NHS bosses say resident doctors’ strike will cause ‘maximum harm’
NHS bosses have accused resident doctors of seeking to cause “maximum harm” to patients by striking for six days next month over pay and jobs.Wes Streeting has given resident – formerly junior – doctors in England until 2 April to reconsider their rejection on Wednesday of his “generous” offer to end the dispute.It would have given them £700m in extra pay over the next three years.The British Medical Association’s decision to withdraw from talks with the government and NHS chiefs aimed at settling the long-running dispute has sparked a war of words.Glen Burley, NHS England’s financial reset and accountability director, said during NHS England’s board meeting on Thursday that the BMA’s decision was “really disappointing for patients.
I mean, this is a point where we know we’ll be at a busy stage again.So it feels like it’s trying to push maximum harm and we will try and make sure that doesn’t happen.”He added that he was “really shocked” that the BMA’s resident doctors committee opted against putting Streeting’s offer to all members, leaving it to them to decide whether or not to accept it.Jim Mackey, NHS England’s chief executive, said the BMA’s rejection and six-day strike from 7 April means that the dispute – which began in March 2023 – would continue for the forseeable future.Mackey said that after intensive negotiations with the BMA since early January, “we felt very, very, very close that we had a deal that could work for all parties.
It’s incredibly disappointing that it fell to bits at the last minute.“But we are where we are, so we are going to have to get ourselves organised about navigating what’s probably a long period now of dispute.” The NHS is bracing itself for industrial action equivalent to a “long distance” run, he added.On Wednesday, the BMA claimed talks “had been making good progress” until two weeks ago “when the government began to shift the goalposts”, but did not explain what had changed.As the Guardian reported at the time, ministers had offered to hand resident doctors £700m in additional income between 2026 and 2029.
They would have gained that by moving up through pay scales quicker, as a way of meeting their longstanding demand for ”full pay restoration” through a 26% salary uplift,However, the BMA insisted that medics should get the money in one year – 2026-27 – and, when the government ruled that out, walked away from the negotiations,In the Commons on Thursday, Streeting told the BMA that it had a week to look again at his offer – or risk him withdrawing it altogether, including a plan to expand specialist medical training places from 1,000 to 4,500, to meet another key BMA demand,Dr Jack Fletcher, the RDC’s chair, said it was “misleading” of Streeting to claim that resident doctors had seen their pay rise by 35% over the last four years – that was “wildly overstating the case” – because inflation over that period had eroded the value of the rise,
Wall Street hits six-month low as Trump ‘appears to lose his grip on markets’ – business live
The US stock market has dropped to its lowest level since last September, as analysts warn that president Trump may be losing his grip on the markets.The S&P 500 index has dropped by 0.8% today to 6,425 points, adding to Thursday’s 1.75% fall on the benchmark US stock market index.The tech-focused Nasdaq index is down 1%, also at a six-month low
Ministers should ‘start doing stuff’ to help farmers and cut fuel costs, says Asda boss
Asda’s executive chair has called on the government to “stand up and start doing stuff” to support farmers and ease the price of fuel as he warned that food prices would inevitably rise as a result of the conflict in the Middle East.Allan Leighton said farmers were under pressure but the supermarket had so far received “a trickle of requests not an avalanche” of cost price increases from its suppliers, as they were under pressure from higher fertiliser, energy and fuel costs.“I do believe it will create inflation,” he said, adding that the pace of cost increases was volatile and quite different across the various commodities.Leighton also warned of “temporary shortages’” at petrol stations, as supplies are squeezed by the conflict in the Middle East, with the RAC reporting on Friday that the average price of unleaded petrol in the UK had risen to 150p a litre.Leighton accused the government of benefiting from £3bn of income from fuel duties as prices rose and said it should ease these duties or support farmers on energy or other costs
Wikipedia bans AI-generated content in its online encyclopedia
Wikipedia has banned the use of artificial intelligence in the generation or rewriting of content for its voluminous online encyclopedia.In a recent policy change, Wikipedia said that the use of large language models (or LLMs) “often violates” its core principles and will not be allowed. The English language version of Wikipedia has more than 7.1m articles.The use of AI has been a contentious issue among Wikipedia’s community of volunteer editors but a vote among the site’s editors supported the ban, according to 404 Media
Number of AI chatbots ignoring human instructions increasing, study says
AI models that lie and cheat appear to be growing in number with reports of deceptive scheming surging in the last six months, a study into the technology has found.AI chatbots and agents disregarded direct instructions, evaded safeguards and deceived humans and other AI, according to research funded by the UK government-funded AI Safety Institute (AISI). The study, shared with the Guardian, identified nearly 700 real-world cases of AI scheming and charted a five-fold rise in misbehaviour between October and March, with some AI models destroying emails and other files without permission.The snapshot of scheming by AI agents “in the wild”, as opposed to in laboratory conditions, has sparked fresh calls for international monitoring of the increasingly capable models and come as Silicon Valley companies aggressively promote the technology as a economically transformative. Last week the UK chancellor also launched a drive to get millions more Britons using AI
McLaren and Lando Norris aim to put horror start behind them at Japanese Grand Prix
McLaren’s intent is clear as they enter the Japanese Grand Prix after a trying opening to the season: the only way is up. Suzuka’s singular and spectacular test will form another part of the team’s learning curve of the new regulations, with optimism that the defending champion Lando Norris’s title and the team’s constructors’ championship are still within reach.After Mercedes dominated the opening two rounds, McLaren found themselves third fastest but well behind Ferrari and as much as half a second off the pace. They were honest in acknowledging they had work to do on the aerodynamic side of the chassis and on understanding how best to exploit their new engines under the power management rules that are now a key part of performance.Moreover, with both cars failing to even make the start at the last round in China after two separate electrical issues with their battery units, there is no little impetus to at least put in a full race distance in order to better get to grips with their cars
RFU stops short of delivering full backing for Borthwick but denies Farrell talks
The Rugby Football Union chief executive, Bill Sweeney, has provided another strong indication that the head coach Steve Borthwick will lead England in this summer’s Nations Championship fixtures pending the outcome of a formal review into their disappointing Six Nations campaign.While Sweeney declined to state definitively that Borthwick will be in charge for a difficult run of Test matches against South Africa, Fiji and Argentina in July he said the RFU’s main focus in the review is providing additional support to the existing coaching team, as well as revealing that there have been no approaches made to Andy Farrell, the Ireland head coach whose contract expires after the 2027 World Cup.Sweeney’s frankness on Farrell could return to haunt him given the uncertainty over the British and Irish Lions coach’s long-term plans, and remaining doubts over Borthwick’s future beyond this summer.Farrell has a chequered history with the RFU, serving as England defence coach under Stuart Lancaster before the entire staff were sacked after they were eliminated at the pool stage of the home 2015 World Cup. He subsequently rejected an offer to join Eddie Jones’ backroom team three years later after failing to receive assurances that he would replace the Australian as head coach after the 2019 World Cup
Human rights groups cheer ‘watershed’ verdict in social media addiction trial
Brussels opens investigation into Snapchat amid concern over children’s safety
Google warns quantum computers could hack encrypted systems by 2029
Starmer vows to tackle social media’s ‘addictive features’ to protect children
Creator of AI actor Tilly Norwood says she received death threats over project
Charity Commission warns Alan Turing Institute of its legal duties after complaints