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Wealthy parents’ greatest asset is the assets they will pass on
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As a Danish study shows, parental income determines our life chances – but in what way differs according to how rich they are Parents shape our lives. There’s the love or its absence – and the genetics. On the financial side, academics focus on intergenerational income persistence (how much parental income determines our own) and its inverse (social mobility). This varies between countries. Economist Miles Corak has shown that higher inequality nations tend to be less socially mobile. When the rungs on the ladder are far apart, individuals born poor struggle to climb them. Continue reading...
Britain will never be great again until we stop flogging our top companies to the US | Will Hutton
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Tech selloffs not only cost tax revenue and jobs, but are turning the UK into a vassal state There is much to admire about the US. The great French social observer Alexis de Tocqueville, nearly 200 years ago, lauded its commitment to civic virtue, individual self-improvement and hard work – legacies of its puritan founders. Those traits are still evident today, but alongside them a darker one has emerged. The US, the hegemon of the 20th century still committed to democracy, has changed. It has transmuted into an imperial power careless of democracy but ever readier to exact economic tribute from its vassal states. Continue reading...
Murdoch, Musk, water firms … Here are the ‘winners’ in another torrid year for business
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As 2025 dawns, we look back at the star players over the last 12 months of economic drama, mishap and scandal The end of the year is a time for pausing, reflection and exhaustion. But before throwing ourselves into 2025, it’s worth sifting through the remnants of 2024 to see who in the business world has done something worth remembering. So, once more with gusto, the Observer Agenda page brings you its awards for the brightest – or perhaps most glaring – lights in the business world this year. Continue reading...
Many happy returns: sustainable startups are turning a profit from your unwanted clothes
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Now that half of our clothing purchases are sent back, reverse logistics – or the returns industry – has become big business, with companies finding ways to reduce waste For many, the Boxing Day sales are a festive tradition, but last week major retailers from Next to John Lewis announced that their stores would stay closed as they expected customers to do their bargain hunting online. For those who regret their internet purchases – or those who unwrapped yet another hideous Christmas jumper – the prospect of a trip to the post office to send their returns awaits. Continue reading...
Solar farms v people power: the locals fighting for their county
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Plans to install huge solar farms in the beautiful Norfolk countryside have outraged residents Two years ago, Chris and Jenna Humphrey moved from their urban house to their rural dream. “We wanted our kids to have this,” says Chris, gesturing at the green fields surrounding their cottage, which sits in splendid isolation in the south Norfolk countryside. “It was pitch black when we moved in and the first morning the kids woke up they looked out of the window and there were three deer walking across the field. It was magical for them.” They are settled now. Their older children, six and eight, go to the village school and Jenna, a special needs teacher, is nursing their youngest at home. “We fell in love with the house, because every window has such a lovely view. We thought the children would grow up here and never get bored. My little boy is constantly getting the binoculars out, birdwatching from the window.” Continue reading...
‘We’re on the global map’: how Co-op Live bounced back from chaotic launch
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Manchester music venue winning high praise from performers and concertgoers after being bitten by teething troubles When Paul McCartney performed on stage at Manchester’s Co-op Live in mid-December, he paused between songs, and looked out on the crowd. Praising the new venue, the musician said he just wanted to “take it all in”. The state-of-the-art building, which opened earlier this year, is the biggest indoor arena in the UK, with a capacity of 23,500, and its backers include Harry Styles and the Abu Dhabi-based owners of Manchester City. Continue reading...
Trump sides with Musk on support for H-1B visas for foreign tech workers
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Remarks follow social media posts from Tesla and SpaceX CEO, who vowed to go to ‘war’ to defend program Donald Trump on Saturday sided with Elon Musk, a key supporter and billionaire tech CEO, in a public dispute over the use of the H-1B visa, saying he fully backs the program for foreign tech workers opposed by some of his supporters. Trump’s remarks followed a series of social media posts from Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, who vowed late Friday to go to “war” to defend the visa program for foreign tech workers. Continue reading...
