In the United Kingdom, trans women excluded from national definition

The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom ruled unanimously Wednesday that the legal definition of “woman” only encompasses biological females and excludes trans women, following a Scottish campaign group’s 2018 lawsuit.

Following the decision, some spaces deemed women-only — such as homeless shelters, changing rooms and refugee accommodations — can exclude trans women. LGBTQ+ advocacy groups have warned that the decision could perpetuate discrimination and harm trans women’s employment opportunities.

“It will be incredibly worrying for the trans community and all of us who support them,” Stonewall, a U.K. LGBTQ+ rights charity, said in a statement following the ruling.

The ruling focused on whether a trans woman with a gender recognition certificate — a legal document recognizing a person’s new gender — is protected from discrimination as a woman under Britain’s Equality Act. National legislation on gender recognition had been widely criticized for lacking clarity on how business practices should reflect its stipulations.

The 2018 lawsuit was filed when For Women Scotland challenged a law that mandated equal gender representation on the boards of Scottish public bodies and legally recognized trans women’s gender. In the U.K. Supreme Court’s latest ruling, judges decided that current laws incited “confusion and impracticability.”

In France, prisons hit with a wave of violent attack

At least six prisons holding France’s most infamous criminals have been hit by a flurry of gun and arson attacks since Monday night, in a series of incidents French Minister of Justice Gérald Darmanin deemed acts of terrorism.

Across multiple cities, cars were ignited outside of prisons, a hall of facilities were set on fire and a prison entrance was shot at with a rifle. Darmanin said it is unclear whether the series of attacks were linked to the government’s crackdown on drug trafficking operations — but pledged to not concede from the ongoing efforts. 

“The republic will not back down,” Darmanin told reporters on Tuesday. “These are extremely serious crimes … an attack on the public prison service, that is, a terrorist attack.”

The National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office, which is leading the investigation, found a Telegram group chat called “French Prisoner Rights” that was created the day before the first series of attacks. Officials suspected that the group might be linked to the attacks because they found that “DDPF” — which stands for “French prisoners’ rights” in French — had been scrawled on several prison walls and their group chat contained “calls to violence.”

In the UAE, Syria’s new president makes his first visit

United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan met with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Sunday for the first time since the toppling of the Assad regime four months ago.

During the meeting, the Emirati president offered to support the reconstruction of Syria and advance toward a “future of security, stability and prosperity,” according to WAM, a state-run news agency. The reconciliation follows years of UAE hostility toward Islamist movements and concerns about the Syrian president, who fought for al-Qaeda in the Iraqi insurgency. 

“I think these are all indicators that are quite worrying,” Anwar Gargash, Al Nahyan’s diplomatic adviser, said during a conference in mid-December. “The region has seen episodes like this before, so we need to be on guard.”

The UAE was among several countries to initially cut its ties with Syria in 2012, in the wake of the country’s efforts to suppress anti-government protests. However, it was one of the first to reopen its Syrian embassy and has been more hesitant than other countries to meet with the country’s new leader.

The UAE-Syria meeting is also viewed as a crucial step in improving the relationship between Syria and Israel, particularly following Israel’s airstrikes in a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone and criticism that Israel violated a 1974 ceasefire agreement between the two parties. The UAE is currently one of the only Arab countries that has formalized its ties with Israel.

Contact Amanda Chen [email protected].