New year, new Starmer? Why PM decided to finally take on Musk’s ‘dangerous’ disinformation

Published

4 months ago

January 6, 2025

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For days, the attacks had been raining down from Elon Musk and his supporters on Keir Starmer, safeguarding minister Jess Phillips and the wider government, over handling of the historical sex abuse cases.

The consensus in Number 10, as voiced by another leader subject to Mr Musk’s ire – German Chancellor Olaf Scholz – was do “not feed the troll”.

And so, as Mr Musk posted dozens of times about sex grooming gangs in the north of England, and accused Ms Phillips of being a “rape genocide apologist” and a “wicked witch”, the government kept out of the fray.

But that all changed on Monday when the PM came out swinging, with the most impassioned remarks I can remember him making, when I asked him to comment on Mr Musk’s abuse of Ms Phillips on social media.

He said the debate on child sex exploitation was based on lies, with politicians “jumping on the bandwagon simply to get attention”, as he hit back at not just at Mr Musk but the leader of the Opposition Kemi Badenoch too.

“We have seen this playbook many times – whipping up of intimidation and of threats of violence, hoping that the media will amplify it,” he told me on a visit to Epsom Hospital.

“When the poison of the far right leads to serious threats to Jess Phillips and others, then in my book a line has been crossed.

“I enjoy the cut and thrust of politics, the robust debate that we must have. But that’s got to be based on facts and truth, not on lies. Not on those who are so desperate for attention that they’re prepared to debase themselves and their country.”

From a lawyerly prime minister that chooses his words carefully, and is often ponderous in his approach to questions, this was quite a handbrake turn.

For months, Number 10 has brushed off repeated attacks on the PM and Labour government from Mr Musk and in many respects that made sense.

The tech billionaire is in Donald Trump’s inner circle and about to have an official role in his administration.

He perhaps worries that taking on Mr Musk will anger President Trump and make an already delicate relationship even harder to navigate on critical issues such as tariffs and support for Ukraine. So why, on Monday, did he bite back?

Firstly, I’m told the PM is angered that the abuse and disinformation online has led to threats to Ms Phillips, with one man being charged with malicious communication to the MP over the weekend.

“It crosses the line into MPs’ safety,” said one Number 10 insider.

“There will be people who say ‘don’t feed the troll’ and I think Keir Starmer is of that view and wanted to avoid getting into that side of things,” they said.

But there are times when the responsibility of a PM “is to try to shape these issues”, they added.

“His view was this is a moment where he has a responsibility to say he’s happy to have a debate and stand by his record, but there are some things we can’t accept as a country – and that is misinformation and disinformation around individuals.”

Starmer is frustrated about the disinformation that Mr Musk is spreading online and believes it is “dangerous” not just to individual MPs but to UK democracy.

On Monday, he criticised those who had been defending far-right agitator Tommy Robinson, who the PM said “went to prison for nearly collapsing a grooming case”.

“These are people who are trying to get some kind of vicarious thrill from street violence that people like Tommy Robinson promote.”

Starmer defended his record as chief prosecutor, as Mr Musk accused the prime minister of being “deeply complicit in the mass rapes in exchange for votes”.

Some of the online allegations levelled at Starmer seem to refer to his time at the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and the failures more than a decade earlier to bring grooming gangs to justice: In 2009 a decision was taken not to prosecute alleged perpetrators in the town of Rochdale after lawyers believed the victim would not come across as credible.

“For many, many years, too many victims have been completely let down; let down by perverse ideas about community relations or by the idea that institutions must be protected above all else. And they’ve not been listened to, and they’ve not been heard,” said Starmer on Monday.

“And when I was a chief prosecutor for five years, I tackled that head-on, because I could see what was happening, and that’s why I reopened cases that have been closed and supposedly finished. I brought the first major prosecution of an Asian grooming gang – in the particular case it was in Rochdale, but it was the first of its kind.”

He said his record was “not secret” and that he has called for “mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse” when he was at the CPS, which “the Tories did nothing about.”

Third, it is about standards in public life, with the prime minister clearly irritated with Ms Badenoch’s and others’ handling of the affair as he called out politicians for not disavowing the attacks on Ms Phillips.

“He thinks truth matters in politics and while politics is a place of skullduggery, it also needs to be a place based on fact and truth and not smears,” said one aide.

For their part, the Conservatives on Wednesday will attempt to amend the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill to require a full national inquiry into grooming gangs, with Ms Badenoch saying on X that her party’s action will “do right by the victims and end the culture of cover-ups”.

