# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The top stories and transfer rumours from Thursday's newspapers...
TIMES
The Premier League's chief football officer has insisted there are no plans to play matches in the United States, despite the growing popularity of the competition across the Atlantic.

Sir Dave Brailsford has unveiled a plan to staff at Manchester United called "Mission 21", aimed ambitiously at delivering a 21st English league title for the club.
GUARDIAN
Discussions to scrap extra time from Champions League knockout rounds are gathering speed within UEFA in what would be a new step to reduce the number of minutes played by top clubs.

Arne Slot has called on the English football authorities to expand match-day squads to 23 players to help with the hectic schedule teams such as Liverpool are undertaking.
DAILY TELEGRAPH
The England men's futsal team, which has been denied any funding by the Football Association, had to pay for their own travel costs to get to their European Championship qualifier against Spain in Loughborough this week, while the Spanish squad stayed three nights in a local four-star hotel.
DAILY MAIL
Napoli chief Giovanni Manna has revealed why Alejandro Garnacho's exit from Manchester United collapsed in the last days of the winter transfer window.

Manchester United defender Luke Shaw has suffered another setback in his return from injury.

The panellists who review major refereeing decisions unanimously found that Bournemouth's David Brooks was right not to be red-carded for clotheslining Chelsea's Marc Cucurella at Stamford Bridge last month.
DAILY EXPRESS
Manchester United have joined other heavyweight suitors in the race to sign Crystal Palace striker Jean-Philippe Mateta.

SUN
Manchester United are targeting a summer swoop for Flamengo star Wesley Franca.

Emile Heskey has landed a shock new job as a security firm director.
DAILY MIRROR
Leny Yoro has revealed how Ruben Amorim warned his Manchester United squad that he won't tolerate lazy players - after banishing Marcus Rashford to Aston Villa.
DAILY STAR
Mikel Arteta reportedly passed up the chance to sign Alvaro Morata due to concerns over his lack of intensity and ineffective pressing.
THE ATHLETIC

Pep Guardiola was left frustrated after Kyle Walker went to Manchester City's hierarchy to push for a January exit from the club.
SCOTTISH SUN
Cyriel Dessers stayed put at Rangers despite receiving 10 offers during the January window, claims the star's agent.

Celtic fans are sweating over a Champions League away day ban for the play-off round clash against Bayern Munich.
DAILY RECORD
Boss Mikel Arteta opted to keep Kieran Tierney at Arsenal rather than allow him to go to Celtic - but the player is facing up to a nightmare final six months on the fringes of the squad.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Premier League say there are no plans to host games in the US - Paper Talk

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Plus: Napoli chief Giovanni Manna has revealed why Alejandro Garnachos exit from Manchester United collapsed; Manchester United have joined other heavyweight suitors in the race to sign Crystal Palace striker Jean-Philippe Mateta; Emile Heskey has landed a shock new job

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump on Tuesday suggested that displaced Palestinians in Gaza be permanently resettled outside the war-torn territory and proposed the U.S. take "ownership" in redeveloping the area into "the Riviera of the Middle East."

Trump's brazen proposal appears certain to roil the next stage of talks meant to extend the tenuous ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and secure the release of the remaining hostages held in Gaza.

The provocative comments came as talks are ramping up this week with the promise of surging humanitarian aid and reconstruction supplies to help the people of Gaza recover after more than 15 months of devastating conflict. Now Trump wants to push roughly 1.8 million people to leave the land they have called home and claim it for the U.S., perhaps with American troops.

"The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too," Trump said at an evening news conference with Netanyahu by his side. The president who made his name as a New York real estate developer added: "We'll make sure that it's done world-class. It'll be wonderful for the people - Palestinians, Palestinians mostly, we're talking about."

Trump outlined his thinking as he with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, where the two leaders also discussed the fragile ceasefire and hostage deal in the Israeli-Hamas conflict and shared concerns about Iran.

Trump said the U.S. would redevelop the territory after Palestinians are resettled elsewhere and turn the territory into a place where the "world's people"- including Palestinians - would live. He offered no detail about what authority the U.S. would use to take the land and develop it.

Allies reject the idea

Egypt, Jordan and other U.S. allies in the Mideast have cautioned Trump that relocating Palestinians from Gaza would threaten Mideast stability, risk expanding the conflict and undermine a decades-long push by the U.S. and allies for a two-state solution.

Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry issued a sharply worded reaction to Trump, noting their long call for an independent Palestinian state was a "firm, steadfast and unwavering position." Saudi Arabia has been in negotiations with the U.S. over a deal to diplomatically recognize Israel in exchange for a security pact and other terms.

"The duty of the international community today is to work to alleviate the severe human suffering endured by the Palestinian people, who will remain committed to their land and will not budge from it," the Saudi statement said.

Still, Trump insists the Palestinians "have no alternative" but to leave the "big pile of rubble" that is Gaza. He spoke out as his top aides stressed that a three-to-five-year timeline for reconstruction of the war-torn territory, as laid out in a temporary truce agreement, is not viable.

Last week, both Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and Jordanian King Abdullah II dismissed Trump's calls to resettle Gazans.

But Trump said he believes Egypt and Jordan - as well as other countries, which he did not name - will ultimately agree to take in Palestinians.

"You look over the decades, it's all death in Gaza," Trump said. "This has been happening for years. It's all death. If we can get a beautiful area to resettle people, permanently, in nice homes where they can be happy and not be shot and not be killed and not be knifed to death like what's happening in Gaza."

Trump also said he isn't ruling out deploying U.S. troops to support reconstruction of Gaza. He envisions "long-term" U.S. ownership of a redevelopment of the territory.

The president's proposal was greeted with alarm by Democrats and a measure of skepticism by his Republican allies.

"He's completely lost it," said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn. "He wants a U.S. invasion of Gaza, which would cost thousands of American lives and set the Middle East on fire for 20 years? It's sick."

"We'll see what our Arab friends say about that," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican and a Trump ally. "And I think most South Carolinians are probably not excited about sending Americans to take over Gaza. I think that might be problematic, but I'll keep an open mind."

A fragile ceasefire

The White House's focus on the future of Gaza comes as the nascent truce between Israel and Hamas hangs in the balance.

Netanyahu is facing competing pressure from his right-wing coalition to end a temporary truce against Hamas militants in Gaza and from war-weary Israelis who want the remaining hostages home and for the 15-month conflict to end.

Trump may be betting he can persuade Egypt and Jordan to come around to accept displaced Palestinians because of the significant aid that the U.S. provides Cairo and Amman. Hard-line right-wing members of Netanyahu's government have embraced the call to move displaced Palestinians out of Gaza.

"To me, it is unfair to explain to Palestinians that they might be back in five years," Trump's Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff, said. "That's just preposterous."

Trump also signaled that he may be reconsidering an independent Palestinian state as part of a broader two-state solution to the decades-long Israel-Palestinian conflict.

"Well, a lot of plans change with time," he told reporters when asked if he was still committed to a plan like the one he laid out in 2020 that called for a Palestinian state. "A lot of death has occurred since I left and now came back."

Netanyahu's arrival in Washington for the first foreign leader visit of Trump's second term coincides with the prime minister's popular support .

The prime minister is in the middle of weekslong testimony in an ongoing corruption trial that centers on allegations he exchanged favors with media moguls and wealthy associates. He has decried the accusations and said he is the victim of a "witch hunt."

Being seen with Trump, who is popular in Israel, could help distract the public from the trial and boost Netanyahu's standing.

"We have the right leader of Israel who's done a great job," Trump said of Netanyahu.

Netanyahu praised Trump's leadership in getting the hostage and ceasefire deal. The prime minister also spoke glowingly of Trump thinking outside the box.

"You say things others refuse to say. And after the jaws drop, people scratch their heads and they say, 'You know he's right.'"

Hamas in a statement decried Trump's comments.

"We reject Trump's statements in which he said that the residents of the Gaza Strip have no choice but to leave, and we consider them a recipe for creating chaos and tension in the region," the group said.

Netanyahu met with White House national security adviser Mike Waltz and on Monday to begin the daunting work of brokering the next phase of a ceasefire agreement.

The Israeli leader said he would send a delegation to Qatar to continue indirect talks with Hamas that are being mediated by the Gulf Arab country, the first confirmation that those negotiations would continue. Netanyahu also said he would convene his security Cabinet to discuss Israel's demands for the next phase of the ceasefire when he returns to Israel at the end of the week.

Witkoff, meanwhile, said he plans to meet with Qatar's prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, in Florida on Thursday to discuss the next phase in the ceasefire. Qatar and Egypt have served as key intermediaries with Hamas throughout the conflict.

Netanyahu is under intense pressure from hard-right members of his governing coalition to abandon the ceasefire and resume fighting in Gaza to eliminate Hamas. Bezalel Smotrich, one of Netanyahu's key partners, vows to topple the government if the war isn't relaunched, a step that could lead to early elections.

Hamas, which has reasserted control over Gaza since the ceasefire began last month, has said it will not release hostages in the second phase without an end to the war and Israeli forces' full withdrawal. Netanyahu, meanwhile, maintains that Israel is committed to victory over Hamas and the return of all hostages captured in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war.

___

Goldenberg reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press writers Melanie Lidman in Jerusalem, Jon Gambrell in Dubai, and Michelle L. Price, Stephen Groves and Lisa Mascaro contributed reporting.

___

Follow the AP's war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Trump won't rule out deploying US troops to support rebuilding Gaza, sees 'long-term' US ownership

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
President Donald Trump has suggested that displaced Palestinians in Gaza be permanently resettled outside the war-torn territory and proposed the U.S. take "ownership" in redeveloping the area.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Jeremy Bowen: Trump’s Gaza plan won’t happen, but it will have consequences

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The US president creates uncertainty and injects more instability, our international editor writes.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
Clodagh RiceBBC News NI Business Correspondent

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Single-use plastic cups: Venues to pilot year-long ban

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The 12-month pilot is being driven by the Venue Sustainability Forum and supported by Visit Belfast.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
McDonald's unable to serve food after system outage

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The restaurant chain is facing technical problems with its tills, leaving customers unable to order.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
It was at a grand military awards ceremony last December that Vladimir Putin told the Russian public he would stand for the presidency for a fifth time.

Voting is now taking place over three days until Sunday, even though the result is not in doubt as he has no credible opponent.

At last December's solemn event in one of the Kremlin's most opulent halls, Russia's leader of 24 years had just handed out top honours to soldiers who had taken part in Russia's "special military operation" in Ukraine.

He was chatting with a small group of participants when the commander of a pro-Russian unit in Ukraine's occupied Donetsk region approached him.

"We need you, Russia needs you!" declared Lt-Col Artyom Zhoga, asking him to run as a candidate in Russia's forthcoming presidential election. Everyone voiced their support.

Vladimir Putin nodded: "Now is the time for making decisions. I will be running for the post of president of the Russian Federation."

His spokesman Dmitry Peskov later described the decision to run as "absolutely spontaneous". But the Kremlin rarely leaves its choreography to chance.

Instead, straight away its well-oiled media machine swung into action.

On all state channels, 71-year-old President Putin was promoted as a national leader who stood head and shoulders above any potential rivals.

"Support for the president transcends party support alone," reported one correspondent on state TV news later that week. "Vladimir Putin is the people's candidate!"

He has already been in power in Russia longer than any ruler since Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.

He has been president since 2000, apart from four years as prime minister because of a two-term limit imposed by the Russian constitution.

He has since changed the rules to give himself a clean slate to run again in 2024 by "switching back to zero" his previous terms. That means he could also run for another six-year term in 2030, when he will turn 78.

During his time in office, Vladimir Putin has methodically tightened his grip on power so no real threat to his rule exists any longer. His most outspoken critics are either dead, in jail or in exile.

Yet the Kremlin remains determined to give a semblance of legitimacy to Russia's electoral process.

Although there can be no doubt about the ultimate election result, the authorities seem to care greatly about a high turnout, which will be presented as evidence of his popular mandate.

Turnout at the last election in 2018 was officially 68%, but international observers reported several cases of ballot-stuffing.

This year, voting will be easier than ever before, ending on Sunday.

In the parts of occupied Ukraine that Russia calls its "new regions", polls opened 10 days before election day, and social media has been awash with ads urging people to go vote.

When they do, they will be faced with a choice - or rather a semblance of one.

Joining Russia's leader on the ballot will be Nikolai Kharitonov, representing the Communist Party, which remains Russia's second most popular party, more than 30 years since the fall of the Soviet Union. It draws its support from a small but loyal base of those nostalgic for their Soviet past.

The other two candidates are Leonid Slutsky of the nationalist LDPR and Vladislav Davankov of the New People, ostensibly a liberal, pro-business party.

Despite their vastly different political standings, all three broadly back the Kremlin's policies - and none stands a chance against the incumbent.

Another hopeful - local Moscow councillor Boris Nadezhdin - announced his candidacy last year, generating a rare moment of optimism for opposition-minded voters.

He was a frequent guest on talk shows on state TV and had been relatively critical of Moscow's war in Ukraine.

But in a country where many have been jailed for speaking out against the war, he would never make the ballot paper.

Thousands queued up to offer signatures in his support, and perhaps spooked by the crowds, Russia's election authorities rejected his bid, claiming that more than 15% of his collected signatures were flawed.

Mr Nadezhdin's exclusion from the race ended any possibility of a surprise.

Televised debates have taken place in the run-up to the vote, without Vladimir Putin taking part.

Instead, TV coverage has focused on his regular choreographed meetings with factory workers, soldiers and students while his state-of-the-nation address at the end of February was widely seen as a pre-election pitch aimed at burnishing his credentials as a man of the people.

Although some of the speech was devoted to the war in Ukraine, it was largely dedicated to domestic issues. Perhaps a tacit acknowledgement that many Russians are more concerned by problems closer to home than Russia's supposed successes on the battlefield or its endless strife with the West.

Russia's leader proposed a raft of social measures, including a modernised tax system that was "fairer" for Russian families and incentives aimed at increasing Russia's dwindling birth rate.

The speech provided a glimpse into the many issues Russia is facing, including poverty affecting families and faltering education, infrastructure and healthcare.

For a man who has spent 20 years as president, Vladimir Putin has proven unable to solve many of these issues.

Instead, up to 40% of Russia's budget in 2024 is being spent on the military and national security.

Many of his measures require considerable cash injections or investment, and Russia has a serious corruption problem that means funds often do not reach their intended destinations.

But that will hardly matter in an election that most international observers expect will be neither free nor fair.

In the absence of genuine enthusiasm for the vote, campaign videos from the poll's also-rans have created a social media buzz, coming across as near-caricatures.

Communist hopeful Nikolai Kharitonov is portrayed angrily clenching his fist while listening to the latest news from volatile commodity markets. "We've toyed with capitalism and that's enough!" he declares, marching across Red Square to take up residence in the Kremlin after his imagined election victory.

Of course, nothing of the sort will happen.

In another video, nationalist LDPR leader Leonid Slutsky is shown trying out the office of his late predecessor Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who led the party for 30 years until his death two years ago.

When an aide tries to switch name-plates on the desk, Mr Slutsky tells her forcefully: "No, leave it there!"

All it does is show how happy he is to remain a sideshow to Vladimir Putin's main act.

The only potential intrigue so far has come from an initiative from Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, whose death in prison last month she has blamed on "bloody mobster" Vladimir Putin.

She has urged supporters to swamp polling stations at midday on Sunday and vote for anyone but him. "We need to use election day to show that we exist and there are many of us," she said in a video message.

But Ms Navalnaya herself has said that the purpose of the campaign is mostly to allow supporters to silently identify one another at the polling station, rather than to wield any real change.

On 18 March, Russians will doubtless wake up to find President Putin has been re-elected.

When he appears at a victory rally in Moscow, he may even shed a tear - as he did after the 2012 presidential election - and profusely thank voters for the trust they have placed in him.

For the next six years, the illusion of democracy is all but guaranteed to continue.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What Russians are being told about Putin's re-election

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Despite the guaranteed result, the Kremlin is keen to make the election appear legitimate.

# data[].attributes.headline
incidents of sewage spewing into gardens and streets

# data[].attributes.subject
incidents of sewage spewing into gardens and streets

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
‘Shocking’ incidents of sewage spewing into gardens and streets - with disease outbreaks ‘very possible’

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
One expert said sewage flooding in parts of England is reminiscent of “conditions last seen in Victorian London”.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Rishi Sunak has ruled out holding a general election on 2 May following speculation the prime minister could choose to go to the polls early.

Asked by ITV whether there would be an election on that date - the same as the local and mayoral elections - Mr Sunak replied: "There won't be a general election on that day.

"But when there is a general election, what matters is the choice."

As the Tories continue to lag behind Labour in the polls, there has been speculation as to when the prime minister will call the election - either in May, or later in the year.

The latest a general election can be held is by the end of January 2025.

Mr Sunak previously said it was his "working assumption" that an election would be held in the second half of this year but he had not previously ruled out May - until now.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version. You can receive Breaking News alerts on a smartphone or tablet via the Sky News App. You can also follow @SkyNews on X or subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with the latest news.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Rishi Sunak rules out general election on 2 May

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Rishi Sunak has ruled out holding a general election on 2 May following speculation the prime minister could choose to go to the polls early.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
John Lewis hints more job cuts to come despite profit rise

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Despite profits of £56m staff get no bonus and the retailer indicates more posts could be shed.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
One in 20 patients has to wait at least four weeks to see a GP at a time when funding for family doctor services is falling, NHS figures show.

In November 2023, 1.5m appointments in England at a GP surgery took place four weeks or more after they were booked, 4.8% of the 31.9m held that month.

In one in six appointments - 5.4m, or 17.3% - the patient was forced to wait at least two weeks after booking it to see a GP, practice nurse or other health professional.

"Millions of people are being left anxious or waiting in pain because they can't get an appointment with their GP," said Ed Davey, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, who highlighted the latest evidence underlining the long delays that many patients face to see a GP.

"Staggering" numbers of patients now have to wait a long time, he said.

GP leaders blamed the situation on the widespread shortage of family doctors, which they said was making it impossible to keep up with the rising demand for appointments. Burnout due to intense workloads is prompting more GPs to work part time.

Prof Kamila Hawthorne, the chair of the Royal College of GPs, said: "GPs and our teams have just had the busiest November on record, with more than 31m appointments delivered - a 30% increase on 2019, yet with 646 fewer fully qualified, full-time equivalent GPs."

"The average number of patients per GP in England is now an eye-watering 2,290, meaning each GP is responsible for 147 more patients than in December 2019," she said.

The latest data on GP access published by NHS Digital shows that almost 43% of the 31.9m appointments in November occurred on the day they were booked.

Growing numbers of patients, however, are having to wait at least four weeks. Other NHS figures show that in November 2022 a total of 1.36m appointments had also been booked at least that far in advance, though the proportion of all consultations which they represented - 4.8% - was the same as last November.

Research by the House of Commons library has also found that soaring inflation means family doctors have experienced a real-terms cut in their funding from NHS England in recent years, despite the increasing demand for care that has been caused by the ageing and growing population, Covid and long Covid and other factors.

The analysis found that general practice funding was 3.3% lower in 2022-23 than in 2018-19, and that funding for each patient had fallen by £12 on average over the same period after taking inflation into account. Of the NHS's 44 integrated care board areas, 42 have recorded a drop.

skip past newsletter promotion
Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
after newsletter promotion

The areas with the highest percentage fall for each patient include north-west London, where funding was 16.8% or £28 a head lower; north central London, down 14.4%; Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire, down 11.2%; and the Black Country and west Birmingham, down 10.3%.

Davey said: "It is unforgivable that the Conservative government has slashed funding for GP practices at a time of rising demand. The Conservative party's record on the NHS is one of total neglect and failure. Rishi Sunak is completely out of touch with patients struggling to get the care they need."

The Commons library's analysis, commissioned by the Lib Dems, concluded: "Overall in England, the total NHS payments to general practice rose by 10.5% over this period. However, after the effects of inflation are taken into account, this is a real-terms fall of 3.3%. The average payment per registered patient rose by 6.4% in cash terms and fell by 6.9% in real terms."

The Health Service Journal reported last week that the proportion of the NHS budget that goes to general practice had fallen to its lowest level since 2015-16 at just 8.4%, even though GPs and their teams provide almost 90% of patient care.

The Department of Health and Social Care did not respond to the long waits for care and insisted that real-terms GP funding had grown, despite the library's finding to the contrary.

"We are committed to improving access to GPs and are now delivering 50m more GP appointments per year," a spokesperson said. "The most recent data shows GP funding increased in real terms by 19% between 2017 and 2022, and our primary care recovery plan is investing £645m to expand pharmaceutical services and take pressure off general practice."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
One in 20 patients in England wait at least four weeks to see GP, figures show

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
GP leaders say widespread shortage of family doctors is making it impossible to keep up with demand

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Northern Ireland judge rules ‘Troubles’ violence amnesty breaches rights | Human Rights News | Al Jazeera

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
We use cookies and other tracking technologies to deliver and personalize content and ads, enable features, measure site performance, and enable social media sharing. You can choose to customize your preferences.Learn more about our Cookie Policy.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Bitcoin has hit $60,000 for the first time since November 2021 - putting the cryptocurrency in touching distance of a new record high.

After a punishing collapse in price in late 2022, the digital asset has witnessed a resurgence - in large part due to new products in the US that allow investors to gain exposure to Bitcoin's price without owning it directly.

Bitcoin has risen by 37% since the year began - and by 20% since Saturday.

That means the world's biggest cryptocurrency is on course for its biggest monthly gain since December 2020.

Famed for its volatility, figures from the UK's Financial Conduct Authority suggest almost five million Britons have purchased cryptocurrencies - but in the year to April 2022, 45% of them suffered a loss.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version. You can receive breaking news alerts on a smartphone or tablet via the Sky News app. You can also follow @SkyNews on X or subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with the latest news.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Bitcoin hits $60,000 - as all-time high nears

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Bitcoin has hit $60,000 for the first time since November 2021 - putting the cryptocurrency in touching distance of a new record high.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The prime minister said: "We simply cannot allow this pattern of increasingly violent and intimidatory behaviour which is, as far as anyone can see, intended to shout down free debate and stop elected representatives doing their job.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
UK descending into mob rule, PM warns police

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Officers need to demonstrate to the public they will use their powers, Rishi Sunak says.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Tourists have returned to North Korea for the first time since the pandemic | CNN

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Masikryong Ski Resort hosted a group of tourists from North Korean ally Russia.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A sleek new startup promising to 'advance the energy transition' launched earlier this month promising to "[connect] thousands of innovators across the globe to tackle difficult energy and climate challenges".

The venture, Onward, is owned by Shell, a company that brought in $28bn in profits from oil and gas last year. The company's website says it is "accelerating pathways to energy innovation", serving as a "hub for innovation, collaboration and entrepreneurialism", and creating a "compelling, evidence-based picture of the benefits of a net-zero future". Team bios include descriptions of an ideal day "in our clean energy future": kitesurfing, snorkeling and hiking.

However, despite an abundance of green imagery and language, much of the Onward platform's existing content appears to focus on improving oil and gas outcomes, an analysis by Drilled and the Guardian has found.

The site's "Projects" section is a short-term job board hosting dozens of jobs in oil and gas exploration (the hiring companies are kept anonymous). Of the five projects with available descriptions, all but one are explicitly for oil and gas production, while many more of the archived jobs on the platform also appear to be for oil and gas.

One posting asks for applicants to conduct a "coherent petroleum system assessment"; another looks for candidates able "to understand subsurface fluid resource estimates along the US Gulf Coast". Another advertises a position to map reservoirs using seismic analysis in the Nile Delta.

Projects like Onward "[allow] Shell to pretend it's helping find solutions instead of just accelerating the climate crisis", Paris Marx, a technology critic and host of the Tech Won't Save Us podcast, told Drilled.

Onward is just the latest of several climate tech projects by fossil fuel companies.

Shell has at least three other projects created to invest in energy startups, and in 2022, according to the company, it invested 89% more than it did the previous year in "low-carbon energy solutions".

Saudi Aramco, the world's largest oil company, has a $7bn fund and a portfolio of investments in renewables, storage, carbon capture and sequestration, and futuristic fuels like hydrogen and ammonia. Exxon, meanwhile, has plans to invest $7bn in carbon capture and storage, hydrogen and "lower-emission fuels" through 2027. In January, representatives from Shell, Chevron, SoCal Gas, BP, Southern Company, and Saudi Aramco were all on the guest list at a cleantech industry conference in San Diego.

However, many experts say these ventures are largely part of a broad greenwashing strategy.

The world's leading climate authority has said that all oil and gas exploration must cease worldwide by 2030 in order to avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis. But even as they flaunt their involvement in climate tech and investment in climate "solutions", major fossil fuel companies are ramping up production and doing away with previous climate promises and targets. Shell is no exception: the company's new CEO, Wael Sawan, has pivoted the company away from previous climate pledges and refocused the company's efforts to boost oil production, despite record profits in the first quarter of 2023.

Drilled and the Guardian sent Onward several requests for comment, including questions about which companies sponsored Onward's "Projects" listing, and whether advertising for jobs that promote continued oil and gas production runs contrary to Onward's claims of "achiev[ing] a Net Zero future". An Onward representative did not respond directly to questions but shared the company's press release on the rebrand and a press kit.

In conversations with other outlets, Onward's CEO, Jeff Allyn, said that the organization aims to help solve thorny problems, like "scope 3" emissions, with the energy transition. "The more people we have engaged with the community, the quicker we can create new and innovative solutions to the challenges we face," Allyn told Axios in February.

The emphasis on collaboration to solve the climate crisis is one that consistently crops up in oil and gas public communication, said Melissa Aronczyk, a professor of journalism and media at Rutgers University.

"Behind the idea of collaboration is the idea that everyone is an equal stakeholder in this movement, that we are all in together to combat climate change," she said. "But that's really not what's going on."

Aroczyk pointed out that at recent UN climate meetings, oil and gas companies, their lobbyists, and other polluters have been consistently invited to the table under the guise of collaboration - invitations that have enabled them to further block needed action.

