SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
A missile test involving Britain's Trident nuclear deterrent system ended in failure off the coast of Florida last year, a US defense official with direct knowledge of the incident told CNN on Monday.
The official told CNN that the incident, which happened last June in an the area off the Florida coast used by the US and the UK for missile tests, did not in involve a nuclear warhead.
Britain's Sunday Times newspaper reported that the missile veered towards the US coast, but the US official told CNN that this trajectory was part of an automatic self-destruct sequence. The official said the missile diverted into the ocean -- an automatic procedure when missile electronics detect an anomaly.
A month after the test, the UK parliament approved the renewal of Trident at a cost of £40 billion. Unaware of the failure, members of the House of Commons voted by 472 votes to 117 in favor of renewal.
On Sunday, British Prime Minister Theresa May was asked four times during an interview with the BBC's Andrew Marr Show whether she knew of the missile failure before the vote. May refused to answer.
Source:
http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/23/europe/trident-missile-failure-theresa-may/index.html
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 2) by theluggage on Tuesday January 24 2017, @12:30PM
The US press could learn a lesson from the UK press.
They won't, because this was the evil state-run BBC and not the wonderful independent free press - and the US (along with UK right-wingers) gets terribly confused between "free" as in "freedom" and "free" as in "free to sell out to the highest bidder".
The UK "free" (meaning commercial) press is much like the US press (and run by some of the same people!) and is constantly shilling for the abolition or neutering of the BBC.
Thing is, the "free" (meaning commercial) press is "free" to follow the political and business interests of its owners, while the BBC, being "state-run", is publicly accountable, and laced with checks and balances to ensure that it is impartial and independent of government. If someone wants to influence the commercial press, they just have to cut them a cheque (literally or figuratively). Influencing the BBC is much harder.
Trouble is, the BBCs independence from party politics largely comes from having a ring-fenced 'independent' tax in the form of the TV licence fee, so its not continually competing with government departments for a slice of general taxation. The license fee is getting hard to enforce and justify in the internet age...
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 24 2017, @01:42PM
Also, US politicians blacklist reporters from interviews and press conferences is they ask too many hard questions.
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Tuesday January 24 2017, @05:57PM
The BBC is state-owned, but not state-run.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk