The San Francisco Department of Public Health has hired a self-described “anti-weight-based discrimination” expert to consult on “weight stigma and weight neutrality.”

Virgie Tovar, the author of ‘You Have the Right to Remain Fat” and other published works on “fat positivity and body acceptance” announced on her Instagram Monday that she was hired to consult for the department, calling the collaboration an “absolute dream come true.”

WHAT WEARY SAN FRANCISCANS ARE SAYING AFTER VOTERS REJECTED ‘STRANGLEHOLD’ OF THE PROGRESSIVE LEFT

“I’m unbelievably proud to serve the city I’ve called home for almost 20 years in this way!” she wrote. “This consultancy is an absolute dream come true, and it’s my biggest hope and belief that weight neutrality will be the future of public health.”

Tovar’s website lists her as a ​”plus-size Latina author, lecturer, and leading expert on weight-based discrimination and body positivity with over a decade of experience.” She is a contributor for Forbes, where she covers stories on the “plus size market.” Her most recent articles include features about hosting a “size inclusive” Thanksgiving dand alleged “fatphobia” in current TV shows. 

It is unclear what role Tovar will play within the department. The San Francisco Department of Public Health did not respond when asked by Fox News Digital about details of Tovar’s consultancy.

Tovar has been vocal against diet culture and BMI metrics on her social media platforms. In a video posted by Project Heal, Tovar discussed how medical professionals pressured her to lose weight since she was a child and that she had falsely believed they were doing so with her health in mind.

“I really believed that this was about my heath. I really believed my doctor was right and so I was using the language of getting “better” but I was actually deeply in the throes of anorexia,” she said.

In July, Tovar posted that she conducted a weight bias training for unidentified government workers, sharing 4 tips she taught to help decrease “stigma around food and bodies at work.”

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND OFFERS ‘FAT STUDIES’ COURSE ON HOW ‘FATNESS AND BLACKNESS’ INTERSECT

BENTONVILLE, ARKANSAS – JUNE 23: Virgie Tovar participates in Reel Magic Mornings with Virgie Tovar during the Bentonville Film Festival on June 23, 2022 in Bentonville, Arkansas. 

“1. Talk less or not at all about how you and others eat at work,” she wrote. “2. Talk less or not at all about you or others’ bodies at work. 3. Talk less or not at all about exercise at work. 4. Don’t presume that food, weight, body size or exercise are safe or comfortable topics to discuss at work for everyone.”

In a separate Instagram post, Tovar held up a sign with the words “I don’t want Ozempic,” sharing that she was offered the weight-loss drug free of charge but declined it because it would not “solve weight bias.”

She has also been critical of the characterization of obesity as a “disease.”

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Tovar offers DEI corporate trainings, per her website, which lists the Seattle Transit Agency, UC Berkely and other notable companies as former clients.

Tovar could not be reached by Fox News Digital for comment.

With just over a month left in office, top members of President Biden’s Cabinet are standing behind their past statements expressing support for his leadership and their belief that he is still fit for office — despite a year of controversy and debate over Biden’s ability to serve out his term.

Fox News Digital reached out to Cabinet officials and their departments, asking them if they believed President Biden was fit to serve, and if they stood by past statements of confidence in his ability to continue.

DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, in a statement in September, said that he has “full confidence in President Biden’s ability to carry out his job. 

“As I’ve said before, I come fully prepared for my meetings with President Biden, knowing his questions will be detail-oriented, probing, and exacting. In our exchanges, the President always draws upon our prior conversations and past events in analyzing the issues and reaching his conclusions,” he said.

BIDEN’S PRESIDENCY WILL BE REMEMBERED AS THE ‘MAN THAT WAS TOO OLD,’ SAYS BYRON YORK

On Monday, DHS said that the secretary stands by those comments.

Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo has called Biden “one of the most accomplished presidents in American history and continues to effectively lead our country with a steady hand.”

“As someone who is actually in the room when the President meets with the cabinet and foreign leaders, I can tell you he is an incisive and extraordinary leader,” Raimondo said.

A spokesperson said this week that Raimondo stands by those comments.

