Sir Keir Starmer reveals he’s been in touch with ex-England boss about issues raised in Netflix drama

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5 days ago

March 24, 2025

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Sir Keir Starmer has rejected the idea of creating a minister for men to combat some of the issues raised in the hit Netflix drama Adolescence.

Sir Keir said he was “worried” about the “crisis in masculinity” raised in the programme, which centres on a 13-year-old boy arrested for the murder of a young girl and the rise of incel culture.

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The themes touched upon in the show have led to suggestions that the government introduce a minister for men to mirror the women and equalities minister that currently exists in the cabinet.

But speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, the prime minister said he did not think appointing a new minister was “the answer” to the problems affecting young boys today, including negative and harmful social media content and a lack of visible role models.

“I am worried about this; I’ve got a 16-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl,” he said.

“There’s a reason why the debate has suddenly sparked into life on this and that’s because I think a lot of parents, a lot of people who work with young people at school or elsewhere, recognise that we may have a problem with boys and young men that we need to address.”

Sir Keir said he was more persuaded by arguments put forward by former England manger Gareth Southgate, who argued in a recent lecture that young men lacked positive role models, making them vulnerable to online influencers who promoted negative ideologies about the world and women.

“I’ve been in touch with Gareth,” the prime minister said. “I know Gareth. I thought his lecture, what he was saying, was really powerful, will have resonated with a lot of parents.

“And I do think this is something that we have to take seriously, we have to address. We can’t shrug our shoulders at it.”

Asked whether a minister for men would help, Sir Keir said: “No, I don’t think that’s the answer.

“I think it is time for listening carefully to what Gareth Southgate was saying and responding to it.

“I want to have that further discussion with him. We’ve already had a bit of a discussion about this, but I do think it’s important we pick this challenge up and see it for what it is.”

Adolescence: A hard watch – but a must-see

By Anjum Peerbacos, education reporter

As a former English teacher, I was interested to see how the show depicted schools and teachers – and their interaction with the central character.

Some elements struck me as truthful, others not so much.

“Shut up,” we hear one child yell at the teacher, Mrs Fenumore, as she’s taking the detectives to meet Jamie’s class. It made me wince, despite knowing that this does happen in schools.

In this depiction of schools, poor language was prevalent and not challenged appropriately by the adults in the situation.

As is the case in every profession, in classrooms there are good and bad teachers.

But in some cases I found the lack of knowledge and extent of ignorance from Mrs Fenumore hard to believe – and on a personal level hard to watch. How could she not know about the incel movement? It was her job to know.

For example, I remember devising lessons and assemblies specifically looking into the incel movement, which were even more pertinent when the case of murdered 33-year-old Sarah Everard was in the news.

Adolescence is a must-watch, but it is also a hard-watch for anyone that has a young person in their life.

Delivering the BBC’s annual Richard Dimbleby Lecture, Mr Southgate revealed how his experience of missing a penalty at Euro 96 “still haunts me today”.

And he warned that “callous” influencers online were tricking young men into thinking women and the world were against them, causing them to “withdraw” into the online world and express their emotions there rather than in “real-world communities.

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He said a “void” in their search for direction is often now being filled by some influencers who “willingly trick young men into believing that success is measured by money or dominance”.

In his interview with the BBC, Sir Keir suggested footballers and athletes could be role models for boys and young men but said there was also a need for inspirational people in communities.

Asked who the British male role models were, Sir Keir told BBC Radio 5 Live: “I always go to sport for this. Footballers, athletes, I think they are role models.

“But I also think if you actually ask a young person, they’re more likely to identify somebody who’s in their school, a teacher, or somebody who maybe is a sports coach, something like that.

“So we need to make sure that – this is something that dads do, dad would reach for a sort of sporting hero – I think children, young people, are more likely to reach someone closer to them, within their school, within their community.

“And that’s, I think, where we need to do some of the work.”

The UK has never had a minister for men but previous Conservative MPs, including former Doncaster MP Nick Fletcher, have called for one in the past to tackle high rates of suicide among men.

The position of minister for women was created by former Labour prime minister Tony Blair as a means of prioritising women’s issues across government.

Politics

Bitcoin adoption in EU limited by ‘fragmented’ regulations — Analysts

Published

10 hours ago

March 29, 2025

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Bitcoin adoption in EU limited by ‘fragmented’ regulations — Analysts

Institutional adoption of Bitcoin in the European Union remains sluggish, even as the United States moves forward with landmark cryptocurrency regulations that seek to establish BTC as a national reserve asset.

More than three weeks after President Donald Trump’s March 7 executive order outlined plans to use cryptocurrency seized in criminal cases to create a federal Bitcoin (BTC) reserve, European companies have largely remained silent on the issue.

The stagnation may stem from Europe’s complex regulatory regime, according to Elisenda Fabrega, general counsel at Brickken, a European real-world asset (RWA) tokenization platform.

“European corporate adoption remains limited,” Fabrega told Cointelegraph, adding:

“This hesitation reflects a deeper structural divide, rooted in regulation, institutional signaling and market maturity. Europe has yet to take a definitive stance on Bitcoin as a reserve asset.”

Bitcoin’s economic model favors early adopters, which may pressure more investment firms to consider gaining exposure to BTC. The asset has outperformed most major global assets since Trump’s election despite a recent correction.

Despite Trump’s executive order, only a small number of European companies have publicly disclosed Bitcoin holdings or crypto services. These include French banking giant BNP Paribas, Swiss firm 21Shares AG, VanEck Europe, Malta-based Jacobi Asset Management and Austrian fintech firm Bitpanda.

A recent Bitpanda survey suggests that European financial institutions may be underestimating crypto investor demand by as much as 30%.

