Unmanned aerial systems seen over RAF bases in Suffolk and Norfolk but US air force does not know if they were hostile
A number of unidentified drones have been spotted over three airbases in Britain, the US air force has confirmed.
“Small unmanned aerial systems” were seen between 20 and 22 November over RAF Lakenheath and RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk, and RAF Feltwell in Norfolk.
Continue reading...Trump’s former national security adviser says Gorka is the ‘worst cabinet appointment in recent American history’
Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton has laid into Sebastian Gorka, the president-elect’s pick for counter-terrorism chief, as a “conman” whose selection is not “going to bode well for counter-terrorism efforts when the [national security council’s] senior director is somebody like that”.
Trump praised Gorka, an immigrant from Hungary, as a “tireless advocate for the America First Agenda and the MAGA Movement”.
Continue reading...Careful management including weed control and a burn laid the groundwork for floral abundance in Boorhaman reserve
Thousands of native daisies, aromatic lilies, milkmaids, billy buttons and rare orchids have blossomed in a pocket of north-east Victorian grassland in one of the best wildflower displays in years.
Glen Johnson, an ecologist at Wild Research, said Boorhaman reserve, located north of Wangaratta, was “an amazingly diverse environment from the knees down”.
Continue reading...Heritage minister says Facebook made ‘room for misinformation’ after turning news off in 2023 as Australia mulls actions that could lead to Meta doing the same
Twelve months on from Canada’s worst-ever wildfire season unfolding during a news blackout on Facebook, the nation has warned Australia about Meta’s “reckless” behaviour during “need-to-know situations”.
An early start to Australia’s bushfire season is looming for swaths of the country, with large parts of Queensland and the Northern Territory, the south-west of Victoria and south-east corner of South Australia facing higher risk, according to an official assessment in September.
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Continue reading...Traditional allies such as Diane Abbott and John McDonnell are split over Friday’s vote as politicians grapple with the issue
During a Labour away day ahead of the last election, the party’s candidates were put through their paces as parliamentary debaters. The topic chosen, assisted dying, was a deliberately intractable issue designed to test their analytical skills. Yet just months later, scores of new MPs find themselves having to make a very real decision over changing the law.
“I’m genuinely the most back and forth on this that I’ve been on anything,” said one new MP who has found themselves on either side of the debate over recent months. Like so many, with the issues so finely balanced in their mind, a single conversation can sway their thinking.
Continue reading...Group’s armed wing says unnamed woman’s death established after long break in contact with her captors
Hamas’s armed wing said on Saturday that an Israeli woman taken hostage during the October 2023 attack had been killed in a combat zone in northern Gaza, as the Israeli military said it was investigating.
The spokesperson for Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Abu Obeida, said contact had been restored with the woman’s captors after a break of several weeks and it was established that the hostage had been killed in an area of north Gaza where the Israeli army has been operating.
Continue reading...Shabana Mahmood has written to her constituents saying she is ‘profoundly concerned’ about Friday’s Commons vote
MPs will be placing the country on a “slippery slope towards death on demand” if they back legislation on assisted dying in England and Wales this week, the lord chancellor and justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has said in a letter to constituents before a historic Commons vote on Friday.
Mahmood has received numerous letters about the bill from people in her Birmingham Ladywood seat, which has a big Muslim population, and sent out replies saying that she was “profoundly concerned” about the legislation, not only for religious reasons but also because of what it would mean for the role of the state if one of its functions became helping people to die.
Continue reading...A woman in California also lost a fetus from the disease that US health officials have linked to Yu Shang Food Inc
A listeria outbreak linked to ready-to-eat meat and poultry products from a South Carolina food processor has caused 11 illnesses in four states, with nine hospitalizations, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
A woman who was pregnant with twins was also sickened. Both of the fetuses died, but listeria was found in a sample from only one.
Continue reading...Court documents contain admissions by officials that they were unable to control the situation at the Kent facility where 18,000 asylum seekers were illegally detained
Home Office officials have admitted that “we completely lost our grip” on the situation at a notorious asylum processing centre that led to 18,000 people being unlawfully detained in horrific conditions.
Overcrowding at Manston, a former RAF base in Kent, in autumn 2022 led to an outbreak of diphtheria and scabies. Asylum seekers who had crossed the Channel in small boats were forced to sleep on filthy floors or on flattened cardboard boxes, while toilets were overflowing with faeces. Women and children were forced to sleep close to unrelated men and there were claims of assaults by guards.
Continue reading...Cordons lifted after passengers were evacuated when a suspicious package was reported
Police have carried out a controlled explosion on a suspicious package at Euston railway station, the Metropolitan police have confirmed.
Cordons were in place around the main line station in north London at lunchtime on Saturday and passengers due to travel were evacuated from the station.
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