Babak Belurs

Senin, 04 November 2019

UK Bans Emirates First Class Shower Attendants - One Mile at a Time

While this shouldn’t impact passengers much, it’s an interesting development nonetheless.

Emirates’ A380 Shower Attendants

Emirates is known for having shower suites on their A380s, which are probably the coolest thing you’ll find on any commercial aircraft. All three cabin A380s have two of these shower suites.

Emirates has a dedicated shower attendant on every A380 flight that is long enough to offer showers. The catch is that these attendants aren’t actually flight attendants, so they don’t have a flying license:

They don’t have to go through the same training as flight attendants
They technically have to be seated when the seatbelt sign is on
They are paid significantly less than Emirates flight attendants
It used to be that there were two shower attendants on ultra long haul flights (they’ve reduced that to one), and when that was the case, shower attendants shared rooms on layovers

Anyway, it looks like the UK is suddenly taking issue with Emirates’ use of shower attendants…

UK Bans Emirates Shower Attendants

Effective immediately, Emirates is no longer rostering shower attendants on UK flights (including to London, Manchester, and Glasgow). As Emirates describes it, they have been informed by UK Border Control that they have a “restriction with entry of non-licensed crew.”

Essentially airline crews have special visa privileges on account of being crew. However, since shower attendants technically aren’t crew and don’t have flying licenses they don’t benefit from that… or at least that’s what the UK has now decided.

Of course go figure Emirates has been flying to the UK with these shower attendants for 10 years, and it has only now become a problem.

Emirates is working on finding a solution. In the meantime, Emirates will be rostering an extra purser or first class crew on all UK flights, which sure seems like an expensive solution.

The extra crew will be responsible for handling the showers. The shower attendants also clean all the bathrooms throughout the plane between cleaning showers, though the extra purser or first class flight attendant won’t be responsible for that — rather the flight attendants in each cabin will be responsible for keeping bathrooms clean.

I’ll be curious to see how this plays out. I wonder if the UK will just accept this, if they’ll have to get special visas, or if this is the start of a bigger issue for Emirates’ non-licensed shower attendants.

[embedded content]

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://onemileatatime.com/uk-bans-emirates-shower-attendants/

2019-11-04 19:01:08Z
CBMiPmh0dHBzOi8vb25lbWlsZWF0YXRpbWUuY29tL3VrLWJhbnMtZW1pcmF0ZXMtc2hvd2VyLWF0dGVuZGFudHMv0gEA

UK Bans Emirates First Class Shower Attendants - One Mile at a Time

While this shouldn’t impact passengers much, it’s an interesting development nonetheless.

Emirates’ A380 Shower Attendants

Emirates is known for having shower suites on their A380s, which are probably the coolest thing you’ll find on any commercial aircraft. All three cabin A380s have two of these shower suites.

They don’t have to go through the same training as flight attendants
They technically have to be seated when the seatbelt sign is on
They are paid significantly less than Emirates flight attendants
It used to be that there were two shower attendants on ultra long haul flights (they’ve reduced that to one), and when that was the case, shower attendants shared rooms on layovers

Anyway, it looks like the UK is suddenly taking issue with Emirates’ use of shower attendants…

UK Bans Emirates Shower Attendants

Of course go figure Emirates has been flying to the UK with these shower attendants for 10 years, and it has only now become a problem.

Emirates is working on finding a solution. In the meantime, Emirates will be rostering an extra purser or first class crew on all UK flights, which sure seems like an expensive solution.

[embedded content]

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://onemileatatime.com/uk-bans-emirates-shower-attendants/

2019-11-04 17:56:20Z
CBMiPmh0dHBzOi8vb25lbWlsZWF0YXRpbWUuY29tL3VrLWJhbnMtZW1pcmF0ZXMtc2hvd2VyLWF0dGVuZGFudHMv0gEA

UK terrorism threat downgraded to 'substantial' - BBC News

The UK's terrorism threat level has been downgraded from "severe" to "substantial", the Home Office says.

Home Secretary Priti Patel said the UK was still at "a high level of threat" and an attack could "occur without further warning".

The terrorism threat is now at its lowest since August 2014. Substantial is the third of five ratings at which the threat level can stand.

