Reform UK would stop visas for people from countries seeking slavery reparations
Reform UK would stop issuing visas to people from any country that continues to demand compensation from the UK for its role in the transatlantic trade in enslaved people, the party has said,Zia Yusuf, the party’s home affairs spokesperson, told the Daily Telegraph that the call for reparations was “insulting”,He claimed 3,8m visas had been issued over the last two decades to people from countries calling for reparations,For four centuries, seven European countries, including the UK, enslaved and trafficked more than 15 million Africans across the Atlantic.
Historians have linked wealth from enslavement to mass industrialisation in the west.Last month, the UN voted to describe the transatlantic slave trade as the “gravest crime against humanity” and called for reparations as “a concrete step towards remedying historical wrongs”.The landmark resolution was backed by the African Union and the Caribbean Community.It had been proposed by Ghana’s president, John Dramani Mahama, who said: “Let it be recorded that when history beckoned, we did what was right for the memory of millions who suffered the indignity of slavery.”The UK and members of the EU abstained from the vote, while the US voted against the resolution, which was not legally binding.
Yusuf told the Telegraph: “A growing number of countries are demanding reparations from Britain.These countries ignore the fact that Britain made huge sacrifices to be the first major power to outlaw slavery and enforce this prohibition.”He said the “bank is closed and the door is locked” for anyone who wanted to “use history as a weapon to drain our treasury”.“The United Kingdom is not an ATM for ethnic grievances of the past, and we will no longer tolerate being ridiculed on the world stage,” he continued.“While countries like Jamaica, Nigeria and Ghana ramp up their demands for reparations, the Westminster establishment has rewarded them.
Enough is enough,”Reform UK has previously pledged to scrap international aid for countries demanding reparations,In 2023, a report on reparations for the transatlantic slave trade, written and compiled by Patrick Robinson, a former judge of the International Court of Justice, concluded the UK alone should pay $24tn (£18,8tn) as reparations for transatlantic slavery in 14 countries,
Court dismisses former WhatsApp security chief’s lawsuit against Meta
A US court has dismissed a lawsuit from WhatsApp’s former security chief, who alleged that parent company Meta ignored internal flaws he flagged about the messaging app’s digital defenses.Abdullah Baig, who claims he was fired in retaliation for raising these concerns, had alleged that billions of users had been put at risk because of these vulnerabilities. Thousands of employees could view sensitive user data, including profile photos and location, Baig claimed in the lawsuit filed in September. A judge ruled he had not presented enough evidence to move forward.The US district court in northern California ruled last month to dismiss Baig’s claims, with the judge, Laurel Beeler, writing on 19 March that “the complaint does not contain sufficient facts to show that the plaintiff reported violations of SEC rules or regulations
Goodbye mrbrightside416: Google allows users to alter quirky Gmail addresses
Did your McLovin!1976!@gmail.com email address seem funny at the time but less so now you are applying for dozens of jobs?Google has said it is giving US users a chance to appear more professional by letting them change their Google account username – whatever appears before @gmail.com in an email address – without losing access to their account.However, the tech company will limit the name changes to one per 12 months. In an example shared online by Google, the email address sk8tergrl123
Pupils in England are losing their thinking skills because of AI, survey suggests
Pupils using artificial intelligence are losing their capacity for critical thinking, according to a survey of secondary school teachers in England.Two-thirds said they had observed the decline among children who they also said no longer felt the need to spell because of voice-to-text technology.“Students are losing core skills – thinking, creativity, writing, even how to have a conversation,” one teacher told the National Education Union poll.“AI is destroying what ‘learning’ – problem-solving, critical thinking and collaborative effort – is,” said another. A third anonymous contributor added: “Children no longer feel the need to spell as voice-to-text replaces knowledge
Claude’s code: Anthropic leaks source code for AI software engineering tool
Anthropic accidentally released part of the internal source code for its AI-powered coding assistant, Claude Code, due to “human error”, the company said on Tuesday.An internal-use file mistakenly included in a software update pointed to an archive containing nearly 2,000 files and 500,000 lines of code, which were quickly copied to developer platform GitHub. A post on X sharing a link to the leaked code had more than 29m views early on Wednesday, and a rewritten version of the source code quickly became GitHub’s fastest-ever downloaded repository. Anthropic issued copyright takedown requests to try to contain the code’s spread. Within the code, users spotted blueprints for a Tamagotchi-esque coding assistant and an always-on AI agent, per the Verge
SpaceX confidentially files to go public at $1.75tn, reports say
SpaceX has confidentially filed for an initial public offering on the US stock market, according to reports from Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal. The IPO is set to be one of the most closely watched and highly valued listings in market history.Elon Musk’s company, which has become a dominant power in both space travel and satellite communications, could potentially seek a valuation upwards of $1.75tn. The confidential filing will give regulators a period to review and discuss the company’s financial disclosures before investors and the public are able to view them
‘System malfunction’ causes robotaxis to stall in the middle of the road in China
A “system malfunction” has caused several self-driving robotaxis to stall in the middle of the road in China, police have confirmed, after distressed riders were stranded for hours.Local authorities in the central Chinese city of Wuhan said they began receiving calls “one after another” on Tuesday night from riders reporting that autonomous vehicles operated by the Chinese internet company Baidu had frozen.“Multiple Apollo Go cars stopped in the middle of the road, unable to move,” police said in a statement on Wednesday, referring to Baidu’s driverless taxi service. “After investigation, preliminary findings suggest the cause was system malfunction.”Baidu has a fleet of more than 500 driverless cars in Wuhan
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Sir Craig Reedie, key London 2012 Olympics figure and former BOA chair, dies aged 84