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[
"Ben Doherty"
] | 2016-08-29T22:52:13 | null | 2016-08-29T22:15:14 |
‘The evidence shows pretty clearly that the vast majority of people would rather be in work,’ says World Medical Association president
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fglobal-development%2F2016%2Faug%2F30%2Fqa-panellist-attacks-myth-of-welfare-bludgers.json
|
en
| null |
Q&A panellist attacks myth of welfare bludgers
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
The vast majority of people want to work, and the political trope of a massive cohort of long-term, unmotivated welfare dependants draining public coffers is a myth, Q&A’s program on equity heard on Monday night.
The semantic dichotomy posited by politicians across the world: lifters versus leaners, the taxed countered by the not taxed, strivers against shirkers, did not exist in the real world, argued the president of the World Medical Association, Sir Michael Marmot.
Scott Morrison's car-crash logic and the real story behind the 'taxed-nots' | Greg Jericho Read more
“I think the evidence shows pretty clearly that the vast majority of people would rather be in work than on welfare,” he said. “There may be a small number of people who would like to game the system and have a life on welfare, but most people would rather go into work.”
Marmot said governments all over the world were convinced that if unemployment benefits were made too generous, people would have no incentive to go back to work. “It makes sense but it is wrong. When we look across Europe, the countries with the more generous unemployment benefits have the lowest unemployment levels.”
The head of the Australian Council of Social Service, Cassandra Goldie, said the proportion of people with a long-term dependence on welfare was “very, very small”.
“At any given time in terms of that working-age population, for people whose main source of income is social security, it is about 5%. That includes people who have a significant disability or are currently full-time caring – all those circumstances where there should be income support to help you through that period.”
Goldie said welfare payments were a “social and economic investment – not a cost”.
“Last year the business communities, all the business peak bodies, the unions and the community sector came together and said on social, moral and economic grounds, that payment must be increased. It is a barrier to helping people to do their bit to get employment.”
Deborah Cobb-Clark, professor of economics at the University of Sydney, said people’s contributions to society went far beyond the simple economics of paid work and that policymakers needed to take a more gestalt view of ‘the economy’.
“We do have a lot of people in society that take on unpaid work in the work of caring roles and I think that’s an important contribution, we do have a number of people who look after children or who look after the elderly, or who are doing volunteer work that’s really important, it doesn’t get counted when we think about employment.
“We should be thinking about ways to make the welfare system, to help support people in achieving their goal, whatever their goals are for their lives. And I … agree that, I think, very few people have a goal of sitting around and just collecting a cheque.”
Marmot quoted international studies that drew attention to a massive, growing inequality across the globe. He cited figures from the UK where people were asked what the income ratio of the highest-earning to the lowest-earning in their society should be. The average answer was 6:1 – they thought the highest-earning person should earn six times the lowest-earning person. When asked what they thought the ratio really was, people answered 12:1. The answer actually is 350:1.
It was a social experiment where people were asked what the ratio of the highest-earning to the lowest-earning should be in their society. They said the ratio they thought was reasonable was 6:1(that is, the highest-earning person should earn 6 times the lowest-earning person).Then, those same people were asked what they thought that ratio actually was. They said it was 12:1.The actual figure in the UK is 350:1.
Where has income inequality increased in Australia? Read more
He posited taking one year’s income of the top 25 hedge fund managers in New York – about $25bn – and transferring it to the African country of Tanzania, population 48 million, which also has an income of $25bn.
“If you conducted the thought experiment of transferring one year’s income from these 25 hedge fund managers to Tanzania, not simply to give them money but to pipe clean water, pay clinics, school teachers and the like, it would make an enormous difference. And the hedge funds wouldn’t miss it because they’ll make a billion next year.”
Marmot was criticised as living in “fantasy land” for his proposals for radical restructuring of existing economic systems.
He countered: “What sounds unrealistic today becomes realistic tomorrow. I don’t accept for one moment, I don’t think it is in fantasy land, wanting a fairer society”.
|
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/aug/30/qa-panellist-attacks-myth-of-welfare-bludgers
|
en
| 2016-08-29T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/ea24c9579ef83ffc91d8013136be49ebe3616395eb6ba8025c2433a0b63338b0.json
|
|
[
"Olivia Solon"
] | 2016-08-26T13:26:53 | null | 2016-08-22T20:35:26 |
The Lifestage app invites Generation Z to create a series of selfie videos, but gives its young users no tools for controlling privacy and who sees the content
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Ftechnology%2F2016%2Faug%2F22%2Ffacebook-lifestage-selfie-video-app-teens-public-privacy.json
|
en
| null |
Facebook's new app for teens is 'always public and viewable by everyone'
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
Facebook has launched a video selfie sharing app for teenagers which has no privacy settings. What could possibly go wrong?
Lifestage, which launched in the US on Friday, is restricted to users under the age of 21. It’s designed to make it “easy and fun to share a visual profile of who you are with your school network”.
The app invites users to create a series of videos showing their happy face, sad face, how they dance and sign, their favorite and least favorite song and who their best friend is. Users can also share videos of their classroom, locker, backyard and kitchen. The videos are all framed with cute animations, which give it a definite Snapchat feel.
However, unlike Snapchat, Lifestage gives its young users no tools for controlling who sees the content – something privacy campaigners are concerned about.
When users first sign up, they are greeted with the following message:
“Everything you post in Lifestage is always public and viewable by everyone, inside and outside your school. There is no way to limit the audience of your videos. We can’t confirm that people who claim to go to a certain school actually go to that school. All videos you upload to your profile and record are fully public content.”
Although Lifestage is clear with its users upfront about the public nature of the platform, there’s something about social media that can confuse people’s privacy intuitions, says Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst at ACLU.
“You may intellectually be fully aware that Twitter is open for the entire world to read, but you may nonetheless end up in a conversation with a few people and forget that behind those people lies the entire world looking over your shoulder at that conversation,” he said.
The fact that Lifestage centers on video rather than text sharing makes it particularly visceral.
“A picture is worth a thousand words and a video is probably worth a million,” said Stanley. “If it was my child using it, I would definitely have a talk with them and make sure they fully understand the potential ramifications of posting videos online for the entire world to see.”
The development of Lifestage was led by 19-year-old wunderkind Michael Sayman, who learned to code at age 13 and already has a few apps under his belt. He has said that he is trying to take Facebook back to its early roots, when it was restricted to schools and universities.
“Back in 2004, Facebook was all about ‘who I am’. I could post my relationship status. I could share what my favorite music was. And it was all about expressing myself,” said Sayman in a Facebook post.
“Today as Facebook has grown into so much more, we see the opportunity to explore that concept of ‘who I am’ once again, but for Generation Z in 2016.”
Justin Bieber quits Instagram after feud with Selena Gomez Read more
Lifestage isn’t a messaging app – Sayman told TechCrunch there are already “a bajillion” of those. Instead it is somewhere between an address book and a digital scrapbook of interests. Users fill out a “reach me” section where they can tell others how best to get in touch, whether via Snapchat or Instagram.
It’s no secret that Facebook has been struggling to keep teens’ attention and has been desperately trying to replicate the secret sauce that makes Snapchat such a hit with this age group.
After a failed attempt to acquire Snapchat for $3bn in 2013, Facebook has launched a series of features that seem to “borrow” heavily from it. These include: disappearing messages (through an app called Slingshot, which flopped), the ability to draw and add emojis to photos, scannable profiles called Messenger Codes and animated filters. The company also launched a feature earlier in August 2016 called Stories for Instagram, which lets users share a collection of photos and videos that disappears after 24 hours, just like Snapchat’s Stories.
“They’ve just been trying to be cool so much instead of actually becoming cool,” said digital strategist Tyler Hartsook, from communications firm Jackson Spalding.
“This is the first chance they’ve broken off and tried something that’s a little different. It has some Snapchat elements to it, but there are elements of originality.”
He adds that the fact that it’s founded by someone the same age as the target users gives it more authenticity. “It’s something made by them for them, rather than Facebook just rolling out a thing.”
Sayman doesn’t take kindly to those describing Lifestage as a Snapchat clone.
— Michael Sayman (@michaelsayman) Open app to a camera and ur a "snapchat clone". Then maybe I should go back to 1996 and make it a text box? No? 😂lol
It’s early days, but Lifestage currently has an average rating of 2.5 stars out of a possible 5 on the App Store.
“I don’t like how much information you have to give out. I don’t want my phone number to be known nor do I want everyone to know my Instagram and Snapchat,” said reviewer Lolzeka.
“I could not figure out how to take a picture or why my school was needed. Like I said, I don’t want all my information out there.”
In a statement, a Facebook spokeswoman said that Lifestage was being released to a limited number of high schools and wouldn’t give anyone who lists their age as above 21 access to content from other users.
“We encourage anyone using the app who experiences or witnesses any concerning activity to report it to us through the reporting options built into the app. We take these reports seriously. Unlike other places on the web, Lifestage is tied to a person’s phone number and only one account is allowed per phone number – this provides an additional level of protection and enforcement.”
|
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/aug/22/facebook-lifestage-selfie-video-app-teens-public-privacy
|
en
| 2016-08-22T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/1aed129a3b301d265f9eeaa01ed992a9aac523cc3e8e1691cc5d9264f3b3bc2d.json
|
|
[
"Jonathan Fisher",
"Ryan Baxter"
] | 2016-08-31T12:53:16 | null | 2016-08-31T07:37:20 |
The 20 clubs in the Premier League have already broken the record for most money spent in a single transfer window, with over a billion pounds changing hands in transfer fees
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fglobal%2Fvideo%2F2016%2Faug%2F31%2Fmythbusting-the-transfer-window-video.json
|
en
| null |
Mythbusting the transfer window on deadline day - video
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
The 20 clubs in the Premier League have already broken the record for most money spent in a single transfer window, with over a billion pounds changing hands in transfer fees. We speak to lawyers from sports law specialists Mills & Reeve to delve deeper beyond some of the summer headlines
|
https://www.theguardian.com/global/video/2016/aug/31/mythbusting-the-transfer-window-video
|
en
| 2016-08-31T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/c5c29e9383aeb3cefab71b390efe300abacc228f73539c0f23141730862e052d.json
|
|
[] | 2016-08-29T00:52:06 | null | 2016-08-28T22:44:55 |
Patrick Reed’s first win since 2015 could not have been better timed as he now leads the FedEx Cup points list and has guaranteed himself a place in the US Ryder Cup team
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fsport%2F2016%2Faug%2F28%2Fpatrick-reed-fedex-cup-the-barclays-american-ryder-cup-ricky-fowler-zach-johnson.json
|
en
| null |
Patrick Reed rises to top of FedEx Cup points list with Barclays victory
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
Patrick Reed survived a couple of late bogeys to clinch a one-stroke victory at The Barclays on Sunday. He recorded a closing 70 to finish on nine-under 275 at Bethpage Black in Farmingdale on New York’s Long Island.
His fellow American Sean O’Hair (66) and the Argentinian Emiliano Grillo (69) were joint second on eight under.
Darren Clarke has to decide how many Ryder Cup rookies are too many | Ewan Murray Read more
With his fifth victory on the PGA Tour, Reed secured a spot on the United States team for next month’s Ryder Cup. It was his first victory since the start of 2015 at Kapalua. He also vaulted to the top of the FedEx Cup points list after the first of the four play-off events.
Reed was delighted with his win but acknowledged his game needed work after he recorded bogeys at the 16th and 18th holes.
“I have worked pretty hard with my coach for the past couple of weeks,” the 26-year-old said in a greenside interview. “The game shows I’m moving in the right direction but there are some things I need to work on. As the pressure started building I started going back to my old pattern, hit some shots left.”
However, it was a day to forget for Rickie Fowler, who had led going into the final round. He was still poised to earn one of the eight automatic spots on the Ryder Cup team until a meltdown over the last four holes. The final spot in the American team will now go to Zach Johnson.
|
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/aug/28/patrick-reed-fedex-cup-the-barclays-american-ryder-cup-ricky-fowler-zach-johnson
|
en
| 2016-08-28T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/c2132e8c491a7a42f6e10c1672c2d41009447668302eee778cf11c2c6e08d155.json
|
|
[
"Australian Associated Press"
] | 2016-08-28T04:49:31 | null | 2016-08-28T04:33:30 |
Les Jackson says his ‘sole focus’ is his son, who remains in a critical condition in after an attack at a Queensland hostel that killed fellow Briton Mia Ayliffe-Chung
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Faustralia-news%2F2016%2Faug%2F28%2Ffather-of-british-sta-attack-victim-tom-jackson-says-he-is-immensely-proud.json
|
en
| null |
Father of British stabbing attack victim Tom Jackson says he is 'immensely proud'
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
The father of a British knife attack victim who is on life support in a far north Queensland hospital, has spoken of his immense pride in his son.
Tom Jackson, 30, suffered multiple wounds on Tuesday at a hostel at Home Hills, about 100km south of Townsville, while trying to protect fellow Briton Mia Ayliffe-Chung, who was stabbed to death.
“There are many and varied reasons why we are, and always will be, immensely proud of Tom. His actions in response to this horrific attack only add to that sense of pride,” Les Jackson said in a statement released on Sunday by Townsville hospital.
Les Jackson, who travelled from Britain last week to be at his son’s bedside, said he’d received many offers of support and friendship from the Townsville community.
Linking backpacker stabbing to extremism 'opportunistic' says police minister Read more
“Please don’t think I am unappreciative of these kind offers if they appear to be silently ignored,” he said. “They have not been but I think you will understand that our sole focus at the moment is entirely on Tom’s condition.”
“We are in awe of the medical and support staff at the Townsville hospital who are providing the greatest care Tom could hope to receive and keeping me informed of his ongoing treatment every step of the way.
“Finally, and most importantly, our hearts go out to Mia and her family and friends at this dreadful time.”
Tom Jackson remains a critical condition, a hospital spokesman said on Sunday.
Frenchman Smail Ayad, who was staying at the hostel, is accused of murdering Ayliffe-Chung and stabbing Jackson as well as killing a dog and injuring a dozen police after his arrest.
Police deemed him too aggressive to appear in Townsville magistrates court on Friday where his case was adjourned until 28 October.
|
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/aug/28/father-of-british-sta-attack-victim-tom-jackson-says-he-is-immensely-proud
|
en
| 2016-08-28T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/af96cbc144d4ec98cacf4c162815d402c65ce200f20d29137fc277fe8e71bf17.json
|
|
[
"Nial Briggs"
] | 2016-08-27T18:51:22 | null | 2016-08-27T18:10:58 |
Josh Meekings scored a late winning goal as Inverness recorded their first victory under manager of Richie Foran
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Ffootball%2F2016%2Faug%2F27%2Fscottish-roundup-hearts-inverness-partick.json
|
en
| null |
Scottish roundup: Tony Watt’s strike brings Hearts late win at Partick
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
Tony Watt opened his goalscoring account for Hearts as his late winning goal snatched a 2-1 victory over Partick Thistle at Firhill.
Hearts’ right-back Callum Paterson, the subject of two failed bids from Wigan recently, proved his worth to the Tynecastle side as he headed home the 17th-minute opener.
But Liam Lindsay provided the Jags with a deserved equaliser when he headed home from a Chris Erskine corner with 10 minutes played in the second half.
However, just as the match was heading for a draw there was a cruel blow for the hosts when Watt lashed a shot past Tomas Cerny to hand his side a second straight Premiership win.
Dougie Imrie was the hero as Hamilton recorded their first league victory of the season with a 1-0 win over Ross County.
Imrie pounced in the 76th minute to slam the ball into the net following good play by Darian MacKinnon during a goalmouth scramble, for his fourth goal of the season.
Motherwell and Dundee shared the points in a goalless encounter at Fir Park to leave both sides with just one win so far in this campaign. The Dundee manager, Paul Hartley, praised the debut display of Kevin Gomis after the French defender helped them to an away point. The former Nice centre-back and his fellow defenders restricted Motherwell to few openings despite a dominant first-half performance from the hosts. And Hartley was hugely encouraged by the 27-year-old’s introduction to the Premiership.
The Dundee manager said: “I thought we were good second half. We controlled the game, we just missed that bit of quality and cutting edge. But I was really pleased with how we performed and the clean sheet. We don’t get many clean sheets so that was pleasing, and Gomis at centre-half was terrific. He was excellent for his first game, he has not played for a while. I thought he strolled it.”
A stoppage-time strike from Josh Meekings gave Inverness a first Premiership win under their manager, Richie Foran.
Meekings scrambled the ball over the line in the final moments of the game to earn Caley Thistle a 2-1 win over St Johnstone, who had looked like they would take a point. Ross Draper opened the scoring for Inverness but a long-range effort from Richard Foster drew the visitors level with 10 minutes to go. When it looked like Inverness could not barge the door down, Meekings’ close-range finish sparked jubilation amongst the home support.
In the Championship, Hibernian moved clear at the top with a 4-0 home win against Morton.
|
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/aug/27/scottish-roundup-hearts-inverness-partick
|
en
| 2016-08-27T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/7488e8fa134ea1ffa9aca70c998b3a9b154a54a4506da478e05312c2ec0b28c3.json
|
|
[
"Jasper Jackson"
] | 2016-08-26T13:14:39 | null | 2016-08-26T11:01:09 |
Singer, who has just appeared in James Corden’s Carpool Karaoke, confronts Kevin Bacon about wearing her red catsuit in advert
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fmedia%2F2016%2Faug%2F26%2Fbritney-spears-ee-ad-apple-music-james-corden-carpool-karaoke-kevin-bacon.json
|
en
| null |
Britney Spears fronts EE ad offering six months' free Apple Music
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
Britney Spears is fronting an ad campaign for EE to promote a tie-up with Apple Music.
The mobile operator is offering new and upgrading customers six months’ access to Apple Music, the first time the service has partnered with a mobile operator in the UK.
Spears will front a multimillion-pound ad campaign with the current face of EE, Kevin Bacon.
EE chief executive Marc Allera said they had chosen Spears for a recognisable and retro feel to the ad campaign.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Kevin Bacon and Britney Spears in EE ad
“We were looking for an instantly recognisable star and track with mass appeal, that Kevin could impersonate,” he said.
Britney Spears – 10 of the best Read more
“We also needed someone willing to embrace the playful nature of our ads and have a bit of fun. Britney was the perfect choice with her red rubber catsuit and her world famous Oops I did It Again track. Timing-wise it was perfect for her as her new album is about to be released.”
Spears is currently in the headlines as she promotes her new album Glory, appearing on James Corden’s Carpool Karaoke this week and poised to guest at the MTV VMAs for the first time in nine years on Sunday.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Britney Spears Carpool Karaoke
Tie-ups with media companies are increasingly important for mobile operators. EE also offers its customers access to content from BT Sport, which is owned by the operator’s parent company BT.
Rival Vodafone has similar deals offering customers access to Spotify and Sky Sports.
|
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/aug/26/britney-spears-ee-ad-apple-music-james-corden-carpool-karaoke-kevin-bacon
|
en
| 2016-08-26T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/e7f56f4dcb06efd7cf6ec87205ad316ed06c017a1cd1c74aa380219f6ff40984.json
|
|
[
"Press Association"
] | 2016-08-28T16:59:28 | null | 2016-08-22T23:01:16 |
Citizens Advice survey finds three fifths of British people who have accessed pensions have not thought about financing future care costs
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fmoney%2F2016%2Faug%2F23%2Fcalls-for-more-pension-advice-after-study-raises-concerns-over-future-plans.json
|
en
| null |
Calls for more pension advice after study raises concerns over future plans
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
More than half of people who have taken money out under pension freedoms have not planned for future care costs, a new study shows.
A survey of 500 people who have accessed their pension since April 2015 revealed that just one in six has budgeted for the cost of care as they grow older.
Citizens Advice said its research found that three fifths have not thought about how they will pay for care costs, with one in 10 hoping to rely on their family or the government.
Local authorities should offer online or face-to-face services to help people plan for the future, said the report.
Gillian Guy, chief executive of Citizens Advice, said: “Care costs can be a heavy financial burden that many people are unprepared for.
“It is unsurprising that many people in their fifties are not thinking about how they will pay for care costs when the need for this could be 10, 20 or even 30 years away. But this issue does need some attention, otherwise people risk dipping into their pension now only to find they need some of the money later.
“Getting the right guidance is key in helping people think about and plan how they will fund their retirement, including costs which are more tricky to consider, such as care fees.
“There is also an opportunity for local authorities to help people plan ahead for future care costs, by providing clear information about how funding for care works and how much it costs.”
|
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/aug/23/calls-for-more-pension-advice-after-study-raises-concerns-over-future-plans
|
en
| 2016-08-22T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/106926a9eac166ea8ae07ad42329669af191bec3e7cd5c044837868d5bbd0f57.json
|
|
[
"Mazin Sidahmed"
] | 2016-08-29T20:52:10 | null | 2016-08-29T19:35:31 |
The actor, who starred in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and Young Frankenstein, dies aged 83 from complications from Alzheimer’s, family says
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fus-news%2F2016%2Faug%2F29%2Fgene-wilder-death-willy-wonka-mel-brooks-comedy.json
|
en
| null |
Gene Wilder, star of Willy Wonka and Mel Brooks comedies, dies aged 83
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
Gene Wilder, the star of such comedy classics as The Producers and Blazing Saddles has died. He was 83.
Wilder’s nephew said on Monday that the actor and writer died late on Sunday in Stamford, Connecticut, from complications from Alzheimer’s disease.
This much I know: Gene Wilder, actor, 73, Connecticut Read more
The frizzy-haired actor was a master at playing panicked characters caught up in schemes that only director Mel Brooks could devise, whether reviving a monster in Young Frankenstein or bilking Broadway in The Producers.
But he also knew how to keep it cool as the boozy gunfighter in Blazing Saddles and as the charming candy man in the children’s favorite Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.
But it was for this role that he was most widely known, and Wilder’s face became synonymous with the character from the Roald Dahl novel.
Willy Wonka also earned him a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Comedy. He was nominated for two Academy Awards for his roles in 1968 classic The Producers.
Celebrities expressed their condolences on Twitter when the news broke.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
|
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/aug/29/gene-wilder-death-willy-wonka-mel-brooks-comedy
|
en
| 2016-08-29T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/fbf489e994a91e0b8a903af7670890f58335cf992e2e103a9059c97569137bf7.json
|
|
[
"Source",
"Eso Nature"
] | 2016-08-26T13:27:19 | null | 2016-08-24T17:00:26 |
A new exoplanet has been discovered just outside our solar system, four light years away from Earth, and may have liquid water on its surface
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fscience%2Fvideo%2F2016%2Faug%2F24%2Fdiscovery-of-earth-like-exoplanet-proxima-b-video-report.json
|
en
| null |
Discovery of Earth-like exoplanet Proxima b close to our solar system - video report
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
A new exoplanet has been discovered just outside our solar system. The planet, named Proxima b, orbits the sun’s nearest stellar neighbour Proxima Centuri. Proxima b lies about four light years away from Earth and may have liquid water on its surface, raising hopes of extraterrestrial life
Proxima b will be our prime laboratory in the search for extraterrestrial life
|
https://www.theguardian.com/science/video/2016/aug/24/discovery-of-earth-like-exoplanet-proxima-b-video-report
|
en
| 2016-08-24T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/0389abafe7eadd6bd5359cac6e44dd5f23d86feee75c77b79f0bf3385cabfb7c.json
|
|
[
"Nick Fletcher"
] | 2016-08-28T06:54:58 | null | 2016-08-28T06:00:24 |
The collapse of the online bookie’s three-way merger doesn’t mean there won’t be more takeovers in the sector. It’s a racing certainty that there will
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When buying bookies, you win some, you lose some. Just ask 888
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Not all gambles pay off, clearly, otherwise the bookies would never make any money.
But it must be galling for betting operator 888 to take a punt on a joint £3bn bid with Rank for William Hill, only to see it fall apart in short order when the target refused to play.
Last week, Rank said it was still on the lookout for acquisitions, and on Wednesday 888 has the chance to spell out its own plans for the future. After all, this is not the first time it has failed in a bid, having lost out on buying Bwin for £1bn a year earlier.
Analysts are still forecasting consolidation in the gaming industry, and another tie-up with Rank is not impossible. In the way of these things, 888 could also be a target itself (as it once was for, yes, William Hill). Morgan Stanley said: “In the past two years, 888 agreed to be acquired by William Hill, then to acquire bwin.party, and proposed to acquire Rank and William Hill. With its strong technology, customer relationship management, content and brands, we view 888 as a highly attractive and scarce asset … in a rapidly consolidating industry, 888 may not be large enough to compete effectively.”
Without any deals, investors will be hoping for an increased dividend or special payout. Morgan Stanley again: “It has a strong record of cash returns, with a … yield of 5.5% [in 2015].”
Japanese deal a shot in the ARM for Cambridge
It looks like being the end of an era. From a little acorn – or rather a little Acorn Computers – chip designer ARM has grown into one of Britain’s biggest technological successes, supplying the likes of Apple and Samsung. But this week the company, which was initially spun out of BBC computer maker Acorn, will lose its independence again when – barring any unlikely last-minute mishaps – a £24bn takeover by Japan’s SoftBank goes through.
ARM shareholders meet on Tuesday to approve the deal, with Friday set to be the last day when the company’s shares –it’s been a stalwart of the FTSE 100 since February 2010, although it first joined in 1999 – are traded on the stock market.
Still, amid the usual discussions about Britain’s industrial base falling into foreign ownership, there will be some benefits. Not least for the company’s 4,000 workers, who are in line to share more than £400m. Chief executive Simon Segars and chief technology officer Mike Muller could receive up to £55m between them.
And at least Softbank has pledged to keep ARM’s base in Cambridge for at least the next five years, and to double the size of its UK workforce.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest ARM’s chief executive Simon Segars will share a payout of about £50m with his chief technology officer. Photograph: Albert Gea/Reuters
Tooling up for Speedy merger
Martin Hughes, the fund manager dubbed “the rottweiler” in the City, is not a man to take lightly, as directors at equipment rental group Speedy Hire are finding out.
Hughes – a former City analyst who now runs asset manager Toscafund and is said to be worth about £375m – is demanding a merger with rival HSS and that company group chairman Jan Astrand step down. He has requisitioned a shareholder meeting for September.
Speedy Hire and HSS were in talks earlier this year before Speedy pulled the plug – something Hughes, who has stakes in both businesses, believes is a mistake. In a letter to Speedy Hire’s chairman he said: “You oversaw prolonged talks with regard to a potential merger with HSS Hire Group plc, which you inexplicably halted without consultation with the shareholders. You are aware that the advisers were comfortable with £20m annual synergy benefits above and beyond cost savings that would be achieved in the ordinary course of business. The merger would have been at least 70% accretive to the annual profit of Speedy Hire and the benefits would have insulated the company from the effects of a possible UK economic slowdown.”
On Friday Speedy Hire took some action of its own, selling its fleet of large excavators and rollers for $14.4m.
Against this background, HSS’s half-year results, due on Wednesday, could make for an interesting occasion. Analysts at Peel Hunt said: “We expect the HSS trading outlook to remain cautious given competitive pressures in the core hire activities and another cool summer.” HSS wants to focus on its own business and will update us on new initiatives including a new national distribution centre opened in March. But the Toscafund plan is likely to be a key talking point, both at HSS’s results and its subsequent shareholder roadshow.
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https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/aug/28/888-buying-bookies-win-some-lose-some-gambling
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| 2016-08-28T00:00:00 |
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[
"Patrick Butler"
] | 2016-08-29T00:49:41 | null | 2016-08-28T23:01:45 |
More than 70,000 face average rise of more than £1,000 a year under scheme to ensure supposedly high earners pay market rent
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Social housing tenants face soaring rents under 'pay to stay' policy
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More than 70,000 tenants face average rent rises of more than £1,000 a year under the government’s “pay to stay” policy aimed at ensuring supposedly high earners living in social housing are charged market rents.
Councils have warned that nearly one in 10 social tenants in London and the south-east can expect rent rises, with those living in the capital facing an average monthly rent rise of £132.
Under pay to stay, households with a combined income of £40,000 and above in London, and £31,000 in the rest of England, will be classified as “high income tenants” and subject to rent increases of 15p for every pound they earn above the high-income thresholds.
There are fears that many working families on median incomes will be unable to afford to stay in their home or find an affordable local alternative. Critics in the House of Lords savaged the policy, announced by the former chancellor George Osborne last year, as “ill-thought-out and unfair”.
‘Pay to stay’ trap will force working families out of council homes Read more
The Local Government Association (LGA) said that the policy would be costly and bureaucratic to implement, stressful for affected families and would generate just £75m year for the Treasury, compared to original projections of £365m by 2017-18.
It said: “Councils need to invest millions in new IT systems, hire new staff and write to more than a million social housing tenants to try and understand household income and approve individual tenant bills by January. This will be a difficult, lengthy and costly process for councils, and is likely to be unpopular with tenants and result in high levels of costly appeals and challenges.”
The councillor Nick Forbes, senior vice-chair of the LGA, said: “Pay to stay risks becoming an expensive distraction from our joint ambition to build more homes. We urge new government ministers to take this opportunity to allow councils to decide whether or not they will introduce pay to stay for their tenants and to keep the additional rent to invest in new and existing homes, as will be the case for housing association tenants.”
Pay to stay was originally aimed at people with living circumstances similar to the late RMT union boss Bob Crow, who rented a council home despite earning more than £145,000 a year. Initially the plan was to target a small group of people on salaries above £60,000.
The Department for Communities and Local Government said 90% of social housing tenants would be unaffected by the policy.
A spokesman for the department said: “It’s simply not fair that hard-working people are subsidising the lifestyles of those on higher than average incomes, including tens of thousands of households earning £50,000 or more.
“Pay to stay better reflects tenants’ ability to pay while those who genuinely need support continue to receive it. It means households earning £32,000 would see rents rise by just a couple of pounds a week.”
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https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/aug/29/social-housing-tenants-face-soaring-rents-under-pay-to-stay-policy
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| 2016-08-28T00:00:00 |
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[
"Tash Reith-Banks"
] | 2016-08-26T13:27:34 | null | 2016-08-26T11:42:08 |
Science this week has boldly gone all over the place, from the discovery of exoplanet Proxima b to genetic coffee habits and deadly fungus in bagpipes
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Out of this world and on to the next - the week in science
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This week’s biggest stories
Proxima b is the new planet on the block. Well, it’s been in orbit around Proxima Centauri for a while, I suppose, but it’s new to us, and is set to inform our space exploration work and the search for life outside our solar system for decades to come. But if the thought of all that intergalactic travel makes you snoozy, go ahead and nap - it’s good for you. This week has seen discovery that sleep ‘resets’ the connections in the brain - and that lack of sleep causes the brain to become “muddled” with electrical activity, which affects our ability to learn and memorise things. Still, you might prefer caffeine to an early night. If so, you might be interested to know that your level of coffee consumption could be genetic (well, partly, at least). Researchers have also found evidence that even quite head injuries during childhood can increase risk of all sorts of things, from poorer educational achievement to early death. So helmets on everyone, and also, for all you bagpipe players and wind musicians out there: keep your instruments clean. Scientists believe a man has died after fungus in his instrument caused a condition know as “bagpipe lung”.
More news from Guardian Science | Sign up to Lab notes
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Straight from the lab - top picks from our experts on the blog network
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Intelligent software guides your daily choices, but is it biased? Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo
AI guides your daily life, but is it liberal or conservative? | Raising HAL
Imagine you’re a billionaire, with your own film studio. You’re sitting there on your golden throne, eating peeled grapes off Channing Tatum’s abs. Your assistant has just handed you the script for The Expendables 7 or yet another Spider-Man reboot. You yawn theatrically in his face. Surely, you think yourself, in this data-driven age there has to be a better way. Couldn’t we use machine learning to design the optimum new film?
Not on the map: cartographic omission from New England to Palestine | The H word
Historians of cartography have long studied the practices and consequences of cartographic omission. In a landmark study, “New England cartography and the Native Americans”, published posthumously in 1994, the British historian of cartography J. B. Harley analysed seventeenth-century maps to follow the progressive replacement of the Native Americans with European settlers.
After months of excitement, we’re left with the status quo. But it’s no bad thing in physics | Life and Physics
so far nothing startlingly new has shown up in the data from CERN this year, despite new regions of the landscape of physics being revealed to us by a big increase in the energy of the beams in the collider. This isn’t the end of the story, of course. To use a favourite analogy of mine, we have had a flyby of the landscape, and have not seen any huge cities or towering volcanoes. But this doesn’t mean there isn’t important and interesting stuff going on in the undergrowth.
Visit the Science blog network
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Monday Mind Games
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Which of the two centre circles is bigger? Photograph: Pete Etchells for the Guardian
How do you tell if something looks small because it is small, or because it is very far away? It seems a ridiculous question because we make such calculations with apparent ease. But it’s actually not that simple ...
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Science Weekly podcast
Facebook Twitter Pinterest What does the future hold for humanity? And can we ever really know? Join us for a journey into the unknown. Photograph: Stocktrek Images, Inc./Alamy
We’re changing the day that our podcast goes live so that you can wake up with it on Sunday mornings. So if you don’t already subscribe, here’s a chance to catch up with last week’s instalment in our Big unknowns series: What will become of us? Next Friday we’ll carry the latest Science Weekly.
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Eye on science - this week’s top video
Ok, this got me a little teary-eyed, I have to admit - it’s a brilliant story of a brave, horrifically injured man given his confidence - and yes, his life, really - back through pioneering medical science. Happy Friday, people.
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"Tom Dyckhoff"
] | 2016-08-26T13:28:55 | null | 2016-08-19T15:30:22 |
This old seaside town is not going to do a Margate any time soon
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Let’s move to Lowestoft, Suffolk: it’s faded - but what a beach
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What’s going for it? I’m not sure all the cupcake-yarn-bombing-vintage-craft-beer-artisan-cream-horn-emporia in the country could entirely resuscitate Lowestoft. This old seaside town is not going to do a Margate any time soon. The shiny bollards and benches installed, I’d guess, sometime during the reign of Tony Blair have failed to spark any “urban renaissance”… ah, remember that? The dedicated spotter of regeneration schemes can I-Spy decades of attempts to put the fizz back in Lowestoft, decimated by the double whammy decline of its port and its seaside punters. The middle classes, who dominate the Suffolk coast to the south, have here fled inland to the comfort of Oulton Broad. This is strange. Because Lowestoft, for all its For Sale signs, shares the same bone structure: that easterly bleakness, municipal gardens, beach huts, dunes, Blue Flagged strands with sand as soft as talc, a pretty, pantiled high street the image of anything in Aldeburgh. Their loss.
The case against Extensively shabby, drab and deprived, with little cheer on the horizon. Schools are a mixed bag. Getting from here to anywhere else (even Great Yarmouth) can be a trial. Traffic can clog in the centre when the bridges are raised.
Well connected? Trains: hourly to Norwich (45-50 mins) or south on the slow line to Ipswich (90 mins). Driving: 50 mins to Norwich.
Schools Primaries: Poplars Community, Northfield St Nicholas, Roman Hill, St Mary’s RC are “good”, Ofsted says, with Oulton Broad and Carlton Colville “outstanding”. Secondaries: Pakefield is “good”.
Hang out at… I’ve a soft spot for Woodbine Cafe on Suffolk Road, for unironic nostalgia, though I hear good things about the Jolly Sailors.
Let’s move to Beccles, Suffolk: ‘It’s peacock-eats-peacock here’ Read more
Where to buy Start in the faded old town, around the High Street, and the small Victorian terraces to the west. For period homes, look south to London Road South, Kirkley “Village” and the Victorian seafront around Marine Parade and Kirkley Cliff Road, or north to Gunton Cliff and Yarmouth Road. It’s poshest in Oulton and Oulton Broad, south past Cotmer Road to Carlton Colville and Pakefield. Large detacheds and town houses, £300,000-£800,000. Detacheds and smaller town houses, £150,000-£300,000. Semis, £130,000-£325,000. Terraces, flats and cottages, £70,000-£200,000. Rentals: one-bed flat, £370-£550pcm; three-bed house, £500-£700pcm.
Bargain of the week Six-bed, spacious Victorian terrace in south Lowestoft, needs modernisation, £134,995, with howards.co.uk.
From the streets
Susan Burrett “A great location with a fantastic sandy beach and easy access to the Broads. Good value. The town centre is a bit lacking; I’d head to Southwold, 15 minutes away, for a nice dinner.”
Ian Hall “Lovely, relaxing pace of life. Check out the Wherry hotel for sunset drinks overlooking the Broads.”
• Live in Lowestoft? Join the debate below.
Do you live in Lambeth, south London? Do you have a favourite haunt or a pet hate? If so, please email lets.move@theguardian.com by Tuesday 23 August.
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| 2016-08-19T00:00:00 |
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[
"Stuart Dredge"
] | 2016-08-26T13:27:03 | null | 2016-06-17T10:24:18 |
Apps such as Pacemaker, Serato Pyro and djay Pro could help you practise your mixing skills and ensure parties go with a (beat-matched) swing
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Seven of the best DJ apps for Android, iPhone and iPad
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Hey boys. Hey girls. Superstar DJs? Here we go – on a touchscreen, rather than a set of physical decks.
DJ apps can be a touchy subject in dance circles, but they shouldn’t be. Rather than posing a threat to the traditional, physical craft of professional DJing, they’re more aimed at interested amateurs.
People who want to experiment with putting their own mixes together, and perhaps to soundtrack the odd house party or wedding reception. Pro DJs can get some use out of them, but their core audience is the rest of us.
Here are seven worth trying. Prices are correct at the time of writing, with “IAP” indicating the use of in-app purchases.
Pacemaker
iOS (Free + IAP)
With its cheerfully neon visuals and simple controls, Pacemaker is the most accessible app for budding DJs. You can pull in tracks from your iTunes collection as well as streaming service Spotify (if you’re a subscriber), then mix them easily with the help of the built-in sync feature. Extra effects, from loop and reverb to “ChopChop” and “8-bit” can be bought as in-app purchases. If you’re feeling lazy (or want to dance) the app will also choose suitable tracks and mix them for you, too.
djay 2
Android / iOS (£2.99 - £3.99 + IAP)
Developer Algoriddim is one of the longest-established companies making DJing apps, and it shows in the latest version of its flagship software. djay 2 models itself on a physical set of decks, and like Pacemaker it works with your local collection as well as with Spotify Premium. In the former case, you can also record your mixes for later listening and sharing. djay 2 is a good bridge between people who are just getting started with DJing, and those who want to play with more powerful features and audio effects – some of which are sold as in-app purchases.
Serato Pyro
iOS (Free)
Serato’s reputation in DJ circles comes from its pro software, but its Pyro app is aimed much more at music fans. It’s another app that can pull songs from your iTunes and Spotify Premium collections, and once you’ve chosen a few for your mix, the app will suggest others that it thinks will fit nicely. Pyro handles the mixing for you, and will re-sort your playlist for smoother segues if you ask it to. It’s an accessible way to prepare mixes for parties or events.
edjing 5
Android / iOS (Free + IAP)
Another well-established DJ app alongside the djay series, and this too has been through several versions to reach its current, slick incarnation. Edjing has some different sources too: besides the songs downloaded to your device, it can access music from streaming services SoundCloud and Deezer. Mixing is simple, with tools to help novices, and like rivals you can buy various effects and tools as in-app purchases. There’s also a useful recording feature. More experienced DJs may wish to try the separate Edjing Pro app.
djay Pro
iOS (£14.99 + IAP)
Worth its own entry in this roundup, not least because djay Pro has just won an Apple Design Award, showing that Cupertino’s app bosses hold it in high esteem. That’s because it’s been heavily optimised for the latest iPads, including the iPad Pro, with all manner of shortcuts for owners of the big-sized tablet. Like the consumer version of djay, it supports iTunes and Spotify Premium for music, but the emphasis here is on pro features, from recording and sample packs to its video features.
Cross DJ
Android / iOS (Free + IAP)
This app’s creator, Mixvibes, is another veteran of the digital DJing scene, with its app a good free option even if you don’t want to spend money on the effects sold as in-app purchases. It can draw from your local music collection as well as SoundCloud, with a good range of mixing controls, plus an automatic option if you want to take a break. That’s another in-app purchase, as is the ability to record and share non-SoundCloud mixes – these features are £0.79 each – so you can build Cross DJ into a tool that suits your needs with relatively little cost, or buy the separate Cross DJ Pro version instead.
Traktor DJ
iOS (£7.99 + IAP)
Finally, this is another app for more experienced DJs, from one of the most well-known companies – Native Instruments – in the DJing world. Traktor DJ ditches the idea of virtual decks in favour of getting you hands-on with songs’ waveforms via some inventive multi-gesture controls. It works with your iTunes library, with as much or as little help mixing as you need. It also plays nicely with other music apps on your device, and can work with Traktor’s DJing hardware. A separate iPhone version is available.
That’s our selection. Now tell us your thoughts. If you’ve used some of the apps above, how did you find them and in what contexts did you use them? How would you like to see DJ apps evolve in the future? The comments section is open for your views.
• Ten of the best music-making apps for beginners
• Ten of the best music apps for kids
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https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jun/17/seven-best-dj-apps-android-iphone-ipad
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| 2016-06-17T00:00:00 |
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[
"Giles Richards"
] | 2016-08-26T13:21:15 | null | 2016-08-26T09:19:03 |
Lewis Hamilton will take a 30-place grid penalty for the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday, his team, Mercedes, have confirmed
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Lewis Hamilton to start from back of F1 grid at Belgian Grand Prix
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Lewis Hamilton will take a 30-place grid penalty for the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday, his team, Mercedes, have confirmed. The three-times world champion, said on Thursday at Spa that he would be taking an engine penalty but the exact number of replacement components he would be taking – and hence the extent of the grid penalty – was only made clear when Friday’s first practice session began.
Hamilton has taken two new power units before the race in order to build up a stock of components to last until the end of the season. These will be Hamilton’s seventh turbo charger and motor generator unit-heat components, exceeding the limit of five units at only the 13th race of the season. The decision means he has suffered two 10-place penalties and two 5-place penalties. The combined 30-place penalty will put him at the back of the grid.
His team-mate Nico Rosberg, whom he leads by 19 points in the world championship, has also taken a new power unit for the race. Rosberg has remained within his planned usage of engine components and is now on his fourth allocation of each part, so will incur no penalty. Hamilton and his team had made it clear they knew he would have to fit new parts at some point and had planned to do so at a circuit that would suit the power advantage of the Mercedes and offer good overtaking opportunities, both of which Spa-Francorchamps offers.
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https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/aug/26/lewis-hamilton-belgian-grand-prix-grid-penalty
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| 2016-08-26T00:00:00 |
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[
"Harvey Jones"
] | 2016-08-29T02:59:33 | null | 2014-11-05T00:00:00 |
With regular savings accounts you can start with as little as £10 which can slowly roll up into a tidy lump sum
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Regular investing: whether you have £10 or £500 there’s a place for you
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Setting aside a sum every month is the most painless way to save for the future. And when it comes to stock market investing, a regular savings plan can help smooth out the highs and lows – which is important during times of turbulence such as the last month or two, when the FTSE 100 index fell more than 10% in six weeks.
Once you have set up your direct debit or standing order, your money should quietly roll up over the years and provide a handy sum when you need it. Many people decide to save regularly to create a nest-egg for a child or grandchild.
As with a lump-sum investment, where you put your money should be influenced by your attitude to risk and how much time – and cash – you have.
With regular savings accounts offered by the high street players, you can sometimes put in as little as £10 a month, while many of the major names in the investment world offer schemes where you can pay in a minimum of £25 or £50 a month.
Here we look at options for people looking to set aside different amounts.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Putting aside £10 a month can hardly seem worth the effort, but everyone has to start somewhere. Photograph: Alamy
£10 a month
Before you start saving, pay down any unsecured debts such as credit cards or overdrafts. These can charge APRs of as much as 30% – far more than you will ever get on any investment. Then look to build a “rainy day” fund worth at least three months’ salary in an easy access account, to see you through financial emergencies.
A number of bank and building societies allow you to save small amounts in regular savings accounts, although others set the bar higher at £25, £50 or £100. You can compare rates at websites such as Moneyfacts.co.uk.
Saving £10 a month may barely seem worth the effort, but everybody has to start somewhere, says Andrew Hagger at personal finance site MoneyComms.co.uk. “The amount you set aside is less important than getting into the savings habit. You can always increase the sum when your finances permit it.”
If you don’t expect to need your money for a year or two, you might get a slightly better return from a fixed-rate regular savings account. Interest rates of up to 4% are available on accounts where you typically need to commit to paying in every month for a year. Saffron building society has a one-year account paying 4%. Halifax has a Kids’ Regular Saver, paying 6%.
Today’s low interest rates may be dismal, but you are building a savings balance for when rates finally do pick up, Hagger says. “Set yourself a target, because seeing your savings grow will encourage you to keep going.” Hagger suggests setting up a direct debit into a savings account to leave your current account one day after payday. “If you wait until the end of the month, there may not be anything left.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Your options will increase if you can save £50 a month. Photograph: Andalucia Plus Image Bank/Alamy
£50 a month
Once you can afford to start saving £50 a month, your options increase. If you still want to play safe with cash, you have more savings accounts to choose from.
Again, first pay down expensive debt and build an instant-access rainy day fund. Then shop around for the best savings account or look into a shares-based investment.
Over the long term, stocks and shares can really put your money to work. If you had invested £50 every month for the past 30 years in the average investment company it would now be worth £94,450, according to the Association of Investment Companies. Remember, that is no guarantee of future returns. You should invest in stock markets for a minimum period of at least five or 10 years, and preferably much longer, to overcome the inevitable short-term volatility.
You can invest £50 in stock market funds such as unit trusts and investment companies via a regular savings plan, says Justin Modray at Candid Money. “Look for a fund that spreads your money across a blend of shares, corporate bonds, commercial property and commodities to reduce risk.”
You can invest cheaply and easily through an online fund platform such as Alliance Trust, Cavendish Online, Chelsea Financial Services, Fidelity FundsNetwork, Hargreaves Lansdown and rplan. Hargreaves Lansdown allows a minimum Isa investment of £25 a month. Cavendish, Chelsea, Fidelity and rplan all allow Isa fund investments from £50 a month. Cavendish and Fidelity let you split your £50 between two funds, paying £25 into each.
Many brokers offer online tools to help you choose the right investments fund, or you could invest in a pre-selected investment portfolio based on different levels of risk. Rplan allows regular investments into its model portfolios from £50 a month.
