Great Britain’s grid operator pays £10m for extra power to avoid supply crunch tonight
Posted on Wednesday June 24, 2026

Neso expected to pay millions to secure enough electricity to meet demand as households turn on fans and air conditioning

Great Britain’s grid operator is expected to pay millions to fire up gas power plants to avoid a rare summer power supply crunch on Wednesday evening as extreme heat puts pressure on the energy system.

The National Energy System Operator (Neso) is expected to pay about £10m on Wednesday to secure enough electricity to meet demand as households turn on air conditioners and electric fans, according to industry data.

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Exploit last North Sea oil and gas or risk mass job losses, Andy Burnham urged
Posted on Wednesday June 24, 2026

British Chamber of Commerce boss Shevaun Haviland says transition to clean energy could be handled better

Andy Burnham should be ready to exploit the UK’s remaining North Sea oil and gas resources to avoid mass job losses in Scotland and the north-east, the director of the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), Shevaun Haviland, has said.

The decision about whether to allow extraction at the Jackdaw and Rosebank fields now appears likely to fall to a Burnham administration.

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BT pension scheme lost £300m on Thames Water stake
Posted on Wednesday June 24, 2026

Loss came after decision to write off 8.7% equity stake in water company moving closer towards nationalisation

The BT pension scheme lost £300m after writing off its holding in Thames Water, the UK’s largest water company that is buckling under a £20bn debt pile.

The loss came after the telecoms company’s decision to write off its 8.7% equity stake in Thames in 2024, according to a presentation to analysts captured in a video, in news first reported by the Financial Times.

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Trump says he’s ordered investigation into oil companies over alleged price gouging
Posted on Wednesday June 24, 2026

Trump says he instructed justice department to investigate oil firms over high gas prices amid Middle East conflict

Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he had instructed the US Department of Justice to investigate oil companies for alleged price gouging, accusing them of not lowering gas prices enough amid conflict in the Middle East.

“The big oil companies are not dropping their price at the pump commensurate with the sharply lower prices they are paying for oil. Those prices are dropping like a rock! In other words, customers are being ‘gouged.’ I have instructed the DOJ to immediately start looking into this,” Trump wrote in a social media post late on Tuesday night. “Gasoline prices better start going down a lot faster than what I’m seeing!”

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Meta pauses employee tracker for AI training amid privacy concerns
Posted on Wednesday June 24, 2026

About 1,600 workers signed petition against tool that tracked staff keystrokes, mouse clicks and computer screen content

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta has paused a program that tracked employees’ computer activity amid data privacy concerns and a staff backlash.

The owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp had introduced a tool that tracked staff keystrokes, mouse clicks and content displayed on computer screens in order to collect data for training its AI models.

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Chinese supercomputer leapfrogs best US machines to be ranked world’s fastest
Posted on Wednesday June 24, 2026

China’s LineShine debuts at number one in Top500 – a list sometimes viewed as a national measure of global tech prowess

A supercomputer in China now outranks its US counterparts as the world’s most powerful. It is the first time since 2017 that a Chinese computer has topped a list sometimes viewed as a measure of a nation’s technological prowess.

The LineShine computer in Shenzhen displaced top-ranked US computer El Capitan in the Top500 rankings released on Tuesday. It was LineShine’s debut on the list.

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Switzerland v Canada: World Cup 2026 – live
Posted on Wednesday June 24, 2026

⚽ Match kicks off at 12pm local time/4pm ET/8pm BST
⚽ Player guide | Bracketology | Golden Boot

The World Cup Hydration Break XI

“Evening, Robert,” writes Mac Millings. “I think the fabulous Simon McMahon asked for a Hydration Break XI about two weeks ago, so, with my usual promptness, here it is:

Guillermo H2 Ochoa

Damp Burn

Rampamt Capitalisandro Martinez

Erictrolyte García

Jarell Quartah

Moistyouri Tielemans

Matheus Coolsya

Isotonick Woltemade

Siptor Gyökeres

Joe Irrigaetjens

Son Heung-Midity.”

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England v West Indies: Women’s T20 World Cup – live
Posted on Wednesday June 24, 2026

Women’s World Cup updates from 6.30pm at Lord’s
Read the Spin | And mail Tanya

First strike for West Indies as Jones swings the bat in a pretty arc but outside edges to short third.

No Sciver-Brunt again today, as she continues to recuperate from that left calf strain she retwinged while batting against Ireland. Charlie Dean takes the reins.

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