On a misty winter morning, farmer Mohit Chutia sits on the ground outside his home rocking his grandson in his lap. He sings about the hoolock gibbons, the only ape species in India. High in the tree canopy above, the gibbons leap gracefully from branch to branch. Below, Chutia and his family watch.

It is a picture of the coexistence that has endured for generations between the endangered gibbons and villagers in Barekuri in Assam, in the remote east of the country.

“They are like my own children,” says Chutia. His close bond with the gibbons has prompted other villagers to call him bandar – monkey.

The hoolock gibbon is found only in a few places in the world and estimates of total numbers are uncertain. It was once thought India had about 12,000, but in 2017 experts revised this down to between 5,000 and 10,000.

In Barekuri, a tiny pocket of about 19 gibbons is left – and only four are females, placing the group at the edge of viable survival. Close up, the gibbons are a vision of tight, respectful coexistence with humans – but looming in the background are the wider threats of pollution, extractive industries and deforestation driven by human activity.

A new Guardian documentary – Guardians of the Gibbons – looks at how Chutia’s community has created an unusually close bond with their ape neighbours.

On the drive towards Chutia’s home, in a remaining patch of jungle, the vast and famous tea estates of Assam stretch out across the horizon on both sides of the road. Turning off the road for Barekuri, the landscape suddenly changes to thick forest and dense undergrowth.

The canopy used to be so thick that villagers would hear the hoolocks’ calls – a collection of whoops and hoots – but only caught glimpses of them. However, deforestation, mining for oil and gas, expansion of villages and roads, and the growth of monoculture crops such as tea have all fragmented the forest cover.

“For the gibbons, who are almost totally arboreal, it means they are cut off from areas of the forest, unable to cross the open areas created by the road and rail line. Their access to the fruit they depend on has been reduced,” says Ragini Nath, who made the documentary with fellow film-maker Chinmoy Sonowal.

Inside his brick-and-bamboo home, Chutia talks about his favourite gibbon, Twik, who nearly died from electrocution from a low-hanging wire. Within minutes of Chutia calling, Twik emerges from the tree canopy, his mother watching protectively from a few feet away.

It is not clear yet whether Twik is female – hoolock gibbons take years to develop the golden brown fur that marks a female of the species. If Twik is female, her ability to grow the species’ numbers could help this small population survive.

The tree canopy looks lush and thick but Chutia says there are not enough fruit trees. “The day I saw them eating leaves years ago, I realised they weren’t getting enough fruit. If they had had enough fruit, they would never have taken the bananas I offered them,” he says.

The story of humans and gibbons is not only one of peaceful coexistence, but also looming threats. As you drive through the forest, oil and gas rigs loom into view, flares burning.

The extraction business is booming in this region. Assam is a leading oil and gas producer: the state accounts for 14% of India’s crude oil production and 10% of its fossil gas. The state government estimates that 1.3bn tonnes of crude oil lies under the ground, more than half of which is unexplored.

Chutia has vivid memories of 2020, when a gas blow-out just over a mile away caused a fire that raged for months. It led to the deaths of three people and almost 26,000 animals, including two gibbons. “It felt like we were breathing oil,” says Chutia.

Ishika Ramakrishna, a researcher from Bengaluru who is studying gibbons for her doctorate at the Centre for Wildlife Studies, says: “It’s not just the trees that are felled for the mining but the fact that roads have to be widened to allow for large vehicles. Any disruption to the canopy, even minor, can severely affect the gibbons’ movement and survival.”

In a recent radio broadcast, prime minister Narendra Modi praised Barekuri’s coexistence with its hoolock gibbon population, which he said had “made their home in this village”. But the Assam state government, ruled by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party, is considering a new oil and gas exploration project in Hollongapar gibbon sanctuary in Jorhat, just 110 miles from Barekuri.

To preserve the remaining gibbons, Ramakrishna wants the Assam government to stop all further mining activity in and around Barekuri, start planting trees to restore habitat and food resources, and explore “canopy bridges” as a solution to the breaks in the tree canopy.

At present, gibbons are either unable to cross wide open areas to reach another section of forest – or they do so using electrical lines, which can result in electric shocks, some of which are fatal.

“What we’re trying to do is consult the villagers to see what design would work best for the bridges, which would be made of bamboo. It would compensate for the break in canopy cover and allow the gibbons more access to the fruits they need to survive,” says Ramakrishna.

