In our second in a series on high-end UK manufacturing, we visit the artisans producing rich clients’ bespoke luxury cars

• ‘Our town is making jeans again’: meet the firm reviving jobs and skills in Wales

They are the plaything of kings, presidents and A-listers, with Rolls-Royce enthusiasts ranging from the Sultan of Brunei to Rowan Atkinson, from King Charles III to Kermit the frog.

And at the carmaker’s factory in Goodwood, West Sussex, special requests from customers get more indulgent every year. An interior lined with 3,000 iridescent feathers, or a built-in champagne cooler, or a car built in homage to its owners’ dog, have all become part of the job.

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© Photograph: Peter Flude/The Guardian

© Photograph: Peter Flude/The Guardian

© Photograph: Peter Flude/The Guardian

Fixed-term annuities give income for a set period – such as five or 10 years – and an agreed lump sum at the end

Financial firms are reporting growing demand for a product that helps bridge the gap between stopping work and getting your pension.

Sales of retirement annuities have risen sharply during the last couple of years, and now advisers are seeing a fresh surge of interest in what they say is one of the market’s “lesser-known” options.

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© Photograph: Halfpoint/Getty Images/iStockphoto

© Photograph: Halfpoint/Getty Images/iStockphoto

© Photograph: Halfpoint/Getty Images/iStockphoto

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: Prediction market boosters often tout the platforms as barometers of public opinion, or even "truth machines" offering a clearer picture of where things are headed than polling or other data. In 2024, for example, Kalshi beat many pollsters in forecasting the outcome of the US presidential race. But their trading activity can also tell more perplexing stories. Two global election markets on Polymarket's offshore platform, for instance, generated over $600 million in trading volume, far more than most political markets typically attract. Most of the activity took place buying and selling contracts tied to long-shot candidates who ultimately did not win. The report focuses on suspicious trading activity surrounding elections in Ethiopia and Romania, where researchers uncovered $284 million in questionable trades tied to Ethiopia's election and periods when 99.6% of trading volume in a Romanian election market was flagged as suspected "wash trading." According to Wired, "wash trading is a type of market manipulation in which accounts repeatedly buy and sell assets to create the illusion of heavy trading activity, when in reality, money is simply moving back and forth." Some accounts may also be artificially inflating their activity to qualify for potential cryptocurrency token rewards, a practice known as "activity farming." In response to the Ethiopian trading activity, Polymarket told Wired that the company "immediately flagged this activity, investigated, and blocked the accounts from trading." The company did not explain why the suspicious trades were allowed to continue for months before action was taken.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Private credit's expanding role in financing AI infrastructure faced one of its clearest market tests this week as CoreWeave's bonds fell to distressed levels, raising questions about how lenders are pricing a boom built on chips, data centers and customer contracts. CoreWeave has about $50 billion of debt, according to LSEG data, making it one of the largest borrowers linking private credit to the AI buildout. The cost of insuring its debt against default climbed to about 1,200 basis points this week, while yields on some of its bonds rose to roughly 15% to 16%, signaling sharply increased investor concern over its credit risk. "There is still a price. Investors are still comfortable financing it, but they're demanding more compensation for it," said James Martin, senior US credit strategist at SMBC, referring to projects further from completion. Carlyle estimates that private credit could finance roughly $1 trillion of the AI infrastructure buildout but warns that aggressive lending could create concentration risks similar to those seen in software lending. "The clearest lesson is not to avoid AI compute exposure, but to set concentration limits before the buildout accelerates further, not after," Carlyle said.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Labour says idea is ‘tin-eared’ as report says fixing rate will cost low-paid workers almost £9,000 over five years

A shadow minister has called for the government to freeze the minimum wage for five years, a move that could cost low-paid workers almost £9,000.

The call came in a report from the Prosperity Institute thinktank, which carries an endorsement from Andrew Sharpe, the shadow business minister. Sharpe said in his endorsement that it was time to take action to address the low rate of young people in work.

