A petition calling for fresh general election in the UK has reached over 1.7 million signatures as the Labour government faces widespread disapproval regarding its policies and post-poll work. Even Tesla boss Elon Musk chimed in on the issue by reposting a message about the success of the petition. According to the guidelines, any petition that asks for a change to the law or to policies gets a response from the government after 10,000 signatures. After 100,000 signatures, petitions are considered for debate in the parliament.

“I would like there to be another General Election. I believe the current Labour Government have gone back on the promises they laid out in the lead up to the last election,” the petition description reads.

As of the last update, the petition had raked up 1,771,423 signatures and counting. The petition was started by Michael Westwood who runs Britain’s ‘cheapest pub’. He said he did not imagine in his wildest dreams that Mr Musk would quote post his petition.

“The General Election petition has now DESTROYED the 200k target within 6 hours-just after midnight in Britain. The British people are about to completely humiliate the Labour Party,” read the post shared by Mr Musk.

Wow https://t.co/ZD3uwS0f7t

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 24, 2024

Meanwhile, Mr Westwood, the owner of the Wagon and Horses pub where pints are sold for $2.90, said the Labour government’s actions looked “nothing like what was promised” in the manifesto.

“I think people have had enough, people have seen what’s happened over in America as well, and I think that’s had a knock-on effect that, actually, if people stand together and vote then we can make a change,” Mr Westwood told Express.

Also Read | Salary Of Prisoners In UK More Than Jail Guards And Teachers: Report

Dwindling popularity

According to an Ipsos poll, the Labour government has seen its fortunes dwindle rapidly after the general elections earlier this year with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s popularity taking a nosedive as well. Almost half (49 per cent) of the public views the Labour Party unfavourably which trails three points behind the Conservative Party. Meanwhile, two in five Britons think they are worse off since Labour came to power.

A significant majority (56 per cent) believes that Britain was heading in the wrong direction, compared to just 19 per cent who feel things are on the right track — suggesting there was widespread public pessimism.

Storm Bert has wreaked havoc in parts of Ireland and Britain, causing severe flooding and widespread disruption. Dramatic events occurred in Donegal as rushing waters caused streets like Bridge Street to become rivers, raising worries about public safety.

Translink, a public transport company in Northern Ireland, warned customers to prepare for “severe disruption” and look for alternate travel alternatives as a result of the massive damage to Northern Ireland’s railway infrastructure. The storm’s effects highlight the region’s continued vulnerability to severe weather. 

Storm Bert left at least 60,000 properties in Ireland without power and closed roads and some ferry and train routes on both sides of the Irish Sea.

STORM BERT HITS UK AND IRELAND #StormBert

– 60,000 Irish homes and businesses lose power
– Flooding in Donegal, Ireland, makes roads impassable
– Train routes suspended in Scotland
– Weather warnings issued in the UK for wind, snow, and ice
– “Status red” warning declared… https://t.co/360k9U5jHz pic.twitter.com/TwGJdRI8D5

— Weather monitor (@Weathermonitors) November 23, 2024

Media footage showed flooding in the west of Ireland, while floods prompted rail closures in Northern Ireland and snow impacted travel across Britain. 

The heaviest snow hit Scotland and parts of northern and central England, with dozens of flood alerts in place.

The UK Met Office issued warnings for snow and ice for those regions, warning there was a “good chance some rural communities could be cut off.”.

Scottish hills could see up to 40 centimetres (16 inches) of snow, while winds approaching 70 miles (113 kilometres) per hour were recorded in parts of Britain. 

Ferry operator DFDS cancelled services on some routes until Monday, with sailings from Newhaven and Dover in southern England to Dieppe and Calais in France severely affected.

Flights were disrupted at Newcastle airport due to heavy snow, with some flights diverted to Belfast and Edinburgh.

Met Eireann, the Irish National Meteorological Service, had also issued a yellow warning for “very strong winds and heavy rain.”

The worst impacted areas for power outages in Ireland were in western and northwestern counties, according to ESB Networks, which runs the country’s electricity system.

