Donald Trump has threatened to stop trading with the EU over the bloc’s offer to make Canada its first ever “associate member”. Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister, said in an address to the European Parliament this morning that a “new dimension was needed” because of the “current geopolitical rupture”. The NHS has agreed to roll out a life-extending breast cancer drug previously deemed too expensive, following a change in the criteria by which treatments are considered cost-effective. AstraZeneca’s Enhertu will help a thousand women a year with incurable cancer live an average of six months longer than they otherwise would, described by one charity boss as “precious extra time with loved ones”. Buckingham Palace has rejected claims in a forthcoming book that the King made disparaging remarks about Diana, Princess of Wales, shortly after her death. Earl Spencer alleges that in a phone call before his sister’s funeral the then Prince of Wales said: “Rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough.” The Palace said the King was “mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgment and colour memory”.

The genteel villagers of Piddington, who passed a symbolic referendum this week to secede from the UK over plans to turn a nearby army barracks into housing for 1,250 male asylum seekers, embody a profound shift, says Ella Whelan in The i Paper. In 2024, voters here elected the Liberal Democrat MP Calum Miller who, while running for the seat, boasted on social media that he supported making Oxfordshire a “place of sanctuary for those fleeing torture & death” and that “Oxfordshire County Council is proud of our history of welcoming people seeking safety in our country”. Careful what you wish for.

Miller isn’t the only MP to find himself caught between the groovy rhetoric of “refugees are welcome” and the blunt reality of local opposition. The Greens’ deputy leader Rachel Millward, whose party touts a “fairer, greener welcome” for all, told the BBC that plans to house 500 migrants in the East Sussex district she represents as a councillor would bring “tension” and disruption”. As with the Lib Dems of Piddington, the Green-voting folks of East Sussex are finally catching up to the reality that those living near asylum hotels have been complaining about – albeit in a more “unruly” fashion – for years. It’s amazing it’s taken this long: over a thousand men, with different cultural backgrounds, languages and customs, landing in a sleepy rural town isn’t exactly a recipe for a happy ending. We’ve come a long way since the Brexit referendum, when even mentioning “the I word” (immigration) was enough to earn the label of racist in some Remainer circles. Today, detailed worries about cultural tensions, NHS waiting lists and crime rates are “commonplace across the political spectrum”. The “polite and posh” folks of Piddington may be just the start.

✋🤔 Even avowed centrists are now talking tough on immigration, says Steerpike in The Spectator. Rory Stewart told the Quite Right podcast this week that Boris Johnson was “mad” to allow nearly a million legal migrants into the country in a single year. The former MP said if he were in charge, anyone arriving on a small boat would be sent straight back across the Channel. Right-wing politicians, take note: “the centrists are coming for your policies”.

Amid the growing clamour for the US Congress to regulate AI, says Axios, it’s worth noting that many of its older lawmakers have never even used the technology. “Heavens no,” replied Roger Wicker, 75, when asked if he had. Frank Pallone, 74, responded: “Personally? I don’t think I’ve ever used it.” Susan Collins, 73, said AI “pops up on my phone occasionally”, while Sheldon Whitehouse, 70, said he looks at the “AI thing” on Google search “but that’s about as far as I go”. Maxine Waters, 88, wasn’t sure: “I don’t know. I can’t remember.”

Travelling back from India the other week, says Sophia Money-Coutts on Substack, I happily accepted the offer of buying the two seats next to me for just £75. Big mistake. As I was buckling up, “all smug in my lovely empty row”, people near me began eyeing up my extra seats. Sure enough, someone asked a steward if he could move on to my row, and the steward told him he could. Whereupon I had to step in and utter the “fairly shaming” line: “I’m so sorry, these are actually all my seats. I paid for them.” I spent the rest of the 11-hour flight getting “filthy looks”.

The popular image of Yemen’s Houthi rebels is of a ragtag bunch of guys in the backs of pickup trucks “firing AK-47s into the desert air”, says Nicholas Kulish in The New York Times. The reality is rather different. The Iran-backed Islamist group has launched long-range missiles at Israel, more than a thousand miles away. They prey on ships in the Red Sea with naval drones. And they appear to have been using AI – Claude Code, specifically – to develop guided missiles and rockets. All this is important because after months of staying on the sidelines of the war in the Middle East, the Houthis are now very much involved. Having declared a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia in July, last week they moved south and effectively took control of the Bab al-Mandab strait – a crucial chokepoint at the end of the Red Sea.

Donald Trump wants to forget about the war in the Middle East ahead of November’s midterms, says The Wall Street Journal. “The war hasn’t forgotten about him.” The Iranians have clearly tasked the Houthis with expanding the conflict. This will hit the Saudis, who support the Yemeni government, the hardest – if they can’t export their oil, they’ll have to shut wells that will take a long time to restart. But it will also imperil Israel, for obvious reasons, and Egypt, which earns up to 2% of its GDP from Red Sea transit fees. In the US, further price spikes at the petrol pump could cause “even more election harm” for Republicans. Some sort of military response is clearly required. But an aerial assault alone won’t work – as previous campaigns by Riyadh and Washington have shown – so there need to be boots on the ground. That would carry all sorts of risks. But the risks of inaction may be far worse.

The 1990s TV presenter Michael Barrymore has become a surprise hit on TikTok, says Michael Savage in The Guardian, attracting more than 4.5 million followers – most presumably too young to remember the 74-year-old’s first career and downfall after a man died in his swimming pool. Among the former ITV star’s top performing videos are so-called “munchie runs”, in which he drives to supermarkets, sweet shops or takeaways and then sits in his car reviewing an alarming array of fast food, energy drinks and – in one particularly unpleasant clip – dog treats. Give them a watch here.

Zia Yusuf barely even tries to hide his dislike of his Reform UK colleague Robert Jenrick, says Lara Spirit in The Times. When I asked him whether he likes the former Tory MP as a person, Yusuf paused. Noting my amusement, he said: “Yeah, yeah, I do. Yeah, I do. Yeah, I think it’s, I think, look, the most important thing…” His aide cut in, reminding Yusuf he’d been for lunches and dinners with Jenrick and that he enjoys his company. Yusuf, “the amusement not lost on him either”, could respond only: “Yeah.”

It’s a “colour sensing toaster”, says Tom Ravenscroft in Dezeen, which promises to make burnt toast a thing of the past. The appliance’s maker, Sage, hails the “Eye Q” as a “breakthrough in toasting innovation”, allowing hungry users to determine exactly how dark a piece of toast should be rather than rolling the dice on mere time. The gadget, which has special settings for sourdough and crumpets, costs £280; order yours here.