I work for a charity providing affordable sheltered housing for older people. In January 2024, we began refurbishing a building that was bequeathed to us.
We paid Thames Water to connect a water supply in February 2024. It wasn’t until November that it informed us that it would need permission from Transport for London (TfL) to close part of the road.
Since then, there has been no progress. Thames Water blames TfL which, it claims, keeps asking for extra information and requires 12 working days to respond when it is submitted.
The renovations are now complete but we are unable to rent the properties without a water supply. The delay could be costing the charity up to £6,900 a month in revenue.
JS, London
You first wrote to me at the beginning of March, 13 months after you had paid for the installation. Naively, I hoped that an overture from the press, highlighting the financial hit to your charity, might allow common sense to prevail over process.
As I was wading in, TfL was requesting yet another document from Thames Water which required another 12 working days to process.
Thames Water told me that TfL was to blame for repeatedly requesting amendments to its application for the road closure.
A Thames Water spokesperson said: “We have been engaging with TfL to secure a date for the works to proceed. We recognise how important this is to the charity.”
TfL, meanwhile, blamed it all on Thames Water for submitting incomplete applications. Its spokesperson said: “We have been working with Thames Water to resolve a number of issues with its application, and we continue to handle this in line with the longstanding agreements around permissions and timescales required for these works.”
The good news was that, after my contact, an installation date was agreed for late May. The bad news: it never happened. It appears that Thames Water had omitted to arrange a traffic management plan. It also omitted to let you know that the works could not proceed.
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The company breezily told me you would have to wait until August for a new appointment and ignored my questions about compensation.
Last month, a year and a half after you paid for the installation, the property was finally connected. You are now in negotiations about an appropriate payout from Thames Water.
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Tucking into a box of Quality Street or Celebrations is a Christmas tradition.
But as this year’s supply arrives in British supermarkets, it is becoming clear that the Grinch has already struck and made the tubs of the confectionery lighter.
Someone has also taken a bite out of Toblerone, with 20g shaved off its chocolatey peaks, reducing a 360g bar to 340g.
The latest round of shrinkflation means anyone prising the lid off the Quality Street box may be underwhelmed by the number of sweets – as 50g has been lost from the weight, taking it from 600g to 550g.
Meanwhile, at 500g, there’s less to celebrate about tubs of Mars’s Celebrations, which weighed 550g in 2024.
The writing may have been on the wall earlier this year when Nestlé announced it was altering how Quality Street’s Purple One and Orange Crunch looked.
As well as changing shape, they are now lighter: the unwrapped Purple One used to weigh 9.59g and is now 8.46g. The new look Orange Crunch is down from 9.06g to 8.72g.
You can’t even seek solace from shrinkflation in a Terry’s Chocolate Orange as earlier this year the ball dwindled from 157g to 145g.
Toblerone, owned by the US food company Mondelēz, is no stranger to shrinkage. In 2016, it faced a backlash after it widened the gaps between the chocolate bar’s distinctive triangular chunks instead of putting the price up. Two years later it reverted to the original shape.
Chocolate was once a relatively inexpensive indulgence, but the soaring cost of cocoa has pushed prices up. There have been consecutive poor harvests in west Africa, including Ghana and Ivory Coast where more than half of the world’s cocoa beans are harvested.
Although the price of cocoa beans has fallen back from last year’s record, the UK’s most recent official cost of living data showed the price of chocolate on shop shelves had climbed by 17.2% in the year to July.
In the run-up to Christmas, the tubs of chocolate favourites are heavily discounted by supermarkets to pull in shoppers, but whereas last year the promotional price was £4, this year it appears to be £4.50.
Andrew Moriarty, a cocoa expert at commodity analysts Expana, said price increases were linked to still-high ingredient costs.
“Though raw material prices like cocoa butter have come down nearly 45% [in sterling terms] over the last 12 months, they remain substantially higher than in the years prior to 2024,” he said.
“According to many of the retailers I speak to, suppliers have come for a few increases in recent months on the back of more aggressive costings done earlier in 2025.”
A Mondelēz International spokesperson said any changes to its product sizes were a “last resort”.
“However, we are continuing to experience significantly higher input costs across our supply chain, with ingredients such as cocoa and dairy costing far more than they have done previously.
