Month: May 2021

Sunday is Mother’s Day in the United States.The second Sunday in May is a day especially designated to show moms and other mother figures how much they are loved and appreciated. It is a day full of cards and flowers, telephone calls and acts of kindness for moms. Many moms enjoy breakfast in bed on Mother’s Day.The origins of Mother’s Day in the U.S. began before the Civil War when Ann Reeves Jarvis, who lived in West Virginia, began Mother’s Day Work Clubs to teach women the intricacies of taking care of their children.After the war, Jarvis organized Mothers’ Friendship Day. On this day, women from the clubs met with former Union and Confederate soldiers in the spirit of reconciliation.Jarvis died in 1905, but her daughter, Anna, campaigned for a national holiday honoring motherhood. She also argued that American holidays honored male achievements, while ignoring the achievements of women.In 1914, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson officially designated the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day. After a few years, Anna Jarvis became disillusioned with the commercialization of the day, which is not a federal holiday in the United States.By the time Anna Jarvis died in 1948, she had disowned the occasion and lodged lawsuits against groups that used the term “Mother’s Day.”There are Mother’s Day commemorations in other countries, celebrated on different days. 
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The value of dogecoin dropped sharply in early U.S. hours on Sunday, after Tesla chief and cryptocurrency supporter Elon Musk called it a ‘hustle’ during his guest-host spot on the “Saturday Night Live” comedy sketch TV show. Dogecoin was quoted as low as $0.47 on crypto exchange Binance, down 28% from levels around $0.65 before the show. The billionaire Tesla Inc chief executive hosted the show at 11:30 p.m. EDT on Saturday (0330 GMT on Sunday). Cryptocurrency enthusiasts had for days been eager to see what he would say, after his tweets this year turned the once-obscure digital currency into a speculator’s dream. Asked ‘what is dogecoin,’ Musk replied, “It’s the future of currency. It’s an unstoppable financial vehicle that’s going to take over the world.” When a show cast member Michael Che countered, “So, it’s a hustle?” Musk replied, “Yeah, it’s a hustle.” And laughed. Musk is the rare business mogul to have been asked to host the venerable comedy TV show. The timing puts Musk back in the spotlight just as Tesla’s stock is losing steam following last year’s monster rally. The unconventional CEO has posted numerous comments about cryptocurrencies on Twitter and criticized regular old cash for having negative real interest rates. “Only a fool wouldn’t look elsewhere,” he said in February. His cryptic tweets “Doge” and “Dogecoin is the people’s crypto” that month kicked off a rally in dogecoin — created as a parody on the more mainstream bitcoin and ethereum. On Thursday, Musk tweeted: “Cryptocurrency is promising, but please invest with caution!” with a video clip attached in which he said, “it should be considered speculation at this point. And so, you know, don’t don’t go too far in the crypto speculation …” But he also said, in the video, that cryptocurrency has a “good chance” of becoming what he called “the future currency of the Earth.” On crypto data tracker CoinGecko.com, dogecoin has jumped more than 800% over the last month and is now the fourth-largest digital currency, with a market capitalization of $73 billion. It hit a record high Thursday above $0.73. It has overtaken more widely used cryptocurrencies such as litecoin and tether. Tesla said in February it bought $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin and would soon accept it as a form of payment for its electric cars, a large stride toward mainstream acceptance that sent bitcoin soaring to a record high of nearly $62,000. Tesla shares closed 1.3% higher at $672.37 on Friday.  
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The fight to make the French language kinder to women took steps forward, and back, this week.
 
Warning that the well-being of France and its future are at stake, the government banned the use in schools of a method increasingly used by some French speakers to make the language more inclusive by feminizing some words.  
 
Specifically, the education minister’s decree targets what is arguably the most contested and politicized letter in the French language — “e.” Simply put, “e” is the language’s feminine letter, used in feminine nouns and their adjectives and, sometimes, when conjugating verbs.
 
But proponents of women’s rights are also increasingly adding “e” to words that normally wouldn’t have included that letter, in a conscious — and divisive — effort to make women more visible.
 
Take the generic French word for leaders — “dirigeants” — for example. For some, that masculine spelling suggests that they are generally men and makes women leaders invisible, because it lacks a feminine “e” toward the end. For proponents of inclusive writing, a more gender-equal spelling is “dirigeant·es,” inserting the extra “e,” preceded by a middle dot, to make clear that leaders can be of both sexes.  
 
