Wednesday, 21 October 2026
366 stories · 12 beats · 4 signals
Signals
United Airlines, a big US airline, expects its profit to come in 43% below forecasts as jet fuel nears $4.80 a gallon. Ryanair, a European airline, says fares in Europe may rise up to 20% next year.
Diesel hit a record price in the US, as details came out of the government's help with farmers' fuel bills.
A food charity in south-west England says the petrol it buys rose 31% and diesel 41% in six months.
What is going on
The Iran war has made jet fuel and diesel dear, and airlines pay it first and pass part of it into fares. Farmers and a food charity pay it at the pump, and the companies that refine fuel keep the gap, a record $42 a barrel at Shell.
Where it is heading
Fares in Europe follow next year unless fuel comes down, and the next test is whether jet fuel stays near $4.80 a gallon through the winter.
SpaceX made $7.6bn in three months from its AI business, mostly renting computers to AI companies. That is about four times what its rockets brought in.
Shares in NextDC, an Australian company that runs data centres, fell almost 40% after delays in getting power cut its forecast.
ABB, a big maker of grid equipment, said its orders from data centres more than doubled in a year. A town in Ohio will vote on banning large data centres.
Microsoft expects its next Xbox to cost $1,200 to $1,800. AI data centres are pushing up the price of the memory chips every console needs.
What is going on
AI companies are paying so much to rent computers that it is now most of SpaceX's money, and the makers of grid equipment have doubled their orders. The same demand pushes up memory-chip prices, so consoles and laptops cost more, and a data-centre firm that cannot get power on time loses a third of its value.
Where it is heading
Power, not demand, is now the limit, and the next test is whether more towns vote large data centres down, as one in Ohio will.
Panama's rainy season has brought little rain, and one dairy farmer's milk has halved. The two lakes that fill the Panama Canal and supply drinking water to about 2 million people are low before the dry season starts.
British firefighters told MPs that low rivers and weak water mains left them short of water for wildfires. South-east England got 61% of its normal September rain, so its soil is still about twice as dry as usual.
What is going on
A dry year has left Panama's two lakes low before the dry season, and its canal, its cattle farms and about 2 million people's drinking water all draw on them. Firefighters in Britain and farmers in California and northern India are short for the same reason: rivers and groundwater had less rain to refill them.
Where it is heading
The next test is Panama's rain before December: some regions expect more than half of it to be missing, and the two lakes have no other source.
Three US government agencies published ten steps for handling AI helpers that go wrong. Britain's financial regulator wants firms to report near-misses with AI.
New York City has proposed fines for businesses whose chatbots will not pass a caller to a person.
What is going on
Governments are moving from talking about AI to writing rules for it, in Washington, London and New York City at once. The companies are writing rules too, and Anthropic says it will rewrite parts of its own draft US law on AI safety after criticism.
Where it is heading
The next test is whether these rules get teeth, such as New York's fines or near-miss reports a regulator acts on, rather than steps that stay guidance.
12 editions
World
The truth: Sudan's army says it hit fuel meant for its enemy, the RSF, at Amiet market in Abyei, and Abyei's officials say 153 people died in a place UN peacekeepers have guarded since 2011.
Finance
The truth: The Iran war has made jet fuel far dearer, and US airlines are passing much of it on: fares were nearly 23% higher than a year earlier, yet United's fuel bill still swallowed most of its extra revenue.
Tech
The truth: US rules let Nvidia sell only weaker chips to China, and Chinese firms have now ordered more than 6 million of the strongest one still allowed, about twice what Nvidia expects to make for the whole world in 2027.
Mind & body
The truth: In spring 2020 the UK government's first aim was to keep hospitals from filling up.
Climate
The truth: The UN's environment agency now says the world will go past 1.5C of warming, and that the policies in force lead to about 2.8C.
Space
The truth: SpaceX is named for its rockets, but rockets are now the smallest part of its money.
Biotech
The truth: The US approved GSK's Hibsago after it let 19% of treated patients in two trials stop all hepatitis B medicine and stay clear for 24 weeks, and GSK has not said what it will charge.
Money
The truth: Americans signed fewer contracts to buy a home in September than in any month since 2001, because home loans cost more than 7%.
Sports
The truth: A panel found Manchester City guilty in September, but nothing happens to the club or its Abu Dhabi owners until City's appeal ends, which Kogan expects around January.
Gaming
The truth: Microsoft is preparing to ask $1,200 or more for its next Xbox and to cut more Xbox jobs, while AI data centres, its own among them, push up the price of the memory every console needs.
Food
The truth: Panama's rains have failed in a year with a strong El Nino, so its cattle farmers, its canal and the drinking water of nearly half its people all depend on two lakes that are low before the dry season even starts.
Cyber
The truth: eMudhra, a company every major browser trusted, used eight secret keys for about 18 months that anyone could work out, and it was an outsider named Wayne who noticed.