PETER HITCHENS: Now we know why the police are too busy to bother with all those shoplifters and thugs
The amazing thing about modern Britain is what is legal. That is to say, what can you do without anything happening to you? This week it is legal to burgle, to shoplift, to travel on public transport without paying your fare, to smoke marijuana in the street, to fill your tank at a petrol station and drive away without paying. It can't be long before GBH joins the list. The police, we're told, have more important things to do. Now we know what sort of things these are.
Behold PC Stephen Smith and PC Rachel Comotto. A stout jury of British citizens has just examined their actions in a South Coast care home and decided that what they did was not a crime. So it is legal, too. I've watched film of this event and advise you to do so, even if it makes you very angry. Because it contains some crucial truths about this country as it now is.
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Reuters
25 minutes ago
- Reuters
Playing it smart: Five questions for the ECB
LONDON, June 2 (Reuters) - The European Central Bank is tipped to cut interest rates on Thursday, its eighth move this cycle, with traders sensing a pause will then follow as the economy holds up better than anticipated and longer-term inflation worries creep back. U.S. tariff uncertainty, heightened further by a court plot twist, makes the backdrop challenging as the ECB weighs any near-term hit to business activity against implications for inflation further out. "The last thing the ECB wants is to be unnecessarily drawn back to a world with limited policy room," said PIMCO portfolio manager Konstantin Veit. Here are five key questions for markets: 1/ What will the ECB do on Thursday? A rate cut will come as no surprise to markets, which price in a quarter point reduction of the deposit rate to 2% as inflation eases and U.S. tariffs cast a shadow over the euro area. The economy is still just limping along and latest surveys point to only lukewarm optimism among firms as services also appear surprisingly weak. "A rate cut is a done deal," said ING's global head of macro Carsten Brzeski. "Even the hawks have not been very outspoken." 2/ And after June? There's a growing consensus that the ECB will pause in July, with one more rate cut anticipated by year-end. ECB chief Christine Lagarde is unlikely to give traders the confirmation they are looking for, stressing data-dependency. In the near-term, inflation could drop further and even undershoot the bank's 2% target, bolstering the case for another cut. But factors including increased government spending and tariffs could exacerbate price pressures in the longer term. ECB board member and policy hawk Isabel Schnabel already favours a pause, saying that tariffs may be disinflationary near-term but pose upside risks further out. Chief economist Philip Lane says the ECB needs to find a "middle path." Swiss Re's head of macro strategy Patrick Saner said the ECB will probably want to reassess over the summer. "We're looking at a cautious easing cycle, not a sprint," Saner added. 3/ What does U.S./EU trade tension means for the ECB? Additional uncertainty. The European Union has won a reprieve from U.S. President Donald Trump's threatened 50% tariffs. But it remains unclear how the bloc will square its push for a mutually beneficial trade deal with U.S. demands for steep concessions. "If tariffs end up to 10-20%, as we expect, I don't think it will be a major issue (for economic growth), and the ECB probably won't react that much," said David Zahn, head of European fixed income at Franklin Templeton, adding that a strong euro should limit inflationary impact by dampening import prices. PIMCO's Veit added that the picture was less clear if a full-blown confrontation prompts aggressive EU retaliation, creating an "inflationary problem" for the ECB. 4/ What will the latest ECB forecasts show? Small downward revisions to 2026 inflation estimates are anticipated as a stronger euro and weaker oil prices pull down inflation. The trade-weighted euro is up around 3.5% so far this year , oil prices have fallen almost 15% . Economists anticipate small downward revisions to the 2025 growth estimates given near-term growth risks caused by tariff uncertainty. Economists polled by Reuters expect 0.9% growth this year, unchanged from the ECB's previous forecast. Goldman Sachs expects the ECB to reduce 2026 projections for headline and core inflation by 0.2 percentage points each to 1.7% and 1.8% respectively, and marginally lower 2025 growth forecasts. Data on Tuesday is expected to show headline inflation eased to 2% in May. 5/ Is the ECB worried about rising long-term borrowing costs globally? Market watchers suspect so, but say Lagarde is likely to stress the bloc's resilience to market turbulence. Weak demand at recent Japanese and U.S. bond sales and Moody's decision to strip the U.S. of its last triple-A credit rating have returned focus to high government debt, a pressure point for bond markets. "Higher long-term yields add a layer of fragility, particularly for highly indebted countries," said Swiss Re's Saner. "While this is certainly not a key reason for easing policy, it's part of the background music."
