Daily News

[Moonlight]

How Baroness Bra's (equally flashy) husband made £300 MILLION from dubious tax-avoidance schemes that ruined thousands and led to two suicides

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...e-schemes.html


Wow, what a pair they are!.

The Bra woman and the Scottish currant, he should be made to wear an Highwayman's mask the bent twat, the probes into their lives are getting deeper and deeper and what's being turned up isn't smell of roses.

If she needs a loan to tide her over I'm sure we can both come to a satisfactory arrangement.

[Jimbuna]

Bloke finds live crocodile gecko in pack of Asda chillies and tries to keep it as a pet

A dad-of-three was left gobsmacked on discovering a surprise interloper hiding in his bag of chillies.

Kevin Cuthbert from Conwy, North Wales, had bought the red-hot Scotch bonnet chillies from the Asda Superstore in Llandudno a week earlier. Only one chilli remained by the time the hitchhiking gecko was discovered when it fell from the bag and onto the kitchen work top and began wriggling about.

Although only slightly longer than an inch (2.5cm), the 53-year-old was determined to keep the tiny critter he named Scotty alive, reports North Wales Live.

Kevin popped the reptile in an ice cream tub lined with stones and ordered a delivery of crickets for food.

“When I found the gecko, it was missing its tail - it must have shed it when it was being packed,” he said.

“After a couple of days I noticed it was growing back, so I thought there was a chance it might survive."

Inquiries at the Welsh Mountain Zoo, Colwyn Bay, revealed the creature to be a Crocodile Gecko, also known as a Moorish Gecko. Typically they are found in North Africa and Mediterranean countries. This chimed with place-of-origin labelling on the chillies, which were imported from Spain.

“I went back to the store to tell them what I’d found,” said Kevin. “They couldn’t believe it, so I showed them a photo. They told me to bring in it and they’ll send it to the head office. I said I couldn’t do that, it’s still alive!”

Calling on help from other reptile keepers, Kevin placed Scotty’s tub on a tea towel draped over a radiator at his Llandudno home, to keep it warm, however further inquiries to Conwy Council’s environmental health team produced worrying news.

“I learned that geckos are big carriers of salmonella and other bacteria,” he said. “So I immediately cleared out the fridge and scrubbed it clean. From then on, I wore gloves when moving Scotty’s tub.

“It was worrying I’d already used the other chillies to make savoury rice for the boys. I place the chillis in whole with the rice and let the goodness but not the spiciness soak into the rice, then remove the chillis. I’d not long recovered from food poisoning and I didn’t want them to go through the same thing.”

Kevin realised the tub temperature wasn't high enough when Scotty stopped going for his cricket suppers, so he went shopping for a specialist reptile heat bulb. By the time he arrived back, Scotty had died, 10 days after being released from the chilli bag. “He was stiff as a board,” said Kevin. “Apparently you have to provide temperatures of 80F-90F (28C-32C).”

Asda has said it has “robust” washing and quality controls for fresh fruit and vegetables. The retailer said that “very occasionally, hitchhikers may make their way onto our produce”.

The company has since written to Kevin. As a goodwill gesture, he’s been offered £50 for lost fridge contents and the cost of buying crickets and a heat bulb.
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/lat...gecko-31981422

[Jimbuna]

Aeromexico passenger opens plane door and walks on wing

A man has been arrested in Mexico after opening an aeroplane's emergency door and walking on to the wing.

The man took action after the Guatemala City-bound plane had been stuck for hours on the tarmac without air conditioning or water for passengers.

Mexico International Airport said no harm had been caused, but that the passenger had been handed to police.

Fellow passengers, however, have written a joint statement, saying the man had everyone's support.

The incident occurred last Thursday, at around 11:30 - about three hours after the Aeromexico flight had been scheduled to take-off from Mexico City.

The delay was caused by a maintenance issue, an incident report said.

It went on to explain that a change of plane had become necessary after the unidentified passenger's unilateral move.

It is not clear if the man remains in custody - or what charges he may face.

Irate passengers, however, saw the incident in a different light.

"All passengers on the flight from CDMX [Mexico City] to Guatemala [flight] AM 0672 state that the passenger on board who opened the emergency window was for the protection of everyone, with the support of everyone, since the delay and lack of air created dangerous conditions for the health of the passengers," the handwritten note by fellow passengers reads.

"He saved our lives," they wrote - and added their names and signatures to the note distributed on social media.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-68121361

[Eisenwurst]

[Moonlight]

Convicted paedophile asylum seeker admits raping a 19-year-old on a train because he 'felt like it' while also telling German court he spent welfare cash on 'whisky and cannabis'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...n-Germany.html

Its time these currants were sentenced properly instead of being treated with kid gloves, yep, a noose and a tree will make sure he isn't any more trouble, I'm available if you haven't got the bollocks to do it.

[Jimbuna]

Italian province orders DNA tests for all dogs to trace and fine owners in poo crackdown

Dog owners in an Italian province are being forced to provide a sample of their pets' DNA as officials try to tackle the scourge of dog mess on the streets.

