He might not say it publicly, but Sir Keir Starmer thinks power is coming his way
It was a speech Sir Keir Starmer said he’d waited four years to give. And after the glitter was dusted off, there is no doubt the Labour leader was still basking in the afterglow the morning after what one colleague described as the “speech of his life”.
I’ve interviewed the Labour leader a number of times, at low and high points of his leadership, and the Keir Starmer on show this week was more assured and confident than I had seen before.
He might not say it publicly, but this is a man who thinks power is coming his way. And that’s because, coming out of this conference, Sir Keir believes Labour has “earned the right to” a hearing from the country.
“I knew what I needed to do, I’ve been wanting to give this speech for four years… I knew this conference was going to be about national renewal, I knew this years ago, we got the opportunity to do it, and there was a buzz in the room.”
It might seem curious to you that the Labour leader needs to even care that much when his party is 18 points ahead in the polls, according to our Sky News poll tracker. But hoping that the Tories lose the next election because voters are still fed up with them is risky. What if Rishi Sunak gets it together before polling day?
Sir Keir doesn’t just want the Tories to lose, he wants Labour to win.
PM won’t call election ‘because he thinks he’ll lose’, says Starmer
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‘PM thinks he’ll lose election’
Yes, his speech was light on policy, although in our interview on Wednesday, he did go further on NHS waiting lists than before as he committed to whittling them back by five million by the end of his first term should Labour win a general election (Gordon Brown got waiting lists to 2.3 million in the last year of the last Labour government and Sir Keir vowed to do the same should he take the keys to Number 10).
More pledges and policies will be rolled out in the coming months. For Sir Keir the prize here in Liverpool for Labour was to start a national conversation and be heard – and in that, he and his team believe they have succeeded in that.
And the reason it really matters to Labour is voter volatility. While the vast majority of voters want change, a huge chunk of them are still not convinced the change is Labour.
To even begin to convince them it is, Sir Keir first has to get their attention. And even after that, the challenge remains huge. Sir Keir requires an even bigger swing than the record 10.2 per cent Sir Tony Blair achieved in 1997 to win a majority. He needs to gain over 120 seats to win outright.
Ask any shadow cabinet member if Labour is going to win the general election, and they know the drill: we are confident but not complacent, we won’t take the voters for granted.
For it could be a bumpy ride. The Conservative Party will come at Sir Keir on policy issues – be that on his green energy plans and immigration – and his character.
The most tense moments in our interview were undoubtedly when I pressed him on whether he regretted backing Jeremy Corbyn to be prime minister, given the former Labour leader had described Hamas as “friends”.
These will be exactly the questions political opponents will pose running into a general election as they look to put doubts about the Labour leader in voters’ minds.
Labour sources tell me Sir Keir’s speech has had “unusual levels of cut through”, helped by the glitter bombing and his reaction to it – which I’m told focus groups say showed he had “character” and was a leader who was “composed and calm”.
“The backdrop to all of this is a lack of trust in all politicians,” explained one Labour figure. “Delivery is hard in opposition but they are aware of how much Keir has changed the party in a short space of time and that gives an increasingly strong reason to believe.”
Glitter gone, a leader taking nothing for granted. But his response to Rishi Sunak’s assertion to me last week that a general election is “not what the country wants” says it all.
“He’s completely wrong about that,” Sir Keir told me: “What he really meant was he’s not happy to go to the electorate because he thinks he’ll lose.” Which presumably means Sir Keir thinks he’ll win.
European Union regulators are reportedly mulling a $1 billion fine against Elon Musk’s X, taking into account revenue from his other ventures, including Tesla and SpaceX, according to The New York Times.
EU regulators allege that X has violated the Digital Services Act and will use a section of the act to calculate a fine based on revenue that includes other companies Musk controls, according to an April 3 report by the newspaper, which cited four people with knowledge of the plan.
Under the Digital Services Act, which came into law in October 2022 to police social media companies and “prevent illegal and harmful activities online,” companies can be fined up to 6% of global revenue for violations.
A spokesman for the European Commission, the bloc’s executive branch, declined to comment on this case to The New York Times but did say it would “continue to enforce our laws fairly and without discrimination toward all companies operating in the EU.”
In a statement, X’s Global Government Affairs team said that if the reports about the EU’s plans are accurate, it “represents an unprecedented act of political censorship and an attack on free speech.”
“X has gone above and beyond to comply with the EU’s Digital Services Act, and we will use every option at our disposal to defend our business, keep our users safe, and protect freedom of speech in Europe,” X’s global government affairs team said.
Source: Global Government Affairs
Along with the fine, the EU regulators could reportedly demand product changes at X, with the full scope of any penalties to be announced in the coming months.
Still, a settlement could be reached if the social media platform agrees to changes that satisfy regulators, according to the Times.
One of the officials who spoke to the Times also said that X is facing a second investigation alleging the platform’s approach to policing user-generated content has made it a hub of illegal hate speech and disinformation, which could result in more penalties.
X EU investigation ongoing since 2023
The EU investigation began in 2023. A preliminary ruling in July 2024 found X had violated the Digital Services Act by refusing to provide data to outside researchers, provide adequate transparency about advertisers, or verify the authenticity of users who have a verified account.
