European defence company shares fall amid Ukraine peace talk hopes; Novo Nordisk reports Ozempic fails to help with Alzheimer’s – as it happened

European defence company stocks have dropped at the start of trading, and wholesale gas price are down too, after officials from Washington and Kyiv held weekend talks in Geneva over how to end the Ukraine-Russia war.Last night, the US and Ukraine said they had created an “updated and refined peace framework” to end the war with Russia, after a row over an original US-backed document that included many of Moscow’s demands.The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said he was “very optimistic” about the progress of the talks in Switzerland.Rubio told reporters:“I think we made a tremendous amount of progress.We’ve really moved forward, so I feel very optimistic that we’re going to get there in a very reasonable period of time, very soon

More than 650 jobs at risk as scrap metals giant files for liquidation

More than 650 workers face the prospect of redundancy after the scrap metals group Unimetals filed for compulsory liquidation.The owners of Unimetals Recycling (UK) filed a winding-up petition for the business on Monday, after failing to find a buyer.The scrap metals industry generates billions of pounds of revenue each year by recycling metals such as steel, aluminium and copper that can be made into new products.The switch to electric arc furnaces that melt down recycled steel has given added hope for the sector’s longer-term prospects.Unimetals was founded in 2023 by Jamie Afnaim and Alec Sellem, two metals traders, according to UK company disclosures

Can’t tech a joke: AI does not understand puns, study finds

Comedians who rely on clever wordplay and writers of witty headlines can rest a little easier, for the moment at least, research on AI suggests.Experts from universities in the UK and Italy have been investigating whether large language models (LLMs) understand puns – and found them wanting.The team from Cardiff University, in south Wales, and Ca’ Foscari University of Venice concluded that LLMs were able to spot the structure of a pun but did not really get the joke.An example they tested was: “I used to be a comedian, but my life became a joke.” If they replaced this with: “I used to be a comedian, but my life became chaotic,” LLMs still tended to perceive the presence of a pun

Civil liberties groups call for inquiry into UK data protection watchdog

Dozens of civil liberties campaigners and legal professionals are calling for an inquiry into the UK’s data protection watchdog, after what they describe as “a collapse in enforcement activity” after the scandal of the Afghan data breach.A total of 73 academics, senior lawyers, data protection experts and organisations including Statewatch and the Good Law Project, have written a letter to Chi Onwurah, the chair of the cross-party Commons science, innovation and technology committee, coordinated by Open Rights Group, calling for an inquiry to be held into the office of the information commissioner, John Edwards.“We are concerned about the collapse in enforcement activity by the Information Commissioner’s Office, which culminated in the decision to not formally investigate the Ministry of Defence (MoD) following the Afghan data breach,” the signatories state. They warn of “deeper structural failures” beyond that data breach.The Afghan data breach was a particularly serious leak of information relating to individual Afghans who worked with British forces before the Taliban seized control of the country in August 2021

England know how to win under Borthwick – now to handle great expectations | Gerard Meagher

After 11 successive victories, England will go into next year’s Six Nations as the team to beatA Six Nations grand slam, plus Nations Championship victories against South Africa and Fiji and England would head to Argentina next July having equalled their record run of 18 wins, in pursuit of a ground-breaking No 19. Sounds simple put like that, but there’s more chance of Steve Borthwick busting his best moves in England’s next viral TikTok video than him entertaining any thought of record runs.That is not to criticise, because even though Borthwick is allergic to looking too far ahead, doing so would be to get drastically carried away. The point here is that the more England keep winning, and they will enter the Six Nations next year as the team to beat after 11 on the trot, the more expectation increases.We got a glimpse of it just before half-time against Argentina

Budget may deliver result desired from racing’s ‘Axe the Tax’ campaign

After many months of campaigning, an unprecedented “strike” when racing relocated to London to make its voice heard and an intervention by a former prime minister, no less, the UK’s second-biggest spectator sport will soon discover whether its concerted, and impressively united, effort to avert a tax hike on racing bets, has paid off. With all due respect to the competitors at Wetherby, Market Rasen and Southwell on Wednesday, the main event for racing will be the 12.30 at Westminster, as Rachel Reeves rises to deliver her much-anticipated budget speech.The only result that can be ruled out with confidence is that gambling duties will be left untouched. There is a gaping black hole to be filled in the public finances and the UK’s gambling industry, which had a Gross Gambling Yield (total stakes minus total payouts) of £15