New York Rep. George Santos and Drag Race Legend Trixie Mattel Battle It Out on Twitter

Virginia Chamlee
Tue, 24 January 2023 

UNITED STATES - JANUARY 10: Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., is seen outside a House Republican Conference meeting in the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, January 10, 2023. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images); NEW YORK, NY - JANUARY 17: Drag queen Trixie Mattel attends "RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars" Meet The Queens on January 17, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Bennett Raglin/Getty Images)More

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty; Bennett Raglin/Getty

Republican Rep. George Santos has waded into a back-and-forth with musician and RuPaul's Drag Race alum Trixie Mattel, with the drag star shading the controversial lawmaker after he mocked those impersonating him.

"I have now been enshrined in late night TV history with all these impersonations, but they are all TERRIBLE so far," Santos wrote on Twitter Monday. "Jon Lovitz is supposed to be one of the greatest comedians of all time and that was embarrassing— for him not me! These comedians need to step their game up."

Mattel, who won season three of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars, responded with: "Maybe the source material was weak."


Santos then responded: "Clearly you know all about weak acting skills @trixiemattel," adding a gif of the drag queen impersonating RuPaul Charles on her season of All Stars, for which she was nearly eliminated from the competition.

Mattel then brought up Santos' own past history of drag, writing: "I am not an actor! I was young and I had fun at a festival!"

That's the same line Santos used when footage of him donning drag in Brazil recently surfaced. While the New York congressman admitted the footage was of him, he denied being a "drag queen," telling reporters: "No, I was not a drag queen in Brazil, guys. I was young and I had fun at a festival. Sue me for having a life."


Santos got the last word in the snarky Twitter exchange, telling Mattel, "It's all good! I won my race against the fan favorite too." (Mattel beat competitor Kennedy Davenport in season 3 of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars; Santos beat Democrat Robert Zimmerman in a blue-leaning district.)

RELATED: Fact-Checking the George Santos Claims: From Goldman Sachs Employee to College 'Volleyball Star'

Santos — who was elected in November to represent New York's 3rd Congressional District— has been the subject of numerous headlines after The New York Times found that many the claims he made on the campaign trail and on his resume were unsubstantiated.

Santos has since admitted he lied about some things, such as working at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, as he had previously asserted (he never worked at either), and attending Baruch College and New York University (he attended neither).

And while the Republican admitted that he had "embellished" some portions of his resume, more mysteries have lingered, like the source of his income, which has seemingly grown by hundreds of thousands — if not millions — of dollars in recent years.

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Santos is currently the subject of probes by both the Nassau County District Attorney's Office and federal investigators who have opened an inquiry into his financial disclosures.

Santos has said he won't resign from office, even as some Republicans in Congress and in his own district have called on him to do so.

Earlier this month, a group of Nassau County, New York, Republicans called on Santos to resign in a press conference, with chairman Joseph Cairo telling reporters: "Today, on behalf of the Nassau County Republican Committee, I am calling for his immediate resignation. George Santos' campaign last year, 2022, was a campaign of deceit, lies, fabrication."

Cairo continued: "He deceived voters. His lies were not mere fibs. He disgraced the House of Representatives … He's not welcome here at Republican headquarters."

Nvidia CEO says AI will need regulation, social norms

Supantha Mukherjee
Tue, 24 January 2023

Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, shows the Drive Pegasus robotaxi AI computer a

By Supantha Mukherjee

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Nvidia Corp Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang on Tuesday said that the burgeoning field of artificial intelligence will create powerful tools that require legal regulation and social norms that have yet to be worked out.

Huang is one of the most prominent figures in artificial intelligence because Nvidia's chips are widely used in the field, including in a supercomputer that Microsoft Corp built for startup OpenAI, in which Microsoft said Monday it was making a multibillion-dollar investment.

Huang was speaking at an event in Stockholm, where officials said Tuesday they were upgrading Sweden's fastest supercomputer using tools from Nvidia to, among other things, develop what is known as a large language model that will be fluent in Swedish.

"Remember, if you take a step back and think about all of the things in life that are either convenient, enabling or wonderful for society, it also has probably some potential harm," Huang said.

Lawmakers such as Ted Lieu, a Democratic from California in the U.S. House of Representatives, have called for the creation of a U.S. federal agency that would regulate AI. In an opinion piece in the New York Times on Monday, Lieu argued that systems such as facial recognition used by law enforcement agencies possibly can misidentify innocent people from minority groups.