Related: Musk says he found ‘magic money computers’ printing money ‘out of thin air’
X responded to the ruling with hundreds of points of dispute, and Musk said at the time he was offered a deal, alleging that EU regulators told him if he secretly suppressed certain content, X would escape fines.
Thierry Breton, the former EU commissioner for internal market, said in a July 12 X post in 2024 that there was no secret deal and that X’s team had asked for the “Commission to explain the process for settlement and to clarify our concerns,” and its response was in line with “established regulatory procedures.”
Musk replied he was looking “forward to a very public battle in court so that the people of Europe can know the truth.”
Source: Thierry Breton
Magazine: XRP win leaves Ripple a ‘bad actor’ with no crypto legal precedent set
US crypto exchange Coinbase has filed with the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to launch futures contracts for Ripple’s XRP token.
“We’re excited to announce that Coinbase Derivatives has filed with the CFTC to self-certify XRP futures — bringing a regulated, capital-efficient way to gain exposure to one of the most liquid digital assets,” stated Coinbase Institutional on April 3.
The firm added that it anticipates the contract going live on April 21.
According to the certification filing, the XRP (XRP) futures contract will be a monthly cash-settled and margined contract trading under the symbol XRL.
The contract tracks XRP’s price and is settled in US dollars. Each contract represents 10,000 XRP, currently worth about $20,000 at $2 per token.
Contracts can be traded for the current month and two months ahead, and trading will be paused as a safety measure if spot XRP prices move more than 10% in an hour.
“The exchange has spoken with FCMs (Futures Commission Merchants) and market participants who support the decision to launch a XRP contract,” the firm stated.
Coinbase is not the first to launch XRP futures in the United States. In March, Chicago-based crypto exchange Bitnomial announced the launch of the “first-ever CFTC-regulated XRP futures in the US.”
XRP futures trading is available on many of the world’s leading centralized crypto exchanges, such as Binance, OKX, Bybit and BitMEX.
Funding rates remain negative
In late March, Cointelegraph reported that XRP derivatives’ funding rates had flipped negative as investor sentiment turned bearish.
Related: XRP funding rate flips negative — Will smart traders flip long or short?
Funding rates are periodic payments between traders in perpetual futures markets that help keep the futures price aligned with the spot price. Positive funding rates mean that long traders (buyers) pay short traders, while negative funding rates mean short traders (sellers) pay long traders.
When funding rates go negative, it means short traders are willing to pay a premium to maintain their positions, indicating strong conviction from bearish derivatives traders.
XRP funding rates remained negative on major derivatives exchanges as of April 4, according to CoinGlass.
XRP OI-weighted funding rates. Source: CoinGlass
Magazine: XRP win leaves Ripple a ‘bad actor’ with no crypto legal precedent set
Former Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao will begin advising the Kyrgyz Republic on blockchain and crypto-related regulation and tech after signing a memorandum of understanding with the country’s foreign investment agency.
“I officially and unofficially advise a few governments on their crypto regulatory frameworks and blockchain solutions for gov efficiency, expanding blockchain to more than trading,” the crypto entrepreneur said in an April 3 X post, adding that he finds this work “extremely meaningful.”
His comments came in response to an earlier X post from Kyrgyzstan President Sadyr Zhaparov announcing that Kyrgyzstan’s National Investment Agency (NIA) had signed a memorandum with CZ to provide technical expertise and consulting services for the Central Asian country.
The NIA is responsible for promoting foreign investments and assisting international companies in identifying business opportunities within the country.
Source: Changpeng Zhao
“This cooperation marks an important step towards strengthening technological infrastructure, implementing innovative solutions, and preparing highly qualified specialists in blockchain technologies, virtual asset management, and cybersecurity,” Zhaparov said.
The Kyrgyzstan president added: “such initiatives are crucial for the sustainable growth of the economy and the security of virtual assets, ultimately generating new opportunities for businesses and society as a whole.”
Kyrgyzstan, which officially changed its name from the Republic of Kyrgyzstan to the Kyrgyz Republic in 1993, is a mountainous, land-locked country.
It is considered well-suited for crypto mining operations due to its abundant renewable energy resources, much of which is underutilized.
Over 30% of Kyrgyzstan’s total energy supply comes from hydroelectric power plants, but only 10% of the country’s potential hydropower has been developed, according to a report by the International Energy Agency.
CZ has met with several other state officials in Asia
Malaysia also recently tapped CZ for guidance on crypto-related matters, with Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim meeting him personally in January.
CZ has also met with officials in the UAE and Bitcoin-stacking country Bhutan — however, it isn’t clear what those meetings entailed.
Related: Is Bitcoin’s future in circular economies or national reserves?
CZ’s latest pursuits come a little over six months after he was released from a four-month prison sentence in the US for violating several anti-money laundering laws.
Since being released, CZ has made investments in blockchain tech, artificial intelligence and biotechnology companies.
CZ also recently donated 1,000 BNB (BNB) — worth almost $600,000 — to support earthquake relief efforts in Thailand and Myanmar after the natural disaster in late April.
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