Thursday, 5 November 2026
12 editions today
What actually happened today.
Swipe through all 453 storiesSignals
What is moving through more than one beat today
The bar and the word are our reading of how hard each one is pushing, and the arrow is where it is heading.
War around the Gulf keeping energy dear, and rates rising with it
Day 15 of this signal
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World
Iran's Guards say 2 tankers and a tug burned in the Strait of Hormuz, the sea lane out of the Gulf, on Thursday. South Korea plans to move a navy unit to about 650km from it.
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Climate
Diesel stocks in some markets are at their lowest for the season in 35 years, the chief of Adnoc, Abu Dhabi's state oil company, says. India now buys crude oil from about 43 countries to get round the disruption.
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Food
Fresh food in Italy cost 7.5% more in October, after lorry drivers angry at diesel prices blocked roads. Urea, a farm fertiliser, averaged 482 pounds a tonne in the UK as gas costs climbed.
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Finance
The Bank of England raised its rate from 3.75% to 4% in an 8-1 vote, and Sweden also raised on Wednesday. A barrel of oil fell more than 8% on Wednesday on hopes of peace, then was back up 2.6% to $97.11 by midday on Thursday.
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Money
About 500,000 UK tracker mortgages pay some £31 more a month at once. The 87% of UK mortgage-holders on fixed deals feel it only when they renew.
What is going on
Ships burning near the Gulf keep energy dear, so lorries, fertiliser and food cost more. The Bank of England raised its rate to slow those price rises, so homes on tracker mortgages pay first.
Where it is heading
The next test is whether oil stays below the $108 or so that the Bank's 5% inflation forecast was built on.
Data centres outbidding everyone, as investors start to doubt them
Day 3 of this signal
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Tech
One 16GB memory chip went from $8.70 to $48 on contract in about a year. Voters sided against data centres in all but one of about 45 local US measures.
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Gaming
Macronix, a Taiwanese chip maker, is dropping Nintendo's cartridge chips because data centres pay more. Nintendo raised Switch 2 prices in 3 countries, and sales fell 41%.
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Climate
Omaha's power company has under 100 megawatts left for new large customers. Arizona's biggest utility expects its yearly sales to more than double by 2041, and is keeping a coal plant to help.
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Food
A Kentucky farming family turned down more than $26m for its land from a data centre developer.
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Finance
US shares had their worst day since April 2025: the S&P 500, a broad index of big firms, fell 4.36% and the Nasdaq 5.52%, as investors feared slower data-centre building.
What is going on
Data centres pay more, so chip makers and power companies serve them first, and game and phone buyers pay higher prices. Now towns are voting no and investors fear slower building, and shareholders in chip firms paid on Thursday.
Where it is heading
The next test is whether the new governors in Texas, Ohio and Georgia carry out the pauses on data centres they pledged.
US election reaching firms that did well under Trump
Day 2 of this signal
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World
JD Vance, the US vice-president, blamed the Iran war for the defeat a day after the vote. A Trump adviser said the defence chief 'could be on the chopping block'.
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Space
SpaceX has gained an estimated $10 billion in US contracts since Trump's election, and several Democrats want its role investigated.
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Biotech
One Democratic senator posted a single word after the win: "Subpoenas". CVS Health is splitting in two while fighting state laws against owning both pharmacies and drug middlemen.
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Sports
Team owners put more than $100m into the elections, mostly on the losing side. A college sport bill that passed the US Senate 77-22 now has almost no chance in the House.
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Finance
The Dow, an index of 30 big US firms, rose more than 1,500 points on Wednesday after the vote. It fell 1,833 points on Thursday, more than wiping that out.
What is going on
Democrats take over the committees of the US Congress in January, and those committees can order people to testify. Firms that did well under Trump could pay first, in time and legal bills, before any law changes.
Where it is heading
The first test comes in January, when Democrats can start ordering testimony.
El Nino drying fields and flooding towns
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Climate
The tropical Pacific reached 4C above normal in October, the highest since 1949. Malabar, Florida, took 2 feet of rain in 36 hours, and UNICEF is $5.54 million short for protecting children in Malawi.
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Food
Thai rice reached $499 a ton, its highest in almost two years, as El Nino brought drier weather to Asia's fields. Rice in the Philippines jumped 21%.
What is going on
A hot Pacific shifts the rain, so some fields go dry and some towns flood. Families who buy their rice at the market pay in higher prices.
Where it is heading
The thing to watch is whether Thai rice holds near $499 a ton.
