Peers vote to defy government over copyright threat from AI
Defiant peers have delivered an ultimatum to the government – calling on it to offer artists copyright protection against artificial intelligence companies or risk losing a key piece of legislation.The government suffered a fifth defeat in the House of Lords over controversial plans to allow the AI companies to train their models using copyrighted material.Peers voted by 221 to 116 on Wednesday to insist on an amendment to force AI companies to be transparent about what material they use to train their models.Speaking at an awards event after the vote, Elton John said copyright protection was an “existential issue” for artists and urged the government “to do the right thing”.He added: “We will not let the government forget their promise to support our creative industries.
We will not back down and we will not quietly go away,This is just the beginning,” Wednesday night’s vote prolongs a lengthy standoff between the Commons and Lords over the data bill, which has been used as a vehicle by campaigners to oppose the government’s proposed copyright reforms,Resistance to the changes in the Lords has been led by Beeban Kidron, a cross-bench peer and film director, whose amendments have been repeatedly backed by the upper chamber,The data bill now faces the prospect of being shelved unless the Commons accepts the Kidron amendment or proposes an alternative.
Maggie Jones, the Lords minister for the digital economy and online safety, had urged peers to vote against the Kidron amendment after the government offered last-minute concessions in an attempt to stave off another defeat.Before the vote, Jones said peers were “choosing whether they want the entire bill to fall” and that by voting for Kidron’s amendment they would “countenance the unprecedented – to try to collapse a bill that does nothing to weaken copyright law” but included other important measures including to combat sexually explicit deepfake images.Kidron told peers: “This is our last chance to ask the government to provide a meaningful solution” and urged ministers to set out concrete steps to subject AI companies to copyright rules.“It is not fair, not reasonable, not just, balanced or any other such word to stand in the way of the creative industries identifying those who are taking their work or their property.It is not neutral – it is aiding and abetting what we have called in the house widespread theft.
“We have asked privately and repeatedly on the floor of both houses what is the government going to do to stop the work of creatives from being stolen right now? The answer is nothing.”Several peers pushed back against the suggestion that the Lords’ move was unprecedented and said the government was itself breaking precedent by not compromising.Tim Clement-Jones, the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for the digital economy, offered his party’s “staunch support” for Kidron’s amendment.The Lords’ move puts the data bill in double insistence territory.This means the Commons and Lords cannot reach agreement over legislation.
In this scenario, under parliamentary convention, the bill would fall unless ministers accept the rebel amendment or offer an alternative,A bill falling is extremely rare but not without precedent – it happened to the European parliamentary elections bill in the 1997-98 session,Under parliamentary convention, the Commons has primacy as the elected house, and in rare instances where the Lords refuses to back down ministers can resort to the Parliament Act to pass the bill in the next parliamentary session,This would significantly delay the legislation,In concessions offered to peers on Tuesday night, the government said it would commit to publishing further technical reports on the future of AI and copyright regulation and do so within nine months instead of 12.
“A number of noble Lords have voiced concerns during ping-pong that the government is not listening.This is simply not the case,” Jones said in her letter, reiterating that ministers regretted the way the Lords rebels had gone about the changes.Jones stressed that the data bill was expected to generate £10bn of economic benefit by updating data protection law and that it would improve online safety, including by strengthening powers to ask social media companies to preserve data after the death of a child.Kidron said: “It is in the gift of the government to accept the amendment, or put something meaningful in its place.They have failed to listen to the Lords, they have failed to listen to the creative sector, they have failed to listen to their own backbenchers.
