ReportWire

Tag: United Kingdom government

  • Britain’s unpopular government prepares a high-stakes budget and hopes for growth

    LONDON (AP) — After being elected in a landslide last year, Britain’s Labour Party government delivered a budget it billed as a one-off dose of tax hikes to fix the public finances, get debt down, ease the cost of living and spur economic growth.

    A year on, inflation remains stubbornly high, government borrowing is up and the economy is turgid. The annual budget, due on Wednesday, is expected to bring more tax hikes in pursuit of the same elusive economic boom.

    Rain Newton-Smith, head of business group the Confederation of British Industry, said Monday that “it feels less like we’re on the move, and more like we’re stuck in ‘Groundhog Day.’”

    It’s not just businesses who are concerned. Alarmed by the government’s consistently dire poll ratings, some Labour lawmakers are mulling the once-unthinkable idea of ousting Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who led them to victory less than 18 months ago.

    Luke Tryl, director of pollster More in Common, said voters “don’t understand why there has not been positive change.

    “This could be a last-chance saloon moment for the government.”

    Not much room for maneuver

    The government says Treasury chief Rachel Reeves will make “tough but right decisions” in her budget to ease the cost of living, safeguard public services and keep debt under control.

    She has limited room for maneuver. Britain’s economy, the world’s sixth-largest, has underperformed its long-run average since the global financial crisis of 2008-2009, and the center-left Labour government elected in July 2024 has struggled to deliver promised economic growth.

    Like other Western economies, Britain’s public finances have been squeezed by the costs of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war and U.S. President Donald Trump’s global tariffs. The U.K. bears the extra burden of Brexit, which has knocked billions off the economy since the country left the European Union in 2020.

    The government currently spends more than 100 billion pounds ($130 billion) a year servicing the U.K.’s debt, which stands at around 95% of annual national income.

    Adding to pressure is the fact that Labour governments historically have had to work harder than Conservative administrations to convince businesses and the financial markets that they are economically sound.

    Reeves is mindful of how financial markets can react when the government’s numbers don’t add up. The short-lived premiership of Liz Truss ended in October 2022 after her package of unfunded tax cuts roiled financial markets, drove down the value of the pound and sent borrowing costs soaring.

    Luke Hickmore, an investment director at Aberdeen Investments, said the bond market is the “ultimate reality check” for budget policy.

    “If investors lose faith, the cost of borrowing rises sharply, and political leaders have little choice but to change course,” he said.

    Mixed pre-budget signals

    The government has ruled out public spending cuts of the kind seen during 14 years of Conservative government, and its attempts to cut Britain’s huge welfare bill have been stymied by Labour lawmakers.

    That leaves tax increases as the government’s main revenue-raising option.

    “We’re very much not in the position that Rachel Reeves hoped to be in,” said Jill Rutter, a senior fellow at the Institute for Government think tank.

    Instead of an economy that has “sparked into life,” enabling higher spending and lower taxes, Rutter said Reeves must decide whether “to fill a big fiscal black hole with tax increases or spending cuts.”

    The budget comes after weeks of messy mixed messaging that saw Reeves signal she would raise income tax rates – breaking a key election promise – before hastily reversing course.

    In a Nov. 4 speech, Reeves laid the groundwork for income tax hikes by arguing that the economy is sicker and the global outlook worse than the government knew when it took office.

    After an outcry among Labour lawmakers, and a better-than-expected update on the public finances, the government signaled it preferred a smorgasbord of smaller revenue-raising measures such as a “mansion tax” on expensive homes and a pay-per-mile tax for electric vehicle drivers.

    The government will try to ease the sting with sweeteners including an above-inflation boost to pension payments for millions of retirees and a freeze on train fares.

    Critics say more taxes on employees and businesses, following tax hikes on businesses in last year’s budget, will push the economy further into a low-growth doom loop.

    Patrick Diamond, professor in public policy at Queen Mary University of London, said satisfying both markets and voters is difficult.

    “You can give markets confidence, but that probably means raising taxes, which is very unpopular with voters,” he said. “On the other hand, you can give voters confidence by trying to minimize the impact of tax rises, but that makes markets nervous because they feel that the government doesn’t have a clear fiscal plan.”

    High stakes for Reeves and Starmer

    The budget comes as Starmer is facing mounting concern from Labour lawmakers over his dire poll ratings. Opinion polls consistently put Labour well behind the hard-right Reform UK party led by Nigel Farage.

    The prime minister’s office sparked a flurry of speculation earlier this month by preemptively telling news outlets that Starmer would fight any challenge to his leadership. What looked like an attempt to strengthen Starmer’s authority backfired. The reports set off jitters verging on panic among Labour lawmakers, who fear the party is heading for a big defeat at the next election.

    That election does not have to be held until 2029, and the government continues to hope that its economic measures will spur higher growth and ease financial pressures.

    But analysts say a misfiring budget could be another nail in the coffin of Starmer’s government.

    “Both Starmer and Reeves are really unpopular,” Rutter said. “They may be hanging on for now, but I don’t think people will be giving you great odds that they’ll necessarily last the course of the Parliament,” which runs until the next election.

    Source link

  • Zohran Mamdani and London’s Muslim mayor, Sadiq Khan, have much in common, but also key differences

    LONDON (AP) — He’s the left-leaning Muslim mayor of the country’s biggest city, and U.S. President Donald Trump is one of his biggest critics.

    London’s Sadiq Khan has a lot in common with New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani — but also many differences.

    Khan, who has been mayor of Britain’s capital since 2016, welcomed Mamdani’s victory, saying New Yorkers had “chosen hope over fear, unity over division.”

    Khan’s experience holds positive and negative lessons for Mamdani, the 34-year-old Democrat who beat former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa in Tuesday’s election.

    Khan has won three consecutive elections but routinely receives abuse for his faith and race, as well as criticism from conservative and far-right commentators who depict London as a crime-plagued dystopia.

    Trump has been among his harshest critics for years, calling Khan a “stone cold loser,” a “nasty person” and a “terrible mayor,” and claiming the mayor wants to bring Sharia, or Islamic law, to London.

    Khan, a keen amateur boxer, has hit back, saying in September that Trump is “racist, he is sexist, he is misogynistic and he is Islamophobic.”

    Khan told The Associated Press during a global mayors’ summit in Brazil on Wednesday that it’s “heartbreaking” but not surprising to see Mamdani receiving the same sort of abuse he gets.

    “London is liberal, progressive, multicultural, but also successful — as indeed is New York,” he said. “If you’re a nativist, populist politician, we are the antithesis of all you stand for. ”

    Attacked for their religion

    Mamdani and Khan regularly receive abuse and threats because of their Muslim faith, and London’s mayor has significantly tighter security protection than his predecessors.

    Both have tried to build bridges with the Jewish community after being criticized by opponents for their pro-Palestinian stances during the Israel-Hamas war.

    Both say their political opponents have leaned into Islamophobia. In 2016, Khan’s Conservative opponent, Zac Goldsmith, was accused of anti-Muslim prejudice for suggesting that Khan had links to Islamic extremists.

    Cuomo laughed along with a radio host who suggested Mamdani would “be cheering” another 9/11 attack. Mamdani’s Republican critics frequently, falsely call him a “jihadist” and a Hamas supporter.

    Mamdani vowed during the campaign that he would “not change who I am, how I eat, or the faith that I’m proud to call my own.”

    Khan has said he feels a responsibility to dispel myths about Muslims, and answers questions about his faith with weary good grace. He calls himself “a proud Brit, a proud Englishman, a proud Londoner and a proud Muslim.”

    Very different politicians

    Mamdani is an outsider on the left of his party, a democratic socialist whose buzzy, digital-savvy campaign energized young New Yorkers and drove the city’s biggest election turnout in a mayoral election in decades.

    Khan, 55, is a more of an establishment politician who sits in the broad middle of the center-left Labour Party.

    The son of a bus driver and a seamstress from Pakistan, Khan grew up with seven siblings in a three-bedroom public housing apartment in south London.

    He studied law, became a human rights attorney and spent a decade as a Labour Party lawmaker in the House of Commons, representing the area where he grew up, before being elected in 2016 as the first Muslim leader of a major Western capital city.

    Mamdani comes from a more privileged background as the son of an India-born Ugandan anthropologist, Mahmood Mamdani, and award-winning Indian filmmaker Mira Nair. Born in Uganda and raised from the age of 7 in New York, he worked as an adviser for tenants facing eviction before being elected to the New York State Assembly in 2020.

    Similar big-city problems

    Khan and Mamdani govern huge cities with vastly diverse populations of more than 8 million. Voters in both places have similar worries about crime and the high cost of living – big issues that many mayors struggle to address.

    Khan was won three straight elections, but he’s not an overwhelmingly popular mayor. As Mamdani may also find, the mayor gets blamed for a lot of problems, from high rents to violent crime, regardless of whether they are in his control, though Mamdani made freezing rents a pillar of his campaign.

    Mamdani campaigned on ambitious promises, including free child care, free buses, new affordable housing and city-run grocery stores.

    “Winning an election is one thing, delivering on promises is another,” said Darren Reid, an expert on U.S. politics at Coventry University. “The mayor of New York definitely does not have unlimited power, and he is going to have a very powerful enemy in the current president.”