Azerbaijan, the host of the Cop29 global climate summit, will see a large expansion of fossil gas production in the next decade, a new report has revealed. The authors said that the crucial negotiations should not be overseen by “those with a vested interest in keeping the world hooked on fossil fuels”.

Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil and gas company, Socar, and its partners are set to raise the country’s annual gas production from 37bn cubic metres (bcm) today to 49bcm by 2033. Socar also recently agreed to increase gas exports to the European Union by 17% by 2026.

The Cop29 summit, starting on 11 November, comes as scientists say that continued record carbon dioxide emissions means “the future of humanity hangs in the balance”. The International Energy Agency said in 2021 that no new fossil fuel exploitation should take place if CO₂ emissions were to fall to zero by 2050.

But in 2023 Socar pushed 97% of its capital expenditure into oil and gas projects, the report found. The company launched a “green energy division” a few weeks after Azerbaijan was appointed as Cop29 host, promising investments in wind, solar and carbon capture technologies. But according to the report, Socar’s renewable operations remain insignificant.

Azerbaijan’s climate action plan was rated “critically insufficient” by Climate Action Tracker (CAT) in September. “Azerbaijan is among a tiny group of countries that has weakened its climate target [and] the country is doubling down on fossil fuel extraction,” said the CAT analysts.

Azerbaijan and Socar had also been accused of human rights violations, the report said. The authors said defeating the climate crisis required civil society to have freedom of speech and protected human rights.

“Given Socar’s pivotal role in Azerbaijan’s economy and its close ties to the country’s political elite, its influence will surely be felt throughout the climate negotiations in Baku,” said Regine Richter at the German NGO Urgewald, lead author of the report. “As we prepare for Cop29, we cannot but ask ourselves: did we put the fox in charge of the henhouse?”

Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, told a climate conference in April: “Having oil and gas deposits is not our fault. It’s a gift from God.” Aliyez appoints Socar’s management board and was vice-president of Socar until he succeeded his father as the country’s president in 2003. Azerbaijan’s ecology and natural resources minister, Mukhtar Babayev, will run Cop29. He previously worked for Socar for 26 years until 2018. Rovshan Najaf, the president of Socar, is part of the Cop29 organising committee.

A Cop29 spokesperson, responding in relation to Azerbaijan’s gas production and energy transition, said: “Azerbaijan is investing in gas capacity in response to a European request to increase supplies following the disruption of supplies from Russia. This is in line with the [UN’s] global stocktake, which agreed on the need to ensure that the energy transition is just and orderly.” The global stocktake concluded the world was not on track to stop global heating and that “urgent and deep greenhouse gas emissions reductions” were needed.

The Cop29 spokesperson added: “Azerbaijan is intensively developing its abundant solar and wind resources as part of its commitment to becoming a leading supplier of green energy.” Neither Socar nor Azerbaijan’s foreign affairs ministry responded to the Guardian’s requests for comment.

The new report, produced by Urgewald and CEE Bankwatch, found Azerbaijan was set to increase its gas production by a third in the next decade, with fossil fuel companies forecast to spend $41.4bn (£31.9bn) on the country’s gas fields. Socar alone spent almost $300m on exploration for new oil and gas between 2022 and 2024, according to the report.

The analysis is based on data from Rystad Energy, the industry’s leading provider. It includes current gas production, new resources approved for development, and other known resources. Burning of the expected gas production would produce about 780m tonnes of CO₂, more than double the annual emissions of the UK. Rather than discovering more reserves, scientists concluded in 2021 that most existing gas reserves needed to remain in the ground to limit global heating to 1.5C.

Socar works with some of the world’s biggest fossil fuel companies, including BP, TotalEnergies, the Russian oil giant Tatneft and the United Arab Emirates’ state oil company Adnoc. The CEO of Adnoc, Sultan Al Jaber, was president of Cop28 in Dubai, where nations failed to agree to “phase out” fossil fuels, as many wanted, instead choosing the weaker ambition of “transitioning away from fossil fuels”.

Socar also receives substantial financial backing from major international institutions, totalling $6.8bn in loans and underwriting between 2021 and 2023, according to research by the Banking on Climate Chaos coalition.

Azerbaijan’s economy is heavily dependent on fossil fuel income, which makes up 90% of export revenues and 60% of state revenues, according to the IEA. Azerbaijan’s gas production was similar to that of the UK in 2022. Its oil production has declined since 2010.

