Mick Hartley

The real reason why Iran is conducting clandestine talks with Russia to bolster their nuclear ambition? They need uranium to fuel nuclear icebreakers, so they can reach their planned base in Antarctica. From MEMRI TV:

Iranian TV reporter Mohsen Maghsoodi visited Russia’s ATOM exhibition alongside two anonymous Iranian nuclear doctoral students in a report aired on Channel 1 (Iran), on December 27, 2024. Maghsoodi highlighted the Soviet nuclear bomb as a significant deterrence against the U.S. and NATO. He further explained that Iran could claim ownership of the South Pole or establish a permanent base there. He added that while the Iranian Navy is currently planning its presence in the region, achieving this goal requires the production of nuclear propellants, which in turn necessitates uranium enrichment of 60% or more. Maghsoodi emphasized that Iran has the right to pursue this according to IAEA guidelines. Additionally, the anonymous Iranian nuclear scientists revealed that Russia is set to build two new nuclear power plants at the Bushehr site, which are currently under construction.

 

My royalties continue to help fund women-only services and support the fightback against the erosion of women's and girls' rights. Enjoy both essay and fire!
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— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) January 13, 2025

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Worth a read. Paul Graham on The Origins of Wokeness:

The word "prig" isn't very common now, but if you look up the definition, it will sound familiar. Google's isn't bad:

A self-righteously moralistic person who behaves as if superior to others.

This sense of the word originated in the 18th century, and its age is an important clue: it shows that although wokeness is a comparatively recent phenomenon, it's an instance of a much older one.

There's a certain kind of person who's attracted to a shallow, exacting kind of moral purity, and who demonstrates his purity by attacking anyone who breaks the rules. Every society has these people. All that changes is the rules they enforce. In Victorian England it was Christian virtue. In Stalin's Russia it was orthodox Marxism-Leninism. For the woke, it's social justice.

So if you want to understand wokeness, the question to ask is not why people behave this way. Every society has prigs. The question to ask is why our prigs are priggish about these ideas, at this moment. And to answer that we have to ask when and where wokeness began….

From the JC:

An account manager at an organisation which trains top civil servants has been suspended after a series of antisemitic remarks on social media, the JC can reveal.

Naveed Ahmed Chaudhuri, head of the training portfolio at Government Exchange, which includes Lord Cameron among its previous speakers, suggested Jews worship ‘Satan’, spread a Jewish blood libel and compared Israel to Nazi Germany in posts on X….

Government Exchange is part of a wider organisation called the International Centre for Parliamentary Studies (ICPS) and is described online as its “UK training division”.

The training body claims to be at the “centre of Whitehall”, with strong links to Parliament and Government.

Its “highly informative” and “interactive” training courses are focused on Parliament, Government and policy making, and are directed towards civil servants and ministers….

Chaudhuri was a head of department at Government Exchange since 2019, according to an online bio. He was an account manager and was responsible for recruiting clients to sign up to training.

Since being alerted to Chaudhuri’s tweets by the JC, the ICPS has suspended him with immediate effect….

In posts on X from as recent as December 2024, Chaudhuri has endorsed the belief that Jews worship Satan.

“Most Jews do not like to admit it, but our god is Lucifer… and we are his chosen people,” read one quote, falsely attributed to Harold Wallace Rosenthal, re-posted by Chaudhuri.

Another post re-shared by Chaudhuri depicts a Star of David with the following text overlaid: “The Star of David? Nowhere in the Bible or the Talmud is this referenced as the Star of David. However, the Bible does reference this to be the Star of Remphan belonging to Moloch (Satan).”

On October 26, 2024, Chaudhuri shared a picture of fake Talmud quotes depicting Jews as advocating for rape.

“A Jew may have sex with a child as long as the child is less than nine years old,” one fake quote reads. Another says: “A Jew may violate but not marry a non Jew girl.”

There are the by-now familiar comparisons of Israel with Nazi Germany – and, of course…

Since Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, Chaudhuri has denied its scale online.

On October 8, 2023, a day after the massacre, he called the attack a “classic false flag”.

He has also erased the extent of Hamas’ attack by sharing the theory that Israel was responsible for killing its own citizens on October 7.

Did he really never share any of this with colleagues at work?

A spokesperson from Campaign Against Antisemitism told the JC: “These posts are utterly repugnant. From blood libel, to denial of the scope of Hamas' barbaric 7th October attacks in Israel, to equating the Jewish state with Nazis, Naveed Ahmed Chaudhuri's X account exhibits an impressive range of antisemitic tropes.

“It is alarming that such rhetoric appears to have gone by unnoticed by Government Exchange. Such extremist views cannot be tolerated by an organisation that provides training to our nation's civil servants."

