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The Metropolitan Police have spent £7.7m policing 13 weeks of Just Stop Oil protests, the force has said.
Protestors mounted 515 protests since April and the cost of handling the disruption amounted to the equivalent of 23,500 officer shifts.
Actions included slow marches in busy London roads and disrupting major sporting events, and more than 270 people have been arrested.
It comes on top of the £7.5m officers spent policing Just Stop Oil (JSO) demonstrations between October and December last year.
Assistant commissioner Matt Twist told LBC the force was “resilient” but dealing with a “chronic” issue.
He said: “In terms of every single day, we’ve got over 150 officers who ordinarily would be policing in local communities, who are policing in and around other parts of London.
“And one of the challenges we have with Just Stop Oil is they don’t tell us where they’re going to protest, they don’t tell us when they’re going to take this action, they don’t engage, which means that we have to put more officers on it than we otherwise would do.”
Activists have disrupted events including The Open, Wimbledon, the Ashes, the Gallagher Premiership rugby final at Twickenham and the World Snooker Championship.
Chelsea Flower Show and the London Pride March also saw action taken, while protestors disrupted filming of the Channel 4 show The Last Leg, and sprayed orange paint on the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero building in central London.
A spokesperson for the mayor of London said: “The mayor supports the democratic right to protest, however, Sadiq has always been clear that protests must be carried out safely and lawfully and should not put Londoners or the capital’s recovery at risk.
“The extreme weather events London has experienced in recent years show how much more needs to be done to tackle the climate emergency, but protestors should consider whether their methods risk turning public opinion against a vitally important cause.
“The mayor supports the Met’s efforts to keep Londoners safe and keep our city moving.”
Read more:
Just Stop Oil protests cost Met Police £7.7M since April

Apple is being sued for £1bn (£785m) by UK app developers over its App Store fees.
Professor Sean Ennis, from the University of East Anglia Centre for Competition Policy, is bringing the class action lawsuit on behalf of 1,566 app creators because of the tech giant’s “excessive” charges.
Some app makers are charged 15% to 30% by Apple in commission when using its in-app payment system – a procedure that has been criticised by antitrust regulators in several countries.
Professor Ennis said: “Apple’s charges to app developers are excessive, and only possible due to its monopoly on the distribution of apps onto iPhones and iPads.
“The charges are unfair in their own right, and constitute abusive pricing. They harm app developers and also app buyers.”
Apple previously said 85% of developers on the App Store do not pay any commission and that it helps European developers to access markets and customers in 175 countries around the world through the App Store.
Apple’s services business, including Apple Pay, Apple Arcade and the App Store, are escalating its growth with revenues at around $80bn (£62bn) per year.
In November, the UK Competition and Market Authority (CMA) launched a probe into the dominance of Apple and Google’s mobile browsers in the cloud market.
Read more:
Apple face $1bn lawsuit as UK app developers join forces against ‘excessive’ charges

Ofgem has imposed a hefty £9.78m penalty on SSE Generation for securing excessive payments from the UK’s electricity system operator, which was in breach of its licence and raised costs for customers.
The watchdog confirmed the penalty will be paid into its voluntary redress fund, a support kitty for vulnerable households, after first proposing the fine last month.
It determined that the company gained excessive payments from the ESO during periods of what is known as ‘transmission constraint.’
This is when there is either shortfalls or excesses in power, requiring ESO to pay generators to turn off or power on generators to maintain balanced supplies.
Excessive prices are curbed by the terms of the transmission constraint licence condition (TCLC).
In October 2021, Ofgem opened an investigation into SSE’s compliance with the TCLC in relation to its Foyers pumped storage power station, which is located in Northern Scotland and regularly operates in transmission constraint periods.
Ofgem found that in May 2020, SSE decided to make the bid prices it charged the ESO to reduce Foyers’ output significantly more expensive – including in periods of transmission constraint.
This change was made to bring Foyers in line with what it believed was the market practice of other pumped storage operators, and to increase profit.
Ofgem has not seen any evidence that SSE changed its pricing strategy for Foyers knowing its revised strategy would breach the TCLC.
However, the regulator believed it should have been clear to SSE’s senior management that its revised approach carried a significant risk of breaching the TCLC.
SSE has committed to put in place a new pricing methodology designed to properly reflect the costs and benefits of reducing its generation at Foyers.
It also expressed a willingness to settle the case by concluding the investigation early.
This meant the company has qualified for a discount compared to the £11.58m it would otherwise have been required to pay.
“This enforcement action sends another strong signal to all generators that they must put in place controls to ensure that their bid prices are set in a way that ensures that they do not obtain excessive benefits during transmission constraint periods”, said Cathryn Scott, director of enforcement and emerging issues at Ofgem.
“If they fail to do so, they will face significant consequences.”
A spokesperson for SSE said: “We aim to comply with regulations at all times and believed we were doing so in this case. We co-operated fully with the investigation. Following the investigation, we are updating our relevant procedures accordingly.”
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Ofgem hits SSE with £9.78m fine after breaching licence and raised customers costs

