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  • Spending review frustrates South West transport campaigners

    Spending review frustrates South West transport campaigners

    Cameron Weldon & Jack Silver

    BBC News, South West

    BBC

    No transport projects in Devon and Cornwall featured in the chancellor’s speech

    Steve Keable accused the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves of “playing into her Labour heartland” by prioritising other parts of the country

    Mid-Devon district councillor Steve Keable said the “political reality” was that Reeves was “playing into her Labour heartland” by prioritising other parts of the country.

    Keable, who represents Taw Vale for the Liberal Democrats, said he hoped to find out “over the next few days” what would happen to “the capital funding that Cullompton and Mid Devon are so looking forward to”.

    He added that the Cullompton Station project, as well as a separate project to build an additional junction on the M5 south of the town, could not “progress before we get the go ahead”.

    ‘Days out for children’

    Some local residents remain supportive of the railway station project.

    “I think it would boost the economy of the town,” one said, adding: “I think it needs some money to push local businesses forward.”

    Another local resident said the station was “always used before” and felt “the trains would be used more” if the station was rebuilt.

    One mother said it would be “fantastic” if the station came back, adding: “My children would have access to days out – it would be really wonderful for everyone.”

    Labour MP Jayne Kirkham said she hoped details of funding for Cornwall would be “coming soon”

    Hoping for funds

    Cornwall Council was awarded £184m in January by the UK’s Shared Prosperity Fund (SPF) to help boost the local economy.

    However, the government announced this week it would be replacing the fund, which itself was originally established to replace EU funding by the last Conservative government.

    Cornwall previously received about £400m of Objective One funding from the EU as it contained some of the poorest areas in England and Wales.

    The government said it planned to establish a “new local growth fund” aimed at “mayoral city regions in the North and Midlands”, as well as investing in up to “350 deprived communities across the UK”.

    Jayne Kirkham, Labour MP for Truro and Falmouth, said she had been told the money from the fund would be distributed by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), adding: “So that will come a bit later.”

    “We are hoping that is coming soon and what the SPF might be morphing into,” she said.

    Andrew George, Liberal Democrats MP for St Ives, said money for Cornwall should be ring-fenced if “there [was] ring-fencing for other nations”.

    George said Cornwall had “rightly” received the investment over the last 25 years.

    “Now what we want to happen is to make sure Cornwall is treated as it has been over that period,” he said.

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  • Basmati export prices at 17-year low, higher volumes cushion the blow

    Basmati rice exporters have sustained earnings this marketing year (starting October 2024) on the back of higher export volumes, despite a sharp fall in contracted rates and the absence of a minimum export price (MEP).

    Trade sources indicate that May’s average basmati export price fell over 23 per cent to $831/tonne from $1,080 a year ago.

    Though the season began with a 20 per cent drop in October 2024 to $977/tonne from $1,226 a year ago, prices have fallen 15 per cent in the last eight months.

    “In 2007-08, the annual average basmati export price jumped over 53 per cent to $907/tonne. It crossed $1,000 for the first time the very next year.

    “Since then, there’s been little variation, except in 2014-15 when the average rate exceeded $1,220/tonne,” said a veteran exporter.

    Trade policy expert S Chandrasekaran stressed the need for deeper introspection into the second-generation basmati rice reforms.

    policy reforms

    “We must seriously deliberate how to accelerate, navigate, and benefit from the global market scaling while managing quality and authenticity,” he stated.

    He said revisiting the current, quarter-century-old basmati rice export standards might be necessary.

    According to Dinesh Chhatra, COO of GRM Overseas, last year’s high demand, driven by the Russia-Ukraine war, significantly boosted prices of the aromatic rice.

    However, despite robust buying this year due to anticipated similar demand, prices are now depressed. This is largely because of last year’s bumper kharif output.

    While some experts advocate maintaining a price standard for Indian basmati, Chhatra believes retaining an MEP could have reduced export volumes.

    He noted that some basmati consignments sold well above the average rate. The government removed the $950/tonne MEP on basmati rice in September last year, following exporters’ requests for a reduction.

    Official data show basmati export volume jumped 16 per cent to 3.99 million tonnes (mt) during October 2024-April 2025, up from 3.43 mt a year ago.

    Basmati remains one of India’s top three agri-export items over the past few decades.

    Published on June 11, 2025

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  • India-EU Free Trade Agreement feasible by end of 2025: S Jaishankar

    India places a high priority to its relations with the European Union, the centrepiece of which is the Free Trade Agreement negotiations that are making very good progress, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said here on Wednesday.

    During a conversation with The Financial Times Brussels Bureau Chief Henry Foy at the German Marshall Fund (GMF) Forum, the external affairs minister expressed confidence that the year-end timeline set for the completion of the India-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) seems “feasible” following his in-depth talks with EU officials this week.

    He also highlighted the strength of the two-way relationship that goes beyond trade to cover aspects of defence and security, mobility, talent flows and education.
    “I would give it (India-EU ties) pretty high priority… right now you catch us at a very important moment,” said Jaishankar.

    “We had the (EU) College of Commissioners, very soon after they came into office, visit India collectively. We know that’s a very unusual and very positive step, and we are really looking at deepening our ties,” he said.

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    “So, the centrepiece is the FTA, which has been under negotiation for some time now but everything I have heard… I think we are making very good progress,” he added. Against the backdrop of his talks earlier on Wednesday with MaroS Šefčovič, the EU Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security, Jaishankar was asked about the prospect of completing the FTA by the end of this year. “A lot has been done, and everything that I heard on this trip gives me the confidence that it’s within sight, that by the end of the year it is feasible to do this,” he said.

