Author: USA Facts News

We rather hope the prospect of World War Three is not approaching, and despite the talk of it and possible conscription the position of the UK government is that it’s not on the table.

The UK is boosting defence spending in response to rising tensions in the world but government minister Pat McFadden has ruled out conscription, saying: “We are not considering conscription, but of course we have announced a major increase in defence expenditure.

“We do have to recognise that the world has changed. The phrase ‘step up’ is used a lot. Europe does have to step up in terms of its own defence.

“President Trump isn’t actually the first president to say that, but he said it more loudly and with more force than his predecessors – so, I think we have got to recognise that moment.”

He added that people shouldn’t ‘cling on to old assumptions’, while a spokesperson for Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer reiterated that the UK’s armed forces were voluntary and plans weren’t being made to change it.

“The British military has a proud tradition of being a voluntary force. There are no plans to change that,” the spokesperson said.

The UK has previously introduced conscription for both previous World Wars, here’s how it worked.

Conscription in the First World War

It was not until 1916 that the UK brought in conscription for the First World War when the Military Service Act was passed in January of that year.

Until then the British forces in the First World War had been volunteers, though in the autumn of 1915 something that came to be known as the Derby Scheme was implemented to try and pressure and persuade people to volunteer.

Men would go round to houses and ask single men aged between 18 and 41 if they wanted to enlist immediately or sign up to be called up later on, it led to over 300,000 new recruits.

However, that wasn’t enough for the armed forces and conscription was introduced, with a bill passed in January 1916 and coming into force on 2 March, 1916.

Initially, men aged between 18 and 41 who were not exempt for a list of specific reasons were conscripted into service, conscription was an unpopular policy and in April 1916 a protest of over 200,000 people marched through Trafalgar Square.

That list of exemptions included married men, widowers with children, those working as religious ministers, men working in vital industries, those already in the Royal Navy and conscientious objectors.

In May 1916 married men were removed from the exemption list, and in 1918 the age limit was increased from 41 to 51.

Brits had the right to appeal conscription, and their employers could appeal as well if they thought the man being called up ought to be exempt.

Conscription applied only to men from England, Scotland and Wales, a law was passed in 1918 to try it with Ireland but never put into effect after there was a significant backlash.

While many Irishmen had volunteered to fight in the First World War, the prospect of conscription was hugely unpopular.

Conscription from the First World War did not end immediately after the end of hostilities and was instead extended until 1920. The UK reckons that about 2.5 million men were conscripted into military service in the First World War.

Conscription in the Second World War

Shortly before the outbreak of World War Two once it became apparent that war was coming, the UK once again introduced conscription.

In April 1939 the British government decided to implement limited conscription, and the following month it passed the Military Training Act where single men between the ages of 20 and 22 were called for six months of military training, after which they’d be discharged and become army reservists.

The first group of men were conscripted this way on 3 June, 1939.

The outbreak of the Second World War three months later in September 1939 resulted in the National Service (Armed Forces) Act which conscripted all men aged between 18 and 41.

Those judged to be medically unfit, students, clergy and people working in certain jobs were exempt, while conscientious objectors could make an appeal which would place them in a non-combat job instead.

Conscription was expanded later on in the war and by 1942 men aged between 18 and 51 and women between the ages of 20 and 30 were called up in some fashion, barring exemptions.

Married women and those who had one or more children aged 14 and under living with them were exempt.

Men who were called up before they were 51 but passed that age during their time conscripted had to stay on.

After the Second World War

Following the end of the Second World War, Brits could still be conscripted into National Service until 1960.

The parameters were changed to affect men aged between 17 and 21, and the last conscript left the armed forces in 1963.

Since then the possibility of reviving conscription has been brought up a few times, most recently by Rishi Sunak who put a form of it into the Conservative manifesto for last year’s election.

That would have seen some but not most 18-year-old Brits put into the military, the vast majority would have instead worked a weekend a month for a year in some other occupation.

The idea was heavily criticised and Sunak lost the election quite badly.

