An artist has said he is taking legal advice after accusing the Conservative Party of copying his cartoon image of Andy Burnham at their party conference. People attending the party's conference in Birmingham have been handed water bottles featuring the image and labelled Bottler Burnham, 0% strength. Labour supporter Stanley Chow, who created the portrait for Burnham's 2021 mayoral campaign in Greater Manchester, has claimed the party did not ask for permission to use the image. A Conservative Party spokeswoman said the bottles were were not on sale and merely handed out to attending media in goody bags. Manchester illustrator Chow said: I was stunned and angry when I saw what they had done.

What can we learn from the brain about building better computers? Oliver Rhodes discusses how neuromorphic computing draws on the brain's architecture to develop new approaches to more efficient information processing. Can you give me an overview of your background and the research that you're involved with? Neuromorphic computing is quite a broad subject, which essentially looks to biology as inspiration to develop next-generation computing systems. We work off this principle: we know the brain is this really amazing computer, and it's able to do things that a lot of modern computing systems aren't able to do, and it also does them in an incredibly energy efficient way. We'd like to try to replicate that with some of the systems we build. In the context of the current climate around AI, while we've seen that it's made really big steps forward and is able to do really impressive things, there are certain things that it still can't do that the brain is able to do. So we look to the brain for inspiration to try and solve some of those next generation challenges. Neuromorphic computing covers all aspects of this: from looking at algorithms that might be solving a particular problem, to the systems and subsystems that would be running those algorithms, right down to a chip or devices level. We often use neural networks, which are also employed in artificial intelligence models, such as in deep learning and transformer models.

UK not'on the slide', Burnham to tell UN as he gears up for first meeting with Trump - UK politics live No 10 confirms Manchester to host next year's G20 summit Burnham plays down past critical comments about Trump, saying it's right to'move beyond' them UK not'on the slide', Burnham to tell UN as he gears up for first meeting with Trump No 10 confirms Manchester to host next year's G20 summit Burnham plays down past critical comments about Trump, saying it's right to'move beyond' them UK not'on the slide', Burnham to tell UN as he gears up for first meeting with Trump He has posted a video on social media in advance, which features him walking on Brighton beach and musing on how the Lib Dems are facing "the fight of our lives". They spoke out after Emmanuel Macron, the French president, summoned all the country's main political leaders for a briefing on how Russia is now ramping up its aggression towards Nato countries. Asked about this on his huddle with journalists on his flight to New York, Burnham did not accept that he was being complacent. But he said he did not want to escalate the problem. In a video that he recorded on the plane, he says the fact that he is going shows that AI is now "top of the international agenda".

A man who drugged and raped his wife for more than 20 years without her knowledge will no longer be involved in a trial involving other defendants, a jury has heard. The husband, aged in his 60s and from the Stockport area of Greater Manchester, has admitted a total of 60 offences against the woman including rape, assault by penetration, administering a substance with intent and sharing indecent images without her consent. Twelve other men are still due to go on trial at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court accused of serious sexual offences - including rape - against the same woman. The nine women and three men of the jury, plus two female reserve jurors, have been asked to return to court on 5 October. The court has heard the husband, who cannot be named to protect his wife's legal right to anonymity, has admitted abusing his wife since 2004.

The UK government is facing calls to cancel a sprawling health care contract with Palantir. The region of Greater Manchester insists it can do a better job itself. The UK government has six months to decide whether to terminate a deal worth more than $400 million between the country's National Health Service and American software company Palantir . If one part of the NHS is already doing without Palantir, politicians are asking, why can't the rest of the country? In 2023, the UK commissioned Palantir to develop a " federated data platform " (FDP) that could ingest and organize the tangle of health data produced across the country.

The power failure which hit a Network Rail operations centre in Manchester was a rare incident. But after commuters were left facing chaos, it has raised questions about how a short outage at one operating centre could have a widespread impact. Network Rail will face scrutiny for how its systems coped and responded to the outage. That's the publicly-owned body whose job it is to operate and maintain Britain's railway infrastructure. That means the tracks, signals, embankments and major stations.

Andy Burnham is set to spend his first day working at the northern branch of Downing Street. No 10 North in Manchester will form part of the prime minister's aim to shift power from Whitehall and Westminster to regions across the country. Ministers Lucy Powell and Louise Haigh will also operate regularly from the new site, with up to 300 civil servants expected to join them by the end of next year. On Friday in Manchester Burnham will chair a meeting of the National Economic Council, a cabinet committee first launched in 2008 to respond to economic challenges around the UK. Ahead of that meeting, the PM said: For 40 years, power and resources have been sucked into the centre, and too many communities have felt forgotten, without the attention and investment they deserve.

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