Wherever You Go
by Pat Zietlow Miller (author) and Eliza Wheeler (artist)
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
2015, 32 pages, 10.2 x 10.2 x 0.5 inches
A hare packs its bags and takes a bicycle tour in this lovely rhyming picture book. Donning its jaunty chapeau and dapper pea coat, a hare cycles through forests and a covered bridge, past a paddlewheeled seaside inn, and into the evening lights of the big city. Exploring the neon-lit metropolis, it rides atop a trolley, pedals past a jolly carnival, and cruises over Seussian suspension bridges. Continuing on its way, it journeys through an arid desert, over indigo mountains, and back home again.
Utilizing pale yellows, greens, and pinks, and drawn with an incredibly thin line, Wherever You Go's deep focus art fills every page with an expansive landscape. Little eyes could get lost for hours searching out minute details. Owls ride in baskets, mice chug along on tugboats, and alligators fish near ponds, and lazy afternoons can be spent examining the intricate scenery. A liltingly poetic storyline about traveling and new experiences is a delightful metaphor for life's journey. - S. Deathrage
AFTER DINNER GAMES - 40 ICE-BREAKING GAMES TO REV UP YOUR NEXT DINNER PARTY
After Dinner Games: 40 of the Greatest After Dinner Games
by Jenny Lynch (editor)
Lagoon Books
1998, 96 pages, 4.8 x 6 x 0.5 inches
This pocket-sized book is for that time when things get awkward. That time when conversation has dried up. When you have new friends over for dinner and you're stuck sitting there, clearing your throat, having used up all of your conversation starters. That's when you need a book like this.
As the tagline explains, After Dinner Games offers 40 of the best games for these post-dinner situations. It's great to either break the ice or to break out with old friends! For example, if you really want to get personal with your guests, try the game Head To Head, which is when two players carry an orange placed between their foreheads. But if acquaintances are involved, you could start with the game Botticelli. Essentially, one player thinks of a famous person (dead or alive), announces the first letter of their name, and everyone else tries to guess who it is. Safe, fun, and no moving involved.
This book is packed with old-fashioned graphics that make you want to drink an Old Fashioned while playing the games. And the simple explanations of the rules allow a smooth transition from dinner to fun. To avoid a dinner party drought, keep this book handy. Not only will the ideas in this book keep your party alive, they will make it thrive. Calling all dinner partiers, this is your book! - Caleb Murphy
Books That Belong On Paper first appeared on the web as Wink Books and was edited by Carla Sinclair. Sign up here to get the issues a week early in your inbox.
The Cabinet: Sloe Gin [ 03-Feb-26 4:12pm ]
~ SLOE GIN ~
English gin-based fruit liqueur / 25-28% ABV / c£20-£32 for 700ml
Friends with: gin, naturally enough. Also Scotch, calvados, dark rum, rye. Honey is a great sweetener and Drambuie a nice partner. Apricot brandy and other stone fruits. Lemon, lime, orange. Champagne.
The blackthorn tree is a common sight across rural England — common for a particularly English reason. As the rural reformer William Cobbett noted in The Woodlands: A Treatise (1825), in addition to making fine walking sticks, flail swingles and shillelaghs, the blackthorn is an excellent hedge. It's hardy, it's spiky, and it's dense, a kind of natural barbed wire — formidable enough to discourage trespassers, be they animal, human or even machine. Blackthorns can apparently puncture tractor tyres. "Better the bramble than the blackthorn, but better the blackthorn than the devil," says the proverb. It grows fast, too, entangling in upon itself by means of voracious suckers. It's nature's way of saying: "Get the fuck off my land."
The blackthorn was therefore a popular choice among the new class of "landowners" (ponder the word for a moment) created the Enclosure Acts of the 18th and 19th century. From mediaeval times, much of our landscape had been held in common; peasant farmers had the customary right to gather firewood and graize their cows more or less where they pleased. After the enclosures, this way of life was no more: larger tenant farmers, local gentry and urban speculators acquired the legal means to keep them all out. As the great poet of the Enclosures, John Clare, wrote in The Mores:
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedMulberry-bushes where the boy would run To fill his hands with fruit are grubbed and done And hedgrow-briars - flower-lovers overjoyed Came and got flower-pots - these are all destroyed And sky-bound mores in mangled garbs are left Like mighty giants of their limbs bereft Fence now meets fence in owners' little bounds Of field and meadow large as garden grounds In little parcels little minds to please With men and flocks imprisoned ill at ease
Even with the benefit of two and a half centuries, I still don't think it's widely enough appreciated that the classic English landscape, with its little parcels of fields, its hedgerows and fences dry stone walls — the landscape that for Stevens, the butler in Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day, "possesses a quality that the landscapes of other nations, however more superficially dramatic, inevitably fail to possess" — is not some age-old arrangement. It is the fairly recent result of internal colonisation by deed, title and Parliamentary act; avarice mandated by force; the original enshittification. Blackthorn is merely the scar tissue.
Still, nature has its ways of giving back. The blackthorn bush acknowledges its part in this war on the commons in the form of its melancholy blossom, a pretty white spray of white flowers that usually appear in the cold of late March when they're easily mistaken for snow. Hence the term "blackthorn winter"; a final reprise of coldness before the spring arrives. It's always darkest before the dawn.
And then, come Autumn, the blackthorn bush bears its bitter fruit, the sloe — a kind of plum. Indeed, the ancestor of all plums. It's not much to eat; it's no mulberry and no boys ever ran to fill their hands with them. Should you bloody your smock with its juice, it will stain for ever. But if you leave these bare-black bullets macerating in gin with sugar, you're rewarded with a lovely rich, woodsy liqueur that has been an English mainstay since, well, since the time that landowners started planting blackthorn bushes everywhere. It's dark and sweet and bitter, almost a native amaro — though from what I can make out, it seems to have been prized as a domestic alternate to port (a drupe dupe, no less!). Port would have been heavily taxed; whereas gin was cheap and sloes were just there for the scrumping. Indeed, it's really not that hard, still, to make your own sloe gin — though I'm afraid you'll have to revisit this post with the first frosts, which is the time to harvest sloes.
And I can't help wondering if sloe gin represents a small draft of compensation — however meagre — to the enclosed. The slow strangulation of the rural poor during the Enclosures created a new class of wage labourers, pushed off their native soil and forced to look for work elsewhere — either in the cities, or further away in the New World. The families whod stayed would become the new proletariat, easy prey for the owners of the new factories and mills. And it's a historical coincidence that this internal migration coincided, more or less, with the London gin craze, the mother of all moral panics (and a great episode of In Our Time). It's probably a bit ahistorical to say that the one influenced the other; but it's not such a stretch to imagine a disgruntled wage labourer arriving in London from his enshittified village and finding consolation in gin, the harsh new urban stimulant. Maybe he had a couple of sloes in his pocket; maybe the lightning zag of opportunity struck; maybe he made it taste a little more like home.
For there is a weird alchemy in the fact that this barbed wire fruit should have such an affinity with gin, the spirit of melancholy and mayhem. Indeed, what those early landowners may not have realised is the blackthorn is magic. The blackthorn was, supposedly, where the fairies lived; blackthorns were haunted by the ghosts of witches; it was a blackthorn that pricked Sleeping Beauty; blackthorn helps you see beyond negatives to opportunity; blackthorns that marked the boundaries not merely of property but of worlds.
To think! All this is there in the principle ingredient of the Alabama Slammer. But the poets have long been alive to these mysteries. Here is a poem about sloe by the Cumbrian poet and sea trout fisherman, Tom Rawling — sometimes referred to as the "John Clare of the Lakes". It's a response to Seamus Heaney's own poem about sloe gin, equally stirring — though I feel this one suits our mood a little better. I like how the blackthorn pierces the skin of the narrator; and the narrator then pierces the skin of the fruit; and I suppose in turn, the elixir of this bloody transfusion pierces the consciousness of the poet and time is distilled for a moment or two.
Sloe Gin
by Tom Rawling (1916-1996)
for Seamus Heaney
Let the first hard frost
expose the spiny twigs,
reveal the bare-black fruit.
Reach through jutting thorns
for the blue-hazed sloes,
ignore the blood on your wrist.
Needle prick to the hard stone,
watch their transfusion seep
through the gin. Each day
an agitation of the jar,
and after many days of alchemy,
decant this ruby in your glass
to taste silk-sliding fire
of frost and thorns
and bitter fruit.
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Netflix is back with another livestream production guaranteed to excite K-POP fans worldwide. The streamer has announced that BTS will be performing live on Netflix. It marks the band's first performance after almost four years — the members took a hiatus to complete South Korea's mandatory military service.
The live concert will air on Saturday, March 21, one day after BTS releases their new album Arirang and will be aptly titled BTS The Comeback Live | Arirang. The show will physically take place in Seoul's Gwanghwamun Square and stream live at 8PM KST/7 AM ET/4 AM ET. Yes, viewers in the US will have to choose between a really early Saturday or a very late Friday night. Alternatively, you can skip out on any potential livestream glitches and likely watch it later (or catch the K-Pop group on their upcoming world tour).
Plus, come Friday, March 27, Netflix will be releasing BTS: The Return, a documentary all about the making of Arirang. As Netflix puts it: "The film offers rare behind-the-scenes access as the group comes back together and charts an unprecedented path forward together after a nearly four-year hiatus."
Netflix has leaned further into livestreaming over the last few years — though the BTS concert is arguably their biggest coup. Livestreams have included everything from reality shows to sports, with some serious infrastructure issues along the way. Here's hoping the BTS concert goes off without a hitch.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/the-first-bts-concert-in-over-three-years-will-stream-live-on-netflix-in-march-155428505.html?src=rss
If you look at the press releases and breathless commentary around the recent acquisition of xAI by SpaceX, you might think we're witnessing a tectonic shift in technological destiny. A $1.25 trillion "mega-company" is born, poised to reshape artificial intelligence, space infrastructure, satellite internet, and possibly the fate of humanity itself. That narrative, enthusiastically repeated across headlines, serves a purpose: it frames a somewhat messy corporate consolidation as inevitable progress. But let's take a closer look and separate actual substance from Silicon Valley myth-making. A mega-deal that's really an identity crisis At its core, this acquisition solves one problem: xAI needed…
This story continues at The Next Web
Or just read more coverage about: SpaceX
So for years we pointed out how the trend of news websites killing off their comment section (usually because they were too cheap or lazy to creatively manage them) was counterproductive.
One, it killed off a lot of local community value and engagement created within your own properties. Two, it outsourced anything vaguely resembling functional conversation with your community — and a lot of additional impressions and engagement — to generally shitty and badly run companies like Facebook.
That not only made public discourse worse, it ignored that the public comment section (and the correction and accountability for errors that sometimes appeared there) were helpful for the journalistic process and ultimately, the public interest.
