It is understood government officials are now exploring alternative solutions

Andy Burnham has shelved plans to bring Thames Water under public control amid concerns it could land taxpayers with a multi-billion-pound bill. The Prime Minister had been weighing up placing the beleaguered utility into a special administration regime (SAR), which would enable the Government to assume partial control of the firm until a purchaser was identified.

Burnham had positioned greater public oversight of utilities as a central pillar of his leadership agenda, with Thames Water, which covers a large area of London and the Thames Valley as well as Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, anticipated to be amongst his earliest opportunities to deliver on this commitment.

However, Government officials have expressed apprehension about the taxpayer burden of an SAR regime, The Times reported, with Thames Water estimating the move could require the Government to provide more than £2bn.

The administration costs could have escalated considerably further, with a 2024 analysis by advisory firm Teneo estimating an 18-month SAR for Thames Water at £4.1bn.

Ministers have stepped back from any immediate action due to anxieties surrounding the financial implications and potential legal challenges, and are instead examining whether a “viable option” exists for placing the company into administration, according to The Times.

This assessment is anticipated to take several months, rendering it progressively less likely that Thames Water would be placed into any form of administration by the Government.

“There is no quick or clean solution without an enormous price tag attached. It is very challenging and there are significant legal risks. It’s not off the table, but further work is being done on potential solutions before a decision can be taken,” a Whitehall source told The Times.

On Monday, the creditors competing for control of the utility outlined their proposals for a boardroom overhaul.

The London & Valley Water (L&VW) consortium, which includes major investors Apollo and Elliott, announced it would install the former chief executives of Yorkshire Water and BT Openreach as non-executive directors of the firm, as reported by City AM.

They would be joined by Mike McTighe, a turnaround specialist and chair of Openreach who has been advising Thames Water, and Dame Bernadette Kelly, a former Permanent Secretary at the Department for Transport.

Thames Water has been grappling with a near-£20bn debt mountain and last month cautioned investors that it faced the prospect of running out of cash before the end of this year.

Former environment secretary Emma Reynolds has previously rejected L&VW’s turnaround plan.

This story about the July 2026 PCE inflation report will be updated with further details.

The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge rose slightly in July as the pace of price growth remained well above the central bank’s target ahead.

The Commerce Department on Wednesday reported that the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) index rose 0.2% from a month ago and was up 3.7% on an annual basis in July. Both figures were hotter than the expectations of economists polled by LSEG, who projected readings of 0.1% and 3.6%, respectively.

Core PCE, which excludes volatile measurements of food and energy prices, was up 0.2% on a monthly basis and is 3.3% higher than last year. Both figures were in line with the estimate of the LSEG poll.

FED’S HAMMACK SAYS MULTIPLE RATE HIKES MAY BE NEEDED TO TAME INFLATION

Federal Reserve policymakers are focused on the PCE headline figure as they try to bring inflation back to their long-run target of 2%, though they view core data as a better indicator of inflation. Compared with June’s readings, headline PCE remained at 3.7%, while core PCE also stayed at 3.3%.

Goods prices were 1.3% higher than a year ago in July after declining 0.6% on a monthly basis.

Services prices were 2.5% year over year and increased 0.3% from the prior month in July.

What experts are saying

What does it mean for the Fed and interest rates?

What does it mean for the market?

AUSTIN, TEXAS — Ken Paxton, attorney general for Texas, has launched an investigation into companies that market and sell products labeled as “made with avocado oil” after a study from the University of California, Davis found that such products may contain seed oils or other ingredients not identified on ingredient lists.

“Consumers should not have to worry if they are being deceived by labels when trying to choose healthier options at the grocery store,” Paxton said Aug. 20. “I will not allow companies to fraudulently mislabel products. My office will hold accountable any company that violates the law and misleads Texans about what is actually in their food.”

The study was published online July 11 in Applied Food Research. It evaluated 74 products, including chips, mayonnaise and salad dressings, that were labeled as containing avocado oil or olive oil. Among the avocado oil-labeled products, 89% exhibited compositional patterns that were inconsistent with authentic avocado oil. Ninety-three percent of the chips, 71% of the mayonnaises and 100% of the salad dressings were inconsistent.

“These findings suggest that ingredient-level oil claims may represent an underexamined source of economic adulteration in processed foods,” the researchers said.

Among 20 olive oil products, one failed the authenticity test. While the authenticity of olive oil has been studied, tested and scrutinized for decades, avocado oil has not been monitored at the same level, according to the researchers.

