September 2026
All columns and Brief analyses.
10 results
Gallup finds daily AI use in 37 countries, and a positive majority in 34
A Gallup and Microsoft survey's first slice, reported by 404 Media, covers 37 countries, with a plan to reach 140. A median of 81 per cent were aware of AI tools and a median of 43 per cent used them daily. Semafor reports that in 34 of those 37 countries more adults feel positive about AI than negative. The United States is one of the few where negative feelings outweighed positive ones.
Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS opens voice design from a written prompt
Google opened Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS and Flash-Lite TTS in the Gemini API and Google AI Studio on 23 September. Flash TTS designs a voice from a written prompt and copies one from a 30-second sample after a spoken consent check. Enterprise API access has not started. A ready-made library sits above 2,000 voices.
India rejects Pakistan's Indus letter before the Security Council
India Today reports that spokesman Randhir Jaiswal rejected Pakistan's letter on the Indus Waters Treaty before the UN Security Council. He said the arbitration body was illegally constituted and is not the Permanent Court of Arbitration. The Tribune, updated on 22 September, reports the same rejection of Pakistan's attempt to treat that arbitration as a valid ruling.
Ineos is pausing production at 3 chemical plants in Hull
The BBC reports that Ineos is pausing production at 3 chemical plants in Hull. Jim Ratcliffe said UK gas costs 12 times US gas and 8 times coal-based production in China. The BBC counts 245 direct jobs and says the move can affect up to 1,000 staff. The Standard counts about 1,000 people at Saltend, about 240 of them direct, plus 3,000 in the supply chain, and says no redundancies are planned. 2 plants are already shut.
Kiir dissolves South Sudan's unity government before the December vote
Radio Tamazuj reports that Salva Kiir removed the vice presidents of the 2018 peace arrangement, including First Vice-President Riek Machar, and dissolved the legislature, the 10 state assemblies and 3 administrative areas. Kiir stays in office until a new president is sworn in, and the general election is set for 22 December. Al Jazeera reports the same dissolution ahead of the country's first national election.
Legal & General plans to cut about 1,000 jobs by mid-2027
Legal & General told staff it plans to cut about 1,000 roles, about a tenth of a workforce of about 10,000, by mid-2027. The programme starts with voluntary exits in the United Kingdom. Asset management is excluded. Compulsory cuts can follow if voluntary take-up falls short. António Simões described the move as the next stage of a leaner organisation.
McDonald's set 8.5 billion dollars of franchisee support through 2036
McDonald's outlined about 8.5 billion dollars of rent and capital support for franchisees through 2036 under its NEXT plan. Roughly 5 billion dollars of that would be used by 2030. CNBC reports the same two figures from the company's investor day on 23 September.
NADI and SPRIND commit €40 million to AI chip design
Dutch agency NADI and German agency SPRIND committed €40 million over 20 months to small teams that use AI to speed chip design for training and inference. Tech.eu describes the first joint programme: 7 teams can draw €2.6 million in the opening stage, and 3 teams €7 million after that. SPRIND supplies most of the money.
OpenAI cuts the GPT-6 API price in half as Sol and Luna reach Bedrock
OpenAI opened GPT-6 Sol and GPT-6 Luna on 22 September and priced the API at half the GPT-5.6 pair. Sol is listed at 2 dollars per million input tokens and 10 dollars per million output tokens. Luna is listed at 0.10 and 0.50 dollars. Amazon Web Services says both models are now generally available on Bedrock, where a workload can be pointed at a different mix of capability and cost. OpenAI describes Sol for coding and multistep work and Luna for high-volume jobs.
PATHFINDER 2 finds a cancer signal in 0.54 per cent of adults over 50
The PATHFINDER 2 study found a multi-cancer blood signal in 0.54 per cent of 32,007 adults aged 50 or older with no clinical suspicion of cancer. Cancer was present in 60.3 per cent of positives, and specificity was 99.64 per cent. OHSU, where investigator Nima Nabavizadeh works, says adding the test raised detection 6.5-fold and that 173 people with a positive signal were diagnosed with cancer.