Latest news with #MarkKennedy
Yahoo
15-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Rogers Launches Satellite-to-Mobile Service in Canada
First wireless provider to offer next generation technology to all CanadiansInvites all Canadians to join the beta at no costCovers 2.5 times more square kms than any other Canadian wireless carrierAutomatically connects your phone in areas without cell service TORONTO, July 15, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rogers launched today Rogers Satellite, a new satellite-to-mobile text messaging service to all Canadians. With Rogers Satellite, Rogers now covers over 5.4 million square kilometers - that's over 2.5 times more than any other Canadian wireless service provider. 'We're proud to introduce this ground-breaking technology to help Canadians stay safe and connected in more places,' said Tony Staffieri, President and CEO, Rogers. 'Earlier this month Rogers celebrated the 40th anniversary of the first wireless call in Canada, and this new technology represents the next big leap in wireless connectivity. We're proud to continue our legacy of innovative firsts and to connect Canadians in more places.' Starting today, all Canadians can sign up to use Rogers Satellite beta trial at no cost. Rogers Satellite will initially support text messaging and text-to-911 and will expand to support apps, data and voice services, including 911 voice services. Once the beta trial ends in October, Rogers Satellite will be included at no additional cost to customers on the Rogers Ultimate Plan and will also be available for all Canadians for $15/month. Canadians participating in the beta trial will receive a $5/month discount for the first 12 months. For more information about the beta trial, visit 'We continually invest to bring Canadians the best networks and the most coverage,' said Mark Kennedy, Chief Technology Officer. 'Now, with Rogers mobile spectrum paired with satellite technology, Canadians can turn their smartphone into a satellite phone to stay connected and access text-to-911 in some of the most remote parts of Canada.' Only 18 per cent of the country is covered by traditional wireless networks. With this new technology, Rogers now covers over 5.4 million square kilometres within Canada, over 2.5 times more than any other wireless carrier. When connected to Rogers Satellite, customers can send a text to friends in the Rocky Mountains, text 911 if stranded on a remote highway or connect with friends and family on the southern shores of Hudson Bay or the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Rogers Satellite uses low-earth orbit (LEO) satellites and Rogers national wireless spectrum. Wireless spectrum ensures this technology works on most modern smartphones. The company will continue to test and optimize Rogers Satellite services throughout the beta trial. Rogers has invested $45 billion to deliver a series of wireless firsts for Canadians over the past 40 years. 1G introduced voice calls, 2G added texting, and 3G offered email and the Internet. 4G brought the smartphone and with it, the on-demand economy, and 5G has unlocked even faster speeds, lower latency and a new era of innovation. Today, Rogers is ranked as Canada's most reliable 5G+ network. Rogers Satellite is available outside, including on bodies of water, where you can see the sky. For coverage areas, see coverage map. Quotes'BC Search and Rescue Association (BCSARA) welcomes Rogers new satellite-to-mobile service as a significant advancement for public safety and emergency response in BC's remote areas. The ability to send text messages, including text-to-911, during the initial rollout from areas without traditional coverage, represents a crucial step forward for search and rescue operations. Improved backcountry connectivity enhances both responder coordination and public safety.' Chris Mushumanski, President, BCSARA "Rogers Satellite is a game changer for public safety in Alberta. For the first time, people in remote areas will have direct access to emergency services without needing specialized equipment. This advancement improves our ability to respond faster and more effectively, ultimately saving lives and enhancing the safety of both the public and our SAR volunteers. We fully support this important step forward." Brian Carriere, President, Search and Rescue Association of Alberta "This is a welcomed step forward in closing the digital divide for Northwestern Ontario. Reliable connectivity is not a luxury — it's a necessity for safety, economic growth, and community wellbeing. On behalf of NOMA and the 37 municipalities we represent, I commend Rogers for investing in technology that brings much-needed service to our rural and remote communities. This satellite-to-mobile service is a positive stride toward ensuring no one is left behind in today's digital world.' Rick Dumas, President, Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association (NOMA) About Rogers Communications is Canada's leading communications and entertainment company and its shares are publicly traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: RCI.A and RCI.B) and on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: RCI). For more information, please visit or For more information:Mediamedia@ in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
The National
05-07-2025
- Politics
- The National
