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Solar panels with suspected links to Chinese slave labour have been installed by dozens of organisations including Manchester City, Cheltenham Racecourse and David Lloyd gyms, The i Paper can reveal.

The scale of Britain’s use of solar panels made by firms alleged to have used components made from the forced labour of minorities in China can be disclosed for the first time.

As well as commercial premises, the locations include schools, hospitals and universities across the country. There is no suggestion that any of the organisations installed solar panels with knowledge of links to Chinese slave labour.

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[The investigation] has mapped 84 non-residential locations where solar panels have been installed with links to alleged slave labour. The data is based on evidence provided by Sheffield Hallam University’s Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice, the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) and open source analysis.

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Last week, growing concerns over Britain’s use of Chinese panels with links to Uyghur oppression forced [UK] Energy Secretary Ed Miliband into banning them from being used by the state-funded Great British Energy company unless it can “ensure that slavery and human trafficking is not taking place” in its business or supply chains.

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IPAC’s senior analyst Chung Ching Kwong believes [the] disclosures are a conservative estimate of the UK’s use of such tainted technology, because of the lack of transparency about the original source of materials used in many panels.

“UK consumers are unknowingly complicit in Uyghur forced labour,” said Ms Kwong. “Our work shows how big a mountain the government has to climb to root out slave-made renewables.”

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Professor Laura Murphy at the Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice at Sheffield Hallam University has led the way in tracing the original source of polysilicon in these panels. Her latest report in 2023 detailed how a number of Chinese firms had “high” exposure to production in Xinjiang. As well as Jinko, these included: JA Solar, Qcells, Canadian Solar, Trina Solar, and LONGi Solar.

Her report stated: “None of the companies that were engaged in state-sponsored labour transfers in 2021 has announced any changes to its recruitment methods or shown any resistance to participation in the PRC (Peoples Republic of China) Government’s programmes. Indeed, since that time, the PRC Government’s labour transfer programme has only increased in scale and the pressure on companies to absorb the workers the state deemed to be surplus remains high.”

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The UK formed the Solar Stewardship Initiative (SSI) with trade organisations in a bid to tackle human rights challenges within the global solar supply chain including “rigorously” auditing some Chinese sites. Trini Solar and JA Solar are members. The latter firm was suspended in January after the US banned panels made by one of its subsidiaries but was reinstated after the SSI concluded its supply practices had changed.

SSI’s chief executive Rachel Owens said: “We are acutely aware of the complexities involved in verifying supply chain links that may be several tiers removed from the end-product. That is precisely why the SSI, together with a large range of stakeholders including civil society, human rights experts, international financial institutions and industry, developed the SSI Supply Chain Traceability Standard. It will be implemented in 2025.”

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Some Chinese firms have criticised Sheffield Hallam’s report, claiming it disregards corporate due diligence policies.

But Prof Murphy who strongly defended her research, warned against companies taking the words of Chinese firms as evidence that supply chains are clean.

She said: “A simple attestation that forced labor has been excluded simply isn’t enough to ensure that modules are in fact free and clear of forced labor.”

Chloe Cranston at Anti-Slavery International, claimed a lack of extensive testing of Chinese manufacturers has made the UK a “dumping ground” for panels linked to slave labour.

She said: “What we were seeing is many of the big solar companies… essentially creating one clean supply chain for the US to meet the requirements there but then they were not having to take those same steps in other markets globally meaning that the UK market was opening itself up as a dumping ground.”

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Archived version

There is a lie being told about Anas Sarwar on the internet. The Scottish Labour leader, the story goes, is plotting for Pakistani Muslims to take power so they can “dictate” what is taught in schools.

One right-wing influencer, the former actor Laurence Fox, shared an old video of the Glasgow politician talking, rather uncontroversially, about greater south Asian participation in elected politics. Fox posted: “Sharia law is coming.”

Scottish Labour dismissed a series of accusations about Sarwar on social media. “This is an attempt by individuals with a hard-right agenda to use dog whistles to poison our politics,” a spokesman for the party leader said.

It is not only individuals, however, pushing the Sarwar video. It is also the Kremlin. And it is doing so — in a big departure from its conventional propaganda tactics — in a language understood by only 1 in 40 Scots.

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This kind of race-baiting about Scotland, the UK and other European countries is not unusual from government or pro-government media in Russia. The ultra-conservative nationalist television channel Tsargrad responded to the news of Humza Yousaf, a Pakistani, it said, becoming Scotland’s first minister with the headline “Glasgow has fallen”.

For more than a decade, Kremlin agencies and their proxies have been pushing stories they believe will help undermine western democracies and promote the talking points of the Putin regime, especially on Ukraine. However, it is new to see this kind of content aimed at Scottish audiences in a minority language.

So what is happening? Why do Russian propagandists have Gaelic speakers in their sights? Why would they target a relatively small linguistic community? Well, it is not just Gaels.

The rise of artificial intelligence means it is now cheaper and easier than ever to generate news, fake and real, in different languages, including ones badly served by mainstream media.

