Sunak is ‘sad’ parents are forced to water down baby formula due to costs
The prime minister has said it is “sad” that parents are watering down baby formula because they cannot afford to feed their children.
Sky News reported last year on measures parents have turned to after inflation spiked the cost of the powdered milk product.
This included watering down and even stealing products in order to make ends meet amid the cost of living crisis.
Follow live: Sunak responds to criticism of ‘depraved bet’
Asked about the situation parents have found themselves in, Rishi Sunak told the BBC: “My job is to make sure everyone has the financial security that they want for them and their families.
“And of course, I’m sad to hear that someone’s in that situation.”
He added: “Of course it’s sad if someone’s got a little one in their lives and they’re having to do that. That’s an incredibly sad thing.
“But my job is to make sure that we can ease those pressures, and actually, if you look at what was causing those pressures, it was inflation: inflation being at 11%, prices going up by that much every year, it was a real struggle for people.
“That’s why it was important that we prioritised bringing inflation down. It is now coming down. That is real, that will have an impact on people because it will start to ease some of those pressures.”
Sunak has said it is ‘sad’ parents had to dilute the sustenance. Pic: Reuters
Inflation was still at 4% at the end of 2023, meaning prices were still rising above the Bank of England’s 2% target.
In order to reduce price growth, the Bank – which is independent of the government – has raised interest rates, putting up the cost of borrowing for consumers on loans and mortgages – also leading to increased rents.
At the time of Sky’s reporting in summer 2023, the price of the cheapest brand of baby formula had increased by 45% in the previous two years.
Read more:
Baby formula prices a ‘catastrophe’- MP
Mum feels ‘attacked’ over ‘jaw-dropping’ prices
Other brands have risen between 17% and 31% in that time period.
Regulations state that all baby formulas must meet the same standards – so the cheapest brand will provide all the same necessary nutrition as the most expensive.
As well as watering down their products, Sky News also spoke to parents who had stolen formula, bought it on the black market or substituted it with condensed milk.
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‘Are families being exploited? Yes’
World Health Organisation technical officer Laurence Grummer-Strawn previously told Sky News that companies were “exploiting” people in a “very vulnerable situation” in order to “increase the profits of these companies, and they have huge profit margins”.
He called for the government to intervene “either on the price end or in ways to help those families directly”.
“Lowering the prices can help these families, but it needs to be in a sustainable way,” he added.
Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, is considering a strategic reshuffling to strengthen its presence in the US market, a move that could see Binance co-founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao’s majority stake in the company reduced.
Zhao’s controlling stake in Binance has been a “major hurdle” to the company expanding to strategically critical US states, according to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter. Although no concrete plans have been announced, the conversation surrounding any potential action remains reportedly “fluid.”
The company is also considering partnerships with US-based companies, including asset manager BlackRock and decentralized finance (DeFi) platform World Liberty Financial (WLFI), which is linked to US President Donald Trump, to strengthen its footprint in the country.
Rumors of Binance’s return to the US began to circulate in October after Trump pardoned Zhao, fueled by speculation from crypto industry executives and comments that Zhao made on social media.
“Will do everything we can to help make America the capital of crypto and advance Web3 worldwide,” Zhao said in October after the pardon.
In June 2019, Binance announced that it would stop serving US customers, and a separate company, called Binance.US and operated by BAM Trading Services, was formed to provide regulatory-compliant services to US users.
In 2023, the US Securities and Exchange Commission alleged that Binance Holdings Ltd. operated both Binance.com and BAM Trading Services.
Binance.US does not feature crypto derivatives or access to the global Binance exchange’s liquidity and operates as a completely separate crypto exchange.
Cointelegraph reached out to Binance and Binance.US but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
The US is considered a key market for crypto exchanges and is ranked as the number two for global crypto adoption, according to Chainalysis’ 2025 Global Crypto Adoption Index. Expanding to the US would open up US liquidity to the world’s largest crypto exchange.
Related: Binance names co-founder Yi He co-CEO alongside Richard Teng
Several US lawmakers voice opposition to the CZ pardon and the crypto industry
Trump’s pardon of Zhao in October drew backlash from several Democratic Party lawmakers in the US, including Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and California Congresswoman Maxine Waters.
Waters said the pardon was a form of pay-to-play and accused Trump of doing political favors for the crypto industry that “helped line his pockets.”
Warren, who is one of the most vocal critics of the crypto industry, also criticized the pardon, characterizing it as “corruption.”
The comments reflect pockets of resistance among some Democratic lawmakers to the crypto industry’s continued expansion in the US and could signal potential opposition to Binance returning to the US.
Magazine: Unstablecoins: Depegging, bank runs and other risks loom
KuCoin announced an exclusive multiyear deal with Tomorrowland Winter and Tomorrowland Belgium from 2026 to 2028, making the exchange the music festival’s exclusive crypto and payments partner.
The move comes just weeks after KuCoin secured a Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) service provider license in the European Union.
KuCoin’s MiCA play goes mass‑market
KuCoin EU Exchange recently obtained a crypto asset service provider license in Austria under the EU’s MiCA regime, giving it a fully regulated foothold in the bloc as Brussels’ new rulebook for exchanges, custody and stablecoins comes into force.
The Tomorrowland deal signals how KuCoin plans to use that status, not just to run a compliant trading venue, but to plug crypto rails directly into mainstream culture.
KuCoin said the Tomorrowland deal will cover Tomorrowland Winter 2026 in Alpe d’Huez, France, and Tomorrowland Belgium 2026 in Boom, Belgium, with the same arrangement continuing through 2028.
Related: Burning Man-inspired festival in Bali goes full Web3: Here’s how
From sponsorship to payment rails
KuCoin insists this is not just a logo play. A spokesperson at KuCoin told Cointelegraph that as an exclusive payments partner, the exchange is working with Tomorrowland to weave crypto into the festival’s existing payments stack so that “financial tools” sit behind the scenes of ticketing, merch and food and drink.
The stated goal is to keep the rails “intuitive and invisible,” rather than forcing festivalgoers through clunky wallets or unfamiliar flows, with KuCoin positioning itself as facilitating the secure and efficient movement of value while fans focus on the music.
The company declined to spell out exactly which assets and rails will be supported on‑site, or whether every purchase will run natively onchain, but said that KuCoin’s “Trust First. Trade Next.” mantra runs through its messaging.
The spokesperson stressed advanced security, multi‑layer protection and adherence to EU standards as the foundation for taking crypto beyond the trading screen and into live events.
Related: What is Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA)?
Learning from FTX’s Tomorrowland flop
Tomorrowland’s organizers have been here before. In 2022, the festival announced a Web3 partnership with FTX Europe that promised NFTs and “the future of music festivals” before collapsing along with the exchange itself months later.
That experience makes the choice of a MiCA‑licensed partner, and the emphasis on user protection, more than cosmetic; it is a second attempt at bridging culture and crypto (this time with regulatory scaffolding and clearer guardrails).
Rather than setting public hard targets for user numbers or payment volumes by 2028, KuCoin is pitching success as “seamless integration” of crypto into the festival experience:
“We aim to demonstrate that digital assets can be a core component of global digital finance, moving from a niche technology to a mainstream utility. “
Related: Spain’s regulator sets out MiCA transition rules for crypto platforms
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