Water bosses’ pay rises despite bonus ban and public fury over bills and pollution
Posted on Friday July 24, 2026

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.

Read more...

Trump’s latest tariffs put UK at disadvantage to EU, say experts
Posted on Friday July 24, 2026

While overall levy for UK is unchanged, sectors not covered by Turnberry deal face tougher competition

Donald Trump’s latest round of tariffs has put UK businesses at a disadvantage against the EU even though the overall tariff for British goods has not changed, experts have said.

In the levies, announced late on Thursday and said to be aimed against countries that engage in forced labour, the EU’s previous 15% near blanket tariff is reduced to 10%, the same level as the tariff deal struck by Keir Starmer and Peter Mandelson last year.

Read more...

Burnham urged to award £2.4bn military satellite contract to Airbus over US rival
Posted on Friday July 24, 2026

Unite union leader says giving Skynet 6 WSS contract to Lockheed Martin would be a ‘massive mistake’

One of the Labour party’s biggest union backers has called for Andy Burnham to award a £2.4bn military satellite contract to the European manufacturer Airbus rather than a US rival, Lockheed Martin, amid concerns that as many as 600 jobs may be at risk.

Sharon Graham, the general secretary of the Unite union, said it would be a “massive mistake” to go for a US company over Airbus, which is headquartered in France but designs and builds satellites in Stevenage in Hertfordshire and Portsmouth in Hampshire.

Read more...

‘Netflix has to evolve’: can the upstart survive the end of the binge-watch era?
Posted on Friday July 24, 2026

Streaming pioneer that transformed TV faces slowing growth and battle for viewers’ attention from YouTube

When Netflix offered viewers the chance to binge on an entire season of House of Cards it revolutionised the TV industry and started on a path to becoming the world’s most popular streaming service.

Almost 15 years on, however, the upstart’s strategy of pumping its service with an avalanche of content and an almost-as-rapid penchant for mercilessly cancelling shows has viewers reaching for the remote.

Read more...

Space datacenters proposed by Musk and Bezos ‘catastrophic’ for planet, experts warn
Posted on Thursday July 23, 2026

New US petition demands review of plans from tech companies amid fears of environmental destruction

Space datacenters proposed by SpaceX, Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin and others would release staggering levels of pollution that would probably alter the Earth’s atmosphere and be “catastrophic” for the planet, space industry experts and environmental groups warn in a new petition demanding a review of their impacts.

Tech companies have collectively proposed millions of “orbital datacenters” and are pressing forward with plans, which require Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval. Among other issues, pollution from satellites and rockets burning up upon re-entry appears to be accumulating in the stratosphere at alarming levels. The spacecraft release black soot, rare metals, aluminum oxides and other pollutants with unknown effects.

Read more...

Elon Musk says he got ‘carried away’ with Trump – but still holds on to contentious political views
Posted on Thursday July 23, 2026

In interview, billionaire says instead of running ‘Doge’ he should’ve ‘worked on my companies’ and shares extreme predictions

Elon Musk has admitted he became too consumed by politics during his volatile alliance with Donald Trump and his brief appointment as the president’s financial axman, running the so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge).

The world’s richest person, and briefly its first trillionaire after his SpaceX company floated on the New York stock exchange in June, made the confession in a wide-ranging interview with the Economist published on Thursday. He shared his positions on subjects from foreign wars to AI, and made a number of eye-opening predictions for the future.

Read more...

Commonwealth Games 2026: men’s gymnastics team final, Scott strikes gold – live
Posted on Friday July 24, 2026

• Scotland’s Duncan Scott wins swimming gold

• Swan claims first gold of Games | Mail Billy

Boxing: England’s Lauren Mackie, in the women’s 54kg, punches through to the round of 16 with a unanimous victory against Kenya’s Amina Faki. DJ Khaled’s All I Do Is Win blasts around the ring.

This story has caught the eye, courtesy of Reuters:

Read more...

Pogacar conquers Alpe d’Huez in record climb to win stage 19 and extend Tour de France lead
Posted on Friday July 24, 2026

• Slovenian only second man to win in yellow on mountain

• Leader opens up gap of more than seven minutes

Tadej Pogacar put further distance between himself and his last few rivals, winning the Alpe d’Huez stage of the Tour de France and extending his overall lead to more than seven minutes.

There was a brutal inevitability about the defending Tour champion’s record-breaking win on the legendary climb of the Alpe, despite all the rumours of illness and gastric problems within his UAE Emirates XRG team.

Read more...