Babak Belurs

Rabu, 24 April 2019

Secretive 'Five Eyes' club to speak openly about cyber threats - BBC News

The government has given Chinese telecoms giant Huawei the go-ahead to supply equipment for the UK 5G data network despite senior ministers warning it poses a security risk.

The Daily Telegraph reports the company will help build some "non-core" parts.

The plan was said to have worried the home, defence and foreign secretaries.

The US also wants its allies in the "Five Eyes" intelligence grouping - the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand - to exclude Huawei.

Cyber-threats are among the issues set to be discussed later by the once-secret alliance, at a security conference in Glasgow.

Australia has already said it is siding with Washington - which has spoken of "serious concerns over Huawei's obligations to the Chinese government and the danger that poses to the integrity of telecommunications networks in the US and elsewhere".

Huawei, which already supplies equipment used in the UK's existing mobile networks, has always denied being controlled by the Chinese government, or that its work poses any risks of espionage and sabotage.

It said it was awaiting a formal government announcement on the UK's 5G plans, but was "pleased that the UK is continuing to take an evidence-based approach to its work, and we will continue to work cooperatively with the government, and the industry".

5G is the next (fifth) generation of mobile internet connectivity, promising much faster data download and upload speeds, wider coverage and more stable connections.

According to the Daily Telegraph, Huawei's involvement in the 5G network would include helping to build parts of antennas or other non-critical infrastructure.

A spokesman for the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said its review of the issue would report in due course.

BBC security correspondent Gordon Corera says it is believed the decision to involve Huawei was taken by ministers at a meeting of the government's national security council on Tuesday.

Although Huawei will only be allowed to work on non-sensitive parts of the network, he says it is still a very contentious move because 5G is set to play such an important role in the lives of Britons in the future.

Ciaran Martin, the head of the National Cyber Security Centre - which oversees Huawei's current work in the UK - told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that a framework would be put in place to ensure the 5G network was "sufficiently safe".

Asked about the potential of a conflict in the position among members of the Five Eyes alliance, he added: "In the past decade there have been different approaches across the Five Eyes and across the allied wider Western alliance towards Huawei and towards other issues as well."

But Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Tom Tugendhat tweeted that allowing Huawei to build some of the UK's 5G infrastructure would "cause allies to doubt our ability to keep data secure and erode the trust essential to #FiveEyes cooperation".

Speaking on the Today programme, Mr Tugendhat maintained it was difficult to distinguish between the core and non-core in a 5G network.

He said the proposals still raised concerns, adding that 5G involved an "internet system that can genuinely connect everything, and therefore the distinction between non-core and core is much harder to make".

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2019-04-24 07:13:38Z
CBMiJGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmJiYy5jb20vbmV3cy91ay00ODAzMjI4NtIBKGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmJiYy5jb20vbmV3cy9hbXAvdWstNDgwMzIyODY

Secretive 'Five Eyes' club to speak openly about cyber threats - BBC News

The government has given Chinese telecoms giant Huawei the go-ahead to supply equipment for the UK 5G data network despite senior ministers warning it poses a security risk.

The Daily Telegraph reports the company will help build some "non-core" parts.

The plan was said to have concerned the home, defence and foreign secretaries.

The US also wants its allies in the "Five Eyes" intelligence grouping - the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand - to exclude Huawei.

Cyber-threats are among the issues set to be discussed later by the once-secret alliance, at a security conference in Glasgow.

Huawei has always denied being controlled by the Chinese government, or that its work poses any risks of espionage and sabotage.

According to the Daily Telegraph, Huawei's involvement in the 5G network would include helping to build parts of antennas or other non-critical infrastructure.

A spokesman for the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said its review of the issue would report in due course.

Responding to the reports, Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Tom Tugendhat tweeted that allowing Huawei to build some of the UK's 5G infrastructure would "cause allies to doubt our ability to keep data secure and erode the trust essential to #FiveEyes cooperation".

"There's a reason others have said no," he added.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Tugendhat maintained it was difficult to distinguish between the core and non-core in a 5G network.

Later, the director of the UK's monitoring agency, GCHQ, Jeremy Fleming, will open the CyberUK conference in Glasgow by warning that a technological revolution "brings new and unprecedented challenges for policymakers, as they seek to protect citizens, judicial systems, businesses - and even societal norms".

