Jonah FisherEnvironment correspondent, Hampshire and
Tom InghamClimate and Science Producer
Gwyndaf Hughes/BBC
Water from drought-hit Hampshire has been used to help fill this lake in Wiltshire
Southern Water has warned tanker companies to stop delivering its water to the Wiltshire estate of an American billionaire.
Some of it was recently used, entirely legally, to help fill a lake, despite a hosepipe ban being in place locally for domestic users.
Multiple water tankers have been filmed both day and night by local residents filling up from standpipes in part of neighbouring Hampshire where a drought order is in place.
The BBC has been told that those tankers went to Conholt Park, a 2,500 acre estate owned by Stephen Schwarzman – who is one of the world’s richest men and a financial backer of US President Donald Trump.
A spokesperson for Mr Schwarzman confirmed that a small proportion of the water transported had very recently been used to help fill a new lake but said the water has been “sourced through licenced providers responsible for the lawful and proper extraction and delivery”. They said an advanced irrigation system was how the lake would mainly be filled.
Despite the ongoing drought, the tankers are legally allowed to take the water in Hampshire under licence because construction work is not domestic and therefore not covered by current drought restrictions.
However, Tim McMahon, Southern Water’s managing director, said he was “appalled by this use of water” and that the company had imposed on immediate ban on tankers extracting from the standpipes.
Southern Water said it did not know exactly how much water had been taken but that there had been a spike in the last week with “significant” amounts taken but with other users also making use of the standpipes it was impossible to say who had taken more.
Jonah Fisher/BBC
Locals have been documenting the movement of tankers to the Conholt Park estate.
The water firm, which serves more then two million customers, said it was first alerted by residents in Andover who had spotted the tankers coming and going from the standpipes.
Among them was Laurence Leask, an air conditioning inspector who told the BBC that he has been waking up at 03:00 BST to follow the tankers from the standpipes in Andover to the estate eight miles away, just over the border in Wiltshire, which is not subject to a drought order at present.
“We think there have been over 30 tankers a day, seven days a week,” he said.
“That’s a lot of water. I worked out that 30 tankers means a million litres a day, something like that.”
He said it had been going on for the past few months, prompting him to co-ordinate a network of neighbours who took it in turns to film and follow the tankers.
One of those, Trevor Marshall, said: “We think they might be using the water to fill the lake. He makes notes of the tankers passing his kitchen window and sends them to Laurence.
“At the same time we’re on a hosepipe ban – it’s incredibly outrageous.”
Reuters/Kevin Lamarque
Stephen Schwarzman is an ally of US president Trump
Mr Schwarzman is one of the world’s richest men, with an estimated worth of more than £30bn, having founded Blackstone, one of the biggest investment funds in the world.
He has been renovating the 2,500 acre, 17th century shooting estate since he bought it in 2022 for an estimated £80m.
That involves an extensive redevelopment and constructing a new lake.
A statement from Blackstone said: “The suggestion that the new owners of Conholt Park violated water regulations is false and misleading.
“They have taken extraordinary care to ensure the restoration of the property complies with all local laws and regulations. Most recently, as construction winds down (expected to be completed very soon) a proportion of transported water has been used in connection with irrigation and the lake.
“The water has been sourced through licenced providers responsible for the lawful and proper extraction and delivery. Water has been sourced from multiple locations, largely outside the region. Any suggestion that the owners violated local water regulations would be false and misleading.”
Southern Water said it would be “having robust conversations with those using this water and the companies working on their behalf”.
Managing director Tim McMahon said: “While this disappointing occurrence is highly unusual and rare, I would like to reassure customers that I am leading a thorough review into how this happened, and how we can tighten up both our internal monitoring processes and any legal loopholes so that this cannot happen again.”
Qatar, US discuss deterrence amid Netanyahu’s threats
In an exclusive interview with The Hill, Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari raged against Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu and said Qatar is only looking to grow its security partnership with the U.S.
The comments come two days after Israel launched strikes targeting senior Hamas political officials in Doha, rocking a residential neighborhood in the Qatari capital.
