Business

US firm goes public with £4.7bn proposal to buy easyJet after earlier bids rejected
Posted on Monday June 22, 2026

Investment company Castlelake made bid public for shareholders to evaluate but carrier describes offer as ‘cheap’

The US investment firm trying to buy easyJet has gone public with its latest £4.7bn takeover proposal for the budget airline, its third and latest offer to be rejected.

Castlelake said on Monday that an all-cash offer of 625p a share, valuing easyJet at just over £4.7bn, had been rejected by the airline’s board on Sunday, after previous offers at 560p and 600p.

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Alan Greenspan, longtime head of the US federal reserve, dies aged 100
Posted on Monday June 22, 2026

Greenspan served under the presidencies of Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush, Bill Clinton and George W Bush

Alan Greenspan, the influential economist who ​steered US ⁠monetary policy ⁠during ​his ‌five ‌terms as chair ‌of the Federal Reserve ‌under four presidents, ​has died aged 100.

The central bank said its former chair “helped establish the credibility that remains one of the Federal Reserve’s most important assets” in a statement on Monday that announced Greenspan’s death.

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Brexit and Covid beset Royal Navy contractor as profits plunge
Posted on Monday June 22, 2026

Babcock reports underlying operating profits down 19%, with frigate-building programme making a loss

One of the UK’s biggest defence contractors has blamed Brexit and Covid among a catalogue of problems to beset an important contract for the Royal Navy, which led its annual profits to plunge.

Profits at Babcock International fell by almost a fifth in the year to the end of March, as the firm reported a £140m charge on its contract to build five Type 31 frigates for the Royal Navy.

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Brexit: how it has hit your wallet at the supermarket and on holiday
Posted on Monday June 22, 2026

Ten years on, leaving the EU has made life more difficult and costly – here are some of the ways we’ve lost out

It is 10 years since voters in the UK chose to leave the EU, and our wallets have been feeling the effects ever since.

From paying more to take the dog on holidays in France – and making calls while you are there – to higher grocery bills and the headache of filling in customs forms for parcels, Brexit has made many simple tasks more complicated and expensive.

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Opinion













Technology

AI models that can take down governments and business months away, rare Five Eyes statement warns
Posted on Monday June 22, 2026

Signal agencies in Australia, the US, the UK, New Zealand and Canada sound alarm after Trump blocks foreign nationals from Anthropic’s Fable AI model

Powerful AI models capable of taking down governments and businesses are mere months away, cyber intelligence agencies for the Five Eyes have warned in a rare joint statement, urging leaders to “act now”.

The surprising public intervention by signals agencies for Australia, the US, the UK, New Zealand and Canada comes after the Trump administration earlier this month decided to block “foreign nationals” from using a much-hyped AI model built by tech company Anthropic, called Fable.

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Brands using AI-generated influencers to promote products on social media
Posted on Sunday June 21, 2026

Investigation finds AI content that purports to show genuine customers, prompting calls for greater transparency

Brands promoting their products online are quietly deploying AI-generated influencers on social media, an investigation has found, prompting calls for greater transparency.

The findings suggest companies are increasingly turning to AI-generated content that purports to show genuine customer experiences while giving no obvious indication that the people featured are not real.

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Sport

Argentina v Austria: World Cup 2026 – live
Posted on Monday June 22, 2026

⚽️ Kick-off: 12pm local/1pm ET/6pm BST/3am Mon AEST
⚽️ Player guide | Bracketology | Golden Boot | Mail Dominic

A Messi-related email has landed from David Wall:

I’ve got to take issue with your description of Messi’s hat-trick in the opening game as brilliant. I’ll give you the third was high quality but the other two were pretty much chucked in by the Algerian goalkeeper. It’s the lowest value World Cup hat-trick since Harry Kane’s in 2018 against Panama (one header from about six yards, one penalty, and one that deflected off his heel when he was trying to get out of the way). Add in the fact that he was incredibly fortunate not to be sent off (presumably the VAR trained on footage from one of those old-fashioned all-village kickabouts), and I thought the hype about his performance was massively over the top. If Argentina are going to continue with their approach of tailoring the team to get the most out of Messi (even though Julián Álvarez is a much more effective forward now) then he’ll need to do a lot more than he showed against Algeria if they’re going to retain the trophy.

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Wimbledon 2023 champion Vondrousova given four-year ban for refusing anti-doping test
Posted on Monday June 22, 2026

  • ‘No compelling justification’ for not submitting a sample

  • ‘Unpredictable testing is essential to protect clean sport’

The 2023 Wimbledon singles champion Marketa Vondrousova has been suspended from tennis for four years for refusing an anti-doping test.

An independent tribunal concluded that there was “no compelling justification” for the 26-year-old Czech to have not submitted a sample when notified by a doping control officer, out of competition and at her home, on the night of 3 December, 2025.

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