Attendance in Birmingham predicted to be worst in living memory with big impact on party’s fundraising efforts

Businesses are expected to cancel their attendance at this year’s Conservative conference in unprecedented numbers, in a chastening snub that could also undermine the party’s ability to raise funds.

The annual gathering, due to be held in Birmingham from 29 September to 2 October, would usually attract corporate attendees willing to pay tens of thousands of pounds to get close to MPs with influence over policy.

Hitting target for zero-carbon electricity system will require ‘step-change’, says analyst Cornwall Insight

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Solar and wind power generation will fall well below the target needed to decarbonise Great Britain’s electricity grid by 2030 without an injection of £48bn, according to a forecast from one of the UK’s leading energy analysis companies.

The government has promised to deliver a zero-carbon electricity system by 2030, requiring the doubling of onshore wind, tripling of solar power and quadrupling of offshore wind capacity.

Five stores will offer to alter, clean or mend clothes in service marketed as a way to help prevent waste

John Lewis customers will be able to give their favourite leather jacket a new lease of life or have a cushion cover fixed, as part of a repairs partnership with Timpson Group, the business famed for offering ex-offenders a second chance.

The service, which will be trialled at five stores from Monday, is designed to encourage shoppers to pay to have items altered, repaired, cleaned or restored, rather than throwing them away and buying replacements.

Campaigners write to Keir Starmer saying delay in implementing industry reforms will cost lives

Keir Starmer has been urged to follow through on the previous government’s plan for a £100m-a-year levy on gambling companies.

In an open letter to the prime minister, “deeply concerned” advocates of the proposal issued a warning that a delay could cost lives.

CrowdStrike has ‘fixed’ defect but knock-on effects of disruption continue to affect NHS and air travel

NHS patients have been warned GP services “cannot be resumed immediately”, and stranded holidaymakers told it could take “days” to get them to their destinations, as the effects of Friday’s global IT outage continue.

CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity company at the heart of the crisis, said on Sunday that it had deployed a fix for the “defect” with its software, which has caused chaos around the world for businesses that use Microsoft operating systems.

Internet betting tycoon Teddy Sagi’s multimillion-pound acquisition of a gaming firm now allegedly worth nothing is the subject of a court case involving heavily contested claims of fraud and physical threat

Ensconced within the luxury of his £30m Knightsbridge pad overlooking Hyde Park, the billionaire Teddy Sagi laid his cards on the table. “I have a big pair of balls,” he proclaimed, according to documents filed at the high court. “I lost £300,000 in the casino last night. I will buy your business for £53m.”

For the man on the other side of the negotiating table, the online gambling entrepreneur Simon Wilson, the stakes had never been higher.

CEO and CFO given total of £616,000 for a year in which some residents struggled to go about daily lives

Two bosses of Yorkshire Water have been handed a combined £616,000 in bonuses for a year in which thousands of its customers “struggled to go about their daily lives” for weeks due to a burst water pipe.

The payouts, part of a bonus system that could be banned in future under proposals outlined by the new Labour government in this week’s king’s speech, were detailed in the company’s annual report.