Every beat · today
The rest of the day
The Bank of England raises its rate to 4% in an 8-1 vote, the first rise since August 2023, and warns inflation will reach about 5%
Really — The big moves in oil, bonds and the dollar rest on one bet: that the Democrats' win in the US vote will end the Iran war sooner.
34 STORIES · 59 SOURCES
US voters back limits on data centres in almost every local ballot measure, and Meta's and Amazon's Ohio plans are now in doubt
Really — US voters said no to data centres in almost every local vote, and new governors in Texas, Ohio and Georgia have pledged pauses.
53 STORIES · 75 SOURCES
One in four of the world's adolescents reported no active day in the previous week, and 15 years have brought no progress, WHO finds
Really — The WHO found 240 million adolescents with no active day last week by asking them, and it reached 1.6 million lives saved by modelling.
36 STORIES · 44 SOURCES
UN says money to help poorer countries cope with climate harm has stalled at $32bn at most, far short of the $305bn a year needed by 2035
Really — Rich countries promised poorer ones help against climate harm, gave at most $32bn in 2024, and many are now moving budgets to defence.
41 STORIES · 48 SOURCES
A craft circling Mars picks up gas leaking from cracks by a giant volcano, a clue that magma may still be down there
Really — Scientists at Mars have a strong clue and no proof: a gas appears in one place at one time of year, and a co-author calls the link to magma a hypothesis.
19 STORIES · 32 SOURCES
WHO's advisers back 2 vaccines built for the Ebola strain that has killed over 5,300, for a trial in Congo
Really — WHO's advisers have chosen 2 vaccines built for Bundibugyo, but more than 5,300 people have died and the trial's results are not due until early 2027.
25 STORIES · 35 SOURCES
UK interest rate rises to 4%: about 500,000 tracker mortgages pay some £31 more a month at once, and savers may earn more
Really — The Bank of England raised its rate to slow price rises that a war started, and it says its rate cannot change world energy prices.
29 STORIES · 44 SOURCES
LIV Golf plans to wind down after BC Partners pulls out of a $300m rescue, ending a tour that took more than $5bn of Saudi money
Really — LIV Golf plans to close because BC Partners would pay only if enough star golfers signed, and it judged that too few had by its deadline.
49 STORIES · 70 SOURCES
Macronix, the chip maker behind Nintendo's Switch cartridges, quits game chips for data-centre memory after record profits
Really — Memory makers earn far more selling to AI data centres, so game companies now come after them.
38 STORIES · 75 SOURCES
Asian rice hits its highest price in almost two years as El Nino dries harvests, and Philippine rice jumps 21%
Really — A strong El Nino is drying Asia's rice fields, and Thai rice reached $499 a ton while corn and wheat fell.
41 STORIES · 53 SOURCES
Hackers linked to Russia's spy service poisoned websites to reach phones that had missed updates
Really — Most of today's big breaches were found long after they began: Japan Airlines says the access at Amadeus ran for just over 3 years, and DreamHost's intruder stayed about 2 months.
27 STORIES · 43 SOURCES
Courses · the forever read
Start a course
How money loses value
Work out what a sum of money is really worth — this year, in ten, and in forty.
The chapters
- 1What a price is4 lessons
- 2Money and time4 lessons
- 3The system behind it4 lessons
How a story becomes news
Work out why you heard about today's stories, and name the ones you never will.
The chapters
- 1What gets noticed4 lessons
- 2How it gets made4 lessons
- 3What reaches you4 lessons
How the planet holds its heat
Work out where the extra heat comes from, where it goes, and why swapping the energy behind it is slow.
The chapters
- 1The blanket4 lessons
- 2What one degree does4 lessons
- 3Where the energy comes from4 lessons
- 4Changing it3 lessons
How the feed decides what you see
Work out who pays for a free app, how every post is scored for you, why the feed narrows, and who holds the dial.
The chapters
- 1Free, and paid for3 lessons
- 2The ranking machine4 lessons
- 3What rises3 lessons
- 4The hands on the dial3 lessons
How a free game makes its money
Work out who pays for a free game, why a chest sells a chance and not a prize, how a streak and an energy bar bring you back, and what the game counts.
The chapters
- 1Free to play, paid by a few3 lessons
- 2The chest with a chance inside3 lessons
- 3Why you come back every day3 lessons
- 4The other side of the screen3 lessons
How a workplace stays safe
Work out what a hazard is and what a risk is, how a risk is made smaller, where the harm at work really comes from, and why a disaster is never one mistake.
The chapters
- 1Why work hurts people3 lessons
- 2How the risk gets smaller4 lessons
- 3The hazards on the floor5 lessons
- 4The harm that takes years3 lessons