Sabrina Singh, deputy Pentagon press secretary told Fox in September: “As Secretary Austin has said before, he has watched President Biden make tough national security decisions and seen his commitment to keeping our troops safe – he has nothing but total confidence in our Commander-in-Chief.”

This week, Singh said those comments still stand.

Biden’s mental acuity was a subject of speculation even preceding him being sworn into office, but discussion about its implications came to a head this year after what was widely seen as a disastrous debate performance against former President Donald Trump that seemingly initiated the process to replace him on the Democratic ticket in the race for the presidency.

BIDEN’S AGE MUCH MORE OF A LIABILITY THAN TRUMP’S, POLL FINDS AHEAD OF PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE

Biden eventually dropped out of the race, handing the nomination to Vice President Kamala Harris, who would in turn go on to lose in the November election against President-elect Trump. But while Biden said he would not seek re-election, he chose not to step down from office. 

The subject of Biden’s acuity re-emerged in September when he handed over the reins of a Cabinet meeting to first lady Jill Biden. But it was then that Cabinet members backed Biden and said they had no concerns about his ability to serve. 

U.S. first lady Jill Biden speaks while attending her first cabinet meeting during her husband President Joe Biden’s administration at the White House on September 20, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra — one of Biden’s staunch defenders — said Biden “has done more as president for this country than any other president whom I have worked with since 1992.”

“So yes, not only can he do the job, but he has been doing it,” he said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “And we are fortunate to have someone who continues to use all of his experience to take us further. If you recall where we were four years ago, the depth of a pandemic, Americans losing their jobs, Americans losing their health care. Today, more Americans are employed than ever before. Today, more Americans have health coverage than ever before. No President in the history of this country has ever placed 700 million vaccines in the arms of Americans to keep them alive and keep them healthy. The result? Our economy is healthy.”

“Is he fit? He’s proving it,” Becerra added. 

An HHS spokesperson said that Becerra’s comments stand.

BIDEN IS SAYING ‘SCREW YOU’ TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, BEN FERGUSON ARGUES

Spokespersons for other agencies that had previously commented, including the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy and the Department of Agriculture, also said they stood by those comments.

As it stands, President Biden will finish his term on Jan. 20 when President-elect Trump is sworn into office.

President Joe Biden and his successor President-elect Donald Trump.  (Brandon Bell/Getty Images; Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Biden spoke this week at a DNC holiday celebration in Washington, D.C. During his remarks he argued that the country is in a “resoundingly” better position today than when he and Harris entered the White House.

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“The one thing I’ve always believed about public service, and especially about the presidency, is the importance of asking yourself, have we left the country in better shape than we found it? Today, I can say with every fiber of my being, of all my heart, the answer to that question is a resounding yes,” he said.

He went on to encourage staffers to “stay engaged” in the years ahead.

“You’re not going anywhere, kid,” Biden said of Harris. “Because we’re not gonna let you.”

Trump hater and former MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann wrote a column this week, telling his old network exactly what to do during the second term of President-elect Trump. Step one, he outlined, would be to fire two channel co-hosts for trying to find common ground with Trump.

In a piece for Variety, Olbermann demanded that MSNBC not try to moderate for the second Trump era like several other outlets have stated they plan to do. Instead, he told the network to lean even further into anti-Trump, progressive content.

“Stay the course. The audience is exhausted and needs a break. It’ll be back — and Resistier than ever. Suffer the ratings trough,” he declared.

Olbermann began the piece with a demand for the network to fire Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, the co-hosts of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” who met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago following his election victory to re-establish communication between the two parties. 

Prominent liberals have skewered the co-hosts for the move, characterizing it as them “kissing Trump’s ring.” Olbermann saw it as enough reason for the channel to axe them, writing, “I mean, obviously you have to fire Mr. and Mrs. Scared-Bro.” Olbermann added, “However: Continue their banal but largely benign political coffee klatch show without them and their insistence we all join their MSNVichy. Nobody will remember they were ever there.”

When the co-hosts first announced their meeting with Trump, Olbermann ripped them on X, posting, “BREAKING NEWS: I TOLD YOU SO @joenbc and @morningmika – Trump collaborators. Not a word Mr. and Mrs. Vichy Quisling say can ever be trusted again – not that those words ever should have been trusted. They are confidence tricksters – and grifters.”