Huang said engineering standards bodies would need to establish standards for building safe AI systems, similar to how medical bodies set rules for the safe practice of medicine. But he also said laws and social norms would play a key role for AI.

"What is the social norm for using it? What the legal norms (are) for using it have to be developed," Huang said. "Everything is evolving right now. The fact that we're all talking about it puts us in a much better place to eventually end up at a good place."

(Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm; writing by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; editing by Stephen Coates)

UK

‘Legal gangsters’ who try to silence critics exposing wrongdoing ‘should face £1m fines’

Amy Gibbons
Tue, 24 January 2023 

Bob Seely says firms offering strategic lawsuits against public participation (Slapps) 'are becoming a fifth column' - Paul Grover for The Telegraph

Expensive law firms that threaten free speech by using “legal gangsterism” to silence critics should face £1 million punishments, an MP has warned.

Bob Seely, the Conservative MP for the Isle of Wight, tabled proposals to curb the use of “noxious” lawsuits by “bad actors” to intimidate journalists and campaigners.

Firms that engage in strategic lawsuits against public participation (Slapps), utilised by the "enemies of law-governed states", are offering a "one-stop shop to spy, to snoop, to smear and to sue", he said.

Slapps usually involve wealthy elites using legal action to try to stop journalists or campaigners from exposing wrongdoing under defamation and privacy laws.

Mr Seely said the legal industry is "justifiably a prized part of London and our soft power". However, he claimed the "Slapps culture" undermines that "great tradition".

He suggested lawyers who engage in these "appalling" actions could be hit with a £1 million penalty to quickly "send this industry packing".

'Fifth column'

"In terms of our free media, freedom of speech, these high-priced law firms - through naivety, poor judgement or simple greed - are becoming a fifth column," he said.

The Government announced proposed reforms in July 2022 to give the courts new powers to throw out meritless claims quicker and put a cap on costs. However, they have to yet to make progress in Parliament.

Mr Seely introduced his own proposals via his Defamation, Privacy, Freedom of Expression, Data Protection, Legal Services and Private Investigators Bill in the Commons on Tuesday.

"Firms who offer Slapps have made themselves wealthy, effectively attacking a free media, freedom of speech and legitimate corporate due diligence," he told MPs.

"I think this, as a business model, is a form of legalised intimidation - effectively legal gangsterism."

Mr Seely warned that the Government itself is being "cowed" by Slapps, with investigators including the Serious Fraud Office and National Crime Agency sometimes threatened with judicial review.

He said his Bill would "limit the financial and psychological costs of a meritless Slapps claim which can be imposed on a defendant", introduce sanctions against those who "abuse our courts" and dismiss such claims before costs accrued.

"If we fine lawyers engaged in Slapps - dare I call them slappers? - if we fine them £1 million every time a slapper brought in a Slapp, I think we would be able to send this industry packing within a very short period," he said.

Lebanon judge probing Beirut blast charges top prosecutor


Tue, 24 January 2023 


Lebanon's judge Tarek Bitar, who is investigating the deadly 2020 Beirut port blast, has charged Lebanon's top prosecutor and seven others with probable intent to murder, arson and other crimes, an official said Tuesday.

Bitar had sparked surprise in Lebanon a day before when he charged eight top security and judicial officials, reviving a probe that was suspended for over a year amid vehement political and legal pushback.

It emerged on Tuesday from a judicial source who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity that Prosecutor General Ghassan Oueidat was among those charged, joining those who had already been announced on Monday including the head of General Security, Abbas Ibrahim, and State Security agency chief Tony Saliba.

The Beirut port blast of August 4, 2020 -- one of history's biggest non-nuclear explosions -- destroyed most of Beirut port and swathes of the capital, killing more than 215 people and injuring over 6,500.

Authorities said the mega-explosion was sparked by a fire in a portside warehouse, where a vast stockpile of the volatile industrial chemical ammonium nitrate had been haphazardly stored for years.

Relatives of the dead have been holding monthly vigils, seeking justice and accountability over the disaster, which they blame on an entrenched ruling class widely seen as inept and corrupt.

A US State Department spokesperson said Tuesday that "we support and urge Lebanese authorities to complete a swift and transparent investigation into the horrific explosion at the Port of Beirut".

- 'Like he doesn't exist' -

Lebanese state institutions have been reluctant to cooperate with the probe, which began the same month as the explosion.

The prosecution service rejected the resumption of the probe, according to a document seen by AFP Tuesday.

"We were only informed of Bitar's decision through the media," Oueidat, the top prosecutor, told AFP.

