#Minister take oath

[todayworldnews2k21]

Ajit Pawar Shares Mahayuti’s ‘Two-And-A-Half Year’ Plan For Maharashtra Cabinet Berths

Maharashtra Cabinet Expansion: Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Sunday assured opportunities for other legislators not in the current ministry. He said the ruling Mahayuti would include them during the government’s tenure. NCP leader Pawar was addressing a gathering of party workers in Nagpur when he said that the alliance will give opportunity to others for ‘two-and-a-half…

[townpostin]

Jharkhand Minister Hafizul Ansari Faces Allegations for Disrespecting National Anthem

Complaint filed by BJP youth wing officebearer Rahul Dubey for alleged disrespect during the national anthem. Jharkhand Minister Hafizul Ansari has been accused of disrespecting the national anthem in a complaint filed at Argora police station in Ranchi. RANCHI – Jharkhand Minister Hafizul Ansari faces allegations of disrespecting the national anthem, as a complaint was filed against him by BJP…

[hobidreams]

minis: december 1872.

shouldn't we all get a chance to be happy?

pairing: joseon king!yoongi x reader (side story) words: ~1400 note: this takes place a few months after the epilogue + a few years before the last mini!

moonlit throne index. this is drabble 48. start from the beginning?

Staunchly loyal and fiercely protective, Royal Guard Jung Hoseok’s life had long revolved around two things since the untimely passing of his wife: his beloved, precious daughter, Aera, and the royal family he had sworn to protect with all of his life. For as long as he could remember, his oath meant doing everything in his power to ensure his king remained physically safe, even if Hoseok was powerless to alleviate the emotional turmoil that plagued jeonha for most of his life. But he’d seen how things had changed in the past year, for both his king and his friend, the su-uinyeo-nim he respected and had always considered part of the royal family, official titles or not. He’d been blessed to witness the happiness that finally had the chance to blossom between two people that deserved it most.

And with that change, that tidal shift, in swept the pure force that was Seong-min, jungjeon-mama, into Hoseok’s life.

The first time he had seen her, the strong emotion that thundered through him had been of surprise.

Despite knowing that appearances were often deceiving, he had expected… a girl. A young, bright-eyed girl who had been pampered her whole life like jeonha’s former betrothed, Beom-su, had been. Instead, though she was still more youthful than he, there was a certain hardness in jungjeon-mama’s eyes. An edge that spoke of a clever mind and a stubborn resilience, tempered only by the social decorum she was a careful expert in. Hoseok had been instantly fascinated (in his professional capacity, he told himself). Hopelessly unable to keep the corner of his eye from wandering back to her whenever he stood guard in her vicinity in the months since her marriage to jeonha.

More than once, Hoseok had caught her mask slipping: an upward, amused quirk of her lips when jeonha scolded a particularly annoying minister, the quick flash of a lethal glare in her eyes when someone disrespected one of the people she considered her own. Hoseok couldn’t help the swell of his own pride at catching one of those moments, then keeping his lips sealed about them. Especially when she began to turn towards him (coincidentally, he was sure) to give her candid reaction before she molded herself into the regal ruler once more.

All of these thoughts, Hoseok very much kept to himself, even though he was one of few that had been entrusted with the truth of the platonic relationship between the king and the queen. He was the leader of the Guard. He was just being protective. Every time he brought her fruit was just part of his duties. Every time he went to the market personally to purchase what she sought. And she only continuously called for him because he was reliable.

Oh, but now, standing before her for the very first time in the warm lamplight of her sitting room, the collar of her chima slightly more ajar than it would ever be in public, Hoseok is discovering that perhaps all that interest was less appropriate than he convinced himself it was.

“Guard Jung,” Jungjeon-mama calls, and he is terrified that she can hear his heart speed up at her voice that sounds far too intimate in this space, “do you have the yakgwa I requested?”

“Good evening, jungjeon-mama.” Hoseok’s sleeves pull slight friction against the rest of his uniform. “I have it, yes.”

Seong-min pulls her sharp eyes up from her book, and gives him one of her trademark stares that often means she’s seeing more than she lets on. “Then what are you waiting for?”

“I…” He stands firm at the threshold of her chambers, his feet frozen to the ground, his pulse stuttering. His entire body is stiff in a way it’s never been before. Not when he’s spent most of his life honing his muscles to respond to him exactly he way he wants. But he shouldn’t go any further here. It wouldn’t be right.

More than anything, Hoseok is frustrated with himself. He’s a goddamn soldier. He should be able to spit out his thoughts. But the way she’s looking at him is making words jumble in his mind. “May I just leave them here?” He finally gets out after a beat of tenuous silence, like the coward he’s never known himself to be.

“No.” She offers no further explanation. Just taps a slender finger twice on the wooden desk right before her to indicate exactly where he should put the delivery of cookies. “Close the door behind you.”

The scrape of the door behind him feels like the sharpening of an executioner’s blade for what he is doing. But that was a direct order from his queen. With his left hand, Hoseok clenches the box so hard he has to remind himself to relax.

“I do not think I should be doing this,” Hoseok says, even as he steps further inside. Maybe that could absolve some of his guilt.

“And why is that?”

Hoseok swallows. The floor creaks under his foot. “Propriety, of course. An unmarried man should not be alone with a young woman, much less one of your stature, jungjeon-mama. Confucious’ teachings and decorum and…”

“What are you afraid will happen?”

The pure, easy amusement that beams from her face stuns him into silence. He’s never seen it so unabashed before. He’s never seen it aimed at him before. His heart lurches in a way it hasn’t done in years.

“Nothing, of course,” he mutters, trying to gather himself, but he is so close to her now, so close he can start to smell the faint sweetness of whatever fragrance she’s brushed across her skin today. He climbs one set of low stairs to the next platform. “I am only concerned with what the others will say. I do not wish for your reputation to be tarnished but the palace halls hum with gossip and—”

“Hoseok.”

She cuts him off, saying his given name so smoothly, it’s as if she’s called him that a hundred times before. Or maybe that’s only in his delirious mind. But there is no denying how she commands him to keep moving with her eyes alone, as if putting him under a spell as he approaches her, step by trembling step.

When Hoseok leans down to set the small wooden box upon the table, her hand is faster than he. Before he can make his escape, Seong-min grabs a fistful of his uniform, pulling him towards her with one firm tug. She leans her face into him, the distance between them eviscerated in a moment. He looks into her deep, beautiful eyes, seeing himself reflected there with a pang of desire shooting straight into his heart. She could kiss him, he realizes. He could kiss her.

“Let them talk.” Her voice is a half-whisper, brimming with conviction and desire as her breath brushes warm and sweet over his mouth. “I will still have what I want.”

And before he can shatter propriety into a million tiny splinters and give into what he suddenly wants more than anything in the entire world, Seong-min loosens her hand.

She straightens, adjusting the knot on her chima and patting away a speck of dust on the silk. As if she isn’t aware of the heat in his gaze, she opens the lid of the box as if she had only just finished reading her book. “Thank you for this, Guard Jung.”

“I, uh, ah, right. Right. Yes.” Hoseok backs away immediately, retreating away into the shadows as if that could hide the furious red heat creeping over his cheeks.

“I’ll call on you again, for more.” She bites into a cookie that leaves crumbs at the corner of her mouth. She smirks when he watches her slowly lick them away even as he is attempting to escape, fixated on the pink dart of her tongue. “Soon.”

Despite not being a clumsy person in general (at least compared to Eunuch Kim), Hoseok nearly falls over completely, so desperate to be alone to collect his poor mind and stop the pounding in his ears every bit as much as he wants to stay with her. “I-I will attend to your needs to the best of my abilities, jungjeon-mama.” He’s nearly at the exit. Sweet freedom from the chances of embarrassing himself further, though he will certainly replay this moment in his mind for days and weeks on end.

