Nationalist Alliance Issue Historic Ultimatum to UK PM

On September 14, 2026, the leaders of the UK's main nationalist parties met in Cardiff to sign a joint declaration stating that "Westminster's time is coming to an end".

The historic meeting brought together Scottish First Minister John Swinney (SNP), Welsh First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth (Plaid Cymru), Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald, and Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O'Neill (Sinn Féin vice-president). The leaders attended as political party heads rather than official government representatives. 

Following the talks, John Swinney (right) boldly predicted that Andy Burnham would be the last prime minister of the United Kingdom. 

Swinney reiterated his goal to secure a second independence referendum within the next five years, ensuring Scots have a choice on their constitutional future before the current Holyrood term ends in 2031. 

While united in their belief that Westminster fails to serve their people, the three nationalist leaders are pursuing distinct regional strategies:

• Scotland (SNP): Seeking a binding independence referendum.  
• Wales (Plaid Cymru): Demanding expanded devolved powers as part of a fundamental redesign of the UK constitutional framework, declaring the current status quo untenable. 
• Northern Ireland (Sinn Féin): Calling for a border poll to achieve Irish reunification. 

Despite these coordinated demands, Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s government have firmly maintained that separation referendums remain "off limits". 

However, Michelle O'Neill insisted that constitutional change is still "very much on the table", brushing aside Downing Street's pushback.

Celtic suffered another European embarrassment as the Scottish champions were beaten 3-1 at home by Ferencváros in the Europa League. 

Just weeks on from crashing out of the Champions League qualifiers to Austrian side LASK, despite at one point holding a four-goal lead, Celtic’s defensive flaws were egregiously exposed once more. Already, Martin O’Neill’s team suffered a chastening 3-0 defeat to rivals Rangers last weekend and failed to deliver on their manager’s promise to respond.

Inevitably, the Hungarian champions took the lead in the 20th minute when an unfortunate deflection off Celtic defender Liam Scales trickled into the net. 

Martin O'Neill's side managed to pull level in the 44th minute through a well-taken open-play strike from Mika Baur, but their joy was short-lived. 

The away side punished them with a second goal in first-half stoppage time (45+1') before ruthlessly adding a third in the 47th minute. 

Though Martin O'Neill shuffled his tactical shape at halftime – switching to a 4-4-2 by bringing on record signing Kasper Høgh to partner Camilo Durán up front – it did little to unlock a comfortable Ferencváros defense. 

The manager later admitted his side was taught a harsh "European lesson", conceding that the defensive lapses were psychologically damaging. 

With pressure mounting heavily on the manager's tactical system, the Hoops must find answers immediately before hosting Rangers in a crucial Scottish Premiership rematch this Sunday. With everything on the line, I’m holding my breath to see if they can fix these strategic flaws in time, or if their rivals will exploit them once again.

To us Celtic fans it might seem like sacrilege to doubt Martin O'Neill's capacity to get them through whatever it is they're going through right now – a slump or something deeper – but keeping the faith is surely becoming testing.

Saving Children from Their Parents’ Creativity

"Ikea", "Fanta" and "Chanel". These names of a major furniture retailer, a soft drink and a luxury brand, respectively, have all also been given to babies in Germany. 

But joining this brand line-up, names drawn from Japanese such as "Taro" and "Kasai" are also said to be proving popular overseas in recent years. In Japan, the revised Family Register Act took effect in May 2025, requiring the readings of names to be added in family registers in the phonetic katakana syllabary. For so-called "kira-kira" names, or "sparkling" names with unorthodox readings, including foreign-style names and character names assigned to kanji, the revised law set a standard that readings differing from the original readings of the kanji must be "generally recognized as readings of characters used in names". 

The legal revision was reported around the world, including by The New York Times. The German magazine Der Spiegel, in an article with a headlined translating as "Japan introduces stricter rules for children's names", presented names symbolized in kanji for "Pikachu", "Nike" and "Kitty" as examples of kira-kira names. 

But as the German examples above show, "eccentric" names also exist in Europe and the United States. 

According to Knud Bielefeld (right), a name researcher in Ahrensburg in northern Germany, such names are rare but are sometimes chosen out of a desire to "give a child a special name". This appears to have something in common with parents in Japan who give their children kira-kira names. 

As reported by Western media reports, there was a child in Britain in 2024 named "Everest", the same as the world's highest mountain. In the United States, "Kasai" is gaining popularity as a boy's name meaning fire, and several hundred children were given the name in 2025. It is also said to be derived from the Japanese word "kasai", meaning a destructive fire. 

In some cases, however, courts have rejected unusual names, citing concerns including the risk that children could become targets of bullying. 

In France in 2015, the court rejected the name "Nutella", the same as the popular chocolate spread, for a girl. In Sweden in 1996, there was reportedly a case in which parents tried to have a long name made up of 43 letters of the alphabet with no vowels and a number read as "Albin", but it was not approved. 

