Faster

• The euro zone economy grew faster than anticipated in the last quarter, driven by increased investment in artificial intelligence, robust government spending, and confident consumers. • Key regional performers included Spain, which grew by 0.7% (beating the 0.6% forecast), and the Netherlands, which expanded by 0.4%, double the expected rate. • Major economies including Germany, France, and Italy each recorded a quarterly growth rate of 0.2%.

• The European Union has introduced a new voluntary charter designed to grant startups and small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) faster access to cutting-edge research laboratories and pilot facilities. • European Commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva stated that providing these innovative companies with high-tech infrastructure is essential for developing and testing ideas more efficiently. • This initiative matters because it aims to significantly reduce the time it takes for European firms to transition research-phase innovations into commercially viable market products.

Exclusive: King’s College London analysis finds diabetes and hypertension are more common in Black African and Caribbean peopleStroke risk factors including high blood pressure and diabetes are rising faster among people from Black African and Caribbean backgrounds compared with their white counterparts, according to analysis.Researchers at King’s College London analysed data from more than 8,500 adults over a 30-year period from the South London Stroke Register, one of the longest-running population-based stroke registers in the world. Continue reading...

Pharmaceuticals company is investing £400m in UK life sciences and moving scientists to new Cambridge R&D siteBusiness live – latest updatesThe British drugmaker GSK is to announce sweeping job cuts as part of a £1.9bn cost-cutting programme to pay for a £400m investment in UK life sciences over the next three years, including in a new research and development centre in Cambridge, as it looks to develop drugs more quickly under its new chief executive.The pharmaceuticals company announced on Tuesday it will move more than 1,000 of its scientists to its new site on the Cambridge biomedical campus. It will close its R&D site in Stevenage in Hertfordshire by 2029, while upgrading its R&D laboratories at nearby Ware and moving some employees there. Continue reading...

• Nobuo Miwa, president of the Tokyo-based security firm S&J, warns that artificial intelligence is making cyberattacks significantly faster and more sophisticated. • Miwa highlighted that AI now enables the creation of malicious attack programs "in the blink of an eye," drastically reducing the time required for hackers to develop threats. • This shift matters because it lowers the barrier to entry for attackers and increases the speed at which vulnerabilities can be exploited across networks.

• The Indian government is proposing a 2026 bill to introduce faster trials and longer jail terms for those involved in paper leaks. • This legislative move aims to counter protests by the CJP and Congress, who are demanding the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. • The bill seeks to assuage a growing youth movement by strengthening legal penalties and streamlining the judicial process compared to the 2024 law.

Is the machinery of state jammed, or is the reason for the slow pace of change more personal than institutional?Eighteen months into the 24 it turned out he would last in No 10, Keir Starmer was a man in a hurry. The biggest frustration with the job, he told MPs, concerned “speed and the ability to get things done”. The underlying problem, he thought, was that every time something had gone wrong in the past, “successive governments have put in place another procedure or another body or another consultation to try to stop ourselves ever making a mistake again”.In airing his impatience, if little else, Starmer is in tune with the country he has become too unpopular to lead. Julian Gallie, a pollster at Merlin Strategy, says voters have been “crying out for change for a decade”, even if they have sent inconsistent signs about what sort of change it should be. The Brexit vote, the Corbyn surge of 2017, the Johnson majority of 2019 and the Tory rout of 2024 can all be seen as “a desperate roll of the dice against a status quo” that somehow feels impossible to shift. Continue reading...