”Under the government’s proposals, AI companies would be allowed to train their models using copyrighted work without permission unless the owner opts out,The plans have been fiercely criticised by creators and publishers including high-profile artists such as Paul McCartney and Tom Stoppard,Peter Kyle, the technology secretary, has said he regretted the decision to launch a consultation on changing copyright law with the opt-out system as the “preferred option”,Campaigners against the changes believe that there is resistance inside Downing Street to making more substantial concessions,
Hedge fund orders London-based analysts back to office five days a week
Man Group has ordered its London-based analysts to return temporarily to the office five days a week, as the world’s biggest listed hedge fund seeks to recover from a period of poor performance amid Donald Trump’s tariff war.Quantitative analysts working at Man AHL, the company’s computer-run fund that aims to identify and follow momentum in markets, have been told they are expected to be in its offices daily until the end of July as part of an “all hands on deck” project.The edict applies to about 150 staff in London, just under 10% of the overall group’s 1,700 global employees, the Financial Times reported.“Man AHL has asked its staff in London to work in the office five days a week for a three-month period to support an ‘all hands on deck’ cross-team research project,” the company said. “While these cross-team initiatives are infrequent, experience has shown that a period of highly focused, in-person collaboration allows significant research progress to be made in a relatively short amount of time
UK house prices fall by more than expected amid economic uncertainty
UK house prices suffered a steeper than expected fall last month and the biggest quarterly drop in value in almost a year, as economic uncertainty continued to affect the property market.The average property price fell by 0.4% month on month in May to £296,648, a much steeper fall than the 0.1% decline City economists had expected.Figures published by Halifax on Friday showed that the cost of a typical UK property has fallen in three of the past four months, with the drop in May following a 0
Sports Direct pricing practices ‘may be breaking the law’, Which? says
Sports Direct could be breaking the law by misleading shoppers into thinking they are getting a good deal, a consumer body has claimed, after it looked at prices of items ranging from trainers to hoodies.Which? said it had reported the retailer to the Competition and Markets Authority after uncovering what it claimed were “some questionable and dodgy pricing tactics” on its website.The organisation said it had found products being sold on SportsDirect.com with recommended retail prices (RRPs) “that appear to be misleading”, as its researchers could not find the products sold at that RRP price anywhere else online.It meant people may be being misled “into thinking they are getting a better deal than they really are”
Bonuses banned for 10 English water bosses over sewage pollution
Bonuses for 10 water company executives in England, including the boss of Thames Water, will be banned with immediate effect over serious sewage pollution, as part of new powers brought in by the Labour government.The top executives of six water companies who have overseen the most serious pollution events will not receive performance rewards this year, the environment secretary, Steve Reed, said.The companies – Thames Water, Anglian Water, Southern Water, United Utilities, Wessex Water and Yorkshire Water – are responsible for the most serious category of sewage pollution into rivers and seas, all of which are, or have been, under criminal investigation by the Environment Agency.Under powers in Labour’s Water (Special Measures) Act 2025, the regulator, Ofwat, is now able to ban bonuses for water executives where a company fails to meet key standards on environmental and financial performance, or is convicted of a criminal offence.In the past 10 years, executives at the nine main water and sewerage companies have been paid £112m in bonuses while sewage pollution increased to a record last year of 2,487 events
Wise goes to the US. Will its founder’s supercharged voting rights follow? | Nils Pratley
Back in 2021, the arrival on the London stock market of Wise, a rapidly expanding money transfer company, generated a feelgood factor at a useful moment.It came a month after overhyped Deliveroo flopped on debut. And, since Wise was a pure fintech business, as opposed to a pizza delivery outfit with an app, there was reason to think the UK might be getting its act together in the sector that politicians swoon over. Shoreditch’s finest, and its Estonian founders, would show the way in UK fintech. Wise sported a £9bn valuation
British Gas owner strikes £20bn gas deal with Norway’s state energy company
The owner of British Gas has struck a £20bn deal with Norway’s state energy company to buy enough gas to meet nearly 10% of the UK’s needs for the next decade.Under the agreement, Centrica will buy around 5bn cubic meters of gas from Equinor – enough to supply 5m UK homes – every year from this winter until 2035 at the prevailing market rate.It is the latest long-term deal between the UK and Norway, which has been one of Britain’s largest sources of imported gas for the last 50 years. But in a nod to Britain’s net zero agenda, the latest agreement will include a clause that allows the UK to swap gas imports for emissions-free hydrogen from Equinor’s UK hydrogen plant.Equinor is working with Centrica and the energy company SSE on multiple low carbon hydrogen projects on the north bank of the Humber
Explain it to me quickly: What is aura farming, and is it cool or cringe?
Jimmy Kimmel: ‘Between Elon and Melania, Trump now has two foreigners who won’t sleep with him’
Latex, Teletubbies and Miranda July: putting my way through feminist mini-golf course Swingers
The ones we love: all 16 of REM’s albums – ranked!
‘My biggest fear’: the artist spending three days banged up in a jail cell
Footballer, Bachelor star … fantasy writer? The TikTok furore over Luke Bateman’s book deal