Rishi Sunak ‘incredibly excited’ about daughters taking part in national service
Rishi Sunak said he was “incredibly excited” for his daughters to do national service while undergoing questioning in Sky News’ Battle for Number 10.
The prime minister was asked by a student from Grimsby, where the event was being held, why a young person would believe the Conservative Party had their best interests at heart in light of the policy announcement.
Mr Sunak replied: “I have two young girls. I’m incredibly excited for them to do it because I think it’ll be transformative for our country.
“It will provide skills and opportunities for young people that will set them up for the rest of their lives, foster a culture of service in our society, bring people closer together and contribute to our long-term resilience and security.”
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The national service announcement was one of a number of policies that was put under the microscope during Mr Sunak’s grilling by Beth Rigby in Grimsby.
A snap poll taken after the event revealed that almost two-thirds of voters believed Sir Keir Starmer performed better than Mr Sunak.
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The YouGov poll for Sky News found 64% of those questioned said the Labour leader came out on top, compared with 36% for the prime minister.
During the grilling by Sky’s political editor, the prime minister was also challenged about his record on NHS waiting lists, immigration and the tax burden.
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Sunak: Immigration ‘too high’
He was told net migration over the last three years is more than double compared to the three-year period before the 2016 EU referendum.
Asked how he thought voters in Grimsby – who overwhelmingly voted for Brexit – would feel about such figures, he said: “It’s too high. I have been very clear that it’s too high and I’m sure people feel frustrated and angry about it.”
He added: “Since I have been in charge, numbers down 10% and visas issued this year down by a quarter. I’ve had this job for 18 months, numbers were down last year, they’re down considerably at the start of this year and they will keep coming down because of the measures I’ve already announced.”
‘Actions taken by this government actually make me feel ashamed’
The prime minister also faced tough moments with the audience when quizzed about his record and recent behaviour.
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PM ‘deeply sad’ over D-Day ‘mistake’
Amy, a voter from Leeds, said that although she had been a “lifelong true blue” she now considered herself an “undecided voter”, explaining: “Actions taken by this government actually make me feel ashamed.”
She cited Mr Sunak’s early departure from D-Day commemorations and pandemic rule-breaking in Downing Street when he was chancellor.
Mr Sunak repeated his apology over his D-Day departure and said of COVID rule-breaking: “Those rules were difficult for everyone to follow and the government should absolutely have gone above and beyond in following them.
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“I deeply regret what happened, I apologised for it at the time and it was an extraordinarily difficult time for our country.
“I know that and I know people will remember that and all I can say is, look, trust takes time to rebuild through actions.”
Mr Sunak’s announcement that he would introduce a new form of mandatory national service if re-elected on 4 July provided the main talking point at the beginning of the election campaign.
Under the plan, 18-year-olds would be given the choice of a full-time military placement for 12 months or a scheme to volunteer for one weekend a month for a year.
Labour immediately dismissed the idea as “desperate” and said it amounted to a “teenage Dad’s Army”.
Mexico’s central bank warned in a new financial stability report that “stablecoins pose significant potential risks to financial stability,” citing their rapid growth, links to traditional finance and global regulatory gaps that could fuel arbitrage and magnify market stress.
Stablecoins’ heavy reliance on short-term US Treasurys, market concentration with two issuers controlling 86% of the supply and past depegging episodes with stablecoins underscore how vulnerable the sector remains to stress, according to the Banxico report.
Without coordinated international safeguards, mass redemptions or issuer failures could spill into broader funding markets, the central bank warned.
Banxico also highlighted diverging regulatory approaches as a growing source of risk, noting that frameworks like the EU’s MiCA and the US GENIUS Act impose different reserve, redemption and depositor-protection requirements, creating regulatory gaps that could incentivize arbitrage across jurisdictions.
Banxico acknowledged that stablecoins can improve settlement efficiency, reduce transfer costs and support remittances and liquidity in decentralized finance. However, it plans to keep a cautious distance between the traditional financial system and virtual assets, citing their potential to cause stress in broader markets.
Crypto adoption in Mexico is relatively low. According to Chainalysis’ Global Crypto Adoption Index, the country fell to 23rd place in 2025 from 14th place in 2024 in the adoption ranking.
The central bank’s warning reflects Mexico’s broader cautious stance on crypto. Despite the rise of exchanges like Bitso, the country has not introduced significant new digital-asset legislation and still relies on its 2018 Fintech Law as the primary regulatory framework.
Related: As inflation bites, Latin America banks on stablecoins instead of bankers
Brazil and Argentina lead Latin America in crypto adoption
While Mexico’s central bank maintains a cautious stance on digital assets, other Latin American countries have embraced adoption.
Chainalysis’ 2025 Geography of Crypto Report shows that Latin America generated nearly $1.5 trillion in crypto transaction volume from July 2022 to June 2025, with monthly activity increasing to almost $88 billion by December 2024 from $20.8 billion in mid-2022. Several months in late 2024 and early 2025 consistently exceeded $60 billion.
According to the report, Brazil led Latin America by a wide margin, receiving $318.8 billion in crypto value from July 2022 to June 2025, nearly one-third of all activity in the region, while Argentina ranked second with $93.9 billion in transaction volume.
The central banks of the two leading countries are also taking a more proactive stance in regulating digital assets.
In November, Brazil’s central bank finalized rules that place crypto companies under banking-style supervision, including treating stablecoin transactions and certain self-custody wallet transfers as foreign exchange operations.
In Argentina, a country that has suffered from soaring inflation, the central bank is reportedly weighing whether to allow traditional financial institutions to trade cryptocurrencies in a potential reversal of its 2022 ban, according to a report from La Nación on Friday.
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SEC Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw, expected to leave the agency in less than a month, used one of her final public speaking engagements to address the regulator’s response to digital assets.
Speaking at a Brookings Institution event on Thursday, Crenshaw said standards at the SEC had “eroded” in the last year, with “markets [starting] to look like casinos,” and “chaos” as the agency dismissed many years-long enforcement cases, reduced civil penalties and filed fewer actions overall.
The commissioner, expected to depart in January after her term officially ended in June 2024, also criticized many crypto users and the agency’s response to the markets.
“People invest in crypto because they see some others getting rich overnight,” said Crenshaw. “Less visible are the more common stories of people losing their shirts. One thing that consistently puzzles me about crypto is what are cryptocurrency prices based on? Many, but not all, crypto purchasers are not trading based on economic fundamentals.”
She added:
“I think it’s safe to say [crypto purchasers are] speculating, reacting to hysteria from promoters, feeding a desire to gamble, wash trading to push up prices, or, as one Nobel laureate has posited, ‘betting on the popularity of the politicians who support or stand to benefit from the success of crypto.’”
In contrast to Crenshaw’s remarks, SEC Chair Paul Atkins, Commissioner Hester Peirce and Commissioner Mark Uyeda have all publicly expressed their support for the agency’s approach to digital assets and the Trump administration’s direction of policy.
Peirce and Atkins spoke at a Blockchain Association Policy Summit this week to discuss crypto regulation and a path forward on market structure under consideration in the Senate.
Related: Crypto industry fears ‘vehemently anti crypto’ Caroline Crenshaw SEC vote
During the Thursday event’s question-and-answer session, Crenshaw expanded on her views of crypto, stating that it was a “tiny piece of the market,” and suggested that the SEC focus on other regulatory concerns. In addition, she expressed concern that the agency was heading toward giving crypto companies an exception from policies that applied to traditional finance.
“I do worry that as the crypto rules are perhaps implemented, or perhaps we just put out more guidance […] where we say they are not securities, where we loosen the basic fundamentals of the securities laws so that they can operate in our system, but without any of the guardrails that we have in place. I do worry that that can lead to more significant market contagion,” said Crenshaw.
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The departure of Crenshaw would leave the SEC with three Republican commissioners, two of whom were nominated by US President Donald Trump. As of Thursday, Trump had not made any announcements signaling that he ever planned to nominate another Democrat to the SEC, and Crenshaw said the agency’s staff had been reduced by about 20% in the last year.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission also faces a dearth of leadership, with many commissioners leaving the agency in 2025. As of December, acting Chair Caroline Pham was the sole remaining CFTC commissioner and a Republican. However, the US Senate is soon expected to vote on Trump’s nominee, Michael Selig, to chair the agency after Pham.
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