EU urged not to roll back green agenda in effort to revive faltering economy

EU leaders have been warned against a rollback of the green agenda before a summit focused on reviving the bloc’s waning economy.Campaigners from the Climate Action Network, a pan-European group of NGOs, said European industry was “under real pressure” from “high energy prices, ageing assets, global overcapacity and delayed investments”, but these issues could not be solved by watering down climate and environmental policies.“Deregulation is not an industrial strategy,” the group wrote in an open letter, which argued that the problems facing energy-intensive industries, including steel, cement and chemicals, were driven by prices of fossil fuel-derived energy and global market dynamics, rather than environmental regulation.The EU economy has been under pressure over the last year amid Donald Trump’s US tariff trade war. Last week the president of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, said the eurozone economy “remains resilient in a challenging environment” but the outlook was “uncertain” as it left interest rates on hold

Experts sound alarm over UK exports to firm linked to Russian war machine

The government has been urged to re-examine a British company’s contract to export hi-tech machinery to Armenia, after the Guardian uncovered links to the supply chain for Russia’s war machine.Sanctions experts and the chair of the House of Commons business committee questioned the government’s decision to award an export licence to Cygnet Texkimp.The engineering company makes machines that produce carbon fibre “prepreg”, a lightweight and durable material that can be used in a wide range of civil and military applications.The machines are understood to be undergoing final assembly at the company’s warehouse in Northwich, Cheshire, and could be just weeks away from being exported to a newly formed company in Armenia called Rydena LLC.Rydena was established two years into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by former executives of a company that has emerged as one of the Kremlin’s important military suppliers

Government on track to lower minimum age for train drivers to 18 in Great Britain

Labour will introduce legislation to lower the minimum age for train drivers to 18 in the House of Commons this week, as figures show fewer than 3% of drivers on Great Britain’s railways are under 30.The government is pressing ahead with its proposals for teenage recruits, lowering the minimum age from 20, in a move that ministers hope will stave off a potential shortage of thousands of drivers.A looming mass exodus through retirement threatens to intensify driver shortages and worsen train reliability, with a lack of crew already a big cause of late-notice cancellations.The current average age of Great Britain’s 24,000 train drivers is 48, and about 25% of them will reach retirement age before 2030.According to a National Skills Academy for Rail report, that could mean a shortfall of 2,500 drivers in four years’ time

Mandelson revelations show need for tougher UK constraints to resist rule of the rich | Heather Stewart

Peter Mandelson’s personal disgrace is deep and unique, and may yet bring down a prime minister – but by laying bare the dark allure of the “filthy rich”, it also underlines the need for tougher constraints on money in politics.It is hard to know what system or process could have shielded sensitive government decisions from the risk that a senior cabinet minister might nonchalantly pass on the details to a friend, the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.But Epstein’s efforts to influence government policy – working to water down Alistair Darling’s bonus tax at a time when the banks had crashed the British economy, for example – underline the powerful forces with which politicians are faced.One bulwark against this is the expectation that most will display a probity and strength of character Mandelson clearly lacked.The Bank of England governor, Andrew Bailey, spoke for many on Thursday when he unfavourably compared the disgraced Mandelson with the late Alistair Darling

Thinking of trashing a small business on social media? Please, think again | Gene Marks

A viral Reddit post mocks a $22 grilled cheese sandwich and helps to sink a Bay Area shop. A restaurant owner is forced to push back on a viral complaint. A small business owner in Maine faces a viral backlash after posting a “No ICE” sign. The owner of a furniture store mistakenly receives backlash after being confused with another store. An influencer calls out a South Carolina boutique in a TikTok video after a negative shopping experience

Bank chairs backtracking on climate commitments could face shareholder revolts

Bank chairs who water down their lenders’ climate commitments this year could face embarrassing shareholder revolts as campaigners try to hold bosses to account for environmental backtracking.ShareAction, a campaign group for responsible investment, will be issuing detailed reports to pension funds and asset managers in the coming weeks, outlining whether 34 of the world’s largest lenders are sticking to their climate goals.Its reports will closely analyse any changes in lenders’ environmental policies, which are usually published alongside their annual reports.The UK’s largest banks will be among the first under the microscope, with NatWest, Lloyds and HSBC all due to release their annual reports by the end of February. Barclays will publish its annual report on Tuesday

