General News Thread

[Torquay Gunner]

5 minutes ago, The Year Of The Fox said:

I get the impression that some in here are disappointed Trump’s actions haven’t led to an escalation so they’d get another stick to beat him with 

Most people including me (and I loath him) would like to believe in all his blundering,  that he would actually achieve some good deeds. Whether this is one of them remains to be seen. 

[urban.spaceman]

2 hours ago, Md9 said:

Yeah… I can’t go to America for a while. 

[Md9]

12 minutes ago, urban.spaceman said:

Yeah… I can’t go to America for a while. 

The mrs is off to see a friend in Michigan in December for a few weeks , luckily I don’t send her any or she would be coming straight back home 

[Wymsey]

...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c62gq269jv7o

 

[StanSP]

There's a news story going round about a guy in Russia chucking an Iranian 2yr old into the air and slamming him into the ground, leaving the child with life-threatening injuries and in a coma. 

 

Came across the video without realising what I was about to watch and it's absolutely horrific. The guy acts very weirdly afterwards but it's fvcking disgusting. 

 

It made me feel physically sick. 

[MaidstoneFox]

6 hours ago, Torquay Gunner said:

Most people including me (and I loath him) would like to believe in all his blundering,  that he would actually achieve some good deeds. Whether this is one of them remains to be seen. 

Oil prices. That's why this all went no further. Nothing to do with him making any right decision

[Torquay Gunner]

3 minutes ago, MaidstoneFox said:

Oil prices. That's why this all went no further. Nothing to do with him making any right decision

May well be, or he simply didn’t like his proxy being hit.  In any event, civilians in both countries can for now not worry about bombs being dropped on their heads.  Pity no one else has the same concern for the citizens of Gaza. 

[st albans fox]

1 hour ago, StanSP said:

There's a news story going round about a guy in Russia chucking an Iranian 2yr old into the air and slamming him into the ground, leaving the child with life-threatening injuries and in a coma. 

 

Came across the video without realising what I was about to watch and it's absolutely horrific. The guy acts very weirdly afterwards but it's fvcking disgusting. 

 

It made me feel physically sick. 

Apparently drugged up according to reports (and known to authorities)

 

there’s also stuff on SM about him which is currently totally unsubstantiated ( apparently you can just make stuff up - who knew?) 

 

 l  avoided watching the footage so I didn’t see how shocking it was. 

Edited 25 June 2025 by st albans fox

[st albans fox]

58 minutes ago, MaidstoneFox said:

Oil prices. That's why this all went no further. Nothing to do with him making any right decision

Oil prices dropped after Iran’s tepid response on Monday evening ahead of the announcements.  If the war was still ongoing today then I doubt oil prices would be much changed from where they were mon evening. Obvs they dropped significantly once this ceasefire was announced 

 

a few leaders referencing how fragile this ceasefire is this afternoon which is worrying. 

[Parafox]

4 hours ago, Wymsey said:

...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c62gq269jv7o

 

 

This man is more seriously weird than Michael Jackson was.

[Parafox]

1 hour ago, st albans fox said:

Oil prices dropped after Iran’s tepid response on Monday evening ahead of the announcements.  If the war was still ongoing today then I doubt oil prices would be much changed from where they were mon evening. Obvs they dropped significantly once this ceasefire was announced 

 

a few leaders referencing how fragile this ceasefire is this afternoon which is worrying. 

 

I think recent history tells us that very few "ceasefires" are anything other than fragile.

[MaidstoneFox]

2 hours ago, st albans fox said:

Oil prices dropped after Iran’s tepid response on Monday evening ahead of the announcements.  If the war was still ongoing today then I doubt oil prices would be much changed from where they were mon evening. Obvs they dropped significantly once this ceasefire was announced 

 

a few leaders referencing how fragile this ceasefire is this afternoon which is worrying. 

That's true, but before that when the Iranian parliament voted to close the Strait of Hormuz, which would have affected about a third of the world's oil supply, they went up. He didn't want a prolonged standoff and rising gas prices affecting American consumers, especially as he's so fond of fossil fuels and has slashed green alternatives.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2025/06/23/rising-oil-prices-could-spike-another-30-if-iran-blocks-strait-of-hormuz-goldman-warns/

[st albans fox]

53 minutes ago, MaidstoneFox said:

That's true, but before that when the Iranian parliament voted to close the Strait of Hormuz, which would have affected about a third of the world's oil supply, they went up. He didn't want a prolonged standoff and rising gas prices affecting American consumers, especially as he's so fond of fossil fuels and has slashed green alternatives.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2025/06/23/rising-oil-prices-could-spike-another-30-if-iran-blocks-strait-of-hormuz-goldman-warns/

Chinese leant on Iran not to close 

Russians ambivalent (but defo wouldn’t have minded oil prices rocketing - on balance they certainly wouldn’t have tried to dissuade ). 
 

I agree that trump would not have wanted that action for obvs reasons - he posted over the weekend that he was watching oil prices and warned against them being increased purely for gain (does he understand markets!).

 

  I think he authorised the strikes on Saturday night cos he decided it was the quickest way to finish the conflict as he could then lean on BN to cease and the Iranians would have little reason to continue once fordow was struck and if the isr’s were to cease their attacks. 

