The push for fairer cartography rejects colonial shrinkage of a huge continent by the Mercator projection. This is not pedantry. It’s politicsThe African Union wants to replace the world’s most popular map with one that more accurately represents the continent’s size. This demand may seem better suited to geography departments than heads of government. Yet in politics, symbols matter. And the Mercator projection, devised in the 16th century to help European sailors navigate their way to conquest and commerce, has quietly shaped how we see the world for centuries.By stretching the higher latitudes and squeezing the equatorial belt, the Mercator projection distorts the relative size of continents. Europe and North America loom vast, while Africa and South America shrink. Greenland often appears roughly the same size as Africa, when in reality the continent is 14 times larger. The impression is that the north is large and central, the south peripheral and marginal. Continue reading…

This newspaper’s victory in court underlines the courage of the women who spoke up and how in TV power shielded abuseThe high court’s dismissal of the actor Noel Clarke’s case against the Guardian is about more than one actor’s failed libel claim. Mrs Justice Steyn’s judgment is about power and complicity as well as the failure to protect vulnerable people. In her verdict, she agreed with the Guardian that there were “strong grounds to believe that [Clarke] is a serial abuser of women”.The court heard testimony from 26 witnesses before concluding that Clarke had engaged in harassment, bullying and abuse of power over many years. The judge accepted some of his evidence, but found him to be neither credible or reliable. The Guardian’s journalists, by contrast, were meticulous and gave Clarke reasonable opportunity to respond as well as fairly presenting his denials. Without women speaking up, Clarke would never have been exposed. Continue reading…

The Supreme Court has indicated that there are distinctive reasons to shield the Federal Reserve from political interference.

Ian Comfort calls for government to recognise cultural importance of event and guarantee its sustainable futureAbout 2 million people are expected to take to the streets this weekend at the annual Notting Hill carnival for its mix of music, food and Caribbean culture, but for the man who runs it, there is a sense of relief to see it taking place at all.The chair of Notting Hill Carnival Ltd, Ian Comfort, told the Guardian that the event needed to secure a sustainable future after a year of funding rows, public disagreements with the Met police, and negative press after violence last year. Continue reading…

The alternatives for the UK chancellor are either unworkable or risk losing Labour votes, so here’s what she should tryDepending on whose forecasts you believe, in the autumn budget the UK chancellor needs to find £25-£50bn to cover day-to-day spending, let alone to raise the extra funds needed to turnaround crumbling public services or end the two-child benefit cap. Rachel Reeves is bound by a manifesto commitment not to raise the big three – income tax, national insurance or VAT – and having already slapped businesses with a national insurance rise in her inaugural budget last year, she faces having to think about creative ways to raise revenue.The past few weeks, we have seen a bewildering parade of policies emerging from Treasury sources. These include reforms to inheritance tax, replacing stamp duty with a national proportional property tax for homes worth more than £500,000, replacing council tax with a local proportional property tax levied on house values up to £500,000 with a minimum annual bill of £800 paid by the property owner, and a potential capital gains tax (CGT) on primary residences valued at more than £1.5m.Faiza Shaheen is executive director of Tax Justice UK Continue reading…

Both first and second class mail lag behind Ofcom’s target in quarterly update after EP Group’s takeoverRoyal Mail missed its targets by delivering nearly a quarter of first class mail late in the first update since its parent company was bought by a Czech billionaire, figures show.The company said on Friday it had delivered 75.9% of first class mail within one working day of collection in the three months to 29 June, up from 74.2% the previous quarter but well behind the 93% target set by the regulator, Ofcom. Continue reading…

This week’s collapse of tycoon’s Yorkshire operations brought relief for some and echoes insolvency steps at 15 of his companiesGovernment takes over Liberty Steel’s South Yorkshire plants to protect 1,450 jobsA disparate collection of steelworks in Australia, the UK, Romania and the Czech Republic at the start of the year had two things in common: they were part of the metals empire of Sanjeev Gupta, and they had fallen silent.The idling plants were emblematic of the tycoon’s struggles. Born in India before starting a commodities trading business at university, Gupta was once nicknamed the “saviour of steel” for his plans to turn around struggling plants. Yet things looked very different this week, as he finally lost control of one of his key UK businesses. Continue reading…