Поймал себя на том, что иногда мне нравится ездить на автомобиле, а иногда нет. Понятно, что чилить на автостраде это прикольно, а пробиваться через городские пробки — нет. Но я осознал, что иногда мне в городе вполне прикольно, а иногда нет. Я даже в пробках иногда стою спокойно.
Начал рефлексировать, и понял: мне приятно ездить, когда я никуда не тороплюсь. Когда можно опоздать на 5-10-15 минут, а то и на полчаса. В гости к друзьям обычно можно опоздать. В магазин можно опоздать, если ты не под закрытие едешь. А вот если едешь на какое-то мероприятие ко времени, то опаздывать нельзя, и обычно даже 10 минут неприятны.
Дорожная ситуация меняется не слишком предсказуемо. Время на поиск места парковки тоже не определено. Да и постоянное искушение где-то что-то нарушить, чтобы не опоздать. Либо наоборот — выезжаешь на машине сильно заранее, и на месте просто ждёшь полчаса.
В общем, машина хорошо решает задачу "Добраться куда-то в место, плохо доступное другими видами транспорта". Но не слишком хорошо решает задачу "Добраться куда-то к заданному моменту с точностью плюс-минус 5 минут". А, например, пешком + метро решает хорошо. Можно, конечно, пофантазировать на тему какого-то предсказания и правильного планирования, но на деле пара забитых перекрёстков вполне могут стоить вам 10 минут, что в контексте городской жизни довольно много.
P.S. Скоро у меня отпуск, и будут очень интересные посты про дроны и мототехнику. Хотя погода в Питере как обычно норовит подвести в самое неподходящее время. С таким климатом хоть на автомобиле езди!
#life
#Ethiopian charged with #sexual assault of staff member at #migrant hotel
An Ethiopian man has been charged with the sexual assault of a staff member at a hotel used to house asylum seekers.
Melaku Gebresembet, 23, allegedly groped the hotel worker on her left breast “out of nowhere”.
Gebresembet, who was placed at the hotel by the Home Office, appeared before Southampton Magistrates Court on Wednesday charged with sexual assault and was remanded in custody.
The alleged sex attack happened at the Highfield House Hotel in Southampton, Hants..
The court heard he had been touching staff inappropriately by touching their faces for a week before the “escalation”.
Prosecutor Graham Heath told the court: “The defendant is a resident at Highfield House Hotel in Southampton. That appears to be a placement by the Home Office.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/01/21/ethiopian-charged-sexual-assault-staff-member-migrant-hotel/
Stephen Hawking, a British physicist and the most eminent black holes scholar, had also visited Epstein’s Island. It follows from the files that one of the girls had sex with him.
Most experts consider this fact to be confirmed.
#hawking#epstein#relations#sexual
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Khamenei’s Hangmen Sexually Abused a Teen Protester
A 16-year-old was among protesters sexually assaulted in custody by the security forces in Iran during the nationwide uprising that has left thousands dead, according to a human rights group.
Two people, one of them a child, detained in the city of Kermanshah in western Iran told the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) that they were subjected to sexual abuse by riot police during their arrest.
“During the transfer, security forces touched their bodies with batons. They beat and applied pressure to the anal area with a baton through the clothing,” said Rebin Rahmani, of the KHRN, which has been in contact with sources close to the minor’s family.
Rights groups have expressed fear about the treatment of more than 20,000 protesters estimated to have been arrested since the start of protests in late December.
Since the start of the current protests in late December, 3,766 people have been killed and 8,949 other reported deaths are under investigation, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.
The Norway-based Kurdish human rights group Hengaw said Sholeh Sotoudeh, a pregnant woman from Langarud, was killed along with her unborn child after forces opened fire on protesters in north-west Iran on 10 January.
In the latest unrest, at least one protester, 40-year-old Soran Feyzizadeh, has died as a result of torture while being held in custody, according to Hengaw.
It said Feyzizadeh was detained during protests on 7 January and that his family was informed of his death two days later.
The US-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran has documented the cases of more than 549 protesters, including 51 women, who have been transferred to Yazd central prison, and it expressed extreme concern over the lives of detainees.
“As street protests wind down, arbitrary arrests have increased as has the risk of torture for detainees,” said Roya Boroumand, the centre’s executive director.
“Over the past decades we have documented numerous cases of death in custody alongside severe physical and psychological torture, including beating, flogging and sexual assault.”
#iran#protesters#sexual#assault#abuse
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FBI documents chronicling this interview also detail menacing actions against this woman.
She told federal agents about receiving phone calls from men purporting to be FBI agents seeking information about her knowledge of Epstein.
She said that an attorney and Epstein called her by phone a few weeks after these men contacted her, and that he said “if she did not say anything to investigators he would take care of her”.
