Online safety campaigners reveal Starmer frustrations after Phillips exit
Internet safety and children’s rights campaigners have accused Keir Starmer of failing to act on proposals to stop children sending and receiving nude images on their phones, after Jess Phillips resigned from the government saying she was tired of seeing “opportunities for progress stalled and delayed”,The Labour politician was one of four ministers who quit on Tuesday and joined more than 80 MPs calling for the prime minister to go,In a coruscating letter she focused on a lack of urgency and boldness in tackling child abuse images, accusing Starmer of failing to take action to stop children being able to take or send naked pictures,She said: “Over a year ago I presented solutions, long worked on by brilliant civil servants, that would end the ability for children in the UK to take naked images of themselves,“We could stop this abuse.
It has taken me a year to get you to agree to even threaten to legislate in this space.Not legislate, just threaten.This is the definition of incremental change.Nothing bold about it.The announcement was meant to be in March.
”Hannah Swirsky, head of policy and public affairs at the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), said campaigners had been pushing for the government to force tech companies to block the ability to send and receive naked images on devices belonging to children.“This technology exists, it can be implemented and it would be a big step in stopping the proliferation of child sexual abuse images because it would stop a significant number of them being produced at source,” she said.Campaigners had hoped the government’s violence against women and girls strategy, published in December, would include plans to force tech companies to make the image blocker a default feature on children’s phones if they did not take action voluntarily.Instead, the strategy promised to “join forces with tech companies so we can work together to make [blocking images] a reality and better protect young people from grooming, extortion, bullying, harassment and sexual abuse.”In 2024, 91% of the reports of child sexual abuse images received by the IWF that were found to be criminal contained “self-generated” imagery, according to the charity’s research.
Police recorded 7,263 sexual communication with a child offences in the last year, almost double the number recorded since the offence came into force in 2017-18.“The government has been extremely slow, they have been too cautious and not gone as far as needed to tackle the issue of online child sexual abuse,” said Swirsky.Sources who had pushed on the policy behind the scenes said measures had found support in the Home Office and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, but had encountered a wall of inertia in Downing Street.They said that despite “private assurances” from the prime minister that he would do more to keep children safe online, it had sat on his desk “for months”.“I think there are questions to be asked about the access and the proximity of tech companies to the government and whether No 10 has been prioritising trade deals over online safety,” they said.
“It felt like some of the people who were advising on this decision were too close to the tech companies,”Others described a deep frustration at an “incremental” approach to change, saying an opportunity had been missed,“If we did this then the UK could be the world leader in tackling online child abuse, because other countries would have to follow – it’s just been painful to watch the complete lack of action,”Andy Burrow, CEO of the Molly Rose Foundation, said campaigners were “deeply frustrated” at the “logjam” that proposals had faced at the top of government,“The frustrations that Jess has expressed publicly today are the same frustrations that have been swirling privately for quite some time, and deservedly so,” he said.
“There is just this sense that it’s just been stuck in treacle in No 10,”There had been hope that the measures could be included in Starmer’s king’s speech, which is expected on Wednesday, he added,“We hoped there was a chance as of the end of last week that some of this would make its way in,” he said,“But quite where we are now, given the last 48 hours, is anybody’s guess,”
Court rules Coles misled shoppers with its ‘Down Down’ discount campaign
Coles misled Australian shoppers by promoting fake “Down Down” discounts on everyday grocery products, the federal court has ruled in a landmark decision for the supermarket industry.Justice Michael O’Bryan handed down his judgment on Thursday, delivering a significant blow to Australia’s second-largest supermarket chain, which had argued that the discounts represented genuine savings during a period of high inflation.He found the supermarket giant had engaged in misleading conduct, in contravention of the Australian consumer law.The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission sued Coles and its rival Woolworths, accusing the supermarket giants of duping shoppers between 2021 and 2023 by using promotional programs to disguise price increases on hundreds of products.O’Bryan’s verdict in the Coles case – which was heard in February – comes before his decision in a similar trial against Woolworths, which was heard in Sydney in late April and early May and which the judge will rule on later this year
