Badenoch criticised for ‘peddling dangerous fantasy’ about North Sea oil drilling
Kemi Badenoch is “peddling a dangerous fantasy” about North Sea energy in her attempt to reverse a ban on new oil and gas licences, a leading campaign group has said.The Conservative leader is expected to call on the government to lift its suspension of the licences as part of a drive to reduce energy prices, as the party launches a new campaign aimed at boosting the fossil fuel sector.However, critics have questioned the efficiency of the policy, claiming it would be unlikely to cut household bills.Tessa Khan, executive director of the renewable energy campaign group Uplift described it as “vapid, political game playing at the expense of ordinary people”.“Kemi Badenoch is peddling a dangerous fantasy on the North Sea and is completely out of step with the UK public who just want an affordable supply of energy,” Khan said.
“More drilling will do absolutely nothing to lower energy bills, a fact that she knows and members of her Cabinet have admitted,”In 2023, when serving as energy secretary, Conservative MP Claire Coutinho admitted that new licences “wouldn’t necessarily bring energy bills down” but argued they would improve the “security” of supply,Coutinho now has the energy brief in Badenoch’s shadow cabinet,The Labour government last year decided to ban new oil and gas licensing, shifting its focus to homegrown renewable energy,Global oil prices have soared since the strait of Hormuz was in effect closed amid ongoing conflict in Iran, prompting concern about the longer term effect on energy costs.
Badenoch will launch her party’s “get Britain drilling” campaign on Monday on an oil rig off the North Sea, near Aberdeen.She has previously said that drilling in the North Sea is one few ways households can be protected from rising bills, a sentiment echoed by Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage.However, experts have consistently said that North Sea production is too small to influence global prices.The Guardian reported on Saturday that hundreds of new North Sea licences granted by the Conservatives between 2010 and 2024 have so far produced just 36 days of gas, according to research by Uplift and the energy consultancy Voar.However, Badenoch said: “Labour’s ban on new oil and gas drilling licences was stupid when they put it in their manifesto, in the middle of an energy crisis it’s completely crazy.
“Drilling our own oil and gas is about energy security, it’s about financial security, it’s about national security.“It’s more jobs, good for business and provides tax revenues that could be used to bring down bills.”Badenoch is also expected to call on the government to scrap the windfall tax on energy profits and lend more financial support to the fossil fuel industry.Khan described this as “tone deaf” at a time when the public is “incredibly anxious about their bills skyrocketing again”.She added: “Politicians who refuse to acknowledge the reality of the declining North Sea are endangering our security and economy.
Not only that, they are betraying workers who need long-term, secure jobs – which will only now come from renewables – not some pipe dream.”Greg Jackson, the chief executive of green energy company Octopus, argued that drilling for more gas in the North Sea “would have little effect on prices” because the UK is “highly integrated” with the European and global markets.“The USA is often cited as a case where a lot of drilling has kept prices lower,” he said.“On gas, they’re not as integrated with global markets as we are but their oil is – and as a result you see their petrol prices rising a lot during this crisis despite so much domestic production.“More UK oil and gas would give more security of supply if governments controlled exports, but I don’t think the drilling advocates are proposing that.
“And big picture – the oil and gas industry are never going to build ‘excess production’ so there’ll never be meaningful spare capacity in global fossil fuel supply, which is why whenever there’s a big supply shock it has such catastrophic effects on prices.”A Labour spokesperson said: “The awkward truth is Badenoch’s own shadow energy secretary admitted that new licences would not cut energy bills.“Energy bills will be falling this week thanks to the actions of a Labour government that the Conservatives opposed.“The Conservatives and Reform want to outsource Britain’s energy security to fossil fuel markets over which we have no control.Labour is taking back control with record investment in clean homegrown power.
