The Iraqi MP Hassan Salem celebrates the changes that are to come pic.twitter.com/ZiWn2Piqpa — Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) August 7, 2024 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

This is a very useful overview of the situation, from Alan Abrahamson: Part of this has to do with the political dispute between the IOC and the IBA, which ultimately saw the IOC banish the IBA in June 2023. Ordinarily, the IBA would have been in charge of boxing at the Olympics. But because of…

I love being an Olympian, but the baying crowds, crowing commentators and sheer cruelty in the boxing ring reminds of the Roman gladiatorial games. @iocmedia please step in, do the sex screen, and stop a public display of violence against women before someone gets badly hurt. — Julia Bracewell (@juliabracewell) August 7, 2024 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Brendan O'Neill at Spiked on the Olympic boxing: There’s a new sport at the Olympics: violence against women. Yes, biological males laying hands on women might be a crime in the real world, but at Paris 2024 it’s a must-see event. Leave your feminist morals at the door, park your petty worries about male power,…

Portland-based photographer Brendon Burton: Throughout North America, relics of past inhabitants dot fields and foothills, glimpsing complex lives. Dilapidated farmhouses, churches, and grain elevators stand amid the stark, magnificent landscape in areas that seem to exist in a different world and operate on their own time. While people are typically absent from Burton’s images, the human…

Keely Hodgkinson is magnificent. The women’s 800m in Rio 2016 had 3 men take gold, silver and bronze. If World Athletics hadn’t changed the rules after that, Keely would certainly have no medal tonight. pic.twitter.com/4PMluV8mFq — Victorian KPSS Ultra 🦕🦖 🕸 (@ziggy7) August 6, 2024 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js How would we all be feeling this morning if…

Victoria Smith at The Critic on the Olympic boxing row, and the absurd argument that those complaining are doing so because the two boxers concerned just don't look very feminine – don't conform to "conventional standards of femininity”.  Many of those seeking to defend Khelif and Yu-ting’s inclusion have wilfully conflated concerns about female safety…

The perks of North Korean consular officials in Russia – returning home with shipping containers full of luxury goods: North Korean diplomats in Russia have been recently returning to the North with cutting-edge appliances and pricey musical instruments in their personal luggage, Daily NK has learned. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a source in Russia…

This is all very depressing. From the Times: A child under the age of five is among thousands on NHS waiting lists for gender clinics, new figures show. More than 5,700 under-18s are waiting for a specialist appointment at two clinics set up to help children wanting to change gender. The youngest patient is under…

IOC Logic – So the women's boxing final will be between two men? – Of course not: they're in different weight categories so it wouldn't be fair. — Progressive Misogyny (@JustMisogyny) August 5, 2024 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js