THE BBC’s chief executive is expected to contact Nigel Farage in writing today over the inaccurate story about him being de-banked by NatWest subsidiary Coutts.
Mr Farage told GB News: “First things first, the BBC: I have actually received this morning an acknowledgment from Tim Davie, the director general, and he says that Deborah Turness, who is the CEO of the BBC, will write to me today.
“So you know that is work in progress. I will wait to get Deborah Turness’ letter in terms of getting to the truth. I’ve also put in a Subject Access Request in to NatWest. Hopefully, I can find out what was said about me at that higher level within the group.
“And the point about that 36-page document is I had to publish it and, by the way, it was full of mis-quotes. It was full of things that have been actually beaten in a libel trial.”
In a discussion with Andrew Pierce and Carole Malone, he continued: “I had to put out that vile information about me. I had to make it public because otherwise I couldn’t counter the briefing that had been done to the BBC.
“So, yes, it’s yet more reputational damage for me and on the legal front all I will say is all options are on the table.”
He added: “ if they can do it to me, they can do it to you. Well read the small print of all the four big banks in Britain. They now have the ability to monitor your social media.
“You say anything online that goes against the bank’s values, they now can close you down. This has got to be fought and fought hard.
“This is the ultimate battle for freedom and individual liberty.”
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Nigel Farage: letter from BBC’s chief executive over de-banking story is on the way

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan has announced the winning tech companies and AI firms who will receive funding to bring to life their innovative ideas to support Londoners struggling with the cost of living crisis.
The ‘Poverty Prevention Challenge’ was launched by Sadiq in January 2023 to find innovative solutions to tackle the impact of the cost-of-living crisis, provide Londoners with access to opportunities and resources to reach financial independence, and improve the way the public sector identify and support people at risk of falling into financial hardship.
The initiative is part of Challenge LDN, launched by City Hall in partnership with Barnet Council to encourage organisations to find new ways to use technology to support the Londoners who are most in need. Challenge LDN has helped dozens of startups and small businesses. It has invested more than £2.5 million in supporting them to scale up across the city, providing access to seed funding and opportunities to develop new products and services and create jobs.
The “Poverty Prevention Challenge” is the latest in more than 20 challenges set since 2018 encouraging innovators from across London to test, prototype, and scale up ideas that address the city’s most pressing challenges.  Seven London tech companies will each receive up to £50,000 to develop their projects. The winning proposals include:

Mealia’s cutting edge AI technology to help families at risk of falling into food poverty maximise their budget by creating personalised meal plans using the cheapest ingredients from the user’s favourite supermarket.
Mortar Works tenancy sustainment tool, designed to support renters in or at risk of rent arrears. It protects renters from needing high-cost debt to afford their rent.
Mendee’s AI-powered digital tools to enable overwhelmed non-profit organisations to help refugees to integrate successfully into society by providing language and digital literacy support.

SuperFi’s easy-to-navigate digital tools to help Londoners struggling to pay their bills manage their finances and access services and resources most suited to their individual needs.