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Number of AI chatbots ignoring human instructions increasing, study says
AI models that lie and cheat appear to be growing in number with reports of deceptive scheming surging in the last six months, a study into the technology has found.AI chatbots and agents disregarded direct instructions, evaded safeguards and deceived humans and other AI, according to research funded by the UK government-funded AI Security Institute (AISI). The study, shared with the Guardian, identified nearly 700 real-world cases of AI scheming and charted a five-fold rise in misbehaviour between October and March, with some AI models destroying emails and other files without permission.The snapshot of scheming by AI agents “in the wild”, as opposed to in laboratory conditions, has sparked fresh calls for international monitoring of the increasingly capable models and come as Silicon Valley companies aggressively promote the technology as a economically transformative. Last week the UK chancellor also launched a drive to get millions more Britons using AI
‘Accountability has arrived’: dual US court losses show shifting tide against Meta and co
In the span of just two days, the most powerful social media company in the world faced a more severe public reckoning than it has in years.Jurors in California and New Mexico gave back-to-back verdicts this week that for the first time ever found Meta liable for products that inflict harm on young people. For years, lawmakers, parents and advocates have raised red flags over how social media can hurt children, but now the tech firms are being held to account via court rulings that could set long-lasting precedents.A jury in New Mexico ordered Meta to pay $375m in damages on Tuesday over claims that its products led to child sexual exploitation, among other harms. The following day, a jury in California ordered Meta and YouTube to pay $6m over claims that both companies deliberately designed addictive products to hook young users
New York City hospitals drop Palantir as controversial AI firm expands in UK
New York City’s public hospital system announced that it would not be renewing its contract with Palantir as controversy mounts in the UK over the data analytics and AI firm’s government contract.The president of the US’s largest municipal public healthcare system, Dr Mitchell Katz, testified last week before the New York city council that the agreement with Palantir would expire in October.He said at the hearing that the contract, which focused on recovering money for insurance claims, was always meant to be short-term, and that there was an “absolute firewall” preventing Palantir from sharing information with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He said that the agency had “not had any incidents”.The contract and related payment documents shared with the Guardian by the American Friends Service Committee and first reported by the Intercept, show that NYC Health + Hospitals has paid Palantir nearly $4m since November 2023
Human rights groups cheer ‘watershed’ verdict in social media addiction trial
The verdict in a landmark social media trial that Meta and YouTube deliberately designed addictive products has sparked calls for reform across borders. International human rights and tech freedom groups issued statements after the decision, praising jurors for holding social media companies accountable for harms to children and urging tech giants to change their design features to ensure children are safe.Amnesty International said in a statement on Thursday that “this court decision is clear: these platforms are unsafe by design and meaningful change is urgently needed”.The day prior, a Los Angeles jury found both Meta and YouTube liable for intentionally creating platforms that hooked a young user and led to her being harmed. The six-week trial was one of more than 20 “bellwether” trials that are expected to go to court in the next few years
Brussels opens investigation into Snapchat amid concern over children’s safety
Brussels has opened an investigation into Snapchat over concerns the social messaging app is exposing children to grooming, sexual exploitation and other criminality.In a separate decision on Thursday, the European Commission also said four pornographic websites were failing to prevent minors seeing adult content, harming young people’s mental health and fuelling negative gender attitudes.The investigations into five tech companies were brought under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), which has come under fire from Donald Trump since coming into force two years ago. Aiming to protect European society from a wide range of internet harms, the DSA includes child safety provisions to combat cyberbullying, exposure to adult content and illegal products.The announcements came after a landmark ruling in a Los Angeles court found that two social media companies, Meta and YouTube, had deliberately created addictive products that harmed a young user
Google warns quantum computers could hack encrypted systems by 2029
Banks, governments and technology providers need to be prepared for quantum computer hackers capable of breaking most existing encryption systems by 2029, Google has warned.The tech company said in a blogpost that quantum computers would pose a “significant threat to current cryptographic standards” before the end of the decade and urged other companies to follow its lead.The company, owned by Alphabet, said: “The encryption currently used to keep your information confidential and secure could easily be broken by a large-scale quantum computer in coming years.”As it stands, quantum computers – which can rapidly carry out complex tasks – are a nascent technology with great potential and significant obstacles to being widely usable.Google, Microsoft and universities across the UK and the US are in the midst of building systems that harness the physics of quantum mechanics to perform extremely sophisticated mathematical calculations
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