Manhattan Judge Denies Request to Unseal Epstein Grand Jury Transcripts
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South Africa’s sport, arts and culture minister, Gayton McKenzie, is under investigation by the country’s human rights commission for historical social media posts containing a highly offensive racial slur, reigniting a debate about racism, identity and the lingering effects of colonialism and apartheid.
McKenzie, an anti-immigrant populist from the Coloured community with a history of stirring up controversies, was given a Wednesday evening deadline by the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) to issue an approved apology, undergo sensitivity training, donate to an agreed charity and delete the X posts, which were still online at the time of publication.
The posts came to light after the hosts of a podcast called Open Chats said on an episode that Coloured people committed incest and were “crazy”. The podcast segment was later removed.
McKenzie’s Patriotic Alliance party, which got 2% of the vote in 2024 national elections and draws its support mainly from Coloured people, filed complaints with the police and the SAHRC. McKenzie told the national broadcaster: “There should be no place to hide for racists.”
Social media sleuths soon unearthed posts made on X between 2011 and 2017, where McKenzie had used the word “kaffir” – a racial slur for black people – though he was not directing it at particular individuals.
In posts on X on 11 August, McKenzie denied being racist and said he was also Black.
“I did tweet some insensitive, stupid and hurtful things a decade or two ago, I was a troll & stupid,” he wrote. “I cringe when seeing them and I am truly sorry for that. I shall subject myself to the investigation.”
Tshepo Madlingozi, the SAHRC’s anti-racism commissioner, told a local TV channel, Newzroom Afrika, on 17 August: “The use of the K-word has been declared unlawful. The use of the K-word, to quote the constitutional court, is unutterable … the court has made it very clear that it is one of the most offensive slurs that one can use.”
He said of the posts still being online: “The harm is ongoing, the harm continues and the alleged offences are still there.”
The white minority apartheid regime, which took power in 1948, forcibly separated South Africans into Native, Coloured, Indian and White categories. It lumped together mixed-race people – descendants of south-east Asian enslaved people, Khoisan Indigenous communities and Europeans – as Coloured and gave them slightly better benefits than their Black counterparts.
Today, official data is still collected in four racial categories – Black African, Coloured, Indian/Asian and White. Coloured people were 8.2% of the population in the 2022 census.
The tensions that the apartheid “divide and rule” strategy fostered are still evident.
“In my entire life, I have never called anybody the K-word, never. We are the victims. This is a political campaign,” McKenzie said in a Facebook Live video on 10 August. McKenzie and his spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.
Tessa Dooms, co-author of the book Coloured, said: “Even if what he had to say was not meant to be derogatory, in a context where Coloured communities have been accused of anti-blackness, the use of that word by a very prominent Coloured figure in society would always be read in the context of presumed anti-blackness.”
She said that while some Coloured people were racist, “anti-blackness was cultivated as part of the apartheid project”.
The enduring tensions are owing, in large part, to many communities still living in the separate areas forced on them by apartheid, said Jamil Khan, who researches Coloured identities at the Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study.
Khan said: “What this shows us, really, is that South Africans don’t really know each other.”
The High Court's decision to block a hotel in Epping from accommodating asylum seekers will not suddenly end their use nationwide.
But could it be a gateway for similar decisions elsewhere?
Individual councils may try to use the decision to stop the use of asylum hotels in their area, which could be a headache for the Home Office.
There is also a question, in the words of the government's own lawyers, of whether the ruling risks causing "further violent protests around other asylum accommodation".
Monday's ruling partly came down to a sense of community - and how it had been potentially impacted in Epping by what the council said was unlawful activity by the hotel, which its owners denied.
In short, the council argued the hotel had breached local planning controls by changing its use, and that in turn had led to events that changed the area: unlawful protests, fear of crime, concerns for 1,800 children going to school from September.
Mr Justice Eyre's conclusions took those concerns into account. He said that lawful protests that had happened in the town could never be a "veto" on how to apply planning rules.
But he added that the council's evidence was that the hotel's alleged unlawful use had affected what is known as "amenity" - that is, the generally-understood quality or character of an area or community.
"[Local] Fear of crime resulting from the use of the Bell, the need to address lawful protests and the consequences of the actions taken to address unlawful activity are relevant factors in support of interim relief," said the judge.
In other words, the council showed him some limited evidence of impact, rather that just a fear of impact, and that justified a temporary injunction to prevent irreparable harm.
If other councils want to use the ruling, they can't just knock on the court's doors to ask that asylum seekers are removed from a hotel because they fear protests.
The judge made clear there has to be some evidence of harm.
If they can show protests have caused clear harm, they might have a chance.
And that's what worries the Home Office.
If the on-off protests continue, peppered around the country, there could be many more cases like Epping as ministers try to meet their commitment to end hotel use by the end of the Parliament.
What are the government's alternatives?
The current housing strategy has evolved piecemeal.
The national "dispersal" plan places asylum seekers in private accommodation around the UK - the hotels are on top.
Critics say that local councils, schools and GPs are not properly warned and some of the poorest people in each community end up in competition with the Home Office for the cheapest private renting.
All governments have turned to ad hoc solutions - including under the Conservatives the Bibi Stockholm barge once moored in Dorset and temporarily-converted military sites, such as Napier barracks in Folkestone, Kent.
Both were criticised as unsuitable and ill-thought out.
Officials have at times looked at buying old student halls. That would be closer to French and Spanish local reception centres, run by independent organisations on behalf of government.
The only plan never tried at scale is a network of purpose-built accommodation centres - or "camps" as some would prefer them to be.
Germany created this kind of basic dormitory-style accommodation designed to accommodate people for up to 18 months with essentials like healthcare and education.
Twenty years ago, Tony Blair's government began working on such a plan but it was later dropped aid local opposition at the first potential sites, but also because asylum numbers were coming under control.
There are about 32,000 asylum seekers in hotel accommodation across the UK in around 210 hotels.
That's down from a peak of 56,000 in 400 hotels before the general election.
Those hotels are being used because there has been an unprecedented backlog in the number of people waiting for a decision on their claim for asylum.
In 2014, 87 out of 100 asylum applicants got a decision on their future within six months.
Those people were either being settled and had permission to pay their own way by getting a job, or they were facing removal from the UK.
By 2021, that decision rate was down to six out of 100.
The backlog was growing largely because the Home Office scrapped a target in 2018 for how quickly to process cases.
The end of the pandemic led to global rush in movements, and the UK began seeing more and more arrivals as people smugglers built a trade on the English Channel.
The backlog hit of 132,000 cases by 2022, according to official figures. The Home Office was running out of its standard supply of private accommodation and began buying up more and more hotel space.
The management of all of this was further complicated when in 2023, the last government stopped processing applications from people arriving in small boats, hoping it would send some of them to Rwanda instead.
All of this is now costing around £5.4bn a year - twice as much as the bill in 2021-22.
That brings us to the legal battles.
In 2022 a string of councils attempted to prevent hotels being used by the Home Office. They largely failed.
In one case, Ipswich Borough Council and the East Riding of Yorkshire Council had argued that hotels in their patches were being illegally changed into hostels - pretty complex issues relating to local planning controls.
Those local authorities and others were seen off by the Home Office and its contractors because the courts legally took into account the bigger national picture.
Ministers have a duty imposed by Parliament to safely house asylum seekers awaiting a decision and the evidence showed they had few good options.
Great Yarmouth successfully blocked the use of hotels on its seafront, saying that breached its local tourism plan - but that was fact-specific and of little legal use to other concerned councils.
Pupils in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will receive GCSE, BTec Tech Awards and other Level 2 results on Thursday.
The GCSE pass rate is expected to be broadly similar to 2024, after years of flux during the Covid pandemic.
Last year, it fell for a third year running.
College bosses have warned there could be more competition for students getting their GCSE results to find places at sixth forms this year, because of their growing popularity and an increase in the population size at that age group.
