While the government’s health and safety food monitoring programmes concluded that the vast majority of samples tested contained a safe level of pesticides, Pan UK said the report only tested individual pesticides and not a mix. Grapes were found to be the worst of all the food groups, with one sample containing the residue of at least 16 different pesticides. At least 90 per cent of the 108 grape samples tested contained multiple pesticides. Grapes were the worst offenders, according to analysis of government data ( Getty )Grapefruit fared poorly, with around 99 per cent of samples found to contain multiple pesticide residues. “We found that a quarter of vegetables and three-quarters of fruit contain multiple pesticides,” Pan UK wrote.

To personer er fundet dræbt i Hollywood-stjernens Rob Reiners hjem i Los Angeles, oplyser myndigheder ifølge flere amerikanske medierDrabsefterforskere er lige nu til stede i Hollywood-instruktøren Rob Reiners hjem i Los Angeles. Her er to personer blevet fundet døde, oplyser en anonym politikilde til CNN. En 78-årig mand og en 68-årig kvinde er blevet fundet døde, og politiet efterforsker sagen som formodet drab. Der er ingen detaljer om dødsårsagen, og det er heller ikke slået fast, hvem der har mistet livet. Rob Reiner er en berømt instruktør og skuespiller, der har instrueret og spillet med i adskillige Hollywood-film.

Der er trods alt doktorer på lønningslisten hos Movistar, og at de ikke har opfanget problemet, det er jeg meget chokeret over. Han var også mega lirens, fordi vi var samme vægtklasse, og så kunne han bare køre stærkt. Men for helvede mand, nogle gange når det lugter af lort, så er det også lort, desværre. Det var fint i klassikerne, men Dauphiné var nok lidt for stinkende, reflekterer den høje dansker videre. Han var speciel, og jeg vil absolut ikke kalde ham min ven, forklarer WorldTourens højeste.

Det nye år byder på nye rammer for Jakob Ellemann-Jensen og hans familie, som rykker fra Birkerød til HolteDen tidligere vicestatsminister Jakob Ellemann-Jensen har haft spenderbukserne på. 'Det er rigtigt. Det er da også en glad Jakob Ellemann-Jensen, som fortæller til Ekstra Bladet, at familien glæder sig til at rykke ind. Jakob Ellemann-Jensen er gift med Anne Marie Preisler, som han har to børn med. Og selvom det lyder af meget, når man kaster 17,5 millioner efter et hus, så er det stadig hans mor, Alice Ellemann-Jensen, som tager prisen for dyreste bolig i familien.

Lyt til artiklen Gem artiklen Gemt Læst Afspil eller pause lyd Henter...En 10-årig pige ved navn Matilda og den ukrainske holocaust-overlever Alexander Kleytman er blandt de 15 dræbte i søndagens terrorangreb på Bondi strand i Australien. Det skriver The Sydney Morning Herald og ABC, mens læger og sygeplejersker fortsat tilser 27 sårede. Blodbankerne søger akut blod af typen 0 rhesus negativ – meldingen er, at det er et spørgsmål om liv eller død. Australierne støtter op: Mandag morgen var køen foran Røde Kors’ bloddonorcenter i Sydney næsten en halv kilometer lang. Det skriver The Guardian.

Lyt til artiklen Gem artiklen Gemt Læst Afspil eller pause lyd Henter...En 10-årig pige ved navn Matilda og den ukrainske holocaust-overlever Alexander Kleytman er blandt de 15 dræbte i søndagens terrorangreb på Bondi strand i Australien. Det skriver The Sydney Morning Herald og ABC, mens læger og sygeplejersker fortsat tilser 27 sårede. Blodbankerne søger akut blod af typen 0 rhesus negativ – meldingen er, at det er et spørgsmål om liv eller død. Australierne støtter op: Mandag morgen var køen foran Røde Kors’ bloddonorcenter i Sydney næsten en halv kilometer lang. Det skriver The Guardian.

Det oplyser Ryan Park, der er sundhedsminister i delstaten New South Wales. - Det er forfærdeligt, siger Ryan Park om angrebet, der ramte deltagere ved et jødisk arrangement. Terrorangrebet er det værste i Australien i 30 år. I alt blev 15 personer dræbt i angrebet foruden en af gerningsmændene, der blev dræbt af politiet. - Jeg mener, at det er på tide, at vi ændrer loven i forhold til våbenlovgivningen i New South Wales.

