Exclusive: Eight companies expect to be covered by the ban for 2025-26, the Guardian can reveal
Water company bosses’ total pay rose over the past year despite a government bonus ban and public outrage over pollution and bills, the Guardian can reveal.
One chief executive, Mark Thurston of Anglian Water, received £1.9m – including a £500,000 “retention payment”, despite the bonus ban.
Continue reading...Lib Dems call on PM to push for suspension of ‘bungled, malfunctioning’ system as overseas holiday travel peaks
Andy Burnham has been urged to lobby EU leaders directly to suspend the new entry-exit system, EES, as the peak weekend for overseas holidays begins.
About 2.2 million British holidaymakers are expected to head abroad between Friday and Monday, the majority to Europe, with all schools in the UK now on their summer break.
Continue reading...Rudakubana moved to psychiatric hospital after it was concluded he could not be safely managed in prison
The Southport killer Axel Rudakubana has been accused of attempting to “manipulate the system” by the families of his victims, after it emerged he had been transferred from prison to a psychiatric hospital.
Rudakubana, 19, was jailed for life in January last year, with a minimum sentence of 52 years, for the murders of Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Bebe King, six, and nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar.
Continue reading...Soaring temperatures fuel demand for air conditioners and outdoor goods, helping retailers beat expectations in June
Online sales reached their highest share of retail spending in five years last month as record heat fuelled demand for air conditioners, outdoor products and clothing.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the volume of retail sales in Great Britain rose 1% month on month in June, beating analysts’ expectations of a 0.3% decline, helped by hot weather and World Cup spending.
Continue reading...IRGC claims base in south-west England was used by US to launch bombing missions, making it ‘legitimate target’
The government has said the UK is “ready to defend itself” after Iran’s military warned that any bases being used by the US were “legitimate targets”.
The UK has allowed the US to launch “defensive” operations from British bases hosting American planes since the start of its war on Iran but has refused to help in offensive operations.
Continue reading...Conservative leader is becoming more confident and forging a message for her party, but faces a new opponent
“So, Andy Burnham seems like a nice guy.” Those were the slightly unexpected opening words of Kemi Badenoch’s first speech since the change in prime minister. But make no mistake: she was there to bury her opponent.
Even Badenoch-sceptics inside the Conservative party and farther afield agree the Tory leader is becoming more confident, and has been able to forge an increasingly coherent message for her party, one based on a promise of economic competence.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Clinical assessments concluded Rudakubana could not be safely managed in prison, sources say
The Southport killer Axel Rudakubana has been moved from prison to a psychiatric hospital after clinical assessment, the Guardian can disclose.
He was transferred to Broadmoor high-security hospital from the category A prison Belmarsh this week after it was concluded that he could not be managed safely in a prison environment, sources confirmed.
Continue reading...CEO Chris O’Shea defends Centrica’s plans as it reports rise in retail profits following focus on bigger margins
The owner of British Gas has claimed that most households would rather speak with an AI chatbot than deal with the company’s staff as it prepares to cut 1,300 jobs from its call centres.
Centrica, the supplier’s FTSE 100 owner, plans to cut 800 jobs as the company carries out a “targeted deployment of AI tools”, on top of the 500 cuts it confirmed last month.
Continue reading...September exercise called off after Kenya raises concerns over funding and jurisdiction for criminal offences
The British army has been forced to cancel training for its troops in Kenya after the Kenyan government refused to ratify a bilateral defence agreement.
While the UK government wanted to renew the existing agreement, Kenyan lawmakers had sought changes to give local authorities greater powers to hold British soldiers accountable for any offences committed in the country.
Continue reading...New prime minister has made Sarwar – the first senior Labour figure to call for Keir Starmer’s resignation – a peer
Scottish Labour’s rivals in Holyrood have slammed Anas Sarwar’s shock decision to resign as leader to sit in Andy Burnham’s new government, calling him a “chancer” and accusing him of lying to voters.
The prime minister has made Sarwar – who was the first senior Labour figure to call for Keir Starmer to resign – a peer and given him a ministerial post at the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, No 10 announced on Wednesday.
