Bills you don’t owe, menacing debt collectors: the terrifying world of energy company customers

Periodically, I electrify readers with a drama about energy bills. Before you switch off, let me assure you that utilities companies are masters of suspense.…

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‘I’m happy we’re not killing them any more’: Ireland’s last basking shark hunter on the return of the giants

The ambush was simple. A spotter on a hill would scan the sea and when he saw the big black fins approach, he would shout…

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UK house prices fall unexpectedly for second month in a row

UK house prices have fallen unexpectedly in April for a second consecutive month, according to the building society Nationwide, as interest rate uncertainty and more…

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Nationwide stops lending on some flood-risk properties

Britain’s biggest building society has stopped granting mortgages on some properties where there is a high risk of flooding but said this affected only “a…

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‘It’s pretty gloomy out there’: new NFU chief Tom Bradshaw fights to give food producers a better deal

‘This is the first time I’ve had my lawn cut by somebody else,” says Tom Bradshaw, the new president of the National Farmers’ Union. Just…

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From petri dish to plate: meet the company hoping to bring lab-grown fish to the table

The redbrick offices, just north of Hamburg’s River Elbe and a few floors below Carlsberg’s German headquarters, are an unexpectedly low-key setting for a food…

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UN-led panel aims to tackle abuses linked to mining for ‘critical minerals’

A UN-led panel of nearly 100 countries is to draw up new guidelines to prevent some of the environmental damage and human rights abuses associated…

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