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The US State Department on September 28 announced the evacuation of personnel from the consulate in Basra, Iraq, citing “security threats from Iran.” A day earlier, Iraqi media outlets reported that mortar shell or rockets landed near the consulate, though an “anonymous” Iraqi security source said that no strikes had taken place. Another “anonymous senior Iraqi official” told the Washington Post, “We are not aware of any intention by Iran or its friends in Iraq to attack American diplomats or the consulate.” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, however, has contradicted the unnamed Iraqi officials, corroborating initial media reports about “indirect fire…within the past 24 hours” against the consulate. He said Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) ordered the strike. That would mark the third known such attack against US missions in Iraq in the past month. “Threats to our personnel and facilities in Iraq from the Government of Iran, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Qu

Sept. 14 through Dec. 30, 2018 Reynolda House Museum of American Art January - April, 2019 Suzanne H. Arnold Art Gallery, PA ​ September– December, 2019 Gilcrease Museum, OK September - December, 2020 Pulaski Tech, AR The exhibition, “Dorothea Lange’s America,” presents Lange’s haunting photographs of 1930s and 1940s America and features some of the most iconic images of the 20 th century. “Lange’s documentary photographs appeared in local newspapers, reaching both the masses across middle America and the lawmakers in our nation’s capital, becoming poignant catalysts for social change and, ultimately, highly valued works of art,” says Allison Perkins, Reynolda House executive director. “We identified this exhibition as an opportunity not only to appreciate the artistry of her photographs, but also to draw connections between their subjects and our communities today.” One of the highlights of the exhibition is the most recognizable photograph of Lange’s career, “Mi

An awkward moment Well, well, well! With the exception of a few irreconcilable still talking about Mr Marr being "a Tory shill", the vast bulk of Left and the #FBPE crowd on Twitter have been positively brimming with praise for Andrew Marr this morning - though many of their comments have been caveat-laden variations on the theme of "For a change Marr did a good job. Surprised".  They obviously really enjoyed Mr Marr's Paxmanesque questioning, Theresa May's car crash performance and the very awkward icy silence between her and Andrew as the credits rolled.  I have no objections to it but I do object to the way Andrew Marr brought the interview to a close by making a loaded point of his own about a no-deal Brexit: Andrew Marr : But per-pupil funding has fallen over the last two years. It's now been frozen. And that's why they're so upset. Lots of your MPs think this country has had enough of the lean years and it's time to c

Source:- Donald Trump may visit India as Chief guest for Republic day celebrations next year US President Donald Trump looks forward to visit India to reflect on the “amazingly positive” trajectory in India-US relationship, a top Trump Administration official said Friday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has invited Trump to be the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations next year.”President Trump does look forward to visiting india again to reflect on what has been an amazingly positive trajectory in our relationship,” Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of South and Central Asia Region Alice Wells told PTI here in response to a question on when would the US president be able to make a visit to India. Wells added that she does not have further details as to when the President’s trip to India will take place. “I love India, give my regards to my friend PM (Narendra) Modi,” Trump had told External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday as they exchanged pleasantri

The BBC's New York correspondent Nick Bryant is not pleased with Donald Trump. In a tweeted editorial , the opinionated BBC man is today accusing the US president of showing "wide-eyed, adolescent-style affection" for Kim Jong Un:

SANT JULIÀ DE RAMIS, Spain - For Jaume Casamitjana, last year's banned independence referendum in Catalonia marked a watershed in his feelings about Spain, while for Alexandra Lopez-Liz, it pushed her to take a stand against the separatist movement. A year after the contested October 1, 2017 referendum, disagreements over separatism have deepened in the wealthy northwestern region of Spain, which is home to some 7.5 million people and has its own distinct language. Far from uniting the community, it has polarised opinion, leaving deep divisions over the region's fate. The tiny village of Sant Julia de Ramis -- which was prevented from participating in the referendum after dozens of riot police smashed their way into its polling station to seize voting material just before it opened -- plans to mark the anniversary of the vote on Monday. "For many, it was a point of no return regarding Spain," said Casamitjana, who lives in this town of 3,500 people in the province

