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Politics
Policy, power, and the news of the day.
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BT on track for estimated £2bn windfall from selling old copper amid AI boom
Telecoms company to benefit from rollout of full-fibre broadband and soaring prices for recycled metal BT is on track for an estimated £2bn-plus windfall over the next decade from selling off old copper cabling, as it cashes in on soaring prices amid the AI market frenzy and switches the UK’s network to full-fibre broadband. Copper is one of the main beneficiaries of the “electrification of everything” , essential for the rapid growth of AI data centres, electronics and the fast-growing renewable energy industry. Continue reading...
Cisco probably violated Middle Eastern and Muslim employees’ civil rights, US agency finds
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission finds ‘reasonable cause to believe’ tech firm subjected workers spoke up about Palestine to hostile work environment The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the agency tasked with enforcing federal anti-discrimination laws, has found that Cisco, the global tech company, probably violated the civil rights of Middle Eastern, Muslim and other company employees. The determination, reached earlier this summer, is believed to be the first by the federal agency finding a major company at fault in connection to pro-Palestinian advocacy that swept campuses and workplaces in recent years. Continue reading...
South African airline defends dramatic low-level flyby before rugby union clash
Cape Town stunt sparks major debate over safety risks Airlink insist flyby conducted according to regulations A pre-game stunt involving two passenger jets flying dramatically low over a stadium in South Africa drew huge cheers from the estimated crowd of around 56,000 people, but also sparked a major debate over safety risks. The flyby by two Embraer jets, operated by local airline Airlink, happened on Saturday before the second rugby union Test between South Africa and New Zealand in Cape Town. Continue reading...
Nepal rescuers race to reach hundreds feared trapped in hydropower tunnels
Workers thought to be stuck in underground areas at 11 sites after last week’s devastating flash floods Rescue teams are working to reach more than 900 missing hydropower workers, hundreds of whom are feared trapped in the tunnels and underground areas of 11 hydropower projects in Nepal after the devastating flash floods , the country’s disaster management authority has said. The death toll from the unprecedented deluge of ice, rock, mud and debris on Wednesday last week has risen to 903, with 16 more dead reported in Tibet. Nearly 5,000 are missing on the two sides of the border. Continue reading...
British family plead with French authorities to release body of relative who died in the Channel
Jasmeet Wadhwa, who fled Taliban persecution in Afghanistan, lost his life in April A British family is pleading with French authorities to release the body of a relative that officials have held for five months after he died in the Channel in April. Jasmeet Wadhwa, 32, died while attempting to reach the UK on a dinghy on 1 April with his mother, Harbans Kaur Wadhwa, after they fled Taliban persecution in Afghanistan in January of this year. Continue reading...
Georgia police officer put on leave after family’s pet donkey killed during search
Donkey named HeeHaw was shot and killed as authorities reportedly looked on property in search of a missing person A police officer in the US state of Georgia was placed on leave after a family’s pet baby donkey was shot and killed during an early-morning search on their property. The animal’s owner, Hannah Israel, said officers were at her pasture without notification or permission at about 12.45am on Sunday, reportedly looking for a missing person when they encountered the small male donkey named HeeHaw. Continue reading...
Iran’s economy in crisis as US launches new sanctions campaign
Trump’s Operation Economic Outcast is expected to push many Iranians into deeper poverty as food inflation soars For many Iranians, the new US sanctions campaign, called Operation Economic Outcast, seems superfluous given the grim economic situation in their country. Iranians are facing runaway food inflation, closed petrol stations and a seemingly never-ending depreciation of the nation’s currency caused by a lack of foreign exchange reserves. Continue reading...
Smelling test: children need education in sniffing aromas, scientist says
Exclusive: Dr Will Tullett says better understanding of scents can improve wellbeing and perception of the world Children need a better education in sniffing aromas, a leading historian of smells has said, noting it may improve their wellbeing and help them understand the world around them. Dr Will Tullett, of the University of York, said pollution had been found to impair people’s olfactory abilities, while many objects and substances today – from margarines to car interiors and even our own homes – were stripped of their original smells and “reodourised” with synthetic scents. Continue reading...
Ministers consider closing social mobility watchdog as part of planned shake-up
Exclusive: Labour MPs believe SMC has become ineffective and its work ‘should be a core function of government’ Ministers are considering a shake-up of the government’s social mobility watchdog that could range from giving it more teeth to abolishing it outright. The move comes amid concerns that the Social Mobility Commission (SMC) – originally conceived under Gordon Brown’s government in 2010 – has become ineffective. Continue reading...
Can Reform UK recover from its summer horribilis?