When Hoseok finally throws open the door and all but hurls himself out after a rapid bow, Seong-min only watches and laughs. When only the clean scent of him lingers, she touches her fingers gently to her bottom lip, where they almost met. “I’ll very much look forward to that, Guard Jung.”

a/n: I love Seong-min 🥺I make no promises to write more of these two but they've been living rent free in my brain for years... so maybe more to come 👀

[waitmyturtles]

Hot Take: Be On Cloud and Sammon out GMMTV-ed GMMTV with that lame-ass 4 Minutes finale

(TW: Ummm, this ended up being a rant, so don't read this if you enjoyed that finale.)

WOW.

This is not the central thesis of this post at all, but I need to get this off my chest, FIRST OF AWL: GET AN ORIGINAL OST. WOW.

LIKE, ACTUALLY, I want to not get into this, but I actually need to talk about this for a second. ICONIC OSTs like, SAY, "Why Don't You Stay" or "Just Friend" (OR THE DARK BLUE KISS THEME SONG, THE BEST ONE) are meant to invoke THE SHOW FROM WHICH THAT SONG HAILS, AND THE FEELINGS THAT THAT PARTICULAR SHOW MADE ONE FEEL. WHAT THE FUCK WAS 4 MINUTES THINKING?! THIS SHOW WAS NOT KINNPORSCHE. NOT AT ALL. I FELT NO KP FROM 4 MINUTES. I hope Jeff Satur sues BOC for copyright infringement. ANYWAY.

I mean, this is gonna be messy, but in yet another case of shippy roooooomance, a kind of rooooomance that's supposed to leave us feeling like the central couple is worth redeeming against both the obstacles that the story gives them, AND/OR a weak script as well (I wrote about this recently during a rewatch of The Eclipse), I mean, BOC and Sammon just threw an otherwise really amazing storyline to the dogs.

We were supposed to get a lot of moral and ethical loops closed here. I would have been okay with a Ton Kla redemption! I would have been okay with Korn living the rest of his life in pain and suffering for neglecting Ton Kla! Instead, they're both "redeemed" by their own deaths?! I get Win being upset, but Win, you knew who you were sleeping with! Come awn!

AND. I'm supposed to believe that Great is worth redemption because he threw a corrupt government minister under the bus and prevented his parents from coming back to Thailand, while we see him walking away from a woman having a heart attack???? Like, THAT'S NOT GOOD!!!! He's had a messy life, but he's not necessarily a good person, folks!!! HELLO!!! "He's a good person?!" TYME?? Like, Great's hot, BUT LIKE, DON'T BE LIKE THAT, TYME, GURL, ACTUALLY LOOK THRU AT WHO YOU'RE DATING.

ALSO, TYME, HIPPOCRATIC OATH, DUDE. I KNOW YOU WANT THAT GUY DEAD, AND HE DESERVES BAD THINGS, BUT YOU CAN'T MAIM HIM PURPOSELY, HOMEY, YOU'RE ABOUT TO BECOME A PROFESSOR.

And LIKE, WHAT THE FUCK, putting a whole new story point about Warit's kidnapping from some dude named Wanchai who we don't even know, and finding out that Warit is a general?!?! It was JUST CONFUSING.

Also, Den dating a patient. I know medical ethics are probably different in Thailand, but they cannot be THAT DIFFERENT, friends, they can't (right? right?).

And. Finally. TYME GOT SHOT MULTIPLE TIMES IN THE CHEST AREA. He survived after two months of recovery?! HE SURVIVED POINT-BLANK SHOOTING?!?!?!??!?!?! AND GREAT SURVIVED HIS POINT-BLANK SHOOTING, TOO?!?!?!?!

LISTEN. LISTEN. I get that BOC wants GreatTyme together. JesBible are a good pair. It's fine Great and Tyme are together. It's nice.

But there was an ACTUAL storyline, told WONDERFULLY for seven episodes, that had these characters in moral and ethical chokeholds that could have received different and very much more appropriate endings. This is fiction, of course, but the moral and ethical prisons these characters were in were very real-to-life by way of what humans value, and how you balance those values against the real-time decisions that humans need to make for themselves and their families.

Instead, BOC took the wild GMMTV playbook of late (The Eclipse, 23.5, Only Friends, Wandee Goodday, even Last Twilight and My Precious) and just railroaded ethical explorations for, my GAWD, guitars and boats. GUITARS AND BOATS! If either Great or Tyme had died, how would the story have expressed regret, uncommunicated feelings, unsolved mysteries?

The ending sucked the mystery out of this series, and frankly, made light of the fact that we were not in a Series Y for seven-eighths of a runtime, only to truly suck us back into Y territory -- real, sugary, cheesy Y territory, GUITARS, THE KP OST OMG -- that just clashed with the tonality of what was shaping up to be a great queer crime murder mystery show. GMMTV already does this. BOC did not need to go there.

Funny that some of us are watching Kidnap now, and commenting (I'm stealing @shortpplfedup's words here) that Kidnap is not a crime BL, but a crime BL. Kidnap knows what it is: it is shaping up to be a fun, unserious Y series that's centered around two himbos not really understanding the consequences of their decisions, and being googly while doing it. It seems to be taking its unseriousness seriously. Good on GMMTV for taking initiative there.

4 Minutes? 4 Minutes needs moral closure, not sappy romance. I could have used a hint that we were gonna get punked earlier. I wouldn't have taken this show as seriously as I did if I had known otherwise.

[loveerran]

The account of the 2000 Stripling Warriors in the Book of Mormon (Alma chapters 56-58) is one of the best known and most cited stories in LDS lore. They are the focus of lessons and talks, are featured in artwork and music, and are mentioned nearly every mother's day because of a passage relating how they learned faith from their mothers.

The parents of these young men were Lamanites who had buried their "weapons of war" and made a covenant to never again take a life, not even in self defense. When they were faced with destruction, the Nephites offered them shelter in the land of Jershon. Many years later, when the Nephites were themselves threatened in an existential war, these parents began to question their covenant to not take up arms. Ultimately, they chose to keep their promise to God, but many of their young sons (who had not taken the oath) chose to fight in defense of the Nephites. They became known as the Stripling Warriors.

The Stripling Warriors are held up as examples of righteousness and obedience. The account relates how, in at least two key battles, none perished. One of the primary takeaways is that if we have faith and are obedient, we will be preserved until our work on the earth is finished.

This belief in the preservation of the righteous is related in Alma 57:25-27 following one of those key battles:

25 And it came to pass that there were two hundred, out of my two thousand and sixty, who had fainted because of the loss of blood; nevertheless, according to the goodness of God, and to our great astonishment, and also the joy of our whole army, there was not one soul of them who did perish; yea, and neither was there one soul among them who had not received many wounds.

It is interesting to me that the heroes of the story, those who were righteous, obedient and blessed, were all wounded. Some severely. And in that fact I see a metaphor for mortality in general: Even the most righteous, who exercise faith and endure to the end, will be wounded along the way.

Wounds acquired in mortality are not a sign of evil or lack of favor with God. We're all wounded. Some of us may have even fainted with the loss of blood. The Savior invites us to minister to and care for each other, much like the Good Samaritan of the parable

[ideas-on-paper]

A brief history of Camille Desmoulins

It's March 2nd today, which means it's the birthday of my biggest writing muse: Camille Desmoulins, 18th-century journalist, French revolutionary and the man who called the Parisian people to arms, resulting in the Storming of the Bastille.

