• RTS meter deadline scrapped for ‘cautious and targeted’ phase-out plan

    The widespread switch-off of Radio Teleswitch Service (RTS) meters on 30 June will be replaced by a phased-out approach, the government has confirmed. As of 30 May 2025, statistics from the energy regulator Ofgem revealed that there were still 314,935 RTS meters that needed to be upgraded to a smart meter. This was despite the looming RTS signal switch-off date of 30 June. In the event of a switch-off, these affected households may find their heating or hot water provisions are disrupted. The government has now confirmed that instead of a complete switch-off on 30 June, there will rather be a “cautious and targeted” phase out to the RTS service. Miatta Fahnbulleh, minister for energy consumers, said: “We have stepped in to ensure that thousands of vulnerable consumers with RTS meters…

  • €4.12bn competition fine against Google to be upheld by EU’s highest court

    An EU court adviser has backed a €4.12bn competition fine against Google, dealing a blow to the tech giant’s chances of overturning it. The Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has announced its advocate general Juliane Kokott has advised the court to dismiss Google’s appeal to overturn a €4.34bn anticompetitive fine imposed on the Alphabet-owned company in 2018. She said the reduced fine of €4.12bn set by the General Court in 2022 following an initial appeal by Google should be upheld. In 2018, the European Commission imposed a €4.34bn fine following findings by Brussels regulators that Google had “abused its dominant position”. The findings revealed that Google had used its Android mobile phone operating system to block rivals since 2011. The commission accused…

  • Amazon’s Zoox opens first robotaxi factory in US with aim to produce 10,000 a year

    Amazon’s driverless taxi subsidiary Zoox has opened its first production facility for purpose-built robotaxis in the US and hopes to build more than 10,000 a year. Amazon bought the start-up in 2020 for $1.2bn (£890m) with the intention of eventually launching a service akin to Google’s Waymo. Waymo began taking rides for its first commercial service in San Francisco in 2021, while Zoox is gearing up to start public rides in Las Vegas later this year, with San Francisco to follow. The firm’s 220,000 square foot ‘state-of-the-art’ production facility is located in Hayward, California, and Zoox said it would be used for engineering, software integration, robotaxi assembly and storage components. The assembly line has also been designed to be adaptable to accommodate future design and feature…

  • First fully robotic heart transplant in the US performed without opening patient's chest

    Surgeons in Houston, Texas, have used robotic tools to perform heart transplant surgery on a patient without opening his chest. The minimally invasive surgery, performed at Baylor St Luke's Medical Center, reduced surgical trauma, blood loss and infection risk and increased recovery time for the 45-year-old patient. During the procedure, surgeons made small incisions in the upper abdominal wall below the diaphragm, eliminating the need to open the chest and break the breastbone. The robot was then navigated through the preperitoneal space in the abdominal wall to remove the diseased heart. The same route was then used to implant the donor organ. “Opening the chest and spreading the breastbone can affect wound healing and delay rehabilitation and prolong the patient's recovery, especially…

  • Some AI queries emit 50 times more CO₂ than others, study finds

    Generative AI services such as ChatGPT are major carbon (CO2) emitters due to their intensive energy usage, but a new study has found that some AI prompts could cause 50 times more emissions than others depending on what is asked. To answer user queries, these services use tokens. These are words or parts of words that are converted into a string of numbers that can be processed by the large language model (LLM). This conversion, as well as other computing processes, produces CO2 emissions. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has admitted that users saying “please” and “thank you” alone costs the firm “tens of millions of dollars” due to the extra energy usage of dealing with longer queries. Researchers at the Hochschule München University of Applied Sciences in Germany measured and compared CO2 emissions…

  • E+T Podcast: Episode 14 | Are we making smart choices for our cities?

    The Smart City movement began when the enabling digital technology allowed a level of communication that made lives better for those living in the urban environment. But some of the impetus was lost as the technology was taken for granted. However, recent developments appear to be allowing more tangible progress now - our cities could be getting smarter again!

