UK and ChatGPT maker OpenAI sign new strategic partnership
"AI will be fundamental in driving the change we need to see across the country – whether that's in fixing the NHS (National Health Service), breaking down barriers to opportunity or driving economic growth," Peter Kyle, secretary of state for technology, said in a statement.
"This can't be achieved without companies like OpenAI, who are driving this revolution forward internationally. This partnership will see more of their work taking place in the UK."
The government has set out plans to invest 1 billion pounds in computing infrastructure for AI development, hoping to increase public compute capacity 20 fold over the next five years.
The United States, China and India are emerging as front runners in the race to develop AI, putting pressure on Europe to catch up.
The partnership with OpenAI, whose tie-up with Microsoft once drew the scrutiny of Britain's competition regulator, will see the company possibly increase the size of its London office, and explore where it can deploy AI in areas such as justice, defence, security and education technology.
In the same statement, OpenAI head Sam Altman praised the government for being the first to recognise the technology's potential through its "AI Opportunities Action Plan" - an initiative by Prime Minister Keir Starmer to turn the UK into an artificial intelligence superpower.
The Labour government, which has struggled to increase economic growth meaningfully in its first year in power and has since fallen behind in polls, has said that the technology could increase productivity by 1.5% a year, worth an extra 47 billion pounds ($63.37 billion) annually over a decade.
($1 = 0.7417 pounds)
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The Guardian
8 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Israel-Gaza war live: Europe debates recognition of Palestine as starvation spreads in Gaza
Update: Date: 2025-07-26T11:19:56.000Z Title: 1988 Content: Keir Starmer is under pressure from UK MPs while Italy's Giorgia Meloni said she was in favour but not prior to the state being established Caolán Magee (now) and Charlie Moloney (earlier) Sat 26 Jul 2025 13.19 CEST First published on Sat 26 Jul 2025 09.53 CEST From 10.08am CEST 10:08 This graphic shows which countries internationally have recognised a Palestinian state. 81 countries recognised Palestinian statehood in , the year it declared independence, with South Africa recognising it in 1995, Brazil in 2010, Chile in 2011 and Thailand in 2012. But more have recently followed suit in response to the plight of the people in Gaza. Spain and Ireland recognised a Palestinian state last year and Mexico made the recognition this year, while France has recently announced it is due to do so. Updated at 10.10am CEST 1.19pm CEST 13:19 The death toll from Israeli military operations in Gaza has reached 59,733, according to the latest update from the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza. In the past 24 hours alone, 57 have been killed and 512 have been injured. Emergency crews say a number of victims remain trapped under collapsed buildings. It also says that since 18 March 2025, when it began separately reporting figures after the temporary ceasefire came to an end, 8,581 people have been killed and 32,436 injured. The ministry added that 29 people were killed and more than 165 injured in the past 24 hours while attempting to access aid. This brings the total number of those killed while collecting aid to 1,121, with more than 7,485 injured, it said. 12.50pm CEST 12:50 Some analysts say French president Emmanuel Macron's announcement that France would become the first Western member of the United Nations Security Council to recognise a Palestinian state is an attempt to use the carrot of recognition to extract concessions from Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority which is a moderate rival to Hamas, and other regional players. 'Macron here is acting as a catalyst to get the Palestinians to deliver on the needed reforms, to get the Arabs to deliver on a stabilization force and the disarming of Hamas,' said Rym Momtaz, editor-in-chief of the Strategic Europe blog run by the Carnegie Europe think tank. Others say while recognition has symbolic value, there will still be no functioning Palestinian state whenever the war in Gaza comes to an end. 'Recognition by a European heavyweight like France is indicative of the rising frustration with Israel's intransigent policies,' said Amjad Iraqi, senior analyst at International Crisis Group. 12.33pm CEST 12:33 Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli operations killed 11 people on Saturday in the Palestinian territory devastated by over 21 months of war. Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP the toll included four Palestinians killed in an air strike on the Al-Rimal neighbourhood of Gaza City in the territory's north. One other person was killed 'after Israeli forces opened fire on people waiting for humanitarian aid' northwest of Gaza City, the agency said. Eyewitnesses told AFP that several thousand people had gathered in the area to wait for aid. One of them, Abu Samir Hamoudeh, 42, said the Israeli military opened fire 'while the people were waiting to approach the distribution point', located near an Israeli military post in the Zikim area, northwest of Sudaniyah. 