On The Ground newsletter: Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly international news dispatch Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy noticeA court in Hong Kong has found the British media tycoon and pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai guilty on multiple charges of sedition and foreign collusion, in a landmark moment for the city’s draconian national security laws and sliding press freedoms. Lai, 78, faces the prospect of spending the rest of his life in prison. The British national, who was the founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper in Hong Kong, was arrested in 2020 shortly after Beijing introduced tough new national security laws as part of a crackdown on massive anti-government protests in 2019. On Monday, judge Esther Toh said Lai’s actions left “no doubt” that he had “harboured resentment” for the Chinese government.

Mens 21 personer er blevet meldt døde, er omkring 32 personer blevet kvæstet. Det fremgår ikke umiddelbart, om nogen af dem, der fortsat opholder sig på hospitalet, er i livsfare. Nogle veje i byen er også blevet beskadiget, hvilket har sat en stopper for trafikken på flere ruter til og fra havnebyen. Voldsomme vejrhændelser og oversvømmelser er ikke usædvanlige i Marokko, som i år også har været udfordret af tørke. Mens redningsarbejdere gennemsøger byen for at finde ud af, om der er flere ofre, har landets meteorologiske institut meddelt, at der tirsdag ventes mere regn på tværs af landet.

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En 32-årig mand er blevet stukket med kniv i Esbjerg, hvor politiet er massivt til stedePolitiet er natten til mandag massivt til stede i Esbjerg, efter at en 32-årig mand er blevet stukket med en kniv flere gange. Det skriver Syd- og Sønderjyllands Politi i en pressemeddelelse. 'Syd- og Sønderjyllands Politi modtog klokken 23.07 søndag anmeldelse om knivstik begået på Søndergårds Allé i Esbjerg. En 32-årig mand er blevet stukket flere gange med kniv, hvorefter vidner fortæller, at gerningspersonerne har forladt stedet,' skriver politikredsen. Manden er blevet bragt på hospitalet, og hans tilstand er stabilUndersøger med hundePolitiet vil være til stede i området i Esbjerg i 'lang tid endnu', lyder det i pressemeddelelsen.

Read our Privacy noticeBritain's roads are set for the busiest Christmas getaway on record, with millions of cars expected to hit UK roads in the days leading up to 25 December. On Saturday and Christmas Eve, drivers are being warned the worst hold-ups will be between 11am and 7pm. Christmas Eve is anticipated to see a slight drop in journeys to 22.7 million, with an estimated 18.3 million cars on the road on Christmas Day. No services will run between Cambridge North, Cambridge, Bury St Edmunds and Stansted Airport between Christmas Day and January 5. UK airports are expecting their busiest Christmas getaway in history.

Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy noticeNew research suggests women are now more confident than men in tackling household DIY tasks. A survey of 2,000 adults found nearly half of women confident in painting and decorating, compared to just 28 per cent of men. open image in gallery Men are less confident with DIY than women, the study found ( Getty/iStock )A third of young women said they would happily put up shelves, compared with one in five young men. Only one in three young men said they were confident they could change a lightbulb.

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Read our Privacy noticeA Labour minister has publicly criticised Sir Keir Starmer after he received “no explanation” about why he was sacked from his cabinet role earlier this year – adding his wife was “furious” about the decision. Culture minister Ian Murray has broken ranks and lashed out at Sir Keir’s decision to replace him as Scottish secretary, a move which many in the Scottish Labour Party remain unhappy about. He was only appointed to a senior role in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport after a backlash when he was replaced by the current Scottish secretary, Douglas Alexander. Mr Murray said: “For me, the hardest part was the complete lack of any sort of recognition for doing a half-decent job. It comes as another minister in Sir Keir’s cabinet told The Independent last week that sacking Mr Murray from the Scotland Office role “was a mistake”.

Universal basic income (UBI) is back, like a space zombie in a sci-fi movie, resurrected from policy oblivion, hungry for policymakers’ attention: brains! But a UBI, as contemplated by its current cheerleaders, does not start to address the real challenges of an economy that has moved past human labor. And this doesn’t even consider how challenging redistribution will become once AI kills all labor income, which today generates most tax revenue. Problematically, UBI does not meet the challenge of the present either. How about we improve the design of the earned income tax credit, signed into law by president, Gerald Ford, in 1975?

The survey of 1,000 people nationwide, with a margin of error of +/- 3.1%, found that the high cost of goods is the top reason Americans are spending less and, in a first for the survey, the main reason they are spending more. Among those spending less, 46% say it's because of the high cost of goods, a 10-point increase from the 2024 survey. Even more striking, 36% of those spending more say it's because of high prices, an 11-point increase from last year. Overall, 41% of Americans plan to spend less this year, with 42% saying they will spend about the same and 16% saying they will spend more. Americans plans to spend on average $1,016 this year on holiday gifts, about flat with last year.