At their core, both Japan's kira-kira names and the brand-inspired names of the West stem from the same place – a parent's deep wish to gift their child a special identity. However, as the legal backlash in Sweden, France, and Japan demonstrates, a name is never just a personal choice. It is a child's first introduction to the world, and striking the balance between 'memorable' and 'practical' is a global challenge that isn't going away anytime soon.

Mind the Gap: Why British Flies Can't Stick the Zebra Landing

I came across more research on the subject of zebra stripes. [Refer to my blog post "No Fly Zone: Why Zebras Wear PJs" published Wednesday]. 

A February 20, 2019 PLOS ONE study "Benefits of zebra stripes: Behaviour of tabanid flies around zebras and horses" by Tim Caro, Yvette Argueta, Emmanuelle Sophie Briolat, et al found that zebra stripes disrupt the landing and biting behavior of tabanid flies (Family name: Tabanidae), serving as a natural defense. The research indicates this visual confusion reduces harmful pest bites, providing a significant evolutionary advantage. 

Researchers from the University of Bristol and UC Davis, USA, spent time on a horse farm in Britain where they investigated the behaviours of tabanid horse flies around captive plains zebras and uniformly coloured domestic horses using video analysis techniques.

They discovered that the stripes don’t deter horse flies from a distance, with both zebras and domestic horses experiencing the same rate of circling from the flies. However, video analyses revealed differences in approach speed, with horse flies failing to slow down on approach to zebras, which is essential for a successful landing. 

Professor Tim Caro, Honorary Research Fellow from the University of Bristol’s School of Biological Sciences, said: “Horseflies just seem to fly over zebra stripes or bump into them, but this didn’t happen with horses. Consequently, far fewer successful landings were experienced by zebras compared to horses”. 

Dr Martin How, Royal Society University Research Fellow in the School of Biological Sciences, added: “This reduced ability to land on the zebra’s coat may be due to stripes disrupting the visual system of the horse flies during their final moments of approach. Stripes may dazzle flies in some way once they are close enough to see them with their low-resolution eyes”. 

To make sure that the effect was not caused by the difference in smell between zebras and horses, the scientists placed different coloured cloth coats – black, white or zebra-striped – over the horses to observe horse fly behaviour. Just as before, when horses wore coats with striped patterns, they experienced fewer horse fly landings compared to when they wore single-colour coats. 

The research also directly observed zebra and horse behaviour in response to biting flies. Zebras exhibited preventative behaviour, such as running away and tail swishing at a far higher rate than horses. Consequently, any horse flies that did successfully land on zebras spent less time there compared to those landing on horses, with few staying long enough to probe for a blood meal. 

In Africa, horse flies carry dangerous debilitating diseases such as trypanosomiasis and African horse sickness, which cause wasting and often death. Therefore, it is unsurprising that zebras utilise both behavioural defences and morphological striping to avoid horseflies. 

The scientists did acknowledge that the latest experiment was carried out in Somerset rather than around the biting flies of Africa, and other limitations included that the path of the flies could only be seen in two dimensions from video recordings and that the horse coats were made of different materials. 

However, this research provides new evidence for the theory that zebras evolved dichromatic striped coats to evade biting flies and has considerable implications for the horse industry.

UK Higher Ed: Prestige at a Discount

The competition is heating up and getting fiercer as UK higher education desperately fights to hold onto crashing foreign student enrollment. 

At least 22 universities are offering guaranteed tuition-fee discounts of up to £8,000 for overseas students. This shift is driven by a 17 percent drop in postgraduate enrollment in the two years leading to March 2026, stricter visa rules, and a 2024 ban on family members accompanying students. 

The reduced net fee at these varsities is likely to fuel concerns about the education sector's approach to recruiting overseas students, on whose fees it already depends.

The University of Nottingham, which set out plans to trim more than 600 jobs, offers an immediate £3,000 scholarship for 2026 taught master’s courses with no application needed, replacing merit awards. 

Meanwhile, the University of Aberdeen, where 100 jobs could be cut as part of a £10m savings plan, introduced an £8,000 scholarship directly deducted from the tuition bill. 

Furthermore, the University of Kent are offering a pre-approved £5,000 discount for master's degree entrants from 14 specific countries – including China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, and Vietnam – requiring no separate application process. 

The University of Leeds are also providing a hassle-free £5,000 regional scholarship reduction directly to eligible international undergraduate students, such as applicants from Kenya. 

Zeenat Fayaz, founder of The Brand Education, which advises universities on branding, said this “pricing war” could backfire by sparking competition between institutions on the basis of a degree’s cost rather than their own strengths. 

“Higher-tariff universities are not only offering scholarships, but they’re also reducing their grade requirements to allow students in... It’s a race to the bottom”.

