Friday newspaper round-up: Gas power stations, Apple, Raleigh

7th Aug 2026 07:19

(Sharecast News) - Trains across parts of north-west England have ground to a halt after a power failure hit the signalling centre controlling the railway in the region. Passengers awaiting Northern and TransPennine trains have been advised not to travel, with widespread cancellations and other services delayed by more than an hour already. - Guardian

An eclipse of the sun will force Britain to fire up its gas power stations as solar energy plummets. The National Energy System Operator (Neso), which manages Britain's electricity grid, expects gas-fired plants to step up production as solar output falls by up to 1.3 gigawatts (GW). This is similar to losing the output of two of the UK's operating nuclear reactors. The solar eclipse, which will occur on Wednesday Aug 12, will be the largest visible in the UK since 1999. - Telegraph

Apple has been a "failure" in the AI race, the creator of ChatGPT has claimed, as it seeks to throw out a lawsuit accusing it of stealing the iPhone maker's trade secrets. OpenAI attacked the technology giant's AI efforts as it called on a US judge to dismiss claims of trade secrets theft against two former Apple employees who had quit to join the lab. - Telegraph

The owner of Raleigh, the 139-year-old Nottinghamshire-based bikemaker, is on the verge of collapse after takeover talks fell through. Accell Group, the private equity-owned Dutch bicycle manufacturer owning brands such as Raleigh, Haibike, Lapierre and Ghost, entered court-supervised insolvency proceedings earlier this week. - The Times

Heston Blumenthal's restaurant group has warned that "material uncertainty" lingers over its ability to continue as a going concern despite new funding. Christina Ong, one of Singapore's most successful businesswomen, recently made a strategic investment in the celebrity chef's restaurant businesses to help prop up its balance sheet and fuel potential expansion. - The Times