Essex residents 'looking forward' to opening of long-awaited new railway station
It's been in the pipeline for decades
Carly Rae Jepsen is married! Call Me Maybe singer ties the knot with music producer at iconic NYC hotel
Carly Rae Jepsen officially said 'I do' to music producer Cole M.G.N. during a romantic ceremony at the iconic Chelsea Hotel in New York City earlier this month.
Met Police launches massive new grooming gangs inquiry with 9,000 cases probed again after criticism of Sadiq Khan and UK's biggest force
The Mayor of London has repeatedly denied that his city was blighted by the kinds of child abuse seen in towns such as Rochdale and Rotherham.
Iceland Just Found Its First Mosquitoes
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNN: Iceland's frozen, inhospitable winters have long protected it from mosquitoes, but that may be changing. This week, scientists announced the discovery of three mosquitoes -- marking the country's first confirmed finding of these insects in the wild. Mosquitoes are found almost everywhere in the world, with the exception of Antarctica and, until very recently, Iceland, due to their extreme cold.
The mosquitoes were discovered by Bjorn Hjaltason in Kioafell, Kjos, in western Iceland about 20 miles north of the capital Reykjavik. "At dusk on October 16, I caught sight of a strange fly," Hjaltason posted in a Facebook group about insects, according to reports in the Icelandic media. "I immediately suspected what was going on and quickly collected the fly," he added.
He contacted Matthias Alfreosson, an entomologist at the Natural Science Institute of Iceland, who drove out to Hjaltason's house the next day. They captured three in total, two females and a male. Alfreosson identified them as mosquitoes from the Culiseta annulata species. A single mosquito from a different species was discovered many years ago on an airplane at the country's Keflavik International Airport, Alfreosson told CNN, but this "is the first record of mosquitoes occurring in the natural environment in Iceland." Further monitoring will be needed in the spring to see whether the species can survive the winter and "truly become established in Iceland," Alfreosson said. He said he's not sure climate change played a role in the discovery but "warming temperatures are likely to enhance the potential for other mosquito species to establish in Iceland, if they arrive."
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As Texas Power Demand Surges, Solar, Wind and Storage Carry the Load
Texas's electricity demand has surged to record highs in 2025 but renewable energy is meeting the challenge. According to new data from the Energy Information Administration, solar output has quadrupled since 2021, wind continues steady growth, and battery storage is increasingly stabilizing the grid during evening peaks. Electrek reports: ERCOT, which supplies power to about 90% of the state, saw demand jump 5% year-over-year to 372 terawatt hours (TWh) -- a 23% increase since 2021. No other major US grid has grown faster over the past year. [...] The biggest growth story in Texas power generation is solar. Utility-scale solar plants produced 45 TWh from January through September, up 50% from 2024 and nearly four times what they generated in 2021 (11 TWh). Wind power also continued to climb, producing 87 TWh through September -- a 4% increase from last year and 36% more than in 2021.
Together, wind and solar supplied 36% of ERCOT's total electricity over those nine months. Solar, in particular, has transformed Texas's daytime energy mix. From June to September, ERCOT solar farms generated an average of 24 gigawatts (GW) between noon and 1 pm -- double the midday output from 2023. That growth has pushed down natural gas use at midday from 50% of the mix in 2023 to 37% this year. The report notes that while natural gas is still Texas's dominant power source, it isn't growing like it used to. "Gas comprised 43% of ERCOT's generation mix during the first nine months of 2025, down from 47% in the first nine months of 2023 and 2024," reports Electrek.
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Primark's 'brilliant' winter PJs shoppers keep praising because of 'amazing' design
Shoppers thanked Primark for the PJ sets
Met chief Sir Mark Rowley goes to battle with the BBC over Panorama exposé of shamed police station - after fourth officer is sacked for misconduct
This month, the broadcaster released Panorama: Undercover in the Police which exposed racist and discriminatory comments and actions by officers at Charing Cross police station.
Sweden's Crowd-Forecasting Platform 'Glimt' Helps Ukraine Make Wartime Predictions
alternative_right shares a report from France 24: [Sweden's] latest contribution to the war effort is Glimt, an innovative project launched by the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI) earlier this year. Glimt is an open platform that relies on the theory of "crowd forecasting": a method of making predictions based on surveying a large and diverse group of people and taking an average. "Glimt" is a Swedish word for "a glimpse" or "a sudden insight." The theory posits that the average of all collected predictions produces correct results with "uncanny accuracy," according to the Glimt website. Such "collective intelligence" is used today for everything from election results to extreme weather events, Glimt said. [...]
