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UK pledges £11.5bn of new state funding for Sizewell C nuclear plant

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UK pledges £11.5bn of new state funding for Sizewell C nuclear plant

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The UK has ended years of uncertainty over the future of its nuclear industry by pledging £11.5bn of new state funding for the Sizewell C project in Suffolk, taking the total taxpayer investment in the site to £17.8bn. 

Chancellor Rachel Reeves will announce the record public investment in nuclear energy on Tuesday, telling attendees at the GMB Congress that she is ending “years of delay” over Sizewell, which will support the creation of 10,000 jobs. 

Although Reeves has had to make tough decisions in the government’s spending review on day-to-day departmental budgets, she was able to find the extra billions for Sizewell C through a change to her fiscal rules. This has made £113bn available for extra capital spending across government, funded by borrowing.

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The move marks a return to significant state funding for nuclear energy after the UK chose the private sector to finance and build its last project, Hinkley Point C in Somerset, which is heavily delayed and over budget. The previous record public investment in nuclear energy was £2bn for the Sizewell B plant in 1987, or £7bn in today’s prices. 

The UK government already has a partnership with French state-owned energy group EDF, which has kept a 15 per cent stake in Sizewell C. The pair are now seeking financial commitments from several other investors before they can sign off a “final investment decision”, expected next month during an Anglo-French summit in London. 

The chancellor will promise £14.2bn of taxpayer funding for the 3.2 gigawatt plant over the current parliament, including a £2.7bn commitment she previously made in the autumn Budget. The Treasury had already committed £3.6bn over the past two years.

EDF has said the final investment decision will depend on securing private investment and on whether it can make its expected return on capital, but Simone Rossi, the company’s UK chief executive, said the project would benefit the UK’s “energy security and economic growth”. 

Private investors expected to bid for stakes in Sizewell C include Canadian pension fund CDPQ, Amber Infrastructure Partners, Brookfield Asset Management, pension fund USS, Schroders Greencoat, Equitix, Centrica and insurer Rothesay. The total cost of the project could be close to £40bn by the time it is built, industry figures believe.

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Ministers are encouraging the development of new nuclear power stations in the UK to provide future supplies of “baseload” electricity to balance the more intermittent supply of solar and wind power. 

But no new nuclear plant has opened in the UK since 1995 and most of the existing ageing fleet — apart from Sizewell B — is set to be phased out by the early 2030s. 

State-owned Great British Nuclear will soon announce the outcome of its competition to choose a company to start building a fleet of “small modular reactors”.  

The government said it would also invest more than £2.5bn in nuclear fusion over five years in what it called a “record investment” in the nascent technology. Melanie Windridge, head of advisory group Fusion Energy Insights, praised the government for recognising the “economic value of developing fusion in this country”. The sum is slightly less than the US is spending on fusion and one-third of China’s annual investment on the technology.

Additional reporting by Tom Wilson

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Video: Are we on the brink of a nuclear revival? | FT Film

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Man Charged With Posting Bomb Instructions Used in New Orleans Attack

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Man Charged With Posting Bomb Instructions Used in New Orleans Attack

Federal prosecutors have filed charges against a former Army serviceman they accused of distributing instructions on how to build explosives that were used by a man who conducted a deadly attack in New Orleans on New Year’s Day last year.

The former serviceman, Jordan A. Derrick, a 40-year-old from Missouri, was charged with one count of engaging in the business of manufacturing explosive materials without a license; one count of unlawful possession of an unregistered destructive device; and one count of distributing information relating to manufacturing explosives, according to a criminal complaint unsealed on Wednesday. The three charges together carry a maximum sentence of 40 years in federal prison.

Starting in September 2023, the authorities said, Mr. Derrick was using various social media sites to share videos of himself making explosive materials, including detonators. His videos provided step-by-step instructions, and he often engaged with viewers in comments, sometimes answering their questions about the chemistry behind the explosives.

The authorities said that Mr. Derrick’s videos were downloaded by Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, 42, who was accused of ramming a pickup truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans on Jan. 1, 2025, in a terrorist attack that killed 14 people and injured dozens. Mr. Jabbar was killed in a shootout with the police. Before the attack, Mr. Jabbar had placed two explosives on Bourbon Street, the authorities said, but they did not detonate.