City Hall data shows that more than half (54 per cent) of Londoners are either ‘financially struggling’ or ‘just about managing’.* The Mayor is doing all he can to help Londoners cope with the increasing cost of living, including providing free school meals to help hundreds of thousands of low-income London families and has repeatedly called on the Government to introduce a two year rent freeze to support London’s renters.
Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “The cost of living crisis continues to hit Londoners hard and these innovative projects will help thousands who are struggling to make ends meet in the wake of soaring energy costs and food prices.
“Local government and community groups are working tirelessly to support residents during the cost of living crisis. But as a city we must continue to innovate and AI and new digital services have a real role to play in assisting that.
“Supporting open calls to London’s tech sector means we can apply new approaches to the challenges people face. By working this way we can break down silos, collaborate with new partners and build a better, safer, fairer and more prosperous London for everyone.”
Theo Blackwell, Chief Digital Officer for London said: “I congratulate all those who took part, the winners and the forward-thinking of Barnet council in trying out this new approach.  Over the past 5 years setting open calls – or challenges – like this has allowed us to be bolder and work more collaboratively with London’s start-ups and scale ups. Seeking and testing new ideas and learning from others, is an important part of London’s new way of working.”
Askia Ibrahim Warne, Founder of CARD-HR said:  ”We are thrilled to be selected as winners, a validation of our concept and an inspiration to continue our dedicated work towards driving excellence and creating a positive impact by enhancing the economic well-being of struggling families, particularly women facing skills gaps and childcare challenges. Our practical approach will empower our beneficiaries to overcome barriers and gain meaningful employment. We are committed to spurring forward our innovation to become sustainable and resilient.”
Dr. Bela Prasad, Co-Founder at MatchingMind said: “We are deeply honoured to receive this award, as it acknowledges the impact of MatchingMind’s innovative approach in fostering resilient communities. In the wake of the pandemic and a mounting cost of living crisis, mental health has been significantly affected people, with nearly half of the population experiencing elevated levels of stress and anxiety. This award empowers MatchingMind to further our mission of connecting and matching Londoners for buddy support, enabling individuals to feel heard and understood.”
Gabriel Corbet, Founder of Mealia said:  “We are deeply grateful for the endorsement of the Mayor of London, whose backing will support our ongoing efforts to combat poverty and alleviate food insecurity. This partnership paves the way for the widespread implementation of our initiative across London and helps us identify how to build the optimal tool to empower individuals to make the most of their grocery budgets.”
Alex Choybsonov, Founder of Mendee said:  “We are absolutely thrilled to be recognized as winners of the Poverty Prevention Challenge. This signifies an endorsement of our dedication towards social change and validates our belief in the power of technology to combat poverty. The grant will catalyse our mission to leverage our AI-powered SiBot to make a meaningful difference, enhancing our ability to empower refugees and accelerate their smooth integration into society for greater social impact.”
George Unsworth, Founder of Mortar Works said:  “At such a crucial time we are honoured to be providing vital support in managing and sustaining tenancies through the development of Rent Response. Together with Challenge London and our lead housing and local authority partners we will be working to ensure that Rent Response improves access for renters to money advice services and creates the affordable rent schedules needed to help keep the most vulnerable safe and secure in their homes.”
Tom Barltrop, Founder of SuperFi said: “We are delighted to be selected as winners by the Greater London Authority. With a staggering 45% of the UK struggling to meet monthly bills, this collaboration represents a crucial step in addressing the cost-of-living crisis. By working alongside councils, housing associations, and local support services, SuperFi will offer essential tools and solutions to enhance financial resilience and prevent individuals from falling into problem debt. Together, we will make a meaningful difference in the lives of millions of Londoners facing financial challenges, bolstering poverty prevention efforts in the capital.”
Will Thompson, Founder of Time to Spare said:  “The buzz in the office when we were selected as a winner of the GLA’s Poverty Prevention Challenge was quite surreal. As a small team of four, we all worked hard to pitch a proposal we believe will make a real impact.  This funding enables us to bring together 5 Councils from boroughs across London, to develop, test and roll out our innovative prototype that will help them partner more closely with the voluntary sector to identify and reach vulnerable people that need support.”
Read more:
AI startups among winners of Mayor’s tech challenge to help Londoners through the cost of living crisis 