But the former Top Gear man had a bit of a dilemma with the venue in recent weeks after revealing the pub grounds had been taken over by a ‘gang of 150 burly men’.

Taking to his weekly column for The Sunday Times to document exactly what happened at the Oxfordshire pub, explaining that a group of Travellers had descended on his site.

Writing in his weekly opinion piece, Jezza revealed the padlock had been cut on the car park and staff threatened after confronting the group who had made their way on to the pub grounds.

“In the olden days you’d call the police and they would at least try to sort it out, but times have changed,” Clarkson wrote.

Shining a light on the issue of trespassing, he said it had become ‘increasingly vexing for farmers and landowners’.

“I’m rather envious of the way they live among us while taking absolutely no part in the society we’ve created,” the TV-presenter-turned-farmer said.

“The question of who owns something is a kind of vexing grey area, and if you want to break into a pub car park and then spend the morning racing your horses and traps up and down the A40, then you go right ahead.”

He added: “That’s broadly speaking what I was like as a schoolboy. It was the teachers’ job to make the rules and my job to completely ignore them.”

Ultimately, Clarkson said, it was about treating members of the Travelling community with respect.

He said: “Basically, treat them like the Canadians treat their neighbours south of the border. Smile sweetly and hope they don’t come over.”

As for what happened at the pub, Clarkson revealed the police ‘responded as if someone had just sent an unpleasant tweet about Sir Starmer himself’.

“They turned up, fast, in great numbers, did vehicle checks and organised a fleet of lorries to tow away those that had some kind of defect. It was an impressive operation,” Clarkson recalled.

As for the damage done, Jezza said he was handed £150 to fix the padlock and clear up the litter.

And when asked if they could come back the next year, it was a polite ‘no’ from Clarkson after the ‘unforgivable abuse’ one of the young girls working in the pub was given.

“But in the spirit of getting on, I do wish them well because racing horses on a fully open dual carriageway looks a damn sight more fun than chasing an imaginary fox over a hedge,” he said.

Being that person who has come forward for the jackpot everyone’s been talking about all week, getting presented with that whopper cheque and buying the things you thought you’d never own.

But that’s all well and good to imagine under the assumption that if you won the lottery, you’d actually be given your prize.

Whereas in more of a nightmare scenario, one woman has been blocked from cashing in her mega win after ‘using app’ to buy her ticket with things getting a little political.

She hit the absolute jackpot in a Texas draw on 17 February, bagging the huge $83.5 million (£64.5 million) prize.

This all seems to be because of controversy over using third-party couriers in buying lottery tickets.

The woman, who has remained anonymous, used Jackpocket (a subsidiary of sports betting company DraftKings) which enables users to buy lottery tickets on their phone.

Her attorney, Randy Howry, told PEOPLE that she had been using the app for several years and has always been paid for her winnings.

“She just preferred to play this way and felt more safe and didn’t have to leave her house,” he said of the widow.

DrafKings also owns the Winners Corner store in North Austin and Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick visited the day after the draw.

He posted a video to X where a person claiming to be the manager says the winning ticket was bought via a courier.

“The bottom line is, if people are going to have confidence in the lottery, we have to be sure that no one has an advantage,” Patrick said.

“This is not the way the lottery was designed to operate.”

And on 24 February, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced he’d called on state law enforcement officials to look into the drawing as well as wins from a previous one in April 2023.

“Texans must be able to trust in our state’s lottery system and know that the lottery is conducted with integrity and lawfully,” Abbott said.

Howry said that before the woman met with state lottery officials recently to claim her prize, a preliminary check was conducted and she had to do a telephone interview with a lottery investigator.

But on the day she was due for her meeting, officials apparently told her she couldn’t received her winnings until an investigation is completed with Howry saying no timeline has been given.

“She played by all the rules,” the attorney said. “She did everything the right way…She’s just a regular citizen who decided to play the lottery…If you allow a person to play by your rules and they win and you refuse to pay ’em, then why would anyone play the Texas lottery going forward?”

