Category: UK News

Categories
UK News

Greensill Capital’s Lobbying Line Deepens As It Emerges, Senior Official Working for a Firm in the Cabinet Office | Political news

A senior official worked for Greensill Capital – the financial firm at the center of David Cameron’s lobbying – while still employed at Whitehall, it has been revealed.

Questions have now been asked as to why Bill Crothers did not consult a Whitehall watchdog before joining. Greensill as a director.

He started working for the company as an advisor in September 2015 and only left his post as government commercial director in the Cabinet Office, in charge of billions of pounds in government contracts, only in November of this year. .

Less than 10 months later, he became director of the recently collapsed finance company.

The latest revelation came as a result of correspondence between the Advisory Board on Business Appointments (ACOBA) and the Cabinet Office.

Lord Pickles, President of ACOBA, wrote today to Alex Chisholm, Director of Civil Service Operations, asking why Mr Crothers did not seek advice on joining Greensill.

According to the Cabinet Office, Mr Crothers did not need to consult ACOBA on his appointment to Greensill once he left the civil service – as usual for former ministers and senior officials taking on roles in the private sector – because he “was already working in an advisory capacity at Greensill before leaving the public service”.

The Cabinet Office had enabled him to advise Greensill part-time for his last three months in the public service.

Mr Pickles wrote: “The lack of transparency around this part-time job at Greensill may have left the misleading impression that Mr Crothers had willfully ignored the duty to seek advice.”

In a letter to Mr Pickles, Mr Crother said he had “completely followed the required process” and was told that no applications should be submitted to ACOBA as he was already working as a consultant to ACOBA. Greensill.

The revelation is likely to spark a new set of questions about Greensill’s connections …

More information about this article Read More
Source: news.sky.com
This notice was published: 2021-04-13 15:40:00

Categories
UK News

NATO Prepares for World’s Biggest Cyber ​​Warfare Game – Focusing on Gray Zone | Science and Technology News

Military cybersecurity specialists are bracing for the world’s biggest cyber warfare game, which kicks off tomorrow as fictional NATO member state Berylia is under attack.

NATO’s real-time exercise will include defenders practicing protection of critical civilian and military infrastructure, including water treatment facilities and power plants.

Amid the growing risk of actual international conflict, the exercise will also include legal teams who will need to determine if and when a particular action is acceptable under international law, as well as strategic communications experts to deal with disinformation.

In the gray area: episode one

In the gray area: episode one

An invisible enemy rises in a gray area between war and peace. Weapons of choice include disinformation, intimidation, and cyber hacks.

PODCAST

How it works?

Organized by the Tallinn, Estonia-based NATO Cooperative Cyber ​​Defense Center of Excellence (CCDCOE), Exercise Locked Shields is an annual network defense exercise using real-world skills.

The storyline is based on an attack on the fictional land of Berylia – hypothetically located in the North Atlantic – and an adversary called Crimsonia who creates artificial islands.

Although the adversary is not associated with a specific NATO adversary, Crimsonia has features of both Russia and China in its ambitions and conduct.

The idea is to test the skills of several teams as they would be if they were forced to come to the remote aid of NATO ally Berylia, who is the target of a “sophisticated and intense series of cyber attacks” .

Participants range from specialists working for NATO member states to CCDCOE’s private sector partners who develop operating technology that supports critical national infrastructure.

The defenders are …

More information about this article Read More
Source: news.sky.com
This notice was published: 2021-04-13 14:19:00

Categories
UK News

Jihadist drill-hitter Sahayb Abu jailed for life for plotting terrorist attack with gladiator-style sword | UK News

A jihadist drill-hitter has been jailed for life for plotting a terrorist attack using a gladiator-style sword, balaclava and combat vest, just weeks after his release from prison.

Sahayb Munye Abu, 27, of Goodmayes, east London, is among a growing number of ex-prisoners, which worries authorities following the attacks at the fishmongers’ market and Streatham.

It can be revealed that Abu was jailed for breaking into a jewelry store for the alleged purpose of raising funds to travel abroad for terrorism.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Abu was sentenced in March 2021

He was not charged with a terrorist offense, but he mingled with other convicts from Wandsworth Prison, including Husnain Rashid, who had been sentenced to 19 years for encouraging the attacks on Prince George at his school.

Abu also associated with Abuthaher Mamun, who had been jailed for 13 years for showing Islamic state videos to schoolchildren.

Abu is the sixth member of his family to be involved in ISIS, two of whom died fighting in Syria.

