‘Undermines free speech’: Labour MP hits back at US government over visa ban on UK campaigners
A senior Labour MP has accused the Trump administration of undermining free speech after Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, announced sanctions against two British anti-disinformation campaigners,Chi Onwurah, the chair of parliament’s technology select committee, criticised the US government hours after it announced “visa-related” sanctions against five Europeans, including Imran Ahmed and Clare Melford,Ahmed leads the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), while Melford is chief executive of the Global Disinformation Index (GDI), both of which have clashed directly with Elon Musk, the owner of X and a former adviser to the US president,Onwurah said on Wednesday: “Banning people because you disagree with what they say undermines the free speech the administration claims to seek,“We desperately need a wide ranging debate on whether and how social media should be regulated in the interests of the people.
Imran Ahmed gave evidence to the select committee’s inquiry into social media, algorithms and harmful content, and he was an articulate advocate for greater regulation and accountability.“Banning him won’t shut down the debate, too many people are being harmed by the spread of digital hate.”Her comments came after Rubio accused the five – who also include the former EU commissioner Thierry Breton – of leading “organised efforts to coerce American platforms to censor, demonetise and suppress American viewpoints they oppose”.Sarah Rogers, an official at the state department, posted on X: “Our message is clear: if you spend your career fomenting censorship of American speech, you’re unwelcome on American soil.”The CCDH has previously incurred the wrath of Musk over its reports chronicling the rise of racist, antisemitic and extremist content on X since he took over the platform.
Musk tried unsuccessfully to sue the organisation last year, before calling it a “criminal organisation”.The X owner has also called for the GDI to be shut down over its criticism of rightwing websites for spreading disinformation.And he has railed against the EU’s Digital Services Act, which Breton helped spearhead, and under which X was hit with a €120m (£105m) fine for what the EU called the deceptive design of its blue tick system for verifying users.Melford is UK-based, while Ahmed, whose organisation once employed Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, as a director, lives in Washington DC with his family.A spokesperson for GDI called the sanctions “an authoritarian attack on free speech and an egregious act of government censorship”.
They added: “The Trump administration is, once again, using the full weight of the federal government to intimidate, censor and silence voices they disagree with.Their actions today are immoral, unlawful and un-American.”Ahmed has been approached for comment.A British government spokesperson said: “While every country has the right to set its own visa rules, we support the laws and institutions which are working to keep the internet free from the most harmful content.”That response contrasted, however, with the more combative stance taken by the French government and the European Commission.
Emmanuel Macron, the French president, said the measures “amount to intimidation and coercion aimed at undermining European digital sovereignty”.The commission said in a statement it “strongly condemns” the actions of the Trump administration.Jonathan Hall, the government’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, told Times Radio: “[This] will send a really massive chilling effect on everyone else who’s discussing the subject [internet regulation] at the moment.”Campaigners in the UK warned the British government was likely to be targeted further if the Trump administration steps up its attacks on tech regulation.Ava Lee, the executive director of People Vs Big Tech, said: “The Trump administration is escalating its attacks on Europeans trying to uphold the rule of law when it comes to big tech.
With the Online Safety Act (OSA), the UK is likely to be next in the firing line.”The Trump administration has previously flagged its concerns about the OSA.This year a group of officials from the state department met Ofcom, the regulator charged with overseeing the act, and are understood to have raised concerns that the act will risk infringing free speech.Beeban Kidron, a crossbench peer in the UK’s House of Lords and a prominent online safety campaigner, said Rubio’s comments on the visa bans were an “outrage”.“The US tech sector, backed by the US administration, is attempting to undermine European laws and values,” she said.
