, told Al Arabiya English. “While Russia has always been committed to de-dollarization due to sanctions-related risks, now we see other countries, especially Brazil, becoming more vocal about acting on this agenda.”

Although the movement towards de-dollarization is gaining momentum, it is neither simple nor quick, given the numerous economic and political obstacles that still need to be overcome. For instance, the US dollar makes up 58 per cent of the world’s foreign exchange reserves and more than 80 per cent of all international trade.

Despite the dollar’s dominance, some analysts believe it is plausible to envision a new BRICS currency being used for trade.

“It (de-dollarization) might work this time because their (BRICS) ambition for an actual currency seems to have scaled down. It is no more this fanciable notion of a shared currency like the Euro; instead, they seem to be focusing more on the use of the currency in international trade, which is why it is more seriously a viable possibility,” Jo Sullivan, a former White House economist, told Al Arabiya English.

According to Sullivan’s analysis in a Foreign Policy piece, each of the BRICS countries is an “economic heavyweight” in their respective regions and can, therefore, cover all their import costs independently.

Massachusetts Bans Couple From Adopting Foster Kids Because They’re Conservative Christians

A religious couple in Massachusetts took the Commonwealth to court today for banning them from welcoming vulnerable children into their home through the Commonwealth’s foster care program. In Burke v. Walsh, Mike and Kitty Burke wanted to foster and someday adopt children in need of a family. Even though Massachusetts has a foster care crisis, state officials refused to let the Burkes foster any children in the state.

The reason was their religious beliefs about marriage, sexuality, and gender. With the help of Becket, the Burkes are asking the court to ensure that qualified families no longer suffer for their religious beliefs and that vulnerable children are given a loving home.

Mike and Kitty Burke are a Catholic couple from Massachusetts who have long wanted to become parents. Mike is an Iraq war veteran, Kitty is a former paraprofessional for special needs kids, and together they run a business and perform music for Mass. Mike and Kitty began exploring becoming foster parents through the state’s foster care program, hoping to care for and eventually adopt children in need of a stable, loving home like theirs.

“After months of interviews and training, and after years of heartbreak, we were on the verge of finally becoming parents,” said Mike and Kitty Burke. “We were absolutely devastated to learn that Massachusetts would rather children sleep in the hallways of hospitals than let us welcome children in need into our home.”

Children in foster care throughout Massachusetts are waiting for families like the Burkes. The Department of Children and Families (DCF) currently does not have enough foster homes or facilities to meet the needs of the children in its care, leaving over 1,500 children without a family. The crisis has become so extreme that the state has resorted to housing children in hospitals for weeks on end. Now more than ever, Massachusetts needs the help of parents like Mike and Kitty to foster children in need.

During their application process, the Burkes underwent hours of training, extensive interviews, and an examination of their home. Mike and Kitty completed the training successfully and received high marks from the instructors. However, during their home interviews, the Burkes were troubled that many questions centered on their Catholic views about sexual orientation and gender dysphoria. In response, the Burkes emphasized that they would love and accept any child, no matter the child’s future sexual orientation or struggles with gender identity.

As Israeli Airstrikes Target Damascus, Is Isaiah’s Prophecy Regarding Syria On The Horizon?

Overnight on Sunday, Israel reportedly carried out airstrikes in Syria, specifically targeting the capital of Damascus.

In recent months, Israel has carried out many strikes in Damascus for two reasons. Number one, Damascus International Airport is a transit point for Iranian weapons shipments heading through Syria to southern Lebanon and into the hands of Iran’s most lethal proxy, Hezbollah. Number two, a good deal of Iranian backed militias are based in and around Damascus, the home to weapons factories, which presumably produce advanced weapons that could and would be used against Israel.

So, what went down Sunday night in the Syrian capital? According to media sources in the region, Israel carried out strikes in Damascus, killing four soldiers of the Syrian army of Bashar Al Assad and also wounding several others. The Syrian regime works in tandem with Iran and Hezbollah throughout the country at these weapons factories, which were reportedly targeted last night.

Last year Israel shut down Damascus International Airport for the better part of a week because of weapons shipments coming in, many times, disguised as civilian flights.

Iran hasn’t quite gotten the memo. The more Israel has struck the Iranian regime and its assets in and around Damascus, the more it seems they continue to push. What we have here is essentially a collision course where Iran and Hezbollah say, “We are in Syria to stay,” and Israel says, “Oh, no, you don’t. This is a non-starter for us and an absolute red line,” for obvious reasons.

Iran wants to use Syria as a launching pad for attacks against Israel. They want to duplicate in Syria what they have very successfully accomplished next door in southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah has some 150,000 rockets and missiles pointed at every inch of Israel.

