Society's Child
While many Brits flocked to the nearest water source in an attempt to stay cool in the high temperatures, over a dozen did not come out, with at least 17 drownings recorded in reservoirs, canals, lakes, and other bodies of water in just a few days, according to reports.
Many of the victims were teenagers, with the body of the latest - a 14-year-old boy who went missing while swimming near Steetley Pier in Hartlepool - found on Thursday, following a coastguard search.
According to the Daily Mail newspaper, at least 17 others also drowned during the heatwave, which started late last week and continued to rise this week. The majority of cases were recorded on Sunday, July 18, when temperatures in London reached 30 degrees Celsius. Seven people reportedly drowned that day, at least two of them teenagers.

USWNT is fighting for equal pay while battling for a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics.
The USWNT filed their opening brief with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday, asking the court to reverse the district court's May 2020 decision to dismiss most of their equal pay suit against the U.S. Soccer Federation.
The brief argues that the summary judgment that was issued in May 2020 was inherently flawed and failed to consider the overwhelming evidence that USWNT are underpaid compared to their male counterparts, despite being the most dominant team in international soccer history. The federal judge who heard the case ruled that the USWNT's claims of equal pay weren't sufficient to warrant a trial because they're being paid under the terms of the contract they'd signed.

Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Contee says the justice system is coddling "violent criminals" and leading to more shootings.
During a visit to the scene of the crime, Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Contee declared that, "the justice system that we have right now, it is not functioning the way that it should," adding, "I'm mad as hell about this."
"I'm saying to you, enough is enough," Contee fumed during his seven-minute diatribe.
While most of the suspects came from across the country, digital forensic experts had picked out people from the US, Austria, Switzerland and France on suspicion of possessing or sharing images of child sex abuse in the chat groups.
According to a press statement from Bavarian police, the suspects were being evaluated as part of "two large-scale trials" being prepared by police and prosecutors. If convicted, all suspects, including the minors, would be looking at a prison term of "not less than a year."
Despite lower crime levels in the country during the Covid lockdowns, some forces doubled the number of crime investigations they "screened out". One in seven crimes reported last year were allegedly abandoned within a day of police opening investigations into them.
The shocking figures, revealed in freedom of information requests by the Daily Mail, showed that police probes into some 432,634 crimes were ditched within a day - or about 1,185 crimes per day last year. The paper noted that the true figure was likely at least twice that amount since less than half of the UK's police forces shared their data.

Bill de Blasio's remarks on WNYC came just two days after he imposed a mandate on employees of the city's public hospital system and the Health Department's community clinics.
De Blasio's remarks on WNYC came just two days after he imposed a mandate on employees of the city's public hospital system and the Health Department's community clinics to finally get vaccinated or face weekly coronavirus testing.
"We tried purely voluntary for over half a year. We tried every form of incentives," he said during his weekly appearance on WNYC's The Brian Lehrer Show. "But now we've got to go further, we've reached the limits of a purely voluntary system."
"It's time for more mandates," he added.
Comment:
- Tagged: California city to require its employees to wear 'vaccine stickers' to work without masks
- Comprehensive analysis of 50 states shows greater spread with mask mandates
- Fauci flip flops AGAIN, now admits wearing a mask while fully vaccinated was political theater
'The carrot is no longer going to work': CNN exec says in leaked email that US should rethink 'carrot vs. stick' vaccination drive

A young child injured during a recent attack on homes in Jurin, a Syrian village near the frontlines of Idlib.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres celebrated the extension of a "humanitarian" border crossing at Bab Al Hawa on July 10 as a "lifeline for millions of people" - many Syrians would rather describe it as a "lifeline" for Al-Qaeda.
On July 15, I visited Jurin, a village to the north of the Hama governorate and only 5km from the Syrian-allied military frontlines with the Al-Qaeda-dominated armed groups controlling Idlib in northwest Syria. We arrived at around 9a.m. to the boom of mortar and rocket fire from the Jabal az Zawiya mountain that is under the control of Turkish-backed armed groups. Jurin is in the Al Ghab plains at the foot of two mountain ranges, and is an easy target for the elevated terrorist positions on Jabal az Zawiya.
Comment: See also:
- Russia's about-face on Syria's Idlib is the opening gambit of a larger diplomatic chess game
- Risk of Afghan instability 'overflowing' across region, Russian FM says, as Taliban insurgents gain ground following US withdrawal
- US intends to use 'humanitarian aid' shipments to Syrian camp to supply militants destabilizing the region - Russia, Syria report

Christopher Steele, a former British spy who wrote a 2016 dossier about alleged links between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, leaves the High Court in London following a hearing in the libel case brought against him by Russian businessman Aleksej Gubarev.
On July 17, The Daily Telegraph brought to public attention that Independent SAGE, the highly controversial scientist collective advocating for excessively harsh coronavirus restrictions, was the creation of The Citizens, a shadowy campaign organization led by Guardian journalist Carole Cadwalladr.
In response, Cadwalladr took to Twitter to rubbish the "scoop," noting that the connection between the two groups had been acknowledged on Independent SAGE's website for 17 months - which is true, although the scientist collective seems very much keen to downplay it, merely referring to The Citizens as "a small support team" helping with public events and media activities.
Comment: See also:
- Head of Independent Sage to launch international climate change group
- Western focus is 'Russian disinformation', but the real problem is 'British disinformation' as the Carole Cadwalladr libel case reveals
- Brexit campaign donor Banks gloats after report journalist Carole Cadwalladr 'admits having no evidence' of his Russia dealings
- Ex-MI6 spy Christopher Steele 'produced second dossier on Donald Trump for FBI'
- New Comey email raises additional questions about his use and defense of The Steele Dossier
- First Trump declassified Russia document: Christopher Steele's 2017 confession to the FBI
- Fired, bumbling MI6 operative Christopher Steele turned inventing Russian 'intelligence' into a lucrative cottage industry

Cleveland Indians designated hitter Franmil Reyes celebrates his three-run home run in the third inning against the Tampa Bay Rays at Progressive Field, Cleveland, Ohio.
The team announced the change on Friday, releasing a slick video in which actor Tom Hanks declares "we are all Guardians." The name itself is a reference to a pair of Art Deco statues located on the Lorain-Carnegie Bridge between downtown Cleveland and the Ohio City neighborhood, known as the Guardians of Traffic.
Comment: See also:
- Trump rips Washington Redskins, Cleveland Indians for eyeing name changes to be 'politically correct'
- Redskins change name to 'Lizard People' to better represent population of Washington, DC
- Aunt Jemima brand to change name, remove image that Quaker says is 'based on a racial stereotype'
- Oh boy! Boy Scouts just lost 425,000 boys in 1 week - after announcing it will change its name by leaving out 'boy'
The Pentagon on Wednesday denied it "secured the services" of Moonshot CVE, an extremism analysis company that considers the web search "the truth about Black Lives Matter" and others to be signs of interest in or engagement with White supremacism.
Defense One reported last month that Moonshot CVE, which has ties to the Obama Foundation, was working on data that would identify which military bases and branches had the most troops searching for domestic extremist content. While that particular project's contours were unclear, the company had released a June report, in conjunction with the left-leaning Anti-Defamation League, on purported "White supremacy trends in the United States."









Comment: It's worth something that the police are catching these predators and perverts, even though the sentences for these abhorrent crimes seems to be increasingly lenient. That these crimes appear to be on the rise probably reflects the sickness present in Western civilisation.
It's also notable that the police don't seem to be so quick to act when the criminals involved are high profile personalities, with a number of examples showing the cases were held back until the offender died, if not their crimes being buried completely: