Energy bills will fall by £117 for millions of households in Britain from April
Posted on Wednesday February 25, 2026

Ofgem cap drops by 7% to £1,641 a year for consumers’ average gas and electricity costsAnnual energy bills will fall by £117 for millions of households from April after Rachel Reeves’s plan to cut £150 a year from bills was partly foiled by rising costs.The energy regulator Ofgem’s quarterly cap will drop by 7% for the three months from April to £1,641 a year for the average combined gas and electricity bill in Great Britain for those paying by direct debit, from £1,758 under the current January-March cap. Continue reading...

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John Lewis scraps £500m deal to build 1,000 rental homes
Posted on Wednesday February 25, 2026

Retailer said ‘fundamental shift in economic conditions’ made it hard for financial partner Aberdeen to raise fundsThe John Lewis Partnership is pulling out of a £500m deal to build almost 1,000 residential rental homes for rent in Bromley, Reading and West Ealing amid a “cautious property market”.The retailer, which owns Waitrose supermarkets and John Lewis department stores, blamed a “fundamental shift in the economic conditions”, which it said had made it difficult for its financial partner, Aberdeen, to raise funds for the venture, first launched in 2020. Continue reading...

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Doom Bar maker Sharp’s Brewery in Cornwall to be closed by US owner
Posted on Wednesday February 25, 2026

Molson Coors says site, as well as national call centre in Wales, ‘no longer financially sustainable’The Cornish brewery that makes Doom Bar ale is to be closed by its US owner, throwing the popular beer brand’s future into doubt and putting about 200 jobs at risk.The drinks company Molson Coors said it plans to shut Sharp’s Brewery in Rock, along with its national call centre in Wales, saying it was “no longer financially sustainable”. Continue reading...

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Facial recognition error prompts police to arrest Asian man for burglary 100 miles away
Posted on Wednesday February 25, 2026

Exclusive: Alvi Choudhury claiming damages against Thames Valley police after biased technology confused him with man looking ‘10 years younger’Police arrested a man for a burglary in a city he had never visited after face scanning software deployed across the UK confused him with another person of south Asian heritage.Alvi Choudhury, 26, a software engineer, was working at the home he shares with his parents in Southampton in January when police knocked on his door, handcuffed him and held him in custody for nearly 10 hours before releasing him at 2am. Continue reading...

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Tech legend Stewart Brand on Musk, Bezos and his extraordinary life: ‘We don’t need to passively accept our fate’
Posted on Wednesday February 25, 2026

He was at the heart of 1960s counterculture, then paved the way for the libertarian mindset of Silicon Valley. At 87, Brand is still keen to ensure the world is maintained properly – not just today, but for the next 10,000 yearsStewart Brand thinks big and long. He thinks on a planetary scale – as suggested by the title of his celebrated Whole Earth Catalog – and on the longest of timeframes, as with his Long Now Foundation, which looks forward to the next 10,000 years of human civilisation. He has had a lifelong fascination with the future, and anything that could get us there faster, from space travel to psychedelic drugs to computing. In fact, he was arguably the bridge between the San Francisco counterculture of the 60s and present-day Silicon Valley: in his commencement speech at Stanford University in 2005, Steve Jobs eulogised the Whole Earth Catalog and Brand’s philosophy, and echoed its farewell mantra: “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.”You could say that Brand has also lived big and long. He is now 87 years old, in the final chapters of an eventful and adventurous life that has crossed paths with some of the most consequential events and figures of his era. He has been a writer, an editor, a publisher, a soldier, a photojournalist, an LSD evangelist, an events organiser, a future-planning consultant, even a government adviser (to the California governor Jerry Brown in the late 70s). “There was a time when people asked me, ‘What do you do?’ I said, ‘I find things and I found things,’” says Brand, as in he is a founder. He is speaking from a library where he likes to work in Petaluma, California, not far from his houseboat in Sausalito. “I’m always searching for good stuff to recommend, and good people.” Continue reading...

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Real Madrid v Benfica: Champions League knockout round playoff, second leg – live
Posted on Wednesday February 25, 2026

⚽ Champions League updates from the 8pm GMT kick-off⚽ Live scores | Read today’s Football Daily | Email Scott85 min: Krstović one-twos with Zalewski down the middle … and he’s clear! But Kobel reads the danger and comes racing out of his box to blooter clear. The keeper takes a whack for his trouble, but Krstović was within his rights to compete for the ball with so much on the line. Great play all round.82 min: Atalanta counter, and Samardžić dances his way in from the right, before lashing a low diagonal drive inches wide of the left-hand post. Kobel wasn’t getting to that. Continue reading...

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Breakaway union stands behind Tara Moore’s $20m legal battle against WTA
Posted on Wednesday February 25, 2026

Former British doubles No 1 has same legal firm as PTPAThe 33-year-old doubles star has always denied dopingThe breakaway players’ union that is suing the tours and grand slam tournaments has thrown its weight behind Tara Moore’s $20m (£14.7m) legal battle against the Women’s ­Tennis Association in a new front in the sport’s civil war.The Guardian has learnt that Moore, a former British No 1 doubles player who this week brought a legal action for negligence against the WTA after being handed a four‑year ban for doping, is using lawyers from the Professional Tennis ­Players Association’s legal partner, King & Spalding. Continue reading...

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