Film studio proposal in the spotlight as UK PM Starmer plots planning overhaul

Update Film studio proposal in the spotlight as UK PM Starmer plots planning overhaul
He is expected to reference it in a speech outlining his priorities for government on Thursday. (REUTERS)
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Updated 05 December 2024
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Film studio proposal in the spotlight as UK PM Starmer plots planning overhaul

Film studio proposal in the spotlight as UK PM Starmer plots planning overhaul
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MARLOW: A dispute over proposals for a film studio on a plot of grassland west of London could become a test case for Britain’s Labour government and its plans to get the country building again to drive economic growth.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has vowed to “bulldoze through restrictive planning laws” that investors blame for making it difficult and costly to build in Britain.
His government has also identified British film and TV production — which rivals Hollywood in capacity and has made blockbusters like “Barbie,” the Harry Potter series and “Deadpool & Wolverine” — as a sector that deserves support.
He made reference to it in a speech outlining his priorities for government on Thursday.
But any government intervention in local planning decisions to get things built, such as the proposed studio 30 miles from London, risks angering voters who might feel the biggest impact from such projects.
“Undoubtedly the current planning system is not fit for purpose,” said Anna Crabtree, a parish councillor for the picturesque village of Little Marlow.
“But I think the national government ignores local policies, local plans and local people at their peril.”
Marlow Film Studios, which lists directors James Cameron, Sam Mendes and Paul Greengrass among supporters, wants to build 470,000 square feet of soundstages across 56 acres on a disused landfill site next to a busy road.
But the project — which backers say would directly create around 2,000 jobs once operational — has run into opposition because of the plot’s location between the pretty market town of Marlow, on the banks of the River Thames, and Little Marlow.
The local council rejected the proposal earlier this year, in part because the area is formally classed as “green belt” land, a designation intended to limit development and prevent urban sprawl. Locals had envisaged it as a country park instead.
But the government elected in July has intervened in the appeal process that will give a final say, with culture minister Lisa Nandy saying much-needed economic growth would be “front of mind” when weighing the proposal.
The appeal will proceed to a planning inquiry before the government makes a final determination, expected next year.
GREEN OR GREY BELT
Labour, in trying to ease national planning restrictions, has proposed the notion of “grey belt” land. Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, who has responsibility for planning, said in April that “much of the green belt isn’t green rolling hills, but poor-quality scrub land” which should not be off-limits to developers.
More details of those proposals are expected by the end of the year.
In its appeal filings, Marlow Film Studios said that, based on the current drafting of government policy, the site should now be considered grey belt land suitable for development. Opponents reject that, saying the fields are green belt as they prevent urban sprawl and support wildlife.
If successful, the studio would join an area to London’s north-west that is home to many film studios, including Warner Brothers in Leavesden, where much of 2023 blockbuster “Barbie” was shot, and Pinewood Studios, where James Bond, Marvel and Star Wars films have been made.
Robert Laycock, chief executive of Marlow Film Studios, said the film industry was one of few “where the UK has the ability to really shine and out-compete.”
“If we don’t seize the ability to tell our stories on a global stage, other people will,” he said.
Britain provides tax credits for independent film and visual effects and the culture department said it believed there was “potential for further growth across the UK as we look to rival Hollywood as the best place in the world to make film.”
Creative industries are among priority sectors for next year’s new industrial strategy.
Some 4.2 billion pounds ($5.3 billion) was spent on film and high-end TV production in the UK in 2023, the British Film Institute said, 78 percent of which was inward investment or co-productions with international partners.
The British Film Commission (BFC) launched a program in 2020 to support expansion of UK soundstage space. Since then, capacity has doubled to around 6 million square feet, a figure which rivals Los Angeles.
In a further possible sign of its interest in the sector, the government has also intervened in the decision whether to approve a proposed studio at nearby Holyport, while Sky Studios are seeking to expand facilities in Elstree.
A Sky spokesperson said plans “to expand the site reflect the strength of our future project pipeline” and would help it attract an additional 2 billion pounds in investment there.
Campaign group Save Marlow’s Greenbelt has questioned whether Britain needs so much production space, however, arguing the jobs at Marlow might just come from nearby studios, and that Britain could end up with overcapacity given the recent US writers’ strike and a subsequent slowdown in the industry.
BFC Chief Executive Adrian Wootton said it had backed Marlow Film Studios as “a viable project with access to crew and infrastructure.”
“The demand to base productions and use our facilities and talent in the UK remains very strong,” he said, adding that the sector was “key to driving economic growth.”


