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THE GRANNIES HAVE TAKEN OVER! Lillian Droniak, 96, known online as Grandma Droniak, has 15 million followers and earns enough from social media to cover her nursing home fees of $12,000 a month, the BBC reported.

She went viral in June after claiming her retirement home threatened to evict her for throwing parties. The home later confirmed it, then settled: she can keep partying, just not supply alcoholic drinks. “I always knew I had it in me to be famous, I just didn’t think it would happen in my 90s,” she said. Her grandson started helping her post in 2020, and the brand money also feeds a college fund for her great-grandchildren.

She’s not alone. Viv Truran, 82, from Cardiff, shows off her outfits, 22 pairs of glasses and two drawers of scarves to more than 800,000 followers, posting two videos a day and tracking her numbers in a notebook that’s now on book five. Grace Geramita, 85, aka Nonna Gracie, cooks for millions and now earns more than she did in any previous job. And 77-year-old former teacher Barbara Costello of Brunch with Babs says followers call her “the mom I never had”.

Why brands love them: older creators have “deeply established, highly loyal” communities with more purchasing power, which “carries a massive premium,” said Naomi Baker of agency We Are Social. Droniak’s own pitch is simpler: “They think old people just sit and stare at a wall but I’m showing it’s not that bad to get old.”

The only crowd not impressed? Her fellow residents. “They don’t get it as they don’t go on TikTok.”

Featured image: AI-generated editorial illustration by Bugle Blast.

Sources: BBC News

THE PAPER TRAIL JUST GOT A BADGE! Police in Cyprus have opened an investigation into the financial affairs of Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, the BBC reported.

It follows a BBC Panorama and Bureau of Investigative Journalism report alleging that accountancy giant Deloitte helped falsify documents to hide his wealth and evade tax. According to that report, accounts signed off by Deloitte in Cyprus in 2006 meant assets such as superyachts, mansions and private jets worth $672m (£508m) vanished from his company accounts.

A Cypriot Ministry of Justice official told MPs the police Financial Intelligence Unit will look at the findings to determine whether any crimes were committed. Police representative Andreas Anastasiades said evidence-gathering has already begun, the probe should last several months, and “We will look at any company or person who may be involved.”

The other side: Abramovich’s lawyers say he denies evading tax or concealing his fortune, that Panorama has shown no evidence he knew about or directed any falsification, and that it was legitimate to rely on professional advice. Deloitte Cyprus says it acts “in compliance with applicable laws” and can’t comment because the documents are more than 20 years old.

Not the first round, either: after earlier reporting on a yacht tax scheme, two former company directors were indicted and are due to stand trial in Cyprus next month over €25m in unpaid VAT.

Featured image: AI-generated editorial illustration by Bugle Blast.

Sources: BBC News

THIS ONE IS PERSONAL! A cancer vaccine tailored to each patient, given alongside the immunotherapy drug Keytruda, cut the risk of patients dying or their skin cancer coming back by 42% in a major clinical trial, the BBC reported.

The trial enrolled 1,137 adults with melanoma who had already had their tumour surgically removed. All got Keytruda; about two-thirds also got the experimental jab, called Intismeran, while the rest got a placebo. The combination also cut the risk of the melanoma spreading by 38% over two years compared with immunotherapy alone.

How it works: the vaccine uses the same mRNA technology as some Covid jabs, and it’s built from information in each patient’s own tumour to train their immune system to spot and hit cancer cells if they return. Makers MSD (Merck in the US) and Moderna say the same approach is already being tested in kidney, bladder and lung cancer.

“Personalisation is the next step up and it’s really exciting, it’s a fabulous technology,” said Prof Pippa Corrie of Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, who helped run part of the study.

Now the cold water. Independent experts called the results impressive but said longer studies are needed to show whether it helps patients live longer. “We shouldn’t get ahead of the evidence,” said Prof Alan Melcher of the Institute of Cancer Research. Investors sold off the stocks Thursday after analysts said the results weren’t quite as strong as an earlier, smaller trial. And cost is a big question, since every single patient needs their own tumour analysed and their own vaccine made.

The companies say they’re “engaging with authorities” and could seek approval as soon as next year. Full results are due at the ESMO cancer conference in Madrid on Saturday and haven’t yet been peer-reviewed.

