Wes Streeting leaves No 10 after planned talks with Keir Starmer - UK politics live

One elderly passenger on vessel docked in Bordeaux has died and about 50 people have symptoms, say officialsFrench authorities have confined more than 1,700 passengers and crew members to a cruise ship docked in Bordeaux after a passenger died from suspected norovirus, officials have said.The Ambassador Cruise Line vessel carrying 1,233 passengers, most of them British or Irish, arrived in Bordeaux on Tuesday. One 90-year-old passenger had died and about 50 people had shown symptoms of the virus, French health officials said. Continue reading...

FTSE 100 business ‘minded to recommend’ £60-a-share tilt from company owned by billionaire Wallenberg familyThe laboratory testing company Intertek has become the latest FTSE 100 business to agree to a takeover, backing a £10.6bn approach from a private equity firm owned by Sweden’s billionaire Wallenberg family.After rebuffing three previous approaches, Intertek’s board said it was “minded to recommend” the £60-a-share tilt from the Swedish buyout firm EQT to shareholders, if there is a firm offer. Continue reading...

Facility would require more power than entire state uses and suck up vast amount of water in drought-stricken areaA plan to create one of the world’s largest datacenters, a gargantuan project spanning an area more than twice the size of Manhattan, has provoked a furious public backlash in Utah amid concerns over its vast energy use and impact upon the state’s stressed water supplies.The Stratos artificial intelligence datacenter footprint will cover more than 40,000 acres (62 sq miles) over three sites in Box Elder county in north-western Utah. The facility will require about 9GW of power, which is more than the entire state of Utah currently consumes, and suck up a significant amount of water in an area that has been hit by severe drought in recent years. Continue reading...

The Iran war will cast a long shadow over the talks. Plus, the 100 best novels of all timeGood morning.Donald Trump is due to arrive in Beijing on Wednesday evening, the first visit to China by a US president since he was last there nearly a decade ago, as he seeks to mend power and prestige weakened by the war in Iran.What is the state of US-China relations? The two countries remain locked in a fragile tariff truce, reached last autumn after tensions threatened to erupt into a full-scale trade war. Trump has long complained about China’s trade surplus with the US, while Beijing has opposed American export controls and sanctions.What is the latest with the US-Iran ceasefire? The war has entered its third month, with Tehran tightening its grip over the strait of Hormuz and Washington struggling to turn a fragile ceasefire into a lasting settlement. Behind the scenes, US officials have spent weeks urging China to put pressure on Iran to reopen the strait and accept US terms for peace.What did the Atlantic allege? It reported that Patel’s alcohol consumption had become “a recurring source of concern across the government” which made him a “national-security vulnerability”, citing interviews with more than two dozen people including current and former FBI officials. Patel denies all the allegations, calling them “outrageous” and “malicious”. Continue reading...

Ceremonial event marks start of new parliamentary year, and outlines government policies and proposed legislationUK politics live – latest updates Continue reading...

Sources say health secretary intends to trigger leadership election as early as ThursdayUK politics live – latest updatesWho are the main threats to Starmer’s leadership?Allies of Wes Streeting have said he is preparing to stand down as health secretary amid deep frustration with Keir Starmer’s leadership, and could mount a formal challenge for the leadership as early as Thursday.Downing Street insiders had suggested Streeting did not yet have the required support from 81 MPs, which is needed to formally launch a leadership bid, after the prime minister issued a “put up or shut up” ultimatum to his cabinet. Continue reading...

Demarcation of 410,000 hectares of territory is intended to protect the Amazonian community from farming, illegal mining and loggingMore than 25 years after the existence of one of the Amazon’s most vulnerable nomadic hunter-gatherer communities was confirmed, the Brazilian government has begun demarcating the Pardo River Kawahiva Indigenous territory, giving greater protection to the uncontacted people.The demarcation of the 410,000-hectare (1m-acre) territorylocated between the states of Mato Grosso and Amazonas in north-west Brazil, was confirmed by the National Indigenous Peoples’ Foundation (Funai) last week. But the process remains fraught, with legal challenges from groups linked to the country’s agribusiness sector, and the forthcoming presidential election in October. Continue reading...

Industry body says energy consumption driven by AI up 15% globally in two years as it warns of societal backlashDatacentres are consuming 6% of electricity in the UK and US, with the growing strain of AI on energy supplies prompting community resistance, according to research.The proportion of electricity used by vast warehouses stacked with microchips to power AI and the internet has risen 15% worldwide in the past two years as annual global investment in datacentres approaches $1tn (£740bn) – nearly 1% of the global economy, according to the International Data Center Association (IDCA). Continue reading...

King Charles unveils government agenda for the next year as PM faces leadership threat from within Labour• UK politics live – latest updatesKeir Starmer has put long-promised changes to education, health and the courts at the heart of his agenda for the next year, as the embattled prime minister looks to prove he can enact the scale of change being demanded by Labour MPs and voters.The prime minister unveiled his legislative programme for the next parliamentry session on Wednesday, a moment he hopes will persuade wavering Labour MPs he should remain in office. Continue reading...

Rapper known as Ye must pay six-figure sum to four plaintiffs who successfully argued he infringed copyrightKanye West has lost a lawsuit which alleged he infringed on other artists’ copyright by playing an uncleared sample of their work during a live event.In July 2021 the artist, now legally known as Ye, played his then-unreleased album Donda to 40,000 fans at a listening party held at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The version of the song Hurricane featured a sample of MSD PT2, an instrumental composed by four musicians: Khalil Abdul-Rahman, Sam Barsh, Josh Mease and Dan Seeff. They had made the instrumental in 2018, and it made its way to Ye via another producer. Continue reading...

Lai wins $60,000 literary award for her study of a young woman’s repression and rage as she struggles to juggle the needs of those around herSign up for a weekly email featuring our best readsAs the 2026 winner of the Stella prize, Lee Lai has established two new firsts: the first ever non-binary winner with her book Cannon, which is the first graphic novel to win the $60,000 Australian literary award for women and non-binary writers.Cannon follows the titular, queer Chinese woman living in Montreal on the “uncool side of [her] twenties”. Cannon’s real name is Lucy, which became Luce then (loose) Cannon – and much like her unwanted nickname, she shoulders responsibility without complaint. During the day she cares for her gung-gung (maternal grandfather), a former tyrant enfeebled by age, without any help from her emotionally avoidant mother; and by night she works in the kitchen of a fine-dining restaurant, corralling chaos into order. Cannon’s longtime best friend Trish uses her as a soundboard for all of her problems, and is secretly mining Cannon’s life as a troubling source of inspiration for her writing career. Continue reading...

Condolences poured in for the Louisiana beaver-like legend who once appeared on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News showSign up for the Breaking News US newsletter emailCondolences have poured in for a Louisiana couple who successfully battled wildlife authorities to keep their domesticated nutria as a pet, watched the semi-aquatic rodent appear on cable news and accumulate a social media following tens of thousands strong, and then endured the animal’s recent death from cancer.Denny and Myra Lacoste announced Neuty’s death on Monday on Instagram, where more than 37,000 users followed an account dedicated to documenting the nutria’s life. Continue reading...