Meta rides AI boom to stellar quarterly earnings, but slightly less than expected

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Company beats financial predictions but does not increase daily users as much as Wall Street thought it might

Meta’s blowout year continues after the company reported another stellar financial quarter on Wednesday. Shares fell in after-hours trading.

Wall Street analysts had high expectations for the Instagram and WhatsApp parent company, projecting an 18% jump in sales year over year. The company reported $40.6bn in sales, a 19% increase year over year that outpaced investor expectations of $40.19bn. Meta, which saw a 25% jump in its share price over the past two months, reported $6.03 in earnings per share (EPS), surpassing Wall Street’s expectations of an EPS of $5.29.

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Australia’s thirst for power drives a rise in coal and gas-led emissions for third quarter in a row

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Output from gas plants up 29% on average from a year earlier, Aemo says, even though price was up by a fifth over same period

Greenhouse gas emissions from Australia’s main electricity grid increased for a third quarter in a row as higher power demand drove more use of black coal and gas plants, the Australian Energy Market Operator says.

For the September quarter alone, emissions from the national electricity market (Nem) that serves the eastern states and South Australia rose 2% from a year earlier, Aemo said in its quarterly market report.

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Spanish floods kill 95 as year of rain falls in a day in Valencia – Reuters

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  1. Spanish floods kill 95 as year of rain falls in a day in Valencia  Reuters
  2. Flash Floods in Spain Kill Dozens: What to Know  The New York Times
  3. Spain's horrific flooding another nasty hit in a fall where climate extremes just keep coming  Yahoo! Voices
  4. Extreme Rainfall Creates Piles Of Cars In Spain  The Weather Channel
  5. LaLiga requests Valencia vs. Madrid postponement  ESPN
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North Korean troops in Russian uniforms are heading toward Ukraine, US says – The Associated Press

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  1. North Korean troops in Russian uniforms are heading toward Ukraine, US says  The Associated Press
  2. North Korean troops in Russian uniforms moving towards Ukraine, Pentagon says  CBS News
  3. What does North Korea get out of sending its soldiers to fight Russia's war?  NBC News
  4. Ukraine updates: South Korea mulls sending team to Ukraine  DW (English)
  5. North Korean troops in Russian uniforms heading to Kursk, says US  The Guardian
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Teenager found guilty of murder after Hackney woman was shot through her front door

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Lianne Gordon, 42, was hit in the head at her home as she tried to shield her two children from a gang feud

A teenager has been found guilty of murdering a mother who was shot in the head through her front door as she tried to shield her two children from a gang feud.

Lianne Gordon, 42, had only just returned from a holiday in Jamaica when she was attacked in her home in Hackney, east London on 5 December 2023, the Old Bailey was told.

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North Korean troops in Russian uniforms heading to Kursk, says US

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Lloyd Austin says deployment near Ukraine border is a dangerous and destabilising development

North Korean troops wearing Russian uniforms and carrying Russian equipment are moving to the Russian region of Kursk, near Ukraine, according to the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, who described the deployment as a dangerous and destabilising development.

Austin was speaking at a press conference at the Pentagon with the South Korean defence minister, Kim Yong-hyun, as concerns grow about Pyongyang’s deployment of as many as 11,000 troops to Russia. The US and South Korea said some of the North Korean troops are heading to Kursk, on the border with Ukraine, where the Kremlin’s forces have struggled to push back a Ukrainian incursion.

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Iran likely to try to contact Americans directly in influence campaign, sources say – NBC News

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  1. Iran likely to try to contact Americans directly in influence campaign, sources say  NBC News
  2. Russian disinformation network with ties to notorious ‘troll factory’ is taking aim at the US election, analysis finds  CNN
  3. How Russia, China and Iran Are Interfering in the Presidential Election  The New York Times
  4. The U.S. Spies Who Sound the Alarm About Election Interference  The New Yorker
  5. The Covert War for American Minds  Foreign Affairs Magazine
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Russia fined Google more money than the entire world’s GDP – Quartzy

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  1. Russia fined Google more money than the entire world's GDP  Quartzy
  2. Russia fines Google $20 decillion, more than the world's GDP  NBC News
  3. Russia fines Google $20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000  ABC7 Chicago
  4. Russia Fines Google $2.5 Decillion Over YouTube Bans – RBC  The Moscow Times
  5. A Russian court hit Google with a fine larger than the world's GDP, stretching credulity  Business Insider
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UN rules forcible sterilizations of women in Peru ‘crime against humanity’

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Country ordered to compensate victims of programme that affected more than 300,000 women in 1990s

A UN committee has urged Peru to compensate women who were forcibly sterilised in the 1990s, ruling that the state policy could constitute a “crime against humanity”.

Forced sterilisation was part of a programme implemented by Peru’s then president Alberto Fujimori during the final four years before he left office in 2000 after a decade in power.

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The budget: Labour returns to tax and spend – Politics Weekly UK

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Rachel Reeves has finally laid out Labour’s spending plans in the party’s first budget in almost 15 years. The Guardian’s John Harris is joined by political editor Pippa Crerar and political correspondent Kiran Stacey to discuss the fallout

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Reeves accused of betraying small family firms with inheritance tax rises

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Chancellor also criticised for letting the very rich off the hook with a lower than expected rise in capital gains tax

Tax rises aimed at inherited wealth are at risk of backfiring, after the chancellor was accused of betraying small family businesses while letting private equity bosses off the hook.

Labour’s first budget in 14 years included measures to close inheritance tax (IHT) loopholes and press ahead with scrapping the controversial non-dom tax status, as well as levying higher taxes on private jet flights.

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OBR says budget unlikely to lift economic growth over next five years

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Forecaster says extra spending revealed by Rachel Reeves will give only a short-term lift to economy

Labour has embarked on a “large, sustained increase in spending, tax and borrowing”, according to the government’s economic forecaster, as it judged that Labour’s first budget for 15 years is unlikely to increase economic growth over the next five years.

Assessing Rachel Reeves’s policies, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said the economy would expand at the same rate as predicted in March by the end of the parliament, despite a £70bn-a-year rise in spending.

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