These facilities still appear to be totally undefended, most of the attacks are made by suicide drones that fly slowly.
Are you sure they've been hit two days in a row? That post is from 9pm last night and says the plants were hit "yesterday" - which is now the day before yesterday.
The early reports I am seeing about last night suggest that Ukrainian done attacks were on targets in Rostov and Bryansk oblasts, but I haven't seen anything about specific targets yet.
These facilities still appear to be totally undefended, most of the attacks are made by suicide drones that fly slowly.
On this point: Recently Ukraine have added electricity grid substations to their target list. When you consider all the different possible targets that exist: oil refineries, power plants, electricity substations, armament factories, ammunition dumps, airbases, army barracks, railway junctions, bridges, etc, it's simply impossible to defend every target.
This is why the Tomahawk cruise missiles would have been so useful for Ukraine, and so much more useful than additional air defences. Ukraine would have been able to use the Tomahawks to flatten the factories making drones and missiles that are used to attack Ukrainian cities, instead of trying to protect every inch of Ukraine from potential attack (given that Russia also targets civilians).
Unfortunately Putin's phone call, one way or another, convinced Trump not to supply Tomahawks to Ukraine.
If he is found to have lied about this to wriggle out of it, all the humble pie that has ever been made, and all that ever will be won’t be enough
Who is Ross Kempsall? Three and a half years too late, but a good effort, I'm sure.
I have checked him out. It turns out he is a 32 year old Conservative Peer installed by the King of Comedy Boris Johnson in 2022. Whenever one learns about some of the absurd stunts Johnson pulled as PM like installing an excitable 20 something Guido Fawkes hack into the House of Lords one is reminded of how incredibly unserious Boris Johnson is.
Anyway apparently Baron Kempsall is about to bring down Starmer over Currygate. I'm tempted to suggest he lets it go, but if the Conservatives are confident of their win, more power to their elbow.
It will be interesting to see what his lordship claims to have discovered. From what I remember, the facts of currygate were not denied and it all revolved around what the lockdown rules were at the time. If I had to guess, and it sort of fits with Kempsell's background, he has found an activist who was there who has since defected to Reform or the Greens, and who recorded Starmer's speech which started: don't tell anyone because we are not supposed to be here.
Except if there were a smoking gun, he'd have shown it already.
If he is found to have lied about this to wriggle out of it, all the humble pie that has ever been made, and all that ever will be won’t be enough
Who is Ross Kempsall? Three and a half years too late, but a good effort, I'm sure.
I have checked him out. It turns out he is a 32 year old Conservative Peer installed by the King of Comedy Boris Johnson in 2022. Whenever one learns about some of the absurd stunts Johnson pulled as PM like installing an excitable 20 something Guido Fawkes hack into the House of Lords one is reminded of how incredibly unserious Boris Johnson is.
Anyway apparently Baron Kempsall is about to bring down Starmer over Currygate. I'm tempted to suggest he lets it go, but if the Conservatives are confident of their win, more power to their elbow.
It will be interesting to see what his lordship claims to have discovered. From what I remember, the facts of currygate were not denied and it all revolved around what the lockdown rules were at the time. If I had to guess, and it sort of fits with Kempsell's background, he has found an activist who was there who has since defected to Reform or the Greens, and who recorded Starmer's speech which started: don't tell anyone because we are not supposed to be here.
Except if there were a smoking gun, he'd have shown it already.
The problem of course as well is that if Starmer broke lockdown, Cummings and Johnson did so much more spectacularly and so far as is known without any consequences at all. The police generally preferred to move people on for a first offence rather than fining them, or issuing guidance ex post facto.
Moreover, it happened a long time ago and I think the circus has moved on somewhat.
For a not very bright obsessive like Kempsall, it may be salient, but it's unlikely to resonate with the wider public.
Arguably, it would be helpful to Starmer by distracting from the real things he's getting wrong, like Michael Howard and the dodgy dossier ultimately helped Blair.
If he is found to have lied about this to wriggle out of it, all the humble pie that has ever been made, and all that ever will be won’t be enough
Who is Ross Kempsall? Three and a half years too late, but a good effort, I'm sure.
I have checked him out. It turns out he is a 32 year old Conservative Peer installed by the King of Comedy Boris Johnson in 2022. Whenever one learns about some of the absurd stunts Johnson pulled as PM like installing an excitable 20 something Guido Fawkes hack into the House of Lords one is reminded of how incredibly unserious Boris Johnson is.
Anyway apparently Baron Kempsall is about to bring down Starmer over Currygate. I'm tempted to suggest he lets it go, but if the Conservatives are confident of their win, more power to their elbow.
It will be interesting to see what his lordship claims to have discovered. From what I remember, the facts of currygate were not denied and it all revolved around what the lockdown rules were at the time. If I had to guess, and it sort of fits with Kempsell's background, he has found an activist who was there who has since defected to Reform or the Greens, and who recorded Starmer's speech which started: don't tell anyone because we are not supposed to be here.
Except if there were a smoking gun, he'd have shown it already.
A former Boris acolyte turned dodgy peer bringing up COVID lockdown breaking is the sharpest of double edged swords. Sure it'll damage Starmer if the proof is sufficiently good but his public image is in the toilet anyway. It won't benefit the Conservatives at all to bring this period of time back into people's minds. Unless Lord Kempsall is defecting to Reform of course.
On a side note it's nice to be back at PB after being wiped out for four days with killer flu. Annoyingly I caught it while waiting at the hospital for my husband to have an operation so he ended up coming out much fitter than me.