Al-Ansari, who is also an adviser to Qatar’s prime minister, welcomed President Trump’s “condemnation and determination” to deter a future Israeli attack, speaking via Zoom from Doha.
“I think the whole world has a lot of cards it hasn’t played with Netanyahu, and I think there was a lot of reluctance internationally, including in the U.S., to take a lot of action in the hope that Prime Minister Netanyahu will sign a deal, will cease fire and will get his hostages out through diplomatic means,” al-Ansari said.
Qatar is in high-level discussions with the U.S. to reassess its security partnership, al-Ansari said, adding it “will take some time,” because it had never before considered Israel as a direct threat.
“This is an attack orchestrated by a megalomaniac who is leading a radical government in Israel. It has nothing to do with the United States,” al-Ansari said.
The explosions lasted for less than five minutes, al-Ansari said, and in that time, six people were killed — five Hamas members and a Qatari security official — and at least three others were wounded.
The strikes marked a major escalation of Israel’s war against Hamas and introduced a new level of volatility in a region fraught with conflict.
Some senior Republicans have broken with the president’s criticism of Israel’s strike, putting their support behind Netanyahu.
Al-Ansari pushed back and said GOP senators should “look into the facts and not be blinded by the smoke screen that Netanyahu offers.” “This is an attack on a sovereign state, on a residential neighborhood with six schools, a number of nurseries and residents who are all civilian,” he said, noting American students are also enrolled in schools nearby. “This is an attack that happened behind the United States. If your priority is the national security of the United States, is the foreign policy of the United States and the international standing of the United States, then you should question when your allies do things behind your back and attack sovereign countries where your army, your people, more than 10,000 servicemen and women operate.”
Welcome to The Hill’s Defense & National Security newsletter, I’m Colin Meyn — your guide to the latest developments at the Pentagon, on Capitol Hill and beyond.
Republican senators are urging President Trump to give them the green light to vote on a Russia sanctions package in the wake of Moscow’s incursion into Poland’s air space and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s seeming disinterest in ending the war with Ukraine. Senate Republicans have pushed for months for Trump to back the chamber’s bipartisan package that would punish nations that import Russian oil, gas and uranium, only …
Related video: Poland Airspace Violation Sparks NATO FRENZY Toward Russia – 12:30 Report The House on Wednesday voted to pass its version of the National Defense Authorization Act, with a bipartisan amendment to repeal the two laws authorizing the use of military force (AUMF) in Iraq. The legislation, which authorizes funding and sets policy for the U.S. military, passed 231 to 196. Four Republicans voted in opposition …
President Trump on Thursday brushed off Russian drones that flew into Poland’s airspace earlier this week as a possible mistake, while European leaders have described it as an intentional provocation by Moscow.
ICE detainees arriving at former prison in Tennessee
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainees recently started arriving at a former prison in Tennessee, prison firm CoreCivic told The Hill on Thursday. “We have begun receiving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainees at our West Tennessee Detention Facility (WTDF) in response …
Upcoming things we’re watching in and around the defense world:
The Heritage Foundation hosts a discussion on “Taiwan’s Strategy for Peace, Prosperity, and Partnership with the United States.” 10:30 a.m.
Doug Matty, chief digital and AI officer at the Defense Department’s Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office, delivers remarks at the Billington Cybersecurity Summit. 9:05 a.m.
What We’re Reading
News we’ve flagged from other outlets:
Denials and Defiance Shape Venezuela’s Response to U.S. Threats on Drugs (Wall Street Journal)
ODNI expected to shrink counterintelligence, counterterror centers (Defense One)
Pentagon stages first ‘Top Drone’ school for operators to hone skills (Military Times)
Opinions in The Hill
Op-eds related to defense & national security submitted to The Hill:
Jim Cramer Reveals Why lululemon athletica inc. (LULU)’s Shares Fell By 18%
NataSnow/Shutterstock.com
lululemon athletica inc. (NASDAQ:LULU)’s shares were among the stunners on Thursday after they sank by 18.6%. The shares were hit hard after the firm’s second-quarter earnings report. The results saw lululemon athletica inc. (NASDAQ:LULU) struggle to manage the impact of tariffs on its business as the firm guided its fiscal full-year midpoint earnings per share at $12.87, which was nowhere near analyst estimates of $14.45 per share. Cramer discussed why lululemon athletica inc. (NASDAQ:LULU) has struggled, with high prices playing a role behind the firm’s woes:
“Well, I mean, when I saw Costco, when Lulu was battling with Costco, of a knockoff of Lulu, that was to me, that said something. Lulu, that’s not the way it works in this country. Costco comes after companies that charge too much. It comes after Tito’s and it comes after Lulus. And it always wins. And it won again last night. And that stock’s been stuck at 52 times earnings for long enough, it may be time for that one to move up.