Anyway, more than a decade later and Ben Whitelaw from Everything in Moderation (and Mike's co-host on the Ctrl-Alt-Speech podcast as well as a former editor at the Times of London in charge of the paper's user comment section) notes that many websites and editors have had second thoughts.
A growing number of websites, burned from an unhealthy relationship with Facebook (a company too large and incompetent to function), are restoring their online comment sections, looking to automation to help with moderation, and are trying to rekindle functional, online discourse.
He does a nice job pointing out many of the benefits of on-site public comment sections that were ignored by editors a decade ago as they rushed to relieve themselves of the responsibility of trying:
"Most journalists whose articles face criticism below the line may be surprised by the following statement: people who post a comment are more likely to return to the site and be loyal to the brand, even if the comment isn't glowing praise."
When editors, circa 2010-2015, announced they were killing their comment sections, it was usually accompanied with some form of gibberish about how the decision was made because they just really "valued conversation" or wanted to "build better relationships."
Sometimes newsroom managers would be slightly more candid in acknowledging they just didn't give enough of a shit to try very hard, in part because they felt news comments were just wild, untamable beasts, outside of the laws of physics and man, and irredeemable at best. Often, this assault on the comment section went hand in hand with editors hostile to the public generally (see: the New York Times' still criticized 2017 decision to eliminate the role of Public Editor.)
The rush to vilify and eliminate the comment section ignored, as Ben notes, that a subscription to news outlets doesn't just have to provide access to journalism, it can feature participation in journalism. As an online writer for decades, I've seen every insult known to man; at the same time I've routinely seen comment insight that either taught me something new or helped me correct errors in my reporting that both I and my editors missed.
The obliteration of the comment section threw that baby out with the bath water. Facebook comments are, if you haven't noticed, a homogenized shit hole full of bots, rage, and bile that undermines connection and any effort at real conversation. These sorts of badly run systems are also more easily gamed by bad actors (like, say, authoritarians using culture war agitprop to confuse the electorate and take power).
More localized on-site comments are, as Ben notes, potentially part of our path out of the modern information dark ages:
"Within the shifting environment that digital publishers have found themselves in, it's vital to reckon with the needs of news-consuming audiences beyond timely information. People are eager to connect and have real dialogue about topics that inform their lives. Comment sections need to change, but I think they can serve a vital role."
Of course, it's hard to repair ye olde comment section when modern journalism itself is suffering from so much institutional rot. But you've got to start somewhere. And rekindling a smaller, highly localized relationship with your regular visitors is as good of a place to start as any.
Trump has prioritized fossil fuel companies over consumers, hitting the lowest-income families hardest
Donald Trump promised to cut energy prices by 50%. Instead, average electricity prices over the past year have risen by about 6.7%, while natural gas prices have increased by 10.8%. Energy prices are influenced by many factors beyond any president's direct control, including market conditions, weather-driven demand, regional infrastructure constraints, and the rapid growth of energy-intensive data centers that are driving new system costs. Policy choices do not determine prices on their own, but they do shape market outcomes, and the direction of this administration's energy policy has been clear.
From his first days in office, President Trump made clear that his energy agenda would prioritize fossil fuel producers over consumers. His administration moved to expand US liquefied natural gas exports, increasing exposure to volatile global markets. At the same time, it froze wind power projects that provide some of the cheapest new electricity, intervened to keep costly coal plants running, and backed the elimination of energy-efficiency tax credits that lower household energy bills.
Mark Wolfe is executive director of National Energy Assistance Directors Association, co-director of the Center on Energy Poverty and Climate and adjunct faculty at the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy at George Washington University
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More from a press release issued by Yamaha:
Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing's Cooper Webb bounces back with a clutch Houston Supercross victory to keep title hopes alive.
After Anaheim 2, it was palpable that Cooper Webb could feel his championship hopes slipping away. The pressure was on, but few riders respond to pressure like Webb. One week later, the Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing rider was standing on top of the podium at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas, delivering a clutch victory at the first Monster Energy AMA Supercross Triple Crown event of the season.
"It feels amazing," Webb said. "It's been a really tough month - mentally, physically, and emotionally… It's never over, like I said last week. I thought it was a nail in the coffin, but that's why I'm proud of myself. It's a Cooper Webb move right there, to come back a week later and put myself in position to win."
Cooper Webb (1) at Houston. Photo courtesy Yamaha
Second on the all-time Triple Crown win list with six victories, Webb is no stranger to success with the three-race format. In the opening moto, he got a solid top-five start and fought his way to a fourth-place finish. He backed that up with another strong start to the second moto in fourth, fighting all the way to the end and crossing the line second to put him in contention for the overall victory.
The final moto nearly unraveled early. Webb was fifth on the opening lap when a mistake after the finish-line jump dropped him back to eighth. He quickly recovered to seventh and then launched a charge around the halfway point, making his way through to third in just a couple of laps. Calm under pressure, Webb held the position to the checkered flag, securing the overall victory with a 4-2-3 score and earning his 31st-career Supercross win. It was a championship-caliber ride that gave Webb's title defense a much-needed boost, and he leaves Texas fifth in the standings, just 17 points off the lead.
Cooper Weeb and his family at Houston. Photo courtesy Yamaha.
"Qualifying went a lot better, a lot smoother, and then it was just a very consistent, solid night of racing," Webb said, looking back on the day. "I rode really well all night and put myself in a good situation. The last one got a little hairy. I made a big mistake on the finish line jump on the first lap, and got pushed back. Then I made some good passes and put myself in position to get the win. It's a sigh of relief for myself and the team. I'm just motivated to keep this feeling going."
His teammate Justin Cooper continued to make progress, even if the results didn't show on paper. In the first moto, he was 12th after the start and made his way to ninth before the halfway mark, where he would finish. The New Yorker got a much better start to the second moto, slotting in fifth behind Webb. It was a multi-rider fight with Cooper battling for position, ultimately moving into fourth and holding off challenges to finish there.
Another difficult start in the final race of the evening saw Cooper get pushed wide and in 16th after the opening lap. Undeterred, he put his head down and steadily worked his way through to 12th to end the night ninth overall with a 9-4-12 score.
Justin Cooper (32) at Houston. Photo courtesy Yamaha
"It was a tough day overall, but we learned a lot today, and we can take a lot of positives going into the next few races," Cooper said. "I feel like this race went way better than the previous one, and there were improvements. I've just got to fine-tune some areas and will be ready to go racing again."
"It was a good day overall," said Rich Simmons, Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing's 450 Team Manager. "We had press day yesterday, and we found a few things with the bike that we could improve on and made some changes today. With this being the Triple Crown, it's important to be consistent, and Webb's the king of consistency. He rode his butt off. That last moto, after landing on the back side of the finish and coming through to third - it was a clutch performance. Justin got a good start in there, and he skimmed the whoops pretty much all day, so big improvements on his side, too. It was a much-needed win for the team, and we'll move on to the next one."
The team heads to Glendale, Arizona, next weekend for Round 5 of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship and the Monster Energy SMX World Championship series at State Farm Stadium on February 7.
In 250SX, Deegan Delivers a Triple Crown Sweep in Houston.
Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing's Haiden Deegan earns his first Triple Crown sweep and makes it three victories in a row to extend his 250SX West Championship lead.
In 2023, a 17-year-old Haiden Deegan made his Monster Energy AMA Supercross debut in Houston, Texas. Three years later, the Californian returned to NRG Stadium as a five-time Monster Energy SMX World Championship titleholder—and left with another emphatic victory to further strengthen his 250SX West title defense.
After earning fastest qualifier honors for the third time this season, Deegan grabbed the holeshot in the opening moto and controlled the race from the front, remaining unchallenged to take the win. In the second moto, he got a top-five start and wasted no time charging forward, moving into third on the opening lap before taking the lead with four laps to go. The result put him firmly in control of the overall heading into the final race of the night.
Haiden Deegan (1) at Houston. Photo courtesy Yamaha.
In Moto 3, Deegan got another strong start, slotting into third behind teammate Max Anstie. He made the pass for second four laps into the moto, and took over the lead on the following lap. From there, he managed the race up front to complete a perfect evening in Houston, earning his first-career Triple Crown sweep and his 10th victory in the 250SX class. The reigning 250SX West Champion now heads to Round 4 riding a three-race win streak and a 19-point advantage in the standings.
"Yeah, tonight was another perfect day, so that was awesome," said Deegan. "Being P1 in qualifying was huge. It was a Triple Crown, so qualifying is pretty much a heat race. I had a good gate pick and rocketed out to a holeshot in that first race, and kind of set the tone. Then, the next two, I was able to get a pretty good start around the top three and get to the lead. Going 1-1-1 on the night for my first ever triple crown sweep - that's cool."
Haiden Deegan (1) at Houston. Photo courtesy Yamaha.
It was a challenging start to the first Triple Crown of the season for Anstie, but the British rider showed poise and ended the evening on a high note. After going down in the first moto and charging from the back to finish 10th, Anstie rebounded in Moto 2, moving from 15th on the opening lap to sixth at the checkered flag. In the final moto, he got a great start and slotted into second, where he ran until being passed by Deegan, but later reclaimed the position with a pass on Max Vohland. His 10-6-2 score earned him sixth overall and moved him back into second in the championship standings.
"It was a tough night, but the last moto was better," Anstie said. "I went down in the first one and came out 10th, then in the second moto, I got a bad start and got to sixth. The last one, I had a decent start and rode around in second. It's not my best work, but we'll go to work this week and come back swinging in Phoenix."
Haiden Deegan (1) and Max Anstie (61) at Houston. Photo courtesy Yamaha.
Michael Mosiman had a strong start to the Triple Crown in Houston, but would later face challenges. He was sixth in the opening moto and quickly worked his way to fourth by Lap 2, where he would finish. Unfortunately, the second moto saw the Californian go down on the opening lap and rejoin at the back of the field. He charged forward in the latter half of the race to finish 14th. Then in the final moto, Mosiman got a solid start in fifth but dropped back to ninth early and ultimately finished eighth. His 4-14-8 score secured eighth overall on the night, placing him third in the championship standings.
"It was a tough night in Houston," said Mosiman. "It started out solid in qualifying and the first main event, but in the second race, I fell early and struggled to get the bike started. I was able to work my way back some, but that mistake was costly. Then the last moto, I struggled to find a flow. Eighth overall was not the night I was hoping for, but there is a lot to learn from tonight, and I will make better decisions going forward. That's how progress is made."
Michael Mosiman (23) at Houston. Photo courtesy Yamaha
With two rounds remaining before the 250SX East region kicks off, Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing continues to enjoy a stellar start to the 250SX West season. The team has claimed victories at all four rounds, with all three riders currently sitting inside the top three in the championship standings.
