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Today — 6 July 2025Main stream

Search for missing continues as Texas floods kill 51, including 15 children

6 July 2025 at 12:59
BBC reports from the scene of floods in Kerr County

A frantic search for survivors is under way in central Texas after flash floods killed at least 32 people, including 14 children.

Many were asleep when the Guadalupe River rose more than 26 ft (8m) in less than an hour in the early hours of Friday.

Officials in Kerr County have said 27 children are missing from a Christian youth camp located along the river. Some 850 people were rescued.

Weather forecasts suggest that more rain and, potentially, more flooding could be on the horizon for the area.

Among the areas most severely hit by the floods were mobile homes, summer camps and camping sites where many had gathered for 4 July holiday celebrations.

At a press conference on Saturday afternoon, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said he had signed an expanded disaster declaration to boost search efforts.

He said officials would be relentless in ensuring they locate "every single person who's been a victim of this event", adding that "we will stop when job is completed".

It remains a search and rescue mission, officials said, not a recovery effort.

They said rescuers were going up and down the Guadalupe River to try to find people who may have been swept away by the floods.

Much of the rescue has focused on a large all-girls Christian summer camp called Camp Mystic.

The camp, where 27 remain missing, is on the banks of the Guadalupe River near Hunt, Texas.

Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick told the BBC's Radio 4 PM programme that of the 27 children missing from Camp Mystic "many of these girls are younger girls under the age of 12".

He also said that many more people were likely to remain unaccounted for across the region, because some were visiting for the holiday weekend.

In an email to parents of the roughly 750 campers, Camp Mystic said that if they haven't been contacted directly, their child is considered missing.

Some of the families have already stated publicly that their children were among those who were found dead.

US President Donald Trump has said his administration is working closely with local authorities to respond to the emergency.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the president was "devastated" by the loss of life and promised full federal support.

Noem joined Governor Abbott at Saturday afternoon's press conference and said the federal government would soon be deploying the Coast Guard to help search efforts.

Elsewhere in central Texas, in Travis County, officials say another two people have died and 10 are missing because of the flooding.

Forecasters have warned that central Texas may see more flooding this weekend.

The National Weather Service (NWS) said the area could see 2 to 5in (5cm to 12cm) of rain on Saturday.

Up to 10in of rain was possible in some areas that are still reeling from Friday's deluge.

I looked into the eyes of a man who blew himself up on the Tube. I still see him everywhere

6 July 2025 at 13:00
Tony Woolliscroft Dan BiddleTony Woolliscroft
Dan Biddle returned to Edgware Road station nine years after the attack, in 2014

Two decades have passed since the 2005 London attacks, but the face of the lead suicide bomber, Mohammad Sidique Khan, has never left Dan Biddle's memory.

It feels as real today as the day they looked into each other's eyes.

"I can be in in the kitchen and he is stood in the garden," says Dan, who has complex post-traumatic stress disorder.

"He's there, dressed as he was on the day, holding the rucksack, just with his hand above it, about to detonate it again."

Even if Dan looks away, the bomber is still there when he looks back.

"I saw this guy literally disassemble himself in front of me, and now I'm seeing him again."

Warning: This article contains details some readers may find distressing

Tony Woolliscroft Dan Biddle's underground ticket from 7/7Tony Woolliscroft
Dan's underground ticket from 7/7

Dan was in touching distance of Khan, on a rush-hour London Underground Circle line train on 7 July 2005. How he survived is almost beyond rational explanation.

"As as we pulled out of Edgware Road station, I could feel somebody staring at me. I was just about to turn around and say, 'What are you looking at?', and I see him put his hand in the bag.

"And then there was a just a brilliantly white, bright flash - heat like I've never experienced before."

Khan had detonated a homemade bomb - made using an al-Qaeda-devised chemical recipe - that he was carrying in his rucksack.

The device killed David Foulkes, 22, Jennifer Nicholson, 24, Laura Webb, 29, Jonathan Downey, 34, Colin Morley and Michael Brewster, both 52.

In total, 52 people were killed that day, by four bombs detonated by Islamist extremists. Another 770 were injured.

PA Media Wreckage and debris onboard a train at Edgware Road station, July 7th 2005 (7/7 Bombings - Coroners Inquest evidence)PA Media
Aftermath of the bombing onboard the train at Edgware Road station on 7 July 2005

Dan was blown out of the train, hit the tunnel wall and fell into the crawl space between the tunnel wall and the track.

His injuries were catastrophic. His left leg was blown off. His right leg was severed from the knee down. He suffered second and third-degree burns to his arms, hands and face. He lost his left eye - and his hearing on that side too.

He suffered a massive laceration to his forehead. A pole from the tube train's internal fittings went into his body and he endured punctures and ruptures to his kidneys, lungs, colon and bowel. He later lost his spleen.

Dan was the most severely injured victim of the attacks to survive. And he was conscious throughout.

He initially thought the white flash was an electrical explosion.

Debris had fallen onto him, and his arms and hands were alight. He could see the flames flickering.

"Straight after the explosion, you could have heard a pin drop. It was almost as if everybody had just taken a big breath," Dan says, "and then it was like opening the gates of hell. Screaming like I've never heard before."

PA Media Wreckage onboard a train at Edgware Road station, July 7th 2005 (7/7 Bombings - Coroners Inquest evidence)PA Media
More wreckage onboard the train at Edgware Road station

Dan could see some of the dead. He tried to push down to lever himself up from the debris. He realised how profusely he was bleeding.

"The initial feeling was one of total disbelief. It was like, surely God, this is just a nightmare."

Dan's mind immediately turned to his father, and how he couldn't bear for him to witness this.

"My dad cannot be the person that walks into a mortuary and goes, 'Yeah, that's my son'," Dan says. "I couldn't bear the thought of that."

He didn't believe he would get out of the tunnel. But the will to survive instinctively kicked in and he screamed for help.

The first person to respond was fellow passenger Adrian Heili, who had served as a combat medic during the Kosovo war. If it had been anyone else, Dan believes he would have died.

"The first thing he said to me was, 'Don't worry, I've been in this situation before, and never lost anyone.'

"And I'm thinking, 'How can you have gone through this before?'

"And then he said to me: 'I'm not going to lie to you. This is really going to hurt.'"

Adrian applied a tourniquet and pinched shut the artery in Dan's thigh to stop him bleeding to death. Dan's life was literally in Adrian's hands until paramedics were able to reach him about half an hour later.

Adrian helped many more in the hours that followed - and in 2009 received the Queen's Commendation for Bravery.

Mark Large/ANL/Shutterstock Dan Biddle (in Wheelchair) With Adrian Heili.Mark Large/ANL/Shutterstock
Adrian Heili and Dan Biddle in 2011

Dan's trauma was far from over. He was taken to nearby St Mary's Hospital where he repeatedly went into cardiac arrest. At one point, a surgeon had to manually massage his heart to bring him back to life. He was given 87 units of blood.

"I think there's something in all of us - that fundamental desire to live.

"Very few people ever get pushed to the degree where that's required.

"My survival is down to Adrian and the phenomenal care and just brilliance of the NHS and my wife."

Physical survival was one thing. But the toll on Dan's mental health was another.

After eight weeks in an induced coma, Dan began a year-long journey to leaving hospital - and he realised he'd have to navigate the world outside differently.

His nights became consumed with mental torture.

PA Media Metropolitan Police handout photo issued Saturday July 16 2005 of a CCTV image of the four London bombers arriving at Luton train station at 0721 on Thursday July 7. The image shows from left to right Hasib Hussain, Germaine Lindsay (dark cap), Mohammed Sidique Khan (light cap) and Shahzad Tanweer.PA Media
CCTV shows the four London bombers arriving at Luton train station on the morning of 7 July 2005

He dreaded having to close his eyes and go to sleep, because he would find himself back in the tunnel.

"I wake up and [the bomber] is standing next to me," Dan says. "I'll be driving - he's in the back seat of my car. I'll look in the shop window and there's a reflection of him - on the other side of the street."

Those flashbacks have led to what Dan describes as survivor's guilt.

"I've replayed that moment a million times over in my head. Was there something about me that made him do it? Should I have seen something about him then tried to stop it?"

By 2013 Dan had reached a dangerous low. He tried to take his own life three times.

But he had also started a relationship with his now-wife Gem - and this was a crucial turning point.

The next time he came close to suicide it was Gem's face he saw when he closed his eyes, and he realised that if he ended his own life he would inflict appalling trauma on her.

Supplied Gem and DanSupplied
Gem and Dan pictured on their wedding day

Gem persuaded Dan to take a mental health assessment - and he began to get the expert help he needed.

In 2014 he agreed - as part of his therapy and attempts to manage the condition - to do something he thought he would never do: return to Edgware Road.

