Recently, we shared some of the latest developments in robotics applied to the construction sector. This sector is experiencing significant advancements, with many innovations expected to be implemented on a large scale soon.
One reason for this renewed momentum is the convergence of new technologies. Advances in machine vision, IoT technologies, low-latency 5G networks, advanced servo motors, and especially artificial intelligence are enabling the development and manufacturing of increasingly sophisticated and efficient construction robots.
Examples of robots in construction
Robotics is transforming job site operations in many ways. Here are some of the most remarkable recent examples:
1. Marking at the construction site:
HP SitePrint at the Hospital Central do Alentejo. This robot significantly improves site layout efficiency by drawing lines and text directly on surfaces. It has increased the speed of partition installation, with layout marking six times faster than traditional methods, proving its effectiveness on large projects. ACCIONA is using the HP SitePrint robot in the construction of the Hospital Central do Alentejo in Évora, Portugal.
2. Automated masonry:
SAM100 (Semi-Automated Mason). Automation in masonry allows robots to lay bricks efficiently, reducing the time and human effort required. SAM100 is a masonry robot that works alongside human masons to boost productivity. This robot can lay between two and four hundred bricks per hour, adjusting each brick precisely to ensure quality construction.
3. Site inspection and mapping:
Spot by Boston Dynamics. Construction site inspection and mapping are essential for monitoring progress and detecting problems early. Spot, a quadruped robot from Boston Dynamics, is used to navigate difficult terrain and perform detailed inspections. Equipped with advanced cameras and sensors, Spot collects real-time data and provides an accurate view of the site’s condition, helping to identify potential hazards before they become major problems.
4. Tying of reinforcing bars:
TyBot. Tying rebar is a repetitive and physically demanding task, ideal for automation. TyBot automates the process of tying rebar in the construction of bridges and other structures. This robot works continuously and accurately, increasing the speed of the process and reducing the physical workload of human operators.
5. Panel installation:
HRP-5P. Drywall installation is a complex task requiring precision and dexterity. HRP-5P, a humanoid robot developed in Japan, performs these complex manual tasks using artificial intelligence and machine vision. This robot manipulates tools and materials with high precision, making it a valuable assistant in interior construction.
6.Inspection and monitoring of development:
Inspection drones. Monitoring construction progress is key to keeping projects on budget and on schedule. Numerous companies use drones and ground vehicles to gather data on the ground. This equipment collects accurate data, which is then analyzed by artificial intelligence to evaluate progress and suggest possible adjustments.
7. Earth moving and excavation:
Robotic excavators. Earthmoving and excavation tasks, essential in many construction projects, benefit greatly from automation. Autonomous excavator robots use GPS, LiDAR, and autonomous navigation software to perform these tasks accurately and efficiently. These robots can work continuously without human intervention, reducing the risks associated with heavy machinery use.
8. 3D printing of structures:
3D-printing robots. 3D printing in construction enables the creation of structures quickly and efficiently using materials such as concrete. ACCIONA is applying these technologies to print urban furniture, like benches, in a housing development in Seville.
Thanks to these construction robots, we can expect improved safety for operators and faster execution times for buildings and infrastructure projects. If you want to discover other technologies used in construction, such as wearables, and stay updated on the latest developments in sectors like renewable energy, subscribe to our newsletter at the bottom of this page.
Zohran Mamdani, the 33-year-old who soared to the lead in the New York City mayoral Democratic primary, describes himself as a democratic socialist. But some politicians and social media posts falsely labelled him a communist.
President Donald Trump called Mamdani “a 100% Communist Lunatic”, in a June 25 Truth Social post.
Nick Sortor, a conservative podcast host, wrote June 23 on X, “Zohran Mamdani is not even a socialist. He’s a full on COMMUNIST,” sharing a video clip of Mamdani calling for a network of city-owned grocery stores. “Even FURTHER left than Bernie Sanders. He wants government-run grocery stores.”
Ben Shapiro, cofounder of conservative website The Daily Wire, said on his podcast, “The big news of the day: A communist is likely to be the next mayor of New York City.”
