#AUKUS

Biden shuns EU with Asia-Pacific power play

Paris is furious at what it is slamming as a betrayal.

French President Emmanuel Macron gets out of the new French nuclear submarine "Suffren" 

| Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images

BY STUART LAU, JACOPO BARIGAZZI AND DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
September 16, 2021 4:17 pm

It was the worst possible day for the EU — and its defense heavyweight France — to learn that they're not in the geostrategic big league when it comes to countering China's rise in the Asia-Pacific region.

Only hours before EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell was due to unveil Europe's own woolly Indo-Pacific strategy on Thursday, he was outplayed in a hard-power move by America, Britain and Australia. The three countries announced a landmark pact that would allow cooperation on top military technology and allow Canberra to build nuclear-powered submarines.

It was doubly infuriating for the EU camp that Brexit Britain was the only European ally invited to the top table.

This Asia-Pacific power shift is an especially bitter blow to France, which now looks to set to lose out on a multibillion-dollar submarine supply deal with Australia. It's the worst transatlantic blow-up since the Iraq war in 2003, and French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said: "It's a stab in the back. We had established a trusting relationship with Australia, and this trust was betrayed."

Unsurprisingly, France immediately doubled down on calls for Europe to forge a course of "strategic autonomy" with less reliance on U.S. technology and the American military.

The promise of trilateral U.S.-U.K-Australia cooperation on anti-China technologies such as artificial intelligence will also sting in Brussels. Later this month, the EU and U.S. are due to meet for talks in Pittsburgh on precisely that theme — aligning technological standards.

The chief problem is that America has shown increasing signs of frustration with the EU's softer approach to China. Regardless of incoming U.S. President Joe Biden's wariness, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron raced to finalize a landmark investment agreement with China at the end of last year. While American diplomats want the Pittsburgh talks to focus on forging tech ecosystems that box out China, European officials are at pains to play down any anti-Beijing dimensions of tech cooperation.

Yet France will almost certainly be the immediate diplomatic flashpoint. Paris is questioning the new three-way alliance (AUKUS) in relation to the contractual rights of its own diesel-electric submarine deal. "This is not over," Le Drian said. "We’re going to need clarifications. We have contracts."

In a joint statement with his defense counterpart, Florence Parly, Le Drian directed his ire directly at Washington.

"The American decision, which leads to the exclusion of a European ally and partner like France from a crucial partnership with Australia at a time when we are facing unprecedented challenges in the Indo-Pacific region, be it over our values or respect for a multilateralism based on the rule of law, signals a lack of consistency which France can only notice and regret," the two ministers said.

Is France an Indo-Pacific player?

For France, which was the first EU country to adopt an Indo-Pacific strategy in 2018 and went on to persuade Germany, and the whole of EU, to follow suit, the latest developments could well lead to a rethink about its strategic positioning.

"It's a big blow to Macron and France's position of itself as a major Indo-Pacific partner," said Hervé Lemahieu, director of research at Lowy Institute, a Sydney-based think tank.

Benjamin Haddad, who leads the Atlantic Council think tank's Europe Center, said: "It’s stunning honestly, and [there] will be an earthquake in Paris. ... [It] will leave long-term damage on the French defense and political establishment — more than a 'normal' diplomatic spat."

An EU-based diplomat, however, said that the European fallout would be mostly confined to France, and the EU's Indo-Pacific strategy reached well beyond the military dimensions. "Germany, for instance, has been trying to talk about trade diversification [away from China] under the Indo-Pacific strategy," he said.

In fact, in a sign of continued regional goodwill, Germany on Thursday announced a new stop in Darwin in northern Australia for its Bayern frigate that is now on course to the South China Sea.

"It’s a reality check on the geopolitical ambitions of the EU," another diplomat said. While on the one hand there's a bad optic that the EU and its member countries "somehow don't manage to be seen as a credible security partner" for the U.S. and Australia, "we shouldn’t make too much of the Indo-Pacific strategy: The EU is not a Pacific player."

While France recalibrates its relations with Australia, Japan offers a useful diplomatic lesson. Even though it was rejected for a defense contract with the Australians — and the deal ultimately went to the French — Tokyo successfully maintained solid ties with Canberra to face the common Chinese rival in the region.

"Japan and Australia have bridged those periods of tension and mistrust," said Lemahieu. He added that India, with which France also has a good relationship on security, could play a constructive role in ensuring that the EU is not entirely frozen out.

Borrell also insisted on Thursday that there was no question of Europe being excluded as a regional player. "The EU is already the top investor, the leading development cooperation provider and one of the biggest trading partners in the Indo-Pacific region," he said.

Transatlantic tempest

It's hardly as if Biden weren't already trying to put out fires in Europe given the precipitous and chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The U.S. president's foreign policy team has been in overdrive to contain the fallout from the departure, which has dented America’s reputation worldwide but especially among European allies who dutifully backed the pullout decision.

In recent days, in a bid to shore up alliances, Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan has telephoned Romanian Foreign Minister and National Security Advisor Bogdan Aurescu, Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė and Hiski Haukkala, secretary general and chief of cabinet for Finnish President Sauli Niinistö.

Back in Brussels, the show must go on.

Confronted by a barrage of questions about the new Indo-Pacific alliance — which technically has nothing to do with the EU — Borrell didn't hide his "regret" about the American move.

Still, Borrell was also eager not to let the French reaction dominate the EU's newfound geopolitical interest.

He cautioned against "dramatized" sentiments and vowed full support for the EU's cooperation with "the Quad" — the anti-China security alliance of the U.S., Australia, Japan and India.

And he implored his audience: "Don’t put into question our relationship with the United States that has been improving a lot with the new administration."

For now, however, it's a plea that has yet to land in Paris.

After Australia arms deal flop, EU launches Indo-Pacific plan


FILE PHOTO: Picture shows European Union flags fluttering outside the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels

Robin Emmott
Thu, September 16, 2021

By Robin Emmott

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The European Union set out a formal strategy on Thursday to boost its presence in the Indo-Pacific and counter China's rising power, pledging to seek a trade deal with Taiwan and to deploy more ships to keep open sea routes.

The EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell insisted the strategy was also open to China, particularly in areas such as climate change, but diplomats told Reuters that deeper ties with India, Japan, Australia and Taiwan were aimed at limiting Beijing's power.

