BP suffers investor rebellion at first AGM since climate strategy U-turn

BP suffered an investor rebellion on Thursday after facing shareholders for the first time since abandoning its climate strategy at a meeting marred by protest.About a quarter of shareholders voted against the chair, Helge Lund, at the company’s annual meeting in Sunbury-on-Thames, on the edges of London, which attracted protest from several green campaign groups.The Guardian understands that five protesters were forcibly blocked from entering the meeting before the vote, which marked the first time in at least a decade that more than 10% of BP’s shareholders voted against the re-election of the chair.The activists from Fossil Free London and Energy Embargo for Palestine protested outside the venue, describing the board as “murderers, looters and genocide enablers”, before major institutional investors voted against the re-election of Lund.The shareholder meeting was held weeks after Lund, who presided over BP’s failed green agenda, promised to step down from the company by next year

Cheaper energy, more cash and a bit of scrap: how to save British Steel

The government has taken control of British Steel, so averting the closure within days of the UK’s last two blast furnaces. However, the takeover leaves a big question: what next?Steep losses at British Steel prompted its Chinese owner, Jingye, to decide last month to close its blast furnaces in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, which would end the production of “virgin” steel in the UK. The government stepped in with emergency legislation, passed in a single day last Saturday, to prevent that.The legislation has given the industry, workers and politicians time to work out how to build a doubly sustainable UK steel industry: one that makes money, while minimising carbon emissions.The future for Scunthorpe, if it is to have a future, will almost certainly be the electric arc furnace (EAF)

Spotify running again after users around world report problems

Tens of thousands of Spotify users around the world reported being unable to stream music on the app, which was hit by several hours of technical problems on Wednesday.Downdetector, which tracks platforms, showed more than 48,000 outage reports for Spotify worldwide on Wednesday afternoon.In the UK, the number of people reporting that Spotify was not functioning peaked at about 1.30pm BST, after problems began 30 minutes earlier. By 3pm, the number had fallen to about 10,000

Google sued for £5bn in UK over allegations of shutting out rivals

Google is being sued in the UK for up to £5bn in damages over allegations it shut out rivals in the internet search market and abused this dominance to overcharge businesses for advertisements. A class action filed at the competition appeal tribunal on Wednesday argues that the US company has taken actions that enable it to charge higher prices for the promotions that appear in search queries than it otherwise could in a fair market. It is alleged that Google, which is owned by Alphabet, contracted phone makers to pre-install the Google search app and Chrome browser on Android devices and paid Apple to make it the default search engine on iPhones, with the intention of shutting out competition. The claim is filed by a competition law expert, Or Brook, on behalf of thousands of businesses and alleges Google ensured its search engine had better functionality and more features for Google’s own advertising offering than that of its competitors.A Google spokesperson said: “This is yet another speculative and opportunistic case and we will argue against it vigorously

Skelton’s Cheltenham winner maintains narrow title lead in duel with Mullins

A single winner on Cheltenham’s final card of the season was enough to maintain Dan Skelton’s narrow lead in the contest for the National Hunt trainers’ championship on Thursday, ahead of a busy Easter programme weekend when Skelton and the defending champion, Willie Mullins, will send dozens of runners to tracks in all parts of the country as the title race goes into its final week.Mullins, who was the first Irish trainer to win the British championship for 70 years when he edged out Skelton 12 months ago, equalled his own record of 10 wins at the track’s festival meeting last month.He could not add to his Cheltenham tally for the year from four runners yesterday, however, although all four finished in the money, adding £17,645 to the Mullins cause before Skelton’s mare Shakeyatailfeather went to post as 2-1 favourite for the Holland Cooper Mares’ Handicap Chase.It was a clear shot at a valuable prize for the stable as Mullins did not have a runner in the race, and Harry Skelton, the trainer’s brother, brought Shakeyatailfeather with a smooth run to overhaul the second-favourite, Somespring Special, on the run to the final fence on the way to a four-and-a-quarter length success.The Skeltons also fielded the 3-1 favourite in the concluding bumper, but while Sheezer Dancer finished strongly against the stands’ rail, she crossed the line in third

Andrew Flintoff to share ‘vivid’ memories of Top Gear crash

The former England cricketer Andrew “Freddie” Flintoff has promised to share “what actually happened” in the horrific Top Gear crash in December 2022 that left him with life-altering injuries.In the trailer for a Disney+ documentary about his life and career, which will air next Friday, he says of the accident: “I remember everything about it … it’s so vivid.”Flintoff was airlifted to hospital after a crash at Dunsfold Park in Surrey while filming an episode of Top Gear for the BBC. The popular motoring show was subsequently taken off air and the broadcaster reached a financial settlement with Flintoff for a reported £9m.“It’s almost like a reset and I’m trying to understand what I am now,” Flintoff says in the trailer for the documentary