He will say that the government wants to do more to take the burden of cyber-security away from the individual and to work with manufacturers and online companies to ensure they build security into their products and services at the design stage.

Mr Fleming will also make the case that improving the cyber-security of the UK is only achievable if "we build a genuinely national effort - with more connections and deeper cooperation with the private sector and even closer working with our partners and allies".

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2019-04-24 07:07:30Z
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Selasa, 23 April 2019

The average age for marriage in the UK is now over 30 - Quartz

Back in 1846, a British woman could reasonably expect to be married before her 25th birthday, most likely to a man not much older: The average age of nuptials for a single woman was 24.7 and for a single man, 25.7.

But marriage is no longer the province of twentysomethings in Western countries.

Since the 1970s there’s been a clear trend in the UK for rising age at first marriage—which excludes people who were previously married and have divorced or lost a spouse—according to data from the UK’s Office for National Statistics (which has data back to the mid-19th century.) The average age for single men to marry passed 30 in 1999. For women, it was 2010:

The data to 2016, the most recent available, were released in March 2019. The ONS noted that in heterosexual unions, the age at first marriage in 2016 for men was 33.4 and for women was 31.5, part of a trend of rising age since the 1970s. For marriages between same-sex couples the average age was higher: 40.8 for men and 37.4 for women. (Same-sex marriage data goes back to 2014, when it became legal in the UK.)

The UK numbers reflect a growing trend in wealthy Western countries towards getting hitched later. In the rest of Europe, mean age at first marriage is higher then 30 in Germany, France, Spain, and many more of the regions most-developed economies. The US, meanwhile, has seen its median age at first marriage (which the United States Census Bureau estimates, rather than releasing a mean), creep up from around 20 for women in the 1970s to 27.8 in 2018. Men’s age at first marriage that year was 29.8.

Shifting social norms around cohabitation are a factor. “The major move towards living together before marriage may well help to explain many of the relationship trends we see today,” writes Nick Stripe, head of life events (that includes births, deaths, and baby names) at the ONS, in a blog accompanying the data. Almost 90% of couples marrying in 2016 had lived together beforehand.

Many people are also waiting longer to have kids. In 2017, for the first time, more UK women became pregnant over the age of 30 than in their 20s. Not all pregnancies lead to childbirth—in fact, the average British women’s age at the birth of their first child in 2017 was 28.8. But that number has been rising steadily since the 1970s, when the average dipped below 24.

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2019-04-23 15:58:00Z
CAIiENh7u5LrzNer4Q3HhTXBA6kqGAgEKg8IACoHCAowi4-MATDXsRUwhP2ZAg

Sri Lanka attacks: British brother and sister among victims - BBC News

Tributes are being paid to members of three British families who were among more than 300 people killed in Easter Sunday's bombings in Sri Lanka.

The deaths of London siblings Daniel and Amelie Linsey have "shocked" their schools, staff said.

Eight Britons are known to have died in the attacks, including Dr Sally Bradley and Bill Harrop, both from Manchester, who were described as "soulmates".

Anita Nicholson and her two children also died in a blast at a hotel.

The death toll from the wave of attacks on churches and hotels in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo, Negombo and Batticaloa has now risen to 321, with about 500 injured, police say.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the attack was "complex, highly co-ordinated and designed to cause maximum chaos, damage and heartbreak".

A team of family liaison officers has been sent to Sri Lanka to support the families of British victims and help repatriate the deceased, Mr Hunt said.

Amelie Linsey's school - Godolphin and Latymer School in west London - issued a statement on behalf of staff and pupils which said: "We're obviously devastated and shocked and digesting the news at the moment.

"Our priority is supporting her family and the students here," staff said.

And Westminster Kingsway College, where her brother Daniel was studying business, said it was "shocked and saddened", adding that it was offering counselling and support to students and staff who knew him.

Dr Bradley and her husband Mr Harrop, a retired firefighter, were on holiday in Sri Lanka when they were killed.

The couple, who had lived in Western Australia since Mr Harrop's retirement, were soulmates who "just lived for each other", a former colleague of Dr Bradley said.