Borrell also said Wednesday's agreement 

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-security-biden-asia/china-fumes-over-australias-nuclear-sub-pact-with-u-s-britain-idUSKBN2GB2BN

 between the United States, Australia and Britain to establish a security partnership for the Indo-Pacific, in which the EU was not consulted, showed the need for a more assertive foreign policy.

He said the EU was eager to work with Britain on security but that London had shown no interest since it left the bloc, expressing regret that Australia had cancelled a $40 billion submarine deal with France.

"We must survive on our own, as others do," Borrell said as he presented a new EU strategy for the Indo-Pacific region, talking of the "strategic autonomy" that French President Emmanuel Macron has championed.

"I understand the extent to which the French government must be disappointed," he said.

The EU's chairman, Charles Michel, said the U.S. accord with Australia and Britain, "further demonstrates the need for a common EU approach in a region of strategic interest."

Following an initial plan in April, the EU set out seven areas in which it would increase influence in the Indo-Pacific, in health, security, data, infrastructure, the environment, trade and oceans. [nL8N2QI2MB]

The plan may mean a higher EU diplomatic profile on Indo-Pacific issues, more EU personnel and investment in the region and a security presence such as dispatching ships through the South China Sea, or putting Europeans on Australian patrols.

"Given the importance of a meaningful European naval presence in the Indo-Pacific, the EU will explore ways to ensure enhanced naval deployments by its member states in the region," the document said.

Trade talks with Taiwan are likely to further irritate China, the EU's second-largest trading partner, after Lithuania deepened ties with the island. China considers fiercely democratic, self-ruled Taiwan part of "One China", to be united with the mainland eventually, and is regularly angered by any moves which suggest the island is a separate country.

(Reporting by Robin Emmott Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky and Bernadette Baum)


Factbox-EU priorities in Indo-Pacific shift to counter China


FILE PHOTO: attendant walks past EU and China flags ahead of the EU-China High-level Economic Dialogue in Beijing

Thu, September 16, 2021

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union set out a formal strategy on Thursday to increase its presence in the Indo-Pacific and counter China's rising power, although Australia's decision to cancel an arms contract with France may complicate cooperation. [L1N2QI0R7]

Here are the main focus areas of the EU's strategy:

- TRADE: The EU will work to finalise trade negotiations with Australia and New Zealand, seek a deal with India and strengthen stronger ties with countries where it already has a trade deal, such as South Korea. The EU will also pursue a trade and investment agreement with Taiwan.

- CLIMATE CHANGE: The EU aims to help the transition towards green energy in the Indo-Pacific region, making renewable hydrogen a priority.

- OCEANS: Promising a greater diplomatic presence, the EU aims to help uphold the United Nations Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) to prevent overfishing in the region, offering expertise in protecting marine areas, weather forecasting and limiting pollution of the seas.

- DIGITAL: The EU wants to start talks with Japan, South Korea and Singapore on deeper cooperation on data flows, data-based innovation and allowing more digital trade. It also wants to work more closely with India on emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and fifth-generation mobile networks.

- INFRASTRUCTURE: The EU wants to collaborate with Japan, India and Austria on transport links, particularly in aviation and maritime sectors, as well as ensuring that development banks and export agencies link the bloc more closely to Asia. The EU on Wednesday launched a new plan to rival China's Belt and Road infrastructure strategy, which it calls "Global Gateway".

- SECURITY AND DEFENCE: The EU, the world's largest trading bloc, will seek closer maritime ties with Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia and Japan, promising more naval deployments to patrol trade routes that China considers its own. It is also sending military advisers to EU delegations in the region.

- HEALTH: The EU wants to help poorer countries in the Indo-Pacific to secure access to COVID-19 vaccines. The EU also wants to develop cooperation to secure supply lines for medicines and medical equipment, reducing reliance on China.

(Reporting by Robin Emmott; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Right-wing media is subverting American democracy with continued election lies

A new poll shows a huge majority of Fox News and other right-wing media viewers believe the election lies they are constantly being told

Audrey Bowler / Media Matters

WRITTEN BY ERIC KLEEFELD
PUBLISHED 09/16/21 

An alarming new poll finds that among Americans who trust Fox News or other far-right media sources such as One America News, 76% falsely believe the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump — a number far out of kilter from the American mainstream.

Washington Post columnist Greg Sargent reported on the poll from the Public Religion Research Institute, which found that only 29% of Americans believe that the election was stolen, compared to 69% who correctly answered that it was not. Furthermore, 56% of respondents said Trump deserved “a lot” of the blame for the January 6 insurrection, when a mob of his supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s victory.

Sargent further asked the pollster to break out the numbers according to media consumption habits. In addition to the finding that 76% of right-wing media consumers believed the election was stolen, only 12% of those respondents gave Trump a lot of the blame for the January 6 riot.

“When future historians seek to explain the United States’ perilous slide toward authoritarianism in the 21st century, they will grapple with the role played in all these events by Fox News and the right-wing media,” Sargent wrote. “Simply put, those actors are helping Donald Trump and his movement threaten democracy, in a way that will likely continue getting worse.”

As Media Matters has previously documented, right-wing media outlets played a key role in Trump’s efforts to subvert the election results, frequently telling their viewers that Trump had won the election or pushing other lies in an effort to discredit Biden’s clear victory. And in the months after the insurrection, these same right-wing outlets worked to rewrite the history of that event and cover up the criminal acts that took place.

More recently, right-wing media outlets have continued to peddle lies about the election.

Fox News is now facing multibillion-dollar lawsuits against the network from two prominent voting machine companies for the network’s role in helping to spread Trump’s claims that they had artificially changed votes. Meanwhile, the network has legitimized the election lies in subtler ways, with hosts either refusing to disavow them or trying to paper over what the network had done.

Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo referred to the January 6 riot as a “peaceful protest.” (Months earlier, Bartiromo had also given Trump a platform to continue to lie about the election.)

Fox News host Pete Hegseth refused to answer a guest asking him to say that Trump had lost the election, saying: “I’m not — don't really feel any obligation to answer anything for you.”

In an interview with Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), Fox News anchor Bret Baier attempted to whitewash the network’s role — and his own — in having helped to spread Trump’s election lies in late 2020.

Baier also helped to cover up the motives of a man who caused a bomb scare in Washington, D.C., and spouted right-wing conspiracy theories including about the election. Baier told viewers that the suspect’s “motive remains unknown” — even after the suspect had livestreamed his false claims and social media videos showed the suspect having taken part in a “Stop the Steal” march.
When Trump appeared for a phone interview in August, the network initially edited out his election lies from the version that was posted online. Then, following condemnation from Trump’s spokesperson, the network posted a second version with the lie put back in.