BP faces calls for new strategy to end period of turbulence

BP will face pressure from shareholders to prove it can leave a turbulent period in the past as it prepares to reveal its full-year results this week.The company is expected to follow industry rivals by reporting weaker annual profits after global oil prices fell for a third consecutive year in 2025, in the steepest decline recorded since the Covid pandemic.City analysts forecast BP profits of about $7.5bn (£5.5bn), down from almost $9bn in 2024, following an expected slump in fourth-quarter earnings after crude prices fell below $60 a barrel for the first time in almost five years

‘It has to be amazing’: Liberty links with Bridgerton as it capitalises on maximalist trend

On a damp Thursday in central London, shoppers have fled the rain to indulge in some Bridgerton-themed escapism at upmarket department store Liberty, which has dedicated its fourth floor to the raunchy period drama.“When customers come to Liberty they want the discovery of new brands or something a bit different,” says Lydia King, Liberty’s new retail managing director.King, who took up the role last month, has just returned from New York, where she has been negotiating with potential new labels before the main fashion week shows.She says Liberty is catering for a “design focused” shopper who comes with “the mindset that they might find something wonderful rather than looking for a logo-ed product. Not being able to find it elsewhere – that point of difference – is the most important thing

Modern Milkman to collect unwanted electronics and toys with deliveries

A UK dairy delivery business is to begin collecting unwanted or broken toys, mobile phones and laptops while dropping off milk, orange juice and butter in its latest attempt to expand.The Modern Milkman was founded by entrepreneur Simon Mellin in Burnley, north-west England, in 2019 and delivers groceries to more than 100,000 households across the UK.The business will now start collecting electronic goods and toys to give to recycling specialist EMR Group, which will repurpose or recycle the items. Consumers pay £2.50 a time for a collection bag

Water bosses in England exploiting bonus loophole face crackdown

The government is to close loopholes which allow bosses of failing water companies to continue to receive large bonuses despite a ban passed last year, it can be revealed.Bosses of companies that illegally dumped sewage into England’s rivers and seas and presided over water shortages which left thousands of people in misery have still been paid millions in bonuses despite the ban.The previous environment secretary Steve Reed attempted to ban failing water companies from paying bonuses to chief executives and chief financial officers. However, the legislation passed in the Water (Special Measures) Act last year only referred to “performance-related” bonuses from specific regulated companies.MPs have said the loopholes allowed companies to get around the bonus ban by labelling payments differently or paying bosses through linked companies

‘We need to accept the cost’: future of British Steel unclear as bills for government build up

British Steel was losing £700,000 a day last year when its Chinese owner announced plans to shut the steelworks at Scunthorpe. After Jingye rejected support to buy raw materials, the UK government stepped in with emergency legislation to take control of the plant.But that was not the end of the crisis. The cost to the government of propping up British Steel is now more than £1.2m a day

UK trade policy: time to stop the secret deals and get systematic

Trade can be a dirty business. Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was tolerated as a “special representative for trade and investment” in the noughties despite allegations that he kept convicted gun smugglers for friends, while Peter Mandelson’s ability to schmooze the rich and famous repeatedly overruled concerns about his probity.To close a deal, there are always compromises to be made, and sometimes the terms are unsavoury.Britain is at the forefront of international deal making. It has been a trading nation for as long as it has existed

Cylla, Birmingham: ‘Maybe the best potato side dish being served in the UK today’ – restaurant review | Grace Dent on restaurants

