BAGHDAD — An Iraqi court has sentenced a butcher to 10 years in prison after he was caught selling pork as beef in Najaf, one of the holiest cities in Shia Islam, in a case that drew widespread attention and no shortage of dark humor across Iraqi social media.

Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council said the man was arrested this month after being found in possession of 75 kilograms of pork that he had been passing off as beef to customers in the city. “Najaf Criminal Court has sentenced a convicted person to 10 years in prison for selling meat not suitable for human consumption,” the council said in a statement announcing the ruling, which was handed down Monday.

Najaf draws millions of pilgrims from around the world each year who travel to visit the mausoleum of Imam Ali, the Prophet Mohammed’s son-in-law, the fourth Islamic caliph, and the first Shia Imam. The city’s religious significance made the discovery that a local butcher had been selling pork, a meat strictly forbidden under Islamic dietary law, particularly jarring for residents and visitors alike.

While Islam forbids the consumption of pork on the grounds that it is considered impure, Iraqi law does not explicitly ban its sale within the Muslim-majority country, which is also home to a Christian minority. Prosecutors instead built their case around a 1998 law that criminalizes the sale of “dog or donkey or other meat… that is unfit for human consumption,” a statute the court applied to the butcher’s conduct in selling pork under false pretenses as beef.

News of the arrest spread quickly on social media, generating a mix of public reactions. Some Iraqis used the case to call for stronger food safety enforcement more broadly, while others responded with humor, sharing videos of pigs online captioned “here is Najaf” in reference to the case.

Among those caught up in the scandal was Najaf resident Ahmad al-Mansouri, who described his own unwitting experience buying meat from the butcher in question. “I think I have eaten more pork than beef or lamb over the past years,” Mansouri told AFP, speaking jokingly about his past purchases. Mansouri said he had been drawn in by the quality and price of the ground meat he bought from the butcher, describing it as “excellent quality” and notably cheaper than prevailing market rates, which led him to return to the shop more frequently over time.

Reflecting on the eventual discovery, Mansouri said the arrest came as a shock to regular customers who had no reason to suspect what they were actually purchasing. “We were surprised when he was arrested on charges of selling pork,” Mansouri said.

The case highlights a broader challenge around food safety oversight in parts of Iraq, where enforcement mechanisms for verifying the authenticity of meat and other food products sold in local markets can vary considerably between cities and vendors. Najaf’s status as a major pilgrimage destination, drawing visitors from Shia Muslim communities around the world, has added particular sensitivity to any case involving the mislabeling of food products that conflict with Islamic dietary restrictions, given how directly such cases can affect the religious observance of unsuspecting pilgrims and residents alike.

The 10-year sentence reflects the seriousness with which the Najaf Criminal Court treated the case, even though Iraqi law does not carry a specific prohibition on the sale of pork itself. By anchoring the prosecution in the broader 1998 statute addressing the sale of meat unfit for human consumption, the court was able to pursue a significant custodial sentence despite the absence of a law targeting pork sales specifically, a legal approach that may set a precedent for how similar cases are prosecuted in the future.

It remains unclear from the Supreme Judicial Council’s statement how long the butcher had allegedly been selling pork disguised as beef before his arrest, or how many customers may have unknowingly purchased the mislabeled meat during that period. The council’s statement did not indicate whether additional charges or civil penalties related to consumer fraud were pursued alongside the criminal case, nor did it specify whether health authorities in Najaf conducted any follow-up inspections of other meat vendors in the city following the butcher’s arrest.

The case has added to broader public conversation in Iraq around food safety standards, with social media reaction split between calls for stricter oversight of meat vendors and the darker humor that quickly overtook much of the online discussion surrounding the story. For residents like Mansouri, the episode has left a lasting impression, even as he described his own reaction to the situation with a degree of resigned humor rather than anger, reflecting a broader public response to the case that has blended genuine concern over food safety enforcement with the kind of dark comedic commentary that quickly spread across Iraqi social media platforms following news of the arrest and subsequent sentencing.

Inflation soared in 2022 because oil and gas were in greater demand after the Covid pandemic, and energy prices surged again when Russia invaded Ukraine.

Before the war in the Middle East broke out, UK inflation had been expected to be at or around the target level of 2% over the next five years, according to the official forecasts published in March 2026.