While we acknowledge the potential of LULU as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an extremely cheap AI stock that is also a major beneficiary of Trump tariffs and onshoring, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock.
Shares in Warner Brothers Discovery and Paramount Skydance have surged following reports that Paramount Skydance is preparing an offer to buy the rival studio.
The reported bid would be for the entire Warner Brothers Discovery business, which includes news network CNN, HBO, and the film studio behind Barbie and Harry Potter.
The deal would mark further consolidation in the US media industry, which has been dramatically reshaped by the rise of streaming, and comes as media firms face scrutiny from President Donald Trump’s administration.
Warner Brothers Discovery declined to comment. Paramount Skydance did not respond to a request for comment.
The potential offer from Paramount Skydance was first reported in the Wall Street Journal.
It comes just weeks after the completion of Paramount Skydance’s own $8bn (£5.89bn) merger, in which David Ellison’s independent movie studio Skydance purchased Paramount, home of the CBS news network and hits such as Yellowstone.
Mr Ellison is also reportedly closing in on a plan to by The Free Press, a digital media outlet co-founded by Bari Weiss.
Warner Brothers Discovery shares closed up 29% on Thursday while Paramount Skydance closed up 16%.
The Wall Street Journal reported that a bid had not been submitted and the plan could fall apart.
David Ellison has been in the film business since dropping out of University of Southern California roughly two decades ago, eventually earning his own reputation in Hollywood as a producer on films such as Top Gun Maverick and World War Z.
His father, an ally of Trump, this week briefly overtook Elon Musk as the world’s richest person, worth more than $380bn, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires index. Trump earlier this year floated his name as a potential TikTok buyer.
The Paramount takeover plunged his son into politics as well.
The deal faced a lengthy approval process due to a row over Trump’s legal battle with CBS over a Kamala Harris interview he alleged had been edited to favour the Democratic Party.
Paramount eventually agreed to pay $16m to settle the dispute. The money will go to a future presidential library.
The settlement did not include a statement of apology or regret.
Democrats have called the payment a “bribe” – an accusation that Paramount has denied – and demanded documents about the negotiations from the firm.
Announcing the approval of the deal, the government said Skydance had committed to ensure its programming would “embody a diversity of viewpoints”, end Paramount’s diversity programmes, and appoint an ombudsman to review complaints of bias.
Ahead of the approval, Paramount said the Late Show with Stephen Colbert would end its run in May 2026. The move drew questions from Democrats about whether the cancellation was due to political reasons, which the firm denied.
Paramount in July also announced a five-year deal to air the satirical adult cartoon series South Park on its streaming network, poaching the show from HBO.
Warner Brothers Discovery is the product of a 2022 merger. Since the deal, it has struggled with debt and has made significant job cuts.
The company said earlier this year it planned to split the business, dividing its streaming brands from its more traditional cable television business.
MAHA report disappoints with ‘missed opportunities’
The second report by the Make America Healthy Again commission left supporters of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy dissatisfied with its lack of significant reforms or policies.
Kennedy called the strategy “the most sweeping reform agenda in modern history—realigning our food and health systems, driving education, and unleashing science to protect America’s children and families,” saying it would end “corporate capture of public health.”
But the strategy also relies on voluntary support of industries, sidestepping mandated oversight and regulations.
“The report is disappointing, and its most glaring omission is regulation,” Priya Fielding-Singh, director of policy and programs at the George Washington University Global Food Institute, told The Hill.