In the column, he wrote that MSNBC should not moderate because “the next money is coming from more fervent opposition to MAGA.” He insisted that viewership has declined among outlets looking to slow down their anti-Trump coverage. 

“Wasn’t the Scarborough disaster (60% of the demo audience gone in three days) instructive enough? Did you not notice CNN going from fact-based criticism of Trump’s madness to hours of cacophonous shouting, and sinking to whatever is the next level down from irrelevance?”

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“Morning Joe” has seen its audience shrink since co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski said they met face-to-face with President-elect Donald Trump.  (Screenshot/MSNBC)

He continued asking, “Did the quarter of a million canceled Washington Post subscriptions not tell you something? Or the exodus from Twitter/X? What do you think happened to all these news consumers? That they were raptured?”

Olbermann attempted to remind MSNBC executives that the channel is the “only liberal candy store still open” and that they could have a “monopoly” on liberal news content if they just embraced it. 

“These other supposed bastions of journalism have left you a near monopoly. And MSNBC only exists today because the last time NBC was handed a near monopoly, your management ancestors said, ‘A hundred million in profits from Olbermann’s liberal show? I guess we’ll take it. If we have to,’” he said.

Later in the column, the pundit dragged MSNBC executives for not taking their own content seriously enough and thinking about ways of bringing in conservative audiences. 

“Generation after generation of NBC Executive Idiots viewed politics as nothing more than a soda brand and believed there was some additional audience — undecided or right wing — that they could add to the present one if only they also offered a different flavor called ‘New MSNBC,’” he wrote, adding, “The new flavor invariably turns out to be turnip.”

STEPHEN A SMITH SLAMS DEMOCRATIC PARTY FOR ‘UTTERLY RIDICULOUS’ REACTION TO TRUMP ELECTION VICTORY

While insisting on keeping the far-left formula, he suggested some direction. “Your primetime audience doesn’t want new faces; it wants comfort food — so refresh the menu and decor. Scuttle those daytime shows… and replace them with the morning formula, only with different sets and different titles.”

He advocated for new, committed progressive hosts, like The Nation’s Elie Mystal — who has been a frequent guest on the network — as well as even changing MSNBC’s name.

“Change the damn name of the network! Use the acronym ‘N.E.W.S.’ Or ‘American News Network.’ Or how about a nice, self-explanatory ‘F Trump TV’?”

Olbermann concluded the column stating that if MSNBC implements some of these changes, it will get the “kind of profits only a monopoly can provide,” as well as “non-cash virtues like moral force and ethics and journalism and patriotism and liberty.”

“The bullies don’t stop hitting you because you’re nice to them. They stop hitting you when you knock them out cold.”

MSNBC did not immediately reply to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

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Progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., was defeated in her bid to be the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, losing to Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia.

Connolly bested Ocasio-Cortez with 131 to 84 votes in what is seen as a blow for progressives who backed Ocasio-Cortez, a member of the progressive “Squad.”

“I thank my colleagues for their support and the confidence they’ve placed in me to lead House Democrats on the Oversight Committee,” Connolly said in a statement.

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This is a breaking news story; check back for updates.

USA Fencing board members voted against several motions to amend the sports governing body’s current policies, including measures to allow the national anthem to be played before competition and approving an all-female task force to re-evaluate and revise the current transgender policy. 

The special board meeting held on Saturday came just days after the Fair Fencing Organization (FFO) penned an open letter to the board asking that it re-evaluate its stance on several issues, including tournament site selection criteria, as it relates to individual states’ abortion policies, transgender inclusion and DEI.  

The FFO, which describes itself as a nationwide nonprofit organization, called on the members of the board to make decisions not based on “political correctness,” but rather in the interest of its members.

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Several motions raised in Saturday’s meeting addressed several hot-button issues in the nation. 

Among the first motions raised was to amend the current USA Fencing Site Selection Inclusion Policy “to allow more flexibility at the city level for those willing to offer protections to women and LGBTQIA+ members.” 