The separate terrorism threat level for Northern Ireland remains "severe".

Ms Patel said in a statement on Monday that terrorism remained a "direct and immediate" risk to the UK's national security.

Assessments determining the country's threat level are taken by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) - part of MI5 - which makes its recommendations independently from the government.

"Government, police and intelligence agencies will continue to work tirelessly to address the threat posed by terrorism in all its forms," Ms Patel said.

The threat level is kept under "constant review", she added.

Neil Basu, head of counter terrorism policing, said there had been "positive developments" in the fight against terrorism but it was "vital that we all maintain a high level of vigilance".

He said the UK's counter terrorism policing team had about 800 live counter terrorism investigations - while 24 attack plots had been thwarted since the Westminster attack in March 2017.

This is a significant change in the only official public measure of the threat posed by terrorism to the UK - but it's not a sign that there are suddenly fewer people with aspirations to do us harm.

The security services are still monitoring thousands of "subjects of interest" - the top-tier of would-be plotters from jihadist groups to the far-right.

Many of these people are very dangerous because, in the jargon, they are "lone actors" bent on DIY violence.

But what appears to have changed is the resources and capability available to IS-supporting plotters who need help.

Quite simply, a huge number of the foreign fighters who played a key role linking these followers to resources and support died on the battlefields of the militant group's last stand.

Continuing propaganda from the survivors, portraying IS as a force to be reckoned with, also has less credibility for would-be recruits.

And so it has become harder - for now at least - for some of those with intent to get the help they need to carry out their aspirations.

The UK's terrorism threat level was raised to the highest rating, "critical", in May 2017 after the Manchester Arena bombing.

It was downgraded to "severe" in September 2017 and remained at that level until Monday.

The Northern Ireland threat level specifically refers to threat to the country from Northern Ireland-related terrorism. It remains at severe - the second-highest level.

The five levels of threat set by the JTAC are:

Low - an attack is highly unlikely
Moderate - an attack is possible but not likely
Substantial - an attack is likely
Severe - an attack is highly likely
Critical - an attack is highly likely in the near future

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-50293238

2019-11-04 16:08:59Z
CBMiJGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmJiYy5jb20vbmV3cy91ay01MDI5MzIzONIBKGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmJiYy5jb20vbmV3cy9hbXAvdWstNTAyOTMyMzg

UK Bans Emirates First Class Shower Attendants - One Mile at a Time

While this shouldn’t impact passengers much, it’s an interesting development nonetheless.

Emirates’ A380 Shower Attendants

Emirates is known for having shower suites on their A380s, which are probably the coolest thing you’ll find on any commercial aircraft. All three cabin A380s have two of these shower suites.

They don’t have to go through the same training as flight attendants
They technically have to be seated when the seatbelt sign is on
They are paid significantly less than Emirates flight attendants
It used to be that there were two shower attendants on ultra long haul flights (they’ve reduced that to one), and when that was the case, shower attendants shared rooms on layovers

Anyway, it looks like the UK is suddenly taking issue with Emirates’ use of shower attendants…

UK Bans Emirates Shower Attendants

Of course go figure Emirates has been flying to the UK with these shower attendants for 10 years, and it has only now become a problem.

Emirates is working on finding a solution. In the meantime, Emirates will be rostering an extra purser or first class crew on all UK flights, which sure seems like an expensive solution.

[embedded content]

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://onemileatatime.com/uk-bans-emirates-shower-attendants/

2019-11-04 14:23:56Z
CBMiPmh0dHBzOi8vb25lbWlsZWF0YXRpbWUuY29tL3VrLWJhbnMtZW1pcmF0ZXMtc2hvd2VyLWF0dGVuZGFudHMv0gEA

Vietnamese police arrest 8 more over bodies found in UK death truck - New York Post

Vietnamese police have arrested eight more people in connection to the deaths of 39 immigrants found in the back of a refrigerated truck in Britain, authorities confirmed Monday.

The latest arrests were in Nghe An, a province in central Vietnam from where many of the eight women and 31 men found in the truck last month are believed to have originated.

It brings the total of arrests in Vietnam to 10, with several others busted in the UK and Ireland, including two men charged with 39 counts of manslaughter.