Young people are bearing the brunt of Britain’s jobs downturn, according to a report, before official figures this week that are expected to show the UK unemployment rate rising to 5.1%. The Resolution Foundation thinktank said a “jobs deficit” was pushing a growing number of graduates and non-graduates into unemployment as employers reduced hiring. City economists expect the unemployment rate to have edged up from 5% in September to 5.1% in October, in Tuesday’s update from the Office for National Statistics. But while rising levels of health-related inactivity are a big problem, rising unemployment is the forgotten driver of Britain’s current jobs downturn. The Resolution Foundation’s estimate of the UK’s working-age employment rate was down one percentage point from October 2020 to September 2025 – equivalent to 415,0000 workers.

Far-right candidate Jose Antonio Kast of the Republican Party – who claims to be inspired by US President Donald Trump – has won Chile’s presidential run-off election, marking a major shift in the Latin American nation’s political landscape. Consuelo Thiers, a lecturer at the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom, said Kast will be the most right-wing president since Pinochet. “Kast is the first president since the end of the dictatorship to have openly supported Pinochet,” she told Al Jazeera. “[Former President Sebastian] Pinera, the last right-wing president, voted against Pinochet in the 1988 referendum and also embraced some progressive policies, such as the legalisation of same-sex marriage,” she added. Chile’s election result is part of a wider regional shift towards conservative and, in some cases, far-right leadership, according to Edinburgh University’s Thiers.

$Trump demonstrated meme coins’ lucrative potential, though its windfall may have come at the expense of other celebrities’ crypto ambitions. These celebrities’ endorsements in 2025 primarily center around meme coins, rather than more traditional cryptocurrencies or crypto exchanges, Duca added. After entering office a second time, though, his administration rescinded a range of regulatory bulletins and policies perceived as restricting the growth of the crypto industry. His U-turn has also come with a windfall in other crypto-related deals and tie-ups for Trump family businesses – not just the $Trump meme coin, or the $Melania meme coin tied to the first lady. The startup already appears defunct: its website no longer functions, and the company has published instructions on how to transfer $TRACY, the platform’s crypto token, into other major crypto denominations.

Please turn on JavaScript to use this featurePlease turn on JavaScript to use this feature13m ago 13.50 CET Ilhan Omar says ICE agents pulled her son overGood morning, and welcome to our live coverage of US politics. Ilhan Omar, the Somali-born Minnesota congresswoman, has said her son was pulled over by ICE agents on Saturday and asked to provide proof of citizenship. “Yesterday, after he made a stop at Target, he did get pulled over by ICE agents, and once he was able to produce his passport ID, they did let him go,” she told WCCO’s Esme Murphy. Omar fled civil war as a young child, came to the US as a refugee and became a US citizen in 2000. Omar told WCCO that it was “disturbing” and “creepy” to have the president be “obsessed with you” – but said it is a deflection tactic to focus attention away from his political failures.

Spain’s socialist-led government is to launch a national public transport pass that will allow people to travel anywhere in the country by bus or train for a flat monthly fee of €60 (£52.70). The prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, unveiled the initiative on Monday, saying it would come into effect in the second half of January and was intended “to change the way Spaniards understand and use public transport for ever”. The prime minister hailed the transport pass as proof of his administration’s commitment to improving the everyday lives of Spaniards. According to Sánchez, the scheme could help some workers cut their monthly travel costs by as much as 60%. The intervention received short shrift from Sánchez, who said: “The time when bishops meddled in politics ended when this country’s democracy began.”

In an email to the Guardian, Yenor wrote: “Degenerates such as yourself who celebrated the assassination Charlie Kirk deserve nothing but scorn, let alone explanations of complex ideas.”It was not immediately clear which celebration Yenor was referring to. We don’t waste time answering its half-baked questions.’”The statement matched one provided in response to separate recent reporting on the Heritage Foundation. Rightwing ructionsYenor’s appointment has caused ructions on the right, with many conservatives objecting specifically to his views on women. That’s political poison.”He added: “Heritage and Yenor face a choice. Do they stand within the conservative consensus, seeking to extend its principles into the public consciousness and enact them into law?