Twitter has changed its brand and logo from its famous blue bird to “X”.
The new white X on a black background has replaced the blue bird on the desktop version of the social network, although is yet to appear on the mobile app.
“Tweets” will also be replaced, according to Twitter’s owner Elon Musk, and posts will be called “x’s”.
The billionaire changed his profile picture to the new logo and added “X.com” to his Twitter bio.
Mr Musk wants to create a “super app” called X – his vision for a new kind of social media platform that he has been talking about creating for months.
On Sunday, the billionaire said he was looking to change Twitter’s logo, tweeting: “And soon we shall bid adieu to the Twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds.”
He then shared a picture of the new X branding projected onto the side of Twitter headquarters in San Francisco.
Mr Musk, who has changed the name of the business to X Corp, said the replacement “should have been done a long time ago”.
He posted an image of a flickering X on Twitter, and later in a Twitter Spaces audio chat, replied “Yes” when asked if the Twitter logo would change.
Ms Yaccarino wrote on the platform that the rebrand was an exciting new opportunity.
“Twitter made one massive impression and changed the way we communicate,” she said.
“Now, X will go further, transforming the global town square.”
The bird is called Larry which Twitter’s co-founder Biz Stone said, in 2011, is a tribute to basketball star and Boston Celtics legend Larry Bird.
People took to Twitter to mourn the loss of the logo, including Martin Grasser who designed it in 2012.
“Today we say goodbye to this great blue bird,” he said. Later the tweet was shared by Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s best-known co-founder.
Commenting on the announcement, Brand expert Ian Humphris, CEO and founder at Nokamo Consulting says: “Does flipping the bird at Twitter’s distinctive logo break all the equity rules? Ordinarily, yes. But the keyboard warriors waving their How Brands Grow should see it from Elon’s perspective. Currently the platform is a 2D chat room with a haemorrhaging P&L, but the ambition is to be the next WeChat super-app. When you’ve landed a rocket vertically, you understand that sometimes revolution, not evolution, is how you bring the market to heel.”
Read more:
Elon Musk unveils Twitter rebrand as X with blue bird logo killed off

Parliament has launched a new inquiry into British film and high-end TV, examining issues around skills and retention as well as challenges posed from the rise of artificial intelligence.
MPs on the culture, media and sport committee will investigate what needs to be done to maintain and enhance the UK as a global destination for production and how the independent film production sector can best be supported.
The committee will also examine challenges for British cinemas, following the recent Cineworld restructure and the collapse of the Empire chain.
The inquiry comes 20 years on from the predecessor committee’s report on the British film industry, which made recommendations around tax regimes, training and development. It also comes as major film and TV productions have ground to a halt due to the joint actors’ and writers’ strike in the US, which focuses on issues such as residual payments from streaming platforms and the use of AI.
Caroline Dinenage, chair of the CMS committee, said: “Thousands of cinemagoers enjoying the new Barbie film this weekend will get to see the latest success story for the British film and high-end TV industry, with the construction of Barbieland from scratch at a studio in the UK demonstrating the sector’s excellent track record in attracting blockbusters to our shores.
“We will be looking at how to maintain the attractiveness of the UK as a global destination for production while ensuring independent films, similar to recent hits Rye Lane and Aftersun, can be made and seen.
“The financial problems encountered by big-name cinema chains have highlighted the importance of protecting and promoting the UK’s screen heritage, while the actors’ and writers’ strikes in the United States show the importance of getting ahead of the game in adapting skills and responding to the challenges of artificial intelligence.”
Dinenage said the committee wanted to ensure the industry and government were thinking of the future to maintain and enhance a sector that is hugely important to the economy and culture of the UK as well as to its “power on the world stage”.
Speaking to the Guardian, the Oscar-winning producer David Puttnam also recently called on the film industry to address its yawning skills gap and grow audiences before the UK is eclipsed as a cinematic powerhouse.
He also said further work was necessary to draw audiences back to cinemas, including tackling the problem at a grassroots level. “I think more attention needs to be paid to smaller communities. Does your local cinema cater really to you? Is it well run? Is it clean?” he said.
Figures for last year released by the British Film Institute show the combined spend by film and high-end television production reached £6.27bn, a record high and £1.83bn higher than in 2019.
High-end television production accounted for £4.3bn, with £1.97bn spent on feature film production. Inward investment high-end TV productions (defined as scripted television projects with a minimum core expenditure of £1m per broadcast hour) made last year included Bridgerton, Happy Valley and Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power.
The committee is inviting anyone with experience working in the sector to submit evidence via its online portal by 19 September. MPs have yet to confirm who will be asked to give in-person testimony.
Read more:
MPs sets sights on championing UK film industry as Hollywood struggles