"Since he considers that the general prosecution doesn't exist, we will also act like he doesn't exist."

The arm-wrestling between Oueidat and Bitar is the latest of crisis-torn Lebanon's mounting woes, as the value of the national currency hit a new record low against the US dollar on Tuesday.

Protesters blocked roads in Beirut and other regions in the evening to voice anger over the weakened Lebanese pound and deteriorating living conditions, the state National News Agency reported.

Bitar's probe has been met with strong opposition from government figures and the powerful Shiite Muslim movement Hezbollah, which has accused him of political bias.

Iran-backed Hezbollah and its ally Amal called for demonstrations to demand his dismissal in October 2021, when a gun battle broke out at a Beirut rally and seven people were killed.

"Port investigation: Tarek Bitar has gone mad," ran the headline of the pro-Hezbollah daily Al-Akhbar, which also accused him of acting "on the basis of American orders and with European judicial support".

Bitar last week met with two French magistrates, who came to Beirut as part of the country's own investigation into the explosion that killed and injured French nationals.

- Delays and pushback -

The judge was forced to suspend his probe for more than a year after a barrage of lawsuits, mainly from politicians he had summoned on charges of negligence.

Bitar now plans to question 14 suspects next month, including five officials whom he indicted earlier -- among them ex-prime minister Hassan Diab and former ministers.

According to the unnamed judicial official, Oueidat had in 2019 overseen a security services investigation into cracks in the warehouse where the ammonium nitrate was stored.

In February 2021, Bitar's predecessor as lead judge was removed from the case after he had charged several high-level politicians.

The interior ministry has also failed to execute arrest warrants issued by Bitar, further undermining his quest for accountability.

Rights group Amnesty International charged Monday that "Lebanese authorities have shamelessly and systematically obstructed the pursuit of justice" and called on them to "ensure that the domestic investigation can proceed without political interference".

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Even with a bump to $14 an hour, Walmart workers won't make nearly as much as some activists say they should

Story by dreuter@insider.com (Dominick Reuter,Ben Tobin) • 

Walmart is raising its minimum wage from $12 an hour to $14, but some activists have called for a lot more. 

Walmart on Tuesday said it would raise its minimum wage to $14, affecting thousands of US workers.

Activists have been pushing for a $15 minimum wage for over a decade, and now say at least $20 is needed.
The federal minimum wage has been $7.25 since 2009, even as the cost of living has soared.

Thousands of Walmart workers are set to see a pay raise this March as the company said Tuesday it will increase its minimum wage from $12 an hour to $14.

But although the move brings the retailer one step closer to rivals like Target and Amazon, the number remains shy of the $15 figure that labor activists have been calling for since 2012.

Indeed, during the past decade, housing costs have nearly doubled while health and education costs have ticked up by 40% and 20%, respectively, according to Rick Wartzman, the author of "Still Broke," a book released in late 2022 that traces Walmart's societal impact.

"Do the math and you're compelled to ask: Shouldn't it be the Fight for $18 or maybe the Fight for $27 at this point?" Wartzman writes.

For his part, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon has said that the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour (where it's been since 2009) is too low, and that retail wages would likely go beyond $15 in time. McMillon has also defended a lower starting wage as a way to provide a "ladder of opportunity" within the company.

Wartzman advocated in his book for a federal minimum wage of $20 per hour: "As big a leap as it would take, a federal minimum of $20 an hour is where we need to get — and as swiftly as possible — if we want Americans who work hard to not merely eke out an existence."

Related video: Walmart Raises Minimum Wage To $14/Hour (Cheddar News)

Duration 0:57 View on Watch

The company has previously said the average worker clocks in about 37 hours per week, which would give them an annual income of just under $27,000. The federal poverty level for a family of four in 2022 was $27,750.

Up until the middle of last decade, Walmart's minimum wage had matched the federal level at $7.25. The retailer's minimum rose to $9 per hour in 2015, to $11 an hour in 2018, and then to the current $12 an hour in 2021.

With these changes, Walmart US President and CEO John Furner wrote in a memo to employees Tuesday that the average hourly worker in the United States will make more than $17.50 per hour, a dollar an hour more than they earned last year.

"As you continue to focus on your customers, we're focused on investing in you – our store associates – through higher wages and new opportunities to gain the skills to serve tomorrow's customers and grow a career with Walmart," Furner said.

Still, Walmart's starting wage falls below that of several of its competitors.

