United Kingdom

Wasn't sure if this counted as UK politics given his previous job. Decided Clegg Is best left out of politics for the foreseeable.

More than £50,000 of taxpayers’ money was spent on lawyers to try to prevent the release of a safeguarding review ordered after a disabled man starved to death in his own home.

The costs were part of a bill of nearly £1m spent under the last government to prevent the release of various documents under the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/23804680

Paywall? https://archive.is/RJYIE

Archived link

As the issue of alleged Chinese spy Yang Tenbo’s relationship with Prince Andrew was raised in Parliament last week, a wide-ranging discussion about the U.K.’s relationship with China landed on a recurring theme: the Britain’s reliance on China for solar panels.

“[W]hy are we still buying from China huge numbers of solar arrays that have demonstrably been made using slave labor?” Member of Parliament Iain Duncan Smith asked. “[F]ar from challenging China on human rights, it now appears that we are turning a blind eye.”

Questions about human rights keep turning up because U.K. industry relies heavily on Chinese materials, and there is evidence of a range of human rights violations in their production, including forced labor.

That presents an apparent dilemma. On the one hand, there is the idea of a fast and cheap green transition. On the other hand, there is the idea of a clean human rights chain

[...]

Two routes

Option one is supply chain diversification — buying solar panels from elsewhere.

A report from Brussels-based economic think tank Bruegel last year proposed developing a partnership of countries that can together supplement China’s solar contribution.

The view there is that no single country can take over China’s role, but in time, a group of like-minded countries could do so.

[...]

“Its a somewhat unique situation,” professor of Environmental Studies at San Jose State University, Dustin Mulvaney told Domino Theory.

“Much of the problems caused to the industry because of the forced labor issues were because the industry did not have traceability and transparency in supply chains. So I break the dichotomy by saying we should be for transparent supply chains so in the event of a forced labor issue, it can be quickly resolved.”

This idea matches the positioning of Solar Energy U.K. — a grouping which advocates for solar developments in the U.K.

[...]

Solar manufacturers in Xinjiang have been implicated in so-called “labor transfer” initiatives that have been revealed to operate within an environment of coercion, backed by the threat of re-education and internment. So this is a key target of any transparency initiatives.

[...]

There are, though, remaining issues with a transparency approach.

“There is also the issue of coal use in the supply chain that means the solar made on forced labor is probably only saving half of the emissions it would otherwise if [built] with no coal electricity/heat. So there are climate benefits from geographical diversification as well,” Mulvaney noted.

Additionally, one industry insider, working on handing out government grants for small-scale solar projects, noted that while they give advice on procurement, it is not legally binding, and essentially responsibility was deferred to the individual stakeholders.

[...]

A multi-million pound theme park proposing to build a new site in Oxfordshire is formally "scoping opinions" and has revealed the earmarked location.

Puy du Fou declared its interest last year in wanting a site to be built in Oxfordshire near Bicester.

It currently has a site in Spain and France and is planning on opening two more locations before 2030, which includes the site in Cherwell.

The multi-award winning theme park has no rides. Instead, it is a unique concept which offers a multitude of live shows and immersive experiences, all set in historical time periods.

Savills submitted a "scoping opinion" report to Cherwell District Council on behalf of Puy du Fou earlier this month.

This follows public exhibitions held in Bicester in July, which gave residents, businesses and officials the opportunity to share their thoughts, raise concerns and to learn more about the theme park.

Cross posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/17749474

Hong Kong police have offered rewards of HK$1m (£103,000; $129,000) for information leading to the arrests of six pro-democracy activists living in the UK and Canada.

Among them is Tony Chung, the former leader of a pro-independence group who fled to the UK last year.

The group - which includes a former district councillor, an actor, and a YouTuber - have been lobbying for more democracy in the territory.

[...]

Also on the wanted list is former district councillor Carmen Lau and activist Chloe Cheung. Both are based in the UK and lobby on behalf of two NGOs calling for more democracy in Hong Kong.

[...]

Ms Lau posted on [social media] that the warrant would not stop her advocacy work. She called on the UK, US and EU governments to impose sanctions on "Hong Kong human rights perpetrators".

She also asked the British Labour government to "seriously reconsider its strategies for tackling transnational repression targeting Hong Kongers" and to look at blocking plans for a new Chinese embassy in Tower Hill.

A man who featured in a viral video of him being hit in the crotch and head by bricks during the Southport riot has been jailed.

Brian Spencer was first hit in the head by a brick thrown by a fellow rioter as he goaded a line of riot police on 30 July.

As he held his head, he was then hit by a second brick directly in the crotch, causing him to stagger in the street.

The 40-year-old, of Lytham Road, Southport, pleaded guilty at Liverpool Crown to violent disorder and was jailed for two years and six months.

...

Spencer also admitted a separate offence of racially aggravated harassment.

Merseyside Police said his injuries were captured on mobile phone footage which was shared widely on social media after "some wayward missiles" hit him during the "appalling scenes" in Southport.

A police spokesperson said Spencer "could be seen acting in an aggressive manner" as part of a large group of people who were standing in front of police officers and throwing bricks.

Spencer was also seen "punching a police vehicle several times and picking up and throwing wheelie bins" at officers, police said.