And the woman told Austin American-Statesmen: “I literally spent $20. I didn’t spend $26 million to run every single possible combination of numbers. If [the Lottery Commission] didn’t do an investigation into the [April 2023 jackpot winner], that’s on you.

Those days of gently hinting to the teenager in their life that if they won’t insist upon personal hygiene or wearing freshly laundered clothes, they could at least try covering up the stench may be coming to an end.

Pour one out for an iconic cornerstone of being a young adult and those days when you believed that cleanliness, a pleasant scent and desirability to women could be sprayed out of a can.

Lynx posted the sad announcement on social media yesterday (20 March), declaring: “REST IN AFRICA.

“You may have heard that our iconic Lynx Africa scent is getting discontinued. We know – it hurts (sorry if we’ve ruined your go to fragrance) but don’t worry, the rest of your faves are still here to keep you smelling fine.

“And who knows? Maybe one day Lynx Africa will make a legendary comeback. We appreciate your understanding during this period of adjustment and apologise for any inconvenience caused.”

However, you can put down the My Chemical Romance album because this is looking like a load of absolute cobblers.

Before you start hoarding the last remaining cans of Lynx Africa like people did with toilet paper during the pandemic, you might want to decide whether it’s a p**stake.

See, recently Lipton made a post announcing they were going to discontinue their peach flavour, which prompted a lot of confusion and dismay.

Then Lipton made another post joking that they’d put their April Fool’s joke out a bit too early, though the cynics among you might have thought it was to put their drink at the forefront of your mind and scare you with the prospect that it wouldn’t be around any longer so you’d go out and buy it.

You’ll notice that the announcements bear some striking similarities to each other, so this looks to just be social media admins taking the opportunity to razz each other online and show their bosses they’ve got a lot of engagement with their posts this month.

Nothing quite comes close in that regard to the unhinged insanity of the Duolingo Owl, who was recently killed by a cybertruck before coming back to life in a series of videos where the owl burst out of a coffin.

Still, for those who hoped they’d be able to hide their pervasive odour (you’re not, we can still smell it beyond the olfactory assault that is Lynx Africa), it seems that your favourite smell in a can is still around.

Unless, of course, Lynx actually was hoping to ditch the Africa brand and Lipton gave them the perfect opportunity to do it while seemingly joking.

Donald Trump accused Volodymyr Zelenskyy of ‘gambling’ with it during their heated exchange as he warned it could be ‘a war like no other’, while Russia’s war with Ukraine continues.

And while we might be used to the US president spouting all sorts, the thought of another World War is rather unnerving.

But it also leads to those somewhat selfish (but not really selfish) thoughts about how you wouldn’t want to fight if you had to.

So, very much noting the UK is not looking to go to war anytime soon, there’s a number of ways you could avoid being conscripted if it ever actually came up.

Conscription in the UK

Of course, we’ve not seen a general mobilisation of troops on such a scale since World War II, over 80 years ago.

And thankfully, Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden has ruled out conscription here to ready the UK for a potential war, but it may be that ‘decisions are needed in the future that respond to a new reality.’

He said on Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips: “We are not considering conscription, but of course we have announced a major increase in defence expenditure.

“We do have to recognise that the world has changed. The phrase ‘step up’ is used a lot. Europe does have to step up in terms of its own defence.

“President Trump isn’t actually the first president to say that, but he said it more loudly and with more force than his predecessors – so, I think we have got to recognise that moment.”

But there are people calling for conscription as Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs urged European countries to follow his lead and ‘absolutely’ introduce conscription.

Who could be exempt

So, let’s say everything suddenly changes and conscription is introduced, it would be just like the WW2 call up when exemptions were made.

Back then, things like health, age, gender and profession came into play with who could and couldn’t be called up to serve.

And it’s fair to say it’s likely a lot of those will be similar as those working in essential industries would be exempt. When we last had a situation like that, those key jobs included the likes of farmers, engineers, medical professionals, bakers and coal miners.

The National Service Act in 1939 was tweaked during the war, and ended up with men between the ages of 18 and 51 having to be called up (it was originally 18 to 41).

