• TransPennine Express to be nationalised over ‘continuous cancellations’

    The government has decided not to renew the TransPennine contract from 28 May, after a quarter of the operator's services were cancelled in January and February and one in six trains did not run in March 2023.  The constant cancellations and delays have resulted in a considerable decline in confidence for passengers who rely on the trains to get to work, visit family and friends and go about their daily lives. The government's 'operator of last resort' (OLR) will now run the service, which covers Manchester and Liverpool in the North of England and runs to Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland. Although passengers will not see changes in timetables and ticket prices, the government's goal is to improve its performance, officials have said.  The decision was announced by Transport Secretary…

  • South of England facing ‘severe water stress’ by 2030, analysis finds

    According to home improvement company Kingfisher, which owns B&Q and Screwfix, the West Midlands, London, parts of the South West, the East Midlands, the East of England and the South East are all regions expected to be severely impacted, unless there are developments in water resilience in the near future. Regions in the South of England are expected to be the worst affected. By comparison, the North West, the North East and Yorkshire and the Humber will be less vulnerable to severe water stress. Despite government targets to reduce water usage in the home, consumption has risen by 2 per cent since 2017/18. According to a survey of 3,000 UK adults, Brits were found to “significantly underestimate” how much water they use per day, estimating that they use just 57 litres, compared to the…

  • Safety warning issued after live cabling found in wheelie bin

    UK Power Network (UKPN) said last year, between April 2022 and March 2023, more than 1,000 instances of interference were recorded across London, the East and South-East of England. That is triple the number recorded the previous year. Power workers are now finding unsafe sites on a regular basis, the distributor said. In one recent case, live cabling was found dumped in a wheelie bin, where it could kill someone. Other examples include finding live cabling hanging from a fence or tacked onto a piece of wood. The company has warned builders, demolition workers and homeowners to take care and call their network distributor if they want cables moved and a site survey will then be undertaken. UKPN electricity surveyor Chris Slattery attends properties where customers have requested alterations…

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  • Emirates announces $200m fund to cut fossil fuel usage in aviation

    The funds will be disbursed over three years and will see the airline identify partnerships with organisations working on solutions in advanced fuel and energy technologies. In January, Emirates flew a Boeing 777 with one of its engines powered entirely with sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) for the first time. SAFs are typically derived by combining jet fuel with alternatives such as biofuels or recycled oils from industrial food facilities. Currently, SAF is approved for use in all aircraft, but only in blends of up to 50 per cent with conventional jet fuel. Following the successful trial on one engine, Emirates said it wanted to continue to develop the initiative with engine airframe manufacturers. However, bio-based SAF, currently the only type of commercially available SAF, is extremely…

  • New electric ‘Slant’ on getting the shopping home given funding boost

    A team of innovation master’s students at the University of Bristol have developed a tap-to-rent electric trailer that can be attached to a bike or e-scooter. The e-trailer could help cut the estimated 4.5 billion car journeys made to and from supermarkets in England each year, as well as assisting the millions of car-less shoppers who must either use taxis or buses or walk home carrying heavy bags. Shoppers would merely unlock the trailer with a debit or credit card – much like renting a shared bicycle or e-scooter – before bringing their shopping home and leaving the trailer outside, whereafter a Slant (the name given to the e-trailer concept) employee would retrieve it and return it to the supermarket. The team behind Slant say the trailers would be “weightless” due to their electric…

  • Alps and Arctic microbes able to digest plastic at low temperatures

    The microbes have been found in regions with near-polar temperatures, such as the Alps and the Arctic.  Scientists were previously aware of other types of microorganisms that are able to digest plastic. However, when the enzymes that make this possible were applied at an industrial scale, they typically only work at temperatures above 30°C.  The higher temperatures meant that money and energy would need to be spent heating the organisms, which is costly and carbon-intensive.  In contrast, the newly-discovered microbes can digest plastic in temperatures as low as 15ºC. “Here we show that novel microbial taxa obtained from the ‘plastisphere’ of alpine and arctic soils were able to break down biodegradable plastics at 15°C,” said researcher Dr Joel Rüthi. “These organisms could help to reduce…