Some stockbrokers also offer regular share saving plans allowing you to invest in individual company stocks from £50 a month, but that is too risky for most beginners, Modray says. Don’t forget to use your tax-free Isa allowance when investing. This allows you to save up to £15,000 each year without paying any income tax or capital gains tax on your returns.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest £100 a month needs to be invested tax-efficiently in either an Isa or a pension. Photograph: Chris Robbins/Alamy
£100 a month
Investing £100 a month can add up to serious money if you start early enough. If you put it in, say, a FTSE 100 tracker that returned 5% a year after inflation, you would have around £88,000 after 30 years, or £152,000 after 40 years.
To protect your gains, invest tax-efficiently either in an Isa or pension. While an Isa allows your money to grow free of tax, pension contributions attract tax relief at either 20%, 40% or 45%, depending on your tax bracket. So if you invest £100 a month and pay 20% tax, your pension company will claim a further £25 from the taxman, increasing the total to £125 a month. If you pay 40% tax, you need to claim relief for the additional 20% tax through your tax return. You can also take 25% of your pension pot as a tax-free lump sum at retirement, although you pay income tax on everything after that.
These are attractive tax benefits, especially now that the chancellor, George Osborne, is making pensions more flexible by freeing you to spend your money on whatever you like at retirement. You will also be free to pass any money remaining pension to your dependents free of tax when you die.
If you take out a self-invested personal pension (Sipp), or Isa, you can choose from thousands of funds and other investments, says Stuart Dyer, chief investment officer at investment portfolio service plan. “First work out your attitude to risk. The younger you are and the longer your investment timeframe, the more risks you can take, as you have time to recoup any short-term losses. As you near retirement, you should play it safer.”
You could split your £100 between two different investment funds, perhaps a UK fund and an overseas fund targeting, say, the US or emerging markets. Alternatively, you could even pay £25 into four different funds with Cavendish, Fidelity, or Hargreaves Lansdown.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest £250 is the sort of money you need to set aside every month for a comfortable retirement. Photograph: Coaster/Alamy
£250 a month
If you want a comfortable retirement, this is the sort of money you need to set aside every month, according to many experts. If you invested £250 every month for 30 years and it grew by 5% after inflation, you would have nearly £210,000 at the end of that period. After 40 years, you would have more than £380,000.
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket, says Steve Rees, director of Manchester-based independent financial services firm Carpenter Rees. “With £250 a month, you are in a better position to build a balanced portfolio by splitting your money between a range of different funds.” You could even split your £250 across five different funds – for example, a low-cost FTSE 100 tracker, a fund investing in the US or Europe, an emerging markets fund, and even a corporate bond or commercial property fund. You can do fund research online through free websites such as Trustnet.com, or the online fund platforms listed above.
Regular monthly investments are actually safer than throwing in larger lump sums, because you avoid the danger that the market will plunge right after you part with your money. You also benefit from something known as pound-cost averaging. “When stock markets fall, your monthly payment buys more fund units at the lower price,” says Rees. “That can boost your returns, provided markets recover by the time you want your money back.”Whether you’re saving in a pension or Isa, check the charges carefully. If you invest £250 a month that grows at 5% a year, and your Isa or pension manager charges 1% a year, you will have almost £175,000 after 30 years. If it charges just 0.5%, you will have more than £191,000 – which is £16,000 more.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest If you’re investing £500 a month you should try to spread your money into a variety of investments. Photograph: STR/Reuters/Corbis
£500 a month
If you’re saving £500 a month, or £6,000 a year, you have a great opportunity to build real long-term wealth. You might want to take financial advice, as the fees may now be worth paying to help you build a balanced portfolio, especially if you have other investments. A site such as Unbiased.co.uk may be able to help you find an adviser.
At this level you really can’t afford to ignore stock markets, provided you are investing for more than five years, says David Smith, director of financial planning at wealth advisers Tilney Bestinvest. “Saving £500 a month in cash is a poor use of your money. Today’s low savings rates mean it is likely to fall in value in real terms after inflation.”
With relatively large sums at stake, you should spread your money around, and may even want to consider premium bonds. Smith adds: “You could even put some of it into premium bonds, which offer tax-free returns, plus the chance of winning one of two £1m prizes every month. The interest rate allocated to prizes is currently just 1.35%, however, so unless you get lucky, you won’t get a great return.”
As ever, it’s important to spread your risk, by investing in a blend of UK and global equities, corporate bonds and so on.
Even £500 a month really isn’t enough to invest in individual company shares, given the risks involved, so stick to collective investment funds, Smith says.
HeSmith says pensions are now “inarguably better” than Isas, provided you don’t need the money before age 55 at the earliest. “Alternatively, you could start by saving your money in an Isa, then take your tax-free returns and invest them in a pension at retirement to claim tax relief on your contributions as well.”
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https://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/nov/07/regular-investing-whether-you-have-10-or-500-theres-a-place-for-you
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| 2014-11-05T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/4c02ad50445bd6d396e8cf14b516562f2f6b58295041764d8eee1c2e9e7afa81.json
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[
"Tim Crothers"
] | 2016-08-28T06:51:40 | null | 2016-08-28T06:05:24 |
The remarkable story of Phiona Mutesi, the chess prodigy from one of Kampala’s poorest slums who has inspired a major new Hollywood movie
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Chess queen of Africa
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www.theguardian.com
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I first met Phiona Mutesi in September 2010 sitting on the mud stoop of her family’s shack in one of the most challenging places on earth: Uganda’s Katwe slum. I had been told about Phiona; how at the age of nine she could neither read nor write and had dropped out of school, when she met a Ugandan missionary, Robert Katende, who offered to teach her the game of chess – a sport so foreign in Uganda that there is no word for it in Phiona’s native language – and how in just four years she had become an international chess champion. On that autumn day, Phiona’s mother Harriet looked as defeated as any person I’ve known. She had been forced to relocate Phiona and her two brothers five times in the previous four years, once because they’d been robbed of all their meagre possessions and another time because Harriet feared their house was about to collapse.
Phiona’s latest home consisted of one 10ft x 10ft room with no windows and a tin roof so dilapidated that every rainstorm flooded the shack. The house contained little more than a wash pot, a tiny charcoal stove, a teapot, a worn toothbrush, a cracked mirror, a Bible and two musty mattresses for the entire family to sleep on.
Katwe (pronounced kah-tway), in the south of Uganda’s sprawling, smoggy capital city of Kampala, emerged in the mid-20th century as a place for poor artisans, but developed into the city’s most crime-ridden slum. It has scant sanitation and during the rainy season is regularly flooded with raw sewage, with residents sleeping on their roofs to avoid drowning. If you are born in Katwe, the chances are you will die in Katwe. It’s estimated that 40% of teenage women in Katwe have children. “I call it a poverty chain,” Katende told me. “The single mother cannot sustain the home. Her children go to the street and have more kids and they don’t have the capacity to care for those kids. It is a cycle of misery that is almost impossible to break.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Local hero: Phiona Mutesi’s neighbourhood in Kampala, Uganda. Photograph: Stephanie Sinclair
During our initial meeting, Phiona didn’t speak comfortably because she had never been encouraged to share her thoughts. She began by telling me she had no idea when she was born because birthdays aren’t something people keep track of in Katwe. (Harriet guesses her daughter was born in 1996.) I asked her about her earliest memory. “I remember I went to my dad’s village when I was about three years old to see him when he was very sick, and a week later he died of Aids,” she said. “After the funeral we stayed in the village for a few weeks and one morning when I woke up my older sister Julia told me she was feeling a headache. We got some local herbs and gave them to her and then she went to sleep. The following morning we found her dead in her bed. That’s what I remember.”
When I first saw chess, I thought, ‘What could make all these kids so silent?’
Harriet recalls that when Phiona was a child she nearly died twice of illnesses that were never diagnosed, but probably related to malaria. Phiona dropped out of school shortly after her father died and she began selling boiled maize from a saucepan on her head. One afternoon in 2005 she secretly followed her older brother Brian in the hope that he might lead her towards a meal. She hid and watched him enter a dusty veranda to play with some black and white pieces. The young girl had never seen anything like these figures. She thought they were beautiful. “When I first saw chess, I thought, ‘What could make all these kids so silent?’” Phiona said. “Then I watched them play the game and get happy and excited, and I wanted a chance to be that happy.”
She dared to peek into the veranda again, fascinated by this new game and also curious if there might be any food inside. This time Katende spotted her. “Young girl,” said the coach. “Come in. Don’t be afraid.”
Robert Katende also has no idea when he was born, only that he was an illegitimate child whose mother gave birth to him when she was a secondary-school student. He was transferred to his grandmother’s care, and it wasn’t until Katende was four years old and reunited with his mother in Kampala’s Nakulabye slum that he learned his name was Robert. His mother died when he was around eight and he embarked on an odyssey of despair. Because of civil war in Uganda, he lived much of his childhood on the run, scrounging for food and sleeping hidden in the bush. He would become another slum kid sustained by sport.
Katende had grown up playing football barefoot and by the time he reached secondary school he displayed such wondrous talent as a striker that he took requests from friends to score goals. One day he leapt for a header, crashed into the opposing goalkeeper and the resulting fall nearly killed him.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Deep in thought: Phiona Mutesi at 15. Photograph: Xan Rice
Though doctors told him he would never play football again, he was back juggling a ball within months and eventually joined a Christian football club that ministered to youth in the slums. Katende had found his calling.
He was assigned to Katwe and for a year he brought football and a little food to the children of the slum, until he realised some of the children had no desire to play football. He tried to figure out an alternative activity and eventually settled on chess, a game he’d learned to play as a student. “I had my doubts about chess in Katwe,” Katende said. “With their status and their background, I wondered, ‘Can these kids really play this game?’”
What gave Katende hope was that chess is a test of survival through aggression, an idea with which every slum kid could identify. Katende’s Katwe chess project began with just six students, who would become known as the Pioneers.
Chess is a lot like my life. If you make smart moves you can stay away from danger
Soon, Phiona’s brother Brian joined them and a year later a barefoot girl in a muddy skirt peeked into the veranda and caught Katende’s eye. Phiona’s first chess tutor was Gloria, a four-year-old girl who knew little more than the names of the pieces and how they moved. Within a year of learning the game, mostly through trial and error, it became evident that Phiona had a special gift for the sport. “Chess is a lot like my life,” she said. “If you make smart moves you can stay away from danger, but any bad decision could be your last.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Girls on film: with director Mira Nair and Lupita Nyong’o, who plays Phiona’s mother in the new film. Photograph: Isaac Kasamani/AFP/Getty Images
Every day Phiona walked six kilometres to play chess. During her earliest games, she played recklessly, sacrificing critical pieces in an attempt to defeat her opponents as quickly as she could. Said Phiona: “I must have lost my first 50 matches before Coach Robert persuaded me to play with calm and patience.”
Katende began teaching her everything he knew about the strategy of the game and by the age of 11 Phiona was Uganda’s junior girls champion. Her confidence rose. “Her personality with the outside world is still quite reserved because she feels inferior due to her background,” Katende said. “But in chess I am always reminding her that anyone can lift a piece because it is so light. What separates you is where you choose to put it down. Chess is the one thing in Phiona’s life she can control. Chess is her one chance to feel superior.”
In 2009, Phiona and two boys from Katende’s Katwe chess project represented Uganda in Africa’s International Children’s Chess Tournament in Sudan. It was one of the first times Phiona had ever left Katwe. It was also her first flight and when her plane ascended through a cloud bank into the sun and blue sky, Phiona turned to the Ugandan chess official seated beside her and asked, “Is this heaven?”
In Sudan, Phiona enjoyed her first stay in a hotel. It was the first time she had slept in her own bed and used a flush toilet and ordered a meal from a menu, an odd notion for someone who had never before been granted a choice of what to eat. “I could never have imagined this world I was visiting,” Phiona said. “I felt like a queen.”
The Ugandan trio of slum kids, by far the youngest competitors in the tournament, defeated far more experienced teams from 16 other African nations to win the championship. When they returned to Katwe, they were greeted as conquering heroes. They discussed who might keep the trophy and concluded that none of them could because it would certainly be stolen.
They also fielded some odd questions: did you stay indoors or in the bush? Why did you come back here? As Phiona left the celebration that evening, someone excitedly asked her, “What is the first thing you’re going to say to your mother?”
“I need to ask her,” Phiona said, “‘Do we have enough food for breakfast?’”
After a few days of getting to know her in September 2010, I flew to Russia with Phiona and Robert for the Chess Olympiad, the world’s most elite team chess event, being staged that year in Khanty-Mansiysk, Siberia. Once again this proved to be a learning experience. Phiona turned on the water for her first ever shower and quickly jumped out. She asked her roommate why anybody would want to use such a thing and then she was informed that there was a handle for hot water as well. One of the youngest players at the tournament, Phiona earned a win and a draw for the Ugandan team in her seven matches.
But Katende’s enduring memory was after Phiona’s third match when she was soundly defeated by an Egyptian grandmaster and she promptly marched over to her mentor and told him, “Coach, I will be a grandmaster some day.”
“That will take a lot of work and perseverance,” Katende told her. Phiona savoured the meals at her hotel’s all-you-can-eat buffet and left Russia stating that returning to Katwe felt like going to jail. It was a trip both triumphant and sobering.
Two years later, Phiona performed well enough in the 2012 Chess Olympiad in Istanbul to become Uganda’s first woman ever to earn a chess title, Woman Candidate Master, the first step on the ladder toward grandmaster. Then she made her first trip to the United States to help promote our book, The Queen of Katwe.
It was during that visit that I first recognised Phiona’s power to inspire. She came to my son’s third grade classroom and a bunch of restless nine-year-olds fell silent as she shared her story. Only two of the 20 students in the class knew how to play chess, so Phiona sat down at one of the tiny school desks and began patiently teaching the game the way Gloria had once taught her. The next day the students begged to play chess again. The following year the entire third grade competed in chess and the year after that more than 200 kids in four grade levels were all part of what had become known around school as the Phiona Mutesi Chess Club.
Phiona’s story is inspiring young girls like me all over Uganda
I travelled back to Uganda in July and was greeted at the airport by Madina Nalwanga, the teenager who plays Phiona in the upcoming Disney movie, Queen of Katwe. Nalwanga is another child of the Kampala slums. “Phiona’s story is inspiring young girls like me all over Uganda,” Nalwanga told me. “We now believe that we too can reach big dreams.”
A few days later, I had lunch with the real Phiona. She is now 20 years old and it is remarkable how much she has matured in the six years since I first met her on the stoop of that one-room shack in Katwe. She is still unfailingly humble, unaffected by the publicity swirling around her as the film prepares to premiere in cinemas around the world this autumn. Phiona is a confident young woman, who speaks English fluently. She is in the final year of secondary school at a boarding school in Katwe. She spends holidays at her mother’s newly constructed house in a lush valley several kilometres outside Kampala. Phiona and her family are finally financially secure based on earnings from the book and movie contracts. She told me she is considering going to Harvard university next autumn.
Phiona still dreams of becoming a grandmaster in chess, though she has hit a ceiling in Uganda because there is no coach qualified to train her to a higher level, a barrier that could be erased if she decides to study in the United States.
I asked Phiona if she’d seen the movie. “No, I haven’t watched it yet,” she told me, flashing her charming gap-toothed grin. “I already know the story.”
It’s true that The Queen of Katwe – book and movie – may be complete, but the Queen of Katwe’s story is really just beginning and it will be fascinating to watch her next move.
The Queen of Katwe by Tim Crothers is published by Abacus, £8.99. The film is released at the end of September
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https://www.theguardian.com/global/2016/aug/28/chess-queen-of-africa-phiona-mutesi
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| 2016-08-28T00:00:00 |
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[
"Daniel Boffey"
] | 2016-08-30T10:52:10 | null | 2015-08-29T14:57:44 |
Deputy leadership candidate says she would be in a position to force whoever becomes Labour’s next leader to learn from Tony Blair’s electoral success
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http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fpolitics%2F2015%2Faug%2F29%2Fjeremy-corbyn-learn-blairite-lessons-if-im-labour-deputy-caroline-flint.json
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Jeremy Corbyn will have to learn Blairite lessons if I'm deputy, says Caroline Flint
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Caroline Flint, a candidate in the Labour deputy leadership contest, has put herself on a collision course with Jeremy Corbyn by claiming that she would use the strength of being directly elected to force the next leader to learn the lessons of the electorally successful Blair years.
The shadow energy secretary said that even if the leftwing candidate were to triumph, she would be in a powerful position to force him to focus on winning support in the wider country if chosen by Labour supporters to be his deputy.
With less than two weeks of the campaign remaining, Flint’s canvassing suggests that about half of the Labour electorate are still undecided on who should be deputy, even among those who are are committed to one of the leadership candidates.
If elected, Flint said she would force the leader to come out of his or her “bubble” of advisers and recognise the need to address the concerns of the wider electorate. “I am ready to be deputy to whoever is to be elected,” she said. “But the deputy leader is also directly elected and therefore has a strong mandate.
“We went on that learning curve during the 80s and recognised that we needed to be a party that looked outwards, and be a party that understood people and where their everyday concerns were – economic credibility – and we were going to provide for their families without collapsing the economy.
“And we did that well. Three times in a row. Whatever else people say, Tony Blair and the people around him – and Gordon was integral to that as well – did an amazing job.”
Flint said Labour needed to recognise that people would not simply vote out of solidarity with those who were the most needy.
She praised Ed Miliband for recognising that the UK needed a “new economy”, including reform of the energy markets and his plan for a price freeze, but said the British people had not moved to the left.
“The task, whether it is Jeremy or any of the other candidates, is that they have their views which they are pitching at the moment, [but] each of them has to show they are going to broaden their appeal to make sure we can win in the country,” she said.
“And, you know, part of my job as deputy leader is to keep us focused on that. Because if we are not, we are just going back to an era when we just talked among ourselves, and I am sure none of them want to do that. They all want to win. I am happy to help them focus on what we need to do to win.”
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http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/aug/29/jeremy-corbyn-learn-blairite-lessons-if-im-labour-deputy-caroline-flint
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| 2015-08-29T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/16c380c6bc7a57f918ced40934033a770a33c01eafe36bf78dcf238e27783e95.json
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[] | 2016-08-28T00:49:31 | null | 2016-08-27T23:05:16 |
This week’s corrections
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For the record
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The item “Vital Statistics” (Agenda, Business, 21 August, page 39) said shares of housebuilder Persimmon had recovered more than half their value since they fell the day after the vote to leave the EU. This was not wrong, it was ambiguous. By market close on 19 August the shares had recovered more than half of the £7.88 lost between the day before the vote, 23 June (price £20.98), and the day after (£13.10). But to recover more than half the 24 June price of £13.10 the shares need to get to £19.66 or better. On 19 August the price was £17.48. On 23 August, after Persimmon announced better than expected half-year results, the price was £18.70. At Friday’s close it was £18.83.
“Czech assassins of Holocaust chief ‘deserve a heroes’ burial’” (News, 21 August, page 25) did not intend to convey an impression that the two men who gave their lives in killing the Nazi Reinhard Heydrich in 1942 had not been memorialised at all in Prague, but, rather, that their role as national heroes had been deliberately downplayed by communist authorities. Ján Kubiš and Josef Gabcík were honoured after the Second World War in a memorial on a wall of the St Cyril and Methodius Orthodox church where they died. The article’s focus was the current campaign to have their remains exhumed from Ďáblice cemetery, where they are believed to lie with thousands of victims of Nazism and communism. Campaigners seek their proper burial and the cemetery to be declared a national memorial.
Write to Stephen Pritchard, Readers’ Editor, the Observer, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU, email observer.readers@observer.co.uk tel 020 3353 4656
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https://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/aug/27/for-the-record
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| 2016-08-27T00:00:00 |
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[
"Stuart Clark"
] | 2016-08-29T22:59:21 | null | 2015-12-09T00:00:00 |
Searches for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence have come up empty-handed, forcing astronomers to think the ‘alien megastructure’ may be a natural phenomenon
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‘Alien megastructure’ star KIC 8462852 shows no sign of life
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The star KIC 8462852 exploded into the public consciousness in October when it was suggested that mysterious signals could be explained by a gigantic artificial structure drifting in front of the star and blocking some of its light.
Astronomer Jason Wright, from Penn State University, told the Atlantic, “Aliens should always be the very last hypothesis you consider, but this looked like something you would expect an alien civilization to build.”
The signals were recorded by the Kepler space telescope in 2011. Kepler monitored 150,000 stars for more than three years. It looked for tiny dips in brightness caused when planets drift in front of their parent star. In the case of KIC 8462852, they got more than they bargained for.
Whereas a giant planet like Jupiter would drop the light by just 1%, KIC 8462852 display two huge dips. Around 800 days into the observation, the star’s light plummeted by 15%. Around the 1,500-day mark, there was a flurry of dimming with one dropping by 20%.
To fall that much, the object passing in front of the star must be almost half the diameter of the star. Yet Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, is only one-10th the diameter of the sun. Clearly, there was no way that the mysterious object could be a planet. Hence the speculation about aliens building some kind of gigantic space station.
Faced with such a possibility, astronomers dedicated to the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) swung into action.
Artificial signals are easily distinguished from natural signals because they can clearly be seen to carry information. Even if you do not know what that information is saying, it is obvious that the wave has been “modulated”.
On six nights between 29 October and 28 November 2015, scientists searched the star for laser pulses using the Boquete optical SETI observatory in Panama. Sensitive to pulses as short as a billionth of a second, they saw nothing out of the ordinary.
“We found no evidence of an advanced civilization beaming intentional laser signals toward Earth,” said Douglas Vakoch, the president of SETI International which led the laser search, in a statement. Vakoch has submitted a paper detailing the observations to the Astrophysical Journal.
Another search of the star, this time using radio waves, also came up empty. The SETI Institute used its Allen Telescope Array to listen in to the star for more than two weeks. They detected no sign of alien signals between 1 and 10 GHz. Although the work does not completely exclude the chance of a radio signal being present, it does significantly reduce the possibility.
“The history of astronomy tells us that every time we thought we had found a phenomenon due to the activities of extraterrestrials, we were wrong,” said SETI Institute astronomer Seth Shostak in a statement. “But although it’s quite likely this star’s strange behaviour is due to nature, not aliens, it’s only prudent to check such things out.”
The most likely natural phenomenon that could block that much light from the star is the collision of comets producing huge clouds of obscuring dust. This explanation was discussed in October but proved less attractive than the alien megastructure idea. Now, however, it may be time to spend time looking more closely at the natural explanation.
“The hypothesis of an alien megastructure around KIC 8462852 is rapidly crumbling apart,” said Vakoch.
Although this is not really a surprise, still there is a bit of me that is disappointed. In hindsight, I suppose a new Star Wars film and the detection of an alien civilisation in the same month would have been too much to hope for.
Stuart Clark is the author of The Unknown Universe (Head of Zeus), and co-host of the podcast The Stuniverse (Bingo Productions). He is teaching the Guardian Masterclass, How the Universe Works in December.
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https://www.theguardian.com/science/across-the-universe/2015/dec/09/alien-megastructure-star-kic-8462852-shows-no-sign-of-life
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| 2015-12-09T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/3c02e88fc6f5f81548fa38c59fab7594c2e35c0eef2f70f9379277375933da36.json
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[
"Associated Press"
] | 2016-08-30T04:52:31 | null | 2016-08-30T03:23:50 |
Novak Djokovic was bothered by his right arm during a first-round victory at the US Open
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Novak Djokovic troubled by arm during US Open win over Jerzy Janowicz
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Novak Djokovic managed to emerge with a 6-3, 5-7, 6-2, 6-1 victory over Jerzy Janowicz of Poland in the first round of the US Open on Monday night, but there were plenty of signs of trouble, starting with a visit from a trainer who massaged Djokovic’s bothersome arm after only five games.
Asked about his health during an on-court interview, Djokovic deflected the question, saying, “I don’t think it’s necessary to talk about this now. I’m through. I’m taking it day by day.”
During the match, Djokovic hit first serves around 100 mph, sometimes slower — 25 mph or so below his usual average speed. He hit second serves in the low 80s. He flexed his right arm, the one he has used to wield a racket on the way to 12 grand slam titles, and appeared generally unhappy.
Lukas Rosol plays down history before meeting Andy Murray in US Open Read more
In the stands, Djokovic’s coach, Boris Becker, gnawed on his fingernails, looking nervous as can be. This was the world No1’s first match at a major tournament since losing to Sam Querrey in the third round of Wimbledon, which ended the Serb’s bid for a calendar-year grand slam after titles at the Australian Open and French Open.
Heading into the US Open, Djokovic spoke about dealing with a left wrist injury that flared up in the days before the Rio Olympics this month. But that appeared to be fine against Janowicz, a former top-20 player who reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon in 2013 and is now ranked 247th after his own series of injury issues.
Earlier in Arthur Ashe Stadium, another two-time US Open champion, Rafael Nadal, stood near the net after winning his first grand slam match in three months — 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 against Denis Istomin — and unraveled the thick wrap of white tape protecting his all-important left wrist. He said he’s still not back to hitting his forehand the way he does when he’s at his best, but there was nothing that seemed to be as debilitating as what Djokovic went through.
All in all, Djokovic’s issues figure to loom large as the tournament progresses, and therefore were the most noteworthy development on day one at Flushing Meadows that did include drama elsewhere.
There was 20th-seeded John Isner’s comeback from two sets down to edge 18-year-old Frances Tiafoe before a rowdy, standing-room-only crowd at the new Grandstand. And 26th-seeded Jack Sock’s five-set victory over 18-year-old Taylor Fritz in another all-American matchup.
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https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/aug/29/novak-djokovic-jerzy-janowicz-us-open-arm-injury-tennis
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en
| 2016-08-30T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/bff4aab17d88759725ce675d9edb51bf75c45ef77cfb4c4bd81c2813da319b09.json
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[] | 2016-08-26T13:17:57 | null | 2016-08-24T18:36:56 |
Editorial: The row between Richard Branson and the Labour leader about seats on trains may seem trivial but it embodies many large lessons for politics and journalism
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fcommentisfree%2F2016%2Faug%2F24%2Fthe-guardian-view-on-traingate-jeremy-corbyns-search-for-standing.json
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The Guardian view on traingate: Jeremy Corbyn’s search for standing
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www.theguardian.com
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On Twitter this week the mystery of Jeremy Corbyn’s train seat quickly became simply #traingate, trailing clouds of speculation, wit and invective across the digital world. To older print readers the story was perhaps familiar, a recognisably August silly season tale, in which starved summer news hounds gorge on every detail of something unexpected. Television rolling newscasters gratefully chewed the juicy bone that had come their way too. Meanwhile, conspiracy theorists came up with the ingenious thought that Richard Branson may have launched his challenge to the Labour leader so that Virgin would dominate the news cycle on a day when his rival British Airways was pulling off a PR coup by flying Team GB back to London from Rio.
No one can pretend that traingate is one of most important news stories of the era. All the same it is a very emblematic tale of our times. For one thing, it would not have happened in the pre-internet age at all, because even if Mr Corbyn had actually been compelled to sit on a train carriage floor on the way to Newcastle a generation ago, no one would have been there to capture an image of it, no newspaper would have been able to post the video of his denunciation of privatisation, and there would have been no CCTV footage of him walking past unreserved and unoccupied seats either. Whether the whole thing was an amateurish political stunt by the Labour leader, as Mr Branson implies, or rotten treatment by a privatised company, as Mr Corbyn claimed, no one else would have ever heard about it anyway.
For all traingate’s obvious pettiness in some respects, it also encapsulates a very contemporary war of political narratives. In what some call the post-factual or post-truth political era, what you would like to believe always trumps the facts, not least with Donald Trump. There are plenty of “who, when and why” facts that need to be tested about the story of the 11:00 train from London King’s Cross on 11 August. But, in the end, those facts can seem to matter less than the different versions of events that many will prefer to believe in the first place. To those who champion Mr Corbyn, traingate plays into a narrative of a rich capitalist tax exile and the mainstream media trying to trash a socialist who threatens their power, wealth and interests. Media preoccupation with traingate at Mr Corbyn’s NHS speech today is easily absorbed into that view. Meanwhile, to those who despair of him, traingate exemplifies something completely different: Mr Corbyn’s almost comical hopelessness as a leader who is taking Labour into the wilderness. It didn’t take traingate to make his critics believe in that reading.
Journalism has a responsibility to stick to its principles and maintain its objectivity amid these warring narratives. The facts don’t merely matter. Trustworthy journalism rests on them. Facts have to be checked, sources held to account, flaws and inaccuracies eliminated, and good judgment applied as much as possible. That was also true before the digital era. But it is particularly important today when, on stories that range from the siege of Aleppo through to the Labour leadership contest to the release of the latest movie or computer, news organisations are hourly and daily offered images and stories by protagonists with partisan narratives or unacknowledged interests to advance. Being transparent about sources is crucial, as the Guardian’s use of video in both the Aleppo siege and traingate has been.
The probability is that the traingate episode will have confirmed Corbynites and anti-Corbynites in their views. Nevertheless, it is important to acknowledge all the facts, not just the ones that suit one side or the other. Mr Corbyn has tapped a huge well of political energy and dissatisfaction. But he also has some of the most dismal ratings among Labour voters and the general public of any Labour leader ever, and these ratings are in decline. Traingate has many lessons, but it is unlikely to have changed that one.
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/24/the-guardian-view-on-traingate-jeremy-corbyns-search-for-standing
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en
| 2016-08-24T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/e11a74d19ad166cb4adc2044e9d4ac82b73ab934097f3557b69e4a553e2219dd.json
|
|
[
"Vanessa Thorpe"
] | 2016-08-27T22:51:42 | null | 2016-08-27T22:30:15 |
There will be a special salon at the event for viewing increasingly ambitious productions in the new immersive format
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Ffilm%2F2016%2Faug%2F27%2Fvirtual-reality-venice-film-festival.json
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Virtual reality gets starring role at Venice film festival
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www.theguardian.com
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Venice, first of the big autumn film festivals, is the most glamorous, attracting big stars to Europe’s most beguiling location. But this year, virtual reality technology could steal the limelight from all the talent posing on the Rialto.
The film Jesus VR – The Story of Christ, to be unveiled at the festival on Thursday, marks the biggest investment so far in bringing the immersive world of virtual reality to mainstream cinema. The US-backed film will be 90 minutes long when it is released this Christmas, but 40 minutes are to be previewed in Venice for anyone quick enough to grab a headset. Filmed in 360 degrees, it places its audience as spectators at the nativity, and takes them right through to the resurrection. The film is Venice festival’s way of saying that the future has arrived.
“Just as 3D cinema offered a way to draw audiences that had been lost to television back to the cinema, in the 1950s, so VR provides a unique selling point in the battle against the ubiquity and accessibility of online content,” said film and gaming expert Michael Pigott of Warwick University. “VR certainly offers a form of entertainment experience that is new and striking, but perhaps of equal importance is the fact it is tied to technology. Entertainment companies can market a unique experience that audiences can only have if they go to a VR-capable cinema or purchase the requisite headset and hardware.”
Although Imax cinemas are billing their VR theatres as alternatives to the solitary headset experience, up until now consumers have had to shell out for a VR system like Oculus Rift, Google Cardboard or the HTC Vive.
Invasion!, according to Madagascar co-director Eric Darnell, is in a ‘brand new language’. Photograph: Baobab Studios
This spring, the Cannes film festival also gave more space than usual to VR, showing more than 35 new short films. But it is Venice that has really welcomed the format, setting up a special viewing salon. So, despite deciding to call off the festival’s opening celebrations out of respect for the Umbrian earthquake victims, Venice will still be watched closely in the wider film world to see how sceptical critics react to VR.
The big question remains: does anything yet bridge the divide between the worlds of gaming and cinema? At Cannes, Steven Spielberg was not convinced. He said he felt VR was even potentially “dangerous” because it let the viewer “forget the story”. Alongside naysayers like Spielberg is Pixar’s co-founder, Ed Catmull: “It’s not storytelling. People have been trying to do [VR] storytelling for 40 years. They haven’t succeeded,” he said last year.
Videogaming, he believes, is the natural home for the technology. “It’s its own art form, though, and it’s not the same as a linear narrative.”
Yet Pigott points out there are two ways that VR is already providing new kinds of storytelling: experiments in a kind of “light” interactivity that allows the viewer limited control over their point of view within a film; and a stronger version, where the viewer can explore a fictional world – something that many video games, such as GTA 5 or The Last of Us, already permit, if only in an animated form, rather than a photographic world.
Lucasfilm has played around with Google’s Cardboard headset kit, making a short VR video called Jakku Spy, which it released before Star Wars: The Force Awakens, while newcomer Baobab Studios has made a six-minute film called Invasion! It was presented at Cannes by Eric Darnell, the co-director of animated hit Madagascar, who told reporters it was not an extension of cinema, but “a brand new language”.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Oculus owner Mark Zuckerberg emphasises VR’s impact on health, education and watching sport. Photograph: Lluis Gene/AFP/Getty Images
This month, a pop-up event in Los Angeles showcased The Turning Forest, an adventure made by Oscar Raby in which the viewer partners up with strange creatures to activate musical cues together. Another new short film, Tendril Studios’ Sankhara, makes the viewer a space traveller who returns to Earth, inspired by TS Eliot’s poem Four Quartets.
Oculus, bought by Facebook for $2bn in 2014, has set up a Story Studio division and followed up on a release last year, Lost, with Henry – “a heartwarming comedy about a loveable hedgehog”.
Oculus’s new owner, Mark Zuckerberg, has no doubts about the importance of VR, but emphasises its impact on health and education, and watching sport, rather than film. “Imagine enjoying a courtside seat at a game, or studying in a [global] classroom of students and teachers all over the world, or consulting a doctor – just by putting on goggles in your home,” he wrote.
Optimists about the potential influence of VR on cinema believe it is a matter of learn to tell a story in a more complex way, something that great novelists have always done and that immersive theatre companies like Punchdrunk now also practice successfully.
Ultimately, Pigott suspects that both VR and conventional film will find a way to coexist, like cinema and TV have. “These were two very different mediums, and it turned out there was room for both. It is less a question of technologies, than of different modes of storytelling and spectacle, and … one is unlikely to simply replace the other,” he said.
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https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/aug/27/virtual-reality-venice-film-festival
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en
| 2016-08-27T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/9fd8716180a50c4e2f60018aaa2e6e7efbc37d7fe1779236ae462055be09b96c.json
|
|
[
"Peter Bradshaw"
] | 2016-08-30T00:52:13 | null | 2016-08-29T20:54:10 |
The singular comic star, who has died at the age of 83, cooked up a quartet of indelible neurotics which belied great intelligence and whose genius may not yet have been fully appreciated
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Ffilm%2Ffilmblog%2F2016%2Faug%2F29%2Fgene-wilder-acting-career-willy-wonka-mel-brooks.json
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en
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Gene Wilder: a wild, inspired and sensitive actor who ran on rocket fuel
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www.theguardian.com
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Gene Wilder was a smart, industrious and often very funny actor and writer who earned a slow-burn cult status as the weirdo chocolate mogul Willy Wonka in the Roald Dahl adaptation Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971).
His sharp, handsome face with intense blue eyes became more cartoon-like as he got older and he had a regular paycheck by teaming up with Richard Pryor in broad comedies like Silver Streak and Stir Crazy — a double-act which perhaps showed neither to his full potential. He also directed and adapted the 80s romantic comedy The Woman in Red, which got an Oscar for its hit Stevie Wonder tune, I Just Called To Say I Love You.
But his claim to fame lay in his partnership with his great comedy collaborator, Mel Brooks, effortlessly in tune with each other’s classic vein of American Jewish comedy. With Brooks he created three giant comic hits: The Producers (1967), Blazing Saddles (1974) and Young Frankenstein (1974). And the first of these is a masterpiece, whose resonance continues to this moment. Did Donald J Trump only run for office so he could increase his TV earnings potential? Is he making increasingly outrageous statements so that he will be released of a burden he never really wanted — and which may end in disastrous revelation of his tax affairs — only to find that his poisonous provocations only make him more loved? Did he get this idea from The Producers?
Gene Wilder plays Leo Bloom, the nerdy little accountant who comes to work for Max Bialystock, played by Zero Mostel (with a weird Trump-ish combover) a failed Broadway producer. Out of pure academic interest, Bloom notes that if Bialystock can persuade enough of his little-old-lady backers to put in far more money than he needs, and the show is a spectacular flop, then he can keep all the excess cash and never be investigated by his notional investors or the tax authorities.
Bialystock of course declares the idea to be pure genius, and they hit on the idea of a Hitler musical which naturally becomes a hit. Gene Wilder’s face is perfect: seething and wincing and gibbering with nerves and excitement, especially when he was reduced to a cringing mess of anxiety by being deprived of his childhood “blue blanket”. Wilder was far better than Matthew Broderick in the stage show, who didn’t have half the neurotic rocket-fuel that Wilder brought to the role. (I think Simon Helberg’s nervy pianist in Florence Foster Jenkins took a little from Wilder’s Leo Bloom.)
In the raucous spoof western, Blazing Saddles, Wilder plays legendary gunfighter Jim, who teams up with a black sheriff called Bart, played by the distinguished Shakespearian actor Cleavon Little, although the part was originally penciled in for Richard Pryor: the Wilder/Pryor partnership would only come into being later. As ever, good deadpan stuff from Wilder who was however rather upstaged by the uproarious setpieces — like the deafening “fart” medley — and also the other cast members, including veteran players Slim Pickens and Harvey Korman as the horribly corrupt politician Hedley Lamarr.
Wilder probably came into his own more with Young Frankenstein which he fully co-wrote with Brooks and which he put his stamp on. He is Dr Frankenstein, a modern-day neurophysiologist, tormented by the memory of his notorious grandfather and by his sense of destiny. Again, he was in danger of being a straight-man to huge comedy turns like Marty Feldman as Igor and Peter Boyle as the monster, but Wilder’s strange beady-eyed, frizzy-haired intensity always allowed him to dominate each scene in exactly the right way. He really did look mad.
The late 60s and early 70s were Gene Wilder’s moment, and perhaps he never quite equalled it later. But with Leo Bloom, Willy Wonka, Jim and Dr Frankenstein is a glorious quartet of comic performances.
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https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2016/aug/29/gene-wilder-acting-career-willy-wonka-mel-brooks
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en
| 2016-08-29T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/24637c06bf4daf4f41b96f1add0bca9b6cdfbe825e94bcde37183a8bfed3a1fa.json
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|
[
"Nadia Khomami"
] | 2016-08-26T13:14:23 | null | 2016-08-25T07:07:35 |
Police say they are still trying to identify the victims and urge people to stay away from the Sussex beach
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fuk-news%2F2016%2Faug%2F24%2Fmen-dead-pulled-from-sea-camber-sands-sussex.json
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en
| null |
Five men dead after being pulled from the sea at Camber Sands
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
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Five men died after being pulled from the sea and a sixth person is thought to be missing in a British seaside tragedy that took place on the hottest day of the year so far.
Beachgoers and emergency services tried to save three of the men after they got into difficulties in the water at Camber Sands near Rye, East Sussex, at around 2.15pm on Wednesday. They were pulled from the sea within 20 minutes but died.
Two more bodies were found at around 8pm as the tide receded and the RNLI and coastguard were searching the sea and shoreline for another person thought to be missing. The deaths bring the toll to 12 in less than a week as people head for the coast at the end of the school holidays.
Richard Tollett, lifeboat operations manager at Rye harbour, told the Press Association on Wednesday evening: “As the tide has receded it has left a couple more bodies on the beach in the sand at Camber. A member of the public found them and that person reported another one in the water so we have got two lifeboats and a helicopter searching the area trying to find the other one.”
Earlier in the day emergency teams were called to reports of three men needing urgent medical aid at the beach near Rye, East Sussex, at about 2.15pm, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) said. Beachgoers were urged to stay out of the sea while medics attended the scene.
A Sussex police spokesman said: “The three men, who have not yet been identified, sadly died despite efforts to save them.”
One witness, Natalja Taylor, 30, who was on a day trip with her husband, said police were driving up the beach with a loudhailer urging people to stay out of the sea. “We were sat on a hill a bit further away and we saw three people being pulled out of the water,” Taylor said. “I think the people who rescued them were regular people, not emergency personnel. We don’t know what condition they were in. There were so many people there. They were still on the beach when we left.
“Police drove on to the beach with a loudspeaker, telling people not to go into the water until further notice. They also taped off a huge chunk of the beach so no one could get near it.
A beachgoer said police told her to stay out of the sea due to a rip tide. Police remained on the beach as day-trippers said they were surprised there were no lifeguards present.
One person, who declined to be named, said: “We noticed when we came here that there were no lifeguards. We had kids here and we were worried about them.”
He said he could not understand why the men had run into difficulties as the sea had appeared calm. “The sea is very shallow for quite a long way. It seems so strange how they got into trouble. There was no waves and no wind,” he said.
These are the latest fatal incidents to take place recently on that beach and came after a weekend of serious incidents around Britain’s coasts that killed seven people.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Police seal off an area on Camber Sands. Photograph: @Tashka4/PA
It was a busy day at Camber Sands and other coastal areas as temperatures reached highs of 33.8C in parts of England, with the Met Office issuing heatwave alerts for the south-east, eastern England and the east Midlands.
Beachgoers described the scenes at the popular seaside spot, known for its dunes. Photographs and videos uploaded to social media showed crowds of sunbathers on the coast as a helicopter hovered above their heads.
— Tashka (@Tashka4) @willoliphant not much ....but thats all i have pic.twitter.com/7q7YuwZ1ap
Ch Supt Di Roskilly said: “We are working with Maritime and Coastguard Agency, Royal National Lifeboat Institute, South East Coast ambulance and Rother district council to clear the beach and encourage people to come out of the sea while we are investigating this incident.
“This has been an incredibly tragic situation and very traumatic for those who were there on the beach at the time. At this stage we do not know who the men are and are doing all we can to establish their identities.”
Suggestions that the deaths may be linked to jellyfish have been ruled out and Sussex police said there was nothing to suggest the men were migrants.
There was another fatal incident at Camber Sands in July. Gustavo Silva Da Cruz, 19, died after getting into difficulty swimming there. Da Cruz, who was visiting family in Croydon, south London, was one of three men who got into trouble. The two others, who were not connected to him, included a man aged 35 and his son aged 17.
— t-lo (@itsTARALOPEZ) Police move dead bodies from #Cambersands pic.twitter.com/Tu98d2uGPx
Wednesday’s deaths came as police said that McKayla Bruynius, a two-year-old girl who was swept into the sea with her father at Fistral beach in Newquay, Cornwall, on Friday, had died in hospital in Bristol. Her father, Rudy Bruynius, was also killed.
On Saturday David Baker, a windsurfer in his 60s who was rescued by lifeboats off the coast of West Mersea in Essex, died in hospital. On the same day a man died after he got into difficulties while swimming off Sandbanks in Poole, Dorset, and Lucas Walker, six, and his 37-year-old mother, Julie, died when they got into difficulties in the water at Aberdeen beach.
It is believed that Walker had gone into the sea to try to rescue her son and another boy, 13, who had got into trouble while swimming. The second boy and two other people believed to have gone in to help, a 25-year-old woman and a 28-year-old man, were taken to hospital.
Later on Saturday a woman died after being recovered from treacherous seas off Jersey. Rescue boats from Jersey fire service and the RNLI were launched at about 8.20pm after two swimmers were reported to be in difficulty near Green Island beach. A male swimmer was rescued by a member of the public. The woman was later recovered from the water and transported to hospital, where she died, Jersey police said. It was revealed on Sunday that her name was Joy Godfray and she had died the day before her 32nd birthday.
According to figures released by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution as part of its ongoing Respect the Water campaign, 168 people drowned accidentally in the UK’s tidal waters last year. This is the most since records began being collected in 2011, though the figures vary minimally – the lowest was 163.
The RNLI said last week that crews had dealt with an extremely busy weekend. Yesterday a spokeswoman urged seaside visitors to take care and respect the water: “The sea may look appealing and the RNLI would encourage people to use it, but do so safely – it can be dangerously unpredictable.
“Please visit lifeguarded beaches and swim between the red and yellow flags – the safe swim zone and the area watched by lifeguards. RNLI lifeguards are always happy to answer any questions or advise of any risks, including where any rip currents may be, which can catch out even the most experienced swimmers.”
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https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/aug/24/men-dead-pulled-from-sea-camber-sands-sussex
|
en
| 2016-08-25T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/4be5c1fd1abdc25ff6ba97f05d4d867f14e53c7d4f41afdf30f7cf54a6088842.json
|
|
[
"Andy Robertson",
"Matt Kamen"
] | 2016-08-26T13:26:42 | null | 2016-08-22T06:00:04 |
A survival game featuring 18 quintillion planets offers an open world experience like no other, plus a rewarding journey beneath the waves
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Ftechnology%2F2016%2Faug%2F22%2Fgames-reviews-no-mans-sky-abzu-tricky-towers.json
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en
| null |
Games reviews roundup: No Man’s Sky; Abzû; Tricky Towers
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
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PS4, Hello Games, cert: 7
★★★★★
From first glimpse of the unimaginably large universe of No Man’s Sky, gamers have been waiting with bated breath. Calling it an open world experience simply doesn’t do it justice – the title has 18 quintillion procedurally generated planets to discover. You can play inside without ever stumbling across a rival player’s avatar.
It begins on a planet, with a small ship to repair, a spacesuit to be maintained and a mining tool to excavate materials. Each world is unique, with flora, fauna and wildlife to be found, alien languages to be learned and sparse intelligent life to interact with – hours could be spent just doing that. But on first launching into the stratosphere and watching the planet shrink into the distance, with nary a load screen in site and the original 65daysofstatic soundtrack playing in the background, it’s impossible not to be sucked in to this wondrous creation.
Is there a point to it? Well, it’s a survival game, to be sure, with tech to be upgraded and some vague notion of reaching the universe’s centre-point. But surely, as the real world grasps for ever more ludicrous ways to disappoint, just exploring this incredible creation is purpose enough. TM
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Abzû: the ultimate immersive gaming experience. Photograph: 505 Games
PlayStation 4, PC, 505 Games, cert: 7
★★★★★
Drawing on the rich artistic and aural talent that made Flower and Journey so stunning, Abzû, which plunges players into deep sea environments, is similarly successful. Here, swimming through the water feels instinctive and fluid and the ocean teems with aquatic life, shoals of fish, underwater fauna and inviting dark crevasses.
But it is the moments of human interaction that are most satisfying. Whether riding beside gigantic sea creatures, stumbling upon huge drops into watery blackness or being scanned by diminutive robotic companions, this is a game about unexpected encounters.