Bill Watkin, head of the Sixth Form Colleges Association, said some had managed to increase capacity and would have spare places, but added that others are "almost certainly going to have to turn some young people away because they are oversubscribed".
Lee Elliot Major, professor of social mobility at the University of Exeter, said competition to get into top sixth forms "will be fiercer than ever", adding that fears over VAT being added to private school fees may drive more families to seek out places in the state sector.
But Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders' union, said there was a "wide range" of other options for teenagers, such as school sixth forms and further education colleges.
About 170,000 students are due to get results for BTec Tech Awards, BTec Firsts and BTec Level 2 Technical courses, while about 110,000 will receive results for Cambridge Nationals.
The pass rate for National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher exams in Scotland rose across the board this month.
Top A-level results rose again last week – with 28.3% of all grades across England, Wales and Northern Ireland marked at A* or A.
One pupil waiting for her results, Jaya, says she wants to become a dentist and hopes she'll get the grades she needs to start A-levels at Scarborough College next month.
Most pupils getting results this week were in Year 6 when the first Covid lockdown was announced in March 2020, and started secondary school learning in "bubbles".
Jaya, a pupil at St Augustine's Catholic School in Scarborough, said it was bittersweet to be leaving the friends that she met during the Covid pandemic.
"I think when I first came in Year 7 I was probably really nervous," she said.
"I have found my people, my friends, and they have helped me become more confident."
Last year, 67.6% of all GCSE entries were graded 4/C or above.
Regional divides grew in England, with the difference between pass rates in the highest- and lowest-performing regions widening.
This is the second year that grading has returned to pre-pandemic standards across all three nations.
The proportion of GCSE passes rose in 2020 and 2021 when exams were cancelled and results were based on teachers' assessments.
That was followed by a phased effort to bring them back down to 2019 levels.
The return of grading to 2019 standards for a second year running means there will be less emphasis on how grades compare to standards before Covid, and more on how they compare to last year.
In England, pupils who don't get at least a grade 4 in GCSE English and maths are required to continue studying for it alongside their next course, whether it's A-levels, a T-level, or something else.
The Department for Education (DfE) says pupils should retake the exam when they - and their school or college - think they are ready.
GCSE English and maths resits take place in November and May or June.
Most pupils go into their school or college to collect their results, but this year tens of thousands will be sent their results in an app.
The DfE is trialling the Education Record app with 95,000 students in Manchester and the West Midlands, ahead of a national rollout.
Ministers said they hoped it would save money for college admissions teams, while school leaders said students and schools would need "seamless support" to ensure the app works properly.
Students involved in the pilot will still be able to go to school to get their paper results.
Additional reporting by Hayley Clarke and Emily Doughty
The government is preparing to take control of the UK's third largest steelworks in a bid to save the business and protect 1,500 jobs.
Managers have been lined up to take over Speciality Steels UK (SSUK) in South Yorkshire which is owned by Liberty Steel, a court heard.
The future of the company, which uses scrap metal to manufacture steel, has been uncertain for some time and it could be wound up over its large pile of unpaid debts.
It comes after ministers seized control of British Steel, in Scunthorpe, earlier this year to prevent the last plant in the UK producing virgin steel from closing.
SSUK is home to the UK's only electric arc furnaces which are more energy efficient and are thought to be pivotal in the industry's energy transition.
But the company has faced financial troubles for sometime and has been unable to buy the scrap metal needed to produce steel after Liberty Steel's main lender collapsed and unpaid debts mounted.
A High Court judge is set to decide the fate of SSUK.
Creditors owed hundreds of millions of pounds petitioned a court to force the company into liquidation so that Liberty Steel's assets can be sold to pay the debts owed.
Lawyers for its creditors are attempting to convince the courts the government will stand behind the business. On Tuesday, a letter was presented to the court from the government detailing that it would step in to take over the steelworks.
But lawyers for Sanjeev Gupta, executive chairman of GFG Alliance which owns Liberty, sought an adjournment to allow him to complete an administration process for the company to then be sold, without the need for any government intervention.
Mr Gupta, whose firm owns a collection of businesses in energy, trading and steel, employing thousands of people in the UK, has faced scrutiny since GFG's main lender Greensill Capital collapsed in 2021.
Sources close to the steel tycoon have confirmed reports that negotiations with investment giant Blackrock were ongoing to provide new funding to buy the business out of a managed or "pre-pack" administration.
The judge on Tuesday expressed reservations saying there was no certainty as to what would happen to the company after the compulsory liquidation the creditors were demanding.
"What happens to trading after the magic words are uttered?" he asked, referring to the formal granting of a winding up petition. "There is simply too much at stake."
The case has been adjourned and referred to the High Court.
While the government is a supporter of steel, it is not a big fan of Mr Gupta and has rejected his repeated appeals for direct government support.
So the choice now is an unappealing one.
Allow Mr Gupta to try and keep control though an administration – at considerable cost to the lenders whose loans would be largely written off - but zero cost to the government.
Or help his creditors recover what is left of their money by taking on a loss-making steel plant for however long it takes for a buyer to be found and the sale proceeds dished out.
The government has been contacted by the BBC for comment.
Liberty Steel said it believed its "commercial solution backed by major private capital provides the best outcome for the business, its employees and all stakeholders concerned without cost to UK taxpayers or unnecessary uncertainty".
A government intervention in Scunthorpe in 2019 cost the Treasury £600m during the 10 months it took to find Chinese buyer Jingye and since April, the government is back running day to day operations after it accused Jingye of planning to shut down its furnaces.
The government has said its looking for a commercial partner but that nationalisation of the plant is the most likely option.
Police investigating the death of French streamer Raphaël Graven say they have interviewed a number of people and seized equipment and videos.
Raphaël Graven, also known as Jeanpormanove, was known for videos on the platform Kick in which he endured apparent violence and humiliation.
He was found dead at a residence in a village north of the southern French city of Nice on Monday.
On Tuesday, French government minister Clara Chappaz described Mr Graven's death as an "absolute horror", adding he had been "humiliated" for months.
She confirmed a judicial investigation was under way.
Damien Martinelli, the local prosecutor, Nice who is in charge of the investigation, said in a statement that an autopsy would take place on Thursday.
The prosecutor also said that "people present at the time of the death have been questioned by police, but at this stage these interviews did not provide any guidance as to the causes of the death".
The statement continued: "Equipment and videos have been seized as part of the investigation in order to clarify the events that occurred prior to the death and which may have contributed to it."
Mr Graven was known for his extreme online challenges.
The 46-year-old had been subject to bouts of violence and sleep deprivation during streams, and died in his sleep during a live broadcast, local media reported.
Parallel to the investigation into Mr Graven's death is another ongoing probe by police in Nice which started 8 months ago into an alleged "deliberate violent act" against "vulnerable people" that have ended up as videos on the internet.
That investigation, which began in December 2024, was prompted by a report by French outlet Mediapart into videos Mr Graven appeared in.
As part of this investigation, Raphael Graven and another streamer, known as Coudoux - who appeared to be both victims of the violence and humiliation - were spoken to by the police earlier this year.
They both "firmly denied being victims of violence, stating that these acts were part of a staging aimed at 'creating a buzz' to make money", the prosecutor said.
"Both stated that they had never been injured, were completely free to move and make their own decisions, and refused to be examined by a doctor or a psychiatrist," the prosecutor added.
A spokesperson for Kick - a live-streaming platform similar to Twitch, on which users can broadcast content and interact with other users in real-time - previously told the BBC the company was "urgently reviewing" circumstances around the streamer's death.
"We are deeply saddened by the loss of Jeanpormanove and extend our condolences to his family, friends and community," they said.
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A key takeaway from the summit in Alaska is that Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly wants to freeze the war in Ukraine along its current front line in return for the surrender of the rest of Donetsk region.
