WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Stanley]

I can confirm that Ian's suspicion is correct!

[Big Kev]

It does have it's benefits. I joined a 'friendly society' when I was 16, I received a 65th birthday cash bonus from them today and a note to cancel my annual subscription as discresionary benefits (dental and optical) are now free to me, I feel proper old now

[Stanley]

" discretionary benefits (dental and optical) are now free to me"

News to me Kev.... I don't think it's quite as simple as that....

Meanwhile, in another part of the forest...... THIS got my attention....
Updated 21 minutes ago
Lord Mandelson has been arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office. The Metropolitan Police said a 72-year-old man was arrested at an address in Camden, north London, on Monday and taken to a police station for interview. The arrest follows search warrants at two addresses in the Wiltshire and Camden, a police statement added. The force launched an investigation earlier this month over allegations that, while he was serving as a government minister, Lord Mandelson had passed on market-sensitive government information to the late convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Lord Mandelson has not publicly commented in recent weeks on the Epstein files, but the BBC understands his position is he has not acted in any way criminally and that he was not motivated by financial gain. Lord Mandelson became the British ambassador to the US in February 2025 but was sacked in September after Downing Street said new information about the depth of his relationship with Epstein had emerged. The government has said it expects to release the first documents relating to Lord Mandelson's appointment in "early March". On Monday afternoon, he was seen being led away from his London home by plain clothes officers who put him in the back of an unmarked car. The BBC understands his arrest was carried out by officers from the Met's central specialist crime division.
Looking in from the outside it seems to me that this man has been sailing close to the wind for many years and this collar is long overdue. But what the hell would I know about it....

[Big Kev]

" discretionary benefits (dental and optical) are now free to me"

News to me Kev.... I don't think it's quite as simple as that....

The friendly society pays up to £400 a year for glasses and £400 for dental treatment, I just submit the receipt and no longer pay the annual subscription.

[Stanley]

Ah..... I see. Thanks for explaining that Kev.....

[Big Kev]

FB_IMG_1771963234206.jpg

Very true

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report.....
21 minutes ago
A 33-year-old disabled woman says she feels "betrayed, worthless and frightened" after being moved to a nursing home against her will. Lucinda Ritchie previously lived in her own adapted bungalow in Billingshurst, West Sussex. She was admitted to hospital with pneumonia last April, but 10 months later was not allowed to return home. Instead, this February, she was taken to a nursing home in Uckfield - an hour from her home and family. Within two days of being there, her condition deteriorated and she was returned to hospital. NHS Sussex said it was "committed to working with Lucinda and her family to make sure she receives high quality and safe care to meet her needs". Neil Allen, an independent barrister, told the BBC it was "very unusual" for an adult with full mental capacity to be moved to a residential home against their will as it was "totally unlawful". The NHS has denied that funding considerations played any part in the decision-making around Ritchie's care, saying it was based on her clinical safety. But Allen said disputes over the funding of people's healthcare packages were happening up and down the country all the time. "That is a national issue at the moment," he explained.

[Stanley]

THIS caught my attention.....
Scientists have discovered that an annual event when Emperor penguins completely shed and regrow their feathers is putting the birds in peril as Antarctica is transformed by a warming world. Each year the birds must stay on platforms of floating ice for long enough to replace weather-beaten feathers with new, waterproof coats. But in 2022-24 Antarctic sea ice shrank significantly, largely down to climate change, depriving the birds of safe places to moult. Now scientists who track the animals using satellite pictures can no longer find most of the birds. They fear that thousands of penguins may have frozen in Antarctica's icy waters. "This was really an "oh my God" moment," says the scientist behind the findings, Dr Peter Fretwell at British Antarctic Survey, who has worked on Emperor penguins for 20 years. "You could see this was something game-changing for Emperor penguins. Suddenly you're thinking, well, have we got time to save them?" he says. The research, published in the scientific journal Communications Earth & Environment, provides evidence about the impacts of the collapse in Antarctic summer sea ice in 2022-24 which the BBC reported on here. It is focussed on West Antarctica, home to 30-40% of the global population of Emperor penguins. The animals are amongst the most threatened in the world. They migrate thousands of kilometres to find stable sea ice during Antarctic summer to wait out what is called a "catastrophic moult" every year.
We slowly kill more and more of the world's wonderful variety of life and are left the poorer each time. I find it very sad and wonder where it will end.....