Although only two hours long, broken up by loading, and despite feeling at times more like an interactive movie than video game, Abzû rewards multiple plays. What initially impresses as a deft technical simulation evolves into a story about ancient underwater origins. More than Endless Ocean or World of Diving, Abzû recreates the essence of discovering a world beneath the surface of the sea. AS
PS4, PC, WeirdBeard, cert: 3
★★★★
Ostensibly, Tricky Towers looks like a Tetris clone. Tetrominoes descend on screen, awaiting appropriate arrangement and stacking, while the pace becomes increasingly frenetic. Unlike the classic Russian puzzle game, though, there’s more to the challenge than just clearing lines. Place your bricks to build the titular towers and you’ll notice they’re very slightly uneven, adding a touch of Jenga-style balancing to the mix. Thankfully, magic spells can reinforce your structures – or sabotage your friends’.
Unsurprisingly, then, Tricky Towers thrives with local multiplayer. Online play is supported, but having four players battling through three modes – Race, stacking bricks to a marker line at speed; Survival, a last-one-standing death match where each dropped brick inflicts damage; and Puzzle, where bricks are stacked with only one solution – is supremely fun face to face.
With short rounds and colourful visuals, this is a fantastic party game – but solo sessions won’t hold the attention for long. MK
|
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/aug/22/games-reviews-no-mans-sky-abzu-tricky-towers
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en
| 2016-08-22T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/7acbb6b595cf81787bcdb2433c742ce6a3ee2daf8795b126c9867a3e59dba283.json
|
|
[
"Rupert Jones",
"Polly Toynbee"
] | 2016-08-27T16:59:19 | null | 2016-08-18T14:39:38 |
Freedom of information request reveals huge drop in vehicle excise duty but agency calls the figure ‘misleading’
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fmoney%2F2016%2Faug%2F18%2Fdvla-disputes-revenue-loss-tax-disc.json
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en
| null |
DVLA disputes £400m revenue loss following abolition of tax disc
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
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The decision to scrap paper car tax discs cost the government more than £400m in revenue in the first 12 months after the change came into effect, official figures suggest.
Data obtained by the Financial Times through a freedom of information request shows that in the 12 months following the abolition, from October 2014 to September 2015, the Driver & Vehicle Licensing Agency collected £5.71bn in vehicle excise duty (VED). This was a reduction of around £412m on the previous 12 months.
The RAC has called the figure “worrying”, but the DVLA responded angrily, saying it would be “misleading” and “completely wrong” to conclude that this amount of money had been lost.
The government ended the need for drivers to display a valid tax disc in October 2014, saying this would save the taxpayer £10m a year by making the system more efficient. Instead of buying a new disc, payments are logged in the DVLA database and drivers have been warned that automatic number plate recognition cameras will catch those trying to evade payment.
At the time of the change, some motoring organisations said they were concerned that the move might give rise to “a new generation of car tax dodgers”.
In November 2015, the Department for Transport warned that the number of untaxed vehicles observed on the roads was “much higher” in 2015 than when previously surveyed in 2013, “following changes in the licensing system”. At the time it estimated that this surge in evasion could cost £80m a year in lost vehicle tax revenue, which the department said was “higher than in any year since at least 2007”.
The DVLA said the data issued following the FoI request did not provide the full financial picture and that the amount of vehicle tax collected “did not” fall by £412m in the year following the tax disc being abolished.
It said its annual report and accounts published last month showed that the amount of vehicle tax collected in 2015-16 was down by £93m – from £6.02bn to £5.93bn.
Oliver Morley, the DVLA’s chief executive, said: “It is completely wrong to say there has been a £412m loss in revenue from vehicle tax. It is not correct to compare the 2015-16 revenue with the previous year. This is because from 1 November 2014, customers could choose to spread their payments over 12 months with direct debits. Previously, all vehicle tax would have been paid upfront, which is why there is a difference in the monthly cash receipts year on year.”
The change in the way the tax could be paid meant that someone whose tax renewed on 1 November 2014 and who might previously have paid £145 – the total for 12 months – could have instead opted to make 12 monthly payments of £12.69, said a DVLA spokesman. In such a case, instead of £145 being included in the cash receipts for November 2014, only £12.69 would have been recorded, with the full amount of tax not received until October 2015.
David Bizley, chief engineer at the RAC, said the abolition of the paper tax disc made sense from an efficiency perspective and that there was no reason to believe that the forecast savings of £10m a year were not being achieved.
But he added: “The recent figure of a £400m year-on-year reduction in VED revenues is worrying. Undoubtedly, part of this is due to the rephrasing of revenues arising from allowing those paying VED to do so with monthly direct debits, and the increased take-up of low-carbon vehicles, which attract lower rates of VED.”
Bizley said that when the paper tax disc was withdrawn, the RAC warned of the risk of increased evasion, “which the DVLA disputed at the time”. The absence of a visible disc will have encouraged more users to “chance their arm” and try to get away without paying.
The government estimates the number of untaxed vehicles by carrying out a roadside survey every two years, with the next one due in June 2017. However, the RAC said this should be brought forward to assess the true extent of evasion.
|
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/aug/18/dvla-disputes-revenue-loss-tax-disc
|
en
| 2016-08-18T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/ca12e57081e9747bbb66ad933b5ca8e03c55fd911f9c22f5366791aade0cf784.json
|
|
[
"Shamim Shorif Susom"
] | 2016-08-26T13:25:45 | null | 2016-08-26T06:00:11 |
Shamim Shorif Susom is a pilot and photographer from Bangladesh. As he travels he captures unique aerial views of his country, which he shares on his website
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fglobal-development-professionals-network%2Fgallery%2F2016%2Faug%2F26%2Fpilots-aerial-view-bangladesh-in-pictures.json
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en
| null |
A pilot's view of Bangladesh - in pictures
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
The day I flew for the first time, I wanted to share this beauty with the whole world. And the day I saw rainfall from the sky, I was lost for words. I always wanted to share this amazing experience with the people. Finally I got the opportunity when I flew over Bandarban, and noticed it was raining in front, along with the sun playing with the clouds.
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https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/gallery/2016/aug/26/pilots-aerial-view-bangladesh-in-pictures
|
en
| 2016-08-26T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/7731becd9b5afddc4bc66aad12f9806902371ee2fdd462e3a75ef9d2af2b77d4.json
|
|
[
"Jasper Jackson"
] | 2016-08-31T14:50:21 | null | 2016-08-31T13:45:16 |
Supernatural thriller starring Winona Ryder was one of the hits of the summer in the US
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fmedia%2F2016%2Faug%2F31%2Fnetflix-stranger-things-season-two-2017-winona-ryder.json
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en
| null |
Netflix confirms Stranger Things season two for 2017
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
Netflix has confirmed that supernatural thriller Stranger Things will return next year for a second series.
Netflix chief executive Reed Hastings told the Guardian last month that the streaming service “would be dumb” not to recommission the show, which was the US watercooler hit of the summer.
Stranger Things: Netflix boss says it would be 'dumb' not to do season two Read more
Nine episodes have been commissioned, with creators Matt and Ross Duffer returning.
Stranger Things stars Winona Ryder as a distraught mother searching for her missing son, David Harbour as a smalltown police chief and a cast of relative unknowns as a group of Dungeons & Dragons-playing schoolkids, and a strange girl with unusual powers named Eleven.
The show played on nostalgia for the films of the 80s watched by the Duffer brothers, who were born in 1984.
No casting details have been announced for the new series. However, the Duffer brothers have said it will take place a year after the first, in 1984, in part to accommodate the fact its young cast have grown.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Stranger Things season two teaser
They have also said it will be a sequel rather than a completely different story, and hinted that characters including Eleven will return.
Variety magazine has reported that the first series was Netflix’s third most-watched programme of all time.
|
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/aug/31/netflix-stranger-things-season-two-2017-winona-ryder
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en
| 2016-08-31T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/24b5c84023fac7cc15dff6ab7ba2403de9f26768fd309428e20cfafd3e09d5db.json
|
|
[
"Paul Rees"
] | 2016-08-27T22:51:51 | null | 2016-08-27T20:59:13 |
Rob Baxter, Exeter’s head coach, has said he expects Henry Slade to have a big year in the Premiership this season
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fsport%2F2016%2Faug%2F27%2Frob-baxter-exeter-new-premiership-season.json
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en
| null |
Rob Baxter: Exeter’s foundations are strong for new Premiership season
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
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The directors of rugby and captains of the 12 Premiership clubs who were present at Thursday’s launch of the new season were unanimous that the 20th year of the tournament would be the most competitive yet. Well-off Bristol have replaced London Irish; Bath have reacted to finishing ninth last season by recruiting the former New Zealand back-row Todd Blackadder as director of rugby and adding Taulupe Faletau, Luke Charteris and Kahn Fotuali’i to their squad; while another west country club, Gloucester, who have finished in the top half of the table once in the past five years, believe they have found the formula to end their inconsistency.
Gloucester have wallowed while Exeter, their rivals from further down the M5, have flourished. The Chiefs made the top four for the first time last season, boasting the best defensive record in the league, and reached the final only to freeze in the opening 35 minutes against Saracens, who went on to record the European and Premiership double.
Mark McCafferty urges Premiership Rugby and Lions chiefs to discuss dates Read more
“We are not going to over-focus on that defeat because we know our foundations are very strong,” says the Exeter head coach, Rob Baxter. “We do not need to shake things up massively. We need to be comfortable where we are, get better at what we do and make sure the players are mature as they head in the right direction. Let’s stick at it and see how far we can take this thing.”
Baxter is expecting Henry Slade to have a big year having returned to full fitness after suffering a serious ankle injury last season. The 23-year-old has played at 10, 12 and 13 for the Chiefs and was namechecked by Eddie Jones several times before he returned to action. When he did, the England head coach was critical of his performances although Jones did take the player on the tour to Australia.
Baxter says: “I could not believe then that people were not saying how amazing it was to see Henry playing after suffering a dislocated, fractured ankle, an injury that has ended a number of careers. He suffered it halfway through the season and was playing in a final at the end of it. All I heard was that he was not performing well as everyone focused on it the wrong way round.
Manu Tuilagi focusing on fitness and Leicester before England and Lions Read more
“I think Eddie looked at it from Henry’s game time on the field instead of it being the final part of his return from an injury that almost wrote him off. I was a little surprised at that but at the same time I wasn’t. A lot of what Eddie does is about challenging players, expecting high standards. There is nothing wrong with that but, when people said negative things about Henry after his return, they lacked perspective. He is in fantastic physical shape and in a great place mentally. I expect him to have a fantastic season.”
Baxter believes the Premiership has never been more entertaining but fears that a drive to increase the time the ball is in play threatens one of the sport’s fundamentals: that it is a game for all shapes and sizes. Referees have been ordered to ensure that the ball comes out of scrums more quickly to avoid games being blighted by multiple resets.
“Everyone in the Premiership is getting used to playing superb rugby, as we saw last year,” Baxter says. “To win a game, you have to plan to score more than 20 points, which makes it an exciting league. That is why we have to be careful over the development in the game and the talk of getting the ball in play more and depowering scrums.
“If you start making props run around players, you take the space out of a game. If you have 15 quick, athletic people, where will the mismatches come? I know reset scrums are a bane but, if the pay-off is that your props become flankers, what game will we create? Rugby league, which we don’t want.
“At the moment, you need big props and second rows. The fact they are on the field creates attacking options. Three or four tough scrums take it out of the tight five, and while they might take five minutes, it could help create a couple of tries. We have to be careful not to create a game where the ball is in play for 60 minutes but they involve players running into each other or kicking because there is no space. People seem not to want to see the bigger picture. We need a broader spectrum on this rather than try to create a perfect game of rugby in which you cannot score. There is not much wrong with rugby which works because it is a game for all shapes and sizes.”
Wasps were the Premiership’s leading scorers in the past two seasons and have added to their firepower by recruiting the South Africa full-back Willie le Roux and the Australia utility back Kurtley Beale, along with the England internationals Kyle Eastmond and Danny Cipriani. Le Roux will arrive from Japan in the new year while Beale is expected to return from injury at the end of November.
“Our supporters will not want to hear this but this is the last year of major recruitment by us,” says the club’s director of rugby, Dai Young. “By that I mean 13 in and 13 out is too many. It is a third of your squad going every year, which has been the case for the last three or four seasons. You pretty much start again each time and we want to get down to three or four in and out a year. Saracens do that and they have the blueprint, building on things year by year.
“You need continuity and we have signed up 90% of the squad on two- or three-year contracts. It does not mean we will not be signing players next year, just not as many.”
|
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/aug/27/rob-baxter-exeter-new-premiership-season
|
en
| 2016-08-27T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/6db6343871b452b9cabd91735c47f488c28ab3d24b8263d7b17a1db50a6a3ce8.json
|
|
[
"Michael White",
"Sadiq Khan",
"Rutger Bregman"
] | 2016-08-26T13:30:55 | null | 2016-08-24T11:51:13 |
As he tussled with John Humphrys on Radio 4, the Labour leadership challenger sounded confident, articulate and human
|
http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fpolitics%2Fblog%2F2016%2Faug%2F24%2Fowen-smith-may-not-beat-jeremy-corbyn-but-he-passed-the-today-test.json
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en
| null |
Owen Smith may not beat Jeremy Corbyn, but he passed the Today test
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
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Listening to the radio this morning I had an experience I realised I’d almost forgotten. It was the sound of a Labour politician being combatively quizzed on Radio 4 by Today’s John Humphrys in the key 8.10 spot and giving confident, articulate answers in return. When did I last hear that, I wondered?
What follows here isn’t a party political broadcast for Owen Smith. For the first time since Labour’s glittering leadership contest to succeed Harold Wilson in 1976 – Callaghan versus Healey, Foot, Crosland, Jenkins and Benn – he’s a leadership contender whom OAP Mike doesn’t really know.
I’m beginning to think of him as Labour’s Sir Anthony Meyer. A largely forgotten Tory backbencher, in 1989 he played an important walk-on part in Conservative history. I’ll come back to that. It’s not fair to Corbyn’s much more substantial challenger, but bear with me.
Many people who do know Smith tell me he’s not quite the right man to be the next party leader, even though many immediately add that “he’d be a lot better than Jeremy Corbyn”. Talking last night to some Welsh politicos who have been friends or contacts for years, they say he’s clever but a bit cocky. “Of course, you need that,” added one.
Without being asked, Smith has brushed aside brave and decent Angela Eagle, toured the country “like a lunatic” (as one critic put it) in the seemingly hopeless cause of ousting the People’s Jeremy and, in doing so, has shown one crucial quality: a courageous willingness to lead, not follow.
Listening to him battling with Humphrys on Radio 4 (a bit of South Wales needle there between the professor’s son and the manual worker’s scrappy boy?) reinforced that impression.
Smith talked fluently to make his case for a second referendum or a general election to be staged on the Brexit terms that Theresa May’s Three Musketeers achieve from the EU, if they don’t first turn their muskets on each other. As a vote-winning strategy I’m not convinced by that either, but at least I know what Smith’s EU policy is: he thinks the Brexit vote will hurt British workers (I agree) and that they should be given the chance to rethink that 52% to 48% vote – one based, he put it, on “fibbing”.
A good word, “fib”, it’s softer than “lie”, and we need less harsh language in the divisive, angry year of Donald Trump, or “Mr Brexit” as he called himself in a recent tweet. Smith is actually sometimes careless with his language. He used a rugby phrase about knocking May back on her heels and appeared to liken Corbyn to that “lunatic” (he was referring to himself). He gave Humphrys an unembarrassed apology to anyone offended and promised to be “slightly less colourful”.
But the point is that he kept going and didn’t sound as if he were weighing every word. He even sounded quite human. Corbyn’s three former rivals – Burnham, Cooper and Kendall – didn’t pull off that trick in the 2015 contest. Jeremy was the one who sounded authentic which he is, for better and (mostly) worse. The 2010 contest wasn’t much better. David Miliband and Ed Balls could pass the Today programme’s 8.10 test, though both were burdened with the baggage of high office.
Not a problem Jeremy has ever had (or will have). This morning’s front pages find him entangled in another silly row that makes me cringe. Unlike so many phoney Fleet Street attacks on politicians (he should know who Ant and Dec are, but it really doesn’t matter as long as he doesn’t feel obliged to apologise) the row with Virgin’s Richard Branson over crowded trains was self-inflicted.
I didn’t much care for Corbyn’s video (Jeremy’s courteous downbeat style lacks the energy to warrant calling it agitprop) last week complaining about the “ram-packed” coaches from his seat on the floor heading north towards Newcastle. But it will have resonated with many who make that journey and ones like them more often than I do.
But if you’re going to pick a quarrel with a serious street fighter such as Branson you’d better get your story straight and stick to it. As Smith craftily told Humphrys, the Corbyn camp’s version keeps changing. It was a “legitimate point” to make, but the CCTV cameras seem to suggest there were free seats, he added mildly. Ouch!
Labour’s former deputy leader, Harriet Harman, put it another way when she said Team Corbyn might sensibly have booked Jeremy a seat. That puts a finger on much of what this is about. At the weekend Chi Onwurah MP followed Sadiq Khan, Kezia Dugdale and many others – not “Blairite stooges” of leftie legend – in saying Corbyn simply isn’t up to the job. I’ve said so often – here’s a sample – but elective politicians have a greater duty of care to colleagues.
Team Corbyn’s failure is partly organisational. They must run on a shoestring, it’s very tough. But they seem to think that getting Jeremy in front of large and enthusiastic meetings of people who already agree with him is a priority, the way to win. It sounds a bit Hugo Chávez to me, the opposite of Blair’s “masochism strategy” of meeting critics. But according to countless ex-shadow cabinet witnesses it means there’s less time to meet and thrash out policy.
That’s easily explained. Jeremy doesn’t really do policy, never has. He’s a campaigner who takes his cues from others. Hence his off-the-cuff mistakes over triggering article 50, or preventing large companies from distributing dividends if their staff don’t get the living wage. They’re points easily mocked and brushed aside.
In this sense Jeremy is more like El Cid, the medieval Spanish hero, propped up on his horse by loyal supporters to go into battle after he had inconveniently died – at least in the Charlton Heston movie version ). El Syd? El Jez? You decide.
I won’t labour the point, let alone address intimidation/reselection issues. If you don’t much care about actually winning power and doing things, preferring Corbyn as a “man of principle” (or a battering ram for the real socialist revolution) you won’t be persuaded. But I suspect that more and more Corbyn supporters (and senior trade union leaders) are reluctantly admitting, if only in private, that “he’s a lovely guy, but ... ”
It will take more than next month’s leadership election to get them to the point where they openly own last year’s mistake. My current hunch is that Corbyn will win, but not quite as well as his cheerleaders hope. It may prove to be a pyrrhic victory.
In any case the whole process has been botched by Ed Miliband’s idiotic reform of the election rules – the £3 member and supporter rights – done in the illusory name of “wider democracy”. What a shambles. Rafael Behr makes some very good points here.
But Smith’s not going to win on 24 September. That’s where the Meyer analogy comes in. Meyer was a Tory toff, a well meaning, old-fashioned MP with passionate pro-EU views as many Etonians (not you, Dave) were in his generation. Meyer had been badly wounded in the 1944 invasion of Normandy, as Nigel Farage was not.
As Tory dismay rose over Margaret Thatcher’s growing unpopularity Meyer challenged her for the leadership in the autumn of 1989. He was billed as the “stalking horse” for Michael Heseltine’s lurking ambition. Everyone mocked him as a “stalking donkey” but Meyer took 33 votes off her (plus 27 abstainers or spoiled papers). He had kept his dignity and winged the Iron Lady. Things were never quite the same again and within a year she was gone.
The Tories are as ruthlessly good at that sort of thing, just look at Theresa May’s brisk succession, as Labour is not. But El Jez versus the much-mocked Welsh Stalking Donkey? Interesting times ahead.
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http://www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/2016/aug/24/owen-smith-may-not-beat-jeremy-corbyn-but-he-passed-the-today-test
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en
| 2016-08-24T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/9409eae35c549b0e1cb4840b34d15a7cf7fb8d1777d8491c9b08ddc0190c74a9.json
|
|
[
"Press Association"
] | 2016-08-28T12:49:36 | null | 2016-08-28T11:45:36 |
Concerns reportedly raised before United Airlines flight to Newark, New Jersey, was due to depart from Glasgow airport
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fuk-news%2F2016%2Faug%2F28%2Ftwo-us-pilots-held-on-suspicion-of-being-under-influence-of-alcohol.json
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| null |
Two US pilots held on suspicion of being under influence of alcohol
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
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Two US pilots are to appear in court in Scotland after being arrested on suspicion of being under the influence of alcohol as they prepared to fly a transatlantic passenger jet from Glasgow to the US.
Concerns were reportedly raised over the pilots before the 9am United Airlines UA162 flight to Newark, New Jersey, was due to depart from Glasgow airport on Saturday. Police said the two men, aged 35 and 45, were arrested and detained in police custody.
The flight, carrying 141 passengers, eventually took off on Saturday evening with a new crew on board. The men are expected to appear at Paisley sheriff court on Monday.
A Police Scotland spokesman said: “Police Scotland can confirm that two men aged 35 and 45 have been arrested and are presently detained in police custody in connection with alleged offences under the Railways and Transport Safety Act 2003, section 93.” The section of the act relates to carrying out pilot function or activity while exceeding the prescribed limit of alcohol.
A spokesman for Glasgow airport said: “We are aware of the police incident yesterday involving two pilots.”
The incident follows the appearance in court last month of two Canadian pilots charged with being drunk as they prepared to fly a passenger jet from Scotland to Toronto. Jean-Francois Perreault, 39, and Imran Zafar Syed, 37, were arrested on 18 July before they were due to take off on the Air Transat flight from Glasgow.
The men were remanded in custody when they first appeared at Paisley sheriff court, also charged under section 93 of the same act. At a second hearing at the same court they were granted bail on condition they surrendered their passports.
Section 93 of the Railway and Transport Safety Act states: “A person commits an offence if he performs an aviation function at a time when the proportion of alcohol in his breath, blood or urine exceeds the prescribed limit, or he carries out an activity which is ancillary to an aviation function at a time when the proportion of alcohol in his breath, blood or urine exceeds the prescribed limit.” For pilots, the limit of alcohol in the case of breath is 9μg of alcohol in 100ml, according to the act.
A spokesman for United Airlines said: “The two pilots have been removed from service and their flying duties. We are cooperating with the authorities and will conduct our own investigation as well. The safety of our customers and crew is our highest priority.”
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https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/aug/28/two-us-pilots-held-on-suspicion-of-being-under-influence-of-alcohol
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en
| 2016-08-28T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/3add3e8f8b569989da2d2268ffa651b909de4eaf2f645ed9c3a0eab483bfbb50.json
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|
[
"Source"
] | 2016-08-26T13:20:54 | null | 2016-08-25T20:24:19 |
Donald Trump responded on Thursdayto reports that Hillary Clinton will try to present the Trump campaign as one that appeals to the far right
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fus-news%2Fvideo%2F2016%2Faug%2F25%2Ftrump-denounces-claims-racism-clinton-video.json
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| null |
'We're not racists,' Trump says of supporters - video
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
Donald Trump responded on Thursday at a Manchester, New Hampshire, campaign stop to reports that Hillary Clinton will try to present the Trump campaign as one that appeals to the far right. Trump stated Clinton is going to ‘accuse decent Americans who support this campaign, your campaign, of being racists, which we’re not. It’s the oldest play in the Democratic playbook’
• Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton trade insults over accusations of racism
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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2016/aug/25/trump-denounces-claims-racism-clinton-video
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en
| 2016-08-25T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/034a39dc8e26e8e188c81586ca310469e435f9ff6d46dc61f9040bbb0f4cd6f6.json
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|
[
"Ben Saul"
] | 2016-08-29T02:52:03 | null | 2016-08-29T02:37:59 |
This week’s conciliation talks in The Hague gives Australia a new chance to do the right thing by East Timor to help it secure its future
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fcommentisfree%2F2016%2Faug%2F29%2Fon-timor-australia-looks-like-its-denying-an-impoverished-neighbour-its-birthright.json
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| null |
On Timor, Australia looks like it's denying an impoverished neighbour its birthright
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
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Australia and East Timor start conciliation talks in The Hague on Monday in an effort to resolve their bitter legal dispute over maritime boundaries – and $40bn of petroleum rights. Timor argues that Australia refuses to recognise Timor’s rights under international law.
The conciliation is compulsory under the UN law of the sea convention, but it will not produce a binding decision. The independent conciliators may nonetheless help both countries to clarify the legal issues and reflect on their claims – and adjust them to reach a fair solution.
Lately Australia has been on the nose in Timor. Anti-Australia graffiti is sprinkled around the capital, Dili. Thousands of Timorese protested outside the Australian embassy earlier this year. The dispute threatens the goodwill from Australia’s support for Timor’s independence since 1999. Things are not helped by espionage claims that paint Australia as the neighbourhood cheat and bully.
The morally bankrupt foreign policy that entrenches Australia's reputation as a regional bully | Tom Clarke Read more
Australia denies breaching international law. The legal issues are not clear cut. Timor and Australia agreed on three treaties from 2002 and 2006 to share resources in adjacent maritime areas and to suspend maritime boundary claims for 50 years. Timor has amassed a $16bn Petroleum Fund as a result.
Australia may be right to argue that it is lawful to manage disputes in this way. In practice, however, Timor had little choice but to cut a deal. In 2002, Australia cunningly withdrew its consent to the compulsory settlement of maritime boundary disputes at the international court of justice and under the UN law of the sea convention.
This was technically legal. Countries may give or withhold their consent in advance to international adjudication. Timor was thus prevented from suing Australia in an independent court – even if its substantive legal claims to maritime boundaries were correct.
Australia prefers negotiation on boundary disputes to adjudication. Negotiation has some advantages. But it also often benefits a country with more bargaining power, as in the huge imbalance between Australia and Timor. China similarly prefers negotiation over courts in the South China Sea because it has more leverage over its neighbours.
When negotiation breaks down, there is then no independent court to apply international law, which provides the underlying rules on where boundaries should be drawn. An obstructive country can simply refuse to reach agreement or to recognise another country’s rights.
Timor now argues that the 2006 treaty is invalid because Australia spied on its treaty negotiators, thus gaining an unfair advantage. While spying alone does not invalidate a treaty, fraud can. It is untested whether espionage constitutes fraud.
That claim is being tested in another case, a binding arbitration between Australia and Timor – itself tarnished by Australia’s seizure of documents from Timor’s lawyer in Canberra, Bernard Collaery. In 2014, the international court of justice ordered Australia not to interfere with Timor’s legal communications, since doing so may undermine the equality of parties to a dispute under the United Nations Charter.
Australia illegally occupying maritime territory of Timor-Leste, protesters say Read more
If the treaty is invalid it would reopen the boundary and resource issues. Timor claims that determining the maritime boundary in accordance with international law would give it exclusive ownership over certain resources currently shared with Australia.
Experts differ on where the boundary might actually be drawn, including if Indonesia could extend its boundary at Timor’s expense. There are practical concerns too about the economic and environmental feasibility of Timor’s ambitious development plans.
Timor’s boundary claims are nonetheless strong. Australia’s last minute, peremptory removal of international judicial oversight in 2002 may well indicate that it privately agrees.
Ultimately, what is technically legal may not necessarily be wise, just, or ethical foreign policy. There is an inescapable perception that Australia is denying its tiny, impoverished neighbour its sovereign birthright to determine its boundaries, control its own resources, and shape its own destiny.
This dynamic contaminates the wider bilateral relationship. The dispute cannot be viewed in isolation but is part of a long history of bad faith by Australia that continues to poison relations and corrode trust.
From the late 1970s, successive Australian governments illegally recognised Indonesian sovereignty over Timor. Timor’s resistance museum displays an infamous photo of the then foreign ministers, Gareth Evans and Ali Alatas, toasting champagne in flight above the Timor Sea, after carving up the resource spoils far below in 1988.
Tanya Plibersek: Australia must restore 'poisoned relations' with Timor-Leste Read more
Australia also did little to protest Indonesian atrocities, which left up to 183,000 dead, including six Australian journalists murdered at Balibo and Dili in 1975.
This legacy and the present dispute overshadow Australia’s positive contributions. Australian military forces resisted the Japanese invasion of Timor in 1942 and led the UN intervention in 1999. Ever since, Australia has stabilised Timor by supporting democracy, development, nutrition, public health and security.
Australia should be faithful to the spirit as well as the letter of the law – and be more generous. The modest benefits to Australia of the current arrangements are far outweighed by the diplomatic damage they inflict.
For Timor, determining its boundaries is about completing its sovereignty and ensuring its economic future. That has been a long, painful journey over 450 years, outlasting Portuguese colonialism and Indonesian occupation.
Australia should stop obstructing Timor and help it to secure its borders and its future. This week’s conciliation gives Australia a new chance to do the right thing.
Ben Saul is Challis Chair of International Law at the University of Sydney. He recently visited Timor and was a barrister in the Balibo Five inquest in 2007.
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/29/on-timor-australia-looks-like-its-denying-an-impoverished-neighbour-its-birthright
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en
| 2016-08-29T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/0a9fe4758b93d9e654eaa6e27b8b8a22e633de42a6f9583fbd40f34172dedbb5.json
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|
[
"Martin Love"
] | 2016-08-26T13:26:45 | null | 2016-08-07T05:00:07 |
Commuter, road bike, cross-rider – three bicycles for the price of one
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Flifeandstyle%2F2016%2Faug%2F07%2Fquella-evo-three-bikes-in-one-bicycle-review-observer.json
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en
| null |
Quella Evo: bike review
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
How many bikes do you need? There’s an old equation which states the ideal number is n + 1 where n is the number you currently own. Well, here’s a novel way to get three bikes for the price of one. British brand Quella has just launched the Evo which has been engineered to be incredibly versatile and durable. Starting with the basic frame you can use it as a no-nonsense, single-speed commuter. Or you can upgrade the gears and handlebars so it becomes an entry-level road bike. And if that doesn’t appeal, you can swap in chunkier rubber and use it as a rugged cross-rider for country trails and muddy lanes. Bottle holders, mudguards and racks can also be added, while a custom colour will cost you a further £100. It’s a great result for the chronically indecisive.
Price: £599
Frame: Columbus Cromor
Gears: single speed or SRAM Automatix for an extra £75
Weight: 10.5kg
quellabicycle.com
|
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/aug/07/quella-evo-three-bikes-in-one-bicycle-review-observer
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en
| 2016-08-07T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/bede13ac65cc5c9831ed7623bf6655b447db3c7edcfb5d0fed4703169600ea87.json
|
|
[
"Bryan Armen Graham"
] | 2016-08-27T14:51:03 | null | 2016-08-27T14:50:38 |
Antonio Conte’s team are looking to make it three wins from three against newly promoted Burnley. Follow all the action live with Bryan Graham
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Ffootball%2Flive%2F2016%2Faug%2F27%2Fchelsea-burnley-premier-league-live.json
|
en
| null |
Chelsea v Burnley: Premier League - live!
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
Antonio Conte’s team are looking to make it three wins from three against newly promoted Burnley. Follow all the action live with Bryan Graham
|
https://www.theguardian.com/football/live/2016/aug/27/chelsea-burnley-premier-league-live
|
en
| 2016-08-27T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/bcf491c048f965b5dffab6dae903fe0f1262166f8b21dfde470b68d3b0287ddd.json
|
|
[
"Patrick Collinson",
"Eoin Flaherty For The Conservation"
] | 2016-08-30T06:50:10 | null | 2015-08-27T07:25:40 |
Booming house prices and stock market gains contribute to wealth as number of millionaires in UK rises by 200,000 in five years
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fuk-news%2F2015%2Faug%2F27%2Fnumber-of-millionaires-in-uk-rises-by-200000.json
|
en
| null |
One in 65 UK adults now a millionaire, figures show
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
The number of millionaires in the UK has shot up by 41% over the past five years, with one in 65 adults now classed as having a seven-figure fortune thanks to booming house prices and stock market gains.
There are now 715,000 millionaires living in Britain compared with 508,000 in 2010, with London having the highest concentration of wealthy individuals.
The capital has 191,000 millionaires, followed by the south-east with 157,000, according to data from the wealth management arm of Barclays bank. Wales had the fewest, with 12,000.
But wealth does not correlate with kindness. The region of the UK with the lowest average annual pay – Northern Ireland – is by far the country’s most charitable, with 45% of households giving to charity, Barclays found. The figure for London was just 28%.
Reading is named as the most prosperous town or city outside the capital, followed by Cambridge and then Birmingham.
The figures are likely to reignite concerns about the north/south divide and income inequality in Britain. Median household incomes have gone up just 2% since 2011, according to the Institute of Fiscal Studies, yet the number of millionaires continues to surge.
It was revealed this week that more than £42bn was paid out in bonuses in the last tax year, much of it to bankers in the City, where payouts have returned to within a whisker of their 2007-08 peak.
Rampant house price inflation in the capital is behind much of the surge in London millionaire numbers. One in 45 London residents are millionaires, compared with one in 255 in Wales.
Property website Zoopla currently lists about 9,400 homes for sale in London for more than £1m, compared with 52 in the whole of Scotland. A terraced home for sale in Leyton, a relatively down-at-heel part of east London, is on the market for £1.1m, or more than twice the current asking price for a 40-bedroom Victorian mansion leading to a beach in Ross-shire, Scotland.
But Barclays ranked towns and cities not just on wealth but also other indicators such as business startups, school exam grades and unemployment to create a “prosperity map” of Britain.
.The research showed that every UK region is now more affluent than it was five years ago, with north-east England enjoying the biggest improvement.
Akshaya Bhargava, chief executive of Barclays wealth and investment Management, said: “Although the north-east currently registers low on the prosperity index, the region has grown faster than the national average in the past five years. The 50% rise in the number of millionaires living in the north-east is the joint-largest increase of any region in the UK along with Wales. The north-east also has a thriving entrepreneurial scene, second only to London.”
Reading is listed second for prosperity in the UK, according to the index, with average earnings of £30,562.
The Berkshire town’s fortunes have improved dramatically over the years. It is now home to the largest concentration of information and communications technology companies in the UK, with Microsoft and Oracle among the larger tech firms that have their UK headquarters there.
But not everyone has benefited from Reading’s economic success. It has “extremes of both wealth and poverty in very small areas”, and has “some of the most affluent and the most deprived neighbourhoods in the whole of the Thames valley”, according to a 2014 report into poverty levels published by its council.
One surprise from the research is that Londoners are far from having the highest median wealth levels, highlighting the growing gulf between a property-rich minority and growing numbers of residents struggling with high rents.
Median household wealth in the capital is £213,000, significantly lower than the £309,700 in the south-east and £259,900 in the east of England, and only just ahead of the figure for Wales.
But other research suggests the Barclays report may be underplaying the number of millionaires in London. WealthInsight, a wealth consultancy, this week claimed the capital was home to 289,500 millionaires – equal to one in every 28 people on its streets. It added the figure was even higher if one included those wealthy families from other countries who owned second homes in the city.
During July and August, many rich Middle Eastern and African families temporarily relocate to the UK capital “to escape the heat in their home countries”, said WealthInsight, which has published research showing that London is the world’s most popular city for second home ownership, ahead of New York, Los Angeles, Monaco and Miami.
It is not just property ownership that is creating more UK millionaires. While the TV game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? was axed in the UK in 2014, the National Lottery says it has created more than 3,900 individual millionaires since 1994.
Each month sees another two people added to their ranks courtesy of National Savings and Investments’ premium bonds, which pay out a total of 24 £1m jackpots a year.
But you don’t need to be a millionaire in order for money to buy you happiness. Earlier this month, research from financial firm SunLife claimed that once a number of other factors that influence happiness are removed, to be among the happiest 10% of people in the UK, someone needs £310 spare cash each month – equivalent to £71.54 a week.
Cities and towns ranked by prosperity
1 London
2 Reading
3 Cambridge
4 Birmingham
5 Bristol
6 Leeds
7 Cardiff
8 Manchester
9 Liverpool
10 Newcastle
|
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/aug/27/number-of-millionaires-in-uk-rises-by-200000
|
en
| 2015-08-27T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/57e621cc0c364983202da57148d58110b49b8a44f21d739e6ea15c6603d28d50.json
|
|
[
"Ben Green",
"Pascal Wyse",
"Owen Gibson",
"Paul Sinha",
"Presented Andy Zaltzman"
] | 2016-08-26T13:21:25 | null | 2016-08-03T07:41:35 |
Andy Zaltzman is joined by the Guardian’s Owen Gibson and comedian and athletics wonk Paul Sinha to look ahead to all the sweat and shenanigans in Rio
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fsport%2Faudio%2F2016%2Faug%2F03%2Folympics-preview-andy-zaltzmans-summer-of-sport.json
|
en
| null |
Olympics preview! Andy Zaltzman's Summer of Sport
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
On this super soaraway edition of AZSOS, Andy is joined by the Guardian’s chief sports writer Owen Gibson and comedian and athletics nut Paul Sinha to preview all the action on the track, field and no doubt laboratories in this summer’s 31st Olympiad in Rio.
Will Usain Bolt do what he usually does and blow away the competition on the big day?
How many asterisks will be marked in the record books?
And does anyone care about about open water swimming or the 50km walk?
We answer all these questions and more. Sort of. Have a listen, and tell us what you think.
(You can hear Andy introduce the latest episode of our new sex podcast here. Really.)
|
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/audio/2016/aug/03/olympics-preview-andy-zaltzmans-summer-of-sport
|
en
| 2016-08-03T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/5e3010dee635e0a1e8f8f1f321f2feb70778f06c0fdcbdb4db7b9278ebe4b3af.json
|
|
[
"Lola Okolosie"
] | 2016-08-30T12:50:16 | null | 2016-08-30T12:24:48 |
Reading the leaked documents of the Nauru files gave a voice to those detained by the Australian government. But we in the UK are in no position to pontificate
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fcommentisfree%2F2016%2Faug%2F30%2Fnauru-vigil-abuse-asylum-seekers-uk-nauru-files-australian.json
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en
| null |
Our Nauru vigil highlighted the abuse asylum seekers also face in the UK
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
“In space no one can hear you scream.” It’s the chilling tagline to Ridley Scott’s classic sci-fi horror, Alien. Last Friday, as I and 30 others read aloud for 10 hours from more than 2,000 leaked incident reports of the Nauru files published by Guardian Australia earlier this month, the line came back to me. What I and my fellow protesters read was, put simply, a chronology of trauma that is actual people’s daily existence. If the Australian government has its way, the hell that these asylum seekers are living through will remain indefinite. And, up until now, few of us have even heard of the island.
Just eight square miles in area, with its nearest neighbour 186 miles away, Nauru is a dot in the Pacific Ocean, located in the middle of nowhere. Here, the Australian government had, until the leak, been able to stifle the tortured screams of Nauru’s detained asylum seekers. This is why I took part in the action: to voice the degradation, abuse and self-harm that is the day-to-day life of people who are in search of safety, have committed no crimes and are already traumatised.
Nauru files: leaked reports read aloud in 10-hour vigil outside Australia House in London Read more
The irony of Nauru once being named Pleasant Island only adds to the chilling association its name now carries. It is almost as if anything is worth the cost of, to quote Guardian Australia journalist David Marr, “detaining refugees out there” so that “the boats stop coming here”. Our own humanity seems a fair enough price to pay.
I say our, because Europe more broadly and the UK in particular subscribes to such merciless thinking. The tabled deal between the EU and Turkey, to return asylum seekers to the latter, is a clear example, so much so that Amnesty International calls it “unconscionable” and “illegal”. And still the bodies continue to wash up on Europe’s shores. Last week the Express reported that this year there has been a 37% increase in the numbers of migrants missing or dying at sea.
In the UK, Calais is all but in name an offshore detention centre like Nauru. Earlier this month the campaign group Citizens UK revealed it had identified 170 unaccompanied child asylum seekers all of whom had a legal right to be reunited with their families in the UK while having their claim processed. Rather than treat the matter of already traumatised children made to live in squalor, vulnerable to sexual exploitation and violence with the urgency it deserves, we instead have a system in which it is permissible to let them languish in misery.
Even closer to home we have our 10 immigration removal centres, holding nearly 30,000 people under the Immigration Act. Seeking asylum is an administrative process, not a criminal one, and yet we seem confused by this simple distinction; those most commonly held in detention are asylum seekers. The now notorious Yarl’s Wood detention centre was, last year, dubbed a “place of national concern” by the chief prison officer. Broadspectrum, the corporation Australia has outsourced its immigration detention to in Nauru, and Serco, managing Yarl’s Wood, share the ignominy of being seen to provide poor living conditions for the asylum seekers they detain.
The Nauru files: cache of 2,000 leaked reports reveal scale of abuse of children in Australian offshore detention Read more
In June the Home Office refused to disclose whether any of the female detainees at the Bedfordshire detention centre had been raped or sexually assaulted while at Yarl’s Wood. What, I wonder, could be the reason behind such defensiveness? Well, the Home Office views is that a “disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests” of a corporation such as Serco. Better to avoid drops in share prices than discover if detained women have suffered sexual violence.
With the Nauru files, we are in danger of detaching ourselves from the horrors they document. Holding Australia out as some extraordinary example of heartlessness is an easy way to ignore abuses closer to home. We’re in no position to pontificate. Ours is not a higher claim to human decency.
As we come close to the first anniversary of Alan Kurdi’s death, I am reminded of the outpouring of emotion and goodwill released by the image of his little body on that beach. It seemed then we understood the terrible cost of standing by and watching daily as tragedies unfold. A year on, what is painfully obvious is that not much has changed, despite our collective call to action.
|
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/30/nauru-vigil-abuse-asylum-seekers-uk-nauru-files-australian
|
en
| 2016-08-30T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/5b4aa8673f8fae41613368d593dad6742a54d34f6c52d7734d68c3633a298e3e.json
|
|
[
"Damian Carrington"
] | 2016-08-31T08:52:44 | null | 2016-08-31T08:46:57 |
Over the past 70 years, the bird has become a global staple, and could be the key fossil evidence for human-influenced epoch
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fenvironment%2F2016%2Faug%2F31%2Fdomestic-chicken-anthropocene-humanity-influenced-epoch.json
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en
| null |
Laying the groundwork: how the chicken rose to define Anthropocene
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
The domestic chicken is set to play an epoch-defining role for humanity, as its bones could become the key fossil evidence for the dawn of the age in which humankind came to dominate the planet.
On Monday, an expert group announced that a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene, should be declared. But the key to defining a geological age is finding global physical evidence of the transition that will be preserved for future geologists, and the chubby modern chicken eaten worldwide is a prime candidate.
The Anthropocene epoch: scientists declare dawn of human-influenced age Read more
Prof Jan Zalasiewicz, a geologist at the University of Leicester and the chair of the Working Group on the Anthropocene, said: “It has become the world’s most common bird. It has been fossilised in thousands of landfill sites and on street corners around the world.”
Global consumption of chicken expanded enormously as factory farming took off after the second world war, at a time when industrialisation and population growth made humanity the planet’s primary driving force. Chickens are the world’s most populous bird, with almost 60 billion killed a year.
The chicken’s rise to global avian domination took off in 1945, when the the US government and major poultry company A&P announced a competition to breed the “chicken of tomorrow”, a bird that would grow fatter and more quickly than ever. The winner, called Arbor Acres, still dominates the genetic stock of domestic chickens around the world.
The chicken was first domesticated between 7,000 and 10,000 years ago from the red junglefowl, Gallus gallus, native to south-east Asia. The wild bird was a poor flier, making it the perfect catch. Over subsequent millennia, the bird was carried all over the world, giving it the global presence so useful to the Anthropocene geologists.
However, even in the early 20th century, chickens were primarily sources of eggs. Male birds and exhausted egg layers were eaten, but only as a luxury on special occasions. The transition to the ubiquitous meat of today began with the discovery of vitamin D in the 1920s, meaning that the birds could be housed indoors all year round, rather than let out in the summer to soak up sunlight.
After the second world war, large companies, particularly in the US, began to integrate hatcheries, grain supplies and slaughtering facilities into enormous battery farms. Vaccines and antibiotics enabled the birds to survive the close confinement and, by the 1950s, chickens that had taken 18 weeks to fatten up at the turn of the 20th century took six weeks to be ready for the chop.
In 1950, British households ate about 1 million chickens, but by 1965, they gobbled up 150 million. Another result of industrialisation was the greatest decline in domestic chicken diversity in history, with half or more of all ancestral chicken breeds now lost. This makes the bird even more suitable as the type fossil of the Anthropocene. The same chicken leaves bones, bigger and differently shaped to its ancestors, all over the world.
The domestic chicken’s dominance was further increased in recent decades by the increase and liberalisation of global trade, along with the spread of industrial farming: about 75% of the world’s chicken meat still comes from factory farms. The bird’s trajectory remains upwards, with the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation projecting that it will be the world’s most eaten meat by weight by 2020, overtaking pork. China, the US, Indonesia and Brazil are the world’s biggest producers.
It has been a long journey for a little bird that once scratched away at forest floors for insects, seeds and fruit. But despite the countless billions killed to feed humanity’s seemingly insatiable appetite for its mild flesh, the domestic chicken looks set to be granted immortality.
|
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/31/domestic-chicken-anthropocene-humanity-influenced-epoch
|
en
| 2016-08-31T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/fc692c98af35e1106e4fee8100eecaebfa39bf646e9c0e433a87142e60d28a3e.json
|
|
[
"Danny Dorling",
"John Harris",
"Jakub Krupa"
] | 2016-08-26T13:17:53 | null | 2016-08-25T12:49:27 |
The long-term effect of the referendum on the housing market is impossible to predict. But there’s no doubt: sales have slowed and prices fallen since the vote
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fcommentisfree%2F2016%2Faug%2F25%2Fbrexit-crash-house-prices-referendum.json
|
en
| null |
Are we on the verge of a crash in house prices? Only the data will tell
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
This week, exactly two months after the vote for Brexit, I spent an hour on the property site Zoopla looking at the latest housing sale data available. Anyone can do this at the click of a button. Unlike the rise in stamp duty in April, which was well anticipated, the vote to leave the EU was not. And all markets react most strongly to the unanticipated.
Being a geographer, I viewed the data county by county beginning with London, because it is usually in London that changes first happen. You can do the same: put a county name in the search box and click on “market activity in the last three months”.
Brexit could cut London house prices by more than 30%, says bank Read more
The website is unlikely to be completely up to date, but most of the information on that three-month period should be after the EU referendum, as Zoopla updates its website weekly with data that has not yet been published by the Land Registry. For London, the Zoopla website reports an average price paid of £592,564 in the last three months which represents a fall of £15,600 based on 5,979 sales. So is this a lot or a little?
