The prime minister’s ambitions might be ambiguous, but unlike the Conservative leader, he is following voters and the facts

British politics is still polarised around Brexit, although 10 years on from the referendum, the terms of debate are very different. Or they should be. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has moved discussions of European solidarity from the realm of abstraction to a matter of urgent defence partnership. Donald Trump’s presidency in the US, marked by scorn for European democracies and indulgence of Vladimir Putin, has undermined confidence that Britain can rely on any “special relationship” with Washington.

Under these circumstances, it would be absurd to deny that a reappraisal of Brexit is in order. The prime minister acknowledged this in his speech at the Labour party conference last month, calling for a national conversation about the future relationship with every option, including rejoining, on the table. The Eurosceptic opposition are having none of it. The Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, accuses the government of stirring division by raising the European question. She told MPs this week that Labour should thank the Tories for the Brexit deal they negotiated.

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People diagnosed with ADHD and those travelling with them can get a third off their train tickets with disabled railcards, it has emerged.

The post People With ADHD Get Third Off Train Tickets appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Keira Callaghan says being prepared should be a public health measure, not a privilege, and Chris Rotheram is experiencing prescription anxiety. Plus five more letters in response to the Be Ready campaign

The Be Ready campaign may offer sensible advice in principle (Every Briton should stockpile water and food supplies, government advises, 22 October), but as a midwife working in Tower Hamlets, one of the poorest boroughs in London, I can see first-hand that its practical recommendations risk excluding precisely those families who are already most vulnerable.

For families living in a single room in a shared house, storing nine litres of water per person alongside three days’ worth of essential supplies may simply be unrealistic. When families are already struggling with the cost of food, heating and everyday necessities, buying additional emergency provisions may also be financially impossible.

LIV Golf is in shambles, and another one has bitten the dust.

Sergio Garcia said on social media that he will be playing in the DP World Tour, formerly the European Tour, and is "keeping my options open for a return to the PGA Tour."

The DP World Tour announced earlier this month that it was no longer allowing LIV players to participate in its tournaments.

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"This tour has been a huge part of my career from the very beginning, and I’m proud to call it home again," Garcia said in his statement.

The 2017 Masters winner also said it is a "goal" to play for Team Europe in the Ryder Cup in Ireland — European golfers must be a member of the DP World Tour in order to be eligible. Thus, with the DP World Tour's new stipulations, Garcia's already-slim chances were essentially put to zero.

Garcia last played in the Ryder Cup in 2021, several months before jumping to LIV. He has won six times in his 10 appearances.

Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton, both Team Europe staples, have already said they are leaving LIV Golf. Louis Oosthuizen is also leaving, and Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed departed months ago.

The PIF halted funding in April to redirect money toward domestic projects and manage financial pressures from the regional war with Iran. Following the decision, PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan resigned from LIV’s board.

AUSTIN SMOTHERMAN SETS SIGHTS ON EARNING MASTERS INVITE AFTER PICKING UP BACK-TO-BACK PGA TOUR WINS

LIV filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in New Jersey last month. Between 2021 and 2026, LIV spent an estimated $5 billion to $8 billion. Bankruptcy filings show the league owes millions of dollars in unpaid compensation to top players, including Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson and Cam Smith.

The league’s future depends on a proposed restructuring plan called "LIV 2.0," but Rahm said the terms of "2.0" are "unacceptable" and he won't be participating in it. Rahm and Hatton were perhaps the two biggest LIV names to play in DP World Tour events.

Under the proposal, London-based private equity firm BC Partners, which has financial ties to player agency GSE Worldwide, would fund a 2027 relaunch. The plan would also give the players majority ownership of the league.

LIV has laid off most of its operational staff, left event contractors waiting for payment and faces a lawsuit from the Premier Golf League alleging breach of confidence and conspiracy.

Shortly after the PIF pulled its funding, LIV CEO Scott O'Neil said the LIV calendar would not be altered, but that did not occur. The league's originally-scheduled championship weekend was cancelled, forcing it to be played a week earlier.

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OutKick's Alejandro Avila contributed to this report.

Angela Eagle tells industry ‘people are sick of excuses’ as pollution levels remain high despite billions in investment

Angela Eagle, the environment secretary, has summoned water industry bosses to Whitehall after a report found that the environmental performance of the big companies has worsened despite investment.

“People are sick of excuses,” Dame Angela said, after the Environment Agency joined the Drinking Water Inspectorate, Natural Resources Wales and Ofwat for a joint report that rated eight of the nine water companies in England as “poor” or “requiring improvement”.

