Hacker News with Generative AI: United Kingdom

Has UK rail's Elizabeth line shown what rail investment can achieve? (theguardian.com)
Halfway to a billion journeys, and it’s only just begun. Amid the recent gloom, struggles and doubts besetting Britain’s railway there is a bright beacon of hope: the Elizabeth line.
Transportation, United Kingdom, Infrastructure, Rail
3 points by erehweb 4 hours ago | 1 comments
Britain dances to JD Vance's tune as it renames AI institute (politico.eu)
“The AI future is not going to be won by hand-wringing about safety,” Vance said.
Artificial Intelligence, Politics, United Kingdom
47 points by mellosouls 1 day ago | 39 comments
British Brutalist Buildings – In Pictures (theguardian.com)
Architecture, Photography, United Kingdom
7 points by tempodox 5 days ago | 4 comments
Britain dances to JD Vance's tune as it renames AI institute (politico.eu)
“The AI future is not going to be won by hand-wringing about safety,” Vance said.
Artificial Intelligence, Politics, United Kingdom
5 points by ksec 5 days ago | 0 comments
UK drops 'safety' from its AI body, now called AI Security Institute (techcrunch.com)
The U.K. government wants to make a hard pivot into boosting its economy and industry with AI, and as part of that, it’s pivoting an institution that it founded a little over a year ago for a very different purpose.
Artificial Intelligence, Government, Economy, United Kingdom
21 points by Philpax 8 days ago | 3 comments
U.K. asks to backdoor iCloud Backup encryption (cryptographyengineering.com)
Encryption, Privacy, Law Enforcement, United Kingdom, iCloud
18 points by feross 9 days ago | 1 comments
Netflix increases UK subscription prices despite record audience (theguardian.com)
Whether you are binging The Night Agent or American Primeval, getting a Netflix fix has become pricier in the UK as the streaming giant increased subscription costs despite a record audience.
Netflix, Streaming Services, United Kingdom, Business, Consumerism
3 points by adrian_mrd 12 days ago | 0 comments
The UK's Demands for Apple to Break Encryption Is an Emergency for Us All (eff.org)
The Washington Post reported that the United Kingdom is demanding that Apple create an encryption backdoor to give the government access to end-to-end encrypted data in iCloud.
Privacy, Encryption, Government Surveillance, Apple, United Kingdom
22 points by mdp2021 13 days ago | 3 comments
UK industry leaders unleash hurricane-grade scale for cyberattacks (theregister.com)
A world-first organization assembled to categorize the severity of cybersecurity incidents is up and running in the UK following a year-long incubation period.
Cybersecurity, United Kingdom, Technology, Security
4 points by dijksterhuis 14 days ago | 0 comments
U.K. orders Apple to let it spy on users' encrypted accounts (msn.com)
Privacy, Government Surveillance, Apple, Encryption, United Kingdom
10 points by pseudolus 14 days ago | 1 comments
Five years of Brexit reshaped Britain (ft.com)
Brexit, United Kingdom, Politics, Economics, Society
28 points by belter 21 days ago | 117 comments
More than 130 Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland branches to close (news.sky.com)
Lloyds Banking Group is to close a further 136 branches.
Finance, Banking, Business, United Kingdom
14 points by ksec 23 days ago | 3 comments
The British Micro Behemoth (abortretry.fail)
Clive Marles Sinclair was born on the 30th of July in 1940 in Ealing, Middlesex, England.
Biography, Technology, United Kingdom
145 points by rbanffy 29 days ago | 76 comments
Keir Starmer appoints Jeff Bezos as his "first buddy" (pluralistic.net)
Turns out Donald Trump isn't the only world leader with a tech billionaire "first buddy" who gets to serve as an unaccountable, self-interested de facto business regulator. UK PM Keir Starmer has just handed the keys to the British economy over to Jeff Bezos.
Politics, Technology, Business, United Kingdom
12 points by keepit 29 days ago | 0 comments
Murdoch's UK tabloids apologize to Prince Harry and admit intruding on Diana (apnews.com)
Murdoch’s U.K. tabloids apologize to Prince Harry and admit intruding on the late Princess Diana
Royal Family, Media, Privacy, Apology, United Kingdom
6 points by ripe 30 days ago | 0 comments
UK tax collector's phone service deliberately bad to push users online, say MPs (theregister.com)
The UK tax collector must "take responsibility for its own failings to offer sufficiently effective digital services to customers," according to a committee of MPs which accused HMRC of "deliberately" poor phone service to push callers online.
Government, Technology, User Experience, United Kingdom
3 points by LinuxBender 30 days ago | 1 comments
UK police seize Cybertruck because it's illegal there (popsci.com)
Just because UK residents are allowed to purchase an imported Cybertruck doesn’t mean they can drive it on public roads.
Transportation, Regulations, Tesla, Cybertruck, United Kingdom
20 points by impish9208 34 days ago | 51 comments
Octopus overtakes British Gas as Britain's largest household energy supplier (theguardian.com)
Octopus Energy has become Britain’s largest household energy supplier for the first time, toppling British Gas almost four decades after it was privatised under Margaret Thatcher.
Energy, United Kingdom, Business, Competition
8 points by doener 35 days ago | 4 comments
U.K. restaurant selling $177 pineapple pizza: the price for 'terrible judgment' (cbc.ca)
People who prefer their pizza peppered with pineapples will have to pay a pretty penny for the pleasure at a pizzeria in Norwich, England.
Food, United Kingdom, Controversy, Pricing
5 points by petethomas 35 days ago | 2 comments
Second-Hand Bookshops in Britain: 2024 Report (blogspot.com)
About ninety second-hand bookshops in the UK were reported as closed in 2024.
Bookselling, Business, United Kingdom
93 points by fogus 37 days ago | 32 comments
MI5 files suggest queen not briefed on spy Blunt in royal household for 9 years (theguardian.com)
The late Queen Elizabeth II was not told for almost 10 years that Anthony Blunt, a surveyor of the queen’s pictures and a member of the royal household, had confessed to being a Soviet double agent, previously secret security files suggest.
History, Royal Family, Espionage, Intelligence, United Kingdom
6 points by bookofjoe 38 days ago | 0 comments
( UK ) Prime Minister sets out blueprint to turbocharge AI (gov.uk)
Artificial intelligence will be unleashed across the UK to deliver a decade of national renewal, under a new plan announced today (13 January 2025).
Artificial Intelligence, Government, Policy, United Kingdom
35 points by Woods369 39 days ago | 59 comments
The damning statistics that reveal the true cost of Brexit, five years on (independent.co.uk)
It has been five years since Brexit “got done” – and voters and politicians alike are still counting the cost.
Brexit, Economics, Politics, United Kingdom
15 points by SirLJ 40 days ago | 18 comments
Software Bugs Led to 'One of the Greatest Miscarriages of Justice' (cacm.acm.org)
In a Kafkaesque nightmare come true, nearly 1,000 individuals who ran local post offices in the U.K. were wrongly convicted of stealing money from those operations between 1999 and 2015 as a Fujitsu software system known as Horizon erroneously showed imbalances in their accounts.
Software Bugs, Legal Issues, Technology, Justice System, United Kingdom
32 points by adunk 43 days ago | 9 comments
DVD shop owner vows to be ‘last man standing’ (bbc.com)
Perched on the end of a row of terraces in a small town is one of the last DVD rental shops in the UK.
Retail, Business, Entertainment, United Kingdom
57 points by yladiz 46 days ago | 55 comments
UK electricity cleanest ever in 2024, with record 58% from low-carbon sources (theguardian.com)
The UK’s electricity was the cleanest it has ever been in 2024, with wind and solar generation hitting all-time highs, according to a report.
Renewable Energy, Environment, United Kingdom, Climate Change, Energy
10 points by ksec 48 days ago | 4 comments
UK's biggest dinosaur footprint site unearthed (bbc.com)
The UK's biggest ever dinosaur trackway site has been discovered in a quarry in Oxfordshire.
Paleontology, Archaeology, United Kingdom, Dinosaurs
87 points by peutetre 50 days ago | 14 comments
Return to NSA's Menwith Hill with 60 Minutes (2000) (cryptome.org)
The trip to Menwith Hill was on the spur of the moment. I mentioned to 60 Minutes producer Peter Klein: have passport will travel, I just do not have the funds. Next thing I knew Trisha Sorrels from 60 Minutes was e-mailing me asking if I would go and that they would pay for the trip, wow.
Government Surveillance, Journalism, United Kingdom, Military
6 points by robtherobber 59 days ago | 0 comments
Khalid Sheldrake: The East Dulwich man who would be King (nationalarchives.gov.uk)
Bertie Sheldrake was a South London pickle manufacturer who converted to Islam and became king of a far-flung Islamic republic before returning to London and settling back into obscurity.
Biography, History, United Kingdom, Religion, Islam
59 points by Geekette 65 days ago | 31 comments
Electric cars make up one in four sold in November (UK) (bbc.co.uk)
One in four cars sold in the UK last month was electric, according to industry figures, but new registrations were driven by steep discounting.
Electric Vehicles, Automotive Industry, United Kingdom, Sales Data
4 points by ljf 77 days ago | 3 comments