Los Angeles mourned the death of beloved Hollywood director Rob Reiner and his wife Michelle on Monday morning, as police announced the arrest of their son on suspicion of murder. At Rob Reiner’s Walk of Fame star in the heart of Hollywood, some fans stopped by to pay tribute. “It hurts, it really, really hurts as a parent,” said Morgan, who had tears in his eyes. Alana Brown, a visitor from Detroit who walked by Reiner’s star on Hollywood boulevard, said she was grateful for Reiner’s activism and willingness to use his voice. Fans also gathered on Sunday night outside the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, where Rob Reiner’s hands are paved into the cement.

Aerial view of vehicles being driven on the road through the central business district in Beijing, China. Asia-Pacific markets were set to open lower Monday, after Wall Street declined Friday stateside as investors took a breather from the AI trade. Traders in Asia will also look toward key data from Japan and China on Monday, with China releasing its retail sales, fixed asset investment and industrial output numbers for November. Japan will announce its fourth-quarter Tankan numbers. The Tankan survey, conducted by the Bank of Japan, measures business sentiment among companies in the world's fourth largest economy.

China's retail sales growth and industrial production missed estimates in November while investment declined more than expected, data from National Bureau of Statistics showed Monday, indicating consumption remains a major worry. Retail sales rose 1.3% last month from a year earlier, sharply missing Reuters' median forecast for a 2.8% growth, and slowing from 2.9% rise in the prior month. Chinese policymakers have pledged further policy support to drive domestic demand and boost consumption and investment for next year. Eswar Prasad, professor of economics at Cornell University and senior fellow at Brookings Institute, expressed concerns over the sustainability of China's economic growth. "The government clearly wants to rebalance growth and understands what's needed to bolster household consumption and raise productivity.

Russia’s central bank has said it is seeking $230bn (£170bn) in damages from Euroclear, as the Kremlin fired a warning shot against the use of Russian frozen assets to aid Ukraine. EU leaders will decide later this week whether to use €210bn in Russian frozen assets to provide Ukraine with a loan to fund its defence and keep the economy afloat. Moscow, however, said that using the assets is theft and has threatened to seize European private investors’ holdings in Russia. Speaking on Monday, the EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said the reparations loan was “the most credible option” for funding Ukraine. “The reparations loan is based on the Russian frozen assets, that means it doesn’t come from our taxpayers’ money, which is also important,” she said.

Her warning echoes widespread fears for Brighton’s plentiful independent shops, which have given the Sussex city international renown. But even here – the affluent home of some of the UK’s favourite independents – the potential last generation of shopkeepers is under threat. Its owner, Richard Grills, says a combination of higher business rates, VAT, staff costs and additional council charges have reduced his profit margins significantly. As a hospitality venue, he has benefited from business rates relief, but since his premises were rerated and his relief reduced, his annual bill has gone up from £1,200 to £12,000. “If we lose this footprint of independent shops we risk losing footfall in the high street,” she adds.

Freelancers and gig economy workers could enjoy more flexibility over how and when they pay their mortgage under plans designed to help more people get on the property ladder. Some changes have already taken effect: in recent months, many banks and building societies have announced that some customers can access bigger mortgages. In its new mortgage review, the regulator said there was wide agreement that some potential first-time buyer groups “could be better served”. One idea under discussion involves offering greater payment flexibility to self-employed people, contractors, freelancers and others, which could include “alternative payment schedules to help those with irregular income flows”. However, the FCA has said they could be suitable for some consumers who might struggle to afford a traditional repayment mortgage.

The former Scottish secretary Ian Murray has hit out at the prime minister for his “humiliating” sacking, despite deciding to remain a minister in the government. In a candid interview Murray said he had felt under appreciated in his cabinet role and that he had been in two minds whether to accept his current position as technology minister. The minister also directly criticised Keir Starmer’s approach to the reshuffle, saying he had not given him an adequate explanation as to why he was moved. He added: “For me, the hardest part was the complete lack of any sort of recognition for doing a half-decent job. “If I’m not good enough for the Scotland Office, why am I now number two in two major UK departments?”

At the top of the agenda is the peace plan put forward by US President Donald Trump and continuing funding for Ukraine’s war effort. The European strategy so far has been to alter the US-proposed peace plan in such a way that it becomes completely unacceptable to Russia. US intelligence support, crucial in Ukraine’s war planning, is currently available to Kyiv for free. The other big problem is that Trump’s peace plan has radically different designs for the assets in question. This means that if the reparations loan plan goes ahead, it would undermine the most attractive provision of Trump’s plan.

