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[Photos © Josh Edgoose]

It's the fun colourful London, full of life, that we haven't seen for a while. It'll be good to get it back again.

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Astoria, Oregon, 1944

Douglas Street, Victoria, BC, 1941.

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Go here for the full text of the speech by the Respected Comrade. 

And fortunately, on the cement front, there's only good news:

The workers and management of many cement factories work with might and main day by day to produce cement.

The Sunchon Cement Complex organizes and directs its production in detail. It mapped out a scrupulous plan for its current and long-term production first thing. It reviews the daily and weekly production of its employees and rectifies their shortcomings in it in time. In addition, it pays deep attention to solving the scientific and technological problems of tightening connections between its processes and enhancing its productivity.

It accelerates its current production simultaneously with the increase of its production capacity.

The Chonnaeri Cement Factory rigidly controls and superbly directs the work of its employees to ensure that they fulfill their production plans without fail. Besides, it takes good technological care of its machines and strictly demands that no abnormal defects be developed in their work.

The Sunghori Cement Factory also goes all out to boost the output of its cement.

Other cement factories, too, incessantly work hard to produce more cement for important construction sites.

Full speed ahead to a bright future, then, with this dynamic advance and leap forward toward the fresh victory of the revolution.

history, from its use of the trompe l’oeil technique that grew in popularity in the 1500s to its evocation of ruinism, an 18th Century style that portrayed ancient architecture “as testimonials to a glorious past in a dramatic reflection on the fate of mankind,” a release says, noting that Palazzo Strozzi will not be preserving the piece beyond its initial construction.

JR on Instagram.

its employees to refrain from making comments to those around them or to their families about the Malaysia situation.  

In addition to North Koreans living abroad, members of the Pyongyang ruling class are reportedly aware of the diplomatic break with Malaysia.

North Koreans with knowledge about the incident have reportedly expressed great disappointment in the authorities for failing to protect a loyal trader who took risks for the Workers’ Party. 

A source in North Korea told Daily NK that “[people] are embarrassed that a North Korean citizen was taken to the United States, North Korea’s greatest enemy” and that “[North Koreans] believed that if their country possessed nuclear weapons, they would be able to conduct diplomatic and economic relations in the international community. They are shocked that [international] action and cooperation has continued to be unsuccessful despite their acquisition of nuclear weapons.”

It appears that some believed that the violation of sanctions against North Korea would not result in substantial retaliation because their country has nuclear weapons. However, this incident has confirmed that nuclear weapons can not “protect” North Korean people living abroad.

Another source in the country told Daily NK that “the trader who was taken to the United States [likely] was not bringing luxury goods into [North Korea] for himself,” and that “people think of the ‘Utmost Dignity’ [North Korean leader Kim Jong Un] as the sun and risk their lives getting items into the country. However, if the Party can’t protect them [from arrest], they might not want to continue these dangerous activities.”

In short, the extradition of Mun Chol Myong to the United States on charges of money laundering reportedly has North Korean traders abroad feeling skepticism about the feasibility of taking items into the country amid import sanctions against North Korea. They also appear to feel disappointment toward the North Korean authorities for failing to protect him.

The source in China told Daily NK that “if [the North Korean authorities] aren’t careful, the incident in Malaysia could have a significant impact on the ideological resolve of traders” and that “it appears that this is what the authorities are most worried about.”

So the possession of nuclear weapons turns out not to be the great get-out-of-jail-free card that they'd naively believed. And, to cut through the crap, traders abroad are not going to be too keen to smuggle luxury items for the "Utmost Dignity" if the greedy fat bastard can't even protect them.

ime denounced it as a “nefarious act and unpardonably heavy crime”.

Joshua Stanton at One Free Korea:

Mun undoubtedly knows many things about where Pyongyang hides his money, and his intelligence value could be inestimable. But the real impact of his extradition was to persuade Kim Jong-un that Malaysia was no longer a safe place for his agents, and to panic him into pulling his people out and cutting diplomatic relations. That will be a significant shock to Kim’s finances, because Malaysia was one of the largest hubs of North Korea’s money laundering operations.

