
UK to Fast-Track First New Reservoirs as Water-Supply Risks Loom
The move means central government has taken control of the planning process from local authorities for two reservoirs in East Anglia and Lincolnshire, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said Wednesday. The development is part of a broader plan to build nine new reservoirs to supply water to 1.5 million new homes in Britain by the end of the current parliament.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Fox News
2 minutes ago
- Fox News
The redistricting effort in California is more about whether or not the Constitution and fairness to the people will be maintained, says Rep. Darrell Issa
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., weighs in on Gov. Gavin Newsom's redistricting efforts and their fairness to Californians on 'The Story.'
Yahoo
32 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Germany to ease burden on electricity consumers from 2026
German electricity consumer prices are set to ease next year due to a €6.5 billion ($7.55 billion) government subsidy to finance transmission costs, sources in the Economics Ministry said on Thursday. The aim is to soften the impact of network charges on electricity consumers, the sources said, adding that the ministry has introduced a draft bill for internal government consultation. Structurally high electricity prices are a significant challenge for Germany's embattled economy and a burden on consumers. The subsidy is to be financed from a special government fund for climate and energy transformation. The subsidy for transmission network costs will now be implemented for the year 2026, with further relief in future years to be funded to the tune of €6.5 billion from the government pot, according to the ministerial sources. Details of how the relief will be passed on to consumers are still to be discussed by the conservative-led government coalition under Chancellor Friedrich Merz. The coalition agreement states that the goal is to permanently cap network charges. The reduction of network charges is part of a package of government measures. The Cabinet has already set plans in motion to relieve gas customers. Specifically, companies and consumers are to be exempted from the cost of building up gas reservoirs, the so-called gas storage levy. There are also proposals to make an electricity tax reduction for the manufacturing industry, agreed earlier this year, permanent from 2026. However, a reduction in electricity taxes for all, as pledged in the new government's coalition agreement, is not to come for now. The decision to limit the tax reduction to industry, due to budgetary constraints, sparked widespread criticism. Network charges, which help finance the costly expansion of electricity networks, have risen significantly as a component of the electricity price. The charges are incurred for the use of the electricity transmission network. They are then passed on to consumers by energy suppliers. The subsidy for transmission network costs is intended to dampen the increase in network charges related to the transition to green energy sources, according to the draft bill. "The relief must be passed on to customers through the network operators," Economic Affairs Minister Katherina Reiche told dpa last month of the planned measure. "My clear expectation of the industry is: The relief must reach the customer." Solve the daily Crossword


CBS News
35 minutes ago
- CBS News
Colorado student performance improving but far from goal, test scores show
More public school students are meeting grade-level expectations on the Colorado Measures of Academic Success. The state's CMAS and Scholastic Aptitude Test scores were released Thursday, and students are performing at or above pre-pandemic levels in most grades and subjects. The tests were administered in April. Still, fewer than half of public school students are meeting grade-level expectations set by the state and measured on the CMAS test. Achievement in math is nowhere near where educators want it to be - fewer than four in 10 fourth graders are meeting expectations in math, for example. But there have been solid gains after the state invested more heavily to provide math tutors and more tools to teachers to help kids catch up. "The fact that we've seen gains year over year, over year, at this point, I think it's a real indication that the focus, the legislation, the resources are really paying off," said Colorado Education Commissioner Susana Cordova. The results show that longstanding achievement gaps between student groups persist and remain too wide, according to Cordova. "How do we accelerate growth, particularly for the groups of students who are furthest from where they need to be? That improvement is not happening equally across the state, and it's a place we know that we need more support and we need to learn from the places that are doing the best work in that," said Cordova. For multilingual learners, students whose native language is not English, achievement was low across grades and subjects, with most students in the lower performance levels. Cordova said what was particularly concerning was that many new-to-country students whose first language is Spanish were also performing poorly on the Spanish test. She said cohorts of educators across districts will work together to tackle the challenge, to ensure these students have the right supports they need to be successful in school. "To be able to have a foundation in their first language, to be able to make that strong transition into English. I think it's an area we're going to continue to apply great focus on for our multilingual learners if we hope to see them perform at levels that we know they can," said Cordova. Another bright spot: SAT results for 11th-grade students improved in reading, writing, and math compared to last year, with more than 61% of 11th graders taking the SAT meeting reading and writing goals. The disaggregated results show that female students outperformed male students in English Language Arts, and males outperformed females in math. See complete results by school district, individual schools, and student groups online.