The website also tells you how many sales it recorded in the last 12 months, which in London was 71,973, or an average of well over 6,000 a month before 23 June. Zoopla’s London transactions fell to 2,000 a month in the latest three months. This is a huge fall – although it is possible that it partly reflects the fact that not all of the most recent data is in its datasets.
However, I saw a similar drop a very long time ago, in October 1989 when people stopped buying homes because they thought prices were falling. Later, negative equity began to rise. We all know what happened next.
The total loss for all those people who bought a property in the first nine months of the past year in London, in the run-up to the EU referendum, is a collective £1,030m (over £1bn). This is calculated by simply multiplying the number of sales on Zoopla in those nine months by the average price fall in the latest three months. This is the result of a fall of only 2.7% in the latest three months.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Photograph: Ben Hennig, University of Oxford
One billion pounds may sound like a lot, but the value of all the houses on an especially sought-after street in Chelsea can easily exceed that. Uncannily, it is also almost exactly the amount extra the UK would have to spend on its health service every week if we wanted to spend as much per head as they do in Germany.
A few more clicks on Zoopla reveal that London hasn’t had the largest Brexit-associated price falls. They were, in fact, in Devon (-3.1%); Cumbria (-3%); Surrey, the Isle of Wight, Norfolk, Gloucestershire, West Sussex, Leicestershire, Somerset (all -2.9%), Cornwall and Hampshire (both -2.8%). The populations of some of these areas are more elderly than average, and urgent sales may be more common as a result but when house prices fall it is typical of the English to refuse to sell.
The lowest fall in England was in Northamptonshire (-0.6%). In Wales the latest three month price fall was only -0.1% and in Scotland a rise of 1% was reported. There were not enough sales in Northern Ireland to report a price change.
Back in late 1989, prices continued to rise in Scotland long after they had first fallen in London, where the decline began. The fact that the falls across all of England have been so abrupt this time around, with no significant “rippling out”, suggests a national loss of confidence in the market. However, there is a geographical pattern to the rapid decline in transactions. They fell the most in London – by 73% in the last three months compared to the nine months before; in Oxfordshire by 72%; in Berkshire by 71%, and in Gloucestershire and Buckinghamshire by 70%. The smallest fall was 61%, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, which is still dramatic. Across all of England the total losses to those who bought in the nine months before the Brexit vote so far is £4.5bn, or around £7,000 per household or buy-to-let landlord.
Transactions fall when sellers refuse to drop the price they will accept because they want to believe that the economic effect of Brexit has been overplayed. They also fall when first-time buyers and landlords decide to wait to see if these small falls are a sign of more to come. It is a battle of collective wills: a standoff.
And economically, above all else, the outcome will tell us what “Brexit means Brexit” really means. None of the data tells us what will happen next. It just tells us what has happened, how fast it happened, and where it has happened the most.
This could be a tiny blip in UK housing market history or it could be the start of something far more important to come. That depends on sentiment, the extent to which people on the one hand look at property and think whether that building and the land it sits upon is really worth that much, and the extent to which on the other hand they believe the websites, estate agents, and newspapers that tell them that “forthright action” can still ensure a good price in an “uncertain market” as the Daily Mail suggested last Saturday.
The total loss for all those people who bought a property in the run-up to the EU referendum is over £1bn
Zoopla is part owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust PLC, and the estate agent Countrywide. On Sunday, Countrywide suggested that prices would only fall by 1% across the whole of 2017. Last month, it was alleged that Zoopla’s CEO Alex Chesterman was behind one of the legal challenges to Brexit.
Those with access to more detailed Zoopla data will know just how great the threat of Brexit is to housing prices, but only a French bank, Société Générale, has put its head above the parapet and suggested the prices in London could fall by 30%, and even 50% is not impossible in some parts of the capital.
When claims were made on 24 August that the property market is showing signs of resilience, the only evidence that could be offered was that the building firm Persimmon had increased its annual profits by 19%, almost all of which will have be made on homes sold before the vote.
You don’t need to look at Zoopla to figure out that England’s house prices are too high. It is too early to tell, but we will soon know whether this is the start of a crash. All I can advise is, do not believe the predictions – just watch the prices.
|
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/25/brexit-crash-house-prices-referendum
|
en
| 2016-08-25T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/8347b211211c624638ecb4fca86960b5697b602604357d157df54a424de91a46.json
|
|
[
"John Crace"
] | 2016-08-26T13:30:54 | null | 2016-07-26T14:07:43 |
Evans momentously announces she will not try to succeed Nigel Farage, unveiling complete unknown Lisa Duffy in her place
|
http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fpolitics%2F2016%2Fjul%2F26%2Fsuzanne-evans-ukip-leadership-race-lisa-duffy.json
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en
| null |
Suzanne Evans votes to leave the bureaucratic Ukip leadership race
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
For three days last summer, Suzanne Evans was leader of Ukip. That’s how long it took the party to realise it had made a hideous mistake and reappoint Nigel Farage, by then unresigned, who had stood down after failing to become an MP for the seventh time at the general election. Evans has since been withdrawn as an official Ukip spokeswoman, reinstated as an official Ukip spokeswoman following an inquiry and subsequently suspended by Ukip’s national executive committee for six months. It turns out that Labour isn’t the only party struggling to find a kinder, gentler way of doing politics.
Evans’s crime has been to be the sort of candidate that normal people might want to vote for, as long as they didn’t have to think too hard about what she was saying. She’s very much of the Ukip-lite, “some of my best friends are black” wing of the party, which is a niche market at the best of times – people don’t tend to support Ukip because they are overendowed with liberal, multicultural sentiments – and all the more so at a time when the party has done so well in the referendum by whipping up hatred for foreigners with racist poster campaigns.
Ever since Farage resigned as party leader earlier this month, Evans has been struggling to get her name on the ballot paper to take back control for the second time due to her suspension. On Tuesday, at a personal cost of about £133, she had rented a room in Westminster for an hour to inform the world of her progress against the Faragists.
“I have something absolutely momentous to tell you,” she had promised. As there wasn’t much else on, what with Theresa May flying around Europe trying to kiss and make up with all the leaders that Boris Johnson had managed to insult and Labour trying to resolve its fraternal differences in the family division courts, a dozen or so hacks trotted along to hear what she had to say. Could it be that Farage was about to be exposed as one of the guests at the Surrey pool party?
Evans bustled into the cramped room purposefully and began reading from a lectern. “Thank you so much for coming to hear my truly momentous news,” she said. “I have now given up hope of becoming Ukip leader as there is an old guard at the top who are behaving like a bunch of hardened EU bureaucrats. So it is with the greatest reluctance that …”
This felt more like an announcement that could have been delivered to everyone’s email spam folders rather than one requiring a press conference, but Evans was determined to milk her moment. She paused, striving for some dramatic tension. “… I have to say I am not going to stand to be leader of Ukip.” At this point, it began to dawn on her that she wasn’t connecting with her audience. We didn’t share her pain.
She gulped back her disappointment and pressed on. “However, I won’t be leaving Ukip as I have had messages from at least eight people begging me not to,” she continued, totally unaware of the irony that she had spent years campaigning for Britain to leave the EU because EU bureaucrats had been behaving like EU bureaucrats, and was now campaigning for herself to stay in Ukip just as the party’s leadership start behaving like EU bureaucrats.
“Instead, I will be throwing my support behind Lisa Duffy to be the next leader,” she said. Lisa who? There was a moment’s excitement that Lisa might be related to Gillian Duffy, but this proved to be a false dawn. Lisa is currently a hologram masquerading as a Ukip councillor so was unfortunately unable to introduce herself in person, but Suzanne was adamant that Lisa was one of the new caring, sharing Ukippers and that, if she were selected to lead the party – “she doesn’t have a leadership team yet, so I’m not on it, but when I tell her what her leadership team is, then I am sure I will be” – the old velvet-collared, golf club diehards could go off and join the Tory party instead.
By now, everyone was starting to get fidgety. There have been few certainties in politics during the past couple of months, but one thing you can be sure of is that there is no chance of the unknown Lisa becoming the next Ukip leader. Wisely, Suzanne decided to wind things up. “I very much hope you will all come to Lisa’s launch on Thursday,” she concluded. Out came the biros. That was one date everyone would make a point of missing.
|
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jul/26/suzanne-evans-ukip-leadership-race-lisa-duffy
|
en
| 2016-07-26T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/86bdeaf6fbb54ca23760ec2523e80ed274f441428424fd083b08f4b248375a89.json
|
|
[
"Source",
"Macduff Marine Aquarium",
"Underwater Camera",
"Chris Rowe",
"Aquarist",
"Diver",
"Lauren Smith"
] | 2016-08-26T13:28:02 | null | 2016-08-08T13:51:46 |
The Macduff Marine Aquarium releases an octopus into the North Sea in July
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fscience%2Fvideo%2F2016%2Faug%2F08%2Foctopus-released-back-into-the-wild-in-scotland-video.json
|
en
| null |
Octopus released back into the wild in Scotland - video
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
The Macduff Marine Aquarium releases an octopus into the North Sea in July. The octopus was given to the aquarium after it was caught in a fisherman’s creel by accident. The female octopus was studied for several weeks before being returned to the sea to complete its brief life-cycle
|
https://www.theguardian.com/science/video/2016/aug/08/octopus-released-back-into-the-wild-in-scotland-video
|
en
| 2016-08-08T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/27817d0ee75c2af6999d912a553d71646447f0c67431ac7b2c3f63c5acb97f83.json
|
|
[
"Bryan Armen Graham"
] | 2016-08-31T00:52:50 | null | 2016-08-30T23:19:10 |
Novak Djokovic, the defending champion, has said he feels fine despite concerns over his form going into his second-round match at the US Open
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fsport%2F2016%2Faug%2F30%2Fnovak-djokovic-us-open-jiri-vesely.json
|
en
| null |
Novak Djokovic hoping to rediscover his best form against Jiri Vesely
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
After a tricky opening-round test that did little to dispel the persisting sense of vulnerability about Novak Djokovic, the No1 seed resumes his US Open title defence – and bid for a 13th grand slam title – on Wednesday afternoon against the young Czech Jiri Vesely.
The Serb managed to see off Poland’s Jerzy Janowicz on Mondayin the first ever night match under Arthur Ashe Stadium’s new roof but the 6-3, 5-7, 6-2, 6-1 victory was not without warning signs. Djokovic called a medical timeout and summoned the trainer to work on his right arm only five games into the opening set, then blinked with a crucial double fault in the climactic game as Janowicz levelled the match at one set apiece.
Class ultimately won out but a tournament that had already felt vitally important to Djokovic’s season and status as the tour’s apex predator has been informed with even weightier implications.
Andy Murray finds balance as he looks to cap his finest summer yet at US Open | Kevin Mitchell Read more
Woes like these might have strained credulity at the summer’s outset after he completed the career grand slam at Roland Garros to become the first man to capture four straight majors since Rod Laver in 1969. But then Djokovic suffered a shock third-round defeat by Sam Querrey at Wimbledon, which abruptly snapped his streak of 28 grand slam quarter-final appearances and marked the first time in eight majors he had so much as dropped a set during the first week.
That was followed by a tearful opening-round exit to Juan Martín del Potro at the Rio Olympics, the wrist injury that resurfaced there and the surprise admission on the eve of the season-ending major that “private issues” had compromised his run at a calendar-year grand slam.
Now it is Vesely at Flushing Meadows, the world No49 who prevailed in their only previous meeting at Monte Carlo in April, becoming one of only four men to defeat Djokovic in a completed match since November.
“Different surface, different circumstances, best-of-five,” said Djokovic of the second-round tilt. “But still, Vesely deserves respect. He’s somebody that has been kind of trying to break through as the next generation.
“Couple years ago he already was there. He made a name of himself. Just gained the consistency I think over the last couple of years. He has a big game, a big serve, big forehand, and moves well for his size. So let’s see.“Obviously he hasn’t played many times on the Arthur [Ashe] Stadium. If you get to play there, it’s quite different. I like playing there, especially with the roof construction. Conditions are quite suitable to my style.”
|
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/aug/30/novak-djokovic-us-open-jiri-vesely
|
en
| 2016-08-30T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/93ef9b80f33fb42edf32e1954bbad0b176ec9335f14d3551b74af30043d02bdd.json
|
|
[
"Mark Brown",
"Clare Brennan",
"Bob",
"Roberta Smith"
] | 2016-08-26T13:06:29 | null | 2016-08-26T10:24:33 |
Labour leader unveils arts strategy in Edinburgh, pledging to introduce arts pupil premium for primary schools
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fculture%2F2016%2Faug%2F25%2Fjeremy-corbyn-arts-pupil-premium-primary-schools-reverse-spending-cuts.json
|
en
| null |
Jeremy Corbyn promises to reverse arts spending cuts
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
Jeremy Corbyn has pledged that the Labour party under his leadership would introduce an arts pupil premium for primary schools and reverse arts spending cuts made over the last six years.
The Labour leader launched his arts strategy in Edinburgh on Friday to coincide with the last few days of the Edinburgh festival.
He said: “Drawing on Britain’s rich cultural heritage, Labour under my leadership will commit to extending access and participation in the arts to all people and all communities across Britain.
“There is creativity in all of us but we need to give people the opportunities for this creativity to flourish.”
He said a radical, transformative vision for the arts would be central to his plans to rebuild and transform Britain.
“Labour will reverse Tory cuts to arts expenditure and set out a bold and inspiring policy programme for the arts, building on our proud cultural heritage,” Corbyn said.
Corbyn proposes more help for the arts and vows to defend BBC Read more
Among his promises are:
• To introduce an arts pupil premium for every primary school pupil in England, in line with the existing PE pupil premium set up in 2013, which boosts school sports budgets by about £150m a year. He would also look to extending this to secondary schools.
• To aim to increase the proportion of GDP the UK government spends on arts and culture to match the European average.
• To reverse “Tory real-terms cuts to arts expenditure and restore grant-in-aid funding of the Arts Council.”
• To introduce a cross-departmental cabinet committee on the arts and creative industries tasked with increasing participation.
• To develop a national policy on libraries and enforce in law that local authorities “provide a comprehensive and efficient library service extended to digital services”.
• To consider whether dance and drama should be made national curriculum subjects in their own right.
Labour claims Arts Council England has lost, in real terms, £7.2m grant-in-aid since 2010, while Creative Scotland has lost £4.1m and Arts Council of Wales has lost £4.5m.
The cost of restoring that money would be met from the £670m raised by reversing cuts to capital gains tax introduced by the former chancellor George Osborne in the last budget, Corbyn’s team said.
The policies will be looked at with interest by arts leaders, although there is no mention of one of the most sought-after policy decisions: adding arts to the government’s focus on science, technology, engineering and maths – thus making Stem become Steam.
Corbyn’s strategy differs from that announced by Ed Miliband in February 2015, when he said he could not make any promises about reversing spending cuts. He did, though, pledge to give every child a universal entitlement to a creative education.
|
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/aug/25/jeremy-corbyn-arts-pupil-premium-primary-schools-reverse-spending-cuts
|
en
| 2016-08-26T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/f637069ee33b81d7e9e2e1b60a0e4567b17a6020ab8333603d95afa2ed8b93ca.json
|
|
[
"Press Association"
] | 2016-08-26T14:51:35 | null | 2016-08-26T14:19:11 |
England’s director of cricket Andrew Strauss insists no player will be pressurised into touring Bangladesh later this year
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fsport%2F2016%2Faug%2F26%2Fengland-cricketers-not-be-pushed-tour-bangladesh-andrew-strauss.json
|
en
| null |
England cricketers will not be pushed to tour Bangladesh says Andrew Strauss
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
England’s director of cricket Andrew Strauss insists no player will be pressurised into touring Bangladesh later this year.
The England and Wales Cricket Board confirmed on Thursday night that the trip to Bangladesh in October, consisting of three one-day internationals and two Tests, will go ahead despite recent terror attacks in the country.
England’s winter tour to Bangladeshgets security clearance to go ahead Read more
The ECB security expert Reg Dickason, the director of cricket operations John Carr and David Leatherdale, representing the Professional Cricketers’ Association, recently made a fact-finding visit to Bangladesh and reported back.
The details were discussed at a meeting on Thursday night and the former England captain Strauss has left the decision on whether to tour in the players’ own hands.
“Last night we met with the players and tried as much as possible to explain to them the security situation and why we feel it is safe to go,” Strauss said. “Right now there is an opportunity for them to take time to digest it and speak to anyone they need to speak to to ask any further questions, and then we will have one-on-one conversations with them over the coming days and weeks.
“I am very confident in the security situation and very confident of the security plan, so I am very hopeful we will take a full squad out to Bangladesh.
“I am hopeful. I don’t think we need to rush ahead with this. It would be wrong for me to make any assumptions on any individuals’ decisions on this. Our job is to share with them the information and make them feel comfortable with the fact that it is safe to go out to Bangladesh.
“It is wrong for us to pressurise any individual. It is a strong statement if all the players come out together and say: ‘we are going to go on that tour’. For them all to do that, our job is to assure them that it is a safe place for them to go and tour.”
Strauss does not believe the uncertainty will affect the England team during the ongoing one-day international series against Pakistan. “The players have dealt with this unbelievably well, they haven’t allowed that to affect their cricket,” the former opening batsman added. “The real challenge starts now because it comes to the forefront of the mind a little bit more.
“It is one of those things as an international cricketer you always have to deal with, distractions of one type or the other. This is another one they are going to have to put to one side when playing, focusing on watching the ball, bowling well and taking catches. Then when they have time off they can reconsider their thoughts and clarify their thoughts on the matter.”
|
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/aug/26/england-cricketers-not-be-pushed-tour-bangladesh-andrew-strauss
|
en
| 2016-08-26T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/42be5362a8c1dd3e498b926e06591ead85cec049212cf4a27795a8ae92b45864.json
|
|
[
"Staff"
] | 2016-08-27T08:49:15 | null | 2016-08-27T07:28:43 |
Footage shows five boys holding pistols behind row of men who are apparently Kurdish fighters
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fworld%2F2016%2Faug%2F27%2Fisis-video-appears-to-show-children-including-briton-killing-captives.json
|
en
| null |
Isis video appears to show children, including Briton, killing captives
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
Islamic State has released a propaganda video that appears to show five children, one of whom it identifies as British, murdering Kurdish prisoners.
The footage, released overnight on Friday, features five boys wearing military-type clothing and holding pistols, while standing in a row behind five men who are kneeling in orange jumpsuits.
Each of the children is captioned in the video with names that have been used by Isis before to denote a fighter’s country of origin. A white boy with blue eyes is labelled “Abu Abdullah al-Britani” (the Briton) but the identity of the child has not been verified.
A child captioned “Abu al-Bara al-Tunisi” (the Tunisian) addresses the men – apparently Kurdish fighters – promising more violence, according to the BBC.
The other children are said to be Abu Ishaq al-Masri (the Egyptian), Abu Fu’ad al-Kurdi (the Kurd) and Yusuf al-Uzbaki (the Uzbek). It is not known where the video was filmed.
In February, Isis released a video purportedly showing a young British boy, thought to be four-year-old Isa Dare, blowing up a car and killing three prisoners inside. He is the the son of the Muslim extremist Grace “Khadija” Dare, from Lewisham, south-east London, who travelled to Syria in 2012.
|
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/27/isis-video-appears-to-show-children-including-briton-killing-captives
|
en
| 2016-08-27T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/b64c408a5b60e8032532302cd03a98907ec35a779c81b4b47fa00e140940b1e1.json
|
|
[
"Anna Tims"
] | 2016-08-26T13:24:03 | null | 2016-08-24T05:59:12 |
Money for a bill was taken from my bank account, but EDF didn’t receive it. Not my fault, but the PO made me jump through hoops
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fmoney%2F2016%2Faug%2F24%2Fpost-office-mistake-wont-refund.json
|
en
| null |
The Post Office made a mistake, but won’t give me a refund
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
I received an EDF electricity bill in April and paid through my local post office, the payee being Post Office. A couple of weeks later I heard from EDF that the bill had not been paid. I contacted my bank, which provided proof that the money had been withdrawn. The problem could only lie with the Post Office. A manager at the Oxford branch told me that my payment was not properly processed as the bill was not scanned.
Despite this, the Post Office has made me jump through hoops, providing information to them and instructing me to send documents to EDF, incurring expense and time for which I have asked for modest compensation of £15. I have received neither this nor the bill payment of £125.
Surely because the PO is the payee and a mistake was made by them, they should refund me and sort the matter out with EDF themselves? RJ, Oxford
Indeed they should. And are they contrite? Not a bit of it. They put the blame squarely on you, claiming you were unwilling to provide the information they requested to be investigated. In fact, you say, you photocopied the needful documents at the very branch where your payment went missing and was told to send them direct to EDF yourself due to “data protection”.
Despite insisting that it could not assist you because you would not cooperate, the PO has decided that it will grant you that £15 as a “gesture of goodwill”. The payment to EDF has now been settled – as it happens, shortly after the Observer got in touch.
If you need help email Anna Tims at your.problems@observer.co.uk or write to Your Problems, The Observer, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Include an address and phone number.
|
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/aug/24/post-office-mistake-wont-refund
|
en
| 2016-08-24T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/3cf55ec9b695f1ec5f87657ce2e392d5d5395ff56bd280dba5a162617047c57e.json
|
|
[
"Photograph",
"All Photographs Josué Rivas For The Guardian",
"Josué Rivas In Cannon Ball",
"North Dakota"
] | 2016-08-26T13:17:24 | null | 2016-08-25T14:37:16 |
Native Americans and protesters await a ruling on an injunction to stop work on the $3.7bn pipeline they say threatens their water and protected land
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fus-news%2Fgallery%2F2016%2Faug%2F25%2Fnorth-dakota-pipeline-protest-pictures.json
|
en
| null |
Faces of the North Dakota pipeline protest: 'Sacred land is who we are'
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
Standing Fox, 31, San Carlos, Arizona: ‘Sacred land is who we are and is also a reference to our ways. When land is destroyed we lose that connection. So when any land is threatened it is important to protect it.’
Photograph: All photographs by Josué Rivas for the Guardian
|
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/gallery/2016/aug/25/north-dakota-pipeline-protest-pictures
|
en
| 2016-08-25T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/edc2f11d8b4ca3c0abdaece25a8ffbcf7b72aecfd3bceeb572a3ce6100c35161.json
|
|
[
"Staff"
] | 2016-08-31T10:50:26 | null | 2016-08-31T09:57:07 |
Channel 4 looking at bringing back game show as part of fundraising event – but it will not be hosted by David Tennant, as reports have claimed
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fmedia%2F2016%2Faug%2F31%2Fthe-crystal-maze-tv-channel-4-david-tennant.json
|
en
| null |
The Crystal Maze set to return to TV after 21 years
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
The Crystal Maze is set to return to our screens for a one-off special, 21 years after it was axed.
Channel 4 is looking to bring back the classic game show as part of the Stand Up To Cancer fundraising event in October.
Reports have suggested former Doctor Who star David Tennant will host the show, but it is understood that this is not the case.
Rav Wilding sues makers of Splash! after diving injury 'changed my life' Read more
The problem-solving show – which saw contestants taking part in a series of challenges in order to win “time crystals” – ran from 1990 to 1995.
It drew up to 6 million viewers at the height of its success.
The programme was originally presented by Richard O’Brien, with Ed Tudor-Pole taking over for the final two series.
A spokesman for Channel 4 said: “Channel 4 is looking at a special Crystal Maze for Stand Up To Cancer.”
|
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/aug/31/the-crystal-maze-tv-channel-4-david-tennant
|
en
| 2016-08-31T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/aa7021ac74be7c3f5aa933da3304ff2d223a5100d62dcc7da8522d15c08140cf.json
|
|
[
"Phillip Inman"
] | 2016-08-26T13:24:54 | null | 2016-08-20T14:59:07 |
With the future of Hinkley Point in doubt and the government committed to assist British business, now is the time to get behind wind power
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fenvironment%2F2016%2Faug%2F20%2Frenewables-serious-industrial-strategy-wind-power.json
|
en
| null |
If we’re serious about industrial strategy, renewables is a good place to start
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
Cancelling the planned new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point will be a huge victory for the offshore wind industry. The word from inside No 10 is not clear yet, but there are so many Tories, including the prime minister, unsettled by the prospect of the Chinese building a plant in Britain to an untested French design that the prospects of it going ahead appear slim.
As if to emphasise the continuing success of Britain’s elegant turbines in the sea, the government cleared the way for a new array off the Yorkshire coast earlier this week.
The multibillion-pound Hornsea Project Two would see 300 turbines – each taller than the Gherkin – span more than 480 sq km of the North Sea.
This comes after Dong Energy, the biggest operator of offshore windfarms in Britain, said it was planning to spend a further £6bn in the UK by 2020, convinced that the government is serious about supporting wind power.
Offshore wind has proved expensive, but is working hard to get its price per megawatt hour below Hinkley’s £92.50. Some schemes claim to generate electricity at £85.
The question now, Hinkley or no Hinkley, must be whether May can overcome the neoliberal free-market tendencies of some cabinet colleagues and push through an industrial strategy worth the name – one that embraces renewable energy and extracts business and employment for the UK from the dominant overseas firms that currently make the majority of the renewables kit.
It is not so long ago that the Guardian revealed the scandalous lack of UK involvement in the London Array wind farm off the north Kent coast. Norwegian, German and Gulf companies dominated.
Some will say it’s too late to challenge the big players like Denmark’s Dong or Siemens, which has brought at least some manufacturing to the UK with a £310m hub in Hull that employs 1,000 people.
But that misses the point. There are plenty of roles left in suppliers and service businesses that will ramp up investment if the commitment from the government to the industry is solid.
As Dustin Benton of the Green Alliance says, Britain is in a good position to build a sophisticated renewables industry that supports the generation of green energy and does the clever stuff to connect up all the various parts of the network.
The green lobby group has argued that the UK could replace Hinkley by encouraging initiatives to reduce consumption – not in terms of switching off heating and lighting, but rewarding users on the basis of the electricity consumption they avoid. “Our report on reducing electricity demand … shows how the UK could get two Hinkleys’ worth of demand reduction by 2030 and certainly a Hinkley’s worth by 2025,” he says.
May has much to overcome. The previous administration’s withdrawal of financial support for the solar industry after a few years of lauding it as the next big thing has made many people in the renewables sector wary. Admittedly, the state cash on offer for building solar farms was extraordinarily generous and needed to be cut, but the sudden and deep reductions wiped out much of the industry, forcing many firms to wind themselves up.
It means that outside the offshore wind sector, where government support appears to be strong, firms will remain cautious.
As an answer to the problem, there’s no need to adopt a North Korean approach, pumping state cash into key sectors and picking winners. An industrial strategy just needs to be more coherent, offer subsidies to achieve longer-term goals and stick with the plan while modifying it along the way.
|
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/20/renewables-serious-industrial-strategy-wind-power
|
en
| 2016-08-20T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/d2ff5e0205cc07c730075426a401cef211359173ce8746a83aad474dd907b069.json
|
|
[
"Associated Press In Lexington"
] | 2016-08-27T14:51:18 | null | 2016-08-27T12:54:00 |
Margaret Held and Paula Merrill were found dead in their home;Rodney Earl Sanders, 46, was a person of interest early in the investigation
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fus-news%2F2016%2Faug%2F27%2Fmississippi-nuns-killings-suspect-charged-with-murder.json
|
en
| null |
Mississippi nun killings: suspect charged with capital murder
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
A man suspected in the killing of two Mississippi nuns who were found dead inside a residence within the community they served has been arrested and charged with two counts of capital murder, Mississippi authorities said.
Rodney Earl Sanders, 46, of Kosciusko, Mississippi, was charged in the deaths of Sister Margaret Held and Sister Paula Merrill, both 68, Mississippi department of public safety spokesman Warren Strain said in a statement released late on Friday night.
The bodies of both women were discovered on Thursday after they failed to show up for work at a clinic in Lexington, Mississippi, about 10 miles from where they lived.
“Sanders was developed as a person of interest early on in the investigation,” Lt Col Jimmy Jordan said in the statement.
Authorities said Sanders was being held in an undisclosed detention center, pending a court appearance.
The nuns were nurse practitioners who dedicated their lives to providing healthcare to people in the poorest county in the state. As authorities sought the killer, many residents wondered how they will fill the hole the women’s deaths have left.
“Right now, I don’t see no forgiveness on my heart,” said Joe Morgan Jr, a 58-year-old former factory worker who has diabetes and was a patient of Merrill’s at the clinic where the two nuns worked. He said Merrill would want him to forgive whoever killed the women.
“She doesn’t deserve to die like this, doing God’s work,” Morgan said, shaking his head. “There’s something wrong with the world.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Sister Paula Merrill moved to Mississippi in 1981. Photograph: AP
Both women worked at the clinic, where they gave flu shots, dispensed insulin and provided other medical care for children and adults who couldn’t afford it. Their stolen car was found abandoned a mile from their home, and there were signs of a break-in, but police haven’t disclosed a motive.
Authorities have not said how the women were killed, but the Rev Greg Plata of St Thomas Catholic Church in Lexington, where the nuns had led Bible study for years, said police told him they were stabbed. The state posted a reward of $20,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction.
Plata said both nuns’ religious communities have asked that people pray for the killer or killers. Asked about people’s struggles to forgive, the priest said: “Forgiveness is at the heart of being a Christian. Look at Jesus on the cross: ‘Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.’”
On Friday, a handwritten sign on the front door of Lexington Medical Clinic said it was closed until Monday. The clinic and the nuns’ home in Durant are in Holmes County, population 18,000. With 44% of its residents living in poverty, Holmes is the seventh-poorest county in America, according to the US Census Bureau.
The killings did more than shock people and plunge the county into mourning. They leave a gaping hole in what was already a strapped healthcare system. Dr Elias Abboud, who worked with the sisters for years and helped build the clinic, said it provided about 25% of all medical care in the county. The two nuns cultivated relationships with drug company representatives, who often left extra free samples, according to clinic manager Lisa Dew.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Sister Margaret Held worked as a nurse practitioner with Merrill. Photograph: Michael O'Loughlin/AP
“This is a poor area, and they dignified those who are poor with outreach and respect for them,” Plata said. “They treated each person as a child of God.”
Merrill’s sister Rosemarie, speaking by telephone from her Stoneham, Massachusetts, home, said her sister had been in Mississippi helping the poor since 1981 and had previously worked in Holly Springs, where she used to ride around on a moped and was instrumental in locating the source of a tuberculosis outbreak.
Merrill was raised in the suburbs of Boston and came from a working-class family, her father a laborer and her mother a bookkeeper, her nephew David said. He said his aunt had worked with Held for many years.
“We always considered Margaret just part of the family,” he said. “The word ‘sister’ has many meanings, and they fulfilled all of them.”
Rosemarie Merrill said she doesn’t know what will happen to the clinic now and worries about the effect on healthcare in Holmes County. She said her sister and Held would often go into the clinic on Sundays after mass or on their days off.
“It’s just going to be a disaster,” she said.
Genette Pierce, who works at a home health and hospice business a few doors down from the clinic, said: “Their patients – all of them – they’re going to be lost without them right now.”
|
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/aug/27/mississippi-nuns-killings-suspect-charged-with-murder
|
en
| 2016-08-27T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/017bd8b71f3ed8e4595abc129060cff6b242c9e8e71602dfb3c9827c6d9ba61b.json
|
|
[
"Nicola Davis"
] | 2016-08-29T18:59:17 | null | 2016-08-18T13:31:42 |
New research on famous 5,300-year-old frozen remains of Alpine man reveals Ötzi as someone who made use of sheep, goats, cattle and hides from a brown bear
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fscience%2F2016%2Faug%2F18%2Fit-becometh-the-iceman-otzi-clothing-study-reveals-stylish-secrets-of-leather-loving-ancient.json
|
en
| null |
It becometh the iceman: clothing study reveals stylish secrets of leather-loving ancient
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
Ötzi the Iceman, a naturally mummified corpse found trapped in the ice of the Italian Alps, has become something of a celebrity in the 25 years since tourists first stumbled upon his frozen remains – so it’s no surprise that his sense of style has come under scrutiny.
Scientists studying the 5,300 year-old remains say they have finally unravelled the secrets of Ötzi’s wardrobe.
The new research reveals that the iceman was potentially a versatile tailor, with skins from sheep, goats and cattle as well as hides from a brown bear and roe deer used to create his outfit.
Ron Pinhasi, co-author of the research from University College, Dublin said the findings show that Ötzi was “pretty picky” when it came to his choice of skins. “To me it seems pretty sophisticated in terms of the capacities to use so many different materials from different animals,” he said.
Aged around 45 years, Ötzi is believed to have bled to death after being hit in the shoulder by an arrow. But it’s not only his grisly demise that has been a subject of scrutiny. Scientists have inspected almost every aspect of the iceman’s remains, revealing everything from his medical history (it turns out Ötzi had Lyme disease) to his penchant for a scrap – with a deep cut on his hand suggesting he was involved in a brawl shortly before his death.
Ötzi the Iceman's 5,000-year-old stomach bug sheds light on human migration Read more
But while it was previously known that the iceman had used various types of leather to create his wardrobe – an array of clothing including a loin cloth, cap and coat, the Copper Age leather manufacturing processes, and the impact of time itself, made it difficult to tease apart exactly which species of animals were used.
Writing in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers from Ireland and Italy describe how they analysed a type of genetic material, known as mitochondrial DNA, that was extracted from nine fragments from six of his garments, including his loin cloth and fur cap.
“The main question of study was to see what species these leathers were from and then the secondary question was are these species domestic varieties or not,” said Niall O’Sullivan, first author of the research from the Institute for Mummies and the Iceman in Bolzano, Italy.
The results reveal that the Iceman used at least five different species to create his clothes. His loin cloth, the scientists found, was made of sheepskin, his shoelaces of cow-leather, his leggings from goat hide, and his coat made from a mixture of both sheep and goat hide, taken from at least four different animals, that had been joined together. What’s more, analysis of the mitochondrial DNA revealed that the sheep, goats and cattle from which the leather was made were domesticated animals.
But Ötzi’s hat and quiver, it turns out, were fashioned from rather more exotic materials – the cap was made from the hide from a brown bear while the quiver fashioned from the skin of a roe deer.
That, says O’Sullivan, shows that while Ötzi was likely to be from an agricultural or herding community, he was an enterprising chap. “It is possible that he might have used his hunting ability to capture and kill a bear, or it [could be] that he came across a dying bear and opportunistically took the skin and used it as leather,” says O’Sullivan. “It shows us that he was opportunistic and resourceful and used to the best of his ability the scarce resources which were available to him in a very harsh environment.”
The iceman, it seems, was also adept at a bit of make do and mend. “The Copper Age neolithic style of making leather was very primitive, clothing would have decomposed and degraded quite quickly under normal circumstances,” says O’Sullivan. “So he had to rapidly change his clothes and he was probably constantly renewing the clothes and augmenting it so that bits didn’t fall apart.”
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https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/aug/18/it-becometh-the-iceman-otzi-clothing-study-reveals-stylish-secrets-of-leather-loving-ancient
|
en
| 2016-08-18T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/a06243f746fa9c124e77b5a9271d16f1d4b3e527ce969559f602c7c101631ef8.json
|
|
[
"Peter Walker",
"Andrew Rawnsley"
] | 2016-08-30T12:50:26 | null | 2016-08-30T12:28:30 |
Labour leader launches digital democracy manifesto with pledge to act against harassment, including by his supporters
|
http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fpolitics%2F2016%2Faug%2F30%2Fcorbyn-leadership-team-is-stopping-online-abuse-of-opponents.json
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Corbyn: leadership team is stopping online abuse of opponents
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
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Jeremy Corbyn has said his leadership campaign is working hard to prevent any supporters from targeting opponents via social media, declaring that online abuse must be dealt with.
Corbyn promises to 'democratise the internet' - Politics live Read more
Speaking at the launch of his digital democracy manifesto, which sets out policies including a push for nationwide access to fast broadband and mobile connectivity, the Labour leader was asked why this did not include any specific commitments to combat online abuse.
During the leadership campaign, Corbyn has faced calls to take more action against online insults and threats, especially those targeting female Labour MPs.
Corbyn’s team says abuse and harassment is covered in a part of the digital manifesto connected to a “people’s charter of digital liberties”, and the leader said he was committed to tackling it.
“It is appalling,” he said. “I have set up a code of conduct on this. The Labour party has a code of conduct on this, and it does have to be dealt with.
“Everyone should learn that when they put something on Facebook or Twitter or online in an email, that is exactly the same as if you’d put it in the print media in any other way, with exactly the same protective laws of libel or slander.
“Many people use instant access to Twitter more or less like they’re continuing a pub conversation, and deeply regret the abuse that they sent to people at that time. Unfortunately, it’s there for eternity, in some way or another, on the internet. And so there does have to be quite strict codes of conduct.
“There also has to be an educative process about how people do things. I absolutely will not allow any sort of it, whatsoever, anywhere around our campaign. We do chase it down and we do stop it. And we will continue to do that, because it’s simply wrong.”
More widely, Corbyn said he was worried about the use of social media among some young people to carry out mass bullying. “You wouldn’t gather around a young person and all shout abuse at them,” he said. “That would be seen to be crude, brutal, violent and rude. But they do it on Facebook and they do it on Twitter and they do it online.”
Speaking in east London, Corbyn unveiled a series of ideas to “democratise the internet”, including an online learning hub; publicly funded software and hardware to help teach programming; a voluntary “digital citizen passport” to create a secure portable identity; and more use of technology to debate and devise legislation.
Corbyn said the plans would “rebuild and transform Britain so that no one and no community is left behind”.
In parallel, the Labour leader said new technology could transform the party’s election chances, saying he would use innovations pioneered in his leadership campaign against Owen Smith, such as a digital phone canvassing app which allows volunteers to make calls from anywhere, whenever possible.
The phone bank app was devised by a group called Coders for Corbyn. They have released a “toolkit” for volunteers to spread the message, including a database of Corbyn-themed emojis, called “Jeremojis”, and a Twitter tool to automatically block fake accounts purporting to be those of Corbyn supporters.
Corbyn said some of his strategy was based on the campaign of Bernie Sanders. The Vermont senator built a similarly energised support base in challenging for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Corbyn said the fact Sanders eventually lost to Hillary Clinton did not mean valuable lessons could not be learned.
“The Bernie Sanders campaign was amazing in the number of people who attended rallies, the number of people who were mobilised, and the fact he was totally counterintuitive to the whole norm of US politics, which is to appeal to the base that votes and to appeal to the interests of those voters that actually take part,” he said.
“What the Bernie Sanders campaign did was to energise a whole lot of people – in a sense, the way that Barack Obama did in 2008 – by broadening the electoral base, and involving very large numbers of people, and he did that by a combination of digital technology and public rally appearances all over the country.
“No, he didn’t win the nomination, that we fully understand. But he’s changed the Democratic party a great deal. The presidential platform on which Hillary Clinton is fighting the election is radically different compared to what it would have been had she not faced the challenge of Bernie Sanders.”
Corbyn said he had enjoyed “long discussions with many people” in the Sanders campaign, saying it had transformed US politics. “It is a genie that cannot be put back in the bottle,” he said.
With leadership ballot papers due to be sent out in the next few days before voting, which closes on 21 September, both Corbyn and Smith have been touring the country and announcing policy initiatives.
Corbyn has made announcements on the arts, education and transport. Smith has given pledges on policies for young people, Brexit and the NHS. The victor – Corbyn remains the bookmakers’ favourite – will be announced at the annual party conference on 24 September.
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http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/aug/30/corbyn-leadership-team-is-stopping-online-abuse-of-opponents
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en
| 2016-08-30T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/c4efabc6d21d2946606ee20badc881da740cffd384d71d5c214067b602fb7962.json
|
|
[
"Guardian Sport"
] | 2016-08-26T13:21:33 | null | 2016-08-18T09:00:28 |
This week’s roundup also features big-hitting baseball, gymnastics over time, BMX trickery, a cycling close shave in Rio and snooker breaks fast and slow
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fsport%2F2016%2Faug%2F18%2Folympic-games-closing-ceremonies-ice-hockey-vinyl-classic-youtube.json
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| null |
Olympic Games closing ceremonies, ice hockey vinyl and boxers gone bad
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
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1) As Rio bids farewell with the closing ceremony on Sunday night, the country faces the difficult trick of pulling off the finale after the excitement of the Games. The absolute pinnacle was, of course, Los Angeles in 1984, when the city went the whole hog in a show of such preposterous, outlandish proportions it defies belief even today – exemplified by the entirely straight-faced arrival of a UFO descending into the stadium, who proceeded to congratulate humanity on its sporting prowess. Beijing in 2008 had an extraordinary display of light, colour and choreographed numbers; Sydney a host of Aussie pop stars in a song and dance spectacular including Midnight Oil and, of course, Kylie doing Dancing Queen; Moscow in 1980, a giant crying, then flying bear called Misha; Barcelona in 1992, a fire festival; but London 2012 was a very poor show in comparison - not least in indulging George Michael to play new songs at interminable length – it was especially a let down after the magnificent opener. The Spice Girls, however, turned up on top of taxis as this insider viewpoint from the driver of Posh shows: “If I tip her off in front of a million people it’s not going to look great.”
2) Young BMX rider, Tyler Fernengel, takes to the abandoned Silverdome stadium in Pontiac, Michigan and puts the once grand venue to good use again. Impressively, also features a superb opening voiceover from the stadium itself.
3) Fine editing and fine footage on show here in a timely fashion as gymnastics enjoys its brief time under the spotlight for the Olympics: a really well-assembled montage of the development of the uneven bars from the 1950s to the present day, set artfully to the music.
4) Dutch cyclist Laurine van Riessen escaped a huge accident by inches during the the women’s keirin at Rio when she quite literally rode the barrier; but perhaps what was even more remarkable is exactly how entirely cool this man in the blue shirt remained as he sat watching it happen right in front of him.
5) Bong! Big boot on ball between USA and Bahrain leads to boisterous brawl.
6) Japan’s Hiroki Ogita fails to complete his pole vault in Rio when a certain part of his anatomy appears to get in the way.
1) Brilliant stuff from the BFI. Who would have thought the coal industry had a monthly cinemagazine back in 1948 in the first place, let alone one featuring Dunfermline miner Tom Syme, an Olympic hopeful in training at his local rink before he played for Great Britain at that year’s Winter Olympics. The wonderfully-titled “Coal on Ice” also contains entertainingly gratuitous lady-skaters section in the middle – “who wouldn’t, in this company?”. And from sublime to ridiculous - a piece of classic eighties ice hockey nostalgia that has to be heard to be believed – a paean to goaltender “King” Richard Brodeur, who had his own tribute song for the Vancouver Canucks before the 1982 Stanley Cup. It didn’t work out – they lost to the New York Islanders, for whom Brodeur had previously played, and have still yet to win the cup. The A-side was a version of Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye.
2) Giant basketball freestyle rope swing. Of course it is.
3) When boxers go bad: some very late punching in this collection of illegal knockouts.
4) Huge hitting here from Giancarlo Stanton of the Miami Marlins – a 504-foot home run. He has form in this department, going 510 feet in the 2014 Gillette Home Run Derby and here with ten further monsters. It has not all been plain sailing however, as this painful biff to the face proves.
5) Lovely spot of split-screen snooker that puts a Ronnie O’Sullivan 147 break up against Peter Ebdon doing the same. Who do you think finishes first?
6) Some magnificent silky skills on show, unfortunately set to the obligatory EDM soundtrack. Will someone, just for once, do similar but to a spot of Prolapse?
Spotters’ badges: Vesuvial, BlackCaeser, GrahamClayton, whobroughtoranges.
Guardian YouTube football channel
Do subscribe, if you fancy
Guardian YouTube sport channel
Do subscribe, if you fancy
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https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/aug/18/olympic-games-closing-ceremonies-ice-hockey-vinyl-classic-youtube
|
en
| 2016-08-18T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/871a4c7297614f41d60dabdf13f8fe2ea4e4ad3264f8ef803b6d2e7e2dc1d7db.json
|
|
[
"Heather Stewart"
] | 2016-08-27T12:50:59 | null | 2016-08-09T14:13:20 |
Former party leader is emailing members asking them to back Jeremy Corbyn’s challenger in upcoming vote
|
http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fpolitics%2F2016%2Faug%2F09%2Fed-miliband-endorses-owen-smith-for-labour-leader.json
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en
| null |
Ed Miliband urges Labour members to vote for Owen Smith
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
Former Labour leader Ed Miliband is emailing all party members, urging them to back Owen Smith against Jeremy Corbyn in the leadership election.
Miliband, the MP for Doncaster North, was among senior party figures calling for Corbyn to step down as leader after he lost the confidence of the majority of his MPs, and nominated Smith as leader.
In a video, he delivers a personal endorsement of Smith as the right person to lead Labour in the wake of June’s Brexit vote. He says the new prime minister, Theresa May, has adopted the “language of the left” but could take Britain to the right.
Corbyn is widely thought to be ahead in the race, and his backers swept the board in elections to the party’s governing national executive committee, strengthening his control over Labour machinery.
Ballot papers are due to be sent out in the coming days – though the timing of the contest has been thrown into doubt by Monday’s high court ruling that 130,000 new members must be given a vote, which the NEC now plans to appeal.
Miliband stepped aside after he led Labour to defeat at last year’s general election. The changes he made to the system for electing Labour leaders – throwing the ballot open to party members and weakening the power of MPs and trades unions – helped Corbyn sweep to victory in last year’s leadership race.
Miliband said Labour needed a leader who could “unite our party and make us a serious alternative government” and praised “the vision of a more equal society shining through” in Smith’s campaign.
Corbyn and Smith will face each other in a second public hustings on Thursday night in Gateshead, against the background of an increasingly bitter battle for the future of Labour which saw Corbyn’s team hit back on Tuesday against claims by deputy leader Tom Watson that “Trotskyist entryists” were seeking to gain control of the party.
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http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/aug/09/ed-miliband-endorses-owen-smith-for-labour-leader
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en
| 2016-08-09T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/de1d79eee27f2a3dcc1225bfdcf749a7ee67c4381964a3e4fabf854c7045323f.json
|
|
[
"Julia Kollewe"
] | 2016-08-31T12:50:27 | null | 2016-08-31T12:20:37 |
Watchdog imposes penalty following settled lawsuit over accountancy firm’s auditing of Yorkshire lender
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fbusiness%2F2016%2Faug%2F31%2Fpwc-fined-over-auditing-of-subprime-lender-cattles.json
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| null |
PwC fined £2.3m over auditing of subprime lender Cattles
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
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PricewaterhouseCoopers has been fined £2.3m by the accountancy watchdog over its auditing of the subprime lender Cattles and its biggest division, Welcome Financial Services, in 2007.
