News Round-Up
- “Trump rally attendee arrested with two firearms in his car” – Vem Miller, a registered Republican, tried to access Trump‘s rally in California with fake VIP credentials and then found himself arrested on illegal firearms charges, reports the Mail.
- “Starmer’s investment summit gets ex-Google boss’s name wrong in latest blunder” – The official invitation to Labour’s investment summit has misnamed Eric Schmidt, the co-founder of Google, reports the Telegraph.
- “Keir Starmer faces calls for independent inquiry into Taylorgate” – Fury grew last night as it emerged Taylor Swift was given taxpayer-funded protection after the Attorney General was called in to put pressure on Scotland Yard, says the Mail.
- “Starmer removes paintings of Queen Elizabeth I and Sir Walter Raleigh from No 10” – Our increasingly cranky PM has removed more historic portraits from Downing Street, reports the Telegraph.
- “Train guards to get £300 bonus to work five-day week” – Louise Haigh, the beleaguered Transport Secretary, has agreed a deal with the train drivers’ union whereby they will get a £300 bonus if they work five days a week, according to the Telegraph.
- “Rachel Reeves is masterminding the most shambolic Budget in recent memory” – The Chancellor has left a vacuum for fear and frenzied speculation to thrive, argues Annabel Denham in the Telegraph.
- “Ministers ready to force through abolition of hereditary peers” – The government is prepared to use the Parliament Act to get the abolition of hereditary peers through the Lords, reports the Sunday Times.
- “One million top taxpayers pay more than two fifths of all income tax” – Concentrating tax raids on small groups is a “riskier strategy”, the IFS warns Rachel Reeves ahead of the Budget, according to the Telegraph.
- “Chagos surrender has ‘emboldened Spanish claims over Gibraltar’” – Starmer has declared “open season” for Madrid to pursue international support for its claim to the Rock, warns former defence secretary Michael Fallon in the Telegraph.
- “David Lammy tipped to cave in to Caribbean’s ‘ludicrous’ £200 billion reparations demand” – The Prime Minister of Barbados told the United Nations that a “global reset” is required on slavery (translation: “Give me the money”) and our Foreign Secretary agrees with him, reports GB News.
- “Labour MP’s husband quits as fire service chair after exaggerating military service” – Greg Brackenridge, the former Mayor of Woverhampton and the husband of a Labour MP, stands down as Chair of West Midlands Fire and Rescue Authority after admitting he lied about serving in Royal Marines, according to the Telegraph.
- “We remove the taboo on assisted dying at our peril” – Legalising euthanasia is the thin end of the wedge, as other countries are already finding out, says Sebastian Milbank in the Telegraph.
- “Euthanasia is for pets. Humans are different” – Campaigners for ‘assisted dying’ constantly invoke the way animals are put down, arguing that if we euthanize our pets, we should be able to euthanize humans. But it’s a lot more complicated than that, argues Dominic Lawson in the Sunday Times.
- “Robert Jenrick: I will make Jacob Rees-Mogg Conservative Party chairman” – Robert Jenrick MP says Jacob Rees-Mogg “understands better than anyone the need for party reform”, says to the Telegraph.
- “Robert Jenrick: My plan for curing UK includes sacking NHS chief” – Robert Jenrick tells Harry Yorke, the Deputy Political Editor of the Sunday Times, that if he’s elected he will stop the Tories “banging on about Europe” and focus on the economy, the health service, housing and education. Good luck with that!
- “British Muslims deserve a better champion” – Andrew Gilligan reviews Baroness Warsi’s new book for the Telegraph and isn’t impressed.
- “Scandinavia has got the message on cousin marriage. We must ban it too” – Matthew Syed in the Sunday Times argues it’s high time Britain banned cousin marriage.
- “SpaceX’s successful rocket landing boosts hopes for travel to Mars” – Elon Musk’s Starship returns to earth and parallel parks in a “day for the engineering history books”, according to the Telegraph.
- “The worst of transgender extremism is far from over” – It’s all barking, says Zoe Strimpel in the Telegraph. But there are few signs gender identity ideology is in retreat.
