UK urged to act as Polymarket takes bets on whether HSBC and Lloyds will fail 03. October 2026 (10:00) Revelation comes amid mounting concern over online prediction market’s effects on integrity of financial systemUK authorities are being urged to intervene after it emerged that the online prediction market Polymarket has been taking thousands of dollars worth of bets over whether HSBC and Lloyds will fail.Polymarket – the US-owned company which holds bets on anything from football matches, to the existence of aliens, to when a bomb drops on a city – has allowed users to take $77,507 (£58,530) worth of positions on whether the world’s biggest banks will go under by the end of this year. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Joker persona helps Cong 'feel the fear' in opponents 03. October 2026 (09:07) Wang Cong dismisses critics who say she she is not deserving of facing Natalia Silva for the flyweight world title at UFC 332 on Saturday.(BBC News)
Flydubai co-pilot used crash axe to attack captain, says UAE 03. October 2026 (09:01) Attorney general says ‘terrorist attack’ was attempted by suspect who is said to have been barred from flying by Oman because of extremist viewsThe co-pilot of flydubai flight FZ1073 used a crash axe to attempt to carry out a “terrorist attack” during the flight, the United Arab Emirates prosecutor general said on Saturday, according to a state news agency.The UAE statement cited the prosecutor general as saying the co-pilot also tried to take control of the plane during Wednesday’s attack on the Israel-bound flight. Passengers and crew intervened to subdue the co-pilot and stabilise the plane. Officials said the co-pilot’s actions nearly crashed the flight with 182 people on board by sending it into a sharp plunge. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
BT accused of ‘bullying’ customers by pausing broadband in digital landline push 03. October 2026 (09:00) Companies race to switch households to ‘voice over internet protocol’ services by the end of JanuaryBT has been accused of “bullying” customers by temporarily cutting off their broadband to pressure them to upgrade to a digital landline, as providers race to switch households over before the January deadline.Telecoms companies have so far migrated 16-17m lines from the old copper network to digital voice over internet protocol (VoiP), which uses a broadband connection instead, in the biggest technological upgrade since the early 00s, when analogue TV was switched off. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Brazil’s neck-and-neck election offers test for growing pro-Trump Latin American bloc 03. October 2026 (09:00) Sunday’s poll pits the leftist incumbent Lula against the son of a former far-right president convicted of staging a coup‘No one disrespects Our Lady’: fears for Brazil’s patron saint grip country ahead of electionShortly after his controversial speech to the United Nations general assembly in September, Donald Trump gathered a dozen like-minded Latin American leaders and boasted that rightwing candidates had won all seven presidential elections held in the region since he began his second term.“Everybody I’ve endorsed has won,” the US president said in New York to most of the leaders of the Shield of the Americas, an anti-drug cartel coalition of 15 countries governed by the right or far right. Continue reading...(The Guardian)