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Lance Armstrong has been accused of staggering hypocrisy after wading into a public debate about transgender representation in sport. The disgraced former cyclist, who was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles in 2012 after being found guilty of multiple doping offences, boasted on Twitter that he was “uniquely placed” to speak about divisive subjects. Announcing the launch of a special series of his podcast ‘The Forward’, he tweeted: “Of all the controversial and polarizing subjects out there today, I'm not sure there are any as heated as the topic of Trans athletes in sport. “Is there not a world in which one can be supportive of the transgender community and curious about the fairness of Trans athletes in sport yet not be labelled a transphobe or a bigot as we ask questions? Do we yet know the answers? And do we even want to know the answers? “I do. Hence these conversations… a special series of The Forward, beginning Monday, where I dive into this issue with an open mind in an attempt learn as much as possible from all sides of the debate.” He ended his thread: “I hope that for those who have been reluctant to have this conversation, this somehow feels safe. Be fearless.” Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter His announcement has not gone down well with fellow social media users, countless of whom have picked up on his eyebrow-raising choice of wording. Here’s what they had to say about his so-called curiosity about the “fairness” of trans sportspeople’s inclusion in competitive events: The furore comes just weeks after World Athletics (WA) announced a banon transgender athletes who have been through male puberty from female category events, following similar codes to those of rugby and swimming. At the end of March, the organisation’s president, Lord Sebastian Coe, said that the decision was driven by the need to “protect the female category”. “We cannot in all consciousness leave our transgender regulations as they were,” he said. Elsewhere, Alun Williams, Professor of Sport and Exercise Genomics at Manchester Metropolitan University, agreed that athletics’ previous approach of allowing transgender women to compete in female events with reduced levels of testosterone did not equate to fairness. He told the PA news agency: “There are key biological differences that appear predominantly during male puberty due to elevated testosterone while growth is still going on. “Those differences seem to persist whatever happens for the rest of someone’s life, including if they then lower testosterone down to what is the typical female range. “The biological effects that are related to sport – like an increase in skeleton size, having larger muscles that are stronger, increase in the size of organs like the heart that help in all sorts of activity – those persist. “On that basis, the choice for the authorities like World Athletics is to make a decision – do they prioritise fairness or do they prioritise inclusion, but there’s no evidence at the moment that those two can be met at the same time.” However, critics of a blanket ban argue that not enough research has been done to draw such a conclusion. Liz Ward, director of programmes at Stonewall, which campaigns for LGBTQ+ rights and equality, said: “It is so disappointing to see World Athletics announce a unilateral ban on trans women in track and field events. “Their own statement recognises that there are no trans women competing at an international level and that they have no specific evidence to justify the ban. “It is vital that decisions about trans participation are based on robust evidence, specific to the sport played and the athletes competing at that level of the sport. “We stand with trans people who now have the door closed on their chance to compete in athletic sports at an international level.” Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Marcell Ozuna and Ron Washington Hand Danced once again, celebrating the deciding run in the Atlanta Braves' 7-6 road victory over the scorching hot Cincinnati Reds on Saturday.As Atlanta Braves fans, we can Hand Dance if we want to; we can leave your teams behind.After seeing their imp...