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© Photograph: Martin Lee/Alamy

© Photograph: Martin Lee/Alamy

© Photograph: Martin Lee/Alamy

From a brick stable block renovated into an eco home to a Georgian townhouse painted in atmospheric shades of grey

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© Photograph: Kristy Noble/Inigo

© Photograph: Kristy Noble/Inigo

© Photograph: Kristy Noble/Inigo

"Along with the dangers of continuing cyberattacks, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reports that the threat of an AI market crash is putting the global markets at risk," writes Slashdot reader databasecowgirl, citing the IMF's latest semiannual Global Financial Stability Report. Here's a summary: Three salient risks could trigger a sharp tightening of financial conditions and market turmoil. Weaker or less durable investment and profitability in artificial intelligence could lead to a correction in AI-related asset prices, amplified by rising leverage and concentrated exposures. Resurgent inflation or fiscal concerns could drive a sharp rise in sovereign bond yields, with potentially broad repercussions across financial markets. Meanwhile, increasingly sophisticated cyber threats pose growing risks as finance becomes more digital and interconnected. Underlying financial vulnerabilities could amplify these risks and turn market stress into systemic events. Although the global banking system remains broadly resilient, pockets of weaker banks persist. Liquidity mismatches among insurers and pension funds have increased, while rising leverage and contingent liquidity risks in private credit could amplify stress. While hedge funds support market functioning in calm times, their use of leverage and exposure to crowded trades could exacerbate market stress too and create spillovers to prime brokers. Some emerging markets have seen policy buffers erode, and frontier economies have increasingly relied on less transparent forms of financing. Finally, although markets for tokenized assets remain small and could offer efficiency gains in several areas, they can create new channels for the buildup of leverage and mismatches in liquidity and maturity, in addition to elevating risks related to technology and infrastructure. These vulnerabilities underscore the need for policies that strengthen resilience, enhance transparency, contain excessive leverage, and improve preparedness for future shocks. The full report can be found here (PDF).

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Exclusive: Chancellor to target sector in his first budget, to help offset Iran war’s damage to public finances

John Healey is poised to tax Britain’s banks in his 28 October budget, to help offset the damage inflicted on the public finances by war in the Middle East, the Guardian understands.

The chancellor is in Bangkok, where the International Monetary Fund has praised the UK’s progress towards balancing the books, urging him to “stay the course”.

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© Photograph: Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters

© Photograph: Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters

© Photograph: Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters

Latest data showing surprise 0.1% growth is boost to John Healey a fortnight before his first budget

• Business news – live updates

The UK economy unexpectedly continued to grow in August despite a fall in consumer spending before John Healey’s first budget as chancellor.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics showed gross domestic product (GDP) rose by 0.1% last month, compared with 0.4% growth in July. That confounded a forecast by City economists of a 0.1% contraction.

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© Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

© Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

© Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

Accounts for the Westminster-based company behind ChatGPT show that 110 staff shared £87m in salaries and £168m in shares last year

OpenAI’s London staff each received £2,318,181 on average last year, as the ChatGPT-maker poured Premier League football salaries into its bid to dominate the global AI race.

Accounts for OpenAI UK Ltd, which is based in Westminster but is opening a new HQ in London’s King’s Cross area, showed that 110 staff shared £87m in salaries and £168m in shares in the company, which is aiming to list on the stock market at a valuation of about $1tn.

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© Photograph: Dado Ruvić/Reuters

© Photograph: Dado Ruvić/Reuters

© Photograph: Dado Ruvić/Reuters

There are many reasons to reject this affordability ‘solution’, not least it being complex and fiddly. Just keep things simple

‘My mark of failure or success is whether I can get bills down or not. That’s the only thing I’m in this job to do.” So said Miatta Fahnbulleh, the energy secretary, recently, bracing for the hike in energy bills that looks inevitable in January. Industry projections suggest £400-ish on an annual basis is on the way, with “stubbornly high” levels for the rest of decade even if wholesale gas prices cool down.

So, yes, one can understand why “affordability” is Fahnbulleh’s “top priority”. And, as this newspaper reported last week, there is likely to be an intervention in that direction in chancellor John Healey’s budget this month: £1bn of extra support for poorer households this winter.

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© Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPA

© Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPA

© Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPA

David Redshaw and Fernando Quintana respond to reports of a billionaire exodus from Britain

The idea that the departure of the super-rich is a problem ignores a historical fact (Apparent exodus of super-rich suggests UK is no longer billionaires’ playground, 7 October). Capitalism works better without them. The most successful countries today are states where redistributive taxation has empowered the working masses and provided a better and more stable market for business people.

