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Workers are decrying the demise of “one of the great inventions of our social history,” after the British government announced on Monday that it was completing the privatization of the UK’s state-run mail service by selling off its final 14 percent stake.

In a press statement, the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills said that “current market conditions should allow a successful sale,” and Guardian reporting indicated that banks are hopeful the shares would be sold for less than 5 percent discount on the Royal Mail’s share price.

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Since the Royal Mail sell-off was first announced in 2013, it has been criticized by the country’s leading trade unions as a deal where only “the rich get richer.” 

On Monday, the Communications Workers Union (CWU) issued a statement saying the privatization underscores the Tory party’s commitment to austerity “ideology” over the interests of the British people.

“This fire sale nails the lie that the Tories stand up for the interests of ordinary people,” said CWU general secretary Dave Ward. “By their actions today they have made it abundantly clear that they are only interested in privatization dogma and making the rich richer—even when their actions place public services at risk.”

In June, the UK government sold half of its then-remaining stake, which at the time amounted to roughly 15 percent. Ward said that this final portion “should have been used to safeguard the public’s voice in Royal Mail and ensure the continuation of daily deliveries to every address in the country.”

“The Tories have instead chosen and ideological course that puts the fundamental ethos of a centuries old national institution in jeopardy,” he added.

The announcement comes one week after the recently-elected Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn gave a rousing speech during which he demanded that the remaining shares be kept in public control.

“Our party is committed to opposing austerity, committed to opposing the privatization of Royal Mail, committed to the public control of Royal Mail and other public services,” he told a rally outside Manchester Cathedral. “We must demand immediately an end to the whole notion to the sale of the remaining 15 percent that is publicly owned—keep it public, keep it safe, keep it ours.”

Like Mercedes, Ferrari will split its testing programme between its two drivers on each of the remaining four days of pre-season testing in Barcelona.

Charles Leclerc will resume testing on Tuesday morning for the Scuderia, before handing over the SF90 to Sebastian Vettel for the afternoon stint.

The rotation will be reversed on each day as Ferrari aims to sustain its form, work through the week and achieve another big mileage number.

    Ferrari tops engine mileage in testing – Honda next best

Mercedes, which will likely ramp up its quest for performance versus Ferrari, will follow the same pattern with Lewis Hamilton kicking off the second week of development of the team’s W10, and Valtteri Bottas taking over in the afternoon.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, reserve drivers will remain on the sidelines this week at the Circuit de Catalunya as teams fine-tune their baseline set-ups and enter the thick of their preparations for Melbourne.

Here are the teams line-ups as they currently stand for the final week of testing, but as usual they may be subject to change.

Tuesday
February 26
Wednesday
February 27
Thursday
February 28
Friday
March 1

Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton
Valtteri Bottas
Valtteri Bottas
Lewis Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton
Valtteri Bottas
Valtteri Bottas
Lewis Hamilton

Ferrari

Charles Leclerc
Sebastian Vettel
Sebastian Vettel
Charles Leclerc
Charles Leclerc
Sebastian Vettel
Sebastian Vettel
Charles Leclerc

Red Bull

Pierre Gasly
Max Verstappen
Pierre Gasly
Max Verstappen

Renault

Nico Hulkenberg
Daniel Ricciardo
Daniel Ricciardo
Nico Hulkenberg
Nico Hulkenberg
Daniel Ricciardo
Daniel Ricciardo
Nico Hulkenberg

Haas

Kevin Magnussen
Romain Grosjean
Kevin Magnussen
Romain Grosjean

McLaren

Lando Norris
Carlos Sainz
Lando Norris
Carlos Sainz

Racing Point F1

Lance Stroll
Sergio Perez
Lance Stroll
Sergio Perez

Alfa Romeo

Antonio Giovinazzi
Kimi Raikkonen
Antonio Giovinazzi
Kimi Raikkonen

Toro Rosso

Alexander Albon
Daniil Kvyat
Alexander Albon
Daniil Kvyat

Williams

George Russell
Robert Kubica
George Russell
Robert Kubica

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The much-vaunted COP21 negotiations in Paris are, despite the claims of world leaders, dead on arrival.

Emissions reductions targets are not up for discussion. Those pledges are already on the table, having been put forward voluntarily by each country.

Government negotiators in Paris are instead looking at banal details of how and when countries should commit to improving their voluntary pledges, and ensuring “transparency” and “accountability”.

Catastrophe?