- “The sanctity of international law has been compromised to demonise Israel” – Principles of the rules based order are being eroded by those who see Hamas and Israel as morally equivalent, argues David Wolfson in the Telegraph.
- “Police seize cars from men for catcalling women who were officers” – Police seized cars from men for catcalling undercover female officers disguised as joggers in a crackdown on harassment, says the Mail.
- “A great Parliamentarian of our time and a close personal friend” – On X, Bonnie Prince Bob has dug up a clip from Not the Nine O’Clock News that perfectly captures the volte-face Alex Salmond’s political rivals have done following his death.
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Although it makes sense, the appeal to ban cousin marriage is too late. Much of the indigenous population doesn’t bother with ‘the paperwork’ until pension protection is sought – and there are moves afoot to expand civil partnership (the poor relation of marriage) to cover those who wish to address such things without being romantically entangled.
Many marriages among South Asian families are elaborate affairs which go on for many days with a cursory visit to the register office tacked on to the celebration. Banning cousin marriage will only result in this latter step being replaced with an application for a civil partnership at a later time – if they even bother with that. Any ban will be ignored.
The issues are surely:
1 health of offspring, but couples don’t have to breed and many dont
2 undue pressure, but we permit arranged/forced marriages
3 loss of tax revenue, which seems the only reason to deny sibling and other close family marriages. There are no longer any religious or health issues involved so why not legalise incestuous unions.
Such is the state we are in.
The woman of a couple my daughter knows confided to her that she wants lots of children – but not to worry because she only shares one grandmother with her husband. What should we call that? Step-first cousins?
I think childlessness among couples from cultures that engage in arranged/forced marriages would be highly unusual – and might indicate ‘mother nature’ asserting her authority over non-viable offspring.
As for the tax issue: many unmarried couples I know of similar age to me (ie retired) suddenly realised the value of ‘the paperwork’ in later life as they began to to consider the inevitable inheritance issues. Yes, the taxman loses out if they do sort out inheritance – but then government may not have to support the widow (it’s usually/often that way round) if her inheritance claim fails.
Yes, such is the state we’re in.
Well done for calling it what it is: Incestuous Unions.
Cousin marriages, particularly among Pakistanis in Pakistan and the UK, waste £millions in NHS treatment of the resulting BIRTH DEFECTS FROM INCEST. Bradford study finds higher birth defect risk in married cousins – BBC News “The number of babies born with birth defects in Bradford is nearly double the national average, research conducted in the city has shown. The study found this was largely because of marriages between first cousins in the Pakistani community. Consanguineous marriage accounted for nearly a third of abnormalities in a study of more than 11,300 babies.” Keeping it in the family: consanguineous marriage and genetic disorders, from Islamabad to Bradford | The BMJ “In some South Asian, Middle Eastern, and north African countries, as many as HALF OF MARRIAGES ARE CONSANGUINEOUS. In Pakistan, HALF OF THE POPULATION MARRY A FIRST OR SECOND COUSIN, MORE THAN IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY. In rural areas this can be 80%, says Hafeez ur Rehman…” Pakistan: Cousin marriages leading to genetic disorders – DW – 02/07/2022 “Huma Arshad Cheema, a pediatrician specializing in genetic disorders, told DW that Pakistan has a huge burden of genetic disorders due to inbreeding.” ********************************************************* NO, THE BRITISH TAXPAYERS DO NOT WANT OUR NHS CRUSHED UNDER… Read more »
https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/how-putin-shot-himself-in-the-foot/
‘According to the Donetsk and Luhansk republics, since February 17, 2022 more than 760 shelling attacks by the Ukrainian army with the use of heavy weapons have been recorded in the LPR’
This was one of the reasons that Putin gave for his invasion of Ukraine.
Here is Russian propaganda film of Luhansk today, showing the city unmarked by any shelling:
https://x.com/wartranslated/status/1845455949017809018?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet
Atlantic Council is a nonpartisan organization that galvanizes US leadership and engagement in the world, according to their web site,
I am surprised you did not recommend a video of Mariupol which, although still showing much devastation, is being rebuilt at remarkable speed. New flats were donated to those who lost their properties as a result of the destruction caused partly by direct Ukraine shelling and partly by the Ukrainian forces ‘hiding behind civilians’ (where have I heard that before?) and ‘digging themselves in’ in residential districts, forcing the Russians to attack them there.
