Writing the summary…
London’s investment bankers and lawyers make more than £1bn in takeover frenzy

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‘People are standing up and fighting back’: the north Devon revolt against a vast AI datacentre
Plans for one of Europe’s largest AI campuses in a Unesco-designated reserve have sparked a fierce local backlash The datacentre revolt spreading across the US has reached the rolling hills of north Devon in an uprising against a planned hyperscale AI data campus in the middle of a globally protected landscape. Perched on an inland cliff, the town of Great Torrington has views that stretch for miles over the landscape of the Unesco biosphere reserve in which it sits, taking in the winding River Torridge and rolling acres of wooded valley and wildflower meadows. Pastoral and peaceful, its history was notably punctured by violence in 1646 when the royalists’ resistance in the first English civil war was brought to an end by the parliamentarian New Model Army in a battle fought out in the narrow streets in heavy rain and darkness. Continue reading...

Ever feel you’ve been cheated? Consequences could be profound after Manchester City guilty verdict | Jonathan Wilson
Premier League could be hit hard by aftermath, while Manchester City fans may know they took 30 years to recover from a guilty verdict in 1906 So it turns out none of that was real. Nothing that happened in English football between 2009-10 and 2017-18 that involved Manchester City actually happened. City beating Manchester United 6-1 at Old Trafford? Fake. Sergio Agüero’s 94th-minute winner to clinch the title in 2012 ? A figment of the imagination. That season City reached 100 points ? Bobby Ewing dreamed it in the shower. Without those successes, City wouldn’t have been in the position they were for the past eight seasons (and 35 of the charges relate to a failure to cooperate with Premier League investigations between 2018 and 2023). The 14 successive wins that took them to the league title in 2018-19 would not have happened without what went before. Neither would the Treble of 2023 o

Trump rejects Iran’s seven-day peace deal to reopen strait of Hormuz
US president is said to expect renewed strikes after the midterms Donald Trump has said he has rejected an Iranian proposal to reopen the strait of Hormuz within a week and resume nuclear talks in return for the lifting of the US naval blockade of Iranian ports. “They made a proposal but I reject it,” the US president told reporters at the White House. Continue reading...

‘Mum, where did my Robux go?’ The Roblox scam targeting children
Criminals are trying to glean login details to harvest players’ in-game currency and personal data Your 10-year-old son has started playing Roblox, when he realises all of his in-game currency, Robux, is gone. When you try to find out what happened, he says he was recently promised extra Robux if he followed a link on YouTube. When he signed on at the site link, he was taken to the Roblox site as usual but there was no sign of the extra currency. Continue reading...

Poland is racing ahead with military spending – but will it help or damage its economic growth story?
In the first article in a series on the Polish economy, we look at the country’s defence boom and its implications A short distance north from Warsaw along the Vistula river, camouflaged missile launchers roll through the quiet village of Czosnów. As recently as two years ago, their destination – a hi-tech weapons facility opened this month – had been a cornfield. Now, as Poland drives up defence investment at one of the fastest rates in the developed world, this rural spot has been transformed amid Europe’s response to Russian aggression and US disengagement. Continue reading...
'Funflation' is on the rise as hobbies get pricier, but consumers keep spending anyway
Consumers are spending more on hobbies like arts and crafts and outdoor sports, as it gets more expensive to travel due to increased airfare.