Amazon raised its minimum wage for all US employees to $15 per hour in 2018. One year later, Target also announced it would be raising its minimum wage to $15 per hour. And in 2021, Costco announced that its employees would be paid a minimum of $17 per hour.

Against that backdrop, $20 may not seem like such a stretch.

Walmart lifts wages at US stores again amid tight labor market

Tue, 24 January 2023 


Walmart announced Tuesday it will again raise pay for hourly staff, an indication of persistent tightness in the labor market for front-line employees despite layoffs in the tech sector.

The retail giant, the biggest private employer in the United States, is boosting the pay range at US stores to between $14 and $19 an hour from the prior $12 to $18 an hour.

That lifts Walmart's minimum wage to $14 an hour, well above the $7.25 federal minimum wage, but below California and some other states and jurisdictions that have set the level at $15 or greater.

Rival chains such as Amazon and Target also currently have a $15 minimum wage.

Walmart said its latest hike lifts its national wage average to more than $17.50 an hour beginning March 2.

The company also announced other perks for employees, including new job-training opportunities and an expansion in a program that helps supply chain workers obtain a commercial driver's license.

The retailer's announcement is a sign that the job market remains tight for hourly staff, even as tech giants such as Google parent Alphabet and Facebook parent Meta announce significant job cuts.

Walmart has undertaken a series of wage hikes during the pandemic, including in September 2021 when the starting wage was boosted to $12 to $17 an hour.

US unemployment dipped to 3.5 percent in December as employers added a surprisingly robust 223,000 jobs, according to government data.

Rishi Sunak told to ditch plans to overhaul UK human rights laws

STATE RIGHTS MORE LIKE IT
Caroline Davies
Wed, 25 January 2023 

Photograph: Jessica Taylor/Reuters

Rishi Sunak is being urged to abandon the government’s controversial attempt to overhaul human rights legislation after a warning that the bill of rights appears to “tip the balance” in favour of the state and seriously damages people’s ability to enforce their rights.

A cross-party committee of MPs and peers said the bill, which would replace the Human Rights Act, which enshrines the European convention on human rights in the UK, showed a “disregard” for the UK’s international legal obligations and would lead to more cases going to the European court of human rights in Strasbourg.

Ministers have said the bill is intended to curb the abuses of the current system. However, the parliamentary joint committee on human rights said it would create fresh barriers, making it harder for people to enforce their rights inside and outside the courts.

“The government should not proceed with this bill,” the committee said. “It weakens rights protections, it undermines the universality of rights, it shows disregard for our international legal obligations; it creates legal uncertainty and hinders effective enforcement; it will lead to an increased caseload in Strasbourg, and will damage our international reputation as guardians of human rights.”

Originally introduced under Boris Johnson by the deputy prime minister and justice secretary, Dominic Raab, the bill of rights was dropped by Liz Truss when she became prime minister and sacked Raab, only to be revived when Sunak entered No 10 and Raab was reappointed to his previous role.

When Sunak appeared before the Commons liaison committee last month he refused to commit to a parliamentary timetable to bring it into law.

The human rights committee said there appeared to be little wider support for the proposed changes, with victims of violence against women, care home residents and those whose family members had lost their lives due to the actions of the police or other state actors among those raising objections.

It expressed concern the bill would require courts to ignore safeguards that protect people in “urgent situations” when there is a credible risk to life or of torture or inhuman or degrading treatment.

It would also have an impact on the requirement on public bodies to take action to protect rights, such as conducting effective investigations into the loss of life – as in the Hillsborough inquests.

The committee chair, Joanna Cherry, said the bill “removes and restricts certain human rights protections that the government finds inconvenient and prescribes a restrictive approach to the interpretation and application of the European convention on human rights in the courts of our domestic legal systems”.

If enacted in its current form, it would result in “more barriers to enforcing human rights, more cases taken to Strasbourg and more adverse judgments against the UK”, she said.

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “The bill of rights builds on the UK’s proud tradition of liberty by strengthening freedom of speech, re-injecting a healthy dose of common sense to the system and ending abuse of our laws.”

'Environmental nightmare': French authorities hunt for source of plastic pellet spill


Rosie Frost
Tue, 24 January 2023 


Last year, tiny white pellets of plastic began washing up on beaches in France and Spain.

The round beads measure less than 1.5mm and are known as “mermaid tears”. Officially they are called industrial plastic granules (IPG) and are melted down to make everyday plastic objects.

Their small size makes them incredibly difficult to clean up despite the best efforts of volunteers.

