Access improvements to canal praised by local Senedd member
A member of the Senedd for Monmouth has praised recent improvements to a canal.
Peter Fox has specifically highlighted the access improvements to the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal at Gilwern.
The improvements will allow visitors to have better access over the summer period.
There have also been upgrades to the picnic area, making it accessible for wheelchair users.
The improvements are part of the 225th anniversary of the canal.
The canal has been previously highlighted in the news due to concerns over its sustainability, following restrictions on water abstraction from the River Usk.
The resource was recently granted an emergency short-term water supply to prevent it from running dry.
Mr Fox, a keen advocate for the canal, said: "Any project to improve access is a good news story.
"With these works being completed, and us hopefully now seeing an influx of visitors over the summer months, it's more important than ever that a long-term solution is found in supplying the canal with water."
He also announced his intent to continue discussions with the Welsh Government, the Canal and River Trust, and other stakeholders to secure the canal's future through a sustainable long-term water supply solution.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
10 hours ago
- USA Today
In win for Trump, Supreme Court lets DOGE access Social Security data
In win for Trump, Supreme Court lets DOGE access Social Security data Show Caption Hide Caption DOGE sets sights on cutting waste from Social Security Administration Social security is the latest target of the Department of Government Efficiency's push to significantly cut down government spending. Fox - 32 Chicago WASHINGTON – A divided Supreme Court on June 6 said Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency can access to the data of millions of Americans kept by the U.S. Social Security Administration. The court paused a judge's order blocking DOGE from getting the data, which include s Social Security numbers, medical and mental health information, tax return information and citizenship records. The court's three liberal justices − Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson − disagreed with that decision. "The Government wants to give DOGE unfettered access to this personal, non-anonymized information right now —before the courts have time to assess whether DOGE's access is lawful," Jackson wrote in a dissent joined by Sotomayor. In March, U.S. District Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander of Maryland said DOGE was intruding on "the personal affairs of millions of Americans" in a fishing expedition that's based on little more than suspicion.' Hollander limited DOGE's access to the information while the courts assess the legality of the Trump administration's actions. The administration argued the judge overstepped, viewing DOGE staffers as the equivalent of intruders breaking into hotel rooms rather than as employees trying to modernize the agency's technology and root out waste – as DOGE officials said they intended to do. 'District courts should not be able to wield the Privacy Act to substitute their own view of the government's 'needs' for that of the President and agency heads,' Solicitor General John Sauer told the Supreme Court in an emergency appeal. DOGE has sought access to multiple agencies as part of its mission to hunt for wasteful spending and dramatically overhaul the federal government. Musk has falsely claimed that millions of Americans who are deceased are still receiving Social Security checks. Two labor unions and an advocacy group sued the SSA after DOGE began digging into personal data. They told the Supreme Court justices they shouldn't intervene because the administration hadn't shown an emergency need to access data beyond what the district judge allowed. In addition to overseeing Social Security benefits for retirees and disabled people, the Social Security Administration helps administer programs run by other agencies, including Medicare and Medicaid. A divided federal appeals court on April 30 rejected the Trump administration's request to block the district judge's order. U.S. Circuit Judge Robert King of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Richmond, Virginia, said the government hadn't shown a need for unfettered access to the highly sensitive personal information that the American people had every reason to believe would be 'fiercely protected.' DOGE's mission can be largely accomplished through anonymized and redacted data, which is the usual way the agency has handled technology upgrades and fraud detection, he wrote.
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- Yahoo
‘Fox & Friends' Host Freaks Out About Musk's ‘Crazy' Trump War: ‘What Are You Doing?!'
Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade struggled to comprehend just how badly President Donald Trump and Elon Musk's bubbling feud dramatically escalated during Thursday's back-and-forth. 'The Epstein file thing was way over the top and just crazy—to say that Trump was in the Epstein files. I mean, what are you doing?' Kilmeade said Friday morning. 'Sometimes when people get drunk, they do crazy things. But this is a total escalation.' The simmering tensions between Trump and Musk reached a very public boiling point as the pair exchanged a series of threats and attacks on social media. This included Trump saying Musk went 'crazy' over his plan to remove an electric vehicle (EV) mandate from his One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and suggesting the 'easiest way to save' billions of dollars from the budget would be to terminate the government subsidies that Musk's tech companies receive. Musk retaliated in a series of posts on X, including claiming, 'Without me, Trump would have lost the election,' and reposting calls for the president to be impeached and replaced with JD Vance. Musk also suggested Trump's sweeping tariffs will cause the U.S. to fall into a recession before dropping the 'really big bomb' that escalated the feud even further. 'Trump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public,' Musk wrote. Jeffrey Epstein, the billionaire financier, died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting federal sex-trafficking charges. He was known for having a series of high-profile friends, such as former President Bill Clinton and Britain's Prince Andrew. Epstein and Trump were at the very least acquaintances, with the pair sometimes hanging out together at the president's Mar-a-Lago resort in the 1990s. In a 2002 interview with New York magazine, Trump praised Epstein as a 'terrific guy' he had known for 15 years. 'He's a lot of fun to be with,' Trump said. 'It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.' The Justice Department has vowed to release files related to Epstein. So far, Attorney General Pam Bondi has only authorized the release of documents 'previously leaked but never released in a formal capacity' by the government in February. There is no evidence Trump was connected to or aware of Epstein's crimes, with the pair said to have fallen out over a Palm Beach real estate deal in 2004. Discussing the bust-up between Trump and Musk, Kilmeade suggested that the tech billionaire's opposition to Trump's mega bill shows he doesn't know how to achieve compromise in politics. 'He doesn't understand that Donald Trump has to make [Republican Congressman] Mike Lawler happy in New York, and he's got to make every conservative congressman in Texas happy,' Kilmeade said. 'He's got to conduct an orchestra where the bassoon is having a fight with the oboe and the trumpets don't like the saxophone. All Trump has to do is get the song done. And what Musk does is say, 'If I don't agree with the saxophone and the oboe, I don't want to play.''
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- Yahoo
To cope with Trump and Musk's feud, MAGA world turns to weird man talk
As the conservative media ecosystem tries to cope with the fallout from an apparent feud between Donald Trump and Elon Musk — over the GOP's budget bill — some right-wing influencers are trying to spin the spat as nothing more than two macho men in a benign sparring match. You may not think that two grown men — arguably, the most powerful in the world — hurling meme-ified insults, threats and accusations at each another is an acceptable or respectable portrayal of masculine vigor — akin to Ali-Frazier or two ferocious bulls locking horns. But many in MAGA world, an ecosystem known for trafficking in toxic masculinity, are trying to convince their followers otherwise. 'Sometimes guys fight. Guys sometimes will punch you in the face, and the next night you're having a beer. Sleep with your girlfriend, and you patch things up,' Fox News host Jesse Watters argued Thursday night. Fellow Fox host Sean Hannity compared the barrage of insults to his bygone athletic days growing up, saying 'there wasn't a single day that we played hockey or basketball, football or baseball — whatever we were playing — where we didn't fight. And then we'd fight, then we'd become friends again.' He also described Musk and Trump as two 'very strong-willed heavyweights' — as if what we're talking about here is prize fighters, not petulant and unstable men. Fellow MAGA influencers, including conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec and right-wing troll Joey Mannarino, chimed in with their own bizarrely anatomical rationales, with Posobiec saying the spat was a model demonstration of direct — or 'phallocentric'— communication and Mannarino saying this is simply 'how men with testicles spar.' Right-wingers love to accuse liberals of teaching what they portray as toxic or extreme 'gender ideology,' which is basically their summation for the idea that trans people exist and deserve rights. Meanwhile, many of the loudest voices in MAGA world are out here telling the world that mercurial outbursts, including threats and juvenile insults, are a staple of manhood. Americans ought to keep this contradiction in mind as conservatives try to impose their warped view of gender on the nation. Thus far, the responses out of MAGA world to the apparent divide between two of their most beloved political figures have ranged from the hypermasculine denial laid out here to abject sadness. And while it's unclear what, if anything, this spat will mean for Americans, or the passage of a Republican bill seeking deep cuts to federal programs, it is clear that conservative influencers aren't enjoying watching all this drama play out in public. This article was originally published on