Strikes by London Underground staff that were due to take place next week have been called off, the RMT and Aslef union has announced.
The unions said a breakthrough had been achieved after “intense” negotiations with Transport for London (TfL) bosses in the days leading up to the walk outs.
Both the drivers union, Aslef, and the railway workers body, the RMT, were set to strike in the ongoing dispute over job losses, working conditions and pensions.
The dispute has its roots in a funding settlement between central government and City Hall when Covid slashed revenues and the government had to provide funds to keep Transport for London services running.
Finn Brennan, Aslef’s organiser on the London Underground, said: “After a week of intense negotiations, we have made real progress in making sure our members’ working conditions and pensions are protected from the impact of the Tory government cuts to TfL funding.
“There will be no changes to pension benefits before the next general election. And any future changes to working conditions and agreements will only be made by negotiation. This is a major step forward.”
Union organisers are angry about a TfL’s efforts to “modernise” the transport system. Brennan previously complained that TfL was seeking to bring in a new “attendance procedure” that would be implemented from January. He claimed it would mean “no right to representation or appeal at stage one of the disciplinary process” and would result in warnings remaining on an employee’s record for a year, twice as long as at present.
“Management also want to force through their plans for what they call ‘trains modernisation’. These included driving shifts of up to ten hours and ‘flexible cover’ weeks on every roster,” he said.
Mick Lynch, general secretary of the RMT, said: “There has been significant progress made by our negotiating team in ACAS talks with TfL. However this is not the end of the dispute nor is it a victory for the union as yet.
“Our members were prepared to engage in significant disruptive industrial action and I commend their resolve. RMT’s strike mandate remains live until October and we are prepared to use it if necessary.
“We will continue to negotiate in good faith as we always have done with TfL and it was only the steadfast commitment of our members in being prepared to take sustained strike action that has forced the employer to make significant concessions. Our campaign to defend jobs, conditions and our members pensions will continue in the coming weeks and months.”
Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, thanked the unions, adding: “Negotiations are what it is all about. Our transport workers were heroes during the pandemic keeping transport going to allow key workers to get to work.”
Glynn Barton, chief operating officer of TfL, said: “This is good news for London and we will continue to work closely with our trade unions to discuss the issues and seek a resolution.”
Muniya Barua, Deputy Chief Executive at BusinessLDN, added their thoughts, saying: “The decision to call off planned strikes on the Tube next week will help to brighten the mood across London as the summer holiday season gets started. Londoners, businesses and tourists will welcome this step forward. We hope this breakthrough means the capital will be spared the prospect of further strike action which would cause huge disruption.”
Read more:
Tube strikes cancelled after ‘intense’ talks lead to breakthrough