It irritates me - people have been saying she’s going to replicate ICE in toto when that’s clearly not what she meant. If anything, it will be an independent branch of law enforcement - like British transport police for example - with a specific remit
Why did she say 'ICE' then? And she's got form for simpering about Trump.
Because she was simpering about Trump and looking for headlines to attract back reform curious people.
Yep. And the cost of that kind of politics is you're indelibly associated with the kind of organisation now buying chemical weapons and missiles.
Doesn’t mean she is actually going to copy the thing lock, stock & barrel which is what she is accused of by people on the board
Phew, well it looks like Amazon AWS is back up this morning.
Apparently one of the victims yesterday was gov.uk One Login system, hopefully there will be questions to the minister responsible as to why they were reliant on a single cloud services provider, and how such architecture might work with their wonderful ID cards scheme.
The government does run its own Cloud data centres called Crown for critical infrastructure but it contracted out a lot of less critical stuff to AWS when it had to move a lot of stuff out of existing data centres quickly. One would hope that the ID card systems would sit on Crown servers.
These facilities still appear to be totally undefended, most of the attacks are made by suicide drones that fly slowly.
Orenburg gas plant was Sunday evening.
It was seen on fire again Monday evening, but it might be a result of a failure to properly put out the first fire, rather than a second strike. Russians are of course denying it got hit again.
ESMO 2025: mRNA-based COVID vaccines generate improved responses to immunotherapy
https://www.mdanderson.org/newsroom/research-newsroom/-esmo-2025--mrna-based-covid-vaccines-generate-improved-response.h00-159780390.html Cancer patients who received mRNA COVID vaccines within 100 days of starting immunotherapy were twice as likely to be alive three years after treatment as those who never received a vaccine These findings have prompted a randomized Phase III trial to determine if mRNA COVID vaccines should be part of the standard of care for this type of therapy If validated, findings could significantly increase the number of patients who benefit from immunotherapy..
Obviously this needs confirming in a controlled clinical trial (a phase III trial is in now in the works), but this is a huge effect, in a study of a thousand patients, so it seems pretty likely it will be.
This is a particularly interesting part of the findings. I'd like to hear @Foxy 's thoughts on this, and the implications for cancers not routinely treated with immunotherapy.
Importantly, these survival improvements were most pronounced in patients with immunologically “cold” tumors, which would not be expected to respond well to immunotherapy. These patients, who have very low PD-L1 expression on their tumors, experienced a nearly five-fold improvement in three-year overall survival with receipt of a COVID vaccine...
It's a matter of more than academic interest for some of us.
Not my area, but a remarkable finding.
One to save for the anti-vaxxers on Saturday morning: covid vaccines cure cancer!
These facilities still appear to be totally undefended, most of the attacks are made by suicide drones that fly slowly.
On this point: Recently Ukraine have added electricity grid substations to their target list. When you consider all the different possible targets that exist: oil refineries, power plants, electricity substations, armament factories, ammunition dumps, airbases, army barracks, railway junctions, bridges, etc, it's simply impossible to defend every target.
This is why the Tomahawk cruise missiles would have been so useful for Ukraine, and so much more useful than additional air defences. Ukraine would have been able to use the Tomahawks to flatten the factories making drones and missiles that are used to attack Ukrainian cities, instead of trying to protect every inch of Ukraine from potential attack (given that Russia also targets civilians).
Unfortunately Putin's phone call, one way or another, convinced Trump not to supply Tomahawks to Ukraine.
On the political side, there’s a meeting of European leaders on Friday in London, to discuss the Ukraine situation.
I suspect that Tomahawks will be high on the agenda, UK does have some of them but only naval launch platforms. There’s a truck-based launcher for them that’s recently been tested in the US, and is now for sale. There’s also the German air-launched Taurus missile, which carries similar firepower and is currently being installed on Gripen jets for the Swedish Air Force.
Sadly I still think that Trump still thinks he can get Putin on side to end the war, and is mistaken in that view. The latest set of Russian demands were a step in the right direction but still totally unacceptable to Ukraine and most of Europe.
Meanwhile there are serious cracks appearing in the Russian economy, and it’s not impossible that Putin mentioned the use of ‘special’ (nuclear) weapons to Trump when they spoke. Lavrov has mentioned them in passing a few times during this war, but it’s easy to understand how Trump would need to take such a direct threat seriously.
Phew, well it looks like Amazon AWS is back up this morning.
Apparently one of the victims yesterday was gov.uk One Login system, hopefully there will be questions to the minister responsible as to why they were reliant on a single cloud services provider, and how such architecture might work with their wonderful ID cards scheme.
The government does run its own Cloud data centres called Crown for critical infrastructure but it contracted out a lot of less critical stuff to AWS when it had to move a lot of stuff out of existing data centres quickly. One would hope that the ID card systems would sit on Crown servers.
Here is a semi-technical explanation that does mention British infrastructure quite a lot (15 minutes):-
These facilities still appear to be totally undefended, most of the attacks are made by suicide drones that fly slowly.
On this point: Recently Ukraine have added electricity grid substations to their target list. When you consider all the different possible targets that exist: oil refineries, power plants, electricity substations, armament factories, ammunition dumps, airbases, army barracks, railway junctions, bridges, etc, it's simply impossible to defend every target.
This is why the Tomahawk cruise missiles would have been so useful for Ukraine, and so much more useful than additional air defences. Ukraine would have been able to use the Tomahawks to flatten the factories making drones and missiles that are used to attack Ukrainian cities, instead of trying to protect every inch of Ukraine from potential attack (given that Russia also targets civilians).
Unfortunately Putin's phone call, one way or another, convinced Trump not to supply Tomahawks to Ukraine.
On the political side, there’s a meeting of European leaders on Friday in London, to discuss the Ukraine situation.