John Healey aced the morning-after media round because his Martin Lewis measures left nothing to challenge him on

Maybe it had been one of the greatest acts of political genius after all. The day after the budget is usually the moment when things start to fall apart. When clued-up journalists and economists have had a chance to go through all the fine points the chancellor would rather everyone had missed. The forecasts that suggest everything is predicated on a wing and a prayer. The hidden unfunded tax cuts. The greater-than-expected spending commitments.

But on Thursday morning Andy Burnham and John Healey could afford themselves a sigh of relief. All had gone about as well as they could have hoped. It turns out that when you don’t make any massive tax or spending commitments, there isn’t a great deal to unravel. All there had been was a raft of small-scale interventions designed to help people with their personal finances. Call it the Martin Lewis budget. In fact, Healey and Lewis now seem unable to get through the day without spending some time with each other. They certainly can’t stop talking about one another. It’s becoming unhealthily co-dependent. The gods of small things.

Ya lo había insinuado en el pasado Open de España y este jueves lo ha confirmado de manera oficial. Sergio García no jugará LIV 2.0, la nueva y descafeinada versión de la Liga saudí de golf, si es que esta llega a cobrar vida debido a sus problemas de financiación. “La próxima temporada jugaré en el DP World Tour. Este circuito ha sido una parte muy importante de mi carrera desde el principio y estoy orgulloso de volver a llamarlo casa”, ha expresado el golfista castellonense de 46 años en un comunicado.

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Prime minister wrote to ministers saying he did not want them to ‘advocate for specific options or opine on the likely outcome of the process’

Selling nicotine-free vapes to children under the age of 18 has become illegal from today, the government has said.

Children were already banned from buying vapes containing nicotine. But, under the Tobacco and Vapes Act, shops across the UK will now be banned from selling nicotine-free vapes, and nicotine pouches, to children.

Vaping can be a way to help established adult smokers who are already addicted to nicotine from tobacco to swap to a less dangerous product. Vaping is considered safer than smoking, but that is a low bar. Vapes should therefore never be used by children or non-smokers.

Some children have already come to harm from bad reactions to vapes. The long-term health harms of vaping in today’s children will only become clear over time. They are however unlikely to be good; inhaling multiple, often heated, chemicals into the lungs may well do irreversible harm.

Ninguno quiere el premio, o así lo parece. Como si se hubieran contagiado. Lo tiene a tiro Nikoloz Basilashvili hasta cuatro veces, pero el georgiano se adorna —ese exceso de confianza en la volea no tocaba— y termina pagándolo caro, muy caro. Tanto que le cuesta el set (o sea, el partido) después de que Carlos Alcaraz, igualmente errático, haya desperdiciado tres opciones de cerrar el duelo; una de ellas con toda la pista para él, clamorosa. Al final no lo lamentará. El murciano vence en un episodio de contrastes (6-1 y 7-6(11), después de 1h 41m) y progresa en Viena, donde se las verá este viernes en los cuartos de final (no antes de las 15.00, Movistar+) con un rival sobradamente conocido para él: será el décimo pulso con Tommy Paul, con un balance favorable de 7-2.

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ZVEREV SE CORONARÁ EL LUNES

Jódar, primerizo en la élite, continúa en pleno crecimiento y descubriendo los entresijos del máximo nivel. En este proceso de aprendizaje, uno de los aspectos a mejorar es su rendimiento en los tie-breaks, en los que la experiencia resulta fundamental.

Este curso, el madrileño ha tenido que dilucidar 24, de los cuales ha ganado 11 y perdido 13. Empezó con fuerza —ganó siete de los diez primeros que jugó—, pero últimamente ha menguado; en concreto, se ha hecho solo con dos de los diez últimos.

Precisamente, si alguien domina esa zona terminal es Djokovic (39), que empezó bien contra Struf y al final se diluyó. Conforme transcurrió el partido fue perdiendo vigor y el tenista alemán, que se había inclinado en los ocho precedentes entre ambos, lo apeó. Dejó, pues, escapar una magnífica oportunidad.

Quien no lo hizo fue Alexander Zverev, que el próximo lunes abrirá oficialmente su reinado al derrotar en Viena a Tallon Griekspoor (6-4 y 7-5). El triunfo anticipa su ascenso a la cima. Allí también, el italiano Flavio Cobolli abandonó lesionado y entre lágrimas ante su compatriota Matteo Berrettini.