Russia holds about 70% of the region (oblast), including the regional capital of the same name, after more than a decade of fighting in which Donetsk and neighbouring Luhansk have been the bleeding heart of the conflict.
For Russia to gain all of Donetsk would cement its internationally unrecognised claim to the oblast as well as avoiding further heavy military losses.
For Ukraine to withdraw from western Donetsk would mean the grievous loss not just of land, with the prospect of a new exodus of refugees, but the fall of a bulwark against any future Russian advance.
Here we look at why the territory matters so much.
According to an estimate by Reuters news agency, Ukraine still holds about 6,600 sq km (2,548 sq miles) of territory in Donetsk.
About a quarter of a million people remain there, local officials said recently.
Major urban centres include Kramatorsk, Slovyansk, Kostyantynivka and Druzhkivka.
It forms part of Ukraine's main industrial region, the Donbas (Donets Basin), though its economy has been devastated by the war.
"The reality is these resources likely will not be able to be accessed for arguably a decade at least because of the [land] mines..." Dr Marnie Howlett, departmental lecturer in Russian and East European Politics at the University of Oxford, told Reuters.
"These lands have been completely destroyed, these cities completely flattened."
A recent report by the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) describes a "fortress belt" running 50km (31 miles) through western Donetsk.
"Ukraine has spent the last 11 years pouring time, money, and effort into reinforcing the fortress belt and establishing significant defense industrial and defensive infrastructure," it writes.
Reports from the region speak of trenches, bunkers, minefields, anti-tank obstacles and barbed wire.
Russian forces attacking in the direction of Pokrovsk "are engaged in an effort to seize it that would likely take several years to complete", the ISW argues.
Fortifications are certainly part of the Ukrainian defence but so is the topography.
"The terrain is fairly defensible, particularly the Chasiv Yar height which has been underpinning the Ukrainian line," Nick Reynolds, Research Fellow for Land Warfare at the UK-based Royal United Services Institute (Rusi), tells BBC News.
However, he adds: "If you look at the topography of the Donbas, eastern Ukraine in general, overall the terrain doesn't really favour the Ukrainians."
"The city of Donetsk is high ground. It's all downhill as you go west, which isn't great for the Ukrainians in terms of running defensive operations.
"That's not just about drawing in for the close fight or difficulties going up and down hill, a lot of it is also about observation and thus the ability to co-ordinate artillery fires and other forms of fire support without putting drones up.
"Likewise bits of high ground are better for radio wave propagation, better for co-ordination of drones."
Chasiv Yar, which the Russians recently claimed to have captured, "is one of the last bits of high ground the Ukrainians control", he says.
Intelligence via satellite imagery, whether provided by Ukraine's international partners or commercial, is very important, Reynolds notes, "but it is not the same as being able directly to co-ordinate one's own tactical missions".
Western Donetsk is just a small part of a front line stretching some 1,100km but it has seen some of the fiercest Russian attacks this summer.
But were Moscow to channel its ground forces in any different direction, it is doubtful whether they would make any better progress.
"In the south, the front line in Zaporizhzhia is now very similar to the one in the Donbas, so that would be just fighting through extensive defensive positions as well," says Reynolds.
"The Russians face the same problem trying to bash through in the north, so they certainly wouldn't be pushing on an open door."
In theory, in the event of a peace deal, the Ukrainians could move their line back further west.
There would, of course, be the issue of unfavourable terrain, and building deep defences would take time, even with the help of civilian contractors not having to work under fire.
But theory is one thing and Rusi's land warfare research fellow cannot see the Ukrainian military giving up western Donetsk without a fight.
"Even if the Trump administration tries to use ongoing US support or security guarantees as leverage," Nick Reynolds says, "based on previous Russian behaviour, based on the explicitly transactional approach that the US administration has taken, it is hard to see how the Ukrainian government would want to give up that territory."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said his country will reject any Russian proposal to give up the Donbas region in exchange for a ceasefire, arguing that the eastern territory could be used as a springboard for future attacks.
The entire US-Mexico border wall will be painted black to make it hotter and harder to climb, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has said, crediting the idea to Donald Trump.
While domestic detentions and deportations have been the primary focus of the current immigration crackdown, Trump's policy bill passed earlier this summer also allocated $46m (£34m) for additional wall construction.
About a half mile (0.8km) of wall is going up each day along the nearly 2,000 mile (3,218km) border, according to Noem.
The number of border crossings has plummeted in recent months, and the Trump administration says sweeping arrests and detentions are acting as a deterrent to illegal migration.
Speaking to reporters along a section of the border in New Mexico, Noem said on Tuesday that the black paint was "specifically at the request of the president".
"[He] understands that in the hot temperatures down here, when something is painted black it gets even warmer and it will make it even harder for people to climb," she added.
Border Patrol officials also say that black paint will help prevent the wall from rusting.
Additionally, Noem said the administration is planning to install more "waterborne infrastructure" along the Rio Grande, which makes up more than half of the border between the two countries.
While Noem did not provide any more details on those projects, Texas authorities have previously installed floating barriers - large orange buoys - and fortified riverbank fencing guarded by state troopers, local police officers and the Texas National Guard along parts of the river.
Crossings and detentions of undocumented immigrants have plummeted since Trump returned to the office, with record lows of approximately 4,600 in July and 6,000 in June - a 92% year-on-year reduction.
During the Biden administration, detentions sometimes spiked to averages of 6,000 per day.
Earlier in August, Noem said that a total of 1.6m undocumented immigrants have left the US during the first 200 days of the Trump administration, although she did not specify how many have been deported and how many left on their own.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said earlier in August that a total of 300,000 undocumented immigrants had been detained in the interior of the US since January.
While the administration continues to say it is prioritising those with criminal histories, immigration advocates have warned that many with no criminal charges or only minor infractions have been caught up in the sweeps.
White House officials also contend that increased border security and mass deportations have been deterrents, saying they are the primary reason for plummeting figures at the US-Mexico border.
A prominent South African MP fired shots to fend off a violent attack by a gang on him and two of his colleagues in Cape Town.
Ian Cameron - along with two other members of parliament's police committee, Lisa Schickerling and Nicholas Gotsell - were returning from a work trip when their vehicle was ambushed in the township of Philippi on Tuesday.
The assailants smashed the car's windows with bricks, injuring Cameron and Gotsell.
Cameron, whose teeth were broken, retaliated by opening fire, injuring one of the attackers.
Police said two teenagers, aged 16 and 18, have been arrested as they investigate a case of attempted murder and attempted hijacking.
Crime is a major problem in South Africa and the country has one of the highest murder rates in the world.
One of the suspects was apprehended while seeking medical treatment at a hospital on Tuesday while another was arrested on a farm early Wednesday, police said, adding that a search is under way for a third suspect.
Cameron, who chairs the police committee, told broadcaster Newzroom Afrika that they were returning from an unannounced visit to a police academy in Philippi when "the first brick came through [the window]" on the driver's side and hit him in the face.
Cameron said that while he was trying to fend off his attacker, he saw his colleagues also face a barrage of attacks from the other assailants.
"I realised that if we don't do something, then this can go really bad. So I did my best to act in self-defence with my firearm and then we sped off to the closest secure location," he added.
In South Africa, it is legal to carry a firearm, so long as you have a licence.
Cameron, who was seen with a cut lip in the interview, said some of his teeth had been broken, while Gotsell had to be briefly hospitalised after he was hit on the head.
Gotsell, speaking after being discharged from hospital, praised Cameron, saying he "acted with such bravery".
All three MPs are members of the Democratic Alliance (DA), the second-biggest party in South Africa's coalition government.
The party said the attack showed how "out-of-control" crime is in South Africa.
Go to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.
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The Trump administration has revoked the security clearances of 37 current and former US officials, accusing them of politicising intelligence for partisan or personal gain.