One of the worst offenders has been the far-right channel One America News. In addition to the role it played in propagandizing for Trump’s election lies in late 2020, on January 6 itself the network’s White House correspondent argued that the “protesters” shutting down Congress provided justification for then-Vice President Mike Pence to stop the count of the Electoral College votes.

In the weeks and months that followed that attack, the network’s hosts have argued that it’s “possible” Biden “wasn't actually elected by the people,” continued to push claims that computer systems changed votes, claimed that the country does not have a legitimate executive branch, and said that “there were a lot of dead people that voted in the last election.”

And just in recent months:
The network aired over 30 hours of MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s “cyber symposium,” which sought to offer proof that the election was stolen.
The network later hosted Lindell for an interview in which he promised a second symposium and speculated that Trump could be reinstated into office “this fall — I hope in September.”
Even after being sued by a prominent election systems company, the network has continued to promote lies that Trump really won the election.
OAN host Natalie Harp has rbegun promoting right-wing claims of “unknown” votes that were lost and never counted, even though she has also previously claimed there were tens of thousands of extra votes in Arizona.
The network’s hosts and commentators have openly fundraised for the Arizona Senate’s “forensic audit” of the ballots in the state’s largest county, aiming to spread these audits throughout the country.
OAN commentator Pearson Sharp has speculated that the audits would lead to the mass executions of election officials.

Newsmax also told its viewers to be “suspicious” about the election results and spread claims about voting machines changing the results. (The network is now also being sued.) The network also promoted various methods of overturning the Electoral College results, or even sending the military into the states, and repeatedly pushed the idea that Trump might still prevail. And on January 6, the network’s hosts also suggested that “leftist groups” and philanthropist George Soros were really behind the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

In recent months:
The channel ran ads for Lindell’s “cyber symposium” over 170 times in a single week and, in a further publicity stunt, sent a correspondent to picket Fox News for having refused to run the ad.
Newsmax host Greg Kelly has said: “I still have concerns about the election of 2020, and it's okay to have concerns, all right?” Kelly also praised Lindell for being “committed to finding out what really happened in the 2020 election.” (What really happened: Joe Biden won.)
Just this week, Newsmax host Grant Stinchfield claimed that “President Trump would still be in office” were it not for a “mail-in ballots scheme” by Democrats.

Why Some FDA Scientists Are Arguing Against COVID Boosters

Matthew Herper and Helen Branswell
STAT
Sep 15

A vial of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. (Robyn Beck/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES)

Food and Drug Administration scientists have expressed skepticism about the need for additional doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for all people who have received it.

The assessment by the agency’s staff, included in documents released Wednesday, sets up a high-stakes debate over who will need an additional booster dose — and when they will need it — at the meeting of experts being convened by the Food and Drug Administration on Friday.

In the documents, the FDA’s own scientists seemed to strike a skeptical position about the need for widespread booster shots. Overall, they said, “data indicate that currently US-licensed or authorized COVID-19 vaccines still afford protection against severe COVID-19 disease and death in the United States.”

Other data released Wednesday, both in briefing documents for the Friday panel and by other researchers, add to the swirling debate over a question that will affect millions of people who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 around the world: If the effectiveness of the vaccine wanes, do people need to top it off with an additional dose? If so, when should that happen given that much of the world has not received a first dose of vaccine yet? And should that decision vary by age and by whether people have other health conditions that could make Covid worse if they do become infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus?

On one side are drug companies and some researchers, who point to data showing the efficacy of the vaccines to protect all infections is waning and that a third shot will provide additional protection. On the other are those who point out that these vaccines are still keeping people out of the hospital and preventing them from dying, indicating that a booster is not needed yet.

The advice of the FDA’s advisory panel on the matter will not be binding, but the agency is likely to consider it. If the FDA authorizes a booster dose, the decision on whether to give them broadly will be taken up by a separate advisory committee convened by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There has been no date set yet for a meeting of that group, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

Still, any decision by the FDA that limits the approval for booster shots, or even expresses hesitancy about how they should be used, will be seen as a rebuke to the Biden administration, which in August took the unusual step of unveiling a plan to offer boosters to the U.S. population, ahead of decisions from the FDA and the CDC.

Among those who have challenged the need for boosters at this point are two senior FDA officials who recently announced they will retire from the agency this fall, a move seen to be motivated by their disagreement with the administration on the booster question. Marion Gruber and Phil Krause, director and deputy director, respectively, of FDA’s Office of Vaccines Research and Review, were also co-authors of a paper published Monday in The Lancet that argued against the need for booster shots for the general public at this time.

In the briefing documents made available Wednesday, Pfizer argued that the effectiveness of its vaccine is declining and that a third dose would return efficacy to the 95% level seen in clinical trials.

Recent data from Israel showed the efficacy of the vaccine against infection with SARS-CoV-2 dropped from 95% in January to 39% in June. In an analysis of Pfizer’s own Phase 3 trial, which resulted in the vaccine’s approval, the incidence of breakthrough cases was higher among patients who received their second dose before December 2020 than in those who received their second dose after March.

The company also released new data from a study conducted by Kaiser Permanente in Southern California that showed the waning efficacy is likely due to the vaccine becoming less effective over time, not because the new Delta variant is more resistant to the vaccine.

In the Kaiser data, the efficacy of the vaccine at preventing SARS-CoV-2 infection with the Delta variant dropped from 93% for those vaccinated less than one month to 53% for those vaccinated more than four months ago. For other variants, this drop was from 97% to 67%. At this point, about 88% of SARS-2 viruses detected globally are from the Delta family.

However, the vaccine still did a very good job preventing hospitalizations in this dataset, reducing hospitalization by 93% in cases infected with the Delta variant.

“It should be recognized that while observational studies can enable understanding of real-world effectiveness, there are known and unknown biases that can affect their reliability,” FDA scientists state in their report. “Due to these biases some studies may be more reliable than others. Furthermore, US-based studies of post- authorization effectiveness of [the vaccine] may most accurately represent vaccine effectiveness in the US population.”

The FDA documents assessed questions about the safety of giving a third dose of the vaccine, noting that for some issues, there are no answers. For instance, it is not known if a third dose would trigger elevated rates of myocarditis and pericarditis, a side effect seen mainly in males under the age of 40.

