Emperor

If you look up the St. Louis suburb of Des Peres, Missouri, on Wikipedia, you'll see the usual entries about its history, population, etc. Des Peres, however, is unique in that it also has an entry under "Jar of Pickles," notes the Wall Street Journal. It seems that more than a decade ago—maybe 2011 or 2012—someone placed a jar of pickles atop a concrete barrier along the exit of Manchester on I-270. A commuter named Barb Steen noticed the oddity and started a Facebook page devoted to it. The jar remained in place for a few years until disappearing around 2015—only to be replaced by another. And another. And all these years later, the jar has become something of a cultural phenomenon.

"They were just always there," Steen recalls to Fox 2 Now of the early days of the pickles. "I would Snapchat them to friends or coworkers or share them on my Facebook." The page she created for the jar now has more than 29,000 followers from around the world. "Word got out in some way somehow, and it exploded," she says. The brand of pickle, incidentally, has varied over the years. A Journal reporter investigated a recent iteration—a jar of Mt. Olive Kosher Dill affixed to the barrier with some kind of caulk.

The continued popularity of the jar has raised concerns that it might someday cause a traffic accident if a passerby slows to gawk or take a photo. So far, however, the city has received no complaints, says public safety director Eric Hall. "I don't suspect our people," he adds, referring to speculation that employees of his department might be behind the jar, given their official 24-hour access to the area. "But you never know."

Former prime minister Mr Johnson has dissected his party's performance in his Daily Mail column, saying the reasons why the Tories lost so many MPs were "complex" - but "the Yucatan asteroid in this catastrophe was obvious: it was Reform".

Mr Johnson claimed to have heard from one Tory MP who "fully expected to win" but realised at the last minute "thousands" of Tory voters were opting for Reform, which in turn gave Labour a majority over both rivals.

"Repeat that phenomenon across the political landscape, and you begin to grasp the cause of the landslide," he added, before turning his attention to Mr Farage.

He wrote: "I am afraid that the cheroot-puffing Pied Piper of Clacton has played a significant part - as he no doubt intended - in the destruction of the Tory government."

Mr Johnson then offered advice for the Tories, while alluding to his own exit from Downing Street in June 2022.

"When we get back in, don't be too hasty to get rid of successful election-winning leaders," he said.

"As I never tire of telling people, some polls put us only two or three points behind, in the days before I was forced to resign in what was really a media-driven hoo-ha."

The government has ruled out the introduction of digital ID cards, after former Labour Prime Minister Sir Tony Blair said they could help control immigration.

Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds initially said the home secretary would "be looking at all sources of advice" on the issue.

However, he later told Times Radio ID cards were not part of the government's plans.

...

However, asked about the possibility of introducing digital ID cards, Mr Reynolds told Times Radio: "We can rule that out, that's not something that's part of our plans."

Opponents of identity cards have raised concerns about the potential impact on civil liberties and what they see as unnecessary data collection by the state.

“The world is a dangerous divided place, and this is a tough, geopolitical moment with huge challenges for Britain, but I’m excited about the project which is reconnecting Britain with the global community,” he said in his vast new office at the heart of the Victorian-era Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office building in Whitehall.

For years, the UK has been caught up in “an inward-looking conversation”, he said, as the impact of the Brexit referendum and years of troubled efforts to implement it soaked up political energy.

Now, that must end: “Britain has to start reconnecting with the world.” Resetting relations with Europe is a particular priority and his first trip abroad this weekend will take him to Germany, Poland and Sweden, to meet his counterpart in each country. He will then travel on to a Nato summit in Washington, with prime minister Keir Starmer.

“Let us put the Brexit years behind us. We are not going to rejoin the single market and the customs union but there is much that we can do together,” he said. “I want to be absolutely clear, European nations are our friends.”

Original title: Barry's Nightmare but it's all becoming reality.

Artist

Westminster Magistrates Court heard that 30-year-old Paolo Bollag stripped off in central London's Kensington Gardens last April and indulged in a series of lewd acts.

Bollag, from west London, denied a charge of outraging public decency, and opted for a crown court trial. He was bailed on the condition that he does not enter the park again before it begins.

Magistrates heard Bollag had been pleasuring himself before 'thrusting' into an unspecified tree in the park, which it situated next to Kensington Palace.

The court further heard that the investment manager, whose LinkedIn profile says works at Oakley Capital, rammed soil into his underwear and rubbed his crotch.

Archive (original link - warning, it's The Daily Fail)

Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, she attributed the party's worst-ever defeat - in which it was reduced to just 121 seats - to the party pursuing an "idiotic strategy of intermittently and inconsistently making 'Tory Right' noises which disintegrated when set against our liberal Conservative record".

"I say again, whatever some of my colleagues think, the voters aren't mugs: they saw what we did in office and ignored what we insincerely said while campaigning," she added.

