United Kingdom

Who would be your pick for the next James Bond?

Tech group says it can no longer offer advanced protection to British users after demand for ‘back door’ to user data https://archive.is/NI01z

Cross posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/29556998

UK-based lawyers have spoken out about being targeted by the Chinese state and its supporters in a campaign of intimidation including surveillance, hacking of bank accounts and rape threats.

The barristers, from Doughty Street Chambers in London, say there has been a coordinated and concerted campaign against them since they began acting for the jailed Hong Kong pro-democracy activist and media mogul, Jimmy Lai, three years ago.

Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC said she had received threats via email and social media of dismemberment, rape and death, which have extended to her family in recent months.

“I had a threat to rape one of my children because of my work,” she said. “I don’t know if that’s just an individual or if that’s someone who’s state-linked. What I do know is that if you have a campaign which is led by state authorities to say this lawyer is not to be trusted and they’re undermining the Chinese state by engaging in legal work with the United Nations, it sends a green light to [its supporters] to send material like that.”

As the leader of Lai’s international legal team, Gallagher has been targeted the most, including “hundreds” of attempts to hack her bank account. There has also been so-called “privilege phishing” – attempts to seek to persuade those who are targeted to divulge sensitive information, which the Bar Council has also warned about. Sometimes it is through emails created to appear to have been sent by Gallagher, or her contacts or colleagues.

Demand for fuel has pushed gas prices up – but peace in Ukraine could flood the market and change everything

The new UK Government’s plan to decarbonise the electricity system brings with it the lofty aim of tripling total solar capacity by the end of the decade. Although much of this will be driven by large-scale installations, ministers are also hoping for a “rooftop revolution” that could see millions more homes topped with solar panels by 2030.

As well as providing carbon-free electricity, domestic solar can deliver significant reductions in energy spending – an average of £440 per year – to the households that get them. This means policy makers should think about rooftop solar like other ways of permanently reducing household energy spending, such as improving insulation. So in this briefing note we take a closer look at the case for installing more solar panels, discuss progress so far, and consider what, if any, policy might be needed to maximise the benefits.

The study's main points:

• While rooftop solar can make a small contribution to Clean Power, it can cut household bills by an estimated £440 a year on average, equivalent to almost a quarter of energy spending for the poorest fifth of households.
• Measured by savings per pound spent, solar panels compare well with other bill-cutting measures, yielding 7p-a-year per pound spent, a third more than cavity-wall insulation. Importantly, solar panels have had relatively low uptake compared to many other measures, having been installed on only 8 per cent of roofs.
• Poorer households have the most to gain from lower bills but are least able to access solar panels without policy support, due to prohibitive up-front costs. Changes to policy support in the past decade has shifted the distribution of solar panels towards richer areas – in 2015 there were more solar panels installed in the poorest third of LSOAs than the richest (35 to 31 per cent), but by 2023 more than twice as many went to the richest places (45 to 21 per cent).
• With a well-target package of support, solar panels could help to significantly reduce fuel poverty. We estimate that up to one-in-three fuel-poor households could be taken out of fuel poverty by typical solar savings, subject to the suitability of their homes.
• Though most consumers seem to be paid relatively well for the electricity they generate, the Smart Export Guarantee isn’t doing enough to prevent some solar panel owners being paid very little for their generation, with 20 per cent of Smart Export Guarantee tariffs being “unbundled” tariffs that pay just 4p/kwh on average.
• The government should consider more means-tested support with up-front costs, including both grants and subsidised loans targeted at low-to-middle income households.

As calls by UK’s top leaders for the release of British-Egyptian blogger, coder, and activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah from prison in Cairo continue, Alaa’s mother, math professor Laila Soueif, grows weaker four months into a hunger strike she began in September to keep attention focused on her son and protest the lack of progress in obtaining his release.

She has consumed only water, coffee, tea and rehydration salts for more than 135 days. She is 68 years old, and her condition is becoming dire.

EFF and six international partner organizations in December called on Starmer to take immediate action to secure Alaa’s release. We told him that Alaa’s case is a litmus test of the UK’s commitment to human rights. Soueif’s future, and Alaa’s, rests in the UK government’s hands, and it must act now. Starmer needs to pick up the phone and call al-Sisi.

If you’re based in the UK, here are some actions you can take to support the calls for Alaa’s release:

• Write to your MP (external link): https://freealaa.net/message-mp
• Join Laila Soueif outside the Foreign Office in London daily between 10-11am
• Share Alaa’s plight on social media using the hashtag #freealaa

Three years into Russia’s war against Ukraine, refugees in the UK face uncertainty, displacement and separation

Ahead of the highly anticipated visit from China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who is due to visit Britain today (Thursday 13 February) to hold talks with his British counterpart David Lammy in what is being seen as a sign that relations between the countries are ‘normalising’, said Felix Jakens, Amnesty’s UK Head of Campaigns.

“David Lammy should be drawing serious red lines, rather than rolling out the red carpet when Wang Yi visits this week," Jakens adds.

“We need to hear a public and strong condemnation of the brutal suppression of human rights activists, which is not only limited to mainland China or Hong Kong but has also spread to the UK through the transnational targeting of students and activists who speak out here. Hong Kong’s recent issuing of ‘Wild West’-style bounties on activists’ heads in the UK indicates the authorities believe they can intimidate and silence their critics overseas with impunity. It is completely unacceptable to see this sort of international witch hunt on UK soil and the most high-level visit in years must be a time to publicly vocalise UK Government outrage."

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Archive link: https://archive.is/j116K

Monsoon boss Nick Stowe has urged the UK to follow in the footsteps of the US by removing the tax loopholes used by Chinese fast fashion giant Shein.

Over the past few days, US president Donald Trump has implemented tariffs on Chinese imports into the country, and scrapped “de mininis” exemptions which enabled products worth under $800 to be imported without paying certain taxes.

Small packages sent directly to US home addresses had previously been exempt from import taxes, which allowed businesses like Shein to avoid paying customs duties by shipping small, low-value orders directly to customers in the US.

The move has caused the US Postal Service to stop accepting parcels from Hong Kong and China until further notice.

Although the executive did not think the UK should bring in all the measures Trump has, he argued the government should address the tax loophole used by Shein.

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A computer expert who has battled for a decade to recover a £600m bitcoin fortune he believes is buried in a council dump in south Wales is considering buying the site so he can hunt for the missing fortune.

James Howells lost a high court case last month to force Newport city council to allow him to search the tip to retrieve a hard drive he says contains the bitcoins.

The council has since announced plans to close and cap the site, which would almost certainly spell the end of any lingering hopes of reaching the bitcoins. The authority has secured planning permission for a solar farm on part of the land.

Howells, 39, said on Monday it had been “quite a surprise” to hear of the closure plan. He said: “It [the council] claimed at the high court that closing the landfill to allow me to search would have a huge detrimental impact on the people of Newport, whilst at the same time they were planning to close the landfill anyway.

“I expected it would be closed in the coming years because it’s 80/90% full – but didn’t expect its closure so soon. If Newport city council would be willing, I would potentially be interested in purchasing the landfill site ‘as is’ and have discussed this option with investment partners and it is something that is very much on the table.”