I suspect that Tomahawks will be high on the agenda, UK does have some of them but only naval launch platforms. There’s a truck-based launcher for them that’s recently been tested in the US, and is now for sale. There’s also the German air-launched Taurus missile, which carries similar firepower and is currently being installed on Gripen jets for the Swedish Air Force.
Sadly I still think that Trump still thinks he can get Putin on side to end the war, and is mistaken in that view. The latest set of Russian demands were a step in the right direction but still totally unacceptable to Ukraine and most of Europe.
Meanwhile there are serious cracks appearing in the Russian economy, and it’s not impossible that Putin mentioned the use of ‘special’ (nuclear) weapons to Trump when they spoke. Lavrov has mentioned them in passing a few times during this war, but it’s easy to understand how Trump would need to take such a direct threat seriously.
If I was Ukrainian I'd be asking the Europeans to help to rapidly develop a missile with the capabilities of Tomahawk that Ukraine/Europeans could manufacture without recourse to the US.
Phew, well it looks like Amazon AWS is back up this morning.
Apparently one of the victims yesterday was gov.uk One Login system, hopefully there will be questions to the minister responsible as to why they were reliant on a single cloud services provider, and how such architecture might work with their wonderful ID cards scheme.
The government does run its own Cloud data centres called Crown for critical infrastructure but it contracted out a lot of less critical stuff to AWS when it had to move a lot of stuff out of existing data centres quickly. One would hope that the ID card systems would sit on Crown servers.
That's the triumph of hope over experience.
Glad to hear you are recovered from your bug - I had it for a fortnight (as I had to keep working and it really needed rest) and it was not at all fun.
Phew, well it looks like Amazon AWS is back up this morning.
Apparently one of the victims yesterday was gov.uk One Login system, hopefully there will be questions to the minister responsible as to why they were reliant on a single cloud services provider, and how such architecture might work with their wonderful ID cards scheme.
The government does run its own Cloud data centres called Crown for critical infrastructure but it contracted out a lot of less critical stuff to AWS when it had to move a lot of stuff out of existing data centres quickly. One would hope that the ID card systems would sit on Crown servers.
Here is a semi-technical explanation that does mention British infrastructure quite a lot (15 minutes):-
ESMO 2025: mRNA-based COVID vaccines generate improved responses to immunotherapy
https://www.mdanderson.org/newsroom/research-newsroom/-esmo-2025--mrna-based-covid-vaccines-generate-improved-response.h00-159780390.html Cancer patients who received mRNA COVID vaccines within 100 days of starting immunotherapy were twice as likely to be alive three years after treatment as those who never received a vaccine These findings have prompted a randomized Phase III trial to determine if mRNA COVID vaccines should be part of the standard of care for this type of therapy If validated, findings could significantly increase the number of patients who benefit from immunotherapy..
Obviously this needs confirming in a controlled clinical trial (a phase III trial is in now in the works), but this is a huge effect, in a study of a thousand patients, so it seems pretty likely it will be.
This is a particularly interesting part of the findings. I'd like to hear @Foxy 's thoughts on this, and the implications for cancers not routinely treated with immunotherapy.
Importantly, these survival improvements were most pronounced in patients with immunologically “cold” tumors, which would not be expected to respond well to immunotherapy. These patients, who have very low PD-L1 expression on their tumors, experienced a nearly five-fold improvement in three-year overall survival with receipt of a COVID vaccine...
It's a matter of more than academic interest for some of us.
Not my area, but a remarkable finding.
One to save for the anti-vaxxers on Saturday morning: covid vaccines cure cancer!
That won't stop them claiming they cause BA pilots to die of heart attacks.
Serious point though - covid vaccines will cause mass deaths.
Why? Because they have driven RFK Jr further round the twist than he already was, and he has as a result stripped out American healthcare funding for international vaccine programmes.
New example of chaos theory: man invents successful vaccine, millions of people die from avoidable diseases.
We should all listen to what our political opponents have to say. I subject myself regularly to what passes for informed commentary on the New Statesman podcast and even dip a toe into the News Agents (thanks Youtube algorithm) occasionally.
I'm with you on that one as a basic - if opponents are not listened to carefully they cannot be opposed effectively. I drop links from Telegraph, Spectator etc when I find interesting ones.
However in RefUK I find no content; it's a helium balloon. There's no real policy, no consistency, no argument, and no honesty, just marketing. If one thing is stated today, then the exact opposite may be stated tomorrow. Or if something is awkward, procedure will be abused or scrutiny avoided (see RefUK @ Notts CC trying to ban the press they did not like).
That's what we had with Tice on this occasion - him maundering on about the 100s of millions he was going to save in Local Govt, one week after the RefUK position on freezing or cutting Council Tax has reversed afaics everywhere. It's a random walk, which is entirely tactical.
I'm a little more hopeful for some at the lowest level - Councillors - based on my dealings with a couple of my local ones. But it's too early too tell.
Phew, well it looks like Amazon AWS is back up this morning.
Apparently one of the victims yesterday was gov.uk One Login system, hopefully there will be questions to the minister responsible as to why they were reliant on a single cloud services provider, and how such architecture might work with their wonderful ID cards scheme.
The government does run its own Cloud data centres called Crown for critical infrastructure but it contracted out a lot of less critical stuff to AWS when it had to move a lot of stuff out of existing data centres quickly. One would hope that the ID card systems would sit on Crown servers.
Here is a semi-technical explanation that does mention British infrastructure quite a lot (15 minutes):-
These facilities still appear to be totally undefended, most of the attacks are made by suicide drones that fly slowly.
