Exxon sues California over climate laws, alleging free speech violations

Exxon, an oil firm consistently ranked among the world’s top contributors to global carbon emissions, is suing the state of California over two climate-focused state laws, arguing that the rules infringe upon the corporation’s right to free speech.The 2023 laws, known collectively as the California Climate Accountability Package, will require large companies doing business in the state to disclose both their planet-heating carbon emissions and their climate-related financial risks, or face annual penalties.The laws would thereby force Exxon to “serve as a mouthpiece for ideas with which it disagrees”, says the lawsuit, filed in the US district court for the eastern district of California on Friday.Asked for comment, Exxon referred the Guardian to the lawsuit. The state of California was not immediately available for comment

Oil firm Petrofac enters administration, putting 2,000 jobs at risk; Greencore-Bakkavor food giant deal faces UK competition concerns – as it happened

Time to wrap up.Wall Street shares have scaled new all-time highs, as rising expectations of a US-China trade deal encouraged risk-taking by investors, in a week dominated by Big Tech results and a widely-expected Federal Reserve interest rate cut on Wednesday.The tech-heavy Nasdaq rose by 1.6%, the Dow Jones gained 0.5% and the S&P 500 climbed by nearly 1%

‘People thought I was a communist doing this as a non-profit’: is Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales the last decent tech baron?

In an online landscape characterised by doom and division, the people’s encyclopedia stands out – a huge collective endeavour giving everyone free access to the sum of human knowledge. But with Elon Musk branding it ‘Wokipedia’ and AI looming large, can it survive?Wikipedia will be 25 years old in January. Jimmy Wales’s daughter will be 25 and three weeks. It’s not a coincidence: on Boxing Day 2000 Wales’s then wife, Christine, gave birth to a baby girl, but it quickly became clear that something wasn’t right. She had breathed in contaminated amniotic fluid, resulting in a life-threatening condition called meconium aspiration syndrome

US and China reach ‘final deal’ on TikTok sale, treasury secretary says

The US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, claimed on Sunday that the US and China have finalized the details of a deal transferring TikTok’s US version to new owners.“We reached a final deal on TikTok,” Bessent said on Sunday on CBS’s Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan. Alluding to Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, Bessent continued: “We reached [a deal] in Madrid, and I believe that as of today, all the details are ironed out, and that will be for the two leaders to consummate that transaction” during a meeting scheduled for Thursday in Korea.Bessent did not disclose any details of the deal. But he did say it was a part of a broader framework – agreed to by both the US and China – of a potential trade deal to be discussed when Trump and Xi meet in the coming days

Cheltenham festival switch to Saturday a gamble not worth taking

For the fourth year running, Cheltenham saw an increased attendance at its season-opening Showcase meeting over the weekend, as 31,125 racegoers made their way to the home of jumps racing. The total was a record since what was previously a midweek meeting moved to a Friday/Saturday slot in 2007, while the 21,113 crowd on Saturday was also a record for the second day of the meeting.It was a very positive start, in other words, to Guy Lavender’s first full season as the chief executive at Cheltenham, and the man tasked with turning around the sudden – and still largely unexplained – slump in attendance at the festival meeting over the last three years.Lavender, who joined Jockey Club Racecourses after a seven-year stint as chief executive of the MCC, spent much of Friday and Saturday touring the enclosures to get feedback from spectators on the changes to the customer experience that he has implemented so far, such as the removal of most restrictions on the areas where racegoers can consume alcohol and (small) reductions in the price of a pint.And he was also, perhaps, sounding out early reactions to an idea which was initially floated in the Racing Post last week, that the festival meeting should switch from its current Tuesday-to-Friday slot to a Wednesday-to-Saturday schedule instead

‘I’m making it work’: Lando Norris confident he is finally getting to grips with his McLaren

Lando Norris has said he is finally confident handling his McLaren car after a dominant victory at the Mexico City Grand Prix that moved him to the top of the world championship standings with four races remaining.The British driver won at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez with a superb drive from pole to flag. With his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri finishing only fifth and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in third, the Briton now leads Piastri by one point and Verstappen by 36. Piastri had held the title lead since the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix but Norris has moved to the front as the championship enters its final run-in.He has struggled for much of the season, particularly in qualifying, not enjoying the feel of the grip from the front axle as much as he would like while Piastri enjoyed a strong run of results