UK Vows Due Diligence on China Embassy Amid Security Concerns
The UK government promised to assess any security concerns related to the construction of a Chinese embassy near the City of London, an issue that could potentially complicate trade talks with the US.
President Donald Trump has warned Prime Minister Keir Starmer against letting China set up a mega-embassy near the country's key financial centers, after the plan was revived following personal lobbying by President Xi Jinping, the Sunday Times reported. The issue has been raised in trade negotiations between the US and UK, according to the newspaper.
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Bold move to keep Americans safe from ‘terrorists' is basis for US travel ban for some African nations
President Donald Trump's restrictions on travel from 10 African countries are being praised by analysts for improving U.S. security internationally and domestically. The president said on X the travel ban was being introduced after a terror attack against a pro-Israel group advocating for Hamas to release Israeli hostages in Boulder, Colorado, last weekend, allegedly by an Egyptian man who had overstayed his visa. In a White House fact sheet, Trump said, "We will restore the travel ban, some people call it the Trump travel ban, and keep the radical Islamic terrorists out of our country." Suspect In Boulder Terror Attack Determined To Be Egyptian Man In Us Illegally: Fbi This point was backed by the State Department's principal deputy spokesperson, Tommy Pigott. In a briefing Thursday, Pigott said, "This is a national security imperative". But observers believe there is an external, international reason. Read On The Fox News App "Most, if not all, of the African countries were added to this list either because of extreme instability and thus terrorist havens or because relations between them and the U.S. is either extremely poor or non-existent," Bill Roggio, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and editor of FDD's Long War Journal, told Fox News Digital. "For instance, the U.S. has been historically hard on Eritrea for its human rights abuses and also alleged support for terrorism. While in Chad, its military regime kicked the U.S. military out of its territory last year, further hurting the U.S. military posture in Africa." Trump Bans Travel To Us From Several Countries To Block 'Dangerous Foreign Actors' Some of the restricted African countries listed below pose significant potential security concerns for the U.S. The world's two principal Islamist terror groups, ISIS and al Qaeda, represented here by Al-Shabaab, both operate openly in Somalia. The White House described it this week as "a terrorist safe haven." A briefing note accompanying the travel ban declared, "A persistent terrorist threat emanates from Somalia's territory. Somalia also remains a destination for individuals attempting to join terrorist groups that threaten the national security of the United States." The U.S. Africa Command mounted five air attacks against operators from both groups in just the 12 days up to June 2. Fighting and subsequent piles of bodies in the streets have been reported in the past month in Tripoli, the Libyan capital. The U.N.'s Support Mission in Libya recently posted on X that the situation could "spiral out of control." "The historical terrorist presence within Libya's territory amplifies the risks posed by the entry into the United States of its nationals," the White House note states, adding U.S. border officials can't properly vet Libyans because "there is no competent or cooperative central authority for issuing passports or civil documents in Libya." The U.S. has already imposed sanctions against the leaders of both parties involved in a two-year civil war that has reportedly killed 150,000 and displaced 12 million. The U.S. claims up to 28% of Sudanese overstay their visas. The criminal records of Eritreans are not available for inspection by U.S. officials. With an overstay rate of up to 55%, the White House also reported that "Eritrea has historically refused to accept back its removable nationals." Critics Have Meltdown And Accuse Trump Of Imposing Renewed 'Muslim Ban' Through 'Disgusting' Travel Order The West African country is causing concern in Washington as it deepens relations with Russia. Chad President Idriss Deby went to Moscow last year for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Kremlin Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was then warmly welcomed in Chad's capital, N'Djamena, for a reciprocal visit. Russia's shadowy Wagner private mercenary group's importance in the country is being questioned after three of its members were arrested in September and sent back to Moscow. Banning nationals this week, the U.S. said Chad has had a visa overstay rate of up to 55%. In Chad, President Deby responded by saying, "I have instructed the government to act in accordance with the principles of reciprocity and suspend the issuance of visas to U.S. citizens." People from this West African country have reportedly overstayed their F, M and J visas by up to 70%. Depending on the visa category, up to 35% of citizens in the U.S. are reported to have overstayed their visas. Overstaying is the main issue for the other African countries whose nationals are partially restricted and now have only limited entry into the U.S. Has an overstay rate of up to 35%, and, the White House says, "has historically failed to accept back its removable nationals." Togo suffers from poor governance, nepotism and widespread corruption, which reportedly goes all the way to the president's office. Over 50% of the population lives below what's regarded as the international poverty line. Togo's nationals have an overstay rate of up to 35% in the U.S. Burundi vies with South Sudan for the dubious title of poorest country in the world. Yet soaring inflation has caused a devastating rise in food prices. A former rebel group has led the country for two decades in a climate of political unrest and alleged repression. Burundi's citizens have an overstay rate of up to 17% in the article source: Bold move to keep Americans safe from 'terrorists' is basis for US travel ban for some African nations
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Government considers social media time limits for children