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NewsGuard, a US group that rates the reliability of news sites, believes the scheme is designed to manipulate chatbots to make other AI products spew out Kremlin propaganda. It thinks the plan is working. “By flooding search results and web crawlers with pro-Kremlin falsehoods, the network is distorting how large language models process and present news and information,” NewsGuard said in March. “The result? Massive amounts of Russian propaganda — 3,600,000 articles in 2024 — are now incorporated in the outputs of western AI systems, infecting their responses with false claims and propaganda.”

The term disinformation in recent years has turned into another word for “lie”. For experts, it is something much more that: an industrial-scale, military-grade effort to disorientate or demoralise an adversary using information that ranges from the accurate to the twisted to the completely fabricated.

Tommaso Canetta, of the European Digital Media Observatory, said moving into languages such as Gaelic was part of a broader attempt to flood the internet with Russian disinformation. “It is a strategy to create as much noise as possible,” he said, adding that because the network was largely automated any extra investment required to translate content from Russian or English into Gaelic was minimal.

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Thanos Sitistas, a researcher at Greece Fact Check, an organisation that investigates claims online and in media ... suggested that the Gaelic platform had become more targeted since it was launched in late December. “They have adapted their content for Scottish audiences,” Sitistas said, pointing to a recent article about polling indicating greater support for independence. “They are picking it up and then spinning it to give it more traction.”

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Kremlin-linked outlets have previously assumed a linguistic link to support for Scottish independence, even though there is little real-world evidence for it. Joanna Szostek, an expert in Russian political communication at Glasgow University, wonders whether this is why they are using Gaelic. “I think the Kremlin has long been keen on the idea of winning over Scots who dislike and distrust the British establishment — distrust in the ‘mainstream’ is often associated with belief in disinformation,” she said. “Perhaps they think such people might be prevalent in the Gaelic-speaking community? Or, speculatively, this could just be a way for certain Russian propagandists to extract money from state backers for an unusual project. Disinformation is an industry, after all.”

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Quality of care dropped as staff were replaced with less experienced nurses, researchers at the University of Surrey say

Food safety watchdog issues alert over Asda recalling hot and spicy chicken breast slices

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/33584974

Archived

British firms working for the UK’s military or intelligence services are advising staff not to connect their mobile phones to Chinese-made electric cars over fears that Beijing could steal sensitive national security data.

Executives at two of the nation’s leading defence giants have told The i Paper that the entire sector is taking a “cautious” and “belt and braces” approach to the possibility of the Chinese state spying on staff via the country’s electric vehicles (EVs).

The security clampdown within the UK’s highly secretive defence sector follows revelations from The i Paper that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has banned cars relying on Chinese technology from sensitive military sites across the country. In some cases, the MoD has asked staff to park their EVs at least two miles from their workplace.

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The latest disclosure of security worries relating to Chinese EVs could also raise concern among some EV buyers, who are increasingly turning to brands like BYD because of their affordability and longer range.

The role of Chinese companies and equipment in critical infrastructure was brought sharply into focus after the government was recently forced to take control of British Steel from its Chinese owner, Jingye Group, to prevent it from closing blast furnaces at the country’s last virgin steelmaking site.

It is understood that the UK’s leading military production groups, including BAE Systems, Rolls Royce, and Raytheon, as well as US defence giant Lockheed Martin and French defence and cyber security firm Thales, are among those firms that have taken precautions against the potential for Chinese EVs to spy on their staff.

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Archived

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Working with the anti-racism group Hope Not Hate, the Guardian found more than 150 posts from 29 accounts on three days in August 2024 that sought to draw the attention of anti-immigrant groups and the far right to [exiled dissident Finn] Lau and other Hong Kong exiles. Cybersecurity experts who have reviewed the posts say they exhibited some similarities to a major online influence operation that a Chinese security agency is suspected of orchestrating.

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Lau and his fellow activists have been called traitors, with bounties on their heads that are three times what the authorities offer for murderers. Relatives back home have been arrested and intimidated. As he read the posts, Lau suspected a chilling new tactic: an attempt to harness far-right violence.

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Posts on X inciting attacks on Lau and others were directed at far-right figures, including Tommy Robinson. “They’re even supporting the Muslim minorities too!” read one post denouncing Hongkongers, sent to the Reform UK MP Richard Tice. It gave the date and location of a planned gathering of Hongkongers a few days later. Posts on Telegram appeared in the channels of the leaders of the white nationalist group Patriotic Alternative.

Online incitement appears to represent a novel weapon in the arsenal that projects Beijing’s power. Lau is one of the opponents of the regime – Hongkongers as well as Tibetans, Uyghurs, Taiwanese and campaigners for democracy – subjected to what the US-based advocacy group Freedom House calls “the most sophisticated, global and comprehensive campaign of transnational repression in the world”. [...]

