Welcome to a Hump Day (“Haftanın Ortası” in Turkish): Wednesday, July 15, 2026. It’s also National Hot Dog Day, celebrating the American snack whose epicenter for quality is Chicago. The classic Chicago dog is a Vienna beef dog (in a natural casing) nested in a Rosen’s poppy-seed bun, and then topped with mustard (NEVER ketchup), celery salt, tomatoes, diced onions, green relish, sport peppers (small hot green peppers), and a pickle spear.
The Chicago dog can be ordered “dragged through the garden,” i.e. with all the veggies above. That makes it healthier than a regular dog. I’ve been to nearly all the places they visit, and also to the winner, Byron’s. A Chicago dog is a thing of beauty, and you need two (and fries) for a good meal.
Here is a 22-minute video of two guys rating Chicago’s best dog places, pronouncing Byron’s the winner at the end. It’s pretty good, but there are equally good places that make similar dogs.
It’s also Gummi Worm Day, I Love Horses Day, National Respect Canada Day, National Tapioca Pudding Day, and Orange Chicken Day (a Chinese Dish).
Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the July 15 Wikipedia page.
Da Nooz:
*Footy news: Spain beat a frustrated French team 2-0, with the well-oiled Spaniards shutting down a French team that didn’t seem close to scoring (the Spanish goalkeeper made only a handful of saves). France will play the loser of today’s Argentina/England match for the third place, while the winner will face Spain in the World Cup final.
Spain booked their place in Sunday’s World Cup final after dismantling France 2-0.
In a semifinal billed as a 50-50 between two European heavyweights, Spain dominated for the majority of the game and more than deserved their victory.
Forward Mikel Oyarzabal put manager Luis de la Fuente’s Spain team ahead in the 20th minute from the penalty spot after France left back Lucas Digne was penalized for inadvertently kicking Lamine Yamal in the box. It was one of a number of mistakes that littered a dismal first-half performance from France.
Didier Deschamps, who will step down as the French coach after the tournament, was dealt another blow 10 minutes later when Arsenal center back William Saliba was forced off with a back injury.
France, winners in 2018 and runners-up in 2022, were briefly better after the break, but any momentum was killed by Spain’s second goal.
Spain right back Pedro Porro played a delightful one-two with midfielder Dani Olmo before he calmly slotted his finish past goalkeeper Mike Maignan.
For all of France’s attacking talent, they ended the game with an expected goals (xG) total of just 0.3 as Spain, the reigning European champions, reached their second World Cup final and first since lifting the trophy in 2010.
Here are the highlights; the goal-scoring plays on the video begin at 3:00 (goal kick) and 8:15. A Spanish goal at 9:17 was nullified because one of their players was offside.
Today’s game is England vs. Argentina, and will start at 2 p.m. Chicago time or 3 p.m. Eastern Time.
*Over at It’s Noon in Israel, Amit Segal ponders two ironies. The first is that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s President, was actually a Mossad asset (he’s now under arrest). The second, which I’ll give excerpts of, is Trump’s declaration that he’s Guardian of the Strait of Hormuz and the U.S. is going to charge tolls for transit, something we said that Iran (as well as anybody else) could not do). [Note: he rescinded the tolls yesterday; see below.]
Meanwhile, Trump is playing tit-for-tat with a bewildering twist. Iran closes the strait—Trump imposes a blockade. Iran announces service fees on passage through its corridor—Trump announces a 20 percent fee on passage through the American one. He has even given himself a title: Guardian of the Hormuz Strait. Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi, apparently constitutionally incapable of recognizing irony, responded on X: “20 percent is of course too much. We will be fair.” The two powers are now negotiating competing toll booths on the same chokepoint—which is either the most creative geopolitical standoff in recent memory or a particularly expensive episode of The Apprentice.
