Author: Chris Kodo

Last week’s wildfires across London show that lessons learned tackling rural blazes must urgently be applied to built-up areas, fire chiefs say.

The record-breaking heatwave, with 40C peaks, came during a prolonged spell of dry weather – and that dried out gardens, verges and green spaces.

That helped to spark the kind of blazes more commonly seen in the countryside.

More than 40 houses and shops were destroyed after a number of grass fires spread to nearby buildings.

The Met Office estimates that climate change makes the extreme heat seen last week in the UK 10 times more likely. Extreme heat and dry conditions are major factors contributing to wildfires.

According to the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) there have been almost 500 wildfires so far this year alone in England and Wales, compared with 237 last year.

NFCC lead wildfire tactical advisor David Swallow, who is also group commander for Hereford and Worcester Fire Service, said: “Everything is bone-dry and services need to recognise the risk they’ve now got. If they don’t, then they’re naïve.

“There are very urban services that think that wildfires are low down on the risk list. I understand the need to prioritise resources, but there needs to be a review.”

The wildfire group that Mr Swallow leads draws its members – and expertise – from firefighters in predominantly rural areas more susceptible to such blazes, like Northumberland, South Wales, the Peak District, and Wiltshire.

Mr Swallow believes that every fire service in the UK should have wildfire training. That way, forces could learn valuable tactics from firefighters more familiar with tackling blazes on grasslands, on moors and in woods.

He said that his wildfire group had for some time been preparing for the increased risk of wildfires from climate change but that the risk was now “immediate”.

But, last year, a report for the government’s Third UK Climate Change Risk Assessment found that two out of eight fire services in the south east of England – identified as a key area at growing threat of extreme temperatures – made no reference to wildfires in their Integrated Risk Management Plans (IRMP).

IRMPs are statutory strategy documents which outline every service’s priorities and determine how resources will be allocated.

Today, London Fire Brigade and Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service have no reference to wildfires in their IRMPs, while Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire services only have passing references.

All the fire services said they followed national guidelines and worked to raise awareness of the risk of wildfires locally.

A spokesman for Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service said: “Moving forward, we will include more specific wildfire risk analysis as part of our new Community Risk Management Plan for 2023-2027.”

A London Fire Brigade spokesperson said they were “constantly looking at developing our equipment and procedures to meet all the new challenges that we face”.

She added: “We will learn lessons from the recent intense grass fires, evaluate our response and put in place any additional training that will help to keep Londoners and our firefighters safe.”

South Wales Fire Service is seen as leading the way in its approach to wildfires.

Its station manager, Craig Hope, is another of the UK’s wildfire tactical advisers. His force keeps specialised lightweight kit, off-road vehicles, a controlled burns team and a helicopter on standby.

However, 5,500 hectares of the Brecon Beacons National Park have already burned in wildfires this year.

“It’s horrific, but we have predicted it,” he said. “I just don’t think anyone would have predicted that it would happen so soon.”

He added that years have been spent “making little steps” and that now is the time for “big strides, because the climate is not on our side”.

“The fires we are seeing now are what they were getting in Spain in the 80s and 90s.”

He urges authorities to invest more in developing a UK-wide “national plan for wildfire”.

One solution Mr Hope proposes is that, rather than each force individually spending money on improving its response, there should be funding for a deployable central specialised unit.

Mr Hope added: “The solutions are there. They are complex, but we all need to work together.

“By doing nothing, we risk losing everything.”

The BBC went to the Malvern Hills to see the kind of expertise being developed by rural fire crews working alongside landowners.

Duncan Bridges, chief executive for the Malvern Hills Trust, works with the Hereford and Worcester Fire Service to map where the local access points are, and to understand how wind and fire are likely to travel through a landscape.

As part of the trust’s wildlife management, the keepers also help to reduce the amount of combustible vegetation, by rolling back bracken and allowing livestock to graze the grass.

Mr Bridges says climate change means the prevention of wildfires is going to become “increasingly more critical”.

“There doesn’t seem to be any systematic approach across the whole country when it comes to dealing with landowners and land managers,” he says. “When dealing with fire prevention and fire safety, it’s more a case of each one doing it their own way.”

