Rachel Reeves urged to crack down on wealthy tax avoiders

Rachel Reeves is facing calls to crack down on the super-rich using offshore pension schemes to avoid multimillion pound inheritance and capital gains tax bills, following a Guardian investigation.On Thursday, undercover filming revealed how ultra-wealthy individuals are being advised how to use a loophole in pensions investments to shelter their wealth from Labour’s clampdown on large-scale tax dodging.The promoter of one scheme told an undercover reporter that the government would not legislate to close the schemes down as ministers have “bigger fish to fry”.He said a client had placed £30m into a pension scheme to protect it from inheritance taxes, implying almost £12m of taxes saved by the client’s children.The revelation came as the new chancellor is expected to reveal a £20bn hole in government spending for essential public services on Monday, in a move anticipated to pave the way for tax rises in the autumn during Reeves’ first budget

Chief of staff to ex-Post Office chief Paula Vennells drafted email ‘to discourage investigating prosecutions’ - as it happened

Paula Vennells’ former chief of staff warned of “setting the hares running” amongst board members as the prospect of a wave of appeals against unsafe prosecutions by subpostmasters, drafting an email position the Post Office chief executive could use to minimise questions about the Horizon IT scandal and legal action.The public inquiry into how the scandal has heard how Martin Edwards, Vennell’s chief of staff between 2012 and 2014, was one of a handful of trusted lieutenants who regularly worked up briefs for use by top executives defending the Post Office and Horizon IT system as evidence mounted that it was faulty.Ahead of the official publication of the interim report by Second Sight, in which the forensic accountants raised serious issues about Horizon with findings that could open the door to mass appeals for wrongful prosecutions, Edwards was heavily involved in preparing Vennell’s explanation to the board.“Obviously the points about the ombudsman and past prosecutions could set the hares running,” Edwards wrote in an email to Vennells and former Post Office general counsel Susan Crichton. “Suggested draft email for the board below

Elon Musk’s X under pressure from regulators over data harvesting for Grok AI

Elon Musk’s X platform is under pressure from data regulators after it emerged that users are consenting to their posts being used to build artificial intelligence systems via a default setting on the app.The UK and Irish data watchdogs said they have contacted X over the apparent attempt to gain user consent for data harvesting without them knowing about it.An X user highlighted the issue on Friday, pointing to a setting on the app that activated by default and permitted the account holder’s posts to be used for training Grok, an AI chatbot built by Musk’s xAI business.Under UK GDPR, which is based on the EU data regulation of the same name, companies are not allowed to use “pre-ticked boxes” or “any other method of default consent”.The setting, which comes with an already ticked box, states that you “allow your posts as well as your interactions, inputs and results with Grok to be used for training and fine-tuning”

TikTok’s algorithm is highly sensitive – and could send you down a hate-filled rabbit hole before you know it

TikTok’s algorithm works in mysterious ways, but a Guardian Australia experiment on a blank account shows how quickly a breaking news event can funnel users down a conservative Christian, anti-immigration rabbit hole.Last week we reported how Facebook and Instagram’s algorithms are luring young men into the Manosphere. This week, we explore what happens when TikTok’s algorithm is unleashed on a blank account in the absence of any interactions such as liking or commenting.In April, Guardian Australia set up a new TikTok account on a completely blank smartphone linked to a new, unused email address. A John Doe profile was set up as a generic 24-year-old male

Paris 2024 Olympics day one: swimming, cycling, rowing, hockey and more – live

In about five minutes Team GB and Spain will open the men’s field hockey competition. They are in a pool of six teams, alongside the Netherlands and South Africa who play at 12.45pm local time, and Germany and hosts France, who will take the field at 5pm local time. Four teams from the six progress to the quarter-finals.Argentina, Australia, Belgium, India, Ireland and New Zealand are in Pool B, and their match-ups today are:10

Why Australia has two men’s basketball teams to cheer at the Paris Olympics | Kieran Pender

There are no indoor basketball courts in South Sudan. Not one. But on Sunday, the young nation will make its Olympic basketball debut against Puerto Rico in Lille. It is a remarkable story of resilience, unity and hope – with a strong Australian flavour.South Sudan, in central Africa, declared independence from Sudan in 2011 following a protracted, bloody civil war