Category Archives: UK news

Don’t wait for Post Office-style scandal before regulating AI, ministers told

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Government to say binding measures for overseeing artificial intelligence are needed, but not immediately

Ministers have been warned against waiting for a Post Office-style scandal involving artificial intelligence before stepping in to regulate the technology, after the government said it would not rush to legislate.

The government will acknowledge on Tuesday that binding measures for overseeing cutting-edge AI development are needed at some point – but not immediately. Instead, ministers will set out “initial thinking for future binding requirements” for advanced systems and discuss them with technical, legal and civil society experts.

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UK’s January sales failed to revive consumer spending, say retailers

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Sales growth slowed last month amid cost of living crisis, poor weather and rail strikes

The traditional January sales on the high street failed to inspire a revival in consumer spending last month, as households continued to cut back amid the cost of living crisis.

Britain’s largest retailers said sales growth slowed last month as higher living costs weighed heavily on consumers, while weather conditions and strikes on the transport network also hit spending.

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King Charles: Prince Harry to travel to UK to see father after cancer diagnosis – as it happened

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King Charles ‘wholly positive about treatment’ but will postpone public-facing duties

Scottish first minister Humza Yousaf said he wished the king a “speedy recovery” following his cancer diagnosis.

He said: “My thoughts and prayers are with His Majesty The King and I hope for a speedy recovery and return to public life.

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‘Sublime flavours’ at Ledbury in west London win it three Michelin stars

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Notting Hill restaurant is sixth in the capital to get the ultimate accolade, while two Indian eateries get two stars for the first time

The London restaurant the Ledbury has been awarded three stars in the Michelin Guide for Great Britain and Ireland.

The Notting Hill restaurant is the sixth in the capital to hold the guide’s most prestigious accolade, while Gymkhana is one of the first two Indian restaurants in the UK to receive two stars, alongside Birmingham’s Opheem.

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Charles’s cancer diagnosis will cast doubt on his future role

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The king’s illness comes just as he was making a mark and as his popularity was growing, and means postponing public duties

Last Monday, King Charles emerged from a private clinic alongside Queen Camilla to smile and wave to a small crowd.

The message that Buckingham Palace wished to convey was obvious – the monarch is strong and will carry on his duties, despite the health setback.

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Sunak ‘out of touch’ for betting £1,000 on Rwanda plan’s success, says Labour

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PM also criticised for saying ‘the facts speak for themselves’ when asked if Keir Starmer was a terrorist sympathiser

Rishi Sunak has been called “out of touch” after taking a £1,000 bet with Piers Morgan on whether deportation flights to Rwanda will take off before the general election.

Morgan said to the prime minister on TalkTV: “I’ll bet you £1,000 to a refugee charity you don’t get anybody on those planes before the election. Will you take that bet?”

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Lloyds and Santander accused of providing accounts for Iranian front companies

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Both banks deny helping Tehran-controlled oil firm PCC to move money in breach of sanctions

Two of the UK’s largest lenders, Santander UK and Lloyds Banking Group, allegedly held bank accounts for front companies that helped Iranian entities evade US sanctions, according to reports.

The news has rattled investors, who sold off shares in the two banks on Monday morning, amid fears that the lenders could face penalties if they are found to have in any way assisted Iran’s state-controlled Petrochemical Commercial Company (PCC).

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We must act on Ethiopia food crisis, says UK minister

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Andrew Mitchell warns of ‘humanitarian catastrophe’ triggered by El Niño-driven drought and conflict

The risk of a humanitarian catastrophe in northern Ethiopia is growing, Andrew Mitchell, the UK’s Africa minister, said on his return from a two-day trip to the region.

“We have an opportunity to stop a looming humanitarian catastrophe in its tracks. But we must act and act now,” Mitchell said on Monday.

The country is suffering from the impacts of long-term El Niño-driven drought and brutal conflict, including the two-year war in the northern region of Tigray that ended in November 2022.

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Black police officers’ group calls for ethnic minorities to boycott joining Met

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Move comes in protest at ‘racist and vexatious’ misconduct investigation into a leading officer

The National Black Police Association (NBPA) has called for ethnic minorities to boycott joining the Metropolitan police in protest at a “racist and vexatious” misconduct investigation into a leading officer.

In the first call for a boycott in 20 years, the association claims Charles Ehikioya, chair of the Met Black Police Association (Met BPA), has been targeted because he voiced concerns about the poor behaviour of senior officers – and the racism he and his colleagues are suffering.

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Oesophageal cancer test ‘should be made more available in UK’

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Charities say deaths will be prevented if ‘sponge on a string’ test is widely adopted

A test that can detect oesophageal cancer at an earlier stage than current methods should be made more widely available to prevent deaths, charities have said.

The capsule sponge test, previously known as Cytosponge, involves a patient swallowing a dissolvable pill on a string. The pill then releases a sponge which collects cells from the oesophagus as it is retrieved.

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Asylum seekers evacuated from hotel near Heathrow after power failure

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More than 500 people forced to leave site, with some unsure of where to spend the night

There were chaotic scenes on Sunday night as the Home Office carried out a mass evacuation of one of the largest hotels used to accommodate asylum seekers after a failure of the power and water supply.

The hotel near Heathrow airport accommodates more than 500 asylum seekers – a mix of single adults, families, children and babies. The Guardian was sent video footage of adults and children walking around the darkened reception area asking what was happening.

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US says strikes on Iran-linked militias just ‘the beginning’ of its response

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National security adviser refuses to rule out targeting Iran after 85 sites were attacked in Iraq and Syria

US airstrikes on Iranian-backed militias in the Middle East were just the beginning of a sustained response, the White House national security adviser warned on Sunday, as he refused to rule out strikes on Iranian soil.

Jake Sullivan said the strikes on Friday night against 85 targets in Iraq and Syria, designed as retaliation for the killing of three US soldiers, “were the beginning, not the end of our response, and … there will be more steps, some seen, some perhaps unseen, all in an effort to send a very clear message that when American forces are attacked, when Americans are killed, we will respond and we will respond forcefully”.

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Rishi Sunak visits Northern Ireland to meet new power-sharing executive

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PM hails ‘fantastic cause for optimism’ as he seeks to put his stamp on success of Stormont reconvening

Rishi Sunak has said there is “fantastic cause for optimism” after arriving in Northern Ireland to meet the leaders of a new power-sharing executive that ended two years of political deadlock.

The prime minister arrived in Belfast on Sunday evening in advance of a meeting on Monday with Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill, who has made history by becoming the first nationalist first minister at Stormont.

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Labour’s proposals unlikely to be enough to end race disparities

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Voters will welcome announcement of what party’s reforms will look like but structural inequalities run deep

While Britain was still struggling through the Covid pandemic in autumn 2020, Keir Starmer announced that Labour would bring in a race relations act if it came to power.

His promise was driven by concern about the disproportionate impact of the coronavirus crisis on minority ethnic communities, confirmed in a report from Doreen Lawrence, the Labour peer and mother of the murdered black teenager Stephen.

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Labour plans to extend equal pay rights to black, Asian and minority ethnic staff

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Exclusive: Radical changes in a draft race equality act would give same protections as women now receive

A Labour government would extend the full right to equal pay that now exists for women to black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) workers for the first time under radical plans for a draft race equality act seen by the Guardian.

The legal right, which would follow a consultation with business groups and unions, would be phased in to give employers time to adapt to paying all their staff fairly, with back pay only available from when the law changes.

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Free school meals ‘cut obesity and help reading skills’ in England, study finds

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Labour MPs call to extend provision to every primary pupil in England after study finds health and learning improve

Labour is facing calls from MPs to back the provision of free school meals for all primary school children in England, after a new study found evidence that it reduces obesity and boosts reading skills.

Levels of obesity were reduced by 7% to 11% among reception children in the four London boroughs that have already adopted the policy, according to the study seen by the Observer. For children in year six, who had been given free school meals for their entire time in primary school, there was a 5-8% reduction.

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‘It’s all a bit marginal’: claims of Brexit trade perks don’t add up, say firms

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A business department report trumpeting the four-year benefits of leaving the EU does not match the reality faced by companies

On the four-year anniversary of Brexit last Wednesday, business and trade secretary Kemi Badenoch trumpeted its successes. “The British people’s conviction that the UK would excel as masters of our own fate has paid dividends,” she said, launching a report detailing the benefits.

Among the top achievements listed were booming sales of honey to Saudi Arabia, surging pet food exports to India, a rush of UK pork, worth £18m over five years, heading into Mexico’s restaurants and homes, and UK beauty products sales leaping in China, thanks to barriers being smashed.

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UK action against Houthis ‘not an escalation’, says Grant Shapps

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Defence secretary says third joint UK-US assault on Iran-backed group is to protect lives and ‘preserve freedom of navigation’

The UK has joined the US for a third time in conducting a wave of airstrikes on Iran-linked Houthi targets in Yemen.

The defence secretary, Grant Shapps, said the fresh assaults were “not an escalation”, but instead were designed to “protect innocent lives and preserve freedom of navigation” in the Red Sea amid Houthi attacks on boats.

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Met police appeal for help as Clapham chemical attack suspect hunt enters fourth day

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Searches carried out at Abdul Ezedi’s Newcastle home and in London as his female victim remains ‘critical but stable’

With the hunt for Abdul Ezedi entering its fourth day, police have appealed for the public to come forward with information about the suspected chemical attacker.

Investigators released two images of white plastic bottles with warnings about corrosive substances, which may be linked to the attack on a 31-year-old woman and her two daughters last week.

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