Attorney General Merrick Garland and Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, as well as Sloane Stephens, a black American tennis star who has received racist internet harassment, will be in attendance at Harris’ meeting on Thursday.
The task force will be co-chaired by the Council on Gender Policy and the National Security Council. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra, and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas are among the others on the committee.
During a briefing call before of the start, administration officials stated that the task force’s goal is to make recommendations for the federal government’s next measures in combating the problem within the following 180 days.
According to the White House, the report’s recommendations include increasing support for survivors of online harassment and abuse, expanding research to better understand the problem’s impact and scope, improving prevention, including youth-focused prevention, and strengthening accountability for offenders and platforms.
According to the administration, one in every three women under the age of 35 in the United States has experienced sexual harassment online, and more than half of LGBTQI+ people have experienced serious online abuse.
‘In case the unions haven’t noticed, the world has changed. Many commuters, who three years ago had no alternative but to take the train, today have the option of not travelling at all.’
‘Many commuters who had no choice but to ride the railway three years ago now have the option of not taking the train at all,’ he stated.
‘Waving them off will jeopardize the jobs of thousands of rail personnel.’ With protracted and destructive strikes, it is alienating its passengers and freight customers.’
‘For a decimated hotel industry beginning its timid post-pandemic recovery, the planned strike action couldn’t come at a worse moment, and would deal a deadly financial blow to those firms already battling to survive,’ UKHospitality chief executive Kate Nicholls told MailOnline.
Eurostar has announced that on all three strike days next Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, up to four services from London St Pancras to Paris Gare du Nord, five from Paris to London, two from London to Brussels Midi, three from Brussels to London, two from London to Amsterdam Centraal, and two from Amsterdam to London will be cancelled.
On Wednesday and Friday, one London to Paris and one Paris to London train will be cancelled.
It comes only 48 hours after Eurostar reassured customers worried about interruption by saying on Twitter, “We are not presently anticipating the UK national rail strike to affect the Eurostar trains.”
According to a Eurostar spokeswoman, anyone scheduled to travel on strike days can switch their ticket for free, regardless of its terms.
‘During the UK national rail strike, Eurostar is canceling a number of trains to match the UK high-speed line’s restricted opening hours,’ according to the statement.
‘Customers travelling on affected services between the June 21 and 25 are being contacted with the option of a free exchange or cancellation of their journey.’
‘Many commuters who had no choice but to ride the railway three years ago now have the option of not taking the train at all,’ he stated.
‘Waving them off will jeopardize the jobs of thousands of rail personnel.’ With protracted and destructive strikes, it is alienating its passengers and freight customers.’
‘For a decimated hotel industry beginning its timid post-pandemic recovery, the planned strike action couldn’t come at a worse moment, and would deal a deadly financial blow to those firms already battling to survive,’ UKHospitality chief executive Kate Nicholls told MailOnline.
Eurostar has announced that on all three strike days next Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, up to four services from London St Pancras to Paris Gare du Nord, five from Paris to London, two from London to Brussels Midi, three from Brussels to London, two from London to Amsterdam Centraal, and two from Amsterdam to London will be cancelled.
On Wednesday and Friday, one London to Paris and one Paris to London train will be cancelled.
It comes only 48 hours after Eurostar reassured customers worried about interruption by saying on Twitter, “We are not presently anticipating the UK national rail strike to affect the Eurostar trains.”
According to a Eurostar spokeswoman, anyone scheduled to travel on strike days can switch their ticket for free, regardless of its terms.
‘During the UK national rail strike, Eurostar is canceling a number of trains to match the UK high-speed line’s restricted opening hours,’ according to the statement.
Customers will continue to be impacted by the national rail strike on mornings when no strike action is planned, according to TfL. These days include next Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday.
It also advised Tube passengers who travel on portions of lines impacted by national rail strikes to delay their travels until mid-morning on certain days.
On the nights of next Friday and Saturday, RMT strike action on Night Tube services is expected to continue, but TfL intends to run three trains per hour on the Victoria and Jubilee lines and two trains per hour on the Central.
