This year’s climate phenomenon, forecast to be the strongest in living memory, could threaten weakened trees and flood gardens, experts say.
But there are a number of ways that gardeners can mitigate the effects of the stormy conditions.
Four charged with murder after baby fatally stabbed
Two men and two women have been charged with murder after a baby girl was found stabbed to death at a house in Sheffield.
What you need to know
- Police were called to the home in the Wincobank area of Sheffield on Sunday morning after reports of concern for the safety of newborn girl.
- After a search of the property, officers found the body of the infant. A post-mortem examination found the baby had died as a result of stab wounds.
- Andrea Skopova, 20, Peter Horvath, 19, Peter Horvath, 38, and Nina Horvathova, 37, were each charged with three offences, including murder, on Tuesday. They are due to appear in court.
Teenager accused of related offence
The Crown Prosecution Service said a 15-year-old girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had also been charged with an allegation of perverting the course of justice in connection with the incident.
South Yorkshire Police said it was dealing with an “intricate investigation”. Commenting on the charges, Detective Chief Inspector Tom Woodward said: “This is a significant step in our investigation into the tragic circumstances that resulted in the death of this baby girl.”
How the triple lock could be replaced
The state pension triple lock, which pegs payments to the highest of three economic measures, “has to stop” and should be replaced by a link to average earnings, a leading economist has warned.
What you need to know
- First introduced in 2015, the triple lock increases the state pension annually by whichever is the highest of inflation, wage increases or 2.5 per cent and will cost £15.5bn per annum by 2030.
- Paul Johnson, the former head of the Institute for Fiscal Studies think-tank, warns that the policy will “take up the whole economy” if left unreformed.
- Johnson is suggesting the state pension be set as a fraction of average full-time earnings, with 33 per cent considered to be “about right”.
How would an average earnings link work
The new state pension currently sits at about 30 per cent of median full-time earnings (£39,039). A target figure for the pension as a fraction of wages – say 33 per cent – could become the benchmark for all future payments.
The system, known as a “smoothed earnings link”, would allow the pension to go up in line with inflation when it rises faster than earnings. But in other years it would remain pegged to wages, saving £650m in 2029-30.
Iran attacks US bases in the Middle East
The Iranian regime launched attacks on US military assets in Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain and Iraq overnight fuelling concerns about a wider resumption of hostilities.
Everything you need to know
Iranian counter-strikes
A US Marines training camp in Jordan was targeted. No deaths or injuries were reported.
Tehran claimed it had struck US warehouses in Iraqi Kurdistan. In Kuwait, the military said it had responded to Iranian missile attacks.
US resumes attacks
The Iranian assault follows American strikes in the Strait of Hormuz after a calm in hostilities.
Alleged attack on wedding
Tehran said it was responding to US strikes on its territory on Tuesday. The Iranian Red Crescent said five people, including a child, had been killed when shrapnel from an American missile hit a wedding celebration.
3 min read
Pentagon denies targeting civilians
The latest exchange of fire between the US and Iran represents a distinct escalation in a conflict which had gone into a lull for several weeks. American strikes early on Monday have led to a series of attacks.
The US military said it was aware of reports that five people were killed and more than 50 injured in a missile strike in Sirik, which sits on the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian sources said the victims were attending a wedding celebration. But the Pentagon said it “never targets civilians, unlike the IRGC”.
Trump’s military is at breaking point – he’ll pay for it at the ballot box
The attack by US drones on Iran’s Larak Island reveals that Donald Trump’s mission control, like Houston and Apollo 13, has a major problem.
The test that can spot nine in 10 bladder cancers
An at-home urine test being trialled by the NHS can detect 92 per cent of bladder cancer cases, potentially reducing the need for patients to face more urgent and invasive procedures.
A study of 1,000 patients led by the University of Birmingham found a in the simple test meant there was a more than 99 per cent chance that a patient did not have bladder cancer.
Everything you need to know
- Around 11,000 cases of bladder cancer are diagnosed in the UK each year. It is more common in men and 60 per cent of cases are in those aged 75 and over.
- The new test looks for genetic material – caused by more than 450 DNA mutations – shed into the urine by bladder cancer.
- A wider trial will establish whether the test is sufficient to rule out further procedures for negative results – and can help identify patients at greater risk of disease.
More convenience for patients
Researchers hope the test, developed with funding from Cancer Research UK, could reduce the number of patients needing cystoscopies – an invasive procedure which involves inserting a small camera into the bladder via the urethra.
Some 300,000 cystoscopies are carried out each year but there are lengthy waiting lists in some areas. By potentially ruling out cancer in tens of thousands of cases, it is hoped the new test could help doctors prioritise those in urgent need.
‘I’ve already seen trees crash down’
While El Niño’s effect on the UK is less clear due to its distance from the Pacific, the Met Office has forecast a higher chance of wetter, stormier conditions in the UK and northwestern Europe in the autumn and early winter. Exact timings are not yet clear.
Ross Cameron, professor of environmental horticulture at the University of Sheffield, said that trees are particularly at risk from the weather event.
“Trees will have been weakened by the summer drought. I’ve already seen a couple crash down”, he said.
Cameron explained that the heat has in some cases caused cavitation in branches – where the water column inside a tree’s water-transporting tissues breaks, creating an air bubble that blocks water flow – “so you get the occasional branch collapsing”.
“When you add in stronger winds, then you might see a bow coming down.”
Kevin Martin, head of tree collections at Kew Gardens, told that trees had become less flexible and more brittle due to the extreme heat.
What to do
“From a gardener’s perspective, if you’ve got a big tree, keep an eye on it and if you’re worried, get an inspection done,” Cameron added. “With smaller tree species, just make sure there’s not a lot of dead weight in the crown of the tree, in case we start experiencing hurricane-like sort of winds.”
Depending on when the stormy weather hits, El Niño could also cause flash flooding due to rain running over the surface of hard, dry soil with not enough getting absorbed.
“Most plants do all right in winter flooding because they’ve kind of gone dormant anyway,” Cameron said. “But with even the winter plants, if the roots are in water for three or four weeks, then you can see further weakening. You can also get pests and diseases coming in in the spring.”
Cameron advised gardeners to move their Mediterranean plants inside and make sure their drains are clear. He also warned people to pack away their patio furniture if the wind starts to really pick up, “before it starts flying around.”
Alistair Griffiths, the Royal Horticultural Society’s director of science, said: “The solution is to select the right plants in the right places, for the right purposes. In the UK we cannot simply replace everything with drought-tolerant Mediterranean species as our gardens will also need to withstand much wetter and colder periods.”
Early autumn
Cameron said that this could actually help with protecting trees.
“If we get the leaves falling off before the storms come, that’s fine, but if they’re still hanging on to a lot of weight, it’s basically like a sailing ship,” he said.
“And if you’ve got a weak root system because of the drought, then you are talking about a fairly top-heavy object in your garden.”
“It really depends on when we experience the storms,” he added.
Why this El Niño will be ‘unprecedented’
El Niño is declared when sea temperatures in the tropical eastern Pacific rise to at least 0.5°C above the long-term average.
This year, they are forecast to increase by more than 3°C according to the Met Office, leading to it being dubbed a “super” or “Godzilla” El Niño.
“We should be clear that this is an unprecedented event”, said Professor Adam Scaife, the Met Office’s head of long-range forecasting. “I have never seen an El Niño signal this intense in our forecasts.”