Seen in the News

[Stanley]

See THIS cheerful news item.
The political map of North West England is looking very different. In parts of Greater Manchester and Lancashire, the red wall has been rebuilt and Conservative strongholds have crumbled. Labour has swept the board, the Tories have held just three seats. Let that sink in. Could even the most optimistic Labour supporter have foreseen that back in 2019? The polls had predicted a bad night for the Conservatives in the North West. And it was. The facts are these: for the first time in living memory, Cumbria has no Tory MPs. Neither does Merseyside. There are just three Conservatives left.
A bit of an improvement on the usual news stories. Now we wait to see what they do with the majority. Sorry to have to cast a dampener on things but remember 1997, Labour had an even bigger mandate and did not use it. They became Tory-light. We shall have to wait and see.

[Stanley]

THIS caught my eye......
A cash machine has appeared overnight on the side of a bridge. The device on Sonning Bridge in Berkshire visually bears all the hallmarks of a regular cash machine, including a screen, buttons, and slots for bank cards and the dispensing of cash. But it is adorned with Impro Solutions logos, indicating that a real bank is not behind the bridge's new look. Impro is an artist behind a range of confounding previous installations on the bridge, including a phone, a postbox, and a door. Other japes have included a large Google Maps pin at Playhatch Roundabout. Regarding his latest work, he simply said: "Banks have reacted to complaints about branch closures and accessibility by opening cashpoints on river bridges for boaters within minutes of Keir Starmer walking into No 10. "The first is on Sonning Bridge." As yet there have been no sightings of other bridge cash machines.
I can't tell you why but I quite like this, it reminds me of Banksy.....

[Stanley]

See THIS piece in the news this morning....
A leading cybersecurity expert has warned that the NHS remains vulnerable to further cyber-attacks unless it updates its computer systems. This stark assessment comes in the wake of a major ransomware attack that has severely disrupted healthcare services across London. Prof Ciaran Martin, the founding CEO of the UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), told the BBC: "I was horrified, but not completely surprised. Ransomware attacks on healthcare are a major global problem." NHS England said it was increasing its cybersecurity resilience and had invested £338m in the past seven years addressing this issue.

Has enough been done? Time will tell.

[Tizer]

`Project 2025: A wish list for a Trump presidency, explained' (12 June 2024, updated 7 July 2024) LINK

[Stanley]

I read that piece Peter. I haven't heard of them until now but to me they are just one more example of how America is going off the rails.
It seems to me that methods of managing a state based on majority political votes have some sort of flaw embedded in them in that they all tend to develop programmes of governance that eventually become indistinguishable from what one would expect from a dictator. In other words, the concept of 'democracy' is deeply flawed but as Churchill once said, it's better than the others.
It seems to me, looking at The US and most of Europe that we have just had a lucky escape from far-right domination thanks only to the incompetence of the people who held power for 14 years. It remains to be seen what we have ended up with but at the moment it is looking like Blair Mark II and that is not good news.The essence of politics is the same as any other human management problem. If chased down to its roots it is a matter of control. Trump and the US presidency is a case in point. If he gets the post of President he has complete control and can fend off any attempts to reign him in, just as he did last time....

[Stanley]

I saw THIS and my forst thought was that this man has really fallen out with the UK!
Consumer goods giant Dyson plans to cut up to a third of its UK workforce as part of a global shake-up. The company, best known for the invention of the bag-less vacuum cleaner, said the proposals would ensure it was “prepared for the future” amid what it called “increasingly fierce and competitive global markets”. But the move comes after staunch, long-running criticism from its founder Sir James Dyson of the UK economy policies, and the business moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2019. Dyson currently has 3,500 UK employees, with offices in Wiltshire, Bristol and London. CEO Hanno Kirner said the company needed to be "entrepreneurial and agile". “Decisions which impact close and talented colleagues are always incredibly painful," he said. "Those whose roles are at risk of redundancy as a result of the proposals will be supported through the process."
Over to you Ian!

[PanBiker]

Well, I suppose once you have solved cleaning invisible dust and not to mention the impossible "digital" motor which makes everything cost upwards of £500 there isn't a lot left in the fairy land innovation stakes. Even if you do offshore your snake oil business.