On this point: Recently Ukraine have added electricity grid substations to their target list. When you consider all the different possible targets that exist: oil refineries, power plants, electricity substations, armament factories, ammunition dumps, airbases, army barracks, railway junctions, bridges, etc, it's simply impossible to defend every target.
This is why the Tomahawk cruise missiles would have been so useful for Ukraine, and so much more useful than additional air defences. Ukraine would have been able to use the Tomahawks to flatten the factories making drones and missiles that are used to attack Ukrainian cities, instead of trying to protect every inch of Ukraine from potential attack (given that Russia also targets civilians).
Unfortunately Putin's phone call, one way or another, convinced Trump not to supply Tomahawks to Ukraine.
On the political side, there’s a meeting of European leaders on Friday in London, to discuss the Ukraine situation.
I suspect that Tomahawks will be high on the agenda, UK does have some of them but only naval launch platforms. There’s a truck-based launcher for them that’s recently been tested in the US, and is now for sale. There’s also the German air-launched Taurus missile, which carries similar firepower and is currently being installed on Gripen jets for the Swedish Air Force.
Sadly I still think that Trump still thinks he can get Putin on side to end the war, and is mistaken in that view. The latest set of Russian demands were a step in the right direction but still totally unacceptable to Ukraine and most of Europe.
Meanwhile there are serious cracks appearing in the Russian economy, and it’s not impossible that Putin mentioned the use of ‘special’ (nuclear) weapons to Trump when they spoke. Lavrov has mentioned them in passing a few times during this war, but it’s easy to understand how Trump would need to take such a direct threat seriously.
If I was Ukrainian I'd be asking the Europeans to help to rapidly develop a missile with the capabilities of Tomahawk that Ukraine/Europeans could manufacture without recourse to the US.
Make America Irrelevant Again.
European systems like Taurus and Storm Shadow were deliberately limited in range when developed as part of the arms control weapons limitations environment of the time. If the US is now completely unreliable as an ally, that will change.
The big deficit without the US, though, is in industrial capacity. We need to work with Europe to rebuild that.
These facilities still appear to be totally undefended, most of the attacks are made by suicide drones that fly slowly.
On this point: Recently Ukraine have added electricity grid substations to their target list. When you consider all the different possible targets that exist: oil refineries, power plants, electricity substations, armament factories, ammunition dumps, airbases, army barracks, railway junctions, bridges, etc, it's simply impossible to defend every target.
This is why the Tomahawk cruise missiles would have been so useful for Ukraine, and so much more useful than additional air defences. Ukraine would have been able to use the Tomahawks to flatten the factories making drones and missiles that are used to attack Ukrainian cities, instead of trying to protect every inch of Ukraine from potential attack (given that Russia also targets civilians).
Unfortunately Putin's phone call, one way or another, convinced Trump not to supply Tomahawks to Ukraine.
On the political side, there’s a meeting of European leaders on Friday in London, to discuss the Ukraine situation.
I suspect that Tomahawks will be high on the agenda, UK does have some of them but only naval launch platforms. There’s a truck-based launcher for them that’s recently been tested in the US, and is now for sale. There’s also the German air-launched Taurus missile, which carries similar firepower and is currently being installed on Gripen jets for the Swedish Air Force.
Sadly I still think that Trump still thinks he can get Putin on side to end the war, and is mistaken in that view. The latest set of Russian demands were a step in the right direction but still totally unacceptable to Ukraine and most of Europe.
Meanwhile there are serious cracks appearing in the Russian economy, and it’s not impossible that Putin mentioned the use of ‘special’ (nuclear) weapons to Trump when they spoke. Lavrov has mentioned them in passing a few times during this war, but it’s easy to understand how Trump would need to take such a direct threat seriously.
If I was Ukrainian I'd be asking the Europeans to help to rapidly develop a missile with the capabilities of Tomahawk that Ukraine/Europeans could manufacture without recourse to the US.
We should all listen to what our political opponents have to say. I subject myself regularly to what passes for informed commentary on the New Statesman podcast and even dip a toe into the News Agents (thanks Youtube algorithm) occasionally.
I'm with you on that one as a basic - if opponents are not listened to carefully they cannot be opposed effectively. I drop links from Telegraph, Spectator etc when I find interesting ones.
However in RefUK I find no content; it's a helium balloon. There's no real policy, no consistency, no argument, and no honesty, just marketing. If one thing is stated today, then the exact opposite may be stated tomorrow. Or if something is awkward, procedure will be abused or scrutiny avoided (see RefUK @ Notts CC trying to ban the press they did not like).
That's what we had with Tice on this occasion - him maundering on about the 100s of millions he was going to save in Local Govt, one week after the RefUK position on freezing or cutting Council Tax has reversed afaics everywhere. It's a random walk, which is entirely tactical.
I'm a little more hopeful for some at the lowest level - Councillors - based on my dealings with a couple of my local ones. But it's too early too tell.
If so Kemi will hope that will send a few Thatcherites back to the Tories from Reform after her tax cut pledge
These word-clouds are pretty damning, but not just of the leaders themselves, but also of the public. We seem incapable of understanding that much of politics is boring, and that following the rules is boring, listening to people appears weak etc.
In an attention deficit world we want endless entertainment and action, whether it is appropriate or not.
ESMO 2025: mRNA-based COVID vaccines generate improved responses to immunotherapy
https://www.mdanderson.org/newsroom/research-newsroom/-esmo-2025--mrna-based-covid-vaccines-generate-improved-response.h00-159780390.html Cancer patients who received mRNA COVID vaccines within 100 days of starting immunotherapy were twice as likely to be alive three years after treatment as those who never received a vaccine These findings have prompted a randomized Phase III trial to determine if mRNA COVID vaccines should be part of the standard of care for this type of therapy If validated, findings could significantly increase the number of patients who benefit from immunotherapy..
