Johnny Foreigner

Reporting – from outside Iran – on events in Iran with special reference to the economy. He used to be the editor – inside Iran – of the economics section of a major Iranian newspaper. Had to get out. But what a time to start that new job, eh?

Mass protests have erupted across Iran calling for “death to the dictator” over the regime’s economic crisis.

Tear gas was used to disperse protesters as shops shuttered in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar and main markets.

University students called on their peers to join the demonstrations, while chants echoed from rooftops in several cities and the Iranian rial plunged to record lows, all against the backdrop of ongoing threats from Israel and the US.

Residents in one city near Tehran told The Telegraph that a heavy presence of armed motorcycle-mounted security forces was visible around midnight.

Just to note, Iran is the only market where one of my books has gone into a second edition.

Senioruniversitet, a national university that collaborates with Sweden’s adult education institution Folkuniversitetet, has about 30 independent branches around the country which run study circles, lecture series and university courses in subjects including languages, politics, medicine and architecture.

The Stockholm branch, which is Sweden’s largest, has become so popular since it was founded in 1991 that it is now run across multiple venues across the capital by about 100 volunteers. Its most popular event, the Tuesday lectures, gets about 1,000 people each week.

Recent Stockholm lectures have included “The art of awarding Nobel prizes” by a former member of a Nobel committee, “Disinformation and AI – the threat we invented ourselves” and “From soap to cultural heritage/canon and vice versa.”

Sweden has reinvnted the Women’s Institute!

Why the French are so determined to spoil our holidays
The common denominator for much of our travel woes are our allies across the Channel

Seems a logically valid answer to me at least.

The state department has barred five Europeans from the US, accusing them of leading efforts to pressure tech firms to censor or suppress American viewpoints, in the latest attack on European regulations that target hate speech and misinformation.

Secretary of state Marco Rubio said the five people targeted with visa bans – who include former European Commissioner Thierry Breton – have led “organized efforts to coerce American platforms to censor, demonetize, and suppress American viewpoints they oppose.”

“These radical activists and weaponized NGOs have advanced censorship crackdowns by foreign states – in each case targeting American speakers and American companies,” Rubio said in an announcement.

I – personally – am neither in favour of nor against this. But I do think it funny.

Italy first country to win Unesco recognition for national cuisine

Italy is one of those places which doesn’t have a national cuisine. There is a series of highly distinct regional ones. And they really are distinct too.

So, an amusement then…..

A great Uncle (Hmm, he miught have been mother’s cousin?) had exactly this job. Gilbert and Ellice islands, Anguilla, Montserrat, Turks and Caicos. It’s not especially high ranking (Note the CMG, not KCMG for example) and it’s Commonwealth Office, not FCO (to the extent that the difference still matters):

Augustus James Ulysses Jaspert, Gus for short, arrived in Tortola, the largest of the British Virgin Islands, on 21 August 2017, just two weeks away from catastrophe. Jaspert, who was in his late 30s, had recently been appointed governor by Queen Elizabeth II, on the recommendation of the Foreign Office in London. The BVI is an overseas territory of Britain, with only partial independence, and the governor effectively acts as a backstop to the locally elected legislature. For Jaspert, a career civil servant, it would be his first hands-on experience of governing – and his first time in the British Virgin Islands. Any trepidation was outweighed by the prospect of moving to the Caribbean. “If you’re sitting in an office in London and someone says, ‘Go to Tortola,’ you look it up on a screen and think, ‘OK, I can do that,’” Jaspert told me.

Then the local PM of the 15 member assembly and 30k (or whatever) population is suspected of being in the drugs trade.

Ho well, and? Now, with G Uncle this didn’t happen. I think at lesat it didn’t happen. But there ws that fun time that the Governor of the next islands over from the BVI, Turks and Caicos, was woken to be informed that the US Feds had just arrested his PM for fueling drug planes. The PM was the owner of the only fueling company at the airport on that obvious route from Latin America up to Florida and, well?

Fun times, fun times.

Nicola Pietrangeli disliked his playboy image, but it was hard to gainsay it when he arrived for the final of the 1959 French Open in a Buick convertible with Paris’ most fêted stripper, Miss Candida, at the wheel.

Seriously, who else would name a stripper after a variety of the clap?

The French have a reputation for ­tolerating extramarital affairs but an advertisement for a website that ­promotes “discreet encounters” has prompted anger by suggesting women could take a lover as an alternative to antidepressants.

The advertising poster for Gleeden, an extramarital dating app that is ­marketed at women, reads: “Unlike ­antidepressants, a lover costs the health service nothing.”

Parisians have objected to the poster, which is displayed prominently in the Métro, because they say it trivialises mental illness and could make people with depression feel guilty.

Well, you know, Parisians. Getting a break from one for a bit could be a bit of a boost, yes. But then spending time with an extra one would be a bit of a downer…..

Western leaders attending the Sharm el-Sheikh summit have enabled and sponsored this slaughter. They are in no position to build a Palestinian future

Great even. So, we’ll do nothing and the Arabs can pick up the bill.

Have fun everyone.

