Seen in the News

[Cathy]

That is so sad, for all of them. I wonder if there is a mental health problem, as there often is. Definitely not enough support, if any.
The outcome will be interesting, but sometimes if it is a mental health problem, you don’t hear any more about it.

[Stanley]

Unfortunately Cathy, four kids dying isn't headline news. It should be. The fact that it can happen is a disgrace.

[Tizer]

How soon will it be before the Tories start trying to blame this on Labour policies, I wonder? Mind you, MPs from all parties voted to leave so we have to blame politicians rather than parties - although it was `them Tories wot started it'.
`Brexit deal impact in UK is worsening, warn economists' LINK

[Stanley]

I heard that news item as well Peter. It's reinforcement of the report from Aston that I flagged up yesterday.
isn't it strange that this is what we amateur politicians predicted.......

I saw THIS in the BBC news this morning.
Unlawful children’s homes are demanding up to £20,000 a week per child and failing to keep vulnerable young people safe, the Family Court has heard. In one case, heard in August in Liverpool, the court heard how despite the local authority paying high fees to an unregistered children’s home, a 14-year-old boy was still at serious risk. Increased demand for placements, especially for children with the most complex needs, has led to costs described as “breathtaking” by a senior judge. The estimated bill for housing children in one local authority area has more than doubled in three years to £16m, one senior manager told the BBC, which risks bankrupting the council.
It would appear that it is possible to make excess profit out of regulation..... A bit like the PEP scandal that is still ongoing.....

[Stanley]

I've been listening to the Professor of Hydrology talking about the inevitability of flooding if your neighbour is a major river.....
It got me to thinking how lucky we are in Barlick as we are on the watershed between two river basins, the Ribble and the Aire. This means we don't have to deal with other people's rain. We need things to be cheerful about.....

[Stanley]

THIS Problem was foreseen by some before the release of prisoners to free up space in gaols.....
Some prisoners released early as part of efforts to ease overcrowding have not been fitted with electronic tracking devices, despite it being a condition of their release, the BBC has been told. Several offenders released on licence said they had not been fitted with an ankle tag - with one describing it as "a disaster waiting to happen". One probation officer said the delays in them being fitted appeared to be due to a shortage of tags, while the Ministry of Justice said it was due to a backlog of former prisoners. The MoJ blamed security contractor Serco - which manages the prison tagging system - for the delays. Serco said it was working to reduce the numbers waiting for tags. Prisons minister Lord James Timpson said the delays to tagging were "completely unacceptable" and called what he described as an "urgent meeting with Serco leaders" on Thursday evening.
There are also reports of some released prisoners not being serviced by overstretched Probation Services.

[Stanley]

See THIS for more disturbing news from the Middle East.
A top Hezbollah military commander was killed in an Israeli air strike on the Lebanese capital Beirut on Friday, in a major escalation that has added to fears of an all-out war. Hezbollah confirmed Ibrahim Aqil's death after Israel said he was one of several senior Hezbollah figures killed in the strike. Earlier, Lebanese officials said at least 14 people were killed and dozens injured in the strike that hit the densely populated Dahieh area, a stronghold of the Iran-backed group in the city’s southern suburbs. There were chaotic scenes as emergency teams rushed to the site of the attack, rescuing the wounded and searching for people believed to be trapped under the rubble. At least one residential building collapsed and others were heavily damaged. Streets were closed by Hezbollah members, some looking incredulous as the attack represented another humiliating blow in a week which saw pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to the group explode.
In April, Washington said it was searching for Aqil, also known as Tahsin, and offered financial rewards to anyone with "information leading to his identification, location, arrest and/or conviction". He was known by some as 'the most wanted man in the world'.