Thick fog expected to continue causing disruption at UK airports on Sunday
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Many flights at Heathrow and Gatwick cancelled or delayed on Saturday as murky conditions persist Disruption caused by thick fog is expected to continue until Sunday at some of the UK’s busiest airports. Flights at Stansted airport were affected by the weather conditions on Saturday, while live departure boards showed delays at Heathrow, Luton and Manchester airports. Continue reading...
Family of OpenAI whistleblower Suchir Balaji demand FBI investigate death
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Parents believe San Francisco police lack ability to conduct thorough investigation into multifaceted case Poornima Ramarao greeted everyone with a smile as they offered condolences for the death of her son, Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI researcher and whistleblower who was found dead in his San Francisco apartment on 26 November. “I am not grieving,” she told a small group of friends at a vigil held for Balaji in Milpitas, California, a city about 50 miles (80km) south-east of San Francisco. “I have become numb.” Continue reading...
Beaches, beer and a rare suspended lake … why can’t Nigeria attract more tourists?
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Visitor numbers to the African country lag far behind its neighbours due to lack of infrastructure and national planning. Now some are starting to demand changes At the top of the Ado-Awaye hills lies a lake suspended 433 metres above sea level. Local people say the lake is named Iyake (Yoruba for “crying woman”) after a weeping, barren woman who fell in the water hundreds of years ago, conferring on it powers of fertility. This belief in the divine is evident in the foothills, where a huge boulder is emblazoned with the words, written in golden letters: “Here we come: African Jerusalem.” Continue reading...
The Observer view on the UK economy: don’t despair, signs of growth are emerging
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There are hazards ahead, but Rachel Reeves’s big calls in the budget have left the country better placed than the dominant narrative suggests A downside of living in a country with an extraordinarily one-sided media is that it becomes ever harder not to be affected by the dissing-the-Labour-government-at-every-turn lens through which it sees the world. So it is with the economy. The story that an over-empowered chancellor has made a series of mistakes, so risking near certain economic stagflation, is told with relentless enthusiasm. The statistical revision before Christmas that showed there was no economic growth between July and September is allegedly proof of an economic stasis Rachel Reeves has engendered, while private sector wage inflation suddenly accelerating to 5.4% is obviously a harbinger of inflation to come. The Bank of England has paused further interest rate reductions despite the decline in business and consumer confidence. Investment remains stubbornly low. The Labour government is plainly the only cause of this worrying turn of events, according to the consensus narrative. The chancellor, exaggerating the balefulness of the Tory economic legacy, has talked down the economy. In addition, Labour has released the demon of public sector pay with generous settlements to doctors, nurses and railway workers, and heaped costs on business through its thoughtless £25bn hike in national insurance contributions and unnecessarily empowered workers with its proposed agenda for work. Typical Labour. Continue reading...
Labour donor Dale Vince urges ‘rigorous financial scrutiny’ of Sizewell C costs
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Green energy entrepreneur voices concerns over project’s funding and ‘spiralling costs’ of UK’s other nuclear plants The government’s new value for money tsar has been challenged to examine the costs of a nuclear power station to be given final approval next year, as ministers attempt to shore up private investment for the project. New nuclear plants are a key part of the government’s plan to have clean power by 2030. The Sizewell C reactor, billed as generating enough energy to power 6m homes, is expected to be given the final go ahead in June’s review of public spending. Its projected costs are in excess of £20bn. Continue reading...
Court rejects Starbucks’ challenge to US labor board ruling that it illegally fired baristas
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Judge says coffee giant has no standing in appeal of NRLP finding it illegally fired two workers for trying to unionize A federal appeals court has largely rejected Starbucks’ appeal of a National Labor Relations Board (NRLB) finding that the coffee chain illegally fired two Philadelphia baristas because they wanted to organize a union. The third US circuit court of appeals said the coffee shop giant lacked standing to challenge the constitutionality of administrative law judges of the NRLB, the government agency that is set up to enforce labor laws in the US concerning labor practices and collective bargaining. Continue reading...
