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Cosmopolitan
04-07-2025
- Politics
- Cosmopolitan
Labour promised women better, safer lives: a year on, we decode the small wins and biggest let downs
This time last year, there was a buzz in the air: a cautious sense of optimism that crept in as we all headed to our local polling stations to vote in the general election. A vibe shift suggested that after fourteen years of having a Conservative government, we were close to seeing changes for the better. Finally, we all said, there'll be an end to austerity and insane energy bills, no more money being wasted on pointless contracts for friends of the party (Michelle Mone's £200m PPE scandal, here's looking at you), a party in power who actually cares. How novel! On 5 July 2025, it was confirmed. Enter: Keir Starmer's Labour party to 10 Downing Street, primed to save the day. For women, there was also Labour's key promise that male violence against women and girls (MVAWG) would finally be on the agenda and taken seriously. In its 142-page manifesto, the party pledged to halve MVAWG within ten years by using 'every tool at its disposal', from fast-tracking rape cases through specialist courts to targeting the most horrific perpetrators of sexual offences by 'using tactics normally reserved for terrorists and organised crime'. Elsewhere, the manifesto made plain it would tackle stalking – a crime which, despite impacting roughly one in five women and often being a precursor to other offences, is not always taken seriously – and to address misogyny in schools, after a worrying uptick of concerning behaviour. More affordable childcare options and rooting out the misogyny within the police was also tabled. A year on, when I think back to last summer, and watching the live coverage of votes being tallied and feeling so stupidly hopeful, it all feels like a fever dream. It's hard to muster up that same feeling of optimism in many ways and now, whenever I see Keir Starmer or senior members of the Labour party pop up, the only thing that really comes to mind is the iconic meme of Tyra Banks shouting, 'We were all rooting for you, Tiffany!' to an America's Next Top Model contestant who, in her eyes, simply didn't deliver as expected. We're 365 days down, with a (most likely) further four years to go before another general election is called. So, have Labour actually made any progress when it comes to making the lives of women and girls better? Perhaps the data isn't as bad as it feels? We took a deep-dive, with the help of the Fawcett Society, into the key promises for women and girls… and the progress made (or lack thereof) one year on. Progress: The Fawcett Society has questioned how the metric of 'halving violence against women and girls within a decade' can actually be efficiently measured, but said it's encouraging to hear the Home Office is piloting specialists in 999 rooms in London, Manchester, West Midlands and South Yorkshire. Progress, albeit slow. In London, the Met Police has launched its V100 programme, using new data-driven methods to track down the worst 100 offenders who've committed violence against women and girls. The force claims it has more than doubled arrests and charges for rape and serious sexual offences, but these numbers are still abysmally low compared to the number of reports received. Given that the worrying stats around VAWG, including that 2 million women each year experience domestic abuse and three women are murdered a week, have not changed in decades, it's clear Labour has a lot more work to be doing in this space. Domestic abuse wasn't mentioned in the Spending Review at all and women's centres and support services are crying out for urgent funding. Progress: In recent years, 1,300 police officers (that we know of) have been arrested for domestic abuse. Refuge is calling for automatic suspension, but that hasn't happened yet. Ellie Butt, Head of Policy and Public Affairs at Refuge, told Cosmopolitan UK, "Women's confidence in the justice system is currently at a crisis point and we continue to see abuse perpetrated by police officers themselves. "Following on from Refuge's 'Remove the Rot' campaign, which exposed the shocking magnitude of police forces' failure to tackle misogyny and police-perpetrated VAWG, Labour committed to the suspension of all officers accused of domestic abuse or sexual offences pending an investigation. The government must make good on this pledge as a matter of urgency. We keenly await further details of plans to improve police vetting." Progress: As well as Keir Starmer calling for Adolescence to be shown in schools, RHSE guidance is being updated to include lessons tackling misogyny – but again, it all leads back to money. There's little in terms of funding or a national push for change that has been announced, and it's no secret teachers are exiting the profession in droves. Progress: AI is being utilised across the board to demean, punish and scare women – for example 'nudify' apps, deepfake porn and e-pimps using AI to scan social media accounts to coerce young women into Only Fans are all big problems. Ones that the government is having a hard time holding the relevant platforms to account over. Labour inherited the Online Safety Bill (2023) – and both the party's manifesto and the Bill already are out of date. It fails to deal with the threat of AI against women head-on and legislators across the world (UK included) are struggling to keep up with the technological advancements and its misogynistic manifestations. It often feels like powerful social media companies can easily shirk responsibilities when it comes to