Several waves of these plastic pellets have polluted Brittany’s beaches over the last two months. In December they were found in Finistère, then Sables d’Olonne and most recently in Pornic. Winter winds and water currents have brought more and more plastic to the shore.

On Saturday (21 January) Ecological Transition Minister Christophe Béchu announced that the French government was taking legal action over this “environmental nightmare”.

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Where did the plastic pellets come from?

No one knows exactly where the pellets are coming from. Officials have tested samples but the results have not yet been released.

NGOs and environmentalists involved in cleaning up this plastic pollution, such as the Surfrider Foundation, have their theories. They believe the “mermaid tears” may have come from shipping containers that fell into the Atlantic Ocean, spilling the beads into the water.

This photograph taken on January 21, 2023, shows plastic beads, also called "mermaid's tears". - LOIC VENANCE/AFP

“It could very well be that one or more loaded containers of plastic pellets have been lost in the North Atlantic and are spilling their cargo on adjacent beaches or released from a container already lost some time ago,” says Cristina Barreau, Surfrider's microplastics research officer.

The legal complaint is being launched “against x” - persons unknown - but officials say it is impossible to fully identify the origin of these plastic pellets. The Surfrider Foundation says prosecutors now have to start the "long and fastidious" process of working out who is guilty.

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What is being done to clean up the plastic pellets?

Last weekend, the Surfrider Foundation organised a day of action across beaches in France. They estimate that hundreds of thousands of the white plastic beads have so far washed up.

In December at Tréguennec in Finistère, volunteers collected more than 80,000 pellets from the beach in less than an hour. An estimated 160,000 tonnes of these tiny beads are “lost” every year during the production processes in the European Union alone.

The Surfrider Foundation says the industry needs to take action and responsibility for this plastic pollution. French anti-waste and circular economy laws already mean producers have to take measures to stop the pellets from escaping into nature - but they don’t apply outside of the country’s territory.

Dozens of volunteers look for plastic beads, also called "mermaid's tears", on a beach in Pornic. - LOIC VENANCE/AFP

The NGO is calling for strong European regulations to put an end to this pollution. It says the EU needs to reduce plastic production with quantified targets and strict deadlines. Cleaning up spills like this once they have happened is practically unachievable meaning prevention is key.

In January, the mayor of Pornic, Jean-Michel Brard and mayor of Sables d’Olonne, Yannick Moreau, as well as the president of the Pays de Loire region, Christelle Morançais, filed legal complaints over this plastic pollution.

Béchu praised elected officials, NGOs and volunteers for highlighting bad industrial practices that lead to pollution like this.

“The state is on your side, we have decided to file a complaint,” he announced on Twitter.

Pakistan says country-wide power outage could have been caused by cyberattack

Stuti Mishra

Tue, 24 January 2023 

Pakistan‘s energy minister said on Tuesday there was a “remote chance” that hackers could be behind a grid failure that led to two days of nationwide blackout.

Khurram Dastgir told the media that the country’s power supply has been restored.

“Today, at 5.15 in the morning, the power was fully restored,” Mr Dastgir told reporters in capital Islamabad. “All 1,112 grid stations restored within 24 hours.”

Millions of people in Pakistan were plunged into darkness on Monday as the power supply abruptly cut off in many areas, including capital Islamabad and financial hub Karachi, leaving schools, hospitals and factories without electricity.

In northern city of Peshawar, people complained of not being able to get drinking water because their pumps weren’t working without electricity, while the metropolitan city of Lahore saw its driverless Orange Line Metro Train (OLMT) shut abruptly, forcing people to walk along the railway lines.

Authorities had turned off electricity during low-usage hours on Sunday night to conserve fuel, according to a government energy-saving plan. Efforts to turn power back on early on Monday morning led to a system-wide meltdown.

The minister said an investigation will show what exactly caused the outage, which he blamed on a technical glitch, and lauded the efforts of technicians in bringing the supply grid back to functionality.

He also floated a theory that there was a “remote chance” that the outage was caused by hackers targeting the Pakistani grid’s systems and expressed faith a three-member committee set up Monday by prime minister Shehbaz Sharif would get to the bottom of it.

“We will fully cooperate” with the committee, which is expected to complete a preliminary investigation within days, he said.

Mr Dastgir also cautioned that some may still face “routine power outages” this week as Pakistan’s two nuclear power plants and coal plants have yet to come fully online.

After Mr Dastgir’s address, Prime Minister Sharif issued an apology on Tuesday for the inconvenience caused by the power outage and vowed to fix responsibility for the major breakdown.