Iran is working to transport precision-guided missiles (PGMs) through Syria. Those precision-guided missiles do exactly what their name says; they’re designed to hit targets with greater accuracy and greater precision. Iran is hell bent on accomplishing this and Israel is determined to stop them.

Israel, as is its MO, did not comment on the strikes. I’m sure Iran and the Assad regime are fuming, but the answer is simple: Stop building weapons to attack Israel inside of Syria, and get Iran and Hezbollah out of the country. That’s the ultimate solution, but we know that’s not going to happen without force.

There’s clearly a showdown coming in Syria. It would encompass Syria, Lebanon, and Israel going toe to toe with Iran and their various jihadist allies in those two countries. Of course, the entire ring of fire that surrounds Israel would ignite in that event, getting Gaza, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad involved, even perhaps the Houthis in Yemen further to the south. That day is coming and may be rapidly approaching as we see hostilities ramp up along the Israel-Lebanon border, and of course, in Syria.

Reas more at: harbingersdaily.com

AI-supercharged Neurotech Threatens Mental Privacy: UNESCO

The combination of “warp speed” advances in neurotechnology, such as brain implants or scans that can increasingly peek inside minds, and artificial intelligence poses a threat to mental privacy, UNESCO warned on Thursday.

The UN’s agency for science and culture has started developing a global “ethical framework” to address human rights concerns posed by neurotechnology, it said at a conference in Paris.

Neurotechnology is a growing field seeking to connect electronic devices to the nervous system, mostly so far to treat neurological disorders and restore movement, communication, vision or hearing.

Recently neurotechnology has been supercharged by artificial intelligence algorithms which can process and learn from data in ways never before possible, said Mariagrazia Squicciarini, a UNESCO economist specialising in AI.

“It’s like putting neurotech on steroids,” she told AFP.

Gabriela Ramos, UNESCO’s assistant director-general for social and human sciences, said that this convergence of neurotechnology and AI was “far-reaching and potentially harmful”.

“We are on a path to a world in which algorithms will enable us to decode people’s mental processes and directly manipulate the brain mechanisms underlying their intentions, emotions and decisions,” she told the conference.

In May, scientists in the United States revealed they had used brain scans and AI to turn “the gist” of what people were thinking into written words — as long as they had spent long hours inside a large fMRI machine.

Later that month, billionaire Elon Musk’s firm Neuralink received approval to test its coin-sized brain implants on humans in the United States.

BEST BUY: Workers Can Display Gay Pride Flags, But Not Crosses

Investigative journalist James O’Keefe has obtained audio recordings of a Best Buy manager in Jacksonville saying that LGBT flags are permissible in the Geek Squad office, but Christian crosses would not be allowed. The manager explained that people can choose their religion, but they can’t choose their gender. The worker said he was also not allowed to have a Bible in the office area — because it was not work appropriate. Perhaps it’s time that Best Buy gets the Bud Light treatment?

Watch at: www.toddstarnes.com

California Child Marriage Ban Faces Opposition From Planned Parenthood

With child marriage still legal in California, advocates are mounting a campaign to push the state to enact a ban, but their effort is facing surprising opposition from progressive groups like Planned Parenthood.

Dozens of survivors of forced or child marriages traveled to California’s state Capitol in Sacramento last month to protest the state’s existing laws. Dressed in wedding dresses with their wrists tied and mouths taped shut, they called on state lawmakers to finally outlaw the practice.

California, a solidly Democratic state, was on track to be the first to pass an absolute ban on marriages for children under 18. But the legislative proposal was met with opposition from liberal organizations like Planned Parenthood, the Children’s Law Center and the American Civil Liberties Union.

The pushback comes out of concerns that imposing an age requirement could set the stage for a slippery slope when it comes to constitutional rights or reproductive choices, specifically that an age requirement could impede a minor’s ability to seek an abortion.

California and Mississippi are the only two states where there is no minimum age requirement to get married. Most states have a minimum marriage age of 16 with parental consent, although it can range from as low as 14 to as high as 18, according to voting rights organization Wisevoter.

Newsweek reached out to Planned Parenthood via email for comment.

Minors seeking to wed in California need approval from a guardian and a court order. But those calling for a ban on child marriages point out that when it comes to issues like statutory rape, California’s definition of unlawful sexual activity between a child and an adult does not apply if the two parties are married.

Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California spokesperson Jennifer Wonnacott told the Los Angeles Times that it “strongly supports protecting youth from abuse of all kinds” but said those protections should “not impede on the reproductive rights of minors and their ability to decide what is best for them, their health and their lives.”

An analysis from Unchained At Last, a nonprofit dedicated to ending forced and child marriages in the U.S., found that between 2000 and 2018, 23,588 minors were married in California, making it the state with the second-highest number of child marriages behind Texas.