    The mayor of London controls public transit and the police, but doesn’t have the authority of New York’s leader because power is shared with the city’s 32 boroughs, which are responsible for schools, social services and public housing in their areas.

    Khan can point to relatively modest achievements, including free school meals for all primary school pupils and a freeze on transit fares. But he has failed to meet other goals, such as ambitious house-building targets.

    Tony Travers, a professor at the London School of Economics who specializes in local government, said one lesson Mamdani might take from Khan is to pick “a limited number of fights that you can win.”

    Khan, who is asthmatic, has made it one of his main missions to clean up London’s air — once so filthy the city was nicknamed the Big Smoke. He expanded London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone, which charges the drivers of older, more polluting vehicles a daily fee to drive in the city.

    The measure became a lightning rod for criticism of Khan, spurring noisy protests and vandalism of enforcement cameras. Khan staunchly defended the zone, which research suggests has made London’s air cleaner. His big victory in last year’s mayoral election appeared to vindicate Khan’s stance on the issue.

    Travers said that beyond their shared religion and being the targets of racism, both mayors face the conundrum of leading dynamic, diverse metropolises that are “surprisingly peaceful and almost embarrassingly successful” — and resented by the rest of their countries for their wealth and the attention they receive.

    He said London is “locked in this strange alternative universe where it is simultaneously described by a number of commentators as sort of a hellhole … and yet on the other hand it’s so embarrassingly rich that British governments spend their lives trying to level up the rest of the country to it. You can’t win.”

    ___

    Associated Press writer Eléonore Hughes in Rio de Janeiro contributed to this story.

    Source link

  • The UK says water bosses could face prison under plans to clean up sewage-clogged rivers

    The UK says water bosses could face prison under plans to clean up sewage-clogged rivers

    LONDON (AP) — The bosses of water companies that pollute waterways could go to prison under a new law the British government says will help clean up the country’s sewage-clogged rivers, lakes and beaches.

    A bill introduced in Parliament on Thursday will give regulators the ability to ban bonuses for executives of polluting firms and bring criminal charges against lawbreakers, with the possibility of up to two years’ imprisonment for executives who obstruct investigations.

    The state of Britain’s waterways made a stink during the campaign for a July 4 national election. For critics of the Conservative Party that had been in office since 2010, dirty water was a pungent symbol of Britain’s aging infrastructure and the effects of privatization of essential utilities.

    The private companies that provide combined water and sewage services routinely discharge sewage into waterways when rain overwhelms sewer systems often dating from the Victorian era. Critics say the firms have failed to invest in upgrading infrastructure – but have continued to pay dividends to shareholders.

    Water companies say they want to invest in upgrades but accuse the industry’s financial regulator, Ofwat, of not allowing them to raise customers’ bills enough to finance improvements.

    The center-left Labour Party government elected in July has promised to clean up the “unacceptable” state of Britain’s waters.

    Environment Secretary Steve Reed said that “water executives will no longer line their own pockets whilst pumping out this filth.”

    The bill, which must be approved by lawmakers, also would strengthen powers of the regulators and force water companies to publish real-time data of all sewage spills.

    Clean-water campaigner Feargal Sharkey said it was good news that “after years of denial at least there is a government prepared to accept and recognize the scale of the problem.”

    But he said existing anti-pollution laws have rarely, if ever, been used.

    “We don’t need new regulations, we don’t need new laws, we’ve got 35 years’ worth of laws that have never been applied,” Sharkey told Sky News. “You should force them to go out and apply the law as it stands today, that would have been a massive step forward.”

    Source link

  • OpenAI boss downplays fears ChatGPT maker could leave Europe over AI rules

    OpenAI boss downplays fears ChatGPT maker could leave Europe over AI rules

    LONDON (AP) — OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on Friday downplayed worries that the ChatGPT maker could exit the European Union if it can’t comply with the bloc’s strict new artificial intelligence rules, coming after a top official rebuked him for comments raising such a possibility.

    Altman is traveling through Europe as part of a world tour to meet with officials and promote his AI company, which has unleashed a frenzy around the globe.

    At a stop this week in London, he said OpenAI might leave if the artificial intelligence rules that the EU is drawing up are too tough. That triggered a pointed reply on social media from European Commissioner Thierry Breton, accusing the company of blackmail.

    Breton, who’s in charge of digital policy, linked to a Financial Times article quoting Altman saying that OpenAI “will try to comply, but if we can’t comply we will cease operating.”

    Altman sought to calm the waters a day later, tweeting: “very productive week of conversations in europe about how to best regulate AI! we are excited to continue to operate here and of course have no plans to leave.”

    The European Union is at the forefront of global efforts to draw up guardrails for artificial intelligence, with its AI Act in the final stages after years of work. The rapid rise of general purpose AI chatbots like ChatGPT caught EU officials off guard, and they scrambled to add provisions covering so-called generative AI systems, which can produce convincingly human-like conversational answers, essays, images and more in response to questions from users.

    “There is no point in attempting blackmail — claiming that by crafting a clear framework, Europe is holding up the rollout of generative #AI,” Breton said in his tweet. He added that the EU aims to “assist companies in their preparation” for the AI Act.

    Altman tweeted that his European tour includes Warsaw, Poland; Munich, Germany; Paris; Madrid; Lisbon, Portugal; and London. Brussels, headquarters of the EU, has not been mentioned.

    He has met with world leaders including British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, French President Emmanuel Macron, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

    Google CEO Sundar Pichai also has been crisscrossing Europe this week to discuss AI with officials like Scholz, European commissioners including Breton, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, and two EU lawmakers who spearheaded the Parliament’s work on the AI rules.

    “Good to discuss the need for responsible regulation and transatlantic convergence on AI,” Pichai tweeted.

    Google has released its own conversational chatbot, Bard, to compete with ChatGPT.

    Other tech company bosses have been wading into the debate this week over whether and how to regulate artificial intelligence, including Microsoft President Brad Smith, who unveiled a blueprint for public governance of AI on Thursday.

    Microsoft has invested billions in OpenAI and integrated ChatGPT-like technology into its products, including a chatbot for its Bing search engine.

    Altman told congressional lawmakers this month that AI should be regulated by a U.S. or global agency because increasingly powerful systems will need government intervention to reduce their risks.

    Altman was mobbed by students when he appeared in a “fireside chat” at University College London on Wednesday. He told the audience that the “right answer” to regulating AI is “probably something between the traditional European, U.K. approach and the traditional U.S. approach.”

    “I think you really don’t want to overregulate this before you know what shape the technology is going to be,” Altman said.

    There’s still potential to come up with “some sort of global set of norms and enforcement,” he said, adding that AI regulation has been a “recurring topic” on his world tour, which has also included stops in Toronto, Rio de Janeiro and Lagos, Nigeria.

    Source link

  • Displaced Ukrainians flock to Eurovision contest, but Zelenskyy can’t address ‘nonpolitical’ event

    Displaced Ukrainians flock to Eurovision contest, but Zelenskyy can’t address ‘nonpolitical’ event

    LIVERPOOL, England (AP) — This weekend’s Eurovision Song Contest is taking place in a city brimming with Ukrainian flags, Ukrainian food, Ukrainian musicians and Ukrainian fans: Liverpool.

    The English port city that gave the world The Beatles is using the contest to offer displaced Ukrainians a taste of home —- free from war, and glittering with sequins and sparkle.

    Britain is hosting the glitzy pan-continental music competition for the first time in 25 years after stepping in to hold it on behalf of last year’s winner, Ukraine. Organizers have vowed to make the event a celebration of Ukrainian spirit and culture.

    “I want all life to be like this – whole life Eurovision village, and whole life Eurovision celebration,” said Daryna Borodaikevych, 29, one of more than 200,000 Ukrainians who have moved to Britain since Russia invaded its neighbor almost 15 months ago.

    “Whole life united by music,” she added, echoing the motto of this year’s Eurovision competition.

    The contest’s live final show at the Liverpool Arena on Saturday was planned to have a distinctly Ukrainian flavor. Co-hosted by Ukrainian singer Julia Sanina, it will feature a performance by last year’s Eurovision winner, Kalush Orchestra, and other Ukrainian performers. Images of Ukraine will precede each of the 26 performances by acts representing nations from across Europe and beyond.

    Sanina said Friday that she hoped “that in these dark times we bring some joy and some light to Ukrainian homes and families.”

    Eurovision is Europe’s biggest musical party, and tens of thousands of music fans have flocked to Liverpool, which won a competition among U.K. cities to stand in for Ukraine. The city on the River Mersey has thrown itself into the party spirit, with many pubs and venues holding Eurovision parties.

    Businesses fly blue and yellow Ukrainian flags, and a Ukrainian village inside the waterfront Eurovision fan zone dishes out borsch soup and varenyky — potato-filled dumplings — alongside lessons in Ukrainian art and history.

    “We feel like (we’re) at home in Ukraine,” said Iryna Schcerbuk, 30, of Kyiv, who came from her new home in southeast England to watch Thursday’s Eurovision semifinal. “It’s a very beautiful atmosphere.”