Just under a week ago,  a question ... ...led me to half-complete a post.  It originally ran as follows: Hmm. Checking TV Eyes for Radio 4 from 6-9am that morning [i.e. 24 September] and listing all the mentions of "referendum" by BBC reporters and presenters found the following:  "another referendum" - 6  "a second referendum" - 3  "a further referendum" - 3 "a new referendum" - 2  So that's 3 uses of "second referendum" compared to 11 uses of the (non 'People's Vote') alternatives to "second referendum". Two of the uses of "a second referendum" came in a single sentence by Nick Robinson. Well, maybe I should have finished it as it turns out that, yes, there really  is a   BBC editorial policy about it and, yes, "second referendum" genuinely is   deliberately  being sidelined as a term by the BBC.  Here's Roland White, writing in The Sunday Times today :

Source:- Pak “Prints Postage Stamps Glorifying Terrorists”: Sushma Swaraj Hits Out . India on Saturday lambasted the lack of progress at the UN for adopting a global convention on international terrorism, saying it is because of such inactions that terrorists with a bounty on their head are celebrated and glorified with postage stamps. India last week called off a meeting between External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi at the UN citing the release of postal stamps “glorifying” Kashmiri terrorist Burhan Wani by Pakistan as one of the reasons. “Each year, for last five years, India has been arguing from this podium that lists are not enough to check terrorists and their protectors. We need to bring them to accountability through international law,” Ms Swaraj said in her address to the General Debate of the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly. She said that India had proposed a draft document in 1996 on the Comprehensive Convention

Source:- Russia-India S-400 air defence systems deal problematic: Pakistan Pakistan is concerned about India moving closer to acquiring Russian S-400 air defence systems and urges Moscow not to bet on New Delhi alone, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry told Sputnik in an interview. On Thursday, local media reported that Indian authorities are ready to sign a $5.43 billion contract to purchase five regiments of Russian S-400 Triumph air defence systems. “That is the problem,” Chaudhry said on Friday when asked what Islamabad thinks of the possible purchase by India. “India is using its might against Pakistan, they are building their power against Pakistan, and that is very unfair. We know that Russia and India have a relationship, but now I think Pakistan is also getting closer to Russia, so Russia should not place its bets on India only.” Russia and Pakistan’s relationship, Chaudhry added, is improving day by day and Islamabad is looking forward to working closely with Moscow on de

Source:- HAL needs major restructuring, introduction of accountability It had started as a private company in Bangalore prior to Independence in December 1940, as Hindustan Aircraft Pvt Ltd belonging to Walchand Hirachand, in association with the then Government of Mysore. The government took control of it in 1942 and then in collaboration with the Intercontinental Aircraft Company engaged in manufacturing four different American fighter aircraft of that era. But these programmes were abandoned a year later in favour of overhauling and repairing aircraft to support the World War-II efforts. Eventually, in January 1951, four years after Independence, it was brought under the control of the Ministry of Defence. It was not until almost 14 years later that the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited or HAL was formed in October 1964, after Hindustan Aircraft was merged with Aeronautics India Limited, which had earlier been created by the government to manufacture MiG-21 aircraft from the former So

Source:- Production facility for man-portable anti-tank missiles inaugarated The production facility for manufacturing Man-Portable Anti-Tank Guided Missiles (MP-ATGM) was inaugurated by at Bharat Dynamics Ltd (BDL) unit at Bhanur here on Saturday by Chairman of Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) G. Satheesh Reddy. Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Reddy, who is also the Secretary of the Department of Defence Research & Development & Chairman, explained about various missile programmes on the anvil. MPATGM is a third generation Man-Portable Anti-Tank Missile to be used by Infantry and Parachute battalions of the Indian Army developed by State-owned DRDO in partnership with Private sector company VEM Technologies Ltd which is helping in sub-system manufacturing for the DRDO. DRDO successfully flight tested the indigenously developed third generation anti-tank guided missile (ATGM), Nag, twice last year on September 8 against two different targets in the ranges of R

Album cover from 1970 (Almost) away from questions of bias... BBC Radio 3 has been building up all week to a BBC Symphony Orchestra performance tonight of Holst's The Planets ,  first performed 100 years ago this very day. Now, please guess (if you want to) just who BBC Radio 3 has invited to guest host the performance tonight? Go on, go on, go on, have a guess!... (Clue: It's surely the choice you'd expect the predictable BBC to make if it's a classical piece vaguely connected to 'space' and 'planets', even if the piece is actually far more astrology than astronomy - not that that's the kind of thing that would bother the BBC! - and even if the presenter in question is far more closely associated with Blairite pop music). So it's surely got to be?... Further Clue: His name is an anagram of 'Cox Brian'.) Personal blogger moment: While other late 80s teenagers were cheerfully singing along to Kylie and the r

