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Von der Leyen to meet Trump in Scotland as EU and US close in on trade deal
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Commission chief to meet president on Sunday as Irish PM says deal will ‘hopefully’ be signed this weekend The EU appears to be on the verge of signing a trade deal with Donald Trump after the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, announced she would meet the US president on Sunday during his four-day trip to Scotland. Trump landed in Scotland on Friday evening before the opening of his new golf course in Aberdeenshire. He said he was also planning to meet the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, on Saturday. Continue reading...
Nationwide boss’s £7m pay package declared ‘obscenity’ during AGM
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Rise of 43% in Debbie Crosbie’s maximum payout approved at building society’s annual meeting despite criticism Nils Pratley: Nationwide’s members deserve real votes A £7m pay package for the Nationwide chief executive, Debbie Crosbie, has been labelled an “obscenity” and hypocritical by members of the mutual, even as it gained approval at the building society’s AGM on Friday. Concerned members who tuned into the online-only meeting on Friday morning criticised the board’s plan to increase Crosbie’s maximum payout by 43%, saying the move was out of touch and did not align with the mutual’s principles. Continue reading...
‘Intrinsically connected’: how human neurodiversity could help save nature
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Biodiversity is linked to people’s diversity, and nature lends itself to people who are different, says author Joe Harkness When Joe Harkness received a message from a friend about macerating moth abdomens to check their genitalia to identify the species, it sparked an idea for a new book about wildlife obsessions. But over time, this developed into a completely different book: a clarion call to embrace neurodiversity in the fight against the extinction crisis. Across Britain, 15% of people are thought to be neurodivergent. In the process of writing Neurodivergent, By Nature, Harkness discovered that an estimated 30% of conservation employees were neurodivergent. Why? Continue reading...
Weather tracker: heatwave triggers deadly wildfires in Turkey
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At least 10 killed and dozens hospitalised in north of country, while intense heat grips parts of Scandinavia Turkey and other parts of the Balkan peninsula have been gripped by a heatwave this week, sparking wildfires that have killed at least 10 people and left dozens in hospital. Temperatures intensified at the weekend, peaking at 43C (109F) in Volos, Greece, on Tuesday. Authorities closed tourist attractions such as the Acropolis between midday and 5pm. Continue reading...
Rachel Reeves considers overruling supreme court in £44bn car finance scandal
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Exclusive: Chancellor could step in if justices uphold entirety of ruling over commission paid to brokers The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is considering overruling the supreme court over a £44bn car loan commission scandal after lobbying by some of the UK’s biggest lenders, the Guardian can reveal. Under Treasury contingency plans being discussed for the event that justices decide to uphold the entirety of last October’s shock appeal court ruling that customers may be entitled to billions in compensation, the government would retrospectively change the law to cut liabilities for lenders. Continue reading...
Keir Starmer to push Donald Trump on steel tariffs; British retail sales rise in June – business live
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Live, rolling coverage of business, economics and financial markets Bitcoin fell alongside other high-risk assets on Friday, as hopes for a rate cut from the Fed next week begin to fade. The cryptocurrency dropped to a low of $115,122, its lowest level since 11 July. It comes after Bitcoin hit an all-time high of $123,205 last week, driven by optimism around a more welcoming regulatory environment in the US, which has helped boost demand for crypto products. Bitcoin has rallied by 24% against the US dollar in the year to date. Continue reading...
‘It’s all a game’ to some politicians, says Labour MP suspended for rebellion over planning bill
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Chris Hinchliff says language used is indicative of ‘private schoolboy drinking club’ culture within government Chris Hinchliff was surprised when he was called into the whip’s office at short notice to be told he was no longer a Labour MP because of his campaign to enshrine chalk stream protections in law. Hinchliff, 31, who last summer became the new MP for North East Hertfordshire, was suspended from the parliamentary Labour party, along with three other MPs, because of a small rebellion he organised over the planning and infrastructure bill. Continue reading...
EU fails to reduce 50% steel tariff in outline trade deal with US
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Bloc’s steel exporters face ‘catastrophic’ Trump levy, says industry body – potentially twice the rate for the UK The latest proposal for a trade agreement between the EU and the US does not include a removal or reduction of the punitive 50% tariff Donald Trump imposed on steel imports, it has emerged. It is a big setback for the industry in the EU which last month warned it faced being wiped out by the 50% rate, high energy costs and cheap Chinese competition. Continue reading...
