Monday briefing: Are the vanished British Museum relics the tip of the iceberg?

In today’s newsletter: As police in the UK launch an investigation into what happened to missing artefacts, an art detective explains why such thefts are so difficult to prevent

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Good morning. The British Museum is reeling from the discovery that gold jewellery, semi-precious stones and glass dating from the 15th century BC to the 19th century AD are either missing or stolen.

A senior curator, who worked at the institution for 30 years, was dramatically dismissed after the items were discovered missing. His family deny he had anything to do with the lost items.

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AGL agrees to keep Victoria’s Loy Yang A power station available until mid-2035

Deal with Victorian government includes $50m to support ‘orderly retirement’ of coal-fired plant to provide certainty to workers, the community and industry

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Australia’s Loy Yang A power station will remain available to operate until mid-2035 under an agreement signed between its owner AGL Energy and the Victorian government aimed at providing certainty to workers, the community and industry.

In a separate development, EnergyAustralia said it would shift its Mount Piper coal-fired power plant – New South Wales’s newest – to a “reserve role” to be used “only as needed” before its scheduled 2040 closure date.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: Zelenskiy welcomes ‘historic’ decision on F-16s as Moscow condemns it as ‘nuclear’ threat

Ukrainian president says decision by the Netherlands and Denmark to provide Kyiv with fighter jets is ‘powerful’ while Sergei Lavrov denounces move

• What we know on day 544 of the invasion

Russia’s defence ministry said on Monday it had stopped a Ukrainian drone attack on the Moscow region, with no casualties reported.

An attempt by Kyiv to carry out an “attack with an aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicle was thwarted” on Monday morning, Agence France-Presse reported the ministry as saying.

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Monday, August 21, 2023

Charlie Parker’s private hell

Chicken cults

As the first duck kept Margaret’s attention, the second one made its move.

City that wasted $350k on armored personnel carrier now trying to avoid using it so no one notices they wasted $350k [Followup]

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Shark nets to return to NSW beaches despite calls from councils to abolish practice

Environmentalists say nets’ bycatch unacceptable but premier Chris Minns says alternative technologies not as good a replacement

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Shark nets will be retained on New South Wales beaches despite widespread opposition to what environmentalists say is an “ineffective” safety measure.

The state’s premier, Chris Minns, confirmed that the government will install shark nets across 51 beaches from Newcastle to Wollongong in time for the summer season. The shark meshing program will run alongside other shark detection technology.

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Mr Justice Goss: Lucy Letby judge is used to making big decisions

He looked relaxed before the jury gave its verdict in the latest high-profile case he has presided over

The judge who will decide on Monday whether Lucy Letby will ever be released from prison is well-versed in making big decisions.

In 2017, Mr Justice Goss took the almost unprecedented step of deciding on the guilt of three defendants himself, having dismissed the jurors after they were approached and offered bribes as they left the court building. It was believed to be just the second time a judge had done so.

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Instead of office chair package contained rattlesnake. Would not buy again [Scary]

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G20 digital ministers sign up for Digital Public Infrastructure push

They've also thought of the children, and the poor SMEs trying to stay secure

The G20 bloc's ministers responsible for the digital economy met in India on Saturday and proposed something interesting: a Framework for Systems of Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI).…

Ecuador elections set to go to second round in vote dominated by security concerns

Luisa González and Daniel Noboa will likely appear in run-off, with assassinated candidate Fernando Villavicencio polling in third place with 16% of vote

With more than three-quarters of ballots counted, Ecuador’s election looked set to go to a second round between Luisa González, a protege of the former leftist president Rafael Correa, and Daniel Noboa, the son of one the country’s richest men.

González was tallying just over 33% support, with more than 75% of ballot boxes counted on Sunday evening, while former lawmaker Noboa was in second place with about 24% of the vote, according to figures from Ecuador’s national electoral council.

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Japan’s armed forces covered up sexual and other harassment, report shows

Most of the 1,325 cases in the self-defence forces were not reported because victims feared retribution, say experts

Japan’s military has covered up cases of sexual and other forms of harassment among members of the self-defence forces (SDF) and refused to take allegations seriously, according to a report that sheds light on widespread abuse in the armed forces.

A panel of experts formed in response to a high-profile case in 2022 said it was aware of 1,325 cases of harassment targeting women and men, adding that more than 60% of victims had not reported them.

