Culture secretary’s move paves way for deeper scrutiny of deal that would create UK’s biggest commercial broadcasterThe culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, has said she is “minded to intervene” in Sky’s £1.6bn purchase of ITV, in a move that paves the way for deeper scrutiny of a deal that would create the UK’s biggest commercial broadcaster.Sky <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jul/06/sky-owner-announces-16bn-takeover-of-itvs-broadcasting-arm">announced over the summer</a> that it had reached a deal to buy ITV’s broadcasting and streaming arm, representing a big shift in the ownership of Britain’s public service media. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/oct/15/lisa-nandy-culture-secretary-intervene-sky-purchase-itv">Continue reading...</a>

Culture secretary’s move paves way for deeper scrutiny of deal that would create UK’s biggest commercial broadcaster

Lisa Nandy ‘minded to intervene’ in Sky’s £1.6bn purchase of ITV

Woman claims comedian ‘pranced around like an ostrich’ before forcing himself on her in hotel room attackRussell Brand transformed into a “monster” when he allegedly made a woman take half-naked photographs of him before raping her in a hotel room at a Labour party conference, a court has heard.The 51-year-old comedian has denied attacking the woman, who broke down in tears in the witness box at Southwark crown court as she told how she could not fight him off. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/oct/15/russell-brand-jury-alleged-rape-woman-1999-crown-court">Continue reading...</a>

Woman claims comedian ‘pranced around like an ostrich’ before forcing himself on her in hotel room attack

Russell Brand made alleged rape victim take photos of him half naked, trial told

Soldier who killed 13 people in 2009 will still be executed, but president said ‘people would rather not watch him die’Donald Trump has shelved a <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/oct/09/live-stream-execution-fort-hood-shooter">widely condemned</a> plan to livestream the execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, who was convicted of killing 13 people at a military base at Fort Hood in <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/texas">Texas</a> in 2009.In a <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/117445309638266855">social media post</a> on Thursday, Trump argued that broadcasting such an execution “might have been a strong deterrent for the World to witness how America deals with Terrorists and SCUM like Hasan” but said that “many very good and well meaning people would rather not watch him die, through streaming, or through any other visual device”. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/oct/15/trump-fort-hood-execution-livestream">Continue reading...</a>

Soldier who killed 13 people in 2009 will still be executed, but president said ‘people would rather not watch him die’

Trump cancels plan to livestream execution after global condemnation

<ul><li>Scott walking away to focus on other projects</li><li>Disney+ was criticised after opening round this season</li></ul>Alex Scott, the former Football Focus host, has left her role as a presenter of the Women’s Champions League coverage on Disney+.It is understood it was Scott’s decision to walk away and focus on other projects, including her new show, One More Word WSL, with her fellow former England internationals Anita Asante and Fara Williams. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/oct/15/alex-scott-quits-disney-womens-champions-league-presenter">Continue reading...</a>

Scott walking away to focus on other projects

Alex Scott quits Disney+ role as Women’s Champions League presenter

Discover-Tech’s Controlium software lets clients mass-profile internet users then covertly hack targets, say researchers at University of TorontoAn Israeli advertising agency has been serving millions of online adverts that allow “zero-click” spyware to be used against targets, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://citizenlab.ca/research/how-discover-tech-turned-targeted-ads-into-a-pipeline-for-spyware/">researchers at a Canadian university have said</a>.Citizen Lab, a digital investigations research unit at the University of Toronto, said it believed dozens of devices at the Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera had been compromised by spyware delivered through ads run by Discover-Tech, which describes itself as a specialised digital advertising agency. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/oct/15/israeli-firm-digital-ads-enabling-installation-of-zero-click-spyware-researchers-say">Continue reading...</a>

Discover-Tech’s Controlium software lets clients mass-profile internet users then covertly hack targets, say researchers at University of Toronto

Online ads weaponised to deliver ‘zero-click’ spyware, researchers say

Animation studio narrows annual loss to £1.1m amid ‘challenging market’ in children’s contentDon’t break out the celebratory Wensleydale just yet. Aardman, the British animation studio behind the cheese-loving inventor Wallace and his beloved dog Gromit, has fallen short of a target to get back in the black, its accounts show.The employee-owned business was aiming to record a small profit in 2025 after two years of consecutive losses but was hit by production delays and a “challenging market” in children’s content. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/oct/15/aardman-wallace-gromit-annual-loss">Continue reading...</a>

Animation studio narrows annual loss to £1.1m amid ‘challenging market’ in children’s content