I figured out how to use two-thirds less water — and it only took a week to set up
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Read more from My DIY climate hack, a series on everyday people’s creative solutions to the climate crisis While droughts are a natural feature of California’s climate, human-induced warming has made them even drier. After Eric Haas, 62, moved to Oakland in 2007, California was in a drought so severe a statewide emergency was declared. After experiencing drought conditions for several years, the California professor had a rainwater and greywater capture system installed at his highly efficient urban home to do his part to conserve water. *** Continue reading...
Two-income households need social housing too. Here’s why
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In a private property market where supply is restricted, increased family wealth can simply drive up the cost of suitable homes Improvements in the education of girls is one of the most positive shifts in the developing world over the past decade. Supported by aid agencies, including Camfed and more recently the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, efforts to send girls to primary and secondary school and on to further and higher education have made great strides. In his new year message, the pope will urge rich countries to support the education of poor children as part of a big debt relief programme in the 2025 papal jubilee year. Continue reading...
How will AI reshape the world? Well, it could be the spreadsheet of the 21st century | John Naughton
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Large language models have changed how big corporations function, and the arrival of AI ‘agents’ – essentially automated Moneypennys – could prove irresistible If 2024 was the year of large language models (LLMs), then 2025 looks like the year of AI “agents”. These are quasi-intelligent systems that harness LLMs to go beyond their usual tricks of generating plausible text or responding to prompts. The idea is that an agent can be given a high-level – possibly even vague – goal and break it down into a series of actionable steps. Once it “understands” the goal, it can devise a plan to achieve it, much as a human would. OpenAI’s chief financial officer, Sarah Friar, recently explained it thus to the Financial Times: “It could be a researcher, a helpful assistant for everyday people, working moms like me. In 2025, we will see the first very successful agents deployed that help people in their day to day.” Or it’s like having a digital assistant “that doesn’t just respond to your instructions but is able to learn, adapt, and perhaps most importantly, take meaningful actions to solve problems on your behalf”. In other words, Miss Moneypenny on steroids. Continue reading...
How owls helped me conquer my fear of the dark
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With the aid of the birds I was able to learn to love the night As a child I was afraid of the dark, as so many children are. Not the dark in and of itself, but what I was certain it contained: bad spirits, bad people, monsters with ill intent. The dark hid creatures with talons and teeth, or men with weapons who would use them to sneak up on an unsuspecting child and do them harm. The dark let curses slip out of buildings or hedges and attach to a child walking past. I kept myself bounded within the dome of torchlight on winter afternoons, thinking of light as a spell of protection. I went to bed by the orange glow of a nightlight, the hall light on and the door ajar. I borrowed Jill Tomlinson’s book The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark from the library and fell in love with the baby barn owl, Plop. He thinks “dark is nasty” and won’t go hunting with his parents. He learns through others who love the dark that it can be exciting, kind, fun, necessary, wonderful, beautiful and super. I identified with Plop, but I wasn’t convinced about the wonderfulness of the dark. Continue reading...
‘They’re stuck’: Cape Cod seeing more whale, turtle and dolphin strandings
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Changing tides have led to an increase of beached marine life, whom rescuers scramble to save before they die While Cape Cod, Massachusetts, is known as a popular vacation destination in the north-east US, it has built a reputation for an entirely different reason this year: animal strandings. Dolphins, whales, sea lions and turtles are turning up in large numbers on the beaches of the famous peninsula in a phenomenon that has experts scrambling to execute more rescue operations than ever before. The cause? Changing tides. Continue reading...
Janet Yellen issues warning to Congress as US nears debt limit
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Treasury secretary says ‘extraordinary measures’ needed to avoid default, and urges lawmakers to raise borrowing limit Janet Yellen, the treasury secretary, has said her agency will need to start taking “extraordinary measures”, or special accounting maneuvers intended to prevent the nation from hitting the debt ceiling, as early as 14 January, in a letter sent to congressional leaders on Friday afternoon. “Treasury expects to hit the statutory debt ceiling between January 14 and January 23,” Yellen wrote in a letter addressed to House and Senate leadership, at which point extraordinary measures would be used to prevent the government from breaching the nation’s debt ceiling – which has been suspended until 1 January. Continue reading...