Group forecasting allows for a broad collection of information while avoiding the cognitive bias that often characterizes intelligence services. Each forecaster collects and analyses the available information differently to reach the most probable scenario and can add a short comment to explain their reasoning. The platform also encourages discussion between members so they can compare arguments and alter their positions. Available in Swedish, French and English, the platform currently has 20,000 registered users; each question attracts an average of 500 forecasters. Their predictions are later sent to statistical algorithms that cross-reference data, particularly the relevance of the answers they provided. The most reliable users will have a stronger influence on the results; this reinforces the reliability of collective intelligence. "We used this method and research, and we suggested to the Ukrainians that it could improve their understanding of the world and its evolution," said Ivar Ekman, an analyst for the Swedish Defence Research Agency and program director for Glimt. "If you have a large group of people, you can achieve great accuracy in assessing future events. Research has shown that professional analysts don't necessarily have a better capacity in this domain than other people."
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Barristers win right to go without wigs in court after campaigners branded the hairpieces 'culturally insensitive'
Revised guidance from The Bar Council now allows lawyers to ditch their wigs for criminal cases if it is 'uncomfortable, or impractical'.
MICHAEL GOVE: Oxford is on its knees to every Left-wing god. No wonder students cheer the death of their political opponents
If the Boomers have failed, Gen X has been a disappointment and the millennials are missing in action, then the composition of our future elites matters.
Celebrity 'stunt casting' on London's West End stages comes under new spotlight after series of high-profile flops - with warnings the trend could 'kill' the industry
In the past few years, theatre performances starring Catherine Tate , David Threlfall and Hollywood veteran Sigourney Weaver have all struggled to wow critics.
Fourth Met officer at scandal police station sacked after being filmed boasting about how he 'whacked the s*** out' of a suspect
The undercover footage shows PC Jason Sinclair-Birt tell a colleague he 'whacked the s**t out of the back of his legs' while discussing the use of force on a detainee.
Will the King pay Andrew to leave Royal Lodge? Charles may have to compensate the disgraced ex-Duke of York to the tune of £500,000 to quit the 30-room Grade II listed mansion
Following a renewed public outcry over his living arrangements, the disgraced ex-Duke of York is in talks about quitting his 30-room Grade II listed mansion on the Windsor Estate.
Apple Begins Shipping American-Made AI Servers From Texas
Apple has begun shipping U.S.-made AI servers from a new factory in Houston, Texas -- part of its $600 billion investment in American manufacturing and supply chains. CNBC reports: Apple Chief Operating Officer Sabih Khan said on Thursday that the servers will power the company's Apple Intelligence and Private Cloud Compute services. Apple is using its own silicon in its Apple Intelligence servers. "Our teams have done an incredible job accelerating work to get the new Houston factory up and running ahead of schedule and we plan to continue expanding the facility to increase production next year," Khan said in a statement. The Houston factory is on track to create thousands of jobs, Apple said. The Apple servers were previously manufactured overseas.
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I'd known Diana for years... I do slightly feel Queen Elizabeth could have worked harder to find Charles a suitable wife, says LADY GLENCONNER, one of the late monarch's closest confidantes
As an intimate of the Royal Family, Lady Glenconner is the guardian of countless secrets.Now 93, she has written a new book that gives fascinating insights into the royals and the foibles of aristocracy…
The Louvre - where £76million worth of jewellery was stolen this week in a brazen seven-minute heist - symbolises the socialist rot at the heart of a once proud nation, writes GUY ADAMS
GUY ADAMS: On the Louvre's first floor, surrounded by marble pillars, gilded wooden panels and a vaulted ceiling, visitors this week came across the world's most ornate stable door.
BORIS JOHNSON: Labour's hold on Caerphilly crumbled like the eponymous cheese. It's proof voters have taken a long, hard look at our beleaguered PM and seen what a lawyerly, weaselly shapeshifter he is
What was that? The Labour party on 11 per cent? In Caerphilly? When you look at the scale of the Government's humiliation in this week's by-election, you rub your eyes in disbelief.
Starmer's leadership under fire after voters humiliate Labour in safe seat it held for 100 years
The Prime Minister's leadership was called into question after the disastrous result in Caerphilly, South Wales.
EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Might James Hewitt's new charitable chapter inspire Prince Andrew?
As Prince Andrew reflects on his threadbare reputation, he can seek inspiration from a fellow military man once nearly as reviled as he is today.
KEMI BADENOCH: The Chancellor is going after your money because she can't get a grip on spending
If you tax something, you get less of it. She taxed jobs, now more people are unemployed. She taxed education, now schools are closing down. And now it looks like she's coming after people's savings.