Representative Elise Stefanik also wrote on X that Mamdani is a “communist”.
Mamdani’s platform calls for making transportation, housing and groceries more affordable, but experts say he hasn’t espoused key tenets of communism, such as government takeover of industry and private property.
“Mamdani is NOT a communist,” wrote Anna Grzymala-Busse, Stanford University professor of international studies, in an email to PolitiFact. “Communism involves a centrally planned economy, with no market forces. Prices and quantities are set by a central government authority. There is no democratic political competition, and instead a single party rules the country. He is not calling for any of this.”
Accusing Democrats of being communists or communist sympathisers is a frequent misleading attack line by some Republicans. It is a red scare tactic that has existed in US politics for decades, but has been transformed by the success of some democratic socialists, including US Senator Bernie Sanders.
Mamdani made national headlines June 24 after former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo conceded the primary. When the city completes the ranked choice voting process, Mamdani is expected to win. Mamdani’s office did not respond to our requests for comment.
In November, Mamdani will face Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, the founder of civilian crime-fighting group Guardian Angels, and incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, who is running as an independent. Cuomo left open the door to running as an independent.
The White House did not respond to requests for comment.
Mamdani’s platform calls for some city-owned grocery stores, other affordability policies
Mamdani, who represents part of the Queens borough in the New York State Assembly, identifies as a democratic socialist.
The New York City Democratic Socialists of America endorsed Mamdani, who is a member.
The group defines its goal as “to collectively own the key economic drivers that dominate our lives, such as energy production and transportation”, and to have “a system where ordinary people have a real voice in our workplaces, neighbourhoods, and society”.
Mamdani’s platform includes freezing rent for tenants in buildings with preexisting caps on price increases between lease terms. He also proposed creating city-owned grocery stores, and said in a June interview with Spectrum News NY1 that he would start with one grocery store in each borough modelled on municipality-owned stores in Kansas.
He also proposed free buses and child care, and raising the corporate tax rate and the minimum wage.
Mamdani does not call for getting rid of private ownership. One of the goals included on his website is to “make it faster, easier, and cheaper to start and run a business”.
He told The New York Times that he changed his mind about the role of the private market in housing construction, saying, “I clearly recognise now that there is a very important role to be played.” The story links to Mamdani’s website, which calls for the public sector to build affordable housing but not take over all housing.
What are the differences between communism and democratic socialism?
We sent highlights from Mamdani’s platform to seven experts across academic disciplines including political science, law and anthropology. None concluded that Mamdani is a communist.
“The idea that Mamdani is a communist is an absurd slander,” said Geoffrey Kurtz, associate professor of political science at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York.
When US politicians use the term democratic socialism, they are referring to generous social insurance programmes often available in European countries, such as heavily subsidised child care, along with high tax rates, if needed, to pay for education and healthcare.
Mamdani doesn’t seek to do away with private property or advocate a government takeover of any industry, said Ted Henken, a Baruch College professor. Instead, Mamdani proposes targeted interventions to tackle high living costs in New York City, Henken said.
“The New Yorkers who support him seem to do so not because of any communist ideology on his or their part, but because he proposes to address this crisis of affordability,” Henken said.
“For example, his city-run grocery store idea does not propose to take over or do away with the private grocery chains (they already receive city subsidies) but to complement them with nonprofit city-run stores,” Henken said.
Although Mamdani said in a campaign TikTok video that he would “redirect funds from corporate supermarkets to city-owned grocery stores”, he did not say he would get rid of corporate markets. Mamdani also said city-owned markets would work with privately owned small businesses and farms.
Political theory experts said many of Mamdani’s proposals have existed in other democracies for decades.
“Many western democracies – from France to Canada – have policies such as free or heavily subsidised child care and public transit,” said Oxana Shevel, a Tufts University associate professor of comparative politics.
Under a communist agenda, the government would own everything and entirely control prices, not only rent control or operating some supermarkets. And under communism, there are no political parties other than the communist party.
“This is not what he’s advocating,” Shevel said. “So no, he’s not a ‘communist’.”
