Latest news with #south-east
Daily Mail
13-07-2025
- Daily Mail
Probe launched after French inmate escaped jail by 'hiding in the luggage of fellow prisoner' as they left
A French inmate escaped jail by hiding in the bag of a fellow prisoner who had just been freed. Police are investigating after the man got out of the Lyon-Corbas prison in south-east France on Friday. The prison service said the fugitive 'took advantage of the liberation of his fellow inmate to hide himself in his luggage and get out'. French media also report the convict had been serving several sentences and was under investigation in a case linked to organised crime. It is understood a judicial investigation has been opened into possible 'escape as part of an organised gang and criminal conspiracy'. The Lyon Bar Association expressed alarm last month about overcrowding at the Lyon-Corbas prison. As of May 1, 2025, around 1,200 people were detained at the site - despite it having a capacity for 678 places.
RNZ News
01-07-2025
- Climate
- RNZ News
Australia: 'Bomb cyclone' hits east coast
Well over 100mm of rain is ahead for much of the NSW coast during the next 72 hours. Photo: ABC News Australia correspondent Karen Middleton has the latest on the storm rocking the country's south-east coast, an horrific and widespread child abuse case has been uncovered in Melbourne with nearly 1200 young children advised to get tests for sexually transmitted diseases and the jury retires to consider its verdict in the mushroom poisoning trial of Erin Patterson. Karen Middleton is a political journalist based in Canberra
The Independent
18-06-2025
- Climate
- The Independent
Met Office warns of 50:50 chance of 40C summers within next 12 years
The UK is projected to experience month-long heatwaves in future with temperatures potentially exceeding 45C due to climate change, according to a new Met Office analysis. Experts estimate a 50 per cent chance of temperatures reaching 40C within the next 12 years, with 45C considered possible and 46.6C plausible in the same timeframe. The study indicates that the likelihood of exceeding 40C has increased 20-fold since the 1960s and has tripled since 2000. The Met Office warns of the possibility of up to two-thirds of summer days exceeding the heatwave threshold of 28C in south-east England, with potential for over a month of continuous heatwave conditions. Met Office experts emphasise the urgent need for preparation and planning to mitigate the impacts of rising temperatures and extreme heat on public health, infrastructure, and the environment.
Yahoo
16-06-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Here's why England could face water shortages of 5bn litres a day by the 2050s
England could face water shortages of five billion litres a day by 2055 if action isn't taken now, Environment Agency officials have warned. Climate change, a growing population and environmental pressures could lead to the shortfall by that decade, they have claimed. The shortfall is the equivalent of a third of the country's current daily use, or enough to fill Wembley Stadium four-and-a-half times over each day. The highly populated south-east region of England faces the biggest shortfall, with an estimated extra two billion litres of water a day needed between 2030 and 2055. We are experiencing the driest spring in over a century. The National Drought Group met today, and will continue to meet monthly to update drought plans and increase operational responses as dry weather continues over the summer. Read more: — Environment Agency (@EnvAgency) June 5, 2025 These findings come as part of the Environment Agency's national framework for water resources, which is published every five years. This sets out the actions needed by utilities, regulators and businesses and the public to manage under-pressure resources. The Environment Agency warns that the population of England is set to increase by eight million by 2055. This will increase the demand for water for everything from washing and appliances to leisure activities on golf courses and sports pitches. The organisation also says that climate change is likely to reduce the amount of available water, with hotter, drier summers limiting resources and increasing demand from households. At the same time, the amount taken from rivers and groundwater will need to be reduced to protect wildlife and the environment. It comes in the wake of England's hottest spring on record, and the country's driest for more than 100 years. It's going to be another warm week; keeping hydrated is essential. Have a reusable bottle filled with tap water in the fridge saves running the tap until it's cold each time 💧. A simple change like this, means we can all enjoy more this summer.#SouthEastWater💦 #SimpleChanges — South East Water (@sewateruk) June 16, 2025 The Environment Agency is recommending that water companies manage the demand for the resource from houses and businesses, as well as halve the amount lost to leaks. They are also calling for more reservoirs and desalination plants to be built, which turn seawater into drinkable water. The agency wants to see a rollout of smart meters, including upgrading existing standard meters, which it said would help households reduce their water use. They also said it would continue to work with the Government on a mandatory efficiency labelling scheme for appliances such as dishwashers, toilets and showers. Environment Agency chairman Alan Lovell said: 'The nation's water resources are under huge and steadily increasing pressure. 'This deficit threatens not only the water from your tap but also economic growth and food production. We may have had some rain 🌧️ but reduced reservoir levels and damage to ecosystems have affected many regions. Help preserve water supplies and the natural environment. Learn how you can help today: — CCW - The voice for water consumers (@CCWvoice) June 12, 2025 'Taking water unsustainably from the environment will have a disastrous impact on our rivers and wildlife. 'We need to tackle these challenges head on and strengthen work on co-ordinated action to preserve this precious resource and our current way of life.' There are a number of ways to reduce your water usage at home, according to the Energy Saving Trust. One of those is to reduce the time spent in the shower, keeping it between three and five minutes, and using a timer to make sure you don't go over. It also recommends filling up your kettle only as much as you need and making sure you have a full load before putting on the dishwasher. Recommended reading: I compared £1.39 to £200 dehumidifiers in autumn – which one saved my house? Use your washing machine during this 'magic hour' to slash your energy bills The genius water bowl hack that cleans an entire oven in just 20 minutes Elsewhere, the WWF recommends not keeping the tap running when brushing your teeth, as that can waste as much as six litres of water a minute. Filling a bowl when you're doing the washing up can also be useful. They add: "Filling a bowl with water – and cleaning the cleanest items first – means you're unlikely to need to change the water and will save a huge amount of water in comparison to washing everything under the tap." Additionally, fitting low-flow aerators on your taps and showers means that you get the same water pressure but use much less water.