How do today’s complaining uber-rich explain the postwar decades, when the top rate of income tax was commonly 80% or 90%, and yet the period is known as a golden age of capitalism? Then Margaret Thatcher lowered the top rate to 60% and the country tilted into a massive recession. The rich get to a point where they simply become wealth extractors, using their money to buy assets and raising the cost of them for the rest of us – housing being a good example today.

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© Photograph: Remy Musser/Alamy

© Photograph: Remy Musser/Alamy

© Photograph: Remy Musser/Alamy

Social media-driven craze puts ‘squishies’ up there with evergreen favourites such as Lego and Barbie, Hamleys says

A cartoonish banana so addictively squidgy that it is “really difficult to put down” is tipped to be among the must-have toys this Christmas, according to expert buyers at Hamleys.

The £10 “slow-rise, squeezable, sensory” fruit taps into the “squishies” craze that is fuelling a high street boom in toy sales. In the coming weeks, Hamleys expects to sell thousands of the Big Squij toys, which come in a variety of food and animal shapes filled with a flour-based compound.

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© Photograph: David Goymer/Hamleys

© Photograph: David Goymer/Hamleys

© Photograph: David Goymer/Hamleys

Yorkshire and Thames among providers facing penalties for missing performance targets, but bills could rise elsewhere

• Business live – latest updates

Thames Water, Yorkshire Water and other providers could be forced to cut tens of millions of pounds from household bills after the regulator said they had missed performance targets.

Customer bills at Yorkshire Water could fall by £27 on average, while those at Thames could decrease by £7, according to estimates by Ofwat, the regulator of the privatised industry in England and Wales.

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© Photograph: PA Images/Alamy Stock Photo/Alamy Live News.

© Photograph: PA Images/Alamy Stock Photo/Alamy Live News.

© Photograph: PA Images/Alamy Stock Photo/Alamy Live News.

Insurers are taking on more risk than they should. If – or when – a major disaster hits, the catastrophe will have far-reaching consequences

I work for a major insurer, assessing the risk posed by natural disasters on properties around the world, from family homes to schools, government offices and multibillion-dollar commercial centres. The world is facing greater risk than ever from extreme weather. We are not prepared – and that inaction could have profound consequences for the global financial system.

In the face of ever more extreme and unpredictable climate risks, I am coming under pressure to cut my forecasts for the losses that disasters will cause in order to make insurance more affordable – and get my employer more business. In some instances, the questioning of our numbers and models is justified. But too often, it is not being done to produce more accurate models, but to artificially lower prices. If this is happening at my firm, which is struggling to compete with rivals’ prices, it’s happening elsewhere.

The writer is a modeller working in the insurance industry. A version of this piece originally appeared with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism as part of their Secret Source series, a regular column featuring industry whistleblowers

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© Photograph: Iain Masterton/Alamy

© Photograph: Iain Masterton/Alamy

© Photograph: Iain Masterton/Alamy

Discovery+ has raised prices for new subscribers, increasing its ad-free plan from $10 to $12 per month and its ad-supported plan from $6 to $7. The hike comes shortly after Paramount Skydance acquired Warner Bros. Discovery. Ars Technica reports: The new prices take effect for new subscribers immediately. Current subscribers to the streaming service, which primarily features unscripted content, like reality shows and documentaries, will receive 30 days' notice before the new prices take effect, starting with bills issued as of November 12. [...] However, a Skydance spokesperson told Ars Technica that the pricing changes were in the works before Discovery+ knew about the merger's closing date and were not planned in anticipation of a merger. The spokesperson said that Discovery+'s prices are regularly evaluated to ensure that they are in line with the content and experience that the service offers, and the new prices reflect that. Discovery+ has increased its prices three times since launching in 2012. Before today, the most recent price hike occurred in January 2025, when ad-based monthly subscriptions increased from $5 to $6, and ad-free plans went from $9 to $10.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

From finding draughts to buying a thermal leak detector – there are simple, cost-effective ways to start sorting heat loss

• How to storm-proof your home, from roof tiles to garden fences

Pick a day when there is a good breeze, and heat the house to its usual temperature. Then wander around with a candle or smoke pen (about £20). Alternatively, buy a thermal leak detector. This flashes blue for cold, green for normal and red for warm.

