Thursday newspaper round-up: WPP, Jerome Powell, Elon Musk

(Sharecast News) - The advertising agency WPP has been asked to work up ideas for a government-endorsed advertising blitz to urge more consumers to invest in stocks through a "Tell Sid"-style campaign expected to cost tens of millions of pounds. Plans for the nationwide push were announced by chancellor Rachel Reeves on Tuesday at her Mansion House speech, as she unveiled a fresh deregulation drive meant to increase financial risk-taking across the UK to help spur growth. - Guardian Donald Trump has privately indicated he is on the verge of firing the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, rattling Wall Street and renewing questions over the US central bank's independence. The US president insisted on Wednesday that it was "highly unlikely" he would dismiss the Fed chair, after reports he had suggested he would and shown a draft letter dismissing Powell to political allies. - Guardian

A British-made drone has shot down targets using precision missiles for the first time, in a breakthrough that could help troops repel attacks by unmanned aircraft. The heavy-lift quadcopter was equipped with laser-guided rockets that were successfully fired at flying winged drones during trials this summer over a desert in Utah. - Telegraph

A girlfriend chatbot launched by Elon Musk's tech group is available to 12-year-olds despite being programmed to engage in sexual conversation. The bot named Ani, launched by Mr Musk's artificial intelligence group xAI, is a cartoon girlfriend programmed to act as a 22-year-old and "go full literotica" in conversations with users. - Telegraph

The boss of the City regulator has insisted officials are not trying to "cover their backs" by calling on ministers to set out their risk appetite as part of the government's drive to cut red tape. Nikhil Rathi, who runs the Financial Conduct Authority, told peers scrutinising the watchdog's work on Wednesday that he hoped for an "open discussion around risk" and that "every part of the system needs to be ideally as coherent as possible" if efforts to reform regulation to bolster the economy are to succeed. - The Times