Morning Report - US officials accidentally leak Yemen war plans

today's retail story

Morrisons to close stores and axe hundreds of jobs

What happened
Supermarket chain Morrisons has put more than 300 jobs at risk as it announced plans to close 52 cafes and 17 convenience stores.

The closures will affect all of Morrisons Daily convenience stores, which have extended opening hours, as well as 13 florists, 35 meat counters, 35 fish counters, four pharmacies and all 18 market kitchens (the company's small food courts).

Who said what
Morrisons said it was seeking to "optimise its operations and help mitigate recent significant cost increases".

The company's closures "echo cuts from rival grocery chain Sainsbury's", said The Guardian. Britain's biggest retailers have warned of closures and job losses in response to measures in Labour's budget increasing employers' national insurance contributions and raising the national minimum wage by 6.7%.

What next?
Morrisons said it would try to redeploy most of the staff affected by the changes to other roles, but that about 365 employees would be at risk of redundancy.

Today's science story

First case of bird flu in sheep detected on Yorkshire farm

What happened
The world's first case of bird flu in sheep has been found in the UK, according to experts.

The H5N1 virus was detected in a single animal in Yorkshire after routine testing. No other sheep in the flock were found to be infected.

Who said what
A spokesperson from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said there was no evidence of a wider risk to livestock.

Dr Meera Chand, emerging infection lead at the UK Health Security Agency, told Reuters "the risk of avian flu to the general public remains very low".

What next?
The infected animal has been humanely culled, according to the UK's chief veterinary officer Christine Middlemiss, with "strict" measures put in place to prevent the spread of the disease.

Cases of avian flu have been detected among humans, with the symptoms, in rare cases, leading to death. But there has not yet been any confirmed transmission between humans.

It's not all bad

The UK is edging towards a ban on ticket touts exploiting fans, as the Competition and Markets Authority backed a government plan to cap resale prices. The move poses a direct threat to platforms like Viagogo and StubHub, which profit from high mark-ups of tickets. A proposed 10% price cap could reshape the secondary market and help tackle bulk buying and fraud. Campaigners have hailed the CMA's shift as a breakthrough in stopping unfair resales while also calling for strict enforcement to protect consumers.

under the radar

OpenAI's new model is 'really good' at creative writing

Despite all the anxiety artificial intelligence has caused creatives, fiction writing "isn't an application of AI that OpenAI has explored much", said TechCrunch.

Until now, that is. In a post on X, the AI firm's CEO, Sam Altman, shared a 1,172 word short story written by a new large language model that is "really good" at creative writing.

Altman said the story, based on a prompt asking for "a metafictional literary short story about AI and grief", was the first time he had been "really struck by something written by AI", adding "it got the vibe of metafiction so right".

AI has typically been associated with STEM fields like maths and programming, but OpenAI has "struggled to develop monetisable products" in those sectors, market research analyst Reece Hayden told CNET. But he said the company was "likely to experience significant backlash from creative industries as their intellectual property concerns are seemingly coming true".

Considering the speed with which OpenAI is "spitting out these powerful new models", the "future is not bright for flesh and blood authors", said Lance Ulanoff at TechRadar. Soon, publishing houses will be able to "engineer vast, epic tales spanning a thousand pages" that are "indistinguishable from those written by George RR Martin".

But not everyone is buying it. The new model's writing, "while more verbose, still sucks", said Kyle Barr at Gizmodo. Altman is trying to "create a new market for ChatGPT subscriptions by promising uncreative people they can take the reins from the literary elite". But "even if you imagine that a human created this, it's still trash". And knowing AI created it makes it "doubly trash".

on this day

25 March 1807

King George III signed into law the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act, banning the trading of enslaved people within the British Empire. Slavery would be banned altogether in 1834, with the passage of the Slavery Abolition Act. Today almost 50 million people around the world are considered to be living in modern slavery.

Today's newspapers

'Free speech row'

Threats to strip Reform-donor Charlie Mullins of his OBE have "ignited a free speech row", says The Telegraph. The multimillionaire has been accused of "bringing the honours system into disrepute" with his comments about Sadiq Khan. The Independent reports that there is a third company bidding to compete with Eurostar "promising competitive fares to 'exciting' destinations". Meanwhile, Nasa's Curiosity rover has found "traces of possible ancient life" on Mars, says The Guardian.

See the newspaper front pages

tall tale

Hoppy ending

Police in South Carolina who captured a runaway kangaroo discovered that it had been set free by a mischievous goat. In a social media post, Horry County Police Department said officers responding to reports of a kangaroo on the loose were able to corner the roving marsupial and bring it safely home. Owner Lindsey Richardson said the kangaroo's escape was facilitated by her pet goat, who had unlatched a gate.

US officials accidentally leak Yemen war plans