chris murkin posted a photo:
G-AWII RAF Supermarine Spitfire LF Mk-VC AR501 DU-E No 310 Czechoslovak Squadron
This spitfire was built at Yeovil in Somerset and delivered to 310 RAF Squadron based at Exeter in 1942
Photo taken at Old Warden Shuttleworth Wings & Wheels Air Show 30th May 2026
HAJ_0283
Chinese spies are posing as job recruiters to trick staff in western governments into disclosing sensitive information, the Five Eyes alliance of security agencies has warned.
China’s military intelligence services advertise false jobs such as foreign policy or defence analysts on platforms including LinkedIn, the spy agencies of Britain, the United States, Australia, Canada and New Zealand said jointly late Wednesday.
The agents pretend to be HR consultants or employees of “legitimate-looking” private consultancies or think-tanks that claim to be located outside of China.
They pressurise candidates into revealing “non-public” information during the interview process, including by writing a report, the intelligence agencies said.
People with security clearance, military personnel, journalists and academics are among those targeted, the Five Eyes added.
Military staff may be asked about their roles and unit activities, home base or naval vessel.
Recruits receive anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand dollars per report, and may be offered more money in return for increasingly sensitive information, the agencies said.
They warned that “while applicants often have no direct access to classified information, even unclassified information” can be helpful to the Chinese government.
“Certain types of data can place the lives of frontline military or other personnel at risk, can weaken our economic prosperity, and enable interference in our democratic processes,” the agencies wrote.
They said they had identified people who had been duped by the scam, “leading to criminal prosecutions, job losses, and security-clearance revocation”.
Western spy agencies have repeatedly warned of the threat of espionage from China, as well as from Russia and Iran, in recent years.
Last month, two Chinese-British dual nationals were convicted by a jury in London of spying on Hong Kong dissidents on Beijing’s behalf. They are awaiting sentencing.
This blog is now closed. Read our main report here: Police use water cannon against rioters in Northern Ireland
Hadi Alodid refused legal representation and made no reply to charges which were put put to him through an Arabic interpreter as he appeared in court charged with attempted murder following the Belfast knife attack, the Press Association reports.
The 30-year-old, with an address at Duncairn Avenue in Belfast, appeared before the city’s magistrates’ court on Wednesday morning.
He is charged with the attempted murder of Stephen Ogilvie on Monday, with threatening to kill an NHS radiographer on the same day and with the possession of a knife.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Henry Nicholls/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Henry Nicholls/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Henry Nicholls/AFP/Getty Images
China’s Wu Yize is said to have shared a single bed with his father in a windowless flat as he sacrificed his home life to follow his snooker dreams.
Now, just a few years later, Wu is world champion after defeating Shaun Murphy 18-17 in the final at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre on Monday.
Wu, who is 22 but looks younger, follows in the footsteps of Zhao Xintong, who last year became the first Chinese player to win snooker’s most cherished prize.
“(Zhao’s success) definitely made me believe in myself more because he made history,” Wu has said.
Those in the know have long tipped Wu for the top.
In February, seven-time world champion Ronnie O’Sullivan said the Chinese ace would be world number one within three years.
O’Sullivan called him a “phenomenal player”.
In China Wu has earned the nicknames “Little Wu” and “Priest Wu”, the latter mainly because of a previous hairstyle which people said made him look like a priest.
Others still use it because it also reflects his composure and calm demeanour around the table.
Wu was born on October 14, 2003, in the city of Lanzhou, in Gansu province, in China’s rugged northwest.
Wu, whose idol is O’Sullivan, was taken by his father to a snooker hall for the first time when he was seven.
His talent was obvious and four years later his father, who ran an antique business, took him to train in Yushan on the other side of the country.
The International Billiards Academy is a talent factory for Chinese stars of the future and there is also the 4,000-seater Yushan Sports Center and a World Billiards Museum.
Then aged 16 came the move to Sheffield, the northern English city regarded as the home of snooker.
It was not easy, far away from home and having to master a language, culture and food that was totally new to him.
His father was with him, but money was tight.
“His dad gave up his job, I don’t think either of them could speak any English when they came over,” Rob Walker, broadcaster and master of ceremonies for World Snooker, told Chinese state broadcaster CGTN.
