Facebook removes network of Chinese accounts over US election influence September 23, 2020 Facebook has said it has taken down a number of inauthentic Chinese accounts for attempting to influence elections and political activity in the US and Philippines. The company said it had suspended 155 accounts on Facebook and six Instagram accounts. Some of the accounts had been sharing content both in support and opposition of US [...]
Keir Starmer lashes out at Jeremy Corbyn and invokes Labour PMs in conference speech September 22, 2020 Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has slammed his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn for the party’s 2019 landslide election defeat and vowed that the party will never “not be trusted” on national security or the economy again. Starmer said in his first conference speech as Labour leader that the party “deserved” to lose last year’s General Election [...]
Sir Keir Starmer to make direct plea to lost working class voters in major speech September 21, 2020 Sir Keir Starmer will centre his Labour party conference speech tomorrow around “family values” and British patriotism in a bid to win back lost working class voters. Starmer will ask voters in the North and Midlands, who deserted the party at the 2019 election, to “take another look at Labour” and tell them that “we [...]
Twitter apologises over racial bias in image algorithm September 21, 2020 Twitter has issued an apology after users highlighted how its image-cropping algorithms would favour showing white or lighter faces over Black ones. When images are attached to a tweet, Twitter will crop the preview of the image so that it takes up less space on a user’s timeline. Users who noticed the feature’s bias on [...]
Sir Keir Starmer: Labour must become more patriotic September 20, 2020 Labour must stop being “shy” about patriotism to win back its traditional working class voter base, according to Sir Keir Starmer. Starmer said today that his party had been “very shy about patriotism for too many years” and that “the Labour movement actually wants the very best for the country”. The party’s virtual 2020 conference [...]
Oil prices reverse losses as Opec cracks down on over production September 17, 2020 Global oil prices sprung upwards this afternoon after producer group Opec+ said that it would crack down on those countries which did not comply with its record output cuts. Delegates are also planning an extra meeting in October if global oil markets weaken again, further reassuring traders. Worldwide benchmark Brent crude reversed its losses and [...]
Facebook shares dip after Kim Kardashian West announces boycott September 15, 2020 Shares in Facebook dipped this afternoon after Kim Kardashian West announced that she was freezing her account in protest against the sharing of misinformation on the social media platform. In a post on the site, she wrote: “I can’t sit by and stay silent while these platforms continue to allow the spreading of hate, propaganda [...]
To understand Russian President Vladimir Putin, we must see the world through his eyes September 14, 2020 One of the most valuable analytical lessons of all was explained to me succinctly by my foreign policy tutor during my happy days at St. Andrews. As he put it, the key to political risk analysis is not to imagine what you would do if you were in Fidel Castro’s shoes, but rather to empathize [...]
Microsoft: Russian hackers target US election again September 10, 2020 Hackers linked to Russia, China and Iran are attempting to spy on people tied to both President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden, Microsoft has said. The tech firm has said that both presidential campaigns are at risk from hackers as the Russian group which hacked the 2016 Democratic campaign is again involved in [...]
Putin holds all the cards in Belarus September 7, 2020 One of the greatest problems in political risk analysis is that the heart so often gets the better of the head. Because we want a political outcome to happen, we think that it will. Karmic justice must apply to all situations in history, with the good rewarded and the bad punished. But this is to [...]