Seen in the News

[Julie in Norfolk]

Were Trump's lips moving when he said that? If so........

[Stanley]

[Tizer]

With Netanyahu as with Putin, both men are absolutely committed to continuing their respective wars, whether in the open or behind the scenes. It's obvious - they both know that they've been murdering thousands of innocent people, including children. If they stop they'll be exposed to retribution.

[Stanley]

I think you are spot on Peter. Netanyahu has a set of policies which demand the obliteration of all Palestinian influence in Gaza and the West Bank. He can't abandon them because if he does he loses any protection he has from normal legal process.

[Tripps]

It is suspected that the recent flurry of activity in getting an end to the Gaza conflict is due to President Donald Trump wanting a Nobel Peace Prize. I'd assumed it was due at some vague time in the future. Actually it will be announced on Friday this week.

He's cutting it a bit fine.

[Stanley]

David, why does my mind leap to Henry Kissinger getting the Nobel Peace prize?

Closer to home I saw THIS in the news.....
5 hours ago
Police say they have dismantled an international gang suspected of smuggling up to 40,000 stolen mobile phones from the UK to China in the last year. In what the Metropolitan Police says is the UK's largest ever operation against phone thefts, 18 suspects have been arrested and more than 2,000 stolen devices discovered. Police believe the gang could be responsible for exporting up to half of all phones stolen in London - where most mobiles are taken in the UK. BBC News has been given access to the operation, including details of the suspects, their methods, and to dawn raids on 28 properties in London and Hertfordshire. The investigation was triggered after a victim traced a stolen phone last year. "It was actually on Christmas Eve and a victim electronically tracked their stolen iPhone to a warehouse near Heathrow Airport," Detective Inspector Mark Gavin said. "The security there was eager to help out and they found the phone was in a box, among another 894 phones."

[Stanley]

See THIS business news....
The EU has announced plans to hike tariffs on imported steel in a move the UK's steel industry has said could be "perhaps the biggest crisis" it has ever faced. The commission has set out plans to cut the amount of steel that can be imported into the bloc by half - beyond which the new 50% tariffs will apply. The EU is the UK's most important export destination for steel, worth nearly £3bn and representing 78% of steel products made in the UK for overseas markets. The commission has come under pressure from some member states and their steel industries, which have been struggling to compete with cheap imports from countries like China and Turkey. he EU is proposing to reduce tariff-free quotas for imports to 18.3 million tonnes a year – a 47% reduction from 2024 levels.
So we continue to pay the price for Cameron's desperate bid for a mythical 'sovereignty'
Will anyone raise this at the Tory conference? I doubt it, the subject is dead and we never hear anything now from Tory Brexiteers.

[Tripps]

Poor postal service in Barnoldswick. I certainly don't get a daily delivery any more, but practically - it makes little difference at the moment.
I read that the now privatised company is back in profit - so that's OK then.

Post

It all went to pot after Pete the Postman retired.

[Stanley]

See THIS comment on the US economy....
2 hours ago
There is a higher risk of a serious fall in US stocks than is currently being reflected in the market, the head of JP Morgan has told the BBC. Jamie Dimon, who leads America's largest bank, said he was "far more worried than others" about a serious market correction, which he said could come in the next six months to two years. In a rare and wide-ranging interview, the bank boss also said that the US had become a "less reliable" partner on the world stage. He cautioned he was still "a little worried" about inflation in the US, but insisted he thought the Federal Reserve would remain independent, despite repeated attacks by the Trump administration on its chair Jerome Powell. Jamie Dimon was in Bournemouth, where he was announcing an investment of about £350m in JP Morgan's campus there, as well as a £3.5m philanthropic investment in local non-profits. Commenting on the investment, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said: "As one of Dorset's biggest private sector employers, JP Morgan Chase expanding their Bournemouth campus is fantastic news for the local economy and people who live here."
As some of you may remember, I am worried about the reporting of the US economy..... It is not reacting to the stresses being placed on of late in the way I would expect and I can't help wondering why. This opinion might indicate I am not alone.

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC In Depth report on the Gaza cease fire by Jeremy Bowen....
Even for Donald Trump, a president who revels in his place at the centre of world events, it was a dramatic moment. The US Secretary of State Marco Rubio interrupted a televised meeting Trump was chairing in Washington DC on Wednesday. He handed over a message that the President needed to tell the world that they had a deal. Trump told the audience in the room – and millions more who have now seen the video – that he would have to leave. "They're going to need me…" he said, interrupting the day's business. "I have to go now to try to solve some problems in the Middle East." Israel and Hamas signed off the first phase of what Donald Trump intends to be a wider agreement after three days of indirect talks in Egypt.
The report is worth reading I think. Jeremy Bowen knows his stuff and is a reliable witness.....

[Stanley]

See THIS account of the progress of the cease fire in Gaza.
The Israeli military says it has partially withdrawn troops from parts of Gaza after a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas came into effect on Friday morning. Israeli forces said they had pulled back to an agreed position within the territory - though troops still occupy half of the Strip. Footage shows thousands of Palestinians making their way to the north of Gaza, which has been heavily bombarded by Israeli forces in recent months. The ceasefire came into effect after the Israeli government approved the first phase of US President Donald Trump's ceasefire and hostage return deal on Thursday. The next phases are still being negotiated.
There is much more and some stunning pics of the region.....
I have been thinking about how Netanyahu could get his hostages back and still pursue his end game which I am convinced is the total elimination of the Palestine State and settlement of the Gaza Strip and the West bank.
He could wait until he had his hostages back dead and alive and then claim all bets are off because HAMAS refuses to disarm or disband, or something along those lines. I have a feeling he has something like this up his sleeve.

