The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (Desnz) said gas prices are determined on international markets, dismissing criticism of the UK’s own low levels of storage.

The boss of British Gas owner Centrica, Chris O’Shea, has repeatedly called for support from the government to expand its Rough storage facility in the North Sea, warning it has been unviable to fill it up and that it will close next year without a deal.

“We have almost no gas in storage in the UK for the coming winter and this is a huge concern as energy security is national security,” he said on LinkedIn, external last week.

A Desnz spokesman said: “We remain open to discussing proposals on all gas storage sites, as long as it provides value for money for taxpayers.”

The department also pointed to Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s pledge to cut VAT from energy bills from October, as well as government action to reduce Britain’s reliance on natural gas altogether.

Ángel Talavera, chief European economist at Oxford Economics, said there is a “glass half full, and a glass half empty” picture unfolding.

On one hand, wholesale gas prices are significantly lower than during the crisis which followed Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

On the other, households and businesses will still face significantly higher energy bills than usual over the coming months.

“It’s serious, but not catastrophic,” he told the BBC, adding “something would have to dramatically change to lower prices”.

He pointed to a reduction in demand for natural gas in general as a result of the shift towards renewables, but said the overall picture depends hugely on the winter weather.

“If you have a warmer winter than average, that will be great for demand,” he said. But he warned a colder than average winter would have the opposite effect, driving up demand for energy and pushing up prices.

It is not known how the developing El Niño over the Pacific Ocean will impact Britain’s winter. The so-called Big Freeze of winter 2009-10 was, at the time, the coldest in three decades – and this coincided with an El Niño.

However, 2006-07 was also an El Niño winter and that was unseasonably warm.

Talavera said gas prices could come down if the weather helps reduce demand and the Strait of Hormuz reopens sooner than expected.

But, at the moment, “the weather machine remains our main hope”.

It comes as a recent spike in the UK government’s borrowing costs eased. After a sharp uptick on Tuesday, which took the yield on a 10-year bond – or gilt – to the highest level since 2008, it fell back slightly on Thursday.

Yields are hovering around 5.15%, however, which would still represent a post-2008 peak were it not for Tuesday’s jump.

Users of Grok, the artificial intelligence chatbot developed by Elon Musk’s xAI, began reporting access problems Thursday morning, with outage-tracking site Downdetector logging a spike in complaints starting around 9:29 a.m. EDT.

The outage tracker’s official account flagged the surge in a social media post shortly after the reports began, asking affected users how the disruption was impacting them and directing people to its live outage dashboard for further updates. The hashtag “GrokDown” began circulating on social media as users compared notes on the issue.

Independent monitoring services tracking Grok’s availability separately picked up signs of trouble around the same window. One status-tracking platform, StatusGator, reported detecting an outage affecting Grok’s web service that had not yet been officially acknowledged by xAI, noting that its own server checks indicated the service was down even before any formal status update had been posted. The same tracker said it had logged 66 user-submitted outage reports within the preceding 24-hour period, reflecting a broader pattern of intermittent trouble with the service heading into Thursday’s spike in complaints.

As of the time reports began surfacing, xAI’s own official status page for Grok’s web service had not indicated any acknowledged issue, continuing to display a message stating the company was “not aware of any issues impacting Grok (Web).” Xai has not issued a public statement specifically addressing the cause of Thursday’s disruption.

Grok’s status page shows a documented history of periodic outages dating back to late last year, with the service experiencing a number of brief “Temporarily Unavailable” incidents throughout 2026 alone. According to the status page’s incident log, Grok experienced an outage lasting roughly two hours and 24 minutes in March, along with shorter disruptions of 40 minutes and 51 minutes in earlier incidents the same month and in February, respectively. A more significant incident in late January combined a “Temporarily Unavailable” outage with a separate period of increased error rates and latency, both lasting roughly seven and a half hours, marking one of the longer disruptions to affect the service so far this year.

Analysts and third-party monitoring services that track Grok’s reliability have noted that the chatbot, as a relatively young AI product compared with more established competitors, has experienced a somewhat bumpy availability history as xAI has continued scaling its infrastructure and rolling out new model versions. Notable stretches of instability have coincided in the past with major product launches, including traffic spikes following the release of Grok-2 in late 2024 and planned maintenance windows tied to the rollout of Grok-3 in 2025, both of which contributed to periods of reduced availability for users during those transitions.