The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) also issued the accountancy firm with a severe reprimand. The fine was reduced from £3.5m after mitigation and a settlement discount. In addition, PwC has to pay £750,000 towards the FRC’s costs.
The FRC said the £3.5m original fine would have been the largest ever. In early 2015, Deloitte was fined £3m over its dealings with the collapsed carmaker MG Rover after that was reduced from a £14m penalty following an appeal.
Simon Bradburn, PwC’s then audit engagement partner, was fined £75,600, reduced from £120,000 as part of the settlement, and also received a severe reprimand.
The penalties come nearly a year after Cattles settled a lawsuit with PwC that alleged the accountants acted negligently in its auditing of the Yorkshire firm during the financial crisis. Cattles, which almost went bankrupt over accounting irregularities, claimed that the loan book of Welcome was much weaker than stated in PwC’s audit. The lawsuit was brought on behalf of creditors to Cattles, which lent to people with poor credit histories and entered into a financial restructuring scheme in 2011.
The FRC said that PwC and Bradburn had admitted their “conduct fell significantly short of the standards reasonably to be expected of a member firm and a member” in respect of the 2007 financial statements.
The watchdog said: “PwC had insufficient audit evidence as to the adequacy of the loan loss provision and had failed to identify the fact that the impairment policy was not adequately disclosed and that the disclosures in those financial statements were not in compliance” with accountancy rules.
Gareth Rees QC, executive counsel to the FRC, said: “The substantial fines imposed in this case reflect the seriousness of the audit failings in relation to the critical area of impairment provisioning in a subprime lender and will send a strong signal to the audit community of the importance of upholding high standards of professional conduct in audit work.”
He welcomed PwC’s and Bradburn’s “constructive approach, which has enabled us to reach this settlement. The admissions of misconduct have resulted in a significant saving in time and costs and the fines ultimately imposed have been reduced accordingly.”
PwC said: “While the FRC has acknowledged that we had been deliberately misled by third parties, we recognise that certain aspects of this 2007 audit fell short of expected standards. Audit quality is of paramount importance to PwC and the FRC’s annual audit quality assessments have shown a trend of improvement in our work over several years.”
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https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/aug/31/pwc-fined-over-auditing-of-subprime-lender-cattles
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en
| 2016-08-31T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/cbeaf798260be15b444e082818dddb2646e70eee033a6e1da5d30c589b7a94ae.json
|
|
[
"James Walsh",
"Guardian Readers",
"Photograph",
"Cosmologychris Guardianwitness",
"Peter Allison Guardianwitness",
"James Woodend Guardianwitness",
"Sam Wilson Guardianwitness",
"Tobaillche Guardianwitness",
"Elixian Guardianwitness",
"Samgasp Guardianwitness"
] | 2016-08-26T13:27:56 | null | 2016-07-29T10:17:17 |
Our stargazing readers share their best photographs from the past year, from spectacular nebulae to close-ups of the moon
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fscience%2Fgallery%2F2016%2Fjul%2F29%2Fnebulae-planets-and-the-auora-your-best-astronomy-photographs-of-the-year.json
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| null |
Nebulae, planets and the aurora: your best astronomy photographs of the year
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
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‘I climbed Beinn Alligin on March 16th as there was a clear sky forecast and a decent chance of an aurora. I wasn’t disappointed and the aurora was visible from around 8pm until just before sunrise. I wandered around the summits for hours taking photos and just watching the lights dance around.’
Photograph: ID1831471/GuardianWitness
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https://www.theguardian.com/science/gallery/2016/jul/29/nebulae-planets-and-the-auora-your-best-astronomy-photographs-of-the-year
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en
| 2016-07-29T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/89ba89b868c1426a66169d36612b55f94da3f733c7260897ffb11c6a16cbdcec.json
|
|
[] | 2016-08-26T13:29:48 | null | 2016-07-29T06:00:29 |
It’s time for a change and, having found it rewarding to help a colleague improve their English, teaching seems attractive
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fmoney%2Fwork-blog%2F2016%2Fjul%2F29%2Fid-like-to-become-an-adult-literacy-teacher-how-do-i-qualify.json
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en
| null |
I'd like to become an adult literacy teacher. How do I qualify?
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
Twice a week we publish problems that will feature in a forthcoming Dear Jeremy advice column in the Saturday Guardian so that readers can offer their own advice and suggestions. We then print the best of your comments alongside Jeremy’s own insights. Here is the latest dilemma – what are your thoughts?
I’ve been a freelance filmmaker working in TV and education, in both the public and voluntary sectors.
Technical change is non-stop and, as I near 60, I feel my age is beginning to count against me. But I have writing and editorial, as well as technical, skills, and have always enjoyed “explain-y” projects as much as the simply creative ones.
Back in the 19’90s, I helped one of my sound assistants with his literacy (it had been constrained by his chaotic childhood in care). From zero school qualifications, he went on to get a history degree.
It was hard to find materials to work with, but it was such a straightforward and purposeful thing to do and so rewarding that I’m wondering how to do it again. There must be a way to train and then teach literacy to adults – but the obvious searches haven’t got me very far.
I’m not expecting to earn much, I never have; but the mortgage is paid, and we’ve got no children.
|
https://www.theguardian.com/money/work-blog/2016/jul/29/id-like-to-become-an-adult-literacy-teacher-how-do-i-qualify
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en
| 2016-07-29T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/97dcb25068ccc9ab55272a83824922253e6e06f0be651c5b201c1ecf255c6b5a.json
|
|
[
"Alan Rusbridger",
"Emma Howard",
"James Randerson",
"Amanda Michel",
"Troy Griggs",
"Daan Louter"
] | 2016-08-26T13:31:03 | null | 2015-04-08T00:00:00 |
Join us in urging the world’s two biggest charitable funds to move their money out of fossil fuels
|
http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fenvironment%2Fng-interactive%2F2015%2Fmar%2F16%2Fkeep-it-in-the-ground-guardian-climate-change-campaign.json
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en
| null |
Join the Guardian's climate change campaign
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
|
Keep it in the ground
Join us in urging the world’s two biggest charitable funds to move their money out of fossil fuels
To Bill and Melinda Gates, founders of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Jeremy Farrar and Sir William Castell, director and chair of the Wellcome Trust:
Your organisations have made a huge contribution to human progress and equality by supporting scientific research and development projects. Yet your investments in fossil fuels are putting this progress at great risk, by undermining your long term ambitions.
Climate change poses a real threat to all of us, and it is morally and financially misguided to invest in companies dedicated to finding and burning more oil, gas and coal. Many philanthropic organisations are divesting their endowments from fossil fuels. We ask you to do the same: to commit now to divesting from the top 200 fossil fuel companies within five years and to immediately freeze any new investments in those companies.
The argument for a campaign to divest from the world’s most polluting companies is becoming an overwhelming one, on both moral and financial grounds. As Archbishop Desmond Tutu puts it: “People of conscience need to break their ties with corporations financing the injustice of climate change”.
Note from Alan Rusbridger, editor-in-chief
Divestment serves to delegitimise the business models of companies that are using investors’ money to search for yet more coal, oil and gas that can’t safely be burned. It is a small but crucial step in the economic transition away from a global economy run on fossil fuels.
The usual rule of newspaper campaigns is that you don’t start one unless you know you’re going to win it. This one will almost certainly be won in time: the physics is unarguable. But we are launching our campaign today in the firm belief that it will force the issue now into the boardrooms and inboxes of people who have billions of dollars at their disposal.
What they say
We’re not going to be able to burn it all”
Barack Obama
Frequently asked questions
What is fossil fuel divestment?
Divestment is the opposite of investment – it is the removal of your investment capital from stocks, bonds or funds. The global movement for fossil fuel divestment (sometimes also called disinvestment) is asking institutions to move their money out of oil, coal and gas companies for both moral and financial reasons. These institutions include universities, religious institutions, pension funds, local authorities and charitable foundations.
Evidence shows that proven fossil fuel reserves are more than three times higher than we can afford to burn in order to stay below the generally agreed threshold for dangerous climate change. Fossil fuel companies are currently banking on extracting these reserves and selling them – and are actively prospecting for more. By supporting these companies, investors not only continue to fund unsustainable business models that are bound to make climate change worse, but they also risk their financial assets becoming worthless if international agreements on climate change are met.
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http://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2015/mar/16/keep-it-in-the-ground-guardian-climate-change-campaign
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en
| 2015-04-08T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/f96fb322625b02edc0e85b7e9e1e7144d091b570255ca72f151e174e64cbaadb.json
|
|
[
"Greg Jericho"
] | 2016-08-29T00:55:04 | null | 2016-08-29T00:45:23 |
There is a new divide of treasurers – those who simplistically view the world through ill-thought out binary oppositions, and those who don’t
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fbusiness%2Fgrogonomics%2F2016%2Faug%2F29%2Fscott-morrisons-car-crash-logic-and-the-real-story-behind-the-taxed-nots.json
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Scott Morrison's car-crash logic and the real story behind the 'taxed-nots'
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
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Last week, in the lead up to the new parliament, the treasurer Scott Morrison sought to outline his economic vision. Unfortunately, rather than provide any clear ideas of where he sees the nation’s economy heading, the speech was a mishmash of internal inconsistencies, statistical misreadings, and statements which made less sense the more you paid attention to them.
The big take away from the speech was Morrison’s desire to ape Joe Hockey’s outlook of the world as being divided into two types. Where Joe Hockey talked of “lifters and leaners” Scott Morrison has decided that “there is a new divide – the taxed and the taxed nots”.
Sigh.
I guess then we can also say that there is a new divide in treasurers – those who simplistically view the world through ill-thought out binary oppositions, and those who don’t.
A piece of string, a banana, and a cassowary walk into Scott Morrison's bar | First Dog on the Moon Read more
Morrison’s shtick about net-taxpayers comes from the finding by the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling (Natsem) that 53% of households in Australia are net tax-payers – down from 56% in 2005.
Now suggesting that this means “more Australians are ... likely today to be net beneficiaries of the government than contributors” as Morrison did is dopey enough, but the treasurer went further. He argued it meant “on current settings, more Australians today are likely to go through their entire lives without ever paying tax than for generations.”
The problem is the Natsem modelling is a snapshot. It doesn’t look at people’s paying of tax throughout their lifetime.
Morrison’s use of the snapshot to suggests things about people’s lifetimes, would be like looking at the current unemployment rate of 5.7% and saying the rate means you have a 5.7% chance of being unemployed at some point in your life.
Thus the treasurer arguing that “more Australians” are “never paying more tax than they receive in government payments” is a gross exaggeration.
Never? Really, treasurer?
The Natsem data shows the major reason for the decline in the number of net-taxpayers is the ageing population. While 53% of all Australians are net-tax payers, when you exclude those over 65 years of age the amount rises to 67%:
Of course the overall rate of net-taxpayers is falling – since the start of the century the percentage of Australian population aged over 65 has gone from 12.4% to 15%.
I look forward to Morrison suggesting we need to do something about those taxed-not pensioners.
But no.
Morrison didn’t even use his assertions to make a strong case for his changes to the taxation of superannuation – clearly one areas where the “taxed-not” could be taxed more.
All he did was meekly refer to “improving the flexibility of superannuation” – a phrase so feeble that the only thing it lacks more than meaning is any conviction by Morrison towards his own policy.
Rather his target is “reigning in the growth in welfare spending”.
Let us not forget that the most recent data from the department of social security shows that number of those on welfare has declined over the past 15 years:
And the one longitudinal study (that is, looking at how things change over the course of their lifetimes) in Australia, the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (Hilda) Survey by the Melbourne Institute, also fails to support the treasurer’s line of attack.
The latest survey report for the 2013-14 financial year found that 32% of individuals aged 18–64 were living in a household that received income support at some stage in that year – well down on the 38% of individuals in 2001.
The rest of Morrison’s speech was not much better for logical strength.
He spoke of some good sense about the fragilities of the Chinese economy – though when Morrison says “in China, events may prove far less predictable” one wonders how that stacks up against the prediction he made in parliament last year of the “prosperity and jobs that [the China-Australia free-trade] agreement will deliver”.
But elsewhere he struggled to stay consistent.
For example, he argues on the one hand that we must “get debt under control by returning the budget to balance through disciplined expenditure restraint”, but he later notes that “we have kept expenditure under control” and yet also that “expenditure as a share of the economy remains stubbornly high.”
So we must restrain our spending which is under control and is stubbornly high?
He also suffers from having foolishly said last year in his first press conference that “we have a spending problem, not a revenue problem”.
Now he notes that forecasts for nominal GDP growth in the past two years were reduced from 5.25% to 2.5% due to “the reduction in the terms of trade, commodity prices, in wages and in profits”.
That reduction flows through to lower revenue via company and personal income tax. But Morrison cannot bring himself to admit error; thus he terms this not as a “revenue problem” but an “earnings problem”.
It’s a bit like saying you never called someone short, just that they lacked height.
Elsewhere he demonstrates his ability to say things, which, like an M. Night Shyamalan film, collapse the moment you subject them to any thought.
He agrees with “those in the banking sector who have said they believe the key to making this cultural shift is to restore banking as a profession”.
So banking is not a profession now, but it once was? When did it stop? And if that means something has gone wrong why then does Morrison also suggest that “we are in even better shape today when it comes to the resilience of our banking and financial system than we have ever been”?
So our bankers are no longer acting like they are professionals, and yet our banking system is in better shape today than ever before?
But perhaps the biggest logical car crash comes near the beginning of the speech when, after outlining that Australians are becoming too complacent and have been split into the taxed and not-taxed, he asks:
“Are we more interested in preserving the benefits of what the past 30 years of economic reform has given us, than relinquishing and re-investing some of those dividends to create a stronger economy for both our own future and the generations that follow?”
Is Morrison actually saying we shouldn’t be interested in preserving the benefits of the past 30 years of “reform”?
Scott Morrison hits out at 'taxed-nots' and warns of recession risk Read more
And if he really is saying that we need to give up “the benefits” of this reform in order to create a stronger economy in the future, that doesn’t say much for the worth of all that reform. So we have had 30 years of reform which delivered benefits that now need to be relinquished so we can have a stronger economy in the future?
And what exactly are “the benefits”? Is Morrison suggesting the benefit of economic reform was welfare and people being taxed-not? If that is the case, then again, doesn’t that suggest the reform was basically a failure given Morrison views welfare as a negative and decries the numbers of the taxed-not?
Or is he just saying we need to give up the benefits of reform in order to have more reform in order to benefit again later on?
What a scintillating sales pitch. And people wonder why voters are sceptical when they hear politicians talk about the need for reform.
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https://www.theguardian.com/business/grogonomics/2016/aug/29/scott-morrisons-car-crash-logic-and-the-real-story-behind-the-taxed-nots
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en
| 2016-08-29T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/b61de47783c6c44a5b84d0835c9918d2ea92c0ddec9b429e93282424bd424bf1.json
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[
"Damien Gayle"
] | 2016-08-31T10:50:23 | null | 2016-08-31T10:19:22 |
Paramedics treated 18-year-old at scene near Turnpike Lane following a reported fight on Tuesday afternoon
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fuk-news%2F2016%2Faug%2F31%2Fteenager-critical-after-being-shot-head-north-london.json
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Teenager critical after being shot in the head in north London
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www.theguardian.com
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A teenager is in a critical condition after he was shot in the head during a mid-afternoon fight in north London.
The 18-year-old was shot just before 3.30pm on Tuesday in Wightman Road, near Turnpike Lane in north London. Paramedics and an air ambulance crew treated him at the scene before he was taken to hospital.
One witness, a 24-year-old woman, told the Evening Standard: “I saw his friend crying and being comforted by police. The atmosphere was awful. People at the scene said there was a big fight for minutes before police arrived. There are normally people hanging around there but never normally in a threatening way.”
A London ambulance service spokesperson said paramedics were called at 3.35pm.
“We sent an ambulance crew, a single responder in a car, an incident response officer and a hazardous area response team to the scene alongside London’s air ambulance. The first of our medics arrived at the scene in under five minutes. We treated a man at the scene and took him as a priority to a hospital in central London.”
Detectives from the Metropolitan police’s Trident and area crime command, which deals with gang-related crime and all non-fatal shootings, are investigating.
There have been no arrests.
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https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/aug/31/teenager-critical-after-being-shot-head-north-london
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en
| 2016-08-31T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/115a64c1733c8282191613e1b3c5b8e07a723caf71c59f7fbedb7929547615b7.json
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[
"Simon Bowers"
] | 2016-08-30T18:55:21 | null | 2016-08-30T18:11:41 |
The intervention of Margrethe Vestager, Europe’s competition commissioner, has ruffled feathers
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fbusiness%2Fblog%2F2016%2Faug%2F30%2Fireland-gets-an-apple-windfall-but-tackling-tax-avoidance-just-got-harder.json
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Ireland gets an Apple windfall, but tackling tax avoidance just got harder
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www.theguardian.com
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Apple boss Tim Cook is furious. How dare Brussels’ meddling competition regulators retrospectively unpick a tax deal that the iPhone-maker had secured from Ireland a quarter of a century ago. What business is it of theirs? Tax, after all, is a sovereign issue for each individual member state within the European Union. The European commission’s ruling would have a “profound and harmful effect” on investment and job creation in Europe, he said.
His political allies at home have waded in too. US Treasury secretary Jack Lew warned last week that the move could have a “chilling effect on US-EU cross-border investment”. The US would have to “consider potential responses”.
According to the Cook script, Apple is a good corporate citizen with a long history of investment and employment in Ireland. That is why, quite properly, almost two-third’s of the group’s profits arise in its Irish-registered subsidiaries. On Tuesday, he posted a lengthy message direct to customers explaining what a travesty of justice Brussels’ intervention had been, with “no basis in fact or in law”.
That, of course, is hogwash. Whatever you think of the commission’s intervention, any honest discussion of Apple’s taxes must start with the admission that its subsidiaries in Knocknaheeny, a run-down suburb of Cork, do not produce almost two-thirds of the group’s profits.
Apple ordered to pay up to €13bn after EU rules Ireland broke state aid laws Read more
That Cook still clings to this narrative is disappointing, and does not reflect well on those advisers he has gathered around him.
The Apple CEO would do well to listen a little to the candid reflections of the firm’s co-founder Steve Wozniak. Earlier this year, he said: “I don’t like the idea that Apple might be unfair – not paying taxes the way I do as a person.”
For all that, Wozniak noted, on the other hand there are always commercial pressures at play. “Any company that is a public company, its shareholders are going to force it to be as profitable as possible. And that means financial people studying all the laws of the world and figuring out all the schemes that work that are technically legal.”
Cook, though, has his own, cleaner, less equivocal, version of events. And Tuesday was not the first time he has taken to the stage, with faux exasperation, offering justifications of Apple’s huge Irish profits that have for years gone almost entirely untaxed. In 2013, he appeared before the US senate subcommittee on investigations to reject a detailed analysis of the group’s tax planning from Carl Levin (Democrat) and John McCain (Republican).
“You shifted that golden goose to Ireland,” Levin accused Cook, summing up his verdict during a six-hour hearing. “You shifted it to three companies that do not pay taxes in Ireland … These are the crown jewels of Apple Inc … Folks, it’s not right.”
Cook affected incredulity. “There is no [profit] shifting going on that I see at all,” he said. “Apple has real operations in real places, with Apple employees selling real products to real customers. We pay all the taxes we owe – every single dollar … We don’t depend on tax gimmicks.”
That message is now as obsolete as an iPod Classic. Nevertheless, sorting out a fair resolution of Apple’s tax affairs remains less obvious. Where exactly has the tech firm be avoiding its dues? If not Ireland, then where are Apple’s profits truly made?
The Apple tax ruling – what this means for Ireland, tax and multinationals Read more
The fact that the group’s tax structure has been subject to fierce attack from critics in both Washington and Brussels shows that there are several parties who feel they are entitled to spoils from any revised tax settlement.
At present though, it is Ireland that is set to benefit from the European commission’s decision. And the result could be a one of the largest ever bills for back taxes, running into many billions of euros. Brussels officials have suggested the figure could be up to €13bn (£11bn), though the final sum will be for the Irish tax office to determine.
Add to that sum interest charges stretching back more than 10 years and the final tally could put a modest, but not insignificant, dent in Apple’s colossal offshore reserves. At last count, this cash pile stood at more than $200bn (£152bn).
However dim the view you take of Apple’s tax planning, though, a multibillion euro windfall for Ireland looks perverse. Critics on both sides of the Atlantic have castigated Dublin’s politicians and regulators for helping Apple spirit taxable profits away from other jurisdictions. Why should Irish taxpayers end up winners?
It is an uncomfortable irony that Margrethe Vestager, Europe’s competition commissioner, is well aware of. After announcing her Apple decision, she stressed that it was now open to other countries to draw on the commission’s analysis and make their own sub-claims on Apple’s Irish back taxes. Even America, she appeared to hint, could have a call on this money.
All of which looks a messy prospect, which is unlikely to be resolved for many years. As Vestager noted, her powers are limited. Occasional moves by Brussels to police the taxation of multinationals need to be complemented by co-ordinated and sustained international efforts that close loopholes and ensure tax regimes keep pace with the digital economy.
Some argue that Vestager did more on Tuesday to damage than to assist this fragile international consensus on tackling tax avoidance. Certainly her intervention has ruffled feathers and, in the short term at least, appears to offer a far from perfect resolution.
That said, any serious effort to root out toxic tax behaviour is bound to create upset along the way. There are powerful vested interests that would like to see the taxation of corporate profits wither and fade into history. Vestager has set herself against such ambitions. A few more politicians showing her courage would be a fine thing.
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https://www.theguardian.com/business/blog/2016/aug/30/ireland-gets-an-apple-windfall-but-tackling-tax-avoidance-just-got-harder
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en
| 2016-08-30T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/34db730b4e319c55e31794e65f4d01364108e8b6a4d76bf22dde46915eaabed4.json
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[
"Ian Tucker"
] | 2016-08-26T13:26:19 | null | 2016-08-21T05:59:08 |
From exercise trackers to blood pressure monitors, we give the latest bits of biometric tech a close examination
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Five of the best health monitoring devices
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www.theguardian.com
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You can record your heart rate manually by holding your wrist and counting your pulse, but this hasn’t stopped technology companies producing devices to do the job with electronics. Most of these devices collect heart data all day long and record it on a smartphone app which builds up a richer set of data than you might get with a stopwatch and pencil. One of the most useful metrics they collect is your RHR (resting heart rate) a reading taken when you are relaxed, most typically first thing in the morning. In most cases a low RHR indicates a strong, healthy heart which has to beat fewer times to circulate blood around the body. However in older people a low RHR might indicate diseased heart muscle or overmedication. Some day-to-day variation in your RHR (or indeed in many of the metrics these devices measure) isn’t something to be worried about, explains Dr Satpal Arri of the British Heart Foundation Centre of Research Excellence, King’s College London, “A certain amount of variability is normal, healthy in fact – as you get older variability tends to decrease.” So by all means listen to your heart, but don’t become obsessed.
Measures: RHR, HR, recovery time, V02 max, movement, sleep; £359
Facebook Twitter Pinterest All photos by Linda Nylind for the Guardian.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Data from the Garmin Forerunner.
Garmin’s latest exercise tracking watch records your runs, rides, steps and swims using GPS or an accelerator. The rear of the watch features an optical sensor that uses a light to measure blood flow, which is processed by an algorithm to create HR data. The watch displays HR and RHR but these are better displayed on Garmin’s Connect smartphone app where you can see historical data. The watch also had a recovery adviser feature, which advises you how many hours you should wait before exercising again – for running the times seemed consistent but for cycling I found them to be a little haphazard – the software company says that power meter data is required for an accurate result. When running, the watch will also produce a V02 max (the maximum value of oxygen you can use) score, which they claim is 95% accurate when compared to lab tests. You’ll need to purchase a power meter to generate a cycling V02 max figure.
Accuracy: You need to wear the watch day and night to get an accurate RHR reading. Wearing it on and off, or only using it when exercising, will affect the averages the software calculates. For example, my RHR for one month when I only wore the watch on a couple of occasions was 10bpm, whereas days when I only wore it while running or cycling would push the average into the 60s. It’s surprising that the algorithm can’t recognise and remove these biases.
Verdict: This is a powerful tool for tracking and improving your sporting performance – probably the best sports watch on the market – but for simple monitoring of your RHR you might be better off using a smartphone app such as Instant Heart Rate.
Measures: RHR, HR, movement, sleep; £199
Facebook Twitter Pinterest The FitBit Surge app.
Much like the Garmin, this unit will track exercise and steps, and collects HR data using an optical sensor. The interface is a little confusing, requiring a mix of buttons, presses and touchscreen swipes to operate it. The rubber wristband tended to cut into my wrist and felt sweaty.
Accuracy: Worn side by side, the FitBit and the Garmin record the same HR. However, the Surge’s software does more to remove outliers when calculating a RHR – mine rarely varied by more than a BPM each day. That said, if you don’t wear the watch the app will tell you that your RHR is the same as the last time you were wearing it – a big assumption. The app itself is easy to navigate and visualises your data clearly.
Verdict: If you’re mainly interested in monitoring your general health, ie your RHR, sleep and a bit of exercise, this is a good choice.
Measures: HR, pulse rate velocity, weight, fat mass, bone mass, muscle mass, water; £149
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Data from the Withings Body Cardio Scale.
This wireless-connected scale generates a slew of data to pore over. Integrating it into your morning routine is pretty simple – just stand on it for few seconds. The scale sends a small electrical current through the body, measures impedance and then, using sophisticated algorithms, generates body fat percentage, muscle mass and so on. The measurements are displayed briefly on the scale itself and then turned into graphs and the like on Withings Health Mate app.
Accuracy: It’s moot how useful the HR data collected by the scale is. A reading taken while standing isn’t a RHR; anything you do between your bed and the scale, such as a bathroom visit, taking a shower, walking up stairs or even talking, will influence your HR. However, the scale’s USP is that it takes a reading of your pulse wave velocity – a measure of how quickly blood is travelling along your arteries, and therefore how stiff or supple they are. A reading over 10 is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events.
“PWV is a research tool, but not normally something we would measure in routine practice. However, it is a validated measure of risk,” says Arri.
Verdict: If you’re looking for a device to monitor your cardiovascular health, you’re probably better using this in combination with a blood pressure monitor or a device that measures your RHR.
Read an in-depth of the Body Cardio here.
Measures: blood pressure, HR; £109
Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Withings Blood Pressure Monitor app.
Easily the coolest looking blood pressure monitor you can own. Unlike most, there are no cables; it communicates with your smartphone via Bluetooth. Once charged, the sleeve inflates around your arm to take a reading – you can also set it up to take three readings in one session, from which it takes an average. The results are displayed on Withings Health Mate app, so you can track the readings over time.
Accuracy: Produced consistent results over a couple of months. It also records your heart rate, which is a good indicator of how “rested” you were when the reading was taken.
Verdict: A great piece of design, simple to use, and if you’re concerned about your blood pressure, it produces useful data. “Having a blood pressure monitor at home is a good idea, because high blood pressure doesn’t have any symptoms – the patient will feel fine. If well people who are worried can pick it up early with one of these devices, we can treat them early,” says Arri.
Measures: HR, ECG data, blood oxygen, respiration rate, skin temperature; £99
This consists of a credit-card sized device that slips into one of two specially designed iPhone cases (for the 6 and 6S) and a small black connector for charging up the card-shaped bit. To take a reading, you fire up the Kito app and place your fingers on the sensors at the rear of the card. You can then see a graph of electrical activity created by your heart beating on your iPhone screen, which is pretty incredible.
Accuracy: A hospital ECG would be able to detect whether a patient had a heart attack recently – this device isn’t sensitive enough to do that, but it can help patients monitor an abnormal heart rhythm. “Typically we give patients who report palpitations, blackouts or light-headedness monitors that they can use for 24 hours or a week but if they don’t have an episode during that period, we don’t capture any data. With something like this a patient can check for themselves when they feel something happening,” says Arri.
For such patients a device that captures ECG data is more useful than those with an optical sensor. “When you’re in an irregular rhythm, your peripheral heart rate becomes unreliable. Because an ECG monitors electrical activity, it will pick up those extra beats that aren’t translated into a peripheral pulse.”
Verdict: A useful device if you have an irregular heart rhythm.
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https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/aug/21/five-best-cardio-health-monitoring-devices
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en
| 2016-08-21T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/53700f6872358183955c3963138af95680252de95cb280340587fefef8bdce1c.json
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|
[
"Samuel Gibbs"
] | 2016-08-26T13:26:07 | null | 2016-07-31T09:30:31 |
Want the best apps and breaking news on the go without breaking the bank? These may be the devices you’re looking for
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Ftechnology%2F2016%2Fjul%2F31%2Ffive-best-budget-smartphones-huawei-honor-microsoft-lumia-vodafone-smart-ultra-7-ee-harrier-moto-e.json
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Five of the best budget smartphones
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www.theguardian.com
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RRP £109
The Moto E brings up the rear in the budget smartphone category both on price and size. It can be had for around £75 and, surprisingly, isn’t terrible.
The Moto E is small, with a low-resolution 11.4cm (4.5in) screen that is better looking than you might expect. It weighs 145g and is quite thick at 12.3mm, but its curved back and soft-touch black plastic make it feel nice in the hand and easy to keep hold of. It has a small battery, but will last about a day if you’re careful with it.
The 8-megapixel camera on the back is weak and a bit slow, but will do at a pinch – you will have to work very hard to produce something worth printing, but it’ll capture the moment just fine. It only has 8GB of storage, but has a microSD card slot.
The best bit about the Moto E is the software. It’s unmodified Android and has been updated to Marshmallow. It probably won’t get the new Android 7 Nougat, but its bloat-free experience makes the whole phone feel much faster than the EE Harrier and similarly priced smartphones.
Verdict
A basic phone with bloat-free Android that isn’t frustrating to use.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest The EE Harrier Mini.
RRP £99
The Harrier Mini gets most of the basics right, but comes with Android 5, which will be two years old very soon. It’s got a brushed-metal-like plastic back, decent build quality and feels like it could survive the odd drop. It’s 9.5mm thick and quite light at 124g, which makes it easy to pocket.
The 12cm (4.7in) 720p screen is quite small for a modern phone but is pretty good given the price, while 8GB of built-in storage might not be much, but there’s a microSD slot.
The 8-megapixel camera lacks good colour balance and detail, but is fine for the occasional emergency snap. Same goes for the front-facing selfie camera.
The Harrier Mini also comes with quite a few of EE’s apps, which you may or may not like. Its 1GB of Ram and older Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor gets the job done. A high-end gaming machine it is not, but its battery lasts a good day between charges, more if you’re careful.
Verdict
Cheap and cheerful, but its software is getting a bit long in the tooth.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Microsoft Lumia 650.
RRP £119.99
Microsoft’s latest budget smartphone effort attempts to be a premium device in look and feel at under £150. The outside looks great: a light, aluminium frame, all-glass front and a soft-touch plastic back, (which is a bit spongy in the middle). The 12.7cm (5in) screen is only 720p in resolution – meaning it’s not pin-sharp and you can discern individual pixels – but impresses, with good, bright colours and deep blacks.
It has a few rough edges here and there, but feels pretty good in the hand. All of that contrasts with the anaemic processor. It has the lowest of the low from Qualcomm – the Snapdragon 212 – and only 1GB of Ram, which is obvious in use. Apps can be slow to load, sluggish in operation and you can forget about anything more than simple games. The battery lasts about a day, but not much more.
The camera on the back is only 8 megapixels, but is relatively decent for a budget smartphone, only really struggling in low light. Not the best in this group, but not terrible. The same goes for the 5-megapixel selfie camera.
Windows 10 Mobile is a solid operating system, which gets things done and has excellent access to Microsoft’s Office suite and services, as you’d expect. Third-party app support is weak, however. There aren’t many big-name apps in the store, and those that there are are not updated regularly. Facebook is there, as are Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, but Snapchat isn’t, nor are Google’s Hangouts, Google Maps or pretty much anything Google or Apple, including Apple Music.
As a business phone, it’s decent if unspectacular, but consumers looking for more might be disappointed by the sluggish performance and app gap.
Verdict
A superficially nice phone that cuts it as a portal to Microsoft’s suite, but not much more than that.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Huawei Honor 5C.
RRP £149.99
Huawei’s latest budget phone is the most expensive in this group, but also the best. It has the look and feel of a much more expensive smartphone, with an aluminium back, rounded plastic sides and a very solid build.
The front is all glass, with a crisp and colourful 13cm (5.2in) full HD LCD display. It’s a fingerprint magnet, though, which can make it difficult to see outdoors sometimes without a quick wipe down.
The Honor 5C has Huawei’s Kirin 650 processor and 2GB of Ram, which can handle most of the things you’ll want to do with a phone. It feels snappy and responsive, while the battery lasts longer than most of the others in the group at around two days of general usage if you avoid long periods of graphically intensive gaming. It’s got 16GB of storage but can either take a microSD card to add more storage a second sim for using two separate phone numbers and accounts on one phone.
The phone also has NFC for Android Pay, an FM radio built in and it runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow, but not as most know it. Huawei’s modifications, known as EMUI 4.1, change the look and feel, remove the app drawer and alter the way notifications are displayed. Some will like it; others will find it a little frustrating.
The rear 13-megapixel camera is one of the best ever fitted to a smartphone under £150 and rivals some top-end devices in producing detailed, accurate snaps. The 8-megapixel selfie camera is also decent, but is fixed-focus and can struggle in middling light.
Verdict
The software might irritate some, but it’s the best for under £150 that easily rivals smartphones twice the price or more.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Vodaphone Smart Ultra 7.
RRP £135
The latest in Vodafone’s own-brand budget phones is the top-end Smart Ultra 7. It’s the biggest of the bunch here, physically a lot of phone for £135. The 14cm (5.5in) 1080p LCD is very good for a budget smartphone. The viewing angles aren’t quite as good as you’d find on a premium device, but it’s pretty crisp, bright and colourful. The phablet is 9mm thick and 150g, feeling well built. The back is a textured plastic, which feels a bit cheap but is durable.
Under the hood you get an octacore MediaTek processor, which won’t set the world alight but feels pretty snappy in operation and a cut above other own-brand rivals, with only occasional moments of lag when opening apps. There’s 16GB of storage, with a microSD card slot, and 2GB of Ram, which means it doesn’t get bogged down as you launch multiple apps. Battery life is more than a day, but not quite two, less if you’re running graphically intensive games.
The Smart Ultra 7 is a mixed bag when it comes to software. It’s running the latest version of Android 6 Marshmallow with few modifications. But Vodafone pre-loads a whole collection of its apps, some of which are useful, but others are just attempts to sell you other things. You can and should uninstall or disable most of them.
The 13-megapixel camera on the back is decent, lacking fine detail and producing images that are a bit dull. The HDR function is a bit slow too, which can produce blurry shots, but on the whole it’s solid for a phone of this price. The 5-megapixel selfie camera works, but isn’t anything to write home about.
Verdict
A lot of phone for the money if a cut-price phablet is required.
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https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jul/31/five-best-budget-smartphones-huawei-honor-microsoft-lumia-vodafone-smart-ultra-7-ee-harrier-moto-e
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en
| 2016-07-31T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/fe9f354d9a0493d32ba685d3721643b90c917d9071f695f24663d386b87ccc32.json
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[
"Owen Jones"
] | 2016-08-30T10:52:48 | null | 2016-08-30T10:13:35 |
Victories for protesters over tax avoidance and on TTIP show how grassroots campaigns can overturn injustice and hold the powerful to account
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Apple must now pay its taxes. This is a vindication of protest
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www.theguardian.com
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Tax avoidance is one of the great injustices of our time. Services are cut, justified by the lack of public money available, while mega-rich corporations and individuals find means to avoid paying tax. Companies that depend on state largesse – from infrastructure to an education system that trains their employees, to in-work benefits – refuse to contribute in return. Small businesses that don’t have the means to exploit loopholes are destroyed by big businesses that do. At the bottom of the pecking order, benefit fraudsters are pursued for relatively paltry sums of money, while at the top, accountancy firms help design tax laws and then instruct their clients how to get around them. Tax avoidance epitomises an unjust social order: one in which different rules apply, depending on your wealth and power; and where societies are rigged in favour of shamelessly greedy elites.
Apple ordered to pay up to €13bn after EU rules Ireland broke state aid laws Read more
That’s why today’s ruling by the European commission – to force Apple to pay up to €13bn (£11bn) in unpaid taxes – is so significant. Apple is one of the world’s biggest companies. Its arrangement with Ireland allowed it to pay little tax on income earned across the continent: this, the commission says, violates rules on state aid. It also represents a defiant rejection of US attempts to defend tax-avoiding corporations.
Here is a vindication of protest. Tax justice is only on the agenda because movements forced it there. It was an issue that once only excited those on the fringes of political debate. Years of campaigning changed that. Those in a position of authority are responding to pressure from below. And here is an instructive lesson. Protesting and campaigning can often feel like a lonely, hard and unrewarding slog. Social change is often a story of defeat followed by setback, followed by defeat followed by setback – and then success.
Another striking example: the Transatlantic Trade Investment Partnership (TTIP), negotiated between the EU and the US, which would hand corporations the power to sue elected governments in secret courts to block policies that might hurt their profits. Years of campaigning and protesting against it across Europe: and it’s paid off. On Monday, Germany’s vice-chancellor declared that TTIP had “de facto failed”. Today, France’s trade minister called for TTIP talks to be called off. People power won.
We are often told about the futility of protesting and campaigning. But these victories tell us otherwise. They should embolden us to confront other injustices, too. By having a bit of determination and resilience, such injustices can be overcome – and that is a lesson the powerful should fear.
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/30/apple-tax-avoidance-vindication-protest-ttip
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en
| 2016-08-30T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/0c9273b7f1cd3c2fd719535418b8ce8a63dce8b5db621cfd44ebed8ec75d9c61.json
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[
"John Harris",
"Jakub Krupa",
"Danny Dorling"
] | 2016-08-26T13:17:42 | null | 2016-08-26T05:00:10 |
Though the party appears to be in crisis, this is no time for complacency. The issues that fuelled Ukip’s rise still blight communities across Britain
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fcommentisfree%2F2016%2Faug%2F26%2Fforget-nigel-farage-people-ukip-exploits.json
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| null |
Farage is gone, but the people he spoke for can’t be ignored
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
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It seemed to have the same effect as those dreaded occasions when rock bands break a run of crowd-pleasers and tell a festival audience they’re about to play a new song. Still, the moment at which Donald Trump introduced 15,000 people in Jackson, Mississippi to that renowned Deep Southern hero Nigel Farage at least crystallised two things: the fact that Brexit and Trumpism are two sides of the same populist coin; and the awful, brazen cynicism that Farage and The Donald have in common. There they stood, with matching suntans, the Manhattan plutocrat and the former City commodities trader, as the latter announced that what he had achieved was “for the little people, for the real people”.
Meanwhile, 4,000 or so miles away, Ukip is tanking in some opinion polls, and facing a leadership election that does not exactly suggest a force in the best political health. As often seems to happen when the party gets a sniff of influence, factional strife has reached boiling point, and the handful of people who might have made a reasonable fist of succeeding Farage are nowhere to be seen.
The party’s two best-known figureheads besides Farage are its Liverpudlian outgoing deputy leader Paul Nuttall and its one-man libertarian, cosmopolitan wing, the Clacton MP Douglas Carswell – but they both decided not to stand. The polished former Tory Suzanne Evans was prevented from being a candidate by the fact that her membership was suspended in March this year. The rated MEP Steven Woolfe, an ally of the outgoing leader and his presumed heir apparent, was ruled out when despite having vowed to boost his party’s professionalism, he handed in his leadership application 17 minutes after the official deadline.
So who will the party’s 39,000 members pick? The party’s supposed frontrunner is MEP Diane James, a somewhat taciturn operator last seen leading Ukip’s failed campaign in the 2013 Eastleigh bylection, who has apparently refused to take part in official party hustings. There is also Lisa Duffy, a councillor and capable Ukip organiser who has promised to somehow rush headlong towards the party’s remaining taboos – if indeed it actually has any – and begin setting out “a positive vision of modern British Islam” from the Cambridgeshire Fens.
Liz Jones is not the out-there Mail on Sunday columnist, but Ukip’s deputy chair in Lambeth, south London. Bill Etheridge was once a Conservative activist in the West Midlands, but left the party after he and his wife posed with golliwogs as part of something called the Campaign Against Political Correctness. By way of a punchline, the candidate list ends with Phillip Broughton, Ukip’s 2015 candidate in Hartlepool, and a former semi-professional wrestler – who traded, for some reason, as “the one and only Phillip Alexander”.
It is all a rum do, and in some of the commentary about the party’s travails one can detect a view of its prospects that has perennially bubbled up since it decisively began moving on to the political map around 12 years ago.
In this reading, Ukip was only ever a personality cult built to serve Farage – in which case, to quote one of an endless sea of tweets, “Ukip are finished – [because] Farage was Ukip”. And in any case, its entire reason for existing has been fulfilled. By overseeing Brexit and pushing the Tories away from Notting Hill and back to a petit-bourgeois populism, Theresa May could re-establish their complete dominance of the political right – while even if Labour fails to get its act together, the former Labour voters who supported Farage will either go back to abstaining, or vote Ukip in much smaller numbers.
At which point, a few corrective thoughts. First, whatever the state of Ukip’s internal affairs, the state of politics in both Europe and the US suggests that as economies and societies continue to fragment, and the mainstream seems to have no clear answers, the new rightwing populism is going be with us for some time to come.
Second, given that the referendum happened only two months ago, it is worth at least briefly reflecting on the part Ukip played in the outcome. With a solitary MP and a flimsy activist base, it still played a huge role in embedding the connection between most of Britain’s ills and the EU, and thereby carrying its cause from the margins of politics to its very centre. Here is an example of postmodern politics from which people on the left would do well to learn. Moreover, the people responsible are hardly likely to simply disappear.
Ukip’s whole schtick has always been to insist that some things matter more than economics
And then there is the associated question of Brexit, and what it might actually entail (“Brexit means Brexit” says the prime minister, but that hardly clarifies anything). Just as it is hard to know at this early stage what exactly will be the terms of any British departure, it’s unclear where the vote for leave now sits in the minds of the people responsible. We are talking about England here, so the questions are valid: will it turn out to have been some Diana-esque spasm, after which everybody once again switches off? Or a matter of keenly felt conviction and expectations that people will demand are met?
On this score, though it’s painful to make the point, do not underestimate the centrality of immigration to the Brexit vote, and how irate a lot of people may get if the status quo persists – a point underlined by this week’s net migration figures (in the year to March 2016, 633,000 people arrived in the UK, while 306,000 moved overseas).
More generally, there is still a sense of far too many of the political class thinking the vote can soon be nullified – witness the hapless Owen Smith claiming that “we didn’t actually know what we were voting on” and holding out the prospect of another referendum. If the Brexit vote was motivated by people’s sense that Westminster either ignored them or failed to take them seriously, what does he think will happen if their one briefly successful protest is treated the same way?
Political journalism too often overlooks the social nitty-gritty, and the way it pushes people in this or that direction far more than dramas at the top. Self-evidently, in the old Labour heartlands that still represent Ukip’s biggest political opportunity – and to which Jeremy Corbyn and his followers still show few signs of convincingly speaking – the rise of Farage’s party was fed by deep problems, which are unlikely to change. These barely need outlining: the fact that there is an ongoing housing crisis; that employment is ever-more insecure; that the cultural distance between a confident middle class at ease with globalisation and millions of others suffering its malign effects is growing ever larger. In addition, if one of the big sparks for Ukip’s rise over the past 10 years was the impact of the economic crash of 2008, the turbulence that could yet result from Britain leaving the EU may have exactly the same results.
Obviously, that would be an outrageous irony: the party that so enthusiastically pushed Britain out of the EU making hay with the adverse consequences. But to that, there are two answers: that politics has little time for paradox; and that in any case, Ukip’s whole schtick has always been to insist that economics isn’t everything, not least for people with precious little to lose. Farage restated the basic point this week: “There are some things in life that matter more than just money: your community, your street, your town, your neighbours.”
In the midst of all these possibilities lurks Arron Banks, the insurance tycoon who spent £5.6m of his own money on the Brexit campaign, and who was recently heard speculating about either reforming Ukip “root and branch”, or funding a new populist party that may succeed it: a force that may have a chance of “taking over from Labour as the opposition, because Labour are imploding and Labour voters for the first time ever have defied their party, voting for leave”. He is with Farage in the States.
Which brings us to the recently retired leader himself. After working flat-out for upwards of a decade, to the point that he began to complain about his health, Farage might have been expected to disappear for a while. And yet here he is again, evidently loving every minute, and saying he is minded to “see where we are in two and a half years’ time”. To paraphrase that other suntanned populist, Arnold Schwarzenegger, he’ll be back.
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/26/forget-nigel-farage-people-ukip-exploits
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en
| 2016-08-26T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/c411eed9ffebc58a1ef228b08ab716a96dc48d6fdfc5807e16e7690fbb09e792.json
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[
"Kate Lyons"
] | 2016-08-26T13:13:44 | null | 2016-08-26T06:00:11 |
Lone children seeking refuge in the UK – many of whom have never seen a table tennis match before – find a topspin welcome on the south coast
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fworld%2F2016%2Faug%2F26%2Fturning-the-tables-the-ping-pong-sanctuary-for-young-refugees.json
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Turning the tables: the ping pong sanctuary for young refugees
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On the wall of Brighton table tennis club is a large map of the world, covered in drawing pins to represent where each member comes from. The largest cluster falls, unsurprisingly, on southern England, with black and white pins piling on top of Brighton. The second most common place, with eight pins, is Afghanistan.
In May the sports club became the first in the country, of any type, to be given the title “club of sanctuary” – part of the city of sanctuary movement that recognises cities and schools that welcome refugees and asylum seekers.
Brighton is home to roughly 60 unaccompanied minors, almost all boys, who came to Britain seeking asylum. They are housed mostly with foster families, until they turn 18 and their asylum claims are processed. Of these 60, around half have come to the club.
The work began with Anh, a child from Vietnam who was the victim of human trafficking. He started attending the club in January 2015 at the suggestion of his social worker. Now 19, Anh is a qualified table tennis coach, and was recently granted leave to remain in the country for five years. His involvement in the club was cited by the Home Office as evidence of strong connections to his community.
