UK

Liberty Steel set to snap up Tata's Port Talbot steelworks


LaToya Harding
·Contributor
Sat, 21 November 2020

Over the weekend Sanjeev Gupta’s company announced that Swedish firm SSAB was negotiating with Tata over buying its assets in the Netherlands. 

Photo: Reuters/Toby Melville TPX

Indian conglomerate Liberty Steel is poised to snap up Tata’s (TATASTEEL.NS) UK steelworks at Port Talbot in Wales, it has been revealed.

Over the weekend Sanjeev Gupta’s company announced that Swedish firm SSAB (SSAB-A.ST) was negotiating with Tata over buying its assets in the Netherlands. CityAm reported.

If confirmed, the move would lead to the break-up of the group’s European steel operations.

Tata’s Port Talbot steelworks, which currently employs around 8,000 people, has been looking for emergency government funding over the last few months. Last week it revealed it was reviewing all options to ensure the UK business was “self-sustaining” in the future.

Tata Steel UK made a pre-tax loss of £654m ($869m) for the previous financial year. Back in 2016 Liberty Steel submitted a previous bid for the Port Talbot site after Tata put it up for sale. However, it later backtracked and decided to hold onto the plant.

Sources close to Liberty Steel told CityAm that in the event that no funding was forthcoming, Gupta’s firm, which has an appetite for struggling metals businesses, would be a willing buyer.

READ MORE: SSAB eyes Tata Steel's Dutch assets as European consolidation picks up

It comes as Liberty, which is part of Gupta’s GFG Alliance, has submitted a bid for German conglomerate Thyssenkrupp’s (TKA.DE) struggling steel division, potentially creating a disruption behemoth in a crowded European market.

Earlier this month it was in talks with the German government over an aid package worth at least €5bn ($5.9bn, £4.5bn).

At the time, sources familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government signaled a willingness to provide financial support to shore up the unit and ensure future domestic production of an environmentally friendly form of steel.

Troubled Thyssenkrupp will likely lose €1bn this year, according to the Financial Times.

Liberty Steel declined to comment.

Watch: Thyssenkrupp to cut cut another 5,000 jobs

STATE CAPITALI$M

British satellite firm OneWeb emerges from bankruptcy

Fri, 20 November 2020,

(Reuters) - Satellite operator OneWeb said on Friday it has emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection with $1 billion (752.67 million pounds) in equity investment from a consortium of the UK Government and India's Bharti Enterprises, the new owners of the UK-based company.

The investment puts OneWeb on track to compete with Elon Musk's SpaceX in the race to use low-Earth orbit satellites to provide high-bandwidth and low-latency communication services.

OneWeb said it appointed Neil Masterson, former co-chief operating officer at Thomson Reuters , as its new chief executive officer, succeeding Adrian Steckel, who will continue as an adviser to the board.

OneWeb, founded in 2014 by entrepreneur Greg Wyler, filed for bankruptcy protection at the end of March after its biggest investor SoftBank Group Corp <9984.T> pulled funding.

The company also said it aims to resume satellite launches on Dec. 17 and is on track to begin commercial connectivity services to the UK and the Arctic region in late 2021, and expand globally in 2022.

(Reporting by Ayanti Bera in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)

UK and Bharti take control of failed satellite firm OneWeb

Ellie Zolfagharifard
Fri, 20 November 2020

A rocket carrying OneWeb satellites blasts off from a launchpad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome - REUTERS/ ROSCOSMOS

OneWeb emerged from bankruptcy on Friday after a consortium led by the British government completed its acquisition of the troubled satellite operator.

The Government and Indian conglomerate Bharti Global have both put $500m (£400m) into the London business, which aims to beam internet signals from a constellation of hundreds of satellites.

The deal means the UK will go head-to-head with Brussels and billionaire tycoon Elon Musk in the scramble to design an alternative to the aging GPS navigation system.

OneWeb claims its on track to offer internet services in the UK next year and globally in 2022.

"This strategic investment demonstrates government’s commitment to the UK’s space sector in the long-term and our ambition to put Britain at the cutting edge of the latest advances in space technology," said Alok Sharma, the Business Secretary.

"Access to our own global fleet of satellites has the potential to connect people worldwide, providing fast UK-backed broadband from the Shetlands to the Sahara and from Pole to Pole.

"This deal gives us the chance to build on our strong advanced manufacturing and services base in the UK, creating jobs and technical expertise."

Neil Masterson, a former co-chief operating officer at Thomson Reuters, has been appointed as OneWeb's new chief executive. Adrián Steckel, the company's former CEO, will continue to serve as an adviser to the board.

The $1bn bid by the UK government and Bharti Global, an arm of Sunil Mittal’s Bharti Enterprises, was made in July after OneWeb went bankrupt in March. In an extremely rare step, the UK took a so-called golden share to grant it veto powers over future investments in the company and access to its technology.

It pushed the buyout through quickly in the face of concern among civil servants that the investment could sour.

OneWeb's planned network of at least 650 satellites orbiting 750 miles above the earth could also unlock ultra-high speed broadband connections for 60,000 homes in isolated rural areas, as well as turbocharging the country's efforts to roll out 5G mobile internet.