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© Photograph: ivansmuk/Getty Images/iStockphoto

© Photograph: ivansmuk/Getty Images/iStockphoto

© Photograph: ivansmuk/Getty Images/iStockphoto

Musk’s midterm donations, mostly for rightwing candidates and causes, surpass his contributions to Trump in 2024

Elon Musk has become the biggest political donor of the 2026 US midterm elections cycle, funneling about $366m into political groups and campaigns as he backs conservative candidates and rightwing causes. The world’s richest person has poured more than $276m into politics since July alone, some of the most rapid political spending in US history. He’s targeting key races that will determine which party controls the US Senate.

The New York Times first reported the spending numbers, which will be released in a federal filing on Thursday. Musk’s spending outpaces his 2024 presidential election contributions, in which he sunk nearly $300m into Donald Trump’s re-election campaign.

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© Photograph: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP

© Photograph: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP

© Photograph: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP

Terry Peach responds to Kemi Badenoch’s conference speech, while Penelope Turton writes on her promise to cut inheritance tax

Kemi Badenoch’s conference speech rehearsed the argument that Andy Burnham’s economic policies were warped by his “nostalgia” for the 1970s, unlike her own forward-looking programme for “a better tomorrow” (Tories accused of prioritising rich voters as Badenoch lays out inheritance tax cut plan, 7 October).

She appears not to see that her preference for a lesser-regulated capitalist market economy, with lower public expenditure, taxes and national debt, coupled with “tough love” welfare policies, is itself harking back to arguments that have circulated for centuries.

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© Photograph: Nicola tree/Getty Images

© Photograph: Nicola tree/Getty Images

© Photograph: Nicola tree/Getty Images

Help-to-buy initiative for England could slow market while first-time buyers wait for launch, builder admits

The new Your First Home programme for first-time buyers could increase the number of houses British builder Bellway produces each year by 10%, its boss has said.

Faced with a chronic shortage of homes, the government has made housing one of its top priorities and Andy Burnham’s surprise announcement of the YFH scheme a fortnight ago sent housebuilders’ shares soaring by more than 10%.

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© Photograph: Steve Parsons/PA

© Photograph: Steve Parsons/PA

© Photograph: Steve Parsons/PA

It is billing £32.99 a month but I have had no functioning phone line since it switched me to Digital Voice

I’ve had no landline since May 2025 when BT switched it to Digital Voice. Weeks passed, and each call to BT involved at least an hour waiting on hold and answering security questions before being passed between departments.

Eventually, last December, two engineers were sent and discovered that a wire had been severed during the upgrade. They said they needed a cherry picker to reconnect it to its original location and would return. They did not.

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© Photograph: conzor/Alamy

© Photograph: conzor/Alamy

© Photograph: conzor/Alamy

The quirky vase, the owl candlestick, my mother’s ring – these items hold part of me and carry with them an existential problem

A friend of mine recently discussed his will with me. He talked about the importance of looking after his daughter financially when he’s gone. As a child-free woman, I confidently told him my money will go to organisations that have meant something to me: Macmillan Cancer Support and animal charities. It bemuses me how people think the absence of children is a problem when it comes to inheritance money; it’s always been obvious to me that I’d give my money to causes that touch my heart. But then my friend served something of a curveball. He asked me who will have my deceased mother’s ring?

It made me think: where do the precious artefacts from our lives go when we are no longer here? Whenever I’m away from home I look forward to being reunited with these things: the quirky vase that sits in the window of my study, and the owl candlestick, a birthday gift from my potter friend. These items carry parts of me – what will become of them? If you have children, the answer to this question is not presented to you as a puzzle; like a constellation of stars, the answer is perfectly aligned. If you don’t have children, the question can lead to existential angst.

Kiran Sidhu is a freelance journalist and writer. She is the author of I Can Hear the Cuckoo. She also wrote the Bafta award-winning documentary Heart Valley.

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© Photograph: mikroman6/Getty Images

© Photograph: mikroman6/Getty Images

© Photograph: mikroman6/Getty Images

Calls for planned fuel duty rise to be scrapped as analysis finds average fuel bill could hit £1,965, up from £1,294

Millions of British van drivers face a combined £2.5bn cost to cover the rising price of diesel this year, according to figures, fuelling calls for the government to scrap its planned fuel duty rise.

The owners of diesel vans and pickups can expect to collectively spend almost £8.5bn at the pump this year, according to analysis for the Guardian, after diesel prices climbed to record highs due to a global fuel shortage caused by disruption to refineries in the Middle East and Russia.