Trump versus trade: the global economic outlook for 2025 in five charts
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Unpredictable change will sweep through America, while old problems, from war to inflation, are likely to afflict other countries The global economy is entering the new year with rising geopolitical tensions looming over its prospects, as the world’s leading central banks attempt to cut interest rates after the worst inflation shock in decades. Donald Trump’s second term in the White House is expected to dominate the economic agenda. Global trade tensions are on the horizon as the president-elect threatens to impose sweeping tariffs on US imports. Continue reading...
‘Anti-woke’ dog food and pro-America lipstick: US sees rise in rightwing stores
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A number of marketplaces have sprung up seeking to make use of anti-establishment fervor – are they here to stay? Among the many odd things to come out of Donald Trump’s political movement – see ear bandages, doomed boat rallies and rubbish dancing – one that could be here to stay is more prosaic: the creation of a series of rightwing marketplaces and products seeking to capitalize on anti-establishment fervor. In recent years a number of platforms have sprung up to sell conservative-made items, from “anti-woke” dog food to pro-America lipstick, in a pushback against what they claim is “cancel culture” in the US – and what others might see as a fairly cynical attempt to cash in on rightwing Americans’ political beliefs. Continue reading...
‘When I show people this, they think it’s Mordor’: the architect viewing the West Midlands as a national park
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Birmingham City University thinktank imagines new approach to urban areas and land use across the region “When I show people this, they think it’s Mordor,” says landscape architecture professor Kathryn Moore with a smile. She is pointing at a map of the West Midlands. But instead of buildings, roads and a sprawling canal network, this map shows the natural hills and undulations that lie below the human-made architecture. Continue reading...
‘We have to change our attitude’: wildlife expert says rhino horn trade must be legalised
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Call for illicit market to be taken out of hands of criminals as numbers continue to fall drastically due to poaching International trade in rhino horns should be legalised, a leading wildlife expert has urged. Writing in the research journal Science, Martin Wikelski argues only carefully monitored, legitimate transactions in horns can save the world’s remaining species of rhinoceros. Continue reading...
British charcuterie is the new English sparkling wine - and Brexit could be helping
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France, Italy and Spain have traditionally dominated the market, but the increased cost and paperwork for imports have given UK producers an opportunity When Dhruv Baker, a former MasterChef winner, founded his British charcuterie company nine years ago, he focused on selling it at a small number of premium retailers such as Harrods and Fortnum & Mason. The market for British-made charcuterie has historically been constrained, he said, with most producers struggling to supply at scale. “We have always known that to fulfil the potential of British charcuterie, we really must be able to supply into the mainstream market reliably,” he said. Continue reading...
Proposals, tears and flying pies: my life behind the bar on football’s concourses | Honor Pullman
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From the Den to Old Trafford, via Craven Cottage and the Emirates, I saw it all during my years pulling pints for fans I was 17 when I started working at football grounds for some extra cash on the weekends. As the youngest of three girls, I could easily have followed my older sisters into a Saturday job at a local cafe. Instead, I signed away my life (and social life) to a hospitality agency, in exchange for a tenner an hour, flexible shifts and a variety of unflattering uniforms. As a diehard Hull City fan, I was no stranger to the concourse, but I wasn’t prepared for the trials and tribulations of working in them. From Millwall to Manchester, I’ve seen it all – proposals, tears (mainly my own) and flying pies. Continue reading...
‘Running a bad airline is expensive’: is British Airways finally getting better?