"It's a Trojan horse of legitimacy," she said. "You're under cover of the idea that the climate movement is an all-hands-on-deck situation, but what you're really doing is bringing in players who have very different ideas of what it means to 'solve' the climate crisis."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
'A Trojan horse of legitimacy': Shell launches a 'climate tech' startup advertising jobs in oil and gas

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Onward touts a vision of a 'clean energy future', but experts say ventures like this are part of fossil fuel firms' greenwashing plan

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Israel and Hamas have both downplayed the US President's suggestion that a Gaza ceasefire could be nailed down by next week.

Joe Biden made the remark on the eve of the Michigan primary, where he's under pressure from the state's large Arab-American population over his support for Israel. Meanwhile, famine looms and disease continues to spread among the 2.3 million people trapped in Gaza.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Israel and Hamas downplay progress on ceasefire deal

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Israel and Hamas have both downplayed the US President's suggestion that a Gaza ceasefire could be nailed down by next week.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Several European countries hit some of their sustainable energy targets for 2030 a decade early, a study has found, but big gaps remain across the board.

All EU member states made progress in the 2010s toward reaching the UN's seventh sustainable development goal, which calls for access to "affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all" by 2030. For some indicators, several countries had already reached the targets by 2021, the study by Polish economists published on Wednesday found.

The ranking showed the country closest to the overall goal was Sweden, followed by Denmark, Estonia and Austria. Malta improved the most, with big gains also found in Cyprus, Latvia and Belgium - though these countries all had a long way to go. Bulgaria was furthest from the goal.

The study reveals "systematic progress" towards reaching the goal, the researchers wrote, "with differences between individual EU countries clearly decreasing".

The economists combined seven metrics to get a single measure of countries' progress toward the goal. The European Commission has set target values for three of them, while for the rest, the researchers took the level reached by the top 10% of EU countries in 2015 as a proxy.

Several countries had already achieved their targets for 2030 in at least one of the indicators by 2021, the research found.

Spain, Malta and Portugal, for instance, hit the target for the average amount of energy a person consumes in a household. Denmark, Ireland and Luxembourg hit the target for energy productivity, which compares the size of an economy with the energy it consumes.

Sweden, Finland and Latvia beat the target of getting 40% of their final energy consumption from renewables. The researchers attributed this to hydropower dams and burning solid fuels like wood.

Some countries showed surprising results. Belgium ranked worse than Poland, a country that has gained a reputation as a climate laggard. Denmark, meanwhile, was the second-closest to meeting the goal after Sweden but made the least progress in the 2010s of any EU member state.

"It is worth emphasising that progress achieved by particular countries can be more relevant than their final performance outcomes," the researchers wrote.

skip past newsletter promotion
The planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
after newsletter promotion

In recent years, the EU has sped up its shift from fossil fuels to cleaner sources of energy as part of a bid to reduce its reliance on Russian gas and become the world's first climate-neutral continent. The EU slashed its gas demand by 18% between August 2022 and December 2023 - saving more than 100bn cubic metres of the planet-heating fuel - under a plan to roll out renewable energy sources faster and strengthen energy efficiency measures.

The study comes as emergency legislation used to cut gas demand is due to expire. On Wednesday, the European Commission recommended member states take voluntary measures to keep their gas demand down, aiming for a 15% cut from their average level in the five years before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

"Collective reduction of gas use has been a success, and a part of our strategy to tackle the energy crisis," said Kadri Simson, EU energy commissioner. "Today, the EU is clearly in a better position than two years ago. Still, uncertainties remain, and we need to do more to fully end our gas imports from Russia."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
EU countries already hitting some of their sustainable energy targets for 2030

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Study finds 'systematic progress' achieved in 2010s with some states reaching some targets a decade early

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Chancellor considers poaching Labour's plan to scrap 'non-dom' tax breaks

The chancellor is considering using his budget next week to scrap tax breaks enjoyed by Britons' whose home is overseas for tax purposes, Sky News understands.

Changing the non-domicile tax status, which means "non-doms" don't have to pay tax on money made outside the UK, was a Labour pledge previously criticised by Jeremy Hunt.

But Treasury officials are exploring options to generate more money in order to afford cutting other taxes ahead of the election.

The story was first reported in the Financial Times, where Treasury insiders said Mr Hunt would not risk "the City's competitiveness" and would not act on non-dom statuses unless forecasts due this week from the Office for Budget Responsibility limited his room for tax cuts.

There are approximately 68,800 non-doms in the UK according to the latest figures from HMRC, calculated in the tax year ending 2022.

The prime minister's wife, Akshata Murty, previously benefited from the status, before committing to paying UK tax on overseas income two years ago.

Bitcoin nears all-time high | BA owner doubles profit | Why Ocado loss might be good news

By Sarah Taaffe-Maguire, business reporter
A big one to watch today is Bitcoin. It has this morning edged even closer to its all-time high.

Cryptocurrency enthusiasts will be heartened to see one Bitcoin costing $63,042, not far off the $67,707 high point of November 2021.

It's possible a new high could be reached today or in the coming days as purchases of the digital-assets have sky rocketed due to the approaching "halving" event whereby Bitcoin production will be slashed 50%.

Another familiar story on the corporate front continued - the effects of a US boycott of former best-selling beer Bud Light meant sales at multinational drinks company AB InBev were down 17.3% in the country.

The British Airways and Aer Lingus owner told the market it had more than doubled its profit last year and gave a positive outlook for 2024 as travel demand is strong.

Grocery retailer Ocado reported a pre-tax loss of £403.2m for 2023 but the share price hasn't taken a beating as the loss actually narrowed from £500.8m a year earlier.

A pound buys $1.2661 and, near to the 18-month high of two weeks ago, €1.1677.

A barrel of Brent crude oil, which feeds into pump prices, costs $81.24.

A guide to Sharia fixed-term savings accounts

Each Thursday we look at a different savings option, explain the pros and cons and reveal the best deals on the market (see table below for that). This week we're talking about Sharia fixed-term accounts - which Savings Champion founder Anna Bowes explains here...
Part of the UK savings landscape for many years now, Sharia-compliant savings accounts are often very competitive, if not market leading, writes Anna.

The key difference between Sharia and non-Sharia savings accounts is simply that Islamic banks pay profit to their savers rather than interest. This is because interest is strictly forbidden in Islam, as Muslims believe it promotes unfairness in financial transactions, which leads to social inequality and injustice.

Islamic banks are founded on faith-based ethical principles that are derived from trade, entrepreneurship and risk-sharing.

Therefore, instead of paying a guaranteed interest rate to their savers, Islamic Banks invest customers' deposits in ethical, Sharia-compliant trading activities in order to generate a profit, which is then shared.

Islamic banks only use their customers' deposits for investments which are permitted in Sharia.

Although Sharia-compliant savings accounts comply with Islamic law, they are available to any saver, regardless of religion or culture.

As Sharia fixed-term accounts pay an expected profit rate (EPR) rather than a fixed interest rate, in order to comply with the strict ethical code of Sharia banking principles, this means that the rate is not guaranteed, although it's worth noting that to date, the offered EPRs have always been paid on the fixed term accounts, as they are provided with that objective in mind.

And, even if the provider felt that they would be unable to pay the EPR, the providers will offer their customers the option to break the bond, having earned the EPR up to that point.

The providers are fully authorised and regulated in the same way as other banks and building societies and are part of the UK Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
Click here to look at the best Sharia fixed-term bonds on Savings Champion
So, funds of up to £85,000 per person, per bank, are fully protected in the same way as funds deposited with your high street bank.

Fines for parents whose children miss school to rise by 33%

Fines for parents whose children miss school will rise by at least £20 as part of an "attendance drive" from the government.

The Department for Education (DfE) said a national framework would be introduced from the start of the 2024-25 school year "to help tackle inconsistencies" in how much institutions charge for unauthorised absences, and all parents must be considered for the penalty if a child misses five days.

The cost of a fine will rise from £60 to £80 if paid within 21 days, and from £120 to £160 if paid within 28 days, the DfE said.

But the general secretary of the National Education Union, Daniel Kebede, said fining parents more was "not the answer", especially during a cost of living crisis, claiming the move would "simply plunge them into debt".

"There is no evidence that fining parents improves attendance," he added. "It simply drives young people out of the system."

Read the full story here...

UK cut in half by housing market fortunes

A map of rising/falling house prices shows the UK housing market is split in half.

Zoopla figures have it that southern and eastern regions have all seen price falls in the last year to February. In these places, house prices tend to be higher and Zoopla says "rising mortgage rates and reduced household buyer power" have really had an impact.

But the Midlands, North, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland all saw property prices rise.

Overall, Zoopla says house prices are down 0.5% across the UK compared with a year ago, though it points out that this is up from a recent low of -1.4% seen in October.

"Slowing house price falls is a trend recorded across all regions of the UK," it said...

In London specifically - where prices are most expensive by a long way - Zoopla says inflation has been "weak" in recent years, with affordability "improving slowly" over time and demand seeing a rebound.

What's going on right now?
According to Zoopla's latest house price index, the number of homes for sale is a fifth higher than a year ago, with buyer demand also rising by 11%.

It says "crucially", sales agreed are also 15% higher than last year, in what all sounds like good news for those getting their property on the market.

Here's how house sales have improved year on year by region...
What's the outlook for the housing market?

Simply, sales are more likely to increase rather than house prices, Zoopla says.

In a report, it says "there is clear demand from homeowners and first-time buyers looking to move and buy their first home in 2024".

"The reality is that the housing market is still adjusting to higher mortgage rates and the impact of reduced buying power, the impact of which has varied across the country," it said.

"Sellers need to remain realistic on pricing and celebrate the fact that their home is likely to attract more buyer interest."

The property portal is predicting 1.1 million sales in 2024 - a 10% increase on 2023.

'Rustic' Hovis bread ads approved by regulator after complaints over 'artificial' ingredients

Adverts for "rustic" and "authentic" Hovis bread have been cleared by a watchdog after complaints about the loaves containing "artificial" ingredients.

The ads for the Hovis Rustic White, Rustic Granary and Rustic Seeded Bloomer said the loaves had been made by expert bakers "using a traditional starter dough for more flavour and formed into an authentic and distinctive bloomer shape".

They listed benefits of the loaves as "no artificial preservatives" and "baked with a traditional starter dough for more flavour".

An ingredients list included the synthetic emulsifier E472e and ascorbic acid - otherwise known as Vitamin C - as a flour treatment agent.

Sustain's Real Bread Campaign believed the bread was produced using automated industrial techniques and included "artificial preservatives", so complained to the Advertising Standards Authority.

However, the authority dismissed the complaint, ruling consumers would understand the products had been produced on an industrial scale and the claim of "no artificial preservatives" was not misleading.

Real Bread Campaign coordinator Chris Young said: "In our view, people are having the wool pulled over their eyes, which is made even worse when they're being charged higher prices for supposedly 'premium' products that are arguably little different from other industrial loaves."

'VIP hotline' allows MPs and civil servants to skip HMRC queue

MPs and some civil servants are having their calls to HM Revenue and Customs answered around 20 minutes faster than the general public, new figures show.

The average waiting time for people who call HMRC is 22 minutes and 47 seconds.

In contrast, callers to the VIP helpline, also known as Public Department 1 (PD1), are able to get through in two minutes and 27 seconds on average, according to the latest publicly available figures.

The figures were taken over the same period from July to December last year.

In November, those calling the VIP helpline waited just one minute and 53 seconds before being put through to a member of staff.

Sarah Olney, the Liberal Democrats Treasury spokeswoman, told The Times the "shocking discrepancy" showed "there is a VIP lane for HMRC calls" which "allowed some to skip the queue".

Millennials to become 'richest generation in history'

Millennials are on course to become the "richest generation in history".

The annual Wealth Report by Knight Frank, which is due to be published next week, says there will be a "massive transfer of wealth and assets" to those born between 1980 and 1994 when the last of property-equity-rich generations die.

This should happen in the next 20 years, the report says.

The silent generation (born from 1925 to 1945), baby boomers (1946-1964) and the oldest members of Generation X (1965-1979) have more than £2.5trn tied up in their homes.

Liam Bailey, global head of research at Knight Frank, said the ramifications of the transfer between the generations will be "enormous" and have a profound impact on society.

He said millennials were far more focused on the environment and sustainability than baby boomers, meaning the types of homes they purchase and their investment choices will be different.

'More doom and gloom,' says broker as Halifax raises mortgage rates

Last week, as other major lenders increased mortgage rates, Halifax was an outlier, announcing cuts in what was seen as an effort to attract business amid the volatility.

But, a week on, their stance has changed slightly as they've just announced a series of hikes coming on Friday.

New business and those re-mortgaging will pay interest rates that are between 0.18% and 0.29% higher from then, on two and five-year fixed deals.

One area will go down by 0.20% for both terms - remortgages where the loan-to-value is 90%.

Halifax also announced completion dates would be extended by a month.

Robert Timm, managing director at Sunland Mortgages Ltd, told Newspage: "More doom and gloom as Halifax are the latest lender to increase rates.

"There's a bit of respite for re-mortgaging at higher loan-to-value levels, but a quick check of these rates show they are already quite uncompetitive in this space, so is only really bringing them in line with other lenders.

"We can only hope next week's budget will provide some relief from the constant rate increases seen over the past few weeks. After a sweet start to 2024, the mortgage mood has soured."

Average mortgage rates have creeped up in recent weeks as swap rates, which dictate how much it costs to lend money, have increased, and as forecasts for a first base rate cut moved back from May to June.

Bitcoin now nearing record high

Remember earlier when we told you Bitcoin had hit $45,000 for the first time in two years? Well now it has topped $60,000.

It hasn't done that since November 2021 - and now the cryptocurrency is in touching distance of a new record high.

After a punishing collapse in price in late 2022, the digital asset has witnessed a resurgence - in large part due to new products in the US that allow investors to gain exposure to Bitcoin's price without owning it directly.

Bitcoin has risen by 37% since the year began - and by 20% since Saturday.

That means the world's biggest cryptocurrency is on course for its biggest monthly gain since December 2020.

Famed for its volatility, figures from the UK's Financial Conduct Authority suggest almost five million Britons have purchased cryptocurrencies - but in the year to April 2022, 45% of them suffered a loss.

Read our 7.31am post for the reasons Bitcoin is spiking.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Money blog: UK split in two with direction of house prices

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Southern and eastern regions of the UK have seen house price falls in the last year - but the rest of the country has fared better, Zoopla says. Read this and more in the Money blog, your place for consumer and economic news. Listen to the latest Ian King Business Podcast as you scroll.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Millions of supermarket chickens show skin burns from living in their own waste, a BBC investigation has found.

"Hock burn" is caused by ammonia from excrement. A sign of poorer welfare on farms, it can be seen on a third of birds in some supermarkets, data shows.

The BBC asked the 10 biggest UK chains about its presence on their shelves. Co-op and Aldi reported the highest rates but five refused to release data.

The British Retail Consortium said the issue was taken "very seriously".

Hock burn is often associated with a high-stocking density of birds and is a result of prolonged contact to moist, dirty litter. It shows up on packaged and prepared meat as brown ulcers on the back of the leg.

Chicken with hock burn markings is still safe to eat. But the amount of hock burn within a poultry flock is an industry-accepted indicator of wider welfare standards on farms.

Red Tractor, the UK's biggest farm and food assurance scheme, sets a target rate for hock burn of no more than 15% of a flock.

A spokesperson for Co-op said that "every effort" was made to minimise the occurrence of hock burn, also known as hock marking.

An Aldi spokesperson added it that it worked closely with suppliers to "ensure continuous improvement in our food... products".

Kate Parkes, poultry specialist at the RSPCA, told the BBC that hock burn was "a concerning health issue and, sadly, too common in many intensive farm settings".

She added that the risk of hock burn "is significantly higher when birds are poorly managed, genetically selected to grow very fast or reared in overcrowded conditions".

While Lidl was one of the stores that did not provide data to the BBC, it has been the focus of store spot checks by one animal welfare campaign group, Open Cages.

It asked volunteers to check more than 500 whole chickens on shelves at 22 Lidl stores in nine UK towns and cities between September and November last year.

Including any sign of hock burn ulcers at all, it says their shoppers found 74% of the chickens they checked had the condition.

Connor Jackson, co-founder of the campaign group, said hock burn was "one symptom of a much larger problem".

He added that many retailers "source chickens raised in heavily-crowded sheds, bred for extremely rapid growth, and this is routinely causing chickens immense suffering".

Lidl is now being urged to sign up to the Better Chicken Commitment (BCC), a set of RSPCA-backed higher welfare standards for the industry.

Health 'closely monitored'

A spokesperson for Lidl said the total number of chicken products that Open Cages said it had checked in its survey was a tiny percentage of the fresh chicken it sold in that period.

He added: "The figures provided by Open Cages strongly conflict with our own data, which is lower than industry figures publicly available."

The company declined to share its actual hock burn figures but said it had plans in place to publish a full and detailed animal welfare report soon.

"We take animal welfare extremely seriously, and the health of animals in our supply chain is closely monitored, with regular independent audits carried out to ensure that expected standards are being met," he said.

The British Poultry Council, which represents suppliers, processors and farmers, added that "drawing comparison between formal inspection and rigorous procedure versus a shop-shelf experiment has potential to mislead and misinform".

It added that where hock-marking does occur "it is used as an indicator to identify areas for improvement because ours is an industry that operates to science-based standards, prioritises investment in research and development, and keeps pace with innovation".

The BBC requested animal welfare data from 10 leading UK food sellers: Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda, Morrisons, Aldi, Co-op, Lidl, Waitrose, Iceland and Ocado.

Five of the companies - Asda, Morrisons, Lidl, Iceland and Ocado - failed to provide specific figures.

Of the remaining five, Co-op, which is supplied with an estimated 30 million chickens a year, recorded hock burn in 36.7% of its poultry.

A spokesperson for the company said: "We work with our supplier to make every effort to minimise the occurrence of hock markings."

She added that the company had this month moved to using lower stocking density birds "which will have a significant positive impact on the reduction of hock markings, amongst other welfare benefits".

Aldi's most recent annual figures revealed it had found hock burn in 33.5% of its chickens.

An Aldi spokesperson said it recorded and published welfare data to "ensure transparency".

"We take animal welfare extremely seriously and work closely with our suppliers to ensure continuous improvement in our food and non-food products."

'Significant step' taken

Company animal welfare reports reveal Tesco recorded a 26.3% rate in its chickens in 2022/23. The company declined to comment formally but said its data included any sign of hock burn, no matter how small, which its competitors might not record.

Sainsbury's, which found hock burn in one in five of its chickens, said it was "very open about the progress we are making in our annual health and welfare reports and last year took a significant step by moving all of our by Sainsbury's chickens to have 20% more space than the industry standard".

Waitrose had the lowest recorded annual figure of 2.7%. It told the BBC it has reduced hock marking levels by 80% between 2014 and 2022 by closely monitoring environmental conditions on farms and training farmers.

"Today, the overwhelming majority of our birds are free of any hock marking, and it's our ambition to make hock burn a thing of the past," a spokeswoman said.

Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the British Retail Consortium, said: "Our members take their responsibilities to animal welfare very seriously, and expect high standards, independently audited, from all of their suppliers.

"They are committed to continuously improving the quality and welfare standards of their ranges."

The UK government's code of practice for the welfare of meat chickens - or broilers - says the health and welfare of poultry is directly linked to litter quality and "conditions such as hock burn... are usually consequences of poor litter quality."

A Defra spokesperson said current animal welfare legislation requires that all chickens must have permanent access to dry litter to ensure their health and welfare and that "breaches of legislation (are) taken very seriously."

The NFU said UK farmers had "some of the highest animal welfare standards in the world" and used well-ventilated barns to prevent wet bedding and hay bales and perches to encourage their birds to move around to prevent hock burn.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Millions of store chickens suffer burns from excrement

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A BBC investigation finds about one third of chickens sold in some UK supermarkets have "hock burn".

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Casement Park: Uefa Euro 2028 delegation visit stadium site

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A delegation from the Euro 2028 football tournament are in Belfast to visit Casement Park.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Israel has stopped issuing visas for international staff of humanitarian organisations that work in occupied Palestinian territories, hampering efforts to get food and other vital supplies into Gaza.

Dozens of foreign aid workers, including heads of organisations, have had to leave Israel and the Palestinian territories, or are overstaying their visas and risking deportation so they can continue working, an alliance of aid groups has warned.

Emergency response teams, who have the specialist experience to deal with the multiple challenges of working in Gaza, are particularly affected, said Faris Arouri, director of the Association of International Development Agencies (AIDA), an umbrella group representing aid groups operating in the West Bank and Gaza.

They are deployed on short notice from regional headquarters to deal with unexpected crises, but the visa block means aid groups have not been able to bring any experts into Jerusalem, from where most aid to Gaza is coordinated.

Visas are required to enter Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, but new ones have effectively been blocked by the ministry of welfare and social affairs. Its officials must provide a letter of recommendation before a visa application can be processed, but they stopped issuing these after the 7 October Hamas attacks.

At the time, the ministry said the state of emergency affected its work, and all humanitarian visas were automatically extended to 8 February 2024. When that exemption expired, the ministry told the humanitarian organisations it had stopped issuing letters and the visa process was being discussed by "various government authorities".

"Instead of advocating to enter Gaza, we are being forced to advocate just to let staff come to Jerusalem," Arouri said, adding that the visa freeze was unprecedented.

"There have always been ups and downs, especially since the second intifada [from 2000 to 2005]. There were phases where there were some restrictions or where access was harder. But never on this scale."

The bar on visas for foreign staff is compounded by a ban on Palestinian staff from the West Bank entering either Jerusalem or Gaza. This means that teams are fragmented geographically when they are facing the biggest crisis in decades.

The trickle of aid getting into Gaza is not enough to relieve severe shortages of food, clean water and basic medical supplies, and doctors say that children have started dying from malnutrition.

"We have 15 country directors without visas, who have had to leave, or are preparing to leave," Arouri said, adding that although teams were trying to work remotely, the separation of key staff was "strangling" operations. "You need them on the ground, with access to Gaza."

A survey of about a third of AIDA members - 35 organisations - found that more than 150 jobs were affected, Arouri said. The visas of 57 staff had already expired, more than 40 others would expire within weeks, and humanitarian organisations were unable to recruit another 50 international staff needed to scale up operations in Gaza.

If Israel does not start issuing visas again, all foreign humanitarian workers will have to leave by early autumn, when the last visas issued in 2023 will expire.

David Lammy, Britain's shadow foreign secretary, raised the issue in parliament on Tuesday, calling on the UK government to pressure Israel for action.

"Humanitarian visas must be renewed now," he said. "With no humanitarian visa renewals since the outbreak of this war, [Israel is] leaving humanitarian workers facing deportation when the Palestinian people need them most."

UN aid workers are also affected by a visa clampdown, with staff given only short-term access to Israel and Gaza. "Visas for most international staff, including those in Gaza, have been limited to one or two months," UNRWA chief, Philippe Lazzarini, said in a letter to the president of the UN general assembly listing logistical challenges.

Relief work is further hampered by a bar on foreign humanitarian workers - including diplomats and UN staffers - entering Gaza from Israel through the Kerem Shalom border crossing, about two hours' drive from Jerusalem, it is understood.

UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine, has not been granted permits by the Israeli authorities to deliver aid to northern Gaza for more than a month and said at the weekend it could no longer function there.

Logistical blocks have also led to dangerous situations, such as an airdrop of food supplies into the sea off Gaza earlier this week, a senior international aid worker said.

But the weight of food means airdrops can only supply relatively small amounts and can be easily diverted by anyone with weapons.

Video shot by a bystander shows desperate crowds gathered on a beach on Monday as people wade into the water or head into sea on makeshift craft to collect food parcels, the New York Times reported.

A spokesperson for Israel's foreign ministry, when asked about why the visa process had been halted, said "this issue is being looked into by governmental authorities". The interior ministry and welfare ministry did not respond to requests for comment.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Humanitarian workers face deportation from Israel after freeze on visas

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Dozens of foreign staff have had to leave and new specialists can't be brought in, says group representing aid agencies

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Domino's Pizza and Cadbury have been blasted by a former health minister after they teamed up to make a Domino's cookie that contains a whole Creme Egg.

Conservative Lord Bethell of Romford posted scathing tweets about the controversial cookie, which Domino's announced for the first time on Thursday.

"This is disgusting," said Lord Bethell.

"These are serious corporate food companies. What are they thinking," he continued.

"The executive team, the board and the shareholders should be ashamed of themselves."

In his second tweet, he reiterated that the team behind the controversial cookie, which are available in Domino's stores from Monday, should be "ashamed" and added they should use their talents to find less "egregious" ways to make a return.

He criticised the companies further in an interview with The Independent, saying: "Creme Egg and Domino's have sat together and said, 'what shall we do together?' and that is what they have come up with."

He claimed the food brands' teams had decided to "produce a recipe with your great brands behind it and use social media to market it to children".

"It is a total abdication of responsibility, you are curators of two of the biggest food brands in the country," he added.
Read more from Sky News:
Cocoa prices have hit a record high
Nestle axing Breakaway biscuits after 54 years
A spokesperson for Domino's told Sky News that their normal cookies, which come in boxes of four, tend to be shared by customers and that they expect Creme Egg cookie fans will do the same.

In a statement, they added: "These special edition cookies bring together two much loved, iconic brands and are designed to be a delicious pre-Easter treat which can be shared.

"At just over 370 calories per cookie, they are in line with the content of many other treats available on the high street such as frappes and croissants.

"We know our customers love to share our existing cookies, and we expect they will do the same with the new Creme Egg cookies."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Conservative peer outraged by Domino's' new Creme Egg cookies

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Conservative Lord Bethell of Romford posted scathing tweets about the controversial cookie, which Domino's announced for the first time on Thursday.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Stevenage hospital lightbulb plan to 'save £1m a year'

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
East and North Hertfordshire trust say the lights will be replaced in Lister Hospital in Stevenage.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The report found that by 2040, seven locations including on Londonderry and Larne lines are at high risk of rising seas.