Exemptions in that also included those who were medically unfit to fight.

There’s currently quite a number of conditions that prevent a person from joining the British Armed Forces, such as hearing and vision problems.

Plus, those with bone or joint problems like chronic knee injuries, shoulder problems and hypermobility syndrome are also exempt from serving.

People can also be stopped from enlisting if they have neurological conditions, cardiovascular issues, severe skin conditions or psychiatric problems.

British women weren’t allowed to fight last time we were at war but since 2018, they’ve been able to serve in all combat roles in the military. So, it’s pretty likely women could be drafted at the same rate as men if conscription is ever introduced.

But before you start panicking and applying for essential jobs, the Prime Minister has solidified that there is ‘no intention’ of introducing conscription.

“The British military has a proud tradition of being a voluntary force. There are no plans to change that,” a spokesperson said.

The 86-year-old first portrayed Harold Bishop on the Australian soap opera way back in 1987.

He quickly became a fan-favourite before stepping down from the show last year, suffering from ‘a very aggressive non-fixable cancer’.

Smith says he has been ‘defying the odds’ after being told he would be dead by this month.

“I’ve got cancer, yes, I’m going to die soon but I seem to be defying the odds, which is good,” he told BBC Radio 5 Live.

His dying wish, however, is to buy a new electric car.

“I’m determined to have an electric car before I die,” the actor added.

“And I was speaking to a salesman. I said, ‘Now, what about the delivery? Can you get to me before I’m dead?’

“And he was so shocked! I said, ‘Come on, let’s have a giggle’.”

Smith’s wife Gail died from cancer in 2019 after over 50 years of marriage.

And the TV star admitted that he ‘almost gave in’ before he got some ‘good news’ on 13 December.

“I’m an atheist. I couldn’t say, ‘Thank you God’. I just had to say, ‘Thank you someone’ for giving me a second chance,” he said.

“And I took the second chance and I had to say to myself, what are you going to do with it?

“I’m still not sure I’ve worked out the answer to that but I’m certainly not going to mope around.

“People are saying that thing, ‘Oh, it’s wonderful what they can do these days’.

“Yes, I know it’s wonderful. Of course, we are very clever human beings, we can do all of this, but it’s still there and from the time I wake up in the morning, cancer is there as a reminder all the time, you can’t get away from it.”

In a previous interview with Australia’s 10 News First, Smith revealed he’s more than happy to be a ‘guinea pig’ for new treatment.

He added: “I’ve really put my hand up, I think, just to be a guinea pig, plus the fact I don’t want to die, I want to stay alive with quality as long as I can, and if they can do that I’m very happy.

“But I wake up every morning hoping there’s no pain because I know that’s the beginning of the bad part.”

A nearby fire at North Hyde electrical substation has caused a power outage, impacting thousands of homes with around 150 people evacuated.

Heathrow – which is the UK’s largest airport – said it was among those impacted by the power outage.

Online flight tracking service FlightRadar24 estimated that the closure would affect at least 1,351 flights to and from the airport in West London.

A Heathrow spokesperson said: “Heathrow is experiencing a significant power outage across the airport due to a large fire at a nearby electrical substation. Whilst fire crews are responding to the incident, we do not have clarity on when power may be reliably restored.

“To maintain the safety of our passengers and colleagues, we have no choice but to close Heathrow until 23h59 on 21 March 2025. We expect significant disruption over the coming days and passengers should not travel to the airport under any circumstances until the airport reopens.

“We will provide an update when more information on the resumption of operations is available. We know this will be disappointing for passengers and we want to reassure that we are working as hard as possible to resolve the situation.”

More than 83.9 million passengers travelled through the terminals at Heathrow last year and 120 flights to land there where in the air when this closure was announced.

Online tracking services showed flights being diverted to Gatwick, south of London, Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris and Shannon Airport in Co Clare, Ireland.

A number of flights were also forced to turn around and return to Canada and the US.

Gatwick Airport has accepted seven diverted flights from a number of locations such as Singapore, Johannesburg, and Doha.

