Today in Syria:

The deadliest chemical weapons attack in years in Syria killed dozens of people in northern Idlib province on Tuesday morning, including children, and sickened scores more, according to medics, rescuers and witnesses in the rebel-held province, who said the gas had been delivered by a government airstrike.

A few hours later, according to several witnesses, another airstrike hit one of the clinics treating victims, who had been farmed out to smaller hospitals and maternity wards because the area’s largest hospital had been severely damaged by an airstrike two days earlier.

That’s a favorite trick of terrorist groups – set off bomb 1 and then when rescuers gather to help the injured, set off bomb 2.

It was one of the worst atrocities attributed to the Syrian government since President Trump took office. Only on Friday, administration officials stressed that ousting Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, was no longer a priority, and that Washington’s main goal was to fight the Islamic State.

Well, you know. Putin. Russia. The ties of friendship.

Sean Spicer, the White House spokesman, further told reporters that “these heinous actions by the Bashar al-Assad regime are a consequence of the last administration’s weakness and irresolution.”

Mr. Spicer declined to respond to questions about Mr. Trump’s declaration that his administration’s policy in Syria is not regime change.

“He is not here to telegraph what we are going to do, but rest assured he has been speaking with his national security team this morning,” Mr. Spicer said, adding later: “The statement speaks for itself.”

He is not here to telegraph what we are going to do? Is that right? It sounds pretty autocratic, to me. It sounds as if he thinks he’s entirely unaccountable…like a dictator.

Numerous photographs and graphic videos posted online by activists and residents showed children and older adults gasping and struggling to breathe, or lying motionless in the mud as rescue workers ripped off victims’ clothes and hosed them down. The bodies of least 10 children lay lined up on the ground or under a quilt.

…

While chlorine gas attacks have become almost routine in northern Syria, this one was different, medical workers and witnesses said. Chlorine attacks usually kill just a few people, often those trapped in an enclosed space, and the gas dissipates quickly.

This time, people collapsed outdoors, and in much larger numbers. The symptoms were also different: They included the pinpoint pupils of victims that characterize nerve agents and other banned toxins. One doctor posted a video of a patient’s eye, showing the pupil reduced to a dot. Several people were sickened simply by coming into contact with the victims.

A rebel fighter in the area rushed to the scene on his motorcycle to help. As he approached his eyes started burning and he felt suffocated, then he passed out.

He said he woke up an hour later at a clinic, after receiving injections and oxygen. “Kids were all over the floor, some dead and others struggling to breathe,” he said. “The noise of them trying to breath was loud, with foam all over their faces.”

That’s today in Syria.

Protesters in Australia raised the ante enough that Ayaan Hirsi Ali decided not to risk it. The Guardian joins the fun by phrasing its reporting in such a way that it bullies her too.

The controversial speaker and vocal critic of Islam Ayaan Hirsi Ali has blamed the last-minute cancellation of her speaking tour of Australia and New Zealand on “a succession of organisational lapses” by the event organiser.

What a calculatedly obnoxious way to put it. People made such a fuss about her speaking that she decided not to go, and that’s what they should have led with.

The 47-year-old Somali-born activist, author and former politician has previously received death threats for her strident criticism of Islam.

It’s not strident. The Guardian shouldn’t be joining in the bullying of her by calling it that. People should be allowed to criticise Islam.

Hana Assafiri, a Melbourne Muslim activist who had campaigned against Hirsi Ali’s appearance, told Guardian Australia Hirsi Ai was being held accountable for her “divisive discourse”.

“What I think is this is an opportunity for her to rethink her position … which peddles hate towards people.

“To me this is one of the hallmarks of democracy: where people have a right of reply.”

Reply, yes, but reply isn’t all there was.

Protests had been organised outside the venues at which Hirsi Ali was due to speak to coincide with her appearances.

Last month the Think Inc spokeswoman said one protester had been contacting insurance companies in an attempt to get the company’s insurance cancelled. Think Inc had been working with Australian Federal Police and state police to ensure the security of the events.

That’s not just “reply,” is it.

So yes there’s a new lawsuit against Roger Ailes.

A lawsuit filed on Monday morning by a paid political commentator for the Fox News Channel alleges the network’s past chairman, Roger Ailes, made unwanted sexual advances while leading her to believe that a big promotion would follow.

The suit says Ailes encouraged Fox News contributor Julie Roginsky to date older, married men, repeatedly praised her looks and sought to get her to join him for drinks, even in his office, away from prying eyes that could get them “into so much trouble.”

Roginsky spurned the advances, according to the lawsuit, and as a result never received the promotion to become host of the popular early evening program The Five.

