Was lunch included?

According to a friend in the industry, it’s basically a non issue. Things like this are not uncommon, and wouldn’t have even made the news, without what happened in Spain.

The national grid was less designed and more accreted. There are a lot of parts that are sub-optimal, but we are stuck with them due to the cost of replacement. They are therefore very hot on containing, and learning from any failure that happens.

Idiot teen is an explanation, not a dismissal. Nowhere did I say to ignore it. My point is that there is a gradient of both crimes and intents. If there is no matching gradient in legal response, then it can lead to injustice.

An idiotic crime will often need fairly minor corrections. A malicious crime requires FAR more of a response. Treating all crimes as malicious ends up diluting the view on truly malicious crimes. It can also drive individuals into the very situation you want to move them away from.

Context matters a lot. However, in general, it’s a far lower crime than many in that category. Critically, it’s not of the level to be desirable to destroy their future over. The punishment should be enough to deter and correct, but not more.

Many/most of us have been idiotic teens before. Society’s goal should be to correct and improve. Not go in with sledgehammers aimed at skulls. In many cases, the embarrassment alone would be enough to do the job. The law just needs to drive that point home.

It would limit watering down the register with ‘minor’ offenses. It would also help avoid trapping an idiot teen in a negative spiral, due to a stupid drunken mistake 10 years previously.

Fyi, I’m not actually American myself. I agree with you otherwise however.

Both are brainwashed, just in different ways. Republicans are wired for fear. Democrats are wired for passivity.

The republican version is a lot more dangerous, but the democrat version is a lot more insidious.

The prison sentence kicks in after appeals have been made. 2 years, plus 2 suspended.

It’s also not unknown/uncommon for people to be let free for a few days. It lets them put their affairs in order, before serving their time. It tends to be applied to those with a very low flight risk however, with significant affairs, so mainly the rich.

The British managed that, though we are more than happy to share with our European cousins.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Shrapnel

He invented the idea of an explosion powered guillotine blade. Perfect for a rocket warhead.

Didn’t Putin recently make noise over America annexing Greenland? He would be happy with splitting it between them, however.

Fighting America would be as much posturing as fighting, with most fighting being an insurgency type fight. Russia is more likely to be blunt about it, but also more viable to repel. Particularly if the rest of NATO is willing to respond to it.

In fairness, the only thing many people will lack is water. It’s not an exclusive stash, but in addition to what’s in your cupboards.

You can get 10L or 25L quite cheaply. 1 should do per person, maybe with an extra for cooking. Or just grab some big bottles of water.

A hand cranked flashlight, candles and lighter are all a must anyhow, for a power cut. It might also be worth having a cheap camping stove tucked away.

Food wise. It’s just a big bag of pasta or rice, along with some cans/jars to make it pleasant to eat. Throw in some hiking snack bars and you’re sorted.

As a UK citizen, we know there’s a difference between the government and the people. You definitely have a serious problem, but you’ve not been abandoned. We have issues with Trump and his cronies, not the people of America.

We might be a bit stumped on what we can actually do to help, but you’re not alone.

I’ve maintained a basic stock for a while now. I suspected people would panic buy with COVID. I stocked up well before, and so dodged most of it. I’ve kept an extra buffer since.

More likely they expect to be able to get support/reinforcement/aid in, within a couple of days.

It’s big enough to be a useful stopgap, but small enough not to accidentally cause a run on the supermarkets. It also makes people think about it more. If they update it to 2 weeks later, people are more likely to have a feel for what they need, and what will keep.

Hopefully it’s a dead cat bounce. Falling shares often recover slightly, before continuing their fall. Only time (and action) will tell.

Taxes. The EU introduced rules of tax transparency. The UK left the EU the day before the rules kicked in.

That’s how most EU regulations are created. They take the best parts of the legislation of various members and combine them.

As for weapons, harmonisation is a thing. However, the exact use cases will vary for different countries. A tank that’s optimal for Spain isn’t necessarily the best for Germany. Neither country wants suboptimal equipment. What is easier to harmonise is ammo, a fact that NATO have been exploiting for a long while.

There are also the implications. Before now, military has been done on a per country basis. If they want to move as a block, they need individual countries to step up. It also allows countries to act independently if desired. A unified army is seen as a threat to the sovereignty of individual countries.

They did eventually participate. While their initial behaviour wasn’t the best, I also understand why they dragged their feet. There was a definite witch hunt going on, for someone to blame. Once that calmed down, they did actually help with investigating it.

Ultimately, it’s of mostly academic interest. Where do we need to tighten down on things to avoid a repeat incident. The best answer would be “Both”.

Also, do you have a link to any papers talking about the man-made origin theory? I’ve not checked in a while, but last time I looked it sent me down a lot of rabbit holes, with nothing ultimately backing it up.

The complication is the double jump.

In the early days of COVID, there were 2 strains spreading. One of those fizzled out and disappeared after a few weeks. Genetically, they seemed to be independent jumps. A single mistake wouldn’t account for this.

It’s also worth noting that the first known infected all spent time in Wuhan wildlife market. They got fairly good tracking from mobile phones, even if the direct evidence was destroyed by the containment/cleaning effort.

Basically, the surrounding evidence doesn’t fit an accidental leak (2 jumps). It doesn’t really fit an intentional release (very geographically focused). It is consistent with it jumping from a sustained infection pool in the market. (Multiple jumps from the same small area at different times).