But in April, the Bank of England warned that disruption to global energy markets could push UK inflation as high as 6% in the worst-case scenario.

When the latest ceasefire took effect, analysts said it could limit further inflation hikes. Oil prices initially fell sharply after the deal was announced, but have risen again since the US and Iran resumed attacks in the Strait of Hormuz in July.

As a result, UK petrol prices are likely to climb back up. This – coupled with the increase in household energy bills from 1 July when the new Ofgem price cap took effect – is expected to push UK inflation higher.

The new Prime Minister Andy Burnham has announced that VAT on household electricity bills will be scrapped, but that will not take effect until October. It is predicted to have a small downward impact on inflation.

Precisely because food and energy prices can be very volatile, the Bank of England also considers other economic measures such as “core inflation”, which excludes these costs.

Core CPI was 2.6% in the 12 months to August 2026, unchanged from the 12 months to July.

Sam Altman, chief executive of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, said yesterday that the public should trust AI companies to keep the technology safe, while accepting that people were right to be concerned about its risks.

“The world should trust that we are going to do the right thing because it’s the right thing and we feel the magnitude of this,” Altman said at Dreamforce, the annual gathering of Salesforce clients in San Francisco.

“It doesn’t take as much imagination as it used to for [us] to imagine how this could go wrong,” he said. “I think the world is right to be afraid of this.”

Altman said AI companies were capable of regulating themselves. “We will get it right,” he said, adding that if firms could not keep “alignment and safety way ahead of capabilities” they would “slow down or stop”.

The remarks were his first public comments since a post went viral last week from a researcher who quit Anthropic, claiming AI could “kill all humans” by the end of the decade if left unchecked.

Industry leaders back self-regulation

Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang, speaking at the same conference, said AI firms should decide whether new versions of the technology are released, rather than outside forces.

“We don’t need new laws or regulations,” he said, adding there should not be a “false choice” between the speed of innovation and the safety of AI products. Huang argued that safety is an “engineering problem” and that companies should “take a pause” if they lose confidence in a product.

After Altman’s comments, Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg wrote on X that every AI firm had the ability and the incentive “to take its own actions” towards safety.

“Any lab that doesn’t focus on alignment will fall behind,” he wrote. “Labs face significant liability if their models cause harm, so they have a strong incentive to prevent this as well.”

The recent warnings from inside the industry prompted Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei to call for the pace of AI development to slow and for governments to regulate the sector. His call was applauded by Altman, Google DeepMind co-founder Demis Hassabis and Elon Musk.

Speaking at Dreamforce yesterday, Amodei said Anthropic was now in “a dialogue with the rest of the industry” about committing to better safety standards and checks on AI tools and development.

OpenAI executive Chris Lehane said last week that the company was working with other labs, including Anthropic and Google DeepMind, “to advance frontier AI standards, building a voluntary effort now, with or without government support.”

Critics question industry oversight

Critics say companies cannot be trusted to police themselves. Senator Bernie Sanders said decisions about AI had been left to “a handful of the richest people in the world”, while former White House strategist Steve Bannon said the public could not trust tech oligarchs to regulate themselves.

Jack Clark, an Anthropic co-founder and executive, told the BBC on Monday that leaving AI as a “totally unregulated industry” was “rolling dice with immense risks”.

Yoshua Bengio, one of the pioneers of modern AI, wrote on X that “ambitious efforts outside the for-profit sector” were needed to “avert the worst risks from AI”.

President Donald Trump has rejected calls for more guardrails, describing fears about AI safety as a “hoax” and saying the only guardrail needed was a “strong and smart” president.

New US legislation looks unlikely soon. In an interview with Axios published on 3 September, Altman said he had expected Congress to create a “basic framework” for advanced AI after his 2023 testimony, suggesting lawmakers had struggled to regulate without “slow[ing] down innovation”.

Congress returned from its summer break on Monday, but there is no consensus in either party on regulation, and the House is due to enter recess again at the end of this week ahead of the midterm elections in early November.

In the UK, Business Matters reported last week that Anthropic released its Claude Mythos 5.1 model without submitting it to the AI Security Institute for testing.

About the author

Cherry Martin

Cherry is Associate Editor of Business Matters with responsibility for planning and writing future features, interviews and more in-depth pieces for what is now the UK’s largest print and online source of current business news.

