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I'm a farmer, a housekeeper - and a volunteer firefighter
Dorchester's curious cat wins over hearts of the townA cat has achieved local celebrity status after appearing in more than 30 different shops across her town.Susie moved from Upwey to Dorchester with her owners, Linda and Michael Crow, who were moving in with their daughter, Jenny Graves.She settled in quickly and has been spotted by hundreds of people across the town, now featuring in postcards promoting Dorchester.
Entwined in death: Two brothers shot dead in Gaza while evacuating with white flag Fifteen year-old Nahed Barbakh had been waving a white flag in Gaza when he was shot dead last week.His brother Ramez, 20, rushed to his aid, before he too was shot dead.All of this was witnessed by their nine-year-old sister who was only able to watch on in horror.
We know what ‘foo fighters’ that buzzed Second World War pilots really were, say scientistsAmerican scientists believe they have discovered what the strange, fast-moving blobs that shaped alien conspiracy theories truly wereIn the 1940s, Allied pilots during the Second World War reported being hounded by fast-moving blobs, which they dubbed “foo fighters”. Shaped like clouds, donuts, balls and spheres, and often glowing or translucent, the strange entities have fuelled conspiracy theories that Earth was being visited by advanced civilisations.Now a paper suggests the phenomena are in fact plasmas, or ionised gases, which are drawn to the electrical charge of aircraft, spacecraft and satellites.Experts from the universities of California, Arizona and the Harvard-Smithsonian argue that the strange properties of plasmas make them appear to behave like living organisms, even though they are not alive.
Ofsted inspectors ‘make up evidence’ about a school’s performance when IT failsInspector tells Observer investigation that top officials are aware that computer system crashes can wipe out dataOfsted inspectors have been forced to “make up” evidence because the computer system they use to record inspections sometimes crashes, wiping all the data, an Observer investigation has found.Since 2018, inspectors have made live notes on laptops or tablets as they interview staff and observe lessons after Ofsted invested in a new electronic evidence gathering (EEG) digital platform. However, our investigation has discovered the technology has had serious issues from the beginning, sometimes crashing unexpectedly and losing all notes from interviews, or even whole days of evidence, so that inspectors have to replace those notes from memory without telling the school.The Observer spoke to several current or recent inspectors on condition of anonymity who said such problems had been “common” for years, and that senior leaders within Ofsted were aware of this, but “there has been a lot of covering up”.
Government to Hold Talks On Giving UK Post Office to WorkersThe government will meet Post Office workers to discuss handing them ownership of the network in a bid to move on from its historic scandals and to set out a firmer footing for the future.Kevin Hollinrake, the business minister, will meet union representatives and figures from the Britain’s co-operative movement on Wednesday, to consider shifting the Post Office from government ownership to control by the service’s branch managers, known as sub-postmasters, who run its 11,500 outlets, several people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. The topic will be one of several issues on the agenda, they added.The discussion comes as the government is trying to get a closer grip on the protracted fiasco that has led to postmasters being falsely imprisoned due to accounting glitches caused by its Horizon computer system.Rose Marley, chief executive of Co-operatives UK, a national body for member-owned organizations, will also be at the gathering.
Michelle O'Neill becomes Northern Irish first minister as power sharing resumes in StormontSinn Fein's Michelle O'Neill is set to make history as Northern Ireland's first ever nationalist first minister.
Jonnie Irwin: Escape to the Country and A Place in the Sun host dies aged 50
‘The situation has become appalling’: fake scientific papers push research credibility to crisis pointTens of thousands of bogus research papers are being published in journals in an international scandal that is worsening every year, scientists have warned. Medical research is being compromised, drug development hindered and promising academic research jeopardised thanks to a global wave of sham science that is sweeping laboratories and universities.Last year the annual number of papers retracted by research journals topped 10,000 for the first time. Most analysts believe the figure is only the tip of an iceberg of scientific fraud.The startling rise in the publication of sham science papers has its roots in China, where young doctors and scientists seeking promotion were required to have published scientific papers. Shadow organisations – known as “paper mills” – began to supply fabricated work for publication in journals there.The practice has since spread to India, Iran, Russia, former Soviet Union states and eastern Europe with paper mills supplying fabricated studies to more and more journals as increasing numbers of young scientists try to boost their careers by claiming false research experience.
Tesco issues four-week warning to anyone with a ClubcardThe supermarket giant warned Clubcard shoppers only have until 29 February to use £18m worth of Clubcard vouchers before they expire.The vouchers were issued in February 2022, and while shoppers are racking up points, many are forgetting to use them before they expire.The reminder for shoppers to use their old vouchers comes as more than £125m of new ones will be ready to use from 5 February.