The release of information regarding this 2011 interview comes as victims and advocates’ continue to show that law enforcement officials repeatedly had opportunities to meaningfully hold Epstein and Maxwell accountable before his 2019 arrest.
The chronology makes clear that had Epstein been interdicted, others would not have suffered abuse.
Maria Farmer, a painter who worked for Epstein in 1996, filed a report with the FBI stating that he “stole” nude images of her siblings. This FBI report states that Farmer took artistic photos of her younger sisters for her personal work.
“Epstein Stole the photos and Negatives and is believed to have sold the pictures to potential buyers,” the report said.
The document also said that Epstein asked for “pictures of young girls at swimming pools” and threatened Farmer, stating “that if she tells anyone about the photos he will burn her house down”.
Epstein did serve a brief period of time in a Palm Beach jail on Florida state-level prostitution charges, including procuring someone under 18, under his sweetheart plea deal. He was granted work release.
Officials said that Epstein abused others between this plea deal, which allowed him to avoid federal prosecution, and his arrest years later. One adult victim alleged she was abused at Epstein’s office during this daytime furlough.
The Virgin Islands sued Epstein’s estate in January 2020 stating that flight logs from 2011 to 2019 show that he brought underage girls and young women to his private island “where they were deceptively subjected to sexual servitude, forced to engage in sexual acts and coerced into commercial sexual activity and forced labor”.
“As recent as 2018, air traffic controllers and other airport personnel reported seeing Epstein leave his plane with young girls some of whom appeared to be between the age of 11 and 18 years,” the lawsuit states.
The Virgin Islands that “Epstein trafficked and abused these girls, and others, in the Virgin Islands through 2018.”
Spencer Kuvin, who did not represent Giuffre but is an attorney for multiple Epstein victims, questioned why federal agents did not take action following the 2011 interview.
“If that information was credible – and there is every reason to believe it was – then the obvious question is why meaningful action did not follow,”said Kuvin, of Goldlaw. “Survivors did their part.
They spoke. When institutions fail to act on those disclosures, the system – not the victims – must answer for that.
“It is deeply troubling. Survivors like Virginia showed extraordinary courage in coming forward,” he also said. “The lack of urgency is institutional. Accountability must include examining why those opportunities were missed.”
Asked what transpired following the 2011 interview, the FBI said it “declines to comment”. The justice department did not immediately respond to a question about what happened after that interview.
#epstein#andrew#confidant#sexual#activity#FBI
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Epstein Was Sir Andrew's Immediate and Most Trusted Confidant
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The Department of Justice’s release of millions of Jeffrey Epstein files has not only prompted questions about his crimes – but renewed attention on authorities’ failure to stop him after an accuser reported him in 1996.
This new cache of Epstein files has provided more insight into authorities’ familiarity with allegations against him in the years that followed, including time between his sweetheart plea deal in 2008 and federal arrest nearly six years ago.
While it’s known that accuser Virginia Giuffre’s attorneys met with federal prosecutors in 2016 about Epstein to no avail, recently disclosed files indicate that detailed information was provided to federal authorities years before that sit-down.
This included allegations against Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor; documents indicate that he appeared on the FBI’s radar about 15 years ago.
A woman, whose name is redacted from these documents, gave an interview to FBI agents about Epstein and Maxwell in 2011, with a federal prosecutor in attendance by phone; her account echoes Giuffre’s public and legal allegations against the sex traffickers.
The US embassy in Australia told the country’s national police: “The Federal Bureau of Investigation Miami Field Office (FBI Miami) is assisting the Palm Beach Police Department in Florida with an ongoing investigation into JEFFREY EPSTEIN, a US citizen.”
The accuser, who was told in late 2008 about Epstein’s plea deal as she was found to be one of his victims, contacted federal authorities in south Florida three years later.
Federal agents questioned her at the US consulate in Sydney on 17 March 2011.
This woman provided an extensive account of Epstein’s abuse and alleged participation of co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, as well as other men as a teenage girl during the late 1990s.
The woman, who described suffering at the hands of several predatory men after leaving a rehab facility, told agents that her father, a maintenance man at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, secured a job for her as a locker room attendant there.
The woman, then an aspiring massage therapist, was reading a book on this subject. Maxwell came up to her and claimed she was looking for a traveling masseuse.
Not long after, the woman traveled to Epstein’s Palm Beach home, where he abused her. She told agents she ultimately traveled and that the sexual abuse continued and that he trafficked her to other men.
Giuffre, who died by suicide last spring, had long alleged that Epstein and Maxwell made her engage in sexual activity with the former Duke of York, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
The former prince, who was removed from royal life over his relationship with Epstein, was arrested on Thursday in England; he has staunchly denied wrongdoing.
Maxwell, who was found guilty of luring teenage girls into Epstein’s predatory orbit, has insisted on her innocence. Epstein died in jail while awaiting his sex-trafficking trial in 2019.
