5 important things happening in the UK today

Here are 5 important things happening in the UK today – 16 June 2025.

Walking a tightrope: The UK government is trying to walk a tightrope on relations with Israel, expressing support for its military action against Iran while also criticising the war in Gaza. Prime Minister Keir Starmer will meet with fellow world leaders at the Group of Seven summit in Canada on Monday and continue his calls for de-escalation between Israel and Iran, after the two countries bombarded each other for a third day on Sunday. [Bloomberg]

NHS app to be used for clinical trials: The government plans to use the NHS app to encourage millions of people in England to take part in the search for new treatments. Patients will eventually be automatically matched with studies based on their health data and interests, via the app. The plans envisage alerting them to the trials using smartphone notifications. [Guardian]

Concerns raised over new fraud bill: Privacy campaigners and peers have raised concerns about the new fraud Bill, which will allow civil servants to ask banks to provide personal information about a person’s account without a court order, and extract funds if they “reasonably believe” that money is owed to the taxpayer. [Telegraph]

Major job cuts planned at BT: CEO Allison Kirkby says advances in artificial intelligence could deepen significant job cuts under way at BT as the UK telecoms group opened the door to a possible future spin-off of Openreach. Kirkby told the Financial Times that BT’s plans to cull more than 40,000 jobs and strip out £3 billion of costs by the end of the decade did not reflect the full potential of AI. [Financial Times]

Oil is hovering around the $70.49 a barrel market after reports of continued fighting between Israel and Iran over the weekend. The pound was trading at £1.36 to the dollar, £1.17 to the euro and £9.71 to the yuan.