More recently, monitoring services have generally characterized Grok’s infrastructure as having stabilized compared with its earlier history, with downtime incidents becoming both shorter and less frequent as xAI’s systems have matured. Even so, industry trackers have noted that xAI’s public communication around outages has historically been less detailed than that of some competing AI developers, such as OpenAI or Anthropic, making it more difficult for users to get timely, specific information directly from the company when disruptions occur.

Grok is integrated directly into X, the social media platform also owned by Musk, in addition to being available through its own standalone website and mobile application. That integration means disruptions affecting Grok’s backend systems can potentially impact not only users accessing the chatbot directly, but also those interacting with Grok-powered features embedded elsewhere across Musk’s broader platform ecosystem, including automated responses and content-analysis tools built into X itself.

Thursday’s reported outage is not the first time Grok has drawn public attention for reasons beyond routine technical disruptions this year. In one earlier high-profile incident, Grok’s own account on X was briefly suspended from the platform, an episode that drew scrutiny after the chatbot itself suggested, in posts that were later deleted, that the suspension may have been connected to comments it had made regarding the Israel-Gaza conflict. Neither X nor xAI provided an official explanation for that particular suspension at the time.

Downdetector and similar crowdsourced outage-tracking platforms compile real-time user reports and compare the volume of incoming complaints against typical baseline activity levels to determine whether a genuine, widespread service disruption is likely underway. A sudden, sharp increase in reports across a large number of users, as occurred Thursday morning, is generally treated as strong evidence of a broader platform-level issue rather than isolated technical problems affecting individual users’ devices, accounts or internet connections.

For developers and businesses that rely on Grok through xAI’s application programming interface, rather than through the consumer-facing chatbot directly, disruptions of this kind can carry additional consequences, potentially affecting any third-party products or services built on top of Grok’s underlying AI models. Industry data on AI API reliability suggests such outages are a common challenge across the broader AI industry, with disruptions affecting a majority of development teams that depend on external AI services at some point, and typical resolution times for AI service outages running under an hour on average, according to figures compiled by API monitoring firms.

As of Thursday late morning, it remained unclear how long the reported access issues affecting Grok would persist, or what specifically had caused the spike in user complaints. Affected users were advised to check both Downdetector’s live outage map and xAI’s official status page for updates, while independent monitoring services continued tracking the situation in the absence of a formal acknowledgment or detailed explanation from xAI regarding the disruption’s underlying cause.

The company that runs the stadium says it is ‘absolutely committed’ to paying the national minimum wage and national living wage

Bosses at Ashton Gate stadium have apologised for “an error” which they say led to them being named on a list of companies that failed to pay staff the minimum wage.

On Thursday, the government published a list of more than 600 UK firms that had “underpaid workers”. Ashton Gate Limited (the company behind the stadium) was among the businesses named.

According to the government, Ashton Gate Limited failed to pay £5,895.05 to 142 workers.

But a spokesperson for Ashton Gate said the underpayment was due to “an error” that occurred in the 2021-22 financial years when some events and security staff purchased their own uniform rather than being supplied by the stadium, and a number of employees were not paid for training days.

“We are absolutely committed to paying the national minimum wage and national living wage to our staff, the vast majority of whom are from within our community,” a spokesperson said.

“We regret that this led to a small number of payments falling below the minimum wage requirement, for which we apologise. The error was rectified at the time and the affected staff were reimbursed immediately.

“In relation to uniform and training, Ashton Gate is fully compliant with HMRC guidance and we continually strive to be a great local employer offering significant career opportunities to our community.”

The government said around £4m had been returned to more than 27,000 UK workers who had been denied the pay they were legally owed, with penalties totalling £7m issued to the employers responsible.

Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said: “The best businesses know that looking after your workers isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s the smart thing to do, building the stronger, more successful businesses that drive growth in every postcode.

“Most employers already understand this, and I want to work with them to ensure they have every piece of guidance and support available to help them follow the rules. Short-changing your staff isn’t a shortcut to success and we are determined to stamp it out.”

Other firms named on the list include DIY giant B&Q, which the government said failed to pay £456,934 to 4,530 workers.