“Crews and contractors are deployed and restoring power in impacted areas where it is safe to do so,” it said.

More than 4,000 properties across Britain were without power by mid-Saturday-the majority in southwest England-with the National Grid operator saying power had been restored to “many homes and businesses.”

(With inputs from AFP)

London:

Britain’s former deputy prime minister John Prescott, who served under Tony Blair and with him helped transform the country’s Labour party, has died aged 86, his family said on Thursday.

“We are deeply saddened to inform you that our beloved husband, father and grandfather, John Prescott, passed away yesterday (Wednesday) at the age of 86,” a statement read.

Blair, the privately educated lawyer who appointed working-class Prescott to help appease the Labour left as he moved the party to the centre ground, said he was “devastated” at Prescott’s death.

“There was no one quite like him in British politics,” he told BBC radio.

Keir Starmer, who became Labour’s first prime minister since 2010 after a landslide general election win in July, called Prescott “a true giant of the Labour movement”.

“He was a staunch defender of working people and a proud trade unionist. During a decade as deputy prime minister, he was one of the key architects of a Labour government that transformed the lives of millions of people across the nation,” he added.

“So much of John’s work set the path for those of us fortunate enough to follow. From leading climate negotiations to fighting regional inequality, his legacy will live on well beyond his lifetime.”

Prescott, a former merchant seaman and trade union activist who served as a member of parliament for Hull in northern England for four decades, died “peacefully” at a care home, his wife Pauline, and two sons said.

“He did so surrounded by the love of his family and the jazz music of Marian Montgomery,” they added.

Prescott, who was appointed to the House of Lords, suffered a stroke in 2019 and had been suffering from Alzheimer’s. He stopped being a member of the upper chamber of parliament in July because of his health problems.

Plain-speaking, Prescott served for 10 years as Blair’s deputy following Labour’s landslide 1997 general election win. During a campaign stop in north Wales he punched a protester who threw an egg at him.

But he also acted as a mediator between Blair and his finance minister Gordon Brown, who also helmed the transformation of Labour in the 1990s and who had designs on power.

Prescott’s brief included the environment and transport, as well as leading negotiations for Britain for the international Kyoto Protocol on climate change.

Blair said in a 2007 letter to Prescott that he saw his role as “smoothing out colleagues and sorting out colleagues and trouble-shooting”.

“The completely unique Prescott blend of charm and brutality… got you through the decade, kept the government together and above all, gave me a lot of fun. I was lucky to have you as my deputy,” he told him.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

The most memorable moment of King Charles and Queen Camilla’s recent royal tour of Australia and Samoa was Australian indigenous senator Lidia Thorpe’s insult to the monarchy. She was escorted out of Canberra’s Parliament House after she heckled the King and accused him of genocide. The British media was incensed, calling her “outburst” simply “rude” and “ill-mannered”.  

True, Senator Thorpe’s behaviour may be unwarranted. However, it ensured that the royal visit was anything but forgettable. A couple of days later, the issue of reparations raised by the former British colonies at the two-day biennial Commonwealth Summit in Samoa was another rough treatment the British royalty received in quick succession. 

A Direct Message In Samoa

Set roughly midway between New Zealand and Hawaii, the summit in Samoa last month saw King Charles and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer join leaders from 56 Commonwealth nations. It coincided with the BRICS Summit in Kazan and therefore received little coverage in India. Anyway, the setting may have been remote, but the message on reparations was direct and one that won’t be easy to ignore. Good that the leaders of two heavyweight Commonwealth countries, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, were attending the BRICS summit. Their presence would have made things more difficult for the UK government. India was represented at the summit by Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Kiren Rijiju.

Nevertheless, calls for the UK to pay monetary compensation and extend a formal apology over its role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade resurfaced with fresh urgency at the summit. The UK, expectedly, had vetoed the proposal to directly address reparations in the summit’s final communique. Instead, the document tiptoed around the issue, referencing only the possibility of “future discussions” on “reparatory justice” regarding the trans-Atlantic trade in enslaved Africans. 

