UK PM Rishi Sunak To Announce New Initiative For Developing Climate-Resilient Crops

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will announce a new science initiative to bring together work on developing climate-resilient crops as his government hosts a Global Food Security Summit in London on Monday.

The summit, a joint initiative between Britain, Somalia, the UAE, the Children's Investment Fund Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is due to be attended by representatives from more than 20 countries.

"We must take action to address the underlying, and often unseen, causes of global food insecurity," Sunak said.

"From the impact of Russia's war in Ukraine, to the effect of major natural disasters on food production ... alongside our partners, the UK is playing a leading role in finding solutions to some of the greatest global challenges of our time."

Britain said the new virtual science hub would be led CGIAR, a global research partnership which unites international organisations working on food security, and would link UK scientists with research initiatives to develop crops that can withstand the impacts of climate change and are more disease resistant.

The British government will also publish details of a new international development policy document, or White Paper, on food insecurity setting out plans to work in partnership with countries to tackle extreme poverty and climate change rather than just providing aid money.

Priorities will include mobilising international finance and harnessing innovation, Britain's Foreign Office said.

Britain also said it was providing up to 100 million pounds ($125 million) in humanitarian funding to countries worst hit by food insecurity including Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan and Afghanistan, and to countries impacted by climate-related cyclones and drought like Malawi.

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Sam Altman's Ouster Marks New Twist In 7-Year Microsoft, AI Relationship

Microsoft's hiring of ousted OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on Monday marks another twist in the seven-year-old partnership between the US giant and the startup that created ChatGPT.

Here a key moments in the history of their partnership:

Founded as a non-profit

OpenAI is founded in 2015 by entrepreneurs and investors, including Sam Altman, Greg Brockman and Tesla chief Elon Musk.

It is established as a not-for-profit organisation that publishes open source research and software available to all.

Teams up with Microsoft 

Musk quits the project in 2018 following clashes with the board of directors.

Altman transforms OpenAI into a "capped profit" company and seeks new investors.

Microsoft injects $1 billion 

In 2019, Microsoft invests $1 billion in OpenAI, largely in the form of computing credits, in exchange for a role in the future commercialisation of its technologies.

The goal for Microsoft is to develop its cloud offering, where it competes with Google (Alphabet) and Amazon.

GPT-3 launched 

OpenAI launches GPT-3 in 2020, the third version of its large-scale language model, trained on huge volumes of text scraped from the internet by Microsoft's computing infrastructure.

This model is far more powerful than its competitors, with some 175 billion parameters.

Supercomputer trains AI

Microsoft in 2020 says it has built a supercomputer exclusively designed to train large OpenAI models.

Its cloud network, Azure, can now make these systems available to Microsoft customers.

AI-generated images

OpenAI in 2021 says it has developed DALL-E, an AI model capable of generating images when provided with descriptions.

ChatGPT goes public 

OpenAI achieves worldwide attention with the November 2022 launch of ChatGPT, a language model open to the public, initially available free of charge.

Microsoft reportedly seeks stake 

In January 2023, Microsoft announces "an investment of several billion dollars over several years" -- $10 billion, according to US media.

It says it is "investing in the development of specialised supercomputer systems" for its partnership with OpenAI, but makes no mention of acquiring a stake in its capital.

According to US media, Microsoft had sought to buy 49 percent of OpenAI, in an offer that valued it at $29 billion.

Microsoft integrates GPT-4 into products

In March 2023, Microsoft says it is integrating the GPT-4 version of OpenAI into its consumer products such as search engine Bing, Outlook email and Office suite (Word, Excel), but will charge users extra.

Microsoft not informed of dismissal

Microsoft is not notified of the OpenAI board's decision on Friday to dismiss Sam Altman, according to US press reports.

After trying over the weekend to get him reinstated, the group announces that it is hiring him and co-founder Greg Brockman.

The latter suggest that they will continue to create AI products at Microsoft, and Brockman announces the recruitment of several key OpenAI managers for these projects.
 

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"Don't Be A Hero": Woman To Husband Just Before Hamas Kidnapped Him

Lishay Lavi had only seconds to give her husband Omri a last message before he was taken into captivity by Hamas gunmen who stormed their kibbutz during the deadly attack on Israel on Oct. 7.

Now staying with family in another kibbutz in southern Israel, she said she knew what was happening when the gunmen broke in, forced the family out in their pyjamas at gunpoint to a neighbouring home, and took away her 46-year-old husband.

"I told him four sentences," she said. "I told him that I love him, I told him that I (will) guard our daughter, that I'm waiting for him, and I told him also, 'Don't be a hero, because I want you back here'."

On one of the most traumatic days of Israel's 75-year history, the Israeli government says more than 1,200 people were killed and over 240 Israelis and foreigners were seized and taken as hostages to the Gaza Strip.

Israel responded by launching a military offensive in the Gaza Strip which Palestinians authorities say has killed more than 13,000 people, and the fate of the hostages has become a central issue in the war.

Israel's military leaders have vowed to liberate as many hostages as possible, and talks aimed at securing the release of at least some of them appear to be close to bearing fruit, but the bodies of at least two hostages have been found.

For the hostages' families, the days of waiting weigh heavily. Lavi has to answer her two year-old daughter Roni's increasingly insistent questions about what has happened to her father.

"She asks, 'Where is daddy?'" Lavi said. "At first she thought that 'Daddy went to a treatment,' because Omri is a shiatsu healer. And after two days it was, 'Daddy went to (on) a trip.' And after today, she said, and this is what we told her until now, 'Daddy got lost.'"

Much of the world's attention has been focused on child and elderly hostages, but Lavi said the husbands and sons taken by the gunmen should not be forgotten either.

"I need my Omri back, I need my man back. I need all the world to understand that Omri, (was) taken from our home, in his boxers, without shoes even, and we need him back."

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Man Rapes Teen, Burns Her With Cigarette Butts: Maharashtra Cops

A 29-year-old with a criminal record has been arrested after he allegedly sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl, singed her with cigarette butts and tonsured her head in Akola city of Maharashtra, police said on Monday.

The accused, Ganesh Kumre, has been harassing the girl for the last two years, an officer said.

"He sexually assaulted the girl on November 15 and 16, tortured her with cigarette butts and also cut her hair," the officer said quoting the First Information Report.

Taking serious note of the ghastly crime, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who handles the Home portfolio, has assured strict action.

Speaking to reporters in Nagpur on Monday, he said that the guilty will not be spared and that orders have been given to launch an inquiry into the incident.

According to the Akola Police, the victim's father works as a labourer.

"Kumre has a criminal background. He has been harassing the girl for the last two years," the official said.

Notably, the incident of sexual assault came to light after November 16 when local people approached the police against Kumre.

A case was registered under sections 363 (Punishment for kidnapping), 376 (Punishment for rape), 354 (Assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and on charges of causing hurt with dangerous weapons among others of the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, a police official said.

Kumre was arrested on November 18. He was remanded in police custody till November 21, he said.

Further investigation is underway.

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