New co-owner Bharti has more than 400 million customers and wants to use OneWeb to connect people in remote locations.

The company had launched 74 satellites before it was forced to file for bankruptcy. It plans to launch 36 more satellites on December 17, bringing its in-orbit fleet to 110 satellites.

Satellite firm OneWeb out of bankruptcy as shared UK takeover deal is complete

Jamie Harris, PA Science Technology Reporter
Fri, 20 November 2020


Failed satellite firm OneWeb has been offered a lifeline as it formally emerged from bankruptcy on Friday.

The UK has a “significant equity stake” in the company, as part of a consortium with India’s Bharti Global, after winning a bidding war in July.

Each party is investing 500 million US dollars (£400 million) into OneWeb in a race to beam internet access across the globe from satellites in the low Earth orbit.

Fantastic news that we've secured satellite network @OneWeb. This strategic investment will drive our space sector and put the UK at the forefront of space tech. A terrific boost to our advanced manufacturing, services and tech industries.
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) November 20, 2020

But with only 74 satellites in orbit at present, the firm will have to play catch-up to rivals such as SpaceX’s Starlink constellation – which more than 800 satellites already in space.

OneWeb plans to launch 36 satellites in December and hopes to begin commercial connectivity services to the UK and the Arctic region in late 2021, before having a full network in 2022.

The next batch of satellites have been shipped from Florida to Vostochny as they undergo preparations for a December 17 target date.

Business Secretary Alok Sharma said: “This strategic investment demonstrates Government’s commitment to the UK’s space sector in the long-term and our ambition to put Britain at the cutting edge of the latest advances in space technology.

“Access to our own global fleet of satellites has the potential to connect people worldwide, providing fast UK-backed broadband from the Shetlands to the Sahara and from Pole to Pole.

“This deal gives us the chance to build on our strong advanced manufacturing and services base in the UK, creating jobs and technical expertise.”

Delighted to confirm that our acquisition of @OneWeb has completed today.

Our investment will create jobs in our strong advanced manufacturing base, and confirms our ambition to put Britain at the cutting edge of the latest advances in space technology.https://t.co/hFjnXPQDyo
— Alok Sharma (@AlokSharma_RDG) November 20, 2020

The company – formed in 2012 – will continue to be headquartered in the UK, ensuring that the country is “at the forefront of a new commercial space industrial age”.

Neil Masterson, who spent 20 years working for Thomson Reuters, has also been named as the new chief executive to coincide with OneWeb’s rebirth.

“I am looking forward to helping the OneWeb team deliver and commercialise their vision to provide internet access across the globe,” Mr Masterson said.

“OneWeb has a strong social purpose to improve the world’s access to information, which I share.

“It has great talent, a compelling commercial opportunity, and is supported by committed and knowledgeable owners and investors.

“Our December launch puts the UK firmly in the global space business, alongside acknowledged Indian telecoms experts, Bharti Global.

“OneWeb will be a model for responsible co-operation in space.”

OneWeb Emerges From Bankruptcy with New CEO

 November 21, 2020  Doug Messier  News  

LONDON, 20 November 2020 (OneWeb PR) — OneWeb, the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) broadband satellite communications company, announces its emergence from U.S. Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and achievement of all relevant regulatory approvals. A consortium of UK Government (through the UK Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy) and Bharti Global, has invested $1bn of new equity to offer broadband connectivity services, via a constellation of 650 LEO satellites.

OneWeb will continue to be headquartered in the UK, bringing new R&D programmes, manufacturing opportunities and a global platform with priority spectrum usage rights. The company will ensure that the UK is at the forefront of a new commercial space industrial age, evolving technology and innovation, and will work with the UK commercial and academic space communities, along with other international specialists, in its research and development activities.

In connection with completion of the restructuring process, OneWeb is pleased to announce that Neil Masterson has been appointed CEO. Neil is formerly Co-Chief Operating Officer at Thomson Reuters having enjoyed a 20-year career with the global provider of news, information, and software.

He succeeds Adrian Steckel, who continues as an Adviser to the Board. Adrian joined OneWeb as CEO in September 2018 and has guided OneWeb through three successful launches, delivering 74 satellites into orbit, and securing priority spectrum use rights for OneWeb.

Neil Masterson comments: “I am looking forward to helping the OneWeb team deliver and commercialise their vision to provide internet access across the globe. OneWeb has a strong social purpose to improve the world’s access to information, which I share. It has great talent, a compelling commercial opportunity, and is supported by committed and knowledgeable owners and investors.

“Our December launch puts the UK firmly in the global space business, alongside acknowledged Indian telecoms experts, Bharti Global. OneWeb will be a model for responsible co-operation in Space.”

Sunil Bharti Mittal, Founder and Chairman of Bharti Enterprises, comments: “This new phase and focus for the Company brings new leadership from Neil Masterson, who has extensive experience successfully operating global technology platforms in a complex industry undergoing rapid change.