  • Book review: ‘Nuts and Bolts’ by Roma Agrawal

    The idea that small and simple things can be big and complex things in disguise is one that’s fascinated novelists for centuries. In Jane Austen’s world, for example, the merest of imagined slights can have the most far-reaching and dramatic of outcomes, leaving us wondering just how crucial the minutiae of manners can be in constructing a wider social context. It is this notion that forms the core of Roma Agrawal’s non-fictional examination of the engineering fundamentals behind the physical world we live in today. In ‘Nuts and Bolts’ (Hachette, £22, ISBN 9781529340075), Agrawal’s Seven Wonders of the Ancient World aren’t grand constructions, but the humble nail, wheel, spring, magnet, lens, string and pump. Perhaps not so humble after all. As frameworks for expressing the central ubiquity…

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  • Gadgets: Dyson Zone, Alexa Swan kettle, Reskube and more

    Dyson Zone Image credit: Dyson Dyson’s first audio product and first wearable. These are high-end, wireless, noise-cancelling headphones with a difference. A contact-free visor attaches to the front, delivering purified air to your nose and mouth. A cleaner commute with a love-it-or-loathe-it Daft Punk look. From £749.99 dyson.co.uk Read Caramel's full hands-on review. The Alexa Swan Kettle Image credit: Swan Use voice control to request a brew thanks to this, the first ever kettle with Alexa built in out of the box. You can tell the 1.5-litre 1800W kettle to boil, pick a temperature, ask it to keep warm, even set routines...

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  • National Grid hints Demand Flexibility Service could take on expanded role

    According to National Grid ESO, this would be enough to power nearly 10 million homes for an hour across Great Britain. In total, 1.6 million households and businesses signed up to participate in 22 service events across the winter, covering both live events to balance the electricity network and monthly test events to deliver savings for consumers and demonstrate how effective the system could be. In November, Ofgem approved the introduction of the DFS, which pays businesses and the public for reducing or moving their electricity use outside of peak hours. It ran until 31 March 2023, and meant that a typical household could save approximately £100 through the scheme while industrial and commercial businesses with larger energy usage could save multiples of this. Households participating…

  • FBI disrupts hacking network used by Russian spies

    The FBI has used a court order to cut off hackers' access to a network of US computers used to infiltrate diplomatic and military agencies of 50 Nato countries and allies for over 20 years. The FBI operation and US public advisories said it would now be “difficult or/and untenable” for Russia's domestic intelligence service (FSB) to effectively use it again.  The news is the latest on a series of actions taken by US authorities to crack down on foreign spying and criminal rings using custom-built FBI tools. "We assess this as being their premier espionage tool," one of the US officials told journalists. He said Washington hoped the operation would "eradicate it from the virtual battlefield." The malware, known as Snake, was said to have been designed by a notorious hacking group tracked…

  • Dated IT infrastructure leaves government department open to cyber risks

    The parliamentary group said the department has one of the “most significant” legacy IT challenges across government as it still uses a raft of outdated applications. “While Defra is making good progress in tackling its most urgent legacy systems it does not have a long-term strategy for its much-needed wider digital transformation,” the PAC warned. Defra systems are used by a wide range of customers and are critical to the country’s trade, disease prevention, flood protection, and air quality monitoring. But its customers are often forced to rely on paper forms or documents and IT systems that feel outdated and difficult to use. Defra and its organisations handle around 14 million transactions per year that still involve paper forms, which makes them inefficient and expensive. Furthermore…

  • Why everyone benefits from more gender-inclusive city design

    With over 55 per cent of the world’s population now residing in urban areas, and the numbers rising, designing equitable and inclusive cities should be our top priority. As designers and custodians of our built environment, it is our responsibility to ensure that cities and urban neighbourhoods feel safe, welcoming, and home to everyone. Progress has been made in recent years, but there is still a significant amount of work to do, not least in how we address the inequality in how city design affects women and girls. Historically, urban environments have not been designed to consider the specific challenges faced by women in society. For example, transit systems are overwhelmingly designed for both men and women, but are inadequate in supporting the travel patterns and needs of carers, who…

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  • King breaks ground for new Cambridge laboratory focused on net-zero aviation