"She absolutely loved living in Australia. She felt very at home here," executive director Kathleen Smith told 6PR radio.

She said Dr Bradley, who was director of clinical services at Rockingham Peel Group in Perth, talked of Mr Harrop's two sons as if they were her own.

A team from North Manchester General Hospital, where Sally had previously worked, said: "Sally was a lovely, kind individual, extremely approachable and gave so much to the NHS in Manchester during her career."

Mr Harrop had been in the fire service for 30 years before retiring in 2012, said Assistant County Fire Officer Dave Keelan, of Greater Manchester Fire Service.

"He was a much-loved and respected colleague and friend. He will be greatly missed."

It is not currently known which explosion killed the couple.

Anita Nicholson and her children Annabel, 11, and Alex, 14, were visiting Sri Lanka on holiday from their home in Singapore where Mrs Nicholson worked as a lawyer.

Her husband, Ben Nicholson, who survived the blast, said his family were killed as they ate breakfast in the Shangri-La Hotel in Colombo.

"Mercifully all three of them died instantly and with no pain or suffering," said Mr Nicholson, who is a partner with law firm Kennedys.

He paid tribute to his "wonderful, perfect wife", a lawyer for mining firm Anglo American.

She was "a brilliant, loving and inspirational mother to our two wonderful children", he said.

"Alex and Annabel were the most amazing, intelligent, talented and thoughtful children, and Anita and I were immensely proud of them both and looking forward to seeing them develop into adulthood," he added.

"They shared with their mother the priceless ability to light up any room they entered and bring joy to the lives of all they came into contact with."

Chancellor Phillip Hammond said Anita Nicholson was a former legal adviser at the Treasury and would be remembered by colleagues there as "a brilliant and dedicated lawyer".

Details of the eighth British victim have not yet emerged.

The Foreign Office has updated its travel advice for Sri Lanka.

It warns tourists to avoid crowded public areas, plan any movements carefully and not to travel during the newly-implemented nationwide curfew.

The Metropolitan Police are appealing for anyone who has returned to the UK from Sri Lanka to share any video or photos taken before, during or after the bombings - and have set up a secure website for people to do so.

How the Sri Lanka attacks unfolded

Sri Lanka is GMT+5.5

21 April 2019

08:45 local time-09:05

Blast damage at St Sebastian's Church in Negombo.

Three churches in Negombo, Batticaloa and Colombo's Kochchikade district are targeted during Easter services and blasts also rock the Shangri-La, Kingsbury and Cinnamon Grand hotels in the country's capital.

11:40 local time

14:15 local time

A member of the Sri Lankan Special Task Force (STF) pictured outside a house during a raid.

14:30 local time

22:00 local time

22 April 2019

06:00 local time

About 07:42 local time

08:30 local time

At least 290 people, including many foreigners, are now confirmed to have died. More than 500 are injured.

About 15:27 local time

About 16:18 local time

Video footage from St Anthony's Shrine, shared by Guardian journalist Michael Safi, showed people running from the area in panic. According to BBC Sinhala's Azzam Ameen, the blast happened while "security forces personnel... tried to defuse a newly discovered explosives in a vehicle".

View on Twitter

As Sri Lanka held its first mass funeral for 30 victims on Tuesday, the Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility for the attack via its news outlet.

A BBC correspondent in Sri Lanka, however, has said that claim should be treated with caution.

Sri Lanka's government had earlier blamed the blasts on local Islamist group National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ).

On Tuesday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: "An attack like this on a hotel or a church or any other place is an indiscriminate attack on all of us."

He urged people not to "jump to conclusions about the perpetrators", rather to make sure people were safe and secure and given a "proper period of mourning".

The Foreign Office has directed British citizens to two helplines:

Those in Sri Lanka can call the Embassy in Colombo: +94 11 5390639
Those in the UK who are concerned for British friends or family in Sri Lanka can call: 020 7008 1500

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2019-04-23 15:07:36Z
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Donald Trump's state visit to the UK set for 3 June - BBC News

US President Donald Trump will make a three-day state visit to the UK from 3 to 5 June, Buckingham Palace has announced.