White House confirms war crimes prosecutor first target of ICC sanctions

White House confirms war crimes prosecutor first target of ICC sanctions
Updated 35 sec ago
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White House confirms war crimes prosecutor first target of ICC sanctions

White House confirms war crimes prosecutor first target of ICC sanctions
  • Khan, who is British, was named on Monday in an annex to an executive order signed by Trump last week
  • Sanctions include freezing of US assets of those designated and barring them and their families from visiting the United States
NEW YORK: International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan is the first person to be hit with economic and travel sanctions authorized by US President Donald Trump that target the war crimes tribunal over investigations of US citizens or US allies.
Khan, who is British, was named on Monday in an annex to an executive order signed by Trump last week. Reuters reported on Friday that Khan had been designated by Washington.
The sanctions, which repeat action Trump took during his first term, include freezing of US assets of those designated and barring them and their families from visiting the United States.
The ICC on Friday condemned the sanctions, pledging to stand by its staff and “continue providing justice and hope to millions of innocent victims of atrocities across the world, in all situations before it.”
Court officials met in The Hague on Friday to discuss the implications of the sanctions.
The International Criminal Court, which opened in 2002, has international jurisdiction to prosecute genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in member states or if a situation is referred by the UN Security Council.
Under an agreement between the United Nations and Washington, Khan should be able to regularly travel to New York to brief the UN Security Council on cases it had referred to the court in The Hague. The Security Council has referred the situations in Libya and Sudan’s Darfur region to the ICC.
“We trust that any restrictions taken against individuals would be implemented consistently with the host country’s obligations under the UN Headquarters agreement,” deputy UN spokesperson Farhan Haq said on Friday.

France in advanced talks to buy Indian rocket launcher system, Indian official says

France in advanced talks to buy Indian rocket launcher system, Indian official says
Updated 34 min 34 sec ago
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France in advanced talks to buy Indian rocket launcher system, Indian official says

France in advanced talks to buy Indian rocket launcher system, Indian official says
  • India is the world’s biggest arms importer, but has been trying to boost local production to meet its defense requirements
  • The Pinaka rocket system with a range of up to 90km was demonstrated to a French delegation in India around three months ago

BENGALURU: France is in advanced talks with India to buy a multi-barrel rocket launcher system, a top Indian official said on Monday, a potential deal that would be the first time India’s second-largest arms supplier buys weapons from New Delhi.
India is the world’s biggest arms importer, but has been trying to boost local production to meet its defense requirements and has been steadily raising its defense exports.
The domestically made Pinaka rocket system with a range of up to 90 km (56 miles) was demonstrated to a French delegation in India around three months ago and was found to be satisfactory, a second official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“France is in active talks for Pinaka,” Ummalaneni Raja Babu, the director general of missiles and strategic systems at India’s Defense Research and Development Organization, said on the sidelines of the Aero India aerospace exhibition in the southern city of Bengaluru.
“A deal has not been reached yet, but the talks are continuing,” said Babu.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi embarked on a visit to France on Monday to co-chair an artificial intelligence summit in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron and both leaders are scheduled to hold bilateral talks on Tuesday.
It was not immediately clear if the rocket system will feature in the talks, and India’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
France’s embassy in India did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside of business hours.
France was India’s second-largest arms supplier after Russia between 2019 and 2023, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
The Pinaka rocket launcher system, used by the Indian Army and deployed in the 1999 war between India and Pakistan, is also being enhanced with longer ranges, Babu said.