Housing market in England and Wales weakening due to Iran war, say estate agents
Fears of higher mortgage rates and rising inflation as a result of the Middle East conflict are leading to a subdued and downbeat housing market, according to estate agents.Demand from potential homebuyers across England and Wales has shown a “noticeable softening” recently, according to a monthly survey of estate agents by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).Members have told the professional body that buyers and sellers are becoming more cautious, and many agents have cited clients who are worried about whether inflation and interest rates will rise in the coming months, leading to slower sales, fewer homes on the market, and more price-sensitive buyers.The Bank of England warned last month that interest rates may have to increase in the coming months as “higher inflation is unavoidable” because of the war in the Middle East and resulting jump in oil and gas prices.At the same time, mortgage rates are likely to be affected by the current sharp rise in government borrowing costs, as swap rates – which lenders use to price their fixed-rate mortgages – tend to move in tandem with government bond yields
Datacentres using 6% of electricity supply in UK and US, research says
Datacentres are consuming 6% of electricity in the UK and US, with the growing strain of AI on energy supplies prompting community resistance, according to research.The proportion of electricity used by vast warehouses stacked with microchips to power AI and the internet has risen 15% worldwide in the past two years as annual global investment in datacentres approaches $1tn (£740bn) – nearly 1% of the global economy, according to the International Data Center Authority (IDCA).The figures come amid energy shortages in the UK and datacentre developers reporting waits of several years for national grid connections. The IDCA said rising power usage globally was “sparking societal and political concerns” and called on tech companies to become more transparent about their plans for new datacentres to tackle “community frustration”.The Guardian this week reported that developers working for Google significantly misstated how much carbon two proposed AI datacentres would contribute to the UK’s total emissions
Nvidia’s Jensen Huang joins other US bosses on Trump trip to China
The billionaire chief executive of the chipmaker Nvidia, Jensen Huang, has joined Donald Trump’s China delegation after a reported last-minute invitation, highlighting the US’s AI and tech ambitions.Huang will join a roster of US bosses including the Tesla chief executive and X owner, Elon Musk, the Apple chief executive, Tim Cook, and Goldman Sachs’s David Solomon at Trump’s 36-hour meeting with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping.The high-stakes summit is the first overseas trip for Trump since the US and Israel launched attacks on Iran in late February. The summit is expected to cover topics including that conflict, tariffs and China’s relationship with Taiwan.Huang was not on the initial list of business delegates, according to reports
Ivan Cleary begins long goodbye with a legacy built to last long after he leaves Panthers | Nick Tedeschi
The great coaches all have something special that elevates them above others. Wayne Bennett built his success on connection and an ability to authentically forge relationships with generation after generation of players. Craig Bellamy has a foundation of deifying work ethic and simple communication. Trent Robinson, intellect and loyalty.Ivan Cleary is an engineer, the ultimate believer in process, a coach at once ruthless and relatable who dreamt of building a bigger and more complex machine that could sustain itself beyond the people it was initially built around
Sarah Taylor named England men’s fielding coach while Gay, Rew and Baker are called up
On a day when England named three uncapped players in their Test squad, brought Ollie Robinson out of cold storage and officially confirmed a new selector had joined the set-up, perhaps the most significant news was the identity of their fielding coach.Sarah Taylor, the former England wicketkeeper, will be in charge of the fielding drills during the three-Test series against New Zealand that begins at Lord’s on 4 June – the first female coach to work in the men’s senior setup.The fact that Rob Key, the England men’s team director, almost mentioned it in passing was fitting for a coach who has quietly risen through the ranks. Taylor, 36, has held a number of roles in the men’s game since hanging up her gloves five years ago, including spells with Sussex men and Manchester Originals in the Hundred.This latest post is just for the New Zealand series initially but may continue through the summer
Australian workers have been hard done by and tax reforms in the budget only begin to return some fairness | Greg Jericho
US Senate confirms Kevin Warsh as Federal Reserve chair, replacing Jerome Powell
Sam Altman defends OpenAI in courtroom showdown with Elon Musk
Florida students boo graduation speaker who called AI ‘next Industrial Revolution’
Jim Furyk tells US players they need to make Ryder Cup more of a priority
England v New Zealand: second women’s cricket ODI abandoned – as it happened