Prime Minister Theresa May plans to meet with French president Emmanuel Macron in France on Friday to discuss her Brexit plan. She has been invited to Macron’s summer retreat at Fort Bregancon in Southern France. Mrs May has been trying to raise awareness and support for her Brexit plan amongst other EU leaders instead of leaving it to the heads of Brussels officials. Newly appointed Brexit secretary Jeremy Hunt has urged France and Germany to speak with the Chief Brexit negotiator of the EU, Michel Barnier, and “send a strong signal” to the European Commission in order to reach a “pragmatic and sensible outcome”.
Facebook have uncovered fake accounts exercising coordinated political influence ahead of the November 2018 midterm elections in the US. On Tuesday, the social media company confirmed that 32 pages and accounts were removed from both Facebook and Instagram because of their involvement in “co-ordinated inauthentic behaviour”. This comes after Russia have previously been accused of interfering in the 2016 election through the use of fake Facebook accounts.
Campaign Manager of Donald Trump’s successful 2016 presidential campaign has gone to trial. Jury selection began in Virginia yesterday for the trial of Paul Manafort, who could face decades in prison for banking and tax fraud-related charges. The alleged crimes were uncovered by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, however, the charges do not relate to any potential Russian medalling. However, this is significant as it is the first criminal trial since the Russia investigation began.
And in other news,
Uber are scrapping their plans for the development of self-driving trucks. The ride-hailing company have instead decided to focus their attention ‘exclusively with [self-driving] cars’. Their autonomous truck programme had some successes since it began in 2016, with Uber successfully delivering a shipment of Budweiser in a self-driving truck 120 miles across Colorado. However, the cars – to which Uber are turning their attention – have had less success, with a pedestrian being killed by one of Uber’s autonomous vehicles in Arizona earlier this year.
From the Speakerpolitics news desk, you are up to date