Paris AI summit pits innovation ambitions against job loss fears

People take part in the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit at the Grand Palais in Paris, Monday, Feb. 10, 2025. (AP)
People take part in the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit at the Grand Palais in Paris, Monday, Feb. 10, 2025. (AP)
Updated 10 February 2025
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Paris AI summit pits innovation ambitions against job loss fears

People take part in the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit at the Grand Palais in Paris, Monday, Feb. 10, 2025. (AP)
  • “We should not be afraid of innovation,” Macron told regional French newspapers
  • China’s DeepSeek challenged the United States’ AI leadership last month by freely distributing a human-like reasoning system

PARIS: France hopes that world leaders and tech executives at an artificial intelligence summit in Paris will agree the AI revolution should be inclusive and sustainable, although it was unclear on Monday whether the United States would be supportive.
Eagerness to rein in AI has waned since previous summits in Britain and South Korea that focused world powers’ attention on the technology’s risks after ChatGPT’s viral launch in 2022.
As US President Donald Trump has torn up his predecessor’s AI guardrails to promote US competitiveness, pressure has built on the European Union to pursue a lighter-touch approach to AI to help keep European companies in the tech race.
A January 30 version of the non-binding draft statement on AI stewardship, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, called for an “inclusive approach” to AI that is multi-stakeholder, human rights-based and bolsters the developing world.
The draft statement laid out priorities that included “avoiding market concentration” and “making AI sustainable for people and the planet.”
US Vice President JD Vance could spell out the United States’ views when he gives a speech at the summit on Tuesday.
Trump’s early moves on AI have underscored how far the strategies to regulate AI in the United States, China and EU have diverged.
And many at the two-day summit that started on Monday pushed the EU to soften its own rulebook.
“If we want growth, jobs and progress, we must allow innovators to innovate, builders to build and developers to develop,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in an op-ed in Le Monde newspaper.
Even the summit’s host, French President Emmanuel Macron said: “There’s a risk some decide to have no rules and that’s dangerous. But there’s also the opposite risk, if Europe gives itself too many rules.”
“We should not be afraid of innovation,” Macron told regional French newspapers.
European lawmakers last year approved the bloc’s AI Act, the world’s first comprehensive set of rules governing the technology.
China’s DeepSeek challenged the United States’ AI leadership last month by freely distributing a human-like reasoning system, galvanizing geopolitical and industry rivals to race faster still.
More investment
Meanwhile, one early outcome from the summit was the launch of Current AI, a partnership of countries such as France and Germany and industry players including Google and Salesforce.
With an initial $400 million in investment, the partnership will spearhead public-interest projects such as making high-quality data for AI available and investing in open-source tools. It is aiming for up to $2.5 billion in capital over five years.
Current AI founder Martin Tisné told Reuters a public-interest focus was necessary to avoid AI having downsides like social media has had. “We have to have learned the lessons,” he said.
Separately, France will announce private sector investments totaling some 109 billion euros ($113 billion) during the summit, Macron said on Sunday.
“The size of this 100 billion euro investment reassured us, in a way, that there’s going to be ambitious enough projects in France,” said Clem Delangue, the CEO of Hugging Face, a US company with French co-founders that is a hub for open-source AI online.
Risks
Not everyone in Paris agreed with taking a lighter-touch approach to AI regulation.
“What I worry about is that... there will be pressures from the US and elsewhere to weaken the EU’s AI Act and weaken those existing protections,” said Brian Chen, policy director at Data & Society, a US-based nonprofit.
Labour leaders expressed concerns on the impact of AI on workers, including what happens to workers whose jobs are taken over by AI and are pushed into new jobs.
“There is a risk of those jobs being much less paid and sometimes with much less protection,” said Gilbert F. Houngbo, director-general of the International Labour Organization.
Top political leaders including China’s Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing are also attending the summit, as well as top executives such as Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai and OpenAI’s Altman.


