MartinTea 3.5% 💙

Surprise surprise, Labour showed their true colours again. There were no welfare savings in the #Budget. Worse, they're trailing MORE SPENDING to deliver some fantasy savings. Reforming welfare takes grit. They have none.

Last year a DWP FOI revealed that the % of claimants who qualified for LCW, LCWRA or ESA via the Substantial Risk route who tried & failed to qualify for Daily Living PIP was just under 30% All while Substantial Risk qualification rates have been falling year on year since 2019

🇺🇸🇺🇦 MUSK AND TRUMP’S SATELLITE POWER PLAY IS BACKFIRING WORLDWIDE Elon Musk and Donald Trump wanted to demonstrate just how much power Washington and its technology giants hold over Ukraine’s communications. Instead, they have given governments around the world another reason to build satellite networks that neither the White House nor a single billionaire can switch off. The temporary Starshield shutdown and pressure on Ukraine have brought a much bigger issue into focus: technological sovereignty. And the response is taking shape across several countries. 🇨🇦 CANADA: Ottawa has signed a CAD 2.3 billion agreement with Telesat to expand its Lightspeed satellite constellation, incorporating secure military communications. Canadian manufacturer MDA Space is also receiving additional satellite orders. 🇫🇮 FINLAND: ICEYE and Nokia are working together on sovereign satellite communications infrastructure, allowing European governments to own and control their networks, including encryption, rather than depend entirely on foreign providers. 🇪🇺 EUROPEAN UNION: Brussels is expanding its IRIS² satellite network, with plans for 348 satellites and an additional €4 billion in funding. Airbus and Thales Alenia Space are involved in manufacturing and secure government communications systems. 🇰🇷 SOUTH KOREA: The domestically developed Nuri rocket has deployed 14 payloads, including reconnaissance and military satellites, strengthening Seoul’s independent space capabilities. 🇯🇵 JAPAN: Tokyo is investing approximately $1 billion in direct-to-device satellite communications, designed to keep ordinary smartphones connected during disasters and military emergencies. 🇩🇪 GERMANY: Isar Aerospace’s Spectrum rocket has reached orbit, marking another step toward independent European access to space. And perhaps the most important developments concern Ukraine itself. 🇺🇦 UKRAINE: The UASAT project has completed its registration with the International Telecommunication Union. Preparations for the UASAT-NANO test satellite are underway, laying the groundwork for a Ukrainian-controlled constellation. 🇨🇿 CZECH REPUBLIC: Prague and Kyiv are advancing cooperation on Suziria, a proposed optical reconnaissance satellite constellation. Ukraine is also expected to receive backup communications capacity through Europe’s GOVSATCOM system. These projects are at different stages, and not all are direct replacements for Starlink. Some provide broadband, others military communications, reconnaissance or independent launch capabilities. But they point in the same direction. Governments increasingly recognize that critical communications cannot depend on the political decisions of another country or the personal discretion of a private technology executive. Musk and Trump wanted to demonstrate who controls the switch. They may have helped convince much of the world that nobody should have that much control in the first place.

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