The EU is expected to present its first-ever housing plan on Tuesday, after consultations with experts, stakeholders and the public. For months, those on the frontlines of the crisis have warned the problem is too big to ignore. “The new pandemic affecting European cities is called the cost of housing,” said Jaume Collboni, the mayor of Barcelona, who launched the Mayors for Housing alliance last year with the support of his counterparts in Paris and Rome. View image in fullscreen Jaume Collboni described the housing crisis as an unprecedented internal threat to the bloc. The city’s mayor, Gergely Karácsony, has joined calls for an affordable housing fund.

10.50 CET Morning opening: Crunch time Jakub KrupaKey Ukraine-US talks are set to continue in Berlin today after five hours of negotiations on Sunday, with a group of European leaders later joining the Ukrainian leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to show their solidarity with Kyiv. Moscow has been publicly dismissive of any calls put forward by Ukraine’s European partners so far. Whether they will succeed in making progress on either of the two things remains to be seen. But US president Donald Trump, who only last week branded EU leaders as weak and indecisive, will be certainly looking at their actions to see if they want to challenge his thinking about them. It’s Monday, 15 December 2025, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.

CNBC's Jim Cramer reviewed recent market action and made the case for Procter & Gamble . "My favorite tech stocks right now are the business-to-business users of technology," he said. Procter & Gamble owns many well-known household and hygiene brands including Pampers, Crest, Olay, Gillette, Dawn, Febreze and Mr. Clean. Cramer dubbed Procter & Gamble a buy at these levels, saying "in this whacky market, you want those who use the technology, not those who make it." "These big tech stocks can't advance unless they can rein in their spending," he said.

“What we saw yesterday was an act of pure evil, an act of antisemitism, an act of terrorism,” he said. “The Jewish community are hurting today. “We have a government that sees antisemitism as a problem to be managed, not evil that needs to be eradicated,” she said. We need a whole series of actions that involve the public sector and government ministers, in education in schools, universities, on social media and among community leaders, community activities. “We’ve continued to work with Jewish community leaders.

Keir Starmer is a key partner in this process, and he will be flying to Germany to attend. The government is announcing that councils will receive a further £19m aimed at providing safe housing for domestic abuse survivors as part of the violence against women and girls (VAWG) strategy. Around £500m will go towards the domestic abuse safe accommodation duty, which places a statutory requirement on local authorities to provide support to survivors and children in safe accommodation. 10.30am: Rishi Sunak, the former PM and former chancellor, gives evidence to the Covid inquiry about the economic response to the pandemic. 2pm: Keir Starmer gives evidence to the Commons liaison committee.

Kast was running for the third time and had built his campaign on the claim that rising migration over the past decade had fuelled a rise in crime. Kast is the first post-dictatorship president to openly declare himself an admirer of Augusto Pinochet, under whose regime an estimated 40,000 people were tortured and more than 3,000 killed. “What we are seeing with Kast is a return to the origins of a right that clearly did not have democratic credentials,” said Kaltwasser. She attributes this wave largely to a widespread public belief that Bukele’s measures have been successful in El Salvador. Pellegrini added: “Conducting strikes – or extrajudicial killings, as the UN has called them – is clearly sending a message to governments across the region that human rights are no longer a priority for the US and that the cost of committing human rights violations is much lower.

Celebrities and lawmakers from both of the US’s major political parties are condemning Donald Trump after the president blamed the death of Rob Reiner on what he described as the acclaimed Hollywood director’s dislike of him. That killing prompted reprisals from the White House against those who cited Kirk’s history of hostile rhetoric toward immigrants, women and other marginalized groups. And Goldberg said: “I don’t understand the man in the White House. So sick.”US House member Zoe Lofgren, another California Democrat, called Trump’s comments “a new low for this petty, hateful man”. It’s incredibly difficult and should be met with empathy especially when it ends in murder.”Greene’s fellow Republican US House member Thomas Massie struck a similar chord.

In a Sunday court filing , iRobot said it had between $100 million and $500 million of assets and liabilities. Colin Angle, co-founder and former CEO of iRobot , on Monday said the company's move to declare bankruptcy was "profoundly disappointing" and "nothing short of a tragedy for consumers." Amazon CEO Andy Jassy called regulators' efforts to block the deal a "sad story" and said it would've given iRobot a competitive boost against rivals. He added that iRobot's bankruptcy serves as a "warning" for competition watchdogs. Gary Cohen, iRobot CEO, said in a statement Monday that the restructuring plan would help secure the company's "long-term future."

