In the News this Week - 24/2/26

Hmm it's been an interesting week for news.

Of course the big news here in the UK was the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor in connection with his role of UK Trade Envoy and his links to Jeffrey Epstein.  I've used his name in full here as that seems to be what all the reporters are using when talking about him on TV but it's a bit of a mouthful and some reporters were better at saying it than others.  This was followed today by the arrest of the former Ambassador to the US, Peter Mandelson.  

There are now calls for Andrew to be removed from the line of succession to the throne. I personally don't see the need for this.  He's 8th in line currently.  He's unlikely to get anywhere near the throne which hardly justifies the time and cost that would be involved in passing an Act of Parliament to remove him.  Unless there's some sort of fast track route that could be used which I very much doubt.  We don't have executive orders here in the same way the US does but there is something known as the Royal Prerogative but even that doesn't allow the King to do just as he likes.

In INTERNATIONAL News the war in Ukraine enters it's 5th year following Russia's invasion and shows no sign of ending, certainly not while Putin remains in power. 

In SPORTS the Winter Olympics have come to an end and although Team GB only won 5 medals 3 of which were gold, that makes it our most successful games yet and there were definitely some exciting moments.  I watched the final of the Men's Team Curling competition on Saturday evening and it was nail biting stuff.  And of course very disappointing for our team who finished with silver medals.  I loved watching all the Ice Skating events and marvelled at the tricks and jumps that were done by both snow boarders and skiers.  It has definitely been entertaining.

In ENTERTAINMENT it was the BAFTA (British Academy Film and Television Awards) event here on Sunday.  Unfortunately, despite all the great films and shows etc that won awards, the event has been overshadowed by the BBC failing to edit out offensive language from John Davidson who has the condition Tourette's Syndrome.  Robert Aramayo won the Best Actor award for his role in the film "I Swear",  which is based on John Davidson.

It seems the live audience were warned about the possibility of outbursts due to involuntary tics but the comments were not edited from the show which was broadcast 2 hours later or removed from the I-player version until the following morning.  I have a feeling heads will roll.

And for MISCELLANEOUS I'm happy to report that the 2 cygnets on our lake were rescued at the weekend and taken to a nearby flock as their parents had finally decided it was time for them to find a new home and had been chasing them off the lake.  Hopefully the young ones will thrive in their new environment and the parents will nest again and produce a new brood in due course.  Particularly as there seems to be an outbreak of Avian Flu in the Dockland area not too far from us where many birds have died in the last few days.  Very sad.

But just to cheer you up here's a photo of my daughter's family cat Milo who I had to go and feed and fuss on Sunday as they were away.