Thames Water preferred bidder KKR pulls out of rescue deal

The US private equity group KKR has pulled out of a deal to inject fresh equity into Thames Water, leaving the troubled supplier’s future in doubt and increasing the prospects of a temporary nationalisation.The UK’s biggest water supplier had picked KKR as its preferred partner, but the company “indicated that it will not be in a position to proceed”, Thames Water said.MPs said Thames Water was now in a “perilous position”, with some calling for the government to place it into a special administration regime (SAR), in effect a temporary nationalisation.However, the environment secretary, Steve Reed, told parliament he expected the firm to continue to pursue a “market-led solution” of obtaining new funding from its creditors, although he acknowledged the government “stands ready to intervene with a SAR” if required.Thames Water, which serves 16 million customers in London and south-east England, has the biggest debt burden – about £20bn – of any water company in Britain

UK interest rates more uncertain due to Trump policies, says Bank governor

The Bank of England governor, Andrew Bailey, has told MPs that the future path of interest rates in the UK has become more uncertain because of Donald Trump’s chaotic trade policy.Asked about the impact of on-off tariffs for the Bank’s policymaking by the cross-party Treasury select committee, Bailey said “the path remains downwards, but how far and how quickly is now shrouded in a lot more uncertainty, frankly”.The Bank’s nine-member monetary policy committee (MPC) has cut interest rates four times – to 4.25% – since last summer, as inflation has slowed.Bailey said some businesses were telling the Bank that they were pausing investment because of the uncertainty around trade barriers

AI pioneer announces non-profit to develop ‘honest’ artificial intelligence

An artificial intelligence pioneer has launched a non-profit dedicated to developing an “honest” AI that will spot rogue systems attempting to deceive humans.Yoshua Bengio, a renowned computer scientist described as one of the “godfathers” of AI, will be president of LawZero, an organisation committed to the safe design of the cutting-edge technology that has sparked a $1tn (£740bn) arms race.Starting with funding of approximately $30m and more than a dozen researchers, Bengio is developing a system called Scientist AI that will act as a guardrail against AI agents – which carry out tasks without human intervention – showing deceptive or self-preserving behaviour, such as trying to avoid being turned off.Describing the current suite of AI agents as “actors” seeking to imitate humans and please users, he said the Scientist AI system would be more like a “psychologist” that can understand and predict bad behaviour.“We want to build AIs that will be honest and not deceptive,” Bengio said

‘Nobody wants a robot to read them a story!’ The creatives and academics rejecting AI – at work and at home

Is artificial intelligence coming for everyone’s jobs? Not if this lot have anything to do with itThe novelist Ewan Morrison was alarmed, though amused, to discover he had written a book called Nine Inches Pleases a Lady. Intrigued by the limits of generative artificial intelligence (AI), he had asked ChatGPT to give him the names of the 12 novels he had written. “I’ve only written nine,” he says. “Always eager to please, it decided to invent three.” The “nine inches” from the fake title it hallucinated was stolen from a filthy Robert Burns poem

England v West Indies: hosts chasing 246 in shortened third men’s cricket ODI – live

Jayden Seales back into the attack and he outfoxes Buttler with a slower ball cutter that thwocks Buttler square in the ribs. That’s gonna smart. Buttler takes a second to get his breath. Seales spears in a bouncer as he saw Buttler on the charge to the next ball, it’s too short though and called a wide.Six to win… you guessed it – Jos Buttler nails the next ball into the stands for SIX! Clattered over square leg, Buttler and Seales exchange a smile and a back-pat

England cricketers forced into emergency travel plans before third West Indies ODI

It was not quite a case of planes, trains and automobiles but bikes, buses and by foot after the players and staff of England and West Indies were forced to take extreme measures to negotiate traffic on the way to the third one-day international at the Oval.The England and Wales Cricket Board blamed “heavy traffic north of the river” – there was talk of broken down buses, a traffic light failure and extensive roadworks – for the delayed arrivals of both squads. England abandoned the team bus as it sat stationary midway between their Kensington hotel and the ground, completing their journey on Lime bikes, on foot or by train – Jamie Smith took the underground option, while there were confused looks from fans walking down Kennington Park Road in the direction of the ground about 45 minutes before the scheduled start, perhaps thinking they themselves were running a bit late, as Joe Root and Adil Rashid strode past them. “We were on the bus for a while, then we all decided to get off and get on some Lime bikes,” the England captain, Harry Brook, said.The tourists stayed on their coach as it crawled the 3