[Stanley]

See THIS curious and disturbing news story from East Yorkshire.....
Anonymous letters have created a “village of poison” in East Yorkshire, according to residents. Those on the receiving end of the “vulgar” mail say they have been "terrorised" through their letterboxes for the past two years. The post sent by a mysterious writer to Shiptonthorpe, some of which has been seen by the BBC, is described as “personal, obscene and targeted”. Humberside Police has carried out inquiries into some of the incidents.
There is much more and one is left feeling that the police should take the matter more seriously..... I can imagine how I would feel.....

[Big Kev]

See THIS curious and disturbing news story from East Yorkshire.....
Anonymous letters have created a “village of poison” in East Yorkshire, according to residents. Those on the receiving end of the “vulgar” mail say they have been "terrorised" through their letterboxes for the past two years. The post sent by a mysterious writer to Shiptonthorpe, some of which has been seen by the BBC, is described as “personal, obscene and targeted”. Humberside Police has carried out inquiries into some of the incidents.
There is much more and one is left feeling that the police should take the matter more seriously..... I can imagine how I would feel.....

Sounds like the plot of a film I watched a few weeks ago, Wicked Little Letters.
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt20234774/

[Stanley]

That is mentioned in the article Kev.

[Stanley]

I thought about Sue and Bob when I saw THIS BBC report.
Storms have battered the West Midlands during a night of lightning and heavy rain, which led to flooded streets and evacuations. A pub in Aldridge "went off with a bang", police said, when it was struck by lightning and had to be evacuated. Meanwhile customers were forced to leave a bowling alley in Stafford when part of the ceiling collapsed as rain poured in. Players were also led off the pitch at Coventry City's game against Swansea at the Coventry Building Society Arena on Saturday following a flash of lightning.

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report on yesterday's weather.
Heavy rain and flash flooding have battered parts of England and Wales, causing widespread travel disruption and damage to properties. Roads and houses flooded in central and southern England after some experienced a month's worth of rain in a matter of hours. In London, a sinkhole appeared on AFC Wimbledon's football pitch and 999 call handlers took 350 flood-related calls, while in Bedford a main road was totally submerged. A Met Office amber weather warning in parts of central and southern England ended at 21:00 BST, but a yellow warning remains in place across England and south-east Wales.
It would seem that we were very lucky, it is areas south of us that got the worst of it.

[Stanley]

I love the fact that even in these troubled times, something like THIS can make the news....
One of the world's rarest lichens has been found "thriving" in a Cumbrian River, the Environment Agency has said. Rock-hugging river jelly lichen was discovered along the River Sprint for the first time, in what the agency described as a "significant biodiversity milestone". The species only lives in very clean waters and it is believed there are fewer than 15 populations remaining in England. Only one other population of the lichen has been reported in Cumbria in recent years, with the species present along the River Eden. Populations also have a small stronghold in the River Lune and some Lake District still-waters.

[Stanley]

I saw THIS report and leave you to make up your own minds about it....
Two people have been arrested following the death of a woman who is believed to have undergone a non-surgical Brazilian butt lift (BBL). Alice Webb, 33, died at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital in the early hours of Tuesday morning, after falling unwell. Gloucestershire Police said it was called by the ambulance service at 11:35 BST on Monday, and an investigation - led by the Major Crime Investigation Team - is ongoing. The two people, who had been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter, have been released on police bail. Save Face, a national register of accredited practitioners who offer non-surgical cosmetic treatments said this is the "first case of a death caused by a non-surgical BBL in the UK". The treatment is designed to make buttocks bigger, more rounded or lifted and sees fat or dermal filler injected into the buttocks to change size or shape.

