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The company said on Saturday that supplies would not return until Sunday evening “at the earliest”, however, previous outages have continued for longer than predicted.

Steven Benton, SEW incident manager, said on Sunday that the water treatment works were “now stable”.

He added: “Low storage levels from this disruption and high demand mean we cannot pump water to some areas, particularly on higher ground.

“To ensure a stable, continuous flow, we must allow tanks to replenish.”

He added that the company was continuing to deliver bottled water to customers from the priority services register, a free support scheme for people who need extra help.

Two bottled water stations reopened earlier on Sunday at Tesco Superstore on Pembury Road and Tunbridge Wells Rugby Club.

A third opened later at the Odeon cinema car park in Knights Way.

They will stay open until 20:00 BST, SEW said.

The rugby club station closed briefly on Sunday morning while bottled water was restocked, but has since reopened.

XRP is trading around $1.09 as of mid-July 2026, a level that puts the cryptocurrency down roughly 68% from its 52-week high near $3.66 and down sharply from the $3.65 it commanded just a year earlier. For anyone weighing a $1,000 investment in the token today, that price would buy approximately 917 XRP, a figure whose future value depends entirely on which of several widely divergent analyst forecasts, if any, ultimately proves closest to reality.

XRP’s recent price action has been notably weak even as the underlying news for Ripple, the company behind the token, has largely been positive. The token’s long-running legal battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission concluded, spot XRP exchange-traded funds launched in the U.S., and regulators classified the token as a digital commodity alongside Bitcoin, according to reporting from 24/7 Wall St. Despite clearing those hurdles, XRP fell from around $1.30 at the start of June to roughly $1.04 by the end of the month, caught in a broader crypto market selloff that pulled most digital assets lower regardless of individual project fundamentals.

One development analysts are watching closely is the CLARITY Act, proposed federal legislation that would permanently classify XRP as a commodity under U.S. law rather than leaving that determination to regulators on a case-by-case basis. The bill missed an early-July target date the White House had floated for signing it into law, with the Senate’s return from recess and other legislative priorities pushing a potential floor vote to late July or early August at the earliest, according to 24/7 Wall St. Even if the bill passes, analysts caution it would likely produce a short-term relief rally rather than a fundamental shift in XRP’s longer-term trajectory, particularly while the broader crypto market remains under pressure.

Looking further out, five-year price forecasts for XRP, extending roughly to 2030 or 2031, vary dramatically depending on the source and methodology. According to Yahoo Finance, analyst predictions for where XRP could trade by 2030 range from $5 to $28, with consensus estimates clustering between $5 and $15. At $5, a $1,000 investment made at today’s roughly $1.09 price would grow to approximately $4,200, while a price of $15 would turn that same $1,000 into roughly $12,600. Standard Chartered has offered one of the highest credible institutional forecasts at $28 for 2030, a level that would value a $1,000 initial investment at approximately $23,500, though the bank has also cut its own shorter-term 2026 target for XRP from $8 to $2.80 during the current market downturn, illustrating how quickly even institutional forecasts can shift.

Other analysts have offered more measured outlooks. Ryan Lee, chief analyst at Bitget Research, put his 2030 price target for XRP between $4.20 and $10 or higher, according to 24/7 Wall St, with the wide range depending on factors including how quickly Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin gains adoption, whether bank partnerships convert into actual XRP-denominated settlement volume, and whether Ripple eventually pursues an initial public offering. Lee noted that banks currently using Ripple’s network largely rely on it for messaging and tracking rather than settling transactions directly in XRP, often preferring RLUSD or fiat currency instead because stablecoins avoid the price volatility associated with XRP itself. At the lower end of Lee’s range, a $1,000 investment would grow to roughly $3,850 by 2030, while the higher end would produce a return closer to $9,170.

At the far extreme, one former Goldman Sachs analyst, Dom Kwok, has floated a 2030 target of $1,000 per token, a figure that Yahoo Finance noted would require XRP’s market capitalization to exceed the gross domestic product of every country on Earth, making it widely regarded across the industry as an outlier scenario rather than a realistic base case.

Central to nearly every bullish forecast is the question of how much of the global cross-border payments market, estimated at roughly $150 trillion, Ripple can realistically capture through its network. Ripple’s own leadership has targeted roughly 14% of that market, according to Yahoo Finance, but the company’s On-Demand Liquidity network processed only around $15 billion in transactions in 2024, far short of the approximately $21 trillion in annual volume that target would imply. That gap between Ripple’s stated ambitions and its current transaction volume represents one of the central uncertainties analysts point to when explaining why price forecasts for the token diverge so widely.