Defra has included wildfire in its national climate adaptation plan, and the Home Office pointed out a plan for England it had published last December outlined plans for “close co-ordination… to provide an effective response to wildfire incidents.”

It added: “The government is committed to ensuring fire services have the resources they need to keep us safe, including from wildfires, and, overall, fire and rescue authorities will receive £2.5bn in 2022/23.”

Source: BBC

A man and a woman have been arrested after a one-month-old baby died with critical injuries.

Officers were called to Helliers Road in Chard, Somerset, at about 23:30 BST on 16 July.

The injured child was taken to hospital and died on 23 July, police said.

A 35-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and was released on bail. A 24-year-old woman was arrested then released under investigation.

Det Ch Insp Simon Dewfall from Avon and Somerset Police said: “We’re carrying out a full and thorough investigation into this tragic incident, which will seek to determine how and why this baby has suffered these injuries.

“Specialist liaison officers are supporting the baby’s family during this incredibly difficult time.

“While we’re treating this as an isolated incident, we know this will be of significant concern to the local community.”

Source: BBC

Amazon is to raise the price of its Prime service for UK customers due to higher operating costs.

From September, monthly subscriptions will go up £1 to £8.99 and annual membership will rise from £79 to £95.

Amazon said the price rise, its first in the UK since 2014, was partly due to inflation, which is at a 40-year high.

Other services such as Netflix have also increased subscription prices, despite signs people are beginning to cut back on streaming services.

However, Amazon Prime offers more than just its streaming service. Prime also offer unlimited deliveries of products.

Amazon said the new pricing would begin from September, or at the customer’s next membership renewal date, adding that switching to an annual plan or cancellation of membership was also an option.

The move comes at a time when many households are looking to cut back on spending, with prices of goods rising at the fastest pace for 40 years.

Retail analyst Natalie Berg, who has written a book about how Amazon will shape the future of shopping, said the Prime price hike was “not really a surprise” after Amazon put up its prices for Prime in the US in February.

“It is an incredibly bold move to increase fees smack in the middle of the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation, but Amazon is indispensable to many shoppers and they [the company] know that,” she told the BBC.

“Amazon has become so deeply embedded in our daily lives that so many people will accept the hike.”

Earlier this year, a BBC-commissioned survey found people struggling with soaring energy bills and fuel prices were cutting back on food and car journeys to save money. More than half (56%) the 4,011 people asked had bought fewer groceries, and the same proportion had skipped meals.

Recent research has suggested that more people are cancelling video streaming subscriptions, such as Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime, due to the rising cost of living.

A total of 1.66 million services were dropped in the second quarter of 2022, market research firm Kantar said, with the under-24s age group most likely to cancel.

More than a third of cancellations were attributed to cutting costs, with the primary reason as “wanting to save money”.

It might only be an extra pound a month, but with everyone looking to tighten their budgets at the moment every pound counts, so here’s a few ideas on how to beat the rise.

Most people pay monthly for Amazon Prime, which means the price rise will kick in from mid-September. But if you’ve got the cash handy then you can save by paying for a full year’s subscription upfront before that point. That will lock you in at the lower price until 2023, and save you about £30.

It’s worth checking if you’re signed up to Prime even if you think you’re not, because it’s easy to click ‘join’ by mistake when making a purchase and get rolled into membership without realising.

Take a long hard look at your subscriptions. There’s no charge to cancel your monthly Prime membership and, after a lot of pressure, Amazon have made it easier to find and click through to that cancellation process. They should even refund you if you’ve only just paid for that month. If you decide to sign up again later you might even be able to get one month free when re-joining, which would save you that £8.99.

If you’ve a few different TV subscriptions, it’s worth thinking about rotating. Maybe your Christmas fix is on one provider but your summer love is with another – switch them so you’re only paying for one at a time. Binge-watch, then cancel your membership, and switch to another service rather than paying for each of them all year-round.

High competition in the streaming industry has led to competitive pricing and offers for customers.

But Netflix increased the price of its plans in 2021 and 2022. It recently announced it had lost almost a million subscribers between April and July, and it has now lost members for two quarters in a row.

However, Ms Berg added Amazon Prime could not be directly compared to Netflix and other streaming platforms due to brand’s main service being free shipping for products.

