Newsnight, followed by Weather

The programme opened with the closure of the public consultation on the Rosebank oilfield and the parallel Jackdaw gas field, with Prime Minister Andy Burnham facing a decision on whether to allow drilling. President Trump said he believed Burnham would open up the North Sea, while Labour donor and green energy businessman Dale Vince, in a live interview, appeared to shift his position, arguing that with wholesale price controls on North Sea energy, new drilling could help lower bills and fund decommissioning, though he stressed the need to maintain net zero commitments. The discussion noted 22 Labour MPs had signed a pledge against Rosebank, and the new energy secretary had visited Aberdeen, with the government saying it would consider the evidence without a timeline for a decision.

A separate segment featured Nobel Prize-winning economist Simon Johnson, who advises the UK government on AI, telling Newsnight that everyone is "in the line of fire" regarding job losses from AI, and he called for dramatic action to prepare and retrain workers, particularly clerical and less-educated white-collar workers. He said the UK could benefit by being a forward-leaning user of AI, but warned of pressure on knowledge workers and noted the energy demands of data centres, while the panel discussed the government's AI strategy, including plans to triple data centres by 2030 and the appointment of an AI minister attending cabinet.