The economic and public safety of California is in jeopardy due to an incursion of hazardous three-foot-tall, rat-like monsters with orange fangs.
Nearly 1,000 nutria—one of the largest rodent species—had already been hunted down in the Bay Area this year.
But the creatures have now made their way into Contra Costa County’s California Delta, which is one of the state’s most crucial water sources and ecological sites, the San Francisco Chronicle has reported.
The creatures, also called Coypu, are about 20 pounds in weight and are dangerous to people, animals, and pets. They also wreak havoc on wetlands.
They are known to harbour septicaemia and TB, two potentially fatal illnesses, in addition to being tapeworm carriers. According to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, they also carry blood and liver flukes, which can cause illness when exposed to polluted water.
Nutria look similar to beavers, with the distinction of highly arched backs and ‘long, thin, round, sparsely haired tails rather than wide, flat tails like that of a beaver,’ according to the CFWD.
The rodents have big, bright orange teeth, a white snout, and whiskers. They are typically found close to permanent water sources.
Since the first nutria, a pregnant female was discovered on a private wetland in March of 2017 in California, 5,042 of the species have been killed in the state.
Officials are urging locals to ‘immediately’ report and photograph any sightings or potential signs of their presence to their state wildlife department.
California Department of Fish and Wildlife spokesman Peter Tira told SFGate: ‘We cannot have nutria reproducing in the delta. The threat to California’s economy is too great.’
The animal’s prodigious reproductive rate—females can give birth to as many as 27 pups annually—makes the spread especially concerning.
Additionally, they reproduce all year round, yielding two to three litters, each containing two to nine young.
Furthermore, there isn’t a single natural predator controlling the population.
The list of forbidden species in certain jurisdictions, including California, forbids the importation, ownership, trade, buying, selling, or transit of rodents.
It is legal to shoot the animal outside of city limits or wildlife control officers can kill them using humane euthanasia.
The highly destructive species is known to cause significant losses in crops and weaken levees due to their burrowing.
The unique and endangered plants and creatures that depend on the wetlands are also at risk due to their impact on ecosystems.
A rodent native to South America, the nutria, sometimes known as the coypu, is a member of the spiny rat family.
Originally native to subtropical and temperate South America, they were brought to North America, Europe, and Asia by fur farmers. They reside in burrows by bodies of water and eat the stems of river plants.
They’re still hunted and trapped for their fur in some regions, but their destructive burrowing and feeding habits often frustrate humans, and they consider them an invasive species in the United States. They can also transmit various diseases to humans and animals, mainly through water contamination.
A grandfather-of-four who smashed his face tripping on a pothole outside his home, only to discover he had broken his spine, has claimed his neighbours reported it to the council three years prior.
When Darren Lucas claimed to have stumbled over a 10-foot-long pothole and struck his head on the concrete, he was making his way back to his house in Abergavenny, Wales.
Mr Lucas went to A&E after being left with a huge bump on his head, a wounded leg, and blood on his face. He claimed to have been given painkillers and sent home.
It wasn’t until a year later, in March 2022, when Mr Lucas collapsed that an MRI finally revealed his spine was broken in three places.
The 57-year-old endured a gruelling emergency operation to insert six or seven metal plates into his spine and spent 11 days in the ICU recovering. He has had to relearn to walk again using a Zimmer frame.
About six years ago, one of Darren’s neighbours allegedly reported the pothole to Monmouthshire County Council, but nothing was done, according to the neighbour.
Despite the procedure, Mr Lucas claims he still struggles to walk owing to being in an extreme amount of pain, putting him in fear of additional falls.
‘It’s terrible that they won’t accept any responsibility for it. If I’d just banged my head and I’d just fell, it wouldn’t be so bad, but because of the injuries I’ve got and they’re life-changing injuries, it’s just not fair.
‘It’s a terrible thing to go through. It’s just wrong. The injuries just got worse and worse. My body just gave up in the end.
‘I was suffering; I couldn’t get off the sofa; I couldn’t even dress myself. I became incontinent; I had to wear nappies and it got worse.
‘Even the slightest movement I was screaming in agony; it was that bad. I didn’t understand what was going on.
‘It just became unbearable. I couldn’t even walk; I couldn’t get to the car. In the end, I collapsed at home.
‘I couldn’t even lift myself up because my arms were gone, my legs were gone. It was the worst feeling ever.
‘They told me that I could be paralysed for life; they even told me I might not come out of it.
I said, ‘Look, if I don’t come out of it, I don’t come out of it, but at least I’m not in no more pain any more because it had become that bad. It was horrible.
‘It was just frightening. I just wish the council would take responsibility for what has happened.
‘It’s like I’ve been chucked on the scrapheap; that’s how I feel. My wife has got to do everything for me. I can’t even dress myself. It’s embarrassing and it’s not fair on me.’
Although Darren remains in a lot of pain, he goes to physio every two weeks and can get around using a walking stick.
Since the housing association owns the home Darren lives in and he thought they also owned the road where the pothole is located, Darren claimed he reported the pothole to them following the autumn.
But after instructing a solicitor to represent him over the incident, Darren found out that the road is owned by Monmouthshire County Council.