regulating harmful content and behaviours, and that they're reluctant to properly address the issues. After all, shocking content equals better engagement for them which drives revenue. It's a whole mess. Elsewhere, as part of the Crime and Policing Bill, violent choking scenes depicted in porn are set to be outlawed. Progress: For working mums, having more free childcare is a no-brainer and helps to keep women in work after starting a family, which would shrink the gender pay gap. So far, 300 primary schools have been granted funding (£150,000 per school) to expand by building a nursery on-site, which it's hoped will lead to 4,000 more available places by September 2025. It seems progress is being made (but again… slowly). But ask anyone with a kid in nursery about the astronomical fees – it costs £14,000 on average to send a child to nursery per year – which don't seem to be coming down, and it's clear there's still so much that needs to be done in this space. In fact, not all parents are even eligible for the 30 free hours of childcare that the government has offered: women who are in education/training, who work under 16 hours, and who have no recourse to public funds are still cut off from free childcare entirely – which has a serious impact on social mobility and economic growth. Working mums know the struggle of the juggle – and how hard it can be finding a job that allows them to drop their children to school and get to work on time. Expanding childcare offerings within a school setting, such as with breakfast clubs, could help reduce the 'motherhood penalty' which is a big factor in the gender pay gap. Progress: The Department of Education has begun a roll out of 750 'early adopter' schools, providing spaces for 180,000 children. Government data shows half of working parents will use this breakfast club provision to improve their working patterns. Seeing as the UK has the worst paternity leave in Europe (something that has hit headlines again this past week), levelling up the playing field is needed. There are links between post-partum depression and a lack of support post-birth for mothers, which could be alleviated if fathers had a better leave system. Progress: An 18-month review into parental leave has just begun, but it'll take a while for results to trickle in – and even longer for action and changes to be implemented. 'We have long called for a review of parental leave and it's great that the government is doing just that, but we really hope that this will move at pace otherwise women will continue to lose out,' Penny East, Fawcett Society's Chief Executive, told Cosmopolitan UK. 'Progress on equality doesn't just happen; it's won and we need to give credit where it's due, while also holding the government to account.' Progress: A new investigation into the worrying state of maternity care (half of all maternity units in England and Wales are deemed unsafe) has just been launched, with findings from the review set to be published in December 2025. While a 'men's health strategy' consultation launched in April 2025, the Conservative-inherited women's health strategy hasn't been given much public attention – Cosmopolitan UK reported earlier this year that experts have expressed concerns that women's health is actively being deprioritised. Progress: Discrimination at work is prevalent; 54,000 of us lose our jobs while on maternity leave every year and half of women have experienced sexual harassment at work – this cannot be allowed to continue. Oh, and the gender pay gap actually grew last year for the first time since 2013. While the Employment Rights Bill began its journey through Parliament within three months of Labour taking office, it's no silver bullet. Yes, the Bill promises greater support for women in work – for example providing protections from day one, and ensuring all employers need to provide an alternative role to women who are made redundant on maternity leave – but it still means employers can easily reject requests for flexible working patterns. The Labour manifesto also promised enforcement agencies would ensure employers adhere to the new workers' rights; however, the recent Spending Review in June 2025 did not set out any funding for this, making alarm bells ring in the women's sector. Without this, employers will continue to escape their legal duties to improve rights for workers. Jennifer Savin is Cosmopolitan UK's multiple award-winning Features Editor, who was crowned Digital Journalist of the Year for her work tackling the issues most important to young women. She regularly covers breaking news, cultural trends, health, the royals and more, using her esteemed connections to access the best experts along the way. She's grilled everyone from high-profile politicians to A-list celebrities, and has sensitively interviewed hundreds of people about their real life stories. In addition to this, Jennifer is widely known for her own undercover investigations and campaign work, which includes successfully petitioning the government for change around topics like abortion rights and image-based sexual abuse. Jennifer is also a published author, documentary consultant (helping to create BBC's Deepfake Porn: Could You Be Next?) and a patron for Y.E.S. (a youth services charity). Alongside Cosmopolitan, Jennifer has written for The Times, Women's Health, ELLE and numerous other publications, appeared on podcasts, and spoken on (and hosted) panels for the Women of the World Festival, the University of Manchester and more. In her spare time, Jennifer is a big fan of lipstick, leopard print and over-ordering at dinner. Follow Jennifer on Instagram, X or LinkedIn.
