UK’s NHS Will Now Ask Men if They Are Pregnant Before X-rays
(LifeSiteNews) — The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) has instructed X-ray operators to ask men if they are pregnant before conducting scans, reportedly prompting patients to “storm out” of appointments in anger over the absurdity of the question.
The so-called “inclusive” guidance was inspired by an incident in which a woman who presented as a man had a CT scan while unknowingly pregnant, thereby exposing her baby to dangerous radiation, The Telegraph reported.
However, NHS staff have stressed that the new guidelines pose a risk to the safety of patients by discouraging appointments due to the distress sparked in both men and women by the new appointment questions, which ask for their “sex at birth” and “preferred name and pronouns” and make “ridiculous” claims about “people who are born with variations in sex characteristics,” according to The Telegraph.
One man on an “urgent cancer pathway” “was so annoyed by the questions on the form, he shouted, he left the department and didn’t actually have a scan,” one radiographer told The Telegraph.
“There is an unnecessary risk for these patients if they do get so annoyed and don’t have the scan,” said the radiographer.
Women have also reportedly cried over “invasive” fertility questions, which now prompt for specific reasons behind infertility, triggering traumatic memories of miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies, which they are required to cite in background forms.
Staff say that patients of both sexes have been insulted or embarrassed by the suggestion that their sex is not necessarily apparent and that the forms are “indoctrinating” minors by asking them their preferred names and pronouns, while parents are “furious” about this.
According to the guidance, a patient should always be asked ‘What pronouns would you like me to use for you?’ and ‘How would you like to be addressed?’”
The questions were developed by the Society of Radiographers (SoR), who are “pushing a national rollout” according to insiders. General Practitioner Dr. Louise Irvina believes the guidelines are unnecessary given that “it should be possible for medical records to accurately record sex.”
She further stated, “Given that it is impossible for anyone of the male sex to become pregnant, there is no need to ask male people if they might be pregnant, and thereby avoid a lot of embarrassment and upset.”
“If someone identifies as transgender or non-binary, and their records indicate they are biologically female, then they can be respectfully asked about the possibility of pregnancy,” she added. “The proposed radiography guidelines muddy the water by including so-called intersex conditions.”
Fiona McAnena, the director of campaigns at human rights charity Sex Matters, told The Telegraph, “The Society of Radiographers’ inclusion policy is among the worst examples of professional bodies losing their senses by prioritising ideology ahead of biological fact.”
“Putting healthcare staff and male patients through this humiliating farce, with inclusivity pregnancy forms, questions on the likelihood of pregnancy, and enquiries about their pronouns, is both inappropriate and a shocking waste of time,” she continued, going on to call for a retraction of the new guidelines.
“The NHS trusts that have adopted this policy in their radiography units should immediately revoke it and return to common sense and reality.”
Like China in 2019 Hong Kong Protests, the UK Government Doubles Down on Threats to Catch Those Involved in Immigration Protests
The UK continues to grapple with protests following the stabbing of three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in England by a 17-year-old boy from Rwanda whose parents are migrants, and now law enforcement officers around the country are issuing unusually strong threats against those who are not only involved in the protests but making comments about them on social media that could stoke the flames.
In a video that is making the rounds on social media on account of its strong and almost taunting language, Merseyside’s top police officer, Chief Constable Serena Kennedy, let Brits who participated in protests know that law enforcement is essentially hunting them down, saying “You absolutely haven’t got away with it.”
An X user who goes by the name “Concerned Citizen” shared footage of the officer’s warning with the caption: “The UK police have never spoken like this before. It’s like they’re trying to antagonise tens of millions of peaceful sensible Brits who simply want a conversation.”
Kennedy issued a similar warning in comments to the Liverpool Echo, where she stated: “We have got hours of CCTV footage, hours of social media footage that people are sending us, local people who are horrified at what they saw on their streets, who want us to come for you. We are reviewing that, we are identifying you and we are coming for you.”
“You will see arrests carrying on over the next few days, the next few months. You are not safe, you cannot sit behind your door, thinking you are safe because we are coming for you,” she added.
Her remarks came after a dozen people were brought to court on Monday over their involvement in recent protests. The Merseyside Police have arrested numerous individuals after protests on Saturday at the Liverpool city center and in Walton, as well as rioting in Southport on Tuesday.
They report that officers were attacked at all of these protests, and the one in Walton ended with a community library there being set on fire.
Kennedy cautioned that many more arrests will take place in the days, weeks and months to come, telling the publication: “The message I would want to send is that you may be sitting at home with a cup of tea, thinking you have got away with the events of Saturday or Tuesday, you absolutely haven’t — we are coming for you.”
Officers in other jurisdictions have been issuing similar warnings, with Northumbria Police Chief Superintendent Mark Hall announced that a full investigation has been launched into who was responsible for widespread destruction in protests there that saw a wooden spike launched at a female police officer.
