Sunday newspaper round-up: Northumbrian Water, Live Nation, Benjamin Netanyahu, digital IDs, poultry sector, Cuba

(Sharecast News) - Northumbrian Water will hand chief executive Heidi Mottram a £1.5m retention payment over the next five years, a sum that sits outside Ofwat's new powers to block bonuses at companies that breach pollution rules, according to The Times.

The Hong Kong‑owned supplier, which serves around 2.7m customers across the North East, said Mottram required additional incentives as she was "a highly marketable individual" operating in a sector where pay is tightly regulated and often subject to scrutiny.

Mottram, who has led the company since 2010, is expected to have her annual bonus banned under Ofwat's rules. The retention award will be paid in five £300,000 tranches during the current AMP8 investment cycle.



Live Nation Entertainment is facing a fresh inquiry from UK competition regulators, with the Competition & Markets Authority beginning to contact industry figures as it prepares the groundwork for a sector‑wide investigation, The Times reported.

The CMA has recently written to critics of the concert and ticketing giant to arrange meetings, following calls from MPs on the business and trade committee for a full market probe into whether Live Nation holds a "dominant and controlling market position" in the UK live‑music industry.

The company has drawn heightened scrutiny in recent years, including during last year's Oasis reunion tour.

New York mayor Zohran Mamdani is exploring legal avenues that could allow the city to arrest Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu should he visit later this year, according to The Telegraph.

Mamdani previously pledged to honour an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for Netanyahu over alleged war crimes in Gaza. The Israeli leader is expected in New York in late September to address the UN General Assembly.

"I believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu belongs in The Hague," Mamdani told the New York Times, calling him "a war criminal who has been charged by the International Criminal Court."

Incoming prime minister Andy Burnham will scrap Sir Keir Starmer's planned digital ID card scheme and redirect resources toward "people's everyday priorities", The Telegraph reported.

Burnham said his government would focus on devolving power to communities rather than "hoarding it in Whitehall", with the ID card reversal forming part of a wider early‑term package aimed at easing cost‑of‑living pressures.

Plans under consideration include free bus travel for 11‑ to 16‑year‑olds and measures to cut household energy bills.

Campaigners have warned that the government's planned poultry‑sector growth strategy poses a risk to national security, according to The Guardian.

Environment secretary Emma Reynolds told the Groundswell agriculture festival that boosting consumption of homegrown produce was central to improving food security, citing the newly formed Farming and Food Partnership Board, which includes senior industry figures.

Reynolds said she wanted to "use different levers of the state" to raise UK food production, but also noted that planning constraints remained a major barrier to poultry‑sector expansion during a recent parliamentary committee hearing.

Cuba's national electricity grid suffered its third collapse in 10 days on Tuesday, deepening fears that the island's ageing infrastructure may be nearing an unrecoverable state, The Guardian reported.

The country has been grappling with a six‑month US oil blockade, but experts say the problems run far deeper. Jorge Piñon, an energy researcher at the University of Texas, said the system's backbone remained "old, broken and tired" power plants.

With temperatures in the mid‑30s and humidity at 80%, frustration has spilled onto the streets. Widespread blackouts have replaced the island's usual nightlife with the sound of cacerolazos - the banging of pots and pans - reflecting mounting anger over spoiled food, sleepless nights and fading hopes of relief.