Likewise, they might write “les élu·es” — instead of the generic masculine “élus” — for the holders of elected office, again to highlight that women are elected, too. Or they might use “les idiot·es,” instead of the usual generic masculine “les idiots,” to acknowledge that stupidity isn’t the exclusive preserve of men.  
 
Proponents and opponents sometimes split down political lines. France’s conservative Republicans party uses “ élus”; the left-wing France Unbowed tends toward ”élu · es.”
“It’s a fight to make women visible in the language,” said Laurence Rossignol, a Socialist senator who uses the feminizing extra “·e.”  
 
Speaking in a telephone interview, she said its opponents “are the same activists who were against marriage for people of the same sex, medically assisted reproduction, and longer abortion windows. … It’s the new banner under which reactionaries are gathering.”  
 
But for the government of centrist President Emmanuel Macron, the use of ”·e” threatens the very fabric of France. Speaking in a Senate debate on the issue on Thursday, a deputy education minister said inclusive writing “is a danger for our country” and will “sound the death knell for the use of French in the world.”  
 
By challenging traditional norms of French usage, inclusive writing makes the language harder to learn, penalizing pupils with learning difficulties, the minister, Nathalie Elimas, argued.
 
“It dislocates words, breaks them into two,” she said. “With the spread of inclusive writing, the English language — already quasi-hegemonic across the world — would certainly and perhaps forever defeat the French language.”  
 
Arguments over gender-inclusive language are raging elsewhere in Europe, too.
A fault-line among German speakers has been how to make nouns reflect both genders. The German word for athletes, for example, could be written as “Sportlerinnen” to show that it includes both men and women, as opposed to the more usual, generic masculine “Sportler.” For critics, the addition of the feminine “innen” at the end — sometimes with the help of an asterisk, capital letter or underscore — is plain ugly.  
 
Italy has seen sporadic debate over neutralizing gendered titles for public officials, or making them feminine when they normally would remain masculine, such as “ministra” instead of “ministro” for women Cabinet members. Rome Mayor Virginia Raggi prefers to be called “sindaca” rather than “sindaco.”  
 
Inclusive language has also been a long battle for feminists and, more recently, of LGTBQ+ groups in Spain, although there is no consensus on how to make progress. Politics also play into the issue there. Members of the far-right Vox party have insisted on sticking with the traditional “presidente” when referring to Spain’s four deputy prime ministers, all of them women, rather than opting for the more progressive “presidenta,” even though the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language has accepted usage of that feminine noun.
 
The French Education Ministry circular that banished the “·e” formula from schools did, however, accept other more inclusive changes in language that highlight women.
 
They include systematically feminizing job titles for women — like “présidente,” instead of “président,” or ambassadrice” rather than “ambassadeur” for women ambassadors. It also encouraged the simultaneous use of both masculine and feminine forms to emphasize that roles are filled by both sexes. So a job posting in a school, for example, should say that it will go to “le candidat ou la candidate” — man or woman — who is best qualified to fill it.
 
Raphael Haddad, the author of a French-language guide on inclusive writing, said that section of the ministry circular represented progress for the cause of women in French.
 
“It’s a huge step forward, disguised as a ban,” he said. “What’s happening to the France language is the same thing that happened in the United States, with ‘chairman’ replaced by ‘chairperson,’ (and) ‘’fireman’ by ‘firefighter.’”  
 