Yahoo
01-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Google's quiet AI win spells trouble for Amazon
Google's quiet AI win spells trouble for Amazon originally appeared on TheStreet. At first, it felt like Google () was caught flat-footed in the AI arms race. Bard's rocky debut and lackluster chatbot responses had everyone practically writing off the search giant in the AI race. 💵💰💰💵 Fast forward a few years, and Google's been busy behind the scenes, quietly developing a next-gen arsenal. Now it's rolling out custom Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), launching slick new AI models, and landing some of the who's who in the AI space as customers. That early stumble might have just been a warm-up for Google stock's massive AI comeback. Lately, Google's hybrid model has been turning heads, and ironically, it just got the nod from an old AI rival, completing a full-circle flex. Google has been a software-first company since the outset and has efficiently woven AI into every layer of its software stack. Its push into custom AI chips, though, highlights that it can thrive on the hardware side, too. Think of Google's TPUs as tailor-made silicon that can effectively handle the monster math that runs modern AI models. These application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) are specifically designed so neural networks can hum along at full v3, for example, can train BERT, Google's game-changing language model, roughly eight times quicker than Nvidia's older V100 GPU. TPU v4 took things up a notch, squeezing 1.2 to 1.7 times more performance per watt than Nvidia's A100. These come with a caveat, though, as Google keeps TPUs locked inside its cloud, so developers need to adapt to Google's runtime instead of Nvidia's more universal CUDA ecosystem. That hasn't stopped the big hitters like Apple, Cohere, and Anthropic from tapping TPUs for serious AI workloads. More AI Stock News: Veteran analyst issues big Broadcom call, shakes up AI stock race Veteran analyst drops bold new call on Nvidia stock Gemini, ChatGPT may lose the AI war to deep-pocketed rival Sure, Nvidia still dominates the 70% to 95% share of the AI accelerator market, but TPUs are carving out a niche for high-volume inference jobs, which bank on speed and efficiency. Nevertheless, Google still makes the lion's share of its income (roughly 80%) from ads, powering search, YouTube, and partner sites. However, the real growth engine these days is Google Cloud, and tools like BigQuery and Vertex AI allow businesses to crunch data and build smarter stuff. Now, Google's leaning into hardware, too, and that massive hybrid play could pull in billions in incremental revenues, challenging Nvidia's GPU stronghold. OpenAI is sending a big signal to the AI hardware space, and it's not good news for Amazon () . The Microsoft-backed AI behemoth is looking to ink a deal where it runs part of its surging workloads on Google's TPUs. Morgan Stanley calls this move a 'significant endorsement' of Google's AI hardware. OpenAI has predominantly tapped Nvidia's powerful GPUs to train and run ChatGPT and its other large language models (LLMs) for years. However, with supply bottlenecks and cost constraints, OpenAI is looking to diversify its suppliers and meet the growing demands of its won't be getting Google's latest, top-shelf TPUs, but that barely matters. Perhaps the bigger flex is that OpenAI picked Google's older chips over Amazon's Trainium, a major blow to the online retail giant. If this deal holds, OpenAI would be running its workloads on Google Cloud, Azure, Oracle, and CoreWeave, leaving out Amazon. For Google, that's a massive win for its custom silicon dreams. Also, with Apple and Cohere already on board, OpenAI's nod will likely boost faith in Google's AI chips. On the flip side, Amazon's homegrown AI chips sound good on paper, but they haven't quite delivered. Inferentia (inference chips) promised major cost savings, but barely powers 3% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) AI work. Trainium (training workloads) undercuts Nvidia's prices but keeps tripping over networking bugs and clunky software. Hence, AWS is far from cracking Nvidia's iron grip, despite shelling out over $4 billion on Anthropic and having Trainium 2 on quiet AI win spells trouble for Amazon first appeared on TheStreet on Jul 1, 2025 This story was originally reported by TheStreet on Jul 1, 2025, where it first appeared. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Miami Herald
01-07-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