“It is crucial that those who host the [Cop29] negotiations are true climate leaders, not those with a vested interest in keeping the world hooked on fossil fuels,” the report said.

The report also highlighted accusations of human rights abuses and corruption in Azerbaijan. The European court of human rights found the country had violated the European convention on human rights 263 times since 2001, including three instances of torture and 30 cases of inhuman and degrading treatment.

Freedom House ranks Azerbaijan among the least free countries in the world in relation to political rights, independent media and civil liberties, below Russia and Belarus. Transparency International rated Azerbaijan as the second-worst nation for public sector corruption in eastern Europe and central Asia in 2022.

Socar has also been accused of human rights violations by the Azerbaijan-based Organization for the Protection of Oil Workers’ Rights, which has cited health and safety violations and environmental pollution.

Manana Kochladze at CEE Bankwatch said: “Where other governments partner with civil society to tackle the climate crisis, the Aliyev regime systematically threatens environmental and human rights defenders. This does not inspire confidence in the upcoming negotiations in Baku.”

Doctors have treated a man for scurvy in Perth, warning what was once considered “a disease of the past” is re-emerging due to the rising cost of living.

The condition, caused by severe vitamin C deficiency, was common during the 18th century among sailors who spent months at sea without fresh food. But Australian doctors have described their surprise at seeing it in the present day in an article published on Wednesday in BMJ Case Reports.

A 51-year-old man presented to Sir Charles Gairdner hospital with tiny, painful red-brown pinpoints resembling a rash on his legs.

Doctors conducted extensive investigations, including blood tests, skin biopsies and a CT scan, but they provided no explanation for the underlying cause of the inflammation of his blood vessels and the rash continued to spread while he was in hospital.

The doctors discovered the patient – who was unemployed and lived alone – had financial constraints which meant he mostly ate processed food, lacking in vegetables or fruit. The patient sometimes skipped meals, something which had occurred more frequently in recent weeks.

The patient had undergone bariatric surgery eight years prior to this incident, reducing the size of the stomach. He had stopped taking the vitamin and mineral supplements prescribed for him after surgery because he was unable to afford them.

Dr Andrew Dermawan, a senior registrar at the hospital, ordered blood tests to assess his nutritional status which came back indicating no detectable levels of vitamin C and very low levels of other key nutrients.

The diagnosis of scurvy came as a surprise, Dermawan, the lead author of the article, told Guardian Australia. “It’s not something that I expected to come up in today’s time.”

The body needs vitamin C to produce collagen, the tissue that makes up skin and connects muscle and bone. Severe deficiency can weaken the collagen’s triple-helix structures as well as blood capillaries, resulting in blood spots in the skin, as well as microscopic bleeding in urine.

The patient’s symptoms resolved after the doctors prescribed him 1,000mg of vitamin C daily, as well as a vitamin D3 supplement, folic acid, and a multivitamin, in addition to a meal plan created by a dietitian. Of his own initiative, “he also started eating a lemon daily”.

This disease is easily reversible with vitamin C supplements, with a dramatic response seen within 24 hours, but scurvy is often overlooked because it is considered a disease of the past, Dermawan said.

The article includes a “learning point” for other doctors, noting “scurvy is a re-emerging disease with the rising cost of living”. It points to the rising cost of food in Australia, making families more reliant on lower-cost foods, which tend to be poorer in nutritional value.

The article also highlighted that the patient’s obesity, previous bariatric surgery and low-income status were also among his risk factors for developing scurvy.

Dermawan explained that because the stomach produces enzymes to break down nutritional components, people who have had part of their stomach removed through bariatric surgery can have trouble absorbing nutrients, making it a risk factor for scurvy alongside alcoholism, gastrointestinal disorders and being on dialysis.

In 2016, diabetic patients at Westmead hospital in western Sydney were found to have symptoms of scurvy and reported they ate few vegetables, or overcooked them, destroying vitamin C.

Dr Tim Senior, the chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners’ specific interest group on poverty and health, said it was an important case report as the man could be a “canary in the coalmine”.

“What they’re describing in terms of cost-of-living pressures and the inability to afford good food, I think we are seeing more of that, definitely, and that will result in probably a whole range of micronutrient deficiencies, such as scurvy.”

While scurvy was the most notable diagnosis, Senior noted the man also had other nutrient deficiencies.