Butterflies On The Move

Around the world, ongoing environmental changes are prompting many butterfly species to relocate and search for new homes, a process referred to as species range shifts or species redistribution. 

As temperatures, rainfall and habitats change, butterflies can relocate over long distances, or even move vertically up and down mountain ranges. 

A new global study found one in ten known butterfly species has already shifted in range. So, where are they going – and why? 

Data from a collection of more than 6,180 reports (565 studies and 68 expert assessments) of butterfly range shift and which covered 1,758 species across 105 countries, showed 80% of the documented butterfly species had expanded their ranges latitudinally, meaning east to west, or longitudinally, meaning north to south. It found that 27% had reduced their range and 22% had shifted up or down slopes on hills or mountains. 

Many species showed a combination of these range changes. The public narrative is often simplistic: as the world warms, species are shifting towards cooler temperatures at higher latitudes, or moving upwards in mountains. This is happening, but it is only one piece of the puzzle. 

In fact, butterflies need more than to find new homes at the right temperature. Caterpillars often depend on specific host plants; adults need nectar, shelter and safe places to breed; and populations also require connected habitats so individuals can move easily through the landscape, meet, reproduce and breed. 

Some species show how fast changes can happen. The tawny coster (Acraea terpsicore) native to the Indian subcontinent, primarily centered in India and Sri Lanka, has expanded through Southeast Asia and into Australia. In Brazil, Godartiana byses has expanded from Rio de Janeiro and Bahia into São Paulo, a shift linked to climate warming. 

Other species show the opposite pattern. The small blue (Cupido minimus) has lost 40% of its habitat in the United Kingdom over the past 150 years. In Germany, the cranberry fritillary (Boloria aquilonaris) has lost much of its original habitat because of bog drainage. In Romania, an increase in farming has been linked to a severe range contraction of the danube clouded yellow (Colias myrmidone). 

Even range shifts along mountain slopes are not always straightforward. In Mexico, the painted lady (Vanessa cardui) shifted upslope at a rate of about 83 metres per year between 1988 and 2011. Over the same period, the queen butterfly (Danaus gilippus) shifted downslope at a rate of about 32m per year. 

Together, these examples show butterfly species range shifts are not simply a story of animals moving towards the poles. 

In the comprehensive study, climate change and extreme weather events were the most common reasons why butterflies shifted their range. 

But climate change is not the only factor. Agriculture, forestry, urban development and habitat destruction are also reshaping where butterflies can live and reproduce. These disturbances destroy host plants and breeding sites, and fragment large habitats into patches too small to sustain a healthy population. 

It is important to note that butterflies are part of the living fabric around us. Adult butterflies contribute to pollination. Caterpillars feed birds, spiders and other insects. When butterflies disappear, it can signal the plants, grasslands or woodlands once visited by butterflies are also changing. 

This matters for conservation. Many protected areas are based on maps of where species lived in the past. But if butterflies and other species are moving, those maps quickly become outdated. 

The message is simple. Conservation cannot only protect habitats where species once lived – it must include the places where they will relocate, and the wildlife corridors they will use to get there. If not, we may keep protecting yesterday’s nature while tomorrow’s nature has nowhere left to go.

London's Knife Epidemic

Knife crime remains a critical public safety crisis in London, UK, where over a thousand weapon-enabled offenses are recorded monthly and incidents occur multiple times daily, casting a shadow over communities. 

Indeed, the persistent volume of offenses highlights a deeply entrenched challenge.

According to Metropolitan Police data, more than 3,300 knife-enabled offenses were logged in the first quarter of 2026 alone. These monthly figures include hundreds of actual injury-inflicting stabbings alongside thousands of broader knife-threat or possession offenses. 

Specifically, official records from early 2026 show totals of 1,097 offenses in January, 1,003 in February, and 1,209 in March.

Data from the Office for National Statistics indicate there were 49,151 total knife offenses in England and Wales for the year ending December 2025. Because Scotland and Northern Ireland record their crime statistics separately, ONS figures in this context specifically focus on just England and Wales. 

And of this total, London accounted for 28%, although the capital saw a 17% fall in recorded knife crime compared with the previous year. This localized volume persists even as official data showed that homicides fell to their lowest level in nearly 50 years. 

Published crime statistics showed 172 homicides involving a knife or sharp instrument were recorded by police forces across England and Wales in 2025, compared with 217 in 2024. 

Last year's number of knife-related killings is also the lowest since comparable data was first collected in 2010–11.

The dataset also shows that the total number of homicide offenses last year – when there were 503 offenses – fell by 6% compared with 2024, when there were 534. 

According to the Crown Prosecution Service, homicide offenses include murder, manslaughter, infanticide, and causing or allowing the death or serious injury of a child or vulnerable adult. 

