What a week! - snippets and gleanings

It's over a year since I last did one of these slots so now seems as good (or bad) a week as any to revive it:

Dire straits
In the latest of Donald Trump's crazed foreign policy misadventures, he has now succeeded in closing not one but two of the world's most important maritime passages: the Strait of Hormuz, at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, and the Bab al-Mandab, gateway to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. Before he does any more damage to the world economy can someone please put this deranged lunatic in a strait-jacket.

Kronos ate his children
Jacob Coxon quit his lucrative job at Anthropic this week fearing the strong likelihood that unfettered AI development could destroy humanity. Coxon (27 going on 15, with a distinct Harry Potter vibe) looks like just the sort of Gen Z Silicon Valley/Bay Area geek who would press ahead with such research without any regard to its real-world consequences. Luckily for us he seems neither a narcissist nor nihilist, appearing instead to be a genuinely thoughtful young man who has sacrificed the potential of landing a seven-figure sum on Anthropic's forthcoming flotation in order to blow the whistle on this unregulated existential free-for-all. We clearly owe him a debt of gratitude, if only a moral one.

Follow the money
As the ripples continue to spread following the airing of Channel 4's gobsmacking sting on the apparent willingness of Reform UK to circumvent the rules banning donations from foreign nationals, two competetive cryptocurrency billionaires have just fallen over themselves to offload 36 million quid each into Nigel Farage's swelling campaign coffers. Of course, Brits Christopher Harborne and Ben Delo (both Sheffield-born - proving the adage that where there's muck there's brass) claim their sole objective is to ensure that Reform UK is able to compete in British elections "on a level playing field". As an example of pitch-rolling, this clearly takes some beating.

A stitch in time
The Bayeux Tapestry exhibition opened on Thursday to sell-out crowds at the British Museum. Frankly, I'll wait for it to return home to see it in situ, or else pop over to Reading on the Elizabeth Line to see the excellent Victorian replica displayed at their Museum - exact in every detail except for the willies. Coincidentally, a piece came to my attention about the discovery of a cigar burn on the original version, the suspect for this act of cultural vandalism being a negligent Nazi officer examining the work during the Occupation of France. For some unaccountable reason, this resonated with the victory of the rightwing AfD party in Germany's Saxony-Anholt state election. History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes.

Dying for action
On Friday the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill was debated and voted on in the House of Commons. If passed it would have allowed adults with fewer than six months to live to apply to be given help to end their own life, subject to certain safeguards. However, these were obviously not deemed robust enough by many MPs and the Bill failed by sixteen votes. Spain's Organic Law for the Regulation of Euthanasia was enacted in 2021 and the sky hasn't fallen in. When it comes to yet another bill returning to the Commons one can only say, ¡hasta mañana!

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