Prime Minister Keir Starmer rejected calls for an apology and reparations, telling delegates that it was futile to have “very long, endless discussions” about the past. Instead, he urged the former colonies to focus on issues of the present, such as climate change, which his government could help. Speaking at the summit in Samoa, King Charles sounded more conciliatory: “None of us can change the past. But we can commit, with all our hearts, to learning its lessons and to finding creative ways to right the inequalities that endure.” 

For the leaders of former colonies, however, this side-step will not likely put the topic to rest anytime soon

Apologies From Just A Few

Privately, some families who owned thousands of slaves have apologised for their part in the slave trade. For example, last year, descendants of the family of 19th-century British Prime Minister William Gladstone visited Barbados, St. Lucia and other Caribbean islands to acknowledge and apologise for their ancestor’s involvement in slavery. John Gladstone, William’s father, owned slaves on plantations in the Caribbean. William Gladstone, however, was a prominent abolitionist. Caribbean leaders welcomed the apology, calling it a step towards healing and reconciliation.

Like Britain, most European colonial powers have expressed regret over their past sins. But they have not formally apologised for it. The only notable exceptions are the Netherlands and Belgium. They have apologised for both colonial atrocities and slave trade involvement, though no monetary compensation has been promised.

Britain Owes Former Colonies $24 Trillion

Patrick Robinson, a UN judge, indicated last year that the United Kingdom may owe over $24 trillion in reparations for its role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. In a report co-authored by him and published last year in June, he says he considers this figure a conservative assessment, noting the vast and lasting damage inflicted by the slave trade. The report calculates that in total, reparations to be paid by 31 former slaveholding colonial powers—including Spain, the United States and France—amount to $107.8 trillion. Expressing astonishment, Robinson remarked that certain states involved in slavery appear to ignore their obligations, stating, “Once a state has committed a wrongful act, it’s obliged to pay reparations.” 

Robinson, known for presiding over the trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, emphasised the principle that reparations are a duty, not an option. He has been a member of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) since 2015 and has been researching reparations as part of his honorary presidency of the American Society of International Law. It is nearly obvious that the former colonial powers, who are among some of the richest countries in the world, thanks to their colonial exploits, appear to be in no mood to pay compensation packages to the nations affected by the slave trade 

“Am I Not A Man And A Brother”

The expansionist British Empire’s exploitative system was based on three sins against humanity—colonisation, slave trade and indentured labour. Indentured labour was targeted against India more specifically. 

One of the most enduring symbols from the 19th century’s abolitionist movement is the sketch of a Black man in chains. If you take a closer look, it shows an enslaved Black man, kneeling in chains, with the words “Am I not a man and a brother” encircling him. The image and the plea punch a deep yearning for the enslaved African and Caribbean man’s freedom and equality. This emblem challenged the cruelty of slavery and called for justice.

The British Empire bears a dark legacy as one of the largest forces in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, a tragedy that caused immense suffering and disruptions. Yet, it is only fair to acknowledge at the outset that Britain was also home to a powerful abolitionist movement that rallied the public at the grassroots level and pushed Parliament to abolish slavery in 1833. The Slavery Abolition Act undoubtedly marked a significant turn in the global fight against enslavement. It outlawed slavery in most of the British Empire.

But the abolition of one sin gave birth to another, equally evil in nature, indentured labour, which directly impacted India. 

Slaves vs Coolies

Which is worse: the brutal reality of the slave trade or the ruthless grind of indentured labour—the so-called “coolies” of the British Raj? Each system wore a different mask, but all served the same purpose: to sustain the empire on the backs of exploited labour. The slave trade was raw oppression, tearing people from their homelands, stripping them of their identity and treating them as property. Then came indentured labour, not quite as blatant, but equally unforgiving. This “sanitised” slavery trapped workers in harsh conditions with barely a trace of freedom—a palatable replacement for the colonial conscience.

