Suspicious package found in Bel Air. Police looking for fresh prints [News]

	[link] [17 comments]

‘A cold, calculating killer’: how the papers covered Lucy Letby’s conviction

Saturday’s newspapers dominated by jury’s verdicts after more than four weeks of deliberations

The conviction of nurse Lucy Letby for the “persistent, calculated and cold-blooded” murder of five premature boys and two newborn girls reverberates across today’s newspaper front pages, with some questioning whether she could have been stopped earlier.

The Guardian says “Britain’s worst child serial killer: nurse guilty of seven murders” alongside a large image of Letby, 33, and points to further stories including an interview with a whistleblower, who said the babies would have survived if hospital executives had acted earlier on concerns.

Continue reading...

Antioch police officers arrested over incidents including dealing in anabolic steroids, abusing civil rights, misusing the holy hand grenade [Repeat]

	[link] [3 comments]

Tokitae, the star of Miami Seaquarium, dies after half a century in captivity

The beloved orca, born into the L-pod of resident killer whales in the Pacific north-west, was awaiting release into her home waters

The whale who began her life in the cold waters of the Pacific north-west only to end up in a small enclosure at the Miami Seaquarium has died. On Friday afternoon, a social media post announced that Toki – who was also known by her performing name Lolita, and the name the Lummi tribe gave her, Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut – had died. She was believed to be 57.

A Facebook post from the Miami Seaquarium reported she died from what was believed to be a renal condition. “Toki was an inspiration to all who had the fortune to hear her story and especially to the Lummi nation that considered her family,” the Seaquarium post said. “Those of us who have had the honor and privilege to spend time with her will forever remember her beautiful spirit.”

Continue reading...

That time Paul Revere built an obelisk, and it immediately caught fire [Vintage]

	[link] [5 comments]

Russian commander promoted to rank of Captain for his battlefield analysis [Obvious]

	[link] [0 comments]

Very rare case of a used car lot facing consequences for dirty tricks -400 charges and 12 arrests so far [Spiffy]

	[link] [6 comments]

Old News: Rhode Island sucks. Today's News: Rhode Island vortex [Scary]

	[link] [2 comments]

The Merriam-Webster word of the day for August 18 is inkling, as in I took my baby to the tattoo parlor and ended up with an inkling [Amusing]

	[link] [0 comments]

Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 542 of the invasion

Russia’s possession of nuclear arms is response to threats, Lavrov says; rise in Ukraine battlefield casualties brings total close to half a million

• See all our Ukraine war coverage

Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov says Moscow’s possession of nuclear weapons protects the country from external security threats, while reminding the west of the risks of a nuclear conflict. “The possession of nuclear arms is today the only possible response to some of significant external threats to security of our country,” Lavrov said in an interview for state-owned magazine The International Affairs. Lavrov warned the US and Nato allies risk ending up in “a situation of direct armed confrontation of nuclear powers”. “We believe such a development should be prevented. That’s why we have to remind about the existence of high military and political risks and send sobering signals to our opponents,” Lavrov said.

The number of battlefield casualties in Ukraine is approaching nearly 500,000 Russian and Ukrainian soldiers, US officials have told the New York Times, marking a significant rise in the death toll this year after intense fighting in the east of the country. Russia’s military casualties are approaching 300,000, the officials claimed, with as many as 120,000 killed in action. Ukraine was said to have close to 70,000 killed and 100,000-120,000 wounded. Fierce fighting near Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine have led to significant casualties on both sides, more than doubling the number of dead since November.

Ukrainian forces could fail to retake the Russian-occupied strategic south-eastern city of Melitopol during their counteroffensive, a US official said. Melitopol has been under Russian control since March 2022 and has roads and railways used by its troops to transport supplies to areas they occupy. The US official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, was citing an intelligence report, but the prediction is largely in line with Washington’s view that Ukraine’s counteroffensive is progressing slower than expected. The official added that despite the report and limited progress towards Melitopol, the US believed it was still possible to change the gloomy outlook.

One person was killed and two injured as a result of Russian shelling of a village near the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, according to the prosecutor general’s office said. Some private houses were damaged in the attack, but no further details were provided. In a separate case, four people were injured after Russia shelled a residential area of the city of Chasiv Yar, located in the Donetsk region close to Bakhmut.

Russia is continuing its crackdown against critics at home and abroad, with authorities shut down prominent rights group the Sakharov Centre, saying it had illegally hosted conferences and exhibitions. Critics say the group is the latest target of the Kremlin’s battle against liberal-leaning organisations that challenge the state. Separately, a Russian court has placed the co-chair of independent election monitoring group Golos in pre-trial detention until at least 17 October. The ruling comes as Russia gears up for regional elections next month. Moscow also announced sanctions against international criminal court prosecutor Karim Khan, who in March issued a warrant against Putin accusing him of having “illegally deported” thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia.

Kyiv has welcomed a US decision to let Denmark and the Netherlands hand F-16 fighter jets over to Ukraine once its pilots are trained to use them. A US official confirmed Denmark and the Netherlands had been given “formal assurances” for the jet transfer. Training by an 11-nation coalition is to begin this month, and officials hope pilots will be ready by early 2024. Ukrainian defence minister Oleksii Reznikov hailed “great news from our friends in the United States”.

