Supermarkets including Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Morrisons and Waitrose already have dedicated lines for wonky vegetables.

Calum Kelly, Waitrose’s produce technical manager, said in demanding weather conditions “we relax size and shape guidelines for key veg to avoid waste and provide more income to our growers and farmers”.

“Baking potatoes might be a little smaller than usual this harvest if the drought continues. All these veg still taste great, but like many of us in a heatwave, they might just look a little less than perfect.”

Not every gap can be filled this way though. Andrew Opie, the director of food and sustainability at the British Retail Consortium, said supermarkets are also importing more food from abroad as UK supplies run short.

“Retailers face the dilemma of supporting British farmers, but also making sure that we, as customers, have what we expect to buy when we go in the shop,” he said.

“It’s going to be a challenging period right through into the autumn. We’re hearing potentially it could affect things like cherries as well.”

Approximately 80p a year will be added to all energy bills to fund the discount scheme.

Most households that qualify will receive the discount automatically on their electricity bill every six months although some, such as those on commercial meters, may need to apply.

The first payments will start early next year, when eligible customers will receive more information from their supplier or the energy regulator Ofgem.

An assessment earlier this year estimated that between 120,000 and 160,000 households could eventually receive the discounts as more projects are rolled out.

Rural campaign groups argue it is impossible to put a price on the loss of landscapes, and some residents living close to proposed projects say the money being offered is an insult.

Kate Matthews of the Save Our Mearns campaign group, fighting plans for upgraded pylons in north-east Scotland including the Kintore to Tealing project, said the discount scheme was an insult.

She said: “£2,500 off electricity bills over 10 years is a slap in the face for residents facing ruined businesses and unsellable homes.

“This government is either massively out of touch or is showing their contempt for affected residents and energy consumers.”

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Tuesday announced the deployment of a new radar at Newark Liberty International Airport that’s designed to prevent incidents from occurring on busy runways.

The new radar, known as the Surface Movement Radar Model 4, allows air traffic controllers to track aircraft and vehicles on runways and taxiways in all weather and visibility conditions and prevent runway incursions that could result in accidental collisions. The SMR-4 will represent a capability improvement over the 30-year-old radar that’s being replaced.

FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford spoke at the event and said that it was the deployment of the fifth surface movement radar in the U.S.

“We will deploy 53 of these surface movement radars across the country at our top 44 busiest airports in the U.S.,” Bedford said, adding that the radar system was built in Syracuse, New York, as onshoring production of critical infrastructure was a key component of the agency’s modernization effort.

FATAL LAGUARDIA COLLISION RENEWS FOCUS ON RUNWAY INCURSION RISKS ACROSS US

The FAA is deploying a new surface radar at Newark Liberty International Airport that’s designed to prevent runway incursions. (Al Drago/Getty Images)

“We think of modernization not just as replacing all of this old equipment. And again, this is a 30-year-old box: we can’t maintain it, they don’t build it, they don’t supply replacement parts for it. So when these things break, they’re no longer available to us, so getting this investment is critical,” he explained.

“It’s not just that we’re purchasing and deploying new equipment, we have brought these jobs back to the U.S. which is a key focus of the secretary and the president,” Bedford said.

FAA ROLLING OUT NEW TECHNOLOGY TO REDUCE RISK OF RUNWAY ACCIDENTS

The new surface radars are being installed at major airports around the country and aim to give air traffic controllers better visibility of planes and vehicles on runways and taxiways. (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who also spoke at the unveiling, noted that the surface awareness radar will “give us better technology to see airplanes, to see vehicles on the ground at Newark Airport. It’ll see aircraft on final approach. It is a more resilient system,” he added.

“It allows controllers on a dark night, or controllers in bad weather, if they can’t see out of the tower and see what’s happening on the tarmac, they can actually use this radar to see on their screens where everything is at – airplanes, vehicles – and again, it keeps the American public safer as we use American skies,” Duffy said.

