Weekend Box #118: #Freed Julian Assange & more

Editor’s Note

Welcome to The Weekend Box, Audley’s round-up of interesting or obscure political, business, and cultural news from around the world.

At the end of every busy week in Westminster, ministerial private offices ask their departments to submit papers to the ‘weekend box’ for Ministers and Secretaries of State to catch up with over the weekend. Similarly, we would like to send you into the weekend with a few stories to catch up with at your leisure.

So, let’s delve inside The Weekend Box.

#FREED: JULIAN ASSANGE

Sitting in the Pacific Ocean some 7,000 miles from the mainland United States, the Northern Mariana Islands became the centre of attention this week as a private plane approached carrying international fugitive/freedom fighter (delete as appropriate) Julian Assange, on the final leg of his journey to freedom.

Assange had been pursued by the US government for years following the publication of a series of classified military documents through his media organisation WikiLeaks. The self-proclaimed editor, activist, and journalist first sought to avoid extradition from the UK by taking refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy, before taking his fight to the courts while incarcerated in Belmarsh prison, London.

His flight to freedom brings an end to the years-long saga as Assange pleaded guilty to one charge of conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defence information, as part of a deal that sees him released from custody and returned to his homeland of Australia.???

The deal is a triumph for the Australian government, who worked diligently behind the scenes to get it done. It shows what can be achieved when politicians choose to stand up for the rights and interests of their citizens.

It stands in contrast to the position of the UK government, which has been criticised for years for failing to do the same. The lopsided US-UK Extradition Treaty signed in 2003 has seen almost three times as many UK citizens sent to the US for trial than travelled the other way. Similarly, the UK adopted the full provisions of the European Arrest Warrant post-Brexit – even when several European countries said they would refuse to send their own citizens to the UK.

Some countries such as France have a general provision against extraditing their own citizens. Many argue the UK should now do the same. In the meantime, doing more to stand up for its own citizens Australia-style might be a start.?

Image credit/David G Silvers, Cancillería del Ecuador/License

FINANCE BILL COSTS LIVES IN KENYA

Kenya is in the grip of civil unrest, as protests continue in defiance of the government of President William Ruto, despite a reported twenty or more protesters having been killed in the capital of Nairobi earlier this week.

The unrest was sparked on Tuesday after a bill to increase taxes, which citizens had been demonstrating against for days, passed in Kenya’s parliament. Intended to reduce Kenya’s budget deficit from 5.7% of GDP to 3.3% by the next financial year, the bill will introduce a 16% tax on goods and services used in constructing and equipping hospitals and will raise import fees.

While the version of the bill MPs passed was absent more controversial measures found in an earlier version, this did not quell the anger of protesters, who have called for the economy to be shut down. They argue the tax raises will make the cost of living harder to bear for an already struggling Kenyan population.

Protestors stormed the parliament in Nairobi and areas of the building were set on fire, in what has been described as “the biggest assault on Kenya's government in decades.” The military were deployed and over twenty people were reportedly killed in the ensuing chaos.

President Ruto subsequently withdrew the bill in a televised address. Having claimed on Tuesday that an “otherwise legitimate” protest “by a section of law-abiding citizens” had been “infiltrated and hijacked by a group of organised criminals,” the president announced on Wednesday that he had “[listened] keenly to the people of Kenya” and he would “concede” and not sign the bill, offering condolences for the "unfortunate situation" of the deaths.

Protests have broken out in other areas of Kenya. While further demonstrations were promised in Nairobi, the turnout was lower than expected on Thursday as police blocked them from the city centre.

Image credit/World Trade Organisation on Flickr/License

IT TAKES TWO TO TANGO

Companies listed on Britain’s FTSE index are thought by some analysts to be “staggeringly cheap.” A flurry of interest in takeover deals from overseas companies should be expected.?

The latest example is Britvic. Earlier this week, the maker of Tango, Robinsons, J2O, and R Whites, batted away a takeover offer from Carlsberg. The Danish brewer offered the FTSE 250 company ￡12 per share but was rejected, and even an improved bid of ￡12.50 per share was turned down.