The British Empire ended the slave trade with the 1833 Abolition Act, yet hardly skipped a beat before instituting indentured labour the very next year, in 1834. Records show that private plantation owners actively lobbied the Empire for cheap labour from India, which soon became the backbone of colonial projects in far-flung corners of the Empire. Hundreds of thousands of Indian labourers—mostly poor, unlettered and desperate—were ‘contracted’ to work on plantations in the Caribbean countries and railroads, especially in East Africa. Many were coerced into these agreements, often only needing to affix a thumbprint to a piece of paper they couldn’t read. What they signed away was their freedom, shackled to a five-year contract with slim hope for escape from abusive conditions. The British National Library has huge archives of papers pointing to several incidents of revolt by the labourers, many of whom were killed or maimed as punishment.

So, which system bears the greater sin? Hard to say. But perhaps the most enduring sin is the claims by a few apologists in the West—which include some right-wing politicians—that these practices helped famine-stricken Indians improve their lives and that the entire colonial project was part of “civilising” the coolies.

(Syed Zubair Ahmed is a London-based senior Indian journalist with three decades of experience with the Western media)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author

Apia, Samoa:

Britain’s King Charles faced calls to reckon with his country’s colonial past Friday, as a summit of Commonwealth allies turned into a factious debate about the legacy of slavery and empire.

Leaders from the 56-nation Commonwealth — made up mostly of British ex-colonies — gathered for a summit in Samoa, hoping to prove the bloc is still relevant.

But instead of uniting to tackle pressing issues like climate change, Charles III’s maiden summit as king has been overshadowed by history.

Many African, Caribbean and Pacific nations want to see Britain — and other European powers — pay financial compensation for slavery, or to at least make political amends.

They want this summit in particular to commit to a discussion on the topic of reparatory justice — a debate Britain’s cash-strapped government has tried to stymie.

The Bahamas’ Prime Minister Philip Davis told AFP that a debate about the past was vital.

“The time has come to have a real dialogue about how we address these historical wrongs,” he said.

“Reparatory justice is not an easy conversation, but it’s an important one,” Davis added.

“The horrors of slavery left a deep, generational wound in our communities, and the fight for justice and reparatory justice is far from over”.

The British royal family, which benefited from the slave trade over centuries, has also faced calls to apologise.

But the monarch stopped well short of that on Friday, asking summit attendees to “reject the language of division”.

“I understand, from listening to people across the Commonwealth, how the most painful aspects of our past continue to resonate,” he said.

“None of us can change the past. But we can commit, with all our hearts to learning its lessons and to finding creative ways to right inequalities that endure.”

‘Honesty and integrity’

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has publicly rejected calls to pay reparations, and aides have ruled out an apology at the summit.

A draft summit communique calling for debate on colonialism is the subject of fierce negotiations.

One diplomatic source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP that developed countries were trying to water down the language in the final communique.

“The call for reparations isn’t simply about financial compensation; it’s about recognising the enduring impact of centuries of exploitation and ensuring that the legacy of slavery is addressed with honesty and integrity,” Davis insisted.

Joshua Setipa from Lesotho — who is one of three candidates vying to be the next Commonwealth’s secretary-general — said reparations could include non-traditional forms of payment such as climate financing.

“We can find a solution that will begin to address some injustices of the past and put them in the context happening around us today,” he told AFP ahead of the summit.

Kingsley Abbott, Director of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies at the University of London said the apparent inclusion of the text on reparatory justice was a “significant advancement” for the Commonwealth.

He told AFP it “reveals the door to meaningful dialogue is opening”.

The British monarch is concluding an 11-day tour of Australia and Samoa, both independent Commonwealth states — the first major foreign trip since his cancer diagnosis earlier this year.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Less than a year ago, tech billionaire Elon Musk was Britain’s star guest at a conference, with the then Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, playing the role of a fawning interviewer to the world’s richest man. A year on, things have changed in Britain. The Labour government, which came to power in July, has decided not to invite Musk to a mega investment summit to be held in London on October 14.

