Article here. Excerpt:

'The emerging scale of the exodus — more than 180,000 Russians have fled just to three neighboring countries, with the full tally likely much higher — has raised questions about the Kremlin’s ability to sustain its war effort. As more Russians cross the border, escaping the restrictions imposed by Putin’s government, they are providing a glimpse of alienation and unease spreading back home.

Many have fled to Kazakhstan, according to the country’s Interior Ministry, which said nearly 100,000 Russians had entered the country since Putin announced the call-up on Sept. 21. At least 10,000 have crossed into Georgia each day — double the amount before the mobilization, according to authorities there.
...
The government, he said, was enlisting men “en masse.” Neighbors and friends had been called up. “I had no choice. I can’t go to war and kill people in Ukraine. And if I stayed, there was no other option.” He and his wife decided he should leave on the day Putin announced the mobilization.

Article here. Excerpt:

'In the days since Vladimir Putin announced a “partial mobilization,” clearing the way for hundreds of thousands of men to be conscripted into his failing war effort, we’ve fielded tens of thousands of messages like these. Some were plaintive; others were defiant. Some were simply defeated. Along with Russians desperately trying to board flights, crossing borders or attacking recruitment centers, they testified to the same desire: to avoid the draft.

The truth is, they probably can’t. While presented as a limited measure affecting only those who previously served in the army, in practice, the government has free rein to conscript as many people as it wants. The initial number of 300,000, for example, already seems an enormous undercount. In the face of a monstrous regime hellbent on war and widespread international isolation, Russians are caught in a disaster. And judging from the response so far, they are terrified.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'UK's Royal Air Force (RAF) has admitted that it made "mistakes" following allegations that it had prioritised the hiring of ethnic minorities and female candidates over white men in a bid to achieve "impossible" diversity targets.

The claims came to light last month after Sky News leaked an email from an officer of RAF's recruitment department, expressing concern over the skewed hiring process.

The unnamed officer reportedly told her superior officer that she was not willing to allocate slots on training courses based purely on a specific gender or ethnicity.

The officer later resigned after she refused to follow the recruitment process, saying that the fighting strength of the RAF would be weakened by meeting “impossible” diversity targets, reports Sky News.'

Article here. Look at the so-called standards being applied here. A break-up that was difficult for the woman now is as bad as violence against her? Really, if these are the standards this poitical party adopts, no male pol in it is safe. Excerpt:

'Another head has rolled on the French left. Julien Bayou is no longer co-president of the green group in France’s National Assembly or national secretary of the Green party, where he’s been an important figure since 2013, after being accused of psychological abuse against his former partner.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Of course, it’s not only young men who are being failed by society right now. In 2021, males aged between 50 and 54 were found to have the highest suicide rate in England and Wales. Kriss Hall, founder of a non-profit tackling mental health issues in hospitality called The Burnt Chef Project, also suggests that traditionally male-dominated industries foster stress and anxiety. “Within hospitality, and certainly within the male arena of this, you’re under a lot of pressure and you’ve got to ensure you’re not the weak link,” he explains. “You don’t want to be the one to sink the ship, especially when everyone has high levels of stress.”
...

Article here. Excerpt:

'Students at NDMU got the news that their school was going coed through a letter that arrived in their email inboxes without warning Tuesday afternoon. (This paragraph has been updated to clarify the way the students received the news.)

Malinowski, who was in the dining hall when the email came through, said that when students realized what it meant, “chaos ensued.”

“People were shouting, upset, crying,” she said. “It was just truly an astounding moment for the school to shred its history so quickly and without warning.”
...
Dozens of alumnae voiced their opposition to the move in a meeting with NDMU president Marylou Yam held over Zoom Thursday night. On alumnae Facebook groups and other social media sites, many expressed anger mixed with nostalgic remembrances of what they described as the distinct, community-centered experience of attending a women’s college.'

Article here. Nice to see this. Excerpt:

'This is F3 — that’s fitness, fellowship and faith — a fast-growing network of men’s workouts that combine exercise with spiritually inflected camaraderie. Founded in 2011 as a free, outdoor group workout, its popularity exploded during the pandemic, expanding to some 3,400 groups across the country from 1,900, aiming to solve, as John Lambert, a.k.a. Slaughter, the network’s chief executive, put it, “a problem that society at large and men definitely didn’t even know they had: middle-age male loneliness.”

