Boris Johnson has not been invited to Kyiv

Volodymyr Zelensky

Downing Street announced that despite reportedly being desperate to visit the warzone, Boris Johnson hasn’t been invited to visit war-ravaged Kyiv.

No 10 told reporters that the Prime Minister would consider travelling to the besieged metropolis, but no offer had been received from president Volodymyr Zelensky.

Boris Johnson

It came after Tory chairman Oliver Dowden insisted the Prime Minister had a genuine emotional bond with the suffering of the Ukrainian people and wanted to experience what it was like on the ground.

The comments, in an interview with LBC, came despite security fears over Boris Johnson’s obvious wish to visit Kyiv for face to face talks with Volodymyr Zelensky.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman told reporters that they would clearly consider any invite should it be made, but there were no plans to travel there now, and it was said that the Prime Minister speaks to President Volodymyr Zelensky on an almost daily basis and that they were doing everything they could, and any requests that were made to continue playing a coordinating role, which they feel is essential to helping Ukraine.

He said President Volodymyr Zelensky hadn’t, at this time, requested the Prime Minister visit Kyiv.

The prime ministers of Poland, Slovenia and the Czech Republic made a trip to the Ukrainian capital last week.

Boris Johnson has been having almost daily calls with the president, which insiders told a newspaper outlet have often been moving and left Boris Johnson moist around the eyes.

The UN’s refugee agency said about 3.5 million people have fled Ukraine since the attack started, with millions more forced out of their homes staying in the country.

Mr Dowden, who serves in Cabinet, said that he believed the Prime Minister was desperate to go to Ukraine and has throughout the conflict felt a real, as the British people have done, connection with the suffering of the Ukrainian people and a need for the West to unite in standing up to this threat from Russia which has been exposed to Ukraine.

Pressed on why Boris Johnson needed to travel to the war zone rather than talking to Volodymyr Zelensky on the phone, Mr Dowden said that he believed that it was both to see what was going happening on the ground and that it was significantly different speaking to someone on the phone versus seeing it in practice, and that no decision had been taken in regard to this, and that it was to experience what was happening there and to see what was happening to the people on the ground.

Or perhaps Boris Johnson is just desperate to do some thumbs up in a jacket and helmet for a photo opportunity without any regard for the danger he will put other people in, and perhaps he shouldn’t be allowed near the place, and if he is permitted to go, all he will be doing is a rotund Frank Spencer show, giving the people of Kyiv a thumbs up, with his roaring Churchillian address.

Volodymyr Zelensky has enough to deal with, let alone having to worry about Boris Johnson getting in the way, and Boris should just continue with his phone calls instead, and let’s face it, who needs a useless sack of blubber, who’s desperate enough to attach himself to anyone’s wagon in a war zone? It’s not a circus Boris, it’s a war, and Boris Johnson needs to stick to his own playpen.

And I’m pretty sure we don’t need to see Boris Johnson act out his boyhood fantasies of wearing camouflage or doing the cringeworthy elbow bumps.

A Doomed Chinese Jet’s Passengers

Chinese recovery teams were today picking through the debris of a crashed China Eastern jet after it inexplicably plunged from the sky into a mountainside yesterday with 132 people on board.

The Chinese Boeing 737-800 crashed into a mountainside with no survivors, and rescue workers speculated that the fire resulting from the collision had killed the passengers and their belongings, before causing damage to the surrounding forest.

China Eastern yesterday grounded all of its Boeing 737-800 aircraft after the incident, in which the aircraft unexpectedly nose-dived and plunged 30,000 feet in two minutes before slamming into the ground at 350 mph.

The incident represents China’s deadliest air crash in almost three decades. The deadliest Chinese commercial flight misfortune was a China Northwest Airlines crash in 1994, which killed all 160 onboard.

President Xi Jinping quickly named for a full investigation following the collision as search teams, firefighters and other personnel descended upon the area in a rural region of Guangxi province.

State media showed uniformed search teams climbing over a scene of upturned earth, blasted trees and scattered debris, including a section of aircraft bearing the carrier’s blue and red livery.

Other crews were shown launching drones, in a search mission complicated by the steep terrain and thick vegetation.

The airline earlier on Monday acknowledged that some aboard the jet, which was transiting from the municipality of Kunming to the southern hub of Guangzhou, had perished, but didn’t offer more particulars.

