Mark Rutte asked UK and Europe to ‘provide the hard power Nato needs’ in face of geopolitical uncertainty

Nato needs “more UK and more Europe in the alliance” to deal with the most dangerous security environment faced by the west in a generation, the secretary general of the 32-country military alliance said this afternoon on a visit to the UK.

Mark Rutte praised Britain for promising to increase defence spending in line with US demands after a meeting with prime minister Andy Burnham – but argued that the military and financial effort must continue into the future.

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Fed committee votes unanimously to raise interest rate by a quarter-percentage point to a range of 3.75% to 4%

• Federal Reserve raises interest rates – live

The US Federal Reserve voted to raise interest rates on Wednesday for the first time since 2023 as the central bank continues to fight to tamp down inflation.

The Fed’s open market committee voted unanimously to raise its benchmark interest rate by a quarter-percentage point to a range of 3.75% to 4%. This is the first time the Fed has raised rates since July 2023 and potentially sets Kevin Warsh, the current Fed chair, on a collision course with Donald Trump.

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⚽ Manchester United shocked as JJ Gabriel asks to leave
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Poor Joshua Zirkzee cannot get a game in the Carabao Cup. I am not sure he will get many minutes in the months to come.

Max Dowman continues to be good. Mikel Merino can similarities to a certain Lamine Yamal, which is high praise.

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Four changes from Sunderland’s narrow defeat to Arsenal at the weekend: Ballard, Brobbey, Angulo and Meunier drop to the bench, with Alderete, Hume, Isidor and Fofana coming in.

Sunderland (4-2-3-1) Roefs; Mukiele, Danso, Alderete, Mandava; Xhaka (c), Sadiki; Hume, Le Fée, Fofana; Isidor.
Subs: Moore, Ballard, Methalie, Brobbey, Angulo, Rigg, Meunier, O’Nien, Ahoka, Jones, Tutierov, Proctor.

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Toronto film festival: Director Guy Nattiv draws on personal experience for an 80s-set tale of a woman abandoning her family for a creepy commune

We remain fascinated and horrified by the hows and whys of cult narratives, how someone could be so seduced by something so unknown and why they would then risk everything for it. Oscar-winning writer-director Guy Nattiv has been personally affected by these questions for most of his life, his grandmother joining a cult when he was a child and never coming back.

His attempt to try to understand who she was and why she acted in such a way has led to unsettling drama The Liberation, a fictionalised tale that acts as a form of therapy for him and a mostly successful antidote to more sensationalist cult stories for us. Enough Netflix docuseries and schlocky horror movies have given us a more extreme and often violent idea of how cults infect and destroy vulnerable people but Nattiv opts for a more thoughtful slow-burn. He’s recruited a suitably thoughtful actor in Carrie Coon, no stranger to this particular psychology having broken out in The Leftovers, one of the more intelligent cult dramas in recent years.

The Liberation is screening at the Toronto film festival and will be released later this year

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Men with heart, kidney or liver conditions more likely to be offered intervention compared with women, global analysis finds

Women with the same medical condition as men are less likely to be offered treatment such as surgery, a stent or a strong painkiller, research has found.

A review of global research found that for several health problems, including cardiovascular conditions, kidney disease and Parkinson’s, women were less likely to receive the same treatment as men, revealing the extent to which women have significantly unequal care.

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Exclusive: Party could take 40 seats if result replicated at next election, according to Labour-linked thinktank

The Green party is just four points behind Labour in urban constituencies, putting them within touching distance of taking as many as 40 seats if the result was replicated at the next election, according to new polling by a Labour-linked thinktank.

The survey by ThinkLabour, which has extensive links to Andy Burnham’s government, finds that urban voters have moved in large numbers towards Zack Polanski’s party since the 2024 general election. The research highlights the challenge Labour faces holding onto the Holborn and St Pancras seat in the face of a challenge from Polanski himself at next month’s byelection.

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Prettige presentatie van Iris uit Baantjer overigens

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Bericht uit de tijd dat de treinen nog gewoon niet op tijd reden maar dan wel zónder sabotage: afgelopen Keti Koti was het raak op het Haagse station Moerwijk waar twee fatbikers over het perron sjeesden terwijl je dus niet over het perron mag sjezen met een fatbike. Een treinconducteur zou geen goede treinconducteur zijn als hij de fatbikers daar niet op zou aanspreken. Dat deed de goede treinconducteur dan ook, wat hem een klap in het gezicht door een van de fatbikers opleverde. Terwijl het zo simpel is: als je met een fatbike wil reizen, dan moet je trappen, niet slaan. Of je koopt gewoon een treinkaartje voor dat onding. Had ie, naast zelfbeheersing, ook al niet. Derhalve: ZoekZoek.