“They famously shared a single bed in a one-bedroom flat with no window for three years because they were determined that he would pursue this dream.”
Even now Wu’s mother remains in China and visits only occasionally.
Wu’s talent, diligence and commitment soon began to pay off, but he missed home and Chinese food, especially Lanzhou’s famous beef noodles.
In 2021 he turned professional and reached the last 32 of the UK Championship.
In 2022 he was named Rookie of the Year and in 2024 he reached his first ranking event final.
Last year came his big breakthrough when he beat the likes of Zhao, Judd Trump and John Higgins in the final to win his first ranking title, at the International Championship.
Even as he joins Zhao as world champions from China, Wu has not forgotten his roots.
He has set up a snooker hall under his own name in his hometown of Lanzhou and occasionally gives advice to budding young players.
Speaking previously to reporters in Sheffield, Wu said he would buy a house if he won the world title.
“In the beginning there was not a lot of prize money,” Wu said, according to the BBC.
“So there was definitely a lot of pressure and also there was a lot for myself to improve in terms of my game, so I was definitely feeling the pressure at the time.”
A retired Hong Kong policeman and a former UK Border Force official were convicted by a London jury Thursday of conducting “shadow policing” on British soil on behalf of China.
Ex-police superintendent Bill Yuen, 65, and Peter Wai, 38 — both dual Chinese-British nationals — were found guilty of assisting a foreign intelligence service under Britain’s national security laws following a weeks-long trial.
Wai, who worked for the UK’s Border Force immigration and customs enforcement agency after previously serving in the British police and the Royal Navy, was also convicted of misconduct in a public office.
He had searched the interior ministry’s computer system for people of interest to Hong Kong authorities.
The jury at London’s Old Bailey court, which deliberated for nearly 24 hours, was discharged after failing to reach verdicts on a further foreign interference charge against each defendant.
Prosecutors promptly announced they would not seek a retrial and the duo were remanded into custody ahead of sentencing on a date to be set on May 15.
The court had heard how Wai had gathered intelligence on the orders of Yuen, who was a senior manager at the Hong Kong Economic Trade Office (HKETO), which represents Hong Kong’s government in London.
The pair targeted Hong Kong dissidents and pro-democracy protesters living in Britain, with “special attention” also paid to politicians, including senior Conservative Iain Duncan Smith.
They undertook information gathering, surveillance and acts of deception, with one operation capturing photographs of prominent campaigner Nathan Law.
Their activities coincided with Hong Kong authorities publishing bounties of around £100,000 (US$136,000) for information helping to identify several UK-based activists, including Law, jurors heard.
Another protester told the jury of how Wai had threatened him with arrest for confronting a Hong Kong diplomat in London.
Messages on Yuen’s phone showed surveillance of Law began as early as 2021, the prosecution said as it gave evidence.
See also: ‘Your inner self is red’: UK border officer accused of ‘infiltrating’ Hong Kong pro-democracy group
The defendants’ activities were exposed in May 2024 when police foiled an alleged bid to snatch a former Hong Kong resident from her flat in the northern county of Yorkshire, the court heard.
Wai, of Staines-upon-Thames, southwest of the capital — who was known to associates as Fatboy — and Yuen, of Hackney in east London, had both denied wrongdoing.
The case comes in the wake of tens of thousands of people, including democracy activists wanted by Chinese authorities, moving to Britain since Hong Kong enacted a draconian National Security Law in mid-2020.
JillyBeanSSF posted a photo:
Sindy: "Image Maker" Vintage UK Children's Magazine Paper Doll (Marvel Comics LTD.) 1986
*Appeared In: Sindy, "Every Girl's Best Friend!" UK Magazine Issue No. 13 - July 12 (Marvel Comics LTD.) 1986
JillyBean's "FLAT CHICKS" The World of Paper Dolls
SReed99342 posted a photo:
The girl is reading "Mistress of Mellyn" by Victoria Holt.
Vintage slide purchased from camera shop
JillyBeanSSF posted a photo:
Sindy: "Every Girl's Best Friend!" UK Comic Strip Serial - Episode 30 (Marvel Comics LTD. 1986) 1of3
*Appeared In: Sindy, "Every Girl's Best Friend!" UK Magazine Issue No. 30 - November 8 (Marvel Comics LTD.) 1986
Login