Wallace & Gromit maker Aardman falls short of return to profit

Ben Norris says cost-cutting measure that means show will be recorded outside its home city risks ‘extraordinary burden’ for crewA cast member of The Archers has said its actors have been angered by the BBC’s decision to axe the show’s new studio, in a move that could lead to it being recorded away from its home in Birmingham.Ben Norris, who plays Ben Archer in the world’s longest-running soap opera, said the decision risked having a real impact on the quality of the show and placing an “extraordinary burden” on its crew. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/oct/14/the-archers-cast-radio-bbc-decision-new-studio-birmingham">Continue reading...</a>

Ben Norris says cost-cutting measure that means show will be recorded outside its home city risks ‘extraordinary burden’ for crew

The Archers cast ‘angry’ at BBC decision to scrap new Birmingham studio

Streaming company faces ⁠tough competition for viewers and engagement ⁠from legacy rivals ​and YouTubeNetflix is laying off 6% of its workforce, ⁠or roughly 1,000 employees, in its biggest cuts since 2022, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters, as the streaming pioneer faces ⁠tough competition for viewers ⁠from legacy rivals ​and YouTube.The bulk of the job cuts would be in Netflix’s product, tech, legal and human-resources teams, the email co-CEOs Greg Peters and ⁠Ted Sarandos sent to employees on Wednesday showed. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/oct/14/netflix-job-layoffs-streaming">Continue reading...</a>

Streaming company faces ⁠tough competition for viewers and engagement ⁠from legacy rivals ​and YouTube

Netflix to lay off about 1,000 employees in biggest cuts since 2022

Claims that James Talarico suffered a mental health crisis spread across rightwing media, offering a warning about disinformation ahead of the US midterm electionWhere is James Talarico? The question ricocheted around rightwing echo chambers before metastasising into a conspiracy theory – and a reminder of the persistent danger of disinformation in the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/us-midterm-elections-2026">US midterm elections.</a>The smear campaign began when Talarico, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/04/texas-primaries-democrats-texas">the Democratic candidate</a> for the US Senate in Texas, was not seen in public for nine days. His campaign was slow to explain why. While nature abhors a vacuum, Donald Trump and social media seize on one and weaponise it. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/oct/15/james-talarico-maga-disinformation">Continue reading...</a>

Claims that James Talarico suffered a mental health crisis spread across rightwing media, offering a warning about disinformation ahead of the US midterm...

Anatomy of a lie: James Talarico got the flu – sending rightwing midterm misinformation machine into overdrive

The president is used to bullying his media targets. The quagmire that is his libel actions shows the broadcaster is working to a different scriptFor the greatest account of the BBC’s finest hour, one must turn to Penelope Fitzgerald’s novel, Human Voices, written in 1980 and set 40 years earlier, at the corporation’s Portland Place wartime HQ. Flanked by sandbags and infused with a smell of cooking “from the deep hold that suggested more strongly than ever a cruise on the Queen Mary”, the organisation that Fitzgerald describes is at once noble and deeply eccentric. “Broadcasting House stood headed on a fixed course south,” she writes. “With the best engineers in the world, and a crew varying between the intensely respectable and barely sane, it looked ready to scorn any disaster.”In other words, a formidable foe, one that in the spring of 1940, in the face of anticipated Nazi invasion, decided “without prompting, that truth was more important than consolation, and, in the long run, would be more effective”. I bring this up in respect to the gathering storm of Donald Trump versus the BBC, a fight triggered by the US president’s <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/oct/13/bbc-trump-lawsuit-deposition">$10bn defamation lawsuit</a> – $10bn! It’s a wonder he didn’t go for $10 gazillion – brought against the corporation at the end of last year in response to a poorly edited episode of Panorama. The BBC was at fault, editing together comments made by the US president at a rally on 6 January 2021 to give, as the corporation’s <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c874nw4g2zzo">apology</a> put it, “the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action”. But it is fighting the lawsuit.Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/oct/15/donald-trump-bbc-lawsuit-public-broadcaster-truth-power-noels-house-party">Continue reading...</a>

The president is used to bullying his media targets. The quagmire that is his libel actions shows the broadcaster is working to a different script

Trump should fear the BBC. Instead he’s picked a fight – and he seems to be losing | Emma Brockes

