Economy

A community hub said it had spent more than £13,000 after sewer water seeped up through its basement damaging items including laptops and art materials.

Nancy Magon, who runs The Hub by Aurora Family in Reading, said: "It decimated our business, we're crawling back now."

The basement the non-profit education support group usually uses as a classroom and for various workshops was flooded with 12 inches (30cm) of sewer water in September, Ms Magon said.

Thames Water apologised and said "investigations are complete and a claim for Ms Magon is currently being reviewed by our loss adjusters who will update her on the outcome as soon as possible".

Ms Magon said Thames Water removed 40m (131ft) of scale from the drain which took place four months after the flooding and took a week to finish.

During that time the basement could not be renovated.

Ms Magon said the group was in "complete limbo" and had to rent another space which meant spending money on two properties at the same time.

Rachel Lockett's daughter, who has autism, attended the The Hub by Aurora Family when she was unable to attend school.

She said it enabled her to "flourish".

"Getting out of the house and being able to trust in other adults… was a real key for reducing her anxiety and enabling her to get back out there again," she said.

"It was life-changing having an activity she felt safe doing because school became so traumatic for her that she used to be terrified to go anywhere."

Although Ms Magon had contents and business interruption insurance she said her insurers advised her to put the claim forward to Thames Water before putting in a claim "which would significantly increase our premiums".

A Thames Water spokesperson said: "We're very sorry that the Aurora Family Hub experienced internal sewer flooding, and we recognise the disruption this can cause to business."

When the call came in for Guernsey children to be evacuated from the island during World War Two, Ann Mathers' mother made a split-second decision to go with her.

Ms Mathers was five years old in 1940 when she stood on Guernsey harbour with the rest of her school, about to board an evacuation ship bound for England.

One of the teachers had been taken ill and her mother, Nena Jenkins, decided to take the teacher's place, knowing her husband Arthur "Jay" Jenkins had joined the RAF and left the island.

Reflecting on the decision 85 years later, Ms Mathers said she felt "lucky" to have had her mother with her, who left without packing a bag or having a change of clothes.

Now 90, Ms Mathers has been sharing her story as part of the Island Memories Project, a collaboration between BBC Guernsey and Guernsey Museums.

When her father joined the war efforts, Ms Mathers and her mother had to leave their rented accommodation in Guernsey and moved in with relatives.

"My mother and I moved in with her sister and family and we were all living together at what was the Farmer's Hotel, which is now Harbour Lights," she said.

It was June 1940 and Guernsey's plans to evacuate the island's children to England had begun, days before the Nazi occupation of the island began.

"My mother took me down to the boat in the morning and, when she got there, she was told that they were in a panic because my school had one of the teacher's taken ill," said Ms Mathers.

"They said 'could anybody please take her place', so my mother said, 'well, I haven't got any other children and my husband's already gone, so I could if you send a message back to my sister'.

"So my mother came on the boat with me wearing whatever garment she was wearing that day, didn't have any change of clothing or anything with her.

"I was lucky because I did have my mother stay with me."

Their ship landed in Weymouth before Ms Mathers and her mother boarded a train, not knowing their destination.

"That was very exciting because I'd never seen a train," said Ms Mathers.

"I'd never seen a sheep, there were no sheep in Guernsey in those days, I'd never seen a cow that wasn't brown and white.

"There were black and white things in the fields, I didn't know what they were because they weren't proper cows."

Two Just Stop Oil protesters have denied criminal damage after liquid latex was poured over a robot at a Tesla store in west London.

Nigel Fleming, 63, and Catherine Nash, 74, were both charged with causing £2,696.40 in criminal damage after the incident at the Westfield Tesla store in Shepherd's Bush on 12 March.

Mr Fleming, of Worcester Crescent, London, was self-represented and pleaded not guilty at Westminster Magistrates' Court.

Ms Nash, of Castle Green Close, Kendal, Cumbria, who is also representing herself, appeared via video link, having pleaded not guilty at a previous hearing.

Mr Fleming said it was accepted that the pair carried out the action but they had a "lawful excuse".

He also told the court that the value of the damage was less than that alleged.

Mr Fleming said: "We were very careful to try and make it so that the mannequin was not damaged, so I'm very surprised that there was damage to anything."

The prosecution will give evidence on the value of the damage and that can be challenged, District Judge John Zani said.

Mr Fleming told the court that the action had been taken to "draw attention to issues such as climate change".

The charges allege that "without lawful excuse" they "intended to destroy or damage" the Optimus robot belonging to Tesla "or were reckless as to whether that would happen".

Both defendants were granted conditional bail until their trial at Westminster Magistrates' Court on 24 September.

Rail passengers have been urged to plan ahead as train services on the Far North Line will stop for most of June.

Network Rail is carrying out an £11.5m improvement project on the line, which connects Inverness with Wick and Thurso.

Refurbishment work will be undertaken, with some parts of the line replaced.

No trains are scheduled to operate north of Dingwall from Sunday June 8 until Monday June 30, with replacement bus services to be put in place.