    King Charles toured Cambridge University’s Whittle Laboratory, which has recently secured funding to develop a new £58m lab, where he spoke of his admiration for engineers. As he walked to perform the ceremonial breaking of the ground, where a lump of mud was already visible on the grass, he joked: “Don’t tell me it’s already been done? It’s very unfair. I was rather looking forward to doing a bit of gardening.” The King then sank the spade into the earth, using his foot to help lift a lump of turf out, before raising the spade aloft. He then jabbed the spade into the ground, leaving it standing, and walked to the stage where he gave a short speech expressing his “enormous admiration” for the work of the laboratory and unveiled a plaque to mark the occasion. The King had previously visited…

  • Briton pleads guilty to major 2020 celebrity Twitter hack

    Joseph James O’Connor, also known as PlugwalkJoe, has pleaded guilty in New York to participating in the hacking of over 130 Twitter accounts in July 2020.  O'Connor and his co-conspirators gained access to Twitter’s administrative tools, and used it to post tweets from high-profile accounts promoting a Bitcoin scan that urged people to send $1,000 in Bitcoin to receive double back. Joe Biden, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Kim Kardashian, Bill Gates, Kanye (Ye) West and Barack Obama were some of the people whose accounts were affected.  PlugwalkJoe was extradited from Spain in April and has now pleaded guilty to hacking, cyber stalking and money laundering. He will now have to return the stolen money and faces a potential prison sentence of 70 years.  O'Connor's co-conspirators have also been…

  • View from India: The US may be India’s largest trade partner

    A diversified economy, increasing foreign investments, trade, productivity gains and the growing consumption in the domestic market could be responsible for India’s growth. As an economy, India may be at a global vantage point. When we look at US-India investments, India has received around US$84bn in FY22 as FDI (foreign direct investment) across sectors. The US has been India’s second largest investor since FY21; India had received 811 industrial investment proposals to the tune of $43bn up to August 2022. In FY23, the US-India bilateral trade could reach $191bn; with this, the US may be India’s largest trade partner. Other factors unfold, like the recent US-India agreement. The US. has proposed a stronger US-India collaboration through iCET 2023. iCET 2023, the United States-India initiative…

  • Securing inactive oil and gas wells could cost the US $30bn, study finds

    The 14,000 inactive oil and gas wells in the US Gulf of Mexico region can still leak and harm marine ecosystems in the process. However, the cost of securing them could reach $30bn (£23.7bn), according to researchers at the University of California. The team collected data from the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement on the 82,000 wells drilled in the Gulf of Mexico. Although the majority of the wells have been secured, the researchers found evidence that more than 14,000 wells are still unplugged, despite having been inactive for at least five years - a point beyond which they are unlikely to restart production. Operators are legally required to plug wells once they are taken out of production, which usually involves a cement cap covered with sediment.  "The wells aren…

  • Canada’s e-waste triples in just two decades

    The University of Waterloo researchers completed the first comprehensive estimate of e-waste in Canada to understand its lifecycle, from sales of electronic items to e-waste generation. Their findings reveal that the e-waste generation per person has increased from 8.3kg in 2000 to 25.3kg in 2020. The e-waste in Canada is expected to continue rising in the near future and underscores the need for proactive forecasts to better manage the evolving electronics sector. “This study provides useful insights to policymakers for setting up targets for e-waste reduction and recycling to recover valuable resources from e-waste,” said researcher Komal Habib. “E-waste could also help to create a secondary supply chain of critical materials, reducing the risks of potential supply disruptions.” According…

  • View from Brussels: Ammo, ammo, ammo

    Ukraine’s defence against Russia’s ongoing invasion of its territory has managed to hold firm thanks to weapon deliveries organised by its Western allies. Tank deliveries were debated for a long time but have now started, while talks over aircraft supplies are heating up. Ammunition like bullets and rocket shells have also been provided from existing stockpiles. But those weapon caches are slowly but surely becoming depleted and European countries in particular need to start thinking about replacing them. That is where the EU comes in. Last week, the European Commission published an emergency act that aims to boost industrial production in the arms sector by unlocking new financing. According to the Act in Support of Ammunition Production (ASAP), 1 million artillery shells should be produced…