Russian forces have destroyed Ukrainian drones targeting Moscow and its Black Sea fleet. Russia’s defence ministry said its air force had downed a Ukrainian drone over the capital early Friday morning. Footage showed damage to an expo centre on the Krasnopresnenskaya embankment of the Moskva River, 100 metres from Moscow city.

Ukrainian prime minister Denys Shmyhal hailed “important and constructive” talks on grain exports with his Romanian counterpart Marcel Ciolacu during a visit to Bucharest. Ciolacu said Romania wanted to double the amount of Ukrainian grain transiting his country to 4m tonnes. The talks came a day after the first civilian cargo ship sailed through the Black Sea from Ukraine to Istanbul in defiance of a Russian blockade.

Continue reading...

Covid sceptics rake in hundreds of thousands in donations to "research government covid policy," manage to spend most of it on themselves. Subby suspects they're vaccinated as well [Awkward]

	[link] [8 comments]

Bye bye brutalism, hello Instagrammers: inside Geelong’s spectacular $140m arts centre

Australia’s newest and largest regional arts centre features malleable theatres, Indigenous art and spaces especially designed to get your camera out

• Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email

When Joel McGuinness was brought on to oversee the redevelopment of the Geelong Arts Centre, and subsequently run the venue as its CEO and creative director, he wanted to change more than the 1980s building’s brutalist aesthetics. He wanted to redefine its purpose, to open it up to people who may have thought they didn’t belong.

“I really wanted to challenge the notion of black box theatres that turn their back on the world,” he says. “To change the relationship between the art and the audience. Because when the baby boomers die out, maybe the institutions as we know them will die out too.”

Continue reading...

Domestic violence perpetrators are weaponising subpoenas and advocates want Australia’s law changed to stop it

Albanese government consulting on need to stop former partners legally accessing victims’ counselling notes, medical details and addresses

• Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast

Domestic violence perpetrators are weaponising subpoenas from family court proceedings to gain access to their victims’ personal information, including counselling notes, medical details and addresses.

In child custody battles, parties can request up to five subpoenas, which are almost automatically issued by the courts. The information can be given to the abuser even if it will not be used in court.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Staff members of the Archdiocese of Cologne: Bless us, Father, for we have sinned. We've been trying to access porn sites here at work. Priests: What, you too? [Awkward]

	[link] [1 comments]

Photoshop this marbleman [Photoshop]

	[link] [11 comments]

Florida woman gives library the finger. Maybe not the finger, but a finger. Walter Sobchak nods knowingly [Scary]

	[link] [6 comments]

Softbank snaps up Vision Fund's stake in Arm ahead of IPO

Brit chip ship's sales may or may not be quite as rosy as hoped, judging from draft paperwork

Softbank has reportedly acquired the 25 percent stake its Vision Fund holds in Arm, less than a month before the British processor designer's hotly anticipated initial public offering (IPO).…

Alabama once again halts licensing of marijuana businesses. It's like they don't really want to legalize the legal [Dumbass]

	[link] [3 comments]

As paediatricians raised suspicions that a nurse was murdering neonates, the CEO of the hospital took decisive action and demanded they apologize to her [Sad]

	[link] [4 comments]

Commonwealth Games: Victoria to pay $380m in compensation after cancelling 2026 event

Premier Daniel Andrews made the shock announcement Victoria would not host the games after a forecast cost blowout

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates
• Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast

The Victorian government has agreed to pay Commonwealth Games bodies $380m in compensation after cancelling the 2026 event.

The premier, Daniel Andrews, made the shock announcement last month that Victoria would not host the Games as planned due to concerns they would far exceed initial cost expectations.

Continue reading...

Bored Ape Yacht Club creator to block OpenSea in fight over payments

Yuga Labs owns Bored Ape Yacht Club, CryptoPunks, Meebits, and other NFT series. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Two of the biggest names in the NFT space are clashing over the future of how the tokens’ creators get paid. Yuga Labs, the company behind Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks, said today that it would block the ability to trade its newer NFTs on OpenSea by February 2024. The move is meant to protest OpenSea’s decision to stop collecting royalties on behalf of NFT creators — a huge blow to Yuga’s business.

One of the big promises of NFTs was that their original creator would get a cut every time they were resold. For companies like Yuga, which saw explosive prices on its Bored Ape collection for a time, those royalty fees added up to tens of millions of dollars (a blog post suggests the number was $35 million for Bored Apes alone just...

Continue reading…

Spas are offering hydration IV's in Phoenix without all that pesky drinking [Murica]

	[link] [2 comments]

Disney+'s Percy Jackson Show Gets a Release Date and Teaser

These days, it seems like Disney+ has been deleting more shows than it’s adding. But yes, it is still adding them, and one of the biggest coming later this year is Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Based on the hit book series by Rick Riordan, the show follows a boy who finds out that he’s the son of a God.

Read more...

More proof that Bigfoot is real ...and likes peanut butter (possible nsfw content on page) [Facepalm]

	[link] [2 comments]

Need a decent dining spot in Ottawa? Microsoft suggested a food bank

Azure giant blames human error, not AI – up to you to swallow that

​​Microsoft took down an article from its sprawling web empire that recommended travelers visit the Ottawa Food Bank on an empty stomach as a tourist attraction in the Canadian capital.…