Cabe recordar que actualmente es sexto tanto en el ranking como en la carrera anual, así como que debería ser el referente de su país en las Finales de la Copa Davis. Se resintió de unos problemas arrastraba desde la semana previa en Lyon.

Por otra parte, Elena Rybakina confirmó que finalizará el año en lo más alto. Su triunfo contra Yulia Putintseva en Tokio (6-2 y 6-3) le garantiza la posición, que obtuvo tras el US Open. La kazaja, de 27 años, ha ganado este año en Australia y Nueva York.

O Jetour G700 Ark Edition, SUV híbrido plug-in, concluiu com sucesso um teste de navegação na água, comprovando suas capacidades anfíbias em condições reais. A demonstração foi realizada na base especializada da Série G da marca, na China, durante o Jetour Global Technology Experience Day 2026.

A iniciativa reforça os avanços da Jetour no desenvolvimento de tecnologias para todo tipo de terreno, ampliando as possibilidades de uso de veículos de produção em série em ambientes terrestres e aquáticos.

A demonstração também destacou a GAIA Ark Tech, solução da Série G da Jetour desenvolvida para ampliar a mobilidade em terrenos desafiadores e na água. Voltada a operações de resgate, exploração ao ar livre e atividades em locais de difícil acesso, ela busca oferecer maior versatilidade em condições adversas.

 Ao integrar recursos para a condução off-road e a navegação aquática, a GAIA Ark Tech amplia as possibilidades de uso dos veículos acima dos limites da mobilidade terrestre convencional.

Para garantir o deslocamento controlado na água, a GAIA Ark Tech reúne um conjunto de soluções que inclui sistema abrangente de vedação, controle inteligente de estabilidade durante a navegação e sistema de travessia aquática de 800 V, integrado ao extensor de autonomia anfíbio CEM-O.

Ao ativar o modo de navegação, o sistema de propulsão direciona a energia para o mecanismo específico de deslocamento aquático, permitindo que o veículo avance e mantenha o controle direcional.

 Aliados à proteção com classificação IP68 dos componentes essenciais, esses recursos ampliam as capacidades do veículo para além da transposição convencional de trechos alagados, possibilitando uma experiência de navegação controlada na água.

Após a experiência, um representante da imprensa europeia destacou o desempenho do modelo: “Ao contrário dos veículos conceito que costumam ser apresentados, o G700 Ark Edition é um verdadeiro modelo anfíbio de produção em série.

 Seu desempenho estável na água, a maturidade de seus sistemas e a capacidade de oferecer uma experiência completa de condução, preservando plenamente suas capacidades off-road em terra, superaram as expectativas e demonstram a expertise tecnológica que a Jetour vem desenvolvendo no campo da mobilidade em diferentes ambientes.”

A Série G da Jetour segue avançando no desenvolvimento de tecnologias para todo tipo de terreno, combinando engenharia aplicada e validação em condições reais. Os testes realizados aproximam o desenvolvimento tecnológico da experiência do usuário e demonstram as aplicações práticas da GAIA Ark Tech em situações reais.

A Jetour segue investindo no desenvolvimento de soluções de mobilidade para todo tipo de terreno, com foco em diferentes necessidades de deslocamento e aplicações especializadas. A iniciativa reforça o compromisso da marca em ampliar as possibilidades de mobilidade e oferecer tecnologias confiáveis a usuários em todo o mundo.

G700 no Brasil

A Jetour prepara o lançamento do G700 no país ainda este ano. O SUV terá motorização híbrida plug-in (PHEV) e deverá ocupar o topo da gama, como o maior e mais potente modelo da fabricante no mercado nacional.

The post Jetour G700 Ark Edition prova capacidade anfíbia em testes reais na China appeared first on Diário da Manhã - O Jornal do leitor Inteligente.

Corea del Norte ha lanzado este jueves más de 10 misiles balísticos de corto alcance hacia el mar de Japón, en medio de la creciente tensión con Corea del Sur, que no ha hecho sino elevarse desde que, a finales de septiembre, tres soldados surcoreanos resultaran heridos por la explosión de varias minas terrestres en el lado surcoreano de la Zona Desmilitarizada que marca la frontera entre ambos países. La nueva exhibición militar de Pyongyang ha tenido lugar días después de que el líder norcoreano, Kim Jong-in, efectuara una inusual visita a una ciudad fronteriza china en un gesto de acercamiento a Pekín y en medio de especulaciones sobre un posible encuentro con el presidente de Estados Unidos, Donald Trump.