A great customer experience can make the difference between a business flourishing and failing.
When customers have a positive interaction with a company, almost all (94%) say it increases the chances of them purchasing again. In other words, great experiences lead to increased revenue. And while there are a few ingredients to delivering a standout experience, two stand above the rest – consistency and visibility.
Chris Mills, Head of Customer Success, EMEA, Slack, says that consistent offering boosts loyalty, while inconsistencies drive customers away. Unfortunately, this is where many businesses struggle. Three-fifths of consumers say that it usually feels like they’re communicating with separate departments rather than one company, when they contact service teams.
Alongside tackling those consistency issues, businesses also need to build a 360-degree view of the customer. That’s because too often issues can slip through the radar unreported and unnoticed. With clarity on how they’re faring against expectations, businesses can both deliver a service that has customers coming back for more, and proactively identify any issues they need to solve.
Conversely, if they fail to get each of these elements right, the company is likely to see a rising tide of ‘silent switchers’ – those customers who have quietly and quickly ditched a business for a competitor due to a bad incident, without the company even realising what’s gone wrong.
Of course, all of this is easier said than done – so, here are a few tips on how to get customer service right and create an antidote for the scourge of silent switching.
Building a connected, consistent team
If internal teams, like sales and customer support, are disconnected, the customer will realise. It might be that they keep having to repeat themselves each time they’ve called, or that they receive conflicting answers to the same question. This makes the organisation look unprofessional, leading to a lack of confidence and frustrations for the client. In short, it puts customers on track to become silent switchers.
To best serve customers consistently, it’s important that cross-functional departments can easily share knowledge, or search for existing knowledge, across the whole organisation. For a customer support team, that might mean they can quickly look up a solution for an issue that’s plagued a previous customer and share it with a new one, discover the latest updates on a service from the product team or connect with sales to pass on details if someone wants to renew a contract.
Enabling that interdepartmental knowledge sharing requires a single platform that connects and engages everyone in the business. If a sales team is communicating via email, service agents are siloed away on a standalone customer-support tool and product development teams are chatting live in an office, it’s impossible to deliver a consistent customer experience – because the teams themselves have inconsistent processes.
Instead, with everyone united around one productivity platform that houses all communications and collaboration, they can easily search for and share the answers they need. What’s more, they can connect and engage with other departments not just through messages, but with instant audio or video calls, asynchronous video clips and more – so it’s always simple to connect with coworkers from one central platform.
All of this helps build the level of consistency that customers demand – and will enable businesses to nurture relationships with customers that boost loyalty and reduce the risk of switching.
Creating a 360-degree view of the customer
While keeping internal teams connected is key to delivering a consistent approach to individual customers, it’s also important to have a bird’s eye view of those experiences on the whole. Without clarity on customer feedback, whether that’s through Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) or other metrics, businesses are flying blind. Delivering a meaningful experience for clients is an ongoing process – which means taking learnings and continuously evolving the service on offer.
By gathering insights and data through automations and integrations, and measuring the success (or shortcomings) of customer interactions, any issues can be caught early. They can then be dealt with swiftly – before leading to a customer ditching and switching.
For example, by automatically sharing feedback surveys through a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform to gather findings, a team might spot that customer experiences have dropped after a new product launched. Further investigations unearth a bug, or poor user instructions – and they can then take action to rework or fix it.
Crucially, though, this kind of data analysis doesn’t have to add additional admin work to support or sales teams. At the fast-growing fintech company, Revolut, for example, the sales team has been able to minimise the time spent on processes and admin by integrating their CRM from Salesforce so that it automatically captures customer activity and shares it in the platform where they are collaborating.
Not only does using automation like this accelerate work for the team at Revolut, it means they always have access to the latest information they need to better serve customers, while freeing up their time to focus on high-value work – like connecting with clients and closing deals.
Marrying consistency and visibility in one productivity platform
In a highly competitive world, customer loyalty is hard won and easily lost. Being able to present a united front, keeping internal teams connected and gathering the insights needed to understand customer experiences are all key to keeping customers on side.
Uniting teams in a productivity platform that’s integrated with critical apps like a CRM achieves this. It brings consistency to departments by unifying collaboration and communication, and puts customer challenges under the microscope – revealing pain points before they snowball.
While this will require embracing a new approach, businesses need to make a call: to either switch how they work today, or see their customers switching to competitors tomorrow.
Read more:
Is poor service turning your customers into ‘silent switchers’?