#epstein#andrew#confidant#sexual#activity#FBI
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Oliver Wright, one of the deputy Chiefs of police, said “After a thorough assessment, we have now launched an investigation into this allegation of misconduct in public office.
It is important that we protect the integrity and objectivity of our investigation as we work with our partners to investigate this alleged violation. We understand the important public interest in this matter, and we will provide updates at the appropriate time.”
Two key decisions were made before the arrest of the king's brother.
The first was that inviting Mountbatten-Windsor for a bail interview would not be enough, with detectives believing the arrest “was necessary to progress the investigation,” a source said.
The second key decision was that there would be a need for excavations.
The arrest would grant police powers to search properties linked to the former prince. This meant that there was no need to separately apply to a magistrate for a search warrant.
It is understood that neither the King nor Buckingham Palace were informed in advance of Andrew's arrest.
Police leaders informed the Interior Ministry on Thursday morning that police officers would arrest Andrew and carry out searches.
The National Police Chiefs Council said in a statement “In accordance with standard practice, the [NPCC] has alerted its operational colleagues within the Home Office of the arrest. This gave 30 minutes notice before Thames Valley Police made the arrest.”
Mountbatten-Windsor has always denied any wrongdoing or accusations against him. Thames Valley is one of several police forces to have evaluated allegations that resurfaced when the US Department of Justice released the so-called Epstein files.
The force has previously said it is looking into allegations that a woman was trafficked into the UK by Epstein to have a sexual relationship with Mountbatten-Windsor, and claims the former prince shared sensitive information with the disgraced financier while he was the UK's trade envoy.
According to the Crown Prosecution Service website, misconduct in public office carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
Mountbatten-Windsor could also face questions over allegations of sexual wrongdoing while under arrest on suspicion of misconduct in public office, according to a lawyer who specializes in representing abuse survivors.
In 2015, retired Church of England Bishop Peter Ball, an associate of the king, was jailed for 32 months for misconduct in public office after the court heard he abused his authority over young men for sexual gratification.
Richard Scorer, head of abuse law at Slater and Gordon, said “If prosecutors build a case that convinces a jury that Andrew abused his position to have sex with young women, in my opinion he could be prosecuted on that basis.”
Republic, a group which campaigns for the abolition of the monarchy, welcomed the arrest, which it said was in response to a crime report sent to Thames Valley Police by its chief executive, Graham Smith.
He said: “Republic's lawyers will continue to investigate the related alleged offences and provide information to the police over the coming weeks and months.”
Last October, amid growing anxiety within the royal household about the reputational risk to the monarchy caused by the headlines about Mountbatten-Windsor's friendship with Epstein, Buckingham Palace announced that it would withdraw her royal titles.
#mountbattenWindsor#sexual#wrongdoing#charles#westminster#trial
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Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor To Stand Trial
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King Charles has insisted that “the law must take its course" after detectives took the unprecedented step of arresting his brother Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor on suspicion of misconduct in public office.
Police took him to Aylsham Police station in Norfolk on Thursday morning to question him over allegations that he shared confidential documents with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
In the evening, he was photographed in the back of a car driving away from the police station shortly after 19 o'clock.
Thames Valley police said he had been released under investigation and searches of a Norfolk property, Andrew's home on the Sandringham estate, had ended. Searches at the Royal Lodge in Windsor, Berkshire, his former address, were continuing.
On an extraordinary day that could have profound effects on the royal family, unmarked police cars and plainclothes officers from the Thames Valley Force were seen at Mountbatten-Windsor's residence at Wood Farm on the Sandringham estate at around 8 a.m.
A few hours later, Charles gave his full support to the police investigation of his brother, who was arrested on his 66th birthday. The king said that “the law must take its course.”
“What follows now is the full, fair and appropriate process by which this matter is investigated in the appropriate manner and by the competent authorities,” Charles said in a statement.
“In this, as I have already said, they have our full support and cooperation.”
Under the fire of increased public attention, the king and Queen continued their royal duties with Charles attending three separate audiences in person at St James's Palace and Camilla visiting Sinfonia Smith Square in Westminster for an orchestral concert at lunchtime.
Meanwhile, Princess Anne visited a prison, HMP Leeds, in her capacity as patron of the Butler Trust, a British charity that promotes the work of prison staff, probation and juvenile justice.
The arrest of Mountbatten-Windsor, which would be the first time in modern history that a member of the royal family has been detained by the police, came just hours after Starmer said that “no one is above the law.”
Thames Valley police said they had arrested “a 60-year-old man from Norfolk” on suspicion of misconduct in public office and were carrying out searches at addresses in Berkshire and Norfolk.
#mountbattenWindsor#sexual#wrongdoing#charles#westminster#trial
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