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Honda R&D successfully launches and lands reusable rocket prototype from Japan facility

    Honda’s experimental reusable rocket has reached an altitude of nearly 300 metres before successfully touching down on its landing site. Although not known for its space aspirations, the auto giant Honda has for the past few years been developing a reusable rocket prototype under its research and development arm Honda R&D. Since 2024 its 6.3 metre-long reusable rocket has been undergoing engine combustion and hovering tests at Honda’s facility in Taiki, Hokkaido, Japan. On Tuesday the rocket successfully completed its first launch and landing test. Having reached an altitude of 271 metres, it returned and successfully touched down 37cm off its target landing point. The entire flight took less than 57 seconds. It enabled Honda R&D to test the technologies essential for a reusable rocket…

  • HS2 completion delayed beyond 2033 amid ‘litany of failure’

    The HS2 railway project will face further delays beyond its expected 2033 completion date because of a “litany of failure”, transport secretary Heidi Alexander has told the Commons. HS2 has been beset by a string of failures and budget overruns over the last decade, including the cancellation of routes ending in Leeds and Manchester by the previous Conservative government. An HS2 board paper released in June 2024 anticipated that the project was now expected to cost between £54bn and £66bn in 2019 prices – a marked increase from estimates the previous November of £49bn to £57bn. “It’s an appalling mess, but it’s one we will sort out,” Alexander said in parliament. With regards to the report on the project by the new CEO of HS2 Ltd, she said: “Based on his advice, I see no route by which…

  • 'Poor planning’ by grid operator REE blamed for April blackout in Spain and Portugal

    The unprecedented blackout across the Iberian peninsula was primarily caused by REE’s failure to manage a surge in voltage, the Spanish government has said. On 28 April, a major incident saw millions of households and businesses across Spain, Portugal and southern France suffer the largest power cut in Europe’s recent history. The source of the outage was traced to a sudden loss of 2.2GW of electricity at Granada substation in southern Spain. Following an investigation by the government, an official report has now been published detailing that the blackout was due to voltage control. It points to a series of technical and operational failures that increased the severity of the event. Following the abrupt loss of power generation in Granada, a complicated chain reaction of grid disconnections…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Abandoned coal mines could host 300GW of solar power, says report

    Repurposing abandoned coal mines as solar energy facilities could add a hefty 15% to the world’s capacity or 300GW in total, a report from the Global Energy Monitor (GEM) has found. Some 312 surface coal mines that have been idled and degraded since 2020 were identified that collectively take sprawl over 2,089km² – an area nearly the size of Luxembourg. The report also predicts a further 3,731km² of mine land that may be abandoned by operators before the end of 2030, owing to the depletion of reserves and the reported life of the mine. Coal mines are typically converted into solar farms by repurposing the land for solar panel installation, often combining it with land restoration efforts and agricultural practices. This approach offers a way to reuse land that has been heavily degraded…

  • Plan to pedestrianise 1.1km stretch of Oxford Street gains backing from public and businesses

    London mayor Sadiq Khan has announced he will move ahead with “bold plans” to pedestrianise Oxford Street. Under the proposed changes, traffic will be banned for a 0.7-mile (1.1km) stretch of Oxford Street between Orchard Street and Oxford Circus up to Great Portland Street. The hope is that it will attract more people once again to this shopping mecca, which has seen a decline in footfall in recent years with the growth of online shopping and out-of-town retail parks. With department stores such as Selfridges opening in the early 1900s, Oxford Street soon became a premier shopping destination. Today it is still classified as an area of critical national economic importance, contributing around £25bn to London’s economy annually. Through pedestrianising the street, the aim is to not…

  • Red Arrows go green for King’s birthday flypast with sustainable fuels

    The King’s birthday flypast featured a dramatic aerial display from the Red Arrows, which for the first time were powered using renewable fuels. At 1pm on Saturday (14 June), as part of King Charles’ birthday celebrations, over 30 Royal Air Force (RAF) planes flew over Buckingham Palace in a ceremonial flypast. As every year, the grand finale featured a dramatic aerial display by the pilots of the RAF aerobatic team flying the Red Arrows. But unlike previous years, the nine Red Arrows’ BAE Systems Hawk fast-jets were powered by a high-ratio blend of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) with hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) biofuel used to produce the trademark red, white and blue vapour trails. According to the RAF, using these renewable fuels is a “world-first” and the result of many trials…

