When Andy Burnham stepped up to the podium at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the room was already full of speeches about climate, conflict and inequality. But the words he brought with him were about something harder to see, and in many ways more dangerous. He warned of an “insidious campaign” of hostile foreign interference, a phrase that sounded carefully chosen and deliberately uncomfortable. This was not a warning about bombs or spies in the traditional sense. It was about a quieter, more creeping form of warfare aimed directly at the United Kingdom’s democratic soul. The goal,…

In a dramatic twist that sent ripples through the worlds of high finance and Las Vegas entertainment, billionaire Barry Diller has walked away from his audacious $18 billion offer to buy MGM Resorts International. The Strip casino giant announced Wednesday that Diller had withdrawn his proposal after months of closed-door negotiations with the company’s board of directors. For Diller, a legendary media mogul and one of the most fascinating figures in American business, the decision marked the end of an ambitious push to take control of a company he already knew intimately. For MGM, it was a powerful validation of…