Starmer and Merz to sign UK–Germany treaty targeting smuggling gangs and boosting defence ties
Keir Starmer will welcome Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, to Downing Street on Thursday to sign a new bilateral treaty that promises tighter action on smuggling gangs, expanded defence exports and closer industrial ties between the UK and Germany.The bilateral friendship and cooperation treaty marks the latest phase of Starmer’s bid to rebuild Britain’s influence in Europe – without reopening formal ties with the EU.The treaty includes a German commitment to make it illegal to facilitate unauthorised migration to the UK, closing off a key supply route used by smugglers operating from German territory.UK officials say the new law, expected to be passed by the end of the year, will give police and prosecutors the tools to target warehouses and logistical hubs used to store small boats and engines linked to Channel crossings.Police will be able to raid warehouses, seize assets and arrest facilitators even where no migrants are present, a move the UK government says will significantly disrupt the supply chain behind dangerous Channel crossings.
This is a relatively late first visit for a German chancellor to the UK.Merz took office in May but officials on both sides say the delay was deliberate.In his first week, Merz travelled to Kyiv with Starmer, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, in a show of European unity.London and Berlin agreed Merz’s visit should coincide with the signing of the treaty.It is expected to be focused on mutual security, including cyber and hybrid attacks, stating that “there is no strategic threat to one which would not be a strategic threat to the other”.
A senior German official stressed the treaty is not intended to “replace” Nato guarantees or interfere with a future UK-EU security arrangement, but added that Brexit had left “gaps” in coordination that needed to be filled.The agreement will also reaffirm an earlier plan to co-develop long-range weapons systems – following the Trinity House agreement in December – and includes new measures to improve youth and academic mobility.A senior German official said: “We will enable visa-free school group travel between the UK and Germany, increasing opportunities for language, cultural and academic experiences.We will introduce the new programme by the end of 2025.”The official added that both governments would “convene a joint expert group” to explore broader mobility solutions for “educational and scientific institutions, cultural institutions and political organisations”.
While the scheme could serve as a future model for EU-UK cooperation, the official confirmed it would apply only to Germany for now.While the war in Gaza is not on the formal agenda, officials said the fallout from Donald Trump’s latest remarks on Russia – delivered just hours before Merz’s departure – could surface in private discussions.Sign up to Headlines EuropeA digest of the morning's main headlines from the Europe edition emailed direct to you every week dayafter newsletter promotionBerlin is increasingly concerned about the shifting transatlantic landscape, particularly the prospect of a second Trump administration weakening Nato cohesion or undermining European deterrence strategy.The treaty’s timing, one official noted, reflects “a need to adjust and renew” the UK-Germany relationship in a world where the US role in European security is, at best, in motion.The bigger picture for Starmer is that these back-to-back agreements with Paris and Berlin suggest a light activation of Europe’s informal “E3” grouping–with London, Paris and Berlin coordinating more closely on migration, defence and strategic competition.
For Merz, the visit offers a platform to show leadership abroad as his fragile CDU/CSU-SPD coalition faces internal strains.The coalition is under pressure to deliver on its promise to revive economic growth after a prolonged downturn and to ramp up defence spending amid concerns over Russian aggression.With the far-right AfD gaining traction, the visit provides an opportunity to portray competence and reinforce Germany’s industrial and security networks beyond the EU.
AI firms ‘unprepared’ for dangers of building human-level systems, report warns
Artificial intelligence companies are “fundamentally unprepared” for the consequences of creating systems with human-level intellectual performance, according to a leading AI safety group.The Future of Life Institute (FLI) said none of the firms on its AI safety index scored higher than a D for “existential safety planning”.One of the five reviewers of the FLI’s report said that, despite aiming to develop artificial general intelligence (AGI), none of the companies scrutinised had “anything like a coherent, actionable plan” to ensure the systems remained safe and controllable.AGI refers to a theoretical stage of AI development at which a system is capable of matching a human in carrying out any intellectual task. OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, has said its mission is to ensure AGI “benefits all of humanity”
Zuckerberg says Meta will build data center the size of Manhattan in latest AI push
Mark Zuckerberg proclaimed that Meta would spend hundreds of billions of dollars on developing artificial intelligence products in the near future and, to that end, construct a data center planned to be nearly the size of Manhattan.The parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp is among the large tech companies that have struck high-profile deals, and doled out multimillion-dollar pay packages to AI researchers in recent months – some as high as $100m – to fast-track work on machines that could outthink humans on many tasks, a concept known as “super-intelligence” or “artificial general intelligence”.Its first multi-gigawatt data center, dubbed Prometheus, is expected to come online in 2026, while another, called Hyperion, will be able to scale up to 5 gigawatts over the coming years, Zuckerberg said.“We’re building multiple more titan clusters as well. Just one of these covers a significant part of the footprint of Manhattan,” the billionaire CEO said
Internet-safe iPhone for children goes on sale for £99 a month
A neutered iPhone, stripped of web browsers and social media apps, is going on sale to parents worried about their children’s phone use, but the “peace and freedom” its creators promise will come at a steep price.The pared-back version of the top-selling handset, which will not allow internet searches, gaming or downloads of Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and other social media, is being offered in the UK for £99 a month by a US company that wants children to “reconnect with real life, not just reduce screen time”.At more than double the price of a typical two-year iPhone contract, Sage Mobile, an iPhone 16 handset loaded with custom software, will be a pricey way to avoid online harms. But it reflects growing parental dilemmas over the best way to start their children’s digital lives.Research has shown children with problematic smartphone use are twice as likely to experience anxiety and almost three times as likely to experience depression compared with those whose use did not resemble addiction
WeTransfer says user content will not be used to train AI after backlash
The popular filesharing service WeTransfer has said user content will not be used to train artificial intelligence after a change in its service terms had triggered a public backlash.The company, which is regularly used by creative professionals to transfer their work online, had suggested in new terms that uploaded files could be used to “improve machine learning models”.The clause had previously said the service had a right to “reproduce, modify, distribute and publicly display” content, and the updated version caused confusion among users.A WeTransfer spokesperson said user content had never been used, even internally, to test or develop AI models and that “no specific kind of AI” was being considered for use by the Dutch company.The firm said: “There’s no change in how WeTransfer handles your content in practice
Apple inks $500m deal for rare earth magnets with US mining firm
Apple has signed a $500m deal with a US firm for rare earth magnets, essential for manufacturing electronics, after China curbed exports of the scarce, vital materials.The backing from one of the world’s most valuable companies comes after MP Materials, which operates the only US rare earths mine, last week agreed to a multibillion-dollar deal with the US Department of Defense that will see the Pentagon become its largest shareholder. Both deals are aimed at mitigating supply chain risks after China limited the outgoing supply of rare earths earlier this year in response to Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs.The deal, announced on Tuesday, guarantees Apple a steady flow of rare earth magnets free from China – by far the world’s largest producer. For Apple, the cost to support US magnet production pales in comparison to the long-term risk that it could lose access entirely to the critical components, analysts said
Nothing Phone 3 review: a quirky, slick Android alternative
The Phone 3 is London-based Nothing’s latest attempt to get people to ditch Samsung or Apple phones for something a bit different, a little quirky and more fun.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.As the firm’s first high-end Android in several years, it has most of what you’d expect a flagship phone to have
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