Rescue plan at Thames Water is still too murky | Nils Pratley

The wannabe new owners of Thames Water say they are “fully committed to a new transparent and collaborative relationship with regulators”. Jolly good. Unfortunately, this embrace of transparency does not appear to extend to the poor old customers.At this late stage in the dance to decide Thames’s future, you’d expect London & Valley Water – the banner under which the consortium of creditors now sail – to opt for straight-talking and openness. Their pitch to rescue Thames, after all, rests on the analysis that they are the folk to inject the necessary pragmatism into a company that has lived a hand-to-mouth existence for years while promoting fantasy turnaround plans

Bank chief warns against ‘exaggerating’ rise in UK borrowing costs

The governor of the Bank of England has cautioned against “exaggerating” the impact of a steep rise in the UK’s long-term borrowing costs, which he said was part of a global trend.Andrew Bailey told MPs the Treasury had continued to borrow at the same interest rate for most of the year despite a rise in the rate on 30-year bonds to a 27-year high.Bailey’s intervention will bring some relief to Rachel Reeves, who is under pressure from rising debt financing costs ahead of a budget which on Wednesday she set for 26 November.The governor said the government’s switch to borrowing over five or 10 years rather than 30 years meant its borrowing costs had remained flat this year, and commentators should not “over-focus” on the figure.“There is a lot of dramatic commentary on this but I wouldn’t exaggerate the 30-year bond rate,” he said

‘Slap on the wrist’: critics decry weak penalties on Google after landmark monopoly trial

A judge ruled on Tuesday that Google would not be forced to sell its Chrome browser or the Android operating system, saving the tech giant from the most severe penalties sought by the US government. The same judge had ruled in favor of US prosecutors nearly a year ago, finding that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly with its namesake search engine.Groups critical of Google’s dominance in the internet search and online advertising industry are furious. They contend the judge missed an opportunity to enact meaningful change in an industry that has suffocated under the crushing weight of its heaviest player. Tech industry groups and investors, by contrast, are thrilled

Juliet Congreve obituary

My mother, Juliet Congreve, who has died aged 76, was a pioneer in library automation and later had a successful university teaching career specialising in human-computer interaction. For most of her professional life, she worked at Middlesex University.In the early 1980s, at Middlesex, she introduced one of the first uses of email in a UK university, enabling librarians to support inter-library loans. She quickly noticed colleagues using it to share updates, ideas and build community – not just to speed up book requests. She led the transition from paper index cards to an electronic catalogue – a complex operation across six university sites and diverse disciplines, including teacher training, art, law and engineering

Women’s Super League 2025-26 previews No 11: Tottenham

Guardian writers’ predicted position: 10th (NB: this is not necessarily Suzanne Wrack’s prediction but the average of our writers’ tips)Last season’s position: 11thSomething needed to change after a disastrous 2024-25 season but pinpointing what exactly went wrong is difficult. Under Robert Vilahamn Tottenham had reached a first FA Cup final and finished sixth in the WSL at the end of the 2023-24 campaign. The club felt like it was in a really strong place with confidence in the project sky high.Fast forward to May and Spurs were one off the bottom, their cup heroics a distant memory and there was lots of head scratching. It was inevitable that Vilahamn would depart and it was probably the correct decision given the lack of cohesion on the pitch and backward slide

Anisimova gains revenge for Wimbledon by beating Swiatek to make US Open last four

Amanda Anisimova conjured the performance of her career on Wednesday afternoon in New York, banishing the ghosts of her Wimbledon nightmare with a sensational 6-4, 6-3 quarter-final victory against Iga Swiatek in 1hr 36min. Less than eight weeks after she had been double-bagelled by the Polish star in the final at the All England Club, the 24-year-old American struck back with fearless ball-striking and nerveless resolve to reach her first US Open semi-final.Swiatek, a six-time major champion and the 2022 US Open winner, looked intent on reprising the script when she broke immediately to extend her personal run to 13 consecutive games in the rivalry. But Anisimova struck back on her third break point, finishing with a thumping forehand overhead that drew a roar from the Arthur Ashe crowd and ensured this would bear no resemblance to the rout in July.The opening set was tightly wound and fiercely contested, Anisimova fending off break point with a crisp backhand down the line at 2-2 and Swiatek producing her best point of the match, a 17-shot exchange capped with a forehand overhead, to keep pace at 3-4