In a memo posted on social media, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard directed several national security agency heads to immediately strip the officials of their clearances, stating the move was ordered by President Donald Trump.
The officials include several national security staffers who served under former Democratic presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama.
Gabbard offered no evidence to support the accusations in the memo.
Security clearances grant access to sensitive government information, and some former officials retain them to advise successors. Some private sector jobs such as those in defence and aerospace can require access to security clearances as a pre-condition for employment.
It remains unclear whether all 37 individuals listed in the memo still held active clearances.
Gabbard said Trump ordered the revocations because the officials "abused the public trust by politicizing and manipulating intelligence, leaking classified intelligence without authorization, and or committing intentional egregious violations of tradecraft standards".
"Being entrusted with a security clearance is a privilege, not a right," Gabbard wrote on X. "Those in the Intelligence Community who betray their oath to the Constitution and put their own interests ahead of the interests of the American people have broken the sacred trust they promised to uphold."
The memo did not lay out specific charges against specific individuals.
This is not the first time the Trump administration has revoked security clearances for intelligence officials. The administration has previously revoked clearances of Biden, his Vice-President Kamala Harris, and former lawmakers involved in investigations of the 6 January Capitol riot.
In recent weeks, Gabbard has led the charge against intelligence officials under former President Barack Obama who concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 elections, which Trump won.
Trump and Gabbard have described the intelligence community's assessment as a "treasonous conspiracy" to undermine the president's electoral success.
Democrats have dismissed the moves as a political distraction, and accused the White House of deflecting attention from unpopular policies and Trump's alleged ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
"These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction," a spokesman for Obama said last month.
© Victor J. Blue for The New York Times
© Meridith Kohut for The New York Times
© Doug Hoke/The Oklahoman, via Imagn
© Jim Wilson/The New York Times
A former priest accused of abusing members of a church group he led has been found guilty of 17 counts of indecent assault against nine women.
Chris Brain, 68, was head of the Nine O'Clock Service (NOS), an influential evangelical movement based in Sheffield in the 1980s and 1990s.
Brain, of Wilmslow, in Cheshire, was convicted of the charges following a trial at Inner London Crown Court.
He was found not guilty of another 15 charges of indecent assault, while jurors are continuing to deliberate on a further four counts of indecent assault and one charge of rape.
Wearing a black suit with a black tie, Brain showed no emotion as the jury foreman delivered the verdicts.
The jury are expected to return to court on Thursday to continue their deliberations on the remaining counts.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.
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The High Court's decision to block a hotel in Epping from accommodating asylum seekers will not suddenly end their use nationwide.
But could it be a gateway for similar decisions elsewhere?
Individual councils may try to use the decision to stop the use of asylum hotels in their area, which could be a headache for the Home Office.
There is also a question, in the words of the government's own lawyers, of whether the ruling risks causing "further violent protests around other asylum accommodation".
Monday's ruling partly came down to a sense of community - and how it had been potentially impacted in Epping by what the council said was unlawful activity by the hotel, which its owners denied.
In short, the council argued the hotel had breached local planning controls by changing its use, and that in turn had led to events that changed the area: unlawful protests, fear of crime, concerns for 1,800 children going to school from September.
Mr Justice Eyre's conclusions took those concerns into account. He said that lawful protests that had happened in the town could never be a "veto" on how to apply planning rules.
But he added that the council's evidence was that the hotel's alleged unlawful use had affected what is known as "amenity" - that is, the generally-understood quality or character of an area or community.
"[Local] Fear of crime resulting from the use of the Bell, the need to address lawful protests and the consequences of the actions taken to address unlawful activity are relevant factors in support of interim relief," said the judge.
In other words, the council showed him some limited evidence of impact, rather that just a fear of impact, and that justified a temporary injunction to prevent irreparable harm.
If other councils want to use the ruling, they can't just knock on the court's doors to ask that asylum seekers are removed from a hotel because they fear protests.
The judge made clear there has to be some evidence of harm.
If they can show protests have caused clear harm, they might have a chance.
And that's what worries the Home Office.
If the on-off protests continue, peppered around the country, there could be many more cases like Epping as ministers try to meet their commitment to end hotel use by the end of the Parliament.
What are the government's alternatives?
The current housing strategy has evolved piecemeal.
The national "dispersal" plan places asylum seekers in private accommodation around the UK - the hotels are on top.
Critics say that local councils, schools and GPs are not properly warned and some of the poorest people in each community end up in competition with the Home Office for the cheapest private renting.
All governments have turned to ad hoc solutions - including under the Conservatives the Bibi Stockholm barge once moored in Dorset and temporarily-converted military sites, such as Napier barracks in Folkestone, Kent.
Both were criticised as unsuitable and ill-thought out.
Officials have at times looked at buying old student halls. That would be closer to French and Spanish local reception centres, run by independent organisations on behalf of government.
The only plan never tried at scale is a network of purpose-built accommodation centres - or "camps" as some would prefer them to be.
Germany created this kind of basic dormitory-style accommodation designed to accommodate people for up to 18 months with essentials like healthcare and education.
Twenty years ago, Tony Blair's government began working on such a plan but it was later dropped aid local opposition at the first potential sites, but also because asylum numbers were coming under control.
There are about 32,000 asylum seekers in hotel accommodation across the UK in around 210 hotels.
That's down from a peak of 56,000 in 400 hotels before the general election.
Those hotels are being used because there has been an unprecedented backlog in the number of people waiting for a decision on their claim for asylum.
In 2014, 87 out of 100 asylum applicants got a decision on their future within six months.
Those people were either being settled and had permission to pay their own way by getting a job, or they were facing removal from the UK.
By 2021, that decision rate was down to six out of 100.
The backlog was growing largely because the Home Office scrapped a target in 2018 for how quickly to process cases.
The end of the pandemic led to global rush in movements, and the UK began seeing more and more arrivals as people smugglers built a trade on the English Channel.
The backlog hit of 132,000 cases by 2022, according to official figures. The Home Office was running out of its standard supply of private accommodation and began buying up more and more hotel space.
The management of all of this was further complicated when in 2023, the last government stopped processing applications from people arriving in small boats, hoping it would send some of them to Rwanda instead.
All of this is now costing around £5.4bn a year - twice as much as the bill in 2021-22.
That brings us to the legal battles.
In 2022 a string of councils attempted to prevent hotels being used by the Home Office. They largely failed.
In one case, Ipswich Borough Council and the East Riding of Yorkshire Council had argued that hotels in their patches were being illegally changed into hostels - pretty complex issues relating to local planning controls.
Those local authorities and others were seen off by the Home Office and its contractors because the courts legally took into account the bigger national picture.
Ministers have a duty imposed by Parliament to safely house asylum seekers awaiting a decision and the evidence showed they had few good options.
Great Yarmouth successfully blocked the use of hotels on its seafront, saying that breached its local tourism plan - but that was fact-specific and of little legal use to other concerned councils.
The cost of everyday food items from instant coffee to beef and fruit juices has continued to rise.
The latest inflation data shows food and non-alcoholic drink prices rose 4.9% in the year to July, the highest annual rate of food and drink inflation since February 2024.
So why is this? And are there any signs these price rises in supermarkets, restaurants and cafes could ease soon?
One contributing factor is the climate.
Drought in the UK has meant that crop yields were lower this year, while extreme weather in other countries has raised the wholesale prices of goods like coffee beans and cocoa.
A bad harvest means good crops are "worth more money", according to one farmer.
Lewis Clare, who produces organic oats and pigs on his 160-acre farm near Manchester, said: "The weather is going to be driving costs up."
"I hate to say I think it's going to go up even more," he added.
"This year has been a problem. It's been incredibly dry, the crops and yields have been terrible."
Global events like the war in Ukraine also affect supply chains and push prices up.