Despite essentially causing such a major historical event, Camille is largely glossed over by historians, and not many people know about him as a result. However, that doesn't mean he didn't have any influence on the revolution, and he contributed to it the same way as famous personalities like Robespierre, Danton, and Saint-Just did. So, in honor of his 264th birthday, here's a little history of the man gracing my profile pic.

The early years

Camille was born in 1760, in the commune of Guise in the province of Picardy. At fourteen years of age, he obtained a scholarship to study at the Collège Louis-le-Grand in Paris, one of the most esteemed elite schools in France. There, he met Maximilien de Robespierre, and despite the boys being two years apart in age and having very different personalities - Maximilien was more calm and secluded, while Camille was lively and impulsive - the two bonded over their mutual love for classical history and philosophy.

After graduating from Louis-le-Grand, Camille began to pursue a career in law, being admitted to the Parlement of Paris in 1785. However, his stammer and lack of connections to the Parisian legal community impeded his success, so he instead took up writing as a journalist, with a primary focus on political affairs.

The Estates-General and the call to arms

When King Louis XVI convened the Estates-General in 1789, Camille was present at the procession on May 5th, writing a comment about the event. The Comte de Mirabeau, presenting himself as a middleman between the aristocracy and the Third Estate as well as a patron for Camille, even employed the latter as a writer for his newspaper for a time.

However, the mingling of the three estates was not well received by the king, and he tried to regain control over the members who had dubbed themselves the National Assembly by closing the Salle des Menus Plaisirs where the deputies met to them. Instead, the National Assembly held their meeting in the Jeu de Paume (which was normally used as the tennis court of Versailles), where the members from various estates swore the oath to not part until they had devised a new constitution for France.

Eventually, the king was forced to relent, but that didn't keep him from concentrating his troops in Versailles and Paris. When he dismissed finance minister Jacques Necker - who was very popular among the people and considered an advocate for their interests - the atmosphere in Paris took a turn for the worse.

The Parisians were angry, worried, and in fear, and in this situation - on July 12th, 1789 - Camille took the opportunity to leap onto a table in front of the Cafe de Foy in the Palais Royal. There, he delivered a passionate speech, even losing his usual stammer in the heat of the moment, calling the people to take up arms to defend themselves against the imminent massacre of the king's troops* and put on cockades so they recognize each other.

Following Camille's example, the people took green leaves from the trees lining the Palais Royal and stuck them to their coats. However, since green was associated with the Comte d'Artois, the conservative brother of the king, the color of the cockades quickly shifted to red and blue, the colors of the commune of Paris (white was added later to represent the king, in an attempt to reconcile the factions). Bad news for Camille's leaf cockades…

*The king most likely didn't plan to massacre the citizens, but the presence of so many troops, a good deal of them foreign, made the populace very anxious.

Journalistic career and the Girondins

After being present at the Storming of the Bastille, Camille continued to be politically active, publishing radical pamphlets and newspapers such as La France Libre, Discours de la lanterne aux Parisiens, and Révolutions de France et de Brabant. He joined the Club des Cordeliers led by Georges Danton and became part of the radical leftist Montagnards, the "Mountain" party of the National Convention, consisting of members such as Maximilien de Robespierre, Jean-Paul Marat, and Louis Antoine Saint-Just.

In 1790, Camille also married Lucile Duplessis, whom he had known for several years and harbored strong feelings for. However, despite Lucile's mother being a good friend of Camille's, her father repeatedly denied the couple his blessing, being of the opinion that Camille couldn't support a family with his meager income as a journalist. (Indeed, in the days prior to the revolution, Camille often had to live in poverty due to his difficulties establishing himself as a lawyer.) After gaining popularity as a journalist, however, Lucile's father finally allowed the lovers to marry, the marriage taking place on December 29th with Robespierre, Jacques Pierre Brissot, and Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve being present as witnesses.

However, success and bliss were not meant to last: After the massacre at the Champs de Mars on July 17th, 1791, Camille had to go into hiding, putting his journalistic activities on halt for the time being. When he took up his work again in 1792, he wrote a few papers viciously attacking the political faction of the Girondins and specifically their leader, Jean Pierre Brissot. In his works, Camille accused them of betraying the republic and counter-revolutionary acts*, which majorly contributed to the arrest and subsequent execution of many Girondin leaders, including Brissot. However, Camille came to regret his role in their deaths: During the trial, he was lamenting "Oh my God! My God! It is I who killed them!", collapsing in the courtroom when the death sentence was announced.

*The Girondins had acquired a reputation of intending to harm the revolution with their actions, on one hand due to their pro-war attitude (the war with other European empires had taken its toll on the Republic of France), and on the other hand due to the party's indecisiveness concerning the judgement of the king (some of them argued for clemency or a milder punishment).

Vieux Cordelier and downfall

After 1793, Camille had a notable change of heart, becoming one of the voices in favor of clemency instead of terror. In what would become his most well-known and popular journal, Le Vieux Cordelier, he argued against imprisoning citizens based on the mere suspicion of counter-revolutionary activities, condemning the brutality of the Reign of Terror and even directly addressing his old friend Robespierre to moderate his approach.

However, this only ended up making Camille another prime target. Robespierre initially tried to defend Camille from the Jacobin Club calling for his expulsion, but this changed when Danton's secretary, Fabre d'Églantine, was exposed for financial fraud. This cast a poor light on Danton and his allies, including Camille, and it was what made Robespierre support legally persecuting them. Charges of corruption, royalist tendencies, and conspiracy against the revolution were brought forth against them, resulting in the arrest of Camille, Danton, and the rest of the Dantonists.

The trial itself took place from April 3rd to 5th, and was obviously aimed at getting rid of the political threat that Danton and his allies posed. By decree of the National Convention, the accused were not allowed to defend themselves, in addition to being denied the right to call any witnesses. The guilty verdict, which was essentially prescribed due to the nature of the trial, was passed in the absence of the defendants to prevent unrest in the courtroom, and the Dantonists were scheduled to ascend the scaffold on the very same day.

In Luxembourg prison, Camille wrote a last letter to his beloved wife Lucile, with spots from tears being visible to this day. However, it should never reach her, as Camille was informed that Lucile had also been arrested on his way to the scaffold. He went wild upon hearing the news, and it took several men to get him into the tumbrel. Of the fifteen Dantonists guillotined on April 5th, 1794, Camille was the third to die.

Lucile, who had been arrested on the charge of conspiring to free her husband, followed him only eight days later, being guillotined on April 13th, 1794. She left behind her not even two years old son, Horace Camille Desmoulins, who was raised by Lucile's mother and sister. In 1817, Horace emigrated from France to Haiti, where his gravestone can be found to this day.

And that is the story of Camille Desmoulins: the man who ignited the spark of the French Revolution, but eventually got disgusted by its brutality, leading to his tragic end.

Camille may be a bit overlooked as a historical figure, but that does not make him less interesting or important.

So, in all due honor: Happy birthday, Camille! 🎂

[empirearchives]

Gaudin’s description of Napoleon

Martin-Michel Gaudin was Napoleon’s Minister of Finance. He entered the world of finance at the age of 17 and achieved the highest rank a non-aristocrat could achieve in finance administration pre-Revolution (“first clerk”). During the Revolution, he was the Commissioner of the National Treasury. He left government in 1795 and resisted further governmental recruiting attempts until Napoleon (who he had never met) approached him in 1799. Gaudin describes their first meeting in his memoir:

I found a personage who was known to me only by the high reputation he had already acquired; of low stature, dressed in a gray frock coat, extremely thin, yellow complexion, eagle-eyed, with lively movements [...] he came to me with the most gracious air.

“You have,” he said, “worked in finance for a long time?”

