Hosepipe ban imposed in Britain amid dry weather
London — Britain’s Thames Water announced a temporary “hosepipe ban” on Monday, aimed at cutting water usage across large parts of southern England, after the country's driest and warmest spring in over a century.
Thames Water, Britain’s biggest water supplier, said the ban would take effect on July 22, affecting households across several counties including Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and Berkshire.
Under the ban, customers are prohibited from using hosepipes for activities such as washing cars, watering gardens or allotments, filling paddling or swimming pools, and cleaning windows.
The government said last month it would step up efforts to protect water resources ahead of the summer, as reservoirs across England are only 77% full, well below the seasonal average of 93%.
Scientists say climate change is making droughts and drier summers more frequent. Reuters
Coalition to buy carbon removal credits from firms
London — A coalition backed by Google, Stripe and Shopify will spend $1.7m to buy carbon removal credits from three early stage firms on behalf of the tech giants to help scale up the nascent markets, an executive said.
The world is expected to need to suck 5-billion to 10-billion tonnes a year of carbon emissions out of the atmosphere by mid-century to reach its climate goals, yet at the moment most technologies are small scale.
The coalition, called Frontier, is also backed by Meta, H&M Group, JPMorgan Chase and Salesforce, among others. Reuters
US defence spending to boost space start-ups
Bengaluru — Space start-ups continued to draw investor dollars in the April-June period, making it the second strongest quarter on record for funding, as increased US defence spending is expected to boost the sector’s prospects, an industry report showed on Monday.
Global investments in start-ups, ranging from early stage to growth stage, surged to $3.1bn in the quarter ended June 30 from $2bn in the first three months of the year, according to venture capital firm Seraphim Space’s report.
Notably, Series B and C funding rounds accounted for a record 65% of total investment, signalling strong investor conviction in scaling early-growth space ventures.
Concerns over potential spending cuts under the Trump administration have done little to dampen funding momentum, as major defence initiatives — most notably the Golden Dome missile defence programme — fuel investment and bolster optimism across the sector. Reuters
Zelensky asks Svyrydenko to become Ukraine premier
Kyiv — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday that he asked first deputy prime minister Yulia Svyrydenko at a meeting in Kyiv to become prime minister.
“We ... discussed concrete measures to boost Ukraine’s economic potential, expand support programmes for Ukrainians, and scale up our domestic weapons production,” he wrote on X.
“In pursuit of this goal, we are initiating a transformation of the executive branch in Ukraine,” he said, adding that he had proposed that Svyrydenko lead the government and “significantly renew its work”. Reuters
Ireland agency loses €5m in a phishing attack
Dublin — Ireland’s National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA), the state body that manages debt and the sovereign wealth fund, will review its security protocols after losing €5m in a phishing attack, it said on Monday.
The scam was discovered last week after staff at the agency's €17bn Ireland Strategic Investment Fund — the sovereign wealth fund — expressed concern about a payment made to what they thought was an investee company. Instead, it was found that they had received a fraudulent payment request from a third party designed to look like a legitimate request from the existing investee company at the time of an expected drawdown of funds, NTMA CEO Frank O’Connor said at a news conference. Reuters
Court orders US firm to hand assets to Russia
Moscow — A Moscow court has ruled that the assets of US-owned canned food company Glavprodukt be handed over to the Russian state, the TASS news agency reported late on Friday, ending a months-long legal tussle over the company.
One participant in the court proceedings, who declined to be named, confirmed on Monday that the court had satisfied the prosecution’s claim in full with immediate effect after a six-hour court session.
The seizure of Glavprodukt, the only US company Moscow has seized, coincides with stalled attempts to reset US-Russian relations. Glavprodukt and other assets ultimately owned by US company Universal Beverage and founder Leonid Smirnov were placed under temporary state management by presidential decree in October 2024. Reuters
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