Obviously this needs confirming in a controlled clinical trial (a phase III trial is in now in the works), but this is a huge effect, in a study of a thousand patients, so it seems pretty likely it will be.
This is a particularly interesting part of the findings. I'd like to hear @Foxy 's thoughts on this, and the implications for cancers not routinely treated with immunotherapy.
Importantly, these survival improvements were most pronounced in patients with immunologically “cold” tumors, which would not be expected to respond well to immunotherapy. These patients, who have very low PD-L1 expression on their tumors, experienced a nearly five-fold improvement in three-year overall survival with receipt of a COVID vaccine...
It's a matter of more than academic interest for some of us.
Not my area, but a remarkable finding.
One to save for the anti-vaxxers on Saturday morning: covid vaccines cure cancer!
That won't stop them claiming they cause BA pilots to die of heart attacks.
Serious point though - covid vaccines will cause mass deaths.
Why? Because they have driven RFK Jr further round the twist than he already was, and he has as a result stripped out American healthcare funding for international vaccine programmes.
New example of chaos theory: man invents successful vaccine, millions of people die from avoidable diseases.
The majority of posts on X in reply to this news were from anti-vaxxers denouncing it as lies...
And MD Anderson has a good case for being the top cancer treatment center in the US, possibly the world.
ESMO 2025: mRNA-based COVID vaccines generate improved responses to immunotherapy
https://www.mdanderson.org/newsroom/research-newsroom/-esmo-2025--mrna-based-covid-vaccines-generate-improved-response.h00-159780390.html Cancer patients who received mRNA COVID vaccines within 100 days of starting immunotherapy were twice as likely to be alive three years after treatment as those who never received a vaccine These findings have prompted a randomized Phase III trial to determine if mRNA COVID vaccines should be part of the standard of care for this type of therapy If validated, findings could significantly increase the number of patients who benefit from immunotherapy..
Obviously this needs confirming in a controlled clinical trial (a phase III trial is in now in the works), but this is a huge effect, in a study of a thousand patients, so it seems pretty likely it will be.
This is a particularly interesting part of the findings. I'd like to hear @Foxy 's thoughts on this, and the implications for cancers not routinely treated with immunotherapy.
Importantly, these survival improvements were most pronounced in patients with immunologically “cold” tumors, which would not be expected to respond well to immunotherapy. These patients, who have very low PD-L1 expression on their tumors, experienced a nearly five-fold improvement in three-year overall survival with receipt of a COVID vaccine...
It's a matter of more than academic interest for some of us.
Not my area, but a remarkable finding.
One to save for the anti-vaxxers on Saturday morning: covid vaccines cure cancer!
That won't stop them claiming they cause BA pilots to die of heart attacks.
Serious point though - covid vaccines will cause mass deaths.
Why? Because they have driven RFK Jr further round the twist than he already was, and he has as a result stripped out American healthcare funding for international vaccine programmes.
New example of chaos theory: man invents successful vaccine, millions of people die from avoidable diseases.
The majority of posts on X in reply to this news were from anti-vaxxers denouncing it as lies...
And MD Anderson has a good case for being the top cancer treatment center in the US, possibly the world.
I had my flu vaccine yesterday at work. It's the first one in 4 years that didn't include the offer of a covid booster at the same time. I think this is national policy.
On unrelated news masks are back in ED and some wards due to large numbers of staff going off sick.
These word-clouds are pretty damning, but not just of the leaders themselves, but also of the public. We seem incapable of understanding that much of politics is boring, and that following the rules is boring, listening to people appears weak etc.
In an attention deficit world we want endless entertainment and action, whether it is appropriate or not.
I see your point but what we actually want is competence, the ability to listen and absorb what is being said (rather than dismissing everything that does not fit with their preconceptions), and the capability to implement decisions that are made. Is this really too much to ask?
ESMO 2025: mRNA-based COVID vaccines generate improved responses to immunotherapy
https://www.mdanderson.org/newsroom/research-newsroom/-esmo-2025--mrna-based-covid-vaccines-generate-improved-response.h00-159780390.html Cancer patients who received mRNA COVID vaccines within 100 days of starting immunotherapy were twice as likely to be alive three years after treatment as those who never received a vaccine These findings have prompted a randomized Phase III trial to determine if mRNA COVID vaccines should be part of the standard of care for this type of therapy If validated, findings could significantly increase the number of patients who benefit from immunotherapy..
Obviously this needs confirming in a controlled clinical trial (a phase III trial is in now in the works), but this is a huge effect, in a study of a thousand patients, so it seems pretty likely it will be.
This is a particularly interesting part of the findings. I'd like to hear @Foxy 's thoughts on this, and the implications for cancers not routinely treated with immunotherapy.
Importantly, these survival improvements were most pronounced in patients with immunologically “cold” tumors, which would not be expected to respond well to immunotherapy. These patients, who have very low PD-L1 expression on their tumors, experienced a nearly five-fold improvement in three-year overall survival with receipt of a COVID vaccine...
It's a matter of more than academic interest for some of us.
Not my area, but a remarkable finding.
One to save for the anti-vaxxers on Saturday morning: covid vaccines cure cancer!
That won't stop them claiming they cause BA pilots to die of heart attacks.
Serious point though - covid vaccines will cause mass deaths.
Why? Because they have driven RFK Jr further round the twist than he already was, and he has as a result stripped out American healthcare funding for international vaccine programmes.
New example of chaos theory: man invents successful vaccine, millions of people die from avoidable diseases.
