Nato intrigue
The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation is marking its 75th anniversary with a summit in Washington where it will make new announcements on Ukraine and assess global threats.
In his latest book Why War, Prof Richard Overy has a warning for Nato on the challenge it faces in Europe with war stalking the continent. The distinguished academic predicts that on current trends, European capitals will struggle to get enough western young people to agree to conscription to deter the Russia threat, with his new book concluding that mankind will continue to fight wars indefinitely.
“We're still living in an age where war is one of the options that states reach for now and in the future,” he added.
In terms of headlines, Keir Starmer’s visit to the Nato summit in Washington is certainly featuring strongly. The new prime minister has already generated more buzz in the US capital than recent visits by British leaders, after Brexit, aid cuts and successive domestic crises under the Conservative Party saw the UK’s international relevance shrink.
A sense of intrigue has sprung up in Washington over Mr Starmer's landslide and the centrist politics that he promises.
A meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has seen warm words for Starmerite plans for a reset with relations between the UK and Europe. “The Chancellor welcomed the Prime Minister’s commitment to re-setting the UK’s European partnerships, noting how important our friendships with like-minded countries will be in a challenging international environment," a Downing St spokesman said. "They discussed the importance of having the widest possible cooperation across all aspects of the relationship."
All eyes on the Blenheim Palace meeting of the European Political Community next week.
?Labour's Streeting ahead
Wes Streeting is the essential character in the new UK government. Flush with the newness of power, Labour has sought to show it is taking immediate charge in its first five days.
Its mandate is huge, stemming from an almost unheard of 172 seat majority in parliament. When power shifts so decisively the presumption must be that things have gone deeply wrong in the country.
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Mr Streeting is the pointman for how the government meets that cry for change. And like everyone else in the new administration of Keir Starmer, his mantra is growth. Speaking at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change on Tuesday, Mr Streeting spoke of his responsibility to fix Britain's creaking healthcare services.
“We need to rethink our role in government and in our country at large. This is no longer simply a public services department, this is an economic growth department,” he said. “Working together to a shared mission, this government will get Britain booming.”
Tony Blair on AI
The Future of Britain conference just south of the Thames from Westminster was full of big hitters from the world of technology, business, defence and politics.
Tony Blair possessed a slightly bigger majority in his heyday and duly expressed his relief that the party was back. Not least because his conference so soon after the election would otherwise have been a very stale affair. Happily the sun was shining again on Labour.
Top of the agenda of the former prime minister is the potential of artificial intelligence. Effectively harnessing the 21st century technological revolution is something Mr Blair believes could save tens of billions from the annual budget within the next decade.
“We are living through a time of huge advances in medical science and treatment. All of it accelerated by artificial intelligence and the application of AI to data,” he said. “The most exciting opportunity the tech revolution can offer is in respect to government itself. ”
Jared Haddon, the TBI director for AI in the GCC, told The National that the kind of AI innovations raised in the UK were “commonplace” already in the Middle East's most advanced economies. He said the comparative advantage of the region in energy supplies – not least its renewables – was providing a “redefining moment in digital infrastructure".