When the day came, Dan sat outside the station experiencing flashbacks and hearing the sounds of 7/7 again: screams, shouting and sirens.

He and Gem pressed on. As they entered the ticket hall there were more flashbacks.

The station manager and staff were expecting him and asked if he wanted to go down to the platform. Dan said it was a "bridge too far". Gem insisted they all go together.

When they reached the platform, a train pulled in. Dan began to feel sick. But the train quietly moved on without incident - and by the time a third train had arrived he found the courage to board it.

"I feel really, really sick. I'm sweating. She's crying. I'm tensing, waiting for a blast. I'm waiting for that that big heat and that pressure to hit me."

And then the train stopped at the point in the tunnel where the bomb had gone off - an arrangement between the driver and the station manager.

"They'd stopped the train exactly where I'd been lying. I remember looking down onto the floor and it was a really weird feeling - knowing that my life really came to an end there."

Tony Woolliscroft Dan and Gem outside Edgware Road stationTony Woolliscroft
Dan, pictured here with Gem in 2014, feels compelled to do something positive with his life because 52 people were denied this chance on 7/7

As the train pulled away, something inside Dan urged him to get off at the next station and move forward with his life.

"I'm going to leave the station, I'm going to do whatever I'm going to do today, and then I'm going to marry this amazing, beautiful woman," he says. The two tied the knot the following year.

Eleven years on, Dan feels driven to do something positive with his life.

He now runs his own company helping disabled people into work - a professional journey he might never have embarked on had it not been for the bomb.

He still has flashbacks and bad days but he's finding ways to manage them - and has published a book of what he has been through.

"I'm very lucky to still be alive. I've paid an immense, enormous price. I'll just keep fighting every day to make sure that him and his actions never win."

A list of organisations in the UK offering support and information with some of the issues in this story is available at BBC Action Line

How MI5 piled falsehood on falsehood in court in the case of a spy who abused women

6 July 2025 at 13:00
PA Media/BBC Composite graphic with in the foreground a photo of MI5 director general Sir Ken McCallum, a white man with dark, swept-back hair and round dark-rimmed glasses, wearing a dark suit and tie. Behind him is an image of the Royal Courts of Justice, rendered in blue on a yellow background and the MI5 logo in bluePA Media/BBC

When the BBC revealed that MI5 had lied to three courts, the Security Service apologised for giving false evidence - vowing to investigate and explain how such a serious failure had occurred.

But on Wednesday, the High Court ruled that these inquiries were "deficient", ordering a new "robust" investigation. A panel of judges said they would consider the issue of contempt of court proceedings against individuals once that was complete.

Now we can detail how, over the past few months leading up to the judgment, MI5 continued to provide misleading evidence and tried to keep damning material secret.

The material gives an unprecedented insight into the internal chaos at MI5 as it responded to what has become a major crisis and test of its credibility.

At the heart of the case is the violent abuse of a woman by a state agent under MI5's control. After the BBC began investigating, MI5 attempted to cover its tracks - scattering a trail of false and misleading evidence.

The case started very simply: I was investigating a neo-Nazi, who I came to understand was also an abusive misogynist and MI5 agent.

After I contacted this man - known publicly as X - in 2020 to challenge him on his extremism, a senior MI5 officer called me up and tried to stop me running a story.

The officer said X had been working for MI5 and informing on extremists, and so it was wrong for me to say he was an extremist himself.

It was this disclosure, repeated in a series of phone calls, which the Security Service would later lie about to three courts as it attempted to keep X's role and identity shrouded in secrecy.

During the phone calls with me, MI5 denied information I had about X's violence, but I decided to spend more time investigating. What I learned was that X was a violent misogynist abuser with paedophilic tendencies who had used his MI5 role as a tool of coercion.

He had attacked his girlfriend - known publicly as "Beth" - with a machete, and abused an earlier partner, whose child he had threatened to kill. He even had cannibal fantasies about eating children.

Beth, pictured in a blurred silhouette against a high window, looking out onto tall buildings stretching into the distance on an overcast day
Beth, who was terrorised and coerced by X, has called for a public apology from MI5

When I challenged both X and MI5 with our evidence, the government took me and the BBC to court in early 2022. They failed to stop the story but did win legal anonymity for X.

Arguing for secrecy in a succession of court proceedings, the Security Service told judges it had stuck to its core policy of neither confirming nor denying (NCND) informants' identities, including during conversations with me. Crucially, this stance allowed it to keep evidence secret from "Beth", who had taken MI5 to court.

The service aggressively maintained its position until I produced evidence proving it was untrue - including a recording of one of the calls with a senior MI5 officer.

Finally accepting it had provided false evidence, MI5's director general Sir Ken McCallum said: "We take our duty to provide truthful, accurate and complete information very seriously, and have offered an unreserved apology to the court."

Two investigations were commissioned: an internal MI5 disciplinary inquiry, and an external review by Sir Jonathan Jones KC, who was once the government's chief lawyer. This latter review was personally commissioned by the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and MI5's director general.

Both of these concluded that the original false evidence was not due to dishonesty by MI5 or any of its officers. They effectively put it down to mistakes, both personal and systemic.

But these two inquiries quickly began to fall apart.

Not fair or accurate

The government initially refused to provide both reports in full to the court.

Like many cases involving MI5, this one was held partly in secret to allow the government to use evidence which it says is too sensitive to be discussed in open hearings.

Access to the secret, closed part of the case was only available to the government, the judge and security-cleared barristers known as special advocates who were representing the BBC - but who were not allowed to communicate directly with us.

The government said it would not be providing any closed evidence about the two inquiries to the judge or the special advocates.

Instead, it provided an "open" version of Sir Jonathan's external review, with apparently sensitive material edited out, and it purported to provide a full account of the internal inquiry in a witness statement by MI5's director general of strategy - known as Witness B.

Sir Jonathan wrote that he was "satisfied" that the open version was a "fair and accurate" account of his full review. Witness B, third-in-command at the Security Service, said in his statement: "I am satisfied that there is nothing in the closed material that has been excluded from the open report which prevents MI5 from providing the court with a frank and accurate account."

Getty Images An exterior view of the Royal Courts of Justice where the High Court sits, with the neo-Gothic building featuring many spires, turrets, arched windows and a central rose window pictured in sunshine against blue skies.Getty Images
The High Court ruled that the explanations for MI5's false evidence were "deficient"

During hearings, the government argued against disclosing secret material to the court. It eventually agreed to hand over the secret version of Sir Jonathan's review, and then was ordered to disclose the internal investigation report described by Witness B, along with policy documents and notes of interviews with MI5 officers.

When the disclosure came, it was clear why MI5 was so keen to keep it secret: the summaries, including the one from MI5's third-in-command, were not fair or accurate. Key information had been withheld, which undermined their conclusions.

In short, the court was still being misled.

At the same time, in response to the inquiries, I was submitting new evidence which proved that some of the claims made by the two reviews were false.

Neither the internal investigation nor Sir Jonathan Jones contacted me, despite the fact I was the only other person who really knew what had been said in all the phone calls at the centre of the case.

'The fallibility of memory'

The two official reviews concluded that the senior officer who called me - Officer 2 - failed to recall telling me that X was an agent.

"There is nothing surprising in this narrative, which is ultimately about the fallibility of memory in the absence of a written record," as the Security Service put it in legal submissions.

The Jones review said that, because no formal record was made of the calls, by the time MI5 was preparing evidence the "only first-hand evidence available was Officer 2's personal recollection".

Sir Jonathan said the officer's recollection was "uncertain", although it had hardened over time into a position that he had not departed from NCND.

But material that MI5 and the government sought to keep secret shows that Officer 2 gave a detailed recollection of the conversation with me - until I exposed it as false.

His recollection was contained in a note of an internal MI5 meeting, arranged to discuss what to tell the special advocates and the court about the conversations with me. In it, the officer insisted he did not depart from NCND and gave a melodramatic account of my "long pauses" as I said I needed the story, before I eventually became cooperative and said I had "seen the light".

This was all untrue. He also falsely claimed I had revealed that I had spoken to X's former girlfriend, when I had done no such thing.

Graphic showing a note of an internal MI5 meeting, titled "MI5 office gave detailed false account of call with BBC". The graphic shows a reproduction of an extract of notes about Officer 2's recollection of the call with the BBC's Daniel De Simone, which says things such as "We did focus mostly on this individual", referring to X and "I kept insisting for ns reasons [national security reasons] it would be extremely helpful to keep out. Couldn't go into detail as to why." One line is highlighted, showing the detail in his false recollection: "I recall the long pauses of him saying need the story. Me saying it would be really really unhelpful."

The note also showed that Officer 2 had told colleagues that he persuaded me to drop the story by implying that agent X was being investigated by MI5 as an extremist. This was the exact opposite of what he had in fact told me, which was that X was an MI5 agent rather than a real extremist.

