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British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks during a news conference at the AI Safety Summit in Milton Keynes, near London, last November.
The UK is plotting to regulate AI
Policy officials in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology have begun drafting legislation to rein in the most potent dangers from AI, sources told Bloomberg News this week. While Europe has set the standard by passing its comprehensive AI Act, Sunak has pledged to take a more hands-off approach to the technology. It’s unclear how far the forthcoming bill, which is still in its early stages, will go in setting up safeguards. Separately, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport has also proposed amending the country’s copyright law to allow companies to “opt out” of having their content scraped by generative AI firms.
Specialists tend to the body of a victim outside a damaged shopping center hit by a missile strike in Belgorod, Russia, on Feb. 15, 2024.
Hard Numbers: Missiles hit Russian border city, ex-FBI informant in Biden bribe case faces charges, Gaza needs new ‘Marshall Plan,’ UK slips into recession, Bangkok’s air becomes unbreathable
7: At least seven people, including a one-year-old girl, were reportedly killed on Thursday by an apparent Ukrainian missile strike in Belgorod, the closest major Russian city to Ukraine. This is not the first time Belgorod has been targeted amid the Russia-Ukraine war – dozens were killed in a strike there last December, as Ukraine seeks to show that it can still strike Russia, even as Moscow’s forces slowly push forward the front lines in the Donbas. Meanwhile, the US warned that the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka, which has seen some of the worst fighting recently, is at risk of falling into Russian control.
25: Alexander Smirnov, a former FBI informant, has been charged with lying about President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden accepting payments from Ukrainian energy firm Burisma Holdings. The US Justice Department said Smirnov gave the false statements because he disliked Biden. If convicted, Smirnov faces up to 25 years in jail.
20 billion: The damage from the war in Gaza so far is estimated to be roughly $20 billion, according to a UN trade body official. The estimate is based on satellite images, but for an exact number, there will need to be an on-the-ground investigation. The official said that the Las Vegas-sized Gaza strip will need a “Marshall Plan” of its own after the Israel-Hamas war, in reference to the US-led effort to rebuild Europe after World War II.
0.3: The UK economy fell into a recession at the end of 2023, dealing yet another blow to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as he hopes for reelection in a vote widely expected later this year. Data released Thursday showed GDP fell 0.3% in the final three months of last year, after shrinking 0.1% in the previous quarter.
156: The air in Bangkok was so polluted on Thursday that city employees were ordered to work from home for two days, and private sector workers were strongly encouraged to do the same. How bad was it? The Thai capital’s Air Quality Index hit 156. When levels go above 100, it’s considered to be unhealthy for sensitive groups, while levels above 150 are dangerous for everyone.
The Stormont Parliament Buildings in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
A breakthrough in Northern Ireland?
DUP leaders claim that Rishi Sunak’s UK government has agreed to scrap the customs checks and paperwork that slow the flow of goods between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, a controversial feature of the Brexit deal that London originally cut with the EU as part of Brexit. The agreement, according to DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, “takes away the border within the UK between Northern Ireland and Great Britain.”
In exchange, the DUP has agreed to rejoin Northern Ireland’s power-sharing executive with opposition parties that favor closer ties to the Republic of Ireland, which remains a member of the EU. By rejoining, the DUP allows North Ireland’s executive and assembly to get back to work for the first time since it began boycotting those institutions in February 2022.
There’s a catch, and it may be a big one: Details of the deal will only be revealed on Wednesday. If it does what the DUP leader says it does, the EU will want a word. Stay tuned …
FILE PHOTO: New Israeli Shekel banknotes are seen in this picture illustration taken November 9, 2021.
Hard Numbers: Short sellers made bank ahead of Hamas attack, Sunak hits bottom over immigration, Spotify slashes workers, fresh violence in India’s Manipur, US envoy charged with helping Castro
862 million: Did some stock market investors know about Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack ahead of time? A new report alleges an unusual pattern of short-selling of Israeli securities in the weeks, and even hours, leading up to the deadly rampage. In one example, short sellers of stock in Leumi, Israel’s largest bank, reaped profits of $862 million by dumping stock between Sept. 14 and Oct. 5.
25.4: Don’t pull out that head of lettuce just yet, but British PM Rishi Sunak’s popularity among his own Tory Party has crashed to record lows. His net approval rating is now negative 25.4 points, and roughly three in five Tories who supported the party in 2019 say they are still with the party, with many eyeing Nigel Farage’s far-right Reform UK party instead. Conservative voters are angry with Sunak for failing to stop a record wave of asylum-seekers arriving in the UK.
