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gyang on Monday, students from each university in the city are holding practice sessions in “empty areas” on major streets in Pyongyang’s central districts.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Daily NK that up to 100,000 people will participate in the mass parade at Kim Il Sung Square. Students attending universities in Pyongyang are expected to march in columns during the event and even take part in “mass games” at the square.

Currently, students at the universities are attending lectures in the mornings and then practicing for the parade from 1 PM to 8:30 PM, the source said. According to him, the students are completely focused on the practice sessions: they are wearing their required uniforms and bringing flags inscribed with communist party insignia, colorful flower bouquets and drums to use during the training. 

“Students are being pushed to the limit with group practices on top of their regular lectures,” the source said. “By the time practice is over, they don’t get home until 10 or 11 PM, so many students are having a tough time and end up getting in trouble for dozing off during morning classes.” 

According to the source, the students will be taking morning classes and participating in afternoon practice sessions until Sept. 16. On Sept. 17, they will just be required to attend morning classes but have the rest of the day off. From Sept. 18, however, the students will no longer attend classes, nor will they be afforded time off during the weekends; instead, they will be required to participate in “intense training” at Kim Il Sung Square every day from 8 AM to 7 PM.

Although students are complaining of fatigue due to the already draconian schedule, they are reportedly practicing as hard as they can so they avoid falling or tripping during the parade on Oct. 10. […]

Political organizations at each university are reportedly barraging students with propaganda during the practice sessions. For example, the students are being instructed to “demonstrate unlimited loyalty to the Great Leaders” and to “do their best during the training” because Oct. 10 is the communist party’s “biggest event” of the year. 

“This kind of ideological education is also a central part of weekly criticism sessions, where the students conduct self-criticisms and criticize others,” the source explained.

Let's hope that the prestige project of the Pyongyang General Hospital construction is ready on time – due for a grand opening on the 75th anniversary party on Oct. 10. There have been problems – soldiers drafted in, exhausted workers falling to their deaths, that sort of thing. Nothing too serious.

No word yet on how that series of literary works focused on the Pyongyang General Hospital project is going.

Russell Lee in Utah, August 1940:

"Daughter of Mormon farmer sweeping up the kitchen. Snowville, Utah."

"Mormon farm family. Snowville, Utah."

"Daughter of Mormon farmer putting away dishes in kitchen cabinet. Box Elder County, Utah."

"Wife of Mormon farmer with canned goods. Snowville, Utah."
[Photos: Shorpy/Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration]

This seems sensible, in the face of endless panicky news items about the increase in coronavirus cases, the dreaded second wave, and the "rule of six":

The resurgence of coronavirus is nothing to be feared and lockdown measures are doing more harm than the pandemic itself, a leading Belgian medical scientist has said.

Jean-Luc Gala, head of the prestigious Université Catholique de Louvain Saint-Luc clinic and a specialist in infectious diseases, has broken ranks with other scientists and tried to quell fears over the rise of the Belgian infection rate.

He said that it was not dangerous for the virus to circulate and the lack of a vaccine could help to bring about herd immunity in the population.

“Is the rise in infections worrying? No. It is completely normal. Is it dangerous for the virus to circulate? No, once again,” he told La Dernière Heure newspaper.

“It is now circulating in a category that does not suffer from it, young people who will at worst have small symptoms, at best nothing at all.

“If people are infected but do not develop symptoms, so much the better. We do not have a vaccine and that contributes to herd immunity.”

Professor Gala’s comments come as the infection rate in Belgium continues to grow, up 50 per cent over the past week to an average of nearly 750 cases a day.

Despite the resurgence in the virus, hospital admissions remain low, less than a third of the level reached when lockdown measures were introduced.

Deaths from the virus have continued to decline throughout the summer.

“We have positive tests, but no patients,” Professor Gala said. Severe cases are not appearing in clinics such as the one he runs in Brussels, he added.

“They are no longer seen in the hospital. There are hardly any patients 65 years and over. Look at the hospitalisations and intensive care. The situation is perfectly under control,” he said.

Positive tests, but no patients. Rather like here.

Under the rhododendron bushes at Kenwood:

b her, talk over her, and refuse to accept her opinions because they are from a woman form one of the novels most convincing themes.

In this sense, if nothing else, Rowling’s latest work honestly mirrors her online life. She knows, as her characters know, that women who speak out of turn find themselves alone in a free-fire zone.

That Telegraph reviewer, Jake Kerridge, must be very proud of himself.

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[Photos: Peter Bartlett]

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A couple of months back I posted about a BBC report of a woman jailed for possessing a "vast" library of child sexual abuse images. What the report failed to mention – though it was obvious enough from the accompanying photo – was that the "woman" was in fact a man with long hair dressed as a woman. As was noted, the reporting and recording of such cases as female crimes serves to distort the statistics. Such crimes are overwhelmingly committed by males.

Trans Crime UK document such cases, and they've produced a video, These Are Not Our Crimes.

This film presents over 70 male criminals from the UK who insist that they are women. They are not women, but their crimes are reported in the media as crimes committed by women. In Court they are referred to as 'she' and 'her'. Female names are used. Some of these men have had their crimes officially recorded as having been committed by a woman. Some have been sent to a women’s prison, to serve their sentences amongst female prisoners, who are given no choice in this.

More at Women are Human, where they report on an Australian case:

The person charged with torturing, beating and slashing the throat of a lover’s dog in Marrickville, Sydney was reported earlier this month to be 24-year-old woman Olivia Sindel.

But read further down, reports of the court hearing on charges of causing the death of an animal, stalking or intimidating, contravening an apprehended violence order, using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend and of breaching bail – and the defence lawyer refers to “problems relating to her gender re-assignment surgery”. 

When historians look back on this period, they may be surprised to find a sudden upsurge in violent crimes committed by women. How to explain? What could possibly have caused such an extraordinary change in human nature? 

The Arts and Crafts style Boundary Estate in Shoreditch. Built in the 1890s, it was a pioneer social housing scheme, replacing the notorious Old Nichol rookery, well known as one of the worst slums in London.

I wrote about the place in more detail here.

means we can no longer protect women. Women are well accustomed to making sacrifices for the sake of men’s comfort and feelings. Everywhere, all the time, men come first. How foolish we would have to be, then, to expect it might be any different at a women’s shelter. As women in a men’s world, we should know this much, if nothing else: there is safety nowhere. Not for us.