Tag: news

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Immigration practical pitfalls of making policy

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Alan Manning – former chair of the UK’s Migration Advisory Committee- makes it clear, this doesn’t mean that we can’t do much better. In Why Immigration Policy is Hard, Manning says we should start by ditching simplistic views that frame immigration as either wholly good or wholly bad. We will always have, and need, some level of immigration. But just as inevitably, we will have rules on who can and cannot immigrate as more people are likely to want to move to high-income countries than residents will want to admit. To set those rules, we need reliable evidence to adjudicate … Continue reading Immigration practical pitfalls of making policy

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Law and justice system might touch our lives

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British Law and justice system might touch our lives when we have an accident, a wrong is done to us, or we have a family difficulty. They are vast, ancient and cover everything from the personal to the regulation of our government. But to most of us, they are a wen of intimidating institutions and practices. Baroness Hale, after spending a decade writing about England’s justice system, shows us how the law is on our side, by taking us into the complexities of real courts and real decisions, we see that we all have rights: schoolchildren, disabled people, workers, minorities … Continue reading Law and justice system might touch our lives

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Consequences of making poor decisions affecting billions

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Presidents turning into monarchs. Tech tycoons and autocrats intent on global regime change. Armies of cyber trolls. The old order is at an end. The Hour of the Predator has come. Former political adviserGiuliano da Empoli takes us on an insider’s journey through this new reality, from the Glass Palace of the UN to the Riyadh Ritz-Carlton, from top secret meetings to violent power struggles. We encounter dictators and tryants, strongmen and AI billionaires – geopolitical predators, and the flailing leaders whop desperately try to appease them. In the age of the Borgias or the conquistadors, cynical scheming and brute … Continue reading Consequences of making poor decisions affecting billions

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World of Organised Crime

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A bandit becomes a monarch, a gang becomes a government and organised crime at the heart of every modern state. Homo Criminalis shows the emergence of modern society through the evolution of the underworld and its crimes. From Chinese banditry and eighteenth-century English tea smuggling to today’s cocaine submarines and the high-tech crimes of tomorrow, showing how the world’s dark underbelly shapes us, no matter how we try to outpace it. Mark Galeotti, a prolific author specialising in Russia and organised crime, shows “our dynamic interconnected globalised networked cross-cultural world is so permeated by organised crime. It is very hard … Continue reading World of Organised Crime

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Engineering towards mega projects

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Chinese-Canadian, Technology analyst, Dan Wang, from Stanford University, has been living through China’s astonishing messy progress. China’s towering bridges, gleaming railways, and sprawling factories have improved economic outcomes in record time. Rapid changes also meant pain throughout the Chinese society, controlled by political repression ending in astonishing growth, a feature of China’s engineering mindset. In Breakneck, Wang, reveals a provocative new framework for understanding China – one that helps us see America more clearly. While China is an engineering state, relentlessly pursuing megaprojects, the United States has stalled. America has transformed into a lawyerly society, reflexively blocking everything good and … Continue reading Engineering towards mega projects

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Boeing accused of putting the pursuit of profit over passenger safety 

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The Aircraft Accident investigation Bureau in India is focusing on engine thrust. Investigators have discovered in the preliminary investigation into the Air India Flight 171 crash which killed 260 people on 12th June 2025. Just seconds after take-off both of the 12-year-old Boeing 787 Dreamliner’s fuel-control switches abruptly moved to the “cut -off” position, starving the engines of vital fuel and triggering total power loss. Switching to “Cut-off” is a move typically done only after landing. The Cockpit voice recording captures one pilot asking the other why he “did the cut-off”, to which the other pilot replies that he didn’t. The … Continue reading Boeing accused of putting the pursuit of profit over passenger safety 

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Britain’s flagging corporate economy

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The CEOs of Britain’s largest companies wield immense power, but we know very little about them. How did they get to the top? Why do they have so much power? Are they really worth that exorbitant salary?  Two academics from Queen’s Business school, Belfast, Michael Aldous and John Turner lift the veil on Britain’s corporate elite and provide the answers by telling the story of the British CEO over the past century. From gentleman amateurs to professional managers, entrepreneurs, frauds, and fat cats, they reveal the characters who have made it to the top of the corporate ladder, how they got … Continue reading Britain’s flagging corporate economy

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Raindance Festival 2025: The Last Grail Hunter

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Dystopian and dark, the story of this saga cemented to Lee in a dream. He talked to John Altman ( remember Eastenders fame Nick) and the film took a mere four days to film on an iPhone and a drone using the film app Black Magic. Lee is in a band called The Pocket Gods and atmospheric angry music accompanies the story of this “esoteric road trip which is a bit fucked up” adding gravitas from the band. Guerrilla-style filming and work was intrinsic. The book Holy Blood And Holy Grail which apparently inspired some of the writings in The … Continue reading Raindance Festival 2025: The Last Grail Hunter

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Turtle Walker: Discovery of Turtles nesting and habitats

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Raindance 33 Film Festival- The Vue, Lower Regent Street, London. UK Taira Malaney’s Turtle Walker, a 2024 heartwarming documentary film produced over seven years, presenting a  lovely portrait life of a curious conservationist, Satish Bhaskar, who lived alongside rare sea turtles for 19 years to unravel the mysteries that surround them in the late 1970s. The life of Satish Bhaskar born in Vypeen, Kochi, Kerala, southern India, is addressed following his conservationist investigation, when he ventured to the spectacular Andaman and Nicobar Islands and other surrounding islands for turtle surveys which actually saved these sea turtles from extinction, as most turtle’s … Continue reading Turtle Walker: Discovery of Turtles nesting and habitats

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Challenging expectations

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Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google thinks why Britain has much more global influence than it thinks. Ever since the global financial crisis, Britain has been through a difficult period, leading many to conclude the country is doomed to inevitable decline. Jeremy Hunt was at the top of government as both Foreign Secretary and Chancellor, in the last two Tory governments, and he rebuts those who think Britain is no longer capable of shaping the world we live in. There is a real urgency, in that the UK’s need for growth and security through foreign policy is clear. Hunt writes … Continue reading Challenging expectations