“Make no mistake, if you were involved last night, expect to be met with the full force of the law,” he said, adding that four officers had been injured.
People living abroad who support immigration protests could be prosecuted
Some officers are even going so far as to threaten those living abroad who they believe are supporting the protests, saying that they are going after “keyboard warriors.”
Met Police Officer Sir Mark Rowley said “And whether you’re in this country committing crimes on the streets or committing crimes from further afield online, we will come after you.”
The Director of Public Prosecutions of England and Wales cautioned that even sharing material online could be considered an offense, telling Sky News: “We do have dedicated police officers who are scouring social media to look for this material, and then follow up with arrests.”
Specialist UK Police Teams Target ‘Hate’ on Social Media
The UK authorities and the media either willing to or feeling pressure to take their cues from the government, continue to assert that the root cause of the serious rioting that hit the country this month is to be found on – social media.
This, in turn, makes for a convenient excuse to ramp up police surveillance of online content. Special police teams are now going through social sites in order to identify those said to have “incited” the riots, and there’s a special name for them – “hate influencers.”
The said teams consist of what reports refer to as “specialized” officers, those investigating serious crimes (i.e., murder and the like) and terrorism, as well as local units whose job is normally to investigate organized crime.
“Other” national-level teams are also mentioned as taking part in scouring the internet, and what they might be doing is suggested by the goal of this exercise being gaining “a clear intelligence picture,” as one article put it, citing the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC).
A statement on the NPCC site said that the search for “online offenders” is being led by regional organized crime units (ROCUs) and that the offense is spreading hate and inciting violence on the internet.
NPCC Chief Constable Chris Haward is quoted as saying that the large number of people taking part in protests and riots “did not mobilize spontaneously.”
“It was the result of dozens of so-called influencers, exploiting the outpouring of grief from the tragic loss of three young girls in Southport,” Haward said, referring to the knife attack that resulted in the three murders.
Still talking about “hate influencers,” Haward added: “They knowingly spread misinformation, stoked the flames of hatred and division, and incited violence from the comfort of their own homes – causing chaos on other people’s doorsteps. (…) Online crimes have real-world consequences and you will be dealt with in the same way as those physically present and inflicting the violence.”
Thus far, the NPCC has said that it is investigating hundreds of leads. The content targeted by law enforcement and intelligence units is reportedly spread across a range of unnamed social sites and platforms, according to the press release.
It is also revealed that “hate influencers” as the British legacy press calls them will not be held responsible simply for using the internet to allegedly incite real-world violence – but also for something separate NPCC calls “violence online.”
“A senior investigator” will have the last word on whether any of this can be treated as a crime – and if so, people behind the accounts and/or content will be identified and arrested.
Kursk Attack: A Military Red Line Has Been Crossed, So Now What?
The UN has once again failed to formulate a position on the invasion of Russian territory by Ukrainian forces. The US and the EU have so far confined themselves to vague statements. Official Kiev at the highest level has also been relatively quiet. The Ukrainian public mainly relies on Russian sources for information, and foreign military experts have also refrained from making detailed predictions.
Apparently, the outside world is still not fully aware of what is going on, hence the muted reactions. The principle of “something needs to be said, but it is not clear what exactly that should be” can be detected. For example, the “paper of record,” The Washington Post, quoting analysts, put forward the hypotheses that one of the reasons for Kiev’s invasion of Kursk Region was to disrupt Russian gas supplies to Western Europe.
The basis for such claims was the situation around the gas metering station near Sudzha, about which much has been written recently. It’s not clear who controls it right now. Sure, if the valve is shut off, the gas really will stop flowing, that’s obvious. However, in order to disrupt supplies, it wasn’t necessary to cross the Russian border. This can easily be done from Ukrainian territory, because that’s where the pipeline passes through. In any case, at the time of writing the fuel is flowing as normal.
This is the cynical peculiarity of our times. Business comes first, and even hostilities do not get in the way.
Read more Kursk attack: This is why Zelensky felt emboldened
Meanwhile, beyond that there is relative silence. Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky is talking about how Russia deserves to be punished, in his view. The West says very little. A comment by the head of the German Bundestag’s defense committee that Kiev could use Leopard tanks on this historic Russian soil doesn’t sound too serious.
It is safe to assume that most of the West’s political leadership didn’t expect such a turn of events. Kiev didn’t consult them or ask their permission. This brings us to the most important point: the nature of the confrontation is changing, and another red line has been erased. There used to be an unspoken rule – the Americans and Western Europeans didn’t want an escalation, let alone a direct conflict with Moscow, so Ukraine was allowed to fight back but not attack; Western weapons are not used on Russian territory and, of course, the border was not to be crossed. In this scenario, the conflict was manageable, and played out within a set framework. You don’t have to be an expert to see that this is now impossible.
In general, this is a trend. All over the world, red lines are being crossed, the old rules of the game are being broken and things are getting out of control.