AMERICAN AIRLINES JET CANCELS TAKEOFF AFTER LAX RUNWAY INCURSION

Newark’s new ground radar system is the fifth of its kind to be installed in the U.S. (Gary Hershorn/Getty Images)

The Department of Transportation and FAA noted in a release that they’ve installed 96 new systems around the country over the last year that are related to the agency’s surface awareness initiative.

FAA data shows that there have been 1,102 runway incursions in the agency’s fiscal year 2026 so far – down from 1,197 in the same period a year ago. The data includes operational incidents, pilot deviations, vehicle or pedestrian deviations, and other forms of incursions.

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The move is aimed at deepening institutional participation and liquidity in India’s commodity derivatives market.

“Based on representations received from stakeholders, deliberations of the Commodity Derivatives Advisory Committee (CDAC), and public comments received on the consultation paper on this subject, and with the objective of deepening institutional participation and liquidity in the commodity derivatives segment, it has been decided to permit FPIs to participate in non-cash (physically) settled non-agricultural commodity derivative contracts, subject to the safeguards specified in this circular,” said SEBI in its latest circular.

Currently, FPIs are permitted to participate in the commodity derivatives segment of recognised stock exchanges through cash-settled non-agricultural commodity derivative contracts and indices comprising non-agricultural commodities, except deliverable options contracts.

Under the revised framework, FPIs will be allowed to participate in deliverable non-agricultural commodity contracts up to the commencement of the tender or staggered delivery period. They will have to unwind or square off their open positions before the commencement of the tender or staggered delivery period.

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On the trading day immediately preceding the commencement of the tender or staggered delivery period, no fresh positions that increase an FPI’s existing position in the expiring contract will be allowed.
Two-tier safeguard mechanismSEBI has put in place a safeguard mechanism to ensure that FPIs do not end up with delivery obligations in physically settled contracts.

The primary and preferred mode of exit will be voluntary square-off or rollover. An FPI will be free to square off or roll over its open positions up to the close of market hours on the day preceding the start of the tender period.

However, if an FPI has not voluntarily squared off or rolled over its open position by the close of market hours on T-3, the safeguard mechanism will be triggered.

The FPI’s open position will then be automatically transferred to the proprietary account of a designated Trading Member (TM) or Trading-cum-Clearing Member (TCM) after market hours on T-1, the day preceding the start of the tender period, before the start of end-of-day activities of the clearing corporation.

The Professional Clearing Member will have to inform the designated TM by the end of T-2 about the FPI’s open position that is liable to devolve under the safeguard mechanism. This is intended to enable the designated TM to arrange adequate margin ahead of the transfer.

The transfer will be executed at the closing price or daily settlement price declared by the exchange on the day of transfer. It will be treated as a normal market trade for all purposes, including exchange transaction charges, SEBI turnover fees, Commodity Transaction Tax (CTT), stamp duty and GST on turnover charges.

Once the transfer is executed, the FPI’s open position will be deemed to be closed. The FPI will cease to have any further right, title, obligation or exposure in respect of the position, including in relation to the tender or delivery process. All rights and obligations relating to the transferred position will thereafter vest solely with the designated TM or TCM.

SEBI has also clarified that such transfer of positions from an FPI to a TM under the special arrangement will not be treated as an over-the-counter derivative. Existing provisions relating to transfer of positions between client codes applicable to non-institutional transfers, error accounts or off-market transfers will also not apply to this arrangement. The transfer will instead be considered a trade with applicable statutory levies.

No fresh positions on T-1

No Clearing Member will be permitted to accept or clear any trade that results in an increase in an FPI’s open position in the near-month deliverable contract on T-1, immediately preceding the start of the tender period.

The framework also provides relief to a designated TM or TCM if the transfer of FPI positions causes its proprietary account to exceed applicable position limits.

Such a member will be permitted up to two trading days from the date of transfer to reduce its futures positions and bring them within the prescribed limits, said SEBI.

During this period, the transferred position will not, solely because of the transfer, be treated as a violation attracting penal action under Annexure J of SEBI’s Master Circular for the Commodity Derivatives Segment.

Proprietary Risk Absorption Charge

SEBI has also provided for a “Proprietary Risk Absorption Charge” that may be incorporated into the onboarding agreement between the FPI and the designated TM or TCM.