Darren claimed that during the five years he has lived in the home, the pothole has never been fixed, despite the council telling his lawyers that the road is inspected every six months.
Darren says it was only after being contacted by his solicitor that the council filled in the pothole with concrete, but claims that the council will not take responsibility for the life-changing injuries he suffered.
Now he plans to move house because of the bad memories he associates with it.
Darren said, ‘I could fall at any time. I’ve got a trapped nerve in my leg from these injuries and now I could be walking around the house and my leg could just give way so I’ve got to use a stick to keep me upright.
‘It could happen at any time, though; it’s permanent damage. I’m stuck in limbo basically; it’s terrible, really. I’ve got nerve damage all over my body.
‘I do have feeling in my legs and my arms. I’m happy with what I’ve got at the moment because I had nothing but I’m still in a lot of pain.
‘I’ve still got problems now with my neck; I can hardly move it.
‘I can’t understand why the council didn’t notice it. It’s their road at the end of the day. They should have seen it. This should have been dealt with a long time ago.
‘I’m not going to let them get away with it. I’m going to fight them all the way.’
One of Darren’s neighbours claims she reported the pothole to the council around six years ago but no action was taken.
The neighbour, who wished to remain anonymous, said, ‘I’ve been here 11 years and it’s never been maintained since I’ve been here.
‘I’ve complained a number of times, including reporting the pothole to the council around six years ago. They are a joke.’
Monmouthshire County Council has been contacted by MailOnline for comment.
Personally, if the council owns it, then they’re responsible for the health, safety, and welfare of those using it. You should watch where you’re plonking your feet down; this is true, but councils are still responsible for ensuring such a public highway of any kind is as safe as possible, whether that’s a back alley or pavement on the high street.
The issue is that councils only give these matters any thought right before the fiscal year ends when they have to dispose of any extra cash, failing which the government will reduce their funding from the previous year. Such cunning little blighters, are they not?
Of course, not all pavements can be flat and even as we would like, but if somebody from the neighbourhood makes a complaint about it, then the council should send someone out to have a look. The same goes for grass, hedges and shrubs. I had a tree growing outside my kitchen window. When I moved in, it was tiny; by the time I had been in my flat for 11 years, I couldn’t see out of my kitchen window. I grant you, the council did come out and have a look and said, ‘Oh no, we can’t cut that; what about the wildlife?’ I ultimately got someone in to dig it out and get rid of it.
Councils are legally responsible for ensuring any path or road under their jurisdiction is kept free from hazards to members of the public. The problem is there seems to be a lack of complaints and also funding because they’re always complaining about lack of funding.
By law, they must respond to repairs when notified, and it’s up to them to ensure they budget for such things, especially after being handed over so much money from Westminster over the years, which seems to have solely been used for rainbow zebra crossings and squiggly lines. I mean, what’s that all about? I know it’s all to do with the LGBTQ. Integration is great, and rainbow crossings would be great if it could be afforded, but honestly, I, being part of the LGBTQ community, love a bit of colour, but why? Honestly why? Just wear a bright T-shirt and be done with it!
Despite defrauding £50,000 worth of benefits, a fraudster secured employment processing Universal Credit claims.
Chido Vincent was employed by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in 2014, despite serving an 18-month jail sentence for exceeding his immigration limits and forging a letter to apply for benefits.
For reasons unconnected to his conviction, the 57-year-old Nigerian was fired from his position at the DWP in Leeds.
Speaking about how he obtained employment processing, he stated that because his conviction occurred more than five years ago, he was exempt from having to reveal it.
‘During the recruitment process, I was asked everything and I answered honestly,’ he told The Sun.
‘They asked for my passport, right-to-work documents—I gave them everything.
‘They said they needed to do a DBS. I gave them all the information and it came back fine, so I got the job.’
He went on to tell the publication that he ‘did what was asked of me’ and that there was no need to declare a conviction.
He also said what happened to him was 10 years ago so ‘it was considered spent’.
This comes after it was revealed that a judge said an Albanian driving test fraudster can’t be jailed because ‘His Majesty’s prisons are full to bursting’.
Speaking at Lincoln Crown Court, Judge James House KC said Albanian national Elidjan Aliaj, 30, should be put behind bars for paying an impersonator to take his driving test.
Instead, Aliaj has been sentenced to eight months’ imprisonment, suspended for 18 months.
The judge told Aliaj he ‘deserved to go to jail’ but his hands were tied ‘because His Majesty’s prisons are currently full to bursting’.
The Department for Work and Pensions has been contacted by MailOnline.
Why wasn’t this man deported after serving time in jail in 2014 for exceeding the duration of his visa? Who gave him a work visa and why is he still here? And on top of that, he managed to secure himself a government job that deals with benefits. It beggars belief. This seems to be a deliberate programme of transferring wealth from the old population to the new replacement population, and now it looks like visas and passports are being handed out like Christmas cards.
No wonder immigrants are flocking here.
Prisons are bursting and they are full up, and now criminals are being let out of prison because there is simply no room at the inn. The easiest option is to charter planes, load them up with however many criminals and drop them off. Oh, I forgot, human rights issues!