The provincial government of Bolzano city and surrounding towns in the picturesque Dolomites region is setting up a database for the almost 40,000 dogs in the area, veterinary department director Paolo Zambotto said.

Around 10,000 have already been registered and, once up and running, the plan means abandoned poop can be genetically tested and traced back to a dog, whose owner could be fined anywhere between 50 and 500 euros (£42-£430).

Any owners refusing to comply could be fined between 292 and 1,048 euros (£250-£900).

Mr Zambotto said: "Bolzano receives a few hundred complaints a year from citizens about improper management of public land. More than half are for dogs.

"Law enforcement could only catch three or four of them because they have to go there and set up some kind of stakeout."

DNA registration will become compulsory from around late March.

Owners will be expected to have blood tests for their dogs, in municipal dog shelters or vet clinics, at a cost ranging from 65 to more than 100 euros (£56-£86).

The cost of implementing the tests will come out the income from fines, under the scheme.

Bolzano, a mountainous province near Austria, has wide autonomy in making its rules.

Mr Zambotto said other Italian cities had been in touch to potentially replicate the law, which doesn't apply to tourists and non-residents.
https://news.sky.com/story/italian-p...kdown-13051387

[Moonlight]

BILLIONAIRE IN COURT Michelle Mone’s husband Doug Barrowman appears in Spanish court on tax charges as he faces more than 5 years in jail

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/255985...t-tax-charges/

These newspaper reporters talk a load of sensationalist nonsense, currants like Barrowman don't go to prison, only the little people like us do that, no, he will pay a huge fine and reimburse the taxman and that will be that.
The only people who will suffer are the wealthy people he conned into joining his nefarious tax schemes in the first place, perhaps there's a message there for them, yep, keep away from these sharks, pay your correct tax and you won't have the taxman hammering on your door threatening to take every penny that you own.
But, as we know, greed knows no bounds, we've all seen it before, when they've got those floating money signs in front of there eyes there's no talking sense to them anymore.

[Jimbuna]

DPD customer service chatbot swears and calls company 'worst delivery firm'

DPD has disabled its artificial intelligence (AI) online chatbot after a customer was able to make the bot swear and write a poem criticising the parcel delivery company.

Ashley Beauchamp, 30, was trying to track down a missing parcel when he said he was going "round and round in circles" trying to get any sort of information from the company's chatbot.

"It couldn't give me any information about the parcel, it couldn't pass me on to a human, and it couldn't give me the number of their call centre. It didn't seem to be able to do anything useful," Mr Beauchamp, from London, told Sky News.

"I was getting so frustrated at all the things it couldn't do that I tried to find out what it actually could do - and that's when the chaos started."

The classical musician first asked the bot to tell him a joke, and soon, with minimal prompts, it was happily writing poems about DPD's "unreliable" service.

"After a few more prompts it was happy to swear, too," Mr Beauchamp said.

Sharing the wacky conversation on X, Mr Beauchamp said the bot replies to one message saying: "******* yeah! I'll do my best to be as helpful as possible, even if it means swearing."

In another part of the exchange, the bot calls itself a "useless chatbot that can't help you".

The online post quickly went viral, gaining more than 15,000 likes and one million views in 24 hours.

DPD told Sky News that the customer service chatbot had suffered from an "error" after a system update and it has now been disabled.

"We are aware of this and can confirm that it is from a customer service chatbot. In addition to human customer service, we have operated an AI element within the chat successfully for a number of years," the company said in a statement.

"An error occurred after a system update yesterday. The AI element was immediately disabled and is currently being updated."

When asked what he made of the event, Mr Beauchamp said it was all "very amusing" but AI chatbots need to work on improving lives, not impacting them.

"I think it's really struck a chord with people," he said on Friday.

"These chatbots are supposed to improve our lives, but so often when poorly implemented it just leads to a more frustrating, impersonal experience for the user.

"As a musician, I'm painfully aware of the impact that machine learning and AI will have on my industry - and on the arts in general. I think it is so important that these tools are regulated effectively and are used to improve our lives, not impact negatively on them."

Mr Beauchamp said DPD has not contacted him personally and there is "still no sign" of his missing parcel.
https://news.sky.com/story/dpd-custo...rvice-13052037

[Moonlight]

Rishi Sunak's pharmacy 'revolution' to free up 10million GP appointments per year: Major NHS shake-up gives chemists power to dole out drugs for seven minor ailments

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/a...-ailments.html

I can't see this working without severe disruption to the rest of the pharmacy, it currently takes 6 days to get a repeat prescription sorted out at the Chemists. With the pharmacist looking into sore throats and earholes that prescription could take even longer, and if it stays the same, does that mean the entire staff have been tossing it off since this Covid epidemic was used as the biggest excuse not to work that you've ever heard of..... More on this later me thinks.

[Jimbuna]

Russia Fires Genetics Institute Chief Who Claimed Humans Lived 900 Years

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s science and higher education ministry has dismissed the head of a prestigious genetics institute who sparked controversy by contending that humans once lived for centuries and that the shorter lives of modern humans are due to their ancestors’ sins, state news agency RIA-Novosti said Thursday.