“The shortfalls in payments were unintentional,” a B&Q spokesperson said. “They relate to calculations involving geographical allowances which are paid in addition to minimum hourly rates. All affected colleagues were quickly paid in full in July 2025.”

Fast food chain Five Guys was also reported to have owed £54,000 to 3,699 staff.

It said that “technical differences in how payroll regulations were applied” led to its underpayments, which were identified by HMRC.

“We worked closely and transparently with HMRC throughout the process and have made all required payments to affected current and former employees,” a spokesperson for Five Guys added.

Future of work minister Kate Dearden added: “Underpaying your staff is illegal, and we will not let workers foot the bill for their boss failing to follow the rules.

“We’re making sure workers get the hard-earned pay they deserve, and where employers fall short, they will be held to account. Every employer should check their payroll now and reach out to Acas if they need further support.”

The board of directors is a not-for-profit organisation and although some staff are employed, the majority are volunteers.

Its statement added that the festival “weathered the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression and re-emerged after Covid, but now “stands at a cross roads”.

During the pandemic, the festival transitioned to an online format and said it needed to raise £40,000 by December 2020 or would be forced to close.

In 2024, the event was rebranded the Ludlow Marches Food and Drink Festival.

“These festivals are about much more than a weekend event,” the organisers said.

“They support local producers, attract visitors to the town, generate significant economic benefits for businesses across the region, and help maintain Ludlow’s reputation as one of Britain’s great food destinations

“If Ludlow Food Festival means something to you, this year is the year to support it.”

Several new features have been added in hopes of attracting more visitors.

These includes a food theatre, cookery school, food workshops for children, and a soundtrack stage.

This article was written by

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AUSTIN, TEXAS — Cultured dairy products manufacturer Good Culture has expanded its C-Suite leadership team. The additions include naming Kirk Jensen as chief operating officer, Samantha Famous as chief people officer, and Sofia Salvadore as chief of staff.

Famous and Salvadore were hired to their roles earlier this year, the company said.

Jensen brings more than two decades of operations leadership in packaged foods, the company said.

His experience includes working for such companies as The Honest Kitchen, most recently as COO; Sovos Brands as COO and chief supply chain officer; and chief supply chain officer at Snyder’s-Lance, Inc.

Famous previously was senior vice president of people at Modern Animal and held similar positions at companies such as The Wing, Sweetgreen and Blue Apron.

Most recently, Salvadore was a private equity associate at L Catterton and earlier was an investment banking analyst at Goldman Sachs.

“We spent this year building a leadership team that matches the size of the business we’ve become,” said Jesse Merrill, chief executive officer and co-founder of Good Culture. “Bringing on Kirk, Samantha, and Sofia is a deliberate investment in how we operate, how we grow our people, and how we execute. Together, they bring the leadership and expertise we need to support Good Culture’s next phase while staying true to what makes this brand special.” 

Anker has unveiled a new bedside speaker designed to monitor sleep without requiring users to wear anything to bed, introducing the SleepLab Pro as part of a broader lineup of sleep-focused products revealed at the IFA 2026 technology trade show in Berlin.

The SleepLab Pro is a tabletop speaker that uses 60GHz radar technology to sense sleep patterns from a distance, tracking heart rate, breathing and the four recognized stages of sleep, all without requiring users to strap on a smartwatch, ring, band or pair of dedicated sleep earbuds. Anker has said the device is capable of distinguishing an individual user’s data even when two people share the same bed, a feature aimed at households where multiple sleepers might otherwise interfere with a single tracking device’s readings.

Beyond sensing sleep, the SleepLab Pro also functions as a sleep aid, playing personalized audio intended to help users fall asleep and stay asleep through the night, adjusting its output based on the data it collects. According to Anker, the device includes more than 180 built-in sounds, reducing the likelihood that users will grow tired of repetitive audio loops like ocean waves that have become common across other white-noise machines and sleep apps.

Anker has said the SleepLab Pro incorporates five research-backed modes along with a 28-day program designed to gradually help users identify a breathing rhythm that works best for their individual physiology. Sound design plays a central role in that approach, with the device using acoustic beats spanning alpha, theta and delta frequency ranges, each intended to correspond with different stages of relaxation and sleep as the user winds down for the night.