20 years on from the Gleneagles G8 summit protests
Weeks earlier chancellor Gordon Brown spearheaded an African debt relief programme, 'Make Poverty History'. Protesters travelled to Scotland and established a camp in Stirling. The anti-G8 movement had debuted in Genoa in 2001, ending in extreme violence from Italian police towards protesters sleeping at night. READ MORE: Craig Murray: I've been left questioning real purpose of Alba Party The stakes for participants were high, but as British activist Jay Jordan says: 'In Europe, there is confrontational policing. In the UK, policing is cleverer – the bosses have read their Foucault.' Protest at the time was divided into two main 'blocs', pink and black. The pink bloc used non-confrontational, artistic, musical, mocking and playful approaches to get their message across, while the black bloc would sometimes resort to confrontation, rioting and destruction of buildings. In 2005, I was part of the pink bloc, as a member of a samba band called Rhythms of Resistance based in London. I took my 11-year-old daughter, a drummer in the band, to Scotland. The anti-G8 organisers had hired a train from London to Edinburgh for protesters – 'for about £2000', according to one of the leaders, Amy Stansell. Rhythms of Resistance occupied a carriage. We practised drums while speeding through England. I'd brought a picnic, including a large trifle containing Malibu as well as wild strawberries from my garden. King's Cross station was crammed with police looking wary as excited protesters assembled to get on the train. On the platform, I spied Helen Steel, a defendant in the 'McLibel' court case against McDonald's, the longest running libel trial in British history, in which she was represented by Keir Starmer. As a well-known protester, she had been tricked into having a long-term relationship with an undercover 'spy cop'. Many of the interviewees for this piece are participants in the ongoing Mitting Inquiry into the spy cop scandal. All of them talked about the phenomenon of being infiltrated by undercover police. Mark Kennedy, one of the spy cops, was present in Gleneagles and organised most of the protesters' transport. One Scottish activist, whom I'll call Fraser, said: 'I knew Mark Kennedy quite well. I thought I had some sort of 'spy sense', but I didn't know. I was a bit humbled. All I knew was I didn't like him.' The anti-G8 protest at Gleneagles was well organised. Amy Stansell explains the preparation: 'We moved to Scotland six months before, sofa surfing and staying in communities such as Bilston Glen protest camp.' Amy and her partner Robin spent months trying to find a piece of land where they could set up a convergence camp, which, inspired by a No Borders camp in Schengen, was divided into small local 'barrios' each with a kitchen. The idea was to create a horizontal democracy: 'Providing space for people to meet, network, connect – a safe non-capitalist space, where people can be without having to spend money, where people can dream and have ideas. We wanted to change people's hearts by creating a miniature vision of the world we wanted to see.' Fraser recalls the difficulties that arose when they met with farmers: 'There were a number of sites where we had handshake agreements, we had a site and then … we didn't.' Amy explains: 'We had a big pot, around £5000, for renting some land. We were looking at land, assessing it on the basis of accessibility, of drainage, of water, the flatness. One person intimated that they had been basically pressured not to make a deal with us. 'We'd lost our first two choices due to what we termed at the time 'dark forces'. I remember ringing up the chief executive of Stirling Council at 8pm one night and saying, 'In a few weeks' time, you're gonna have 5000 activists descending on your town, and if there's not anywhere for them to go, they're just going to be around in the town, and it's just going to be really hectic'. READ MORE: Kate Forbes: Bigger-picture switch is proving key in tackling tourism issues 'The next morning, the people at the council who we were liaising with contacted us and said, 'We've got a bit of land for you'.' But the land was not ideal, Amy remembers, 'One of the things that we really worried about was that the site was completely surrounded by a brook. There was one road in and the rest of it was surrounded by a river. We felt a bit like, 'are we in a trap now?'.' Fraser agrees: 'It wasn't what we wanted. There was the danger of getting kettled and the danger of when we got kettled, people jumping in the river.' On July 2, 2005, some 2000 people and the samba band marched through Edinburgh in a carnival atmosphere. The weather was hot; the buildings tall, grand and grey. I played a surdo, a huge drum (in general, the smaller the woman, the bigger the drum) for miles, which was exhausting. Then the band made our way to the camp in Stirling, the nearest large town to Gleneagles. I'd already attended an anarchist anti-G8 camp in Evian in 2003, which was the political equivalent of the Glastonbury Festival. Organised along the barrio system, it had music, workshops, tents, food stalls, activities and meetings. I cooked meals for the camp using donated and waste food from dumpsters for the Manchester barrio kitchen. I blogged at the time: 'Have attended more meetings in a week than ever before in life.' Meetings used hand signals, eg waving