4 d. ago ‘A black hole’: families and police say tech giants delay investigations in child abuse and drug cases

US law enforcement officers say Meta and Snapchat routinely delay or reject warrants. The companies disagreeMax Osterman was 18 when he connected with a drug dealer on Snapchat who used the handle skyhigh.303. Max would message him whenever he wanted to buy Percocet, and they would meet. After about a year, and just days after their last exchange, Max collapsed. The pills he ordered had been laced with fentanyl. He died from the overdose in February 2021 at his home in Broomfield, Colorado.The dealer continued selling prescription painkillers until 2023, when he was jailed on two drug distribution convictions. When handing down the sentence, the judge said he was responsible for four deaths, yet he never faced charges for supplying the pills that killed Max. Continue reading...

Events

5 d. ago Black holes to be shown in action in first 3D movies created using AI

Experts in black hole astronomy and artificial intelligence will combine for the project at Heriot-Watt University.

Culture

7 d. ago Marshall Islands launches world’s first universal basic income scheme offering cryptocurrency

Quarterly payments of $200 to be offered via stablecoin or traditional currency in a scheme designed to ease cost of living pressures in the Pacific nationThe Marshall Islands has introduced a national universal basic income (UBI) scheme that offers payments via cryptocurrency, alongside more traditional methods, which experts say is the first scheme of its kind in the world.Under the program, every resident citizen of the Marshall Islands will receive quarterly payments of about US$200 as part of a government effort to ease cost of living pressures. The first instalments were paid in late November and recipients can choose whether the money is paid into a bank account, by cheque, or delivered as cryptocurrency on the blockchain through a government-backed digital wallet. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago £22 milllion 'black hole' in London council's finances sparks tax hike and spending cuts warning

Council leader says town hall’s situation is ‘incredibly difficult’

Economics

1 week ago Found another black hole, Chancellor? Reeves says she 'reserves the right' to hammer Britain with MORE taxes as she is grilled by MPs over Budget lies scandal

Rachel Reeves pointedly refused to repeat the explicit guarantee she gave - and then broke - in the wake of her first eye-watering raid last year.

Economics

2 w. ago Labour minister lashes out at 'outright lies' as he faces fury over digital ID

Cabinet Office minister Josh Simons said there was a lot of 'nonsense', 'myths' and 'outright lies' as he defended the Government's controversial digital ID proposals

Politics

2 w. ago Thousands of patients see NHS hospital referrals lost in ‘black hole’

One retired NHS worker said he felt ‘stuck in limbo’ to see a specialist for his back and hip pains

Science

2 w. ago Thousands of patients in England at risk as GP referrals vanish into NHS ‘black hole’

Exclusive: Healthwatch study discovered 14% of cases are not put on hospital waiting lists for treatment GPs requested for themOne in seven people in England who need hospital care are not receiving it because the referral by their GP gets lost, rejected or delayed, the NHS’s own patient watchdog has found.Three-quarters (75%) of these patients trapped in this “referrals black hole” suffer harm to their physical or mental health as a result of not being added to the waiting list for tests or treatment. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago Rachel Reeves warned by OBR that UK's 'frightening' borrowing binge will be unaffordable

The comments from the OBR are the latest broadside following its revelation Reeves knew months ago that there was no black hole in this year's public finances.

Events

2 w. ago Chancellor told 'frightening' borrowing binge will become unaffordable

The comments from the OBR are the latest broadside following its revelation Reeves knew months ago that there was no black hole in this year's public finances.

Politics

2 w. ago Rachel Reeves escapes ministerial ethics probe over Budget lies as standards tsar rejects Farage's demand for Chancellor to be investigated

Reform leader Nigel Farage had demanded the Chancellor be investigated for saying there was a black hole in the public finances of more than £20billion, which it later emerged did not exist.

Politics

2 w. ago Elon Musk’s X fined €120mn by EU for transparency violations

Penalty under bloc’s Digital Services Act risks escalating tensions with US government

Politics

2 w. ago There’s a black hole where central banks’ theory of inflation should be

Old assumptions about expectations and targets can no longer be relied upon

Economics

2 w. ago Black hole mystery is SOLVED: Terrifying simulation reveals how voids generate intense light that can be detected from billions of light

Astrophysicists in New York have created terrifying simulations of how black holes naturally create dazzling displays detected from billions of light years away.

Events

2 w. ago Reeves accused of forcing OBR chief to quit after watchdog revealed truth about Budget black hole

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has accused Rachel Reeves for forcing Richard Hughes to resign as chairman of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) because he revealed that she had potentially misled the public over the existence of a spending black hole

Politics

3 w. ago OBR confronted Treasury about ‘unhelpful’ policy leaks before Reeves’ Budget

The economy watchdog raised concerns with the Treasury about the amount of information being leaked ahead of the chancellor’s statement

Events

3 w. ago UK Government was ‘digging its own black hole’ before Budget, says Flynn

The Chancellor has been accused of misleading the public ahead of the Budget.

Politics

3 w. ago It’s under fire from left and right – but Labour’s workers' rights bill is a huge achievement | Polly Toynbee

It makes no sense for union leaders to cry betrayal when it will be their members who benefit from these sorely needed reformsThe wall of sound shouting “liar” at the chancellor is a bizarre Westminster frenzy. Stand back from the hysteria and ask this question: how can Rachel Reeves be accused of raising more money than necessary when there is still pitifully little to go round in every department at her cabinet table? It’s a weird Tory ramp that she lied about a black hole when we can see it everywhere in the real world. She could have raised more.As the prime minister, Keir Starmer, pleads the case for all that was Labour-flavoured in the budget, the week also brought a breakthrough for Labour’s flagship employment rights bill. Shamelessly stymied by the Lords’ Tory majority, the government watered down a clause on so-called day-one rights that would have given workers protection from unfair dismissal from the day they walked into a job. That legal right will now kick in at six m...

Economics

3 w. ago What lies beneath: How Rachel Reeves and her Treasury warned of a Budget black hole to justify tax rises

There are calls for the Chancellor to quit after the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) watchdog revealed it had privately told her there was no huge black hole in the nation's books.

Events

3 w. ago Defiant Starmer to defend Budget after Reeves forced to deny lying about black hole to justify tax hikes

Calls for multiple investigations following accusations that the chancellor misled the public

Economics