Rain warnings are back in place in parts of the UK – kicking off four days of miserable weather as communities reel from the impact of Storm Babet.
The Met Office issued a yellow warning for downpours in Scotland and Northern Ireland from midday on Friday, including areas hit by flooding last week.
In Scotland, it covers Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Angus, Dundee, and Perth and Kinross.
It will last until at least 6pm on Saturday, and the Scottish Flood Forecast warned “significant flooding impacts” are likely across the next few days.
Heavy rain is set to fall on areas that already have high water levels and saturated ground due to Storm Babet.
Among the worst-hit areas braced for more rain is Brechin in Angus, where hundreds of homes had to be evacuated after the River South Esk burst its banks.
First Minister Humza Yousaf visited the town this week and pledged Scottish government funding, but warned: “It’s going to be a long road to recovery.”
Warnings in place for England and Northern Ireland
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A separate Met Office yellow warning also covers the east coast of Northern Ireland, including Ballycastle, Larne, Donaghadee, and Newcastle.
Come Saturday, another alert will extend to parts of southern and eastern England, with London, Kent, Sussex, and Essex all potentially experiencing disruption.
It is expected to remain until the end of Sunday, while the warning in Scotland will last into Monday – by then having extended south towards Stirling and Edinburgh.
The Met Office has said there is a small chance of power cuts to homes and businesses, as well as flooding, public transport disruption, and difficult driving conditions.
Sky News’s weather presenter Kirsty McCabe said low pressure would dominate this weekend, “bringing spells of strong winds and heavy rain that may exacerbate recent flooding and bring travel disruption”.
“Parts of eastern Scotland could get another 50 to 100mm of rain over the next few days, with as much as 150mm over the hills,” she added.
“This isn’t great news for those areas badly affected by Storm Babet last weekend, and there are still flood warnings in force.
“Elsewhere there will be heavy showers for eastern counties of Northern Ireland, southwest Wales and southeast England.
“Southern parts of England could have a very wet weekend as heavy and thundery showers merge into longer spells of rain along with gusty winds. This could prove particularly disruptive, with standing water and spray on some major roads.”
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Hundreds of homes submerged
Railways braced for more disruption
Ahead of the rain’s return, ScotRail has already suspended some services.
There will be no direct trains running between the Central Belt and Aberdeen and Inverness until Sunday.
LNER has warned of delays between Edinburgh and Newcastle, while TransPennine Express and CrossCountry are operating reduced timetables.
Network Rail Scotland warned: “More extremely heavy rain is on the way.
“It won’t be to the levels of Storm Babet, but it will affect the same areas with saturated ground.
Lucy Letby’s father threatened a hospital boss while the trust was examining claims that the neonatal nurse was attacking babies in her care, an inquiry has heard.
Tony Chambers, the former chief executive of the Countess of Chester Hospital, described how Mr Letby became very upset during a meeting about the allegations surrounding his daughter in December 2016.
Mr Chambers led the NHS trust where neonatal nurse Letby, who fatally attacked babies between June 2015 and June 2016, worked.
It was the following year in 2017 that the NHS trust alerted the police about the suspicions Letby had been deliberately harming babies on the unit.
“Her father was very angry, he was making threats that would have just made an already difficult situation even worse,” Mr Chambers told the Thirlwall Inquiry.
“He was threatening guns to my head and all sorts of things.”
Earlier, Mr Chambers apologised to the families of the victims of Letby, but said the failure to “identify what was happening” sooner was “not a personal” one.
He was questioned on how he and colleagues responded when senior doctors raised concerns about Letby, 34, who has been sentenced to 15 whole-life terms for seven murders and seven attempted murders.
Mr Chambers started his evidence by saying: “I just want to offer my heartfelt condolences to all of the families whose babies are at the heart of this inquiry.
“I can’t imagine the impact it has had on their lives.
“I am truly sorry for the pain that may have been prolonged by any decisions that I took in good faith.”
He was then pressed on how much personal responsibility he should take for failings at the trust that permitted Letby to carry on working after suspicions had been raised with him.
“I wholeheartedly accept that the operation of the Trust’s systems failed and there were opportunities missed to take earlier steps to identify what was happening,” he said.
“It was not a personal failing,” he added.
“I have reflected long and hard as to why the board was not aware of the unexplained increase in mortality.”
Mr Chambers also said he believed the hospital should have worked more closely with the families involved, saying “on reflection the communications with the families could have and should have been better”.
The Thirlwall Inquiry is examining events at the Countess of Chester Hospital, following the multiple convictions of Letby.
Earlier this week her former boss, Alison Kelly, told the inquiry she “didn’t get everything right” but had the “best intentions” in dealing with concerns about the baby killer.
Ms Kelly was director of nursing, as well as lead for children’s safeguarding, at Countess of Chester Hospital when Letby attacked the babies.
She was in charge when Letby was moved to admin duties in July 2016 after consultants said they were worried she might be harming babies.
However, police were not called until May 2017 – following hospital bosses commissioning several reviews into the increased mortality rate.
A £50,000 reward is being offered over the unsolved theft of a batch of early Scottish coins that were stolen 17 years ago.
More than 1,000 coins from the 12th and 13th centuries were taken from the home of Lord and Lady Stewartby in Broughton, near Peebles in the Scottish Borders, in June 2007.
The stolen haul spans a period of almost 150 years, from around 1136 when the first Scottish coins were minted during the reign of David I up to around 1280 and the reign of Alexander III.
The late Lord Stewartby entrusted the remainder of his collection to The Hunterian Museum at the University of Glasgow in 2017, but the missing coins have never been found.
Crimestoppers announced its maximum reward of £20,000 – which is available for three months until 27 February – in a fresh appeal on Wednesday. An anonymous donor is helping to boost the total reward amount to £50,000.
It is hoped it will prompt people to come forward with information which could lead to the recovery of the missing treasures and the conviction of those responsible for the crime.
Angela Parker, national manager at Crimestoppers Scotland, said Lord Stewartby’s haul was the “best collection of Scottish coins ever assembled by a private individual”.
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Jesper Ericsson, curator of numismatics at The Hunterian, described the medieval coins as smaller than a modern penny.
He added: “Portraits of kings and inscriptions may be worn down to almost nothing and the coins might be oddly shaped, perhaps even cut in half or quarters.
“You could fit 1,000 into a plastic takeaway container, so they don’t take up a lot of space. They may look unremarkable, but these coins are the earliest symbols of Scotland’s monetary independence.
“They are of truly significant national importance. Their safe return will not only benefit generations of scholars, researchers, students and visitors to come, but will also right a wrong that Lord Stewartby never got to see resolved before he died.”