Author: Mick Hartley

ther developing nuclear weapons.

The satellite images, shared exclusively with the BBC, show more than a dozen different North Korean oil tankers arriving at an oil terminal in Russia’s Far East a total of 43 times over the past eight months.

Further pictures, taken of the ships at sea, appear to show the tankers arriving empty, and leaving almost full.

This is not a huge surprise. The question is: what else apart from the oil? 10,000 troops sent to Ukraine is no small matter.

The South Korean government has told the BBC it would “sternly respond to the violation of the UN Security Council resolutions by Russia and North Korea”.

Its biggest worry is that Moscow will provide Pyongyang with technology to improve its spy satellites and ballistic missiles.

Last month, Seoul’s defence minister, Kim Yong-hyun, stated there was a “high chance” North Korea was asking for such help, external.

“If you’re sending your people to die in a foreign war, a million barrels of oil is just not sufficient reward,” Dr Go says.

Andrei Lankov, an expert in North Korea-Russia relations at Seoul’s Kookmin University, agrees.

“I used to think it was not in Russia’s interest to share military technology, but perhaps its calculus has changed. The Russians need these troops, and this gives the North Koreans more leverage.”

Many are today asking why Islamic Republic officials—chief instigators and perpetrators of the ongoing Middle East conflict, as well as responsible for the murder, torture, and oppression of millions of Iranians—are not prosecuted by the ICC.

Since the regime in Iran does not…

— Elica Le Bon الیکا‌ ل بن (@elicalebon) November 22, 2024

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"Since the regime in Iran does not submit to the ICC’s jurisdiction, the only other pathway to prosecution is through a UN Security Council (UNSC) referral. The five permanent members of the UNSC, including Russia and China, have the power to veto these referrals, and have repeatedly done so for their allies in Iran and the Assad regime.

"In other words, this highly politicized system allows authoritarian regimes to protect authoritarian regimes from prosecution, no matter how egregious their crimes against humanity.

"Further, the ability of one belligerent to this conflict to fund an ICJ case against another—while enjoying total immunity from prosecution for its own instigation and aggression—is a tactic known as lawfare: the use of legal systems to damage or delegitimize an opponent.

"The question is, then, is all really fair in love and lawfare?"

eserved for individuals of that biological sex,” adding, “Women deserve women’s only spaces.”

I, for one, am surprised to see Mace launching this culture war crusade, because when I interviewed her in 2021, shortly after she took office, she framed herself as a pro-LGBT, social moderate.

Mace responds:

Brad, you’re barking up the wrong tree and you’re 💯 wrong. I voted for gay marriage twice in fact and would do it again, but that doesn’t mean your balls have the right to be in my bathroom. https://t.co/2uM13xRYPf

— Nancy Mace (@NancyMace) November 20, 2024

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Some responses to that Polumbo tweet:

"Straight men in wigs have nothing to do with gay people."

"When did .@NancyMace “abandon” support for LGB rights? This is about a rape survivor not wanting a biological man in the ladies room. If that means not indulging a biological man LARPing as a woman, so be it. Being mentally unwell has nothing to do w/ LGB rights."

"3 years is a long time, I expect she spent it educating herself on the issues instead of just blindly spouting mantras and hurling insults at women who want male free spaces. I like a politician who is prepared to change their mind when presented with the evidence."

"It's notable that whenever women's rights and safeguards are undermined in the name of 'trans rights' it is asserted that "there is no conflict between trans rights and women's rights" – but as soon as someone stands up for women's rights then suddenly it's a 'culture war.'"

"A swing and a miss Brad. Give it up."

"Supporting gay marriage and wanting men to invade women’s spaces are two different things Brad."

"This absolute idiocy is why people are turning against the "LGBT", Brad. I'm a married lesbian and you'd probably also frame me as anti-LGBT because I don't want men in women's spaces or kids to be sterilized. Fuck off, you're doing so much harm and zero good."

"You’re surprised to see a sexual assault survivor not want a biological man in the women’s restroom?? THIS is the worst thing to side against right now."

And so on…

Her name is Roshank Molaei—a woman who dared to defend herself against sexual assault in public. But guess what? In the twisted logic of this regime, it’s not the assault that’s the crime; it’s the fact that her hair was showing while she did it.

So now, instead of punishing the… https://t.co/W8jGIL0uIV pic.twitter.com/hyxeDOvBtX

— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) November 12, 2024

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"So now, instead of punishing the attacker, they’re opening a case against her for breaking the sacred law of compulsory hijab. Because in a country they’ve ruined, showing a strand of hair is more criminal than assaulting a woman.

"Welcome to the Islamic Republic, where protecting your dignity is a crime, but violating it isn’t. her friends and Iranians on social media are worried about her whereabouts."

🚨Under the leadership of Governor Walz, at least FIVE violent trans-identified male inmates have been transferred to the women's prison in Minnesota.

This includes two sexual predators, one of whom raped two 6-year-old girls.

READ: https://t.co/naHmRnEEOu https://t.co/uZU47AaXle pic.twitter.com/5FkBJaKlPv

— REDUXX (@ReduxxMag) November 21, 2024

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n, they should leave.

"How come you reinvent the myth about throwing Israel into the sea? And that Israel is an occupier and this is not their land… Do you want to build the new future of your children and mine on war and hatred? Or do you want to build it on the acceptance of the other? I would like to salute the Sunnis in the world. After their reckless attempt to throw Israel into the sea, which failed even though all the Arab countries were together in this – which failed even though all the Arab countries were together in this – what did they do then? Egypt – that numbers 100 million Arab Muslims – recognized Israel and made peace with it. The Hashemites in Jordan recognized Israel and made peace with it. This Sunni Islamic maturity led to the point where the UAE, the most civilized country in the world today…"

"So to conclude, I'd say that the Shiite immaturity has destroyed us. Let's see tomorrow, if they learned their lesson like the Sunnis have."