The bigger story is the reimposition of the blockade itself—because the first one worked. Mojtaba Khamenei approved the original MoU grudgingly, publicly, with his reservations on the record—only after President Masoud Pezeshkian, terrified of the blockade’s economic consequences, accepted personal responsibility for the outcome and committed to safeguarding the supreme leader’s red lines. It was not diplomacy that brought Iran to the table. It was the prospect of an economy that, by one senior intelligence official’s estimate relayed to me during the original blockade, would not have survived 2026 intact. Khamenei left no ambiguity about where the blame would fall if the deal collapsed. Ahmadinejad may not be the only one with his head on the block.
Accelerating the potential collapse are two factors: the resurrection of Operation Economic Fury and the resumption of strikes. The sixty-day oil sanctions waiver the Treasury issued June 22 made it less than halfway before it was withdrawn—staff who spent last month unfreezing assets are now reimposing sanctions. Meanwhile, US strikes have continued for a third consecutive night, for now focused on military capacity around the strait, though economic infrastructure sits well within the realm of possibility.
As for the American toll, I’ll believe it when I see it. The notion that the only thing separating the US Navy from opening the strait has been a missing financial incentive strains credulity. Unless Trump takes further inspiration from the Iranian playbook—strike ships first, then demand protection money—the US must actually provide a service to collect a fee. During the war, the Navy quietly moved vessels through the Omani corridor; recently even that route has come under fire, and there are conflicting reports about whether sufficient escort capacity exists. If it does, the toll is worth watching.
I don’t think the Americans will impose a toll, and I can’t see the point of making that assertion. For one thing, the U.S. would have to stop ships to collect it, unless it wants to believe their stated cargo value and impose the toll from afar. Second, this violates international provisions that the Strait is open, as well as our claim that passage would be free (and the U.S.’s strong claim that Iran had no right to impose tolls).
UPDATE: Yep, yesterday afternoon, Trump dropped the toll. From the AP:
The U.S. military said it will resume its blockade of Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday at 4 p.m. ET after U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to reinstate it. The president, however, reversed his plan to charge a 20% toll on cargo traveling through the strait. Instead, Middle Eastern countries will make investment and trade deals with the U.S., Trump said on social media.
*Another Democratic congressman, the well known Ro Khanna (CA), is trying to establish himself as being anti-Israel, apparently in a way to improve his party cred. Im “Ro Khanna’s dishonest Israel stunt,” the estimable journalist Haviv Rettig Gur shows that Khanna has manufactured an incident to make it look as if he were bullied and threatened by Israelis official in the West Bank. There’s video showing Khanna’s fabrication.
You may have heard some recent news about Congressman Ro Khanna’s trip to Israel.
For those who haven’t, early Thursday Israel time, Khanna was touring the West Bank with a small group led by an Israeli guide who heads Breaking the Silence, an activist organization opposed to Israeli military rule in the territory.
During the tour, the group’s car was stopped by a handful of armed Israelis. That was because Khanna was entering an area that many believed to be a closed military zone. Reports have since emerged that the designation had expired, but the Israelis on the ground seemed to have believed it was still in place.
I don’t know the specifics of this particular case, but to be clear about my own position: Sometimes, the IDF uses these closures to displace illegally built Palestinian settlements—settlements that rarely get building approval from the Israeli military authorities. When that happens, I’m on the side of the Palestinians affected. But there are other times, other cases, when the area genuinely isn’t safe to occupy, or when the squatters are recent arrivals, or when the IDF needs to designate an area a military training ground.
. . . a U.S. congressman appears to have spent the days since the incident exaggerating what happened to the point of completely mischaracterizing it. Or as simple folk might put it, lying.
. . .In the wake of the incident, Khanna claimed that he had been detained at gunpoint by “violent” Israeli settlers. This does not appear to have happened. Footage released by Khanna and the tour guide—reluctantly, and only after a great many noticed the suspicious refusal to release any footage at all of said violence—shows the congressman’s guide calmly getting out of the car and having a conversation with soldiers. The soldiers repeated, several times, that they had called the police. When the police arrived, they simply told everyone to let the group continue.
