Archive for elections
un brun flippant [cover]
Posted in Books, Kids with tags AfD, cover, elections, fascism, German politics, Germany, Libé on September 8, 2026 by xi'an
beware, foreign influences!
Posted in Travel, University life with tags elections, Foreign Influence Registration Scheme, foreign policy, FRIS, Home Office, Islamic Republic of Iran, Parliament, Russian Federation, state universities, UK politics, University of Warwick, visiting position on July 27, 2025 by xi'an
An interesting email I received on my Warwick mail, about the newly established Foreign Influence Registration Scheme in the UK. There is hardly any likelihood I could be concerned by a registration of my activities towards political influence, especially since State-owned universities, State-funded visiting grants, and domestic publishers are not covered by this registration.
On the 1 July 2025 the UK government’s Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS) came into force and university activities may be captured within this legislation and will therefore require registration. This email is to let you know how this might affect your departments, as well as what the University will be doing to manage compliance with the scheme.
FIRS was authorised under the National Security Act 2023 and sits under the remit of the Home Office. The scope of the legislation is to increase transparency about foreign political influences on activities in the UK. The scheme has two tiers, the political influence tier and the enhanced tier.
The two tiers both serve the same broad aims, but have slightly different requirements and parameters, including the time we have to register the activities. Organisations or individuals in UK will need to register any applicable activities with the Home Office via their online portal, and some of this information will be part of a public register.
Please note that whilst is this email has been sent by R&IS, the activities extend beyond research and cover all relevant university activities.
Political Influence Tier
Any activities where a foreign power directs an individual or an entity to conduct political influence activities i.e. a communication or action designed to influence an election, governmental or party-political decision, or the actions of an elected official. Registration of foreign influence arrangements under the political tier must be within 28 calendar days, activities may take place within the 28 day window without prior registration.
The maximum penalty for failure to comply is 2 years imprisonment.
Examples of political activities in HEI could include:
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- communications with senior civil servants and ministers in a government department which seek to influence education policy
- appearance at select committees and other parliamentary activities which provide information seeking to influence MPs or peers
- the publication of an article which encourages support for a Private Member’s Bill, without stating that the publication was directed by a foreign power
- the presentation of research outcomes and associated policy proposals to senior civil servants
Enhanced Tier
Any activities for any purpose which are directed by a specified list of entities dictated by the government. Presently, the specified entities are the governments and government departments of the Russian Federation and the Islamic Republic of Iran. Registration of foreign influence arrangements under the enhanced tier must be within 10 calendar days and before any activities are carried out.
Failure to register, or knowingly carrying out unregistered relevant activities, can lead to significant penalties, including imprisonment of up to 5 years and unlimited fine
State-owned companies and universities are not considered to be part of a foreign government in the eyes of this legislation.
It should be noted that requirement is to notify through registration and approval, and permission is not required, the activity can proceed provided the registration requirements have been met.
With respect to research, R&IS will be incorporating checks to ensure compliance with FIRS into our processes for supporting grants and contracts at the pre-award stage, and other professional services teams may do similar within their areas. We will need to provide some information to the Home Office as part of the registration, and where we identify a need to register, we will need to complete the registration before any contracts are signed or work commences.
We encourage departments and individual members of staff to be informed about the requirements created by FIRS and in this regard we have developed some guidance.
and it only gets worse and worse and … [verbatim]
Posted in Books, pictures with tags 06 January 2021, Agent Orange, baby Trump, bombing, democracy, dictature, Donald Trump, drawing, elections, Emmanuel Macron, European Commission, European Union, foreign policy, JD Vance, Kyiv, riots, Russian invasion, Solidarity with Ukraine, Ukraine, US Capitol, verbatim, Vladimir Putin, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, war crimes, war economy on March 2, 2025 by xi'an
[Extracts from DT’s unhinged declarations on 19 Feb about Ukraine:]
“But today I heard: ‘Oh, well, we weren’t invited.’ Well, you’ve been there for three years. You should have ended it three years. You should have never started it. You could have made a deal.”
“A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left. We have a situation where we haven’t had elections in Ukraine. Well, we have martial law, essentially martial law in Ukraine, where the leader in Ukraine, I mean, I hate to say it, but he’s down at 4% approval rating and where a country has been blown to smithereens. You got most of the cities are laying on their sides.”
“Russia does not intend to destroy Kyiv, if they had wanted to, they would have done it. Russia is capable of wiping out Ukrainian cities 100%, including Kyiv, but right now, they are only attacking at 20%.”
“Russia wants to do something. They want to stop the savage barbarianism [sic].”
[And more during the joint session with Emmanuel Macron, on 24 Feb.]
“I don’t use those words lightly [when asked whether or not Putin is a dictator], we’ll see how it all works out.”
“The European Union was formed in order to screw the United States. That’s the purpose of it, and they’ve done a good job of it.”
[With the newspeak winner about the January 6 rioters’ pardon]
“I pardoned J6 people who were assaulted by our government. They didn’t assault. They were assaulted, and what I did was a great thing for humanity.”
[All these quotes were recorded before the 28 Feb deliberate ambush of President Zelenskyy set by the boned spurred Agent Orange and his hillbilly Iago, reaching the all-times nadir of US international relations…]
rewriting history
Posted in Books, Mountains, pictures, Travel with tags Bhutan, Buddhism, Chinese history, Communist Party of China, democratic elections, elections, Gengis Khan, gun violence, Le Louvre, Le Monde, monks, Musée d'histoire de Nantes, Musée du Quai Branly, Musée Guimet, museum, Nantes, Nepal, Oscars (Academy Awards), Paris, People's Republic of China, PRC, propaganda, Telluride Film Festival, The Monk and the Gun, Tibet, Toronto International Film Festival on September 24, 2024 by xi'an
shallow learning
Posted in Books, University life with tags AI, artificial intelligence, Cédric Villani, ChatGPT, editor in chief, elections, French politics, journalism, Libé, Liberation, Parliament on June 21, 2023 by xi'an