12.06pm CEST 12:06 At least 25 people were killed by Israeli airstrikes and gunshots overnight, according to health officials and the ambulance service on Saturday, as ceasefire talks appear to have stalled and Palestinians in Gaza face famine. The majority of victims were killed by gunfire as they waited for aid trucks close to the Zikim crossing with Israel, said staff at Shifa hospital, where the bodies were brought. Israel's army didn't respond to request for comments about the latest shootings. Those killed in strikes include four people in an apartment building in Gaza City among others, hospital staff and the ambulance service said. The strikes come as ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas have hit a standstill after the US and Israel recalled their negotiating teams on Thursday, throwing the future of the talks into further uncertainty. 11.44am CEST 11:44 In a statement posted on its Telegram account, the Sunni Jaish al-Adl group took responsibility for the attack in Iran's southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province and urged 'all civilians to immediately evacuate the area of clashes for their safety'. Sistan-Baluchestan province, near the borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan, is home to Irans Sunni Muslim Baluch minority, who have long complained of economic marginalisation and political exclusion. The Baluch human rights group HAALVSH, quoting eyewitnesses, said several judiciary staff members and security personnel were killed or wounded when the assailants stormed the judges chambers. 11.18am CEST 11:18 Gunmen killed five civilians during a 'terrorist attack' on a judiciary building in southeast Iran on Saturday before being killed themselves, state media reported. 'Unknown gunmen attacked the judiciary centre in Zahedan,' the capital of southeastern Sistan-Baluchistan province, the judiciary's Mizan Online said. 'Five people have been killed and 13 injured in this terrorist attack,' the report said while adding that the counts are 'preliminary' and the toll may rise. Separately, the official IRNA news agency reported that three of the attackers were killed during the assault, citing the regional headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). 11.03am CEST 11:03 Three diplomats told Reuters president Emmanuel Macron had to go it alone to recognise a Palestinian state as London did not want to face the wrath of the United States, and Ottawa took a similar stance. 'It became increasingly apparent that we could not wait to get partners on board,' said a French diplomat, adding France will work to get more states on board ahead of conference on a two-state solution in September. A senior French official said: 'If there is a moment in history to recognise a Palestinian state, even if it's just symbolic, then I would say that moment has probably come.' 10.46am CEST 10:46 Eleni Courea Keir Starmer is under intense pressure from his most senior cabinet ministers and more than a third of MPs to move faster on recognising a Palestinian state in response to Israel withholding aid to starving civilians in Gaza. Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, and Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, are understood to be among ministers who believe the government should take the lead on Palestinian statehood alongside France. The prime minister is facing a growing clamour to take action amid the international outcry over Israel's actions, with charities saying that cases of severe malnutrition among children under five in Gaza City have tripled in the last two weeks. Read our exclusive story on how Rayner and Cooper are understood to back action as 221 MPs sign a letter calling for UK recognition of statehood: 10.34am CEST 10:34 Julian Borger France's decision to recognise Palestine at the next UN general assembly is an attempt to build momentum for change and make a break from the major western powers' impassivity in the face of Israel's mass killing of Palestinians in Gaza. Emmanuel Macron's declaration, announced in typically dramatic fashion on social media late on Thursday night, draws a line between the paths followed by the US and France over the Gaza war, and significantly raises the pressure on the UK, Germany and other G7 powers to pick a side. Macron, Keir Starmer and the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, held what the UK prime minister described as an 'emergency call' on Friday, to coordinate positions. It led to a joint call for Israel to lift its food blockade immediately, an immediate ceasefire and the release of hostages held by Hamas. But there was no apparent shift in Merz's or Starmer's position on recognition. The British prime minister risks either provoking mutiny in his cabinet and party over Gaza or alienating White House. Read our analysis here: 10.24am CEST 10:24 Rates of severe malnutrition among children aged under five at Médecins Sans Frontières' Gaza City clinic have tripled in the last two weeks, the charity has said, as starvation in the Israeli-besieged strip worsens. The global aid community has sounded the alarm as Gaza descends deeper into mass starvation, with resulting deaths being reported daily as Israel allows only a trickle of aid into the territory. MSF said a quarter of all young children and pregnant or breastfeeding women it screened at its clinics last week were malnourished, with the number of people needing care for malnutrition at its Gaza City location quadrupling since May. MSF is one of the largest medical providers in Gaza, with more than 1,000 staff in the strip providing medical services ranging from maternity care to emergency surgery. The charity blamed what it called an Israeli 'policy of starvation' for the hunger crisis, as global condemnation grows over what more than 100 aid groups say is Israel's blockade of most aid into Gaza. Read our full report here: 10.08am CEST 10:08 This graphic shows which countries internationally have recognised a Palestinian state. 