China Eastern said in a statement late Monday without supplying more details that the company expressed its deepest condolences for the passengers and crew members who perished in the plane wreck.

Families of the passengers and crew members were still waiting to hear more details about the tragedy.

Local villagers were the first to arrive at the crash site on Monday, where the plane sparked a fire large enough to be captured on NASA satellite images.

Hundreds of rescue workers were subsequently dispatched from Guangxi and the neighbouring Guangdong province.

State broadcaster CCTV said China Eastern set up nine teams to deal with the disposal of the aircraft, accident investigation, family assistance and other pressing matters.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) and China Eastern both said they also dispatched officials to the crash site.

State media reported all 737-800s in the airline’s fleet were ordered grounded following the collision. The model is the predecessor to the controversial 737 Max model but was considered safe despite a string of crashes over its lengthy history.

We just take it for granted that it’s safe to fly, but it’s not and aeroplanes are just extremely complex machines and anything can happen, and it must have been terrifying for those passengers and crew as the aeroplane went down.

However, we believe that the risk in flying is relative, and that flight is much safer than any other type of transportation, and even though aeroplanes are very well maintained and crews are skillfully trained there are still risks, the same as getting into a car or train.

The Chinese will know and probably say something in due course. Black boxes are designed to endure an impact and fire, but it will take time to sift through the whole wreckage before anyone knows anything.

This was an absolutely horrific plane crash and people lost their lives, but there was no need for such graphical reporting which of course would have added more distress to their families reading those reports.

This entire event was quite shocking and aeroplanes don’t just fall out of the sky, and hopefully, the families of the departed will get the answers that they’re looking for.

Now Is The Time To End This War…

Vladimir Putin should end the illegal invasion of Ukraine and negotiate directly with Ukraine’s wartime president, Volodymyr Zelensky warned, warning that otherwise, it will take Russia ‘several generations’ to recover.

Volodymyr Zelensky has urged Russian aggressor Vladimir Putin to end his illegal attack and negotiate directly with Ukraine’s comic turned wartime president, warning that otherwise, Russia will take several generations to recover.

In an evening video address to the country outside the Presidential Office on Friday, Volodymyr Zelensky also blamed Russian forces for deliberately causing a humanitarian disaster to pressure Kyiv into yielding to Vladimir Putin’s demands.

At the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, Vladimir Putin attends a concert commemorating the eighth anniversary of the annexation of Crimea

Appealing to Vladimir Putin to hold direct talks with him as Kremlin troops surrounded Ukraine’s capital, he said that they have always insisted on negotiations. That they offered dialogue, offered solutions for peace. Not just for 23 days of aggression.

He said that he just wanted everyone to hear him now, especially Moscow, and that the time had come for a meeting, that it was now time to talk. It was time to restore territorial integrity and justice for Ukraine. Otherwise, Russia’s losses will be such that it will take them several generations to recover.

Ukraine and the West claim that Russia’s invasion is struggling in part due to fierce Ukrainian resistance, inadequate planning and low morale among Russian forces, and according to one US intelligence estimate, 7,000 Russian troops including four generals have already been killed, more than the number of American troops killed in either the Iraq or Afghanistan wars at 4,825 and 3,576 respectively, and between 14,000 and 21,000 troops have been wounded in the fighting.

The estimated Russian death toll is of a scale comparable to that of the Batte of Iwo Jima, where 6,852 troops were killed and 19,000 were injured during five weeks of fighting Japanese forces in the most intense phase of the Pacific theatre of World War Two.

Ukraine’s military has also suffered heavy casualties, likely to be much higher than the 1,300 troops which Kyiv has confirmed as killed.

According to Ukraine’s military, Russia has lost 466 tanks, 115 helicopters, 914 vehicles, 95 aircraft, 213 artillery systems, 44 anti-aircraft weapons and 60 fuel tanks. Russia hasn’t responded to Kyiv’s latest estimates, and the data couldn’t be independently confirmed.

The Kremlin has insisted that Ukraine renounced any ambitions to join NATO, be neutral along the lines of Sweden and Austria, recognise Crimea as Russian territory and recognise the separatist republics of Donetsk and Lugansk as independent territories.

Vladimir Putin’s lapdog Sergei Lavrov said neutrality was taking centre stage and that Moscow and Kyiv were near to agreeing on the wording of an agreement on NATO. But Kyiv vetoed the proposal and instead called for a global security guarantee among Western partners, including potentially Britain, who will support Ukraine if it’s invaded again.