But current emissions pledges already guarantee disaster. A report by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) released in October calculated that: “Compared with the emission levels consistent with the least-cost 2 °C scenarios, aggregate GHG emission levels resulting from the INDCs [intended nationally determined contributions] are expected to be higher by 8.7 (4.7–13.0) Gt CO2 eq (19 percent, range 10–29 percent) in 2025 and by 15.1 (11.1–21.7) Gt CO2 eq (35 per cent, range 26–59 percent) in 2030.”

The targets set in stone before Paris, in other words, are already insufficient to avoid a global average temperature rise of 2 degrees Celsius – accepted by policymakers as the safe limit beyond which the planet enters the realm of dangerous climate change.

According to the UNFCC report, “much greater emission reductions effort than those associated with the INDCs will be required in the period after 2025 and 2030 to hold the temperature rise below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels.”

But pushing forward even more ambitious reductions for the post-2030 era is “not realistic anymore,” according to Tommi Ekholm, Senior Scientist at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, which has just undertaken a comprehensive analysis of emissions targets from 159 countries. “Therefore it is critically important to make the current emission targets for 2030 more ambitious.”

Writing in Nature four years ago, one team of scientists concluded that we could breach the two degree danger zone shortly after mid-century, after 2060.

Two decades to go

But the more scientists learn, the more they realise we keep underestimating the risks. Last year, an analysis in Scientific American by Professor Michael Mann of Pennsylvania State University explained that new research showed the two degree danger zone could be breached at our present rate of emissions within just 20 years.

This means limiting global atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations to around 405 parts per million (ppm).

Even this, Mann explained, is based on “a conservative definition of climate sensitivity that considers only the so-called fast feedbacks in the climate system, such as changes in clouds, water vapor and melting sea ice. Some climate scientists, including James E. Hansen, former head of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, say we must also consider slower feedbacks such as changes in the continental ice sheets.”

That implies that a safe level of atmospheric CO2 is actually less than 350 ppm.

“We are well on our way to surpassing these limits,” wrote Mann. “In 2013 atmospheric CO2 briefly reached 400 ppm for the first time in recorded history – and perhaps for the first time in millions of years, according to geologic evidence. To avoid breaching the 405-ppm threshold, fossil-fuel burning would essentially have to cease immediately.”

Terraforming the Earth

Teetering on the edge of the 400 ppm threshold as we are now may well already mean a “radically-altered” planet in the long-term, according to geoscientist Jeff Severinghaus of the Scripps Institute of Oceanography.

During the Pliocene between three and five million years ago, CO2 levels reached around 415 parts per million (ppm). At this time, global average temperatures were around 3-4 C higher, and sea levels between 16 and 131 feet higher than today.

An earlier UNFCC report summarising the conclusions of 70 scientific experts noted that avoiding dangerous climate change requires “a fundamental transformation of the energy system and global GHG emission levels towards zero by 2100.” The report emphasised:

“Limiting global warming to below 2C necessitates a radical transition (deep decarbonisation now and going forward), not merely a fine tuning of current trends.”

Yet deep carbonisation is not even being mentioned in Paris.

“One of the key things… that is not being discussed at the negotiations at all is to put a limit to fossil fuel extractions,” said Pablo Solon, former chief climate negotiator for the Bolivian government, and a former ambassador the UN. “There is not one single leader, one single country that has put text to be negotiated that says you have to leave 80 percent of fossil fuels under the ground. And if you don’t leave fossil fuels under the ground, how are you going to limit greenhouse gas emissions that come mainly from fossil fuel extraction?”

The accord will also not contain legally-binding provisions where it really counts: enforcing commitments to promised emissions reductions. Countries will be legally-bound to provide their targets. They just won’t be legally-bound to meet their target. This is so that as many countries as possible can be encouraged to sign up to what can be described as a “legally-binding” agreement – however toothless it might be in practice.

Militarising the planet

Meanwhile, as French authorities have exploited the draconian enhancement of anti-terror powers to ban the main climate rally, crackdown on smaller climate protests, and arrest and detain dozens of climate activists, Europe is rallying to participate in US-led coalition air strikes in Syria.

After 13/11, France accelerated its airstrikes on Islamic State (ISIS) targets in Syria, swiftly followed by Britain on Wednesday, and now Germany, which plans to send six Tornado jets and 1,200 troops to support coalition forces.

There is a cutting irony here. It’s now increasingly recognised that before the “Arab Spring”, a cycle of droughts induced by climate change drove migrations of a million predominantly Sunni farmers in Syria into Alawite-dominated coastal cities.

