Japanese technology company at centre of Post Office IT scandal is negotiating settlement with UK government over faulty software
The chair of Fujitsu, the Japanese technology firm at the centre of the Post Office IT scandal, has resigned after its board became aware of his “woman-related inappropriate conduct”.
The company said on Tuesday that Hidenori Furuta had stepped down after two years in the role.
Continue reading...Country acts amid Iran war inflation pressures, but US Fed and Bank of England expected to hold rates
The Bank of Japan (BoJ) has raised interest rates to a 31-year high as it tries to dampen inflationary pressures created by the Iran war.
Policymakers in Tokyo raised the BoJ’s short-term policy rate by a quarter of one percentage point, to 1% from 0.75%, and warned that companies were passing on rising oil costs to each other at a “relatively fast pace”.
Continue reading...Few analysts believe final settlement can be reached in 60 days – and even if it is, war and instability could soon return
In much of the Middle East, news that the US and Iran had come to a fragile agreement was greeted with relief tempered with doubt that any deal would resolve the turbulent region’s deep problems or even prevent a future return to war.
In Kuwait, a frequent target of Iranian drone strikes during the 15-week conflict, Iyad Joumma, a 37-year-old Jordanian engineer, spoke for many.
Continue reading...Tech is helping to identify and save new specimens and could open ‘genomic goldmine’ of fungi data
The rise of AI and digitisation could be a turning point in the “race against extinction” faced by botanists trying to identify and save vital plants before they vanish, according to a major report from Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
New technology is enabling scientists to track how flowering times have shifted by weeks around the world, rapidly identify new specimens and even get crucial genetic data from 180-year-old fungus specimens, potentially opening a “genomic goldmine”. Digitisation and online access to millions of specimens that were until now only accessible in archives is also producing new insights, especially in the global south.
Continue reading...Brian Gu says he sees Chinese car firms competing on quality rather than launching price war as at home
Motorists in the UK and EU should not expect a sharp drop in the cost of electric vehicles despite increased competition among Chinese manufacturers, one of the country’s biggest electric carmakers has said.
Brian Gu, the vice-chair of the manufacturer Xpeng, said that Chinese carmakers could compete on quality to win customers in the EU and UK, rather than unleashing a brutal price war as they have in China.
Continue reading...So-called ‘good behaviour’ legislation fiercely criticised by opposition politicians and rights groups
Sweden’s parliament has voted to escalate the country’s crackdown on immigrant rights, backing laws that allow authorities to revoke residency permits based on a vague criteria of bad behaviour and obliging most public sector workers to report anyone suspected of being undocumented.
The new legislation comes ahead of parliamentary elections in September, pitting the centre-right government, which currently depends on the support of the far-right Sweden Democrats to govern, against a far right that has said its intent is to create one of Europe’s most hostile environments for non-Europeans.
Continue reading...B-52 crashed shortly after takeoff at Edwards air force base in southern California’s Mojave Desert, officials say
Eight people are presumed dead after a B-52 bomber crashed shortly after takeoff on Monday morning at a US air force base in California’s Mojave Desert, officials said.
“An Air Force B-52 Stratofortress carrying eight people on a routine test mission crashed today shortly after take-off at 11:20 a.m,” Edwards air force base said in a statement Monday afternoon. “Initial indications are that the crash was not survivable. Emergency response personnel are on scene, and officials are working to account for all personnel.”
Continue reading...Elections chief says bid by ex-teacher to challenge senator with same name was filed ‘to confuse or mislead’ voters
There will still be one Dan Sullivan on the ballot, but election officials in Alaska determined a second man by the same name cannot run against him in the high-stakes Senate race.
A man named Dan Sullivan, or Daniel J Sullivan Jr, filed to run as a Republican against incumbent Alaska senator Dan S Sullivan, also a Republican. Republicans filed complaints against the other Dan Sullivan, saying the candidate had coordinated with a Democratic campaign to confuse voters.
Continue reading...Mark Carney says Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise office hasn’t been ‘effective’ since its 2019 setup
Canada is eliminating a watchdog that investigates alleged human rights violations committed by Canadian companies operating abroad, after Mark Carney said the office hadn’t been “effective” since it was set up in 2019.
The move comes as Canada faces criticism from Donald Trump’s administration over its “unacceptable” efforts to combat forced labour.
Continue reading...Deal will leave things almost exactly as they were before feckless war of choice started
If we get to a Friday signing ceremony without this uncertain new US-Iran deal being derailed by any of its inherent ambiguities, then nuclear talks can finally restart in the same place – and at almost exactly the same point they were before this conflict started.
The world will have irrevocably been changed in other ways. There is no going back for the 120 Iranian children in Minab killed in their primary school in the war’s first hours, nor for their bereaved parents, or any of the thousands in Iran, Lebanon and around the region whose lives were erased or blighted by a feckless war of choice.
Continue reading...Instructors hurled Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas into 40-metre abyss without attaching safety equipment
A 21-year-old woman who died when two rope jumping instructors threw her from a bridge without first harnessing her to security equipment, has been buried in Brazil’s São Paulo state.
Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas was rope jumping on Saturday at Ponte do Esqueleto, an abandoned bridge in the municipality of Limeira where tourists practice extreme sports. The young woman, who aspired to become a physical education teacher, had asked to be launched from the bridge airplane style, with two instructors hoisting her above their shoulders as she spread out her arms.
Continue reading...Garelli bike recovered by police in Italy after they spotted it without licence plate during roadside check
A moped stolen from a northern Italian town in 1984 has been traced and returned to its rightful owner after four decades.
The case of the missing moped – a dark grey Garelli that these days might be classified as vintage – was finally cracked by police in Volpiano, a suburb of Turin, after they spotted a 64-year-old man travelling without a licence plate during a roadside check.
Continue reading...While officials welcome ceasefire, many people are uncertain it will last – and return to find homes destroyed
Hours after the US-Iran ceasefire was announced, residents of south Lebanon began to race back to their villages. One man filmed as he drove into the entrance of Harees, his arrival interrupted as the car in front of him suddenly veered off the road. An Israeli armoured vehicle was parked in the middle of the road less than 100 metres ahead; he scrambled to turn around.
“It was packed with explosives. I guess they still want to blow things up,” said Abdullah al-Ali, a municipal official in Harees. Ali said that the entrance to the town had been blocked off after two other explosive-laden vehicles left by the Israelis were discovered in the area.
Continue reading...Agreement contains no restrictions on Iran’s ballistic missiles, nor does it call for regime change or surrender
The basic structure of the US-Iran deal reached late on Sunday – a return to the prewar status quo – has been on offer from Iran for more than a month. So has the specific architecture: an immediate unwinding of the consequences of the US-Israeli war through the reopening of the strait of Hormuz and a deferral of the actual negotiations on Iran’s nuclear programme, the ostensible cause of the war. The concept of a 60-day ceasefire to resolve these issues has also been a fixture for more than a month.
But it has taken the mounting pressure on the US and Iranian economies for both sides to recognise politically that a return to all-out war was unlikely to resolve the impasse, and if so, compromises would have to be struck.
Continue reading...Markets welcome US-Iran peace deal but prices may stay high as buyers race to refill depleted emergency crude stockpiles
After more than 100 days of the greatest recorded disruption to the world’s energy supplies, the global oil and gas markets have breathed a sigh of relief.
Hours after Donald Trump confirmed that a US-Iran peace deal would lead to the reopening of the strait of Hormuz for tankers carrying millions of barrels of oil and gas, the price of Brent crude tumbled to lows of $82 a barrel. Wholesale gas prices fell about 6%.
Continue reading...Outpouring of public grief for Lidia ‘Taty’ Almeida, leader of group of mothers that has marched every week since 1977
The human rights activist Lidia “Taty” Almeida – who spent more than half a century searching for her son after he was forcibly disappeared by Argentina’s military junta – has died aged 95, prompting a public outpouring of grief.
Almeida, 95, was the president of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, made up of women who have marched around the square outside Argentina’s presidential palace every Thursday since 1977, demanding the return of children who were disappeared during the country’s 1976-1983 dictatorship.
Continue reading...Marius Borg Høiby found guilty of two counts of rape, one count of domestic violence and other crimes
Marius Borg Høiby, the son of Norway’s crown princess, has been sentenced to four years in prison after being found guilty of several offences including two counts of rape.
The verdict was handed down by the Oslo district court on Monday morning in a courthouse packed with journalists, nearly three months after Høiby’s closely watched six-week trial.
Continue reading...Preliminary agreement between Washington and Tehran has prompted anger in Israel, and criticism of Netanyahu
Benjamin Netanyahu has hailed a historic victory over Iran and ruled out any immediate withdrawal from Lebanon, saying that Israel’s forces would remain there “for as long as necessary”.
“We established deep security zones around the state of Israel. We did this in Gaza, in Lebanon and in Syria,” the Israeli prime minister said in a televised press conference on Monday. “And I want to make it clear: we will remain in these security zones … to protect our country.”
Continue reading...Pedro Sánchez’s wife, Begoña Gómez, charged and predecessor José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero investigated over offences including influence peddling
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, is facing one of the longest and most difficult weeks of his premiership as his wife and his fellow socialist predecessor prepare to appear before judges investigating them for alleged influence peddling and other offences.
Sánchez, who came to power in 2018 by promising to end the corruption that had mired the ruling conservative People’s party (PP), has found his family, his party and his administration engulfed by a series of scandals.
Continue reading...Relations at lowest ebb in years after Washington refuses to apologise for deaths in strait of Hormuz
Fury has continued to mount in India over the US’s refusal to apologise for the deaths of Indian sailors killed in strikes in the strait of Hormuz, further straining relations between the two countries as their leaders meet at the G7 summit in France this week.
Last week, three Indian seafarers, who were working on board commercial oil tankers, were killed when the US launched missile strikes on the vessel as it sailed through the strait of Hormuz.
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