Definitely a partnership of convenience. As a group with prominent historical ties to National Socialists, it’s wise to limit their military power. OTOH, they have been extremely effective in fighting Putin’s army.
Because nobody learned anything from operation Gladio. Once the war is over these guys will be doing terror attacks all over Europe with weapons they stashed and the US will act all surprised again.
Seems just like an ideological alignment… why not supporting them then?
This makes me believe Ukraine it’s running out of grinder meat, for the US to ally with their ideological peers openly beside the appearances of “American freedom” being so important and being publicly condemned for it.
Why wouldn’t you? They are prisoners it’s better if they fight in the war than having them rotting in their cells… I believe it’s more human to offer them a way to redeem themselves and do something good for their country…
Gulf stream is ultimately a product of the rotating earth -sun system. It will be there but might shift around. Would suck a fat one for GB and the like.
I’m assuming now that the Post Office is under criminal investigation for fraud, the mutual assistance act between UK and Australia might be used to compel her instead? Especially considering Vennels pointed the blame at her.
Assuming, of course, that the investigators deem her an important cog in the scandal too.
The Post Office’s most senior in-house lawyer when it fought the landmark case brought by Alan Bates and other sub-postmasters has been challenged by BBC News in Australia, after she refused to appear before the public inquiry into the Horizon scandal.A BBC team questioned Jane MacLeod, who was the Post Office’s general counsel between 2015 and 2019, while she was walking her dog outside her home in Sydney.She replied with “no comment” when asked why she wasn’t attending.
She had been due to give evidence this week.“It’s unsurprising, but it speaks volumes,” says Jo Hamilton, one of the wrongly convicted former sub-postmasters.
Last month Sir Wyn Williams, chair of the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry, revealed that while Ms MacLeod had submitted a witness statement, she had decided not to give oral evidence, despite being asked to do so.The inquiry heard that the reason, offered by Ms MacLeod’s lawyers, was that given the passage of time, she considered her written statement was the best evidence she could offer.Since then, Ms MacLeod has not responded to BBC requests for comment.Sir Wyn said that even before seeing her written evidence, he’d decided that Ms MacLeod was “an important witness” from whom he wished to hear in person.He added that despite the offer to have her travel and accommodation expenses covered, Ms MacLeod “has made it clear that she will not co-operate with the inquiry by providing oral evidence”, either in person or via video-link.
However, Sir Wyn explained that his options to force her to attend were limited because she lived abroad.Under the Inquiries Act 2005, witnesses can be legally compelled to give evidence – but this only applies to UK nationals.In her written statement to the inquiry, Ms MacLeod says: “I am very aware that the decisions in which I was involved during my time at Post Office Limited regarding the group litigation and the investigation of Horizon’s performance and robustness have had implications for many sub-postmasters and their families.”She adds: “I regret that this has happened and apologise to those so affected for the adverse outcomes they have suffered.”
Jane MacLeod was the general counsel at the Post Office covering the period when it fought sub-postmasters in court in the landmark litigation led by Alan Bates.Giving evidence last month, the former boss of the Post Office, Paula Vennells named Jane MacLeod as one of the senior executives she had trusted to give her information – when asked by Sam Stein KC to list those who had let her down.Ms Vennells also recounted asking Ms MacLeod why they were proceeding with the court case against sub-postmasters, which she said had felt “completely wrong”.
She told the inquiry that, after first suggesting the Post Office would most likely settle the cases, Ms MacLeod’s view had been that the court case was “the only way to solve this”.Earlier this year, a BBC investigation revealed documents showing the Post Office had evidence in 2017 that losses could be due to errors in the Horizon IT system or remote tampering.In March, in response to the story, Jane MacLeod gave a statement to the BBC saying that she supported the ongoing public inquiry into the Post Office scandal and was assisting it.
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Rishi Sunak has vowed to “fight for every vote” as he called an early UK general election for Thursday 4 July.In a surprise announcement, the PM said he would go to the polls this summer as he bids to win a fifth term in office for the Conservatives.It overturned expectations of an autumn election, which might have given his party a better chance of closing the gap with Labour.Sir Keir Starmer said it was “time for change” away from “Tory chaos”.
There was confusion in at least some parts of the Conservative Party about why Mr Sunak decided to call the general election sooner than was widely expected, the BBC’s political correspondent Henry Zeffman reported.
In a TV statement shortly afterwards, Sir Keir argued Tory “chaos” had damaged the economy, and a vote for his party represented a chance to bring political stability.Adding it was “time for change”, he criticised the Conservatives’ management of public services, the NHS and record on tackling crime.
