Meanwhile, Elsewhere in the World

A bill giving the UK intelligence agencies and police the most sweeping surveillance powers in the western world has passed into law with barely a whimper, meeting only token resistance over the past 12 months from inside parliament and barely any from outside.

[...]

The security agencies and police began the year braced for at least some opposition, rehearsing arguments for the debate. In the end, faced with public apathy and an opposition in disarray, the government did not have to make a single substantial concession to the privacy lobby.

[...]

The Investigatory Powers Act, passed on Thursday, legalises a whole range of tools for snooping and hacking by the security services unmatched by any other country in western Europe or even the US.

  The Guardian

We're right behind you, Britain.

A Canadian mother has called for lawyers and judges to receive better training on gender identity after two judges in the province of Alberta ordered her four-year-old child to stop wearing girls’ clothing in public.

The order was first issued last year by a family court judge in the city of Medicine Hat. Three months later, the clothing restriction was upheld by a second judge.

  Guardian

Nice, dicks.

In September, a third provincial judge overturned the clothing restriction after consulting with a parenting expert. The child, said the judge, must be provided with male and female clothing and be allowed to choose what to wear.

[...]

“My kid was asking me, ‘Mom, does it hurt to die? How can I die, where would I go when I die? Mom, now that you know, when I die, grow me in your belly but grow me as a girl, not with a penis. Because now you know.’”

[...]

Smith said the orders – all issued within a nine-month span – had taken a toll on the child, who is now five.

[...]

She said she planned to file a judicial complaint with the province, demanding that all legal representatives in Alberta – from judges to lawyers – be better trained on gender identity. “If they were properly educated and aware of the severe consequences and the turmoil this has had on my child, they could not ethically say it’s in the best interests of the child.”

Who says judges are ethical?

A bill in Turkey that would overturn men’s convictions for child sex assault if they married their victim has provoked fury, with critics accusing the government of encouraging rape of minors with the proposals.

  Guardian

Encouraging rape isn't the question. Condoning it is.

But the government insisted the legislation was aimed at dealing with the widespread custom of child marriages and the criticism was a crude distortion of its aim.

How does that "deal" with the custom or child marriages? It creates more of them.

The measures were approved in an initial parliamentary reading on Thursday and will be voted on again in a second debate in the coming days.

If passed, the law would allow the release from prison of men guilty of assaulting a minor if the act was committed without “force, threat, or any other restriction on consent” and if the aggressor “marries the victim”.

If it involves an adult and a child, there is no such thing as consent.

Keep your children close at hand, Turks.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.