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On Monday, the British government moved to make hymenoplasty, or "virginity repair" surgery -- with or without consent -- illegal. The move, a further amendment to the Health and Care Bill, comes hot on the heels of another change to the bill introduced in November 2021 and intended to make "virginity testing" in England and Wales a criminal offense. Both virginity testing and virginity surgery are prevalent in conservative cultures, and were described by Dr. Edward Morris, president of the UK Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, as being "inextricably linked forms of violence against women and girls." Given the...

Maine’s Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate was arrested outside a detention center in Texas on Friday morning for refusing to leave the premises after being told he was not allowed in. The nominee, Zak Ringelstein, announced Wednesday that he was traveling to McAllen, Texas, to deliver personal items, including toys, books and blankets to the immigrant children currently being held there. A Facebook Live video, which contains the arrest, shows Ringelstein waiting outside the center, being told he cannot go in, and then arguing with border patrol agents in the parking lot. (RELATED: CNN Tries To Shame Border Patrol Agent...

A day after Robert De Niro received a standing ovation at the Tony Awards for dissing President Trump, the actor was cheered again in Canada — when he apologized for the Commander in Chief’s “idiotic behavior.” The “Casino” star’s comments came Monday during a groundbreaking for the high-end Japanese restaurant Nobu in Toronto. “I just want to make a note of apology for the idiotic behavior of my president,” De Niro said to applause. “It’s a disgrace, and I apologize to [Canadian Prime Minister] Justin Trudeau, too, and the other people at the G-7. It’s disgusting.” Over the weekend, Trump...

Robert De Niro got a standing ovation at the Tony Awards for shouting “F— Trump” from the stage to the crowd at Radio City Music Hall. But viewers at home didn’t hear the expletive thanks to the 10-second delay CBS had on the live telecast and the quick reflexes of a CBS Program Practices executive monitoring the show back at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York. CBS confirmed that De Niro went off script in his remarks as he took the stage to introduce Bruce Springsteen’s performance on the Tony telecast. The CBS Program Practices executive monitoring the show...

Robert De Niro had a simple introduction to Bruce Springsteen’s Tony performance. “I just want to say one thing — F— Trump,” De Niro said. “It’s no longer down with Trump. It’s f— Trump.” More to come…

On May 19, 2009, along with a lot of other people, I was laid off from Quark. That was my best-paid job to date, and it would turn out to be my last full-time job. I was 65, working in a field (IT) that has always been notorious for age discrimination, and it was during the Great Recession, a.k.a. Yet Another Grim Republican Recession, a.k.a. Please Save Us Again, Democratic Party. Now, I’ve been laid off many times over the decades. (See my essay The Day Job.) This included times when I was in my forties, fifties, and even very...

British Member of the European Parliament (MEP) David Ward has finally removed a derogatory statement about “the Jews” from his website following further calls for disciplinary action, The Jewish Chronicle (JC) reported. ... "And, as someone who has run race awareness classes, I find the idea that I have been sent on some sort of correctionary course to be patronizing and quite offensive."

A bandage across his broken nose, Michael Katch was back in north Minneapolis on Saturday afternoon, knocking on doors and handing out literature for his state House campaign. State Senate candidate Jim Lilly also plans to return to the city's North Side, though probably without his wife, who was campaigning Saturday when shots were fired nearby. Katch and Lilly both had personal tastes of the crime plaguing the area while canvassing neighborhoods the past two days.

TUESDAY, Oct. 11 (HealthDay News) -- In disturbing news for HIV patients, research now provides visual evidence that the AIDS virus ravages some parts of the brain, even in those who follow powerful drug regimens to remain healthy. By using high-tech scanners, researchers from two American universities found that the brains of HIV patients were 15 percent thinner in areas that control language, planning and movement. It didn't matter if the patients were on a drug regimen known as HAART, which often allows infected individuals to keep the virus from destroying the immune system. "The drugs clearly aren't stopping the...

Radio talk show in tennessee when President Bush's father was running for President.

After weeks in which the political discourse was nearly dominated by the scrutinizing of Sen. John F. Kerry's conduct in the Vietnam War era, President Bush now may find himself under the microscope and on the defensive for actions in his past. Kerry supporters are actively questioning Bush's spotty record as a stateside National Guardsmen during the Vietnam War. A former senior politician in Texas is telling people he pulled strings to get Bush into the guard. And an Associated Press investigation has concluded that key documents that should have been written to explain gaps in Bush's guard service are...

BOSTON -- A new procedure using an implantable ventilator is allowing people like actor Christopher Reeve a level of independence they once only dreamed of. ... Reeve received a new lease on life in the form of an implantable ventilator. The device has been around for decades, but the actor is one of only five people in the nation to have undergone a new twist on the procedure.