List of All Articles with Tag 'eppersons'

Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith has warned the merger between Vodafone and Three is “dangerous” and risks giving a company with its roots in Communist Party-ruled China a more prominent place in the UK’s mobile network. The former work and pensions secretary and MP for Chingford and Woodford Green said the proposed deal raised serious questions about national security and competition within the UK telecommunications market. Vodafone and Three, both of which have millions of customers in the UK and Ireland, announced earlier this month that they were joining forces in a multibillion-pound deal they said would create one of Europe’s biggest 5G networks. “This is a dangerous deal, which it seems is yet another example of how the Communist Party is trying to create a Western dependency on China,” Sir Iain told The Independent. “Not only does it raise important questions about competition, but it poses risks to our communication networks and personal data.” Three is owned by CK Hutchison, a Hong Kong-listed conglomerate that has been accused of supporting repression in the former British territory, where thousands of residents fled after China’s implementation of a sweeping national security law used by authorities to crack down on dissent against the regime in Beijing. Sir Iain is among a number of cross-party MPs to raise concerns about the growing influence of China in the West, and in particular, telecoms companies who have their headquarters there and are operating in the UK. “The government still doesn’t seem to understand that Chinese companies can be mandated to hand over their data to Beijing at the drop of a hat,” Sir Iain said. “We should be really worried about that. I also think we need to be taking a closer look at who owns these companies, the links between them and the Chinese government and the origins of the money flowing through them.” Last autumn the government announced that Shenzen-based Huawei technology must be removed from the UK’s 5G public networks by the end of 2027, It followed advice from the National Cyber Security Centre and pressure from Washington, which banned equipment made by the company because it posed an “unacceptable risk” to US national security. In March, prime minister Rishi Sunak warned that China plans to “reshape the world” in plans that posed an era-defining challenge for the UK and its allies in the West but dismissed calls for Beijing to be categorised as a threat, something his predecessor Liz Truss pushed for. The union Unite, which has 1.4 million members, is also campaigning against the merger, which some analysts say could result in job losses and higher prices for consumers who are already being squeezed by the cost of living crisis. The deal has triggered an initial investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority and will be subject to approval under the new National Security and Investment Act. Gail Cartmail, Unite’s executive head of operations, said: “Instead of idly watching the CK Group cream profits from UK businesses, the government should ask if they are a suitable custodian of British assets.” Charlotte Nichols, the Labour MP for Wigan North who sits on the Department for Business and Trade sub-committee on national security, said: “Unite the Union has shared research with me that shows this merger would leave sensitive government contracts and the data of millions of UK consumers in the hands of Three, a company whose key leadership have supported repression in Hong Kong and worked hand-in-hand with the Chinese state for decades. “This will be dangerous deal for the UK and I fully support Unite’s campaign against it.” Other MPs – both Labour and Conservative – have tabled questions to government departments asking what security assessments ministers have made of the proposed merger deal. Both Three and Vodafone refused to comment but have previously dismissed concerns about security, saying that they work closely with security bureaus in what is a regulated industry. The Cabinet Office has said it welcomes foreign trade and investment “where it supports growth and jobs in the UK, meets our stringent legal and regulatory requirements, and does not compromise our national security. “However, we will not hesitate to use our powers to protect national security where we identify concerns.” Read More Vodafone and Three to merge in multibillion-pound deal Vodafone and Three merger: What the huge deal actually means for you Cleverly defends China visit plans and pledges to use UK’s global ‘influence’ Three and Vodafone are merging. Here’s what that means for your phone No one wants to take responsibility for No 10 ‘groper’ complaints, warns accuser Top Tories urge Rishi Sunak to use cabinet reshuffle to get a grip on warring party

Twitter today introduced a novel and surprising feature for a social network: mandatory rationing. Owner

Elon Musk announced Saturday that Twitter would temporarily restrict how many tweets users could read per day, in a move meant to tamp down on the use of the...

Thousands of Twitter users across several countries were unable to access the social media site, or faced difficulty and delays, Saturday.

Scores of fans converged at the leaked address to meet Kai Cenat and IShowSpeed

When the Supreme Court cut affirmative action out of college admissions programs Thursday, it did not outlaw the goal of achieving diversity, but it set a new "race-neutral" standard for considering applicants.

Prime Minister Hun Sen has backed down from threats to cut off access to Facebook in Cambodia, even as he declared the company's representatives would no...

President Joe Biden wasn't planning to take questions on Thursday. His helicopter was waiting outside on the White House's South Lawn.