Sir Jonathan was aware of the full version of this elaborate false account, but it was absent from the unclassified version given to the court and the BBC.

The MI5 internal review also claimed that Officer 2 had a lapse of memory.

It said that Officer 2 had told another officer - a key figure involved in preparing the Security Service's false evidence for the court, known as Officer 3 - that he could not remember whether he had departed from NCND.

In his statement to court, Witness B - MI5's director general of strategy - said Officer 2 had said "they could not recall the details" of the conversations with me but "did not think they had departed from NCND" and believed "they would have remembered if they had done so".

But an internal note by Officer 3, written after his discussion with Officer 2, contained a very different account.

It stated unequivocally that "we did not breach NCND" and that the contact with me "was prefaced with confirmation that this conversation was not on the record".

It also stated that, "after being initially fairly bullish, De Simone said that he acknowledged the strength of the argument, and agreed to remove those references".

All three claims were false, including about the conversations being off the record, something now accepted by MI5.

The evidence showed specific false claims being presented as memories - not the absence of memory the two inquiries said they found.

The written records MI5 said did not exist

The question of memory was so important because the court was told that written records were not available.

Witness B - MI5's third-in-command - said the internal investigation established that Officer 2 had "updated colleagues within MI5" about the conversations with me, but that "there was no evidence identified of any written record being made, by Officer 2 or anyone else".

Graphic showing an extract of a witness statement by MI5's director general of strategy, titled "MI5 falsely claimed 'no written record' of conversation with BBC". The statement says Office 2 updated colleagues about his discussions with the BBC's Daniel De Simone, but that "there was no evidence identified of any written record being made" about whether he had departed from the NCND policy. A line is highlighted that says when the issue was examined in 2022, "there was no written record held by MI5 as to what had been said during the Officer 2 Conversations."

"The fact of the matter was that Officer 2 was reliant on personal recollection alone which inevitably carries a degree of inherent uncertainty," Witness B said in his statement to court.

Sir Jonathan gave the same impression in his review.

But the secret material MI5 was forced to hand over proved this was false. There were several written records consistent with what had really happened - that MI5 had chosen to depart from NCND and that several people were aware of it.

Graphic of MI5 decision log showing that, just after the authorisation took place, a formal record was created saying the plan was to call the BBC and "reveal the MI5 link to X". The log then noted: "This was discussed with Officer 2 who subsequently approached the BBC to begin this conversation." We have highlighted a passage which reads: 'Although we would never want to reveal the identity of a CHIS to the BBC, it was agreed that in this case there was no alternative.

There was a decision log.

There were notes of conversations with Agent X himself.

There were emails.

The decision log showed that, just after the authorisation took place, a formal record was created saying the plan was to call the BBC and "reveal the MI5 link to X". The log then noted: "This was discussed with Officer 2 who subsequently approached the BBC to begin this conversation."

In an internal email, after I had said I would not include X in an initial story, one of X's handling team reported this development to other MI5 officers and accurately described the approach to me, namely that Officer 2 had claimed my proposed story was "incorrect" and the rationale for this was that most of the material was as a "direct result of his tasking" as an MI5 agent.

Notes of calls and meeting with Agent X show he approved the plan to reveal his MI5 role and was kept updated about the calls. In a later meeting with him, MI5 recorded that he was "happy" to meet with me, which was an offer MI5 had made and I ignored.

But it showed that MI5 and X were well aware of the NCND departure, because the Security Service would obviously only try to arrange a meeting with someone like X if they were an agent.

A graphic showing a reproduction of an MI5 note describing an MI5 officer identified as AA3 in contact with agent X, saying "I also asked X if they would be happy to meet with the journalist. X said they would be happy to do so, and if they did it would hopefully serve to counter some of the conclusions that the journalist had reached about X."

In a telling note, MI5 said X thought that a meeting with me would "hopefully serve to counter some of the conclusions that the journalist had reached about X". This is a violent, misogynistic neo-Nazi, a danger to women and children, yet MI5 wanted to do PR for him with a journalist.

'Back in the box'

These records and others show that the handling team for agent X understood there had been an NCND departure. This was unsurprising as the calls with me at the time made it clear that his case officers knew what was happening.

But the internal investigation report records how, as MI5 was preparing to take the BBC to court to block our story on X, one officer went around convincing colleagues that no such departure had ever taken place.

Officer 3 spoke several times to a member of the agent-handling team within MI5 - known as Officer 4 - regarding what had been said to me about X.

"We have already named him pal," said Officer 4, according to Officer 4's evidence to the investigation and Officer 3 replied: "I can categorically tell you we didn't".

After these conversations, Officer 4 said he felt the other officer had put him "back in his box". Other members of the handling team thought what Officer 3 was saying was "odd" and "weird".

MI5 has given completely contradictory explanations for how the false claim about not departing from NCND had got into its witness statement.

Reuters An exterior view of MI5's headquarters, Thames House, showing a large grey stone neo-classical building, partly concealed by a row of trees along the river, as a police boat speeds past on the water.Reuters
MI5 offered an "unreserved apology" to the court for its false evidence

The claim was given to court by an officer known as Witness A, acting as a corporate witness - meaning he was representing the organisation rather than appearing as someone necessarily involved personally in the events.

When the government was trying to stop the BBC publishing its story about X in 2022, the BBC's special advocates asked how Witness A could be so sure that NCND had not been breached.

The government's lawyers said "Witness A spoke to the MI5 officer who had contact with the BBC" - meaning Officer 2 - and the officer had said he neither confirmed nor denied agent X's role. The lawyers' answers strongly appeared to suggest that the pair had even spoken at the time of the calls with me.

After we exposed Witness A's false evidence, the lawyers' answers created a problem for MI5 as it either suggested Officer 2 had lied all along - or that he and Witness A were both lying.

It has since been claimed that the men did not speak to each other at the time of the calls with me.

Despite not reconciling these contradictory accounts, the investigation concluded "the parties were collectively doing their best to prepare a witness statement that was accurate".

Five times MI5 abandoned 'neither confirm nor deny'

Officer 2 claimed that he had never departed from NCND before and said that was a key reason why he would have recalled doing so.

But new evidence I submitted to court showed he had also told me whether or not five other people I was investigating were working with the Security Service. One of them was an undercover MI5 officer - one of the most sensitive and memorable details an officer could disclose.

Officer 2 had invited me to meet this undercover officer, just as he had offered me the chance to meet Agent X. I had not pursued either offer, which I thought were a crude attempt at pulling me into MI5's orbit.

Indeed, the internal MI5 material suggests that its officers wrongly believe that the role of journalists is to be cheerleaders for the Security Service. I was variously described as "bullish", "stubborn", "awkward", and not "as on board as other journalists".

A heavily blurred photo of X, who is wearing a black T-shirt and holding a large machete
X physically and sexually abused Beth, attacking her with a machete

They said, before their involvement with me, the BBC was seen as "friendly" and "supportive" of MI5. In reality, journalists like me are here to scrutinise and challenge the organisation.

The five other NCND departures were not apparently uncovered by MI5's internal investigators, nor by Sir Jonathan Jones.

Disclosing agent X's role would have been memorable and unusual on its own.

But the fact there were also departures on NCND relating to five other people made the chain of events even more extraordinary, and made any claimed loss of memory by Officer 2 – and in MI5 more widely – simply unbelievable.

The missing interviews

Both inquiries failed to speak to key people who were on the calls they were supposed to be investigating. Neither of them spoke to me - but there were other omissions too.

Sir Jonathan's review wrongly claimed that "only Officer 2 had been party to the calls" with me. In fact, Officer 2 had invited another senior officer to join one of the calls. He introduced himself by saying: "I head up all counter-terrorism investigations here."

He referred to my earlier "conversations" with Officer 2 and was plainly aware of their content - he even made a specific pun about something connected to X.

While MI5's internal investigation was aware that the head of counter-terror investigations had joined one of the calls and mentioned it in their secret report, investigators never bothered interviewing him.

After I submitted new evidence, MI5 was forced to speak to him - but the internal investigators concluded there was nothing to show he knew about NCND departures.

Sir Jonathan had also failed to speak to the MI5 officer at the centre of the case, Officer 2. He had simply adopted the conclusions of the internal inquiry - in which MI5 was investigating itself.

It emerged during the court case that Sir Jonathan did speak to MI5 director general Sir Ken McCallum for his investigation. But when the BBC's special advocates requested any notes of the interview, they were told that none existed.

'Maintaining trust'

"MI5's job is to keep the country safe," Sir Ken said after the High Court judgement. "Maintaining the trust of the courts is essential to that mission."

Because of this case, the courts have made plain that MI5's practices should change. The government says it is reviewing how the service prepares and gives evidence.

Because NCND has been abandoned in relation to Agent X, Beth will now have a fairer trial of her legal claim against MI5. The monolithically consistent way in which the policy has been presented, including in a string of important cases, has been shown to be untrue.

This has become a story about whether MI5 can be believed, and about how it uses its privileged position to conceal and lie.

But in the beginning - and in the end - it is a story about violence against women and girls, about the importance placed on that crucial issue by the state, and about how covering up for abusive misogynists never ends well.

Trump is using the 'Madman Theory' to try to change the world (and it's working)

6 July 2025 at 07:09
BBC Treated image of Donald TrumpBBC

Asked last month whether he was planning to join Israel in attacking Iran, US President Donald Trump said "I may do it. I may not do it. Nobody knows what I'm going to do".

He let the world believe he had agreed a two-week pause to allow Iran to resume negotiations. And then he bombed anyway.

A pattern is emerging: The most predictable thing about Trump is his unpredictability. He changes his mind. He contradicts himself. He is inconsistent.

"[Trump] has put together a highly centralised policy-making operation, arguably the most centralised, at least in the area of foreign policy, since Richard Nixon," says Peter Trubowitz, professor of international relations at the London School of Economics.

"And that makes policy decisions more dependent on Trump's character, his preferences, his temperament."

Getty Images Donald Trump speaks to reporters before boarding the Marine One presidential helicopter and departing the White House on 24 June 2025 in Washington DC. Getty Images
Trump has learned to put his unpredictability to political use, making it a key strategic and political asset

Trump has put this to political use; he has made his own unpredictability a key strategic and political asset. He has elevated unpredictability to the status of a doctrine. And now the personality trait he brought to the White House is driving foreign and security policy.

It is changing the shape of the world.

Political scientists call this the Madman Theory, in which a world leader seeks to persuade his adversary that he is temperamentally capable of anything, to extract concessions. Used successfully it can be a form of coercion and Trump believes it is paying dividends, getting the US's allies where he wants them.

But is it an approach that can work against enemies? And could its flaw be that rather than being a sleight of hand designed to fool adversaries, it is in fact based on well established and clearly documented character traits, with the effect that his behaviour becomes easier to predict?

Attacks, insults and embraces

Trump began his second presidency by embracing Russian President Vladimir Putin and attacking America's allies. He insulted Canada by saying it should become the 51st state of the US.

He said he was prepared to consider using military force to annex Greenland, an autonomous territory of America's ally Denmark. And he said the US should retake ownership and control of the Panama Canal.

Article 5 of the Nato charter commits each member to come to the defence of all others. Trump threw America's commitment to that into doubt. "I think Article 5 is on life support" declared Ben Wallace, Britain's former defence secretary.

Conservative Attorney General Dominic Grieve said: "For now the trans-Atlantic alliance is over."

A series of leaked text messages revealed the culture of contempt in Trump's White House for European allies. "I fully share your loathing of European freeloaders," US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth told his colleagues, adding "PATHETIC".

AFP via Getty Images JD Vance and Pete Hegseth salute as the National Anthem is played at the Memorial Amphitheatre in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, on 26 May 2025.AFP via Getty Images
Pete Hegseth, right, called European leaders "freeloaders" in leaked messages while JD Vance, left, said the US would no longer be the guarantor of European security

In Munich earlier this year, Trump's Vice-President JD Vance said the US would no longer be the guarantor of European security.

That appeared to turn the page on 80 years of trans-Atlantic solidarity. "What Trump has done is raise serious doubts and questions about the credibility of America's international commitments," says Prof Trubowitz.

"Whatever understanding those countries [in Europe] have with the United States, on security, on economic or other matters, they're now subject to negotiation at a moment's notice.

"My sense is that most people in Trump's orbit think that unpredictability is a good thing, because it allows Donald Trump to leverage America's clout for maximum gain…

"This is one of of his takeaways from negotiating in the world of real estate."

Trump's approach paid dividends. Only four months ago, Sir Keir Starmer told the House of Commons that Britain would increase defence and security spending from 2.3% of GDP to 2.5%.

Last month, at a Nato summit, that had increased to 5%, a huge increase, now matched by every other member of the Alliance.

The predictability of unpredictability

Trump is not the first American president to deploy an Unpredictability Doctrine. In 1968, when US President Richard Nixon was trying to end the war in Vietnam, he found the North Vietnamese enemy intractable.

"At one point Nixon said to his National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger, 'you ought to tell the North Vietnamese negotiators that Nixon's crazy and you don't know what he's going to do, so you better come to an agreement before things get really crazy'," says Michael Desch, professor of international relations at Notre Dame University. "That's the madman theory."

Getty Images Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger confer aboard Air Force One as it heads towards Brussels, Belgium, for Nato talks on 26 June 1973.Getty Images
The madman theory has been associated with the foreign policy of Richard Nixon, seen here speaking to Henry Kissinger

Julie Norman, professor of politics at University College London, agrees that there is now an Unpredictability Doctrine.

"It's very hard to know what's coming from day to day," she argues. "And that has always been Trump's approach."

Trump successfully harnessed his reputation for volatility to change the trans-Atlantic defence relationship. And apparently to keep Trump on side, some European leaders have flattered and fawned.

Last month's Nato summit in The Hague was an exercise in obsequious courtship. Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte had earlier sent President Trump (or "Dear Donald") a text message, which Trump leaked.

"Congratulations and thank you for your decisive action in Iran, it was truly extraordinary," he wrote.

On the forthcoming announcement that all Nato members had agreed to increase defence spending to 5% of GDP, he continued: "You will achieve something NO president in decades could get done."

Getty Images Donald Trump and Mark Rutte laugh while speaking to the media at the Nato summit on 25 June 2025 in The Hague, Netherlands.Getty Images
Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte sent Trump a congratulatory message ahead of the summit

Anthony Scaramucci, who previously served as Trump's communications director in his first term, said: "Mr Rutte, he's trying to embarrass you, sir. He's literally sitting on Air Force One laughing at you."

And this may prove to be the weakness at the heart of Trump's Unpredictability Doctrine: their actions may be based on the idea that Trump craves adulation. Or that he seeks short-term wins, favouring them over long and complicated processes.

If that is the case and their assumption is correct, then it limits Trump's ability to perform sleights of hand to fool adversaries - rather, he has well established and clearly documented character traits that they have become aware of.

The adversaries impervious to charm and threats

Then there is the question of whether an Unpredictability Doctrine or the Madman Theory can work on adversaries.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, an ally who was given a dressing down by Trump and Vance in the Oval Office, later agreed to grant the US lucrative rights to exploit Ukrainian mineral resources.

Vladimir Putin, on the other hand, apparently remains impervious to Trump's charms and threats alike. On Thursday, following a telephone call, Trump said he was "disappointed" that Putin was not ready to end the war against Ukraine.

Reuters Zelensky, Trump and Vance looking tense in the Oval Office
Reuters
Zelensky was given a dressing down in the Oval Office but later agreed to grant the US rights to exploit Ukrainian mineral resources

And Iran? Trump promised his base that he would end American involvement in Middle Eastern "forever wars". His decision to strike Iran's nuclear facilities was perhaps the most unpredictable policy choice of his second term so far. The question is whether it will have the desired effect.

The former British Foreign Secretary, William Hague, has argued that it will do precisely the opposite: it will make Iran more, not less likely, to seek to acquire nuclear weapons.

Prof Desch agrees. "I think it's now highly likely that Iran will make the decision to pursue a nuclear weapon," he says. "So I wouldn't be surprised if they lie low and do everything they can to complete the full fuel cycle and conduct a [nuclear] test.

"I think the lesson of Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi is not lost on other dictators facing the US and potential regime change...

"So the Iranians will desperately feel the need for the ultimate deterrent and they'll look at Saddam and Gaddafi as the negative examples and Kim Jong Un of North Korea as the positive example."

Reuters People celebrate what they say is Iran's victory, after Donald Trump announced a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, in Beirut, Lebanon, on 25 June 2025.Reuters
Many have argued that Iran is now more likely to try and acquire nuclear weapons after the US strikes

One of the likely scenarios is the consolidation of the Islamic Republic, according to Mohsen Milani, a professor of politics at the University of South Florida and author of Iran's Rise and Rivalry with the US in the Middle East.

"In 1980, when Saddam Hussein attacked Iran his aim was the collapse of the Islamic Republic," he says. "The exact opposite happened.

"That was the Israeli and American calculation too... That if we get rid of the top guys, Iran is going to surrender quickly or the whole system is going to collapse."

A loss of trust in negotiations?

Looking ahead, unpredictability may not work on foes, but it is unclear whether the recent shifts it has yielded among allies can be sustained.

