Новости за 21.06.2017

Theresa May’s 2017 Queen’s speech was certainly not the one she planned to make when she called a snap general election. Her original aspiration in triggering the vote was to secure an electoral mandate in her own right. She wanted to strengthen her hand in both domestic and international affairs by increasing her parliamentary majority.

TED Conference/Flickr, CC BY-NC

As the ride-hailing company Uber lurched from one clumsy mess to the next, it had appeared that CEO Travis Kalanick would somehow ride out the storm. His recent resignation is an admission that the company needs to explore new avenues.

Erica Nockalls, Author provided

Glastonbury, Britain’s largest and most famous music festival, is a great symbol of the many faces of the global climate change debate. It’s full of people enjoying life and relying on technology, easily available energy and consumer goods, yet it’s also deeply rooted in environmental and social justice concerns. And, of course, it’s also hugely exposed to extreme weather.

Mari Tefre/flickr, CC BY-SA

There is a fearful irony to recent news of flooding at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway. This was supposed to be humanity’s most impregnable bulwark against famine, but it is now endangered by global warming, one of the very threats that it was supposed to protect us from.

Look into my eyes. Ben Stevens/PA Wire/PA Images

Dear Jeremy,

What can I say? Well done! What a joy it has been to watch all your detractors feasting on Corbyn-flavoured humble pie. In the general election of June 2017 you gained votes, you gained seats and you gained popularity … The trouble is, you didn’t gain power.

You nearly did, and the results of June 8 could fairly be described as a “glorious defeat”. But without wanting to detract from the party’s overall achievement,... Читать дальше...

The contents of this year’s Queen’s speech have to last for twice as long as usual. The speech for 2018 has already been cancelled to provide more time to scrutinise Brexit legislation, making the parliamentary session two years long. This doesn’t mean MPs won’t get holidays. But it does mean there won’t be the usual session-end cut off, which can lead to bills simply not making it onto the statute book because of a lack of time.

At the start of the 2017 election campaign, there were indications that turnout among young voters might rise – and happily, they proved to be correct. On the day, 64% of 18- to 24-year-olds on the electoral roll turned out to vote, a 21-point increase from the 2015 general election. This was predominantly to Labour’s advantage, with 62% of young people who voted opting for the party of Jeremy Corbyn.

A statue of world heavyweight champion Joe Louis which stands in his hometown of LaFayette, Alabama. SaveRivers, CC BY-SA

Joe Louis became the second black boxer to win the world heavyweight title when he defeated James Braddock in eight rounds in Chicago on June 22, 1937. That was 80 years ago. Louis held the title for 11 years – the longest of any heavyweight – through an era of crisis and war, and in the face of ingrained racial prejudice.

Anita Palllenberg and Mick Jagger in Performance, 1969.

Two items of recent news will have captured the attention of anyone interested in rock and roll history. The death of Anita Pallenberg, aged 75, on June 13, was greeted as the end of an era, the passing of a true 1960s icon whose role as a muse to the Rolling Stones it is hard to overestimate. A couple of days later, it was reported that another prominent muse, perhaps the most famous of them all – Yoko Ono – was to be given a writing credit for Imagine... Читать дальше...

EQRoy/Shutterstock

Online retail giant Amazon has made a decisive move into food retail. The acquisition of US grocer Whole Foods, a pioneer in organic, healthy food shopping for well-off consumers, brings together two businesses with contrasting reputations. We’ve been here before. And it didn’t work out well.

Since the attack on Muslim worshippers near the Finsbury Park mosque in the early hours of June 20, in which 11 people were injured and one man died, there has been criticism of the way the incident has been covered by the media. In a statement, Finsbury Park mosque said:

Since the attack on Muslim worshippers near the Finsbury Park mosque in the early hours of June 20, in which 11 people were injured and one man died, there has been criticism of the way the incident has been covered by the media. In a statement, Finsbury Park mosque said:

Pexels.

Despite computing education in UK schools going through a massive revolution over the past few years to try and make it more relevant to our increasingly technology driven lives, the new GCSE in computer science has failed to attract much interest from students.

Artist's concept of the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft approaching Mars. NASA/JPL-Caltech

Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX and Tesla, has released new details of his vision to colonise parts of the solar system, including Mars, Jupiter’s moon Europa and Saturn’s moon Enceladus. His gung ho plans – designed to make humans a multi-planetary species in case civilisation collapses – include launching flights to Mars as early as 2023.

The UK’s security services are under the spotlight as the country still reels from major terror attacks in Manchester and London. But MI5 and Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee have been in a period of limbo while the country was waiting for a government to be formed following the snap election. There is now a desperate need to review the security failings that led to these shocking attacks. It is impossible to stop all terrorists – but the first thing that needs to be assessed is... Читать дальше...

Bottery and aggravated assault. Mopic

Propaganda bots posing as people are increasingly being used on social media to sway public opinion around the world. So says new research from the University of Oxford’s Internet Institute, which found automated accounts and other forms of social media propaganda are rife in Russia, the US and Germany among other countries.

Theresa May famously promised “strong and stable leadership” during the 2017 general election campaign. It was never really clear what that soundbite meant, despite its repetition ad nauseam. And we still don’t know a great deal about May’s leadership practice. The details that allow us to really analyse prime ministerial leadership tend to come out in biographies and memoirs, only after a national leader has stepped down from the stage.

Aethelflaed

The UK now has a female prime minister and Elizabeth II has been queen for more than six decades, but few would associate Anglo-Saxon England with powerful women. Nearly 1,100 years ago, however, Æthelflæd, “Lady of the Mercians”, died in Tamworth – as one of the most powerful political figures in tenth-century Britain.

Hot dog. Shutterstock

Summer is a great time to get out and about with your dog. But dogs don’t tolerate the heat as well as their owners. When people get hot they start to sweat, but dogs are only able to do this through the pads on their paws. Dogs instead rely on panting as their main method of cooling.

FS Stock/Shutterstock

Most of Britain is experiencing a heatwave, with temperatures reaching up to 32℃. The public health watchdog for England has issued an amber health warning, advising people to take care in the hotter weather. But what does it mean for runners? Is it ever too hot to go for a run?

Shutterstock

Britain now has a record number of female MPs, more women are on company boards, and work is being done to encourage more women to take up science.

The mayor of Rome, Virginia Raggi, believes the Italian capital is facing a new migrant emergency. “We can’t afford new arrivals,” she argued in a letter sent to Italy’s Ministry of Interior on June 15. “Rome’s reception capacity is on its knees,” she continued, adding that new arrivals would have “devastating social costs”. According to the Italian interior minister, Marco Minniti, new arrivals in Rome are in line with agreed quotas.

The mayor of Rome, Virginia Raggi, believes the Italian capital is facing a new migrant emergency. “We can’t afford new arrivals,” she argued in a letter sent to Italy’s Ministry of Interior on June 15. “Rome’s reception capacity is on its knees,” she continued, adding that new arrivals would have “devastating social costs”. According to the Italian interior minister, Marco Minniti, new arrivals in Rome are in line with agreed quotas.

On hearing the news that Darren Osborne was arrested for terror offences including attempted murder following an attack on a group of Muslims near the Finsbury Park Mosque, it would have been easy to jump to the conclusion that the act was motivated by far-right ideologies.