Roginsky’s depiction of life at Fox News even after Ailes’ ouster last summer at the height of a sexual harassment scandal suggests a far cry from the changed corporate culture promised by the Murdoch family, which controls 21st Century Fox.

Really? But they seemed so nice.

Roginsky’s suit adds to the list of sexual harassment allegations against Ailes, which also includes those made by former Fox News journalists Megyn Kelly and Laurie Dhue. Through his lawyers, Ailes has denied all the previous allegations to date.

Perhaps more troublingly for Fox News and its corporate parent, 21st Century Fox, Roginsky also accuses the network’s current president, Bill Shine; its longtime top lawyer, Dianne Brandi; and other senior executives of complicity in Ailes’ harassment and of punishing her for raising the issue.

It’s Fox News. You don’t expect them to treat women like people do you.

Roginsky’s allegations arrive as new attention is being given to similar accusations against Fox News’ brightest star, Bill O’Reilly. The right-of-center opinion host and Fox News have made payments totaling roughly $13 million over a dozen years to settle complaints that he harassed female former co-workers, according to The New York Times.

Suspended Fox News host Andrea Tantaros has also filed suit, citing what she says was sexual harassment by Ailes and O’Reilly. She alleges that Shine also failed to take her complaints seriously. All three men deny her claims.

Though some of O’Reilly’s offending remarks were captured on tape, he has repeatedly insisted he is a target for wrongful accusations because of his wealth and success. O’Reilly has said he only settles complaints to ensure his children do not have to endure public scorn.

Even though some of his remarks were captured on tape.

The enduring presence of O’Reilly on Fox’s prized 8 p.m. ET slot, despite that history, has led some critics to dismiss the commitment of Shine and Brandi to combating sexual harassment and even to question why they retain their posts.

Bros before hos, man.

This looks like a good event, should you be in or near Bristol (the UK one) on April 20.

The afternoon panels:

2.00 – 3.15 – Knowledge base: understanding and perceptions – chair Finn Mackay

Professor Jackie Jones – professor of feminist legal studies, UWE, specialising in women’s rights, international human rights, human trafficking and violence against women

Geetanjali Gangoli of Bristol University Gender and Violence research group

Sarah Ditum, local freelance journalist on the importance on how the media shapes perceptions of sexual violence and the role of the state

Jacci Parry BBC documentary film maker on responsible broadcasting of legal cases around violence against women and girls

3.15 – 4.30 From the frontline: identifying the challenges women face

Nimco Ali – co-founder of Daughters of Eve – campaigner and activist challenge Female Genital Mutilation and violence against women and girls.

Yasmin Rehman with Dr Hannana Siddiqui – will talk on their ground breaking long term activism around violence against women and BME groups particularly in relation to honour based violence and challenging fundamentalism.

I’d go if I were going to be in Bristol then.

Godalmighty, Trump’s real estate developer son-in-law has been sent to Iraq to perform diplomacy. Seriously? Why? He has no relevant experience or training or education, he’s just a child of money who makes money selling real estate. What is he doing in Iraq??

Kushner, 36, who is married to the president’s elder daughter, Ivanka Trump, acted as a de facto campaign manager during much of the 2016 presidential race, and has consolidated even more power since entering the White House.

Kushner also has taken on some international outreach for the White House, and his portfolio includes China, Mexico, Canada and the Middle East. The president, in fact, has specifically tasked Kushner, an Orthodox Jew, with brokering peace in the region.

Despite his complete lack of relevant experience or training or education. Trump might as well send his pets, except that he doesn’t have any.

That’s not how any of this should work.

A disconcerting first paragraph:

The Environmental Protection Agency has issued a new, more detailed plan for laying off 25 percent of its employees and scrapping 56 programs including pesticide safety, water runoff control, and environmental cooperation with Mexico and Canada under the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Oh splendid, they’re cutting back on pesticide safety. You can see where Trump would approve of that: much of the danger of pesticides is to farm workers who pick crops, and most of those are what Trump calls “bad hombres,” in other words immigrants from Mexico and points south.

In a recent interview, Sen. James M. Inhofe said he would like the department to focus on more traditional environmental concerns rather than addressing climate change.

“What I want them to do is to do what they are supposed to be doing – be concerned about the environment, the water, the air,” he said.    “I’d like to see an EPA there to actually serve people and make life better for them.”

Because climate change is just some airy-fairy idea that won’t do anything to make people’s lives worse? Really? Rising sea levels, disappearing glaciers, drying up rivers, crop failures, floods, more and worse storms and hurricanes and typhoons?