The government is considering introducing tougher online safety measures to limit the amount of time children can spend on social media, the BBC understands. Proposals include a two-hour cap on the use of individual social media apps and a 22:00 curfew, as first reported by the Sunday People and the Mirror. Appearing on the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said he was looking at the "addictive nature of some of the apps and smartphones", when asked whether time limits would be considered. But an online safety campaigner has accused the government of delaying bringing in new laws to protect children. Ian Russell, whose daughter, Molly, took her own life at 14 after seeing harmful content online, said: "Every day the government has delayed bringing in tougher online safety laws we've seen more young lives lost and damaged because of weak regulation and inaction by big tech." Mr Russell, who backed the previous government's Online Safety Act, said only "stronger and more effective" legislation would "finally change the dial on fundamentally unsafe products and business models that prioritise engagement over safety." "Parents up and down the country would be delighted to see the prime minister act decisively to quell the tsunami of harm children face online, but sticking plasters will not do the job." Kyle told the BBC he had not been able to speak publicly about the government's plans to toughen online safety laws because legislation passed by the previous Conservative government in 2023 had yet to be enacted. "This year we've had illegal content that needs to be taken down, but in July, age-appropriate material must be supplied by platforms, otherwise there'll be criminal sanctions against them," he told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme. He said that he had been looking carefully at what government needed to do next to "nail down harder" on safety, "understand what a healthy online life for children" looked like and "stop the barriers" towards achieving that. In January, Kyle told the BBC that laws on internet safety were "very uneven" and "unsatisfactory", following calls from campaigners to tighten the rules. The minister expressed his "frustration" with the Online Safety Act but did not commit to making changes to the legislation. A Whitehall source later told the BBC there were no plans to repeal the act. Online safety laws unsatisfactory, minister says Social media faces big changes under new Ofcom rules
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Digital ID cards could be Starmer's poll tax
In March 1990, shops and cars in Covent Garden were set ablaze in the worst rioting the capital had seen for a century. Few things had angered the public like the new community charge. But something else happened too, which has been largely forgotten. Councils saw their revenue crash, as millions of names disappeared from the voter rolls. Now Sir Keir Starmer's favourite think tank has proposed what could turn out to be his very own poll tax. 'BritCard' is the name for a new digital ID app advanced by Labour Together, the think tank once run by Morgan McSweeney, who is now Starmer's chief of staff. The demand 'papers, please!' is not popular with voters, so to make it more palatable BritCard comes wrapped in the language of civic nationalism, serving as a cure for illegal immigration. The app and proposed wallet will be rebranded BritCard, to give us a nice warm, fuzzy feeling. We will love it so much that they believe it will morph into a full-blown digital ID system, acting as 'a familiar feature of daily life for everyone in the country'. But there are two serious problems here, and they are set on a collision course. First, BritCard will be mandatory, so we will be forced to use it or go off-grid entirely. Second – and this should alarm us all – Labour Together proposes that BritCard will use the Government's One Login digital identity service, which is mentioned 13 times in the proposal. This has become an expensive and sprawling Government IT project that has engaged hundreds of contractors, and cost taxpayers over £300m. What we know about it is very troubling – concerns have been raised about the security of the project at the deepest levels of the state. When we create a One Login account, it hoovers up our personal identification documents. This ID becomes the key that unlocks other government services, so an insecure system has serious consequences. It not only puts individuals at risk of identity theft and impersonation, but also makes defrauding the Government much easier. A fake ID can get you a long way. Phishing gangs accessed the records of 100,000 taxpayers, HMRC officials admitted last week, and used the IDs to steal an estimated £47m. An ID system like One Login is where criminal gangs would go first, and BritCard will forcibly enrol you into it. The Telegraph has reported the concerns of senior risk and cybersecurity staff working on One Login in some detail. The system was being accessed and modified by staff and contractors without the required level of security. Parts of the system were being developed in Romania, a fact that had eluded top management at the Government Digital Service (GDS). 'It's Horizon all over again,' one global security expert told this newspaper in April, referring to the notorious Post Office computer system. Of the 39 requirements in the National Cybersecurity Centre's cybersecurity checklist list CAF, One Login still only meets 21. But instead of taking the warnings seriously, One Login's senior management at GDS turned on the messengers who had brought them the bad news, dispersing the independent risk and cybersecurity team that first raised the issues. One Login's management subsequently began to mark their own homework. And earlier this year, a 'red team' exercise revealed how easily the system could be captured by hostile parties. The penetration test confirmed that intruders could breeze right in and take control of One Login without anyone noticing. Now recall GDS's own words – made in a business case that it refuses to release to the public – that an insecure One Login would empower 'hostile actors seeking to disrupt national infrastructure', with 'severe consequences for a large number of people'. As for Labour Together's proposition that a digital ID will help magically fix mass immigration, technology is not really the problem. Asylum seekers are already issued with a compulsory ID, but that doesn't stop them from melting into the underground economy, where the ID is never checked. And undocumented arrivals can gain a valid identity from the Home Office because it is promiscuously issuing credentials to undocumented migrants, taking at face value that they are who they say they are. Going digital won't fix either. Labour Together also thinks the public will rally around a digital ID app. 'Our polling revealed extremely strong public support for using a digital identity system for a range of use cases,' argues Labour Together. But only some. Polling by YouGov finds that around a fifth of UK consumers would not be comfortable with having an internationally recognised digital ID card or wallet like BritCard. Fewer than half, or 44pc, want a government ID that stores their biometric data, according to a survey for British payments processor History doesn't repeat itself exactly, but it can rhyme. In 1990, millions went off-grid to avoid a hated new tax. Of course, it is very difficult to disappear today. But millions of us will face a profound moral choice similar to one that voters faced in 1990, as both the poll tax and digital ID were made compulsory. Must I expose myself to criminals and identity theft, or do I refuse to go along with this government scheme? Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
