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• The NSA, CISA, and the FBI issued a joint Cybersecurity Advisory asking American AI developers to degrade responses sent to suspected Chinese distillation traffic. • The agencies identified six China-based AI companies conducting industrial-scale knowledge distillation campaigns, which involve using a powerful model's outputs to train a smaller, cheaper model. • This directive treats AI model outputs as an exfiltration surface, meaning the data generated by the AI is viewed as a target for theft by foreign adversaries.

• Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez faced intense questioning from lawmakers regarding the government's management of the Ceuta border crisis. • The scrutiny follows mass protests by tens of thousands of Spaniards who are demanding accountability for the handling of the situation. • A primary point of contention is the specific role Morocco played in the deadly mass crossing event that occurred in July.

Fair to say the current sell-off is international, but the PM has said little yet to make investors rethink the UK’s statusIt’s too soon to say the bond markets have turned on Andy Burnham. Tuesday’s spike in gilt yields, taking the UK’s 30-year borrowing costs to their highest level since 1998, was part of an international sell-off of government debt.The main contributors are well-known. The Iran war, by increasing the cost of energy, has overturned the comforting start-of-the-year thesis of falling global inflation and interest rates. A plunging Japanese yen has kicked away another assumed source of financial stability. The US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, hasn’t calmed nerves with his solo, and so far futile, attempt to bring down US yields. Meanwhile, the early stage of the AI revolution is an exercise in issuing squillions of debt before long-term returns on capital can possibly be assessed meaningfully. Continue reading...

Will the UK ever rejoin the EU? Who is funding Andy Burnham? And will the bedroom tax be scrapped? In a special episode, Kiran Stacey and Peter Walker answer some of your questionsPlease keep sending your comments and questions to Pippa and Kiran at [email protected] Continue reading...

• Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh is set to deliver his first major speech during the bank's annual economic retreat in Jackson Hole. • The address serves as a critical platform for Warsh to outline his specific strategy for managing inflation and stabilizing the economy. • This appearance is viewed as a pivotal moment for Warsh to establish his leadership and boost his professional credibility with markets and policymakers.

Robert Corrigan has been dealing with the ‘smart’ rodents all his life – and believes there are better solutions to deal with the growing infestation in the world’s cities“The rodents have paid for every single bill I’ve ever had – every mortgage, every car payment, every pint of Guinness,” says Dr Robert Corrigan. “It’s been a great ride and I’m still at it.”New York-based Corrigan is one of the most respected voices in the world of rodentology. Now in his 70s, he has devoted his entire adult life to studying rats and our relationship with them. Continue reading...

Senator Ruben Gallego calls carrier’s months-long deployment a ‘deep problem’ as wellbeing concerns mountDemocrats on Sunday intensified their demands for answers from the Trump administration over conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln as the aircraft carrier’s nearly nine-month deployment continued fueling concern over crew morale, mental health and living conditions.Ruben Gallego, a Democratic senator from Arizona, said on Sunday that problems aboard the Lincoln had kept mounting – and he blamed the carrier’s prolonged deployment on the unresolved war that Donald Trump started in February with Iran as well as lackluster leadership in general from the Republican president’s administration. Continue reading...

• BBC Sport reporters are providing updates and answering fan questions regarding the latest football transfer deals and rumors. • Analysis suggests certain Arsenal players may have a fitness advantage over teammates who participated in the World Cup's late finish. • Recent tactical observations highlight strong chemistry between specific players, including Calafiori and Lewis-Skelly, during defensive rotations.

The Comac C919 will fly from Beijing to Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia, although experts say it could take generations for it to challenge the west’s dominance of the industryChina hopes to break into the world of commercial aviation with the first international flight of a Chinese-made passenger jet scheduled for Wednesday.The Comac C919 will take off from Beijing capital international airport at 3pm, landing in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, just over two hours later. Continue reading...

• London-based start-up Cosine is attempting to develop a "sovereign AI" model to serve as the UK's equivalent to OpenAI. • The company currently operates with a small team of 30 people and has secured strategic backing from the UK government. • This initiative is critical for national digital autonomy, though Cosine faces significant challenges competing against global rivals with vastly superior financial and computing resources.

