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Keir Starmer shakes up No 10 operation with mini-reshuffle | Keir Starmer

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Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the Treasury, has been moved to a new senior role in Downing Street as Keir Starmer attempts to get a grip on delivery before what is likely to be a tumultuous autumn for the government.

The senior MP, whose new title will be chief secretary to the prime minster, has been put in charge of day-to-day delivery of the prime minister’s priorities after No 10 spent the summer struggling to get on the front foot on issues including the economy and migration, and lags behind Reform UK in the polls.

He will be replaced as Rachel Reeves’s deputy by James Murray, who has been promoted from exchequer secretary, a more junior ministerial role at the Treasury. In turn, his role will be taken by Dan Tomlinson, the government’s “growth mission champion”, as Starmer seeks to reward the new 2024 intake.

However, there was not expected to be a wider reshuffle of the junior ministerial ranks at this point despite some reports, senior sources said, although Starmer would need to appoint a new homelessness minister after Rushanara Ali stood down this summer. The cabinet is to stay intact.

Speaking to the BBC on Monday, Starmer rejected the idea it was a reshuffle prompted by crisis, arguing it was more a case of a new phase of government. “This should be seen more as moving on to the second phase than a reshuffle, because some of the positions are actually new positions,” he told Radio 5 Live.

Downing Street is also expected to confirm that the former Bank of England deputy governor Minouche Shafik will become Starmer’s chief economic adviser, as the government seeks to strengthen its efforts to bolster UK growth and productivity.

The communications operation will also be shaken up with Tim Allan, an adviser to Tony Blair in No 10 who went on to fund the PR firm Portland, coming in as executive director of government communications. The political role is separate from that of David Dinsmore, who has been tasked with improving the civil service communications operation.

James Lyons, Downing Street’s director of communications for strategy, is stepping down. Steph Driver, his counterpart for day-to-day No 10 communications, who is close to Starmer, stays in post, answering to Allan.

The Downing Street policy unit is also undergoing changes, after some internal conflict over who was running the department. Liz Lloyd, who was Tony Blair’s deputy chief of staff at No 10, is leaving but is expected to move to a new role in government.

Stuart Ingham, another policy chief and Starmer’s most longstanding aide, will leave the unit to work in chief of staff Morgan McSweeney’s team, taking on a more political role, which sources said would ensure the prime minister’s priorities were taken into account in every decision.

A new political policy chief is expected to be appointed shortly, but in the meantime Vidhya Alakeson, one of McSweeney’s deputies, will oversee day-to-day policy work. Sources suggested that Louise Casey, a senior government fixer, would not be coming into No 10 despite reports.

The extent of the shake-up reflects the sense that Starmer’s No 10 has increasingly struggled to impose its own narrative, and is instead mainly being shaken by external crises, notably the focus over the summer on migration, and Reform UK’s planned response to it.

Things are not likely to improve in the short term, with the return of parliament presenting Starmer and his team with a series of tough challenges, including the likely need for tax rises in this autumn’s budget and ongoing legal battles over asylum hotels.

In his BBC interview, Starmer said while he understood people’s concerns about migration, Reform and Nigel Farage were exploiting the issue as “the politics of grievance”.

“They feed on grievance. They don’t want the problem solved because they’ve got no reason to exist if the problems are solved,” he said.

Asked about a recent spate of English flags being draped on lamp-posts or spray-painted on roundabouts, Starmer said he was proud of the flag, and had one in his Downing Street flat, but was wary of it being used for “divisive” reasons.

“In our flat, which is upstairs from here, as you know, we’ve got a St George’s flag,” he said. “I think they’re patriotic, and I think they’re a great symbol of our nation. I don’t think they should be devalued and belittled. And I think sometimes when they’re used purely for divisive purposes, it actually devalues the flag. I don’t want to see that.”

Downing Street sources characterised the changes as the next step in the government’s rewiring of Whitehall, with No 10 evolving into a “command and control” operation. They acknowledged that Jones’s appointment and the new structures were about increasing government grip and focus.

Jones’s appointment is likely to be seen as an acknowledgment by the prime minister that he needs to take a bolder approach to delivering on his promises, with the Bristol North West MP seen as a Blairite-style reformer who has privately urged the government to be more radical.



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How AI is changing the news, and what businesses need to know

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How AI is changing the news, and what businesses need to know

Artificial intelligence has moved beyond being just a productivity tool — it’s changing the way people find and consume news.

This shift is already reshaping how organizations approach public relations, investor relations and corporate communications, Notified reports.

According to Mary Meeker’s 2025 State of the Internet report, ChatGPT is already handling an estimated 365 billion searches annually — a growth rate more than five times faster than Google in its early years. At the same time, Google’s AI Overviews are taking center stage in search results, often giving users summarized answers before they ever visit a website.

The impact is clear — traditional pathways for discovering news are breaking down, and AI-generated summaries are quickly becoming the first point of contact between companies and their audiences.

The Urgency Behind the Shift

The speed of AI adoption has caught many industries off guard and has begun to overwhelm professionals. According to a recent LinkedIn survey, over half of respondents said AI training feels like a second job.

At the same time, newsrooms continue to shrink, people are turning to AI tools instead of traditional search, and generative platforms are pulling together information from press releases, filings, and media stories into single, summarized narratives.

For businesses, this creates a new reality: investors, customers, journalists and employees often see AI-generated answers before they reach the original source. If that content isn’t clear, consistent, and reliable, a company’s story that circulates could be incomplete — or worse, misleading.

How AI Is Changing the Way News Is Found

This transformation has significant implications for visibility, credibility and influence with three major trends already redefining how news reaches the public:

  • AI-driven search is replacing traditional clicks Instead of scanning dozens of headlines, scrolling through feeds, or visiting multiple outlets, more audiences are turning to AI assistants like ChatGPT, Gemini and Google’s AI Overviews to get direct, synthesized answers. This “one-stop” model is efficient for readers, but it also means fewer direct visits to websites and less visibility for bylines. As a result, brands and media outlets need to think not only about crafting compelling stories but also about how those stories are structured for AI discovery.
  • Original sources are carrying more weight — Press releases, SEC filings, earnings summaries and other primary documents increasingly serve as the backbone of AI-generated answers. For example: Because AI systems pull heavily from authoritative, structured sources, organizations that prioritize accurate, well-formatted and timely releases stand to gain more exposure. This dynamic underscores the growing importance of getting the official record right — the closer your content is to the primary source, the more likely it is to be amplified through AI-driven channels.
  • Narratives are merging — In the AI-driven ecosystem, content silos are disappearing. Investor updates, press coverage and thought leadership blogs are no longer consumed in isolation; they are aggregated by machines and presented as one cohesive narrative. For communicators, this blurring of boundaries means that every piece of content, whether intended for shareholders, reporters, or the public, has the potential to shape broad perception. Managing message consistency across formats is no longer optional; it’s essential to ensure an organization’s story is represented accurately when AI delivers it back to the world.

3 AI Tips Business Leaders Need to Know 

Whether it’s shaping brand perception, managing investor confidence, or ensuring accurate media coverage, the way content should be published today will directly affect how it appears in tomorrow’s AI-driven summaries.

To stay ahead, here are three essential practices to prioritize:

1. Make Content Clear and Reliable

AI tools work best with structured information. Press releases, earnings updates and official statements should be easy to read, consistent and free from gaps that could be misinterpreted. If the details aren’t clear, the story AI presents may not be accurate.

2. Keep PR and IR on the Same Page

The line between media coverage and investor communication has all but disappeared. A single inconsistency across channels can create confusion once AI systems pull everything together. Business leaders should ensure their communications teams are working together to deliver one unified narrative.

3. Write for People and Machines

Today’s audience isn’t just human. Algorithms are scanning content, too, and shaping how information is shared. That means businesses need to publish content that answers questions directly and holds up as a trusted source when AI tools summarize it (think FAQs).

The Strategic Advantage of Adapting Early

While the AI landscape will continue to change, the companies that respond early will have the edge. By making content structured, consistent and ready for both people and algorithms, they’ll reduce the risk of being misunderstood and strengthen trust with investors, customers and the media.

This isn’t just about keeping up with technology. It’s about protecting reputation, ensuring accuracy and making sure your story is the one that gets told.

This story was produced by Notified and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.



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AI for Business Conference coming to central Alberta put on by CAF partnership

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(ID 126397652 © Kasto80 | Dreamstime.com)

By rdnewsNOW staff

BREWD regional partnership

Sep 4, 2025 | 2:06 PM

The Central Alberta First (CAF) partnership has released its final Business Retention, Expansion and Workforce Development (BREWD) and BREWD Community Data Summary Reports ahead of an October conference focused on artificial intelligence in business.

The AI for Business: Tools, Tactics, Transformation Conference is set to take place Oct. 22, 2025 at the Olds College Alumni Centre. It is the first of a series of AI awareness workshops to be implemented under the BREWD regional strategy.

The one-day event will bring together industry leaders, innovators, and technology experts to explore ways how AI can improve businesses.

The BREWD initiative is one of the largest business engagement projects that’s been done in the central Alberta region, which includes over 700 businesses that represent all sectors of the economy.



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Jaguar Land Rover staff to stay home after cyber attack

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Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has instructed factory staff to stay at home until at least Tuesday as the company continues to grapple with the fallout from a cyber attack.

The attack at the weekend forced the company to take vital IT systems offline, which has affected car sales and production.

Production remains halted at car factories in Halewood on Merseyside and Solihull in the West Midlands, as well as at its engine manufacturing centre in Wolverhampton.

The situation remains under review and output could remain suspended for longer.

Car sales have also been heavily disrupted, although the BBC understands some transactions have been able to take place.

The company, which is owned by India’s Tata Motors, shut down its systems on Sunday in order to limit potential damage from the cyber attack.

It is now working to restore them in a controlled manner, but this is understood to be a highly complex process. It is also introducing work-arounds for systems that remain offline.

The attack occurred at what is traditionally a popular time for consumers to take delivery of a new vehicle. The latest batch of new registration plates became available on 1 September.

The disruption extends well beyond JLR’s own production lines, with its network of parts suppliers also forced to restrict their operations. Some have complained of a lack of transparency from the company.

On Wednesday a hacker group which was also responsible for a highly damaging attack on Marks and Spencer earlier in the year said it had infiltrated JLR’s systems.

The group of young English-speaking hackers – who are thought to be teens calling themselves “Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters” – told the BBC how they allegedly accessed the car maker but have not revealed if they successfully stole private data from JLR or installed malicious software onto the company’s network.

The group posted two images, which showed apparent internal instructions for troubleshooting a car charging issue and internal computer logs.

A security expert said those screenshots suggested the group had access to information they should not have.

JLR says it is investigating the hack, but there is no evidence at this stage any customer data has been stolen.

In 2023, as part of an effort to “accelerate digital transformation across its business”, JLR signed a five-year, £800m deal with corporate stablemate Tata Consultancy Services to provide cybersecurity and a range of other IT services.

The halt in production is a fresh blow to the firm which recently revealed a slump in profits attributed to an increase in costs caused by US tariffs.



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