That was it. The entire incident.
Khanna and his group were not “detained,” as Khanna claimed. Detention means you can’t leave. As far as we can tell from available accounts and footage, nothing stopped them from turning around and leaving the way they came. The area was believed to require permission to enter, and Khanna’s group had not coordinated with the IDF, the Israeli police, or anyone else that anyone has been able to find who might have facilitated a U.S. congressman’s visit to the area.
Within about 20 minutes—this, according to the account by Khanna’s own team—an IDF patrol arrived and asked them to wait for the police. Police arrived roughly 30 minutes later—again, according to Khanna’s own team.
In other words, the congressman, after refusing to coordinate his visit, was delayed for about an hour before being allowed to enter the area in question. But if you listen to Khanna, it was “an unprecedented, illegal detention of Americans by a foreign country.”
Here’s the footage; decide for yourself:
The IDF is lying about the detention of Rep. Khanna.
I was on the ground with him that day, and my body camera captured us being detained by both settlers and Israeli soldiers. The IDF did not disperse the violent settlers, as they claim. They explicitly sided with them. pic.twitter.com/Ob4IA35dqh
— נדב וימן Nadav Weiman (@weimanadav) July 13, 2026
And from The Hill:
Khanna claimed that when the military service members arrived, they “blocked the road … siding with the settlers against the Americans.”
But the Israeli military disputed that account, saying, “IDF [Israel Defense Forces] troops were dispatched to the scene, quickly dispersed the Israeli civilians, and reopened the blocked road. The IDF soldiers operating in the area did not take part in blocking that road.”
Turner also pressed Khanna on remarks from Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Leiter, who said Sunday on CBS News’s “Face the Nation” that the Israeli Embassy in Washington contacted Khanna to try to coordinate the trip. Leiter said he suggested to Khanna that he meet with survivors of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack and that he “visit the borders so he understands the issues that we have on our borders.”
There’s a 44-minute YouTube interview in which Haviv levels his “J’accuse” against Khanna. I find Gur more credible than Khanna, not because he’s Israeli but because Khanna’s been dissing Israel for some time, because of the video, and because it seems incumbent on Democrats who have political ambition, like Khanna, to diss Israel (Rahm Emmanuel just did this, too). Note that in the interview Haviv does criticize Israeli West-Bank settlers for other deeds.
*This has been one of Israel’s most divisive and contentious issues for a long time. Ultra-orthodox Jews (the Haredim) have been exempt from the Israeli draft, as studying the Torah (which is basically all that Haredi men do) was deemed equivalent to military service. That changed in 2024 when Israel’s Supreme Court ruled unanimously that there could be no exemption for Haredi men (but women are still exempt, though non-Haredi Israeli women are not). Haredi men would thus have to serve the 32 months that other Israeli men (save Arabs) must serve. On Monday the Knesset (Israeli parliament) buttressed the Haredi by declaring as a “basic law”—Israel’s equivalent of a U.S. constitutional law—that Torah study is a “foundational value“. That would give the country a legal basis to retain the exemption for Haredi men. But in Israel the Supreme Court has the right to negate a passed law if it’s deemed “un-basic”. And as it stands, Haredi men were supposed to be drafted, and none were—they became draft dodgers.
Yesterday the Knesset narrowly passed a law banning arrest of the Haredi draft-dodgers, keeping the issue unresolved:
he Knesset votes 58-54 to pass a coalition-backed law banning the arrest and prosecution of ultra-Orthodox men evading military service, a measure that will, in practice, halt most Haredi enlistment to the IDF for at least the next few months.
The law grants tens of thousands of Haredi draft evaders immunity from arrest until November 30, and extends that protection to those who become eligible for military service after it takes effect, effectively eliminating the threat of arrest and making it easier to refuse to enlist during that period. It also suspends ongoing criminal proceedings against those already facing enforcement measures.
