UK and US close diplomatic immunity loophole used in Harry Dunn case July 22, 2020 UK and US officials have struck a deal to amend the “anomaly” that allowed Harry Dunn’s alleged killer Anne Sacoolas to claim diplomatic immunity following his death in a road collision last year, the foreign secretary has said. Dominic Raab this morning said changes had been made that would “see justice done” if another family [...]
Tiktok could be sold to US investors to avoid American ban July 22, 2020 Beleaguered video app Tiktok could be split from its Chinese parent company Bytedance and sold off to US investors in a bid to curtail a mooted ban on the app in America, as questions over the company’s data protection policies face mounting criticism on both sides of the Atlantic. Tiktok’s $110bn (£86bn) parent firm Bytedance [...]
Grant Shapps says there is ‘no evidence’ of Russian Brexit interference July 22, 2020 Transport secretary Grant Shapps has said there is no evidence that Russia interfered in the 2016 Brexit vote and therefore the UK secret services did not need to investigate the allegations. Shapps’s statement came the day after lawmakers finally released the delayed Russia report. It said the government failed to investigate possible Russian interference in [...]
Trump offers message of support to Ghislaine Maxwell July 22, 2020 President Donald Trump has said that he wished alleged sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell well, noting that he had met her multiple times in the past, but he had little else to say on the case involving the late financier Jeffrey Epstein. Trump, speaking at his first coronavirus briefing in weeks yesterday, was asked if he [...]
Career versus motherhood: When workplaces don’t support women, the result is a fertility crisis July 22, 2020 You’d think that a global crash in fertility rates, which will see the world’s population fall dramatically by the end of the century, might be music to the ears of any sustainability professional. Lower populations, after all, equal lower environmental impacts. Yet dig a bit deeper into the research published last week by University of [...]
Why you should read the small print on alarmist Covid-19 death projections July 22, 2020 Another day, another lurid, headline-grabbing number of deaths to expect from Covid-19. This time, it was a study from the Academy of Medical Sciences. A second wave, we were warned, could kill 120,000 this winter in hospitals alone. To be fair, this study was a projection rather than a forecast. A forecast is what is [...]
US accuses Chinese nationals of hacking spree for Covid-19 trade secrets July 21, 2020 US prosecutors today said the Justice Department had indicted two Chinese nationals for hacking defence contractors, coronavirus researchers and hundreds of others globally. US authorities said Chinese nationals Li Xiaoyu and Dong Jiazhi were part of “one of the most prolific groups of hackers” the FBI has ever investigated. Officials alleged the pair participated in [...]
Coronavirus: Cobra and Sage committees sidelined, says Matt Hancock July 21, 2020 The government’s crisis committees Cobra and Sage are no longer leading the UK’s coronavirus response, according to health secretary Matt Hancock. Hancock told a parliamentary committee today that new coronavirus committees have been set up across government, with the new Joint Biosecurity Centre taking charge on major decisions. Sage (the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies) [...]
Facebook flags Trump post on mail-in voting July 21, 2020 Facebook today placed a so-called voting info disclaimer on US President Donald Trump’s post on mail-in voting, following criticism of the social network’s relaxed approach to regulating the President’s content. “Mail-In Voting, unless changed by the courts, will lead to the most CORRUPT ELECTION in our Nation’s History! #RIGGEDELECTION,” Trump wrote in the post. Nearly [...]
Rishi Sunak launches spending review and warns of ‘tough choices’ July 21, 2020 Chancellor Rishi Sunak has warned that “tough choices” will have to be made over government spending from 2021 onwards as he launched a comprehensive review of public sector budgets. The spending review comes as Sunak revises the overall spending plans made in the March Budget to reflect the huge impact coronavirus has had on the [...]