Gareth Jenkins tells inquiry he only realised Fujitsu staff were actually accessing IT system remotely in 2018

A former engineer for the company responsible for developing the Post Office’s faulty Horizon IT system has said he knew the computer system could in theory be accessed remotely by its staff for nearly two decades before realising it was happening in practice.

The former Fujitsu engineer Gareth Jenkins was giving his second day of evidence to the Post Office inquiry which is looking at why the state-owned institution prosecuted 900 operatives on the basis of alleged financial shortfalls in their branches when many of the discrepancies were caused by bugs, errors and defects in the Horizon IT system.

Hollywood group says 200-hectare site will be based around popular film and games franchises and open 365 days a year

The movies group Universal has said a Hollywood theme park it plans to build in Bedfordshire, England, will be open 365 days a year and will boost the UK economy by nearly £50bn.

Universal Destinations & Experiences, which is owned by the US telecoms group Comcast, the parent company of Sky, plans to build on a 192-hectare site (476 acres) in Kempston Hardwick near Bedford. The company has an option to buy a further 25 hectares.

Auditors say financial woes at tech firm Atos could hinder ability of its UK arm to continue as a going concern

The British arm of Atos, the French technology company that is a vital supplier of the NHS and UK government departments, is facing a “material uncertainty” over its ability to continue as a going concern, auditors have warned.

In the latest accounts for its UK holding company covering 2022, the company’s auditor, Grant Thornton, said financial problems facing its parent company in France could limit the UK arm’s ability to access cash and continue as a going concern.

Some Legal & General Investment Management funds will divest from Glencore Plc on concerns about its production of the most polluting fuel.

Investment management giant Legal & General’s ESG (environmental, social and governance) funds, and some of its pension funds, are to divest from Glencore due to concerns over its coal production.

LGIM warns this morning that it believes companies need to do more to play their part in efforts to mitigate climate change risks.

“LGIM remains concerned that Glencore has not disclosed plans for thermal coal production that are aligned with a net zero pathway.”

Potential tie-up with meal-delivery firm Doordash was reportedly discussed but rejected in May

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Shares in the UK food delivery company Deliveroo have risen after reports that US rival Doordash held takeover talks with the business, with analysts suggesting other bidders could come forward in the coming weeks.

The US meal-delivery group Doordash flagged an interest in a takeover of Britain’s Deliveroo last month, but talks ended because the two sides could not agree on the value of the deal, Reuters reported.

Annual pre-tax profits climbed 186% to £34.3m, lifted by television upgrades and tumble dryers

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The online electrical goods seller AO World has enjoyed a near-tripling of profits thanks in part to booming tumble dryer sales during the wet winter and televisions for Euro 2024.

Revenues at the retailer, which sells 15% of all domestic appliances in the UK, were also bolstered by the continued popularity of air fryers, with the company attributing this to customers looking for a cheaper alternative to takeaways amid the cost of living crisis.

Daniel Křetínský, who is bidding £3.75bn for the business, has hinted at ‘incentive scheme’ for workers if successful

The union representing postal workers has called for them to be handed a serious stake in Royal Mail, after the Czech billionaire bidding to snap up its owner for £3.6bn floated the possibility of implementing an “incentive scheme” if he is successful.

Daniel Křetínský’s EP Group published an offer document on Wednesday laying out the details of its bid for Royal Mail’s parent company, International Distributions Services (IDS).

Statutory nuisance complaint lodged by Save Windermere against United Utilities is a first over sewage pollution

Campaigners fighting to stop sewage discharges into Windermere, the Lake District’s largest lake, have made a statutory nuisance complaint against a water company in the first legal action of its kind.

The civil complaints are normally used in noise disputes, or over noxious smells. But the environmental barrister Nicholas Ostrowski has for the first time lodged a complaint on behalf of campaign group Save Windermere against United Utilities over raw sewage discharges into the lake.