European Central Bank keeps interest rates on hold despite sluggish growth
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Central bank shuns calls to reduce borrowing costs as higher US tariffs loom Business live – latest updates The European Central Bank has kept interest rates on hold as figures showed the eurozone economy maintaining a steady pace of economic growth amid low inflation. In what was widely expected to be a pause before further cuts later in the year, the Frankfurt-based central bank shunned calls to reduce the cost of borrowing and held its main interest rate at 2% and the deposit rate at 2.15%. Continue reading...
Trump effort to ditch greenhouse gas finding ignores ‘clearcut’ science, expert says
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Architect of landmark EPA ‘endangerment finding’ says repealing it will lead to more extreme weather in US One of the architects of a landmark 16-year-old finding on pollution’s impact on health that the Trump administration now wants to eliminate says that doing so would ignore “clearcut” science that has only become clearer today because of extreme weather. The Trump administration plans would sweep away the US government’s legal authority to limit greenhouse gases in order to address the climate crisis. Continue reading...
World’s smallest snake rediscovered in Barbados 20 years after last sighting
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Conservationists feared 10cm threadsnake as thin as a strand of spaghetti had become extinct The world’s smallest snake has been rediscovered in Barbados, 20 years after its last sighting. The Barbados threadsnake, which had been feared extinct, was rediscovered under a rock in the centre of the island during an ecological survey in March by the environment ministry and the conservation organisation Re:wild. Continue reading...
Newsman or businessman? Murdoch walks tightrope in battle with Trump
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Longstanding relationship between media mogul and US president is being tested amid Trump’s lawsuit over a WSJ story about his ties to Epstein Rupert Murdoch had made up his mind. “We want to make Trump a nonperson,” he assured one of his former executives in a 2021 email, two days after the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. Over seven decades, Murdoch has sought to charm, challenge and change prime ministers and presidents as he built one of the world’s most powerful media empires. In this particular endeavor, however, he failed. Continue reading...
How flood-ravaged Boston took on the climate deniers – and won
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As the Trump administration dismisses global heating, the coastal city is getting on with becoming one of the most climate resilient in the world. Here’s how Patrick Devine, a captain for Boston Harbor City Cruises, shows me on his phone the scenes here in September 2024. The water was ankle-deep outside the door to his office on Long Wharf, one of the US city’s oldest piers, obscuring the pavements and walkways, surging into buildings and ruining vehicles in the car parks. “It just gets worse and worse each year,” says Devine, who has worked here, on and off, since 1995. “I’ve gotten used to it, so it’s just knowing your way around it.” Much of Boston has got used to this. Devine has his own supply of sandbags now, for example. Next door to his office is the Chart House restaurant – when Long Wharf flooded last September, customers merrily sat at outside tables, holding their feet above the waterline, as servers with black bin bags for trousers waded over to bring them their lunches. The restaurant’s floor level is lower than that of the wharf, so the water came up to knee level in some areas. “It’s just part of business,” says one waiter, as he points out how the plug sockets are all at waist height. The place has flooded three times in the year he’s worked here. “We just clean it up, squeeze it out, open the doors, dry it out. It is what it is.” Continue reading...
I travelled the globe to document how humans became addicted to faking the natural world. Here’s what I found
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In his new book, The Anthropocene Illusion, photographer Zed Nelson reflects on the surreal environments created as people destroy nature, yet crave connection to it The Anthropocene is a new term used by scientists to describe our age. While scientific experts argue about the start date, many point to about 200 years ago, when the accelerated effects of human activity on the ecosphere were turbocharged by the Industrial Revolution. Our planet is said to have crossed into a new epoch: from the Holocene to the Anthropocene, the age of the human. The strata of rock being created under our feet today will reveal the impact of human activity long after we are gone. Future geologists will find radioactive isotopes from nuclear-bomb tests, huge concentrations of plastics, the fallout from the burning of fossil fuels and vast deposits of cement used to build our cities. Meanwhile, a report by the World Wide Fund for Nature and the British Zoological Society shows an average decrease of 73% of wild animal populations on Earth over the past 50 years, as we push creatures and plants to extinction by removing their habitats. Continue reading...