Whilst possible, this is a process built largely on impulse. And there may be a worry that the US could be seen as an unreliable broker.

"People won't want to do business with the US if they don't trust the US in negotiations, if they're not sure the US will stand by them in defence and security issues," argues Prof Norman. "So the isolation that many in the MAGA world seek is, I think, going to backfire."

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz for one has said Europe now needs to become operationally independent of the US.

"The importance of the chancellor's comment is that it's a recognition that US strategic priorities are changing," says Prof Trubowitz. "They're not going to snap back to the way they were before Trump took office.

"So yes, Europe is going to have to get more operationally independent."

AFP via Getty Images Friedrich Merz speaks with Donald Trump at the Nato summit in The Hague on 25 June 2025.AFP via Getty Images
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz says Europe now needs to become operationally independent of the US

This would require European nations to develop a much bigger European defence industry, to acquire kit and capabilities that currently only the US has, argues Prof Desch. For example, the Europeans have some sophisticated global intelligence capability, he says, but a lot of it is provided by the US.

"Europe, if it had to go it alone, would also require a significant increase in its independent armaments production capability," he continues. "Manpower would also be an issue. Western Europe would have to look to Poland to see the level of manpower they would need."

All of which will take years to build up.

So, have the Europeans really been spooked by Trump's unpredictability, into making the most dramatic change to the security architecture of the western world since the end of the Cold War?

"It has contributed," says Prof Trubowitz. "But more fundamentally, Trump has uncorked something… Politics in the United States has changed. Priorities have changed. To the MAGA coalition, China is a bigger problem than Russia. That's maybe not true for the Europeans."

And according to Prof Milani, Trump is trying to consolidate American power in the global order.

"It's very unlikely that he's going to change the order that was established after World War Two. He wants to consolidate America's position in that order because China is challenging America's position in that order."

But this all means that the defence and security imperatives faced by the US and Europe are diverging.

The European allies may be satisfied that through flattery and real policy shifts, they have kept Trump broadly onside; he did, after all, reaffirm his commitment to Article 5 at the most recent Nato summit. But the unpredictability means this cannot be guaranteed - and they have seemed to accept that they can no longer complacently rely on the US to honour its historic commitment to their defence.

And in that sense, even if the unpredictability doctrine comes from a combination of conscious choice and Trump's very real character traits, it is working, on some at least.

Top image credit: Getty Images

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Why I kick down Peak District stone stacks

6 July 2025 at 07:10
BBC Stuart CoxBBC
Stuart Cox says he wants to raise awareness of the damage stone stacks do to the environment

Stone stacks are a common sight along hiking trails up and down the UK.

But one walker is on a mission to highlight the damage they can do to the environment - by kicking them over.

Stuart Cox says some people have been building the stacks - some as tall as 6ft (1.8m) - using stones taken from an old wall near Mam Tor in the Peak District in Derbyshire.

A recent video he filmed of himself kicking down the stacks has been watched more than a million times on social media.

And the Peak District National Park Authority says the structures are "detrimental" to the area, and have become more prevalent in recent years.

Stuart's video shows him kicking over several stone stacks

"Look at this," Stuart says, before swearing in frustration during his Facebook video on 20 May.

"Destroy the lot of them." He then proceeds to kick down a stone stack.

The 57-year-old, who works as a chartered engineer, lives in the Derbyshire village of Castleton, a short drive from Mam Tor.

He's passionate about the area, and regularly documents his hikes on his Peak District Viking page.

Stuart Cox Stone stacksStuart Cox
The number of stone stacks near Mam Tor have increased in recent years, according to the Peak District National Park Authority

But his post about the dozens of stacks, built next to the busy Great Ridge footpath - about a 15-minute hike from the summit of Mam Tor - has received the most engagement.

"The majority of people have been quite supportive saying: 'Yeah, I hate them. We reduce them back to their natural state if we see them. Totally agree with you'," he said.

"Then I had the opposite reaction which was: 'Don't tell me what to do. I'll build them if I want and I'll carry on regardless'.

"I even had a couple of threats by private message, but I don't worry about those."

A drystone wall along the Great Ridge
The stones used to make the stacks along the Great Ridge have been taken from an old wall

The Peak District is far from the only location where stone stacks have proven problematic. For example, campaigners said towers of stones on a Scottish beach were a worrying trend.

Stuart says the stacks in his video have been built using stones taken from a former boundary wall, which ran alongside the popular Great Ridge walk.

He is concerned this has damaged the habitats of the small creatures - such as frogs, toads and insects - that lived inside the wall.

It is a view shared by the National Trust.

"The majority of the stone stacks featured in this video are not on National Trust land," a spokesperson said.

"However, there have been stacks created on parts of Mam Tor, and staff and volunteers will infrequently disassemble any found."

The trust says stone stacks have also been an issue on land it is responsible for.

It added rangers had carried out extensive work to protect and preserve the hillfort at Mam Tor, which is a "scheduled monument and is of great archaeological importance".

"The Peak Forest Wall is also historically significant, itself dating back to 1579," a spokesperson added.

"Sadly, the stone stacks are not only impacting the history of the site, but they are also affecting the natural habitats of wildlife that live and feed within these ancient walls.

"In the longer-term, it will disrupt the delicate balance of the landscape."

Stuart Cox
Stuart says he's received a mixed response to his video

Stuart says there is evidence of stones being removed from paths, which he says could lead to further erosion at an already popular walking spot.

According to The Countryside Code, visitors should "leave rocks, stone, plants and trees as you find them and take care not to disturb wildlife including birds that nest on the ground".

Anna Badcock, cultural heritage manager at the national park authority, says the stacks damage the "special qualities" of the national park and that the problem has got worse in recent years.

"[Stone stacks] are created by stone removed from historic features," she said.

"They are very detrimental to the historic environment which we have a statutory duty to conserve.

"Like walkers' cairns [a marker along a trail], once one is created, it encourages more."

Skaill beach near Skara Brae in Orkney has dozens of rock stacks
People have been making their mark in the form of stone stacking for centuries

The authority says its rangers generally do not remove the stacks "unless they are dangerous or causing an obstruction on a right of way".

"We're aware that the National Trust rangers have removed some at Mam Tor for this very reason," a spokesperson added.

Stuart said he had tried to make contact with the owner of the land on which the stacks are located, and had offered to help rebuild the wall.

And while his video has attracted some debate on social media, he hopes it might make a small difference to the place he loves.

He added: "I'm very passionate about the area, it's an area people live and work in, and to see it being trashed, you know, it does rile you a bit.

"The more important element [of reaction to his video] was: 'I thought you were a bit of a fool when I first watched the start of the video but by the time I got to the end of it I realised, actually I didn't know that and from now on I will not build the stacks'.

"That's the important bit for me. Even if a handful of people have realised the error of their ways, then that made it all the more worthwhile."

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Sabrina Carpenter tones down headline show - but she's still at her best

6 July 2025 at 08:17
Getty Images Sabrina Carpenter sits on the floor. She is wearing a sparkly black blazer dress. Her blonde hair is styled in loose curls and she is smiling while waving her hands in the air. Getty Images
A file photo of Sabrina Carpenter performing at the Grammy Awards earlier this year

Sabrina Carpenter brought her signature sugary pop sound to a crowd of 65,000 at London's BST Festival on Saturday night.

The 26-year-old has built a brand around sexual confidence and racy lyrics, which were noticeably toned down as the US singer embraced a more family friendly show in London's Hyde Park.

At one point a graphic flashed up on screen advising "parental discretion" as Carpenter launched into album track Bed Chem. She ditched her usual sexually suggestive performance on song Juno and instead used a cannon to fire t-shirts into the crowd.

Despite these changes she was still at her best, storming through a 17-song tracklist that comprised her biggest hits, charming the crowd with her Hollywood smile and incredibly bouncy hair.

Getty Images Sabrina Carpenter speaks into a microphone wearing a pink topGetty Images
Carpenter broke UK chart records in 2024 after becoming the first artist in 71 years to spend 20 weeks at the top of the singles chart

Carpenter writes music for women of the dating app generation and her songs are filled with the type of anecdotes you've heard over Friday night drinks with the girls - from the anger over not getting closure to the fear of a man embarrassing you when they meet all your friends.

Perhaps that is what makes her so relatable. She's a talented singer and dancer who shot to fame on the Disney Channel, but she could also so easily be your mate who brings over ice cream when you're going through a break-up.

Her ability to switch from a sassy upbeat dance number to a vulnerable, acoustic solo performance is also impressive.

She's an accomplished performer for someone whose breakout hit, Espresso, is little over a year old. But much to the surprise of many, she's been in this game for a very long time.

The Pennsylvania-born star began posting videos of herself on YouTube at the age of 10 and came third in a competition to find the next Miley Cyrus a year later.

