Decisions

Burnham says ‘no one in government loses when power is shared’ as he revives Brown-era national economic councilIt’s not just a No 10 in the north, it’s an engine for growth throughout the whole UK | Andy BurnhamRegional mayors are to be given a leading role in the UK’s economic policy, Andy Burnham has said, as he called the opening of No 10 North “the biggest rebalancing of power our country has seen”.The new prime minister has revived the national economic council [NEC], first set up by Gordon Brown to put the government on a war footing during the 2008 financial crash, arguing that economic growth requires the same level of urgency, focus and collective action. Continue reading...

• AI tools utilizing Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Machine Learning (ML) are transitioning from pilot projects to routine use in drug development. • These technologies extract structured clinical data from unstructured Electronic Health Record (EHR) text, such as pathology reports and physician notes. • This shift allows sponsors and regulators to enhance research processes, specifically improving trial design and safety surveillance.

Move comes as prediction platforms rapidly gain popularity and offer opportunities to bet on virtually anythingKalshi is expanding its wagers to include bets on drug trial results, an expansion into new predictions territory as platforms continue to rapidly gain popularity and offer opportunities to bet on virtually anything.The betting platform said the expansion into clinical trials and FDA regulatory decisions would help surface information on drug trials that otherwise go unreported. A publicly listed contract on a drug trial would produce a “continuously updated, public probability that reflects the weight of the evidence, rather than the preferred message of the trial sponsor”, the company said. Continue reading...

Heatwaves, high energy prices, calls for reindustrialisation and North Sea drilling are all high on the to-do listUK politics live – latest updatesWildfires cast a pall of smoke this week over Greater Manchester, whose former mayor Andy Burnham stands on the threshold of No 10. Amid three UK heatwaves so far this year, which have killed thousands of people in England and Wales, damaged harvests and left children crying in classrooms, the new prime minister’s plans for the climate crisis remain as shrouded as his city.“Burnham has been very quiet about the climate [crisis] so far,” says Chris Venables, an environmental campaigner and fellow at the Green Alliance thinktank. “I don’t think [it] is at the forefront of his mind, but that does not mean he will water down this agenda.” Continue reading...

• A new report by Sonata Software claims that building AI-ready data platforms allows enterprises to consolidate data from various business functions into a single, trusted system. • These platforms are designed to reduce manual labor, enhance the accuracy of forecasting, and accelerate the overall business decision-making process. • This shift matters as it enables companies to leverage integrated data more effectively to maintain a competitive edge through AI-driven insights.

• Senior banker and investor relations professional Gulamaly Hussain cautioned that AI should support, rather than replace, investor judgment during a virtual interaction with startups, SMEs, and students. • Hussain acknowledged that while AI has significantly increased the speed and accessibility of investment research, it lacks the essential human discipline and sound financial thinking required for complex decisions. • This perspective highlights the critical need for a hybrid approach to finance, where technology handles data processing while humans provide the strategic oversight and ethical judgment.

VW to propose 100,000 job losses to board and says car plants could be put under foreign ownership to save jobsEurope live – latest updatesThe German car industry has warned of a potential collapse of employment in the sector in Europe unless society and workers accept that “bold decisions” are needed to address competition from the Chinese and other rivals.Volkswagen is preparing to formally propose up to 100,000 job losses to its supervisory board on Thursday, a move that has triggered a wave of protests. Continue reading...