Business
Funding shortage forces Didcot food bank to make changes
David GilyeatSouth of England
Didcot FoodbankVolunteers at a food bank say they are having to make changes to the services they offer because of a reduction in donations.
Didcot Emergency Foodbank was launched in 2009 by volunteers at Didcot Baptist Church but is down to reserves of about £10,000.
Manager Andrew Snell said: “This year to date we will have had £29,000 income in cash, and we will have spent close to £60,000 on food, so there’s a big gap there.”
Previously the food bank provided support to its clients twice a week for six weeks, with a three-month gap before another referral. It is now changing this to once a week for six weeks, followed by a longer six-month gap.
“We’ve gone back to being what we were before covid, which is an emergency food bank, as opposed to helping families on low incomes who are just about coping, or not quite coping,” Mr Snell explained.
The food bank receives about 75% of its donations via cash, and 25% from physical food donations, though five years ago it was the other way around.
“People were giving us the actual food but not so much in the way of money,” Mr Snell said.
“People were so generous in Didcot and the surrounding villages, they gave us more than we would ever need [during covid] and that’s where the reserve came from.”
GoogleThe food bank still expects to support about 6,000 clients this year.
Mr Snell said: “It’s been absolutely great to be able to help families who are on the borderline, and obviously we’ll regret not being able to do that in the immediate future.
“We’ll be looking at things as we go along to see if we can relax what we’ve put in place but that’s a little way down the line. It’s a matter of regret.”
He added: “I hope we’ll be able to increase the donations and go back to full-on help for people who are going to get a bit squeezed out at the moment.”
South Oxfordshire District Council’s community hub, Citizens Advice, schools and nurseries, medical practices, health visitors, housing associations and certain charities can officially refer people in need to the food bank.
Business
OpenAI valuation: ChatGPT parent is now worth $500 billion; more than SpaceX and ByteDance – The Times of India
ChatGPT maker OpenAI’s valuation has surged to $500 billion after employees and former staff cashed out $6.6 billion worth of shares in a secondary sale, a source familiar with the deal told Reuters. With this valuation, the AI giant has left behind SpaceX and ByteDance.The transaction lifts the artificial intelligence company’s value from $300 billion and highlights its rapid growth in both users and revenue. The shares were purchased by investors including Thrive Capital, SoftBank, Dragoneer Investment Group, Abu Dhabi’s MGX and T Rowe Price, the source told Reuters.OpenAI had cleared sales of more than $10 billion of stock on the secondary market, the source added. SoftBank’s participation adds to its earlier investment in OpenAI’s $40 billion primary funding round.Revenue at the company has also been rising sharply. OpenAI generated around $4.3 billion in the first six months of 2025, about 16% higher than its total earnings for the whole of last year, according to the Information.The deal comes as technology firms battle to secure top AI talent with generous pay packages. Meta, for instance, has poured billions into Scale AI and recently lured its 28-year-old founder Alexandr Wang to run its new superintelligence division.
Two Delta Air Lines planes collided at New York City’s LaGuardia Airport on Wednesday evening, leaving at least one person injured. The incident happened at around 9:56 pm local time when two regional jets came into contact while moving slowly on the taxiway.
As per reports, one of the aircraft, Delta Flight 5047, had landed from Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) and was heading to its gate. At the same time, another Delta regional jet, identified as Flight 5155, was also approaching the gate.
Two Delta planes collided while taxiing pic.twitter.com/Rn7CvlPFnA
— MJTruthUltra (MJTruthUltra) October 2, 2025
According to the air traffic control (ATC) audio cited by ABC News, the right wing of Flight 5155 struck the nose of Flight 5047. The impact caused the wing to break off and left visible damage to the second jet, including reports of windshield damage.
CBS reported that a correspondent at LaGuardia first posted video of the crash, saying his colleague was onboard Flight 5047 when the collision occurred. Both planes were moving at a low speed, but the impact was strong enough to cause significant damage. At least one injury has been confirmed, though details about the condition of the injured passenger have not been released.
LaGuardia Airport is the second-busiest airport in New York City after John F. Kennedy International Airport, which mostly handles domestic flights.
New Delhi: Amid the ongoing festive season, the Union government has released an additional tax devolution of Rs 1,01,603 crore to state governments, the Finance Ministry said on Wednesday. This is an additional amount to the normal monthly devolution, which is scheduled to be released on October 10.
According to the ministry, the decision was taken in view festive season to enable states to accelerate capital spending and finance their development and welfare-related expenditure. Uttar Pradesh, the nation’s most populous state, got the highest–Rs 18,227 crore, followed by Bihar (Rs 10,219 crore), Madhya Pradesh (Rs 7,976 crore), West Bengal (Rs 7,644 crore), Maharashtra (Rs 6,418 crore), and Rajasthan (Rs 6,123 crore).
Andhra Pradesh (Rs 4,112 crore), Odisha (Rs 4,601 crore), Tamil Nadu (Rs 4,144 crore), Karnataka (Rs 3,705 crore), and Jharkhand (Rs 3,360 crore) also received significant additional tax devolution. Earlier, the Finance Ministry said that the Centre had transferred Rs 4,28,544 crore to state governments as devolution of share of taxes during April-July, which is Rs 61,914 crore higher than the previous year.
Meanwhile, the Central government had received Rs 10,95,209 crore during the period, which comprises 31.3 per cent of the corresponding budget estimates (BE) for 2025-26. Of this, a sum of Rs 6,61,812 crore constitutes net tax revenue to the Centre, Rs 4,03,608 crore was non-tax revenue, and Rs 29,789 crore was part of non-debt capital receipts.
Total Expenditure incurred by the union government during the time frame was Rs 15,63,625 crore, which constitutes 30.9 per cent of the corresponding BE 2025-26. Out of this total amount, Rs 12,16,699 crore was on the revenue account and Rs 3,46,926 crore is on the capital account, which is spent on large infrastructure projects.
Interest payments made up Rs 4,46,690 crore of the total revenue expenditure, while major subsidies account for Rs 1,13,592 crore.
OpenAI valuation: ChatGPT parent is now worth $500 billion; more than SpaceX and ByteDance – The Times of India
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