Ethan and Ehlana:
Happy 50th Birthday, Martin Landry!
We didn’t have anything to do with Mr. Landry’s special day, but Cassie and Michael helped out with his birthday party work; and Mom and Dad went to the party that Rowen and Tim hosted. Cassie has been busy all day, since she also took a shift helping Mom at the school with one of the booths at our play day, but then Ehlana and I were busy with that fun at school and then our work-play at the lab or archives after school and this evening. It was quite a bit cooler today with the high only in the high seventies, and we had some showers roll through off-and-on too; but we didn’t let that get in the way of the play day fun at school. The rain is why we opted to take a picnic lunch and go to work at the lab, though, and we got a lot done while some of our favorite adults were busy at the birthday dinner and then later at the pub. We’re home now; Mom and Dad are still out at the pub; and we may not wait up for them.
Before we get to the news updates of the day; let’s cover the rest of our own story from yesterday. We had fun with the biking and swimming with our friends; we kept our four best friends for the barbeque dinner that Mom and Dad hosted; and then we ended up going to the park to catch the co-ed ball practices and help out with next-gen kid control for some cousins and their friends. We had fun with that; brought the same four friends home with us for the night; and the rest of our evening included another river swim; a movie; and staying up too late before getting around to the co-ed sofa sleepover nap time. Tai Chi this morning was more fun with our friends and so was the hot breakfast ahead of our play day; and that brings us back around to the school-time fun we’ve already covered. We should add that our team won an overall silver for the school behind a Grade Eleven team. Naomi and Aiden were on our team thanks to a swap that had Sophia on Aaron’s team, but that didn’t make a lot of difference; since Sophia, Aaron, and their team came in third and not far behind us.
That’s enough for our news – though we should mention that we skipped game night at the Inn since Mom and Dad didn’t go either while busy with the party. There wasn’t likely a big turnout anyway; since Rowen and Tim were hosting a fairly-large group for his father. We will guess that Mom is or has been drafted into another display of her billiard skills – and we’ll hope that she doesn’t do that against Mr. Landry – not that he’s ever pretended to be one of the sharks at the pub. It will likely be morning before we find out the party details; so we’ll add more if there is anything good to write about – not including any stories we won’t want to know about at all! ;^)
This has been a busy news day that is ending with Israel launching an attack on Iran, but the day started with the story of a plane crash in India; so we’ll cover that news first. A Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed shortly after take-off in western India; hitting a medical college student hostel. Confirmation on casualties is still pending, but there probably weren’t any survivors among the passengers and crew on the jet; and there were definitely injuries and possible fatalities on the ground. As always, people jump to conclusions on the cause of the crash, but we’ll wait for the investigation to get those answers; and our thoughts and prayers go out to everyone personally involved in the crash – especially for those people who have lost loved ones.
We are going to cover a story that is out there about Iran claiming to have received data about Israel’s nuclear weapons that they are promising to release to the public soon. If true, that might be a factor in the attacks tonight on Iran that Israel is claiming to be a pre-emptive strike to destroy Iran’s nuclear program and their long-range missile capabilities. That news is still recent without a lot of details, but there is no way that Iran will let that happen without responding and escalating the conflicts in the region. Those secret documents may prove to be irrelevant after this attack, but could be part of Iran’s retaliation plans in the near future. If they actually do that; it would be a political problem for Israel and other western countries that have continued to claim that Israel doesn’t have nuclear weapons and hasn’t had them for decades when everyone knows that they really do have them. If that political fiction is blown up; that makes it very hypocritical for ‘us’ to demand a nuclear-free Iran while allowing nukes in Israel – especially now; when that is the claimed primary reason for this latest attack on Iran. We were going to write about the reports that have been out there about higher alerts in the region for embassies and readiness levels for the Israeli armed forces; but we’re a bit late for that news now; and war between Israel and Iran has, apparently, begun. The news from Gaza and the West Bank continues to be horrific too and we don’t want to forget about that even with this latest news; and it gets worse for the Palestinians with every passing day. We wish that we could do more; and feel a bit helpless because we can’t do that when we can’t get anything done there through our charities when Israel keeps that from happening.
Finally, let’s mention that the Ukraine war is still raging on and expanding, and whatever your position on the issues, Ukraine continues to be destroyed, so while ‘our’ side can hate Russia’s terms for ending the war; that should be the obvious choice over fighting on until there is nothing left to fight over! Russia is not going to stop; more sanctions would be pointless and just cause more damage to western economies; and nobody should want to even consider expanding the war with direct NATO involvement – just as we shouldn’t want war with Iran or anyone else!
I was about to wrap up, but that shouldn’t have been our last news story; since we should mention that another round of tariff threats are out there again; and that seems to be a story that just won’t go away. We are not suggesting that there should never be tariffs since they are sometimes necessary, but using them as economic weapons and threats is a really bad idea; and just makes more enemies when nobody likes being bullied. Speaking of bullying; the Los Angeles protests and riots are spreading to other cities across the country; and there is no cause that can justify looting and burning our cities! We are not going to get into the illegal immigration issue – though we could offer a rant on that story too, but it really shouldn’t matter how you feel about that issue when it comes to the harm being done to real people and property. That part of this story is bad, but people should also be concerned about governments using the crises to take more control – as is happening with curfews and other measures that only hurts good people; since criminals are not going to care about one more law that they can break. We don’t have to worry about any of that here in Witch Falls, but we can commiserate with people living in those city neighborhoods that are being hit by the riots, looting, and other attacks. Some of those cities could be in for a very bad weekend; so we’ll hope for better; and know that Mom, Cassie, and others are preparing to help out where needed with our charities and other businesses.
That’s enough for this report. Mom and Dad are still out, but we’ve had enough fun for the day; so we’re going to head off to bed and get back to full-power for our last, shortened day of this school year.
Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!
