Irish cafe owner's outrageous electricity bill

 Althone, Ireland

Geraldine Dolan, at Poppy Fields Cafe, Athlone, Co. Westmeath, with an electricity bill for just under ten thousand euros Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill / The Irish Times

10,000 euros - $14,617.75 Aussie dollars

Walmart now locking up meat

 

This Walmart store in the US is now locking up meat.  This Tomohawk Ribeye steak price $31.31 US

Mikhail Gorbachev dies aged 91

 

The greatest legacy of Mikhail Gorbachev was the tearing down of the Berlin Wall and the peaceful breakup of the USSR.

Sometimes your worst nightmare is right behind you

 

Ukrainian Counter-Offensive has begun in Kherson

 

Ukrainian servicemen work inside a Polish howitzer on the front line in the Donetsk region yesterday (Monday). Ukraine’s counteroffensive has begun in Kherson. Photograph: Anatolii Stepanov/AFP/Getty Images

 

Artemis I Mission aborted

 

Spectators leave the Max Brewer Bridge after engine trouble stopped the launch of the Artemis I mission to orbit the moon at the Kennedy Space Centre in Titusville, Florida.

Gaza schoolgirl grieves for her friend

 

A classmate of Palestiian student Lian Al Shaer 10, who was killed in recent Israel-Gaza fighting, reacts to her picture as a new school year begins in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. Reuters/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

Al-Tuwani, West Bank

 

Israeli soldiers accompany Palestinian pupils heading to class on the first day of the academic year as they walk along a dirt road passing the Israeli settlement of Ma’on. Photograph: Hazem Bader/AFP/Getty Images

Vienna, Austria

 

International Atomic Energy Agency officials prepare for their flight to Ukraine where they will inspect the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.  Photograph: Dean Calma/IAEA/EPA

Canadian Russian Orthodox Church sending funds to Russia

 

The Russian Orthodox Church in Canada is promoting anti-Ukrainian disinformation and has been raising funds in Toronto to support Russian backed terror groups in Donetsk. Canada should designate ROCOR as a terrorist entity.

Chris Dawson murder trial decision set for tomorrow

 

The wait is almost over for Chris Dawson, who will learn tomorrow whether a judge believes beyond reasonable doubt that he murdered his missing first wife, Lynette, 40 years ago.

Justice Ian Harrison will deliver his verdict tomorrow, 30 August, 2022.

Abu Dhabi, UAE

 

Abu Dhabi, UAE

A dog runs on a treadmill at the Posh Pets boutique and spa.  As the Gulf’s increasingly fierce temperatures become dangerous to health, those who can afford it stay inside in air conditioned cool.  The same goes for their pampered pets, going walkies in this air conditioned gym for dogs. Photograph: Karim Sahib/AFP/Getty Images

Madisonville, Tennessee, 1937

 

34-year-old Homer Peel kisses his 12-year-old bride Geneva on the courthouse steps in Madisonville, Tennessee, June 25, 1937

 

Hall of Antiquities, Resident Palace, Munich

 

Hall of Antiquities is oldest and most lavish room in Residence north of Alps.  Duke Albrecht V had it built from 1568-1571 CE, for his collection of antique sculptures, hence name "Antiquarium".

Russian spy parties with members of NATO

 

A team of investigators have unmasked a deep-cover spy from Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU, who spent a decade posing as a Latin American jewellery designer and partied with NATO staff based in Naples.

The investigators say the woman went by the name of Maria Rivera, and told people she met that she was the child of a German father and Peruvian mother, born in the city of Callao, Peru.

In fact, she was a career GRU officer from Russia - a deep-cover agent trained to pose as a foreigner.   Moscow’s intelligence agencies have used illegals since the early Soviet period. Sometimes, they stay living in their fake identities for decades.......

Source: The Guardian

 

British energy bills to jump 80%

 LONDON, Aug 26 (Reuters) - British energy bills will jump 80% to an average of 3,549 pounds ($4,188) a year from October, the regulator said on Friday, plunging millions of households into fuel poverty and businesses into jeopardy unless the government steps in.

How much gas does the UK get from Russia? Russia is Europe's largest supplier of natural gas, providing around 35 per cent of the gas used across the continent.

However, the UK's reliance on Russian gas is far less significant, at just 3 per cent.

Norway overtakes Russia as Europe's largest natural gas supplier

 

Norway’s energy minister expects that they will maintain current produces levels until 2030.

Source:  Reuters

Tucker Carlson Putin's Hero

 

…..But the far-right Fox News host Tucker Carlson, the alternately flabbergasted and outraged primetime host and Trumpist standard-bearer, carried on presenting his conspiratorial show with such a seeming lack of regard that the Kremlin itself reportedly considers his equivocations over the causes of the conflict vital to its propaganda apparatus.