Some more conservative, algorithm-based forecasting models paint a far less dramatic picture. Price prediction tools from platforms including MEXC, which apply modest annual growth assumptions to XRP’s current trading price, project the token could reach somewhere between roughly $1.66 and $1.80 by 2030 under a steady, low-growth scenario, a trajectory that would turn a $1,000 investment today into roughly $1,520 to $1,650 over five years, a far more modest outcome than the institutional analyst targets cited above.

Given the scale of disagreement among forecasters, ranging from modest single-digit percentage gains to returns exceeding 20 times an initial investment, and the acknowledgment even from bullish analysts that XRP’s price depends heavily on unresolved variables like regulatory outcomes, bank adoption patterns and the broader crypto market cycle, financial advisors generally caution that cryptocurrency price predictions of any kind carry significant uncertainty. This article is intended to provide factual context on published forecasts rather than investment advice, and readers considering an XRP investment should be aware that cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile and that past performance, including XRP’s roughly 68% decline over the past year, offers no guarantee of future results in either direction.

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The lenders to Thames Water are preparing a legal challenge in case a Burnham-led government attempts to nationalise the UK’s biggest water company.

Burnham – who takes over as PM on Monday – has previously said he wants to see “greater public control” of the water and energy sectors and has called for Thames Water to be nationalised.

Thames Water is about £20bn in debt.

Its lenders had proposed a deal to write off nearly half of that and inject new cash in return for some leniency from future pollution fines, but this deal has previously been rejected by the government as being “weak” and bad for consumers and the environment.

Sources close to the creditors have told the BBC that in the event of full nationalisation, they would pursue payment in full of the outstanding debts as has happened in previous cases, which could leave the government with a multi-billion-pound bill.

Fears first emerged three years ago that Thames Water could collapse and on Thursday, the firm warned it has enough cash to last until the end of this year.

Creditors insisted on Sunday that they were still working with officials and regulators to reach an agreement to rescue the company.

A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said the government was “prepared for any eventuality”.

“Thames Water customers have been let down for far too long, with 15 years of under-performance, increasing serious pollution, and customers left to pick up the bill,” the spokesperson said.

“The secretary of state has written to Ofwat to outline her early views that she is not convinced London and Valley Water’s proposal is good enough for consumers or the environment.”

The lenders have offered to write off £9.4bn of Thames Water’s near £20bn debt pile and put £3.35bn of cash into the company, but in return they want leniency from future pollution fines in order to turn the firm’s fortune’s around.

Objecting to the proposal, Emma Reynolds said in June that she did not want a scenario where Thames Water customers had to “pick up the bill for the company’s failures”.

At the time, she told reporters that the government “stands ready for all eventualities”, including temporary nationalisation.

When asked in a Sky News interview on Sunday whether a Burnham government would nationalise Thames Water, Labour’s deputy leader Lucy Powell said: “Let’s see”.

“This has been an ongoing issue and concern in government,” she said.

“The government has powers to to bring a distressed water company under special measures, and let’s see if the government needs to, wants to use those powers.”

Powell added that “the privatisation of water hasn’t worked”.

“It’s not created competition. What you’ve seen is bills going up and up and up over years and years and years. Investment not being being made … and then now these companies are in are in real distress,” she said.

There is a halfway house, in which Thames would be placed into a so called “special administration regime”, or SAR, which is usually a temporary situation until another private sector buyer can be found.

The existing lenders have made it clear that they would be prepared to join the bidders for Thames in that scenario.

However, comments from the incoming prime minister Andy Burnham that key utilities should be under increased “public control” make it hard to imagine that the government will have much political appetite to find a new set of private sector owners for a company that serves 16 million people which means that a temporary nationalisation might become permanent.

But under either a SAR or full nationalisation, Thames ongoing problems could then leave taxpayers footing the bill for Thames cash shortfalls – a figure that Thames Water management puts at £2bn by the end of next year.

Whatever happens, its customers’ taps and loos will still function, but the future of Thames Water is a key policy test for the new administration.

LeBron James continued to keep the NBA guessing over the weekend about his next destination, with reporting suggesting his choice has narrowed to three teams even as the Golden State Warriors continue drawing renewed attention as a potential dark-horse landing spot.

James informed the Los Angeles Lakers earlier this month that he intends to leave the franchise as a free agent, setting off weeks of speculation across the league involving the Cleveland Cavaliers, Golden State Warriors, Miami Heat, Philadelphia 76ers, Denver Nuggets and Minnesota Timberwolves. According to USA Today Sports’ Lorenzo Reyes, James now has all the information he needs from interested teams and is simply weighing his final decision, which could come at any point.

ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said James has shown little regard for the pressure NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has publicly applied in urging a decision so the league can finalize its 2026-27 schedule. “LeBron does not care about holding the league up with its schedule,” Windhorst said. “He will make them wait.”

Despite reports suggesting Cleveland, Miami and Philadelphia have emerged as the clearest frontrunners, chatter around Golden State has intensified rather than faded. ESPN’s Dave McMenamin said conversations over the prior 24 hours suggested the Warriors may have better odds than previously believed. “From the folks I’ve talked to within the last 24 hours or so, it seems like Golden State is more of a remote possibility, than maybe we would have said a week ago, or two weeks ago,” McMenamin said, pointing to the relatively easier path through the Eastern Conference that a move west could offer James.

ESPN’s Marc J. Spears offered a more tempered view, reporting that people within the Warriors organization consider landing James a longer shot, even as the team’s location works in its favor given James has said proximity to his family will factor into his decision. Spears noted San Francisco sits less than two hours by flight from Los Angeles, with some direct routes taking as little as 50 minutes. “They have told me they think it’s a longer shot, but it’s also a shorter flight,” Spears said. “He could be back there in 50 minutes to be back to his daughter’s volleyball game.”

The prolonged wait has visibly frustrated fans and media in cities on James’ list. Aaron Goldhammer, a radio host with ESPN Cleveland, voiced pointed irritation with how long the saga has dragged on. “I think I speak on behalf of Cleveland fans when I say this has gotten annoying,” Goldhammer said. “This isn’t fun. You’re not dreaming anymore about him coming back and winning a championship and the amount that he loves Cleveland. I don’t know what the heck this guy is gonna do.” He added a broader assessment of James’ impact on the sports conversation: “He is the greatest of all-time, at a bunch of things. But what he’s really the best of all-time at is this. Sucking up every last bit of oxygen in the sports universe and making it all about him.”

James’ situation also became a recurring topic at Fanatics Fest in New York this month. New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson, fresh off a championship and Finals MVP run, was asked whether he planned to personally recruit James to New York and deflected the question. “My job is to put the ball in the hoop. Try and play a little defense,” Brunson said. “There’s people who are above me who determine who’s on the team and who’s not. I’ll leave the pitching to them.” Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards offered a lighthearted pitch of his own while browsing trading cards at the event, joking to a James card, “Bron Bron, come to Minnesota. We got your card,” before acknowledging separately that Minnesota isn’t realistically in contention. “I have nothing to say about it because I’ve seen his top 3 teams, we’re not in it,” Edwards said. James’ former teammate Anthony Davis, now with the Washington Wizards, offered a playful but pointed response when a fan asked about James potentially joining him in D.C. “Uhh. Maybe,” Davis said with a wide smile. “We had some conversations.”

Beyond the free agency speculation, James delivered an emotional moment away from the basketball conversation entirely on Thursday, when he was honored as “Athlete of the Century” at the inaugural Time 100 Sports gala in New York. Speaking without a prepared speech, James used the moment to thank the University of Southern California’s medical staff for saving the life of his eldest son, Bronny, who suffered sudden cardiac arrest during a summer workout with the USC basketball team in July 2023, just before the three-year anniversary of that event. “Our son went through something like that a few years ago at USC,” James said. “And obviously, if it wasn’t for the coaching staff and the medical team and everybody at USC being there in a timely fashion, we’d possibly be sitting here without our oldest son. So thank you to everybody and all the efforts when it comes to cardiac arrest.”

James used the moment to urge parents to ensure automated external defibrillators are available and accessible for young athletes at every level. “Guys, take that serious,” James said. “If you got kids in elementary, you got kids in middle school, kids in high school, colleges. Make sure they have these devices available where you can get them, practice them.” He closed by acknowledging his younger son as well, saying, “I also got a shout-out to my younger son, my twin, who’s at the University of Arizona. I love you as well.”

Bronny James made a full recovery after being diagnosed with a congenital heart defect, went on to play his freshman season at USC, and was later selected by the Lakers in the 2024 NBA Draft, making him and his father the first parent-child duo to share an NBA court together. Bronny’s contract with the Lakers became fully guaranteed earlier this month, and he is set to enter his third professional season regardless of where his father ultimately signs.

With James’ free agency decision still pending and no firm timeline announced, the five reported finalist franchises remain in a holding pattern, having completed their formal pitches and left the final call in James’ hands as the NBA world continues waiting for the 41-year-old to reveal where he will spend what could be one of the final seasons of his 23-year career.