    The conversation session at the high-profile forum covered a broad spectrum of issues governing India’s foreign policy perspectives, from its relations with the US and closer in its neighbourhood with China.

    “We are conditioned to deal with situations and challenges, think it through for ourselves and essentially make decisions based on what capabilities we have and what we are able to leverage from the world. And that’s because we have never been an alliance partner. So, by the nature of our foreign policy structure, our strategic choices, we sort of have that mindset and approach,” Jaishankar said.

    Contrasting this with Europe’s history and experiences, the minister noted that India is accustomed to dealing with shifting geopolitical realities and any “trans-Atlantic divergences” in outlooks that emerge.

    “We are objective about it. We value our relations with the US, as we do with the EU, we will deal with each one on terms which are best for both of us,” he said.

    On the issue of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Jaishankar highlighted India’s stance favouring a negotiated settlement of differences.

    He said: “We have felt from the start that even if two countries, two neighbours, have differences, even very deep differences, it cannot be settled by recourse to war. If war has started, you are not going to get a solution out of the battlefield. If you’re not going to get a solution out of the battlefield, then the answer is to negotiate.

    “And if you are going to negotiate, it makes sense to negotiate directly, rather than through very convoluted signalling. So that’s been our position. It wasn’t necessarily widely accepted in 2022, but I think a lot of people have come around to that point of view right now… the United States today, under President Trump, also is an advocate of the fact that there has to be a negotiated solution.”

    On China, Jaishankar reflected upon the “incredibly complicated matrix” with several different dimensions. Asked if the EU remains naive vis-a-vis China, he added: “I would point to a certain evolution in Europe’s position and stance, but I would also make the point that it’s a very differentiated picture.

    “Not all of Europe is obviously moving at the same speed and on the same wavelength. So, there are some which have different views, some who are more hard-headed. I would make that distinction.”

    Jaishankar has been holding a series of wide-ranging discussions in Brussels this week, including with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas for the first India-EU Strategic Dialogue.

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  • Gabbard: AI used to decide continued JFK files’ classification

    Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said the Trump administration used artificial intelligence to help determine which documents related to the assassination of former President Kennedy should remain classified.

    Gabbard, speaking at an Amazon Web Services conference Tuesday, touted how the agency fed tens of thousands of pages of materials into AI systems ahead of their declassification to speed up the otherwise lengthy process.

    “We have been able to do that through the use of AI tools far more quickly than what was done previously — which was to have humans go through and look at every single one of these pages,” Gabbard said, according to the Associated Press.

    The process could have taken several months or years without the technology, AP reported.

    Gabbard called for using private-sector technologies to speed up these types of processes, save money and allow intelligence officers to spend more time gathering and analyzing information.

    “How do we look at the available tools that exist — largely in the private sector — to make it so that our intelligence professionals, both collectors and analysts, are able to focus their time and energy on the things that only they can do,” she said, the AP reported.

    The US intelligence community already engages in various public-private partnerships and Gabbard said she hopes to expand this, according to the AP.

    The release of the remaining JFK assassination files built upon a promise President Trump made on the campaign trail and followed an executive order he signed in January at the start of his second term.

    Multiple analyses determined many of the documents had already been released to the public in some form but were previously redacted.

    Gabbard’s push for AI comes amid broader efforts from the Trump administration to increase the efficiency of the federal government’s work. Trump signed an executive order earlier this year calling for the modernization of federal technology and software.

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  • How overconfidence can kill a COO’s shot at the corner office

    For many senior executives, the COO role is viewed as a pivotal on-ramp to the CEO seat. In fact, last year, 57% of new S&P 1500 CEOs were promoted from COO roles. And some of today’s most notable business leaders, including Apple’s Tim Cook and Chipotle’s Scott Boatwright, made the leap from COO to CEO. But leadership experts warn that what looks like a fast track can just as easily become a dead end.

    Stephen Miles, founder and CEO of leadership consultancy The Miles Group, shared two critical missteps for CEO aspirants during Fortune’s 2025 COO Summit. He recounted a story of one COO who began referring to themselves as the company’s heir apparent and not just within the company, but in the boardroom too. The fallout was swift, prompting an emergency board meeting to decide on whether or not to dismiss the executive.

    “The board had to be talked off the ledge,” says Miles. “They want the ultimate decision to choose their next CEO.”

    This kind of overreach, whether motivated by ambition or miscommunication, can be fatal to a leadership trajectory and demonstrate characteristics counterintuitive for those in the top role, namely arrogance and hubris. More broadly, the COO role, as Miles notes, is often a highly customized position designed to achieve specific outcomes. Treating it as an automatic stepping stone to CEO can alienate key decision-makers.

    Aside from overstepping, Miles cites a COO’s failure to align tightly with the CEO as another succession roadblock. Organizations, he says, will constantly test the blueprint for synchronizing and reducing friction between COOs and CEOs. 

    “What they do is they go to you as COO and say, ‘Make a decision,’ and then they try to take that decision to the CEO, assuming they want a different decision, or slightly different and see if the CEO will bite,” Miles explains. “As soon as they bite, they erode the entire construct of the CEO-COO relationship, and generally that goes really poorly for the COO.”

    While the COO’s job is to “win in the business of today,” as Miles puts it, the CEO’s role is to “build the business of tomorrow.” The leap from one to the other requires more than operational excellence. It demands strategic vision, leadership acumen, and humility.

    This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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