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Complaining about BA is a ‘national sport’, but even critics says its £7bn turnaround plan is starting to bear fruit It’s been a long and turbulent time since anyone used British Airways’ old slogan “the world’s favourite airline” with a straight face. After a decade during which the UK flag carrier was tarnished by cost-cutting, IT fiascos, mass redundancies and strikes, BA was then pushed to the brink by Covid. Hopes of a smooth recovery disappeared like lost luggage on a carousel, as cancellations and delays plagued an airline seen as pricier than short-haul competitors and dowdier than the Gulf carriers. With burgeoning complaints about customer service, pledges by bosses to turn things round were met with some scepticism. Continue reading...
‘We need dramatic social and technological changes’: is societal collapse inevitable?
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Academic Danilo Brozović says studies of failed civilisations all point in one direction – today’s society needs radical transformation to survive For someone who has examined 361 studies and 73 books on societal collapses, Danilo Brozović’s conclusion on what must happen to avoid today’s world imploding is both disarmingly simple and a daunting challenge: “We need dramatic social and technological changes.” The collapse of past civilisations, from the mighty Mayan empire to Rapa Nui (Easter Island), has long fascinated people and for obvious reasons – how stable is our own society? Does ever-growing complexity in societies or human hubris inevitably lead to oblivion? In the face of the climate crisis, rampant destruction of the natural world, rising geopolitical tensions and more, the question is more urgent than ever. Continue reading...
New year finances: a month-by-month UK guide to sorting out your money
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A checklist of vital tasks throughout the year, from filing your tax return to making the most of your holiday cash The new year is almost upon us and you may have started filling in your phone planner for 2025 or scribbling key dates on next year’s family calendar. But it’s not just birthdays, weddings and get-togethers to keep in mind – there are various tasks and bits of life admin (some nice, others not-so-nice) to grapple with in 2025. Continue reading...
Labour must ‘stick to its guns’ on UK employment rights bill, says TUC chief
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In new year message, Paul Nowak says ministers must resist pressure from business groups to water down plans Keir Starmer’s government has been urged to “stick to its guns” amid growing pressure from business leaders to water down its plans to improve workers’ rights as the UK economy grinds to a halt. The head of the Trades Union Congress said company bosses were demanding concessions as a “quid pro quo” for accepting tax increases in Rachel Reeves’ autumn budget as they sounded the alarm over Britain’s flatlining economy. Continue reading...
English wildlife ‘could be disappearing in the dark’ due to lack of scrutiny
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Conservationists issue warning as figures show three-quarters of SSSI sites have had no recent assessments Conservationists have said wildlife could be “disappearing in the dark” after figures showed that three-quarters of England’s most precious habitats, wildlife and natural features have had no recent assessment of their condition. The warning follows the publication of figures covering assessments of protected natural sites known as sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs) in the last five years. SSSIs are legally protected because they contain special features such as threatened habitats or rare species, and together they cover more than 1.1m hectares (2.7m acres), about 8% of England’s land area. Continue reading...
OpenAI lays out plan to shift to for-profit corporate structure
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AI company, which makes ChatGPT, says in blogpost ‘we once again need to raise more capital than we’d imagined’ OpenAI has laid out a plan to revamp its corporate structure next year, saying it would create a public benefit corporation to manage its growing business and ease the restrictions imposed by its current non-profit parent. Rumors have swirled that OpenAI was in the process of shifting to a largely for-profit company, but this is the first time it has detailed the proposal publicly. Continue reading...
Michael Adex: the entrepreneur aiming to inspire black-founded tech startups
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Manchester-raised entertainment mogul is ambassador for scheme helping businesses in creative industries succeed He is the man behind 3bn streams, a string of chart-topping artists – and Wetherspoon’s newest brand of tequila. Ask Michael Adex how he has achieved all this by the age of 28 and he gives some credit to his “immovable” will to make things happen. Continue reading...
‘Godfather of AI’ shortens odds of the technology wiping out humanity over next 30 years
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Geoffrey Hinton says there is 10-20% chance AI will lead to human extinction in three decades, as change moves fast The British-Canadian computer scientist often touted as a “godfather” of artificial intelligence has shortened the odds of AI wiping out humanity over the next three decades, warning the pace of change in the technology is “much faster” than expected. Prof Geoffrey Hinton, who this year was awarded the Nobel prize in physics for his work in AI, said there was a “10 to 20” per cent chance that AI would lead to human extinction within the next three decades. Continue reading...