Negotiations are a game to Vladimir Putin, along with his toys of armageddon.

Vladimir Putin has invaded the sovereign country of Ukraine, and the world is standing by whilst Volodymyr Zelensky and his brace soldiers and courageous citizens fight NATO’s war for them.

Ukraine is an old historic autonomous sovereign country of 45 million inhabitants, but now Vladimir Putin is invading Ukraine with his despotic warmongering and perpetrating war crimes that will scorch this earth with his destruction of poor Ukraine.

It’s time for Vladimir Putin, in the finest Stalinist tradition to call back his defeated forces and skedaddle back to mother Russia, but sadly this man loves the cameras and the attention, and of course, Vladimir Putin will not want to lose face, so we can only speculate his next move.

The President of Ukraine Owns A suit, Doesn’t He?

An American entrepreneur and one time Senate candidate was criticised for asking why Volodymyr Zelensky didn’t wear a suit, then doubled down by accusing the embattled Ukrainian president of wearing make-up.

Peter Schiff, 58, who once ran as a Republican for the seat of the US Senator from Connecticut twelves years ago made the remarks soon after Volodymyr Zelensky appeared before the US Senate in his now trademark khaki green T-shirt.

Peter Schiff, who’s the CEO of Euro Pacific Capital bank tweeted that he understood times were difficult, but that doesn’t the President of Ukraine own a suit?

He said that he didn’t have much respect for existing members of the US Congress either, but he still wouldn’t address them sporting a T-shirt and that he wouldn’t want to disrespect the institution or the United States.

One tweeter calling themselves Quoth the Raven replied to Peter Schiff by saying he’d just made one of the worst all-time takes. Quoth the Raven continued that the man was in the centre of a war zone dodging artillery and that he was not going to be rolling around his garment rack with him.

But Peter Schiff was unbowed and replied again by saying he was not in combat on a battlefield. Someone powered his face. Not a hair was out of place, and he was clean-shaven with a trimmed beard. He chose to wear the T-shirt, but he could have easily have picked something less casual.

Numerous other tweeters chose to blast Peter Schiff over his comments, hundreds of whom used far less polite vocabulary.

Jon Cooper, former National Finance Chair of Draft Biden 2016, wrote that he couldn’t believe that the tweet hadn’t been deleted and that Peter Schiff was a complete A—Gap.

The guy is not only in a war zone, where he wouldn’t be able to get a suit pressed and dry cleaned, but even if it were achievable, it was favourable for people to see him as one of them sharing the struggle.

Peter Schiff doubled down on his tweet, later on, responding to Jonathan saying that he wouldn’t have had to press a suit and that he was sure he had a clean suit hanging in the same closet as his T-shirts, and that even if there were no suits available, maybe a long-sleeved shirt with a collar.

Amy Task, an analyst at CBS Sports, was part of the majority who condemned Peter Schiff, sharing that Volodymyr Zelensky was fighting to protect the lives of others, and he was putting his life at risk to do so. That he could have left but he didn’t and that speaks volumes about the man that he is, and that it speaks volumes about the sort of man Peter Schiff is.

Perhaps Peter Schiff should trade places with the president of Ukraine. Volodymyr Zelensky is fighting a war, and he’s trying to save his country, not look pretty, and which one would you trust most, the one in the T-shirt or the one in the suit?

Let’s face it, rich people are so out of touch with reality it’s scary, and really, what idiot wears a suit while trying to save their country, oh that would be Peter Schiff.

The rich and privileged don’t get the effects of the war, but perhaps that’s because they’re so busy starting them? And Peter Schiff is one of those people who it doesn’t affect because he’s probably never got his hands dirty in his life unless he’s playing with himself and then he probably uses a tissue to masturbate!

Los Angeles DUI Suspect Dies Screaming ‘I Can’t Breathe’ On Terrifying Final Moments

A California father’s harrowing last moments have emerged in harrowing police footage showing him scream ‘I can’t breathe’ while dying as he was held face down on the ground so officers could extract a blood sample.

Edward Bronstein, 38, died on March 31, 2020, less than two months before George Floyd was killed by police in Minnesota, after an altercation during his arrest on suspicion of driving under the influence.

He was pulled over for a DUI, but taken to a police station after refusing to give a blood sample, which his family says was due to a fear of needles.

Edward Bronstein started screaming with fear after being pinned to the ground face down shortly afterwards, and died shortly afterwards, with efforts to revive him proving unsuccessful.