China’s foreign minister to visit Britain on Thursday for talks

China’s foreign minister to visit Britain on Thursday for talks
Updated 10 February 2025
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China’s foreign minister to visit Britain on Thursday for talks

China’s foreign minister to visit Britain on Thursday for talks
  • Wang Yi to hold talks with his British counterpart David Lammy
  • Issues to be discussed include international security and the war in Ukraine

LONDON: China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi is due to visit Britain on Thursday to hold talks with his British counterpart David Lammy in a sign that relations between the countries are normalizing after years of tensions.
Issues to be discussed include international security and the war in Ukraine, Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s spokesman told reporters.
Lammy and Wang will revive the UK-China Strategic Dialogue, a forum last held in 2018 to discuss bilateral issues.
That dialogue was paused during the COVID-19 pandemic and after Britain restricted some Chinese investment on worries over national security and over a crackdown on freedoms in Hong Kong.
The Labour government, in power in Britain since July, has made improving ties with China one of its main foreign policy goals after a period under successive Conservative governments when relations plunged to their lowest level in decades.
British finance minister Rachel Reeves visited China last month in a bid to revive economic and financial talks that had been frozen since 2019.
Wang’s visit will come two days after the start of an inquiry ordered by British government into China’s stalled plans to build a large embassy in London.
The Chinese government purchased Royal Mint Court, a historic site near the Tower of London, in 2018 but had its requests for planning permission to build the new embassy there rejected by the local council.
The stalled project had been a source of diplomatic tension between the two countries.
Lammy and interior minister, Yvette Cooper, recently come out in support of the plan, which is opposed by local politicians and residents.


Anti-minority hate speech in India rose by 74 percent in 2024, research group says

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi flashes victory sign as he arrives at the BJP headquarters to celebrate the party’s win.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi flashes victory sign as he arrives at the BJP headquarters to celebrate the party’s win.
Updated 10 February 2025
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Anti-minority hate speech in India rose by 74 percent in 2024, research group says

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi flashes victory sign as he arrives at the BJP headquarters to celebrate the party’s win.
  • India Hate Lab said a third of hate speech incidents last year occurred from March 16 through June 1 during the height of election campaigning
  • Group cited remarks by Modi in April in which he referred to Muslims as “infiltrators” who have “more children”

WASHINGTON: Instances of hate speech against minorities in India such as Muslims increased 74 percent in 2024, a Washington-based research group said on Monday, with incidents ballooning around last year’s national elections.
India Hate Lab documented 1,165 instances of what it considered to be hate speech in 2024, compared with 668 a year earlier, that it observed at events such as political rallies, religious processions, protest marches and cultural gatherings.
“The fact that 2024 was a general election year in India, with polling held in seven phases between April 19 and June 1, played a crucial role in shaping the patterns of hate speech incidents compared to 2023,” the group said in a report.
India’s embassy in Washington had no immediate comment.
The report comes days before a White House meeting between US President Donald Trump and India’s Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose government is blamed by rights groups including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International for the mistreatment of minorities in India.
Modi’s government and party have denied being discriminatory and said their policies, such as food subsidy schemes and electrification drives, benefit all Indians.
India Hate Lab said a third of hate speech incidents last year occurred from March 16 through June 1 during the height of election campaigning, with May being a “notable peak.”
The group cited remarks by Modi in April in which he referred to Muslims as “infiltrators” who have “more children.”
Modi won a third successive term and denied stoking divisions. His Bharatiya Janata Party failed to win a majority and relied on coalition allies to form a government.
India Hate Lab said 80 percent of hate speech incidents last year occurred in states governed by the BJP and its allies.
The group, founded by US-based Kashmiri journalist Raqib Hameed Naik, is a project of the Center for the Study of Organized Hate, a nonprofit think tank based in Washington. The BJP has said the group presents a biased picture of India.
Rights advocates, in noting the plight of Indian minorities, point to a 2019 citizenship law the UN called “fundamentally discriminatory,” anti-conversion legislation that challenges the constitutionally protected right to freedom of belief, and the 2019 revoking of Muslim majority Kashmir’s special status.
They also highlight the demolition of properties owned by Muslims that authorities said were illegally constructed, and a ban on the hijab head covering — commonly worn by Muslim girls and women — in classrooms in Karnataka in line with new school uniform rules when the BJP was in power in that state.
India Hate Lab said it used in its report the United Nations’ definition of hate speech: prejudiced or discriminatory language toward an individual or group based on attributes including religion, ethnicity, nationality, race or gender.