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OpenAI has hired hundreds of contractors to read a continuous stream of real ChatGPT users’ conversations as part of an internal effort to improve the chatbot’s responses, according to an investigation published by 404 Media, raising fresh privacy questions for a service used by more than 900 million people worldwide.

The report, based on leaked internal documents, training materials and real prompts reviewed by 404 Media, details an OpenAI initiative internally codenamed Project Lily. Under the program, contractors known as “prompt reviewers” read anonymized excerpts of real user conversations with ChatGPT, write a summary of what the user was attempting to accomplish, and then critique and rate multiple versions of the chatbot’s generated responses on a scale of one to seven.

According to the internal materials reviewed by 404 Media, the reviewers are working to steer ChatGPT toward specific behavioral targets, including training the chatbot to be less sycophantic, to use fewer emojis, to avoid excessive “AI-speak,” and to adopt more restrained, professional language. The report notes that OpenAI’s earlier GPT-4o model faced criticism for being overly sycophantic, a trait that multiple lawsuits have alleged contributed to several people’s suicides, underscoring why OpenAI has prioritized correcting that behavior in later training efforts.

Each conversation presented to reviewers is accompanied by what the documents describe as a “user memories summary,” an overview of the user’s past interactions with ChatGPT that can include personal context and, in some cases, location information, according to the report. OpenAI told 404 Media that conversations are first processed through what the company calls a Privacy Filter, a system designed to strip identifying details such as names, addresses, emails and phone numbers before prompts reach human reviewers. Even so, OpenAI itself acknowledged to 404 Media that the filter can miss what the company described as “uncommon identifying information or content with personal significance in context,” particularly in shorter conversations, meaning sensitive personal details can still reach the contractors reviewing the chats.

The privacy stakes are heightened by how many users engage with ChatGPT, according to the report, which notes that people frequently treat the chatbot as a therapist, a professional assistant or a digital confidant, sharing intimate personal details they may not realize could be read by another human being. The report also found that in a number of conversations reviewed, users explicitly asked ChatGPT to keep the contents of their exchange confidential, apparently unaware that a human contractor could ultimately review the same conversation as part of the model-improvement process.

Contractors working on Project Lily do not see ChatGPT usernames, according to the report, and OpenAI has said it works to strip personal information before prompts reach reviewers. Even so, when 404 Media asked OpenAI directly whether the company had ever explicitly disclosed to users that human contractors might review their prompts, OpenAI did not answer the question directly. According to the report, OpenAI’s public-facing website discusses human review primarily in the context of content that violates its terms of service or raises safety concerns, rather than as a routine part of ordinary model improvement. Following the story’s publication, OpenAI pointed 404 Media to a separate page on its site stating that humans may review content to “improve model performance.”

The setting governing whether a user’s conversations become eligible for this kind of review is turned on by default for OpenAI’s Free, Plus and Pro consumer subscription tiers, according to the report, while it remains off by default for Enterprise, Business and Education accounts. Users on eligible plans can disable the setting, described in OpenAI’s interface as allowing chat history to be used for model improvement, through the Data Controls section of their account settings. However, the report notes that opting out does not apply retroactively, meaning conversations a user had before changing the setting remain eligible for contractor review regardless of when the opt-out is applied.

The workers who review these prompts are recruited in part through a firm called Crossing Hurdles, with payment processed through Mercor, an AI-training company, according to the report. One contractor told 404 Media the work pays more than $50 an hour. The same contractor described the job itself as largely repetitive, saying that while reading the prompts can be amusing at times, the review guidelines shift frequently and have at times contradicted one another. Separately, Meta ended its working relationship with Mercor in April following a data breach involving the company, according to the report, though that incident was not connected to OpenAI’s use of the firm for Project Lily.

The investigation also found that OpenAI is not alone in relying on human review to refine its AI models. Anthropic confirmed to 404 Media that it likewise uses human review to improve the responses generated by its Claude chatbot, though the company said that practice applies specifically to users who have opted in through a dedicated setting labeled “Help improve our AI models,” a structurally different approach from OpenAI’s default-on setting for consumer ChatGPT accounts. Google has also disclosed that it operates a similar human review process for its own AI products, according to the report, doing so more directly and explicitly than OpenAI has to date.