Number of UK retailers on brink of collapse soars by 25%
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Report for final three months of year shows pressure driven by rising costs and weak consumer confidence Business live – latest updates The number of UK retailers on the brink of collapse has risen by a quarter in the final three months of the year, driven by a combination of rising business costs and weak consumer confidence, according to a report. The proportion of retail businesses classed as being in “critical” financial distress increased by 25% to 2,124 in the fourth quarter compared with the previous three months, the insolvency specialists Begbies Traynor said. Continue reading...
Nissan shares tumble by most since August amid Honda deal worries
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After soaring on news of potential merger, fall reflects concerns about expected terms of deal, say analysts Shares in the Japanese carmaker Nissan have tumbled in their biggest fall since August’s stock market sell-off, as investors turned their attention to the company’s planned tie-up with domestic rivals Honda and Mitsubishi. Nissan’s shares fell by as much as 15% on Friday, before regaining some losses to close down 7.8%, in a sign of investor volatility. Continue reading...
‘A taste of Ibiza in grotty King’s Cross’: memories of closed UK nightclubs
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As venues continue to shut down, six people remember dancing nonstop, loved-up vibes and sticky carpets Calls to save the UK’s ailing nightclub industry aftern anothe year of closures Nightclubs across British towns and cities have been declining steadily over recent years, with 65 closures this year alone. The Covid pandemic has been a big factor as 480 nightclubs shut their doors between June 2020 and June 2024. Here, six people share memories of their favourite clubs in their 90s and 00s heydays. Continue reading...
‘It’s not just a dancefloor’: the precipitous decline of UK nightclubs
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A cocktail of Covid-19 and the cost-of-living crisis has left larger ‘chrome and carpet’ venues high and dry as struggling chains look to party bars ‘A taste of Ibiza in grotty King’s Cross’: memories of closed UK nightclubs When the patrons of Watford’s Pryzm nightclub celebrated New Year’s Eve on 31 December 2023, they were marking the end of an era, or rather, the end of seven eras. Like every beloved local club, the venue had been known by multiple names over the years: Top Rank, Bailey’s, Paradise Lost, Kudos, Destiny and Oceana. Now, it will be reincarnated no more, after failing to reach a deal with its landlord. Continue reading...
London-listed miner pauses Mozambique operation amid political unrest
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Gemfields makes decision over ruby mining after groups ‘took advantage’ of situation to try to invade its site The London-listed mining company Gemfields said it had temporarily halted its ruby mining operation in Mozambique after groups “took advantage” of political unrest to set fire and attempt to invade its site, resulting in two deaths. Gemfields, one of the world’s largest miners of coloured gemstones, said more than 200 people associated with illegal ruby mining attempted to invade the residential village built by the company next to its Montepuez Ruby Mining (MRM) operation in northern Mozambique on Christmas Eve. Continue reading...
Weather tracker: Storm brings well over a metre of snow to peaks in Alps
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Several days of snow brought avalanche risk at Christmas, as wintry weather also caused four deaths in India A snowstorm developed across the Alps on Saturday 21 December due to a low-pressure system situated over the Adriatic Sea. This depression allowed relatively warm and moist air to push into the Alps, condensing and falling as snow as it met the much colder alpine air mass. Snowfall continued for several days, with well over 1 metre of snow on some peaks and significant snowfall across many ski villages. Consequently, there was a significant avalanche risk over the Christmas period. Ski resorts in Bulgaria also experienced significant snow starting on Christmas Day, which caused disruption in the mountainous west, where ski resorts had to temporarily shut down due to road closures. Towns such as Troyan, Samokov and Teteven were particularly badly affected with snowdrifts and power failures. Continue reading...