  • 3D-printed concrete building undergoes real-life earthquake test to assess structural integrity

    A large shaking table that mimics earthquake events has allowed researchers at the University of Bristol to evaluate the structural integrity of 3D-printed concrete structures. Concrete 3D-printing is gaining momentum worldwide. From constructing railway stations to 30-metre-tall buildings, it is seen as a rapid, resilient, affordable and sustainable building technique. Structures are built layer-by-layer using a large-scale 3D-printer that extrudes a concrete mixture through a nozzle. While traditional concrete design has well-established seismic behaviour, 3D-printed concrete introduces new variables such as layered deposition, unique material properties and non-traditional geometries. The Bristol team wanted to assess how these factors influence the structural integrity of this construction…

  • Danish military deploys unmanned sailing vessels to bolster Baltic Sea surveillance

    Four unmanned sailing vessels have been deployed for a three-month mission with the Danish Ministry of Defence, which is trialling new technology to boost its surveillance capabilities. Developed by US firm Saildrone, the Voyager vessels are equipped with various autonomous intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems that allow it to patrol the Baltic Sea unmanned for long stretches of time. That sea is a vital maritime region with growing geopolitical complexity as it is home to key undersea infrastructure, including pipelines and data cables, and is bordered by multiple Nato member states and Russia. In January, Swedish prosecutors ordered the detention of a Russian vessel in the area following damage to an underwater fibre optic cable. “The Baltic, North Sea and European…

  • British Steel lands £500m contract to supply Network Rail amid ownership limbo

    British Steel has signed a £500m contract to manufacture new rails for the UK’s train network. The five-year agreement with Network Rail is a boon to the struggling steelmaker, whose Chinese owners effectively abandoned it earlier this year. British Steel will retain its position as principal supplier to Network Rail and will provide just over 80% of its steel needs. From July, the remaining portion will be sold to Britain by two Austrian and German companies, Voestalpine and Saarstahl. All the rails will be manufactured at the Scunthorpe steelworks where most of the track laid in the UK is made. The company will deliver between 70,000 and 80,000 tonnes of rail a year – enough to stretch between London and Edinburgh. British Steel’s commercial director for rail, Craig Harvey, said:…

  • Air India crash: Early speculation points to possible dual-engine failure

    Early speculations on the fatal crash in India last week of the Air India-operated Boeing 787 Dreamliner point to possible dual-engine failure. On Thursday (12 June), the aeroplane crashed into a residential area shortly after take-off from Ahmedabad, India, en route to London Gatwick. Of the 242 passengers and crew onboard only one person survived, and an additional 38 fatalities occurred on the ground. This makes it the deadliest aviation disaster in India in nearly two decades. On Friday, India’s civil aviation minister confirmed that the aircraft’s black boxes had been found at the crash site. Flight data, including all the cockpit conversations, will be crucial in determining the cause of the crash. While the facts around the crash will only be known once a full analysis of this…

  • Donald Trump files trademarks for potential phone brand and mobile network

    US President Donald Trump could be about to launch a mobile network in the US – alongside branded phones and accessories – after a number of trademark filings were spotted with the US Patent and Trademark Office last week. Trump is no stranger to attaching his name to merchandising, both before and after his presidential runs. He is estimated to have made over $10m in the last year selling Bibles, watches, trainers and guitars with his name branded on them. But the most profitable venture in recent times has been the launch of the Trump cryptocurrency, which proved controversial after its price briefly surged and then crashed dramatically, leaving many holders of the coin out of pocket. Now patent attorney Josh Gerben has found that DTTM Operations LLC, the entity that manages Donald Trump…

  • 7,000 cases of AI cheating among university students just the ‘tip of the iceberg’

    The extent of AI cheating at universities is significant and increasingly going undetected, a survey by The Guardian has found. Academic misconduct among university students is nothing new. But with the rise of generative AI it is getting easier to do – and easier to get away with too. A recent survey by The Guardian shows how the rise of the generative AI tool ChatGPT directly correlates with AI cheating among university students. ChatGPT was released for public use in late 2022. The chatbot quickly garnered attention for its detailed responses and articulate answers across many domains of knowledge. By 2023 its use had exploded across education, business and tech sectors. To survey the extent of academic integrity violations, The Guardian contacted 155 universities under the Freedom…