Punchy cocktails and roaringly traditional Greek food in the heart of BirminghamCylla, a classy Greek restaurant on Newhall Street, Birmingham, draws inspiration, it says, from Scylla, the legendary Greek man-eating sea monster that lives close to the whirlpools of Charybdis. She’s a beautiful woman, but has six dog heads, all grumpy and snarling, as well as a serpent’s tail.If Scylla herself were ever to turn up at Cylla, dogs’ heads barking and tail flapping, they’d have to seat her in one of the gorgeous private booths at the front as you enter the room. These are the spots to grab if you want a little privacy, which is why we eschewed the long, prettily lit cocktail bar and headed straight to this cosy hidey-hole for a round of Poseidon’s Wrath. “It’s a bit like a dirty martini,” explained our server, who was one of those warm, bright, commanding, knowledgable souls who, in a hospitality setting, is worth her weight in drachma

Spice up your life! 17 soups with a kick – from chicken curry laksa to roast pumpkin

Technically, many soups are spiced in some way, even if it’s just with pepper. But we all know what is meant by a spiced soup: something with a jolt to it, and a bit of heat to warm up a winter evening. When it comes to soup, spice is the ultimate companion to a main ingredient that may otherwise be considered boring or bland. In this sense, the spices are the most important component: they are what the soup will taste of.But which spices go with which ingredients, and how? Here are 17 different recipes to help you figure that out

Helen Goh’s recipe for Valentine’s chocolate pots de creme for two | The sweet spot

These chocolate pots are dark, silken and softly bitter, with enough richness to feel a little decadent, but not heavy. Make one to share or two individual ones, depending on your mood. They can be made ahead, anywhere from an hour to a full day in advance, and will keep happily in the fridge. If they’ve been chilled for more than a couple of hours, let them sit at room temperature for about 20 minutes before serving. They should feel cool against the spoon, but not fridge-cold, which dulls their luxurious texture

Craft beer has gone stale: let’s hear it for age-old favourites | Richard Godwin

The writer Vladimir Nabokov was extremely particular when it came to language, and rather more basic when it came to sustenance: “My habits are simple, my tastes banal,” he once told an interviewer. “I would not exchange my favourite fare (bacon and eggs, beer) for the most misspelt menu in the world.”I’ve often thought of this as I’ve perused misspelt beer menus over the years, wondering what Nabokov would make of all the hazy dubble IPAs and triple brown mocha porters, because, over the course of what we might have to label the “craft era”, beer has become anything but simple. You may well have lamented this, too, especially if you’ve ever been cornered by an enthusiast at a party. India pale ale (IPA), for example, which was once a distinctly British style of ale designed for export, has, in the hands of American craft brewers, become a sort of standard-bearer for complicated beer: aggressively hopped, often startlingly bitter and/or sour, and redolent of a bygone era of millennial hipster striving

What a ​four-​year-​old ​taught ​us ​about the ​magic of ​baking​ a chocolate ​cake

Valentine’s is on the horizon, which means we are about to officially enter chocolate cake season – that soft-focus part of winter when confectionery and romance blur together. For our four-year-old goddaughter, it is always that time of year. Just hearing the two words together makes her roll her eyes and roll out her little tongue in anticipation of pleasure, like a cartoon kid. When we told her we would come and bake a chocolate cake with her, there were squeals of joy.Settling on a recipe was the first challenge – Ravneet Gill’s fudgy one, Felicity Cloake’s perfect one and Benjamina Ebuehi’s traybaked one were all contenders

Rachel Roddy’s recipe for pork ragu with herbs (for gnocchi or pasta) | A kitchen in Rome

It’s 10.30am and steam carrying the smell of onions, beans, cabbage and braised meat escapes from the kitchen in the corner of box 37 on Testaccio market. In the small kitchen is Leonardo Cioni, a tall chef from San Giovanni Valdarno, midway between Florence and Arezzo, who, for the past three-and-a-half years, has run box 37 as Sicché Roba Toscana, which roughly translates as “therefore Tuscan stuff”. The escaping steam is effective advertising, leading eyes to the blackboard above the counter to discover exactly what is going on in the back.Always on the menu is lampredotto

