Good Morning! Happy Wednesday! 🌞❤️ Happy Hump Day 🐫 It's a cooler day in Toronto. The current temp is 16, feels like 14C (60, feels like 57F). The high is 26C (71F). I'm working all day. I hope you have a wonderful day! ❤️❤️

Great stuff, as usual - thanks. The disingenuous "this is just a difference of faith" thing reminds of the disingenuous "this is just a difference of political opinion" thing. E.g. challenges to trans people's very existence, like the Nazis' book burnings, are just 'political differences'.

Every DEM should be doing this type of questioning, endlessly. Break thru the facade of daily right wing PR LIES about Iran, & virtually all other policy issues, with all of them. They all make promises that are broken: -Epstein files NOT fully released? Why & when? -Where are the FBI statements?

Sen. Ossoff exposed in repeated, unrelenting questioning the buffoonery and lies of Pete Hegseth and his bloated, false hyperbole.

It’s so refreshing to see a senator who knows how to ask questions. Too often, witnesses deflect and the senator moves on. Ossoff does what a good trial lawyer does—persists until he gets an answer or a refusal to answer. Both responses can be deeply revealing.

Midweek Treat: Girdlebuster Pie is #RecipeOfTheDay! It lives magnificently up to its splendid name: a chocolatey digestive biscuit/ Graham Cracker base, filled with ice cream and topped with caramel. www.nigella.com/recipes/gird...

Relentlessly attacked by…. whom exactly?? and for whose profit motive, and to what end for the 🔥🔥⛽️💀Earth we borrow from our children, and their children? Another non-elected fossil fuel approved PM for #UKPol Do take note #Ausol #NZpol #Canpol

On July 21-22, in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov, Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces hit 13 more vessels of the russian fascist invaders: –1 tanker –10 cargo ships –2 tugboats 196 enemy vessels have been damaged since July 6. 📹 t.me/robert_magya...

World Bank fears war-slashed growth. #econsky

Cory Doctorow @doctorow.pluralistic.net gives his thoughts the article by John Quiggin I shared last week, with some interesting observations on AI. bsky.app/profile/doct...

MAD Magazine Presents; The MAD Jock Book ( 1983 ) 👉🏻Tap Here For More MADness👇🏻 #madmagazine #madpaperbacks #alfredeneuman #whatmeworry #theusualgangofidiots #collection #collector

#auspol needs laws guaranteeing the rights of residential & small business renters (over landlord profit rights) to participate in & benefit from the falling costs & energy security that the solar revolution delivers to owner/mortgaged houses. #SolarDemocracy or #FossilFascim #EndTheHeatIndustry

What do Macquarie Group and US energy Sec Chris Wright’s fracking co Liberty have in common? Both big investors in the Beetaloo methane. Ex-head of Macq now Centre Ind Studies board chair, maybe 🤔 supervising a ‘donation’? Wright has funded Americans For Prosperity and/or other #AtlasNetwork orgs.

Major General Ihor Skybyuk, a Hero of Ukraine, commanded the 80th Air Assault Brigade during the full-scale invasion. His units fought in the defense of the Kherson sector and helped liberate Izium during the 2022 Kharkiv counteroffensive. He later led Ukraine’s Air Assault Forces. #Ukraine

JUST IN: A new level of repression against independent media in 🇬🇪! One of the most prominent journalists, Vakho Sanaia, was arrested for 14 days for a FB post where he said "not to call" GD Speaker of the Parliament Shalva Papuashvili and propagandist Lado Bozhadze "d*cks." 1/2 📷 @netgazeti.org

He had already been fined GEL 6,000 (EUR 2,000) for the same post. Vakho remains calm and states that he will do the exact same, express his opinion in an unrestricted manner, after he leaves prison. It’s not his first detention either. @amnesty.org 2/2.

From Steel Nationalisation to Plug-In Solar: Keir Starmer’s Final Acts in Government The outgoing PM sneaked a lot of significant announcements out just before he left office... https://bylinetimes.com/2026/07/22/from-steel-nationalisation-to-plug-in-solar-keir-starmers-final-acts-in-government/

This is fantastic news, and thanks for the comprehensive reporting. It makes me proud of my adoptive homeland. The Netherlands has a strong history of evidence-based, rational policy-making on issues like these. Those countries exploiting trans kids for political culture wars should be condemned.

10. Lastly, EITM is an award-winning media outlet covering LGBTQ+ news every day. You can subscribe to support our journalism at www.erininthemorning.com/subscribe.

9. And now the country that pioneered gender-affirming care for trans youth has reviewed the care and found yet again that it gives those youth the greatest chance to thrive.

8. The review's recommendations mark the latest step in an unmistakable movement across Europe: the expansion of transgender healthcare. For years, American coverage fixated on restrictions in the United Kingdom to claim the continent was turning back. That claim was always false.

7. The review also documented benefits of treatment across several mental health outcomes: depression, suicidality, self-harm, and emotional wellbeing. "After starting GnRH agonists, they report better mental health compared with the situation before treatment."

6. They also examined rates of stopping treatment and of regret—and found both to be rare to nonexistent, stating: "Dutch research shows that 0% to 3.5% of people with gender dysphoria stop hormone treatment that they began as minors. No cases of regret were found in the studies."