[Super_horns]

All very well trying to make disabled people work but they simply might not be able to or a lot of companies won’t take them all as they are trying to cut jobs and in retail where I work you get written warnings for being off sick so someone who regularly is has no chance .

[Wymsey]

1 minute ago, Super_horns said:

All very well trying to make disabled people work but they simply might not be able to or a lot of companies won’t take them all as they are trying to cut jobs and in retail where I work you get written warnings for being off sick so someone who regularly is has no chance .

Wonder what the statistics are for those off-work / unemployed due to mental health issues?

[Md9]

I don’t think anyone has ever questioned the pilots for what they did. Now everyone has to listen to some more crazy nonsense from hegseth  after morning drink because  they are all insecure fools. 

[Jon the Hat]

2 hours ago, Wymsey said:

Wonder what the statistics are for those off-work / unemployed due to mental health issues?

 

2 hours ago, Super_horns said:

All very well trying to make disabled people work but they simply might not be able to or a lot of companies won’t take them all as they are trying to cut jobs and in retail where I work you get written warnings for being off sick so someone who regularly is has no chance .

Assume this is something to do with the benefits changes?  The stats show a massive multi billion pound increase in people signed off for mental health reasons since the pandemic.  We seem to have enabled a lot of people to become reliant on benefits who don't necessarily need to.  

[Trav Le Bleu]

7 hours ago, Md9 said:

I don’t think anyone has ever questioned the pilots for what they did. Now everyone has to listen to some more crazy nonsense from hegseth  after morning drink because  they are all insecure fools. 

Defense (defence) is not the same as war.

 

Especially not with an exclamation mark.

 

Muppet.

[leicsmac]

14 minutes ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

Defense (defence) is not the same as war.

 

Especially not with an exclamation mark.

 

Muppet.

It isn't, but there are a lot of places - the US big among them - that seem to be able to get away with inflicting a lot of death and suffering by using the two terms interchangeably. 

[Super_horns]

6 hours ago, Jon the Hat said:

 

Assume this is something to do with the benefits changes?  The stats show a massive multi billion pound increase in people signed off for mental health reasons since the pandemic.  We seem to have enabled a lot of people to become reliant on benefits who don't necessarily need to.  

Yes guess that does seem to be used as an excuse a lot (often encouraged by the Government and others ? )!whereas many  who are actually physically or medically disabled unable to get jobs or being punished for having time off due to ill health .

 

A lot of companies in retail anyway have a discipline system in place where you are asked to attend a meeting each time and if you are off 3 times in a year get a written notice (or worse )

 

There could be some who have regular bouts of illness who cannot avoid such situations so be unfair for everyone to be tarred with the same brush . 
 

Most disabled people I know do work if they can but there seem to be more disabilities now than ever and so an increase in numbers .

 

 

 

Edited 26 June 2025 by Super_horns

[st albans fox]

20 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

It isn't, but there are a lot of places - the US big among them - that seem to be able to get away with inflicting a lot of death and suffering by using the two terms interchangeably. 

No way did the Iranians not know that the Americans were about to bomb fordow (thankfully):

 

hence they would have evacuated their workers there (and also the other two sites).  Their anti aircraft defences were impotent (isr had long since knocked those out) but they still had working radar systems..  The size of that American attack group would have pinged up like a Xmas tree (despite many of the aircraft being ‘invisible’). 

the Americans knew that Iran had no defence 

the idea that the pilots risked their lives in combat is a stretch - it was basically a training exercise. 

[leicsmac]

1 minute ago, st albans fox said:

No way did the Iranians not know that the Americans were about to bomb fordow (thankfully):

 

hence they would have evacuated their workers there (and also the other two sites).  Their anti aircraft defences were impotent (isr had long since knocked those out) but they still had working radar systems..  The size of that American attack group would have pinged up like a Xmas tree (despite many of the aircraft being ‘invisible’). 

the Americans knew that Iran had no defence 

the idea that the pilots risked their lives in combat is a stretch - it was basically a training exercise. 

Oh, no doubt this particular instance was carefully choreographed. 

 

I was talking more in generalities.

[st albans fox]

16 hours ago, StanSP said:

There's a news story going round about a guy in Russia chucking an Iranian 2yr old into the air and slamming him into the ground, leaving the child with life-threatening injuries and in a coma. 

 

Came across the video without realising what I was about to watch and it's absolutely horrific. The guy acts very weirdly afterwards but it's fvcking disgusting. 

 

It made me feel physically sick.

some clarification of this terrible incident.  Some of you would no doubt have seen some ‘skewed’ (that’s polite) social media posts about the perpetrator and his background - 
 

the news I’ve seen from Russia states that the boy has awoken from coma with no signs of brain damage 🙏
 

[urban.spaceman]

23 hours ago, The Year Of The Fox said:

I get the impression that some in here are disappointed Trump’s actions haven’t led to an escalation so they’d get another stick to beat him with 

Personally I'm very disappointed that he's still breathing. 

[bovril]

perhaps boring Yank culture war shit can go in a separate thread which I can then mute?