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2 weeks ago | 
observer.co.uk | Joe White |Barney Macintyre
Leading British companies are rewriting their yearly surveys in the wake of Donald Trump’s corporate crusade against diversity, equity and inclusion Five years after the murder of George Floyd sparked the Black Lives Matter protests and a rush among corporates to champion diversity, analysis of annual reports by The Observer reveals a sharp decline in mentions of the terms “diversity, equity and inclusion” (DEI) by a majority of FTSE 100 companies.
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2 months ago | 
tortoisemedia.com | Bex Sander |Jeevan Vasagar |Joe White
A new interactive tool from Tortoise shows how online untruths about the climate are growing, changing shape and spreading The climate has shifted: 2024 was the hottest year in history, with record-breaking temperatures in the atmosphere and warmer oceans ushering in what scientists have described as a dangerous new era of wildfires and floods amplified by climate change. The political climate has shifted too.
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Nov 21, 2024 | 
tortoisemedia.com | Catherine Neilan |Joe White
The number of peers on a formal leave of absence from parliament jumped dramatically after new rules were introduced requiring them to declare income from foreign states. So what? This is about who pays peers, and what they’re paid for. Taking a leave of absence is open to misuse as a way round the rules on foreign income disclosure. But it’s a loophole. This is not what absences were meant for.
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Nov 20, 2024 | 
tortoisemedia.com | Catherine Neilan |Joe White
Total travel expenses claimed by peers for the period reached £5.4 million, of which flights accounted for nearly a third. Rail, ferry and coach costs accounted for £2.53 million, while just over £1 million was expensed for car journeys. In addition, nearly £300,000 was claimed for taxis, tolls and parking. Although a category exists for motorbike expenses, nothing was claimed for this method of transport (the average age of peers is 72). Why this story?
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Nov 20, 2024 | 
tortoisemedia.com | Catherine Neilan |Joe White
Peers are not paid a salary like MPs, but can take a tax-free daily allowance of £323 for any sitting days they attend. Some have not claimed any allowance, but others have registered a high level of attendance without voting, speaking in debates, submitting written questions or taking part in other business such as select committees. Why this story?
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Nov 20, 2024 | 
tortoisemedia.com | Catherine Neilan |Joe White |Katie Riley
So what? That is not how parliaments are meant to operate. Under the new Labour government, the House of Lords is heading for reform. But a comprehensive new analysis of how the upper chamber works shows that Labour’s plans to scrap hereditary peers only scratch the surface of potential changes that could be made to improve the parliamentary system. Last week MPs backed a bill that would abolish the 92 seats reserved for hereditary peers, who inherit their titles through their families.
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Sep 26, 2024 | 
tortoisemedia.com | Joe White |Patricia Clarke
Is AI capable of reasoning? Your browser does not support the audio element. Technology #ArtificialIntelligence Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, posted a picture of a strawberry in his garden on X last month. It looked like a pretty standard tweet… but it went viral. Sam Altman’s company, OpenAI, is the creator of ChatGPT. And the releases of its new AI models have become a huge deal in the tech world. Fans even analyse and decode Sam Altman’s tweets for clues.
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Sep 18, 2024 | 
tortoisemedia.com | Joe White
Westminster Accounts #UKPolitics New analysis from Tortoise shows donations and benefits received by MPs during the 2024 election totalled £9 million, up from £4.3 million in 2019. MPs registered more than £9 million in donations and benefits during the 2024 general election, more than double the £4.3 million they registered in the 2019 election.
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Sep 18, 2024 | 
tortoisemedia.com | Catherine Neilan |Joe White
Keir Starmer has declared more than £100,000 worth of freebies in the past five years, marking him out as the biggest recipient of gifts and free hospitality in Parliament. According to the Westminster Accounts, Tortoise’s fully searchable database tracking the money flowing into British politics, Starmer accepted more than £82,000 over the previous parliament. This week’s update reveals a further £25,000 from the election period and shortly afterwards.
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Sep 17, 2024 | 
tortoisemedia.com | Joe White
The 2024 edition of Tortoise’s Global AI Index, launching on Thursday, shows the gap between China and the US on AI capacity is still significant – in some areas like private investment it has actually widened. But the data may be understating China’s position. In the past few years its AI capabilities have become harder to measure, as China builds a software ecosystem separate from the West.