“Meanwhile, other costs, such as energy and transport, also remain high. This means that our products continue to be much more expensive to make.”
As a result it had made “a small weight reduction to some of our Toblerone bars”.
Nestlé said that every year it set the pack sizes and RRPs for its Quality Street products based on a number of factors including the cost of manufacturing, ingredients and transport.
A spokesperson added: “We think our pricing is competitive with a good variety of choice for Quality Street fans. Final prices are at the discretion of individual retailers.”
Mars was also approached for comment.
It’s not exactly a bold prediction to note that Apple will release its iPhone 17 lineup tomorrow (September 9), with several new models looking to take their place among the best iPhones. Likewise, it’s hardly going out on a limb to assert that an iPhone 17e — a new version of Apple’s less-expensive phone — won’t be among those new models. After all, the iPhone 16e only arrived this past February.
But an iPhone 17e is going to come one of these days — possibly as soon as spring 2026 if you believe the rumors about Apple’s release plans. And anyone who balks at paying up for their next phone might be tempted to hold off for Apple’s cheaper model.
That desire to save could be especially strong this time around. Rumor has it that iPhone 17 prices are going up compared to what Apple charged for the iPhone 16 models. And if the iPhone 17 starts at, say, $849 instead of $799 as one rumor claims, the idea of waiting a few more months for the next sub-$600 iPhone won’t sound so bad to a certain type of shopper.
I believe that the best time to upgrade to a new phone is when you need a new phone, so if you find the new features revealed by Apple at the September 9 iPhone 17 event compelling, you should make that purchase right then and there. But if cost considerations are very much on your mind — understandable in the current economic climate — it may pay to wait for an iPhone 17e. Here’s why.
Dating back to the original iPhone SE, Apple has taken a pretty sensible approach to delivering a less expensive phone — scale back on some premium features while retaining the things that make owning an iPhone so special. If that means only having one rear camera on the phone instead of two or three, then fine, so long as Apple delivers the kind of image-processing algorithms that make the images from that single lens look superb.
At the same time, the lower price tag doesn’t mean compromised performance. Every midrange iPhone has featured the same chipset found in the entry-level iPhone flagship that immediately preceded its release. In the case of the iPhone 16e, that’s the iPhone 16’s A18 chip, which means you can pay $599 for a phone that delivers some of the best performance we’ve come across in our testing over the past year.
The up-to-date processor has another benefit in Apple’s most recent release: it means the iPhone 16e can run the same Apple Intelligence features as any other device dating back to the iPhone 15 Pro. And when I say “features,” I mean all the features. The iPhone 16e isn’t shut out of anything, unlike, say, the Google Pixel 9a, which lacks some of the neural processing to handle every AI capability on board the Pixel 9 series.
The bottom line is that from the get-go, you sacrificed some features with Apple’s cheapest phone, whether it be the iPhone SE or iPhone 16e. But you always got enough value in return in the areas that mattered. And that’s likely to remain the case with the iPhone 17e next year.
Releasing an iPhone 17e a year after the iPhone 16e would be a change for Apple — past updates have taken at least two years and sometimes longer to come out — and it’s one I don’t entirely agree with. But at least the early whispers about the next E series device sound pretty promising.
For starters, the rumors tip the iPhone 17e to feature the same silicon that will be making its debut in the iPhone 17 series this week. That’s the A19 chipset, which figures to deliver improvements to both performance and power management as well as ongoing support for all those Apple Intelligence features Apple keeps introducing.
A design tweak could be in the works, too. While the iPhone 17e is expected to keep the 6.1-inch screen of the current model, we could see the end of the notched display, as Apple brings a Dynamic Island cutout to its cheapest phone. Again, these probably won’t be revolutionary changes, but they should be enough of a step up if you’re upgrading from an older iPhone.
The big question will be the price of the iPhone 17e, and it’s way too early to predict what that might be. Still, you can expect it to be less than what Apple winds up charging for the iPhone 17, and if the price of that new model turns out to put you off upgrading now, you can rest assured that a cheaper model is likely waiting in the wings.
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Entering the almost silent rehearsal room, I fear I’ve blundered into a private moment. The Lady from the Sea cast are seated in a tight circle and at least two of them have tears in their eyes. The quiet murmur of conversation suggests something heavy has just gone down. So I’m relieved when I realise they’re reading a scene – and stunned to discover the scene was written only yesterday.