In the wake of a Supreme Court decision that removes race from the admissions process, colleges are coming under renewed pressure to put an end to legacy preferences, the practice of favoring applicants with family ties to alumni

The Supreme Court has struck down both student loan forgiveness and affirmative action in college admissions

Google has hired Brazilian former President Michel Temer to lobby lawmakers considering a proposal to regulate the internet,

After the US Supreme Court struck down his administration’s plan to cancel federal student loan debts for millions of Americans, President Joe Biden has unveiled a “new path” for relief, one that he assured is “legally sound” but will “take longer”. In remarks from the White House on 30 June, the president hit out at Republican state officials and legislators who supported the lawsuit which enabled the nation’s highest court to strike down his student debt forgiveness initiative, accusing many of them of hypocrisy for taking money from pandemic-era relief programs while opposing relatively meager relief for student loan borrowers. “Some of the same elected Republicans, members of Congress who strongly opposed relief for students, got hundreds of thousands of dollars themselves ... several members of Congress got over a million dollars — all those loans are forgiven,” he said. “The hypocrisy is stunning,” he said. Accompanied by Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, Mr Biden opened his remarks by acknowledging that there are likely “millions of Americans” who now “feel disappointed and discouraged or even a little bit angry about the court’s decision today on student debt”. “And I must admit, I do too,” he said. Still, Mr Biden reminded Americans that his administration has previously taken actions to reform student loan repayment programs to make them easier to access, and to keep borrowers from spending more than five per cent of disposable income on monthly repayments, and to strengthen loan forgiveness options for borrowers who take public service jobs. The president has directed Mr Cardona to “find a new way” to grant similar loan relief “as fast as we can” in a way that is “consistent” with the high court’s decision. On Friday, the Education Department issued the first step in the process of issuing new regulations under this so-called “negotiated rulemaking” process. In the mean time, Mr Biden said his administration is creating a temporary year-long “on-ramp repayment programme” under which conditions will remain largely the same as they have during the three-year pandemic-era pause in payments which is set to expire this fall. The department’s 12-month “on ramp” to begin repayments, from 1 October through 30 September, aims to prevent borrowers who miss repayments in that time period from delinquency, credit issues, default and referral to debt collection agencies. “During this period if you can pay your monthly bills you should, but if you cannot, if you miss payments, this on-ramp temporarily removes the threat of default,” he said. “Today’s decision closed one path. Now we’re going to pursue another — I’m never gonna stop fighting,” the president continued, adding that he will use “every tool” at his disposal to get Americans the student debt relief they need so they can “reach [their] dreams”. “It’s good for the economy. It’s good for the country. It’s gonna be good for you,” he said. Asked by reporters whether he’d given borrowers false hope by initiating the now-doomed forgiveness plan last year, Mr Biden angrily chided the GOP for having acted to take away the path to debt relief for millions. “I didn’t give any false hope. The question was whether or not I would do even more than was requested. What I did I felt was appropriate and was able to be done and would get done. I didn’t give borrowers false hope. But the Republicans snatched away the hope that they were given and it’s real, real hope,” he said. The Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling from the conservative majority argues that the president does not have the authority to implement sweeping relief, and that Congress never authorised the administration to do so. Under the plan unveiled by the Biden administration last year, millions of people who took out federally backed student loans would be eligible for up to $20,000 in relief. Borrowers earning up to $125,000, or $250,000 for married couples, would be eligible for up to $10,000 of their federal student loans to be wiped out. Those borrowers would be eligible to receive up to $20,000 in relief if they received Pell grants. Roughly 43 million federal student loan borrowers would be eligible for that relief, including 20 million people who stand to have their debts cancelled completely, according to the White House. Lawyers for the Biden administration contended that he has the authority to broadly cancel student loan debt under the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act of 2003, which allows the secretary of education to waive or modify loan provisions following a national emergency – in this case, Covid-19. Since March 2020, with congressional passage of the Cares Act, monthly payments on student loan debt have been frozen with interest rates set at zero per cent. That pandemic-era moratorium, first enacted under Donald Trump and extended several times, was paused a final time late last year. Over the last decade, the student loan debt crisis has exploded to a balance of nearly $2 trillion, most of which is wrapped up in federal loans. The amount of debt taken out to support student loans for higher education costs has surged alongside growing tuition costs, increased private university enrollment, stagnant wages and GOP-led governments stripping investments in higher education and aid, putting the burden of college costs largely on students and their families. Read More Supreme Court strikes down Biden’s plan to cancel student loan debts Supreme Court strikes down affirmative action, banning colleges from factoring race in admissions Biden condemns Supreme Court striking down affirmative action: ‘This is not a normal court’ Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson delivers searing civil rights lesson in dissent to affirmative action ruling