Gardens for the future: UK landscapers switch to drought-resistant planting as climate changes
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Historic English gardens adapt to rising temperatures by including plants such as monkey puzzle trees and beaked yucca Rare succulents, palm and monkey puzzle trees, beaked yucca and oriental hornbeams are just some of the new features in the historic gardens of England, as head gardeners get to grips with the changing climate this summer. In the historic Grade I-listed landscape at Sheffield Park and Garden in Sussex, designed in the 18th century by Capability Brown and Humphry Repton and famed for its rhododendrons and azaleas, the National Trust has planted a “more resilient” garden. It features drought-resistant flowers and trees from South America, Australasia and the Mediterranean. Continue reading...
Ofwat to be abolished as ministers look to create new water regulator
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Exclusive: Move follows intense criticism of utilities over sewage spills, shareholder payouts and ballooning debts Serious pollution incidents by English water firms rose 60% last year England and Wales’ embattled water regulator will be abolished under recommendations from a government-commissioned review due out on Monday, the Guardian understands. Ministers will next week announce a consultation into creating a new regulator, to coincide with the results of a review into the water industry directed by former Bank of England deputy governor Sir Jon Cunliffe. Continue reading...
BP agrees to sell US onshore wind business as it shifts back to oil
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Company to sell business for undisclosed sum to LS Power as part of plan to offload $20bn in assets BP has agreed a deal to sell off its onshore wind business in the US as the oil multinational turns its back on renewable energy after a failed attempt to go green. The company said it would sell its share of 10 windfarms, which generate enough clean energy to power more than 500,000 US homes, to the New York-headquartered LS Power. Continue reading...
‘We’re the canary in the coalmine’: when will Russia take action on the climate?
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World’s fourth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases pays lip service to tackling climate crisis and, with fossil fuels central to regime’s legitimacy, it seems happier with status quo Source of figures at top: World Economic Outlook Continue reading...
Festivalgoers help drive Burberry to best sales performance in 18 months
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Music fans snap up wellies, scarves and light jackets, with shares rising more than 4% on back of better-than-expected performance Shoppers snapping up Burberry wellies, scarves and light jackets to wear at music festivals have helped the fashion brand to its best sales performance in 18 months despite lacklustre spending by tourists around the world. Sales of the luxury British brand fell by 2% to £433m in the three months to the end of June, with a 1% decline at established stores, an improvement from the 6% fall in the previous quarter and the best performance since Christmas 2023. Continue reading...
Serious pollution incidents by English water companies rose 60% last year
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Environment Agency records 75 serious incidents among total of 2,800, with Thames Water being worst offender Serious pollution incidents by water companies were up 60% last year compared with the year before, data has revealed. These incidents are the most environmentally damaging and indicate that the sewage spill or other pollution incident has a serious, extensive or persistent impact on the environment, people or property. They could, for example, result in mass fish deaths in rivers. Continue reading...
Gas flaring created 389m tonnes of carbon pollution last year, report finds
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Rules to prevent ‘enormous waste’ of fuel are seen as weak and poorly enforced and firms have little incentive to stop The fossil fuel industry pumped an extra 389m tonnes of carbon pollution into the atmosphere last year by needlessly flaring gas, a World Bank report has found, in an “enormous waste” of fuel that heats the planet by about as much as the country of France. Flaring is a way to get rid of gases such as methane that arise when pumping oil out of the ground. While it can sometimes keep workers safe by relieving buildups of pressure, the practice is routine in many countries because it is often cheaper to burn gas than to capture, transport, process and sell it. Continue reading...
Netflix uses generative AI in one of its shows for first time
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Firm says technology used in El Eternauta is chance ‘to help creators make films and series better, not just cheaper’ Netflix has used artificial intelligence in one of its TV shows for the first time, in a move the streaming company’s boss said would make films and programmes cheaper and of better quality. Ted Sarandos, a co-chief executive of Netflix, said the Argentinian science fiction series El Eternauta (The Eternaut) was the first it had made that involved using generative AI footage. Continue reading...
China welcomes resumption of Nvidia H20 AI chip sales; Japan warns tariffs ‘not right tool’ – business live
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Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news The European Union has announced the approval of a fresh sanctions package on Russia over its war against Ukraine, which includes a revised oil price cap and new banking restrictions. EU member states gave the package the green light this morning after Slovakia lifted its veto. Continue reading...
