"veterans who were made to witness the tests, wearing shorts and short-sleeved shirts ... claim to have been victims of a cover-up"

They have a point though. The exposure to the penetrating rays could give them a mildly elevated risk of assorted cancers, and if fallout descended on them subsequently, that would carry a rather larger risk.

But if you are in a warm place you may as well be comfortable, clothes are not going to stop any of that.

#TheObserver

#AndrewTickell is an exquisitely subtle, precise writer on Scottish politics. His elegant, wistful style reminds me of the #TheObserver's late columnist Alan Watkins, but without Watkins's pretentiousness.

So when facing the political carcass of #AnasSarwar, Tickell doesn't put the boot in. Instead, he takes ornate surgical knives, and dissects #Sarwar with cold precision. Delicious, and much more satisfying than a boot.

Tickell's column in #TheNational https://archive.is/9p9xh

#scotpol #ukpol

#TheObserver:
"
US satellite blackout has a troubling history
"
"The government’s order to halt the release of imagery from the Middle East follows decades of restrictions on photographs of Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories"

"“Open source is not the place to determine what did or did not happen,” ..Pete Hegseth ..”

https://observer.co.uk/news/international/article/us-satellite-blackout-has-a-troubling-history

8.4.2026

#EO #Erdbeobachtung #PlanetLabs #Raumfahrt #Satelliten #SatelliteImagery #SpaceFlight #USA

There are no new revelations in this report in #TheObserver. But it is notable for all the buck-passing. #LibDems and civil xervants and #Conservatives are all peen to tell how rapidly they dumped #AndrewMountbattenWindsor, after they took over from Labour.

https://www.removepaywall.com/search?url=https://observer.co.uk/news/national/article/how-much-did-the-royal-family-know-about-andrew#google_vignette

#TheObserver's #AndrewRawnsley rarely brings fresh insight. His talent is some gently amusing mild snark, kept within the limits of decorum in the drawing rooms of The Observer's genteel readers.

#Rawnsley's column today about the still-undead #Starmer raises a few weak smiles. "Erwin Schrödinger gave us his famous cat, which is simultaneously alive and dead. The curious case of Sir Keir Starmer presents us with Schrödinger’s prime minister."

https://archive.is/kmTZK / https://observer.co.uk/news/columnists/article/schrodingers-prime-minister-is-poised-between-survival-and-collapse

I suppose there had to be a slot somewhere for some #Starmer loyalist to defend their boy. Here it is, in #TheObserver: Starmer's biographer #TomBaldwin explains how everything is the fault of everyone except Starmer. 🙄 Especially #GordonBrown.

https://archive.is/ZVvkP / https://observer.co.uk/news/politics/article/the-mandelson-scandal-is-not-starmers-to-answer-for

To be fair, the desperation is quite funny. Not belly laugh funny, but faint smile funny.

#ukpol

#Gerrymandering is an odd game. If you have power to rig constituencies (districts in American), you can collect more seats than you deserve. In the #USA, the Republicans are hard at it.

But gerrymandering calculates based on assumed voter intentions. If those assumptions are wrong, it can backfire.

That's what's happening now in #Texas: see #TheObserver https://archive.is/0071G

And it happened on a huge scale in 1970s Ireland: see the #Tullymander https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_(Amendment)_Act_1974 #iepol #uspol

>>

#TheObserver:
"
Musk has shut Doge – but what has he done with the data?

The department was a historically bad example of how not to reform government – even the Trump cabinet is washing its hands of it
"
https://observer.co.uk/news/business/article/musk-has-shut-doge--but-what-has-he-done-with-the-data

14.12.2025

#Data #democracy #DOGE #FailedState #government #IT #Musk #politics #taxpayer #USA