How about a time travelling vacuum that you could set to work a week in the past, that would be cleaning sorted! My idea so I'll have the patent and the royalties please.

[Stanley]

Or a microwave that makes things colder.....

See THIS BBC report. A lot of people will be resting easier!
A suspect wanted over a crossbow attack which left three women dead has been captured. A major police manhunt for Kyle Clifford, 26, ended when he was found injured near a cemetery in North London. The victims, who were the wife and two daughters of BBC racing commentator John Hunt, were attacked at their home in Bushey, Hertfordshire. A woman who knows the family described them as "kind, friendly and gentle" people who "always made time for others". Police said the suspect, who left the army two years ago after a short stint, was receiving medical treatment for his injuries, but that "no shots were fired" by officers.
A terrible waste....

[Tizer]

It's taken the Government a long time to recognise the danger from crossbows. I've probably told the story on OG before about in the 1980s having to rescue a student who had been threatened with a crossbow. He'd arrived to do 6 months of industrial training with us in High Wycombe. The uni had arranged lodgings for him in a house in Marlow owned by a Queen's Messenger who was at the time in the USA and his son was left in charge of the house. The student arrived late at our lab on his first morning looking worried. On the previous evening the inebriated son had been pointing a loaded crossbow at him and he had to lock himself in his room and wait until the next day when the son left the house. I went with him in my car to gather his belongings and find him alternative lodgings. A bit scary!

[Stanley]

More than a bit scary Peter! Bloody terrifying! An efficient cross-bow is a very dangerous weapon.....

See THIS BBC report on 'The Battle of Orgreave'.
The bloodiest day of the 1984 miners' strike was orchestrated in Downing Street, the senior legal adviser to the Welsh government has said. Counsel general for Wales Mick Antoniw has called on the new Labour UK government to deliver on its promise of an inquiry into violence at Orgreave as soon as possible. The BBC has taken miners back to the South Yorkshire town to re-live the most "frightening" day of their lives. But Robert Griffiths, a former police officer from Denbigh who volunteered to work at Orgreave, has accused miners of attacking police horses.
It happened 40 years ago but the stain and suspicion that the government was involved, strong at the time with some of us, hasn't gone away.
Remember that Margaret Thatcher and her administration had taken a decision to use the windfall of North Sea Oil to destroy the unions by financing a pool of unemployment. It was a shameful decision, totally wrong and in the end futile. Remember and contrast what Norway did with the same windfall, they founded a Sovereign Wealth Fund which to this day is bringing huge benefits to the country.
Some of us have long and accurate memories and can never forgive elected representatives who betrayed their constituents.

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report follow3ing up the human remains in a suitcase on Clifton Bridge yesterday.
Human remains have been found in west London by police investigating the discovery of body parts in suitcases in Bristol. Officers believe the remains found on Friday in a flat on Scotts Road, Shepherd's Bush and those found two days ago at the Clifton Suspension Bridge belong to the same two men. The Metropolitan Police have named the suspect they are searching for as Yostin Andres Mosquera, a 24-year-old Colombian national, and have warned the public not to approach him. Both victims are thought to have been known to Mr Mosquera, but have not yet been formally identified. Police say the remains in London are currently being "sensitively removed", with post-mortems planned as soon as possible. A cordon was in place on Scotts Road on Friday afternoon. Officers and forensic investigators were seen entering a property at the junction with Devonport Road, while helicopters circled overhead.
Happenings like this are completely without my experience. Thank God!

See THIS report of the Baldwin trial for a surprise result.
Alec Baldwin broke down in tears as a New Mexico judge dismissed the involuntary manslaughter case against him for a fatal shooting on the set of the film Rust. The trial collapsed three days into Baldwin's trial in Santa Fe, at a court just miles from where Halyna Hutchins, a cinematographer, was shot with a revolver that Mr Baldwin was using in rehearsals. It is the second time the case against the actor has been dismissed since the October 2021 shooting. He will not be tried again. His lawyers alleged police and prosecutors hid evidence - a batch of bullets - that could have been connected to the shooting.
What a relief for Mr Baldwin and interesting how the judge ended the trial in such a way ensuring that it could not be brought into court again.