“Together with our UK Government partner, we recognised that OneWeb has valuable global spectrum with priority rights, and we benefit from $3.3bn invested to-date and from the satellites already in orbit, securing our usage rights. I would like to thank Adrian Steckel for his valued contribution.

Sunil Bharti Mittal continues: “These are exciting times and the world now has a LEO alternative to work with. We look forward to partnering with those equally determined to enter this new Space Age. There is unmet demand around the globe for broadband connectivity and we intend to continue OneWeb’s social mission. We will use our joint venture facility to drive down cost of service, opening new use cases for low latency broadband provision.”

UK Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Alok Sharma said: “This strategic investment demonstrates Government’s commitment to the UK’s space sector in the long-term and our ambition to put Britain at the cutting edge of the latest advances in space technology.

“Access to our own global fleet of satellites has the potential to connect people worldwide, providing fast UK-backed broadband from the Shetlands to the Sahara and from Pole to Pole.

“This deal gives us the chance to build on our strong advanced manufacturing and services base in the UK, creating jobs and technical expertise.”

OneWeb also announces the target date of 17th December 2020 for its Return to Flight, with a 36-satellite payload scheduled for launch by Arianespace from the Vostochny Cosmodrome. All the satellites have been shipped from Florida to Vostochny and are now undergoing preparation for launch.

Due to investment decisions made by the new shareholders, the joint venture facility with Airbus in Florida, USA was re-activated and the dual production lines brought back into service.

Launches will continue throughout 2021 and 2022 and OneWeb is now on track to begin commercial connectivity services to the UK and the Arctic region in late 2021 and will expand to delivering global services in 2022.

Notes to editors

• Neil Masterson has extensive experience as a senior executive in a global, multibillion-dollar digital, business information, content, and technology business.
• He previously spent twenty years working at Thomson Reuters in a variety of senior roles across the multi-platform business. In his most recent role as co-COO, he chaired Thomson Reuters Operating Committee, which was responsible for the company’s $6 billion revenue and twenty thousand members of staff.
• He was also responsible for the strategic direction and overall business performance of Thomson Reuters, including marketing, digital, commercial operations, technology, cyber, and content functions.
• He is currently based in New York and will be returning to the UK following his appointment.

About OneWeb

OneWeb is a global communications network powered from space, headquartered in London, enabling connectivity for governments, businesses, and communities. It is implementing a constellation of Low Earth Orbit satellites with a network of global gateway stations and a range of user terminals to provide an affordable, fast, high-bandwidth and low-latency communications service, connected to the IoT future and a pathway to 5G for everyone, everywhere. Find out more at  http://www.oneweb.world

“Fossil galaxy” found hiding deep inside the Milky Way
Shane McGlaun - Nov 21, 2020

Scientists sorting through data gathered from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey’s Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) have discovered what they call a “fossil galaxy” that’s tucked away deep inside the Milky Way. Scientists say that the proposed fossil galaxy could have collided with the Milky Way 10 billion years ago when our galaxy was still in its infancy. The fossil galaxy has been named Heracles.

Heracles’ remnants account for about a third of the Milky Way’s spherical halo. As for why no one noticed that there was a remnant of an ancient galaxy inside of our galaxy, it’s because of how deep inside the Milky Way it is. Researcher Ricardo Schiavon from Liverpool John Moores University says to find the fossil galaxy, researchers had to look at the detailed chemical makeup and motion of tens of thousands of stars.

Looking at that many stars is incredibly difficult in the center of the Milky Way because they are hidden from view by gigantic clouds of interstellar dust. APOGEE is perfect for this sort of investigation as it allows astronomers to peer through that dust and look deeper into the heart of our galaxy than ever before. APOGEE allows scientists to look through interstellar dust using near-infrared light, which isn’t obscured by dust the way visible light is.

Finding unusual stars in the heart of the Milky Way is likened to finding needles in a haystack. To separate stars belonging to Heracles from stars in the original Milky Way, the team used both chemical composition and velocity of stars as measured by APOGEE.

Researchers say out of the tens of thousands of stars investigated, a few hundred had strikingly different chemical compositions and velocities. Researchers say those stars were so different from the stars in the Milky Way that they could only have come from another galaxy. A detailed study could allow the researchers to trace the precise location and history of the fossil galaxy.

Tibetan political leader visits White House for first time in six decades

Fri, 20 November 2020

FILE PHOTO: China showcases poverty alleviation during a government organised tour of Tibet


SHANGHAI (Reuters) - The head of the Tibetan government in exile has visited the U.S. White House for the first time in six decades, a move that could further infuriate Beijing, which has accused the United States of trying to destabilise the region.

Lobsang Sangay, President of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), was invited to the White House to meet the newly appointed U.S. Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues, Robert Destro, on Friday, the CTA said in a press release.

"This unprecedented meeting perhaps will set an optimistic tone for CTA participation with U.S. officials and be more formalised in the coming years," said the CTA, which is based in India's Dharamshalah.

Tibet has become one of the areas of dispute between the United States and China, with relations between the world's two biggest economies at their lowest point in decades.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused Beijing in July of violating Tibetan human rights and said Washington supported "meaningful autonomy" for the region.

