The leaders of the US Congress said on Friday (2) they had invited Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to address a joint meeting of the House of Representatives and Senate on June 22, one of the highest honours Washington affords to foreign dignitaries.
"During your address, you will have the opportunity to share your vision for India's future and speak to the global challenges our countries both face," House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a letter to Modi.
They said the address would celebrate the enduring friendship between the United States and India.
(Reuters)
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Child abuse inquiry: Former prosecutor dismisses Musk's demands
Jan 04, 2025
A FORMER chief prosecutor has pushed back against calls from Elon Musk and Conservative politicians for a new national inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Britain.
Nazir Afzal, who successfully prosecuted the Rochdale child sexual abusers, pointed out that previous extensive inquiries were largely ignored by the Tory government.
"There has been an independent inquiry into child sexual abuse, the catalyst for which was so-called grooming gangs. It cost millions and the last government failed to accept much of its recommendations," Afzal told the Guardian.
The debate ignited after Musk, the owner of social media platform X, criticised Labour leader Keir Starmer over historical cases in Oldham and voiced support for imprisoned far-right activist Tommy Robinson.
The controversy deepened when it emerged that the Tory party had previously rejected similar calls for a national inquiry. A leaked letter revealed that in September 2022, then safeguarding minister Amanda Solloway had dismissed such requests, suggesting that local authorities should handle their own investigations.
Maggie Oliver, a former Greater Manchester police officer who became a whistleblower on police failings, expressed frustration at the political debate.
"We've already had a national abuse inquiry – seven years, 20 recommendations and none implemented," she said. "We need someone who is going to do something not just talk – more empty promises and political manoeuvrings."
Jess Phillips MP (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
The row began when current safeguarding minister Jess Phillips declined Oldham council's request for a public inquiry, stating that such investigations should be managed locally. This prompted criticism from Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, who called for a national investigation into what she termed "the rape gangs scandal".
A comprehensive inquiry led by Prof Alexis Jay had already examined abuse cases across England and Wales, concluding in 2022.
The investigation found that children in Oldham had been failed by protective agencies amid allegations of child sexual abuse by what it described as "predominantly Pakistani offenders". The inquiry covered multiple regions including Rotherham, Cornwall, Derbyshire, Rochdale and Bristol.
Labour has said it is "working at pace" to implement the Jay inquiry's recommendations and strengthening laws around reporting and investigating such crimes.
The controversy has led some Labour MPs to question the government's continued presence on X. One parliamentarian told the newspaper: "[Musk] has pushed it too far this time. Twitter [now X] is really rapidly becoming a cess pit, even for disinterested non-partisan types."
Afzal noted that another inquiry by former Tory home secretary Sajid Javid for the Centre for Social Justice had also been disregarded by the government.
He suggested that "local independent inquiries of the sort carried out in Telford are more likely to achieve safer streets and protect victims."
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Trump demands UK scrap wind power, revive North Sea oil
Jan 04, 2025
US president-elect Donald Trump has criticised the British government's energy policy with a demand the country "open up" the ageing North Sea oil and gas basin and get rid of wind farms.
The North Sea is one of the world's oldest offshore oil and gas basins where production has steadily declined since the start of the millennium. At the same time, it has become one of the world's largest offshore wind regions.
"The UK is making a very big mistake. Open up the North Sea. Get rid of Windmills!" Trump said in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.
Climate-sceptic Trump has long opposed wind farms. In 2015, he unsuccessfully fought plans to construct one near his luxury golf course in Scotland.
His post on Friday (3) included a link to a report from last November about US oil and gas producer APA Corp's unit Apache's plans to exit the North Sea by year-end 2029. The company expects North Sea production to fall by 20 per cent year-on-year in 2025.
Prime minister Keir Starmer's Labour government won last year's elections with a pledge to build up Britain's low-carbon economy. The government aims to quadruple offshore wind generation capacity by 2030 to 60 gigawatts as part of goals to lower carbon emissions and improve air quality.
In October, the British government said it would increase a windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas producers to 38 per cent from 35 per cent and extend the levy by one year. The government wants to use the revenue from oil and gas to raise funds for renewable energy projects.
Oil and gas companies have said the higher tax rate could lead to a drop in investments. Some companies have sold assets while others merged operations and sought to diversify to other regions.
The North Sea Transition Authority, Britain's offshore oil and gas regulator, declined to comment about Trump's post. Britain's energy security department did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Claire Coutinho, the opposition Conservative party's shadow energy minister, said in a post on X in response to Trump's comments that "no other major economy is shutting down its domestic oil and gas production... It's totally mad".