Stefan de Walle geeft z'n staf aan Maarten want hij stopt met Sinterklaas spelen voor het Sinterklaasjournaal. Kenmerkend aan zijn periode van 15 jaar als Sint was toch dat sympathieke, dat vrijgevige ook, dat kindvriendelijke vooral, die omgang met de tot roetveeg gemaakte piet, daarnaast dat bazige jegens de tot roetveeg gemaakte piet, maar toch ook weer dat sierlijke en goedheilige. En wat ging hij goed gekleed. Z'n mijter, mantel, z'n ondergekwijlde baard (hij speelde 1700-jarige) en tabberd moet ie even wassen en dan kan de boel door naar de volgende Sint-Nicolaas. De NPO kennende zal die worden gezocht in het tv-programma De Slimste Sint, Wie is de Sint? of Even tot Sint. Maar wij zeggen één woord: hoepla. Voor wie een ongenadige pleurishekel aan Stefan de Walle heeft valt 5 december lekker vroeg dit jaar.

ANNOUNCE ARNOLD KARSKENS

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There's a new kind of agent coming to ChatGPT ads, and this one wants your money. OpenAI has begun testing Sponsored Agents, advertiser-backed bots that try to sell you things as part of a custom conversation. OpenAI said in a Wednesday announcement that Sponsored Agents were now being tested with select US advertisers already using its platform to put sponsored content in front of ChatGPT users. Despite the “agent” label, however, it seems from OpenAI’s description of the new feature that it’s more like a typical sponsored content chatbot that appears unasked on websites, bombarding users with the opportunity to ask a virtual customer service agent what product is right for them. In this case, the customer service agent lives right in ChatGPT instead of users having to go to an advertiser’s actual website to learn more - you wouldn’t want those humans navigating away until the last possible minute, after all. “After seeing a relevant ad, a user can choose to start a clearly labeled conversation with a business-sponsored agent in ChatGPT,” the announcement explains. “The user can explain what matters to them, ask follow-up questions, and follow a link to the business’s website when they’re ready to take the next step.” As an example, a brief video included with the announcement shows a user asking for a recipe and instead being told they shouldn’t worry about trying to plan their meals before being shunted into an ad for a subscription meal kit. The sponsored agent from the meal kit company in the ad simply provided options on which of its kits was the fastest to prepare for a weeknight meal. “For businesses, it’s an opportunity to help interested customers explore their offerings through a personalized conversation,” OpenAI added. In other words, this is pretty much exactly like the chatbots you see on company websites, only run by OpenAI and embedded in its products instead. Yo dawg, we heard you liked AI ads … OpenAI mentioned a couple of other new AI advertising tools alongside the sponsored agents, one of which is sure to make the ads you see in your slop-filled ChatGPT responses even sloppier. “Advertisers can now use simple, natural-language prompts to create, update, and analyze campaigns directly in ChatGPT with the Ads Manager plugin,” the company said. In other words, why even have an advertising professional create the campaigns you cram into ChatGPT when ChatGPT can do it for you? “When drafting an ad, advertisers can now receive suggested copy and imagery based on their landing page and campaign objective,” OpenAI added. Perfect: Slop ads served in slop responses. What more could you ask for? HubSpot users and Shopify merchants are also getting new ChatGPT ads connections, the company said, enabling more businesses to cram more ads in front of more ChatGPT users, we suppose. “These launches reflect how we’re building an advertising platform with AI at its center,” OpenAI said. We get the internet we deserve, and it looks like it’s going to be one with ever more sloppy, artificial content crammed wherever advertisers can find a space. ®

Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Den Haag en Utrecht vragen minister Sophie Hermans (Volksgezondheid, VVD) onder meer om toestemming te geven voor een pilot met het verstrekken van dexamfetamine aan dakloze mensen.

Het debat gaat nu al een tijdje over hoe coalitie en oppositie na deze Algemene Politieke Beschouwingen met elkaar verder moeten.

Ooit werden aan de Piekstraat in Rotterdam-Zuid stoomboten, oorlogsschepen en jaloezieën gemaakt. Nog langer geleden stond er een galg en een pesthuis, dat nooit werd gebruikt. Nu presenteren op deze historische plek architecten, stedenbouwkundigen en kunstenaars hun visie op de toekomst van de wijk Feijenoord en de stad Rotterdam, tijdens de twaalfde editie van de Internationale Architectuur Biënnale in Rotterdam (IABR).

WASHINGTON (ANP) - De Amerikaanse centrale bank verhoogt de rente met een kwart procentpunt om de hardnekkig hoge inflatie in de Verenigde Staten te bestrijden. De renteverhoging door de Federal Reserve was algemeen verwacht op de financiële markten. Het is voor het eerst sinds juli 2023 dat de rente in 's werelds grootste economie wordt verhoogd.

Het besluit werd unaniem genomen door de beleidsmakers van de Fed. Het belangrijkste rentetarief in de VS gaat nu naar een niveau tussen de 3,75 en 4 procent. Met de verhoging gaat de Amerikaanse centrale bank wel in tegen de uitdrukkelijke wens van president Donald Trump voor een lage rente. Trump vindt dat de Amerikaanse leenkosten de laagste ter wereld zouden moeten zijn.

Het is voor het eerst sinds het aantreden van voorzitter Kevin Warsh in mei dat de Fed met een verhoging komt.

de98lip has added a photo to the pool: