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Original title: Australia Raises Wheat Forecast to Fourth Largest After Rains Australia is expecting its fourth-largest wheat harvest on record, with crop forecasts dramatically upgraded following heavier-than-expected rainfall across major grain belts during winter. The nation’s total 2025 grains harvest is expected to be around 62 million tons, a 12% jump from the previous report in June, according to the Department of Agriculture’s quarterly crop report, released Tuesday. Overall, the latest crop estimates are about 26% above the 10-year average. ...

Original title: Stocks Hold Steady as Testing Month Gets Underway: Markets Wrap A selloff in technology stocks came to a halt on Monday, setting a steadier tone at the start of a month that could bring plenty of tests to markets trading near record highs. Europe’s Stoxx 600 rose 0.2%. BAE Systems Plc and Rheinmetall AG led advances in defense shares after the Financial Times reported Bloomberg Terminal that Europe is working on detailed plans for potential post-conflict deployments in Ukraine. A regional gauge for tech stocks eked out a small gain. ...

Original title: Reform Takes Aim at Fund Managers in UK Pension Efficiency Drive Reform UK has vowed to change the way public sector pensions are invested as it attempts to cut waste in local councils, saying “mismanagement” of funds is costing as much as £10 billion ($13.5 billion) a year in missed earnings and excess fees. The right-wing party on Monday held a press conference in which deputy leader Richard Tice accused local pension fund trustees of “incompetence at best, gross negligence at worst,” as he announced the conclusion of Reform’s review into the savings pots. He said funds were overpaying on fees to managers who were under-delivering, leaving taxpayers on the hook for any shortfall. ...

Original title: Monte Paschi to Discuss Raising $18 Billion Mediobanca Bid Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA called a board meeting on Monday to decide whether to raise its $18 billion bid for rival Mediobanca SpA, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified discussing private information. The bank may choose to add a cash component to the offer, Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported earlier, without saying how it obtained the information. Such a move would be aimed at ensuring that the firm obtains more than 50% of Mediobanca’s shares through its bid, according to the report. ...

Original title: Apple Pencil Pro Rolling Out in Apple’s Refurbished Store at a Discount Over the past month, the Apple Pencil Pro has been rolling out in Apple’s online refurbished store, for the first time since the accessory launched in May 2024. The certified refurbished Apple Pencil Pro is available at a roughly 15% discount compared to brand new, which is typical for Apple’s refurbished products. At the time of writing this, refurbished Apple Pencil Pro inventory is available in Australia, Belgium, China, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, and the U.K., but not yet in the U.S., Canada, France, New Zealand, or any other countries where Apple directly sells refurbished products. When it becomes available in the U.S., the refurbished Apple Pencil Pro will likely cost $109 there, down from $129 brand new. At the time of writing this, Amazon is selling the Apple Pencil Pro brand new for just $99 in the U.S., so the refurbished option is not a great choice right now, since you would be spending more money for a used prod ...

Original title: Apple Preparing iOS 18.7 for iPhones as iOS 26 Release Date Nears Apple is preparing to release iOS 18.7 for compatible iPhone models, according to evidence of the update in the MacRumors visitor logs. We expect iOS 18.7 to be released in September, alongside iOS 26. The update will likely include fixes for security vulnerabilities, but little else. iOS 18.7 will be one of the final updates ever released for the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR, as those devices are not compatible with iOS 26. iOS 26 is compatible with the iPhone 11 and newer. Following months of beta testing, iOS 26 is finally nearing a release, with the update likely to be made available to the general public around the middle of September. ...

Original title: Foldable iPhone Under-Screen Touch ID Rumor Dismissed by Analyst Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is standing by his prediction that Apple’s first foldable iPhone will feature Touch ID integrated into the side button rather than an under-display fingerprint sensor. In a post on X (Twitter) today, Kuo referenced his March forecast for the rumored 2026 device: “Six months ago, I predicted the foldable iPhone would use side-button Touch ID.” Kuo goes on: “There are now market rumors that it will adopt an under-display ultrasonic fingerprint sensor, but I think that’s unlikely. It’s expected that Luxshare ICT will supply the side-button Touch ID module for the foldable iPhone.” Kuo’s original prediction outlined a book-style foldable iPhone with an approximately 7.8-inch inner display and 5.5-inch outer screen, priced between $2,000 and $2,500. He suggested Apple would skip Face ID authentication to save internal space in the folded design. Apple has already used side button-integrated Touch ID for the iPad Air and iPad mini, so the design choice is not unpre ...

Original title: Putin says he reached ‘understandings’ with Trump over end of Ukraine war Putin says he reached ‘understandings’ with Trump over end of Ukraine war Vladimir Putin was speaking at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit held in Tianjin, China Following the Alaska meeting , US special envoy Steve Witkoff said Putin had agreed to security guarantees for Ukraine as part of a potential future peace deal, though Moscow has yet to confirm this. Speaking during a summit in China, Putin continued to defend his decision to invade Ukraine, once again blaming the West for the war. But he did not say whether he would agree to peace talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky brokered by Trump, who had apparently given Monday as a deadline for Putin’s response. Russian President Vladimir Putin says he reached “understandings” with US President Donald Trump over the end of the Ukraine war at their meeting in Alaska last month. Putin was speaking in Tianjin at the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation summit, where he met Xi Jinping and Narendra Modi. He thanked the ...

Original title: Why Starmer wants No 10 rejig after a year in power Why Starmer wants No 10 rejig after a year in power 3 hours ago Share Save Henry Zeffman Chief Political Correspondent Share Save Getty Images Many of the names involved in Sir Keir Starmer’s Downing Street shake-up are not even household names in Westminster. But the latest moves, announced on Monday as MPs return to Parliament, are a big deal for several reasons. First, in terms of organisational innovation. If you’re struggling to recall who was Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister before Darren Jones, the answer is that there wasn’t one. The role is a new creation, designed to give Sir Keir Starmer firmer command of the government machine he has complained is sluggish and unwieldy. Bringing an MP into the heart of Downing Street’s operations is unusual, if not completely unprecedented - the Conservative MP Steve Barclay was Boris Johnson’s chief of staff in his final months as prime minister. Clearer structures For all that innovation, these latest moves are also partly about esta ...

Original title: Daniel Day-Lewis, Richard Linklater and Yorgos Lanthimos Set for Talks at BFI London Film Festival Daniel Day-Lewis, Richard Linklater, Yorgos Lanthimos and Tessa Thompson are among the stars set to participate in the BFI London Film Festival‘s Screen Talks program this year. Celebrated filmmakers Jafar Panahi, Lynne Ramsay and Chloé Zhao will also join for sessions at the 2025 festival, opening Oct. 8 with Rian Johnson’s Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. Day-Lewis, the only person to win three best actor Oscars, is best known for his era-defining roles in such diverse films as My Beautiful Laundrette, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, My Left Foot, The Age of Innocence, There Will Be Blood, Lincoln and Phantom Thread. He is due to make his return to acting in the upcoming film Anemone, which also serves as his son Ronan’s directorial debut. Lanthimos’ work has established him as one of the most renowned directors of the 21st century. His frequent collaborators include Jesse Plemons and Emma Stone, who star in the recently premiered Venice feature Bugonia. Among his most famo ...