News Round-Up: Scotland's Government's 24 Genders, Puberty Blockers Study Not Published Because of Ideology and France Battles Illegal Immigration

Every week, the editorial team of Freedom Research compiles a round-up of news that caught our eye, or what felt like under-reported aspects of news deserving more attention.

Over the past week, the following topics attracted our attention:

• Disconnected from the real world: Scotland's government officially recognises 24 genders.

• US taxpayer funded puberty blockers study not published for ideological reasons.

• Enough of illegal immigration: France reinstates border controls.

• Sweden: hand grenade attacks have more than doubled in 2024.

• BMW CEO wants Europe to cancel petrol engine ban.

Disconnected from the real world: Scotland's government officially recognises 24 genders

The Scottish Government has issued guidance to public bodies who collect data on sex and gender, which requires them to let people choose their gender from a list of 24 possible options, The Daily Mail reports. This means that, in addition to male and female, people can identify as 'trans man', 'trans woman,' 'genderfluid', 'androgynous', 'autogender', etc. It is also argued that this allows the authorities to classify freehand answers given to questions about trans status.

In details first reported by the Daily Telegraph, the list was added to 2021 guidance for public bodies, as the Scottish government updated the way information on sex and gender is collected 'for operational, statistical and research purposes'.

Roger Halliday, the chief statistician, wrote: “It was clear that many organisations weren't making conscious decisions about the question or questions to ask. And very few organisations were collecting data to help better understand experiences and outcomes of trans people. I found that even when data on sex and/or gender identity is collected, it is not always analysed, published or used in decision making. This clearly impacts on efforts to eliminate discrimination and promote equality.”

This comes after First Minister John Swinney in July confirmed there were only two genders. However, he said that 'a woman is an adult born as a female and there are also transgender women.'

Scottish First Minister John Swinneyin July confirmed there were only two genders. However, he said that 'a woman is an adult born as a female and there are also transgender women.' Photo: Scottish Government/Wikimedia Commons.

Scottish Conservative shadow equalities minister Tess White MSP said: “Wasting time and resources on this shows how disconnected the SNP government are from the real world and why people are sick of politicians at Holyrood failing to focus on issues that concern them.The SNP need to stop playing to the minority and start governing for the majority by showing common sense and focussing on the real priorities of the people of Scotland.”

Enough of illegal immigration: France reinstates border controls

French authorities informed the European Commission last week that its borders with six of its neighbouring Schengen members – namely Belgium, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Spain and Switzerland – will be reinforced with increased checks as of November 1 for at least six months, The Daily Mail reports.

The controls will be applied to travellers entering France via land, sea and air routes and are set to expire on April 1, 2025, but authorities have said they could be extended further.

A French government statement declared the checks were introduced due to 'serious threats to public policy, public order, and internal security posed by high-level terrorist activities... criminal networks facilitating irregular migration and smuggling, and migration flows that risk infiltration by radicalised individuals'.

The move comes weeks after France's EU partner Germany introduced similar controls in September, citing a wave of Islamic extremist attacks and concerns over rampant migration.

US taxpayer funded puberty blockers study not published for ideological reasons

An influential doctor and advocate of adolescent gender treatments, Johanna Olson-Kennedy, has said she has not published a long-awaited study of puberty-blocking drugs because of the charged American political environment, The New York Times writes.

The study began in 2015 as part of a broader, 9,7 million dollar (8,7 million euro) federal project on 'transgender' youth. Olson-Kennedy and colleagues recruited 95 children from across the country and gave them puberty blockers, which stave off the permanent physical changes — like breasts or a deepening voice. It is well known that giving these substances to children can cause mental illness and permanent physical harm.

It is a well-established fact that puberty blockers are harmful to children. Photo: AI-generated image.

The group led by Olson-Kennedy followed the children in her study for two years, hoping to see a finding that puberty-blocking drugs improve their mental health. One older Dutch study, in fact, claims that puberty blockers improved the mental well-being of children suffering from gender dysphoria, and this study has been widely used to justify and advocate the administration of these drugs to children.

The American trial did not find a similar trend, i.e. it concluded that puberty blockers did not lead to mental health improvements. But this study has never been released. “I do not want our work to be weaponized,” Olson-Kennedy explained. In other words, she does not want anything out there that would contradict her previous statements and practices. She also admitted she was afraid the lack of mental health improvements borne out by the study could one day be used in court to argue “we shouldn’t use blockers.”

Now trying to explain why the mental health of adolescents who received puberty blockers did not improve, she said that the kids are 'in really good shape when they come in, and they’re in really good shape after two years'. That conclusion contradicts an earlier description by her group, in which Olson-Kennedy and her colleagues stated that one quarter of the adolescents were depressed or suicidal before they were given puberty blockers.

Sweden: hand grenade attacks have more than doubled in 2024

Sweden is witnessing an alarming rise in the use of hand grenades by criminal gangs, with the number of explosions more than doubling in 2024 compared to last year, Remix News writes. By mid-October, there had been 22 recorded grenade attacks, up from nine in 2023, according to figures from the Police National Bomb Data Centre.

The Swedish Customs Administration has also reported a spike in the number of hand grenades seized at the border – 30 so far this year, compared to zero last year. Officials say gangs have turned to grenades as an alternative to stolen commercial explosives, which have become harder to obtain.

Swedish police have trouble fighting criminal gangs. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

This uptick in grenade use reflects broader concerns about rising gang violence across Sweden. Violence involving explosives, once rare, has become an increasing threat, with attacks regularly targeting residential areas and public spaces as migrant gangs conduct turf wars in the suburbs of the Scandinavian country’s major cities. Hand grenades have been used by criminal networks to settle disputes, intimidate rivals, or retaliate against authorities.

As we have higlighted before, the rise in gang violence and organised crime in Sweden is directly linked to large-scale immigration. Gangs involved in drug trafficking are fronted by criminals of foreign origin, who typically recruit young people with an immigrant background into their gangs.

The problems of uncontrolled immigration in Sweden, and the labelling of citizens who highlight the problems as spreaders of misinformation, etc., were also discussed in a recent analysis we published.

BMW CEO wants Europe to cancel petrol engine ban

Europe must cancel its plan to ban new fossil fuel-emitting cars from 2035 to reduce reliance on China's battery supply chain and play to its technological strengths, BMW's chief executive Oliver Zipse said recently, according to a report by Reuters. Zipse, who has long pushed for regulators to permit various technologies – including alternative fuels like e-fuels or biofuels and hydrogen fuel cell cars – said the mood in Europe was 'trending towards one of pessimism' and the region was in need of a new regulatory framework to remain competitive. “A correction of the 100% BEV target for 2035 as part of a comprehensive CO2-reduction package would also afford European OEMs less reliance on China for batteries," Zipse said.

Europe must cancel its plan to ban new fossil fuel-emitting cars from 2035 to reduce reliance on China's battery supply chain, BMW's chief executive Oliver Zipse said recently. Photo: Ha-chrishub/Wikimedia Commons.

In March 2023, EU countries approved a law that would require all new cars to have zero CO2 emissions from 2035, effectively banning diesel and petrol vehicles, and 55% lower CO2 emissions from 2030, compared to 2021 levels.

Carmakers including BMW, VW and Renault, as well as the Italian government, have called for the CO2 targets to be loosened or delayed, fearing the impact of heavy fines because of lower-than-expected EV sales.