Bihar-born Kanishka Narayan becomes UK’s AI minister

Kanishka Narayan, an immigrant from Muzaffarpur, Bihar, has been named Britain's 'most important minister' in Prime Minister Andy Burnham's cabinet, holding the portfolio for artificial intelligence. Narayan, 36, entered Parliament two years ago and now leads a domain billed as the 'dawn of a new industrial revolution'.

Narayan's family moved to Cardiff, Wales when he was eight. He slept on the floor of a one-bedroom home in an unglamorous suburb before earning a full bursary to Eton. He then studied at Oxford and Stanford, worked in banking and the civil service. 'Britain is a land of possibility and freedom,' he said, describing his journey as accelerating '400 years of progress in a lifetime'.

Separately, a survey by language-learning platform Preply found that 'soccer' is the second most grating Americanism among British adults, with children increasingly using US terms like 'movies', 'awesome' and 'ATM'. Another survey showed a majority of British voters believe the UK has left its 'best days' behind, with 40% saying they need a strong leader willing to break rules.