GroveHillWanderer

There are plenty of reports. Here's just one from today. Three cargo ships hit as Iran battles the US in Strait of Hormuz amid fresh Middle East airstrikes “There have been three vessels hit in the last 24 hours, a bulk carrier, a container vessel and a cargo vessel in the Strait of Hormuz,” Peter Aylott, director of policy at UK Chamber of Shipping told Times Radio. https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/cargo-ship-hit-hormuz-strait-trump-war-oil-iran-israel-b1274336.html

I'm not sure that they'll feel under any compulsion to give a justification but in any event, this is just them doing what they promised to do, about two weeks ago. Iran claims Hormuz Strait is closed, threatens to set shipping there ‘ablaze’ An Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps senior official said on Monday that the Strait of Hormuz is closed, threatening that if any vessels pass through it, Iran “will set those ships ablaze” https://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-claims-hormuz-strait-is-closed-threatens-to-set-shipping-there-ablaze/

A study published in the Lancet indicates that COVID vaccines conferred a protective effect against preeclampsia in pregnant women. The study, using "data from pregnant women prospectively enrolled from 18 countries in two consecutive cohorts between 2020 and 2022 during the COVID-19 pandemic," found that: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(26)00032-5/fulltext

One of the big takeaways so far (IMHO) is the asymmetric cost of Iran using low cost drones against sophisticated, state-of-the-art US systems. So far, they're estimated to have contributed to the loss of nearly $2 billion-worth of US equipment in just the first few days. Iran strike cripples $1.1B US radar The AN/FPS-132 early warning radar at Al Udeid Air Base, worth about $1.1 billion, was hit during Iran’s opening retaliation, with Qatari officials confirming significant damage. The radar’s destruction is part of an estimated $1.902 billion in US military losses in just four days of conflict. Other hits include a $500 million AN/TPY-2 radar in the UAE, three F-15E Strike Eagles lost in a Kuwaiti friendly fire incident, and damage to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet HQ in Bahrain. https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/insight/iran-strike-cripples-1-1b-us-radar/gm-GM50FF690B

Death rate is most definitely not how you measure who won a war. In the second world war, Germany lost around 8 - 9 million people. The Russians alone lost 24 - 27 million, and that's before you even start counting the losses of the other allies. So by your metric, the Germans won the second world war.

Do you even understand the plain meaning of English words? 'Not close' does not mean they were pursuing one. It simply means they were not close. Various US intelligence assessments have concluded that the Iranians were not developing nuclear weapons. Here are the actual words of Tulsi Gabbard, Director of US National Intelligence. DNI Gabbard Opening Statement as Delivered to the HPSCI on the 2025 Annual Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community The IC continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme leader Khomeini has not authorized the nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003. https://www.dni.gov/index.php/newsroom/congressional-testimonies/congressional-testimonies-2025/4061-ata-hpsci-opening-statement-as-delivered The other part of your post is a total straw man argument - arguing that the other person has said something that they never actually said.

I'm not sure that a reduction (or even a cessation) of US arms supplies to Ukraine would have as big an effect as some seem to think. For over a year now, Europe has been supplying the overwhelming majority of the military aid to Ukraine and virtually all of the financial/humanitarian aid. https://www.kielinstitut.de/fileadmin/Dateiverwaltung/IfW-Publications/fis-import/dd24a73f-4270-46c5-9c40-bcc9df4f1672-KPB2023_EN.pdf

Even arch conservative senator Ted Cruz has admitted that Iran was not close to having nuclear weapons. Ted Cruz: ‘No indication’ that Iran was ‘close to getting nuclear weapons’ Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Sunday said there was “no indication” that Tehran was “close to getting nuclear weapons” after the United States struck several Iranian nuclear facilities https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5762576-ted-cruz-iran-nuclear-strike/

There's a saying for this: "Up like a rocket, down like a feather."

Meanwhile, in Ukraine, the AFU continues to take back ground that Russia spent a lot of time, money and lives to take.

There's nothing in the OP to suggest that he lived in the Burj al Khalifah or that he rented a place for a crazy amount per month. Where are you seeing this information? Do you have a separate source of info?