A further four are also deemed to be at medium risk within the next 16 years.

It further projects the impact of rising sea levels in 2060, 2080 and found that by the year 2100, the number of high risk locations could rise to 13.

The most severely impacted lines are in Derry and Larne.

High risk locations identified by 2100 include Larne, Derry, Castlerock, the Bann estuary, Glynn and Ballycarry.

Ulster Unionist assembly member John Stewart said the report's conclusions will be of concern to many, especially in his east Antrim constituency.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Rising sea levels a risk to NI rail network, report finds

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Translink say that the report will be used to inform their climate resilience strategy.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
BBC News NI crime and justice correspondent

The High Court in Belfast is issuing a ruling on whether the government's controversial Troubles Act is lawful.

The case has been brought by relatives of victims and the survivor of a shooting.

The act involves a conditional amnesty for suspects and introduces a ban on inquests and future civil actions related to the Troubles era.

The government has argued its act is human rights compliant.

However, those bringing the action disagree.

They claim the legislation is unconstitutional and breaches Articles 2 and 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The 200-page judgement is being delivered on Wednesday.

Legal experts have speculated the challenge could take several years to exhaust, as it could be appealed all the way to the Supreme Court.

Separately, the Irish government is also taking a case against the UK at the European Court in Strasbourg.

The Belfast case was brought by Martina Dillon, John McEvoy, Lynda McManus and Brigid Hughes.

Ms Dillon's 45-year-old husband, Seamus, was shot dead in a loyalist attack at the Glengannon Hotel in Dungannon, County Tyrone, in 1997.

Mr McEvoy survived a loyalist shooting on the Thierafurth Inn in Kilcoo, County Down, in 1992.

Ms McManus's father, James, was among those wounded in the Sean Graham bookmakers massacre earlier the same year.

Ms Hughes's husband, Anthony, was an innocent man killed as he drove into the SAS ambush of an IRA unit in Loughgall in 1987.

Amnesty International has supported their action.

What is the Northern Ireland Troubles Act?

The act, which came into effect in September, will end future civil litigation and inquests into deaths which occurred during more than 30 years of violence in Northern, known as the Troubles.

The government has said the legislation, which applies to all former members of the security forces and ex-paramilitaries, is an attempt to draw a line under the events of the past.

It has repeatedly stated the new act is, in its view, human rights compliant.

Prosecutions that are currently ongoing will continue to conclusion. However, any inquests that have begun will end in May unless they have reached the point of delivering findings.

It is also likely to limit investigations, which from now on would be undertaken by the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR).

Opponents, which include victims' groups and all political parties in Northern Ireland, have argued it will remove access to justice.

A number of legal challenges to it have been brought by victims' groups and families of people who were killed or injured during the Troubles.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
NI Troubles: High Court issuing ruling on legality of controversial law

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The law involves a conditional amnesty for suspects and bans future inquests and civil actions.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Conservatives, including the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, have long defended the non-dom arrangements, saying they helped ensure the UK was an attractive place for highly sought after, well off people to choose to live and work.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Are the Tories going to scrap non-dom tax status?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Chancellor is exploring the idea of scrapping the status in order to deliver tax cuts for millions.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Immigration restrictions imposed on international students threaten to damage the UK economy, according to university leaders, with the number enrolling from overseas falling by a third.

Universities UK ( UUK), which represents mainstream universities and colleges, said the government's new curbs, coupled with steep visa fee increases and threats to cut back on graduate work entitlements, are having a negative impact on the UK as a study destination.

Data from more than 60 UK universities shows that the number of study visas issued has fallen by 33% this year compared with the same time last year. A separate survey of 70 universities by UUK found that enrolments in postgraduate taught courses were down by more than 40% since January's immigration changes.

Vivienne Stern, UUK's chief executive, said: "I regret the fact the government appears to want to diminish our success in this area. Our new data shows that if they wanted to see a reduction in numbers, they have already achieved that through policy changes introduced earlier this year.

"If they go further, they will damage the economies of towns and cities throughout the UK, as well as many universities. Given we should be doing everything we can to promote economic growth, this seems to be getting the priorities wrong."

The rules that came into force in January barred international students on taught courses such as master's degrees from bringing family members with them.

But UUK said students were also being put off by uncertainty over the UK's post-study work offer, after the government asked the Migration Advisory Committee to review whether international students should be entitled to stay in the UK for at least two years after successfully completing a course.

"We call on all political parties in the run-up to a general election to reassure prospective international students that the UK remains open, and the graduate visa is here to stay," Stern said.

"Any further kneejerk reforms could have serious consequences for jobs across the country, economic growth, and UK higher education institutions."

The data from the Enroly admissions management service shows that international students' deposits and visas are lower than in 2023 and 2022, with their figures showing postgraduate acceptances down by 37% so far this year.

skip past newsletter promotion
Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
after newsletter promotion

Jeff Williams, Enroly's chief executive, said: "The downturn in January 2024 signals the impact of UK policy on recruitment volumes, underscoring the industry's sensitivity to political and economic factors."

More than 320,000 international students account for nearly half of enrolments on taught courses at UK universities, paying tuition fees averaging about £17,000 a year. A sudden fall in enrolments would make a wide range of courses uneconomic and cause severe financial dislocation at many institutions.

A new study commissioned by UUK found that the growth in international students since 2019 has delivered a £60bn boost to the entire UK's economy.

The Department for Education said: "We are fully focused on striking the right balance between acting decisively to tackle net migration, which we are clear is far too high, and attracting the brightest students to study at our universities."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Student immigration restrictions will damage UK economy, universities say

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
With a third fewer students enrolling, university leaders accuse ministers of wanting to 'diminish our success'

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Stay informed with free updates

Simply sign up to the Fund management myFT Digest -- delivered directly to your inbox.

Two of the world's biggest asset managers are quitting an investor group set up to prod companies over global warming and a third is scaling back its participation, in a major setback to the ambitions of Climate Action 100+.

JPMorgan Asset Management and State Street Global Advisors both confirmed they were leaving Climate Action 100+. BlackRock, the world's largest money manager, is pulling out as a corporate member and transferring its participation to its smaller international arm.

The departures weaken the climate group's plan to use shareholder influence to step up pressure on polluting companies to decarbonise, because they mean that none of the world's five largest asset managers are fully behind the effort.

The moves also highlight a growing split between the largest US-based asset managers, which are under intense pressure from Republicans over climate issues, and those elsewhere. Smaller competitors and European firms have largely stuck with various climate coalitions.

Launched in December 2017, Climate Action 100+ challenges airlines, oil majors and other polluting companies to reduce their carbon footprint. BlackRock, JPMAM and State Street Global Advisors all joined in 2020.

However, the group announced last year that it would be shifting from pressuring companies on climate disclosures to pushing them to actively reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

SSGA said these "phase 2" corporate engagement requirements had gone too far. "SSGA has concluded the enhanced Climate Action 100+ phase 2 requirements for signatories are not consistent with our independent approach to proxy voting and portfolio company engagement," SSGA said in a statement.

BlackRock said in a note that it was dropping its corporate membership because it believes the phase 2 strategy, which takes effect in June, conflicted with US laws requiring money managers to act solely in clients' long-term economic interest. The $10tn manager is setting up a new stewardship option allowing clients, particularly in Europe, to set decarbonisation as part of their investment objectives. For clients who do not opt do so, BlackRock will continue to prioritise financial results, the note said.

JPMAM said it had made a "significant investment" in its own stewardship team and corporate engagement: "Given these strengths and the evolution of its own stewardship capabilities, JPMAM has determined that it will no longer participate in Climate Action 100+ engagements."

JPMorgan's most recent climate change engagement report states that it "does not work in concert with other investors on investment matters and makes its own independent decisions concerning investee companies".

With $4.1tn and $3.1tn of assets under management respectively, SSGA and JPMAM are also among the top five asset managers. Vanguard and Fidelity Investments never became members. Other large US asset managers still in Climate Action 100+ include Goldman Sachs, Invesco and Pimco.

Climate Action 100+ declined to comment on the withdrawals, but said more than 60 members have joined since the phase 2 changes were announced in June 2023, bringing its total membership to more than 700. "Since its inception, Climate Action 100+ has experienced remarkable growth - and that has only continued," the group said.

As asset managers have benefited from a global boom in sustainable investing, they have been targeted by Republicans who are typically aligned with the oil and gas industry. In 2022, West Virginia led the way when it barred five financial firms, including JPMorgan, BlackRock and Goldman, from new state business, saying they were "boycotting" the fossil fuel industry.

Recommended

The US House judiciary committee subpoenaed BlackRock, SSGA and Vanguard as part of an investigation into sustainable investing. The committee has also subpoenaed an official at Climate Action 100+.

Vanguard left the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative in December 2022, days before its representative was scheduled to testify at a Texas legislative hearing about sustainable investing alongside BlackRock and SSGA. Vanguard was ultimately excused from the hearing.

Texas, the leading US oil-producing state, has declared Climate Action 100+ to be anti-oil and blocked financial companies, including BlackRock, from doing business with the government.

Oklahoma, another oil producer, banned JPMorgan, BlackRock and others from doing business with the state in 2023.

Additionally, 21 Republican state attorneys-general are investigating asset managers for working together on climate issues. "Potential unlawful co-ordination appears throughout Climate Action 100+'s documents," the attorneys-general said last year.

Jim Jordan, the Republican chair of the House judiciary committee, said on X the decisions by JPMorgan and State Street were "big wins for freedom and the American economy, and we hope more financial institutions follow suit in abandoning collusive ESG actions".

Climate Capital

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2024. All rights reserved.

Follow the topics in this article

Recommended

Climate Capital

Where climate change meets business, markets and politics. Explore the FT's coverage here.

Are you curious about the FT's environmental sustainability commitments? Find out more about our science-based targets here

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
JPMorgan and State Street quit climate group as BlackRock scales back

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Reduced participation means none of top five money managers fully back Climate Action 100+

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Two sinkholes recently appeared on the outskirts of the Buckinghamshire village, above an area where the Chiltern Tunnel on the HS2 route between London and Crewe is currently being drilled.

The ground collapses were found near an electricity pylon in a field owned by the Department for Transport and leased to a farmer next to Frith Hill on February 7 and 12.

There have now been four sinkholes in the general area in the last nine months that are believed to be caused by HS2.

Bridgette Crick, 66, whose house overlooks the new sinkholes, said she was worried about the ground collapses and recent vibrations, which she thinks are due to the ongoing tunnelling.

READ MORE: Bucks landowner's scrapyard breaches planning - council

She told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "We had one appear over our hedge. You can see it out of my daughter's bedroom window.

"Before that, both I and my daughter have experienced vibrations. We were sat on the settee one day and it was almost vibrating like a bee. It was quite a shock.

"Two weeks ago, I was laying on my bed, and it started vibrating. There have also been other occasions this year, and my daughter's bed was vibrating.

"We never did anything about it really, but now with these sinkholes appearing, we are now very, very worried. I have got quite anxious over it."

Bridgette and other residents have recently been given letters from HS2 and its contractor Align warning them that working hours to build the new rail line under South Heath will be extended to 24 hours a day, seven days a week during February.

The extension is to allow the dismantling of the one of HS2's tunnel boring machines Florence as it completes its tunnelling this week.

The other machine 'Cecilia', which is still tunnelling, will also be taken apart once excavations are complete, although dismantling both machines could take up to six months.

Bridgette's neighbour Ruth Plummer, originally from Bury, is also worried about the sinkholes.

She said: "I don't like the secrecy around it to start with. I don't like the fact that HS2 are covering their bums by saying that there is no public access across the field, when everyone uses the field to walk their dogs in.

"It's frightening because no one tells you what's going on and you're just met with continued passive aggressiveness."

Retiree Tony O'Connor, who lives round the corner from the two women, is also angry at HS2, including over the recent sinkholes.

He said: "It is disgraceful what they have done. Here's an area of outstanding natural beauty and they just ride roughshod straight through."

A spokesperson for HS2 Ltd said: "We have always recognised that the geology of this part of the route is particularly challenging - with poorer quality, less stable, chalk susceptible to ground movement in the final approach to the North Portal.

"We are working closely with the landowner and tenant, temporary fencing has been installed, and extra monitoring put in place.

"Throughout the excavation of the Chiltern tunnels we have been engaging with all key stakeholders including Buckinghamshire Council, Affinity Water and the Environment Agency, and we will keep them updated as we go forward. Safety remains our top priority."

Buckinghamshire Council said it had held a meeting with HS2 Limited and its contractor following the appearance of two sinkholes in field near Frith Hill.

The council leader Martin Tett said: "Although this land is not publicly accessible, we have sought reassurance from HS2 Limited that the area is now safe, and that any damage done will be quickly repaired and by them, not the Council.

"We have asked for greater transparency and accountability from HS2 Limited and they have told us that they will be commissioning an independent study of the whole of the area being tunnelled from the South Portal to the North Portal.

"This will give us all a clearer idea of whether to expect further sinkholes along the line both during tunnelling and afterwards and how this will be managed, now and in the future."

An Environment Agency spokesperson said: "We are investigating sinkholes on private land at Frith Hill in Buckinghamshire to understand whether they have resulted in any pollution to the local environment.

"Our specialist officers work closely with HS2 Ltd and contractors to ensure all relevant legislation is followed. We also continue to talk to local people, the water industry and local authorities to ensure the environment is protected throughout the HS2 project.

"Anyone with new concerns about this incident can call our 24-hour incident hotline: 0800 807060."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
'Frightening and disgraceful': Villagers on HS2 sinkholes beyond their hedge

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Sinkholes caused by the drilling of tunnels for HS2 are 'frightening and disgraceful', residents in the village of South Heath have said.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Tony's Chocoloney sued by Milka over copycat campaign

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Milka manufacturer Mondalez is taking legal action against Tony's for mimicking its bar in a new campaign.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How Keir Starmer averted Gaza ceasefire vote crisis

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A last-minute intervention proved crucial as Starmer faced the biggest rebellion of his leadership

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Energy prices are expected to fall sharply in April, with the regulator Ofgem announcing its new price cap later on Friday.

Consultancy Cornwall Insight has predicted a 14% drop, taking the typical annual bill to £1,656 - the lowest in more than two years.

Ofgem will make the announcement at 07:00 GMT when it outlines the price cap for April to June.

Campaigners say bills are still high and many will struggle to pay.

Bill drop

Ofgem's price cap affects 29 million households in England, Wales and Scotland. Rules are different in Northern Ireland, where prices are also falling.

The regulator sets the maximum amount that suppliers can charge for each unit of gas and electricity but not the total bill, so if you use more, you will pay more.

Cornwall Insight has predicted the annual bill for a household using a typical amount of energy and paying by direct debit, will fall by £272 a year compared with the current level of £1,928.

The vast majority of people pay by direct debit, with payments smoothed out over the year. However, those who pay via prepayment meter - so often pay for energy as they use it - would have benefitted more had the cut come over the winter.

"To help counteract the higher fuel costs in winter, prepayment customers should be topping up their meter more than is needed during the summer, when energy usage is lower, to build up a credit reserve," said Matthew Cole, head of Fuel Bank Foundation, a charity offering emergency help to prepayment meter households.

"However, we know that's just not possible for the millions of low-income households already struggling just to keep the lights on, let alone find extra money for making additional meter top-ups."

Even after any drop in the cost of energy, prices will remain above pre-pandemic levels.

Consumers also owe an estimated £2.9bn to energy suppliers. Ofgem is proposing lifting the cap by £16 between April and March next year to cover some of these bad debts.

Some householders have moved onto fixed deals, to get some certainty over how much they will pay and avoid fluctuations in the price cap.

Pensioner Jackie Honey, 69, has a fixed deal and has made significant changes to her lifestyle to keep her usage, and her bills, down.

That includes moving easy chairs into the kitchen and only heating that one room.

"I've worked all my life, and a lot of it being a single parent, I had to do two or three jobs, but I thought I had provided enough," she said.

"I've reduced the house down to two one-bedroom flats but I still can't do what I'd like to do, which is use my lounge."

Financial support wound down

In the winter of 2022-23, overall energy prices were high and rises would have been bigger had it not been for the government's Energy Price Guarantee limiting the typical bill to £2,500.

Each household also received £400 of support over six months, but the government did not repeat the discount this winter.

Cost-of-living payments seem set to end following a final instalment this month, and no plans have been announced for a continuation of the Household Support Fund, which councils use to offer direct support.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt could choose to address future support when he presents his Budget on 6 March.

A spokesman for the Department for Energy Security said: "We've halved inflation and energy prices are now significantly lower than their peak - but we recognise the challenges families are still facing."

Check your direct debit: Your monthly payment is based on your estimated energy use for the year. Your supplier can reduce your bill if your actual use is less than the estimation.

Pay what you can: If you can't meet your direct debit or quarterly payments, ask your supplier for an "able to pay plan" based on what you can afford.

Claim what you are entitled to: Check you are claiming all the benefits you can. The independent MoneyHelper website has a useful guide.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Energy bills expected to fall as new Ofgem price cap is announced

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Domestic gas and electricity bills could fall sharply in April but many are still struggling to pay.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Business reporter, BBC News

The government finances showed a large surplus last month, more than double the surplus last January.

The surplus - the difference between spending and tax income - rose to £16.7bn in January, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

These are the last set of public finance figures to be released before the Chancellor's Budget in March.

Jeremy Hunt has hinted he wants to cut taxes, but analysts said the surplus is unlikely to lead to big changes.

Despite being the highest surplus in nominal terms since monthly records began in 1993, it was lower than most economists had predicted.

But it is still likely to fuel calls for tax cuts in the forthcoming Budget, which many see as the government's last chance to win round voters before a general election later this year.

The ONS said the surplus was the result of higher tax receipts and lower spending, with the government no longer subsiding household energy bills for example.

Every January, the government tends to take more in tax than it spends in other months due to the amount it receives in self-assessed taxes, according to the ONS.

In addition, the cost of financing the UK's debt has gone down as inflation has fallen.

"Overall expenditure was down on this time last year, despite increased spending on public services and benefits," said Jessica Barnaby, deputy director for public sector at the ONS.

Chief secretary to the Treasury, Laura Trott said: "While we will not speculate over whether further reductions in tax will be affordable in the Budget, the economy is beginning to turn a corner, with inflation down from over 11% to 4%."

For the year as a whole, to April, the government is only on track to undershoot its forecast by between £10bn to £20bn. Chancellors usually allow some headroom in the finances, to allow for unforeseen changes in economic fortunes.

Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets, Hargreaves Lansdown said the figures represented a boost to the chancellor's coffers, but were not big enough for a "Budget bonanza".

"It offers a few inches of headroom for Hunt, but not enough for a Budget of dramatic tax cuts," she said.

Capital Economics, an economics think tank, suggested using the added room for manoeuvre that the chancellor will have as a result of the surplus amounted to "putting the election before prudence".

In the year from April 2023 public borrowing has totalled £96.6bn.

Overall the UK's debt has risen compared to a year ago and remains at levels last seen in the early 1960s, the ONS said, at around 96.5% of the size of the economy, measured by GDP.

One of the government's key pledges is that debt should be falling as a percentage of GDP in five years' time.

The debate over whether January's surplus in the government's finances leaves room for tax cuts comes against a mixed economic backdrop.

The latest growth figures show that the UK went into a shallow recession in the second half of last year, although the governor of the Bank of England suggested this week that there were already "distinct signs of an upturn".

The Resolution Foundation has warned that if the chancellor does cut tax in the forthcoming Budget, it would amount to a "tax sandwich" with any tax cut sitting between substantial tax rises in the years before and after it.

"Juicy tax cuts in this election year are sandwiched between far bigger tax rises already introduced last year. And highly unusually the government has already announced plans for a chunky package of tax rises that will come into effect after polling day," said James Smith, research director at the Resolution Foundation.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Government finances show big surplus in January

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The £16.7bn surplus was double last January's but lower than economists expected.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Hovhannes Avoyan is a former professor of artifcial intelligence (AI) from Armenia, who founded the picture and video editing app Picsart.

It achieved unicorn status, with a valuation of more than $1bn.

The app uses AI and Avoyan explains why people should not fear the technology, for our CEO Secrets series.
Filmed, produced and edited by Dougal Shaw

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
'AI won't steal your job, but people using it may'

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Hovhannes Avoyan, founder of picture and video editing app Picsart, shares his advice for our CEO Secrets series.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A few days later, the government announced a ban ban on its sale after lab tests detected the presence of Rhodamine-B, a chemical compound, in the samples. The chemical imparts a fluorescent pink hue and is used to dye textiles, cosmetics and inks.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Cotton candy: Pink sugary sweet sets off alarm bells in India

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Tamil Nadu bans the pink sugary treat for containing a carcinogen, while others are planning to do so.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
I love fashion, enjoy following trends, keeping up with new brands and dressing up, but I have always bought too much. So when a report last year found that no amount of recycled materials, regenerative agriculture or innovative fabrics are going to make enough of an impact to keep global heating at bay, I decided to embark on a new way of getting dressed.

Those living in the high-income G20 countries, the report from the thinktank Hot or Cool Institute stated, need to radically reduce their fashion consumption. It set a specific brief: "If no other actions are implemented, such as repairing/mending, washing at lower temperatures, or buying secondhand, purchases of new garments should be limited to an average five items a year for achieving consumption levels in line with the 1.5-degree target."

Five is a radical number, but it's also tangible. It still allows you the pleasure of shopping, but requires you to think carefully about the garments you choose. They need to be special, work hard in your wardrobe and you need to really love them.

What would cutting back to only five things do for me? It turned out, a lot. I had more fun with fashion this past year than ever before, as I turned to rental, alteration, swapping, borrowing and mending. I shopped my own wardrobe and found many unworn treasures (according to Wrap ( Waste and Resources Action Programme) we only wear 20-30% of our wardrobes), meanwhile I was forced to consider my own personal style rather than one prescribed to me by catwalks or Instagram.Maybe the bow thing is not for me, and Tomato Girl summer worked better on TikTok.

When I announced my plans on social media, it struck a chord and thousands of women joined me in the challenge. Here are a few of them on what they bought and what they learned.

Jane Shepherdson - fashion retail consultant, London, in her 50s

What were the five items you bought new? I confess I tried to cheat, counting a two-piece suit as one item, but I came clean. I also bought a sweatshirt from Amy Powney's Mother of Pearl brand.Then I bought an Ulla Johnson jumpsuit, reduced to £150 from £450, something I have been searching for, forever. My last purchase came when my little cross body bag bit the dust after years of service. I tried to find one secondhand, but couldn't find the right size, so I bought a burgundy Isabel Marant bag, which I will wear for ever.

Did you do anything else to make your wardrobe more sustainable? I rented a green velvet Vampire's Wife dress for a wedding. I'm the chair of My Wardrobe HQ, so I rent whenever I can.I also altered two pairs of trousers - my local tailor made one fit properly, and cropped the other to make them look more contemporary. And I bought an electric wool shaver to de-pill all my knitwear. It is a gamechanger!

Will you continue the challenge this year? I will try to stick to five from now on, but won't get too hung up if I really need something. What the rule of five does is break the addiction, making you think seriously about a purchase without losing the enjoyment fashion brings.

Emma Hakansson - activist, political assistant and author of Total Ethics Fashion, Melbourne, Australia, in her 20s

What were the five items you bought new? I was given a pair of loafers and a handbag that fits my laptop (both ethically made, free from animal-derived materials). I also bought a beautiful, silky Tencel skirt from local brand A.BCH after chatting with the two people who cut the fabric and sewed it - I loved that.I was also given a T-shirt from the New York City Animal Liberation march I spoke at. I can still buy one more thing - there are a couple I'm still considering!

Did you do anything else to make your wardrobe more sustainable? I sent clothes in for Citizen Wolf's Black Fridye, an initiative that aims to usurp Black Friday. Instead of encouraging you to buy new, you pay them to responsibly dye your clothes black if they're stained or unloved. A friend gave me a pink linen shirt at an office clothing swap and I loved the shape, but pink didn't suit my skin tone.

What advice can you offer those wanting to cut back? Unsubscribe from all the email lists. Learn to appreciate clothing you see online in the same way you appreciate art - admiration doesn't mean you need to buy it. And love the clothes you have: there are plenty of outfits you haven't thought about yet among what you already own.

Jessica Stanley - merchandising, the Cotswolds, in her 40s

What were the five items you bought new? I bought an excellent quality Breton stripe T-shirt from Ivy the Brand, a pair of Maje cargo trousers, a pair of straight leg jeans from River Island, a pair of Birkenstock suede clogs and a cream knitted waistcoat from An'ge.

I also bought a few secondhand items from Instagram sellers, which satisfied my need to play into trends.

Did you do anything else to make your wardrobe more sustainable? I shopped my husband's wardrobe, stealing one of his suit jackets to wear to a wedding. Previously I would have scoured Zara last minute and got something delivered. I also attended some swap shops - the best piece I got was a vintage Topshop denim boiler suit which I wore all year. And my friend and I swapped woolly hats: she got my Ganni and I got her AMI.

What was the hardest thing about it? Overcoming the feeling of wanting to wear the latest thing. Missing out on some amazing collaborations with limited runs. I would have loved a Ganni x Barbour coat and a Sezane x Sea New York jacket. I had to remove myself from the high street.

Nicky McChrystal - runs a small children's lifestyle brand, Leicestershire, in her 40s

What were the five items you bought new? I actually bought four and was given two. As the mother of a five- and a three-year-old, all my jeans have holes in the knees. I bought a new pair in January and another in November. I'd wanted new trainers for about a year so I researched before plunging for some NB 327s. We went on our first holiday abroad since 2019, so I bought a new bikini from Away That Day, which uses recycled nylon. They took one of my old swimsuits to recycle.

Did you do anything else to make your wardrobe more sustainable? I had a wedding in March and rented a Self Portrait dress from Hurr. The renter sent me garment tape to keep it in place.

Any advice for someone thinking about embarking on the rule of five? I thought about everything I was going to buy for a month before I took the plunge.