Google's quiet AI win spells trouble for Amazon
At first, it felt like Google (GOOGL) was caught flat-footed in the AI arms race. Bard's rocky debut and lackluster chatbot responses had everyone practically writing off the search giant in the AI race. Don't miss the move: Subscribe to TheStreet's free daily newsletter Fast forward a few years, and Google's been busy behind the scenes, quietly developing a next-gen arsenal. Now it's rolling out custom Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), launching slick new AI models, and landing some of the who's who in the AI space as customers. That early stumble might have just been a warm-up for Google stock's massive AI comeback. Lately, Google's hybrid model has been turning heads, and ironically, it just got the nod from an old AI rival, completing a full-circle flex. Image source: Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images Google has been a software-first company since the outset and has efficiently woven AI into every layer of its software stack. Its push into custom AI chips, though, highlights that it can thrive on the hardware side, too. Think of Google's TPUs as tailor-made silicon that can effectively handle the monster math that runs modern AI models. These application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) are specifically designed so neural networks can hum along at full throttle. Related: Europe's bold AI play spells jackpot for Nvidia and AMD TPU v3, for example, can train BERT, Google's game-changing language model, roughly eight times quicker than Nvidia's older V100 GPU. TPU v4 took things up a notch, squeezing 1.2 to 1.7 times more performance per watt than Nvidia's A100. These come with a caveat, though, as Google keeps TPUs locked inside its cloud, so developers need to adapt to Google's runtime instead of Nvidia's more universal CUDA ecosystem. That hasn't stopped the big hitters like Apple, Cohere, and Anthropic from tapping TPUs for serious AI workloads. More AI Stock News: Veteran analyst issues big Broadcom call, shakes up AI stock raceVeteran analyst drops bold new call on Nvidia stockGemini, ChatGPT may lose the AI war to deep-pocketed rival Sure, Nvidia still dominates the 70% to 95% share of the AI accelerator market, but TPUs are carving out a niche for high-volume inference jobs, which bank on speed and efficiency. Nevertheless, Google still makes the lion's share of its income (roughly 80%) from ads, powering search, YouTube, and partner sites. However, the real growth engine these days is Google Cloud, and tools like BigQuery and Vertex AI allow businesses to crunch data and build smarter stuff. Now, Google's leaning into hardware, too, and that massive hybrid play could pull in billions in incremental revenues, challenging Nvidia's GPU stronghold. OpenAI is sending a big signal to the AI hardware space, and it's not good news for Amazon (AMZN) . The Microsoft-backed AI behemoth is looking to ink a deal where it runs part of its surging workloads on Google's TPUs. Morgan Stanley calls this move a "significant endorsement" of Google's AI hardware. OpenAI has predominantly tapped Nvidia's powerful GPUs to train and run ChatGPT and its other large language models (LLMs) for years. However, with supply bottlenecks and cost constraints, OpenAI is looking to diversify its suppliers and meet the growing demands of its customers. Related: Big Wall Street call flips script on S&P 500 'Goldilocks' rally OpenAI won't be getting Google's latest, top-shelf TPUs, but that barely matters. Perhaps the bigger flex is that OpenAI picked Google's older chips over Amazon's Trainium, a major blow to the online retail giant. If this deal holds, OpenAI would be running its workloads on Google Cloud, Azure, Oracle, and CoreWeave, leaving out Amazon. For Google, that's a massive win for its custom silicon dreams. Also, with Apple and Cohere already on board, OpenAI's nod will likely boost faith in Google's AI chips. On the flip side, Amazon's homegrown AI chips sound good on paper, but they haven't quite delivered. Inferentia (inference chips) promised major cost savings, but barely powers 3% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) AI work. Trainium (training workloads) undercuts Nvidia's prices but keeps tripping over networking bugs and clunky software. Hence, AWS is far from cracking Nvidia's iron grip, despite shelling out over $4 billion on Anthropic and having Trainium 2 on deck. Related: Veteran analyst drops jaw-dropping Tesla stock target The Arena Media Brands, LLC THESTREET is a registered trademark of TheStreet, Inc.