Oil companies have been exiting the North Sea to focus on newer basins. Production has declined from a peak of 4.4 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed) at the start of the millennium to around 1.3 million boed now.
Britain and countries in mainland Europe have overseen major offshore wind farm development, but the sector's growth has stalled as costs ballooned due to technical and supply chain problems as well as higher interest rates.
Some developers been reconsidering their investments in offshore wind, or have assumed impairments, due to the rising cost of building wind farms that can be more than 100 km (60 miles) offshore.
Orsted, the world's biggest offshore wind farm developer, trimmed its investment and capacity targets last year.
Britain has a target to largely decarbonise its power sector by 2030, which will mean reducing its reliance on gas-fired power plants and rapidly increasing its renewable power capacity.
(Reuters)
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Postmaster Hemandra Hindocha receives royal recognition
Jan 04, 2025
WESTCOTES postmaster, Hemandra Hindocha, has been recognised by the King for services to his Leicester community and other postmasters.
Better known as “H” by customers, he has been at the heart of his Westcotes community for nearly 38 years after initially starting his postmaster career in Northampton, for five years.
The long-serving postmaster, who has served people in the Midlands for 43 years, has been awarded a British Empire Medal for the important difference he has made, including starting a support group for postmasters in the Midlands.
“H” was born in Uganda and had gone to university in India when his family had to flee Uganda in 1972 under Idi Amin’s rule. When he gained his degree in accountancy, he joined his family in the UK in 1973. His first postmaster role was at Northampton’s Regent Square Post Office until he moved to a bigger branch at Westcotes in 1988.
Soon after he set up a support group for postmasters in Midlands to help new or less experienced postmaster or those needing help to share knowledge and advice. It was also a social group for business people running Post Offices. Hemandra then also went on to Executive Office for Midlands for the National Federation of Subpostmasters.
“H” and his wife, Kirti, along with staff managed to keep Westcotes Post Office open throughout the pandemic to maintain vital services to the community.
Hemandra Hindocha and wife Kirti
He notched up 40 years’ service in 2021, and as soon as pandemic restrictions allowed he celebrate his achievement with a special Indian meal with 45 local postmasters and Post Office colleagues.
The 73-year-old has always considered the role of a being a postmaster as a “prestigious position” and maintains that it has been an honour to work for the Post Office.
“I was surprised and delighted to find out I had been named in the New Years’ Honour list. I still love coming to work every day, even on my days off,” Hindocha, said.
“I especially enjoy the rapport with my customers and understand the importance of building good relationships with them – they are like extended family. I have got to know several generations of the same family. People I served in my early days, many now have children and grandchildren.
Post Office area manager Ezra Nadasen said: “We want to sincerely thank “H” for running Westcotes Post Office for nearly 38 years and a branch in Northampton before that. He is a first-class postmaster who really cares about the community that he serves and also goes above and beyond for other postmasters, especially those who are new to the role or need advice. He is also held in high regards by other postmasters.”
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Wes Streeting: Musk's intervention in UK politics 'misinformed'
Jan 04, 2025
A senior minister has criticised Elon Musk's latest intervention in the country's politics as "misjudged and certainly misinformed".
The tech billionaire accused prime minister Keir Starmer a day earlier of failing to bring "rape gangs" to justice when he was director of public prosecutions.
In a string of posts on his X platform, Musk also suggested that Jess Phillips, minister for the prevention of violence against women and girls, "deserves to be in prison" for refusing a request for a national public inquiry into a child sexual exploitation scandal in the northern English city of Oldham.
Health secretary Wes Streeting told ITV News that Musk's comments were wide of the mark and that the government took child sexual exploitation "incredibly seriously".
"Some of the criticisms that Elon Musk has made, I think are misjudged and certainly misinformed, but we're willing to work with Elon Musk, who I think has got a big role to play with his social media platform to help us and other countries to tackle this serious issue," he said.
"So if he wants to work with us and roll his sleeves up, we'd welcome that," he added.
The widespread abuse of girls in a number of English towns and cities including Rochdale, Rotherham and Oldham, which emerged more than a decade ago, has long stirred controversy.
A series of court cases eventually led to the convictions of dozens of men, mostly of South Asian Muslim origin. The victims were vulnerable, mostly white, girls.
A series of official inquiries into how police and social workers failed to halt the abuse found that officials in some cases turned a blind eye to avoid appearing racist.
The scandals have been seized upon by far-right figures, in particular Tommy Robinson, a prominent extremist agitator.
Accused of helping fuel anti-immigration riots last summer, Robinson was imprisoned in October after he admitted committing contempt of court over a long-running libel case involving a Syrian refugee.
