Author: Mick Hartley

r />[Photos © Jim Naughten]

Naughten is one of the winners of the Portrait of Humanity 2020 awards.

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[Photo: Shorpy/Arthur Rothstein for the Farm Security Administration]

occurred between North Korean patrol boats and Chinese fishing vessels. 

North Korean patrol boats have long cracked down on Chinese boats entering North Korean waters to fish, but have simultaneously demanded bribes ranging from RMB 1,000 (around USD 144) to RMB 10,000 (around USD 1,442) to “turn a blind eye.”  

Chinese vessels have paid the bribes with the thinking that it is better to pay a “fee” than to be forced to hand over their entire catch. 

North Korean patrols have long used the bribes to line their own pockets and pay mandatory contributions to various “national projects.” 

Their source of illegal income was disrupted when Chinese vessels vanished from the Yalu River after the outbreak of COVID-19 earlier this year. In short, North Korean patrol boats were unable to obtain any bribes from Chinese fishing boats for several months. 

Chinese fishing vessels recently reappeared to conduct fishing activities in North Korean waters, but North Korean patrols have reportedly demanded that Chinese fishermen pay enormous sums of money to make up for their lost income over the past several months.

It is within this context that the recent collision incident took place, according to the source. 

“Fed up with the unreasonable demands from the North Koreans, the Chinese ships joined forces and rammed the patrol boat,” the source told Daily NK. “The incident was serious enough that it led to ‘missing persons,’ but we are only hearing about it now because both sides sought to cover it up.” 

According to the source, both sides have remained quiet about the episode because North Korea is embarrassed that a military vessel was capsized by the fishing boats, while China is worried that North Korea could officially raise an issue over Chinese fishermen engaging in illegal fishing activities in North Korean waters.

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Mad Max, 1993 © Tom Wood

London Road (meet you by the fish van), 1989 © Tom Wood

King Street (tear stained), Wallasey, 1978 © Tom Wood

Available for pre-order as an RRB photobook, Tom Wood – 101 Pictures.

the Xinjiang government press office:

"According to article 37 of the Prison Law of the People's Republic of China, the people's government shall help released prisoners to resettle," it says.

"During the transfer, Merdan Ghappar committed acts of self-harm and excessive acts against the police."

It continues: "They took legal measures to stop him, and lifted those measures once his mood had stabilised." […]

The government statement does not address Mr Ghappar's allegations of mistreatment which, along with the shackling and hooding, included hearing sounds of torture from elsewhere in the police jail.

"One time I heard a man screaming from morning until evening," he wrote in one of his text messages.

Nor does the statement refer to his self-shot video showing him sitting in silence in the epidemic control centre, with dirty clothes and his left wrist clearly handcuffed to the bed.

Instead, it lists a range of behaviours, from violence to self-harm, implying that his treatment was proportionate and lawful.

"He resisted epidemic prevention staff when they tried to take his temperature, verbally insulted them and beat them up," the statement says.

"As these behaviours placed him under suspicion of committing a crime, the police have subjected him to forcible measures." His case "remains in process", it adds….

Darren Byler is an anthropologist at the University of Colorado, Boulder, who has written and researched extensively about the Uighurs.

"This message from the Chinese state authorities reflects the type of victim blaming that is often used by the police when caught using excessive force," he said after being shown a copy of the statement.

"Since the re-education campaign began in 2017, detainees have not been permitted to protest their internment. Instead they're required to maintain a 'good attitude' and admit their guilt under threat of beating and torture."

It would be comforting to think that the Chinese might go easy on this Merdan Ghappar, now his case has sparked at least some interest in the news. But I doubt they're that concerned, to be honest. They think they can get away with it – and they're right.

Xinjiang doesn't even manage to make the list on Amnesty International's list of Campaigns and Issues, alongside Palestine, inevitably, and now the USA: Trump Watch.

nifesto and the other turned on the question of injustice. The Dewey-and-Hook “Statement of Principles” hazarded the idea that injustice might come from multiple directions—from the extreme right, but also from the extreme left. The Committee of 400 entertained no such possibility. Injustice, in the view of the 400, came only from the right. And if you insisted on saying that it might also come from the left—well, you were a “fascist or a friend of fascists.” Which is to say: Given the opportunity, you should be, as it were, “canceled.”

Here, I think, was the difference between liberalism and the more radical left—the expansive American liberalism of those days that had room for socialists and anarcho-syndicalists and other leftists, but was, even so, a liberalism, with its belief that injustice is multiple; and the more radical left that could not abide the idea of multiple sources of injustice. Here was something further, too. Here, in the Dewey-and-Hook “Statement of Principles,” was a liberal mobilization determined on drawing the line between liberalism and the non-liberalism of the left.

Liberalism is still having to fight those battles, defending freedom of thought and freedom of expression from a hard left dressed in new 'woke' clothes. But underneath it's the same old Stalinist crap.

Arthur Rothstein – October 1941. "Skyline of Midtown Manhattan from Radio City (Rockefeller Center)."

[Photo: Shorpy/Arthur Rothstein for the Farm Security Administration]

the constabulary”, the woman challenged the response.

“My views on this topic do not mean I would act with intolerance or abuse, just as an atheist would be no less likely to be able to be respectful towards a person of religion,” she wrote. “If there were serving officers with these views (as I know that there are), would their ­employment be under threat?”

A recruitment adviser invited her to hand over “details and any evidence” of officers who may share her views so they could be “investigated”.

Trans campaigner Debbie Hayton expressed concern at the two forces’ responses, saying: “They are there to uphold the law, not to decide which views are acceptable and which views are not.”

A spokesman for Norfolk Police said: “Our objective as a police force is to always ensure our officers and staff continue to police in a way that builds trust and confidence by providing a service that is inclusive and unbiased for all.”

Chief Constable Ian Hopkins, the ­National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for diversity and equality said: “The entire police service is bound by and must ­adhere to the Equality Act and the ­police Code of Ethics.”

There's certainly nothing in the Equality Act that requires a belief in the mutability of sex. Maybe it's part of the police Code of Ethics.

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Stanmore and Canons Park Synagogue, Stanmore

Church of God of Prophecy, House of Bread, New Cross

CCC New Jerusalem Parish, Southwark

Romanian Orthodox Church Parish of St George, Holborn

Hawthorn Grove, Primrose Hill

American International Church, Fitzrovia

The Church of Haile Selassie I, Harlesden
[Photos: Katie Waggett]

To read more about Katie Waggett's London portraits, check out her website. Or buy the book.

Arthur Rothstein, October 1939, in Georgetown, Colorado:

"Georgetown, Colorado — an old mining town in the mountains."

"Georgetown, Colorado. Ghost mining town."

"Georgetown, Colorado. Silver mining town ghost town."
[Photo: Shorpy/Arthur Rothstein]

Founded in 1859 during the Pike's Peak Gold Rush, Georgetown rapidly became a centre for silver mining, reaching its heyday in the 1880s when its population exceeded 10,000, and a movement arose briefly among local citizens to move the state capital there from Denver. It was long past its prime by the time Rothstein took these photos, with a population down to the hundreds.

Now it's a popular tourist destination.