“It is currently not known if there will be an increased risk of myocarditis/pericarditis or other adverse reactions after a booster dose of Comirnaty. These risks and associated uncertainties have to be considered when assessing benefit and risk,” the agency’s scientists wrote. Comirnaty is the brand name of Pfizer’s vaccine.

Meanwhile, an analysis of vaccine efficacy from the United Kingdom — the first country to begin vaccination with the vaccines developed in the West — gives further ammunition to those who have argued that booster shots for all are not warranted at this time.

The analysis from Public Health England, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, found protection against hospitalization and deaths remains high for the Pfizer jab, even among older adults who are healthy.

“Given the sustained high [vaccine efficacy] against hospitalization and death, the additional benefit of a third dose against these more serious outcomes is limited in the current epidemiological situation,” the authors of the British study concluded. They added that vaccine efficacy “may, however, continue to wane over time and it is likely that booster doses may have a bigger impact on the more severe outcomes with longer intervals between the second and third doses.”

The most significant waning of protection is occurring in people aged 65 and older who have significant health issues, the paper said. It is based on a comparison of the vaccination status of nearly 1.5 million people who tested positive for Covid-19 to nearly 3.3 million people who tested negative for the virus.

“We found that waning was greatest among individuals in clinical risk groups, suggesting that this group should be prioritized for boosters, whenever they are recommended,” the authors said.

Despite the findings, Britain’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization recommended Wednesday that everyone who was at the front of the line when the country began its vaccine rollout last December should receive a booster shot, once six months had passed since their second jab.

Those listed as being at the head of the priority list for boosters in the U.K. are those living in long-term care facilities, adults 50 years of age and older, front-line health care workers and social workers, people 16 to 49 years old with underlying health conditions that put them at high risk of developing severe disease if they contract the virus, and adults who live with immunocompromised people.

Economists to Congress: Make enhanced child tax credit permanent

Republicans and some moderate Democrats opposed efforts to extend the program

By Thomas Barrabi FOXBusiness

Nearly 450 economists signed an open letter Thursday urging Congress to pursue a permanent extension of President Biden’s child tax credit program, an economic measure that has prompted intense debate on Capitol Hill.

The economists, drawn from universities and institutions across the country, argue that initial research showed a permanent child tax credit would "dramatically reduce childhood poverty" by improving educational, health-related and career outcomes for low-income youth. The letter cited a study that concluded a permanent program would cost 16 cents for every $1 in new economic benefits.

"A permanently expanded CTC would yield tremendous immediate and long-term benefits for children and their families and would be unlikely to meaningfully reduce employment," the letter said. "For these reasons, we believe that the benefits of an expanded CTC far outweigh the costs."

Under the current enhanced child tax credit program enacted in Biden’s $1.9 trillion "American Rescue Plan," eligible parents can receive up to $3,000 per child aged 6 to 17 years old and $3,600 per child aged under 6 each year. Half of the money is dispersed monthly in direct cash payments, with the other half applied as a credit on 2022 tax returns.

Republicans and some moderate Democrats opposed efforts to extend the program, arguing it would be too costly to taxpayers and would disincentivize job seekers as the U.S. economy recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic.

In their open letter, the economists argued that gradual reductions in payments for higher-earning parents, beginning at $75,000 for individuals and $150,000 for married couples, ensured an incentive to pursue work.

"A design feature that limits such effects is that the expanded CTC amount would not phase out until high levels of earnings; thus, most families would not see their CTC amount decline if their income rises," the economists said.

KEEP THEM POOR SO THEY ARE FORCED TO WORK
Economic experts are divided on the potential impact of the enhanced benefits. The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, has referred to Biden’s program as a "bait and switch" that would inhibit participation in the job market.

"Contrary to the administration’s rhetoric, the primary focus and sole permanent feature of the child allowance policy would not be tax relief, but the elimination of all work requirements and work incentives from the current child credit program," the group said in July. "In pursuing this change, the administration explicitly seeks to overturn the foundations of welfare reform established during the Clinton presidency."

The Democrats’ $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill would extend the program through 2025, and Biden and other top Democratic lawmakers have called for it to be made permanent.

The debate could present a roadblock to the bill’s passage in the Senate. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., a key swing voter, has called for the implementation of a work requirement for parents receiving the benefit.

Japan's Noda, former gender equality minister, joins PM race

TOKYO (Reuters) - Seiko Noda, a Japanese former minister for gender equality, announced on Thursday she is running to replace Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and become the nation's first female leader.

© Reuters/ISSEI KATO FILE PHOTO: 

Japan's Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Seiko Noda, who is also minister in charge of women's empowerment, speaks in Tokyo

Noda, considered a long shot, has been a consistent voice urging Japan to address its declining birthrate and fast-ageing population, while advocating women's empowerment.

"I would like to create a politics for the next Japan so women, children, the elderly and disabled people who have not been leading actors, can feel life is worth living in this society," Noda, 61, told reporters.

A critic of conservative former prime minister Shinzo Abe, Noda wanted to challenge him for the leadership of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in 2015 but fell short of the 20 backers needed to run. This time, she cleared the line the day before official registration.

The LDP president becomes Japan's prime minister because of the party's majority in the lower house of parliament.

Vaccine minister Taro Kono, the apparent frontrunner, said on Thursday any new economic stimulus https://www.reuters.com/article/japan-politics/update-2-japan-pm-contender-kono-wants-stimulus-to-focus-on-energy-5g-idUKL1N2QI04A measures should prioritise spending on renewable energy and expansion of 5G networks.

Noda joined a flurry of campaigning among senior figures in the party. Former foreign minister Fumio Kishida and former internal affairs minister Sanae Takaichi are also running in the Sept. 29 election for LDP president.

In her 30s, Noda became Japan's youngest post-war cabinet minister, later holding various cabinet posts, including internal affairs minister.

(Reporting by Yoshifumi Takemoto and Ju-min Park; Editing by William Mallard)

Sir Clive Sinclair, Home Computer Pioneer and Inventor of the Sinclair C5, Dies Aged 81

SEPTEMBER 16, 2021 

Sir Clive Sinclair is widely considered the pioneer of home computing and other consumer electronics, as well as the bizarre Sinclair C5. Belinda Sinclair, his daughter, told the press today that her father died at his London home early this morning, aged 81. 

