Corruption on earth

 Checking in on the seven-and-a-half billion or so people who aren't fortunate enough to live in the greatest country of all time.

More than a thousand pilgrims have died making the hajj in Saudi Arabia, where the temperature is over 120F.  Jeff Landry can stop calling himself pious for tacking up a few posters.

The latest, weirdest scandal to hit the UK Conservative Party involves twelve insiders placing bets on the date of the upcoming general election.  Betting on virtually anything is legal in the UK.  Betting based on inside information is not.  Could Craig Williams, an aide to Prime Minister Sunak, have heard that the election would be called for July 4?  That's something the Gambling Commission would like to know.

A forest fire on the Greek island of Hydra was apparently started by fireworks launched from a yacht despite hot, dry and windy conditions.  Thirteen people have been arrested and went before a magistrate Sunday.  The media identifies them as Kazakhs, and their vessel as a 176-foot luxury superyacht.  Hydra will seek compensation for damage to its only pine forest.

Another island, Capri in the Bay of Naples, depends on tourism for its economy but not just now.  The water supply is low because of drought and the failure of the mainland water system, or, as the mayor says, "The health and hygiene system is explosive."  Tourists are being kept away for now.

Fans of Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi will be happy to know that his death sentence has been overturned.  Salehi was convicted of "corruption on Earth," in addition to "assistance in sedition, assembly and collusion, propaganda against the state and calling for riots" for his part in the protests after the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022.  He will be retried by the Isfahan revolutionary court, perhaps without the torture this time.

Two "climate protesters" sprayed orange paint on Stonehenge Thursday, but it was cleaned up in time to welcome summer solstice celebrants Friday.  A prediction:  Just Stop Oil will be revealed as agents of the petroleum industry whose mission is to turn the public against environmentalism through a series of stupid stunts.

Four members of the Hinduja family, described as Britain's richest, are going to prison in Switzerland for mistreating the servants they brought in from India, confiscating their passports, underpaying them and rarely allowing them to leave the house.  Good for Switzerland.

Some parts of Europe embrace multiculturalism more than others.  For example, June 22 is the day of the Chinese Dragon Boat Festival in Copenhagen.  In addition to food and music there will be a dragon boat race, a tradition with a 2,000-year history.

Desperate times call for desperate measures.  In 1933 the Nazis gained control of the Reichstag because Social Democrats and Communists (the latter directed by Moscow) refused to join forces.  The Nouveau Front Populaire is determined that nothing similar will happen in France.  It's a coalition of Socialists, Communists, Greens and other left-wing groups who normally have no use for one another but are determined that Marine LePen's Rassemblement National must not take power in the national assembly.  In an editorial in Le Monde Raphael Glucksmann calls it "the mother of all battles, the battle that makes all others possible."  Vanity candidates like Cornel West should take note.

Saddam Hussein's use of civilians from a British Airways flight as human shields in Kuwait in 1990 was offered as a reason for the first Gulf War.  Now that Israel is using Palestinians as human shields, will the US reconsider its unconditional support for the war on Gaza?  

And for balance we have our first October 7 denier:  Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) called the sexual assault of Israeli women "propaganda" and "lies" before changing his mind and apologizing.  Bowman faces a primary challenge from George Latimer this week, and Latimer was endorsed by Hillary Clinton.