After starring in a few small acting roles, the singer became a bona fide Disney star in 2013 when she was cast in TV series Girl Meets World.

She began releasing music the following year and has released six albums to date, but has only recently received global recognition.

Carpenter became the first female artist to hold both the number one and number two positions on the UK singles chart for three consecutive weeks in 2024 and she also became the first artist in 71 years to spend 20 weeks at the top of the charts with Espresso.

Picture of stage with Sabrina Carpenter on it
Carpenter performed the first of two sold out shows at London Hyde Park's BST Festival

From watching her live, it appears she's been waiting patiently for this moment for quite some time, to perform on the biggest stages around the world and to thousands of fans - something she references a few times between songs.

She told the crowd she was "so, so grateful" that the audience had chosen to spend their Saturday evening with her, gushing that "London is so fun and there's so much to do here".

Much of the cheekiness she has built her brand on was weaved in throughout her performance, including 1950s style infomercials advertising sprays that erase no-good men from your life and mattresses that are perfect for "activities".

But aside from a racy rendition of Bed Chem and a snippet of Pony by Ginuine (one for the Magic Mike fans) the show was more PG than expected.

Perhaps it was due to the large volume of young children stood in the crowd amongst us Gen Zs and millennials.

Or perhaps the pop princess needs a break from making headlines.

The first was back in March, when her Brit Awards opening performance was criticised for being too racy for pre-watershed television.

Media watchdog Ofcom received more than 800 complaints, with the majority relating to Carpenter's choreography with dancers dressed in Beefeater outfits.

Then in June this year she was once again under fire for sharing artwork for her new album, Man's Best Friend, which showed her on her hands and knees in a short dress whilst an anonymous man in a suit grabbed her hair.

Carpenter then revealed alternative artwork she said was "approved by God" and shows her holding the arm of a suited man.

Criticism for the original artwork came from charities including Glasgow Women's Aid which supports victims of domestic abuse. It said Carpenter's album cover was "regressive" and "promotes an element of violence and control".

Heather Binning of Women's Rights Network, also told the BBC that violence against women should "never be used as satire".

But what Saturday's performance showed is that Carpenter is a true professional, someone who can easily adapt both her style and setlist to cater to different audiences.

She ended the show perfectly, taking to a crane that panned across the huge mass of people, thrilling fans and giving them the opportunity for a close-up video to post on their social media.

"Damn nobody showed up," she joked, adding: "London thank you so much for having us tonight, this has to be one of the biggest shows I've played in my entire life."

She wrapped up with Espresso, marking the end of the show by downing some in martini-form from a crystal glass.

There were a few mutters from the crowd, who perhaps were expecting a special guest or two, but it was clear from the offset that this would be a defining moment in the popstar's career and one where she only wants the spotlight on her.

Last Week on My Mac: PageRank and plagiarism

By: hoakley
6 July 2025 at 15:00

Yesterday’s brief history of Internet search carries a lot in between its lines, some of it increasingly sinister. From the assumption that search results should be ranked by popularity rather than quality of content, to Google’s latest AI overviews, so much runs counter to all we had come to learn in previous millennia.

Many of our greatest insights and ideas have been far from popular at the time, and some have been so reviled that their authors have been ostracised as a result. Indeed, the origin of the term ostracisation refers to a practice that the ancient Greeks recognised led to popular but flawed outcomes, when the great were rejected by ill-informed opinion of the mob.

By a quirk of fate, the screenshot of Google Scholar in use showed search results from 2011 for the terms autism vaccine, a topic that has recently returned to the headlines. Claims made by some of today’s politicians have been propagated using the same principles as PageRank until millions of people have been fooled into believing what were demonstrably fraudulent results. The mob are about to throw away decades of public health improvements for the sake of palpable lies.

We now have new tools to amplify such nonsense, in ‘AI’ built on large language models, and they’re starting to supplant search. In doing so, they’re going to destroy the raw material they feed on to generate their summaries.

Before about 2000, the great majority of information was printed on paper. There must have been a dozen or more specialist Mac magazines, and a steady stream of popular books about Mac OS and how to get the best from it. Even Apple was a prolific originator of thoroughly well written reference guides in its Inside Macintosh series, published by Addison Wesley. In the following couple of decades, most of those vanished, replaced by websites financed by advertising income, hence the industry dominated worldwide by Google.

Blogs originated in the mid-1990s and by about 2010 had reached a peak in their numbers and influence. Since then many have ceased posting new articles, or simply vanished. The generation that took to the web around 25 years ago are now trying to retire, sick of spam comments and the vitriolic spite of those that abuse them. Unsurprisingly the next generation are less enthusiastic about taking to their blogs, leaving some to make money from ephemeral video performances.

If there’s one thing that Google could have done to further the decline of the remaining online publications and blogs it’s to plunder their contents, massage their words with the aid of an LLM, and present those as overviews. When you’ve researched an article over several days and spent many hours writing and illustrating it, it’s more than galling to see an AI present its paraphrase as its own work.

These AI overviews range from the accurate, through repetitious waffle, to those riddled with errors and contradictions. Had they been written by a human, I’d describe them as a shameless and inaccurate plagiarist who has little or no understanding of what they’re plagiarising.

You can see examples of this by making quick comparisons between Google’s AI overview and the articles that it links to. For instance:

  • Ask Google “what is the boot volume structure in ios?” and compare that overview with this article. For added entertainment, try the same with iPadOS, and spot the differences.
  • Ask “what does runningboard do in macos?” and notice how sources given date from 2019 and 2021, when RunningBoard had only just been discovered. Refer to a more recent account such as that here, to see how out of date that overview is, and how much it has changed in Sequoia.

There’s also an element of unpredictability in those overviews. Repeat one after a couple of minutes, and the results can be quite different.

Although Cloudflare has developed a method that enables commercial publishers to control Google’s ability to scrape their content and plagiarise it, for the great majority of us, there seems little we can do but watch page views continue to fall to levels below those before the Covid pandemic. If you’ve got something better to do with your time than write for your blog, this is when you get seriously tempted.

But Google is digging a deep hole for its future. As the supply of new content to feed its LLM falls, most new articles will be generated by AI. All it will have to plagiarise then will itself be plagiarism, and it will amplify its own errors. By not referring searches to content, Google will also have killed the geese that lay its golden eggs, and lost much of its advertising revenues.

We’ll then be back full circle to curated web directories of the remaining reliable sites.

网上卖的 DIY 净水器靠谱吗?

By: Reach
6 July 2025 at 11:06
Reach:

家里喝的主要还是纯净水,最近想干脆整个净水器,省的一直要订水。

于是了解了下,发现大多换滤芯都很贵,有些都快赶上半个净水器价格了。

后来搜到 DIY 净水器的介绍视频,有些博主直接卖 DIY 净水器,价格方面挺有诱惑力。

想知道这种 DIY 的,在卫生、品控和售后等方面靠谱吗,和大厂差距多大?

有没有朋友尝试过,可以现身说法下~

人生就是一场体验,我们要尽兴。

By: Qiane
6 July 2025 at 10:17
Qiane:

人靠近你,是因为你有价值。远离你,是因为你不再重要。人性最深处的底色就是自私和孤独。明白了这一点,你就不会再执着地向外去索求,不再会依赖任何人,也不再高估自己在别人心中的位置。人生不过是一场体验,上学、工作、婚姻,甚至是疾病与死亡,都只是旅途中的风景。接受一切的发生,允许遗憾,允许挫败,允许世事无常,甚至允许自己不被喜欢,才有可能找到自己真正内心的自由。皮囊或许不够完美,但并不妨碍灵魂的高贵。要在自己的世界里面去独善其身,在别人的世界里顺其自然,特别是别和亲人去较劲儿,无论是父母、伴侣还是子女。他们都是你最亲近的人,别去因为小事发脾气,伤害了彼此的感情。对亲人的挑剔是人的本能,但是克服这种本能才是一种修养。学会和自己和解,接受自己的不完美,过去的就让它过去。挡风玻璃为什么会比后视镜要大很多?那是因为前面的路要比过去的路更重要。我们这一生啊,最应该学会的不是挣钱,也不是打扮自己,而是无论遇到多大的风雨,都能够让自己快乐起来的能力。出生没有办法选择你唯一能让自己过好这一生的,就是具备调节自己情绪的能力。这个世界看似缤纷复杂,本质上却是你一个人的世界。风来听风,雨来听雨,人生就是一场体验,我们要尽兴。

为啥 Macbook pro m4pro 用 infuse 8 播放杜比视界格式视频颜色变暗?

By: xuyu1
6 July 2025 at 10:16
xuyu1:

MBP 电脑下载了多个视频格式的文件,发现 DV 格式的视频用 infuse 播放,相较于其他视频格式的文件,肉眼可见颜色明显变暗。请问大家遇到过这个问题吗?如果遇到,是如何解决的呢?