An artist who uses a typewriter to make art will be doing live drawings at a library.

Keira Rathbone will draw pictures of people using what she calls her "time-travelling" writing device on 10 May.

Each one will take about 10 minutes and people can walk away with a "piece of work that's about them", she said.

The event at Falmouth Library will run from 10:00 BST to 17:00.

Rathbone said she started doing typewriter artwork about 22 years ago when she realised she could better express herself through art than words.

"When I had the typewriter in front of me I wanted to type but I didn't know what to say so I just started pressing."

She explained that rather than seeing a row of letters, she saw a corner or a shape.

"That's when the characters started looking like shapes and textures to me," she added.

Rathbone said the typewriter "almost felt like a time-travelling device" and she loved using it to interact with the public.

She described how the typewriter takes people back, captures them in the present, and the experience "sticks in their heads later".

"People can have a piece of work that's about them… the essence of them, sort of boiled down to minimal characters," she added.

Newcastle United manager Eddie Howe's freedom of the city status has been confirmed by councillors.

The Magpies boss was nominated following the club's Carabao Cup win in March – the side's first major trophy in decades.

Councillors have now voted to approve the motion to give him the highest civic honour the city can bestow.

It has previously been awarded to other leading figures in Newcastle's football history including Sir Bobby Robson, Alan Shearer and Jackie Milburn.

Howe was put forward by council leader Karen Kilgour after the club's 2-1 win against Liverpool.

Speaking after his status was confirmed, she said he would be "forever be a hero to Newcastle United supporters for his achievements during his time at the club".

She added: "That special day at Wembley gifted Geordies something they hadn't seen in 70 years – domestic trophy success.

"For a city that lives and breathes sport, with a football club around which so many lives revolve, the wait to see black and white shirts lift a trophy at the home of football had long felt it would go on forever."

Hundreds of thousands of fans lined the streets of Newcastle when the trophy was taken through the city centre on 29 March in an open-top bus parade.

A further celebration event was staged on the Town Moor, hosted by Geordie TV presenting duo Ant and Dec.

The club went on to secure qualification for next season's Champions League on the final day of this season despite a 1-0 loss at home to Everton.

Kilgour added Howe was "a fantastic ambassador" for the city and described him as "passionate yet calm, inspiring and polite".

The council said it would work with the club to arrange a celebration to present Howe with his award.

The status is ceremonial and sees recipients presented with a scroll and their name carved into the sandstone wall of the Civic Centre's Banqueting Hall.

It is not the same as being a hereditary Freeman of Newcastle, a centuries-old group whose members must swear an oath to defend the city and have traditionally had special rights and duties – including the right to graze cattle on the Town Moor.

It is not the first such award Howe has been given.

In 2019, while manager of Bournemouth, he was granted Freedom of the Borough for his role in their rise from League Two to the Premier League.

That council's "highest mark of esteem" entitles him to a reserved seat at council meetings and church services.

Staff at two hospitals have been invited to resign as part of a drive to reduce the workforce.

A Mutually-Agreed Resignation Scheme (MARS) began on Thursday at Northampton and Kettering General hospitals.

The University Hospitals of Northamptonshire (UHN), which run both sites, said the scheme was designed to avoid compulsory redundancies.

A union has said it had "real concerns" about the move.

A MARS arrangement enables employees to agree with their employer to leave the organisation in return for a severance payment.

Unlike voluntary redundancy, MARS does involve a formal consultation process.

Workers at both hospitals have been told about the scheme this week.

UHN's chief executive Laura Churchward said: "This voluntary scheme is designed to help reduce our workforce size in a controlled and compassionate way, avoiding compulsory redundancies.

"Colleagues who are caring directly for patients are not in scope of the scheme, and each application will be carefully considered to enable us to deliver more efficient services that continue to meet the needs of our patients."

The scheme will only be open to those in corporate, administrative and support roles.

A spokesperson for the union, Unison, which represents some workers at the hospitals, said: "NHS staff in Northamptonshire are already overworked. Paying off hundreds of staff will only make this situation worse.

"We have real concerns about what this will mean for the staff who resign under this scheme, for their colleagues who are left to pick up the pieces, and the patients who rely on vital services."

As first reported in the Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph, a Kettering nurse said compulsory redundancies could not be ruled out if not enough people applied for MARS.

The nurse added that the workload in department where staff agreed to leave would be shared among the remaining team.

NHS rules require MARS schemes to be open for no longer than three months.

A Devon village that has hoped for a new community building for more than 20 years has secured planning permission.

The Landkey Mazzard Hall, proposed for the top of the Millennium Green off Harford Way, Landkey, is expected to meet the demands of the growing community of 2,300 people.

Planning officers approved the application that was submitted to North Devon Council for the multi-use building, which will provide opportunities for local clubs, events and private functions.

The land is owned by the parish council, which submitted the application, and a long-term lease has been secured by Landkey Mazzard Hall Charitable Trust.