>

First two – maple – in the Kitchen Garden.

I've just finished Adam Kirsch's On Settler Colonialism. It's not much over 100 pages, so an easy day's read.

As he notes, it started out with academics in the US, Australia, and Canada, searching for new ways to celebrate the wickedness of their countries – founded as they were by stealing the land from the indigenous inhabitants. The problem is that there's nowhere to go with it apart from the breast-beating. A few of the keener theorists might talk of all the wonders that would open up should history be reversed and the land be returned to its rightful owners – an end to racism, sexism, homophobia, oppression of any kind, a veritable new paradise – but of course it's never going to happen. Americans, Australians, Canadians, aren't all about to pack up and clear off. Where would they go? These countries are their home. So all that's left is the guilt. Anyone whose descendants arrived with the wicked colonialists – well, anyone who's white – must live forever with this burden of guilt, and must wake up each morning to the shame and horror of the curse they bear.

If this all sounds religious, well yes, it is. This is Original Sin all dressed up in fancy new progressive clothes.

And anyway, this is what happens. Peoples, nations, races, fight each other, conquer each other, displace each other. History is a succession of wars and dispossessions and violence. If history were to be reversed we'd all end up in some rift valley in East Africa, where it all started.

But, as we know, the US, Australia, and Canada take a back seat now. Settler colonialism is all about Israel – absurd as that might seem for a people who see the land as their ancestral home, and half of whose population never left the Middle East and North Africa and in no way could be considered white. So…why might that be?

Kirsch:

But what if there were a country where settler colonialism could be challenged with more than words? Where all the evils attributed to it – from "emptiness" and "not-enoughness" to economic inequality, global warming, and genocide – could be given a human face? Best of all, what if that settler colonial society were small and endangered enough that destroying it seemed like a realistic policy rather than a utopian dream? Such a country would be the perfect focus for all the moral passion and rhetorical violence that fuels the ideology of settler colonialism. It would be a country one could hate virtuously – especially if it were home to a people whom Western civilization has traditionally considered it virtuous to hate.

ng whether to execute somebody.

“Until now, decisions to carry out an execution by party safety committees at the regional level had been swiftly authorized without a comprehensive review at the central level. But in the future, those decisions will have to be reviewed more carefully and comprehensively approved by central law enforcement agencies,” a source in North Korea told Daily NK recently….

However, some North Korean officials seem to feel that public executions are necessary for controlling the public.

“Some state security agents say that public executions are effective at keeping people alert. Others say it’s impossible to change people’s belief that their lives depend more on the words of Kim Jong Un than on the law,” the source said.

Intriguingly, these orders were given after the U.N.’s fourth Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of North Korean human rights, which was held in Geneva, Switzerland, on Nov. 7.

North Korea acknowledged its practice of public executions in the UPR review. A representative said that executions in principle are carried out behind closed doors, but that there may be exceptions. That indicates that the North continues to use public executions as a method of regime preservation and public control.

“North Korea sought to justify itself both in the third and fourth UPRs by saying that heinous criminals could be publicly executed when desired by the victims’ families,” said Shin Hee-seok (Ethan Shin), legal analyst at Transitional Justice Working Group. “But the latest orders show nonetheless that North Korea is working to reduce public executions in light of criticism from the international community.”

Shin added: “The fact that Kim Jong Un’s orders don’t mention the wishes of victims’ families arouses suspicions that all that talk about victims’ families at the U.N. was just window dressing. It’s also worth noting that this confirms that decisions about public executions are approved by party safety committees.”

"Public executions are approved by party safety committees". Only in North Korea.

No real change, of course. Executions, both public and behind closed doors, will continue as usual. But…interesting. Some more legalistic window dressing, it's now felt, is required for maintaining the practice of ensuring a terrified populace by means of regular public displays of state violence.

LGBT Youth Scotland – the troubled charity that pushes gender ideology in Scottish primary schools – makes the news again. From the Times:

The chairwoman of BBC’s Children in Need charity has quit, alleging “institutional failure” over grants awarded to a youth transgender charity hit by ­child abuse scandals.

Rosie Millard, 59, a writer and broadcaster, resigned after six years at the charity, sending a scathing letter to its board.

The letter, seen by The Times, criticised Children in Need’s chief executive, Simon Antrobus, for his response, amid revelations that it awarded £466,000 in grants to LGBT Youth Scotland (LGBTYS).

The former chief executive of LGBTYS, James Rennie, was convicted in 2009 of child sex ­assaults. Children in Need started giving grants to the charity seven months later.

Another man, who wrote a schools guide for the youth charity, was convicted this year of sharing indecent images of children, including some of newborn babies.

Children in Need suspended grants to the charity only in May after Millard says she alerted them to the 2009 case. It withdrew funding three months later after a review.

Millard alleged there had been “institutional failure”, suggesting serious questions about due diligence for Children in Need.

Millard also accused Antrobus of ­failing to respond “with the necessary level of seriousness”. She said that he eventually cut funding to the charity only because of fear of negative publicity.

She claimed that on hearing of her ­discovery of the child abuse, he had complained that it had spoilt his enjoyment of a Bruce Springsteen ­concert.

It's the BBC. Of course they'd give money to a charity with a T, no questions asked.