Archived

In February 2025, a London neighborhood council and the London Metropolitan Police withdrew their opposition to the Chinese government’s plans to construct a huge “super embassy” on the grounds of the old Royal Mint, only days after thousands of people had participated in a protest against the project. Embassies and consulates are meant to provide useful services to citizens from the home country and promote comity and understanding between nations. However, the London authorities’ about-face in favor of construction of the 5.5-acre Chinese facility has sparked fears among United Kingdom residents from China—some of whom are the targets of bounties imposed by Beijing—that it could be used to enable acts of transnational repression. Their worries are not unfounded, especially considering the involvement of Chinese consul-general Zheng Xiyuan in the beating of a protester at the Manchester consulate in 2022. [...]

The Chinese government is just one of many authoritarian regimes that have employed diplomatic staff at embassies and consulates to spy on diaspora communities, threaten and harm exiled dissidents, and selectively deny them access to crucial services.

Watchful eyes

It is unsurprising that governments known for repressing citizens at home would use their diplomatic outposts to engage in similar efforts to silence dissent abroad, in contravention of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. One common transnational repression tactic made possible by these missions is the close monitoring of opposition movements. Throughout 2011, for example, Syrian and Libyan embassy officials tracked the participation of Syrian and Libyan nationals at Arab Spring rallies in the United States and Britain. They later shared this intelligence with officials back home, who put pressure on family members of the diaspora residents to rein in their activism overseas.

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Physical attacks and abductions

Diplomats and their associates may go beyond surveillance and interference, engaging in plots to physically harm or forcibly repatriate dissidents living abroad. The grisly murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018 is arguably the most infamous example of this practice.

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Access denied

In addition to carrying out espionage and physical intimidation, embassy and consulate staff representing authoritarian regimes often withhold access to key services and documents. As Freedom House has previously reported, the governments of at least 12 countries have denied consular services to their nationals abroad for political reasons. The diplomatic missions in question arbitrarily refuse to extend passports, certify birth or marriage certificates, or provide identity documents, leaving people trapped in limbo.

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While acknowledging the legitimate role played by embassies and consulates in assisting their nationals and strengthening relationships between governments, the authorities in host countries must make it clear that transnational repression is not a diplomatic privilege.

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Canada and the Netherlands have expelled Eritrean diplomats for imposing the diaspora tax on local Eritreans. Similarly, in 2024, the Canadian government banished six Indian diplomats for collecting information on alleged Sikh separatists in Canada.

As the British government nears a decision on the Chinese “super embassy” this summer, it should uphold its obligation to prioritize the safety and human rights of diaspora members and send a clear signal that no embassy in the United Kingdom will be allowed to serve as a hub for transnational repression.

I've been a very happy user of the GPAtHand and their various apps over the years. Was very handy when needing repeat prescriptions, combined with moving roughly every year to a new area of your city. Saved you having to register with a new GP every time.

The service has since descended into absolute omnishambles though, and currently the eMed app has a message after login in, saying this app is no longer available.

Nothing in terms of who to get in touch with or anything, if you would like to avail of the service. Or has it been completely axed? I used it roughly 6 months ago, and I've not had any communication about the service shutting down.

I know it changed owners from Babylon, which was excellent, to eMed, which seems like shit.

Any insight from anyone?

UK licensing bodies have announced a “pioneering” collective licence that will allow authors to be paid for the use of their works to train generative AI models.

The Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) – which is directed by the Publishers’ Licensing Services (PLS) and the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS), representing publishers and authors – will develop the licence, set to be the first of its kind in the UK.

Expected to be made available to AI developers this summer, it will allow copyright holders “who are not in a position to negotiate direct licensing agreements with AI developers” to be paid for the use of their works.

“When we surveyed our members last year, they made it clear that they expect us to do something about their works being used to train AI,” said ALCS CEO Barbara Hayes. 81% of respondents said that they would want to be part of a collective licensing solution if ALCS was able to secure compensation for the use of writers’ works to train AI in cases where individual, case-by-case licensing is not a viable option.

The announcement comes as the UK government reviews responses to a consultation on its proposals for a copyright exemption for text and data mining, allowing AI companies to freely use copyrighted works unless rights holders opt out. The new licence “shows that a copyright exception is neither necessary nor desirable”, said the ALCS.

The government’s proposal “would give very limited choice, wouldn’t remunerate creators or provide any transparency about which works are being used”, said Hayes.

The collective licence, on the other hand, “will further demonstrate that licensing is the answer and can provide a market-based solution that is efficient and effective”, said Mat Pfleger, the CEO of CLA.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband will introduce an amendment to legislation to ensure there is no slavery in GB Energy's supply chains.

It comes after ministers rejected an amendment to a bill last month that would have prevented that state-owned GB Energy spending money on solar panels where supply chains had "credible evidence of modern slavery".

The production of solar panels in China's Xinjiang region has been linked to the alleged exploitation of Uyghur Muslims.

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A government source told the BBC since then "there has been an acknowledgement of the argument that GB Energy should be an industry leader".

There has already been praise from the international community for the U-turn. Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency, told the BBC: "I really salute the UK government's decision."

He said that the materials for green technology are important but "should really be produced in a socially and environmentally acceptable way".

Labour MPs who have been calling for the change are seeing it as a victory.

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The digestive biscuits were originally intended to be eaten with the chocolate side facing down.

Full details from Ofcom are available here:

New rules for a safer generation of children online