Investment or waste? How the M4 relief road plan for Newport sums up Wales’s economic quandary

It is afternoon rush hour on the M4 and drivers are yet again making slow progress around the city of Newport, often seen as the gateway to south Wales given its location between Cardiff and Bristol.Cars and lorries are stuck in gridlocked traffic in both directions on the approach to the Brynglas tunnels, where the road narrows to two lanes in each direction, while flashing lights warn motorists in Welsh and English of a ciw (queue).Traffic jams may be an everyday reality for commuters and businesses trying to move goods around, but they have also become a hotly debated topic before the Senedd elections on 7 May, in a vote predicted to bring sweeping political change to the principality, and send Labour into opposition for the first time since devolution in 1999.Congestion on this part of the M4 – the main route linking south Wales with England – has been complained about by businesses and commuters for decades, while a relief road around Newport has been proposed for almost as long. Motorists say tailbacks cost time and money, and make the country less attractive to potential investors

Trump may not be a fan of clean energy but Iran war is accelerating global shift from oil and gas | Heather Stewart

Operation Epic Fury has thus far achieved none of Donald Trump’s war aims, but it may well accelerate the global transition towards the clean energy he loves to hate.Last week brought the latest exchange of verbal blows in the standoff over the strait of Hormuz. Iran was “choking like a stuffed pig” on the oil it was unable to export because of the US blockade, Trump claimed.From Tehran, the supreme leader shot back that foreigners who “maliciously covet” the waterway “have no place there except at the bottom of its waters”. To the rest of the world, the exchange raised the spectre of a prolonged impasse

AI facial recognition oversight lagging far behind technology, watchdogs warn

Britain’s biometrics watchdogs have warned that national oversight of AI-powered face scanning to catch criminals is lagging far behind the technology’s rapid growth.With the Metropolitan police almost doubling the number of faces they scan in London over the past 12 months and a rising use of the technology by retailers in the UK, Prof William Webster, the biometrics commissioner for England and Wales, said the “slow pace of legislation was trying to catch up with the real world” and “the horse had gone before the cart”.Dr Brian Plastow, who holds the same role in Scotland, warned the technology was “nowhere near as effective as the police claim it is” and said there was a “patchwork legal framework” throughout the UK. He said in England and Wales, police were “really just marking their own homework”.The watchdogs said new laws were needed to govern when and how police forces used live facial recognition technology, with a new regulator to clamp down on misuse

Guilty until proven innocent: shoppers falsely identified by facial recognition system struggle to clear their names

When Ian Clayton, a retired health and safety professional from Chester, popped into Home Bargains one February lunchtime, he was suddenly approached by a stern-looking member of staff.“Excuse me, can you please put everything down and leave the shop now?” she said. Clayton recalled how he was stunned, and it was only as he was briskly walked past the tills towards the exit that he stopped to ask what he had done.“You’ve come up on our system called Facewatch as a shoplifter,” came the reply. “There’s a poster in the window

Shaun Murphy v Wu Yize: World Snooker Championship final day one – live

Shaun Murphy 6-8 Wu Yize A missed black means no century but Shaun needed that badly and took the chance well.Shaun Murphy 5-8 Wu Yize (83-0) Shaun secures the frame.Shaun Murphy 5-8 Wu Yize (41-0) This is a crucial visit and Shaun is navigating it well. There’s still a bit of work to do, nit nothing too difficult.Shaun Murphy 5-8 Wu Yize (17-0) Shaun espies a plant, black into red, and goes at it, potting the ball he sends into them; he’ll not mind

Emilio Gay shines for Durham, Northants grab first win: county cricket, day three – as it happened

Emilio Gay’s third century of the season may have come with an unspectacular trowel down to third man, but it could be career-defining. Like Zak Crawley, Gay is playing Division Two cricket, but two of his Durham centuries have come against the challenging Lancashire, and now Middlesex, attacks, even if the Lord’s pitch was friendly. David Bedingham also flew to a hundred, while poor Kasey Aldridge was lbw for 99.Gay’s former county Northamptonshire grabbed their first win of the summer, after Ben Sanderson rampaged through Worcestershire’s second dig. His six wickets in 29 balls skittled an innings that had been progressing, if slowly, at 88 for two