The majority of posts on X in reply to this news were from anti-vaxxers denouncing it as lies...
And MD Anderson has a good case for being the top cancer treatment center in the US, possibly the world.
I had my flu vaccine yesterday at work. It's the first one in 4 years that didn't include the offer of a covid booster at the same time. I think this is national policy.
On unrelated news masks are back in ED and some wards due to large numbers of staff going off sick.
There does seem to be a lot of Covid around here at the moment. And one of the strands seems more unpleasant than it has been for a while. I have also got my flu jab coming up and it also does not include a Covid booster. I am tempted to get one anyway.
I had my flu vaccine yesterday at work. It's the first one in 4 years that didn't include the offer of a covid booster at the same time. I think this is national policy.
ESMO 2025: mRNA-based COVID vaccines generate improved responses to immunotherapy
https://www.mdanderson.org/newsroom/research-newsroom/-esmo-2025--mrna-based-covid-vaccines-generate-improved-response.h00-159780390.html Cancer patients who received mRNA COVID vaccines within 100 days of starting immunotherapy were twice as likely to be alive three years after treatment as those who never received a vaccine These findings have prompted a randomized Phase III trial to determine if mRNA COVID vaccines should be part of the standard of care for this type of therapy If validated, findings could significantly increase the number of patients who benefit from immunotherapy..
Obviously this needs confirming in a controlled clinical trial (a phase III trial is in now in the works), but this is a huge effect, in a study of a thousand patients, so it seems pretty likely it will be.
This is a particularly interesting part of the findings. I'd like to hear @Foxy 's thoughts on this, and the implications for cancers not routinely treated with immunotherapy.
Importantly, these survival improvements were most pronounced in patients with immunologically “cold” tumors, which would not be expected to respond well to immunotherapy. These patients, who have very low PD-L1 expression on their tumors, experienced a nearly five-fold improvement in three-year overall survival with receipt of a COVID vaccine...
It's a matter of more than academic interest for some of us.
Not my area, but a remarkable finding.
One to save for the anti-vaxxers on Saturday morning: covid vaccines cure cancer!
There are a number of PD-1 inhibitors approved from immunotherapy in the UK (Keytruda*, for example). For now, they're only used in the subset of cancer patients for whom they are most effective.
This news potentially makes them far more widely applicable.
(*currently one of the world's most financially valuable drugs, it comes off patent in 2028))
We should all listen to what our political opponents have to say. I subject myself regularly to what passes for informed commentary on the New Statesman podcast and even dip a toe into the News Agents (thanks Youtube algorithm) occasionally.
I'm with you on that one as a basic - if opponents are not listened to carefully they cannot be opposed effectively. I drop links from Telegraph, Spectator etc when I find interesting ones.
However in RefUK I find no content; it's a helium balloon. There's no real policy, no consistency, no argument, and no honesty, just marketing. If one thing is stated today, then the exact opposite may be stated tomorrow. Or if something is awkward, procedure will be abused or scrutiny avoided (see RefUK @ Notts CC trying to ban the press they did not like).
That's what we had with Tice on this occasion - him maundering on about the 100s of millions he was going to save in Local Govt, one week after the RefUK position on freezing or cutting Council Tax has reversed afaics everywhere. It's a random walk, which is entirely tactical.
I'm a little more hopeful for some at the lowest level - Councillors - based on my dealings with a couple of my local ones. But it's too early too tell.
If so Kemi will hope that will send a few Thatcherites back to the Tories from Reform after her tax cut pledge
It would be useful to be given the heads up for Budget discussions / Finance Portfolioholder Statements from Reform controlled councils. Opposition councillors should be asking NOW whether the council will be presenting +5%, 0%, - 5%, - 10% budget increases in February.
"Although tax income was significantly higher than last year, in part due to the increase in employers' national insurance contributions, spending also increased.
This was partly due to pay rises and inflation increasing the government's day-to-day running costs, as well as inflation-linked increases to state benefits."
ESMO 2025: mRNA-based COVID vaccines generate improved responses to immunotherapy
https://www.mdanderson.org/newsroom/research-newsroom/-esmo-2025--mrna-based-covid-vaccines-generate-improved-response.h00-159780390.html Cancer patients who received mRNA COVID vaccines within 100 days of starting immunotherapy were twice as likely to be alive three years after treatment as those who never received a vaccine These findings have prompted a randomized Phase III trial to determine if mRNA COVID vaccines should be part of the standard of care for this type of therapy If validated, findings could significantly increase the number of patients who benefit from immunotherapy..
Obviously this needs confirming in a controlled clinical trial (a phase III trial is in now in the works), but this is a huge effect, in a study of a thousand patients, so it seems pretty likely it will be.
This is a particularly interesting part of the findings. I'd like to hear @Foxy 's thoughts on this, and the implications for cancers not routinely treated with immunotherapy.
Importantly, these survival improvements were most pronounced in patients with immunologically “cold” tumors, which would not be expected to respond well to immunotherapy. These patients, who have very low PD-L1 expression on their tumors, experienced a nearly five-fold improvement in three-year overall survival with receipt of a COVID vaccine...
It's a matter of more than academic interest for some of us.
Not my area, but a remarkable finding.
One to save for the anti-vaxxers on Saturday morning: covid vaccines cure cancer!
That won't stop them claiming they cause BA pilots to die of heart attacks.
Serious point though - covid vaccines will cause mass deaths.
Why? Because they have driven RFK Jr further round the twist than he already was, and he has as a result stripped out American healthcare funding for international vaccine programmes.
New example of chaos theory: man invents successful vaccine, millions of people die from avoidable diseases.