Merseyside Police said its officers were later called to hospital after injured Spencer racially abused another patient while he was receiving treatment for his head injury.

A police spokesperson said the "officers recognised him from the viral social media footage" and he was arrested.

Previously:

• Instant karma

It is known across Liverpool as the Radio City tower but that moniker may not be around much longer as the structure hosts its final live broadcast on Christmas Eve.

Microphone cables are being bundled up and heaving contacts books packed into boxes, leaving empty what is arguably the most famous building of the city’s skyline – St Johns Beacon, to use its proper name.

Built in 1969, originally as a luxury revolving restaurant that was one visited by Queen Elizabeth II, the tower was listed Grade II in 2020, with Historic England describing it as “embodying the technological bravura and spirit of the space age”.

Cross posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/17668556

The People's Republic of China has a "magic weapon", according to its founding leader Mao Zedong and its current president Xi Jinping. It is called the United Front Work Department (UFWD) - and it is raising as much alarm in the West as Beijing's growing military arsenal.

Yang Tengbo, a prominent businessman who has been linked to Prince Andrew, is the latest overseas Chinese citizen to be scrutinised - and sanctioned - for his links to the UFWD.

The existence of the department is far from a secret. A decades-old and well-documented arm of the Chinese Communist Party, it has been mired in controversy before. Investigators from the US to Australia have cited the UFWD in multiple espionage cases, often accusing Beijing of using it for foreign interference.

[...]

The United Front - originally referring to a broad communist alliance - was once hailed by Mao as the key to the Communist Party's triumph in the decades-long Chinese Civil War.

After the war ended in 1949 and the party began ruling China, United Front activities took a backseat to other priorities. But in the last decade under Xi, the United Front has seen a renaissance of sorts.

Xi's version of the United Front is broadly consistent with earlier incarnations: to "build the broadest possible coalition with all social forces that are relevant", according to Mareike Ohlberg, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund.

[...]

Today, the UFWD seeks to influence public discussions about sensitive issues ranging from Taiwan - which China claims as its territory - to the suppression of ethnic minorities in Tibet and Xinjiang.

It also tries to shape narratives about China in foreign media, target Chinese government critics abroad and co-opt influential overseas Chinese figures.

"United Front work can include espionage but [it] is broader than espionage," Audrye Wong, assistant professor of politics at the University of Southern California, tells the BBC.

"Beyond the act of acquiring covert information from a foreign government, United Front activities centre on the broader mobilisation of overseas Chinese," she said, adding that China is "unique in the scale and scope" of such influence activities.

[...]

Some experts say that the long arm of China's United Front is indeed concerning. "Western governments now need to be less naive about China's United Front work and take it as a serious threat not only to national security but also to the safety and freedom of many ethnic Chinese citizens," [politics professor at Johns Hopkins University Dr Ho-fung] Hung said.

[But he and Audrye Wong, assistant professor of politics at the University of Southern California, say that] it's important to remember that not everyone who is ethnically Chinese is a supporter of the Chinese Communist Party.

[...]

Twenty firearms have been seized from a suspected gun factory and a man has been charged.

Officers from the National Crime Agency (NCA) recovered four Glock pistols, nine shotguns, six long-barrelled firearms and a deactivated Bren machine gun during a house raid in Kingsclere in Hampshire on Tuesday.

Philip Maylen, 57, of Penny's Hatch, Kingsclere, was charged with possession of a prohibited weapon and was due to appear at Reading Magistrates' Court on Thursday.

NCA branch commander Chris Hill said it was "a very significant haul".

Officers also recovered 11 imitation firearms - an AK-47, an MP40 sub-machine gun and nine revolvers, along with a range of gun component parts.

The agency said tests were ongoing to verify if one of the Glocks and one of the shotguns were viable.

Mr Hill said the weapons "had the potential to cause devastation" within the community.

"This is a very significant haul," he continued.

"We've identified and prevented a large number of lethal weapons reaching the streets of the UK.

"Protecting the public from the threat of the criminal use of firearms remains a key priority and we work with partners at home, and abroad, to combat their importation into the UK."

A “creepy” undercover police officer in his 30s formed a sexual relationship with a teenage activist without disclosing his true identity to her, a public inquiry has been told.

The activist, known as Jessica, said the deception by Andy Coles, the undercover officer, was “disgusting and gross”.

She said she was a “quite young and naive 19” when she started a relationship with Coles, who was 31 at the time. It was her first relationship.

She told the undercover policing inquiry that he was a “creepy lech”. She discovered that he was an undercover officer only when he was exposed in 2017 after a throwaway remark by his brother, the broadcaster and former pop star Richard Coles.

Richard Coles had made a brief reference in his autobiography to his brother’s past work as an undercover police officer. This enabled activists to piece together Andy Coles’s deployment infiltrating animal rights groups in the 1990s. He went on to become a Conservative councillor after he left the police.

...

Andy Coles, who is due to be questioned by the inquiry this week, denies that he had a relationship with Jessica. However, the Metropolitan police, his former employer, has told the inquiry that Coles had an intimate relationship with her in 1992 and 1993 and does not accept his denial. The Met has previously said Coles would have faced a disciplinary hearing on a charge of gross misconduct if he had not already retired from the police in 2013.