Oh well, Inhofe won’t be around for that.

NL Times reports:

Police took four teenaged boys into custody late Sunday in connection with the assault of two gay men in Arnhem. The victims were holding hands walking home from a party early Sunday morning when they were confronted by a group of young men shouting slurs at them.

They were then struck by a man wielding a heavy set of bolt cutters, kocking out four of Ronnie Sewratan-Vernes’ teeth and severing his lip, and injuring the ribs of Jasper Vernes-Sewratan. The two say they usually conceal their relationship in public, but were holding hands after a fun night out.

The journalist Barbara Barend sent a tweet calling on men in the Netherlands to hold hands in public, to show support.

D66 leader Alexander Pechtold and party member Wouter Koolmees arrived hand in hand at the negotiations on the formation of a new Dutch government on Monday.

Less hate, more solidarity.

H/t Stewart

Only in America.

A 20-year-old Connecticut college student whose father was killed in the Sept. 11 attacks has died after choking during a pancake-eating contest.

Police say Caitlin Nelson died at a New York City hospital on Sunday, three days after participating in the contest at Sacred Heart University. She was from Clark, New Jersey, and was majoring in social work at the Catholic school in Fairfield.

Officials say the contest was part of a fraternities and sororities event.

Can we stop doing this now? Can we just shut that whole thing down and never open it again?

Eating contests – in a world where famine and food insecurity and chronic malnutrition still afflict billions of people, what could be more disgusting?

Eating isn’t a skill, so contests in it are stupid to begin with. Overeating is not just not a skill, it’s unhealthy; at the extreme it just ends with vomiting. One of the impediments to “winning” an eating “contest” is the urge to vomit.

Also nobody wants to be in the news for dying in a pancake-eating contest. Nobody.

Via Heroic Women to Inspire Game Designers via Wikipedia: Elizabeth Freeman.

Elizabeth (“Mum Bett”) Freeman was a slave in Massachusetts before US independence. She protected another slave whom her mistress was about to hit with a red-hot shovel, receiving a deep wound on her arm and another on her face. She left the arm wound visible as evidence of her mistreatment. After independence, she heard (she was illiterate) the new Massachusetts state constitution, which stated that all men are born free and equal. Consulting an Abolitionist lawyer, she sued for her freedom under the constitution, and won. Her suit effectively ended slavery in Massachusetts.

The Elizabeth Freeman Center has more:

Born into slavery in 1742, she was given to the Ashley family of Sheffield, Massachusetts, in her early teens.  During her period of enslavement to them, she married and had a child, Betsy.  In 1780, Mrs. Ashley struck at Betsy with a heated shovel, but Bet shielded her daughter, receiving a deep wound in her arm in the process.  Bet left this wound uncovered as it healed, as evidence of her harsh treatment.

Soon after the Revolutionary War, Bet heard the Massachusetts Constitution read aloud in the Ashley’s home, and heard these words from Article 1:

“All men are born free and equal, and have certain natural, essential, and unalienable rights; among which may be reckoned the right of enjoying and defending their lives and liberties; that of acquiring, possessing, and protecting property; in fine, that of seeking and obtaining their safety and happiness.”

Bet recognized the potential legal and moral import of these words and sought out an attorney to sue for her freedom under the newly ratified state constitution.  With the help of Theodore Sedgwick, a Stockbridge attorney and abolitionist, she pled her case in the Court of Common Pleas in Great Barrington in August 1781.  When the jury ruled in Bet’s favor, she became the first African-American woman to be set free under the Massachusetts constitution.  Her case, Brom and Bett v. Ashley, served as precedent in the State Supreme Court case that brought an end to the practice of slavery in Massachusetts.

As a free woman, Bet took the name Elizabeth Freeman.  She worked as a governess in the Sedgwick household until the Sedgwick children were grown, and then she and Betsy bought and moved into their own house in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where she was widely recognized and in demand for her skills as a healer, midwife, and nurse.

She ought to be a household name.

I saw this cited as a useful source for explanation of “gender identity” and all that: Transgender Identity Formation. In it I read this claim:

Biological

We are just beginning to understand the various aspects of the biological components of who and what we are, and how they interact.

In an invited paper published in the December 2001 issue of Neuroendocrinology Letters, Dr. Gunter Dorner and his colleagues outlined two probable causes of transsexualism that fall into two general categories: 1) genetic enzyme mutations and 2) epigenetic effects which can include stressful prenatal situations and fetal exposure to endocrine disruptors i.e. the breakdown products of DDT (DDE which is estrogenic in nature).

