Thursday, 22 October 2026
376 stories · 12 beats · 4 signals
Signals
A barrel of oil rose 3.1% to $112.20 after a report that the US and Israel plan new strikes on Iran. Southwest, a US airline, paid $821 million more for fuel in one quarter.
Petrol and diesel cost 29.8% more than a year ago, and that pushed UK prices up 3.5%. A pensioner in Devon was quoted 600 pounds for heating oil that cost 317 pounds six months earlier.
Gas bought in bulk in Britain costs the most since 2022. Shipping oil from the Gulf to Asia now costs more than five times what it did before the war.
Welsh dairy farmers pay 50% more for diesel than a year ago, and some now sell milk for less than it costs them to make.
Italian truck drivers are blocking roads over the price of diesel. Unions in Senegal began a three-day strike over rising prices.
What is going on
Attacks around the Gulf have pushed oil past $110 a barrel and made shipping it far dearer. Drivers, truckers, farmers and airlines pay first, at the pump, and in Britain the rise lifts benefits next April and the government's own borrowing.
Where it is heading
Iran says seven tankers near the Gulf's only sea exit were hit overnight, so whether attacks on ships go on will decide where fuel prices head.
EA is closing BioWare, the studio behind Mass Effect, and cutting about 400 jobs. Xbox has cut 1,868 of a planned 3,200 jobs.
Barclays, a big British bank, is cutting 5,000 jobs while its profit rose 12%.
CSL, an Australian drugmaker, plans 3,000 job cuts after its first yearly loss since 1994.
Qualcomm, a big maker of phone chips, told staff it will cut jobs. Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com and Tumblr, has started layoffs.
What is going on
Some of these firms are cutting because they lost money, like CSL. Others cut while profits rise, like Barclays, or to save the $700 million a year EA's new owners promised.
Where it is heading
Xbox plans three more rounds of cuts by January, and the results companies publish in the coming weeks will show whether more follow.
Newcastle disease, a bird virus, stopped chicken from one Brazilian state going to China and from all of Brazil going to Mexico. Scientists in Northern Ireland expect a high risk of liver fluke, a worm that attacks cattle and sheep, this winter.
France found Shamonda, a virus of cattle, in a person for the first time. Ebola reached Nigeria in a woman who had been on holiday in Uganda, and the US flu season started early.
What is going on
When a germ turns up somewhere new, the first cost is a closed door. Farmers in the affected place lose buyers, and health workers spend weeks watching everyone the sick person met.
Where it is heading
China has limited its ban to one Brazilian state and none of Nigeria's 44 contacts is ill, so a second case would widen the response.
Rural health grants from the US government score higher in states that scrap their laws on building hospitals. HIV prevention money for local groups now goes through health departments, and the first round came in 24% short.
More than 5 million people left SNAP, the US food-aid programme, in a year. A rule proposed on Wednesday would push much of the cost of new chip cards for that aid onto the states.
The US government is funded only until 11 December, and the US Congress has not passed a full-year budget for NASA.
What is going on
The US government is handing states and local groups less money, or money that comes with conditions attached. The gap lands on states, local health groups and people who use food aid.
Where it is heading
The government's money runs out on 11 December, so whether the US Congress passes full-year budgets by then is the next test.
12 editions
World
The truth: The Houthis, an armed movement in Yemen backed by Iran, are hitting Saudi Arabia almost every day, and the US has now sent its own non-emergency embassy staff home.
Finance
The truth: China's government is sticking to small, targeted help for its economy, because growth is already on course for its yearly target, so the big rescue some investors hoped for has not come.
Tech
The truth: A New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay $25bn, but Meta will appeal, so the real bill is whatever a higher court leaves standing.
Mind & body
The truth: US overdose deaths fell by about 40,000 a year mainly because fewer people overdosed, and researchers link that to a break in the supply of fentanyl, not to naloxone.
Climate
The truth: Britain approved the Jackdaw gas field to keep more of its own gas flowing this winter, and its energy secretary says plainly that it will not lower bills.
Space
The truth: NASA is building its Moon plans around the south pole, where the ice is, and a panel NASA paid for now says four other places could be even more valuable for science.
Biotech
The truth: Roivant's eye pill and Arcus's kidney cancer drug lifted investor hopes this week on figures the companies released themselves.
Money
The truth: UK prices rose 3.5% in a year, mostly because petrol and diesel cost almost 30% more, and that number now sets next April's rise for most benefits.
Sports
The truth: Manchester United lost 4-1 at Como, their captain blamed the coaching staff's plan on television, and Michael Carrick's future now rests with Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the co-owner who controls the football side, and two executives.
Gaming
The truth: The group that bought EA paid $55 billion, much of it borrowed, and promised $700 million a year in savings.
Food
The truth: Nestle, the world's biggest food company, and Kroger, the biggest US chain that sells only groceries, both said this week that their growth now has to come from selling more food, not from raising prices.
Cyber
The truth: The PHP flaw was found in 2020 and again in 2024, and stayed unfixed because nobody had shown it could take over a server.