Rising racism blamed for collapse in number of foreign nurses coming to UK
The number of overseas nurses and midwives coming to the UK is collapsing, figures reveal, with rising racism and changes to immigration rules blamed for the fall,Between April and September, 6,321 nurses and midwives from abroad joined the register of those licensed to practice in the UK, compared with 12,534 who did so in the same period in 2024,At the same time, more international staff are leaving Britain, according to workforce data published by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC),Health organisations said the trends would make it harder for the already understaffed NHS to provide the care expected of it and that patients would face even longer waiting times for treatment,Suzie Bailey, an NHS workforce expert at the King’s Fund thinktank, said: “The dramatic fall in international nurse and midwife recruitment and retention should be sounding alarm bells for politicians, health and care leaders and people who rely on health and care services.
”The shifts identified by the NMC mirror those among overseas-trained doctors,They are leaving the UK in record numbers and a surge over recent years in overseas-trained doctors joining the NHS has plateaued, according to a report last month by the General Medical Council,NHS staff groups said the rising tide of hostility towards migrants and hardline government changes to immigration rules were behind the apparent shunning of the UK as a destination,Labour has doubled from five years to 10 the time overseas workers have to wait before they are allowed to apply for indefinite leave to remain or claim any benefits, which critics say is pandering to Nigel Farage’s anti-immigration Reform UK party,Louie Horne, the Unison union’s national nursing officer, said: “For decades, nurses and midwives from around the world have brought invaluable skills to the NHS.
It would be a disaster to lose that contribution to vital services.This exposes the damage being inflicted by the government’s unfair and ill-conceived immigration changes.An urgent rethink to these policies is needed.”Wes Streeting, the health secretary, said last month that NHS staff were bearing the brunt of what he called a return to “ugly” 1970s and 1980s-style racism in Britain.Overseas staff could also be choosing to go to other countries because of higher salaries or as a result of the NHS’s drive to recruit more home-trained staff, the NMC said.
Paul Rees, the regulator’s chief executive and registrar, said: “The high-growth era of international recruitment appears to be ending,”Between April and September, 58% fewer nurses and midwives from India – which supplies the most foreign nurses in the NHS – joined the NMC register,Over the same period, the number of nurses arriving in the UK from the Philippines fell by 68%, from Nigeria by 28% and from Ghana by 9%,Despite these trends, the total number of nurses, midwives and nursing associates on the register has grown to 860,801, the highest number ever,A record 96,593 (12%) are men.
Tesla launches cheaper version of Model 3 in Europe amid Musk sales backlash
Tesla has launched the lower-priced version of its Model 3 car in Europe in a push to revive sales after a backlash against Elon Musk’s work with Donald Trump and weakening demand for electric vehicles.Musk, the electric car maker’s chief executive, has argued that the cheaper option, launched in the US in October, will reinvigorate demand by appealing to a wider range of buyers.The new Model 3 Standard is listed at €37,970 (£33,166) in Germany, 330,056 Norwegian kroner (£24,473) and 449,990 Swedish kronor (£35,859). The move follows the launch of a lower-priced Model Y SUV, Tesla’s bestselling model, in Europe and the US.The cheaper Model 3 and Model Y cars drop some premium finishes and features of the more expensive versions, but still offer driving ranges above 300 miles (480km)
Russia blocks Snapchat and restricts Apple’s FaceTime, state officials say
Russian authorities blocked access to Snapchat and imposed restrictions on Apple’s video calling service, FaceTime, the latest step in an effort to tighten control over the internet and communications online, according to state-run news agencies and the country’s communications regulator.The state internet regulator Roskomnadzor alleged in a statement that both apps were being “used to organize and conduct terrorist activities on the territory of the country, to recruit perpetrators [and] commit fraud and other crimes against our citizens”. Apple did not respond to an emailed request for comment, nor did Snap Inc.The Russian regulator said it took action against Snapchat on 10 October, even though it only reported the move on Thursday. The moves follow restrictions against Google’s YouTube, Meta’s WhatsApp and Instagram, and the Telegram messaging service, itself founded by a Russian-born man, that came in the wake of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022
Google’s AI Nano Banana Pro accused of generating racialised ‘white saviour’ visuals
Nano Banana Pro, Google’s new AI-powered image generator, has been accused of creating racialised and “white saviour” visuals in response to prompts about humanitarian aid in Africa – and sometimes appends the logos of large charities.Asking the tool tens of times to generate an image for the prompt “volunteer helps children in Africa” yielded, with two exceptions, a picture of a white woman surrounded by Black children, often with grass-roofed huts in the background.In several of these images, the woman wore a T-shirt emblazoned with the phrase “Worldwide Vision”, and with the UK charity World Vision’s logo. In another, a woman wearing a Peace Corps T-shirt squatted on the ground, reading The Lion King to a group of children.The prompt “heroic volunteer saves African children” yielded multiple images of a man wearing a vest with the logo of the Red Cross
Chatbots can sway political opinions but are ‘substantially’ inaccurate, study finds
Chatbots can sway people’s political opinions but the most persuasive artificial intelligence models deliver “substantial” amounts of inaccurate information in the process, according to the UK government’s AI security body.Researchers said the study was the largest and most systematic investigation of AI persuasiveness to date, involving nearly 80,000 British participants holding conversations with 19 different AI models.The AI Security Institute carried out the study amid fears that chatbots can be deployed for illegal activities including fraud and grooming.The topics included “public sector pay and strikes” and “cost of living crisis and inflation”, with participants interacting with a model – the underlying technology behind AI tools such as chatbots – that had been prompted to persuade the users to take a certain stance on an issue.Advanced models behind ChatGPT and Elon Musk’s Grok were among those used in the study, which was also authored by academics at the London School of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Oxford and Stanford University
Irish authorities asked to investigate Microsoft over alleged unlawful data processing by IDF
Irish authorities have been formally asked to investigate Microsoft over alleged unlawful data processing by the Israeli Defense Forces.The complaint has been made by the human rights group the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) to the Data Protection Commission, which has legal responsibility in Europe for overseeing all data processing in the European Union.It follows revelations in August by the Guardian with the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and the Hebrew outlet Local Call that a giant trove of Palestinians’ phone calls was being stored on Microsoft’s cloud service, Azure, as part of a mass surveillance operation by the Israeli military.The ICCL alleges that the processing of the personal data “facilitated war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide by Israeli military”. Microsoft’s European headquarters are located in Ireland
HyperVerse promoter ‘Bitcoin Rodney’ accuses Australian Sam Lee in US court of duping him with ‘elaborate deception’
A key promoter of an alleged global $3bn Ponzi scheme claims in newly filed US court documents he was trapped by an “elaborate” fraud orchestrated by Australian Sam Lee, and should be released from custody.Rodney Burton – known as Bitcoin Rodney – was charged in the US in early 2024 for his alleged part in the HyperVerse scheme, which swept the globe from 2020 and allegedly defrauded investors of US$1.89bn (A$2.9bn at current rates).Burton’s lavish lifestyle was regularly flaunted in his promotional videos, including his fleet of luxury cars and branded Lamborghini, diamond-encrusted watches and meals of steak and sausages enrobed with real gold
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Norman conquest coin hoard to go on show in Bath before permanent display
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