Gender and sexual brain organization is dependent on estrogen and androgen hormone levels occurring during specific and critical developmental periods. “Sex centers” responsible for gonadotropin secretion are organized by estrogens, “mating cen­ters” controlling sexual orientation are organized by androgens and estrogens. “Gender role centers”, responsible for gender role behavior are orga­nized by androgens (Dörner et al., 1987).  The organization periods for sex-specific gonad­otropin secretion, sexual orientation, and gender role behavior are overlapping, but not identical. Therefore almost infinite variations of gender and sexual orientation are possible.

Did you catch it?

“Gender role centers”, responsible for gender role behavior are orga­nized by androgens.

What? People are claiming there are biological “gender role centers” now? Meaning, presumably, in the brain? So there are parts of the brain that deal with gender roles? So gender roles are part of the structure of the brain? Not “gender” itself, not “gender identity,” but gender roles? Golly, who knew? It’s actually a physical part of the brain that girls like dolls and boys like mud and women like to wear stilettos.

So feminism was all just a big mistake, then, like a political movement advocating the right of humans to fly like birds.

Caroline Criado-Perez does it again: Parliament Square will add to its eleven (11) statues of men one (1) statue of a woman.

Prime Minister Theresa May announced on Sunday that Millicent Garrett Fawcett, who campaigned for the right of women to vote, will be honored with a statue to stand in the company of giants like Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln and Nelson Mandela.

Mrs. Fawcett formed the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies in 1897 and died at age 82 in 1929, a year after all women in the United Kingdom were granted the right to vote.

It’s only the right to vote for half of all human beings. No biggy.

Fawcett, a political and union leader, is not the only woman to be honored by the British government this year. Jane Austen’s image will be on the new polymer £10 note, replacing that of Charles Darwin.

The Bank of England caused some controversy when it put Churchill on the new polymer £5 bill, replacing the social reformer Elizabeth Fry. The bank responded to the outcry by putting Austen on bills scheduled to be issued this fall.

Thanks to CCP.

In the United States, some have argued against the Treasury’s plan to move President Andrew Jackson, who owned slaves, to the back of the $20 bill and to place Harriet Tubman, a former slave who escaped to freedom and helped others do the same, on the front. But that plan is proceeding.

I think they should get Jackson off altogether. He owned slaves and he genocided Native Americans. Not a national hero.

Caroline Criado-Perez, who started a petition campaign for a suffrage statute in London, praised the choice of Mrs. Fawcett and thanked supporters.

Writing on Twitter, Ms. Criado-Perez said: “Delighted with such a decisive response” from Mrs. May. “Huge thank you to everyone who supported the campaign from the beginning,” including Mayor Sadiq Khan of London.

By the way, have you heard of Susan B. Anthony?

Administrators at a Louisiana university are busy sweeping away pesky useless shit like scientific specimens to make room for athletic facilities.

The curators of the Museum of Natural History at the University of Louisiana-Monroe got grim news last week from the school’s director: The museum’s research collection had to be moved out of its current home. The reason? The space was needed for expanded track facilities.

The curators were given 48 hours to find a new place on campus to store the collection — something they weren’t able to do. Now they must get another institution to take their several million specimens. Their hard deadline is July, when the track renovations are slated to begin. And if the collection isn’t moved by then, curators said, it will be destroyed.

Making America great again, eh? Less emphasis on research and education, and more on racing around in a circle.

The ULM collection includes some 6 million fish collected by ULM ichthyologist Neil Douglas, one of the leading experts on the fish of Louisiana, as well as half a million native plants. It is an important record of biodiversity in northern Louisiana — a region that stands to see significant environmental impacts as a result of climate change.

Robert Gropp, co-executive director of the American Institute of Biological Sciences and policy director for the Natural Science Collections Alliance, said that smaller collections like this one offer unmatched insight into the history and fate of specific ecosystems.

“Sometimes those collections might be the world-class collection for that specific geographic area because that’s where those researchers spent their careers collecting specimens,” he said. “They’re snapshots of the history, of the genetics and biodiversity, and what lived where and how they interacted. You can’t go back and collect those again.”

Oh who cares; the university will have better running facilities! That’s the important thing. Won’t somebody please think of the athletes?

These research specimens — and the curators who study them — have immense scientific value, said Larry Page, a curator at the Florida Museum of Natural History. They are the basis for almost all taxonomic research and are vital to understanding changes in the health and distribution of species. Collections-based research has resulted in the discovery of new species and has helped save creatures on the brink of extinction.

