62 h. ago Everything we know about Scots funeral scandal as thousands lose cash

An estimated 5,000 Scots are said to be left devastated after the Safe Hands funeral plan company went into administration.

Politics

4 d. ago ‘Dog that didn’t bark’: Uefa’s Champions League rights sale delivered a key lesson

Plan to sell first-pick games to one global streaming company failed and that offers pointers for the futureChampagne corks were flying last Thursday after Uefa secured average annual increases of more than 20% in the value of its Champions League rights across its five biggest European markets, largely by luring the American entertainment company Paramount into the auction for the first time.Paramount secured the UK rights by outbidding Uefa’s incumbent partner, TNT Sports, triumphed in Germany and forced Sky Italia to up its offer in Italy. Continue reading...

Sport

5 d. ago How Lord Dannatt used his peerage to open doors for business interests

Former head of British army is suspended from the House of Lords after being filmed breaking rulesTwo peers suspended from House of Lords for breaking lobbying rulesThe flowers and hamper that arrived at the Tower of London had been sent by a small energy company based in Sierra Leone. They were a gift to Richard Dannatt, the former head of the British army, who a few months earlier had introduced the company’s executives to the minister for Africa. It was a move they hoped would smooth the way for the fledgling company’s grand plans to build a £500m hydroelectric dam.With support from the UK government, the company had a better chance of getting the dam built. The dam, they said, would bring much-needed cheap electricity to many people in Sierra Leone. But it could also bring profits to the company, and Dannatt was not only to receive flowers and upmarket produce, he was also given shares. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago The new Nando's opening in the UK including key London location

The South-African-owned company has announced plans to open 14 new Nando’s restaurants across the UK over the current year to February

Politics

1 week ago Ocado shares sink after key customer Kroger scales back partnership

US grocer announces plans to close warehouses in blow to credibility of UK company’s tech licensing business

Economics

1 week ago ‘A drug that’s very safe and healthy‘: what ultrarunners can teach us about life | Sean Ingle

Caitriona Jennings ran 100 miles in just over 12 hours and wants other women to follow her example – ‘it’s not actually that difficult’Imagine being able to run a marathon in three hours and 17 minutes. That is certainly no mean feat. But now think about trying to sustain that same pace for another nine hours. To most of us, the idea veers somewhere between the fantastical and the insane. Yet that is what Caitriona Jennings, a 45-year-old ultrarunner from Donegal, did this month when breaking the women’s world record for 100 miles.Her time for the Tunnel Hill 100 Mile in Illinois was 12hr 37min 4sec – an average pace of 7min 34sec a mile. Incredibly, until then Jennings had never run more than 60 miles in one go. Having smashed the record, she then jumped on a red-eye economy flight from Chicago that landed in Dublin at 5am. Then she cycled straight to the office, where she works for a company that trades and leases planes to global airlines. Continue reading...

Society

1 week ago TotalEnergies buys £5.1bn stake in Czech tycoon’s power plants business

Daniel Křetínský to become a major shareholder in French oil company as part of deal creating 50/50 joint ventureThe Czech billionaire Daniel Křetínský is to become one of the largest shareholders in TotalEnergies after selling a stake in his electricity generation business, which includes several UK power plants, to the French oil company.Křetínský, whose companies own stakes in Royal Mail and West Ham United football club, agreed to sell a 50% stake in his stable of European power plants to TotalEnergies for about €5.1bn ($5.9bn) in exchange for about 4.1% of Total’s share capital. Continue reading...

Economics

2 w. ago How a Texas shrimper stalled Exxon’s $10bn plastics plant | Shilpi Chhotray

Diane Wilson recognized Exxon’s playbook – and showed how local people can take on even the most entrenched industriesWhen ExxonMobil announced it would “slow the pace of development” on a $10bn plastics plant along the Texas Gulf coast, the company blamed market conditions. But it wasn’t just the market applying pressure; it was a 77-year-old shrimper named Diane Wilson who refused to stay silent. Her fight exposes big oil’s latest survival plan: ramping up oil and gas production to create plastic.I first met Wilson back in 2019 while tracking her historic lawsuit against Formosa Plastics, the Taiwanese petrochemical giant accused of dumping toxic plastic waste throughout coastal Texas. Billions of tiny plastic pellets were contaminating waterways, shorelines, and even the soil itself.Shilpi Chhotray is the co-founder and president of Counterstream Media and Host of A People’s Climate for the Nation Continue reading...