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The Netflix series “Zero,” which premiered globally last month, is the first Italian TV production to feature a predominantly Black cast, a bright spot in an otherwise bleak Italian television landscape where the persistent use of racist language and imagery is sparking new protests.  
Even as “Zero” creates a breakthrough in Italian TV history, on private networks, comedy teams are asserting their right to use racial slurs and make slanty-eye gestures as satire. The main state broadcaster RAI is under fire for attempting to censor an Italian rapper’s remarks highlighting homophobia in a right-wing political party. And under outside pressure, RAI is advising against — but not outright banning — the use of blackface in variety skits.  
With cultural tensions heightened, the protagonists of “Zero” hope the series — which focuses on second-generation Black Italians and is based on a novel by the son of Angolan immigrants — will help accelerate public acceptance that Italy has become a multicultural nation.  
“I always say that Italy is a country tied to traditions, more than racist,” said Antonio Dikele Distefano, who co-wrote the series and whose six novels, including the one on which “Zero” was based, focus on the lives of the children of immigrants to Italy.  
“I am convinced that through these things — writing novels, the possibility of making a series — things can change,” he said.
“Zero” is a radical departure because it provides role models for young Black Italians who have not seen themselves reflected in the culture, and because it creates a window to changes in Italian society that swaths of the majority population have not acknowledged.  
Activists fighting racism in Italian television underline the fact that it was developed by Netflix, based in the United States and with a commitment to spend $100 million to improve diversity, and not by Italian public or private television.  
“As a Black Italian, I never saw myself represented in Italian television. Or rather, I saw examples of how Black women were hyper-sexualized,” said Sara Lemlem, an activist and journalist who is part of a group of second-generation Italians protesting racist tropes on Italian TV. “There was never a Black woman in a role of an everyday woman: a Black student, a Black nurse, a Black teacher. I never saw myself represented in the country in which I was born and raised.”
“Zero,” which premiered on April 21, landed immediately among the top 10 shows streaming on Netflix in Italy.  
Perhaps even more telling of its impact: The lead actor, Giuseppe Dave Seke, was mobbed not even a week later by Italian schoolchildren clamoring for autographs as he gave an interview in the Milan neighborhood where the series is set. Seke, a 25-year-old who grew up in Padova to parents from Congo, is not a household name in Italy. “Zero” was his first foray into acting.
“If you ask these children who is in front of them, they will never tell you: the first Black Italian actor. They will tell you, ‘a superhero,’ or they will tell you, ‘Dave’,” Dikele Distefano said, watching the scene in awe.  
In the series, Zero is the nickname of a Black Italian pizza bike deliveryman who discovers he has a superpower that allows him to become invisible. He uses it to help his friends in a mixed-race Milan neighborhood.  
It’s a direct play on the notion of invisibility that was behind the Black Lives Matter protests that erupted in Italian squares last summer following George Floyd’s murder in the United States. Black Italians rallied for changes in the country’s citizenship law and to be recognized as part of a society where they too often feel marginalized.  
“When a young person doesn’t feel seen, he feels a bit invisible,” Seke said. “Hopefully this series can help those people who felt like me or like Antonio. … There can be many people who have not found someone similar to themselves, and live still with this distress.”
The protest movement has shifted from targeting Italian fashion, where racist gaffes have highlighted the lack of Black creative workers, to Italian television, where a movement dubbing itself CambieRAI held protests last month demanding that Italian state and private TV stop using racist language and blackface in skits.  
CambieRAI plays upon the name of Italian state TV, RAI, and the Italian language command “you will change.” The movement, bringing together second-generation Italians from a range of associations, also wants RAI — which is funded by mandatory annual fees on anyone owning a TV in Italy — to set up an advisory council on diversity and inclusion.
Last week RAI last responded to an earlier request by other, longer-established groups asking that it stop broadcasting shows using blackface, citing skits where performers darkened their skin to impersonate singers like Beyonce or Ghali, an Italian rapper of Tunisian descent.  
“We said we were sorry, and we made a formal commitment to inform all of our editors to ask that they don’t use blackface anymore,” Giovanni Parapini, RAI’s director for social causes, told The Associated Press. He said that was as far as they could go due to editorial freedom.  
The associations said they viewed the commitment as positive, even if it fell short of a sought-for ban, since RAI at least recognized that the use of blackface was a problem.
Parapini, however, said the public network did not accept the criticism of the CambieRAI group “because that would mean that RAI in all these years did nothing for integration.”
He noted that the network had never been called out by regulators and listed programming that included minorities, from a Gambia-born sportscaster known as Idris in the 1990s to plans for a televised festival in July featuring second-generation Italians.  
Dikele Distefano said for him the goal is not to banish racist language, calling it “a lost battle.” He sees his art as an agent for change.  
He is working on a film now where he aims to have a 70% second-generation Italian cast and crew. “Zero” has already helped create positions in the industry for a Black hairstylist, a Black screenwriter and a director of Arab and Italian origin, he noted.
“The battle is to live in a place where we all have the same opportunity, where there are more writers who are Black, Asian, South American, where there is the possibility to tell the stories from the point of view of those who live it,” he said. 
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Pfizer and BioNTech will donate their COVID-19 vaccine to athletes training for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics, the International Olympic Committee said Thursday. Doses are expected to be delivered later this month, which would be in time for the athletes to be fully immunized for the games, starting July 23. “We are inviting the athletes and participating delegations of the upcoming Olympic and Paralympic Games to lead by example and accept the vaccine where and when possible,” IOC President Thomas Bach said in a statement. Last month, the IOC announced a similar deal to distribute Chinese-made coronavirus vaccines to Chinese athletes prior to both the Tokyo Summer Games and the Beijing Winter Games. Most countries have yet to approve Chinese vaccines for emergency use. How the Tokyo Games will be held is still in question as Japan is reportedly considering extending its coronavirus state of emergency, Reuters reported. 
 