Katie Kempen, chief executive of the charity Victim Support, noted that the overall fall in knife killings was welcome "but every case is one too many".

[Additionally, offenses involving firearms decreased by 9% in 2025 compared to the previous year, dropping to 4,753 offenses from 5,241]. 

Having spent time in London between 1975 and 1979, I can tell you firsthand that the city does not feel as safe as it once used to be.

162-year-old Guinness

Bottles of Guinness dating back to 1864 have been found on a shipwreck about 5km off the coast of Dover – and now the explorers want to “rebrew” the stout. 

Up to 20 bottles of stout were discovered by a team of divers exploring the wreckage of the Mindora sailing barque last summer, but only recently have they acquired a survey report linking the cargo to a recorded ship of that time. 

Since making the discovery, Stefan Panis, an expedition diver who made the discovery, and Paweł Truszynski, a technical diver and historical researcher, have begun what they call “Project Jurassic Beer”. 

Truszynski said they have enlisted the help of Kevin Verstrepen, professor of microbiology and genetics at Leuven University in Brussels, in an attempt to rebrew the Guinness to mimic exactly how it would have tasted in 1864. 

Verstrepen said it is not likely they can retrieve living yeast cells from the bottles – though they will try. In that case, he will take a “modern sibling” of the original yeast, once the DNA is analysed, to get as close as possible. 

Truszynski said if they succeed in their quest to “rebrew” the old Guinness, “we will unlock a form of liquid time travel”. 

The group also contacted the Guinness Archive team at St James’s Gate in Dublin, Ireland to cross-reference their findings, he said. 

A spokesperson for Diageo Ireland said the Guinness Archive team “have been in communication with the divers to gather more information and evaluate the find”. 

“Discoveries like this provide a fascinating window into our past and help build a deeper understanding of our heritage”.  

The bottles were discovered resting in the ship’s cargo under temperatures of 4 degrees, constant high pressure and absolute darkness – perfect conditions for preservation. 

The Mindora, which collided with another vessel off the coast of Dover on November 27, 1864, had set sail from London to Vancouver, Canada a week earlier. Lloyd’s Register Foundation, which oversee the Lloyd’s Register of Ships from 1764 to 1999, could not officially confirm the site, as the divers did not make the discovery in conjunction with the foundation. 

However, digitised links to the survey report for a ship called “Mindoro”, likely to be the Mindora, were sent by the foundation to the divers upon request. The report was written up on September 3rd, 1864, with the surveyor having first visited the ship on November 17, 1863. 

Zach Schieferstein, archivist with Lloyd’s Register Foundation, said discrepancies in the records of ship names were not uncommon in the 19th century. 

As per The Irish Times report published August 05, 2026.

China’s H1 Resilience: GDP Up 4.7%

For years, the dominant narrative in many Western capitals has been that China's rise would eventually slow or even stall. Concerns over debt, demographic decline, a struggling property sector and geopolitical tensions have fueled repeated predictions that China's best days are behind it. 

Despite gloomy predictions on China's future, the country continues to chart steady growth, posting a 4.7% GDP expansion in H1 2026 to stay within Beijing's target range.

The dust settles on the World Cup semi-finals yesterday, solidifying the monumental matchups that dictate who is left standing in the hunt for glory. 

On Tuesday, La Roja produced an absolute masterclass in control to secure their place in just their second World Cup final – they won 2-0 – and yes, Les Bleus got blown away. 👏👏👏

And on Wednesday, Argentina impressively knocked the Three Lions out of the semi-final. La Albiceleste won 2-1 after scoring two dramatic late goals. England actually scored first in the 55th minute, but the Argentines equalized 30 minutes later before they headed home the winner in stoppage time. 👏👏👏

Just as I predicted, it'll be either Argentina or Spain that gets crowned champions on Sunday! 😁😁😁

In Kenya, No Human, No Copyright

Kenya’s Copyright Tribunal, on July 09, 2026, delivered a landmark ruling determining that works generated solely by AI cannot receive copyright protection. 

The decision establishes that sufficient human effort, judgment, and original expression are strictly required to qualify for copyright, as only humans can be legally recognized as authors. 

The dispute involved author Cynthia Beldina Akoth and her contracting company, Aryeh Movement Ltd. Beldina had written a collection of Bible scripture stories using AI tools. Following a fallout, she discovered the company had registered the AI-assisted literary works in their own name. 

The Tribunal ruled against the company's copyright claim, stating that while AI is an acceptable creative tool, it cannot replace human authorship. To claim copyright over AI-assisted works, the creator must provide proof of substantial human intervention and creative control. 

Note that the Kenyan ruling itself does not legally apply outside of the country, because copyright laws are strictly territorial and governed by each country's national courts. 