The premier tweeted: “On behalf of my government, I would like to express my sincere regrets for the inconvenience our citizens suffered due to power outage yesterday.”

“On my orders an inquiry is underway to determine reasons of the power failure. Responsibility will be fixed,” he tweeted.

It was the second major outage in Pakistan in four months and the first countrywide blackout since January 2021 as the country suffered an unprecedented economic crisis and tried to recover from last year’s catastrophic floods that left one-third of its land underwater.

In January 2021, the country witnessed a similar blackout which was attributed to a technical fault in its power generation and distribution system.

Electricity supplies are regularly cut off across the country during low usage hours overnight, especially during winters, to conserve fuel. In the first week of January, authorities in Pakistan ordered shopping malls and markets to close by 8.30pm as part of a new energy conservation plan aimed at easing Pakistan‘s economic crisis.

Pakistan gets at least 60 per cent of its electricity from fossil fuels, while nearly 27 per cent of the electricity is generated by hydropower. The contribution of nuclear and solar power to the nation’s grid is about 10 per cent.

Pakistan, along with United Nations, also launched a multi-year plan to invite funding and technical support from countries and international insitutions for its flood-hit areas, receiving pledges for $9bn in financial aid from countries including the US and France.

The country is also in talks with International Monetary Fund (IMF) to soften some conditions on a $6bn bailout that could help it the country with its dwindling foreign exchange reserves.

SEE

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2023/01/pakistans-premier-apologizes-to-nation.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2023/01/pakistans-energy-minister-sought-to.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2023/01/pakistan-power-grid-hit-by-nationwide.html

UK GENERAL STRIKE FEB 1
Biggest strike day in NHS history will be ‘difficult’, chief warns

Ella Pickover, PA Health Correspondent
Tue, 24 January 2023 

The biggest strike in the history of the NHS will be a “difficult” day, a senior health service leader has warned, as a top emergency doctor described ongoing chaos in A&E departments.

Chris Hopson, chief strategy officer for NHS England, said that combined action on February 6 is a “step change” in the dispute.

Nurses and ambulance staff will stage strikes on the same day for the first time in the ongoing row over pay and conditions.


It comes as the health service faced criticism over its winter preparedness plans, with one senior medic saying that December was the “worst ever” in emergency departments.

Dr Adrian Boyle, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said that ongoing issues in the NHS “came to a head” in December, which he described as “awful”.

Dr Boyle told the House of Commons’ Health and Social Care Committee of his concern that during ambulance strikes, some vulnerable people who need support may not seek help.

Nurses and ambulance workers are set to strike on February 6 which could be the biggest day of industrial action the NHS has ever seen (Ben Birchall/PA)

Regarding the strikes, he said: “We worry that there will be people who don’t want to make a fuss, who are desperate not to go into hospital and not to bother people.”

Mr Hopson told MPs: “Next month will see a step change in the action arising from the dispute between the trade unions and the government.

“So, we expect February 6 to be the biggest strike day in NHS history for five reasons: Firstly, we’re going to have nursing and ambulance unions planning coordinated industrial action across the country.

“Secondly, we know that the nursing stoppage will last for two days, rather than one.

“Thirdly, we know that the numbers of trusts affected will go from 44 in December to 55 in January to 73 in February; there is now a shorter gap between the strikes; and this strike starts on a Monday, which effectively makes it difficult to deploy the discharge of patients to improve flow, which is what we’ve been doing in previous strikes.

“So, just to make the point, we are now entering a new and more difficult phase in the dispute

“But that said, we’re doing all we can to make sure that those who need care receive it as we’ve done so far.

“I particularly wanted to stress that is is incredibly important that any patient who does have a life-threatening emergency does call 999 and that for any other urgent care, please use 111 online.”


When asked whether winter preparation plans had worked, Dr Boyle told MPs: “I think the answer actually is demonstrated by the outcome, and we’ve had such an awful December with such terrible outcomes.

“You can make a plan, but actually the measure of whether a plan succeeds is in the outcome, and the outcomes we’ve had over this December… We’ve said the plans have not worked in the way that we needed them to.”

He added: “We’ve certainly had the worst ever December we’ve had – if you look at performance figures on every metric, what went on in in December was terrible.

“This is a complex, multi-faceted problem. I think we need to be realistic that just a little bit of money may not be just a magic fix. It’s not a magic wand.

“We’ve got serious structural problems that impair our ability to deliver urgent and emergency care.

“Things have been going wrong for quite a long time and came to a head over December.”

Data from NHS England show that a record 54,532 people waited more than 12 hours in A&E departments last month from a decision to admit to actually being admitted.

