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Nassau County Republicans, including Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-N.Y.), on Wednesday urged Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) to resign from office over him fabricating portions of his resume during his successful campaign to win election to the House.

“George Santos’s campaign last year was a campaign of deceit, lies and fabrication,” Nassau County GOP chairman Joseph Cairo said in a press conference Wednesday. “Today, on behalf of the Nassau County Republican Committee, I am calling for his immediate resignation.”

Controversy and questions have swirled around Santos since The New York Times published reporting detailing discrepancies in what Santos said about his personal and professional life.

The Long Island Republican later admitted that he was guilty of “embellishing my resume,” angering Republicans and Democrats alike.

“It has become clear that Congressman George Santos’ many hurtful lies and mistruths surrounding his history have irreparably broken the trust of residents he is sworn to serve,” D’Esposito said in a statement Wednesday. “For his betrayal of the public’s trust, I call on Congressman George Santos to resign.”

Santos remained defiant, however, saying after the news conference that he “will not” step down despite growing pressure to do so. The Hill’s 12:30 Report — FAA’s mass US ground stop causes chaos McCarthy: George Santos shouldn’t be on any top House committees

The top prosecutor in Nassau County, a Republican, opened a probe late last month into Santos while Robert Zimmerman, the Democratic candidate who lost to Santos last November, urged for the congressman to resign and face him in a special election. 

However, top leadership in the House avoided commenting on the Santos controversy. Santos had pledged to support Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) for House Speaker — support McCarthy needed given the Republicans’ slim margin of control in the House.

Updated at 12:17 p.m.

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Business

Rightmove: ‘First drop’ in house rent prices outside London since before the COVID pandemic

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Rightmove: 'First drop' in house rent prices outside London since before the COVID pandemic

The average asking price to rent a home outside London has fallen for the first time since before the COVID pandemic, according to a property website.

Rightmove credited improved levels of rental properties for the welcome shift, but declared that advertised private rents in the capital continued to tick up, for a 13th consecutive quarter, between October to December.

It reported an average sum of £2,695 per calendar month (pcm) for London, though that was only 0.1% higher than the previous quarter.

The rest of Britain had an average newly advertised rent of £1,341 pcm – down 0.2%.

The trend for the country as a whole is of a price slowdown following years of unprecedented growth that has resulted in successive monthly highs.

Rents are currently 4.7% up on a year earlier, the slowest rate of growth since 2021.

The property website said a rising supply of rental homes to choose from was improving the balance of supply and demand, although there were typically still 10 applications being made for every rental property.

It also suggested that many tenants had shifted their focus towards the sales market due to continued steep competition for rentals and as borrowing costs were now down from cost of living crisis peaks.

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Social housing complaints surge

Rightmove’s property expert Colleen Babcock said: “While new tenants are still paying more than they were at this time last year, the pace of growth continues to slow.

“However, though this is the big picture of market activity, agents on the ground still tell us that the market is very hot, and some areas have improved more than others when it comes to the supply and demand balance.”

The northeast of England was said to have seen the biggest boost to supply, with Wales the smallest.

Alex Bloxham, a partner and head of residential lettings at the consultancy Bidwells, said: “These figures suggest landlords are continuing to invest in their buy-to-let portfolios, while more tenants are choosing to stay put, likely due to continued macroeconomic uncertainty and the up-front costs involved in relocating.”

The debt charity StepChange reacted to the figures by saying that they were unlikely to bring any immediate relief to millions of families grappling with higher bills.

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Water bills ‘an absolute disgrace’

Its recent polling suggested that 22% of people renting privately were always worried about money, with rents just one elevated cost to bear as many other bills such as those for food and energy show little sign of easing.

Water and council tax costs are also due to rise sharply from April.

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The charity’s Richard Lane added: “We’re pleased to see the Renters Rights Bill progressing through parliament, which will end section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions – a long overdue piece of legislation.

“However, we’ve long called for strengthened protections for private renters facing financial hardship.

“Our research shows that a significant proportion of private renters are having to rely on credit just to cover their rent, which is unsustainable and will only trap people in a cycle of problem debt.

“If you are struggling with rent arrears or any other type of debt, free and impartial advice is available from charities like StepChange.”

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UK

Young people joined last summer’s riots in ‘thrill of the moment’, says Children’s Commissioner

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Young people joined last summer's riots in 'thrill of the moment', says Children's Commissioner

A distrust of the police, curiosity, and the “thrill of the moment” were some of the reasons behind young people joining in last summer’s riots, research has suggested.

The involvement of some children was “spontaneous and unconsidered” and had less to do with online misinformation, the Children’s Commissioner said in a new report.

Dame Rachel de Souza’s office spoke to around a fifth of the children charged over the trouble which broke out in the aftermath of the murders of three young girls in Southport.

