Ukraine: In Kyiv, exhausted repair crews work non-stop No electricity, no heating, no water: that's the reality of life in Kyiv. The bitter cold makes the destruction of war even harder to bear. DW spoke to the workers constantly on call to repair the hou...

www.dw.com/en/ukraine-w...

From Our Own Correspondent - Japan's 'iron lady' Takaichi wins landslide victory - BBC Sounds Young Japanese voters power the country's first woman leader to an historic election win

23 minutes into the excellent From Our Own Correspondent www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Basant, Pakistan's famous kite festival, cautiously returns after 19-year ban The event, which dates back centuries, was banned after injuries and fatalities caused by sharp strings and celebratory gunfire.

BBC News - Basant, Pakistan's famous kite festival, cautiously returns after 19-year ban - BBC News
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

103-year-old Holocaust survivor reclaims German citizenship An increasing number of Jewish Americans with family histories shaped by the Holocaust are applying to restore German citizenship — to have the option to move to Germany should conditions in the US de...

www.dw.com/en/103-year-...

Farage's claims here are straightforward lies (and it's about time the media/press said so)

The correct figures are 160K (0.3%) and 900K (1.5%)

www.gbnews.com/news/video-n...

Bangladesh elections: Polls close in landmark vote Voting has ended and turnout was high in Bangladesh's first general election since Gen Z mass protests toppled longtime Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in 2024. Follow DW for more.

www.dw.com/en/banglades...

EU ups drone cooperation amid hybrid threats The EU is increasing its efforts in drone security following multiple drone incursions into EU airspace in 2025. The new action plan aims to improve cooperation, but Europe’s drone security network re...

www.dw.com/en/eu-ups-dr...

Irish man with valid US work permit held in ICE detention for five months Seamus Culleton, who has lived in US for two decades, faces deportation after being arrested on way home from work * US politics live – latest updates * Europe live – latest updates An Irish man has spent five months in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention and faces deportation despite having a valid work permit and no criminal record. Seamus Culleton was a “model immigrant” who had become the victim of a capricious and inept system, said his lawyer, Ogor Winnie Okoye. Continue reading...

Irish man with valid US work permit held in ICE detention for five months

Screenshot of an X.com post by unusual_whales asking whether there is a conflict of interest after Binance founder Zhao pleaded guilty to anti–money laundering violations, was sentenced to prison, Binance allegedly injected billions into Trump’s family business, and Zhao later received a pardon. The post includes a video still of Treasury Secretary Bessent testifying on Capitol Hill on C-SPAN, with a caption quoting him saying he is unfamiliar with the matter.

They never seem to be familiar with the truly bad stuff.

UK PM aide quits over pick of Epstein-linked US envoy Keir Starmer's top aide Morgan McSweeney has quit amid fallout over the appointment of Britain's former US ambassador. Criticism has mounted as new details emerged of the appointee's links to Jeffrey ...

www.dw.com/en/epstein-f...

British values

Reform-run Kent council accused of fabricating £40m net zero savings Disclosures show figures cited by authority’s leader rested on unfunded ideas listed briefly in budget papers

NEW: Reform UK’s flagship council, Kent, has been accused of telling a “blatant lie” after its claim of nearly £40m in savings on net zero were found to be based on hypothetical projects for which there was no documentation.

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Pakistan: Blast hits Islamabad Shiite mosque — police At least 12 people were killed after an explosion ripped through a Shiite place of worship in Terlai on the outskirts of the Pakistani capital.

www.dw.com/en/blast-hit...

Max Kendix Political Correspondent Towards the end of 2024 Sir Keir Starmer was handed a two-page file by the Cabinet Office's propriety and ethics team. The document was brief his M ter tin he sta WI he ba and to the point, providing a summary of the potential conflicts surrounding the appointment of Lord Mandelson as Britain's ambassador to Washington. Nearly all of it was in the public th ha Ol re domain and much of it was obvious. Potential conflicts of interest surrounding Global Counsel, the lobbying com-st pany Mandelson co-founded, which had clients in Russia and China. Details of his two previous resignations from government and the scandals sur- rounding them. But by far the most significant section was on Jeffrey Epstein, the paedo-phile financier. The document was explicit that Mandelson had continued his friendship with Epstein after the latter's conviction for soliciting child prostitution in 2008. The file is thought to include a Financial Times article from 2023 which laid bare fut Wor both the nature and the extent of the relationship between the pair, revealing details of an internal JPMor-gan report from 2019 which found that: "Jeffrey Epstein appears to maintain a particularly close relationship with Prince Andrew the Duke of York and Lord Peter Man-delson, a senior member of the British government." It suggested that Mandel-son stayed at Epstein's townhouse in Manhattan in June 2009, while the financier was in prison. The report also included links to photographs of Mandelson and Epstein together. A source familiar with the Cabinet Office's report described it as a "two- Mandelsor birthday b page Word doc that has been cut and pasted from Google". They questioned why it was the only vetting that was conducted before Starmer announced the appointment. "It's insane," they said. The contents of the report cannot have been entirely new to Starmer. In January 2024 he was asked at a press conference if Mandelson had questions to answer over his stays …

useful summary of what Starmer knew and when via Times political team

BREAKING: McSweeney’s think tank paid PR firm to investigate journalists Labour Together put private investigators onto journalists writing about its funding. Starmer's right-hand man knew.