The sudden influx strained sectarian tensions, and heightened pressure on a regime already suffering from flagging revenues due to declining oil exports and rocketing food prices. The latter were exacerbated as the years leading up to 2011 saw successive crop failures across major food basket regions, triggered by extreme weather events.

In May, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, published a scientific study concluded that climate change amplified Syria’s drought to record levels, catalysing civil unrest into a full-blown uprising.

In 2011, the West’s initial response was to hope that President Bashar al-Assad would be able to brutalise the uprisings into non-existence.

“My judgment is that Syria will move; Syria will change, as it embraces a legitimate relationship with the United States and the West and economic opportunity that comes with it and the participation that comes with it,” announced John Kerry, who had met Assad several times the preceding year.

Hillary Clinton described him as a “reformer”, even as his security forces repressed peaceful protests, encouraging him to escalate to shooting people in the streets.

Scoping Syrian fossil fuels

Which “economic opportunity” was Kerry talking about?

It is not widely known that US, British, French and Israeli oil companies have had a range of overlapping interests in exploiting Syria’s unconventional oil and gas resources, which are believed to be considerable.

A document for the Syrian Ministry of Petroleum reveals that just months before the uprising, British oil major Shell was about to “devise a master plan for the development of the gas sector in Syria, following an agreement signed with the Ministry of Petroleum. The agreement includes an assessment of the overall undiscovered gas potential in Syria, potential for upstream gas production, need for gas transmission and distribution networks…”

CGGVeritas, a firm backed by the French government, had conducted seismic surveys estimating Syria’s total offshore hydrocarbon potential to represent “billion-barrel/multi-TCF [trillion cubic feet]” levels. A study by the firm was published in 2011 by GeoArabia, a Bahrain-based petroleum industry journal sponsored by Chevron, ExxonMobil, Saudi Aramco, Shell, Total, and BP.

Total, another French major, also worked with Assad at this time.

More recently, another US firm with interests in Syria is Genie Oil and Gas, an Israeli subsidiary of which was granted a licence by the Israeli government in 2013 to explore the Syrian Golan Heights, which has been controlled by Israel since capturing the territory from Syria in 1967.

In early November, Prime Minister Netanyahu personally asked Barack Obama in a private meeting if Israel’s right to the Golan could be accepted by the US, to which the American president apparently said nothing.

Genie’s board consists of an interesting mix, including former former CIA director James Woolsey, Vice President Dick Cheney, global media baron Rupert Murdoch, Obama’s former economic advisor Larry Summers, and Obama’s nomimee for Secretary of Commerce Bill Richardson, among others.

“We want a new Syrian state including some of those who are fighting it helping on the ground,” said British defence secretary Michael Fallon.

No doubt, US, British, French and Israeli oil firms hope to be well positioned to take advantage of the “new Syrian state” in a post-conflict Syria.

This, however, will not even serve the deeply compromised climate accord to be ratified by their governments in Paris.

Dr. Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed is a bestselling author, award-winning investigative journalist, and noted international security scholar, as well as a policy expert, film maker, strategy and communications consultant, and change activist. His debut science fiction thriller novel, ZERO POINT, was released in August 2014. His previous non-fiction book was A User’s Guide to the Crisis of Civilization: And How to Save It (2010), which inspired the award-winning documentary feature film, The Crisis of Civilization (2011).

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A Belgian court on Monday gave Facebook 48 hours to stop tracking visitors who are not members of the social media network—or start paying $269,000 a day in fines.

Privacy Commission, a Belgian watchdog group, sued the tech company in June for violating the country’s privacy laws by using so-called “datr” cookies to track visitors without accounts and store their personal data for up to two years, including how long they stayed on the site, what they clicked on, and which preferences they set. The cookies even ensnare those who click a Facebook “like” button on other websites.

Monday’s ruling said the company had to obtain explicit consent before it could collect such unique and identifying information.

“The judge ruled that this is personal data, which Facebook can only use if the internet user expressly gives their consent, as Belgian privacy law dictates,” the court said in its statement.

The Privacy Commission investigated Facebook’s use of the datr cookies for months before filing the lawsuit. “Facebook does this secretively: no consent is asked for this ‘tracking and tracing’ and the use of cookies,” the organization wrote in May. “No targeted information is provided. The available information is vague and authorizes just about anything.”

The commission’s president, Willem Debeuckelaere, said at the time, “The way in which these members’ and all internet users’ privacy is denied calls for measures.”