"It was a great night for the entire team, winning all three classes," said Wil Hahn, Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing's 250 Team General Manager. "Everyone deserves this after all the hard work we put in. We've got a couple more rounds of West before heading East, and we're in a great spot in the championship. We're going to keep working to keep this going."
Next weekend, the team heads to Glendale, Arizona, for Round 5 of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship and the Monster Energy SMX World Championship series at State Farm Stadium on February 7.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
More from a press release issued by Honda HRC:
Hunter Lawrence claims career-first 450 Triple Crown race win, finishes second overall.
・Regroups in the last two races after a crash in race 1
・Australian reduces championship gap by half, to just four points
The first Triple Crown race of the 2026 season, held at the domed NRG stadium in Houston, was a positive one for Honda HRC Progressive, as Hunter Lawrence earned his third consecutive runner-up overall result, finishing just one point shy of victory in a format that has not been friendly to him in the past. This is by far the best beginning to an AMA Supercross series of the Australian's young 450SX career, and the Texas performance reduced his gap to championship-leader Eli Tomac by half, from eight points to just four. Lawrence continues to close in on his first premier-class win, with confidence building each weekend.
Hunter Lawrence (96) on the podium at Houston. Photo courtesy HRC
The first 450SX race saw Lawrence start inside the top five and make his way to third before a small mistake relegated him to an eventual seventh-place finish. After regrouping during the short turnaround, he executed another strong start, getting around Jason Anderson in the first turn to take over second position. As he had done in the previous rounds, Lawrence gained strength lap by lap; he made a decisive pass on Jorge Prado to take the lead and never looked back until the checkered flag, earning his first win in an individual 450SX Triple Crown race. The final race of the evening got underway with Lawrence in second position. For the first half of the race, he faced challenges from Tomac and Anderson and briefly dropped to third before regaining second position. With Lawrence provisionally tied on race points with Cooper Webb in the late going, the overall victory was ultimately decided behind him, as Webb made a late pass to secure the overall victory. Lawrence's 7-1-2 tally earned him second overall.
Hunter Lawrence (96) at Houston. Photo courtesy HRC.
NOTES
・Everyone on the Honda HRC Progressive team extends their sincere condolences to the friends and family of Team Faith president and founder Brian O'Rourke, who passed away over the race weekend due to an apparent heart attack.
・Honda of Houston activated a pop-up booth in Honda HRC Progressive's pits, featuring a CRF450R and CRF110F. Dealership staff used the opportunity to connect directly with fans and customers.
・Fans in Houston enjoyed meeting Hunter Lawrence during a private autograph session while his teammates continue to recover from injuries.
・Hunter Lawrence placed third in 450SX combined qualifying, marking his best qualifying result of the season so far. Quad Lock Honda's Joey Savatgy turned in the 11th-fastest time overall, followed by teammates Christian Craig in 14th and Shane McElrath in 17th. Other Red Riders included John Short IV in 30th (Short Racing), Zack Williams in 33rd (McGingley Clinic) and Kyle Bitterman in 34th (Underdog Racing).
・In 250SX West combined qualifying, participating Red Riders included SLR Honda racers Justin Rodbell and Matti Jorgensen in 14th and 25th, respectively; Next Level riders Hunter Schlosser and Colby Copp in 21st and 30th; and Lasting Impressions' Ronnie Orres in 40th.
・Schlosser and Jorgensen advanced to the evening program through the 250 LCQ, in which they finished second and third, respectively.
・Lawrence participated in the Feld-organized podium-finisher media scrum following the 450 main event.
・Thanks to consistent podium finishes, Lawrence now sits just four points behind the championship leader, Eli Tomac.
・Next up for Honda HRC Progressive is AMA Supercross round 5 this Saturday in Glendale, Arizona.
Hunter Lawrence (96):
"It was a bit of a bummer in the first race—it was just a silly little mistake; it wasn't really a crash, but then as soon as I went off the track where it meets the concrete, it's just so slippery and it's hard to save that. I just reset after that one, and I think we did pretty good. I'm happy with how the night went, honestly. This format is one of the tougher ones for me; those short-duration sprints don't come easy. I find the short turnaround from the first to the second race easier than the last one, where you're kind of waiting around a little bit longer. I feel like the longer you wait, the tougher it is because it's like you're starting fresh again. The start is everything—even in a normal main event, it just makes your night so much easier. You see the chaos that goes on and I've been on the other side of that, so I just try to give myself the best shot into that first turn. In the last moto, I didn't get that one middle lane, and that gave Eli the inside; that was where that race was decided, I think. I still tried to push and get in a rhythm. I knew the night win was there, and I needed to get him, but I think that if I keep putting myself in the top five around the first turn every weekend and click off good laps, good things are going to start happening. I like my chances over the next couple races. From what it could've been, we did pretty good damage control, and we pulled four points back on the lead. We live to fight another day, and I'm looking forward to Glendale."
Lars Lindstrom:
"It was another great weekend for us as a team, although we're definitely missing Chance Hymas and Jett—it was quiet under the tent! We're looking forward to having our teammates back (hopefully Jo soon). In the meantime, Hunter is going above and beyond to represent the team solo, and I think we're doing well as a team to focus on the big picture: the championship. This race was his to win, but unfortunately the first-race bobble didn't allow that. To me, it doesn't matter; we made up important points, and if he would've won the overall, then people probably would've said that it's 'only' a Triple Crown, and that he still hasn't won a 20-minute race yet. As long as we're scoring more points than the rivals, I'm happy."
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
More from a press release issued by KTM:
Top-five finish keeps 450SX red plate for Eli Tomac in Houston triple crown.
Fourth position overall for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing's Eli Tomac marked another convincing result at Round 4 of the 2026 AMA Supercross Championship in Houston's NRG Stadium, with his Triple Crown performance - highlighted by a Race 3 victory - seeing him maintain the 450SX red plate.
After an exceptional start to this year's SMX World Championship season, including two Main Event victories and a third-place result across the opening three rounds, Tomac entered this weekend targeting another competitive night in building on his 2026 campaign. The 33-year-old qualified P1 onboard his KTM 450 SX-F FACTORY EDITION with a flying 46.684 lap-time set in the opening session.
A mid-field start in the opening race of the Triple Crown saw Tomac steadily climb forward, crossing the line in a hard-fought P3 as the checkered flag waved. Upon charging through the 450SX field in Race 2, the points-leader crashed while running P4, but was able to remount and salvage a spirited 13th-place finish.
Victory in the third and final outing of the night was enough for the double 450SX Champion to claim fourth place overall, and contributed valuable points toward his Supercross championship tally entering Glendale next weekend. He now holds a four-point advantage in the standings.
Eli Tomac (3) at Houston. Photo courtesy KTM
Eli Tomac: "That was such a high-speed on-off there, the triple on-off, and in the transition, I ended up stomping on my rear brake. Thankfully, I was able to get through my bars - I was like, 'Wow, I really need to step through my bars right now.' I felt a little tag by the bike, but the limbs are good, I'm good, and I'm excited I was able to get that rebound in the final race. If I'm going to toss one away, this is the one to do it at, and I'm just happy to get fourth overall, because that was a ride! Glad to move on to next week."
Red Bull KTM Factory Racing teammate Jorge Prado was sixth-fastest in combined 450SX qualifying at Houston, before the four-time world champion powered his KTM 450 SX-F FACTORY EDITION to a strong start and a P5 result in the opening Triple Crown race.
A holeshot in the second one had the Spaniard leading a large portion of Race 2 on his way to third position, combined with 11th in Race 3 to earn seventh overall for the weekend. As a result, Prado has moved to eighth in the 450SX championship.
Jorge Prado (26) at Houston. Photo courtesy KTM
Jorge Prado: "Riding-wise, I think this was a very good event. I think I rode well all day - I got a solid start in the first race, same as the second race, and then in the third one I just messed it up big time in the first corner. I was really, really behind in that one, and it was very hard to pass a lot of riders in such a short time, so I am disappointed with the end result because I think that I could've done way better. It is what it is, we'll take the learnings from tonight into next weekend in Arizona."
Also equipped with the KTM 450 SX-F FACTORY EDITION, Aaron Plessinger set the 12th-fastest time in 450SX qualifying during the afternoon, before taking a P12 result in the first of three finals. 'The Cowboy' then raced to 11th in Race 2, and a P13 score in the final outing saw him claim 13th overall.
Aaron Plessinger (7) at Houston. Photo courtesy KTM
Aaron Plessinger: "Qualifying was going pretty well in Houston, before I cased a jump and hit my ankle pretty good. I got a decent start in the first Triple Crown race, but then made a few mistakes and dropped back - I was just really involved in those mid-field battles, which are tough. And then Race 2 was much the same - just didn't execute as well as I should. And then, for the third one, I got a decent start again and was riding alright, but then my ankle started hurting, which sent me back. Overall, not a great night, but we'll shift our focus to the next one in Glendale for a rebound."
Next Race: February 7 - Glendale, Arizona
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More from a press release issued by Suzuki Motor USA:
Suzuki's Ken Roczen earns third podium result of season at Houston Supercross.
Brea, CA - Round Four of the 17-Round Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship delivered the season's first Triple Crown race and the first event inside a domed stadium. Triple Crown events combine results from three Races, each 12-minutes plus one lap in the 450SX Class, to determine the event's overall standings. Long ruts through corner exits on the track inside NRG Stadium rewarded precise technique; The Houston Supercross was a test of minimizing mistakes through the rhythm sections rather than pushing the envelope of outright speed.
Race Highlights:
- Progressive Insurance Cycle Gear ECSTAR Suzuki
- 450 Class
- Ken Roczen dominated Race 1 and earned third place overall with (1-5-4) Race scores.
- 450 Class
- Twisted Tea Suzuki presented by Progressive Insurance
- 450 Class
- Jason Anderson led laps in Race 3 and racked up (6-7-5) Race scores to earn sixth overall.
- Colt Nichols delivered season-best qualifying results and moved up one position in the championship standings.
- 450 Class
Ken Roczen (94) holeshot and led Race 1 from start to finish. He battled to within one pass of the event overall victory during a thrilling Race 3. Photo courtesy Suzuki
Ken Roczen (94) held a tight inside line in the first corner of Race 1; he nabbed the holeshot and quickly put a comfortable gap on the field. Roczen held strong under mid-race pressure and never relinquished the lead. Roczen spent the early laps of Race 2 recovering from a ninth-place start. Roczen made several passes early, and with two laps to go nearly took over fourth place until a small mistake in a rhythm relegated him to fifth place. Entering Race 3, Roczen was tied for the win in event points. When the gate dropped, Roczen bumped another rider down the start straight and emerged from the first turn in 11th spot. Then on the opening lap Roczen had a very close call with a mid-air collision over the finish line jump. Roczen kept it on two wheels and moved quickly into fourth place, where he held the event overall score in points. A small mistake in a rhythm section midway through the Race cost Roczen the spot that changed his overall event position to third in Houston.