Network Rail’s senior negotiator, Tim Shoveller, said negotiations with the RMT regarding the national rail strike will continue later today, with managers ‘working very creatively to try to find methods of decreasing the cost of running the train.’
‘We’ve been talking to the unions for over a year now, so on top of that, realizing that there was always a danger, we’ve been working hard to put in place contingency provisions,’ he told BBC Radio 4 today.
‘So we’ve been working with our managers and other capable workers who can step into some of those essential jobs, and that has been a significant focus in the last several months as a contingency plan.’
‘It’s a backup plan we hoped we’d never need.’ But it’s now in place, and starting next week, we’ll be able to operate around half of the network for a short time using our experienced managers.’
‘I want to apologise to consumers who will be disrupted by the RMT and Unite’s strike action next week,’ said TfL’s chief operating officer Andy Lord.
‘The action on June 21 will have a severe impact on the London Underground network, resulting in very little to no service on all lines, which is why we’re encouraging people to avoid travel unless absolutely necessary, as the majority of Tube stations will be closed and services will be unavailable.’
‘We expect the considerable disruption caused by this strike to continue until the morning of June 22. Alternatives to the Tube are likely to be considerably busier than normal.’
‘I apologize for the disruption this may cause to people’s travel plans.’
‘This strike is especially upsetting because it comes so soon after earlier this month’s walkout; no changes to pensions have been suggested, and no one has or will lose their job as a result of the ideas we’ve put forward.’
‘We’re pushing the RMT and Unite to call off their strike and engage with us to find a solution so that people’s trips and our economic recovery aren’t disrupted.’
TfL stated the walkout is part of a larger dispute with the RMT about pensions, jobs, and conditions, as well as a wage issue with Unite.
‘Despite the fact that no proposals on pensions or terms and conditions have been submitted, and nobody has lost or will lose their job as a result of the suggestions TfL has laid out,’ bosses added.
TfL met with the RMT and Unite unions at ACAS yesterday morning, noting that “despite no resolution being achieved,” they are “eager to participate in additional negotiations in the hope that this strike may be called off.”
‘Pay discussions with Unite and other recognized unions in the region are set to commence imminently,’ according to the bosses.
TfL has been compelled to accelerate its “pre-pandemic savings program” since prior financing arrangements mandated it to aim toward attaining financial sustainability on operations by April 2023.
Bosses have recommended not hiring for about 500 to 600 vacant positions as they arise, including 250 already vacant Tube station positions, but say that stations would be staffed at all times while trains are running, with more than 4,500 station employees available across the network.
Meanwhile, violent left-wing union barons are threatening to cut Britain’s cities off from one another, putting NHS patients at danger, if they go forward with a once-in-a-generation wave of strikes that will cripple more than half of the country’s railway network.
When 40,000 RMT union members go on strike on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday next week, major towns from Dorset to Cheshire, Wales, and Scotland will lose all rail connections, while other regions of the UK will be impacted as well.
Due to the industrial action’s knock-on effects, travel on Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday will be severely hampered, and experts have warned that the strike may cost Britain’s stuttering economy up to £150 million.
As rail leaders prepared to publish the emergency schedule, some of the 13 rail companies affected by the action – including Southeastern, TransPennine, and Avanti West Coast – asked passengers to travel only if absolutely essential.
Meanwhile, Health Secretary Sajid Javid has slammed Labour’s backing for the crippling strikes, which may force nurses and doctors to fight for employment and cause patients’ normal appointments to be canceled.
According to the Telegraph, Louise Quick, who was charged £54 for changing a scan for her nine-month-old baby Julian at Great Ormond Street, claimed the rail strikes were disrupting a ‘critical service’ for desperate patients.
It was also cautioned that GCSE and A-level students who had worked hard all year and were about to face their important end-of-year examinations would be severely disrupted.
The RMT and Unite will strike on the Underground next Tuesday in a separate dispute over employment and wages, as millions of Britons face the prospect of having no option but to work from home for the whole week.
