England and Wales are now minority
Christian Countries, according to the 2021 census, with less than half the
population describing themselves as Christian.
Wednesday, November 30, 2022
England and Wales now Christian Minority
Russian Conscripts Demobilised
Conscripts, including students who returned
from the Russian military units after they were demobilised, attend an
acknowledgment ceremony in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in the Donetsk
region, Russian-controlled Ukraine, November 28, 2022. REUTERS/Alexander
Ermochenko
STAROBESHEVE, Russian-controlled Ukraine, Nov 28 (Reuters) - A student newly discharged from Russian proxy forces in Ukraine says he was equipped with a Soviet-era bolt-action rifle, and had to share rations and a sleeping bag when first sent to the front.
Iran and Iraq Meeting
Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi, right, and Iraq's Prime
Minister Mohamed Shia al-Sudani arrive for a joint press conference in the
capital Tehran, in this handout picture provided by the Iranian presidency.
World Cup pitch invader
A pitch invader wearing a shirt reading “Save Ukraine” holds a rainbow flag during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Group H match between Portugal and Uruguay at Lusail Stadium
Blair Drummond Safari park in Scotland
Morag, the six week old Southern white rhino calf is given a rub by Large Mammal Keeper Alex Wainwright as she is weighed at Blair Drummond Safari and Adventure Park, near Stirling, Scotland
Girls body exhumed by war crimes investigators in Ukraine
Local residents help police and war crimes investigators
exhume the body of a 15-year-old girl, who local residents said had been
executed by Russian forces along with several men whose bodies had been exhumed
the day before, in the recently liberated village of Pravdyne, Ukraine. As days
pass, the elation of the Kherson region’s liberation from Russian occupation
has given way to mounting evidence of atrocities, and the sobering reality of
battered, barely livable communities from which most civilians fled months ago
and may not return anytime soon. Photograph: Finbarr O’Reilly/The New York Times
Afghan boy at work
November 29,
2022: A boy extracts oil from sesame seeds at a camel powered mill in
Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan. AFP/Getty Images
Ukraine's top football officials arrested
Andriy Pavelko at a press conference in October announcing Ukraine’s joint bid with Spain and Portugal to host the World Cup in 2030 Photograph: Martial Trezzini/AP
Two leading
officials in Ukraine’s football association, including its head, have been
arrested over fraud and money-laundering allegations related to the
construction of an artificial grass factory.
Andriy Pavelko, the president of the Ukraine FA, and Yuri
Zapisotsky, the association’s general secretary, are accused of “embezzling”
26.5m Ukrainian Hryvnia (£600,000).
The development is likely to kill off a joint bid Ukraine has
made with Spain and Portugal to co-host the 2030 World Cup in a move that had been sanctioned by
the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Tuesday, November 29, 2022
Switzerland changes its mind about Neutrality
Swiss
border patrol in the Alps during World War II.
While staying out of both World Wars, Switzerland shut its borders to Jewish refugees before and during World War II. The country was also a haven for bank accounts and safe deposit boxes belonging to Nazis.
Financial institutions in Switzerland had lucrative business ties with
the German Reichsbank and various Nazis who made fortunes from plundering
wealth from the Holocaust’s victims. As World War II was winding down, the
Swiss kept purchasing gold from Nazi Germany. Then after 1945,
fugitive ex-Nazis found haven in Switzerland.
The Ukraine shock
For the first four days after Russia’s offensive on
Ukraine this year, Switzerland justified holding off on imposing
sanctions, citing its neutral foreign policy. Yet, by the end of
February, the Alpine country had joined the Western European bandwagon.
Bern has implemented virtually all the EU’s post-February 24 sanctions on Russia. This has entailed Switzerland freezing hundreds of Russian oligarchs’ and government officials’ assets, denying Russian planes access to Swiss airspace, and banning individuals within Putin’s inner circle from visiting the country. In his March 1 State of the Union address, US President Joe Biden hailed Switzerland’s cooperation with the West’s financial warfare against Russia.
“The Swiss government…took a firm stance. Pressure and concern in the population as well as from Western partners, who are Switzerland’s main political and economic partners, would have become unbearable had Switzerland abstained,” Benno Zogg, a senior researcher at the Centre for Security Studies at ETH Zurich, says in an interview with TRT World.