After the success with Anh, his social worker began recommending the club to all the asylum seeker children in her care, and news spread. Now 15 to 20 boys, from Afghanistan, Iraq, Eritrea, Kurdistan and Algeria, come every week, many three or four times, for table tennis lessons and friendship.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest The table tennis club is one of the country’s biggest. Photograph: Martin Godwin for the Guardian
“I am really happy there,” says 17-year-old Faisal, from Helmand province in Afghanistan. “Everyone is really nice. Before it was really difficult to find friends in England.”
The programme has been so successful in teaching the boys English and fostering friendships between the young asylum seekers and local children that Sport England, in conjunction with Table Tennis England, has just given the club founder, Tim Holtam, a £100,000 grant to continue the programme.
Many of the boys have been through a lot. Noor, 15, from Nangarhar province in Afghanistan, says his family told him to escape to Britain because they feared his life was in danger.
Abdul, also 15 and from Nangarhar, came through Calais by himself at the age of 13. He left Afghanistan after returning to lessons after lunch one day to find his school had been bombed.
Holtam says that as they build relationships with the boys, fragments of these stories emerge, but that mostly the club just allows them to have fun and play. “I think when they come here, when they’re playing table tennis, they’re not thinking about how they’ve fled. The benefits of table tennis to mental health is huge,” he adds.
“We’d like to think that their involvement in this club will help them – not necessarily help them with the Home Office – but help them feel like there are people in this country who care about them,” says Holtam. “Sometimes they come in here and then they go to the shop and they see all these newspapers with all of these horrible headlines. It’s about doing something locally that’s positive and showing these guys that there are people in this country who care about them.”
Table tennis is not a natural sport for a lot of them. Faisal and Abdul, for example, prefer cricket. When the boys arrived at the club, many of them had never seen a table tennis game before.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Wen Wei Xu, one of the club’s founders. Photograph: Martin Godwin for the Guardian
“I had seen it twice I think, not live, on TV,” says Noor. “I didn’t know the rules, I didn’t know how should I take the bat in my hands.”
But, says Holtam, table tennis is accessible and a leveller – people can learn it quickly and play it at different ages and states of fitness.
Evidence of the club’s inclusiveness are all around. Leaning against some chairs, a whiteboard shows the words for zero to 11 – the scores of their shortened “top table” games – written in English, Vietnamese, Pashtu, French, Italian, Farsi and Russian.
Another poster shows some of the club’s members, including Harry Fairchild, who just won bronze at the national Down’s syndrome championship; Wen Wei Xu, one of the founders of the club and three-time UK-Chinese champion; a player who has just travelled to New Zealand to compete in the over-80s championship, and a girl ranked top five in the UK’s under-13s league, as well as Anh, Faisal and Abdul.
“This is a club of sanctuary for everyone, that’s the key point,” says Holtam.
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/26/turning-the-tables-the-ping-pong-sanctuary-for-young-refugees
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en
| 2016-08-26T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/6ae1edd8c4bb3f0a533ecc4fc72eab190035db01f3d35727ff01ed5e1043d1df.json
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[
"Gioconda Belli"
] | 2016-08-26T13:16:17 | null | 2016-08-24T19:11:07 |
As elections approach, my former Sandinista comrades Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo are attempting to take absolute control of state instutitions
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fcommentisfree%2F2016%2Faug%2F24%2Fnicaragua-dictatorship-sandinista-ortega-murillo.json
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Nicaragua is drifting towards dictatorship once again
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www.theguardian.com
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From my house overlooking Managua, the city at night looks like an amusement park – more Walt Disney fantasy than the capital of the poorest country in the American continent.
Gigantic metal trees, each studded with hundreds of colored lights have been installed all over town. A few might have been fine, but 130 of them in our small city are overwhelming and kitsch.
This makeover is the work of our eccentric first lady and future vice-president, Rosario Murillo: her way of imprinting herself in our lives.
Considering what is going on in Nicaragua, I often feel I am immersed in a twisted, magical-realist novel. Everything that was not supposed to happen again in my country is coming back.
We are reliving all that I thought had been eradicated when we, the Sandinista rebels, entered Managua on 19 July 1979 and ended 45 years of Somoza dynasty.
What hurts the most, is to see the past return in the figure of our old comrade-in-arms, Daniel Ortega. He and his wife have carefully woven a sticky web to trap Nicaraguans in a net of illusory progress.
Ortega ruled Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990and in 2007, he ran for re-election.
I campaigned against him, certain that if he was re-elected, he would stay in power at all costs.
Friends tried to convince me Nicaragua was no longer the same. After experiencing 16 years of budding democracy, people would reject his authoritarian tendencies, they said.
But Ortega – aided by his wife – managed to sell himself to the Nicaraguan people as a democratic revolutionary.
Murillo designed a campaign that promised peace and love. She covered the John Lennon song Give Peace a Chance and used it with her own lyrics as a campaign theme.
Ortega and Murillo made amends with the Catholic church, and – after 25 years of living together – they were married by Managua’s cardinal and former nemesis, Miguel Obando y Bravo.
Miraculously, the couple went from dangerous atheists to fervent Christians from one day to the next. The illusion worked. He got elected.
A hard-working, determined woman, with a quasi-superstitious belief in her mission as savior of the people, Murillo has been key in strengthening Ortega’s hold on power.
She defended her husband even when her daughter from her first marriage accused Ortega of sexually abusing her. Her loyalty paid off, and she obtained a great deal of power.
Meanwhile, Ortega set about exerting absolute control over state institutions such as the electoral council, the supreme court, the national assembly, the army and the police.
Then he reformed the constitution to allow for indefinite re-elections. Most recently, in a coup de grace to any semblance of democracy, he took away the legal representation of the only opposition force capable of challenging him in the 2016 elections, which he then assigned to sycophants guaranteed to do his bidding.
Ortega had already announced in a speech that he would not accept international observers for the 6 November elections. “Shameless,” he called them, “they should observe their governments, not us.”
Meanwhile, Murillo began to appear more visibly in their political propaganda. While Ortega has not given one single press conference to the national media since 2007, every day at midday Murillo addresses the people on radio and TV, exalting the Christian, socialist and solidaristic nature of their political model.
Earlier this month, Ortega named his running mate: Rosario Murillo.
The US and the European Union have expressed their concern, but Ortega has his anti-imperialist rhetoric at the ready and seems to relish the prospect of another round of defiance. For him, this is the second coming of the Sandinista revolution.
So far, the Nicaraguan people have mostly been passive. Ortega and Murillo have used billions from Venezuela to give bonuses to state employees and farmers, to distribute roofing materials in poor neighborhoods and to finance a variety of social programs.
Scared by the possibility of another bloody struggle, Nicaraguans have opted to take what they can and keep their opinions to themselves.
Somoza had two sons to continue his dynasty, Ortega and Murillo have five sons and two daughters.
Though they might feel very strong, we have seen this before. Nothing is for ever.
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/24/nicaragua-dictatorship-sandinista-ortega-murillo
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en
| 2016-08-24T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/4ec7bf97efbe51e8dcf164537b72be02680b220f3886443b18d7805085f2bf9d.json
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[
"Nick Gillett"
] | 2016-08-26T13:26:57 | null | 2016-08-24T08:00:15 |
The much-hyped sci-fi sandbox game proved to be as massive as expected, while Pokémon Go continued to prove inescapable
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Ftechnology%2F2016%2Faug%2F24%2Fthe-month-in-games-no-mans-sky-pokemon-go-ghostbusters.json
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| null |
The month in games: No Man’s Sky goes where no gamer has gone before
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'I've never walked my dog so much': readers review Pokémon Go Read more
In a month traditionally reserved for cider and overpriced family holidays, there were two games so massive they were effectively inescapable: one encouraged you to explore your neighbourhood with a smartphone; the other gave you a space ship and let you loose in an entire simulated universe. The first was, of course, Pokémon Go (iOS and Android), a title that’s achieved worldwide ubiquity. Based on the framework of older game Ingress, which also encourages players to visit real world locations, the addition of Pokémon turned a modest sideshow into a global phenomenon. Its fame has grown exponentially, with nostalgic monsters recognisable from youthful summers spent collecting them on Game Boy popping up in Instagram pictures of children, pets and picnics.
Naturally, the emergence of so many people wandering about hunched over their phones in search of small, colourful monsters has led to problems. These range from muggings at gunpoint in a London park to a request from Washington DC’s Holocaust Museum to have the three PokéStops – which produce especially dense populations of augmented reality critters – inside its building removed after its normally sombre galleries were overrun by monster hunters.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Beasts of no nation... One of No Man’s Sky’s numerous randomly generated planets. Photograph: Hello Games/PA
No Man's Sky: Eight tips to get you started Read more
This month’s other behemoth was No Man’s Sky (PS4 and PC), a game unconcerned with the petty minutiae of Earth, which sets you free in a whole universe, letting you explore, trade or plunder your way through its functionally limitless expanse. It contains some 18 quintillion planets, a figure so stupefyingly vast that even with millions of players exploring it, well over 99.9% of planets won’t be visited by anyone, ever, and actually finding a previously explored world will be a rare moment. There’s an overarching mission to reach the universe’s eerily glowing centre (a feat one fan with a leaked copy of the game managed to complete before it was even released), but you’re never under pressure to do anything other than your own thing. The universe’s enormousness lets you undertake a personal Star Trek voyage, seeking out new worlds and boldly going where it’s highly improbable anyone will have gone before.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest What a bust... The Ghostbusters game is bobbins
Ghostbusters review – all-female upgrade awakens the ectoplasmic force Read more
Ghostbusters (PS4, Xbox One & PC) needed more than a movie to make people like it. Set after the events of this summer’s reboot, it also completely ignores it, featuring a new cast of two female and two male ghostbusters, a volte face that’s neither explained nor even referred to. The script’s fumbling, intermittent attempts at humour barely qualify as half-hearted, which leaves only the gameplay as a source of redemption. Unfortunately, Ghostbusters is a blandly generic twin-stick shooter, where one joystick moves your character and the other directs their gunfire. You and three player- or AI-controlled compatriots walk around agonisingly slowly, shooting ghosts with a range of tiresomely conventional weapons, before occasionally whipping out proton packs and catching one. The action isn’t unpleasant, but the fact that you see everything the game has to offer in its opening 15 minutes makes the rest of its 12-plus hours an exercise in repetitious futility that you should avoid at all costs.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Smile like you mean it... We Happy Few.
Available as a preview only and missing about half its plot and landmass, We Happy Few (Xbox One & PC) entered early access. It finally gave players a glimpse beyond the tantalising trailer shown at this year’s Electronics Entertainment Expo, which depicted a lavish, conversation-driven adventure. The biggest shock was that the peppy opening scene of the trailer, a daytime TV-style news bulletin, rapidly gave way to a stark game of survival set in a dingy alternate-1960s Britain. The country has suffered a terrifying national trauma that everyone is legally obliged to forget by taking Joy, an anti-depressant/memory suppressant that renders the populace happily vacant. Your main job is, of course, staying alive. It’s still early days, but the woeful combat and lacklustre environments will need a lot more work before the game lives up to its interesting premise.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest No shouting... Song Of The Deep.
Finally, Song Of The Deep (PS4, Xbox One and PC) is a delightful 2D puzzle adventure about a girl whose father fails to come home after a day’s fishing. She builds a submarine and goes searching for him in a gorgeous-looking underwater realm. Slightly too many puzzles were unnecessarily fiddly, but it proved a lot more satisfying than the vacuous ghostbusting on offer elsewhere. Worth a try if you need to recuperate between Pokémon Go walks.
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https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/aug/24/the-month-in-games-no-mans-sky-pokemon-go-ghostbusters
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| 2016-08-24T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/f0145514feba93dd779907077ea28f46d4d9faad47a47486a49470f83cadcb51.json
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[
"Damien Gayle"
] | 2016-08-26T13:25:33 | null | 2016-08-19T14:05:55 |
Marine experts say mysterious orbs found at Long Rock, near Penzance, are species of urchin stirred up from sandy burrows
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fenvironment%2F2016%2Faug%2F19%2Fsea-potatoes-urchins-wash-up-en-masse-on-cornish-beach.json
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Sea potatoes wash up en masse on Cornish beach
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With their biomechanical, other-worldly appearance, these orbs look like baseballs reprocessed through the imagination of HR Giger. So their appearance en masse on a beach near Penzance this week left locals uneasy.
“I took one home with me, then panicked and put it in the bin in case it attacked,” said one dog walker who found hundreds on the beach at Long Rock, between Penzance and Marazion. His spaniel refused to go near them, he said.
Others reported finding the objects from Coverack to Looe. Jess Arnieson, 27, who was holidaying in the area, said people were baffled by the orbs. “There were hundreds of them stretching away as far as you could see along the shoreline,” she said. “The ones I saw were a bit smaller than a football but it’s possible there were some that were bigger ... I didn’t want to go any further along the beach.”
But there is no need to napalm the beaches of the west coast just yet. According to a marine biologist, the unsettling spheroids are not the vanguard of an invasion of Xenomorphs. They are a common species of urchin, known as sea potatoes or Echinocardium cordatum.
“They are quite common at the lower end of the right type of sandy beach, living below the sand in burrows,” said Martin Attrill, director of the marine institute at Plymouth University. “You get lots of them on Torbay main beach, for example. “They are related to starfish and usually covered with little spines.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Mounts Bay, looking towards Long Rock and Penzance in Cornwall, where the sea potatoes washed up en masse. Photograph: Alamy
The sudden appearance of so many of them had led to dark suggestions they may have suffered an unexplained “mass mortality”, but Attrill said that this was unlikely, and such mass strandings were not unusual.
“I think such things happen from time to time and are entirely natural – bit like bushfires,” he said in an email to the Guardian. “They also aggregate for breeding, so if caught out by a storm at that time you may end up with lots at one time. Many of these marine seabed species have real boom-and-bust cycles where some years they do really well and others not so well. It is all part of the circle of life.
“There does seem to be a lot of them at the moment, but we have had a couple of pretty strong storms over the last week or two, which is unusual in August and has perhaps, as an educated guess, resulted in aggregated sea potatoes being stirred up from the beach sand and then washed on to beaches by the waves and wind.”
With another big storm forecast for Britain’s south-west coast to begin on Friday night and intensify through Saturday, we may well yet see more of these strange beings. But Attrill said people need not be afraid, even if their dogs turned their noses up at them.
“They are not harmful at all,” he said. “Back in the day my daughter, aged about six, enjoyed digging them up and holding them like a pet then letting them burrow home again.”
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/19/sea-potatoes-urchins-wash-up-en-masse-on-cornish-beach
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| 2016-08-19T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/1bfe727dc12c0c0d236ce8b0d30fa3da94ec6c98eb17fc387a6230910d1b270e.json
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[] | 2016-08-28T00:49:36 | null | 2016-08-27T23:03:16 |
Scrap the so-called ‘responsibility deal’
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Ftheobserver%2F2016%2Faug%2F27%2Fletters-sugar-responsibility-deal-food-standards-agency.json
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The Food Standards Agency needs greater powers
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www.theguardian.com
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The strategy for reducing sugar intake is surely brief and straightforward – scrap the inappropriately named “responsibility deal” and reinstate the monitoring and enforcement roles of the Food Standards Agency (“May’s craven sugar U-turn puts children at risk”, Comment). Between 2005 and 2011, when Andrew Lansley relieved it of that role, its effectiveness was demonstrated by an average of 15% reduction in salt intake and with all major companies engaged. There was no public outcry and no apparent drop in sales.
We surely wouldn’t put speed limit regulations into the hands of Porsche and childhood obesity is equally deserving of an independent agency to oversee it. Meanwhile, tax has never been a major deterrent to smokers and is unlikely to be any more effective for sugary drinks. The overriding principle of child welfare is that the needs of the child are paramount – this government strategy has failed them.
Dr John Trounce
Hove
East Sussex
Your editorial on obesity in the young (21 August) was a caricature of the UK food and drink industry, Britain’s largest manufacturing sector which employs nearly 400,000 people. Thanks to food and drink manufacturers, people in Britain today have access to a wider range of safe, nutritious food and drink – at all price points – than ever before. The voluntary efforts of those manufacturers have already seen salt intakes reduced by over 15% and they are now focused on reducing fat and sugar too to ensure consumers can make whichever diet choice is right for them.
Your efforts to draw parallels between smoking and food are wrong and malicious. There is no safe level of tobacco consumption and yet food is the stuff of life, an important part not only of nutrition but also of our culture for thousands of years.
Childhood obesity is a serious public health and public policy challenge. It is best tackled by harnessing the efforts of all those involved including government, parents, schools, and yes, of course the industry too. Industry’s commitment to doing the right thing whether by reformulation, reducing portion sizes or clearer labelling is there for all to see..
Ian Wright CBE
Director General
Food and Drink Federation
London
Answers blowing in the wind…
The picture on page 20 of bloodied five-year old Omran Daqneesh just pulled from the rubble of his home in Aleppo will have shocked and saddened all of your readers last Sunday (World news).
And no doubt most will have felt the same anger as I to read, eight pages further on, “How Britain is cashing in on the Middle East’s hunt for weapons”.
Jamie Doward reported: “The global defence export market in 2015 was worth a fraction under $100bn.” We all know that it is not “defence” but death and destruction that this market serves.
Britain should take a moral stance on the world stage and stop the manufacture and export of weapons of death. Turning to page 41 the “loss-of-employment” argument could be answered by Philip Inman’s article “A serious industrial strategy would do well to take the renewables sector as its starting point”. Our armaments factories could be turned over to provide the solar, wind and storage devices that would provide all the energy we need.
Michael Bassey
Newark
Harness the tides for power
I read with interest Terry Macalister’s article about the need for a breakthrough in electricity storage (“If wind and solar power are cheaper and quicker, do we really need Hinkley Point?”, Business). Britain already has a proved industrial-scale electricity storage system. Indeed, four pumped storage schemes have a larger capacity (2800MW) than will be provided by Hinkley Point. There are 64 pumped storage schemes world-wide and 10 under construction.
Britain has many suitable reservoirs, eg Kielder Water and Ladybower, which could be readily adapted for pumped storage. The UK also has 1650MW of straight hydroelectric power generation. Hydro power is more efficient (95%) than any non-renewable generating method.
Hydro takes about 10 seconds to reach full generation, so is ideal when the wind stops or during TV commercials to fill the gap that base loads that cannot quickly ramp up output.
Britain also has at least four “Hinkley Point” potential tidal generating sites. Swansea Bay will be a demonstrator, although La Rance in France has operated successfully for more than 50 years. More hydroelectric and pumped storage schemes should help to control river flooding, by moderating drainage from hills. While electricity is only about 10% of UK end-use energy, and has been falling due to energy efficiency measures, keeping the lights on is a political imperative.
Britain is not the only country with this dilemma. Other European countries are phasing out fossil fuels and nuclear for carbon-free energy supply. Switzerland’s economy was strangled during the First World War, when its coal supplies were cut off, and began a 20-year programme of hydro-generation installation. By 1939, Swiss electricity was, and still is, 100% renewably powered.
Prof LJS Lesley
Liverpool
Don’t demonise the burkini
Naturally, security is a growing global concern that should be at the forefront of everything else. However, repeatedly targeting Muslim women’s dress code and publicly humiliating them is not the solution.
Created bearing Muslim women in mind, the burkini is an all-in-one convenient waterproof swimsuit with the bonus of a swimming hat. Many non-Muslim women who feel uncomfortable wearing other forms of swimwear have worn this.
A burkini is neither the swimwear equivalent of a burqa nor an Islamic item of clothing. There are no instructions in the Qur’an or Islamic teachings about it. It’s a modern-day innovation that complies with health and safety regulations in a swimming pool. It does not replace the burqa (loose outer coat and head covering), which Muslim women wear on a day-to-day basis.
The best way forward to deal with safety and extremism is to educate and work with communities, so they can become aware of security concerns and co-operate to pave the way for peace and harmony.
Navida Sayed
Address supplied
Labour will pull together
I respectfully disagree with Sadiq Khan on this issue (“We cannot win with Jeremy… so I will vote for Owen Smith”, News) but I do agree that when we are “strong and clear in our convictions, the message will get through to the public”. As for Corbyn not likely to win the next general election, I have immense respect for Sadiq Khan but he is no more a soothsayer than Jeremy Corbyn is able to walk on water. Corbyn didn’t lose the last two general elections. . If I make a prediction of my own here; there is a law that says for every action there is an equal opposite reaction. I expect to see some furious bridge building going on in the Labour party after this leadership election for all our sakes.
Cllr Vaughan Thomas
Norwich City Council
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https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2016/aug/27/letters-sugar-responsibility-deal-food-standards-agency
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| 2016-08-27T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/852a1ade9d5000756b19fde65c6d03d9e565b3867c969c167d037c428e34b87d.json
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[] | 2016-08-26T18:51:02 | null | 2016-08-26T17:08:43 |
Letters: Progressive Judaism embraces the opportunity to show what a welcoming community we can be
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Marrying out can be joyful and inclusive
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Rebecca Thornton’s story of the tensions surrounding her marrying a Jewish man (Family, 20 August) is one most Progressive rabbis have heard many times. However, it is not the only side to Judaism. Progressive Judaism does not just believe that so-called marrying out has to be dealt with as a modern reality, but rather embraces the opportunity to show what an inclusive and welcoming community we can be.
Some of the most fulfilling moments in my career have been officiating at mixed-faith blessings to celebrate weddings of couples like Rebecca and Oliver and then to bless their children. It is sad to read such a story, which does alienate people from the beauty of Judaism. Lifecycle moments are when people often need religion the most, and they are when we should open our doors and not turn people away.
Should this couple have found one of our communities, they would have found themselves with a rabbi who would have helped them create a joyful, inclusive ceremony.
Rabbi Charley Baginsky
Coordinator of the Alliance for Progressive Judaism
• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/26/marrying-out-can-be-joyful-and-inclusive
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| 2016-08-26T00:00:00 |
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[
"Patrick Collinson"
] | 2016-08-27T06:49:15 | null | 2016-08-27T06:00:00 |
Half of online fraud comes from abroad, says Ian Dyson, commissioner of the City of London police, who has enlisted the help of Google and Microsoft to fight it
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The police chief battling cybercriminals from Russia and Ukraine
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www.theguardian.com
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Last Christmas Ian Dyson got a call from his bank. Was he really in a Travelodge, ordering takeaway pizzas? No, was his answer, he was at home with his family. Like millions of others, Dyson had fallen victim to card fraudsters stealing from his account. But Dyson is not like everyone else – he is the commissioner of the City of London police, with the job of protecting not just London but the whole country from fraud. And the depressing reality is, like so many other frauds, the criminals got away with it.
Dyson is disarmingly honest about the explosion in online fraud and cybercrime, and what realistically the police can do about it. “Every month Action Fraud [the national fraud reporting service] receives 40,000 reports, half a million a year, and we know from the ONS stats that’s only a small percentage of what is going on. There were 3.8 million frauds and two million cyber offences. You cannot enforce your way out of this. It’s physically impossible.”
It’s partly because the perpetrators are abroad, with around half of all cybercrimes reported to Action Fraud originating overseas, says Dyson, citing Indian call centres and Russian and Ukrainian websites. The City of London police have a specialist officer permanently stationed in Wall Street, and worked with the Spanish police to swoop on 110 conmen operating a “boiler room” fraud targeting elderly investors.
But Russia? Do the London police receive any help from their counterparts in Moscow? “No, not at all. Ukraine is limited too. You’ll be aware of the limitations of some foreign jurisdictions.”
Another limitation is budgets. “Policing has taken a 20% hit in its budget so I’ve got to do what I can with what I’ve got,” he says, while noting that virtually everyone else in the public sector has faced similar cuts.
“You have to be realistic with the volumes [of crimes] you’ve got, [and] about the global nature of the crime issue. I cannot possibly sit here and say I am going to investigate every crime. You can’t. But policing has never investigated every crime.”
The 40,000 reports to Action Fraud every month are whittled down to ones where the police think there are “actionable leads”. Some go up to the National Crime Agency or the Serious Fraud Office, some are pushed out to the other 43 police forces across the UK, while the City of London police tackle the rest.
“There are 700 cases the City of London police are investigating at the moment. That’s me rather than ones disseminated to other forces. In the top 10 there is about half a billion pounds worth of fraud being investigated.”
What he dubs “CEO fraud” is the latest online crime wave City of London police are facing. It’s when a junior person in the finance department of a big company receives an email from the chief executive officer of the firm, asking him or her to move money from one account to another. The email is fake; somehow the fraudsters have hijacked the boss’s email account, or created one that is near identical.
There are 700 cases the City of London police are investigating at the moment
“One major company lost three lots of £250,000 this way,” says Dyson, noting that the culture in some big businesses is such that junior staff are too nervous about confronting their bosses when they receive an email which appears to be from them.
Dyson notes that the other worrying online crime wave is “mandate fraud”. You receive an email from your builder, who’s doing your extension, politely telling you he has changed his bank account details, and could the next £20,000 payment for the extension go into this account? Again, the email has been hijacked, and the householder hands over their life savings – never to be seen again, as banks do not take responsibility. Guardian Money has highlighted numerous sad tales of how people have been conned this way.
Have online fraudsters caught the police napping? Did we put bobbies on the beat when we should have been investing in fighting online fraud? In a frank admission, Dyson says: “To be honest, who’d hold up a bank these days? Who would rob a bank now when you can make it all online in seconds?” His office is just yards from the Bank of England, yet about the only robberies he sees are of betting shops, one of the last major cash-handling businesses around.
He acknowledges that the public think that when they report an online crime, nothing seems to happen. “There is a public perception that PC Plod is losing the war against these highly sophisticated cybercriminals. It’s a perception I’m trying to address.
“Last year 180,000 websites, phonelines and bank accounts involved in fraud were closed down following police intelligence. So disruption is a big thing… Your report, combined with hundreds of others could lead us to close down that website and prevent people from becoming victims of fraud. While you might not get your money back, it will go at least some way to stopping others [from being a victim].”
Disruption is a word Dyson uses a lot. He reckons the best approach for his force is to gain intelligence from the public and other government agencies, and use that to intervene before more victims are conned. It’s why he’s investing heavily in a new IBM project for Action Fraud that should turn it into the world’s most sophisticated anti-fraud intelligence system in the world. The quicker the police can see the signs, the more rapidly they are able to respond, he says.
But the public have to do more: “The public have to shift their mindset around crime. The public have to understand we cannot enforce our way out of this, [given] the volume of crime, the fact that it is global and happening so fast, and that money can be moved so quickly. It has to be about prevention and protection.”
Don’t use “password” as your password, he says. If that email arrives asking you to pay the money into another account, ring the builder, he adds. There are many, many more simple measures the public can take, he insists. In September, the government will begin a public information campaign, which Dyson says will evoke the message of the 1970s “clunk-click, every trip” campaign to get the public to use seatbelts in cars. We need the same thinking when it comes to transacting online, he says.
But shouldn’t the banks be doing more? Can the public really protect themselves from genius hackers determined to break into their accounts?
Dyson is reluctant to criticise the big banks, though he says insurance companies have a much better record than high-street banks at cooperating in fighting fraud. The insurers have paid for 35 police officers in the City of London force alone to battle fake insurance claims and have had a string of prosecution successes.
He would like the banks to be rather more intelligent when an elderly customer walks into a branch and demands to withdraw nearly all their savings when they have never taken out more than £100 before in one go. It’s usually because they are being conned.
Banks may often fail to report a fraud, in part because of the odd way in which crime is recorded. When Dyson’s own card details were stolen, he was fully compensated by the bank. That means, according to Home Office rules, that the bank was the victim of the crime, not Dyson. “It’s something we are talking to the Home Office about,” he says.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘Insurance companies have a much better record than high-street banks at cooperating in fighting fraud.’ Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo
Critics say that police fraud-busters are just not technically competent and resourced to catch cybercriminals. Dyson bridles: “I’d like to disabuse anyone of the view that they are all smart computer geeks, the archetypal spotted teenager hacking into US military computers. They are not. You have some people who are business people who before the internet would have been conning people out of investments. They are doing the same now but are doing it online. Then you have the people with a slightly smarter mate who have found a quick way to make money.”
The boiler room criminals in Spain are the type who were breaking into cars before the advent of the internet, he says. But in 33 years of policing, he says criminals are changing. They used to specialise in a line of business – armed robberies, drug dealing, etc. Now, Dyson says, everybody tries a bit of everything.
Meanwhile, the police have their own geeks. Dyson says the City of London force have staff seconded to them from Google and Microsoft whose internet expertise is a match for any cybercriminal in Russia: “My guys will understand the forensic footprint of these crimes in the same way detectives are aware of forensic opportunities at the scene of a burglary.”
He is proud of his force’s work to fend off pension fraud, which was widely expected to balloon in the wake of the new pension freedoms, but has so far been suppressed by the police working with the pension providers. The force was also instrumental in stopping BT from keeping lines open after a phone is put down, a frequent tactic used by fraudsters to convince people who called back that they were speaking to their bank.
More money would help, Dyson says. For every pound invested in fighting fraud “we are preventing about £60 worth of fraud”. Meanwhile he’s behind a pilot project in which private law firms will be hired by police to help seize the proceeds of crime and repay victims earlier.
“We’re an innovative police force,” he says. “The investment in the last 10 years was in neighbourhood policing and the visibility of police officers. We are shifting, in fairness, policing is shifting to deal with online.”
Unfortunately, as he looks out of his offices over the towers of London, while fighting fraud fills much of his time, there is another more serious threat. “My number one priority at the moment is counter-terrorism. We are quite a target-rich environment.”
How to protect yourself
There were more than 5.8m incidents of cybercrime in the past year, enough to nearly double the headline crime rate in England and Wales, writes Patrick Collinson.
The Office for National Statistics said last month that one in 10 adults have been victims of cybercrime and online fraud over the previous year in the first official estimate of the scale of scams, virus attacks, thefts of bank details and other offences. An initial ONS estimate in October last year put the annual figure at 3.8m, or 40% of all crimes.
Costing an estimated £193bn a year, cybercrime is nearly as big as all other crime, such as home burglary, car thefts and violence against the person. The ONS added that the chance of being a victim is the same regardless of social class or whether you live in a deprived or affluent, urban or rural area.
Meanwhile, the figures for crime excluding online offences dropped in the year, falling by 6%. The long-term trends in traditional crimes such as burglary, car thefts and criminal damage showed that the fall in crime since its 1995 peak had slowed down since 2005. The survey found there had been no change in the overall level of violent crime compared with the previous year.
So what are the easy steps to protect yourself from online crime that Commissioner Ian Dyson recommends?
• Never disclose security details, such as your pin or full banking password
Banks and other trusted organisations will never ask you for these in an email, on the phone, by text or in writing. Before you share anything with anyone, pause to consider what you’re being asked for and question why they need it. Unless you’re 100% sure who you’re talking to, don’t disclose any personal or financial details.
• Don’t assume an email or phone call is authentic
Just because someone knows your basic details (name and address, even your mother’s maiden name), it doesn’t mean they are genuine. Fraudsters may try to trick you and gain your confidence by telling you that you’ve been a victim of fraud. Fraudsters can also make any telephone number appear on your handset, so even if you recognise the number or it seems authentic, do not assume they are genuine.
• Don’t be pressured into a decision
Under no circumstances would a bank or organisation force you to make a financial transaction on the spot; they would never ask you to transfer money into another account for fraud reasons.
• Listen to your instincts
If something feels wrong, it is usually right to question it. Fraudsters may lull you into a false sense of security when you are out and about or rely on your defences being down when you’re in the comfort of your own home. They may appear trustworthy, but they may not be who they claim to be.
• Stay in control
Have the confidence to refuse unusual requests for personal or financial information. It’s easy to feel embarrassed when faced with complex conversations, but it’s OK to stop the discussion if you do not feel in control of it.
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https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/aug/27/london-police-chief-cybercrime-russia-ukraine-online-fraud-google-microsoft
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| 2016-08-27T00:00:00 |
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[
"Ian Sample"
] | 2016-08-29T16:59:19 | null | 2016-08-29T15:05:49 |
Researchers mapping eight types of nerve cells that ferry messages around the body in ‘fight or flight’ mode identify particular types causing erect nipples and goosebumps
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The nerve of it: scientists discover cells that cause hard nipples
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An investigation into the biological machinery that underpins involuntary responses in the body has led scientists to a distinct type of nerve that makes nipples go hard.
Swedish researchers made the discovery while mapping out the various nerve cells that ferry messages around the body in times of emotional distress, such as when the “fight or flight” reaction takes hold and prepares us for imminent danger.
Another type of nerve that emerged from the study hooks up with hair follicles. When activated, the nerves contract tiny muscles around the hairs, making them stand up and produce goosebumps.
All together, the team found eight different types of nerve that carry messages for the sympathetic nervous system, the part of the body’s neural wiring that makes the heart race and the palms sweat in anxious moments, but which also produces goosebumps, constricted blood vessels and hard nipples in cold weather.
“We are trying to understand how the body is constructed, how we go from an egg to a full individual, and how we are wired up is a fascinating process,” said Sten Linnarsson who worked on the study at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. “This is a beautiful example of how it works.”
Until now, the wiring diagram of the sympathetic nervous system has been something of a mystery. But in an unprecedented effort, Linnarsson and his team traced nerves from the spine to the tissues and structures in the body with which they connect.
They began by collecting clumps of nerve cells from the spines of mice and examining them cell by cell for differences in their genetic activity. The team found they could divide the nerves into eight distinct types, each defined by a unique genetic signature.
Sleep 'resets' brain connections crucial for memory and learning, study reveals Read more
“We knew there must be multiple types of nerves wired to different tissues and organs, but we didn’t know what they were,” said Linnarsson, whose study appears in the journal Nature Neuroscience.
The findings suggest that cells in the sympathetic nervous system are separated into distinct types to ensure that after leaving the spine and threading their way through the body, they connect to the right tissues. Any mistakes in the wiring could leave a person in the unfortunate position of responding to danger with erect nipples.
“It’s the same challenge that an electrician faces when they wire up a house,” said Linnarsson. “If the wires all look the same, it’s going to be hard to wire them up correctly.”
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https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/aug/29/the-nerve-of-it-scientists-discover-cells-that-cause-hard-nipples
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| 2016-08-29T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/d0b8cecc546420a48914485b9c350591a0d3a162576f165c484fdc8008297206.json
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[
"Joseph Stiglitz"
] | 2016-08-28T02:54:56 | null | 2016-08-10T08:00:32 |
In this extract from his new book, the Nobel prize-winning economist argues that if the euro is not radically rethought, Europe could be condemned to decades of broken dreams
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The problem with Europe is the euro
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www.theguardian.com
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Europe, the source of the Enlightenment, the birthplace of modern science, is in crisis. This part of the world, which hosted the Industrial Revolution that led to unprecedented changes in standards of living in the past two centuries, has been experiencing a long period of near-stagnation. GDP per capita (adjusted for inflation) for the eurozone – the countries of Europe that share the euro as their currency – was estimated to be barely higher in 2015 than it was in 2007. Some countries have been in depression for years.
When the US unemployment rate hit 10% in October 2009, most Americans thought that was intolerable. It has since declined to less than 5%. Yet the unemployment rate in the eurozone reached 10% in 2009 as well, and has been stuck in double digits ever since. On average, more than one out of five young people in the labour force are unemployed, but in the worst-hit crisis countries, almost one out of two looking for work can’t find jobs. Dry statistics about youth unemployment carry in them the dashed dreams and aspirations of millions of young Europeans, many of whom have worked and studied hard. They tell us about families split apart, as those who can leave emigrate from their country in search of work. They presage a European future with lower growth and living standards, perhaps for decades to come.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Joseph E. Stiglitz is University Professor at Columbia University, recipient of the 2001 Nobel Memorial Prize in economics. His most recent book is The Price of Inequality. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images
These economic facts have, in turn, deep political ramifications. The foundations of post-cold war Europe are being shaken. Parties of the extreme right and left and others advocating the breakup of their nation-states, especially in Spain but even in Italy, are ascendant, and in June Britain voted to leave Europe altogether. What had seemed inevitable in the arc of history – the formation of nation-states in the 19th century – is now being questioned. Questions are arising, too, about the great achievement of post-second world war Europe – the creation of the European Union.
While there are many factors contributing to Europe’s travails, there is one underlying mistake: the creation of the single currency, the euro. Or, more precisely, the creation of a single currency without establishing a set of institutions that enabled a region of Europe’s diversity to function effectively.
The common currency was an outgrowth of efforts that began in the mid-20th century, as Europe reeled from the carnage and disruption of two world wars. Europe’s leaders recognised that a more peaceful future would necessitate a complete reorganisation of the politics, economics and even the national identities of the continent. In 1957, this vision came closer to being a reality with the signing of the Rome treaty, which established the European Economic Community (EEC), comprising Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany. In the following decades, dominated by the cold war, various other western European countries joined the EEC. Step by step, restrictions were eased on work, travel and trade between the expanding list of EEC countries.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest The fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989. Photograph: Rex Features
But it was not until the end of the cold war that European integration really gained steam. The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 showed that the time for much closer, stronger European bonds had grown near. Hopes for a peaceful and prosperous future were higher than ever, among both leaders and citizens. This led to the signing of the Maastricht treaty, which formally established the European Union in 1993 and created much of its economic structure and institutions – including setting in motion the process of adopting a common currency, the euro.
Advocates of the euro rightly argue that it was not just an economic project that sought to improve standards of living by increasing the efficiency of resource allocations, pursuing the principles of comparative advantage, enhancing competition, taking advantage of economies of scale and strengthening economic stability. More importantly, it was a political project; it was supposed to enhance the political integration of Europe, bringing the people and countries closer together and ensuring peaceful coexistence.
The euro has failed to achieve either of its two principal goals of prosperity and political integration: these goals are now more distant than they were before the creation of the eurozone. Instead of peace and harmony, European countries now view each other with distrust and anger. Old stereotypes are being revived as northern Europe decries the south as lazy and unreliable, and memories of Germany’s behaviour in the world wars are invoked.
The eurozone was flawed at birth. The structure of the eurozone – the rules, regulations and institutions that govern it – is to blame for the poor performance of the region, including its multiple crises. The diversity of Europe had been its strength. But for a single currency to work over a region with enormous economic and political diversity is not easy. A single currency entails a fixed exchange rate among the countries, and a single interest rate. Even if these are set to reflect the circumstances in the majority of member countries, given the economic diversity, there needs to be an array of institutions that can help those nations for which the policies are not well suited. Europe failed to create these institutions.
Worse still, the structure of the eurozone built in certain ideas about what was required for economic success – for instance, that the central bank should focus on inflation, as opposed to the mandate of the Federal Reserve in the US, which incorporates unemployment, growth and stability. It was not simply that the eurozone was not structured to accommodate Europe’s economic diversity; it was that the structure of the eurozone, its rules and regulations, were not designed to promote growth, employment and stability.
Why would well-intentioned statesmen and women, attempting to forge a stronger, more united Europe, create something that has had the opposite effect? The founders of the euro were guided by a set of ideas and notions about how economies function that were fashionable at the time, but that were simply wrong. They had faith in markets, but lacked an understanding of the limitations of markets and what was required to make them work. The unwavering faith in markets is sometimes referred to as market fundamentalism, sometimes as neoliberalism. Market fundamentalists believed, for instance, that if only the government would ensure that inflation was low and stable, markets would ensure growth and prosperity for all. While in most of the world market fundamentalism has been discredited, especially in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis, those beliefs survive and flourish within the eurozone’s dominant power, Germany. These beliefs are held with such conviction and certainty, immune to new contrary evidence, that they are rightly described as an ideology. Similar ideas, pushed by the IMF and the World Bank around the globe, led to a lost quarter-century in Africa, a lost decade in Latin America, and a transition from communism to the market economy in the former Soviet Union and eastern Europe that was, to say the least, a disappointment.
Germany, however, holds itself out as a success, providing an example of what other countries should do. Its economy has grown by 6.8% since 2007, but at an average growth rate of just 0.8% a year – a number that, under normal circumstances, would be considered close to failing. (By comparison, the US growth rate in the same period averaged 1.2%.) It’s also worth noting that developments in Germany before the crisis, in the early 2000s – when the country adopted reforms that aggressively cut into the social safety net – came at the expense of ordinary workers, especially those at the bottom. While real wages stagnated (by some accounts decreased), the gap between those at the bottom and the middle increased – by 9% in less than a decade. And through the early years of the century, poverty and inequality increased as well. Germany is talked about as a “success” only by comparison with the other countries of the eurozone.
It is perhaps natural that the eurozone’s leaders want to blame the victim – to blame the countries in recession or depression or reeling from a referendum result – for bringing about this state of affairs. They do not want to blame themselves and the great institutions that they have helped create, and which they now head. But blaming the victim will not solve the euro problem – and it is in large measure unfair.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest David Cameron speaks outside No 10 after announcing that he would hold a referendum on EU membership. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters
It should have surprised no one that Europe’s response to the UK’s referendum was dominated by the same harsh response that greeted Greece’s June 2015 ballot-box rejection of its bailout package. Herman Van Rompuy, a former European council president, expressed a widespread feeling when he said that David Cameron’s decision to hold a referendum “was the worst policy decision in decades”. In so saying, he revealed a deep antipathy towards democratic accountability. Understandably so: in most of the cases in which voters have been directly turned to, they have rejected the euro, the European Union and the European constitution. Moreover, polls at the time of Brexit showed that a majority of those in many European countries besides the UK had an unfavourable view of the EU (including Greece, France, and Spain).
The economic and political consequences of Brexit will, of course, depend a great deal on Europe’s response. Most assume that Europe will not cut off its nose to spite its face. It seems in the interests of everyone to work out the best economic relationship consistent with the democratic wishes and concerns of those on both sides of the Channel. The benefits of trade and economic integration are mutual, and if the EU takes seriously its belief that the closer the economic integration the better, that implies an attempt to make the closest ties possible under the circumstances. Anything the EU does to the UK to try to punish it would have an equal and opposite effect, hurting itself at least as much in the process. The fact that European stock markets were down markedly and European banks were particularly hard hit at least suggests that Brexit was bad for Europe as well.
But Jean-Claude Juncker, the proud architect of Luxembourg’s massive corporate tax-avoidance schemes and now the head of the EU commission, has taken a hard line – perhaps understandably, given that he may go down in history as the person on whose watch the dissolution of the EU began. His line is that Europe must be unrelenting in its punishment, and should offer little more than what the UK is guaranteed under normal global agreements, such as the World Trade Organisation, lest others join the rush to the exit. What a response! According to Juncker, Europe is not to be held together because of the benefits that accrue – benefits that far exceed the costs, the economic prosperity, the sense of solidarity, the pride in being a European. No, Europe is to be held together by threats and fear – of what would happen if a country leaves.
On both sides of the Channel, politics should be directed at understanding the underlying sources of anger Joseph Stiglitz
The euro is often described as a bad marriage. A bad marriage involves two people who never should have been joined together making vows that are supposedly indissoluble. The euro is more complicated: it is a union of 19 markedly different countries tying themselves together. When a couple in trouble goes for marriage counselling, old-style counsellors would try to figure out how to make the marriage work, but a modern one begins by asking: Should this marriage be saved? The costs of dissolution – both financial and emotional – may be very high. But the costs of staying together may be even higher.
One of the first lessons of economics is that bygones are bygones. One should always ask: given where we are, what should we do? On both sides of the Channel, politics should be directed at understanding the underlying sources of anger; how, in a democracy, the political establishment could have done so little to address the concerns of so many citizens, and figuring out how to do that now: to create within each country, and through cross-border arrangements, a new, more democratic Europe, which sees its goal as improving the wellbeing of ordinary citizens. This can’t be done with the neoliberal ideology that has prevailed for a third of a century and played such an important role in the construction of the euro. And it won’t be done if we confuse ends with means – the euro is not an end in itself, but a means, which, if well managed, might bring greater shared prosperity, but, if not well managed, will lead to lower standards of living for many or possibly the majority of citizens.
While there are many reasons for pessimism, more important are those for hope: that so many throughout Europe have held on to their faith in the European project, that even in countries where there is every reason for despair, there is still hope – hope that the EU can and will be reformed. There are political leaders throughout Europe who have become politicians because they still believe that democratic politics can bring about changes that will deliver shared prosperity to ordinary citizens. And throughout Europe, there are people, many of them young, who have marched, in the tens of thousands, for a different Europe; one, for instance, in which new trade agreements serve not just corporate interests but broader societal interests.
There are alternatives to the current arrangements that can create a true shared prosperity: the challenge is to learn from the past to create this new economics and politics of the future. The Brexit referendum was a shock. My hope is that the shock will set off waves on both sides of the Channel that will lead to this new, reformed European Union.
This is an edited extract from The Euro and Its Threat to the Future of Europe by Joseph Stiglitz, published by Allen Lane on 16 August at £20 and available at the Guardian bookshop
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https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/aug/10/joseph-stiglitz-the-problem-with-europe-is-the-euro
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en
| 2016-08-10T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/f9a8e0192bbd14c312eac06db7b70bd1662538d47e8c53fddd27321e5a2bc48d.json
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[
"Nicola Davis",
"Max Sanderson"
] | 2016-08-26T13:27:13 | null | 2016-08-21T02:00:09 |
What does the future hold for humanity? And can we ever really know?
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fscience%2Faudio%2F2016%2Faug%2F21%2Fbig-unknowns-what-will-become-of-us-podcast.json
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Big unknowns: what will become of us? - podcast
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www.theguardian.com
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One of our most treasured traits, our ability to plan for the future, is a key factor in the success story of Homo sapiens. And because of this, we are fascinated with what the future might hold. Indeed, we may even be programmed to look forward in this way. That said, when it comes to complex beings, such as humans, predicting what might happen in the months and years ahead becomes an increasingly difficult task. But are there any certainties? And what can we do to try and keep them under our control? These are some of the questions we to put to the Future of Humanity Institute’s Dr Anders Sandberg, child psychologist and AI enthusiast Professor Alison Gopnik and geneticist Professor Robin Lovell-Badge.
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https://www.theguardian.com/science/audio/2016/aug/21/big-unknowns-what-will-become-of-us-podcast
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en
| 2016-08-21T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/095dabd830385452a2710fd148d07813e94f6cda4a19a1f195b5dd3920ee5c0e.json
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[
"Eleanor Ainge Roy"
] | 2016-08-26T13:20:09 | null | 2016-08-25T05:43:58 |
Czech hiker tells police she stayed in a remote cabin after partner fell to his death on Routeburn track in the South Island
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fworld%2F2016%2Faug%2F25%2Fwoman-survives-month-in-new-zealand-mountains-after-partner-died-on-hike.json
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Woman survives month in New Zealand mountains after partner died on hike
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www.theguardian.com
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A Czech woman found alive in a remote mountain cabin in New Zealand has told police she spent a month there alone after her partner fell and died on a hiking trail.