ITV News
01-07-2025
- ITV News
New police technology to help to visualise bruising in darker skin
The Mayor of London has praised new police technology which helps to visualise bruising in darker skin, unveiled as part of efforts to tackle violence against women and girls. Sir Sadiq Khan said the device developed by the Metropolitan Police was an example of 'how much the police has changed in the last few years'. The devices, known as Project Archway, allow officers to better assess victims' injuries, particularly on darker skin, by making it easier to photograph and visualise bruising. The mayor was shown the new technology on Monday and spoke with Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley and officers who are piloting the devices. The handheld device is the first of its kind to be developed and uses a technique called cross-polarisation to make injuries clearer that may not appear to the naked eye. Of 33 uses during a pilot in south London, 45% have resulted in charges, with several others under investigation, the Met Police said. The device has undergone ethical scrutiny and wide consultation, including input from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), Black Police Association, and the Met Ethics Board. Officers are specially trained prior to use and can only use the device with full consent from victims. Alongside the force's V100 programme, which targets the most dangerous offenders and has already resulted in 129 convictions and 154 serious charges, the technology is part of efforts to tackle violence against women and girls, following the publication of its three-year progress report on Tuesday. Sir Sadiq said that police were responding to the concerns of victims of colour. He said: 'I completely understand why ethnic minority and women Londoners have had less confidence in the police service and one of the missions of the police service with my support – and challenge – is to make sure we address the concerns that those Londoners have. 'I think what today shows is just how much the police has changed, and is responding to a legitimate concern raised by victims and survivors, particularly ethnic minority victims and survivors.' Sir Sadiq added: 'It's really important to acknowledge the progress made. Similarly, the response last week from the Met Police Service and the commissioner to the hearing into Child Q is significant; a recognition of the systemic issues last week from the police service. That wouldn't have been the case a few years ago.' Two Metropolitan Police officers were sacked last week after they were found to have committed gross misconduct during the 'disproportionate' strip search of a 15-year-old black girl at school, who was wrongly suspected of carrying cannabis. Commander Kevin Southworth said while the officers involved did not act correctly, there were organisational failings with training around strip-searches said to be 'inadequate' and oversight of the power 'severely lacking'. Sir Sadiq said that while impressive, the new technology and work to help victims of colour did not been there was not more work to be done. Sir Sadiq said: 'It's not mission accomplished. Neither myself nor the commissioner are complacent about the need for further reform, about the need for further work, about the need to win over those Londoners who still aren't sure about the Met Police Service.' He called for work to tackle misogyny to begin in schools and for it to be classed as a hate crime by Parliament. Sir Sadiq added: 'We need to recognise that ending the violence against women and girls, ending misogyny, can't start and stop with the police. It needs a whole society approach. It's really important that employers understand the concerns the female staff have, but also pubs, bars, music venues, music festivals need to be safe for women and girls. There's responsibility for us as men to provide allyship to women and girls. 'There is a role for the criminal justice system to do far better. It can't be right in 2025 in one of the most progressive countries in the world, if you're a woman or a girl, you're scared to go out.' Sir Mark said the force was improving its response to victims of violence against women and girls. He told the PA news agency: 'This new technology is just one example of how we're day-by-day improving our response to victims of violence against women and girls. 'A very basic requirement is to be able to get great evidence of an assault, that might be a bruise or a scratch. 'It's not always easy to photograph it. It depends on the light, depends on a whole range of factors. It also sometimes depends on the colour of skin – darker skin sometimes showing bruising less readily. 'Recognising this problem, our forensic experts have designed this special lighting technology.' He said the tests had resulted in more prosecutions and that he wanted it to be expanded to the rest of London and in future, the country.