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Thinktank says chancellor has given himself a mountain to climb after ducking big decisions in low-key speech

John Healey has paved the way for a “brutal” spending review next year after his budget failed to cover a £28bn shortfall in the public finances needed to avoid a return to austerity, according to Britain’s leading tax and spending experts.

A day after his address to the Commons, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said the chancellor had left himself a mountain to climb by ducking several big decisions in his debut tax and spending statement.

Austin Smotherman earned his first win on the PGA Tour in early October at the Bank of Utah Championship, checking the box of fulfilling a lifelong dream. He needed all of 22 days to get back into the winner's circle at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship. Earning two wins in consecutive starts is not only career-changing, but it also brings new goals to the forefront, and the 32-year-old is by no means keeping the top one on his list a secret.

With his two wins this fall, Smotherman has earned a spot on the PGA Tour's Championship Series debuting in 2028, exemptions into the 2027 PGA Championship and 2027 U.S. Open, and a touch more than $1.1 million. He also moved to No. 54 in the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR), and now, moving up at least four spots and inside the Top 50 by year's end has understandably become the focus.

"No doubt, no doubt," Smotherman began when asked if getting inside the Top 50 was now the top priority. "Everything for next year is already pretty firm as far as where things are going to be, but I still have majors that need to be put on the schedule. That’s the one thing that’s really shifted."

PGA TOUR IS FINALLY BRINGING MATCH PLAY TO ITS POSTSEASON BEGINNING IN 2028 IN NO-BRAINER DECISION

Players inside the Top 50 in the final edition of the world rankings in 2026 earn a spot in next year's Masters. Smotherman's lone major championship start in his career is a missed cut at the 2026 PGA Championship.

"That’s why we wanted to go play Bermuda," Smotherman explained. "I got asked that question a lot last week, and my caddie did as well. From Monday through Friday, people were asking, 'What are you doing here? Why do you want to go to Bermuda? Why do you want to do this?'

"My wife and I talked about it, and she’s got things handled at home. We’re in a good routine, and I didn’t go to Japan, so I got that extra week off. That’s what we were playing for. I’m going to play Austin and the RSM Classic to try to move inside the top 50.

"If we’re 51st, we’re 51st. It’s not necessarily the end of the cutoff, because there are still other ways to get in and a little bit of time left, but having that certainty before taking time off would be nice."

CAM YOUNG WAS OUT THE DOOR TO LIV GOLF, WIND CUTS PGA TOUR EVENT SHORT, AND GEARING UP FOR MEXICO

Nice would be an understatement. Knowing a letter from Augusta National is on the way to your mailbox for next April's event before the calendar flips to 2027 would not only come with a sense of relief, but be a dream come true, which is a feeling Smotherman has managed to achieve on quite a consistent basis this fall.

Smotherman, a former standout at SMU, defeated Seamus Power in a three-hole playoff in what was among the more unique finishes seen on the PGA Tour in quite some time.

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Due to extreme winds ahead of the final round, the event was officially cut to just 54 holes, but with Smotherman and Power tied atop the leaderboard, the pair dueled it out on the tricky Par 3 16th hole on Monday morning until Smotherman's third consecutive par was enough to get the job done.

Smotherman will enjoy the dad life at home in Dallas over the next couple of weeks while gearing up for his next start at the Austin Championship beginning on Nov. 12.

Russia has started installing magnetometers in the tails or tail fins of its Geran attack drones, Vladyslav Vlasiuk, the Ukrainian president’s commissioner for sanctions policy, said on Facebook on 28 October.

Russia uses its Shahed-Geran series drones in massive daily attacks on Ukraine. Ukrainian forces jam Gerans’ satellite navigation to push them off course, and Russia keeps hardening the drones against it, already fitting them with adaptive antennas. The magnetometer appears designed to go further, giving the drone a heading that doesn’t depend on satellites at all. Earlier this month, Ukrainian military intelligence reported a US-made magnetometer in the upgraded Geran-4.

A new jamming device, and Western parts at the core

Vlasiuk posted photos from a site where Ukraine studies Russian weapons and their components. He said he takes the findings for Ukraine’s sanctions work. He did not say which Geran models carry the magnetometer.

At the same time, Ukraine is studying how a new jamming device works. Vlasiuk did not say where it was found or what it targets.

“Western electronics are at the core everywhere,” Vlasiuk wrote.