Products cost more

Products promoted for containing avocado oil or olive oil tend to cost more than other products in their respective categories.

In the study, chips labeled with avocado oil ranged from 30¢ to $2 per oz, which compared with 43¢ to $1.70 for olive oil chips and 44¢ to 62¢ for vegetable oil chips. Avocado oil mayonnaises ranged from 30¢ to $1.63 per oz, which compared with 53¢ to $1.07 for olive oil mayonnaise and 24¢ to 75¢ for vegetable oil mayonnaise. Salad dressings labeled with avocado oil ranged from 60¢ to $1.12 per oz, while olive oil dressings ranged from 42¢ to $1.12 per oz.

“Consumers are increasingly paying a premium for products made with avocado oil or olive oil,” said lead author Selina Wang, PhD, a professor of cooperative extension in the UC, Davis Department of Food Science and Technology. “They deserve to get what they pay for, and food manufacturers deserve confidence that the ingredients they purchase from suppliers are authentic.”

While the authenticity of olive oil has been studied, tested and scrutinized for decades, avocado oil has not been monitored at the same level, according to researchers at the University of California at Davis.

| Photo: ©CHANDLERVID85 – STOCK.ADOBE.COM

Products exhibited compositional patterns inconsistent with authentic avocado oil, characterized by reduced palmitic acid, palmitoleic acid, cis-vaccenic acid, beta-sitosterol and clerosterol as well as elevated stearic acid, campesterol, stigmasterol, delta-7-stigmastenol and delta-7-avenasterol. Laboratory frying and emulsification experiments showed minor shifts in authenticity markers, indicating that typical processing conditions did not explain the magnitude of deviations observed in the products, according to the researchers.

“In our experience we’ve noticed natural variables, such as geographic origin and avocado variety, can change these fingerprints,” Wang said. “So, we gave the samples some wiggle room, giving them a 10% margin of deviation to account for that, but 89% of the avocado products still failed.”

Supplier complexity

She said food manufacturers may not know their products contain adulterated oil since they source oils from third-party brokers or from several different suppliers.

Texas has issued civil investigative demands (CIDs) to Primal Kitchen, Siete Foods and Chosen Foods. The office of the attorney general will investigate to determine if the three companies and potentially other companies violated the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act (DTPA).

“A recent UC Davis study suggests that two of our mayos and two of our dressings contain seed oils, which is simply not true,” Chosen Foods said. “We never add seed oils of any kind. We believe the testing procedures used in this recent study do not fully account for the unique characteristics of finished products such as condiments and dressings.”

Primal Kitchen and Siete Foods did not respond to request for comment. 

KATHMANDU, Nepal — At least 31 people have been killed and hundreds remain missing after a massive flash flood swept through villages along the Nepal-China border Wednesday, triggered by an earthquake that set off a landslide blocking a major river before sending a torrent of water crashing downstream.

The death toll, reported by local police in Nepal’s Bagmati province, is expected to continue rising as search and rescue operations remain underway. The flood struck near Nepal’s border with China’s Tibet Autonomous Region, devastating settlements in the Rasuwa district and surrounding areas, with hundreds of people, including foreign nationals from several countries, still unaccounted for.

Nepal’s Foreign Minister Shishir Khanal explained the sequence of events that triggered the disaster during a meeting at the House of Representatives. “An earthquake occurred at 8:37 a.m. today, and due to it, a large landslide occurred, blocking the river, which appears to have caused the flood,” Khanal said, referring to the Bhote Koshi river. The United States Geological Survey recorded a magnitude 4.4 earthquake in the region at the same time referenced by Khanal.

Dramatic footage captured by security cameras showed the moment floodwater crashed through the Nepal-China border area, with people seen running for safety as the water appeared to wipe out everything in its path. Video released by the Nepali Army showed rescue teams winching stranded residents from rooftops into helicopters, with some of those rescued covered in mud and appearing injured after being battered by the floodwater.

Among those still missing are 60 employees of an under-construction hydropower project in northern Nepal, according to Nepali state media. The workers were employed at the 20-megawatt Langtang Khola Hydroelectric Project in Rasuwa municipality, near the Chinese border. According to Nepal’s RSS national news agency, “the project was carrying out concrete construction work inside a tunnel” at the time of the disaster, adding that “the flood caused severe damage to the project.” Rasuwa municipality is home to several hydropower projects built to harness the region’s fast-flowing rivers.