“Amazon has got a lot more stickiness because of the shopping element,” she said.

Amazon said it had invested billions of pounds in streaming content in recent years, with original series such as The Terminal List, as well as Clarkson’s Farm.

It has also moved into sports broadcasting, after successfully bidding for the rights to screen Tuesday night Champions League football matches from 2024.

Amazon already has the exclusive rights to 20 Premier League matches a season, including the entire round of matches on and around Boxing Day each year. And it has a five-year deal to exclusively broadcast the US Open tennis tournament in the UK.

Source: BBC

The Southern Co-Op chain is facing a legal challenge to its use of facial recognition technology to cut crime.

Big Brother Watch has complained to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) about biometric cameras at its shops.

The privacy campaign group says the system at the convenience stores breaches data protection and people may end up on a watch-list without knowing.

But Southern says it is only using the Facewatch system in shops with a history of crime, to protect its staff.

The co-operative runs 200 convenience stores across southern England, of which 35 have the system installed.

A single camera captures the faces of people who enter the shops, and the images are analysed and converted into biometric data.

This is then compared with a database of people the co-operative says have stolen from its shops, or been violent.

A spokeswoman said the watch-list was not a list of people with criminal convictions, but of people for which the business had evidence of criminal or anti-social behaviour.

Any shopper previously banned would be asked to leave, and others would be approached by staff with an offer of “how can I help?” to make it clear their presence had been detected.

Big Brother Watch has challenged the legality of the system in a submission to the ICO, shared with the BBC.

The group says the biometric scans are “Orwellian in the extreme”.

“The supermarket is adding customers to secret watch-lists with no due process, meaning shoppers can be spied on, blacklisted across multiple stores and denied food shopping despite being entirely innocent,” said Big Brother Watch’s director Silkie Carlo.

“This is a deeply unethical and a frankly chilling way for any business to behave.”

The complaint to the ICO claims the system breaches data protection laws because the information is processed in ways which are not proportionate to the need to prevent crime.

Big Brother Watch argues that facial recognition is “privacy-intrusive” in general, and “highly privacy-intrusive” for people whose details are on the watch-list.

This was not justified because the system was not necessary for preventing crime, it said.

“It does not bring serious criminals to justice… it does not protect the public from harm in any meaningful way,” the complaint says.

“At best, it displaces crime, empowering individual businesses to keep ‘undesirables’ out of their stores and move them elsewhere.”

The data produced from the facial recognition cameras is deleted after being compared with the watch-list, but the original picture is kept for 72 hours in case an individual subsequently breaks the law or is violent.

Southern Co-Op said it would welcome any “constructive feedback” from the Information Commissioner.

“We take our responsibilities around the use of facial recognition extremely seriously and work hard to balance our customers’ rights with the need to protect our colleagues and customers from unacceptable violence and abuse,” it said.

“The safety of our colleagues and customers is paramount and this technology has made a significant difference to this, in the limited number of high-risk locations where it is being used.

“Signage is on display in the relevant stores. As long as it continues to prevent violent attacks, then we believe its use is justified.”

The cameras are in use at Southern Co-Op shops in towns and cities including Portsmouth, Southampton, Bristol, Bournemouth, Hove, Croydon and Chichester.

Facewatch also provides the biometric cameras to Costcutter, Sports Direct, Spar, Nisa and Frasers Group.

The security system company said: “Facial recognition may be used where it is necessary because other methods to prevent crime, such as policing, CCTV and manned guarding, have tried and failed.

“Any privacy intrusion is minimal and proportionate. Facewatch is proven to be effective at crime prevention, and our clients experience a significant reduction in crime.”

Japanese police are turning to tranquiliser guns in an attempt to stem the tide of wild monkey attacks that have been terrorising residents.

In recent weeks, 42 people have been reported injured in Yamaguchi city – including children and the elderly.

The attacks are being blamed on Japanese macaques.

However, while they are a common sight in large parts of the country, incidents like these are unusual.

“It’s rare to see this many attacks in a short period of time,” said one city official, declining to give their name. “Initially only children and women were attacked. Recently elderly people and adult men have been targeted too.”

Attempts to capture the animals with traps ended in failure and police patrols implemented since the first attack in early July have failed to deter the culprits.