In one of his X posts on Thursday (2), Musk claimed that Robinson was in prison "for telling the truth" and that "he should be freed".
Most of Musk's messages focused on Robinson's long-time highlighting of historical scandals involving alleged child sexual abuse gangs in some English cities.
Sharing various other accounts' claims around the child sex crimes spanning decades, Musk noted that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decides whether to charge suspects.
"Who was the head of the CPS when rape gangs were allowed to exploit young girls without facing justice? Keir Starmer, 2008-2013," he posted.
Starmer was the head of the CPS in that period, but none of the probes into the scandals singled him out for blame or found that he tried to block prosecutions due to concerns over alleged Islamophobia.
Later, in response to another post calling for King Charles III to dissolve parliament, Musk replied: "Yes!"
He later took another swipe at Starmer, suggesting that his government had turned down the requested inquiry "because he is guilty of complicity".
Weighing in on the row, later on Friday (3) Nigel Farage, a lawmaker and leader of the anti-immigration Reform UK party, disagreed with Musk about Robinson.
"He sees Robinson as one of these people that fought against the grooming gangs. But of course the truth is Tommy Robinson's in prison not for that, but for contempt of court," he told right-wing channel GB News.
Robinson himself had encouraged a narrative that he was a "political prisoner... but it isn't quite true", he said.
Farage added that Musk, with whom he has had talks about the US billionaire donating to his hard-right party, was "very supportive of me, he's very supportive of the party".
(AFP)
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Vice-chancellors at top universities spent £1m on foreign trips
Jan 04, 2025
LEADERS at some of the UK's most prestigious universities have spent close to £1 million on international travel over the past three years, despite ongoing warnings about financial challenges within the higher education sector.
An analysis by The Times revealed that vice-chancellors at the 24 Russell Group universities, representing the country’s most renowned universities, have claimed significant amounts for trips abroad, luxury hotels, and even home renovations.
This comes as many universities continue to face financial strain, with tuition fees capped at £9,250 since 2017. Although fees are expected to rise in the autumn, forecasts indicate that many universities could experience budget deficits by 2025-26.
The spending on travel and accommodation has raised eyebrows, especially as university leaders warn of worsening financial difficulties. In the 2023-24 academic year, vice-chancellors at these institutions received an average pay and benefits package of £405,000, in addition to £4,300 in expenses, which included international travel averaging £20,600 per leader.
Some, such as the vice-chancellors of the London School of Economics (LSE), Bristol, Cardiff, and Nottingham, claimed more than the average UK salary of £35,000 in expenses alone.
One notable example is Shitij Kapur, vice-chancellor of King’s College London, who spent more than £35,000 on furniture and renovations for his university-provided apartment in June 2021.
He later embarked on a two-day trip to Phoenix, Arizona, where he stayed in a £500-a-night hotel. The trip, costing around £8,000, was linked to a collaboration with universities in Australia and the US aimed at addressing global challenges.
Nottingham's vice-chancellor, Shearer West, also saw significant spending, with over £86,000 spent on flights in just two academic years. Her travel included destinations such as Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Sydney, and New York.
At the same time, Chris Day, vice-chancellor of Newcastle University, highlighted the pressure universities face, claiming that the sector is having to "do more for less" with fewer resources. His international travel expenses exceeded £26,000 over the past two years, further fuelling concerns about university leaders' spending habits amidst claims of financial difficulties.
The Russell Group, however, defended the spending, stating that vice-chancellors' international travel is crucial for fostering global partnerships and securing funding.
A spokesperson explained that these trips help build networks that support UK trade, research, and academic growth, with leaders meeting business partners, government officials, and research collaborators.
However, the extravagant expenses come at a time when universities are under pressure to demonstrate financial responsibility. Many institutions are being urged to tighten their belts and curb waste. University leaders are also calling for an increase in tuition fees, with some suggesting a rise to £12,500 to ensure universities can break even.
Oxford’s vice-chancellor, Irene Tracey, spent nearly £16,000 on international trips in the past academic year, including £4,000 on airport transfers. Despite criticisms, the university stressed that Tracey’s travels are essential for maintaining Oxford’s position as a global leader in research and education.
Former Cardiff vice-chancellor Colin Riordan, for example, spent over £26,000 on flights to destinations such as India and South Africa in just five months, a decision Cardiff University defended by explaining that international travel plays a crucial role in securing global partnerships and donations.
As the debate over university funding and leadership spending continues, many are questioning whether these extravagant expenses are justifiable in the face of financial uncertainty within the higher education sector.
The Russell Group, however, maintains that universities must be managed efficiently and transparently, with all expenses closely monitored.
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