  • Orpheus satellite mission to shield UK comms from space weather set for 2027 launch

    A mission to better understand the impact of space weather on key communication and navigation systems has been awarded a £5.15m satellite contract by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl). Space weather is generated by solar winds and other background radiation that have impacts upon the Earth’s magnetosphere, ionosphere, thermosphere and exosphere. It can cause significant problems with key satellite-based communication and positioning systems. To improve our understanding, Dstl and partners in the US and Canada are launching the Orpheus mission, which will see a set of CubeSats being sent into orbit, where they can collect detailed data about rapid changes occurring outside our atmosphere. Astroscale UK has been granted the initial £5.15m contract to design and build…

  • MPs call for ‘root and branch’ reform of failing water sector

    The water sector is in need of “root and branch reform”, with private water firms failing to adequately look after critical infrastructure, MPs have said. A report from the House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee has called for “a major refresh of the incentives and drivers” and “much more regulated management of financial incentives for senior executives” in the water sector. It urged the Water Commission, which delivers recommendations to the government on how to reform the sector, to consider a variety of models of corporate ownership, which “could offer a better culture of responsible leadership”. The committee said that bonuses totalling millions of pounds had been repeatedly paid to senior executives over many years, despite poor performance, which they say…

  • CAA greenlights infrastructure drone inspections beyond visual line of sight

    The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has approved the first beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) drone flights over the UK’s Critical National Infrastructure. While independent firm Drone Major is the first firm to be given the permission to carry out inspections, the CAA is planning to enable routine drone inspections by 2027. They believe the technology could greatly reduce the cost of inspections in comparison to human-led operations, which often involve hazardous scenarios requiring stringent safety rules. The first flight took place above railway lines as a way to find potential faults on the track. But Drone Majors said that more complex BVLOS operations across other infrastructure could soon follow, with potential applications in sectors such as energy, utilities, defence, border…

  • NESO to start reordering UK electricity grid connections queue from late July

    The National Energy System Operator (NESO) has published a July timeline for developers to submit evidence of their transmission projects, ahead of the upcoming reordering of the grid connections queue. In April 2025, energy regulator Ofgem approved the NESO’s proposed reforms to transform the grid connection process. The queue for connecting new projects to the grid is massively oversubscribed and held up by stalled or speculative zombie and phantom projects; some green energy projects are taking up to a decade to be connected. In line with the government’s plan to decarbonise the grid by 2030, NESO’s proposed reforms will see the end of the first-come, first-served system, and the prioritisation of “ready” and “needed” clean energy projects. Kayte O’Neil, CEO of NESO, said: “Earlier…

  • Call to cap rising car bonnet heights amid pedestrian safety fears

    The EU has been urged to place limits on the ever-increasing height of car bonnets in order to improve road safety for pedestrians, especially children. Recent analysis from the Transport & Environment (T&E) advocacy group found that, on average, car makers have been increasing the bonnet height in newly sold cars by roughly half a centimetre a year – reaching 83.8cm in 2024 compared with 76.9cm in 2010. But it warned that the increase is leading to a greater number of accidents that can also incur a higher fatality risk for pedestrians. This is because higher bonnets both impair road vision for drivers while worsening the severity of collisions. The analysis shows that high-bonneted SUVs and pick-up trucks typically strike adult pedestrians above the centre of gravity when involved in…

  • Midjourney faces copyright infringement lawsuit from Disney and Universal

    Disney and Universal have filed a joint lawsuit against Midjourney, alleging that the firm has committed copyright infringement with its AI image generation platform. Midjourney first entered open beta in 2022 and has received a series of updates since then, allowing for more accurate and advanced images. Users are able to create images through text prompts including the likes of Shrek, Darth Vader, Buzz Lightyear and a host of other copyrighted characters. In a filing at the District Court for the Central District of California, Disney and Universal state: “By helping itself to Plaintiffs’ copyrighted works, and then distributing images (and soon videos) that blatantly incorporate and copy Disney’s and Universal’s famous characters—without investing a penny in their creation – Midjourney…

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