[Stanley]

THIS report of a current Israeli strike on Beirut heads the news this morning.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was the target of Friday's strikes on Beirut, according to US media including the BBC's partner CBS, citing a US official. Israel's military said it carried out a "very accurate" strike on Hezbollah headquarters earlier but it has not stated whether Nasrallah was the target. It has not been confirmed if he was in the buildings when they were struck. Fresh strikes are under way in southern Beirut, with a BBC correspondent hearing at least seven loud explosions and seeing smoke filling the skyline. Israel says it is conducting "targeted strikes" on buildings which it claims store weapons belonging to Hezbollah Lebanese officials say six people have been killed and 91 injured in an earlier air strike, with local officials saying that nearly 800 people have been killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon since Monday
Other reports state that Netanyahu will be making conciliatory noises 'on the sidelines' at the UN. I don't see how he can be conciliatory while the IDF is conducting all out war on Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Is it anti-semitic to say that the Israeli government is deliberately ramping up war in the Middle East and dragging its allies in with it?

[Stanley]

Later after hearing Netanyahu telling the UN "We are winning!" I am convinced that his strategy is to provoke all-out war and drag us in with him.
Am I going potty or does anyone else think that is true. I think the word is 'war-mongering'.

[Stanley]

Reuters have confirmed that leader Nasrallah was Killed in Beirut.

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report that Arkwright's shop is up for sale.
A South Yorkshire hairdressers better known as a corner shop in a hit BBC sitcom is set to go under the hammer. The property, in Lister Avenue, Balby, Doncaster, was used for external shots of Arkwright’s in Open All Hours, starring Ronnie Barker and Sir David Jason. In 2008, the building, which campaigners had previously saved from demolition, went up for auction but failed to meet its reserve price. It is now listed for bidding once again from 15 October, with a guide price of £150,000. The show, written by Roy Clarke, followed the money-making antics of Barker's miserly grocer Albert Arkwright.

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report of a tragic accident yesterday.
An eight-year-old boy has died after being shot in the head and face at a farm. A man in his 60s who was being held on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter has been released on bail. Cumbria Police said they were called to reports of the boy being injured by a firearm in Warcop on Saturday at about 14:50 BST. The child was taken to hospital by air ambulance but he died overnight.
We don't yet know the full details but firearms are always dangerous and this is a tragedy.

[Stanley]

A cold shiver runs down my spine when I see reports like THIS.....
An extreme right-wing group with links to a violent white supremacist collective has been recruiting young men to support its efforts to "revive" what it called England's "warrior culture" by masquerading as a sports club, a BBC investigation has found. Active Club (AC), which hails World War Two Nazi leader Adolf Hitler as a hero, claims to be "peaceful and legal" and focus on male friendship and fitness. However, it is connected to the Rise Above Movement (RAM), which played a key role in the Unite The Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017. Extremism expert Alexander Ritzmann said it was using "the image of a sports club" to build a "militia" intent on "organised violence".
Have these young men not been taught the history of the far right in Europe or does it all seem so long ago and irrelevant to them.
Such 'sports clubs' were a key element in the building of the fascist movements that destroyed much of Europe starting 100 years ago.......

[Tizer]

Except for `masquerading as a sports club' it sounds very like the same idiots that the The Times investigated and exposed over a year ago. It's like what I believe is called whac-a-mole. Knock it down and it pops up somewhere else but with a different name etc.

[Stanley]

The movement needs strangling at birth. Bugger being tolerant!

See THIS BBC report of a massive missile attack on Israel by Iran.
It looks as though our worst fears are coming true..... Total madness.

[Big Kev]

Anyone travelling in the Burnley area be aware, the M65 is closed in both directions. Apparently local roads are gridlocked. There was a serious crash early hours.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cg56elrvn39o

[Stanley]

See THIS report that President Biden would oppose any strikes by Israel against Iran's nuclear sites.
At one time this would have carried some weight but I think the most dangerous aspect of the present situation is that the US no longer has Israel under any sort of control. Netanyahu will do just as he wants......

[Tizer]

I'm waiting to see if Russia gets involved in the Middle East conflict. Remember when he helped Assad murder his own Syrians? Putin would probably like to see America distracted by Iran. If the Wagner Group was still around it would probably be in there stoking up the terror.

Elsewhere...
`Trump 'resorted to crimes' to overturn 2020 election, prosecutors say' BBC