Bulk carrier uses deep-water channel en route to Canada marking important step in recovery efforts after last month’s disaster

The first cargo ship passed through a newly opened deep-water channel in Baltimore after being stuck in the harbor since the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed four weeks ago, killing a work crew and halting most maritime traffic through the city’s port.

The Balsa 94, a bulk carrier sailing under a Panama flag, passed through the new 35ft channel headed for Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, on Thursday. Two more commercial ships followed later, including a vehicle carrier headed to Panama.

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Investor’s move comes amid reports RedBird IMI is to formally withdraw its attempt to buy the newspaper

The GB News investor Sir Paul Marshall is stepping down from the board of the broadcaster after three years, it was announced on Friday.

Marshall is expected to be a frontrunner in the race to buy the Telegraph when the auction process reopens, after the government in effect scuppered its planned sale of the newspaper to a United Arab Emirates-backed consortium, RedBird IMI.

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Secretary of state met Xi Jinping in Beijing and warned of sanctions over China’s support for Russian arms industry

Washington has seen evidence of attempts by Beijing to “influence and arguably interfere” in this year’s US elections, the secretary of state has said during a trip to China, also warning that Chinese companies face new sanctions if they do not stop supplying material and equipment to the Russian arms industry.

Antony Blinken told CNN that he had reiterated Joe Biden’s message to Xi Jinping not to interfere in November’s vote – a warning that reportedly received assurances from the Chinese president that he would not do so. Asked whether China was keeping to its promise, Blinken said: “We have seen, generally speaking, evidence of attempts to influence, and arguably interfere, and we want to make sure that that’s cut off as quickly as possible.

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Collections by ex-Spice Girl had been too dear for most but deal with affordable chain forecast to help tip VB business into profit

When Victoria Beckham debuted her first collection of just 10 dresses in a luxury hotel suite at the Waldorf Astoria in New York in 2008, she told the sceptical assembly of the world’s most powerful fashion editors that she had “spent a lifetime wanting to do this”.

“It’s what I always dreamed of since I customised my school uniform when I was 7 years old,” she said. “Then along came the Spice Girls which opened a lot of doors for me. And, let’s be honest, closed a lot. But those days are over. I was never going to be the world’s best singer, but I hope I can be a good designer.”

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Tech company’s shares rise as it plans to reward investors after strong quarterly results

Google’s parent company has hit a stock market value of $2tn (GBP1.6tn) as investors reacted to a declaration of its first ever dividend alongside strong results on Thursday.

Shares in Alphabet rose 10% in early Wall Street trading on Friday to give the tech group a stock market capitalisation – a measure of a corporation’s value – of more than $2tn. Alphabet last hit that level in intraday trading in 2021, but has yet to close above that benchmark after a day’s trading.

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Inquiry hears firm ‘drip fed’ compensation to Martin Griffiths’ widow as incentive for her to ‘maintain confidentialty’

The Post Office sought to “hush up” the case of Martin Griffiths, a post office operator who took his own life, by “drip feeding” compensation payments to his widow and lining up a media lawyer to protect its reputation, a public inquiry has heard.

Angela van den Bogerd, a former business improvement director at the state-owned body, was being questioned at the Horizon IT public inquiry on Friday about the case of Griffiths, who died in 2013 after financial shortfalls were found at his Post Office branch in Cheshire.

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

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This is not a repeat of the Covid pandemic. Yet global governments should follow the US and prepare a response

Avian flu, or H5N1, is making headlines in the United States. The past few years have seen concerning signs of it spreading across the world – whether in chickens in Britain, sea lions in Peru, or Caspian seals in Russia. This time, it is has been confirmed in American cows, and the World Health Organization has warned that the risk of it spreading to humans is of “ enormous concern”.

While it is early days, the hypothesis is that in late 2023, a single cow was infected by coming into contact with infected birds’ faeces, or having infected dead birds in its feed. This began cow-to-cow transmission, and potentially even cow-to-bird transmission. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has also confirmed one human case of H5N1 in a farm worker, which could either represent cow-to-human (not seen before) or bird-to-human transmission.

Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh

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Offer for ‘cutting edge’ UK firm from Thoma Bravo signals another blow for the London Stock Exchange

• Business live – latest updates

The Cambridge-based cybersecurity and artificial intelligence company Darktrace is likely to become the latest British technology champion to be swallowed up by a US suitor, after it agreed a $5.3bn (GBP4.2bn) sale to US private equity business Thoma Bravo.