Mr Clare said he used to produce eggs but had to remodel his business after Russia invaded Ukraine.
"Whether it's some kind of extreme weather event or something dramatic like the war in Ukraine, the farmers are the first to feel it, because we are at the frontline, and then it sort of trickles down through to the consumer six to 18 months down the line," he said.
Business owners have also had to grapple with a rise in the minimum wage, as well as higher employer National Insurance Contributions.
Jane Matthews, operations director of the Ice Cream Farm in Cheshire, said her business is constantly having to absorb rising costs, from payroll to food to energy.
"We're being squeezed on all corners," she told BBC News. But, she added, the company was conscious that "customers' budgets are also squeezed."
She said the company felt it had no choice but to pass on these costs to their customers.
"You've got to make these decisions now so you can keep going, [otherwise] you might not to be able to employ more people or [have to] close certain things during the year."
Research published on Tuesday showed that many people are cutting back on fast food and casual dining, replacing it with smaller treats like coffee or a bar of chocolate.
Ms Matthews said she had noticed this through the number of picnics on the farm.
"People might bring a basic picnic and supplement it with a bag of chips for the kids," she said.
"So we've embraced that ... in the hope that they will still spend here."
For many families, the weekly supermarket shop is the most obvious indicator that the cost of living is still going up, especially when the cost of everyday staples is rising.
Rapid rises in food prices hit low-income families the hardest, according to the Resolution Foundation think tank.
Lalitha Try, an economist at the Resolution Foundation, said that low-income families spend a greater portion of their money on food, so they are more sensitive to price rises at the supermarket.
People and families with a higher income have options if they want to cut back, such as switching to own-brand products, but lower-income households are often already doing that, so there are "less choices to make", she said.
Danni Hewson, the head of financial analysis at AJ Bell, said consumer trends were also a factor, as demand for high protein meals had also helped drive up the price of beef.
Even then, households with higher incomes were not immune to the rising inflation, she said.
"Most people live to their means, so they may have a car payment, a chunky mortgage, or pay private school fees, and all of those things are what equates to their standard of living they're used to enjoying," she said.
"But inflation makes everything more expensive and at some point even people on chunky salaries are having to ask questions about how far their money will stretch and what they might have to give up or change in order to keep the bills in check."
Scientists have developed a honeybee "superfood" that could protect the animals against the threats of climate change and habitat loss.
Bee colonies that ate the supplement during trials had up to 15 times more baby bees that grew to adulthood.
Honeybees are a vital part of food production and contribute to pollinating 70% of leading global crops.
"This technological breakthrough provides all the nutrients bees need to survive, meaning we can continue to feed them even when there's not enough pollen," senior author Professor Geraldine Wright at the University of Oxford told BBC News.
"It really is a huge accomplishment," she says.
Honeybees globally are facing severe declines, due to nutrient deficiencies, viral diseases, climate change and other factors. In the US, annual colony losses have ranged between 40-50% in the last decade and are expected to increase.
Beekeepers in the UK have faced serious challenges too.
Nick Mensikov, chair of the Cardiff, Vale and Valleys Beekeepers Association, told BBC News that he lost 75% of his colonies last winter and that this has been seen across South Wales.
"Although the hives have all been full of food, the bees have just dwindled. Most of the bees survived through January, February, and then they just vanished," he says.
Honeybees feed on pollen and nectar from flowers that contain the nutrients, including lipids called sterols that are necessary for their development.
They make honey in hives, which becomes their food source over winter when flowers have stopped producing pollen.
When beekeepers take out honey to sell, or, increasingly, when there isn't enough pollen available, they give the insects supplementary food.
But that food is made up of protein flour, sugar and water, and has always lacked the nutrients bees require. It is like humans eating a diet without carbohydrates, amino acids, or other vital nutrients.
Sterol has always proved very difficult to manufacture, but Prof Wright has led a group of scientists for 15 years to identify which exact sterols bees need and how engineer them.
In the lab at Oxford, PhD student Jennifer Chennells showed us small clear boxes of honeybees in an incubator that she feeds with different foods she has made.
She uses kitchen equipment you could find at home to make the raw ingredients, and rolls out glossy, white tubes of food.
"We put ingredients into what's like a cookie dough, with different proteins, fats, different amounts of carbohydrate, and the micronutrients that bees need. It's to try to work out what they like best and what's best for them," she says.
She pushes the tubes inside the boxes and bees nibble at the mixture.
It's in this lab that, using gene editing, Prof Wright's team successfully made a yeast that can produce the six sterols that bees need.
"It's a huge breakthrough. When my student was able to engineer the yeast to create the sterols, she sent me a picture of the chromatogram that was a result of the work," she says, referring to a chart of the substance structure.
"I still have it on the wall of my office," she explains.
The "superfood" was fed to bees in the lab's hives for three months.
The results showed that colonies fed the food had up to 15 times more baby bees that made it to adulthood.
"When the bees have a complete nutrition they should be healthier and less susceptible to disease," Prof Wright says.
Prof Wright says the food would be particularly useful during summers like this one when flowering plants appear to have stopped producing early.
"It's really important in years when the summer came early and bees will not have sufficient pollen and nectar to make it through the winter," she says.
"The more months that they go without pollen, the more nutritional stress that they will face, which means that the beekeepers will have greater losses of those bees over winter," she explains.
Larger-scale trials are now needed to assess the long-term impacts of the food on honeybee health, but the supplement could be available to beekeepers and farmers within two years.
The study was led by University of Oxford, working with Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, University of Greenwich, and the Technical University of Denmark.
The research is published in the journal Nature.
Scottish Labour MSP Colin Smyth has been arrested and charged over possession of indecent images.
The 52-year-old, who has represented South Scotland since 2016, was arrested at a property in Dumfries earlier this month.
Smyth has been suspended by Scottish Labour and is now listed as an independent on the parliament website.
He is due to appear at Dumfries Sheriff Court at a later date.
Smyth has held several frontbench roles, most recently in April 2023, and previously served as Scottish Labour's general secretary.
His phone was answered but then died when BBC Scotland News tried to contact him.
A Labour spokesperson said: "The whip has been removed from Colin Smyth MSP, pending an investigation.
"We cannot comment further on this matter while the investigation is ongoing."
It is understood the party suspended Smyth when it became aware of the police investigation.
