Apurva Shrivastava, an Indian-origin MIT engineer, co-founded Avoca with Tyson Chen, an AI answering service for home businesses. The company, valued at $1 billion, uses AI voice agents to book appointments and follow up on leads, addressing the critical issue of missed calls for small contractors.
UK Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy called former colleague Wes Streeting's remarks about rejoining the EU "odd," stating the debate was settled by Brexit. Streeting argued Britain's future lies with the EU for economic and defense reasons, while Mayor Andy Burnham will focus domestically in the Makerfield byelection.
Hong Kong's labour minister, Chris Sun Yuk-han, has dismissed calls to review the city's immigration scheme for non-local graduates or lower thresholds for talent schemes, citing a shrinking workforce and insufficient local degree holders. Despite a 61% drop in entry-level roles (from 80,000 in 2022 to 31,000 in 2025), largely due to AI automation, the minister emphasized the need for upskilling through the rebranded 'Upskill Hong Kong' program.
Conservatives expected to push for privileges committee involvement in a Commons vote on MondayA series of senior Labour figures have dismissed calls for a new investigation into what Keir Starmer told MPs about the appointment of Peter Mandelson as political point scoring, before a possible Commons vote on the issue.The Conservatives have called for the cross-party privileges committee, the remit of which includes examining whether MPs broke rules, to look at whether the prime minister misled parliament when he said normal procedures were followed with Mandelson’s appointment. Continue reading...
