Remembrance 2026 - the Poppy Appeal

Remembrance honours those who serve to defend our democratic freedoms and way of life.

We unite across communities, cultures and faiths to remember the service and sacrifices of the Armed Forces community from the UK and the Commonwealth. We reflect on the contributions of those who serve today, and of veterans and their families. We also remember all those who have lost their lives while in service.

Remembrance is deeply personal. It may mean wearing a poppy in November. It could mean joining with others in your community on an anniversary. Or it could mean taking a moment on your own to pause and reflect. Everyone is free to remember in their own way. Find out more in the stories here.

The Poppy Appeal is our flagship campaign held every year in October and November.  

Founded in 1921, the Appeal raises funds for the Royal British Legion’s vital work supporting serving personnel, veterans and their families throughout their lives with whatever the need, whenever it’s needed.  

Our support for those in need is made possible by the generous donations of the public and the 60,000 Poppy Appeal collectors and volunteers who dedicate their time each year to helping fundraise across the country.   

In 2026 poppies will be available from 22nd October at local supermarkets, high street shops, train stations or online at our Poppy Shop.  

The simple act of wearing a poppy sends a personal message of thanks and support for the Armed Forces community to see, and we ask the public not to underestimate the impact that wearing a poppy has on those who serve, and their families. 

www.britishlegion.org.uk

Wanna be a time lord? Travel through time this weekend!

 

In the UK the clocks go forward 1 hour at 1am on the last Sunday in March, and back 1 hour at 2am on the last Sunday in October.

The period when the clocks are 1 hour ahead is called British Summer Time (BST). There’s more daylight in the evenings and less in the mornings (sometimes called Daylight Saving Time).

When the clocks go back, the UK is on Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

www.gov.uk

Finland orders halt to work on two Google data centres

 

Finnish authorities have ordered a halt to building work at two planned Google data centres amid concerns over the clearance of more than 300 hectares of forest.

The sites form part of Google's record €13bn (£11bn; $15bn) investment in Finland, announced less than a month ago and described by the company as its largest single investment in Europe.

The Finnish Supervisory Agency (LVV) said work at one site was carried out without a mandatory environmental impact assessment and ordered measures that would "significantly alter the environment" to be suspended by 23 October.

Google said it had "fallen short of our own high standards in this instance" and would follow the agency's guidance.

www.bbc.co.uk

Britain’s flagship AI data centre can’t get the power to switch on

Britain wants to be an AI superpower. One of its flagship data centres cannot get the electricity to switch on. Nscale’s £2bn Essex site has the money, the planning permission, and a grid connection, but no power arriving in time.

The British AI firm, backed by Nvidia, is building a £2bn data centre at Loughton in Essex, with Microsoft signed up as its anchor tenant. It won planning permission and a 90-megawatt grid connection. Then it learned the power would not arrive in time to open the site next year, Sifted reported.

So the company is now shopping for its own electricity. It is looking at on-site generation, including reported talks with a California fuel-cell maker, rather than waiting on the National Grid. “We remain fully committed to the Loughton project,” a spokesperson said.

www.thenextweb.com

Contend for the Faith: Why Jude’s Message Still Matters

Jude is tucked away near the back of the Bible, a one-chapter letter (25 verses), often neglected, preserving a timeless message of warnings and pleas that had fallen on the deaf ears of previous generations — and has now come to the attention of ours.

Likely written in the first century, the letter speaks to believers facing a threat from within the church, and its message still speaks to us today.

Who Was Jude, the Brother of Jesus? Jude wrote with fire because he knew the purity of the Gospel was at stake and that people were being quietly led away from it. Traditionally identified as a brother of Jesus, Jude came to call Him Lord and felt the urgency to sound the alarm. Jude was writing as someone who knew Jesus personally and cared deeply about what was happening within the church.

Jesus’ brothers did not initially believe in Him (John 7:5). They had seen His life up close, yet familiarity did not immediately lead them to faith.

After Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, His brothers were among the believers praying with the apostles (Acts 1:14). Scripture does not tell us when Jude came to faith or whether he personally saw the risen Christ. But his letter makes his allegiance unmistakable: he calls himself a servant of Jesus Christ. READ MORE of this excellent study guide by Philip Anthony Mitchell.

Read the book (letter) of Jude at BibleGateway

www.biblegateway.com

AI godfather Geoffrey Hinton: ‘We’re creating alien beings. I’m willing to be selfish and choose humans’

Donald Trump is a “corrupt, senile felon” whose fixation on the term superintelligence proves he knows nothing about AI, said Geoffrey Hinton, “godfather” of the technology, in a wide-ranging interview where he doubled down on recent warnings that AI models pose an existential threat to humanity and scoffed at claims the industry could regulate itself.

The pioneering computer scientist, whose work helped lay the foundations of modern AI, has since become one of the technology’s most vocal critics. His latest remarks come after a tumultuous month during which a growing list of senior AI scientists and researchers have joined Hinton in ringing the alarm about how the technology he helped create could ultimately escape human control, sparking an industry crisis, the hasty assembly of congressional meetings and a rare global consensus that something must be done. READ MORE...

www.theguardian.com

The Microsoft 365 storage downgrade shows the perils of cloud services

For quite some time, Microsoft 365 Family has been one of the best value software subscriptions: the full Office suite of desktop apps, plus the cloud apps and 1TB of OneDrive storage per user (up to six users) for just £79.99 a year. It was remarkable value.

Of course, Microsoft whacked the price up to £104.99 a year for the ‘benefit’ of having slightly rubbish AI with Co-pilot, but most existing users could ‘downgrade’ to the cheaper Classic package without Co-pilot and, even if you didn’t, that price was still very good for all you got.

Yesterday, Microsoft sent out an email, labelled “Upcoming changes to your Microsoft 365 subscription”. The first bullet point was titled “More flexible cloud storage”. I skim-read what it said, and my first thought was that the 1TB per user was being replaced by 2TB per user. That’s generous, I thought. Then, I read it again: “Your cloud storage allowance will change from 1 TB per person to 2 TB of shared storage so everyone on the plan can use the free space while keeping their own accounts and files private. This change will apply after your first renewal after May 2nd, 2027.”

So, rather than everyone getting 1TB of cloud storage, everyone now has to share everything. That’s fine if you’ve got a lot of light users, but if you’ve got a busy household, 2TB isn’t going to cut it.

In reality, Microsoft has turned 6TB of cloud storage into 2TB, while charging the same price. It’s not about flexibility; it’s about cost-saving. It’s shrinkflation. No doubt, the high cost of AI, which has pushed up the prices of storage and memory, has something to do with this, but it’s a rubbish move all round.

www.trustedreviews.com