前不久,Nature Cities发表了一篇文章,说明中国城市居民如何通过点外卖将高温天气下的热暴露风险转移到外卖员身上。这道理其实朴素易懂,可真正遭遇滂沱大雨或热浪滚滚的恶劣天气,外卖员又不过变成了一个在我们手机地图上移动的坐标而已。
就以今年夏天频繁遭遇反常降雨的北京为例。7月24号开始的那一轮特大暴雨,据说用了四天就下了北京一年的雨。雨下得太大的时候,向窗外望去,总是白茫茫一片。马路、街道、红绿灯、车流、广告牌、店铺、购物中心、小区居民楼,所有这一切被淹没在大雨里,仿佛这座城市都停摆了,安静得只有哗哗的雨声。待在房间里的人们,甚至等待外卖上门的顾客,无法了解那些仍坚持冒雨在马路上疾驰的外卖员经历着什么。
已经四年没跑外卖的我,也想知道,接连极端天气下,我这些曾经的同行们,在如何工作。
第一次见到老蔡,距离那场特大暴雨已经过去了两周,在半夜11点多的北京街头,夜空中依然飘着雨丝。他紧盯着美团配送的app界面,脸上映着黄色的光,迈着急匆匆的步子往灯牌早已熄灭了的美食城里赶去,不时发出“呱唧呱唧”的声音。
那声音是从他脚底下发出的。当天北京又下了一整天的雨,他的鞋子在白天11点配送午高峰第一波单子的时候,就已经湿透了。
和我聊天的时候,他一直在原地活动自己的脚。他说,整个脚已经没有知觉了,但前脚掌那里又隐隐作痛,猜测脚底的皮肤可能是被水泡烂了,或者磨出了水泡。
◉老蔡晚上回家检查,发现被泡的发白的那部分皮肉周边已经渗出了血丝,但第二天他仍要坚持靠这双脚跑单14个小时。摄影:老蔡
老蔡今年37岁,从甘肃农村老家来到北京,已经跑了四年外卖。作为美团乐跑的外卖员,没有电梯的高层、不允许电动车进的小区,类似的“破单子”都得由他踩着湿哒哒的鞋袜配送。雨天视线受阻、手机操作不方便、路面湿滑,这些都加大了配送难度,为了避免超时,他需要更集中注意力,至于鞋里面到底什么情况,也顾不得检查,就这样跑下来一整天。
“所以你就这样忍着跑了12个小时?”第二天见面时,我开口问道。
老蔡语气略带苦楚又骄傲地回答道:“是14个小时半,我每天10点钟上线跑单,昨天跟你说完之后,我跑到了1点半才收。”
我有些震惊地问,是什么人下雨天这么晚还点外卖?老蔡一副见怪不怪的样子,吐了一口烟答道:“这有什么,多了去了,我前阵子最晚送到凌晨2点,还有人点奶茶喝呢。”
同样认为我大惊小怪的还有饿了么的专送外卖员小谭。小谭是00后,去年才从老家河南来北京打工。他对自己的定位是“一人吃饱,全家不饿”,相比于老蔡,他的生活压力较小,整个人显得更轻松,但也不得不坚持在每个下雨天出勤跑单。
他觉得,下雨天外卖员从头湿到脚这种事根本就是家常便饭,即使不下雨,在北京炎热的夏天,每天东奔西跑,出的汗都足够把全身的衣服浸湿了。
8月12号那天,北京天降骤雨,当时小谭正在返回商圈的路上。他花20块钱买的劣质雨衣在配送时划了个口子,再加上狂风肆虐,雨没下多大会儿,全身就湿透了。他索性把雨衣脱了,接着跑。
◉下雨天正在路口焦急等待的外卖员。摄影:玉阳
“对于这些情况,我都能忍受。”让小谭不能忍受的是,那天早餐他只喝了一碗粥,本以为几个小时后就能吃上午饭,可没想到,这一跑就到了晚上8点。突如其来的大雨让成百上千的顾客在同一时间拿起手机点外卖,小谭的系统则不断传来“您有新的订单”。爆单让他没有任何机会停下来,就这样一直在风雨里穿梭。等下线的时候,充电宝电量已经耗尽,手机电量还剩4%,他买了份饭想要回家吃,但实在太饿,只好在路边的一个公交车站停了下来。
摘下蓝色头盔,放在一旁,脸上的雨水还不时滴到饭里,但似乎没影响到他什么。小谭坐在广告牌旁平淡地吃着饭,不一会儿又戴上蓝色头盔,整个动作一气呵成,骑上朝夕相伴的电动车,消失在北京漫长的黑夜里,就好像他从来没在这里停留过一样。
我把这些新听到的故事转述给了老魏,他表现得很淡然。老魏是山东人,今年43岁,现在在京东送外卖,不过他从2018年就已经开始在配送行业工作了。一路走过来,他觉得干外卖这行遭点罪、受点伤太正常了,这些天让他真正感到不舒服的是,明明自己已经努力加快速度,确保下雨天餐品也能及时送到顾客手里,但还是会遭到意想不到的投诉。
◉对老魏这样准时、负责的骑手来说,在紧张的配送过程中,还要分心处理顾客的投诉,可能是他最不想遇到的问题。图源:老魏
“前阵子不是北京下大暴雨嘛,那几天你在外面跑单了吗?”
老蔡对着我比了个“1”,我盯着他的食指问:“是跑了一天?还是休了一天?”
“是一天都没休。”他笑着说,“你别说这两天了,我跑4年外卖了,除了春节或者处理必要的事儿,都不休息。”
上有老、下有小的老蔡是家中的顶梁柱。两娃中的老大今年刚中考完,由于成绩不太理想,9月份只能上私立高中,一年学费就得交四五万。
“孩子大了,在教育上就得花钱,你说我压力能不大吗?每天就这样干十四五个小时,一个月能挣个一万三四,最后也剩不下啥。”
不过,家庭从来不只是让他疲于奔命,也让他在马路上飞驰的时候绷紧了保护自己的那根弦。他说,底线肯定是保护自己不出事,出了事耽误送单不说,毕竟家里还有老婆孩子呢。
对于外卖员而言,生命安全和金钱之于家庭同等重要,可又相互矛盾,不过老蔡言语中透露着一股自信,他认为自己能凭借高超的技巧在两者之间取得平衡。
有一次,平台一股脑派了十几个单子,他就一边琢磨着最快的配送路线,一边在高速移动中观察过往车辆的速度和司机的行驶状态,以判断自己逆行、闯红灯的时候是否足够“安全”。
◉我自己在送外卖时爆单后的系统界面。在超时的压力下,一边规划取餐和配送路线,一边在高速行驶时观察车流和人流,骑手的注意力很难一直保持高度集中。图源:玉阳
当他因为送了一单不允许电动车进入只能徒步配送的小区,导致后续的订单快要超时时,大汗淋漓地跑回车上,反而要先给自己点上一根烟。他说:“越是着急的时候,我越要让自己保持清醒,送外卖可不只是个体力活,脑子里时刻都得计算着。”
这完全是在刀尖上跳舞。乍一听,让老蔡风雨无阻出勤跑单的压力似乎全部来自家庭,但这可能只是真相的一半。
在美团、饿了么这些平台的管理制度下,留给骑手“在刀尖上舞蹈”的空间其实相当狭小。那刀尖看上去是骑手自愿站上去的,但有时候也不是出于自愿,而且也不是你想停就能停下来的。
首先,老蔡提到,美团设置乐跑骑手的一个意义就是为了应对在高温、暴雨、大风、下雪这些恶劣天气下骑手数量不够的问题。“别人不送的单子,我们来送。像有些小年轻没我们这么大压力,一到下雨天不想出来跑,那也会被队长强制要求上线。”
与美团乐跑互为镜像的饿了么优选也有着同样的规则。饿了么优选外卖员小王介绍说:“现在美团和饿了么的众包,不是都像从前那样自由,像我们这种跑优选的,单量比一般的众包有保证。但几次下雨天不出来跑,就被队长踢出小队了。”
◉即使在规定的休息日,也会被强制要求出勤,一位美团外卖员抱怨道:“真不知道骑手恳谈会恳谈了啥!”图源:抖音@美团(雇佣兵)
相比之下,饿了么专送则是依靠罚款来进行恶劣天气下的出勤管理。小谭吐槽道:“专送的单价比众包要高一些,但是天气越恶劣就越得出来跑单,你像现在风和日丽的,我们反而能请假。”
有一次,他出门的时候,雨水已经漫过了他电动车的车轮,等骑到马路上,积水已经到交警的膝盖了。但他没有选择。他也曾试图找过借口请假:“无非就是电动车坏了、手机坏了这两个理由嘛,那站长能不知道?我们跑的单量关乎站长的工资,而且从外卖大战开始,骑手就处于一个供不应求的状态,出勤的骑手少了肯定耽误给顾客配送的效率。”小谭透露,把站长逼急了是真会对骑手罚款的,金额在300-500元不等,还会直接把罚单发到群里杀鸡儆猴。
其次,考勤要求也逼着外卖员不得不在恶劣天气跑单。无论是美团还是饿了么,平台允许外卖员每周有一天的休息,超过规定的休息天数,则会取消“考勤奖”。但老蔡、小谭和小王他们都明白,说是取消“奖励”,其实就是变相“罚款”。“那就是我们挣的,取消奖励,相当于每单少一块,一个月就是几百上千块钱,我肯定不敢轻易请假啊,下雨天没事就跑呗,要不然等你真有点啥事又没法请假了。”
除了取消“考勤奖”,还有一点让美团乐跑或饿了么优选的外卖员感到很难受的是,下雨天的单子往往是一单压着一单,连绵不断。如果外卖员想拒绝手里的单子休息一阵,竟反过来还要向平台支付费用。“4单以内,每单转出去是2块,4单往上是3块,然后是5块、7块,它这个收费标准也是阶梯式的。”小王介绍道。
◉“太难了,不想送还得给它钱”。图源:抖音@海兴曲先生
据老魏透露,对于以上两个操作,新入场的京东“还没学坏”。例如,京东允许外卖员每日免费拒绝40次订单,并且不会因为考勤不达标而克扣单价。
但京东也给了老魏其他烦恼。下雨天,三家平台的算法都会相应延长配送时长,但就同样的路程,京东算法给出的时间,相比于美团和饿了么可能会少10分钟,甚至更多,而就是这10分钟让老魏送餐的压力骤然增加。
相应地,京东对于超时的单子的处罚力度也大一些,美团和饿了么对于超时订单的处罚标准一般是扣除50%的单价,京东则是75%。上个月老魏因为超时被扣了700多块钱,虽然他对京东给外卖员的整体待遇是认可的,但面对这700多块钱,说不心疼那也是假的。
如果我们接受外卖员不得不在恶劣的天气条件下坚持工作的现状,那么他们就此付出的代价又由谁来买单呢?