Simon Stone’s modern take on Ibsen’s play is still under construction, and he has had his actors together for less than a fortnight. “Most people really take six weeks to connect to scenes,” the Australian writer-director says during the lunch break. “Often an entire rehearsal process can be the slow marking out of stuff, and it takes until your first run-through to feel anything at all. We are connecting faster, because we’ve been talking about it so much.”
After workshopping the characters with his actors, Stone writes dialogue based at least partly on their conversations, sometimes only the night before they rehearse it. It’s an approach that has inspired some memorably intense performances. A blistering Yerma was a career-defining moment for Billie Piper in 2016. Two years ago, Janet McTeer sent tremors around the National Theatre’s Lyttelton stage in an updated version of the Phaedra myth.
In today’s hot seat – or, to be accurate, leather sofa – Andrew Lincoln and Alicia Vikander are playing a couple whose married life is derailed by the return of the wife’s long-lost lover. “The way Simon works is sort of the opposite of my training,” says Lincoln, who had a long hiatus from the stage while starring in nine seasons of The Walking Dead. “It’s like you start at the end. But there’s no bullshit, he blows all of that away, and it’s been one of the most remarkable and enlightening things I’ve done in years.”
That’s lucky, because Lincoln wasn’t completely sold on Ibsen’s play. He laughs that he was “ambushed” into the role of Edward – it was only halfway through their initial meeting that he even realised he was being offered a gig. “There’s a thriller aspect to the original that I loved. But I honestly think it’s oppressive. When someone mentions Ibsen to me, I don’t think of gut-belly laughs. But Simon’s got a track record.”
Stone’s modern tragedies are shot through with humour and today’s rehearsal is a case in point: Gracie Oddie-James and Isobel Akuwudike, in particular, fizz with comic chemistry as Edward’s daughters. The writer throws himself back in his chair with a huge cackle and wheezes with laughter even at what sound like serious parts. He watches intently as the scenes unfold in front of him and only occasionally interrupts with advice – say it slower, be more casual, come in faster – teasing out the musicality of the lines like a conductor.
At lunch, Vikander is none the worse for a morning spent being shouted at by her fictional spouse: if anything, it seems to have delighted her. This is the first time the 36-year-old Oscar-winner has been in a theatre production since she was a teenager. “On a film the clock is ticking, because you know that you have three scenes in two days. Here it is such a joy because I have these wonderful nerves every day, from still not really understanding what we’re going to do in front of people.”
Her mother, Maria, was a theatre actor, and Vikander herself trained as a ballet dancer: she never even imagined a screen career. “There’s no one saying ‘cut!’, so I really can lose myself in it all. I’m doing the thing I dreamed of as a kid. It’s a real high.” The one thing she was most apprehensive about was whether her voice would reach across the Bridge theatre’s auditorium. Stone reassures her: “You could do a 2,000-seater if you wanted to, Alicia.”
Vikander knew the play already – she had seen a production in her home country of Sweden, and loved its radical feminism. Her first encounter with Stone – over Zoom while she was shooting a forthcoming film in Korea with her husband, Michael Fassbender – was an intense and revelatory conversation that only ended when they realised it was 1.30am where the actor was (Stone says he left the chat feeling “wonderfully embarrassed”).
His works often contain autobiographical elements, albeit heavily disguised; he calls it “photocopies of photocopies of photocopies”. Lady from the Sea is no different. He first read Ibsen’s original in 2009, two months after encountering a similar situation in his own life. “I had been one half of a relationship that went through that,” says Stone. “I started reading this five-act play in the bath and I just couldn’t stop. By the end, the water was completely cold.”
“I love that you were in the bath,” Vikander comments. “Very appropriate.”
Stone’s stage productions – Yerma, Medea, Phaedra – are testament to the fact that he is more interested in female heroes than male ones. “When I started out I thought I would do just one or two plays focused on women. But it’s become pretty much everything [I do].” It’s why he is so drawn to Ibsen: “When you think that his female characters were written 150 years back, it’s extraordinary. And this from a man in his 50s and 60s. You just go – what?”
