Latest news with #JohnHarris
The Guardian
a day ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
No, Glastonbury does not reflect a new England
John Harris paints Glastonbury as a reflection of England's liberal heart, but let's not kid ourselves (At Glastonbury, I saw what England's silent majority really looks like. Why aren't politicians listening?, 13 July). Glastonbury might be progressive in spirit, but it's also pricey, exclusive and overwhelmingly middle class. Tickets sell out in minutes. Getting there costs a fortune. That's not the everyday Britain most people live in. Yes, millions of people in this country care about fairness, climate and compassion. But many are too exhausted to believe politics will ever work for them. They're not watching headline sets. They're dealing with rent hikes and bills they can't pay. Glastonbury is a great vibe, but not the voice of the silent majority. To find that, the left needs to look somewhere less BerryLiverpool We need a Bob (as demonstrated by Band Aid and Live 8), someone who can harness the power of the silent, stifled majority; someone who would shout loud enough to be noticed, who would point out the divisive hatred and hypocrisy of Nigel Farage. Someone to talk sense and act sensibly on climate change, migration and child poverty in this country. Someone to give us hope. We can, and did, vote for the Greens, Liberal Democrats and independents recently in the council elections, but by splitting the vote we allowed Reform in the back door. So where's our Bob? We need Kerry Belper, Derbyshire John Harris seems to believe that people he met at Glastonbury are representative of a new England. No, John, they are representative of a self-selected group attending an overhyped music festival, and no more representative of England than members of the MCC at Lord' HarrisPoundon, Oxfordshire Have an opinion on anything you've read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
The Guardian
09-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
More headaches for Labour: Send, strikes and small boats
Only a week after the government was forced to retreat on benefits reform, there's now controversy over its plans for children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send). John Harris speaks to Kate Cox, a parent of two children with special needs, about why there's such concern about the plans. Plus, with NHS doctors going on strike again and small boat crossings reaching a record high, how can the government get out of this mess? John speaks to the political correspondent and fellow host of Politics Weekly, Kiran Stacey
The Guardian
09-07-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
From the archive: The death of the department store
We are raiding the Guardian long read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors. This week, from 2022: the closure of John Lewis's store in Sheffield after almost 60 years was a bitter blow. As debate rages over what to do with the huge empty site, the city is becoming a test case for where Britain's urban centres may be heading Written and read by John Harris
Yahoo
07-07-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Startup unveils game-changing electric truck with impressive capabilities: 'Looks like a smart product'
In late April, Harbinger, a startup commercial electric vehicle manufacturer, unveiled a new medium-duty, hybrid electric truck boasting a range of up to 500 miles, Electrek reported. The California-based startup is using the $100 million investment it recently raised in its Series B round of funding in January 2025 to develop this hybrid electric truck for wide-ranging medium-duty fleet uses, including delivery, garbage collection, and more. While the commercial transportation industry has made great strides in electrifying transport rides, some fleets are still hesitant to go fully electric, and Harbinger understands that. "There are some fleets whose needs simply can't be met with a purely electric vehicle — and we recognize that," said John Harris, cofounder and CEO of Harbinger, per Electrek. To help assuage these fears, Harbinger created this extended-range electric vehicle hybrid truck to meet the needs of any fleet. Harbinger's new medium-duty, hybrid electric truck runs on a 140 or 175 kilowatt-hour Panasonic-supplied battery and is supplemented by a low-emissions, 1.4-liter four-cylinder gas engine that powers an 800-volt generator, which sends power to the battery when the engine is running. Essentially, the truck relies on the battery's maximum range on a full charge before the gas engine kicks in. The engine, whose sole purpose is to power the generator that recharges the vehicle's battery, does not mechanically control or drive the vehicle's wheels as in traditional gas-powered vehicles. According to Harbinger, this hybrid electric truck offers up to 500 miles in range. As of 2022, transportation still represents the largest source (28%) of the nation's heat-trapping gases, per the Environmental Protection Agency. Electrifying this sector could deliver measurable economic and environmental benefits. For one, electrifying transportation reduces the amount of routine maintenance for fleet operators, as electric vehicles have fewer moving parts than traditional diesel-powered fleets. If you were going to purchase an EV, which of these factors would be most important to you? Cost Battery range Power and speed The way it looks Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. While the truck still has a small combustion engine that uses gas, the engine only kicks in when the vehicle's battery has depleted, which saves on fuel costs and produces a minimal amount of carbon pollution compared to diesel-powered trucks. A battery-powered EV also idles much more quietly in traffic, reducing noise and air pollution on congested highways and roads. Best of all, EVs can be powered by clean, renewable energy sources like solar. EV owners can save significantly on charging costs by installing home solar, as opposed to refueling at public charging stations or pulling from the electric grid, especially during peak energy times. EnergySage helps homeowners find and compare quotes from locally vetted solar installers, saving homeowners up to $10,000 on new solar projects. "I wouldn't be too surprised if FedEx, UPS, and the Postal Service started buying this," one Electrek commenter wrote. "All in all, it looks like a smart product," another user said. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
New York Times
06-07-2025
- General
- New York Times
The Brooklyn Allergist's Office That Was Once Home to a Spy
It's not every day that a Brooklyn allergy doctor is alerted by his receptionist that a stranger is standing in his waiting room claiming that a Cuban-born spy named Sanchez once lived in the building. But it happened to Dr. Norman Horace Greeley a few weeks ago in his home office at 140 Clinton Street in Brooklyn Heights. 'I thought he might've been a nut case,' Dr. Greeley recalled, 'and basically I turned him away.' But the visitor, the historian John Harris, tried one last bid to get a tour of the 1850s townhouse: He left the doctor a copy of his book, 'The Last Slave Ships,' along with a hastily scrawled note intimating that a famous ancestor of the doctor was linked to Emilio Sanchez y Dolz, the 19th-century spy whose biography Mr. Harris is writing for Yale University Press. Though Mr. Harris had arrived on the building's doorstep knowing nothing of its current occupant, he had immediately been intrigued by Dr. Greeley's name and by a portrait in the waiting room of Horace Greeley, who was the renowned founding editor of The New-York Tribune and an 1872 presidential candidate. 'It was mysterious and tantalizing,' Mr. Harris said of the portrait. 'I'm working with an obscure figure' — Mr. Sanchez — 'who deserves to be as famous as Greeley, and here he is connected to' Greeley himself, 'a much greater figure from the period.' Five minutes later, as Mr. Harris sat on the steps of a church across the street, Dr. Greeley called him, bursting with curiosity. He was indeed a descendant of the Tribune editor, he told Mr. Harris, and the house had been continuously occupied by Greeleys since the early 1900s. What's more, one of the doctor's sons, Matthew Greeley, was shooting a short-form documentary about the famously antislavery family patriarch. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