Mark Rylance has revealed “alarm bells” rang for him when the British population was encouraged to get the Covid vaccine in 2021. In a new interview, Rylance, 63, said he wasn’t convinced he needed the vaccine, adding that “science started to sound like religion” during the pandemic. Speaking to The Sunday Times, the Dunkirk star explained he relied on taking a “very distilled garlic solution”, along with vitamin C. “And I sailed through Jerusalem,” he said. Rylance reprised one of his most well-known roles, as Johnny “Rooster” Byron, in last year’s revival of the 2009 Jez Butterworth play Jerusalem. He told the publication he finally took the Covid vaccine when he travelled to visit his father in the US. Rylance’s comments were made in the context of his forthcoming play Dr Semmelweis, based on the life of maverick Hungarian doctor Ignaz Semmelweis. The British actor reportedly wrote Dr Semmelweis with playwright Stephen Brown before the pandemic began. Rylance said he was researching alternative cancer treatments at the time, adding that he’s sceptical about the effects of chemotherapy. He recalled how a friend allegedly “broke up the cells of a tumour” by using the vibrations from a Tibetan sound bowl. Rylance added: “The body knows how to heal itself. “We don’t need to go in and bombard it with poison. It’s like bombing a city to try and get rid of a little sect of terrorists. You may wipe them all out, but you’re going to breed 25 or 30 [more].” Earlier this month, Rylance revealed that his brother, Jonathan Waters, had died in a cycling accident, aged 60. “I am so sorry to tell you that on the 28 May, my dear brother Jonathan Waters was knocked from his bicycle and tragically died of his injuries,” the statement read. Rylance, who was very close to Waters, said the loss made him question the point of life. “It just makes everything that follows a little bleak. But also that hollowness can be a positive thing, a kind of grail or cup or vessel,” he continued. Rylance also said he believes in life after death, adding: “I think you really can have a very healthy conversation with a soul who has passed over.” The actor said he has spoken to his late grandmother and step-daughter Nataasha van Kampen, using a medium. He admitted that while his views may not be conventional or mainstream, but “don’t cause any harm”. Dr Semmelweis opens at the West End this Thursday 27 June. Read More Billy Nomates asks BBC to take down Glastonbury footage after wave of ‘personal abuse’ Guns N’ Roses review, Glastonbury 2023: Frontrunners for the worst Glasto headline set of all time Wes Anderson took a cast of stars to the Spanish desert and made his best film in years Too cool to love these acts 10 years ago? This year’s Glastonbury is for you Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan breaks silence on Kevin Costner’s dramatic exit

Today's USMNT news includes reports linking Christian Pulisic to Olympique Lyonnais and Weston McKennie to AS Roma. We also round up the Stars and Stripes' draw with Jamaica in their opening game at the Gold Cup.USMNT news: Christian Pulisic to Olympique LyonnaisChristian Pulisic is ex...

The LSU Tigers edged out the Florida Gators in extra innings in Game 1 of the College World Series Finals on Saturday.It took them 11 innings to do it, but the Tigers eventually captured the 4-3 win.Now, LSU is one win away from capturing the College World Series while Florida has a chance t...

Mikel Arteta explains the key reasons behind Arsenal's collapse in the 2022/23 Premier League title race.

A rally in some of the world’s riskiest emerging markets, triggered by a pivot to market-friendly policies, is