视频格式 1: 2160p.UHD.Blu-ray.HEVC.DTS-HD.MA.5.1 (色彩、亮度正常) 视频格式 2: BluRay 2160p DTS-HDMA5.1 DoVi HDR10 x265 10bit (色彩、亮度偏暗)

以下是视频格式 1 的截图:

以下是视频格式 2 的截图:

可以看见,视频格式 1 的图片亮度明显更高些。

Search for missing continues as Texas floods kill 51, including 15 children

6 July 2025 at 12:59
BBC reports from the scene of floods in Kerr County

A frantic search for survivors is under way in central Texas after flash floods killed at least 32 people, including 14 children.

Many were asleep when the Guadalupe River rose more than 26 ft (8m) in less than an hour in the early hours of Friday.

Officials in Kerr County have said 27 children are missing from a Christian youth camp located along the river. Some 850 people were rescued.

Weather forecasts suggest that more rain and, potentially, more flooding could be on the horizon for the area.

Among the areas most severely hit by the floods were mobile homes, summer camps and camping sites where many had gathered for 4 July holiday celebrations.

At a press conference on Saturday afternoon, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said he had signed an expanded disaster declaration to boost search efforts.

He said officials would be relentless in ensuring they locate "every single person who's been a victim of this event", adding that "we will stop when job is completed".

It remains a search and rescue mission, officials said, not a recovery effort.

They said rescuers were going up and down the Guadalupe River to try to find people who may have been swept away by the floods.

Much of the rescue has focused on a large all-girls Christian summer camp called Camp Mystic.

The camp, where 27 remain missing, is on the banks of the Guadalupe River near Hunt, Texas.

Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick told the BBC's Radio 4 PM programme that of the 27 children missing from Camp Mystic "many of these girls are younger girls under the age of 12".

He also said that many more people were likely to remain unaccounted for across the region, because some were visiting for the holiday weekend.

In an email to parents of the roughly 750 campers, Camp Mystic said that if they haven't been contacted directly, their child is considered missing.

Some of the families have already stated publicly that their children were among those who were found dead.

US President Donald Trump has said his administration is working closely with local authorities to respond to the emergency.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the president was "devastated" by the loss of life and promised full federal support.

Noem joined Governor Abbott at Saturday afternoon's press conference and said the federal government would soon be deploying the Coast Guard to help search efforts.

Elsewhere in central Texas, in Travis County, officials say another two people have died and 10 are missing because of the flooding.

Forecasters have warned that central Texas may see more flooding this weekend.

The National Weather Service (NWS) said the area could see 2 to 5in (5cm to 12cm) of rain on Saturday.

Up to 10in of rain was possible in some areas that are still reeling from Friday's deluge.

Texas flood victims: Girl 'living her best life' and 'heart and soul' of camp

6 July 2025 at 07:18
Camp Mystic Renee Smajstrla at Camp Mystic on ThursdayCamp Mystic
This picture of Renee Smajstrla was clicked at Camp Mystic on Thursday, her uncle wrote on Facebook

An eight-year-old girl and the director of an all-girls' summer camp are among the victims of flash floods in Texas that have claimed at least 43 lives, including 15 children.

Officials say most of the victims have been identified, though the identities of six adults and a child remain unknown. Authorities have not yet released any names publicly.

Here's what we know so far about the victims.

Renee Smajstrla

Eight-year-old Renee Smajstrla was at Camp Mystic when flooding swept through the summer camp for girls, her uncle said in a Facebook post.

"Renee has been found and while not the outcome we prayed for, the social media outreach likely assisted the first responders in helping to identify her so quickly," wrote Shawn Salta, of Maryland.

"We are thankful she was with her friends and having the time of her life, as evidenced by this picture from yesterday," he wrote. "She will forever be living her best life at Camp Mystic."

Camp Mystic, where 27 children are missing, is a nearly century-old Christian summer camp for girls on the banks of the Guadalupe River near Hunt, Texas.

Operated by generations of the same family since the 1930s, the camp's website bills itself as a place for girls to grow "spiritually" in a "wholesome" Christian atmosphere "to develop outstanding personal qualities and self-esteem".

Jane Ragsdale

Heart O' the Hills Jane RagsdaleHeart O' the Hills
Jane Ragsdale was described as the "heart and soul" of Heart O' the Hills camp

Heart O' the Hills is another all-girls' camp that sits along the Guadalupe River, and it was right in the path of Friday's flood.

Jane Ragsdale, described as the "heart and soul" of Heart O'Hills, "did not make it", a post shared on the camp's official website said on Saturday.

Ragsdale, who started off as a camper then a counsellor, became the director and co-owner of the camp in 1976.

"We are mourning the loss of a woman who influenced countless lives and was the definition of strong and powerful," the camp website post said.

Heart O' the Hills wasn't in session and "most of those who were on camp at the time have been accounted for and are on high ground", the statement said.

"Access to the site is difficult, and authorities are primarily focused on locating the missing and preventing further loss of life and property".

Sarah Marsh

Camp Mystic Sarah MarshCamp Mystic

Sarah Marsh, a student at Cherokee Bend Elementary School in Texas, would have entered third grade in August.

She, too, was attending Camp Mystic when the floods struck, and reported as missing along with about two dozen other campers.

Her grandmother, Debbie Ford Marsh, took to Facebook on Friday asking for prayers. Just hours later she shared online that her granddaughter was among the girls killed.

"We will always feel blessed to have had this beautiful spunky ray of light in our lives. She will live on in our hearts forever!" Ms Ford Marsh wrote on Facebook.

In a post on Facebook, Alabama Senator Katie Britt said she's "heartbroken over the loss of Sarah Marsh, and we are keeping her family in our thoughts and prayers during this unimaginable time".

Lila Bonner

Nine-year-old Lila Bonner, a Dallas native was found dead after flooding near Camp Mystic, according to NBC News.

"In the midst of our unimaginable grief, we ask for privacy and are unable to confirm any details at this time," her family said in a statement to the news outlet.

"We ache with all who loved her and are praying endlessly."

A boy saved by barbed wire, a 'destroyed' camp and missed warning signs in Texas floods

6 July 2025 at 07:17
BBC reports from the scene of floods in Kerr County

The warning signs were already flashing as hundreds of young people celebrated the Fourth of July public holiday at Camp Mystic, an all-girls' Christian summer retreat, nestled on the banks of the Guadalupe River in Texas.

There had not been a drop of rain in the area recently until the inundation, when the river rose 26ft (8m) in less than an hour, according to state officials.

By Saturday afternoon, at least 43 people were dead, including 15 children.

The first hint of the devastation to come appeared on Thursday morning as rain and thunderstorms soaked a number of central Texas counties.

The National Weather Service (NWS) issued a common warning called a flood watch at 13:18 that afternoon for parts of the region, including Kerr County.

In the early hours of Friday, the outlook became more dire as the NWS issued a series of upgraded warnings. The San Saba river, the Concho River and the Colorado River were rising.

Watch: Deadly Texas flooding causes destruction

At 04.03, the NWS sent a "particularly dangerous situation" alert, reserved for the most urgent and potentially deadly scenarios such as wildfires.

Another "particularly dangerous situation" warning was issued for the city of Kerrville at 05.34, before dawn on Friday.

"Residents and campers should SEEK HIGHER GROUND NOW! Life threatening flash flooding along the river is expected," forecasters said.

"Automated rain gauges indicate a large and deadly flood wave is moving down the Guadalupe River. Flash flooding is already occurring."

Getty Images Muddy bunk bedsGetty Images

Such alerts are shared on NWS social media accounts and by broadcast news outlets, but most people were asleep.

Elinor Lester, 13, said younger campers at Camp Mystic were bunked in cabins closer to the riverbank and those were the first to flood.

"The camp was completely destroyed," Elinor, who was evacuated by helicopter, told the Associated Press news agency. "It was really scary."

Just outside Kerrville, the BBC met Jonathan and Brittany Rojas as they came to see what was left of a relative's home. Only the foundations remain.

Getty Images Man overlooks flooding riverGetty Images

Five people were in the house the night of the deluge - the mother and her baby are still missing.

The teenage son, Leo, survived after he became snared in barbed wire, preventing him from being swept away. The boy is recovering in hospital.

As the BBC was interviewing the Rojas couple, a neighbour walked up to present them with an item salvaged from the house.

It was the teenager's money jar. The label on it read, "Leo's survival kit".

Getty Images People look at muddied bridgeGetty Images

Desperate Camp Mystic parents took to social media looking for news of their children.

One Facebook group - Kerrville Breaking News - turned into a missing persons page.

