Growing knowledge, growing yield: British wine-making comes of age

Rows of vines stretch across the rolling hills of rural Dorset. Currently waist height, they appear bare against a bleak spring sky. Up close, you can see they are already dotted with tiny woolly buds as they exit their winter dormancy for a new growth cycle.Come summer these rows will be laden with chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier grapes, ready to make the latest batch of English sparkling wine from the Langham estate near Dorchester.Although it was only 2009 when the first vines were planted here on former arable farmland, the estate has already produced award-winning wines that beat established European rivals

Survivors of alleged sexual abuse by former owner of Harrods want enablers to face justice

A group of 50 survivors of alleged sexual abuse by Harrods’ former owner Mohamed Al Fayed are calling for “meaningful consequences” for those who they claim facilitated and ignored the abuse.“If they think the money is the important factor they are so far off the mark,” said Jen Mills, a member of the Justice for Fayed and Harrods Survivors group. They claim there are “dozens of individuals who must be held to account”, from a range of eras.The campaign group, which includes some of those who took part in the redress scheme and others who did not, wants Harrods to release the findings of an internal investigation into what staff knew.The group, which is being supported by actor Richard Gere, Dame Vera Baird DBC KC, the former victims commissioner for England and Wales, and women’s rights advocates Gloria Allred and Gina Martin, also wants more regulation of HR professionals overseeing the hiring of new workers and an explanation of why the Metropolitan police and General Medical Council did not investigate women’s complaints at the time

UK’s OnlyFans tops $3bn valuation amid talks to sell stake to US investor

OnlyFans, the UK adult video platform, is in talks to sell a minority stake to a US investor that will value the business at more than $3bn (£2.2bn).The London-based company is in advanced talks to sell a stake of less than 20% to the San Francisco-based investment firm Architect Capital, according to the Financial Times. Sources familiar with the process confirmed the talks to the Guardian.OnlyFans has decided that offloading a minority stake is the best guarantee of stability for a business dealing with the death of its owner, Leonid Radvinsky

Finance leaders warn over Mythos as UK banks prepare to use powerful Anthropic AI tool

British banks will be given access in the next week to a powerful AI tool that was deemed too dangerous to be released to the public, as a series of senior finance figures warned over its impact.Anthropic, which has so far limited the release of the new model to a small clutch of primarily US businesses, including Amazon, Apple and Microsoft, said it would expand that to UK financial institutions.“That is in the very near term, in the next week,” Pip White, Anthropic’s head of UK, Ireland and northern Europe operations, said in a Bloomberg TV interview. “As you would expect, the engagement I have had from UK CEOs in the last week has been significant.”Anthropic, which is the company behind the Claude family of AI tools, has said that its latest model, Mythos, poses an unprecedented risk because of its ability to expose flaws in IT systems

England run in 12 tries as Kildunne sparks demolition of Scotland in Women’s Six Nations

The fortress walls of Murrayfield were finally at Scotland women’s disposal for their first standalone game at the stadium but England rocked its foundations with a statement performance that left fans questioning if the world champions had injury issues at all.The 30,498 crowd was a record attendance for a women’s solo sporting event in Scotland and they were largely silenced. Scotland were sloppy, conceding the most points against England since 2011 and they will have to be sharper when they face Italy in the next round.On the face of things England should be struggling on pitch with 13 of their Rugby World Cup-winning squad missing through retirement, injury and pregnancies but the Red Roses are demontrating their endless pool of talent at this Women’s Six Nations. The latest player to be given a baptism in international rugby was the 19-year-old Bristol Bears back-row Demelza Short

The Crucible holds tribute to former player and commentator John Virgo

A minute’s applause was paid in tribute to John Virgo, who died in February aged 79, as the World Snooker Championship got under way at the Crucible in Sheffield.Virgo, who won the UK Championship in 1979, enjoyed a successful playing career but was best known for his broadcasting.During his 18 years as a professional, Virgo reached the World Championship semi-finals in 1979. He went on to work for the BBC in 1994 and his voice became a distinctive feature of the national broadcaster’s snooker coverage for three decades.This article includes content hosted on embed