Axel Rudakubana was handed a 52-year sentence last week for the murders of Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, as well as the attempted murder of eight other children and two adults, at a dance class last July.

In the days following the stabbings, a number of false claims circulated on social media about the attack – including a false name and incorrect claims that the attacker was a recently arrived asylum seeker – with some of that misinformation believed to have fuelled rioting in various parts of England.

Regarding the actions of children, Dame Rachel said her office’s interviews with 14 of the under-18s charged in relation to the disorder found a number of issues.

EMBARGOED TO 0001 TUESDAY JANUARY 28..File photo dated 11/09/23 of Dame Rachel de Souza, Children's Commissioner for England. Thrill-seeking and a distrust of police were the driving factors for young people to get involved in last summer's riots more than online misinformation, research by the Children's Commissioner has suggested. Dame Rachel de Souza's office spoke to around a fifth of the children charged over the trouble which broke out in the aftermath of the murders of three girls in Southport. Issue date: Tuesday January 28, 2025. PA Photo. See PA story POLITICS Children. Photo credit should read: Aaron Chown/PA Wire
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Dame Rachel de Souza. File pic: PA

In the report, she said: “What emerged from the conversations I had with the young people themselves was striking, and often unsettling.

“Many children described making a split-second decision, their involvement being largely spontaneous and unconsidered, driven by curiosity or the thrill of the moment to see what was going on in their community.

“Others described a deep distrust of the police and the opportunity to retaliate against a previous interaction.

“What these conversations do not support is the prevailing narrative that emerged from the riots which was subsequently accepted: that online misinformation, racism or other right-wing influences were to blame for why young people were enticed to join in the aggression.

“While there is no doubt these issues all played a role, they did not drive the children’s actions – they did not come up as the only significant factors in any of the conversations with the children who were charged.”

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Of the 14 children spoken to towards the end of last year by the commissioner’s office, many had no previous experience with the criminal justice system.

All “made it clear that they did not get involved due to far-right, anti-immigration or racist views”, the report said.

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Technology

Japan chip stocks extend losses as DeepSeek worries fuel Wall Street tech rout

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Japan chip stocks extend losses as DeepSeek worries fuel Wall Street tech rout

A sales clerk shows off Elpida Memory Inc. memory chips at an electronics shop in Tokyo, Japan, on Thursday, March 5, 2009.

Tomohiro Ohsumi | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Shares in Japan’s chip-related companies extended declines for a second day as Chinese startup DeepSeek’s AI competitiveness calls into question the United States’ leadership in the field.

Semiconductor testing equipment supplier Advantest slid over 10%, Tokyo Electron fell 3.6%, while Renesas Electronics traded 2.29% lower Tuesday.

Softbank Group, which owns chip designer Arm, slid 5.26%. Data center-related shares also continued to take a hit, with wire and cable firms Furukawa and Fujikura dropping 8.22% and 8.1%, respectively.

DeepSeek released a free, open-source large language model in late December, claiming it was created in only two months with a budget of under $6 million. Last week, the lab introduced R1, a reasoning model that outperformed OpenAI’s latest o1 in several third-party tests.

“There will be a lot more pain to follow today as we follow the U.S. down,” said Andrew Jackson, head of equity strategy at ORTUS Advisors. 

“The big questions is whether the U.S. will U-turn on their approach and deregulate chip and SPE restrictions seeing as they are (currently) ineffectual or try and ramp things up even more,” Jackson wrote in an email. DeepSeek had to navigate strict semiconductor restrictions imposed by the U.S. government on China, which limited access to advanced chips.

The Chinese artificial intelligence company aims to stand out from its competitors by focusing on its reasoning abilities, where the model creates a “chain of thought” before providing the final answer to improve the accuracy of its responses.

“DeepSeek is a risk to the U.S. exceptionalism narrative, further questioning the ‘Magnificent 7’ dominance,” Citi analysts wrote in a note.

Sell-off in chip stocks ‘quite a mistake’

Chip giant Nvidia lost almost $600 billion in market cap on Monday, logging the largest drop for a company in a single day in the U.S. The company posted its worst day in the market since March 2020 after its stock price plunged 17%. However, a rotation into more defensive areas of the U.S. market helped ease Monday’s losses.

Overnight, other chip-related shares in international markets also fell. Netherlands-based chip companies ASML and ASM International saw declines during European trading hours. Micron and Arm Holdings dropped more than 11% and 10%, respectively.

DeepSeek either builds on existing inference infrastructure, or will itself stimulate new AI demand, said Richard Kaye, an analyst at global asset management group Comgest. 

“In both cases, semiconductor intensity remains high,” Kaye told CNBC via email.

“The deep fall in semiconductor equipment stocks, Tokyo Electron, ASML, Applied Materials, is quite a mistake,” he added.

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