Most have heard about the Sinclair ZX81 / ZX Spectrum, but his company also produced the TV80, a cathode ray tube-based portable mini television. Unfortunately, the Sinclair FTV1 (TV80) was a commercial flop, with only 15,000 units produced. 

Read more for two videos, including one on his quirky C5 battery-powered vehicle.

For those who have never heard or seen the Sinclair C5, it’s essentially a battery-powered recumbent tricycle for one person. In other words, it’s an electric tricycle with a polypropylene body and a chassis designed by Lotus Cars. Its 12-volt lead–acid electric battery powered a motor with a continuous rating of 250 watts and a maximum speed of 4,100 revolutions per minute, good for a range of 20-miles. The C5 was actually intended to be the first in a line of electric vehicles, but development of its successors, the C10 and C15 models, never progressed further due to poor sales of the C5.

He was inventive and imaginative and for him it was exciting and an adventure, it was his passion. He’d come up with an idea and say, ‘There’s no point in asking if someone wants it, because they can’t imagine it.’ He was a rather amazing person. Of course, he was so clever and he was always interested in everything,” said his daughter.

UK inventor, computing pioneer Clive Sinclair dies at 81

Sir Clive Sinclair, the man who helped bring affordable computers into people's homes in the 1980s, has passed away at the age of 81, UK media reported.

In 1988, Sinclair launched a laptop dubbed Cambridge Z88

British inventor Clive Sinclair, whose passion for technology made him a fortune and earned him a knighthood in the 1980s, has died following a long illness, his daughter Belinda told The Guardian daily and later the BBC on Thursday.

Sinclair was born in 1940 and started building gadgets as a child. He left school at 17 and worked as a technical journalist before starting his own company in 1961. In 1972, he launched a series of groundbreaking pocket calculators. The gadgets were a financial success and gathered praise for what was, at the time, a sleek, cutting-edge design.

But the inventor's personal golden age arrived in the early 1980s. Sinclair's home computer the ZX80 was designed to be cheap and accessible. Launched in 1980, it was also sold in kit form for customers who wanted to put the device together themselves. It was followed up by ZX81 and then ZX Spectrum 48K in 1982. The series rivaled the better known Commodore 64 in the early video game market.

Similar to other computer pioneers such as Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, Sinclair played a key role in bringing personal computers to people's homes. The computer boom also made him a millionaire.


COMPUTER DESIGN: FROM THE LEGENDARY Z3 TO THE APPLE WATCH
Design fit for a museum
The wunderkind from the early days of computer technology, the Commodore PET 2001 was released in 1977. Built to last, most are still fully functional. In 2016, the German Museum of Digital Culture (Deutsches Museum der digitalen Kultur) in Dortmund will put the old treasure in an honorable position. Its retro look is once again fashionable.
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In 1983, he was awarded a knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II.

'A true father' of the computer age

In the mid-1980s, however, Sinclair faced his first flop with an early electric vehicle dubbed the Sinclair C5. In 1986, the inventor sold his computer business to the now-defunct Amstrad.

Several of his later inventions, including a pocket TV and an electric motor that could be fitted to a pedal bicycle, also failed to sell.

Sinclair admitted the 1985 launch of his electric vehicle, which could be powered by batteries or pedals, was botched — range, power, aesthetics and safety concerns were commonly cited as cause for public skepticism at the time

Sinclair continued to develop new gadgets into 2010s, as the world slowly embraced the dream of electric mobility.

"You cannot exaggerate Sir Clive Sinclair's influence on the world," gaming journalist and presenter Dominik Diamond said on Twitter. "And if we'd all stopped laughing long enough to buy a C5 he'd probably have saved the environment."

Hollywood screenwriter and video game developer Garry Whitta also praised Sinclair as "a true father of the modern computing age."

"I'm not sure I'd be where I am today were it not for his ZX Spectrum igniting my love of computers and games," said Whitta, whose credits include the popular video game franchise Gears of War.

In a 2013 interview, Sinclair told the BBC that he did not himself use computers.

"I don't like distraction," he explained. "If I had a computer, I'd start thinking I could change this, I could change that, and I don't want to. My wife very kindly looks after that for me."

Sir Clive Sinclair: Tireless inventor ahead of his time

Thu., September 16, 2021,

Sir Clive Sinclair, who has died aged 81, was one of Britain's most prolific innovators.

Largely self-taught, he began inventing gadgets while he was still at school.

His ZX Spectrum computers brought affordable personal computing to the masses and sold in their millions across the world.

But his attempt to launch an electric vehicle was not successful, and caused him severe financial problems.

Clive Marles Sinclair was born on 30 July 1940 in Richmond, Surrey.

The young Clive was something of an introvert as a child, preferring the company of adults to that of his own age group.

He also developed a passion for creating gadgets, inspired by a character called The Inventor, on the BBC Children's series, Toytown.

A miniature TV was just one of the products he developed

Sinclair made a communications system for his hideout in the woods and built miniature radios and amplifiers.

While doing his A-levels, he designed a circuit for a simple radio which he then commissioned a manufacturer to make up into DIY kits.

The kit was sold through magazines such as Practical Wireless, a publication for which he had already written a number of articles.
Keen to return to inventing

Over the following four years, he wrote books on how to construct various electronic devices including radio receivers and transistor circuits.

But while his books sold well, Sinclair was anxious to get back to inventing, and formed his own company, Sinclair Radionics, in 1961.

He produced a number of printed circuit boards and a miniature transistor radio but was unable to raise enough capital to make the business a success.

Sinclair backed his products with heavy advertising

His first money-making venture came when he heard the Plessey company was discarding new transistors that were not up-to-scratch.

Having discovered the rejects still worked, Sinclair bought them in bulk, re-selling them at a profit and building them into his own products.

Sinclair followed up his kits with fully built hi-fi components and a design for a miniature TV.

He shared the view of Apple's Steve Jobs that design was everything and his products were seen as modern and cutting-edge.
Affordable pocket calculator

In 1972, he designed and released a calculator, the Sinclair Executive.

It was the first true pocket calculator and, while technically not particularly advanced, it looked good and, more importantly, was very affordable.

It won Design Council awards and was put on show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

The ZX Spectrum was a major success

But Sinclair's products were proving unreliable and the company faced financial problems.

An innovative quartz watch, a sleek black affair, never worked properly and customers returned them in their thousands.

Eventually the company was taken over by Labour's National Enterprise Board and split up.