Senior, who works for Tharawal Aboriginal Corporation’s medical service in western Sydney, said he had seen patients losing weight because they couldn’t afford to eat.

Senior said poorer communities who are already known to be more likely to be in the unhealthy weight range are often more greatly affected by the problem of excess calories without nutrition. That in turn can result in conditions like obesity, which the authors identified as a risk factor for scurvy.

“Financial resources affect people’s health quite clearly … The way around that is understanding that’s happening, acting on the cost-of-living crisis, so that everyone should be able to afford the food that keeps them well,” Senior said.

Roman Polanski, the Oscar-winning film director who fled the US decades ago after admitting to the statutory rape of a 13-year-old, will no longer face trial over an alleged sexual assault of another minor after reaching a settlement.

The latest case against the now 91-year-old director, which concerned an alleged sexual attack in 1973, had been due in civil court in Los Angeles next August.

The civil suit, filed last year, claimed Polanski took a then-teenager – named anonymously in filings as Jane Doe – to dinner at a restaurant in Los Angeles in 1973.

The lawsuit alleged that he gave her tequila, and when she began to feel dizzy, drove her to his home, where she alleged he sexually assaulted her.

“She told him: ‘Please don’t do this,’” the plaintiff’s lawyer, Gloria Allred, told reporters in March, saying the alleged assault caused the plaintiff “tremendous physical, emotional pain and suffering”.

But the case was “settled in the summer to the parties’ mutual satisfaction and has now been formally dismissed,” Polanski’s lawyer, Alexander Rufus-Isaacs told Agence France-Presse on Tuesday.

Allred confirmed this to the Guardian, saying a settlement of claims was agreed “to their mutual satisfaction”.

The lawsuit, which sought unspecified damages, was filed in June 2023, just before the expiration of a California law that allowed for an extended window for claims against the alleged perpetrators of sexual crimes.

Court papers filed in California in July said a “conditional” accord had been reached.

Polanski is a divisive figure.

He admitted to the statutory rape of 13-year-old Samantha Geimer in a plea bargain in 1977 to avoid a trial on more serious charges.

But he fled to France the following year, after serving 42 days in jail, when it appeared a judge was reconsidering his release. He has been a fugitive from the US ever since.

Geimer has subsequently defended Polanski, and was photographed with him last year.

Four women came forward between 2017 and 2019 accusing Polanski of abusing them in the 1970s – three of them were allegedly minors at the time – including artist Marianne Barnard, who said Polanski sexually assaulted her when she was 10. Charlotte Lewis, a British actor, in 2010 accused Polanski of sexually assaulting her in 1983 when she was 16. Polanski has denied all of the allegations.

In May, a French court acquitted Polanski of defaming Lewis after he denied raping her when she was a teenager.

– Agence France Press contributed to this report.

• In the US, call or text the Childhelp abuse hotline on 800-422-4453 or visit their website for more resources and to report child abuse or DM for help. For adult survivors of child abuse, help is available at ascasupport.org. In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800, or Bravehearts on 1800 272 831, and adult survivors can contact Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helplines International

First King George III. Now Sir Keir Starmer.

Citing the American revolution while misspelling “Britian”, Donald Trump’s campaign has filed an extraordinary complaint against the UK’s Labour party for what it claims is “interference” in the US presidential election.

The Trump campaign alleged that in recent weeks, Labour recruited and sent party members to campaign for his opponent, Kamala Harris, in critical battleground states in a bid to influence the 5 November election.

“When representatives of the British government previously sought to go door-to-door in America, it did not end well for them,” says a letter from Trump’s legal team to the Federal Election Commission in Washington.

“This past week marked the 243 anniversary of the surrender of British forces at the Battle of Yorktown, a military victory that ensured that the United States would be politically independent of Great Britian” – an incorrect rendering of “Britain”.

It is understood that volunteers are campaigning in the US in their own personal time, rather in their capacity working for the the Labour party.

The letter goes on to request an immediate investigation into “blatant foreign interference” in the election in the form of “apparent illegal foreign national contributions made by the Labour Party of the United Kingdom” and accepted by Harris’s campaign committee.

It also refers to a report in the Washington Post that claims advice has been offered between Labour and the Harris campaign, and other reports regarding meetings between senior Labour staff and the Democratic campaign.

Those referenced in the letter include Matthew Doyle, Downing Street director of communications, and Morgan McSweeney, the prime minister’s chief of staff.