Europe’s “fragmented” regulatory landscape lacks clarity

The EU’s slower adoption appears tied to its patchwork of regulations and more conservative investment mandates, analysts at Bitfinex told Cointelegraph. “Europe’s institutional landscape is more fragmented, with regulatory hurdles and conservative investment mandates limiting Bitcoin allocations.”

“Additionally, European pension funds and large asset managers have been slower to adopt Bitcoin exposure due to unclear guidelines and risk aversion,” they added.

Beyond the fragmented regulations, European retail investor appetite and retail participation are generally lower than in the US, according to Iliya Kalchev, dispatch analyst at digital asset investment platform Nexo.

Europe is “generally more conservative in adopting new financial instruments,” the analyst told Cointelegraph, adding:

“This stands in stark contrast to the deep, liquid, and relatively unified US capital market, where the spot Bitcoin ETF rollout was buoyed by strong retail demand and a clear regulatory green light.”

BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, launched a Bitcoin exchange-traded product (ETP) in Europe on March 25, a development that may boost institutional confidence among European investors.

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Politics

NAYG lawsuit against Galaxy was ‘lawfare, pure and simple’ — Scaramucci

Published

15 hours ago

March 29, 2025

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<div>NAYG lawsuit against Galaxy was ‘lawfare, pure and simple' — Scaramucci</div>

The New York State Attorney General’s (NAYG) recent legal action against Galaxy Digital over its promotional ties to the now-collapsed cryptocurrency Terra (LUNA) was unfair and an abuse of the legal system, says SkyBridge Capital and founder Anthony Scaramucci.

“It’s LAWFARE, pure and simple due to an obscure but dangerously powerful New York law known as the Martin Act,” Scaramucci said in a March 28 X post.

Martin Law can “open the door for abuse”

“The law has no need to prove intent, creating a low standard of proof that can open the door for abuse like this. It shouldn’t exist,” he said.

New York’s Martin Act is one of the US’s strictest anti-fraud and securities laws, allowing prosecutors the power to pursue financial fraud cases without needing to prove intent. The NAYG alleged that Galaxy Digital violated the Martin Act over its alleged promotion of Terra, with Galaxy Digital agreeing to a $200 million settlement.

According to NAYG documents filed on March 24, Galaxy Digital acquired 18.5 million LUNA tokens at a 30% discount in October 2020, then promoted them before selling them without abiding by disclosure rules.

Scaramucci reiterated that Galaxy CEO Michael Novogratz was under the impression everything he was saying about Luna was true, as he had been deceived by Terraform Labs and its former CEO, Do Kwon.

Law, New York, United States, Terra — *Source:* *Amanda Fischer*

Meanwhile, MoonPay president of enterprise, Keith Grossman, said he had never heard of the Martin Act and had to look it up using AI chatbot ChatGPT.

“It is so broad and essentially is the essence of lawfare,” Grossman said. “Sorry you got caught in the crosshairs of it, Mike,” he added.

The filing alleged that Galaxy helped a “little-known” token, referring to LUNA, increase its market price from $0.31 in October 2020 to $119.18 in April 2022 while “profiting in the hundreds of millions of dollars.”

Asset manager and investor Anthony Pompliano said he isn’t familiar with the details of the lawsuit but vouched for Novogratz, calling him a “good man” who has devoted a lot of time and money to helping others.

The Terra collapse is one of the crypto industry’s most infamous failures. In March 2024, SEC attorney Devon Staren said in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York that Terra was a “house of cards” that collapsed for investors in 2022.

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Politics

Elon Musk’s sale of X to xAI just made fraud lawsuit a ‘lot spicer’

Published

23 hours ago

March 29, 2025

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Elon Musk’s sale of X to xAI just made fraud lawsuit a ‘lot spicer’

Billionaire investor Elon Musk has sold his social media platform X to his AI startup xAI, sparking controversy as it coincides with a US judge rejecting his bid to dismiss a lawsuit tied to the social media platform.

The transfer of ownership of X to xAI on March 28 means that the class-action lawsuit against Musk — accusing him of defrauding former Twitter shareholders by delaying the disclosure of his initial investment in the social media platform — has become “a whole lot spicer,” Cinneamhain Ventures partner Adam Cochran said in a March 28 X post.

Acquisition may open up xAI to more ‘exposure’

On the same day that Musk said “xAI has acquired X in an all-stock transaction,” a US judge reportedly rejected Musk’s attempt to dismiss the lawsuit. Cochran said it has “opened up his AI entity to exposure here too, and it’s a much bigger pie.”

Musk said the deal values xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion, factoring in $12 billion in debt from the $45 billion valuation. He originally bought X, formerly Twitter, for around $44 billion in April 2022.

“xAI and X’s futures are intertwined. Today, we officially take the step to combine the data, models, compute, distribution and talent,” Musk said.

“This combination will unlock immense potential by blending xAI’s advanced AI capability and expertise with X’s massive reach,” he said, adding:

“This will allow us to build a platform that doesn’t just reflect the world but actively accelerates human progress.”

However, Cochran claimed that “Musk used his pumped up xAI stock to pay multiple times over value for X, but still take an $11B loss on the transaction.” He said that Musk is “screwing over xAI investors, and X investors” and was executed to sell user data to xAI.

xAI is best known for its AI chatbot “Grok” which is built into the X platform. When Musk released it in November 2023, he claimed it could outperform OpenAI’s first iteration of ChatGPT in several academic tests.

Musk explained at the time that the motivation behind building Grok is to create AI tools equipped to assist humanity by empowering research and innovation.

While Cochran said that Grok being valued at $80 billion is an “insanely dumb valuation,” crypto developer “Keef” disagrees. Keef said, “This is shady all around, but given the day, Grok is genuinely probably the top model for various tasks.”

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