The dramatic tension in The Lady from the Sea arises from the fact that the female protagonist is emotionally split in two – something Vikander can relate to. She has two sons, aged four and one, with Fassbender, and still feels guilty when she has to leave them for long days on set. Her grandmother worked – which was considered unusual at the time – and her mother’s earnings were often spent on the childcare she needed when she performed: “I don’t even know how she was able to pay rent,” says Vikander.
She looks back with huge gratitude for an upbringing that modelled how a woman could be a fully committed artist and a loving, present mother. “She would get up at 4am to bake bread, because her mum never cooked for her,” she remembers. “And I’ve realised that to be the best mum, I also need to make sure I have this other thing that makes me the person I am.”
Lincoln, who is 51, has developed his own important work-life rules. One is to do his research on the directors he works with: “The question you always ask is, ‘Are they a shouter?’ Life is too short to work with people that are going to be oppressive or unkind.”
He talked to his friend Piper, whose work in Yerma he had admired, before committing to working with Stone. “She said, ‘It’ll be probably one of the most intense and frightening experiences, but you have to do it.’ It changed the way she worked for ever, and it gave her legitimacy that she felt she didn’t have before.”
Lincoln is thrilled with the role that Stone has written for him; he has also, he says, noticed that he has entered the time of life where he is asked to play cuckolds. “But even when you were young, you were the other man,” says Stone. “Look at Love Actually!” Lincoln nods: when he made a film about Apollo 11 he played Michael Collins, the only astronaut on that mission who didn’t get to land on the moon. “Maybe I’m just the guy that doesn’t get the golden ticket.”
Stone observes that that was the reason audiences adored James Stewart – the characters he played somehow accepted being second best. “But in this play it’s like we cast Jimmy Stewart to go, ‘I don’t want to be Jimmy Stewart any more’,” says Stone. “That’s what I love about it.”
With lunch over, the director must hustle away and leave his cast to a group-led rehearsal: delays on his latest Netflix film mean he will spend this afternoon in a Soho editing suite. The Woman in Cabin 10, released next month, is his third movie (his first, The Daughter, was based on Ibsen’s The Wild Duck, and his most recent, The Dig, starred Carey Mulligan and Ralph Fiennes). In a complete coincidence, it’s set in the North Sea, and even climaxes in Norway. “I didn’t know we were making a sequel,” jokes Vikander.
It all adds to the impression that a Stone production can be a seat-of-the-pants ride for those involved. Vikander, making what is to all intents her professional stage debut, admits to knowing no different. “I think I came in extremely open,” she says, “and I’m discovering more each day. I feel as bare and real as I would in a film.”
Millions of Britons face a higher risk of stroke or heart failure because of dirty air where they live.
People living in areas of the UK with the worst levels of air pollution are 27% more likely to develop heart failure, compared with people in areas with the cleanest air, a study suggests.
Stroke risk was 7% higher in the worst areas, the research shows. The findings were presented at the European Society of Cardiology conference in Madrid, the world’s largest heart conference.
The study’s lead author, Ghita Housni, of the William Harvey research institute at Queen Mary University of London, said: “We know cleaner air means healthier hearts, and this research lays bare the impact of air pollution on public health.
“Reducing your exposure to air pollution is a crucial part of preventing heart conditions in the modern age and lowering your risk of heart failure and stroke. We need to improve air quality by introducing public health strategies which strongly prioritise cardiovascular protection.”
In the study, researchers tracked 299,323 people for a decade between 2010 and 2020.
Using data from the UK Biobank study, the team looked at average levels of PM2.5 in the areas where the participants lived. They then investigated rates of heart failure and stroke in the same people over a decade.
PM2.5 is a pollutant released from sources including vehicles, industry and household heating. The particles are 30 times smaller than the width of a human hair, making them small enough to get into the bloodstream after being inhaled.
Those living in the worst 10% of areas for PM2.5 pollution had a 27% higher risk of developing heart failure, compared with people in the least worst 10% of areas for PM2.5 pollution. The risk of having a stroke was 7% higher for people in the areas with the dirtiest air, the study found.
For every extra one microgram in an area where people lived, the risk of developing heart failure increased by 7% and the stroke risk grew by 3%.
There was also a slight increase in the risk of someone experiencing a heart attack with more PM2.5, but the link was not statistically significant.
