Australian investment bank funds troubled UK utility’s overhaul of pipes and sewage works
The Australian infrastructure investor Macquarie has confirmed it will inject a further £550m into the UK’s Southern Water in an attempt to turn around the troubled company.
The funds are intended to help Southern Water, which supplies Kent, Sussex, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, to overhaul its leaky pipes and faulty sewage works.
Continue reading...Deadline has passed for Beijing to appeal against Tower Hamlets council’s rejection of plans
China has temporarily shelved plans to build a new embassy in London, angrily accusing the British government of not doing enough to force through planning permission for the project.
China had been given until Thursday to file an appeal to Tower Hamlets council in east London after the proposals for the embassy were rejected.
Continue reading...Police officers were called to house in Woking in early hours in response to a concern for safety
A murder investigation has been launched after a 10-year-old girl was found dead at a house in Woking.
Officers were called to a property on Hammond Road at about 2.50am on Thursday in response to a concern for safety. On arrival, the girl was found dead, Surrey police said.
Continue reading...Dal Babu calls for financial penalties after social media posts attract hundreds of teenagers to Oxford Street
Politicians are too scared to take on big tech companies, a former chief superintendent has said after posts shared on social media attracted hundreds of teenagers to London’s Oxford Street.
Police issued 34 dispersal orders and arrested nine individuals on Wednesday after people gathered outside JD Sports in an apparent response to posts on Snapchat and TikTok urging users to take part in an “Oxford Circus JD robbery” at 3pm.
Continue reading...MP failed to reveal shares in oil company for more than five years despite disclosure rules
A former environment secretary has revealed she has shares worth more than £70,000 in Shell that she did not disclose as required for more than five years.
Theresa Villiers was the secretary for environment, food and rural affairs from July 2019 until February 2020, but only this week disclosed she has had investments worth more than £70,000 each in Shell and the drinks company Diageo since February 2018. Villiers also disclosed shares worth more than £70,000 in Experian, held since July 2019, and in an investment trust, RIT Capital Partners.
Continue reading...Call for government to act amid anger over demolition of Crooked House pub in Staffordshire
The UK risks losing a vital part of its heritage unless planning laws are changed to protect historic pub buildings, campaigners have said.
Greg Mulholland, the director of Campaign for Pubs, said the growing anger over the fire and demolition of the Crooked House pub in Staffordshire must act as a “catalyst for change” in the approach to protecting historic pubs.
Continue reading...Cutting ties with green charity is part of culture war campaign to associate Labour with ‘lefty lawyers’ and ‘eco mobs’
• Sunak will go down in history as failing UK on climate, Greenpeace says
• ‘You have adopted a bunker mentality’: Greenpeace letter to Sunak
Scaling Rishi Sunak’s empty home to drape it in black fabric in protest at oil drilling is not the first time Greenpeace has targeted the home of senior politicians.
The environmental group surrounded David Cameron’s Cotswolds cottage in 2014 to campaign against his support for fracking, and mounted the roof of John Prescott’s home in 2005 in a demonstration against the government’s slowness on climate targets. It has also previously carried out stunts at Sunak’s North Yorkshire mansion.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Joint chiefs of charity accuse ministers of pursuing culture wars as extreme weather becomes the norm
• ‘You have adopted a bunker mentality’: letter to Sunak
• Cancelling Greenpeace contradicts Tory free-speech pledge
Rishi Sunak’s government will “go down in history” as the administration that failed the UK on the climate crisis while ministers pursued a dangerous culture war, the heads of Greenpeace have said.
The charity’s joint executive directors described government briefings against the organisation in the wake of its oil protest at the prime minister’s Yorkshire home as “really dark stuff”, which revealed a worrying trend towards exploiting environmental protests as a wedge issue.
Continue reading...Rishi Sunak mulls whether to follow US lead in restricting funding for advanced technologies
The British government is considering tightening rules on investment in China after the US president announced new measures aimed at limiting the dollars and expertise flowing into sensitive technologies in the country.
Joe Biden signed an executive order on Wednesday that authorises the US treasury secretary to prohibit or restrict US investments in Chinese entities in three sectors: semiconductors and microelectronics; quantum information technologies; and certain artificial intelligence systems.
Continue reading...Population has declined dramatically due to overfishing and environmental changes in the Indian Ocean
African penguins are on track for extinction by 2035 if measures are not taken to ensure their survival, campaigners have said.
The population of African penguins has declined dramatically over the past 100 years. In the early 20th century, it is thought that there were probably several million breeding pairs: today, fewer than 11,000 breeding pairs remain, and the population continues to fall sharply.
Continue reading...Ex-PM urges UK and allies to impose sanctions on Afghan regime over its ‘brutalisation’ of women and girls
Gordon Brown has called for the Taliban to be prosecuted for crimes against humanity, as he urged the UK government and its allies to impose sanctions against the Afghan regime.
The former Labour prime minister appealed to the international criminal court to prosecute those responsible for the “systematic brutalisation of women and girls”.
Continue reading...Hamish Ogston’s donation will fund up to 2,700 apprenticeships in crafts to preserve historic buildings
A British philanthropist has given almost £29m to heritage skills training, breathing new life into dying crafts and addressing the chronic shortage of specialists who can prevent historic buildings from deteriorating beyond repair.
Hamish Ogston’s donation, which has been made through his charitable foundation, will be announced on Thursday.
Continue reading...Ucas tells applicants to act quickly to avoid disappointment, with A-level results due in England, Wales and Northern Ireland next week
Students who miss out on their expected exam grades face fierce competition for university places this summer, with fewer vacancies on courses than in previous years.
A week before A-level results are published in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, several popular universities are reported to be full. This means applicants who fail to meet their grade offers will need to act quickly to secure a place elsewhere, the head of the Ucas admissions service said.
Continue reading...Campaigners say absorbent alternative to tampons and sanitary towels should not be classed as garments
MPs, retailers and charities have written to the government urging it to axe the 20% VAT on period pants, the absorbent underwear designed to be worn as an alternative to tampons and sanitary towels.
Period pants are classed as garments but campaigners are asking Victoria Atkins, who as financial secretary to the Treasury is the minister responsible for VAT, to get them reclassified as period products in the chancellor’s autumn statement later this year.
Continue reading...British carmaker also gearing up for sales of new Eletre electric SUV under Chinese owner Geely’s expansion plans
The British carmaker Lotus produced a record number of sports cars in the first half of 2023, as it gears up for a huge push behind sales of a new electric SUV under its Chinese owners’ expansion plans.
Lotus, which marked its 75th anniversary this year, produced 2,200 vehicles in the first six months of the year at its factory in a former second world war bomber factory at Hethel in Norfolk.
Continue reading...Study shows cost of living influencing students’ choice, with fears of limiting effect on career options
One in three students starting university this year may opt to live at home, according to new research that found rising costs and family needs are affecting the “Covid generation” of school-leavers.
Before the pandemic about 20% of first year undergraduates in England lived at home while studying, including older mature students. But a new survey of current sixth formers by University College London found that as many as 34% of 18-year-old school-leavers could stay at home if accepted by their first-choice university when exam results are published next week.
Continue reading...Genealogy site Scotland’s People made available records of adoptions dating back 100 years, raising fears for breaches of privacy
A genealogy website operated by the Scottish government has disclosed the names of thousands of people adopted as children.
The Scotland’s People site made available the records of adoptions dating back more than 100 years, records that included the adopted child’s first name and new surname. While the Information Commissioner’s Office has not received a formal breach report, its officials were contacted by National Records of Scotland (NRS), an official arm of the Scottish government that runs the website.
Continue reading...Robert Jenrick had said government would do ‘whatever is necessary’ to stop small boat crossings
The UK would be an international outlier along with Russia and Belarus if it left the European convention on human rights, a leading law body has warned, after a senior minister signalled that the move could be an option to stop small boat crossings.
Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, said the government would do “whatever is necessary”, even if that meant pulling out of the ECHR, the 70-year-old pan-European treaty that protects human rights and political freedoms in the continent.
Continue reading...Data from Electoral Commission breach could allow rogue actors to create AI-generated messages in effort to manipulate elections
Data accessed in the Electoral Commission hack could help state-backed actors target voters with AI-generated disinformation, experts have warned.
The UK elections watchdog revealed on Tuesday that a hostile cyber-attack had been able to access the names and addresses of all voters registered between 2014 and 2022.
Continue reading...Mark Winfield said that his son Jos was ‘left to rot’ after struggling with his mental health while at Brunel University London
A father whose undergraduate son killed himself after he fell behind with his studies has urged universities to take better care of students who are struggling with mental health issues.
Jos Winfield, an undergraduate at Brunel University London, would have celebrated his 22nd birthday this Saturday, but on Fathers’ day this year his parents found him dead in his bedroom at the family home in Somerset.
In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
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