The Tesla and X boss ostensibly did not like the snub and hit back at the UK government with full force, urging the guests not to go to the UK. “I don’t think anyone should go to the UK when they’re releasing convicted paedophiles in order to imprison people for social media posts,” he said when he learnt he was not invited. 

Origin Story

It is true that many prisoners have been released recently under a government scheme to decongest overcrowded British jails. But there is no evidence to suggest that sex offenders or paedophiles were let out. Musk’s tweets have sparked controversy and raised concerns about the spread of misinformation, with the British media reminding the tech billionaire of his recent acts of “spreading disinformation” about the UK. A few weeks ago, Musk shared a baseless report that the UK was building internment camps in the Falkland Islands for rioters, though he swiftly deleted the tweet after facing backlash.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer addressed Musk’s latest provocative comments during his recent visit to the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in New York. Dismissing them as being vastly different from the positive feedback received from investors, Starmer claimed that the latter have expressed strong interest in attending and that they praised their meeting with the UK government as the best they’ve had.

Why The Summit Is Important

The summit – in its third edition since 2021 – aims to attract significant investment to drive economic growth, a top priority for the Labour government. According to a government release, last year’s meeting generated a promise of nearly £30 billion of investment. This year, as Chancellor (finance minister) Rachel Reeves and Business and Trade Secretary (minister) Jonathan Reynolds join Starmer in showcasing the UK’s potential, the government hopes to secure an investment commitment worth around 60 billion pounds in sectors like technology, green energy and artificial intelligence (AI).

But the elephant in the room is the government’s cold shoulder to Musk. It has ignited debate about the UK’s true commitment to openness and whether it’s willing to engage with influential business leaders who are critical of the Labour government. As the government seeks to reset relations with global trading partners and promote innovation, Musk supporters and the opposition Conservative Party have raised questions about Starmer’s willingness to walk the talk. Despite the tech billionaire’s inflammatory comments, the Labour government’s decision to ignore him smacks of vindictiveness and pettiness. Musk is no ordinary man. His influence on modern business, technology, and society is undeniable. I rate him alongside the Israeli historian and thinker Yuval Noah Harari — both being the visionaries of our time, but with distinct approaches. I would like to say that while Harari focuses on the bigger picture, encouraging introspection and societal evolution, Musk actively shapes the future through groundbreaking technologies. There is no doubt that both visionaries inspire and challenge our understanding of human potential.

Musk, Agent Provocateur

The relationship between Musk and Starmer has been frosty at best since the Labour Party came to power in July. Starmer, many believe, and justifiably, is upset with the American billionaire for his unsavoury remarks on how the Labour government handled the nationwide riots in August. Following the horrific Southport stabbing that claimed the lives of three children, Musk donned the role of an agent provocateur as he unleashed a barrage of criticism against Starmer and his new government. In one of his tweets, he ominously forecast a ‘civil war’ in the UK. Musk has 193 million followers on X, which means whatever he says on the platform gets amplified across the world in seconds. There is no doubt that as violence and riots spread across the country, fueled by misinformation and far-right extremism, Musk’s misleading tweets added fuel to the fire.

The response from Labour MPs was swift and stinging. Leading voices within the party accused Musk of deliberately spreading disinformation and seeking to sow division within British society. One Labour MP described Musk’s intervention as “grossly irresponsible”, suggesting that his comments were intended to play into existing societal fractures for personal or ideological reasons.

But It’s Not Easy To Just Dismiss Musk

Starmer’s office, too, condemned Musk’s “civil war is inevitable” comment and said there was no justification for such remarks. But it’s not easy to silence Musk, who is seen in many right-wing circles as a defender of free speech. He doubled down on Starmer and posted a series of provocative tweets, even accusing the British police of being harsher on White protesters during the riots.

To Starmer’s comment on X that “We will not tolerate attacks on mosques and on Muslim communities”, Musk replied, “Shouldn’t you be concerned about attacks on ‘all’ communities?” In another post, he claimed the UK was censoring online content, and asked “Is this Britain or the Soviet Union?”