Mindful of the fact that Switzerland imposed no
sanctions on Russia in response to its 2014 annexation of Crimea, Bern
sanctioning Moscow this year has marked a major shift in Swiss foreign policy.
President and Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis maintained that the
“extraordinary situation” resulting from Russia’s attacks on Ukraine called for
“extraordinary measures” in response.
Currently, a debate in Switzerland is whether their country can still be considered neutral while imposing such sanctions on Russia.
Cannabis oil failed to improve pain or quality of life in palliative care cancer patients, study shows
The first high quality study looking at the impact of cannabidiol oil on palliative care patients with advanced cancer found it did not improve their pain, depression, anxiety, or quality of life.
Palliative care is one of the conditions for which medicinal cannabis has been approved in Australia.
“Our next study will look at a combination of CBD and THC to see if you
need to have THC to get any benefit from medicinal cannabis. The problem with
that is CBD is very popular because it doesn’t have the psychoactive effects.
It means you can drive and do other activities while on it, whereas it’s
illegal to drive on THC, whether it’s taken for recreational or medicinal
purposes.”……………..
Source: Guardian Australia
Cassowary on the move
Cassowaries are flightless birds of the genus Casuarius in the order Casuariiformes. They are classified as ratites and are native to the tropical forests of New Guinea, Aru Islands, and northeastern Australia.
Chinese revolt against lockdown
A protester shouts
slogans against China’s strict zero-Covid measures. Protesters took to the streets in multiple
cities after a deadly apartment fire sparked a national outcry, as many blamed lockdown
for the deaths of 10 people. Photograph:
Kevin Frayer/Getty Images
Lockdown in China continues
Beijing, China
Volunteer health
workers prepare bags of vegetables for residents under lockdown. According to the national health commission,
China reported 36,525 new Covid cases on 28 November making it a record high
for the fifth consecutive day.
Photograph: Wu Hao/EPA
Northern lights over Iceland
Villingaholtskirkja, Iceland
The northern
lights appear over a church on the country’s south coast. Photograph:
Owen Humphreys/PA
Monday, November 28, 2022
Putin's fake meeting with mother of Russian soldiers
One of the fake mothers at Putin’s staged meeting showed a picture of her ‘son’ who died fighting in Ukraine.
Except the guy in the picture died in 2019.
Farmer plants opium poppies by mistake
A Tasmanian flower farmer, Kate Dixon, who planted a new line of “really beautiful poppies” has issued a warning to other gardeners after learning she had mistakenly grown opium poppies.
Kate Dixon, who operates a commercial flower farm at Clifton Beach, about 25km south of Hobart, said she received a call from the authorities earlier this month after they saw a photo of her frilly pink poppies on Instagram.
Dixon said she took “full responsibility” for not spotting the flowers earlier but said the seeds were widely available.
Source: Guardian Australia
London, UK
Cars partially submerged by the river Thames high tide.
Photograph: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters
Pink and grey cockatoo
The galah family (Eolophus roseicapilla). It can be found in open country in almost all parts of mainland Australia.
Via Noelle D on reddit.
Australia finally won a World Cup match, after 12 years.
Mitch Duke was born in the Sydney suburb of Liverpool, New South
Wales and played youth soccer with Paramatta Eagles before starting his
professional career with Central Coast Mariners
Sunday, November 27, 2022
Putin's staged meeting with Russian mothers
One of the fake mothers at Putin’s staged
meeting showed a picture of her ‘son’ who died fighting in Ukraine. Except the
guy in the picture died in 2019.
Saturday, November 26, 2022
Judy Dench in 1957
Judi Dench at a dress
rehearsal for the production of Hamlet, in which she made her stage debut,
September 1957
German lawmakers want to declare 1930s Ukraine famine a genocide
Annalena Baerbock, Minister for Foreign Affairs
of Germany
BERLIN (Reuters)
Lawmakers from Germany's ruling coalition and
opposition want to declare the Holodomor, the death by starvation of millions
of Ukrainians in 1932-33 under Soviet leader Josef Stalin, a genocide.
The draft describes the Soviet leadership's attempts to control and suppress farmers as well as Ukrainian culture and language through hunger and repression. This "from today's perspective, suggests a historical-political classification as genocide. The German Bundestag agrees with this classification".
