The Jackdaw gasfield will be given the go-ahead on Wednesday, signalling Andy Burnham’s commitment to the North Sea fossil fuel industry and threatening to trigger a row with climate campaigners and Labour MPs.
Miatta Fahnbulleh and John Healey, the energy secretary and chancellor respectively, will make the announcement from Aberdeen on Wednesday morning after more than a year of deliberations over whether doing so would violate the UK’s climate commitments.
The golf world has been posed with the question of when Tiger Woods might make his return to the sport countless times at this point in the 15-time major champion's career.
That question has lingered since Woods' latest DUI-related arrest in March, but we've now reached the point in the proceedings where we're starting to collect legitimate clues about what the answer may be this time around.
The most recent meaningful golf shot Woods hit took place in March 2026 when he competed in a TGL event alongside his Jupiter Links teammates. That same month, he was arrested on charges of driving under the influence and charged with two misdemeanors in Florida. He ultimately completed a months-long inpatient rehab program overseas before entering a plea deal in September in which charges were reduced.
In early October, Woods was seen hitting golf balls at one of his TGR Live events, and while the video showed him hitting just one shot, it ramped up the speculation that he was in the process of working his way back to competing.
With Woods now eligible to compete on the PGA Tour Champions circuit as a 50-year-old, a competitive return coming in the form of a debut start on the senior circuit would, and still could be, a possibility. However, Woods has never committed to competing on the PGA Tour Champions circuit.
This leads us to the more likely scenarios in which we could see Woods make a return to golf, with evidence supporting each.
Woods has long played tournament host of the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas, and with the 2026 event set for the first week of December, making a competitive return in a very limited-field event could make for a perfect scenario.
The initial 20-player tournament field was announced on Monday, but only 17 names were listed. The three final spots, all tournament exemptions, are set to be announced at a later date.
Woods could use one of the final three spots in the tournament for himself, but it is worth noting that he has not teed it up in the Hero World Challenge since 2023.
The 2027 TGL schedule has not been released, but Woods was officially announced as a returning player on next season's Jupiter Links team alongside Tom Kim, Max Homa, Akshay Bhatia and Keith Mitchell.
Woods being listed on the initial roster announced on Tuesday indicates he has plans to compete in some capacity, at the very least.
Woods making his return to the golf spotlight in the TGL, the simulated indoor league he co-founded back in 2022, would certainly make sense.
If the league follows the pattern of the 2026 schedule, the first event of the new season would take place at the end of December and run through late March.
Woods' last tournament start took place at The Open in July 2024.
Fighters of the Bratstvo Battalion, part of the Timur Special Unit of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency (HUR), captured three Russian servicemen and gave first aid to one of them, HUR reported on 19 October. They also found and destroyed Russian sabotage groups, HUR said, adding that counter-sabotage operations in the Zaporizhzhia direction are ongoing.
Russian forces have spent months trying to get closer to Zaporizhzhia, one of Ukraine’s largest cities. They may try to use the dried-up bed of the Kakhovka Reservoir to infiltrate north toward it as autumn fog and dense vegetation set in, the Institute for the Study of War reported on 26 September. Ukrainian troops are now clearing the area of Russian saboteurs trying to get into the rear of Ukrainian positions, according to HUR.
HUR’s video shows the fighting and the captures, with one dead Russian soldier blurred. At the end, a captured Russian says two of the three men in his group were killed by a “Baba Yaga,” the nickname Russian troops use for Ukraine’s heavy bomber drones.
HUR described what the Russian groups are trying to do:
“Using small sabotage groups, the enemy is attempting to penetrate deep into the rear positions of Ukraine’s Defense Forces, build up forces to destabilize the situation, disrupt logistics, and neutralize Ukrainian defenders’ combat crews.”
Russia seeks to bring the front closer to Zaporizhzhia
Russia’s objective in the Zaporizhzhia direction is to advance within artillery range of the city, hold forward positions, and protect its rear from Ukrainian strikes, the Institute for the Study of War noted.
In January, Russian forces were trying to capture Stepnohirsk and advance along the shore of the former Kakhovka Reservoir toward Zaporizhzhia. Taking the settlement would let Russian troops place long-range artillery or fiber-optic drones there to strike the city’s outskirts, Southern Defense Forces spokesperson Vladyslav Voloshyn told Ukrinform on 14 January.
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Russia drained the Kakhovka Reservoir. Now it hides in the dry bed to creep toward Zaporizhzhia
On 22 September, Anastasiia Shevchenko, spokesperson for the Southern Forces Group, said there were no signs of preparations for a direct offensive on Zaporizhzhia and that Russian forces lacked the troops and means to advance directly toward the city.