Then look at the convoluted way the DWP advertises for vacant positions. It’s only when you start looking that you will uncover who their prospective employers might be.
This is another triumph for diversity and equality because it’s more important to tick a box than employ the best person. So, how many others with questionable backgrounds are working for the DWP and involved with benefit claims?
A convicted swindler working at the DWP. You just couldn’t make this up!
These days, it appears that individuals in our nation hire people in particular occupations based on factors like skin colour, etc. Not because they’re the most qualified candidates, and trust me when I say that if they continue to hire individuals just like themselves until they fill every post, we’re going to have problems!
This is all ridiculous; can you imagine the NHS making a similar announcement: ‘We can’t accept any more patients because the hospitals are full.’ No doubt, at some point, this will happen.
A family-run human trafficking gang went undetected for years as it forced 16 slavery victims to toil at McDonald’s and a factory supplying major supermarkets.
Ernest Drevenak and Veronika Bubencikova, both 46, were found to have started exploiting the men from the Czech Republic in 2015 but were only caught in 2019. Drevenak is said to have run the gang alongside his brother Zdenek.
Their victims—who were homeless, unemployed, or in very low-paid jobs in the Czech Republic—had been brought to the UK with the promise of a better life.
Some were then put to work in Caxton, Cambridgeshire, at a branch of McDonald’s, with the fast food chain now promising it had improved systems to spot ‘potential risks’.
According to a BBC investigation, some people were forced to work at a facility that produced bread for high-street stores.
The corporation disclosed the identities of 16 victims of slavery; nine of them were employed by the McDonald’s franchise and nine by the Pitta Bread company, which had factories located in Tottenham, north London, and Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire.
Two of the people implicated worked for Speciality Flatbread, which is no longer in business, as well as McDonald’s.
They are said to have been paid at least the national minimum wage, only to have almost all of their cash stolen by the criminal enterprise in charge of them.
The victims spent their days living in cramped accommodations, including a leaking shed and an unheated caravan, even as the gang leaders were lavishing their earnings on luxury cars and gold jewellery.
According to the BBC, warning flags were ignored by officials for years, including the fact that the victims’ pay cheques were deposited into accounts with other names.
Payments meant for at least four of the employees, adding up to £215,000, were said to have gone into an account controlled by the slave-trading gang.
Since the people who were transported here from the Czech Republic could not understand English, gang members filled out their job applications and attended interviews as interpreters.
It was discovered that the workers at McDonald’s were putting in anything from 70 to 100 hours a week.
While employed by the baking company, nine victims shared a terraced house in Enfield, north London.
Dame Sara Thornton, the former independent anti-slavery commissioner, told the BBC after reviewing the investigation’s findings: ‘It really concerns me that so many red flags were missed and that maybe the companies didn’t do enough to protect vulnerable workers.
Detective Sergeant Chris Acourt, who led a probe by Cambridgeshire Police, told of there being ‘massive opportunities’ missed to uncover the gang sooner.
He said: ‘Ultimately, we could have been in a situation to end that exploitation much earlier had we been made aware.’
Ernest and Zdenek Drevenak, the brothers who headed the group, were discovered to have taken their victims’ passports while using violence and terror to maintain control over them.
One victim named Pavel, who waived his right to anonymity, told the BBC how he was first approached by the gang while homeless in the Czech Republic in 2016 and tempted by the promise of a well-paid job in Britain.
But he was only given a few pounds a day and had to work 70 hours a week at McDonald’s.
Pavel said, ‘You can’t undo the damage to my mental health—it will always live with me.
‘We were afraid. If we were to escape and go home, [Ernest Drevenak] has a lot of friends in our town—half the town were his mates.’
He added, ‘I do feel partially exploited by McDonald’s because they didn’t act.
‘I thought if I was working for McDonalds, that they would be a little bit more cautious, that they will notice it.’
The British Retail Consortium said: ‘It is important that the retail industry learns from cases like this to continually strengthen due diligence.’
A spokesperson for McDonald’s (UK & Ireland) said in a statement today: ‘The victims in these cases were cruelly exploited by the criminal perpetrators of these shocking offences. McDonald’s commends the bravery the victims showed during the legal proceedings in bringing the criminals to justice.
The UK needs to implement an immigration programme like Australia and they need to do it fast because not only are they being allowed into the UK, but they’re being exploited, and neither is right nor humane. They’re being treated like cattle; all we need is the cattle prod to go with it.
People like these repeatedly get away with it because our judicial system is so flawed and our government has no control over who enters the UK.
Margaret Thatcher said we were being swamped, but the Tory government of the fifties invited in cheap labour immigrants to man the nationalised industries that we British citizens hated. The idea was to send them back once our government was finished with them, but they didn’t use their brain cells and then realised they couldn’t send them back because they had carved a niche into our society and guess what? They multiplied by having children!
It was a bit like the Gremlins, only for them it wasn’t ‘don’t give them water’. In this case, it should have been ‘don’t let them in,’ because humans multiply; it doesn’t matter who they are or what colour or religion they are; we all multiply!
Fed-up locals say their village has become a ‘hellhole’ and a ‘dumping ground’ for refugees for councils in London.