[Julie in Norfolk]

Following a routine medical examination on Friday at the Walter Reed Military Hospital near the capital, Washington, the physician Sean Barbabella concluded that Trump has the heart and vascular system of a 65-year-old, despite the president being 79 years old.

Aside from this likely being a load of codswallop, didn't Trump ought to give his heart back to the 65-year-old!

[Stanley]

How could they safely deliver any other verdict?

[Tizer]

Trump will never be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize but he should get a consolation prize for reaching 79 on a diet of Big Macs and Coca-Cola. Mind you, 79 and on a diet like that he might be dead tomorrow!

[Stanley]

Careful Peter.... There's probably a law against publishing cheerful thoughts like that!

[Stanley]

See THIS report on problems with government insulation scheme.....
3 hours ago
A government scheme aimed at cutting energy use by insulating homes was botched on a vast scale, a spending watchdog has found, leaving tens of thousands of homes in need of remedial work. According to the National Audit Office (NAO) 98% of homes that had external wall insulation installed under the scheme have problems that will lead to damp and mould if left unaddressed. Nearly a third, or 29%, of the homes that were given internal insulation also need fixing, it said. Energy Consumer Minister Martin McCluskey said the government was taking action and that the homes would be fixed "at no cost to the consumer". Mohammed Mahedi, who had external wall insulation fitted to his Luton home two years ago, is living with the consequences. ''Some mornings I wake up breathing really, really heavily. I feel it in my neck. I feel it in my lungs,'' he says. The BBC first reported the impact of faulty insulation in Luton last year. Mohammed is still fighting to get the problem fixed. "We got a scheme done that was meant to be helping us but it's made everything worse.''

[Stanley]

See THIS report about Earby......
About £2.5m of funding for a flood alleviation scheme in Lancashire has been axed, according to a council leader. Pendle Council's David Whipp said he had been notified by phone and email that Earby would no longer receive the money through the government's "frequently flooded communities" programme. The Liberal Democrat councillor said: "The impact of flooding is devastating and something no-one ever wants to see repeated." The Environment Agency has not yet responded to the BBC's request for comment.

[Stanley]

See THIS for the most likely breaking point of the Gaza cease-fire....
The US has downplayed claims that Hamas is violating the ceasefire deal with Israel by not returning all the bodies of dead hostages. Only nine of the 28 dead hostages have been returned, with Hamas saying it needs time and specialised equipment to recover the others from the ruins of Gaza. The latest two bodies returned on Wednesday have been identified as Inbar Hayman and Sgt Maj Muhammad al-Atarash, the Israel Defense Forces said early on Thursday. The row over the return of dead hostages has led Israel to limit promised aid supplies to Gaza, but two senior advisers to US President Donald Trump have said plans to demilitarise the Strip and build a new transitional government are under way. In an update on the implementation of Trump's 20-point peace plan, the advisers told reporters that the US government did not so far believe Hamas had broken the agreement by not retrieving more remains. The advisers argued that Hamas had acted in good faith by returning all living hostages and was working with various interlocutors to find and return the remains of the others. Hamas's armed wing said in a statement it was committed to the deal but had returned all the bodies of hostages it was able to reach. One senior US adviser said the recovery of all the bodies could take weeks because of the level of destruction in Gaza.
Trump wants to pursue this attitude to keep his plans for a Nobel on track. Netanyahu is waiting for a chance to cite this as bad faith and allow him to renew the assault. The question is how tight a rein has Trump got on Israel?

[Julie in Norfolk]

Not as tight a rein as his shirt has on his neck in the Time magazine front cover!

[Stanley]

Have a look at THIS news from Burscough......
A town's residents are facing the prospect of a year with no mobile phone signal after a mast operated by provider EE was taken down. The situation has arisen in Burscough, Lancashire, where EE customers had connected to the network via the mast positioned at the top of Martland Mill in the town's Mart Lane. However, the owners of the mill served telecoms infrastructure provider Cellnex with a "notice to quit" order to remove the huge antenna, in order to free up office space in August. Planning permission was granted for another mast in the area on 15 September, but EE had no plans to install it before August 2026. Shop owners described the situation as "an absolute nightmare", while local councillor Swin Purple said she was forced to buy "a burner phone" on a different network. Ms Purple added: "It's affecting so many people, it's affecting local businesses, people who work from home. I spoke to a mother who was struggling to make medical appointments." EE has apologised and said it was liaising with local authorities in the hope of finding a temporary solution. Other mobile networks that used the EE mast have also been affected, including Three and O2.
I know I am a hopeless old dinosaur but whilst our old landline system wasn't 'smart', I can't ever remember us having to face total loss of service.

[Julie in Norfolk]

US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth's plane made an unscheduled landing in the UK, during a return flight headed for the US, the Pentagon said on X.

The plane carrying Hegseth on his way back from Nato's Defence Minister meeting in Belgium had a "crack in the aircraft windshield".

"The plane landed based on standard procedures and everyone onboard, including Secretary Hegseth, is safe," the government said.

Hegseth later wrote after landing: "All good. Thank God. Continue mission!"

BBC Verify tracked the plane, and found that it began losing altitude off the south-west coast of Ireland. It then headed back east, having dropped to an altitude of 10,000 feet, accoring to FlightRadar24.

At this time, the plane started broadcasting a "7700 squawk code" on its transponder. These are relayed to signify a general emergency onboard, ranging from engine failure to depressurisation to a medical emergency.

It subsequently landed at RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk shortly after 19:00 BST (18:00 GMT), according to publicly available flight tracking data.

Hmmmm. Just up the road from my house. Too close for comfort.

[Stanley]

Check your locks Julie!