17: “Music for everyone,” yes, but not jobs for everyone. Music streaming giant Spotify has slashed 17% of its workforce — some 1,500 people — in a move to try to turn an annual profit for the first time since it was founded in Stockholm in 2006.
13: At least 13 people were killed in the latest round of violence in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur, where ethnic clashes since May between the majority Hindu Meitei ethnic group and the predominantly Christian Kuki-Zo minority have killed at least 180 people and displaced tens of thousands. Earlier this year, PM Narendra Modi drew criticism for failing to react swiftly to violence in Manipur.
25: Did a former top US diplomat in Latin America use his 25-year-long career to promote the interests of the Cuban government? The FBI thinks so. Manuel Rocha, a former US ambassador to Argentina and Bolivia, has been arrested on suspicion that he was serving the Castro regime while officially working for los Yanquis.
Detail of a metope that forms part of the Parthenon sculptures, sometimes referred to in the UK as the Elgin Marbles, is displayed at the British Museum in London, Britain, January 25, 2023.
Everything is political™: Ancient sculptures edition
Sometimes life imitates art. Sometimes art imitates life. And sometimes — sometimes — art actually screws up a summit between two European heads of state. This week, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak abruptly canceled a meeting with his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis after the Greek leader demanded the return of the so-called “Elgin marbles” in a BBC interview. London says the Greeks had promised not to raise the issue publicly. Athens denies this.
What are the Elgin marbles? A set of sculptures from the Parthenon, the famous ancient Greek temple in Athens. They have been on display at the British Museum since the 19th century, when the British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire – Lord Elgin – plucked them off the badly neglected and half-wrecked Parthenon, which at the time was under Ottoman rule.
The government of modern Greece has long demanded their return to Athens. In 2009 the government even opened a swanky new museum to house the treasures. But the British have refused to hand them over. For one thing, London points out, Elgin had Ottoman permission to remove the artworks, which would otherwise have suffered further neglect and destruction.
But more importantly, a 1963 British law meant to shield artworks from politically motivated decisions actually prohibits the British Museum from repatriating works of art altogether. That law has come under fresh scrutiny amid wider debates about whether European museums should return items taken from former colonies.
Is Sunak OK? Using the marbles dispute to cancel a meeting that was meant to focus on “Gaza, Ukraine, climate, and migration” seems distinctly artless. It’s true that Sunak’s Conservative Party is especially adamant that the sculptures should stay in England. And yes, the PM is struggling with a sluggish economy and an intra-party split over immigration. But the Parthenon sculptures are hardly red meat for his base, and in any event, Athens has reportedly been nearing a quiet compromise with the British Museum.
The best explanation we’ve seen: a text message that someone on the EU Commission evidently sent to our Eurasia Group pal Mujtaba Rahman: “Has Sunak lost his marbles?”Former PM David Cameron has been appointed foreign secretary by PM Rishi Sunak.
David Cameron returns to British government
A familiar face has returned to Britain’s government. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak reshuffled his cabinet on Monday, pushing Home Secretary Suella Braverman out and installing James Cleverly in her place. Cleverly, who had been serving as foreign secretary, is being replaced by none other than former Prime Minister David Cameron.
The surprise move comes just days after Braverman wrote an op-ed for The Times, in which she said the police “play favorites” and described rallies in support of Gaza as “pro-Palestinian mobs.” The column caused a backlash among Conservatives.
Cameron has not been in Parliament since standing down in 2016, but he has been granted a seat in the House of Lords, which allows him to take up the new position — one he says he “gladly accepted.”
Sunak is clearly trying to stabilize his government ahead of the next general election, due by January 2025, and we’ll be watching to see whether Cameron’s appointment helps the Conservatives, currently down in the polls, woo voters.
Did the US steal the UK’s AI thunder?
By many accounts, his summit was a success. Sunak brought together an impressive group of world leaders — US Vice President Kamala Harris, UN Secretary-General António Guterres, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and even China’s Vice Minister of Science and Technology Wu Zhaohui. Industry leaders such as Tesla chief Elon Musk, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Microsoft President Brad Smith also attended.
The summit’s big achievement? The Bletchley Declaration is a 28-country commitment to develop and deploy AI in a way that’s “human-centric, trustworthy, and responsible.” In other words, it’s a promise to use the technology for good and not evil. Experts say Sunak’s ability to get China on board was particularly laudable, but the agreement itself is more of a statement of intent than anything with teeth.