The majority of posts on X in reply to this news were from anti-vaxxers denouncing it as lies...
And MD Anderson has a good case for being the top cancer treatment center in the US, possibly the world.
I had my flu vaccine yesterday at work. It's the first one in 4 years that didn't include the offer of a covid booster at the same time. I think this is national policy.
On unrelated news masks are back in ED and some wards due to large numbers of staff going off sick.
There does seem to be a lot of Covid around here at the moment. And one of the strands seems more unpleasant than it has been for a while. I have also got my flu jab coming up and it also does not include a Covid booster. I am tempted to get one anyway.
I think I had Covid again about a month ago. I didn't bother testing at the time, as I thought it was just a very mild cold. But I then felt knackered for the next fortnight, and another family member did test positive.
"Although tax income was significantly higher than last year, in part due to the increase in employers' national insurance contributions, spending also increased.
This was partly due to pay rises and inflation increasing the government's day-to-day running costs, as well as inflation-linked increases to state benefits."
"Although tax income was significantly higher than last year, in part due to the increase in employers' national insurance contributions, spending also increased.
This was partly due to pay rises and inflation increasing the government's day-to-day running costs, as well as inflation-linked increases to state benefits."
Shouldn't all those things have been easily predictable ?
Ah, they were: ..September's figure was slightly less than analysts' expectations of £20.8bn, but was just above the £20.1bn that had been projected by the government's official forecaster, the Office for Budget Responsibility, in March...
£20bn in a month, and £100bn in the first six months, that latter figure 13% higher year-on-year.
Err, I think it’s fair to say the public finances are totally Donald Ducked at this point.
Rachel needs to find £50bn of tax rises and £50bn of spending cuts this year, as an absolute minimum, and that’s still only half way to fixing the problem. At this stage in the economic cycle govt should be close to running a surplus.
"Although tax income was significantly higher than last year, in part due to the increase in employers' national insurance contributions, spending also increased.
This was partly due to pay rises and inflation increasing the government's day-to-day running costs, as well as inflation-linked increases to state benefits."
It appears that we are in a doom loop. If Reeves raises taxes it will lead to more inflation. The inflation increases the cost of inflation linked expenditure and debt thus creating a bigger hole.
In fact raising taxes might even make it worse. The markets appear to believe the Government has no long term strategy so it increases the cost of long term dated gilts. This forces the Government to borrow short term making things even more unstable.
I am finding it increasingly difficult to hire staff as so few people are capable of justifying their costs. For a large section of the population being unemployed is the logical choice. Most of my new staff now are East European or Indian. They still have a work ethic.
Which will crash first the economy or the Government? I sway between the two.
"Although tax income was significantly higher than last year, in part due to the increase in employers' national insurance contributions, spending also increased.
This was partly due to pay rises and inflation increasing the government's day-to-day running costs, as well as inflation-linked increases to state benefits."
The quote from the chief secretary is particularly nonsensical. It is clearly designed to mislead.
Responding to the figures, Chief Secretary to the Treasury James Murray said the government would "never play fast and loose with the public finances".
He reiterated the government's aim of bringing down borrowing, to be rid of "costly debt interest, instead putting that money into our NHS, schools and police".
£20bn in a month, and £100bn in the first six months, that latter figure 13% higher year-on-year.
Err, I think it’s fair to say the public finances are totally Donald Ducked at this point.
Rachel needs to find £50bn of tax rises and £50bn of spending cuts this year, as an absolute minimum, and that’s still only half way to fixing the problem. At this stage in the economic cycle govt should be close to running a surplus.
Move pensions to double-lock. Linking to higher of inflation or earnings is perfectly fair.
£20bn in a month, and £100bn in the first six months, that latter figure 13% higher year-on-year.
Err, I think it’s fair to say the public finances are totally Donald Ducked at this point.
Rachel needs to find £50bn of tax rises and £50bn of spending cuts this year, as an absolute minimum, and that’s still only half way to fixing the problem. At this stage in the economic cycle govt should be close to running a surplus.
Move pensions to double-lock. Linking to higher of inflation or earnings is perfectly fair.
This would be a good sign for market confidence.
My feeling is the only hope is a Trump style economy. Raise import duties significantly. Require Government suppliers to invest in UK. Cut Government inefficiency and welcome entrepreneurs. Set fixed sum for welfare and stop when sum reached.
Comments
The early reports I am seeing about last night suggest that Ukrainian done attacks were on targets in Rostov and Bryansk oblasts, but I haven't seen anything about specific targets yet.
This is why the Tomahawk cruise missiles would have been so useful for Ukraine, and so much more useful than additional air defences. Ukraine would have been able to use the Tomahawks to flatten the factories making drones and missiles that are used to attack Ukrainian cities, instead of trying to protect every inch of Ukraine from potential attack (given that Russia also targets civilians).
Unfortunately Putin's phone call, one way or another, convinced Trump not to supply Tomahawks to Ukraine.
Except if there were a smoking gun, he'd have shown it already.
Moreover, it happened a long time ago and I think the circus has moved on somewhat.
For a not very bright obsessive like Kempsall, it may be salient, but it's unlikely to resonate with the wider public.
Arguably, it would be helpful to Starmer by distracting from the real things he's getting wrong, like Michael Howard and the dodgy dossier ultimately helped Blair.
On a side note it's nice to be back at PB after being wiped out for four days with killer flu. Annoyingly I caught it while waiting at the hospital for my husband to have an operation so he ended up coming out much fitter than me.
https://x.com/bscholl/status/1980492553314267326
https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/tax/hmrc-policy/hmrc-hyperscale-cloud-strategy-sparks-security-concerns
The government does run its own Cloud data centres called Crown for critical infrastructure but it contracted out a lot of less critical stuff to AWS when it had to move a lot of stuff out of existing data centres quickly. One would hope that the ID card systems would sit on Crown servers.
https://x.com/euromaidanpress/status/1980295405913989427
Either way, all good news for putting pressure on Putin.