Beijing officials have since accused the United States of using Tibet to try to promote "splittism" in China. China has also refused to engage with Destro.

China seized control over Tibet in 1950 in what it described as a "peaceful liberation" that helped it throw off its "feudalist past", but critics led by the exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama say Beijing's rule amounts to "cultural genocide".

Chinese President Xi Jinping said in August that China needed to build an "impregnable fortress" in Tibet in order to protect national unity.

(This story has been refiled to correct spelling of Sangay's name in paragraph two.)

(Reporting by David Stanway)

MSNBC, CNN Anchors Shred Fox’s Geraldo Rivera for Ludicrous Idea to Name Vaccine After Trump

Pilar Melendez
Sat, 21 November 2020

MSNBC, Fox News, CNN

In one of the most bizarre examples of unwavering Trump sycophancy, Fox News correspondent-at-large Geraldo Rivera on Friday suggested naming the COVID-19 vaccine after the president to cheer him up.

And Rivera’s peers from competing networks brutally roasted him for suggesting Trump—notorious for putting his name on everything from buildings to steaks—might need to be coaxed from office with lavish credit for a cure to a virus he repeatedly downplayed.

“You know, Gerald raises a good point there. It’s possible we just don’t give the president enough credit for his FDR-like devotion to tackling this virus,” MSNBC host Brian Williams sarcastically said on Friday next to images of Trump golfing and not wearing a face mask. “His laser-like focus, his daily devotion, the sympathy he’s forever expressing to the families of the quarter million dead.”

“Even the way the president lectures us in that way to please wear a mask and stop the spread. And he’s always advocated injections. Geraldo may be on to something,” he added.

🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/BrWKJubLUi
— Tim O'Brien (@TimOBrien) November 21, 2020

CNN host Don Lemon took a more direct punch at Rivera, laughing at the supposed “Trump whisperer” for suggesting “something that might make this snowflake of a president feel better.”

“It’s pretty pathetic, even [Fox & Friends co-host] Steve Doocy had to laugh out loud at it,” Lemon said.

Rivera argued during Fox & Friends that naming the COVID-19 vaccine “The Trump” would be “a nice gesture to him and years from now it would become kind of a generic name.”

“‘Have you got your Trump yet?’ ‘I got my Trump, I’m fine.’ I wish we could honor him in that way,” Rivera said, noting that the name could help mend divisiveness across the country and smooth the path for Trump to concede the 2020 election.

Fox's Geraldo Rivera says we should honor Trump by naming the COVID-19 vaccine "Trump", and that Trump's name could eventually become a generic term for vaccines. pic.twitter.com/xoO1A37qIZ
— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) November 20, 2020

The suggestion came just days after Trump wrongly claimed full credit for Pfizer’s announcement that its COVID-19 vaccine was effective. In fact, the drug marker didn’t accept government money for the project.

Since then, another drug company has released results indicating a second, more accessible vaccine could be fast-tracked by the FDA by the end of the year. Dr. Anthony Fauci on Thursday also called the efficacy of Pfizer’s vaccine “extraordinary,” adding it is almost as effective as the measles shot.

On Friday, Trump made the outlandish suggestion that those drug companies deliberately withheld successful results until after the election as a revenge-fueled plot to kick him out of office due to his crusade against prescription drug prices.

Rivera said that he wished the American people could honor Trump by crediting him for the speedy vaccine “because he is definitely the prime architect of this Operation Warp Speed.”

To date, the coronavirus has killed at least 250,000 Americans and infected nearly 12 million—a grim milestone that is only expected to skyrocket as the holiday season and winter loom.

On Friday night, Williams seemed to allude to the tragic reality of the virus surging across the nation, calling out the president for refusing to follow virus mitigation recommendations pushed by his own public health officials, like mask-wearing and social distancing.

“We are all painfully aware life in America will not feel anything close to normal until the coronavirus vaccine has been perfected and really distributed,” he said during his late night show, The 11th Hour.

During his monologue about Trump's “laser focus” on the pandemic, Williams jokingly highlighted the success rate of other products named after the president.

“What Trump Steaks did for the hungry, what Trump Water did for the thirsty in our nation, what Trump University did to lift up the uneducated in our country, well along comes Trump: The Vaccine,” Williams quipped. “Possibilities, I think you’ll agree, are endless.”

Kayleigh McEnany now calls CNN reporters ‘activists’ and takes questions from pro-Trump propagandists. This doesn’t bode well
Fri, 20 November 2020, 
 Andrew BuncombeThe Independent

Kayleigh McEnany was appointed in April (Getty)

Full credit, I suppose, to Kayleigh McEnany.

Six months after being appointed Donald Trump’s White House press secretary, she still has a spring in her step, some vigor in her manner, and a willingness to trade sharp elbows with reporters as she sets about defending the indefensible. All the more credit, given she is now spokesperson for a lame duck administration.

None of what she does benefits the American people. But that has never been the job of any of Trump’s press secretaries. Their task is to sip the Kool-Aid, or whatever may be the preferred 2020 version — disinfectant, perhaps — and go and do battle for the president. Oftentimes, they are performing for just one viewer.