What's was the hardest thing about it? You don't get the dopamine hit. I loved shopping and would easily drop a few hundred pounds at Zara a few years ago.

Dalbir Bains - career coach, London, in her 50s

What were the five items you bought new? A black and white Stine Goya trouser suit was the best thing I bought - it's timeless and will be in my wardrobe for years to come.

Did you do anything else to make your wardrobe more sustainable? I have some beautiful bright blue Tibi jeans I never wear because they are long and require heels. I finally accepted that I'm never going to wear heels, so I had them shortened and have already worn them several times.

How did you manage buying less this year? I asked myself questions before every purchase - do you have somewhere to wear it? Do you already have something similar? Will you get multiple wears out of it? Is it something you could rent? Those questions often resulted in me putting garments back on the rail.

Any advice for someone thinking about embarking on the rule of five? Do a wardrobe edit first and pinpoint the gaps. I have 15 pairs of black trousers and now realise I couldn't buy another pair of black trousers as long as I live.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Could you commit to buying just five new items of clothing in a year?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
From realising your personal style differs to the one prescribed by Instagram to discovering the joys of a wool de-piller - here are five people who made that pledge a year ago, on what they bought and what it taught them

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
Helen Briggs and Victoria GillScience correspondents, BBC News

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Scientists deduce how whales sing under the sea, and why they can be drowned out by noisy ships.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Indivior, which makes opioid addiction treatments Suboxone and Sublocade, has started sounding out shareholders over plans to move its primary share listing to the US this year, while maintaining a secondary listing the UK.

Mark Crossley, the chief executive, said:

We are also excited to announce that we are initiating consultations with shareholders on potentially transitioning to a primary listing in the US in 2024 while maintaining a secondary listing in the UK.

This would be a blow to the London Stock Exchange, and the UK government's efforts to attract and retain companies here.

Indivior reported 21% net revenue growth last year, driven by its Sublocade and Perseris drugs, and expanded its pipeline of potential treatments for substance use disorders. Sublocade is a prescription medicine used in adults to treat moderate to severe addiction to opioid drugs, while Perseris is used to treat schizophrenia in adults.

However, Indivior, and its former parent, the consumer goods giant Reckitt Benckiser, from which it was spun off in 2014, are embroiled in a lawsuit in London's High Court.

In November, they urged the court to throw out a lawsuit over allegedly false marketing of Suboxone. They are facing a claim brought on behalf of hundreds of investors that could run to hundreds of millions of pounds.

The prescription medicine Suboxone. Photograph: Elise Amendola/AP

Wirral Council in north-west England wants to bring a representative claim based on an alleged scheme to switch the market for Suboxone from tablets, which were about to lose patent protection in the US, to a film that is put under the tongue and dissolves.

Reckitt Benckiser and Indivior, which deny the allegations, want the case dismissed.

Wirral Council aruges that when Indivior was indicted in the US in 2019, in one of the few corporate prosecutions related to the US opioid crisis, the news wiped out more than £550m of its market value.

As Japanese traders are partying like it's 1989, with the Nikkei hitting a record high, European shares have also hit an all-time high. The rally in global shares has been triggered by optimism that the AI boom will continue, following stellar results from US chipmaker Nvidia last night.

Europe's board Stoxx 600 index rose as high as 495.77 points, surpassing the 495.46 reached in January 2022, up almost 1% on the day.

The FTSE 100 index in London is just 10 points ahead at 7,670, with the aircraft engine maker Rolls-Royce the second-biggest riser, up 7.2%, after annual profits more than doubled and it forecast a further jump in profits this year.

The insurer Beazley is leading gains on the FTSE 100, trading 8.5% higher, after it said in an unscheduled update to the stock market that it will hand shareholders around $300m in a capital return after a strong performance in 2023.

It said its undiscounted combined ratio - a measure of underwriting performance in which a level below 100 indicates a profit - had improved from low-80s to mid-70s last year as a result of better than expected claims.

Analysts at Jefferies said:

Given the strong pricing environment, we expect that a portion of the improving claims experience is underlying (and therefore repeatable), and not just a result of lower catastrophe losses.

The company has also announced a $300m additional capital return, alongside its ordinary dividend. We had estimated a $175m buyback to be announced at the FY23 results. As rates begin to moderate, whilst earnings continue to be supported by strong pricing from recent years, we believe this opens the door for recurring capital returns in future years from Beazley. We currently forecast a $200m buyback per annuam for 2024-25.

Kalyeena Makortoff

Lloyds Banking Group has been forced to put aside £450m for potential fines and compensation for motor finance customers, after the UK regulator opened an investigation into whether consumers had been charged inflated prices for car loans.

The lender, which also owns the Bank of Scotland and Halifax brands, said there was "significant uncertainty" over the extent of any misconduct or loss to customers that could result in penalties or payouts.

It also said it was unclear when the Financial Conduct Authority might complete its investigation, creating further uncertainty for the high street lender. The consumer champion Martin Lewis said last month the investigation could lead to " the new PPI" - a reference to the multibillion-pound payment protection insurance scandal.

However, the charge did not weigh on the bank's annual pre-tax profits, which rose 57% to £7.5bn compared with £4.8m a year earlier. The bank was helped by a 3% rise in net interest income - which accounts for the difference between what is paid to savers compared with what is charged to loans and mortgage customers - to £13.3bn.

Matt Britzman, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said the £450m provision was lower than expected.

Lloyds delivered a decent set of results and a confident medium-term outlook. Stripping out the £450m provision, set aside as a buffer for any incoming charges from the FCA review into motor financing, and profit before tax was a decent beat. That was driven almost entirely by a release of credit impairments back into the profit line with better economic assumptions and a single-name creditor paying back a hefty chunk of debt.

On the FCA review, the £450m provision was less than some had feared but there will be question marks around how Lloyds has come to that figure. Lloyds has been honest in saying the outcome of the review is largely unknown. What we do know is that Lloyds is one of the more exposed banks should the FCA deem there was misconduct and customer loss.

He said there are reasons to be optimistic about UK banks:

UK domestic banks are unloved but there's reason to be optimistic, especially with valuations sitting where they are. Performance has clearly peaked, but there are several tailwinds yet to play out that could give room for upside beyond current consensus.

Loan default levels remain low and with the return of real wage growth, plus a stabilising housing market, consumers should remain resilient. At the same time, banks are seeing easing conditions in the mortgage market and what looks to be a peak in terms of consumers shifting to higher cost savings accounts. As these tailwinds ease, the power of the structural hedge can come through - think of this like a bond portfolio that's rolling on to higher yields over the next few years. Lloyds looks well placed to benefit from these improving trends.

More on Rolls-Royce. The company, whose technology powers ships and submarines, as well as making engines for big commercial aircraft, forecast a further jump in 2024 profits. It said cost cutting plans to axe up to 2,500 jobs were "well under way".

Its chief executive Tufan Erginbilgiç, the former BP executive who took the helm a year ago, said:

We are unlocking our full potential as a high-performing, competitive, resilient, and growing Rolls-Royce.

The company made an underlying operating profit of £1.6bn for 2023, ahead of analysts' forecasts of £1.4bn and its own guidance of between £1.2bn and £1.4bn, and up from £652m in 2022. For this year, it expects profit to rise by at least 6% to between £1.7bn and £2bn, again ahead of City estimates.

Rolls shares rocketed last year by more than 200%, making it the top performer in the FTSE 100, helped by a profit upgrade in July and an announcement in November that profits could quadruple by 2027.

Rolls plans to sell some of its power systems business, which is set to raise up to £1.5bn in gross proceeds by 2028. It is in advanced discussions to sell the lower power range engines division to Germany's Deutz, and has decided to exit electrical in the short term. The former relates to diesel engines and engine systems using Daimler technology.

Engine-maker Rolls-Royce has said cost cutting plans that will see it axe up to 2,500 jobs by the end of next year were "well under way" as it revealed annual earnings more than doubled. Photograph: Rolls Royce/PA

Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the economy.
Japan's main stock index has hit an all-time closing high, ahead of the previous record set in 1989, surging on optimism about the AI boom spread by bumper results from the US chipmaker Nvidia.

The Nikkei rose 2.19% to end the day at 39,098.68. On the final trading day of 1989, it had closed at 38,915.87. The 34 years it has taken to regain its footing is a decade longer than it took Wall Street to recoup losses from the 1929 crash and Great Depression.

Tsutomu Yamada, senior market analyst at Abu Kabucom Securities in Tokyo, told Reuters:

For us traders, this markets the arrival of a new era. It feels like the stock market is telling us that we've finally escaped from deflation and a new world has opened up.

This morning here in London, we've had buoyant figures from Lloyds Banking Group and the aircraft engine maker Rolls-Royce. Lloyds' annual pre-tax profits jumped 57% to £7.5bn, even though the UK bank put aside £450m for potential fines and compensation for motor finance customers, after the UK regulator opened a probe into whether consumers had been charged inflated prices for car loans. Profits at Rolls-Royce more than doubled last year to £1.6bn.

Last night, after US markets closed, Nvidia beat expectations again and reported sales of $22b.1n for the fourth quarter of last year, up 22% from the quarter before, and an eye popping 265% higher than in the same period the year before. And for the current quarter, it said it will deliver $24bn sales.

The chief executive and company founder Jensen Huang said:

Accelerated computing and generative AI have hit the tipping point. Demand is surging worldwide across companies, industries and nations.

Nvidia shares jumped 10% in after hours trading.

Josh Gilbert, market analyst at trading platform eToro, said:

Nvidia reasserted its place in the Magnificent 7 with another blowout quarter showing that AI use cases are exploding, and the AI boom is showing no signs of slowing down.

The big question for investors is, can this continue? Put simply, yes. Nvidia continues to deliver in every way, and its results show there is still plenty of growth ahead. This isn't just a flash in the pan, nor a bubble, but a business that continues to make serious cash.

Despite the risks from issues in China and ongoing competition, that can pose headwinds moving forward, Nvidia raised its guidance for the next quarter to $24bn in revenue, putting it on track to nearly $100bn in sales over the next year.

Also last night, the US Federal Reserve's minutes of its last meeting showed that policymakers were not eager to cut interest rates at that meeting, and expressed optimism and caution on inflation. They also modified the post-meeting statement to signal that rate cuts would only occur when the federal open market committee had "greater confidence" that inflation was diminishing.

Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management, said:

Sure, the minutes were a tad outdated, but they certainly skewed much more cautiously than when [Fed president Jerome] Powell told reporters late last month that a March rate cut was still possible, at least in the market's view.

The Agenda

8.15am-9am GMT: HCOB PMI flash for February for France, Germany, eurozone

9.30am GMT: UK S&P global PMI flash for February

10am GMT: Eurozone inflation for January (forecast: 2.8%)

12.30pm GMT: European Central Bank monetary policy meeting accounts

1.30pm GMT: US Initial jobless claims for week of 17 February

2.45pm GMT: US S&P Global PMI flash for February

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
European, Japanese shares hit all-time highs on AI boom; Lloyds and Rolls-Royce profits surge - business live

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Global share rally triggered by optimism about AI boom spread by stellar results from US chipmaker Nvidia

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Why the e-bike boom is raising fire fears

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Sales of electric bikes are booming but defective batteries and chargers can cause fires.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
BT Tower to become hotel as London landmark sold for £275m

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Telecoms group agrees sale of Grade II-listed tower to US operator MCR Hotels

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Footballer Dani Alves guilty of sexual assault

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Former Barcelona footballer Dani Alves found guilty of nightclub sexual assault and sentenced to four years and six months in jail

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
US President Joe Biden has called Russian President Vladimir Putin a "crazy SOB" during a fundraiser in San Francisco, as well as taking aim at his predecessor, Donald Trump, for comparing himself to a Russian opposition leader who died last week in an Arctic prison.

Biden was talking about climate change when he said, "We have a crazy SOB like Putin and others, and we always have to worry about nuclear conflict, but the existential threat to humanity is climate."

Biden has previously called others a "son of a bitch". In January 2022, he was caught on a hot mic using the same term of abuse about a Fox News White House reporter.

Speaking to donors at a private San Francisco home on Wednesday as part of a three-day swing through California to raise money for his 2024 reelection campaign, Biden also said he was astounded by recent comments made by his likely Republican challenger.

Trump compared the suspicious prison death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny to his own legal troubles in the US. Trump was fined $350m after a New York judge found he lied for years about his wealth on financial statements in his companies. Trump said the ruling was a form of "communism or fascism."

"Some of the things that this fellow's been saying, like he's comparing himself to Navalny and saying that - because our country's become a communist country, he was persecuted, just like Navalny was persecuted. I don't know where the hell this comes from," Biden said.

"I mean, if I stood here 10, 15 years ago and said any of this, you'd all think I should be committed," he said. "It astounds me."

Biden has a tendency to go off script during election fundraisers and in recent months has made apparently unplanned remarks about the Chinese president, the Republican Party and US ally Israel for its bombing of the Gaza Strip.

Biden's verbal attacks against Putin have also sharply intensified at the White House and on the campaign trail. Last week, the US president blamed Putin and "his thugs" for the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

"We don't know exactly what happened, but there is no doubt that the death of Nalvany was a consequence of something that Putin and his thugs did," Biden said at the White House after Russian prison officials announced that Navalny had died.

The Kremlin has denied involvement in Navalny's death and said western claims that Putin was responsible are unacceptable.
Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Biden calls Putin a 'crazy SOB' and says Trump remark on Navalny 'astounds me'

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The US president, who is known for a tendency to go off script, made the comments at a San Francisco fundraiser

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Australians are concerned about the widespread availability of illegal vapes and many support a ban, new research has found.

For a study published in the February edition of the international medical journal BMJ Open, researchers consulted with 139 Australians aged 14 to 39 living in Sydney and Melbourne about vaping regulations. Interviews were conducted across 16 focus groups.

The researchers found less than half of all groups were aware of the prescription model for obtaining nicotine vaping products.

When asked what needed to be done to reduce vape use, all of the groups suggested plain packaging, health warnings, flavour restrictions and increased vape-free areas.

Most groups - predominantly those who had never vaped - also recommended supply reduction regulations, such as banning all e-cigarettes.

A senior author on the study, Assoc Prof Michelle Jongenelis from the University of Melbourne, said the focus groups were held in March 2023, before the federal government announced sweeping vaping reforms.

Yet many of the groups' recommendations were in line with the reforms the government went on to announce.

From 1 January 2024, the importation of all disposable vapes was banned, with limited exceptions. Further importation reforms will be implemented from March. GPs and nurse practitioners are the only legal vape prescribers, and pharmacists will become the only authorised importers and providers of vape products.

"But I think until the stores actually get shut down, people will still think that there is no regulation because they can still get vapes from anywhere," Jongenelis said.

"Participants were saying to us: 'Well, I don't understand the prescription model because I can just go down to my local store and buy the product.' The planned reforms will mean that the sale of vapes in any place other than a pharmacy will be illegal, but enforcing these laws will be critical."

Jongenelis said the findings suggested advertising campaigns backed by the vaping industry calling on the government to abandon the reforms were simply "propaganda" that didn't reflect public sentiment. But education about the prescription vaping model would be important, she said.

A health economist with QIMR Berghofer, Prof Louisa Gordon, conducted modelling for the Australian Health Review about the health costs attributable to vapers who subsequently take up cigarette smoking and said her findings revealed the government's reforms were critical.

It is estimated 13% of people who vape but have never smoked eventually transition to tobacco cigarettes. This translates to more than 110,000 new Australian smokers, Gordon said.

"We wanted to understand the financial cost of that, which we estimated to be $180 million per year," she said, required to treat respiratory diseases, cardiovascular disease and cancer.

skip past newsletter promotion

Sign up to Afternoon Update

Our Australian afternoon update breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
after newsletter promotion

This is in addition to the current healthcare costs of smoking-related conditions, estimated at $2.6bn each year, she said.

Published in December, the study is the first to put a cost just on the health implications of people taking up smoking after vaping.

"The government's initiatives on cracking down on vaping will cost the government some money, but the downstream costs in savings to the health system are going to be massive," Gordon said.

She agreed with Jongenelis that community-wide education campaigns were urgently needed to support people addicted to vapes and cigarettes.

"We really encourage people to talk to their GP and to talk to the Quitline, " Gordon said.

The chief executive of the Public Health Association of Australia, Adjunct Prof Terry Slevin, said the sentiment he was hearing from the community echoed the findings from Jongenelis's study.

"People say it's madness that vapes are openly sold on street corners and that it's madness there is this widely-available form of nicotine addiction, especially given that we have no notion of the long-term effects of inhaling these products and all of chemicals that come with them," he said.

"If the vaping industry genuinely thinks that people are going to change their vote against this government on the basis of these reforms, I have a sneaking suspicion that their political radar is 100% pointing in the wrong direction."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Australians back stronger regulation on vapes including a ban, study finds

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Exclusive: Professor says vaping stores need to be shut down for people to realise supply is being regulated

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The UK is pulling out of a treaty that lets fossil fuel firms sue governments over their climate policies.

The government said the UK was withdrawing from the energy charter treaty after efforts to modernise it ended in stalemate.

The controversial treaty was established in the 1990s when the world energy system was heavily dominated by fossil fuels and enables foreign companies to challenge energy policies that threaten their investments, using secretive arbitration courts.

It was originally designed to encourage international energy investment but a number of countries have faced costly legal challenges over reducing their reliance on fossil fuels and boosting renewables.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said efforts to modernise the treaty to better support cleaner technologies had led to stalemate among European countries.

The UK has joined France, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands in withdrawing from the agreement.

The energy security and net zero minister Graham Stuart said: "The energy charter treaty is outdated and in urgent need of reform but talks have stalled and sensible renewal looks increasingly unlikely.

"Remaining a member would not support our transition to cleaner, cheaper energy, and could even penalise us for our world-leading efforts to deliver net zero.

"With £30bn invested in the energy sector just since September, we continue to lead the world in cutting emissions, attracting international investment and providing the strongest legal protections for those who invest here."

Shaun Spiers, the executive director of environmental thinktank Green Alliance, said: "Civil society organisations and parliamentarians from all political parties have been clear that the energy charter treaty is an out-of-date agreement and undermines our efforts to tackle climate change.

"We welcome the UK's decision to leave, which will strengthen global efforts to roll out cheap, clean renewable energy."

The shadow climate minister, Kerry McCarthy, said: "We are in an urgent global fight against the climate emergency.

"We cannot allow fossil fuel companies to stop democratically elected governments from taking strong climate action.

"Labour has long argued that the energy charter treaty is clearly outdated and not fit for purpose - it is good that the government have finally taken the step to leave it."

But she criticised the government for failing to deliver the clean power Britain needs and said:"Labour can cut bills and make Britain a clean energy superpower, tackling the climate crisis with good jobs for our country."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
UK quits treaty that lets fossil fuel firms sue governments over climate policies

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Britain joins France, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands in withdrawing from charter it says 'penalises' shift to net zero

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
It's not just in Europe that farmers are protesting ( The Guardian view on Europe's rural revolt: sustainability is in farmers' interests too, 14 February). Here in Wales, many farmers are up in arms over the recently released details of the Welsh government's Sustainable Farming Scheme. This will pay farmers for "public goods", actions that benefit the environment or the public. This includes things such as restoring hay meadows, creating ponds, restoring hedges, planting woodland and reducing fertiliser inputs. This is a big change from the former EU schemes, where farmers were paid so much per hectare, irrespective of how they farmed (there were environmental conditions under this scheme, but they were not monitored and were widely ignored).

As a former farmer in Wales, but also as a committed environmentalist, I fully support the Welsh government proposals, but I can understand the frustration that many farmers feel, having restrictions imposed on them when many are struggling financially. I think it's time for all farmers to face the fact that they can no longer expect subsidy payments for nothing, and that payments for public goods is a fairer way of supporting them financially.
Greg Nuttgens
Porthcawl, Bridgend

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
In Wales, struggling farmers grapple with new sustainability scheme | Letter

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Letter: Greg Nuttgens , a former farmer, says payments for environmentally beneficial schemes are better than subsidies for nothing

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
An infamous cyber crime gang has been disrupted by the National Crime Agency (NCA) and a coalition of international police agencies.

Lockbit and its affiliates have hacked some of the world's largest organisations in recent months, but as of Monday their extortion website displays a message saying it is "under the control of the National Crime Agency of the UK".

Five Russian nationals have been charged.

But what is Lockbit, what are its criminal tactics and who has fallen victim to it? Here's what we know...
What Lockbit does
The gang makes money by stealing sensitive data and threatening to leak it if victims fail to pay an extortionate ransom.

Its affiliates are like-minded criminal groups that are recruited to wage attacks using Lockbit's digital extortion tools.

US officials have described Lockbit as the world's top ransomware threat. The group has hit organisations in nearly every industry; from financial services and food to schools, transportation and government departments.

The gang has caused losses of billions of pounds, dollars and euros, both in ransom payments and in the costs of recovery, according to the UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).

Lockbit's website, until Monday, displayed an ever-growing gallery of victim organisations that was updated almost daily.

Next to their names were digital clocks that showed the number of days left to the deadline given to each organisation to provide ransom payment.

Lockbit ransomware has been deemed responsible for at least 1,700 attacks in the US alone by the FBI.
What are the group's tactics?
The NCSC and America's Cyber Defence Agency (ACDA) shed some light on Lockbit's tactics last year as it had become "the most deployed ransomware variant across the world".

In an extensive mitigation advisory, they described how the Lockbit operation uses a "ransomware-as-a-service" model where cyber criminals sell access to their ransomware variant to unconnected affiliates and provide them with support in carrying out attacks.

It also highlighted the risk of double extortion - a common tactic used by ransomware actors where they encrypt a victim's system and extract information, with threats that they will post it online unless a ransom is paid.

Lockbit's strategies are, of course, incredibly complex, but here are some summarised highlights from ACDA's advisory:

It has three main strains: Lockbit, Lockbit Red and Lockbit Black - and the latter is the group's signature ransomware. It scrambles computer files and demands payment in cryptocurrencies that are hard to trace in exchange for unscrambling them

Lockbit's core group not only allows affiliates to use its ransomware, but it lets those affiliates receive ransom payments first-hand before sending the core group a cut. This is in stark contrast to similar groups, which tend to pay themselves before affiliates

Its ransomware is kept simple with a point-and-click interface, making it accessible to a wide array of cyber criminals - even those with a lower degree of technical skill.

Essentially, Lockbit keeps things as simple as possible for potential affiliates because the more criminals it appeals to, the more cuts the core group gets from second-hand extortion cases.

But the group's tactics go to even greater depths, according to ACDA, essentially advertising through methods such as:

Disparaging other similar groups in online forums to make Lockbit look like the best ransomware on the market

Paying people to get Lockbit tattoos

Putting a $1m (£794,163) bounty on information related to the real-world identity of Lockbit's lead, who goes by the persona "LockBitSupp".

What do we know of Lockbit's origins and motives?
On its website, the group said it was "located in the Netherlands, completely apolitical and only interested in money".

But its malicious software was first discovered on Russian-language cyber crime forums in 2020, leading some security analysts to believe the gang is based in Russia.

Since then the group has been detected all over the world, with organisations in the UK, United States, India and Brazil among common targets, according to cybersecurity firm Trend Micro.

3:04
High-profile cases
With worldwide reach, Lockbit has been in the news frequently since 2020.

The most prominent case in the UK came early last year when the faced severe disruption after a Lockbit attack.

Royal Mail's investigation found the gang infected machines that print customs labels for parcels being sent overseas, leaving more than half a million parcels and letters stuck in limbo.

The gang also threatened to publish stolen data on the dark web, making printers at a Northern Irish Royal Mail distribution centre "spurt" out copies of the ransom note - a signature scare tactic of the gang.

Royal Mail asked customers to temporarily stop submitting any export items while the NCSC helped it resolve the issue.
Car dealership threats
The year before, Lockbit affiliates tried to hold UK car dealership group Pendragon to a $60m (£54m) ransom, but the company refused to pay up, saying the hack had not affected its ability to operate and that it "took immediate steps to contain the incident".
Children's hospital deemed a stretch too far
Another infamous incident came in December 2022 when Lockbit ransomware was used to attack SickKids in Canada, causing a system failure.

Bizarrely, the core gang claimed it released a free decryptor for the hospital to use, saying a member had broken its "policies".

It said affiliates were prohibited from encrypting medical institutions where attacks could lead to death.
Security firm hit
In August last year, Lockbit hackers allegedly acquired top secret security information on some of the country's most sensitive military sites, including the HMNB Clyde nuclear submarine base on the west coast of Scotland and the Porton Down chemical weapons lab, according to the Sunday Mirror.

Thousands of pages of data leaked onto the dark web after private security firm Zaun was targeted.

The company, which provides security fencing for sites related to the Ministry of Defence, confirmed in a statement it had been the victim of a "sophisticated cyber attack".

A Zaun spokesperson added it had taken "all reasonable measures to mitigate any attacks on our systems" and explained that it had referred the matter to the NCSC.
Click to subscribe to the Sky News Daily wherever you get your podcasts Latest big case
There were reports of Lockbit activity just last week, when India's Motilal Oswal Financial Services said it had detected malicious activity on the computers of some employees.

The company said it remedied the issue within an hour, adding its operations were unaffected.

"This incident has not affected any of our business operations and IT environment. It is business as usual," the company worth an estimated $15.3bn told Reuters.
What's happening now after NCA's Lockbit takeover?
The full post on Lockbit's website that went up on Monday reads: "This site is now under the control of the National Crime Agency of the UK, working in close cooperation with the FBI and the international law enforcement task force, 'Operation Cronos'."

Europol and other international police organisations from France, Japan, Switzerland, Canada, Australia, Sweden, the Netherlands, Finland and Germany all aided in the rare law enforcement operation.

An NCA spokesperson confirmed that the agency had disrupted the gang and said the operation was "ongoing and developing".

