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Weighed down by underinvestment and uncertainty, staff at Maple Lodge just want to get on with the jobIt is a grey day in a wet week but one of Thames Water's neglected plants is still coping. Wastewater is being pumped into the vast Maple Lodge sewage treatment centre in Rickmansworth, just off the M25, at a rate of about 3,000 litres a second, within capacity.The site manager points out the first-line screens that catch everything that will not pass through a 5mm filter. A “sheep” – a bundle of wet wipes, sanitary pads, cotton buds, condoms and indigestible bits of sweetcorn – is rotating at one edge. Credit cards and false teeth have been known to end up here. Continue reading......

Anthropic says three Chinese firms used 'distillation' technique to extract information from its Claude chatbotUS artificial intelligence company Anthropic said on Monday it had uncovered campaigns by three Chinese AI firms to illicitly extract capabilities from its Claude chatbot, in what it described as industrial-scale intellectual property theft. OpenAI leveled similar charges last month.Anthropic said DeepSeek, Moonshot AI and MiniMax used a technique known as “distillation” – using outputs from a more powerful AI system to rapidly boost the performance of a less capable one. Continue reading......

Internal investigators said at least two accounts allegedly saw $1.7bn move to Iranian-backed groupsShortly after Donald Trump pardoned Changpeng Zhao, the Binance founder, last fall, company employees revealed the cryptocurrency exchange may have funded Iranian entities with billions of dollars, according to a report by the New York Times.The discovery was made by a group of internal Binance investigators, who reportedly found that people in Iran had accessed more than 1,500 accounts on the crypto platform. Two of those accounts allegedly saw $1.7bn move to Iranian-backed groups that included Yemen's Houthi militants throughout 2024 and 2025, according to the Wall Street Journal. Continue reading......

Firm does not specify amount but seeks reimbursement after supreme court ruled against president last weekFedEx sued the US government on Monday, seeking a refund for the tariffs imposed by Donald Trump that were deemed illegal by the US supreme court last week.The lawsuit marks the first attempt by a major company to receive reimbursement of their share of an estimated $175bn in levies after the highest court found Trump had overstepped his authority in issuing the tariffs. Other companies are expected to follow. Continue reading......

British Retail Consortium warns over 'endemic' violence towards shop workers and says theft is causing anxietyCriminal gangs are “systematically” targeting shops, retailers have warned, with 5.5m incidents of shoplifting detected last year, costing the industry an estimated £400m.The British Retail Consortium (BRC) has warned over “endemic” violence towards shop workers – who faced an average 36 incidents of violence involving a weapon every day last year – and said high levels of theft was causing “anxiety” among retail staff. Continue reading......

Economies such as the UK, India, Japan and the EU raced to hammer out agreements, but the blanket rate has left them wondering where they stand“America is WINNING again,” Donald Trump declared last week, unveiling the first batch of Japanese-backed projects under a mooted $550bn investment surge into the US as part of his trade pact with Tokyo.After the US president tore up the global economic order in 2025, Japan was one among the countries scrambling to strike a deal. They pledged to dramatically increase investment in the US in exchange for lower US tariffs on Japanese exports. Continue reading......

Details of offer not immediately available as Paramount looks to beat rival Netflix for control of Warner BrosParamount Skydance has increased its bid for Warner Bros Discovery, Reuters reported on Monday, raising the stakes in the bidding war for the historic studio and its broadcast and cable TV assets in an effort to beat out rival suitor Netflix.It could not immediately be determined how the bid was revised. Warner Bros and Paramount declined to comment, while Netflix could not immediately be reached. Continue reading......

Average number of female FTSE 100 CEOs stalled at nine last year, the same number as 2024, review saysCampaigners have bemoaned the “achingly slow” progress made on gender equality at the top of Britain's biggest businesses, as research showed blue-chip firms had missed key targets and there were only nine female bosses at FTSE 100 companies.The average number of female FTSE 100 chief executives did not move last year, according to the government-backed FTSE Women Leaders Review. Continue reading......

As the drama shows, private firms no longer able to pollute the coast of England of Wales just switched to rivers instead There is a moment in Channel 4's drama Dirty Business when Julie Maughan holds the body of her dead child and lets out an anguished cry. It is as brutal as it is compelling.Her eight-year-old daughter Heather had just died in hospital, two weeks after playing in the sea on the beach at Dawlish Warren in Devon, where she contracted E coli O157, a bug which comes from raw sewage. She became ill with diarrhoea and blood loss. Transferred to Bristol children's hospital, her parents agreed to switch off her life-support machine after she suffered kidney failure and brain damage. Continue reading......

Amid talk of artificial intelligence taking our jobs, the big unasked question is: how will we be fed?How will we be fed? That's the biggest question not seriously being addressed amid all this talk about whether or not artificial intelligence will end up taking over all of our jobs.Formidable though the technology appears, similar fears have popped up repeatedly since the Industrial Revolution, and most working-age adults remain employed. Still, what is sorely missing is a serious debate about what to do if this future in fact materializes. Continue reading......