Even Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov – no doubt largely thanks to Carlson – had praise for Fox’s coverage of the conflict. “If you take the United States, only Fox News is trying to present some alternative points of view,” he said on Friday……

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/mar/20/tucker-the-untouchable-fox-news-host-putin-russia

Source:  The Guardian

Ukraine Independence Day 2022

 

The Academy Symphony Orchestra of the Luhansk Regional Philimonic perform during a charity concert in support of the armed forces of Ukraine at Saints Peter and Paul Garrison Church in Lviv, Ukraine. Today marks six months since Russia launched the invasion of Ukraine. It is also the day Ukraine celebrates its 1991 independence from the Soviet Union. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

10 Downing Street, London

 

Florists prepare the entrance to 10 Downing Street with an arrangement in the Ukrainian colours, for the Independence Day of Ukraine. AP

Australian Life Photography Competition 2022 finalist

 

Hunting with Fire. 

After lighting the bark on some trees at Djulkar Waterfall in West Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Stacey Lee hunts for file snakes in the glow of the blaze while Evelyn Nasrorrga, carrying a flashlight, already has one wrapped around her right hand.  The harmless snake is a delicacy.  Fire is woven into everything the Nawarddeken people do.  Photograph: Matthew Abbott

Australian Life Photography Competition 2022 finalist

 

 

After receiving her first Pfizer Covid vaccination in her home in Yarrabah in far north Queensland, Leanne Bulmer 67, sits with her ‘reward’ – a free treat arranged by the medical teams and doctors who knocked on doors throughout the Indigenous community.  Photograph: Brian Cassey.

 

Ayutuxtepeque, El Salvador

 

Inmates at the La Esperanza prison baking as part of the government’s ‘zero leisure’ plan which offers rehabilitation and reintegration programs and aims for the self-sustainability of prisoners.  Photograph: Sthanly Estrada/AFP/Getty Images.

Najib Razak appeals his convictions

 

Putrajava, Malaysia

Former Prime Minister Najib Razak arrives at the federal court to appeal his convictions for criminal breach of trust, abuse of power and money laundering over the alleged theft of 4.4bn euros from 1MDB, a state fund he co-founded as premier in 2009.  Photograph: Fazry Ismail/EPA

Alexander Dugin at daughter's funeral

 

Alexander Dugin attends a farewell ceremony for his daughter Darya Dugina, who was killed in a car bomb explosion.  Dugina followed in her father’s footsteps as an ideologue, becoming a well known media personality who worked for pro-Kremlin television channels, including Russia Today and Tsargrad.  Photograph: Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP/Getty Images.

First Meeting of Kyiv Initiative

First meeting of the new "Kyiv Initiative" format with the foreign policy advisers of the heads of state and government of Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia

Kansas Abortion Victory

 

Kansas' decisive state-wide vote in favour of abortion rights has been confirmed through a partial hand recount, a move forced by two Republican anti-abortion activists.

Turkey delivers 50 BMC-made Kirpi MRAP vehicles

 

A BMC-made Kirpi MRAP vehicle is seen March 21, 2022, at the DIMDEX Defense Expo in Qatar's capital Doha. (Karim Jaafar/AFP via Getty Images)

ANKARA, Turkey — The Turkish government has delivered 50 used mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles to the Ukrainian military. There will be further deliveries.

Soccer to restart in Ukraine

 

Under threat of Russian attacks in a war that stopped all soccer in Ukraine in February, a new league season starts on Tuesday (today) in Kyiv with the goal of restoring some sense of normal life. 

Day of the National Flag, Russia

 

People carry a giant Russian flag during celebrations of the Day of The National Flag in Mamayev Kurgan, the World Was II Battle of Stalingrad memorial in Volgograd, Russia.

Starbuck's new replacement coffee shop owner

 

Reuters / Thursday, August 18, 2022

Rapper Timati, co-owner of the new coffee shop "Stars Coffee" in Moscow. Russian restauranteur Anton Pinskiy and rapper Timati debuted new venture 'Stars Coffee' last week. Timati says that because Starbucks had its own resource and production base, they've had to find new suppliers. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

Starbucks now "Stars Coffee"

 

After Starbucks leaves Russia, staff members pose at the launch of the new coffee shop “Stars Coffee” in Moscow. Reuters/Maxim Shemetov

 

Zulu King's Coronation

 

The Zulu monarch, King Misuzulu ka Zwelithini, gestures during a traditional ceremony, part of his coronation celebrations in Nongoma, South Africa. Reuters/Stringer

Macabebe, Philippines

 

Students attend the first day of in-person classes at a flooded school during a high tide in Pampanga province. Photograph: Lisa Marie David/Reuters

Korabelny, Ukraine

 

Instead of a thousand words - a picture of a wounded woman with her son after shelling in Korabelny district of Mykolaiv. August 2022

 

Russian partisan group claim responsibility of Darya Dugina murder

 

Journalist and political expert Darya Dugina is pictured in a TV studio in Moscow

 

The National Republican Army (NRA) have claimed responsibility for the death of Darya Dugina.  The NRA is an alleged underground partisan group of Russians inside Russia working towards the overthrow of the Putin regime.