The California Highway Patrol had fought to keep the video from going public after the man’s family sued over excessive use of force and civil rights violations, but a federal court judge ordered its release.

An 18-minute video of the detention, taken by a California Highway Patrol sergeant in Pasadena, shows a handcuffed Edward Bronstein, a father to two daughters, rowing with police as they directed him to a mat on the floor of the Altadena station garage and forced him to his knees to take a blood sample he’d refused to give.

He initially argues but starts shrieking with fear after being thrown to the ground face down.

Edward Bronstein can then be heard saying that he would do the blood test willingly as two officers hover over him, and a man can be heard warning him not to resist taking a court-ordered blood sample to determine his intoxication level.

The officer tells him that he could just provide it and still, he didn’t consent and that he was the one bringing the fight, not them.

Edward Bronstein says to an officer that he was not fighting as the officer kept his hand on his shoulder.

The patrolman then says that he should have a seat and provide his arm, otherwise he was going to go face down on the mat and that they were going to keep on going.

Edward Bronstein’s family said that he had a fear of needles.

Officers then swarm Edward Bronstein and haul his legs out from under him, causing him to writhe around on the ground, and five officers can be seen kneeling on him as he yells that he would do it willingly.

The officer says that it was too late and that they’d not even poked him yet and that he should just relax, but then Edward Bronstein starts yelling that he can’t breathe.

Finally, Edward Bronstein stops moving and officers draw blood from his lifeless body.

A second video, more than 12 minutes long, shows the officer’s and paramedics’ unsuccessful attempts to revive Edward Bronstein.

I would guess this is a major lawsuit for sure. However, there will be nothing gained politically, nor will it be exploited, and you probably won’t see this on America’s corporate media.

The most significant thing here that everyone missed is why didn’t the officers do a breathalyzer test instead, it would have been much easier than using a needle.

But nobody in America cares about this because police brutality is favoured, and nothing will come of this because they have double standards in their justice system, and it seems that now, officers are allowed to go around with syringes and needles, asking offenders for blood samples on the street, and for those people out there that might say that Edward Bronstein should have listened to the officers, well the officers could have equally listened to Mr Bronstein when he said that he couldn’t breathe.

Of course, you shouldn’t drink and drive, and when you break the law you shouldn’t resist arrest, but then when being apprehended you don’t think that you’re going to end up with a death sentence, and that’s before you’ve even been to court.

These officers thought that the only thing that they could do to see if Edward Bronstein was intoxicated was to take his blood when a simple breathalyzer test would have sufficed, and now a man has died for absolutely nothing.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe And Anoosheh Ashoori On Their Way Back To The United Kingdom

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe will return to her husband and seven-year-old daughter Gabriella, who plans to show her mother her new toys.

Richard Ratcliffe said that it was going to be the beginning of a new life.

Mr Ashoori’s family said they could now rebuild the foundations of their family with their cornerstone back in place.

In a statement, they hailed his release and return to the United Kingdom after five long years before thanking those who laboured to bring him home.

A second man, Morad Tahbaz, who has Iranian, UK and US nationality, has been freed from prison but is not yet allowed to leave Iran.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss paid tribute to the amazing willpower and perseverance shown by Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, Mr Ashoori, Mr Tahbaz and their families, saying the sufferings they endured must never happen again.

Liz Truss said ministers would keep working to ensure Mr Tahbaz’s freedom.

The government has said it also settled a deficit of nearly £400 million owed to Iran from the 1970s, with the fund’s ring-fenced exclusively for humanitarian pursuits.

Speaking in the Commons, Tulip Siddiq, Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s MP said she welcomed home Nazanin after six long years, and can now say to her daughter Gabriella that this time mummy was really coming home.

Paying tribute to Mr Ratcliffe, who watched from the public gallery with Gabriella. Tulip Siddiq said he’d really set the bar high for husbands in his efforts to ensure his wife’s release.

Cuddling his daughter, Gabriella, Mr Ratcliffe told journalists they would really believe the news when they saw ‘mummy’.

He said he wanted to thank people up and down the country for supporting his campaign for her release, which included a hunger strike last October.

He said that it had been such a cruel experience in some ways, but it had also been an exposure to such a level of kindness and care, and he said that this would be a chapter in their lives, but that there were many more chapters to come.