“While the commission’s first report directly called out sugar and ultra-processed foods, this one mentions each only once,” Fielding-Singh noted. “For ultra-processed foods, the most it offers is that government agencies will ‘continue to try’ to define them, which isn’t the serious step many of us were hoping for to keep them out of schools or children’s diets.”
Stakeholders were also left wanting more when it came to action on pesticides. The report called for raising public awareness of the Environmental Protection Agency’s “robust” pesticide review procedures and developing “more targeted and precise pesticide applications.”
David Murphy, a former finance director for Kennedy’s presidential campaign last year, called the report a “major missed opportunity for the Trump administration.”
Murphy said it was “a clear sign that Big Ag, Bayer, and the pesticide industry are firmly embedded in the White House and intentionally short-circuiting Trump’s campaign promise to the millions of MAHA voters who helped him return to power.”
Welcome to The Hill’s Health Care newsletter, we’re Nathaniel Weixel, Joseph Choi and Alejandra O’Connell-Domenech — every week we follow the latest moves on how Washington impacts your health.
New Jersey is the latest state to rebuff efforts from the federal government to limit access to updated COVID-19 vaccines. The New Jersey Department of Health issued an executive order Thursday allowing anyone 6 months and older to receive a COVID-19 vaccine for the upcoming respiratory illness season. The department is also allowing pharmacists in the state to administer COVID-19 immunizations without a prescription to anyone …
Toxic “forever chemicals” are altering human liver function at a fundamental level by triggering both fat accumulation and cancer-linked cell damage, a new study has found. Several of these compounds, also known as perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), interrupt liver cell signaling and immune functions but do so via unique mechanisms, scientists observed in the study, published in Environment International. …
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.), House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) and other high-ranking Democrats say any government funding package to keep federal departments operating past Sept. 30 must include major concessions from Republicans to repair what they say is fast becoming a national health care crisis.
Greg Murphy urges Congress to extend Medicare coverage for telehealth
Rep. Greg Murphy (R-N.C.) Thursday called on federal lawmakers to reauthorize Medicare coverage for telehealth services, which is set to expire at the end of September. “We are still working on reauthorizing it, but it needs to be permanent and done,” Murphy said during The Hill’s event “Smarter Benefits: Redefining the Employer Role,” sponsored by Takeda. President Trump signed a bill in March funding the federal …
Matt Fitzpatrick believes his ball was stolen during a weather-affected first round at the BMW PGA Championship – but said “it was a good result” that may have helped him to a six-under-par 66.
The Englishman said the incident occurred after he went right off the tee on the 18th hole at Wentworth just as play was suspended for more than 90 minutes because of thunder and lightning.
When play resumed, he was able take a penalty drop rather than playing his provisional ball – which he believed saved him at least a shot.
Fitzpatrick is two strokes behind his playing partner Ludvig Aberg, who is tied for the lead with France’s Tom Vaillant.
“Someone from the public saw two lads running into the bushes, running out with a golf ball and so they can only think it was my ball,” Fitzpatrick said.
“I made a bogey six, but if we’d had to find it, we probably wouldn’t have.
“I’d then have had to play my provisional ball and it would likely have been worse. So, all in all, it was a good result. I’d have preferred rather than steal it, they’d chucked it back out on to the fairway.”
The weather delay on a rain-soaked afternoon left 30 players, including Europe’s Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald, to complete their opening rounds on Friday morning.
With Sepp Straka the only absentee at Wentworth from Donald’s 12-man team for the biennial contest against the United States later this month, Aberg was the pick of his players.
The Swede, playing with Fitzpatrick in a nod towards potential pairings at Bethpage Black in New York, made three consecutive birdies to finish, with the highlight being a 50-foot putt on the 17th, as he drew alongside early starter Vaillant at the top of the leaderboard.
“I felt like once I got on the greens, I was rolling the putter really nice and tried to be aggressive with the speed. I managed to make a lot of putts, which is nice,” Aberg said.
“Any time you shoot that kind of score, I think you need to be good on the greens, and that was what it was today.