The scheme comprises a 481 sq m (5,177 sq ft) contemporary village hall and an 82 sq m (883 sq ft) storage building.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the hall will feature a main hall/events space along with separate meeting rooms, an activity room, a bar and kitchen facilities.

Funding is being sought for the construction of the hall.

Cyber criminals have told BBC News their hack against Co-op is far more serious than the company previously admitted.

Hackers contacted the BBC with proof they had infiltrated IT networks and stolen huge amounts of customer and employee data.

After being approached on Friday, a Co-op spokesperson said the hackers "accessed data relating to a significant number of our current and past members".

Co-op had previously said that it had taken "proactive measures" to fend off hackers and that it was only having a "small impact" on its operations.

It also assured the public that there was "no evidence that customer data was compromised".

The cyber criminals claim to have the private information of 20 million people who signed up to Co-op's membership scheme, but the firm would not confirm that number.

The criminals, who are using the name DragonForce, say they are also responsible for the ongoing attack on M&S and an attempted hack of Harrods.

The attacks have led government minister Pat McFadden to warn companies to "treat cyber security as an absolute priority".

The anonymous hackers showed the BBC screenshots of the first extortion message they sent to Co-op's head of cyber security in an internal Microsoft Teams chat on 25 April.

"Hello, we exfiltrated the data from your company," the chat says.

"We have customer database, and Co-op member card data."

• Co-op staff told to keep cameras on in meetings

They also showed screenshots of a call with the head of security which took place around a week ago.

The hackers say they messaged other members of the executive committee too as part of their scheme to blackmail the firm.

Co-op has more than 2,500 supermarkets as well as 800 funeral homes and an insurance business.

It employs around 70,000 staff nationwide.

The cyber attack was announced by the company on Wednesday.

On Thursday, it was revealed Co-op staff were being urged to keep their cameras on during Teams meetings, ordered not to record or transcribe calls, and to verify that all participants were genuine Co-op staff.

The security measure now appears to be a direct result of the hackers having access to internal Teams chats and calls.

DragonForce shared databases with the BBC that includes usernames and passwords of all employees.

They also sent a sample of 10,000 customers data including Co-op membership card numbers, names, home addresses, emails and phone numbers.

The BBC has destroyed the data it received, and is not publishing or sharing these documents.

DragonForce claims

The Co-op membership database is thought to be highly valuable to the company.

Since the BBC contacted Co-op about the hackers' evidence, the firm has disclosed the full extent of the breach to its staff and the stock market.

"This data includes Co-op Group members' personal data such as names and contact details, and did not include members' passwords, bank or credit card details, transactions or information relating to any members' or customers' products or services with the Co-op Group," a spokesperson said.

DragonForce want the BBC to report the hack – they are apparently trying to extort the company for money.

But the criminals wouldn't say what they plan to do with the data if they don't get paid.

They refused to talk about M&S or Harrods and when asked about how they feel about causing so much distress and damage to business and customers, they refused to answer.

DragonForce is a ransomware group known for scrambling victims' data and demanding a ransom is paid to get the key to unscramble it. They are also known to have stolen data as part of their extortion tactics.

DragonForce operates an affiliate cyber crime service so anyone can use their malicious software and website to carry out attacks and extortions.

It's not known who is ultimately using the DragonForce service to attack the retailers, but some security experts say the tactics seen are similar to that of a loosely coordinated group of hackers who have been called Scattered Spider or Octo Tempest.

The gang operates on Telegram and Discord channels and is English-speaking and young – in some cases only teenagers.

Conversations with the Co-op hackers were carried out in text form – but it is clear the hacker, who called himself a spokesperson, was a fluent English speaker.

They say two of the hackers want to be known as "Raymond Reddington" and "Dembe Zuma" after characters from US crime thriller Blacklist which involves a wanted criminal helping police take down other criminals on a 'blacklist'.

The hackers say "we're putting UK retailers on the Blacklist".

Co-op says it is working with the NCSC and the NCA and said in a statement it is very sorry this situation has arisen.

Scotland's main political parties have rounded on Nigel Farage as the Reform UK leader came north to campaign in a crucial by-election.

Farage visited Scotland for the first time in the campaign where he said his party is a "fresh positive voice" between the Labour and SNP "seesaw" in Scotland.

Scottish Labour, the SNP and the Scottish Conservatives hit out at Farage and the Reform campaign, urging voters not to back the party in Thursday's vote in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse.

A by-election is being held in the constituency following the death of the SNP MSP Christina McKelvie.

Farage attended a press conference in Aberdeen, before visiting Hamilton and Larkhall.

He said Reform had made "remarkable strides" in Scotland over the last year and was "beginning to eclipse Labour".

He announced two more councillors have defected to join Reform, and said this was because the party was "attracting some very, very good fresh talent".

Councillor Duncan Massey, who had previously been a Conservative member of Aberdeen City Council, was unveiled as a latest defector alongside Jamie McGuire, who had sat for Labour on Renfrewshire Council.