🔴 BREAKING: Labour Together paid controversial PR firm £30k to investigate journalists who were digging into how its undeclared funding

Reporters from Sunday Times, Guardian and other outlets targetted

*And* Morgan McSweeney knew about it

Full story:
democracyforsale.substack.com/p/exclusive-...

INBOX: Robert McCartney, who worked for 39 years at The Washington Post, including as a Metro columnist and editor, before retiring in 2021, claims on X that he has heard the Post has laid off *all* its photojournalists.

Happy News - The Happy Pod: What makes people instinctively kind? - BBC Sounds Lessons in kindness from an expert inspired by a stranger risking his life to save hers

This is a weekly go-to for me - and antidote to the dirge
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Looks like a lovely celebration of a wonderful person

Altrincham guitar shop opens one last time after owner's death Dan Hepner, described as

Celebration of "a warm, lovely human being"
BBC News - Altrincham guitar shop opens one last time after owner's death - BBC News
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Google to pay $68 million over allegations its voice assistant eavesdropped on users Class-action lawsuit alleged that Google's voice assistant illegally recorded and shared private conversations with advertisers.

Do you remember when people were saying "I think my phone is listening to me, i'm getting ads for stuff I spoke about" and people said "They arent listening to you, they're just this good at predicting your interests"?

Well, it happens they were doing exactly that.
www.cbsnews.com/news/google-...

Quilt with squares within squares intricate design and flower like motifs

'Rajah quilt' ,1841 by English female convicts as they were transported to Australia, typically for petty crimes due to poverty, sailing from Woolwich to Hobart, Tasmania. The quilt was named after the ship in which they sailed #womensart

After ICE raids... a once bustling Chicago neighbourhood has changed Businesses in Little Village - known as the

BBC News - After ICE raids... a once bustling Chicago neighbourhood has changed - BBC News
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The group bike ride for Alex Pretti is about to depart in Minneapolis, stopping at his memorial, then Renee Good’s, and finishing at the VFW. If you can join, hop on anywhere. It’s a warm 17° & sunny!

I’ve never seen this many cyclists for a group ride. ⚡️✊🏽⚡️🚲⚡️✊🏽⚡️ #RIPPretti

Autonomous cars, drones cheerfully obey prompt injection by road sign AI vision systems can be very literal readers Indirect prompt injection occurs when a bot takes input data and interprets it as a command. We've seen this problem numerous times when AI bots were fed prompts via web pages or PDFs they read. Now, academics have shown that self-driving cars and autonomous drones will follow illicit instructions that have been written onto road signs.…

ICYMI: Autonomous cars, drones cheerfully obey prompt injection by road sign

Sunken Thames barges create new Essex island for birds The National Trust describes the Northey Island project as

BBC News - Sunken Thames barges create new Essex island for birds - BBC News
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

US to send ICE agents to Winter Olympics, prompting Italian anger The US federal agency says it will not play an immigration role at February's event in Milan-Cortina.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

A bird's-eye view of a former Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp showing a wide dirt pathway flanked by parallel rows of barbed-wire fences. Groups of visitors walk along the path, surrounded by the remnants of brick structures and barracks, now reduced to foundations. Green grass contrasts with the somber history of the site, as the path leads toward a guard tower in the distance.

Auschwitz was at the end of a process. We must remember that it did not start from gas chambers.

This hatred gradually developed: from ideas, words, stereotypes & prejudice through legal exclusion, dehumanization & escalating violence... to systematic and industrial murder.

Auschwitz took time.

India–EU summit: Modi announces free trade agreement with EU The deal would forge a market of two billion people and nearly a quarter of global GDP, according to the European Commission. Follow DW for more.

www.dw.com/en/indiaeu-s...

I was asked to look at this post!

And while the story obviously has important context that’s missing from the headline - which I’ll cover obvs 😜 - what’s more important is to question why this is being posted!

And what to ask yourself when you see something like this…

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Me returning from the pub aged 18: "I'm stealing these traffic cones for the sheer fun of it." Me returning from the pub tonight aged 45: "I'm stealing these traffic cones to put them on the double yellows by my kids' school to stop people parking dangerously."