Geran-4 already flew with a US-made sensor

On 5 October, Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence (HUR) said the upgraded Geran-4 carries a new “MOKh” unit built around a PNI5GA magnetometer made by US firm PNI Sensor. The unit works with the SADRA inertial navigation module to cut gyroscope drift and make the drone’s autonomous navigation more accurate.

HUR said Russia also added an electro-optical navigation system called Susanin to the upgraded Geran-4. It compares camera images with a reference image stored in memory to keep the drone on its route to the target. The new K5 version of the Geran-5 uses a similar system.

Presidential adviser Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov warned on 28 October that if Russia starts using Susanin en masse on Geran-5s and other drones and missiles at night, Ukraine may have to go back to switching off lights, especially on roads.

• Oheka Castle, the second-largest private home in the US, has been sold for $72 million.
• The estate is said to have inspired "The Great Gatsby" and has been used in film and TV.
• It's also a favorite wedding venue for celebrities, such as Kevin Jonas, Megyn Kelly, and more.

If you've ever read or seen "The Great Gatsby," you know 1920s New York was home to extravagant mansions with owners who hosted lavish parties — and if you've watched "The Gilded Age," you know those parties began decades earlier in the 1870s.

And if you're a really dedicated fan, you just missed your chance to own a piece of F. Scott Fitzgerald history yourself. Oheka Castle, a sprawling, century-old estate said to have inspired the parties in "The Great Gatsby," went up for auction on October 27, via Concierge Auctions and Adam Modlin of The Modlin Group.

Its original homeowner was financier Otto Hermann Kahn, who built Oheka Castle — named after its owner (Oh-He-Ka) — in 1919 on Long Island.

Kahn's wife used to call the home "Otto's zoo," and it seemed to be an accurate description. A-listers of the time used to party at the 109,000-square-foot home, with Kahn as a Gatsby-like figure entertaining all his guests.

But Oheka's journey didn't end there. After Kahn's death in 1934, the property changed hands numerous times until it was abandoned in the '80s. Fires, vandalism, and theft devastated it.

According to Oheka Castle, land developer Gary Melius then purchased the estate and spent $40 million restoring it to its former glory. He defaulted on a loan over a decade ago, Forbes reported, and declared bankruptcy in July 2025 to forestall what happened this week: Oheka on the auction block.

Per Concierge Auction, seven bidders were competing for Oheka, but the eventual winner, Gold Coast Property & Estate Management LLC, is set to pay $72 million for the property, pending approval. The sale also includes a pre-approved plan to build a four-story condo building.

"This sale marks an exciting next chapter for Oheka and an opportunity for its next owner to preserve that legacy while bringing a new vision to the estate," said Modlin.

Today, Oheka is the second-largest private home in the US, behind only the Biltmore House in North Carolina. It's a popular venue for weddings, a restaurant, and a hotel, and has been featured in movies, TV shows, and music videos. Taylor Swift even filmed the "Blank Space" video there.

You can also tour the grounds for $30. I took the tour in April 2024 and was astonished by the beauty of Oheka Castle. Here's what it was like to visit.

Oheka Castle was built in 1919 by German-American financier Otto Hermann Kahn.

He spent about $11 million, or about $213 million in today's currency, to build Oheka on 443 acres of land in West Hills, New York.

Oheka Castle has seen a lot in its 100-plus years, and for anyone who wants to learn more, tours are offered twice daily.

So, I decided to visit. All I knew about Oheka was that Kevin Jonas got married there and Taylor Swift filmed the "Blank Space" music video there.

But Oheka has a rich history. I learned all about it on a beautiful afternoon in April 2024.

When you drive to the entryway, it's a bit intimidating. There's someone working the gate who must let you in.

Then comes a long driveway. I felt like I was going back in time to the Gilded Age.

My first look at the main house was astounding — and yes, I mean house. Oheka Castle is the second-largest private residence in the US.

It's also on the National Register of Historic Places. It was added in September 2004.

When Kahn built this house, he had three requirements: He wanted to be high up, he wanted a view of the water, and he needed the house to be fireproof.

His previous house in New Jersey had burned down. Oheka, in contrast, is built largely out of stone.

I went inside and waited in front of a grand staircase with the rest of my group for our tour to begin.

When it began, we saw photos of how the house looked before its current owner restored it. We'd learn more about this later.

The first room we entered was this beautiful entryway with a mural of the sky on the ceiling.

The house itself is 112,895 square feet today and has 127 rooms.

Many of the rooms are dedicated to showing off the home's history, like the Chaplin Room.

