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Meanwhile, in Iran:

A woman who died of a heart attack just as she was about to be executed for murder in Iran was hanged anyway as a concession to her alleged victim’s mother, her lawyer has claimed.

The woman, named as Zahra Ismaili, had been convicted of killing her husband, although Omid Moradi, her lawyer, said that he was abusive and she had acted to defend herself and her daughter.

Moradi posted online a description of his client’s death, saying she was waiting in line behind 16 men and was forced to watch as they were hanged.

Before her turn came she collapsed with an apparent heart attack and appeared to be dead. However, according to Moradi, she was hanged anyway so that her husband’s mother could exercise her right to kick away the chair from under her.

In other Iranian news:

Female cartoon characters shown on Iranian television should have their hair covered, the supreme leader has said, in a ruling that was featured prominently on pro-regime media.

In what the Tasnim News Agency described as an “important” response, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that technically it was not necessary for cartoon characters to observe the same rules as real people when it came to the hijab. However, he added that they should do so “because of the consequences of not doing so”.

He did not specify what he meant, but comparison with rulings on similar subjects would suggest he feared that to ignore the hijab in popular entertainment would have a knock-on effect for people’s observance.

Luckily for cartoon characters they can't be hung – dead or alive.

A fine speech in the House of Lords yesterday by Philip Hunt, in a debate on the second reading of the Maternity Allowances Bill:

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VgUHar4HWk&w=550&h=309]

What Labour Women's Declaration are calling a "historic speech":

Lord Philip Hunt speaks in support of the amendment put by Baroness Noakes (Con), "That the Bill be now read a second time, at the end insert 'but that this House regrets that the Bill is drafted in a way which does not respect the fact that only women can be pregnant'"

And, according to the Glinner Update, "a game changer".

John Vachon in Norfolk, Virginia, March 1941:

"Defense workers in front of rooming houses. Norfolk, Virginia."

"Overcrowded Navy towns — housing in Norfolk, Virginia."
[Photos: Shorpy/John Vachon for the Farm Security Administration]

o told members of the public that 'being offensive' is indeed a crime.

Now, it seems, Merseyside police has changed its mind. 'We would like to clarify that being offensive is not in itself an offence', said a statement put out by superintendent Martin Earl:

‘A message on an ad van and social media this weekend by the Local Policing Team on the Wirral to encourage people to report hate crime although well intentioned was incorrect and we apologise for any confusion this may have caused’

"1935 Ford Tudor sedan at gas station." 1941, Southern California:

[Photo: Shorpy/Don Cox]

A new Ford V8 for 1935 – promo video, including some nice shots of the Ford River Rouge Complex.

Polish state, and the veracity of historical truth is now to be decided through litigation, not debate among scholars….

In the meantime, the Polish anti-defamation law is being enforced on some level. Earlier this month, journalist Katarzyna Markusz was summoned by the police and questioned about how she had “offended the Polish nation”. Writing in the journal Krytyka Polityczna, she had dared to ask, “Will we live to see the day when the Polish authorities will admit that among the Poles, by and large, there was no sympathy for the Jews and that Polish participation in the Holocaust is a historical fact?”

Not, it seems, for a while yet.

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Here's Palestinian Islamic Scholar Mraweh Nassar, Secretary-General of the Jerusalem Committee of the IUMS (the International Union of Muslim Scholars), on Turkish TV:

Not much ambiguity here. Citing the holy Koran as his authority – well, he is an Islamic scholar – he wants all Jews to be wiped out. To be killed. Once that happens, once the world has been cleansed of the Jews, Muslims will "experience their best days", the earth will bring forth its blessings, people will live in peace, you'll be able to put your hand safely in the mouth of a snake, and wolves will graze with sheep.

Live on Turkish TV. 

From the Atlantic's In Focus:

Central Prague at dawn. Michal Cizek / AFP / Getty

The "Alter Flecken" area of Freudenberg, Germany. Ina Fassbender / AFP / Getty

rters of all camps managed by the Ministry of Social Security and the Ministry of State Security.” […]

North Korea has recently enacted the “anti-reactionary thought law,” and is punishing violators with heavy sentences such as hard labor and the death penalty. 

It is also noteworthy that Kim Jong Un put strong education and discipline at the forefront of both the Eighth Party Congress and the second plenary meeting of the Eighth Central Committee of the Workers’ Party. Kim emphasized the need to get rid of “every form of anti-socialism, non-socialism, sectarianism, bureaucracy, corruption, tax evasion and all kinds of criminal acts.” Censorship and crackdowns are expected to be further strengthened throughout North Korean society. 

North Korea may be attempting to send violators of the new law to political prison camps by conducting a large-scale crackdown on anti-socialism and non-socialism. 

“The newly established Party censorship divisions will undertake a massive project to turn the entire country red [socialist]” and that “those who oppose the declaration of war against anti-socialism and non-socialism will be punished regardless of their position, merits or songbun status,” the source said, using a term to describe social status in the country.

The source explained that “the party and the judicial, counterintelligence and security agencies have decided to punish anti-socialist and non-socialist actors by treating them as anti-party and counter-revolutionary elements.”

The move can be interpreted as North Korea aiming to promote internal unity through a powerful crackdown on matters that could lead to people breaking away from the regime ideologically. 

Or it could be interpreted as further evidence that North Korea is determined to maintain its position, despite fierce opposition, as the worst country in the world for human rights and freedom.

As Christopher Hitchens said:

The North Korean state was founded in 1950/51. That's the year 1984 was published for the first time. You think, could it be that someone handed a Korean translation to Kim il Sung and said, "Do you think we could make this fly?"… 

And here we are now with the thought police. It's still going according to plan.