The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

 

The good:

David Attenborough said he had been "completely overwhelmed" by birthday greetings as he turned 100 on Friday in ​a worldwide outpouring of affection for the British wildlife broadcaster after decades of trailblazing work.

After more than 70 years of film-making, Attenborough's instantly recognisable voice is synonymous with the story ‌of nature. He is still at the vanguard of efforts to protect the environment and has produced some of his most influential work in recent years.

 

In Britain, Attenborough's centenary is being marked with a week of special broadcasts on the BBC, a live concert at the Royal Albert Hall, events at museums, nature walks and tree planting.

 

"I had rather thought that I would celebrate my 100th birthday quietly, but it seems that many of you have had other ideas," he said in an audio message ​released by the BBC.

 

"I’ve been completely overwhelmed by birthday greetings from preschool groups to care home residents and countless individuals and families of all ages."

 

He thanked all those who had sent messages ​and wished anyone planning an event to mark the milestone "a very happy day".

 

Counting Britain's royal family, former U.S. President Barack Obama and pop star Billie Eilish among his admirers, ⁠Attenborough's charisma, humour and warmth, alongside the depth of his knowledge and flair for storytelling, have made him a broadcasting superstar.

 

"Your ability to communicate the beauty and vulnerability of our natural environment remains unequalled," was how ​the late Queen Elizabeth summed up his achievements in 2019.  [snip]

Born on May 8, 1926, Attenborough spent his childhood collecting fossils, insects and dried seahorses.

 

His BBC career took off in 1954 when he presented "Zoo Quest", which involved him travelling to far-flung parts of the world and bringing animals back to London Zoo.

 

By the 1970s he had risen to be programme controller at the broadcaster but decided he wanted ⁠to return to ​making nature documentaries.

 

Screened in 1979 when he was 52, "Life on Earth" made him a household name. He wrote the entire 13-hour script ​and travelled the world for three years to tell the story of evolution from simple organisms to humans.

 

Dozens of documentaries followed, including "Blue Planet," "Frozen Planet" and "Dynasties". As the decades passed, his sense of the need to act only increased.

 

"How could I look my grandchildren in the ​eye and say I knew what was happening to the world and did nothing?" Attenborough said.

We wish we could have another 100 years with him, his talents, and his passion for life on this planet.

The bad:

When Vladimir Osechkin wants to take his children to school or go to the supermarket, he calls the police.

The Russian activist has lived under protection since 2022 because French officials believe Russia is trying to kill him.

In April 2025, a crew of Russian men staked out Osechkin’s home and the surrounding area in southwestern France for several hours, taking videos and photos in suspected groundwork for an assassination, according to court documents seen by The Associated Press that are not public. Several years earlier, Osechkin said, a red dot — which he thought was a laser sight for a gun — appeared on his wall.

Elsewhere in Europe, Lithuanian officials disrupted a plot last year to kill a Lithuanian supporter of Ukraine and another against a Russian activist. Officials in Germany have similarly broken up two plots: one to target the head of a German weapons company supplying Ukraine, the other against a Ukrainian military official. Polish authorities arrested a man in 2024 in what they said was a plot to assassinate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. And that same year, a Russian helicopter pilot who defected was killed in Spain — with Russian operatives the prime suspects.

While Russian officials have long been accused of silencing the country’s enemies abroad, three Western intelligence officials from different countries told AP that a campaign of targeted killings has ramped up since President Vladimir Putin’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The officials said Russia’s security services are now more brazen in their choice of targets, going after Russian activists and foreign supporters of Ukraine, in addition to the usual suspects like military defectors. All three officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.

“This campaign is not by accident or chance,” said one of them, a senior European intelligence official. “There is political authorization.”...

This is an instance where it's almost a shame Western governments have policies -- not to mention moral standards -- against targeted killings of war criminals like Putin and the psychopaths heading his security services, who've caused so much death and destruction. 

The ugly:

Nearly 600,000 Trump supporters paid £74 ($100) each towards a gold smartphone that, nearly a year on, does not exist.

The Trump Mobile T1 phone was announced in June 2025 by Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump as a patriotic alternative to Apple and Samsung, retailing at £370 ($499) and promising a 'Made in the USA' build.

An estimated 590,000 buyers paid a £74 ($100) deposit to secure one, collectively handing the venture roughly £43.7 million ($59 million). As of May 2026, not a single confirmed customer has received the device. Now, a fresh wave of anger is spreading across MAGA forums after buyers received communication making clear that their money is, for all practical purposes, gone.

Trump Mobile launched on 16 June 2025 at an announcement at Trump Tower, headlined by the president's two eldest sons and timed to coincide with the 10th anniversary of Donald Trump's 2016 campaign launch. The T1 was marketed as a gold-coloured Android handset bearing an American flag on its back and bundled with a monthly service plan at £37.50 ($47.45) per month. Initial delivery was promised for late summer 2025.

That deadline slipped to November 2025, then December, then the first quarter of 2026. A mid-March 2026 T-Mobile carrier certification deadline also passed without resolution. By April 2026, Trump Mobile quietly redesigned its website, removing the release date entirely  rather than replacing it with a new one.

NBC News, which placed its own £74 ($100) deposit in August 2025 to track the story, called Trump Mobile's support line five times between September and November 2025 and received inconsistent answers each time. A representative said in October that the phone would ship on 13 November, but it did not.

In January 2026, a call centre operator said the T1 was 'in the final stages of certification and field testing,' with a ship date 'sometime in Q1 2026.' That quarter has now passed. At one point, customer service representatives blamed a 43-day federal government shutdown for the delay, an explanation analysts quickly dismissed as irrelevant to a private-sector hardware company.

The clearest signal yet that buyers may never see either a phone or their money came with a revised terms of service published on 6 April 2026. The updated document states explicitly that paying a deposit 'does not constitute a completed purchase and does not create a binding legal contract.' The payment is described as 'a conditional opportunity to buy the device if Trump Mobile eventually chooses to sell it,' with the company retaining all control over whether a phone is produced at all...

There's more at the link.  Suckered by the convicted felonious fraud and Swindler-in-Chief.  What a totally unexpected outcome, amirite?!  That's why it's impossible to feel any sympathy for the sheep being sheared on an on-going basis.