The report’s authors noted that the human review process uncovered through Project Lily helps explain an aspect of AI development that receives comparatively little public attention: that large language models like ChatGPT do not improve solely through automated processes such as scraping internet data or algorithmic refinement, but also depend substantially on the ongoing, manual work of human contractors reading and evaluating real user conversations at scale, a process that inherently exposes at least some subset of sensitive user data to human eyes despite companies’ efforts to anonymize it beforehand.

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The convenience retailer has lowered its expectations amid ‘inflation headwinds’

WH Smith has trimmed its profit forecast for the second time, cautioning that aggressive discounting and “inflation headwinds” are weighing heavily on its finances.

The Swindon-headquartered convenience retailer had initially guided investors towards pre-tax profits of up to £105m for the year, before cutting that target to between £75m and £90m. On Wednesday, the group lowered its expectations further, to no more than £75m.

“This reflects lower trading profit margins driven by increased promotional activity, a reduction in brand marketing and inflation headwinds, offset by central cost reductions and lower interest costs,” the firm said.

WH Smith has struggled to build momentum in the wake of selling its 480 high street outlets to private equity firm Modella Capital.

The group has been left heavily dependent on its train station and airport stores, which it has flagged as particularly exposed to the downturn in tourism brought about by the Iran war, as reported by City AM.

The retailer’s anticipated £75m profit would represent a steep decline from last year’s £108m figure. Just months ago, the group raised £103m through an equity issue intended to strengthen its balance sheet and underpin its investment strategy.

WH Smith reported a modest uptick in sales during its fourth quarter, with summer trading nudging revenue growth from one to two per cent across the business.

In the UK, like-for-like revenue growth accelerated from two to four per cent in the fourth quarter, with the group’s hospital stores leading the charge, posting a like-for-like revenue increase of eight per cent.

WH Smith revealed it has refurbished its outlets at Heathrow, Liverpool, Belfast International and East Midlands airports in an effort to increase average basket sizes at these busy retail locations.

The group’s performance across North America has weighed on its overall growth in recent years. Like-for-like revenue in the region fell by three per cent in the fourth quarter.

The retailer’s like-for-like revenue at its North American airport stores declined by two per cent, hampered by reduced passenger numbers and “softer consumer demand”.

In June, WH Smith’s share price tumbled 16 per cent in a single day after the company cautioned that the downturn in consumer confidence and airport footfall caused by the Iran war was taking a toll on its sales.

The firm announced on Wednesday that it is making “good progress” towards its recovery plan. The group informed investors it is working to reduce costs, strengthen its cash management and drive sales in its more lucrative “travel essentials” range.

Analysts at RBC Capital Markets noted that WH Smith has delivered better-than-anticipated UK results, but is underperforming expectations in the North American market.

“We think WH Smith needs to rebuild credibility with the market, with scope for the rating to recover over time if WH Smith can reassure the market that its recent missteps won’t be repeated,” they said.

Shares in WH Smith opened largely unchanged in early trading, at 359p.

The Cardiff Capital Region is providing funding to assess the viability of what is planned as the first in series of lagoons

Plans for the first in a new generation of tidal lagoons in the Severn Estuary have been revealed by the Cardiff Capital Region.

The region, a statutory body made up of the ten local authorities of south-east Wales, will commit up to £6.4m over the next three years to undertake an extensive exploratory study, with a preferred location off the coast of Aberthaw in the Vale of Glamorgan.

The initial work will include environmental considerations, engineering design, modelling and commercial assessments.

Initial estimates suggest that the project could provide around 600 megawatts of predictable renewable electricity, which would be enough for around half a million homes.

It is being seen as the first in a series of lagoons in the estuary which could generate enough electricity to meet the needs of four million homes.

A lagoon at Aberthaw could generate around £3.5bn in economic value, supporting thousands of jobs and creating significant opportunities for businesses in its supply chain.

A first proof-of-concept tidal lagoon in the Severn Estuary, utilising one of the world’s highest tidal ranges, was recommended by an independent panel commissioned by the now-defunct cross-border Western Gateway Partnership.

Previous plans for lagoons in the Severn Estuary failed to materialise when the first proposed project, the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon scheme, failed to get subsidy backing from the then Conservative UK Government in 2018.