距离那个下雨的夜晚过去了一周,当我再次联系上老蔡的时候,他正在医院做检查。原来是前一天下大雨,路面湿滑,再加上头盔面罩上的雾气阻挡视线,他在送餐过程中追尾了一辆汽车,自己则从车把上边翻了出去。
◉在湿滑的道路上仍高速行驶的外卖员。摄影:玉阳
我听到这个消息一时没反应过来,不敢相信事故来得如此之快,毕竟老蔡当时谈起自己如何“在刀尖上跳舞”的轻松语气还在耳边回响。可现实是残酷和危险的,并不如他嘴上说的那般轻描淡写。
当我问老蔡和小谭,既然下雨天或高温天气这么危险,外卖员是否有相应补贴时,得到的答案是“有跟没有没什么区别”。下雨天,由于出勤的骑手数量少,根据单量与骑手数量的供需变化,单价会有相应的浮动,但不会有特意针对下雨天的补贴。此外,小到购买雨衣、头盔、工服,大到手机、电动车损坏,这些成本或损失,均由骑手自行承担。
老蔡和小谭都不约而同地提到曾经因为长时间在雨中送餐,导致手机进水的情况。一向省吃俭用的老蔡,也只能自己花钱换个新手机。而小谭则吐槽道,那天自己挣了400块,但是换个手机屏又花了450块,在雨里忙了一天还倒赔了50块钱。
◉下雨天,外卖员的手机仍不离手,一天下来,手机进水无法避免。摄影:玉阳
而提起高温补贴,老蔡则是觉得非常可笑。北京市今年给室外工作者发放高温补贴的标准是,每人每月不得少于180元。美团在这个夏天也推出了“2025年夏季清凉行动”,宣称通过“单单补贴和长线活动等形式,通过更精准、多元的方式增加骑手在高温下的劳动收入。”
而在老蔡实际的体验中,所谓的“单单补贴”“精准”翻译过来则是,美团不是按月一次性发放高温补贴,而是要求骑手每天在13点半到17点之间完成一定的配送量:0-4单没有奖励;4-12单之间的单子,每单奖励1元;12单以上的单子,每单奖励3元。
送过外卖的都知道,13点半到17点,是介于午高峰和晚高峰之间单量最少的时段,想要完成这样的kpi并不容易。而且,这个时间段也是天气最热的时候,气温往往能达到35度以上。如此一来,在“精准”的名义下,本应是体恤外卖员辛苦劳动的高温补贴,反倒成了平台催着外卖员在高温天气下跑单的抓手了。
◉美团的“高温关怀”阶梯奖励活动,有骑手反映:“高温活动太坑了,压根拿不到。”图源:微信视频号@文冉旭
小谭也从来没听过什么“高温补贴”。当我问他希望平台能在哪方面改进时,他笑着说道:“至少提供一些藿香正气水什么的吧。”
去年夏天,他第一次跑单中暑,只觉得头晕耳鸣、心里面特别难过,吐出了好多苦水,还是坚持把单送完了。后来去药店买了藿香正气水,才好了一些。“从那以后,我才长了记性,夏天一定要备着藿香正气水。”
对于这些问题,身为京东骑手的老魏谈论起来倒是显得轻松。因为根据他的介绍,京东会给全职外卖员每个月发放300元的高温补贴,这是真正落实了的。同时,像冰袖、藿香正气水这些福利也是骑手可以免费领取的。
老魏坦言,希望京东越来越好,能够保持住这样的福利标准。但他的语气中却也夹杂着些许担忧,因为他知道有些福利并非取决于骑手,而是平台在商业层面的考量。就在几个月前,京东外卖一开始为了吸引外卖骑手,给出的单价是10元一单,但如今已经降到了4块钱左右。
◉京东外卖连续降价,有骑手说:“两个月前我叫你东哥,现在我该叫你什么?”图源:抖音@送外卖的小姐姐
最近这轮“三国大战”,平台之间虽然也有竞争,但补贴更多流向了用户,而不是外卖员。在外卖业劳动市场已经饱和的情况下,平台已经不需要通过笼络骑手来圈占市场和流量,它们宁愿把这些钱用来承担大量奶茶的浪费成本,也不会用于增加骑手福利。
其实,从一小瓶藿香正气水、一副冰袖,到一笔实实在在的降雨或高温补贴,再到恶劣天气下更合理的配送时间,这些落实到细节上的改变,无论大小,总是能让外卖员更有尊严、更健康、更舒心地劳动和生活。是的,他们甚至都没有提到社保。总之,今年的夏天已经结束了,他们的声音依然被淹没在大雨或热浪中。那么明年夏天,以后的每一个夏天,改变会发生吗?答案似乎不完全以他们的意志为转移。
作者:郑玉阳
一个生长于黑龙江省巴彦县畜牧二分场,漂泊在北京的intp青年,曾在北京跑过4个月外卖。目前主要关注数字科技、农业技术与可持续发展等议题。
背景新闻:中国大规模断网!HTTPS流量全面中断一小时
2025年8月20日凌晨00:34至01:48(北京时间),持续约74分钟。中国全国范围内,境内外双向443端口流量受到干扰,导致大量国际网站(如苹果、特斯拉、必应等)以及依赖HTTPS的跨境服务无法访问,VPN连接也受到影响。
防火长城(GFW)疑似对TCP 443端口实施无差别封锁,通过注入伪造的TCP RST+ACK包中断连接。封锁设备指纹与已知的GFW设备不同,可能是新设备或配置错误导致。
封锁仅针对443端口,未影响80、22、8443等其他常见端口。
有网络安全专家分析,这可能是一次防火长城的技术测试或网络防御演习,特别是在北京9月3日阅兵临近的背景下。测试可能涉及新设备或新配置的启用,但也可能因配置错误导致意外中断。
以下是一些网友发布在推特平台的观察:
@whyyoutouzhele:8月20日0点34分左右,中国防火长城GFW突然开始屏蔽所有的境外443端口流量(也就是https访问)包括苹果,特斯拉,必应等网站流量也都受到了不同程度甚至完全的干扰或阻断。1点30,开始双向屏蔽所有443端口流量。1点38分,部分大公司开始恢复。1点50分:大量网站陆续恢复。
@gfw_report:我们观测到中国的防火长城 (GFW) 于北京时间2025年8月20日凌晨,对 TCP 443 端口进行无差别封锁。这对互联网造成短暂但大规模的影响。我们发现注入封锁的设备指纹与已知 GFW 设备不同,这可能意味着 GFW 尝试启用新设备,或在旧有设备上使用(错误的)新配置。 相关阅读:《2025年8月20日中国防火长城GFW对443端口实施无条件封禁的分析》
许多网友就断网事件发布了一些观点、猜想,有Reddit网友发问:“什么原因造成中国8月20日凌晨突发的网络大规模中断,境外443端口被全面屏蔽?”