[PanBiker]

What a relief for Mr Baldwin and interesting how the judge ended the trial in such a way ensuring that it could not be brought into court again.

I should think so as well. The gun was handed to him by the professional armourer on crew and certified by her as a "cold weapon" which should only have been chambered with blanks.

She is already serving a custodial sentence.

Regardless of the withheld evidence in this case, I don't think the actor should be, or is qualified to check the weapons and ordnance handed to them. That's the whole point of having and expert armourer.

[Stanley]

The law is like God, it moves in a mysterious way.....

[Tripps]

It was the Durham Miners' gala yesterday. (That's gayla not garla ). The 'Big Meeting'. First under a Labour Government for fifteen years. Surprisingly - many politicians notably Mr Corbyn turned up at the County Hotel. Not much mention of Coal mining though since they kiboshed the last proposed coal mine in Cumbria just last week. Shameless.

Big Meeting

Here's the full flavour of it all. Looks a bit shambolic to be honest. and the elephant is prominently in the room.
I like a good band and a march me. Rainy gala

This picture qualifies for 'Forgotten Corners' but I'll put it here as a reminder of what it used to be all about.

The miner.jpg

[Stanley]

Thanks for that David. The hard political edge may have gone off it but it's still well attended and I am glad.

The news this morning is overshadowed by two events, England's loss to Spain in the Euros and the fall out from the attempt on Trump's life.
I feel sorry for the England Team, such a disappointment. As for Trump, a tragedy that it happened because it is evidence of how warped political thinking is in the States. Biden handled it well. The crazies are of course having a field day.....
See THIS BBC report.
Almost immediately after shots rang out in Butler yesterday, a raft of speculation and conspiracy theories began circulating. One of the biggest is the claim that the shooting was a set up, with some people citing the 1992 satirical movie Bob Roberts, which follows the rise of a populist conservative politician who stages being shot to boost public support. Tim Robbins - who directed and starred in the film - is an outspoken critic of Trump but has strongly condemned those trying to link the movie to the shooting. "What happened yesterday was a real attempt on a presidential candidate’s life. Those that are denying the assassination attempt was real are truly in a deranged mindset," he wrote on X, "They may not be human beings that you agree with politically but for shame folks. Get over your blind hatred of these people.
"Former President Donald Trump has given his first interview since the attempt on his life on Saturday night, saying he has completely rewritten his convention speech to focus on a message of "unity" instead of criticising Joe Biden. "The speech I was going to give on Thursday was going to be a humdinger,” he told the Washington Examiner. “Had this not happened, this would’ve been one of the most incredible speeches,” he also said, adding that it would have been aimed mostly at the President Biden's policies. “Honestly, it’s going to be a whole different speech now. It is a chance to bring the country together. I was given that chance.” Trump also said that the "reality" of what happened on Saturday "is just setting in," and described the moment he looked up at the crowd after realising he had been shot. “The energy coming from the people there in that moment, they just stood there; it’s hard to describe what that felt like, but I knew the world was looking. I knew that history would judge this, and I knew I had to let them know we are OK,” he told the Examiner. The former president touched down in Milwaukee just hours ago, where he'll attend the Republican National Convention this week and be formally nominated as the party's candidate. He's also expected to reveal who will be his running mate in the election.
Will this event alter Trump's course? I doubt it, a leopard doesn't change its spots. But who knows, it may take some of the sharp edges off his tactics.....

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report.....
Search teams looking for Jay Slater in Tenerife have found a body near the last known location of the missing British teenager's mobile phone. The Guardia Civil said its officers and a mountain rescue unit found the body of a young man in the Masca area "after 29 days of non-stop searching". The 19-year-old was last seen on 17 June, after visiting an Airbnb rented by two people he had been with at a music festival on the island. A police statement said that "initial evidence" suggested the person found had "suffered an accident or fall in the inaccessible zone". It added that "the discovery was possible thanks to the incessant and discreet search carried out by the Guardia Civil... in which the natural space was preserved so that it would not be filled with onlookers." Police said that "all the evidence" suggested the remains found were those of "the young British man who disappeared". Full identification of the body is yet to be carried out, it added.
I doubt if this will be a shock for his family but at least, if true, it might enable them to find closure if they are certain. Not knowing must have been terrible.