Sunak may have earned plaudits from his star-studded summit, but one of the key no-shows stole some of his thunder from abroad. On Oct. 30, President Joe Biden signed a sweeping executive order on AI – or as sweeping as an executive order can be. Biden cannot unilaterally make new law — that’s the job of Congress — but he can direct many of the government’s departments and agencies to act under existing statutes.
What’s in the US plan? Biden’s order is filled with requests for new studies, reports, and recommendations. It involves six departments, including Justice and Homeland Security, charged with tackling AI-related issues related to civil rights and critical infrastructure, respectively. It also impacts agencies like the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which it tasks with developing watermarking standards for generative AI.
Invoking the Defense Production Act, Biden ordered AI companies working on advanced models to notify the federal government and clue them in to their ongoing safety testing. Many top AI companies already agreed to this earlier this summer, but the executive order codified these previously voluntary transparency requirements.
Dev Saxena, director of Eurasia Group’s geo‑technology practice, called the order “extremely comprehensive” and “ambitious,” noting that it could influence regulators around the world. “Given US leadership in this emerging technology, and the first-mover role it could play in global governance, principles, and tactics used in the executive order could spill over globally,” Saxena said.
Adam Conner, vice president for technology policy at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, called the order an “important first step” and was pleased it included "real accountability for federal government use of AI.” However, he lamented that it “stops short of prohibiting … really harmful uses of AI in things like federal law enforcement” and that it failed to go beyond setting minimum safety standards.
But some think it went too far. Brent Skorup, a senior research fellow at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center, a libertarian think tank, thinks the order contains some “very troubling assertions of government oversight” concerning AI. “Many modest-sized and open-source companies are going to have government scrutiny they likely never anticipated,” he said. However, like Conner, Skorup was heartened that it included “a prominent call to agencies to protect citizens’ privacy and civil liberties” when the government uses AI, which he said is “an issue that has gotten very little focus to date.”
While Sunak’s summit grabbed headlines last week, Biden’s order gave people something more to pore over. That could be a problem for Sunak, who is fighting for his political career and was counting on the AI summit to help position him as a global leader in AI.
“The prime minister’s conservative government is staring down some truly dire polling numbers and an election that has to be called by January 2025,” said Conner. “Sunak needed this AI summit to project success at home to help his political fortunes.”
“Downing Street gets due credit for pulling off a great event,” Saxena said, “but separately, the White House has laid out the most detailed set of policy prescriptions on AI, at the executive level, in US history.”
Art: Courtesy of Midjourney
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks to members of staff during a visit to a regional hospital.
Sunak's three strikes
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has had a tough week. First, one of his MPs, Boris Johnson loyalist Nadine Dorries, resigned, accusing Sunak of “betraying” conservatism, and saying “History will not judge you kindly.” Second, Standards Commissioner Daniel Greenberg sanctioned Sunak for failing to report his wife Akshata Murty’s holdings in a childcare company, Koru Kids, one of six agencies chosen to benefit from a new government program. Sunak had not disclosed Murty’s interest and sent a letter apologizing “for these inadvertent errors” while agreeing to rectify them.
Third, his wife’s holdings again made the headlines – but on a much larger scale. At issue is Murty’s 0.93% holding in Infosys, an Indian IT services and consultancy company co-founded by her father, Narayana Murty, in 1981, that’s valued at about £50 billion ($63b). Murty’s stake is worth £481 million ($605m), which the Sunday Times estimated to have constituted the bulk of the family’s wealth in 2023.
The conflict? Infosys stands to benefit from a proposed trade deal between India and the UK, which Sunak is set to discuss at a bilateral meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi at the upcoming G20 meeting in New Delhi. India wants more visas for tech workers, which would also help Infosys hire more contract employees, something the company is keen to do.
This win-win situation raised eyebrows in parliament, with opposition politicians calling for Sunak to be more transparent about just how the deal would benefit his family and with one expert suggesting he should recuse himself from the negotiations. Meanwhile, the British Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office warned a parliamentary trade committee that it should postpone its trip to India until next year, and said it will not be able to set up meetings for MPs with Indian officials and business people.
With the deal considered a crucial show of economic strength post-Brexit, and a general election to be held no later than January 25, 2025, the controversy could not come at a worse time for the UK and for Sunak. Last month, his Conservatives lost two seats in byelections that they were expected to win – and polls indicate that they face an uphill battle to stay in power after the next election.