However, the legal logic used by the Kenyan Tribunal matches the approach taken by most major global powers. As of 2026, there is no unified international treaty governing AI copyright, leading to a highly fractured legal landscape. 

In the US, content generated entirely by AI goes directly into the public domain. Copyright is strictly reserved for human beings. E g., In March 2026, the US Supreme Court officially denied certiorari in Thaler v. Perlmutter, upholding lower court rulings that AI cannot be an "author". 

The same goes for the European Union. Under the EU AI Act and established case law, works must reflect the "author's own intellectual creation" through human choices. Pure AI output cannot be copyrighted. 

UK law, though, has a legacy provision protecting "computer-generated works" without a human author, awarding copyright to the person who arranged the generation. 

In China, the courts have taken a drastically different, pro-innovation stance, granting copyright to AI-assisted images if the human prompter shows significant effort. Landmark rulings, including a major decision reported by the Changshu People’s Court, confirmed that a user's prompt sequence and parameter adjustments can meet the "originality threshold". 

Global framework treaties like the ⁠Berne Convention allow authors to protect their books and art across borders, explicitly requiring human intellectual effort to qualify. Because international frameworks do not recognize AI systems as legal persons, pure AI content cannot be protected globally.

World No. 5 Pearly Tan-Thinaah Muralitharan crashed out of the Japan Open in a major first-round upset after squandering a one-game advantage to lose 9-21, 21-17, 21-17 to Taiwan's Hsu Yin-Hui-Lin Jhih Yun on Tuesday.

I'm distressed.

Law School's Ban on Laptops and Smartphones

A US university have announced a ban on laptops and smartphones for incoming law students in an effort to combat AI usage. 

The new policy will prevent first year students at the University of Chicago Law School from accessing any electronic devices during classes, starting from the 2026-2027 academic year. 

The ban is part of the law school’s strategy to develop “AI-resilient pedagogy and assessments” in an effort to elevate “essential human skills that distinguish excellent lawyers” in the AI era. 

“We need to ensure that our students actually learn to think critically, strategically, and independently without relying on AI”, the law school’s new AI strategy states. 

I can expect other academic institutions to follow suit.

There's been a lot of fixtures, a lot of football and it's already 100 games into the FIFA World Cup. 

It is said the quarter-finals were all quite closely contested – I didn't even bother watching any of the games – and the four teams left to compete in the semi-finals are France against Spain, and Argentina against England.

The Opta supercomputer predicts France to emerge as the winners of the 2026 edition. 

I know I've said I don't care, but IF I HAVE TO CHOOSE, I'd pick Argentina or Spain.

UK MPs Seek Ban on Russian Cartoon

Russophobia, a blatant form of racism and xenophobia, is running rampant in the UK. 

In fact, the anti-Russian sentiment has descended into absurd, laughable territory because British MPs have ganged up to seek to ban the popular Russian children’s cartoon "Masha and the Bear" from being shown in the UK, claiming it acts as a tool of Russian soft power. 

The animated series, loosely based on a traditional Russian folk tale, follows the adventures of a mischievous little girl and a retired circus bear. It is one of the most popular children’s shows online, with one episode, Recipe for Disaster, viewed more than 4.6 billion times on YouTube. 

Last month, Netflix acquired the rights to two more seasons of the show and extended licensing agreements for existing seasons and spin-offs. The cartoon is available in Britain on ITVX. 

In response, a cross-party group of British parliamentarians have written to UK Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy, arguing that some scenes in the cartoon contain “propaganda content” and supposedly normalize Soviet military imagery for children, referring to a couple of scenes in which Masha appears in what they described as a tank-crew helmet, Soviet-style clothing and a border guard cap. 

The lawmakers also referenced past accusations against the cartoon, including Ukraine’s claims that Russian-language children’s content is a threat to national security and Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna’s recent accusations that the cartoon embeds “militaristic” themes in entertainment for children. 

Animaccord, the studio behind the show, have rejected the accusations as false and defamatory, stressing that the series contains no political messaging and has never received any state funding. 

A spokesperson for the company said the cartoon has entertained families in more than 100 countries for nearly two decades and is built around “friendship, kindness and imagination”. 

The UK government have not publicly backed the MPs’ demand, with officials saying platform catalogs are a matter for broadcasters, as long as they comply with local regulations. 

The lawmakers’ demand has also been widely mocked online, with users ridiculing the idea that a children’s cartoon about a little girl and a bear could pose a threat to Britain. 

Others have accused the MPs of wasting time on culture-war theatrics instead of addressing more serious problems. 

Russian officials have ridiculed past attacks on the cartoon, suggesting that Western critics are trying to find non-existent “militarism” in the series because they fear Russia’s cultural influence and have no good shows of their own. 

“When they cannot create their own proper content, they try to destroy good foreign content – that is, Russian content”, Russian MP Vitaly Milonov has said. 

