(NewsNation) — The Biden administration’s move to make broad transgender sports bans illegal has stirred significant controversy and resistance from several states.

Currently, 21 states have implemented transgender sports bans, which prohibit transgender girls from participating in girls’ high school sports.

However, the Biden administration aims to change this by proposing amendments to Title IX, a federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in education programs receiving federal funding.

These proposed changes would include protections for transgender individuals and make it illegal for schools to ban trans students from sports teams that align with their gender identity.

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson joined 16 other states in a coalition to fight the Biden administration’s proposed changes to Title IX. 

“The states have very different position,” Wilson said. “We believe that the purpose behind Title IX was to prohibit institutions of higher learning, secondary middle schools, high schools, from discriminating against people on the basis of sex. And that was indeed to protect women.”

Wilson argued that prioritizing transgender inclusion in sports could compromise the safety and well-being of cisgender women and girls.

“This proposed rule would violate the law and it also violates common sense,” Wilson said in a release. “Title IX protects students, but this rule would harm students by eliminating single-sex bathrooms and locker rooms, deny equal access to sports for women and girls, and jeopardize their safety. Title IX was designed to protect women from discrimination, not used as a tool for novel social policy. The rule of law requires that Title IX be interpreted according to the intent for which Congress enacted it.”

While some critics dismiss the coalition of opposition as mere expressions of disagreement, others believe they hold significance.

The administration, in response, has the power to withhold federal education funding from states that do not comply with Title IX regulations.

“We’re obviously not going to encourage the school to not accept federal financial aid, if they actually need it, we’re not going to encourage them to violate a federal regulation that would deny them access to those funds,” Wilson said. “What we’re saying is we’re going to fight in the court of law, to have the court interpret the law to mean what it was actually written.”

Title IX was signed into law by President Richard Nixon on June 23, 1972.

“Our goal is to try to protect the schools from being retaliated against by the federal government for following the law,” Wilson said. “And the true meaning behind the words in that law.”

Members of the Group of Seven wealthy democracies at this year’s summit will place more sanctions on Russia and crack down on those helping it to evade them — a move aimed at hampering Moscow’s ability to fund its war in Ukraine. VOA White House bureau chief Patsy Widakuswara is traveling with President Joe Biden and reports from Hiroshima, Japan, where the summit begins Friday.

Leaders of the world’s most powerful democracies are gathering in Hiroshima, Japan. Ahead of a key election Sunday in Greece, politicians are vying for votes from a younger generation. The United Nations warns of a dire situation crisis for children in Afghanistan.

U.S. President Joe Biden held a call with his debt ceiling negotiation team on Friday while he was traveling in Japan for the Group of Seven (G7) summit, according to White House officials.

“The President’s team informed him that steady progress is being made,” one of the officials said, adding that Biden remained confident that Congress would take action to prevent a default.

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China’s President Xi Jinping on Friday unveiled an ambitious plan to help elevate Central Asia to the next level of its development – from building infrastructure networks to boosting trade – while shunning “external interference” at the same time.

China stands ready to synergise development strategies with the five Central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, and make joint efforts to promote the modernisation of all six countries, said Xi in an address at the China-Central Asia Summit in northwest China.

“The world needs a Central Asia that is stable, prosperous, harmonious, and well-connected,” Xi said.

At the same time, the six countries should oppose “external interference” in the internal affairs of regional countries and attempts to instigate “colour revolutions”, and maintain a zero-tolerance stance against terrorism, separatism and extremism, Xi warned.

“China is ready to help Central Asian countries improve their law enforcement, security, and defense capability construction,” Xi said.

The two-day summit in the historic Silk Road city of Xian has been portrayed by Chinese state media as a triumph of China’s regional diplomacy, with the leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan earlier pledging support for Beijing and vowing deeper bilateral cooperation.

The display of solidarity from China’s Central Asian neighbours is expected to contrast sharply with the “negative” image of Beijing to be presented at the summit of Group of Seven leaders in Hiroshima over the weekend.

The high-profile expression of trust by China’s neighbours will serve to counter U.S. accusations of Beijing’s coercive diplomacy. Xi’s gathering of five heads of state on Chinese soil without Russian President Vladimir Putin also ostensibly pulls Central Asia closer to the Chinese sphere of influence as Moscow’s focus remains locked on the war in Ukraine.

China and Central Asian countries should deepen strategic mutual trust, and always offer “clear and strong support” for each other on issues of core interests such as those involving sovereignty, independence, national dignity and long-term development, Xi said.

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Apple released security updates to address three zero-day vulnerabilities in iPhones, Macs, and iPads that are actively exploited in attacks.

Apple has addressed three new zero-day vulnerabilities that are actively exploited in attacks in the wild to hack into iPhones, Macs, and iPads.

The three vulnerabilities, tracked as CVE-2023-32409, CVE-2023-28204, and CVE-2023-32373, reside in the WebKit browser engine. Below are the details of the three issues:

• CVE-2023-32409 – A remote attacker may be able to break out of Web Content sandbox. Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited. The flaw was reported by Clément Lecigne of Google’s Threat Analysis Group and Donncha Ó Cearbhaill of Amnesty International’s Security Lab. Despite Apple did not provide details about the attacks, the three issues were likely exploited in attacks conducted by nation-state actors or by surveillance firms.
• CVE-2023-28204 – Processing web content may disclose sensitive information. Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited. The flaw was reported by an anonymous researcher.
• CVE-2023-32373 – Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to arbitrary code execution. Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited. The flaw was reported by an anonymous researcher.

“Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited,” reads the advisory [1, 2] published by the tech giant.

The company released iOS and iPadOS 16.5, tvOS 16.5, watchOS 9.5, Safari 16.5, and macOS Ventura 13.4 to address the issues.

Apple initially addressed both CVE-2023-28204 and CVE-2023-32373 with the Rapid Security Response (RSR) patches for iOS 16.4.1 and macOS 13.3.1 on May 1.

Since the beginning of 2023, the company addressed a total of six zero-day vulnerabilities exploited in attacks in the wild.

In February, the company released emergency security updates to address an actively exploited zero-day vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2023-23529, that impacts iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. The flaw is a type confusion issue in WebKit that was addressed by the IT giant with improved checks.

An attacker can achieve arbitrary code execution by tricking the victims into visiting maliciously crafted web content.

In April Apple released emergency security updates to address two actively exploited zero-day vulnerabilities, tracked as CVE-2023-28205 and CVE-2023-28206, impacting iPhones, Macs, and iPads.

The CVE-2023-28205 flaw is a use after free issue that resides in the WebKit, its exploitation may lead to arbitrary code execution. An attacker can trigger the flaw by tricking the victims into loading maliciously crafted web pages.

The CVE-2023-28206 flaw is an out-of-bounds write issue that resides in the IOSurfaceAccelerator.

In February, Apple addressed one more WebKit zero-day (CVE-2023-23529) exploited in attacks to gain code execution on vulnerable iPhones, iPads, and Macs.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Apple)

The post Apple fixed three new actively exploited zero-day vulnerabilities appeared first on Security Affairs.