The Guardian
33 minutes ago
- The Guardian
‘Yes, there was a riot, but it was great': Cabaret Voltaire on violent gigs, nuclear noise – and returning to mark 50 years
Fifty years ago, Cabaret Voltaire shocked the people of Sheffield into revolt. A promoter screamed for the band to get off stage, while an audience baying for blood had to be held back with a clarinet being swung around for protection. All of which was taking place over the deafening recording of a looped steamhammer being used in place of a drummer, as a cacophony of strange, furious noises drove the crowd into a frenzy. 'We turned up, made a complete racket, and then got attacked,' recalls Stephen Mallinder. 'Yes, there was a bit of a riot, and I ended up in hospital, but it was great. That gig was the start of something because nothing like that had taken place in Sheffield before. It was ground zero.' Mallinder and his Cabaret Voltaire co-founder Chris Watson are sitting together again in Sheffield, looking back on that lift-off moment ahead of a handful of shows to commemorate the milestone. 'It is astonishing,' says Watson. 'Half a century. It really makes you stop, think and realise the significance.' The death in 2021 of third founding member Richard H Kirk was a trigger for thinking about ending things with finality. 'It'll be nice if we can use these shows to remind people what we did,' says Mallinder. 'To acknowledge the music, as well as get closure.' It's impossible to overstate how ahead of their time 'the Cabs' were. Regularly crowned the godfathers of the Sheffield scene, inspiring a wave of late 1970s groups such as the Human League and Clock DVA, they were making music in Watson's attic as early as 1973. Their primitive explorations with tape loops, heavily treated vocals and instruments, along with home-built oscillators and synthesisers, laid the foundations for a singular career that would span experimental music, post-punk, industrial funk, electro, house and techno. 'There was nothing happening in Sheffield that we could relate to,' says Mallinder. 'We had nothing to conform to. We didn't give a fuck. We just enjoyed annoying people, to be honest.' Inspired by dadaism, they would set up speakers in cafes and public toilets, or strap them to a van and drive around Sheffield blasting out their groaning, hissing and droning in an attempt to spook and confuse people. 'It did feel a bit violent and hostile at times, but more than anything we just ruined people's nights,' laughs Mallinder, with Watson recalling a memory from their very first gig: 'The organiser said to me after, 'You've completely ruined our reputation.' That was the best news we could have hoped for.' Insular and incendiary, the tight-knit trio had their own language, says Mallinder. 'We talked in a cipher only we understood – we had our own jargon and syntax.' When I interviewed Kirk years before his death, he went even further. 'We were like a terrorist cell,' he told me. 'If we hadn't ended up doing music and the arts, we might have ended up going around blowing up buildings as frustrated people wanting to express their disgust at society.' Instead they channelled that disgust into a type of sonic warfare – be it the blistering noise and head-butt attack of their landmark electro-punk track Nag Nag Nag, or the haunting yet celestial Red Mecca, an album rooted in political tensions and religious fundamentalism that throbs with a paranoid pulse. Watson left the group in 1981 to pursue a career in sound recording for TV. Mallinder and Kirk invested in technology, moving away from the industrial sci-fi clangs of their early period into grinding yet glistening electro-funk. As the second summer of love blazed in the UK in 1988, they headed to Chicago instead – to make Groovy, Laidback and Nasty with house legend Marshall Jefferson. 'We got slagged off for working with Marshall,' recalls Mallinder. 'People were going, 'England has got its own dance scene. Why aren't you working with Paul Oakenfold?' But we're not the fucking Happy Mondays. We'd already been doing that shit for years. We wanted to acknowledge our connection to where we'd come from: Black American music.' This major label era for the group produced moderate commercial success before they wound things down in the mid-1990s. But in the years since, everyone from New Order to Trent Reznor has cited the group's influence. Mallinder continued to make electronic music via groups such as Wrangler and Creep Show, the latter in collaboration with John Grant, a Cabs uber-fan. Watson says leaving the group was 'probably the