now, it is not the first time we have heard from baroness foster at the uk covid inquiry.t year, she said that the uk government should have stepped in to fill the void when there were no stormont ministers in place because of the devolved government collapse from 2017 until 2020. we have heard from health officials that the lack of ministerial guidance here in northern ireland it really affect how they could plan for the pandemic. northern ireland were said to be 18 months behind the rest of the united kingdom when it came to planning for such an eventuality. we are expecting to hear more from baroness foster late into this afternoon, and then, the covid inquiry finishes the belfast leg tomorrow after hearing three weeks of evidence on how northern ireland dealt with the pandemic. i of evidence on how northern ireland dealt with the pandemic.— dealt with the pandemic. i assume that a lot of _ dealt with the pandemic. i assume that a lot of the _ dealt with the pandemic. i assume that a lot of the families _ dealt with the pandemic. i assume that a lot of the families and

the former first minster of northern ireland baroness arlene foster has said she accepts responsibility ex—dup leader was giving evidence at the covid inquiry and spoke of her "deep regret" over the covid response. this was arlene foster's response to suggestions that she passed blame onto the department of health. i don't think it was the department of health's fault for what happened during the first wave of the pandemic. it was the virus that caused the damage to northern ireland, and we were trying to deal with what was coming at it because nobody had any appreciation of the scale of what was coming towards us. and actually, in mid—march of the meeting we had with the republic of ireland ministers, in those minutes, you can see that the chief medical officer, our chief medical officer, is saying that he felt that the peak was around 14 weeks from there. so wrongly and i say absolutely wrongly, we felt that we had time and we didn't have time. and that's a source of great regret. let's speak to our ireland correspondent, sarah girvin, who is in belfast. another big morning at the inq

and we will hear from baroness arlene foster tomorrow, the former leader of the dup and the former fizzland to be a big thing tomorrow here at the inquiry as well. ., ., thing tomorrow here at the inquiry as well. ., ,, , ., thing tomorrow here at the inquiry as well. ., ~' , ., , thing tomorrow here at the inquiry as well. ., ,, i. , . in the us, one of the leading companies in artificial intelligence, 0penai, has unveiled its latest chatbot — called gpt—iio. it has advanced capabilities — including seeing, hearing and talking to the user. 0ur north america business correspondent erin delmore watched the launch from new york. 20 years ago, the biggest battle in tech was over who would win the war for search—engine dominance. google took the prize, and it isn�*t nowjust a multitrillion dollar company, it�*s also a verb. so now, enter the latest fight over who will lead on generative ai. the startup 0penai took the tech sector by storm with its chatgpt chatbot in late 2022 that could answer users�* queries and carry out humanlike conversation. mark, you�*re not a vacuum cleaner... as of

i've got baroness, jacqueline foster and aaron.ld fill a whole hour and then some talking about taxation. very different opinions here. i want to rattle through some more stories though, because lots going on today. let me ask you this. are you overweight ? and if this. are you overweight? and if you are, do you think you should be paid money, incentivised in order to lose it? there was a trial and people were incentivised with up to about £400. that was the most effective group when it comes to sustaining weight loss. aaron bastani your thoughts ? well, bastani your thoughts? well, there's not much money, is it? >> i was expecting somebody to say like 20 grand or something on a minute. >> you two minutes ago you was explaining that for the most people don't even have £100. fast forward through the break. now he's saying £400. it's not a lot to lose your mind. >> to lose £20 is going to take you about six months. it's not you about six months. it's not you know, it's a long old time, i don't know how much of an incentive it is. loo

tomorrow we will hear from baroness arlene foster who is the former leader of the dup and a former firsts _ hear them. she has been denying she was playing politics as we _ hear them. she has been denying she was playing politics as we have - was playing politics as we have talked about, the politics in northern ireland, quite difficult as the assembly had we just come back, but she was also seeing a lot of the policy was coming from the department and indeed from the department and indeed from the department of health in england as well. . ., department of health in england as well. , . , well. yes, and actually during this three weeks. _ well. yes, and actually during this three weeks, we _ well. yes, and actually during this three weeks, we haven't - well. yes, and actually during this three weeks, we haven't actually l three weeks, we haven't actually heard a lot of what was happening in those relationships between london and belfast. as we now different parts and actions were taken in england, scotland, wales and northern ireland when it came to lock downs and exactly how they dealt

sir philip baroness hallett foster. thank you very much indeed.t a dull old me and you. >> i know we're still waiting on ours, aren't we? yeah. >> we'll get there. it suits you, both of you. >> yes. very well done. >> yes. very well done. >> lovely to see you both. all right. we'll bring you more on the election. >> we're going to talk >> well, we have it now, don't we? in our diaries, the 4th of july. >> actually, i haven't. well, your diary put it in. and you haven't booked your holiday, thank goodness. >> no, no, we've heard of people having to cancel their honeymoons and all sorts. so >> but we really. >> but we really. >> well, yes, we just had. that didn't we? but we are in the swing of things now, aren't we? and we're hearing from all of the parties this morning. earlier we spoke to the reform uk candidate for sutton coldfield, mark hoath. >> i was quite surprised . and, >> i was quite surprised. and, but when i think about it overall, maybe not because i think what rishi sunak realises that his rwanda policy is not going to work and we're