The authorities later recovered two laptops and a USB drive in a house that Mr. Jabbar had rented. The USB drive contained several videos created by Mr. Derrick that provided instructions on making explosives. The authorities said the explosives they recovered were consistent with the ones Mr. Derrick had posted about.

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Mr. Derrick’s lawyers did not respond to requests for comment.

Mr. Derrick was a combat engineer in the Army, where he provided personnel and vehicle support, the authorities said. He also helped supervise safety personnel during demolitions and various operations. He was honorably discharged in February 2013.

The authorities did not say whether Mr. Derrick had any communication with Mr. Jabbar, or whether the men had known each other. In some of Mr. Derrick’s videos and comments, he indicated that he was aware that his videos could be misused.

“There are a plethora of uh, moral, you know, entanglements with topics, any topic of teaching explosives, right?” he asked in one video, according to the affidavit. “Of course, the wrong people could get it.”

The authorities also said that an explosion occurred at a private residence in Odessa, Mo., on May 4, and the occupant of the residence told investigators that he had manufactured explosives after watching online tutorials from Mr. Derrick.

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Mr. Derrick’s YouTube account had more than 15,000 subscribers and 20 published videos, the affidavit said. He had also posted content on other platforms, including Odysee and Patreon. Some videos were accessible to the public for free, while others required a paid subscription to view.

“My responsibility to my countrymen is to make sure that I serve the function of the Second Amendment to strengthen it,” Mr. Derrick said in one of his videos, according to the affidavit. “This is how I serve my country for real.”

Outside of the income he received through content creation, Mr. Derrick did not have any known employment. He did receive a monthly disability check from Veterans Affairs, the affidavit stated.

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The Girls: “This isn’t ringing alarms to y’all?” : Embedded

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The Girls: “This isn’t ringing alarms to y’all?” : Embedded
Allegations pile up, but Child Protective Services declines to investigate and the school district continues to promote Ronnie Stoner. We include an update at the end of the episode. “The Girls” is a 4-part series from the Louisville Public Media’s investigative podcast, Dig.
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Chud the Builder, Known for Racist Confrontations, Charged With Attempted Murder

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Chud the Builder, Known for Racist Confrontations, Charged With Attempted Murder

A streamer known for hurling racist slurs in public settings under the nickname “Chud the Builder” was charged with attempted murder after a shooting outside a Tennessee courthouse on Wednesday, the authorities said.

The streamer, Dalton Eatherly, 28, was involved in a confrontation with an unidentified man that escalated to gunfire outside the Montgomery County Court in Clarksville, about 50 miles northwest of Nashville, the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. Both men sustained gunshot wounds and were in stable condition, the office said.

In addition to attempted murder, Mr. Eatherly was charged with employing a firearm during dangerous felony, aggravated assault and reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon, the sheriff’s office said.

Mr. Eatherly, who is white, has accumulated an online audience by livestreaming confrontations in which he uses racist language toward Black people in public.

Law enforcement did not provide any details about the second man involved in Wednesday’s shooting. Mr. Eatherly posted an audio recording online of paramedics treating his wounds in which he claims he shot the man in self-defense.

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A video posted by the website Clarksville Now shows Mr. Eatherly on a stretcher with a microphone attached to his lapel.

Mr. Eatherly is being held at the Montgomery County Jail, pending arraignment, the sheriff’s office said.

According to court records, Mr. Eatherly was scheduled to appear for a court hearing on Wednesday morning in an unrelated case brought by Midland Credit Management, a collections agency.

A lawyer listed in court records from a separate harassment case in which Mr. Eatherly was a defendant in November did not respond to a request for comment.

On Sunday, three days before the shooting in Clarksville, Mr. Eatherly was arrested in Nashville. According to a police affidavit, Mr. Eatherly live streamed his meal at a restaurant, Bob’s Steak and Chop House, on Saturday even though the restaurant had asked him ahead of time not to do so.

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When he was confronted, Mr. Eatherly “became disruptive and started making racial statements, yelling, screaming and otherwise creating a scene,” according to the affidavit.

He then refused to pay for his $370 meal. Mr. Eatherly was charged with theft of services, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. He was released on $5,000 bond.

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