Seen in the News

[Stanley]

Yes I heard the news..... Susan tells me the CEO is Turkish, I was completely thrown by his name.... Tufan Erginbilgic !
It makes so much sense to use them instead of the white elephants we are building...... Mind you I heard later that the new quantum computer at Oxford, supposed to be the fastest in the world, only uses the same amount of energy as an electric kettle.......

See THIS BBC report on the collapsed road at Haslingden....
Major repairs to a road that has been closed since a huge landslip on New Year's Day will not get under way until early 2026, Lancashire County Council has confirmed. The partial collapse of Haslingden Old Road in Oswaldtwistle happened after torrential rain and flooding. The deluge caused a wall supporting the road, as well as one lane of the carriageway, to collapse. Speaking as drone footage revealed the full extent of the landslip, councillor Warren Goldsworthy said: "The scale of the damage and complexity of the terrain presents major engineering challenges."

[PanBiker]

Well, Reform control it all now so they should get on with it!

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC In Depth article on Netanyahu.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's longest serving prime minister and by far the dominant force in its politics, has not budged from what he believes is the essential truth about the war in Gaza. He has given Israel – and the outside world – a consistent message since Hamas attacked Israel almost two years ago. He stated it clearly when he ordered the first big ground offensive of the war into the Gaza Strip on 28 October 2023, three weeks after the attacks, and since then he has repeated the themes many times. "We will fight to defend our homeland. We will fight and not retreat. We will fight on land, at sea and in the air. We will destroy the enemy above ground and below ground. We will fight and we will win. "This will be a victory of good over evil, of light over darkness, of life over death. In this war we will stand steadfast, more united than ever, certain in the justice of our cause." His speech adopted the cadences of Winston Churchill's rallying call in June 1940 of "we shall fight on the beaches," after Britain's defeat by Germany in northern France and the evacuation of more than 338,000 allied soldiers from Dunkirk.......... Very few Israelis have ever doubted that their cause is just, but Netanyahu's statement that they would be "more united than ever" could not have been further from the condition of Israel almost two years later. Israel is as divided now as at any time in its history, and Netanyahu, a deeply divisive figure when Hamas attacked, is presiding over fault lines in Israel that have opened into chasms.
I can't make up my mind whether the news that Israel is so divided is good or bad news..... I don't doubt that Jeremy Bowen is correct.

[Stanley]

See THIS update on the 1994 Chinook crash.
A Chinook helicopter that crashed in Scotland more than 30 years ago, killing 29 people, was being flown as a "show flight" after safety concerns were raised about its airworthiness, a former RAF test pilot has said. Four crew and 25 passengers were killed when RAF Chinook ZD576 struck a hillside in foggy conditions over the Mull of Kintyre in 1994. Retired Squadron Leader Robert Burke said the Mark 2 version of the Chinook had been chosen to demonstrate to the Army that a recent upgrade from the Mark 1 version was safe. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said it sympathised with relatives of those killed but insisted the circumstances of the crash had already been thoroughly investigated. The allegation comes ahead of the rebroadcast this weekend of a BBC documentary which first aired concerns about the airworthiness of the Mark 2 Chinook. Sq Ldr Burke, who was a unit test pilot based at RAF Odiham at the time of the crash, made the claim during recent discussions with relatives who have been campaigning for a new public inquiry. He has said the Mark 2 version was chosen despite safety concerns being raised about its airworthiness by RAF test engineers and pilots.
This story refuses to go away, after 30 years questions are still being asked...... I hope the families get some closure.

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC news item....
US President Donald Trump's actions have brought the end of the war in Ukraine "closer than ever before", Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said. His statement comes despite the fact that Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin failed to reach a deal on a ceasefire at a summit in Alaska on Friday. He also said the "path to peace in Ukraine" cannot be decided without Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and that the UK's "unwavering support" will continue for as long as it takes. The highly-anticipated meeting between Trump and Putin had been pitched as an important step towards peace in Ukraine, but no concrete agreements were made despite the former saying "great progress" was made.
I have two objections to this.... First it's an empty statement of the bleeding obvious. Of course the end of the war is nearer..... simply because time is passing!
Second, Starmer is flattering Trump for his own ends. I predict that he will back recommendations of Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize in the not too distant future.
Mark my words, in the end Ukraine will be sold down the river.