Charlie Chaplin was just one of the many '20s A-listers who hung out at Oheka. This photo shows Chaplin (right) with Kahn (center) and actor Douglas Fairbanks (left).

In fact, according to my tour guide, Jay Gatsby's wild parties in "The Great Gatsby" were inspired by what was going down at Oheka in the '20s.

This was Kahn's wife Adelaide's favorite room. Adelaide wasn't as big of an entertainer as her husband, but this sunny room was perfect for guests.

This ballroom is the only room that's not original to Kahn's time inside Oheka today.

But as you can see from the ballroom's windows, Oheka met Kahn's requirement for a view of the water. He used to dock his yacht there.

Kahn, who was Jewish, also built a golf course on his property — country clubs at the time wouldn't admit Jewish people or allow them to play.

After Kahn's death in 1934, the property was shuffled between owners. From 1948 to 1979, it was the Eastern Military Academy.

During those days, what is now the breakfast room was used as a gym.

From that room, we made our way to this huge library.

A portrait of Kahn hung above the fireplace.

Our final stop on the first floor was this room, which also houses a bar. Press clippings about Oheka adorned the walls.

Among the displayed articles was Danielle and Kevin Jonas' wedding spread in People. They got married at the estate in 2009.

Then we went upstairs to check out the hotel and bridal suite.

The bridal suite, which is on the fourth floor, opens with this mural-covered entryway.

A beautiful open room with windows allows wedding parties to take in the view of Oheka's well-manicured grounds.

The gardens at Oheka are breathtaking from above.

Here's the main bedroom of the bridal suite.

The primary bathroom has a bathtub and a shower.

Then it was time to check out the gardens — and to learn what happened to Oheka.

When the Eastern Military Academy went bankrupt and vacated its premises in 1979, Oheka was left abandoned.

Residents who lived nearby were concerned about vandalism. One neighbor even took this statue for safekeeping and returned it when Oheka was restored in the '80s.

Land developer Gary Melius purchased Oheka in 1984 and spent $40 million restoring it to its former glory.

The gardens were originally designed by the Olmsted Brothers, best known for helping with Central Park.

Melius used those original sketches to restore Oheka.

These statues were tracked down at an auction and are thought to date back to the Renaissance.

Now, it's a beautiful wedding venue, hotel, restaurant, and home — Melius keeps an apartment on the third floor.

As I left the grounds, I got one more look at the restaurant and its courtyard.

I would highly recommend taking a tour of Oheka. As I viewed its stunning surroundings and learned about its unique history, I felt like I was traveling back in time.

Editor's Note: This story was originally published in September 2026 and most recently updated in October 2026.

Tired of milling about polished networking events, balancing a cocktail and lukewarm appetizers while attempting to shake hands and answer the question, "So, what do you do?", workers are turning away from the happy hour and toward events that take them back to their preschool roots.

Groups from Boston to Boise are hosting events to meet twin needs: IRL connection and AI practice. It's a grown-up version of "parallel play" that organizers hope will lead to more meaningful interactions than sipping discounted margaritas, and prove more fun than clumsily vibe-coding at home alone. The meetups include AI agent building workshops, hackathons, walk-and-talks, and fitness classes curated for specific industry founders.

The trend is a twist on networking for our times. People want to meet in person, but are still retraining their social skills after Covid. The events draw from hackathons and take on a new urgency: Companies hungry for AI-skilled workers are brushing up against a job market brimming with candidates desperate to learn AI and stand out. Anxious they'll be left behind, people are showing up not just to make a new connection, but to make sense of a rapidly evolving AI landscape.

"You can spend all your time, every single day, looking at apps or looking at a blog, or looking at a podcast to see what they're doing," Andrea Huspeni, the founder of pet brands Bye Bye Dog Breath and This Dog's Life, tells me. She attended an event put on by a group called AI After 5 this month, as she's learning to use AI to keep her operating costs down. "But that is different than going to an event in person and hearing other people's experiences, other people's use cases, and other people's hacks."

On a Tuesday evening in downtown Manhattan, some 60 people gathered under dim lights in a modern, industrial space for a sold-out event. It wasn't a raucous happy hour or a fireside chat with tech industry leaders. They were there for a hands-on workshop to build AI agents.

The evening, bookended with food and drinks to start and time to chat after, felt more like a classroom than a typical networking event. That's by design. Some attendees had their eyes locked on a presentation about the basics of agent building; others peeled off into pairs, sitting close together in booths with their own laptops, speaking in hushed voices about the projects on their screens.