    One thing missing will be Ukraine’s leader, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Eurovision organizers say they turned down his request to make a video address to Saturday’s contest final. The European Broadcasting Union, a grouping of national public broadcasters that runs Eurovision, said that letting Zelenskyy participate would breach “the nonpolitical nature of the event.”

    Zelenskyy’s request “to address the audience at the Eurovision Song Contest, whilst made with laudable intentions, regrettably cannot be granted by the European Broadcasting Union management as it would be against the rules of the event,” the organization said.

    Zelenskyy spokesman Sergii Nykyforov denied that the president had asked to speak to the event, which will be watched by an estimated 160 million people.

    “The Office of the President of Ukraine did not address the organizers of the Eurovision Song Contest to offer (Zelenskyy’s) online performance during the finals or at any other stage of the contest,” Nykyforov said on Facebook.

    During Russia’s invasion and war, Zelenskyy has addressed dozens of global gatherings to promote his country’s cause. He has spoken to legislatures around the world by video — and a few times in person — and appealed to crowds at the Glastonbury music festival, the Grammy Awards and the Berlin Film Festival.

    But he reportedly was denied permission to speak at the Academy Awards in March, and Ukraine says that FIFA, international soccer’s governing body, also refused Zelenskyy’s request to send a video message to the World Cup in November 2022.

    Founded in 1956 to help heal a continent shattered by war, Eurovision strives to keep pop and politics separate. Overtly political lyrics, signs and symbols are banned.

    But politics can’t be shut out entirely. Russia was banned from the contest after it invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Belarus was kicked out the previous year over its government’s clampdown on dissent.

    British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s spokesman said the U.K. government was “disappointed” by Eurovision organizers’ decision, though there were no plans to challenge it.

    “The values and freedoms that President Zelenskyy and the people of Ukraine are fighting for are not political, they’re fundamental,” Sunak spokesman Max Blain said.

    Liverpool is a city that has known its share of hardship. It weathered World War II bombing, the decline of its once-bustling docks and mass unemployment before reinventing itself as a center for culture and nightlife. It’s a story of resilience that strikes a chord with many Ukrainians.

    “Obviously, all of the Ukrainians would have preferred for this to have been hosted in Ukraine, if it was safe,” Maria Romanenko, who has taken more than 200 people on Ukrainian-language walking tours of Liverpool in recent days, said.

    “But we are based in the U.K., now, until Ukraine wins, and we are just glad that we can come to Liverpool,” she added. “It feels absolutely fantastic to see all of the flags and all of the stuff that has been rolled out.”

    Borodaikevych, who joined one of the tours, said she appreciated the chance created by Eurovision to “feel support, feel a little bit special maybe. To hear lots of Ukrainian language – I miss it so much.”

    “It’s a celebration, but I can’t be relaxed 100%.,” she said. “I am always thinking about my people and my homeland.”

    ___

    Follow AP coverage of Eurovision at https://apnews.com/hub/eurovision-song-contest and of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

    Source link

  • Britain to start free trade with New Zealand and Australia

    Britain to start free trade with New Zealand and Australia

    WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Britain’s free trade agreements with New Zealand and Australia will come into force by the end of this month, the leaders from the three nations said Friday.

    The announcement came while the prime ministers from the two Southern Hemisphere nations are in London for the coronation of King Charles III.

    The deals are part of Britain’s efforts to expand its economic ties after it left the European Union. Both deals were first agreed to in 2021.

    New Zealand officials say its deal will help boost sales of products like wine, butter, beef and honey, and will increase the size of its economy by up to 1 billion New Zealand dollars ($629 million).

    New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said it was a gold-standard agreement.

    “The market access outcomes are among the very best New Zealand has secured in any trade deal,” Hipkins said in a statement.

    British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the deal with New Zealand reflected the close relationship between the nations.

    “This deal will unlock new opportunities for businesses and investors across New Zealand and the United Kingdom, drive growth, boost jobs, and, most importantly, build a more prosperous future for the next generation,” Sunak said in a statement.

    Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said it would mean more market access for its exporters.

    “So for beef, for our sheep products, for our seafood, for our other products it will mean much greater access to the British market,” Albanese told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. in an interview.

    Albanese said it would also mean greater access for younger Australians to work in Britain and vice versa after the terms of a working holiday arrangement were expanded.

    A similar scheme between New Zealand and Britain has also been expanded, increasing the length of working visas from two years to three years and the maximum eligible age from 30 to 35.

    Source link

  • UK local elections: Conservatives battered as Labour surges

    UK local elections: Conservatives battered as Labour surges

    LONDON (AP) — Britain’s Conservative Party endured a drubbing from voters Friday in local elections that delivered a warning to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ’s government, and a boost to the opposition, as a national election approaches.

    The left-of-center main opposition Labour Party made gains that raised its hopes of winning a nationwide parliamentary vote that is due by the end of 2024. Labour leader Keir Starmer said “we are on course for a Labour majority at the next general election.”

    The Conservatives acknowledged it had been “disappointing” election for the party.

    With almost all the results from Thursday’s voting in, the Conservatives had lost more than 1,000 seats in elections for more than 8,000 seats on 230 local councils across England. Before the vote, the party had used the 1,000 figure as a reasonable worst-case scenario.

    The right-of-center party lost control of more than 40 councils, including Medway in southeast England, which it had run for a quarter-century, and the naval city of Plymouth in the southwest.

    Labour gained more than 500 seats and won control of several new councils, while the centrist Liberal Democrats also made gains and grabbed control from the Conservatives in Windsor, an affluent town west of London that is the location of royal residence Windsor Castle. There were also surprise wins for the environmentalist Greens.

    The BBC projected that if the results were replicated nationally, Labour would have a nine-point lead, likely enough to form a government, and possibly win an outright majority of seats in Parliament.

    While many contests turned on local issues such as potholes and garbage collection, voters appeared to punish the Conservatives for the turmoil that engulfed the party under former Prime Minister Boris Johnson. He resigned amid multiple scandals and was replaced by Liz Truss, whose rash tax-cutting plans spooked financial markets, hammered the value of the pound and roiled the wider U.K. economy.

    Truss was forced to resign after six weeks in office, becoming Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister. The party chose Sunak, a former banker, to try to restore stability to the economy and the government.

    Worryingly for Sunak’s party, the Conservatives lost ground both in working-class northern areas that they previously won from Labour – largely by championing Britain’s exit from the European Union – and in more affluent southern districts where anti-Brexit voters have turned to the Lib Dems or Labour.

    Sunak said Friday that “it’s always disappointing to lose hard-working Conservative councilors.” But he insisted he was “not detecting any massive groundswell of movement towards the Labour Party or excitement for its agenda.”

    The Conservatives have been in power nationally since 2010, years that saw austerity following the world global banking crisis, Britain’s divisive decision to leave the European Union, a global pandemic and a European war that has triggered the worst cost-of-living crisis in decades.

    Labour said the results showed many voters are eager for change. But University of Strathclyde polling expert John Curtice said that Labour so far didn’t have the scale of lead achieved before its landslide 1997 election victory under Tony Blair, the peak of the party’s popularity.

    “Labour are going to have their biggest lead over the Conservatives in terms of votes than at any point since 2010, but it’s going to be as much to do with the Conservatives being down as much as it is Labour being up,” he said.

    The results aren’t a complete snapshot of the U.K. There were no elections in London, Scotland or Wales, while Northern Ireland will vote on May 18.

    The election was the first to be held since the government changed the law to require voters to show photo identification at all U.K. polling stations.

    The government says ID is required to vote in many democracies, and the move will help prevent voter fraud. Critics say there is little evidence electoral fraud is a problem in Britain.

    Acceptable forms of ID include passports, driver’s licenses and senior citizens’ travelcards — but not transit passes for young people. The government says getting an older person’s travelcard requires proof of age, unlike other transit passes. But the discrepancy has brought allegations that the change will disproportionately prevent young people — the group least likely to support the Conservatives — from voting. Poor people are also less likely to have photo ID than the more affluent.

    Official elections watchdog the Electoral Commission said after polls closed Thursday night that “overall, the elections were well-run,” but “some people were regrettably unable to vote today as a result” of the new rules.

    “It will be essential to understand the extent of this impact, and the reasons behind it, before a final view can be taken on how the policy has worked in practice and what can be learnt for future elections,” the commission said in a statement.

    Source link

  • Big Tech crackdown looms as EU, UK ready new rules

    Big Tech crackdown looms as EU, UK ready new rules

    LONDON (AP) — TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, Google, and Amazon are facing rising pressure from European authorities as London and Brussels advanced new rules Tuesday to curb the power of digital companies.

    They’re among those on a list of the 19 biggest online platforms and search engines that the European Union’s executive arm said must meet extra obligations for cleaning up illegal content and disinformation and keeping users safe under the 27-nation bloc’s landmark digital rules that take effect later this year.

    The U.K. government, meanwhile, unveiled draft legislation that would give regulators more power to protect consumers from online scams and fake reviews and boost digital competition.

    The updates help solidify Europe’s reputation as the global leader in efforts to rein in the power of social media companies and other digital platforms.

    TikTok will allow European Commission officials to carry out a “stress test” of its systems to ensure they comply with the Digital Services Act, Commissioner Thierry Breton said in an online briefing.