The woman was found on Wednesday at a warden’s hut on the famous Routeburn track, which winds through a spectacular gorge in the mountains of Fiordland national park in the South Island.
According to police the couple started the walk on 26 July and the man fell down a steep slope on 28 July. The woman said she climbed down the slope and reached him but he died shortly afterwards.
'Come with an open mind': what life is really like in New Zealand Read more
Since then, the woman said, she had been living in a warden’s hut that was left locked and unattended for the winter at Lake Mackenzie, about halfway along the 32km track.
Despite heavy snowfalls in the past month, she was found in good health on Wednesday by a search and rescue team after concerns were raised with police that the couple had not been heard from since late July. They had only been reported missing to New Zealand police this week by the Czech consulate.
“This is a highly unusual case,” said Inspector Olaf Jensen, the Otago Lakes central area police commander.
“It is very unusual for someone to be missing for such a long time in the New Zealand bush without it being reported.”
Police said the pair – described as in their late 20s to early 30s and visiting New Zealand since January – had been reasonably well equipped for their expedition and had “some experience” in the New Zealand bush, but became disoriented and veered off the track, which is when the man fell to his death. Police were working to retrieve his body on Thursday.
After her partner’s death, police said, the woman spent three nights in the bush before making her way to the Lake Mackenzie hut on 31 July, a distance of approximately 2km, where she broke in and used its supplies of food, firewood and gas.
There was a mountain radio in the hut but the woman was unable to operate it, Jensen said. During her month-long stay she felt unable to walk out due to her own injuries and conditions that included up to a metre of snow and the risk of avalanches.
The woman drew an “H” in the snow – for “Help” – hoping it would be seen from the air. No other trampers came to the hut while she was there, she told police.
The Routeburn track usually takes intermediate walkers between two and four days to complete. It is officially closed during winter but numerous people still walk the track as it is well marked and there are public huts that remain open.
The New Zealand department of conservation’s website says facilities on the track “are greatly reduced” in the winter months when there are also “additional safety hazards to consider”.
“Walking the track during this time should only be attempted by fit, experienced and well equipped people,” it says.
Through the months of July and August numerous tourists posted pictures from the Routeburn track on social media.
Ian Sime, a spokesperson for the Otago Tramping and Mountaineering Club, said he had never heard of a tourist being lost on a major tramping track for such a length of time and he found the case “unbelievable”.
“I am flabbergasted, I don’t understand how this could happen. Even in winter there are teams of people walking parts of the track and staying in the huts.”
Tiny New Zealand town with 'too many jobs' launches drive to recruit outsiders Read more
Sime said the track was not known for being particularly dangerous and even during the winter it was usually easy to find.
Noel Saxon, general manager of Ultimate Hikes Queenstown, said the woman’s survival was an incredible feat.
“I have been very surprised by this story – she must be a hardy character to have stayed out there so long in these conditions,” he said.
“I do find it unusual that no one else walked through during her time in the hut but it is not out of the question. In certain conditions it could be difficult to go anywhere and potentially that is what has happened here.”
During the summer Saxon guides groups of tourists of “average fitness” along the Routeburn and from the start of the track it takes them a day to walk to Lake Mackenzie Hut.
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/25/woman-survives-month-in-new-zealand-mountains-after-partner-died-on-hike
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en
| 2016-08-25T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/2e42daf65b891d12f60f2ac77eafdbaa15d2d58bf6091593bacaca9edd26e380.json
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[
"Heather Stewart",
"Michael White",
"Sadiq Khan",
"Rutger Bregman"
] | 2016-08-26T13:30:26 | null | 2016-08-25T17:29:18 |
Shadow chancellor’s strongly worded statement comes after party suspends pro-Corbyn trade unionist Ronnie Draper
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http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fpolitics%2F2016%2Faug%2F25%2Fjohn-mcdonnell-accuses-labour-committee-of-rigged-purge-of-members.json
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John McDonnell accuses Labour committee of 'rigged purge' of members
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www.theguardian.com
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John McDonnell has accused Labour’s general secretary, Iain McNicol, of directing a “rigged purge” of party members, aimed at weeding out Corbyn voters.
The shadow chancellor’s strongly worded statement, issued by Corbyn’s campaign, came after the party suspended a senior Corbyn-supporting trade unionist, Ronnie Draper.
Draper, the general secretary of the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU), which has nearly 20,000 members, tweeted:
— Ronnie Draper (@Ronniebfawu) Just been suspended from the Labour Party, a member most of my life. Democracy in action @jeremycorbyn @NSSN_AntiCuts @resistunite #bfawu
McDonnell said: “Labour party members will not accept what appears to be a rigged purge of Jeremy Corbyn supporters. The conduct of this election must be fair and even-handed.” He said he had written to McNicol “to demand that members and supporters who are suspended or lose their voting rights are given clear information about why action has been taken and a timely opportunity to challenge the decision.”
McDonnell claimed the party was exercising double standards in suspending Draper while allowing long-time party donor Lord Sainsbury to remain a member, despite having given more than £2m to the Liberal Democrats.
News of Sainsbury’s donation to the Lib Dems emerged on Thursday in official figures published by the Electoral Commission.
McDonnell’s intervention highlights the bitter nature of the party’s leadership contest, which has already been marred by a series of court battles over the rules.
Corbyn has repeatedly insisted he would work with Labour MPs if he wins in September; but McDonnell’s statement – which will be seen by some as an attack on party staff – underlines the divide in the party.
Corbyn’s team believe the party’s compliance committee makes arbitrary decisions, often on political grounds, some of which they believe could even breach members’ human rights.
Labour said the party did not discuss national executive committee decisions on individual members.
The compliance unit is working through applications to check whether the 180,000 new registered supporters who signed up to take part in the vote are eligible, or if some are members of, or public advocates for, other groups.
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http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/aug/25/john-mcdonnell-accuses-labour-committee-of-rigged-purge-of-members
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en
| 2016-08-25T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/5a216aea3e3b39732107ed4ae1debe40c1d201b50e15f0d171a2c5bebc94ca15.json
|
|
[
"Photograph",
"Geoff Caddick Afp Getty Images",
"Rebecca Naden Reuters",
"Joe Giddens Pa"
] | 2016-08-29T06:49:50 | null | 2016-08-29T06:00:54 |
The World Bog Snorkelling Championships in Waen Rhydd peat bog at Llanwrtyd Wells, south Wales. Entrants must negotiate two lengths of a 60-yard trench through the peat bog in the quickest possible time without using any conventional swimming strokes
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fuk-news%2Fgallery%2F2016%2Faug%2F29%2Fworld-bog-snorkelling-championships-in-pictures.json
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World Bog Snorkelling Championships - in pictures
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
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Superheroes, mermaids and pink stetsons were in action at this year’s championships in the Waen Rhydd peat bog in Llanwrtyd Wells. Entrants must negotiate two lengths of a 60-yard trench through the peat bog in the quickest possible time without using any conventional swimming strokes
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https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/gallery/2016/aug/29/world-bog-snorkelling-championships-in-pictures
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en
| 2016-08-29T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/64785c7af6b4c800407150e71b728e1fc8a3091f09e0e14b56706ce1c645c187.json
|
|
[
"Dave Hill"
] | 2016-08-30T16:50:13 | null | 2016-08-30T16:10:31 |
A survey of opinions about tall buildings in the capital has produced a revealingly nuanced set of responses
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fuk-news%2Fdavehillblog%2F2016%2Faug%2F30%2Flondoners-and-skyscrapers-a-mixed-picture-of-acceptance-and-concern.json
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Londoners and skyscrapers: a mixed picture of acceptance and concern
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www.theguardian.com
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Given the fury so often directed at tall buildings in London, the most striking finding of the recently-published Ipsos-MORI poll of Londoners’ attitudes to them is how relaxed most of them seem with the clusters of skyscrapers currently sprouting in the capital.
True, there were large majorities favouring “more limits” on the height of new tall buildings and on the number rising to an exceptional 50 storeys or more. Just under 20% of those surveyed felt strongly about these things and 41% and 40% respectively said they “tend to agree” that the limits suggested should be imposed. They far outnumbered those who took the opposite views.
And yet opinions about the tall buildings - defined as more than 20-storeys high - that currently exist or are under construction in the capital were, on the whole, more positive than negative.
Asked if they are worried that too many new tall buildings are going up in London, 40% either strongly disagreed (8%) or tended to disagree (32%) compared with 36% who strongly (9%) or tended to (27%) agree that they are worried. Those surveyed were also asked if they think new tall buildings are making London’s skyline look better. A substantial 44% agreed (8% strongly, 36% tended to) compared with only 30% who disagreed (9% and 21%).
There was an absolute dead heat between those who agree that “new tall buildings are damaging what makes London special” and those who don’t, but a clear majority agreeing with the proposition that “new tall buildings are making a valuable contribution to the vibrancy of London” - 40% in all compared with only 27% who disagreed. Moreover, 47% thought the number of tall building in the pipeline earlier this year, when the question was asked - 270, including 25 of more than 50 storeys - was “about right” compared with 39% who thought this was too many and 11%, too few.
What conclusions can be drawn from these findings and how should they influence Sadiq Khan’s approach to using his planning powers and, in the longer term, his drawing up of a new London Plan?
It’s tempting to suggest that the influential anti-tall building lobby, with its mixture of aesthetic, heritage and developer-bashing arguments, should be required to make its case more persuasively. Londoners may be wary of skyscraper development getting out of hand and, as another part of Ipsos-MORI survey indicates, would like tall buildings contained within specific areas. But, in general, they seem relatively content with how things are now (though note that the very latest figures say that 400 tall buildings are planned).
It’s a reminder that London buildings that have broken height barriers in the past, from St Pauls to the BT Tower (originally the Post Office Tower), have faced initial, high-profile opposition only to be later embraced by popular affection. The same thing seems to be happening with the Shard.
At the same time, the pollsters found an exceptionally high level of agreement that Londoners should be consulted more over the number of tall buildings going up. And, significantly, negative feelings about them were more marked among Inner Londoners, who are more likely to have a tall building near where they live, than among Outer Londoners, for many of whom the edifices sprouting along the Thames and elsewhere are distant additions to the skyline rather than looming giants casting long, local shadows. For example, the percentage of Inner Londoners worried about the number of tall buildings was slightly larger at 43% than the 40% who said they aren’t worried.
Another question in the survey suggests that Londoners are more accepting of tall buildings if convinced of their utility: good design, looking “right” in relation to their surroundings and respecting the feelings of local people came high on the list of factors they thought should be given the greatest priority by those making decisions about whether tall buildings should be allowed, but the top two on the list were whether the building would produce affordable housing and new job opportunities.
However, when asked which types of housing are most suited to the needs of Londoners, terraced dwellings came top, closely followed by purpose-built flats of five storeys or less. High-rise flats lagged well behind.
The overall picture painted by the survey is, then, a nuanced one. The mayor might be wise to tentatively conclude that Londoners will accept more tall buildings on condition that they will serve a useful purpose and if their scale and proliferation is regulated in keeping with their wishes.
The findings also raise issues for further research. For example, Hackney Labour councillor Rita Krishna, a strong advocate of cycling, walking and public transport, has wondered on Twitter whether the preference for terraces partly reflects an assumption that they provide on-street car parking. Another thought that comes to mind is whether Londoners have been well enough informed about what modern, high density housing that isn’t also high-rise can look and feel like - a point that is not lost on Khan’s deputy for housing, James Murray.
The mayor has said he will publish supplementary planning guidance in the autumn. That should start to tell us what his direction of travel on tall buildings is, along with a great deal else.
Read the detailed findings of the Ipsos MORI survey by way of here.
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https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/davehillblog/2016/aug/30/londoners-and-skyscrapers-a-mixed-picture-of-acceptance-and-concern
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en
| 2016-08-30T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/04c2e15ed09ed675175b4101c969e4ba82d9a9824ad7fab8d384cd816add45ec.json
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|
[
"Jessica Elgot"
] | 2016-08-26T13:30:29 | null | 2016-08-25T22:09:17 |
Party may have to cancel its annual meeting as it runs out of security options following decision to boycott company
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http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fpolitics%2F2016%2Faug%2F25%2Flabour-conference-in-peril-g4s-will-not-provide-security.json
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Labour conference in peril as G4S rules out last-minute deal
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www.theguardian.com
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The security firm G4S has ruled out a last-minute deal to guard Labour’s annual conference, leaving the party without security just weeks before the event is due to open in Liverpool.
The result of the Labour leadership contest is due to be announced on 24 September, just before the party’s annual conference, but without security in place neither event can go ahead.
The toxic tone of the leadership battle was underlined on Thursday by a statement from the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, accusing the party’s officials of carrying out “a rigged purge of Jeremy Corbyn supporters”.
The party is no closer to clinching a deal to provide security for the conference, with the event facing cancellation if no contract is made. G4S, which had been subject to a Labour boycott, has said it is now too late to do a deal.
John McDonnell accuses Labour committee of 'rigged purge' of members Read more
Last year the party’s national executive committee (NEC) voted to boycott G4S but the GMB union has threatened to stage a picket if Labour contracts an alternative provider, Showsec, which does not recognise trade unions. Showsec was the only provider to have bid for the contract.
G4S has now said it will not step in to provide security, even if the party’s executive drops its boycott of the company.
Eric Alexander, managing director for G4S events, said the company would usually start planning for such a large and complex event up to a year in advance. “Safety for delegates and our staff is our priority and at this late stage and with our teams committed elsewhere, we are not in a position to step in and provide security for the conference,” he said.
“Security officers need to be cleared and accredited to work, detailed risk assessments made, safety and security plans with the Home Office and local police forces drawn up and supporting logistics, such as security equipment and staff accommodation, put in place.
“Our team of more than 100 security staff has secured the Labour party’s annual conference for over 20 years and the feedback from officials and the police on our work last year, as in the past, was extremely positive. Clearly we were disappointed not to continue such a successful working relationship.”
Although it is possible for the party to pay police officers to secure the event, Merseyside police said it is “not an option at the moment” and that they have not yet been approached by the party.
Labour’s general secretary, Iain McNicol, emailed members of the NEC to ask for input on the situation, and several are known to have recommended that the party retract its boycott of G4S, which does recognise trade unions.
The boss of GMB, Tim Roache, has said the union will picket the conference if Showsec provides the security, leaving Labour MPs and members facing the choice of crossing a picket line to attend their own conference or missing the event entirely. Sources have told the Guardian such a scenario would make it impossible for it to go ahead.
As Labour staff and the NEC race to find a solution to the security crisis, officials also came under attack from McDonnell who accused them of trying to weed out Corbyn voters in a strongly worded statement sent out by the leader’s campaign team.
The accusations of a purge were prompted by the suspension of a senior Corbyn-supporting trade unionist, Ronnie Draper, general secretary of the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union.
McDonnell said: “Labour party members will not accept what appears to be a rigged purge of Jeremy Corbyn supporters. The conduct of this election must be fair and even-handed.”
He said he had written to McNicol “to demand that members and supporters who are suspended or lose their voting rights are given clear information about why action has been taken and a timely opportunity to challenge the decision”.
McDonnell claimed the party was exercising double standards in suspending Draper while allowing long-time party donor Lord Sainsbury to remain a member, despite the peer having given more than £2m to the Liberal Democrats.
The compliance unit is working through applications to check whether the 180,000 new registered supporters who signed up to take part in the vote are eligible, or if some are members of, or public advocates for, other groups.
Labour said the party did not discuss national executive committee decisions on individual members. Several other would-be Labour members have taken to Twitter to complain of being denied membership because they had expressed support for other parties, including the Greens.
Jonny Will Chambers, the former parliamentary assistant to MP Stella Creasy, also said that he had had his membership denied because of tweets in support of Theresa May when she was standing for Conservative party leader.
Members of the NEC, who sit on two separate vetting panels with three members each, have the final say over whether an application for membership is denied and the decision is made by majority vote not by individuals.
Outgoing NEC member Johanna Baxter tweeted on Thursday that the panels were made up both of Corbyn supporters and supporters of his rival, Owen Smith, but said she had received internet abuse for being on one of the panels.
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http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/aug/25/labour-conference-in-peril-g4s-will-not-provide-security
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en
| 2016-08-25T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/1f430e4984a07c9142cd263774fcc3014c5ef684e6120523c6a7a99803124748.json
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|
[
"Lauren Dake"
] | 2016-08-26T13:20:19 | null | 2016-08-25T10:00:08 |
Cannabis advocates call it a monumental step in removing the stigma around a product they believe should be considered the same as any other crop
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fus-news%2F2016%2Faug%2F25%2Foregon-state-fair-marijuana-cannabis.json
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Prize-winning pot: top marijuana plants debut at Oregon state fair
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www.theguardian.com
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This week, Nathan Martinez’s family will head to the Oregon state fair to view the prize-winning plants he’s hydroponically grown and lovingly cultivated: both the sativa super sour diesel and the indica granddaddy purple.
That’s right: one of the nation’s most family-friendly traditions – synonymous with the tilt-a-whirl, funnel cake and blue ribbon pigs – will feature marijuana plants.
“Cannabis is taking its rightful place next to tomatoes and other agriculture,” said Don Morse, with the Oregon Cannabis Business Council, noting that it’s the first time pot plants have been displayed at a state fair.
But unlike the tomatoes, the marijuana plants will only be viewable by those 21 and older. And the plants will be guarded by security. Still, cannabis advocates called it a monumental step in removing the stigma around a product they believe should be considered the same as any other Oregon crop.
Age of the edibles awaits Oregon cannabis lovers as state changes law Read more
Mandy Seybert, 28, a pot farmer who will have a plant on display at the Oregon fair, believes it’s simply a matter of time before cannabis “is treated like any other plant – just like someone’s prized daisy”.
To determine which nine marijuana plants would make history at the state fair in Salem, there was another first: a live cannabis competition at the Oregon cannabis growers’ fair from 13 to 14 August.
In some ways, the growers’ fair was similar to any business expo; vendors pitched their products, including DIY pot-growing kits and child-resistant bags to store bud.
At one of the larger vendor booths, Katie Joy, 24, assured a customer looking at her vaporizers that they were discreet and “perfect for a river day”. Joy also pointed out that although the products are “gender neutral” she had male and female color schemes available.
Gregarious 44-year-old “Stony” Tony Black – sporting a white T-shirt that read “God grew it. I smoke it. That settles” – said the expo was great for selling his cleaning products for glass pipes.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Shane Cavanaugh, owner of Amazon Organics, a pot dispensary in Eugene, arranges the cannabis display in his store before the growers’ fair in 2015. Photograph: Ryan Kang/AP
There was one quiet, lonely-looking stand staffed by a Frito-Lay representative, hoping to convince marijuana store owners to stock their salty snacks.
But the dozens of marijuana plants in the corner, some reaching 14in tall, were distinct.
Ribbons for first, second and third prize were awarded for each of the three varieties being judged: indica, which produces the type of body high where munchies manifest – experts say to think of it as “in da couch”; sativa, with a more energetic, uplifting high; and hybrids.
Two months after Oregon legalization, pot saturation sends profits up in smoke Read more
Ed Rosenthal, also called the guru of ganja, was the contest’s head judge. Carrying a clipboard and wearing a black shirt with green marijuana plants, he evaluated each plant on a range of criteria: color, aroma, shape of leaves and overall health. The plants are judged before they flower, and the type of high they produce isn’t a factor in their overall score.
Rosenthal’s priority, he said, is “helping cannabis socialize into the mainstream”.
Oregon voters legalized recreational marijuana in 2014 for adults 21 and older. The state has long allowed medical marijuana.
Among the hopefuls was Peggy Anderson, a petite silver-haired woman, retired from her job at the Portland Business Alliance to open a pot-growing operation with her son. At 63 years old, Anderson said she’s never felt healthier. She walks three miles a day and can vouch for her own product.
She believes the industry is poised to be the next cash crop.
“If you think about Oregon and the agricultural industry, in the Willamette Valley we’re primed to do just as well as the wine industry,” said Anderson, who brought an indica strain called So Mango to display.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Greg Seybert, head farmer at marijuana grower Synergy Farms, inspects a marijuana plant with his girlfriend, Samantha Aune. Photograph: Gillian Flaccus/AP
Mary Lou Burton, one of the key organizers of the event, is envisioning a craft cannabis industry, perhaps – in classic Portland style – artisanal pot.
Burton spent nearly two decades as a wedding planner and still looks the part. She wore a navy and white floral sundress and had the aura of a frenzied multitasker. She spoke quickly, greeted reporters, hobnobbed with exhibitors and gave everyone a run down of the event.
The growers’ fair was a success, Burton said, despite having to field more phone calls than she’s used to.
“A lot of our exhibitors are stoners, so they call and say, “When is the fair again?” she said.
Martinez and his business partner, Danny Grimm, who own Uplifted, a cannabis farm, took home two blue ribbons and are ecstatic about the upcoming state fair.
“To display my plants in public is a dream come true,” Grimm said.
It wasn’t that long ago, he said, “we would have picked up a couple of felonies for our plants”.
Pete and Amy Egli were at the expo to show support for their son, who works in a pot store and is a grower. Amy, a kindergarten teacher, and Pete, a dairy worker, aren’t marijuana users and are still in the midst of trying to understand the industry.
“We grew up in a world that was very different,” Pete Egli said. “I’m still like, oh my God, it’s going to be at the state fair.”
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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/aug/25/oregon-state-fair-marijuana-cannabis
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en
| 2016-08-25T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/fd54e68eda90f11c9c2f3e4f872cb85d5f5b32202efd4a49bb0b8ff97f1ebd57.json
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[
"Agence France-Presse In Manila"
] | 2016-08-26T16:51:09 | null | 2016-08-26T15:08:32 |
Ronald dela Rosa says: ‘Why don’t you give them a visit, pour gasoline on their homes and set these on fire?’
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fworld%2F2016%2Faug%2F26%2Fphilippines-police-chief-echoes-presidents-call-to-kill-drug-traffickers.json
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Philippines police chief echoes president's call to kill drug traffickers
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www.theguardian.com
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The Philippines’ police chief has called on drug users to kill traffickers and burn their homes, escalating the president’s deeply controversial campaign against drugs, which has claimed about 2,000 lives.
“Why don’t you give them a visit, pour gasoline on their homes and set these on fire to register your anger,” Ronald dela Rosa said in a speech aired on television on Friday.
“They’re all enjoying your money, money that destroyed your brain. You know who the drug lords are. Would you like to kill them? Go ahead. Killing them is allowed because you are the victim.”
Dela Rosa was speaking on Thursday to several hundred drug users who had surrendered in the central Philippines. His comments followed those of the president, Rodrigo Duterte, which have sparked criticism from the United Nations and human rights groups.
The Guardian view on the Philippine war on drugs: street justice is no justice | Editorial Read more
Duterte, 71, won May elections in a landslide on a vow to kill tens of thousands of suspected criminals in an unprecedented blitz that he claimed would eliminate illegal drugs in six months.
He promised on the campaign trail that 100,000 people would be killed and so many bodies would be dumped in Manila Bay that fish would grow fat from feeding on them.
Days after his election win, Duterte also offered security officials bounties for the bodies of drug dealers.
When he took office on 30 June, Duterte told a crowd in Manila: “If you know of any addicts, go ahead and kill them yourself as getting their parents to do it would be too painful.”
The UN special rapporteur on summary executions, Agnes Callamard, said such directives “amount to incitement to violence and killing, a crime under international law”.
However, Dela Rosa and Duterte have insisted they are working within the law and their aides have dismissed some of their comments as merely “hyperbole” meant to scare drug traffickers.
After a barrage of bad headlines, Dela Rosa on Friday apologised for his remarks the previous day and described them as an “emotional outburst”.
“I said that because I felt so bad. I was in front of those poor people, pushers and users. They looked like zombies. I was so mad. That’s why I said that,” he told reporters.
“I’m sorry if I said something unpleasant. Many people are reacting. I am very sorry. I am just a human being who gets mad.”
When asked earlier on Friday if Duterte supported Dela Rosa’s call to murder and commit arson, the presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella denied that that was the police chief’s intent.
“There is no such call. It’s a passionate statement,” Abella said, without elaborating.
Dela Rosa told a senate inquiry this week that the number of people confirmed as having died in the drug war was 1,946. He said police had shot dead 756 suspects in self-defence.
He said there were another 1,190 killings under investigation, but they were probably due to drug gangs murdering people who could implicate each other. He also emphasised that the crime war had so far been a success.
“I admit many are dying but our campaign, now, we have the momentum,” he told the senate.
Many Filipinos continue to support Duterte, accepting his argument that drastic measures are needed to stop the Philippines becoming a “narco state”.
But criticism has continued to mount, with fears that security forces and hired assassins are roaming out of control and killing anyone suspected of being involved in drugs or for other reasons.
The US government on Monday expressed its concern about “reports of extrajudicial killings”.
Local media have also reported a growing number of children who have been killed in the crossfire.
Human Rights Watch released a statement condemning the death of a five-year-old girl who was shot this week when unknown gunmen reportedly entered her home and tried to kill her grandfather, an alleged drug user, who was wounded.
Phelim Kine, the US-based group’s Asia deputy director, said in a statement: “Duterte’s aggressive rhetoric advocating violent, extrajudicial solutions to crime in the Philippines has found willing takers.”
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/26/philippines-police-chief-echoes-presidents-call-to-kill-drug-traffickers
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en
| 2016-08-26T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/0bf4318959942da861b125258d33b45b561edc38ea0a816b08c4544a6755a534.json
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[
"Arwa Mahdawi"
] | 2016-08-27T12:58:58 | null | 2016-08-27T12:00:02 |
A recent study says that if you really want to achieve your dreams, don’t worry about a safety net. Fine advice for those for whom failure wouldn’t spell disaster
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fcommentisfree%2F2016%2Faug%2F27%2Fentrepreneur-safety-nets-plan-b-economic-inequality.json
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Ditch the Plan B? Go ahead, so long as you're rich
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www.theguardian.com
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To Plan B or not to Plan B, that is the question. Science finally has the answer and, apparently, it’s “No, absolutely not”. If you want to be successful then you should ditch your backup plan says a recent study. Simply considering a Plan B acts as an “emotional safety net” that decreases your drive when it comes to achieving your real goal.
Honestly, I have never related to a paper in the journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes so much. Throughout my life I’ve put off pursuing Grand Plans by busying myself with putting robust Plan Bs in place, “just in case”. If only I could throw caution to the wind, I’ve told myself, maybe I’d be the first female secretary-general of the United Nations, a bestselling author and a world-class hacker by now.
But, you know what? Maybe I wouldn’t be. Probably, in fact, I’d just be broke. Here’s the thing about studies like these: they end up as headlines telling you to “Ditch the Backup Plan” which then turn into epigrams on Instagram (aka the modern career guidance office). Think: “Follow your passion!”; “Fail Again, Fail better!”; “Find what you love and let it kill you!”
But finding what you love and throwing yourself into it without a backup plan really could kill you. Sever Your Safety Net may look nice in cursive – with a background of clouds – but it ought to have a Do Not Try This at Home disclaimer on it too. It ignores the fact that much success does, in fact, stem from the presence of a financial safety net. When you delve into who actually does decide to go gung-ho for their Plan A you often find that their bravery isn’t so much a case of a cool head and a brave heart as it is a case of having money. A 1998 study, What Makes an Entrepreneur? found that personality traits weren’t a predictor of entrepreneurship, access to capital was. “[E]ntrepreneurship is more about cash than dash,” University of Warwick professor Andrew Oswald, an author of the study, told Quartz last year. “Genes probably matter, as in most things in life, but not much.”
A 2013 study by Berkeley economists reinforces these findings. Entrepreneurs, the study shows, are more likely to be white, male, highly educated, and from come from higher-income families. “If one does not have money in the form of a family with money, the chances of becoming an entrepreneur drop quite a bit,” noted Ross Levine, one of the economists.
The same study also showed that entrepreneurs were more likely to have “greater self-esteem, and engaged in more disruptive, illicit activities” as teenagers, such as taking drugs or skipping school. It’s funny for how some people breaking the law is a “disruptive” activity that set’s them up for startup CEO-ship and for others it’s a quick way to getting locked up and never employed again. An appetite for risk doesn’t come so much from genetics, it seems, as it does from confidence: knowing you can get rich and you’re not going to die trying.
Blind luck also plays an under-acknowledged role in success. Recognising that your achievements come down to being in the right place at the right time or being from the right family isn’t as enticing as imagining you forged your way to the top through passion and perseverance. Which is why most rich people rationalize their success as a matter of hard work and risk-taking over luck. (Exhibit A: Donald Trump.) This is particularly true in America, where individualism striving is held in high esteem. Figures from Pew Research Center show that 73% of Americans think hard work is the most important driver of success; only 18% think having a wealthy family is.
All of this is not to say that if you don’t have a financial safety net you should simply give up on your dreams right now. Far from it. But taking a risk isn’t the same thing as being reckless. That distinction tends to get muddied by the romantic notion of the Extraordinary Individual. After all, doesn’t “Follow your passion” sound a whole lot nicer than “If at first you don’t succeed try again with more of your parents money”?
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/27/entrepreneur-safety-nets-plan-b-economic-inequality
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en
| 2016-08-27T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/b7992645539cd7a6190611712f181513624707b0cf248a268ea62c4e19a029bf.json
|
|
[
"Sean Hargrave"
] | 2016-08-26T13:24:26 | null | 2016-08-18T06:20:25 |
TruRating wants to make hospitality ratings more reliable by ensuring only card-paying customers can leave reviews
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fsmall-business-network%2F2016%2Faug%2F18%2Fstartup-taking-on-tripadvisor-yelp-hospitality-ratings.json
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| null |
The startup taking on TripAdvisor and Yelp
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
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When Georgina Nelson sat down with the consultant she had hired to dispense sage advice on breaking into the card payments industry and taking on TripAdvisor at the same time, she was underwhelmed. The brief was to get her rating software working on card terminals so customers could review a business as they paid their bill. The advice she was given was summed up in a presentation with a single slide of a brick wall, with a warning not to bother.
“He was kind of right because it is a very tough industry to get in to,” she says. “I don’t think he realised how determined I am though.”
Three years later and Nelson’s startup, truRating, has raised £13.2m in angel and venture capital funding and has offices in the UK, US, Canada and Australia. Agreements have been signed with the world’s two largest card payments companies, Ingenico and Verifone, along with 60 separate agreements with software providers to ensure truRating can work on their systems.
The company now employs more than 50 staff , is chaired by former Visa Europe chief executive Pete Ayliffe and the co-head of investment banking in Europe at Goldman Sachs, Anthony Gutman, is a board-level adviser.
The brick wall has been breached and the focus has moved from breaking into the industry to building up the scale to truly rival a TripAdvisor or Yelp.
The idea for the business was simple and struck Nelson while she was working in the legal team at Which? magazine.
“I went to one of those great business lunch talks that really gets you thinking,” she says. “There was a fabulous speech about how the big ratings sites, such as TripAdvisor and Yelp, rely on a tiny proportion of members to write the vast majority of their reviews. At the same time, they have a big problem with people not knowing for sure a reviewer has really been to that hotel or restaurant. It could be a rival slamming them, or it could be the business saying great things about itself.”
It got Nelson thinking that there had to be a better way of ensuring views were reliable. She concluded the only way to make sure a review came from a real customer would be to take a rating as that person made a card payment.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Georgina Nelson, CEO and founder of startup truRating.
“The question changes with each customer as it revolves around what they thought of the food, service, cleanliness, ambience or whatever the company wants to measure,” says Nelson.
“A company can vary the questions between each of their different locations and they may choose to concentrate on a particular question or two at one outlet, perhaps to see how new staff are performing or if a new product is being well received.”
There are two aspects to the ratings. First, each company can set up a profile on the truRating website to show their scores – a part of the service that is still under development. Secondly, a business can use the ratings to keep informed on how it is performing.
“The big benefit for businesses is that they’ve not normally got any idea if service levels have dropped or people aren’t enjoying the food in one of their outlets until it’s too late and people have been put off and bad reviews have been posted,” says Nelson. “So, we give them a live dashboard for how each of their locations is performing so they can find out much sooner if things are going well or if some attention is needed.”
The smartphone app revolutionising foreign currency exchange Read more
At London pizza restaurant chain Franco Manca, the live feedback from the truRating system has meant that operations director Sandro Spahiu can monitor customer satisfaction levels and take action promptly when they dip.
“Keeping an eye on each outlet’s ratings provides a really useful window to identify the small operational decisions that could be having a big impact,” he says.
“Just last week truRating showed our product ratings dropped in the afternoons at one of our restaurants. We investigated and it turns out our chefs were turning down the oven temperatures during the quieter afternoon periods to save energy – but it was making our pizza bases less crispy. The oven is now kept at the optimum temperature all day and our product scores have improved.”
According to Rob Kniaz a founding partner of venture capital firm Hoxton Ventures, this instant feedback could prove appealing. As for rivalling the big ratings services, he thinks that growth might be limited by trying to address a problem that is not a pain point for consumers in the first place.
“I think most people realise the big review sites balance out in the end, between the nutters who hate everything and people rating their own business,” he says.
“Businesses will often ask you to rate them on TripAdvisor so they get feedback for free, or they may give customers a code on their receipt with an offer of a voucher if they rate them on their own site,” he adds. “As for the card terminal approach, it’s a very hard business to make money in because margins are tiny and not every company wants an extra piece of software running on their point-of-sale system.”
Currently there are too few reviews to offer a TripAdvisor-rivalling service, although Nelson claims truRating is on course to receive more than three billion ratings by the end of 2017. Until recently, she says, truRating was in the classic chicken-and-egg situation of needing companies to sign up for a service they could only use if their card payment provider offered it.
Now these deals are in place, she says the next task is to turn conversations with large retail and cafe chains into sign-ups for the service. These potential new customers could cumulatively provide billions of ratings per year – meaning that truRating would have the numbers needed to take on their larger rivals, with real-time feedback from verified customers.
Sign up to become a member of the Guardian Small Business Network here for more advice, insight and best practice direct to your inbox.
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https://www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2016/aug/18/startup-taking-on-tripadvisor-yelp-hospitality-ratings
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en
| 2016-08-18T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/801b87537dc490c22020409eecb9c6f826d70d8f0e171986279165765f136679.json
|
|
[
"Martin Love"
] | 2016-08-26T13:26:59 | null | 2016-07-24T05:00:20 |
This new frame from the great Dutch bike builder is a winning combination of retro styling and modern technology, says Martin Love
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Flifeandstyle%2F2016%2Fjul%2F24%2Fgazelle-van-stael-bike-preview-dutch-observer.json
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en
| null |
Gazelle Van Stael: bike preview
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
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We’d all agree the Dutch know a thing or two about bikes. And few Dutch firms know more about bikes than Gazelle. The company was founded in 1892 and now employs 350 people at its factory in Dieren, producing 275,000 bicycles a year. Drawing on this heritage gives Gazelle the opportunity to produce frames like the Van Stael. It’s an absolute cracker – the afternoon I test rode it it had just come back from a GQ fashion shoot. It was inspired by the Gazelle that raced in the 1915 Tour de France, and a century later, the design is back, blending nostalgic styling with modern components. It now also comes with full mudguards, low-maintenance hub gears, a chain guard and a very loud bell. And it’s topped and tailed with v posh Brooks Cambium grips and saddle (gazellebikes.com).
Price: £549
Frame: steel
Saddle: Brooks
Gears: Shimano Nexus 3 or 7 speed
Tour de force: a cycling round up
Having been spoiled with three weeks of the finest cycling from the picturesque landscapes of France, many of us are now eyeing that old frame in the shed and wondering if it is time to brave the roads again on two wheels. The Tour de France also means that my inbox has been bursting with news of all kinds of cycling gadgetry and developments. Here are three that caught my eye…
A lock you’ll love
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Hold tight: the flexible and lightweight Litelok
Anyone who commutes knows exactly how much that D-lock in their backpack weighs. Its sharp edges stick into your back and it often doesn’t fit round the lamppost anyway… Well, here is a solution to some of those problems. The Litelok was invented by Neil Barron who was an avid cyclist and, like so many of us, was fed up with having his ride pinched and having to lug a heavy chain round town with him. His revolutionary Litelok weighs 1.1kg (2.4lb) – that’s still substantial but it’s lighter than any of the other heavy duty locks out there. It is also flexible which makes it much easier to fasten round fixed objects. It snaps shut rather than being key operated and has an ingenious locking mechanism that means you can lock two together to double the length of the lock. It meets all British and international lock quality standards. The Litelok does what all good bike locks should do: it makes thieves think twice about trying to steal your bicycle. It’s fully weatherproof and comes in three colours. It also comes with straps so it can be strapped to your top tube, freeing up backpack space. It’s light, flexible and strong… in lock world that’s the holy trinity. The Litelok costs £85 for one or £160 for two. For more information, go to litelok.com
All the kit, lots of ideas
Ready to roll: Madison’s professional Road Race Windtech jersey
All things 80s are having a fashion moment, but the gaudy team kits on show in the Tour de France aren’t necessarily going to suit all of us. They tend to work best on those scrawny whippets on wheels and anyone who wants to look a little less garish, but still benefit from brilliantly designed technical clothing will have to look elsewhere. One brand you may not have come across is Madison. Based in London and set up in 1977, the firm has had a long involvement in cycling, but has remained curiously below the radar for much of the time. The label runs two professional teams – Madison Genesis and Madison Saracen – and it creates the entire range of clothing and accessories that the most demanding cyclist would need for the road, mountain biking or commuting. The clothing is exceptionally well made. At the top of the pile are jackets and gilets and full-leg racing tights. One of the tops which caught my eye is the Road Race Windtech jersey (£89.99). It’s used by Madison’s professional stable of riders. It features lightweight stretch windproof panelling across the chest, shoulders and side panels. There are generous zipped pockets round the back for you to load with energy gels. Lower down the list are the commuter shorts which I bought. Called Freewheel, they cost £34.99. They are relaxed, comfortable and multi-pocketed. Double and triple stitching in all the right areas ensure that they are pretty much bombproof. They come with a lifetime warranty and a full 30-day money back guarantee. Buy them and it will be years before you need to buy another pair of heavy duty cargo shorts (madison.cc)
Tighten those chains
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Take the strain: tension your chain with a Chain Genie
If you ride a fixie or single-speed you’ll know all about the misery of a baggy chain. But here is a novel fix for your fixie. The Chain Genie is the simplest tool imaginable, but also one of the most effective. All you have to do is turn your bike over, ensure your tyres are well inflated, insert the Chain Genie and then tension your chain. It fits the majority of bike frames, old and new, and a very simple two-handed operation means that you’ll cut the slack in your chain once and for all. It’s made of American black walnut and, once you’ve sorted out your bike, you can always use it as a door stop. It costs £15.50 and is available from spinkingclothing.bigcartel.com.
Email Martin at martin.love@observer.co.uk or follow him on Twitter @MartinLove166
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https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/jul/24/gazelle-van-stael-bike-preview-dutch-observer
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en
| 2016-07-24T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/3cc98929cdd5971dedbb8e859aa88b21d6823a3f5033bf7860b18b042a7a3ad0.json
|
|
[
"Michael White",
"Sadiq Khan"
] | 2016-08-26T13:30:49 | null | 2016-08-21T08:39:48 |
London mayor throws weight behind challenger Owen Smith, after condemning party leader for failing to show leadership over Brexit
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http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fpolitics%2F2016%2Faug%2F20%2Fditch-jeremy-corbyn-before-too-late-sadiq-khan-tells-labour.json
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Ditch Jeremy Corbyn before it’s too late, Sadiq Khan tells Labour
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
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The Labour mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has issued a dramatic call to his party’s members to dump Jeremy Corbyn, saying he has been a disastrous leader who must share a large part of the blame for Britain’s forthcoming exit from the EU.
We cannot win with Jeremy … so I will vote for Owen Smith Read more
Khan, who secured the biggest win by any Labour politician against the Conservative party in more than a decade when he beat Zac Goldsmith to the mayoralty in May, throws his support behind the challenger Owen Smith, arguing that Labour faces all-but-certain defeat at the next general election without a change at the top.
The brutal intervention by Khan in an article for the Observer will give a huge boost to Smith’s camp, and comes as the party prepares to send out ballot papers this week to more than half a million members who are eligible to vote in the leadership contest.
Khan says that while Corbyn – still the clear favourite to win the contest – is a “principled Labour man” whose ideas have brought hope to many, his year in charge has shown he is not up to the job and is “extremely unlikely” to lead the party back to power. Khan’s message is that the party has a duty to oust Corbyn before it is too late.
“Jeremy has already proved that he is unable to organise an effective team and has failed to win the trust and respect of the British people,” Khan writes, adding: “Jeremy’s personal ratings are the worst of any opposition leader on record and the Labour party is suffering badly as a result. He has lost the confidence of more than 80% of Labour’s MPs in parliament – and I am afraid we simply cannot afford to go on like this.”
But it is his comments on what he regards as Corbyn’s abject failure to rally his party behind a pro-EU message before the referendum that will be seen as the most damaging. Khan, in effect, lays much of the blame for Brexit at Corbyn’s door and that of his advisers.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Leadership hopefuls Jeremy Corbyn, left, and Owen Smith. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
“Throughout the campaign and aftermath, Jeremy failed to show the leadership we desperately needed. His position on EU membership was never clear – and voters didn’t believe him. A third of Labour voters said they did not know where the party stood on the referendum just a week before polling day.
“And you can’t just blame a ‘hostile media’ and let Jeremy and his team off the hook,” he writes. “I know from my own election – up against a nasty and divisive Tory campaign – that if we are strong and clear enough in our convictions, the message will get through to the public. That’s a test that Jeremy totally failed in the EU referendum. Why would things be different in a general election?”
Smith said he was “hugely honoured” to have Khan’s support. “Sadiq ran a fantastic campaign to win power for Labour in London this year, securing a huge mandate from party members and the electorate,” he said.
“He showed that a vision of hope and optimism can win, if it’s backed up with a credible plan to deliver real meaningful change for people’s lives. Since that election we have seen what a difference Labour can make when we hold power.”
Khan’s decision to go on the offensive represents a sudden change in approach by the mayor. Days earlier, in a BBC radio interview, he refused to be drawn on who he would vote for, saying that he preferred to stay out of current internal party arguments, including the debate over who should be leader. But his aides said he had come under growing pressure from supporters and friends in the party to declare his hand and felt it was his duty to make his position known.
Khan lays heavy emphasis on his fear that another four years of Corbyn as leader will ensure another Tory government, leading to more cuts and damage being done to the country’s industrial heartlands.
In an interview with the Observer last weekend, Corbyn blamed any failure to get his messages on policy across on mutinous and disloyal MPs and others who had never accepted his leadership. “We have done our best to get our message out,” he said. “It hasn’t been helped that prominent people in the Labour party – Labour MPs – have spent the last 10 months actively being unsupportive of our policies that have been generally agreed and supported. Now everyone agrees that anti-austerity is the right line to be taking.”
Corbyn said he was using his second campaign for the leadership in 12 months as a dry run for a general election: “Since the resignations in July and the leadership contest, then clearly the public mind has become focused on the leadership contest rather than the future. I’m trying to turn this leadership campaign into a campaign of how we would run a general election. How we would win back those areas of Britain that have become disillusioned – left-behind Britain.”
Jeremy Corbyn's leadership unprofessional and shoddy, says Heidi Alexander Read more
With Corbyn still expected by most MPs to beat Smith and renew his mandate, many senior Labour figures are beginning to focus on how to bring the party together afterwards. Tom Watson, the deputy leader, will back efforts to restore a system of elections to the shadow cabinet, which will be considered by the party’s national executive committee in September as a means to rebuild trust between the leader and MPs.
Explaining his backing for Smith, who is the former shadow work and pensions secretary, Khan says: “On the big issues Owen and I have been on the same side of the argument, including opposing the Iraq war. Owen led and – more importantly – won our fight against the Tories’ unfair cuts to tax credits and disability allowances, which would have hurt the most disadvantaged people in our society.”
He adds: “Simply opposing Tory policies will never be enough to help the people we exist to support. At best, you knock off just the very sharpest edges of the Tory project. Winning elections is how you really make a difference. Only then are you in control – able to shape the agenda and implement Labour policies to create a fairer and more equal society.”
Comments will open on Sunday morning
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http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/aug/20/ditch-jeremy-corbyn-before-too-late-sadiq-khan-tells-labour
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en
| 2016-08-21T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/104032245314a3d16aea1af563a1de430329aae5870e41ebf3f1dc6ffef7b41d.json
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[
"Larry Elliott",
"John Crace"
] | 2016-08-29T08:55:08 | null | 2016-06-07T11:37:28 |
Roberto Azevêdo says leave vote would present complex and unusual situation with UK unable to ‘cut and paste’ its former EU-negotiated trade deals
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fbusiness%2F2016%2Fjun%2F07%2Fwto-chief-brexit-trade-talks-start-scratch-eu-referendum.json
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en
| null |
WTO chief says post-Brexit trade talks must start from scratch
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
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Negotiations about the shape of the UK’s post-Brexit trade arrangements would have to start from scratch after a leave vote in the EU referendum, the head of the World Trade Organisation said as he admitted there had been no preliminary discussions with the UK government.
Roberto Azevêdo, the WTO director-general, said he expected any talks to be long and difficult, adding: “We haven’t had any discussions about the process. We don’t know what the process would be. We do know it would be a very unusual situation.”
Trade has featured heavily during the referendum campaign, with much debate about whether a post-Brexit UK would seek to retain its membership of the European single market or aim for a looser arrangement in which exporters had the same access as other WTO members.
Azevêdo said the position was complicated by the fact that all Britain’s trade commitments had been negotiated by the EU and that these would cease to apply in the event of a decision to leave.
Warning that it would be impossible for the UK to “cut and paste” its old EU trade deals into new agreements, Azevêdo said the UK would be starting from scratch without the institutional machinery necessary to negotiate trade deals.
He said Britain did not have the investigative bodies that would look into issues such as steel dumping. “It doesn’t have the official capacity. There is no institutional mechanism to conduct an investigation. That body of human resources would have to be set up fairly quickly.”
Azevêdo said he felt “uncomfortable” being dragged into the UK’s referendum debate but thought it was right to counter a great deal of misinformation about the UK’s future as a WTO member. He said there had been no pressure on him from the government to speak out.