“Twenty years, General!”

“We need your help badly, and I’m counting on it. Come on, take your oath, we’re in a hurry.”

This formality completed, he added: “The last minister of the Directory will be informed of your appointment. Meet in two hours at the ministry to take possession of it, and provide a report on our situation as soon as you can, as well as on the first measures to be taken to restore the service which is lacking everywhere. Come see me this evening at my house on rue de la Victoire (that’s what rue Chantereine was then called), we will discuss our business more fully.”

I withdrew to carry out the orders I had just received.

(Source: Gaudin, Mémoires, souvenirs, opinions et écrits du duc de Gaète, pp. 45-46)

Historian Pierre Branda on their partnership:

“Intuition, good advice or genius? Bonaparte’s choice was judicious, because Gaudin would successfully occupy this ministerial post for the entire duration of the Consulate and the Empire, including the Hundred Days. With such longevity, he was undoubtedly one of Napoleon’s most appreciated ministers. It is true that the two men were often in perfect agreement.”

(Source: Le prix de la gloire: Napoléon et l’argent, pp. 197)

[humansofnewyork]

(30/54) “We were at the eighteenth birthday party of our daughter Ahang when we learned that a crowded movie theater had been set on fire in the town of Abadan. The arsonists had locked the exits from the outside, and four hundred people were killed. It was the largest act of terrorism in the history of Iran. Later it would be discovered that the arsonists were religious fanatics. But Khomeini was able to convince much of the country that the fire had been started by SAVAK, at the order of the king. The riots continued to grow. And the king began to panic. He called for the formation of a new government and fired his ministers. He wanted to replace them with upright people. People who could inspire confidence. People who could not be corrupted. And there was one member of parliament that was trusted most of all. He lived in a simple house. He drove a beat-up car. Nobody could question Dr. Ameli’s integrity. The king asked him to join the new administration as Minister of Information. In his new position he would be responsible for investigating the Abadan fire. If he discovered something that implicated Khomeini, I knew he would become a marked man. I drove to his office. I begged him to turn down the position. I told him: ‘Things have become too dangerous. Let’s stay low, let’s keep in our bunker. Once things have calmed down, we can reemerge. We can take a stand and make our case to the people.’ Thirty years earlier we had sworn an oath, to give our lives for Iran. The years had changed him in so many ways. There was white in his hair now. He was a respected leader. He’d written and spoken on every facet of Iran’s society and history. His thoughts had evolved. His policies had evolved. But his ideals had never changed. Every choice he made, he made for Iran. Every choice. He listened politely while I made my case. He knew. Deep in his heart he knew. He knew even better than I did. If something happened to the king, he was done. He’d have no protection. He’d have no support. But he had already made his decision. He was going to serve.”

 ما سرگرم جشن هجدهمین زادروز دخترمان آهنگ بودیم که دریافتیم سینمای بزرگی در شهر آبادان به آتش کشیده شده است. آتش‌افروزان درهای خروجی را از بیرون قفل کردند، و بیش از چهارسد تن را سوزاندند. این ��زرگترین کار تبهکارانه‌ی تروریستی در تاریخ ایران بود. دیرتر آشکار شد که آتش‌افروزان از تندروهای مذهبی بودند. خمینی و یاران تبهکارش به سادگی توانستند به بسیاری بباورانند که آتش‌سوزی کار ساواک بوده است و به فرمان شاه. پیروانش بیش از پیش خشمگین شدند. شورش‌ها رو به فزونی بود. شاه ترسیده بود. نخست وزیر را برکنار کرد و دولت جدیدی سر کار آمد. می‌خواست دولتی درخور اعتماد مردم باشد، دنبال درست‌کردارانی می‌گشت که به عنوان وزیر خدمت کنند. کسانی که آلوده به فساد نبودند. آنانی را که به درستی شهرت داشتند. دکتر عاملی پزشکی توانا، استاد دانشگاه و نماینده‌ی مجلس بود که در خانه‌ای ساده به سادگی می‌زیست و خودروی فرسوده‌ای را می‌راند. مردی ستودنی بود. شاه از او خواست که به دولت جدید به عنوان وزیر اطلاعات و جهانگردی بپیوندد. در آن جایگاه وی سرپرست بررسی حادثه‌ی آتش‌سوزی سینما رکس آبادان بود. او بود که باید تبهکاران را پیدا کند و چنین کاری جانش را در خطر می‌انداخت. هنگامی که شنیدم به او چنین پیشنهادی شده است به دیدنش رفتم و نگرانی‌ام را یادآوری کردم و گفتم بهتر است که ما در سنگر خود بمانیم. سی سال از سوگندی که در همراهی با او برای جان باختن در راه ایران یاد کرده بودم، می‌گذشت. موهایش اندکی به سپیدی گراییده، گرانمایه‌ای ارجمند بود. درباره‌ی تمامی زمینه‌های جامعه و تاریخ ایران نوشته و سخنرانی داشت. اندیشه‌ها و سیاستش پخته‌تر شده و آرمان‌هایش همچنان استوار و پا بر جا بودند. هر تصمیم و گزینشش برای ایران بود. او ‌به سخنانم با ادب و بزرگی همیشگی‌اش گوش داد. می‌دانست، در ژرفای قلبش می‌دانست که اگر سلطنت شاه به خطر افتد، کار او نیز تمام است. از من بهتر می‌دانست که دیگر پناهگاهی نخواهد داشت. ولی او راهش را برگزیده بود. باید خدمت می‌کرد.

[scotianostra]

On May 11th 1685 Margaret Lachlane, or McLachlan, and Margaret Wilson were put to death.

The sins of our past are sair tae bare at times and this is certainly one that qualifies as such, what makes it all the more sad is that they had been reprieved, but the distance from Edinburgh to Wigtown but for reasons unknown it never made it to save the women.

Here’s the background, some of you might know but not all, back in 17th century religion was very important to most people in Scotland, indeed the worldover. The reformation waa over and Protestants were in the vast majority, especially in the more populace lowlands. By now The Stuart Monarchy ruled both Scotland and England, having survived a civil war in which Charles I lost his head, eventually his son, Charle II was invited back to take the throne. You would have thought that Charles II had learned his lesson, his old boy had tried to enforce the English form of the Protestant religion in Scotland but failed, young Charles tried again but the Scots were not having it, many Scots signed what is known as The National Covenant that pledged to defend “their” true religion against innovations like those down south. Many were put to death for refusing to swear allegiance to the King and “his” prayer book. Over the years there were many battles and lives lost, it is now known in Scotland as “The Killing Time"

ny way the people thought it might come to an end in February 1658 when Charles II died, those who had been hiding from persecution started returning to their homes, including the young Wilson girls who were sheltered at the home of Margaret McLachlan, a 63 year old widow who lived at Drumjargan in Kirkinner Parish. A local man betrayed them when they came into Wigtown, and the two girls were taken prisoner. At the same time, Margaret McLachlan was seized while at prayer in her own home, and held in custody with them. The women were required to take the Oath of Abjuration which had earlier been administered to everyone in the County over the age of 13 years. This had been introduced on 25 November 1684 by the Privy Council, in order to catch sympathisers of Richard Cameron. In a public declaration at Sanquhar Cross, Cameron had denounced the King as a tyrant and declared war on him.

Refusal to swear the Oath allowed execution without trial; men could be hanged or shot; a new sentence had been introduced for women: death by drowning. The women refused the Oath and were brought before the Commission. The Commissioners, Grierson of Lagg, Sheriff David Graham (Claverhouse’s brother), Major Windram, Captain Strachan and Provost Coltrane of Wigtown, have been described as “five of the most vicious scoundrels in Scotland”.