The broadcaster has bullet-proof confidence as he departs the BBC. But his first YouTube show with Gareth Southgate is nowhere near as radical as you’d expect – and he sounds like yet another tech guruWhatever you think of Amol Rajan, he can’t be accused of not dreaming big. In the clip trailing the launch of his YouTube project The Amol Rajan Connection, he acknowledges the seismic volatility of our times but locates himself firmly at the heart of them. “We are about to get 100 years of change in a single decade,” he says. “And that’s scary. But maybe I can help.” Big talk for someone who somehow managed the singular feat of being outlasted by Richard E Grant in The Celebrity Traitors. But joking aside, Rajan’s bulletproof self-confidence remains titanium-tough.The branding of The Amol Rajan Connection features a mock-up of the poster from The Harder They Come, a Jamaican film about a renegade insurgent whose reckless defiance of the establishment’s rules culminates in him dying in a hail of bullets. But however he might see himself, it’s impossible to regard Rajan as an outsider. From his editorship of a national newspaper, via University Challenge and Today, he has shown an uncanny facility for arriving, briskly, at the very heart of one national institution after another. The sponsors of this show are two world-bestriding tech corporations, one of Britain’s largest banks and an upmarket supermarket chain. He soft-launched with an appearance on former Tory chancellor George Osborne’s podcast. Rajan’s connections are clearly being worked very efficiently. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/oct/15/the-amol-rajan-connection-review-youtube">Continue reading...</a>

The broadcaster has bullet-proof confidence as he departs the BBC. But his first YouTube show with Gareth Southgate is nowhere near as radical as you’d e...

The Amol Rajan Connection review – another wrong move after lasting one night in The Celebrity Traitors?

The once heroic boxer showcases a frankness in this compelling new series but also an unwillingness to take accountability for his darkest moments<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/mike-tyson">Mike Tyson</a> never envisioned old age. And yet here he still is, having outlived his parents, Brooklynites of ill repute who died when he was a teenager, and the Brownsville tough guys who teased him for being scrawny and having a lisp. Here he is after doing hard time for rape in his prime, winning and losing great fortunes and battling addiction to drink, drugs and fame. Here he still is, 60 years old and a grandfather now, mixing it up with <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/nov/16/jake-paul-vs-mike-tyson-boxing-fight-arlington-texas-report-result">Jake Paul in the ring</a>, opening up to <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://music.youtube.com/podcast/3tixW9nxUkU">manosphere-adjacent podcasters</a>, bobbing into an impromptu White House press briefing – Māori face-tattoo<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://x.com/atrupar/status/2108666930894663948?s=20"> unmistakably in the frame</a> – while on a DC visit to buck up his old pal as his party faces a bleak midterm forecast. “I don’t have to exist,” the champ says in Tyson, the latest four-part vanity project on his turbulent life and times. “Some reason, something allowed me to exist.”In his heyday, Tyson was a mesmerizing sporting event unto himself – the ruthless knockout machine who struck fear into opponents at first sight, felled them in seconds and looked back on the carnage with cool nonchalance. His darkest episodes – <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.oprah.com/relationships/robin-givens-reveals-all">the combustive relationship with actor Robin Givens</a>, the six-year prison sentence for rape, biting off Evander Holyfield’s ear – only deepened the public fascination with him, adding to the lore of boxing’s baddest man. In the winter of his life, Tyson’s self-reflection, so deep it tips into self-parody, is the enthralling spectacle now. And if generations of Black comedians have proved anything, it’s that the appetite for <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1014050477948952">Mike Tyson impersonations</a> is inexhaustible. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/oct/14/mike-tyson-docuseries-netflix">Continue reading...</a>

The once heroic boxer showcases a frankness in this compelling new series but also an unwillingness to take accountability for his darkest moments

Netflix’s Mike Tyson docuseries offers an incomplete portrait of a troubling figure | Andrew Lawrence

Tom Cruise’s latest film could lose $250m (£190m) – could one reason be that audiences are tired of Hollywood telling them what they already know about the super-rich?It seems as if nobody can decide who should shoulder most of the blame for the recent box office flop of Digger.Was it the ousted Warner Bros film executives Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy, whose love of big-budget auteur cinema usually came with a hefty price tag? Or was it the marketing team, who were responsible for hiding the movie’s biggest swing from all trailers, ensuring many viewers would be left alienated from its early meta-reveal onwards? <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/oct/14/how-we-lost-our-appetite-for-eat-the-rich-satire">Continue reading...</a>

Tom Cruise’s latest film could lose $250m (£190m) – could one reason be that audiences are tired of Hollywood telling them what they already know about t...

How we lost our appetite for eat-the-rich satire

End of News Feed

Panay said that it's possible to recover and learn from all sorts of failures, even catastrophic ones, when building products. 

Amazon devices chief Panos Panay on the importance of failure and bouncing back from it 

Meta and Apple have teamed up for the launch of the social media giant's newest model, Muse Spark Open, which will run locally on Apple silicon. 

Meta launches an open-weight AI model that runs on Macs

Speaking at TechCrunch Disrupt, Amazon devices chief Panos Panay described a future where ambient AI devices work in the background, anticipating users' needs instead of waiting for commands.