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© Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images

Council car parks have switched away from ticket machines to cut costs, leading to extra fees for users

Drivers are unwittingly paying up to 40% more to park as more councils switch to app-only payments and force customers to pick up the tab.

Many councils across England have removed pay and display machines and replaced them with app payments, including a number in London. Most local authorities encourage drivers to pay by app to beat queues, while apps are often the only way to pay when ticket machines are out of order. However, many car park signs fail to mention that app payments may incur an additional service fee.

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© Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

© Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

© Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

New post-Brexit rules mean that dual nationals cannot enter the UK unless they have a British passport

My teenage daughter is unable to see her grandparents because of the UK’s new requirement for dual nationals to hold a UK passport.

I’m a UK citizen, married to a French national, and we live in France. Our two older children have both French and UK passports. Our third child was born while we were living in Zimbabwe and only has a French passport.

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© Photograph: Jordan Pettitt/PA

© Photograph: Jordan Pettitt/PA

© Photograph: Jordan Pettitt/PA

Happy hormones | Fuel costs | Drive-in parking | Guys and girls | Young or old? | Singapore pollution

Re your report (‘Pull the plug’: protesters resort to direct action against AI firms, 6 October), the US neuroscientist Ben Rein has shown that there is a fundamental difference in our cognitive response according to the type of interaction we have. In-person meetings and conversations show a dramatic increase in serotonin, oxytocin and dopamine – “feelgood” hormones – compared with online interactions. I have been encouraged to speak to people at bus stops.
Judith Furner
Eastbourne, East Sussex

• Re easing winter fuel costs (Report, 6 October), it would benefit everyone if the outrageous daily standing charges were reduced or on a sliding scale based on usage. I can’t be the only person whose standing charges each month are half or more than the energy used.
Judith Pearson
Sheffield

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© Illustration: Jitendra Jadhav/Getty Images

© Illustration: Jitendra Jadhav/Getty Images

© Illustration: Jitendra Jadhav/Getty Images

Tories plan to scrap low-carbon housebuilding, Greens back new nuclear reactors, and Labour put oil-drilling decisions on hold

New homes could be built without solar panels, heat pumps and high-grade insulation, leading to higher household bills if the Conservative party wins the next general election.

Kemi Badenoch made scrapping the future homes standard (FHS) one of the central planks of her bid to become the next prime minister at the Tory party conference this week.

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© Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPA

© Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPA

© Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPA

Appointment or renewal reminder appears in victims’ calendar to lure them into logging in to fake Google, Microsoft or PayPal page

You’re preparing for the week ahead and take a look at your Google calendar. There’s an entry for a meeting that you must have completely forgotten. The note that pops up when you click on it says you’ll be reviewing a project and includes a link to more details. Confused, you follow it to find out more; the website you land on asks for logon details, and you provide them.

Unfortunately, this was not a failure of your memory but a calendar phishing scam. You have handed your name and password to fraudsters who will sell it on in a batch with other people’s details, use it to break into your work email, or to persuade you that they are contacting you from your bank, or another institution.

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© Photograph: grinvalds/Getty Images

© Photograph: grinvalds/Getty Images

© Photograph: grinvalds/Getty Images

With an extremely wet and windy winter forecast, take steps to keep you and your home safe and dry

With the Met Office warning that this year’s supersized El Niño could mean a wet and stormy winter lies ahead, it’s never been more important to maintain your home.

Payouts for storm damage to UK homes surged 32% to £244m in 2025 amid the destruction caused by the heavy rain and strong winds that accompanied the likes of Storm Éowyn and Storm Floris.

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© Photograph: Charles McQuillan/Getty Images

© Photograph: Charles McQuillan/Getty Images

© Photograph: Charles McQuillan/Getty Images

Competition is hotting up, with National Savings & Investments lifting rates to the highest in years

National Savings and Investments (NS&I) has increased the returns on some of its accounts, with many now paying more than 5% for the first time in nearly three years.

Competition in the savings market has been growing, leading to some of the highest interest rates for years.

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© Photograph: Russell Hart/Alamy

© Photograph: Russell Hart/Alamy

© Photograph: Russell Hart/Alamy

Ahead of the budget later this month, we’d like to hear from people in the UK about what measures they feel might help – or not help – financially

We want to find out more about any financial concerns people in the UK have ahead of the budget on 28 October 2026. What measures would you like to see in the budget and what issues would you like to see addressed?