Young, educated and knee deep in rubbish: the recyclers cleaning up in Cairo’s Garbage City
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Piles of waste line the streets of Manshiyet Nasr, turning it into a no-go zone for many. But a new generation see themselves as agents of change in the fight against plastic pollution When Mina Nedi graduated with a nursing degree last year, his friends and family expected him to start working in one of Egypt’s overstretched hospitals. Instead, the 25-year-old decided to join his father’s recycling business in Manshiyet Nasr, a neighbourhood on Cairo’s eastern outskirts known as Garbage City. Every day, he sorts through thousands of plastic bottles, collected by a team of men who roam the city at night to pick up rubbish, separating them by colour and compressing them into large bundles with the help of a machine, ready to be sold for recycling and reuse. Mina Nedi, 25, has been working as a plastic collector for five years and funded his university education with it Continue reading...
‘Keeping us hooked on fossil fuels’: how can we negotiate with autocracies on the climate crisis?
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The bulk of global greenhouse gas emissions come from countries that are not democratic, and many big oil and gas exporters are also authoritarian The big emitters: which countries are holding back climate action and why? When it comes to the climate crisis, how do you negotiate with an autocracy? It is the case today, and it is almost certain to remain so for the dwindling number of years in which we can hope to stave off the worst of climate breakdown, that the bulk of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions come from countries that are not democratic. Add to that, many of the major suppliers of oil and gas – the Gulf petrostates for instance, plus Russia, Venezuela and a few others – are likewise authoritarian. Continue reading...
The Foehn effect: why it’s warmer on one side of a mountain than the other
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Temperature on lee side of mountain can be several degrees higher, which benefits farmers but also brings perils One benefit of living on the lee side of a mountain – the side that is sheltered from the prevailing wind – is a micro-climate caused by the Foehn effect. Cold air pushed up one side of a mountain condenses and releases its moisture and then, as this air descends on the other side, it expands and warms. In Scotland the temperature can be 10C higher on one side of a mountain than the other and much drier. Anywhere that has mountains will experience the Foehn effect, and the higher the mountains the greater the warming. In the Alps and North America, where mountain ranges are covered in glaciers and snow, this sudden rise in temperature can trigger avalanches, especially in the spring. The Foehn effect’s advantage, where there is a fairly consistent prevailing wind, is that farmers get an earlier and longer growing season on the lee side of the mountain range. The simple rule is that whichever way the wind is blowing from, it is going to be warmer on the other side of the hill. Continue reading...
Jaguar Land Rover delays launch of new Range Rover Electric
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Exclusive: Customers are told the carmaker is allowing more time for testing and for demand to pick up Britain’s largest carmaker, Jaguar Land Rover, has delayed the planned launches of its new electric Range Rover and electric Jaguar models to give it time for more testing and for demand to pick up, the Guardian can reveal. JLR has written to customers waiting for the Range Rover Electric to inform them that deliveries of the new version of the model will not start until next year, after initially aiming for late 2025. Continue reading...
‘Cult of convenience’: how Tokyo’s retro shotengai arcades are falling victim to gentrification
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Across Japan covered shopping arcades are in a losing battle against property developers, depopulation and consumer culture Tsutomu Nishiwaki raises the shutters of his store, the rattle marking the start of a new day at a shopping arcade in Tokyo. He wheels a display case into the foreground and stands behind the counter, framed by a sign proclaiming that this is a family-run noodle store. It is a ritual Nishiwaki has been performing almost daily for 60 years. But like the fresh noodles its owner makes every morning, the store has a limited shelf life: in a few years from now, the 80-year-old will pull down the shutters for the last time. Continue reading...
This Jurassic-era relic has survived 150 million years on Earth – now it’s one big fire from extinction
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Australian scientists say assassin spiders are a ‘window into the past’ – and many invertebrates face a similarly precarious situation Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast For the last five weeks, Jane Ogilvie has searched a patch of dense shrub shaded by sugar gums on Kangaroo Island in South Australia for a surviving relic from 150m years ago. The only known home of the critically endangered Kangaroo Island assassin spider is in the north-west of the island, where the Jurassic-era spider hides out in moist clumps of leaf litter. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email Continue reading...
