BBC urges staff to delete TikTok from company mobile phones

The BBC has urged its staff to delete the Chinese-own social media app TikTok from corporate mobile phones. Guidance to BBC staff circulated on Sunday said: “We don’t recommend installing TikTok on a BBC corporate device unless there is a justified business reason. If you do not need TikTok for business reasons, TikTok should be deleted.” The move comes after the UK government banned the app on government-issued phones amid fears of sensitive data being accessed by the Chinese government, owing to its ownership by the Chinese internet company ByteDance.…

‘Danger, disorder and division’: defence review refresh sees a more hostile world

Britain’s refresh of its defence and foreign policy may mark the moment when the UK sobers up about its place in a world that it now describes as “defined by danger, disorder and division”, and increasingly tilting to authoritarianism. Gone is the optimistic Global Britain bombast of the Boris Johnson era, set out in the original integrated review only two years ago. That version championed the UK as “a beacon of democratic sovereignty” and one of the most influential countries in the world, and hailed its ability to draw on…

Rishi Sunak unveils £5bn extra defence spending ahead of US Aukus summit – UK politics live

From 3h ago Rishi Sunak unveils £5bn extra defence spending ahead of Aukus summit in US Good morning. Rishi Sunak is in San Diego, California, where today he will meet Joe Biden, the US president, and Anthony Albanese, the Australian prime minister, for an Aukus meeting. Aukus is the Australia/US/UK security pact, primarily focused on providing Australia with nuclear-powered submarine capacity. It was set up when Boris Johnson was prime minister, and now provides him with the material for one of his most over-used jokes. The meeting will coincide with…

BBC says Chinese police assaulted and detained its reporter at Shanghai protest

Chinese police assaulted and detained a BBC journalist covering a protest in Shanghai on Sunday, releasing him after several hours, the broadcaster has said. “The BBC is extremely concerned about the treatment of our journalist Ed Lawrence, who was arrested and handcuffed while covering the protests in Shanghai,” a spokesperson for the British public service broadcaster said. “He was held for several hours before being released. During his arrest, he was beaten and kicked by the police. This happened while he was working as an accredited journalist.” Shanghai is one…

The week in audio: Book of the Week; Start the Week; Promenade and more

Book of the Week: 1,000 Years of Joys and Sorrows (BBC Radio 4) | BBC Sounds Start the Week (BBC Radio 4) | BBC SoundsPromenade The Shift Podcast NetworkPreviously on… Succession AcastFirecrotch & Normcore Acast In 2013, Benedict Wong played the Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei at the Hampstead theatre, London. The play was about the 81 days that he spent in isolated detention in 2011, having been arrested by government officials at Beijing airport. He was kept in a small, brightly lit room (the lights never went off)…