[Tizer]

This is not the usual shallow geothermal project but extracts heat from rocks 3 miles below the surface...
`Earth's heat to power 10,000 homes in renewable energy first for UK' LINK

[Stanley]

That's good news Peter but I note that some of the funding came from the EU presumably before Brexit and that source will not be available now.....

[Tizer]

Good news- we had this year's first ball of frog spawn this morning! There's been newt activity obvious in the pond for several weeks now but not frogs. Although we have the frog spawn we haven't seen the frogs that deposited it because they had a secret tryst during the night in a shallow bowl of water. That's because of the situation of our pond. The garden slopes steeply uphill away from the house. There's a patio immediately behind the house, then a brick retaining wall about 50cm high and the pond is immediately behind it. Then the garden rises further behind the pond. Frogs arriving from uphill can arrive OK but those on the patio can't, so at this time of year we put a couple of shallow ceramic bowls (like those you put under flower pots) at the base of the wall. We've been collecting newts from the bowls and adding them to the pond and we'll probably begin to find frogs in there soon. It's our bit of help for nature.

[Stanley]

[Wendyf]

My pond has suddenly come alive with frog activity!

[Big Kev]

My pond has suddenly come alive with frog activity!

We need a link to 'frog cam'

[Wendyf]

My pond has suddenly come alive with frog activity!

We need a link to 'frog cam'

I just looked and I've lost contact with frog cam. I'll need to investigate.

[Big Kev]

My pond has suddenly come alive with frog activity!

We need a link to 'frog cam'

I just looked and I've lost contact with frog cam. I'll need to investigate.

Oh no!

[Stanley]

The site is full of frogs this morning.....

Meanwhile, in another part of the forest.....
See THIS live report of Bill Clinton's evidence.....
Bill Clinton's testimony to the House Oversight committee has concluded after hours of questioning about his connection to Jeffrey Epstein. The former president was asked about a photograph from the Epstein files that shows him and an unidentified person in a hot tub, a source tells the BBC. Clinton told lawmakers he does not know who the woman in the photograph was. House Democrats say Clinton's testimony brought up "additional information" about Trump, as they renewed calls for the president to testify. Trump said of Clinton earlier today: "I don't like seeing him deposed". Republicans say they will release video of Hillary Clinton's testimony on Saturday and the former president's is expected to follow, as well as transcripts approved by their respective lawyers. Former president Clinton denies any knowledge of Epstein's crimes. He says if he had known he would have "turned him in myself". There is no suggestion that appearing in the Epstein documents implies wrongdoing. Clinton earlier said he "saw nothing" and "did nothing wrong"
The thought that comes to my mind is that the spotlight is getting closer to Trump if ex-presidents can be subpoenaed.

[Tizer]

This is more significant than it looks at first sight. Trump is used to bossing everybody else but now others are standing up to him and, especially when working together, they have more money than he has...
`Trump orders government to stop using Anthropic in battle over AI use' LINK
US President Donald Trump has said he would direct every federal agency to immediately stop using technology from AI developer Anthropic. "We don't need it, we don't want it, and will not do business with them again!" Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Friday. Anthropic is mired in a row with the White House after refusing demands that it agree to give the US military unfettered access to its AI tools. The refusal led US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth to say he's deemed Anthropic a "supply chain risk". The label would make Anthropic the first US company to ever publicly receive such treatment. The company said that it "will challenge any supply chain risk designation in court"....

At the end of the story...
...A former official with the DoD, who asked not to be named, told the BBC that Anthropic appeared to have the upper hand in the fight. "This is great PR for them and they simply do not need the money," the former official said. Anthropic's work with the Pentagon is part of a contract worth $200m (£149m). The company's most recent valuation came earlier this month and put the company's worth at $380 billion, based on its current revenue and future expected earnings. The former official added that the defence department's basis for threatening Anthropic with invoking either the Defense Production Act and being labelled a supply chain risk was "extremely flimsy".