Democratic socialism emerged as an alternative to communism, said Harvey Klehr, an Emory University expert on the history of American communism.
“At least in theory, they reject such communist concepts as the vanguard of the proletariat and the communist hostility to representative democracy, as well as the communist belief in state ownership of the means of production,” Klehr said. “That said, there are a number of issues on which they agree, including hostility to capitalism.”
Experts said there are reasonable critiques of Mamdani’s proposals, but that doesn’t make his proposals communist.
Our ruling
Trump said Mamdani is a communist.
Mamdani’s mayoral platform proposes making New York City more affordable, including via free buses and day care, rent control and city-owned grocery stores. That is not akin to communism, a system in which the government controls the means of production and takes over private businesses. Mamdani has not called for the elimination of private ownership.
He also hasn’t called for eliminating democracy and political parties, another tenet of communism.
We rate this statement False.
Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this fact-check
The Seoul city government has asked online retail giants Temu and AliExpress to suspend sales of certain children’s products over safety concerns, saying Friday that some goods far exceeded local limits for hazardous substances.
Chinese e-commerce titans like Shein, Temu and AliExpress have seen a surge in global popularity in recent years, drawing in consumers with a wide range of trendy, ultra-low-cost fashion and accessories—positioning them as major rivals to U.S. giant Amazon.
Their rapid rise has triggered growing scrutiny over business practices and product safety, including in South Korea.
The Seoul city government said Friday it recently inspected 35 children’s products sold on Temu and AliExpress—including umbrellas, raincoats and rain boots—and found that 11 failed to meet South Korea’s safety standards or contained hazardous substances above local limits.
In six of the umbrellas, phthalate-based plasticizers—chemicals used to make plastics more flexible—were found at levels far exceeding safety standards, the city said in a statement.
Some of those products exceeded the domestic safety limit by up to 443.5 times for the chemical, while two items were found to contain lead at levels up to 27.7 times higher than the locally acceptable level.
Based on the inspection results, the Seoul government said it “has requested that online platforms suspend sales of the non-compliant products”.
It also noted that “prolonged exposure to harmful substances can affect children’s growth and health”, and highlighted the need to carefully review product information before making purchases.
Temu and AliExpress did not immediately reply to requests for comment from AFP.
The Seoul government told AFP the retailers have no legal obligations to comply with their request.
Phthalate-based plasticizers can cause endocrine disorders, while lead exposure above safety limits can impair reproductive functions and increase the risk of cancer, Seoul authorities said.
Last year, the city government said women’s accessories sold by Shein, AliExpress and Temu contained toxic substances sometimes hundreds of times above acceptable levels.
The European Union last year added Shein to its list of digital firms that are big enough to come under stricter safety rules—including measures to protect customers from unsafe products, especially those that could be harmful to minors.
Japan condemned US President Donald Trump for comparing recent US strikes on Iran to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that ended World War II.
“That hit ended the war,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday. “I don’t want to use an example of Hiroshima, I don’t want to use an example of Nagasaki, but that was essentially the same thing.”
About 140,000 people died when the US dropped atomic bombs on the two southern Japanese cities in August 1945. Survivors live with psychological trauma and heightened cancer risk to this day.
If Trump’s comments “justifies the dropping of the atomic bomb, it is extremely regrettable for us as a city that was bombed,” said Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki.
Trump’s comments are “unacceptable”, said Mimaki Toshiyuki, an atomic bomb survivor who co-chairs the Nobel Peace Prize-winning advocacy group Nihon Hidankyo, according to public broadcaster NHK.
“I’m really disappointed. All I have is anger,” said another member of the group, Teruko Yokoyama, in a Kyodo News report.
Survivors of the atomic bomb attacks staged a protest in Hiroshima on Thursday, demanding Trump retract his statement.
Lawmakers in Hiroshima also passed a resolution on Thursday rejecting statements that justify the use of atomic bombs. They also called for armed conflicts to be settled peacefully.
Asked if Tokyo would lodge a complaint over Trump’s remarks, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hayashi Yoshimasa said that Japan has repeatedly expressed its position on atomic bombs to Washington.
