UK News
‘Double standards’: Erin O’Connor’s pregnancy photo restored to Instagram | Erin O’Connor
The model Erin O’Connor has spoken out about the need for social media platforms to apply “clearer, more context-sensitive guidelines” after Instagram removed nude photographs she had posted on Mother’s Day, celebrating her heavily pregnant body.
The photos – which have since been reinstated on the platform – were taken in 2014 when O’Connor, who is 48, was eight and half months’ pregnant with her son Albert.
In one portrait, the model, who has worked for Dior, Versace, Alexander McQueen and Chanel, touches her baby bump with an expression of maternal bliss on her face. Another highlights the swell of her pregnant belly and casts her erect nipples in shadow.
O’Connor revealed on Friday that after she shared the photos on Instagram to mark Mother’s Day in the UK on 15 March, the social media platform removed her post and messaged her to explain she had breached “nudity guidelines”.
The message included a note on “freedom of expression”, which stated: “We want you to share freely with others. We only remove things or restrict people to keep the community respectful and safe.”
Alongside the photos, which were taken by the photographer Nick Knight, O’Connor wrote a post paying tribute to “all those who continue to nurture, support, love and protect children (close to home and across the world) in every way, shape and form”. She also included a poem addressed to her “baby boy”.
The entire post was removed, as well as the photographs, but Meta, which owns Instagram, restored the post after the Sunday Times and the Guardian covered the story.
At an event at the National Gallery in London, O’Connor said she had complained to Meta that its decision to ban the photographs of her pregnant body while women were “hypersexualised on a daily basis” was an example of double standards.
After discovering her post had been restored, O’Connor told the Guardian: “I’m incredibly grateful that Meta took the time to review and ultimately restore such a meaningful and important image. It means so much to have this moment of strength, vulnerability and celebration of motherhood, recognised and respected.
“Meta should apply clearer, more context-sensitive guidelines so that meaningful content – like pregnancy, birth, and body-positive imagery – is not mistakenly removed.
“Meta should also ensure faster, more thoughtful human review processes so creators feel heard and respected when decisions are appealed.”
She added: “I’m incredibly grateful that this story has been picked up by the media, as it felt like the only way my voice could truly be heard. If I can use my platform to encourage others to challenge Meta when necessary, then this experience has been a positive one – one I hope helps support others who want to express themselves freely on a platform that should be both informative and trustworthy.”
On Friday, speaking to an audience who had gathered to hear her being interviewed by the BBC Radio 4 presenter John Wilson for the gallery’s monthly Picture This series, she added: “It feels inconceivable that a heavily pregnant naked woman could be perceived as offensive, when she stands in her full power, her body at its most extraordinary, embodying its innate ability to grow, birth and sustain new life.”
It was the first time she had ever allowed herself to be photographed naked: “It’s such a shame that that would be offensive in the 21st century, and yet in galleries everywhere you have these very sensual and erotic images of women.”
“[My son] Albert arrived a couple of weeks later and I did the interview to accompany these pictures when I was in labour in the hospital bed. It was a lovely distraction, I’m not going to lie,” she said. “It really wasn’t about nudes, it was about expectation … That abundance of life being right there.”
The model recently celebrated her 30th year in the industry and revealed she was going through perimenopause. She was once described by Karl Lagerfeld as “one of the best models in the world” but she told the audience at the National Gallery she had spent most of her career feeling uncomfortable in her body.
It had only been in the past three years that she had come to accept herself, she said: “It took 45 years. I’ve had three years of living well and truthfully, and it’s the most wonderful thing.”
Meta said its default response was to remove “sexual imagery” to prevent the sharing of non-consensual or underage content.
A spokesperson added that its policy is to restrict images of female breasts that include the nipple, but it allows other images, including those depicting acts of protest, women actively engaged in breastfeeding and photos of post-mastectomy scarring.
Allowances can also be made for “real world art and certain medical, educational and awareness-raising content”.
UK News
Seven years since Emiliano Sala's death, what has changed for the 'wild west' of football transfers?
The Argentine striker’s 2019 death in a plane crash shone a light on the opaque world of transfers and player welfare.
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UK News
Rachel Reeves to tell G7 accelerating shift to clean energy is best defence against energy price shocks | Renewable energy
Rachel Reeves will warn G7 nations they must move faster on clean energy to insulate economies against global price shocks from oil and gas as she and the energy secretary Ed Miliband meet G7 finance and energy ministers on Monday.
Keir Starmer will also gather major energy industry and insurance figures to thrash out what emergency measures might be needed to contain the continuing crisis from the blockade of the strait of Hormuz.