[Tizer]

Trump's chosen running mate, James David (`JD') Vance, is going to be a problem for Europe. He wants the US out of NATO and no funding for Ukraine. He's joked that the UK is the `first Muslim country to have nuclear weapons' and he's about as right wing as you can get. Some who know him and Trump are saying that Trump now wants to stand back and let Vance do all the aggressive talk (and take the bullets, perhaps?)

[PanBiker]

Reported today that the weapon used by Trumps assailant was a semi-automatic AR-15 Assault Rifle, accurate to 500m. Not stated whether it was equipped with a telescopic sight. He was 120m away so how did he miss, scope or not?

I understand removing the threat but as the assailant and his position on the roof was notified to police before Trump arrived why did he still come or was brought into the line of fire? I assume that the police have radio comms and the like as would Trumps security. That would have given time to subdue the shooter without the use of lethal force. Lots of unanswered questions in this one. There is also the matter that the security guys let their charge stand up after being wounded, hardly close order protection. This aspect has been called a total no no by other security experts.

[Stanley]

See THIS for a report asking similar questions Ian.
Protection for Donald Trump was boosted several weeks ago after US authorities learned of an Iranian plot to kill him, according to national security officials. Officials say there is no known connection between the alleged Iranian plot and the assassination attempt on the former president on Saturday in Pennsylvania. However, the disclosure that security had been tightened raises further questions over how Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, was able to climb a building and get close enough to fire at Trump. The US Secret Service and the Trump campaign were notified of the Iranian threat, and security was increased as a result, according to a US national security official.

In another part of the forest, questions are being asked about THIS.
The mother of British teenager Jay Slater says the family's "hearts are broken" after a body found in Tenerife was confirmed as her son. Debbie Duncan said in statement that her son's death was the "worst news", adding: "I just can’t believe this could happen to my beautiful boy." Officials say the 19-year-old's death is a result of "trauma consistent with a fall in a rocky area", adding that fingerprint tests showed the body found in Masca on Monday was Mr Slater. Earlier, charity LBT Global had confirmed that Mr Slater's possessions were also discovered near his last known location. The teenager, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, was last seen on 17 June, after visiting an Airbnb rented by two people he had been with at the NRG music festival on the island.
Some reports say that he left the house he was visiting in the early hours of the morning to walk 40k home. If this is true, why?
Peter, you're right about Vance, he is a potential problem for us.....

[PanBiker]

I heard this morning that President Biden is calling for the AR-15 rifle to be banned. It's the most popular semi-automatic assault rifle in the country and there are thousands of them already held by US citizens. It's a start but not a solution.

What about the hundreds of other types of armament freely available? Until someone with clout has the guts to stand up against the gun lobby nutters nothing will change. "From my dead hands" is the common rhetoric there, their constitution needs bringing into the 21st century and the right to bare arms removing from it. There are no hostile's left really and most folk don't live on an isolated ranch in the middle of the desert and have to defend it against the indigenous owners of the land.

It will never happen of course and there will continue to be random school and stadium shooting where totally innocent folk get shot to death by the local crazy guy who should never have access to weapons in the first place.

Too much money involved and a totally misguided and completely out of date mindset which unfortunately will never change when the best they can do for leaders is two effectively geriatric guys one of which is probably the most dangerous bloke they have ever previously elected. Loose cannons and folk bordering on dementia have no place as the most powerful leader on the planet.

[Stanley]

I've spent a lot of time in the US and have some very good friends there. Not one of them owns a gun....However, I have met many that do and it always seemed to me that they were insecure. I can still remember talking to a man out in the Mid-West who was looking for a place to build a new home and I was quite surprised to hear him say that the first requirement was that the site should have a good field of fire. This was the sort of person who would have a fortified core in the house stocked with survival rations and water.
I also remember the woman who was aghast when she found the shirt I was wearing had been bought in the Masonic Thrift Shop in the Lower East side in NY! She waxed lyrical on the subject of other people's cast offs and ended up by saying she would never dream of buying a used home.......
In my experience, the more well off for money people were, the more likely they were to exhibit traits like these. Poorer people were too busy surviving!
The NRA has always been elitist and right wing. It is the natural home for a person like Donald Trump. It will survive as long as there is a class of people with more money than brains. That, briefly, is the American Problem.