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Many Broadway productions are scrambling to resume ticket sales in the coming days to welcome theater-goers this fall after city and state leaders have green-lit a reopening of the Great White Way at full capacity by mid-September.”We remain cautiously optimistic about Broadway’s ability to resume performances this fall and are happy that fans can start buying tickets again,” Charlotte St. Martin, president of the Broadway League, said in a statement Wednesday. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Broadway theaters can reopen Sept. 14 and will be allowed to decide their own entry requirements, like whether people must prove they’ve been vaccinated to attend a show. Selling tickets will allow theaters to gauge interest before stages open, said Robert Mujica, Cuomo’s budget director.”Phantom of the Opera,” Broadway’s longest-running show, announced Wednesday it would resume performances on Oct. 22, with tickets going on sale Friday. More shows are expected to circle return dates in the coming weeks.Actors’ Equity Association, the national labor union representing more than 51,000 actors and stage managers in live theater, said the news meant the theater community is “one step closer to the safe reopening” of Broadway.”We look forward to continuing our conversations with the Broadway League about a safe reopening and know that soon the time will come when members can go back to doing what they do best, creating world-class theater,” said Mary McColl, executive director of Actors’ Equity. The Broadway that reopens will look different. In May, the big budget Disney musical “Frozen” decided not to reopen when Broadway theaters restart, marking the first time an established show had been felled by the coronavirus pandemic. Producers of “Mean Girls” also decided not to restart.But there will be new shows, including Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu’s “Pass Over” that is slated to reopen the August Wilson Theatre, the same venue “Mean Girls” has vacated. And a Shubert theater has been promised for playwright Keenan Scott II’s play “Thoughts of a Colored Man.” The lifting of all capacity restrictions has long been considered by the industry as crucial to any reopening plan since Broadway economics demand full venue capacity. Some off-Broadway shows have already reopened with limited capacity.All city theaters abruptly closed on March 12, 2020, knocking out all shows, including 16 that were still scheduled to open.Some scheduled spring 2020 shows — like a musical about Michael Jackson and a revival of Neil Simon’s “Plaza Suite” starring Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker — pushed their productions to 2021. But others abandoned their plans, including “Hangmen” and a revival of Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”
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As its COVID-19 lockdown eases, Spain has resumed bullfights — and reignited a fiery political debate between right-wingers who defend the tradition and leftists who condemn it as animal cruelty. Jonathan Spier narrates this report from Alfonso Beato in Barcelona.Camera:  Alfonso Beato
 
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An Olympic test event to evaluate COVID-19 safety protocols for the upcoming Tokyo Games has won praise from the head of the world governing body of track and field.
 
Organizers of Wednesday’s test marathon race in the northern Japanese city of Sapporo pleaded with the general public not to attend the event, even deploying staff along the route with signs that read “please refrain from watching the event from here.” The few athletes who took part in the race had to undergo strict testing protocols before and after entering Japan, and were largely restricted to their hotel rooms unless they were training.
 