The push to prohibit "Masha and the Bear" comes amid escalating restrictions on Russian media and culture in the West.

White Students in Minority at Nearly One in 5 UK Varsities

White students have become a minority at nearly one in five universities across the UK, according to official higher education data analyzed by The Telegraph. 

The newspaper’s analysis, published on Wednesday, found that white British students accounted for less than half of enrollment at 27 of the country’s 147 universities in the 2024-25 academic year, up from 13 institutions a decade earlier. 

At some universities, white students made up fewer than one in four enrolled. Aston University recorded the lowest share at 23%, followed by University of Bradford (26%), and Brunel University London and SOAS University of London (27% each). 

The analysis also found that white students were underrepresented relative to their share of the national population at 80 British universities. Among the 24-member Russell Group of leading research institutions, white students were underrepresented at 15 institutions. 

Despite the demographic shift, at least ten universities where white students are now a minority continue to offer scholarships, bursaries and other financial support reserved for applicants from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds, according to the newspaper. Some of the schemes provide funding of up to £18,000 ($24,000) per year. 

Eric Kaufmann, a politics professor at University of Buckingham and a critic of university diversity policies, told The Telegraph that race-based scholarships should be abolished. 

“There is no reason to maintain BAME scholarships, which represent racial discrimination, pure and simple”, he said. 

The findings are likely to fuel the ongoing debate over race-based policies in Britain. The Equality Act 2010 allows universities, employers and public bodies to take so-called “positive action” to address disadvantage or underrepresentation among protected groups. 

Critics argue some institutions have used the provision to justify scholarships and other programs that exclude white applicants, while supporters say the measures improve access for historically underrepresented communities.

KPMG Publish AI Report Filled with Hallucinations

KPMG, one of the largest consulting firms in the world, have been accused of publishing a report on the future of AI that is riddled with hallucinations. 

In one instance, uncovered by the AI detection company, GPTZero, the report claims that the Japanese East Japan Railway Company (JR East) are using agentic AI for customer service, linking to a 2019 press release, years before agentic AI became mainstream. 

In another instance, the report falsely claimed that Austrian electricity provider Verbund is using AI agents in households to conduct real-time analytics as part of its “energy-as-a-service ecosystem”. Although Verbund invested in a start-up using agents for grid optimization, there was no evidence to support the claim of real-time analytics in households.  

GPTZero had analyzed the report, Total Experience: Redefining Excellence in the Age of Agentic AI, which was released in October, 2025. Out of 45 total citations, they found only 5 were accurate, with many of the others being entirely fabricated or containing a mix of real authors and fake data (a phenomenon GPTZero dubbed "vibe citing"). Another 28 citations provide paraphrased titles and/or fake components for a real source. The final 12 are too vague or flawed to accurately determine if a source exists.

Additionally, the report highlighted cutting-edge "Agentic AI" case studies for several major organizations. However, companies like UBS, Swiss Federal Railways, UK's Transport for London (TfL), and NHS (Greater Manchester) formally denied these claims, calling them factually incorrect or highly misleading.

The results may have redefined excellence, but not in the way KPMG intended! 

Anyway, the said report, which has now been taken down, has been referenced by multiple customer service publications and a major newspaper in the Czech Republic. 

In addition, researchers noted that the paper is now being referenced as a resource on customer experience by OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google Gemini. GPTZero allege that an LLM research tool was asked to find appropriate case studies of companies using agentic AI worldwide. 

“This tool seems to have conflated sources, exaggerated claims, and injected references to agentic AI that were copied into the final report without verification”, according to GPTZero, which suspect "no human at KPMG double-checked the citations, the claims, or the sources” before the report was published.

And predictably, KPMG came up with the following "generic excuse": "We expect all our people to follow our guidelines on the responsible use of AI, including human oversight to validate content and verify independent sources".  😅😅😅

Sivasangari Subramaniam was in top form to beat world No. 6 Satomi Watanabe of Japan in straight games to reach the semi-finals of the PSA Tour Finals in Paris, France on Wednesday. 

The Malaysian, ranked No. 5 in the world, won the first-round encounter 3-0: 11-9, 11-6, 11-9 in 35 minutes. It was Sivasangari's eighth win over Satomi in nine meetings. 

The 27-year-old Sivasangari, who won the Australian and Grasshopper Open titles this year, will face world champion Amina Orfi of Egypt for a place in the final on Friday. 

Orfi, who won the British Open title  earlier this month, has a 7-2 winning record against the Malaysian.

Axis Redux

Beware of Japan! And Germany!

In 1940, the imperial regimes of both of these two countries (as well as Italy) joined what would be known as the Axis powers, bound by a shared desire for territorial expansion and imperial supremacy. 