Governments And Businessmen Have Clashed Often

The clash between Musk and the UK government is not an isolated incident. Throughout history, influential industrialists and businessmen have challenged governments, often sparking tensions and drama. Indian-born British industrialists, the Hinduja brothers, were embroiled in the “Hinduja Affair” during Tony Blair’s premiership. The brothers were accused of bribing Indian officials to secure defense contracts. Blair’s government faced allegations of improperly granting the Hindujas British passports. But an investigation cleared them. However, the scandal led to the resignation of Blair’s minister, Peter Mandelson. The episode underlined the complex relationships between business, politics, and national interest.

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s showdown with the Margret Thatcher government began when he acquired The Times and The Sunday Times newspapers. Murdoch’s media empire was investigated for unexplained business dealings, which eventually led him to sell The Times.

It is a widely known fact that billionaire investor George Soros has long been a thorn in the side of Hungary’s nationalist government, led by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Soros’s Open Society Foundation (OSF) promoted democratic values and human rights, which Orbán saw as a threat to his rule. His government launched a campaign against Soros, accusing him of promoting immigration and undermining Hungarian culture. The government also passed laws restricting NGOs, allegedly targeting OSF. Soros ultimately closed the OSF’s Budapest office, citing “unprecedented” government harassment.

Can Regulation Tame X?

Under the Online Safety Act, social media platforms are required to proactively remove illegal content, including inflammatory material, and prevent it from appearing in the first place. The UK’s communications regulator, Ofcom, has the power to punish non-compliant platforms with fines up to £18 million or 10% of their global annual turnover. It is believed the new act, passed last year, gives the government enough power to tame social platforms if they were found to be spreading falsehood in society.

It is reported that some Labour MPs have quietly suggested that action must be taken against Elon Musk for his inflammatory tweets during the riots in August and he should be summoned by Parliament to face questions from MPs. But there are no strong indications of that happening. Not as yet. 

(Syed Zubair Ahmed is a London-based senior Indian journalist with three decades of experience with the Western media)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author

Britain’s Defence Secretary John Healey.
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

The British government said on Friday (September 6, 2024) that it would provide Ukraine with 650 lightweight multi-role missiles worth 162 million pounds ($213.13 million) to help protect the country from Russian drones and bombing.

Russia last week unleashed its largest air attack on Ukraine since the full-scale war began early in 2022. Ukraine has made repeated requests for more air defence support to defend itself from missile and drone attacks.

The new supply of missiles was announced as British Defence Minister John Healey attended the Ukraine Defence Contact Group, an ad-hoc coalition of some 50 nations, at a U.S. air base in Germany.

The Ministry of Defence said, in keeping with the new government’s commitment to speed deliveries of aid to Ukraine, the first batch of missiles announced on Friday were expected to arrive by the end of the year.

“This new commitment will give an important boost to Ukraine’s air defences,” Mr. Healey said in a statement.

The Ministry of Defence said the missiles made by Thales have a range of more than 6 kilometres (3.73 miles) and can be fired from a variety of platforms on land, sea, and air.

Last Monday (September 2, 2024), Russia fired more than 200 missiles and drones at Ukraine, killing seven people and striking energy facilities nationwide in what Kyiv called the war’s “most massive” attack.

Image used for representative purpose only
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Britain, the United States and South Korea on July 26 issued a warning over a North Korea-backed global cyber espionage campaign to further the country’s nuclear ambitions.

Law enforcement and intelligence agencies said that a group known as Andariel “has been compromising organisations around the world to steal sensitive and classified technical information and intellectual property data.”

Andariel has been identified as an arm of Pyongyang’s spy agency, and working “to further the regime’s military and nuclear ambitions,” the UK National Cyber Security Centre said.

Defence, aerospace, nuclear and engineering organisations have mainly been targeted, as well as medical and energy providers, some of which have been hit by ransomware attacks.

“The global cyber espionage operation that we have exposed today shows the lengths that DPRK-state-sponsored actors are willing to go to pursue their military and nuclear programmes,” said NCSC director of operations Paul Chichester, referring to the secretive communist state.