World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe said the organizing committee demonstrated “the highest level of capability” to stage the marathon and race walk events in Sapporo.  The events were originally supposed to be staged in Tokyo, but were moved to avoid the city’s hot summer temperatures.   
The delayed Tokyo Olympics will be held from July 23 to August 8.  Organizers postponed the games for a year when the novel coronavirus began spreading across the globe.
But with Tokyo and other parts of Japan under a state of emergency to quell a surge of new COVID-19 infections, recent public opinion polls show an overwhelming majority of Japanese believe the Olympics should be postponed again or cancelled.
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Dozens of Taiwanese Star Wars fans gathered on the top floor of the nation’s tallest building Tuesday to salute their favorite movie, while stressing the importance of wearing face masks to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.Fans dressed in full Star Wars costumes held mock lightsaber battles and posed for pictures on the 89th floor of the Taipei 101 financial building for what has become an annual observance of what has become known as international Star Wars Day.Organizer of the event Makoto Tsai told reporters he also wanted the “opportunity to introduce interesting places of Taiwan to the world,” because International Star Wars Day, “is an event watched by all the Star Wars fans in the world.”Tsai said their annual event was cancelled last year because the pandemic was at its worst in Taiwan. He said while COVID-19 is largely contained in Taiwan, he is aware that much of the world is continuing to struggle with it.He said he wanted to use his Taiwan gathering to show the world the importance of wearing a mask to fight COVID.“Every character today, including those who wear a helmet, is wearing a mask. I hope to show Star Wars fans of the world that even in Taiwan, we all have to wear the mask. And I hope the pandemic goes away soon.”May the 4th has become the unofficial international “Star Wars Day” over the years, as a play on the famous catch phrase of the movie, “May the force be with you.” Media reports trace the international origins of the day to 1979, when Britain’s Conservative Party won elections there and then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher first assumed her office.The party reportedly took out a newspaper advertisement congratulating the day she took office — May the 4th — saying “May the Fourth Be With You, Maggie. Congratulations!”Reports say a copy of the original advertisement has yet to be found, so the story has not been officially verified. 
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The star power is back. When the Met Gala returns in September, it will feature a heavy-hitting contingent of celebrity co-chairs: Actor Timothée Chalamet, musician Billie Eilish, poet Amanda Gorman and tennis star Naomi Osaka.
Honorary chairs for the evening will be designer Tom Ford, sponsor Instagram’s Adam Mosseri, and Vogue’s Anna Wintour.  FILE – Vogue editor Anna Wintour attends The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute benefit gala celebrating the opening of the “Camp: Notes on Fashion” exhibition in New York.The museum made the announcement Monday on the traditional day of the Met Gala — the first Monday in May. Those plans, of course, were upended by the pandemic. The September 13 gala will be a more intimate affair, to be followed by a larger one on May 2, 2022. Both will launch a two-part exhibition, a survey of American fashion to be on view for almost a year.
“In America: A Lexicon of Fashion,” opening Sept. 18, will celebrate the 75th anniversary of the museum’s Costume Institute and “explore a modern vocabulary of American fashion,” the museum has said. Part two, “In America: An Anthology of Fashion,” will open in the museum’s popular American Wing period rooms on May 5, 2022, and will explore American fashion, with collaborations with film directors, by “presenting narratives that relate to the complex and layered histories of those spaces.” Both parts will close on Sept. 5, 2022.
Filmmaker Melina Matsoukas (“Queen & Slim”) has been commissioned to create an open-ended film to project in the galleries, with content changing during the course of the exhibition.
The gala, which was canceled last year, is a major fundraiser, providing the Costume Institute with its primary source of funding.
 
