King Charles and Camilla's state visit to the US continues as planned despite increased security measures following an incident involving Donald Trump. Simultaneously, a UK study reveals high levels of drug use, including ketamine and cocaine, detected in England's wastewater, with usage spiking during events like the Eurovision Song Contest and heatwaves.
. They adorn the roofs and balconies of many of the homes that sit along the main train route from the airport into the city.
These are a type of lightweight panel that can be plugged into the mains without an electrician, providing a cheaper and easier entry option for households interested in benefitting fromKing Charles’s US state visit has “all appropriate security measures” in place, Britain’s ambassador to the US has said following what the White House has called an attempted assassination of Donald Trump. Sir Christopher Turner said UK and US security teams had been planning the trip weeks before the incident.
While minor adjustments will be made to one or two royal engagements during the trip, the overall plan remains unchanged. The real point is that our respective security teams have been in close touch for weeks.
And any operational changes we have to make, we can make them as we go, and we are all very confident that all appropriate security measures are in placeCharles and Camilla will arrive in Washington today for a four-day visit aimed at marking the 250th anniversary of American independence and strengthening the special UK-US relationship, which has been under serious strain in recent months. The visit is the most important foreign trip of the King’s reign so far but now has the added element of increased security concerns.
The Imperial College London project also found particularly high levels of ketamine and cocaine use compared to elsewhere in Europe. Some of the highest rates occured on the night of the Eurovision Song Contest. The Home Office project, conducted by Imperial College London, tested levels of illegal drugs present in 1,700 samples from water treatment plants in England. The data indicates when more overdoses might happen and helps emergency services prepare better.
It will also inform public health messaging. More people take cocaine in heatwaves, but the safety risks are greater during hot weather.
The suspect, who has been named as Cole Tomas Allen, lies handcuffed on the floor after the shooting at the Washington Hilton hotel The suspect arrested in the White House correspondents’ dinner shooting on Saturday was identified by a law enforcement official as Cole Tomas Allen, a Los Angeles-area man who appears from social media sites to be a Caltech graduate working as a part-time teacher and game developer. The official said Allen, 31, is a resident of Torrance, California, a coastal town that is part of the South Bay area.
He graduated from Caltech University in 2017 with a degree in mechanical engineering. Students “thought he was on the nicer, quieter side”. Family home combed for evidence Allen’s sister said he often made radical comments. She said their parents were not aware he had bought two handguns and a shotgun, which he stored in their house.
Berlin resident Paul describes plug-in solar as a “gateway drug into the solar life”. He now pays just €12 per month on his electricity bill due to the system he has installed in his home. Paul and his wife Ute started by installing two plug-in solar panels on their garage roof in 2023, which he said saves him around €70 per month.
This is far more than most experts say can be saved with plug-in solar, which is less powerful than more traditional panels. The UK Government estimates a household can save up to £110 per year with plug-in.
Paul and Ute started by installing two plug-in solar panels on their garage roof in 2023, which they say saves them around €70 per month “I know the statistics say differently, but I’d like to emphasise we did take great care about what times we were using devices and things like that,” said Paul, a self-proclaimed “statistics nerd”.
“I think getting the solar panels made us look at how we were using ,” he said. “When the sun was at its highest point, we’d switch on the washing machine or set the timer…. I’ve got my own robot lawn mower so that was put to good use as well.
” The plug-in solar panels inspired Paul and Ute to invest in a larger system on the south side of their roof, which has now reduced their energy bills down to an average of just £10 a month.
“We store a lot more than we actually use during the day and we use that at night so for most of the year we’ve got free electricity and it’s only in the winter months that we actually pay our electricity bill,” he said. “It’s been great. It’s completely changed our life. I know that might sound strange, but we really didn’t think previously about how much electricity we were using until we got it.
”Plug-in solar is not new in Germany. For over 20 years people have been installing DIY-systems, according to Oliver Long, owner of Sonnenrepublik, which sells plug-in panels in Berlin. He said what started as a “guerrilla” movement has gained pace thanks to several law changes introduced by the German government. Roughly six years ago, changes to safety regulations meant plug-in solar systems with a maximum capacity of 600W could be installed in homes.
This capacity was increased to 800W in 2024. Also in 2024, the government introduced new rights for tenants and flat owners to make it significantly harder for landlords and building owners to refuse permission for solar installs.
Long said these changes have led to a steady increase in sales, but the biggest “boom” came in 2022 followingThe shop is currently noticing a “slight increase” following the US-Israeli war on Iran as Germans once again become worried about the impact of war on their bills. The UK is years behind Germany in changing its safety regulations to allow plug-in solar, but the Government has vowed to catch up quickly.
Ministers have captured the attention of the public by promising plug-in solar panels will be available in the middle aisle of Lidl by the summer, with several other retailers also now signed on. However, questions remain over whether plug-in solar will be as popular as in Germany, particularly given the fact that UK tenants and leaseholders do not have the same rights as Germans when it comes to installing solar on their home.
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