The number of complaints made by households about water companies to the industry watchdog has risen by a record 84% in a year, driven by customer concern and confusion over rising bills. The Consumer Council for Water (CCW) said the year-on-year increase was the highest in its 20-year history and showed just how dissatisfied many people were. Water customers in England and Wales have been hit with steep price hikes in recent years. The regulator Ofwat has also allowed firms to put up bills by 36% between 2025 and 2030 . Water UK, which represents firms, said it understood that higher bills was never welcome, but the money was needed to fund vital upgrades.

Image caption, Matthew Wright appeared at Bromley Magistrates' Court on Friday The former chief executive of Southern Water has appeared in court charged with conspiracy to defraud, over allegations water quality tests were manipulated to avoid penalties. Matthew Wright, 60, who denies any wrongdoing, appeared at Bromley Magistrates' Court on Friday alongside three other former employees. Wright, along with Philip Barker, 57, Clive Massey, 64, and Mark Gregory, 63, are accused of conspiracy to defraud the Environment Agency and water regulator Ofwat. It is alleged that between January 2012 and December 2017, the group manipulated a self-monitoring regime by carrying out artificial no-flow events at wastewater treatment works, to avoid failing environmental checks. The alleged conduct could have avoided fines of £45m or higher, according to the charges.

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Water cyberattacks from Iran, China, and Russia target America's critical infrastructure. AI detection and anomaly detection tools could help defend aging water utility systems.

AI data centres are booming in Australia - but at what cost? The sheer size and noise of data centres are what people tend to notice first. Some say they sound like a jet plane about to take off, others complain of a high-pitched whine. When Lucy* puts her child to bed, she hears a constant humming. I'll hear it and think, 'What is that?

While Trump administration cuts have contributed to Americans' gastrointestinal distress, there are also deeper issues that make the US food supply chain susceptible to parasites and bacteria outbreaks. This summer, every meal feels like a risk. Just as the US is recovering from a major cyclospora outbreak stemming from tainted iceberg lettuce, salmonella has turned up in jalapeños, eggs, and even dog food. The jalapeño-related outbreak is now responsible for at least 431 illnesses and 57 hospitalizations in more than two dozen states. Meanwhile, a dual-pathogen outbreak of E. coli and salmonella linked to alfalfa sprouts has affected 55 people across 15 states.

Welcome to our latest roundup of what's going on in the indie game space. It's Gamescom week, so there have been tons of game announcements. We'll dig into several of those as well as a few new games you can jump into this weekend. You may recall a long-running saga about a guy who tried to gain access to a landfill site because he was convinced it contained a hard drive he accidentally threw away in 2013. The hard drive is said to house a private key for 8,000 Bitcoin, which is worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

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Wed 26 Aug 2026 08.00 EDTLast modified on Wed 26 Aug 2026 16.37 EDT On a winding road tucked away behind forests in the Appalachian foothills of southern Ohio is where OpenAI, Nvidia and Japanese investors are set to spend $500bn on one of the largest artificial intelligence datacenters on the planet. Last March, the energy secretary, Chris Wright, the commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick and a host of Japanese and other dignitaries briefly descended on Piketon to enthusiastically break ground on a project to build 8GW worth of AI computing power. But locally, there's a different feeling: a mix of hope but also concern. "Personally, my emotions range between positive and skeptical," says Billy Spencer, who has been mayor of Piketon for the past 23 years, of the project. "There's not an organized opposition to it around here. There hasn't been that much talk. No one's come to council - I don't know that there's been one citizen who lives within the village of Piketon who has come and said: 'Mayor, what do you think about it?'"

Israel has attacked a critical water desalination plant and a mosque in Gaza as it intensifies attacks on the enclave despite a'ceasefire'. Why'pogrom' best describes what's happening in the occupied West Bank Nathan Cofnas on whether he feels responsible for Jason Arday's death Are humanoid robots the future of warfare?