Thursday, February 13

Day: August 24, 2018

Cloud streets spotted accross UK
Featured, United Kingdom

Cloud streets spotted accross UK

    Unusual street clouds have been spotted across Britain as the Met Office says the muggy weather is responsible for the dramatic display. Keen weather watchers from across England were quick to share their pictures of the weather phenomenon which occurs when cooler air arrives following a period of muggy weather. Horizontal convective rolls, more commonly known as cloud streets, form when warm air close to the ground rises to meet cooler air causing it to condense and form clouds. This paired with a strong breeze will cause the clouds to form a linear pattern similar to that seen in a ploughed field. These clouds can be very helpful to pilots as they are a strong indicator of the direction of airflow and air temperatures. The clouds were pictured by BBC Weather Wa...
Chancellor risks Brexiteer row with £80bn no-deal warning
Featured, United Kingdom

Chancellor risks Brexiteer row with £80bn no-deal warning

    Chancellor Philip Hammond has risked infuriating Tory Brexiteers by warning of large fiscal consequences of a no-deal Brexit on the same day other ministers sought to reassure the public about such a scenario. In a letter to fellow Tory MP Nicky Morgan, the chair of the House of Commons' treasury committee, the chancellor repeated the findings of a government analysis of various Brexit outcomes from January. Mr Hammond highlighted how the document found a no-deal Brexit would see the UK's GDP suffer a hit of up to 10.3%. He wrote: GDP impacts of this magnitude, were they to arise, would have large fiscal consequences. The chancellor also pointed to how the analysis estimated government borrowing would be around £80bn a year higher by 2033-34, if the UK were to tra...
Did Trump admit to violating federal law
America, Featured

Did Trump admit to violating federal law

    In an interview with Fox News Thursday morning, President Donald Trump said the payments that his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, admitted making to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal were not illegal. They weren't campaign finance, he said. They came from me, adding, They didn't come out of the campaign. Does it matter that Trump paid the two women out of his own pocket, rather than using campaign funds? Yes, but it raises the possibility that he committed a campaign finance law violation failure to report a campaign expense that's different than the one to which Cohen pleaded guilty in federal court on Tuesday. Both women have said they had sexual affairs with Trump, and both were paid while Trump was running for president. Prosecutors said the hush-money payments w...
Sexual harassment claim can’t be ignored against Alex Salmond
Featured, United Kingdom

Sexual harassment claim can’t be ignored against Alex Salmond

    Nicola Sturgeon has insisted that allegations of sexual harassment against Alex Salmond could not be ignored or swept under the carpet, as it emerged that her predecessor had hoped to stop the revelations being made public. She said she had been aware for some time of the investigation into Mr Salmond but had no role in the process. She also said that her relationship with the former first minister, who was her mentor for a decade before she succeeded him in 2014, made the situation “extremely difficult” for her to come to terms with. Two individuals have made allegations of sexual assault against Mr Salmond, which he denies, with one incident said to have taken place in Bute House, the first minister's official resident in Edinburgh, in December 2013. He resigned ...
Russian trolls spread vaccine discord
Featured, Russia

Russian trolls spread vaccine discord

    Bots and Russian trolls spread misinformation about vaccines on Twitter to sow division and distribute malicious content before and during the American presidential election, according to a new study. Scientists at George Washington University, in Washington DC, made the discovery while trying to improve social media communications for public health workers, researchers said. Instead, they found trolls and bots skewing online debate and upending consensus about vaccine safety. The study discovered several accounts, now known to belong to the same Russian trolls who interfered in the US election, as well as marketing and malware bots, tweeting about vaccines. Russian trolls played both sides, the researchers said, tweeting pro- and anti-vaccine content in a politica...