    He proposed the idea to TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew when they met in Brussels earlier this year.

    “I’m happy that they came back to us saying they are interested,” Breton said, but added that he’s waiting for Chew to provide a date. TikTok did not reply to a request for comment.

    Twitter had agreed earlier to a stress test, and Breton said he and his team will travel to the company’s headquarters in San Francisco at the end of June to carry out the voluntary mock exercise. Breton didn’t detail what the test would entail.

    Starting Aug. 25, the biggest online platforms will have to give European users more control by making it easier to report illegal content like hate speech and providing more information on why their systems recommend certain content.

    There are guardrails for content generated by artificial intelligence like deepfake videos and synthetic images, which will have to be clearly labeled when they come up in search results, Breton said.

    Platforms will have to “completely redesign” their systems to ensure high a level of privacy and safety for children, including verifying users’ ages, Breton said.

    Big Tech companies also will have to revamp their systems to “prevent algorithmic amplification of disinformation,” he said, saying he was particularly concerned about Facebook’s content moderation systems ahead of September elections in Slovakia.

    “Now that Facebook has been designated as a very large online platform, Meta needs to carefully investigate its system and fix it where needed ASAP,” he said.

    Facebook’s parent company said it supports the EU’s new Digital Services Act.

    “We take significant steps to combat the spread of harmful content on Facebook and Instagram across the EU,” Meta said while pointing out its efforts on content moderation and media literacy in Slovakia. “While we do this all year round, we recognise it’s particularly important during elections and times of crisis, such as the ongoing war in Ukraine.”

    Violations could result in fines worth up to 6% of a company’s annual global revenue — amounting to billions of dollars — or even a ban on operating in the EU.

    The European Commission’s list of very large online platforms is limited to those with at least 45 million users in Europe, which includes Google’s Search, Play, Maps, Shopping and YouTube services; Amazon Marketplace; Apple’s App Store; Microsoft’s Bing and LinkedIn; Meta’s Facebook and Instagram; plus Pinterest, Snapchat, TikTok, Twitter, Wikipedia, Booking.com, China’s Alibaba Aliexpress and German ecommerce company Zalando.

    Breton said more platforms could be added, and the commission is analyzing “four to five” others that it will decide on in coming weeks.

    In Britain, the government’s Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers bill proposed Tuesday would give watchdogs more teeth to counter the dominance of tech companies, backed by the threat of fines worth up to 10% of their annual revenue.

    Under the proposals, online platforms and search engines could be required to give rivals access to their data or be more transparent about how their app stores and marketplaces work.

    The rules would make it illegal to hire someone to write a fake review or allow the posting of online consumer reviews “without taking reasonable steps” to verify they’re genuine. They also would make it easier for consumers get out of online subscriptions.

    The new rules, which still need go through the legislative process and secure parliamentary approval, would apply only to companies with 25 million pounds ($31 billion) in global revenue or 1 billion pounds in U.K. revenue.

    Source link

  • Alaska Natives rescued Navy crew in 1955. Their medals have arrived

    Alaska Natives rescued Navy crew in 1955. Their medals have arrived

    GAMBELL, Alaska (AP) — Bruce Boolowon, then a lean 20-year-old, and a group of friends were hunting for murre eggs in a walrus skin boat on a remote Alaska island in the Bering Strait when they saw a crippled airplane flying low.

    “Something was wrong,” Boolowon, now 87, recalled of that day in 1955. “They came in and one engine was smoking.”

    Long before drones or weather balloons became military targets, a U.S. Navy P2V-5 Neptune maritime patrol aircraft had been attacked at about 8,000 feet (2,438 meters) by two Soviet MiG-15 fighters roaring out of nearby Siberia. The plane’s right engine was destroyed and the pilot was making a controlled crash landing.

    Its 11 crewmen had injuries in varying degrees of severity, caused either by the bullets sprayed by the two jet fighters, shrapnel or the fireball that erupted when the Neptune landed wheels up on the tundra of St. Lawrence Island and fuel tanks stored in the plane’s belly exploded.

    “And as the plane decelerated, the fireball didn’t. And it rolled forward. It burned everybody,” the navigator on the flight, David Assard, told the Anchorage Daily News in 2015. Several of the men had severe burns.

    The men took refuge in a ditch on St. Lawrence Island — just 40 miles (64 kilometers) from Siberia and 715 miles (1,151 kilometers) west of Anchorage — to avoid the exploding ammunition and waited, but for what they weren’t sure. When the armed Siberian Yupik Eskimo egg hunters showed up, the Navy men didn’t know if they were about to be captured or rescued.

    “Well, they were glad to see us and that we were Americans,” Boolowon told The Associated Press.

    They were not only friendly faces but members of the First Scouts unit of the Alaska National Guard who lived on the island and whose job it was to monitor the Soviet Union given their proximity. The 16 guardsmen and an unknown Air Force member helped the crew get medical attention and alerted military authorities the men were safe.

    On Tuesday, the guardsmen were honored with Alaska Heroism Medals, giving the Alaska Native men the recognition that wasn’t available 67 years ago. Boolowon, then a corporal, is the sole survivor, and family members of the other 15 received the medals on their behalf.

    Maj. Gen. Torrence Saxe, the adjutant general of the Alaska National Guard, not only approved the medals for the men, he personally handed them out at the ceremony held with a driving snow outside. Residents filled the gym at John Apangalook School in Gambell, home to the King Polar Bears — or Qughsatkut in Siberian Yupik— sports teams. Family members receiving medals sat in honored seats on the gym floor, and Saxe posed for photos with each after presenting the medals and a certificate. A community luncheon followed.

    “I’m glad we’re going to get recognized a little bit for saving the crewmembers,” Boolowon said.

    Shortly after the June 22, 1955, rescue, two of the guardsmen, MSgt. Willis Walunga and SSgt. Clifford Iknokinok, received honorific letters and certificates from the Navy and National Guard. They were taken to Washington, D.C., and presented “Wings of Gold” with the Honorary Naval Aviator Program designation. They were only the second and third persons so honored after the program started in 1949.

    The other 14 only received letters. “I don’t know why they didn’t include us,” Boolowon said of the Navy designation.

    There were no other medals available to the men for their deeds because it wasn’t a combat mission, and the rescue was considered a peacetime affair.

    “The families felt like that the members should have received a better award than a letter of appreciation,” said Verdie Bowen, the director of the state Office of Veterans Affairs. “The best one that we could find that fit this feat of valor was the state of Alaska’s Heroism Award,” he said. It honors Alaska National Guard members who distinguish themselves by heroism, meritorious achievement or going beyond the call of duty.

    Boolowon was with Iknokinok, Walunga and others in the first boat to arrive at the crash site, where they found the men.

    He said they weren’t scared it was a Soviet aircraft because they were familiar with the U.S. plane from its frequent maritime patrols out of Naval Air Station Kodiak. On this mission, the plane was looking for icebergs and navigational aids in the Bering Strait. The wreckage of the plane still sits 8 miles (12.9 kilometers) from the village.

    Boolowon and two other men from the first boat went to Gambell to get medical supplies, stretchers and more help. Another boat arrived, and the guardsmen eventually took the men to the village for treatment by a local nurse at a clinic and a church until a transport plane arrived about 12 hours later to take them to Anchorage. Seven of the injured were later flown to California to recuperate.

    The June 22, 1955, attack was labeled a possible “mistake” by embarrassed Soviet leaders and came at a problematic time for the Soviet Union. A summit to de-escalate Cold War tensions was planned the following month in Geneva with President Dwight Eisenhower, Soviet Premier Nikolai Bulganin and the prime ministers of Great Britain and France.

    After learning the plane was shot down, Eisenhower directed Secretary of State John Foster Dulles to meet with Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav M. Molotov during the 10th anniversary meeting of the United Nations in San Francisco.

    Molotov was unaware of the incident but promised an investigation. The Kremlin wired Molotov his instructions, which included presenting Dulles “with a conciliatory note that admitted the incident could have been ‘due to a mistake,’” David Winkler, the historian at the Naval Historical Foundation, wrote in his 2017 book ”Incidents at Sea: American Confrontation and Cooperation with Russia and China, 1945-2016.”

    It was the first time the Soviets both ever expressed regret and paid reparations, Winkler told the AP last summer, and the summit went on as planned. The Soviets agreed to compensate the U.S. for the plane, sending just over $35,000 (about $400,000 today) in reparations. The money was split among the crewmen.

    In the early 1990s, Assard travelled to Gambell to thank them and presented the village with a bronze plaque.

    “We were very fortunate in landing on an American island and being found by American Eskimos,” Assard, the flight navigator who is now deceased, told the Anchorage newspaper in 2015. “They couldn’t have been more gracious.”

    The other 13 guardsmen posthumously awarded medals were Pfcs. Holden Apatiki, Lane Iyakitan, Woodrow Malewotkuk, Roger Slwooko, Vernon Slwooko and Donald Ungott; Sfc. Herbert Apassingok; Sgt. Ralph Apatiki Sr.; Cpls. Victor Campbell, Ned Koozaata and Joseph Slwooko, and Pvts. Luke Kulukhon and Leroy Kulukhon.