If you want to see the result of the appalling attacks on Ukrainian civilians carried out by Ukraine since 2014 in the east (and carried out today, where they are not forced to retreat), I recommend Eva Bartlett’s videos on https://odysee.com/ but sensitive viewers should be aware they unashamedly show the results of bombing attacks on the people living there, with her comment that the citizens living there are forced to see such carnage every day.
And now you will reply in your usual tone, denigrating Eva Bartlett and her courageous work in many war zones, but people may view her work and decide for themselves.
‘The rebuilding of Mariupol is a classic Russian “mega-project,” says Shumanov. Projects of this sort receive massive state budgets and are expected to be completed in minimal time. Realities on the ground, like the number of available contractors, are often ignored, leading to problems with the work. “There’s also a total lack of transparency around the way the money is spent, creating seriously fertile ground for corruption,” Shumanov says. The speed of construction contributed to its shoddiness. Good building work takes longer than the two or three months the Russians took to finish some of the new apartment blocks, according to Mykola Tryfonov, who had been head of Mariupol’s Capital Construction Authority. The concrete was only given a week to cure, Tryfonov says, not the three weeks usually required. He estimates that there will be structural problems within two to three years. Across the city, residents have shared major problems with their homes on social media. Their accounts are likely to be just the “tip of the iceberg,” Shumanov says, as Russia controls the newly-occupied territories with an iron grip and most people fear speaking out. The videos portray the dereliction in which people live, but also the ways in which the… Read more »
Well, your story of fast constructions reminds me of a conversation I had a long time ago with an uncle who regretted the lack of decent workmanship in today’s UK. He said it was because after the war there was so much building to be done in such a short time that the whole idea of apprenticeships had to be dropped. So nowadays (at least, then) any Tom, Dick or Harry could call themselves a plumber, an electrician, or whatever they liked, whether they had had any training in the matter or none whatsoever. Still, my old house in London is still standing after all these years. And as far as Ukraine building Kindergartens and hospitals is concerned, here is a statement from Tata (https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2019/10/10/return-to-russia-crimeans-tell-the-real-story-of-the-2014-referendum-and-their-lives-since/) on the subject of Ukrainian management of Crimea: When I came here in December 2012, everything was dilapidated and run down. The nice roads you were driving on, they didn’t exist when we were a part of Ukraine. I didn’t understand why Crimea was still a part of Ukraine. It was Russian land ever since the Tsars, the imperial time of Russia. This is where the Russian soul is, and the soul of the Russian… Read more »
Ingaza.wordpress:
‘Eva Bartlett is a Canadian blogger and independent journalist. She contributes op-eds on the Russian state-controlled channel Russia Today’s website.
She lives in Russia currently.
Bartlett spread disinformation on Syria and appeared on a Syrian government panel at the UN, alleging that the White Helmets staged rescues using “recycled” children in its videos.
Currently, she promotes pro-Russian content about the conflict in Ukraine.
The Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) identified her as one of the twelve Western influencers spreading pro-Kremlin disinformation about the Russo-Ukrainian War.
In July 2022, she was a speaker at the Russian-organized sham human rights tribunal – International Public Tribunal on Ukraine.’
https://tass.com/world/1841303 ‘Russia is our strategic partner and it is in our interests to continue maintaining an effective dialogue in all spheres for the benefit of both countries.’ Former Moldova President Igor Dodon Watch Moldova very carefully in the run up to the Moldovan Presidential election next week 20 Oct 2024 ‘Russia is pouring millions in dirty money to hijack our democratic processes. This isn’t just meddling – it’s full-blown interference aimed at destabilising our future. And it is alarming’ Olga Roşca, foreign policy adviser This is the kind of thing that has been going on: ‘Acting on a national intelligence tip-off from, they intercepted more than 100 passengers arriving from Russia via Armenia, each carrying bundles of cash just shy of €10,000 – the threshold for mandatory declaration. In a single night authorities at Chișinău airport seized more than €900,000.’ This is what the money is used for ‘She was polling at zero two weeks before the elections and then suddenly she appears and wins’ Yevgenia Gutsul, a previously unknown Russian backed candidate, caused a political earthquake 2023 by winning the elections of governor in Gagauzia, a small, Russian-speaking semi-autonomous region in the south of the country. It’s almost as… Read more »
I got a different picture of life there from a Moldovan (actually Transnistrian) who works at the check-out of our local Aldi. She had just returned from a family holiday there.