"I'm not a businessman by nature," Sinclair once said, "but we all have to be businesslike in our lives."
Exciting innovations

Sinclair teamed up with Chris Curry who ran a small electronics company called Science of Cambridge. This quickly became Sinclair Research.

In 1980, the ZX80 was launched, a small computer that retailed at less than £100. Enthusiasts could buy it in kit form for £20 less.

It contained many exciting innovations and demonstrated Sinclair's ability to make a product work with the fewest possible number of components.

Sinclair sold his computer business to Alan Sugar's Amstrad

The follow-up, the ZX81, was still primitive by modern standards. But it would run simple applications and very basic games.

But the relationship between Sinclair and Curry soured following the BBC's decision to run a series on computer literacy, and to badge a machine for the programmes.

The corporation eventually chose Curry's Acorn machine which, while technically more advanced than the ZX81, was much more expensive.

Sinclair hit back with the ZX Spectrum. The big attraction was the colour display and, in its various incarnations, Sinclair sold more than five million machines.

He was knighted in 1983 at the recommendation of Margaret Thatcher, but his next big invention was to prove a disaster.
Electric vision

Misguidedly, Sir Clive was beginning to run into financial problems, due to the decision to put his energies, and his cash, into developing an electric vehicle.

Money was poured into research and development and the Sinclair C5 was launched in 1985.

Buyers were disappointed with its limited range, slow speed and inability to climb hills, while reviewers claimed it was unsafe, something Sinclair strongly denied.

The Sinclair C5 failed to find favour with the public

Sinclair himself later acknowledged the launch had been botched.

"The ground was covered in snow and we hadn't realised that the batteries virtually packed up in freezing conditions. It was a crazy time to launch it."

The pressures had an effect on his personal life. His 20-year marriage to his wife, Anne, ended in divorce.

Sir Clive gained something of a reputation as a playboy, often seen in public with beautiful, younger women on his arm.

He also developed a passion for poker, a game that appealed to his love of risk-taking and his willingness to bet his money against the odds.
Funded from personal wealth

Sinclair also faced problems with the launch of a new computer, the QL which, despite its innovative design, failed to sell in any great numbers.

After failed attempts to raise more cash, Sinclair sold the rights to his computers to Alan Sugar's Amstrad.

Sinclair Research continued to operate as a small research and development company marketing Sinclair's inventions and funded from his own personal wealth.

The folding bike was deemed by some to be almost impossible to ride

He was still fixated by the idea of an electric vehicle and, in 1992, launched the Zike, a lightweight electric bike. Like the C5, it failed to sell.

A folding bike, which could fit in a suitcase, it also failed when users declared it to be almost impossible to ride.

In 2011, he announced he was working on a new electric vehicle dubbed the X1.

Sir Clive Sinclair was a driving force behind the success of the now ubiquitous personal computer.

He built up a company that earned millions, won a string of awards and was given a knighthood by Margaret Thatcher. But his efforts were dogged by financial problems caused by the failure of his attempts to build an electric vehicle for the masses.

But he remained one of Britain's great innovators who could turn his dreams into reality. "The idea that an inventor can come up with some brilliant idea and somebody else will make it all happen is nonsense," he once said.

"Either you do it yourself or it ain't going to happen."

Clive Sinclair and the offbeat brilliance of the ZX Spectrum

Keith Stuart
Fri, 17 September 2021, 

Photograph: Peter Jordan/Alamy

One day, in the bitterly cold autumn of 1981, my dad brought something home with him which he said was a sort of present for the whole family. It was a ZX81 home computer. I’d seen them advertised on TV and in comics but I never imagined we’d own one; we didn’t even have a video recorder. I remember seeing the instruction manual for the first time, with its beautiful illustration of a gigantic starship, and I understood straightaway that the thing my dad was at that moment plugging into the TV was the future. My whole family sat around the screen and took it in turns to type in one of the BASIC program listings from that weighty booklet. The result was a game in which you had to input coordinates to throw a ball into a waste-paper basket. I can’t even begin to describe how exciting that was. There was something on the TV that we’d made, and that we could interact with. It was a revelation.

For families all over Britain, Clive Sinclair – who has died aged 81 – brought computers home. The hobbyist computer market, which introduced the likes of Bill Gates and Steve Wozniak to programming, was not as well-developed in this country and required some engineering expertise – you built computers such as the Altair 8800 yourself. The ZX81, you could buy in Boots or WH Smiths or from the Argos catalogue, and it was all there for you. For £70. A lot of money for my family at the time, but not too much.

A revelation … the Spectrum’s predecessor, the Sinclair ZX81.
Photograph: PhotoDreams/Alamy

When the ZX Spectrum arrived a year later, with its colour visuals and tinny audio, it was truly the beginning of the British games industry. Again, it was more affordable than the competition – the BBC Micro, Commodore VIC-20 or Apple II – so teenagers could be given them for Christmas, and could begin making their own games on the rubbery keyboard.


There was something slightly strange about this computer. To use the memory efficiently, each sprite (or moving character on screen) was stored separately from the pixel bitmap, and overlaid on top. The process meant that colours would often leak between objects on screen – a phenomenon known as attribute clash. But just like in other areas of culture, what looks like a technical failing actually became a signature aesthetic element of the games. They looked weird and offbeat and sketchy.

This appealed to the kids making games at the time; kids brought up on Monty Python and Pink Floyd, punk and The Young Ones. Games such as Jet Set Willy and Skool Daze were slightly anarchic, miniature alternative comedy sitcoms.They drew on what it meant to be an adolescent in the 80s, with its recession and unrest. The Darling Brothers, the Oliver Twins, Matthew Smith … they were the technological equivalent of the bedroom indie pop stars of the era, and the Spectrum was their secondhand Telecaster, their Roland 808 drum machine.

I owned a Commodore 64 but my cooler friends had Spectrums. When we played together they dug out strange games I’d never seen – Atic Atac, Travel With Trashman, Fat Worm Blows a Sparky – and these experiences were as important to me as the first time I heard Afrika Bambaataa or Madonna, or the first time I saw Blade Runner on a knackered videotape. Those games came to us because of the affordable and unorthodox Spectrum, and the culture of bedroom game development it fostered.

Later, while at university, I did some summer work for Codemasters, the software studio set up by brothers Richard and David Darling with the intention of selling cheap, fun game cassettes for a couple of quid each. This was where classics such as Dizzy and BMX Simulator were born. I worked with a team named Big Red Software which handled various projects for Codies, including two Spectrum games in the winter of the machine’s life: CJ’s Elephant Antics and Wild West Seymour. Here, I worked with two brilliant programmers, Fred Williams and my lifelong friend Jon Cartwright. I got to see how clever this machine was, how adaptable, and how much joy there was still to be found in wrestling images from its ageing hardware.