Glasgow Times
01-07-2025
- Glasgow Times
Mayor says device to assess bruising to darker skin shows police have changed
Sir Sadiq Khan said the device developed by the Metropolitan Police was an example of 'how much the police has changed in the last few years'. The devices, known as Project Archway, allow officers to better assess victims' injuries, particularly on darker skin, by making it easier to photograph and visualise bruising. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley showed the new technology to Sir Sadiq Khan (Stefan Rousseau/PA) The mayor was shown the new technology on Monday and spoke with Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley and officers who are piloting the devices. The handheld device is the first of its kind to be developed and uses a technique called cross-polarisation to make injuries clearer that may not appear to the naked eye. Of 33 uses during a pilot in south London, 45% have resulted in charges, with several others under investigation, the Met Police said. The device has undergone ethical scrutiny and wide consultation, including input from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), Black Police Association, and the Met Ethics Board. Officers are specially trained prior to use and can only use the device with full consent from victims. Alongside the force's V100 programme, which targets the most dangerous offenders and has already resulted in 129 convictions and 154 serious charges, the technology is part of efforts to tackle violence against women and girls, following the publication of its three-year progress report on Tuesday. Sir Sadiq told the PA news agency that police were responding to the concerns of victims of colour. He said: 'I completely understand why ethnic minority and women Londoners have had less confidence in the police service and one of the missions of the police service with my support – and challenge – is to make sure we address the concerns that those Londoners have. 'I think what today shows is just how much the police has changed, and is responding to a legitimate concern raised by victims and survivors, particularly ethnic minority victims and survivors.' Sir Sadiq added: 'It's really important to acknowledge the progress made. Similarly, the response last week from the Met Police Service and the commissioner to the hearing into Child Q is significant; a recognition of the systemic issues last week from the police service. That wouldn't have been the case a few years ago.' Two Metropolitan Police officers were sacked last week after they were found to have committed gross misconduct during the 'disproportionate' strip search of a 15-year-old black girl at school, who was wrongly suspected of carrying cannabis. Commander Kevin Southworth said while the officers involved did not act correctly, there were organisational failings with training around strip-searches said to be 'inadequate' and oversight of the power 'severely lacking'. The device, known as Project Archway, allows officers to better assess victims' injuries in the ongoing fight against violence towards women and girls (Stefan Rousseau/PA) Sir Sadiq said that while impressive, the new technology and work to help victims of colour did not been there was not more work to be done. Sir Sadiq said: 'It's not mission accomplished. Neither myself nor the commissioner are complacent about the need for further reform, about the need for further work, about the need to win over those Londoners who still aren't sure about the Met Police Service.' He called for work to tackle misogyny to begin in schools and for it to be classed as a hate crime by Parliament. Sir Sadiq added: 'We need to recognise that ending the violence against women and girls, ending misogyny, can't start and stop with the police. It needs a whole society approach. It's really important that employers understand the concerns the female staff have, but also pubs, bars, music venues, music festivals need to be safe for women and girls. There's responsibility for us as men to provide allyship to women and girls. 'There is a role for the criminal justice system to do far better. It can't be right in 2025 in one of the most progressive countries in the world, if you're a woman or a girl, you're scared to go out.' Sir Mark said the force was improving its response to victims of violence against women and girls. He told the PA news agency: 'This new technology is just one example of how we're day-by-day improving our response to victims of violence against women and girls. 'A very basic requirement is to be able to get great evidence of an assault, that might be a bruise or a scratch. 'It's not always easy to photograph it. It depends on the light, depends on a whole range of factors. It also sometimes depends on the colour of skin – darker skin sometimes showing bruising less readily. 'Recognising this problem, our forensic experts have designed this special lighting technology.' He said the tests had resulted in more prosecutions and that he wanted it to be expanded to the rest of London and in future, the country.
