Tuesday newspaper round-up: Gambling customers, student loan repayments, Russian bankruptcies

(Sharecast News) - The Scottish government is about to consider a sweeping moratorium on building new datacentres, putting a key plank of the UK's AI strategy at risk. Last Sunday the Scottish National party (SNP)'s national council passed a motion to freeze all new datacentres in Scotland. That motion has been sent to the Scottish government to consider. It could apply to all datacentre projects that have not yet received planning permission - although its exact implementation is up to the Scottish government to decide. - Guardian

Slideshows that compared student loan repayments with the cost of a mobile phone contract, and YouTube videos that did not mention the fact that loan terms could change amounted to mis-selling by the government, MPs have said. The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, caused a furore last year when she announced that the repayment threshold on plan 2 student loans would be frozen at �29,385 for three years from April 2027. - Guardian

Labour is set to forge ahead with financial checks on gambling customers who suffer heavy losses, setting up a clash with bookmakers who oppose the move. The Gambling Commission is expected to confirm proposals on Tuesday morning to introduce financial risk assessments on online gamblers who lose large sums, including those spending more than �1,000 in a single day. - Telegraph

Half a million Russians went bankrupt last year as Vladimir Putin risks an "explosive" banking crisis, an intelligence report has warned. Deteriorating business loans and growing household debt mean Russia is moving closer to a potential financial meltdown, according to a document prepared for European officials before a new round of sanctions. - Telegraph

The billions of pounds lost on personal protection equipment during the pandemic had more to do with a "monumental failure of government" than it did fraud, error or cronyism, the government's counter-fraud commissioner has said. Tom Hayhoe, a former chairman of West Middlesex University hospital and the West London NHS Trust, told MPs on the Commons public accounts committee that the "fundamental" fault behind the near-�11 billion worth of PPE bought during Covid that proved unusable or overpriced was the "uncritical way in which procurement was being done". - The Times