New ‘buy now, pay later’ affordability checks may cover even smallest loans
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City watchdog publishes details of its plans to regulate the BNPL market, which has now grown to £13bn Lenders may have to carry out affordability checks on even the smallest buy now, pay later loans under new rules drawn up by the City watchdog. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)on Friday published details of its plan to regulate the £13bn buy now, pay later (BNPL) market. Continue reading...
OpenAI launches personal assistant capable of controlling files and web browsers
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AI agent can find restaurant reservations and go shopping for users, but OpenAI acknowledges there are ‘more risks’ Users of ChatGPT will be able to ask an AI agent to find restaurant reservations, go shopping for them and even draw up lists of candidates for job vacancies, as the chatbot gains the powers of a personal assistant from Thursday. ChatGPT agent, launched by Open AI everywhere apart from the EU, not only “thinks” but also acts, the US company said. The agent combines the powers of AI research tools with the ability to take control of web browsers, computer files and software such as spreadsheets and slide decks. Continue reading...
‘Worse than Covid’: hospitality bosses blame Reeves’ budget for UK downturn
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With data suggesting the sector has been hit hardest, some employers can’t afford to recruit summer workers Unemployment rises and wage growth slows Analysis: UK jobs market is cooling but not collapsing “From a financial point of view, last year’s budget was worse for hospitality than Covid,” says Philip Thorley, who owns 18 pubs across Kent and employs about 400 people. Usually he is looking to recruit staff to help out in the summer months but this year will be different, he says, as the £25bn increase in employers’ national insurance contributions (NICs) that came into force in April has been “catastrophic for our company and industry”. Continue reading...
From landfill to luxury: how a designer uses scraps from Hermès and Chanel to make leather goods
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Hyer Goods sells bags, wallets and other products made from high-end deadstocks – leftover fabrics that might otherwise end up in landfills After more than a decade as a fashion designer, Dana Cohen was disillusioned. Excessive waste was rampant in every part of the industry – from surplus samples, to manufacturing scraps, to retail stores with “a disheveled mountain of garments that nobody wanted”, she said. “I was like, ‘I just don’t want to be a part of it any more.’” Then Cohen, who had designed for brands including Banana Republic, Club Monaco and J Crew, had a chance encounter with a manufacturer that changed her course. Drishti Lifestyle, based in India, had a container full of leather scraps it didn’t want to discard. Together they experimented, and made some wallets and a handbag, all of which sold out. That was the very start of Cohen’s sustainable leather accessories company – and her mission to make a dent in the industry’s immense waste problem. Continue reading...
Zuckerberg and Meta officers settle claim they lost company billions by violating privacy laws
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Shareholders sued Zuckerberg and others in hopes of holding them liable for fines and legal costs that Meta paid Mark Zuckerberg and current and former directors and officers of Meta Platforms agreed on Thursday to settle claims seeking $8bn for the damage they allegedly caused the company by allowing repeated violations of Facebook users’ privacy, a lawyer for the shareholders told a Delaware judge on Thursday. The parties did not disclose details of the settlement and defense lawyers did not address the judge, Kathaleen McCormick of the Delaware court of chancery. McCormick adjourned the trial just as it was to enter its second day and she congratulated the parties. Continue reading...
M&S reinstates Sparks loyalty scheme after cyber-attack
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Retailer also offers staff a brief ‘thank you’ discount as it starts to recover from the hack on its IT systems over Easter Marks & Spencer is restarting its Sparks loyalty scheme benefits for shoppers and offering a brief “thank you” discount to staff as it moves back to full operations after a damaging cyber-attack. The Sparks scheme was suspended, as were all orders from M&S’s website, after hackers gained access to its IT systems over the Easter weekend in April. Continue reading...
‘It feels cool to be a cog in change’: how doughnut economics is reshaping a Swedish town
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A casual mention of Kate Raworth’s theory has grown into the basis for decision making in Tomelilla In a small town in Sweden, the local authority is carrying out an unusual experiment. In 2021 one of the team had been reading an article about the concept of doughnut economics – a circular way of thinking about the way we use resources – and he brought it up. “I just mentioned it casually at a meeting, as a tool to evaluate our new quality of life programme, and it grew from there,” says Stefan Persson, Tomelilla’s organisational development manager. Continue reading...
