PeterRS

I was too hasty. Fighting has once again restarted.

One of the expensive seated tickets for the 1966 World Cup Final in England (where stadia also had much cheaper standing areas) cost of all £3.15. In tody's money that is probably around £500-£600. In those days the highest weekly wage for a soccer player in England was typically £100. Today Erling Haaland who plays for Manchester City earns £525,000 per week.

I was merely making a simple point. No need to blow it up into something which it is not.

Trump is now claiming that he has got both sides once again to suspend hostilities. Maybe for two weeks, I guess. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd0kkyx3vvxo

I was wrong and you are correct. Shops and restaurants are not permitted to sell alcohol but certain religious groups like Armenians may make and consume their own. No tourist of any religious persuasion may cosume alcohol.

The problems for non-Muslims arise when they are asked - where did you get the alcohol? For it is forbidden to be sold anywhere in Iran. Also tourists are also forbidden to drink it. When I arrived in the country I was slightly concerned about customs inspections because I had forgotten to delete a stack of naked guys in compromising positions on my iPad. It turned out the only concern was booze. They checked my hand baggage and my suitcase to doublle check. I have written before that my guide's father in Shiraz made his own red wine. I was asked if I would like some. It was delivered to me in a bottle which had earlier contained vegetable juice. I was asked to ensure the bottle was thoroughly washed when the wine was finished so there was no smell of alcohol when I placed it in the room trash bin. As for alcohol-free beer, I tried it on my first night in Teheran. Hated it! I stuck with pomegranate juice most of the time.

And the United States sits very firmly on the fence. Although a member, in 1986 it withdrew from its compulsory jurisdiction. Judge Joan E. Donoghue, the US member of the Court. said, 'There's always been a bit of a love-hate relationship" between the USA and the ICJ. In other words, it will accept the Court's jurisdiction - but only if it approves of the judgement.

For decades, FIFA the governing body for world soccer which organises the World Cup every four years, has been the subject of way more than a fair share of scandals - nepotism, corruption on a massie scale, working with alleged and virtually certain crooks, and so on. All coalesce around the World Cup if only because it generates humungous sums of cash. Next year's Cup will be no exception. Someone, somewhere, decided it would be a good idea to split the matches between the USA, Canada and Mexico. Such a good idea did this seem that in 2030 the countries will be Spain, Portugal and Morocco. Well, for the hundreds of thousands of fans from all over the world, commuting between the 2030 countries will be relatively easy. For 2026 it will be hugely costly. But that doesn't worry FIFA one iota. Inspired no doubt by President Trump, it has litte concern for the cost of getting to North America from as far away as Australia and Chile, it has raised ticket prices to astronomcal levels. For Qatar's Final Match in 2022, the lowest ticket price was US$420. When the final is held in New York's MetLife Stadium next year, there will be just three price categories -US$3,119, US$4,162 and US$6,615. These are shocking in the extreme and have been met with outrage all over the world. But as the draw was being made, there ws the utterly ridiculous sight of Trump being presented with FIFA's first ever FIFA Peace Prize - Football Unites the World. As the near idiot President of FIFA stated when handing over the Prize, “This is what we want from a leader; A leader that cares about the people. We want to live in a safe world, in a safe environment. We want to unite – that’s what we do here today, that’s what we’ll do at the (FIFA) World Cup." Whoever would have thought that FIFA would inaugrate a Peace prize when it has nothing to do with Peace? Mind you, FIFA has become almost a Donald Duck operation over the years and few have much faith in it. For years foortball enthusiasts used to berate the President of FIFA, Sepp Blatter, for the organisation, cost and corruption involved in World Cups. After all they made FIFA a gazillian $$s, some finding its way into pockets of Blatter and his cronies of the Executive Committee when it should have gone to soccer federations around the world. Blatter had been an odd coice for President. Once a salesman for ladies underwear, he had eventually become involved in sports management. His election and re-elections to the top job were beset by corruption allegations. He was investigated by FIFA's Ethics Committee and amazingly - but perhaps not surprisingly since the members were basically in his pocket - cleared of wrong-doing in 2013. He finally had to resign as President. His misdeeds then caught up with him in 2020/21, however, when he ws investigated by the Swiss police and FIFA finally filed a criminal complaint against him. This ended the influence of the deeply unpopular and highly corrupt Blatter. In his place FIFA elected its present President, Giovanni Infantino. involved with its European arm UEFA since 2000, initially in the legal department and eventually as President. He was aso on FIFA's Reform Committee. When elected to succeed Blatter he was regarded as Mr. Clean. But then that did not last long. That same year UEFA was involved in the Panama Papers for dealng with idividuals indicted in some FIFA countries. Of his many indiscretions since then, perhaps the most ifamous was his doing absolutely nothing as migrant workers from the Indian sub-continent were dying in their hundreds from desperate working conditions then buiding the stadiums for the 2002 Qatar Word Cup. Infantino's defence of Qatar was risible. Next he limited the number of possible applicants for the 2034 World Cup and awarded it to Saudi Arabia. He had frequently been involved with Saudi leaders and apearing at Saudi events. That he is in league with the Saudis is almost certain. Infantino - a worthy seccessor to Blatter! https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/c80x38e04yro

