Nearly $2,000 iPhone Duo will be available on 23 October
Apple unveiled the iPhone Duo, its first foldable phone, as newly installed CEO John Ternus led the company’s annual showcase for the first time. The nearly $2,000 device will be available on 23 October.
The phone takes inspiration from the wide screens of iPads. When opened, it has Apple’s largest phone display and is the company’s thinnest phone. The Guardian described the Duo as the most significant change to the iPhone since its 2007 introduction.
Competitors have released foldable smartphones since the late 2010s, but the Duo is Apple’s first. The Guardian said the rollout is the first major test for Ternus, who took over from Tim Cook last week.
“I want to take a moment to express what an extraordinary privilege it is to represent the remarkable teams here at Apple,” Ternus said. “I continue to be inspired every single day by the curiosity, invention and relentless pursuit of excellence that define Apple.”
An accompanying photograph showed Ternus alongside Apple vice-president of industrial design Molly Anderson as they displayed the iPhone Duo.
In other reporting, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said during a trip to Quito that the Trump administration was focused on working with allied countries and aligning its efforts with their laws. An accompanying photograph showed Rubio speaking to the press outside the US embassy in Quito.
“I think its an incredible advance for the first time to have countries that are willing to participate in these efforts in their territorial waters,” Rubio told reporters. “The important point is that these routes are being disrupted. These routes are being ended.”
Rubio nevertheless said the US military would “still blow up ships if need be.” The statement came a year after Washington began unilateral deadly strikes against people it calls “narco-terrorists” operating boats in international waters.
Late Wednesday, US Southern Command announced the latest strike in the Caribbean Sea and said it killed three people. The strike brought the number of people killed in US military boat strikes to at least 230 across 69 strikes, The Guardian reported.
The US also designated Ecuador’s Los Tiguerones gang as a terrorist organization. Rubio linked the gang to narcotics trafficking and attacks on civilians, law enforcement officers and journalists.
“We are talking about terrorists who, in many cases, possess weapons and equipment resembling the national armies of certain countries,” Rubio said.
Three researchers with Anthropic warned that artificial intelligence could kill off humanity within the decade, The Guardian reported. One of the researchers quit his job in protest.
Jacob Coxon accused Anthropic and his previous employer, OpenAI, of ignoring or, at best, mishandling their response to the threat.
“The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade,” Coxon said. “This is not a marketing stunt. No other human activity poses this level of danger.”
Lawmakers including Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders raised concerns following Coxon’s remarks.
In Dallas, President Donald Trump used a marathon speech at the Republican midterm convention to pledge $5,000 to every adult US citizen if Republicans retain the House and Senate in the midterm elections. The Guardian said the proposal would cost more than $1 trillion and immediately raised ethical concerns.
Trump assailed Democrats as “radical,” defended what The Guardian described as his unpopular war in Iran and urged voters to “pretend that I’m on the ballot.” An accompanying photograph showed Trump in Dallas.
Trump claimed, without evidence, that his second term had been “the most successful two years, financially and every other way, in the history of the presidency.”
Democratic National Committee chair Ken Martin accused Republicans in a statement of holding a “bizarre dog-and-pony show” to placate Trump’s “fragile ego.”
“Tonight only confirmed that the president is a lame duck failure who is dragging his party toward defeat,” Martin said.
The Guardian reported that Republicans were gambling that the GOP’s first midterm convention could salvage their threatened House majority. The outlet said Trump’s “dismal approval rating” drove many competitive candidates to skip the two-day event entirely.
Trump also said he would consider pardoning Michael Cohen, his former fixer, whom he once branded a “rat” for testifying against him. Cohen was Trump’s personal lawyer before breaking with him in 2018 and pleading guilty to federal crimes including facilitating a hush payment to pornography star Stormy Daniels and lying under oath to Congress.
Elsewhere, a UN agency said North Korea had built a new uranium facility to expand its nuclear arsenal. The newsletter included an image showing North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inspecting a nuclear materials production factory.
Hurricane Lowell caused significant damage to Hawaii’s western islands as it passed and left widespread power outages on Kauai.
A large-scale search-and-rescue operation was underway in the Philippines after a passenger ferry caught fire, killing five people and leaving scores of passengers missing.
Instagram’s boss said users would be “overwhelmed” with brand content in an algorithm-free world after Australia’s government announced plans to give people an opt-out.
Ultrarunner Megan Eckert ran 636 miles in six days, breaking both the US men’s and women’s records.
Aid contributions fell 30% between 2022 and 2025, causing one of the humanitarian system’s largest contractions since it was formed in the post-second-world-war era, according to the State of the Humanitarian System 2026 report. An accompanying photograph showed people queuing for food aid in Kenya.
The newsletter also presented experts’ recommendations for keeping dogs fulfilled, ranging from indoor scent training to the longest-lasting slow feeders. An accompanying image identified Willow as a miniature dachshund.
As the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks approached, Guardian writer Chris Stein examined what the outlet described as Trump’s habit of stretching the truth about 9/11. International security correspondent Jason Burke reported that experts were sounding the alarm over “complacency” in current US counter-terror efforts. An accompanying image showed the World Trade Center towers burning behind the Empire State Building in New York.
The Guardian reported a 63% rise in Americans renting properties in Scotland since Trump’s 2024 re-election. Politics was one reason among several motivations reported by Anita Chaudhuri. An accompanying photograph identified Corey Kinnan as an American Caledonian convert.
A new study found that rising global temperatures caused by burning fossil fuels are transforming forests, wetlands and tundra to the point that the ecosystems are releasing emissions that could further worsen global heating by as much as 30%. The newsletter accompanied the report with an image of wildfires in South Sumatra.
Authorities in India were investigating whether five baby orangutans found in a forest thousands of miles from their natural habitat had been trafficked into the country. An accompanying photograph showed the five orangutans after their rescue.