"I was comfortable on the track [early], although when the racing came around the track was pretty sketchy; it was very high-speed and we had a couple odd obstacles that enhanced that a little bit," said Roczen. "I started off the first Race with the holeshot, or a near holeshot. [From there I] was in the lead the whole time and was able to win that one. That felt really good to start the night off with a good result like that. The second Race was a little bit tougher, as I didn't get off the gate as well. But I was able to ride my way up to fifth, and we ended up finishing there. That it made it tight for the for the overall going into Race three; I was tied with [one rider], and [another rider] was two points behind me… I knew what I had to do and where I had to be [at the checkered flag] to be able to pull off the overall. There was a lot of madness going on in that last one. Going over the finish line jump on the first lap [I had] a near-collision and it was very sketchy, but we all got out of it good. Then the battle started. In the middle of the Race, I lost a couple of spots because I missed the rhythm section, and I ended up being right behind [the rider I was tied with in event points]. Unfortunately, that put us from first to third [overall]. I don't want to complain, because it is a podium, but it is tough when [a win is] right in front of you and you just didn't get it. Nonetheless, we're happy to finish it off healthy here on the podium. The championship is looking really good, too."
Jason Anderson (21) led laps and racked up several fastest-Sector times over the three-race format of the Houston Supercross. Photo courtesy Suzuki
Jason Anderson (21) battled just outside of the top five in Race 1 and was never far off the pace of the race leader, his Suzuki teammate. On the third lap Anderson posted the fasted time through Sector 1 of the track. In the second Race, Anderson arrived first at the first corner, but an outside gate pick put him outside in the corner and he crossed the holeshot stripe in second. Anderson put in strong laps, posted the fastest time through Sector 1, and carded seventh place. Anderson then went on a charge in Race 3; after crossing the holeshot stripe in third place, he pushed his way into the lead. Anderson led several laps and posted the fastest Sector 2 time; on the final lap he again nabbed the fastest Sector 1 time when the track was at its toughest.
"I feel like my speed is better than what my result shows. We fought hard, ended up sixth overall, and I was one point out of fourth," stated Anderson. "So, it would have been nice to be able to stay in the top five, but we'll keep working and see if we can get there next weekend; but obviously we want to be further up even than that."
It was 'mission accomplished' in Houston for Colt Nichols (45), who improved his morning performance with season-best results in both qualifying sessions and the overall qualifying standings. Photo courtesy Suzuki
Colt Nichols (45) entered the night's racing with his best speed of the year, but unfortunately emerged from the first turn of Race 1 well outside of the top 15. After dropping back a few more positions early, Nichols put on an incredible charge that took him past eight other riders. Nichols was off to a strong start in Race 2 with a top ten spot at the holeshot stripe. Nichols battled inside the top ten on the opening lap. Approximately four laps later Nichols had a tip over that cost him ten spots. In Race 3 Nichols earned another top-ten start and used fast, consistent times to deliver a top-15 Race result.
"It was a much better day for me, start to finish; the results don't show it, but practice was way better. I was single digit [in qualifying] for a long time, and ended up qualifying overall P-13," said Nichols. "In the first Race I got 13th. In the second Race I crashed and then just could not get going; I had a really bad finish there. And then in the third Race I got out of the gate a lot better and then just didn't quite ride like I wanted to for the first few laps. We have some stuff to work on, per usual, but I feel like I'm in a much better spot; I'm finally knocking the sickness I had, so we'll be good to go for next weekend."
"It was a good night in Houston; back on the podium for Ken Roczen with a great ride for the win in the first Race," reported Dustin Pipes, Principal for the Twisted Tea/H.E.P. Motorsports/Suzuki presented by Progressive Insurance Team. "We were just a couple mistakes away from a win, and the riding was great. Jason Anderson continues to improve as well with a sixth place. He's getting great starts and putting himself in position to succeed. Although the results won't show it because of a fall in the second race, Colt Nichols' day was much improved as well. Phoenix is up next and it's a venue that's been good to us in the past."
The Supercross schedule next takes the riders to State Farm Stadium in Glendale Arizona on Saturday, February 7th. The Suzuki riders and team members are excited about the successes in Houston and will keep the strong momentum going into the Glendale round.
For the latest team updates, news, and race insights, visit SuzukiCycles.com/Racing/Motocross or pipesmotorsportsgroup.com.
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More from a press release issued by Monster Energy Kawasaki:
Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki earns double 250SX podium at Houston triple crown.
Monster Energy® Pro Circuit Kawasaki riders Levi Kitchen and Cameron McAdoo rose to the occasion at the Houston Triple Crown, navigating the demanding three-race format to earn second and third-place overall finishes in the 250SX Class. Kitchen posted finishes of 2-2-3 on the night, while McAdoo followed closely with consistent 3-3-4 results, as the duo combined strong starts, calculated passes, and steady execution to secure a double podium for Kawasaki. In the 450SX Class, Monster Energy® Kawasaki rider Chase Sexton battled through a challenging night marked by fluctuating track conditions and difficult starts to finish fifth overall with race scores of 2-9-6. Teammate Garrett Marchbanks continued to show consistency throughout the evening, ultimately securing 15th overall after finishes of 14-15-16. Monster Energy Kawasaki Team Green riders Vincent Wey and Kade Johnson lined up for a second weekend in a row in the SMX Next Main Event, with Wey finishing 12th after leading early and Johnson taking home 22nd following an injury sustained earlier in the day.
Levi Kitchen (on the left) and Cameron McAdoo (on the right). Photo courtesy Kawasaki.
Qualifying set the tone for a competitive night in Houston, with the Kawasaki 250SX riders immediately establishing themselves as front-runners. Kitchen opened the day with a strong third-place result in the first session before delivering a statement lap in the second, jumping to the top of the board and earning second overall. McAdoo complemented his teammate with steady, composed riding in both sessions, placing seventh in the first and improving to sixth in the second to secure sixth overall.
Levi Kitchen (47) at Houston. Photo courtesy Kawasaki.
Race 1 began with both Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki riders launching cleanly off the gate, immediately establishing themselves at the front of the pack. Kitchen settled into second while McAdoo ran close behind in third. The pair maintained steady pressure on the leader while managing the intensity of the race. Despite a tightly packed field and multiple challenges from behind, both riders rode composed races to bring home second and third-place finishes. The second race saw McAdoo seize the moment early, grabbing the holeshot on his KX
250 to lead the field early, but Kitchen quickly joined him to take over the lead on Lap 1 and the duo controlled the pace. What followed was a race-long battle with Kitchen and the leader trading lines and momentum throughout the main lanes. A late-race move in the closing minutes moved Kitchen to second after missing the tricky triple after the whoops, but he remained composed to secure another strong finish. McAdoo continued his consistent night with a third-place result, keeping himself firmly in podium contention. Race 3 tested patience and execution, as both riders were forced to fight forward from the middle of the pack following difficult starts. McAdoo methodically worked his way into fourth while Kitchen followed closely in fifth, the pair maintaining a steady pace through the middle stages of the race. As the time wound down, both riders pushed forward, capitalizing on late-race opportunities to cross the line second and third, respectively. Their combined results across all three races earned Kitchen second overall and McAdoo third overall, marking a successful night in one of the most demanding formats of the season.
Cameron McAdoo (142). Photo courtesy Kawasaki.
In the 450SX Class, Sexton continued to showcase elite pace, qualifying second in the opening session before laying down the fastest lap of the second session. His consistency across both sessions earned him second overall heading into the night program. Marchbanks worked struggling to put in a clean lap in both sessions, but focused on building rhythm, ultimately qualifying 18th overall.
Chase Sexton (4) at Houston. Photo courtesy Kawasaki
In the opening 450SX race, Sexton started near the front of the pack and immediately positioned himself in podium contention. Settling into a measured pace early, he made a decisive pass midway through the race to take over second place and maintained consistent pressure through the closing laps to secure the podium result. Marchbanks worked steadily through the field after a mid-pack start, managing traffic and rhythm sections to finish 14th. Race 2 presented new challenges, as both riders found themselves buried mid-pack off the start. Sexton mounted an aggressive charge from 17th, slicing his way through the field to reach seventh before a late mistake dropped him back to ninth as the track continued to break down. Marchbanks focused on maintaining flow and minimizing mistakes, climbing to 15th by the checkered flag. The final race of the night saw Sexton battle from the middle of the pack, charging through the field and passing up into a podium position before missing the crucial triple-triple-triple section across the start. The time lost in that section dropped him to sixth place where he'd finish the race. Marchbanks shot out the gate fast, rounding the first turn in fourth. He persevered through the same triple section in Sector 4, posting the fastest time of the evening, and finished 16th after another demanding effort. Sexton's consistency across all three races tied him in points for fourth overall, but earned fifth overall based on the final race finish, while Marchbanks secured 15th overall.
Garrett Marchbanks (36) at Houston. Photo courtesy Kawasaki.
Garrett Marchbanks:
"This weekend was about continuing to build and get more comfortable every time I was on the bike. It wasn't an easy night, especially when you're working through the pack in multiple races, but I felt better as the night went on. Each race I was able to settle in, find a rhythm, and make progress, even when the starts weren't ideal. There are definitely positives to take away, and I'm happy with the direction we're heading. I'm grateful to be back racing and putting laps together, and I know we'll keep improving as the season goes on."
Chase Sexton:
"Tonight was tough. The first race was solid, and I felt like I was right where I needed to be, but the second race made things harder with the start, and I had to work my way forward and be smart about it. Going into the third race, it was about salvaging the best overall result possible and staying consistent. The speed is there, and I know we're close. The team never stopped pushing, and we'll learn more about the bike and apply it moving forward."
Levi Kitchen:
"Tonight was intense. The second race was a battle from start to finish. I was close the entire time, and it really forced me to stay locked in. I focused on learning and resetting from last weekend, and being consistent. Getting second overall at a Triple Crown feels good, especially with how stacked the field was."
Cameron McAdoo:
"Honestly, I'm prouder of this third than I was of my second in San Diego. Triple Crowns are brutal, you don't get a reset, and every race builds on the last. We stayed consistent, made smart decisions, and put ourselves in good positions all night. I have a lot of good things going for me in my life right now, and that's something to be proud of."
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More from a press release issued by Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing:
Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing in the fight at Houston Triple Crown.
Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing's Malcolm Stewart delivered a strong performance to secure eighth overall in the 450SX Class at Round 4 of the 2026 AMA Supercross Championship in Houston on Saturday night, as 250SX West teammate Ryder DiFrancesco recorded a consistent 6-5-5 scorecard to claim fifth overall in the Triple Crown.
On the high-speed and technically challenging layout within NRG Stadium, Stewart continued his return to form while recovering from a fractured scapula, qualifying 10th fastest aboard his Husqvarna FC 450 Factory Edition during the afternoon sessions.
The 33-year-old followed with a consistent eighth-place finish in the opening final, improved to sixth in Race 2 on a deteriorating circuit, and crossed the line 10th in the final outing to secure P8 on the night. The result shows encouraging signs of progress for Stewart, who is racing back into form during the early stages of the 2026 SMX World Championship series.
Malcolm Stewart (27) at Houston. Photo courtesy Husqvarna
"Houston was trending in the right direction for me!" said Stewart. "I felt pretty good through all three races tonight. We've just been making sure to do all of the right things regarding recovery, and I have been working with Dr. G all week. I'm starting to feel a lot better and getting closer to feeling normal, so this is a very positive night. I know on paper it doesn't look that good, but under the circumstances from Anaheim 1, this is a big win for us. So, all we need to do is keep moving forward, keep putting in the work, and I know I can get back up to where I need to be. Glendale is always a fun one and one of my favorites, so I am looking forward to that race next week."
Also onboard the Husqvarna FC 450 Factory Edition, full-time 450SX newcomer RJ Hampshire raced to 10th in Race 1, before a late fall in Race 2 saw him credited P14. In the third and final race, the 30-year-old posted a ninth-place result in the ultra-competitive premier class field, earning 11th position overall for the round.
Last year, the creator of Notepad++ rolled out an update for the text and source code editor after security experts reported that bad actors were hijacking its update mechanism to redirect traffic to malicious servers. It led to users downloading compromised executables that could infect their devices. Now, Don Ho has revealed that multiple security experts investigated the breach and determined that the threat actor "is likely a Chinese state-sponsored group." He said it explained why experts observed highly selective targeting during the campaign and why only traffic from certain users were redirected so that they would download malicious files. It's not clear what kind of users were specifically targeted and what the files did to their devices.
The attackers started redirecting traffic from Notepad++ to their servers sometime in June 2025, and that went on until December 2. Their method involved compromising the system at the hosting provider level, though the exact technical mechanism that allowed them to intercept traffic remains under investigation. In addition to releasing a security patch, Notepad++ also migrated to a new hosting provider with much stronger security practices. Ho now encourages anyone who wants to install the app to download version 8.9.1, which comes with the security update, and running the installer manually.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/notepad-says-it-was-hijacked-by-chinese-state-sponsored-hackers-153000268.html?src=rssSpain will join the growing list of countries banning access to social media for children, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced Tuesday. The law will apply to users under 16 years of age amidst a broader push to hold social media companies accountable for hate speech, social division and illegal content.
Speaking at the World Governments Summit in Dubai, Prime Minister Sanchez excoriated social media, calling it a "failed state" where "laws are ignored and crime is endured." He spoke to the importance of digital governance for these platforms, highlighting recent incidents like X's AI chatbot Grok generating sexualized images of children, Meta "spying" on Android users and the myriad election interference campaigns that have taken place on Facebook.
In light of what Sanchez called the "integral" role social media plays in the lives of young users, he said the best way to help them is to "take back control." Next week, his government will enact a slew of new regulations, with a ban on users under 16 years of age among them. Social media companies will be required to implement what he calls "effective age verification systems" and "not just checkboxes." A specific timeline on enforcement of the coming ban has not been announced.
Spain will also make "algorithmic manipulation and amplification of illegal content" into a new criminal offense and Sanchez says tech CEOs will face criminal liability for hateful or illegal content on their platforms. The Prime Minister further announced that Spain has formed a coalition with five other unnamed European nations to enact stricter governance over social media platforms.
Sanchez said children have been "exposed to a space they were never meant to navigate alone," and that it's the government's job to intervene. He added social media has fallen from its promise to be a "tool for global understanding and cooperation."
Australia enacted an under-16s ban on social media last year, which has prompted many nations to follow suit. It is under active consideration in the UK, while Denmark and Malaysia have announced plans to enact similar bans.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/spain-set-to-ban-social-media-for-children-under-16-151546884.html?src=rss
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has appointed a 12-person steering group to the Timms Review and claims it has a range of lived experiences. However, the members are overwhelmingly southern, and the government has also included Jean-André Prager. Previously, and controversially, Prager called for the DWP to make PIP conditional for young people.
DWP: what is the Timms review?The Timms Review is the review and consultation of Personal Independence Payment (PIP). It came about after the government failed to rush through cuts to PIP. This was because of pressure from disabled people, which caused MPs to rebel. It forced them to remove PIP entirely from the Universal Credit Bill.
This is despite overwhelming support for PIP staying exactly where it is, or even becoming more compassionate. Many responses pointed to the financial and mental health impacts of losing their PIP.
Lack of diversityNow, the government has received only 340 applications to sit on the Timms Review Steering Group. Given that there are over 16 million disabled people in the UK, that number is embarrassing. It shows how little faith disabled people have in the process.
Additionally, the government has not disclosed which regions are represented in the steering group.
Previously, the DWP announced the members of the Independent Disability Advisory Panel (IDAP), including their locations. This included a severe lack of northern representation - leaving just one person to represent the whole of the North of England.
Quick LinkedIn searches for the newly appointed steering group members reveal that at least 7 of the 12 are based in London. Unsurprisingly, once again, there is only one in the north - in Newcastle.
This is despite the North East having the highest level of disability - 21.2% - and the second highest level of poverty - 25%.
Is there any wonder the government didn't publish this information?
Here we go againTo make matters worse, the government has appointed Jean Andre-Prager to the steering group.
He was previously the Prime Minister's Special Adviser covering the DWP and is currently a Senior Fellow at the right-wing think tank, Policy Exchange.
Previously, he called for PIP to be made conditional for 16-30-year-olds. Of course, this bullshit and deeply flawed idea fundamentally misunderstands the purpose of the benefit - to aid with the extra costs of living with a disability. These do not magically appear when you hit 30. They are lifelong, and can drastically change the lives of young people.
A Policy Exchange report, which Andre-Prager led, stated:
Reform should also be based on the principles which underpinned the New Deal for Young People, first introduced in 1998, which compelled engagement via fulltime education, voluntary work or formal employment. The Government should refresh these concepts for the modern day.
This is a clear departure from the current purpose of PIP whose purpose is to meet some of the extra costs incurred by disabled people. However, given the rising claimant numbers - especially among young people with mental health challenges - we think this is a necessary step to encourage improved engagement with society. We suggest that DWP is still be able to opt individuals out of conditionality based on the severity of their condition. Coupled with this change, we would change the age where you can claim PIP to 18 (increasing it from 16) to better align with support provided.
It is ableist nonsense to even entertain the idea that young people with chronic illnesses and disabilities can just be cut out of vitally necessary support.
Disgraceful decisionOnce again, we are seeing this government's latest trend of punching down at neurodivergent and mentally ill young people.
Given Andre-Prager's history of authoring this report, it makes sense that the DWP would appoint him. It's very likely that he'll bring these dangerous ideas to the steering group. But obviously, that suits Labour's already clear intent on hammering young people.
His presence is perhaps the biggest indicator of what the review is actually there to do. As the Canary has repeatedly warned, the Timms review is a foregone conclusion. It exists only to support the DWP's preconceived desire to cut PIP. The review clearly isn't for listening to disabled people or groups. It's to further stigmatise people who need support to survive.
Alarm bells should be ringing because this review does not have disabled people's best interests at heart, and it never did.
Featured image via the Canary
By HG
Ridiculous US federal officers say they have identified a key leader of 'antifa'. But the guy they are accusing seems to be a local protestor who lets other protestors use his bathroom. Hardly the second coming of Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh is it, you absolute buffoons?
If it needs saying at all, Antifa does not exist in the sense meant by US officials. It's a vaguely defined political tendency. It cuts across socialist, anarchist, communist and even liberal groups who, erm, don't like fascism. It sort of says so in the name: antifa = antifascist.
Antifa war is bullshitTo be clear, US president Donald Trump's war on 'antifa' is a war on the left. It is one strand of his nativist plans for an America in which he cannot be challenged. It had nothing to do with terrorism or extremism - except his own.
Independent US reporter Ken Klippenstein's work on Trump-era authoritarianism has been groundbreaking. On 3 February he published a new story. He'd seen internal documents which referred to the individual:
Twenty-nine year old Chandler Patey has been regularly protesting outside his local ICE facility in South Portland for months, offering up his apartment to fellow protesters to use the bathroom or wash off pepper spray, according to local news.
On the face if it Patey sounds like a normal guy. One of millions of Americans opposed to Trump's so-called war on immigration.
However:
To the Department of Homeland Security, "he is the leader of Antifa in Portland, OR."
Klippenstein explains:
That phrase appears in an internal report produced by DHS, the largest law enforcement agency in the country. As they see it, Patey—a young man accused of no crime and who looks like a random protester plucked off the streets of Minneapolis—is a domestic terrorist.
He noted that Fox News anchors had even discussed Patey's home as being a antifa 'safe house':
American fascismThis kind of idiocy is hardly unprecedented by the standards of cable news, of course; but the federal government is buying into the hysteria, too. Documents leaked to me show Patey and countless other American protesters have been branded as domestic terrorists. As a result, their private information is now being collected and stored in a DHS intelligence system.
American fascism, embodied partly in the endless raids and beatings - and street executions - by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officers, is thriving.
Klippenstein previously challenged the department's claim that no database of 'domestic terrorists' existed. He asked them again in relation to Patey and got no answer.
Incredible work, guys. It would be funny, but as Klippenstein points out this kind of half-cocked intelligence gathering has consequences:
This bureaucratic imperative to find terrorists among protesters is what got Renee Good and Alex Pretti killed.
DHS shot dead Good and Pretti in January. Neither was engaged in any kind of behavior which would merit being shot. Video evidence from multiple angles shows that they presented no threat to federal officers.
The evidence suggests that like them Patey presents no danger whatsoever. Except maybe in one narrow sense and it is that basic human solidarity is a severe threat to the far-right and their vision of a cowed and obedient population which cowers while armed thugs cart away their neighbours.
Featured image via Unsplash/Julian Schneiderath
By Joe Glenton
Defence minister Luke Pollard just reiterated in the House of Commons what UK defence policy is all about these days. It's about massively expensive drones, nukes that aren't ours, and a sniveling attitude to the US. Rule Britannia etc.