Residents in the former mining village of Eldon Lane in County Durham have compared their community to a ‘ghost town’ with eerie streets full of vandalised homes covered in boarded-up windows.
In the past, bus drivers refused to stop in the village due to the high anti-social conduct and criminality.
A YouTuber visiting the area harshly branded it a ‘Victorian slum’.
It coincides with the growing number of refugees in County Durham’s towns and villages who are allegedly being relocated by southern authorities to the North East of England.
Cheap housing in deprived towns and villages—where properties are known to sell for just £5,000—make them prime locations for councils to place migrants in the hands of private landlords.
One local told MailOnline: ‘They started placing refugees and Londoners here all of a sudden; maybe two years ago they started to arrive; it became a dumping ground.
‘But we’ve got nowt here, so they’re in the same boat as us.’
MPs have said it is ‘abhorrent’ that deprived communities in the North have been singled out to rehouse asylum seekers and vulnerable families by authorities in London and the south.
Due to a lack of social housing in the city, London Borough councils reportedly transferred up to two vulnerable households per month into private landlord-owned properties last year, as revealed by a Northern Echo investigation.
Numerous sources from around the area have attested to the fact that a sizable number of refugees are also being brought to County Durham.
The North East of England is battling a housing crisis where 75,000 families are on waiting lists for social housing and over 300 children are homeless in County Durham alone.
Eldon Lane is a community with notable socioeconomic challenges since 39% of families reside in impoverished conditions.
Every street has visible evidence of deterioration, with rows of homes having windows that are either boarded up or damaged by stones.
Although the town has long been without basic services, the locals have embraced the migrants nonetheless.
The village GP practice closed down two years ago and the nearest A&E department is in Darlington, a 22-mile roundtrip away.
There is no dentist, chemist, school or bank, and the last of its pubs closed down years ago.
One man praised the refugees and immigrants moving to the village and said Eldon Lane had long been ‘forgotten’ by local and national administrations.
He said, ‘They’re nice, friendly people who look after their houses and they don’t take drugs and smash the place up, so good luck to them.
‘They look after their houses and a lot of them work to pay their way.
‘Eldon Lane has long been forgotten and left behind; we’re used to it but the place has become an absolute hellhole.’
The persistent lack of funding has prompted people to get together and build a playground for their children. Onto the grassed space behind the high street are swings, slides, and trampolines, all designed for common use.
The grass is tended by locals to give their kids a place to play, with few of the small housing authority homes having external space for a garden.
Eldon Lane’s DIY playground is set against a backdrop of two rows of long-abandoned, boarded-up houses.
Some claim that the crime has gotten so bad that it is now uncontrollable.
Casting an eye up the deserted main road, Spencer Street, one local recalled distant, better days.
He said, ‘My dad worked at the pit and it was a profitable one; there was coal piled as high as the houses and the high street was bouncing.
‘There were dozens of shops and pubs and the place was alive. When you walk through it now, it makes you shudder, it’s like a ghost town, you barely see a soul who’s ventured out because what is there to venture out for?’
While local Bethany Wainwright, 25, said, ‘It’s rough, you can’t get around that; it’s obvious just by looking round at the number of empty and vandalised houses.
‘The bus even had to stop coming through here at night because it was getting pelted with stones and it was dangerous for the driver and the passengers.
‘There is a lot of vandalism and stone-throwing and fires being started but there is nothing at all for the kids to do; there’s nothing left here.
‘The great thing about Eldon Lane is that it’s a community and people are good to each other; they look out for one another.’
Carer Joanne Rowlands, 25, said, ‘I was brought up in Eldon Lane and I know it has a bad reputation but I’m used to that.
‘There are problems with crime here; houses getting damaged and kids were even setting light to the postboxes, which meant people’s mail was being destroyed.
‘It’s not even the local kids that do a lot of it; they come in from surrounding areas to cause damage here because they know they can get away with it.’
Christine Steward, 75, originally from Southampton, arrived in Easington Lane with her husband, a County Durham native, in the late 70s and fell in love with the village.
She said, ‘The place has a good heart and I love it here and was very disappointed to read it had been called a slum.
‘It could be so much better with a bit of investment. We have housing associations who are content to leave rows of houses boarded up instead of repairing them and finding tenants.
‘It was a thriving place once and it could be again if the local authority gave it a bit of care and attention.
‘Lately, we’ve been getting quite a few refugees and they’re just left here on some occasions with absolutely nothing.
‘When that happens, the locals rally round and help them because that’s the kind of community this is.
‘One man didn’t even have a mattress to sleep on so we found him a bed. We’ve also helped find clothes for the children of refugees to see them through the winter.
‘It must be terrible to be dumped in a strange place with nothing but the clothes on your back, so we help them; they’re welcome here and we’ll look after them.’
Oghenekome Ivbijaro, 39, arrived three years ago in Eldon Lane from Nigeria with her husband and three children.
She said, ‘When we first arrived, we had little, and the local church found us everything that we needed. We have come to like it here and 90 percent of the people are friendly and helpful.
‘I found a job in a care home and we feel we’ve become part of the community. It helps us to have other Nigerians and some Zimbabweans here as well; there is a small African community here now.’
But this isn’t about immigrants; this is about how a council can let this happen to their community. It’s disgraceful.
The North is a good place to put everybody, it seems, but why the North? Why not somewhere else to house people who need housing? It’s a form of social cleansing by the elimination of members of society who are considered undesirable, including, but not limited to, the homeless, criminals, street children, the elderly, the poor, the weak, the sick, the needy, and the disabled.
Single-family houses are no longer the solution to the severe housing problem we’re now experiencing. Eventually, the government will construct denser complexes due to a lack of available land.
A stroll around your community will reveal three or more empty houses, and these stack-and-pack projects are becoming increasingly common, particularly in urban areas. From the outside, they appear beautiful, but inside, they resemble rabbit hutches. However, housing is housing in whatever form, right?
Vacant homes, whether from the private sector or council, are almost certainly because older residents have moved or passed away and left it to their children who haven’t figured out what to do with it. As for councils who refuse to put tenants in their properties, they should be fined the rental for each week it has been empty, and for those homes that are now in disrepair, councils should be charged triple that amount.
Currently, it appears that building what is known as stack-and-pack housing is the solution. Greetings from our concrete jungle!
Sweet treats, including chocolate, cakes, and biscuits, could face the same cigarette-style warnings in Labour’s latest ‘nanny state’ crackdown.
According to reports, ministers are trying to make food packaging messaging more powerful to combat childhood obesity.
It comes amid fears that the government could target cartoon characters, as one source told The Sun that Kellogg’s Frosties’ Tony the Tiger may need ‘re-educating’.
Sir Keir Starmer is already looking to ban junk food advertisements from television before the 9 pm watershed, while online ads high in fat, salt, and sugar could be prohibited altogether.
Now, a source has told The Sun: ‘We want to give parents better information so they can make informed choices. Our children are getting shorter, fatter and sicker.’
But Maxwell Marlow, of the Adam Smith Institute think tank, said Brits were ‘perfectly capable’ of making their own choices by reading the ingredient lists on labels.
He said the measures would instead be ‘another burden on businesses’.
Earlier this week, public health minister Andrew Gwynne announced that the government is considering plans to overhaul licencing laws in Britain to ‘boost the nation’s health and tackle anti-social behaviour’.
He indicated that the measures being considered include tougher action against irresponsible landlords and—far more controversially—”tightening up on some of the hours of operation’.
His words triggered alarm among hospitality experts, with Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UKHospitality, warning the ‘half-baked plans’ would be detrimental to the trade, with 50 pubs already closing each month.
Back in August, it was revealed that Labour planned to ban smoking from outdoor places—the first sign of Labour’s ‘nanny drive’.
The seemingly unenforceable plans would make it illegal to smoke in pub gardens as well as outside football grounds and children’s parks.
Under shocking new ideas, Keir Starmer’s Labour administration may abolish the freedom to smoke in nightclubs, restaurants, and even shisha establishments.
Smoking in parks or at home would be permitted, but there would be no smoking on university and hospital property.
Beaches and enclosed public parks are among the other places that are allegedly grey zones and are still up for debate.
Vape-free zones are also mentioned in the paper, although it’s unclear if e-cigarettes would be prohibited as well.
Defending the unpopular policy, the Prime Minister argued that ‘over 80,000 people lose their lives every year because of smoking’ which is a ‘preventable death’.
‘This is a preventable series of deaths’, continued the PM, ‘and we’ve got to take action to reduce the burden on the NHS and the taxpayer.’
Both the public and the hotel sector harshly criticised the planned measure.
When we were youngsters, there were huge amounts of sweet foods, cereals made with real sugar, larger chocolate bars, and generally slimmer individuals. They keep us in the dark about what they put in our meals, such as food additives and other ingredients that increase appetite. Items such as monosodium glutamate (MSG), a taste enhancer that increases appetite by stimulating the pancreas to produce more insulin; while the FDA views MSG as generally safe, several studies have connected it to obesity and diabetes.
Refined flour can also raise blood sugar, which can result in insulin surges and crashes.
Leptin, the hormone that indicates fullness, can be released more slowly when high fructose corn syrup is consumed, and artificial sweeteners can signal to the gut that calories are coming, but when they don’t, the brain may try to compensate by making people eat more.
There are many more; these are only a handful. Although processed meals are the worst, most people nevertheless consume them as they occasionally offer a more affordable option than purchasing fresh meat daily.
The way our prime minister is approaching the issue is incorrect. He needs to ban food producers from adding harmful chemicals to extend product shelf life, as this leads to product addiction and the subsequent development of obesity, diabetes, and cancer. Ultimately, though, it’s all about the money.
Children used to play and exercise back then. These days, everything revolves around a plethora of TV channels, video games, and the internet.
I can remember running about outside from dusk till dawn, but this is just the reality of how things are now because I would never let my children out on the streets, not now, not in this day and age; it’s too dangerous.
Kids these days, if you ask them what they want to do, they would want to watch everything that the TV has to offer or play video games all afternoon. Outdoors really isn’t attractive these days because it’s not safe to be out there, but back in the day, we played out, we had fun, and health and safety weren’t an issue, but now parents won’t let their children out because of all the stabbings et cetera, so now they’re just glued to their playstations or iPads.