5. The advisory also rejected the framing that treating transgender youth is a risky intervention while not treating them is a neutral default. Delaying care, the review found, carries its own harms. "Non-treatment is therefore not a neutral option"

4. The panel was chaired by Olaf Dekkers, a Leiden University Medical Center professor of internal medicine whose academic specialty is research methodology, and seated professors of health law and medical ethics alongside practicing physicians and psychiatrists.

3. The review was commissioned in May 2024 in the wake of the Cass Review. The Health Council’s committee ran systematic literature searches and consulted outside clinical experts chosen for their differing perspectives on the care—a list that included Hilary Cass herself.

2. The council’s conclusions were universally positive for gender-affirming care: it endorsed the treatments as careful, lawful, and effective, framed quick access as a matter of the right to health, warned that “doing nothing” is harmful, cast aside the Cass Review as not applicable to Dutch care.

Reader, I guffawed.

No Londoner should be forced to choose between heating and eating. That’s why I’m investing £58.7m to upgrade up to 5,000 social homes across the capital, helping some of the lowest-income families to cut their energy bills and making homes fit for the future.

Some berries are red. Some berries are blue. Some berries are just wild, and the Russian ones are very, very wild this morning. And burned. Welcome to the daily thread on Day 1610 of Russia's war of choice.

I'm not sure #Auspol quite appreciates how significant and welcome the Albanese Govt's defence of Australian creators against AI theft is. Credit where credit's due - this really matters to us. Statement from the Australian Society of Authors: www.asauthors.org.au/news/asa-app... 1/6

Men like Neil Mitchell seem to believe that theirs is the only valid identity and experience. Any other category’s experience is reduced to “identity politics.” (This essay was first written in 2022 , inspired the rightwing firestorm about the Essendon CEO.) open.substack.com/pub/lucyham2... #Auspol

The US and Ukraine have signed a bilateral statement of intent allowing Ukrainian combat drones to be exported to the U.S. for military testing, according to two sources cited by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. The framework could support broader defense cooperation in the future. #Ukraine

1. In an incredible new landmark review, the Health Council of the Netherlands has declared that gender-affirming care for trans youth works, reducing wait times is "morally urgent," and regret is rare. It is the latest of many Euro countries to advance care. Subscribe to support our journalism.

Housing is a top priority for Europe's youth, also according to Debating Europe's 'Voices For Choices' survey. Read about the @eib.org Group pan-European housing action plan in my #LinkedIn article⤵️ www.linkedin.com/pulse/afford...

Leadership.

This is just fantastic to see. And frankly, a very Dutch take. Bravo, Netherlands! 🇳🇱 I wish more of the world could treat issues of sexuality and gender from an evidence-based perspective, instead of using some of our most vulnerable young folk as culture war cannon fodder.

One of the most comprehensive and accurate, technical analysis of the airwar part of the russian invasion of Ukraine. #putinDelendaEst

Did you hear the one about the Smithsonian hiding the bones of Bible giants in the basement? No? Well, MO GOP Rep Eric Burlinson did, and he recently said he wants to develop a “strategy” to use Congress’s investigative power to get to the bottom of the mystery. “I do believe [giants] were real.”🤦‍♀️

‼️ Russia: “Peskov denied rumors that Wildberries warehouses were being used for military supplies.” So the Kremlin denies it… www.kommersant.ru/doc/8831239

Undeterred by Crisafulli government. An horrendous hit & run by an e-motor bike on a woman at the Gold Coast. The victim identified the rider as a boy & said he stopped for 5 mins before sirens prompted him to flee the scene. He confessed to her his bike was illegal. #qldpol

Olympic-sized pledges. Queensland Premier David Crisafulli's infamous "no new stadium" pledge as OL. Labour shortfalls, rising materials cost & timeline competition. Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie still promises their altered construction plan won't exceed the $7.1b budget. #qldpol

Premier David Crisafulli can't say how many recommendations from the DV prevention inquiry have been implemented by his government but somehow claims it's more than Labor. The Justice Margaret McMurdo led taskforce recommended the independent supervisory role to track & report. #qldpol

Queensland budget estimates 2026. The Crisafulli government capped advertising at $50m which includes road safety, initiatives & market research. 16 ministerial staffers were terminated amounting to $400k in payouts. The CFMEU inquiry will blowout by $75m to $95m. #qldpol

But he managed to find $50m for his government advertising.

"Well no, that's not fair," complains Queensland Premier David Crisafulli when asked about his support for the DV prevention supervisory role as opposition leader. Shortly after becoming premier he cut the role & now $40m in funding, leaving no independent monitoring. #qldpol

From 2016. Pauline Hanson was paid as a commentator by Channel 7's Sunrise in the lead up to her election to the federal senate. She had also run as a candidate for the Queensland state seat of Lockyer in 2015. #auspol www.news.com.au/national/fed...

After repeated questions to Pauline Hanson over her UK & European vacation funding, the "who paid?" question ultimately comes down to expense claims & donation declarations over the coming months/years. #auspol www.nine.com.au/australia-ne...

Bridget McKenzie and Pauline Hanson claim they are victims. That they are attending a conservative conference organised by Liz Truss suggests they are, at least, losers.

Why aren't they being hauled over the coals for using the antisemitic dog whistle of "globalists".