[Tizer]

The West should have been telling Putin from the outset that if Russia is allowed to keep any of Ukraine's current territory then the rest of Ukraine will automatically be made a member of NATO.

[Stanley]

What a good idea Peter....

See THIS BBC report. I'd forgotten about the Denby Dale Pie!
For more than 200 years - between 1788 and 2000 - the village of Denby Dale in West Yorkshire celebrated all its biggest events with a giant pie. In 1887, to celebrate Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee the pie included beef, mutton, veal, lamb, pork, 64 rabbits, three hares, 42 fowls, 40 pigeons, 12 grouse, 21 ducks, four plovers, one turkey, five geese, two wild ducks, 108 small birds and 40 stone (250kg) of potatoes. Now, Bryn Walker, who comes from the neighbouring village of Clayton West, and Megan Farquhar have written a play about the Denby Dale Pie's history. "Denby Dale is a real piece of pie history and local village history that everyone needs to know about," says Mr Walker.

[Tizer]

All the EU leaders and also especially the US and Russian leaders should be made to sit down together and read this...

1994 Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances

To solidify security commitments to Ukraine, the United States, Russia, and the United Kingdom signed the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances on December 5, 1994. A political agreement in accordance with the principles of the Helsinki Accords, the memorandum included security assurances against the threat or use of force against Ukraine’s territory or political independence. The countries promised to respect the sovereignty and existing borders of Ukraine. Parallel memorandums were signed for Belarus and Kazakhstan as well. In response, Ukraine officially acceded to the NPT as a non-nuclear weapon state on December 5, 1994. That move met the final condition for ratification of START, and on the same day, the five START states-parties exchanged instruments of ratification, bringing the treaty into force.

2009 Joint Declaration by Russia and the United States

Russia and the United States released a joint statement in 2009 confirming that the security assurances made in the 1994 Budapest Memorandum would still be valid after START expired in 2009.

2014 Russian Annexation of Crimea

Following months of political unrest and the abrupt departure of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, Russian troops entered the Crimean peninsula of Ukraine in March 2014. On March 18, over the protests of the acting government in Kiev, the UN Security Council, and Western governments, Russia declared the annexation of Crimea. The United States, the United Kingdom, and Ukraine called the action a blatant violation of the security assurances in the 1994 Budapest Memorandum. However, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry, “the security assurances were given to the legitimate government of Ukraine but not to the forces that came to power following the coup d'etat.”

Taken from `Ukraine, Nuclear Weapons, and Security Assurances at a Glance' https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/ ... ces-glance

[Stanley]

Well done Peter for digging that lot out! You should be advising Trump and Putin......

See THIS BBC assessment of the talks in Washington yesterday.
Updated 1 hour ago
President Volodymyr Zelensky returned to the White House on Monday to meet US President Donald Trump for fresh talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine. Several European leaders also flew to Washington to attend the meeting, days after Trump met Russia's President Vladimir Putin in Alaska for a summit that failed to result in a ceasefire. Despite optimistic words by Trump and some more lukewarm assessments from his European partners, by Monday evening there were no concrete commitments to security guarantees or steps towards a peace deal. Here are the key takeaways from the talks.
Read the article for the detail. Don't expect too much......

[Stanley]

I can imagine THIS coming as an unwelcome revelation to some people....
Builders have unearthed human bones from a cellar while working at a terraced home that police have said could have been built over an historical burial site. The remains were discovered buried at a property on Cleveland Road, Lytham St Annes in Lancashire on Friday and later confirmed to be human. Lancashire Police said they were "keeping an open mind", but there were not thought to be any suspicious circumstances behind the discovery. "Our enquiries so far have led us to understand that this is thought to be a historical burial site, isolated to the property," a force spokesman said. Efforts are underway to identify the remains, which were found by builders at about 12:35 BST.