Dense vegetation and limited visibility: combat on the reservoir bed
The Kakhovka Reservoir was a vast artificial body of water on the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine that supplied water to millions of people, as well as to agriculture and industry. On 6 June 2023, Russian forces blew up the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant, the Southern Operational Command reported.
The bed of the Kakhovka Reservoir has nearly dried out after the dam was destroyed on 6 June 2023. Photo: Maksym Pavlovsky/Dumska
After the dam was destroyed, the bed of the former reservoir quickly became overgrown with willows, poplars, and shrubs, creating a new battlefield. Ukrainian troops have fought there before.
In November 2025, fighters from the same Bratstvo unit carried out a reconnaissance and sabotage operation 7 kilometers from the shoreline of the former reservoir, HUR said. They found and eliminated Russian troops, then raised the Ukrainian flag over the islands there and took control of the area.
In April, the Bratstvo unit’s chief of staff, who goes by the call sign “Dyviziia,” described the conditions on an earlier raid across the reservoir bed:
“You’re just constantly moving through these thickets, with no way to figure out which direction to go. You can literally see everything just two meters ahead of you.”
Ohio gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton’s (D) mother called her a “liar” in a new ad, as her brother labelled the video “a despicable low” on Tuesday ahead of the state’s elections in November. “I love my daughter, but when I saw her lying about her opponent — it is not easy for a mother to…
Ohio gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton’s (D) mother called her a “liar” in a new ad, as her brother labelled the video “a despicable low” on Tuesday ahead of the state’s elections in November. “I love my daughter, but when I saw her lying about her opponent — it is not easy for a mother to…
NFL Hall of Famer Eric Dickerson’s family sued a California private school, alleging administrators failed to protect his sixth-grade son from repeated racial slurs, bullying, and physical attacks despite complaints from his parents.
Stricken UK water supplier lines up John Hutton as independent chair designate if takeover goes ahead
The group of Thames Water creditors pursuing a £10bn rescue deal for Britain’s largest water supplier has lined up a former senior Labour minister to chair the company, as it tries to win over the government.
The creditor consortium, called London & Valley Water, said on Tuesday that Lord John Hutton had been selected as independent chair designate of the Thames Water board, if the consortium’s deal is approved.
Andy Haldane writes that Conservative economic plans would be best for growth ahead of Healey budget
Badenoch says Britain needs tax cuts.
We need to get out of the way of job creators who make our country richer. We need to encourage risk taking, wealth creation, enterprise.
Britain’s tax burden has never been higher. You are taxed on the heating in your home. You’re taxed at the petrol pump filling up your car. You’re taxed when you insure that car. You’re taxed if you take the family away on holiday. You’re taxed if you stay in the UK thanks to Andy Burnham’s tourist tax. You’re taxed to buy a home, taxed to live in a home, taxed to pass on your home. This is clearly not working. Britain does not feel better off.
Andy Burnham wrote in The Times yesterday about the moral outrage of the current benefit system. But as far as I could work out, his answer is to spend even more on benefits.
John Healey will not raise capital gains tax in next week’s budget, despite previous calls to do so from cabinet colleagues including Louise Haigh and Wes Streeting.
The chancellor has decided that any increase might ultimately cost the Treasury if wealthy individuals defer the sale of assets or move them out of the country, according to Treasury sources.
In today’s newsletter: The prime minister’s campaign against noisy passengers has struck a chord with commuters. Whether anyone hears him remains to be seen.
Good morning.
Me again, back from the October school holiday (a week in glorious Wales, thanks for asking) and ready to hear your commuter woes. For our prime minister, it’s “one of the most annoying things on public transport”: maybe you’re trying to work, or read, or you’ve finally got your kid to sleep, when someone starts blasting sound from their phone at full volume.
France | The prime minister has said he has asked regional authorities to impose partial curfews in some cities after the government admitted police had “lost control” in several places during violent weekend protests around the country.
UK politics | Andy Burnham has told officials to rip up their plans for how to fix Thames Water and present him with more radical options for what to do with the stricken company.
Yemen | At least 53 people have been killed in a Houthi ballistic missile attack on a training camp for Yemeni government forces in the largest single loss of life since the country’s civil war reignited in September.
Israel | Israeli police have detained 10 people in a rare raid against settlers, after a weekend of extreme violence in the occupied West Bank including an attack on US photojournalist Heidi Levine.
Reform | Nigel Farage undermined his own claims that a £5m gift was for security when he referred to the money as a reward for Brexit, according to one of his closest aides.
Veteran reporter and anchor gives no reason for her departure, to be completed by May 2027, which coincides with changes at network under new owner, Paramount's Skydance; has faced criticism from Israel
Amanpour's exit coincides with a new era at CNN as it comes under new owner Skydance, after an $81 billion merger that brings CNN and CBS under one roof.
