Watch heron fly free after release from fishing wire
This is the moment a heron was released back into the wild after it was freed from a tangle of fishing wire.Brinsley Animal Rescue in Nottinghamshire said the bird had "beaten the odds" after it was found trapped and wounded near the Ilkeston canal. Centre co-founder Jon Beresford, who nursed the heron back to health, said he was concerned the bird might struggle but was relieved when it "flew and flew"."It was amazing and made all the hard work worthwhile," Mr Beresford said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
39 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Forensic psychiatrist reveals the truth about pedophilia debate
A psychiatrist has revealed whether pedophiles are born or made as a result of nature. Dr Sohom Das who is a forensic psychiatrist, from London has shared content about crime, mental health conditions, and psychology, among other topics. He discussed whether the pedophilia crimes are due to nature or nurture on his YouTube channel. According to the American Psychological Society's dictionary: 'Pedophilia, in which sexual acts or fantasies involving prepubertal children are the persistently preferred or exclusive method of achieving sexual excitement. 'The children are usually many years younger than the pedophile [...] Sexual activity may consist of looking and touching but may include intercourse, even with very young children. Pedophilia is rarely seen in women.' Speaking in the video, the expert said: 'Are you born a paedophile? Well, essentially, no, but the answer is quite complicated, because it's both nature and nurture.' Dr Das went on to explain that while people 'might have inherent, actual preferences [...] at the same time, external events or scenarios can massively increase the risk'. According to the psychiatrist, those who have suffered sexual assault themselves are most at risk. Research released in 2024 showed the scale of the online sexual exploitation and abuse of children, suggesting that more than 300 million are victims every year. In what marked the first global estimate of the scale of the crisis, researchers at the University of Edinburgh found one in eight, or 12.6 per cent, of the world's children have been victims of non-consensual talking, sharing and exposure to sexual images and video in the past year, amounting to about 302 million young people. In addition, 12.5 per cent of children globally (300 million) are estimated to have been subject in the past year to online solicitation, such as unwanted sexual talk which can include non-consensual sexting, unwanted sexual questions and unwanted sexual act requests by adults or other youths. Offences can also take the form of 'sextortion', where predators demand money from victims to keep images private, to abuse of AI deepfake technology. While problems exist in all parts of the world, the research suggests the United States is a particularly high-risk area. Edinburgh university's Childlight initiative – which aims to understand the prevalence of child abuse – includes a new global index, Into The Light, which found one in nine men in the U.S. (almost 14 million) admitted online offending against children at some point. Surveys found seven per cent of British men, or 1.8 million, admitted the same, as did 7.5 per cent of men in Australia. The research also found many men admitted they would seek to commit physical sexual offences against children if they thought it would be kept secret. Childlight chief executive Paul Stanfield said: 'This is on a staggering scale that in the UK alone equates to forming a line of male offenders that could stretch all the way from Glasgow to London - or filling Wembley Stadium 20 times over. 'Child abuse material is so prevalent that files are on average reported to watchdog and policing organizations once every second. 'This is a global health pandemic that has remained hidden for far too long. It occurs in every country, it's growing exponentially, and it requires a global response. 'We need to act urgently and treat it as a public health issue that can be prevented. Children can't wait.'
Times
an hour ago
- Times
Heatwaves are hell in my new-build nightmare flat
'Whew, it's like stepping off a plane in a hot country,' said a friend last weekend as she entered the corridor that leads to my flat. I commonly have to reassure guests before we've even arrived at my front door that I don't live in an actual oven. What I actually live in is a new one-bedroom flat in southeast London. It has much to recommend it, not least its energy efficiency. My flat is so well-insulated that I haven't turned the heating on since I moved in seven years ago, saving me thousands of pounds in energy bills. There's just one sweltering downside: summer. The flats were not built with summer in mind, particularly not the kind of 25C-30C days that we're sweating our way through. • Best tips on how to sleep in the heat Millions of us are in the same boat. Ask anyone who lives in a house or flat built in the past 20 years and they will tell you that between June and August, they may as well live on Mercury. Through a combination of building regulations, net-zero goals and property developers packing in as many flats as they can, new homes are significantly hotter and harder to ventilate than older properties. The flora is suffering. I tried to keep a basil plant this summer, for sprinkling elegantly on tomato salads, but it died in two days. Sadly it seems only succulents will survive. A stalk emerged from one of my succulents recently, which I sent proudly to a green-fingered friend. 'You must be keeping it in an optimal climate,' she said. I looked it up, and the plant in question is native to north Africa. I had an impromptu summit about the problem in the lift the other day, when I squeezed in alongside two clammy neighbours. 'It's never less than 30C in my flat,' one of them dead-panned. 'I think I've acclimatised and I don't feel anything any more,' the other said. (She's got a point about acclimatising — everyone else's homes feel freezing to me now.) This is all a trade-off. Most people don't believe me when I say that I've never had to turn the heating on, but it's true. In fact my flat is so well-insulated that I've never heard the newborn babies who apparently live either side of me. But with the number of days in which the temperature reaches above 28C doubling since 1990, this trade-off is becoming a rather sweaty one. Annie Moore, 33, and her partner used to own a new two-bedroom flat that overheated in the summer. This meant 'essentially not wearing many clothes, we rarely had the duvet on, and there was lots of standing in the fridge with the door open'. • Heatwaves above 40C are the future, says Met Office While most office workers were reluctant to return after Covid, Moore was desperate to be back in to take advantage of the air conditioning. Two years ago, she moved to a draughty Victorian terraced house and prefers being cooler and spending more on heating. 