So for the Russian-Ukraine conflict the choice is really quite simple: there will either be a further escalation of hostilities or negotiations. Or first the former and then the latter. But, of course, it’d be better if we jumped directly to the latter.
This article was first published by Kommersant, and was translated and edited by the RT team.
US Court Reimposes ‘Disinformation’ Device Monitoring on January 6 Defendant
The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has issued an order in the United States v. Daniel Goodwyn case reimposing the computer monitoring measure against Goodwyn, a January 6 defendant.
We obtained a copy of the order for you here.
Goodwyn was charged and convicted for briefly entering the US Capitol during the January 6 events, and although he stayed inside the building for just over half a minute, left when he was asked to, was not involved in violence nor did he cause any damage – it was his social media posts (among others, screenshot of public documents that show names of government employees) that were seen as a threat.
In initial proceedings in 2023, Goodwyn pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of trespassing. As legal experts noted, normally a first-time offender isn’t sent to jail for this, but the US District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Reggie Walton sentenced him to two months in prison.
This was accompanied by probation conditions that included unusually harsh and ongoing restrictions on Goodwyn’s online speech and access to information. Walton – a vocal critic of Donald Trump decided that Goodwyn’s computer must be “monitored and inspected” to make sure he was not “spreading disinformation.”
The appellate court then found that the district court “plainly erred” by imposing these surveillance measures. Judge Walton next decided that now, “on the heels of [sic] another election,” he was worried Goodwyn was spreading “false narratives” and therefore affirmed his original sentencing.
The defense, arguing First Amendment violation, went back to the court of appeals seeking an emergency stay of the probation conditions, but the three-judge panel ruled 2-1 to deny the motion.
Judge Gregory Katsas filed his dissenting opinion, arguing against colleagues Florence Pan and Bradley Garcia – both of whom happen to be Democrat judges.
Judge Katsas stated that Goodwyn neither used force to enter the premises nor did he attack police officers during his 36-second stay in the Capitol, as well as that in addition to 60 days in jail, a special probation condition required “the installation of software on Goodwyn’s computers that would enable the probation office to conduct ‘periodic unannounced searches’.”
“Goodwyn appealed and moved for a stay,” wrote the judge, adding, “I would grant the motion because, in my view, Goodwyn is likely to prevail on the merits and has shown an immediate irreparable injury. See Nken v. Holder (factors for stay pending appeal).”
Biden Admits ‘Direct Contact’ with Ukraine Over Invasion of Russia
Washington is in touch with Kiev about Ukraine’s ongoing incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region, which is creating a problem for Moscow, US President Joe Biden has said.
Last week, Ukraine sent several thousand troops across the Russian border to seize a dozen villages and indiscriminately target civilians, according to Moscow.
“I have spoken with my staff on a regular basis, probably every four or five hours for the last six or eight days and it’s creating a real dilemma for [Russian President Vladimir] Putin,” Biden told reporters on Tuesday, in his first remarks about the Kursk offensive.
“And we’ve been in direct contact, constant contact with the Ukrainians. That’s all I’m going to say about it while it’s active,” he added.
Biden’s first public reaction to Zelensky’s terror attack on the Kursk region: it creates a “real dilemma”
The US President claimed he discusses the situation in Russia with his staff “every 4-5 hours”. pic.twitter.com/uN9URIcYp2— The Great Investor (@TheGreatInvest2) August 13, 2024
The US leader spoke just outside Air Force One, as he arrived in New Orleans. Earlier in the day, EU foreign policy commissioner Josep Borrell said that Kiev had the bloc’s “full support” for the Kursk offensive.
READ MORE: EU ‘fully supports’ Ukrainian attack on Kursk – Borrell
Washington and Brussels have previously responded to press inquiries about the events in Kursk by quoting generalities about support for Ukraine and unchanging policies.
“We’re in touch with our Ukrainian counterparts, and we are working to gain a better understanding of what they’re doing, what their goals are, what their strategy is, and I’m going to leave a little bit of space for us to have those conversations before I try to characterize what’s going on,”National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Friday. Later that same day, the US announced another $125 million in military aid to Ukraine.
On Monday, however, Senator Lindsey Graham – a South Carolina Republican – went to Kiev and praised the Kursk incursion as “bold” and “beautiful.” He also urged retired Western pilots to enlist in the Ukrainian air force and fly NATO-provided F-16 fighters against Russia.
READ MORE: Body of pregnant woman killed by Ukrainians can’t be collected – husband
At least 12 Russian civilians have been killed and another 121 wounded by Ukrainian invaders, acting regional governor Aleksey Smirnov said on Monday.
Ukrainian soldiers who spoke to Western outlets have admitted taking significant casualties in the invasion. They also said their objectives were to capture some territory that could be traded away in possible peace talks with Moscow, as well as to relieve pressure on the Donbass front.
On Monday, Putin said that the Russian forces were actually advancing at a faster pace, while military enlistments were up because of the fighting in Kursk.