“The first time I coded a Spectrum was when I blagged my way into a summer job at Big Red,” recalls Jon. “I ended up writing Dizzy: Prince of the Yolkfolk. I enjoyed coding on the Spectrum. It didn’t have the hardware sprites of the Commodore 64, and of course it had all the attribute issues of only allowing you to have two colours in each 8x8 pixel region. But honestly, those limitations drove the design of the best games.

“Shahid Kamal Ahmad’s recent Twitter thread about porting Jet Set Willy to Commodore 64 covers that well. If Jet Set Willy had been born on the C64 it would have looked and sounded so different. There were artists that specialised in doing loading screens for Speccy games. Given its limitations, it really was quite a skill. There was an anticipation too, as the screen slowly loaded in, line by line, often in black and white, almost unintelligible until finally the attributes for each 8x8 block were coloured in and it all made sense.

Even now, whenever I write about games for the Guardian, the classic titles that get readers chatting most fondly in the comments sections are Spectrum games. Jet Set Willy. Horace Goes Skiing. Knight Lore. For my generation, they retain a hold on the collective imagination and on our sense of 80s popular culture. To us, the bedroom coders that Clive Sinclair facilitated were like poets and comedians and rock stars, and they did what all struggling artists do: they made use of a tool that was affordable, expressive and open to manipulation and accident. Sinclair was as much our Brian Eno as he was our Bill Gates – he made game designers and artists and electronic musicians of so many people. I hope he realised that. I hope he knew.

Sadly our old ZX81 is long gone, though I kept it for many years. I wish I still had it. I guess everything I’ve done in my life as a professional writer started that day my dad brought that funny-looking computer home, and with it, the future.

Sinclair Computers: Gone But Not Forgotten

By Nick Evanson 

October 8, 2020

For many, the 1980s was the golden era in home computing. Low cost 8-bit systems brought arcade games to the masses, while offering the ability to handle basic office tasks at the same time. Companies such as Acorn, Commodore, and Dragon rapidly become household names.

And fighting for sales amongst them all, was a tiny British company. Their computers were cheap and basic, but helped give rise to the world of bedroom programming and some very familiar game developers. Join us, as we reminisce about the brief life of Sinclair computers.

The early battles for success

British inventor and entrepreneur, Clive Sinclair, set up his first company, Sinclair Radionics Ltd. in 1961, selling a variety of electrical and electronic products for the home. It performed well for over 10 years, thanks to the buoyant economy at the time, and a highly successful product -- a digital calculator, called the Sinclair Executive.

Unfortunately, disastrous flirtations with the development of portal televisions and digital watches drained the bank balance, resulting in the company closing its doors. But Sinclair didn't let this get in the way of his desire to innovate and by the late 1970s, he was back again, in the form of Science of Cambridge Ltd.

Encouraged by developments made in the microprocessor world, his tiny group of engineers created the MK14 -- one of the first home computers made in the UK (sold in kit form). Its unexpected success proved that there was a market for this product, and following another change in the company name (Sinclair Computers Ltd), they had their next big success.


Despite its flaws, the ZX80 was very popular. Source: Wikipedia

By today's standards, the ZX80 might seem like a complete joke, but $230 (£100) in 1980 got you an 8-bit 3.25 MHz Zilog Z80 clone processor, 1 kB of 8-bit wide SRAM, and 4 kB of ROM -- a surprising amount of technology for that budget.

It did come with some drawbacks, though, due to the cost cutting: there was no audio output, nor any real hardware to create the video signal. The visual output was mostly handled by the Z80 chip, in an interrupt mode; so pressing any key on the pad or executing any code would result in an momentary loss of the screen!

The visual output was mostly handled by the Z80 chip, in an interrupt mode; so pressing any key on the pad or executing any code would result in an momentary loss of the screen!

Despite these issues, the ZX80 repeatedly sold out, and put Sinclair firmly on the map, as a serious competitor in the home computer market.

In 1981, the company was renamed yet again to become Sinclair Research Ltd, and shortly after they launched the ZX80's successor, the ZX81.



Attached to the rear of this ZX81 is the notorious 16 kB RAM expansion pack. Source: Wikipedia

Much of the architecture and specifications remained the same, but it was cheaper to manufacture (using an uncommitted logic array chip, ULA, to replace a raft of logic components) and had double the ROM, enabling a better instruction set to be used. The screen blanking problem was gone, and there was even basic audio output.

The ZX81 was somewhat rushed, and had reliability flaws, but it cost 30% less than its predecessor -- naturally, it sold by the proverbial bucket load, and earned Sinclair Research a small fortune. And the best was yet to come.

Sinclair's zenith

The biggest criticism of the ZX81 was the paucity of RAM -- just 1 kB of it, although it could be expanded, by use of a very wobbly add-on board, to 16 kB or 56 kB. For games and other graphics-based programs, the restrictive monochrome 64 x 48 pixel resolution was also commonly berated.

Some clever programming could get around the resolution limitation, but what was really needed, was more capable hardware. Sinclair Research was aware of this, and their answer came in April 1982: the ZX Spectrum.



The original ZX Spectrum, replete with the 'dead flesh' chiclet keyboard. Source: Wikipedia

Two versions were available that differed only in price and the amount of memory installed: 16 kB for $220 (£125) and 48 kB for $310 (£175). This was a substantial increase in price over the ZX81, but the various improvements justified the rise.

Like its predecessor, the Spectrum used a ULA to perform many of the standard functions, but this time it provided a real hardware solution for creating the frame raster. This was previously handled by the Z80 processor and freed from that task, it could be dedicated entirely to executing programs.

It also gained a small clock improvement to 3.5 MHz -- altogether, the Spectrum's processing capability was roughly four times better than the ZX81. The hardware raster was also much higher in resolution (256 x 192 pixels) and was finally in color.

This aspect was handled in 8 x 8 pixel blocks of just 15 possible colors: black, and two levels of brightness for 7 base colors. Unfortunately, due to memory restrictions, only a single foreground and background color could be set for the whole block.

The effect of this was something called attribute clash, where changing just one pixel in the block would switch the rest to the same color, leading to undesirable visuals, especially in animation.