Because PM2.5 does not belong in the body, when it is breathed in, the immune system overreacts to cause inflammation. When blood vessels become inflamed, they become stiffer and more prone to fatty build-up.
This can lead to high blood pressure, which increases the risk of having a stroke. The heart also has to work harder to pump blood through inflamed blood vessels, which over time can make it become weaker, and develop heart failure.
The findings are significant because the increase in stroke and heart failure risks seen with higher PM2.5 levels were recorded after researchers adjusted for a range of factors, including age, sex, ethnicity, residential setting (urban or rural), deprivation, education, smoking status and alcohol consumption.
Researchers found one extra person in every 100 experienced a stroke in the top 10% of polluted areas, compared with the areas with the cleanest air. Another two people in every 100 developed heart failure in the areas with the dirtiest air.
The team analysed data without looking at specific places, so the results did not reveal which locations in the UK may raise the risk of residents developing heart failure or having a stroke.
The UK’s air pollution has dropped in the last decade, but scientists say dangerous levels continue to be reached.
Despite a 30% reduction in PM2.5 since 2015, safety limits are still broken in the UK. There are still 22 days a year on average when PM2.5 levels exceeded World Health Organization targets.
Dr Sonya Babu-Narayan, clinical director at the British Heart Foundation, said: “We know there are no safe levels of air pollution. These early findings linking high PM2.5 levels to heart failure add to a growing body of evidence that poor air quality is damaging to our hearts.
“It’s good to know that the kind of PM2.5 levels experienced by the people in this study have already improved since the introduction of government targets in 2021. Nevertheless, these levels still exceed World Health Organization guidelines.
“Going further to reduce air pollution could help the UK to prevent premature cardiovascular disease, and save and improve lives for current and future generations.”
NASA’s acting administrator Sean Duffy likened the iPhone to the space economy and the US moon mission in a recent podcast with the space agency: “…it’s kind of like the iPhone at the start of the iPhone…”
Duffy explained that no one could have envisioned years ago how the iPhone, today, would change one’s life. Likewise, no one could have foreseen 20 years ago the US’s upcoming moon mission and what happened in low Earth orbit.
In the 5 September episode of ‘Houston We Have a Podcast’, Duffy said: “…15, 20 years ago, no one could have envisioned the kind of economy that you would have in space, with the space economy…”
“It’s kind of like the iPhone at the start of the iPhone, like, no one understood how that was going to change your life, that you would get your directions, and you have social media, and you would bank, and you like- all of this stuff happens on your phone. Like, we didn’t realise what tool this would be,” Duffy said.
Duffy, who is also the US’s Transportation Secretary, said he believes “what happened in low Earth orbit, in the space economy, is, I don’t think anyone could have foreseen this 20 years ago”.
Duffy said the same kind of industrial revolution will take place when the US goes to the Moon.
“In the same way, with what’s going to happen when we go to the Moon, the same kind of revolution of industry is going to take place as well, which is really exciting,” he said.
“And I want that to be American innovators, American companies, American manufacturers, American scientists. I want it to be led by our team. I don’t want it to be led by another country, in some far-off place, their team,” Duffy said.
WATCH Sean Duffy’s podcast here
Duffy also highlighted the rare cooperation between the US and Russia in the field of space, while acknowledging the major differences between the two countries over the Ukraine war.
Duffy said, “The cooperation between the US and Russia is critical as you bring the space station out of orbit.” He said, “…it’s a bright spot, the cooperation that our two great countries have together in space.”
“And I think we can build on that, and we should build on it,” Duffy said, expressing hope that “again, we’re going to partner in the de-orbiting of the space station.”
“I think that’s critical, but also sending clear signals and resources that we need an alternative from our private partners,” he said.
Notably, NASA is working to enable and seamlessly transition to commercially owned and operated platforms in low Earth orbit as the operational life of the International Space Station (ISS) comes to an end in 2030.
“…when the space station comes, it comes down in 2030 we have planned, well, to make sure we have the next iteration up and ready to go,” Duffy said.
Sean Duffy said in the podcast that if Artemis I, Artemis II, and Artemis III are all $4 billion a launch…”At $4 billion a launch, you don’t have a Moon program.”
“It just, I don’t think that exists. We have to bring the price down. And so I have to think about and work with members of Congress.”
