Category: News

The Consumer Council for Water described the increase as the largest rise in water bills since privatisation of the industry 36 years ago.
Water bills will rise by an average of 26 percent from April 1, according to figures published by the industry body Water UK on Thursday.
This mean customers’ annual bills will go up from £480 last year to £603, an increase of £123 or around £10 a month.
However, millions of households will face higher increases as the change varies across England and Wales by water provider.
Southern Water customers will see the highest average rise at 47 percent, a £224 increase per year. Hafren Dyfdwy and South West Water will both see rises of 32 percent, followed by Thames Water (31 percent), and Yorkshire Water (31 percent).
Only Bristol Water will see a single-digit increase (4 percent), with Sutton and East Surrey Water customers being the only consumers in England and Wales to see their water prices go down (by 2 percent).
Other factors can influence a household’s water bill, such as how much water they use and whether their water is metered.

Emergency response units assess airplane wreckage in the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan Washington Airport on January 30, 2025 in Arlington, Virginia. Andrew Harnik/Getty…

Calling Tonya Harding ‘controversial’ hardly does her justice. For some of you kids who might have missed the story on the History Channel, Tonya was an Olympic ice skater who had thugs take a pipe to her competitor, Nancy Kerrigan’s knee. It’s a thoroughly American story, weirdness and violence included. Tonya was from the proverbial wrong side of the tracks and ice skating’s bad girl. Her rival was the beautiful and elegant John Hughes movie rich kid, Nancy Kerrigan. Ahead of the 1994 Winter Olympics at the US Nationals in Detroit.

The scandal was shocking. The coverage, breathless, and the discovery it was a hit kept us glued to our TV sets.
OK, now that you’re caught up. Let’s return to 2025 to our story already in progress.

Hi everyone! I’ve finally figured out how to make an account on here!!
I’m very excited to reconnect with you all(if anyone remembers me) 😄
With love,Tonya pic.twitter.com/lfhiwdeYbY
— Tonya Harding (@itstonyaharding) January 29, 2025
Well, Twitter/X is kinda like the Wild West, so a hearty welcome to you, Tonya!

pic.twitter.com/MAbZdtd7jq
— ybc.kendrick (@YBCKen007) January 29, 2025

Oh, we remember you alright.

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Keeping a promise he made after winning the 2024 presidential election to end transgender ideology in public education, Trump signed an executive order on Monday after the inaugural ceremony.  The order rescinded all U.S. Department of Education guidance documents related to gender ideology, including a toolkit for creating “inclusive and nondiscriminatory schools environments for LGBTQI+ students”; guides for supporting transgender students; a back-to-school message for transgender youth from the U.S. Departments of Justice, Education, and Health and Human Services; and a tip sheet for “2024 Title IX Regulations: Pointers for Implementation.”
This last document is a reference to court decisions that allow males access to the dressing rooms of females under the guise of ending “discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.”  This has not ended well for advocates.  Parents on both sides of the political and racial spectrums are outraged over naked males sharing dressing rooms with their daughters.  Their anger has erupted in shouting matches at school board meetings, with parental rights being pitted against the education…

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The D.C.-based Acacia Center for Justice is squarely at odds with the Trump administration

(John Moore/Getty Images)

A left-wing group that serves as the lead contractor for a massive federal immigration contract claims the immigration system is “intentionally designed” to exploit “Black and brown people,” opposes the use of police officers for “immigration purposes,” and says “no immigrant should be detained.”
Acacia Center for Justice, based in Washington, D.C., is one of the largest federal immigration contractors, overseeing a $769 million program that provides lawyers for unaccompanied alien children and adults in immigration court hearings and deportation proceedings.
The group says its aim is to provide due process rights for illegal aliens. But it also calls for a radical upheaval of the immigration and deportation system—goals that are starkly at odds with the Trump administration’s objectives.
Launched in 2022, Acacia Center argues that “no immigrant should be detained” and that electronic surveillance to track illegal aliens “must be abolished.” According to the center, “the use of local law…

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Democrats like Senator Warren are on a warpath to stop the confirmation of RFK Jr. and with a little context, it becomes more interesting.
The Gateway Pundit reported,