Jailing him for life with a minimum sentence of 19 years, judge Mark Dennis QC told Abu “that you of all people” should “have turned your back on the violent extremist cause and instead promoted the cause. cause of peace and unity which underlines the Islamic faith and so many other religions around the world “.

He added: “Instead of a few weeks after your own release, you joined other extremists committed to this same cause and in no time you were preparing to commit your own act of violence in the streets of this country.

“To this day, you have not yet expressed remorse for your actions.”

Abu claimed he was a “humanitarian” who was trying to start an agricultural association called “Islamic …

More information about this article Read More
Source: news.sky.com
This notice was published: 2021-04-13 13:16:00

Categories
UK News

COVID-19: The best lawyer will have “carte blanche” with a review by the David Cameron cabinet, presses Boris Johnson | Political news

Boris Johnson has vowed that a high profile lawyer would have “carte blanche to ask anyone what they need” as part of a review of the operations of a bankrupt finance company that David Cameron has lobbied for.

PM asked Nigel Boardman to look into role of Australian financier Lex greensill, his company, Greensill Capital, and his involvement in government.

It follows weeks of allegations about Mr Greensill’s links, Mr. Cameron and government ministers and officials.

Mr Cameron, who was employed by Mr Greensill in 2018 after leaving Downing Street, was revealed to have approached sitting ministers about Greensill Capital’s involvement in government-backed financial support programs during the coronavirus crisis.

This included text messages sent to Chancellor Rishi Sunak.

Mr Cameron also had a drink with Health Secretary Matt Hancock, also in the presence of Mr Greensill, during which they reportedly discussed a payment system later rolled out in the NHS.

After ordering the Greensill review, Mr Johnson said on Tuesday: ‘I asked Nigel Boardman to look into this whole issue of supply chain finance and gave him pretty much carte blanche to ask. to anyone what he needed to find out.

“I would like this to be done quickly, but I want it to have as much access as possible so that we can all understand exactly what happened, and that will of course be presented to parliament in due course.”

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Cameron ‘made remarkably bad judgment calls’

Pressed to understand why he had not put in place a “full independent investigation”, the PM said he had “full confidence” in Mr Boardman, while praising his “exceptional” work in the screening …

More information about this article Read More
Source: news.sky.com
This notice was published: 2021-04-13 12:54:00

Categories
UK News

Climate Change: Richest 1% Behind Global Carbon Emissions, New Report Says | Climate News

The richest 1% in the world produces twice as many carbon emissions as the poorest 50%, according to a new report.

“Despite a sharp drop in carbon emissions in 2020 linked to the COVID-19[female[feminine pandemic, the climate crisis – which is caused by the accumulation of emissions in the atmosphere over time – has continued to grow, ”warned the Cambridge Sustainability Commission.

Ahead of the COP26 Summit on climate change, he affirms that the government “must take advantage of this historic situation to build more just economies within the limits that our planet can support”.

The daily climate show
Picture:
The daily climate show

Watch: The Daily Climate Show

Dramatic lifestyle changes are needed among the so-called “polluting elite” to limit global warming to the 1.5 degree Celsius target set in the Paris Agreement, according to the report.

To avoid exceeding this limit, the richest 1% will need to reduce their emissions by a factor of at least 30 by 2030 – while the poorest 50% in the world should be able to increase their emissions. three times their current level – meaning the cheap energy ladder is not being taken away from developing countries.

According to the report of the Cambridge Sustainability Commission on Scaling Behavior Change – an expert group of 31 leaders – individual and systemic change go hand in hand.

Some of the report’s recommendations are dramatic, notably the fight against overconsumption by “dealing with advertising and the role of the media in normalizing and reifying high consumption behavior”, possibly by banning advertising.

He recommends a “choice edition” in which “governments, businesses and those with direct control over production limit the availability of high carbon products and services,” arguing: “It is much more difficult to end unsustainable behavior than to prevent the marketing of unsustainable products in the first place. “

Among the commission’s proposals is the establishment of what it describes as “a …

More information about this article Read More
Source: news.sky.com
This notice was published: 2021-04-13 11:43:00

Categories
UK News

South African variant: do the vaccines work against the SA variant – what is the concern? | UK | New UK News

Trials of the Novavax, Janssen and Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccines in South Africa, where B.1.351 circulates, suggest that the variant may escape some immunity and not stop infections.

But experts say vaccines should still offer protection against serious and potentially fatal COVID-19 disease.

Moderna’s results suggest that its injection is still effective against the South African variant, although the immune response may not be as strong or prolonged.

Vaccines can also be redesigned and modified to provide a better match within weeks or months, if necessary.

More about this article: Read More
Source: feedproxy.google.com
This notice was published: 2021-04-13 12:53:19