    JoAnn Kulukhon accepted medals on behalf of her two uncles and plans to prominently display them in her home. “I’m so proud of them,” she said. “I know they’re happy.”

    As for receiving his own medal, Boolowon said the recognition is simply for work well done.

    “I’m glad we did our duty as a guardsman,” he said.

    ___

    AP Investigative Researcher Randy Herschaft in New York contributed to this report.

    Source link

  • UK cybersecurity center looking into risks posed by TikTok

    UK cybersecurity center looking into risks posed by TikTok

    LONDON (AP) — Britain’s security minister said Tuesday he has asked the country’s National Cyber Security Center to review threats posed by TikTok amid calls for the U.K. to impose a ban on the Chinese-owned social media app.

    Security Minister Tom Tugendhat said he was waiting for a review from the government’s cybersecurity experts before deciding on the “hugely important question.”

    Prime Minister Rishi Sunak hinted a day earlier that the U.K. could follow the U.S. and the European Union in banning the app from government-issued mobile phones and devices.

    “We take security of devices seriously … and we look also at what our allies are doing,” Sunak said during his visit to the U.S. on Monday.

    “We want to make sure that we protect the integrity and security of sensitive information,” Sunak told ITV News. “And we will always do that and take whatever steps are necessary to make sure that happens.”

    The U.S. government said last month that employees of federal agencies have to delete TikTok from all government-issued mobile devices. Congress, the White House, U.S. armed forces and more than half of U.S. states had already banned TikTok, while the European Commission also temporarily banned the app from employee phones.

    The moves were prompted by growing concerns that TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, would give user data such as browsing history and location to the Chinese government, or push propaganda and misinformation on its behalf.

    Last year, Britain’s Parliament shut down its TikTok account — meant to reach younger audiences with Parliament content — just days after its launch following concerns from lawmakers.

    “What certainly is clear is for many young people TikTok is now a news source and, just as it’s quite right we know who owns the news sources in the UK … it’s important we know who owns the news sources that are feeding into our phones,” Tugendhat told Sky News on Tuesday.

    In a statement, TikTok said bans by other governments were “based on misplaced fears and seemingly driven by wider geopolitics.” It said it would be “disappointed” if the U.K. imposes a ban, and that it was committed to working with British authorities to address any concerns.

    “We have begun implementing a comprehensive plan to further protect our European user data, which includes storing UK user data in our European data centres and tightening data access controls, including third-party independent oversight of our approach,” its statement said.

    Source link

  • Biden in San Diego to announce Australia submarine deal

    Biden in San Diego to announce Australia submarine deal

    SAN DIEGO (AP) — President Joe Biden is set to meet Monday with two of America’s closest allies to announce that Australia will purchase nuclear-powered attack submarines from the U.S. to modernize its fleet as concerns grow about China’s influence in the Indo-Pacific region.

    Biden flew to San Diego for talks with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on an 18-month-old nuclear partnership given the acronym AUKUS.

    The partnership, announced in 2021, enabled Australia to access nuclear-powered submarines, which are stealthier and more capable than conventionally powered vessels, as a counterweight to China’s military buildup.

    San Diego is Biden’s first stop on a three-day trip to California and Nevada. He will discuss gun violence prevention in the community of Monterey Park, California, and his plans to lower prescription drug costs in Las Vegas. The trip will include fundraising stops as Biden steps up his political activities before an expected announcement next month that he will seek reelection in 2024.

    Australia is buying up to five Virginia-class boats as part of AUKUS, said Jake Sullivan, the U.S. national security adviser, who accompanied Biden to California. A future generation of submarines will be built in the U.K. and in Australia with U.S. technology and support.

    The U.S. would also step up its port visits in Australia to provide the country with more familiarity with the nuclear-powered technology before it has such subs of its own.

    Biden will also meet individually with Albanese and Sunak, an opportunity to coordinate strategy on Russia’s war in Ukraine, the global economy and more.

    The secretly brokered AUKUS deal included the Australian government’s cancellation of a $66 billion contract for a French-built fleet of conventional submarines, which sparked a diplomatic row within the Western alliance that took months to mend.

    China has argued that the AUKUS deal violates the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. It contends that the transfer of nuclear weapons materials from a nuclear-weapon state to a non-nuclear-weapon state is a “blatant” violation of the spirit of the pact. Australian officials have pushed back against the criticism, arguing that it they are working to acquire nuclear-powered, not nuclear-armed, submarines.

    “The question is really how does China choose to respond because Australia is not backing away from what it — what it sees to be doing in its own interests here,” said Charles Edel, a senior adviser and Australia chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “I think that probably from Beijing’s perspective they’ve already counted out Australia as a wooable mid country. It seemed to have fully gone into the U.S. camp.”

    Before he departed for California, Biden spoke about steps the administration is taking to safeguard depositors and protect against broader economic hardship after the second- and third-largest bank failures in U.S. history.

    Biden said the nation’s financial systems are safe. He said he’d seek to hold accountable those responsible for the bank failures, called for better oversight and regulation of larger banks and promised that taxpayers would not pay the bill for any losses.

    The president’s daughter Ashley Biden and granddaughter Natalie Biden also traveled with him to San Diego.

    Source link

  • UK energy giant BP’s profits double to $27.7 billion

    UK energy giant BP’s profits double to $27.7 billion

    LONDON (AP) — British energy firm BP reported record annual earnings Tuesday, fueling demands that the U.K. government boost taxes for companies benefiting from the high price of oil and natural gas after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

    London-based BP said underlying replacement cost profit, which excludes one-time items and fluctuations in the value of inventories, jumped to $27.7 billion in 2022 from $12.8 billion a year earlier. That beat the $26.8 billion BP earned in 2008, when tensions in Iran and Nigeria pushed world oil prices to a record of more than $147 a barrel.

    BP also increased its quarterly dividend by 10% and announced plans to buy back an additional $2.75 billion of stock from shareholders.

    But the good news for BP shareholders is likely to be tempered by the public fallout, particularly in its home country. High oil and gas prices have hit Britain hard, with double-digit inflation fueling a wave of public-sector strikes, soaring food bank use and demands that politicians expand a tax on the windfall profits of energy companies to help pay for public services.

    Ed Miliband, the opposition Labour Party’s spokesman on climate issues, called on the U.K. government to bring forward a “proper” windfall tax on energy companies.

    “It’s yet another day of enormous profits at an energy giant, the windfalls of war, coming out of the pockets of the British people,″ Miliband said.

    Similar censure was directed at London-based Shell last week, when it said annual earnings doubled to a record $39.9 billion last year.

    Bumper profits for energy companies worldwide have sparked demands that the fossil fuel industry do more to offset high energy bills even as they cut climate-damaging carbon emissions. U.S.-based Exxon Mobil posted record earnings of $55.7 billion last week.

    Last year, Britain approved a 25% windfall tax on earnings from oil and gas produced in the U.K., with the levy increasing to 35% in 2023. Opposition leaders have criticized the government for allowing energy companies to reduce the tax by investing in the U.K.

    BP said it took a charge of more than $1.8 billion last year to cover the new U.K. tax.

    The company also took charges of $25.5 billion as the result of its decision to exit its investments in Russia after the invasion of Ukraine.

    After including one-time items and fluctuations in the value of inventories, BP posted a net loss of $2.49 billion for 2022, compared with net income of $7.57 billion the previous year.

    BP on Tuesday said it would boost investment in renewable energy, hydrogen and electric vehicle charging as well as its oil and gas businesses, plowing an additional $8 billion into the two segments through 2030.

    The investments will push oil and gas production to about 2 million barrels of oil equivalent a day in 2030. While the new target is 25% lower than in 2019, BP previously planned to cut production by 40%.

    “We will prioritize projects where we can deliver quickly, at low cost, using our existing infrastructure, allowing us to minimize additional emissions and maximize both value and our contribution to energy security and affordability,” chief executive Bernard Looney said in a statement.

    Energy prices soared after the invasion of Ukraine. Brent crude, a benchmark for global oil prices, averaged $101.32 a barrel last year, 43% higher than in 2021. The average wholesale price of natural gas in Britain jumped 76%.

    Prices have dropped in recent months, with Brent crude averaging $88.87 in the fourth quarter.

    “The question becomes, what will they do with record profits and operating cash flow? Governments are already questioning record profits from other peer global energy companies,″ said Gianna Bern, an oil expert and professor of finance at the Mendoza College of business at the University of Notre Dame. “In an environment of record inflation and gas prices for the consumer, global energy companies will be compelled to reassess the cost and availability of energy for all.″

    Alice Harrison, fossil fuels campaign leader at environmental advocacy nonprofit Global Witness, said BP’s profits were made “on the back of three global crises” — the war in Ukraine, the energy crisis and climate breakdown.

    “For those struggling, these mammoth profits will be a bitter pill to swallow,” Harrison said. “There are no two ways about it — BP is richer because we’re poorer.’’

    Source link

  • UK palace allies push back against Prince Harry’s claims

    UK palace allies push back against Prince Harry’s claims

    LONDON (AP) — Allies of Britain’s royal family pushed back Saturday against claims made by Prince Harry in his new memoir, which paints the monarchy as a cold and callous institution that failed to nurture or support him.

    Buckingham Palace hasn’t officially commented on the book. But British newspapers and websites brimmed with quotes from unnamed “royal insiders,” rebutting Harry’s accusations. One said his public attacks on the royal family took a “toll” on the health of Queen Elizabeth II, who died in September.

    Veteran journalist Jonathan Dimbleby, a biographer and friend of King Charles III, said Harry’s revelations were the type “that you’d expect … from a sort of B-list celebrity,” and that the king would be pained and frustrated by them.

    “His concern … is to act as head of state for a nation which we all know is in pretty troubled condition,” Dimbleby told the BBC. “I think he will think this gets in the way.“

    Harry’s book, “Spare,” is the latest in a string of very public pronouncements by the prince and his wife Meghan since they quit royal life and moved to California in 2020, citing what they saw as the media’s racist treatment of Meghan, who is biracial, and a lack of support from the palace. It follows an interview with Oprah Winfrey and a six-part Netflix documentary released last month.

    Harry is not the first British royal to air family secrets — both his parents used the media as their marriage fell apart. Charles cooperated on Dimbleby’s 1994 book and accompanying television documentary, which revealed that the then heir to the throne had had an affair during his marriage to Princess Diana.

    Diana gave her side of the story in a BBC interview the following year, famously saying “there were three of us in this marriage” in reference to Charles’ relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles.

    But “Spare” goes into far more detail about private conversations and personal grievances than any previous royal revelation.

    In the ghostwritten memoir, Harry discusses his grief at the death of his mother in 1997 and his long-simmering resentment at the role of royal “spare,” overshadowed by the “heir” — older brother Prince William. He recounts arguments and a physical altercation with William, reveals how he lost his virginity (in a field) and describes using cocaine and cannabis.

    He also says he killed 25 Taliban fighters while serving as an Apache helicopter pilot in Afghanistan — a claim criticized by both the Taliban and British military veterans.

    “Spare” is due to be published around the world on Tuesday. The Associated Press obtained an early Spanish-language copy.

    Harry has said he expects counterattacks from the palace. He has long complained of “leaks” and “plants” of stories to the media by members of the royal household.

    In an interview due to be broadcast on ITV on Sunday — one of several he has recorded to promote the book — Harry says people who accuse him of invading his family’s privacy “don’t understand or don’t want to believe that my family have been briefing the press.”

    “I don’t know how staying silent is ever going to make things better,” he said.

    Source link

  • UK’s Sunak vows to halve inflation, tackle illegal migration

    UK’s Sunak vows to halve inflation, tackle illegal migration

    LONDON — British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledged to halve inflation, grow the U.K. economy and stop illegal immigration Wednesday as he set out his Conservative government’s priorities in his first major speech of 2023.

    Sunak focused on tackling the U.K.’s slowing economy and made promises to reduce national debt. He also vowed to pass new laws to stop migrants from arriving on U.K. shores in small boats, as well as cut massive backlogs in Britain’s public health service.

    “Those are the people’s priorities. They are your government’s priorities. And we will either have achieved them or not,” Sunak said.

    “No trick, no ambiguity, we’re either delivering for you or we’re not. We will rebuild trust in politics through action, or not at all,” he added.

    Sunak, who came to office in October after a tumultuous year in U.K. politics that saw the resignation of two other prime ministers, stressed that he would deliver stability. He said his first priority was to “halve inflation this year to ease the cost of living and give people financial security.”

    Sunak’s predecessor, Liz Truss, unveiled a disastrous package of unfunded tax cuts in September and was forced to quit after less than two months in the job. Her policies sent the British pound tumbling, drove up the cost of borrowing and triggered emergency intervention from Britain’s central bank.

    Since Sunak replaced Truss in late October, the U.K. economy has calmed but his government is grappling with a cost-of-living crisis and widening labor unrest as key public sector workers from nurses and ambulance drivers to train workers stage disruptive strikes to demand better pay to keep pace with soaring inflation.

    Inflation in the U.K. stood at 10.7% in November — down slightly from October — but that’s still near the highest in four decades. Energy and food costs have soared, in large part driven by Russia’s war on Ukraine, and living standards have plunged for millions of Britons.

    In recent weeks, Sunak’s government was also under increasing pressure to address failings in the public health system, with many frontpage headlines focusing on the lack of hospital beds and record waiting times for seeing a doctor or getting an ambulance.

    Authorities have blamed high numbers of flu and COVID-19 cases, but health chiefs say the problems are longstanding and a result of chronic government underfunding.

    Sunak has also repeatedly said that stopping migrants from crossing the English Channel in small boats to claim asylum in the U.K. was a top priority for his term in office. Last year more than 45,700 people crossed the Channel to the U.K. — a record high and up 60% compared to numbers in 2021.

    “We will pass new laws to stop small boats, making sure that if you come to this country illegally, you are detained and swiftly removed,” Sunak said.

    Sunak’s Conservative Party, which has been in power for 12 years, is lagging behind the opposition Labour Party in polls. The next general election is due to take place by the end of 2024.

    Source link

  • Today in History: December 26, deadly tsunami in Asia

    Today in History: December 26, deadly tsunami in Asia

    Today in History

    Today is Monday, Dec. 26, the 360th day of 2022. There are five days left in the year.

    Today’s Highlight in History:

    On Dec. 26, 2004, more than 230,000 people, mostly in southern Asia, were killed by a 100-foot-high tsunami triggered by a 9.1-magnitude earthquake beneath the Indian Ocean.

    On this date:

    In 1799, former President George Washington was eulogized by Col. Henry Lee as “first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen.”

    In 1865, James H. Nason of Franklin, Massachusetts, received a patent for “an improved coffee percolator.”

    In 1908, Jack Johnson became the first African-American boxer to win the world heavyweight championship as he defeated Canadian Tommy Burns in Sydney, Australia.

    In 1917, during World War I, President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation authorizing the government to take over operation of the nation’s railroads.

    In 1941, during World War II, Winston Churchill became the first British prime minister to address a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress.

    In 1966, Kwanzaa was first celebrated.

    In 1980, Iranian television footage was broadcast in the United States showing a dozen of the American hostages sending messages to their families.

    In 1990, Nancy Cruzan, the young woman in an irreversible vegetative state whose case led to a U.S. Supreme Court decision on the right to die, died at a Missouri hospital.

    In 1994, French commandos stormed a hijacked Air France jetliner on the ground in Marseille, killing four Algerian hijackers and freeing 170 hostages.

    In 1996, six-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey was found beaten and strangled in the basement of her family’s home in Boulder, Colorado. (To date, the slaying remains unsolved.)

    In 2003, an earthquake struck the historic Iranian city of Bam, killing at least 26,000 people.

    In 2006, former President Gerald R. Ford died in Rancho Mirage, California, at age 93.

    Ten years ago: Toyota Motor Corp. said it had reached a settlement worth more than $1 billion in a case involving unintended acceleration problems in its vehicles. Soul singer Fontella Bass, 72, died in St. Louis.

    Five years ago: The snowfall total from a storm that began on Christmas Day reached 53 inches in Erie, Pennsylvania – the biggest-ever two-day total in the state’s history. The cities of New York, San Francisco and Philadelphia sued the Defense Department, charging that the military failed to properly use the national background check system for guns; the lawsuit said the failure to report criminal records of service members had allowed a former member of the Air Force to kill more than two dozen people at a Texas church in November. Voters in Liberia went to the polls for a runoff election that saw former soccer star George Weah elected as the African country’s new president.

    One year ago: South African Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu died at 90; the retired archbishop had been an uncompromising foe of apartheid and a modern-day activist for racial justice and LGBT rights. A major Christmas weekend storm caused whiteout conditions and closed key highways amid blowing snow in mountains of Northern California and Nevada.

    Today’s Birthdays: R&B singer Abdul “Duke” Fakir (The Four Tops) is 87. “America’s Most Wanted” host John Walsh is 77. Country musician Bob Carpenter (The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band) is 76. Funk musician George Porter Jr. (The Meters) is 75. Baseball Hall of Fame catcher Carlton Fisk is 75. Retired MLB All-Star Chris Chambliss is 74. Baseball Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith is 68. Former Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana is 67. Humorist David Sedaris is 66. Rock musician James Kottak (The Scorpions) is 60. Rock musician Lars Ulrich (Metallica) is 59. Actor Nadia Dajani is 57. Rock singer James Mercer (The Shins; Flake) is 52. Actor-singer Jared Leto is 51. Actor Kendra C. Johnson is 46. Rock singer Chris Daughtry is 43. Actor Beth Behrs is 37. Actor Kit Harington is 36. Actor Eden Sher is 31. Pop singer Jade Thirlwall (Little Mix Actor) is 30. Actor Zach Mills is 27.

    Source link

  • King Charles salutes late queen, public workers in speech

    King Charles salutes late queen, public workers in speech

    LONDON — King Charles III evoked memories Sunday of his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, as he broadcast his first Christmas message as monarch in a speech that also paid tribute to the “selfless dedication” of Britain’s public service workers, many of whom are in a fight with the government over pay.