Kyiv, Ukraine

 

Cyclists participate in a charitable event in solidarity with the Azovstal prisoners at a cycle track in Kyiv, Ukraine on Aug. 20, 2022. The battle at Mariupol’s Azovstal Iron and Steel Works, where Ukrainian defenders held out for 80 days against a relentless Russian assault, has already become a legendary event akin to Ukraine’s version of the Alamo. (Jim Huylebroek/The New York Times)

Moscow, Russia

 

Investigators work on the site of the explosion of a car driven by Daria Dugina, the daughter of Alexander Dugin, the Russian nationalist ideologist often called ‘Putin’s brain’ who was killed when he car exploded on the outskirts of the capital. AP

 

Krakow, Poland

 

A woman walks past a new mural painted by American artist and activist Benjamin Swatez. Photograph: Artur Widak/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock

 

Ukraine's War Museum

 

A girl stands on top of a destroy Russian tank that has been turned into an open air military museum ahead of Ukraine’s Independence Day on 24 August

Photograph: Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images

Ukraine's Oleksandr Usyk beats Anthony Joshua

 

'Extremely important for my country': Ukraine's Oleksandr Usyk beats Anthony Joshua and retains his world title.

Recovery in action in Ukarine

 

Before (April 2022) and after (August 2022) Makariv (Kyiv region) after Russian occupation

The Block contestant linked to drug lord

 

Former professional rugby player Omar Slaimankhel (left) and building maintenance man Ozman (Oz) Abu Malik (right) are contestants on The Block

Channel Nine has revealed the network had no idea one of The Block's biggest stars was in the car with Mostafa Baluch when the accused drug-kingpin cut off his ankle bracelet and fled, sparking one of Australia's biggest manhunts.

Omar Slaimankhel, who currently stars on the home renovation reality series was allegedly driving in a vehicle with Baluch in Sydney on the night of October 25 last year, according to The Daily Telegraph.

 

The two men, who are both Australian-Afghani, were heading along the city's northern beaches when the accused crime boss facing life behind bars for allegedly importing $270million cocaine, removed his tracking monitor in a desperate bid to escape overseas. 

He was found by police 16 days later, hidden in the boot of a Mercedes concealed inside a shipping container being towed by a truck on the NSW-Queensland border.

Ukraine destroys bridge again after Russian repair

 

Ukraine has bombed the bridge which the Russians managed to restore.

 The Kakhovka bridge, which runs over the Nova Kakhovka dam, is important to Russia because it was being used to transport military equipment in Ukraine's occupied Kherson region. It is the last bridge connecting the right and left banks.

President Biden wants Zelenskiy to attend G20 in Bali

 

The White House said Friday that Ukrainian President  Zelenskiy should take part in a Group of 20 summit in Bali if Vladimir Putin attends, after Indonesia’s leader said the Russian president would probably join.

“As President Biden has said publicly himself, he does not think President Putin should attend the G-20 as he wages his war against Ukraine.” 

But if Putin does attend, the US believes that Zelenskiy should participate too.

 

 

Ukrainian grain in Turkey

 

Istanbul, Turkey

Grain onboard the Osprey S vessel anchored in the Marmara Sea during an inspection by representatives.  It left the Ukrainian port of Chornomorsk on 16 August carrying 11,500 tonnes of grain destined for Turkey.  Under the terms of last month’s Black Sea Grain Initiative, which paved the way for Ukraine to safely ship their grain from three key ports, vessels must be inspected by a team of officials from Ukraine, Russia and the UN. Photograph: Chris McGrath/Getty Images

 

Supermarket in Keamatorsk, Ukraine

 

Photograph: Nacho Doce/Reuters

Military hospital in Donetsk

 

Donetsk, Ukraine

Heathcare workers treat a wounded Ukrainian soldier in a military hospital in Donetsk.  At least three Ukrainian civilians were killed and 13 wounded in artillery barrages from the Russian military in the eastern region of Ukraine.  Photograph: Alkis Konstantinidis/ Reuters