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The tech mogul’s midterm donations backing Republicans have made him the largest single-cycle political donor in modern US historyElon Musk has poured so much money into US politics this midterms election cycle that his donations could fund half a dozen SpaceX rocket launches or buy thousands of Tesla Cybertrucks. At the Tesla Diner in Los Angeles, Musk could order more than 31.9m cheeseburgers with the money he has spent on the midterms.Musk, the world’s richest person, has funnelled at least $

Big tech stocks falter as investors question whether billions being poured into AI can generate returns quickly enoughA sell-off of tech stocks that began earlier this month and gained steam with disappointing earnings from leading tech companies drove US markets down by hundreds of billions of dollars Friday. In total, the decline has knocked nearly $1tn in value off the tech-heavy Nasdaq exchange in one week and erased about $2tn in a month.The S&P 500, the index of the 500 most valuable compa

The incident at Binance could be the biggest theft of any kind in history. We answer some key questionsNorth Korean group blamed for $6.3bn crypto heistTell us: have you been affected?The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange has been hit by a $6.3bn heist that, according to experts, is likely to be the work of North Korea.This is not the first time a crypto market has been targeted by hackers, and the rogue state has a track record of this type of theft. Here we answer some key questions abou

Harris poll for Guardian finds 76% believe officials care more about self-enrichment than helping everyday AmericansGovernment corruption has emerged as a top issue in the upcoming US midterm elections, with an overwhelming majority of Americans saying US government officials use their public office for personal financial gain, according to an exclusive Harris poll for the Guardian.Nearly nine out of 10 Americans said that government corruption, as defined as elected officials putting their own

Acquisition will supercharge DoorDash’s grocery delivery, ‘one of the hardest things to get right online’, CEO saysDoorDash is gobbling up Instacart in a $17bn acquisition that will supercharge its grocery delivery business.DoorDash said the Instacart brand name and app will remain, and Instacart shoppers can continue fulfilling orders for Instacart. Grocers can also choose to work with Instacart or DoorDash. Instacart customers will now have access to 50,000 additional stores covered by DoorDas

Commerce department data contrasts with sharp deterioration in consumer sentiment as midterms loomThe US economy grew faster than expected in the third quarter while inflation accelerated in September, according to new commerce department data released on Thursday, less than a week before the midterm elections that will determine control of Congress.Gross domestic product (GDP) increased at a 3.4% annualized rate last quarter, the commerce department’s ⁠bureau of economic analysis said in its ad

Departure of Lagarde, seen as candidate to take over World Economic Forum, comes as eurozone struggles with weak growth and inflationChristine Lagarde, the eurozone’s top central banker, is stepping down nine months early, ending months of speculation about her future.The European Central Bank (ECB) announced on Thursday morning that Lagarde would step down as its president on 7 February 2027. Her term was scheduled to run until the end of October next year. Continue reading...

Regulator demands companies explain how and why they charge different prices for the same product or service The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is demanding some of the US’s biggest airlines, ride-share companies and retailers divulge how they are using algorithms and loyalty programs to target customers and drivers with different prices and wages.Nine companies – Delta, United, JetBlue, Lyft, Uber, DoorDash, Instacart, Target and Walmart – were named in the inquiry, which comes after investigat

‘Really change things for the working class,’ the ex-presidential candidate saysA corporate plutocracy. A broken healthcare system. Massive and widening inequality. Cash-soaked elections. Angry people struggling to pay their bills and disgusted with lawmakers in Washington DC.Nearly everything that pushed famed consumer-rights advocate Ralph Nader to launch the 2000 presidential run that made him a political pariah in Washington is front and center as the US gears up for the 2026 midterm electio

Sanrio ends association with TV drama Vivant after China says portrayal of ruthless Chinese agents is ‘deliberate smear’The company behind the successful Hello Kitty franchise has apologised and ended its commercial tie-up with a Japanese TV drama after Chinese state media and netizens condemned the show’s “deliberate smears” against China.Sanrio, a Japanese firm whose characters are popular around the world, said in a post on the Chinese social media site Weibo that it had decided to end its as