81 countries recognised Palestinian statehood in , the year it declared independence, with South Africa recognising it in 1995, Brazil in 2010, Chile in 2011 and Thailand in 2012. But more have recently followed suit in response to the plight of the people in Gaza. Spain and Ireland recognised a Palestinian state last year and Mexico made the recognition this year, while France has recently announced it is due to do so. Updated at 10.10am CEST 9.58am CEST 09:58 Annie Kelly Twenty-eight doctors from Gaza are being held inside Israeli prisons, eight of whom are senior consultants in surgery, orthopaedics, intensive care, cardiology and paediatrics, according to data from Healthcare Workers Watch (HWW), a Palestinian medical organisation. Twenty-one of those detained have been held for more than 400 days. HWW said none had been charged with any crimes by the Israeli authorities. Three healthcare workers have been detained since the start of July. On Monday, the Gaza Health Ministry said an Israeli undercover force detained Dr Marwan al-Hams, head of Abu Youssef al-Najjar hospital in Rafah, outside the field hospital of the International Committee of the Red Cross in the southern Gaza Strip. His whereabouts are unknown, and the Israeli authorities have yet to publish a statement on his detention. On Tuesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that two of its workers were taken into detention from a facility sheltering staff and their families in Dier al-Balah; one remains in Israeli custody. A rising number of doctors are among hundreds of medical staff detained in Gaza, rights groups say. Read our full story here: Updated at 9.59am CEST 9.53am CEST 09:53 European nations are becoming split on the question of whether to recognise a Palestinian state, as the desperate situation in Gaza continues. Britain's prime minister Sir Keir Starmer has rejected calls to immediately recognise a Palestinian state, after some 221 MPs signed a letter urging the British Government to recognise the state of Palestine at a meeting of the UN next week. While the PM said he was 'unequivocal' about wanting to see a Palestinian state, he insisted this needed to be part of a 'wider plan which ultimately results in a two-state solution and lasting security for Palestinians and Israelis'. Italy's prime minister Giorgia Meloni said on Saturday that recognising the State of Palestine before it is established could be counterproductive. 'I am very much in favour of the State of Palestine but I am not in favour of recognising it prior to establishing it,' Meloni told Italian daily La Repubblica. 'If something that doesn't exist is recognised on paper, the problem could appear to be solved when it isn't,' Meloni added. A German government spokesperson said on Friday that Berlin was not planning to recognise a Palestinian state in the short term and said its priority now is to make 'long-overdue progress' towards a two-state solution. It comes after French President Emmanuel Macron drew angry rebukes from Israel and the United States when he announced France intends to recognise a Palestinian state in September at the United Nations General Assembly. Macron, who unveiled the decision on X, published a letter sent to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas confirming France's intention to press ahead with Palestinian recognition and work to convincing other partners to follow suit. According to an AFP database, at least 142 of the 193 UN member states - including France - now recognise the Palestinian state proclaimed by the Palestinian leadership in exile in . Meanwhile today: The Israeli military said a 'projectile' was fired from the Gaza Strip towards Israel on Saturday. 'A projectile was identified crossing the Gaza Strip from the south and most likely falling in an open area,' the military said in a statement, adding that there were no injuries reported. Four Palestinian-Americans have been killed in the occupied West Bank since the war in Gaza began and their families are losing hope for justice. They told AP Israel and its law enforcement have made them feel like culprits - by imposing travel bans and, in some cases, detaining and interrogating them. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday his government was considering 'alternative options' to ceasefire talks with Hamas after Israel and the US recalled their negotiating teams, throwing the future of the negotiations into further uncertainty. Netanyahu's statement came as a Hamas official said negotiations were expected to resume next week and portrayed the recall of the Israeli and American delegations as a pressure tactic.