Yesterday, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir called the proposal “inconceivable,” saying it was “clearly and unequivocally inconsistent with the IDF’s needs” and amounted to “providing mass exemptions from prosecution.”
There are roughly 72,000 Haredi men who were liable to arrest until today, according to figures released in May by the attorney general.
The vote followed an overnight coalition standoff after United Torah Judaism chairman Moshe Gafni demanded the legislation be brought to an immediate vote, threatening to block all other coalition bills until it was advanced. The Knesset debate continued overnight and through the day, with opposition filibustering including 1,748 reservations.
Although I am a “Zionist” in the sense that I believe the state of Israel should remain a sovereign state, and also that its establishment was okay (after all, there are explicitly Muslim countries where Jews are not even allowed to live, though 20% of Israelis are Arabs), I do object to the Haredi exemption. If Israeli Jews are required to serve their country, then that should go for those Jews who engage in Torah study. Israel, though a state for Jews, is secular in basis, and a religious exemption for studying what I see is nonsense and a waste of time has no justification. The Supreme Court will rule on this, and if I don’t miss my guess, they will overturn this new law, too. Eventually the Haredim will have to serve, and there will be big trouble.
Note that Israeili Arabs are one group legally exempt from mandatory service in the IDF—on security grounds. But Arabs can and do enlist; they must just undergo a through background check. You can read more about this fracas as part of Amit Segal’s report today in It’s Noon in Israel.
*Beloved Kiwi actor Sam Neill died Monday in Australia; he was suffering from angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma but we don’t know whether that killed him.
Sam Neill, the ruggedly handsome and remarkably versatile screen actor from New Zealand who appeared in more than 150 films and television shows over a five-decade career and was perhaps best known for his star turn as the dashing paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant in the blockbuster “Jurassic Park” series, died on Monday in Sydney, Australia. He was 78.
His family announced the death in an Instagram post but did not specify the cause or where in Sydney he died. Mr. Neill was diagnosed with angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma in March 2022, but the statement said that he was “cancer free” when he died.
Born in Northern Ireland and raised in New Zealand, Mr. Neill had the magnetism of a leading man and a character actor’s taste for variety.
Sam Neill, the ruggedly handsome and remarkably versatile screen actor from New Zealand who appeared in more than 150 films and television shows over a five-decade career and was perhaps best known for his star turn as the dashing paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant in the blockbuster “Jurassic Park” series, died on Monday in Sydney, Australia. He was 78.
His family announced the death in an Instagram post but did not specify the cause or where in Sydney he died. Mr. Neill was diagnosed with angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma in March 2022, but the statement said that he was “cancer free” when he died.
Born in Northern Ireland and raised in New Zealand, Mr. Neill had the magnetism of a leading man and a character actor’s taste for variety.
The sad part is neither the NYT obituary nor Neill’s Wikipedia page mentioned his deep love of DUCKS. But, courtesy of readers Gayle and Nigel, we’ll fill in that important lacuna in the obituaries. First, a tweet from Neill himself (sound up):
When the world seems close to pear shaped,
When leaders fill you with despair
When things look dark and dreary
And love seems far too rare –
CUDDLE A DUCK
[ It works …] pic.twitter.com/S3YP5E5eob— Sam Neill (@TwoPaddocks) December 30, 2019
Another cuddle:
*Finally, a hard-to-crack puzzle in the form of four symbols atop the Adobe building in San Jose, California. As the UPI odd news tells us, a software engineer solved it after it was up for 3½ years.
The puzzle — a looping animation of four circles in various positions — has been playing on a loop atop the Adobe headquarters building in downtown San Jose since May 2023.
The San Jose Semaphore, designed by artist Ben Rubin, was finally solved this spring by software engineer Brian Vincent.
Vincent analyzed the patterns and determined they represented a code for colors in the pixels of a digital image — specifically, a single rose from Sandro Botticelli’s famous painting Birth of Venus.