It's on January 8th, and it's becoming a national holiday. From the Daily NK:

North Korea implemented special security measures for Kim Jong Un’s birthday on Jan. 8, signaling ongoing efforts to establish the date as a national holiday.

A Daily NK source in North Hamgyong province reported that heightened security measures were in effect from 5 p.m. on Jan. 7 to 5 p.m. on Jan. 9. Central government authorities ordered all organizations, including neighborhood units and workplaces, to prevent any incidents during the leader’s birthday.

During this period, institutions and enterprises formed dedicated security teams to guard Kim family statues and revolutionary sites, while also increasing workplace security personnel. Neighborhood offices enforced strict two-person security patrols, marking a departure from the typical single-person shifts despite existing two-person patrol regulations.

These measures mirror security protocols used for major state holidays honoring Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, reflecting the growing status of Kim Jong Un’s birthday. Notably, residents have shown little resistance to these measures, suggesting broad acceptance of Jan. 8 as a de facto holiday despite its lack of official designation.

“People have naturally come to accept these security measures since they’re familiar with similar protocols during other major holidays,” the source explained, adding that while residents acknowledge the day’s significance, the additional security requirements create more inconvenience than celebration.

The holiday atmosphere has been reinforced by the distribution of gifts, particularly to children. In Hoeryong this year, candy was distributed between Jan. 4-6 to children from infancy through fifth grade. Previously, such gifts were reserved for Kim Il Sung’s birthday (April 15) and Kim Jong Il’s birthday (Feb. 16).

A Chongjin resident in their 30s noted, “Jan. 8 feels like a proper holiday now, especially when it includes candy distributions for children.” However, holiday supplies were limited to officials from provincial and city party committees, with ordinary households excluded due to North Hamgyong province’s financial constraints.

It's close to Christmas, January 8th. Obviously Christmas is out in Christianity-averse North Korea, but there does seem to be this thing for a winter-solstice festival in the northern hemisphere – time of renewal and all that. Kim Jong-un as Santa Claus? Giving out gifts and sweeties. He's certainly the right shape.

The Germans (and the Austrians) seem to be all aboard for the magical gender tour with their recent self-ID law, the snappily-titled Selbstbestimmungsgesetz. With, inevitably, the same results. From Reduxx:

A number of trans-identified male prisoners who have been locked up across Germany have repeatedly sexually assaulted and harassed female inmates and correctional officers, according to a new survey by Die Welt. The survey, conducted in the 16 state justice ministries across the country, confirmed a number of incidents involving trans-identified male inmates who had been housed in women’s prisons.

In Vechta, a women’s prison in Lower Saxony, three sexual assaults were reported to have taken place by the same transgender perpetrator between 2023 and 2024. While the trans-identified male was not identified, it is known he had been convicted of the possession of child sexual abuse material. In North-Rhine Westphalia, another trans-identified male was involved in a physical assault on a female inmate.

One of the most egregious incidents that the survey learned of had first come to public attention in December of last year, when the Saxony state government finally admitted that throughout 2023 and early 2024, a trans-identified inmate had repeatedly ambushed and stalked multiple female inmates in the Chemnitz correctional facility, demanding sex and threatening to beat them if they didn’t comply. The man also repeatedly forced both female inmates and female correctional officers to watch him masturbate. According to the Freie Presse, the male inmate was eventually transferred back to a men’s prison.

Despite the Chemnitz incident being first reported in January of last year, the Saxony government only confirmed it following an initiative from Lasst Frauen Sprechen (Let Women Speak) seeking the figures on how many male sex offenders were being housed with women. A subsequent information request from the Alternative for Germany (AfD) sought data on the number of people with “deviating gender identities” that had been in the state prison system since January of 2020. Prior to this latest survey from Die Welt, all 16 state justice ministries denied that any incidents had taken place as a result of housing trans-identified males in women’s prisons.

Give men the opportunity to exploit and sexually harass women and inevitably there'll be takers. It's up there with death and taxes as one of life's certainties. It's also guaranteed that the authorities responsible for giving these men their opportunity will do all they can to deny that it's happening.

Ca. 1896. Horton, Kansas. "Chicago Rock Island & Pacific Railroad — Locomotive CRIP 908."

[Photo: Shorpy/Jules Bourquin. Louis A. Marre Rail Transportation Photograph Collection]

Meanwhile in Greenland ! pic.twitter.com/fqP9igQeeR

— Mary Coughlan (@mary_coughlan4) January 10, 2025

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The Islamic Human Rights Commission [IHRC] thinks it's "morally unacceptable" that Gaza is not considered a "genocide" alongside the Holocaust. From the Telegraph:

An Iran-linked group funded by a registered charity is urging councils and universities to boycott Holocaust Memorial Day.

The Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) has written to 460 town halls and educational institutions calling on them to snub the official commemorations at the end of the month.

The group argues it is “morally unacceptable” that Gaza is not included as a “genocide” alongside the Holocaust.

This year’s Holocaust Memorial Day, on January 27, will mark 80 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp.

Karen Pollock, the chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said the IHRC’s call for a boycott of Holocaust Memorial Day was “shocking and disgraceful”.

“This is a cynical attempt to denigrate and undermine the memory of the Holocaust by drawing false parallels between the Holocaust – a unique and unprecedented episode in history – and unrelated current events,” she said.

“Such demands, including calls to make the day ‘more inclusive’ or to insert contemporary political agendas, not only insult the memory of the 6 million Jewish men, women, and children who were systematically murdered, but also undermine the fundamental purpose of Holocaust Memorial Day.

“It is vital that commemorations maintain their focus on the Holocaust, that Jewish victims are properly honoured, and that the central role of anti-Semitism in this genocide is unequivocally recognised.”

She's right, of course.

Last summer, the IHRC claimed “Zionist financiers abroad” were to blame for “enabling” far-Right groups during the riots which spread across cities in the UK following the death of three young girls at a dance class in Southport. Axel Rudakubana, 18, is charged with their murders and will stand trial later this month.

Massoud Shadjareh, the chair of IHRC, took part in a vigil in 2020 for the late Qassim Soleimani, a senior officer in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who was credited with masterminding the spread of Iranian influence across the Middle East.

Mr Shadjareh said at the vigil: “We hope and we pray and we work hard to make sure that there will be many many more Qassim Soleimanis. We aspire to become like him.”

In an independent report carried out in 2023, the Prevent counter-terror strategy called the IHRC an "Islamist group ideologically aligned with the Iranian regime", and noted that several of IHRC's leaders have shown support for violent jihad and expressed a desire to eradicate "Zionists." The IHRC responded…well, you know how they responded. The report was, of course, Islamophobic. Very fitting, given that, at least according to some sources, the term "Islamophobia" was coined by Iranian Islamists back in the Seventies, on the lines of "xenophobia", with the aim of making criticism of Islam akin to racism.

Joan Smith at UnHerd:

Get ready for foot-stamping. For too long, a motley collection of trans activists and green zealots have only needed to threaten to withdraw from literary events, and the organisers have taken fright. Now the Oxford Literary Festival has discovered a backbone, inviting the gender-critical author Helen Joyce and the feminist campaigner Julie Bindel to take part in this year’s programme. Cue the predictable outrage.

There have been calls for authors to withdraw, on the dubious (some would say bonkers) premise that the invitation puts other writers at risk. Harry R. McCarthy, a lecturer in early modern literature, grandly announced that he had withdrawn from his scheduled session on “Shakespeare for the modern age” because Joyce and Bindel are part of the programme.

Then there was the American author, Hesse Phillips, who apparently uses “she/they” pronouns. “This decision was not taken lightly,” she/they declared in a lengthy statement this week. “I’ve conferred with other queer and trans authors, cis and straight authors, friends and family, and in the end I feel that stepping down from my panel is the only way forward, both for my personal safety and my conscience.”

At one level, it’s hard to take this nonsense seriously. But the reference to “personal safety” implies that the mere presence of gender-critical authors in the same city as adherents of the cult of identity politics puts the latter in danger. It’s a disgraceful slur, as is the suggestion that Joyce and Bindel are calling for the “eradication of an entire class of human beings”. Phillips has also smeared the organisers of the festival, accusing them of prioritising “hate speech over the safety of LGBTQ+ speakers and attendees”. It’s intended, I suspect, as a warning to other festivals of what to expect if they dare to platform heretics…

When gender warriors obsess about threats to their “safety”, they’re actually revealing that they can’t bear to be challenged. They’ve got used to mixing with people who stroke their egos and don’t question the ludicrous claim that their lives are in danger.

The Oxford festival must have anticipated this reaction. If it stands firm, it’s to be hoped that others will stop giving into an insidious form of authoritarianism. In countries such as Russia and Iran, writers face genuine threats to their lives. Literature in this country can survive the hissy fits of activists — and will be all the healthier for it.

I'm not at all convinced that the Oxford festival will stand firm, given the dismal history of last-minute cave-ins, and the general unthinking acceptance of gender woo in the literary world. In October the Cheltenham Literary Festival highlighted “gender-critical views” as the kind of speech which should not be tolerated by decent literary folk, prompting JK Rowling to write on X: “Might start a literary festival where legal beliefs can be expressed from the stage without the chairpeople wetting themselves.”

Ah well. Let's hope the Oxford festival organisers are made of sterner stuff.