Newscast Will The Plan To Keep Kids Safe Online Work?
In just under two weeks time, specific child safety measures, including changes to algorithms to filter out harmful content, will be enforced for a number of different tech platforms and companies.
And we find out about the latest development in the upcoming strikes from resident doctors in the NHS.
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Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. It was presented by Paddy O'Connell, Laura Kuenssberg and Joe Pike. It was made by Chris Gray with and Josh Jenkins. The social producers were Sophie Milward. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
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Sky News
12 minutes ago
- Sky News
We are entering 'golden age' of cancer treatment - and also facing a less gilded era too
A friend of mine was recently diagnosed with a melanoma, an aggressive form of skin cancer that had spread throughout their body, including their brain. Even a decade ago, their cancer would have been essentially incurable and rapidly fatal. My friend's tumours however are shrinking as their immune system attacks the cancer cells wherever they happen to be in their body. A treatment called immunotherapy is directing their own immune system to find and attack cancer cells in all the parts of the body to which they have spread. It's a familiar story across multiple cancer types with new classes of treatment, often based on rapid advances in understanding of the genetics of cancer - or cancer patients themselves. So the outgoing medical director of the NHS, Sir Stephen Powis, is not wrong: we are entering a "golden era" of cancer treatment, if we're not living in it already. Cancer treatment is becoming increasingly personalised to the specific mutations in the cancer itself. Oncologists know their enemy in more intimate detail than ever before. Tools like AI can sift through that detail to identify new vulnerabilities in cancer cells and techniques like gene editing allow scientists to design previously impossible new ways of exploiting them to slow, or reverse the spread of cancers. But we're entering a parallel and less gilded era too. Cancer is primarily a disease of ageing and our population is doing that rapidly. 1:09 It is also more common in those who eat and drink too much and exercise little - which is most of us - and explains why cancer rates are now, perhaps for the first time in human history, increasing in younger people too. As Sir Stephen points out, prevention must play an important role in reducing that increasing burden. It already has for some: smoking-related lung cancer is declining, so too is cervical cancer thanks to HPV vaccination in schools. But the bulk of cancers linked to poor diet, poor air quality, or poverty in general are not. We're also failing to make sure everybody benefits from the incredible new treatments available and those yet to come. While people are now getting cancer diagnosed faster in the NHS, many start treatment too late. More than 30% of patients wait more than two months to see a cancer specialist following an "urgent" referral from their GP (well below the NHS target that has not been met since it was introduced in 2015). 1:56 Cancer survival is increasing, but so too is the disparity between those benefitting from the latest treatments and those who aren't. Specialist treatment in some parts of the UK is far better than in others - often those in poorer places where cancer rates are higher. And the latest, and best, cancer treatments - which are largely bespoke-tailored to the patient's needs - are increasingly expensive. Affording these has always been a challenge for the NHS and will only get harder. While the golden era unfolds, much must be done to avoid another in which cancer treatment becomes a two, or even three, tier service that offers the best only to a few.