Clacton, funding, internal divisions – party prepares for annual conference next week after a season of missteps Senior Reform UK figures like to boast that the summer time – and parliament’s longest recess – is when the party makes hay. Supposedly, it’s when Nigel Farage and co can muscle in on the news cycle with provocative statements and new policies, painting “establishment” opponents as workshy layabouts. Continue reading...
Defence spending is an insatiable beast. John Healey is right to tame it | John McTernan
The MoD grossly overspends then claims poverty. It’s high time it was treated as just one part of a progressive government Nowhere was the confidence of the prime minister, Andy Burnham, shown as clearly as in his appointment of chancellor. There were weeks of speculation that this appointment was a choice between the energy secretary, Ed Miliband, and the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, with their contrasting political economies. It has been a hallmark of Burnham’s politics that he and his team do not get involved in briefing wars, so it was only when former defence secretary John Healey appeared in Downing Street together with Mahmood that it was clear that the prime minister had cut the Gordian knot, reassuring the markets with a cool, calm political operator with extensive Treasury experience as chancellor. Healey’s two years in defence meant that he would know both sides of the argument when it came to one of the biggest questions of the forthcoming budget: how to meet the bold new Nato defence spending targets without derailing the social ambitions of the Burnham government. Continue reading...
Grand Canyon braces for more storms after flash flood leaves one person dead
National park officials say body of a man, 46, was recovered and about 15 others remain missing or unaccounted for The Grand Canyon area braced for more rain and thunderstorms on Monday after a flash flood that left one person dead and about 15 others missing or unaccounted for – with scores of visitors evacuated and the only water pipeline for tourists and residents destroyed. Emergency water restrictions that began on Monday prevented tourists from staying overnight at lodges and hotels within the park. Year-round residents were asked to conserve water. Continue reading...
The London office, the empty boxes and the £1bn tax loophole
Exclusive: How a court case over an unoccupied office block could end a widely used tax avoidance scheme From the outside, the seven-storey building at 2 America Square looks like any other office block in the heart of London’s financial district. Located about half a mile from Tower Bridge, one might expect it to be a hive of commercial activity, teeming with employees holding important meetings. However, much of the property is home not to staff vying for their next bonus, but to stacks of nondescript black boxes arranged in neat lines. Continue reading...
AI is hurting US politics. Here’s how candidates could use it for good | Bruce Schneier and Nathan E Sanders
The technology can help candidates listen more deeply to voters, as examples from Japan and Scotland show There are plenty of signs that AI will make all of our experiences of the US midterm elections worse. Voters have anxiety about AI’s impacts on the country. Politicos are using AI deepfakes to spread lies. The White House is posting slopaganda . Meanwhile, candidates are missing a real opportunity to use AI to make campaigning better. The technology can help candidates listen more deeply to voters’ concerns, engage constituents more inclusively, and formulate policy platforms that are more responsive to our input. There are vanishingly few examples of this in US politics, but groups in Japan, Scotland and the US’s own academic and private institutions show how that could change. Continue reading...
Countries legally obliged to consider slavery reparations, says UN committee
Guidance says states must implement ‘comprehensive measures’ to address legacy of racial discrimination A UN committee has said countries are legally obliged to consider reparations for the transatlantic slave trade and take other measures to address the enduring legacy of racial discrimination. Guidance published on Monday by the committee on the elimination of racial discrimination (CERD) said the obligations arose from a legally binding 1965 convention on racial discrimination, not from the legal standards that existed when the slave trade took place. Continue reading...
Cross-party talks needed to tackle climate crisis, say Lib Dems
Andy Burnham urged to seek consensus over response to extreme heat and forthcoming ‘super El Niño’ Andy Burnham should call a cross-party meeting to discuss the UK’s response to worsening extreme weather, including the forthcoming ‘super El Niño’ , the Liberal Democrats have said. The prime minister chaired a Cobra emergency meeting on the drought earlier this month but there has been little from the government on the wider threats posed by five successive heatwaves since May and expected global issues with food shortages and inflation. Continue reading...
‘Revenge of the Rust belt’: Starbucks film-maker on Baristas vs Billionaires
Director Mark Mori followed coffee chain workers’ struggle to unionize: ‘These young kids are so inspirational’ As the food service industry was pushed on to the frontlines of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021, workers at Starbucks stores in the Buffalo region of New York went public to announce their union-organizing campaign. Their efforts, and Starbucks’ responses, have culminated in one of the most expansive union-organizing campaigns – and one of the most aggressive union- busting campaigns – in modern US history. Continue reading...
In a town in the heart of the US, Israeli settler violence in West Bank hits close to home
War on Gaza and violence in West Bank is playing out in the streets of Toledo, Ohio, where the Arab American community has flourished From his office outside Toledo, Ohio, Thamin Tim Ridi opens his phone to livestream the scene outside the besieged house of his brother, Loui, thousands of miles away in the occupied West Bank. This month, with his property at risk of being destroyed by Israeli settlers, Loui traveled from Ohio to his ancestral home in Qusra , south of Nablus, where his mother and other family members have been living in constant fear of attack. Continue reading...
