Thread for obviously newsworthy stuff

[BlackCat]

France is burning !!!

Well, at least Notre Dame is - hope Quasimodo got out

[Proteus_MST]

Well, then now you can write an essay about the thread for obviously newsworthy stuff

[spambot]

Walmart says these "smart assistants" will reduce the amount of time workers spend on "repeatable, predictable and manual" tasks in stores and allow them to switch to selling merchandise to shoppers and other customer service roles.

So if I go to Walmart to buy bananas people are going to be trying to sell me ****? **** that.

[Broken_Erika]

In the news today

Pigeon poo-covered house in Ilfracombe sells for £100k

A four-bedroom house that is covered in pigeon poo has sold at auction for £100,000.

The semi-detached property in Devon has views of the Bristol Channel, but the top two floors are caked in poo that is 1ft (0.3m) high in places.

Father and son duo John and Guy Jones paid more than double the £45,000 asking price for the Ilfracombe house.

"I just wish that less people had seen it," Mr Jones said. "I could have got it a bit cheaper."

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-devon-47803385

elsewhere..........

Capstone Hill Tour of Britain bike turned into penis

Pranksters have turned a giant bicycle created to celebrate the Tour of Britain into a giant penis.

Locals in Ilfracombe, Devon, got a "rude awakening" when they spotted the naughty artwork on the side of Capstone Hill on Tuesday morning.

The bike, made out of cardboard and reclaimed plastic, was commissioned by a local environment initiative.

It appeared during the second stage of the cycling race, which ran from Cranbrook to Barnstaple.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-devon-45414022

[pchang]

The robots are coming, the robots are coming. Will Trump build a wall around robot factories?

[Broken_Erika]

Meanwhile

Trump chief of staff vows tax returns will 'never' be released

One of US President Donald Trump's top aides has said that opposition Democrats will "never" see his tax returns.

White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said the call for the records to be released was a "political stunt".

On Wednesday a Congressional tax committee submitted a request for six years of the president's returns from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Unlike previous presidents, Mr Trump has refused to publish his tax details.

• Trump lawyer dismisses tax return demand
• NY to examine Trump tax affairs in 1990s
• How did Donald Trump make his fortune?

During an interview on Fox News, Mr Mulvaney was asked if Congress would ever see the president's tax returns.

"No, never," he replied. "Nor should they."

He added: "Democrats are demanding that the IRS turn over the documents. That is not going to happen, and they know it. This is a political stunt."

What have Democrats said?
In response, Democrats said that the request by tax committee chairman Richard Neal was both legal and necessary.

Dan Kildee, a Democrat and a tax committee member, told ABC: "This is a legitimate authority that the Congress has. This president, by the way, is the least transparent president we've had in half a century."

Every US presidential candidate since 1976 has released their tax returns, but there is no law requiring it.

The Democrats gained control of the House of Representatives in mid-term elections last year, giving them the ability to launch investigations into Mr Trump's administration and business affairs.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47847022

[Broken_Erika]

Another one bites the dust.

Kirstjen Nielsen: US Homeland Security chief resigns

The US Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen, who enforced some of President Trump's controversial border policies, has resigned.

Ms Nielsen called it "an honour of a lifetime" to work in the department.

President Trump tweeted she would be temporarily replaced by Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan.

Ms Nielsen was responsible for implementing the proposed border wall and the separation of migrant families.

• Walking a tightrope working for Trump
• The White House revolving door: Who's gone?

She gave no reason for her departure in her resignation letter, although she said this was "the right time for me to step aside" and said the US "is safer today than when I joined the Administration".

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47848619

[pchang]

Trump declares US is full. I guess we won’t be needing to eat any more for awhile....

[BeBMan]

Meanwhile Japan has declared war against space

Hayabusa-2: Japanese probe likely to have 'bombed' an asteroid

[-Jrabbit]

It's likely already worked, probably more than once. That place is a security disaster waiting to happen, both physically and cyber.

[Berzerker]

are Chinese spies really that incompetent?

a woman tried to get access to Mar Lago

[Broken_Erika]

Certified Moron Donald Trump Thinks Wind Turbines “Cause Cancer”


Trump, who once likened wind turbines to the Lockerbie bombing, has a new conspiracy theory.

Donald Trump has a long history of attacking wind energy, which he views as a threat to coal and his campaign to transform the planet into a truck-stop urinal, the kind you have to unlock with a key attached to a giant steering wheel. “It’s Friday,” he tweeted one innocent afternoon in August 2012. “How many bald eagles did wind turbines kill today?” A couple months later, he opined: “If Obama keeps pushing wind turbines our country will go down the tubes economically, environmentally & aesthetically,” not mentioning that his own personal aesthetic could be best described as “Louis XIV projectile vomit.” He spent most of 2013 and 2014 fighting Scotland‘s First Minister over plans to build an offshore wind farm near his Aberdeenshire golf course, telling an Irish paper that “wind farms are a disaster for Scotland, like Pan Am 103,” i.e. the transatlantic flight that was bombed by a terrorist in 1988, killing all 259 passengers on board and 11 on the ground when large part of the aircraft landed on residential areas of Lockerbie, Scotland. (“Here’s a reference these Scots will understand,” he presumably thought to himself.) Returning to his avian anxieties, the noted animal-rights activist told a West Virginia crowd last summer, “You look underneath some of those windmills, it’s like a killing field [for] birds.”

His concerns, it seems, aren’t limited to wildlife. “If Hillary got in. . . you’d be doing wind. Windmills. Weee,” he told the crowd at a rally in Michigan last week during an aside that, were he not president, would be submitted as evidence to have him committed. “If it doesn’t blow, you can forget about television for that night. ‘Darling, I want to watch television.’ ‘I’m sorry! The wind isn’t blowing.’ I know a lot about wind.” So, really, it was only a matter of time before this happened:
President Donald Trump on Tuesday launched his latest wild attack on wind turbines, an energy source that has long attracted his ire.

“They say the noise causes cancer,” the president remarked of the turbines at the National Republican Congressional Committee fund-raiser in Washington, D.C. “If you have a windmill anywhere near your house, congratulations—your house just went down 75 percent in value.”

As virtually everyone on the Internet was quick to point out, out here, on planet Earth, cancer is not caused by noise, wind-induced or otherwise. Meanwhile, an energy source that does tend to cause health issues, as New York’s Jonathan Chait notes, “is coal, an extremely dirty fuel Trump loves and has attempted to bolster, with almost no success. Aside from costing more to produce than other sources of power, and in addition to enormous air-pollution side effects, coal also emits greenhouse gases in large amounts.”

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019...-causes-cancer

[Broken_Erika]

'Duck-eating' fish removed from Lakeside shopping centre lake
A "rogue" fish has been removed from a lake after children reported seeing it eating ducks.

The 25lb (11.3kg) catfish was caught at the man-made lake at the Lakeside shopping centre in Thurrock, Essex, by the Environment Agency (EA).

A spokesman said fishing contests would be held at the lake to reduce the population of invasive species.

Officer Ben Norrington said: "Large fish have the potential to eat wildfowl so we're pleased we could remove it."

The EA said the animal had been seen eating ducks and other wildfowl.

"Invasive species pose a serious threat to our native wildlife," Mr Norrington added.

The catfish has been relocated to a fully enclosed lake with help from the Catfish Conservation Group.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-essex-47759215

and....

'Utterly ridiculous' path at Felixstowe's Walton Gate ridiculed

A "footpath" on a new development has been ridiculed on social media for its "utterly ridiculous" size.

The footway, measuring about 40cm (just under 16 ins), was created at Walton Gate in Felixstowe, Suffolk.

It attracted comments on a Facebook news page, with one person asking if was "one of things police make you walk along to check whether you're drunk".

Barratt Homes said it was "not a footpath" but a "service margin" that was not intended for pedestrian use.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-suffolk-47745872

[Lorizael]

Nambia!

Wakanda!

[pchang]

A Kock is trying to protect prostitutes.