The complaint references a social media post, which appears to have been deleted, in which Sofia Patel, head of operations at Labour, posted on LinkedIn last week that 100 current and former party staffers were headed to the US to campaign for Harris.

The letter refers to a “volunteer exemption” in US elections which means foreign nationals can volunteer, but the letter states “they may not be compensated, foreign nationals may not make expenditures, and they may not direct or control activities of US campaigns”.

Last week’s post received a swift backlash from Republicans, with far-right representative Marjorie Taylor Greene writing on X that “foreign nationals are not allowed to be involved in anyway in US elections”.

And Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur backing Trump, wrote on X, the social media platform he owns: “This is illegal” – only to delete the post after a community note pointed out there is no law preventing foreigners from participating in unpaid door-knocking.

The Trump campaign followed up on Tuesday with its legal complaint. Susie Wiles, co-manager of the campaign, said: “In two weeks, Americans will once again reject the oppression of big government that we rejected in 1776. The flailing Harris-Walz campaign is seeking foreign influence to boost its radical message – because they know they can’t win the American people.

“President Trump will return strength to the White House and put America, and our people, first. The Harris campaign’s acceptance and use of this illegal foreign assistance is just another feeble attempt in a long line of anti-American election interference.”

Starmer, the British prime minister, met Trump, the former US president, during a trip to New York last month. Starmer visited Trump Tower, saying he wanted to meet Trump face to face because “I’m a great believer in personal relationships on the world stage”.

An E coli outbreak that resulted in at least one death has been linked to McDonald’s “Quarter Pounder” hamburgers, US public health authorities said on Tuesday.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that there have been 49 cases in this sandwich-related outbreak which spans 10 states. Ten people have been hospitalized in this onset of cases.

“This is a fast-moving outbreak investigation. Most sick people are reporting eating Quarter Pounder hamburgers from McDonald’s and investigators are working quickly to confirm which food ingredient is contaminated,” the CDC said.

The agency noted that “McDonald’s has pulled ingredients for these burgers” and they won’t be available for purchase in some states. Most of the people who have fallen ill are in Colorado and Nebraska, officials said.

The agency said that McDonald’s is working with investigators to figure out which ingredient is making people fall ill. The company has stopped using “fresh slivered onions” and 1/4 lb beef patties in some states while the probe is ongoing.

The symptoms of E coli include extreme stomach cramps and diarrhea, as well as vomiting. The onset of symptoms is typically three or four days after ingesting the bacteria.

The majority of people recover without treatment within five to seven days. However, some people can develop severe kidney problems and require hospitalization, the CDC said.

McDonald’s chief supply chain officer, Cesar Piña, said in an internal message now posted to its website that safety is “our top priority and something we’ll never compromise on” and that as such, “it is why we are taking swift and decisive action following an E coli outbreak in certain states”.

Piña said that preliminary findings indicate that a “subset of illnesses” might be associated with the slithered onions, made by one supplier that provides the allium to three distribution centers. All the local restaurants have been told to take the item off their menu and the company has temporarily stopped the distribution of slivered onions around the affected region.

The company is temporarily taking off the Quarter Pounder from restaurants in areas such as Colorado, Kansas, Utah, and Wyoming, and parts of Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico and Oklahoma.

Piña also said McDonald’s is working closely with suppliers to ramp up supplies for the Quarter Pounder but “in the meantime, all other menu items, including other beef products (including the Cheeseburger, Hamburger, Big Mac, McDouble and the Double Cheeseburger) are unaffected and available”.

The news comes on the heels of former president Donald Trump appearing at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s in a staged campaign stop. Trump served french fries and spent a few minutes behind the frier in an attempt to mock Kamala Harris, who worked at McDonald’s during college; he has claimed, without evidence, that she did not work at the fast food restaurant.

This burger outbreak is among a host of recent incidents involving infected food. Some 12m lbs of meat was recalled earlier this month for possible listeria contamination.

Late this summer, dozens were sickened, and several died, from a listeria food poisoning outbreak tied to Boar’s Head deli meats.

Water companies in England could be banned from making a profit under plans for a complete overhaul of the system.

The idea is one of the options being considered by a new commission set up by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) amid public fury over the way firms have prioritised profit over the environment.

Sources at the department said they would consider forcing the sale of water companies in England to firms that would run them as not-for-profits. Unlike under nationalisation, the company would not be run by the government but by a private company, run for public benefit.