Yet McEnany’s appearance on Friday felt striking, even given the remarkable scenes we now witness on a seemingly daily basis: Rudy Giuliani mopping his brow and dabbing at leaking hair dye as he blames Venezuelans for Joe Biden’s victory, Mike Pence’s fantasies about turning the corner on Covid (true only if he means turning the corner signposted “250,000 Deaths”), Trump’s blatant efforts even this late in the day to try and erode the Constitution he and his supporters claim to hold so dear.

First, McEnany spoke of the news that Pfizer was set to seek FDA permission to start using its Covid vaccine, the development of which she claimed was the work of Trump.

“So many American lives will be saved, thanks to President Trump and the great work of Operation Warp Speed,” she said, failing to mention the 11.7 million Americans who have been infected, or the 253,000 who have died.

Many critics of the president say at least some of those lives may have been saved had the president taken the virus more seriously, led a nationwide plan to halt its spread, and done something as simple as to encourage mask-wearing.

Next up, McEnany was asked about Giuliani’s wild press conference in which he and lawyer Sidney Powell claimed “massive influence of communist money through Venezuela, Cuba and likely China" interfered with the election.

McEnany — who was previously cirticised for speaking both on behalf of the White House and the Trump campaign — sought to suggest the question was not really for her, but added: “The president’s been very clear — he wants every legal vote to be counted, and to make sure no illegal votes are counted.”

There was time for no more than a half-a-dozen questions in the fifteen minutes McEnany devoted to her first press conference since the beginning of October.

One was from Chanel Rion, a journalist for One America News Network (OANN), a right-wing pro-Trump site that has an affection for paeans to the president and conspiracy theories. (Trump often tweets his support for the channel these days, saying it is fair more fair than Fox News, which he now considers an enemy.)

Rion claimed that “contrary to the court of media opinion”, there was widespread evidence of “vast” irregularity during the election, something officials from both parties say is not true. Why, she wanted to know, had the White House not called in the FBI?

Of surprise to nobody, McEnany was ready with her answer, which quickly segued into a defiant soliloquy about Trump’s own transition and how everyone had been against him from the start.

At the every end, Kaitlan Collins of CNN tried to ask a question, but McEnany snapped at her: “I don’t take questions from activists." Collins’ colleagues were quick to defend on her Twitter, but she did not really need their help, telling McEnany she was not an activist and that “that's not doing your job, your taxpayer-funded job”.

What to make of all this noise and nonsense and dishonesty, as America prepares for a winter in which the Covid death toll is likely to soar even higher? Was this what it was like 50 years ago during the “Five O’Clock Follies”, when generals in Vietnam would lie to journalists about America’s “progress” against the Viet Cong, as the bodycount ticked up and up?

In short, it all felt very desperate, very wretched — the final acts of a widely discredited administration. It is likely something we will not have to listen to for very much longer.

Rudy Giuliani suggests cutting heads of Democrats in Fox interview after disastrous press conference

Justin Vallejo Sat, 21 November 2020

Rudy Giuliani suggests cutting heads of Democrats in Fox interview (Fox News)

Rudy Giuliani followed his hair-raising press conference with an even more peculiar, but less leaky, Fox News interview suggesting the decapitation of the "corrupt Democrat" establishment.

In an interview with Sean Hannity, Mr Giuliani made a throat chopping gesture as he spoke about the Democratic party leadership since the Clinton administration.

He prefaced that he wasn't talking about ordinary Democrats before commenting: "Somehow the Democrat party was hijacked by Clinton and since then has gotten more corrupt and more corrupt and more corrupt. Somebody better cut their head off."

The Clinton reference echoed the core claims from the Trump campaign's earlier "path to victory" press conference where Mr Giuliani spun a web of connections in his theory of a "national conspiracy" behind a communist plot backed by Venezuela's Hugo Chaves, in concert with Cuba and China, tied to Democrat leadership through the Clinton Foundation and George Soros.

Mr Giuliani's suggestion to give them all the chop gave even Mr Hannity a moment's pause as he ignored the comments and changed the subject before either he or someone in the studio's control room gave the interview the chop.

"Alright Mr Mayor thank you… I'm not trying to cut you off. Are you there? Oh, we've lost him. Alright," Mr Hannity said before moving on to the next segment.

The Fox News interview on Thursday night came just hours after Mr Giuliani held a 1.5-hour press conference that made more headlines for his impression of the movie My Cousin Vinny and leaking hair dye than the evidence provided to support the Trump campaign's claims of election impropriety.

Between the viral clips, the so-called "Kraken" of evidence released by the campaign's lawyers was made up of hundreds of affidavits in key states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin where they hope to overturn the results.

Their star witness, via affidavit, was City of Detroit employee Jessie Jacob, who Mr Giuliani quoted as swearing under penalty of perjury that she was instructed by supervisors to backdate ballots to make them valid.

The US cybersecurity official fired by Donald Trump, Chris Krebs, said it was the "most dangerous" 1 hour and 45 minutes in the history of American television.