“I want to say that the difficulty level on this puzzle is probably perfect,” Vincent said in a video released by Adobe. “In some ways it seems a little bit simple, but at the same time it takes a lot of work and a lot of effort, and it stands for years before anyone solves it.”
The video about how it was solved is below, and it’s amazing. A single rose in a Botticelli painting. This is the third puzzle:
The puzzle was the third in the San Jose Semaphore series. The first, installed about 20 years ago, turned out to be the full text of Thomas Pynchon’s novel The Crying of Lot 49. The second was an audio file of Neil Armstrong saying, “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Andrzej needs a rest from working and Hili needs a rest from supervising Andrzej:
Hili: I don’t know about you, but I’ve decided to take a vacation.
Me: To tell you the truth, I’d like to get some rest too.
In Polish:
Hili: Nie wiem jak ty, ale ja postanowiłam zrobić sobie wakacje.
Ja: Prawdę mówiąc, też chciałbym odpocząć.
*******************
From Kitty Litterposting; Japanese lore how old house cats become magical:
From Cats Doing Cat Stuff. This cat should get an Oscar.
From Stacy; which medieval elephant are you?
From Masih, who discusses Iran’s vow to kill Trump as well as the funeral of the late Ayatollah, which she characterizes as “a terrorist summit”:
Wow, Wall Street Journal just announced that Iran’s regime plotted to assassinate President Trump while he was in Turkey.
I haven’t killed Soleimani, Ali Khamenei or any other high-ranking IRGC terrorist. Yet the same group assigned to kill President Trump was also assigned to… pic.twitter.com/O2YKU5aJ5n
— Masih Alinejad (@AlinejadMasih) July 14, 2026
Amnesty International is becoming, like the ACLU, an organization that dismisses women’s rights to have some safe spaces. According to the BBC, they criticized a women’s rape center set up by J. K. Rowling to provide rape counseling from women counselors only. The center was, according to AI, “anti-rights.” As the BBC said, AI backed off:
Amnesty International UK has said it regrets publishing a report which classed a sexual violence support centre set up by JK Rowling in Edinburgh as “anti-rights”.
Beira’s Place was established in 2022 by the Harry Potter author and other campaigners who claimed it fulfilled an unmet need for women-only support in the city.
The facility was listed as a gender critical organisation in a briefing issued last week by Amnesty entitled “A Growing Threat: The Anti-Rights Movement in the UK”.
The human rights charity now says the briefing was uploaded without going through the normal checks, and it has been temporarily withdrawn while an internal review takes place.
In a statement it said: “We regret that this briefing was uploaded to our website without going through the established internal review processes that are in place to ensure consistency, accuracy and alignment with Amnesty International UK’s positions.
“Its use of language does not reflect the position of Amnesty International UK which is why it was promptly removed.
“We remain committed to defending human rights, including both the rights of women and the rights of trans people.”
At least they backed off; the ACLU hasn’t. Here are a couple of tweets, including one from another organization libeled along with Amnesty’s removal of its tweet and Rowling’s reply:
We were also libelled alongside @jk_rowling’s @beirasplace in this poorly researched & defamatory hit piece from disgraced former human rights charity @amnesty.
Firstly amnesty clearly know nothing about our group as they listed us a ‘gender critical’ group. We are not. We are a… https://t.co/58cubGQm5H
— Safe Schools Alliance (@SafeSchools_UK) July 12, 2026
Yesterday Larry celebrated Bastille Day:
Joyeux 14 Juillet – Vive la France!
🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/i0LYmroEnf— Larry the Cat (@Number10cat) July 14, 2026
Two from my feed. Sound up on both, please:
Studies show that watching a beaver eat cabbage lowers stress by 17% pic.twitter.com/rx1Xsl47HG
— Nature Unedited (@NatureUnedited) July 14, 2026
Baby giraffe! I wish it could grow up in the wild.
