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Politics
Policy, power, and the news of the day.
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Sharp drops for AI stocks overwhelm markets worldwide as oil prices jump
Datacenter and chip costs fueled sharp decrease in AI sector although non-AI stocks still had a strong showing The latest shudder for stocks in the AI industry pulled markets lower worldwide on Thursday, while oil prices hit their highest levels since May on worries about the war with Iran . The S&P 500 fell 1.2% for its worst day since July, while the Nasdaq composite tumbled 2.6%. The weakness for tech stocks was so overwhelming that it masked strength for the rest of the US market, in which the majority of stocks actually rose. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 11 points, or less than 0.1%. Continue reading...
Burnham to reveal plans for AI unit to tackle wildfires after scorching summer
PM will also announce funding for specialised protective gear and the deployment of military aircraft The UK government is to create an AI Cobra unit to spot wildfires after this year’s record-breaking summer saw devastating blazes across the country. The country experienced its hottest-ever summer this year, with prolonged dry periods and extreme heat fuelling wildfires that triggered an emergency alert to mobile phones in England and Wales. Figures released on 8 October showed a clear upward trend in the number of fires recorded each year. Continue reading...
Raye wins 2026 Mercury prize for This Music May Contain Hope
Singer who previously had record-breaking Brit awards success adds to her trophy cabinet thanks to massively ambitious big-band album Raye is the winner of the 2026 Mercury prize, for her second studio album, This Music May Contain Hope. Rewarded for a hugely ambitious 73-minute record that spanned big band jazz, power balladry, funk and more, her win caps an ongoing renaissance for a British singer who at one point was in the doldrums, lashing out publicly at her record label for not letting her release a studio album. Continue reading...
James Bond finalists to screen-test for role for this week – reports
Actors in the mix to play 007 in Denis Villeneuve’s installment include Callum Turner and Jack Lowden The search for the next James Bond may finally be nearing its end: according to reports, a very select group of actors will screen-test to become the next British agent 007 this weekend. According to the Hollywood Reporter and Variety , citing several sources, a group of very select actors reportedly including Callum Turner and Slow Horses’ Jack Lowden, will appear in front of cameras as the secret agent this weekend in London. Continue reading...
Tom Skerritt, Alien and Top Gun actor, dies aged 93
The actor, who also had roles in M*A*S*H, A River Runs Through It and Picket Fences, dies of natural causes Tom Skerritt, the actor known for roles in Alien and Top Gun, has died at the age of 93. His publicist confirmed to Variety that he died from natural causes. Continue reading...
Teacher wounded in Oregon school shooting played dead after she was shot
Becky Drury says she was hit by gunfire before she could intervene in attack that killed four, including three children A teacher wounded in last week’s shooting at a Bend, Oregon, elementary school shared her account of the incident, and how she was shot before she could intervene and “[pretended] to be dead”. Becky Drury was seriously wounded at Silver Rail elementary when Griffin J John II, a 16-year-old former student at the school armed with a shotgun, broke in and headed toward a special education classroom. He shot six people, killing Megan Lambert, a 25-year-old teacher, and three children, including five-year-old Rhoam Summer. Continue reading...
UK to relax post-2008 rules that hold City bosses accountable for wrongdoing
Regulators say removing ‘unnecessary burdens’ will save businesses about £2bn over 10 years The UK is watering down rules introduced in the aftermath of the financial crisis that were designed to hold City bosses accountable for wrongdoing. The plans, put forward by the financial industry’s two top regulators, the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), include a reduction in reporting for “lower-level misconduct” and would also free 140,000 managers from extra checks. Continue reading...
Aipac halts candidate endorsements amid US backlash against Israel
‘Political candidates’ once reflexive support for Israel has increasingly become a liability’ When the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the most prominent pro-Israel lobby group in the US, announced on Wednesday that it would stop endorsing candidates or make direct contributions to them, its many critics were quick to hail the development as Aipac’s admission of how toxic its brand had become. The announcement marked a significant reversal that underscored just how profoundly US public opinion of Israel has shifted over the latest war in Gaza , and how political candidates’ once reflexive support for Israel has increasingly become a liability . Continue reading...
Woman arrested over shooting of police officer in Nottingham
Aisha Zaman, 27, charged with two firearms offences after incident in city centre on Sunday A 27-year-old woman has been charged over the shooting of a police officer in Nottingham. Aisha Zaman, from the Hyson Green area of the city, has been charged with possession of a prohibited firearm and possession of that firearm with intent to commit an indictable offence. Continue reading...
