Thames Water investors offer ‘golden share’ in bid to head off nationalisation
Posted on Tuesday July 21, 2026

Move would give government veto over big decisions and hostile takeovers, after Burnham’s call for greater public control

• Nils Pratley: Burnham has forced greater clarity at Thames Water. Now he must choose

The group of investors pursuing a rescue bid for Thames Water have offered the government a “golden share” in a last-ditch attempt to persuade Andy Burnham not to nationalise Britain’s biggest water company.

London & Valley Water (L&VW), a consortium of 100 institutional investors that hold £17bn of the company’s £21bn debt, said it recognised the new prime minister wanted greater public control and to strengthen the accountability of the water company.

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Ozempic maker Novo Nordisk sues US rival over ‘materially misleading’ ads
Posted on Tuesday July 21, 2026

Danish pharma company says Eli Lilly using outdated trial data to make its weight-loss drugs appear more effective

Ozempic maker Novo Nordisk said on Tuesday it is suing arch US rival Eli Lilly over “false and materially misleading” adverts for its competing weight-loss and anti-diabetes treatments.

The Danish pharmaceuticals heavyweight complained that the US group – which makes rival weight-loss treatments Zepbound and Mounjaro – “intentionally selected outdated studies” that compared Lilly’s highest doses against lower doses of Novo Nordisk’s medicines.

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Fiscal hawk or big spender – what kind of chancellor will John Healey be?
Posted on Tuesday July 21, 2026

Diligent, popular, unexpected pick for the Treasury has been given a straitjacket – and the job of funding PM’s policy promises

• UK politics live – latest updates

On the frequent occasions that John Healey would travel abroad as defence secretary, he was so determined to keep working he would get the crew to tether a desk to the inside of his military aircraft so he could read his papers.

His diligence is one reason why Andy Burnham, the new prime minister, made Healey his unexpected pick for chancellor on Monday. Allies say others include their shared commitment to re-industrialisation and devolution.

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Where will Andy Burnham find the money to fund his spending pledges?
Posted on Tuesday July 21, 2026

The new PM is already under pressure to explain how he will pay for his ambitious plans to remake Britain

Andy Burnham has made lowering the cost of living his first major policy announcement in government, with an immediate tax cut to remove VAT on energy bills.

As he begins to flesh out his agenda for government, the prime minister said the measure would provide “breathing space” for households. But Burnham is under close scrutiny over how his plans will be funded.

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Election voting advice from AI chatbots ‘inaccurate and unreliable’
Posted on Tuesday July 21, 2026

Research during Hungary election shows AI recommended parties not running and gave highly volatile answers to identical prompts

AI chatbots provide inaccurate, inconsistent and unreliable guidance to voters asking which party they should back, a study suggests, often recommending the wrong party, not mentioning the right one, or listing parties not even running.

“The results raise serious concerns about the reliability of general-purpose AI systems in electoral contexts,” the study, published by the civil liberties group Liberties and based on research during this year’s Hungarian parliamentary elections, concluded.

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Inside the horrifying online network where children extort others to commit violence and self-harm
Posted on Monday July 20, 2026

The 764 network is just one part of a growing online ecosystem that pushes young members into brutal and degrading acts. It has perpetrators and victims in dozens of countries

In late 2024, in a quiet suburb of Stockholm, a 14-year-old boy approached a man in his 80s who was using a walker. He stabbed the man three times in the back.

The video of the attack in Hässelby was streamed and spread quickly. It fed a global online ecosystem that actively encourages and glorifies acts of violence and degradation – the “gamification of harm”, as the researcher Marc-André Argentino puts it.

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Could the World Cup be back in the US as soon as 2038? Absolutely
Posted on Tuesday July 21, 2026

Explosion in ticketing and hospitality revenue goes along with a Fifa desire to recoup lost TV income in future deals

As is often the case, it has been left to Donald Trump to say the quiet bit out loud. “We have to do this again and we have to do it while I’m around, you hear that Gianni?” the US president told Fox News in an interview broadcast in the buildup to the World Cup final.

An American bid for the 2038 World Cup has been the talk of the hotel lobbies populated by administrators from around the world over the past month, who have watched this country’s seemingly limitless appetite for major events and willingness to pay whatever it takes to attend them.

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Liverpool owner in talks to sell stake to QPR co-owner Amit Bhatia
Posted on Tuesday July 21, 2026

• Bhatia backed by father-in-law Lakshmi Mittal

• Minority stake deal values the club at £4.5bn

Liverpool’s owner is in talks over selling a significant minority stake to a consortium led by the Queens Park Rangers co-owner Amit Bhatia and backed by his father-in-law Lakshmi Mittal, the billionaire Indian steel magnate.

Fenway Sports Group confirmed in a statement to the Financial Times that it had begun negotiations with a group led by Bhatia over a potential share sale that would value Liverpool at about £4.5bn.

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