Whole-life prison sentences will become the “default” punishment for “sexual or sadistic” murders, the prime minister has said.
Former NHS neo-natal nurse Lucy Letby was told she will never be released on Monday after being convicted of murdering seven babies and trying to kill six others on 18 August.
She is only the fourth woman to be given a whole-life tariff in England and Wales. Sixty-six men are currently serving them in prisons and secure hospitals across the two nations.
But the government says it plans to change the law so that “judges are required to impose whole-life orders on the most depraved killers, except in extremely limited circumstances”.
Justice Secretary Alex Chalk said: “A whole life order will now be the expectation for murderers where the killing involves sexual or sadistic conduct.”
The proposed change in legislation will give judges “greater confidence to hand out whole-life orders without a risk of challenge in the Courts of Appeal”, according to ministers.
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Under changes to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act, which came into effect last year, the criteria for whole-life tariffs was expanded to include premeditated murders of children.
But now “sexually-motivated” murders will also merit the most severe sentence.
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New criteria could have applied to Aleena and Nessa cases
This could have applied to the recent cases of Zara Aleena and Sabina Nessa, who were both sexually assaulted and murdered as they walked home in London.
Image: Zara Aleena
Image: Zara Aleena’s killer Jordan McSweeney
Jordan McSweeney was jailed for life with a minimum of 38 years for the murder of Ms Aleena in Ilford.
While Koci Selamaj was handed life with a minimum of 36 years for killing Ms Nessa in Greenwich.
Sentencing him, Lord Justice Fulford said the seriousness of Couzens’ crimes and the “misuse of a police officer’s role” was so “exceptionally high” that they merited a whole-life tarriff.
Image: Sarah Everard
Rishi Sunak commented: “I have shared the public’s horror at the cruelty of crimes we have seen recently.
“People rightly expect that in the most serious cases, there should be a guarantee that life will mean life. They expect honesty in sentencing.
“By bringing in mandatory whole life orders for the heinous criminals who commit the most horrific types of murder, we will make sure they never walk free.”
Shadow justice secretary Steve Reed MP said Labour would not take “any lessons from this soft on crime Tory government”.
“Under their watch, nine out of ten crimes go unsolved and tens of thousands of dangerous criminals including gunmen, child abductors, and sex offenders have avoided jail sentences,” he said.
“To make matters worse, our prisons are now full because they failed to build the prison cells we need, forcing judges to hand out softer sentences.”
He added that if elected, Labour would “implement tougher sentences for dangerous criminals and build the prison places to put them behind bars”.
Nasdaq has filed for crypto asset manager 21Shares to list a spot Sui exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the US, initiating the Securities and Exchange Commission’s review process.
The stock market’s May 23 19b-4 filing, which asks the SEC to list the 21Shares SUI ETF, follows 21Shares’ April 30 submission of its S-1 registration statement to the SEC, which asked the regulator to approve trading of the proposed fund.
Both regulatory filings are needed for the Sui (SUI) tracking fund to gi live, with the 19b-4 filing kicking off the SEC’s review process. The agency must decide whether to accept, reject or delay the application within 45 days and it can delay its decision multiple times, for a maximum review period of 240 days.
The SEC must decide on 21Shares’ application by Jan. 18, 2026, at the latest.
21Shares proposed BitGo and Coinbase Custody as the custodians to hold SUI on behalf of the trust, however, the filing did not include details on a management fee or ticker.
Canary Capital is the only other asset manager that has submitted 19b-4 and S-1 filings to list a spot Sui ETF, filing the forms on April 8.
21Shares said in its 19b-4 filing that the SUI token powers the Sui network and serves four main purposes: it can be staked to earn rewards, used to pay gas fees, function as a liquid asset for Sui applications and serve as a governance token.
The Sui ecosystem is largely focused on decentralized applications and has been dubbed a potential Solana killer.
SUI is the 13th-largest cryptocurrency, but its $12.3 billion market cap remains a fraction of Solana (SOL)’s $92 billion market cap, according to CoinGecko.
21Shares aims to add to SUI offerings
21Shares already lists a Sui exchange-traded product in Europe, on the Euronext Paris and Euronext Amsterdam stock exchanges.
