This is the surprising positive side-effect of Mounjaro that's transforming users' lives - and why experts are now calling for slim people to get the drug
At the beginning of 2020, the 45-year-old had just launched a business with her husband Richard: A mobile bar, housed in a vintage horse box, that catered to weddings.
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BBC News
3 hours ago
- BBC News
Hull's Princes Avenue 'still a top spot to go out after closures'
Business owners in a hotspot for bars and restaurants say they remain optimistic about the future, despite seeing two long-standing venues close Avenue has been one of the leading places to go out in Hull for over two decades, but on Tuesday the El Toro tapas restaurant announced it was shutting, just weeks after nearby Thai House closed after 25 years. Neighbouring venues say the street still has a "great vibe", but would like to see more support for the hospitality sector to help them weather rising costs.A government spokesperson said: "We are a pro-business government and we know the vital importance of hospitality to local communities and the economy." At Marla's Sandwich Shop, a fixture of the street for the past four years, owner Sarah Cutler says a combination of increasing prices and decreasing footfall is "destroying businesses"."It's everywhere across the city and not just this area [that is struggling]. "Princes Ave still has a great vibe, but people don't have the money to come out."When long-standing places shut it is really scary. We're a massive community and people will always try, but if the money isn't there then there's not much we can do." El Toro had been serving customers for over a decade before closing, but the street has seen new investment and openings in recent Kociu, from Rimini, Italy, took over the Da Gianni restaurant four months ago and says he was attracted to the Avenues after hearing "amazing stories" about "the best street in Hull"."It's a great place and I want my restaurant to be a part of something beautiful. We [the businesses] need to support each other and I think there's plenty of opportunity to get better."I really believe in this area."Next door to his restaurant is a new bar, Tiffany's, which opened two weeks ago following the success of a sister venue in the city Marsh, the general manager, says Princes Avenue has a "beautiful character" and is "full of culture", but acknowledges the difficulties facing the industry."There's a huge panic across the hospitality sector with places closing and it's really sad," she says. "It feels like everything is out to get us and this is an industry that supports thousands of people. It's not just bars or restaurants – you've got taxis, takeaways, food suppliers and it's a domino effect."Hospitality has always seen challenges, this is no different, and I'm confident things will improve."On the opposite side of Princes Avenue, the Corner Cafe and Bistro has made its home in a former butcher's among the venue's traditional ceramic tiles and fresh flowers, Bogdan Chelru says trading conditions have been "hard at times", but opening his own business three years ago has been a "dream"."We are so lucky with our customers, but it can be a struggle because everything is going up. People are more careful about spending money and maybe come out a bit less."We all want to do well and we want Princes Avenue to be a great place to come. We're all trying our best for the customers and hope they'll come back." UK Hospitality, a trade body for the industry, is calling for urgent measures in the autumn budget to "ease pains" for business owners."Sadly, stories like this are becoming ever more common since the last Budget, the measures of which imposed an extra £3.4bn per year on hospitality," says Tony Sophoclides, the strategic affairs director."Changes to employer National Insurance contributions and business, alongside other rising costs means businesses are being taxed out, all too often to the point of closure."The government says it will introduce a new, permanent lower business rate for retail, hospitality and leisure in April 2026 as part of a reform of the business rates system.A spokesperson said: "We know the vital importance of hospitality to local communities and the economy."We are supporting them with a 1p cut to alcohol duty on draught pints, capping corporation tax and protecting the smallest businesses from the employer National Insurance rise." Listen to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here. Download the BBC News app from the App Store for iPhone and iPad or Google Play for Android devices
Finextra
3 hours ago
- Finextra
A New Era for Financial Services with Safe AI Experimentation and Deployment: By Steve Morgan
The power of AI is reshaping businesses' operations and strategic decision-making paving the way for more investments in advanced technologies that can drive truly transformative outcomes. Adopting AI and associated solutions has become a critical necessity, enhancing service offerings and providing a competitive edge. But despite these advantages, many businesses are still apprehensive about adopting AI. One reason for this is the stringent and continuously evolving data privacy AI regulations that businesses must comply with. Another is the perceived lack of accuracy. Failure to deal with these elements can clearly lead to substantial reputational and financial consequences. These concerns often lead businesses, especially those in the financial services sector, to delay the adoption of advanced technologies, which in turn hampers their progress. Boosting AI innovation through new initiatives Although the sector is still apprehensive about adopting AI, there's a way to alleviate any concerns through safe experimentation and deployment. For example, providing a platform where organisations are able to test the technology in a regulated environment will allow them to better understand the use of AI. With this approach in mind, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), has recently launched a Supercharged Sandbox to help firms experiment safely with AI using tools from the US company, Nvidia. This is a major step towards increasing AI innovations while also further contributing to the UK economy. With the supercharged sandbox, companies have the opportunity to safely check advanced AI technologies under the regulators watch. These tools have - for