But Dr Boyle said that some of these patients could have been waiting hours before a decision was made to admit them.

The figures also show that the proportion of patients seen within four hours in England’s A%Es fell to a record low of 65% in December.

Dr Boyle called for improvements in 111 services to prevent unnecessary A&E trips, and for hospitals to share the burden of an influx of patients – instead of leaving crowds of people in emergency departments for hours on end.

He said more must be done to stop the “haemorrhage” of emergency care nurses, saying that he signed a leaving card every time he went to work.


It comes as another A&E doctor likened her department to a “war zone”.

Writing in the Express and Star, senior middle-grade emergency medicine doctor Amy Attwater said: “When I get to work, it is chaos, like a war zone.

“The noise is unbelievable and there are patients everywhere – they can be squeezed in cupboards and blocking fire exits; it scares me that if there was a fire, we might not be able to get everyone out alive as the department is like an obstacle course.”

Regarding winter planning, Mr Hopson told the Committee: “It is just worth noting that without the 7,000 extra bed or bed equivalents – virtual wards; without the extra 1,000 111 and 999 call handlers; the community falls service; the respiratory hubs; and the system control centres that we’ve added this winter, those pressures would have been significantly greater.”

He added: “We prepared for this winter we prepared for it earlier than we had done before.

“The issue was always going to be this winter was the degree to which we saw prevalence of both Covid and flu and the degree to which they combined.

“Now we’re obviously not through winter yet … but both Covid and flu peaked so far, on December 29, when we had 9,500 people with Covid in our hospital beds, and we had 6,500 people with flu in hospital beds, and then we had around 12,000 people who were medically fit to discharge and we were unable to discharge.

“So if you add that together, that means 28,000 of the approximately 100,000 beds that the NHS has, were effectively occupied by a combination of Covid, flu and medically fit to discharge patients.”

But Dr Boyle also told MPs that he was “sceptical” about plans for virtual hospital wards.

“We are a little bit sceptical about the virtual wards as a solution – I know it’s an attractive option because it looks very cheap.

“But unless it is properly evaluated we are not going to know whether it works.”

UK Border Force strikes: Travellers warned to expect disruption as walkouts confirmed for 1 February

Charlotte Elton
Tue, 24 January 2023 

UK Border Force strikes: Travellers warned to expect disruption as walkouts confirmed for 1 February


Travellers entering the UK on 1 February could face long queues as Border Force workers go on strike.

Members of the Public and Commercial Service (PCS) union, including Border Force staff, previously walked out over the Christmas and New Year period.

Now they are set to take part in what PCS says will be the "largest civil service strike for years". The industrial action is set to start on 1 February and last until 7 am on 2 February.


The government has advised travellers planning to enter the UK on this date to check the latest travel advice and be prepared for longer queues than normal. Anyone who can use eGates is also being advised to do so.

"If you are travelling into the UK via any entry point, you should prepare for disruption and check before you travel," the Home Office and Border Force said in a statement.

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Where in the UK could be the worst affected?

While the initial Border Force strikes primarily targeted UK airports, those on 1 February will also include ports.

International arrivals at all UK airports and ports including Dover will be impacted. UK border controls at Calais, Dunkirk and Coquelles in northern France are likely to be affected too.

Last summer, holidaymakers faced hours-long delays at the Port of Dover because of slow border checks caused by staff shortages and new Brexit controls.

Since Britain left the European Union in 2020, UK travellers face stricter border checks when travelling to the continent. At Dover, they are performed on the English side of the channel by French staff.

An arrivals board displays a message warning users of terminal 5 about industrial action by Border Force staff, at Heathrow Airport. - REUTERS/Peter Nicholls

How did Border Force strikes impact Christmas travel?

During the Christmas Border Force strikes, passport checks at Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Glasgow, Cardiff and Birmingham were affected. Border Force staff at the port of Newhaven, East Sussex, were also included in the strikes.

In response, the government drafted more than 800 military personnel and civil servants to staff entry gates.

Heathrow was challenged with recruiting and training up to 25,000 security-cleared staff before the festive period, a task the airport described as “a huge logistical challenge”. Passengers who were not eligible to use eGates faced longer wait times at Border Control.

At Manchester Airport, 200 new security staff are being recruited, but won't start work until April 2023.

More than 10,000 flights carrying up to 2 million passengers arrived at the affected airports during the strike period, according to aviation analytics company Cirium.

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How might the government reduce disruption?