"And possibly the craziest. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you’re lucky," Mr Krebes said in a tweet.

Mr Krebs, who as the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), released a statement last week saying the 3 November election was the most secure in American history.

“There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised," said the statement from CISA, which is part of the Trump administration’s Department of Homeland Security.

#TRUMPTV

The future of Fox News is hanging in the balance

James Moore
Sat, 21 November 2020
The Independent

Fox host Tucker Carlson has maintained his support for Donald Trump (Getty)

In a recent column I looked at the rise of rivals like One America News (OAN) and Newsmax that seek to outflank the network on the right, which would be tougher with the possible launch of Trump TV (or maybe the soon-to-be-former president will partner with one of them).

I wonder how Fox responds. It’s a fascinating question given the pushback it’s facing from its audience and the central role it plays in Rupert Murdoch’s empire.

CNN’s Brian Stelter has made the point that Fox’s much smaller, but suddenly fast-growing rivals, are driven by their Donald Trump loyalist viewers’ demand for a fictional universe in which their god-emperor won the election.

Fox caters to this with its prime time “opinion” hosts; people like Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, who have gleefully followed their viewers down the rabbit hole.

But some of its anchors, in particular its news anchors, and analysts have taken a different path, one guided by the facts.

Trump’s most passionate fans find it very uncomfortable when they’re confronted with those because they’re clear: Joe Biden won the election. He won the popular vote. He won the electoral college. The claims of widespread voter fraud emanating from the White House are fictional.

The network’s number crunchers triggered Trump and his fans with their early (and correct) call of Arizona for Biden. But there was more.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” said host Neil Cavuto, as the network cut away from coverage of White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany. “She’s charging the other side as welcoming fraud and welcoming illegal voting. Unless she has more details to back that up, I can’t in good countenance continue to show you this.” And he didn’t, to the ire of Carlson.

Then on Sunday anchor Eric Shawn aired a series of interviews with election officials and experts, including one with Republican Philadelphia city commissioner Al Schmidt, decked out in a stars and stripes mask. They denied the baseless allegations tabled by Donald Trump. He also screened a statement from Dominion Voting Systems saying: “Vote deletion/switching assertions are completely false.” The company flatly refuted any ties to political parties or Venezuela (also screened).

Shawn then served up a monologue in which he asserted: “Election officials across the country insist, as of today, there is not evidence of any widespread fraud affecting the presidential election, that our precious democracy was not tampered with and that such baseless and false claims are an insult to the thousands of elections officials and workers across the country who we have seen dedicating themselves 24/7 to ensure a fair and free election for all of us.”

Fox has always denied that it is the propaganda arm of the Republican Party, insisting rather that it is a news network, albeit one set up as a counterweight to its supposedly liberal-leaning rivals which dominated before its emergence (whether they really were liberal is open to debate).

There are some at the network who appear to believe the hype, who buy into the idea of a fact-based news operation that is distinct from the opinion hosts with their alternative facts.

Fox is still awful. The impact it has had on journalism is awful. The stuff it pumps out is awful. Some of the stories it has whipped up and obsessively followed are scarcely stories at all. The alleged “war on Christmas”, Benghazi, the Clintons as puppet masters behind the deep state responsible for all the world’s ills. Check out the coverage and weep.

But despite the ubiquity of that toxic sludge, in having hosts who view themselves as news anchors guided by facts Fox does differ from the other parts of the conservative media ecosystem it inhabits. They don’t have anything like that. They have displayed no interest in offering any pushback against Trump’s baseless claims. They are a safe space for their audience. Fox sometimes isn’t.

This resistance to Trump’s narrative from certain quarters at Fox has clearly created tension between it and a part of its audience, the part which is, as Stelter rightly pointed out, fully immersed in Trump’s fictional alternate universe. A universe that the channel ultimately helped to create.

The idea that Fox is a news network, as opposed to a propaganda outfit for Republican shills, is an important part of how it sees and markets itself. And it has benefited the channel in the past. When the Obama administration, for example, tried to cut it off, the other networks ignored its constant sniping at them and pushed back on its behalf.

Does that change if it abandons the pretence, and muzzles or kicks out the anchors that have pushed back against Trump? How does Fox handle the competition going forward?

This is no small question for the Murdochs. Fox News Channel has been a moneymaking machine for them, one that has benefited from an effective monopoly position on the right.

If it follows OAN, and Newsmax and dedicates itself solely to the alternative universe they inhabit and some of the viewers want, its attempt to portray itself as a news network will become that much harder. If the Biden administration shows some claws and attempts to replicate what the Obama administration tried it may find it easier to succeed.

On the other hand, if Fox stays the course, the competition from its scrappy rivals on its right flank may become more serious, especially if, as I suggested in my previous column, one or the other of them manages to add Trump to their roster.

Read More

Trump-friendly Newsmax a sudden competitor to Fox News

Fox News hosts lash out at Democrats telling Trump to concede

Trump adviser clashes with Fox News host in fiery exchange

COVID-19: University of Manchester students occupy building in protest over 'lack of support'

Sat, 21 November 2020


The students straining their necks out of a first-floor tower block window are desperate to see the sky again, but first they want to make sure their voices are heard.

