Our daily trip around the world

🇬🇧🤖 The UK government announced a $125 million program to develop a “sovereign” AI model. The new Foundation Model Taskforce will be asked to create an AI that makes the UK “globally competitive” with other models like ChatGPT or DALL-E. UK officials say the new AI will be designed with an emphasis on safety and accuracy, as part of the government’s strategy to encourage public trust and drive adoption.

🇯🇵 Japan is preparing a law that would classify some forced participation in religious activities as child abuse. Per Japanese news org Yomiuri Shimbun, the new guidelines are intended to deal with issues that have emerged in connection with the Unification Church, which critics have accused of cult-like behavior. Under the proposed law, banned activities include telling children they will go to hell if they don’t participate in religious activities, preventing children from making career decisions due to religion, and blocking their interaction with friends due to religious differences.

🇮🇹 Italy’s government is stripping some same-sex couples of parental recognition, per the WSJ. There’s no nationwide law governing whether same-sex parents in Italy should be recognized on a child’s birth certificate; instead, it’s historically been left up to the mayors of each local region to decide. But in recent months, the right-wing government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has reportedly told local mayors they can no longer choose. PM Meloni’s government has also reportedly been pushing to retroactively strike non-biological gay parents from their children’s birth documents, arguing it would be “contrary to public order” for them to remain.

+Update: The two warring factions in Sudan agreed to a 72-hour ceasefire yesterday to allow foreign nations to evacuate their citizens; a UN envoy last night said the truce was partially holding.