Founded: 7 September 1949, Quay Bonn-Bundeshaus, Bonn, Germany
Black Friday sale queues in US
November 25, 2022:
People line up at Kohl's Department
Store before the 5 a.m. opening in Anderson, South Carolina on Friday, November
25, 2022. In store deals and incentives still draw shoppers to come out and
line up for a Black Friday deal in person, even with earlier sales and online
shopping.
KEN RUINARD, ANDERSON INDEPENDENT MAIL/USA TODAY NETWORK
Chinese guards outside Beijing department store
November 24, 2022:
Security guards wear masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19 as they guard outside a luxury department store that remained open in the Central Business District in Beijing, China. China recorded its highest number of COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began Wednesday, as authorities stuck to their strict zero tolerance approach to containing the virus with lockdowns, mandatory testing, mask mandates, and quarantines as it struggles to contain outbreaks.
KEVIN FRAYER, GETTY IMAGES
Wretched conditions for migrants in France
Calais, France
Badr and his cousin Mhamod, migrants from
Syria, cover themselves with blankets in Calais. Badr has been in Calais for over a week. His tent was taken by police so he slept
under a footbridge in the centre of town, huddled with six mothers for
warmth. It is a year since at least 27
migrants drowned when their boat capsized in the Channel. While the tragedy has not been repeated,
partly due to better coordination between French and British coastguards, at
first sight there is little other change in the wretched conditions faced by
migrants in northern France. Photograph:
Abdulmonam Eassa/The Guardian
Ukrainian civilians moved to safer areas
Kherson, Ukraine
Ukrainians board the Kherson-Kyiv train at
the railway station in Kherson. Residents
of the two southern regions of Kherson and Mykolaiv, which have been shelled
regularly by Russian forces, have been advised to move to safer areas in the
central and western parts of the country.
The government would provide transportation, accommodation and medical
care. Photograph: Bernat Armangue/AP
Daniel Andrews tipped to win third term as Victorian Premier
.
The Newspoll conducted for The Australian and released on the eve of the election showed Labor is set to retain between 45-50 of the 88 seats in parliament
Friday, November 25, 2022
Judge Dyson Heydon hands back Companion of the Order of Australia
Former High Court judge Dyson Heydon has handed back one of Australia’s highest honours, surrendering his status as a Companion of the Order of Australia.
The honour is granted to those deemed to have gone above and beyond in their service to the nation.
In 2020 Heydon was found by an independent investigation to have sexually harassed six junior court staff. Three of the women reached an "historic" settlement with the Commonwealth in February this year. Heydon has always denied the allegations.
Heydon maintains his Honourable title, although he has allowed his legal practicing licence to lapse.
Source: Guardian Australia
Putin to meet mothers of Russian soldiers
"On the eve of Mother's Day, which is
celebrated in Russia on the last Sunday of November, Vladimir Putin will meet
with the mothers of servicemen participating in the special military
operation," the Kremlin said in a statement.
Beer at the World Cup
Beer at the World Cup, taken in a VIP box where alcohol is available for the clients/companies/guests who booked them.
Russian strike in Kherson
A paramedic helps an injured
resident moments after a Russian strike in Kherson, southern Ukraine. AP
Russia tells its troops they need 5 million to win the war
Quote: "A
part of this ‘masterpiece’ [‘Conclusions of the war with NATO in Ukraine’ –
ed.] among other things focuses of the main problems of the Russian occupying
forces such as the commanders’ inability to command troops, low level of
discipline and military training, obsolescence of armament and military
equipment, commanders’ inability to make decisions without obligatorily
coordinating them with higher command etc. Meanwhile it is stated in every
document that the Defence Forces of Ukraine have a quite high level of
equipment, and commanders on all levels can make decisions in combat conditions
themselves.
It is also stated in the document that there has not been such a
war in the previous 80 years, and Russia needs its army to consist of nearly 5
million troops in order to win."
Invincibility Stations set up across Ukraine
This insulated grey tent set up
on a street corner in the Pecherskyi district of Kyiv, one of thousands
established around the country this week, was offering electricity, warmth, tea
and sandwiches after the latest Russian onslaught.
A gift from Turkey
“It just makes the anger
towards Russia grow stronger. We just curse and hate Russia more.”
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