This is Northumberland Calling 13.6.25
The Holding the Beer edition
Hello America (particularly Central Ohio) this is Northumberland calling.
Everything was up ended this morning with Israel’s attack on Iran. The operation is on going and thus lots will be out of date by the time you read this.
Israel appear to have won the first honours. It sort of seems like Mossad saying – hold my beer to the Ukrainian special forces with the bases inside Iran and drones being launched from vehicles to target individuals as well as ballistic and cruise missile sites. They also apparently did something which meant they knew certain members of the command would congregate in a certain spot. It sounds like Mossad has very good intelligence and several active cells in Iran. Hardly news when you think about it as they got Haniyeh in Iran. Just amazing. And I look forward to learning more about the operation in due course.
The Jerusalem Post has a good article about Iran’s arrogance, particularly that of the now deceased head of the IRCG. https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/article-857591
It remains to be seen if this enables Iranian resistance to the hard line Islamist regime to topple it. But this will take weeks. I know where my prayers lie.
So it is all watch, wait and hope. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/06/13/israel-attacks-iran-latest-news-nuclear-sites-war/
In other news.
The miracle of seat 11 A – the British citizen who was the sole survivor of the Air India crash. Sometimes your number just isn’t up. I suspect it will be very hard for him to adjust. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/06/12/how-did-british-passenger-survive-air-india-plane-crash/ or https://archive.ph/DO7kN
When you need a trigger warning for trigger warnings…a manual on trigger warnings for Museum Development North now has a trigger warning. Truly, sometimes, you have to laugh. How did people get through life without being warned? https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/06/13/museums-trigger-toolkit-warnings-heritage-history-training/ or https://archive.ph/lBSUb
Edinburgh Literary Festival has managed to platform people who threatened to boycott if they didn’t cut ties with Ballie Gifford, but did not bother to platform Gender Critical authors (despite the GC author events often selling out). The main sponsor of the Edinburgh Literary Festival is the Scottish Government. https://www.thetimes.com/article/086b2220-9be8-41a8-b2da-5acb232ba650?shareToken=c81737caeb57f0b703109b7d0625a51a
More evidence of Pride Fatigue as fewer and fewer companies show their colours. This time the Telegraph looked at law firms, particularly the large firms which also have US counterparts. Due to Trump, they are not advertising the Price credentials this year. https://archive.ph/14UUk
Tomorrow is not only Flag Day in the US but also Trooping of the Colour or the King’s Official Birthday. Pomp and circumstance as only the British can do. (although I suspect the parade in Washington will be quite the spectacle.) It is the Coldstream Guards turn to troop the colour. The king will travel in a carriage. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2025/06/13/trooping-the-colour-when-how-to-watch/ or https://www.bbc.com/mediacentre/2025/trooping-the-colour-king-charles-official-birthday
If you believe AI companies should license creative works for training, not take them without permission. Join me in urging Congress and the president to protect creators' rights! Yes as an American citizen, I can lobby the President and my members of Congress even though I live abroad. The Authors’ Guild has done a handy template to send. https://copyrightalliance.org/get-involved/take-action/
Here:
It is swarming weather. One of the hives was ready to swarm on Tuesday so I did an artificial swarm after I found the sealed Queen cell and have seen the old Queen. Thus far, it looks like it work. The nuke (four brood frames plus the frame of brood with the Queen from the old hive) is place where the old hive was. The old hive with its one Queen cell is moved some distance away. The bees will now think they have swarmed. The old hive sets about making a new queen and the old queen starts a new colony…. I suspect I will have to do this with the other colony on Saturday. A swarm in June is worth a silver spoon.
The new hens seemed to go off lay. I tried upping their feed and they have duly started laying again, so I wasn’t feeding them enough. It is always trial and error with livestock. Having a supply of eggs is great.
Paddy has low tolerance for buzzy things. He leaves the hen pen alone. He is at war with the rabbits and the rats. Spaniel Pest Control.
My writing goes okay. I remain waiting for my new editor’s thoughts. I do enjoy escaping into the Regency period. The BBC have done a good miniseries called Jane Austen: Rise of a genius in honour of her 250 birthday. Watch it when it comes on PBS. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002661h
I have no plans to put a paywall on, so please subscribe. If you want to reward me, consider buying one of my books. Amazon kindle currently has Gladiator’s Honour which I sold to Harlequin 20 years ago this week on special at 50 cents. If you have kindle unlimited Sent As the Viking’s Bride is currently free to read.
Coffee and Covid has an interesting take on the Israel attack and it makes perfect sense to me. There was literally no opposition from Iran even though they supposedly have great air defenses.
No doubt some US judge will tell Israel they can’t attack anymore. And no doubt on Saturday we will see protests against Israel and FOR Iran from the dumbest and most hateful among us.
https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/prematurely-friday-june-13-2025-c
A really wonderful roundup Michelle. Your’s & Ceila’s substack are steadying when most news sources emulate the four horses of the apocalypse & gaslight for good measure. It’s the latter that is quite tiring.
Blessings from across the pond 🙏