Day: May 21, 2024
From Joe Biden’s point of view, returning the WikiLeaks founder to Australia and consigning him to history may be the wisest move
The Julian Assange farce has run its time. He should be left to return to his homeland of Australia. Yet another appeal against successive British court decisions to extradite him to the US has been allowed. It merely prolongs the tedium. Washington should consider Assange’s more than a decade on the run to be penalty enough for his past sins. It should not want to see its own record in Afghanistan and Iraq revived before the court of world opinion.
Like many freelancers in the undergrowth of espionage, Assange is no knight in shining armour. Phone hacking is an infringement of privacy to which he first pleaded guilty in 1996 in Australia. He then graduated to state secrets. Some such secrets may require the protection of the law, including those concerning individuals as well as private advice and information. Others undoubtedly merit public concern.
Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist
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I was brought up to think sick people must do dietary penance. Then I tasted the delicious tikka masalas of a London hospital
I was born into a family with little love for food, and therefore scarcely Italian: I grew up with salads and overcooked pasta and two parents who looked at eating as nothing more than a necessary compromise to survive. Only as an adult did I discover that food was indeed a source of satisfaction, and that in Italy in particular it was associated with hospitality, conviviality and good feelings in general. As one of our most noted writers, Elsa Morante, put it: “The truest display of affection, the only one indeed, is ‘Have you eaten?’” That’s right: not the decrepit, abstract “I love you”, but a concerned question about your dear one having had a meal or not.
There is only one place where this food-cherishing narrative fails, and it’s the hospital. As every Italian knows, as soon as you’re admitted as a patient, the opulence of tastes is replaced with miserable food worthy of a medieval jail. The meals served to patients not only lack variety (you can count on one hand the available options throughout the year) but are chewy, hard and strictly devoid of any taste or seasoning. So widespread is this practice, with no exceptions (even, as far as I know, in expensive private clinics) that no one has ever wondered where it came from. In fact, I hadn’t, either until last summer.I was admitted to a London hospital for a chest infection. To my surprise, a very nice member of staff came round every day to show me a menu and let me choose between different options: all complex, tasty dishes drawing on different culinary traditions. While stuffing myself with scrumptious tikka masalas and delicious Asian sweet-and-sour dishes, I started questioning why, in my home country, the experience for me (and everyone else) had been so different.
Viola Di Grado Viola Di Grado is an Italian novelist and literary translator. Her latest novel is Blue Hunger.
Operators of Strike Drones Company UAVs of the 47th Separate Mechanised Brigade attacked an enemy armoured personnel carrier with infantry in the Avdiivka direction.
The post Ukrainian FPV drone strikes at Russian MT-LB with armored infantry in Avdiivka direction. VIDEO first appeared on JOSSICA – The Journal of the Open Source Strategic Intelligence and Counterintelligence Analysis.
The enemy armoured group, led by its aerial reconnaissance men, drove into a minefield set up by Ukrainian soldiers.
The post Enemy aerial reconnaissance leads its armored group of 8 vehicles into minefield: “Two tanks have been blown up! Rear vehicle is f#cked! Ammo is exploded!”. VIDEO first appeared on JOSSICA – The Journal of the Open Source Strategic Intelligence and Counterintelligence Analysis.
On the night of 21 May, in the Kryvyi Rih district of Dnipropetrovsk region, the defenders of the sky destroyed 2 Shaheds.
The post 2 Shaheds were destroyed in Kryvyi Rih district, houses damaged in Nikopol region due to enemy shelling. PHOTOS first appeared on JOSSICA – The Journal of the Open Source Strategic Intelligence and Counterintelligence Analysis.