For instance, do you have particular concerns around energy bills, petrol, childcare, fiscal drag, pensions – or something else? Let us know below.

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© Photograph: Ascannio/Alamy

© Photograph: Ascannio/Alamy

© Photograph: Ascannio/Alamy

Exclusive: Chancellor urged to reverse Jeremy Hunt’s tax surcharge cuts to claw back billions in lost revenue

• Business live – latest updates

Tax cuts for big banks have deprived the UK government of £6bn in revenues, according to campaigners, who are calling on the chancellor, John Healey, to increase taxes and force lenders to pay their “fair share” in the budget.

Calculations by the Trades Union Congress (TUC), which represents unions with more than 5.3 million members across England and Wales, shows that the public purse is billions of pounds worse off as a result of tax cuts introduced under the Tory chancellor Jeremy Hunt in 2023.

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© Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

© Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

© Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

From a flat in a new urban village in London to a family-sized home in a rural village in Norfolk

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© Photograph: Sowerbys

© Photograph: Sowerbys

© Photograph: Sowerbys

Thinking Allowed, The Artificial Human and Free Thinking among other programmes hit by £500m cuts

BBC Radio 4’s consumer rights show You and Yours is to be axed after more than 50 years, becoming one of the latest victims of the corporation’s £500m cuts plan.

The programme, once described by the former Radio 4 controller Mark Damazer as “one of the most important” on the station, is one of a handful to be cut as the BBC searches for shows that can be more easily adapted as podcasts.

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© Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty Images

© Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty Images

© Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty Images

Move expected to make pump pricing more transparent and encourage competition after diesel hits record £2 a litre

Drivers will be able to see live petrol prices on Google Maps for the first time from Thursday, in a move that will help motorists shop around for the cheapest fuel.

Millions of motorists will be able to find the cheapest petrol and diesel prices by searching for a local forecourt in the Google app, in what could prove to be “a major development” in making fuel prices more fair, according to campaigners.

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© Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

© Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

© Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

Readers respond to an article in which Larry Elliott argues that Andy Burnham must challenge neoliberal nostrums

Larry Elliott’s column on the rightwing economic myths constraining Andy Burnham’s government should be required reading before John Healey’s budget (Rightwing economic myths could derail Burnham’s project – to destroy them, look to Keynes, 1 October).

I spent 20 years trading bonds, and agree that the household budget analogy bears no relation to how the UK state finances itself. Parliament votes on the spending, the Treasury instructs the Bank of England, and the Bank credits accounts in the private sector. Taxes withdraw money afterwards.

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© Photograph: Tim Gidal/Getty Images

© Photograph: Tim Gidal/Getty Images

© Photograph: Tim Gidal/Getty Images

Average cost of home in September was £298,441, says Lloyds – about the same as year earlier and in August

• Business live – latest updates

UK house prices flatlined in September, according to a leading index, as rising mortgage costs started to weigh on the market.

The average cost of a home was £298,441, roughly the same as it was a year earlier and in the previous month, according to the tracker from Lloyds previously known as the Halifax HPI.

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© Photograph: Greg Balfour Evans/Alamy

© Photograph: Greg Balfour Evans/Alamy

© Photograph: Greg Balfour Evans/Alamy

If recent complaints are believed, London and the UK are no longer welcoming for ultra-high net worth individuals

London was once globally renowned as the “billionaires’ playground”, where the world’s super-rich could relax in the Georgian townhouses of Mayfair undisturbed by the grasping hand of the state.

But if recent complaints by fleeing ultra-high net worth individuals are to be believed, the city is no longer as welcoming for those who consider themselves to be Britain’s most-persecuted minority.

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© Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

© Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

© Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

We would like to speak to people about their experience of using AI agents when dealing with their finances

Following the release of Meta’s Muse and Open AI’s dots there’s now capacity for these AI agents to assist with some financial transactions on a user’s behalf.

With this in mind, we would like to speak to people who use AI agents to manage their finances.

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© Photograph: Dado Ruvić/Reuters

© Photograph: Dado Ruvić/Reuters

© Photograph: Dado Ruvić/Reuters

Industry leaders say bogus claims rose 14% last year, pushing up premiums for all customers

An insurance fraudster who pocketed more than £14,000 for the supposed theft of Lego sets, fishing gear and gaming consoles was behind one of last year’s most high-profile bogus claims.