Pollard was answering questions from MPs on a range of military matters on 2 February. Tory Mark Francois (remember him!?) wondered if the UK would gift its Watchkeeper drones to Ukraine. Pollard said no:
The UK and partners will continue to ensure we equip Ukraine as best we can to defend its sovereign territory and ensure it is in a position of strength for any peace negotiations.
He went on:
Since Watchkeeper Mk1 entered service in 2010, drone technology has evolved at remarkable pace, driven by the extensive use of unmanned systems in the war in Ukraine. The Department has therefore prioritised this effort on more cost-effective drones that deliver comparable capability and can operate in the most demanding environments.
Supposedly, the search for Watchkeeper's replacement - AKA, the Corvus program - will cost £130mn. This seems very optimistic. Based on the Israeli Hermes drone, Watchkeeper was ten years late late and cost £1bn. That's according to Drone Wars UK. The NGO also said Watchkeeper flew only 14 hours in Afghanistan in 2014 because combat operations had effectively ended by the time it was usable.
Drone War said:
Since then, apart from one short deployment in the UK, the 50 plus Watchkeeper drones have either flown on training flight, mostly in the UK or Cyprus (despite being marketed as an all-weather system, it performs poorly in 'adverse' weather) or simply kept in storage.
The drone, which is unarmed, was then used to monitor refugees coming over the channel:
The UK deployment was to support Border Force operations to curb refugees crossings the channel. According to responses to our FoI requests at the time, a total of 21 flights were conducted in September and October 2022.
Very cost effective indeed.
Special relationship with who?Also on 2 February Pollard was questioned about US-UK defence relations. Independent MP Ayoub Khan asked:
Whether he is taking steps to increase the UK's level of military independence from the US.
Pollard said:
The US remains the UK's principal defence and security partner, and our co-operation on defence, nuclear capability and intelligence remains as close and effective as any anywhere in the world, keeping Britain safe in an increasingly dangerous environment.
No change there then, despite Donald Trump's increasingly erratic warmongering. Pollard added:
As close friends, we are not afraid to have difficult conversations when we need to. Friends turn up for each other, as we did for the US in Afghanistan, and friends are also honest with each other, as the Prime Minister has set out.
Trump recently disparaged the NATO contribution to the disastrous Afghan war, causing immense public butthurt to British MPs. Trump eventually walked back his comments, lauding British soldiers for their efforts in that pointless, failed occupation.
Cheers, Don.
Independent nukes?Khan had another question, however. He asked if the government would consider dropping military programs which did nothing to protect the country:
Our nuclear deterrent now consumes nearly a third of the defence budget through Trident, a system that cannot be launched without US approval. In pursuing nuclear deterrence and mutually assured destruction, we have drained funding from conventional forces and neglected the diplomacy and development that actually prevents conflicts.
He asked:
Does the Minister believe that prioritising nuclear defence over reducing tensions, ending conflicts and promoting peace genuinely delivers security for our people, and if so, can he explain why?
Pollard reiterated that the House of Commons is populated largely by sycophants divorced from public outlooks:
I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question; it comes from a point of view that is different from that of many people in this House and in the wider public.
Then he leant into the usual inaccurate stock answer
Our nuclear deterrent is operationally independent; the only person who can authorise its firing is the Prime Minister. It is a part of our security apparatus, which keeps us safe every single day, and has done for decades.
Adding:
As a Government, we are continuing to invest in our nuclear deterrent, just as we are investing in jobs and skills right across the country that keep us safe every single day. Our relationship with the United States is a key part of that, but we will also continue to invest in our relationships with our other allies, especially around Europe.
In reality, as the US publication National Interest explained on 5 March 2025:
the Trident missiles are not even owned by Britain, but are instead leased by the British military from the Americans.
They expanded:
British nuclear deterrent relies exclusively on American ballistic missile technology, the submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) known as the Trident II D5, built by the U.S. defense contractor Lockheed Martin.
So, not independent then. The UK has lashed its future security to the whims of US leaders - whoever is in charge at a given time. Donald Trump's first year back in power has rocked alliances like NATO. It seems like exactly the time to start thinking about what a serious, independent defence and foreign policy would look like. Pollard and Starmer, however, remain committed to a dying consensus which serves nobody but the US.
Featured image via the Canary
By Joe Glenton
Louis Theroux, Mark Rylance, Zawe Ashton, Jonathan Pryce, and Glen Matlock were among cultural figures attending the Health Workers 4 Palestine Gala to raise vital funds for the charity's Gaza Medics Solidarity Fund.
Health Workers 4 Palestine fundraiserIn the first 24 hours of the fundraiser, it has raised over £300,000. And it's now appealing to the public with hopes to raise £1m. Every donation will help rebuild maternity wards, fund mobile clinics, and pay stipends to doctors in Gaza.
Brian Eno and Antony Gormley donated art to the event. Motaz Malhees appeared fresh from global acclaim for his performance in The Voice of Hind Rajab.
Also in attendance were BBC Springwatch presenter Megan McCubbin, actors Juliet Stevenson, Khalid Abdalla and Denise Gough, comedian Jen Brister and Holocaust survivor Stephen Kapos.
Health Workers 4 Palestine is an organisation of medical professionals from over 70 cities around the world. It advocates for Gaza medics and the protection of Palestinian healthcare.
Dr Omar Abdel-Mannan founded the group in 2023. In July 2025 he flew with the first Gaza child evacuated to the UK for medical aid from Cairo to London.
As over 1,700 health workers lose their lives in Gaza, and this month 37 international aid groups including Save the Children are blocked from entering, this fundraiser couldn't be more urgent. A recent study has found that the population of Gaza has declined by over 250,000 people since 7 October 2003.
The Health Workers 4 Palestine Solidarity Fund is administered by local NGOs, getting emergency support to the medics and patients who need it most.
Actor Zawe Ashton said:
I'm here tonight to encourage people to donate to Health Workers 4 Palestine because I believe as an artist it's the moment to advocate and use your voice for people whose voice is being distorted and silenced. The dismantling of healthcare in Gaza is one of the most dangerous and sickening parts of the genocide we're seeing unfold.
Dr Abdel-Mannan said:
Tonight shows what is possible when culture refuses to stay silent. We are standing in solidarity with the over 1,700 health workers who have been killed in Gaza, and those who continue to save lives against the odds working under unimaginable conditions. Together, we are fundraising to support Gaza medics and the rebuilding of Palestinian healthcare.
The gala took place at The Savoy, London on 1 February 2026. To donate to the Solidarity Fund, go here.
Featured image via Ali Khadr / Health Workers 4 Palestine
By The Canary
Continuing his laudable approach of taking smear campaigns head-on and taking no prisoners, Green party leader Zack Polanski has shredded Labour's feeble attempts to smear him. Other politicians might hide, deflect, or deny. Polanski posted to his social media that Labour is attacking him to try to distract from their own chronic problems with paedophiles and corruption.
His post points out:
• Starmer's decision to appoint Peter Mandelson as a senior adviser and UK ambassador to the US knowing Mandelson was a fan-boy and close friend of serial child-rapist Jeffrey Epstein. Mandelson has now also been exposed insider-trading and leaking government information to Epstein.
• Starmerite MP Dan Norris's second arrest for rape and sexual assault. Norris was also arrested for alleged paedophilia - just the latest in a long line of Labour Zionists.
• Starmer's former front-bencher Tulip Siddiq's prison sentence in Bangladesh for corruption.
He also includes a composite image of Labour's smears to leave no doubt just how feeble Starmer's party has become:
Unlike Polanski, Starmer has an appalling recordQuestions about Mandelson, his heinous crimes and how much Starmer knew.Dan Norris, elected as Lab MP, arrested - 2 counts of rape.Tulip Siddiq sentenced to 4 years.I wonder why Labour have made 3 attack videos about me in the last 24 hours?They're done. Finished. Toast.
— Zack Polanski (@zackpolanski.bsky.social) 2026-02-02T21:12:30.478Z
And Starmer's personal record is appalling, from his time as Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) through to what passes for his leadership of the Labour party.
Starmer was an awful DPP, according to staff who worked under him. But his awfulness went beyond merely being a bad boss. He relentlessly pursued Wikileaks founder Julian Assange over what turned out to be spurious allegations ultimately dropped by Swedish prosecutors. The CPS then destroyed the records of Starmer's involvement, but he flew to the US to discuss Assange's extradition with US officials.
Starmer also notoriously failed to prosecute serial rapist Jimmy Savile. Those around him have issued 'non-denial denials' that Starmer was personally involved in the decision not to prosecute. However, it stretches belief to think that a serial rape case against Britain's then-most famous entertainer would not have crossed the boss's desk. Regardless, as boss the buck ultimately stopped with him anyway.
Starmer was also DPP when, according to departing Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby in 2024, Welby informed Starmer's CPS about the child abuse committed by paedophile church barrister John Smyth. Welby said that he:
believed wrongly that an appropriate resolution would follow.
It never did. Smyth was never prosecuted and, just as with Savile, the scandal only broke after his death. Now to Starmer's blighted tenure as Labour 'leader'.
Not much better as Labour leaderStarmer welcomed London MP Neil Coyle back under the Labour whip despite Coyle being found by Parliament to have sexually harassed a staffer, as well as racially abusing a Chinese-British man - and when-Chester MP Chris Matheson was under investigation by Parliament for sexual harassment, neither Starmer nor the party machine suspended him pending the outcome of the investigation, as would be usual practice to protect the women around him.
Matheson resigned only after he was found guilty by the parliamentary panel of 'threatening' sexual misconduct. Starmer also protected at least two further alleged sex pests on his front bench, despite ongoing investigations.
And while Starmer's cronies were deselecting or blocking potential left-wing parliamentary candidates on any pretext it could find, they were ignoring legal advice to let their mates stand. Labour's National Executive ignored the advice of its barrister that it needed to thoroughly investigate allegations of 'serious' sexual assault brought against then-Redbridge council leader and slum landlord Jas Athwal. Athwal is a right-wing Labour figure close to Starmer's Health Secretary Wes Streeting. Instead, the NEC dropped the case and reinstated Athwal, who is now a Labour MP after a questionable vote to select him as the party's candidate in Ilford South.
RottenPerhaps most seriously, Starmer and his then-sidekick David Evans covered up Jewish whistleblower Elaina Cohen's allegations of serial abuse of women by a party staffer.
Cohen repeatedly warned Starmer and Evans that a staffer working for then-Perry Barr MP Khalid Mahmood - and allegedly Mahmood's lover - was engaged in 'sadistic' and 'criminal' abuse of vulnerable Muslim women. The victims were fleeing domestic violence, through the now-defunct domestic violence 'charity' that she ran.
Warned time and again, Starmer and Evans did nothing. Mahmood remained on Starmer's front bench as long as he chose to be there. Cohen was sacked from her role as a parliamentary aide.
