Storm Herminia: Fresh weather warnings for wind and rain issued after weekend of battering from Storm Eowyn
Fresh weather warnings for heavy rain and wind have been issued for parts of England and Wales by the Met Office after a weekend of battering by Storm Eowyn.
Following miserable weekend weather which saw record wind speeds of 114mph as Storm Eowyn swept through the UK, new warnings have been put in place as the low pressure that caused Spanish-named Storm Herminia arrives.
A warning for periods of heavy rain that could cause some flooding of roads and properties was in place for most of Wales and some of the West Midlands until 9pm on Tuesday, with the Met Office predicting 20mm to 40mm to fall quite widely and 50mm to 60mm on higher ground.
A yellow warning for rain was also in place in London as well as the southeast and southwest of England until 10am Tuesday.
All the current warnings. Pic: Met Office
A yellow wind warning is in place for the east of England, London and the southeast, the southwest of England and Wales until 6am Tuesday.
A major incident has been declared in Somerset due to overnight flooding, with residents in the worst-hit areas being evacuated from their homes.
More than 50 flood warnings are in place for England and two in Scotland as the country recovers from Storm Eowyn.
In the coming days, much of the week will see rain in various parts of the UK.
Sky weather producer Chris England said: “Looking further ahead, it will be very windy again tomorrow in the south with widespread heavy showers, some prolonged, and a risk of hail and thunder.
“On Wednesday, it will be calmer with showers in the north, mainly near north-facing coasts, with the possibility of rain in the Channel brushing the far south of England.
“Thursday will be mostly fine, but rain will move across Ireland and Northern Ireland into the northwest later, and this could be heavy over western Scotland for a time overnight.
“Then, on Friday, one band of mostly light rain will clear the southeast across England by early afternoon, with more rain moving into the northwest overnight.”
It comes after Storm Eowyn wreaked havoc in different parts of the UK and Ireland, with the Met Office issuing a swathe of red warnings as record wind speeds were recorded.
Damage to a partially collapsed building that was undergoing repairs before being damaged during Storm Eowyn in Hale, Greater Manchester. Pic: Reuters
Hundreds of thousands lost power after Storm Eowyn hit on Friday, bringing hurricane-force winds to parts of Ireland and the UK.
Around 65,000 homes and businesses remained without power in Northern Ireland, 278,000 in Ireland and 8,000 in Scotland following Storm Eowyn, as at 11.30am. Hundreds of thousands have been reconnected.
Ten schools in Northern Ireland remain closed on Monday due to storm damage, with around 80 schools still without power.
There was ongoing travel disruption due to the high winds, with Network Rail working on repairs and reopening lines when safe to do so, after train operator ScotRail reported it had received reports of 500 incidents across its network and more than 120 trees falling on to tracks.
Two men aged 19 and 20 died in two separate incidents relating to Storm Eowyn.
The 19-year-old died after his car was struck by a falling tree in Mauchline, East Ayrshire, on Friday morning,
Kacper Dudek, 20, died in County Donegal, Ireland, on Friday morning when a tree fell on his car.
While not as powerful as Storm Eowyn, Storm Herminia was named by meteorologists in Spain as it formed in the north Atlantic. It was expected to bring strong winds as it headed toward the UK.
Chris England said that while it is a storm, it is unlikely that it would have been a named storm in the UK as it’s effects won’t be felt as strongly as they will in Spain and France.
He added: “That doesn’t mean it won’t have impacts here, especially with structural weakening following Eowyn.”
The family of a father shot dead in a suspected case of mistaken identity in north London have said he “deserves justice” as they appealed for information.
Mahad Abdi Mohamed, 27, died from a gunshot wound to the head in hospital after he was hit with bullets fired from a stolen Mitsubishi Outlander, which was later found burnt out.
Detectives believe those responsible for his murder had set out to hurt someone else in a “pre-meditated and targeted attack” in Waverley Road, Tottenham, at 8.45pm on Thursday 20 March.
