Imported Dubai-style chocolate could pose food safety risk, watchdog warns
By law, products made to UK standards should have labels in English containing the name of the food – for example, milk chocolate with pistachio paste filling – a list of ingredients with allergens emphasised, the weight of the food in grams and a best before or use by date.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hindustan Times
26 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
How language LLMs will lead the India's AI leap
The next great power struggle in technology won't be about speed or scale, it'll be about whose language AI speaks. Because trust in technology begins with something deeply human: being understood. You trust a doctor who speaks your language. You trust a banker who understands your context. So why would you trust an algorithm that doesn't know who you are, where you're from, or what your words mean? This question is being asked by governments, developers, and communities across the Global South who have seen how powerful large language models (LLMs) can be—and how irrelevant they often are to people who don't speak English or live in Silicon Valley. In India, the response until now has been BharatGPT. This is a collaboration between startups like government-backed platforms like Bhashini, and academic institutions such as the IITs. Its aim is not to chase ChatGPT on global benchmarks. Instead, it hopes to solve problems at home—helping citizens navigate government forms in Hindi, automating railway queries in Tamil, or enabling voice assistants in other regional languages. CoRover has already deployed multilingual chatbots in sectors like railways, insurance, and banking. The value here isn't just in automation. It's in comprehension. This isn't unique to India. In South Africa, Lelapa AI is working on InkubaLM, a small language model trained in African languages. In Latin America, a consortium is building LatAm GPT, rooted in Spanish, Portuguese, and indigenous dialects. Each of these projects is a rebellion: against invisibility, against standardization, against a worldview where the technology speaks only in one accent. What's driving this shift? 'Current large language models do not adequately represent the linguistic, cultural, or civic realities of many regions,' says Shrinath V, a Bengaluru-based product coach and Google for Startups mentor. 'As governments begin exploring AI-powered delivery of public services, from education and legal aid to citizen support, they recognize the need for models that reflect local languages, data, and social context. Regional LLMs are being positioned to fill that gap,' he explains. Manoj Menon, founder of the Singapore-based research firm Twimbit, is on the same page as Shrinath: 'With AI there are several nuances that come into play—how we train them to be contextually relevant for our local, national needs.' At the heart of it lies something more political: digital sovereignty. Shrinath breaks it down and says, 'Data sovereignty is no longer an abstract idea. Countries don't want to depend on models trained on data they don't control. Indigenous models are a way to retain that control.' It boils down to geopolitical leverage. Nations that build their own models won't just protect cultural identity—they'll shape trade, diplomacy, and security doctrines in the AI era. 'This is a reasonable argument,' says Menon. 'How we interpret a particular subject or issue depends completely on the context. Hence geo-politics is a significant input. Also the ability to train based on local issues and context.' Viewed through this lens, the shift underway towards frugal AI is more radical than most people realise. These are models that don't need massive GPUs or high-speed internet. They're lean, nimble, and context-rich. Think of it like this: if ChatGPT is a Tesla on a six-lane highway, BharatGPT is a motorbike designed for rough, narrow roads. Not as flashy. But it gets where it needs to go. 'Most countries will want a say in shaping how AI is adopted, governed, and deployed within a sovereign context,' points out Shrinath. This matters because AI is starting to mediate access to public services—healthcare, legal advice, welfare. And in that context, a model that doesn't understand a citizen's language isn't just ineffective. It's dangerous. It can mislead, it can exclude and it can fail silently. So yes, Silicon Valley still leads the headlines. But away from the noise, something deeper is unfolding. A shift in who gets to define intelligence, in whose language it speaks and in whose image it is built. Regional AI, says Menon, 'won't go head-on with what is built in Silicon Valley. They will complement it and their opportunity will help AI be more relevant locally.' These regional AI efforts don't seek applause, they seek agency. They aren't chasing scale, they're chasing significance instead. This revolution is not being televised, it's being trained.
Express Tribune
41 minutes ago
- Express Tribune
Liverpool bank on 'world-class' Wirtz
The golden boy of German football is set to become the new prince of the Premier League as Florian Wirtz prepares to join Liverpool from Bayer Leverkusen for a club-record fee. Fresh from winning a 20th English top-flight title, Arne Slot's Reds have broken the bank to land a rising star already labelled as one of the world's best by former Reds midfielder and Wirtz's former coach Xabi Alonso. British media reported on Friday that the Premier League champions had agreed a club-record deal worth up to £116 million ($157 million) to secure the services of the attacking midfielder. Liverpool can now agree personal terms with a player coveted by a number of top European clubs. Wirtz's abundant potential as a teenager sparked a row between his hometown club Cologne and Leverkusen five years ago when Leverkusen, who are backed by pharmaceutical giants Bayer, swooped to sign him at 17. Cologne argued that a gentleman's agreement not to poach youth team players had been violated, but Leverkusen said Wirtz was a first-team signing and within months he had made his Bundesliga debut. His rise was interrupted by a cruciate knee ligament injury in March 2022 that forced him to miss the next 10 months. By the time he returned, Alonso had been installed as Leverkusen boss and together they would spearhead the club's greatest days. Leverkusen ended Bayern Munich's grip on the Bundesliga in stunning fashion, romping to the title and the German Cup without losing a single match in the 2023/24 season. Wirtz netted his first career hat-trick on the day the title was sealed against Werder Bremen, on his way to being crowned Bundesliga player of the year. "Flo is one of the top players in the world, he's world class," said Alonso, who compared his protege to Lionel Messi in terms of his understanding of the game. "Why is Messi so good? Because he knows how and when to play simple passes. Messi says: 'You're in a better position? Here, there you have the ball'," said Alonso, a hero of Liverpool's 2005 Champions League triumph. "It's not always about making the most brilliant move, but the best and smartest. Florian can do that. That's why he's so good."