VIP viewing: cinemas bet on luxury bars and beds to usher in a new film era
From champagne coolers to front row VIP beds, cinema owners are investing heavily in premium experiences as the industry gets its box office mojo back.As the third instalment in James Cameron’s blockbuster Avatar series pulls in the Christmas holiday crowds, the UK box office is expected to surpass £1bn in 2025 for the first time since before the global Covid pandemic.Amid financially testing times – with the pace of a hoped-for box office recovery derailed by the Hollywood actors’ and writers’ strikes – cinema owners have focused on reinventing the movie-going experience to win back film fans.“We are rolling out 200 of our Ultra Lux seats, which have a built-in champagne or wine cooler, each day across Europe,” says Tim Richards, chief executive and founder of the Vue cinema chain. “Our ‘worst’ seat in the house is a leather recliner, and it is amazingly comfortable
Sustainable aviation fuel take-up in UK unlikely to hit 2025 target, data suggests
The take-up of sustainable aviation fuels is on course to fall short of the UK government’s first annual mandate, official figures suggest.Production data published by the Department for Transport (DfT) covering most of 2025 shows that sustainable fuels (SAF) only accounted for 1.6% of fuel supplied for UK flights – 20% less fuel in volume than the 2% needed to fulfil the requirement.The government introduced the mandate in January, which requires suppliers to hit targets for SAF – which the industry has argued is important for cutting its carbon emissions – within the overall UK aviation fuel mix.Themandatory target rises sharply from 2% in 2025 to 10% in 2030 and then to 22% in 2040, including the use of second-generation fuels that are seen as more sustainable in the long term
Renewed zeal for Boxing Day sales expected to ring up £3.8bn for retailers
UK shoppers are expected to spend £3.8bn this Boxing Day, 2% more than last year, with online sellers experiencing most of that growth but high streets also enjoying a boost from a renewed appetite for post-Christmas bargains.Boxing Day remains one of the busiest shopping days of the year, but in recent years the dash for the high street has eased as more people opt to search for bargains from the sofa.With many discounts kicking off from midnight on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day is now worth more than £1bn in sales, with 23 million people in the UK expected to be buying online shortly after unwrapping their gifts. That is half a million more than last year, according to analysis by the research company GlobalData for Vouchercodes
End of shareholder revolt register ‘will help UK firms bury pay controversies’
UK-listed companies will be able to bury controversies over executive pay for the first time in eight years, a thinktank has warned, after the Labour government shut down a public tracker meant to curb “abuses and excess in the boardroom”.The public register was launched under the Tory prime minister Theresa May in 2017 to name and shame companies hit by shareholder revolts at their annual general meetings (AGMs). That included rebellions over issues such as excessive bonuses or salary increases for top earning bosses.However, the Treasury – under the chancellor, Rachel Reeves – instructed the Investment Association (IA), the UK asset management trade body that maintained the register, to shut it down this autumn as part of a wider regulation action plan to increase economic growth by cutting “red tape” for businesses. The closure of the public log follows lobbying campaign by companies including the London Stock Exchange, whose bosses claim bad publicity over executive pay is harming the City’s competitiveness and deterring UK listings
‘Nostalgic and calming’: lava lamps are groovy again as sales glow
Depending on your age, you may remember them from Doctor Who and The Prisoner in the 1960s, or from TFI Friday and the Big Breakfast in the 90s. Or if you’re young enough, you might not remember them at all. But now it seems lava lamps are back.Rising sales would suggest a third wave of the lava lamp phenomenon is on the horizon, thanks to the ongoing trend towards mid-century interiors and gen Z’s fascination with the late 90s and early 2000s.Cressida Granger, the managing director of the British lava lamp pioneers Mathmos, said there had been a surge in interest in its lamps
Security bosses warn of rise in UK building site thefts by organised crime
Thefts of tools and equipment from building sites are increasingly being carried out by organised criminal groups, according to security bosses, amid warnings that the crimewave could accelerate during the Christmas construction shutdown.Copper cables, tools and even telehandlers and diggers costing tens of thousands of pounds have been stolen in recent months, according to the security firm Kingdom Systems.Now there are concerns that there could be a spate of thefts during the annual closure of construction sites, which sometimes last as long as two weeks over the festive period.Criminals often exploit long winter-nights as they look to break into sites, hoping to make off with the most costly tools and equipment stored there.“Darkness helps thieves to move in the shadows,” said Paul Worsley, the chief services officer at Kingdom Services, which runs temporary CCTV for more than 100 construction sites across Scotland and northern England
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