I would spend all day on my bike, in the park with my friends, and I ate what I liked. These days kids can’t even go for a day out without a mobile phone glued to their hands, but to be honest, if you went to the park these days, there would probably be no one there to play with anyway because communication is non-existent these days unless it’s via a mobile phone, iPhone or some form of tablet.
Perhaps they should be putting health warnings out about Keir Starmer. Let’s face it, he is especially dangerous to our health, especially if you’re old, live on your own and the only income you have is your pension!
A warning has been issued over the so-called ‘miracle’ fat-busting jabs Ozempic and Wegovy after they caused 3,000 Brits to fall ill this year so far.
The most common symptom was stomach problems, but some also experienced blurred vision, depression, and dizziness. Four deaths have also been linked to the drugs.
Around 30 side effect complaints were sent to The Medicines and Healthcare Agency every week during 2023.
Over the first 20 weeks of this year, the agency’s Yellow Card program—which allows patients and medical professionals to report adverse medication reactions—has seen a significant increase in side effect concerns.
The agency has received 2,780 complaints since the year started, figures obtained by The Sun reveal.
The increase is ascribed to the medications’ rising appeal as weight-loss aids and their ease of online purchase.
Model and half-sister to Kate Moss, Lottie Moss, 26, had a seizure from taking a high dose and Stephen Fry, 67, had to stop taking the drug due to vomiting.
Other stars have rejected the idea of the drug, including chef Nigella Lawson, who told The New York Times: ‘I read something once where someone said, “I was on Ozempic and it was the first time I didn’t think about food all the time,” and I thought, I can’t imagine anything worse than that. I take great pleasure in thinking about food all of the time.’
Semaglutide, an amino acid included in the medications, reduces appetite by imitating a hormone that alerts the brain when a person is full.
The NHS authorised the injections last year, and those who are overweight and want to reduce weight can have them under the brand name Wegovy. For those with type 2 diabetes, it’s known as Ozempic.
Tam Fry, of the National Obesity Forum, told The Sun: ‘For some, the benefits of semaglutide may well outweigh its risks but the drug has side effects.
‘It’s why doctors and GPs should always monitor anyone taking it for weight loss and the jabs should never be taken without a prescription.
‘An inclination to suicide is a potential risk; that should stop anyone thinking of using the drug off-licence.’
Manufacturer of the drugs, Novo Nordisk, said: ‘We recommend patients take these medications for approved indications and under the supervision of a healthcare professional.’
It follows the revelation last month of fresh data demonstrating that semaglutide can reduce the risk of fatalities from all causes by up to 25%.
US researchers at Harvard Medical School found that in the three years that followed, semaglutide-treated obese and overweight patients had a 23 percent decreased overall risk of dying.
Some people try every diet under the sun and they can’t lose weight. Their appetite is out of control, but it seems that taking Wegovy is their last resort, and they do lose weight on it. It’s not a quick fix, but it is a helping hand.
However, all medication like this should only be given out by their doctor and should not be allowed to be sold online because medications need to be monitored, especially if it’s a medication that’s been taken for a long time. The other thing with Ozempec is that because it’s being sold online, there is not a shortage of it for people who really need it, like diabetics.
I’m glad it’s helpful, but perhaps don’t push it too far.
At 89, Dame Maggie Smith, the actress who won two Academy Awards, passed away.
The Harry Potter and Downton Abbey star passed away in hospital on Friday morning, surrounded by her family, who described her as an ‘extraordinary mother and grandmother’.
Her death has prompted a wave of tributes from friends and former co-stars, with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer hailing her as a ‘true national treasure’.
Dame Maggie’s extraordinary career, spanning more than 50 years, almost immediately brought her attention.
For the criminal drama, the then-promising newbie received a 1959 Bafta nomination.
A slew of Bafta nods flooded in the years that followed, with the iconic actress receiving nominations for Young Cassidy in 1966, Death On The Nile in 1979, California Suite in 1980, Quartet in 1982, The Secret Garden in 1994, Tea With Mussolini in 2000, Gosford Park in 2002, and The Lady In The Van in 2016.
She also walked away with the best actress title for her portrayals in The Lonely Passion Of Judith Hearne, The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie, and A Private Function.
Among her final roles included 2022’s Downtown Abbey: A New Era, as well as The Miracle Club, which centres around women who set off on a pilgrimage to Lourdes, France.
Dozens of MailOnline readers have paid their own tributes to Dame Maggie Smith following her death at 89.
For seven decades, Dame Maggie was a famous presence on stage and television, and many of you will remember her with fondness.
She was a fantastic actor, and she starred in many classic films and shows over many years. She was the best of several generations, a true treasure who has left a legacy of laughter and tears, and she has been a genuine pleasure to watch, particularly with her natural sense of humour.
Following their utterly senseless and arbitrary machete assault that killed an innocent adolescent, two 12-year-old boys were today given an eight-year detention order apiece.
The youths were found guilty of hacking teenager Shawn Seesahai to death with a 16-inch machete in a Wolverhampton park last November.
The two, who became the country’s youngest knife killers ever and the youngest convicted murderers since James Bulger’s killers, will be housed in secure quarters for a total of 17 years at the discretion of His Majesty.