Japan is the only country in the world to have been hit by a nuclear attack and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki stir painful memories.
In Hiroshima, a peace flame that symbolises the country’s opposition to nuclear weapons has been burning since the 1960s while a clock that counts the number of days since the world’s last nuclear attack is displayed at the entrance of a war museum.
World leaders who visit Hiroshima are also asked to make paper cranes to affirm their commitment to peace.
TikTok and CapCut have a new official partner providing music data, licensing, and royalty management services: Rumblefish.
US-based Rumblefish is part of the Harry Fox Agency (HFA), which in turn is owned by SESAC Music Group’s Music Services division.
According to Rumblefish, the new agreement will enable music publishers to directly license both ByteDance platforms.
This arrangement, MBW has confirmed, will enable publishers to ink multi-territory licensing deals with ByteDance, dependent on the geographical scope of each pubco’s rights.
A press release issued today (June 26) explains: “To support the use of music in ByteDance’s products, HFA’s Rumblefish will utilize its full suite of rights management services, offering publishers the opportunity for direct licensing, linking sound recording-to-composition data, processing usage data, and providing royalty calculation, distribution, copyright research, and publisher support.”
Lauren Apolito, EVP of Strategy and Business Development of HFA’s Rumblefish, said: “We are thrilled to offer the music publishing community the opportunity to license both TikTok and CapCut.
“With our unparalleled reach to the publishing market and our robust and scalable infrastructure, HFA’s Rumblefish is uniquely positioned to handle the massive scale of ByteDance’s licensing and data processing needs across two of its key product offerings on a global basis.”
John Josephson, Chairman & CEO of SESAC Music Group, added: “At SESAC Music Group, we’re working to leverage our global tech and data platform to assist innovative hyperscalers like ByteDance to utilize music by obtaining authorization directly from songwriters and music publishers.
“With our best-in-class licensing, data, and royalty administration capabilities, we help drive new sources of revenue for songwriters and music publishers by enabling platforms like TikTok and CapCut to create meaningful user experiences.”
Jordan Lowy, Global Head of Music Publishing Licensing and Partnerships at ByteDance, said: “ByteDance is committed to making it simple for users to discover, create, and share content powered by music.
“We are looking forward to working with HFA’s Rumblefish to help streamline global music rights administration, and to ensure seamless and timely remuneration for rightsholders on the platform.”
Rumblefish’s clients include AR/VR/AI companies, apps, background music services, investment funds, jukebox operators, karaoke platforms, lyrics and tablature services, music management companies, record labels, social media and online video companies, streaming and download services, synchronization services, and more.
According to its website, Rumblefish’s clients include TouchTunes, LyricFind, Smule, and Warner Music.
Since that acquisition, Rumblefish has formed part of SESAC’s ‘Music Services’ division alongside operations such as AudioSalad, Audiam, HAAWK, HFA, Mint, and SESAC Digital Licensing.Music Business Worldwide
New Delhi, India – Getting into one of the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) schools was supposed to be the end of the financial woes for Paras* and his family. Instead, things have only worsened due to the federal government’s long delays in dispensing Paras’s monthly fellowship allowance of 37,000 rupees ($435).
At the IIT, Paras is a research fellow, looking into solutions to a global public health crisis created by the spread of infectious diseases. His fellowship comes from the INSPIRE scheme, funded by India’s Department of Science and Technology (DST).
But delays in the scheme’s payment have meant that Paras was not able to pay the instalments on the laptop he bought for his research in 2022. His credit score plummeted, and his savings plans crashed.
Paras’s parents are farmers in a drought-affected region of western India, and their income depends on a harvest that often fails. So, he has resorted to borrowing money from friends, including as recently as between August and December, he told Al Jazeera.
Paras is not alone. Al Jazeera spoke to nearly a dozen current and former fellows enrolled in top institutes across India under the Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE) programme. The interviewees studied at institutions such as the IIT, a network of engineering and technology schools across the country, and the Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research, another network.
All had gone from three to as long as nine months without a stipend.
The funding delays and procedural lapses have marred the fellowship and impaired their research capacity, they said.