For a week they have occupied the decommissioned Owens Park Tower on the Fallowfield campus of the University of Manchester in protest over rent, tuition fees and what they perceive as inadequate support for mental health.

It's Manchester University but it could be any number of campuses around the country. Out of the window, they speak for a generation for whom the university experience has been a let down from the start.

"Almost everyone on campus caught COVID within the first two weeks simply because we were all in close proximity, it was inevitable," says Lotte Marley, a first-year student from Sussex.

"Isolating for two weeks is really tough for anyone but particularly in a tiny flat with people you don't know."

Ben McGowan, another first year student, joins in.

"The fact is that we were told there would be face-to-face teaching and that promise was broken in the first week by university management," he tells me.

"The university has prioritised profits over student wellbeing."

Meanwhile, the death of a 19-year-old student on this site last month has left many shaken.

"We are being pushed to the brink," says Izzy Smitheman. "Especially us first years, none of us have ever really lived away from home before."

She added: "No one wants history to repeat itself, the death on campus was tragic but the lack of support from the university has been completely atrocious and terrifying."

The University of Manchester has found itself at the centre of student ire over the current situation.

Many students feel they were brought here under false pretences, effectively imprisoned on campus as the virus spread like wildfire and, all the time, blamed for a second wave.

Maya Moodley is a first-year politics and philosophy student and has received some support from the university counselling service, although she believes it has been inadequate.

"All my lessons from the start have been online and my counselling has been Zoom calls," she says.

"I feel like I'm not part of the university at all, I never go to campus. A big part of why I chose this uni was the vibrant city and I feel like I haven't had that experience."

The erection of a fence around the Fallowfield campus this month only inflamed tensions between students and the university management.

It was pulled down by those who live on the site almost straight away.

"The fence definitely made us feel even more trapped," says Amy Charlton, a first-year law student. "It's felt very lonely and very isolating being here, I've almost been robotic."

Sarah Littlejohn, the head of campus life at the University of Manchester, accepted that the university had made mistakes.

She said: "When we get feedback, and that was clearly difficult feedback, we really listen to it.

"We're trying to be in a conversation with our students and to learn what works and what doesn't."

But Ms Littlejohn and her colleagues have their work cut out in convincing students, many of whom feel betrayed, that they are all on the same side.

Layoffs and bankrupt schools: headteachers in England warn of Covid consequences

Liz Lightfoot THE GUARDIAN
Sat, 21 November 2020

Photograph: Richard Saker/The Guardian

Covid-19’s legacy on education in England will be thousands of schools going broke, staff laid off and bigger class sizes unless the government steps in to help, say the two headteacher associations, as they count the cost of keeping classrooms safe.

In one small education area alone, Stockport, in north-west England, more than half of schools fear their budgets will be in deficit this year, says the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT). Across England, many schools have used up their year’s allowance for cover staff in just half a term because of the number of teachers and classroom assistants having to isolate at home. One secondary school (see profile below) has produced accounts anonymously showing a spend of £339,000 since April 2020 on cover and keeping its premises safe.

Related: Near breaking point: headteachers worn down by 'non-stop Covid crisis'

It is a desperate situation, because the costs are falling on budgets already stretched to the limit through years of underfunding, says Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL). “Most of a school’s budget is spent on staffing, so the inevitable conclusion of having less money is that they have to cut staffing. This increases class sizes, and reduces the capacity to deliver pastoral care and provide additional classroom support for pupils who benefit from that. Unless the government acts, one of the legacies of Covid will be yet another funding crisis in education,” he says.

Jim Nicholson, head of Mellor primary in Stockport, and the NAHT’s north-west president, has launched a petition calling on the government to “fully fund schools for Covid-19 costs and provide relief for loss of income”. Since April, his 225-pupil primary has lost £29,000 it would have received through providing before- and after-school care and outreach work, on top of the £9,500 he has spent on supply staff in the first half of the autumn term alone. In addition to the expense of adapting the premises to separate class “bubbles” (£1,386), and the cost of cleaning and hygiene for the half-term (£2,738), the school has spent an extra £484 on information technology for remote learning, and £2,000 on providing individual curriculum items, pens and pencils so children do not have to share.

“Then there are the hidden costs, such as our metered water bill. On average, children are washing their hands five times more times a day, which will have a significant impact on our bill – which was £3,047 last year,” he says. Schools will also incur higher heating costs this winter through keeping windows open for ventilation, he adds.

The cost of Covid – one school’s story

School X is a medium-sized 11-18 school in the north-west of England with a total budget of £3.7m a year. Its headteacher has opened up the books to demonstrate how serious the problem is. Already, halfway through the accounting year (April 2020 to April 2021), it has spent £339,219, or 9% of its budget, on Covid-related costs.