Investigators uncovered £1.34bn of fraud in 2025, a 14% increase on the year before, according to the Association of British Insurers (ABI).

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© Photograph: Krzysztof Flasza/Alamy

© Photograph: Krzysztof Flasza/Alamy

© Photograph: Krzysztof Flasza/Alamy

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: As bipartisan backlash against Flock grows, some cities are asking anti-surveillance advocates and media outlets to pay eye-popping fees -- including charging tens of thousands or even millions -- to get information about how police departments are using and potentially abusing AI-enabled camera systems that track every vehicle that passes them. On Monday, the Texas Tribune reported that city officials in a Fort Worth suburb, North Richland Hills, asked one group to pay $2.3 million before it would fulfill a public records request for Flock data. To reach that high fee, officials claimed that searching "about a terabyte worth of communications about errors, misuse, and effectiveness of the Flock system" would take approximately 14 years of labor at a rate of $15 per hour. Phil Mynona, who filed the request using a pseudonym on behalf of his group, the Texas Privacy Coalition, told the Tribune that the fee seemed "ludicrous" and designed to stifle his public records searches. Mynona has sought similar records from more than 200 law enforcement agencies across the US, and he said it was impossible to predict how cities assessed fees for Flock records. Some cities provided more than 400,000 pages of documents for free, while others charged $5,000. Other groups, including a Houston news station called KPRC, have seen officials quote up to $121,000 for Flock records, the Tribune reported. The high price tags may be hiding data that anti-surveillance groups note have triggered audits, arrests, and changes in how law enforcement uses cameras, including decisions to get rid of cameras. Further reading: Flock Blamed for Wrongful 13-Day Imprisonment and a Police Stalking Incident in Florida

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Sykes Holiday Cottages showed no empathy and insisted on paperwork we didn’t have so soon after my husband’s death

We booked a break with Sykes Holiday Cottages for 11 of us to celebrate my mum’s 80th birthday last February. The cost was £2,400, paid for by my 87-year-old dad, but it was my husband who made the booking.

In January, my husband was diagnosed with aggressive lymphoma, and he died 10 days before the trip. My parents and some other members of the party still planned to take the holiday, and my dad informed Sykes of the death, since my husband was their point of contact.

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© Photograph: John Morrison/Alamy

© Photograph: John Morrison/Alamy

© Photograph: John Morrison/Alamy

A U.S. banking group just sued the government agency that issues America's federal bank charters, reports CoinDesk, "accusing it of exceeding its legal powers in granting national trust-bank status to crypto firms." The agency's move "creates a gaping hole in financial regulation," according to the lawsuit by The Independent Community Bankers of America, one of America's largest banking advocacy organizations. It argues the move will "perversely allow entities engaged in highly risky cryptocurrency and digital assets activities to enter the banking system under lightly regulated national charters" which actually preempt many state regulations, including consumer protection laws. But the move would also "place community banks at a severe competitive disadvantage," the lawsuit argues, "by allowing the national trust banks to offer many of the same services as community banks without complying with the same costly banking laws and regulations that apply to the community banks." This competitive advantage could "siphon deposits out of community banks and into deposit alternatives like cryptocurrency," which they describe as "highly volatile, prone to market crashes, cybercrime, and fraud" and lacking protections like deposit insurance. They also warn that America's Office of the Comptroller of the Currency "has not managed an uninsured bank receivership in nearly one hundred years. But failures of risky uninsured national trust banks could spread instability throughout the nation's financial system, including by spreading contagion risks to other traditional banks like community banks." CoinDesk reports: [The Independent Community Bankers of America] also played a significant role in pushing back against the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act that failed to advance in the U.S. Senate last month — in part due to the bankers' objections that its stablecoin provisions didn't protect them against direct competition with the deposit accounts that are core to their businesses. Now, the group is targeting the trust charters crypto firms are pursuing as an entry point into the U.S. banking and payments system. "Congress did not create the national trust charter as a side door into the banking system for crypto firms seeking the credibility of a federal bank charter," ICBA President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey said in a statement..