“It’s very easy to be around him [Matt] and we can chat about all sorts of things that are not even golf related. Today was one of them days where we both played pretty well. Hopefully we can do that in New York in a couple weeks’ time, too.”
A majority of Americans say they favor most limits on presidential power, according to survey results released Thursday.
The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll, conducted over the weekend, asks respondents about their views on certain broad presidential powers that relate to efforts undertaken by the Trump administration.
Sixty-two percent of respondents say the U.S. president should not be empowered to control police “in my city or town,” and 57 percent say the same about police “in large cities,” while 25 percent and 29 percent say the president should have those respective powers.
Similarly, 59 percent say the president should not have the power to control museums and theaters, and 57 percent say he shouldn’t be able to “set interest rates and direct companies where to manufacture goods” — compared to just 10 percent and 16 percent, respectively, who say he should.
Respondents are more closely divided on the question of whether a U.S. president should have the power to “rule without interference from courts and Congress”: 57 percent say he should not, while 31 percent say he should.
The survey comes as President Trump has federalized police in Washington, D.C. and has threatened to do the same in other U.S. cities, though his authority is more limited in sovereign states.
Trump, earlier this year, also replaced the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees with his own appointees, who, in turn, elected the president chairman of the board; and he ordered a White House-led review of Smithsonian museums, directing them to remove any “anti-American” content.
Trump has also publicly pressured Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to lower interest rates and has sought to incentivize companies to keep manufacturing in the U.S.
Respondents are more likely to oppose than support each presidential power included in the survey, but opposition to certain presidential powers falls short of the 50-percent majority threshold.
On whether the president should have the power to require universities “to pay and change policies for federal funding,” 44 percent say no, 30 percent say yes, and 26 percent say they don’t know or skip the question.
On whether the president should have the power to “require companies to pay to do business in the country,” 40 percent say yes, 33 percent don’t know or skip the question and 27 percent say no.
Respondents are split on whether the president should be able to “require foreign governments to pay to settle trade disputes”: 36 percent don’t know or skip the question, 33 percent say no, and 31 percent say yes.
The poll included 1,084 adults and was conducted Sept. 5-9. Its margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Four people have been arrested in connection to the shooting of Florida State linebacker Ethan Pritchard, Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Mark Glass said Wednesday.
Glass said Pritchard was “not doing anything wrong” when he was ambushed outside an apartment last month. He added that Pritchard was dropping off family members, an aunt and a child, when he was shot in the back of the head.
Pritchard, a 6-foot-2, 224-pound freshman from Sanford, Florida, remains in critical but stable condition at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital. He was shot Aug. 31 while inside a vehicle outside apartments in Havana, according to the Gadsden County Sheriff’s Office.
Gadsden County Sheriff Morris Young said authorities believe Pritchard’s shooting was a case of mistaken identity.
Jayden Bodison, Caron Miller, Germany Atkins and an unnamed minor have been arrested in connection with the shooting, the FDLE said. Bodison, Miller and the juvenile were charged with three counts of attempted murder and one count of shooting into an occupied vehicle. Atkins was charged with one count of probation violation. It was not immediately clear if any of the accused had attorneys.
Pritchard did not play in Florida State’s season opener, a 31-17 victory over No. 8 Alabama in Tallahassee on Aug. 30.
“I recruited him for years, got a chance to watch him grow,” FSU coach Mike Norvell said Saturday. “The way that he plays the game, it’s a passion, energy. He loves it, absolutely loves it.
“To know that right now that’s taken away from him in a senseless act … you don’t always know why you have to go through things in life. You don’t understand the reasoning. But I do believe that God has his hand over Ethan and this football team and just all the relationships.”
Pritchard’s father, Earl, attended Florida State’s win over East Texas A&M on Saturday. He was on the sideline and in the locker room afterward.
“He’s a wonderful man,” Norvell said. “And being with him, I know it’s so very hard for anybody to have to go through. … But he told me earlier this week, ‘I know where my boy wants to be, so I’m going to go stand in his place for him.'”
Gwyndaf Hughes/BBC
Jonah Fisher/BBC
Reuters/Kevin Lamarque