The disaster has also struck heavily across the border in Tibet, where Chinese state media has warned of “major casualties,” though no official casualty figures for the Chinese side had been released as of Wednesday morning. A mudslide hit China’s Gyirong port, prompting Chinese leader Xi Jinping to call for “all-out” search and rescue efforts.

Gyirong port ranks among the most significant land border crossings between China and Nepal, developed as a major trade hub and viewed by Beijing as an important node within its broader Belt and Road global connectivity initiative. The border checkpoint sits more than 1,800 meters above sea level and typically handles hundreds of millions of dollars in annual two-way trade, accounting for nearly a third of total China-Nepal trade volume in 2024, according to Chinese state news agency Xinhua. The crossing has faced natural disasters before; floods swept away the bridge connecting the port to Nepal’s Rasuwa Port in July 2025, suspending goods trade there for roughly six months, and the port was also closed for months following a devastating 2015 earthquake. Authorities announced Wednesday that roads leading to the port would be closed to non-emergency vehicles for seven days, according to state media, while local reports indicated communications and power outages continuing in the area.

International reaction to the disaster began arriving quickly Wednesday. The U.S. Embassy in Nepal said it was “deeply saddened” by the loss of life. “We extend our sincere condolences to the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives, and our thoughts are with all those affected by this disaster,” the embassy posted on social media, while urging American citizens in the affected Rasuwa, Nuwakot, Dhading, Gorkha, Chitwan and Tanahun districts to stay away from riverbanks and low-lying areas, seek higher ground, and follow local instructions.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung ordered an “all-out” rescue effort in response to the disaster, according to his spokesperson, directing the South Korean government to prioritize the safety of Korean nationals while cooperating with Nepalese authorities. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed solidarity with Nepal in a social media post, saying the people of India stand with their “sisters and brothers in Nepal at this difficult time” and confirming India was prepared to provide “all possible humanitarian assistance.”

The Red Cross has deployed an emergency response team with relief supplies to the affected areas. The organization’s regional office for Asia-Pacific said it had “activated emergency response teams, mobilised volunteers and is deploying an emergency team with relief supplies,” while urging affected communities to “stay alert and follow official safety instructions.” The International Federation of Red Cross said it stood ready to support the broader response effort.

The disaster presents an early and significant test for Nepal’s relatively new government. Prime Minister Balen Shah, 36, a former rapper who took office in March following a youth-led movement against corruption and nepotism that swept aside Nepal’s establishment political parties, had not yet publicly commented on the floods as of Wednesday morning. Shah campaigned on promises to reform national politics and expand opportunity for young Nepalis in a country that relies on remittances from migrant workers for roughly a quarter of its gross domestic product. The disaster will likely require Shah to coordinate closely with both India, Nepal’s larger southern neighbor, and China to its north, a relationship that has at times proven complicated; as Kathmandu’s mayor in 2023, Shah previously canceled a scheduled trip to China after Beijing released an updated map that did not reflect Nepal’s own 2020 political boundaries covering certain disputed Himalayan territories.

With hundreds still missing and search and rescue operations continuing on both sides of the border, officials in both Nepal and China have cautioned that the full death toll from the disaster remains unknown and is likely to climb further as recovery teams reach areas cut off by damaged infrastructure, power outages and disrupted communications in the affected mountainous border region.

Andy Burnham has signalled that there will be more support to help people with their bills in the budget, as the energy price cap rose by 4 per cent, taking household energy costs in Britain to their highest level in three years from October.

Ofgem has increased the cap by 4 per cent from 1 October, taking the annual bill for a typical household to £1,723, up from £1,663, under the regulator’s updated definition of a typical consumer, which came into effect in July to reflect falling energy use. Under the previous calculation for the usage of the average household, the cap rises by £73, or 4 per cent, to £1,935 a year. The regulator said around 11 million households on fixed tariffs, roughly 35 per cent of the total, are unaffected by the change.

Speaking to reporters at a supermarket in London, the prime minister said the government would look at how to get prices “down in the long term”.

“It’s difficult for people and I recognise that,” Burnham said. “But it’s why, within days of taking office, I announced that we would remove VAT off electricity bills to give people that little bit of help.

“That kicks in from October. We know the price cap will have an impact, but it is what we can do right now.

“We’ll continue to look as we go forward at how we get energy prices down in the long term, and that’s what we need to do too.”

The increase comes despite the prime minister’s plan to remove VAT from electricity bills from October, which he previously said would knock about £45 off the annual Ofgem price cap. Ofgem said gas bills are set to rise by 8 per cent, while electricity costs remain broadly stable because of the VAT removal.