Cuteness overload pic.twitter.com/X0mwsWovxj
— Jonathan Slater (@slater57649) July 13, 2026
One I reposted from The Auschwitz Memorial:
This Hungarian Jewish boy was gassed as soon as he got to Auschwitz. He was less than a year old, and would be 83 today had he lived. https://t.co/lnipGt2QRZ
— Jerry Coyne (@Evolutionistrue) July 15, 2026
Two from Dr. Cobb, who’s now at a meeting and not watching footy. First, Nutmeg died:
A memorial will be held in the coming weeks to commemorate the feline’s legacy.
Video of a duckling having the zoomies:
Caught a zoomie little guy at sunset last night 🥰 🐣 🪶
— Brett "Solidarity 2026" Banditelli (@banditelli.org) 2026-04-08T21:12:41.416Z
I expected France to go through. Didn’t work out. I expect England to go through. Let’s see if that works out. I read that FIFA is considering a 64-team WC. What the hell! Maybe it’ll end up looking like the FA Cup.
Eliminated on Quatorze Juillet. Quelle misère!
I do not understand how the Haredi can argue that taking two or three years out of the decades they have to devote to study of the Torah, in order to protect the nation that protects them, is unfair or wrong. And how, precisely, does their study of the Torah ‘serve’ Israel? They may believe it serves Judaism, but, as you said, Israel is a home for people with Jewish ancestry, whether or not they believe in the religion.
ETA: Since 2021, Israel has allowed non-Jews who have formally converted to the Jewish faith to become citizens.
I’ve also read that the real concern underlying Haredi objections is that service in the army could expose young Haredi men to ideas and other ways of life that could weaken their faith.
Also, I think that watching a porcupine eat pumpkins lowers stress by even more than 18%, because porcupines not only munch and crunch, they squeak.
Brooke, you deserve a much longer reply than we are allowed to post. I can try to find a few articles to suggest.
However, one paragraph is wrong. Converts to Judaism have been allowed to become citizens since the 1950s, when the laws of citizenship were formatted. The source of the error lies in a political process under control of the hareidim, and they make problems for citizenship for everyone that they don’t like. But every time it has gone to the Supreme Court, the good guys have won. And by good guys, I do not mean the hareidi politicians.
Your third paragraph is entirely correct.
Starwolf – I have no idea whether I’d be eligible for Aliya but I —think — I would. I don’t have any documents from Mum’s side but I’m told the authorities have copies of Euro birth records?
I’m not doing it – how would I leave NYC? but its worth a thought. For now I’ll just send Money. That’s always welcome 🙂
D.A.
NYC
From what I know about you, of course you are eligible for Aliya, and there are people who help navigate people like you through the bureaucracy, which is tough. They do not charge for their help.
Ordinarily, I would not post something like the following. There are many people who like to to donate to Israel, but do not want to see their money going to things they oppose, like subsidies for fundamentalist religion, etc—a major part of the government funds. The solution is to find private organizations with whose aims you agree, with records of honesty, etc. These are not easy to find; there are many scams out there.
Again, I would not ordinarily do this, but given this site, and the good people here, I can make a recommendation. The Veterinary Hospital associated with Hebrew University, in addition to treating pets that people bring in, also deals with injured animals of all types. Being a public non-profit, they are always needy. the veterinarians, nurses, techs, and administrators are on fixed salaries, and when, for example, a specialist is called in to treat a particular species, he/she does not make any money for that work, unless included in standard overtime. Like all hospitals, they are short-staffed.
Full disclosure: My 9 year old Labrador is being treated there, currently as an outpatient, for a serious problem. I am very impressed with the competence, professionalism, bedside manner, and kindness toward the animals and the staff (of the animals—i.e. the people who bring them in). They treat small mammals, large mammals, birds (many duck lovers there—injured ducks are often brought in, treated, and released to a wildlife sanctuary), reptiles, etc.