Jaguar Land Rover to axe 500 UK management jobs as Trump tariffs fallout dents sales
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British carmaker to offer voluntary redundancy after 15.1% sales drop in three months to June UK unemployment rises as jobs market ‘weakens’ Jaguar Land Rover has said it will axe up to 500 management jobs in the UK after reporting a plunge in sales linked to Donald Trump’s tariffs. The British luxury carmaker said about 1.5% of its staff in the UK would be affected by the cuts as part of a voluntary redundancy round for managers. JLR, which is owned by India’s Tata Motors, employs 33,000 people in the UK. Continue reading...
HS2 subcontractor’s role on £100m ‘bat tunnel’ terminated after claims of inflated pay rates
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Contractor BAM ends Danny Sullivan Group’s involvement following investigation into ‘compliance issues’ An HS2 subcontractor has been terminated from its role supplying labour to build a £100m “bat tunnel” following an investigation into allegations of overinflating rates for staff. BAM Nuttall (BAM), part of a consortium that is the main works contractor for the much-delayed £80bn-plus high-speed rail line between London and Birmingham, said it had ended the involvement of Danny Sullivan Group (DSG) on projects where “compliance issues have been identified”. Continue reading...
US waterways are full of dumped tires. The ‘River Cowboy’ won’t stand for it
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Tires take decades to decompose, and millions are improperly dumped every year. An intrepid group sets out to clear Kentucky’s ‘conveyor belt of trash’ In the 1980s, Russ Miller and his wife moved to a far edge of eastern Kentucky’s Red River Gorge, where they built a homestead on a ridge hugged by three sides of the river. It’s the kind of place you can only get to with a hand-drawn map. A place so remote that the farther and farther you drive to get to it, the more unsure you are that you are in the right place. They would spend leisurely afternoons drifting the river in inner tubes, until they started noticing what floated alongside them: heaps of discarded junk. Continue reading...
Southern Water nearly doubles CEO pay to £1.4m despite bonus ban
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Lawrence Gosden’s award comes amid high levels of corporate debt, serious sewage leaks and recent hosepipe ban Southern Water has nearly doubled its chief executive’s annual pay package to £1.4m, despite financial difficulties and a government ban on it awarding bonuses. Lawrence Gosden was awarded £691,000 under a “two-year long-term incentive plan” (LTIP), on top of fixed pay of £687,000 in its last financial year, according to the company’s annual report, published this week. Continue reading...
Trump’s $1tn for Pentagon to add huge planet-heating emissions, study shows
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Exclusive: 17% increase in military spending will add emissions equivalent to those of some entire countries Donald Trump’s huge spending boost for the Pentagon will produce an additional 26 megatons (Mt) of planet-heating gases – on a par with the annual carbon equivalent (CO2e) emissions generated by 68 gas power plants or the entire country of Croatia, new research reveals. The Pentagon’s 2026 budget – and climate footprint – is set to surge to $1tn thanks to the president’s One Big Beautiful Act, a 17% rise on last year. Continue reading...
UK in ‘serious jobs recession’ as payrolls fall and unemployment rises – business live
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Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news Deutsche Bank’s chief UK economist Sanjay Raja agrees that the UK’s labour market is continuing to cool, with both payrolls and vacancies down. Raja explains: Redundancies remain elevated with the May data showing a 114k increase in the three months to May – its highest level in three months. Jobs demand remains weak as hiring plans are near a standstill. This will continue to see unemployment rise – but we think this will be a slow grind higher as opposed to a whipsaw higher. For the MPC, despite the bump higher in inflation, the loosening in labour market should give the BoE reason to proceed with a gradual dial down of restrictive policy. The fallout in the labour market from the hikes in National Insurance Contributions and the minimum wage is not as big as previously thought. Even so, as payroll employment is falling and wage growth is easing, the Bank of England will still continue to cut interest rates despite yesterday’s strong inflation release. Continue reading...
Labour backbench MPs push for tough, wholesale changes to gambling regulation
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Large and growing group fear ministers may pull their punches when drafting new legislation to appease donors The embattled Labour leadership is facing a challenge from backbench MPs pushing for wholesale reform of gambling regulation, putting Keir Starmer on a potential collision course with some of the party’s largest donors. The Guardian understands that a large and growing group of backbenchers are concerned that ministers may pull punches on further regulation of the UK’s betting and gaming sector, which took a record £11.5bn from punters last year. Continue reading...