Parents and teachers will be wondering what resources ministers can secure for Labour's revamp of system• Fewer children in England to get EHCPs by 2035 under Send overhaul• Parents of children with Send give changes in England a mixed response• The impact of Send changes in England: four likely scenarios for childrenThere is always an extra cost to delivering a tailored service, which is how Labour describes its new support system for school-age children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) in England.The Department for Education says it will ditch a “one size fits all” system – one that has “traumatised too many families” – in favour of one that offers “experts at hand” who can assess the individual needs of each pupil. Continue reading......

This US tech giant should not have been given NHS or Ministry of Defence contracts, writes Stephen Saunders. Plus a letter from Jan SavageFor 100 years, the UK government has led us through existential threats, including two world wars. But instead of resisting the latest threat to democratic accountability, it has welcomed it with open arms: Palantir Technologies (NHS deal with AI firm Palantir called into question after officials' concerns revealed, 12 February).This polarising US surveillance giant provides data-fusion and AI platforms used by by the US for immigration enforcement and by Israel in the Gaza conflict. Its software amplifies state power through militarised analytics and opaque algorithms. Continue reading......

US president suggests trade war could escalate as administration says it will stop collecting levies ruled illegal by supreme courtBusiness live – latest updatesDonald Trump has declared that he can use tariffs in a “much more powerful and obnoxious way”, as the UK and the EU said they were seeking urgent clarity on the US trade deals they struck last summer.Trump threatened to ramp up his global tariff war on Monday, after a supreme court ruling last week that he had overstepped his legal authority to impose his “liberation day” measures last year. Continue reading......

Bridget Phillipson's 10-year plan is generous in places, but her party might not be in power long enough to see it throughWhether the change is down to the shifting of the Overton window or the demise of basic decency, one awful feature of the current national conversation is becoming clearer by the day: the demonisation of disabled and vulnerable children and young people – and their parents – by voices that seemingly know no shame at all.The crude version of the “overdiagnosis” theory – essentially, the idea that such conditions as autism and ADHD are exaggerated and confected – is everywhere. Seemingly by law, every two-bit newspaper columnist must now write an annual piece about how the cutting edge of human psychology and child development is really just a byword for needless expense and sharp-elbowed families milking the state. A Facebook page used to find people to speak to the media recently appealed for a “mum who's concerned her child's school budget is being spent on pupils wit...

Jose Alejandro Zamora Yrala set up AOG Technics, which sold more than 60,000 components in a £40m global fraudA one-time techno DJ who orchestrated a £40m global fraud selling fake aircraft parts from his garage outside London has been jailed.Engine parts from AOG Technics found their way into planes used by American Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines, Delta and Ryanair before the scam was discovered, leading to regulators issuing safety alerts and planes being grounded. Continue reading......

A rumour on social media brought dozens of fortune seekers to a field on the outskirts of mining town SpringsIn a township 30 miles east of Johannesburg, a mechanical digger filled in holes in the dark brown earth, bringing to an end a brief but intense gold rush that saw dozens of fortune seekers descend on what was once a cattle field.Less than two weeks ago, a rumour spread like wildfire on social media: someone had found gold while digging a hole for a fence post in a field on the edge of Gugulethu, an informal settlement of dirt roads and metal shacks on the outskirts of mining town Springs. Continue reading......

Exclusive: Figures led by New York Sun owner may seek judicial review after restrictions lifted on DMGT offerFigures involved in a rival bid for the Telegraph are drawing up legal action against the government, after ministers gave the owner of the Daily Mail permission to take a significant step towards clinching its £500m takeover.The Telegraph titles, which include the daily and Sunday editions, have been in limbo for three years after previous owners, the Barclay family, lost control of them over huge unpaid debts. Continue reading......

Company admits three pollution events that killed fish and insects in Pools Brook country park near ChesterfieldA water company has been fined more than £700,000 for repeatedly releasing sewage into a stream.Yorkshire Water was issued with the penalty after pleading guilty to three offences of sewage pollution in Pools Brook country park near Chesterfield. Continue reading......

Top clubs agree not to have gambling sponsors on front of shirts, but government is consulting on total banUnlicensed gambling firms could be barred from sponsoring Premier League clubs, after a string of controversies involving pornographic videos, failures in anti-money laundering rules and concerns about links to organised crime.Shirts worn by players for several major English football teams, including Everton, Fulham and Wolverhampton Wanderers, feature the logos of unlicensed online casinos or bookmakers. Continue reading......

Ofgem says about 140 proposed projects, driven by AI use, could require more power than current peak demandThe amount of power being sought by new datacentre projects in the UK would exceed the country's current peak electricity consumption, according to an industry watchdog.Ofgem said about 140 proposed datacentre schemes, driven by use of artificial intelligence, could require 50 gigawatts of electricity – 5GW more than the country's current peak demand. Continue reading......