Many researchers recently took to social media to complain, tagging Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Minister of Science and Technology Jitendra Singh.
“For over a year now, many of us who are pursuing PhDs under DST-funded fellowships have not received our stipends,” Sayali Atkare, an INSPIRE fellow, wrote on LinkedIn. “This has pushed many young researchers into severe financial and emotional stress.”
Last year, India ranked 39th in the Global Innovation Index of 133 countries, up one spot from the year prior. It leads lower-middle-income countries like Vietnam and the Philippines in innovation. China leads upper-middle-income countries and is followed by Malaysia and Turkiye.
The federal government termed the ranking an “impressive leap” in a news release. It said that India’s “growing innovation potential has been supported by government initiatives that prioritise technological advancement, ease of doing business, and entrepreneurship”.
At a federal government conference in April, Modi boasted of India’s growing research acumen. Under his leadership in the past decade, the government has doubled its gross spending on research and development from 600 billion rupees ($7.05bn) to more than 1,250 billion rupees ($14.7bn), while the number of patents filed has more than doubled – from 40,000 to more than 80,000.
The numerous steps taken by the government – like doubling of expenditure on R&D (research and development), doubling of patents filed in India, creation of state-of-the-art research parks and research fellowships and facilities – ensure “that talented individuals face no obstacles in advancing their careers”, Modi said.>
However, an analysis of government documents, budgets and interviews with researchers reveals that the government is more focused on commercial research, primarily product development led by start-ups and big corporations. It is offering little funding for research conducted at the country’s premier universities.
For instance, in the current financial year, 70 percent of the Science and Technology Department’s annual budget has been allocated to a scheme under which interest-free loans are provided to private companies conducting research in sunrise domains, such as semiconductors.
At the same time, the government has made misleading statements about its investments in the country’s research institutes, including with schemes like the INSPIRE fellowship, where funds have actually been cut instead of being increased as touted by the government.
Researchers at some of India’s top institutes say they have struggled for months because of unpaid stipends [Courtesy: Creative Commons]
Poor pay, funding delays
The INSPIRE scheme offers PhD and faculty fellowships to “attract, attach, retain and nourish talented young scientific Human Resource for strengthening the R&D foundation and base”.
The fellowships are offered to top-ranking postgraduate students and doctoral researchers to conduct research in areas from agriculture, biochemistry, neuroscience and cancer biology to climate science, renewable energy and nanotechnology.
Under the scheme, PhD fellows are to receive 37,000 rupees ($435.14) to 42,000 rupees ($493.94) per month for living expenses and 20,000 rupees ($235.21) annually for research-related costs, such as paying for equipment or work-related travel.
Faculty fellows are offered teaching positions with a monthly salary of 125,000 rupees ($1,470) and an annual research grant of 700,000 rupees ($8,232).
In the year 2024-25, 653 fellows were enrolled in the PhD fellowship, and 85 in the faculty fellowship programme.
“I couldn’t attend an important annual meeting in our field because it required travel, and I was not sure if I would get my allowance,” a faculty fellow at an institute in eastern India said. He has not received his payments since September 2024.
Atkare, the PhD student who wrote about the government’s failure on LinkedIn, also wrote, “We’ve made endless phone calls, written countless emails – most of which go unanswered or are met with vague responses. Some officials even respond rudely.”
Another INSPIRE PhD fellow told us of a running joke: “If they pick up the phone, you can buy a lottery ticket that day. It’s your lucky day.”
In May, DST Secretary Abhay Karandikar accepted that there were funding delays and said that they would soon be resolved.
Karandikar told the Hindu newspaper that he was “aware” of the disbursement crisis but said that from June 2025, all scholars would get their money on time. “All problems have been addressed. I don’t foresee any issue in the future,” he said.
Al Jazeera requested a comment from the science and technology minister, the DST secretary and the head of the department’s wing that implements the INSPIRE scheme, but has not received a response.
Dodgy math
In January, the federal government folded three R&D-related schemes to start Vigyan Dhara or “the flow of science” to ensure “efficiency in fund utilisation”. The INSPIRE scheme had been funded under one of those schemes.
