Water levels at that huge Kariba dam are creeping up, but the power situation is still absolutely dire. Recent rain around the lake has provided a tiny boost, with the lake level now at 476.24 meters and usable water storage for power sitting at just over five percent. That pathetic number is still a decade-low, completely dwarfed by the over fifty percent storage seen in a good year like 2018. The Zambezi River Authority says don't get excited for a real recovery, just hope things stabilize.
The result is a massive chokehold on electricity generation. Zimbabwe's power company can only squeeze out a maximum of 550 megawatts from the Kariba South plant, a fraction of its potential, because there is barely any water to run through the...
Road deaths in Zimbabwe basically doubled over the holidays because drivers are awful. Police stats show a brutal spike in accidents for a recent twelve-day period compared to last year, with over 2,400 crashes leading to 100 fatalities and 471 injuries. The worst single incident killed ten people in a Honda Fit during a head-on collision with a truck on the Harare-Nyamapanda Road. Commissioner Paul Nyathi, a police spokesperson, laid the blame squarely on driver behavior, citing reckless overtaking, lane encroachment, and speeding as the top causes.
The analysis pointed to a bunch of stupid and preventable reasons for the carnage. Besides the obvious speeding and dangerous passing, a lot of wrecks involved tyre bursts, especially in...
The UK is still dead last among major economies for putting money into its own future. New international data shows Britain's total investment, mixing both public and private spending, stuck at 18.6 percent of GDP, keeping it at the bottom of the G7 ranking below the United States, Germany, France, and Japan. This spotlights a chronic weakness, as the country has held this last-place position for 23 out of the last 31 years, a key reason for its sluggish productivity. The current government pledged a major boost in public spending on things like infrastructure and housing, with projections showing the biggest two-year rise since the 2008 crash.
The real worry is that this government push might be going it alone. Analysts note that...
That small business commissioner guy actually clawed back ten million bucks in late payments for little guys. The Office of the Small Business Commissioner just hit that milestone, recovering about a million in this financial year alone, with over half a million secured just last month. They help small firms fight bigger companies that are sitting on unpaid invoices. Since starting up back in 2017, the office has reviewed complaints and leaned on larger businesses to pay up. The problem is still massive, with government figures showing late payments trash the economy to the tune of 11 billion pounds yearly, killing around 4,000 small businesses annually.
One tiny IT shop with just four employees said the commissioner's office got them...
Brits are suddenly using way more electricity after decades of cutting back. New numbers show demand shot up three percent this year, the biggest jump since 2001, thanks to everyone plugging in electric cars, heat pumps, and those power-hungry AI data centers. This marks the first back-to-back yearly increase since the early 2000s, with total use hitting an estimated 273 terawatt-hours. The lead analyst on the report, Iain Staffell from Imperial College London, stated the twenty-year decline is officially over, pinpointing those three technologies as the main drivers.
This surge is a direct result of swapping fossil fuels for electrons across the board. Heat pump installations grew about twenty percent, EV sales spiked twenty-eight...
Business bigwigs just got a bunch of fancy titles from the government. The latest honors list dropped, highlighting a bunch of UK business leaders from different sectors for their economic impact. Major names getting nods include Gary Andrew Hoffman, the Chair of Monzo Bank, who got a CBE, and Ian Graham King, CEO of BAE Systems, who also received a CBE. Others recognized were Jonathan Piers, Daniel Linney from Implement AI Ltd, Akin Onal from MORI, Marie Sarah Owen of LS Productions, and Richard David Harpin, founder of HomeServe, who got knighted. The list also featured Mark Bamforth from Kincell Bio, Alessandra Bellini from the Advertising Association, Safaraz Ali of Pathway Group, and Joanne Liddle from Industrial Precision...
That green energy app you use is becoming its own billion-dollar beast. Octopus Energy is cutting its tech arm Kraken loose in a massive split, valuing the platform at a monster 8.65 billion dollars. This follows a fresh one billion dollar investment led by D1 Capital Partners, with other big money players like Fidelity and the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan throwing in. The whole point is to let Kraken, originally built in-house, operate as a neutral tech provider for other power companies worldwide, while Octopus itself focuses on selling power and building clean tech stuff. As part of this financial gymnastics, new investors are grabbing about a billion in Kraken equity, and another 320 million is being pumped directly into Octopus...
A major manufacturing group is accusing Reform UK of ripping off its logo. Made in Britain, a politically neutral trade body, issued a statement alleging the party is using a mark substantially similar to its registered logo across campaign merchandise without any authorization. The organization stressed it does not endorse or affiliate with any political movement and explicitly prohibits such use.
This complaint highlights increasing tensions over branding and intellectual property in political campaigning, where visual identity is a key tool. Made in Britain asserts its branding exists solely to promote its member manufacturers and British commerce, not for political messaging, and its rules forbid association with any party's...
A depressing number of people spent their holidays doing taxes instead of celebrating. Over thirty-seven thousand taxpayers filed Self Assessment returns between Christmas Eve and Boxing Day, with nearly five thousand completing the task on Christmas Day itself, according to new HMRC data. The peak filing hour on Christmas Eve was late morning, while Christmas Day saw a surge in submissions right after lunch.
With the January thirty-first deadline looming, HMRC is pushing people to file early to understand their tax bill and arrange payment plans, noting that returns submitted by December thirtieth might allow tax to be collected through a PAYE code. The department is promoting its app and online guidance while clarifying that Winter...
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