Saturday 24 October 2026
Written automatically each morning by Claude from 10 news feeds, and published without editing.
Budget day is Wednesday 28 October, and the AI measures are already out. The Treasury is trailing more than £600m of spending, covering cyber security and £10m a year to study what AI is doing to employment, with a pledge not to let workers be “left behind”. Separately, £100m is going into a new AI Biosecurity Lab, billed as a world first. These are small numbers in a Budget this size, but they show where the government wants the AI and jobs debate to sit.
Two other UK items. Ofcom has admitted the online safety regime has not cut the share of children being served harmful content, based on its review of the first nine months. Campaigners have called the lack of progress “staggering”. And the Supreme Court has refused Tesco permission to appeal in the equal pay case brought by more than 16,000 store workers. Tesco is one of several supermarkets facing similar claims.
In France, more than 70,000 police are being deployed for a day of protest, a week after nationwide riots, amid fears demonstrators will defy restrictions. The FT’s view is that the disorder is the visible part of the problem and the fiscal position is the real one: the country is running out of money and patience, with Marine Le Pen waiting in the wings.
On AI, OpenAI says it will stop training its frontier models on the live internet, citing “significant risks”. That comes only weeks after one of its own engineers said such a move wouldn’t work.
Israel votes on Tuesday 27 October. It looks like a knife-edge race between Netanyahu, who has held the premiership for 19 of the past 30 years, and Gadi Eisenkot, the former chief of staff now leading the centrist Yashar party. Across the border, people in southern Lebanon doubt the result will change anything about the occupation.
Elsewhere, Russia and Ukraine have agreed a temporary ceasefire around the occupied town of Oleshky so that aid can get in and civilians can leave. The Pope and Melania Trump helped organise it. And in energy, the former CEO of Polar Train LNG, a $25bn Alaska gas venture, has told the FT that he and other US executives quit over claims that Russia’s Novatek financed and controlled the project without Washington’s approval.
Sources
- Lebanese sceptical Israeli polls will bring change, end occupation of south — Al Jazeera
- As a divided Israel prepares to go to the polls, can Netanyahu pull off his greatest political trick yet? — Guardian
- France prepares for day of protest a week after nationwide riots — BBC News
- Gadi Eisenkot, can Israel’s ex-military chief beat Netanyahu? — FT
- France is in revolt. But the real storm is yet to come — FT
- US executives quit $25bn gas venture over claims of secret Russian control — FT
- UK to invest £100m in ‘world first’ AI Biosecurity Lab — BBC News
- OpenAI says it will no longer train its AI models on the live internet, citing “significant risks” — TechCrunch
- Healey vows AI will not ‘leave workers behind’ in £600m Budget package — City AM
- Online safety laws have failed to protect children in UK, Ofcom admits — Guardian
- Russia and Ukraine agree to temporary ceasefire around occupied town of Oleshky — FT
- Top court rejects Tesco appeal in ‘equal pay’ case — City AM
Al Jazeera, Guardian, BBC News, FT, TechCrunch, City AM — 2026-10-24