Although the report did not give a reason for the firing of Alexander Kudryavtsev, the influential Russian Orthodox Church called it religious discrimination.

Kudryavtsev, who headed the Russian Academy of Science’s Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, made a presentation at a conference in 2023 in which he said people had lived for some 900 years prior to the era of the Biblical Flood and that “original, ancestral and personal sins” caused genetic diseases that shortened lifespans.

He also claimed that children “up to the seventh generation are responsible for the sins of their fathers,” according to the Russian news website Meduza.

The head of the Russian church’s commission on family issues, Fyodor Lukyanov, said Kudryavtsev’s dismissal “for religious beliefs and statements in accordance with these beliefs violates the ethics of the scientific community,” RIA-Novosti said.

“We have already gone through Soviet times, when genetics was long considered a pseudoscience,” Lukyanov said. The Soviet Union under Josef Stalin suppressed conventional genetics in favor of the theories of Trofim Lysenko, who contended that acquired characteristics could be inherited by offspring.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/bc-eu...b0166fc7712c51

[Moonlight]

EXCLUSIVE The neighbours fighting to preserve one of London's most historic streets and prevent it from becoming another high-rise complex...but are losing the battle to green schemes, cowboy builders and wealthy outsiders

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...l-parklet.html

I've heard that they call this the "March of Progress", Grade II listed terraced houses are being gutted from the inside, as new wealthy residents strip out their historic character in favour of cinema rooms and huge basements.
What are the local council doing about it?, Nothing as usual, they're too busy counting the cash inside of their brown envelopes, Corruption however small is still called Corruption and that's what's happening here. The residents don't stand a bleeding chance when there's money to be made, so don't bother wasting your money on fighting this as you're not going to win, the Council will make sure of that.
If this is what local Labour Councillors are doing, just wait until a Labour Government get in power, the residents probably voted for these councillors so I have little sympathy for them, that Labour Party knife went in your back so fast that you didn't feel it did you?, I can assure you that you'll feel the next one.

Town hall boss admits South London council has failed residents over housing at stormy meeting

https://www.mylondon.news/news/south...south-27788194

Yep, as I previously stated, the Local Council will make sure all this development goes ahead.

[Jimbuna]

Pigeon suspected of being Chinese spy released by police in India after being detained for eight months

A pigeon accused of being a Chinese spy has been cleared by police and released back into the wild.

The bird was detained by officers after it was captured in May last year near a port in Mumbai, news agency Press Trust of India reported.

It was found with two rings tied to its legs featuring words that appeared to be Chinese.

Detectives suspected the pigeon was involved in espionage and took it in, before later sending it to Mumbai's Bai Sakarbai Dinshaw Petit Hospital for Animals.

However, after eight months in captivity, it emerged that the creature was an open-water racing bird from Taiwan which had escaped and flown to India.

Police then approved the bird's transfer to the Bombay Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, where doctors set free the falsely accused avian on Tuesday.
https://news.sky.com/story/pigeon-su...onths-13061486

[Jimbuna]

Tennis star explains 'special relationship' with Melbourne tree, saying 'I liked its roots and its trunks'

World tennis number one Novak Djokovic has revealed he has a "special relationship" with a tree in Melbourne, which helps him meditate and ground himself during the Australian Open.

Djokovic, 36, speaking after beating Australia's Alexei Popyrin in four sets in the Rod Laver Arena on Wednesday night, said he'd been visiting the tree for about 15 years.

Asked by a journalist afterwards about being spotted returning to one specific tree at Melbourne's botanical gardens, Djokovic said: "There's one particular tree that I've been having [a] special relationship with, so to say, in the last 15 years."

As for what drew him him to it, he said: "I got connected with that tree. I just liked it. I liked its roots and the trunks and branches and everything. So I started climbing it years ago. That's it. I just have a connection.

"I love every corner of [the] botanical gardens. I think it's [an] incredible treasure for Melbourne to have such a park and nature in the middle of the city."

Djokovic refused to identify which particular tree it was, though, saying: "I cannot reveal which one, I'll try to keep it discreet for myself when I'm there to have my own time."

Djokovic has posted pictures of himself around trees on social media, including one where he was barefoot standing in a tree in London in 2018.
https://news.sky.com/story/novak-djo...runks-13050702

[Dargo]

Sexy birches with woody and a lot of sap seek Novak for a tree some.

[Moonlight]

Jennifer Crumbley becomes the first parent in America to be convicted over their child's mass shooting: Mother of US school gunman who killed four is facing 60 years in jail for involuntary manslaughter

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...tly-blame.html

I don't know where this is gonna end up, "In The Supreme Court?", but, if ever there was a shot across the bows for parents then this court case is it.
All those children who've had troubled childhoods might start getting some much needed help now, I'll not hold my breath though as most of these kids will be too far gone already.
It'll probably change nothing as some of these parents were brought up in similar conditions, probably not as bad as this kid but, enough to send the weaker ones over the edge.
Parents eh, if you have them at least do the decent thing and bring them up right.