Reeves plans to give England’s regional leaders a share of national tax revenues

Rachel Reeves has announced that the Treasury will draw up proposals to hand England’s mayors a share of national tax revenues as part of a radical plan to rebalance the economy.The chancellor promised “a genuine break with the past” that would shift spending power away from Westminster, as she promised to create investment-led growth across the UK.Reeves was delivering the Mais lecture – the second time she has given the high-profile annual address at Bayes Business School in London.It is no coincidence that the UK is “the most politically centralised of advanced democracies, and one of the most geographically unequal”, Reeves said.Treasury officials will bring forward a plan at the autumn budget to allow regional leaders to receive a share of national taxes, starting with income tax, she added

Bentley to cut hundreds of UK jobs amid ‘challenging global market environment’

Bentley is to cut 275 jobs in the UK as the carmaker faces a “challenging global market environment”.The luxury brand, owned by Germany’s Volkswagen, is preparing to launch its first all-electric model but acknowledged it had some work to do to persuade consumers to switch away from internal combustion engine vehicles.The company said on Tuesday it was slashing about 6% of its 4,600-strong workforce by cutting about 150 office-based permanent staff and by not filling vacant positions or replacing employees.The announcement came as the company reported a 42% fall in annual operating profit to €216m (£187m) in 2025, compared with a year earlier.While this marked a seventh consecutive year of profitability at Bentley, which produces cars at its factory in Crewe in Cheshire, the company said its profits had taken a hit from the impact of US tariffs introduced by Donald Trump and foreign exchange changes and weaker sales in China, as well as decisions made by its parent company, VW

Teenage girls sue Musk’s xAI, accusing Grok tool of creating child sexual abuse material

A group of three teenage girls, two of whom are minors, filed a lawsuit on Monday against Elon Musk’s xAI artificial intelligence company alleging that its Grok image generator used photos of them to produce and distribute child sexual abuse material. The class-action lawsuit is the first filed by minors following Grok’s rampant generation of nonconsensual nude images earlier this year.“xAI chose to profit off the sexual predation of real people, including children, despite knowing full well the consequences of creating such a dangerous product,” Vanessa Baehr-Jones, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said in a statement.The suit, which was brought by three Tennessee teenagers but filed in California, where xAI is headquartered, details how the girls discovered that nude, AI-altered images of them were uploaded to a Discord server and shared online without their knowledge.After they alerted law enforcement to the images, according to the complaint, police arrested a suspect later that month and found child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on his phone that was allegedly produced using xAI’s image and video generation technology

Google scraps AI search feature that crowdsourced amateur medical advice

Google has dropped a new artificial intelligence search feature that gave users crowdsourced health advice from amateurs around the world.The company had said its launch of “What People Suggest”, which provided tips from strangers, showed “the potential of AI to transform health outcomes across the globe”.But Google has since quietly removed the feature, according to three people familiar with the decision.A Google spokesperson confirmed “What People Suggest” had been scrapped. The move came as part of a “broader simplification” of its search page and had nothing to do with the quality or safety of the new feature, the spokesperson said

Broncos reportedly send first-round pick to Dolphins in return for receiver Waddle

The Denver Broncos have reportedly traded for Miami Dolphins receiver Jaylen Waddle, a move that would add offensive firepower to a team that fell one win short of the Super Bowl last season.ESPN reports that the Broncos will send first-, third- and fourth-round picks in this year’s draft to the Dolphins in return for Waddle. The Broncos will also receive Miami’s fourth-round pick as part of the deal. If the deal is confirmed, the Dolphins will own the 11th and 30th picks in the first round of this year’s draft as they attempt to build around newly acquired quarterback Malik Willis.The Dolphins selected Waddle with the sixth overall pick in the 2021 draft, reuniting him with his college quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who was released by the Dolphins earlier this month

‘That’s why we wear USA’: US players embrace military ties before WBC final against Venezuela

The US will play Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic final on Tuesday, a meeting that comes after recent tensions between the two countries.In January, Donald Trump ordered a military operation that captured Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro. Since then, the US has launched a war against Iran, during which the American players have paid tribute to their country’s military. Players have saluted each other after victories and the team invited Robert J O’Neill, a former Navy Seal who claims he killed Osama bin Laden, to give a locker room speech. Two of the team’s pitchers, Paul Skenes and Griffin Jax, played at the Air Force Academy and have spoken of the importance of honoring the military