Mr Abdi Mohamed’s younger sister, Amal Abdi Mohamed, 23, said he was a “loving father” to his five-year-old son, who “looked up to him like a superhero”, and was planning to get married in the summer.
Mahad Abdi Mohamed with his sister, Amal Abdi Mohamed. Pic: Met Police
“He was taken away from us through gun violence,” she said.
“A bullet didn’t just take his life, it tore through our family, through our heart, and it’s truly shocking, it’s devastating, and it’s so senseless, because this type of violence should never be normal.
“It should never be something a family ever has to expect, prepare for, or live with.”
Mr Abdi’s 26-year-old friend, with whom he had been breaking his Ramadan fast, was also shot in the leg and was treated in hospital for a wound police said was not life-changing.
The Metropolitan Police arrested four men on suspicion of murder, who have been released on bail pending further investigations.
Detectives are appealing for witnesses who saw a silver Mitsubishi Outlander in the area, which was found burnt out in Runcorn Close, the following morning.
A Mitsubishi was found burnt out the following day. Pic: Met Police
“This tragic event and Mahad’s death, has had a profound impact on the community and all those who loved him. Someone out there knows what happened. And that person, or people, must come forward,” said Detective Chief Inspector Rebecca Woodsford.
“Regardless of how small you think your information is, please share it with us. It could be the missing link we need to secure justice for Mahad and his family.”
Read more from Sky News:
Government whip quits over Starmer’s welfare cuts
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Compensation scheme for Capture victims announced
‘To stay silent is to be complicit’
Many of Mr Abdi Mohamed’s family members were in tears as they visited the scene of his murder as part of the appeal for information.
“My sweet Mahad was the kind of person who could light up a room without even trying,” said his sister.
“His laugh was so loud, and it still echoes in our memories.”
Ms Abdi Mohamed said her brother “was funny, he was honest, and overall he was just a good man” but “wasn’t perfect”.
She said he had “made mistakes but turned his life around” working at Waterloo Station, and part-time at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and Royal Ascot as a security guard.
Mr Abdi Mohamed with his mother, Zahra Ali Seef. Pic: Met Police
“How do you look at a child who adored him day and night, and tell them that he’s gone and you don’t have the answers why? That boy will have to grow up with no dad,” she said.
“If you think you may know anything or have seen anything – you may think it doesn’t matter, but it might be the key to giving us an answer, and it might be the thing that finally lets our family take a breath.
“To stay silent is to be complicit.
“To stay silent is to let a grieving mother suffer in confusion. To stay silent is to let a little boy grow up not knowing what happened to his father.
“If you know something and you haven’t come forward, please think about that. Think about a family that cannot begin to heal because the truth is still hiding in the shadows. My brother deserves better. He deserves justice.”
UK
Post Office Capture scandal: Sir Alan Bates calls for those responsible for wrongful convictions to be ‘brought to account’
Sir Alan Bates has called for those responsible for the wrongful convictions of sub postmasters in the Capture IT scandal to be “brought to account”.
It comes after Sky News unearthed a report showing Post Office lawyers knew of faults in the software nearly three decades ago.
The documents, found in a garage by a retired computer expert, describe the Capture system as “an accident waiting to happen”.
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Post Office: The lost ‘Capture’ files
Sir Alan said the Sky News investigation showed “yet another failure of government oversight; another failure of the Post Office board to ensure [the] Post Office recruited senior people competent of bringing in IT systems” and management that was “out of touch with what was going on within its organisation”.
The unearthed Capture report was commissioned by the defence team for sub postmistress Patricia Owen and served on the Post Office in 1998 at her trial.
It described the software as “quite capable of producing absurd gibberish” and concluded “reasonable doubt” existed as to “whether any criminal offence” had taken place.
Ms Owen was found guilty of stealing from her branch and given a suspended prison sentence.
She died in 2003 and her family had always believed the computer expert, who was due to give evidence on the report, “never turned up”.