Global demand for renewable energy is surging so why make solar panels, wind turbines and EVs dearer for western consumers?

With historic heatwaves sweeping across the US and other parts of the northern hemisphere, June is expected to be the 13th consecutive month of record-breaking global temperatures. The primary cause, of course, is the enormous amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Despite the existential threat posed by rising atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, emissions continue to increase at a faster pace than previously anticipated.

On one front, however, progress in the fight against the climate crisis has exceeded expectations. Amid the global shift from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles and the accelerated adoption of solar and wind power, demand for renewable energy is rapidly rising in the US and the EU.

New, equally controlled joint venture will share electric vehicle architecture and software, companies said

Shares in Rivian surged after Volkswagen agreed to invest up to $5bn in the Amazon-backed electric carmaker.

Volkswagen will initially invest $1bn as part of a partnership with Rivian to form a new, equally controlled joint venture to share electric vehicle architecture and software, the companies said on Tuesday.

Other lenders likely to follow suit as analysts say cuts of up to 0.31 percentage points could fuel ‘summer of savings’

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HSBC and Barclays are cutting rates on their fixed mortgage deals in what some brokers claim could be the start of a “summer of savings” for homebuyers and those looking to remortgage.

Barclays has reduced rates by more than 0.25 percentage points in some cases from Tuesday, and its cuts led to a quick response from HSBC, which said it would be cutting rates across its home loans range with effect from Wednesday.

Shani Gonzales of Warner Chappell says that although people are ‘having fun’ with creating AI songs, ‘what happens when someone tries to sell it?’

Arriving in London in the teeth of the pandemic to take a top music industry job, Shani Gonzales had few opportunities to immerse herself in British culture, with venues shut and parties off the table. The New Yorker instead turned to TV for her education, bingeing on The Crown, Downton Abbey and – a more left-field choice – Naked Attraction.

“I was trying to get as much of a cross-section as possible!” says Gonzales, who heads the UK arm of music publishing giant Warner Chappell. “Music is culture, taste, environment – it felt daunting not being able to leave the house and meet artists in a role like this.”

Alternatives to costly Wegovy and Saxenda will make such treatments more widely available worldwide

• Ozempic maker invests $4bn to meet US ‘skinny jab’ demand

Medicines that enable dramatic weight loss are likely to experience a new boom in uptake, experts have said, as the first generic versions hit the market this week at a lower cost than the original drugs.

The injections, dubbed “skinny jabs” by the media, can help people lose more than 10% of their body weight and have become hugely popular in recent years, with celebrities lauding their effects.

Gareth Jenkins, co-architect of flawed Horizon IT system, was expert witness in wrongful prosecutions of operators

A former IT engineer has admitted he changed crucial expert court testimony at the request of the Post Office during wrongful prosecutions of branch operators.

Gareth Jenkins, a former senior engineer at the contractor Fujitsu, on Tuesday told the public inquiry into one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in British history that lawyers had asked him to change witness statements.

Exclusive: Organisation that collects and distributes royalties in UK says it will ‘vigorously defend’ lawsuit which alleges preferential treatment for major songwriters

A group of songwriters, including Jim and William Reid from the Jesus and Mary Chain and King Crimson’s Robert Fripp, are suing UK body PRS for Music over how it handles royalties from live performances, accusing it of levying high administration costs for smaller songwriters while giving preferential treatment to already successful stars.

PRS has a near monopoly in the UK, acting as an intermediary between companies that play music (such as radio stations and shops as well as live events) and those who write it: companies sign licences, and PRS distributes the proceeds to songwriters.

Amazon pledged to create ‘Earth’s safest place to work’. Three warehouse workers speak about their experiences

Amazon workers left unable to work by injuries on the job have resorted to online fundraising campaigns to pay their bills as they fight for compensation and disability benefits.

Three current employees, injured while working in the technology giant’s warehouses, described a “bureaucratic, terrible process” while they sought financial support. One was rendered homeless.