President Trump’s Health and Human Services Secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appeared before the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday as his confirmation hearings got underway.
As expected, Democrat Senators sneered at RFK Jr. as he confronted the lawmakers about wasting taxpayers’ money.
Fake Indian and Democrat Senator Elizabeth Warren (MA) lost it on RFK Jr. after he exposed her for defending Big Pharma.
Warren begged RFK Jr. not to sue Big Pharma.
“I’ll comply with all of the ethical guidelines,” RFK Jr. said to Senator Warren as she grilled him on
“Senator! You are asking me not to sue vaccine — pharmaceutical companies! Yeah you are! That’s exactly what you’re doing!” RFK Jr. said.
Elizabeth Warren shouted at RFK Jr.: “No! I am not!”
She continued, “Look! No one should be fooled here! As Secretary of HHS, Robert Kennedy will have the power to undercut vaccines and vaccine manufacturing!”

The senator seems to be very worried that RFK Jr. might profit off big…

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On Wednesday afternoon, President Trump officially signed the Laken Riley Act into law.
The Laken Riley Act, which was passed by the House and Senate, “directs Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to detain illegal immigrants arrested or charged with theft-related crimes, or those accused of assaulting a police officer.”
It’s named after Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student who was killed by an illegal alien while she was jogging at the University of Georgia.
As he signed the legislation, Trump shared, “This horrific atrocity should never have been allowed to happen. And as president, I’m fighting every single day to ensure that such a tragedy never happens again.”

President Donald J. Trump Signs the Laken Riley Act https://t.co/RtqjGGGrIU
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) January 29, 2025

Here’s what Fox News reported:

President Donald Trump signed the Laken Riley Act into law Wednesday, marking the first piece of legislation to become law in his second administration.
“This horrific atrocity should never have been allowed to happen,” Trump told reporters Wednesday ahead of signing the legislation. “And as president, I’m fighting every…

Tom Homan is easily becoming one of my favorite Trump appointees. In addition to his effective enforcement of our nation’s immigration laws, he’s 100% unapologetic about the work he’s doing.

Recently, MSNBC’s Joy Reid launched into a lengthy meltdown over what she termed “performative” ICE raids happening across the nation. While interviewing New York Attorney General Letitia James, the latter called the raids “reckless.”
“Reckless and also, I mean, as I’ve said, performative. I mean, I want to show you an image of Kristi Noem, the — who was just confirmed — the former governor who was confirmed as a Department of Homeland Security,” Reid replied. “I mean, it’s as if she’s cosplaying.”
“It’s almost a game where she seems to be cosplaying as—I’m not sure what she thinks that she’s portraying here,” Reid continued. “She might as well be at Comic-Con looking like this. And it is — it is a — it is — it feels like the attempt, as you said, is to instill fear, not really to enforce the law. You can’t say you’re going after individuals who are just dangerous criminals if you are invading schools because elementary and high…

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Actress and comedienne Roseanne Barr called on Hollywood to get “back in touch” with Americans after making itself irrelevant with woke politics.
Speaking with Variety, Roseanne said Hollywood should work with President Trump in order to get back to business and start making money.
“Hollywood has made itself irrelevant to the American people,” she said. “If they want to survive, they should work with the new president. American people elected him in an overwhelming victory. They should get back in touch with [them] and make some money, which I don’t know if they do or not ’cause they’ve proven to be ideologues rather than [business people].”
“What shocks me is the fact that they prefer to lose money and then explain that to the shareholders who apparently have no problem with that,” she added.
Roseanne, who was fired from the hit reboot of her show by ABC after referring to former Obama aide Valarie Jarrett as the offspring of the “Muslim Brotherhood & Planet of the Apes,” said that the Trump family regards her as a “loose cannon.”
“The Trump administration regards me as a loose cannon, which I am,” she told Variety. “I’m not a party…

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We recently spotlighted how Walmart remained America’s “price discount juggernaut” retailer amid an ongoing value war with other supermarket retail chains. The latest high-frequency data indicates that…

Summary The ECB Governing Council is widely expected to cut policy rates by a further 25bp at its January 30 meeting, the fifth consecutive…

Mayor Muriel Bowser and other Washington, DC officials will give a press conference scheduled for 7:30 am EST following the deadly crash. First responders are in a desperate search for survivors after a military helicopter collided with a plane near Reagan Washington National Airport in Virginia Wednesday night, according to officials.[embedded content]

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THIS is the funky brain teaser to test your eye sight and powers of logic.
Everyone can see the two people and vase of flowers – but only geniuses can spot the two hidden faces.

