England’s water industry issued £10.5bn in ‘green bonds’ despite pollution record

Water companies have issued a fifth of the UK’s “green bonds” since 2017, despite a consistently poor record of sewage pollution during that time, research has shown.Privately owned water companies in England have together issued £10.5bn in bonds tied to projects that offer “environmental benefits”, according to analysis of financial market data by Unearthed, which is part of Greenpeace UK.Anglian Water has been the biggest issuer in the water industry, at £3.5bn, with struggling Thames Water second at £3

Expect a tale of two holiday seasons as the well-off spend and the rest pull back | Gene Marks

Will retailers and merchants have a strong holiday season? That depends. This year, more than most, the 2025 holiday season will actually be two holiday seasons.If your business caters to higher-income individuals or if you’re located in a wealthier part of the country, you’ll probably have a decent holiday season. True, even the wealthy are cutting back. But according to the HR firm ADP average salaries have risen between 4

AI’s safety features can be circumvented with poetry, research finds

Poetry can be linguistically and structurally unpredictable – and that’s part of its joy. But one man’s joy, it turns out, can be a nightmare for AI models.Those are the recent findings of researchers out of Italy’s Icaro Lab, an initiative from a small ethical AI company called DexAI. In an experiment designed to test the efficacy of guardrails put on artificial intelligence models, the researchers wrote 20 poems in Italian and English that all ended with an explicit request to produce harmful content such as hate speech or self-harm.They found that the poetry’s lack of predictability was enough to get the AI models to respond to harmful requests they had been trained to avoid – a process know as “jailbreaking”

ChatGPT-5 offers dangerous advice to mentally ill people, psychologists warn

ChatGPT-5 is offering dangerous and unhelpful advice to people experiencing mental health crises, some of the UK’s leading psychologists have warned.Research conducted by King’s College London (KCL) and the Association of Clinical Psychologists UK (ACP) in partnership with the Guardian suggested that the AI chatbotfailed to identify risky behaviour when communicating with mentally ill people.A psychiatrist and a clinical psychologist interacted with ChatGPT-5 as if they had a number of mental health conditions. The chatbot affirmed, enabled and failed to challenge delusional beliefs such as being “the next Einstein”, being able to walk through cars or “purifying my wife through flame”.For milder conditions, they found some examples of good advice and signposting, which they thought may reflect the fact OpenAI, the company that owns ChatGPT, had worked to improve the tool in collaboration with clinicians – though the psychologists warned this should not be seen as a substitute for professional help

Middlesex CCC chief executive investigated after complaint by staff member

The Middlesex County Cricket Club chief executive, Andrew Cornish, has taken leave of absence from the club following an allegation of misconduct made by another member of staff.The Guardian has learned that Middlesex have handed the complaint over to the Cricket Regulator, which has launched an investigation into the matter.Cornish is understood to have stepped away from the club 10 days ago. Middlesex declined to comment when contacted by the Guardian, but the club’s board is expected to inform staff on Monday about Cornish’s absence.Cornish denies any inappropriate behaviour, and he has claimed to be unaware of the details of any complaints made against him

Duplantis wins top award and takes aim at Grand Slam Track’s exclusion of field events

Armand Duplantis has capped a remarkable 2025, in which he broke four world records and won another world title, by being named World Athletics’ male athlete of the year.Immediately after picking up the award, the Swedish pole vaulter took aim at Michael Johnson’s Grand Slam Track, which collapsed in the summer and is still yet to pay athletes their full prize money.“There was another tour that tried to exclude field events,” Duplantis said to an audience that included multiple athletics stars as well Prince Albert II of Monaco. “That didn’t didn’t go so well, did it? I am very proud to represent field eventers.”That received applause and laughter in the room, and there was more when Duplantis, who was unbeaten in 16 competitions in 2025, said he was “delighted and honoured to win the award – I just love pushing myself and pushing boundaries”