All posts tagged: weaken

Fury erupts over Keir Starmer’s decision to weaken Russian sanctions | Politics | News

Fury erupts over Keir Starmer’s decision to weaken Russian sanctions | Politics | News

Published by Sam Flores

Keir Starmer (Image: Getty) A senior Labour MP has slammed the Government’s decision to ease sanction on Russian oil. Dame Emily Thornberry, who chairs the Commons’ Foreign Affairs Select Committee, said Ukrainians have been “very let down”. Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch also slammed the decision to grant a trade licence, which came into effect on Wednesday and permits the imports “indefinitely”. Dame Emily told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We are talking about our allies in Ukraine who have been fighting a war bravely against Russia for years and years with our support. “They have looked to Britain as one of their most important allies, and they don’t understand, given that we promised that we would stop this loophole in October, and we still haven’t done it. In fact, it seems to have got worse. People feel very let down.” She said that Ukraine has been able to attack oil refining facilities, adding: “The capacity in Russia has gone down by 10%. “It is really hurting the Russian economy and they believe that every …

Cleaning up air pollution could weaken vital AMOC ocean current

Cleaning up air pollution could weaken vital AMOC ocean current

Published by skeptic

Smog contains particles that reflect the sun’s rays and cool Earth’s surface Dennis MacDonald/Alamy Cleaning up air pollution in Europe and North America could result in more weakening of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), an ocean current that is critical for Europe’s climate. The smog and soot dirtying the air around the world claim some 7 million lives every year and induce illnesses that affect many others. Yet aerosols – small particles of substances like sulphur dioxide that make up most ground-level pollution – tend to reflect sunlight and brighten clouds, which wards away some of the sun’s heat. In recent years, research has revealed how cutting air pollution from sources such as shipping has caused global temperatures to rise even faster. “As we reduce aerosols, they’re going to unmask warming,” says Michael Diamond at Florida State University. To date, scientists’ understanding of how aerosols impact the climate has been limited to running the same kind of global simulations that are used to study the greenhouse effect. These global models have shown “if there’s …

Apple warns Canadian bill could force it to weaken device encryption

Apple warns Canadian bill could force it to weaken device encryption

Published by Sam Flores

SAN FRANCISCO, May 7 : Apple has publicly opposed a Canadian bill that the company says could require it to break the encryption of its devices if passed. Bill C-22 was proposed by Canada’s ruling Liberal Party, which gained a parliamentary majority last month and is currently being debated in the House of Commons. Canadian law enforcement officials say the bill would help them investigate security threats earlier and act more quickly.  It is part of a broader push by governments to expand lawful access to encrypted data, a move tech companies say risks weakening user security. The Canadian bill contains provisions that, depending on how they are implemented, could be similar to a UK  law data access provision order sent to Apple last year. That order prompted Apple to withdraw a feature allowing users to store data in its cloud with end-to-end encryption.  U.S. officials later said Britain had dropped the request after the U.S. director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, raised concerns it could violate a cloud data treaty. End-to-end encryption means that only …

“A huge setback”: New EPA directive could weaken hundreds of chemical regulations

“A huge setback”: New EPA directive could weaken hundreds of chemical regulations

Published by Sam Flores

For decades, a small program in the Environmental Protection Agency conducted the painstaking scientific work of assessing the toxicity of chemicals. The calculations done by scientists at IRIS, as it was commonly known, underpin vast numbers of chemical regulations, permits and other environmental rules in the U.S. and abroad. Now the Trump administration is suggesting that their library of more than 500 chemical assessments can’t be trusted, opening the door to weakening hundreds of efforts to protect people from harmful chemicals at the state and federal level. The second-guessing could extend even to long-settled standards, environmental scientists said, such as how much arsenic is allowed in drinking water and how much lead is acceptable in paint and soil. In an internal memo obtained by ProPublica, David Fotouhi, the deputy administrator of the agency, sharply criticized IRIS this week and directed EPA offices that have used any of the chemical assessments the program has produced to review them. He also advised “external entities” that have used the IRIS assessments to consider undertaking similar reviews and cautioned …

LVMH-owned leather-maker linked to deforestation pushes to weaken EU green law – POLITICO

LVMH-owned leather-maker linked to deforestation pushes to weaken EU green law – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