Speaking after hearing MPs speak in the House of Commons, he told the Press Association the family would be away for a couple of days convalescing, doctors and check-ups and so on.

He said on returning to their home, the first thing his wife wanted to do was sit down on the sofa, make a cup of tea, and just be in the living room together, and that he looked forward to pottering around the neighbourhood and being normal again.

So, why has Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe been released now?

The fundamental explanation is that London-Tehran ties are better than they’ve been before, and the International Revolutionary Guard and Iran’s judiciary no longer feel they need Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe for leverage in relations with the United Kingdom.

She was just a diplomatic pawn held prisoner by the Iranian authorities to put pressure on London.

If Tehran wanted to make nice, they would treat her well, give her access to medical assistance, possibly increase the frequency of visits, maybe even allow her a temporary release from prison, but if Tehran wanted to wield pressure on London, then her conditions might deteriorate or privileges might be removed.

The UK paying the historic £400 million debt for tanks sold but not delivered will have made a tremendous difference, and for years, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) proclaimed the two issues weren’t connected, but in practice, the Iranians made them one and the same problem.

REMOVED John Bercow’s Private Secretary From His Official Portrait

Members of a Commons committee face a tough decision about the future of a portrait of former Speaker John Bercow after an independent panel found that he bullied staff

A Commons committee has a difficult decision over what to do with a portrait of former Speaker John Bercow after he was found by an independent panel to have bullied staff and been blameworthy of abuse of power and authority.

John Bercow has been banned from Parliament for life. However, the picture is still hanging in the ‘Corner Room’ of Speaker’s House.

John Bercow has been found guilty of 21 claims relating to his behaviour as Speaker from 2009 to 2019.

The Mail On Sunday revealed that one possibility being considered by the Commons Works of Art Committee is to undo John Bercow’s approach when he commissioned the painting in 2010.

He’d agreed that Kate Emms, his private secretary and the first woman in the role, should be portrayed alongside him by painter Brendan Kelly. However, after Kate Emms resigned and made many allegations of bullying and harassment against John Bercow, the then Speaker allegedly insisted she was removed from the painting.

When the portrait was unveiled, at a cost to taxpayers of £37,000, Kate Emms had mysteriously disappeared from the canvas, and John Bercow is said to have demanded that she be painted over with her replacement, Peter Barratt.

It was claimed to a newspaper outlet that insiders had suggested there were many more acts aside from the upheld bullying claims and said they called John Bercow a psycho behind his back.

Another official claimed John Bercow had shouted at Black Rod, Lt Gen David Leakey: ‘Get out of my fing office, you fing little toff.’

Former coworkers told of his fist banging, spit flying rages that were made worse if people cried in front of him.

One said: ‘We used to call him ‘Psycho’ behind his back,’ while another added, ‘He’s a narcissist… in total denial.’

After the portrait was unveiled, the artist said he’d endeavoured to capture the day to day reality of the Speaker.

Other options for the committee, according to a source close to current Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle, include consigning the picture of the discredited ex-Speaker to a basement backroom, adding an illustrative trigger warning sign or slapping a badge of shame on the frame.

Another solution was to restore Emms to her original place, a relatively straightforward procedure since the top layer of an oil painting can be stripped back.

One MP said: ‘We should return Kate to the portrait. That would be the ultimate revenge.’

And that it was a difficult decision which will be reached this week.

John Bercow evidently has little man’s disease, an inferiority complex, spiteful mouth, and small of mind and stature, and he’s undoubtedly vertically challenged, and if anyone should be removed from the picture, it should be John Bercow himself because he’s an extremely hateful little man with narcissistic tendencies, and thank goodness he wasn’t clever enough to achieve some sort of power over foreign policy.

John Bercow should have been booted out ages ago because he’d definitely gone over his sell-by date and his role as Speaker was rotten and had gone rancid.

There were numerous people who knew he was a bully, so how did he manage to remain in his position for so long? And he might have been smug then, but he’s certainly not smug now!

Of course, he was a real legend, but only in his own mind, and how the mighty fall, and what goes around, comes around, and this man has what is called Napoleon Complex because he’s a bossy and belligerent man which he uses to overcompensate for being physically short, and I’m surprised he didn’t receive a smack in the face.

Michael Gove Says Millions Of Britons Are Open To Accepting Ukrainian Refugees

Under the ‘Homes for Ukraine’ program, sponsors who provide rent-free accommodation for at least six months will receive a monthly fee, regardless of how many refugees they take in.

