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Here are a couple of images from today on the newswires:



Pictured (top L- bottom R): Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, UK prime minister Keir Starmer, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, Norwegian prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre, and Icelandic prime minister Kristrún Frostadóttir participate in a video conference with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, EU Council president Antonio Costa, and European Commission vice-president Kaja Kallas. Photograph: Olivier Matthys/EPA



UK foreign secretary David Lammy, left, and Japanese foreign minister Takeshi Iwaya, shake hands prior to a meeting at the foreign ministry’s Iikura Guesthouse in Tokyo, Japan. Photograph: Getty Images

Speaking to US news channel Newsmax after the meeting, Healey said the UK and Europe were on a “push for peace” in , reports the PA news agency. He said:

> We’re certainly not terrified of a party (whose deputy leader) doesn’t know the name of his own councillors.”

According to the PA news agency, Fox then went on to say there is “nothing in this bill that requires legislation” and MacAlister “should be a little bit ashamed of having campaigned so vigorously and then presented this bill”.

**Caroline Voaden**, the Liberal Democrat MP for South Devon, said she hoped the bill marks “the first step in a journey which will be far-reaching and hopefully fairly swift”. She said:

> I know I am not alone to be somewhat disappointed that the bill we see today is but a shadow of its former self, and that the government has been so timid in what it is willing to do to try and save our children and young people from something that is clearly causing them considerable harm.”

In her contribution,  MP for Darlington, **Lola McEvoy** said “there’s no case for children to have their smartphones in schools” and urged the government to “to get on with it and take as much action as we can”.

Conservative MP **Damian Hinds**, who like **Kit Malthouse** previously served as education secretary, said a lack of evidence around digital harms is no reason not to legislate, instead calling on the government and researchers to prove online spaces are safe for children before they can be used.

“It seems odd that we allow something to happen to our children because we cannot 100% prove it causes harm, rather than because we can prove that it is safe,” he told MPs. He said:

> That is not the way we deal with children’s toys, it is not the way we deal with children’s food, it is not the way we deal with children’s medicines.”

Data protection minister **Chris Bryant** said he was “not going to make any arguments today against action”, adding:

> Everybody accepts that action is inevitable in this sphere.”

He said he wanted to secure “the liberty of the individual at the same time as the protection of the vulnerable, and that’s precisely what we need to be able to adopt as we move forward”.

Bryant said the government was working to implement the already-passed Online Safety Act “as fast as we possibly can”, adding that illegal content codes will come into force this month, with new duties on social media companies to detect and remove some content including child sexual abuse and terrorism material.

He said children’s safety codes are “nearly finalised”, and told the Commons that the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology is running a feasibility study into the impact of smartphones and social media, due to report in May so ministers “have all the information that we need to make a considered view”.

MPs agreed to adjourn the debate, which will be listed to resume on 11 July.
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