13 h. ago Experts issue surprising advice to save water as drought hits UK

The government has met with the National Group as drought representing "nationally significant incident"

Events

17 h. ago Iraq’s marshes were considered an Eden. Now the oil industry is sucking them dry

Hawizeh’s wetlands once had abundant fishing and wildlife. In a land threatened by drought and desertification, oil drilling is draining the last of the waterAt dawn, a veil of mist clings to the canals of Hawizeh, where sky and water seem to blur into a mirror. In the stern of a narrow wooden boat, 23-year-old Mustafa Hashim scans the marshes’ shallows, cutting the motor and switching to a traditional pole to avoid snagging on invasive roots or thickening mud.It takes him about half an hour to push through the shrinking marshes to reach Um al-Nea’aj, once a vibrant lake teeming with boats and birdsong. Now, the water is about half a metre deep. Continue reading...

Politics

17 h. ago ‘It’s destruction disguised as progress’: how the oil industry is sucking Iraq’s ancient wetlands dry

Hawizeh’s wetlands once had abundant fishing and wildlife. In a land threatened by drought and desertification, oil drilling is draining the last of the waterAt dawn, a veil of mist clings to the canals of Hawizeh, where sky and water seem to blur into a mirror. In the stern of a narrow wooden boat, 23-year-old Mustafa Hashim scans the marshes’ shallows, cutting the motor and switching to a traditional pole to avoid snagging on invasive roots or thickening mud.It takes him about half an hour to push through the shrinking marshes to reach Um al-Nea’aj, once a vibrant lake teeming with boats and birdsong. Now, the water is about half a metre deep. Continue reading...

Politics

33 h. ago Forget hosepipe bans! Now officials say we should delete old EMAILS to save water

They're the government body behind the dreaded hosepipe bans. But the Environment Agency have come up with another way to save water - by deleting old emails.

Politics

33 h. ago Delete your old emails to save water during drought, Environment Agency tells Britons

Emails and photos stored on the cloud are supported by large water and energy-demanding data centres

Politics

35 h. ago UK told to avoid hosepipe ban by 'deleting photos and emails' during heatwave

The National Drought Group is urging people to save water after confirming five areas of England are in drought, with six more in "prolonged dry weather" status as temperatures soar

Culture

5 d. ago The more James Gunn’s Superman is a hit, the more the right will want its own Dean Cain of steel

The star of 90s TV series Lois & Clark and wannabe Ice agent has expressed his horror at Gunn’s ‘woke’ hero. Is there a market for Superman: Border Patrol? It’s almost impossible to divide superheroes along political lines. Captain America might seem like a patriotic, commie-bashing lunatic, as he was in the 1950s comics during the McCarthy era, until you remember that he has also spent much of his fictional career telling corrupt government agencies to shove it. And, in the Marvel Comic Universe, at least, he went on the run rather than sign up for an authoritarian superhero registry. Superman was once the square-jawed poster boy for US exceptionalism, cheerfully posing on propaganda comic covers urging readers to buy war bonds, but he’s also been written as a Kansas farm boy so suspicious of concentrated power that in one storyline he renounced his citizenship to avoid being used as a pawn of US foreign policy.Bar a few outliers – Iron Man cheerleading the military-industrial ...

Events

7 d. ago Council bosses 'asked for emails to be deleted' after bullying claims against cafe owner

'They would be dangerous in the wrong hands as they could be used against you,' one manager is alleged to have said

Economics

7 d. ago We’re being deafened by digital noise. Pause it and you hear the sound of democracy in crisis | Rafael Behr

Politics is struggling to cope with the pace of technological change – and that is affecting every single one of usReturning from holiday, asked where I have been, I want to say “offline”. The more precise answer is France, where the internet is available. But I tried not to use it compulsively because there isn’t much point in getting away from it all if you carry it all with you on a phone and check it every few minutes.At some point in the past decade or so, the condition of vacation came to be defined more by detachment from the digital realm than departure from home. The break begins not in a departure lounge but with the act of logging off, setting the out-of-office email auto-reply, archiving work-related WhatsApp chats, deleting social media apps. Continue reading...

Events

7 d. ago Southern Water applies for permission to draw water from rare chalk stream

Environment secretary urged to stop drought order that could damage the ecology of River Test in HampshireSouthern Water has applied for a drought order that would allow it to draw larger quantities of water than usual from an internationally prized chalk stream and rare salmon habitat.The environment secretary, Steve Reed, has been urged to intervene and stop the water company from “significantly and potentially permanently damaging the river and the ecology within”. Continue reading...

Events

1 week ago Water regulator Ofwat to pour £75million of taxpayers' cash into telling households how to save water... while billions of litres wasted daily due to leaky pipes

The watchdog, which ministers have vowed to scrap, is set to launch the multi-million-pound advertising and information campaign to reduce water usage by homes and businesses.

Economics

4 w. ago Four areas of England now in drought as heat threatens wildlife and crops

Ministers call for hosepipe bans as East and West Midlands enter drought, joining Yorkshire and north-westFour areas of England are now in drought as the East and West Midlands have joined Yorkshire and the north-west.Continuing hot and dry weather was a hazard to crop production and wildlife, ministers said, as they urged water companies to put hosepipe bans in place to conserve water as levels deplete. Continue reading...

Events

4 w. ago Drought declared in the Midlands with more hosepipe bans on the way

Millions more expected to enter ‘drought’ status by September

Politics