“This was a very painful incident, a humanitarian accident,” said Nguyen Huu Cau, director of Nghe An police, confirming the latest arrests, according to Agence France-Presse.

“Based on what we learn from the suspects, we will actively launch investigations to fight and eradicate these rings which bring people illegally to Britain,” the police chief said. “The best thing to do now is to deal with the consequences of the incident and help family members receive the bodies.”

The official Vietnam News Agency said the eight suspects were detained for “organizing (and) brokering people to go abroad and stay abroad illegally,” AFP said.

Essex Police Assistant Chief Constable Tim Smith has previously confirmed that all 39 dead are believed to be Vietnamese nationals.

Worshippers pray during a Mass and vigil for the 39 victims found dead inside the back of a truck

Pham Van Thin (right) and Nguyen Thi Phong, the parents of Pham Thi Tra My, who is believed to have died in the truck

EPA

View Slideshow

On Sunday, a delegation of Vietnamese diplomats and police left for the UK where they were expected to meet their British counterparts, Vietnam’s official government website said.

The truck’s driver, Maurice Robinson, 25, has been charged with 39 counts of manslaughter and faces human trafficking and money laundering charges.

Eamonn Harrison, 22, also faces the same charges and British authorities are trying to get him extradited from Ireland, Essex Police confirmed.

Police are still hunting two men from Northern Ireland, Ronan Hughes, 40 and his brother Christopher Hughes, 34.

“Finding Ronan and Christopher Hughes is crucial to our investigation and the sooner we can make this happen, the sooner we can get on with our inquiries and bring those responsible for these tragic deaths to justice,” Detective Chief Inspector Daniel Stoten said at a press conference Friday.

With Post wires

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://nypost.com/2019/11/04/vietnamese-police-arrest-8-more-over-bodies-found-in-uk-death-truck/

2019-11-04 13:08:00Z
CAIiEKFloWqDC8ABdMwl-fH6pi8qGAgEKg8IACoHCAowhK-LAjD4ySww69W0BQ

Essex migrant lorry deaths should be wake-up call - MPs - BBC News

The deaths of 39 Vietnamese people in the back of a lorry in Essex should act as a "wake-up call for the government" over its migration policy, MPs say.

A report from the Foreign Affairs Select Committee says the UK's policy of closing borders drives migrants into smugglers' hands.

Committee chair and Tory MP Tom Tugendhat said the UK should "lead by example" on the issue.

The government said tackling human trafficking is a "major priority".

The bodies of eight women and 31 men were found in a lorry trailer on an industrial estate in Grays on 23 October.

Mr Tugendhat, the MP for Tonbridge and Malling, said the incident had "shocked us all".

He said: "The full story won't be clear for some time but this tragedy is not alone.

"Today, hundreds of families across the world are losing loved ones who felt driven to take the fatal gamble to entrust their lives to smugglers.

"This case should serve as a wake-up call to the Foreign Office and to government."

Meanwhile, police investigating the lorry deaths in Nghe An province said eight people have been arrested in connection with people smuggling.

'Return to EU meetings'

The committee's report says the human cost of so-called "irregular" migration - which takes place outside laws, regulations, and agreements - made international partnerships, including with the EU, "essential".

It found UK representatives "have already ceased to attend EU-level meetings where irregular migration is discussed".

The committee called on the government to "urgently resume" its attendance at the meetings during the delay to Brexit and to seek to attend them afterwards "wherever it is possible".

During the 2015 refugee crisis, the UK received asylum applications from just 2% of the 1.4m people on the move.

The UK used two EU deals to keep numbers down: it opted out of an agreement to redistribute refugees and used another rule to send people to other states.

It has a seat in the EU's European Migrant Smuggling Centre, dedicated to gathering intelligence and catching the gangs - and has taken part in naval operations.

But after Brexit, nobody knows if the UK will be allowed to take part in any joint initiatives.

When Helen Wheeler, a foreign office minister, was quizzed by MPs alongside her chief official on Mediterranean migration, she couldn't say if the UK had been at the EU's last key meeting on tackling illegal migration - it hadn't - or whether it would attend the next.

The report finds government agreements to limit irregular migration from certain countries, including Libya, Niger and Sudan, risk "fuelling human rights abuses, and endorsing authoritarian regimes".