The meaning of life is the ultimate mystery – why do we exist? And is there a point to… well… anything? These are questions to which we may never find answers, but at least we can define what “life” means in scientific terms. And yet, our understanding of what life is is changing all the time, thanks to space exploration. As scientists continue to hunt for life beyond our own world, biologists are having to rethink the meaning of the word “life” itself. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Generally, biologists explain “life” as connoting a self-sustaining chemical system which is capable of performing functions such as eating, metabolising, excreting, breathing, moving, growing, reproducing, and responding to external stimuli. This definition works pretty well here on Earth (although there are some important exceptions, such as viruses), but experts have pointed out that if life exists elsewhere in the universe, it may not display the same properties that we’re used to. Indeed, it might be unrecognisable as life as we know it (forget those little green men). In which case, how will we spot it if it ever crosses our path? Astrobiologist Sara Imari Walker and chemist Lee Cronin think they’ve come up with a solution. The pair are now arguing that highly complex molecules found in all living creatures can’t exist thanks purely to chance. Therefore, they say, the universe must have a way of creating and reproducing complex information and retaining a “memory” of all of this.. In an interview with New Scientist, Walker, of Arizona State University, explained their radical idea on how objects come into existence. The concept, known as Assembly Theory, explains why certain complex objects have become more abundant than others by considering their histories. If the theory proves correct, it will redefine what we mean by “living” things and show that we’ve been going about the search for extraterrestrial life all wrong. In the process, we could even end up creating alien life in a laboratory, she stressed. In her discussion with New Scientist, Walker pointed out: "An electron can be made anywhere in the universe and has no history. You are also a fundamental object, but with a lot of historical dependency. You might want to cite your age counting back to when you were born, but parts of you are billions of years older. "From this perspective, we should think of ourselves as lineages of propagating information that temporarily finds itself aggregated in an individual." Assembly theory predicts that molecules produced by biological processes must be more complex than those produced by non-biological processes, as Science Alert notes. To test this, Walker and her team analysed a range of organic and inorganic compounds from around the world and outer space, including E. coli bacteria, urine, meteorites and even home-brewed beer. They then smashed up the compounds into smaller pieces and used mass spectrometry to pinpoint their molecular building blocks. They calculated that the smallest number of steps required to reassemble each compound from these building blocks was 15. And whilst some compounds from living systems needed fewer than 15 assembly steps, no inorganic compounds made it above this threshold. "Our system … allows us to search the universe agnostically for evidence of what life does rather than attempting to define what life is," Walker, Cronin, and others wrote in a 2021 Nature Communications article. The handy thing about this building block system – which they’ve dubbed the “'molecular assembly index” – is that it doesn’t rely on carbon-based organic materials to be identified. In other words, an alien could be made of entirely different stuff entirely and we’d still be able to spot it as life using the index. It also works regardless of what stage of “life” an extraterrestrial being is in – whether it is still in its infancy or has moved into a technological stage beyond our understanding. That’s because all of these states produce complex molecules which couldn’t exist in the absence of a living system. If all of this is hurting your head, let’s just get back to the basics: if there is a secret to life, it might all be down to what we do, not what we are. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker have revealed the gender of their new baby. Earlier this month, Kardashian, 44, announced that she and Barker are expecting their first child together. On Saturday 24 June, the couple – who tied the knot last May – posted a gender reveal video on Instagram, along with a caption of pink and blue hearts. Kardashian is seen sitting on Barker’s lap, alongside a drum kit on a stage. The Blink-182 drummer can be heard saying: “Is our pyro guy ready?” The Poosh founder replies: “I don’t know what’s happening, whatever you guys had planned…” Her sister Khloe Kardashian can apparently be heard saying: “Let’s get the party started – we’re all excited!” Barker, 47, then begins a drum roll which ends with a burst of blue streamers, as the couple’s family and friends celebrate the news that they’re having a baby boy. “I love how they dont even look at anyone else when they’re together,” one fan reacted to the video. Referencing Kardashian and Barker’s couple name, another wrote: “They can actually name [the baby] Kravis.” Kardashian first shared the news she and Barker, 47, are expecting with a Blink-182-style pregnancy reveal video. In it, the mother of three can be seen holding up a sign that reads “Travis I’m pregnant”, recreating a scene from one of the band’s hit songs “All the Small Things”. While the video was widely celebrated on Instagram, some people suggested it was “staged” since Kardashian’s baby bump was apparently visible in it. Fans defended the reality star at the time, claiming it didn’t matter when Barker found out, and that the point of the video was simply to share the news with their followers. Earlier this week, Kardashian shared pictures of her growing baby bump, as some users speculated about her due date. Kardashian and Barker tied the knot after years of being friends, and celebrated their marriage with three wedding ceremonies – including one officiated by an Elvis impersonator in Las Vegas. Since then, the couple has documented parts of Kardashian’s experience with fertility treatments on her family’s reality series The Kardashians. In an episode last April, she also addressed how “every single person on social media is always like, ‘Kourtney’s pregnant, Kourtney’s pregnant, Kourtney’s gained so much weight” while she was undergoing IVF treatments. She told her mother Kris Jenner: “I’m like, it’s so rude to comment on people when you have no idea what they’re actually going through.” At the time, she also explained how the medication “basically put me into a depression”. Kardashian shares three children with her former partner Scott Disick. Meanwhile, Barker shares two children with his ex-wife and former Miss USA, Shanna Moakler. Read More Mother shares heartbreak after inviting whole school class to daughter’s birthday party Lewis Capaldi opens up about worsening Tourette’s tics while he’s on stage Gongs, chanting and Celtic Shamanism: What I learnt from a day at the Glastonbury Healing Field Prince Harry ‘wanted to interview Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump about childhood trauma’ How Center Parcs became a symbol of class

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is proposing the biggest training expansion in the history of the UK’s National Health

Turkey’s Central Bank, under new Governor Hafize Gaye Erkan, is easing its security maintenance rule as its first

Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa launched his party’s election campaign, seeking a second term running a nation struggling with