It was one of those mornings in the city when traffic was light and only a handful of people were out on the sidewalks.  Suddenly, at an intersection, a car in a hurry barely slowed to turn right and struck a pedestrian, hurling him to the pavement, then sped off, leaving the victim gravely injured and writhing in pain on the street.
 
A passerby instantly leapt to help the victim, pulling out his cellphone to call 911.  A second passerby also leapt into action and knocked the cellphone out of the first passerby’s hands.  “Stop!” he commanded.  “You don’t know if that guy deserves help!”
 
“What the hell?” exclaimed the first passerby.  “Are you crazy?”  He bent down to retrieve his cellphone but the second passerby kicked it halfway across the street.
 
“Stop it!” he shouted again.  “I’m not crazy; I’m a registered Republican doing my patriotic duty in this hellscape of a city!”  At their feet the victim groaned in a paroxysm of agony.  The first passerby looked helplessly about for someone else to come help but the sidewalk was deserted.
 
“You’re a lunatic!” he spat at the second passerby and crouched down to try to comfort the victim.
 
“Hardly that!” retorted the second passerby and shoved the first passerby away from the victim.  “Look at his shoes!  They’re steel toed work boots.  He’s a frikn illegal.  He doesn’t deserve help in this country, not paid for with decent hard working Americans’ tax money.  Don’t you touch him!”
 
The victim was no longer groaning and his breathing was shallow.  The second passerby withdrew his own cell phone and began to dial.

“Is that 911?” the first passerby asked warily.
 
“Hell no,” said the second passerby.  “I’m calling ICE.”
 
Beneath them, the victim’s breathing had ceased altogether.
 

Men with aggressive prostate cancer who were being
treated with a groundbreaking drug have been told the
therapy is no longer available at public hospitals.

Lutetium PSMA was being compounded locally in Australia,
but after legal action, public hospitals say they can no longer
offer the treatment any more.

Public (free) hospitals have stopped offering the therapy
because they faced the legal risk of intellectual property
infringement from the Swiss multinational pharmaceutical
company Novartis AG, which holds key patents for Lutetium
based radioligand therapy, and which it markets as 'Pluvicto'.

Court records show that in January 2025 Novartis and its
subsidiary Endocyte, which manufactures Lutetium PSMA,
filed legal proceedings naming GenesisCare, a private clinic
that had been treating cancer with the locally compounded
version of Lutetium PSMA.

And from Novartis:

Quote:[T]he fact that patients had to pay the full amount up-front under
the MBS (Medicine Benefits Scheme) was a barrier. "This is a significant
limitation to treatment access for many Australian patients, particularly
those treated in a public hospital, highlighting the need for a more
equitable funding pathway," it said.

Furious Canadians clap back at American travelers hopping on hated ‘flag-jacking’ trend: ‘Selfish’ 


"Faux Canada!

American travelers hoping for more favorable treatment overseas are choosing to hide behind the Canadian flag — arousing ire north of the border.
Their behavior is part of a popular trend known as flag-jacking — which sees tourists abroad displaying the flag of another country on their bag or clothing, as a way to disguise where they’re really from."

“The Canadian flag is not some magical device that makes people forget which country invented monster trucks, or deep fried butter, or war for profit,” he joked.

Maffin also tut-tutted at attempts to mimic the country’s distinct dialect — saying you can always tell an imposter when, for example, they pronounce the second “t” in “Toronto.”

“Americans have been stealing goodwill by pretending to be Canadian and giving Canadians bad reputations by still acting like Americans abroad for decades,” a commenter said.

“We’re not livid, its just kind of pathetic,” another explained.
“If anything, we’re probably a bit flattered as it reaffirms our belief that we’re more well liked around the world than Americans,” someone chimed in.







Flag-jacking isn't new, but it has pissed me off every time it raises it's cowardly head. Don't get me wrong as Tod Maffin say's in the below short, it's kind of flattering... for a moment.

We know why Americans do it, they've been doing on and off  since the 70s, but now it's starting toooooo reeeaaalllllyyy piss me off.


https://www.youtube.com/shorts/mJ6L9VFJP4w

So I'm going to get this flag/patch... for when I go abroad.

 https://www.youtube.com/shorts/1S07r0RZC7k



Also I'm just curious if any of you all from other nations have heard of either your countrymen or those coming to your country using flag-jacking?

From the ABC Australia News site 30 September 2025:

When it comes to love, more of us are crossing the religious divide.

