Microsoft pulls out of AI datacentre project in Essex over power supply concerns
Posted on Sunday October 18, 2026

Development by UK firm Nscale heralded by ministers as largest of its kind in country loses anchor tenant

The development of a huge AI datacentre hailed by the UK government has received a fresh setback after Microsoft pulled out of the project over concerns about power supplies.

The development by the British company Nscale, heralded by ministers as the country’s largest AI datacentre when it was announced in 2025, was planned to open at Loughton in Essex next year.

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Manchester City owner’s £55m housing loan while Burnham was mayor investigated
Posted on Sunday October 18, 2026

Scrutiny committee looks into financing of Manchester Life project as PM promises ‘full transparency’

A £55m loan to Manchester City’s Abu Dhabi owner will be investigated as part of a review into a fund for housing projects while Andy Burnham was mayor.

The prime minister has faced weeks of scrutiny over his links to Manchester City’s super-rich owners after the club was found guilty of boosting its income by £900m in a nine-year breach of financial rules.

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World Bank says ‘small AI’ could transform developing countries
Posted on Sunday October 18, 2026

Bank’s chief knowledge officer says the tech could speed up economic development from centuries to decades

The World Bank is urging developing countries to kickstart the creation of “small AI” models, which can run on a mobile phone with low connectivity, to reap the full benefits of artificial intelligence.

While Silicon Valley big tech firms are focused on ever more sophisticated consumer products, Paschal Donohoe, the World Bank’s chief knowledge officer, said AI could also accelerate development for emerging economies – but only if it was adapted to local needs.

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Condé Nast’s UK profits drop by more than a third as sale of Vogue publisher ruled out
Posted on Sunday October 18, 2026

Magazine group points to restructuring bill but says it ‘remains profitable in the UK for another year’

Profits at Condé Nast’s UK arm slumped by more than a third last year, according to figures published shortly after the billionaire family that owns the luxury magazine group and titles from Vogue to GQ ruled out a sale.

The publisher, which enjoyed a bumper 2024 after booking £64m in proceeds from the sale of its UK headquarters Vogue House in London, saw pre-tax profits excluding exceptional items tumble 36% from £28m that year to nearly £18m last year.

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World Bank says ‘small AI’ could transform developing countries
Posted on Sunday October 18, 2026

Bank’s chief knowledge officer says the tech could speed up economic development from centuries to decades

The World Bank is urging developing countries to kickstart the creation of “small AI” models, which can run on a mobile phone with low connectivity, to reap the full benefits of artificial intelligence.

While Silicon Valley big tech firms are focused on ever more sophisticated consumer products, Paschal Donohoe, the World Bank’s chief knowledge officer, said AI could also accelerate development for emerging economies – but only if it was adapted to local needs.

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What are self-replicating ‘AI worms’, and why is Anthropic worried about them?
Posted on Sunday October 18, 2026

The tech company says successful AI worms need more capability on less powerful devices, but current trends make that feasible by the end of the year

Warnings about what artificial intelligence might do in the future – together with alarming reports of what it has gotten up to already – are being issued so quickly that even security experts have difficulty triaging what to worry about.

Yet a report this week from Anthropic’s offensive research team grabbed attention by describing a new, practical threat, one devoid of human characteristics or apocalyptic musings. The red team, as such internal testers are called, said it created a malicious AI program that spread autonomously through internet-connected “smart” televisions and could do the same inside other ordinary devices. While machines running AI usually need a fair amount of computing power, the researchers said that their program split parts of itself among 15 televisions and was still able to function by using a bit of power from each.

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Elite-level incompetence is Manchester United’s problem – not Michael Carrick | Barney Ronay
Posted on Sunday October 18, 2026

Getting rid of head coach is not going to solve the problems that led to his appointment. Perhaps it’s worth, for once, doing something different

At the final whistle at Elland Road the TV cameras cut to a lingering shot of Manchester United chief executive Omar Berrada, looking down pensively from the stands, deciding, it is to be hoped, on a little clemency, a re-sheathing of the managerial shotgun.

Here we have the man who hired the man. The man who fires the man. The man who also hired or rehired the previous two men he had to fire. Berrada was poached from Manchester City on the basis of his ability to grow commercial revenue (yes, OK, stop laughing), and appears, like everyone else with any actual reach around here, to exist in a strangely consequence-free bubble.

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Madueke breaks Nottingham Forest’s resistance as dogged Arsenal edge to victory
Posted on Sunday October 18, 2026

The theme before kick-off was blanks. Or, more precisely, whether either team could stop firing them at the City Ground. It was a detail to make Oliver Glasner extremely uncomfortable that his Nottingham Forest team had still to score at their own stadium this season. Arsenal, meanwhile, had drawn 0-0 on their previous two visits to this part of the east Midlands. They had only one win in five here.

Forest’s frustrations under their new manager go on. It was another spirited performance from them, bits to like, especially a full-throttle performance from Liam Delap in the No 9 position. But, for the fifth time under Glasner, there was not a goal to celebrate in front of the home support.

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