One of the victims gave evidence, at Cohen's successful wrongful dismissal tribunal, of the abuse she and others had suffered. This included blackmail and sexual exploitation. Her evidence was not challenged by Mahmood or his lawyers. Mahmood admitted under oath to the tribunal that he had also personally made sure that Starmer was fully aware of Cohen's allegations.
Despite the abundance of evidence, this mountain of vileness has been almost entirely ignored by 'mainstream' media. It's time for that to end.
Go on, Zack Polanski. Go to town.
Featured image via the Canary
By Skwawkbox
Never a party to miss a vapid appeal to populism, Reform UK have announced plans to cut beer duty by 10%. Except, how do they plan to fund such a feat? Well, by reintroducing the two-child benefit cap, of course.
Under Reform's new commitment, the party would gradually phase out business rates altogether for UK pubs. Incidentally, they'd also plunge around 350,000 children back into poverty, and 700,000 into deep poverty.
The fact that a mainstream political party can suggest something like this without being spat on immediately by everyone in range indicates that something is deeply wrong with our country. I just don't have a better way to say that.
Facts about taxes, as if that's the problem here and not ReformIn Rachel Reeves' autumn budget, the chancellor unveiled plans to hike business rates for pubs by 76%. This would boil down to additional costs of around £4,300 a year, after the current freeze ends.
However, on 27 January Labour announced that it would reverse course. Starting in April, pubs will now receive a 15% cut to new business rates bills, along with a two-year real-terms freeze.
Reform MP, and general shithouse, Lee Anderson stated that:
The loss of one pub is not just the loss of livelihood for a landlord, or the loss of a local employment hub. The loss of one pub is a loss to all of us as inheritors of a tradition dating back to Roman rule.
He went on:
Yet the Conservatives, and now Labour, have facilitated the closure of thousands of pubs over the last decade. Any contrition they show is false.
As things stand, beer duty - i.e., tax - averages out at around 49p a pint, although that varies according to the drink's strength. Reform's plan would knock 10% from that figure by taking the money directly from struggling children and families.
Likewise, the far-right party would also cut VAT from 20% to 10% for the hospitality sector. Reform said that the fact supermarkets don't pay VAT on food sales gives them an unfair advantage over pubs, as if the party has any concept of what fairness is.
The entire plan would carry a cost of £2.29bn in the first year, rising to £2.9bn by the fourth year. For contrast, estimates suggest that scrapping the two-child benefit cap will cost £3.6bn a year once it's fully implemented.
There's something wrong with all of usThere are too many things to say about this, I don't really know where to start.
As recently as May 2025, Reform was all for scrapping the two-child cap. Then, they flipped to saying it should only be lifted for two-parent full-time-working households, and finally to opposing the removal of the cap altogether. This pointless contrarianism was motivated purely by Labour getting behind scrapping the cap.
This plan is yet another monstering of people who receive benefits - this time pitting them against local pubs, of all things. These two causes are completely unrelated to one another, but Reform has very deliberately chosen to pair them off.
Given Reform's projected image as champion's of 'British culture', pubs make sense as their chosen cause to champion - but that's not a compliment. The UK has massive problems with alcoholism and binge drinking, and has even topped world alcohol consumption charts in recent years.
And finally, this is children we're talking about. Reform are proposing to take money directly from the very poorest children in the UK, and to then give it to pub landlords. If the landlords chose to pass that saving on to customers, a pint might be 5p cheaper, at the cost of making life harder for 100,000 kids.
When did we get to this point, as a society? How can a mainstream political party can suggest something like this without it immediately sinking them? Why are the right-wing papers reporting this like it's a normal idea?
This job sometimes involves reading, seeing, and reporting on heinous things. Many of them are objectively more awful than this. But this is just such a banal, calculated, cynical evil, it's turned something in my stomach. There is something deeply wrong with us all. None of this is OK.
Featured image via the Canary
Volvo is among the EV makers adopting cell-to-body battery technology that saves weight and money while improving battery performance (cropped, courtesy of Volvo).
The post The Cell-To-Body EV Movement Is Leaving Some Automakers Flat-Footed appeared first on CleanTechnica.
Lies about climate and renewable energy permeate the internet. The fact that our planet is warming has been proven in hundreds of different ways. Burning oil and gas, which are the deposits of ancient plants and animals, heats the planet and is destroying the unity of the Earth's biosphere. But ... [continued]
The post Alternative Truths About Climate & Renewable Energy Hurt Us All appeared first on CleanTechnica.
VinFast's expansion in the Philippines is increasingly centered on fleet-led electrification rather than retail EV evangelism. Alongside electric scooters, the company will soon introduce the VF Limo Green, a fully electric seven-seat MPV that will initially be sold to fleet, taxi, and other commercial operators. This approach reflects a deliberate ... [continued]
The post VinFast's Green Strategy Comes Into Focus in the Philippines appeared first on CleanTechnica.
US tariffs may be squeezing Europe's trade balance, but they are also pushing governments and businesses to spend big on keeping tech closer to home.…
Your Rum Music roundup returns for 2026, where Jennifer Lucy Allan presents early AOTY contenders from Silvia Tarozzi, Tashi Dorij and more
Silvia Tarozzi, photo by Giorgio Giliberti
January feels like it's been three months long. I made few resolutions. I will be writing half a book's worth of words before my birthday at the end of March, which feels enough of a goal. I did pitch myself a target for reading (52 books) and wrote the word "FLOSS" in the front of my diary. It's going to be a busy year, and it's already in full swing, with releases already dropping that I feel are solidly in the running for my AOTY list, namely by the increasingly prolific Tashi Dorji, and...
The post Rum Music for January Reviewed by Jennifer Lucy Allan appeared first on The Quietus.
Amazon is running a sale on two of its newest devices. First, there's the Echo Show 8, which is down to $150 from $180 — a 17 percent discount. Next up is the Echo Show 11, which is more or less the same device, just bigger. This model has dropped 18 percent to $180 from $220. Both deals bring the Echo Shows down to new all-time low prices.
The Echo Show 8 and 11 came out in mid-November with the main difference being screen size. The Echo Show 8 has an 8.7-inch HD screen that Amazon claims is 15 percent larger than its predecessor. Meanwhile, the Echo Show 11 is, you guessed it, an 11-inch Full-HD display that has 60 percent more viewing area than the Echo Show 8.
Both of the devices come with an AZ23 Pro chip and Omnisense technology, which Amazon describes as "our custom sensor platform designed for ambient AI." They also have Prime Video and Netflix apps, while other streamers can be reached through the browser. Each comes with spatial audio, dual full-range drivers and a 2.8-inch woofer. Plus, they have a 13MP camera with auto-framing.
Follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/amazons-echo-show-8-and-11-are-down-to-new-all-time-lows-150021328.html?src=rss
After my recent presentation at FOSDEM, someone asked a pretty reasonable question. What does it cost to run OpenBenches?
It is, thankfully, surprisingly cheap! In part, that's because it is a relatively simple tech stack - PHP, MySQL, a couple of API calls to external services. It was designed to be as low cost while also being useful. Here's the breakdown:
Hosting - £171 per yearOur biggest expense but, I think, our most reasonable. Krystal charges around £342 for a 2 year contract. That includes unlimited bandwidth and storage, as well as the domain name. We have nearly 400GB of photos and bot scraping means we can use over 900GB of bandwidth per month - so Krystal give us a rather good deal!
Use this affiliate link and code EDENT to get a small discount.
Stadia Maps - US$20 / monthGeocoding is surprisingly hard to do locally. We need to transform latitude and longitude into addresses, and then back again. Stadia Maps cost about the same as our hosting! What's rather annoying is that we only use about half the API calls in our plan. We need to find a cheaper solution.
Mapping - Free!When we used Stadia for drawing maps, we regularly ran over our quota. So we switched to OpenFreeMap which produces gorgeous interactive maps.
The service has been rock solid and very responsive to bugs on GitHub.
Logo - US$5I'm not a good designer, so we bought a logo from The Noun Project and then coloured it in. Bargain for a fiver!
Image CDN - Free!Although we have unlimited bandwidth with Krystal, we're only located in one region - the UK. WeServ. It's also pointless serving full resolution images to small screens.
So WeServ offers free image resizing and global CDNs. Personally, I'm not a fan of CloudFlare (their CDN partner) so I'm looking to change provider.
OCR - Free!People don't want to type in the inscription of the photo, so we use Google Cloud Vision.
We send less than 1,000 requests per month - so we're inside their free tier. If we get more popular, that'll get more expensive. But I don't know of a local-first OCR which is as good as Google's. Sadly, Tesseract is rubbish for extracting text from photos.
Authentication - Free!We don't want to store anyone's passwords. The free tier of Auth0 allows us to do social login for up to 25,000 monthly users. Which is more than enough for us.
Sadly, Auth0 don't support the Fediverse, so I had to build my own "Log-in with Mastodon" service.
As much as we'd like to run social login locally, we simply don't want to be responsible for securing users' details & API keys.
Software - Free!As per the OpenBenches colophon we use a lot of cool FOSS. Small JS libraries, big PHP frameworks, and everything in between.
IncomeThanks to GitHub Sponsors we make a whopping US$3 per month!
Similarly, our OpenCollective Sponsors brings in about £3 per month.
Merchandising! You can buy OpenBenches branded t-shirts, mugs, and hats. That nets us about £20 per year
Call it roughly £80 income. OK, it is better than nothing - but doesn't even cover a quarter of our costs. Sometimes people give us a higher donation privately, which is also very welcome. These people are listed on our README.
TotalOn the assumption that our time is worthless (ha!) and that we only rarely go over our providers' API limits, and we get in some revenue, the cost of running OpenBenches is less than £300 per year.
That's not bad for a fun little hobby. People certainly spend more than that on Funkopops, vaping, and mechanical keyboards!
Nevertheless, I'm always slightly worried that we'll go viral and have an unexpectedly high bill from our API providers.
I would love to be able to hire a proper designer to make the site look a bit nicer. I also want to be able to buy a modern iPhone so that I can test it in the latest Safari.
If you have any suggestions for cutting costs, or non-scummy ways to help us raise funds, please drop a comment below.
Last autumn, a UK government report warned that climate-driven ecosystem collapse could lead to food shortages, mass migration, political extremism and even nuclear conflict. The report was never officially launched.
Commissioned by Defra - the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs - and informed by intelligence agencies including MI5 and MI6, the briefing assessed how environmental degradation could affect UK national security.
At the last minute the launch was cancelled, reportedly blocked by Number 10. Thanks to pressure from campaigners and a freedom of information request, a 14-page version of the report was snuck out (no launch, not even a press release) on January 22.