There are still questions about whether there should be a wider inquiry into historical sex abuse and the “endemic” abuse Professor Alexis Jay referred to in her 2022 inquiry.

Calling for it on the back of the Musk interventions in recent days has been the first big intervention by Ms Badenoch two months into her leadership.

The PM on Monday defended his decision not to have another review, saying that the Jay Report published in 2022 was a “comprehensive review” of child exploitation which “doesn’t need more consultation or research. It just needs action”.

The home secretary took such action today by announcing in the Commons that she would strengthen the laws around child sexual exploitation through the implementation of Professor Jay’s recommendations.

But the actions are unlikely to end this row, with Ms Badenoch demanding a national inquiry over this issue as she seizes on grooming gangs and historical abuse as a dividing line with Labour on which she believes she can take on Starmer and go toe to toe with Reform.

It was not the start to the new year that the prime minister intended.

But it is true, too, that Number 10 decided that, after ducking the Musk attacks for months, this was a ground he would not cede, with the PM making a deliberate choice to kick off the new year facing down these attacks.

And it was perhaps the most authentic I have seen him for months as he answered criticisms of his past record as a prosecutor and denounced the vicious treatment of his own MP.

An embattled prime minister since entering Number 10, he’s come out in 2025 fighting.

Politics

Solana’s Loopscale pauses lending after $5.8M hack

Published

5 hours ago

April 26, 2025

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<div>Solana's Loopscale pauses lending after .8M hack</div>

Solana decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Loopscale has temporarily halted its lending markets after suffering an approximately $5.8 million exploit.

On April 26, a hacker siphoned approximately 5.7 million USDC (USDC) and 1200 Solana (SOL) from the lending protocol after taking out a “series of undercollateralized loans”, Loopscale co-founder Mary Gooneratne said in an X post.

The exploit only impacted Loopscale’s USDC and SOL vaults and the losses represent around 12% of Loopscale’s total value locked (TVL), Gooneratne added.

Loopscale is “working to resume repayment functionality as soon as possible to mitigate unforeseen liquidations,” its said in an X post.

“Our team is fully mobilized to investigate, recover funds, and ensure users are protected,” Gooneratne said.

Solana's Loopscale pauses lending after $5.8M hack — *Loopscale’s ‘Genesis’ lending vaults. Source: Loopscale*

In the first quarter of 2025, hackers stole more than $1.6 billion worth of crypto from exchanges and on-chain smart contracts, blockchain security firm PeckShield said in an April report.

More than 90% of those losses are attributable to a $1.5 billion attack on ByBit, a centralized cryptocurrency exchange, by North Korean hacking outfit Lazarus Group.

Unique DeFi lending model

Launched on April 10 after a six-month closed beta, Loopscale is a DeFi lending protocol designed to enhance capital efficiency by directly matching lenders and borrowers.

It also supports specialized lending markets, such as “structured credit, receivables financing, and undercollateralized lending,” Loopscale said in an April announcement shared with Cointelegraph.

Loopscale’s order book model distinguishes it from DeFi lending peers such as Aave that aggregate cryptocurrency deposits into liquidity pools.

Loopscale’s main USDC and SOL vaults yield APRs exceeding 5% and 10%, respectively. It also supports lending markets for tokens such as JitoSOL and BONK (BONK) and looping strategies for upwards of 40 different token pairs.

The DeFi protocol has approximately $40 million in TVL and has attracted upwards of 7,000 lenders, according to researcher OurNetwork.

Magazine: Ripple says SEC lawsuit ‘over,’ Trump at DAS, and more: Hodler’s Digest, March 16 – 22

Politics

US Senator calls for Trump impeachment, cites memecoin dinner

Published

8 hours ago

April 26, 2025

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US Senator calls for Trump impeachment, cites memecoin dinner

United States Senator Jon Ossoff expressed support for impeaching President Donald Trump during an April 25 town hall, citing the President’s plan to host a private dinner for top Official Trump memecoin holders.

“I mean, I saw just 48 hours ago, he is granting audiences to people who buy his meme coin,” said Ossoff, a Democrat, according to a report by NBC News.

“When the sitting president of the United States is selling access for what are effectively payments directly to him. There is no question that that rises to the level of an impeachable offense.”

Senator Ossoff said he “strongly” supports impeachment proceedings during a town hall in the state of Georgia, where he is running for reelection to the Senate.

The Senator added that an impeachment is unlikely unless the Democratic Party gains control of Congress during the US midterm elections in 2026. Trump’s own Republican Party currently has a majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Conflicts of interest

On April 23, the Official Trump (TRUMP) memecoin’s website announced plans for Trump to host an exclusive dinner at his Washington, DC golf club with the top 220 TRUMP holders.