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Lizzie Borden Museum starts fight with Lizzie Borden-themed coffee shop. Subby wondering why they haven't yet opened Lizzie Borden axe throwing bar [Amusing]

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‘Fired on like rain’: Saudi border guards accused of mass killings of Ethiopians

Report by Human Rights Watch details alleged attacks using explosive weapons and small arms on Saudi Arabia-Yemen border

Saudi border guards have been accused of killing hundreds of Ethiopians using small arms and explosive weapons in a targeted campaign that rights advocates suggest may amount to a crime against humanity.

The shocking claims are made in a detailed investigation by Human Rights Watch, which interviewed dozens of Ethiopian people who said they were attacked by border guards while they tried to cross into Saudi Arabia from Yemen.

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Gary Johns accused of ‘complete disrespect’ towards colleagues in Indigenous voice no campaign

Liberal MP Matt Kean says Warren Mundine and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price ‘will have to clean up this mess’ after spokesman’s CPAC conference comments

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No campaign spokesman Gary Johns is treating colleagues Warren Mundine and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price with “complete disrespect” and “cowardice”, the Liberal MP Matt Kean claims, following controversial comments about Indigenous communities at the CPAC conservative conference.

The health minister, Mark Butler, also criticised a comedian’s joke about Closing the Gap and suicide prevention at the conference, which is led by no campaign leader Mundine, saying such gags “cannot be tolerated”. Recent Closing the Gap data showed Indigenous suicide rates on the rise.

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GCSEs in England hit by high absence levels and mental ill health, heads say

School leaders tell of abnormal levels of pupil anxiety amid plan to lower grades back to pre-pandemic levels

High levels of persistent absence and mental ill health have undermined pupils’ GCSE results to be published later this week, headteachers have said, as education experts warn of 300,000 fewer top grades being awarded in England this year.

School leaders who spoke to the Guardian said they experienced unprecedented numbers of pupils failing to turn up or walking out in the middle of exams.

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Scientists hope weight-loss drugs could treat addiction and dementia

Medications with semaglutide such as Ozempic and Wegovy are being studied to see if they can help other conditions

They have taken the celebrity world by storm as a slimming jab and become a vital tool for managing type 2 diabetes. Now drugs such as Ozempic are being researched to look at whether they could help conditions ranging from alcohol misuse to dementia.

Ozempic, a type 2 diabetes medication, and Wegovy, which is licensed for weight loss, contain the drug semaglutide, while a similar drug, liraglutide, is available for both purposes under different brand names.

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Sunken treasure destroyed off California Coast [Sad]

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Woman injured after falling ten feet when the entrance to the Bethlehem Healing Temple Church collapsed [Ironic]

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Microsoft DNS boo-boo breaks Hotmail for users around the globe

ALSO: NYC says kthxbye to TikTok, slain Microsoft exec's wife indicted, and some ASAP patch warnings

Infosec in brief Someone at Microsoft has some explaining to do after a messed up DNS record caused emails sent from Hotmail accounts Microsoft Outlook Hotmail accounts to be rejected and directed to spam folders overnight beginning Thursday.…

First the hookah was smoking, then the guns [Murica]

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Fresh off chickening out on a fight he picked with Mark Zuckerberg, Elmo gets in argument with James Woods about Twitter not allowing blocking of accounts. Result: Elmo blocks Woods [Fail]

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Studies shows that malls may not be dying after all. That damn kid riding the escalator again might not be so lucky [Interesting]

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Tencent predicts big profits from lock-in to cloudy AI

PLUS: Lucasfilm quits Singapore ‘Sandcrawler’; China criticizes India’s tech push; Red Apple celebrates 30 years in China

Asia In Brief Tencent's chief strategy officer James Mitchell has told investors the Chinese web giant's hyperscale cloud operation is bullish on its AI-models-as-a-service (MaaS) business because customers will find migration away from it hard.…

Digging up ancient writings on the ground of Armageddon can't possibly end badly, right? [Interesting]

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Melbourne man charged with lighting fires had ducklings in his underpants, police allege

The 31 year-old has been charged with animal cruelty and lighting of open-air fires

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An alleged firebug in Melbourne’s south-east was caught with live ducklings in his underwear, police say.

The 31-year-old man of no fixed address was arrested on Sunday night after 12 fires were reported across the Frankston CBD over the weekend.

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