Chinese hackers target senior Tory MP in impersonation campaign July 28, 2020 Chinese agents are believed to be behind a series of cyber attacks on senior Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat, including email personations and hacking attempts. Tugendhat, chair of the Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee and co-founder of the Sino-sceptic China Research Group, last night said he had been subjected to cyberattacks intended to smear his reputation. [...]
Sky Arts to become free to air channel in bid to boost culture sector July 28, 2020 Sky Arts will become free to air for all viewers in September, as the broadcaster attempts to boost the sector in a “vital time for culture” during the pandemic. Britain’s only TV channel dedicated solely to arts and culture is currently only available to paying customers. However, it will become free to air for all [...]
Facebook sues EU regulator for invading employee privacy in antitrust probe July 27, 2020 Facebook has said it is suing the EU antitrust regulator for attempting to gain information beyond what is necessary for its case against the firm. The tech giant said this included seeking highly personal details from its employees, such as medical history and information about family members. The European Commission has been probing Facebook since [...]
Johnny Depp trial: ‘Deep misogyny’ at the root of actor’s violence, court told July 27, 2020 The High Court today heard that “deep misogyny” underpinned Johnny Depp’s alleged violence against ex-wife Amber Heard, as lawyers for the Sun newspaper today made their closing submissions to round off the three-week trial. Depp is suing the Sun’s publisher News Group Newspapers (NGN) and the Sun’s executive editor Dan Wootton over an article from [...]
Labour at risk of bankruptcy from antisemitism legal cases July 26, 2020 Labour is preparing for a new round of legal cases concerning antisemitism complaints, which could plunge the party into serious financial difficulties. Lawyers from 3D Solicitors will next week set out the legal claims, from nine current and former Labour members, relating to potential data protection and privacy breaches. Labour’s shadow cabinet has reportedly been [...]
Don’t believe the Scottish independence hype — I’d bet on Johnson’s tortoise to beat Sturgeon’s hare July 24, 2020 For his first significant political event outside the Westminster bubble, timed for his one-year anniversary of becoming Prime Minister, Boris Johnson chose to go to Scotland. The significance of that choice cannot be overestimated. Politics is as unpredictable as ever, and despite chancellor Rishi Sunak hosing Scotland with the billions confected by the Bank of [...]
We can’t tax our way out of the Covid-19 crisis — instead, the chancellor must drive growth July 24, 2020 There has never been a time to my knowledge when, in the run up to a Budget or other fiscal event, the Treasury has not highlighted the pressures on public finances which made the option for significant (or, indeed, any) net tax cuts unwise. Typically, projected shortfalls in the state’s annual budgets have been in [...]
US senators warn that UK digital sales tax could stop free trade deal July 23, 2020 Senior members of the US Senate’s finance committee have warned that the new UK digital sales tax could be a major barrier to a future free trade deal. Republican Chuck Grassley and Democrat Ron Wyden said the new levy “unnecessarily complicates the path forward for a US-UK trade deal”, while also calling for the UK [...]
High-profile Twitter users’ private messages hacked in cyber attack July 23, 2020 Twitter has admitted that at least 36 users have had their private messages hacked in a cyber attack connected to last week’s high-profile bitcoin-related hack, raising concerns that well-known victims could be extorted. Hackers last week took over the official Twitter accounts of more than 130 blue-ticked users, including politicians such as Joe Biden and [...]
BBC reaches record global audience in 2020 despite cash crunch July 23, 2020 The BBC reached its highest ever audience in 2020, the broadcaster announced today, as it faces the most serious financial difficulty in its 97-year history amid the coronavirus pandemic. The public service broadcaster announced it reached 468.2m people a week in 2020, with BBC News scooping up the bulk of the share with 438.3m weekly [...]