Gordon Brown calls for apologies over forced adoptions in England and Wales
Gordon Brown has called on the UK government to issue a formal apology to women whose babies were forcibly adopted in the 1950s, 60s and 70s.The former Labour prime minister said the state should apologise for its role in the “terrible tragedy” of forced adoptions involving about 200,000 women in England and Wales.His comments come six months after campaigners said time was running out, with some women dying before hearing a formal apology.Karen Constantine of the Movement for an Adoption Apology (MAA) told the Guardian in February: “The value of an apology would be immensely healing and resolve unimaginable pain endured for decades by an ageing cohort of women who had their babies taken from them.”Brown said the government should acknowledge “the damage that was done, the hurt that it’s caused”.
He told ITV News: “This is something that should never have happened … The fact that we can now do something, not to rectify the problem, but to apologise for what happened, I think is really important.”The Labour government had had sufficient time to look at the issue, he added.“It’s time to make the apology for the forced adoption of children, who are now adults, who have been waiting for the assurance that the government understands what happened to them, waiting to know that the government is prepared to apologise on behalf of the country.While it wasn’t this government’s fault, I think they are owed an apology.”Last year, Veronica Smith, one of the co-founders of the MAA, died aged 83.
The loss of her daughter in a forced adoption in 1964 had “coloured the whole of my life”, she said.She had hoped to testify at a public hearing into forced adoptions, but the government dismissed calls for an inquiry in 2017.Discussions with senior Labour politicians before last year’s election led the MAA to believe that a formal apology would be issued if the party took power.“It’s beyond disappointing that it hasn’t happened,” said Constantine.“My many formal and informal conversations led me to believe an apology would be forthcoming and that Keir Starmer would deliver it.
”Estimates of the number of unmarried women who were sent to mother and baby homes run by religious organisations and the state between 1949 and 1976 range between 180,000 and 250,000.Most were coerced into putting their babies up for adoption; some babies died due to mistreatment or poor care.A parliamentary inquiry into forced adoptions in 2021 found the UK government was “ultimately responsible” for actions that inflicted harm on young, vulnerable women and children.“An apology by the government and an official recognition that what happened to these mothers was dreadful and wrong … would go some way to mitigate the pain and suffering of those affected,” it said.The Scottish and Welsh governments formally apologised for forced adoptions in 2023.
In 2016, the head of the Catholic church in England and Wales apologised for its role in forced adoptions, and the Church of England also expressed “great regret”.ITV News said it had discovered nearly 70 unmarked graves of babies who died at Hopedene maternity home, a Salvation Army institution in Newcastle, through freedom of information requests.Last year it obtained burial records that revealed 197 babies were buried in mass burial grounds at least 10 different cemeteries across England.
There’s an app for that: finding a sunny cafe in Paris, the city of light
In August, Paris is uncharacteristically quiet as hordes of residents scatter to the country’s beaches and coasts for a yearly month of vacation. Businesses close and the city nearly grinds to a halt. Among those who remain, there is an eternal, quintessentially Parisian quest: hunting for a balmy terrasse bathed in sunlight for an evening apéritif.Finding the perfect seat on the pavement outside a cafe may be a matter of a chance stroll or a timely text from a friend. This summer, though, a digital solution has gained popularity in an extremely French instance of the old Apple slogan “there’s an app for that”: Jveuxdusoleil, an app that tracks the sun’s movement through the city’s maze of buildings to pinpoint exactly where you can claim a sunny spot on a terrace for your coffee
Australian livestreaming platform Kick broadcast a man’s death – could it face repercussions from regulators?
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Google’s latest Gemini AI upgrades attempt to anticipate what useful information you made need from your life to address a potential issue, make you to better photographer or become your personalised health and sleep coach.Shipping on the just-announced Pixel 10 Android phones, the new Magic Cue feature enables the chatbot to comb through your digital life and pull up relevant information on your phone just when you need it.Placing a call to an airline will automatically display your booking information from Gmail in the phone app. Or when a friend texts about brunch on Sunday Gemini will suggest a suitable coffee shop and show your calendar in line with your messages.The feature is part of a series of artificial intelligence upgrades for the newly announced Pixel 10, 10 Pro and 10 Pro Fold phones
Microsoft workers occupy HQ in protest against company’s ties to Israeli military
Dozens of Microsoft employees occupied the company’s east campus in Redmond, Washington to protest against what they say is the use of its software by the Israeli military to carry out operations in Gaza and enable the surveillance of Palestinians.Less than a week after the company said it was launching an independent investigation into the use of its Azure software, current and former staff occupied a space they declared the “Free Zone”, holding placards that read “Join The Worker Intifada – No Labor for Genocide” and “Martyred Palestinian Children’s Plaza”.The protests, organised by the No Azure for Genocide group, has demanded Microsoft divest from Israel. Earlier this year, employee Joe Lopez interrupted a speech by CEO Satya Nadella at the annual developer conference.“Satya, how about you show how Microsoft is killing Palestinians,” said Lopez
OpenAI eyes world’s largest valuation for private company in stock sale talks
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US surveillance firms run a victory lap amid Trump’s immigration crackdown
Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery, currently enjoying Shirley Jackson’s eerie final novel We Have Always Lived in the Castle.Surveillance is industrializing and privatizing. In the United States, it’s big business, and it’s growing.My colleagues Johana Bhuiyan and Jose Olivares report on the companies aiding Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, which are running a victory lap after their latest quarterly financial reports:Palantir, the tech firm, and Geo Group and CoreCivic, the private prison and surveillance companies, said this week that they brought in more money than Wall Street expected them to, thanks to the administration’s crackdown on immigrants
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