Once they had left the scene, they returned to one of the boys’ houses, and while Mr Seesahai was dying, they played the violent video game Fortnite.
After the murder, one of the killers said on Snapchat: ‘Everyone’s talking about it; literally everyone knows.’ His accomplice responded with the note: ‘It is what it is.’
They then shared more messages, saying: ‘I’m scared, ‘man’—before the other says, ‘I’m not’, followed by the acronym ‘IDRC’ which means ‘I don’t really care’.
Hours before he killed someone, one of the defendants even posed for a photo with a machete tucked into the front of his trousers out of preoccupation with the weapon.
The 16-inch blade was used to stab Mr Seesahai, 19, an Anguilla native who had been living in the UK for six months, so violently that it nearly went through his whole body.
His grief-stricken parents said he called for them as he lay dying and had been excited to start a new engineering course the next day.
Locals living near the Wolverhampton park where the 19-year-old was stabbed to death told of how one of the tearaways was a ‘nasty piece of work’, who posted fireworks through letterboxes, damaged streetlights, and stole scooters in a reign of terror that plagued the neighbourhood.
The judge said he lived in a refuge and posed a high risk of serious harm to others. She said the other boy had loving parents and ‘felt remorse’ for what he had done.
One neighbour said the killer would ride across the playing fields on his mountain bike and hang around at night outside shops and alleyways where he would cut the wires on lampposts
At Nottingham Crown Court today, Mrs Justice Tipples ordered each boy to be detained at His Majesty’s pleasure for a minimum of eight years and six months, meaning they will remain in custody until they are at least 20.
The sentence includes time spent living in secure accommodation where they have been since the offence last November.
Following their unanimous murder verdicts in June, the two became the youngest defendants to be found guilty of murder in the United Kingdom since 1993, when Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, both 11 years old, were found guilty of killing two-year-old James after kidnapping the child from a Bootle, Liverpool, shopping mall.
At Nottingham Crown Court today, the judge told the boys, ‘What you both did is horrific and shocking. You both killed Shawn in an attack that lasted less than a minute when he asked you to move from where you were on a park bench.
‘Shawn did not deserve to be attacked. He did not deserve to die. It’s clear that the sentence I have decided to pass cannot make that right.’
She added: ‘What you did in those few short moments has also changed your life forever. You will have to live with the consequences. I cannot be sure which one of you stabbed Shawn. Only you know that, but you acted together.’
The boys, both wearing shirts and ties and one in a waistcoat, were allowed to sit in the well of the court as they had throughout the trial.
The judge also told the boys, who are now 13: ‘When you killed Shawn, he was 19, starting out in his adult life with everything to live for.
‘His parents have lost their son. His sister has lost her brother.
‘What you did is horrific and shocking. You did not know Shawn; he was a stranger to you. You both killed Shawn in an attack that lasted less than a minute when he asked you to move (from a bench).
‘I am sure you intended to kill him.’
The judge added that she could not be sure which of the boys had inflicted a 23-cm-deep wound which almost passed all the way through Mr Seesahai’s body.
During the brief sentencing remarks, one of the boys nodded throughout with his hands held towards his face. As he was taken away, the youth was allowed to hug his mother.
The other boy was seen biting his lip as the judge spoke and appeared shocked as the sentence was handed down.
Six members of the jury returned to Nottingham Crown Court to see the boys sentenced. Mr Seesahai’s family watched proceedings on a live videolink from their home in Anguilla.
Eight years! Is this what an innocent young man’s life is worth now in Britain? I am appalled, and I hope that this leniency of sentencing is put into question.
It’s unbelievable. When did life become so cheap in the UK?
These boys are murderers at the age of 12 years old. Can you imagine what they will be like when they get out?
Both of them will probably be back inside after their release for some other heinous crime; only after being in prison for that amount of time, they will become smarter. All victims deserve better justice than this.
There should be an automatic 10-year sentence for even having a machete outside of a property they own. Double if they use it against anyone, even if it is just threatening to. Anything resulting in injury or death added on to that. They should be looking at being on a pension before they are even considered for release, if ever.
An antiques dealer familiar to millions on TV and her husband were fined £3,000 after contacting British police to report a migrant who had snuck into their van in France.
Mother of two children, Jane Cave, 56, who appears on The Bidding Room on the BBC, and her husband Ed Masters had gone through customs in Calais while travelling to purchase antiques.
They were heading through Suffolk on their way home to Norfolk when they heard noises in the back of their van and found a ‘dark, shortish [man] carrying a mobile phone.’
They informed Suffolk Police of what had transpired immediately, and the guy was taken into custody.
But they later received a letter from the UK Border Force saying they were being fined for unknowingly smuggling a migrant into the country after they failed to properly secure their vehicle.
‘We all thought we had done the right thing in calling the British police and making them aware of the situation. Little did I know the aftermath of this,’ Mr Masters, 54, said, adding the experience had made him feel like a criminal.
The couple were returning home from France on November 23 last year when they were held up at customs in Calais.
To finish the paperwork in their van for importing antique furniture and other items per post-Brexit regulations, they stopped at a supermarket.