“We are aware of the situation at Heathrow Airport today and we are supporting by accepting diverted flights as required,” an airport spokesperson said. “Flights are operating from London Gatwick as normal today.”

Shannon Airport confirmed it had accepted six diverted flights from Toronto, Atlanta, Bridgetown Barbados, Boston, Orlando and Newark.

The large-scale power outage in Hayes, Hounslow and the surrounding areas has impacted over 16,300 homes according to Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks as the power company’s site says authorities aim to restore power by 3pm today.

A National Grid spokesperson said the fire had damaged equipment and they ‘working at speed to restore power supplies as quickly as possible’.

London Fire Brigade said 10 fire engines and around 70 firefighters were still on the scene at Nestles Avenue in Hayes just before 6am with part of a transformer at the substation still alight.

Assistant commissioner Pat Goulbourne said: “This is a highly visible and significant incident, and our firefighters are working tirelessly in challenging conditions to bring the fire under control as swiftly as possible.

“The fire has caused a power outage affecting a large number of homes and local businesses, and we are working closely with our partners to minimise disruption.”

Emergency services were called to the scene at 11.23pm last night and the cause of the blaze is yet to be determined.

Goulbourne said firefighters urged people to take safety precautions as crews worked to extinguish the fire with a 200m cordon in place.

“This will be a prolonged incident, with crews remaining on scene throughout the night,” he said. “As we head into the morning, disruption is expected to increase, and we urge people to avoid the area wherever possible.”

Sarah Blackburn, who lives in the United States, said she didn’t previously have any sort of health anxiety but was left fearing for her life after she visited one of Prenuvo’s medical diagnostic imaging centres in Dallas.

Sometimes, we can be living with a condition without noticing any particular symptoms, while other young people have also shared the subtle signs they noticed after being diagnosed with life-changing diseases.

We’ve all been guilty of googling our own symptoms and thinking that we’re going to die from a stomach ache, and the sheer amount of information available online can often lead to people being anxious about symptoms they simply don’t need to worry about.

However, Sarah, who shared her experience in a viral TikTok, claimed not to have any symptoms or anxiety about her health when she booked her MRI scan, suggesting that she was simply curious and hopeful that it would give her some ‘peace of mind’. A strange thing to do with your weekend, especially considering some of the prices you pay for medical care in the States.

For those wondering, the scan reportedly costs $2,500 and is not covered by insurance. But it turned out to be money well spent, after Sarah was told she had a splenic artery aneurysm, a rare condition particularly dangerous for women who’ve had multiple pregnancies.

Worryingly, her test results came with a note which suggested the condition had a one in three mortality rate. Sarah was naturally very concerned about this and immediately visited the hospital to talk to a doctor.

Speaking about her experience, she said: “Looking back, i was so certain this was going to give me peace of mind. They were not going to find anything serious. I guess that’s why I was so excited because I was thinking ‘man I am going to sleep well after this scan’.

“The results came back super quickly, it was like four days. I went into a full blown panic attack and ended up in the emergency room because I needed a doctor to explain what this meant. In the report that they sent me, without any other context, it says one in three mortality rate.

“That is how my health anxiety started and it was a really dark and hard two months where I was spiralling and freaking out and seeing a lot of doctors. I had no idea about this and literally felt like a ticking time bomb was inside my body.”

After many conversations with doctors, she was persuaded to go through with the surgery to remove her spleen. Fortunately, the surgery was a success, and Sarah is now recovering and adjusting to life without her spleen.

The £80 billion ‘Forest City’ development in Johor launched in 2016, and was a great idea in principle: luxury modern living in an eco-friendly environment with tonnes of green space.

The aim was for one million people to live there, but instead it accommodates…. erm, not very many folks at all.

In recent months, the Malaysian government has had a go at reviving the shipwrecked megaproject by turning it into a special financial zone last August.

They hope a package of measures like special tax rates and streamlined visa processes will tempt people into the development, but when YouTuber Ben Morris went to have a poke around in footage he shared last May, it seemed pretty empty.

