An opinion piece in the NYT, Why the Pandemic Probably Started in a Lab, in 5 Key Points, (archived here) from Alina Chan, co-author with Matt Ridley of Viral: The Search for the Origin of Covid-19.  In short (each point elaborated on). The SARS-like virus that caused the pandemic emerged in Wuhan, the city where…

Those North Korean trash bags sent over by balloon to the South….an effective counter has been proposed: In response to North Korea’s mass launch of “trash balloons,” the South Korean government began preparations on June 2 to resume loudspeaker broadcasts toward North Korea, which had been halted since 2018. Additionally, the government is seeking to…

Julie Burchill in the Spectator: In a decade’s time, what we widely recognise as feminists – people who put women’s rights at the centre of their concerns – may no longer exist in the Labour party, so widespread is the adoption of trans ideology. Labour is now the only major political party in the UK…

The grim reality of rural life in North Korea, from the Daily NK: People living in farming communities in South Pyongan Province are suffering extreme hardship, Daily NK has learned. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a Daily NK source in the province said Wednesday that life is “indescribably hard” in rural parts of the province,…

Havana, Cuba, ca. 1904. "Courtyard of Hotel Florida, Calle Obispo." [Photo: Shorpy/Detroit Photographic Company] Still there:

Kathleen Stock in the Telegraph welcomes Kemi Badenoch's latest moves to clarify the Equality Act – but why has it taken the Tories so long? Part of the reason must be that they were amongst its principal architects. Far from shoring up the Equality Act in favour of single-sex services where needed, Maria Miller MP…

From the Daily NK: Speaking on condition of anonymity, a source in North Hwanghae Province told the Daily NK on Wednesday that two high school boys in Sariwon’s Mangum district were publicly tried on May 23 for “inciting the corrupt and depraved spirit of capitalism by distributing songs and photos of the puppet state [South…

I confess that after years of buying Private Eye, I'm getting to the stage now of flicking through in five minutes and wondering why I bother. And editor Ian Hislop seems to have become far too much of a BBC establishment figure, with his smug appearances on "Have I Got News For You" a constant…

From the Daily NK: The US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) has confirmed in an unclassified report that Russia used North Korean-made ballistic missiles in its war against Ukraine. In its analysis published at the end of May, the DIA discovered striking similarities between images of missile debris found in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv after the Jan.…

Jack Delano, March 1942. "Chicago, Illinois. Provident Hospital, a Negro institution. Laboratory technician." [Photo: Shorpy/Jack Delano for the Office of War Information]