In a statement on Tuesday, the NCA added: "The NCA has taken control of Lockbit's primary administration environment, which enabled affiliates to build and carry out attacks, and the group's public-facing leak site on the dark web, on which they previously hosted, and threatened to publish, data stolen from victims.

"Instead, this site will now host a series of information exposing Lockbit's capability and operations, which the NCA will be posting daily throughout the week."

The US Department of Justice has announced two defendants accused of using Lockbit to carry out ransomware attacks have been criminally charged, are in custody, and will face trial in the US.

A representative for Lockbit posted messages on an encrypted messaging app saying it had backup servers not affected by the law enforcement action.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Lockbit ransomware gang's origins, tactics and past targets - and what next after policing breakthrough

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The provider of the world's top ransomware threat may have finally been thwarted by Operation Cronos, an international policing effort to hack the hackers led by the UK. Here's everything you need to know about the notorious criminal gang.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The BBC is under scrutiny. Here's what research tells about its role in the UK

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
With the BBC and other public service media facing increased political and public scrutiny, and a number of different challenges, this is a good time to take stock about what research can tell us about the role of the BBC and public service news in the UK.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The threat from fraud

Fraud is largely underreported and the CSEW (Crime Survey of England and Wales) estimates only 13% of cases being reported to Action Fraud or the police by victims.

Four fifths of reported fraud are cyber-enabled according to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau. The most common types of fraud in the UK are payment diversion fraud, investment fraud, romance fraud, courier fraud as well as cheque, plastic card and online bank account fraud. Further information on the different fraud types can be found at https://stopthinkfraud.campaign.gov.uk.

Criminals involved in fraud leverage social, political and economic events to target victims and exploit online services, social media and crypto assets to conduct a wide range of frauds. They conceal their identities and destinations of the proceeds of fraud. Financial losses to fraud could lead to more serious financial difficulties and even psychological harm for victims.

Our response to fraud

The government has published a national fraud strategy ( www.gov.uk/government/publications/fraud-strategy) setting out how it will pursue fraudsters and empower people to avoid fraud and respond appropriately. The NCA works with partners from across the public, private and third sectors to pursue serious and organised fraudsters, block fraud from happening, help people avoid and recover from fraud and wherever possible, return funds to victims.

What you can do to help

Protect yourself by securing your accounts, data and devices

Use a strong and different password for your email using 3 random words. Your email password should be strong and different from all your other passwords.

Always use 2-step verification (2SV), where available, to protect your email account.

Use your browser's password manager to safely store your passwords.

Recognise and break suspicious contacts

If you have any doubts about a message or phone call, contact the organisation directly to check. Use contact details from their official website - don't use the numbers or address in the message.

Report the incident

If you have received an email which you're not quite sure about, forward it to the Suspicious Email Reporting Service at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Report suspicious text messages and scam call numbers to 7726 (it's free of charge). Your provider can find out where the text or call came from and block or ban the sender.

If you see a suspicious ad in a paid-for space, you can report it to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) asa.org.uk.

Report fraud to Action Fraud (or Police Scotland) and your bank if you are a victim. Report fraud or cyber-crime any time at actionfraud.police.uk or call 0300 123 2040. In Scotland, report to Police Scotland by calling 101.

Impersonation of NCA officers
Criminals may pretend to be from a legitimate organisation in order to deceive and put pressure on victims to make very quick decisions. This includes the impersonation of NCA officers. If you're unsure about the identity of one of our officers, please call our control centre on 0370 496 7622 (available 24/7).

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Fraud is the most commonly experienced crime in the UK, affecting UK society economically and socially. It accounts for over 40% of crime in England and Wales. According to the Office of National Statistics, it was the most common crime type between April 2022-March 2023, with an estimated 3.5 million incidents of fraud experienced by adults aged 16 and over.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
There's little doubt that Chinese carmakers have been the beneficiaries of some extraordinarily generous subsidies.

"Subsidies and tax breaks have created chronic overcapacity and vicious price competition - as well as ruthlessly efficient firms," Yanmei Xie of Gavekal Research said. Last year, policymakers unveiled fresh support measures.

With re-election on her mind, Von der Leyen has promised recriminations to protect Europe's industrial backbone. Car-making is particularly sensitive because European leaders see it "as both the past and future foundation of the bloc's industrial success", Xie said.

Chinese electric cars are already subject to a 25pc tariff in the US, so with protectionism high there, trade with Europe is more important for China than ever. However, the EU has launched an anti-subsidy probe into China's electric car industry.

Officials believe subsidies have already enabled Chinese imports to undercut European EV prices by a fifth. Tariffs of 10 to 15pc have been threatened. Additional investigations could come for wind turbines, steel, and medical devices, Xie believes.

The fate of Europe's solar industry may act as a precedent. The Continent's solar panel manufacturers have begged Brussels for help after being crushed by cheaper imports and oversupply from China, but German Economy Minister Robert Habeck has warned that trade restrictions could bankrupt EU companies that assemble and install solar panels using imported parts.

Miguel Stilwell d'Andrade, boss of Portuguese utility EDP has pointed out the price of solar panels in the US is more than double that of Europe as a result of duties on Chinese imports.

EU Financial Services Commissioner Mairead McGuinness worries the transition to green energy could be crushed.

Western carmakers fear reprisals the most. Many have substantial Chinese operations, and most rely on Chinese parts, particularly batteries, for their electric models: In curbing Chinese expansion, they might sell more cars, but they would need more Chinese materials to manufacture them.

Tu Le, founder of Sino Auto Insights, accuses the industry of hypocrisy. "Look at how much these foreign legacy automakers have taken advantage of the China market over the last 40 years. Volkswagen, Toyota, and General Motors would not be who they are without that. So the thought that they don't want to compete, or they only want to compete with China on their terms and in their domestic markets is a bit rich."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How China plans to save its economy by flooding the West with cheap cars

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The West is on red alert as Xi desperately plots for Beijing to regain superpower status

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Volcanologist Dr Evgenia Ilyinskaya told the BBC that while the Svartsengi power station itself is protected to some extent by barriers that have been built around it, there are pipes providing hot water to a further 30,000 people across the peninsula that are at more immediate risk.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
State of emergency declared in Iceland after volcanic eruption

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Thousands of people are being urged to conserve hot water after key pipes were damaged.

# data[].attributes.headline
HS2 drilling to create tunnels caused 2 sinkholes

# data[].attributes.subject
HS2 drilling to create tunnels caused 2 sinkholes

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The two new sinkholes were discovered in a field next to Frith Hill on the outskirts of South Heath, HS2 Ltd said.

The smaller feature was found next to Frith Hill on February 7 during routine monitoring work above the new Chilterns Tunnel on the HS2 line from London and Crewe.

The larger, feature was found in the same field on February 12 by HS2 surveyors.

READ MORE: Bucks landowner's scrapyard breaches planning - council

HS2 Ltd said 'safety was its top priority' and that both sinkholes had been fenced off amid ongoing tunnelling operations.

The field where the new sinkholes are located is privately owned and there is no public right of way across it.

These additional ground collapses mean there have now been a total of four sinkholes caused by HS2 drilling in less than nine months.

The first sinkhole in the area occurred above the tunnel near Shardeloes Lake near Little Missenden in May before a similar one in November near Hyde Heath.

Both have now been repaired and water monitoring has shown no significant impacts from the sinkholes on water quality.

HS2 Ltd said the two latest sinkholes may have been caused by a combination of disturbance from tunnelling, and potentially recent rainfall, which weakened pre-existing weak spots.

A spokesperson said: "We have always recognised that the geology of this part of the route is particularly challenging - with poorer quality, less stable, chalk susceptible to ground movement in the final approach to the north portal.

"We are working closely with the landowner and tenant, temporary fencing has been installed, and extra monitoring put in place.

"Throughout the excavation of the Chiltern tunnels we have been engaging with all key stakeholders including Buckinghamshire Council, Affinity Water and the Environment Agency, and we will keep them updated as we go forward. Safety remains our top priority."

The HS2 tunnel is being drilled through the Chiltern hills, which are made of chalk bedrock that is naturally vulnerable to sink holes, HS2 Ltd said.

Buckinghamshire Council and the Environment Agency have been approached for comment.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
TWO NEW HS2 sinkholes created from drilling of tunnel through Bucks countryside

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
HS2 tunnel boring has created two new sinkholes in Buckinghamshire countryside, the company building the huge rail project said.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Stay informed with free updates

Simply sign up to the Private equity myFT Digest -- delivered directly to your inbox.

Private equity executives need to "share the wealth" they create with workers at the companies they buy, according to the investment head of Calstrs, the giant US pension fund that is one of the world's biggest investors in the sector.

The comments from Christopher Ailman, outgoing investment chief at the $327bn fund, come after a decade of rapid growth in the buyout industry in which many dealmakers have made large fortunes from the hefty fees they have charged investors such as Calstrs.

The founders and top executives at groups such as Blackstone, KKR and Apollo Global Management have enjoyed a more than $40bn increase in the value of their shares since the beginning of last year, as the assets they manage continue to swell.

"Private equity has not shared enough revenues," said Ailman, who pioneered Calstrs' move into private equity two decades ago and now holds $50bn in the asset class, in an interview with the Financial Times.

"It's great they make money for our retirees - who are teachers and for other funds," he said. "But they need to also share the wealth with the workers of those companies and with the communities they invest in."

Ailman's comments come as the private equity industry faces increasing pressure from regulators, campaigners and investors due to its growing influence over the American corporate landscape and a series of scandals involving workers at businesses they own.

Private equity-backed companies in the US now employ 12mn people, according to lobbying group the American Investment Council.

Calstrs, which has increased the share of its fund invested in private equity from about 10 per cent in 2020 to almost 16 per cent today, has come under pressure from campaigners over its investments with Blackstone.

PSSI, a sanitation business owned by the private equity giant, was ordered to stop using child labour after a 2022 Department of Labor investigation.

Blackstone said that it "stands unequivocally against child labour violations - which are fully opposed to our values and PSSI's own hiring policies".

Ailman said the industry had "created a backlash" against it and "needed to do a better job".

He added that Calstrs had been putting pressure on managers such as Blackstone behind the scenes over their investments. "We go directly to our general partners to have conversations, we just haven't done that in the press," he said.

Some private equity managers have taken steps to ensure that employees at companies they own can share in the profits, if the firm performs well.

New York-based buyout group KKR says that billions of dollars in equity have been shared between more than 60,000 employees at its portfolio companies since 2011.

Last year, the firm committed to offering equity-sharing programmes to all employees in the takeover deals coming from its $19bn North American private equity fund and in all future funds in the region.

More than two dozen buyout groups, including Apollo, TPG, Warburg Pincus and Advent International have committed to a plan called Ownership Works that aims to generate more than $20bn in wealth for workers by 2030.

Ailman's comments come as returns for private equity investors have fallen sharply due to a combination of lower economic growth and higher interest rates, which raise the buyout industry's cost of borrowing to take companies private.

"When I started we assumed that private equity would generate as much as 500 basis points over publics, then we lowered it to 300," said Ailman, who has been chief investment officer since 2000. "I wonder if it is now more realistic to assume that private equity will only really generate around 150 basis points over publics."

He added that fees "were high" and "needed to be lower", but said that the net return was "still worth it" and that the fund was taking steps to reduce these costs.

Recommended

Ailman's comments come as he prepares to "pass the baton" to a successor from June after announcing his retirement last month.

One of his final acts has been to obtain board approval for a controversial $30bn of borrowing to help manage the fund's giant illiquid portfolio. The move attracted concerns that the fund had become overweight with illiquid assets, which are not easily traded.

Ailman signalled that its private markets allocation, which includes assets such as private equity and real estate and which amounts to about 40 per cent of the portfolio, had peaked.
Additional reporting by Antoine Gara in New York
"I actually think we are at the right balance [between illiquids and liquids]," he said. "I actually think we have achieved the sweet spot of where you want to be."

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2024. All rights reserved.

Follow the topics in this article

Recommended

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Private equity should share more wealth with workers, says US pension giant

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Calstrs investment chief says industry needs 'to do a better job' in sharing profits with employees of companies it buys

# data[].attributes.headline
City of London promises flexibility in drive to entice big companies

# data[].attributes.subject
City of London promises flexibility in drive to entice big companies

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
City of London promises flexibility in drive to entice big companies

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Square Mile's political head says there are no 'deal-breakers' as financial district looks to increase office occupancy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Aurelius, the German restructuring specialist which bought The Body Shop last year and has now put it into administration, had previously broken up two other UK retailers. Staff at the ethical cosmetics group fear it will be next, with more than 2,200 jobs and 200 stores at risk.

Aurelius, a specialist in distressed companies, has been active in the UK for some time. It bought the parent of the Lloyds Pharmacy chain in 2022, TV shopping business Ideal Shopping Direct in 2018 and the European and UK arm of retailer and office supplies business Office Depot in 2017, and went on to break up all three businesses.

But it has also held on to some of its acquisitions. It acquired trainer store Footasylum in 2022 and still owns it, and it also owns tile retailer CTD, which bought up 13 Tile Giant branches last year.

Aurelius has yet to set out its plan for The Body Shop. But the group's track record suggests administration may not necessarily mean oblivion.

Based in Munich, it was set up by Austrian entrepreneur Dirk Markus and German Gert Purkert in 2005 with initial funding of €500,000 (£425,000).

Markus, a keen racing cyclist who currently lives in London, started his career as a management consultant at McKinsey and then co-founded Mercateo, an online business procurement platform, which was sold to energy firm E.On in 2000.

Purkert, a fellow McKinsey alumnus, co-founded equinet, a German advisory firm for small and medium-sized businesses.

Aurelius has been operating in the UK for several years, but hit the headlines after it bought McKesson UK, the parent of the Lloyds Pharmacy chain, for £477m in what the group called the "biggest deal in its history".

At the time, the chemist chain employed more than 2,500 pharmacists at almost 1,300 pharmacies. The pharmacy business was then gradually dismantled.

In January last year Lloyds announced the closure of more than 200 outlets in Sainsbury's supermarkets. That was followed by a year-long process of disposing of high street pharmacies to local independents. The group's private travel clinic company MASTA was sold to Irish-led travel group Nomad Travel in May last year.

The rump of the Lloyds retail business was put into liquidation in January this year, owing about £30m to trade creditors and more than £250m to other parts of the company. Aurelius still owns the parent company, now called Hallo Healthcare, which runs an online doctors' service and wholesale pharmacy distribution service for NHS hospitals and others.

The pattern was not dissimilar to Aurelius's tactics after buying the European arm of Office Depot, which had more than 100 stores and provided office supplies to over 100,000 businesses under the Viking brand.

The business was gradually broken up in a series of transactions, with a large chunk of the wholesale arm sold to French Raja group, before the rump was put into liquidation with debts of more than £1m in 2021.

Ideal Shopping Direct was also broken up, with its Create & Craft channel and Freeview number and flagship Ideal World teleshopping businesses going to separate new owners.

Insolvency experts say Aurelius could simply be slimming down The Body Shop in order to buy it back and run it more profitably. Whatever the plan, the first steps have been about conserving cash.

The Body Shop at Home, a home selling arm which employed more than 100 people and had thousands of freelance sellers across Europe, has already been closed.

The company has also refused to pay more than £3m in long-term bonuses promised to current and former workers - despite the fact that they were supposedly protected by being written into conditions of the sale by The Body Shop's former owner Natura. Payment of the bonuses is now in the hands of administrators.

Last month The Body Shop's loss-making European business was separated off, with Aurelius telling staff and media it had been sold to an unnamed "family office". No further information has been disclosed.

Filings in Europe suggest the buyer is a group named Alma24, which has close links to Aurelius via director and majority shareholder Friedrich Trautwein. He has been a director of companies linked to a number of Aurelius-owned groups including Autostore and book wholesaler Bertram group. He was appointed interim chief executive of Ideal Shopping Direct under Aurelius's ownership.

Aurelius said it was not a shareholder in Alma24.

Putting the UK arm into administration can be used, say insolvency experts, as a way to cut costs at head office, warehouses and stores, with industry insiders expecting up to half of its 200 UK outlets to close.

Doing this via administration means redundancy payments and lease obligations are handled by administrators and are not a cost to Aurelius.

Meanwhile, documents filed at Companies House show that on 30 January, Alma24 took out a charge, a form of financial guarantee, using as collateral a list of Body Shop properties including its Littlehampton head office and stores on Oxford Street and Manchester's Trafford centre. This is understood to be linked to providing security over completion of the European deal.

It is understood Aurelius is also a direct creditor of The Body Shop, which could make it difficult for rival interested parties to outbid the German firm when the UK shops come up for sale. The firm is understood to be the largest secure creditor, putting it in prime position to buy back a downsized Body Shop.

A source close to Aurelius said it "wouldn't be against that option being put forward" and saw "a lot of potential in a restructured business".

Andrew Pepper, a restructuring expert at ReSolve, said Aurelius was likely to be "slimming down the shops to create a right-sized business fit for the future" with more focus on selling online.

He said the UK business was likely to survive as it was vital to supporting the international network of franchise businesses.

"What will they sell to the world if they don't have the flagship business? They still believe in the Englishness of it. The real value is in its global presence."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Body Shop staff fear company will be broken up, risking 2,200 jobs

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Aurelius, the German restructuring specialist, has broken up two other UK retailers

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
White House discloses 'troubling' anti-satellite advance by Russia

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Kremlin said to be developing space-based system but no 'immediate threat' posed

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Crime & Controversy: Nestle’s 5 Biggest Scandals Explained

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Foto: Photo: CC0 Public Domain / Unsplash - inma santiago

Nestlé products are among the most maligned by ethically conscious consumers. But why? We'll take a quick look at what controversies give Nestlé such a bad rap.

Nestlé, producer of countless products and sub-brands, from Nescafé and Milo to Abuelita syrup and Purina dog foods, as well as scores of iconic chocolate bars and candies, is the world's largest food and beverage company.

It's a giant conglomerate with fingers in many pies (or should we say Hot Pockets - Nestlé owns those too), including a 23 percent stake in L'Oreal, the world's largest cosmetics company. Nestlé products are everywhere. However, although their products are ubiquitous in almost every cupboard, there are a few things Nestlé would prefer to keep behind closed doors.

Just how did Nestlé come to be one of the largest conglomerations the world has ever seen? Kit Kats may be delicious, but they alone could not secure Nestlé's astronomical fate. We'll explain some of the key controversies that have helped to boost the company to its current status while simultaneously putting them in the bad books of ethical consumers globally for over half a century.

1. The Baby Formula Scandal

Since the company's conception in 1867, Nestlé has convinced people its baby formula is better for infants than breast milk - a claim that is categorically false. They placed particular focus on marketing in developing countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia during the 1970s, sending saleswomen dressed as nurses to convince the mothers that their formula was better for their children than their own breast milk.

Many women, struggling to afford the expensive milk touted as better than what their bodies produced for free, diluted the formula with (often unsanitary) water, further reducing its nutritional value. Millions of infants died. Many more grew up nutritionally deficient, dramatically impacting the health and lifespan of swathes of the developing world - one of the worst scandals a corporation has ever publicly faced. Meanwhile, the company pocketed billions in revenue from baby formula and continues to do so.

It's worth pointing out that some women cannot breastfeed, and baby formula, when prepared correctly, is an adequate substitute for breast milk. However, Nestlé exploited women by forcefully deceiving millions regarding its superiority over breast milk. It failed to educate people about proper preparation and even paid off doctors and hospitals to bolster its bogus claims.

Today, the misconception lives on, and baby formula remains a booming market. Despite global outrage now lasting half a century, as well as tons of new research into the harm caused by Nestlé baby formula and other Nestlé products, infant formula remains an $11.5-billion market - and growing.

2. Child Slave Labor

Yep, you read that right. As recently as 2021, Nestlé was sued by eight former child slaves for " aiding and abetting the illegal enslavement of thousands of children on cocoa farms in their supply chains." Alongside Cargill, Barry Callebaut, Mars, Olam, Hershey and Mondelēz, Nestlé is accused in a class action lawsuit of allowing forced labor on their Ivory Coast cocoa plantations.

These claims are horrifying. As with many of the controversies we'll describe, Nestlé is accused of trying to cover up its misdeeds by actively misleading the public - promising to phase out child labor by firstly 2005, then 2020...

Litigation is ongoing.

3. Exploiting Drought-Ridden Areas

Despite the crippling droughts and wildfires that annually ravage California, Nestlé's CEO proudly continues to exploit the state's water sources. The exact amount Nestlé pumps from the San Bernardino National Forest is unclear - but estimates put the figure at around a billion gallons annually - since 1988. Nestlé has, for some inexplicable reason, been bottling water for its Arrowhead water brand from this public and vital water source since 1984.

Nestlé being Nestlé, this has put them back a measly $524 a year, despite its permit running out in 1988. Petitions have come and gone to get the company to pay for the water it takes or, at the very least, to renew its license. However, all attempts have come to nothing.

4. League-Topping Plastic Pollution

A bottle of Nestlé's water is essentially instant plastic pollution. The water, which springs naturally from the Earth, is packaged and sold to you in a bottle that you will use once before it exists in our ecosystem for hundreds (if not thousands) of years.

In addition to being the largest food and beverage company globally, Nestlé is consistently named one of the worst plastic polluters. Much of its single-use plastic packaging is unrecyclable and turns into ocean pollution or winds up in parks, littered through cities and in water supplies.

True to form, and despite insurmountable physical evidence to the contrary, Nestlé's website touts "a long-standing commitment to sustainability" (September 2022). They proudly state that by 2025, 100 percent of their packaging will be reusable or recyclable. However, Greenpeace claims that rather than focusing on reducing or eliminating the waste produced by their products, they will instead focus on burning their plastic waste. In doing so, they will produce toxic pollution that does significant harm to humans and wildlife alike.

Great job, Nestlé!

5. Contaminating Groundwater

Nestlé is also blamed for exploiting groundwater in areas where the public needs it the most - and selling it for profit. Pakistan, which was recently reclassified from water "stressed" to water "scarce," has seen water sources in areas where Nestlé began sourcing its Pure Life water sink hundreds of feet since production began. Furthermore, the remaining water in these areas is often toxic.

And, once again, audits discovered that the company was exploiting natural water sources without paying for them. What's worse, it wastes the pilfered water; 43 percent of the total 4.4 billion liters taken in 2018 was completely wasted - that's 1.9 billion liters - despite their management's claims that only 15 percent was wasted.

Want to learn more about how to keep your water safe to drink? Read 10 Causes of Water Pollution & What You Can Do.

Nestlé Controversy: Can You Avoid It?

Scandal. Deceit. Cover-up. This is Nestlé's secret formula - admittedly one that has resulted in dizzying success. It's hard to overstate just how imaginative and diverse the methods for causing harm have been: poisoning babies, enslaving children, stealing necessary components for sustainable life and poisoning the remains, and numerous scandals we haven't covered, like murdering trade union leaders and illegal price fixing.

Nestlé is "one death ray away from cinematic levels of evil."

Our advice: if you haven't already, cut and run. There are thousands of worthy companies in every country that try to do good for the world and produce better-tasting, better-made products. They will benefit directly from your purchasing power.

If you're looking to buy more sustainably, here are some basic tips to get you started:

Check out our guide to conscious consumerism for more advice and information.

** Links to retailers marked with ** or underlined orange are partially partner links: If you buy here, you actively support Utopia.org, because we will receive a small part of the sales proceeds. More info.

Do you like this post?

Tags: Alternatives Corporate Responsibility Guide Must reads Problematic Practices Purchase Advice

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Crime & Controversy: Nestle's 5 Biggest Scandals Explained

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Nestlé products are among the most maligned by ethically conscious consumers. But why? We'll take a quick look at what controversies give Nestlé such a bad rap.

# data[].attributes.headline
'AI won't steal your job, but people using it may'

# data[].attributes.subject
'AI won't steal your job, but people using it may'

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Hovhannes Avoyan is a former professor of artifcial intelligence (AI) from Armenia, who founded the picture and video editing app Picsart.

It achieved unicorn status, with a valuation of more than $1bn.

The app uses AI and Avoyan explains why people should not fear the technology, for our CEO Secrets series.
Filmed, produced and edited by Dougal Shaw

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
'AI won't steal your job, but people using it may'

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Hovhannes Avoyan, founder of picture and video editing app Picsart, shares his advice for our CEO Secrets series.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Less than 50 per cent of household waste recycled in Bucks

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Just 49.6 per cent of household waste is sent for reuse, recycling or composting, according to Buckinghamshire Council data.

This puts the unitary authority in the top 70 for household recycling out of a list of more than 300 local authorities.

The council's cabinet member for climate change and environment Thomas Broom hailed the council being in 'the top 20 per cent of all local authorities'.

READ MORE: Bucks landowner's scrapyard breaches planning - council

He claimed that the council had a 'comprehensive kerbside recycling collection' as well as 10 household recycling centres across the county.

The council's Energy from Waste facility means that only 0.1 per cent of waste goes to landfill, with the remaining non-recyclable rubbish being burned to generate renewable electricity to power homes.

Despite this, Cllr Broom added: "Sadly, there are still lots of recyclable items that end up in household rubbish bins and we are working hard to encourage more recycling where possible.

"This includes promoting our online Waste Wizard tool which allows people to check what can be recycled and also our Zero Waste Map to help avoid waste altogether."

The council also coordinates outreach events for schools and community groups to encourage more recycling and has discount schemes for home composting, sustainable sanitary products and reusable nappies.

Despite the council's efforts, it still lags behind dozens other local authorities in terms of household recycling, according to collected waste statistics for 2022-2023 published by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs.

Many of Buckinghamshire's neighbouring councils perform better in terms of the percentage of household waste recycled.

These include South Oxfordshire District Council - the best in the country - and Vale of White Horse District Council - the third best - which both have household waste recycling rates of more than 60 per cent.

Other nearby authorities also perform better than Bucks for recycling, including Oxfordshire County Council, West Oxfordshire District Council, Cherwell District Council and West Berkshire District Council.

However, Bucks still performs better than several other nearby authorities including Reading Borough Council, Oxford City Council, Milton Keynes City Council and Windsor and Maidenhead Borough Council.