The intro item reports:

If Ryan Beurle had been forced to choose his life partner
from a list of her defining characteristics, chances are,
he never would have married his wife, Frem Lim, who
describes herself as “very religious” and attends church
every Sunday and Bible studies every Friday.

“Before I met Frem, if you’d made it like ‘tick a box of
religious or non-religious’, I probably would have put
non-religious,” Ryan says.

The self-described atheist grew up with some exposure
to Catholicism but says that now, "I just don’t even really
think about it that much...  I mean, I just kind of go, "OK,
well, there might be a God, there might not be a God.
I don’t know. I don’t care".

Well I'm sorry to tell you mate that this makes you an agnostic,
and to erroneously call yourself an "atheist" is due mainly to
your ignorance, as you also say "I don't know".

The rest of this (lengthy) article is well worth reading to see
a current assessment of Aussies and their partners' viewpoints
on religious practices when their religion or non-religions are
at odds, sometimes even diametrically opposed.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09-28/m.../105779468

Do they actually believe what they're saying deep down?  Or are
they just saying what their partners would like to hear, or maybe
simply pouring oil on potentially troubled waters?

The Chains of democracy. As I've said in other threads, what sane "dictator" in the West, bathing in material luxury as we are, would not be benevolent? Especially if being university educated were a prerequisite.

Trump in the USA, Farage next in line for the UK. That good old ignorant xenophobia vote bringing shitty leaders into power in the "free world."

Trump’s approval ratings have ticked down slightly over the last
few weeks as polls from Quinnipiac University and Reuters/Ipsos
have shown some small growth in disapproval of his job performance.
The Quinnipiac poll revealed a dispirited mood for many Americans,
finding that a majority of voters were pessimistic about freedom of
speech being protected in the country and the system of democracy
working more broadly.


 —New York Times, 27 September 2025.

It is not uncommon for polls to show a fairly broad range of support
on an issue. Results can vary because of the inherent challenges of
polling—surveys can only be expected to be accurate within a couple
of percentage points—or because polls were conducted using different
methods and at different times. One of the reasons examining an average
of polls can be so useful is it can balance out these differences and make
it easier to analyse change over time.

 —Ruth Igielnik MMP,  Senior Researcher, Pew Research Center.

   Biden's worst disapproval rating was 64% in July 2024, and his best
   approval rating was 57% January-April 2021, according to Gallup.
   Trump's highest approval rating was 52% in January this year.

Relevant or not, still hilariously witty IMO. Closing line: "What did 9/11 teach me? Stop being so damned respectful!"

Volkswagen is to pause production at three of its plants in
Germany—Dresden, Zwickau, and Osnabrück—because of
weak demand for fully electric cars in Europe. Closure days
are also being considered at a fourth plant in Emden, which
makes the ID.4 and ID.7 vehicles.

The decision by a company emblematic of Germany’s position
as the engine of the EU’s economy, will be seen as a dent in
the union’s hopes of switching the continent to electric vehicles
in the next 10 years.

Sales of EVs slowed last month while demand for hybrid battery
models soared, underlining continuing consumer fears over
range and the availability of charging points.

In southern Europe, where there is little EV charging infrastructure,
demand is particularly weak. Overall, just 16% of new car sales
are EVs, according to UAMA data. The figure for hybrids is 37%.

Last week, VW’s chief executive, Oliver Blume, said manufacturers
were experiencing “massive changes” with “a clear drop in demand
for battery-electric cars”.

   My partner and me would not purchase full electrical
   vehicles in favour of small 4-cylinder Asian hybrids.

   Only 9.3% of vehicles sold in Australia are full electric, as of 30 June 2025.

After seeing protests for a few years, I've seen violent protests reaching their goals as compared to very peaceful ones. Maybe I might be wrong here. But I have observed a pattern when peaceful protests happen, Govt. infiltrates people to do some violence from the protesters' side and they discredit the protests, saying these are foreign-funded. I'm here speaking about those countries in Asia, the indian subcontinent. What people could do when govt. ignoring protesters as they are no problems to govt. When some violence happens, they label protesters as radicals. for eg there is a protest going on in Ladakh for a few years, but when some violence happened few days ago, the whole media created an environment against them as if they are radicals and a threat to national integrety
These are a few articles about those protests
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-new...55036.html
https://www.firstpost.com/explainers/lad...36613.html
https://indianexpress.com/article/explai...-10269054/
Note-Media in India giving attention only after this violent outrage on ruling Government office in Ladakh