Facebook must “start working in a privacy-friendly way,” Debeuckelaere said. “It’s bend or break.”

Facebook said it would appeal the ruling. The tech giant has previously argued that it is only subject to privacy laws in Ireland, where its European headquarters are located—a claim it has used in other countries, such as Germany, over similar privacy complaints.

“We’ve used the data cookie for more than five years to keep Facebook secure for 1.5 billion people around the world,” a Facebook spokesperson said after the ruling. “We will appeal this decision and are working to minimize any disruption to people’s access to Facebook in Belgium.”

Monday’s decision is the latest legal challenge to emerge from within the European Union (EU) against the tech industry. The European Court of Justice in October ruled that the right to personal privacy trumps government spying—a case that will force companies in the U.S., including Facebook, to come up with alternative means of transferring user data.

“It follows a trend of the courts in Europe,” Alexander Whalen, manager of digital economy policy at DigitalEurope, told USA Today. “It does send a message.”

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A year after President Barack Obama launched a program to grant asylum to Central American children fleeing violence or seeking to reunite with family members, the statistics are in: not one child has made it to the U.S. through that initiative.

New analysis by the New York Times published Thursday reveals that the Central American Minors Program, established last December, received asylum applications from more than 5,400 children in countries like El Salvador and Honduras, most of whom are seeking to escape street gangs or sexual assault—but none of them have been accepted.

In fact, only 90 children total were even interviewed by the Department of Homeland Security, and only 85 qualified for any sort of refugee status and even they remain languishing because their paperwork has not been filed.

“Really, it’s pathetic that no child has come through this program,” Lavinia Limón, the president and chief executive of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants nonprofit, told the Times. Referring to administrative officials, she added, “I wonder if it were their child living in the murder capital of the world, whether they would have more sense of urgency.”

The Times writes:

The Central American Minors program also allows the Department of Homeland Security to grant a two-year temporary entry into the United States for children who do not qualify as refugees. Those immigrants must apply to renew their entry status every two years and are not eligible to pursue American citizenship.

Obama announced his plan in response to the groundswell of young refugees making the dangerous and often-deadly trek across the U.S. border in massive numbers last year. But as immigration and human rights experts noted at the time, the program’s heartening promises of assisting vulnerable children did nothing to address sluggish bureaucratic roadblocks and ignored the U.S.’s own role in fueling the refugee crisis.

As Ivy Suriyopas, co-chair of the anti-trafficking group Freedom Network, explained in an op-ed last year:

[A]lthough the number of unaccompanied minors dropped in August, the 4,000 slots allocated for refugees from Latin America and the Caribbean for fiscal year 2015 is grossly insufficient.

In June alone, more than 10,000 unaccompanied minors crossed the U.S. border and in the ten months since October 2013, nearly 63,000 children have been identified at the border.

With so few spots and so many refugees, the Times wrote on Thursday, it’s little wonder the program has failed so completely.

“We need to fix the program so that it works and so that children have a real opportunity to get protection,” said Kevin Appleby, the director of migration policy at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. “They have to make the program workable. Right now, it’s not workable.”

State Department officials defended the delays, saying it was important to move slowly to avoid making mistakes. And principal deputy assistant secretary of state Simon Henshaw said the department was preparing to interview more than 400 children next month.

But that means little to children who are stuck in a violent limbo while their applications wait for processing.

“They have set up an elaborate, bureaucratic, step-by-step system,” said Limón. “The children are in danger, and they can’t wait. It’s just sad, and, I think, indefensible.”

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Liv Tyler, Steven’s 38-year-old daughter, hit the streets of New York on Wednesday in a look that proves the expectant mom is taking the comfortable approach to maternity dressing.

As the actress zipped across the city streets, Tyler not only held onto her growing baby bump like any proud mom would, but also managed to deliver a headline-worthy ensemble that looks nothing but comfortable. The actress paired a black-and-white patterned dress with a black cardigan, oversize sunglasses, and strappy orange sandals.

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Earlier this week, Tyler took to Instagram to offer a too-cute glimpse at her at-home life. She shared a picture of her 16-month-old son Sailor Gene Gardner and her boyfriend, David Gardner, celebrating Father’s Day.

PHOTOS: The Best Celebrity Maternity Street Style Looks

Talk about a picture perfect family.