SNP leader John Swinney, who took over as Scotland’s first minister earlier this month, said the election was a chance to “remove the Tory government and put Scotland first”.Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said it would be a chance to “kick Rishi Sunak’s appalling Conservative government out of office”, whilst Greens co-leader Carla Denyer said her party was aiming to elect “at least four” new MPs.And Reform UK leader Richard Tice said the Tories had “broken Britain” but Labour would “bankrupt Britain,” and only his party would offer “common sense policies that can now save Britain”.
Mr Sunak’s statement is the start of weeks of general election campaigning for the 650 seats in Parliament.It will be fought on the first set of new constituency boundaries since 2010, redrawn to reflect population changes since then, and will be the first where voters have to show ID.The Royal Family has postponed engagements “which may appear to divert attention or distract from the election campaign”, Buckingham Palace said, adding that the King and Queen sent their “sincere apologies” to those affected.
At the last election in 2019, Boris Johnson won an 80-seat majority after calling a snap poll as he fought to get his Brexit withdrawal deal through Parliament.It was followed by an extraordinarily volatile period in British politics, as the country was hit by the Covid pandemic and Mr Johnson was forced to resign, amid a cabinet revolt over a series of scandals.His successor Liz Truss lasted 49 days in the job before she quit, after a market backlash to her tax and spending plans announced at a hastily-arranged “mini Budget” in September 2022.This is the first general election since 2015 that has not required a vote in Parliament to approve the date, since legislation fixing the time between polls was reversed two years ago.
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Ofcom basically washed their hands of informing people about this, so no-one knew about it anyway. When the analog TV switch off happened, there were adverts everywhere but not for this even though I would argue this is an exceptionally bigger deal
My guess is that this is going to be a guy with an odd axe to grind sort of like in Japan when Abe was shot. There’s still plenty of political assassinations but they’re usually more sophisticated than “Walk up and start firing away.”
He’s a controversial leader, obviously, but the assassin didn’t seem like a professional.
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Click here to see the summaryHis breakout role was in BBC TV drama Boys from the Blackstuff, where he portrayed Yosser Hughes, a character who struggled - and often failed - to cope with unemployment in Liverpool. Hill, who was from Manchester, was due to return to TV screens in series two of The Responder, a BBC drama starring Martin Freeman, which begins airing on Sunday. Lindsay Salt, director of BBC Drama, paid tribute to him, saying: “Bernard Hill blazed a trail across the screen, and his long-lasting career filled with iconic and remarkable roles is a testament to his incredible talent.” In Boys from the Blackstuff, Hill drew praise for his gritty portrayal of Yosser Hughes, an intense and memorable character who pleaded “Gizza job” as he sought work. Another of Hill’s memorable BBC TV performances came in the 2015 drama series Wolf Hall, adapted from Hilary Mantel’s book about the court of Henry VIII. Other roles in his decades-long career included the 1976 BBC TV series I, Claudius, an appearance in 1982’s Gandhi, Shirley Valentine in 1989, The Scorpion King in 2002 and 2008 Tom Cruise film Valkyrie. — Saved 60% of original text.
Probably because some n-eyes (is n still 5?) nation state "we're the good guys, honest" protocol insisted that there be one. And if it wasn't that it was probably some misguided attempt to permit remote maintenance.
The former hiding as the latter is not impossible either.
My guess is it’s much simpler: some genius at Fujitsu thought it would be helpful if they could remotely log in to machines for support reasons. They (unreasonably) didn’t want to send people onsite and they (reasonably) didn’t think Post Office workers would be able to resolve issues over the phone.
Six years later, an exiled Chechen commander, Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, was murdered in a busy Berlin park in eerily similar circumstances, shot by a man on a bike with a silenced Glock 26 in broad daylight.
In a recent interview with US TV talk show host Tucker Carlson, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin appeared to confirm reports that his country was seeking the release of the “patriot” Krasikov in exchange for American journalist Evan Gershkovich.
If President Putin’s price stays the same, it means the most viable way of securing the release of the detained Americans would be a complex prisoner swap for Krasikov needing the cooperation of Germany, the US and Russia.
Ulrich Lechte, who sits on the German government’s foreign affairs committee, told the BBC that President Putin’s desire to retrieve Krasikov is “a clear admission of guilt and shows how unscrupulously and unchallenged Russia has been able to act in our country”.
“Its official remit is counter-terrorism operations at home, but it has in many ways returned to its original roots, as a unit tasked with covert ‘wet-work’ - sabotage and assassination - abroad,” Putin historian and Russian security expert Mark Galeotti told the BBC.
Krasikov personally met Putin at a target shooting range while serving with Vympel, owned a BMW and Porsche, and travelled for work regularly, according to an interview his brother-in-law gave The Insider.
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