The president and First Lady Melania Trump will be guests of the Queen and attend a ceremony in Portsmouth to mark 75 years since the D-Day landings.

He will also have official talks with the prime minister at Downing Street.

Mr Trump previously met the Queen at Windsor Castle when he came to the UK in July 2018 on a working visit.

The White House said the upcoming trip would reaffirm the "steadfast and special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom".

The president was promised a state visit by Prime Minister Theresa May after he was elected in 2016 - but no date was set.

Mrs May said June's state visit was an "opportunity to strengthen our already close relationship in areas such as trade, investment, security and defence, and to discuss how we can build on these ties in the years ahead".

But shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry voiced concerns about the visit, saying: "It beggars belief that on the very same day Donald Trump is threatening to veto a United Nations resolution against the use of rape as a weapon of war, Theresa May is pressing ahead with her plans to honour him with a state visit to the UK."

Representatives of other countries invited to the Portsmouth event on 5 June include those from Canada, France, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, Luxembourg, Poland, Norway, Denmark, Netherlands, Greece, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

Portsmouth was one of the key embarkation points for many of the landing craft on D-Day, when, during World War Two, Allied forces invaded Nazi-occupied France marking the beginning of the end for Adolf Hitler's domination of Europe.

The June gathering on Southsea Common will involve live performances, military displays and tributes to the Allied troops who fought in Normandy, including at least 11 Royal Navy vessels in the Solent and a flypast of 26 RAF aircraft.

After leaving the UK, Mr Trump and his wife will travel to France for a series of D-Day anniversary events on 6 June itself.

The president's last visit to the UK - when he had talks with Mrs May at Chequers before heading to Scotland, where he owns the Turnberry golf course - was marked by demonstrations.

In London, thousands of people took to the streets to voice their concerns.

And in Scotland, people showed their displeasure, both in Edinburgh and at Turnberry.

The National Police Chiefs' Council estimated that the police operation for the president's 2018 visit cost nearly £18m.

It said 10,000 officers from across the country were needed to cover the occasion.

The campaigners behind the 2018 protests - the Stop Trump coalition and Stand Up To Trump - have vowed to mobilise "huge numbers" once again in response to the visit.

A spokeswoman for Commons Speaker John Bercow said a request for Mr Trump to address Parliament - an event often associated with a state visit - would be "considered in the usual way", but did not say whether a request had yet been received.

Mr Bercow - who, as Speaker, has the power to veto who addresses Parliament - previously said he would be "strongly opposed" to Mr Trump addressing the Houses of Parliament during a state visit.

BBC royal correspondent Jonny Dymond said Mr Trump avoided London on his last visit and made it clear he did not particularly want to come to the capital if he was going to face protests.

However, our correspondent said a key part of a state visit is the procession down the Mall in front of Buckingham Palace and it is thought protesters will gather there - not a first for a state visit.

Once inside Buckingham Palace, it is expected the Queen will host a banquet for around 150 guests in Mr Trump's honour.

The Queen has hosted two previous state visits from US presidents - George W Bush in November 2003, and Barack Obama in May 2011.

What is a state visit?

A state visit is a formal visit by a head of state and is normally at the invitation of the Queen, who acts on advice from the government.

State visits are grand occasions, but they are not just ceremonial affairs. They have political purpose and are used by the government of the day to further what it sees as Britain's national interests.

Once the location and dates are confirmed, the government, the visiting government and the royal household will agree on a detailed schedule.

So what is involved?

The Queen acts as the official host for the duration of the trip, and visitors usually stay at either Buckingham Palace or Windsor Castle.

There is usually a state banquet, and a visit to - and speeches at - the Houses of Parliament may be included. The Speaker of the House of Commons is one of three "key holders" to Westminster Hall, and as such, effectively holds a veto over who addresses Parliament.

The Queen usually receives one or two heads of state a year. She has hosted 109 state visits since becoming monarch in 1952.

The last state visit to the UK was in October, when King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands came for two days.

The official website of the Queen and the Royal Family has a full list of all state visits since then, including details of how the ceremonies unfold.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-48020410

2019-04-23 14:38:41Z
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Donald Trump 'set for June state visit to UK' - BBC News