Cyber-attack and yacht insurer agrees £8bn deal in latest UK stock market exit

A British company specialising in insuring against cyber-attacks that also covers fine art and luxury yachts has agreed to be taken over in an £8bn deal, in the latest loss to the London stock market.Beazley said on Wednesday it had agreed the deal with its larger rival Zurich, after the Switzerland-listed company raised its bid for the Lloyd’s of London insurer.The two companies said in a joint statement that they had reached an “agreement in principle” on the main financial terms, under which Beazley shareholders will get up to £13.35 for every share they hold. This includes an offer price of £13

Drax insiders privately raised concerns over its sustainability claims, court papers show

Senior executives at Drax raised concerns internally about the validity of the energy company’s sustainability claims while it publicly denied allegations that it was cutting down environmentally important forests for fuel, court documents have revealed.Britain’s biggest power plant assured ministers and civil servants of the company’s green credentials as it scrambled to defend itself against claims in a BBC Panorama documentary that it had burned wood sourced from “old-growth” forests in Canada.The company’s senior leaders, including its chief executive, publicly denied the allegations, but other executives at the North Yorkshire plant privately raised concerns that it did not have sufficient evidence to back up the sustainability claims, according to evidence submitted to an employment tribunal involving its former top lobbyist.The owners of Drax have received more than £7bn in subsidies levied on household energy bills on the condition that the biomass pellets are made from waste or low-value wood from sustainable forests.However, the company has faced repeated scepticism over the sustainability of its business model, which involves importing millions of tonnes of wood pellets across the Atlantic every year

Fairphone 6 review: cheaper, repairable and longer-lasting Android

The Dutch ethical smartphone brand Fairphone is back with its six-generation Android, aiming to make its repairable phone more modern, modular, affordable and desirable, with screw-in accessories and a user-replaceable battery.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.The Fairphone 6 costs £499 (€599), making it cheaper than previous models and pitting it squarely against budget champs such as the Google Pixel 9a and the Nothing Phone 3a Pro, while being repairable at home with long-term software support and a five-year warranty

French headquarters of Elon Musk’s X raided by Paris cybercrime unit

Prosecutors have raided the French headquarters of Elon Musk’s social media platform X and summoned the tech billionaire and the company’s former chief executive for questioning as part of an investigation into alleged cybercrime.“A search is under way by the cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutor’s office, the national police cyber unit and Europol,” the Paris prosecutors’ office said in a post on X on Tuesday, adding that it would no longer be publishing on the network.It said in a statement that Musk and Linda Yaccarino had been summoned for “voluntary questioning” in April in their capacity as “de facto and de jure managers of the X platform at the time of the events”. Yaccarino resigned as chief executive of X in July last year.The French prosecutors’ announcement comes amid a hardening of European attitudes to social media firms

Skinning, boot-packing and downhill skiing: welcome to skimo at the Winter Olympics

No one could suggest that the Winter Olympics are lacking in challenge. Skiers zipping down the slopes and flying through the air. Skeletons hurtling around at more than 100km/h. Ice skaters, metal-bladed, spinning, leaping and twisting. Slopestyle athletes pulling off the most outrageous tricks while landing the biggest air

Doberman named Penny takes Westminster’s best in show as Catherine O’Hara honored

Penny the Doberman pinscher named America’s top dog Linton lands second best in show nearly four decades onWestminster honors Catherine O’Hara with video tributeA Doberman pinscher named Penny is America’s top canine after earning the title of best in show on Tuesday night at the 150th Westminster Kennel Club dog show in New York.Judge David Fitzpatrick tapped the four-year-old female with the mirror-sheen black-and-rust coat from Reseda, California, over a field of six other group champions, among them a Chesapeake Bay retriever named Cota, who was awarded reserve best in show to roars of approval from the crowd. Also making the final lineup were an Afghan hound named Zaida, a Lhasa Apso named JJ, a Maltese named Cookie, a smooth fox terrier named Wager and a popular old English sheepdog named Graham.The victory gave veteran handler Andy Linton another Westminster crown nearly four decades after he last won best in show in 1989 with Indy, another Doberman. For Linton, who has spoken publicly about living with Parkinson’s disease and has indicated he is nearing the end of his career, the moment carried additional weight