One to save for the anti-vaxxers on Saturday morning: covid vaccines cure cancer!
https://x.com/skynews/status/1980286853027655693
I suspect that Tomahawks will be high on the agenda, UK does have some of them but only naval launch platforms. There’s a truck-based launcher for them that’s recently been tested in the US, and is now for sale. There’s also the German air-launched Taurus missile, which carries similar firepower and is currently being installed on Gripen jets for the Swedish Air Force.
Sadly I still think that Trump still thinks he can get Putin on side to end the war, and is mistaken in that view. The latest set of Russian demands were a step in the right direction but still totally unacceptable to Ukraine and most of Europe.
Meanwhile there are serious cracks appearing in the Russian economy, and it’s not impossible that Putin mentioned the use of ‘special’ (nuclear) weapons to Trump when they spoke. Lavrov has mentioned them in passing a few times during this war, but it’s easy to understand how Trump would need to take such a direct threat seriously.
Why the Web was Down Today - Explained by a Retired Microsoft Engineer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFvhpt8FN18
Make America Irrelevant Again.
Glad to hear you are recovered from your bug - I had it for a fortnight (as I had to keep working and it really needed rest) and it was not at all fun.
Serious point though - covid vaccines will cause mass deaths.
Why? Because they have driven RFK Jr further round the twist than he already was, and he has as a result stripped out American healthcare funding for international vaccine programmes.
New example of chaos theory: man invents successful vaccine, millions of people die from avoidable diseases.
However in RefUK I find no content; it's a helium balloon. There's no real policy, no consistency, no argument, and no honesty, just marketing. If one thing is stated today, then the exact opposite may be stated tomorrow. Or if something is awkward, procedure will be abused or scrutiny avoided (see RefUK @ Notts CC trying to ban the press they did not like).
That's what we had with Tice on this occasion - him maundering on about the 100s of millions he was going to save in Local Govt, one week after the RefUK position on freezing or cutting Council Tax has reversed afaics everywhere. It's a random walk, which is entirely tactical.
Farage to drop Reform’s £90bn tax cut pledge
Party leader says he will prioritise making savings ahead of speech to set out economic vision
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/10/13/farage-reform-uk-90bn-tax-cut-pledge/
I'm a little more hopeful for some at the lowest level - Councillors - based on my dealings with a couple of my local ones. But it's too early too tell.
If the US is now completely unreliable as an ally, that will change.
The big deficit without the US, though, is in industrial capacity. We need to work with Europe to rebuild that.
These word-clouds are pretty damning, but not just of the leaders themselves, but also of the public. We seem incapable of understanding that much of politics is boring, and that following the rules is boring, listening to people appears weak etc.
In an attention deficit world we want endless entertainment and action, whether it is appropriate or not.
And MD Anderson has a good case for being the top cancer treatment center in the US, possibly the world.
On unrelated news masks are back in ED and some wards due to large numbers of staff going off sick.
For now, they're only used in the subset of cancer patients for whom they are most effective.
This news potentially makes them far more widely applicable.
(*currently one of the world's most financially valuable drugs, it comes off patent in 2028))
https://x.com/ons/status/1980514494963970413?s=61
"Although tax income was significantly higher than last year, in part due to the increase in employers' national insurance contributions, spending also increased.
This was partly due to pay rises and inflation increasing the government's day-to-day running costs, as well as inflation-linked increases to state benefits."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8035130918o
I didn't bother testing at the time, as I thought it was just a very mild cold.
But I then felt knackered for the next fortnight, and another family member did test positive.
"Although tax income was significantly higher than last year, in part due to the increase in employers' national insurance contributions, spending also increased.
This was partly due to pay rises and inflation increasing the government's day-to-day running costs, as well as inflation-linked increases to state benefits."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8035130918o
Ah, they were:
..September's figure was slightly less than analysts' expectations of £20.8bn, but was just above the £20.1bn that had been projected by the government's official forecaster, the Office for Budget Responsibility, in March...
NEW THREAD
Err, I think it’s fair to say the public finances are totally Donald Ducked at this point.
Rachel needs to find £50bn of tax rises and £50bn of spending cuts this year, as an absolute minimum, and that’s still only half way to fixing the problem. At this stage in the economic cycle govt should be close to running a surplus.
It appears that we are in a doom loop. If Reeves raises taxes it will lead to more inflation. The inflation increases the cost of inflation linked expenditure and debt thus creating a bigger hole.
In fact raising taxes might even make it worse. The markets appear to believe the Government has no long term strategy so it increases the cost of long term dated gilts. This forces the Government to borrow short term making things even more unstable.
I am finding it increasingly difficult to hire staff as so few people are capable of justifying their costs. For a large section of the population being unemployed is the logical choice. Most of my new staff now are East European or Indian. They still have a work ethic.
Which will crash first the economy or the Government? I sway between the two.
Responding to the figures, Chief Secretary to the Treasury James Murray said the government would "never play fast and loose with the public finances".
He reiterated the government's aim of bringing down borrowing, to be rid of "costly debt interest, instead putting that money into our NHS, schools and police".
This would be a good sign for market confidence.
My feeling is the only hope is a Trump style economy. Raise import duties significantly. Require Government suppliers to invest in UK. Cut Government inefficiency and welcome entrepreneurs. Set fixed sum for welfare and stop when sum reached.
Chances of this happening? 1 in a million