And here is your favourite, Scott Ritter, on the same topic but regarding Georgia: We infiltrated Georgian society in the name of “democracy,” using soft-power instruments operating under the guise of “aid” (courtesy of Samantha Power and the US Agency for International Development), dispensing US-funded largesse through “non-governmental organizations” such as the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), literally created in the 1980’s to supplant regime-change activities carried out by the CIA (and, as if to prove that the NED has not forgotten its roots, Victoria Nuland, the neo-conservative policy hawk who oversaw the 2014 Maidan coup in Ukraine, was just appointed to the NED Board of Directors). Half of the monies disbursed by the NED annually are allocated to four outlets—the American Center for International Labor Solidarity (associated with the AFL–CIO), the Center for International Private Enterprise (affiliated with the US Chamber of Commerce), the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (associated with the Democratic Party), and the International Republican Institute (affiliated with the Republican Party). Nothing screams money and politics like these four organizations. And nothing could be farther from genuine democracy than the mission of the NED, which is by design intended to supplant sovereignty and replace it… Read more »
‘Pro-Kremlin forces are meddling in Moldova’s upcoming presidential election by paying off tens of thousands of voters in a sweeping plot to derail Chisinau’s bid for closer ties with the European Union, the country’s police and Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office said.
During a briefing on October 3, the head of the General Police Inspectorate, Viorel Cernauteanu, and the head of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, Veronica Dragalin, said that in September alone more than $15 million from Russian banks were directed to the accounts of more than 130,000 Moldovan citizens.
Cernauteanu said police had raided 25 locations as part of the investigation.
The plot was allegedly hatched by Ihan Shor, a Russian-backed fugitive oligarch implicated in a $1 billion bank fraud and other illicit schemes who organized months of protests in Chisinau against the pro-Western government of President Maia Sandu.
The money was funneled into the country by people affiliated with Shor, Cernauteanu said.
“We are finding an unprecedented phenomenon for the Republic of Moldova — of financing and corruption, with a view to disrupting the electoral process,” Cernauteanu said,
https://moldova.europalibera.org/a/politia-si-pa-sustin-ca-au-demantelat-o-retea-finantata-din-rusia-pentru-coruperea-alegatorilor/33144956.html
And the Russians were accused of influencing the US Presidential election in 2020, and now again in 2024 – together with Iran, this time. Believe what you will.
The evidence speaks for itself.
Of course, a few are happy to ignore that which is staring them in the face.
There are different words for that, of which the least rude is: bigotry.
The Yorkshire Female jogging sting story is fu-king unreal !!
I liked the description of the joggers being ‘disguised’ coppers. Erm. If they’re jogging and wearing the sort of gear that joggers often wear then they’re not in disguise – they’re joggers who happen to be coppers.
I wouldn’t expect a city banker to go jogging in his pin-stripe suit and bowler hat with a copy of the FT under his arm.
👍
The real issue here is that instead of pursuing criminals for crimes that have already occurred West Yorkshire Police are inviting people to commit offences and then arresting them. For a police ‘service’ with a dreadful clear up rate on crimes already committed this is absolutely appalling. Actually they have form in this department such as speed traps on non-busy roads.
If our plods were achieving perhaps an 80% clear up rate on crimes committed this jogging exercise might be half acceptable but with national clear ups below ten percent the response to this should be…Jog on plod!
They didn’t actually cover themselves in glory at Harehills, Leeds did they?
I know think about the G-ooming G-ngs who went unpunished for years ! these people are actually Mental ! As if they haven’t got enough to do pride dancing 💃 & jailing Facebook posters etc 🤦🏼♂️😉