Morning.

It’s Friday 18th September: MPs want the government to take control of Thames Water, the world map is getting an update and Britain’s shoppers have been surprisingly busy.

Kettle on.

📅 On this day: In 2014, Scotland voted on whether to become an independent country. Turnout was a remarkable 84.6%, with 55.3% voting to remain part of the UK and 44.7% voting for independence.

MPs have urged the government to reject a rescue deal for Thames Water and instead consider temporarily taking control of Britain’s biggest water company.

Thames Water supplies around 16 million people but has spent years struggling with enormous debts, sewage spills, leaking pipes and questions over how it can keep funding itself. A group of its creditors has proposed taking over the company, but Parliament’s Environment Committee isn't convinced.

It says ministers should reject that proposal and either put Thames Water into special administration or use emergency legislation to take control of its finances while a new owner is found. Special administration is basically a government-controlled rescue process for essential companies that cannot be allowed simply to collapse. The taps keep running while the finances are sorted out.

The recommendation doesn't mean Thames Water is about to be nationalised. The government doesn't have to follow it, and ministers are still considering their options. But after years of attempts to find a private-sector solution, MPs are now arguing that temporary public control should be seriously considered.

Britain’s shoppers spent more than expected in August, providing another slightly confusing piece of the economic puzzle. Retail sales volumes rose 0.5% during the month, according to the Office for National Statistics, reversing July’s 0.5% fall. Compared with a year ago, the amount of stuff being bought is up 2.4%.

Online retailers and department stores were among those enjoying a better August, while sales have now risen 0.9% over the latest three months. That's encouraging for an economy that could do with some encouragement. But it comes in the same week that inflation rose to 3.1% and the Bank of England kept interest rates at 3.75%.

In other words, consumers are still spending despite higher prices and borrowing costs. Good news for shops, although stronger spending gives the Bank one more reason to be cautious about where interest rates go next.

The world map most of us grew up with has a fairly major problem: countries aren't remotely the right size. The familiar Mercator projection was designed in the 16th century to help sailors navigate. Flattening a globe onto a rectangle inevitably distorts things, and Mercator makes countries farther from the equator look enormous. Greenland, for example, can appear roughly comparable to Africa despite Africa actually being about 14 times larger.

The UN has now voted to promote the Equal Earth projection, encouraging governments, schools and other organisations to move away from Mercator. No flat map can perfectly represent a spherical planet, but Equal Earth represents the relative size of countries much more accurately.

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TAGLINE Somewhere, a geography teacher is having an absolutely enormous Friday.

Keeping British Steel running is currently costing taxpayers around £1.3m every day, according to MPs. The government stepped in last year to prevent the closure of the company’s blast furnaces in Scunthorpe, which produce steel from raw materials and are strategically important because Britain has very little capacity to do that elsewhere.

By 18th June, the government had provided £555m to keep the company running. Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee says ministers still haven't produced a credible plan for making British Steel financially sustainable, including how its ageing and highly polluting furnaces will eventually be replaced.

Britain is asking the EU not to leave UK companies out of its proposed “Made in Europe” policy. The idea is fairly straightforward: when European governments spend public money, the EU wants more of it going towards goods made in Europe rather than relying heavily on imports from countries such as China.

The potential problem for Britain is that, since Brexit, UK-made goods wouldn't automatically qualify as EU-made.

The government is arguing that British manufacturers should still qualify, particularly in industries such as cars, technology and defence where supply chains already cross the Channel repeatedly. Whether the EU agrees is another matter. But for British companies selling heavily into Europe, the precise definition of “European” could suddenly become rather expensive.

Twenty women had their breasts removed unnecessarily after serious failings in cancer care at an NHS trust in north-east England. County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust has been reviewing its breast cancer service after concerns about treatment provided between 2023 and 2025. Of 514 cases assessed so far, 315 patients were found to have suffered some form of harm.

The trust says it has made significant changes to the service and apologised to those affected. Police and the National Crime Agency are also investigating whether any criminal offences were committed. The review is continuing, so those figures may change.

Scientists have discovered a new species of wild cat living in Bolivia. The newly identified species, named Leopardus tilcayo, lives in the cloud forests of the Bolivian Yungas and weighs around 1.4kg, making it smaller than many domestic cats.

Researchers used genetic analysis to establish that it is a distinct species rather than another population of an already known tiger cat. It's the first new living cat species formally described in more than a century.

Scientists still know very little about it. Only two living animals have been directly observed, alongside a handful of camera-trap sightings. Which, given how cats generally feel about being studied, seems entirely on brand.

Have a great weekend.

See you on Monday.

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