1. Supply costs: £78,000 over the first half year, which is 150% of its usual full-year
2. Extra staff contracts eg cleaner: £63,000
3. Free school meal vouchers, free school meals during lockdown, postage for vouchers, postage for work sent to pupils at home: £46,537
4. Subscriptions for remote learning: £3,885
5. Purchase of headsets and visualisers for remote learning: £8,200
6. Remote communication with parents: £5,716
7. Additional CCTV for social distancing: £2,248
8. Sanitising dispensers and products: £10,572
9. Classroom anti-bacterial sprays: £3,381
10. Disposable paper towels: £3,860
11. Replacing thumbprint biometrics with swipecard: £1,158
12. Steam cleaners: £398
13. Two-way radios: £640
14. Face coverings: £2,742
15. Fogging machines and liquid: £1,167
16. New external taps for handwashing: £1,693
17. Floor signs: £424
18. Canopy coverings for outdoor queues: £820
19. Screens and dividers: £35,227
20. Building work to allow social distancing: £45,606
21. Work to provide external access and shutters to toilets: £5,770
22. Updating or replacing sinks and taps: £3,635
23. Refurbishment of walls and floors so easier to clean: £7,390
24. New food service electricity supply: £750
25. Changing stockrooms to office spaces: £2,650
26. New, larger space for pupil support in maths and reading: £3,750

TOTAL: £339,219

In Kiveton, south Yorkshire, the headteacher of Wales high school, Giuseppe Di’Iasio, spent his summer supervising building work to cover outside areas, in order to provide room for the seven year groups to separate into “bubbles”. “We spent our reserves to fund the building work, which has used up in advance all the capital fund money we will get over the next three years, so other improvements will be put on hold,” he says.

“It cost £6,000 to re-design the school and put in one-way systems and distancing, and we had to spend £19,000 on catering facilities so we could serve lunch at seven different venues,” he says. “We had to spend £2,000 on webcams for staff at home to facilitate remote learning, toilet refurbishment cost £3,500, and hygiene costs have been £13,000. We’re looking at spending at least a third of a million pounds out of our £10m budget, but as 80% of our spending is on staff costs, it is actually a sixth of the £2m other spend.”



When I say I need £14,000 to pay for marquees to keep children dry, I should not be made to feel I'm being unreasonable

Julia Maunder, head of Thomas Keble school, Eastcombe

Some schools are afraid to publish the full cost of Covid in case it affects their reputation. One school, a medium-sized secondary in the north-west of England that does not want to be identified, has recorded £339,000 Covid-related expenditure, including more than £10,000 on hand sanitisers and products this term, £3,381 on anti-bacterial sprays, and nearly £4,000 on disposable paper towels. Under the complicated rules, schools that can prove they cannot afford the extra expenditure or need to dig deep into their reserves are able to reclaim money for some pandemic-related costs, but only up to July 2020. The school’s headteacher says: “I have put in a claim to the Department for Education, but as yet have received diddly squat.”

Crofton school, an 11-16 secondary in Stubbington, Hants, has spent £10,000 on sanitiser products this term and will spend a further £8,000 a year on a sophisticated anti-bacterial spray product. But the real challenge facing schools as the virus spreads will be the cost of staff cover, says Jon Hickey, its operations director. “We have 170 members of full and part-time staff and however safe we keep the school – and we haven’t had any reported cases so far – staff can be told to stay home and isolate by a text message from track and trace, or they can’t come in because their child has been sent home to isolate,” he says.

A spokeswoman for the DfE says: “We continue to keep the costs of making a school Covid-secure under review.” However, she adds, schools are receiving “a £2.6bn boost in funding this year, as part of £14.4bn investment in total over the three-year period through to 2022-23, compared with 2019-20 – giving every school more money for every child”.

That is little consolation to Julia Maunder, head of Thomas Keble school in Eastcombe, Gloucestershire, whose budgets are balancing on a knife-edge. With three times the average number of children with special educational needs, the school has to subsidise their additional support from the core budget. This was one of the main factors that led, in January 2019, to Thomas Keble being served a financial “notice to improve” by the Education and Skills Funding Agency. By borrowing money from the agency, reluctantly asking parents for voluntary contributions to replace essential equipment, and making cuts in staffing, the school now has a balanced budget, but Maunder fears Covid costs will plunge it back into the red.

“The government claims to be putting an extra £14.5bn into schools over three years, and we received an extra 3.2% funding in real terms or £203,000 for 2020/21. However, the money has just gone on catching up with the historical underfunding – £190,000 went towards the unfunded pay increases for teachers and support staff. A further £11,000 went on inflationary increases for non-staff expenditure, leaving just £2,000. However, we had to spend £95,000 on the needs of 19 students who arrived during 2020 but won’t attract funding until next year,” she says.

“All the measures we have taken to make the school secure and to help staff feel confident standing in a classroom of 30 children have taken a great deal of time and a great deal of effort, and I would do it again. But when I say I need £14,000 to pay for two marquees to keep the children dry, I really don’t feel I should be questioned about it or made to feel that I am being unreasonable,” she says.

“It’s a kick in the teeth for school leaders, trust boards and governors who are trying to do their bit for their communities, when the government appears to be telling us that everyone else is ahead for financial support, and we can manage with what we have. The truth is that we can’t, and children’s education will suffer.”