What happened
The family of one of two girls raped by teenage boys in the Hampshire town of Fordingbridge say a Court of Appeal decision to jail the offenders is welcome, but still falls short of justice. Two 15-year-old boys were each sentenced to four years’ detention after appeal judges ruled that their original non-custodial sentences were unduly lenient. The pair had previously received youth rehabilitation orders despite being convicted of two separate rapes of girls aged 14 and 15.

Who said what
One victim’s mother said the ruling was still “not enough” because “as a mother, as a family, it can never be enough”. Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr told the two boys: “What you did was so bad that we have no other choice.”

The case was referred to the Court of Appeal “after public outcry over the boys’ sentences”, said Amy-Clare Martin and Nicole Wootton-Cane in The Independent. In a statement, the families of the two girls who were raped said they were “deeply grateful” and “relieved” at both the public’s interest and the reviewed sentences.

What next?
The two boys are expected to spend less than four years in detention because time already served under curfew will count towards their sentences. They are also appealing their convictions. A third boy, who encouraged and filmed one of the attacks, will keep his original sentence.

What happened
Google has been ordered to pay €4.1 billion (£3.5 billion) for using its Android mobile operating system to block rivals after an appeal against a 2018 decision was dismissed.

The European Court of Justice upheld the European Commission’s ruling, whose €4.34 billion fine for the tech company was reduced in 2022.

The Commission had found that Google illegally required smartphone manufacturers to pre-install Google Search and Chrome alongside its Play app store, preventing the use of alternatives to Android.

Who said what
Google said the judgment failed to “recognise” its “significant investment to ensure Android remains open, interoperable and free”.

But the decision marks a “significant win for Brussels”, said the Financial Times, with the European Commission “seeking to enforce tough new rules aimed at holding the world’s largest tech companies to account”.

What next?
The EU has also been conducting an investigation into Google Search since March 2024 under its Digital Markets Act, including its use of search results to create a preference for its own services. A decision to fine the US company is “expected soon”, said Politico.

Prediction markets have already made their mark, particularly in America, but right now they are especially persistent about attracting a particular audience: women. Social media campaigns are popping up online, urging women to place their bets on sites like Kalshi and Polymarket. Instead of sports, though, women are wagering on their knowledge of pop culture.

Up until recently prediction markets have had a “dude problem”, according to The Atlantic. Despite hosting all kinds of wagers – including celebrity gossip like Taylor Swift’s possible bridesmaids – their user base has skewed mostly male. They have largely become “yet another place for men to bet on football”. Now Polymarket and Kalshi are trying to lure more women to their sites by using “social media campaigns that parrot the language of female empowerment and girlish memes”.

Kalshi, in particular, has been “ramping up its efforts with women”. The fact that one of the company’s co-founders, Luana Lopes Lara, has become the youngest self-made female billionaire only adds to the #girlboss appeal.

Regardless, the threat of gambling addiction looms over the growing popularity of prediction markets. There is “going to be an absolute epidemic”, Kitty Martz, the executive director of Voices of Problem Gambling Recovery, told The Independent. It is worrying that companies are targeting Gen Z and young millennials because they are at a stage of life when they are “trying to have some equity in getting into the workforce, (buying) homes and paying off tuition”. Women have these “very specific concerns” and the prediction markets’ strategy seems to be to “convert that concern into contracts”. There need to be “actual, robust warnings” that the “more you do it, the more you’re going to lose”.