Britain will ‘never surrender flag’ to far-right protesters, Starmer says
Britain will “never surrender” to far-right protesters who use the English flag as cover for violence and to instil fear, Keir Starmer has said, condemning attacks against police officers and racist harassment,The prime minister said the St George’s flag “represents our diverse country” and he would not tolerate people being “intimidated on our streets because of their background or the colour of their skin”,MPs and anti-fascist groups had urged the prime minister to speak up against some of the rhetoric of the largest nationalist protest in decades, held in London and organised by the far-right activist Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon,The pressure on Downing Street to be more proactive in defence of diversity came after 10 days of widespread dissatisfaction from MPs over the handling of Angela Rayner’s resignation, the ensuing reshuffle and the sacking of the ambassador to the US, Peter Mandelson, over links to Jeffrey Epstein,The prime minister will host Donald Trump for a state visit this week, during which Starmer is likely to be questioned by journalists about his handling of Mandelson and on rightwing talking points.
In his first comment about Saturday’s march, Starmer said there was a right to peaceful protest but that violence and intimidation were unacceptable, and he condemned the appropriation of the St George’s flag by the far-right, anti-immigration protesters,“People have a right to peaceful protest,It is core to our country’s values,” the prime minister said in a statement to the Guardian,“But we will not stand for assaults on police officers doing their job or for people feeling intimidated on our streets because of their background or the colour of their skin,”He added: “Britain is a nation proudly built on tolerance, diversity and respect.
Our flag represents our diverse country and we will never surrender it to those that use it as a symbol of violence, fear and division.”Police estimated that between 110,000 and 150,000 people attended the event on Saturday, which was addressed by Elon Musk.Musk told the crowd that “violence is coming” and that “you either fight back or you die”.He said: “I really think that there’s got to be a change of government in Britain.We don’t have another four years, or whenever the next election is, it’s too long.
Something’s got to be done.There’s got to be a dissolution of parliament and a new vote held.”Starmer’s forthright comments may settle some nerves in Labour, where there has been growing concern that the prime minister has not yet done enough to take on the attacks of the right.However, parliament’s black caucus, led by the Labour MP Dawn Butler, issued a statement condemning “racism, abuse and anti-migrant hatred” and called for greater leadership on the issue.“The government must show leadership.
It must take urgent steps to reduce tensions, call out and challenge racist rhetoric and behaviour wherever it occurs, and take far more seriously the threat posed by the far right – which police have identified as the UK’s fastest-growing threat,” the group said in a statement,Other MPs issued their own strongly worded condemnation on social media, including the former shadow cabinet minister Rosena Allin-Khan and new MPs Lizzi Collinge, Kevin McKenna and Ben Goldsborough,McKenna particularly condemned Musk’s address to the rally, describing it as “a call for violence against the British state, from a foreign national who controls a major propaganda engine, and has engineered it to monetise hate”,Before the march, the anti-fascist group Hope Not Hate sent a letter to the prime minister asking him to make public condemnation of growing racist rhetoric,The call was echoed by a number of senior MPs who said Labour had a duty to counter growing rightwing extremism.
Sign up to First EditionOur morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it mattersafter newsletter promotionOn Sunday, some Labour MPs told the Guardian they had been unsettled by comments from the business secretary, Peter Kyle, earlier in the day that stopped short of condemning the protests and said they were a “klaxon call” for the government.Kyle said figures such as Robinson were able to “touch into a sense of disquiet and grievance in the community in our society”.He said moments like the demonstration were “klaxon calls to us in public life to redouble our efforts to address the big concerns that people right across our country have, and immigration is a big concern”.The Labour MP Stella Creasy tweeted: “In spirit of free speech I disagree with Peter Kyle – we can defend right of people to protest and still be concerned that for many watching yesterday purpose behind this event is not freedom but fear.“They must be able to march and we must challenge message as not who we are.
”The Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey, suggested the Conservatives should also speak out to condemn the violent rhetoric.He said: “Elon Musk openly called for violence on our streets yesterday.I hope politicians from all parties come together to condemn his deeply dangerous and irresponsible rhetoric.Britain must stand united against this clear attempt to undermine our democracy.”Twenty-six officers were injured in clashes as projectiles were hurled on Saturday, and the Metropolitan police said on Sunday that 24 people were arrested for a range of offences including common assault and violent disorder.
A man who said on camera that “Keir Starmer needs to be assassinated” and “someone needs to shoot Keir Starmer”, and whose comments were published online, is among those being sought by police.Robinson was among those who addressed the crowds from a stage, along with a range of other far-right figures.However, there were no-shows by promised speakers including Steve Bannon, the former Trump strategist, and Jordan Peterson, the Canadian psychologist and culture warrior.Others who appeared on the stage included the former Reform UK deputy leader Ben Habib, who is setting up a rival party to the right of Reform known as Advance UK, which Robinson says he has joined.
