More than 1,400 flights canceled worldwide Monday, adding to thousands canceled over the Christmas weekend. And across the country, long lines continued at COVID-19 testing sites.
Repairs to the Palace of Westminster could last for two decades and cost £14 billion, exceeding initial estimates more than three times, the British media has learned.
UK MPs and peers would do well to find a new home that would suit them for the long haul, as what was initially projected to be a six-year refurbishment of both Houses of Parliament could now swell to 20 years, according to The Telegraph, citing an unnamed government source. The cost has also reportedly ballooned exorbitantly, with the £14 billion ($18.7 billion) price tag being “one estimate that has been discussed.” Initial projections put the cost at approximately £4 billion.
The unnamed official told The Telegraph that as “MPs will have to vote on these plans and they will have to be able to justify such a project to their constituents,” they are likely to be “incredibly concerned by these suggested costs and timescales.” According to the paper, the Restoration & Renewal Sponsor Body, which is composed of MPs, peers, historians, and infrastructure experts, calculated that the work could last a whopping 30 years unless the lawmakers vacate the building. Moreover, in his letter to MPs earlier this year, Lord Fowler, a former speaker of the House of Lords, reportedly warned them that continuing to work in situ could also further add to the costs.
However, the British media outlet says this is the worst-case scenario, with at least one more plan under consideration that would require the MPs to work outside of the Palace of Westminster for 12 to 15 years.
According to media reports, the body tasked with the restoration of the Houses of Parliament expects to present a final plan to the lawmakers in 2023, while the whole of next year will be spent further analyzing the building’s structures and the level of their deterioration.
A key problem faced by the restoration effort is a lack of skilled stonemasons, plasterers, and historic window experts, with officials admitting they are struggling to find some of the craftsmen needed.
The Palace of Westminster in its present form was built in place of the old palace, which was destroyed by fire back in 1834. Its construction was largely finished by 1860.
Despite the almost miraculous development of effective vaccines against COVID-19 in 2020, the virus continued to spread and mutate throughout the last year, with much of the blame placed on a lack of effective global collaboration as a key reason for the prolonged pandemic. 2021 also saw the launch of a UN-backed programme to help developing countries protect their populations against the virus, and steps were taken to prepare for future global health crises.
Journalist Kate Bartlett speaks with Elissa Nadworny about what Desmond Tutu meant to the people of South Africa and the fight for social justice more broadly.
Canada’s Public Health Agency has admitted to secretly tracking location data from at least 33 million mobile devices to analyze people’s movements during Covid-19 lockdowns.
The agency earlier this year collected data, including geolocation information from cell-towers, “due to the urgency of the pandemic,” a PHAC spokesperson told the National Post, essentially confirming a report by Blacklock’s Reporter. The tracking data was allegedly only used to evaluate the effectiveness of lockdown measures and identify possible links between the movement of people and the spread of Covid-19.
PHAC obtained the information, which was “de-identified and aggregated,” through an outside contractor, Canadian telecommunications giant Telus. The contract ran from last March to October, and PHAC said it no longer had access to the data after the deal expired.
However, the agency plans to similarly track the movements of citizens over the next five years toward such ends as preventing the spread of other infectious diseases and improving mental health. PHAC last week posted a notice to prospective contractors seeking anonymous mobile data dating as far back as January 2019 and running through at least May 2023.
Critics argued that government tracking of citizens is likely more extensive than has been revealed and may become more troublesome in the years ahead.
“I think that the Canadian public will find out about many other such unauthorized surveillance initiatives before the pandemic is over—and afterwards,” privacy advocate David Lyon told the Post. He noted, too, that “de-identified” data can easily be “re-identified.”
Author Julius Reuchel said the tracking initiative smacks of a surveillance state spying on citizens “for your safety.” Another author, Paul Alves, said that with its new contract, PHAC will have direct access to all mobile location data, and expressed fear that “contact tracing will no longer require permission or a warrant.”
