Via Euronews: Gold market and central banks: Russia, Kazakhstan sell as Poland, China buy https://www.euronews.com/2026/10/25/gold-market-and-central-banks-russia-kazakhstan-sell-as-poland-china-buy

Apollo’s chief economist finds that there is still no measurable impact of AI adoption on corporate America outside of big tech.

Revenue per employee and profit margins are rising for the Magnificent Seven but flat for the other 493 S&P 500 companies.

The AI industry is making money selling AI, but its customers aren’t yet seeing any payoff.

https://www.apollo.com/wealth/insights-news/insights/daily-spark/no-signs-of-ai-payoff-outside-the-tech-sector

Report: Palantir Targets UK MPs With ‘Intimidating’ Letters

"British MPs who criticised Palantir in parliament received 'intimidating' letters from the US spytech firm".

Eg, Palantir warned Clive Lewis that it "was surveilling his activities relating to Palantir last month", a letter that Lewis described as “very Big Brother” & an “implicit threat”. 

https://novaramedia.com/2026/10/22/palantir-targets-mps-with-intimidating-letters/

#UKPol #EUPol #USPol #Palantir #PalantirIntimidation #news #democracy .

So, this confirms what we knew all along. #BorisJohnson and the entire #Tory government (especially #MattHancock ) lied and lied and lied. When mixed with absolute incompetence at all levels it made for a highly toxic and explosive mix which resulted in many thousands of unnecessary deaths.
And apart from "lessons learned" and a slap on the wrist, what will happen?
Sweet FA, as usual

#UKPol #Covid #PPE #Mone

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crje5dke7vgqo

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/coral-reef-restoration-9.7392408

https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/23/tech/ai-cybersecurity-php2shell-explained?cid=ios_app

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm70pj51zdk4o Is this good or bad!

Trump ordered to answer questions under oath in BBC lawsuit https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cmy0ryjx7741o

RTÉ News: OpenAI says its AI agents disabled their own safety monitors https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2026/1021/1596341-openai/

“PHP, Gitlab, Node.js, the Number Four. Being a systems administrator today is more stressful than ever. Today, we’ll take a look at the best types of gin to help you cope with the horrors of the modern Internet, on this edition of ‘The Computer Chronicles.’”

The mid-terms in the USA will be (another) testbed for the proposition that you can *just* buy the result of democracy... Republicans have built up a warchest of nearly $1bn around double what the Democrats have available to spend.

However, currently polls are favouring the Democrats, so the Q. is whether the Republicans' spend can reverse that polling advantage.

And of course there's always the chance of *actual* electoral interference from the White House.

#USPol #Trump #midterms
h/t FT

Not sure what the implications of the decision to give the go-ahead to the Jackdaw North Sea gas field are?.... then here is a reasonable overview of the issues from @BBC Verify.

As I've said before away from the spotlight there is still good journalism happening at the BBC, just not by their high profile commentariat.

#BBC #Jackdaw #FossilFuels #politics

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq4g13pplyzzo

Miatta Fahnbulleh is leaning towards rejecting the giant Rosebank oilfield, the Guardian understands, in what would be a blow for the North Sea energy industry and a major victory for climate campaigners.

Farage’s party, Reform, has been fined more than £2,000 for failing to declare it was the publisher of campaign material seen by voters – including an additional penalty for failing to pay on time.

On 24 October 1975, around 90% of Icelandic women refused to work, cook or look after their children for the day. Known as Kvennafrídagurinn (“Women’s Day Off”), it was designed to demonstrate how much the country relied on women’s paid and unpaid labour. Schools closed, flights were cancelled and businesses ground to a halt, while thousands gathered in Reykjavík and other communities. The following year, Iceland passed a landmark Gender Equality Act.

Officials have flagged 73 wards in Northern Ireland as red no go areas for asylum housing. Mal O'Hara tells Talkback why it is totally unacceptable for racists and paramilitaries to create no go areas and what needs to be done about it.

Reality is catching up with the AI bubble. Read this in the context of what’s been happening in South Korea. You can’t keep trading on unbuilt data centres and obsolete GPUs forever. The sooner this collapses the better, even though it’s going to hurt it’ll be worse the more these companies convince governments to expose their economies to the risk. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/oct/09/firmus-australian-stock-market-listing-bust-finance

The Wall Street Journal editorial board, Murdoch's own, just savaged Fuckface for floating a Putin and Xi summit on Ukraine with no Ukraine in the room. That page has excused plenty of Republican excess over the years. Even they couldn't find an angle.

Murdoch Paper Goes Scorched Ea...

Today, Brad Lander, rabbis, and other New Yorkers accompanied Palestinian farmers during the olive harvest. For that, they were detained by the Israeli government. 

Harvesting olives is not illegal. The occupation is.

I am thankful that Brad has been released. But other New Yorkers remain detained, and they must be released immediately.

The same Israeli government detaining them has committed a horrific genocide against Palestinians, killing more than 74,000 people over the last few years alone. 

The detention of these New Yorkers must end. The occupation must end. The genocide must end.

In good #nzpol news, the High Court has decided that the government were, in fact, being bigots.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/361049290/high-court-overturns-governments-puberty-blocker-restrictions