The website subsequently posted a leaderboard tracking top TRUMP wallets and a link to register for the event. The TRUMP token’s price has gained more than 50% since the announcement, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

The specific guest list is unclear, but the memecoin’s website states that applicants must pass a background check, “can not be from a [Know Your Customer] watchlist country,” and cannot bring any additional guests.

On April 25, the team behind TRUMP denied social media rumors that TRUMP holders need at least $300,000 to participate in an upcoming dinner with the president.

“People have been incorrectly quoting #220 on the block explorer as the cutoff. That’s wrong because it includes things like locked tokens, exchanges, market makers, and those who are not participating. Instead, you should only be going off the leaderboard,” they wrote.

Law, Politics, Senate, Donald Trump, trumpcoin, Memecoin — *The TRUMP token jumped on news of the private dinner plans. Source:* *CoinMarketCap*

Legal experts told Cointelegraph that Trump’s cryptocurrency ventures, including the TRUMP memecoin and Trump-affiliated decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol World Liberty Financial, raise significant concerns about potential conflicts of interest.

“Within just a couple of days of him taking office, he’s signed a number of executive orders that are significantly going to affect the way that our crypto and digital assets industry works,” Charlyn Ho of law firm Rikka told Cointelegraph in February.

“So if he has a personal pecuniary benefit arising from his own policies, that’s a conflict of interest.”

Magazine: Trump’s crypto ventures raise conflict of interest, insider trading questions

Politics

Crypto sentiment recovers, but weekend liquidity risks remain

Published

11 hours ago

April 26, 2025

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Crypto sentiment recovers, but weekend liquidity risks remain

Crypto investor sentiment has seen a significant recovery from global tariff concerns, but analysts warn that the market’s structural weaknesses may still result in downside momentum during periods of weekend illiquidity.

Risk appetite appeared to return among crypto investors this week after US President Donald Trump adopted a softer tone, saying that import tariffs on Chinese goods may “come down substantially.”

However, the improved investor sentiment “does not guarantee that Bitcoin will avoid volatility over the weekend,” analysts from Bitfinex exchange told Cointelegraph:

“Sentiment improvements reduce fragility, but they do not eliminate structural risks like thin weekend liquidity.”

“Historically, weekends remain vulnerable to sharp moves — especially when open interest is high and market depth is low,” the analysts said, adding that unexpected macroeconomic news can still increase volatility during low liquidity periods.

Bitcoin (BTC) staged a near 11% recovery during the past week, but its rally has previously been limited by Sunday liquidity dynamics.

Bitcoin fell below $75,000 on Sunday, April 6, despite initially decoupling from the US stock market’s $3.5 trillion drop on April 4 after US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warned that Trump’s tariffs may affect the economy and raise inflation.

The correction was exacerbated by the lack of weekend liquidity and the fact that Bitcoin was the only large liquid asset available for de-risking, industry watchers told Cointelegraph.

“While improved sentiment creates a more stable foundation, cryptocurrency markets are still susceptible to rapid movements during periods of reduced trading volume,” according to Marcin Kazmierczak, co-founder and chief operating officer of RedStone blockchain oracle firm.

“The sentiment recovery provides some cushioning, but traders should remain cautious as weekend liquidity constraints can still amplify price movements regardless of the current market mood,” he told Cointelegraph.

Crypto investors may have “maxed out on tariff-related fears”

Cryptocurrency markets may have priced in the full extent of tariff-related concerns, according to Aurelie Barthere, principal research analyst at crypto intelligence platform Nansen.

“It feels like we’ve maxed out on tariff-related fear,” she told Cointelegraph, adding:

“While many remain uncertain about where things are headed over the next month or so, it also seems like markets were just waiting for the slightest signal that we’re back in the game.”

“Whether the rally is sustainable depends on whether we can break through previous resistance levels, at least in isolation. It could have legs, as markets now seem to believe there’s a ‘Trump put’ under equities, the US dollar and US Treasurys,” Barthere added, warning of more potential volatility amid the upcoming negotiations.

Nansen previously predicted a 70% chance that crypto markets will bottom and start a recovery by June, but highlighted that the timing will depend on the outcome of tariff negotiations.

The tariff negotiations may only be “posturing” for the US to reach a trade agreement with China, which may be the “big prize” for Trump’s administration, according to Raoul Pal, founder and CEO of Global Macro Investor.