Here are the top business stories making the headlines in the morning newspapers.


Aberdeen firm wins Seagreen work

PD&MS Energy says a new assignment on Scotland's largest offshore wind farm highlights its growing reputation as a renewable energy sector "disruptor".

The three-year framework agreement covers operations and maintenance (O&M).

It will see the Aberdeen-based energy services company supporting developer SSE Renewables at the Seagreen offshore wind farm, about 17 miles off the Angus coast.

Energy Voice says PD&MS - traditionally focused on oil and gas - is a relatively new entrant into the O&M wind market.

The firm could be involved beyond the initial term of its latest contract win, as there are options to extend it for two more years.

Protestors disrupt Samuel speech

The chief executive of the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) has been shouted off stage by protestors - during a speech about the energy trilemma.

Fossil Free London disrupted the top boss of the North Sea regulator during his presentation at the World Energy Capital Assembly in London, a major event for the oil and gas industry.

Energy Voice says Andy Samuel was delivering a segment on the energy trilemma - outlining the need for affordable, secure and clean supply of fuel and power for the world - when the protestors rose.

The group protested the NSTA offering new oil and gas fields through its latest licensing round.

They also oppose development of the Rosebank oilfield west of Shetland.

Axed from Online Safety Bill

Controversial measures which would have forced big technology platforms to take down legal but harmful material have been axed from the Online Safety Bill.

The BBC says critics of the section in the bill claimed it posed a risk to free speech.

Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan denied weakening laws protecting social-media users and said adults would have more control over what they saw online.

The bill - which aims to police the internet - is intended to become law in the UK before MPs break next summer.

It previously included a section which required "the largest, highest-risk platforms" to tackle some legal but harmful material accessed by adults.

It meant that the likes of Facebook, Instagram and YouTube would have been tasked with preventing people being exposed to content like for example self-harm, eating disorder and misogynistic posts.

But some argued this opened the door for technology companies to censor legal speech.

New energy-storage technologies

Two Scottish firms have been awarded more than £14million by the UK Government to help develop new energy-storage technologies.

East Lothian-based Sunamp will receive £9.25million to help trial its advanced thermal-storage system in 100 UK homes.

And StorTera in Edinburgh will get £5million towards a prototype demonstrator of its single liquid flow battery technology.

The BBC says the money is being provided through the UK's Longer Duration Energy Storage competition.

The government said the technologies aimed to increase the resilience of the UK's electricity grid, while maximising value for money.

Pay deal at BT

Telecoms giant BT has agreed a pay deal with union bosses that will see workers who earn £50,000 or less get a £1,500 pay rise next year.

The agreement, which will be put to union members, could lead to the end of strike action at the company.

BT said 85% of its UK-based staff would benefit from the wage increase.

Combined with a pay rise made in April, the total increase for the lowest-paid employees at BT will be more than 15% since this time last year.

The Communication Workers' Union (CWU) said the deal would mean wage rises ranging from 6% to 16% for workers of different grades.

The BBC says both the CWU and Prospect will ballot their members and recommend backing the deal.

Golden era with China now over

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said the so-called "golden era" of relations with China is over, as he vowed to "evolve" the UK's stance towards the country.

In his first foreign-policy speech, the PM said the closer economic ties of the previous decade had been "naive".

He said the UK now needed to replace wishful thinking with "robust pragmatism" towards competitors.

But he warned against "Cold War rhetoric", adding that China's global significance could not be ignored.

The BBC says Mr Sunak has faced pressure from Tory backbenchers to toughen the UK's stance on China since he took over as Tory leader and UK prime minister last month.

The speech, to the Lord Mayor's Banquet in London, comes after protests in China over the weekend against the country's strict Covid lockdown laws.

Hydrogen fuel test

Rolls-Royce and easyJet have tested what they say is the world's first commercial airline engine powered by hydrogen fuel.

A Rolls-Royce AE 2100 turboprop engine, which is usually used on the C-130 Hercules military transport aircraft, was tested on a ground rig at the Ministry of Defence's Boscombe Down airfield, a location long associated with aerospace research.

The successful test marks a milestone in moving global aviation towards greener fuels and away from kerosene.

Advocates of the technology say it will help Britain meet a government target of net-zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050.

Grazia Vittadini, Rolls-Royce's chief technology officer, told the Telegraph: "We are pushing the boundaries to discover the zero-carbon possibilities of hydrogen, which could help reshape the future of flight."

The engine tests are being financially supported by easyJet, which has made multi-million pound investments in experiments around future aero-engine technologies.

Johan Lundgren, the budget airline's chief executive, said: "We are committed to continuing to support this ground-breaking research because hydrogen offers great possibilities for a range of aircraft, including easyJet-sized aircraft."

Bad news for older staff

Staff aged over 55 are more likely than any other group of workers to lose their jobs to robots, the first study of its kind has found.

The research by University College London (UCL) economists found nine in 10 workers aged over 55 were made redundant as robot technology replaced humans for "routine" tasks.

By contrast, 70% of younger workers kept their jobs after retraining and switching to higher-skilled, more-abstract jobs either within their own firm or another business, according to the study of 16,000 firms employing millions of staff.

The Telegraph says it follows industry estimates that as many as 10million UK workers are at risk of being replaced by robots within 15 years as the automation of routine tasks gathers pace.

The report by consultants PWC found that 30% of jobs in Britain were potentially under threat from breakthroughs in artificial intelligence.

The UCL researchers suggested that companies were ditching over-55s because they calculated they would get less "pay back" from investing in retraining them as they came to the end of their working careers.

They also believed that older workers might also find it more difficult to learn the new skills required after firms implemented automation.

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