    Charles, 74, also empathized in the prerecorded message with people struggling to make ends meet “at a time of great anxiety and hardship.” Like some other parts of the world, the U.K. is wrestling with high inflation that has caused a cost-of-living crisis for many households.

    The king’s first remarks, however, recalled his mother, who died in September at age 96 after 70 years on the throne.

    “Christmas is a particularly poignant time for all of us who have lost loved ones,” Charles said. “We feel their absence that every familiar turn of the season and remember them in each cherished tradition.”

    Charles immediately ascended to the throne upon the queen’s death. His coronation ceremony is scheduled for May.

    For his televised Christmas message, he wore a dark blue suit. Unlike Elizabeth, who often sat at a desk to deliver the annual speech, Charles stood by a Christmas tree at St. George’s Chapel, a church on the grounds of Windsor Castle where his mother and his father, Prince Philip, were buried.

    Charles said he shared with his mother “a belief in the extraordinary ability of each person to touch, with goodness and compassion, the lives of others and to shine a light in the world around them.”

    “The essence of our community and the very foundation of our society” can be witnessed in “health and social care professionals and teachers and indeed all those working in public service whose skill and commitment are at the heart of our communities,” the king said.

    Strikes this month by nurses, ambulance crews, teachers, postal workers and train drivers have put pressure on U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government. Opinion polls show a high level of support for the workers, especially nurses. Unions are seeking pay raises in line with inflation, whch stood at 10.7% in November.

    Soaring food and energy prices in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have created financial strains for many individuals and families.

    Speaking over video footage of food banks and other charity work, Charles expressed sympathy for “those at home finding ways to pay their bills and keep their families fed and warm.”

    Charles also reached out to people of other faiths in the United Kingdom and across the British Commonwealth, saying the meaning of Jesus Christ’s birth crosses “the boundaries of faith and belief.”

    Charles believes the monarchy can help to unite his country’s increasingly diverse ethnic groups and faiths. It is part of his effort to show that the institution still has relevance.

    The six-minute message concluded with an appeal to heed “the everlasting light” which, Charles said, was a key aspect of Elizabeth’s faith in God and belief in people.

    “So whatever faith you have or whether you have none, it is in this life-giving light and with the true humility that lies in our service to others that I believe we can find hope for the future,” he said.

    The king made no reference to the recent clamor over this month’s Netflix documentary series about the acrimonious split from the royal family that accompanied the decision of his son Prince Harry and daughter-in-law Meghan to step back from royal duties and move across the Atlantic Ocean.

    Video footage accompanying the Christmas message showed working members of the royal family at official events. Harry and Meghan didn’t appear, nor did Prince Andrew, who was stripped of his honorary military titles and removed as a working royal over his friendship with the notorious U.S. sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

    Andrew did, however, join Charles and other senior royals for a Christmas morning walk to a church located near the family’s Sandringham Estate in Norfolk county England.

    The king and his wife, Queen Consort Camilla, led family members to a service at St. Mary Magdalene Church. They included Prince William, Charles’ older son and heir to the throne, and William’s wife, Kate, and the couple’s three children, Prince George, 9, Princess Charlotte, 7, and Prince Louis, 4.

    Joining them on the walk was Charles and Andrew’s younger brother, Prince Edward, and his wife, Sophie.

    After the family entered the church, congregants sang “God Save the King” followed by the Christmas hymn “O Come, All Ye Faithful.”

    Sandringham has been the private country home of four generations of British monarchs for more than 160 years, but this was the royal family’s first Christmas there since 2019, according to Britain’s Press Association news agency.

    Elizabeth spent her last two Christmases at Windsor Castle because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Crowds lined the streets near Sandringham to greet the royal family Sunday for its return to the holiday tradition.

    “It will be in King Charles’ thoughts about his mother, about her legacy. They will be thinking about it over Christmas,” said John Loughrey, 67, who lives in south London and camped out overnight to be first in line. “It’s going to be a sad time and a happy time for them. That’s how it’s got to be.”

    Source link

  • King Charles salutes late queen, public workers in speech

    King Charles salutes late queen, public workers in speech

    LONDON — King Charles III evoked memories Sunday of his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, as he broadcast his first Christmas message as monarch in a speech that also paid tribute to the “selfless dedication” of Britain’s public service workers, many of whom are in a fight with the government over pay.

    Charles, 74, also empathized in the prerecorded message with people struggling to make ends meet “at a time of great anxiety and hardship.” Like some other parts of the world, the U.K. is wrestling with high inflation that has caused a cost-of-living crisis for many households.

    The king’s first remarks, however, recalled his mother, who died in September at age 96 after 70 years on the throne.

    “Christmas is a particularly poignant time for all of us who have lost loved ones,” Charles said. “We feel their absence that every familiar turn of the season and remember them in each cherished tradition.”

    Charles immediately ascended to the throne upon the queen’s death. His coronation ceremony is scheduled for May.

    For his televised Christmas message, he wore a dark blue suit. Unlike Elizabeth, who often sat at a desk to deliver the annual speech, Charles stood by a Christmas tree at St. George’s Chapel, a church on the grounds of Windsor Castle where his mother and his father, Prince Philip, were buried.

    Charles said he shared with his mother “a belief in the extraordinary ability of each person to touch, with goodness and compassion, the lives of others and to shine a light in the world around them.”

    “The essence of our community and the very foundation of our society” can be witnessed in “health and social care professionals and teachers and indeed all those working in public service whose skill and commitment are at the heart of our communities,” the king said.

    Strikes this month by nurses, ambulance crews, teachers, postal workers and train drivers have put pressure on U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government. Opinion polls show a high level of support for the workers, especially nurses. Unions are seeking pay raises in line with inflation, whch stood at 10.7% in November.

    Soaring food and energy prices in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have created financial strains for many individuals and families.

    Speaking over video footage of food banks and other charity work, Charles expressed sympathy for “those at home finding ways to pay their bills and keep their families fed and warm.”

    Charles also reached out to people of other faiths in the United Kingdom and across the British Commonwealth, saying the meaning of Jesus Christ’s birth crosses “the boundaries of faith and belief.”

    Charles believes the monarchy can help to unite his country’s increasingly diverse ethnic groups and faiths. It is part of his effort to show that the institution still has relevance.

    The six-minute message concluded with an appeal to heed “the everlasting light” which, Charles said, was a key aspect of Elizabeth’s faith in God and belief in people.

    “So whatever faith you have or whether you have none, it is in this life-giving light and with the true humility that lies in our service to others that I believe we can find hope for the future,” he said.

    The king made no reference to the recent clamor over this month’s Netflix documentary series about the acrimonious split from the royal family that accompanied the decision of his son Prince Harry and daughter-in-law Meghan to step back from royal duties and move across the Atlantic Ocean.

    Video footage accompanying the Christmas message showed working members of the royal family at official events. Harry and Meghan didn’t appear, nor did Prince Andrew, who was stripped of his honorary military titles and removed as a working royal over his friendship with the notorious U.S. sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

    Andrew did, however, join Charles and other senior royals for a Christmas morning walk to a church located near the family’s Sandringham Estate in Norfolk county England.

    The king and his wife, Queen Consort Camilla, led family members to a service at St. Mary Magdalene Church. They included Prince William, Charles’ older son and heir to the throne, and William’s wife, Kate, and the couple’s three children, Prince George, 9, Princess Charlotte, 7, and Prince Louis, 4.

    Joining them on the walk was Charles and Andrew’s younger brother, Prince Edward, and his wife, Sophie.

    After the family entered the church, congregants sang “God Save the King” followed by the Christmas hymn “O Come, All Ye Faithful.”

    Sandringham has been the private country home of four generations of British monarchs for more than 160 years, but this was the royal family’s first Christmas there since 2019, according to Britain’s Press Association news agency.

    Elizabeth spent her last two Christmases at Windsor Castle because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Crowds lined the streets near Sandringham to greet the royal family Sunday for its return to the holiday tradition.

    “It will be in King Charles’ thoughts about his mother, about her legacy. They will be thinking about it over Christmas,” said John Loughrey, 67, who lives in south London and camped out overnight to be first in line. “It’s going to be a sad time and a happy time for them. That’s how it’s got to be.”

    Source link

  • Strikes over pay disrupt Christmas travel in UK, France

    Strikes over pay disrupt Christmas travel in UK, France

    LONDON — Air travelers faced possible delays at U.K. airports Friday as government employees who check passports went on strike in the latest of a spate of walkouts over pay amid a cost-of-living crisis.

    France braced for similar Christmas travel disruption, with a weekend rail strike starting to bite on Friday.

    The strike by Border Force staff was due to continue through the end of the year, with the exception of next Tuesday.

    Hundreds of thousands of passengers could be affected, though the British government said it was preparing military personnel and workers from other public services to help out at airports.

    The strikes are putting pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government, which is refusing demands from public sector workers for substantial pay rises.

    Inflation stood at 10.7% in November, driven by food and energy prices in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

    Sunak said he regretted the walkout and advised people to check on their journey plans before setting out.

    “I am really sad and I am disappointed about the disruption that is being caused to so many people’s lives, particularly at Christmas time,” he said during a visit to a homeless shelter in London.