Those listings have contributed to SUI-based exchange-traded products having $317.2 million in assets under management (AUM), according to a May 26 report from CoinShares.
Flows into SUI ETPs increased by $2.9 million between May 16 and May 24, and only trails Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Solana and XRP (XRP) in terms of net assets.
Building a permanent US strategic Bitcoin reserve would likely require targeted legislation rather than executive action, according to VanEck’s head of digital assets, Matthew Sigel. Speaking at Bitcoin 2025 in Las Vegas, Sigel said the most viable path forward may involve inserting Bitcoin mining incentives into the congressional budget reconciliation process.
According to Sigel, the most effective path to growing a US strategic Bitcoin reserve would be through targeted amendments to congressional budget legislation. These could include tax credits for mining companies that use methane gas and other incentives aimed at encouraging miners to share a portion of their mined BTC with the federal government.
He argued that such an approach would allow the reserve to grow organically over time. Sigel also highlighted the limitations of executive actions in achieving this goal:
“The problem with executive action is that it’s going to prompt lawsuits. And anything over $100 million is going to get sued by the Elizabeth Warrens of the world. So, I would say start with something maybe in the Exchange Stabilization Fund for $100 million.”
US President Donald Trump established the US Bitcoin Strategic Reserve through a March 7 executive order. According to the order, the US government can only acquire Bitcoin through budget-neutral strategies or asset forfeiture, prompting a range of different ideas on how to add to the government’s stockpile of nearly 200,000 BTC.
From left to right, Alex Thorn, Matthew Sigel, Matthew Pines and Fred Thiel. Source: Turner Wright/Cointelegraph
Converting gold to Bitcoin would allow the US government to purchase more Bitcoin without incurring a cost to the taxpayer, Lummis said.
Bo Hines, the executive director of the President’s Council of Advisers on Digital Assets, echoed the idea in March 2025.
Hines called on the US Treasury to revalue its gold holdings, which are currently priced at just $42.22 per troy ounce, and convert a portion of those gains to Bitcoin. This strategy would also be budget-neutral, Hines said.
The price of gold reached an all-time high of $3,500 per ounce in April but experienced a minor pullback to around $3,300 on May 27.
US President Donald Trump supports the BITCOIN Act and has a team of experts in the White House working to roll out landmark digital asset legislation in the coming weeks, according to Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis.
Speaking at the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, Lummis said she is bringing the BITCOIN ACT to the “attention of the American people and the world,” adding that, “President Trump supports the bill.”
In March, Lummis reintroduced the BITCOIN Act — landmark legislation that directs the US government to acquire 1 million Bitcoin (BTC) over five years. The acquisitions would be financed using existing funds within the Federal Reserve System and the Treasury Department.
As Cointelegraph reported, the Trump administration has reiterated the need to use “budget-neutral ways” to acquire Bitcoin without burdening taxpayers.
At the Bitcoin Conference, Lummis said the Trump administration has a team working on “digital asset issues,” including legislation on stablecoins, market structure and the Bitcoin Strategic Reserve.
“They will probably roll out in that order,” she said.
“The Senate Banking Committee has passed the stablecoin bill out of committee,” said Lummis, adding:
“We’re getting close to being ready to have it on the floor. We’ve worked for untold hours with the minority party to satisfy them, and we should be voting on it the week before we get back from this break.”
GENIUS Act on stablecoins is “going to pass,” says White House crypto czar
The White House seems to be in alignment with Senator Lummis.
Last week, Trump’s top crypto adviser, David Sacks, said the GENIUS stablecoin bill is “going to pass” the Senate with bipartisan support after clearing a key procedural vote on May 19.
On May 19, the Senate voted 66 to 32 to advance debate on the GENIUS Bill. Source: US Senate
Stablecoins have become one of the most prominent use cases for blockchain technology, with some industry advocates arguing that they could help extend the US dollar’s dominance as the global reserve currency.
Collateralized, dollar-backed stablecoins like Tether’s USDt (USDT) and Circle’s USDC (USDC) account for more than 85% of the $250 billion market, according to CoinMarketCap.