hands for agreement (silent clapping). Much of the language started in 1960s protest movements and has since been used in civil rights, Reclaim the Streets, climate camps, anti-globalisation movements and Occupy. Protest hand signals were added to the basic samba vocabulary, as players cannot hear each other. This is also a good way to cross language barriers for international participants. Sister protest samba bands travelled from Belgium, Germany, Holland. The camp was multilingual. I was surprised by the efficiency and organisation of the Stirling convergence camp. There were toilets, food stores and a sophisticated ecological greywater system for wastewater. Kate Evans, a political cartoonist who was present, recalls: 'There was an impromptu Highland Games. I won the caber toss!' We even had a camp witch – an American called Starhawk who cast spells over the campsite to protect it from the police. On Wednesday, July 6, the main day of protest against the Gleneagles summit, many activists walked through the undergrowth overnight, hiding in the heathery hills, to reach Gleneagles. I wrote at the time: 'The call came through at about 5am that the M9 had been taken by us. Big cheer. This was the least likely blockade to succeed. 'By 7am, the A9 was blocked, and many B roads. I was standing next to the medics as they received news: 'Lancaster took the B2499, Nottingham have taken this other road' and so on. It was like the Wars of the Roses!' Starhawk had been doing invisibility spells for the walkers who blockaded the roads. 'I think magic doesn't work in theory, only in practice,' Jay says. I spent the rest of the day on the 'baby bloc', a children's protest convoy headed by a London double-decker red bus (maximum speed 30mph). Once we arrived at the police lines, near Auchterarder, close to the Gleneagles hotel, we set up a 'terrorist toddlers' picnic, which included a sound system, clowns, bubbles, rain, banners, colour and an enormous umbrella under which we played samba. Entertainment was provided also by the Geishas of Gaiety (white-faced, dressed in kimonos and waving fans) and the Radical Cheerleaders, as well as the award-winning poet Kae Tempest (at that time Kate Tempest). The police appeared nonplussed. Jay, who led the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army (Circa), which used clowning, satire and absurdity to critique the establishment, remembers with amusement: 'Bored cops were convinced to play a game similar to paper scissors rock, called wizards, goblins, giants. At the end, they couldn't help but laugh and we hugged.' That night in the camp, we were on high alert, blockaded by police. From time to time, people would run about, screaming, 'we are going to be raided'. Others sneaked out slowly, avoiding police lines. On July 7, the morning after the confrontation at Gleneagles, we heard the news – terrorist bombings on public transport in the centre of London. We gathered for a large meeting. People were sombre and concerned. I was holding back tears. My sister lived in King's Cross and I was terrified she'd been caught up in it. Our protest and the Make Poverty History message were wiped off the front pages. As Amy explains: 'That took the attention from us, which is terrible to say but that was our experience. 'We'd put in months of our lives to do this, and no-one noticed, apart from a few delegates who couldn't get to a few meetings. We wanted it to be big news and it wasn't because of the bombing. READ MORE: Pat Kane: The powerful vision of Adam Curtis has an obvious blind spot So, do participants in the 2005 anti-G8 camp at Stirling think protest works? What did they learn? Giovanna Speciale, a music leader in the samba band, reflects: 'The change is us. Politicians are very rarely changed by protesters coming up and saying, 'You should change, you should change your attitude. You're really bad'. 'Protest rarely changes anyone's mind, but it does change what is politically feasible to talk about. 'Nothing changes someone more than having gone out, taken, done an action, got a placard, written on it saying what their attitude is, then showing that to everyone else. There is a massive problem with protest in that often we're othering ourselves, so we make ourselves look different, sound different. 'There is nothing less likely to change a politician's mind than a bunch of people who are clearly outsiders.' Amy says: 'That question actually makes me well up a little bit – that's quite an emotional question. I variously go through phases where I'm just like, 'there's no point', right? It does nothing. Years and years of doing massive protests like the Stop the War march in London and they just still invaded the next day. 'You do all of these massive events and then the only coverage we'd get would be the traffic news. I gave up the whole of my 20s, pretty much, to fight capitalism and be an activist.' Jay says: 'Stirling was the end of a cycle. It was a symbolic victory. Protesters were saying, 'This isn't normal. This isn't democracy.' But there is a burnout culture in activism. I teach regenerative activism now to combat it.' Fraser says of direct action: 'Obviously there is a sort of bravado – of youth or masculinity.' Giovanna adds: 'There were huge amounts of courage and, yes, sacrifice and creativity.' Amy says: 'I don't want to categorise my life in a hierarchy of excitingness, but they definitely were very exciting times. There was a sense of heroism, we're the ones who are standing up. Danger intertwined with righteousness – which is what makes heroism, isn't it?' It is often wondered whether there is really a point to protest, not least by activists themselves. There is little doubt, though, that the Stirling camp and anti-G8 protest at Gleneagles was a deeply meaningful experience for those involved.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Former Swindon boss returns to football with Championship club