UK workers wary of AI despite Starmer’s push to increase uptake, survey finds
It is the work shortcut that dare not speak its name. A third of people do not tell their bosses about their use of AI tools amid fears their ability will be questioned if they do.Research for the Guardian has revealed that only 13% of UK adults openly discuss their use of AI with senior staff at work and close to half think of it as a tool to help people who are not very good at their jobs to get by.Amid widespread predictions that many workers face a fight for their jobs with AI, polling by Ipsos found that among more than 1,500 British workers aged 16 to 75, 33% said they did not discuss their use of AI to help them at work with bosses or other more senior colleagues. They were less coy with people at the same level, but a quarter of people believe “co-workers will question my ability to perform my role if I share how I use AI”
AI content needs to be labelled to protect us | Letters
Marcus Beard’s article on artificial intelligence slopaganda (No, that wasn’t Angela Rayner dancing and rapping: you’ll need to understand AI slopaganda, 9 September) highlights a growing problem – what happens when we no longer know what is true? What will the erosion of trust do to our society?The rise of deepfakes is increasing at an ever faster rate due to the ease at which anyone can create realistic images, audio and even video. Generative AI models have now become so sophisticated that a recent survey showed that less than 1% of respondents could correctly identify the best deepfake images and videos.This content is being used to manipulate, defraud, abuse and mislead people. Fraud using AI cost the US $12.3bn in 2023 and Deloitte predicts that could reach $40bn by 2027
ChatGPT may start alerting authorities about youngsters considering suicide, says CEO
The company behind ChatGPT could start calling the authorities when young users talk seriously about suicide, its co-founder has said.Sam Altman raised fears that as many as 1,500 people a week could be discussing taking their own lives with the chatbot before doing so.The chief executive of San Francisco-based OpenAI, which operates the chatbot with an estimated 700 million global users, said the decision to train the system so the authorities were alerted in such emergencies was not yet final. But he said it was “very reasonable for us to say in cases of, young people talking about suicide, seriously, where we cannot get in touch with the parents, we do call authorities”.Altman highlighted the possible change in an interview with the podcaster Tucker Carlson on Wednesday, which came after OpenAI and Altman were sued by the family of Adam Raine, a 16-year-old from California who killed himself after what his family’s lawyer called “months of encouragement from ChatGPT”
Larry Ellison briefly overtakes Elon Musk as world’s richest person
US tech billionaire Larry Ellison is neck-and-neck with Elon Musk in the contest to be the world’s richest person after briefly overtaking the Tesla chief executive on WednesdayEllison’s wealth surged after Oracle, the business software company in which he owns a stake of 41%, reported better than expected financial results.Oracle shares rose by more than 40% in early trading, at one point valuing the business software company at approximately $960bn (£707bn) and Ellison’s stake at $393bn, just ahead of Musk’s fortune of $384bn, according to Bloomberg’s billionaires index. However, Ellison’s lead was short-lived as the stock closed at $328, a rise of 36% valuing Ellison’s shareholding at $378bn and putting Musk back ahead.The pair sit comfortably ahead of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos.Ellison, 81, also has other sources of wealth, including a stake in electric carmaker Tesla, where Musk is chief executive, a sailing team, the Indian Wells Open tennis tournament, and an island in Hawaii, according to Bloomberg
Snapchat allows drug dealers to operate openly on platform, finds Danish study
Snapchat has been accused by a Danish research organisation of leaving an “overwhelming number” of drug dealers to openly operate on Snapchat, making it easy for children to buy substances including cocaine, opioids and MDMA.The social media platform has said it proactively uses technology to filter out profiles selling drugs. However, research by Digitalt Ansvar (Digital Accountability), a Danish research organisation that promotes responsible digital development, has found evidence of a failure to moderate drug-related language in usernames. It also accused Snapchat of failing to respond adequately to reports of profiles openly selling drugs.Researchers used profiles of 13-year-olds and found a multitude of people selling drugs on Snapchat under usernames featuring keywords such as “coke”, “weed” and “molly”
Skip Apple’s new iPhone – five tips to make your old phone feel new again
On Tuesday, Apple announced the iPhone 17 series with the usual spate of new features, including a thinner design, improved displays and a camera with 4x optical zoom. If you’ve been getting frustrated with your old phone, or just tired of it, the lithe new model may look exactly like the device you need to launch your budding photographic career, reconnect with long-lost friends and maybe even save your life in an emergency.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more
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