The World Chess Championship (2018) in London has proven to be a mind numbing marathon. After 12 games the contest was deadlocked. But reigning world champ Magnus Carlsen (left) of Norway claimed his fourth straight title Wednesday by beating challenger Fabiano Caruana in the first round of tie breakers. At centre is Mohammed Mansouri, one of two Iranian fugitives from US justice. He and others are wanted for perpetrating a multi-million dollar ransomware blackmail fraud on hundreds of institutions around the world, including the University of Calgary. U of C paid $20,000 to get its computers unlocked during one of the attacks launched by Iranian hackers in 2016. On the right, the Spanish foreign minister Josep Borrell likes to keep history simple. He has told students that it was bone-simple to establish the USA. All they had to do was “kill four Indians.” Oh yes, and fight the Civil War, he added as an afterthought. Thank you Professor Borrell for keeping it simple.
