Andrew Lloyd Webber has taken another swipe at the government after his new show Cinderella was forced to close down due to a coronavirus case. On Monday afternoon, the impresario announced that the musical would not be going ahead with its “Freedom Day” show after a cast member caught COVID-19, forcing a number of the
Jeff Bezos is all set to blast off aboard his aerospace company Blue Origin’s New Shepard launch vehicle for a suborbital flight today (July 20). The space flight will comprise a history-making all-civilian crew. The launch of the 11-minute journey to space is planned from a desert site in West Texas, US. If all goes
Boris Johnson is looking at raising National Insurance in order to fund long-promised reforms of social care, but any proposals won’t be set out until after the summer. The prime minister‘s plans have been delayed in part because he is isolating along with Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid, after the latter tested
A teenager in Singapore has been charged with murder after a 13-year-old boy’s body was discovered in a school bathroom, along with an axe. The 16-year-old appeared in court via video link on Tuesday, and he is now being held at a medical centre for psychiatric observation. Monday’s attack caused shock in the city-state, which
The government will not draw up a list of critical jobs that will be exempt from full self-isolation if workers are “pinged”. Instead, employers will have to apply to government departments to allow workers to effectively circumvent the rules. Boris Johnson announced on Monday that critical workers, who have been fully vaccinated for at least
Former reality TV contestant Katie Hopkins has arrived back in the UK after being deported from Australia for joking about breaching her hotel quarantine. Touching down at Heathrow overnight, the far-right commentator said “it’s nice not to wear a mask again” before stepping into black Mercedes and being driven away. In a now-deleted post on
A minister has not explicitly ruled out the prospect of the government requiring vaccine passports for people to go to pubs. Business minister Paul Scully told Kay Burley that ministers are “not saying crowded pubs at all” in addition to plans to require people to prove their COVID-19 vaccine status to enter nightclubs and other
Easyjet has revealed that fewer than half of UK flights for this summer have been booked as customers leave it late to arrange trips. The budget airline said capacity for the usually lucrative July-September period was just 44% sold, down from 69% in the same period in 2019 before the pandemic. It said customers “are
More than 360,000 acres (531 square miles) have been destroyed by a wildfire in the US state of Oregon, where more than 2,000 people have been given evacuation orders, while a similar number of firefighters are battling the blaze. The Bootleg fire, centred in and around the Fremont-Winema National Forest, 250 miles (400km) south of
American billionaire businessman Jeff Bezos said on Monday he is excited and curious but not very nervous on the eve of taking part in his company Blue Origin’s inaugural suborbital flight alongside the oldest and youngest people ever bound for space. The world’s richest person and three crewmates are due to fly from a desert
Every single time NASA shares a picture of space on Twitter or Instagram and explains what it is about, many in the comments section ask how these photographs were taken, whether the colours are real, and, most importantly, they enquire about the cameras that the Hubble Telescope is equipped with. The space agency, in its
Ben & Jerry’s will stop selling its ice cream in the occupied Palestinian territories. The company said sales in the territories are “inconsistent with our values”, adding that the move reflected the concerns of “fans and trusted partners”. The West Bank and east Jerusalem have been under Israeli control since 1967 and there is growing
A Premier League footballer has been arrested on suspicion of child sex offences. The player was arrested on Friday and has been bailed while police continue to investigate. His team confirmed he has been suspended pending the police investigation. They added: “The club will continue to support the authorities with their inquiries and will not
Solar power and wind power continue to dominate new power capacity additions in the United States. Following the trend of recent months — or years, to some extent — almost 100% of new power capacity additions in April came from solar and wind, and 94% of new power capacity additions in May came from solar
At least 35 people are dead after a suicide bomber struck a crowded market in the Iraqi capital city of Baghdad. The bombing in the Sadr City area on Monday also injured more than 60 people, with a number of them in critical condition, according to police. It happened on the eve of the Eid
Originally published on Future Trends. Welcome to another issue of our new India x Cleantech series! On a monthly basis, we are pulling news from across clean technology sectors in India into a single, concise summary article about the country. Cleantech Investments Acme Sells Stake In 250-Megawatt Solar Power Project To Foreign Investors Acme Cleantech
A parliamentary committee looking into the Greensill saga has found that lobbying rules were “insufficient” and need to be strengthened The Commons Treasury committee, which looked into David Cameron’s involvement in trying to secure finance firm Greensill Capital access to a government coronavirus support scheme, said the rules should be tightened to prevent any more
Originally published at ILSR.org Our new report finds that installing rooftop solar panels and community solar systems to serve the equivalent of 30 million American homes would create significant economic benefits — including 1.77 million jobs and $69 billion electricity bill savings over the next five years — while addressing the climate crisis and historic inequities. The
The Morongo Band of Mission Indians will own the portion of a $740 million Southern California Edison transmission project that will carry renewable energy across tribal lands, Indian Country Today reports. The innovative agreement will enable the tribe to earn revenue from the transmission lines well into the future while saving SoCal Edison as much
Steps star Ian “H” Watkins has spoken out about the challenges of being a single parent during the pandemic. The singer is father to twin boys Macsen and Cybi, five, who were born via a surrogate in 2016, but says he has been a single parent “virtually from the beginning” after splitting from his former