But instead of efficiency, there has been chaos.
Under Vigyan Dhara, DST asked institutes to set up new bank accounts, leading to delays in payments for INSPIRE fellowships.
New Delhi also said that it had “significantly increased” funding for the Vigyan Dhara scheme, from 3.30 billion rupees ($38.39m) in the last financial year to 14.25 billion rupees ($167.58m) in the current financial year.
The Indian government said it had increased scheme funds [Press Information Bureau]
However, that math was incomplete. The 3.30 billion rupees ($38.39m) is what the government earmarked for the scheme, which was only launched in the last quarter of the fiscal year. The budget for the full fiscal year of the three schemes that Vigyan Dhara replaced amounted to 18.27 billion rupees ($214.93m). So, in effect, the current budget saw a 22 percent decrease in allocation from 18.27 billion rupees to 14.25 billion rupees ($167.58m).
The allocation to Vigyan Dhara schemes was reduced by 22 percent [Union Budget FY 2025-25]
Overall, the budget for Vigyan Dhara’s constituent schemes reduced 67.5 percent from 43.89 billion rupees ($513.2m) in financial year 2016-17 to 14.25 billion rupees ($167.6m) in financial year 2025-26.
DST officials did not respond to Al Jazeera’s query requesting clarification of Vigyan Dhara’s budgetary allocations.
Commercialisation of research
On the other hand, the Indian government earmarked 200 billion rupees ($2.35bn) for the new Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) scheme targeting the private sector.
This money is part of a larger 1-trillion-rupee ($11.76bn) corpus previously announced by India’s finance minister to provide long-term financing at low or no interest rates.
These changes in schemes are intended to make India a “product nation”, get more patents filed in India, and curb the brain drain, as Union Minister Aswini Vaishnaw and DST officials explain in different videos.
Screenshot of the post-budget webinar where DST officials explained the RDI scheme [Screengrab]
But the plight of the researchers at state-run organisations remains unaddressed.
“The government throws around big terms, but those toiling in laboratories are suffering,” said Lal Chandra Vishwakarma, president of All-India Research Scholars Association.
“Stipends should be similar to salaries of central government employees. Fellows should get their money every month without fail,” he said.
In the current scenario, most fellows Al Jazeera spoke to said that they would prefer a fellowship abroad.
“It’s not just about funds but the ease of research, which is much better in Europe and [the United States]. We get so much staff support there. In India, you get none of that,” said a professor at an IIT, who supervises an INSPIRE PhD fellow who faced funding issues.
While the private sector is being heavily financed, researchers told us they downplay their funding costs as that improves their chances of landing government research projects.
“Cutting-edge research is so fast; if we lose the first few years due to cost-cutting, we are behind our colleagues abroad,” the IIT professor said.
“Once we submit necessary documents, like annual progress reports, DST takes at least three months to release the next instalment. It’s usual,” said a PhD fellow who is a theoretical mathematician.
“Right now, I would say only people with privilege [and high-income backgrounds] should be in academia. Not because that’s how it should be, but because for others, it’s just so hard,” the IIT professor said.
*Al Jazeera has changed names to protect the identity of interviewees.
Sir Keir Starmer hopes he has averted the biggest rebellion of his premiership by agreeing to dilute his controversial welfare reforms, but he will be left counting the political and financial costs for years to come.
The sudden capitulation came during hastily-arranged, surreptitious talks with senior Labour MPs in Westminster on Thursday. It will carry a hefty price tag of more than £1.5bn — and invite questions over how a Labour government with a gargantuan majority has found itself so close to a House of Commons defeat.
When more than 100 Labour MPs vowed on Monday to vote against Starmer’s welfare bill, the guerrilla operation sent shockwaves through Downing Street.
Despite warnings from the whips’ office about the brewing rebellion — and one of the whips resigning last week over it — the prime minister’s team had miscalculated how many MPs were prepared to “go rogue”.
They had also underestimated their backbench MPs, who had organised furtively with only quiet chats and notes on paper. WhatsApp groups, so ubiquitous in Westminster, were banned to avoid leaks.