The committee adds it is concerned by evidence of "dire conditions" for migrants in northern France, where many of those intending to reach the UK gather.

It says the government's focus on security at ports there "has pushed migrants to take more dangerous routes" to the UK.

One witness tells the committee that enhanced security had led to an increase in people trying to get to Britain on small boats across the English Channel.

The committee also says the government should consider "wider, interlinked factors" driving irregular migration "including climate change, conflict, repressive governance and corruption - rather than focusing narrowly on reducing the numbers reaching Europe's borders in the short term".

Other recommendations include the expansion of legal pathways to apply for asylum outside Europe.

A government spokesperson said: "Tackling the scourge of human trafficking at every stage of the migrant journey - overseas, at our borders and in the UK - is a major priority.

"The UK does this by addressing irregular migration, from reducing factors driving migration - conflict, instability and poverty - to strengthening border security and counter-trafficking operations.

"The UK government and law enforcement agencies work extensively with international partners, key transit countries, and the nations of origin to stand up to this global criminal industry that perpetuates human suffering."

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-50283423

2019-11-04 08:41:35Z
52780426428910

Britain and Europe Are Destined to Be Rivals - The Atlantic

Much of Brexit is the application of logic to decisions that have already been made.

Thus: British voters decided in 2016 that they wanted to end the right of European Union citizens to live and work in Britain, and to repatriate trade policy to Westminster, therefore the country has to leave the EU’s single economic market and customs union, which are not compatible with either goal. If Britain leaves the EU’s single market and customs union, there must therefore be an economic border between it and the EU. If there is an economic border between Britain and the EU, there has to therefore be one on the island of Ireland, between Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, and the Republic of Ireland, which is part of the EU, unless special arrangements are made. And on and on it goes.

All of this is simple logic. And yet at every turn, there is a public outcry when the logical consequence of a decision is confirmed.

This is not only a British disease when it comes to Brexit; it applies to the foreign-policy implications of Britain’s departure as well. Last month, standing alongside French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said something that caused a sensation here in London, even though it was, in many respects, a statement of fact. "With the departure of Great Britain, a potential competitor will of course emerge for us,” Merkel declared. “That is to say, in addition to China and the United States of America, there will be Great Britain as well.”

Read: Boris Johnson thinks he’s in control

One does not need to have a view on who will win this competition—or even on whether creating a competition among European powers is a clever idea at all—to acknowledge that at one level, Merkel’s remarks are just the inescapable consequence of Brexit. At its heart, Brexit is a question of whose law applies in whose territory, and of who gets to set that law. Leaving the EU is, by definition, an attempt to exert more control over the laws that apply in the U.K., and this, by logical extension, makes sense only if the U.K. wants different laws from the ones that apply in the EU, which, in turn, means competition where it did not exist before.

The important point, though, is not whether Britain will emerge as an economic competitor with the EU, but what this will mean for the U.K. and the Continent more generally, particularly in an era of American isolationism, Russian aggression, and Chinese economic expansion. Could this economic competition spill over into other fields, such as security and defense? At a recent dinner party hosted by the London embassy of a major European power, attended by senior British government officials, diplomats, politicians, and journalists (including myself), the host ambassador was warned that he could not expect his country’s defense relationship with Britain to be left unchanged if Britain felt unfairly treated, economically, in the fallout from Brexit. “You can’t say, ‘We’ll take your bankers and your Chinooks,’” the ambassador was told by one figure in attendance, referring to British military equipment.

The problem over the past three years has been that the reality of Brexit is obfuscated by Britain’s internal divisions over the type of Brexit it wants. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s predecessor, Theresa May, sought to blur the essential choice: between close legal alignment with the EU (and less of an economic shock) and loose regulatory alignment (and more of an economic shock). She demanded U.K. sovereign control over trade policy and immigration, yet fought against the inevitable realities of what this meant, particularly in relation to Northern Ireland. Eventually forced to choose, May tried to maintain as close an economic relationship with the EU as possible while protecting her ultimate red line: control over immigration.

Johnson has torn up this approach, stripping out the bits of May’s withdrawal agreement that sought to bind Britain to certain European standards and rules. In doing so, he has clarified the reality of Brexit: legal divergence. Merkel’s remarks are the public acknowledgment of Johnson’s radical break from May. Yet, in another way, these are all shades of the same Brexit gray, which is, by definition, about “taking back control” in order to do things differently from the EU.