Mr Masters was completing paperwork in his unlocked van for the crossing when he heard a noise and saw someone attempting to climb in the back.
‘I shouted ‘Get out’ which he duly did and ambled towards the rest of the car park,’ he said.
They then proceeded to customs, where the car was stopped and examined by a French border guard at passport control before being permitted entry.
Following a smooth crossing, they were driving home on the dual carriageway A11 close to Barton Mills when they noticed a ruckus coming from the rear. Upon pulling over, they discovered their stowaway.
The migrant leapt out and hid behind a petrol station before he was caught minutes later when police arrived following a 999 call.
‘That should have been done thoroughly at the border in Calais,’ Mr Masters said.
When he checked with the authorities after getting the fee letter, they told him he should have reported the first attempt to enter his vehicle to the border personnel at Calais.
Mrs Cave slammed the fine as ‘atrocious’ and said: ‘We all went into the supermarket and then Ed got an email and went back to the van to answer it on my iPad.
‘The back was unlocked while he was sitting in the front and he suddenly saw in the mirror that someone’s leg was hanging out of the back and he realised they were trying to get in.
‘Ed jumped out to get this guy out and he went off. Ed just didn’t realise that anyone else was in there.
‘When we got to the Eurotunnel terminal, we got pulled over by French customs, who opened up the van and peered in before waving us through.
‘We arrived back in the UK and drove for a couple of hours before we slowed down on the A11 in a queue of traffic before the roundabout at Barton Mills.
‘While we were nearly at a standstill, we heard this knocking and rapping from the back as if someone was asking to get out.
‘As we were stopped in the traffic, we saw people videoing us from the cars, which were nearly stationary around us. They were obviously filming this guy jumping out.
‘I saw him run off towards a garage. He was black and had a hoody on and looked like he was aged about 16.
‘Ed dialled 999 and the police told us to pull over, so we stopped at a McDonald’s and a garage on the other side of the roundabout.
‘One police officer came along and he was fine. Ed explained what had happened and this officer spent a couple of minutes checking over our van to make sure nobody else was in there.
‘It looked like the migrant had been hiding under a large shoe rack. But he had respected what was in the van and had not damaged anything.
‘The only thing he left in there was a comb. He was caught almost immediately by the police. All we were told by the police was that he was quite young.
‘The cop spent a couple of hours talking to Ed and then we continued our journey home.’
Mrs Cave said she heard nothing more until her husband got the letter around three months ago saying he was being fined £3,000 for inadvertently bringing in a migrant.
She said, ‘My first reaction was ‘Why?’ because we had not done anything wrong. We would not have called the police if we had known this was going to happen.
‘My advice now would be for anyone in the same situation to just let the migrant go off in a layby and not report it.’
She said that it was her husband who was being fined as he was the driver of the van but she and her business partner were paying the fine as it was a trip for their work.
Mrs Cave said Border Force had agreed to receive payment at the rate of £100 a month for now but had stated that all the money was due within two years.
‘We can’t afford £3,000. I think it’s atrocious. We have done the right thing and have been honest, but we are being punished for it,’ she added.
The police officer told them the migrant was being taken to temporary accommodation.
Mr Masters added: ‘If I had just dropped him in a lay-by and not notified them, we would be £3,000 better off. Utter madness.’
He claimed he had faced increased scrutiny from the UK Border Force since the incident and had been stopped four times at different airports.
A Home Office spokesman said: ‘We are fully committed to stopping people from illegally entering the country and cracking down on people smugglers.
‘The Clandestine Entrant Civil Penalty Scheme aims to ensure drivers are taking every reasonable step to deter irregular migration and disrupt people smugglers.’
A Suffolk Constabulary spokesman said: ‘Police were called at approximately 1.35 pm on November 23, 2023, to reports that a couple travelling home to Norfolk from France had discovered a male hiding in their vehicle on the A11 at Barton Mills.
‘It was reported that the couple had heard banging from within their van while they were driving near the Fiveways roundabout, so they stopped their vehicle, at which point the male, described as a teenager, jumped out.
‘Officers attended, [and] located and detained the male concerned.’
Tourists and commercial drivers are at risk of being fined if they fail to adequately secure their vehicles under the rules of the government’s civil penalty scheme.
The Home Office said the scheme ‘aims to ensure drivers are taking every reasonable step to deter irregular migration and disrupt people smugglers.’
Well, that’s simply amazing. As a result, there will be little motivation to report it in the future. Moreover, border control should bear the responsibility for their blatant negligence rather than the common person, and let’s face it, this is all down to those highly intelligent civil servants running the home office.
The vehicle had been checked by customs on the French side before boarding the ferry. They didn’t find anyone, or at least pretended not to, and let them go on their way. I wouldn’t be paying any fine as the van had already been checked and passed through, and how much is the border force planning to fine themselves for not securely securing our borders?
The Home Office spokesman said that they were fully committed to stopping people from illegally entering the country and cracking down on people from illegally entering the country and cracking down on people smugglers. Well, that’s absolute rubbish.
This is somewhat draconian. The simple answer is, don’t let them in. Close our borders completely and then we wouldn’t have all these problems, but our government wants them in: cheap labour equates to more profit for our greedy politicians.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 