Former Swindon Town boss Mark Kennedy is back in work for the first time since leaving as he has a new role at Birmingham City. Having managed the first 13 games of last season before parting company with Swindon, Kennedy has returned to football as the under-21s professional phase coach at Birmingham following their promotion to the Championship and return to academy category one status Advertisement Kennedy's stint at Swindon was a brief one, after being appointed head coach last June, he departed in October following a difficult start to the season, which saw him win just two league games and have the team in 22nd place. Read more: Scepticism, learning and McLoughlin - Wood on two decades with Town's academy Swindon confirm permanent capture of Premier League defender Swindon complete fourth summer signing in Leeds midfielder However, he has returned to football after some time out; he will now take the development squad for Birmingham, a club where he was previously the assistant head coach to Lee Bowyer. Advertisement Kennedy commented: 'I'm really excited to be returning to Birmingham City at what is an exciting time, not only for the Club but also for the Academy as we enter the Category One games programme next season. 'Throughout my coaching career, I have worked with both academy and senior players, and I believe my experience can help further the development of our players as we test ourselves against the best in the country.'
Irish Times
29-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Harold's Cross four-bed with south-facing garden for €1.4m
Address : 21 Clareville Road, Harold's Cross, Dublin 6W Price : €1,400,000 Agent : Owen Reilly View this property on The owners of 21 Clareville Road could see the potential in the 1930s house from the first viewing. At the time it had a garage to the side and a single-storey extension, but looking at similar houses in the area, they knew the space was available to go double-fronted and double-height at the back. They moved in 2008 and did the minor jobs to allow them to live comfortably and get a feel for the house. In 2018, under the care of architect Mark Kennedy of K-Design Studio, they did the full renovation, which effectively doubled the original footprint of the house and took the Ber rating up to an A3. Number 21, which is on the market through Owen Reilly with a guide price of €1.4 million, has a floor area of 172sq m (1,851sq ft). The garage has been replaced with two storeys of extra living space and, at the back, the old extension has been replaced with a new improved version with a bespoke zinc-clad elevation. [ Meticulously restored Marino midterrace for €635,000 Opens in new window ] Kitchen Open-plan living space Doors out to garden The front driveway is paved and could fit two cars comfortably, which will be appreciated by new owners, as disc parking has been introduced on the road. The front door opens into the hallway with a polished concrete floor that continues through to the back of the house. To the left of the hall is a livingroom with a cast-iron fireplace and carpeted floors. To the right is a study that would also work as a fifth bedroom as it is beside the downstairs shower room, making it ideal for guests or elderly relatives. READ MORE [ Refreshed Modernist-style terraced home in Dundrum for €900,000 Opens in new window ] The open-plan living space at the back is the full width of the house and is bright with a lightwell in the roof over the dining area and floor-to-ceiling concertina doors out to the garden. The kitchen units are designed by Leicht and at the centre is a large island. Nice features in the room include a prep sink with Quooker tap, a Neff halogen hob and a Caple wine cooler. There is a utility room off the kitchen with extra storage. The transition from inside to outside is seamless, with a polished concrete patio on the same level as the kitchen floor. The south-facing garden has a lawn set in artificial grass that is bordered by mature plants and trees. The house backs on to the playing fields at Harold's Cross Football Club, so it's not overlooked at the back, which is always a bonus in Dublin city. Garden Main bedroom En-suite bathroom Upstairs, the main bedroom has a walk-in wardrobe and en-suite bathroom with a bath and double sinks. There are three more bedrooms on this level and a shower room. The converted attic has a feature dormer window that looks out to the pitches behind and has easy access to the eaves for storage. The A3 rating was something the owners always had in their sights. They say the bills are small and the house is always warm, which is down to the insulation that was fitted, the underfloor heating on the ground floor and the efficiency of the air-to-water heat pump. The house, just off Kenilworth Road, is a 10-minute walk to Rathmines, Rathgar and Terenure villages.