The Independent
07-06-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Rachel Reeves is undermined by a ‘spend now, pay later' prime minister
The spending review will be mostly about making explicit bad news that has not yet been spelt out. The total for planned public spending over the next three years has already been set: what Rachel Reeves will announce in the House of Commons on Wednesday is how much has been allocated to each department. Hence the distraction of announcing capital spending projects around the country, as Reeves did on her trip to Rochdale this week. Perhaps she was hoping that the short attention spans of journalists meant that they had forgotten she changed her fiscal rules in the Budget in October to allow more capital investment. That was when she sensibly excluded investment that will earn a return from the annual limit on how much the government can borrow. She did win some headlines this week about 'tearing up the rule book' to invest in transport projects outside the south-east, although some journalists with longer memories – or better internet search techniques – did point out that the projects she announced were identical to those unveiled by Rishi Sunak two years ago. None of them will even start until 2027, so there will be no actual new roads or trams before the next election, but Labour MPs in the relevant places will at least have something to put on their leaflets. Another part of the spin cycle before the spending review is confirmation that NHS spending will rise by 2.8 per cent a year more than inflation over the three-year period. This is not enough to ensure that Wes Streeting will hit Labour's target of treating 92 per cent of patients within 18 weeks by the end of this parliament, but Ben Zaranko of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, otherwise known as the Source of the Impartial Truth, described it as 'a serious, meaningful increase in health funding'. Outside the NHS and defence, however, the spending review is a wasteland of tough choices. Reeves wrote an article for The Independent on Thursday defending her decisions as 'Labour choices'. But the essential fact of the review is that nothing has changed. It will simply become clearer, when the chancellor addresses the Commons on Wednesday, how tough some of those choices are. She and Starmer are trapped in the same positions that chancellors and prime ministers always find themselves in. No 10 always wants to spend more and No 11 always has to say no. The personal relationships are different, but the underlying tension is always the same. Starmer and Reeves work well together. They are not friends, as David Cameron and George Osborne were, but neither are they dysfunctional rivals like Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. They occupy a middle position: Starmer does not think that Reeves is after his job, and Reeves knows that she is secure because it would be disastrous for Starmer to move her – sacking his chancellor would in effect be admitting that their joint strategy was a mistake. But the underlying tension, baked into the British constitution, is still there. When the prime minister last month announced the U-turn on the winter fuel payment, Reeves allowed it to be known that she had suggested it first. That is presumably what the papers will show when they go to the National Archives, but the reality is that the pressure came from No 10 and she bent to it. The retreat from the two-child limit on benefits was messier, but the shape was the same. Starmer wants to appease the opposition, from both Labour MPs and Nigel Farage, and expects Reeves to find the money. For all that Starmer attacks Farage for his unfunded fantasy tax cuts and spending promises, the prime minister is engaged in a bit of low-level Trussonomics himself, making promises without knowing how to pay for them – and hoping that the chancellor can sort it out later. No one has the faintest idea how she will do it. She is going to find herself trapped. On Wednesday she will set out spending choices that will please no one, setting up the long wait until the Budget in October or November, in which she will have to deal with the growing gap between expected revenue and the spending plans that she has just laid out. The prime minister has helpfully ruled out tax rises. He said on Monday: 'I don't think you can tax your way to growth. We have high tax as it is.' But on Wednesday the chancellor will by implication be ruling out spending cuts – or what is the point of announcing spending plans for three years if you are going to change them just four or five months later? It is beginning to look as if the government's plan is to cross its fingers and hope for a miracle. Morgan McSweeney, the prime minister's chief of staff, has had some success in ensuring message discipline, getting all ministers to repeat the phrase 'the Plan for Change' as often as possible. By the time of the Budget this autumn, however, the slogan might be that it is time for 'a Change of Plan'.
