What happened
Andy Burnham will today outline plans for a major redistribution of political power away from Whitehall as he prepares for an expected move into Downing Street. In his first major address since returning to Westminster via the Makerfield by-election, Burnham is set to argue that stronger local decision-making is essential to boosting economic prosperity across the UK.

The former Greater Manchester mayor is expected to propose transferring additional responsibilities and funding to regional authorities, potentially including greater control over some tax revenues.

Who said what
In his address today, Burnham is expected to say that his government will deliver “good growth in every postcode” and “lift Britain back up to where it should be”.

Burnham’s 10-year plan to raise living standards is nothing short of “radical”, according to Dan Haygarth in The Independent.

What next?
With Burnham widely expected to succeed Keir Starmer within weeks, attention is turning to the composition of his cabinet and the detail of his economic programme. Labour’s deputy leader Lucy Powell said speculation over cabinet appointments was “distracting”, although she added that Ed Miliband would be “good” in the role of chancellor. Burnham’s  choice of chancellor is being viewed as a “critical test of his radicalism” regarding his agenda to expand the role of the state, said Heather Stewart in The Guardian.

What happened
Ben Stokes has announced that he will quit international cricket following the conclusion of the current Test match against New Zealand at Trent Bridge.

Supporters gave the England captain a standing ovation after learning of his decision, and the all-rounder responded immediately by dismissing New Zealand batsman Zak Foulkes.

Who said what
Speaking after play, Stokes said stepping away was “genuinely the best thing for me right now” after a demanding period as skipper.

Stokes’ “shock retirement is a sad day for English cricket”, said Michael Vaughan in The Telegraph, adding that the England and Wales Cricket Board’s failure to back the all-rounder following a recent incident in a nightclub “must have played a part in his bizarre decision to walk away mid-Test match”.

“Stokes was fallible, but that is what made him the people’s champion,” said Mark Ramprakash in The Guardian. It was his “vulnerability, personality and passion that won the hearts of England fans”.

What next?
Stokes will complete the ongoing Test before ending a distinguished international career that included starring roles in England’s 2019 and 2022 World Cup triumphs, and leading the Test side since 2022.

If a hacker steals your password, you can create a new one, but if someone gains access to your fingerprint or iris data, you can hardly replace your fingers or eyes. However, a new study has shown promise with a technique that allows users to “update” their fingerprints, which could make us all safer online.

Concern about the security of using fingerprints instead of passwords has grown this month amid reports that scammers could extract close-ups of fingerprints from social media photos and “enhance them with AI”, said Money Wise. The criminals could then use the victim’s unique fingerprint ID to gain access to their accounts or launch identity theft and phishing attacks, although they would still need access to a physical scanner, like a smartphone unlock key, in order to use the cloned fingerprint.

It “sounds like the stuff out of spy novels or ‘Mission Impossible’”, Vyas Sekar, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, told CBS News, but “in theory, it’s possible, especially if people are posting high-resolution images”.

Fortunately, a study in the International Journal of Computational Vision and Robotics has found that “irreversible identity theft” can be “largely avoided” by giving users a chance to “reset” fingerprints and other biometrics,  said TechXplore.

The method is “similar to changing a password”, according to Knowridge Science Report. Rather than storing a person’s original fingerprint or other biometric information directly, it transforms their data into a protected version. To do this, it identifies unique features in a fingerprint image, such as distinctive patterns and points, and “uses mathematical methods to convert these features into a different form that is difficult to reverse-engineer”. The data is then “further scrambled and compressed” into a secure digital version.

In this form it can still verify a person’s identity, but the original biometric data is hidden. If the protected version is ever compromised, it can be “cancelled and replaced”. Even if hackers gained access to the stored information, the user would not be permanently exposed.