Rich plums and ripe tomatoes: Australia’s best-value fruit and veg for February

Tomatoes ripe for cooking, cheap watermelon and cucumbers for $2 a piece – but it’s the final call for apricots, cherries and mangoesGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailJuicy watermelon, deep-purple plums and ripe roma tomatoes are some of the vibrant fruit and veg highlights this month, says Graham Gee, senior buyer at the Happy Apple in Melbourne.“Tomatoes are plentiful, in particular the saucing varieties,” he says. “Roma varieties are sold nice and ripe, ready to make passata.” Cooking tomatoes are roughly $2 a kilo at the Happy Apple, with Australian field tomatoes going for about $5 a kilo in supermarkets.Watermelon is “very cheap”, says Michael Hsu, operational manager at Sydney’s Panetta Mercato

How to make moreish cookies from store-cupboard odds and ends – recipe | Waste not

I often eat a bag of salty crisps at the same time as a chewy chocolate bar, alternating bite for bite between the two, because the extreme contrast of salt from the chips and the sweetness of the chocolate fire off each other and create an endorphin rush. The same goes for these cookies, adapted from a recipe by Christina Tosi at New York’s legendary Milk Bar.Christina Tosi writes in Gourmet Traveller Australia how she first learned to make these cookies at a conference centre on Star Island, New England, where they’d bake them each week with a hodge-podge of different ingredients. Being on an island, they didn’t always have access to what they wanted, so they had to come up with a new recipe every week using whatever they had. In the spirit of the recipe’s origins, I’ve adapted Tosi’s recipe for the UK, and made it flexible, so you can raid your own store-cupboards and adapt and invent your own version from it

Camilla Wynne’s recipes for blood orange marmalade and no-bake marmalade mousse tart

If you’re intimidated by making marmalade, the whole-fruit method is the perfect entry point. Blood oranges are simmered whole until soft, perfuming your home as they do so, then they’re sliced, skin and all, mixed with sugar and a fragrant cinnamon stick, and embellished with a shot of amaro. Squirrel the jars away for a grey morning, give a few to deserving friends, and be sure to keep at least one to make this elegant mocha marmalade mousse tart. A cocoa biscuit crust topped with a chocolate marmalade mousse and crowned with a cold brew coffee cream, it’s a delightful trifecta of bitterness that no one will ever guess is an easy no-bake dessert.If you’re not up for preserving, make this using shop-bought thick-cut marmalade

The dump dinner: spaghetti is now being served straight on to the table – but why?

Name: Dump dinners.Age: Horribly new.Appearance: Feeding time at the zoo, but for humans.I’ve just Googled this. Apparently a dump dinner is a make-ahead slow cooker recipe

Australian supermarket coconut water taste test: ‘Smells like an island holiday’

Overcoming his irrational fear of coconut products, Nicholas Jordan tests a lovely – and lowly – bunch of coconuts in a rowIf you value our independent journalism, we hope you’ll consider supporting us todayGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailI have a fear of coconut products. Like all fears it’s based on a questionable rationale and trauma, and my trauma is taste testing “health” coconut-heavy products that taste like soap. Which is why, until recently, almost all the coconut water I’d drunk was from a straw reaching out of a fresh coconut.Surely there’s no way a bottled coconut water, made from 100% coconut, could be that bad. Maybe it could be better than the real thing? I enjoy Melona more than the average honeydew melon

Miso mystery: red, white or yellow – how does each paste change your dish? | Kitchen aide

What’s the difference between white and red miso, and which should I use for what? Why do some recipes not specify which miso to use? Ben, by email“I think what recipe writers assume – and I’m sure I’ve written recipes like this – is that either way, you’re not going to get a miso that’s very extreme,” says Tim Anderson, whose latest book, JapanEasy Kitchen: Simple Recipes Using Japanese Pantry Ingredients, is out in April. As Ben points out, the two broadest categories are red and white, and in a lot of situations “you can use one or other to your taste without it having a massive effect on the outcome of the dish”.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more