Soaring oil prices of above $108 a barrel after Houthi attacks on Saudi infrastructure stoke inflation fears US government borrowing costs have risen to 5% for the first time since 2023 as soaring oil prices fuelled by the war in the Middle East trigger an intensifying sell-off in the global bond market. The yield – in effect the interest rate – on 10-year US Treasury bonds hit the psychologically important threshold on Monday, on a day of renewed selling pressure on Wall Street as the global oil price reached $108 a barrel. Continue reading...

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news AI-linked stocks fall after tech bosses call for slowdown in ‘reckless’ development AI CEOs say they need to slow the pace of development. But will they? The Guardian view on controlling AI: humanity cannot outsource its survival Companies threatened by the march of AI are seeing their share prices rise this morning! RELX , the analytics group, are up 4.2% and leading the FTSE 100 risers. Earlier this year its shares tumbled after the Claude chatbot added new data and automation tools . Continue reading...

The 42-year-old liberal commentator regularly co-hosts the network’s 5pm talk show, taking flak from her conservative colleagues and harsh insults from the president. Jessica Tarlov is the left-leaning Fox News host that some of the network’s most conservative viewers, including Donald Trump, love to hate. The US president regularly bashes Tarlov on his Truth Social platform, in April calling her “one of the Least Attractive and Talented People on all of Television”, and demanding that Fox “GET HER OFF THE AIR.” Continue reading...

From the Trump administration to AI experts, plans by the Anthropic boss to boost safety have spawned a largely negative response OpenAI boss and Elon Musk back slowdown on ‘reckless’ AI development Editorial: controlling AI – humanity cannot outsource its survival The safety debate that ignited when whistleblowers last week warned that the most advanced AI poses an existential threat to humanity should come with a health warning: side effects include whiplash. It was only seven days ago that AI enthusiasts were cheerily toying with OpenAI’s newest model GPT-6 Astra which was marketed in part as a lifestyle tool to help people book tennis courts, run fashion companies and order takeaways. By Wednesday, cutting-edge AI started to look a lot less appealing when the resigning Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon warned “the people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade”. Yes, he was talking about artificial superintelligence – an as-yet-nonexistent version of the technology that outcompetes humans in most domains – but his comments, and the chorus of experts that echoed him, jangled plenty of nerves. Continue reading...

Rare show of unity from rival developers after safety warnings from Anthropic boss and AI researchers Analysis: critics perplexed and suspicious of call for a slowdown The Guardian view: humanity cannot outsource its survival Sam Altman and Elon Musk have backed a call from the head of Anthropic, Dario Amodei, to “slow the pace” of AI development after he warned that an AI swarm could otherwise become capable of “taking over the entire internet” within a year. In a rare show of unity, the rival technology leaders threw their weight behind the appeal from the founder and chief executive of the artificial intelligence company Anthropic, which came after a series of warnings from AI researchers last week. Amodei also called for safety coordination with China. Continue reading...

President has hyped growth of federal investment accounts to help US children – for his own political gain Since returning to the White House, Donald Trump has scrapped rules that made childcare more affordable and pushed to cut funding for the nation’s public schools . But with midterm elections fast approaching and his approval ratings very low, the US president has repeatedly trumpeted a two-month-old program designed to help the nation’s children. That program, unhumbly named “ Trump accounts ”, calls for the federal government to give a one-time $1,000 seed deposit to every newborn whose family applies. In campaign speeches this summer , Trump has sought to milk these accounts for maximum political advantage, making big promises about how much these accounts will help the nation’s children. In a speech in Las Vegas last month, Trump hailed the program, saying: “It’s really giving [children] a head start on the American dream… They start off with $1,000 … and they can end up with $100,000, $200,000, $300,000” and if the stock market booms, “you’d end up with $1m”. Continue reading...

Ex-Tory chancellor says economy has ‘fallen off a cliff’ since Brexit but rejoining union could be ‘quite simple’ The former chancellor George Osborne said Britain’s economy had “fallen off a cliff” since Brexit and that rejoining the European Union’s customs union would be the fastest route to recovery. Osborne, who was sacked as chancellor by Theresa May after being part of David Cameron’s cabinet at the time of the referendum, said it was important to rebuild links with the EU. Continue reading...

Chinese president’s arrival in Delhi seen as step towards reconciliation after deadly 2020 military clash The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, has received a red-carpet welcome in India for a summit of Brics developing nations, as regional rivals Beijing and Delhi make a public display of thawing relations while quietly competing to lead at a time of shaky US global dominance. As Xi stepped off the plane, he was walked past an honour guard of Indian soldiers and traditional dancers in colourful dresses. Later on Saturday, he was due to attend a gala dinner for the two-day summit. Continue reading...

The former New York Times columnist is taking a step away from politics to focus on moral and humanistic concerns the media rarely cover David Brooks knows there are plenty of podcasts out there. But as the veteran commentator prepares to launch his own, he believes there is still space for someone to tackle the big moral questions facing us all. Brooks, who left the New York Times in February after 22 years and joined the Atlantic magazine full-time as a staff writer, hopes to fill that market gap with a new video podcast called The Permanent Questions, funded in part by Yale University, that will air weekly starting on Sunday. Continue reading...