Patricia Owen (right) was convicted in 1998 of stealing from her post office branch. She died in 2003
Adrian Montagu reached out after seeing a Sky News report earlier this year and said he was actually stood down by the defending barrister with “no reason given”.
The barrister said he had no recollection of the case.
Victims and their lawyers hope the newly found “damning” expert report, which may never have been seen by a jury, could help overturn Capture convictions.
Read more: Post Office scandal redress must not only be fair – it must be fast
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What is the Capture scandal?
‘These people have to be brought to account’
Sir Alan, the leading campaigner for victims of the Horizon Post Office scandal, said while “no programme is bug free, why [was the] Post Office allowed to transfer the financial risk from these bugs on to a third party ie the sub postmaster, and why did its lawyers continue with prosecutions seemingly knowing of these system bugs?”
He continued: “Whether it was incompetence or corporate malice, these people have to be brought to account for their actions, be it for Capture or Horizon.”
More than 100 victims have come forward
More than 100 victims, including those who were not convicted but who were affected by the faulty software, have so far come forward.
Capture was used in 2,500 branches between 1992 and 1999, just before Horizon was introduced – which saw hundreds wrongfully convicted.
The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), the body responsible for investigating potential miscarriages of justice, is currently looking at a number of Capture convictions.
A CCRC spokesperson told Sky News: “We have received applications regarding 29 convictions which pre-date Horizon.
25 of these applications are being actively investigated by case review managers, and two more recent applications are in the preparatory stage and will be assigned to case review managers before the end of June.
“We have issued notices under s.17 of the Criminal Appeal Act 1995 to Post Office Ltd requiring them to produce all material relating to the applications received.
“To date, POL have provided some material in relation to 17 of the cases and confirmed that they hold no material in relation to another 5. The CCRC is awaiting a response from POL in relation to 6 cases.”
A spokesperson for the Department for Business and Trade said: “Postmasters negatively affected by Capture endured immeasurable suffering. We continue to listen to those who have been sharing their stories on the Capture system, and have taken their thoughts on board when designing the Capture Redress Scheme.”
Sir Keir Starmer could end up allowing Donald Trump to use British bases to launch strikes on Iran, Harriet Harman has said.
Speaking to Beth Rigby on the Electoral Dysfunction podcast, Baroness Harman said this was despite the prime minister being part of a generation “shaped” by opposition to the Iraq War.
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Baroness Harman was solicitor general when Sir Tony Blair decided to take Britain to war in Iraq alongside the United States in 2003.
She said the decisions made by Sir Tony would be “burning bright” in Sir Keir‘s mind.
Tony Blair’s decision to go to war in Iraq will be ‘burning bright’ in the PM’s mind, Baroness Harman said. Pic: PA
“He’s part of the political generation of the Labour Party that grew up, which was shaped by its opposition to what Tony Blair was doing in relation to Iraq,” Baroness Harman said.
“So it would be a massive change for him.”
Asked if the UK could end up giving permission for US aircraft to use British military bases on Cyprus and Diego Garcia, but not go any further than that, Baroness Harman said: “Exactly”.
Soldiers guard the security gate of RAF Akrotiri, a British military base in Cyprus. File pic: Reuters
Read more:
‘Questions’ on legality of Israel’s actions in Iran
Donald Trump ‘may or may not’ strike Iran
Sky News reported on Thursday that Attorney General Richard Hermer has raised questions over whether Israel’s actions in Iran are lawful, potentially limiting what support he believes the UK could offer the US.
Baroness Harman said that for Sir Keir, the “rules-based international order is the most important thing”.
“If the attorney general says that the government can’t do something because it’s illegal, it can’t do it. So he’s in a very crucial position,” she added.
Harriet Harman (R) with Beth Rigby
But Baroness Harman said it would be difficult for Sir Keir to say “thank you for the trade deal” to Mr Trump and then deny the president use of the airbases.
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