Jeremy Corbyn confirms talks about forming new party with Zarah Sultana
Jeremy Corbyn has confirmed he is in discussions about creating a new leftwing political party, hours after the MP Zarah Sultana announced she was quitting Labour to co-lead the project,Sultana, the MP for Coventry South who had the Labour whip suspended last year for voting against the government over the two-child limit on benefits, said on Thursday night she was quitting Labour and would “co-lead the founding of a new party” with Corbyn,Her announcement took some on the left of Labour by surprise and was seen as premature and potentially counterproductive,While Corbyn has long hinted at plans to establish a more organised platform for leftwing and pro-Palestinian campaigning, he has so far avoided confirming any formal structure or leadership arrangements,Corbyn, the MP for Islington North, is understood to be reluctant to take on the title of leader, as he has a preference for collective decision-making, and he believes imposing a hierarchy too soon could risk fragmenting the coalition of like-minded MPs he has spent months encouraging to work together.
In a statement on X, Corbyn, who was blocked from standing for Labour at last year’s election and was suspended from the party in 2020 for his response to its antisemitism report, on Friday congratulated Sultana “on her principled decision to leave the Labour party”.He also expressed his delight that “she will help us build a real alternative”.“The democratic foundations of a new kind of political party will soon take shape,” he continued.“Discussions are ongoing – and I am excited to work alongside all communities to fight for the future people deserve.“Together we can create something that is desperately missing from our broken political system: hope.
”A Labour source said: “The electorate has twice given its verdict on a Jeremy Corbyn-led party.”John McDonnell and Diane Abbott said on Friday they would not be signing up to a new party.Sultana’s departure from the Labour party makes her the sixth member of the Independent Alliance of non-party-aligned MPs, which includes Corbyn, giving the group a bigger presence in the Commons than the Greens and Plaid Cymru.Polling conducted by More in Common shows a leftwing bloc focused on Gaza, poverty and the cost of living could attract about 10% of Labour’s 2019 supporters in urban seats.Alliance insiders understand there could be overlap with the Green party, but believe they have different electorates in different parts of the country.
Reform UK figures welcomed the prospect of the leftwing vote splintering further.At the Spectator summer party on Thursday night, news of Sultana’s resignation and talk of a new left alliance prompted a cheer from some of the Reform guests milling around the garden.“They’ll take 10% off Labour,” one of them predicted, half joking.Meanwhile, the Green party has ramped up its social media campaigns urging disgruntled voters on the left to join it and vote in the forthcoming leadership election.Sultana is seen by allies as one of the left’s most visible figures.
Some around Starmer had quietly hoped before her suspension that she might help Labour connect with younger voters and communities angry over issues including Gaza.The atmosphere within the alliance this week has been described as feeling calmer than it looked.A meeting hours before Sultana went public was painted as constructive with no serious bust-ups.Insiders said Corbyn’s silence for about 18 hours after Sultana’s statement should not be seen as a sign of a split between the two.On Thursday night, Sultana posted a statement on X, which said: “Westminster is broken but the real crisis is deeper.
” The “two-party system offers nothing but managed decline and broken promises”, she added,On Friday, the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, dismissed Sultana’s accusations, and said the former Labour MP had always “taken a very different view to most people in the government” on several issues,In a series of broadcast interviews, Cooper refused to be drawn on whether she was concerned the new party could post a threat to Labour,The reaction to Sultana’s announcement has been mixed on Labour benches, with those on the party’s left sad to see her leave and some celebrating her departure,
AI helps find formula for paint to keep buildings cooler
AI-engineered paint could reduce the sweltering urban heat island effect in cities and cut air-conditioning bills, scientists have claimed, as machine learning accelerates the creation of new materials for everything from electric motors to carbon capture.Materials experts have used artificial intelligence to formulate new coatings that can keep buildings between 5C and 20C cooler than normal paint after exposure to midday sun. They could also be applied to cars, trains, electrical equipment and other objects that will require more cooling in a world that is heating up.Using machine learning, researchers at universities in the US, China, Singapore and Sweden designed new paint formulas tuned to best reflect the sun’s rays and emit heat, according to a peer-reviewed study published in the science journal Nature.It is the latest example of AI being used to leapfrog traditional trial-and-error approaches to scientific advances
Google undercounts its carbon emissions, report finds
In 2021, Google set a lofty goal of achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2030. Yet in the years since then, the company has moved in the opposite direction as it invests in energy-intensive artificial intelligence. In its latest sustainability report, Google said its carbon emissions had increased 51% between 2019 and 2024.New research aims to debunk even that enormous figure and provide context to Google’s sustainability reports, painting a bleaker picture. A report authored by non-profit advocacy group Kairos Fellowship found that, between 2019 and 2024, Google’s carbon emissions actually went up by 65%
‘A billion people backing you’: China transfixed as Musk turns against Trump
Few break-ups have as many gossiping observers as the fallout between the once inseparable Donald Trump and Elon Musk.The ill-fated bromance between the US president and the world’s richest man, which once raised questions about American oligarchy, is now being pored over by social media users in China, many of whom are Team Musk.The latest drama comes from Musk’s pledge to found a new political party, the America party, if Trump’s sweeping tax and spending bill, which Musk described as “insane” passed the Senate this week (it did). Musk had already vowed to unseat lawmakers who backed Trump’s flagship piece of legislation, which is expected to increase US national debt by $3.3tn
AI companies start winning the copyright fight
Hello, and welcome to TechScape. If you need me after this newsletter publishes, I will be busy poring over photos from Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez’s wedding, the gaudiest and most star-studded affair to disrupt technology news this year. I found it a tacky and spectacular affair. Everyone who was anyone was there, except for Charlize Theron, who, unprompted, said on Monday: “I think we might be the only people who did not get an invite to the Bezos wedding. But that’s OK, because they suck and we’re cool
China hosts first fully autonomous AI robot football match
They think it’s all over … for human footballers at least.The pitch wasn’t the only artificial element on display at a football match in China on Saturday. Four teams of humanoid robots took on each other in Beijing, in games of three-a-side powered by artificial intelligence.While the modern game has faced accusations of becoming near-robotic in its obsession with tactical perfection, the games in China showed that AI won’t be taking Kylian Mbappé’s job just yet.Footage of the humanoid kickabout showed the robots struggling to kick the ball or stay upright, performing pratfalls that would have earned their flesh-and-blood counterparts a yellow card for diving
Whitehall’s ambition to cut costs using AI is fraught with risk
A Dragons’ Den-style event this week, where tech companies will have 20 minutes to pitch ideas for increasing automation in the British justice system, is one of numerous examples of how the cash-strapped Labour government hopes artificial intelligence and data science can save money and improve public services.Amid warnings from critics that Downing Street has been “drinking the Kool-Aid” on AI, the Department of Health and Social Care this week announced an AI early warning system to detect dangerous maternity services after a series of scandals, and Wes Streeting, the health secretary, said he wants one in eight operations to be conducted by a robot within a decade.AI is being used to prioritise actions on the 25,000 pieces of correspondence the Department for Work and Pensions receives each day and to detect potential fraud and error in benefit claims. Ministers even have access to an AI tool that is supposed to provide a “vibe check” on parliamentary opinion to help them weigh the political risks of policy proposals.Again and again, ministers are turning to technology to tackle acute crises that in the past might have been dealt with by employing more staff or investing more money
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