They fought a world war, and they lost it, and their populations spent the next 85 years with shrunken militaries and a heavy reliance on their former enemy, America, for security. 

Now, both countries are moving to reduce their reliance on US security guarantees and are accelerating efforts to bolster their own defense capabilities. And, once again, they are strengthening ties. 

Their cooperation is expected to gather momentum at the meeting of the leaders of the Group of 7 (G7) in Évian-les-Bains, France, taking place now. It already includes sharing know-how, technology and weapons, like drones and helicopters, critical to the countries’ respective efforts to rearm. 

In a few years, Germany’s military spending could be larger than that of France and Britain – combined. Japan commits half as much as Germany, but it is still one of the world’s top spenders on defense, with a budget this year of about $58 billion. 

Already, Germany has forged close ties with Ukraine in developing and deploying new weapons and has asked France to help provide it with a nuclear deterrent. 

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who won office last year with nationalist calls to revive the military, has deployed long-range missiles – capable of reaching China – in southern Japan, and has reversed postwar bans on arms exports. The country recently sealed a $6.5 billion deal to supply warships to Australia, and it is in talks with the Philippines and Indonesia about exporting warships. 

Make no mistake, this is an Axis redux – as both countries enthusiastically embrace the ambition to reassert their dominance. Indeed, Germany and Japan are primed and eager to unleash their military might once more.

And the US is encouraging the two countries – but they have to be stopped before they start getting ideas and threaten the world! 

Methinks, Japan should confront its wartime legacy and seek genuine reconciliation with the countries it once invaded. It should also respect the postwar international framework and the spirit of its pacifist constitution instead of pursuing belligerent strategies.

British Pubs Closing at a Rate of Almost Two Per Day

Approximately two British pubs closed a day in the first quarter of 2026, according to figures produced by the industry. 

The British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) say 161 pubs closed in the first three months of this year across England, Scotland and Wales, equating to the loss of around 2,400 jobs. 

Earlier this year, the government announced business rates support for pubs after warnings from the sector that further tax changes could lead to more closures. The 15% tax relief for pubs and music venues came into effect last month. 

The BBPA said the latest closure figures highlighted a need for longer-term changes, including a wider overhaul of taxes on the hospitality sector. It comes after 336 British pubs reported closures in 2025. 

"The scale of these closures is avoidable because pubs are doing a brisk trade, but their profits are wiped out by a disproportionate tax burden and huge costs", said Emma McClarkin, chief executive of the BBPA. 

Her statement went on: "We want to work with government to establish a permanent long-term plan that will deliver permanently lower bills, a fairer system and ultimately protect this treasured sector". 

Pubs and hospitality venues across the UK have been under increased pressure in recent years, which has been attributed to increased labour costs, rising business rates and shifting consumer habits. 

According to the latest data for Great Britain, Wales is the only region to report an increased number of pubs. Scotland has suffered the heaviest losses, with 41 closures between January and March this year. 

A government spokesperson said they were "backing Britain's pubs" by cutting April's business rates bills by 15%, which will be followed by a two-year freeze, extending World Cup opening hours and increasing the Hospitality Support Fund to £10m to help venues grow. 

The government also plan to build on their Pride in Palace programme, which sees grants allocated for "locally-led solutions" in 280 neighbourhoods in England, as part of their scheme to revitalise high streets. 

"This comes on top of capping corporation tax, cutting alcohol duty on draught pints and six cuts in interest rates, benefiting businesses in every part of Britain", the spokesperson said.

Yes, Lobsters Feel Pain

New research on Norway lobsters adds to a growing body of evidence that these crustaceans feel pain – something scientists have long suspected and even inspired David Foster Wallace's famous 2004 essay "Consider the Lobster". 

In a study published April 13, 2026 in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers found that two drugs used for pain relief in humans – aspirin and lidocaine – significantly reduced the escape responses of Norway lobsters (Nephrops norvegicus) when they were electrically shocked. 

The researchers argue that the medicines were muting the animals' pain processing and that the tail flip is therefore a pain reflex, rather than a simple stress reaction. The team says the findings suggest lobsters deserve greater ethical consideration. 

"The fact that painkillers developed for humans also work on Norway lobsters shows how similar we function", Lynne Sneddon, a professor of zoophysiology at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, said in a statement. "That's why it's important to care about how we treat and kill crustaceans, just as we do with chickens and cows". 

Countries including Switzerland, Norway, New Zealand, Austria and some states in Australia ‪have already banned the boiling of live crustaceans on welfare grounds, and the new findings may add pressure for broader reforms in how these animals are treated and killed. 

[Recommended humane methods for killing arthropods involve electrical stunning (e.g., Crustastun), followed by rapid mechanical destruction of the nervous system (pithing), such as spiking or splitting the carapace, to ensure instant death. These methods prevent suffering by targeting the ganglia, which are distributed along the body, and should be preceded by cooling in a refrigerator or ice slurry for 15–30 minutes to reduce mobility and, likely, sensitivity]. 

