The Sun

• The Research Centre aims to develop a cutting-edge research platform to address energy and technical challenges presented by modern electric vehicles.
• Electric vehicles are not only a means of transportation, they will promote smart transportation, smart energy, smart networks, smart cities, and smart societies.
• The Centre will focus on cutting-edge research on electric vehicles and the friendly interaction  between electric vehicles, power grids and 5G networks.
• It has also recently secured a Public Policy Research Fund to study hydrogen fuel cell vehicle and electric vehicle related policies.

• Recent celebrity documentaries Beckham and Robbie Williams, and the final season of TV drama The Crown, have painted a portrait of the UK tabloids as cruel, sadistic and predatory of its homegrown celebrities.
• While criticism of the British tabloids – particularly the ethics and methods of the News of the World – is often justified, the specifics offered by all three shows fall flat.
• While these shows all try to claim part of the noughties nostalgia trend, they feel politically and contextually vacant.

The millennium press

• By 1998, only 8% of editorial in The Sun and The Mirror could be classed as “public affairs” – the rest focused on gossip, sports, or both.
• Inevitably, as celebrity culture became news, news also became gossip and both categories disintegrated into what we now call “clickbait”.
• As The Crown dolefully shows, one picture of Princess Diana could sell for millions to print newspapers in 1997.

The Crown

• The final season of The Crown covers the last eight months of Princess Diana’s life.
• Through fictionalised monologues from actors playing real photographers and journalists, the press compare themselves to “hunters” and “killers”.

Beckham and Robbie Williams

• Unlike The Crown, the main characters in the documentaries Beckham and Robbie Williams are not only living subjects but also active participants in the programmes.
• Beckham consults a litany of talking heads – former managers, teammates, Spice Girls and two suitably shame-filled paparazzi – to build a portrait of the footballer and his union with wife Victoria.
• As Williams notes, “[When you become famous] you want to give away the privacy you want to give away.

Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. Sign up here.
Rachel Sykes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• HONG KONG, Aug. 21, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Global Smart Cities Summit cum the 3rd International Conference on Urban Informatics (GSCS & ICUI 2023), organised by the International Society for Urban Informatics (ISUI) and the PolyU Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Smart Cities Research Institute (SCRI), commenced today.
• This three-day conference has attracted over 500 participants globally and over 230 speakers will share their insights and research on urban informatics and smart cities.
• It provides an excellent platform for exchanging information about state-of-the-art technologies and innovations in smart cities and urban informatics.
• The Outstanding Achievement Award in Urban Informatics honours world-renowned scholars in recognition of their significant contributions to the field of Urban Informatics.

• What is known, however, is UK law when it comes to the exchange of sexually explicit material involving young people.
• According to allegations by the young person’s mother published in The Sun, the presenter paid tens of thousands of pounds in exchange for explicit images.
• The young person has claimed through their lawyer that “nothing inappropriate or unlawful has taken place”.
• If the images were exchanged after the young person turned 18, it could be that no law was broken.
• This law makes it an offence to take, show, make, distribute or advertise indecent photographs or “pseudo-photographs” of a child.

An abuse of power?

• Any abuse of power or trust could be an aggravating factor which, for sentencing purposes, could increase the maximum sentence to four years’ imprisonment for the making offence.
• A judge may also take into account the vulnerability of the child depicted, the number of images made or possessed and whether the child appeared to be intoxicated or drunk.
• Since 2017, it extends to situations where images are streamed (such as via the internet) or otherwise transmitted by some other technological means.