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Good day to all. If you value this daily newsfeed, please consider making a donation to sustain it at the Paypal button or Bitcoin links to the side of this post. If you wish to donate in another manner, please write to me at wendy(at)wendymcelroy.com. Your contribution will be well used and greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Minnesota's Nudification Ban Could Punish People
Topic: Political Correctness
Source: Reason
Over Parodies and Stripped-Down Selfies. Elon Musk's xAI Is Suing. A Minnesota law that took effect August 1 says it's illegal to run a website, app, or software program that lets users "nudify" images. Elon Musk's xAI is challenging the law on First Amendment grounds—and it should win. When it comes to nudify services, the behavior we want to stop is people using them to nonconsensually "strip" others of their clothes and then share these images in order to harass or embarrass someone or pretend that they have gotten nude in front of you when they have not.

Fake ICE raids and kidnapping drills: how Chinese teens prepare for US college
Topic: Children and Family
Source: South China Morning
As Trump’s toughening rules spark anxiety, Chinese parents pay for camps teaching how to survive being seized by gunmen or ‘hidden dangers’. When she opened the door, a man pushed his way inside, shone a flashlight in her face and shouted: “Get down. Give me your phone.” Lu froze. Moments later, she came to her senses and did as she was told, burying her face in the mattress and raising her hands above her head. The intruder blindfolded Lu, tied her hands and finally made her record a phone message for her parents – begging them to pay a ransom. Except the scenario was not real.

DHS Locates 148,000 Missing Migrant Children
Topic: Children and Family
Source: American Faith
Last year, DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari released a report detailing the thousands of migrant children unaccounted for by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) between fiscal years 2019 and 2023. “From fiscal years 2019 to 2023, ICE transferred more than 448,000 UACs [unaccompanied alien children] to HHS; most were released to sponsors,” the report says. “However, more than 31,000 of the 448,000 children’s release addresses were blank, undeliverable, or missing apartment numbers. ICE also was not always aware of the location for UACs who fled HHS’ custody.”

AI-supervised remote exam went so badly that 58,000 students must retake it
Topic: Children and Family
Source: ars technica
Earlier this summer, nearly 160,000 applicants took the entrance exam for UNAM, Mexico’s largest university. For the first time, they did it completely remotely, using a “lockdown” browser and AI-powered webcam proctoring software, over several weeks from late May through early June. It was a disaster. When exam results came in, they bore little resemblance to past results, especially at the top. Between 2021 and 2025, 3.5 percent of test takers scored 100 or more on the 120-question UNAM test. This year, 16.3 percent did so.

Gender Identity Federal Policy Update
Topic: Unspecified
Source: Manhattan Institute
A note to readers: This week's newsletter is our federal policy update on "gender identity" policy which we are sharing once a month in place of the Gender Debriefs weekly updates. Our normal Debrief content will resume next week. Thanks for reading. [Ed: a round-up of last week's gender policy legislation being floated in Congress.]

Kansas just affirmed that abortion politics still matter
Topic: Abortion
Source: Politico
Voters rejected a measure that was yet another ploy to restrict the right to abortion in the state. Voters in the red state overwhelmingly rejected a referendum designed to overturn Kansas’ constitutional right to abortion on Tuesday. The Legislature’s GOP supermajority had attempted to amend the Kansas constitution to change the way the state’s Supreme Court justices are chosen. It was an effort to fill the bench with more conservatives after a slate of rulings that roiled Republican lawmakers, most notably a 2019 decision upholding the right to abortion.

Fla's Ban On Children Attending Drag Shows Is Constitutional, Appeals Court Says
Topic: Children and Family
Source: The Epoch Times
On Tuesday, the court overturned a lower court’s decision that had blocked the state’s law..“This shouldn’t even be controversial, yet our law protecting kids required us to fend off lawsuits and win a case before a divided appellate court,” DeSantis wrote...Hamburger Mary’s, a bar and restaurant chain that holds drag shows and previously held what it called “family friendly” performances for children on Sundays, sued the state over the ban. The chain claimed its law was unconstitutional, but judges on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed in an 8–5 ruling.

Mamdani’s universal childcare plan will cost billions more than planned
Topic: Children and Family
Source: New York Post
...as costs balloon: report. Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s universal childcare plan will cost 50% more than he advertised, according to a new study. The proposed program is estimated to cost a whopping $9 billion annually, approximately with an average cost per child roughly $27,000, according to the report from the Center for New York City Affairs, a nonpartisan research organization affiliated with the New School. “An estimated $8.7 to $9.3 billion would be needed annually to fund universal child care in New York City,” the report, which was released on Monday, states. That’s $3 billion more than the mayor previously said...

Hundreds of migrant minors stranded in Ceuta after border crisis
Topic: Children and Family
Source: Al Jazeera
Migrant children in Ceuta suffer loss, hunger in hope of a safer life in mainland Europe. Hundreds of unaccompanied minors are stranded in Ceuta in North Africa, following the massive surge of migrants who swam around the border fence with Morocco to reach the Spanish territory. Some of the children are traumatised after witnessing family members drown in the Mediterranean Sea, as tens of thousands left Morocco in search of better opportunities.

Local school officials charged after trans wrestler sexually assaults girl
Topic: Violence Against Women
Source: The Post Millennial
...Rogers High School Principal Jason Smith and Athletic Coordinator Peter Collins were each charged July 21 in Pierce County District Court with failure to comply with Washington’s mandatory reporting law. Keeler and her family have maintained they reported the alleged assault to school officials immediately after the match, but law enforcement was not contacted for 53 days, despite Washington law requiring school employees to promptly report suspected child abuse or sexual abuse.