The Independent
25-05-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
We had a 12-month romance. Then I found my boyfriend was really an undercover cop sent to spy on me
It had been a 12-month-long whirlwind romance that ended amicably, but little did Kate Wilson know a phone call six years on would change her life forever. Ms Wilson was in her mid-twenties when she met who she believed was Mark Stone at an activist meeting in Nottingham in 2003. The pair hit it off and began a romance which lasted over a year - but it was all a lie. Mark Stone was actually Mark Kennedy. An undercover police officer sent by the now-disbanded National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU) to spy on an activist group Ms Wilson was associated with back in the early 2000s. Speaking at Wales' Hay Festival, which The Independent has partnered with once again, Ms Wilson described the impact of the immense invasion of privacy and her fight for justice. 'I met Mark at the end of 2003, after he shown up in the summer and befriended some of my friends who were living in Nottingham,' she said. 'We had an awful lot in common. He even liked country music which was pretty much unheard of in the circles I was in. He said he was from Battersea and from a broken home. 'He used to get emotional saying how his mother had brought up two sons on her own - but none of it was true.' When the relationship ended, the pair kept in touch, with Kennedy visiting Ms Wilson abroad in Barcelona and Berlin. They remained friends until years later, when she got a phone call from another woman Kennedy had been in a relationship with for six years, telling her that he had been an undercover police officer the entire time. 'We were really close friends right until I got the phone call. A friend of mind said 'Mark's a cop, we've got the proof and we're going public and I don't want you to find out from the internet,'' she said. Kennedy, who resigned from the Met in 2010, had sexual relationships with as many as 10 other women while undercover. Ms Wilson's revelation led to legal action against the Met and the National Police Chief's Council (NPCC), both of which have admitted to a number of breaches of Ms Wilson's human rights and apologised for the 'hurt and damage' the intelligence operation caused. In 2021, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) ordered the Met Police and NPCC to pay a total of £229,471 to Ms Wilson 'by way of just satisfaction for the breaches of her human rights'. She is one of 60 victims of the spycops scandal. Taking place over more than 40 years, from 1968 to at least 2010, the operation is now the subject of a decade-long public inquiry that has already cost £88m and is due to conclude in 2026. 'There is a fundamental problem with secret policing,' Ms Wilson told an audience at the culture and arts festival. 'There's an institutional problem with the fact there's no accountability, but there's also a personal problem when you take these individuals - who are mostly men - and you take them out of all of the normal social controls that make people behave decently. 'They give them new names, they give them a mask, they tell them no one will ever find out who they were or what they did. 'You remove them from their families and give them a whole bunch of power over a group of people - and horrific things happen.' She sat down to discuss her ordeal with investigative journalist Oliver Bullough in a wide ranging talk at Hay Festival about her new book Disclosure: Unravelling the Spycops File. 'I'm doing alright now but there was some very dark moments,' she said. 'When it first happened I believed that not trusting was a good thing. I thought I had been really naive and trusting was a bad thing. I kind of wore my distrust like a badge of honour. 'I think one of the most important things to me about rebuilding trust is realising that that you can't have a community without trust and actually working to rebuild that stuff because its such an important part of what we do.' Addressing Ms Wilson's case previously, Helen Ball, the Met's Assistant Commissioner for Professionalism, said: 'It is important to note that since Mark Kennedy's deployment there has been enormous change in undercover policing, both in the Met and nationally, and I want to be clear that this case in no way reflects modern-day undercover policing.' Chief Constable Alan Pughsley, the National Police Chiefs' Council lead for undercover policing, also commented on the 'significant changes' to the way undercover policing is conducted. 'The selection and training of all undercover officers have been standardised and is licensed by the independent body, the College of Policing,' he said. The Independent
