内容摘要：Supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the project aims to ensure the long-term preservation of the items.

Supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the project aims to ensure the long-term preservation of the items.

The grim procedure of winding down the business took over as passwords and laptops were collected while servers were backed up in case "some future incarnation of the business can be preserved".The company had been going in various guises for 35 years. "We didn't want it to go to rust. I expect the administrator will look for a buyer for the intellectual property assets," Mr Dissel adds.

Other former employees also hold out for a phoenix rising from the ashes. But the Valley of Death looms large."Reaction Engines was playing at the very edge of what was possible. We were working for the fastest engines and highest temperatures. We bit off the hard job," says Mr Dissel.Despite all this Mr Varvill's own epitaph for the business overshadows technological milestones. "We failed because we ran out of money."

A West Yorkshire art gallery is attempting to raise sufficient funds to purchase a Dame Barbara Hepworth sculpture "for the nation".The Hepworth Wakefield wants to buy Sculpture With Colour (Oval Form) Pale Blue And Red, created in the 1940s, in order for it to go on permanent public display.

The oval-shaped piece, which sold for more than £3.5m in 2024, was later given a

preventing it from leaving the country - providing a UK gallery the chance to acquire it.It would not be the first time.

Both South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky found themselves in awkward, tense or even fiery exchanges as the world's cameras rolled, capturing every moment. Those moments have turned once cosy, diplomatic moments in the Oval Office into potentially fraught, tight-rope walks for visiting leaders.Ahead of the visit, Berlin expressed confidence that the German side is ready. "I think he's well prepared for this meeting," Friedrich Merz's spokesman told reporters this week.

Merz - from the centre-right CDU party - is not just prepared, but on friendly terms with the US President, according to German media.The pair are even said to have exchanged text messages and be on a first name basis, Germany's ARD news outlet has reported.