Reform says it will free up space in jails in England and Wales by rapidly deporting all foreign offendersGood morning. Andy Burnham has said Middlemarch is his favourite novel, but he may not remember George Eliot’s line about the genial businessman Mr Vincy who “blustering as he was, had as little of his own way as if he had been a prime minister”. Burnham only took over in No 10 three weeks ago today. But already he is learning that Eliot had a point about the constraints of office.As PM, Burnham became responsible for the prisoner early release scheme due to come into force in September, which is hugely controversial because it will lead to killers, rapists and sex offenders being released early. Burnham immediately said he was “pausing” the scheme pending a rethink, and early last week he announced he was changing the rules to make the scheme more restrictive. Explaining the move in an article for the Daily Telegraph, Burnham said that he “wanted to go even further” but that the plan he was announcing “pushed to the very limits of what is possible to do.” He added: “I know I can look people in the eye and say to them there is nothing more I could have asked for without risking the prison system reaching capacity and collapsing within months.”Yusuf [says] Reform will deport “all 10,000 foreign nationals from our prisons.” Of the 10,134 foreign nationals in custody in England and Wales, nearly a third are on remand, i.e. they haven’t been convicted of a crime yet. A Reform official confirmed foreign nationals will only come in scope of the party’s scheme if and when they’re convicted. Then there are questions about what’d happen after inmates in Kosovo finish their sentence (Reform would put a lifetime ban on returning to the U.K.). Or matters like El Salvador’s human rights record — though Playbook can imagine how Farage will respond to that one.Keeping the public safe is and always will be Labour’s first priority. The government has already made clear we are working at pace to deport foreign criminals and we’re building more prison places to deliver justice for victims and keep criminals behind bars.Reform have no serious answers to the Tory prisons crisis and would lead the system to collapse. This would result in a free for all for dangerous and violent offenders, including murderers and rapists. Nigel Farage and Reform simply can’t be trusted to keep Britain safe. Continue reading...

• French AI startup Mistral is positioning itself as a champion for European AI sovereignty following instances of U.S. models restricting access to certain regions. • Despite raising roughly $4 billion and reaching a valuation of $23 billion, Mistral faces a massive funding gap compared to U.S. giants like Anthropic ($965 billion) and OpenAI ($852 billion). • This financial disparity has contributed to a perceived slump in Mistral's progress by late 2025 as the company struggles to reach the "frontier" of AI capabilities.

• Rohit Sarin of Client Associates has updated his market outlook, upgrading his stance on mid-cap stocks to "overweight" and small-caps to "neutral." • The assessment favors sectors aligned with India's domestic growth story, specifically highlighting banking and financial services as key areas for potential earnings growth. • These sectors are expected to perform well due to resilient asset quality, improving credit growth, and strong domestic inflows.

• Rohit Sarin of Client Associates has upgraded his market stance, moving mid-caps to "overweight" and small-caps to "neutral." • Sarin suggests a potential 10% market rally is possible, though it remains contingent on the evolution of geopolitical tensions in West Asia. • The outlook is supported by resilient domestic fundamentals, including strong economic activity, steady institutional inflows, and attractive large-cap valuations.

Lawmakers question delays in medical care, casualty figures and Pentagon’s handling of drone attack in KuwaitUS politics live – latest updatesThe Trump administration is facing growing demands to explain why wounded US soldiers went more than a week without adequate hospital care after a March drone strike in Kuwait, just days into the US-Israel war on Iran.In a letter to the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, congressional Democrats urged the Pentagon to answer their questions – which include why the Pentagon’s public casualty count for the war with Iran briefly changed – by 12 August. Continue reading...

• Prime Minister Mark Carney's government announced a second major deal on Wednesday to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Europe. • The agreement involves a German natural gas company and aims to diversify Canada's economic partnerships to reduce its heavy reliance on the United States. • This strategic shift serves as a response to tariffs imposed by Donald Trump and helps Europe decrease its dependence on Qatari supplies, which have become uncertain due to war.

• The Supreme Court is expected to eventually address whether states can legally exclude voters from primary elections for refusing to join a political party. • The core legal conflict centers on whether the right to vote is tied to citizenship or contingent upon party affiliation, potentially infringing on First Amendment rights. • This issue is highlighted alongside other regional political developments, such as the rise of Troy Jackson in Maine.