The former home secretary - who retained her seat of Fareham and Waterlooville but with a much-reduced majority - blamed "high taxes" and "high immigration" as well as "insane political correctness" she believed the party had embraced for the scale of the defeat.

Keir Starmer, one of four children, was brought up in the town of Oxted on the Kent-Surrey border.

He was raised by his toolmaker father and nurse mother, who suffered from a debilitating form of arthritis known as Still’s disease.

Sir Keir has spoken about the challenges of growing up at a time of high inflation in the 1970s.

“If you’re working class, you’re scared of debt,” he said during the election campaign.

“My mum and dad were scared of debt, so they would choose the bill that they wouldn’t pay.” The choice was the phone bill.

Sir Keir had a lot going on in his younger years.

He was obsessed with football (on the centre-left of midfield, of course). He was a talented musician and learnt violin with Norman Cook, who went on to become chart-topping DJ Fatboy Slim.

Sir Keir also had a rebellious streak. He and his friends were once caught by police illegally selling ice-cream on a French beach to raise cash.

But what about politics? There were always clues, including his name which was given to him as a tribute to the first leader of the Labour Party, Keir Hardie.

Sir Keir dabbled in left-wing politics over the course of his pre-parliamentary life.

That started at school, when he joined the Young Socialists, Labour’s youth movement.

After school, Sir Keir became the first person in his family to go to university, studying law at Leeds University and later at Oxford.

At Leeds, he was influenced by the indie music of the 1980s, from The Smiths and The Wedding Present to Orange Juice and Aztec Camera.

His biographer, Tom Baldwin, notes his favourite drink as a student was a mix of beer and cider - or Snakebite - and he had a taste for curry and chips.

For a while after graduating, Sir Keir lived above a brothel in north London.

Allen Ray McGrew, 41, from South Carolina, was seen dancing in his star-spangled suit on his favorite holiday as members of the neighborhood gathered for a street party in Summerville, Dorchester County. Carelessly enjoying the festivities, Allen was seeing dancing a jig just minutes before tragedy struck.

His wife Paige told how her husband had placed the large firework on top of his head to "show off" after drinking for several hours during the day, reports the Post and Courier. Paige told the publication: "He was holding this firework over his top hat I thought he was just showboating before he set it on the ground. I didn’t realize he had already lit it."

Paige described how she urged her husband to stop before it suddenly erupted and he fell to the floor. Coroner Paul Brouthers said the exploding device caused massive head injuries that would have killed McGrew instantly. He was officially pronounced dead at the scene at 11:10 p.m.

The grieving widow said her husband died doing what he loved, adding how July 4 was his favorite holiday. Paige said: "Allen loved this holiday," she said. "He was a patriot; he was proud of his son and he was excited to have a new daughter-in-law. He was living his best life last night."

Firefighters from the Colorado Springs Fire Department were dispatched about 4:45 a.m. on June 26 to a home on the city's south side for a reported fire, according to a Facebook post. The homeowners had alerted authorities of a "fire on the stove in their home that had been extinguished by one of the homeowners."

Firefighters and rescue teams didn't find an active fire when they got to the home and learned a resident had extinguished the blaze before crews arrived, the department said. The resident was hospitalized for smoke inhalation. No other injuries were reported.

But investigators found an interesting culprit when they examined surveillance footage from the home.

"After talking to the homeowners and looking through their home security footage, we determined their pup got a bit curious and accidentally switched on the oven which had some boxes on top of it," the fire department said.

Video footage captured by the home's security camera shows the dog jumping on the stove and sniffing the boxes before scampering away. Seconds after dog leaves, the boxes on the stove catch fire and the whole kitchen is engulfed in smoke.

On social media videos, audiences throw packs of tissues around the cinema halls. Tearful TikToks from across Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore show friends leaving the cinema weeping. Thailand’s latest hit film, How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies, has reduced audiences across south-east Asia to tears – and broken box office records.

The film, about a university dropout who offers to care for his terminally ill grandma, hoping to inherit her house, has reportedly earned 334m Thai baht ($9.1m) at the Thai box office and become the most successful Thai film ever in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.

It is the latest success story for films made in Thailand and south-east Asia, which, while Hollywood has grappled with strikes and production delays, have captured audiences across the region and boosted the cinema industry.

“Covid, and industry issues that impacted Hollywood product flow, have ushered [in] a period of growth for local and regional films, in some cases with record-breaking results,” said Rance Pow, of Artisan Gateway, a film consultancy.

In Indonesia, the horror film KKN di Desa Penari (KKN in Dancer’s Village) sold more than 10m tickets in 2022, according to local media, becoming the country’s highest-grossing locally made film. The Vietnamese romance Mai, released in February, has become the highest-grossing Vietnam-produced film of all time at home and in North America and Europe, according to Deadline.

While screens are being closed down in the US, Indonesia’s biggest chain, Cinema XXI, listed on the Indonesian stock exchange last year, while in Thailand new cinemas are being opened.