Woman shoved to the ground and arrested during Utah county datacenter hearing – video
A police officer shoved a woman to the ground and arrested her after a protest against datacenters at a Utah county commission meeting. A statement from the Utah county sheriff's office said that the woman refused to leave the meeting and struck the officer in the groin before being arrested Continue reading...
Trump attacks Ohio governor over call for Ramaswamy to drop ‘deeply troubling’ ad
Republican Mike DeWine says Ramaswamy ‘wrong’ to run controversial ad, drawing swift rebuke from president Ohio’s Republican governor Mike DeWine on Thursday said gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy was “wrong” to release an ad critical of his Democratic rival Amy Acton that featured her estranged mother, and implored Ramaswamy to take the ad down. DeWine’s comments drew a swift rebuke from Donald Trump, who urged Ramaswamy to keep the ad up. Continue reading...
Christa Pike’s IV team warned vein might be ‘blowing’ before failed execution
New account from Pike’s lawyer suggests team was racked by doubts even before the pentobarbital began to flow The Tennessee execution team tasked with setting an intravenous line in the arms of death row prisoner Christa Pike through which she could be injected with a lethal dose of pentobarbital repeatedly warned that her vein might be “blowing”, before they went ahead with the procedure, her lawyer has revealed. Members of the intravenous (IV) team used up to 10 needles as they sought to establish a line through which Pike could be killed with a massive dose of the sedative. About 20 minutes into the attempt, they began discussing among themselves whether the prisoner’s vein “might be blowing”. Continue reading...
Video footage of Kohen Wiley shooting released after toddler’s death deemed ‘justified’
‘The word ‘justified’ have haunted me since Monday,’’ the child’s maternal grandmother says Since the Mississippi attorney general, Lynn Fitch, announced on Monday that the police shooting of Kohen Wiley, a one-year-old baby, “was justified”, footage of the shooting has been made public. It was first reported by Darkhorse Press, a Mississippi outlet. On Thursday, attorneys Ben Crump and Van Turner, who are representing the Wiley family, held a press conference at the Senatobia Church of Christ, in Senatobia, Mississippi. The press conference came shortly after members of the family were able to view footage of the shooting. Continue reading...
Energy secretary appears to U-turn on opposition to tougher migration rules
Miatta Fahnbulleh says reference to ‘awkward’ interview was meant to be lighthearted and self-deprecating The energy secretary has been forced to clarify that she backs Shabana Mahmood’s migration policy, after earlier joking that she had not been able to “lie” about supporting a key element of the changes. Miatta Fahnbulleh made the original remarks to a journalists’ event in Westminster, referring to an “awkward” Sky News interview in which she repeatedly refused to say she was in favour of plans to make foreign workers wait 15 years to get permanent residency. Continue reading...
Amy Winehouse musical in development for West End
A stage show based on the late singer is reportedly set to feature her best-loved songs with involvement from her father Mitch A musical based on Amy Winehouse is in development for London’s West End. The project is still in early stages with Catherine Schreiber, a Tony award-winning producer(Cabaret, Rent), attached to the project, according to Variety . Casting is reported to currently be underway. Continue reading...
Unsafe water, burning eyes and kerosene slicks: residents demand answers on River Taff leak
People near South Wales river told to keep windows and doors shut after 1,000s of litres of kerosene from a GE Aerospace site got into the water Oily slicks of kerosene still appeared to be leaking into the River Taff this week, several days after a breach of thousands of litres was spotted by members of the public. The breach into the Welsh river was identified last Friday, after people reported strong chemical odours emanating from the river. Natural Resources Wales (NRW) officers arrived on site soon afterwards to identify the source of the pollution and were assisted by South Wales fire and rescue service, which placed absorbent mats and booms to contain as much kerosene as possible. Continue reading...
US judge orders Trump administration to halt noncitizen voting investigation
Federal judge says government’s investigation into alleged noncitizen voting in nine states is relying on flawed data A federal judge in California has ordered the Trump administration to halt investigations in nine states into whether noncitizens are registered to vote. US district court judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín in Oakland found the government’s effort is relying on data that is full of errors and that it’s leading to intimidation of groups performing voter assistance efforts. She said it should be halted until polls close on election day on 3 November. Continue reading...