EU ministers have discussed how to make labour standards compatible with modern technological conditions and workplace culture, such as telework and AI-led staff oversight, without losing competitiveness.
The law in question, called the Quality Jobs Act, covers a wide range of work protection measures, such as common standards for being able to ‘go home’ and disconnect from remote work, and limits to AI role in recruitment or its scrutiny of workers’ performance.
Technological innovation should “benefit both workers and businesses,” said Portuguese labour minister Maria do Rosário Palma Ramalho, addressing the ministers’ council on Monday (19 October) in Luxembourg.
Human oversight is essential, especially where AI systems decide on recruitment or workers’ assessment, she said.
Next to innovation, labour rules needed to ensure “fair and transparent practices, respect for human workers’ rights … and effective social dialog,” said Roxana Mînzatu, the EU commissioner for employment.
“This revolutionary technology has to be regulated” so that it “delivers for all,” Isabelle Schömann, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) deputy general secretary had also said during a conference organised by the centre-left S&D group in the European Parliament on 14 October, commenting on the need for the Quality Jobs Act to curb AI.
The draft Quality Jobs Act that the European Commission plans to present in December aims to update the long out of date 1989 and 1990 health and safety workplace rules.
It would also protect subcontractors and create standards for working in heatwaves, becoming more frequent with climate change.
EU legislators need to ensure minimum standards so that “neither jobs nor businesses are jeopardised” with extreme weather, Yolanda Díaz Pérez, the Spanish labour minister, said ahead of Monday’s debate.
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O Secretário de Estado das Florestas, Rui Ladeira, participa, nos próximos dias 20 e 21 de outubro, nas sessões de entrega de maquinaria em Santiago do Cacém, Aljezur e Évora, no âmbito do Programa de Mecanização para a Gestão de Combustível, financiado pelo Plano de Recuperação e Resiliência (PRR).
Dia 20 de outubro, em Santiago do Cacém, serão assinados os protocolos de cedência de maquinaria entre o Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas (ICNF) e os municípios de Aljustrel, Almodôvar, Barrancos, Castro Verde, Cuba, Ferreira do Alentejo, Grândola, Mértola, Ourique, Santiago do Cacém, Serpa e Vidigueira, tendo em vista a disponibilização de 12 tratores, um por município, reforçando a capacidade para a realização de operações de gestão de combustível e prevenção de incêndios rurais.
Já no dia 21 de outubro, da parte da manhã, em Aljezur, serão assinados protocolos com os municípios de Alcoutim, Aljezur, Olhão, Portimão e Tavira, para a cedência de 5 tratores; e da parte da tarde, em Évora, serão firmados os protocolos com os municípios de Alandroal, Arraiolos, Borba, Évora, Redondo, Reguengos de Monsaraz, Viana do Alentejo e Vila Viçosa, tendo em vista a cedência de 8 tratores.
Ao todo, a nível nacional, o ICNF informa que serão entregues 150 tratores a municípios, num investimento total que ronda os 27,5 milhões de euros.
Programa
20 outubro – 15h30 – Santiago do Cacém
Sessão de entrega de maquinaria no âmbito do programa de mecanização para a gestão de combustível – Parque de Feiras e Exposições de Santiago do Cacém
15h30 – Abertura, Presidente da Câmara Municipal de Santiago do Cacém
15h45 – Assinatura dos protocolos de cedência da maquinaria
16h15 – Encerramento, Secretário de Estado das Florestas
16h30 – Entrega dos tratores
21 de outubro – 10h00 – Aljezur
Sessão de entrega de maquinaria no âmbito do programa de mecanização para a gestão de combustível, Parque de Estacionamento da CM Aljezur
10h00 – Abertura, Presidente da Câmara Municipal de Aljezur
10h15 – Assinatura dos protocolos de cedência da maquinaria
10h45 – Encerramento, Secretário de Estado das Florestas
11h00 – Entrega dos tratores
21 de outubro – 15h30 – Évora
Sessão de entrega de maquinaria no âmbito do programa de mecanização para a gestão de combustível, Centro de Desenvolvimento Agro-Pecuário de Évora
15h30 – Abertura, Presidente da Câmara Municipal de Évora
15h45 – Assinatura dos protocolos de cedência da maquinaria
16h15 – Encerramento, Secretário de Estado das Florestas
Journalist Christiane Amanpour, CNN’s chief international anchor who has spent 43 years at the network, said Monday she will leave CNN in June 2027. “After many months of thought and a few sleepless nights, I have decided to separate from CNN, my partner of 43 fantastic years!” Amanpour said in a statement to her employer,…
Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh has attacked Shabana Mahmood's migrant crackdown, saying making foreign nationals wait threatens "integration", deepening the split within Andy Burnham’s Cabinet about border controls.
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