The Trump administration is waging a culture war on Europe by aggressively promoting the Maga movement’s political and ideological allies on the continent and publicly humiliating the EU on the world stage, a joint report by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) and European Cultural Foundation has concluded.

The study argues that the US president is actively seeking to interfere in European elections, transform the transatlantic relationship toward conservative values and rally Europe’s rightwing populists around the theme of free speech.

The idea that foreign policy is used to try to influence foreigners. Whatever next?

Well, next is probably the EU telling us all how successful they are with soft power….

We made a beeline for the Faro Cabo de Gata lighthouse to check out the view.

“Faro” means “lighthouse”. So, you can say Faro Cabo de Gata, or you can say Cabo de Gata lighthouse, but Faro Cabo de Gata lighthouse is…..well, it’s illuminating the subject a little too much….

Brazil’s former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro ​has been sentenced to more than 27 years in prison for plotting a military coup​ and seeking to “annihilate” the South American country’s democracy.

Justices Cármen Lúcia Antunes Rocha and Cristiano Zanin ruled on ​Thursday that Bolsonaro – a former paratrooper who was elected president in 2018 – was guilty of seeking to forcibly cling to power after losing the 2022 election, meaning four of the five judges involved in the trial had found Brazil’s former leader guilty.

Announcing Bolsonaro’s sentence for crimes including coup d’etat and violently attempting to abolish Brazil’s democracy on Thursday night, the supreme court justice Alexandre de Moraes said: “[He tried to] annihilate the essential pillars of the democratic rule-of-law state … ​the greatest consequence ​[of which] … would have been the return of dictatorship to Brazil​.”

But after Lula got jailed – for corruption and possibly fairly – it was unlikely Brazilian politics wouldn’t go down this route really…

The French Swiss are a little French and a lot Swiss.

The Nestlé chief executive sacked for hiding an office romance is reported to have promoted his mistress within the firm.

Shagging the office totty, well, hmm.

Money?

Out you go.

‘We were overcharged by our car rental company in Naples’

Seriously, it’s Naples. Everyone has a scam. No, you’ll never beat them. The only fun is in spotting what they’re doing. So, what is the scam, how are they pulling?

France’s worst wildfires in 75 years burn area bigger than Paris

Ah, belay that Lads. Misread it, didn’t see the “area bigger than”

A Texan father who moved his family to Russia to escape “woke” America has been sent to the front line.

Derek Huffman, 46, relocated to the small town of Istra, around 25 miles from Moscow, with his wife, their three daughters and their husky earlier this year.

They did this through Russia’s “shared values” visa scheme, aimed at attracting foreigners who reject what Vladimir Putin calls “destructive neoliberal ideology”.

Mr Huffman had initially agreed to join the Russian military in a non-combat capacity, thinking at first he would be a welder and later a war correspondent.

But then I’ve considerable experience of the Russian state…..

Russia’s transport minister killed himself, Moscow said on Monday, just hours after it announced that he had been fired by Vladimir Putin.

Roman Starovoit, who formerly served as governor of the Kursk border region invaded by Ukraine, was found dead in his car from a gunshot wound, Tass news reported.

Palestinians marching in London is good:

Tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters gathered to march in central London on Saturday to mark the passing of a year since the 7 October attacks in Israel.

Groups of activists convened in two areas in central London on Saturday morning amid a heavy police presence – one in Russell Square, one in nearby Bedford Square.

From the river to the sea etc.

Jews marching in Jerusalem is bad:

Thousands of Israelis have joined a state-funded march through the Muslim quarter of the Old City in Jerusalem, where large groups chanted racist slogans including “Gaza is ours”, “death to the Arabs” and “may their villages burn”.

I have got this right have I? For I don’t want to commit some social faux pas by being on the wrong side of today’s fashion in hypocrisy….

Sir Keir Starmer is set to sign away the Chagos Islands and give Mauritius billions of pounds in a controversial deal.

The Prime Minister will attend a “virtual signing ceremony” with representatives from the Mauritian government on Thursday, The Telegraph can reveal.

Sir Keir’s deal will give up British sovereignty over the Chagos Islands, known in the UK as the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), and agree to a 99-year lease to rent back a military base there.

The Foreign Office has closely guarded the terms of the deal, but it is expected to include a large up-front payment for use of the Diego Garcia base, which is shared with the US military, and an annual rental fee.

What actually is the rationale for this “deal”? Seriously, in a world where St Pierre and Miquelon exists – Ceuta and Melilla – what is the reason?

The SNP Government has been accused of creating a welfare black hole that could reach more than £2 billion by 2030 because of “reckless spending”.

The Scottish Conservatives said the SNP’s budget for benefits “far outstrips” the money it receives from the UK Government for welfare spending.

There’s no reason at all that Scots welfare spending must be limited to what’s lifted off UK taxpayers and then allocated. This is what devo is all about. You want to do different then you go at it. Just raise the money yourselves.

Now, whether it’s wise is another matter, but this is the point. Many of us have long thought that the Celts are more communal – some would say spendthrift – than the Angles. Devo allows them to be so at a rate that the Agnles wouldn’t agree to pay f9or…..