Sorry about the commercial. Note that I have no association with this hospital aside from the care that they give my dog, paying my bills, and making contributions myself.
Israel is a country that loves animals. Many shops, businesses, and cafes have permanent animal residents, mostly cats. Even in times of war, people are still involved in animal rescue, and during rocket attacks, one sees many people with their cats and dogs in public shelters.
AIUI, one of the attempted justifications is that their dedication to YHWH influences it to keep protecting Israel.
“porcupines not only munch and crunch, they squeak.”
They sound like cartoon animals!
Leprosy of Russian occupation of Ukraine rolls on! Triple-digit destruction of Russian heavy artillery pieces over a recent 48hrs in the region N of Crimea. Russia is only capable of making 5 new barrels/mo. Sic semper tyrannis!
Sadly, in general not so semper.
I’ve been following the Ro Khanna stunt with annoyance. His opportunism is only exceeded by his dishonesty.
I, too, am not happy about the study of Torah being deemed a “foundational value” in Israel’s Basic Law. My objection is that it codifies a sectarian religious doctrine or practice into law, providing a unique “right” to one religious constituency, and discriminating against others. Israel’s “citizen army” is one of the country’s special strengths. It goes without saying that the law discriminates against those in the military who risk their lives to protect the Heredi themselves. But observing from thousands of miles away, I leave it to the Israelis to deal with. We’ll see if the law is allowed to stand.
I’m disappointed in Ro Khanna. I had thought of him as a reasonable voice in the party, but it appears that he’s an opportunistic liar. On the plus side (for him) it’s very likely that all of the folks who have heard his original story and had their anti-Israel views confirmed will not hear about the discrepancy in the story. In my Apple news feed I saw the original claim but have not seen the counterclaim, so I suspect the same for those who are even more in their own algorithmic bubble. So in the end he will still have a net gain in standing.
Why not draft Haredi women? They don’t study the Torah.
Too many kids
I think Argentina will win it all. I am not sure if this is the good news or the bad news.
I always root for the team with the fewer stars on their jersey, so: Andamos, España!
Amnesty isn’t backing off, it’s just having to reassess before it gets sued. It still has an earlier report on its website that makes claims that gender critical people are ‘anti rights’.
It didn’t actually apologise to anyone over the new report, it just says it shouldn’t have been made public. There are over twenty organisations that it called ‘anti rights’ in the new report. It includes several gay organisations, a non political school charity, and even a charity that hasn’t existed for a couple of years. Amnesty wants them all to lose their charitable status.
Most of the organisations have written letters of complaint to Amnesty. JKR’s women’s refuge charity has gone on a stage further and issued a solicitor’s letter demanding a public apology to all of the groups it listed and an external investigation into how such a report could be published.
There are several good articles online covering these shocking events, some links below, but the most damning piece is from the Amnesty director himself, when he was interviewed at Dublin ‘Pride’ by Seán Ako. He was asked directly if he supports women’s rights to single sex spaces, he initially says yes, but then he switches topic onto supporting abortion rights. Seán keeps asking him about women, but he shows that he doesn’t give a toss about women’s human rights to safety and dignity. You can watch his pitiful admissions here….
https://x.com/i/status/2076434351940649323
Amnesty, think that you are ‘anti rights’, if you fight for women’s rights. They don’t say the same thing about transactivists, who fight for men’s rights. What disgusts me most is that their report was written by a woman.
https://open.substack.com/pub/grahamlinehan/p/youve-got-mail?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=b01x0
https://sex-matters.org/posts/updates/amnesty-faces-backlash/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Amnesty has now self-referred to the Charity Commission, as indeed it should, by submitting a serious incident report: https://archive.ph/ACwgl
Thank you. I wasn’t aware of that. Hopefully the Charity Commission isn’t too woke.
Somewhat ironically one of the duck videos states “DuckDuckGo blocked this video to prevent Facebook from tracking you”