( SRN NEWS )  In roughly six months the 2026 Winter Olympics will open in Italy and sports governing bodies around the world are making decisions on how to handle transgender athletes.  So far the U.S. Olympic Committee, the International Cycling Union, World Aquatics, the World Boxing Organization and the World Athletics Council have all banned males from competing against females.  The NCAA, which governs many Olympic sports at the collegiate level, has also barred men from playing against women.  It is expected that other sports organizations will take similar action in the weeks and months before the opening of the Winter Games.

(  )  Florida Attorney General James Uthmeyer has subpoenaed records of a popular restaurant after it hosted a Gay Pride event last month that was apparently open to all ages, violating a state law that restricts venues from admitting children to adult performances.  The state accuses the Killted Mermaid in Vero Beach of putting “adult, sexualized performers in front of children.” Florida’s Protection of Children Act is aimed at keeping kids out of any adult performance with a special emphasis on drag shows.  LGBT advocates are increasingly bringing drag shows to local libraries and public schools where children attend.

(  )  The largest and most important church in the Czech Republic is getting a new organ.  The installation of the massive instrument at Prague’s St. Vitus Cathedral is nearing completion.  It will take some months to tune the organ however, meaning that the public probably won’t hear its voice until next summer.  The organ contains some 6,000 pipes, ranging in length from a quarter inch to 23 feet. St. Vitus is linked to Czech statehood. It’s the place where the Czech kings were crowned and buried and the Czech crown jewels are stored inside.  The funeral of Vaclav Havel, the Czech Republic’s first president, took place there in 2011.

(  )  Columbia University has reached a deal with the Trump administration to pay more than 220 million dollars to the federal government.  This will restore taxpayer funding to the school which was canceled in the name of combating anti-Semitism on campus.  The Ivy League school will also pay 21 million dollars to resolve civil rights violations against Jewish employees that occurred following the October 7th, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel. In addition, Columbia has agreed to review its Middle East curriculum to make sure it is “comprehensive and balanced” and appoint new faculty to its Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies.