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“Belgian Government Will Intervene In Cases Where Prostitutes Refuse Sexual Acts Too Often.” That headline, at a website called The Publica, certainly caught my attention. A new law in Belgium, the website claims, will enable “pimps to punish” sex workers “if they refuse sex more than 10 times in a six-month period. The Belgian Parliament voted for the law on May 3, with 93 in favor, zero opposed, and 33 abstentions.”

Others have taken upthis story with similarly salacious and critical tones.

As you might suspect, the truth is much less disturbing than these reports suggest. In fact, the law in question is aimed at protecting sex worker rights and autonomy.

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Δ Decriminalization Takes Hold

First, some background: Belgium decriminalized sex work in 2022making it an outlier in the European Union. While some other E.U. countries have legalized prostitution, their systems are highly regulated, leaving it a crime to sell or pay for sex acts in all but certain narrow circumstances (such as working in a licensed brothel or having a professional sex work certificate). Other E.U. countries have decriminalized selling sex in some circumstances but still criminalize paying for it.

Belgium decriminalized not just selling sex but also paying for sex and working with sex workers. That last bit is important, as it allows sex workers to pay people for ancillary servicessuch as security, administrative work, and accountingwithout making those people criminals.

It’s “important to note that it has never been illegal in Belgium to offer or pay for sexual services. Belgium’s policy was to slowly make sex work disappear, by making it impossible to perform the job in a normal and safe way by criminalizing all third parties,” according to the Belgian Union of Sex Workers (UTSOPI). “Those third parties are landlords, owners of rooms, bankers, lawyers, drivers…” Even employers were criminalized, “making it impossible to work legally in a brothel.”

Decriminalized third parties might also include folks that have historically been referred to as “pimps” or “madams”words carrying a lot of loaded implications but essentially referring to anyone who helps a sex worker find customers or otherwise manage their business.

Doing any of this in a violent, abusive, or coercive way is still a crime, of course. As UTSOPI notes: “If an accountant charges abnormally high fees to the sex worker for the sake of him or her being a sex worker, or if a third party demands sexual services in exchange for the delivery of services, then they are liable to prosecution.”

A big part of what Belgium is doing now is trying to bring sex workers into “social protection” programs and employee benefitsthings like unemployment compensation, maternity leave, and Belgium’s version of Social Security.

The decriminalization law was a first step to making sex workers eligible for such things. The second step was the law the country passed at the beginning of Maythe one that The Publica makes sound like a horrifying, dystopian mess. In fact, the measure had the support of the Belgian sex workers union.

Needless to say, Reason is generally critical of expansive welfare-state benefitsand of detailed labor regulations that invite the government to insert itself into workplace regulations. So nothing that I’m about to say is meant to suggest that there are no legitimate critiques of this new law. The point is to make it clear what the new legislation does, and why; any criticisms should proceed from the real law, not from fantasies. The Right to Refuse

Under the decriminalized system, sex workers could be self-employed, and they could hire third parties to help them in various ways. They could also be freelance workers in an establishment run by someone else. But sex workers could not themselves be employees.

Under the new law, “sex workers will also be able to work under an employment contract, thus gaining access to social security: pension, unemployment, health insurance, family benefits, annual vacation, maternity leave,” according to UTSOPI. “At the same time, the law ensures that sex workers in the workplace are protected against job-related risks and conditions are imposed on employers.”

As part of this balance, the law imposes obligations on both businesses that employ sex workers and on sex workers who work for those businesses. One of the conditions on employees is that refusing sex acts more than 10 times in a six-month period allows an employer to request government mediation.

But the law also explicitly protects the right to refuse specific customers, sex acts, etc.

It stipulates that “every sex worker has the right to refuse a client,” that “every sex worker has the right to refuse a sexual act,” and that “every sex worker has the right to interrupt a sexual act at any time.” It also says that “any sex worker has the right to perform a sexual act in the manner they wish” and that “if there are dangers to the sex worker’s safety, the sex worker may refuse to sit behind a window or advertise.”

If a sex worker invokes any of the five rights listed above, “the sex worker is protected from dismissal or other adverse action by the employer,” notes UTSOPI. Boundaries Go Both Ways

In reality, this law is explicitly drafted to stop prostitution businesses from punishing workers for exercising agency and setting boundaries. But employers must have some redress if the refusals are frequent enough to cause problems. Since firing or disciplining employees for exercising refusal rights is generally forbidden, this is where the mediation clause comes in.

“If a sex worker exercises the right to refuse more than ten times in a six-month period, the sex worker or the employer may seek the intervention of a governmental mediation service,” according to UTSOPI. “That service will assess if there is anything wrong with the working conditions, if there is a problem in the employer-employee relationship. The service can also offer professional reorientation possibilities.”

As you can see, saying that the new law allows “pimps to punish” sex workers for refusing sex acts is misleading. For starters, we’re not talking individual “pimps” (a one-person sex work business cannot legally hire employees) but registered businesses that have contracted as a sex work employer and taken on all the responsibilities that entails.

One of the slogans of sex worker rights campaigners is sex work is workit’s a job, just like other jobs, and sex workers deserve the same dignitty and rights. But that has to go both ways. And employees of other jobs can’t repeatedly refuse to do what they were hired to do without encountering at least some sort of intervention.

In this case, the “punishment” is merely having to try and work out a mutually agreed-upon solution. And either an employer or employee can trigger this mediation. A sex worker whose repeated refusal to accept customers or sex acts stems from broader issues with what their employer is expecting can themselves request mediation to try to work this issue out.

Or they can quitwithout any sort of notice period required and without forfeiting their right to unemployment benefits.

Self-employed sex workers are obviously not subject to the mediation requirement here. Nor are those who work for someone else as non-employees (as independent contractors or freelancers or whatever you want to call it). But sex workers who are independent contractors are also not guaranteed job protection if they refuse.

Far from being some sort of crazy scheme that denigrates sex worker consent, the new labor law is designed to protect sex workers’ autonomy and protect them from violence, exploitation, and privacy invasions, too.

Some of the employr obligations under the new law include a requirement that each room where sex acts take place be equipped with an alarm button and that sex worker unions and support groups be allowed to access sex workplaces. And sex workers can work under hospitality contracts that don’t mention sex work.

Far from granting too much power to sex work employers, the new scheme seems, overall, to grant government too much say in the employer-employee relationship. The good news is that sex workers who want to work in such a system can, and sex workers who want to work outside such a system can. Under decriminalization (unlike legalization), staying out of the more managed system isn’t against the law. More Sex & Tech News

Artificial intelligence hits search results, chaos ensuing… Google’s turn toward AI-powered search results is starting to be felt by news outlets and is likely to have impacts that spread much wider. “The shift stands to shake the very foundations of the web,” warns The Washington Post in whatalasis not an overstatement.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has signeda measure making the minimum age to work in a strip club 21 years old.

Read James Czerniawski on the new AI bills in the Senate: Today, @amyklobuchar is marking up several bills related to #AI and #Elections in Senate Rules. Scott Blackburn and I submitted written testimony to the committee explaining how the proposals are deeply flawed. A quick thread ????https://t.co/oz6WBRRUwl

— James Czerniawski (@JamesCz19) May 15, 2024

North Carolinians talk to lawmakers about porn.

It is not going to be difficult for teenagers to get around age verification laws. Today’s Image Decriminalization rally in Washington, D.C. | 2019 (ENB/Reason)

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US

Woman missing for more than 60 years found ‘alive and well’

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May 4, 2025

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Woman missing for more than 60 years found 'alive and well'

A woman in the US who has been missing since 1962 has been found “alive and well”, authorities have said.

Audrey Backeberg left her home in Reedsburg, Wisconsin, in July that year when she was 20 years old, Sauk County Sheriff’s Office said.

Investigators pursued numerous leads over the years but the case eventually went cold.

However, during a review of cold cases earlier this year, a detective reassessed all the case files and evidence, and re-interviewed several witnesses – and found Ms Backeberg.

The 82-year-old was “alive and well” – living outside of the state of Wisconsin, the sheriff’s office said.

Ms Backeberg was married and had two children when she disappeared on 7 July 1962, according to the Wisconsin Missing Persons Advocacy organisation.

She left her home to pick up her salary but never returned, causing her husband to ask family members where she was.

Shortly afterwards their 14-year-old babysitter claimed she and Ms Backeberg had hitchhiked to Wisconsin’s capital city Madison and then caught a bus to Indianapolis, Indiana.

The teenager said when she arrived she became nervous and wanted to go home, while Ms Backeberg refused to return and was last seen walking near a bus stop.

Ms Backeberg’s marriage was troubled and there were allegations of abuse, the Wisconsin Missing Persons Advocacy organisation said, with a criminal complaint having been filed days before she went missing.

Her relatives insisted she would never abandon her children, the organisation added, and her husband passed a polygraph test and maintained his innocence.

Read more from Sky News:
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‘We talked for 45 minutes’ – detective

Detective Isaac Hanson, who found Ms Backeberg, said her sister’s Ancestry.com account was vital in helping him locate her address.

“That was pretty key in locating death records, census reports, all kinds of data,” he told local news station WISN.

“So I called the local sheriff’s department, said, ‘Hey, there’s this lady living at this address. Do you guys have somebody, you can just go pop in?’

“Ten minutes later, she called me, and we talked for 45 minutes.”

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‘She sounded happy’

Mr Hanson said Ms Backeberg may have left home due to marital issues, but it was unclear why she had stayed away for so long.

He said he had promised to keep their conversation private.

“I think she just was removed and, you know, moved on from things and kind of did her own thing and led her life,” he said.

“She sounded happy. Confident in her decision. No regrets.”

Sauk County Sheriff’s Office said Ms Backeberg made the choice to leave and her disappearance “was not the result of any criminal activity or foul play”.

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Sports

Jets-Blues Game 7 preview: Key players to watch, final score predictions

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22 mins ago

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May 4, 2025

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Jets-Blues Game 7 preview: Key players to watch, final score predictions

  • Multiple Contributors

May 4, 2025, 07:00 AM ET

It all comes down to this. The Presidents’ Trophy-winning Winnipeg Jets host the St. Louis Blues in the 200th Game 7 in Stanley Cup playoffs history Sunday (7 p.m. ET, TBS).

One team will advance to the second round, while the other will get an early start to the offseason — and try to fix what went wrong.

For the Blues, this is the club’s 19th all-time Game 7, the most of any non-Original Six team. They have gone 10-8 in Games 7s, with the most recent one being the 2019 Stanley Cup Final against the Boston Bruins, which they won 4-1.

This version of the Jets has much less Game 7 history on which to draw; their only Game 7 was a second-round victory over the Nashville Predators in 2018.

Who wins this one? We’ve gathered the ESPN hockey family to identify the key players to watch in the contest — as well as their final score predictions.

Who is the one key player you’ll be watching in Jets-Blues?

Ryan S. Clark, NHL reporter: If he plays, it’s Mark Scheifele. The hit in Game 5 from Brayden Schenn and/or Radek Faksa generated quite a bit of conversation about what is arguably the most physically demanding series in the first round. Scheifele’s play this season and this series prior to the hit reinforces what makes him a legit top-line center in this league. We saw how the Jets maneuvered around his absence for the final two periods of Game 5, while Game 6 proved why they need contributions from everyone if he can’t go.

But again, that’s if Scheifele plays. He skated Saturday in a tracksuit, with Scott Arniel saying the center will be a game-time decision Sunday.

Arda Öcal, NHL broadcaster: Connor Hellebuyck is the obvious answer here for me because he’s been “Vezina” at home (especially Game 2) and “Vezina from Temu” on the road.

Hellebuyck has allowed four or more goals in seven straight road playoff games, which ties the second longest such streak in Stanley Cup playoff history. But Game 7 is at home. The pressure is on but he’s in comfortable confines, surrounded by a “Whiteout.” Which version of Hellebuyck do we get Sunday night?

Kristen Shilton, NHL reporter: Connor Hellebuyck, of course. Has there been a Jekyll/Hyde performance like this in recent years?

The Vezina finalist can play lights-out at home and like a fish out of water on the road. Does that trend continue in Game 7? What version of the goalie shows up for this one?

But as a bonus, I’ll toss Pavel Buchnevich into this equation. He’s been driving the Blues’ offense, and if Hellebuyck is on his A-game then St. Louis is going to need Buchnevich to channel his hat trick energy from Game 3 to help the Blues pull off a stunning road win.

Greg Wyshynski, NHL reporter: Jordan Binnington renewed his title as one of the NHL’s most clutch goaltenders with his 31-save performance in Team Canada’s 4 Nations Face-Off championship win over the U.S. — including six saves in overtime. He first earned it in 2019, backstopping the Blues to the Stanley Cup with Game 7 wins over Dallas and Boston.

Now he’s got a chance to reestablish those credentials.

Binnington had a 0.82 goals-against average and a .968 save percentage in those prior Game 7s. While Hellebuyck has been terrible in St. Louis, Binnington hasn’t been much better in Winnipeg, generating an .861 save percentage and a 3.44 goals-against average and giving up four goals in two of the three games. But as 4 Nations showed, Binnington can meet the moment. (Although this time, Kyle Connor will actually be in the lineup for the opposition. Not that we’re bitter or anything.)

The final score will be _____.

Clark: 4-3 Jets. There have been a few themes in this series. The first being that offense hasn’t been an issue — the teams have combined to score more than six goals in all but one game. The second is that the home team has won every game; I say that continues, and the Jets advance.

Öcal: 6-5 Jets. Hellebyuck doesn’t have his best game, but the Jets outscore that challenge, and Kyle Connor scores another third-period goal in this series to win it.

Shilton: 5-4 Jets. The Jets have been too good on home ice to let this one slip away. That’s not to say a St. Louis win would be surprising, but even if Hellebuyck is off, Winnipeg’s offense should be able to provide enough buffer that the Jets can squeak through with a narrow victory to advance.

Wyshynski: 5-3 Jets. The Jets would be toast if this game were played in St. Louis because it’s a demonstrable fact that Hellebuyck is a disaster on the road in the playoffs. He’s slightly below replacement at home in the postseason, but Winnipeg will take that considering his three removals on the road.

The Blues are first in the playoffs in 5-on-5 offense and goals-for percentage at home. But Winnipeg is second in both categories. Hellebuyck calms down, and the offense gets ratcheted up at home, especially now that Nikolaj Ehlers has a game under his belt, having not played since April 12 due to a foot injury.

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Environment

Meet Bodo – the 35 mph electric golf cart that thinks it’s a G-Wagen

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2 hours ago

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May 4, 2025

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Meet Bodo – the 35 mph electric golf cart that thinks it's a G-Wagen

Bodo G-Wagon electric golf cart; via Mecum Auctions.

With a fully-enclosed, G-Wagen-inspired body and an 80 mile electric range, the Bodo G-Wagon golf cart is the NEV you need when you decide it’s time to get serous one-upping the rest of the Palm Beach country clubbers.

If you love the look of the $230,000 Mercedes-Benz G580 off-roader, but think the 579 hp, 6,800 lb. electric 4×4 is probably overkill for occasional trips to the golf course and country club, this G-Wagen-inspired golf cart might be just what you’re looking for.

The shiny black 2024 Bodo G-Wagon sold at Mecum Auctions last month for $31,900, which seems like it might not be a lot of money to the sort of person who decides to take a flyer on a goofy, limited-use EV that ships with real, metal doors, power windows, heating and air conditioning, fully digital instrument cluster and infotainment, and a “posh,” caramel leather interior.

It even has windshield wipers, power steering, and a rear-seat entertainment system that’s built into the front headrests!

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It’s really nice in there

Under the hood, the Bodo packs a 15 kW (20 hp) electric motor drawing power from a 10 kWh li-ion battery that won’t deliver a scorching 0-60 mph time (it only goes 35), but will deliver you and your buddies from one end of any golf course in North America and back several times over, thanks to the G-Wagon’s 80 mile range.

The official Mecum Auctions listing goes into a bit more detail, and I’ve included it here, in case it gets deleted after a while and you’re just finding this for the first time in 2027:

Be the envy of any country club or golf community showing up with this 2024 Bodo G-Wagon Golf Cart. Perhaps more appropriately known as an E-Wagon, this baby G-Wagon is powered by a 15kW motor with a 10kWh lithium battery. Boasting an 80-mile range and a 35 MPH top speed, the Bodo is an enclosed, luxury golf cart that pampers occupants with heating and air conditioning, rear-seat entertainment, power windows, power locks and a posh, caramel-colored interior. With the Bodo fitted with power steering and 4-wheel power disc brakes with brake boost, drivers will think they’re in a full-size G-Wagon, thanks to the multiscreen entertainment cluster, the rearview camera, windshield wipers, turn signals, running lights and so much more.

Finished in black with the right amount of brightwork, the overall vibe is one of jaw-dropping, smile-inducing fun. While the Bodo would be an excellent choice for any golf community, it should also prove to be hugely popular around a race track or car condo community as well, or maybe even a neighborhood with its own airplane runways. Over the past decade in particular, the demand for unique, luxury golf carts has been on the rise, and understandably so. The number of luxury communities with specific interests in sports, aero and auto has also been on the rise, with people buying homes in these exclusive locations to better engage with like-minded people. All too often a golf cart is the perfect way to get around these gated neighborhoods, and this one is enclosed, comes with the amenities of a full-size car and is infinitely more stylish.

MECUM AUCTIONS

You can check out a few more photos of the 2024 Bodo G-Wagon golf cart that sold at Mecum, below – and if you want one for yourself, you’re in luck! I found this brand-new 2025 “G600 E-Wagon” (in white) for $23,900 at Gulf Carts in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida. Head on down to the comments and let us know if you buy it.

SOURCE | LOTS MORE PHOTOS: Mecum Auctions.

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