Today show host says her family ‘will always ache for’ mother Nancy, who has been missing for nearly six monthsSavannah Guthrie has posted a new video asking those responsible for her mother’s unsolved disappearance to “do the right thing” and point her family to their matriarch’s location after nearly six months.In a new Instagram video posted on Monday, captioned “Bring her home” alongside a yellow heart emoji, the NBC Today host issued an emotional public plea, saying: “It has been months since our mom was taken from us. Our family is in agony. We are in a nightmare that will not end. Nothing about our situation has changed. We have done our part. We will never stop looking for her.” Continue reading...

• Senator Marsha Blackburn has demanded transparency from the Federal Judicial Center regarding a climate training manual developed in partnership with the Environmental Law Institute (ELI). • Blackburn is seeking data on how many federal judges participated in the Climate Judiciary Project and whether the center was aware of ELI's alleged ties to the Chinese Communist Party. • The inquiry reflects concerns that judicial continuing education is being influenced by "political, left-wing programming" from foreign-linked groups rather than impartial legal administration.

Exclusive: Elizabeth Warren says it is unclear how bank failed to uncover former CEO’s links with sex offenderThe leading US senator Elizabeth Warren has called for urgent answers from Barclays over what she claimed was its “apparent failure to meaningfully investigate” ties between the bank’s former boss, Jes Staley, and the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.In a letter sent privately to Barclays’s chair, Nigel Higgins, and seen by the Guardian, Warren – the most senior Democrat on the US senate banking committee – said it was “deeply unclear how Barclays, supposedly investigating Staley’s connection to Epstein, failed to uncover this decades-long relationship”. Continue reading...

Independent exam of Black teen found cause and manner of death ‘undetermined’ as family questions timelineSign up for the Breaking News US newsletter emailNolan Wells’ cause of death and manner of death are both “undetermined, pending investigation”, according to an independent autopsy, announced on Wednesday by Wells’ family’s attorney, Ben Crump.The results came nearly three weeks after Wells, an 18 year old college freshman, was found dead. Continue reading...

The companies hope to follow in the footsteps of SpaceX, which raised $86bn and soared to a $2.1tn valuation after it listed on public markets in JuneGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastTop US AI developers Anthropic and OpenAI cheered when Australia announced it would set new AI rules.Big tech celebrating limits on their Silicon Valley VC-funded free-for-all might seem counterintuitive but there’s a much broader play than just what happens in one relatively small market. Continue reading...

• Chelsea have agreed to a club-record £117m deal to sign Morgan Rogers from Aston Villa. • Other major Premier League moves include Manchester City signing Elliot Anderson for £116m and Tottenham spending a club-record £100m on Sandro Tonali. • Additional high-profile transfers include Mateus Fernandes moving to Tottenham for £85m, Anthony Gordon joining Barcelona for £69m, and Andrey Santos moving to Manchester United for £50m.

Investigation continues after college freshman was found dead on Mississippi island after 4 July boat trip with friendsTwo weeks after Nolan Xavier Wells was found dead, his family is still searching for answers.On 4 July, Wells, an 18-year-old Mississippi college freshman, and a group of friends took a boat out to Horn Island, a barrier island a few miles off the Mississippi Gulf coast. Continue reading...

Incoming PM has deigned to answer some quickfire questions on TikTok – also revealing his stance on socks with sandalsUK politics live – latest updatesIt was Tony Blair who wrote that the “leader sets out for the people what they need and not simply what they want. Otherwise, the leader is just a follower”.The incoming prime minister, Andy Burnham, must have been channelling his predecessor when this week he started to set out his views on the big issues facing the UK: should milk go in the cup before the tea? What items belong in a Christmas dinner? Continue reading...

Bradley John Murdoch was convicted of 28-year-old’s murder but remains were never foundGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastNorthern Territory Police have opened evidence boxes to uncover several previously unseen photographs from the investigation of the murder of British backpacker Peter Falconio and attempted abduction of his girlfriend Joanne Lees.Tuesday is the 25th anniversary of the infamous outback disappearance. Continue reading...

Body of Nolan Wells, 18, found after he traveled to Horn Island over Fourth of July weekend with three white friendsA mother on Friday pleaded for anyone to come forward with information about what happened to ⁠her son, Nolan Wells, a young Black man whose body was found on an island off the coast of Mississippi after he traveled there over the Fourth of July weekend with three white friends.“We just want ⁠to know what happened and ⁠why our baby ​didn’t come home,” Christine Wonsley, choking back tears, said at a news conference about her son. Continue reading...