Featured image: AI-generated editorial illustration by Bugle Blast.

Sources: BBC News

SHE’S NOT GOING ANYWHERE! A famous dusky shark nicknamed Bukangi is still hanging around a canal in Busan, South Korea, a day after rescuers guided her out, the BBC reported.

The three-metre (10ft) shark turned up in the canal last month and became an instant sensation, drawing more than 1.6 million visitors. The city embraced her as an unofficial mascot.

On Wednesday, in a livestreamed operation, rescuers spent more than eight hours gently steering her with a net toward open water while hundreds of fans cheered and waved goodbye. Then on Thursday morning she reportedly broke through a barrier and swam right back in, getting stuck between two layers of nets until rescuers removed the outer one.

Authorities have fortified the barrier, and say Bukangi is swimming further out but keeps circling back to the mouth of the waterway. A government official told the BBC rescuers have now concluded their operations.

Why the fuss? She appeared injured and wasn’t eating, and falling water temperatures could weaken her further. Not everyone wanted her gone: one visitor called her “a rare gift” to Busan. Another fan put it best: “she should go and live her normal shark life.”

Featured image: AI-generated editorial illustration by Bugle Blast.

Sources: BBC News

THE SPIES ARE BUSY! Germany is the target of “intensive” espionage, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Thursday after a Ukrainian national was arrested on suspicion of spying for Russia, the BBC reported.

Prosecutors identified the suspect only as Vadym Y., under German privacy law. They say he had been in contact with a Russian intelligence service through an intermediary since at least July 2025, and collected information “on the production of armoured vehicles, ammunition, and explosives.” He is due before an investigating judge on Friday.

Merz called the bust a “success” but didn’t sugarcoat it: “let us not delude ourselves – the activities of Russian intelligence services in Germany remain at a consistently high level.” And: “We will likely see more such cases in the coming months and years.”

It’s been a year of it. A woman was arrested in Berlin in January over alleged work for an officer at the Russian embassy. And earlier this month former BND spy chief August Hanning was arrested on suspicion of espionage and treason, with investigators not saying which foreign powers were involved.

Germany is one of Europe’s leading weapons suppliers to Ukraine, and it has accused Russia of launching an explosives-laden drone at Leipzig/Halle Airport in September. Putin claims Germany planted the evidence.

Featured image: AI-generated editorial illustration by Bugle Blast.

Sources: BBC News

NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT! Meta has struck a new deal with chief executive Mark Zuckerberg to keep him from leaving California over a proposed state tax on billionaires, the BBC reported Thursday.

The ballot measure, up for a vote in November, would slap a one-time 5% tax on residents worth more than $1bn. For Zuckerberg, whose fortune is estimated at over $200bn, that likely means around $10bn in extra state taxes.

So what happened? Last month Zuckerberg told Meta’s board he was thinking of moving his primary residence out of the state, warning a move “would be public and inevitably noted and commented upon by company employees.” The board’s answer: a stock split that created an entirely new type of share, one for every existing shareholder. Zuckerberg gets more stock, more often, and can sell it quarterly. His control over Meta doesn’t change.

Meta calls it the “Founder Alignment Agreement.” A company filing says it came out of “robust” and “at several points, contentious” talks with a special committee. It runs for eight years as long as he stays a California resident, and appears to apply even if the tax fails.

Meanwhile Meta says it could spend up to $145bn on AI this year and posted negative cash flow for the first time since going public. Investors weren’t thrilled: shares fell more than 7% Thursday, wiping more than $100bn off its market value.

Featured image: AI-generated editorial illustration by Bugle Blast.

Sources: BBC News

A FIRST — AND NOT THE GOOD KIND! French authorities say they’ve detected the first known human case of the Shamonda virus, in a patient who died in early October, the BBC reported Thursday.

Shamonda mostly hits cattle, spread by infected midges, and has turned up in sheep, goats, alpacas and horses. In cows it causes fever, diarrhoea and poor milk production. Human infections? Previously unheard of. “Until now, the Shamonda virus was considered non-transmissible to humans,” France’s health and agriculture ministries said, despite decades of the virus circulating in Africa and Asia.