Economics

2 w. ago Hundreds of jobs at risk as car parts company plans to close factories

The union is calling the plan a ‘betrayal’ of workers

Events

2 w. ago Borderline ambiguity: How Google Maps removes disputed Western Sahara border for Morocco users

The tech giant has released a statement acknowledging the use of different border displays between Western Sahara and MoroccoThe dotted lines illustrating the border between Western Sahara and Morocco, indicating the former’s disputed territory status, have never been visible to people using Google Maps in the latter.After media reports last week highlighted the discrepancy, tying it to the UN security council endorsing the Moroccan autonomy plan for Western Sahara, the tech company released a statement acknowledging it has always displayed the border differently depending on the search region. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago ‘Too far? I don’t think we’ve gone far enough!’ The founder of Peta on gruesome stunts and her bloody fight for animal rights

After 45 years as chief fake blood thrower, Ingrid Newkirk is still waging war on everything from leather to cashmere. Is she still relevant?Ingrid Newkirk was 54 when she thought she was going to die in a plane crash. It was late summer and the founder of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) was flying from Minneapolis in the US to the company HQ in Norfolk, Virginia when her plane encountered strong wind shear. The pilot attempted an emergency landing, but failed; back up they went.On the third attempt, with “a teaspoon of fuel” in the tank, he finally got the plane down safely. During those moments, Newkirk, now 76, scribbled a will on a napkin. She has tweaked it over the years, but it still reads like a horror movie prop list: her liver is to be sent to France to be made into foie gras, her skin to Hermès to create a handbag and her lips to whichever US president is in power, to shame them for granting a “patronising” pardon to a turkey each Thanksgiving. As wills...

Events

3 w. ago An Arizona town is dreading plans to turn its prison into an ICE facility: ‘It’s morally objectionable’

In Marana, residents crowded into a town hall recently to learn the fate of a building that’s been closed for two yearsIn an Arizona town where farmers have long wrested a living off the arid land, reports that a former prison complex may be turned into an immigration detention center have sparked a fierce backlash, with residents seeing the potential transition as the latest undesirable symbol of the Trump administration’s massive escalation of immigration enforcement.The facility in Marana, a town of about 63,700 people located north of Tucson, sprawls across a flat expanse of desert studded with scrubby bushes and hardy trees. It was shuttered almost two years ago, and the Management and Training Corporation, the private company that owns it, informed the town manager of company plans to operate a detention center in the prison. Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago Welsh farmers 'being invaded' by pylon plans take company to court

More than 300 people have launched High Court legal action against a green energy company planning to build the infrastructure across Wales

Events

3 w. ago Welsh farmers and landowners launch legal action against Green GEN Cymru

According to court documents, agents acting on behalf of the company are accused of behaving in a ‘coercive’ and careless manner.

Politics

3 w. ago How Tesla shareholders could make Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire

Shareholder votes on a pay package worth $1tn to be tallied 6 November – but it contains milestones beyond growing the company’s market capIf Elon Musk can grow Tesla to over $8tn in value for stockholders over the next decade, he will be well on his way to becoming the world’s first trillionaire.That is if stockholders approve the company’s latest proposed compensation plan for the “Superstar CEO”, as a judge once called him, at this week’s annual shareholders meeting in Austin, Texas, set for Thursday afternoon. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Investigators probe cause of UPS plane crash which killed at least nine in Kentucky

A UPS cargo plane crashed at a Louisville, Kentucky, airport where the company operates its largest package delivery hub

Events

3 w. ago Investigators probe cause of UPS plane crash which killed at least seven in Kentucky

A UPS cargo plane crashed at a Louisville, Kentucky, airport where the company operates its largest package delivery hub

Events

3 w. ago Moment UPS plane crashes near Kentucky airport caught on CCTV

The moment a UPS plane crashed whilst taking off from the company’s global aviation hub in Louisville, Kentucky was captured on CCTV footage.

Events

3 w. ago Deadly cargo plane crash shuts down UPS’ largest package delivery hub at Louisville airport

A UPS cargo plane crashed at a Louisville, Kentucky, airport where the company operates its largest package delivery hub

Events

3 w. ago UPS distribution hub in Louisville has 300 flights per day. What to know

A UPS cargo plane crashed at a Louisville, Kentucky, airport where the company operates its largest package delivery hub

Politics