Washington has blamed ISIL (ISIS) for the attack and promised retaliation. Three US soldiers have been killed in an attack in Syria’s central city of Palmyra. Washington has accused the ISIL (ISIS) group of carrying out the assault. The government in Damascus has expanded its ties with Washington and joined a coalition to fight the ISIL group. But how much of a security challenge is ISIL in Syria?

"There's no magic in the business model, and that transparency aligns us fully with that person." Levchin gave some insight into consumer behavior over the holiday season, saying Affirm saw a large increase in spending on travel, especially among Gen Z shoppers. He also said his company saw a "big rebound" in spending on sports goods, a category that lagged last year. So they're paying their bills back, but they're looking to stretch their dollar," Levchin said of Affirm users. They're looking for deals."

Assassination plots, sabotage, cyber-attacks and the manipulation of information by Russia and other hostile states mean that “the frontline is everywhere”, the new head of MI6 will warn on Monday. A public inquiry into the death of Sturgess, who accidentally picked up the poison bottle, concluded this month that the Russian president was “morally responsible”. Metreweli took over from Richard Moore as the chief of MI6, or C, in October. Previously she was MI6’s head of its technology and innovation department, or Q, and spent most of her career in the Middle East and Europe. Our security, our prosperity, and our humanity depend on it,” the new chief will say.

The town in Gujarat accounts for nearly 98 percent of India’s total and about a third of the global ship recycling volume. With its unique tidal pattern and gently sloping beach, Alang in the 1980s became the backbone of India’s ship recycling industry, where ships could be beached and dismantled at a minimal cost. In Alang, ships are driven ashore at high tide — a process called beaching. “But what’s going wrong in Alang has multiple reasons,” says Haresh Parmar, secretary of the Ship Recycling Industries Association (India). These measures made Alang-Sosiya Ship Recycling Yards (ASSRY) one of the most compliant ship-recycling clusters in the developing world, with 106 of ASSRY yards having received HKC Statements of Compliance (SoC).

Thrive Capital, the tech investment firm known for taking big stakes in companies including OpenAI, Stripe and Databricks, announced on Monday that it's tapped Palantir veteran Jim Siders to serve as CEO of Shield Technology Partners, a newly created business focused on IT services. Siders spent more than 12 years at Palantir, where he most recently served as chief information officer, overseeing global IT operations, business applications and infrastructure. Shield was launched in June by Thrive Holdings and investment firm ZBS Partners, with over $100 million in initial funding. As of December, Shield works with seven companies and is expected to generate more than $100 million in revenue this year, Thrive said. Shield primarily works with small and mid-sized businesses, and has ambitions to expand its portfolio going forward.

The Trump administration on Monday unveiled a new initiative dubbed the "U.S. Tech Force," comprising about 1,000 engineers and other specialists who will work on artificial intelligence infrastructure and other technology projects throughout the federal government. Those "private sector partners" include Amazon Web Services , Apple , Google Public Sector, Dell Technologies , Microsoft , Nvidia , OpenAI, Oracle , Palantir , Salesforce and numerous others, the website says. The Tech Force shows the Trump administration increasing its focus on developing America's AI infrastructure as it competes with China for dominance in the rapidly growing industry. Once Tech Force members complete their two terms, they can seek full-time jobs with those companies, who have committed to consider the programs' alumni for employment. The private partners can also nominate their employees to do stints of government service.

Britain is caught in “a space between peace and war” complicated by the rise of artificial intelligence and other technologies dominated by powerful individuals and corporations, according to the new head of MI6. The order of world institutions “designed in the ashes of the second world war” was, she said, being deliberately contested “from sea to space, from the battlefield to the boardroom” and “even our brains” through deliberate online disinformation. She argued Britain and the world were “now operating in a space between peace and war” – a state in which the spy agency, traditionally focused on running agents and working with human sources, had to contend with. MI6, she said, had to become “fluent in technology” and anticipate the impact of future advances. Metreweli, 48, took over as the head of MI6, the UK’s international spy agency, in September, becoming the first woman to hold the post.

In the corner of one of Westminster’s endless Christmas receptions, a Conservative veteran of the Brexit years admits they are somewhat baffled by the frenzied leadership speculation among the new Labour ranks. Yes, the Labour leader is polling at historic lows – but things can get a lot worse. “This is not like Hartlepool,” one cabinet minister says, referring to the byelection that almost saw Starmer quit as Labour leader. For Labour, this is a particularly diverting topic of conversation, because no one knows exactly how a leadership challenge could come about. View image in fullscreen Andy Burnham has been repeatedly mentioned in Labour leadership speculation.