Michael Gove has suggested that millions of Britons could be ready to host Ukrainian refugees with a £350 a month government ‘thank you’ as he said the first arrivals should be next week.

The Cabinet minister pointed to surveys revealing that as many as one in 10 people were willing to put up people escaping from the Russian invasion, but Michael Gove who recently divorced, revealed he wasn’t yet sure whether he personally would be able to contribute. Sir Keir Starmer confirmed that he’s planning to be a host.

Michael Gove

The comments came as Michael Gove revealed that 3,000 visas have now been granted for Ukrainian refugees, with the new sponsored route due to launch this week.

Under the ‘Homes for Ukraine’ scheme, sponsors who provide accommodation rent-free for a minimum of six months will receive a monthly fee of £350 from the government, however many refugees they take.

Individuals, charities, community groups and businesses will all be eligible to bring those escaping the Russian attack of Ukraine to safety.

Sponsored refugees will be granted three years’ leave to stay in the United Kingdom and be allowed to work and access public services.

Michael Gove said the United Kingdom stands behind Ukraine in their darkest hour and encouraged people to join the national effort to support refugees.

He said he hoped tens of thousands of people will be accommodated in Britain as part of the new scheme as Europe buckles under the weight of its biggest humanitarian crisis since the Second World War.

He said that people can register their interest on Monday and matching will be taking place from Friday and that he would hope that in a week’s time they’ll see the first people coming here under the scheme.

But asked whether he personally would be willing to host refugees, Michael Gove told Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday that he was in the process of seeking to see what he could do.

Michael Gove stressed there will be money available for local authorities to support new arrivals and that there would be just over £10,000 per person available to local authorities.

Then there would be extra payments for those children who are of school age and who need to be accommodated within the educational system.

A United Nations official said that more than 2.3 million people have escaped the conflict in Ukraine and another 1.9 million have been displaced within the country.

Does this mean that every MP with a second, third and fourth home et cetera is going to use them to help with the Ukrainian Refugee crisis?

It’s fantastic that people want to help, but let’s be realistic about this, how on earth is the NHS, schools et cetera going to cope with the additional millions of people?

Can the UK actually afford this sum of money when they still have Afghans in hotels waiting to get housed, and the amount of money must be astronomical?

Perhaps Boris Johnson could invite them all over to Westminster, just tell them to bring a bottle!

And how many refugees is Michael Gove going to take in? But it doesn’t really matter because nobody is being forced to do it, or will MPs be exempt because of data protection reasons because they work from home and handle constituents’ details?

Let’s face it we have no idea of the background of these people, so why would we have them in our homes?

And a year ago we weren’t even allowed to socialise with people we actually knew, including family members, and now they’re asking us to have strangers into our home that we probably won’t even be able to communicate with.

Thin Air Creates Diamonds

By pulling CO2 from the atmosphere, Aether has created diamonds made from the air.

It may seem like a thing of fantasy, but a luxury jewellery startup has created diamonds that are made of thin air.

Aether pulls carbon dioxide (CO2) out of the air to make its lab-grown gems, which are physically and chemically identical to those that are mined.

The company bills them as carbon-negative diamonds by claiming to extract 20 tonnes of CO2 from the air for every one-carat diamond sold

It bills them as carbon-negative diamonds by claiming to remove 20 tonnes of CO2 from the air for every one-carat diamond sold.

That’s what earned Aether the B Corp Certification as the first and only diamond producer with that title.

Its gems are unlike other lab-grown diamonds because these are created from petrochemicals like methane.

Aether is now planning to use $18 million (£13.75 million) in funding to ramp up the production of its diamonds, including a wholesale programme that has just been launched.

Ryan Shearman told Forbes that he became immediately intrigued when he heard about this new direct capture technology created by a company in Switzerland that strips harmful CO2 out of the air, and he wondered if they could take all this abundant, harmful carbon that’s warming the world and turn it into a beautiful form of carbon that warms the heart – diamonds.

He said that they were addressing the lab-grown market in a new way since there’s some level of emissions and environmental impact from the fossil fuel production used for lab growth and that it gets down to both mined, and lab-grown diamonds taking sides about which harms the environment less. Aether turns that paradigm on its head and that we would be benefiting the planet.

The company uses a reactor to remove CO2 from the air.

Its clever technology then follows the hydrocarbon synthesis, which means that captured CO2 is synthesised into the hydrocarbon feedstock needed for growing diamonds in a chemical vapour deposition reactor.