But in an explicit rebuke of the Conservatives and Reform, who have urged her to end the ban on new oil and gas licenses, Reeves will tell her fellow ministers that long-term energy security from renewables and nuclear is the only way to prevent future crises.
“As we move faster on renewables and nuclear, our partners in the G7 must do the same – because staying stuck on the rollercoaster of global oil and gas prices will help nobody,” Reeves told the Guardian ahead of the meeting.
“That transition is strongest when countries act together. By working across the G7 we can accelerate investment and build momentum. Energy bills are coming down for families this week thanks to the actions of this Labour government – action that was opposed by the Tories and Reform.”
Treasury sources said Reeves would speak about accelerating investment in renewables and nuclear to transition away from gas power, as well as the UK’s intention to implement the Fingleton review this year to speed up the delivery of new nuclear.
They said Reeves would argue that the G7 nations should not “shift pressure on to partners or weaken collective resilience” – a veiled warning about easing sanctions on Russian energy or on new trade barriers.
Reeves said she rejected calls from the Conservatives to issue new oil and gas licences in the North Sea because they would not insulate the UK from further energy shocks or bring down UK consumers’ bills.
“Kemi Badenoch has admitted the central foundation of her energy plan won’t bring bills down. The only lasting route to lower bills is clean, homegrown power that cuts our exposure to the volatility of global gas markets,” she said. “While the Tories and Reform chase headlines, this Labour government will remain focused on easing the cost of living for families across Britain.”
Starmer will convene senior leaders from Shell, BP, Centrica and Equinor in No 10 on Monday, as well as insurance giants Lloyd’s of London and shipping firms Maersk and CMA and banks including HSBC and Goldman Sachs.
No 10 said it was intended to be a constructive meeting about the perilous state of the strait. It is likely to inform short and long-term contingency planning amid threats from Iran that it intends to assert sovereignty over the strait of Hormuz, including potentially charging vessels for access once the chokepoint is eventually reopened.
Badenoch will ramp up calls for the government to do more to tackle a hit to energy bills, including removing VAT from bills alongside more drilling in the North Sea. She will visit Aberdeen and an oil rig in the North Sea. She will demand the scrapping of GB Energy, heat pump subsidies and abolishing the renewable obligation subsidies currently being funded through general taxation.
“By drilling in the North Sea and scrapping Ed Miliband’s crazy green taxes, our Cheap Power Plan would reduce bills by £200 for everyone,” she will say. “Only the Conservatives have the plans and the team to deliver cheap energy, a stronger economy and a stronger country.”
Badenoch conceded on the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg programme on Monday that drilling further would not reduce British consumers’ energy bills. “The drilling isn’t going to go directly on to people’s bills, no,” she said. “But if we can make sure that we stop importing from Norway – 40% of our imports are coming from Norway, who are drilling in the same basin. Why are we importing gas that is being drilled in that basin, but we won’t drill our own? This is a wider thing. It goes beyond bills.”
UK News
Igor Tudor leaves Tottenham after just seven games in charge
Tudor was a left-field gamble that went wrong from the start.
His unique selling point, in an appointment that smacked of panic from Tottenham’s hierarchy, was that he had a chequered coaching career but a record of having the sort of instant impact the club required.
This never materialised. He became the first man in charge of Spurs to lose his first four matches, starting with that heavy 4-1 home defeat by Arsenal.
Tudor’s brusque, plain speaking style got no more out of the Spurs squad than Frank’s more empathetic approach. It never made any connection with the Spurs players, while a welter of tactical shifts hinted that he was struggling to work out how to get the best out of the shambles he had inherited.
The low point came in the Champions League last 16 first leg at Atletico Madrid where he gambled on selecting Antonin Kinsky in goal ahead of first-choice Guglielmo Vicario, only to remove the young Czech after just 17 minutes following two catastrophic errors that left Spurs 3-0 down in an eventual 5-2 defeat.
Tudor was also criticised for the manner in which he ignored Kinsky when he went off, comfort being left to his colleagues on the pitch, as well as Conor Gallagher and Dominic Solanke, who followed him down the tunnel to console him.
Improvement could be detected in the deserved draw at Liverpool before an honourable win in the Champions League exit to Atletico – but normal dismal service was resumed in last Sunday’s highly-damaging 3-0 home defeat by fellow strugglers Nottingham Forest.
In Tudor’s defence, he took over a shell-shocked and struggling squad decimated by injuries and stripped of confidence. There is no guarantee anyone else would have done markedly better.
In this emergency situation, Spurs had to act, but the whole episode reflects more badly on those at the top of the club than it does on Tudor.
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