"Military personnel, civil servants and volunteers from across government are being trained to support Border Force at airports and ports across the UK in the event of potential strike action," the UK government said in a statement.

"Border Force are ready to deploy resources to meet critical demand and support the flow of travellers and goods through the border, however, those entering the UK should be prepared for potential disruption."

But the head of the armed forces said during previous strikes that they should not be thought of as "spare capacity" for striking workers.

"We're busy and we're doing lots of things on behalf of the nation - we've got to focus on our primary role," chief of defence staff Admiral Sir Tony Radakin told the Sunday Telegraph.

Members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) Union take part in a border force workers strike action near Heathrow Airport. - REUTERS/Peter Nicholls
Is there a danger of problems with passport checks?

Steve Dann has insisted that safety and security at borders will be "non-negotiable" during strike action.

However, unions have warned that military personnel are not properly qualified to carry out these jobs. PCS said that Border Force members "are specialists in their fields and can't be replaced by people with just days of training."

Why are border force officials striking?

The strike is part of a larger coordinated action by thousands of civil servants. 100,000 PCS members in 214 government departments and other public bodies voted to take action

Members are demanding a 10 per cent pay rise, citing eye-watering inflation of 10.6 per cent.

Mark Serwotka, the PCS general secretary, said that the strike would cause "significant disruption" - but added that the cost of living crisis has left workers "desperate" with no choice but to strike.

"We have no option but to take industrial action because our members are using food banks and not able to switch on the heating right now," he said.

"The government can stop these strikes tomorrow if it puts money on the table."

AUSTRALIA
Record levels of renewable energy push demand for electricity to all-time low for December quarter


Peter Hannam

 Guardian Australia

Tue, 24 January 2023 

Photograph: Russell Freeman/AAP

Milder temperatures and record levels of renewable energy drove electricity demand to its lowest levels for any December quarter, according to the Australian Energy Market Operator.

Wholesale power prices also retreated during the period, particularly after the Albanese government imposed price caps on black coal and gas that are used to generate power, AEMO said in its quarterly report released on Wednesday.

“Electricity futures prices saw steep falls in the mainland states through to the end of the quarter” after the price limits were imposed on 9 December, said Violette Mouchaileh, an AEMO executive.

The average price of $93/megawatt-hour across the national electricity market (NEM) that serves eastern Australia was less than half the $216/MWh cost in the September quarter. Still, it was almost 80% higher than for the final three months of 2021.

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Renewable energy from wind, solar and hydro supplied an average of 40.3% of power in the NEM, a record for any quarter since the NEM started in 1998.

It exceeded the previous high, set a year earlier, of 35.8%, AEMO said.

The tail end of the third La Niña event in as many years trimmed power demand for daytime air-conditioning.

A 16% increase in electricity output from rooftop solar panels, or 410MW on average, also decreased demand from the grid.

As a result, operational demand fell 2% from a year earlier to an average 19,431MW, the lowest December quarter reading. New record lows for a quarter were set in South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales, while the 11,892MW use on 6 November was a new low for the NEM in the December quarter.

The government hailed the early signs of a retreat in wholesale power prices as early proof that its price caps were having an effect on household bills. However, wholesale prices make up only about a third of retail costs and are subject to external events, such as an extended fault at coal-fired power plant, or heatwave-driven spikes in demand that could erase price falls.

Wholesale costs may also have been lower due to a drop in gas prices from record highs in June and July. At an average of $17.79/gigajoule, though, the price remained two-thirds higher than a year earlier.

Gas demand actually fell 7% in the December quarter from a year ago in part because of lower LNG production after unplanned outages at export plants in Queensland.

Power generation from black and brown coal-fired plants was the lowest since the NEM started. Higher prices for the fossil fuel in Queensland and NSW – at least before the price caps began – was one factor for the reduced use but also plant failures, particularly in Queensland.

Increased output from renewable energy, with its near-zero fuel cost, also nudged more coal and gas out of the generation market.

New instantaneous renewable penetration records were set in the NEM at 68.7% on 28 October – up 4.6 percentage points on the previous record – and in the Western Australian market at 84.3% on 12 December, up 3.7 percentage points. The records were “largely driven” by rooftop solar, AEMO said.

During a fault that cut South Australia off from other states for several days in November, renewables’ share of generation peaked at 91.5%.

“Output from wind and grid-scale solar grew strongly as new facilities were connected and commissioned,” AEMO said. Even with relatively calm days producing the lowest recent quarterly utilisation rate, total windfarm output exceeded any previous December quarter.