“In a period of rapid changes in the environment and climate, specimens in natural history collections serve as the benchmark for gauging the impact,” Page wrote in an email. “The loss of such large and valuable collections as those at the University of Louisiana at Monroe would be a tremendous tragedy to science.”

It’s rare for a collection to be thrown out entirely; another institution usually steps in to save it. Already, several institutions have offered the ULM museum help in relocating its collection.

But Gropp, the American Institute of Biological Sciences co-director, noted that consolidation of collections means more and more specimens are being studied and cared for by fewer people with fewer resources.

“The system as a whole is being stressed,” he said.

Even if the collection is saved, the people who were studying it won’t go with it.

The violence on Westminster Bridge last week was a horror, but so was this:

His name was Timothy Caughman. He was from Manhattan and was 66 when he died. The police say he was stabbed on Monday night by a 28-year-old man who had come to New York City from Baltimore looking to kill black men. It was Mr. Caughman’s misfortune to be male and black when the stranger with a 26-inch sword approached on Ninth Avenue near 36th Street, around the corner from where he lived.

We don’t know much else about Mr. Caughman, but the persona he shared with the world on Twitter was that of a man of buoyant outlook and varied interests, who was amused by many things, fond of music and movies, captivated by celebrities. His profile says he was a “can and bottle recycler” and collector of autographs. “I would love to visit California,” it says. A selfie shows him waiting in line to vote and declaring his love for America. His Twitter feed is generous with condolences for celebrities: for Chuck Berry, Joni Sledge, Al Jarreau. On St. Patrick’s Day he retweeted a photograph of the athletes of Team Ireland competing in the Special Olympics World Winter Games in Austria.

On Thursday, President Trump sent prayers and condolences via Twitter to the family and friends of Kurt Cochran, an American killed in a terrorist rampage in London. He called Mr. Cochran “a great American.” He did not tweet about his fellow New Yorker, Mr. Caughman.

Mr. Trump is easily provoked to outrage. But he seems unable to summon that emotion on behalf of Mr. Caughman, who was poor and black and lived in a shelter for homeless people with H.I.V. and AIDS. Maybe he’s not that kind of president.

No, he’s not.

Lordy. Lor-deee.

Why is Omarosa Manigault there?

Manigault, 43, is fiercely loyal to Donald Trump, whose decision to cast her as an alpha-female villain in the first season of “The Apprentice” more than a decade ago made her a reality television celebrity.

Apparently that’s the reason right there. But I was asking about what qualifications she has to be there. Being a reality television celebrity isn’t a qualification.

But because she is one of the few African Americans in Trump’s immediate orbit, others caution against dismissing her.

“It’s important that we take Omarosa seriously, irrespective of how we feel about her,” said Leah Wright Rigueur, a professor of public policy at Harvard. “The idea of having access to the White House in ways that people of color and civil rights agencies had under Obama — that’s gone. She appears to be the black person who is closest to Donald Trump. So it’s important to think very seriously about what she represents.”

But thinking very seriously about what she represents isn’t the same thing as taking her seriously. My serious thought about what she represents is that she represents just one more example of how random and feckless Trump is about all this.

Armstrong Williams, another longtime Republican strategist and close adviser to Carson, said Manigault’s influence goes beyond “the so-called black agenda.” He said Manigault has input on press secretary Sean Spicer’s daily briefings and that “she carries a lot of weight” with candidates seeking ambassadorships.

Why? What does she know about it?

Manigault’s loyalty might be a more valuable currency to Trump than her experience, said Sophia Angeli Nelson, an author and political commentator who has worked in GOP administrations and in Congress.

Of course, there are African American politicos and wonks who have more history with the Republican Party and its agenda. But in this White House, “they might last 10 minutes,” she said.

“They may be more knowledgeable, but Trump wouldn’t respect them and wouldn’t listen to their opinion,” she said. “In Trump’s world, loyalty means everything to him. And, if that’s the case, Omarosa is the right person.”

Which is just one example of what’s wrong with him. He doesn’t give a rat’s ass about qualifications or relevant experience or knowledge or expertise; he cares only about loyalty to him, personally. That’s his administration. It’s just a reality tv show transferred to a larger stage.

Last week, seven members of the Congressional Black Caucus met with Trump in the Oval Office. They told Trump they are concerned about his budget and policy positions, and they related how they don’t appreciate his characterization of black communities as rife with crime and poverty. Sources said Manigault made it clear that the attendance — seven of 49 Black Caucus members — was irritatingly small.

Trump tried to get the group to stand behind him at his desk. The lawmakers declined, ruining a potentially powerful photo op.

Not as powerful as the one where he’s pretending to drive the Big Truck though.