Renée Zellweger is back! The actress hit the red carpet for the world premiere of Bridget Jones’ s Baby in London on Monday, looking positively radiant in a midnight blue gown by Elsa Schiaparelli. The asymmetrical one-shoulder dress featured a thigh-high slit cinched at the top by an oversize crystal-embellished zebra brooch that showed off the 47-year-old’s lean legs.

Zellweger accessorized her look with a gold cocktail ring on each hand and a pair of strappy black Stuart Weitzman sandals, which further accentuated her toned gams. The actress styled her blonde locks in a low chignon, with a few loose tendrils framing her face.

Bridget Jones’ s Baby premieres 12 years after Zellweger appeared in Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, the last installment in the film franchise based on Helen Fielding’s books, which chronicle the romantic misadventures of the adorably awkward Brit. This time around, Zellweger is joined by Patrick Dempsey (and his adorable family) as well as Colin Firth, who makes his triumphant return to the role of Mark Darcy.

RELATED: Patrick Dempsey Makes the Bridget Jones’s Baby Premiere a Family Affair

Bridget Jones’s Baby is due in U.S. theaters Sept. 16.

Let’s get this out of the way: We are well aware that if a normal human attempted this look, there’s a fair chance she would resemble Cruella de Vil. But guys, Blake Lively is no normal human. In fact, I’m fairly convinced that she’s a god sent among us to demonstrate how to pull off fashion’s trickiest trends.

Case in point: these triple-mixed prints. Most of us plebeians would have second thoughts putting just two prints together in one outfit. Do these even go together? Does it look like I got dressed in the dark? Do these polka dots make my butt look big? But Lively decided that two prints just weren’t enough.

VIDEO: Blake Lively’s Best Red Carpet Looks

 

Instead, she layered on three different Michael Kors patterns, and the result can only be described as layered perfection. The mom-of-two bared her abs in a solid black crop top and high-waist black skirt with small white polka dots that hit mid-calf. Her next layer was a plush coat with a wide herringbone print, which she topped with a houndstooth coat draped over her shoulders.

She paired all of this with solid white stilettos, slightly wavy locks, and blush makeup, keeping the attention on her prints. The key here is keeping the patterns within the same color family, and not drawing any added attention via a pop of color on her feet. Even her jewelry is kept in the same color family with silver and white gold, because this fashionista is nothing if not dedicated to her craft.

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Even her sister, Robyn Lively, who is pictured in the background in a black coat and embellished pumps, knows her little sis is a god among men. The Teen Witch star told InStyle earlier this week that she feels thrilled if Blake compliments an outfit she’s wearing. “I feel so good about myself, because Blake is a fashion icon, okay?” she told us.

She took the words right out of our mouths.

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(TULSA, Okla.) — Federal prosecutors say a Chinese national employed by a U.S. petroleum company has pleaded guilty in federal court to stealing trade secrets from his employer.

Authorities say 35-year-old Hongjin Tan pleaded guilty on Tuesday in federal court in Tulsa to theft of a trade secret, unauthorized transmission of a trade secret and unauthorized possession of a trade secret.

A plea agreement calls for Tan to serve up to two years in prison and pay restitution of $150,000.

Tan’s attorney, Ryan Ray, hasn’t returned a telephone message seeking comment.

Court documents indicate Tan worked for Phillips 66 when he stole secrets related to the development of “next generation battery technologies” worth more than $1 billion.

Sentencing is set for February 2020.

Former Mercedes protégé Pascal Wehrlein has joined Ferrari in his capacity as a development driver for the 2019 season.

The Scuderia was in need of a simulator and development driver after the departures of Daniil Kvyat and Antonio Giovinazzi who handled those duties last season.

A former Manor and Sauber driver, Wehrlein was released from Mercedes at the end of last year. The 24-year-old was subsequently recruited by Mahindra to race in Formula E, but Wehrlein will split his time between the electric series and his commitments at Maranello.

    Kubica admits Ferrari development role ‘not easy’ to turn down

Ferrari has yet to confirm Werlein’s hiring or offer any details regarding employing a second sim driver for its 2019 development programme.

Sebastian Vettel, the 2018 world championship runner-up, recently underscored the importance of the young drivers working behind the scenes, or back at Maranello on race weekends, and contributing to Ferrari’s development.

“We’re extremely thankful for the guys, taking in the time because it’s not the nicest job on Friday night, especially when you’re young, but it’s important, it all adds up,” said Vettel.

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“Everybody plays his part and in the end we have the honour to have the steering wheel in our hands and drive the machine that we all try to create and reach out with performance.”

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