example - the power to identify fraud and track any suspicious activity, allowing those that do not have the capabilities on their own to explore and understand the processes. As the UK hopes to lead in AI transformation, this programme is an opportunity to encourage companies to explore new ways of using this technology. But will access to such a technology drive the sector's anxieties away? Not entirely, as just having a platform is not enough. Long term success will require expert change management, continuous post launch reviews and transparency in tracking and analysis. Challenges while exploring AI tools While this initiative provides an opportunity to experiment with AI, no institution is going to deploy the technology in the real world without absolute certainty about its accuracy and robustness. Creating in the sandbox, an AI app that is 95% effective at detecting fraud might not be good enough when you must accept 5% of the cases will be false positives. The question is not whether 5% is okay, but is it better than the current human and systems solution? Banks will also look to replicate to a large degree the policy frameworks, sign off and escalation levels they have in place today. This will include therefore some level of human oversight built in as a check and balance and at a point where the bank or regulator deems QA is needed. Moreover, it's crucial to note that these AI tools will be built into the banks' risk appetite, policies and regulatory frameworks. For example, where solutions touch on processes like claims or lending, then banks have to be able to explain and show that the right decisions have been made. This needs explainability, transparency, auditability and the ability to escalate for review. Building transparent and predictable AI It's key to recognise that once AI is deployed, it must be regularly monitored and ensure a transparent decision making process to safeguard organisations from any errors or systematic bias. Think of how today any bank monitors the decisions their credit risk staff make to ensure they align with the bank's lending policies. This is no different in an AI driven world. Transparency and predictability in AI processes will encourage customers and employees to further engage and use these operations. For instance, one way to achieve predictable AI is for workflows to be built with rules and structure, ensuring they are aligned with the company goals, eventually setting them up for success. These agents and AI are monitored and easily interrogated, all to ensure predictability and transparency, which after all is what a certain element of bank trust is based upon. With AI rooted into workflows as bank standard processes, it will allow companies to be more efficient across departments while ensuring minimal errors especially in such regulated sectors. Ultimately, as AI becomes more tested and adapted to improve processes, its impact on cost and productivity will be huge in operations and customer service and a scale of change like the impact offshoring had in the 90s and Noughties. Across many areas this will be a 50%+ change. This will require disciplined execution and change management given the impact on roles and ultimately the end customer.
Times
4 hours ago
- Times
Gary Neville hits out at Labour over taxes despite earlier support
Gary Neville has criticised Labour's national insurance rise in a sign of discontent from one of Sir Keir Starmer's most high-profile supporters. The former Manchester United and England footballer, who interviewed Starmer for Labour's election broadcast last year, said the government had been wrong to make it harder for businesses to employ staff. Neville said the economy was 'not settling' and added that Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, should have held off on the contentious £25 billion increase in employer national insurance. The former right-back was one of Labour's most vocal supporters and before the election was a big backer of Starmer personally, having previously appeared at the party's conference to urge people to 'get behind' their leader, whom he described as a 'serious politician'. He has a range of business interests in property, hotels and football and has joined other senior executives and entrepreneurs in their criticism of Reeves' decision to raise the cost of employment. 'I honestly don't believe that companies and small businesses should be deterred from employing people. So, I think the national insurance rise was one that I feel probably could have been held back, particularly in terms of the way in which the economy was,' he told Sky News. 'It's been a tough economy now for a good few years, and I did think that once there was a change of government, and once there was some stability, that we would get something settling,' he said. 'But it's not settling locally in our country, but it is not settling actually, to be fair, in many places in the world either.' Neville was more supportive of an increase in the minimum wage, which rose 6.7 per cent in April to £12.21 an hour, saying: 'I don't think we can ever criticise the government for increasing the minimum wage. I honestly believe that people should be paid more so I don't think that's something that you can be critical of. I do think that the national insurance rise, though, was a challenge.' Neville revealed in 2022 that he had joined Labour, saying at the time that the party 'has to come towards the centre'. At last year's election, Starmer filmed a half-hour interview with Neville walking in the Lake District, which became a key element of the party's campaign. Starmer said he would be 'ready to deliver from the get-go' and acknowledged: 'Tax levels now are the highest for 70 years, so we can't just go and pull the tax lever.' Neville warned him that 'the country are just desperately disappointed, just generally, in politicians'. Speaking on Wednesday, Neville said conditions were 'really tough' for UK businesses that were finding their margins squeezed by rising costs. 'It's tough. It's really, really tough because cost of products has gone up, cost of everything, utilities, rents, everything, has gone up,' Neville said. 'It is challenging at this moment in time — there are certain sectors where it's tough to operate, just purely because of rising costs and people finding it tough to be able to find the money to go and support those local businesses.'