Authorities are also unsure if the assaults are the work of a single rogue monkey or several.

Injuries have varied, with local media reporting victims have received anything from scratches, bitten legs and hands, to bitten necks and stomachs.

Stories include a four-year-old girl scratched during an apartment break-in, while in another instance a monkey breached a kindergarten classroom.

Some residents have reported multiple incursions in their homes as the primates gain access by sliding screen doors or entering through open windows.

“I heard crying coming from the ground floor, so I hurried down,” one father told Japanese press. “Then I saw a monkey hunching over my child.”

Once a vulnerable species, Japanese macaque numbers have recently increased. They are now listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as a species of “Least Concern”.

However their recovery has “triggered serious conflicts between people and the macaques”, according to research from Yamagata University.

A decrease in distance between humans and macaques is blamed by the study. Shifting cultural attitudes towards macaques, changes in human behaviour and changes in forest environments are given as possible reasons why.

Source: BBC

Tunisia’s President Kais Saied has been celebrating his apparent victory in a referendum on a new constitution that gives him almost unlimited powers.

Mr Saied appeared in front of jubilant supporters after an exit poll indicated more than 90% of those who had voted had supported the president’s plan.

But turnout was only 27.5%, with main opposition parties boycotting the poll.

The president’s opponents say his changes would just entrench the personal powers he seized a year ago.

Mr Saied said turnout – announced by the country’s electoral commission – have been higher if voting had taken place over two days.

He promised that Tunisia would now enter a new phase after a decade of political deadlock. But his opponents will cite the low turnout as denying legitimacy to what they see as a worrying move back towards autocracy.

Tunisia became the birthplace of the Arab Spring when it overthrew its long-serving ruler Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in 2011.

The date of the referendum was chosen by President Saied to mark a year to the day since his dramatic move to suspend parliament and dismiss the government.

Since then, he has effectively ruled by decree.

The new constitution, which replaces one drafted in 2014 three years after the Arab Spring, would give the head of state full executive control, supreme command of the army and the ability to appoint a government without parliamentary approval.

Mr Saied has said it was needed to break a cycle of political paralysis and economic decay.

He said his reforms were being done in the spirit of the 2011 revolution and will ensure a better future.

“Our money and our wealth are enormous, and our will is even greater, to rebuild a new Tunisia and a new republic, one that breaks with the past,” the president said after voting on Monday morning.

His many critics say it could lead Tunisia back to dictatorship in all but name.

Although President Saied still has a core of support among Tunisians who believe the country needs a strong leader to address its problems, there seemed little enthusiasm for the referendum.

Source: BBC

Former US President Bill Clinton has paid tribute to former Northern Ireland first minister Lord Trimble, calling him a “leader of courage and vision”.

And former prime minister Sir Tony Blair said without David Trimble, the Good Friday Agreement would not have been possible.

Lord Trimble died on Monday aged 77. He was instrumental in the negotiation of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

This was the peace deal which ended the worst of Northern Ireland’s Troubles.

Lord Trimble led the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) between 1995 and 2005.

He won the Nobel Peace Prize, along with Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) leader John Hume and was the first person to serve in the role of first minister in the new Northern Ireland Executive established as part of the Good Friday Agreement.

Since 2006, Lord Trimble sat in the House of Lords.

In recent years, he was vocal in his opposition to the Northern Ireland Protocol – part of the 2019 Brexit deal that keeps Northern Ireland in the EU’s single market for goods, preventing a hard border with the Republic of Ireland.

Lord Trimble argued that it put the Good Friday Agreement at risk.

In a statement, President Clinton said he and his wife were “deeply saddened” by Lord Trimble’s death, saying his “lifetime of service helped bring peace to Northern Ireland”.

“Time after time during the negotiations that led to the Good Friday Agreement, he made the hard choices over the politically expedient ones because he believed future generations deserved to grow up free from violence and hatred.

“His faith in the democratic process allowed him to stand up to strong opposition in his own community, persuade them of the merits of compromise, and share power with his former adversaries. His legacy will endure in all who are living better lives because of him today.”

Sir Tony said Lord Trimble’s contribution to the peace process was “immense”.