Some parents have since updated their social media pleas to say their missing family members did not survive.

Reuters Drone view of flooded streetsReuters

Kerr County is in the heart of the Texas Hill Country, a getaway destination because of its scenic rolling hills, countless rivers and lakes and abundance of wineries.

But the region is also known as "Flash Flood Alley", because of the recurring threat that has devastated local communities over the years.

When asked why the riverside summer camp was not evacuated, officials said the sudden scale of the deluge caught them unawares.

"No-one knew this kind of flood was coming," Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly said.

Reuters Woman looks at flooded roadReuters

现金买黄金,10万元以上要上报,意味着限购吗?|说政经事

在黄金珠宝消费中,现金支付占比不足5%。

文件中一个重要前提,即“现金交易”。也就是说,如果使用银行卡交易,则不受此要求影响。

南方周末记者 梁婷

责任编辑:张玥

“这个政策不会对普通人正常购买黄金产生多大影响。”视觉中国/图

“这个政策不会对普通人正常购买黄金产生多大影响。”视觉中国/图

黄金在过去两年涨势猛烈。2024年全年上涨27%,今年最高涨幅已经突破了30%。围绕黄金的任何变动都会引起巨大的舆论反应。

近日,央行发布《贵金属和宝石从业机构反洗钱和反恐怖融资管理办法》(下称“办法”),要求自8月1日起,客户单笔或日累计金额人民币10万元以上的现金交易,从业机构需在5个工作日内向中国反洗钱监测分析中心提交大额交易报告。

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很多人对此感到疑惑,该办法是否预示着要限购黄金?

这里需要指出文件中一个重要前提,即“现金交易”。也就是说,如果使用银行卡交易,则不受此要求影

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【CDT关注】民间档案馆|《被眼泪浸湿的土地》:一部维吾尔族“右派”的苦难史

6 July 2025 at 12:37
CDT 档案卡
标题:《被眼泪浸湿的土地》:一部维吾尔族“右派”的苦难史
作者:Oguzkhan
发表日期:2025.6.26
来源:中国民间档案馆
主题归类:新疆
CDS收藏:公民馆
版权说明:该作品版权归原作者所有。中国数字时代仅对原作进行存档,以对抗中国的网络审查。详细版权说明

CDT编辑注:中国民间档案馆(China Unofficial Archives)是前驻华记者、普利策新闻奖得主张彦(Ian Johnson)创办的公益组织,致力于收集、保存和传播被审查、被压制的中国民间历史,2023年12月在美国成立。网站为中英双语,馆藏资料免费向公众开放。

《被眼泪浸湿的土地》一书,是海外维吾尔社会最早用维吾尔语出版的回忆录之一。该书详细描述了维吾尔知识分子在1957年“反右运动”中的悲惨经历,填补了这一领域历史资料的空白。作者苏云古丽·恰尼谢夫以自己的亲身经历为主线,记录了1957年至1982年间,在新疆的维吾尔青年知识分子的动荡经历和悲剧命运。

苏云古丽·恰尼谢夫1940年出生于乌鲁木齐一个知识分子家庭。1957年9月,年仅17岁的她被录取进新疆医学院。此时,毛泽东在全中国范围内发起的“双百”运动(指“百花齐放,百家争鸣”,号召对党提意见)刚刚结束,整风运动开始,新疆维吾尔自治区官方正在紧锣密鼓地准备开展“反对地方民族主义”运动。

苏云古丽就这样在政治风暴中开始了大学生活,这为她后来的命运翻开了意想不到的黑暗篇章。当时的她,与其他维吾尔族同学一起被迫参加“鸣放”和整风会议,公开表达对共产党的看法。这群朝气蓬勃、对未来充满希望但政治阅历尚浅的纯真学生,当时因为对眼前一些残酷的政治现实深感失望,同时相信了党会采纳意见,而大胆提出了自己的观点和要求。

她和其他一些同学,认为应该效仿当时苏联的模式,建立加盟共和国式的高度自治制度,以保障维吾尔、藏族、蒙古等少数民族的高度自治权,并对中共的民族区域自治制度深感不满。他们主张在新疆建立东突厥斯坦加盟共和国,而非作为省级行政区的新疆维吾尔自治区。他们在“鸣放”会议上提出的这些观点和要求,后来成为他们无法摆脱的严重政治罪行。

在随后的“大跃进”和“反对地方民族主义”运动期间,包括苏云古丽在内的这些新疆当地学生遭受了严厉的批判和迫害,承受着巨大的政治压力和精神折磨。“反右运动”不久,大饥荒随之降临。经历了如此严酷的考验,他们认识到了中国共产党少数民族自治政策的欺骗性和虚假本质。

最终,他们决定成立地下组织,开展秘密政治斗争活动,计划在时机成熟时发动当地民众,形成大规模的民族解放阵线,以摆脱殖民统治,实现东突厥斯坦独立。1962年2月5日,他们在新疆医学院的学生宿舍秘密集会,成立了“东突厥斯坦劳动人民党”,由苏云古丽·恰尼谢夫担任秘书。然而,仅仅几个月后,由于中共公安机关安插在学生中的密探告密,该组织被揭发。同年4月29日,包括苏云古丽在内的数十名维吾尔族学生被逮捕。

img

作者苏云古丽·恰尼谢夫于1957年。

从此,苏云古丽和她的同学们开始了长期的监狱和强制劳动生活。在乌鲁木齐监狱度过了长达4年的酷刑折磨和黑暗的牢狱生活后,苏云古丽和她的同学萨吉德被送往乌鲁木齐周边的劳改营接受强制劳动。在此期间,她们遭受了难以想象的迫害,每天十几个小时的繁重劳动,忍受着饥饿和精神的双重折磨。

文化大革命开始后,他们的处境更加艰难。苏云古丽被戴上政治犯的帽子,安置在乌鲁木齐周边的一个人民公社,在群众监督下接受劳动改造。她在这里经历了比监狱更为艰难的日子,在精神和肉体上遭受严重摧残。长期的监禁、强制劳动和折磨,摧毁了苏云古丽和她狱中同学这一代维吾尔青年的青春、理想和追求。

1976年毛泽东去世,文化大革命结束,1978年开始为大批的“右派”平反,同时中共的民族政策也开始“软化”,但是像苏云古丽这样被贴上政治犯标签的维吾尔族学生,案件始终未得到平反。1980年代初,在中国改革开放的政治氛围下,苏云古丽也未能获得任何形式的“平反”。她最终带着全家离开故土,移民澳大利亚。就这样,在结束了在东突厥斯坦(新疆)18年的监狱和囚禁生活后,苏云古丽开始了她在自由世界的新生活。

img

《被眼泪浸湿的土地》一书维吾尔语版封面。

这部回忆录是苏云古丽·恰尼谢夫在流亡期间,根据她的日记、狱中笔记,以及回忆整理记录而成。全书近700页,文笔朴实,风格清新优美,故事情节紧凑,引人入胜。全书不仅仅是作者个人经历的简单叙述,更是记录了从1950年代末到1980年代初,一代维吾尔族大学生动荡的生活,以及知识分子,尤其是维吾尔族知识分子在中共政权下的悲惨命运。除了这部回忆录之外,苏云古丽还出版了一本记述自己家族历史的专著——《玛纳斯河畔的囚徒》。

在《被眼泪浸湿的土地》一书前言中,作者这样写道:“我对这18年因组织独立团体被捕,而后在监狱和监视下生活的经历做了简短记录,一直秘密保存。这本书就是根据这些回忆写成的。书中所记载的事件都是我亲身经历、亲眼所见和亲耳所闻的真实事件。”

伊斯坦布尔大学的维吾尔族教授苏丹·马赫穆德·喀什噶里,在为本书所写的推荐序中指出:

“《被眼泪浸湿的土地》中记载的事件并非虚构故事或想象情节,而是苏云古丽亲身经历和亲眼目睹的真实事件。本书通过确凿事实深刻揭露了中共在东突厥斯坦实施的惨无人道的政策,尤其生动地展现了文化大革命和国家恐怖主义的残酷。”

该书于2006年首次由伊斯坦布尔的塔克拉玛干维吾尔出版社出版,并在海外维吾尔读者中产生重大影响,成为畅销书。2015年以更大印数再版。2018年英译缩写本在英国出版。民间档案馆提供该书维语版的PDF,英文缩写版《The Land Drenched in Tears》可于此处购买。

Ozzy Osbourne Plays His ‘Final Song’ With Black Sabbath

6 July 2025 at 12:13
The metal luminary, 76, took the stage with his original bandmates at a farewell festival in his Birmingham, England, hometown on Saturday night.

© Andy Buchanan/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Fans filled Villa Park, a stadium in Birmingham, England, on Saturday to honor Ozzy Osbourne.
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