That report says: "Critical ecosystems that support major food production areas and impact global climate, water and weather cycles" are already under stress and represent a national security risk. If they failed, the consequences would be severe: water insecurity, severely reduced crop yields, loss of arable land, fisheries collapse, changes to global weather patterns, release of trapped carbon exacerbating climate change, novel zoonotic disease and loss of pharmaceutical resources.
In plainer terms: the UK would face hunger, thirst, disease and increasingly violent weather.
An unredacted version of the report, seen by the Times, goes further. It warns that the degradation of the Congo rainforest and the drying up of rivers fed by the Himalayas could drive people to flee to Europe (Britain's large south Asian diaspora would make it "an attractive destination"), leading to "more polarised and populist politics" and putting more pressure on national infrastructure.
The Times describes a "reasonable worst case scenario" in the report, where many ecosystems were "so stressed that they could soon pass the point where they could be protected". Declining Himalayan water supplies would "almost certainly escalate tensions" between China, India and Pakistan, potentially leading to nuclear conflict. Britain, which imports 40% of its food, would struggle to feed itself, the unredacted report says.
The report isn't an outlier, and these concerns are not confined to classified briefings. A 2024 report by the University of Exeter and think-tank IPPR warned that cascading climate impacts and tipping points threaten national security - exactly the risk outlined in the Defra report.
Melting glaciers in remote mountains ultimately pose a security threat for the UK, say intelligence services.
Hussain Warraich / shutterstock
The government has not publicly explained why the launch was cancelled. In response to the Times article, a Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs spokesperson said: "Nature underpins our security, prosperity and resilience, and understanding the threats we face from biodiversity loss is crucial to meeting them head on. The findings of this report will inform the action we take to prepare for the future."
Perhaps there are mundane reasons to be cautious about a report linked to the intelligence services that warns of global instability. But the absence of any formal briefing or ministerial comment is itself revealing - climate risks appear to be treated differently from other risks to national security. It's hard to imagine a report warning of national security risks from AI, China or ocean piracy getting the same treatment.
This episode is not even especially unusual, historically. Governments have been receiving warnings about climate change - and downplaying or delaying responses - for decades.
Decades of warningsIn January 1957, the Otago Daily Times reported a speech by New Zealand scientist Athol Rafter under the headline "Polar Ice Caps May Melt With Industrialisation". And Rafter was merely repeating concerns already circulating internationally, including by a Canadian physicist whose similar warning went around the world in May 1953. Climate change first went viral more than seven decades ago.
By the early 1960s, scientists were holding meetings explicitly focused on the implications of carbon dioxide build-up. In 1965, a report to the US president's Science Advisory Council warned that "marked changes in climate, not controllable though local or even national efforts, could occur".
Senior figures in the UK government were aware of these discussions by the late 1960s, while the very first environment white paper, in May 1970, mentions carbon dioxide build-up as a possible problem.
But the story we see today was the same. Reports are commissioned, urgent warnings are issued - and action is deferred. When climate change gained renewed momentum in the mid-1980s, following the discovery of the ozone hole and the effects of greenhouse gases besides carbon dioxide, the message sharpened: global warming will come quicker and hit harder than expected.
Margaret Thatcher finally acknowledged the threat in a landmark 1988 speech to the Royal Society. But when green groups tried to get her to make specific commitments, they had little success.
Since about 1990, the briefings have barely changed. Act now, or suffer severe consequences later. Those consequences, however, are no longer theoretical.
Why does nothing happen?Partly, it's down to inertia. We have built societies in which carbon-intensive systems are locked in. Once you've built infrastructure around, say, the private petrol-powered automobile, it's hard for competitors to offer an alternative. There's also a mental intertia: it's hard to let go of assumptions you grew up with in a more stable era.
Secrecy plays a role too. As the Defra report illustrates, uncomfortable assessments are often softened, delayed or buried. Then, if you do accept the need for action, you are then up against the problem of responsibility being fragmented across sectors and institutions, making it hard to know where to aim your efforts. Meanwhile, social movements fighting for climate action find it hard to sustain momentum for more than three years.
Here's the final irony. Conspiracy theorists and climate deniers insist governments are exaggerating the threat. In reality, the evidence increasingly suggests the opposite. Official assessments tend to lag behind scientific warnings, and the most pessimistic scenarios are often confined to technical or classified documents.
The situation is not better than we are told. It's actually far worse.
Don't have time to read about climate change as much as you'd like?
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Marc Hudson was employed as a post-doctoral researcher on various industrial decarbonisation projects. He runs a climate histories website called All Our Yesterdays. http://allouryesterdays.info
Researchers say sediment changes due to waste dumping and coastal erosion intensified by climate breakdown
As much as half of some British beaches' coarse sediments consist of human-made materials such as brick, concrete, glass and industrial waste, a study has found.
Climate breakdown, which has caused more frequent and destructive coastal storms, has led to an increase in these substances on beaches. Six sites on the Firth of Forth, an estuary on Scotland's east coast joining the River Forth to the North Sea, were surveyed to better understand the makeup of "urban beaches".
Continue reading...With government action stalled and living in 'inhumane' conditions, families in San José are making plans to relocate
In Emilio Peña Delgado's home, several photos hang on the wall. One shows him standing in front of a statue with his wife and oldest son in the centre of San José and smiling. In another, his two sons sit in front of caricatures from the film Cars. For him, the photos capture moments of joy that feel distant when he returns home to La Carpio, a neighbourhood on the outskirts of Costa Rica's capital.
Delgado migrated with his family from Nicaragua to Costa Rica when he was 10, as his parents sought greater stability. When he started a family of his own, his greatest hope was to give his children the security he had lacked. But now, that hope is often interrupted by the threat of extreme weather events.
Continue reading...
Toynbee's "A Study of History" remains a solid explanation for the met historical cycles that shape the rise and fall of civilizations.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Study_of_History
As meta histories go, this one's not bad and seems to be reasonably accurate in broad brush strokes.
According to Toynbee there are only four remaining "civilizations": Western, Islamic, far Eastern and Hindu. Each existing and extinct civ goes through a predictable cycle of growth and decay:
Challenge and Response- causing the birth of a civilization. For the West that would be the "stimulus of new ground" caused by barbarian volkwanderung at the end of Hellenic Civilization (fall of the Roman Empire).
Cultural growth - led by a creative minority that spurs a civilization to greater heights of artistic, scientific, cultural, economic and political advancement. The majority willing emulates this creative minority. For the West, this stage stared in the so-called Dark Ages and really gathered steam during the Renaissance, Age of Exploration and birth of Science.
A Time of Troubles - when war and the struggle for power leads to destruction of cultural creativity as the leading minority stops being creative and becomes a dominant minority which forces the majority to obey without meriting obedience. The West has seen a time of troubles since the Napoleonic Wars through the World Wars and the Cold War. We can see the continued mutation of the new dominant minority as the uber rich establish an oligarchy which controls the economy and the political process.
Creation of a Universal State - as one competitor (like Rome) achieves total dominance and defeats all rivals to create an empire encompassing its civilization. In the West that is obviously the United States.
Cultural decay - the establishment of a Universal State creates an alienated internal proletariat resentful of being under the thumb of the dominant minority and an external proletariat of barbarians. Such hordes would have to be created by catastrophic climate changes turning those now living within the borders of the American empire into hordes of refugees (which was what many of the barbarians migrating into the Roman empire were). The refugees from Syria entering Europe to escape ISIS and war, which was caused by a prolonged drought, which in turn was caused by climate change may be the first of many.
(YOU ARE HERE)
A Universal Church - created by the alienated internal proletariat as an outlet for its dissatisfaction with its political and economic lot under the dominant minority. It's no accident that Christianity spread through the Roman Empire via slaves, the poor, women and other oppressed minorities and disenfranchised.
Fall of the Universal State - As Toynbee noted, a universal state empire is not a golden age so much as an Indian Summer, a brief rally in an inevitable downward spiral. As the empire finally unravels politically, militarily and economically the external proletariat launches another volkwanderung and the internal proletariat creates a Universal Church which then forms the chrysalis of the next civilization.
submitted by /u/celtic1959[link] [comments]
Watched an interesting documentary on the Bronze Age collapse of 1177 bc.
It was our first age of globalization with multiple civilization, empires, kingdoms and city states all interconnected by trade (especially the tin and copper used to make bronze - the "oil" of their age.
There were as many geopolitical players in the Bronze Age (Hittites, Egyptians, Myceneans, Assyrians, Elamites, Mitanni, Kassites, etc.) as there are today (USA, EU, Russia, OPEC China, Japan India, South Korea, etc.) with interconnected trade routes and sophisticated supporting webs of financial institutions and diplomatic correspondence stretching from Cornwall to Cyprus to Afghanistan.
Like our world it was a multi-polar world with a few super powers (like USA and Egypt), whose collapse was triggered by climate change (natural global cooling then, man-made global warming today) causing megadroughts, famine and climate refugees (aka the Sea Peoples) leading to a chain rection systems collapse across half the globe.
Key parallels include:
Climate Change and Resource Scarcity: Severe, prolonged drought and environmental shifts forced agricultural failures and triggered mass migration (e.g., the "Sea Peoples").
Systemic Interdependence and Cascading Failure: The highly globalized, interdependent nature of the Mediterranean meant that the collapse of one region (e.g., the Hittites) triggered a domino effect across the entire system.
Economic and Political Instability: Widespread disruption of trade routes, economic decline, and internal rebellion destabilized heavily fortified, wealthy cities.
Overextension and Social Unrest: Similar to modern times, elites in the Late Bronze Age faced increasing challenges in maintaining order as crises deepened, sometimes leading to a lurch toward more authoritarian control.
Migration and Conflict: The era saw massive demographic shifts and "invasions" or migrations, often interpreted as refugees fleeing environmental or economic collapse.
What was most interesting is who actually survived the collapse and why.
Essentially Egypt, though battered and shrunken in power, was the only Bronze age civilization to emerge whole after the collapse. The assured water supply of Nile River valley made its agriculture relatively resilient in the face of climate change and its relative isolation shielded it from the worst of the refugee hordes (with Ramses III winning a great victory over the invading Sea Peoples).
The current version of Egypt is America, whose assured water supply of the Great Lakes and Mississippi river system makes us relatively resilient against climate change. Bordered by two oceans and deserts to the south, America is nearly as well situated against mass influx of refuges as Egypt was (a mass migration of millions of refugees would not survive the trek across northern Mexico).
Physically America is as difficult to invade as ancient Egypt and our geography will blunt the worst effects of climate change. IOW, we will still have food when the rest of the world is going hungry or starving.
So don't be surprised if after the digital age collapse of 2077 ad that America is the only nation still standing.
"History Doesn't Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes" - Mark Twain
submitted by /u/celtic1959[link] [comments]