The Sun
8 minutes ago
- The Sun
Iconic homeware chain with 58 stores to close branch in DAYS in a blow to shoppers
A POPULAR homeware chain is set to shut one of its high street stores in days in a blow to shoppers. Lakeland is closing its Broad Street store in Reading on August 8, the store has confirmed to The Sun. Signs in the shop window say that the store is closing and everything must go. Disappointed customers shared the news on Facebook, with one saying: 'Oh nooo! I love Lakeland products! I hate being forced to have to shop online for my favourite items of kitchen and homeware.' They added: 'Reading used to be a vibrant shopping centre which I loved visiting, but not anymore!' Another said: 'What? I love that shop. There's going to be nothing left soon.' Meanwhile, a third commented: 'It's sad when shops have to close especially in my home town Reading.' Lakeland has 58 shops across the UK, employs around 1,000 staff and is based in Windermere in the Lake District. The popular chain sells thousands of homeware and kitchen products including spatulas, food containers and baking suppliers. But the chain's future was thrown into question this year as it searched for a new owner. The company began talks with investor Hilco Capital in April in a deal that would provide a new funding package to support the struggling retailer. Lakeland had been searching for tens of millions of pounds of funding to navigate difficult economic conditions, including the increase in national insurance costs for employers. It also hired financial advisors earlier this year to explore its options. The family-run business was created in 1964 and is now spearheaded by three sons of the founder Alan Rayner. The brothers chose advisory company Teneo to help them navigate a potential sale back in January. Months of discussion with various potential buyers followed, including Modella Capital, which this year acquired WHSmith's high street shops. Why are retailers closing shops? EMPTY shops have become an eyesore on many British high streets and are often symbolic of a town centre's decline. In many cases, retailers are shutting stores because they are no longer the money-makers they once were because of the rise of online shopping. Falling store sales and rising staff costs have made it even more expensive for shops to stay open. The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury's hike to employer NICs from April 2025, will cost the retail sector £2.3billion. At the same time, the minimum wage will rise to £12.21 an hour from April, and the minimum wage for people aged 18-20 will rise to £10 an hour, an increase of £1.40. In some cases, retailers are shutting a store and reopening a new shop at the other end of a high street to reflect how a town has changed. The problem is that when a big shop closes, footfall falls across the local high street, which puts more shops at risk of closing. Retail parks are increasingly popular with shoppers, who want to be able to get easy, free parking at a time when local councils have hiked parking charges in towns. Many retailers including Next and Marks & Spencer have been shutting stores on the high street and taking bigger stores in better-performing retail parks instead. In some cases, stores have been shut when a retailer goes bust, as in the case of Carpetright, Debenhams, Dorothy Perkins, Paperchase, Ted Baker, The Body Shop, Topshop and Wilko to name a few. What's increasingly common is when a chain goes bust a rival retailer or private equity firm snaps up the intellectual property rights so they can own the brand and sell it online. They may go on to open a handful of stores if there is customer demand, but there are rarely ever as many stores or in the same places. The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year. The Reading closure follows the shuttering of another popular store last month. The Lakeland shop in Syon Park, west London, closed its doors for good on June 6. Meanwhile, the store in the Eastgate Shopping Centre, Inverness, was shut down and relocated to the Simpsons Garden Centre in mid-March. Lakeland did not give a reason for the move. At the time customers described the decision as a big loss for the shopping centre.
The Independent
37 minutes ago
- The Independent
Green Party MP responds to surge in support for Jeremy Corbyn's new party
Ellie Chowns of the Green Party defended her party after LBC's Henry Riley highlighted the rapid sign-up rate of Jeremy Corbyn's new political party. Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana's newly formed party is reportedly attracting a significant number of members, with 500 people signing up per minute. Green Party leadership candidates have cautioned against the party becoming a 'Jeremy Corbyn support act'. A divide has emerged within the Green Party as Zack Polanski expressed openness to collaborating with Corbyn and Sultana's new political venture. Watch video above.
