The handover marks the end of a 13-year licence for Smart DCC, a subsidiary of Capita, after years of spiralling costs and delays
Control over Great Britain’s 39m smart meters has passed to a non-profit startup after its former owner presided over more than a decade of spiralling costs and delays in the troubled network.
The company owned by crisis-hit outsourcing firm Capita has promised a “seamless transition” to its not-for-profit successor, which will take over running the data network connecting the smart meters from this week.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
11/02/2026 - 11:53
Patroclo and Achille’s interspecies affair sheds new light on social and sexual relations between animals, scientists say
In ancient myth, Achilles and Patroclus were two Greek heroes of the Trojan war whose intense bond was believed by some to have turned into a sexual relationship.
In modern science, they are a bull, Achille, and a donkey, Patroclo, whose tender interspecies affair has helped to shed new light on social and sexual interactions between animals.
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11/02/2026 - 10:00
Devon nature reserve says ‘reckless’ theft of narrow-headed ant colony sets back years of conservation work
A nest containing up to 5,000 of England’s rarest ant species has been stolen from a nature reserve, a conservation charity has said.
Devon Wildlife Trust (DWT) said a nest of narrow-headed ants had been dug up and taken from Chudleigh Knighton Heath nature reserve in south Devon, which is the last place in England where the species still exists.
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11/02/2026 - 08:10
Action taken to prevent bottom trawling in the marine protected area and conserve porpoise populations
Greenpeace activists have dropped boulders in the North Sea to snag the dragnets of industrial trawlers fishing in a marine protected area.
Activists onboard the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise dropped the giant stones to form an underwater barrier around the Southern North Sea marine protected area (MPA) – the UK’s most bottom-trawled MPA.
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11/02/2026 - 07:00
At more than $52m, the race has become the most expensive in US history, but residents are fed up with flooding
Aida Havel mulled her fate over coffee after working the early voting polls all day in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. “We are trapped,” she concluded.
The Dare county commission candidate lives about 50 miles (80km) south, on Hatteras Island on the state’s Outer Banks.
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11/02/2026 - 06:00
Disruption to winds above Arctic threatens to alter weather patterns across parts of continent in coming weeks
The stratospheric polar vortex over the northern hemisphere is facing the prospect of an unusually early weakening. Forecast models suggest it could weaken significantly over the next 10 days, when it would typically be strengthening.
A major sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) event is possible. This could influence weather patterns in the following weeks, increasing the likelihood of persistent areas of high pressure across the mid-latitudes and colder conditions weeks later.
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11/02/2026 - 00:54
Google’s AI summary is punching a huge hole in their own profits – is this good?
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11/02/2026 - 00:00
A Guardian investigation has found that despite a recommendation to slow down, leading shipping companies continue to travel above advised speeds in a key habitat for cetaceans
Marine biologist Alice Barbarioli waits with her camera trained on the horizon. A few minutes earlier, the hydrophone beneath the Pelagos research vessel detected codas – the sequence of clicks sperm whales use to communicate.
The sperm whale reveals its head and dorsal fin as those onboard the vessel in the Pelagos sanctuary, a conservation area established to protect marine mammals in the north-western Mediterranean, rush to take photos and note the rhythm of its breathing. After a few minutes, the animal arches its back, and begins to head back into the depths of the sea. They wait to catch a glimpse of its tail.
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11/01/2026 - 19:01
UN-backed report finds even temporary rises above Paris agreement target could cause harm to glaciers and polar ice sheets
Earth’s icy regions face such dangerous melting that global heating should be brought back below 1C after an inevitable period of overshooting global temperature targets, a UN report has found.
Permanent and widespread losses of snow and ice expose a “persistent myth” that overshooting the 1.5C target of the Paris climate agreement – to 2C or 3C – could be manageable or even preferable to urgent cuts to emissions, the report found.
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11/01/2026 - 09:00
Officials in Boulder County, Colorado, say they have a safe plan to wipe out invasive weeds, but some locals are concerned
Soon, weed-killing chemicals will start falling from the sky over the Red Hill area of Boulder county, Colorado.
The wildland is known for its biodiversity, home to hundreds of important species and a concentration of rare environmental resources. It is a key habitat for beloved herds of elk and bighorn sheep, with farms and ranchland lying at its base.
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