Straits Times
42 minutes ago
- Straits Times
Sir David Beckham: Global icon achieves ultimate goal
LONDON – David Beckham's knighthood is the culmination of years of tireless efforts to transcend football and turn himself into a global icon at the 'intersection of sport, fashion and business'. He had long dreamt of becoming a sir and King Charles III made it a reality when he announced his birthday's honours list on June 13, marking the end of a decades-long journey travelled with his Spice Girl wife Victoria. The honour is a 'powerful symbolic marker', Marie Agnes Parmentier, professor of marketing at the University of Montreal and author of several papers on 'Posh and Becks', explained to AFP. It 'reinforces his image as a respectable, committed, and, first and foremost, British man', she added. The knighthood could present new opportunities for the 50-year-old former Manchester United and Real Madrid player, 'particularly in diplomatic, charitable or political spheres'. The former free-kick ace, from a modest East London background, diversified his career after retiring from football in 2013, but success was the result of planning long before he hung up his boots. 'I knew my career was going to end at some point and I wanted to have a career after football,' he said in the documentary series 'Beckham', which aired on Netflix in 2023. At the height of his football career, Beckham was signing deals with top clothing and beauty brands, building an audience that cut across gender, age and nationality – becoming the first England player to crack the US market. The successful brand was built on his always immaculate appearance and nearly-always exemplary off-field behaviour, coupled with an unwavering drive to become a pioneer. This required a certain amount of courage, given that English football in the 1990s was generally the preserve of no-nonsense lads more interested in the pub than the catwalk. His appearance in a sarong during the 1998 World Cup, revelations that he used make-up, and his eccentric hairstyles were all feverishly gobbled up by the UK's tabloid press. Beckham is still capitalising on the fascination, almost 30 years later. He unveiled his first collection for Hugo Boss in April, is the founder of the Inter Miami football club and the 'Studio 99' production company, and has been a UNICEF ambassador for 20 years. He is now best known not for football, 'but for being Beckham, the brand', said sociologist Ellis Cashmore. It is a brand worth £500 million (S$870 million), according to The Times newspaper's 2025 ranking. The Netflix show exposed the couple to an emerging younger audience, cementing their fame for the foreseeable future. Beckham 'embodies a celebrity at the intersection of sport, fashion, entertainment and business', explained Parmentier. She added that the couple's enduring visibility 'is based on a sophisticated media strategy and an ability to embody universal values such as work, family and style'. But it has been a long and bumpy road, Cashmore pointed out. In 1998, Beckham was called the most hated man in England after he petulantly kicked out at Argentina's Diego Simeone during their World Cup round of 16 game. He was harshly sent off and England lost to their bitter rivals in a penalty shoot-out. Those who had bitten their tongue about his off-field flamboyance gave full vent to their feelings. National headlines the next day included '10 Heroic Lions, One Stupid Boy' (Daily Mirror) and 'You're Just A Joke Becks' (Daily Mail). Months of 'hell' followed, with death threats, spitting and boos accompanying Beckham wherever he went. 'Wherever I went I got abused, every single day,' he said. 'I find it hard to talk through what I went through because it was so extreme. The whole country hated me.' But the ordeal only sharpened Beckham's focus. A year later, he finished second in the Ballon d'Or as he helped United claim an unprecedented treble, winning the Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup. It was often said that Beckham's career seemed to be scripted by a movie writer, never more so than when the fallen idol took his revenge by scoring the winning goal against perennial rivals Argentina in the 2002 World Cup, redeeming his national hero status. The royal family were quick to embrace him, inviting Beckham to the weddings of Prince William and Kate Middleton in 2011 and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2018. Previous rumours of an impending knighthood came to nothing, but his star once again rose in 2022 after the death of Queen Elizabeth II. While other celebrities came under fire for skipping the queue to view her coffin, Beckham lined up with members of the public for almost 12 hours to pay his respects. Since then, it has seemed that 'Sir David' was only a matter of time in coming. AFP Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