But the extent to which ministers, political operatives and whips sought to crush the mutiny raised eyebrows even among veterans of parliamentary struggles: “This has created a civil war which will last for the next three years,” said one MP.
On Wednesday Starmer, focused on a Nato summit, was still publicly dismissing concerns about the uprising, but the party machine was panicking. Defeat on a key vote less than a year into power would risk fatally undermining the Starmer project.
Soon after his return from The Hague, the prime minister signalled a U-turn was coming, and by Thursday afternoon was thrashing out the details of a potential compromise with senior MPs, including chairs of select committees.
On Thursday evening, as the concessions emerged, rebel Labour MPs were discussing whether they were enough to make them walk back from the brink.
“These are significant changes, they’ve listened and they’ve heard and they’ve made the changes,” said one MP. “I think colleagues will be won over.”
Starmer offered to limit cuts to the main disability benefit (Personal Independence Payment, or Pip) to new claimants at a cost of £1.5bn-a-year, bring forward a £1bn package of employment support payments to this year, and consult on the reforms, according to MPs. Together that will hugely reduce the intended £4.8bn savings from the original package.
It was a major compromise, at odds with attempts earlier in the week to browbeat rebel MPs into submission. But some rebels were still uncertain, with some concerned that new, younger claimants of Pip would still be hit with lower benefits.
Rachael Maskell, the MP for York Central, said the bill “cannot and must not be saved”, adding: “Any concessions will still cause harm to disabled people. The only option is to withdraw the bill, rethink and start to rebuild trust with disabled people.”
After belatedly recognising the scale of the crisis, senior government figures, including deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, chancellor Rachel Reeves and her sister Ellie Reeves, the party chair, were dispatched days ago to try to bring the rebels into line,
One MP was told their next election campaign would be defunded unless they fell into line. Another had it relayed they would be deselected and their parliamentary future would be over. Others were warned they could be ousted as chairs or members of select committees.
But even as the Labour leadership tried to turn the screw, the number of backbenchers joining the insurrection increased from 108 on Monday to more than 120 MPs.
Even if Starmer’s compromises succeed, the revolt may leave him as a diminished leader. Observers are asking how the prime minister was blindsided by the biggest revolt of his premiership, involving scores of MPs who had hitherto been seen as loyal lobby fodder.
The seeds were sown in March when Liz Kendall, welfare secretary, set out plans to save nearly £5bn from the welfare budget. The biggest reform would be narrowing eligibility for Pip, the main disability benefit.
Kendall has tried to sell the reforms as an attempt to give back the dignity of work to some of Britain’s 2.8mn people who are currently inactive due to long-term sickness.
But many MPs have been inundated by disabled constituents worried about what the cuts will mean in practice. The proposals would have removed benefits from at least 800,000 people, many of whom need help using the toilet or washing themselves.
“The rebels are decent people, they are not headbangers, most of them, they are people who are deeply worried,” said one former Labour frontbencher.
Starmer’s closest aides — “the Starmtroopers” — had congratulated themselves that they had weeded out left-wing radicals from Labour’s candidates for last year’s general election.
Yet many of the new intake have a background in the charity sector or health, while others have friends or family with disabilities.
“The fact that it’s centrists who are revolting should tell the government something,” one Labour MP said. “It’s far more dangerous than if it was just the usual suspects on the left.”
Those teetering on the edge of dissent were emboldened last month when Starmer announced a £1bn U-turn on the government’s highly unpopular cuts to winter fuel payments for pensioners.
But ministers feared that giving in to pressure would stoke further rebellions, for example over the two-child benefit cap. “The new intake of backbenchers are starting to find their feet — and they’ve realised they have a lot of power,” one MP said.
The risk of Starmer’s compromises is that it could make it even more difficult for his government to get through future reforms or cuts — at a time when the UK’s debt levels already putting gilt markets on edge.
Government U-turns are putting increasing pressure on chancellor Rachel Reeves’ fiscal rules and increasing the odds of tax rises this autumn, economists have warned. Ruth Gregory at Capital Economics said the chancellor may need to raise between £10bn and £20bn.