In Katy, a booming upper-middle-class suburb just west of Houston bursting with office parks, new housing developments and the most expensive high school stadium in the nation, the F3 model has thrived. The former railroad town now has 18 workout locations, compared with four in Houston proper.

Article here. Bet they're not giving Russian women any trouble. Excerpt:

'Finland on Friday said it would "significantly restrict" the number of Russian "tourists" it will permit to cross its borders as an exodus of Russian men attempt to flee and avoid conscription.

The Finnish government said its decision was made over concerns that issuing swaths of visas to Russian men would cause "serious damage to Finland's international position."

Few details were released on the restrictions that Helsinki will now enforce, though its decision comes after other neighboring nations took steps earlier in the week to block Russian tourists from crossing their borders.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'It’s not every day that any U.S. senator – much less 19 of them – denounce the presumption of innocence. Or describe hearings with cross-examination, hallmarks of both the criminal justice and the congressional oversight systems, as “wholly unnecessary to determine what happened in a particular incident.”

Those remarks came in a seven-page comment released from the senators in question, all of them Democrats, in response to new Title IX regulations proposed by the current administration, which already dramatically scale back procedural protections for accused students. Their ranks included respected moderates such as Amy Klobuchar and Jack Reed, as well as civil libertarians like Ron Wyden.

That many politicians are fair-weather friends of civil liberties is old news. But for students who face a campus adjudication, the consequences of this almost cavalier dismissal of basic fairness is troubling.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Circumcision has become an increasingly fraught topic over the past few decades, as new American parents have grown uncomfortable with the idea of severing a piece of their child’s body, minor though it may be. This is understandable from an ethical perspective: A newborn baby cannot consent to such an unalterable act. Anti-circumcision advocates argue that it is better to forgo the procedure in infancy and allow the child to make his own decision later on. As a result of this intuitive reasoning, rates of circumcision have fallen from about 85% in 1965 to roughly 58% in 2010, the latest year for which solid data is available.

Parents, however, also have the responsibility to do what’s best for their child, even if that decision causes personal discomfort. And the evidence for the health benefits of circumcision, accumulated over decades of research, is overwhelming.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'It seems not long ago that the term “toxic masculinity” was just a controversial phrase in our society, but, although the excitement around the term seems to have died down, the term has come to identify a deep cultural divide between more progressive social reformers and advocates of a more traditional society. Some might see it as an attack on traditional masculinity, while others would say it is a necessary critique of the culture that surrounds modern masculinity.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Journalist Norah Vincent and author of Self-Made Man wanted to experience life as the opposite gender so she could write about it. She was a lesbian, not transgender, but her inquisitive nature made her curious about gender and identity. In 2003, she hired a makeup artist to help her paint stubble on her face to match her short, dark hair. She worked out to build the muscles on her back, wore rectangular-framed glasses, and strapped her breasts against her chest. And with the help of a Julliard vocal coach, she was even able to train her voice to sound more manly. Norah Vincent was determined. There was no stopping her from switching genders. But what she found in living life as the opposite sex wasn’t “male privilege” — instead, Vincent learned what it was like to be at an incredible disadvantage.
...

Article here. Excerpt:

'The policy paper developed by gender agency UN Women and the Secretary-General’s Global Crisis Response Group, describes how the war has widened gender gaps in hunger, education and poverty, and has also increased gender-based violence.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Governor Tom Wolf and First Lady Frances Wolf today announced the opening of a brand new, $2 million Women’s Reentry Services Initiative Program aimed at giving women the best possible opportunity for successful transitions back into their community following incarceration.

“More than 70% of women incarcerated in Pennsylvania’s prisons are mothers. And when they reenter society, they face the everyday struggles of every mother—to balance work, family, and life—combined with the reality of integrating themselves into a society that will immediately slap a label on them for their prior mistakes,” said Gov. Wolf. “We see these women, we see their struggle as they stretch themselves thin to make ends meet, let alone thrive.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Is there something distinctive about women? Yes, but only when it’s convenient.

In an interview with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul earlier this week, WNYC host Brian Lehrer asked, “Is there anything you think specifically that you as a woman have brought to New York state policy that Governor (Andrew) Cuomo or any man might not have?”

Her answer was head-spinning but also completely representative of how feminists want to have it both ways.

First, of course, Hochul said she can “govern with the same strength and the toughness required to run a state as rough and tumble as New York truly is, the politics and the government.” She can go toe-to-toe with any man when it comes to getting things done but also, because she’s a woman, she has other qualifications.