  • UK urged to stop ‘flip-flopping’ on industrial strategy

    The lack of a long-term industrial strategy puts the UK's manufacturing business at risk, the latest report from trade body Make UK has warned.  Make UK, which represents 20,000 manufacturers across the country, has called on the UK government to stop “flip flopping from one initiative to another” if it is to avoid falling behind international competitors.  The appeal highlights the growing frustration across the sector due to changing political priorities, which have led to the development of  six different plans for growth under five different business secretaries since 2012. Yet, the sector currently finds itself without an industrial strategy, as the last one was dropped by ministers in March 2021. “A lack of a proper, planned, industrial strategy is the UK’s Achilles heel,” said…

  • Railway sector warns Sunak that delays to proposed reforms risk investment

    The plea comes just two months after the Birmingham to Crewe leg of HS2 was delayed by two years as part of efforts to reduce costs for the over-budget project. In a letter addressed to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, over 60 rail business leaders urged him not to delay the proposed rail reform plans too. In May 2021, the government announced its plans for the biggest reform to the railway in three decades through the publication of the Plan for Rail. It includes a proposal to create Great British Railways (GBR) – a planned state-owned public body that will oversee rail transport in Great Britain. It will replace Network Rail as the operator of rail infrastructure across all of Great Britain. With the exception of services wholly within Scotland and Wales, it will also control the contracting…

  • European carmakers face dire profit warning due to China’s EV dominance

    According to insurers Allianz Trade, China’s decision to invest heavily in EV production over the last 15 years has made it the global leader in this sector. In the late 2000s, Chinese authorities recognised the potential that EVs had to address critical domestic issues such as air pollution and energy security. In 2022, Chinese manufacturers sold over twice as many EVs as their European and US counterparts combined, while also holding a competitive edge in nearly all aspects of the EV value chain. Chinese brands have seen their global market shares climb from less than 40 per cent in 2020 to close to 50 per cent in 2022. This is heavily bolstered by an 80 per cent market share in their densely-populated home country. At the same time, three of Europe’s best selling EVs were Chinese imports…

  • LinkedIn cuts 700 jobs and exits China in the latest round of tech layoffs

    LinkedIn has announced that it plans to cut 716 jobs and phase out its activities in China, in response to slowing revenue growth and changing customer behaviour. The company's chief executive Ryan Roslansky delivered the news in a letter to staff published on Monday. He explained the layoffs as part of a plan aimed at responding to economic conditions and making the business more agile. “In an evolving market, we must continuously have the conviction to adapt our strategy in order to make our vision a reality,” Roslansky said. He added that the changes would actually result in the creation of 250 new jobs, for which LinkedIn employees affected by the cuts in the company's sales, operations and support teams would be eligible to apply. At the moment, LinkedIn has around 20,000 employees…

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  • Air pollutants from US fossil fuel extraction kills 7,500 annually, study finds

    Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the US oil and gas sector has boosted exports to the point where the US is at the top of the world’s energy-exporting nations. A study led by Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) has been looking into what this expansion in production means for air quality and human health. While there is extensive research on the climate effects of methane produced by the sector - a key contributor to air pollution - few studies have measured the health effects of the air pollution that oil and gas activity generates. The new findings estimate that the pollutants nitrogen oxide (NO2), fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and ozone (O3) from US oil and gas production contributed to 7,500 excess deaths, 410,000 asthma attacks and 2,200 new cases of childhood…

  • Vietnam’s production of rare earth materials soared in 2022

    Vietnam has boosted its mining of rare earth materials as companies around the world look to divest from Chinese materials.  The Southeast Asian country has the world's second-largest estimated deposits of rare earths,  a group of 17 elements   that are crucial for making a range of electronic products, from m agnets, glass screens and speakers to trains, mobile phones and   missile guidance systems. At the moment, around 98 per cent of the rare earth materials used in the European Union are imported from China. From 2008 to 2018, China exported nearly  408,000 metric tons of rare earths, which amounted to 42.3 per cent of all rare earth exports over that period.  Vietnam's rare earth mine production jumped to 4,300 tonnes last year from 400 tonnes in 2021, according to the United States…

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