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Breaking—LNR and Russian forces have taken Popasnaya. Ukrainian troops have withdrawn to Bakhmut (Artyomovsk).
#Russia #Russian #Ukraine️

The bill followed a flap last year over the Oklahoma State Department of Health's agreement in a civil case allowing a nonbinary option. The birth certificate in that case was issued to an Oklahoma-born Oregon resident who sued after the agency initially refused the request. People who are nonbinary do not identify with traditional male or female gender assignments.

News of the settlement prompted outrage among Republicans, including Stitt, who along with fellow conservatives in a number of GOP-led states have been engaged in a culture war over issues like restricting LGBTQ and abortion rights that drive the party's base in an election year. Stitt's appointee to lead the agency abruptly resigned the next day, and the governor then promptly issued an executive order prohibiting any changes to a person's gender on birth certificates, despite the settlement agreement. A civil rights group has challenged the executive order in federal court, but the state has not yet responded.

Many states only offer male or female gender options on birth certificates, but Oklahoma is the first to write the nonbinary prohibition into law, according to Lambda Legal, the civil rights group suing Oklahoma.

Currently, 15 states and the District of Columbia specifically allow a gender marker designation outside of male or female, according to the National Center for Transgender Equality. That number will increase on July 1 when Vermont's new statute goes into effect.

“People are free to believe whatever they want about their identity, but science has determined people are either biologically male or female at birth,” said Oklahoma Rep. Sheila Dills, the House sponsor of the bill, in a statement after the bill passed the House last week. “We want clarity and truth on official state documents. Information should be based on established medical fact and not an ever-changing social dialogue.”

Oklahomans in 2020 elected the nation's first openly nonbinary legislator in the country, Oklahoma City Democrat Rep. Mauree Turner, who said it was painful to have colleagues single out those who are gender diverse.

“I find it a very extreme and grotesque use of power in this body to write this law and try to pass it — when literally none of them live like us," Turner tweeted the day the bill was debated.

Republicans in conservative states across the country have introduced several bills this year targeting transgender and nonbinary people. Oklahoma's governor earlier this year signed a bill prohibiting transgender girls from playing on female sports teams, one of many such bans being signed into law across the country. Other conservative states, including Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee and Texas, have passed laws prohibiting gender-confirming treatments for minors.

The U.S. State Department recently announced it had issued its first passport with an “X” gender designation, marking a milestone in the recognition of the rights of people who do not identify as male or female, and expects to be able to offer the option more broadly next year.
Source: https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/oklahoma-governor-signs-ban-on-nonbinary-birth-certificates/ar-AAWD5JX?ocid=EMMX&cvid=73b74d7399934097a57662d59f080c41

Canadian health officials are investigating cases of severe acute hepatitis of “unknown origin” found in children across the country.

The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) told Global News on Wednesday it is aware of reports of this illness as other regions in the world report cases of liver disease in kids with an unknown cause.

“These are being investigated further to determine if they are related to cases in the United Kingdom and the United States,” PHAC said. “As the investigation evolves, we will keep the public updated accordingly.”

Here’s what we know so far.

So far, 190 children worldwide have developed sudden liver disease for reasons unknown. At least one child died and several others needed to have liver transplants, the WHO said.

Otherwise healthy children are developing hepatitis, or liver inflammation often caused by viruses. Children impacted so far range in age from one month to 16 years.

Most cases have occurred in Europe. The first U.K. cases were recorded in January, while the U.S. detected its first cases in October in Alabama. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made that announcement last week.

Source: https://www.msn.com/en-ca/health/medical/canada-detects-severe-hepatitis-of-unknown-origin-cases-in-kids-what-is-it/ar-AAWFcbT?ocid=EMMX&cvid=73b74d7399934097a57662d59f080c41

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the swap of Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko and U.S. ex-Marine Trevor Reed in Ankara during a phone call on Thursday, the Turkish presidency said.

Russia and the United States carried out the swap in Ankara on Wednesday amid the most tense bilateral relations in decades over the war in Ukraine.

In the call, Putin thanked Turkey's MIT intelligence agency for its cooperation and supervision of the swap, the presidency said in a statement, adding Erdogan told his Russian counterpart the swap was an indication of the value Turkey placed on peace, and its mediation efforts between Moscow and Kyiv.

Erdogan also repeated that Ankara wanted to continue the momentum achieved in Ukraine-Russia talks in Istanbul earlier this month, his office said.

(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu and Ali Kucukgocmen; Editing by Ece Toksabay)

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/erdogan-putin-discuss-swap-of-russian-u-s-prisoners-in-ankara-turkish-presidency/ar-AAWGSXO?ocid=EMMX&cvid=73b74d7399934097a57662d59f080c41

Swedish PM says integration of immigrants has failed, fueled gang crime

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/swedish-pm-says-integration-of-immigrants-has-failed-fueled-gang-crime/ar-AAWHdJQ?ocid=EMMX&cvid=73b74d7399934097a57662d59f080c41

European leaders blasted Russia's decision to cut natural gas shipments to Poland and Bulgaria as “blackmail,” saying the cutoff and the Kremlin's warning that it might cease shipments to other countries is a failed attempt to divide the West over its support for Ukraine.

Russia's move Wednesday to use its most essential export as leverage marked a dramatic escalation in the economic war of sanctions and countersanctions that has unfolded in parallel to the fighting on the battlefield.

The tactic against the two EU and NATO members could eventually force targeted nations to ration gas and deal another blow to economies suffering from rising prices. At the same time, it could deprive Russia of badly needed income to fund its war effort.

Poland has been a major gateway for the delivery of weapons to Ukraine and confirmed this week that it is sending the country tanks. Just hours before Russia's state energy giant Gazprom acted, Poland announced a new set of sanctions against the company and other Russian businesses and oligarchs.

Bulgaria, under a new liberal government that took office last fall, has cut many of its old ties to Moscow and likewise supported punitive measures against the Kremlin. It has also hosted Western fighter jets at a new NATO outpost on Bulgaria's Black Sea coast.

The gas cuts do not immediately put the two countries in any dire trouble. Poland, especially, has been working for many years to line up other suppliers, and the continent is heading into summer, making gas less essential for households.

Also, Russian gas deliveries to both Poland and Bulgaria were expected to end later this year anyway.

Still, the cutoff and the Kremlin warning that other countries could be next sent shivers of worry through the 27-nation European Union. Germany, the largest economy on the continent, and Italy are among Europe’s biggest consumers of Russian natural gas, though they, too, have been taking steps to reduce their dependence on Moscow.
SOURCE: CANADA PRESS