    He insisted his government has acted “fairly and reasonably” in public sector pay negotiations.

    Thousands of National Health Service nurses walked off the job Tuesday in their second 24-hour strike this month. Ambulance drivers, paramedics and dispatchers also went on strike earlier this week and plan another walkout on Dec. 28.

    Postal deliveries, highway maintenance and driving tests are also being disrupted by strikes.

    Further travel difficulties loomed on Saturday, Christmas Eve, when most train services were expected to be canceled.

    The labor unrest is set to continue into the new year, when more strikes are planned.

    Nurses announced Friday they plan walkouts on Jan. 18 and 19.

    France faced similar problems with travel and walkouts.

    About half of France’s train conductors are going on strike for the Christmas weekend. A third of scheduled train services were canceled Friday and 40% of trains were canceled for Saturday and Sunday, according to the SNCF national rail authority.

    The strikers are demanding higher pay and more staff. It’s among several strikes in France stemming from the rising cost of living, including energy bills, in recent months.

    High-speed train lines from France to Spain and Italy, and regional services, were also due to experience disruptions.

    Conductors, who collect tickets and manage on-board operations, are demanding more than the 12% over two years offered by SNCF.

    The strike came at a time of traditional gatherings for many French families who struggled to meet family and friends during the COVID-19 pandemic. Travelers expressed anger at the walkout, which was strongly criticized by the French government.

    “To go on strike at such a time is incomprehensible and unjustifiable,” French Transport Minister Clement Beaune told France Info.

    Source link

  • US and Iran clash over Russia using Iran drones in Ukraine

    US and Iran clash over Russia using Iran drones in Ukraine

    UNITED NATIONS — The United States and its allies clashed with Iran and its ally Russia over Western claims that Tehran is supplying Moscow with drones that have been attacking Ukraine — and the U.S. accused the U.N. secretary-general of “yielding to Russian threats” and failing to launch an investigation.

    At a contentious Security Council meeting Monday on the resolution endorsing the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six major powers, the United States and Iran also accused each other of responsibility for stalled negotiations on the Biden administration rejoining the agreement that former President Donald Trump pulled out of in 2018.

    Iran’s U.N. Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani insisted Iran’s negotiating team exercised “maximum flexibility” in trying to reach agreement and even introduced an “innovative solution to the remaining issues to break the impasse.” But he claimed the “unrealistic and rigid approach” of the United States led to the current stalled talks on the 2015 agreement, known as the JCPOA.

    “Let’s make it clear: pressure, intimidation and confrontation are not solutions and will get nowhere,” Iravani said.

    Iran is ready to resume talks and arrange a ministerial meeting “as soon as possible to declare the JCPOA restoration,” Iravani said. “This is achievable if the U.S. demonstrates genuine political will … The U.S. now has the ball in its court.”

    Speaking before Iravani, U.S. Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood said “the door to negotiations remains open” for a mutual U.S.-Iranian return to full implementation of the JCPOA. But he said, “Iran’s own actions and stances have been responsible for preventing that outcome.”

    In September, a deal that all other parties had agreed to was “within reach” and “even Iran prepared to say yes,” Wood said, “until at the last minute, Iran made new demands that were extraneous to the JCPOA and that it knew could not be met.”

    He said Iran’s conduct since September — notably its failure to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, and the expansion of its nuclear program “for no legitimate civilian purpose” — has reinforced U.S. skepticism “about Iran’s willingness and capability of reaching a deal, and explains why there have been no active negotiations since then.”

    At the end of the council meeting, Wood asked for the floor to refute Iravani, saying it’s “a fact” that Iran’s extraneous demands and rejection of all compromise proposals are the reason why there has not been a return to mutual compliance with the JCPOA.

    “So let me just simply say, The ball is not in the U.S. court,” Wood said. “On the contrary, the ball is in Iran’s court.”

    Britain’s U.N. Ambassador Barbara Woodward, whose country remains a party to the JCPOA, told the council Iran’s nuclear escalation is making “progress on a nuclear deal much more difficult.”

    “Today, Iran’s total enriched uranium stockpile exceeds JCPOA limits by at least 18 times, and it continues to produce highly enriched uranium, which is unprecedented for a state without a nuclear weapons program,” she said.

    In addition, Woodward said, “Iranian nuclear breakout time has reduced to a matter of weeks, and the time required for Iran to produce the fissile material for multiple nuclear weapons is decreasing.” She said Iran is also testing technology that could enable intermediate and intercontinental range ballistic missiles to carry a nuclear payload.

    U.N. political chief Rosemary DiCarlo told the council “the space for diplomacy appears to be rapidly shrinking.”

    She pointed to an IAEA report that Iran intends to install new centrifuges at its Natanz Fuel Enrichment Plant and to produce more uranium enriched up to 60% at the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant — a level close to that needed for a nuclear weapon. Iran also removed all IAEA equipment monitoring JCPOA-related activities.

    DiCarlo called on Iran to reverse all steps outside JCPOA limits, and on the United States to lift sanctions on Iran outlined in the nuclear deal, and extend waivers on Iranian oil trading.

    Iran’s Iravani emphasized that all of Iran’s nuclear activities “are peaceful” and said Iran is ready to engage the IAEA to resolve outstanding issues on nuclear safeguards.

    As for what he called the “unfounded allegation” that Iran transferred drones to Russia in violation of the 2015 resolution, Iravani stressed that all restrictions on transferring arms to and from Iran were terminated in October 2020. So he said Western claims that Tehran needed prior approval “has no legal merit.”

    Iravani also insisted that drones were not transferred to Russia for use in Ukraine, saying “the misinformation campaign and baseless allegations … serve no purpose other than to divert attention from Western states’ transfer of massive amounts of advanced, sophisticated weaponry to Ukraine in order to prolong the conflict.”

    Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia called allegations of Iranian drone deliveries to his country for use in Ukraine “patently concocted and false.” Russia is well aware that Ukrainian representatives “have been unable to provide Tehran bilaterally any documentation to corroborate the use by Russian military personnel of Iranian-origin drones,” he said.

    Wood, the U.S. envoy, told the council that Ukraine’s report of Iranian-origin drones being used by Russia to attack civilian infrastructure has been supported “by ample evidence from multiple public sources” including a statement by Iran’s foreign minister on Nov. 5.

    He insisted that Iran is barred from transferring these types of drones without prior Security Council approval under an annex to the 2015 resolution.

    For seven years, Wood said, the U.N. has had a mandate to investigate reported violations of the resolution, and he expressed disappointment that the U.N. Secretariat, headed by secretary-general Guterres, has not launched an investigation, “apparently yielding to Russian threats.”

    Russia’s Nebenzia reiterated Moscow’s contention that investigations are “an egregious violation” of the resolution and the U.N. Charter “and the U.N. Secretariat should not bow to pressure from Western countries.”

    Guterres told a news conference earlier Monday, when asked about criticism that the U.N. hasn’t launched an investigation of Iranian-made drones in Ukraine, that “We are looking into all the aspects of that question and in the broader picture of everything we are doing in the context of the war to determine if and when we should” conduct an investigation.

    Source link

  • UK sending 1,200 troops to fill in as ambulance crews strike

    UK sending 1,200 troops to fill in as ambulance crews strike

    LONDON — The British government said Sunday it will dispatch 1,200 troops to fill in for striking ambulance drivers and border staff as multiple public sector unions walk off the job in the week before Christmas.

    Ambulance crews are due to strike on Wednesday, joining nurses, railway staff, passport officers and postal workers, who are all staging a series of walkouts in the coming weeks.

    The U.K.’s most intense strike wave for decades is a response to a cost-of-living crisis driven by soaring food and energy prices in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

    Some 417,000 working days were lost to strikes in October, the highest number in a decade.

    Unions are seeking pay increases to keep pace with inflation, which was running at 10.7% in November, down slightly from 11.1% in October but still a 40-year high.

    The Conservative government argues that double-digit raises would drive inflation even higher, and has tried to pin blame for disruption on union leaders. In the tabloid Sun on Sunday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak branded union chiefs “Grinches that want to steal Christmas for their own political ends.”

    Cabinet minister Oliver Dowden said “it would be irresponsible to allow public sector pay and inflation to get out of control.”

    “We’re making progress with the economy. Don’t put that at risk with these unaffordable demands,” he told the BBC.

    The government is calculating that public opinion will turn on the unions as people across the U.K. face postponed hospital appointments, canceled trains and travel delays during the winter holiday season. But opinion polls show a high level of support for the workers – especially nurses, whose strikes across England, Wales and Northern Ireland are the first in the 100-year history of their union, the Royal College of Nursing.

    Nurses and ambulance crews say they will still respond to emergencies during their strikes.

    “We’ve given a commitment that our members will scramble off picket lines and get into ambulances if there are emergencies that need to be covered,” said Onay Kasab, national lead officer of the Unite union.

    But Matthew Taylor, who heads health service body the NHS Confederation, said patients will be at risk, and called on both government and unions to compromise.

    “We’re in the middle of winter and we have a health service which, even on an ordinary day without industrial action, is finding it difficult to cope,” he told the BBC. “So there are going to be risks to patients. There’s no question about that.”

    Source link