Carlsberg is attracted to Britvic for two reasons. First, it will help with the brewer’s strategy to move “beyond beer” as demand drops in Europe. Second, it offers synergies, since Britvic would be able to use Carlsberg’s distribution network, cutting costs as beers and bottles of squash are loaded on the same trucks. ?

Investors have not, as yet, seen the logic. Carlsberg shares dropped 9% on news of the offer. It seems the market is confused about whether Carlsberg is trying to become a company selling all kinds of drinks or just trying to grow its non-beer portfolio little by little.

Britvic may not be the most exciting company but its long-established and well-loved brands helped it grow revenue by 8.1% in its last full financial year. The company has also made a couple of smart acquisitions, growing its footprint in Brazil (its main overseas market) and buying Jimmy’s Iced Coffee.

Latching onto this steady and solid company could work for Carlsberg – but analysts agree it will have to up its offer to somewhere between ￡13 and ￡13.50 per share to get the nod from Britvic.

Directors at the FTSE 250 will know you only get to sell a company once: they won’t want to live to regret the sale price.

Image credit/Like_the_Grand_Canyon on Flickr/License

FAKE IT TILL YOU (DON'T QUITE) MAKE IT

The Covid-19 pandemic changed much about the way we work. Zoom meetings and hybrid working models prospered and have continued long after the pandemic subsided. Some claim they are more productive working from home, others that it facilitates improved mental health. Some of course have less virtuous reasons for remote working, and there is now growing concern about a subset of individuals tapping into ‘work simulation’ tools.

Wells Fargo recently terminated a number of employees for such work simulation. Whilst the bank did not disclose whether the employees were simulating working from home, it’s clear that the move to working from home has been the catalyst for such activity. Tools such as ‘mouse jigglers’ exploded in popularity during the pandemic. These tools keep an employee’s screen active and give the impression they are working, when in fact said employee is more likely sitting in front of a different screen watching Netflix and getting paid for the privilege.

Hence reports from the last week about employers have sought to enhance their surveillance tools to monitor remote employees, including tracking mouse and keyboard activity, and ensure productivity. This kind of tracking, popularly labelled as “bossware,’ has naturally sparked privacy concerns and accusations of ‘Big Brother’ behaviour. A 2023 report revealed that a staggering 96% of remote US companies use some form of employee monitoring software, with 37% going one step further and requiring employees to be on a live video feed.

There’s no doubt such a divide arises because of deeper company cultural issues; Wells Fargo, for example, has been accused of setting wildly unrealistic targets for employees in the past. One thing is certain: this trend shows no signs of abating and employers are going to have to find solutions beyond firing people if they want to truly get to the heart of the issue.

BRAIN BOXES' LIFE-CHANGING BRAIN BOX

This week’s medical breakthrough came from British research company Amber Therapeutics, which fitted 13-year-old epilepsy sufferer Oran Knowlson with a brain implant to control his seizures.

The procedure, which is a world first, involves fitting a neurostimulator under the skull. This is connected to two wires that doctors guide into the thalamus, requiring precision of less than a millimetre. Electrical stimulation is then fed to the brain which blocks the pathways that enable seizures to happen.

Recharged via a pair of headphones, the device has reduced Knowlson’s daytime seizures by 80% and his nighttime ones significantly. His mother Justine described how epilepsy had robbed him of his childhood: “I had a fairly bright three-year-old, and within a few months of his seizures commencing he deteriorated rapidly, and lost a lot of skills.”

Of Oran post-surgery she said: “He is more alert and with no drop seizures during the day…I'm definitely getting him back slowly.”

The surgery was delivered as part of a clinical trial at Great Ormond Street Hospital and will now be conducted on three other children.

It’s an incredible success story for a company which was founded in 2021 and only closed its Series A funding round earlier this month. The firm is focussed on developing therapies for areas of unmet clinical need. One of their flagship projects “[aims] to restore normal physiological function in women suffering with mixed urinary incontinence.”

The uses for neurostimulators like this may be myriad. Amber Therapeutics’ Picostim neurostimulator has also been used to treat patients with Parkinson’s disease, for example. Watch this space.

And that's it for this week. I hope you found something of interest that you might want to delve into further. If so, please get in touch at [email protected].

For now, that’s The Weekend Box officially closed.?

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