The Guardian view on AI safety: the push for global regulation must advance | Editorial
The current US administration is an obstacle, but public demand for protection will ultimately prevail Organisations around the world scrambled on Thursday to fix critical flaws in PHP, the software that powers much of the web. The vulnerabilities could allow attackers to take control of affected servers. Some websites were taken offline as a precaution while fixes were installed. The paradox is that while AI helped researchers uncover the flaw, it also threatens to accelerate the ability to exploit it. Amazon said that it had detected an attempt before the public disclosure of the PHP flaws. What the episode highlights is AI’s central role in security – and not always for the right reasons. OpenAI’s models have also been responsible for two alarming hacks this year – a security breach of an Australian health department website and a raid by a swarm of AI bots on Hugging Face, an AI services platform. Citing those incidents, the AI minister, Kanishka Narayan, warned that a similar cyber-attack on the UK is “likely, if not inevitable”. Continue reading...
Trump says he asked Google CEO to rename Atlantic Ocean on Maps
The tech company previously complied with his demands to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, which is shown on Google Maps for US users Donald Trump said Google rejected his request to rename the Atlantic Ocean after himself or America. Speaking at a rally in South Carolina on Wednesday, the president said he had called Google CEO Sundar Pichai to ask whether the company could “handle” his proposal. Continue reading...
Fifa increase funds for 2027 Women’s World Cup teams
Preparation money will match men’s for 2026 World Cup Players provided with better flights and individual hotel rooms Teams in the 2027’s Women’s World Cup in Brazil will receive the same preparation money from Fifa as those that played at the 2026 men’s tournament, the world’s governing body has announced. The preparation money for the 32 teams has been more than doubled to $2.5m (£1.86m) each. In 2023, the total preparation money for the tournament was $31m; it will now be $80m. Every player will be guaranteed business class or chartered flights, as well as their own hotel room rather than having to share. Fifa says this will bring the provisions for the women’s players in line with the men’s World Cup. That is likely be welcomed after the topic caused controversy at previous tournaments. Continue reading...
The Guardian view on England's north-south divide: Burnham must deliver more than devolution | Editorial
The prime minister promises to repair decades of regional damage. His government must redistribute wealth to close deadly inequalities Andy Burnham’s call to abandon “ 40 years of neoliberalism ” rests partly on the damage that he says it has done to northern England. A new study – published in the Lancet this week – adds weight to his argument. It found that for adults aged 25 to 49, death rates in the north were 13% higher than in the south in 1981. By 2024, that gap had more than tripled to 42%. What happened in the four decades that left younger adults in northern England with so much worse chances of survival? The answer lies in the lives and jobs that people have, and the homes they can afford, as well as the state of the public services, like the NHS, that they rely on. Deindustrialisation stripped secure employment from many communities in the north of England – as it did in Scotland and Wales. Austerity then weakened support systems. These reasons also underscore Mr Burnham’s analysis that Britain’s economic model and concentration of power in London have failed its regions. Continue reading...
Tommy Robinson tells court he had photos taken of journalists’ homes to pressure them
Far-right activist says he used private investigators to track down journalists but denies trying to intimidate them The far-right activist Tommy Robinson has told his harassment trial that he used private investigators to track down journalists who had written about his alleged role in the 2024 riots, and had photos taken of their homes “to put pressure” on them. Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, denied in court that his actions, which included sharing photos of the wife and daughter of one of the journalists, were designed to intimidate and bully. Continue reading...
Andy Burnham vows UK will hit net zero target despite Jackdaw gasfield approval
Prime minister pledges his government’s commitment to address climate crisis saying ‘our determination is unwavering’ We will make the net-zero transition work for Britain – approving the Jackdaw gasfield is part of the plan | Andy Burnham Andy Burnham has said he will not “abandon the responsibility” tofight the climate crisis after the government approved the Jackdaw gasfield, saying he would not approve any new North Sea licences and that he would hit the net zero 2050 target. The comments are the prime minister’s most forthright yet on net zero, after many MPs have privately cast doubt on the authenticity of his commitment to tackling the climate crisis. Continue reading...
Dollar General agrees to a nearly $1.9m settlement for overcharging New York customers
Government inspections showed overcharges as high as 39% on some items. The discount store giant was the subject of a 2025 investigation by the Guardian Dollar General, the nation’s largest dollar-store chain, has agreed to a $1.875m deal to settle allegations that it “repeatedly and persistently” overcharged customers across New York state. The New York attorney general’s office found that Dollar General often charged customers higher prices at checkout than the prices it promised on shelf labels, signs, advertising circulars and its mobile app. The state agency said one check of 114 items across multiple stores revealed overcharges on individual items as high as 26%, 38% and 39%. Continue reading...