Drax to stop burning controversial Canadian wood within next year
The owner of Drax power plant has started reducing the amount of Canadian wood pellets it burns, and will stop burning trees from British Columbia entirely within the next year.The FTSE 250 company Drax Group said its Canadian wood pellet plants, which once supplied millions of tonnes of biomass to be burnt in its North Yorkshire power plant, had cost the company almost £200m in financial impairments last year.The company said the pellet production plants, which have come under criticism from environmentalists, faced a “challenging outlook” after a decision in the second half of last year that, from 2027, the Drax power plant would burn pellets sourced only from the US.Despite the writedown, Drax shares soared to 20-year highs to give the company a market value of about £3bn after it reported better than expected full-year earnings of £947m for 2025 and raised shareholder dividends by 11.5%.
The decision to end its imports of Canadian biomass to the UK was linked to Ottawa’s decision to impose tariffs on its biomass exports, the company said.It set out the plans amid growing scrutiny of the sustainability credentials of its Canadian supply chain after claims it was using wood sourced from some of British Columbia’s most environmentally important forests.The Guardian revealed late last year that forestry experts believe Drax may have continued to burn 250-year-old trees sourced from some of Canada’s oldest forests as recently as last summer despite increasing concerns over its historical sustainability claims, which first emerged in 2022.At the time, a spokesperson for Drax said its sourcing policy meant it did “not source biomass from designated areas of old growth” – which amounts to less than half of the total old-growth forest areas in British Columbia – and only sourced woody biomass “from well-managed, sustainable forests”.Britain’s biggest power plant has 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.
Claims about its sustainability credentials were first called into question by a 2022 documentary from the BBC, which Drax dismissed as “inaccurate” and “ill-informed”,The company’s former top lobbyist later claimed in an employment tribunal that she was sacked after telling the Drax boss, Will Gardiner, in the weeks following the broadcast that the company’s denials were “misleading the public, government and its regulator” about the sustainability of the imported pellets,The company may still continue to produce pellets in Canada, but these will be exported to third-party buyers, primarily in Asia,The UK government has moved to curtail the company’s subsidies by offering a new contract covering the period of 2027 to 2031 that will support a limited amount of biomass generation at a set price,Drax has proposed plans to generate extra electricity for AI datacentres built on its North Yorkshire site.
The subsidy extension was originally proposed as a “bridging mechanism” before Drax began earning subsidies from its plan to fit carbon capture technology to the plant.Drax said it would pause plans to develop the project in the near to medium term owing to a lack of government certainty.It reported a £48m impairment from the decision.
Square Mile strikes back: how the City of London is fighting disinformation about crime
“Just visit London and you’ll see that it’s filled with crime,” the tech billionaire Elon Musk said as he was beamed into Tommy Robinson’s far-right rally in the UK capital last September.The comments by the SpaceX and Tesla boss, part of a roving speech that was later condemned by the UK government, added to a growing wave of anti-London disinformation that has spread in recent months. That includes Donald Trump’s notorious comments of London “no-go zones” and Nigel Farage’s warnings against wearing jewellery after 9pm in the West End.But the panic over antisocial behaviour and petty crime plaguing the capital has burst out of rightwing circles and social media platforms and into City boardrooms and diplomatic meetings, raising the hackles of state officials and influential financial sector bosses who fear that, if left unchecked, trade, recruitment and business investment could suffer.“Nobody’s saying ‘it means that I won’t invest in the City’,” said Susan Langley, the City of London’s mayor
Harrods faces legal action over £1-a-head dining charge not going to staff
Harrods is facing legal action over its addition of a £1-a-head cover charge to diners’ bills that does not go to workers, in a test case that could lead to changes at a string of upmarket restaurants.Legislation, which came into force in October 2024, requires business owners to hand over all tips and service charges to staff. Some restaurants, including those at Harrods, add a mandatory cover charge as well as an optional service charge and only pass on the latter to their workers.An employment tribunal case involving 29 Harrods restaurant workers backed by the United Voices of the World (UVW) union is to be heard in September. Workers argue that the cover charge functions in practice as a service charge and so should be distributed to them and not kept by Harrods
Suicide forum found to be in breach of Online Safety Act after failing to block UK users
A suicide forum linked to deaths in Britain has been ruled provisionally in breach of the Online Safety Act after it failed to properly block access to UK users when ordered to do so last year.Ofcom, the online regulator, said it could now apply to the courts to demand internet service providers block access to the site in the UK. This will depend on how the site, which also faces fines, responds over the next 10 days.Coroners had been raising concerns about the links between the forum and suicides in the UK since at least 2019, campaigners said. The family of 17-year-old Vlad Nikolin-Caisley, from Southampton, said he took his own life in 2024 after using the site, which Ofcom is not naming
OpenAI announces $110bn funding round that would value firm at $840bn
OpenAI said on Friday it is raising $110bn in a blockbuster funding round that would value the ChatGPT maker at $840bn, in a deal that signals the feverish pace of investment in artificial intelligence.It’s more than double the amount the company raised last year, when it racked up $40bn in the largest private tech deal on record.This year’s funding round, which is still open, includes a $30bn investment from SoftBank, $30bn from Nvidia, and $50bn from Amazon, and comes ahead of the AI startup’s expected mega-IPO later this year. Even more investors are expected to join.“We’re super excited about this deal,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told CNBC on Friday
Formula One to revise controversial rule at centre of Mercedes engine row
Formula One’s governing body, the FIA, and rival engine manufacturers have reached a compromise solution to tackle the controversy surrounding Mercedes that had threatened to overshadow next week’s start of the season in Australia.The sport is entering a new era with the biggest changes in decades to the engine and chassis regulations. Engine compression ratios have been a major talking point, with Mercedes suspected of exploiting a loophole to gain performance through the thermal expansion of components and there is talk of possible protests after the Melbourne race. Mercedes have said any change will make no difference to them.The FIA said in a statement on Saturday that amendments to the 2026 regulations had been approved unanimously by an e-vote of its World Motor Sport Council
Oleksandr Usyk to defend title against kickboxer at Pyramids of Giza in Egypt
Oleksandr Usyk, who has not fought since a fifth-round knockout of Daniel Dubois at Wembley in July, will defend his WBC heavyweight title against a kickboxer at the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt.The bout with Rico Verhoeven on 23 May, dubbed “Glory in Giza”, will be the first title fight held in Egypt, according to The Ring magazine, and will be streamed live on Dazn.Verhoeven, the 36-year-old Dutch heavyweight, is 66-10 with 21 KOs as a kickboxer, has sparred in the past with Tyson Fury and had one professional bout in 2014, which he won by a knockout.“I truly respect people who reach the very top in their sport,” Usyk said. “Rico is one of them – a powerful athlete and a great champion
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