As always, the exhibits will be the work of star curator Andrew Bolton. In a video preview Monday, Bolton noted how challenging the past year had been for the fashion community.
“It’s been incredibly inspiring to see how designers have responded to the ongoing challenges of the pandemic, how they’ve found new outlets to express their creativity and new ways to present their collections,” he said.  
Bolton added that many designers had been at the vanguard of the discussion about diversity and inclusion: “The social justice movements of last summer reinforced their commitment to these issues and also consolidated their leadership in advancing the conversation.”
In addition to Matsoukas, other confirmed collaborators from the film world include cinematographer Bradford Young, whose projects have included “Selma” and “When They See Us;” production designers Nathan Crowley and Shane Valentino; and Franklin Leonard, film executive and founder of The Black List, a listing of top unproduced screenplays.
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With COVID-19 restrictions easing as new infections decrease in Italy, the Vatican has reopened the majestic doors of its art-filled museums this week to the public. The relaxation of restrictions in place since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy last year has brought good news to the museums and to art lovers who are now able to return after a two-month lockdown.But the museums will not be seeing the crowds of the past for some time.For now, all access to the museums will strictly require booking a specific time slot.  Limited numbers will be allowed in for all time slots available and all those who enter the museums will have their temperature checked at the entrance. All staff working at the Vatican Museums have been vaccinated. A maximum number of 400 visitors will be allowed into the museums every 30 minutes so as to maintain social distancing. Masks are mandatory both inside and in the Vatican gardens.Barbara Jatta, Director of the Vatican Museums, is enthusiastic about the re-opening and eager to welcome visitors back to enjoy the masterpieces that have found a home here. She said that museums are a way to nourish people’s souls.She said this is the time to come to the Vatican Museums, because they are totally safe to visit and without that flow of people that existed in previous years.Gianni Crea, the museum “clavigero”, shows keys to the Vatican Museums following its reopening after weeks of closure, as COVID-19 restrictions ease, at the Vatican, May 3, 2021.With limited foreign travel still and few tourists in the Eternal City, it is mainly Italians at this time who are booking to visit.Antonio, a Rome resident, said he has been wanting to come for a long time and so immediately seized the opportunity. He added that he is delighted and looks forward to the visit.During the closures caused by the pandemic, the only way to see the works in the museums was through free virtual online tours on the museums’ website.  During the closure, staff used the opportunity to carry out maintenance work and improve both its digital services and security.As Italy this year marks 700 years of the death of its famous 14-th century poet, the museums are featuring a special exhibit on Dante Alighieri titled “Dante in the Vatican Museums.”Pre-pandemic, close to an estimated seven million visitors a year visit the Vatican Museums with their magnificent frescoed ceiling of “The Last Judgement” by Renaissance artist Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel, its passageway and galleries and the Vatican Gardens. 
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The Indian Premier League was suspended indefinitely on Tuesday after players or staff at three clubs tested positive for COVID-19. The Board of Control for Cricket in India issued a statement saying local authorities and tournament officials took the decision unanimously “to postpone IPL 2021 season, with immediate effect.” “The BCCI does not want to compromise on the safety of the players, support staff and the other participants involved in organizing the IPL,” the BCCI said. “These are difficult times, especially in India. While we have tried to bring in some positivity and cheer, however, it is imperative that the tournament is now suspended and everyone goes back to their families and loved ones in these trying times.” The first cases involving players inside the IPL’s biosecure bubble forced Monday’s game between Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore to be postponed. The count grew on Tuesday when two Chennai Super Kings staffers and a Sunrisers Hyderabad player also returned positive tests. The IPL has been staging games without spectators every evening since April 9 despite India’s stretched health system being pushed to the brink by another major wave of the pandemic. Players from all over the world compete in the lucrative Twenty20 tournament, which was forced by the pandemic to the United Arab Emirates last year. The BCCI said it would do “everything in its powers to arrange for the secure and safe passage of all the participants in IPL 2021.” India’s official count of coronavirus cases surpassed 20 million on Tuesday, nearly doubling in the past three months, while deaths officially have passed 220,000. Staggering as those numbers are, the true figures are believed to be far higher, the undercount an apparent reflection of the troubles in the health care system. On Monday, the IPL postponed the Kolkata-Bangalore game after Varun Chakravarthy and Sandeep Warrier, who play for Kolkata, became the first players to test positive for COVID-19 inside the IPL bubble. Last week, Australian players Andrew Tye, Adam Zampa and Kane Richardson flew home from the IPL amid the surge of cases. Richardson and Zampa were playing for Bangalore, and Tye for Rajasthan Royals. Two other cricketers — Englishman Liam Livingstone, who was with Rajasthan, and Ravichandran Ashwin, who was with Delhi — also left the IPL. Livingstone cited “bubble fatigue” and Ashwin wanted to be with his family in the crisis. IPL went ahead on the basis that teams stay in biosecure areas at hotels and resorts in the six venues in India where the competition is taking place. 
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An appeals court on Monday will consider the constitutionality of the first law in the nation banning transgender women and girls from playing on women’s sports teams.  The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments in the case that will likely have far-ranging consequences as more states follow conservative Idaho’s lead. Idaho passed its law last year, and more than 20 states have considered such proposals this year. Bans have been enacted in Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee and West Virginia. Florida lawmakers passed a bill, and South Dakota’s governor issued an executive order. On Monday, conservative Republican lawmakers in Kansas failed to override Democratic Governor Laura Kelly’s veto of a proposed ban on transgender athletes in girls’ and women’s school sports. Supporters say such laws are needed because transgender female athletes have physical advantages. Opponents say the law is discriminatory and in Idaho, an invasion of privacy because of the tests required should an athlete’s gender be challenged. Lawmakers in Idaho have argued that allowing transgender athletes on girls’ and women’s teams would negate nearly 50 years of progress women have made since the 1972 federal legislation credited with opening up sports to female athletes. The state’s law prohibits transgender students who identify as female from playing on female teams sponsored by public schools, colleges and universities. It does not apply to men’s teams. The American Civil Liberties Union and Legal Voice women’s rights group sued last year over the Idaho law, contending it violates the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause because it is discriminatory. A federal judge temporarily blocked the law from taking effect, and Idaho appealed in September. 
 
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