'We often think of the people who bought our old flat on hot days like this and feel very bad,' she says. Ventilation is another big problem with new builds. Cramming as many flats as possible into buildings means a lot of them are single aspect like mine (with windows only on one side) so it's impossible to create a through-draught of air to cool the place down. This is the reason the majority of new builds are fitted with MVHR systems (mechanical ventilation with heat recovery), in which pipes circulate air flow through the flat. This, however, does not keep you cool on the hottest days. And that wave of hot air that knocks you out in the corridors? This is down to communal heating pipework that is usually run down the centre of the building. The prevalence of glass on new buildings can also create a greenhouse effect that contributes towards the high temperatures inside. A friend who is also in her thirties, Ophelia Oakham, bought her new flat in 2017. 'By the summer of 2018, it felt like we were living in a slow-cooking oven,' she says. 'We tried everything. Fans that just blew hot air around, damp paper towels, cold flannels in front of the fan, blackout curtains kept shut all day; you name it. The building's design meant no breeze ever got in.' So what can be done to cool these furnaces down? Air conditioning is one option. But it costs. Portable units (units in more ways than one) are between £400 and £600 for a good one. Because air conditioning is so energy intensive (and expensive to install), many new blocks such as mine aren't built with it. Blocking out the morning sun is the most important remedy, especially if you're east-facing as I am. Owners of flats usually can't install external blinds, so instead I have good quality blackout curtains that I don't open until around midday when the sun is above the building, not in front. Reflective window film is a good buy too. Invest in a decent fan. I have an 18in chrome contraption in the lounge that knocks paintings off the wall on its strongest setting. In the bedroom, there's a Dreo silent tower fan that has eight speeds and a silent mode on a timer at night. I do think it's great that we're pushing for energy efficiency in our building regulations. But if we're going to build 1.5 million homes in the next five years, as the government assures us that we are, then we need to make sure they are ready for a warming climate too. • Rising humidity is making heatwaves worse In 2023, my friend Ophelia caved and moved into a Victorian house. 'These new-build flats must come with proper cooling,' she says. 'Insulation is great in winter, but in summer it's unbearable. People can't sleep, everyone's miserable, and the world is only getting hotter. I feel very passionate about this. It's not a luxury, it's a necessity.' Melissa York is assistant property editor of The Times and Sunday Times
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Record 500,000 patients spend 24 hours in A&E
A record number of almost half a million patients spent 24 hours in A&E last year, statistics show. Dr Adrian Boyle, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM), said the figures were 'a source of national shame', fuelling thousands of deaths. He raised concerns that the Government's 10-year health plan, to be published next week, would not take sufficient action to tackle A&E overcrowding – and could even make it worse. NHS data, disclosed under freedom of information laws, show long trolley waits have surged, leaving casualty units increasingly crowded and dangerous. The statistics show that in 2024 there were 478,901 waits of 24 hours or more in major A&E units in England – a rise of 27 per cent on the previous year. The extra 100,482 cases bring the total to the highest yearly figure on record. Meanwhile, quarterly figures for England show bed occupancy is also at a record high, with 92.5 per cent of general and acute beds occupied. Analysis by the RCEM found that there were more than 16,600 deaths associated with long A&E waits before admission in England last year – an increase of 20 per cent in one year. Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, has said the 10-year health plan will mean major shifts, including moving more care from hospitals to the community and from dealing with sickness to prevention But Dr Boyle said he was concerned that the proposals would lack 'meaningful action' to tackle the existing crisis in A&E. In an interview with The Telegraph, the senior doctor said: 'I think there is magical thinking about reducing demand in emergency departments.' 'One of the big missions is to have a shift from sickness to prevention, and that's a perfectly sensible idea – everyone would agree with it. 'But people are still going to get sick, and need emergency care. I'm not hearing anything about meaningful action to tackle long stays in A&E.' Dr Boyle expressed concern that attempts to shift care out of hospitals and into the community will be too risky, if bed numbers are cut before a reduction in demand is seen. He said senior figures in emergency medicine were increasingly uneasy about a lack of focus on tackling long waits in A&E, with hospital bed occupancy at an all-time high. 'We are hearing nothing about increasing capacity – which would mean fixing social care or increasing the number of hospital beds,' he said. 'In fact it seems the aspiration is fewer beds, and as bed numbers fall, waits of 12 hours and more are rising.' The senior medic said too many patients, especially the old and frail, were being condemned to long A&E stays 'in a system which is making them sicker'. The figures on 24-hour trolley waits 'should be a source of national shame', he said. Dr Boyle said the NHS focus on four-hour targets meant that cases which could not be resolved quickly, especially those in need of admission, too often ended up facing dangerously long waits. He said: 'This is the result of the wrong policy, which is an exclusive focus on the four-hour standard, neglecting those patients who need admission. 'We know that this is harmful. We know that last year, there were at least 16,000 excess deaths associated with long stays in English departments. 'The majority of these people are elderly. They come to us when they're sick, and actually we're in a system which is making them sicker. People are dying as a consequence of this.' Previous analysis of NHS data has found that patients in their 90s suffer the longest delays in A&E, with length of stay rising by age. 'Very unambitious' Dr Boyle said the RCEM was keen to see more focus on preventive healthcare, and efforts to keep people out of hospital. He feared, however, that Labour's plan would set out aspirations rather than set out a meaningful route to making it happen. Earlier this month the Government and NHS England published an Urgent and Emergency Care Plan for England that vowed to make progress on eliminating 'corridor care'. The plan said waits of 12 hours or more should occur 'less than 10 per cent of the time'. Current performance is already close to this level, May data shows. Dr Boyle said the target was 'very unambitious'. 'What they're saying is we're happy to tolerate corridor care for another year,' he said.
