Anger over Scottish salmon farm inspections amid 35m unexpected fish deaths
Scottish salmon farmers recorded more than 35m unexpected salmon deaths in just under three years but there were only two unannounced inspections of facilities over the same period.In December, the Scottish government’s secretary for rural affairs, Mairi Gougeon, said that there was “a really robust regulatory regime when it comes to fin-fish aquaculture” but animal welfare campaigners say the figures call that claim into question.According to a freedom of information request by Animal Equality UK, the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA), which is responsible for enforcing welfare legislation, inspected just 21 of Scotland’s 213 active salmon farms, between January 2023 and October 2025.None of the 20 worst-performing sites, which together accounted for more than 10m deaths, were inspected.Additionally, the Scottish government’s website says that unannounced inspections are a “statutory requirement” but only two were carried out between January 2023 and September 2025, both of which were in 2024.
Abigail Penny, the executive director of Animal Equality UK, said: “A complete overhaul of the regulatory system is essential,This low level of scrutiny is embarrassingly poor,How can the cabinet secretary claim regulation is robust when inspections and sanctions are virtually nonexistent? It makes a mockery of the system,Regulators appear far more focused on protecting industry reputation than protecting animals,”Between January 2023 and October 2025, 35,867,788 salmon deaths were officially reported on Scottish farms.
Animal Equality said that the true figure was probably far higher as fish that were culled, died during transport, perished within their first six weeks at sea, or were used as so-called “cleaner-fish” were excluded from the figures.Estimates suggest that at least 7m cleaner-fish, which peck off lice that infect caged salmon, have died on Scottish salmon farms since 2020.The APHA has received 22 complaints of fish welfare abuses since 2022, but has never issued a formal warning, care notice or referred a case to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.The 20 complaints that were investigated resulted in 12 actions and enforcement which were limited to verbal or written advice and follow-up visits.APHA refused to disclose inspection report forms to Animal Equality because their release “would likely result in significant detriment to the companies, negatively impacting their ability to conduct business, manage their reputation and their ability to protect their business”.
The Scottish parliament’s rural affairs and islands committee is due to question salmon farming executives on 25 February as part of a continuing inquiry.In January last year, the committee criticised the government for its “slow progress” on regulating the salmon farming industry.An APHA spokesperson said: “We treat all reports of suspected cases of poor welfare at salmon farms seriously and all are assessed by our vets.We work closely with local authorities and the fish health inspectorate to manage each case through our standard process of triage and assessment.”A Scottish government spokesperson said: “The fish health inspectorate undertakes approximately 250 statutory finfish site inspections per year as part of listed diseases surveillance.
These can be pre-arranged, undertaken at short notice or be unannounced in response to intelligence-based reports,“Inspectors are trained and experienced in spotting systemic issues related to fish health and biosecurity,Suspected cases of poor welfare are referred to the APHA who are responsible for considering potential breaches in welfare legislation,”A spokesperson for Salmon Scotland said its farmers operated to some of the highest health, welfare and environmental standards in the world and that activists often “present a misleading picture” of what was happening on farms,“More than £1bn has been invested in innovation, veterinary care, technology and stock management to continually improve welfare,” their spokesperson said.
Condemnation of Elon Musk’s AI chatbot reached ‘tipping point’ after French raid, Australia’s eSafety chief says
The eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, says global regulatory focus on Elon Musk’s X has reached a “tipping point” after a raid of the company’s offices in France this week.The raid on Tuesday was part of an investigation that included alleged offences of complicity in the possession and organised distribution of child abuse images, violation of image rights through sexualised deepfakes, and denial of crimes against humanity.A number of other countries – including the UK and Australia – and the EU have launched investigations in the past few weeks into X after its AI chatbot, Grok, was used to mass-produce sexualised images of women and children in response to user requests.Inman Grant told Guardian Australia: “It’s nice to no longer be a soloist, and be part of a choir.“We’ve been having so many productive discussions with other regulators around the globe and researchers that are doing important work in this space,” she said
Pinterest sacks two engineers for creating software to identify fired workers
Pinterest has fired two engineers who created a software tool to identify which workers had lost their jobs in a recent round of cuts and then shared the information, according to reports.The digital pinboard business announced significant job cuts earlier this month, with the chief executive, Bill Ready, telling staff he was “doubling down on an AI-forward approach”, according to a LinkedIn post by a former employee.Pinterest, which is based in San Francisco and has an office in London, said the cuts would affect about 15% of its workforce, or about 700 people, but did not specify which teams or staff members would be affected.Two engineers at the company then wrote code to identify sacked staff.A spokesperson for Pinterest said: “Two engineers wrote custom scripts improperly accessing confidential company information to identify the locations and names of all dismissed employees and then shared it more broadly
Fairphone 6 review: cheaper, repairable and longer-lasting Android
The Dutch ethical smartphone brand Fairphone is back with its six-generation Android, aiming to make its repairable phone more modern, modular, affordable and desirable, with screw-in accessories and a user-replaceable battery.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.The Fairphone 6 costs £499 (€599), making it cheaper than previous models and pitting it squarely against budget champs such as the Google Pixel 9a and the Nothing Phone 3a Pro, while being repairable at home with long-term software support and a five-year warranty
French headquarters of Elon Musk’s X raided by Paris cybercrime unit
Prosecutors have raided the French headquarters of Elon Musk’s social media platform X and summoned the tech billionaire and the company’s former chief executive for questioning as part of an investigation into alleged cybercrime.“A search is under way by the cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutor’s office, the national police cyber unit and Europol,” the Paris prosecutors’ office said in a post on X on Tuesday, adding that it would no longer be publishing on the network.It said in a statement that Musk and Linda Yaccarino had been summoned for “voluntary questioning” in April in their capacity as “de facto and de jure managers of the X platform at the time of the events”. Yaccarino resigned as chief executive of X in July last year.The French prosecutors’ announcement comes amid a hardening of European attitudes to social media firms
From ‘nerdy’ Gemini to ‘edgy’ Grok: how developers are shaping AI behaviours
Do you want an AI assistant that gushes about how it “loves humanity” or one that spews sarcasm? How about a political propagandist ready to lie? If so, ChatGPT, Grok and Qwen are at your disposal.Companies that create AI assistants, from the US to China, are increasingly wrestling with how to mould their characters, and it is no abstract debate. This month Elon Musk’s “maximally truth-seeking” Grok AI caused international outrage when it pumped out millions of sexualised images. In October OpenAI retrained ChatGPT to de-escalate conversations with people in mental health distress after it appeared to encourage a 16-year-old to take his own life.Last week, the $350bn San Francisco startup Anthropic released an 84-page “constitution” for its Claude AI
UK privacy watchdog opens inquiry into X over Grok AI sexual deepfakes
Elon Musk’s X and xAI companies are under formal investigation by the UK’s data protection watchdog after the Grok AI tool produced indecent deepfakes without people’s consent.The Information Commissioner’s Office is investigating whether the social media platform and its parent broke GDPR, the data protection law.It said the creation and circulation of the images on social media raised serious concerns under the UK’s data regime, such as whether “appropriate safeguards were built into Grok’s design and deployment”.The move came after French prosecutors raided the Paris headquarters of X as part of an investigation into alleged offences including the spreading of child abuse images and sexually explicit deepfakes.X became the subject of heavy public criticism in December and January when the platform’s account for the Grok AI tool was used to mass-produce partially nudified images of girls and women
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