The next step is diamond growth, where the hydrocarbon raw material is fed into specialised chemical vapour deposition reactors that are powered by 100 per cent clean energy.

Once the diamond crystals are completely developed, experts cut, polish, and add the final touches to the gems.

Aether hasn’t revealed any cost details of its four-step diamond making method, but it does save 127 gallons of fresh water which is typically used per mined carat, along with not wasting so much energy because the gems require only half the energy consumption of mined diamonds.

Shearman said Aether was proud to be the architect of the world’s first gem-quality diamonds from the atmosphere.

These gems are evidently not fake diamonds, they’re just grown in a lab, and seemingly identical to mined diamonds – the same way an IVF baby would be grown in a lab, but we wouldn’t call it a fake baby. Although, of course, babies aren’t diamonds.

Some people want natural diamonds, some don’t care. The same way that some people want to eat 100 per cent organic food and others don’t care if it’s modified.

However, these man-made gems are worthless because they’re not rare and will be controlled to inflate the value, but then is a mined diamond a man-made belief that it’s actually worth something because it comes from the ground?

Diamonds seem to be deliberately controlled to sell them as being rare, although they’re plentiful all around the world in so many different countries, but hype sells, and it sells because people want a nice quality rock as long as the cost is within reason, but many diamonds are not worth the overpriced sticker tag that is merely various degrees of carbon.

However, with crime being what it is, who wants to be sporting such an expensive diamond? It’s far too dangerous and there are fakes out there that just look like the same thing, that’s if you don’t look at it too closely. But the truth is it’s not worth wearing a natural diamond because criminals are on the prowl all the time.

How Secure Are Your Passwords?

We all think hackers won’t crack our own passwords, even if they’re easy ones with only a few characters, but just how easy is it for someone to break into an online login?

According to new research, anything with six characters, regardless of whether numbers or symbols are included, can be cracked instantly.

The same goes for anything that’s seven or eight characters but made up of just numbers or lower case letters, but the news doesn’t get much better for any eight-character combination.

In fact, they can all be guessed in approximately 39 minutes according to US cybersecurity company Hive Systems, which is based in Richmond, Virginia.

On the flip side, the way to ensure that your password isn’t cracked for some 438 trillion years is to use 18 characters made up of numbers, upper and lower case letters and symbols.

Of course, that would take you quite a while to input every time.

And research suggests that a more manageable 11 character password featuring the same alternative features would be cracked in about 34 years.

Hive Systems made a colour coded table for 2022, demonstrating how safe user passwords actually are.

The company said its data was based on how long it would take a consumer budget hacker to crack your password hash using a desktop computer with a top tier graphics card, and that if you use the same password on numerous sites, you’re in for a bad time.

The firm also discussed hashing, a technique that protects stolen passwords, and how hackers get around the one-way algorithm.

In the context of passwords, a hash is a scrambled arrangement of text that’s reproducible if you know what hash software was used.

For example, if the word ‘password’ is hashed using MD5 software the output would be 5f4dcc3b5aa765d61d8327deb882cf99.

Passwords you use on websites are held in servers as hashed instead of in plain text like ‘password’ so that if someone views them, in theory, they won’t know the actual password.

In the given example for ‘password’, the hacker would only see 5f4dcc3b5aa765d61d8327deb882cf99.

It’s impossible to reverse this hash to produce the word ‘password’, but what hackers do is make a list of all the combinations of characters on your keyboard so they can then begin hashing them, but finding matches between this list and the hashes from the pilfered passwords, hackers can figure out the user’s real password, which in turn lets them access to your logins for various websites.

In the end, people end up having so many passwords, usernames, verification codes, and some people would never remember them, so many have them written down in a book, especially those that are in their 60’s and 70’s and aren’t immortal, and then, of course, you have the phone where you phone and have to give passwords for that, or verification questions such as your hometown, first dogs name, mum’s maiden name and school.

Quite honestly this is all getting beyond ridiculous, especially when companies want us to all go paperless, which makes using a bank or utility company so difficult to use. There were the days of the cheque book but now everything’s online.

Now they’re saying that your password can be hacked in an hour, which is absolute garbage. The reality is that most only allow three tries before they force a 30-second pause for another attempt, which means that a brute force attack isn’t going to be completed in an hour. I’m not saying that it can’t be done at all, but it would take much longer than that.

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