Margaret McLachlan with Margaret and Agnes Wilson were found guilty on all charges and they were sentenced “to be tyed to palisadoes and fixed in the sand, within the flood mark, at the mouth of the Blednoch stream, and there to stand till the flood over flowed them, and [they] drowned”. Agnes Wilson (aged only thirteen at the time) was reprieved, when her father promised to pay a bond of £100, a fortune in that day.

A pardon was issued in Edinburgh, dated 30 April 1685, for both women

It remains a mystery what happened to it, since no record of it remains beyond the Council Chamber. They were taken out and tied to stakes in the waters of the Bladnoch on 11 May 1685. The older woman was tied deeper in the river channel forcing young Margaret to witness her death, in the hope that she would relent. Instead, she seemed to take strength from the older woman’s fate, singing a psalm, and quoting scripture.

The events are recorded in the Kirk Session records of both Penninghame and Kirkinner parishes, vouched for by elders and ministers who were present on the day, and the records confirmed by the Presbytery of Wigtown. The Penninghame records say that Margaret Wilson’s head was held up from the water, in order to ask her if she would pray for the King. She answered that she wished the salvation of all men, but the damnation of none. When her watching relatives cried out that this proved she was willing to conform, Major Windram offered her the Oath of Abjuration again, but she refused, saying “I am one of Christ’s children; let me go”.

The Kirkinner records state that Margaret McLachan’s head had been “held down within the water by one of the town officers by his halberd at her throat, til she died”. A popular account adds that the officer said “then tak’ another drink o’t my hearty”. Legend has it that for the rest of his life the man had an unquenchable thirst, and had to stop and drink from every ditch, stream, or tap he passed, and he was deserted by his friends.

Likewise the constable named Bell, who had carried out his duties with a notable lack of feeling, allegedly said, when asked how the women had behaved, “O, they just clepped roun the stobs, like partans and prayed”. Clepped means web-footed, partans are crabs. Bell’s wife bore three children all with “clepped” fingers, and the family was referred to as “the Cleppie Bells” which was believed to be the sins of the father being visited on the children.

It was not only women who died, William Johnstone, John Milroy and George Walker were hanged in Wigtown the same year, for refusal to take the oath, but Margaret Wilson, due to her young age has become the most famous of the martyrs and is the subject of a famous painting by the English artist John Everett Millais called The Martyr of Solway.

Art conservators have x-rayed the painting and found out that Millais had originally painted the upper torso of the young woman naked. However when the painting was exhibited in 1871 there were strong puritanical views on nudity in paintings and Millais’ work offended Victorian sensibilities. It was badly received and was the butt of many negatively critical reviews. Hence it was painted over to save the Victorian eyes of such a sight!

The photo is from Stirling Old Town Cemetery a monument to the Wigtown Martyrs, further afield a Victorian statue of Margaret Wilson’s martyrdom is on display at Knox College, University of Toronto, Canada, as seen in the second pic, the third pic is the Martyrs' Grave, Wigtown parish church, Dumfries and Galloway.

[sivavakkiyar]

Speaking of which! (NDTV article):

New Delhi is preparing a grand welcome for all the South Asian leaders who will attend Prime Minister Narendra Modi's swearing-in ceremony on Sunday. PM Modi will take oath for a record third term on Sunday, and several heads of state will attend the ceremony, including Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu.

Relations between India and Maldives have deteriorated since Muizzu assumed office in November last year. During his election campaign, he often criticised India and demanded a complete withdrawal of Indian military personnel.

All Indian armed forces have left the nation and have now been replaced by civilians.

But India extended an olive branch inviting him to the swearing-in ceremony of PM Modi. President Muizzu expressed his gratitude to PM Modi for the invitation, adding that he would be honoured to attend this historic event.

"He also stated that he looks forward to working with the Prime Minister to further strengthen the close relations with India, noting that Maldives-India relations are heading in the positive direction, as would be demonstrated by this visit," the official release said.

This will mark the pro-China president's first official visit to India since assuming office on November 17 last year. Unlike his predecessors, who made the first port of call to New Delhi after assuming office, Muizzu had travelled to Turkey first and to China for his first state visit in January.

Ahead of his arrival in Delhi, a huge banner has been put up outside the Foreign Ministry which features both PM Modi and Muizzu.

[mariacallous]

I am bad at small talk, so I went in big. “You are probably going to be the social democratic leader with the largest parliamentary majority anywhere on Earth. How does it feel?” I said to Keir Starmer during a private meeting with him and a few advisors in late 2022.

Starmer’s aides looked annoyed, while the likely next prime minister of the United Kingdom paused and tried to deflect: “We can’t take anything for granted,” which has become the unofficial motto for Labour’s general election campaign.

Yet despite Starmer’s hesitancy to bank success—he is genuinely a modest man—it is likely that on the morning of July 5, Starmer will wake up as the world’s social democratic superhero: the only center-left leader of a major economy with a parliamentary supermajority and the great hope for progressives all over the world.

The governing Conservative Party, which is historically arguably the most successful political party on Earth, now faces electoral oblivion. In 2019, Boris Johnson demolished Labour’s heartlands, the so-called red wall. Labour had become detached from its base and collapsed in its postindustrial heartlands after then-leader Jeremy Corbyn embraced the siren sounds of political extremism; he refused to sing the national anthem at a memorial for the Battle of Britain and drove the party toward a position of fiscal incontinence that scared anyone with financial assets.

Five years later, Labour is on track not only to regain the red wall but also to achieve a dream of progressives by taking solid Conservative seats in their blue wall of affluent commuter constituencies surrounding London and rural seats that have voted Conservative since time immemorial. (East Worthing and Shoreham, for example, is part of a constituency that first voted Tory in 1780 and has been reliably Tory since. Polls suggest Labour is on track to take the seat.)

What is happening in the U.K. is unusual for center-left parties, to put it mildly. Labour could gain as many as 70 percent of seats in the House of Commons—a victory that could surpass even the electoral landside of former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair in 1997, offering lessons for progressives everywhere. A politically dominant Starmer will attend the G-7 as a leader in total political control, in stark contrast to his counterparts in France and Germany, Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz, who are facing high disapproval ratings and struggling to pursue their governing agendas.

Labour’s victory in the U.K. will be important in three key regards: It will recast how progressives can win national elections and set a high-water mark for what social democrats can achieve; it will reshape British politics in new and unexpected ways that could be more important than the victory itself; and it will flip external perceptions of the U.K., resetting international views of the country and its future.

Despite the pathological obsession Britain’s political class has with America’s, it is perhaps time for Democrats in the United States to look across the pond and glean some lessons from Labour’s success.

Part of Starmer’s success has been to take an oath of omertà on culture war issues, much as the Australian Labor Party did. These include transgender rights, Britain’s colonial past, and immigration—all issues that the British right has tried to capitalize on. Starmer, a former human rights lawyer, has committed to scrap the Tories’ controversial Rwanda deportation scheme but on the grounds of practicality rather than as a wider moral statement. More broadly on immigration, the party has been treading very carefully. This is certainly not brave, but it has worked. For all the attempts to fire up the culture wars in this election, Labour has remained focused on the prize.

While the Conservatives have attempted to stoke a culture war, what remains more salient for voters in the U.K. is the perceived corruption and rule-breaking of leading Conservatives, culminating in the current scandal involving elected officials using insider information to bet on the election date.

Scandals including preferential contracts for protective equipment for the National Health Service (NHS) during the COVID-19 pandemic, where an astonishing 4 billion pounds ($5 billion) worth of faulty equipment was procured (some allegedly from companies with links to the ruling party). Then came “Partygate,” in which Johnson and current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak were fined by police for breaking COVID-era laws. A lobbying scandal involving another former prime minister, David Cameron, also caused significant public anger. Elite rule-breaking has cut through with voters in a way that the endless culture wars simply haven’t.

