Tag: Planning

The transport secretary, Chris Grayling, has fought off calls for him to resign over a series of costly controversies. But was the man at the centre of them all really to blame? The Guardian’s Peter Walker looks back at a catalogue of crises that have a habit of engulfing the cabinet minister now known as ‘Failing Grayling’. Plus: Rob Evans on the blacklisting of trade unionists and the role of undercover police When reports emerged that the transport secretary, Chris Grayling, had awarded a ferry contract to a company without any ferries, he faced widespread derision. Last week, the contract was cancelled and the government reached a humiliating £33m out-of-court settlement with Eurotunnel. It was the latest in a long line of controversies that have engulfed Grayling during his political career. But despite the setbacks, he has continued to win promotions and remains in the cabinet with key responsibilities in planning for Brexit. These lists were funded by major companies, including the construction industry, and resulted in people losing work when those businesses deemed them to be troublemakers. This week, the police have finally admitted their involvement by having shared information about individuals with the blacklisters, and have compiled an internal report that has been seen by the Guardian’s reporter Rob Evans. He describes tracking down the office of the blacklist in Worcester.

Organizers of demonstrations expected to take place across all 50 states on Saturday are calling for Americans outraged by Donald Trump’s immigration policies and the prospect of a supreme court swinging sharply right to put aside party differences and protest with one voice. “This is an all hands on deck, stop the madness moment. It’s not a red or blue thing,” the national protest organizer, Ai-jen Poo, told the Guardian. More than 750 events are planned across the country on 30 June, under the slogan “Families belong together”, to protest against the separation of more than 2,000 children from their parents in recent weeks after they crossed the border illegally under the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” crackdown. Poo said the protests were primarily for people who had been horrified at the news of the separations and detentions, but she said the cause would widen into a show of opposition against Trump’s travel ban, which targets five Muslim-majority countries and was upheld by the supreme court this week, as well as the threat of Trump nominating a hard-right conservative for the supreme court seat vacated by Justice Anthony Kennedy. The largest demonstration is planned for Washington DC, with many thousands expected to gather close to the White House, including Poo, who is a union leader and the director of the national domestic workers alliance, the Hamilton musical creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and other figures such as the actor and activist America Ferrera. Mass protests are also expected in New York, Los Angeles, Seattle and other big cities. This is a time when we reflect on where we are as a country She dubbed the administration’s immigration policy “zero humanity” and “a moral atrocity” and said the main thrusts of Saturday’s events were to demand that families be reunited, call for an end to “zero tolerance” and an end to immigration detention, even where families are kept together. Beyond the issue of family separations, the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, announced earlier this month that domestic or gang violence, which is rife in many parts of Central America and Mexico, will no longer be regarded as valid reasons for seeking asylum in the US. Susan Sarandon arrested at anti-Trump protest Read more Sarsour said plans for the demonstrations on Saturday had been given new impetus by the news last week that the supreme court had upheld Trump’s travel ban.

SunPower couldn’t convince the Trump administration to abandon tariffs on importedsolarpanels. So now it plans to buy one of the companies pushing the tariffs in the first place. Two months ago, CEO Tom Werner said SunPower was going to divest from America. In this week's episode, we'll explain how Trump's demands for tariffs are shifting the PV manufacturing landscape. Then, 173 countries agreed to cut emissions from the shipping sector by 2050. What are the technological solutions for a sector that could make up one-fifth of global emissions by the middle of the century? We'll end with the latest from Germany. Katherine was in that country getting an update on the closely scrutinized energy transition there — and we’ll get her take on where things stand. The Energy Gang is brought to you by Sense. Sense installs in your home's electrical panel and provides insight into your energy use and home activity through iOS, Android and web apps.