1.7 million households will not turn heating on this winter, survey suggests

The Independent - Oct 13, 2026

A 4% hike to Ofgem’s energy price cap took effect from October 1 as forecasters warned household bills could soar by almost another £300 from January.

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Trump administration cuts refugees' deadline to contest status termination, raising fears
Oct 14, 2026
Trump administration cuts refugees' deadline to contest status termination, raising fears

MIAMI — The Trump administration is cutting the time refugees have to contest the termination of their status, a move critics say could put tens of thousands of people who fled persecution and wars in their home countries on a path to deportation. The new policy, which goes into effect Wednesday, reduces from 30 to 10 the number of days refugees have to challenge the revocation of their status. It is part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to restrict and transform a program that has served for decades as a pathway for refugees. The goal of the new policy, according to the document, is to “mitigate potential risks” associated with people who were admitted as refugees but were not eligible for refugee status. The policy does not say exactly how many people could be affected, but it specifically refers to refugees admitted during President Joe Biden’s administration , when it says there was an “alarming erosion of the integrity” of the refugee program. Refugee advocates dispute that claim. The Trump administration is already reviewing the cases of at least 185,000

Human rights groups criticize uncontested election of 15 countries to top UN human rights body
Oct 14, 2026
Human rights groups criticize uncontested election of 15 countries to top UN human rights body

UNITED NATIONS — Human rights groups sharply criticized Tuesday's uncontested election of 15 members of the United Nations’ premier human rights body, saying it resulted in countries with poor rights records winning seats. Positions on the 47-nation Human Rights Council are allocated to the U.N.’s regional groups to ensure geographical representation. And for the second year in a row, all regional groups put forward the exact number of candidates for available seats for the three-year term. This meant that in Tuesday’s election in the 193-member General Assembly there were no competitive races. “This uncompetitive vote makes a mockery of the word ‘election,’” said Louis Charbonneau, U.N. director at Human Rights Watch. “No one should have a seat on this crucial body handed to them on a silver platter.” He called on U.N. member nations to “insist on competitive slates so they can reject candidates with poor human rights records.” In Tuesday’s vote, the Africa group’s Zambia, Ghana, Nigeria and Burundi were elected. The Asia-Pacific group’s Kuwait, Nepal, Jord

Employee arrested after listening device found in OpenAI conference room
Oct 14, 2026
Employee arrested after listening device found in OpenAI conference room

WASHINGTON — An engineer at OpenAI has been charged with secretly installing a recording device inside a conference room in what officials said Tuesday was an effort to capture sensitive conversations about the company's technology . The employee, identified as a 35-year-old Saudi national named Abdulrahman Alfozan, was arrested Friday, a week after the ChatGPT maker discovered an audio recording device hidden inside a company conference room, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court in San Francisco. The complaint did not identify the company, but the company confirmed in a separate statement that it had discovered a “sophisticated recording device that was hidden inside one of our offices," reported the finding to the FBI and fired the employee. “We used our models to understand the device and where it had come from, identifying that a specific employee had planted it a few days earlier. We referred the matter to the FBI, and we’re grateful to the agents and prosecutors who moved quickly to make an arrest. The FBI’s investigation is ongoing and we will contin

US to drop S. Korea intelligence case against ex-CIA analyst
Oct 14, 2026
US to drop S. Korea intelligence case against ex-CIA analyst

The U.S. Justice Department has agreed to forgo prosecution of a former CIA analyst and White House National Security Council official who was accused of working as an unregistered agent for South Korea in exchange for luxury goods and other gifts. Under a deferred prosecution deal reached with foreign policy specialist Sue Mi Terry, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York said it would suspend criminal charges in the grand jury indictment returned against her in July 2024. Provided that Terry abides by several conditions stipulated in the deal, including restrictions on her travel and contacts with the government of South Korea, the case against her would be dropped altogether after 12 months of compliance. Terms of the agreement were laid out in a four-page deferred prosecution notice filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan on Tuesday. It gave Terry no explanation for why the Justice Department was essentially giving up its high-profile intelligence case except to say it had determined "that the interests of the United States and your own interest will be bes

Pope Leo XIV diagnosed with lung cancer after surgery to remove part of right lung
Oct 14, 2026
Pope Leo XIV diagnosed with lung cancer after surgery to remove part of right lung

ROME — Pope Leo XIV underwent surgery Tuesday that confirmed he has lung cancer and doctors removed the lower lobe of his right lung, the Vatican said. Tests confirmed a diagnosis of lung adenocarcinoma, the Vatican said in a medical bulletin after the surgery. It said the diagnosis had been suspected by preoperative tests and was confirmed during surgery. The statement made no mention of treatment going forward, and the Vatican said doctors were not currently speaking of chemotherapy or other therapies pending the results of other tests. The Vatican press office noted the medical statement spoke of the “radical” removal of the lobe as an indication that doctors removed all suspect tissue in hopes of removing any lingering traces of the cancer. Leo's lymph nodes also would have been removed and tested, to determine if the cancer had spread, and there was no word yet on those test results. “Adenocarcinoma is the most common (type of lung cancer), also with the most favorable prognosis,” said Dr. Stephen Liu, a lung cancer expert at Georgetown’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Ce