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Scammers reuse personal details harvested from fake Esta websites – and texts and calls can keep arriving for months

When the British actor Lisa Riley was preparing to travel to the US last year, she applied online for an Esta so she would not need a visa. After finding the site through a Google search she filled in her passport, bank and personal details and waited for the confirmation, which normally takes just under an hour.

When it failed to arrive, she emailed an address from the site where she had paid and got back a message unlike any she had seen before, with a link to a website that displayed a jumble of words and letters.

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© Photograph: NetPhotos/Alamy

© Photograph: NetPhotos/Alamy

© Photograph: NetPhotos/Alamy

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: The state of New Mexico asked a judge on Thursday to order Meta Platforms to pay between $35 billion and $40 billion in penalties after a jury found the company had misled consumers about the privacy of their data on Facebook in a case that came out of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Attorneys for New Mexico made the request at a hearing in a lawsuit brought following revelations that the British political consulting firm, which worked on Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, harvested personal data from as many as 87 million Facebook users through a third-party app without their consent. The jury returned its verdict on September 25. Judge Francis Mathew, who oversaw the trial in Santa Fe, will decide how much Meta must pay in financial penalties. [...] State law allows the judge to decide how much to fine Meta per violation, up to $5,000. At the hearing on Thursday, Randi McGinn, a lawyer for New Mexico, said applying the full $5,000 penalty to the number of violations would create too large of a penalty under the US Constitution's protections on due process. But the judge should order a significant payment that will impact the company, McGinn said. "This court should speak to Meta in the only language it understands, which is money, and the value of its stock price," McGinn said. She said $35 billion to $40 billion, which represents about 20% of the possible penalties that could be awarded under state law from the verdict, would impact the stock price while complying with Meta's right to due process under the Constitution. At the hearing on Thursday, Matt Nicholson, a lawyer for Meta, called the state's request an "astronomical penalty that would obviously violate a host of constitutional provisions." In court filings, Meta urged Mathew to cap the penalties at $3.45 billion. The jury may have said it found Meta's statements misleading, but the evidence shows that Meta does not sell user data and New Mexico did not prove that any consumer had actually been misled, the company said in court filings. The judge said he expected to issue a ruling later this month.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Are you making cutbacks in light of the price increases?

The average price of diesel in the UK climbed to a record £2 a litre on 2 October.

The price of a litre at UK forecourts has risen 40.5% since late February, when the US-Israel war on Iran began disrupting supplies of crude and refined oil products from the Gulf, leading to cost increases across the economy.

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© Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

© Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

© Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

From a neo-baronial country house with turrets in acres of grounds in Scotland to a modernist tower block in a bustling part of London

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© Photograph: Purple Bricks

© Photograph: Purple Bricks

© Photograph: Purple Bricks

The Naylors’ four-bedroom home in Milton Keynes acts like a mini-power station after retrofitting solar panels, a battery and a heat pump

Clare Naylor paid close attention to how much energy she and her family were using last winter, filling hot-water bottles and bringing out extra blankets to ensure they didn’t go over budget. This year, she won’t have to worry as she is guaranteed not to receive a bill.

While millions of British households face the highest energy charges in three years from this week after a 4% rise in the price cap, and predictions of a 16% increase in January, upgrades to Naylor’s home mean she will not have to pay a thing.

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© Photograph: Teri Pengilley/The Guardian

© Photograph: Teri Pengilley/The Guardian

© Photograph: Teri Pengilley/The Guardian

Manchester City are the most successful (men's) football team in the modern era of the Premier League. But there's a slight problem. They cheated, to the sum of £830,690,000. For 9 seasons, during which they won a number of titles and trophies. After a multi-year investigation, further details.

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs:

• The hidden work of modernizing Malwarebytes
• X Money rollout linked to password-reset attacks
• Free streaming boxes may be routing criminal traffic through your home
• StreamRat Android malware spreads through Meta and TikTok ads
• Your phone or computer may soon ask how old you are
• Tech support scams look different now. Here’s what to watch for
• Scammers are getting smarter about where they target you
• Two critical Chrome flaws put users at risk on malicious websites
• 153M+ driver’s licenses for sale on new dark web platform
• Your AI chats could be used in court
• Fake GTA 6 leaked copy drains your crypto wallet
• TerminalFix looks like ClickFix, but delivers a very different payload
• Infostealers are hijacking Claude accounts at users’ expense
• McKesson confirms cyber incident after ShinyHunters claims patient-data theft

Stay safe!

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