A more ambitious Severn barrage, which would generate more than 5% of the UK’s electricity needs, is not being proposed by the city region and was ruled out by the commission when it published its report last year.

Taking any lagoon project through the planning process would have a price tag of tens of millions of pounds, with a construction cost well north of £1bn. This would be beyond the reach of the city region. To be realised, it will require significant investment, potentially from other public and private sources, with a business model showing a return on investment over the long term.

If the project proceeds to the next phase, the UK Government’s £28bn National Wealth Fund could be a potential investor alongside institutional pension funds. The regulated asset base model could also be deployed, with upfront construction costs being partly funded through a contribution made via consumer energy bills.

The city region recently entered into a new partnership that has given it access to the National Wealth Fund’s investment knowledge, expertise and capital, to help develop and grow project pipelines, attract public and private finance, and deliver key infrastructure to support growth and create high-value jobs.

If progressed, initial estimates suggest the lagoon could provide around 600 megawatts of predictable renewable electricity – enough for around half a million homes – and operate for more than 120 years.

Chair of the Cardiff Capital Region and leader of Monmouthshire Council, Ann Brocklesby, said: “This represents a potentially game-changing moment for renewable energy generation in the UK. The Severn Estuary has one of the highest tidal ranges in the world, with the potential to generate predictable, homegrown renewable energy that complements existing wind and solar power.

“In a time when energy security has become increasingly essential, the ability to access reliable and cost-effective renewable energy to power a significant number of homes, while placing Wales at the forefront of innovation in such an important sector, makes this a generational opportunity. I am proud that the Cardiff Capital Region, along with our partners, is taking this exciting project forward.”

The next phase will use environmental and engineering co-design to determine the scale and configuration for a project, ensuring environmental, marine and ecological evidence helps shape its future development while maintaining commercial viability.

Cabinet Minister for Enterprise, Connectivity and Energy, Adam Price, said: “Our vision is for Wales to become a world leader in marine renewables. With the second-largest tidal range in the world, the Severn Estuary presents immense potential to deliver significant renewable energy generation and economic benefits for Wales.

“We will continue to work closely with partners to ensure we maximise the opportunities offered by this unique project as it progresses.

“This project will help us understand how tidal technology can contribute to the transition to clean power, tackle climate change and create good clean jobs in the future.”

Secretary of State for Wales, Stephen Kinnock, said:“Wales has a great track record of innovation and partnership, and Cardiff Capital Region is continuing to harness those strengths with projects that support economic growth, investment and clean energy. I look forward to following the development with great interest.”

The Cardiff Capital Region already owns a 500-acre site at Aberthaw, having acquired the former Aberthaw Power Station from energy giant RWE. It is planning to develop a green energy park at the site, which could also be utilised to support the building of any lagoon.

It is financing the early-stage lagoon work from its £1.2bn City Deal. The city region has adopted an evergreen strategy for most of its funding, with capital and interest payments to proejcts used to make further investments. Its financing contribution could see it taking an equity stake in the lagoon.

The commission set up by the Western Gateway Partnership, which recommended tidal energy in the Severn Estuary, was chaired by Dr Andrew Garrad.

He said: “The Severn Estuary has immense energy potential and the Commission concluded that there is a compelling case to use that potential. Equally, it must be done in the right way – with the unique and internationally important environment of the Estuary remaining at the heart of how the project is designed and developed.

“I am delighted to see Cardiff Capital Region taking forward the Commission’s recommendation for a commercial demonstration project. This investment is an important next step in building the evidence, working closely with environmental organisations, and demonstrating how tidal range can deliver large-scale, clean, economic energy while respecting the Severn’s exceptional natural environment.”

Helen Godwin, Mayor of the West of England Combined Authority (WECA), said: “The Severn Estuary is an extraordinary natural asset and now is the time to let our tides power new jobs and growth in both England and Wales. Building on the Commission’s recommendations, we have worked closely with Cardiff Capital Region to identify a key Welsh location as the right project to lead with, while ensuring the unique environment of our coast remains at the heart of plans.

“Today’s investment from our Welsh neighbours is exciting news for everyone and underlines again how the immense potential of tidal energy can unlock billions for our economy, create new jobs, skills opportunities, and supply chains across the West of England, Wales, and the UK. We will continue working with our partners to help realise this major national clean energy opportunity, here in the natural home of new green jobs.”