In parallel, Labour has pivoted from a form of identity politics under Corbyn to a very proactive position on class. Starmer has put his humble upbringing center stage in the U.K. election campaign and has spoken authentically about the “class ceiling” in British society. This has particular resonance as Starmer is running against Sunak, whose net wealth of $822 million makes him the richest leader of any democracy.

A typical Starmer set-piece homily is as follows:

“My dad was a toolmaker, he worked in a factory, and my mum was a nurse. We didn’t have a lot when we were growing up. Like millions of working-class children now, I grew up in a cost-of-living crisis. I know what it feels like to be embarrassed to bring your mates home because the carpet is threadbare and the windows cracked. … I was actually responsible for that as I put the football through it.”

This focus on class is unusual in modern British politics. Indeed, recent Labour leaders—from Blair to Gordon Brown to Ed Miliband to Corbyn—were all in different ways outsiders to the British working class: Blair and Corbyn for their relatively affluent (and privately educated) upbringings, Brown and Miliband because of their middle-class backgrounds and partly because Miliband’s father was one of the country’s most notable Marxist academics. As for the Conservatives, the days of a prime minister who was a grocer’s daughter are long gone. Cameron and Johnson didn’t just attend the same elite private school (Eton) two years apart; they went to the same university (Oxford) and were members of the same private dining club (for the most privileged).

Starmer is leaning into class politics—and it is working. The promise to impose the same value-added tax on private school fees that is applied to most goods and services (20 percent) has led to an outpouring of anger from the often very wealthy 6 percent of U.K. parents who send their kids to private schools—usefully, those who are privately educated often tend to vote Conservative. Labour’s pledge to use the private school tax revenues to invest in education for the 94 percent of kids in state schools has, on the other hand, drawn support from ordinary voters.

This focus on class has won back a group of voters who in other countries have now been captured by the right and far right. Labour now leads among working-class voters with 38-42 percent of the vote share, in contrast to Conservatives’ 22-24 percent. For those with the fewest educational qualifications, Labour leads in every age category except the over-50s.

One of the architects of Labour’s reengagement with the British working class is Angela Rayner, who is on track to become deputy prime minister. Rayner is working-class, was a mother at 16, and a grandmother at 37. Opinionated and unfiltered, an unapologetic smoker who enjoys a strong drink, she worked in a care home before rising quickly through the trade union movement and becoming a Labour candidate. Rayner’s story is a masterclass in how to elevate remarkable people into parliamentary politics. Her success is her own, but the unions cultivated her, and the membership backed her as deputy leader. She has real star power—and there is virtually no one like her in the upper echelons of the Democratic establishment in the United States.

Remarkably, the class dimension has not, it seems, alienated middle England. Disillusioned surbubanites and centrist liberals have been turned off by a Conservative Party that seems increasingly radical and dysfunctional. Starmer’s former career as the country’s chief prosecutor, and his knighthood—he is formally referred to as “Sir Keir”—have given him broad appeal, just as the Conservatives’ unapologetic embrace of the populist right’s pet causes has cratered their support.

Part of Labour’s success is due to the systemic clusterfuck that has been the last few years of the Conservative government. The Tories have foisted five prime ministers on the public since 2010—four of them elected by the party’s mostly white, male membership of about 170,000 rather than the public at large. Economic growth is anemic; there are nearly 8 million people on the NHS waiting list in England alone (in a country where the use of private medical care is uncommon); and essential public services including the prison service and local government are on the edge of systemic failure.

Yet signs exist that there may be more fundamental shifts at play. Labour leads in every age group except the over-65s. If you work, you are more likely to vote Labour; 45 percent of voters under 45 are likely to vote Labour, compared with only 1 in 10 backing the Conservative Party. Millennials will become the largest voting bloc in the U.K. in this election. Their key issues include policies to prevent catastrophic climate change (which poll well across the U.K. political spectrum), the building of homes, better transport links (especially for non-car owners, many urban millennials among them), and pro-family policies. All of these have come into play in this election.

Older homeowners across the Western world have been successful in running what is, potentially, the world’s largest cartel—by opposing construction of new homes for millennials. Labour is committed to ending that in the U.K. with a significant loosening of planning regulations that currently thwart sustainable development.

While the party has ruled out taxes on working people, no such commitment has been made on unearned income, leading to widespread speculation that the tax system may be rebalanced with higher capital gains taxes and fewer loopholes for the megarich, including for the landed gentry whose farming estates pass between generations tax-free. Labour has no love for landlords either. After nearly two decades in which London’s property market has been inflated by speculative investments from the world’s kleptocrats, the public appetite for new restrictions on foreign property ownership or new taxes has grown.

Labour has also surrounded itself with a technocratic positivist elite. This group includes Labour Together, an ambitious intellectual think tank closely aligned with Starmer’s inner circle, and the Tony Blair Institute, which has embraced a techno-futurism aligned with the country’s comparative advantage in the life sciences and artificial intelligence. Public sector reform under a Starmer government could be significant if one imagines the potential, for example, of using the NHS’s treasure trove of data (on 70 million people) to drive innovation in health care.

In stark contrast to Labour’s focus on the future, an aging right-wing voter base is now split between the Conservative Party and Reform, a vehicle that is a mix between a private company, a political party, and a personal platform for Nigel Farage—the pro-Brexit politician Donald Trump has trotted out as a posh Anglo stage prop. Conservatives in Parliament are already moving rightward. Tory MPs give statements to the media condemning the European Convention on Human Rights, a document co-drafted by David Maxwell-Fyfe—a Conservative MP and prosecutor of Nazis at Nuremberg—that was inspired by Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s vision for postwar Europe.

Meanwhile, a wing of Conservative MPs are already attempting to cast the almost certain defeat as evidence that the party did not pivot enough to the populist right. The divided right is making the admission of the controversial Farage into the Conservative Party a real possibility, a prospect that fills Labour with glee. Needless to say, the next Conservative leader is unlikely to be a moderate. With the party tacking to the right, it could soon become a vessel for Faragism and a weak British version of the Trump movement.

Finally, there are the vibes. A progressive recasting of British politics will shift narratives around the U.K. National narratives can flip in an instant: Think of foreigners’ perceptions of the United States from Barack Obama to Trump or the assumption of Chinese economic primacy to a sense of retrenchment and decline under Xi Jinping. The U.K. in recent memory was seen as a fairly stable, politically dull island anchored somewhere in the mid-Atlantic. Brexit, Johnson, and Liz Truss put an end to that. With the shift from perceived and actual chaos and an insurgent right to a progressive supermajority, attitudes will likely shift again.

Vibes are important, especially to the economy of the U.K., which may have ceased to be a traditional superpower but remains a cultural one punching significantly above its weight internationally. Six percent of U.K. GDP comes from the creative industries—from the success of British music to the Premier League, a booming film and TV industry, fashion, and the arts. That’s double the level of Germany and larger than the contribution of the German car industry to the country’s output (4.5 percent). For a country that trades on vibes and is reliant on the export of its creativity, Brexit and isolation have caused real damage.

It’s long forgotten now, but during the last Labour government from 1997 until the 2008 financial crisis, the U.K. was the fastest-growing economy in the G-7, faster than that of the Clinton- and Bush-era United States. Given the country’s currently stagnant economy, the next Parliament will be more challenging, but in a highly open society, the role of consumer confidence and investor confidence cannot be underestimated.