Mina Abdulla, who started AI After 5 this year to help women learn how to use AI, walked from table to table, checking in on dyads like a teacher making rounds in a classroom. She insists that this isn't just more work after the workday, which is already increasingly filled with AI. It's fun, she says, and the format takes people back to learning as a kid — experimenting and solving problems side by side. "Learning is a social thing," she says. "It's making AI feel more approachable."

As AI reshapes the way we work, non-technical employees especially worry they'll be left behind — and these workshops draw people from across industries and roles. "People don't feel like they can do it on their own, and they get stressed," says Paige Kehoe, who founded Audacious AF this year, a networking group for women building with and learning AI. That pressure pushes more people to attend training or try to train themselves on their own time.

Traditional forms of networking have failed to meet the moment. A Harris Poll conducted on behalf of staffing firm Express Employment Professionals late last year found that three-quarters of workers felt networking had become more transactional and less about personal connections. People socialize with coworkers less, and happy hour participation fell by 9% this year, as rising prices and remote work drain some of the appeal.

But people want to hang out. Attendance at microevents grew by 23% in 2024, according to Eventbrite data. Last year, nearly 60% of people said they wanted to attend events where they could socialize around an activity, and where making connections wasn't the main focus. The number of community AI hackathons put on via Devpost, a platform for in-person and online hackathons, jumped from 369 in 2024 to 706 last year. A search of Luma shows there are about a dozen similar AI building workshops and meetups in New York City over the next week, and typically two or three such events a day in San Francisco.

Unpolished, come-as-you-are events tap into a trend that's been brewing for years: a push for authenticity. Instead of panels with canned answers and humble bragging at happy hours, people can come to these workshops and admit they need help.

"Everyone's just so tired of all of the really perfect put-together content that companies were pushing out," Kehoe says. She held her first workshop for women who wanted to learn to work with Claude this spring. They had room for about 50 people, but nearly 1,000 joined the waitlist, she says.

No-Code NYC has hosted events since 2018, building a community for people who weren't technical by trade but wanted to learn to use drag-and-drop coding tools or might be toying with the idea of working as developers. Its founder, Erik Israni, tells me that interest has expanded because of AI. Developers coming to his events want to brush up on AI skills, as do people who would never have considered themselves technical. The developers can better explain concepts to the newbies, but those outside the traditional tech world pick up on the concepts and act on them quickly, Israni says, and there are benefits for people on either side of that divide in coming together. "There's an uncertainty in the future for what anyone's job is going to look like, for what skills they're going to need," Israni says. As AI has shaken job prospects, it's also making coding more accessible for those willing to dive in. "Not only is there a sense that I can do this, but there's also a sense of FOMO."

Some companies have brought similar formats in-house to train staff. Tariq Shaukat, CEO of Sonar, a software company focused on verifying AI code, tells me the company recently hosted an in-person hackathon for the technical team, bringing remote workers together with office staff. In that one week, he estimates the team made more progress in developing new skills than they had in the previous four months.

"Getting them together in this unstructured environment with everyone with a little bit of playtime helped give people the space and freedom to kind of learn and experiment," he says. "There's a lot of tribal knowledge development and sharing that's happening."

People working on their own projects want to socialize, but they need loose industry connections perhaps less than they need tangible AI skills. They also feel a time crunch to learn the latest technologies. "People are also scaling faster, iterating faster," says Anna Kaplan, founder of Narrativ by AK, a storytelling and branding firm for founders. "That's why people are more picky about the events they go to."

This new version of networking resonates with people who still feel socially stifled after years of remote work and school, and who feel too many of their social interactions are mediated by algorithms. These events are an antidote to the loneliness workers feel, as well as frustration over a broken job-hunting process. People want to optimize their lives and learn AI skills through experimentation and peer sharing. They're picky about the homework they're taking on. And if they make a friend or connection in addition to a new AI agent, that's a nice bonus.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with O'Shea Jackson, known professionally as Ice Cube, a 57-year-old rapper, actor, and cofounder of the professional three-on-three basketball league Big3, who is based in Los Angeles. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I started out wanting to be the best rapper in the world. Then John Singleton put me in "Boyz n the Hood" in 1991, and I loved creating at that level. I didn't just want to be an actor; I wanted to be a producer and a writer. I wanted to control my own films and be involved in record company meetings. That thrust me into the business world.