To understand how lobsters respond to painful stimuli, the researchers separated 105 Norway lobsters into multiple groups. These included several control groups of lobsters that weren't shocked, along with two shock groups treated with either lidocaine or aspirin. The lidocaine was dissolved in the individual lobster's tank, while the aspirin was injected into the animal directly.

The researchers then gave a 9.09-volt-per-meter electrical shock for 10 seconds to the three shock groups and observed their behavior before, during and up to two hours after the shock. 

When shocked, the lobsters tried to escape by using a tail flip, a common escape maneuver in some crustaceans that rockets them out of danger in small, rapid spurts. The tail flips were seen only in the electrically shocked group of lobsters, not in the control groups. 

Yet when the animals received lidocaine or aspirin before being shocked, the rate of tail flips dropped sharply: Only seven of the 13 lidocaine-treated lobsters and three of the 13 aspirin-treated lobsters tail-flipped, with more intense responses seen in the untreated group.

According to the researchers, their results suggest that the electrical shocks weren't just triggering muscular contractions in the lobsters but instead created a painful experience. That's because if the behavior was merely electrically stimulated, the painkillers wouldn't be expected to suppress the tail flip. 

Instead, painkiller treatment reduced the escape behavior. From this finding, the researchers suggested that the tail flip may have had a neurological component known as nociception. This is when signals from the body part exposed to the harmful stimulus travel to the brain and trigger a negative internal state associated with pain. 

This study joins a growing body of research indicating that crabs, octopuses and other invertebrates can experience pain. In past studies, hermit crabs shocked inside their shells eventually abandoned their homes to avoid experiencing the painful stimulus.

Octopus (Phylum: Mollusca, Class: Cephalopoda, Order: Octopoda) have shown even stronger clues about pain processing; in one widely cited study, "Behavioral and neurophysiological evidence suggests affective pain experience in octopus" published February 23, 2021 in iScience – they avoided places linked to injury and favored those associated with pain relief. This evidence is beginning to gradually change policies about how these animals are being treated. 

In the UK, crabs, lobsters and octopuses are now recognized as sentient animals "capable of experiencing pain and suffering" under the 2022 Animal Welfare Act.

UK Special Forces Resign En Masse Over War Crimes Probe

Soldiers from the UK’s elite SAS force are resigning in significant numbers over fears of prosecution following human rights investigations into alleged war crimes, British media reports. 

The probe largely focuses on British special forces operations in Afghanistan from 2010 to 2013, as well as missions in Syria and Northern Ireland. 

A public inquiry is examining claims that troops carried out extrajudicial killings during night raids, including the shooting of detainees and unarmed civilians, and whether evidence was falsified and senior officers failed to investigate or concealed wrongdoing. 

Members of 22 SAS, the British Army’s elite special forces unit, have applied for “premature voluntary release”, multiple outlets reported on Monday, citing insiders. The exact number of departures has not been disclosed, though at least two squadrons (D and G) are understood to have been affected. 

“Morale is s**t at the moment”, one insider was quoted as saying. Another source described “considerable disquiet” within the regiment. 

Lieutenant Colonel Richard Williams told LBC radio on Tuesday the growing number of departures from 22 SAS was driven by concerns among serving troops that actions during operations could later lead to investigations or potential arrest under human rights law. 

Last month, it was revealed that 242 special forces troops, including 120 serving personnel, were being pursued by lawyers as part of human rights inquiries, according to a memo shared with SAS and Special Reconnaissance Regiment associations. The investigation, which some within the regiment have labeled a “witch hunt”, examines UK secret operations, with troops facing legal sanctions if they fail to comply, the memo said. 

In 2022, a BBC Panorama investigation identified 54 people shot dead in suspicious circumstances by one SAS unit during a six-month tour of Helmand province, with unarmed Afghan men allegedly “routinely shot dead in cold blood” and weapons planted on them.

An inquiry heard in December that the director of UK Special Forces made a “conscious decision” to cover up potential war crimes in Afghanistan, according to the Morning Star. A UKSF officer identified as N1466 said the director “knew what was happening on the ground” and sought to “cover this up”. 

In one incident presented to the inquiry, special forces fired into a mosquito net until there was no movement, only to later find women and children, according to inquiry documents. The shooting was allegedly covered up and the soldier awarded. 

A review prepared for the inquiry found a Royal Military Police investigation into alleged unlawful killings was undermined by delays and poor resourcing, according to Action on Armed Violence. Operation Northmoor, the main investigation, began only in March 2014 despite concerns emerging as early as 2011, and was closed in July 2019 in what the review described as an “inappropriate and premature” decision, leaving key lines of inquiry unexamined.