In a previous piece in these pages, after Labour’s historic loss in the 2019 general election, I wrote: “Radical leftism is not a drug you can take as a party and return to normal the next morning.” I was right about the election but wrong about the next morning.

No one expected Labour to turn a historic defeat into a historic victory in just five years. The circumstances the Conservative Party faced were extraordinary, but Starmer has shown that tight party management, a focus on voters and not ideology, and a sprinkling of class-based politics can reinvigorate social democratic politics.

What lessons does this hold for other center-left parties?

First, culture war issues aren’t a central motivation for most voters. On all the major culture war issues, Labour holds a less popular position than the Conservative Party. Yet when mortgage rates have risen from 2 to 5 percent, “it’s the economy, stupid.” Progressives don’t need to fear the charge of the populist right; they need smarter answers.

Second, rule-breaking or perceived corruption is a powerful motivator for voters, and global polling proves this. Progressives need a stronger line on conflicts of interest, corporate lobbying, the kleptocratic buy-up of the finest properties in the world’s global cities, and tackling emerging monopolies that exist due to political capture. Doing so counters the populist right head-on.

Third, the dominance of identity politics in left-wing online spaces is not matched by public understanding of or interest in this form of politics. Class is understood, whereas intersectionality isn’t. Class may, or may not, be the most relevant dividing line for progressives in different places—but for progressives to win, they need messengers who are from outside the upper middle class and have lived experience that resonates with people who feel disenchanted and left behind. In other words, Democrats in the United States need an Angela Rayner.

Most critically, once in power, social democrats do not have the luxury of time. Crumbling infrastructure, failing public services, falling living standards, and a lack of housing all point to direct state intervention on a scale not seen since the late 1960s Great Society programs in the United States and similar policies during that era in the U.K. Unless progressives can deliver, it will be challenged further by a populist right that is gaining momentum.

U.S. President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act has been the talk of London and Brussels for progressives, and Biden deserves more credit for his boldness. With a supermajority, Starmer has the scope for even bolder programs. A progressive U.K. government will not only reset Europeans’ views of the country, but if successful, it can aid progressive arguments within Europe that austerity and fiscalization do not generate economic growth or social stability.

Starmer’s victory will give global social democrats a high-water mark for electoral success in a wealthy democracy. The challenge for Starmer is the incredible weight of hope in an era of polycrisis. If Labour succeeds in delivering growth, building homes, and raising wages, then it will provide a blueprint that can—and should—be copied elsewhere.

[kuch-toh-garbad-hai-daya]

just thinking about the shouts of "shame" in the parliament as the education minister came to take his oath

[allthegeopolitics]

The leader of Nepal’s largest communist party, Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli, has been named the prime minister after shaping a new alliance in the country’s turbulent parliament. A statement on Sunday by the office of the president said the 72-year-old Oli will take his oath of office on Monday, the fourth time he is becoming the prime minister. He is replacing Pushpa Kamal Dahal, whose 18-month-old government collapsed on Friday after Oli’s party, the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist, agreed to a new coalition with the centre-left Nepali Congress party.

Continue Reading.

Date of article: July 14th, 2024.

[beardedmrbean]

Austrian security officials say a 19-year-old was planning to kill "a large crowd of people" in a suicide attack at a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna.

Officials say the teen - who had previously pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group (IS) - confessed that he "intended to carry out an attack using explosives and knives".

He is one of two suspects arrested on Wednesday. A third, aged 18 and an acquaintance of the main suspect, was arrested on Thursday.

Swift's three sold-out shows at the Ernst Happel Stadium have been cancelled. More than 195,000 people had been expected to attend.

Local media have also reported that the 19-year-old had stolen chemicals from his former workplace.

The Kurier newspaper, citing sources, reported that he used to work at a metal processing company in his home town of Ternitz, and that he had made progress in building a bomb.

The outlet also reported that he had planned to drive a car into the crowd expected to gather outside the stadium.

Security officials at a news conference on Thursday did not comment on where he got the chemicals, but public security chief Franz Ruf told reporters that chemical substances and technical devices found at the main suspect's house showed "concrete preparatory actions".

The head of Austria's Directorate for Protection of the State and Intelligence (DSN) Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, said weapons were seized from the main suspect's house, and that "his aim was to kill himself and a large crowd of people either today or tomorrow at the concert".

Mr Ruf added the teen had posted a video online confessing to the plot, quit his job at the end of last month and told people that he had "big plans".

They also revealed that the main suspect - an Austrian citizen who was born there but who had North Macedonian parents - had recently changed his appearance and "adapted it to Islamic State propaganda", and had been consuming and sharing Islamist propaganda online.

A second suspect - a 17-year-old Austrian of Turkish or Croatian heritage - was employed at a company which would have "provided services" at the stadium where Swift was to perform.

The 19- and 17-year-olds have been remanded in custody.

A 15-year-old, who was "in the area" of the stadium at the time, is being questioned.

Despite officials saying that they were not looking for any more suspects, a third - an 18-year-old Iraqi citizen - was arrested in Vienna on Thursday evening, Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said.

The man is also believed to have sworn an oath of allegiance to IS.

Speaking at the briefing on Thursday, Mr Karner said "a tragedy was averted", and the attack was foiled with the help of international intelligence as Austrian law does not allow censorship of messenger applications.

"The terrorist threat has intensified throughout Europe and Austria was and is no exception," he said, adding that major concerts are "often a favourite target of Islamist attackers".

Coldplay are due to perform seven concerts in Vienna from 21 August as part of their Spheres World Tour.

Mr Haijawi-Pirchner said there was no information suggesting a specific threat to upcoming events in Austria, but security measures remain high.

Swift's Vienna concerts were part of the European leg of her Eras Tour, which began in Paris in May.

The tour has made stops in a number of countries including Sweden, the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany and Poland.

Swift is set to head to London to perform five shows at Wembley Stadium next week.

UK policing minister Diana Johnson said Scotland Yard would look at intelligence ahead of the Wembley Stadium dates.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has told Sky News that the city will "carry on" and that the police will work with City Hall and councils to ensure the concerts take place safely.

[whathebeep]

I saw that you were taking headcanons now and I love your writing! Do you have any headcanons for Wyll and Tav’s wedding? GN!Tav pronouns as a preference please!

Oh ABSOLUTELY DUDE I got you! And thank youuu ♥️

Oh the formal wedding would be extravagant. Wyll (as the blade of Avernus who also saved his father) would enjoy a fairy tale wedding. But given who his father is, it would be a rather extravagant thing, wouldn't it? Especially as the heroes of the gate to boot! Why wouldn't the city want to celebrate those who saved it?

I imagine there would be lots of flowers as decor. Wild flowers from the region near the grove, near where you two first met. Flowers that reminded him of his dearest Tav. They were the light of his life and truly he would want this day to be incredibly special for them. He would be the sort to get simple rings, with both of your birth stones side by side on each. I like to imagine that even though this wedding is a formal event and will have a lot of high ranking political and social figures there, the bridal parties would consist of your close friends who you saved the world with. It would be an assortment- like personally? I think Karlach would be Wyll's Maid of Honour and Astarion would probably be the best man for Tav (or whomever you headcannon being closest to your Tav!)

Withers would be the minister, cause who the hell else would you ask? I am so certain these small things were a little odd, but for such a big public wedding Wyll would not budge. Nor would be budge on the wants of his partner to be. All their favourite foods, their favourite drinks, the works.

Wyll wears a black suit and a lapel made of the flowers brought from the grove, as I'm sure there is a matching accessory for Tav, either to put in their hair or wear as a lapel as well. His vows are like poetry and he has it memorized, squeezing Tav's hand as tears flow down his face and reciting it word for word. He compares them to his sun, the light of his life, the moon and all the light in the world. His brilliant flame that warms his heart.