Only geniuses can spot the two hidden faces within seven secondsCredit: Pinterest
To be clear – we are not talking about the man and woman sitting opposite eachother in the chairs.
They are obvious.
There are two further faces obscured amongst the sketchy cartoon.
This puzzle is made more difficult by the rough style is uses.

READ MORE OPTICAL ILLUSIONS

This makes it more difficult to distinguish the objects from the background.
For example, the smoke from the man’s pipe seems to meld in with the shrubs and the sky.
It looks like the two characters are enjoying a nice afternoon natter outside.
The outdoor setting and kind of plants on show give it a tropical feel – it certainly doesn’t look like the UK.
How are you getting on?
Don’t worry if you still haven’t found the faces, here comes a clue.
It looks like the two characters HAVE noticed the elusive faces – unlike you.
If you really can’t see them, head to the bottom for the solution.
People who are able to solve the puzzle quickly possess good observational skills…

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Authored by Charlie Kirk via RealClearPolitics, Conservatives of all stripes have enjoyed the first week of Donald Trump’s presidency. The events of the past…

The Osaka High Court on Thursday revoked the Finance Ministry’s decision not to disclose documents related to a document-tampering scandal that led to the suicide of a ministry official.
The high court, presided over by Judge Kenji Maki, overturned an Osaka District Court ruling dismissing a petition by Masako Akagi, the widow of the late ministry official, Toshio, to nullify the ministry decision.
Masako argued that it was illegal for the ministry not to disclose administrative documents it had voluntarily submitted to prosecutors regarding the scandal related to the discount sale of state land to school operator Moritomo Gakuen.
The Finance Ministry has refused to disclose even the existence of such documents, saying that doing so would impede investigations. The district court found the nondisclosure legal.
The Osaka High Court said that prosecutors are not aware of what documents the Finance Ministry possesses, and it is up to the ministry to decide which documents to submit. Even if it becomes widely known what documents were submitted by the ministry, “hindrances to future investigations of crimes in general cannot be…

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Some 150 Ukrainian teenagers from northeastern areas near the frontlines of the war with Russia had already packed their bags to travel west for an educational retreat far from the shelling and fighting. Their plans were abruptly cancelled.

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President Ferdinand Marcos said Thursday his government will remove a US missile system from the Philippines if Beijing ends its “aggressive and coercive behaviour” in the contested South China Sea and ceases claiming Filipino territory.
The US military deployed the Typhon missile system in the northern Philippines last year as part of an annual joint exercise, and Filipino troops have been training with it, with plans to acquire the system as a means to protect Manila’s maritime interests.
Beijing’s forces have engaged in several confrontations with Philippine vessels in recent months over disputed reefs and waters in the strategically located South China Sea.
The US mid-range weapon system’s presence on Philippine soil has angered China, which has warned Manila was “inciting geopolitical confrontation and an arms race” in the region.
“I don’t understand the comments on the Typhon missiles. We don’t make any comments on their missile systems, and their missile systems are a thousand times more powerful than what we have,” Marcos told reporters Thursday during a visit to the central city of Cebu.
“Let’s make a deal with China: Stop…

DAMASCUS, Syria—The Syrian factions that toppled President Bashar Assad last month named an Islamist former rebel leader as the country‘s interim president on Wednesday in a push to project a united front as they face the monumental task of rebuilding Syria after nearly 14 years of civil war.
The former insurgents also threw out Syria’s constitution, adopted under Assad, saying a new charter would be drafted soon.
The appointment of Ahmad al-Sharaa, who was once aligned with the al-Qaeda terrorist group, as Syria’s president “in the transitional phase” came after a meeting of the former insurgent factions in Damascus, the Syrian capital.
The announcement was made by the spokesperson for Syria’s new, de facto government’s military operations sector, Col. Hassan Abdul Ghani, the state-run SANA news agency said. The exact mechanism under which the factions selected al-Sharra as interim president was not clear.
Formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, al-Sharaa is the head of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) terrorist group, which led the lightning offensive that toppled Assad in early December. The group was once affiliated with al-Qaeda but has since denounced its former…

The Australian government says it will not suspend the use of mRNA Covid-19 vaccines, despite warnings from several high-profile scientists that the products could…