Bad things tend to happen when you slime another country’s airports with nerve agents. The real surprise is that this breach didn’t happen four years ago.

As Stanton notes, this move will have been going on behind the scenes for quite a while, so it shouldn't be taken as some kind of statement of intent on the part of the new Biden administration.

eft: 40px”>“This approach became stronger with the region-wide realisation that the United States does not intend to remain in the Middle East for ever and does not intend to fight other people’s wars."

But what we don't yet know is the extent to which Joe Biden is set on reviving Obama's doomed attempts at rapprochement with Iran via a revival of the JCPOA. That could put an unwelcome spanner in the works.

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The pink of "transgender" has gone from practically nothing in 2013 to recent dominance, while "lesbian", "gay", and "bisexual" are being squeezed out.

The situation is echoed in the US, with the Human Rights Campaign:

The charts show quite clearly how LGBT campaigning groups like Stonewall changed their priorities once the gay liberation battle had effectively been won, culminating in the legalisation of gay marriage here in 2014. The focus on trans issues suddenly and dramatically increased as, instead of just quietly dissolving themselves and looking for new careers in accountancy or whatever, they headed off in an exciting new direction to keep the money flowing in: a new and, in fact, diametrically opposed direction, as groups like the LGB Alliance have been pointing out for a while now.

“>Endemic corruption and curbs on free speech like a ban on sending propaganda leaflets to North Korea are among the human rights concerns the U.S. State Department has flagged in South Korea in an annual global report.

The State Department's 2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices will be published later this month.

A summary of this year's report cites the South Korean government's ban on sending anti-communist propaganda leaflets over the border into North Korea as a worrying infringement on the freedom of expression of human rights activists and opposition figures.

It's an infringement on freedom of expression, and a sad display of cowardice in the face of North Korean threats. It's true of course that it's easy to criticise the South from distant safety, when you don't have an unstable nuclear-armed opponent pointing their weapons at you, but still, this was surely a pointless and spineless act of appeasement.

The report is embarrassing for the government not least because it is led by a former human-rights lawyer, President Moon Jae-in. The government here has also assiduously turned a blind eye to flagrant human rights abuses in North Korea in order to achieve some kind of rapprochement with the repressive regime.

Roberta Cohen, a former State Department official, said in an interview with Voice of America that the Moon administration sees human rights issues as an "obstacle" to its overtures to North Korea. She added that peace cannot be achieved if such issues are swept under the rug and criticized the South Korean government for lacking confidence to condemn North Korea's human rights abuses alongside its partners in the UN.

Meanwhile, North Korea is cozying up to fellow human rights abuser China. The North Korean Foreign Ministry said on March 20 that its ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Han Tae-song, called on Western countries to stop "meddling" in China's internal affairs by criticizing its human rights abuses in Hong Kong and Xinjiang.

The remarks appear aimed at showing off North Korea's close ties with China as the Biden administration places greater emphasis on the matter than the Trump administration. 

-size: 11pt”>You might be forgiven for thinking this is just a parochial row within a party on the fringes of British politics. But it's more than that. Why? Because the intolerance at the heart of the Greens' gender debate is not only confined to this party. Worryingly, there are signs – in the Labour party, the Lib Dems, Plaid Cymru and the SNP – that such a one-sided debate is becoming the norm.

So how has this happened? Because some now think that standing up for science and – indeed – for the safety and protection of women is transphobic. It isn't. But those who make that point, like Bateman, risk being hounded, smeared and suspended. 

How has this happened? A large part of the answer lies with the way that special interest groups like Stonewall UK have managed to present themselves as trans experts, and positioned the debate to be about the progressive concerns of a down-trodden minority desperately trying to assert their rights, battling against an uncaring transphobic world. What they don't tell you is that these supposed rights not only require swallowing a belief in a load of absurd anti-scientific gender nonsense, but also come at the expense of woman and gays.