Officials think the patient caught it from a midge bite in eastern France, where animal cases were first found in the spring. The person was being treated for a serious illness at a hospital in Lyon and had neurological complications “very likely linked” to the virus, based on early findings.

Now the calm-down part: health officials call it an “exceptional case in a severely immunocompromised patient” and say there is currently no risk to the public.

But the bug is on the move. Europe’s first animal cases showed up in late July, and it has since been found in farm animals in Ireland, Germany, Italy, Spain and Jersey. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control is monitoring and investigating how it reached a human, and the case has been reported to the World Health Organization.

Featured image: AI-generated editorial illustration by Bugle Blast.

Sources: BBC News

CHECK YOUR ATTIC — NOW! A retired decorator from Woking, England, is a millionaire after his Pokémon card collection sold for £1.56 million at auction, the BBC reported.

He had no idea the cards were worth anything until he read in his local paper about one card fetching more than £6,000. The collection, 42 sets sealed in mint condition in custom binders, had sat in his attic for 15 years.

Back in the late 1990s his son was swapping cards at school. Dad thought they “looked nice” and might be a good investment, and bought some complete sets from a seller in Malaysia on eBay. “He had his own cards, but he never got to touch these, I’m glad to say,” the man, who asked not to be named, told the BBC.

Get this: one set that cost him £300 sold for £75,000. The top lot, a Legendary Collection Complete Master Set with a near-mint Charizard, was estimated at £15,000 to £20,000 and went for £100,000.

Surrey auction house Ewbank’s says it’s the UK’s most valuable trading card auction ever, beating a £872,000 sale in London on 9 October, and may be a European record. Andrew Ewbank, who ran the sale himself, told bidders he was “going for a lie down” afterwards. We don’t blame him.

Featured image: AI-generated editorial illustration by Bugle Blast.

Sources: BBC News

THE MACHINES ARE TAKING THE DESKS! British banking giant Barclays is cutting around 5,000 jobs as it brings more artificial intelligence into its work, the BBC reported Thursday.

The bank says 1,000 posts are already gone, and another 4,000 will go by the end of this year. That’s about 5% of its global workforce. The cuts center on its UK retail bank, but a big share is expected to fall in India, where some UK back-office work is done. About 60% will hit support functions, developers included.

Not every cut is down to AI, Barclays says. It calls them part of a long-running modernisation plan, and boss CS Venkatakrishnan put it this way: “AI is the icing on the cake not the cake.” Still, “We will employ the AI at scale,” he said.

Meanwhile the money keeps rolling: Barclays posted £2.3bn profit for July through September, up on last year, though slightly below forecasts. It expects its efficiency drive to save another £1.1bn in 2027.

And it’s not alone. HSBC, Standard Chartered and Danske Bank have all flagged AI-related job cuts this year. Analyst Will Howlett of Quilter Cheviot said the industry is reaching the point where tech spending “translates into fewer people being required to run the business.” Translation: check your inbox.

Featured image: AI-generated editorial illustration by Bugle Blast.

Sources: BBC News

WAITER, THERE’S AN EGG IN MY COKE! UK food delivery app Just Eat has been testing AI to make pictures for menu items that didn’t have photos yet, the BBC reported. It went about as well as you’d think.

A Belfast cafe’s bacon and egg soda bread showed up as a glass of fizzy drink with a cooked egg and bacon floating in it. Other dishes came out as chips poking out of muffins. A “cheese roll” became slabs of cheese rolled up like sushi. And thanks to a misspelling, one garlic bread came out shaped like a plane, presumably because someone meant “plain.”

Users on the Just Eat UK subreddit have spent days posting the best of the worst. The AI pictures carry a label saying so, and the BBC spotted many of the stranger ones still on menus.

A Just Eat spokesperson said the company is “in the process of removing” the bad images and will stop making more until the AI is further developed. “We’ve been trialling AI-enhanced images, and as with any new technology, it isn’t always quite right the first time,” they said, adding that it works with tens of thousands of small restaurants on photos, including funding professional local photographers.

One social media user summed it up: “Well, that lot just helped my diet.” Another made the real point: they want to see what the food actually looks like, because perfect AI versions “just lead to disappointment.”

Featured image: AI-generated editorial illustration by Bugle Blast.

Sources: BBC News