The war between Iran and America has sharply pushed up the price of wholesale gas, which remains elevated as uncertainty over a resolution to the conflict persists. Last week, Cornwall Insight warned that the war and its impact on global gas markets was hampering the ability of European gas storage operators to refill stocks ahead of winter, with gas-in-store levels remaining low for the time of year.

Neil Kenward, Ofgem’s director general for markets, said: “High international gas prices are continuing to drive energy costs in the UK. We welcome the government’s intervention to remove VAT from electricity bills, without which customers would have faced even higher costs this winter.”

Miatta Fahnbulleh, the secretary of state for energy and net zero, would not be drawn on criticising Donald Trump for starting the war, but told Sky News she was “frustrated that global events are having an impact on households”. She said the government would explore “what more we can do” to help those struggling with high bills through “fundamental reforms”, including investment in renewable energy.

Fahnbulleh told Times Radio: “We know that families are worried about their energy bills at a time that family budgets are under huge amounts of pressure with the cost of living. That is why the first thing that the prime minister did when he came onto the job was to take VAT off electricity bills.

“That is on top of the £150 that we’d taken off bills in April in order to provide people with a bit of breathing space. I think that signals a determination for us to do everything that we can do to support families from the impacts of the war in the Middle East at home and on family finances.”

Pressed on whether net zero was also driving up bills, following a Civitas report which found that Britain had put unusually large costs such as green levies on bills to pay for renewable infrastructure, she told Sky News: “We’re looking at fundamental reforms to the energy market to make sure that it does work for consumers.”

The chancellor could look at helping households weather rising bills through a one-off targeted payment, or by introducing a social tariff, which could allow eligible customers to pay a reduced price per unit of energy. Fahnbulleh said the government was also looking at how to reduce standing charges, the fixed daily fee added to gas and electricity bills, which she described as “a massive bugbear for many consumers”.

“My job and the thing that I’m trying to do alongside the regulator is to think about the most fair and affordable way in which we can recover those costs,” she said.

Analysts at Cornwall Insight on Wednesday released their latest forecast of a further 9 per cent increase to the price cap in the new year, which would put an average January bill at £1,872 a year, £149 higher than October’s £1,723. “The January figure will not be confirmed until November, and there remains a lot of time for wholesale market conditions to shift,” the Cornwall analysts said.

The price cap, introduced in 2019, limits the prices that suppliers can charge households for each unit of gas and electricity on standard tariffs.

Amy Ingham

Amy Ingham is a reporter at Business Matters, covering UK business news with a focus on breaking news, business policy, late payments and insolvency. She joined the magazine in 2026 after completing the NCTJ Diploma in Journalism at Harlow College’s journalism school. Her recent reporting includes British Steel’s nationalisation and its impact on SME suppliers, the decline in late payments by large firms, and Insolvency Service director disqualifications. Reach her at aingham@cbmeg.co.uk.

One of the UK’s oldest family-owned companies has praised the government’s decision to include forges in its energy subsidy scheme for manufacturers, forecasting savings of up to £250,000 a year on its fixed energy costs.

Somers Forge, which is based in the Black Country and has been owned by the Folkes family since 1697, supplies vital parts for naval vessels including nuclear submarines. The firm, part of the country’s defence manufacturing chain, was recently included in the British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme (BICS), which waives the obligation to fully pay three of the five levies imposed on UK manufacturers.

Tammy Inglis, the finance director of Somers, said it was “absolutely brilliant” to see forges included in the scheme. “Over a five-year period, we were going to expense an extra £1.1 million on that one-line cost. Now, because we are going to be saving a lot of that and a proportion of other renewable surcharges, we’re going to save around £200,000 to £250,000 per year from our fixed costs on energy,” she said.

The scheme was announced in June last year, promising to cut electricity costs by up to £40 per megawatt hour for more than 7,000 energy-intensive users such as automotive, aerospace and chemicals makers, by reducing what eligible firms pay towards the renewables obligation, capacity market and feed-in tariff from 2027. However, the industry code for businesses classed under forging, pressing and stamping of metal was initially left out.

Last month the government updated the criteria for BICS to include forges, after lobbying from groups such as the Confederation of British Metalforming. This month it published the final list of eligible activities and launched an eligibility checker so firms were aware they could claim.

Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, told The Times: “By making sure every eligible business in the country knows how to access the support they need, our Modern Industrial Strategy will help power Britain’s future and unlock good growth in every corner of the country.”