Darktrace, whose co-founding investor Mike Lynch is now on trial for fraud and conspiracy in the US, agreed to an offer 44% higher than its average share price over the past three months.

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EV sales have plateaued across the world but the newfound glut of vehicles may just be temporary

Elon Musk became the world’s richest man by evangelising about electric cars – and delivering them by the million. Yet in recent months his company, Tesla, has struggled to maintain its momentum: sales have dropped this year, and so has its share price.

Those struggles have become emblematic of a broader reckoning facing the electric vehicle (EV) industry. After the soaring demand and valuations of the coronavirus pandemic years, the pace of sales growth has slowed. The industry has entered a new phase, with questions over whether the switch from petrol and diesel to cleaner electric is facing a troublesome stall or a temporary speed bump.

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Exclusive: Environmental groups say bank is misleading public over ‘sustainable’ financing for Eni as company vastly expands fossil fuel production

Barclays is being accused by environmental groups of greenwashing after helping to arrange €4bn (GBP3.4bn) in financing for the Italian oil company Eni in a way that allows them to qualify towards its $1tn sustainable financing goal.

Environmental groups have said the London-based bank is deliberately misleading the public by labelling the financial instruments as “sustainable” at the same time that Eni is in the midst of a multibillion-pound fossil fuel expansion drive designed to increase production.

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Employment tribunal sought over claims firm tried to induce workers to leave union in long-running row

The GMB is taking legal action against Amazon in the long-running battle for recognition at its Coventry warehouse, accusing the US firm of trying to “induce” staff to leave the union.

An employment tribunal claim is being lodged on behalf of five workers at the large site, known as BHX4.

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From a modern development in the heart of Edinburgh to a Grade II-listed townhouse in Ramsgate

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The Labour leader needs to stop counting the cost of properly investing in railways – and instead see the costs of not doing so

• Dr Tom Haines-Doran is the author of Derailed: How to Fix Britain’s Broken Railways

Is there any hope for Britain’s beleaguered rail passengers? We have some of the highest fares in Europe, industrial relations are at an all-time low, and cancellations and delays bedevil the network. Britain’s railways are fractured, rudderless and without clear purpose or plan.

With an election looming in which Labour is the clear frontrunner, passengers have been eagerly awaiting the party’s proposals. Its Getting Britain Moving plan was finally released on Thursday, promising to fix Britain’s broken railways and “usher in a decade of growth, innovation and service improvement” through a series of reforms.

Tom Haines-Doran is a policy fellow based at the University of Leeds and the author of Derailed: How to Fix Britain’s Broken Railways

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For first time since August 2021 people expect position to be better in a year, Paul Thwaite adds

Consumer confidence is bouncing back in the UK, with people predicting a brighter financial future for the first time in two years, NatWest has said.

Paul Thwaite, the bank’s chief executive, said easing price pressures as inflation comes down seemed to be feeding through to the general public. Headline consumer price inflation is still above the Bank of England’s 2% target at 3.2% but has fallen sharply from a peak of 11.1% in October 2022. Natwest’s own economic forecast suggests inflation will fall to 2.5% by the end of this year.

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Soiled seas and huge shareholder dividends: where has the GBP64bn borrowed by firms since privatisation gone?

So that’s how they do it. I’d been wondering how, when more sewage has been entering our rivers than ever before, some of the water companies have managed to improve the ratio of the sewage they treat v the sewage that pours untreated from their storm overflows into our rivers and the sea. Now we know.

It’s called “ flow trimming”. Sounds innocuous, doesn’t it? What it means is that sewage is diverted into rivers and ditches upstream of the water treatment works. By reducing the amount of sewage entering the works, the companies can claim to be dealing responsibly with a higher proportion of it.

George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist. Join him for a Guardian Live online event on Wednesday 8 May at 8pm BST. He will be talking about his new book, The Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History of Neoliberalism. Book tickets here

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

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Credit card holders who make minimum repayments warned they could be in debt for years longer

Some Barclaycard customers who only make the minimum repayment each month will take an extra decade to clear their debt and pay hundreds of pounds in extra interest after the credit card provider changed its terms.

Barclaycard – thought to be the UK’s biggest credit card provider – has written to customers telling them it is cutting their minimum payments to give them “more flexibility”.

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Shareholders in the mining firm are unimpressed by the offer as it stands but what happens next could be interesting

• BHP move to buy Anglo American threatens to hasten City exodus

In theory, Anglo American has been a sitting duck for a takeover bid for about a decade. Its share price has lagged behind that of other big miners and successive efforts to sharpen a sprawling portfolio have underwhelmed. The last news, at the end of 2023, was production delays that sent the shares down 20% in a day.