India's 'cockroach' movement leaders detained in jail for five days, party and police say
Oct 14, 2026
India's 'cockroach' movement leaders detained in jail for five days, party and police say

NEW DELHI — An Indian court ordered that two leaders of the youth-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) be detained in jail for five days, the party and police said on Wednesday, a day after they scaled barricades to enter a historic site popular for protests and chanted slogans demanding the election chief's resignation. The detentions risk triggering fresh protests by youth supporters at a time when opposition groups and student bodies are holding almost daily demonstrations to demand commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's resignation over voter list revisions that critics say favour Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The Election Commission has denied favouring any party and said wrongly deleted voters can re-enrol, while the BJP has accused rivals of trying to undermine democracy by wrongly questioning legitimate electoral processes. CJP leaders Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das were among about a dozen people who jumped barricades on Tuesday to enter the grounds of the Jantar Mantar open air observatory in Delhi's central business district. Police said this week that the sit

Saudi Aramco administrative building attacked; limited fire reported
Oct 14, 2026
Saudi Aramco administrative building attacked; limited fire reported

RIYADH — An administrative building belonging to Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil company Saudi Aramco in the eastern city of Dhahran was attacked, causing a limited fire, the Energy Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday as fighting between Yemen's Iran-allied Houthis and the kingdom intensified. Authorities responded to the incident late on Tuesday and took necessary measures, the ministry said, adding that there were no injuries or deaths. A company source told Reuters earlier that a ballistic missile hit the Aramco headquarters complex in Dhahran. The source said an office tower in the complex was struck and that its top three floors were damaged. The source and two other people with knowledge of the matter said the building was on fire. The complex hosts a major operations centre for Aramco, which oversees a vast network of onshore and offshore oil rigs, pipelines, refineries and export terminals. The Houthis have for a week been firing ballistic missiles and drones at key Saudi sites in retaliation for the kingdom's backing of government forces in Yemen's reignited civil war. Ri

Japan to invest up to $21 billion in two US chip factories to be run by GlobalFoundries
Oct 14, 2026
Japan to invest up to $21 billion in two US chip factories to be run by GlobalFoundries

Japan will invest up to $21 billion in two chip factories in New York state that will be jointly owned by the U.S. government and Japanese interests and operated by GlobalFoundries, the company said on Wednesday. Shares of the Malta, New York-based company rose nearly 5 percent in premarket trading. As of last close, the stock had gained more than 33 percent so far this year. The move is part of a deal for Japan to invest $550 billion in the U.S. struck by U.S. President Donald Trump's administration last year in return for the U.S. lowering tariffs on Japanese cars and other imports from at least 25 percent to 15 percent. The U.S. will take a stake in the new chip factories, but Japan will provide all of the investment capital, GlobalFoundries said. The company, which is majority-owned by Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment Co, will earn fees from building and operating the factories, as well as licensing chip manufacturing technology to them. In a separate agreement, the U.S. government will take a 4 percent stake in GlobalFoundries, bringing its total ownership of the

ASML's strong orders ease fears AI spending boom is running out of steam
Oct 14, 2026
ASML's strong orders ease fears AI spending boom is running out of steam

ASML said on Wednesday customers were already looking to place orders for its advanced chipmaking tools for 2029 and 2030, easing concerns that the artificial intelligence investment boom was losing momentum. The upbeat outlook from the Dutch company, the biggest maker of tools used to make AI chips and advanced semiconductors, signals that chipmakers are continuing to expand well into the future, easing concerns among investors that the surge in AI-related spending could be nearing a peak. Demand for the company's machines has been fuelled by the AI boom, with customers including TSMC — which manufactures chips for Nvidia — as well as Samsung, Intel and others investing heavily to increase chip production. Shares in ASML, Europe's largest firm by market valuation at some €586 billion, were up 2 percent on Wednesday, having risen almost 70 percent so far this year. "There were concerns that the AI trade was running out of steam," said Gordon Kerr, European macro strategist at KBRA, adding ASML's results showed "demand for chips remains strong, and infrastructure spending is likely

Russia targeting energy sites despite Trump’s ceasefire, Ukraine says
Oct 14, 2026
Russia targeting energy sites despite Trump’s ceasefire, Ukraine says

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy voiced outrage Wednesday over Russia’s continuing aerial bombardment of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in apparent defiance of a ceasefire.

Hydrogen in your kitchen gas? Petroleum regulator PNGRB proposes up to 5% blending in household piped gas; details here
Oct 14, 2026
Hydrogen in your kitchen gas? Petroleum regulator PNGRB proposes up to 5% blending in household piped gas; details here

PNGRB proposes up to 5% hydrogen blending in limited domestic piped-gas networks, subject to technical checks and approvals. The draft guidelines also specifically address the impact of hydrogen blending on consumer billing.

Saudi Crown Prince Vetoes Netanyahu’s ‘Backdoor Entry’ Plan: The Politics Around War Against Houthis
Oct 14, 2026
Saudi Crown Prince Vetoes Netanyahu’s ‘Backdoor Entry’ Plan: The Politics Around War Against Houthis

The rejection signals a major shift in how regional power is negotiated in the Middle East, say experts

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