Responding to foreign disinformation poses many challenges. Recent revelations about foreign interference in Canada illustrate some of them. Malign foreign entities and witting and unwitting domestic officials have complex roles that are in constant flux. An uncertain government is paralyzed by partisanship and communication problems. Both foreign interference and government confusion threaten to further erode fledgling public confidence in government institutions. My forthcoming article, to be published soon, examines how the Canadian federal government is addressing Russian disinformation pertaining to the war in Ukraine. It reveals the benefits, limits and potential dangers in government responses. It also builds on my…
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The Government announced that the 2024 edition of the UK-France Local Government Forum will take place in Leeds on 12 and 13 December, co-hosted by Leeds and Bradford City Councils and supported by the West Yorkshire Mayor. This will be the third edition of the forum, following on from the successful 2022 event in Nancy. The forum is an opportunity for mayors, leaders, cabinet members, councillors and officers from sub-national government – be that district, borough, city, unitary or county councils, as well as combined authorities – to meet and exchange with French counterparts on subjects of common interest,…
Summer 2024’s record heat is creating problems for transportation infrastructure, from roads to rails. New York’s Third Avenue Bridge, which swings open for ship traffic on the Harlem River, was stuck for hours after its metal expanded in the heat and it couldn’t close. Roads have buckled on hot days in several states, including Washington and Wisconsin. Amtrak warned passengers to prepare for heat-related problems hours before a daylong outage between New York and New Jersey; the risks to power lines and rails during high temperatures are a growing source of delays for the train system. It doesn’t help that…
Elizabeth Spehar, Assistant Secretary-General for Peacebuilding Support, was speaking during a meeting on UN collaboration with the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in maintaining international peace and security. Their members span Europe and Asia and include China, Russia, several former Soviet States, India, Pakistan and Iran. Partnership for peace Ms. Spehar noted that the founders of the UN recognized the need for collective efforts to ensure peace in an increasingly complex world, which requires partnership at all levels. “Now, more than ever, a more effective United Nations relies on stronger and deepened cooperation with regional and subregional organizations,” she said. “Today, the stakes for international peace and security…
In most mammals, including humans, females have two copies of the X chromosome while males have only one (accompanied by a Y). So you might think females get a double dose of proteins encoded by the 850-odd genes on the X chromosome, while males get only a single dose. How can this be fair? Indeed, this gene dosage difference between men and women would cause genetic mayhem if it were not for a system that balances out the dosage difference. In humans, mice and other mammals, one of the two X chromosomes in females is “silenced”. Silenced genes on this…
The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) has confirmed today (Monday 5 August) that 98% eligible farmers have received their first instalment of the new delinked payments. This means that a further £401 million has now been released into the rural economy alongside funding from other schemes. Delinked payments provide continued financial support as Defra encourages farmers and land managers to enter the environmental land management schemes, where they are paid to take actions that will support sustainable food production while protecting the environment. This is the first of two instalments this year. The RPA have also brought forward the second instalment,…
After widespread backlash, Google pulled its “Dear Sydney” Gemini ad from Olympics coverage. The ad featured its generative AI chatbot tool, Gemini, formerly known as Bard. The advertisement featured a father and his daughter, a fan of United States Olympic track and field athlete Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone. The father, despite considering himself “pretty good with words,” uses Gemini to help his daughter to write a fan letter to Sydney, saying that when something needs to be done “just right,” Gemini is the better choice. Google and Team USA’s advertisement for Google’s generative AI chatbot Gemini. This advertisement sparked widespread backlash online…
From Tuesday 6 August 2024 providers must use the Apply for Criminal Legal Aid service for all crime applications and are encouraged to start using it now if they are not already doing so. Apply for Criminal Legal Aid (CRM14 and CRM15) Functionality allowing applications for a change in financial circumstances has now been released. This means 100 per cent of applications can now be made through the Apply for Criminal Legal Aid service. Providers are encouraged to use Apply for Criminal Legal Aid as soon as possible, particularly as any post submission evidence (PSE) can easily be processed through…
More than 250 people are reported to have been killed, amid fears that the toll could rise to over 500, the UN Office for the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a flash update on the disaster, issued on Thursday. Gezei Gofa Woreda, in southern Ethiopia, suffered three successive landslides following heavy rains on 21 and 22 July. More than 15,500 people are said to be affected, including at least 1,320 children under five and 5,293 pregnant and nursing mothers. “These people are at high risk of further landslides and need to be evacuated to safe zones immediately.…
The defendants were part of the so-called “UAE 84” group who were subject to mass trials and convicted for establishing a terrorist organization under the country’s 2014 Counter-terrorism Law for acts dating back to the Arab Spring, some 14 years ago. Most had already spent a decade behind bars for national security-related offences allegedly committed during the same period. Experts ‘shocked’ The experts issued a statement saying they were shocked at the life sentences, which were handed down earlier this month by the Abu Dhabi Court of Appeal. Ten other people were also given between 10 to 15 years in prison.…