AI Chatbot Obviously Trying To Wind Down Conversation With Boring Human https://theonion.com/ai-chatbot-obviously-trying-to-wind-down-conversation-w-1850146151/

autumn, suburbia

Stag, South-west London

Stag, South-west London

FT exclusive: The £500mn sale of the Telegraph to US private equity group RedBird has collapsed, throwing the future of the 170-year-old British newspaper into doubt once more as it enters its third year without an owner. www.ft.com/content/c48e...

spot on

the truth about the BBC row is that the Tory they sent in to look for errors (Michael Prescott) found rather different errors to those which someone from the left would have been found

Big scoop by my colleagues, this:

want a budget scoop? Here it is www.ft.com/content/6cbb...

looks like the Treasury probably isn’t coming for partnerships/LLPs after all www.ft.com/content/57e8...

Yay, the even worse option of lots of small taxes upsetting noisy lobby groups.

want a budget scoop? Here it is www.ft.com/content/6cbb...

and they want you to think that Epstein and Mandelson weren’t close friends for aeons

Exclusive: Rachel Reeves is set to cap how much you can spend through the Cycle to Work scheme in the Budget www.ft.com/content/e41e...

Ghislaine Maxwell lied about Trump never going to Epstein's house (directly contradicted by her email correspondence with Epstein), and she was rewarded for that lie with a transfer to a cushier prison. The coverup is happening in plain sight.

Have your hat at the ready, Jim 🔶 😉

UK national security adviser Jonathan Powell tried to open a back channel to Putin as Britain and its closest EU allies feared the Trump administration could sideline their interests over Ukraine. The Kremlin confirmed our reporting on the outreach. Scoop w/ FT comrades on.ft.com/4nWDWnX

there are loads of miserable Labour MPs mulling the future but right now there isn’t an actual Labour coup, can’t imagine this will still be high on the news agenda by Friday

Bombshell report reveals Trump 'loyalty test' hidden in interviews of judge nominees

Waking up to news 🚨 that 6 (!) Roman statues were stolen from Syria’s National Museum, in Damascus, on Monday. No details on which statues yet, but I had a few pics below from the GRB gallery with the famed Al-Lat Athena. Heartbreaking news. thehill.com/homenews/ap/...

Autumn

"Research released this month by economists at the Bank of England, the Bundesbank, King’s College London and the universities of Stanford and Nottingham underscored the economic hit from leaving the EU. Brexit had reduced UK GDP by 6-8%" on.ft.com/4p1NoHv

our BBC analysis: “Insiders admit the BBC has often been at fault. But the scandals have been amplified by a hostile cohort of rightwing politicians and media allies” www.ft.com/content/28b4...

Westminster this evening

this is brilliant satire: “Given what I took to be the anti-Trump nature of the Sketch, I of course assumed there would be a similar, balancing Sketch discussing the possibility that the Capitol building had attacked the rioters....."

Rachel Reeves lets the cat out of the (already threadbare) bag about the looming break to the manifesto: “It would of course be possible to stick with the manifesto commitments but that would require things like deep cuts in capital spending.” www.ft.com/content/a502...

Absolutely right. I criticise BBC News, because we need it to be as good as we know it can be. People like Farage criticise the BBC, because they work for its competitors and don't want it to exist.

excoriating Observer editorial on the BBC departures observer.co.uk/opinion-and-...

Interesting paragraph from a long tweet just posted by Nick Robinson.

not only was Prescott’s former employer Hanover Communications a Tory outfit, it also represented Sky News for many years….

this is my favourite comment of the day on an FT story

Glad that someone has finally taken responsibility for the appalling assault on democracy that was the Jan. 6 insurrection. Slightly confused that it's the Director-General of the BBC, but what do I know?

the biggest question: did the former BBC director-general fall on his sword because of fears (either in the corporation or in Westminster) about Trump's wrath www.ft.com/content/ccc0...

only in the small print of this article do they make clear that the pensioners paying an extra £2,500 of tax would have to have “earnings over £125,140” I know many pensioners are asset rich but how many have income at that level?

only in the small print of this article do they make clear that the pensioners paying an extra £2,500 of tax would have to have “earnings over £125,140” I know many pensioners are asset rich but how many have income at that level?

NEW POD! FT's 📻 @pickardje.bsky.social @katie0martin.ft.com and Sam Fleming pick over the taxes Reeves might raise and how; the political damage thereof; crucially from Katie, what the markets *really* think of the UK, Reeves and Farage; PLUS how to pronounce smorgasbord www.ft.com/content/359e...

Mandelson’s advisory firm Global Counsel is in trouble it would appear www.ft.com/content/6580...

Mandelson’s advisory firm Global Counsel is in trouble it would appear www.ft.com/content/6580...

Get your colleagues and friends off it, folks.

it's beyond time to leave X; anybody still there ... unless you're a journalist or researcher who studies right-wing misinformation or whatever, why ...

must-read analysis of how Musk's twitter is drenching new users with right-wing propaganda news.sky.com/story/the-x-...

I never get bored of this silhouette

David Lammy at PMQs attacks Reform MP Sarah Pochin for her “disgraceful racist language…that belongs on the Dark Ages” and - curiously - Nigel Farage nods along

Outstanding, no notes

terrific couple of paragraphs here

Notable in today's YouGov that the centre/left bloc - Lab/Green/LD/SNP are on 54%. With Reform/Tories on 43%. That's the biggest differential in a long time. I think useful to track blocs given instability between parties at the moment.

Comedy is the UK's superpower.

Kwasi Kwarteng, the former UK chancellor whose infamous “mini” Budget under then-Prime Minister Liz Truss triggered a crisis in the gilts market, is backing the launch of a bitcoin investment company.  www.ft.com/content/c5a6...

elon musk: people in the uk live like hobbits. um let’s look at you for a second bro

NEW: ‘Nigel Farage is not my friend…he’s just a handsome & stylish English gentleman’ The wife of the Russian agent who Nathan Gill has admitted to accepting bribes from says Nigel Farage is not her ‘good friend’ after saying that he was her ‘good friend’ 1/ open.substack.com/pub/broligar...