Oil prices fall as US pauses strikes on Iran over strait of Hormuz
Posted on Monday July 27, 2026

Brent crude drops 9% to below $88 a barrel, prompting UK government bond yields to fall

Oil prices have dropped sharply as traders bet that a pause in US attacks on Iran could prevent an escalation in the conflict that would further restrict global supply.

Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil, initially fell 9% to below $88 a barrel on Monday after climbing to $100 last week, when the Iran-aligned Houthis attacked Saudi Arabian oil tankers in the Red Sea.

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DCC, one of FTSE 100’s biggest energy firms, agrees £5.75bn takeover
Posted on Monday July 27, 2026

KKR and Energy Capital Partners poised to buy firm despite misgivings from founder and biggest shareholders

• Nils Pratley: Private equity finds soft takeover targets in London – yet again

One of the biggest energy businesses listed on the London Stock Exchange has agreed a controversial £5.7bn takeover by private equity, adding to the growing exodus of companies from the UK market.

The US private equity groups KKR and Energy Capital Partners are poised to buy DCC Energy after the company’s board recommended the offer despite misgivings from its founder and biggest shareholders.

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Boss of startup hacked by rogue OpenAI agent urges ‘radical transparency’ in investigation
Posted on Monday July 27, 2026

Artificial intelligence firm should provide $100m for cyber defences, says Hugging Face CEO

The boss of the startup hacked by an OpenAI agent has called for the investigation into the incident to show “radical transparency”.

Clément Delangue, the chief executive of Hugging Face, said the “unprecedented” attack on his business required a similar response.

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PM urged to uphold climate pledges made as mayor and ban new North Sea oil drilling
Posted on Monday July 27, 2026

Experts who helped Burnham draw up Manchester carbon neutral pledge say backtracking would send wrong message amid wildfires and heatwaves

Leading climate scientists who created Greater Manchester’s carbon neutral by 2038 commitment are urging Andy Burnham to unequivocally reject new drilling in the North Sea.

In a letter to the prime minister they said he, as mayor of Greater Manchester, had unveiled one of the UK’s most ambitious local climate programmes that tackled housing, green growth and public transport.

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Boss of startup hacked by rogue OpenAI agent urges ‘radical transparency’ in investigation
Posted on Monday July 27, 2026

Artificial intelligence firm should provide $100m for cyber defences, says Hugging Face CEO

The boss of the startup hacked by an OpenAI agent has called for the investigation into the incident to show “radical transparency”.

Clément Delangue, the chief executive of Hugging Face, said the “unprecedented” attack on his business required a similar response.

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Honor Magic V6 review: sleek foldable phone lacking a bit of polish
Posted on Monday July 27, 2026

Super-premium Android has top performance, long battery life and good cameras, but is let down by software

Honor’s svelte Android phone-tablet has been given a glow-up for its sixth version, offering a great alternative to Samsung for a fancy foldable with a red suede-like back framed in gold.

The Magic V6 continues the Chinese challenger brand’s strategy of taking a razor-thin device and slapping a giant circular lump on the back to fit in top-class cameras, something others often forgo. It costs a not inconsiderable £1,500 (€1,700/A$2,999) but only until August when the price jumps to a cool £2,000 (€2,300) – a solid £300 more than last year’s model as the cost of RAMageddon continues to bite, even at the very top end of the market.

Main screen: 7.95in (403ppi) 120Hz OLED flexible display

Cover screen: 6.52in (406ppi) 120Hz OLED

Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5

RAM: 16GB

Storage: 512GB

Operating system: MagicOS 10 (Android 16)

Camera: 50MP + 50MP ultrawide + 64MP 3x tele; 2x 20MP selfie

Connectivity: 5G, dual sim + esim, USB-C, wifi 7, NFC, Bluetooth 6, GNSS

Water resistance: IP68/69 (1.5 metres for 30 minutes)

Dimensions folded: 156.7 x 74.5 x 8.75-9mm

Dimensions unfolded: 156.7 x 145.6 x 4.0-4.1mm

Weight: 219-224g

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Commonwealth Games 2026: Ramsay-Peaty takes bronze in men’s 50m breaststroke final on day four – live
Posted on Monday July 27, 2026

• Live updates from Monday’s action around Glasgow

• Latest medal table | Day four: in pictures | Mail Daniel

It’s time for Martin Belam to steer things for the next couple of hours.

Athletics: England’s Sam Bennett has made it to the final of the men’s 110m hurdles on his Commonwealth Games debut, having put together the best time in the heats: 13.20 (wind +2.1). Bennett claimed gold at the UK Championships in June with a time of 13.41.

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Mind the ever-growing gap: the Premier League keeps spending big
Posted on Monday July 27, 2026

English clubs have spent more on players this summer than the other four major European leagues combined

The financial power of the Premier League is unmatched. The teams in England’s top division have collectively invested more than £1.4bn in new players already this summer (through disclosed fees alone), around £303m more than the 76 clubs from the Bundesliga, La Liga, Ligue 1 and Serie A combined.

These figures are the gross spend, so take no account of players sold to help balance the books. Factoring this in only increases the divide. The clubs of Ligue 1 and the Bundesliga are £203.4m and £72.2m in credit from their transfer dealings respectively. While La Liga (£163.1m) and Serie A (£124.1m) have spent more than they have earned, they are an ocean adrift of the Premier League’s net spend of £523.6m.

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