ECB faces tough task after flip in fortunes for eurozone economies
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Economists say EU countries hardest hit by 2010s debt crisis now in stronger position than France and Germany The European Central Bank is facing a tough balancing act in 2025 as it tries to navigate a reversal of fortunes in eurozone economies, as the hardest hit nations of the 2010s debt crisis outperform the traditional core. Highlighting a potential shift in power dynamics within the single currency bloc, economists said countries in the EU periphery ravaged by last decade’s sovereign debt crisis were in a stronger position than northern Europe’s most powerful nations, including France and Germany. Continue reading...
Nigel Farage working as paid brand ambassador for gold bullion firm
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Reform party leader promoting gold for Direct Bullion alongside his jobs as MP and presenter for GB News Nigel Farage has been working as a paid brand ambassador for a gold bullion firm in a third job alongside his roles as an MP and a GB News presenter. The MP for Clacton and Reform party leader promoted gold on behalf of Direct Bullion on a podcast sponsored by the company in November, hosted by a fellow brand ambassador and influencer Rob Moore. Continue reading...
Potholes everywhere, shoplifters rampant – today’s Britain looks as broken as it feels | Simon Jenkins
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This is what happens when power over public services is stripped from local councils and handed to Whitehall Every day in Britain the police are failing to arrest about 670 shoplifters. Down the road, your median wait in A&E is three hours. Meanwhile the number of care home beds has fallen by 18% in a decade, and the recent budget will cut them further. Prisons are bursting. Schools are turning away autistic children. Meanwhile, the Treasury is promising to spend £1.6bn filling in 7m potholes on England’s roads – presumably with gold. Something is badly wrong with Britain’s public sector. In the US in the 1990s, “broken windows theory” was used to explain New York’s sharply rising crime rate and a fall in the public’s sense of security. The trouble was said to lie in the city’s visible environment. Walls were covered in graffiti, trains were dirty, beggars harassed passersby. New York’s police chief, Bill Bratton, ordered the city to get to work. So called low level crime was given more attention by police. Graffiti was cleaned, litter cleared, youths made to behave and beggars moved on. The effect was extraordinary: felonies such as assault and burglary fell by more than 40%. Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Counselling charity Relate set to be rescued from insolvency
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Deal under which Family Action takes over Relate’s counselling services will save up to 185 jobs, say administrators Britain’s biggest relationship counselling charity looks likely to be rescued from insolvency under plans for it to be taken over. Last month, Relate was put into administration after a collapse in its funding from NHS, school and local authority contracts. Continue reading...
Chelsea flower show garden to champion Britain’s endangered rainforests
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Zoe Claymore says she wants to help promote and protect rare habitats by using lichens, ferns and foxgloves Mosses and cow parsley will feature in a Chelsea flower show garden to celebrate endangered British rainforests. Vast expanses of the UK were once temperate rainforest. But these moss-covered ancient trees and their lichen have become a rare sight due to deforestation and overgrazing. Dartmoor, for example, once covered with trees, now harbours just a few fragments of temperate rainforest. Continue reading...
Netflix throws another log on the fire in festive TV virtual blaze craze
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Crackling fireplace edges out new series of Squid Game as streaming service’s most watched Boxing Day show in UK It pays the world’s biggest stars and utilises the most cutting-edge special effects to entice families away from terrestrial TV over the festive period. But Netflix viewers this year were instead drawn to one of humanity’s oldest sources of fascination: fire. Continue reading...
More UK retailers in critical financial distress, as Boxing Day sales footfall drops – business live
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Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news Boxing Day footfall down on UK high streets despite discounts Many European stock markets have reopened after the Christmas break, but there’s not much festive excitement this morning! In London, the FTSE 100 index of blue-chip shares has dropped by 22 points, or 0.27%, to 8113 points. Mining company Anglo American (-1.5%) and online property portal Rightmove (-1.4%) at the top fallers. “The market cheered recent news of domestic firms, such as merger talks between Honda and Nissan. That drove expectations that Japanese firms will continue to improve investor returns.” Continue reading...