The nonprofit model, which is widely used in other European countries, allows staff to be paid substantial salaries and bonuses but any profits on top of that are returned to the company.

Welsh Water, which runs under this model, has no shareholders and any surplus money is reinvested back into the business or into customer services.

Since Welsh Water was bought in 2001 it has reduced its debt substantially; its ratio of debt to equity has dropped from 93% to 58% since not-for-profit Glas Cymru acquired the company with debts of £1.85bn.

The environment secretary, Steve Reed, said: “Our waterways are polluted and our water system urgently needs fixing. That is why today we have launched a water commission to attract the investment we need to clean up our waterways and rebuild our broken water infrastructure. The commission’s findings will help shape new legislation to reform the water sector so it properly serves the interests of customers and the environment.”

The news comes as Ofwat considers how much it will allow companies to raise bills by, with water firms having asked the regulator to let them increase charges by up to 84% over the next five years. All options were on the table to reform the regulators, including abolishing Ofwat, Defra officials said on Tuesday.

Public anger has grown in recent years over the large sums of money made by water bosses in England while water supplies have dwindled and sewage has been spilled into rivers.

There has also been anger at the mismanagement of companies such as Thames Water, which have been loaded with debt and paid shareholders billions in dividends. Since privatisation in 1989, the English and Welsh water companies have collectively paid £78bn in dividends and accumulated £60bn in debt.

Reed said he was not considering nationalisation as part of the review, which would cost “tens of billions of pounds”.

But the commission, chaired by the former deputy governor of the Bank of England Jon Cunliffe, will consider all other options to ensure infrastructure is built and sewage stops spilling into waterways.

Cunliffe’s independent commission will draw upon a panel of experts from across the regulatory, environment, health, engineering, customer, investor and economic sectors. Water company representatives will not be on the panel but will be consulted for their views.

Environmental groups have expressed concern after Defra said the key aim of the commission was to reform the regulators so they encouraged investment and growth. They have said the environment should be prioritised over economic growth, but Defra sources said that without investment, the reservoirs and sewers needed to tackle the climate and nature emergencies could not be built.

James Wallace, the CEO of campaign group River Action, said: “We must not see the environment sacrificed on the altar of economic growth. The water commission must stop vampiric business interests and international investors sucking the lifeblood and money from our waterways and communities. It must deliver a fully funded national action plan to end pollution for profit, enforce laws, and reform regulators.

“Taking a look at our neighbours in Europe shows a range of approaches from wholly nationalised to not-for-profit organisations including a blend of private, public and mutualised models. The key is effective economic and environmental regulation that incentivises operating for public benefit and makes polluters pay.”

Doug Parr, policy director of Greenpeace UK, said: “Too much emphasis on making the sector attractive to big international investors like Macquarie is the exact reason why our waterways are in such an appalling state today. With a natural monopoly on an essential resource like water, we need a regulatory system that forces the industry to provide an acceptable minimum level of service, including an end to the routine discharges of raw sewage.

“If big international investors are unable to make sufficient profit in that environment, then clearly this is not a problem that can be solved by big international investors, and the government will have to do what every other country in the world has done and look at other ownership options.”

Decisions made by the independent commission will not come into force until the 2029 price review. For this year’s price review, which sets water bill levels over the next five years, water companies on Tuesday made requests to increase bills by more than they had at the beginning of the process.

Thames Water is now asking to raise bills by 53% to an average of £667 a year by 2029/30, making them the most expensive water bills in the country. Southern Water is seeking the biggest hike at 84%.

Ofwat will make its final decision for how much water bills can rise on 19 December, but its interim decision made in July said the average bill could rise 21% a year. Government sources confirmed on Tuesday that this number could rise.

The prime minister’s spokesperson said: “Clearly no one wanted to see a situation where water bills are rising, where the water sector has got into the situation that it has, with record levels of sewage spills and ageing infrastructure. From the government’s perspective, our priority is making sure that money goes where it’s needed and ensuring that water companies are putting customers first. If money isn’t spent, it will be returned to customers.”

More hen harriers were killed in 2023 than in any other year on record, a report has found.

The RSPB’s Birdcrime report also found that at least 1,344 individual birds of prey were persecuted in the UK between 2009 and 2023, and that 75% of people convicted of offences related to the persecution of birds of prey in that period were connected to the gamebird shooting industry.

