Friday newspaper round-up: Tata battery factory, tech firms, UK tax rules

(Sharecast News) - The Somerset battery factory due to supply Jaguar Land Rover is to receive £380m in UK government funding as it pushes ahead with construction despite delays. JLR, Britain's largest automotive employer, is due to receive batteries from the site to make electric versions of its Range Rover and Jaguar models. The Indian conglomerate Tata owns JLR and the electric vehicle (EV) battery factory under its Agratas subsidiary. - Guardian The European parliament has blocked the extension of a law that permits big tech firms to scan for child sexual exploitation on their platforms, creating a legal gap that child safety experts say will lead to crimes going undetected. The law, which was a carve-out of the EU Privacy Act, was put in place in 2021 as a temporary measure allowing companies to use automated detection technologies to scan messages for harms, including child sexual abuse material (CSAM), grooming and sextortion. However, it expired on 3 April, and the EU parliament decided not to vote to extend it, amid privacy concerns from some lawmakers. - Guardian

Ireland has called in the army to deal with farmers and truckers who have blocked major roads in protest at sky-high fuel prices. Helen McEntee, the defence minister, said the use of soldiers to support the police was "not the norm", but claimed that escalating disruption had now "crossed into criminal behaviour". The army will deploy four heavy-lift recovery trucks to help the police remove vehicles involved in blockades, which have been in place for three days. - Telegraph

Rachel Reeves must embark on a root-and-branch simplification of the UK's sprawling tax system if the Labour government is to achieve its growth promises, an influential international body said on Thursday. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) urged the chancellor to eradicate complexities in the tax system because they hold back employment, growth, and lead to "large compliance costs". - The Times

celebrity-backed investment scheme could be wound up over £1.3 million of unpaid debts from Kevin Maxwell. Insolvency practitioners have raised concerns about the viability of a deal with creditors which Fortress Capital Partners reached in July. Edwin Kirker, of Kirker & Co, who was appointed to supervise the company voluntary arrangement (CVA), has warned of a series of alleged breaches, including the threatened removal of an independent director of Fortress. - The Times