[Stanley]

See THIS breaking news from Leeds.
A large number of police have been deployed to Harehills in Leeds after disorder broke out in the area on Thursday. A police car was flipped over and a bus set alight during what West Yorkshire Police has described as a "serious disorder incident". The force said officers were initially called to reports of a disturbance at an address in Luxor Street at about 17:00 BST, with further "pockets of disorder" then breaking out. Social media footage showed large crowds of people on the streets, with some appearing to attack a police car with a scooter before it was flipped over. Home Secretary and West Yorkshire MP Yvette Cooper said she was "appalled at the shocking scenes". No injuries have been reported.

[Tizer]

The big story in the Middle East today is a Houhti drone attack. A single drone carrying a bomb was flown from Yemen 1400 miles to hit a building in the centre of Tel Aviv. No warnings were given by Israel's military and the Iron Dome defence system either didn't detect the drone or wasn't set off manually. (It crossed my mind that perhaps the Iron Dome system was affected today by the CrowdStrike debacle.)

The Times of Israel news site quoted the Israeli Air Force as saying the incident "shouldn't have happened", and that it took full responsibility for the failure to prevent it. Senior military correspondent for the Jerusalem Post, Yonah Jeremy Bob, said "The Israeli defense establishment is in a state of complete shock" over the attack. "Though the writing was on the wall, no one saw it coming from a couple thousand kilometers away," he wrote....The incident also came after the Israeli military confirmed it had killed a senior commander of the Hezbollah militia in southern Lebanon. BBC

[Tripps]

Nearer to home - and in my personal opinion - this is a classic piece of BBC spin, and demonstrates why I rarely look to them to get my news. Others (judging from the number of links to BBC articles), I'm sure will disagree. If the chap who climbed the Dartford Bridge got five years yesterday - how long does wrecking a Police car, and deliberately setting fire to a bus merit? There was little sign of 'condemnation of the disorder' last night. All I saw, joined in with a will, and seemed to be enjoying the experience.

This from the Daily Express is said to be the original cause of the upset.

With a strong mental filter, a great deal of natural scepticism, and exercising great caution - X (formerly Twitter) is a better and more immediate source. That was proved last night.

Harehills, Leeds disturbance 180724

[Stanley]

I agree with you about the sentences passed on the Just stop oil protesters David. They seem out of scale to me but I wasn't there.....
THIS is what intrigued me yesterday.
Businesses and services around the world are slowly recovering after a massive IT outage affected computer systems for hours on Thursday and Friday. Businesses, banks, hospitals and airlines were among the worst-hit after cyber-security firm Crowdstrike issued a faulty software update which affected Microsoft Windows. Crowdstrike's CEO apologised for the disruption and said a fix had been issued, but admitted it could be "some time" before all systems were back up and running. While some airline services are beginning to return to normal after thousands of flights were cancelled, operators expect some delays and cancellations to persist through the weekend.

And THIS further report.
A massive tech failure has caused travel chaos around the world, with banking and healthcare services also badly hit. Flights have been grounded because of the IT outage - a flaw which left many computers displaying blue error screens. There were long queues, delays and flight cancellations at airports around the world, as passengers had to be manually checked in. Cyber-security firm Crowdstrike has admitted that the problem was caused by an update to its antivirus software, which is designed to protect Microsoft Windows devices from malicious attacks. Microsoft has said it is taking "mitigation action" to deal with "the lingering impact" of the outage. Here is a summary of what we know so far.
From what follows it seems as though one rogue file was included and not found by the internal checks before the file was released. I felt a certain relief when I found that only Microsoft OS were involved and even then not normally at a domestic level. However, I suspect many businesses will be scanning the fine print of any contract they have with Crowdstrike!