Mr Shapps denounced the’reckless, pointless strike,’ vowing to combat extreme left-wing union bosses who want to cripple the country with Network Rail modernisation changes.
Mr Shapps, writing in The Sun, stated that he will lead the fight against the RMT’s ‘dinosaurs,’ who continue to promote ‘out of date,’ unfit-for-purpose working practices.
According to the Centre for Economics and Business Research, this wave of strikes is expected to cost the UK economy at least £91 million, wreaking havoc on the night-time and hospitality industries in particular.
It comes as an industry official cautioned militant unions that if they go forward with preparations for the greatest rail strikes in a decade, they will ‘play into the hands’ of the work-from-home culture.
The walkouts, according to Tim Shoveller, Network Rail’s senior negotiator, might drive commuters away just as passenger numbers and revenues begin to rebound from the epidemic.
He explained that the action would serve as a “reminder of the benefits of working from home full-time for some people.”
‘It’s actually playing to the situation’s weakness, with Teams and Zoom now being our main opponents.’
According to the Office for National Statistics, one in every seven individuals commutes to work by train. If they couldn’t catch a train, half of them claimed they’d work from home.
The RMT’s strikes, according to Network Rail CEO Andrew Haines, were a “high-stakes bet” to inflict maximum disruption.
He also admitted that there was no’real chance’ of a resolution in negotiations.
‘It’s an utter bet by the RMT that additional money will be found, even though this is a particularly harsh manner of punishing railway users and, as a result, the railway’s finances,’ Mr Haines added.
‘I would argue it is a de facto lockdown, with all the damage that we know it inflicts not just on the economy, but also on health,’ Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen told MailOnline.
The truth is that it will be disastrous for the economy and the country.
‘And the fact that it’s occurring now, when we’re just recovered from Covid in terms of economic development, and after pouring large sums of money into train services to keep them running throughout the epidemic – I think it’s both frustrating and reckless.’
‘And Labour’s backing for the strikes – well, they can’t help themselves, can they?’
Penzance in Cornwall, Bournemouth in Dorset, Swansea in South Wales, Holyhead in North Wales, Chester in Cheshire, and Blackpool in Lancashire will all be without passenger services, according to Network Rail.
There would be no passenger trains travelling north from Glasgow or Edinburgh, and passenger services are projected to be curtailed to roughly 4,500 on the three strike days, compared to 20,000 ordinarily.
The services that do run will only run for 11 hours, which means they will start later and end earlier than normal. The final train from London to Edinburgh will leave at 2 p.m., vs 8.30 p.m. on a typical weekday.
On strike days, the total number of passenger services is estimated to be about 4,500, which is around 20% less than typical.
Because signallers and control employees will not work overnight hours that begin on the strike dates, only around 12,000 to 14,000 services will be able to run on the days following the strikes.
Because certain rural regions lack automatic signaling, they are likely to be entirely blocked off.
As preparations intensified, the impact was felt across the UK, with in-person conferences being replaced with online versions, fears about music enthusiasts traveling to Glastonbury, and plans to attend other events being canceled.
It comes after the Junction 2 music festival in Trent Park, North London, was canceled just eight days before it was scheduled to take place, citing “ongoing industrial action throughout the London transport network.”
‘Next week’s anticipated rail strikes are expected to drag London’s West End, and the entire country, to a grinding standstill,’ Dee Corsi, chief operating officer of the New West End Company group in London, told MailOnline.
‘This will be a particularly harsh hit for commuters who rely on these services to travel into the capital – and other city centers – for work, as well as retail and hospitality enterprises already battling with growing expenses and workforce shortages.
The West Coast Main Line from London to Scotland through Birmingham and Manchester will be open, however the final train on the East Coast Main Line from Edinburgh to London will be at 1.30pm.
On the three strike days, the final trains out of London will be at 2 p.m. to Edinburgh, 2.56 p.m. to Manchester, 3.05 p.m. to Leeds, 3.31 p.m. to Liverpool or Sheffield, 3.40 p.m. to Birmingham, 3.43 p.m. to Newcastle, 4.09 p.m. to
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