I understand, from the neighborhood I come from in South Central Los Angeles, that if you don't learn the game, you're going to get taken advantage of. I knew that if I really wanted to be a solo artist and didn't want to be a horror story at the end of my career, I needed to learn the business. That's when I started transitioning to working behind the scenes.

In 2016, my cofounder, Jeff Kwatinetz, and I had the idea to start a professional three-on-three basketball league. We spent a year throwing around ideas for it before announcing Big3 in January 2017.

I love three-on-three, and I've always wondered why it hasn't been professionalized. We wanted to elevate it and attract players who still want to play at a high level against their peers in the summer. I also still rap and act, and I haven't looked back.

Here's a day in my life in Los Angeles.

5 a.m. — my goldendoodle wakes me up

My goldendoodle, Luffy, and I wake up at the same time, or one of us wakes the other up. He's a year old, so he's still got puppy energy. My wife, Kimberly, and my four kids watch an anime where the lead character's name is Luffy, which is how he got the name.

I've been an early riser ever since I was young. I like to wake up before everybody — sometimes two hours before my family — to hyper-focus on anything that needs my undivided attention. The East Coast is three hours ahead of us anyway, so I don't want to be late talking to people there.

7 .a.m. — coffee and walking Luffy

I usually make myself coffee at home. I'm a fan of Peet's dark roast. Then I take Luffy for a walk.

I'm not big on working out early in the morning, so I try to exercise in the evenings. To me, the morning is for coffee, enjoying being alive, and being happy that I get another chance to see another day.

I'm not a big breakfast guy, so I usually don't eat until late afternoon.

8 a.m. — thinking in the shower

Most of my ideas come when I'm in the shower. They'll just flood me with everything I need to get done, almost in order: you gotta have that, you gotta have that, stop procrastinating on this, get to that. The shower is where I get a lot of my clarity.

9 .a.m. — prioritizing my schedule from my home studio and office

I don't go into the office — I stopped doing that in 1999. I'm not built to be in the office. I'm a remote kind of guy.

I've got a spot in my house that's a studio and office. A lot of work gets done in there, including new music. It's cool to have it all in one place.

Because I'm splitting my time between Big3, music, films, and other things, I have to really plan the day and prioritize. There are things that have to get done today and things that can wait until tomorrow, so it's about deciphering what needs my immediate attention and focus.

10 a.m. — meetings focused on wherever I am

When I'm traveling, my day can vary a lot. I have a lot of meetings on my iPhone and Zoom, so I plan them around whatever I'm there to do.

If I'm on tour, everything has to come after what I have to do that night and the focus I need to give to the live performance. I've tried to do a movie in the daytime and go to the studio at night, and something suffers.

You don't want to spread the work too thin, either, just because you can. You want everything to still be as top-notch and good as you can make it. That takes discipline.

12 p.m. — ordering lunch and trying not to succumb to burgers

When it's time to eat, the first thing that pops into my head is always burgers. I try to push burgers aside and think of something different, like a Greek salad wrap. Otherwise, I'd go for burgers and fries all the time.

1 p.m. — checking out social media and executing on projects

I look at a lot of social media to figure out my next move. Social media-wise, I still like X, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. I'm not a big-time Facebook guy. I also don't use any AI apps.

I have several projects, and they're each in one of three stages: planning, execution, and follow-through. There's always work to be done. I've been in business for 40 years — I've seen it all. Nothing gets me too high, and nothing gets me too low.

I'm always looking for the most strategic way out of a sticky, complicated, or bad day. I don't really let it stress me, because I always know there's a solution.

6:30 p.m. — shut down business and hang with my family

It's crazy for somebody in the music industry, where mostly everything happens late at night, but it's for my sanity.

When it comes to my off time, people think I'd be out enjoying being Ice Cube, running around and getting the love that's out there, but I like kicking it with my family, hanging out, and not doing too much. A typical dinner is going to a steakhouse with my family, or to a burger joint if I'm on the road.

To unwind, I like to watch sports. Hopefully, there's a game on that I want to see: basketball, football, a Big3 game, or baseball. I'm a Dodgers guy.

11 p.m. — try to get to bed

I don't like to talk about stuff late at night, because then I'll be up all night, and I have to be back up in a few hours. I don't need much sleep, about five or six hours, but I make sure I get it.

Some days, I'm off to do something super cool, like a concert or a movie in France. It's important to balance the craziness with the regular, sensible stuff.

My life can be very exciting and complicated at times, and very simple and normal at other times. It's the best of both worlds.