Today, UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced ‘no prisoners will be let out’ under early release scheme until he has conducted an ‘urgent review’.

The announcement comes after the widow of PC Andrew Harper described the possible early release of prisoners as ‘deplorable’, following reports that two of his killers could be freed early. Adam is joined by Dominic Casciani, home and legal correspondent, to discuss what this means for the prison system.

Plus, in his third policy announcement in as many days, Andy Burnham announced a 20% cut to business rates for pubs, clubs and live music venues in England from April. Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies Helen Miller and BBC Business Editor Simon Jack join Adam to discuss how the government plans to fund this cut and how ever-changing taxes affect business owners.

00:00 Intro
00:00:22 Why the prisoner release scheme has been paused
00:01:11 How the early release plan was meant to work
00:07:12 What happens next
00:11:22 Could the plans be changed instead of scrapped?
00:13:59 Is this Andy Burnham’s first real governing decision?
00:15:18 Tax cut announced for pubs and music venues
00:17:58 Why business rates are under scrutiny
00:32:19 The wider cost of living conversation

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Camels – known for their resilience in the hottest and driest places on Earth- are falling victim to the climate crisis.

North Africa and the Horn of Africa are home to around 80% of the world’s largest population of camels with one hump. But, rising temperatures are fuelling disease and death.

Herders are reporting camels with blisters on their hooves and skin burned by the hot sand. They are also facing stress, fatigue, and dehydration.

While extreme heat is the primary culprit, its impacts become severe when other factors like loss of vegetation and water, lack of shaded areas and inadequate veterinary services add up, experts say.

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Warning: Mention of suicide.

Thousands have gathered again in the Indian capital Delhi a day after a police crackdown on supporters of India’s Gen Z-led Cockroach Janta Party.

It is demanding an overhaul of India’s education system after a medical entrance exam, taken by 2.28 million students, was cancelled following reports that the paper had leaked. A re-test was held weeks later.

More than 20 students have since died by suicide, with their families saying they were devastated by the scandal.

The movement has made the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan a key demand.

Protests saw overwhelming violence, with protesters wounded when police used batons and tear gas on them.

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#India #CockroachJantaParty #CJP #Delhi #GenZProtests #BBCNews

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The US and Saudi Arabia have signed a landmark deal that will reportedly allow the Gulf kingdom to develop a civilian nuclear programme.

The deal is described as a “peaceful nuclear co-operation agreement” that will provide “great access for American companies in the Saudi nuclear energy program”, according to the US energy department.

Text from the deal was not made public, but US media have reported that it could allow Saudi Arabia to enrich uranium in the future – which can be used as fuel for power plants, but also to make nuclear bombs.

Experts say that would mark a first for the US and could run the risk of future nuclear proliferation in an already unstable region.

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#US #SaudiArabia #BBCNews

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The artificial intelligence giant OpenAI – maker of ChatGPT – has said that some of its most advanced AI models went rogue and hacked another company, called Hugging Face.

Analysts say there is growing concern about the autonomy of AI agents, as they become more powerful.

Last year the AI firm Anthropic said that, during a test scenario, its Claude Opus 4 model had attempted to blackmail an employee, to stop him from replacing it. The company has also slowed the release of its Mythos model, which it said could outperform humans at some cyber-security and hacking tasks.

We ask the BBC’s technology reporter Chris Vallance why AI programmes act in unexpected ways, what regulation may be needed, and whether AI could one day become too “smart” to control.

Several tech firms are already working to develop Artificial General Intelligence, or AGI – a form of AI that is as good as, or better than, humans at learning and reasoning.

New episodes of the Global News Podcast are published twice a day. You can listen here: https://link.mgln.ai/GNP-YT

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00:00 Introduction
00:14 How an OpenAI agent went rogue
01:52 Why weren’t there guardrails in place for AI?
02:24 Anthropic’s blackmail incident
03:50 Hannah Fry and the AI mug experiment
05:07 AI’s growing capability
06:07 When will AI be “smarter” than humans?
07:00 Regulating AI
08:48 The AI “Pandora’s Box”

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