CBS News editor-in-chief sidesteps viewership concerns and says flagship show doing ‘tremendously well’CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss has spoken publicly for the first time about the ratings challenges the network has experienced under her year-long tenure, sidestepping concerns about diminished viewership at the Sunday show 60 Minutes by saying it was not her top priority.“I could never build anything if I were focused on the precise number of people that happen to tune in to the second fe

Fed chair Kevin Warsh said politics played no role in pause of interest rate hikes, despite inflation remaining above 3%The US Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged on Wednesday during its last board meeting before the midterm elections, keeping rates at one of the highest pre-election levels seen in over 20 years.Two out of 12 board members voted against the pause, preferring to raise rates by a quarter point this meeting, the Fed board said in a statement. Continue reading...

Eight-bedroom mansion listed at $18.5m sold for $28.5m and has a private garden and three-car garageA San Francisco estate sold for $10m above its listing price this month in a new record for the city as the artificial intelligence boom continues to drive up real estate prices.Located in the city’s tony Presidio Heights neighborhood, the eight-bedroom mansion was listed at $18.5m on 2 October and ultimately sold for $28.5m on 22 October, according to the property’s listing. Continue reading...

It is essential not just to fund the public goods the nation needs, it is indispensable to restore a sense of fairnessMoney doesn’t buy happiness, we’re told. Even some economists agree. The Nobel prize-winning economists Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton once proposed that rising income increased people’s emotional wellbeing only up to a ceiling of about $115,000 in today’s money.They probably hadn’t met many billionaires. The ultra-rich may not pursue happiness in the joyful sense of the word.

The AI company’s first public financial disclosures reveal explosive growth, huge costs and risks ranging from cyber-attacks to the limits of safeguardsAnthropic has filed to go public on the US stock market, revealing for the first time the AI research lab’s financials and all the risks – more than 90 pages of them – that might negatively affect its business.The company’s investor prospectus, released on Monday, veers from hyperbolic predictions about AI’s “incredible potential” to existential

Australian Signals Directorate chief says advanced AI tools are needed to defend against ‘AI-enabled attackers’Follow our Australian politics live blog for latest updatesGet our daily political email, free app or daily news podcastAustralians should prepare for more basic and important online services to go offline unexpectedly, the nation’s signals intelligence agency has warned, urging that “system security must be prioritised over system availability”.The Australian Signals Directorate (ASD)

As the US midterm elections approach, we take a look at data to see a true picture of the US economy under TrumpWith the midterm elections fast approaching, many Americans have the economy on their minds.US voters are exhausted by years of higher prices. Donald Trump won the presidency in 2024 on promises to lower inflation and undo the damage he said the Biden administration had inflicted on the economy. Continue reading...

Adding gratuity doesn’t always make sense, but the obligation to has been entrenched as a societal normYou arrive at a pizza place to pick up your order. The credit-card screen asks if you would like to tip and gives some choices. It seems strange to tip the cashier, who did nothing but hand over the pizza. But it also seems a little harsh to select “no tip” instead of one of those more generous options.What’s the right thing to do? Continue reading...

VW investment, creating 4,500 jobs in Georgia, comes amid Trump’s damaging tariffs, intense Chinese competition and costly shift towards EVsAudi has said it will spend $4bn (£3bn) to build its first factory in the US, as its parent company, Volkswagen, struggles with the impact of steep tariffs imposed by Donald Trump.The German brand’s chief executive, Gernot Döllner, joined Trump on stage at a campaign rally on Saturday night to announce the factory in Macon, Georgia, in an unusual move by a b

Republican senator faces critical re-election battle in state where president’s trade war has outraged voters Donald Trump dropped some of the US’s tariffs on Canada on Friday to “better serve the public interest” the White House said, handing a win to Susan Collins, the embattled Republican senator for Maine, as she faces a tight re-election campaign that will help determine whether Democrats can flip control of Congress.Collins announced that the exemptions would apply to nine agricultural pro