Leader Live
13 minutes ago
- Leader Live
Israel strikes tanks in southern Syria as forces clash with Druze militias
Dozens of people have been killed in the fighting between local militias and clans in Syria 's Sweida province. Government security forces that were sent to restore order on Monday also clashed with local armed groups. The Interior Ministry has said more than 30 people died and nearly 100 others have been injured in that fighting. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor reported at least 50 dead, including two children and six members of the security forces. Israel has previously threatened to intervene in Syria in defence of the Druze religious minority. Over half of the roughly one million Druze worldwide live in Syria. Most other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed in 1981. In Israel, Druze are seen as a loyal minority and often serve in the armed forces. Israel has been suspicious of Syria's new leaders since the fall of former president Bashar Assad in December, saying it does not want Islamist militants near its borders. Israeli forces earlier seized a UN-patrolled buffer zone on Syrian territory along the border with the Golan Heights and have launched hundreds of airstrikes on military sites in Syria. Clashes initially broke out between armed groups from the Druze and Sunni Bedouin clans, the observatory said, with some members of the government security forces 'actively participating' in support of the Bedouins. Interior Ministry spokesperson Noureddine al-Baba told the state-run Al-Ikhbariya TV that government forces entered Sweida in the early morning to restore order. 'Some clashes occurred with outlawed armed groups, but our forces are doing their best to prevent any civilian casualties,' he said. The observatory said the clashes started after a series of kidnappings between both groups, which began when members of a Bedouin tribe in the area set up a checkpoint where they attacked and robbed a young Druze man. Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the observatory, said the conflict started with the kidnapping and robbery of a Druze vegetable seller, leading to tit-for-tat attacks and kidnappings. Syria's defence and interior ministries were deploying personnel to the area to attempt to restore order. The Interior Ministry described the situation as a dangerous escalation that 'comes in the absence of the relevant official institutions, which has led to an exacerbation of the state of chaos, the deterioration of the security situation, and the inability of the local community to contain the situation despite repeated calls for calm.' Factions from the Druze minority have been suspicious of the new authorities in Damascus after Assad fled the country during a rebel offensive led by Sunni Islamist insurgent groups. Earlier this year, Druze groups in Sweida clashed with security forces from the new government. The Druze religious sect is a minority group that began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. In Syria, they largely live in the southern Sweida province and some suburbs of Damascus, mainly in Jaramana and Ashrafiyat Sahnaya to the south. The Druze developed their own militias during the country's nearly 14-year civil war. Since Assad's fall, different Druze factions have been at odds over whether to integrate with the new government and armed forces.
The Independent
17 minutes ago
- The Independent
Reeves says protections remain for ‘working people' amid wealth tax speculation
Rachel Reeves has not ruled out the possibility of a new wealth tax but insisted commitments not to hike tax for 'working people' remained. The Chancellor said she was not going to comment on speculation around her next budget when a date for the statement had not even been set. But she said promises not to increase income tax, national insurance and value added tax (VAT) remained in place, along with her 'non-negotiable' fiscal rules. The Government's U-turns over welfare reform and winter fuel payments have left the Chancellor with a multi-billion black hole to fill, fuelling speculation she might target the assets of the wealthy. Asked to rule that out, Ms Reeves told reporters: 'We haven't even set the date for the budget yet, so please forgive me if I'm not going to speculate about what might happen at an event that we haven't even decided a date on yet. 'But we've been really clear in our manifesto about the taxes that we won't increase, and we're not going to increase the taxes that working people pay, their income tax, their national insurance and their VAT, because I do recognise the struggle that ordinary working people have faced these last few years with the cost of living.' She added that her fiscal rules were 'non-negotiable' as 'they are what give working people security, around interest rates for example'. The narrow margin by which the Chancellor is on course to meet her goal of funding day-to-day spending through revenues rather than borrowing means she is vulnerable to any increase in debt interest costs or reductions in planned savings, such as on welfare. Ms Reeves said: 'Interest rates have come down four times in the last year under this Labour Government because of the stability that we've managed to return to the economy, which is underpinned by those fiscal rules, which have enabled the Bank of England to cut interest rates.' The Bank's governor Andrew Bailey has suggested there could be larger cuts if the jobs market shows signs of weakness, pointing to the impact of Ms Reeves' decision to hike employers' national insurance contributions (NICs). Businesses are 'adjusting employment' as a result of the NICs increase and workers are 'also having pay rises that are possibly less than they would have been if the NICs change hadn't happened', he said. In an interview with The Times, the governor said the British economy was growing behind its potential. This could open up 'slack' to bring down inflation, he said, meaning prices on goods would rise less swiftly compared with earnings in future. Mr Bailey said he believes the base rate set by the Bank of England would be lowered in future, after it was held in June. The current Bank rate of 4.25%, which has a bearing on all lending in the UK – including mortgages – will be reviewed again on August 7 by the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee. 'I really do believe the path is downward,' Mr Bailey told The Times. He added: 'But we continue to use the words 'gradual and careful' because… some people say to me 'why are you cutting when inflation's above target?'' Treasury Chief Secretary Darren Jones said it was entirely normal for firms to adjust their business plans because of a tax hike. He told Times Radio: 'We've also seen the creation of hundreds of thousands of new jobs across the country, and it's normal for business to make adjustments to their plans, depending on the cost of business, in the normal way. 'But we're really focused as a Government in supporting business to create more jobs.'