European missile group MBDA selling parts for bombs that have killed children in Gaza
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Exclusive: Britain has paused some weapons sales to Israel, but a Guardian investigation shows revenues from the GBU-39 bomb generated by the US arm of MBDA flow through the UK Europe’s largest missiles maker, MBDA, is selling key components for bombs that have been shipped in their thousands to Israel and used in multiple airstrikes where research indicates Palestinian children and other civilians were killed. With concerns mounting about the extent to which European companies may be profiting from the devastation of Gaza, a Guardian investigation with the independent newsrooms Disclose and Follow the Money has examined the supply chain behind the GBU-39 bomb, and the ways in which it has been deployed during the conflict. Continue reading...
Tax on AI and crypto could fund climate action, says former Paris accords envoy
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Laurence Tubiana urges governments to consider levies on energy-hungry technology Governments should consider taxing artificial intelligence and cryptocurrencies to generate funds to deal with the climate crisis, one of the architects of the Paris agreement has said. Laurence Tubiana, the chief executive of the European Climate Foundation and a former French diplomat, is co-lead of the Global Solidarity Levies Task Force, an international initiative to find new sources of funds for climate action by taxing highly polluting activities including aviation and fossil fuel extraction. Continue reading...
Country diary: The fields are green again after misty midsummer mornings | Virginia Spiers
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Tamar Valley, Cornwall: The heat has been tempered here of late, but still we have gatekeeper and ringlet butterflies seeking out the buddleia In the relative cool of evening I pick yet more blueberries and blackcurrants from unusually heavily laden bushes in the fruit cage. The top net is not yet replaced after the snow damage before Christmas but, amazingly, there is no bird or squirrel predation. A blackbird continues to sing in the hedge and a young robin flits beside me, in search of insects. Across the lane, silence is broken as our neighbouring farmer, with telescopic handler, dextrously manoeuvres big round bales from the long trailer on to the spinning wrapper, before piling up the black-plastic-covered haylage in readiness for winter. Late sun still lights the north‑facing slope opposite, where pale brown suckler cows, their calves and a bull spread across the pasture. Part of the main herd of around 100 pedigree South Devon cows, this group of 20 cows and calves at foot are rotated between the fields, and in our view throughout the summer months. Their long days of grazing are interspersed with regular lie‑downs, all gathered around the bull as they chew the cud. Continue reading...
‘There’s a bit of a queue forming’: how UK firms are enticing buyers for the next generation of fighter jets
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Inside the hangars where robots are poised to keep the UK a top-tier military nation and continue more than a century of building military aircraft In a factory on the banks of the River Ribble in Lancashire, robot arms stand on a floor striped with glowing lights. They will hold the tail fin for a test model for the UK’s next generation fighter jet, which is intended to fly for the first time in 2027. The jet, known as Tempest, will act as a symbol of Britain’s hopes to remain a top-tier military nation and keep alive more than a century of building military aircraft. Yet things are markedly different in another hangar at the Warton site, run by British arms manufacturer BAE Systems. There, production of the Typhoon jet, a mainstay of the Royal Air Force (RAF) for two decades, has – for now at least – ground to a halt. Continue reading...
Reform-led Durham county council scraps climate emergency declaration
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Durham is thought to be first UK local authority to rescind its statement, in a move condemned as a ‘very dark day’ A Reform-led council is thought to have become the first in the UK to rescind its climate emergency declaration, a move condemned as “a very dark day” for the authority. Durham county council, which has had an overwhelming Reform majority since the May local elections, passed a motion to rescind a declaration made in 2019. More than 300 local authorities have declared a climate emergency. Continue reading...
Southern Water issues hosepipe ban for 1m people in Hampshire and Isle of Wight
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Announcement takes number of people hit by restrictions across England to about 8.5 million Southern Water has become the fourth English utility to issue a hosepipe ban, taking the number of people hit by such restrictions to about 8.5 million. The latest ban, which comes into force for about 1 million residents across large swathes of Hampshire and all of the Isle of Wight from 9am on Monday, comes after Yorkshire, Thames and South East Water announced similar measures. Continue reading...