Something Or Other

[Mila Joy @Milajoy]

Remembering Betty Ann Ong.

She grew up in San Francisco’s Chinatown, the youngest of four, the kid who used to watch planes take off at SFO and later made flying her life.

Friends called her Bee.

She collected Beanie Babies, visited seniors in Boston on her days off, and picked up extra trips so she could afford a vacation with her sister.

On September 11, 2001, that extra trip put her on American Airlines Flight 11.

She was not supposed to be on that plane.

From the rear galley she picked up an Airfone and became the first person to tell the ground what was happening: the cockpit would not answer, people had been stabbed, the cabin was filling with something that made it hard to breathe.

“I think we’re getting hijacked,” she said.

Then she stayed on the line for 23 minutes.

She gave seat numbers.

She answered questions.

Near the end she asked them to pray.

That call was the first confirmed warning that the country was under attack.

It helped controllers begin clearing the sky.

The 9/11 Commission later called her a hero.

A recreation center in her old neighborhood now carries her name.

She was 45.

She was doing her job until the last second.

Today is a good day to say her name.

[Alex Burghart @alexburghart]

When the Severe Alert system was established in 2024 it was made clear that:

“There will be a very high threshold for its use based on strict criteria centred on an immediate risk to life.”

Tonight’s use at a national level clearly doesn’t hit that threshold and opens the door to future misuse of the system.

Labour needs to publish who signed off the decision to use the alert and the criteria that they were using.

[Something Or Other @ancient_anarchy]

@andrew_lilico They were good decades in many ways but not sure I'd agree "no pandemics" - HIV/AIDS was pretty awful up until the late 90s/early 2000s when antiretrovirals became widely available.

[Something Or Other @ancient_anarchy]

@john_ritzema Yes. But there is a strong case for a category of temporary/ex-officio membership to be created for ministers (ending with their position as a minister) so it doesn't end up stuffed full of people who got a lifetime seat just so they could be a junior minister for a year or two.

[Minoo Dinshaw @MinooFramroze]

When the hereditary peers were first (largely) evicted, some of their defenders said a government minded to dispose of them would have little innate reverence for other ancient components of law and custom, such as trial by jury. They were dismissed with ridicule. And here we are

[Something Or Other @ancient_anarchy]

@julianHjessop @DCBMEP Presumably driven by sales ahead of the heavily trailed increase in the CGT rate in Oct 2024.

[Something Or Other @ancient_anarchy]

@Adrian_Hilton Couldn't he instead go for the time honoured tradition of "kick it into the long grass"?

[Something Or Other @ancient_anarchy]

@bjames280961 @_HenryBolton It's a "global market" and yet somehow the UK NBP gas price works out at almost 3 times the US Henry Hub price. It's almost like it's very expensive and difficult to transport gas long distances.

[Something Or Other @ancient_anarchy]

@SBarrettBar Or... Mandelson might not have consented or colluded but still won't sue because he doesn't want to blow up Streeting's campaign.

[Something Or Other @ancient_anarchy]

@CPhilpOfficial @danielmgmoylan @itvlondon @itvnews So if the Tories are ever back in power, will you remove the powers councils have to impose them and reverse the existing zones?

[Something Or Other @ancient_anarchy]

@joshemden If offshore wind were actually cheaper, there would be no government backed CfDs and government could have instead raised lots of money by selling licenses to build it to the private sector. Somehow I don't see that happening.

[Something Or Other @ancient_anarchy]

@nobdy_imp @t848m0 A very short act of parliament could remove both him and the PCC from office if they really wanted to achieve this.

[Something Or Other @ancient_anarchy]

@TrisOsborneMP @UKLabour @Conservatives So Blair and Brown 3.5x'd the national debt in 13 years, vs the Tories (and the Lib Dems in coalition) who only 2.25x'd it in 14 years. Not really the boast you thought.

[Robert Midgley @RobertMidgley07]

Major international developments are emerging after Labour’s Chagos defeat:

• Mauritius has been implicated in illicit financial dealings linked to Venezuela's Maduro

• Whistleblower documents indicate China’s strategic interest beyond the 99-year lease period

• The Chagos Treaty undermines the Pelindaba Treaty, making AUKUS operations at Diego Garcia unlawful

The US must urgently reassess this avoidable strategic failure

[Something Or Other @ancient_anarchy]

@kelvmackenzie @offshorebella What will happen if people refuse to disclose what jobs their parents do on the basis that it's none of the government's business? This is ludicrous.

[Matthew Scott @Barristerblog]

Amidst the outrage over plans to scrap juries, we shouldn't overlook the Government's alarming proposal to abolish the right of appeal from Magistrates' Courts.

[Something Or Other @ancient_anarchy]

@rcolvile NESO should never have been nationalised, it means their role will become increasingly politicised as this example shows.

[Big Brother Watch @BigBrotherWatch]

😷People are covering their faces to avoid live facial recognition surveillance.

UK police? Grabbing them off the street for not complying & demanding their details.

This is not a slippery slope it's a cliff edge.

We must #StopFacialRecognition.

[Something Or Other @ancient_anarchy]

@cjsnowdon I hate them as a cyclist because they make cars and buses much more likely to drive a similar speed to me, so they don't pay as much attention to where I am (and I have to be more careful not to hang in their blind spots etc). I'd much rather they drive faster and overtake me.

[Wings Over Scotland @WingsScotland]

This is an incredibly disturbing bit of misrepresentation by the tribunal judge. He edits a line from the FWS judgment (black background) to remove the word "trans" from "trans woman", and then cuts the - very important - rest of the sentence. https://t.co/QObPErVgsv