“It was a masterclass in leadership,” he told BBC’s Radio Four’s Today programme. “He saw the chance of being able to settle the issue on terms that were acceptable to unionism.

“He was never in any doubt that he was going to be accused of betrayal. He paid the political price for that.”

Sir Tony said Lord Trimble’s vision for Northern Ireland was of “a Northern Ireland healed and brought together in peace”.

“Once he said he would do something, he did it, that was absolutely invaluable to the trust needed to make the process work.”

Former Taoiseach (Irish PM) Bertie Ahern, who led the Irish government at the Good Friday Agreement negotiations in 1998, said Lord Trimble was courageous and that although they had “many a row, many arguments”, they were able to laugh about that in later years.

“We got on very well. We had lots of one-to-one conversations,” he said.

“Of course we fought, of course we had differences and some of them were fiery. There’s no use saying they were not. But we always kept negotiating and dealing with the issues in front of us.

“The reality is, in his time as first minister, with the up and downs and suspensions in the institutions, he stuck with it.

“He made a great contribution.”

Mr Ahern said he had a long conversation with Lord Trimble just a few weeks ago at Queen’s University in Belfast.

“He knew what was coming, he was brave in that, as he was in everything else,” he told the BBC’s Good Morning Ulster programme.

Gerry Adams, the Sinn Féin leader at the time of the Belfast Agreement, said that although he and Lord Trimble had fundamentally different opinions, he always believed the then UUP leader was committed to the peace process.

“David’s contribution to the Good Friday Agreement and to the quarter century of relative peace that followed cannot be underestimated,” Mr Adams said.

Current UUP leader Doug Beattie described Lord Trimble as a “political giant”.

“David Trimble was a man of courage and vision. He chose to grasp the opportunity for peace when it presented itself and sought to end the decades of violence that blighted his beloved Northern Ireland,” Mr Beattie said.

“The bravery and courage he demonstrated whilst battling his recent illness was typical of the qualities he showed in his political career, at Stormont and at Westminster.”

Prime Minister Boris Johnson described Lord Trimble as “a giant of British and international politics”.

“[He] will be long remembered for his intellect, personal bravery and fierce determination to change politics for the better,” Mr Johnson added.

Current Taoiseach Micheál Martin said Lord Trimble played “a crucial and courageous role in bringing peace to Northern Ireland”.

Sinn Féin vice-president Michelle O’Neill said Lord Trimble’s courage in helping negotiate the agreement “leaves a legacy a quarter century on for which he and his family should be rightly proud”.

Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said the former first minister “made a huge contribution to Northern Ireland, and to political life in the United Kingdom” and was a “committed and passionate unionist who always wanted the best for Northern Ireland”.

Sir Jeffrey’s disagreements with Lord Trimble over the Good Friday Agreement led to him quitting the UUP in 2003 and defecting to the DUP.

“Whilst our political paths parted within the Ulster Unionist Party, there can be no doubting his bravery and determination in leadership at that time,” Sir Jeffrey added.

Lord Trimble’s political journey took him from a young hardliner in the 1970s to a unionist leader who compromised to help deliver an executive and assembly at Stormont where unionism and nationalism shared power.

He received much praise, including the Nobel Peace Prize with Mr Hume, for helping to bring to an end to decades of violence in Northern Ireland.

Former prime minister Sir John Major, said: “When David Trimble became leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, he made a critical contribution to the Northern Ireland peace process.

“He shed his former opposition to the process, and became an innovative advocate for a peaceful settlement.

“He thoroughly merits an honourable place amongst peacemakers.”

But Lord Trimble also came in for sustained criticism from others within political unionism for signing up to the Good Friday Agreement, particularly the DUP.

He was criticised for agreeing a deal which allowed Sinn F̩in Рthe political wing of the IRA Рto enter into the devolved government while the IRA had not decommissioned its weapons.

In 2005, he lost his House of Commons seat to a DUP challenger and went on to enter the House of Lords where he sat as a Conservative Party peer.

Alliance Party leader Naomi Long said the Good Friday Agreement was Lord Trimble’s greatest legacy.

“His contribution to the peace process and the ending of violence in our society helped secure his place in history,” she said.

Labour party leader Sir Keir Starmer described him as a “towering figure of Northern Ireland and British politics”.