He further asked, “What does Artemis IV, V, and VI look like? But to spend that much money in thinking about what we have to do to have a sustained presence, I think, becomes very, very challenging.”
Duffy said, “For the private sector, again, you can, you can have a satellite and get it into space for, you know, a million, a little over a million dollars like that was unheard of 20 years ago. What’s happening to drive the price down of these, of of these vehicles.
“That’s what we have to think about, because the $4 billion figure just is too massive to think we can be sustainable at that number,” he added.
NASA’s Artemis II is targeted for no later than April 2026. The agency is targeting the Moon’s South Pole for its Artemis missions.
Four astronauts will venture around the Moon on Artemis II, the first crewed mission on NASA’s path to establishing a long-term presence at the Moon for science and exploration through Artemis.
The 10-day flight will test NASA’s foundational human deep space exploration capabilities, the SLS rocket, and the Orion spacecraft for the first time with astronauts.
Rosé from Blackpink just secured a massive win for K-pop.
The New Zealand and South Korean singer won the “Song of the Year” award at the 2025 MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday, for her song “APT” with Bruno Mars.
“APT,” the lead single from Rosé’s debut album in 2024, “Rosie,” became a hit for its catchy tune and playful lyrics about a Korean drinking game. It spent 15 weeks at the top of the Billboard Global excluding the US chart.
This is the first time a K-pop song has won in the VMAs category. Previous recipients of the award were Sabrina Carpenter for her 2024 song “Espresso” and Olivia Rodrigo for her 2021 song “Driver’s License.”
Rosé, whose real name is Roseanne Park, was visibly emotional when she accepted the award. Through tears, she thanked Mars, whom she called her “absolute idol,” for believing in her and helping her through the collaboration.
“I dedicate this award to my 16-year-old self, who dreamed, and to all those who have watched me grow into the artist that I am today, and placed their dreams in me to make this change,” she said in her acceptance speech.
“And now I believe there is no imposter in the world, when MTV has given me this award here at the VMAs,” she said, to cheers from the audience. She also thanked her fellow Blackpink members, Jennie, Lisa, and Jisoo.
Rosé wore a shimmery butter yellow dress for the occasion, accessorized with a tennis bracelet and dangly earrings.
In December, during its first week of release, “Rosie” sold 102,000 equivalent album units and 70,000 albums, Billboard reported.
The singer’s VMA win comes as K-pop is having a cultural moment in the West. K-pop artist Felix Lee from boy band Stray Kids walked the runway for LVMH in March as its brand ambassador.
The boy band Seventeen is also making inroads into the US, with a new tour and solo collaboration tracks from members like Joshua Hong. Other group members, including the band’s leader S.Coups and rapper Mingyu, have also been recognized in fashion, landing collaborations with brands like Calvin Klein and Hugo Boss.
And one of the biggest Gen Z-favorite acts of the moment is Katseye, a girl group managed by Seoul-based Hybe Entertainment.
Rosé is on Blackpink’s “Deadline” world tour, with over 30 stops in Asia, North America, and Europe.
Representatives for YG Entertainment did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi stated in an article ‘The Gardian’ that the country is prepared to accept limits on its nuclear program and restrictions on Uranium enrichment if international sanctions are lifted.
Araghchi emphasised that Iran is ready to negotiate a “realistic and long lasting bargain” that includes stringent oversight and curbs on enrichment in exchange for the termination of sanctions.
He warned that failing to take advantage of his ”fleeting window of opportunity” could lead to significant and destructive consequences for the region and beyond.
This message was directed at the E3 group of nations France, Germany, and the UK who are involved in discussions regarding Iran’s nuclear program.
At the end of August, the E3 triggered a mechanism to reinstate UN sanctions on Iran for not complying with commitments from a decade old agreement regarding its nuclear activities. Under this “snap back” mechanism, Iran was given a month to negotiate before sanctions would be reimposed.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas met with Araghchi on Thursday to pursue a “negotiate solution” to the ongoing standoff.
The 2015 nuclear deal, brokered under former US President Barack Obama provided Iran with sanctions relief in return for significantly reducing its nuclear activities.
However, President Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement during his first term, imposing sweeping sanctions including on countries that purchased Iranian oil.
Western nations have accused Iran of attempting to develop nuclear weapons a claim Tehran denies, asserting it right to civilian nuclear program.