Dig deep! Reform frontbench promotes JCBs after £200,000 donation from firm
Posted on Saturday May 02, 2026

Nigel Farage, Lee Anderson and Robert Jenrick, among others, have sung the praises of the JCB PotHole Pro

Reform UK’s leading figures have repeatedly promoted a new pothole-fixing machine by the construction company JCB, while the party received £200,000 from the British digger maker, the Guardian can reveal.

Several Reform politicians including Nigel Farage, Lee Anderson, Robert Jenrick, Zia Yusuf and Richard Tice have sung the praises of the JCB PotHole Pro machine.

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Wrexham AFC used taxpayer funds for pitch upgrades not mentioned in initial grant
Posted on Saturday May 02, 2026

Documents made no reference to pitch works later added to £18m deal, with club spending £1.7m on upgrades

Wrexham AFC, the football club part-owned by Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac, used taxpayer funds to re-lay its pitch, even though initial grant documents assessing the state investment did not make reference to it.

The club has been awarded £18m in grants, with the first £3.8m tranche in February 2022. However, legally required state aid documents relating to that initial grant made no reference to the pitch works.

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Political blame game begins and passengers left adrift after Spirit ceases operations
Posted on Saturday May 02, 2026

Republicans blame Biden administration block on JetBlue deal; Democrats point to fuel price surge amid Iran war

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US airlines and government officials battled on Saturday to deal with stranded passengers and stricken employees after discount carrier Spirit Airlines abruptly ceased operations – and a political and business blame game got under way over the collapse of the low-cost carrier.

“If you have a flight scheduled with Spirit Airlines, don’t show up at the airport; there will be no one here to assist you,” the US secretary of transportation, Sean Duffy, warned at a press conference after laying out measures for customers booked with the Florida-based company to obtain refunds or find discounted flights on other airlines.

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‘People can see it – but can’t use it’: mystery of completed East-West Rail line that has no passenger trains
Posted on Saturday May 02, 2026

The East West Rail project linking Oxford to Milton Keynes was finished in 2024. There’s just one hitch: no services

The rumbling noise in the night, still enough to waken the unhabituated, is what really goads some people living in Winslow, Buckinghamshire. Freight trains running through the new station since late 2024 prove this stretch of railway is operational. But the long-promised passenger services have yet to appear – and there is no sign of any arriving soon.

Welcome to East West Rail, open or not. For well over a decade, ministers have talked up a new railway linking Oxford to Cambridge via Milton Keynes to accelerate the drive for housing, jobs and growth – an arc of tech industry hailed as the UK’s answer to Silicon Valley.

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Pentagon inks deals with seven AI companies for classified military work
Posted on Friday May 01, 2026

OpenAI, Google, Nvidia and others agreed to ‘any lawful use’ of their tech. Anthropic, feuding with Pentagon over potential AI misuse, was not included

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The Pentagon said on Friday it had reached agreements with seven leading artificial intelligence (AI) companies: SpaceX, OpenAI, Google, Nvidia, Reflection, Microsoft and Amazon Web Services.

“These agreements accelerate the transformation toward establishing the United States military as an AI-first fighting force and will strengthen our warfighters’ ability to maintain decision superiority across all domains of warfare,” the Pentagon said in statement.

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‘Awkward and humiliating’: UK job hunters share frustration with AI interviews
Posted on Friday May 01, 2026

People describe unnatural process as survey finds nearly half of job seekers have been interviewed by AI

Nearly half (47%) of UK job seekers have had an AI interview, research from the hiring platform Greenhouse has found.

In its survey of 2,950 active job seekers, including 1,132 UK-based workers, with additional respondents from the US, Germany, Australia and Ireland, it found that 30% of UK candidates had walked away from a hiring process because it included an AI interview.

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Miami Grand Prix: main race qualifying after Norris wins sprint race – live
Posted on Saturday May 02, 2026

️ F1 qualifying updates from 9pm BST
️ McLaren one-two in sprint race | Mail Philip

Button, who has a world title, confident that George Russell will be competitive come main qualifying as the Mercedes driver pursues a championship of his own.

The heat is on in Miami. Drivers kept as cool as they can be by umbrellas as the cars receive their last touches. Jenson Button probably quite happy to not be wearing a race suit.

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Gyökeres double fires Arsenal past Fulham to turn title pressure on Manchester City
Posted on Saturday May 02, 2026

Arsenal supporters had almost forgotten what it was like to win without their nerves being shredded. They were reacquainted with the feeling on an occasion when everything felt right from the start and got better and better. It was all over by half-time, Arsenal three goals to the good and the Emirates Stadium purring over a virtuoso Bukayo Saka performance.

The England winger had not been himself before he was forced to take time out at the end of March to rest an achilles problem – and one or two others aches. He was back in the starting XI here and the bang he produced could be heard in Manchester. City do not play until Monday night. They will kick off at Everton six points behind Arsenal at the top, albeit having played two games fewer. Arsenal have turned up the heat inexorably.

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