Here's another transcript, just for all of you Katty Kay fans (and I know there are legions of you out there). It comes from the BBC News Channel's Outside Source . I've highlighted in bold some of the choicer passages. The way Katty and, indeed, Ros drop in those little sops to impartiality whilst being anything but impartial and immediately contradicting themselves is almost... almost ...worthy of grudging admiration (especially if you're into Machiavelli). Ros Atkins : And Katty, even if the Republicans do take Brett Kavanaugh's side of the story, does his demeanour have any bearing on their decision? Because a lot of people have been watching this and thinking, this man's not calm, this man is not reflective as you might expect a judge to be, and he certainly is not nonpartisan.  Katty Kay : So, in 1991, Clarence Thomas was accused of sexual harassment by Anita Ford. She gave her testimony and was seen to be very credible. He then came back after her

From this morning's Today ... John Humphrys : 15 years ago the invasion of Iraq had just taken place. Saddam Hussein was still on the run. The armed resistance to the Americans and their British allies was just getting going. Nowadays Iraq is struggling with a range of problems, including water shortages and the effects of climate change.  Our World Affairs Editor John Simpson reflects on how the country is faring while the attention of many in the West is turned elsewhere:  John Simpson : The marshes of southern Iraq are some of the most exciting, ancient and visually stunning stretches of landscape on earth, and they are in serious trouble once again.  When I first visited them in 1991 they were just starting to recover from Saddam Hussein's efforts to drain them. When I went back in 2005 they seemed mostly thriving. Now though the villain isn't Saddam. It's global warming.  The two rivers that feed into them, the Tigris and Euphrates, are disturbing

As part of the blog's '...and any other matters that take our fancy' remit, here's a discussion from this week's More or Less that caught my attention concerning survival rates among World War Two Spitfire pilots, and I thought I'd share (via a classic ITBB transcript): Tim Harford : Loyal listener Andrew wrote to us to ask: Andrew : It is often mentioned that the average lifespan of a Spitfire pilots was four weeks. Those pilots were heroes of course, but I've never quite understood how that figure for life expectancy was calculated. Can you explain? Is it correct? The Battle of Britain took place around this time 78 years ago, in British airspace between the 10th July and the 31st October 1940. On the British side flew nearly 3,000 men, including nearly 600 from allies such as Poland, New Zealand, Canada and Czechoslovakia Archive clip : In the first year of this war British pilots brought down 1,750 in raids on this country. These are the men

This blog never properly addressed the much-hyped Bodyguard. Craig, who hadn’t watched it himself, covered it by way of Laura Perrins's Live Tweets. Bloody Richard Madden The BBC bigged up Jed Mercurio’s series shamelessly, but at the end of the day, to quote James Delingpole, it was a load of utter tripe. The only way one could make head or tail of the story was by visiting the Guardian’s recaps - one of that paper’s few redeeming features. It astonished me that so many viewers actually knew the names of the many indistinguishable characters, whom they referred to with such familiarity, ”Craddock”  and “Sampson”,  you’d think some of them actually knew what was supposed to be going on. Haddock and Salmon Anyway, Dellers has done such a good job, we at ITBB need go no further. Here are some of his best bits: Even more distracting than the gratuitous sex, mind you, was the diversity casting. The whole exercise was like an extended United Colours of

Source:- HAL doesn’t fly because Sukhois aren’t Rafales :-Shekhar Gupta Snce recent history is now divided between what came before or after Google, 20 years old now, this story just about makes the cut as it dates back to early 1998. George Fernandes had just been appointed the surprise defence minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s cabinet, to much scepticism. How was a trade union maverick in crumpled kurta-pyjama and chappals going to run India’s most formal, spit-and-polish ministry. Fernandes surprised us by how quickly he found his way around. The first challenge he encountered was breaking the vicious circle, or rather circles within concentric circles, of the I’ll-do-nothing-I’ll-let-you-do-nothing bureaucracy. For atheist Fernandes (he took oath of office not in the name of God but by solemnly affirming), Siachen Glacier became his favourite pilgrimage and fixation. “My most distressing discovery,” he said to me in a recorded interview in Siachen, “is that in the MoD, they nev