Speaking at TechCrunch Disrupt, Amazon devices chief Panos Panay described a future where ambient AI devices work in the background, anticipating users' ...

Amazon devices chief Panos Panay sees a future where AI devices replace the need to use apps

The executives argued that advertising isn’t the only path to monetization, and that there are alternative models that are feasible when it comes to monetization. 

The executives argued that advertising isn’t the only path to monetization, and that there are alternative models that are feasible when it comes to mone...

Bluesky wants to make it easier to buy, sell, and fundraise on the network

METR will publish its own assessments of Anthropic’s risks, incidents, and practices, and the frontier AI model maker has given up the right to block them.

Anthropic is letting METR researchers look under the hood with employee-level access

Bluesky is bringing “social vibe coding” to its experimental Attie platform, allowing users to create interactive experiences like games, quizzes, and websites that can tap into the social network's audience.

Bluesky is bringing “social vibe coding” to its experimental Attie platform, allowing users to create interactive experiences like games, quizzes, and we...

Bluesky expands its AI-powered Attie app to let anyone build websites, games, and more

Savings of up to $200 end October 16 for TechCrunch Founder Summit. These savings for Founder and Investor Passes vanish after Friday. Join 1,000 founders and investors on November 4 at Boston’s SoWa Power Station. Bring your toughest questions and make the day count for your business.

Savings of up to $200 end October 16 for TechCrunch Founder Summit. These savings for Founder and Investor Passes vanish after Friday. Join 1,000 founder...

Last chance to save up to $200 on your TechCrunch Founder Summit pass: Early booking ends October 16

Volvo is leveling up its automated driving system through an expansion of its nearly decade-long partnership with Nvidia that will extend beyond its battery electric vehicles.

Volvo is leveling up its automated driving system through an expansion of its nearly decade-long partnership with Nvidia that will extend beyond its batt...

Volvo makes a bigger bet on Nvidia for hands-free automated driving

SK Hynix’s Solidigm is reportedly seeking U.S. approval to send more chipmaking equipment to China as it weighs building a new NAND chip factory in America.

SK Hynix bargains for chip equipment exports to its China facility in return for building a factory in US

We'll likely learn more about how this will work at the company's upcoming "AI &#038; Autonomy Day" event in December.

AI agents are coming to Rivian’s cars

The funding comes as Ramp's annualized revenue crosses $2B, and its customer count reaches 85,000.

Ramp reaches $60B valuation as it pushes deeper into AI

The new shopping tool is available in the U.S. across Google Search and the Gemini app.

Google’s Universal Cart shopping tool launches in the US

Last day to be part of TechCrunch Disrupt 2026. Join 10,000+ tech leaders for a day of connections and insights. Save 75% on your pass now.

TechCrunch Disrupt 2026: Last day

Amazon-owned Bee has launched its first new AI devices since its acquisition, including an updated wearable and a credit-card-sized recorder that attaches to smartphones. The devices can summarize conversations, create to-do lists, and integrate with Alexa and Amazon shopping, with prices starting at $74.99.

Amazon-owned Bee has launched its first new AI devices since its acquisition, including an updated wearable and a credit-card-sized recorder that attache...

Amazon’s Bee launches two new personal AI devices, starting at $75

The digital rights unit found evidence that dozens of devices at media organization Al Jazeera were hacked after being shown malicious online ads.

Governments are hacking people with ‘zero-click’ spyware by showing them online ads

Figma is also releasing its code layers feature in open beta.

Figma announces new features to define how agents work on its platform

The founders detailed how their startup is developing AI that can design chips, learn from each iteration, and improve subsequent designs, all with the goal of automating and accelerating the chip design process. 

The founders detailed how their startup is developing AI that can design chips, learn from each iteration, and improve subsequent designs, all with the g...

Ricursive Intelligence is betting on AI-designed chips to help solve the compute crisis

At TechCrunch Disrupt, Flock CEO Garrett Langley defended his company's surveillance technology despite growing privacy concerns, arguing that its crime-fighting benefits outweigh the risks of abuse.

At TechCrunch Disrupt, Flock CEO Garrett Langley defended his company's surveillance technology despite growing privacy concerns, arguing that its crime-...

Flock CEO defends surveillance technology amid national backlash: ‘We shouldn’t pause progress’

It’s time to unveil the five companies that will be competing in the Startup Battlefield finals.

Meet the five companies competing in the Startup Battlefield finals at Disrupt 2026

Gudea, a company that tracks how stories and rumors spread online that describes itself as the “storm tracker for the internet,” is using AI to help organizations spot trouble brewing online before it turns into a crisis.

Gudea, a company that tracks how stories and rumors spread online that describes itself as the “storm tracker for the internet,” is using AI to help orga...

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