Sorry seems to be the hardest word for ministers even after damning report into pandemic

Published

4 years ago

October 12, 2021

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“Keen to start with an apology, minister?” “Well, no…”

And thus began the government’s response this morning to the first major inquiry into the lessons the UK should learn from COVID, which is damning on several fronts.

Cabinet office minister Steve Barclay, who was not at the centre of decision-making when the pandemic struck and conceded he had not read the 150-page report, refused 11 times to apologise for its findings.

Live COVID updates from the UK and around the world

Overseen by two senior Tories, Jeremy Hunt and Greg Clark, it is scathing on the failure to lock down earlier in March – “one of the worst public health failures the UK has ever experienced”; on care homes – which the MPs say neither the government, nor SAGE nor even the NHS took seriously enough with “devastating” consequences; and on woeful pandemic preparedness, among others.

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Thousands of deaths were preventable, the report says. Although the 100,000 tests target and the pioneering vaccine programme are highly praised.

Mr Barclay, who has the supply chain crisis in his in-tray, said the government was committed to learning lessons and would examine the report ahead of the public inquiry the prime minister has promised next spring.

It was a defensive response given that in May (following Dominic Cummings explosive testimony to this inquiry) Boris Johnson went further than before in saying he was “truly sorry for the suffering that the people of this country have experienced”.

He told MPs “I take full responsibility for everything that has happened.”

Labour says that an inquiry should be held now, and on whether they should have more aggressively pressed for lockdown, it says the government had all the scientific data.

Today’s report by MPs covers a lot of familiar ground and does not point the finger at individuals, going instead for system failings.

But it’s striking that amid government insistence they “followed the science”, the MPs say ministers should in fact have challenged it, particularly when it came to herd immunity – which the report says was the “inevitable outcome” of the government’s early strategy, although Number 10 has consistently denied this was the case.

The prime minister promised the public inquiry, which will also focus on some of the different decisions taken by the devolved governments, will consider “all key aspects of the UK response”.

We’re starting to see what those battle lines will be, but six months is a long time and by then we will have a clearer idea if we are looking at a pandemic on the wane or one that is still very much in our lives.

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Politics

SEC ends Biden-era probe into tokenized equity platform Ondo Finance

Published

3 hours ago

December 8, 2025

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SEC ends Biden-era probe into tokenized equity platform Ondo Finance

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has officially dropped its investigation into the New York-based tokenization platform Ondo Finance, which it initiated in 2023.

Ondo Finance has received formal notice that a confidential, multi-year SEC investigation into the platform has been closed without any charges, the company announced on Monday.

“The probe examined whether Ondo’s tokenization of certain real-world assets complied with federal securities laws as well as whether the ONDO token was a security,” the statement said.

The SEC’s decision to end the investigation reflects a broader shift in the US policy regarding real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, bringing it on the authority’s formal agenda, Ondo noted.

A new chapter of tokenization in the US

According to a report by Crypto in America, the SEC initially opened the probe in October 2023 under former SEC Chair Gary Gensler, who was known for his stringent stance toward the crypto industry.

However, since Paul Atkins took over as SEC chair, the agency has closed a number of crypto-related cases involving major companies, including Coinbase, Ripple and Kraken.

“When the inquiry began in 2024, the US regulatory environment for digital assets was defined by caution, confusion, and occasionally overbroad enforcement actions,” Ondo Finance said in its blog post.

Against that backdrop, Ondo was “one of the only firms focused on tokenizing publicly listed equities at scale,” it said, adding: “Being early, and being successful, came with scrutiny.”

According to Ondo, the resolution of the SEC inquiry marks the end of one chapter for Ondo and the beginning of another, where tokenized securities become a “core part of the US capital markets.”

“The future of global finance, including U.S. capital markets, will be onchain and Ondo will help lead that transition,” Ondo said.

Most US tokenization platforms serve overseas markets

The news comes as most tokenization platforms offer tokenized equity products primarily to customers outside the US, including firms such as Kraken-owned Backed, the issuer of xStocks.

While these platforms tokenize major US-listed stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), many of the offerings are aimed at clients located overseas, particularly in Europe.