In practice, the same complexities, plus deep entanglement in South African politics, have served as a deterrent to a bid. Anglo was seen as too fiddly. But here comes BHP, the Australian giant of the sector, with a proposal to cut through the noise and get to the assets it would like to own, primarily Anglo’s copper mines in Peru and Chile and, to a lesser extent, its iron ore projects in Brazil and metallurgical coal in Queensland.

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Authorities in Venice have been accused of transforming the famous lagoon city into a 'theme park' as a long-mooted entrance fee for day trippers comes into force. Venice is the first major city in the world to enact such a scheme. The €5 (GBP4.30) charge, which comes into force today, is aimed at protecting the Unesco world heritage site from the effects of excessive tourism by deterring day trippers and, according to the mayor, Luigi Brugnaro, making the city 'livable' again. But several residents’ committees and associations held protests on Thursday, arguing that the fee would do nothing to resolve the issue

• ' Are we joking?’: Venice residents protest as city starts charging visitors to enter

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Family lists property where war veteran raised funds during Covid – minus unauthorised spa pool

The listed family home where Captain Sir Tom Moore walked laps of his garden to raise millions of pounds for the NHS during the Covid pandemic has gone on sale for GBP2.25m.

The sight of the 99-year-old war veteran walking lengths of his garden, aided by a walking frame, charmed Britain in lockdown and raised GBP38.9m for health service charities.

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The former Post Office executive Angela van den Bogerd was questioned at the inquiry into the Post Office horizon scandal. Van den Bogerd worked for the Post Office from 1985 to 2020, and personally handled many post office operators' complaints about the Horizon IT system. She started by apologising to operators who had been wrongly convicted or had their contracts terminated, saying: ‘I am truly, truly sorry for the devastation caused to you’

• UK politics live – latest updates

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Nothing had changed for contents insurance on my London flat but it raised the renewal from GBP78 to GBP251

I am 92 and live in a fifth-floor flat. The block is very secure, with a concierge and fobs for access to each floor. Last year I insured the contents of my home against fire and flood only, with Saga, for GBP78 (the building is insured by Islington council for GBP10 a month). Nothing has changed; but this year my renewal quote is GBP251.

I’m trying to get to the bottom of this huge rise. I thought Saga was an organisation that cared for elderly people. Apparently not.

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I returned two coats and the parcel was lost and then it went into administration

At the end of January I bought two coats from Matchesfashion for GBP902. I returned them, but the parcel has been lost and now Matches has gone into administration and I don’t have the coats or the money.

I used the DHL labels provided to send them back on 27 February, and followed up a week later as I had not received a refund. I was told my package was still in transit, so I returned to the drop-off point, where staff said it would have been collected that day.

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Watchdog says only a third of local authorities are confident they will have enough places for September

The deployment of the government’s childcare scheme to tens of thousands more families is facing “significant uncertainties” and may struggle to meet its own targets, according to a report by Whitehall’s spending watchdog.

The National Audit Office revealed the Department for Education (DfE) had assessed the likelihood of being able to deliver the funded childcare places it promised for September 2024 and 2025 as “amber/red problematic”.

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Borrowers urged not to panic as banks including Barclays, NatWest and HSBC readjust cost of loans

At least five leading lenders increased rates on their fixed mortgage deals on Tuesday in response to “market uncertainty”, adding to pressure on homebuyers and those looking to remortgage.

Barclays, HSBC, NatWest, Accord Mortgages (part of Yorkshire building society) and Leeds building society have all upped the cost of some fixed-rate deals. In some cases these have risen by up to 0.4 percentage points.

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Debt collection agencies in the UK are using fair means or foul to link people to an address where an unpaid debt has been run up, sometimes years after they have moved out

The letter from the debt collection agency arrived out of the blue, and it was intimidating. It informed Joshua Simpson* that he owed GBP2,212 to Octopus Energy, and accused him of ignoring previous requests to settle the bill. If he did not stump up within 14 days, he was told, further action would be taken to recover the money.

Simpson checked his Octopus account – it was in credit. Then he noticed the address where the debt had been accrued between 2022 and 2023. It was his childhood home – which his family had sold 18 years previously.

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From renovating existing wood and plastic to scouring the local tip for anything that can be recycled

Getting your garden ready for the warmer months is not only about planting. We take a look at how to furnish your outdoor space for less.

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