What went wrong with Johor’s Forest City?

Many people have dubbed the settlement a ‘ghost town’, with only 9,000 residents actually moving there – less than one percent of what they were expecting.

On top of this, only about 10 percent of it has been completed, according to Architectural Digest.

Restrictions during the Covid pandemic certainly didn’t help matters, plus there were new laws on Chinese capital introduced in 2017, which limited investments from wealthy buyers.

Morris said: “First, a major property crisis in China occurred which not only affected developments in the country, but ones overseas as well.

“This had major repercussions for projects such as Forest City, where developers had run into major cash issues and couldn’t finish what they had started.

“And lastly, this city was built to cater to a high ticket Chinese market, where the buyers would own a secondary property abroad.

“However, mid build, the former prime minister of Malaysia imposed restrictions on visas for Chinese buyers in order to avoid it becoming a city built for foreigners.

“With Malaysians already being priced out of buying, this created a huge imbalance of supply against demand for the properties.”

What are the apartments in Forest City actually like?

It’s a shame barely anyone lives in Forest City, as Morris was surprised by how nice the apartments actually were.

Showing off one of the flats, he said: “This is your own private floor and entrance, you can even see the bridge from your balcony.”

It also had tennis courts, swimming pools, gyms, and pretty much everything you need.

Is Forest City actually deserted?

The city isn’t totally deserted. As we said, a few thousand people live there, and some are trying to hit back at the ‘ghost town’ label.

Forest City tenant Wafa Aina Wahid told CNA Insider she moved there since it was so affordable

She said: “Looking at the facilities, looking at the environment, I think it’s not the ghost town people have been talking about.”

Saying that, some people who lived there were desperate to see the back of the place.

Nazmi Hanafiah, an IT engineer who moved to Forest City, told the BBC that he left the area after just six months.

“I managed to escape this place,” Nazmi, who rented out a one-bedroom flat, said.

“I didn’t care about my deposit, I didn’t care about the money. I just had to get out.

“I’m getting goosebumps just being back. It’s lonely around here – it’s just you and your thoughts.”

He added: “To be honest, it’s creepy. I had high expectations for this place, but it was such a bad experience. There is nothing to do here.”

Fortunately, she only seems to take issue with one drink, rather than another who suggested that you’re really going to annoy them by ordering one of any 10 if it’s particularly busy – at which point there can’t be that many left on the menu.

Apparently the worst thing you can say at a bar is ‘surprise me’ because you are in fact not in a movie and unless you’re best friends with the bartender, they’re not going to have a clue what you want.

Although if it was me I’d just give them one of those bottles of wines that’s been sealed for 80 years and bill them for being too difficult.

At the end of the day, a drink is just a drink and if you’re a lad and you fancy that pink fruity cocktail then just go for it. If the bartender ‘judges’ you then who cares?

However, a particularly popular TikTok post by @soundbowlbae shows a clip of her making her most hated cocktail and narrating the whole process, suggesting that she would judge anyone who orders a long island iced tea.

The classic cocktail is made up of equal parts gin, vodka, tequila, rum, and triple sec, along with a splash of lime, cola, and plenty of ice.

Now when you reach my age and you start getting horrible hangovers, you’ll learn that it’s not the best idea to mix your drinks unless you want to feel the consequences the next morning.

But when you’re young and carefree, or perhaps more of a heavyweight than I, it’s understandable why you might want the bang for your buck you get when ordering a drink with four different types of alcohol inside.

The TikTok user is less sympathetic however and suggests it’s ‘insane’ to order one at the bar.

She said: “Let me tell y’all a secret. When you come up to the bar and you order a Long Island, the first thing I’m thinking is, ‘Is everything OK?’

“Like, is everything going on alright in your life ‘cos why on Earth would you want four different liquors in your drink?

“You are getting rum, vodka, tequila and gin all mixed in one. That’s just insane.”

Once you’ve had one or two of the drinks you’re probably past the point of caring, but if you’re a people pleaser, then maybe it’s best to opt for a different drink next time you hit the town.