I like to imagine Tav is a paladin in this scenario; and in their vows they swear an oath to Wyll. An oath to have and hold and to love him for ever and then some. That no matter the opponent they would stand by his side until the end of time, protecting him, this city and wherever else needed them.

It truly is a sweet ceremony.

But that isn't the real wedding, is it?

I imagine the real wedding is in the weeks after the city is saved. The real wedding takes place on a cliff overlooking the sea, decorated with flowers sprouted up by Halsin and Jaheira. All your friends are there and just like in the public wedding that would eventually happen, Withers is the minister. All your friends are there and what else could you ask for? Wyll is less precise in his vows as he holds your hand, you both still donned in your armour.

He rambles and his tears also flow freely here. He speaks of how they were the best thing to happen to him, how he wouldn't be the person he was without Tav. Tav is just as teary as he is here, swearing they would do it all over again and then some for Wyll. They would cross the rivers of Avernus and the face the horrors of the abyss if it meant they could see Wyll's smiling face at the end of it all. It's so corny and cheesy but even Astarion is tearing up a little (don't ask he will deny it).

And after each ceremony, after each sweet embrace and the way he cups Tav's cheeks to kiss them and their friends cheer and clap...there is a waft of sulphur in the air.

[disasterbijupiter]

G Gundam side story English translation Ch. 1 part 5

(end of Chapter 1!!)

(previous part here)

Conclusion of the opening ceremony

The olympic flame is lit. With loud, resounding voices Domon and the Undefeated of the East call out the oath of all fighters.

Everyone: “We pledge! We, the Gundam Fighters! In order to seize the honor of Gundam of Gundams in our hands, we swear here and now to fight to the end with all of our skill!!”

Wong: “Very well! I hereby announce the opening of the 13th Gundam Fight Final Tournament.”

Wong declares the Tournament has begun.

At that moment, the sound of five voices echo across Neo Hong Kong.

Five voices: “We won’t let that happen!”

“What even is the Gundam Fight?!”

“I’ve heard that it determines the most skilled in the world! But looking at you, it’s a gathering of underdogs!!”

“I can’t stop laughing!!!”

“Haha!!”

“Haha!!!”

“Haha!!!!”

“Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!”

Each word becomes a huge wave, and the laughing voices resonate in the opening ceremony venue. All of the fighters instinctively brace themselves against the pressure.

Everyone: “W-what is this force from the voices?!”

Each country’s crew automatically takes cover.

Crew members: “Aaaahhhhh!!!!!!!”

Rain: “It’s so heavy I can’t bear it!!”

The crews appear as if they’re about to be crushed by the pressure.

Domon: “Wh… what are these voices?!”

Enduring the laughter, Domon looks. Before his eyes he sees the Undefeated of the East standing calmly.

Undefeated of the East: “………”

Domon: “H-hey, you……… Do you know these voices??”

Undefeated of the East: “Hmph……… If you can’t withstand this kind of pressure, then you really have a long ways to go, don’t you?”

Domon bristles at the Undefeated of the East’s contemptuous smile.

Domon: “What are you saying?!”

Undefeated of the East: “Fool!! Don’t distract me!!”

At the same time as the Undefeated of the East’s words, a heavy pressure bombards Domon.

Domon: “Waaahhhhhh!!!!!!”

Domon is crushed by the concentrated force.

The fifth person’s voice: “You’re helpless against my pressure!! What an impressive disciple! Right, Undefeated of the East?!”

Undefeated of the East: “Yes, a troublesome idiot, and furthermore he is no longer my disciple.”

Ignoring the surroundings, the Undefeated of the East replies calmly.

Domon: “As I thought, these are your allies?!?!?!”

Mustering all his strength, Domon tries to stand up.

Undefeated of the East: “You fool!! Don’t you know that they’re coming?!”

At once, the Undefeated of the East shoves Domon aside. At that moment, a gust of wind sweeps between Domon and the Undefeated of the East, and simultaneously a colossal corner post falls and pierces the arena.

Everyone: “Ooooohh!!!!!”

“W-what is this!!!????”

Everyone is blown away by the gust of wind and shockwave. Furthermore, one by one gigantic corner posts fall from the sky, sticking into the arena and surrounding it in a circle.

Chibodee: “Wh…… what in the world………”

George: “It seems as though this isn’t entertainment put on by Prime Minister Wong………”

Argo: “Yeah, because the guy seems shocked himself.”

Wong has lost his composure, slightly trembling.

Wong: “Ah……… Ahh?? This is a bit different than what we talked about………?”

Despite the commotion, everyone tries to calm down. Sijiema, Conta, and the others exit their gundams and gather together.

Sijiema: “Hey, what the hell is this? The opening ceremony is over, isn’t it? If that’s the case, we can all leave.”

Eric: “Yeah, I don’t know what’s going on, but I need to prepare for tomorrow’s match……”

Sai Saici: “Everyone wait! It’s dangerous!”

Sai Saici calls out for Sijiema and the others to stop as they attempt to leave. At the same time, part of the corner posts change shape to reveal beam emitters. Then, beams are shot out which connect each corner post, turning the entire venue into a gigantic cage.

Sijiema: “W-what?!”

Sijiema looks curiously. Cautiously, he holds out his own snake charmer flute.

Within an instant, the flute bursts into flames.

Sijiema: “Huh!?”

Upon close inspection, the beam ropes have created a barrier which covers the entire area in a dome shape.

Rain: “Is this a barrier??”

The Shuffle crew members come running over to Rain.

Shirley: “What do you mean??”

Zuisen: “Like Mr. George said, I don’t think this is entertainment.”

Raymond: “It seems you’re right, it’s like they’ve put us in a cage………”

Nastasha: “Argo!! Can’t you break through with the gundam?!”

Nastasha gives instructions to Argo, who’s inside the cockpit.

Argo: “Understood!”

He tries touching the barrier using the Bolt Gundam, but gets knocked back with a spark.

Argo: “It’s no use!!”

Chibodee: “Oh come on, so you’re telling me we’re birds in a cage?”

George: “But, what on earth for?”

Schwarz: “If that’s the case, it should be quickest to ask those who set this up directly!”

Schwarz’s Spiegel interrupts the crowd.

Schwarz: “There it is!!”

He throws a German kunai toward the top of a corner post. However, the kunai gets sucked into the top, and the next moment it’s thrown back at Schwarz.

Schwarz: “Hmph!”

The Spiegel catches the kunai without the slightest movement.

Everyone: “Huh?!”

Everybody is shocked.

Voices: “I see……… So there is a practitioner of ninjutsu………”

“That’s a bit of a nuisance.”

“Well, it would be a disappointment if there was no one this skilled.”

“No, no, I’m sorry but that person is out of the question. We can’t lay hands on him.”

“Aw, that’s a shame.”

“Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.”

“Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.”

“Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.”

All of them laugh.

Domon: “Shut up!! Don’t hide, come out!!”

Domon delivers a God Slash blow, slicing through the top of a corner post. As soon as he does, the ripped section is shown to be video camouflage, and in the fading image two yellow antennae are visible.

Sai Saici: “Hey, that’s………”

Argo: “A gundam?!?”

Domon: “Who are you people?!”

Domon draws closer.

The five people: “No need to panic, we’ll tell you!!”

“That’s right! We, behind the scenes long throughout history!”

“The ones who enact justice in this world!”

“Our name is the noble 'Dark Shuffle'!!!!!!!!!”

The top of each corner post changes into a ghostly form, revealing five gundams. However, the figures are wrapped in cloaks, and only parts of their faces are visible.

To be continued……

(continue to chapter 2)