most difficult decision I've ever made' but he has gone on to have an illustrious career, winning Baftas for his recording work with David Attenborough on shows such as Frozen Planet. He recalls 'the most dangerous journey I've ever made' being flown in a dinky helicopter that was akin to a 'washing machine with a rotor blade' by drunk Russian pilots in order to reach a camp on the north pole. On 2003 album Weather Report, Watson harnessed his globetrotting field recording adventures with stunning effect, turning long, hot wildlife recording sessions in Kenya surrounded by buzzing mosquitoes, or the intense booming cracks of colossal glaciers in Iceland, into a work of immersive musical beauty. When he was at the Ignalina nuclear power plant in Lithuania with Oscar-winning composer Hildur Guðnadóttir, recording sounds for the score to the 2019 TV series Chernobyl, he couldn't help but draw parallels to his Cabs days. 'It was horrific but really astonishing – such a tense, volatile, hostile environment,' he says. 'But it really got me thinking about working with those sounds again, their musicality and how it goes back to where I started.' Sign up to Sleeve Notes Get music news, bold reviews and unexpected extras. Every genre, every era, every week after newsletter promotion Mallinder views Watson's work as a Trojan horse for carrying radical sounds into ordinary households. 'The Cabs may have changed people's lives but Chris is personally responsible for how millions of people listen to the world,' he says, with clear pride. 'And one of the things that helped make that happen was the fact that he was in the Cabs, so through that lens he opened up people's ears.' Watson agrees, saying Cabaret Voltaire 'informed everything I've ever done'. Watson's field recordings will play a part in the upcoming shows: he'll rework 2013 project Inside the Circle of Fire, in which he recorded Sheffield itself, from its wildlife to its steel industry via football terraces and sewers. 'It's hopefully not the cliched industrial sounds of Sheffield,' he says, 'but my take on the signature sounds of the city.' These will be interwoven with a set Mallinder is working on with his Wrangler bandmate Ben 'Benge' Edwards as well as longtime friend and Cabs collaborator Eric Random. 'We've built 16 tracks up from scratch to play live,' says Mallinder. 'With material spanning from the first EP' – 1978's Extended Play – 'through to Groovy …' Mallinder says this process has been 'a bit traumatic – a very intense period of being immersed in my past and the memories that it brought, particularly of Richard. This isn't something you can do without emotion.' Mallinder and Kirk were not really speaking in the years leading up to his death, with Kirk operating under the Cabaret Voltaire name himself. 'Richard was withdrawn and didn't speak to many people,' says Mallinder. 'And I was one of those people. He wanted to be in his own world. It was difficult because I missed him and there was a lot of history, but I accepted it.' There will be no new music being made as Cabaret Voltaire because, they stress, tsuch a thing cannot exist without Kirk. Instead, it's a brief victory lap for the pair, a tribute to their late friend, as they sign off on a pioneering legacy with maybe one last chance for a riot. 'Richard would probably hate us doing this but it's done with massive respect,' Mallinder says. 'I'm sad he's not here but there's such love for the Cabs that I want to give people the opportunity to acknowledge what we did. You can't deny the music we made is important – and this is a way to celebrate that.' Cabaret Voltaire play a Forge Warehouse, Sheffield, 25 October, then tour the UK from 17 to 21 November. Tickets on sale 10am 6 June
Daily Mail
35 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
BREAKING NEWS Mass stabbing in downtown Salem as at least 11 people are rushed to hospital
A stabbing spree in downtown Salem, Oregon on Sunday left at least 11 people injured. Salem Police said they responded to a call about a stabbing incident involving multiple victims at the Union Gospel Mission of Salem at around 7.15pm, the Statesman Journal reports. Eleven people were then transported to Salem Health hospital with various injuries as the unidentified suspect was taken into custody. The identity of the suspect and a motive for the attack remain unclear. But witness Malik Law said he watched in horror as the man stabbed at least seven people. 'Everybody was basically trying to move out of his way,' Law told the Statesman Journal. 'He started attacking them.'
