Tech firm’s bid to remove more CO₂ than it produces is being tested as AI spawns new energy-hungry datacentres

• Bill Gates: AI will help rather than hinder climate targets

If you want evidence of Microsoft’s progress towards its environmental “moonshot” goal, then look closer to earth: at a building site on a west London industrial estate.

The company’s Park Royal datacentre is part of its commitment to drive the expansion of artificial intelligence (AI), but that ambition is jarring with its target of being carbon negative by 2030.

RHS reports 35% surge in orders, while garden designers note pond trend at Hampton Court Palace flower show

A pond boom is happening in Britain’s gardens as people try to halt wildlife loss by digging water sources for amphibians and other aquatic life.

Data from the Royal Horticultural Society shows a marked increase in sales of pond greenery; their online store had a 35% increase in sales of pond plants for 2023 compared with 2022.

The affluent constituency is home to Mayfair clubs, Soho theatres and City types – one of whom told me: ‘We need to pay more tax’

A red glow spreading across the land may be so bright you could see it from space, if polling predictions are right. In that Labour flare, let’s pinpoint one astonishing constituency the party looks likely to win for the first time in history. Conservative for ever, the City itself, part of the Cities of London and Westminster constituency, would be turning red. Look at the symbolism.

The king in Buckingham Palace would have a Labour MP for the first time. So would the Palace of Westminster, the supreme court, the Old Bailey, Scotland Yard, Westminster Abbey, St Paul’s Cathedral, Catholic Westminster Cathedral and Methodist Central Hall.

Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist

Company accused staff member of ‘aggressive behaviour’ after she raised concerns about far-right group gathering

BrewDog has been accused of sacking an Asian woman after she voiced her distress when members of the far-right English Defence League met in the London bar where she worked.

The former staff member said members of the EDL had gathered unchallenged at the “punk” brewer’s flagship bar in Waterloo, ahead of a rally to mark St George’s Day on 23 April.

Almost 12,000 rough sleepers were seen by outreach workers in 2023-24, a 19% increase on the previous year

Rough sleeping in the capital has hit the highest level in a decade, with more than 1,100 people living on London’s streets for the first time because of evictions.

The number of new rough sleepers seen for the first time by outreach workers between April 2023 and March 2024, surged 25% to 7,974 people – the highest in at least four years. Almost one in 10 people living on the streets was aged 25 or under – including 13 children.

Deo Kato detained by security services for three weeks after being arrested near Juba on run from South Africa to UK

A Ugandan-born Londoner on a 9,000-mile run from South Africa to London has been released from jail in South Sudan, his partner has told the Guardian.

Deo Kato had already run more than the length of Africa – the equivalent of more than 200 marathons – when he was arrested near Juba, the capital of South Sudan, on 2 June. His partner and project manager, Alice Light, had no idea where he was, only discovering he was in prison on 17 June.

Hundreds are knocking on doors for longtime MP, often having to remind voters that he is no longer Labour

• UK election live – latest updates

Jeremy Corbyn is making a final push to try to hold on to his parliamentary seat in one of the more unpredictable battles of the election, made more uncertain because many voters still seem to believe he is the Labour candidate.

With a week to go until polling day, the former Labour leader’s campaign team is trying to marshal crowds of volunteers to knock on doors in the Islington North seat he has represented since 1983, reminding them that this race is different.

Jury finds ‘multiple agencies’ contributed to death of Aleena, 35, who was attacked in east London in June 2022

Failures by the police and prison and probation services contributed to the death of Zara Aleena, who was murdered as she walked home from a night out in east London, an inquest jury has found.

Jordan McSweeney killed the 35-year-old aspiring lawyer as she walked home from a night out in Ilford in the early hours of 26 June 2022, nine days after he was released from prison on licence.