Malaysian Teen's Trial Is a National Reckoning
Topic: Violence Against Women
Source: BBC News
Malaysia is watching a rare juvenile murder trial that has quickly become a flashpoint over kids, phones, and the internet. A 14-year-old boy, who has since turned 15, is accused of fatally stabbing a 16-year-old female schoolmate, Yap Shing Xuen, in a bathroom at their secondary school near Kuala Lumpur last October, reports the BBC. He has pleaded not guilty. Under Malaysian law he cannot be named, but if convicted, he could face 40 years in prison. His age shields him from the death penalty. Police previously said social media appeared to have played a role, and reports about a note found in the suspect's possession have only amplified that. Its contents have not been officially revealed.

Driving UEFA's Revolt Against Infantino's Sell-Off: 2 Women
Topic: Gender Discrimination
Source: The Athletic
Female UEFA leaders vocally push for a boycott, spotlighting the gender gap in football governance. In a tense online meeting over Gianni Infantino's now-collapsed bid to sell a stake in FIFA's top competitions, it wasn't the usual power brokers who pushed hardest for a revolt. The Athletic reports that Laura McAllister of Wales and Norway's Lise Klaveness—the only two women on UEFA's 21-member executive committee—were, alongside UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin, the loudest voices urging Europe's federations to take on FIFA, including backing a full boycott. Multiple unnamed sources tell reporter Megan Feringa that the pair were central to the resistance as UEFA framed the plan as "economic blackmail." [Ed: I do not know if they are right or wrong but it is news.]

Planned Parenthood: Abortion Is Gender-Affirming Care
Topic: Abortion
Source: Victory Girls Blog
Planned Parenthood, AKA Abortion Incorporated, knows no bounds. The latest from the enterprise says it all. This from Planned Parenthood’s page a few days back: "Reproductive freedom means every person gets to decide what’s right for their own body. No exceptions.”-Planned Parenthood." But what about the very tiny, helpless BODY growing inside of a woman, you ask? Glad you’ve asked. To Planned Parenthood, it is insignificant because (drum roll, please)…"Abortion is gender-affirming care.”-Planned Parenthood."

'Inclusive' WNBA coaches have chance to draft French trans basketball star
Topic: Political Correctness
Source: The Post Millennial
...who 'won't say no' if offered spot on US team. Tétart's season scored him Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, and Domestic Player of the Year. A trans-identified male basketball player from France is ready to accept the WNBA's call to play in the US women's league. Julie Tétart, 34, who stands at 6' 3" is a trans-identified male playing on the second-tier French women's basketball Ligue Féminine 2. There are currently no trans women in the WBNA. Although, as women's rights activist and attorney Kara Dansky pointed out sarcastically to trans advocates, if there's no difference between women and trans women, then "how do you know" there hasn't been a trans player in the WNBA?

Nashville bookstore cancels Jewish author's book release after backlash
Topic: Political Correctness
Source: The Post Millennial
The book, titled "White. Blonde. Jew. A Call to End Extremism, Speak Up, and Reclaim Center," is set to be released on August 18. Jewish author Alyssa Rosenheck slammed a Nashville bookstore for cancelling her upcoming book launch event, with the store citing "security concerns." She said the store never expressed such concerns and only cancelled the event after an online pressure campaign.

Thrown out of Hadestown:
Topic: Political Correctness
Source: Jonathan Turley
A ctor Fired for Opposing Transgender Athletes in Women’s Sports. Geno Segers was a widely acclaimed actor who starred in the Broadway production Hadestown. That came to an end this month when Segers expressed the view of the vast majority of Americans: women’s sports should be confined to biological women. He has now been fired, even after an attempt to apologize for expressing his own views on the subject. Other actors have expressed support for transgender players without any response other than praise in the latest example of the rising McCarthyism on the left.

A Comics Genius Repents for Being Un-Woke
Topic: Political Correctness
Source: Chronicles Magazine
Frank Miller is now sorry about his graphic novel Holy Terror, which was published in 2011. Miller is known as a comic book genius, the man who revolutionized Daredevil, created 300 and Sin City, which became great movies, and gave the world The Dark Knight Returns, a classic 1986 Batman story. Miller has just published an autobiography, Push the Wall: My Life, Writing, Drawing, and the Art of Storytelling.

The New McCarthys: 40% Of Professors Against Hiring A Trump-Voter
Topic: Political Correctness
Source: Jonathan Turley
Tolerance is intolerable for professors like this... According to a new survey, roughly 40 percent of college faculty would “oppose hiring a Trump supporter.” The results of the study are not surprising to many in the field of teaching. Indeed, it may be low given faculty reluctance to admit political bias or the delusion of others that they are without it. Yet, the virtual purging of Republicans from most departments reveals a long-standing ideological exclusion in higher education. While far-left hires are common, even a moderate Republican is a rarity on faculties in a country with a majority of conservative and libertarian voters.

Problems of Causation in Race and Discrimination
Topic: Political Correctness
Source: Mises Institute
Why are there economic disparities between racial groups? A popular explanation is that they are caused by racial discrimination. Wanjiru Njoya takes a closer look at these claims. Economists who worry about wealth disparities between racial groups are preoccupied with addressing the causes of racial inequality. They all have different theories and explanations about the causes of racial wealth gaps, but the prevailing assumption is that some form of unfairness must be driving it. The key form of unfairness thought to produce disparities in racial outcomes is discrimination. Discrimination may be direct or indirect. According to critical race theories, it includes things like legacies of oppression, systemic racism, and even unconscious bias. The general idea is that government can fix these manifestations of discrimination—by banning or penalizing them—thereby reducing or eliminating the racial attainment gap.