I can't be certain but i expect it is - as long as you are not American, British or Canadian, all of whose governments advise against it. I think the Australian government is the same. Even back in 2018 I was slightly concerned since I am British and the Brits were party to sanctions against the country. I have to say, though, everywhere in Iran I was met with extreme kindness by Iranians. One young mullah even showed me round one of the most important mosques in Qom. He, too, could not have been more polite and welcoming to a western visitor. If you are seeking gay sexual adventures, I would not be tempted. My straight guide was a tallish slim guy around 40 and he had a hooker in every city we visited! I saw no evidence of gay sex, though, paid or unpaid. I was just too afraid of what might happen if caught in such a liaison by the secret police. If you consider going, I can send a PM with the details of my travel agent in Shiraz. He had been recommended to me by two Chinese friends and was excellent. Visas, though, are very expensive! Mine was around Bt. 8,000 but that may be because I was from Britain. Half the tour fee was paid in advance to an Iranian in Chicago (to get around tax in Iran) and the rest in cash on arrival.

Haha! Even a tactical thermo-nuclear bomb would wipe out and severaly affect the health of half the Israeli population if not more. What an utterly stupid suggestion!

That is the equivalent of someone saying "get a life" which is one of the stupidest and most childish of attempted put-downs.

I have a feeling it definitely will. Iran has so many internal problems there will have to be some form of revolution against the regime sooner rather than later. The corruption is massive. My guide estimated that the Supreme Leader pocketed US$13 million daily in bribes (this in 2018). He showed me part of Tehran with lovely blocks of relatively small but lovely apartments which he said sold for US$500K up! Only the leading mullahs, army and secret police could afford to live there. We also travelled on part of an unfinished expressway. He told me money was set aside for completion every year - and every year it vanished. To whet your appetite for this etraordinary country - Persepolis Ahura Mazda, the Prophet of the Zoroastrian religion above the Temple of Fire An early form of Air Condtioning in Yazd The main mosque in Qum Teheran's Golestan Palace, once home to the Shah One of the superb gardens in Kashan, "Paradise" in Persian meaning a beautiful walled garden The Vank Armenian Cathedral in Isfahan Mosque Interiors One of the mosques in Isfahan's huge Naqsh-e Jahan Square

After a week of fresh clashes along the border, PM Anutin has dissolved parliament and called elections within 45 - 60 days. Anutin says he is returning power to the people. As one of the snakes in government for a long time, I doubt if many believe that. He will have something up his sleeve to ensure he gets back into power. The question many will be asking: is there any way Pita Limjaroenrat and his banned Move Forward party who clearly won the last election before being banned on spurious charges can return in a different guise in order to take part in the election? Others have done it before. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3v11rd200yo

Yet ironically as the war was about to start, the Germans were ahead in the race to build the "bomb". In 1939 a host of German scientists and physicists like Otto Hahn, Fritz Strassmann, Otto Frisch and others had cracked the code for nuclear fission. These ideas were pubished by Niels Bohr and the American John Wheeler two days prior to the outbreak of war and became the classical anaysis of the fission process. The German nuclear programme was presided over by Werner Heisenberg. Although it was wound down for reasons of cost, this German Uranverein project became the primary incentive for the USA and Britain to pursue the goal of a nuclear bomb. It was also their reason for mounting the raids on the German-occupied Norwegian heavy water plants. Soviet scientists quickly discovered what Germany, Britain and the USA were up to. It took time but by 1942 they had convinced Stalin to start up a nuclear resarch programme. Although too late to affect the outcome of WWII, following the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki much greater effort was put in by the Soviets. The city of Chelyabinsk-40 was constructed to house the new plutonium reactors - later renamed Cheyabinsk-65, the first of ten highly secret Soviet cities to house its nuclear programme. Had the Soviet scientists been quicker off the mark, who knows which country would have been the first to use the bomb and how WWII might have ended?

As he promised!