Shooting estates have historically killed birds of prey because of fears the raptors will eat game birds such as grouse, meaning there are fewer for people to shoot. Birds traditionally targeted include rare and threatened species such as golden eagles, hen harriers, peregrine falcons, white-tailed eagles and goshawks.

The RSPB is calling for laws to be tightened; though birds of prey are protected by law under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, only one person has been jailed in the past 15 years.

Mark Thomas, the RSPB’s UK head of investigations, said: “If we are to save birds like the highly threatened hen harrier, then the current legislation is clearly not enough: we need licensing of gamebird shooting throughout the UK, stronger penalties and meaningful sentencing to stop these crimes and save our wildlife.”

In Scotland, a law passed in March this year requires all grouse shoots in Scotland to have a licence to operate, and if crimes such as the killing of birds of prey take place on the estate, the licence can be revoked. The RSPB is recommending a similar law be passed by the Labour government in England. It also says shoots of all gamebirds, not just grouse, should require a licence to operate across the devolved nations, and has called on national governments to enforce tougher penalties for the deliberate killing of birds.

A Defra spokesperson said there are no plans to introduce licences for gamebird shooting in England, adding: “Bird of prey crime is a national wildlife crime priority and there are strong penalties in place for offences committed against birds of prey and other wildlife.”

Abba’s Björn Ulvaeus, the actor Julianne Moore and the Radiohead singer Thom Yorke are among 10,500 signatories of a statement from the creative industries warning artificial intelligence companies that unlicensed use of their work is a “major, unjust threat” to artists’ livelihoods.

The statement comes amid legal battles between creative professionals and tech firms over the use of their work to train AI models such as ChatGPT and claims that using their intellectual property without permission is a breach of copyright.

“The unlicensed use of creative works for training generative AI is a major, unjust threat to the livelihoods of the people behind those works, and must not be permitted,” reads the statement.

Thousands of creative professionals from the worlds of literature, music, film, theatre and television have given their backing to the statement, with authors including Kazuo Ishiguro, Ann Patchett, and Kate Mosse, musicians including the Cure’s Robert Smith as well as the composer Max Richter and actors including Kevin Bacon, Rosario Dawson and F Murray Abraham.

The organiser of the letter, the British composer and former AI executive Ed Newton-Rex, said people who make a living from creative work are “very worried” about the situation.

“There are three key resources that generative AI companies need to build AI models: people, compute, and data. They spend vast sums on the first two – sometimes a million dollars per engineer, and up to a billion dollars per model. But they expect to take the third – training data – for free,” he said.

Newton-Rex is a former head of audio at tech firm Stability AI but resigned last year over the firm’s belief that taking copyrighted content to train AI models without a licence constitutes “fair use”, a term under US copyright law meaning permission from the copyright owner is not needed.

Newton-Rex added: “When AI companies call this ‘training data’, they dehumanise it. What we’re talking about is people’s work – their writing, their art, their music.”

In the US John Grisham, Jodi Picoult and George RR Martin are among a group of authors suing ChatGPT developer OpenAI for alleged breach of copyright, while artists are also suing tech firms behind image generators and major record labels including Sony Music, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group are suing AI music creators Suno and Udio.

Newton-Rex also warned that an “opt-out” proposal for scraping content being considered by the UK government would be highly damaging. This month the Financial Times reported that ministers would consult on a scheme that would allow AI firms to scrape content from artists and publishers unless they “opt out” of the process.

Last month Google, a major player in AI, called for the relaxation of restrictions on a practice in the UK known as text and data mining (TDM), where copying of copyrighted work is allowed for non-commercial purposes such as academic research.

Newton-Rex said the opt-out option was flawed because most people are unaware of such schemes.

“I have run opt-out schemes for AI companies,” said Newton-Rex. “Even the most well-run opt-out schemes get missed by most people who have the chance to opt out. You never hear about it, you miss the email.

“It’s totally unfair to put the burden of opting out of AI training on the creator whose work is being trained on. If a government really thought this was a good thing for creators then it would create an opt-in scheme.”

Newton-Rex said the number of signatories to the statement, and the breadth of creative talent they represent, made clear that an opt-out scheme would be considered “totally unfair” by creators.

The statement is also signed by creative industry organisations and companies including the American Federation of Musicians, the US actors’ union SAG-AFTRA, the European Writers’ Council and Universal Music Group.