World
The truth: The US Congress passed a law that lets Trump put tariffs of up to 100% on India, China and other big buyers of Russian oil, but it does not make him do it.
Thursday, 17 September 2026
281 stories · 12 beats · 4 signals
Signals
Saudi Arabia says it shot down a drone sent towards Mecca by Yemen's Houthi fighters, and says it is running low on missiles to stop them. Only 21 ships passed the southern entrance to the Red Sea on Monday, against 47 a day in mid-July.
US diesel, the fuel lorries run on, reached a record $6.31 a gallon on Wednesday. American Airlines said the higher price adds about $1 billion to its costs for October to December.
Shiploads of gas in Asia are selling near $30 per million British thermal units, against about $10 before the war with Iran. Higher fuel prices have made two US airlines cut flights.
Build a Rocket Boy, the Edinburgh studio behind the game MindsEye, raised 233 million pounds and spent 52.1 million of it in a single year while taking in 4.6 million. Its last staff are now being let go.
Insuring the bonds of the big cloud companies against default now costs more than insuring bank bonds. JPMorgan expects Meta, the owner of Facebook, to spend $65bn to $75bn a year more than it earns in 2027 and 2028.
May Mobility, which runs driverless taxis, plans a $1.4 billion stock market listing. Cohere and Aleph Alpha, two smaller makers of artificial intelligence, are combining.
The US House of Representatives voted 417 to three to ask state electricity regulators to consider making data centres pay for the power plants and wires built to serve them. Developers in the biggest US grid region have signed a pledge to keep those costs off household bills.
An English council pays for someone's care only once their savings fall to 23,250 pounds, and a house counts too once they move into a care home. Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, has asked Louise Casey to report on the system a year early.
Tottenham Hotspur's owners put another 120 million pounds into the football club, their third payment in a year. Advisers say owners further down English football are selling because the yearly losses never stop.
Bangladesh has counted more than 194,000 measles cases since March, and 83% of the confirmed cases were in people who had never had a dose. The United Nations children's agency says vaccine orders were delayed last year while new suppliers were considered.
African swine fever arrived in Asia in 2018 with farm pigs, and is now killing rare wild pigs that live only on single islands such as Sulawesi. The US agriculture department has asked Caribbean cruise passengers to leave pork behind, because the virus survives in cooked meat.
12 editions
World
The truth: The US Congress passed a law that lets Trump put tariffs of up to 100% on India, China and other big buyers of Russian oil, but it does not make him do it.
Finance
The truth: Kevin Warsh, the US central bank chairman President Trump picked in January, raised rates with no vote against, and Trump demanded 1% within hours.
Tech
The truth: A study of 321 US occupations says employers are keeping the gains from AI by giving smaller raises and posting fewer jobs, not by firing people.
Mind & body
The truth: Smartwatches and wider diagnostic rules are finding more people with atrial fibrillation and adult ADHD than before.
Climate
The truth: The US House voted 417 to three for a bill that does not make anyone do anything: it asks state electricity regulators to consider whether data centres should pay for the power built for them, and the US Congress cannot order those regulators either way.
Space
The truth: SpaceX is the customer for its own test flight.
Biotech
The truth: The measles vaccine did not fail in Bangladesh; the delivery of it did.
Money
The truth: England has never decided who pays for care in old age, so the bill lands on whichever family the illness lands on.
Sports
The truth: Clearlake, a Californian investment firm, now controls Chelsea because the 2022 deal let only group members buy the other owners' shares, and Todd Boehly and Mark Walter chose to take a reported 950m pounds and leave.
Gaming
The truth: Build a Rocket Boy raised 233 million pounds because its founder helped make Grand Theft Auto, then released a game players rejected, and now its last staff are going.
Food
The truth: African swine fever arrived in Asia in 2018 with farm pigs and pork, and it is now killing rare wild pigs on single islands such as Sulawesi.
Cyber
The truth: Two tankers bound for US ports showed signs in August that their computer networks had been broken into, and US agencies boarded both ships at sea, three days apart.