Other data showed that an average of 477.3kg of household waste was collected per household in Buckinghamshire over the last year for which data was collected.

Bucks Council is also one of the best authorities in terms of the least amount of waste sent to landfill.

For more information on how to recycle more and waste less, visit: recycleforbuckinghamshire.co.uk

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Less than 50 per cent of household waste recycled in Bucks: 'Lots ends up in rubbish'

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Less than 50 per cent of household waste is recycled in Buckinghamshire, recent figures reveal.

# data[].attributes.headline
British Gas profits leap from £72m to £751m in a year

# data[].attributes.subject
British Gas profits leap from £72m to £751m in a year

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Annual profits at British Gas have soared nearly tenfold after it tried to recoup costs from the energy crisis, while its parent company announced another £144m payout to shareholders.

Centrica released figures on Thursday showing that British Gas, which supplies energy to UK households and businesses, showed its profits jumped to £751m in 2023, up from £72m a year earlier.

The big increase in earnings came after the regulator, Ofgem, raised the energy price cap and allowed the company to recoup some of the costs of having to sell energy below wholesale price to its 10 million customers during the energy crisis.

Suppliers were forced to protect households from a spike in prices, which rose as a result of the Covid-19 lockdowns and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, causing dozens of companies to fail.

The price cap rise, and subsequent increase in British Gas profits, pushed Centrica's pre-tax profit to £6.5bn for 2023, compared with a loss of £240m a year earlier. The company's preferred figure, which allows for bespoke adjustments, show profits fell 17% to £2.8bn for the year to December.

The chief executive, Chris O'Shea, said efforts to recoup costs supported British Gas profits only in the first half of the year, and the division took a £200m hit in the final six months of 2023.

He defended the remaining profits, which enabled Centrica to pay a final dividend worth £144m to its shareholders. "I said this befor and I want to take this opportunity to say it again: to be sustainable you must make a profit. Which is super important because every consumer in the UK is paying £88 for the failure of other energy suppliers in the last few years. If more companies fail, these costs go on to customer bills."

The final dividend brings Centrica's one-off payouts to investors to £217m this year. Centrica said it was also voluntarily putting aside £40m to support customers, on top of the £100m spent in 2023.

O'Shea said the company's strong performance was unlikely to last but he was confident shareholders would continue to reap rewards.

"As you would expect, sharply lower commodity prices and reduced volatility will naturally lower earnings in comparison to 2023 as we return to a more normalised environment," he said.

"Our performance over the past year has reinforced our confidence in delivering against our medium-term sustainable profit ambitions and continuing to create value for shareholders."

skip past newsletter promotion

Sign up to Business Today

Get set for the working day - we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
after newsletter promotion

The sharp increase in British Gas profits prompted a backlash from the union Unite, which is calling for the company to be nationalised.

"Centrica is still raking in astonishingly high profits off the back of exorbitant energy bills that are nearly double what they were three years ago, Unite's general secretary, Sharon Graham, said.

"There is no point beating around the bush: the only way to stop households and businesses being ripped off by the profiteers in our energy supply chain is public ownership. It is an absolutely affordable option that would protect the national interest. Our politicians need to decide whose side they are on and make the right choices."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
British Gas profits leap from £72m to £751m in a year

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Unite union says UK energy supplier's bumper results 'come off the back of exorbitant energy bills'

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Sales of climate-focused mutual funds fall 75% in two years

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Market faces challenges including high interest rates, poor performance and a campaign against 'woke' investment

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Russia criticised the reports as a ruse for the US government to push through blocked Ukraine military aid.

ADVERTISEMENT

The Biden administration publicly confirmed on Thursday that Russia has obtained a "troubling" emerging anti-satellite weapon but said it cannot directly cause "physical destruction" on Earth.

White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said US intelligence officials have information that Russia has obtained the capability but that such a weapon is not currently operational.

US officials are analysing the information they have on the emerging technology and have consulted with allies and partners on the matter.

"First this is not an active capability that's been deployed and though Russia's pursuit of this particular capability is troubling, there is no immediate threat to anyone's safety," Kirby said.

"We're not talking about a weapon that can be used to used to attack human beings or cause physical destruction here on Earth".

The White House confirmed its intelligence after a vague warning on Wednesday from the Republican head of the House Intelligence Committee, Ohio congressman Mike Turner, urged the Biden administration to declassify information about what he called a serious national security threat.

'White House ruse'

Kirby said that the process of reviewing and declassifying information about the Russian capability was underway when Turner "regrettably" released his statement.

"We have been very careful and deliberate about what we decide to declassify downgrade and share with the public," he added.

Russia has downplayed the US concern about the capability.

In Moscow, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov described the claims about a new Russian military capability as a ruse intended to make the US Congress support aid for Ukraine.

"It's obvious that Washington is trying to force Congress to vote on the aid bill by hook or by crook," Peskov said in remarks carried by Russian news agencies.

"Let's see what ruse the White House will use".

The capability is space based and would violate an international space treaty, to which more than 130 countries have signed onto, including Russia.

The White House said it would look to engage the Russians directly on the concerns. Even as the White House sought to assure Americans, Kirby acknowledged it was a serious matter.

"I don't want to minimise the potential here for disruption," Kirby said.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Russia has obtained a 'troubling' emerging anti-satellite weapon

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Russia criticised the reports as a ruse for the US government to push through blocked Ukraine military aid.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Usher graced the half-time Super Bowl stage with Alicia Keys. Credit: AP

and longtime partner Jenn Goicoechea married in Las Vegas just hours after the R&B superstar's headline appearance at the halftime show, according to officials and documents.

The officiant who wed the pair is known to dress as an Elvis Presley impersonator.

The couple married on Sunday night at Vegas Weddings, according to a marriage certificate made public on Monday.

Usher and Alicia Keys performed the famous Super Bowl half-time show. Credit: AP

The ceremony was officiated by the Reverend Ronald Joseph Polrywka, better known locally as Ron DeCar. Witnesses included Jonnetta Patton, Usher's mother.

"Congratulations to the Newlyweds!" chapel owner Melody Willis-Williams said in a statement.

"We were beyond thrilled to host in this epic day for Usher and his new wife."

"As much as we love, love," the statement adds, "this is the couple's news to share any further details on. We'll always be fans of Usher! Yeah!"

Usher, 45, and Goicoechea, 40, have been together since 2019 and have two young daughters.

His Super Bowl halftime performance Sunday at Allegiant Stadium drew acclaim and included guest appearances by such stars as Alicia Keys, H.E.R., Jermaine Dupri, Lil Jon and Ludacris.

The Kansas City Chiefs won the NFL championship game in overtime, 25-22, over the San Francisco 49ers.

It was the most-watched TV programme in US history .
Tune into the ITV News entertainment podcast, Unscripted...
Usher recently ended a two-year Las Vegas Strip residency where he performed Usher: My Way at the Park MGM.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Usher marries in Vegas just hours after Super Bowl performance | ITV News

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Usher and longtime partner Jenn Goicoechea tied the knot on Sunday night after the history-making Super Bowl. | ITV National News

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted his troops will advance on the Gazan city of Rafah, defying outside pleas to reconsider.

French President Emmanuel Macron was the latest to warn Mr Netanyahu off, telling him the human cost of Israel's operation in Gaza was "intolerable".

But Mr Netanyahu has ordered his army to prepare for a ground assault.

Some 1.4 million Palestinians are sheltering in Rafah, which has already come under bombardment.

Mr Netanyahu vowed to press on with a "powerful" assault, declaring that Hamas, the group which controls Gaza, must be eliminated from the southern city.

"We will fight until complete victory and this includes a powerful action also in Rafah after we allow the civilian population to leave the battle zones," he said.

President Macron phoned Mr Netanyahu on Wednesday to say Israel's operations in Gaza "must cease".

He expressed "France's firm opposition to an Israeli offensive in Rafah, which could only lead to a humanitarian disaster of a new magnitude".

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, visiting Israel, warned that people in Rafah with nowhere to go could not "simply vanish into thin air."

Spain and the Republic of Ireland have asked the EU, of which they are members, to examine "urgently" whether Israel is complying with its human rights obligations in Gaza under an accord linking rights to trade.

The health ministry in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory reports that at least 28,576 people, mostly women and children, have been killed as a result of Israel's offensive in Gaza.

Israel took action after Hamas-led gunmen killed at least 1,200 people and seized 253 hostages in a surprise attack on its territory on 7 October.

In the earlier days of the war, Israel had instructed Palestinians to seek refuge in Rafah as the Israeli military moved against the northern cities.

Rafah is Gaza's southern-most and features a crossing point into Egypt where humanitarian aid has been allowed to enter the Strip.

Now Israeli authorities want civilians to relocate to what they call a "humanitarian zone" - a thin strip of mainly agricultural land along the Mediterranean coast known as al-Mawasi.

Among the displaced civilians in Rafah was Ahlam Abu Assi, who told AFP news agency she "would rather die" there than return to famine-like conditions like those experienced by relatives who had stayed in Gaza City.

"My son and his children have nothing to eat. They cook a handful of rice and save it for the next day," she said.

Another city, Khan Younis, has been the focus of Israel's operations in the south of Gaza so far.

Thousands of displaced Palestinians sought shelter there in the Nasser hospital but are now also being ordered to evacuate.

Mr Netanyahu's vow to press on came after peace negotiations involving officials from the US, Israel, Egypt and Qatar ended inconclusively.

Israel's prime ministerial office said Hamas had presented no new offer for a hostage deal and Israel would not accept the militant group's "ludicrous demands".

"A change in Hamas' positions will make it possible to move forward in the negotiations," it added.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Israel Gaza: Netanyahu vows to press ahead with Rafah offensive

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
French President Emmanuel Macron warns Israel the human cost of the war in Gaza is "intolerable".

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Bank of England has held interest rates at 5.25% but indicated it is edging towards cutting borrowing costs.

At its latest meeting, the Bank said it had discussed cutting rates, with inflation - the pace of price rises - set to fall quickly this year.

But the Bank's governor said it would wait for firm evidence that inflation was under control before doing so.

For the first time since the 2020 Covid pandemic, one Bank policymaker voted for an immediate cut.

However, while Swati Dhingra voted to cut rates to 5%, two members of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) backed an increase to 5.5%. The remaining six members voted to keep rates unchanged.

It is the first time there has been a three-way split on whether rates should rise, fall or be held since the 2008 financial crisis.

The Bank has been raising rates steadily over the past couple of years to try to reduce inflation, with the last rate rise in August last year.

Higher interest rates cool inflation by making borrowing more expensive, discouraging people and businesses from taking on debt to fund spending.

Inflation has fallen sharply from a 40-year peak in October 2022 and currently stands at 4%.

The Bank is charged with keeping price growth at, or close to, a target of 2%.

It said in its latest inflation report that the figure would fall back to that target between April and June this year - quicker than it had previously expected.

"We have had good news on inflation over the past few months," Bank governor Andrew Bailey said, telling the BBC that he is "optimistic" that it is heading in the right direction.

The Bank's latest release also dropped the phrase it has used previously about a "further tightening in monetary policy", which is being seen as a sign that no more rate rises are expected.

But while the Bank is now suggesting that rates have peaked, Mr Bailey signalled that any cut in interest rates may still be some months away.

"We need to see more evidence that inflation is set to fall all the way to the 2% target, and stay there, before we can lower interest rates," he said.

The Bank is expecting a slight rebound in inflation over the summer, and at the Bank's news conference Mr Bailey said this was "not an acceptable state of affairs".

This suggests that any rate cut may not come as quickly as many expect.

The Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, said: "It's obviously very positive news for families with mortgages that interest rates appear to have peaked, but we should remember that inflation never falls in a straight line."

There is concern among some economists that the fall in the inflation rate towards the Bank's target is "artificial", due to the cut in the energy price cap, and that inflation will rebound somewhat over the summer as global energy prices have picked up.

In addition, growth in pay remains strong, with the Bank's survey of hundreds of companies pointing to a 5.4% rise in wage settlements this year.

Dr Dhingra, the economist who voted for a cut, pointed to risks from geopolitics, and the fact it takes a long time for rate decisions to affect the economy.

The Bank's new forecasts indicate that keeping rates at their current level could push a barely growing economy into an outright recession.

Paul Dales, chief UK economist at Capital Economics, said that the Bank "sent some soft signals that the next [interest rate] move will be a cut, but it pushed back more strongly against the idea that rates will be cut soon or far".

However, Mr Dales said he expected a faster fall in inflation and predicted the Bank would "change its tune in the coming months".

"A rate cut in June is still possible and we think rates will end 2025 at 3%," he added.

Yael Selfin, chief economist at KPMG UK, said she thought the Bank would be wary of keeping rates too high for too long, "particularly with the impact of previous rate hikes yet to feed through to the economy".

"However, we expect the Bank to pause for some time yet before beginning to cut interest rates," she said. "Cuts could happen from the summer onwards."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Bank of England moving closer to interest rate cut

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Rates are held at 5.25%, but the Bank wants to see "more evidence" of falling inflation before cutting.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Daniel Wiffen made history by becoming Ireland's first ever long course world swimming champion with victory in the 800m freestyle final in Doha.
The 22-year-old claimed gold in a time of 7:40:94.

Wiffen produced a sensational swim and timed his effort to perfection, taking the lead with 50 metres to go.

He stretched away to claim his first global title ahead of Australia's Elijah Winnington and Italy's Gregorio Paltrinieri.
More to follow.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
World Aquatics Championships 2024: Ireland's Daniel Wiffen wins 800m freestyle gold in Doha

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Daniel Wiffen made history by becoming Ireland's first ever World Long Course Swimming champion with victory in the 800m freestyle final.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
This week, Tokyo's main stock index, the Nikkei 225, crossed the 38,000 mark for the first time since 1990, when a collapse in property prices triggered an economic crisis. The Nikkei 225's record high of 38,915.87 was set on 29 December 1989.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Japan unexpectedly slips into a recession

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The figures also indicate that Japan has also lost its position as the world's third-largest economy.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Pryzm nightclub boss blames lack of students for closures

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Peter Marks, who runs the UK’s biggest club chain, says students are going out later and spending less.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Business correspondent, BBC News

Barclays has announced it will no longer provide direct funding for new oil and gas projects.

The banking giant also says it will restrict lending to energy businesses that plan to expand their fossil fuel production.

Barclays is a major lender to the fossil fuel industry, but has been coming under mounting pressure to curb its support for the sector.

Campaign groups welcomed the move, but insisted it did not go far enough.

According to a report from environmental group Rainforest Action Network, Barclays was the biggest funder of the fossil fuel sector in Europe between 2016 and 2021.

It provided just under $16.5bn (£13bn) in 2022, although that was significantly lower than in previous years. In 2019 and 2020, the figure was more than $30bn.

However, the bank has been under pressure from environmental campaigners, shareholder activists and even celebrities to curb its support.

Last year, a campaign group including the actress Emma Thompson and the film director Richard Curtis called on the All England Lawn Tennis Club to remove Barclays as a sponsor of Wimbledon. They claimed the bank was "profiting from climate chaos".

In what it called a Climate Change Statement, Barclays announced it would no longer provide direct funding for projects designed to expand oil and gas production, or infrastructure related to such projects.

It said it would also end direct funding for any oil and gas projects in the Amazon or in the Arctic Circle, or which were aimed at extracting, processing or transporting oil from oil sands.

But direct funding for specific projects makes up only part of Barclays' overall lending to the sector.

The bank said there would also be restrictions on new financing for energy groups themselves, although these will be stricter for new clients than existing ones.

The plan is not wholly focused on oil and gas. There will also be curbs on lending linked to coal mining and coal-fired power generation.

Barclays is not the first bank in Europe to introduce such commitments. HSBC, Lloyds, BNP Paribas, Societe Generale and Credit Agricole have all previously announced restrictions on funding for fossil fuels.

The latest announcement was welcomed by ShareAction, a group that campaigns for responsible investment, but it complained that there were loopholes in the plan.

"Barclays is wrong not to have ruled out financing companies that focus exclusively on fossil fuel extraction," it said.

"This should include fracking, which is causing so much environmental and social harm and is an activity the bank is heavily exposed to."

Meanwhile, Make My Money Matter, the group that includes Thompson and Curtis, said Barclays' plan was "inadequate in scope and in ambition".

Its chief executive, Tony Burdon, said: "While they finally caught up with other major European banks like Lloyds by ruling out direct project finance for fossil fuels, the reality is this covers just a fraction of their oil and gas lending.

"This new policy lets them continue funnelling billions to those companies developing catastrophic new fossil fuel projects around the world."

Barclays has pointed out that oil and gas funding represents a very small proportion of its overall activities.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Barclays to end direct financing of new oil and gas fields

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The banking giant has been coming under mounting pressure to curb its support for fossil fuels.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Britain is now officially in recession.

Gross Domestic Product, or GDP, fell by 0.3% in the last three months of 2023, which is a sharper fall than economists were expecting.

This gave us two consecutive falls in GDP after a decrease of 0.1% in the three months before, between July and September 2023.

A fall in the economy, in two consecutive three month periods, has been the most widely used rule of thumb for entering a recession, across the world for decades.

More on that in a moment.

The best way to define the overall experience of the past six months, indeed the past two years, is "zero growth" or "stagnation".

This is a matter of note, of concern, and looks set to improve only marginally over the course of this year. It was the prime minister himself who decided to set a vague target around growing the economy by the end of last year.

Around the world, there are different definitions of recession.

In the US, a committee of eight respected private economists sits and decides if there has been "a significant decline in economic activity that is spread across the economy and that lasts more than a few months". This determination often occurs over a year after the event, and is based on monthly rather than quarterly data, and not just the size of the economy. It is more thorough, more grounded in economic theory, but less timely.

Under the US definition in 2022, two consecutive quarters of contraction was not deemed to be a recession, because of the strength of the jobs market. Under this US approach, the UK would not necessarily be in recession.

'Barmy'

But back to why a recession is now usually defined as two consecutive quarters of economic decline.

A delve into the BBC News archives can help here.

My predecessor as economics editor, Peter Jay, told the Today programme in late 2008 - just ahead of the Great Recession - that the definition was "barmy", and that it was made up on the "back of an envelope" in 1967 by the respected economist Art Okun, to help his boss US President Lyndon B Johnson out of a political hole.

Mr Johnson wanted to avoid recessionary headlines following one quarter's contraction, and so Okun suggested defining it as two quarters instead. Other sources suggest Okun floated this idea in a speech in the early 1960s. Baron Jay was "in the room" when this rather consequential piece of strategising occurred 65 years ago.

This definition has stuck around the world, except in North America.

For the most part, two consecutive quarters of GDP decline have coincided with what all economists agree have been recessions. There are exceptions though, as in the US in 2022.

Indeed, it is of some relevance that the government itself has used the "two quarters" definition.

The 'R-Word'

In his Budget speech last year, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt told MPs: "Today, the Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts that, because of changing international factors and the measures I take, the UK will not now enter a technical recession this year."

This refrain was consistently used by government ministers last year.

At BBC News, as with almost all other media, we have consistently used this definition too, over decades, both in our coverage of how the UK has avoided recession, and how other countries have hit that threshold.

It is, however, important to distinguish between the period of broadly zero growth we have just been experiencing and the start of substantial tangible recessions such as during the pandemic and the Great Financial Crisis of 2007-2008.

Few forecasters believe that it will last into this year. Indeed if, as expected, the economy is currently growing between January and March, it may be over even as it is officially defined.

But it clearly is of some interest, especially given the prime minister's promise to "grow the economy".

In fact, in the absence of any statistical revisions, the "R-word" could hang over the economy until mid-May.

So now we know there have been two consecutive negative quarters, we will, as consistency dictates, be using the "R-word", but we will also add appropriate context.

For many economists even what might be called a "micro" or "nano-recession", would be a somewhat benign outcome given the aftermath of the worst health crisis in a century, the worst energy shock in half a century, and 15 years of near-zero interest rates scrapped in 15 months.

But it will, rightly, illuminate a more substantive issue: this economy is not growing.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Faisal Islam: Should we care that the UK is in recession?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Britain "entered a recession" at the end of 2023 after the economy shrank by 0.3%, official figures show.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Israel launches 'extensive' strikes on Lebanon

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
They come after a woman was killed and others were injured in a rocket attack on northern Israel.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Cop dressed as teddy bear pounces on Valentine’s Day

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The undercover policeman showed up at the house of an alleged drug dealer, bearing a fake gift.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
Clodagh RiceBBC News NI business correspondent

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Valentine’s Day: Roses are red, but prices are up

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The latest inflation figures are expected on Wednesday as businesses warn about passing on the cost.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
Christina McSorley & Elaine DunkleyBBC News

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
UK antisemitic hate incidents hit new high in 2023, says charity

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Reports to a Jewish security charity say incidents were almost double the previous record set in 2021.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Multiple people were struck by gunfire in Kansas City, Missouri, on Wednesday during a Super Bowl victory parade for the Kansas City Chiefs football team, police said.

The condition of the victims was not immediately clear. Two armed people were taken into custody, police said. The Kansas City fire department confirmed that a shooting had occurred close to Union Station in the city and referred to a "fluid situation", according to local media reports.

Police and first responders were seen rushing to the area.
More details soon ...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Multiple people shot during Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl victory parade

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Police take two armed people into custody after shooting near Union Station as condition of victims unclear

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
An almost 10% rise in rates by Mid and East Antrim Borough Council has been branded as "disgusting" by a local business owner.

Daphne Lamont, who owns a bridal boutique in Galgorm, said the move "does not help small businesses" and that her rates - about £6,000 annually - are already expensive.

The council said the 9.78% rise was made "with deep regret".

A spokesperson said they faced "unprecedented financial pressures".

"Most people are struggling to live under current circumstances," Ms Lamont told BBC News NI.

"We have to cover all our bills. Ballymena used to be busy, but now there are a lot of vacant shops so what's the encouragement to come to Ballymena?" she asked.

"There's no support - I don't know what I am paying rates for - on top of your rent - it's a lot of money and you pay water rates too."

By Wednesday evening, all councils in Northern Ireland had announced the rises ratepayers will face for the coming year.

Mid and East Antrim is the highest increase, while the lowest was agreed by Lisburn and Castlereagh Council, at 3.98%.

Rates in Northern Ireland pay for public services and projects.

Bills are calculated on property value using what is known as the district rate and the regional rate. Councils set the district rate.

This size of annual increase had only been seen once before - in 2020 in Causeway Coast and Glens - since the reform of local government in 2015 to create 11 larger councils.

Below, BBC News NI examines the rates situation in each council area.

Antrim and Newtownabbey

Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council have applied an increase of 4.97% to the district rates.

This equates to an increase of £22 per year for an average household.

The mayor, Cllr Mark Cooper said the council had "worked tirelessly to maintain and deliver a low increase to the rates".

"An increase of 4.97% highlights the council's efforts to provide high quality and efficient services while ensuring a thriving and resilient future for the borough," he added.

Ards and North Down

Ards and North Down Borough Council has agreed an increase of 5.98% to its district rate for 2024-25.

It amounts to an average increase of £2.75 each month for the average household and an average of £25 per business.

The hike was approved unanimously by councillors.

Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon

ABC Council has agreed to increase household rates by 5.17%.

Prior to last year's rise of 5.96%, the council area had never increased annually by more than 2.95%.

Lord Mayor Ald Margaret Tinsley said: "The council has carefully and rigorously agreed a rate that balances priorities despite external financial challenges and ensures vital public services are delivered while further investment in our communities, towns and villages continue."

She added that the budget will "drive economic growth, deliver on a programme of capital investment and keep the burden on our ratepayers to an absolute minimum."

Belfast City

Belfast City Council has agreed to increase household rates by 5.44%.

Prior to last year's 7.99% rise, councillors had never previously agreed to an annual increase higher than 2.99%.

Cllr Tina Black, chair of the council's strategic policy and resources committee. said that all parties had "worked hard to keep this year's rise as low as possible".

She said the council had been impacted by the cost-of-living crisis and the rising costs of energy and services but added this rise allows the council to "support our council workers with fair pay and also invest in improvements which will make a real difference to citizens".

Causeway Coast and Glens

Councillors have agreed an increase of 6.86% for householders from 1 April - this follows a rise of 7.95% last year.

Mayor Steven Callaghan said the council faced "significant financial pressures" including utility costs, increased insurance costs and high levels of inflation, all of which are putting "considerable strain on revenue".

He added: "Elected members have worked closely with council officers to agree a rate that will minimise the financial burden on householders and businesses, while balancing the need to maintain our excellent frontline operations and ensure continued investment in our services and infrastructure going forward."

Derry and Strabane

District rates will increase by 6.5% in Derry and Strabane District Council.

The body said while financial challenges were not as significant as last year, issues such as high inflation, staff pay and cost of living pressures were among the factors leading to the rise.

"Members in approving the agreed district rates increase will allow council to continue to press ahead with its ambitious plans to drive growth and investment across the city and region as well deliver critical front-line services across the city and district," a statement on the council's website said.

The SDLP's group leader, Brian Tierney, said his party could not back a rise which he said would "punish the worst off in our city and district".

Fermanagh and Omagh

Fermanagh and Omagh District Council voted for a 4.72% rise.

This follows a 5.59% rise last year in a council which had never previously agreed an annual increase of more than 3%.

Independent Cllr Josephine Deehan told members: "I'm not for one moment dismissing the concerns expressed regarding the potential impact on ratepayers, and we are acutely aware of the cost-of-living crisis.

"It's not an ideal situation, to increase rates by any amount, but if we are to square the circle, we have to accept some rise is unavoidable."

Lisburn and Castlereagh

The council agreed a 3.98% increase from last year's rates for the district.

This follows a record annual rise of 7.94% last year.

Ald Owen Gawith, chair of the council's corporate services committee said: "These are difficult times, not least because of the cost-of-living crisis so many are facing.

"Many of the financial pressures experienced by our ratepayers also affect us as a council.

"Despite this, we have focused on ensuring that our proposed rate increase is as low as possible for both domestic and non-domestic properties, and below the 4% level of inflation."

Mid and East Antrim

Average bills will rise by £72.03 a year in Mid and East Antrim after a rates increase of 9.78% was agreed.

Prior to last year's 5.43% rise, the council had never increased rates by more than 3.7% since its formation in 2015.

A council spokesperson said: "We are acutely aware of the struggles many people and our businesses are facing within our community and remain focused on doing everything within our power to help and support them, while safeguarding the essential services they rely on."

Councillors were divided on the rise as 20 voted for and 14 against.

Backing the increase, DUP Ald William McCaughey said no councillor would be "overjoyed" by the hike, "but if we are to support our community groups and fund events, then we must set appropriate rates to do so".

Mid Ulster

Mid Ulster District Council has agreed to increase household rates by 5.9%, following on from a rise of 7.3% last year.

A council spokesperson said that "against a history of keeping district rate increases among the lowest in the region for many years" setting a budget that minimised the impact on the public had been "extremely difficult".

The council cited a difficult financial climate, high inflation, rising global costs of energy and a shortfall in central government funding received by the council through the rates support grant.

Newry, Mourne and Down

In the Newry, Mourne and Down district, householders face a rates hike of 6.41%.

This is even more than the increase of 5.99% agreed by the council last year.

The council's chairperson, Cllr Valerie Harte, said this year's rates increase reflected the "continuing economic challenges" the authority was facing.

"In setting the rate, the council must strike a balance recognising the challenging financial and economic situation and the need to continue to invest in our services and communities," she added.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
NI Rates: Almost 10% council rate rise branded 'disgusting'

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
NI's councils have published their rate increases with Mid and East Antrim the largest hike.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Stormont funding: Michelle O'Neill rules out 15% regional rate increase

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Michelle O'Neill rules out increasing the regional rate by 15% as a means of revenue raising.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Ulster University bridge 16-year gap to claim Sigerson Cup with six-point win over UCD

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Ulster University are Sigerson Cup champions for the sixth time - their first since 2008 and a first under the UU moniker after dropping the Jordanstown element - with a six-point win over UCD in a final that promised much and delivered on some of it.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The festivals searching for greener ways to rock

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Music festivals need a lot of electricity, but plugging into greener sources is not easy or cheap.

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68285833

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
UK economy fell into recession at the end of 2023

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The economy shrank by 0.3% between October and December, in a sharper fall than expected.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Chantrea drags an electric fan the size of a large door into the airless chamber where she works every day.

It is her only respite from the heat inside the brick kiln that looks more like a dimly lit tomb.

"It's like working inside a burning prison," the 47-year-old says as she stacks the dried bricks, which will be moved to a warehouse. "I have asked the owners to provide us with more fans. But they won't because it will cost more money."

The fan she does have slowly clunks as it starts, eventually whirring into action. It barely creates a breeze.

How hot is too hot to work? It is a question researchers have found the answer to here, in Cambodia's brick kilns, where people toil in some of the hottest working conditions in the world, fuelled in part by the scraps of fast fashion.

The BBC spoke to several workers who said they sweat so much through the day that it felt like they were in a hot bath. Fainting is common too, possibly because they become dehydrated. Their names have been changed because they fear reprisals from their employers.

In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers have tried to document how this sustained exposure to extreme heat is affecting workers' health.

Special sensors recorded the core temperature of 30 workers at these kilns over a week and showed that they all had heat stress, or core temperatures of more than 38C. This can cause fatigue, dizziness, nausea and headaches.

A healthy body temperature usually ranges from 36.1C to 37.2C. Body temperature over 38C is symptomatic of a fever. Some workers had core temperatures of 40C, which can lead to heat stroke, resulting in convulsions, eventual loss of consciousness and even death, if not treated early.

One worker told researchers that he had suffered from heart failure due to the heat. But he eventually returned to work because this was the only way he knew to earn a living.

This is only made worse by a warming climate and Cambodia's own weather - last May it hit a new high with 41.6C during the hottest year on record. As global temperatures soar, even a small increase could mean the difference between life and death for the tens of thousands of brick kiln workers across Asia.

"One of the big narratives that I hear again and again is that we're all in this [climate change] together. But that's absolutely not true. Some of us are a lot more in it than others," said Laurie Parsons at Royal Holloway University, who authored the study.

Clothes carrying toxic traces

It's a humid afternoon outside the kiln, on the outskirts of Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh. Inside, where Chantrea is stacking bricks, it is stifling.

But she is covered from head to toe in clothes that hang off her tiny frame - her only shield against the searing heat and dust. If the bricks are too hot, her skin blisters.

The kilns themselves are enclosed by brick walls and sealed. Workers stay outside and feed wood though a hatch to keep the fire hot enough, usually around 1500C to set the clay bricks. Once that happens, they stop fuelling the flames and when the heat seems less unbearable, they enter the chamber.

There is no data on the average temperature inside the kilns as it is hard for researchers to gain access. It's also hard to know how many workers fall ill or worse because of the heat.

Injuries from falling bricks are not uncommon, according to Chantrea. And workers told the researchers from the UK that the bricks often burn them, even through the gloves.

Outside the kiln, Kosal, a father of two, scoops up a mix of fabric, plastic and rubber that he shoves into the hatch before shutting it quickly. Black smoke seeps through the cracks as children - his and other kiln workers' - run past.

"I am used to the black smoke. I don't notice it any more," he says. "I have to keep these fires burning for 24 hours. My wife and I split the work between us."

The children crawl over bags bulging with clothing offcuts - more fuel for the kiln from Cambodia's $6bn garment industry.

But what may initially appear a solution to the unwanted scraps of the country's 1,300 garment factories is actually hiding its own deadly secret.

According to a 2018 report - Blood Bricks - by UK academics at Royal Holloway, these scraps have traces of chlorine bleach, formaldehyde and ammonia, as well as heavy metals, PVC and resins used in the dyeing and printing processes. The report also found that brick factory workers reported regular migraines, nosebleeds and other illnesses.

Kosal's three-year-old girl, her hair caked in dust, skips past a pile of Disney-labelled clothing. Most are flannel pyjamas embossed with images of Anna and Elsa from Frozen. They are made for children living in colder climates.

Most Western fashion labels have strict codes of conduct to stop this from happening. A Disney spokesperson told the BBC that the company was investigating the claim and that it "did not condone the conditions alleged in this situation".

The BBC also found labels from Clarks shoes and H&M among others. Clarks called on the Cambodian ministry of environment to investigate and also invited other affected companies to join forces "in working together with the relevant authorities in Cambodia to eradicate this problem".

H&M acknowledged that traceability is still an issue in Cambodia but said they did have their own waste management guidelines to ensure that fabric waste isn't used as a fuel source by factories, or sent to a landfill.

Cambodia's brick kilns have long been accused of unsafe and unfair working conditions - and they employ some of the world's poorest people. Now, climate change is only exacerbating those inequalities, experts say.

"What we need to do is to consider how climate change impacts people through the lens of labour and inequality, and recognise that labour exploitation is a major factor in the worst impacts of climate change," Mr Parsons said.

The heat trap

However toxic or difficult the job is, workers like Chantrea and Kosal can never leave. Victims of climate change, they are trapped in a cycle of heat.

The majority of those who work in Cambodia's brick kilns were farmers. Chantrea used to grow rice. But sparse rainfall in recent years has made it difficult to manage a single harvest.

"We borrowed a lot of money after our crops failed. But when they kept failing, we ended up with a lot of debt," she says.

Eventually she had no choice but to migrate to Phnom Penh in the hope of finding a job to repay the loans. More than two million of Cambodia's 10 million adults have outstanding micro-loans, according to the Cambodian Microfinance Association. On average, they each owe $3,320 (£1,955).

This financial insecurity has supplied the vulnerable labour for brick kilns. Owners offer to pay off the loan but, in return, the worker is bonded to the kiln.

Often whole families are bonded to the kiln. The BBC saw children helping their parents in the kiln despite efforts by the Cambodian government to prevent child labour.

"If we leave, we are afraid of being arrested and imprisoned," Chantrea says. "So we must struggle here. If they ask us to enter the fire, we will do even that just so we can earn more money for food and to pay off our debt."

But the wages are too low for the debt to ever be repaid. Chantrea earns 10,000 Cambodian riel (£1.92; $2.45) for stacking around 500 bricks.

With this she has to pay for food, electricity and water. Her home is a tin shack on the edge of the kiln and she supports a boy she found alone on the street and adopted. When they are hungry, they forage together for snails.

"After several years, I have never paid the owner back," Chantrea says. The debt, she adds, has only increased.

Cambodia's kilns have fed the capital's construction boom. It has drawn foreign investors, including the UK, which has invested one billion pounds, according to researchers from Royal Holloway University.

But as Phnom Penh reaches toward the sky, with tower after tower of air conditioned apartments, the city is leaving behind those who've helped to build it.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Cambodia: Fast fashion helps fuel blazing kilns where workers faint from heat

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
How hot is too hot to work? The BBC visits Cambodia's sweltering brick kilns to find out.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
I'm at the Wageningen University's Farm of the Future, where I had been expecting to see robots and perhaps, drones flying overhead.

But on a bright blue day project manager Wijnand Sukkel stands in the expansive fields across from the university building with bare trees and of course, windmills in the background, and points at the strips of crops in the fields.

He says usually in the Netherlands these would just be filled by a monocrop such as maize or wheat.

Here in Lelystad, however, they're experimenting with different agricultural methods including crop diversity, with eight different crops sown here at any one time including wheat, onions, potatoes, and broad beans.

"We know that crop diversity works," says Mr Sukkel, who adds that they also use cover crops to help improve the soil and biodiversity. "It's a more efficient use of water, it has lower risk of pest disease, it has a higher biodiversity, it's better for the soil, and it gives higher yields."

The world population is expected to reach nearly 10 billion people in 2050, according to the UN. Mr Sukkel and his colleagues are developing sustainable farming systems to ensure there's enough food for a growing global population, while also working to reduce carbon emissions.

The university started Farm of the Future four years ago after seeing biodiversity decline due to climate change. "We wondered if it was possible to design a high food production farm system with zero fossil fuel energy use, with no damage from pesticides and [that] was resilient to heavy rainfall or very long dry periods."

The Netherlands is the second biggest exporter of agricultural goods worldwide.

Including animal products, those exports are estimated to have increased by 9.4% to a record €104.7bn (£90bn; $114bn) in 2021, according to Wageningen Economic Research (WUR) and Statistics Netherlands (CBS).

However, producing for such a large export market puts a lot of pressure on the nation's environment.

So Mr Sukkel and his team are focused on sustainable production. "We need to regenerate soils and regenerate biodiversity. Right now all over the world is large-scale and uniform agricultural production which is very intensive and is killing the soil."

One of their solutions to combat dry weather has been to create a drainage system which gathers excess water and pumps it underground. "In the winter we have too much water. Now all the water drips into the soil and is caught in the drainage system. We have a big water bubble underground."

At the Farm of the Future there are perennial flower strips to ensure there's food and shelter for insects. "If you harvest everything at the same time or plant everything at the same time, it's an ecological death. They cannot survive."

The Farm of the Future, which showcases its research and learnings to companies and organisations worldwide, has invested in technology to help its production to be stronger and more sustainable. This includes tech which recognises weeds.

"Instead of spraying everything with the same doses, the machine recognises the weeds from the culture plant and sprays a little [germicide] on it," says Mr Sukkel.

However, he does say it can be challenging for farmers to invest in technology due to high costs. "For example, one of the bigger potato harvesting machines costs €500,000 (£430,000) and it is only used for four weeks a year."

The Dutch government has also revealed radical action to tackle environmental damage, outlining ambitions to halve its nitrogen emissions by 2030. One way is through it pushing for livestock numbers to fall by a third, sparking nationwide protests from farmers.

In the southwest of the Netherlands, Jacob van den Borne is a third-generation farmer producing mainly potatoes but also sugar beet, wheat and barley, as well as small crops like parsnips and sweet potatoes across 900 hectares of land. As well as selling at home, he also exports to countries such as England, Germany, Belgium and France.

Mr van den Borne started investing in a wider variety of crops when he noticed the soil quality was deteriorating. An advocate of precision farming, he turned to GPS technology to measure, analyse and research his crops as efficiently as possible in order to achieve a higher yield.

He has invested in soil scanning technology which allows him to map and document every square metre of soil. "It gives me the ability to improve the soil potential and predict which are the good spots and fix the others."

He is also tapping into sensors and data infrastructure.

"I have spent about €1m on such investment, but I have a rule - don't invest in new toys before the old ones are paid off."

He says a key focus for the next year is variable rate irrigation, which provides pre-planned levels of water at controlled times. "This is irrigation on demand. We cannot control the weather but one thing that is really measurable is the weather. If there's no rain we can add water."

New Tech Economy is a series exploring how technological innovation is set to shape the new emerging economic landscape.

Mr van den Borne has also invested heavily in disease management. "We have multiple weather stations looking at weather conditions and that can calculate when the crop could be attacked. We then protect just before that moment. It's like when wearing sun lotion, you don't put it on much earlier as you will still burn."

He says he is investing in AI to help provide the answers in the future. "For example, asking questions like if there's an issue in the field, we can try and figure it out with AI."

"For me, the farm of the future is all about data, artificial intelligence and learning."

Meino Smit, who runs an organic farm and wrote his PhD thesis on the sustainability of Dutch agriculture from 1950 to 2015, is concerned that "Dutch agriculture is not currently sustainable".

"Technology has a negative impact on the environment; the more tech you use, the more it creates a negative impact in the environment," he says.

"Big machines are very bad for the soil and they use a lot of energy. Tech is not a solution. We need reduced energy use combined with tech and labour."

Looking ahead to the future, farmers are understanding they need to be more adaptive due to climate change, says Mr van den Borne. "We are producing more efficiently with a lower ecological footprint; it's not only quantity but also quality."

Like many farmers, he's feeling the pressure. "It's pretty scary but less than 1% of the global population is feeding the rest. It's quite an important job."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
New tech boosts Dutch drive for sustainable farming

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In the Netherlands, experiments are underway to ensure future food supply and cut carbon emissions.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The rollout of electric vehicle charging points has fallen behind what is needed to meet a planned ban on new petrol and diesel cars, the Policy Exchange think-tank says.

There's a risk of "charging blackspots" in small towns and rural areas unless the rollout speeds up, it says.

The report says the UK will need 400,000 public chargers by 2030, up from 35,000 currently.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the UK's network is "world-leading".

But the influential think-tank said that to meet demand when new conventionally-fuelled cars and vans are prohibited in 2030, the annual rate at which charge-points are being installed must increase from about 7,000 over the past three years to 35,000 over the next decade.

Researchers recommended that the government should issue contracts to private firms to install charge-points in areas where they are sparse.

This would mark a switch from the existing policy of offering grants, and would be similar to offshore wind farm auctions.

Under the proposal, a price cap would be introduced for charge-points that received government support, to avoid operators exploiting local monopolies.

The report called for local authorities to be given Department for Transport funding for dedicated teams tasked with boosting rollout in residential areas.

In the foreword to the report, Simon Clarke, a Conservative MP and former minister for regional growth and local government, wrote: "Whereas a driver of a petrol car can travel confidently from Land's End to John O'Groats, knowing that they can refill the tank every few miles, that is not yet the case for EVs (electric vehicles).

"Some areas have naturally built up impressive coverage, such as central London, but vast swathes of the country have not.

"This important report sets out a way to meet the challenge," he said.

The report said the government should focus on areas where it isn't delivering enough public charge-points, including the north west of England, Yorkshire and Northern Ireland".

Policy Exchange senior research fellow Ed Birkett said: "Companies are rolling out charge-points at a record rate, but there's a risk that some areas of the country won't get enough charge-points and will be left behind.

"We're concerned about patchy deployment of charge-points, which runs against the government's plans for levelling up and a strong and connected Union."

£1.5bn investment

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps insisted the UK's charging network is "world-leading", adding: "From Cumbria to Cornwall, drivers across the country should benefit from the electric vehicle revolution we're seeing right now."

He announced a further £20m of funding for local authorities to install 4,000 more on-street charge-points across the UK. These will allow residents without access to off-street parking to charge their vehicles.

In November, Prime Minister Boris Johnson brought forward the ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars and vans from 2040 to 2030 as part of his "green industrial revolution".

He also pledged to pump £1.3bn towards charging infrastructure over the next four years.

Data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders shows battery electric models took 17% of the new car market in 2020, up from 3% during the previous 12 months.

RAC motoring group spokesman Rod Dennis agreed that parts of the country risked being left behind

"Without a big increase in the number of charge points right across the UK, certain parts of the country risk getting left behind as 2030 approaches. Everyone remembers what happened when broadband started to be rolled out and some areas were left with poor connections.

"It would be a major policy failure if something similar happened in the next few years with communities missing out on good charging provision."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Electric cars: Rollout of charging points still too slow

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The rollout of electric vehicle charging points has fallen behind what is needed to meet a planned ban on new petrol and diesel cars, the Policy Exchange think-tank says. There's a risk of "charging blackspots" in small towns and rural areas unless the rollout speeds up, it says.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The first transatlantic flight powered only by sustainable fuels is due to take off on Tuesday morning.

Operated by Virgin Atlantic, it will fly from London's Heathrow and New York's JFK airport at 11:30 GMT.

Airlines see the flight, which is supported by government funding, as demonstrating that a greener way of flying is possible.

But a lack of supply remains a challenge, while other technology will be needed to hit emissions targets.

So-called sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) can be made from a variety of sources, including crops, household waste and cooking oils.

For this flight, a Boeing 787 will be filled with 50 tonnes of SAF. Two types are being used, with 88% derived from waste fats and the rest from the wastes of corn production in the US.

Following test and analysis, the flight was approved by UK regulator the Civil Aviation Authority earlier this month. A number of companies have been involved in the project including engine-maker Rolls-Royce and energy giant BP.

The aviation industry is seen as particularly difficult to decarbonise, but airline bosses view SAF as the single most effective way to bring its net emissions down to zero.

Planes still emit carbon when using SAF, but the industry says the "lifecycle emissions" of these fuels can be up to 70% lower.

SAF is already used in small amounts, blended with traditional jet fuel, but accounts for less than 0.1% of the aviation fuel consumed around the world.

It currently costs more than kerosene, and relatively small amounts are made. Aircraft are usually only allowed to use up to 50% in a blend.

There are no dedicated commercial SAF plants in the UK, although the government aim is to have five under construction by 2025, supported by grant funding.

Airlines see the first long-haul flight using 100% SAF as a significant milestone. But experts say such fuels are not a magic bullet.

Dr Guy Gratton, associate professor of aviation and the environment at Cranfield University, said: "We can't produce a majority of our fuel requirements this way because we just don't have the feedstocks. And even if you do, these fuels are not true 'net zeros'."

He said the growing use of SAF had to be treated as "a stepping stone towards future, genuinely net zero technologies".

"This might be e-fuels [which are manufactured using captured carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide, together with hydrogen], it might be hydrogen, it might be some technologies that we still really only have at the laboratory stage."

The UK government also plans to require 10% of aviation fuel to be SAF by 2030.

Airlines UK, which represents UK-registered carriers, said they must be able to access enough affordable SAF to meet such a requirement, with as much as possible coming from the UK.

Its boss Tim Alderslade said: "The last thing we want is higher fuel costs for UK passengers compared to the rest of Europe and the US, with worse sustainability outcomes and thousands of new jobs lost overseas."

Environmental campaigners say the only way to cut emissions quickly is to fly less.

But UK ministers and the industry have insisted they believe "net zero" by 2050 is achievable with passenger numbers increasing.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
First transatlantic flight using 100% green fuels to take off

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The plane will fly from London to New York using 100% alternative sustainable aviation fuel.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Cost of living correspondent

The Bank of England has held interest rates, ending a run of 14 consecutive increases.

That may bring some relief to homeowners who have seen mortgage rates rise and potentially the end of better news for savers.

How high could interest rates go?

The Bank rate is currently at its highest level for 15 years.

The theory is that raising interest rates makes it more expensive to borrow money, meaning people have less to spend, reducing demand and inflation.

Rates had risen 14 times in a row since December 2021 as the Bank tries to bring inflation closer to its target of 2%.

Although that is still more than three times the Bank's 2% target, it has influenced the decision to pause the run of Bank rate rises. That decision was split, with five of the nine-member committee voting for a pause.

Policymakers will be keeping a close eye on the "core inflation" rate - a measure which strips out volatile factors such as food and energy. It was down from 6.9% in July to 6.2% in August.

At one point, UK rates were expected to rise above 6%, but that peak is now expected to be lower, even if there is a rise at a later date.

The Bank has to balance the risk of damaging the economy, which has shown little sign of growth, with the need to slow price rises.

How do interest rates affect me?

When interest rates rise or fall, more than 1.4 million people on tracker and standard variable rate (SVR) deals usually see an immediate change in their monthly payments.

Despite the pause in rises, compared with December 2021, those on a tracker mortgage are still paying £540 more a month, and those on an SVR are paying £299 more a month.

Around three-quarters of mortgage customers hold fixed-rate deals. Lenders may now have some confidence to lower mortgage rates, although they are still much higher than much of the last 10 years.

Comparatively high interest rates mean house buyers and those remortgaging will have to pay a lot more than if they had taken out the same mortgage a year or more ago.

As people roll off cheap fixed-rate deals onto products with much higher rates, monthly repayments can soar by hundreds of pounds. Banking trade body UK Finance says there are about 800,000 fixed rate deals ending in the second half of 2023, and about 1.6 million deals expiring next year.

You can see how your mortgage may be affected by using our calculator:

A modern browser with JavaScript and a stable internet connection is required to view this interactive.

Bank of England interest rates also influence the amount charged on credit cards, bank loans and car loans.

Lenders could decide to put prices up, if they expect higher interest rates in the future.

Individual banks and building societies have been under pressure to pass on higher interest rate rises to customers.

There are some good deals on the market already, so analysts say that customers should shop around, as many will be on accounts paying little or nothing.

Although many savings accounts are paying more, even the best interest rates aren't keeping up with inflation.

This means the value of cash savings - its buying power - is falling in real terms.

Why have prices been going up?

Inflation has been relatively high worldwide, after Covid restrictions eased and consumers spent more.

Many firms experienced problems getting enough goods to sell. Oil and gas costs were also higher than they had been - a problem made worse by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Although many elements of inflation are global, there are also domestic factors at play in the UK, including rising wages.

Are other countries raising their interest rates?

Interest rates have been increasing across the world in recent months.

The UK has one of the highest rates in the G7 - a group of the world's seven largest so-called "advanced" economies.

It is higher than the Euro area and the US.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Interest rates: How the Bank of England's decision affects you and your money

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Bank of England has held interest rates at 5.25%, bringing a run of 14 consecutive rises to an end.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Search for "AI investing" online, and you'll be flooded with endless offers to let artificial intelligence manage your money.

I recently spent half an hour finding out what so-called AI "trading bots" could apparently do with my investments.

Many prominently suggest that they can give me lucrative returns. Yet as every reputable financial firm warns - your capital may be at risk.

Or putting it more simply - you could lose your money - whether it is a human or a computer that is making stock market decisions on your behalf.

Yet such has been the hype about the ability of AI over the past few years, that almost one in three investors would be happy to let a trading bot make all the decisions for them, according to one 2023 survey in the US.

John Allan says investors should be more cautious about using AI. He is head of innovation and operations for the UK's Investment Association, the trade body for UK investment managers.

"Investment is something that's very serious, it affects people and their long-term life objectives," he says. "So being swayed by the latest craze might not be sensible.

"I think at the very least, we need to wait until AI has proved itself over the very long term, before we can judge its effectiveness. And in the meantime, there will be a significant role for human investment professionals still to play."

Given that AI-powered trading bots may end up putting some highly-trained but expensive human investment managers out of work you might expect Mr Allan to say this. But such AI trading is indeed new, and it does have issues and uncertainties.

Firstly, AI is not a crystal ball, it cannot see into the future any more than a human can. And if you look back over the past 25 years, there have been unforeseen events that have tripped up the stock markets, such as 9/11, the 2007-2008 credit crisis, and the coronavirus pandemic.

Secondly, AI systems are only as good as the initial data and software that is used to create them by human computer programmers. To explain this issue we need a little history lesson.

Investment banks have actually been using basic or "weak AI" to guide their market choices since the early 1980s. That basic AI could study financial data, learn from it, and make autonomous decisions that - hopefully - got ever more accurate. These weak AI systems did not predict 9/11, or even the credit crisis.

Fast-forward to today, and when we talk about AI we often mean something called "generative AI". This is far more powerful AI, which can create something new and then learn from that.

When applied to investment, generative AI can absorb masses of data and makes its own decisions. But it can also work out better ways to study the data and develop its own computer code.

Yet if this AI was originally fed bad data by the human programmers, then its decisions may simply get worse and worse the more code it creates.

Elise Gourier, an associate professor in finance at the ESSEC Business School in Paris, is an expert in the study of AI going wrong. She cites Amazon's recruitment efforts in 2018 as a prime example.

"Amazon was one of the first companies to get caught out," she says. "What happened was that they developed this AI tool to recruit people.

"So, they're getting thousands of CVs, and they thought we're just going to automate the whole process. And basically, the AI tool was reading the CVs for them and telling them who to hire.

"The problem was that the AI tool was trained on its employees, and its employees are mainly men, and so, as a result of that, basically what the algorithm was doing was filtering out all the women."

Generative AI can also simply just go wrong, and produce incorrect information, something termed a "hallucination", says Prof Sandra Wachter, a senior research fellow in AI at Oxford University.

"Generative AI is prone to bias and inaccuracies, it can spit out wrong information or completely fabricate facts. Without vigorous oversights it is hard to spot these flaws and hallucinations."

Prof Sandra Wachter also warns that automated AI systems can be at risk of data leakage or something called "model inversion attacks". The latter - in simple terms - is when hackers ask the AI a series of specific questions in the hope that it reveals its underling coding and data.

