Segro board U-turns on £14bn takeover bid by US rival Prologis
Posted on Wednesday July 22, 2026

UK warehouse landlord says board unanimous in recommendation to accept ‘best and final offer’

The board of the UK warehouse landlord Segro has U-turned and said it would be willing to accept a £14bn takeover by Segro’s bigger US rival, Prologis, in a deal that would be one of the largest foreign takeovers of a UK-listed company.

In the latest blow to the troubled London stock market, Segro said in a statement that its board had “unanimously concluded” it would recommend its shareholders accept what Prologis called its “best and final offer”, made just hours before a deadline.

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Oil price rises above $95 mark as Middle East conflict escalates
Posted on Wednesday July 22, 2026

Global supply disrupted by US-Iran aggression in strait of Hormuz and Houthi threats in Bab el-Mandeb

• Middle East crisis live – latest updates

The price of oil has breached the $95 a barrel mark for the first time in six weeks as the escalating Middle East conflict threatens further disruption to global supplies.

The benchmark oil price rose sharply on Wednesday as renewed US-Iran aggression over the strait of Hormuz was compounded by Houthi threats to target vessels carrying Saudi oil through the Bab el-Mandeb strait.

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Paramount’s £80bn takeover of Warner Brothers a step closer after EU approval
Posted on Wednesday July 22, 2026

European Commission says Paramount Skydance’s decision to end Universal venture addresses merger concerns

Paramount Skydance’s £80bn takeover of Warner Brothers took a step closer to being realised after it won conditional approval from the European Union.

The European Commission said Paramount’s offer to ⁠end a film ⁠distribution ​joint venture with Universal Pictures addressed its concerns over the potential merger. As part of its commitments in the EU, Paramount has 13 months from the date of closing the deal to pull out from the venture.

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Harry Potter publisher to receive millions in Anthropic copyright settlement
Posted on Wednesday July 22, 2026

Bloomsbury has 14,087 titles listed in agreement between AI startup and authors over use of their work

The publisher of Harry Potter has received a multimillion-pound payout as a beneficiary of a $1.5bn (£1.12bn) copyright settlement between the AI startup Anthropic and thousands of authors over the use of their protected work to power chatbots.

Bloomsbury, which is home to the bestselling novelists Sarah J Maas and Susanna Clarke as well as JK Rowling, said it had 14,087 titles listed within the settlement, with a proposed compensation of about $3,000 a title.

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AI agent went rogue and hacked startup by itself, OpenAI reveals
Posted on Wednesday July 22, 2026

Company behind ChatGPT says agent ‘cheated’ an evaluation by attacking a Hugging Face database

OpenAI has revealed that an autonomous AI agent powered by its technology went rogue during a test, accessed the open web and hacked a prominent startup by itself in an “unprecedented incident”.

The company behind ChatGPT said the startup Hugging Face had detected and contained the agent – an AI tool designed to carry out tasks without human assistance – which had entered its systems.

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Elon Musk says Grok Imagine will make ‘historically accurate’ AI adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey
Posted on Wednesday July 22, 2026

The billionaire says the AI-generated film will stay true to Homer’s original, after repeatedly criticising Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster over its casting choices

Elon Musk has said his AI platform Grok Imagine will make a “historically accurate” adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey, after the success of Christopher Nolan’s blockbusting treatment which the SpaceX founder has regularly criticised over its casting.

In a post on X, Musk said: “Before this year ends, Grok Imagine will make a full-length movie of The Odyssey that is historically accurate and true to the art of Homer.” Musk also linked to a post containing a three-minute clip of footage that the user said had been generated from Grok Imagine, showing a scene between Odysseus and the nymph Calypso.

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Anti-doping chiefs reject claims of Paul Seixas favouritism as Tour rivals cry foul
Posted on Wednesday July 22, 2026

• Home rider Seixas yet to be tested at night, unlike some rivals

• Authorities deny French doping agency plays role in who is tested

Anti-doping authorities at the Tour de France have rejected accusations of preferential treatment towards Paul Seixas, the teenage French rider and home favourite who is placed fourth overall.

Seixas and his Decathlon CMA CGM team were tested, with the rest of the peloton, on Monday evening as part of the biological passport testing programme, but the 19-year-old has not yet been subjected to the nocturnal test that both the race leader Tadej Pogacar and the now-withdrawn Jonas Vingegaard underwent.

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World Cup 2026 awards: the Guardian team give their final tournament verdicts
Posted on Wednesday July 22, 2026

The best games, goals and personal highlights – from a magical Azteca to Erling Haaland breaking America

Paraguay 1-1 Germany. There were plenty more games with more goals but none could match the drama of the penalty shootout in this last-32 tie. Germany aren’t supposed to lose in them but they did this time in spectacular fashion. Ed Aarons

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