Utilities firm says 75% of class A bondholders back emergency package aimed at staving off collapse

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Thames Water has gained support from its top-ranking creditors to proceed to the next stage of securing a £3bn emergency funding package intended to stave off its collapse for at least a year.

The struggling utility company said on Wednesday that 75% of the holders of its least risky loans – known as class A debt – had backed a plan to extend the cash lifeline, the minimum threshold to needed to receive court approval for changes to its debts.

American drummer who began in 1940s swing and bebop scenes played with Charlie Parker, John Coltrane and dozens more

Roy Haynes, a drummer who was one of the last remaining musicians of jazz’s swing and bebop eras, has died aged 99. His daughter Leslie Haynes-Gilmore said he had died following a short illness.

Haynes’s energetic style, which also encompassed fusion and avant-garde jazz, earned him the respect of many contemporaries across a career that began in the mid-1940s. He played with artists including Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Sonny Rollins, Miles Davis, John Coltrane and dozens more.

TV chef and restaurateur says it is ‘too soon’ to watch high pressure depictions of kitchen life after diagnosis this year

Heston Blumenthal has said he fears that watching the high pressure depictions of kitchen life in the TV series The Bear could trigger a bipolar episode.

The restaurateur and TV chef announced he was diagnosed with the mental health condition earlier this year, after previously receiving a positive assessment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in 2017.

Humanitarian groups say almost none of the US’s demands that Israel improve conditions in Gaza have been met

Donald Trump has chosen the former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee as the next US ambassador to Israel .

Huckabee has a track record of hardline, occasionally provocative, pro-Israel rhetoric and previously said Israel has a rightful claim to the West Bank , which he refers to by its Hebrew and biblical name of Judea and Samaria .

Fortieth-anniversary edition is spliced together by Trevor Horn from previous versions of the song, including snippets of George Michael, Ed Sheeran and more

For 40 years, Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas? has been praised by some as a triumph of charitable fundraising and festive songwriting – and condemned by others as the most high-profile example of white saviourhood in pop.

Now, to mark its latest anniversary, the song is coming back around for a fourth time, in the form of an all-star splicing of the three previous official versions.

There’s plenty of rich flavour and texture in this ingenious curried mussel soup and luxuriant depth in a bowl of cod with smoked haddock soup

Fish soups are one of my favourite things to eat, and for that reason they are also one of my favourite things to make. There’s nothing more comforting and warming than a hearty bowl of soup in the colder months, and there’s even something quite decadent about a seafood soup. Smoked fish and shellfish are glorious ingredients for getting layers and depth of flavour: simple, elegant, punchy – and the ideal thing to serve to guests at home.

• Controversy remains over Saudi Arabia’s 2034 bid
• The 54-year-old was re-elected Fifa president last year

Gianni Infantino will avoid any scrutiny of the controversial decision to give the 2034 World Cup to Saudi Arabia next month after Fifa opted to stage the qualifying draw for the 2026 tournament as a virtual event.

Saudi Arabia’s successful 2034 bid will be confirmed by acclamation at an extraordinary Fifa congress, to be held online on 11 December, while the Guardian has learned that the draw for European qualifying for the 2026 World Cup two days later will also take place remotely.

Scientists tell us the same piece of work is judged more harshly if it’s handed in late – but that won’t stop me taking my time

It’s a classic dilemma. A deadline is coming up, but you’re not quite finished. Do you hand in the work on time in its half-baked state, or do you miss the deadline, use the extra time to improve the work and hand it in late? Now, it seems, we have a scientific answer to this question. A study published in the journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes this month found that the same piece of work is judged more harshly if it is handed in late than if it is handed in on time. Procrastinate at your peril, the study suggests, because it really does matter if you don’t make that deadline.

This news didn’t strike fear into my heart for a couple of reasons. First, it feels intuitive. If you go to a restaurant and order food, and then it takes ages to come, you want that food to be extra delicious to make up for the time you have sat there getting irritated waiting for it. Second, I am a punctual person. I meet the vast majority of my deadlines. But, for me, procrastination is integral to achieving that. So the takeaway from a study like this can’t, I think, be the abandonment of procrastination in toto.

Imogen West-Knights is a journalist and writer

Stakes in the former footballer’s professional debut are not particularly high but the YouTube vlog will be spectacular

Before the start of the Uruguay Open, the organisers of the second-string ATP Challenger tournament had an announcement . After flooding their social media pages with references to just one participant during the week, finally, a date was confirmed for the unmissable match and tickets were on sale: “Get ready for an epic night that will remain in the memory of the Uruguay Open,” they wrote.

It is incredibly rare for any first round match on the humble challenger or future tours to generate enough attention to warrant the tournament organisers planning its exact date and time in advance. In doubles, which is usually banished to the outer courts in front of nobody at all, it is almost unheard of. But this is no normal occasion. On Wednesday at 10am local time, after weeks of publicity, interviews and hype, Diego Forlán, the former footballer for Manchester United, Villarreal, Atlético Madrid and Inter, will make his professional tennis debut alongside Federico Coria of Argentina in Montevideo.