All the available evidence showed that they were adhering to the treaty. Even the US's own intelligence services under Trump's administration said that they were not building a nuclear weapon. America's spies say Iran wasn't building a nuclear weapon. Trump dismisses that assessment In her March testimony to lawmakers, Gabbard said the intelligence community "continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003." https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/americas-spies-say-iran-wasnt-building-a-nuclear-weapon-trump-dismisses-that-assessment

Pepper spray is illegal in Thailand. Legal Status: Under the Hazardous Substance Act B.E. 2535 (1992), possession of pepper spray is restricted, and violations can carry penalties. Extract as follows: https://dspace.spu.ac.th/server/api/core/bitstreams/0244c639-1b65-40c7-a867-94d4ae706b22/content

I am probably the furthest thing you could find from a Trump supporter and there is plenty of despicable behaviour involving women and young girls that Trump is known to have been involved in (some of which he's even bragged about) but I have to say, this particular allegation does not, on the face of it, appear credible. As stated in the OP, there is no evidence that Epstein ever visited Hilton Head Island at the time specified and according to the publicly available information, Trump and Epstein didn't even know each other when this is claimed to have happened.

Even if protecting US citizens were the first duty of the American government (and as others have pointed, it isn't) then having government agents gunning them down on the streets would seem a strange way to go about that.

I've been doing extensions for 10 years now in Hua Hin, first retirement, then marriage-based and while I can only speak from personal experience, I've never been subject to (or even felt a hint of) any pressure to go through an agent. My experiences with the IO's here have been consistently and unfailingly pleasant.

Just completed my annual pilgrimage to Hua Hin Immigration for a yearly extension of stay based on marriage to a Thai national. The list of requirements document from HHI is shown below. Couple of notes. Not listed on the forms to fill, is the STM10 form, "Affidavit of Family Relationship to a Thai National," but it is required. I had picked up a package of all the forms to fill the previous day, and it was included. Make sure your bank book is updated the same day - the note about 'dated not older than 5 days...' applies to the letter only, not the bank book. When it says for the photos, to dress properly/formally, that means for instance, that your wife can't be wearing a sleeveless dress. I provided photos with my wife wearing the same dress (a very smart, floor-length black evening dress) that was perfectly acceptable last year, but this time they wouldn't accept the photos because the dress didn't completely cover her shoulders. For the photo in front of the house, the whole house must be visible in the background. (Up until last year, one of us just standing outside the front door was acceptable, but not now).

If not using the actual name of the store (the nearest one to us, when growing up was Adamson's) we usually called them corner shops. Not necessarily accurate because they weren't always on corners - but most were. They could also sometimes be referred to as grocer's shops.

Not sure where you come from but I grew up in the North East of England and I've never heard them called that. Maybe it has more to do with the social circles you move in, than where you come from?

Trying to hit a non-lethal area like legs or arms is extremely tricky (and even more so if the person is moving). Law enforcement are trained to aim for centre mass (torso area).

A Trump supporter obsessed with the Epstein files, according to reports. Mar-A-Lago Armed Gunman fixated on Epstein files The armed man shot and killed by Secret Service agents outside President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago property Sunday had grown increasingly obsessed with the Epstein files and was also a vocal supporter of Trump … TMZ has learned. [...] Sources who worked with Austin at Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club in North Carolina tell TMZ ... he became fixated on Epstein following the latest release of information tied to the files. Co-workers tell us he was deeply disturbed by what he believed was a government cover-up and often talked about powerful people "getting away with it." https://www.tmz.com/2026/02/22/mar-a-lago-armed-man-shot-dead-texts-show-epstein-files-fixation/

That's hardly relevant to point at issue, which was whether the events that precipitated Charles' action against Andrew were things that were continuing in the preceding days. You claimed nothing was continuing, it was all 10+ years ago, but that's not accurate, it was the things that were ongoing at the time (last October) that pressured Charles to do what he did.

So you agree that the events that pressured Charles into taking action (whether your agree with him or not) were in fact continuing in the days and weeks preceding Andrew's banishment.

The events that forced Charles' hand were taking place last October, as the article points out - mounting public outrage and the ongoing negative coverage in the press were indeed continuing, in the days immediately before Charles took action.

The actions that Charles took against Andrew were not spontaneous, they were in response to the continuing, very public and very vociferous calls for him to do something, which were in turn based on the ongoing and very embarrassing media reporting about Andrew that was going on at the time in the UK. The final straw before him losing his titles for instance, was the publishing of Virginia Giuffre's posthumous memoirs. Various media outlets in the UK were also predicting that Charles was going to be forced to do something by the mounting public outrage and it was a question of when, not if he would bow to that pressure. Here's info from an article published in October last year, for instance. King Charles has finally banished his brother. Is it too little too late? The monarchy had been under intense pressure to resolve the Andrew issue amid renewed public fury over his ties to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which was further inflamed by the release of his sexual abuse accuser Virginia Giuffre’s posthumous memoir. [...] It was not just the public that had expressed outrage and frustration; there had also been increasing calls for Andrew to appear before a parliamentary committee. https://edition.cnn.com/2025/10/31/uk/prince-andrew-scandal-analysis-intl-hnk