“Britain is a member of the WTO and will continue to be a member of the WTO. But it will be a member with no country-specific commitments. We have had no other situation like that,” he said.
One of the leading figures on the leave side, Prof Patrick Minford, has said Britain could avoid protracted negotiations by adopting a free trade approach, under which the UK would impose no barriers on goods and services entering the country. Minford said this would help the economy by making imports cheaper.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Roberto Azevêdo, the WTO director-general, has been seeking reductions in protectionism from member countries. Photograph: Salvatore Di Nolfi/AP
Azevêdo said this would be an all-or-nothing approach: “If you are a duty-free country, you can’t be selectively duty-free. If you want to go duty-free, you have to go duty-free across the board. There can be no tariffs on anything, including agriculture and steel.”
The WTO director-general has been seeking reductions in protectionism from member countries as part of his organisation’s mission to promote free trade. He said: “If everybody went in a duty-free direction it would be a golden time for classical and orthodox economics.”
Noting that only Macau and Hong Kong adopted a complete duty-free approach, Azevêdo said: “I recognise reality for what it is. I think it is very unlikely it (a duty-free world) is going to come to pass.”
Azevêdo, who has been struggling to bring to a conclusion the Doha round of liberalisation talks which began in 2001, said he had no idea how long it would take the UK to negotiate trade deals afresh in the aftermath of a leave vote.
“It is very difficult to predict. Russia’s accession to the WTO took 20 years. Other negotiations happened faster. It will be a very high risk bet to hope that negotiations would be quickly completed and that negotiations would be uneventful,” he said.
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https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jun/07/wto-chief-brexit-trade-talks-start-scratch-eu-referendum
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en
| 2016-06-07T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/88bb8063210e78ea43d28864a991387744d64db75607e5d379b50a8238d35f58.json
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[
"Daniel Taylor"
] | 2016-08-27T22:51:29 | null | 2016-08-27T21:00:13 |
The striker’s offensive but old tweets raise issues with which the game struggles to cope, from homophobia to race to sexism, to the price Burnley face for offences committed elsewhere
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Andre Gray’s sorry tweeting case far from straightforward
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www.theguardian.com
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The first England squad of Sam Allardyce’s reign is named on Sunday and whatever you think of Andre Gray – whether you have decided he has all the personal charm of head lice, or you would rather take a more sympathetic view – we can probably assume that if he was ever being considered as an outside choice, or a possible back-up player, a cross has temporarily gone through his name.
It isn’t ludicrous, though, to think that Gray will eventually become part of the Allardyce era if he can maintain the forward momentum of his career.
Andre Gray’s FA charge sheet grows with 2014 ‘I hate lightys’ tweet Read more
Gray was the most prolific scorer in last season’s Championship, scoring 24 times to help bring top-division football back to Burnley. Another nine came in pre-season and the goal against Liverpool last weekend indicates he is not going to have too much difficulty adjusting to the higher league.
Perhaps there might even be a day when he and Jamie Vardy are part of the same national team and can reminisce about that time, in April 2012, when they faced each other for Luton Town against Fleetwood Town in the Conference Premier.
By now, however, you are probably aware of Gray’s internet history and the kind of story that makes you long for more innocent days when tweeting was for sparrows, trolls lived in caves in fairytales and football clubs didn’t have to worry about the damage that could be caused by players having smartphones that, evidently, were a lot smarter than their owners. Or, as Mick McCarthy once put it, “twits who tweet”.
There is no point going through all the content but the most glaring example contains a level of hashtag hate — “Is it me or are there gays everywhere? #Burn #Die #MakesMeSick” — that clearly goes beyond the usual hurling of online abuse and, unfortunately for Gray, a lot of people might think it doesn’t wash to offer a template apology, professing to be a changed man, and trotting out the standard lines that defence lawyers use in court when they are trying to get their clients a reduced sentence.
Even ignoring for one moment the pitchfork homophobia, Gray comes across as a difficult man to embrace. “Fumin,” he writes. “Stuck in traffic cause some sad weak fool decided to get themselves run over on the motorway. #NoSympathy.” There are memories of school (“Ma teacher told me a was a piece of shit.. saw her the other day driving a piece of shit”), a declaration of allegiance to Arsenal (“I hate Theo Walcott”) and various other 140-character missives that go against him before we get to the ones that have come to the attention of the FA’s disciplinary department.
It might get even worse for Gray now it also turns out the charge sheet, covering an eight-week period from 9 January 2012, has been extended to include another tweet – beginning with the declaration “I hate lightys!”–from July 2014, shortly after he had signed for Brentford from Luton. A “lighty” is slang, often regarded as offensive, to describe a light-skinned person of mixed race. If you think back to Rio Ferdinand’s disciplinary case for retweeting someone who had described Ashley Cole as a “choc-ice” (meaning black on the outside, white on the inside) it is probably safe to assume Gray needs a good lawyer.
Is it fair for Burnley to be punished for something that happened in the past and completely out of their control? Not in the slightest and it is easy to understand why the relevant people at Turf Moor are struggling to understand how the FA can punish tweets going back over four and a half years, starting when Gray was at Hinckley United, yet look the other way when it comes to the night Vardy took exception to the presence of a Japanese man at his local casino.
In mitigation, there is also quite a bit of background to take into account in Gray’s case and it is a shame, perhaps, that he did not offer more context in his statement asking for forgiveness and pointing out “thankfully I am not the guy I was back then”.
That scar running diagonally from his left ear and all the way across his cheek is the legacy of being slashed with a knife in a street fight in Wolverhampton, around Christmas 2011. The most offensive tweets started a couple of weeks later and if Gray seemed angry with the world that was because he probably was. Gray’s autobiography would certainly not be the average footballer’s story. He grew up without a dad and, at 13, lost the grandfather, Terry, who had taken on the role of a father figure. After that, it was a story of gangs, violence and the kind of lifestyle most of us can barely contemplate. Some of the people he knocked around with have ended up dead and it was football, more than anything, that helped him come out the other side. So, yes, maybe he is a better human being at 25 than he was at 21. Maybe we can take it at face value and Gray, in 2016, is not the hate-filled individual he was in 2012.
Unfortunately for the sport as a whole, it is more easy pickings for those armchair columnists who like to lament the elastic principles in Gray’s profession compared to those of the people we saw competing in the Olympics. It actually works both ways – there are things football can learn from other sports, and vice versa – but Gray’s tweets, historic or not, certainly go against the image the game likes to portray these days and it is not always easy knowing whether Robbie Rogers, formerly of Leeds United, coming out as gay in 2013 has changed everything as much as many people thought.
It certainly did not feel that way, visiting one Premier League club recently, when the various community assignments were being shared out and seeing the horror of one of the squad – a high-profile player – when his name was put alongside an LGBT event. “I can’t do it,” he said, as if someone had just asked him to bungee-jump off the top of a cliff. There was an attempt to talk him round – “It’s anti‑discrimination, not pro-homosexuality” – but he looked terrified. To say he froze would be an understatement and, despite one more go to persuade him it didn’t mean dressing up as one of the Village People, it soon became obvious it might be better all round to designate somebody else.
It says something that the number of complaints to Kick it Out about homophobic abuse has actually gone up, not down, over three-fold in the last three seasons and you might have heard what happened last weekend when Rogers, playing for LA Galaxy II against Orange County Blues, claimed an opposition player had repeatedly called him a queer.
The player in question? Richard Chaplow, Accrington-born and previously of Burnley, West Brom, Preston North End, Southampton, Millwall and Doncaster Rovers. Chaplow denied the accusation but admitted swearing and was suspended for two matches when a proven case would apparently have meant three. All of which makes an interesting comparison when on the same day Hope Solo, the USA women’s team goalkeeper, was banned for six months and her contract was terminated because she had complained about Sweden’s defensive tactics in the Olympics and described them as a “bunch of cowards”.
For Gray, the damage will be twofold. In football, it has always been easier getting a bad name than losing one and, if he is indeed a changed man, it isn’t going to be a pleasant experience being tarnished by something he had probably long forgotten about. First, though, there is the likelihood of a long ban – Gray must respond to the charge by Wednesday evening – and it wouldn’t hurt if he made efforts in that time to show the world he is sorry, stand up in front of the cameras and explain in detail how he has changed and why we should believe him. Much better that way than being a twit who tweets.
Wenger and Levy plans don’t add up
For two clubs who would like us to believe they have high ambitions, it has not been easy understanding the transfer-market movements of Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur over the last few days.
That was certainly a curious move, first of all, from Arsène Wenger, having made it clear all summer that he would not be pressured into spending, to go in for Lucas Pérez from Deportivo La Coruña when this is a striker who has been on the market all summer without Arsenal thinking it warranted triggering his £17m buyout clause.
Leicester City were the first club to explore a potential move earlier in the summer on the say-so of Steve Walsh, their head of recruitment. Everton thought they had a transfer lined up when Walsh subsequently moved to Goodison and Wenger might have to understand the allegations of panic buying when, three weekends into the new season, Arsenal suddenly ambush the deal.
Even more perplexing is why Tottenham left it so late to move for Wilfried Zaha if they were serious about trying to prise him away from Crystal Palace. After nothing all summer, was it sensible to wait until Yannick Bolasie had completed his move to Everton before putting in the call?
Palace have just lost one of their better attacking players. They can hardly be blamed for not wanting another to go, especially with so little time to find a replacement before Wednesday’s deadline.
As for offering £12m, did the Spurs chairman, Daniel Levy, seriously think that might clinch a deal in today’s inflated market? Bolasie went for £25m and Zaha, at 23, is four years younger and therefore a more valuable asset.
Levy likes to think he operates by his own rules but it does make me wonder whether this is the best example yet of what he calls “pragmatic player trading” now the club have a new stadium to finance – or, to put it another way, trying to do everything on the cheap.
Sunderland are in Allardyce’s debt
Ahead of the first international break of the season, I wonder if Sunderland’s chairman, Ellis Short, and the club’s media department might acknowledge now that it was all rather petty and unbecoming to announce Sam Allardyce had taken the England job in a clipped 49-word statement that did not wish him well or express any gratitude for the feat of escapology that kept them in the Premier League.
When David Moyes subsequently took over at Sunderland, it was intriguing as well to see Short’s eulogy for the new manager and the clear message that he would rather have had him than Allardyce in the first place. Moyes, he said, was “my No1 managerial target for the last five appointments, but his desire to honour existing contracts meant we were not able to bring him to Sunderland previously”.
One problem: Paolo Di Canio was sacked by Sunderland on 23 September 2013 and replaced a couple of weeks later by Gus Poyet. Do Sunderland really want us to believe their top target was a man three months into a six-year contract as Manchester United manager?
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https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/aug/27/andre-grey-tweeting-burnley-homophobia-sexism-race
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en
| 2016-08-27T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/b86331673a797053b096f7c927731b7ed76779cb949e29f5e9d646e370efe178.json
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[
"Constanze Letsch"
] | 2016-08-29T06:52:00 | null | 2016-08-29T05:00:52 |
Since the attempted coup, the government has ordered more than a hundred outlets to close and arrested 48 journalists
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fworld%2F2016%2Faug%2F29%2Fstop-the-press-turkey-crackdown-journalists-overdrive-since-coup.json
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Stop the press: Turkey's crackdown on its media goes into overdrive
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www.theguardian.com
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Turkey has intensified its crackdown on the media since last month’s attempted coup, with rights groups decrying a wave of decrees that have turned the country into the world leader in locking up journalists.
During Turkey’s current three-month state of emergency the government has the authority to rule by decree and has ordered the closure of 102 media outlets, including 45 newspapers, 16 TV channels, three news agencies, 23 radio stations, 15 magazines and 29 publishing houses.
Arrest warrants have been issued for more than 100 journalists, and, according to the independent journalism platform P24, 48 have been arrested since the investigation into the alleged coup plotters began.
A total of 2,308 media workers and journalists, some employed by outlets with alleged ties to exiled cleric Fethullah Gülen, whom the Turkish government accuses of masterminding the coup attempt, have lost their jobs. Hundreds of government-issued press accreditations have been cancelled, and an unknown number of journalists had their passports revoked, thus banning them from all foreign travel.
The Turkish governments insists these measures are justified for security reasons and says journalists currently in jail are being investigated or prosecuted for possible criminal activities.
Rights groups disagree. “One of the biggest problems in Turkey was the close relationship between the judiciary and the government, which was detrimental to press freedom,” said Erol Önderoğlu, Turkey representative for Reporters Without Borders.
“But the government can now bypass the courts altogether, leading to an even more arbitrary situation. Turkey now again leads the ranks of the worst countries for press freedom.”
Trust in the country’s judicial system, already in tatters before the coup attempt, has plummeted to a new low. Can Dündar, former editor-in-chief of Turkish daily Cumhuriyet, announced earlier this month he was stepping down, saying he no longer had faith in the Turkish courts to hear his appeal after he was sentenced to prison in May for allegedly revealing state secrets. Dündar, who is abroad, said he would not surrender himself until at least the end of the state of emergency.
A day later, an Istanbul court ordered the “temporary closure” of Özgür Gündem, a pro-Kurdish daily with a circulation of 7,500, after ruling that the paper acted as a “de facto news outlet” for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) and police stormed the offices, detaining 24 people of whom 22 were later released.
“You can see where this is going,” said one media lawyer. “They use the state of emergency as an opportunity to shut down all news outlets they don’t like.”
Many of the arrested journalists worked for media outlets affiliated with the Gülen movement, which is divisive in Turkish society, but rights groups and reporters said that press freedom had to be unconditional.
“I don’t defend the Gülen movement, but I do defend my profession,” said Ahmet Şık, an investigative journalist who spent more than a year in jail for writing a book on police infiltration by the Gülenists.
Most of the jurists who presided over his case are now in jail and many in the media who cheered his imprisonment now face the same treatment themselves. “What is done to the Gülen media today was done to me yesterday, and tomorrow it will be done to you. This is why we always have to defend freedom of expression, and stand by our principles.”
Many in Turkey struggle to show solidarity. When former Zaman reporter Hanim Büsra Erdal, criticised for her pro-Gülenist coverage of trials allegedly initiated by the movement, was arrested last month, Turkish social media was awash with glee. But Şık said nobody should be jailed for journalism.
“Büsra Erdal is a journalist, period. But she is a journalist who has used her skills to a bad end,” he said. “That doesn’t mean that she can be accused of coup plotting and arrested. Büsra Erdal is a bad journalist, but the highest possible penalty for her can only be to tell her not to do journalism any more.”
With Turkish media under such heavy attack, a small group of prominent journalists has come together to found Gazete Duvar, an online newspaper that aims to sidestep the deep polarisation.
“We started earlier than planned because of the coup attempt and the state of news coverage,” said Ali Duran Topuz, editor-in-chief. “The website is still not ideal, many things need to be improved, but instead of complaining how bad things are, we wanted to do something. By upholding high journalistic standards, we want to change things for the better.”
His optimism is rare among journalists in Turkey today. “Press freedom is in a worse state than ever before,” Şık said. “I would sum it up like this: the coup was prevented, but the junta came to power.”
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/29/stop-the-press-turkey-crackdown-journalists-overdrive-since-coup
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en
| 2016-08-29T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/dce94e9234c58a128d49c187dc5db2f156998d8d5ffe1ceb448f928a3e3ec505.json
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[
"Dominic Fifield"
] | 2016-08-26T22:50:54 | null | 2016-08-26T21:30:45 |
The Chelsea manager expressed his frustration at the reluctance of ‘medium-level’ clubs to sell their players
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Ffootball%2F2016%2Faug%2F26%2Fantonio-conte-chelsea-kalidou-koulibaly-alessio-romagnoli.json
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Antonio Conte frustrated in pursuit of top Chelsea defensive targets
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Antonio Conte has admitted Chelsea are unlikely to secure his first-choice targets before Wednesday’s deadline as the club face up to the reality that the landscape of the transfer market has changed radically in the wake of the latest Premier League broadcast deal.
Chelsea, who welcome Burnley to Stamford Bridge on Saturday, went into the summer window without being able to offer prospective signings the carrot of Champions League football for the first time since Roman Abramovich purchased the club in 2003.
Chelsea v Burnley: match preview Read more
Their two major purchases to date, N’Golo Kanté and Michy Batshuayi, were secured efficiently and for fees in excess of £30m each. But attempts to add further, particularly to the defensive ranks, have been frustrated to date either by rival clubs proving reluctant to sell or the prices quoted being deemed exorbitant.
That has scuppered interest in the likes of Kalidou Koulibaly and Alessio Romagnoli whose respective sides, Napoli and Milan, rejected offers from the Premier League club this week. The former Bolton defender, and Sunderland loanee, Marcos Alonso is expected to join from Fiorentina to provide an option at left-back, following on from the addition of the third-choice goalkeeper, Eduardo Carvalho, from Dinamo Zagreb.
Conte, who is convinced he can sell his vision at Chelsea to prospective new players despite the lack of European football this season, has regularly referred to the market as “crazy”.
“It’s strange that when you want to buy a player, the other teams don’t want to sell player,” said the Italian. “Something is changing compared to last season. Not just for Chelsea, but all the teams. Teams of a ‘medium-level’ now prefer to keep their players and not sell. That’s good news for the English league because it makes it even tougher, but not good news for the clubs who want to buy players.
“Something is changing. Not only for English teams or Spanish teams, but teams all over the world. Many clubs who are financially strong prefer to keep their players, to fight to stay in the league. To fight. We didn’t ‘refuse to spend money’ on the right targets. The situation is that those targets are not available to buy or spend the money on.
Chelsea’s Patrick Bamford joins Burnley on season-long loan Read more
“I told [the board] I’d prefer to spend a lot of money on the right, great player, not a medium player. That’s a different situation. It’s important to be clear on that. So this market is very crazy and, now, we are seeing that it’s very difficult to reach our targets.
“But you have to understand that, in England now, every team has money. So you have to solve the problem with hard work. Sometimes you could solve the problem with money. Now you have to solve the problem with work. But that’s fine. I have no problem. Work is the bread and butter.”
Conte will return to Italy during the international break next week to recharge his batteries having worked non-stop since the Azzurri linked up to begin their preparations for Euro 2016. “It’s been three months and I’ve worked every day,” he added. “That’s very tough. I had 45 days with the national team, then [had] to start so soon with Chelsea. I think if I have a bit of rest for three or four days, that’s good for me and the team. Good for all.
“Also I deserve a bit of rest. I will stay with my family in Italy, just to rest, to switch off for a few days. To switch off my mind. My mind is full. Very full of football, before with the national team and now completely with Chelsea.”
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https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/aug/26/antonio-conte-chelsea-kalidou-koulibaly-alessio-romagnoli
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en
| 2016-08-26T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/d4915ddabc2ab1b08261f89a6541b71555a4c371a296095d9272e38ffc9b8198.json
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[
"Press Association"
] | 2016-08-28T22:51:49 | null | 2016-08-28T21:45:59 |
Monaco comfortably beat Paris Saint-Germain, the Ligue 1 champions, 3-1, their first defeat since Unai Emery was appointed the PSG manager
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Monaco inflict first defeat on Unai Emery as Paris Saint-Germain manager
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Unai Emery lost for the first time as Paris Saint-Germain manager as the current champions suffered an early defeat in defence of the Ligue 1 title, losing 3-1 to Monaco.
First-half goals from João Moutinho and Fabinho put Monaco in control and, after Edison Cavani had offered PSG hope, a Serge Aurier own-goal sealed victory for the home side, who moved joint top with Nice and Guingamp.
The visitors made a sluggish start and soon found themselves trailing to Monaco when Moutinho expertly guided Djibril Sidibé’s delivery beyond Kevin Trapp from just inside the area.
Barcelona maintain perfect start as Ivan Rakitic goal beats Athletic Bilbao Read more
Cavani had an opportunity to level when Aurier’s pass picked out the Uruguayan but his effort failed to find the target from an inviting position.
It was proving to be a first half of few chances but, after Bernardo Silva fired wide from a decent position, Monaco shocked Emery’s men with a second goal before the break.
David Luiz was to blame and, after the Brazilian defender hauled down Jemerson inside the area, Fabinho confidently stepped up to fire the ball beyond Trapp and give Monaco a two-goal lead at half-time.
PSG could easily have reduced the deficit 10 minutes after the restart when Cavani guided Lucas Moura’s delivery into Layvin Kurzawa’s path but the France international failed to find the target against his former employers.
The visitors did drag themselves back into the game with just over an hour played when Aurier’s back-post header from Marco Verratti’s header teed-up Cavani to score his first league goal of the season.
And Cavani could have levelled moments later but was denied after meeting the substitute Thomas Meunier’s delivery and then saw Adrien Rabiot fail to capitalise on the follow-up.
PSG continued to dominate and only a fine save from Danijel Subasice prevented Kurzawa from levelling after Cavani steered Ángel Di María’s pass into the defender’s path.
Then, against the run of play, Monaco restored their two-goal advantage when Sidibé’s cross cannoned off Aurier before nestling in the PSG goal beyond Trapp.
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https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/aug/28/monaco-paris-saint-germain-match-report
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en
| 2016-08-28T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/f4014fb749550c27d3721cfb05adb1e1224c6d2035e825edb52669f6e859caa0.json
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[
"Oliver Milman"
] | 2016-08-30T10:57:39 | null | 2016-08-30T10:00:27 |
Records of temperature that go back far further than 1800s suggest warming of recent decades is out of step with any period over the past millennium
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fenvironment%2F2016%2Faug%2F30%2Fnasa-climate-change-warning-earth-temperature-warming.json
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Nasa: Earth is warming at a pace 'unprecedented in 1,000 years'
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www.theguardian.com
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The planet is warming at a pace not experienced within the past 1,000 years, at least, making it “very unlikely” that the world will stay within a crucial temperature limit agreed by nations just last year, according to Nasa’s top climate scientist.
This year has already seen scorching heat around the world, with the average global temperature peaking at 1.38C above levels experienced in the 19th century, perilously close to the 1.5C limit agreed in the landmark Paris climate accord. July was the warmest month since modern record keeping began in 1880, with each month since October 2015 setting a new high mark for heat.
But Nasa said that records of temperature that go back far further, taken via analysis of ice cores and sediments, suggest that the warming of recent decades is out of step with any period over the past millennium.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Proxy-based temperature reconstruction. Photograph: Nasa Earth Observatory
“In the last 30 years we’ve really moved into exceptional territory,” Gavin Schmidt, director of Nasa’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said. “It’s unprecedented in 1,000 years. There’s no period that has the trend seen in the 20th century in terms of the inclination (of temperatures).”
“Maintaining temperatures below the 1.5C guardrail requires significant and very rapid cuts in carbon dioxide emissions or co-ordinated geo-engineering. That is very unlikely. We are not even yet making emissions cuts commensurate with keeping warming below 2C.”
Schmidt repeated his previous prediction that there is a 99% chance that 2016 will be the warmest year on record, with around 20% of the heat attributed to a strong El Niño climatic event. Last year is currently the warmest year on record, itself beating a landmark set in 2014.
“It’s the long-term trend we have to worry about though and there’s no evidence it’s going away and lots of reasons to think it’s here to stay,” Schmidt said. “There’s no pause or hiatus in temperature increase. People who think this is over are viewing the world through rose-tinted spectacles. This is a chronic problem for society for the next 100 years.”
Schmidt is the highest-profile scientist to effectively write-off the 1.5C target, which was adopted at December’s UN summit after heavy lobbying from island nations that risk being inundated by rising seas if temperatures exceed this level. Recent research found that just five more years of carbon dioxide emissions at current levels will virtually wipe out any chance of restraining temperatures to a 1.5C increase and avoid runaway climate change.
Temperature reconstructions by Nasa, using work from its sister agency the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, found that the global temperature typically rose by between 4-7C over a period of 5,000 years as the world moved out of ice ages. The temperature rise clocked up over the past century is around 10 times faster than this previous rate of warming.
The increasing pace of warming means that the world will heat up at a rate “at least” 20 times faster than the historical average over the coming 100 years, according to Nasa. The comparison of recent temperatures to the paleoclimate isn’t exact, as it matches modern record-keeping to proxies taken from ancient layers of glacier ice, ocean sediments and rock.
Scientists are able to gauge greenhouse gas levels stretching back more than 800,000 years but the certainty around the composition of previous climates is stronger within the past 1,000 years. While it’s still difficult to compare a single year to another prior to the 19th century, a Nasa reconstruction shows that the pace of temperature increase over recent decades outstrips anything that has occurred since the year 500.
Lingering carbon dioxide already emitted from power generation, transport and agriculture is already likely to raise sea levels by around three feet by the end of the century, and potentially by 70 feet in the centuries to come. Increasing temperatures will shrink the polar ice caps, make large areas of the Middle East and North Africa unbearable to live in and accelerate what’s known as Earth’s “six mass extinction” of animal species.
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/30/nasa-climate-change-warning-earth-temperature-warming
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en
| 2016-08-30T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/b5f788ae99b3db6278c1673e0b5c33dd2ebce78f8cd67dd061caef463ab95397.json
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[
"Shireen Ahmed"
] | 2016-08-26T14:50:32 | null | 2016-08-26T14:23:27 |
Shireen Ahmed: The goalkeeper’s remarks after crashing out of the Olympics were tactless, but her suspension proves female athletes are unjustly held to a higher standard
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Ffootball%2F2016%2Faug%2F26%2Fhope-solo-suspension-female-athletes-double-standards.json
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en
| null |
Hope Solo's punishment shows that women are judged more harshly
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
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Two weeks ago, the US women’s soccer team crashed out of the Olympics. Now their controversial goalkeeper, Hope Solo, has been suspended for six months.
“The comments by Hope Solo after the match against Sweden during the 2016 Olympics were unacceptable, and do not meet the standard of conduct we require from our national team players,” said US Soccer president Sunil Gulati, in announcing her suspension.
After the defending world champions exited in the quarter-finals on penalties, Solo offered some colorful commentary on opponents Sweden, now led by former USWNT coach Pia Sundhage. Solo emphatically defended the tactical integrity of her team and said: “I think we played a bunch of cowards.” It can, of course, be argued that winning on penalties hardly qualifies as cowardly, but that isn’t the point. Some of her team-mates, including the highly respected Megan Rapinoe, were thoroughly unimpressed.
Solo is widely regarded as one of the finest goalkeepers ever, but she has been plagued by scandal. She was accused of beating up her 17-year-old nephew and half-sister, allegations that she categorically denied, claiming she was a victim. Solo opened up about the details of the case in an espnW profile that focused on her public image and her angst with media coverage of her case. “My name was completely smeared. I had already been compared to Ray Rice, to Adrian Peterson. From here on out, no matter what happens, I’ll forever be associated with domestic violence.”
After Solo contributed to her team winning the World Cup in July 2015, city prosecutors in Washington state appealed a court decision to have a domestic violence charge against her dismissed. The charges were reinstated, and she is currently waiting for a resolution in that case.
Just before the Olympics began, Solo insulted many Brazilians by publicly tweeting out her vast collection of mosquito repellants with the hashtag #zikaproof. Understandably, some people were offended, and at a match in Belo Horizonte, proceeded to chant “Zika” every time she touched the ball. I don’t believe that the fans were unfair to her. Solo is no shrinking violet, as her role at the forefront of the lawsuit filed against US Soccer for pay equality suggests.
Although Solo’s private issues are ongoing, US Soccer has dealt with her poorly. She was not suspended for being involved in the domestic violence dispute. Veteran sportswriter Christine Brennan opined whether US Soccer actually cared about anything other than winning, which is perhaps why Solo was not reprimanded, or at the very least benched, when the case was first make public.
Now that the USA’s beloved soccer darling did not fare very well at the Olympics, it would seem easier to penalize her.
— Grant Wahl (@GrantWahl) SI: Response to Hope Solo suspension from Rich Nichols, executive director, USWNT Players Association pic.twitter.com/ZOPsYgSCk7
While I am by no means a fan of Hope Solo’s conduct, the mismanagement by US Soccer executives and their absurd punishment does not go down easy.
This is not the first time an Olympian has landed in hot water after some ridiculous commentary or actions post-competition. As much as we would love to, we can’t forget Ryan Lochte’s debauchery that led to an exquisitely embarrassing moment for the Team USA.
But Lochte has not yet faced disciplinary action from USA Swimming. Yes, he lost some sponsorship deals, but he will be starring in the upcoming season of Dancing with the Stars, and he’s admitted that he’s already thinking about Tokyo 2020.
And it is not the first time that other male athletes have been involved in some imbroglio and have gotten off relatively easy.
Orange County soccer player Richard Chaplow has been given a two-game suspension and a fine from the United Soccer League for using “offensive and abusive” language towards LA Galaxy midfielder Robbie Rogers, who is gay. While the USL insists that Chaplow’s comments were not “homophobic” but “abusive”, Rogers’ own reaction to the incident certainly indicates that he experienced blatant homophobia.
Solo used the term cowards. The USL did not disclose the language used by Chaplow. But had he been a player in the US women’s national team, perhaps his punishment would have been far more severe.
Sports governing bodies can sit and argue about semantics and what constitutes abusive versus homophobic language until the sun goes down. But the optics are very clear within the sports community: men are slapped on the wrist, women are given harsh sentences. And, thus far, white privileged male swimmers waltz away.
Yes, Solo foolishly badmouthed her Swedish opponents. Yes, she is a hard competitor. No, I am not a fan of her behavior or antics. But her contract was terminated by the federation, and her suspension begins immediately. It means that she will not be eligible for the national team roster until February 2017. Did her offense truly merit a consequence that severe?
I don’t believe so, particularly when fellow soccer players are also recklessly wagging their tongues but receiving far lesser punishments. Solo’s involvement in a very serious domestic violence case should have been met with a better response from US Soccer. But it wasn’t. To retroactively enforce punitive measures on a player is a disingenuous attempt to deal with this mess.
Former USWNT player Julie Foudy tweeted that Solo will still be permitted to play for Seattle Reign, her current National Women’s Soccer League team, so the gesture is more “symbolic than substantive”.
If that is the case, why would US Soccer bother handing her a suspension? In order to humiliate her? Solo replied to the suspension with her usual emphatic commentary: “For 17 years I dedicated my life to the US women’s national team, and did the job of a pro athlete the only way I knew how – with passion, tenacity and an unrelenting commitment. With so much more to give, I am saddened by the federation’s decision to terminate my contract.”
As Solo continues to play for Seattle, she might want to consider some media training to help avoid future gaffes. As much as I support women being forthright, tact is certainly not Solo’s forte. And she needs to mature considerably.
But the fact remains that men with similar or more grievous offenses are given lesser punishments. Solo is a staunch defender of the goal, and the women’s game. She speaks up unabashedly when she has to, on pay equality or league conditions. I always don’t like her methods, but there is no denying she is passionate about soccer.
Solo feels that she was punished too harshly. And according to the players’ association statement, an appeal is forthcoming.
In this particular case, I hope that she fights this suspension with the tenacity she’s show over a career between the posts.
|
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/aug/26/hope-solo-suspension-female-athletes-double-standards
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en
| 2016-08-26T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/e96ce94db3e205aab444595112907b1b46bb35ec0216a9c2a002e0eae4b90cb1.json
|
|
[
"John Crace"
] | 2016-08-28T14:49:48 | null | 2016-08-28T14:00:34 |
Still reeling from Brexit? Then clear your mind and test your knowledge of a season of political turmoil
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Flifeandstyle%2F2016%2Faug%2F28%2Fthe-hot-summer-2016-politics-quiz.json
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en
| null |
The hot summer 2016 politics quiz
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
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He missed the deadline by 10 minutes.
He was found to have been a member of Momentum.
He had smuggled illegal immigrants into the country.
|
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/aug/28/the-hot-summer-2016-politics-quiz
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en
| 2016-08-28T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/608534a644ded58ed446e3141eb29b475ee793897bad4e4a5ecba01a64473f4d.json
|
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[
"Phillip Inman"
] | 2016-08-30T10:55:18 | null | 2016-01-02T16:00:09 |
Some say the US/EU trade deal that could be agreed this year will open up markets and promote UK growth. Others fear it will drive down wages and promote privatisation
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https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fbusiness%2F2016%2Fjan%2F02%2Fttip-terms-growth-markets-worker-protection.json
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en
| null |
TTIP: the key to freer trade, or corporate greed?
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
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Cheap American olive oil could, in a few years’ time, be sitting on supermarket shelves next to the Tuscan single estate varieties loved by British foodies. At present a prohibitive tariff on US imports effectively prices them out of contention.
But a groundbreaking trade deal could lower the $1,680-a-tonne tariff on US olive oil to match the $34 a tonne the US charges on imports from the EU. Or the tariffs could disappear altogether. Either way, Greek, Spanish and Italian olive farmers must fear the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), a deal that aims to create a level playing field between them and massive US agri-businesses.
Trade deals were once seen as a panacea for global poverty. In the 1990s, the World Trade Organisation was formed to harmonise cross-border regulations on everything from cars to pharmaceuticals and cut tariffs in order to promote the free flow of goods and services around the world.
There was always a fear that, far from being a winning formula for all, lower tariffs would favour the rich and powerful and crucify small producers, who would struggle to compete in an unprotected environment.
The effects of the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta), signed by the US, Mexico and Canada in 1993, appeared to justify that fear: it became in later years a cause celebre for anti-poverty campaigners, angered by the plight of Mexican workers. Not only were they subjected to low wages and poor working conditions by newly relocated US corporations – and, as consumers, to the relentless marketing power of Walmart, Coca Cola and the rest – but the major fringe benefit of cutting corruption remained illusory.
This year the US hopes to sign what many believe will be Nafta’s direct successor – TTIP. Should it get the green light from Congress and the EU commission, the agreement will be a bilateral treaty between Europe and the US, and, just like Nafta before it, outside the ambit of a gridlocked WTO.
Supporters say it will be an improvement on its predecessor because the main proponents are a liberal US president and a European commission that considers itself concerned with workers and consumers. Why, the commission asks, would 28 relatively affluent member states with concerns about high unemployment, stagnant wages, welfare provision and climate change agree to a charter that undermines workers’ rights, attacks public services or reduces environmental regulations?
TTIP is also billed as an agreement between equals that allows both sides to promote trade: it is claimed that the UK’s national income could be raised by £4bn-£10bn annually, or up to £100bn over 10 years. That amounts to a 0.3 percentage point boost to GDP, which would have pushed this year’s expected 2.4% growth to 2.7%.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest An anti-TTIP demonstration in Berlin this year. Photograph: Wolfram Steinberg/EPA
But it strikes fear into the hearts of many, who believe it to be a Trojan horse for rapacious corporations. These corporations, hellbent on driving down costs to enhance shareholder value, spell the end for Europe’s cosy welfare states and their ability to shield fledgling or, in the case of steel and coal, declining industries from the harsh realities of open competition.
TTIP has been compared to the 1846 Corn Law abolition, which either swept away protectionist tariffs that impoverished millions of workers, or protected a vital source of food and led Karl Marx to ask: “What is free trade under the present condition of society?” His answer was: “It is the freedom which capital has to crush the worker.” Is that the case with TTIP? Here are five key factors to consider.
Health and public services
From the moment TTIP became part of President Barack Obama’s growth strategy, critics have feared that he little realised the expansionary intentions of US healthcare companies or was too distracted to care. The concern relates to the prospect of EU countries, under pressure from rising healthcare costs, handing over major parts of healthcare provision to the private sector. Once services are in private hands, say critics, TTIP rules will prevent them being taken back into state control.
Since these fears were voiced, trade negotiators have excluded provisions that would have allowed firms to sue governments for the loss of health and public services contracts once they expired. This allows the UK’s rail franchise system and the contracting-out of health services to continue under time-limited contracts.
But the US private health industry, which is the largest in the world, views a Europe struggling with the needs of an ageing baby-boomer generation as ripe for the picking. For this reason alone, contracting out the distribution of drugs, the supply of medical devices and the provision of vital services could prove irresistible.
Dispute resolution
A little known facet of every trade deal is a separate form of arbitration for the businesses covered by the agreement, allowing them to avoid the civil courts. As such, the investor-state dispute resolution (ISDS) gives foreign investors the power to sue a government for introducing legislation that harms their investment.
Famously, it was used by big tobacco to sue the Australian government when it introduced plain cigarette packaging. Before and after the scandal, other governments have come under legal challenge from corporations concerned that public policymaking is denying them revenues.
In spring 2014, UN official and human rights lawyer Alfred de Zayas called for a moratorium on TTIP negotiations until ISDS was excluded. He warned that the secret court tribunals held to settle trade disputes were undemocratic. Their reliance on a small group of specialist lawyers also meant that arbitrators sitting in judgment were the ones who at other times represented corporate clients.
De Zayas feared that smaller states would find themselves in the same position as many governments in trade disputes, suffering huge legal bills and long delays to public policy reforms. He was joined in his mission by NGOs and, most importantly, by MEPs in Strasbourg.
As a first concession, the US side agreed to prohibit “brass-plate” firms – those that exist only by name in a county, without any employees or activity – from suing a government. This aimed to prevent a repeat of the Australia incident when the Ukrainian arm of tobacco firm Philip Morris, effectively a brass-plate entity, spearheaded the attack on plain packaging.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest European commissioner Cecilia Malmström has proposed an international court of arbitration to settle investor disputes. Photograph: Emmanuel Dunand/Getty
Many EU politicians said this concession was too easy to circumvent, leaving corporations in a powerful position. So Europe’s chief negotiator, Swedish commissioner Cecilia Malmström, hatched a scheme for an international court of arbitration – an open public forum instead of the private court system. Even her critics said it was a bold move, and unlikely to be accepted by the Americans.
Washington has countered with proposals for a more transparent ISDS court, with live-streamed meetings and the publication of all documents. Not enough, says de Zayas, who wrote recently: “Alas, countless ISDS awards have shown a business bias that shocks the conscience. To the extent that the procedures are not transparent, the arbitrators are not always independent and the annulment procedure is nearly useless, ISDS should be abolished as incompatible with article 14(1) of the ICCPR [International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights] which requires that all suits at law be decided by independent and competent tribunals under the rule of law.”
The two sides have yet to formally discuss either proposal: under deals between the US and Japan and the EU and Canada the issue was barely mentioned, but it is now expected to be among the most contentious.
Regulations
Michael Froman, the US chief negotiator, described the task of harmonising regulations as follows: “For years the US and EU have accepted each other’s inspection of aeroplanes because it was obvious they would not be able to check all the planes landing in their jurisdiction. We seek to expand this practice to other areas.”
So how would Froman apply this to the fact that American cars will still be left-hand drive, restricting their use on British roads? He argues that the cost of imported cars, research and development and testing can still benefit from the harmonisation of regulations on either side of the Atlantic.
Yet there is nothing US food regulators would like less than to accept processed foods tested by EU officials who failed to spot the horsemeat scandal.
And EU regulators are duty bound to reject GM foods, after sustained protests by Europe’s consumers in direct conflict with US farmers. Washington claims it will accept the science when it applies to regulations, which supports GM foods being accepted by the EU as part of TTIP, just as it is part of the WTO agreement.
Tariffs
Dispensing with tariffs seems like a straightforward process compared with tackling complex regulations. Under TTIP, tariffs on goods and services should disappear, though it is expected that some will only be reduced, and others may take years to go the way of history.
Under the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) recently agreed, but not yet implemented, between the US, Japan, Australia, Vietnam and other East Asian countries, all goods, from pork to cars, are covered.
A good example of how long it can take for tariffs to come down is found in the case of the 2.5% rate slapped on Japanese car imports to the US: this will start to be incrementally lowered 15 years after the agreement takes effect, halved in 20 years and eliminated in 25 years. In return, Japan will, among other things, lower its tariff on imported beef from 38.5% to 9% over 16 years. A similar programme could be possible under TTIP, with olive oil tariffs lowered over 25 years.
Labour standards and workers’ rights
Japanese trade unions supported the TPP deal, and unions in Europe are expected to follow suit with TTIP. They accept that labour protection rules lie outside the scope of a deal, and that their governments can therefore continue to implement minimum wage legislation and other supportive measures without being sanctioned.
But unions, where they exist, tend to represent workers in successful industries, which naturally welcome access to wider markets. Workers in weaker areas of the economy could find their jobs coming under pressure from harmonised regulations, lower tariffs, or even just exposure to a US rival with a work ethic that denies most employees more than two weeks’ holiday a year.
TTIP is important to the UK government because the US is our biggest market for goods and services outside the EU. It’s seen as especially important for small and medium-sized businesses, which appreciate the lack of language barrier. Britain also has a trade surplus with the US: we export more than we import, which helps counterbalance the country’s huge trade deficit.
Such is the momentum behind the talks that a deal could be agreed by the end of the year, and go before Congress and EU parliaments in 2017. Both sides claim to be making good progress. But the dispute over ISDS and protests from farmers could yet quash Obama’s hopes for US olive oil sales.
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https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jan/02/ttip-terms-growth-markets-worker-protection
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en
| 2016-01-02T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/c1ccef4b126956d6231dc7209432633a87c46bc63d38d631a29e253f9d033089.json
|
|
[
"Mark Sweney"
] | 2016-08-31T10:50:31 | null | 2016-08-31T09:15:57 |
Extended hour-long show to feature new strands including tropical plants and ‘extreme gardening’
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fmedia%2F2016%2Faug%2F31%2Fbbc-gardeners-world-presenters-bake-off-monty-don.json
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en
| null |
BBC brings in new Gardeners’ World presenters as Bake Off boss takes charge
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
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The BBC is aiming to bring some of the ingredients that have made The Great British Bake Off a hit to its revamp of Gardeners’ World, which returns to BBC2 on Friday.
Earlier this year the corporation drafted in Paolo Proto, the producer responsible for the record-breaking last series of Bake Off, as well as a number of new presenters and strands such as “extreme gardening” .
A major change is doubling the length of Gardeners’ World, which will remain anchored by popular host Monty Don, to an hour.
Rav Wilding sues makers of Splash! after diving injury 'changed my life' Read more
“Gardeners’ World will be extended to hour-long episodes which will run from September until to the end of the series in late October,” said Proto, in a recent blog on the BBC website. “We are going to introduce a range of new strands with some new faces.”
The new presenters include Frances Tophill from ITV’s Love Your Garden, who will “meet gardeners who garden in extreme conditions”. Others include “garden doctor” Nick Bailey; designer Adam Frost; Florence Headlam, who will cover city gardens; and Nick Macer, who will look at tropical plants.
“These [new] strands will cover topics as diverse as tropical plants to city gardens and inspirational garden designers to the science of gardening,” said Proto. “We’ll spend time with head gardeners from some of the country’s leading gardens and meet passionate amateurs.”
Gardeners’ World has a loyal following, attracting up to about 2.5 million viewers.
Proto said that plans were currently being drawn up to mark a milestone next year.
“Next year Gardeners’ World will celebrate its 50th anniversary and plans are being made to ensure it’s an unforgettable year for gardeners and our legion of loyal viewers,” he said.
In 2009, the BBC extended Gardeners’ World to an hour and introduced a “cool wall”, but the revamp failed to impress viewers and the show returned to its 30-minute format.
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https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/aug/31/bbc-gardeners-world-presenters-bake-off-monty-don
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en
| 2016-08-31T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/98f12cf60a0278b4cf43114c1265853ec2bff258f40234382919312d80fbbf97.json
|
|
[
"Angelique Chrisafis"
] | 2016-08-30T14:52:30 | null | 2016-08-30T13:56:16 |
Manuel Valls faces criticism for comments regarding Marianne, a symbol of republic, in context of continuing burkini ban row
|
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fworld%2F2016%2Faug%2F30%2Ffrance-manuel-valls-breasts-headscarf-burkini-ban-row.json
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en
| null |
French PM suggests naked breasts represent France better than a headscarf
| null | null |
www.theguardian.com
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The French prime minister has drawn criticism for suggesting that naked breasts are more representative of France than a headscarf, in the latest flare-up of the bitter political row over the burkini.
Manuel Valls, who clashed with France’s education minister over his support for mayors who have banned full-body swimsuits from beaches, gave a rousing speech on Monday night in which he hailed the bare breasts of Marianne, a national symbol of the French Republic.
“Marianne has a naked breast because she is feeding the people! She is not veiled, because she is free! That is the republic!” he thundered at a government rally.
The inference that bare breasts were a symbol of France while the Muslim headscarf was problematic sparked scorn from politicians and derision from historians and feminists.
Mathilde Larrere, a historian of the French revolution and French citizenship, tweeted: “Marianne has a naked breast because it’s an allegory, you cretin!” She then explained in a long series of tweets that images of Marianne with a naked breast harked back to classical allusions.
Other historians questioned Valls’ grasp of French republican history. The figure of Marianne officially became a symbol of the French Republic in 1848, after the fall of the monarchy. Her image is still featured throughout the French public service and on official documents, as well as on stamps. Statues of Marianne adorn town halls.
The historian Nicolas Lebourg told French newspaper Libération that Valls appeared to have confused Marianne with the earlier 1830 Delacroix painting of Liberty Leading the People, where the figure has her breasts uncovered.
In Riyadh and the Riviera, women have to fight for the right to be themselves Read more
Many pointed out that Marianne typically has her head covered with a Phrygian cap, a soft, felt hat that symbolised freedom and the revolution. She has been portrayed in different ways, either with breasts uncovered or fully covered.
The former Green party minister Cécile Duflot said Valls’ praise of Marianne’s bare breasts gave an indication of the lamentable view of women held by some male French politicians.
The UN has called on French beach resorts to lift their bans on the burkini, labelling them a “stupid reaction” that did not improve security but fuelled religious intolerance and the stigmatisation of Muslims, especially women.
The UN human rights office welcomed a decision last week by France’s highest administrative court to suspend one of the burkini bans, ruling it “manifestly illegal”. This decision is likely to set a legal precedent. But most of the mayors who have banned burkinis are still refusing to withdraw the restrictions and four face further legal action from rights groups this week.
There has been additional controversy over the setting up of a state body, the Foundation of French Islam, aimed at better organising the religion in France and integrating the country’s Muslim population.
The choice of the former defence minister Jean-Pierre Chevènement to head the foundation left many observers asking why a Muslim was not given the role.
Comments by Chevènement this week, in which he appeared to suggest that there were no French people left in Saint-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris, prompted the local Socialist MP, Mathieu Hanotin, to start a petition demanding that his appointment be blocked.
Hanotin said Chevènement had displayed “an unbearable racist rhetoric” and “crossed a red line”.
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/30/france-manuel-valls-breasts-headscarf-burkini-ban-row
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en
| 2016-08-30T00:00:00 |
www.theguardian.com/d973c5bf8f7f817fc8864f8586a960385a3fc408efae15bfaf7eaad0eadabafe.json
|
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