Some say Reeves, with her determination to balance the books, is responsible for the crisis, while others point the finger at Starmer’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney. Others say the culprit is Number 10’s influential policy director Liz Lloyd.
Still others blame the prime minister for an initial stubbornness that allowed the situation to spiral.
One MP said on Thursday before the last-ditch talks: “I’ve never seen so much bad blood. Both sides are raging.” It remains to be seen how quickly that anger will dissipate.
Japan has executed a man who murdered nine people in 2017, the first time since 2022 that the country has enacted capital punishment.
The serial killings by Takahiro Shiraishi, dubbed the “Twitter killer”, had shocked the country and triggered debate over how suicide was discussed online.
Shiraishi, then 30, lured his victims – most of them young women between the ages of 15 and 26 – to his apartment, before strangling and dismembering them.
The killings came to light in October 2017, when police found body parts in the Japanese city of Zama, near Tokyo, when they were searching for one of the victims.
Warning: Readers may find some details in this story distressing.
Shiraishi later admitted to murdering nine suicidal victims and revealed that he got acquainted with them on Twitter, the social media platform now known as X.
He then told them he could help them die, and in some cases claimed he would kill himself alongside them.
His Twitter profile contained the words: “I want to help people who are really in pain. Please DM [direct message] me anytime.”
Nnine dismembered bodies were found in coolers and tool boxes when officers visited his flat, which was dubbed by media outlets as a “house of horrors”.
While prosecutors sought the death penalty for Shiraishi, his lawyers argued for the lesser charge of “murder with consent”, claiming his victims had given their permission to be killed.
They also called for an assessment of his mental state.
Shiraishi later disputed his own defence team’s version of events and said he killed without the victims’ consent.
Hundreds of people showed up his verdict hearing in December 2020, when he was sentenced to death.
The murders also prompted a change by Twitter, which amended its rules to state users should not “promote or encourage suicide or self-harm”.
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Logan Beebe, a five time Louisiana High School Champion, will be joining the Panthers at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the fall.
I am excited to announce my commitment to UWM and my next chapter there. I would like to say thanks to my family, coaches, and friends who pushed me along the way. And thanks to Coach Alex and Coach Kyle over at Milwaukee for providing me with this opportunity. Go Panthers!!!
Beebe, who also goes by Ricky, attended Holy Cross High School in New Orleans, which is where he won the 200 IM (1:53.96) and was a member of the winning 200 freestyle relay team, splitting 21.93 on the anchor leg. He also finished as the runner up in the 100 butterfly (50.37) en route to helping Holy Cross win their 7th straight high school title. He also has a few other state titles under his belt: his junior year, he won both the 100 fly and the 200 IM, his sophomore year, he won the 500 freestyle (4:47.38), and his freshman year he won the 200 and 500 freestyle events.
Beebe swims club at Nu Wave Swim Club, and he recently competed at the Speedo Sectionals in Justin, where he finished 10th in the 200 fly and 26th in the 200 IM.
Beebe has two sisters, Myah and Chloe who are college athletes as well. Both girls play soccer at Millsaps College in Mississippi and Chloe was also on the swim team.
Best SCY Times
100 Fly- 50.05
200 Fly- 1:48.37
200 IM- 1:53.78
The University of Wisconsin-Miluakee men’s team is coming off a 4th place finish at the Horizon League Championships in February, and Beebe will help add depth to an already strong fly group.
Beebe’s 100 fly time would have been third on the team last season, just behind Nikolas Wheeler’s 48.89 in 2nd. Beebe is just outside of scoring position in this event, as he would have been 19th this year, and it took a time of 49.15 to final.
The 200 fly is his highest ranking event, both on the team and in the conference. He would have been 2nd on the team, about a second behind Caleb Carlisle (who also has the top time in the 100 fly and was only a freshman last year). His time of 1:48.37 would have finished 6th overall at the conference championships.
He will be joined on campus by Emre Arican, Josh Crook, Maximus Dexter, Aleks Piljevic, Dragos Cozma, and transfer Sam Lorenz as newcomers on campus.
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