以下是中国数字时代编辑摘自网友的评论:
juryxiong:见证历史:GFW屏蔽了所有来自境外的443端口访问。如果你生活在海外,或者正在翻墙,你将无法访问任何中国https网站。
gillwillchill:从时间上看,大概率是测试或演练。很多用非443的庆幸没受影响,而这种测试只测443就够了。
porkbelly2022:反正国内上网基本上是白名单制,被封的网站远不止黄赌和政治,很多相当普通的网站也统统被屏蔽,不知为何,离断网也就差一步了。
ARKIxyz:朝鲜化试运行测试。
mdbhx:昨晚零晨我正看着油管视频,突然断线了。我尝试重连也不行,然后换成了hy2协议就可以了。我还以为是我一个人的问题。没想到是gfw无差别屏蔽。
Ryan02I5:《护网行动》《重保演练》。
TOKAKATOK:他们在升版本吧。
Gfreedman9:这次事件不像是单纯事故,更可能是GFW在进行一次新级别的封锁演练。目的是在特定时间点大规模实验,可能是为了在国际或国内发生某些事件时,江油或阅兵失误之类能做到瞬间全网断联;这种演练本质上是网络版的战备演习:测试一旦发生政治突发事件如社会抗议、国际冲突,能否快速让全国进入内网模式。说白了,这其实就是一种数字铁幕的预演。
btrfs_convert:倾向于GFW运维事故,说不定是什么配置文件下发错误什么之类的,升级和测试没这么窝囊的。
walking_shadow:重大活动之前不都有例行的防火墙“升级”嘛……目测这词升级的时候配置配错了。
从顶层设计到具体执行总会因为各层级的各种短期目标而变形。更何况中国的养老保险制度有一个极度的短期目标,那就是现收现付制度。
文丨FT中文网专栏作家 刘远举
近日,“社保新规”引发了广泛关注。2025年8月,最高人民法院一纸《劳动争议案件司法解释(二)》规定,自9月1日起,任何“自愿放弃社保”的协议,无论是口头还是书面形式,都将被认定为无效。
劳动者以用人单位未依法缴纳社会保险费为由解除劳动合同,要求用人单位支付经济补偿的,人民法院依法予以支持。用人单位按照行政机关的要求补缴后,如果用人单位已经把社会保险费以补助的方式,支付给了劳动者,可以要求返还。
说是新规,其实严格地来说并不是。人社部的官方微信曾回答过这个问题。根据相关的法律,在劳动合同中约定不缴社会保险,是无效的。之前也曾有多起,约定不交社保,最终用人单位败诉的案例。不过与此同时,也实际存在的是,很多地方在执行过程中,是承认这种约定的。
总体来说,社保部门的动作较为克制。前段时间,骑手、快递员的社保问题,成为社会热点。其实社保部门一直在探索新办法,灵活地解决这一问题,而不是简单地强制性的一律按城镇职工全额社保。
从这个角度看,此次新规并不新,而是高法从自身工作需要,对法院工作面临的争议,从法律的技术层面,给出的回应。毕竟,相关法条是非常清晰的。
约定不交社保,一种情况是,用人单位根本没有出这一部分钱;另一种情况是,用人单位给了一部分给劳动者,但显然,金额没有交社保那么多。否则用人单位不会愿意承担风险。这就意味着,此次司法解释,会形成一种道德风险,员工最初和老板签订不交社保的协议,然后离职后要求用人单位补上,用人单位一开始就不得不交全额社保。这会导致用人单位的成本上升。考虑到社保占工资总额比例大,这就形成一种实质性的高额加税。
对于这个情况,相关的技术分析很多了。这里我想说说背后的局部和整体,长期和短期理性之间的博弈问题。
中国社会没有小政府的经验和常识,社会观念对政府的要求很多,对“政府来养老”是有高度社会期待的。但很多人收入不高,再加上人总是注重短期利益,而缺乏长期理性的,所以,无法做到计划性的长期养老储蓄。一边是无法自行储蓄养老,一边是对政府的期待,
很多人忽略了的是政府并不创造财富,“政府来养老”和“强制储蓄”,几乎是一个同义词。那么,一个几乎必然的结果就是,政府来强制储蓄。
这种强制储蓄,长远来看,劳动者未来的晚年生活更有保障。与之相伴的医疗保险,也能为日常就医和重大疾病治疗提供了报销保障,减轻医疗费用负担。这就是社保政策的长期理性,这也是大家认同的选择。
不过,初心总是好的,但从顶层设计的初心,到具体执行,总是会在时间长河中因为各层级的各种短期目标而变形。更何况,中国的养老保险制度有一个极度的短期目标,那就是现收现付制度。
根据《中国养老金精算报告2019-2050》,2019年全国城镇企业职工基本养老保险基金累计结余为4.26万亿元,此后持续增长到2027年达到峰值6.99万亿元,然后开始迅速下降,到2035年耗尽累计结余。
精算报告还显示,由于人口老龄化的趋势,在职参保职工与退休人口的比值一直在下降。在2025年是2.7,就是2.7个在职职工对应1个退休人口,但到2060年,潜在支持率就降到1。如果考虑到实际缴费人数少于登记参保人数,一部分灵活缴费人员到了最低缴费年限就不缴费了,那么,潜在支持率就会进一步降低到0.89。
那么一个社保本身部门,就会想办法在自身范畴内解决问题,提升缴费人数。这是社保这种长期理性政策的短期理性。相对而言,正如前面所说,从实际执行看,社保部门相对比较克制。但对于司法部门来说,回应各层级法院面临的争议,这是一种短期的、局部的目标。
于是,这种局部的、短期的理性,很多时候,会同时损害政策的长期理性与短期目标。
1974年,著名的经济学家阿瑟•拉弗,在华盛顿的一家餐馆里,和后来成为副总统的切尼谈起了“较高的税率是如何导致较少的政府收入”这个话题。拉弗顺手在餐巾纸上画出了一条倒U形曲线。这就是著名的拉弗曲线。
按照拉弗曲线,过高的税率会抑制税基扩展,进而损害税收总额。
一开始,税率增加,政府税收会增加,但随着税率上升,超过一定限度后,税收收入会随着税率的提高而减少。这是因为高税率降低了税后工资,会影响人们工作的积极性;高税率会降低投资收益,企业会减少投资,个人会减少培训投资,进而降低劳动生产率的提高;过高的税率,还会中止一些本来可以继续进行的交易,很多企业会经营不下去。于是,总税额开始减少,政府自身也会成为利益受损者。
这条倒U型的曲线最极端的两头,说明了一个最简单明了的道理,“当税率为零时,税收为零;但当税率为100%的时候,税收同样为零”。所以适度减税能激发经济活力。该理论构成里根经济学政策基石,里根经济学又为克林顿时代美国IT产业的爆发,打下了经济基础。
毋庸讳言,因为国内外的各种因素,中国经济现在仍处于承压状态。在这种情况下,都应降税以刺激投资、刺激经济、增加就业。这是短期最需要解决的问题。
那么,面对司法解释引发的实际问题,当局部的、短期的目标伤害到全局性的短期目标,并最终损害长期目标时,就需要增强各部门政策的短期与长期,局部与整体的协调性。这或许是此次司法解释背后的更深层次问题。