The device also offers guided breathing exercises, multi-color ambient lighting designed to help set a calming mood before sleep, and a gentle sunrise-style lighting effect intended to ease users awake in the morning without the abrupt jolt of a traditional alarm. Dual internal drivers provide spatial audio playback, allowing the SleepLab Pro to double as a general-purpose speaker outside of its sleep-tracking functions, supported by Bluetooth 6.1 connectivity for standard music playback when users want to use it that way.

One detail Anker has emphasized in its marketing of the device is the absence of any required subscription to access its core sleep-tracking and audio features. Unlike a growing number of wellness and fitness devices that gate detailed health data or personalized recommendations behind recurring monthly fees, Anker has said users will not need to pay ongoing subscription costs to access the SleepLab Pro’s sleep reports or its full library of built-in sounds. The company has also designed the device to be usable without reaching for a smartphone each night, allowing users to begin a wind-down routine with a simple tap on the speaker itself.

The SleepLab Pro arrives as part of a four-product sleep technology lineup Anker introduced at IFA 2026, alongside a lower-tier SleepLab speaker and two new sleep-focused earbud models, the Sleep 4 and Sleep 4 Pro. The higher-end Sleep 4 Pro earbuds introduce a proprietary system Anker calls “Track-Assess-Adjustment,” which monitors photoplethysmography, heart rate and heart rate variability overnight, then uses the company’s BioSync system to dynamically adjust audio output in response. The Sleep 4 Pro also includes a charging case with an integrated touchscreen display, letting users adjust alarms, play sounds or check sleep metrics without needing to pick up a phone.

The broader sleep-tech lineup reflects Anker’s ongoing effort to reposition itself as more than a charging-accessory manufacturer, building on the company’s established expertise in portable power products, such as its line of Anker Nano Power Banks, to expand into preventative health and wellness hardware. The SleepLab Pro launch also coincides with a broader corporate rebranding effort at Anker, which has been gradually consolidating familiar sub-brand names, including Soundcore and Eufy, more directly under the parent Anker name as part of a wider identity shift showcased at this year’s IFA event.

Despite the detailed feature rundown, several key details about the SleepLab Pro remain unconfirmed. Anker has not yet announced pricing for either the SleepLab or SleepLab Pro speakers, nor has the company confirmed a specific release date for either device. By comparison, Anker has said its Sleep 4 earbuds are expected to launch in October 2026, with the higher-end Sleep 4 Pro following in November, though pricing for those earbud models likewise has not been disclosed.

Early hands-on impressions from technology journalists who viewed the SleepLab Pro at IFA have been mixed but generally curious. Some reviewers expressed skepticism about how useful the device’s radar-based sleep tracking and analysis would prove in practice, noting that many consumers already rely on existing wearables such as smartwatches to track similar health metrics like heart rate and sleep stages. Others said the appeal of a passive, non-wearable tracking method was intriguing, particularly for users who find sleep rings, bands or earbuds uncomfortable or impractical to wear through the night.

Reviewers have also raised questions about how Anker’s sleep-focused earbud models specifically manage battery life and audio playback once a user actually falls asleep, asking whether the devices are capable of detecting when a wearer has lost consciousness and automatically halting continued audio playback. Without such an automatic cutoff, continuous overnight audio streaming could risk draining battery capacity in compact wireless earbud models like the Sleep 4 before morning, a concern that does not directly apply to the tabletop SleepLab Pro given its larger form factor and presumed connection to a standard power source.

Anker’s entry into radar-based, wearable-free sleep tracking places the SleepLab Pro in a growing category of bedside sleep technology that has expanded significantly in recent years, as consumer interest in sleep optimization and wellness tracking has continued to rise alongside broader public attention to sleep health. Whether the SleepLab Pro succeeds in differentiating itself from existing wearable-based sleep trackers, or from other radar-based bedside sleep devices already on the market from competing manufacturers, will likely depend heavily on pricing, real-world tracking accuracy, and the overall usefulness of its personalized audio and breathing-exercise features once the device becomes available for hands-on testing and eventual purchase.

For now, prospective buyers interested in the SleepLab Pro will need to wait for Anker to confirm both pricing and a firm release date before the device becomes available, with the company having so far prioritized showcasing the product’s design and feature set at IFA 2026 ahead of finalizing those remaining commercial details.