Fabrizio Nuti — president and CEO of Nuti Ivo Group, an Italian tannery acquired three years ago by Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy, and president of Italy’s national tannery industry association — is a prominent voice in the campaign. “If we cannot get the raw material that we need, we’re out of business — we are out, simply, overnight because we don’t have the information that is required,” Nuti told a recent event at the European Parliament, referring to the supply-chain data he would need to comply with the anti-deforestation rules. He insisted that South American skins only represent a fraction of the sector’s imports. An investigation by NGO Global Witness, a campaign group that investigates the impact of business on the environment, shows that Nuti Ivo has worked with suppliers that have a high risk of causing deforestation across more than 100,000 hectares in Paraguay — including on land claimed by Indigenous communities. The investigation, shared exclusively with POLITICO, also finds that Nuti is part owner of a Paraguayan tannery shipping those skins to Nuti …

Forever chemicals weaken the immune system in adults

Forever chemicals weaken the immune system in adults

Published by skeptic

New US research adds fresh evidence that forever chemicals may impair the body’s ability to fight infections, with stronger effects in vulnerable groups. A growing body of evidence suggests that exposure to PFAS – widely known as “forever chemicals” – may weaken the immune system in adults, according to new research from Michigan State University. The findings deepen concerns about the long-term health implications of these persistent environmental contaminants, particularly as regulatory efforts continue to evolve. Persistent chemicals with long-term effects PFAS – short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances – are a large group of synthetic chemicals used in a wide range of industrial and consumer products, including nonstick cookware, water-repellent textiles and firefighting foams. They are often referred to as forever chemicals because they resist degradation in both the environment and the human body. Some compounds can remain in the bloodstream for years. One chemical highlighted in the study, perfluorohexanesulfonic acid (PFHxS), can persist in the body for nearly a decade. Its longevity makes it a useful indicator of long-term exposure and raises particular …

UK Government backs down on plan to weaken copyright in favour of AI firms

UK Government backs down on plan to weaken copyright in favour of AI firms

Published by Sam Flores

The “Make It Fair” campaign branding on several national UK news sites and the front covers of national newspapers. Picture/screenshots: Press Gazette The UK Government has withdrawn its support for plans to make it easier for AI companies to steal copyright content. The move follows a campaign led by the News Media Association, which saw every UK national newspaper and website give over their front pages to the slogan “Make It Fair”. The Government previously favoured proposals to automatically allow AI businesses like OpenAI to ingest UK creators’ content until those creators explicitly opt out. Secretary of State for Science and Technology Liz Kendall said: “We believe that people should be paid fairly for the work that they do. It should not be that only the big and powerful can assert their rights. We also believe that championing innovation is critical to new discoveries, creating growth, driving social mobility, and allowing new talent and ideas to break through.” She set out a core commitment that the Government “will help creatives control how their work is …

SEND reforms must strengthen legal rights, not weaken them

SEND reforms must strengthen legal rights, not weaken them

Published by skeptic

The long-trailed and much-leaked SEND white paper has been published. The government is billing it as a “radical expansion of rights”. Yet on first reading, several proposals seem poised to dilute long-established, hard-won legal protections that families rely on every day. Ministers themselves acknowledge that families have endured too much for too long. That is precisely why legal safeguards matter. When systems fail, it is enforceable rights, and not aspirations, that allow children and young people to secure the support they need. Promises can be broken, rights can be upheld. At the heart of our concern is a proposed shift away from individually tailored special educational provision, based on a child’s assessed needs, towards nationally defined resource led provision, in particular “specialist provision packages”. This signals a fundamental move away from a legal framework centred on the child’s needs, to one centred on standardised bands or packages. ‘A real risk’ Such a shift risks fundamentally undermining the individualised rights structure embedded in the Children and Families Act 2014 – legislation expressly designed to ensure that …

From sand to supply chain power: Can India weaken China’s grip on rare earths?

From sand to supply chain power: Can India weaken China’s grip on rare earths?

Published by Sam Flores

The absence of heavy rare earths presents a structural limitation. EY’s Gupta noted that 60 to 70 per cent of heavy rare earth supply currently originates from Myanmar, much of which is processed in China.  “That supply is very restricted. (Heavy rare earth) is there in Myanmar, there’s some of it in China, which is also a choke point,” said Gupta. India imported between 80 and 90 per cent of its rare earth magnets and related materials from China in the financial year ending March 2025, amounting to about US$190 million, according to government data.  To reduce such dependence, the Indian government has pursued overseas resource acquisition. In 2019, it set up Khanij Bidesh India Limited (KABIL), a state-owned joint venture company tasked with securing critical and strategic mineral assets abroad to ensure a stable supply for domestic use.  In January 2024, KABIL signed an agreement with Argentina for lithium exploration and mining projects, and has reportedly been in discussions regarding lithium assets in Australia.  Raju said similar overseas arrangements elsewhere could be explored for rare …