Continue reading...European Commission says Paramount Skydance’s decision to end Universal venture addresses merger concerns
Paramount Skydance’s £80bn takeover of Warner Brothers took a step closer to being realised after it won conditional approval from the European Union.
The European Commission said Paramount’s offer to end a film distribution joint venture with Universal Pictures addressed its concerns over the potential merger. As part of its commitments in the EU, Paramount has 13 months from the date of closing the deal to pull out from the venture.
Continue reading...PM says he wants to ensure ‘everything has been looked at’ amid outrage at policy from family of PC Andrew Harper
Andy Burnham is immersed in a deepening political row after ordering a review of plans for the early release of thousands of killers, rapists and sex offenders from prison in September.
After the family of PC Andrew Harper expressed outrage that his killers may be eligible for release, the prime minister responded by pledging to make sure that “everything has been looked at again” before a fresh tranche of about 6,000 offenders were freed on tags.
Continue reading...Public prosecutor for the region said suspect had been initially arrested shortly after the murder on 29 April last year
A 70-year-old woman has been charged with the murder of Karen Carter, the British expat found dead in south-western France last year.
The woman was charged on 2 July with Carter’s murder in Trémolat, in the Dordogne, and is “under judicial supervision”.
Continue reading...Record June temperatures expected to cut grain harvest by 9m tonnes to its lowest level since 2018
The heatwave that swept across Europe in June is estimated to have cost the continent’s grain farmers €2bn (£1.7bn) in lost revenue and destroyed 9m tonnes of crops, sparking concern about the impact on the price of food.
Coceral, the European cereals and oilseeds trade association, made the estimate for the harvest of crops such as wheat, barley, maize and oats following the heatwave.
Continue reading...Annual June figure comes after new PM pledges to reduce cost of living and improve economy
UK inflation dropped by more than expected in June to 2.6%, in a boost for Andy Burnham’s plans to reduce the cost of living.
The new prime minister has pledged to bring down the cost of living to give households more disposable income and improve the outlook for the economy, announcing a winter VAT cut on electricity bills and lowering the cap on bus fares in England.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Research shows millions live more than a 1km round trip from 24/7 accessible device
More than 16 million people in England and Wales risk dying from a cardiac arrest because they live farther than a 1km round trip from the nearest 24/7 defibrillator, according to exclusive research.
Analysis of publicly available defibrillators by the Heart Restart campaign found that in England and Wales alone, 35 million people – more than half the population – do not live within the recommended three- to five-minute brisk walk of a defibrillator. Of these, about half live more than a 1km round trip from a 24/7 accessible defibrillator.
There are more than 40,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests each year in the UK, but fewer than one in 10 people survive. However, early cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and defibrillation can more than double the chance of survival.
Continue reading...Puffling excites volunteers trying to save the last known regular nesting site on mainland of southern England
For years, volunteers have craned their necks and tested their patience to peer into the crevices of the cliffs hoping for a glimpse of fluffy joy.
Finally it all paid off as a puffling – baby puffin – poked its way into the sunshine, becoming the first to be spotted on the coast of Dorset in southern England for three decades.
Continue reading...UK resident was evacuated from Democratic Republic of the Congo where there is an outbreak of the disease
A humanitarian worker is being monitored at a specialist hospital in London after potential exposure to the Ebola virus.
The UK resident was medically evacuated from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) where the worker had been treating patients with the disease, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said.
Continue reading...Such technology solves problem of longer, thinner, energy-saving wings not fitting in airports around the world
Airbus has said it will test folding wings for the next generation of its bestselling planes, as the world’s largest planemaker races to work out the shape of future commercial aircraft by the end of the decade.
Longer, thinner wings made of light but strong composite materials offer the promise of energy savings but present a problem for manufacturers because they will not fit in airports around the world, many of which are already at or near full capacity.
Continue reading...James Desborough told court he had discovered bodies of Claudio Aquilino and Daniel Coleman on his land near St Austell
A convicted killer accused of murdering two of his friends whose remains were found burnt and dismembered near his Cornish woodland cabin has insisted he did not kill them but had discovered their bodies on his land.
James Desborough claimed he came upon one of the bodies hanging from a tree and the second lying naked in a stream.
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