Early game developers for the platform didn't bother to avoid the problem, but later titles demonstrated some ingenious tricks to mask it.



The price resulted in the use of off-the-shelf components and suspect build quality. Source: Wikipedia

The ZX80/81's use of SRAM was gone, too, replaced by 2.7 MHz 1-bit wide DRAM. While not as good as SRAM, the change was necessary to increase the memory footprint and still keep the cost down. Other aspects of the Spectrum pointed to sale price restrictions, the most notable of which was the keyboard. The rubber block keys were considered to be unpleasant to use, and the membrane underneath often developed faults.

Home computers of this era were almost entirely assembled by hand, leading to the occasional problem with soldering quality, and misplaced or incorrect components being fitted. But it didn't really matter -- Sinclair had another huge hit on their hands and revenue almost tripled within 2 years (aided by a significant price drop 12 months after launch).



The first major update: 128 kB of RAM and a big heatsink to burn your hand on. Source: Wikipedia

Over a period of four years, the ZX Spectrum was updated twice: the Spectrum+ arrived in October 1984 (same internals with a better keyboard) and the Spectrum 128 in the latter months of 1985. This version offered 128 kB (in the form of two 64 kB switchable banks), a dedicated audio chip, and more ports for expansion and video options.

It was also to be Sinclair's final home computer -- for all its popularity, the Spectrum couldn't save the company from suffering crippling losses. So what exactly went wrong?

It was all so brief

In 1982, Sinclair agreed to a licencing deal with Timex Corporation, an American producer of clocks and watches. They were already the primary manufacturer of Sinclair's product (the production line being based in Dundee, Scotland) and the boom in home computing tempted the firm to try their hand at expanding their product portfolio, to offset falling sales in their main sector.

The joint venture, labelled Timex Sinclair, did more than just sell rebranded ZX81 and Spectrum machines -- instead, Timex attempted to enhance the base platform, either in the form of additional RAM, better chips, or additional expansion systems.

How much income this generated for Sinclair is uncertain, but poor sales in America forced Timex to withdraw from that region by 1984, although they carried on in other countries until the early 1990s.



The last Timex Sinclair home computer to be sold in the US. Source: Wikipedia

Where the ZX Spectrum was the best selling home computer in the UK, Timex Sinclair machines didn't sell anywhere near as well. The likes of Commodore and Atari were far more competitive on price and product development. In 1985, the former company released the Amiga 1000, a very powerful (and expensive) machine.

Its capabilities were far superior to the likes of the lowly ZX Spectrum and was well received in business sectors. Sinclair Research had tried to penetrate the same market a year earlier, with the Sinclair QL ('Quantum Leap').

Both the Amiga 1000 and the QL used a Motorola 68000 series chip for the main processor. This was a hybrid device: it had 32-bit registers and the same size internal data bus, but the memory address bus was 24-bits, the logic units and external data bus were 16-bits wide.



Despite this complexity, the Motorola processor was easy to work with and very capable. For the QL, Sinclair used the cheaper 68008 version -- the clock speed was an impressive 7.5 MHz, but the address and external memory buses were narrower, at 20 and 8 bits, respectively.

The base price for this computer was $560 (£400), sporting 128 kB of RAM, and twin Microdrive slots (a proprietary magnetic tape storage system). It should have been very tempting for smaller firms with a tight budgets or government bodies looking to cut costs. However, the whole project was both rushed and delayed, and launched with numerous bugs and reliability problems.

It also looked almost identical to the ZX Spectrum+, which was universally recognised as a gaming computer for children. Unsurprisingly, it sold poorly and was officially discontinued after just two years.



The very last Sinclair badged home computer. Source: Wikipedia

Sinclair Research had also tried to develop and sell other products: a wrist watch with a built-in FM radio, an electric tricycle, and a pocket television, but they were all commercial failures and pushed the firm into bankruptcy.


With Clive Sinclair losing millions of his own money, the inevitable happened in 1986 -- the Sinclair brand name and all products were sold to another British electronics firm, Amstrad.

This company continued to develop the ZX Spectrum but by December 1990 it was all over. Business users had moved onto Windows-based PCs, and gamers favored the likes of the Atari ST and consoles. Production of the old favorite was called to a halt and Sinclair computers passed into history.

A golden legacy

So why should we be recounting the tales of company that had such a brief moment of glory? The hardware wasn't particularly unique, especially compared to its immediate competitors, although it was cheaper. The ZX81 and ZX Spectrum sold incredibly well in the UK, but significantly less so in other markets.

It is precisely because of these that we still talk about the likes of the ZX Spectrum. Its limitations and large user base gave rise to some of the best known game creators today. British developers, Ultimate Play The Game, achieved critical success on the platform, pathing their way to becoming Rare (makers of Donkey Kong, GoldenEye 007, Banjo-Kazooie, and many other famous games).



Ultimate's Knight Lore - a seminal achievement in gaming history. Source: Wikipedia

Codemasters, purveyors of countless racing games, cut their programming teeth on 8-bit computers -- all from the comfort of their bedrooms, after school. And Rockstar North can trace their history back to the mid-1980s, where they were no strangers to the joys of programming a Sinclair machine.

So it should come as no surprise to learn that the ZX Spectrum still lives on, in the form of emulators and numerous fan websites. There's even been several attempts to hop onto the mini-console nostalgia bandwagon, in the form of crowd-funded projects such as the Spectrum Vega and Next.

But even if you never owned one, or haven't even heard of it before, the games you play today owe no small debt to the plucky little box. Gone, but absolutely not forgotten.

Clive Sinclair - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clive_Sinclair

Sir Clive Marles Sinclair (born 30 July 1940) is an English entrepreneur and inventor, most commonly known for his work in consumer electronics in the late 1970s and early 1980s. After spending several years as assistant editor of Instrument Practice, Sinclair founded Sinclair Radionics in 1961, where he produced the first slim-line electronic pocket calculator in 1972 (the Sinclair Executive). Sinclair later moved into the production of …

• Early life, family and education
• Career
• Personal life
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• External links

Sinclair's father and grandfather were engineers; both had been apprentices at Vickers the shipbuilders. His grandfather George Sinclair was an innovative naval architect who got the paravane, a mine sweeping device, to work. George Sinclair's son, George William "Bill" Sinclair, wanted to take religious orders or become a journalist. His father suggested he train as an engineer first; Bill became a mechanical engineer and remained in th…

Wikipedia · Text under CC-BY-SA license

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