[PanBiker]

Our lad Jack and his team mate Tom coming second in the elite category of the Everyday Athlete at the Gym.

About 90 minutes of varied gym challenges inter spaced with 4 runs, 3 @ 750m then the final at 1km. They did a couple of gym routines then a run then back in the gym. Each two person team was monitored throughout with a separate gym coach.

They finished only one minute behind the leaders, Louise and Nathan her husband, Louise is running our place in the London Marathon for Bosom Friends.

[Big Kev]

[Stanley]

Peter.... am I correct in saying that my impression is that Trump appears to be encountering more and more resistance to his administrative style?

Meanwhile.... THIS dominates all news channels. Updated 14 minutes ago.
Donald Trump says Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been killed by US-Israeli strikes across Iran. An intelligence source and a military source have told the BBC's media partner, CBS News, that around 40 Iranian officials were killed in the strikes, including Khamenei. Iran is yet to confirm widespread reports of Khamenei's death. Israel earlier identified seven other officials it says it killed. Trump says bombing will continue, and that "this is the single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their country" - see his statement in full. In response, Iran launched attacks throughout the Middle East. Apparent Iranian strikes have been reported in Dubai, Doha, Bahrain, and Kuwait - places with US military bases, or that are allied to the US. More than 200 people have been killed across Iran, the Red Crescent says. At least 108 were killed when US and Israeli strikes hit a girls' school, Iran says
It's too early to draw any conclusions. This is a high risk strategy being pursued unilaterally by Israel and the US. Time will tell how effective it has been.

[Tizer]

Yes. Even Republicans are turning against him. His core supporters voted for him because he promised to Make America Great Again by turning inwards and not getting involved in fighting wars. Also he was going to `Drain the Swamp' but instead has refused to make Epstein information public by redacting much of the records. He's also getting increasingly muddled and mixing up the names of countries and people. And Joe Public is beginning to feel the pinch of higher prices and shortage of goods in the shops due to his tariffs. All this and yet he keeps on digging the hole deeper!

[Tizer]

Stanley, more on Trump...
`Threats of retaliation causing anxiety in the US'
LINK
The threats of retaliation traded between Washington and Tehran are creating a sense of anxiety here in the United States, especially after President Trump warned there could be American military casualties. We have seen some scenes of celebration in cities like Los Angeles, home to a large Iranian diaspora. But beyond that, there is also confusion.

One way to gauge it is through what Americans are searching for online. People are asking questions including, why has the US launched strikes on Iran? Is the country now at war? That matters politically. Trump’s MAGA base largely backed him on a promise not to engage in so-called forever wars and focus on domestic priorities instead. A new foreign confrontation was not what many of those voters expected.

If he can achieve what he frames as regime change, he will argue it demonstrates strength. But for now there are significant question marks - about the strategy, about the risk of escalation, and about the fact these strikes did not receive congressional approval.

[PanBiker]

It's a simple matter for me. Trumps actions are a direct contravention of International Law. So by default he should be arrested and tried as such.

Who said he had the right to make arbitrary decisions about another countries future.

He is criminal, full stop>

[Stanley]

Thanks Peter..... much as I suspected but I think you monitor the US more than I do.

HERE'S the latest report updated 5 minutes ago.....
Donald Trump says "there will likely be more" US casualties during operations in Iran as military activity in the region will continue until "all objectives" are achieved. US Central Command earlier said three US service members have been killed in action and five "seriously wounded". For Trump, each American casualty raises the stakes domestically, writes our senior reporter Bernd Debusman Jr. Iranian officials say at least 153 people, including children, were killed after a strike hit a school, while in Israel, nine people have been killed after a missile strike in the city of Beit Shemesh, according to medical services. Iran's foreign minister says a new leader could be chosen in "a day or two", after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed. British RAF base in Cyprus was targeted by a "suspected drone strike" on Sunday night, the British Ministry of Defence has said. Global oil prices jumped when markets opened in Asia on Monday