Common infections will kill millions if drug resistance through misuse of antibiotics is not curbed, says England’s ex-chief medical officer
What is antimicrobial resistance and how big a problem is it?
The Covid-19 pandemic will “look minor” compared with what humanity faces from the growing number of superbugs resistant to current drugs, Prof Dame Sally Davies, England’s former chief medical officer, has warned.
Davies, who is now the UK’s special envoy on antimicrobial resistance (AMR), lost her goddaughter two years ago to an infection that could not be treated.
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05/13/2024 - 02:00
05/13/2024 - 01:00
Water campaigner Feargal Sharkey says newly designated sites will join ‘ignoble, floundering list of failure’
Twenty-seven new bathing sites will be designated in England ahead of this summer’s swimming season, the government has announced.
Giving waterways bathing status means the Environment Agency has to test them for pollution during the summer months, putting pressure on water companies to stop dumping sewage in them.
Church Cliff beach, Lyme Regis, Dorset
Coastguards beach, River Erme, Devon
Coniston boating centre, Coniston Water, Cumbria
Coniston Brown Howe, Coniston Water, Cumbria
Derwent Water at Crow Park, Keswick, Cumbria
Goring beach, Worthing, West Sussex
Littlehaven beach, Tyne and Wear
Manningtree beach, Essex
Monk Coniston, Coniston Water, Cumbria
River Avon at Fordingbridge, Hampshire
River Cam at Sheep’s Green, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire
River Dart estuary at Dittisham, Devon
River Dart estuary at Steamer Quay, Totnes, Devon
River Dart estuary at Stoke Gabriel, Devon
River Dart estuary at Warfleet, Dartmouth, Devon
River Frome at Farleigh Hungerford, Somerset
River Nidd at the Lido leisure park in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire
River Ribble at Edisford Bridge, Lancashire
River Severn at Ironbridge, Shropshire
River Severn at Shrewsbury, Shropshire
River Stour at Sudbury, Suffolk
River Teme at Ludlow, Shropshire
River Tone in French Weir Park, Taunton, Somerset
River Wharfe at Wetherby Riverside, High St, Wetherby, West Yorkshire
Rottingdean beach, Rottingdean, East Sussex
Wallingford beach, River Thames, Berkshire
Worthing Beach House, Worthing, West Sussex
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05/13/2024 - 01:00
Charity that challenged UK’s Rwanda policy helps create space designed to evoke happier memories of homelands
The healing power of horticulture for survivors of torture is to be celebrated at this year’s Chelsea flower show in a garden also promoting the work of a charity at the forefront of challenging the government’s Rwanda deportation plans.
The garden, one of the most politically themed yet to appear at the annual event, will be relocated afterwards so it can be used as part of the therapy work undertaken by the human rights charity Freedom from Torture (FFT).
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05/12/2024 - 23:00
Among world’s top 60 banks those in US are biggest fossil fuel financiers, while Barclays leads way in Europe
The world’s big banks have handed nearly $7tn (£5.6tn) in funding to the fossil fuel industry since the Paris agreement to limit carbon emissions, according to research.
In 2016, after talks in Paris, 196 countries signed an agreement to limit global heating as a result of carbon emissions to at most 2C above preindustrial levels, with an ideal limit of 1.5C to prevent the worst impacts of a drastically changed climate.
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05/12/2024 - 21:52
Animal lingered around a campsite at night, wildlife officers say – days before a 10-year-old boy was bitten
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A man is accused of killing a dingo with a speargun at a popular Queensland holiday spot.
Wildlife officers said the man had used the speargun after the dingo lingered around a camp site at night on K’gari, formerly known as Fraser Island.
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05/12/2024 - 06:00
H5N1 has been found in commercially available milk – but gaps in testing of cattle and humans are hampering effort to stop virus
Serious gaps in testing animals and people could be obscuring the true rate of avian influenza cases in the US and make it difficult to understand how the H5N1 virus is spreading – and how to stop it, experts say.
Facing reluctance from farms to test workers and animals, scientists are now turning to experimental studies to understand how H5N1, a highly pathogenic bird flu, is spreading through cows and on to other farms.
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05/11/2024 - 22:36
SES issues minor flood warnings for the Hawkesbury River at North Richmond and the Colo River
Aurora australis offers second chance of ‘bloody awesome’ southern lights display on Sunday
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Sydney’s Warragamba dam began spilling over for the second time in a month on Sunday after heavy downpours across New South Wales.
WaterNSW has confirmed the dam began spilling at 7.30am after widespread rain across the city’s catchments.
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05/11/2024 - 11:00
On her @brutalistplants Instagram page, Olivia Broome collects photographs that combine the angular shapes of raw concrete with the greenery of the natural world. “I really enjoy the aesthetic of eco-brutalism and tropical modernism,” she says. “I love mezzanines and ziggurats, and when you pair them with plants it softens them up. Brutalism can be this quite harsh, austere architecture style, but with nature involved, it balances it all out.” Now collected in a book, the images bring together buildings from across the globe, from Hong Kong to Sri Lanka, London to Mexico. “It’s a pleasant movement that people can get behind, especially in smaller spaces and modern cities – it’s nice to fill them with plants and nature.” • Brutalist Plants (Hoxton Mini Press, £20) will be published on Thursday
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05/11/2024 - 10:16
Top temperatures expected, but heavy rain to follow with weather warnings in place for week ahead
Britain will experience its hottest temperatures of the year on Sunday – before thunderstorms and heavy rain bring an end to the sunny conditions that the country has enjoyed over the past few days.
The Met Office forecasts temperatures will peak at around 27C before the wet weather arrives. Western areas, including parts of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, will be the first to encounter the storms.
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05/11/2024 - 10:08
Virus sent to high-security facility so that experts can examine the potential risks to people and livestock
Avian flu typically spreads by infecting wild birds and moving along migration routes, but the virus currently running rampant in the US is about to be transported across the Atlantic by plane.
This category A pathogen, which is now spreading among cows in the US, is being sent to a high-security laboratory in the UK so that experts can better understand the potential risks to people and livestock.
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