Read: How Britain came to accept a “no-deal Brexit”

One European ambassador to Brussels told me that Merkel was not alone in her concern, even if few set out the reality of Brexit in such straightforward terms. The diplomat, who asked for anonymity to more freely discuss deliberations in the EU’s de facto capital, said that Johnson had, if nothing else, clarified the stakes of Brexit, something May had tried to hide. Still, the ambassador said, this nevertheless causes significant challenges for the EU, which will have to be “extremely vigilant” in how it negotiates any future free-trade deal with the U.K., wary of a Britain that could look to undercut EU standards while seeking market access to the economies of the bloc’s 27 other member states. (The EU has also diverged over how a future relationship with Britain should look: Whereas Ireland, the Netherlands, and other countries with close trading relationships with Britain are likely to push for close economic ties out of self-interest, France has made it known that it will take a hard-line stance in any future free-trade negotiations.)

In an interview with The Guardian and seven other European newspapers, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, said that the U.K. would see its market access reduced in proportion to how far it sought to diverge from European standards. The EU’s position ensures that the Brexit dilemma will never go away: How much of a limit should the U.K. place on its sovereignty in exchange for market access?

Merkel’s comments in October were not her first warning about the threat of British competition. In Berlin a month earlier, addressing German lawmakers, she said that the U.K. after Brexit would become “an economic competitor on our own doorstep.” She said this would be the case “even if we want to keep close economic, foreign, and security cooperation and friendly relations.” Implicit in Merkel’s observation was the acceptance that economic, foreign, and security policy cannot be entirely quarantined from one another—that each affects the others.

Read: This is just the beginning of Brexit

At the time she made those remarks, it still looked possible that the U.K. could crash out of the EU without agreeing on a divorce deal, and there was a feeling in 10 Downing Street that European intransigence was forcing the U.K. into a corner where it would be left with little choice but a radical change of direction in the economy, including huge cuts to corporate taxes. Indeed, certain EU countries are already bracing for British economic radicalism after Brexit. Ireland, for example, is studying the prospect of severe British tax cuts, which could lure away companies based in Ireland, already a low-tax economy, one Irish official told me.

Thorsten Benner, the director of the Berlin-based Global Public Policy Institute, told me that Merkel was right to be concerned about the “inevitable” reality of the U.K. seeking competitive advantages wherever it can find them. “Merkel is taking it seriously,” he said, arguing that her intervention was largely a message to Europe not to be complacent about the threat, despite the bloc dwarfing Britain in economic size. Benner said that one area Europe was concerned about was in relation to China, with the prospect that, once out of the EU, the U.K. might feel compelled to put immediate economic interests over traditional security and defense concerns, offering Beijing closer trade and business ties that could cause friction with Washington and other European capitals.

In Brussels, there is optimism that the security relationship among the U.K. and its European allies, principally France, can be kept separate from any cross-channel economic competition. “We cannot make trade-offs with security,” the ambassador who spoke with me said. He predicted that mechanisms would be found to maintain close security cooperation between the U.K. and the EU after Brexit, whatever economic path Britain takes.

Such a relationship has some precedents. In the 1980s, Japan and the United States were rival economic superpowers, competing with each other for global dominance without ever challenging the security umbrella of American hegemony placed over the relationship. After Brexit, Britain alone cannot be a geopolitical rival to the EU or a military hegemon. It can, however, be an economic nuisance, whether that is good for Britain or not.

We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.

Tom McTague is a London-based staff writer at The Atlantic, and co-author of Betting the House: The Inside Story of the 2017 Election.

Twitter Email

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2019/11/britain-and-europe-are-destined-be-rivals-after-brexit/601288/

2019-11-04 06:00:00Z
52780424623658

Senin, 04 November 2019

Emirates’ A380 Shower Attendants

UK Bans Emirates Shower Attendants

Emirates’ A380 Shower Attendants

UK Bans Emirates Shower Attendants

Emirates’ A380 Shower Attendants

UK Bans Emirates Shower Attendants

Share this:

'Return to EU meetings'