The charge may be payable by the FPI where its open position is transferred under the backstop mechanism because the FPI failed to voluntarily square off or roll over the position by T-1.

The charge is intended to compensate the TM or TCM for the proprietary risk, margin and position-limit burden it absorbs because of the involuntary transfer. It will be over and above any service fee agreed between the parties for effecting the transfer.

The exchange will prescribe the conditions under which the charge is collected. The quantum and manner of computation of the charge will have to be disclosed to and agreed upon by the FPI at the time of onboarding.

The charge will be without prejudice to any penalty leviable by the exchange or clearing corporation under the existing framework.

Onboarding Requirements

According to the circular, before enabling an FPI to trade in non-cash settled non-agricultural commodity derivative contracts, the Trading Member must put in place either a tripartite agreement among the Professional Clearing Member, Trading Member and FPI, or a bipartite agreement between the Trading-cum-Clearing Member and the FPI, depending on the membership structure through which the FPI operates.

At its discretion, an FPI may enter into an agreement with one TM or TCM across all exchanges and commodities, one TM or TCM per exchange, or one TM or TCM per commodity or group of commodities within each exchange.

The TM or CM will have to inform the relevant exchange or clearing corporation of the arrangement before permitting the FPI to trade in the relevant deliverable commodity derivative contracts. The exchange will enable trading for the FPI only upon confirmation of the arrangement.

SEBI has also asked recognised exchanges having commodity derivatives segments to standardise the format and material terms of the onboarding agreement in consultation with each other, to ensure consistency in safeguards and disclosures applicable to FPIs across exchanges.

The exchange or clearing corporation will also notify detailed schemes or guidelines for a post-closure window between the designated TM and FPI for open positions held by the FPI one day before the start of the tender period, after normal market hours, at the closing price in the commodity derivatives market segment.

SEBI said the move would deepen institutional participation and liquidity in the commodity derivatives segment.

The framework is also expected to broaden the participant base, improve market depth and price discovery, and strengthen convergence between derivatives and physical markets.

If you haven’t seen it already, please go into the New York Times archives — that’s right, I’m recommending the Times — for an article by Thomas Edsall entitled “A Working-Class Party Without Many Workers.” Mr. Edsall is a former Washington Post columnist. And he wrote a very important piece. In a nutshell, he uses polling data that non-college educated people do not agree with the Democratic Socialists of America on key issues such as open borders, defunding the police, abolishing ICE, and support for an array of transgender rights.

What’s more, using the DSA’s own surveys, they are 85 percent non-Hispanic whites. Only 9 percent are Hispanics, and only 5 percent are Asian Americans. And 4 percent are blacks. And only 4 percent of the members held blue-collar jobs.

So you have to ask yourself, while comrade Abdul El-Sayed, comrade Francesca Hong, comrade Zohran Mamdani, and comrade Hasan Piker may claim to speak for the working class, the reality is that they don’t speak for the working class. 

Let me say right here there is an important political leader who speaks for the working class and their values, his name is President Trump. If you find this ironic, since the DSA has Trump Derangement Syndrome to the tenth power or more, it’s nonetheless a political fact of life.

Now, Mr. Edsall notes that the Democratic Party writ large has positive views of socialism, and that helps explain why many of the leading Democrats welcome the comrade socialists into their big tent, with the exception of Secretary Hillary Clinton and Senators John Fetterman and Joe Manchin. Yet not many.

In the main, the Democratic party regulars are welcoming the socialists, and the socialists are going to be a big open target of Republicans in the coming midterm elections. At a minimum, the socialists are going to give the GOP the Senate. I can’t yet vouch for the House. Yet Michigan and Maine and perhaps some others are going to go Republican.

It would be great if the GOP had a tax-cutting message to help working folks going into these elections, because yelling at socialism and communism may not be enough, especially to carry the House. The key point, though, is that while the socialists say they speak for the working folks, they don’t really have many working folks behind them at all. And Mr. Trump’s free enterprise policies are doing very well, thank you very much.

This article was written by

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