leicsmac

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5y0ve18qlko At least 90 people have been killed in a coal mine blast in northern China, according to state media. The gas explosion at the Liushenyu Coal Mine in Shanxi province is the worst mining disaster in China since 2009. There were 247 workers reportedly on duty when the blast happened at 19:29 local time on Friday (22:29 GMT), with more than 100 people reportedly pulled to safety and hundreds of rescuers sent to the site. Well, that's horrible.

Cleared the tower and away, stage sep also good but some issues with engines on both booster and craft.

... and more temperature records being broken.

Yep. That inflection point in the early 1980s with Thatcher being able to do what she did to public services will be felt for a very long time to come.

Small bespoke space engineering is something the UK has done pretty well up until now, so I'm sure they'll come up with something on a shoestring

I wonder who the customers will be (other than the MoD) should one of these wonderful little toys become useful?

Again, repeating a point made before, but pretty much all of East Asia in terms of public transport infrastructure puts the UK to shame. Trying to run a 21st century service on 19th century infrastructure isn't going to end well, and we didn't upgrade when we had the chance due to lack of foresight, ideology, or both.

And those hardships show no signs of going away. Said it before but I'll say it again; any debate involving immigration that doesn't involve addressing the root causes isn't really "solving" it at all, or it is solving it only in the way that the beholder thinks that it's acceptable for a great many people to be abandoned to their (often horrible) fate simply because they're "not them".

In lighter, football related news: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cx21xelynrno Sometimes the game can transcend even the highest national boundaries.

And people say it would have been a waste of money for the UK to have its own space program.

It becomes less of a contradiction when the "problem" is its own point and vast amounts of cruelty involved in "solving" it in the most spectacular way is the rewarding solution. Permit the "problem" of the "other" to reach such a critical mass that you're justified in whatever atrocity you carry out against that "other". Perhaps that's a bit tinfoil hat, but it explains a bit of the actions involved.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn0pk2e22jro Trying to avoid the Al Capone method of accountability, then.

Interesting that the jury couldn't reach a verdict even under majority instructions. Not the average case of jury nullification where "it only takes one to hanga jury", it would seem.

Sorry, let me clarify. I was thinking that even though Bov thinks Thomas Cromwell is in Hell, Hell also has all the best musicians so he might be enjoying himself anyway. (The Elgar/Liszt reference is from Good Omens, where Crowley makes that very point.)

Think there has to be a place for Bellingham in the squad.

Should make another appearance in the ACOOT thread. Proper sociopath.

Considering that Heaven only has Elgar and Liszt and Hell has every other musician, he might be. On related though, it's darkly hilarious how an idea of Reformation designed to give the monarch (and perhaps the people) greater freedom to eat, drink and fornicate as they wish (last one being the major plot point) ended up turning into Puritanism (and more rules) as it did.

*stares in Thomas Cromwell*

It's a tricky one. They clearly operate by a system where the individual (or even the group) is subject to the will of the many, and quite often that system is expressed in brutal and oppressive fashion and on a big scale, which of course is no role model for a forward looking state. At the same time, such acts of brutality don't really appear to be worse in terms of scale and brutality and overall human death and suffering than those of the other leading states over the last few decades, and it appears it all comes down to what name you want your oppression done in, and who benefits from it. (That last part is important, imo.)

No disagreement there. My point was more that people judging the US and the Chinese (for instance) by different standards in terms of realpolitik at the moment are perhaps a bit mistaken.

... and the reception between the US and China last week wasn't full of similar promises of togetherness? If people are saying the UK shouldn't be wary of China they are mistaken, but the point is that the UK should be wary of all the top tier powers right now. All of them are playing the nationalist realpolitik game very hard at the moment. (The main difference being that the Chinese, unlike the US and Russia, tend for the time being to keep most of their brutality inhouse). And yes, the world at that level is incredibly dirty, but then if those with the capability don't believe in and work towards a cleaner world, then it doesn't end well. So the jaded cynicism about it all really helps no one.

It is a bit depressing, but then that and other recent events show that Trump and his lackeys aren't even bothering with being in any way subtle about the corruption anymore. Whether that works in generating enough backlash to give the man a long awaited and deserving downfall... well, only time is going to tell there.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd9pzp50npeo Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune has split with the Trump administration over its creation of a $1.7bn (£1.3bn) fund aimed at compensating individuals "unfairly" investigated by previous administrations. Speaking to reporters, Thune said he was "not a big fan" of the fund, adding that he did not see "a purpose" for it. He is the most high-profile member of Trump's own party to criticise the plan. Democrats have condemned it as a "slush fund" for Trump's political allies, including some charged or convicted over the 2021 US Capitol riot. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche defended the move on Capitol Hill, saying the compensation was non-partisan and available to anyone. And now the insurrectionists, as well as getting pardons, will be rewarded financially for their loyalty to the Dear Leader, with taxpayer money.

And you are right to make that point. As such, you absolutely should not visit https://archive.ph/ and you definitely should not just copy and paste the article link address into the search bar there to read it.

And now, for something so unbelievably inaccurate it joins Flat Earth et al as actually being hilarious: