News 01/09/25

Thames Water’s largest group of creditors is preparing to put more than a billion pounds on the table to help rescue Britain’s biggest water utility.

It’s understood that creditors holding about 13 billion pounds of Thames Water’s senior debt will propose injecting hundreds of millions in new equity and writing off a further chunk of existing capital. The extra package, worth roughly 1.25 billion in total, is expected to be finalised this month and submitted to Ofwat as part of a comprehensive rescue plan designed to stave off nationalisation.

An 18-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a woman fell from a block of flats in Southampton.

Emergency services were called to Cuckmere Lane on Thursday afternoon after reports of a woman falling from the building. The 25-year-old was taken to hospital with serious injuries but died the following day. Hampshire Police confirmed today that an 18-year-old local man remains in custody.

The government is suspending new applications for a scheme allowing refugees to bring family members to the UK.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper says the change, in effect from this week, will mean refugees face the same rules as other migrants. That includes a minimum income requirement of 29 thousand pounds, proof of suitable housing, and in some cases an English language test. Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp has criticised the move, saying changes to family reunion rules do not go far enough to tackle what he calls a border security crisis.

Police in Maidenhead are investigating reports of a man walking without trousers or underwear early yesterday morning.

The man was seen on Pinkneys Drive around 6.10am. He’s described as white, in his early thirties, about five foot ten, with short brown hair, wearing a green fleece and walking boots. Thames Valley Police say officers are prioritising the case and maintaining a visible presence in the area.

The UK has just endured its hottest summer on record, according to the Met Office, which says climate change made the extreme heat 70 times more likely.

The summer of 2025 surpassed the previous high set in 2018, pushing the sweltering summer of 1976 down to sixth place. Persistently high temperatures triggered hosepipe bans, “nationally significant” water shortages, and even an early “false autumn” in some areas.

Provisional figures show that from June to August the UK’s average temperature was 16.1 degrees, breaking the old record of 15.76.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has promised that every asylum hotel in the UK will be closed under the current government.

She says this will not simply mean moving people from hotels into other facilities, but reducing the overall number of people needing accommodation. The government is reconfiguring existing sites, increasing room-sharing, tightening eligibility for support, and working at speed to find alternative cheaper accommodation.

Cooper added that standards and security are also being strengthened to ensure rules are properly enforced.

A retired Church of England vicar has been jailed for three years after admitting his role in an extreme body modification ring.

Seventy-nine-year-old Reverend Geoffrey Baulcomb pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent, after video was found of him carrying out a procedure on a man’s genitals using nail scissors. He also admitted charges relating to indecent images of children and possessing extreme pornography. Prosecutors said some of the material had been linked to the so-called Eunuch Maker website, run by Norwegian national Marius Gustavson.

A jet carrying European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen was caught in suspected Russian GPS jamming.

Her aircraft lost navigation systems as it prepared to land at Plovdiv airport in Bulgaria on Sunday. According to reports in the Financial Times, the plane circled for an hour before the pilot landed manually using paper maps.

Labour MP Darren Jones is moving from the Treasury into Number 10.

He has been serving as chief secretary to the Treasury, but will now work directly with Sir Keir Starmer as chief secretary to the prime minister. The new role has been created to help deliver the government’s day-to-day priorities.

The new chief constable of Merseyside Police says he will use technology, including facial recognition, to free up officers for frontline work.

Rob Carden takes up the role on Monday and says forces need to keep pace with technology and be more agile in providing information, especially to compete with social media. He spent most of his career with Merseyside before moving to Cumbria Constabulary in 2022, where he was promoted to chief constable.

Mr Carden says some change is inevitable as he aims to build on the legacy of his predecessor Serena Kennedy while finding £31 million in savings over the next four to five years.

At least 622 people have died and more than 1,500 injured following a magnitude 6.0 earthquake in Afghanistan.

The quake struck the northeastern province of Kunar, near the Pakistan border, at 11:47pm local time on Sunday. Rescuers are struggling to reach remote villages, with at least three reported destroyed and widespread damage reported across the province.

In Gaza, at least 43 Palestinians have been killed since Saturday as the Israeli offensive on Gaza City intensifies.

Most casualties were in Gaza City, where Shifa Hospital received 29 bodies, including civilians killed while seeking aid. Al-Awda Hospital reported 11 more fatalities, seven of them civilians. Witnesses in the Netzarim Corridor described the area as a “death trap” after seeing people wounded by gunfire.

A British woman has been stabbed to death in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh.

Local media have named her as 34-year-old Jessica Cariad Hopkins. Police say she was found with stab wounds near a park in the city’s Chamkarmon district on Friday. A 33-year-old woman, also thought to be a foreign national, was arrested the following day in connection with the killing.

Today marks the first of September, the start of autumn in meteorological terms and the beginning of storm season.

A new list of storm names is now in place, chosen by members of the public. Amy, Bram and Chandra are set to be the first named storms this year. The Met Office, along with Ireland’s Met Éireann and the Netherlands’ KNMI, assign names when storms are expected to cause medium or high impacts.

A 47-year-old motorcyclist has died after a crash on the A4 Colnbrook bypass yesterday morning.

Emergency services were called to Lakeside Road at around ten to twelve, following a collision between a red Triumph motorbike and a lorry trailer. The rider, from Ruislip, was pronounced dead at the scene. His family have been informed and are receiving support from specialist officers.

A murder investigation is under way in Luton after a man in his twenties was fatally stabbed on Sunday.

Police were called to Humberstone Road just after six o’clock following reports of an altercation involving two men and a woman. The victim was taken to hospital with serious injuries but was pronounced dead shortly afterwards. Detectives are appealing for witnesses and are asking anyone with CCTV, dashcam or doorbell footage from the area to come forward.

In Afghanistan, Hundreds are feared dead after a powerful earthquake struck the northeastern province of Kunar near the Pakistan border.

The quake, measured at magnitude 6.0, hit late on Sunday night local time. Rescuers are working across several mountainous districts, though access to remote areas is limited. Early reports suggest at least 30 people were killed in one village alone, according to the health ministry, which warned that the death toll could rise significantly as more information emerges.