Tick tock, drip drop... Weathervane highs/lows Friday 7 August 2026:
High temperature 21.2C at 17:28 hrs
low 11.7C at 05:28 hrs
High humidity 87%RH at 05:06 hrs
low 52%RH at 11:06 hrs
Max wind gust 13.9mph at 14:36 hrs
Daily rainfall 0.0mm
Putting traffic cones on the heads of statues memorializing historical figures seems to be a thing in .
I took this picture in just a few weeks ago, and I wonder if this is a way to protest membership in the and promote .
What happened to Lisa Ross Reporting from Athens as a murder case unfolds
Our homes shake and pictures fall off the wall when quarry blasts rocks
BBC News - Council 'dragging heels' over Glass Centre
BBC News - What next after Sunderland's National Glass Centre closed - BBC News
BBC News - Why did Sunderland's National Glass Centre fail - BBC News
Police failings revealed as sex offender left free to murder and attack women
Simon Levys second murder victim, Sheryl Wilkins, could have been saved, senior Met officer admits.
Case of the Day: Salinas v. Astor Asset Management Ltd.
The case of the day is . What an interesting case. Ricardo Salinas Pliego was a wealthy Mexican businessman. He was looking to borrow money in 2021, and he was introduced to Gregory Mitchell and Thomas Mellon, who were supposedly senior representatives of Astor Capital Fund. In fact, Mitchell and Mellon were Vladimir Sklarov, one of the defendants, and his associate, Skachkov. Astor entered into an agreement with one of Salinass companies to lend $115 million, with Salinas acting as guarantor and offering his shares in another company, Grupo Elektra, as security. The shares were worth $415 million, and the custodians, Weiser and Tavira, apparently transferred the shares to the defendants and sold, yielding about $270 million in value, above the $115 million lent, for Sklarov. The claim was that Sklarov and the other defendants defrauded Salinas by falsely representing that Astor was a legitimate and honest financial institution connected to the Astor family, when in fact the defendants were creatures of Mr Sklarov set up pursuant to a fraudulent scheme to expropriate the shares. The defendants argued that the contract permitted them to rehypothecate the shares and denied any fraud.
Salinas sought summary judgment, and the judge, without deciding, suggested that the case for fraud was apparently strong and substantial, perhaps unanswerable.
But even a plaintiff with a very strong claim can screw it up. Grupo Elektra had hired Black Cube, a litigation support and investigation firm, to obtain evidence. Black Cube targeted X, a solicitor for the defendants and a newly promoted partner of a law firm, and the judge found that the claimants intended or expected to seek information from X via unethical conduct. Black Cubes operator, using the name Marco Ortelli, posed as the representative of a potential new client seeking representation in an arbitration against the government of the UAE. X was induced to travel to Amsterdam to meet with Ortelli, who persuaded X to drink more than he usually did. X then disclosed confidential information that didnt end up in evidence, but that did paint a clear picture of the impact of the litigation on Mr Sklarov, including the severe impact of the freezing orders obtained by the claimants, and that would have been of considerable (albeit unquantifiable) value to the claimants in deciding their tactics in the litigation with an understanding of where pressure could most usefully be applied. It was also information which, once learned, could not be unlearned. X, unsurprisingly, faces disciplinary proceedings and professional ruin. It was the claimants and not the respondents who referred him for discipline, which is odd.
In todays decision, the court held that the claimants conduct amounted to an abuse of process. The main excuse was that X was wrong to disclose the information. That did not impress the court:
It makes no difference that the solicitor, X, was obviously at fault in revealing information that he should not have revealed. That was the whole object of the Black Cube operation, which the claimants sanctioned and of which they now seek to take the benefit. It is absurd for the claimants to submit, as they submitted forcefully before the Deputy Judge and rather more faintly in this court, that their conduct should not be regarded as abusive because the operation should have been unsuccessfulin Mr Wardells words, that there should have been a nil return. The claimants were paying millions of pounds for Black Cubes expertise in extracting information which should not have been available to them for use in the litigation. They expected and intended to benefit from such information, not to be told that the operation had been unsuccessful and there had been a nil return.
The harder question was what to do about it, given the strong claim for fraud. The court agreed that the claimant should not be allowed to seek summary judgment, but should its claim be struck out altogether No, the court said, but merely disallowing a summary judgment application was insufficient given the gravity of the wrongdoing. So the court discharged the freezing order. That may turn out to be hugely important for obvious reasons.
The case reminds me of . The case was a part of the epic Demoulas lawsuit, a fight among the family members who owned the Market Basket grocery chain that became one of the leading precedents in Massachusettss law of fiduciary duty. A well-known Boston lawyer, Crossen, was disbarred after he had gotten involved in a scheme similar in some ways to the scheme in Salinas. He wanted to show that the judge, Maria Lopez, was biased against his clients. He learned that his client had hired a lawyer and two investigators to meet, using aliases, with the judges law clerk, on the false pretext of interviewing the clerk for a job. The idea was to get the clerk to say that the clerk, not the judge, had written an adverse decision in the case. And the clerk obliged. Crossen, learning of this, decided to record an interview with the clerk by audio, but because it is illegal in Massachusetts to record someone in secret, Crossen arranged for the clerks second job interview to take place in New York. Ultimately, Crossens clients did not use the information gathered in the motion it made asking the judge to recuse herself. Nevertheless, Crossen and members of his team confronted the clerk, at a third sham job interview, explaining their ruse:
Crossen told the law clerk that he could not control what his clients would do with the information they had that if the law clerk did not help him there would be a missile fired thats out of my control and its off, and I dont know where it goes and what it ends up doing that he, Crossen, needed a candid conversation with the law clerk about what really happened here.
The law clerk, obviously and understandably upset, spoke with the authorities, and at their request secretly taped his next discussions with Crossen. The law clerk and his counsel, another well-known Boston lawyer, held a press conference exposing the affair, and the Bar Counsel, who prosecutes disciplinary matters in Massachusetts, brought charges against Crossen and others. Crossen was disbarred, though he was not criminally prosecuted.
It seems almost trite to state the lesson of these cases. Dont lie. Dont have others lie for you. It is sad to see talented lawyers get this one wrong.
TIL that the UK governments Code of Practice for consumer IoT security was published 14 October 2018
UKSong Released April 15, 2026
Enter Shikari:
/ Fuck Around with "We" denial, climate change denial, love denial, goodness avoidance.
Poll: 85% of UK Teens Would Opt Out of Social Media Curfew
The UK government is pushing for a social media curfew that teens could disable. Teens are saying they'd disable it.
Urgent manhunt for convicted child rapist who escaped from staff
Train company ridiculed over broken toilets on six-hour journey
Artiesten rouwen om overlijden 'genie en pionier' William Orbit
21:18 RTL Nieuws
: Lock 2, Hawford Top, Droitwich Barge Canal
:
Children with cancer are being shut out of desperately needed oncology trials because of regulations.
There ain't no bonus like a bonus: pro-European running in 's heartland
Nous sommes toujours passionns par les lments qui composent le hip hop : les rythmes, les samples, les sons et la crativit.
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There aint no bonus like a bonus
Taking back control in : the first step to repairing a mistake is to admit it, says anti-#Brexit campaigner in Clacton
Tick tock, drip drop... At 20:00 hrs on Friday 7 August 2026 the Malmanac weathervane reports 18.6C, 62% relative humidity, pressure steady 1020mb. No rainfall. Wind is blowing 1.1mph from SW, gusting to 5.4mph.
Sam Fender en Olivia Dean zetten recordreeks door
20:53 RTL Nieuws
Do we really want Square Kilometre Array Observatory discoveries to be announced from a alongside what would be the worlds largest disused radio
Jodrell Bank was among dozens of facilities, instruments and projects hit by cuts last week. The in Chile faces a 20% cut to participation. The Next-Generation Transit Survey, which is searching for solar systems similar to Earths, received a 45% cut
When interviewed by Dutch broadcaster NOS, Count Binface suddenly made a serious point here. Pity he didn't name the USA, which also doesn't allow satirical candidates (or any candidate for that matter besides ones from the only two parties allowed)Could the UK please electrify its trains The diesel smell stinks.
Man suffers life-changing injuries after being attacked with an axe in London
Huge lorry fire causes rush hour delays on M6 near Birmingham
Police search for child rapist who escaped community leave in Perth
Britse producer William Orbit overleden (69), werkte veel samen met Madonna
18:57 NOS Nieuws
'Like a bus seat back in the day' - new Wales kit leaves fans divided
Star Girls Box Dance Crew
A team full of energy, passion, and dreams. Every step, every smile, and every performance shows the power of young talent and teamwork. Through dance, these young stars are building confidence, creativity, and inspiring others to believe in their abilities.
Lets support and celebrate the beauty of dance and the next generation of performers.
Plan to limit 'vertical drinking' decried by pub landlords and UK politicians
A proposal by one local government council to limit "vertical drinking" in London has sparked controversy.
"UK plastic manufacturer could face legal action over toxic emissions"
Tick tock, drip drop... Weathervane highs/lows so far (17:00) Friday 7 August 2026:
High temperature 20.8C at 16:40 hrs
low 11.7C at 05:40 hrs
High humidity 87%RH at 05:06 hrs
low 52%RH at 11:06 hrs
Max wind gust 13.9mph at 14:36 hrs
Daily rainfall 0.0mm
Speelgoedoogjes helpen misschien meeuwen op afstand te houden
17:34 RTL Nieuws
Zelenskys ex-ambassador in criminal court as corruption allegations appear to prove corruption (Channel 5 VIDEO)
Former U.S. Marine may be near death after alleged torture in Russia (more)
Canada wont pay fee as observer in Europes fighter jet program: feds
Canada recently became the first country to gain "observer status" with the Global Combat Air Program, a fighter jet under joint development by Italy, Japan and the U.K.
My lovely son died of asbestos-related cancer at 20 no-one knows why