Trump has managed to spin Signalgate as a media lapse, not a major security breach | Andrew Roth

Posted on March 29, 2025 by Admin

The US administration believes it can divide public attention until there is a new scandal. It may be a winning strategy

When it comes to Trump-era scandals, the shameless responses to “Signalgate”, in which top administration officials discussing details of an impending strike in Yemen in a group chat without noticing the presence of a prominent journalist, should set alarm bells ringing for its brazenness and incompetence.

In a particularly jaw-dropping exchange, Tulsi Gabbard, the United States’ director of national intelligence, was forced to backtrack during a house hearing after she had said that there had been no specific information in the Signal chat about an impending military strike. Then, the Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg published the chat in full, contradicting Gabbard’s remarks that no classified data or weapons systems had been mentioned in the chat.

Women in business held back by mobile data’s cost in developing world – report

Posted on March 20, 2025 by Admin

Nearly half of female entrepreneurs surveyed by Cherie Blair Foundation for Women do not have regular internet access

The cost of a mobile data package is all that is holding back many female entrepreneurs in developing countries, according to recent research.

While social media marketing is reported to be crucial by female business owners who have access to it, 45% of women in business in low- and middle-income countries said they did not have regular internet access because of the expense and connection issues.

More than 110 child sextortion attempts reported each month to UK police forces

Posted on March 19, 2025 by Admin

National Crime Agency launches awareness campaign, saying criminals are adapting methods and using AI

UK police forces are receiving more than 110 reports of child sextortion attempts every month, according to the National Crime Agency, as a new awareness campaign is launched about the online scourge.

The NCA said the use of artificial intelligence in sextortion attacks had also increased “substantially” over the past three years as criminals adapted their methods.

Value of Elon Musk’s X ‘rebounds to $44bn purchase price’

Posted on March 19, 2025 by Admin

Dramatic reversal of fortune for platform since billionaire owner became key ally of Donald Trump

Business live – latest updates

The value of Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, has reportedly soared back to the $44bn he paid for it, in a dramatic reversal of fortunes since the billionaire became a key ally of Donald Trump.

Investors valued the site formerly known as Twitter at $44bn (£33.9bn) in a secondary deal earlier this month, in which they exchange existing stakes in the company, according to a Financial Times report.

Duterte’s arrest gives ‘a sense impunity ends’, says Nobel peace prize winner

Posted on March 18, 2025 by Admin

Maria Ressa says rules-based order ‘can perhaps still exist’ but social media is being used to undermine democracy around the world

The arrest of Rodrigo Duterte is a welcome sign that the rules-based order continues to hold, the Nobel laureate Maria Ressa has said, even as the global order has been marred by the US “descending into hell” at the hands of the same forces that consumed the Philippines.

Ressa’s remarks came after Duterte, the former president of the Philippines, made his first appearance before the international criminal court (ICC) in The Hague, accused of committing crimes against humanity during his brutal “war on drugs”.

Russell T Davies: gay society in ‘greatest danger I’ve ever seen’ after Trump win

Posted on March 16, 2025 by Admin

Exclusive: Doctor Who writer says he feels ‘a wave of anger heading towards us’ and hostility in UK as well as US

Russell T Davies has said gay society is in the “greatest danger I have ever seen”, since the election of Donald Trump as US president in November.

Speaking to the Guardian at the Gaydio Pride awards in Manchester on Friday, the Doctor Who screenwriter said the rise in hostility was not limited to the US but “is here [in the UK] now”.

Mental health crisis ‘means youth is no longer one of happiest times of life’

Posted on March 3, 2025 by Admin

UN-commissioned study in UK, US, Ireland, Australia, Canada and New Zealand finds satisfaction rises with age

For more than half a century, the midlife crisis has been a feature of western society. Fast cars, impulsive decisions, and peak misery between the age of 40 and 50. But all that is changing, according to experts.

In a new paper commissioned by the UN, the leading academics Jean Twenge and David Blanchflower warn that a burgeoning youth mental health crisis in six English-speaking countries worldwide is upending the traditional pattern of happiness across our lifetimes.

Denmark to ban mobile phones in schools and after-school clubs

Posted on February 25, 2025 by Admin

Government accepts advice of commission that also says children under 13 should not have their own smartphone

Denmark is to ban mobile phones in schools and after-school clubs on the recommendation of a government commission that also found that children under 13 should not have their own smartphone or tablet.

The government said it would change existing legislation to force all folkeskole – comprehensive primary and lower secondary schools – to become phone-free, meaning that almost all children aged between seven and 16-17 will be required by law not to bring their phones into school.

‘Revenge porn’ abusers allowed to keep devices with explicit images

Posted on February 22, 2025 by Admin

Prosecutors in England and Wales are failing to obtain orders requiring the deletion of intimate content shared without consent, analysis reveals

Perpetrators of “revenge porn” offences are being allowed to keep explicit images of their victims on their devices, after a failure by prosecutors to obtain orders requiring their deletion.

An Observer analysis of court records in intimate image abuse cases has found that orders for the offenders to give up their devices and delete photos and videos are rarely being made. Of 98 cases concluded in the magistrates courts in England and Wales in the past six months, just three resulted in a deprivation order.

Second Labour MP suspended by Labour amid offensive messages on WhatsApp group – UK politics live

Posted on February 10, 2025 by Admin

Burnley’s Oliver Ryan suspended as details emerge about Trigger Me Timbers group

Downing Street has announced a mini-reshuffle following the sacking of Andrew Gwynne as a health minister over the weekend.

Ashley Dalton is replacing Gwynne as a health minister. Dalton was a backbencher.

Forcing those whose asylum applications have been rejected or who have overstayed their visas on to planes has never been the most effective way to return people and never will be. Being punitive just scares people into hiding. They lose contact with the authorities, living a life on the margins.

Voluntary returns are far more effective, and the government should know this because it was the last Labour administration that commissioned independent agencies to run a voluntary programme that saw numbers increase. Building trust with refugee and migrant communities and treating people with dignity and humanity was far more successful than an enforcement approach.