“It should remind critical infrastructure operators of the importance of protecting the sensitive information and intellectual property they hold on their systems to prevent theft and misuse.”

In a separate advisory, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation said Andariel, which is known by a variety of names, “remain(s) an ongoing threat to various industry sectors worldwide.”

The group has exploited vulnerabilities in software to launch cyberattacks, including malware and phishing to gain access to sensitive data and information.

It urged companies involved in defence, aerospace, nuclear and engineering sectors “to remain vigilant in defending their networks from North Korea-state-sponsored cyber operations.”

North Korean indicted in U.S.

The FBI said Andariel had been trying to obtain information such as specifications and design drawings for uranium processing and enrichment as well as missiles and missile defence systems.

The US Justice Department announced the indictment meanwhile of a North Korean national, Rim Jong Hyok, alleged to be a member of the Andariel hacking group.

Rim was indicted by a grand jury in Kansas for alleged extortion attacks on US hospitals and other health care providers, the department said in a statement.

“North Korean hackers developed custom tools to target and extort US health care providers and used their ill-gotten gains to fund a spree of hacks into government, technology, and defence entities worldwide, all while laundering money through China,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen said.

The State Department announced a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the apprehension of Rim.

London:

The first red mail pillar box to bear the cypher of King Charles was unveiled on Friday, keeping up a tradition dating back almost 175 years.

The new box has been installed on the High Street in Great Cambourne, central England, and local school children will get to post the first letters, and missives to the king himself about their interest in the environment.

The mailbox bears the king’s cypher, the monogram that appears on government buildings which consists of the initials ‘C’ and ‘R’ – representing Charles’s name and “Rex”, the Latin for king – alongside a depiction of the crown.

One of Britain’s most recognisable symbols, red pillar boxes appear on countless postcards and souvenir items, with about 115,000 in operation across the country.

The first post box was introduced in the 1850s, and their age can be traced by the royal cypher they bear, with the oldest dating back to the reign of Queen Victoria, Charles’ great-great-great grandmother.

Although new boxes have been installed since Charles succeeded his mother in Sept. 2022, existing stocks bearing the late queen’s cypher were used. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

India and the UK have been working towards clinching a pact to enhance the 38.1 billion pounds bilateral trading partnership but with India’s phased general election followed by Britain’s, the negotiations remain stalled. With both the elections done, the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) talks, which have been going on for two years, are expected to resume.

Keir Starmer, Labour Party leader set to be the UK’s new Prime Minister, has constantly maintained that he wants to maintain good ties with the Narendra Modi administration, marking a departure from past policies under Jeremy Corbyn.

“We are confident that we have cleansed our ranks of any members with extremist views on India,” Labour Party Chair Anneliese Dodds had said days ahead of the elections.

The FTA also featured prominently in the party’s poll manifesto which stated their “commitment to pursue a new strategic partnership” with India.

Starmer has pledged to forge a new strategic partnership with India and enhanced bilateral cooperation in technology, security, education, and climate change underscores his ambition to elevate relations with one of the world’s fastest-growing economies.

But the UK’s insistence on lowering tariffs, which can be as high as 150% on key exports like food and automobiles, remains a sticking point in the trade deal talks. Additionally, issues regarding the UK’s immigration policies, particularly concerning Indian service sector workers, continue to challenge the negotiations.

In response, India has raised concerns about proposed UK regulations, such as the carbon tax akin to the EU’s carbon border adjustment mechanism, which could potentially undermine the tariff concessions agreed upon in the FTA.

Recent virtual meetings between Indian and UK officials in May aimed to restart discussions, focusing on economic assessments and the inclusion of new disciplines like environment, labour, gender issues, and digital trade in the agreement.

India, currently engaged in FTA negotiations with several other nations and unions including the EU, Australia, Eurasian Economic Union, and Peru, remains committed to advancing its global trade interests despite the challenges posed by the stalled talks with the UK.

As both countries navigate their post-election landscapes, the future of the India-UK FTA remains uncertain, contingent upon resolving key issues.