French high schools rush to put Macron’s phone ban into force
Unions say ban will take time to enact, while president also wants under-15s social media ban as key legacy French high schools are rushing to put in place a hurriedly signed off ban on mobile phones this week as Emmanuel Macron pushes for children to spend less time in front of screens. Education unions warned that banning mobile phone use in lycées – where children are aged 15 to 18 – would be hard to implement quickly. Continue reading...
Desperate rescue attempts continue in Nepal to reach people thought to be trapped | First Thing
Death toll from unprecedented deluge of ice, rock, mud and debris now stands at more than 900. Plus, was it a mistake to take away Pluto’s planet status? Good morning. Rescue teams are working to reach hundreds of people feared trapped in the tunnels and underground areas of half a dozen hydropower projects in Nepal as more than 900 workers were reported missing after the devastating flash floods. The death toll from the unprecedented deluge of ice, rock, mud and debris that crashed through valleys of Nepal on Wednesday last week has risen to 903 people, with 16 reported dead on the Tibet side of the border. More than 4,000 are missing in Nepal, with another 500 in Tibet. Hundreds of bodies, many unidentified, have been buried in shallow graves. How large is the rescue operation? Nepal’s prime minister, Balendra Shah, said almost 21,000 security personnel were involved in the rescue operations, besides civilian workers and volunteers. China’s state-run CCTV reported that Beijing had mobilised more than 2,100 rescue workers. The Red Cross has estimated that more than 90,000 people are likely to have been affected by the disaster, which China and some experts linked to the effects of the climate crisis. Why has the disaster sparked a racism row in Australia? A slew of racist social media comments have been made towards missing Australians . Most of them were on pilgrimages, including to Mount Kailash in Tibet. Mainstream media outlets including News Corp, Channel 7, Channel 10 and Nine have been hit with highly offensive and discriminatory comments on Facebook articles identifying the missing Australians. What has Donald Trump claimed US forces are doing? Hours after the attacks, US president Donald Trump claimed in a social media post that Iran’s energy hub of Kharg Island was being “blown to smithereens” but gave no further details. The White House and the US defense department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Attacking Kharg, which handled 90% of Iran’s oil exports before the war, would severely disrupt the Islamic republic’s energy trade and put huge pressure on its economy. Continue reading...
Morocco not to blame for Ceuta border breach, says Spanish PM
Pedro Sánchez says two countries are cooperating after mass incursion by 70,000 people into north African enclave Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has insisted there was no evidence to suggest the Moroccan government was behind last month’s massive border crossing into Ceuta . As many as 141 people are thought to have died trying to enter the Spanish enclave at the end of July. The influx of about 70,000 men, women and children unleashed a political crisis, a humanitarian emergency and reignited tensions over immigration within the EU . Continue reading...
House Democrat to launch challenge to Trump’s ‘Lake America’ order – US politics live
Debbie Dingell plans to introduce her ‘Hands Off Our Great Lakes Act’ today following president’s latest escalation in US-Canada trade war Canada erects giant ‘Lake Ontario’ sign as spat with Trump over name escalates Sign up for US Breaking News emails Donald Trump on Sunday said NBC ’s Kristen Welker – host of Meet the Press – should face “rebuke or punishment” from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Welker, during a live segment for a local Washington DC affiliate, described the success record of political candidates whom the president had endorsed as “mixed”. The segment aired prior to Sunday’s edition of Meet the Press. Continue reading...
Badenoch to reshuffle shadow cabinet following Patel and Cleverly resignations
Tory leader expected to install Tom Tugendhat as shadow foreign secretary as Cleverly quits to run for London mayor Kemi Badenoch is to reshuffle her shadow cabinet on Monday, and is expected to install Tom Tugendhat as shadow foreign secretary to replace Priti Patel. Tugendhat, a former security minister, was a leadership candidate who had previously declined to join the shadow cabinet. Badenoch is also expected to replace James Cleverly, the shadow communities secretary, who has resigned from the shadow cabinet to run for London mayor . Continue reading...
US man says ‘hold tight’ to loved ones after wife and toddler killed by lightning
Kameron Glasgow of Florida honors wife Kenya and daughter Kennedi at local vigil after last week’s tragedy A Florida man whose wife and toddler daughter were killed by a lightning strike while he was near them recently has implored people to “hold … tight” to their loved ones. Kameron Glasgow made that arresting remark to local media at a weekend gathering honoring the memories of his wife, Kenya, and two-year-old daughter Kennedi after they died on 23 August from an exceedingly rare cause. Continue reading...