In today’s newsletter: With Keir Starmer expected to announce Australia-style restrictions, further problems – including AI chatbots - are on the horizon

Good morning. Keir Starmer’s expected speech next week about young people’s access to social media will be analysed as much for how it benefits the outcome of a certain byelection, as its safeguarding of children’s synapses.

After issuing an ultimatum to tech firms yesterday to block children’s phones from sharing nude images, the government is expected to make another major announcement about social media within days. Briefings suggest it will stop short of a blanket ban on under-16s accessing social media. But it will still amount to radical regulation, with Downing Street insisting that Starmer is up for a fight with big tech.

UK politics | Volodymyr Zelenskyy has revealed that he plans to invite King Charles on a state visit to Ukraine as early as this year, which would make him the most senior royal to travel to Kyiv since Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Middle East | Fears of a return to a full-scale regional war in the Middle East eased on Monday as Israel and Iran said they had halted attacks on each other after an appeal from Donald Trump to “immediately stop shooting”.

UK news | A report has found “widespread and concerning evidence” of bias and victim-blaming in the family courts – primarily disadvantaging women.

US news | Donald Trump was loudly booed when he was shown on the video screens at Madison Square Garden on Monday night at the NBA finals.

Unemployment | A government-funded pilot of “hyperlocal” job support in 10 neighbourhoods across England has shown “promising early signs of effectiveness”, including for young people, and could be scalable nationwide, a new evaluation has shown.

Proposals considered by government would strengthen protections for parents forced to become full-time carers

Thousands of parents who are forced to become full-time carers after their child becomes seriously ill would be entitled to financial support and job protections under new “Hugh’s law” proposals being floated by the government.

Hugh’s law is named after Hugh Menai-Davis, who was six when he died in 2021 just under a year after being diagnosed with a rare form of cancer and undergoing 10 months of intensive treatment, much of it in hospital.

Echo project will help erase images as part of package of support to end ‘prolonged suffering of survivors’

Victims of child sexual abuse in England and Wales will be given help to remove online images of their abuse as part of a wider package of support to end the “prolonged suffering of survivors”.

The Echo project will help those who have reported their abuse to the police to identify and remove images of abuse online. They will also be given trauma support, the possibility of having a victim impact statement read in court against their perpetrators and the opportunity of criminal or civil compensation.

Some names have been changed to protect the identities of those featured in the story

As a war crimes researcher at the Reckoning Project, my job was to listen to Ukrainians who had fled the occupation. What they had to say reshaped how I understand life in Russian-occupied territories.

Simplistic

After years of demographic doldrums, Portugal is finally getting to hear the increasingly louder patter of tiny feet. The country recorded 87,130 births in 2025 –  3,071 more than in

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Companies such as Apple and Google have until September to install software or face legislation, says PM

• UK politics live – latest updates

Apple and Google have been given until September to install software that blocks explicit images on children’s mobile phones or face legislation enforcing its requirement, Keir Starmer said on Monday.

The prime minister said tech companies must activate nudity-detection algorithms or other technical solutions on smartphones and tablets to prevent users taking photos or sharing images of genitalia unless they are verified as adults.

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