There is also the chance that AI will become less of a genius investment advice engine, and more like the stock pickers you used to find in the Sunday newspapers. They would always recommend some minor share to buy first thing on Monday morning, and miraculously the shares would always jump in value first thing that day.

This, of course, had nothing to do tens of thousands of readers all rushing to buy the share in question.

So despite all these risks, why are a sizeable number of investors seemingly keen to let AI make decisions for them? Business psychologist Stuart Duff, of consultancy firm Pearn Kandola, says some people simply trust computers more than other humans.

"It's almost certainly reflecting an unconscious judgement that human investors are fallible, while machines are objective, logical and measured decision makers," he says. "They may believe that AI will never have an off day, will never deliberately cheat the system, or try to hide losses.

"Yet an AI investment tool may simply reflect all of the thinking errors and poor judgements of its developers. More than that, it may lose the benefit of intuitive experience and rapid reaction when unprecedented events strike in the future, such as the financial crash, and the Covid pandemic. Very few humans could create AI algorithms to cope with those massive events."

Additional reporting by Will Smale.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Could AI 'trading bots' transform the world of investing?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Artificial intelligence is increasing being used to guide investments but risks remain.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The latest developments in consumer robots, humanoids, drones, and automation

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.ft.com/content/e8ddbfe3-6036-4151-88da-431442c181a9

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Radical food system overhaul would raise costs but deliver $10tn a year benefit, report says

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Report estimates one-third rise in commodity prices by 2050 would be compensated by health and nature savings

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
President & Founder at APS Global Partners Inc.| President & Founder at Medias Health Inc.| Forbes Business Council Influencer.
Ethical considerations have become more critical in the ever-evolving landscape of global business. As a seasoned business consultant with two decades of hands-on experience, I have witnessed the transformation of business ethics from a mere checkbox on corporate governance to a cornerstone of sustainable and responsible business practices. In this article, I will delve into the realm of business ethics, exploring its evolution, challenges and the imperative for companies to integrate ethical considerations into their DNA.

The Evolution Of Business Ethics

Over the years, the perception of business ethics has shifted from a regulatory requirement to a strategic imperative. In the early years of my career, ethical considerations were often viewed as a necessary evil, something to be complied with rather than embraced. However, as the global business community faced scandals and crises, the tide turned, and businesses began to recognize the intrinsic value of ethical conduct.

Today, business ethics is not just about adhering to laws and regulations; it's about fostering a culture of integrity and responsibility. It encompasses a broader spectrum of considerations, including environmental sustainability, social responsibility and business transparency. This evolution has been driven by external pressures and a growing understanding within organizations that ethical behavior is a key driver of long-term success.

Challenges In Upholding Business Ethics

While the evolution of business ethics is commendable, the path to ethical business conduct is challenging. One of the primary obstacles is the pressure to deliver short-term financial results, often leading companies to compromise on ethical standards in pursuit of immediate gains. The temptation to cut corners, engage in dubious practices or prioritize profit over principles can be overwhelming, especially in competitive industries.

Additionally, the interconnected global business environment introduces complexities that demand heightened ethical awareness. Companies operating in multiple jurisdictions must navigate diverse legal and cultural landscapes, requiring a nuanced approach to ethics. Balancing the interests of various stakeholders, including shareholders, employees, customers and the community, poses another significant challenge.

The Imperative Of Business Ethics

As a business consultant who has witnessed the fallout of unethical practices, I firmly believe that a strong ethical foundation is not just a moral imperative but a strategic necessity. Ethical conduct is not merely about avoiding legal repercussions but building trust with stakeholders and creating a resilient and sustainable business model.

Building Trust

Trust is the currency of business. Companies that prioritize ethical behavior build trust with customers and employees, suppliers and investors. Trust is a valuable intangible asset that, once lost, is challenging to regain. Establishing a reputation for ethical conduct can differentiate a company in a crowded marketplace.

Long-Term Sustainability

Ethical business practices are intrinsically linked to long-term sustainability. Companies prioritizing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors are better positioned to weather economic downturns, regulatory changes, and public scrutiny.

Employee Engagement and Retention

A commitment to ethical conduct fosters a positive workplace culture. Employees are more likely to be engaged and committed when they perceive their organization as socially responsible and ethically conscious. This, in turn, enhances employee retention, reduces turnover costs and attracts top talent.

Enhanced Customer Loyalty

In an era where consumers are increasingly conscious of the ethical practices of the companies they support, businesses that prioritize ethics enjoy a competitive advantage. Ethical behavior resonates with consumers, increasing brand loyalty and positive word-of-mouth marketing.

Practical Strategies For Integrating Business Ethics

For businesses looking to embed ethics into their DNA, several practical strategies can be employed:

Emphasize commitment from leadership.

Ethical behavior starts at the top. Leaders must demonstrate a sincere commitment to ethical conduct, setting the tone for the entire organization. This involves espousing ethical values and making decisions that align with those values.

Establish robust ethics policies and training.

Establishing comprehensive ethics policies and providing regular training ensures that employees are aware of ethical expectations and understand the consequences of unethical behavior. Regular updates and reinforcement of ethical guidelines are essential in a dynamic business environment.

Use transparent communication.

Open and transparent communication is vital for building trust. Companies should communicate their ethical principles, actions and outcomes openly to stakeholders. This includes acknowledging mistakes, addressing issues promptly and sharing successes related to ethical conduct.

Integrate ESG.

Incorporating environmental, social and governance factors into decision-making processes is critical. This involves considering the impact of business activities on the environment, promoting diversity and inclusion, and ensuring sound governance practices.

Engage stakeholders.

Actively engaging with stakeholders, including customers, employees, suppliers and the community, can help businesses understand and address the diverse expectations and concerns of different groups. This inclusive approach contributes to the development of ethical and sustainable business practices.

Conclusion

The journey towards ethical business conduct is a dynamic and ongoing process. I have seen the landscape evolve from a focus on compliance to a genuine commitment to ethical behavior as a strategic imperative. Businesses that prioritize ethics stand to gain more than just compliance. In an era where ethical considerations are paramount, integrating business ethics into the core of operations is not just a choice; it is the key to a prosperous and sustainable future.

Forbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders. Do I qualify?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Council Post: Navigating The Ethical Horizon Of Global Business

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Integrating business ethics into the core of operations is not just a choice, it is the key to a prosperous and sustainable future.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Experts explain the psychology behind online shopping—and tips to show restraint

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Public transport in Northern Ireland faces major disruption as trade unions continue strike action on Thursday.

School support workers are also taking to picket lines in a protest about pay.

The latest industrial action comes as legislation is to be debated which could lead to the restoration of the Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive in the coming days.

The UK government has committed funding to cover public sector pay deals if Stormont returns.

Those on strike include more than 3,000 public transport workers from the Unite, Siptu and GMB unions.

About 800 Unite members employed by the Education Authority (EA) as non-teaching staff are also walking out.

This includes school bus transport staff, school caterers, administration staff and classroom assistants who will also be taking action on Friday.

On 18 January, 16 trade unions and tens of thousands of public sector workers took part in one of Northern Ireland's largest strikes, affecting many sectors including health.

Thursday will be a sixth day of action for transport workers since December who have warned further action could continue.

Trade unions have been calling for the Northern Ireland secretary, Chris Heaton-Harris, to release funds to allow Stormont to give a pay increase to public sector workers.

Mr Heaton-Harris has said this is a devolved matter and has promised funds will be available when an executive is in place.

Northern Ireland has been without a devolved government since February 2022.

However, this week, the Democratic Unionist Party said it would end its boycott after reaching a deal with the UK government on resolving its concerns over post-Brexit trade matters.

After legislation is passed, the Northern Ireland Assembly is expected to be recalled, possibly on Friday or Saturday.

However, some trade unions have said that until Stormont is up and running, they will continue to strike.

Davy Thompson, from Unite, said that "until there is government in NI, there is no government in NI" and the deal is "not enough" to call off the strike.

Impact on businesses

Industry body Retail NI said it welcomed progress in the restoration of Stormont and called for unions to abandon their strikes "as a gesture of goodwill".

Both retail and hospitality groups had criticised public transport workers for taking strike action in the run-up to Christmas, traditionally their busiest periods.

In response to the latest February action, Translink said it remained "fully committed to entering constructive pay negotiations".

"We have urged our colleagues to reconsider this industrial action that will unfortunately further disrupt bus and rail services that so many of our passengers rely on and exacerbate the financial pressures on Translink."

A spokesperson from the Department for Infrastructure said: "People should expect delays during the strike period and allow extra time for their journeys.

"Bus lanes will remain operational during the industrial action for cyclists, motorcyclists, permitted taxis, any operating buses, which could include buses provided by health and education authorities, and the emergency services. Bus lane enforcement will continue as normal."

Regarding the education strike, a spokesperson for the EA said: "This action is likely to result in disruption to EA transport (yellow buses), some school meals and cleaning services."

They added it would also impact on "the availability of classroom assistants which very regrettably means that a small number of schools will close to pupils".

The authority said it had asked for a derogation for special school staff, but this had been declined.

Their statement continued that "all our staff deserve to be paid at a fair rate for the outstanding job they do, however, we recognise the challenges in delivering this in the context of an inadequate education budget".

The EA has warned that children will also be affected getting to school because of the public transport strike.

It said more than 57,000 children and young people in receipt of bus passes will be impacted, as well as fare paying pupils.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
NI strikes: Bus and train workers strike again despite Stormont progress

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Public transport faces major disruption on Thursday as bus and rail workers take further action over pay.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Public transport in Northern Ireland faces major disruption as trade unions continue strike action on Thursday.

School support workers are also taking to picket lines in a protest about pay.

The latest industrial action comes as legislation is to be debated which could lead to the restoration of the Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive in the coming days.

The UK government has committed funding to cover public sector pay deals if Stormont returns.

Those on strike include more than 3,000 public transport workers from the Unite, Siptu and GMB unions.

About 800 Unite members employed by the Education Authority (EA) as non-teaching staff are also walking out.

This includes school bus transport staff, school caterers, administration staff and classroom assistants who will also be taking action on Friday.

On 18 January, 16 trade unions and tens of thousands of public sector workers took part in one of Northern Ireland's largest strikes, affecting many sectors including health.

Thursday will be a sixth day of action for transport workers since December who have warned further action could continue.

Trade unions have been calling for the Northern Ireland secretary, Chris Heaton-Harris, to release funds to allow Stormont to give a pay increase to public sector workers.

Mr Heaton-Harris has said this is a devolved matter and has promised funds will be available when an executive is in place.

Northern Ireland has been without a devolved government since February 2022.

However, this week, the Democratic Unionist Party said it would end its boycott after reaching a deal with the UK government on resolving its concerns over post-Brexit trade matters.

After legislation is passed, the Northern Ireland Assembly is expected to be recalled, possibly on Friday or Saturday.

However, some trade unions have said that until Stormont is up and running, they will continue to strike.

Davy Thompson, from Unite, said that "until there is government in NI, there is no government in NI" and the deal is "not enough" to call off the strike.

Impact on businesses

Industry body Retail NI said it welcomed progress in the restoration of Stormont and called for unions to abandon their strikes "as a gesture of goodwill".

Both retail and hospitality groups had criticised public transport workers for taking strike action in the run-up to Christmas, traditionally their busiest periods.

In response to the latest February action, Translink said it remained "fully committed to entering constructive pay negotiations".

"We have urged our colleagues to reconsider this industrial action that will unfortunately further disrupt bus and rail services that so many of our passengers rely on and exacerbate the financial pressures on Translink."

A spokesperson from the Department for Infrastructure said: "People should expect delays during the strike period and allow extra time for their journeys.

"Bus lanes will remain operational during the industrial action for cyclists, motorcyclists, permitted taxis, any operating buses, which could include buses provided by health and education authorities, and the emergency services. Bus lane enforcement will continue as normal."

Regarding the education strike, a spokesperson for the EA said: "This action is likely to result in disruption to EA transport (yellow buses), some school meals and cleaning services."

They added it would also impact on "the availability of classroom assistants which very regrettably means that a small number of schools will close to pupils".

The authority said it had asked for a derogation for special school staff, but this had been declined.

Their statement continued that "all our staff deserve to be paid at a fair rate for the outstanding job they do, however, we recognise the challenges in delivering this in the context of an inadequate education budget".

The EA has warned that children will also be affected getting to school because of the public transport strike.

It said more than 57,000 children and young people in receipt of bus passes will be impacted, as well as fare paying pupils.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
NI strikes: Bus and train workers strike again despite Stormont progress

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Public transport faces major disruption on Thursday as bus and rail workers take further action over pay.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
New research highlights how marketers have a long way to go when it comes to changing consumers' purchasing habits.

When done authentically this is obviously great news. The climate crisis is well and truly upon us and brands have a huge role to play when it comes to mitigating damage. But it seems that they are missing a crucial step.

While marketers are trying to convey how sustainable their brands are, they are perhaps overestimating its importance to consumers that still see convenience and price as more important at the all-important buying stage.

It is clear that consumers care about the climate, but they are not willing to sacrifice in other areas to buy sustainably. According to new research from Getty Images, which surveyed 10,000 people globally, 81% see themselves as eco-friendly but just 50% say they only buy products from brands that try to be eco-friendly.

It gets worse. The research also found that while 92% of respondents believe the way we treat our planet now will have a large impact on the future, 48% also say that although they know they should care more about the environment through their purchasing habits, convenience takes priority.

It also found 84% of UK consumers say that being environmentally friendly is important to them, yet 68% cannot name a single environmentally friendly brand.

Only those who identify as being "passionate about sustainability" are willing to pay more for products or services from companies that are more environmentally friendly. And only up to 15% more at that, according to Getty Images.

Marketers are facing two issues. Firstly, creating products at a price point consumers are used to and are also sustainable, and secondly getting outside the bubble of eco warriors to portray their brand as being environmentally friendly.

There is a disconnect that exists for the majority of consumers between the convenience they want and their expectations around sustainability. Moreover, it appears that customers aren't going to go out of their way to buy eco-friendly brands, which means marketers need to do more in order to differentiate.

This should not put marketers off. In fact it should spur them on. Marketers have a key role to play not just in pushing forward their brands but also the purchasing habits of consumers. Take Iceland's partnership with Greenpeace, it not only helped the brand be seen as more environmentally friendly but helped raise awareness of the issue of palm oil.

BirdsEye's UK general manager Steve Challouma warns that marketers need to look "more holistically" at social issues that are relevant to their brand. Birds Eye tackles obesity, plastic pollution and climate change, seeing them as intersecting issues.

He sees a business case in them all.

He explains:"It is important not just from attracting that audience to your brand but also from a employer brand and attracting talent perspective. It's also an increasingly important factor for investors in the businesses - it can affect the attractiveness of your business as an investment through measures such as the Dow Jones Sustainable Index, which gives it weight at board level."

It is clear that sustainability is key for brands in terms of the products they develop, the talent they attract and the perception of investors.

However, this new research shows that marketers clearly have a long way to go when it comes to convincing the average consumer to opt for sustainability over convenience. The fact is, they should not have to.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Consumers don't want to choose between sustainability and convenience

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
New research highlights how marketers have a long way to go when it comes to changing consumers' purchasing habits. When done authentically this is obviously great news. The climate crisis is well and truly upon us and brands have a huge role to play when it comes to mitigating damage.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Chantrea drags an electric fan the size of a large door into the airless chamber where she works every day.

It is her only respite from the heat inside the brick kiln that looks more like a dimly lit tomb.

"It's like working inside a burning prison," the 47-year-old says as she stacks the dried bricks, which will be moved to a warehouse. "I have asked the owners to provide us with more fans. But they won't because it will cost more money."

The fan she does have slowly clunks as it starts, eventually whirring into action. It barely creates a breeze.

How hot is too hot to work? It is a question researchers have found the answer to here, in Cambodia's brick kilns, where people toil in some of the hottest working conditions in the world, fuelled in part by the scraps of fast fashion.

The BBC spoke to several workers who said they sweat so much through the day that it felt like they were in a hot bath. Fainting is common too, possibly because they become dehydrated. Their names have been changed because they fear reprisals from their employers.

In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers have tried to document how this sustained exposure to extreme heat is affecting workers' health.

Special sensors recorded the core temperature of 30 workers at these kilns over a week and showed that they all had heat stress, or core temperatures of more than 38C. This can cause fatigue, dizziness, nausea and headaches.

A healthy body temperature usually ranges from 36.1C to 37.2C. Body temperature over 38C is symptomatic of a fever. Some workers had core temperatures of 40C, which can lead to heat stroke, resulting in convulsions, eventual loss of consciousness and even death, if not treated early.

One worker told researchers that he had suffered from heart failure due to the heat. But he eventually returned to work because this was the only way he knew to earn a living.

This is only made worse by a warming climate and Cambodia's own weather - last May it hit a new high with 41.6C during the hottest year on record. As global temperatures soar, even a small increase could mean the difference between life and death for the tens of thousands of brick kiln workers across Asia.

"One of the big narratives that I hear again and again is that we're all in this [climate change] together. But that's absolutely not true. Some of us are a lot more in it than others," said Laurie Parsons at Royal Holloway University, who authored the study.

Clothes carrying toxic traces

It's a humid afternoon outside the kiln, on the outskirts of Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh. Inside, where Chantrea is stacking bricks, it is stifling.

But she is covered from head to toe in clothes that hang off her tiny frame - her only shield against the searing heat and dust. If the bricks are too hot, her skin blisters.

The kilns themselves are enclosed by brick walls and sealed. Workers stay outside and feed wood though a hatch to keep the fire hot enough, usually around 1500C to set the clay bricks. Once that happens, they stop fuelling the flames and when the heat seems less unbearable, they enter the chamber.

There is no data on the average temperature inside the kilns as it is hard for researchers to gain access. It's also hard to know how many workers fall ill or worse because of the heat.

Injuries from falling bricks are not uncommon, according to Chantrea. And workers told the researchers from the UK that the bricks often burn them, even through the gloves.

Outside the kiln, Kosal, a father of two, scoops up a mix of fabric, plastic and rubber that he shoves into the hatch before shutting it quickly. Black smoke seeps through the cracks as children - his and other kiln workers' - run past.

"I am used to the black smoke. I don't notice it any more," he says. "I have to keep these fires burning for 24 hours. My wife and I split the work between us."

The children crawl over bags bulging with clothing offcuts - more fuel for the kiln from Cambodia's $6bn garment industry.

But what may initially appear a solution to the unwanted scraps of the country's 1,300 garment factories is actually hiding its own deadly secret.

According to a 2018 report - Blood Bricks - by UK academics at Royal Holloway, these scraps have traces of chlorine bleach, formaldehyde and ammonia, as well as heavy metals, PVC and resins used in the dyeing and printing processes. The report also found that brick factory workers reported regular migraines, nosebleeds and other illnesses.

Kosal's three-year-old girl, her hair caked in dust, skips past a pile of Disney-labelled clothing. Most are flannel pyjamas embossed with images of Anna and Elsa from Frozen. They are made for children living in colder climates.

Most Western fashion labels have strict codes of conduct to stop this from happening. A Disney spokesperson told the BBC that the company was investigating the claim and that it "did not condone the conditions alleged in this situation".

The BBC also found labels from Clarks shoes and H&M among others. Clarks called on the Cambodian ministry of environment to investigate and also invited other affected companies to join forces "in working together with the relevant authorities in Cambodia to eradicate this problem".

H&M acknowledged that traceability is still an issue in Cambodia but said they did have their own waste management guidelines to ensure that fabric waste isn't used as a fuel source by factories, or sent to a landfill.

Cambodia's brick kilns have long been accused of unsafe and unfair working conditions - and they employ some of the world's poorest people. Now, climate change is only exacerbating those inequalities, experts say.

"What we need to do is to consider how climate change impacts people through the lens of labour and inequality, and recognise that labour exploitation is a major factor in the worst impacts of climate change," Mr Parsons said.

The heat trap

However toxic or difficult the job is, workers like Chantrea and Kosal can never leave. Victims of climate change, they are trapped in a cycle of heat.

The majority of those who work in Cambodia's brick kilns were farmers. Chantrea used to grow rice. But sparse rainfall in recent years has made it difficult to manage a single harvest.

"We borrowed a lot of money after our crops failed. But when they kept failing, we ended up with a lot of debt," she says.

Eventually she had no choice but to migrate to Phnom Penh in the hope of finding a job to repay the loans. More than two million of Cambodia's 10 million adults have outstanding micro-loans, according to the Cambodian Microfinance Association. On average, they each owe $3,320 (£1,955).

This financial insecurity has supplied the vulnerable labour for brick kilns. Owners offer to pay off the loan but, in return, the worker is bonded to the kiln.

Often whole families are bonded to the kiln. The BBC saw children helping their parents in the kiln despite efforts by the Cambodian government to prevent child labour.

"If we leave, we are afraid of being arrested and imprisoned," Chantrea says. "So we must struggle here. If they ask us to enter the fire, we will do even that just so we can earn more money for food and to pay off our debt."

But the wages are too low for the debt to ever be repaid. Chantrea earns 10,000 Cambodian riel (£1.92; $2.45) for stacking around 500 bricks.

With this she has to pay for food, electricity and water. Her home is a tin shack on the edge of the kiln and she supports a boy she found alone on the street and adopted. When they are hungry, they forage together for snails.

"After several years, I have never paid the owner back," Chantrea says. The debt, she adds, has only increased.

Cambodia's kilns have fed the capital's construction boom. It has drawn foreign investors, including the UK, which has invested one billion pounds, according to researchers from Royal Holloway University.

But as Phnom Penh reaches toward the sky, with tower after tower of air conditioned apartments, the city is leaving behind those who've helped to build it.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Cambodia: Fast fashion helps fuel blazing kilns where workers faint from heat

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
How hot is too hot to work? The BBC visits Cambodia's sweltering brick kilns to find out.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The muntjac managed to squeeze itself between two houses in Louth

A deer managed to wedge itself upside down between two houses in Louth

RSPCA and Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue crews were able to free the animal with specialist equipment

The muntjac ran off into nearby undergrowth

A deer had to be rescued after it wedged itself upside down in a tiny gap between two houses.

The RSPCA and Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue worked together to save the stricken animal in Louth.

Ropes and poles were used to slowly pull it through the gap to safety.

Animal rescue officer Karen Nix said it was "such a relief" to free the deer and see it run free into nearby undergrowth.

Ropes and poles were used to pull the deer to safety

Crews from Louth Fire Station and animal rescue specialists from Lincoln North worked together to release the male muntjac on 25 January.

They used a ladder, lines, hook and other equipment to free it.

Ms Nix said: "This was a tricky rescue because the deer was trapped so tightly and to complicate matters was also upside down - it must have been terrifying for him."

She thanked Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue crews for their help and said they "couldn't have saved him" without them.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Deer rescued from between gap in Louth houses

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The RSPCA and fire crews saved the animal, who scampered off into the undergrowth.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Public transport in Northern Ireland faces major disruption as trade unions continue strike action on Thursday.

School support workers are also taking to picket lines in a protest about pay.

The latest industrial action comes as legislation is to be debated which could lead to the restoration of the Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive in the coming days.

The UK government has committed funding to cover public sector pay deals if Stormont returns.

Those on strike include more than 3,000 public transport workers from the Unite, Siptu and GMB unions.

About 800 Unite members employed by the Education Authority (EA) as non-teaching staff are also walking out.

This includes school bus transport staff, school caterers, administration staff and classroom assistants who will also be taking action on Friday.

On 18 January, 16 trade unions and tens of thousands of public sector workers took part in one of Northern Ireland's largest strikes, affecting many sectors including health.

Thursday will be a sixth day of action for transport workers since December who have warned further action could continue.

Trade unions have been calling for the Northern Ireland secretary, Chris Heaton-Harris, to release funds to allow Stormont to give a pay increase to public sector workers.

Mr Heaton-Harris has said this is a devolved matter and has promised funds will be available when an executive is in place.

Northern Ireland has been without a devolved government since February 2022.

However, this week, the Democratic Unionist Party said it would end its boycott after reaching a deal with the UK government on resolving its concerns over post-Brexit trade matters.

After legislation is passed, the Northern Ireland Assembly is expected to be recalled, possibly on Friday or Saturday.

However, some trade unions have said that until Stormont is up and running, they will continue to strike.

Davy Thompson, from Unite, said that "until there is government in NI, there is no government in NI" and the deal is "not enough" to call off the strike.

Impact on businesses

Industry body Retail NI said it welcomed progress in the restoration of Stormont and called for unions to abandon their strikes "as a gesture of goodwill".

Both retail and hospitality groups had criticised public transport workers for taking strike action in the run-up to Christmas, traditionally their busiest periods.

In response to the latest February action, Translink said it remained "fully committed to entering constructive pay negotiations".

"We have urged our colleagues to reconsider this industrial action that will unfortunately further disrupt bus and rail services that so many of our passengers rely on and exacerbate the financial pressures on Translink."

A spokesperson from the Department for Infrastructure said: "People should expect delays during the strike period and allow extra time for their journeys.

"Bus lanes will remain operational during the industrial action for cyclists, motorcyclists, permitted taxis, any operating buses, which could include buses provided by health and education authorities, and the emergency services. Bus lane enforcement will continue as normal."

Regarding the education strike, a spokesperson for the EA said: "This action is likely to result in disruption to EA transport (yellow buses), some school meals and cleaning services."

They added it would also impact on "the availability of classroom assistants which very regrettably means that a small number of schools will close to pupils".

The authority said it had asked for a derogation for special school staff, but this had been declined.

Their statement continued that "all our staff deserve to be paid at a fair rate for the outstanding job they do, however, we recognise the challenges in delivering this in the context of an inadequate education budget".

The EA has warned that children will also be affected getting to school because of the public transport strike.

It said more than 57,000 children and young people in receipt of bus passes will be impacted, as well as fare paying pupils.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
NI strikes: Bus and train workers strike again despite Stormont progress

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Public transport faces major disruption on Thursday as bus and rail workers take further action over pay.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
DUP deal aimed at restoring NI government is published

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Details of the agreement between the UK government and the DUP have been revealed.