The support comes as energy prices continue to squeeze the firm, which celebrates the 160th anniversary of its engineering division this October. Inglis said the company was paying around 45 pence per therm, a unit of heat, in 2018, but the price has since risen to as much as £1.65. Somers now spends as much as 10 per cent of its turnover on energy bills.

“I’m getting to the stage … where I’ve got to start putting surcharges on customers, because it’s just a low profit,” she said.

Inglis previously told The Times that the company was struggling to compete with European rivals because of energy costs. She said the scheme will “definitely” help the firm compete in Europe, although energy prices still feed into the cost of other commodities the business buys, such as steel.

The wider strain on companies was underlined last week by the Red Flag report from BTG, a management consultancy, which found more than 53,000 British businesses at risk of collapse and a 9 per cent year-on-year jump in companies in critical financial distress. BTG warned of the impact of higher inflation and energy prices.

Stephen Morley, the president of the Confederation of British Metalforming, an association that represents 200 companies, said the changes mean that between 70 and 80 per cent of his members are now eligible for the scheme. The GMB union has separately criticised the exclusion of ceramics and brickmaking businesses from the support.

Morley welcomed the change for metalformers but said the “staggering price of energy in the UK remains at the forefront of industry’s mind”, creating an “unfair playing field for our firms trying to compete globally”. He said German companies complain about energy “until they realise our costs are 60 per cent higher”.

He urged the prime minister to go further. “BICS is a start, but it shouldn’t be the end … Burnham and his team have an opportunity to redraw the energy lines and give manufacturers the conditions to grow and create jobs,” Morley said.

Amy Ingham

Amy Ingham is a reporter at Business Matters, covering UK business news with a focus on breaking news, business policy, late payments and insolvency. She joined the magazine in 2026 after completing the NCTJ Diploma in Journalism at Harlow College’s journalism school. Her recent reporting includes British Steel’s nationalisation and its impact on SME suppliers, the decline in late payments by large firms, and Insolvency Service director disqualifications. Reach her at aingham@cbmeg.co.uk.

Walmart is making a new play for younger, style-conscious shoppers with a women’s fashion brand offering most items for less than $25.

The retail giant is rolling out Scenario, a modern bohemian collection featuring apparel, shoes, jewelry, handbags and other accessories, at all of its stores.

The launch includes 280 styles, according to Walmart.

“We’ve been on a journey to democratize fashion by focusing on expanding our assortment, elevating the experience in-store and online, reaching new customers and changing [the] perception [of] Walmart fashion,” a spokesperson for the retailer told FOX Business in an email.

The news was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

WALMART SAYS IT WILL USE BILLIONS IN TARIFF REFUNDS TO KEEP PRICES LOW

Walmart is rolling out Scenario, a modern bohemian collection featuring apparel, shoes, jewelry, handbags and other accessories. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Scenario is designed to appeal to women around age 35 who want trendier details than Walmart’s existing brands traditionally offer, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The line includes embroidered blouses, pintuck denim shirts and faux leather bags, with a focus on natural fabrics such as cotton, the outlet reported.

Walmart said it developed the brand after research found nearly one in five women ranked bohemian fashion among their preferred styles, even though none of its existing private labels were perceived as directly catering to that look.

WALMART E-COMMERCE SALES SURGE AS CEO TOUTS ‘PRICE, SPEED AND CONVENIENCE’

Scenario is designed to appeal to women around age 35 who want trendier details than Walmart’s existing brands traditionally offer. (Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Scenario will take over some space previously devoted to Time and Tru, Walmart’s women’s brand focused on classic wardrobe staples, according to the Journal.

The retailer tested elements of the bohemian aesthetic within its Time and Tru assortment before deciding to build a dedicated lifestyle brand, the company said.

The existing brand will continue with a smaller selection focused on its most popular items, the outlet reported.

“This is an ‘and’ strategy,” Denise Incandela, executive vice president of fashion for Walmart U.S., told the Journal. “We’re still going to cover those big-volume driving socks and underwear and denim and Ts.”

POPULAR WALMART NUT BUTTER RECALLED AFTER TESTING DETECTS SALMONELLA

Walmart said it has launched or relaunched 15 private brands over the past five years as it works to modernize its fashion business. (Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

CLICK HERE TO GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO

Walmart said it has launched or relaunched 15 private brands over the past five years as it works to modernize its fashion business. 

The retailer said it has also expanded its selection of premium brands through its online marketplace.