Canadians ‘angry’ at Trump for suggesting Canada should become 51st state, says mayor, as US businesses see sales fall amid trade war Like many Canadians, Tom Reid isn’t crossing the US-Canada border as often these days. But he needed a haircut. The woman who cuts his hair lives in International Falls, Minnesota – her “sister is married to my wife’s cousin”, he explained – and so Reid, whose duty free shop in Fort Frances, Ontario, has to travel to her. Continue reading...

Rampant Yemeni fighters take control of island in narrow point of Bab al-Mandab strait, which Saudi is relying on for oil exports Why the rapid Houthi advance matters and what’s at stake Yemen’s rampant Houthi forces have captured the strategic island of Perim in the Bab al-Mandab strait, expanding their control of the narrow waterway, one of the ​world’s vital shipping routes. The Iran-aligned Houthis took control of the volcanic island after forces allied to the UN-backed, Aden-based government left in the latest of a dramatic series of reverses along Yemen’s west coast in recent days, including the loss of the port city of Mocha on Thursday. Continue reading...

Annualized inflation rate was 3.4%, same as July, and core inflation, which omits energy and food prices, rose to 2.4% US consumer prices remained stubbornly high in August as the end of the ceasefire between the US and Iran pushed energy prices up, according to data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics released on Friday. The annualized inflation rate was 3.4%, the same as it was in July. The most recent peak was seen in May, when the inflation rate hit a three-year high at 4.2%. Core inflation, which strips out volatile energy and food prices, increased 0.3% from the month before and 2.4% annually. Continue reading...

Crude jumps above $107 a barrel amid concerns over Middle East conflict and out-of-control government borrowing Nervous investors across big economies have been dumping government bonds, driving up the cost of borrowing, as surging oil prices amplified fears about rising inflation. The cost of a barrel of oil jumped 6% to above $107 on Thursday amid concerns that advances by Houthi rebels along the Red Sea coast in Yemen could choke off Saudi crude exports. Continue reading...

The biggest May to September of all time was recorded in US cinemas, with the UK enjoying a 56% rise in audiences, outstripped by an 88% lift in the Middle East and Africa As well as celebrating their wedding, the actors Tom Holland and Zendaya have something else to toast: their two summer blockbusters – The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day – have officially made box office history. The films were credited as the driving force behind the US’s biggest summer season of all time, taking $4.761bn (£3.51bn) from 1 May-7 September, beating 2013’s $4.756bn. Continue reading...

Borrowing costs climb in Europe and oil tops $105 a barrel as bank says growing price pressures in eurozone will be ‘longer lasting than we had anticipated’ Business live – latest updates The European Central Bank has raised interest rates to 2.5% and warned that the risk of higher inflation over the next year has risen following renewed fighting in the Middle East. It came as government borrowing costs soared on the back of a jump in oil and gas prices after the latest US and Iran attacks on ships in the strait of Hormuz. Continue reading...

John Ternus helms his first major event as head of $4.5tn company, where he announces first foldable iPhone John Ternus, Apple’s new CEO, helmed the company’s annual showcase of new iPhones and other products on Wednesday. It was the first time the public saw the warm and unpretentious demeanor of the executive, who is filling the shoes of Tim Cook and his predecessor, Steve Jobs, at the $4.5tn tech giant. The event kicked off with a video montage of characters describing the best way to start a movie, from a getaway scene to a closeup of woman revealing her true identity, before the well-known voice of Cook piped in. Continue reading...

EU’s highest court allows Swedish furniture firm to begin proceedings after Vlaams Belang used its trademarks in immigration campaign Ikea has won the right to take legal action against a Belgian far-right political party that parodied the Swedish flatpack furniture firm’s branding in its anti-immigration campaign. In a ruling on Tuesday, Europe’s highest court said that Ikea had the right to oppose the use of its trademarks and distinctive graphics by Vlaams Belang, a rightwing Eurosceptic political party that advocates for an independent Flemish state. Continue reading...

National Air Traffic Services apologise for technical issue disrupting departures today, which Flightradar24 say has caused hundreds of cancellations Air traffic control issue causes flight delays and disruption across UK Gas prices are rising this morning, putting pressure on European countries who need to stock up their storage levels before the winter. The month-ahead UK gas price is up around 1% at 184p a therm, close to yesterday’s highs when gas hit its highest since January 2023. Continue reading...

Global AC demand will inevitably accelerate as the world continues to warm amid the climate crisis The greenest campaigners against climate change have long suffered from a crippling shortcoming: they too often frame the challenge as a problem of excess consumption. This motivates calls to “degrow” the economy and to curb the population . The claim is that humans consume too many resources, which in the context of climate change means too much energy. Nowhere has the tension between this proposition and reality become more palpable during this sweltering summer than in the conversation over air conditioning. Continue reading...