The current policy includes factors based on profitability, member experience, satisfaction, cost, travel convenience, square footage requirements (including parafencing accommodations), city interest and availability in hosting, and inclusivity. USA Fencing states in its policy that it gives “preference” to sites based on the use of ratings from LGBTMAP.org and “states that do not have laws that endanger the health of members, or immediate family of members, and will avoid those with laws that may see a medical professional prosecuted for assisting a member in need of critical medical care, or reproductive-related medical care.” 

The motion to amend the policy and stop the use of LGBTMAP.org was voted against 9-1 with one abstention. The original motion “to allow more flexibility at the city level” was passed unanimously. 

Fencers compete during the USA Fencing Division I National Championships at the Greater Richmond Convention Center on April 11, 2016 in Richmond, Virginia. (Patrick Smith/Getty Images)

FENCING ORGANIZATION PENS OPEN LETTER TO USFA OVER CONCERNS ABOUT TRANS ATHLETES, STANCES ON ABORTION AND DEI

Another motion to create an all-female task force to “re-evaluate and revise” the current policy on transgender athletes was also voted against 8-3. The proposal would have included a “transgender fencer” on the task force if passed. 

A motion to amend the governing body’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging office, including changing it to a committee and redirecting its funds, was also voted against 9-1 with one abstention. 

Several other issues raised during the board meeting not addressed by FFO’s letter, including playing the national anthem and podium protests, were also raised during the special meeting. A vote to play the national anthem at the start of tournaments before “all NACs and National Championships” was voted against 8-2 with one abstention. A motion to prohibit podium protests or protests at the tournaments in general was also voted against with an 8-3 vote in favor of allowing those protests to continue. 

A USA fencing mask is left in the warm-up area during a practice session ahead of the 2012 London Olympic Games at ExCeL Centre on July 24, 2012 in London. (Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

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In a statement to Fox News Digital regarding the FFO’s letter and prior to Saturday’s meeting, USA Fencing noted that its board members “are elected by our members and are entrusted to represent their interests and make decisions they believe are in the best interest of the fencing community as a whole.” 

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Welcome to the Fox News Opinion Newsletter.

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The first-ever Iraq visit by a pope could’ve ended disastrously, but a foiled assassination plot has enabled Pope Francis to write about the event in retrospect. 

“Almost everyone advised me against that trip,” he wrote in his autobiography, reflecting on a 2021 visit to Mosul, Iraq, where a tip from British intelligence made waves through authorities and alerted the Vatican military police to two threats.

A would-be suicide bomber strapped with explosives was headed toward the city with the intent of detonating herself, according to Politico. The second, the pontiff said, was a van containing explosives that had charged toward the same area with the “same intent.”

CITING THE GOSPEL, POPE FRANCIS SAYS MIGRANTS ‘MUST BE WELCOMED’ AND ‘INTEGRATED’

Despite the risk, the visit continued, with Francis insisting he tour the region for its biblical, historical value and meet with the local Christian population.

Mina Al-Oraibi, editor-in-chief of The National newspaper based in Abu Dhabi, wrote at the time that Francis had decided to embark on the 4-day trip to “reinforce the historic and natural place of Christians in Iraq and the Arab world.”

Mosul had been captured by the Islamic State group in 2014, but Iraqi forces expelled the extremists three years later, Politico reported, adding that evidence of the conflict and occupation lingered in “much of the city, including its centuries-old Catholic churches,” that were left in ruins.

POPE FRANCIS REJECTS TRADITION, OPTS FOR HUMBLE WOODEN CASKET AND BURIAL OUTSIDE VATICAN

A member of the Iraqi forces walks past a mural depicting Pope Francis waving next to an Iraqi national flag drawn on a blast wall outside the Syriac Catholic Church of Our Lady of Deliverance in the Karrada district of Iraq’s capital Baghdad on March 1, 2021, amidst preparations ahead of the pontiff’s visit. (SABAH ARAR/AFP via Getty Images)

Pope Francis later asked his security detail what had become of the bomb threats, when he learned they had been neutralized.

“The commander replied laconically, ‘They’re no longer here. Iraqi police had intercepted them and made them explode,'” he wrote, reflecting on the moment.

The autobiography titled “Hope” is slated to hit store shelves next month, but Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera published excerpts from the writings on Tuesday, reports say.

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