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A yellow cold weather alert across England comes into force at 9am this morning – and will remain in force for most of next week.

All of this comes as many parts of the country continue to grapple with the aftermath of Storm Henk, with heavy rainfall inundating homes and almost cutting off communities.

As of 2am on Saturday, 244 flood warnings – meaning flooding is expected – have been issued by the Environment Agency. A further 262 flood alerts, indicating flooding is possible, also remain in force.

Follow the latest weather updates here

“Significant river flooding impacts” are expected to continue today across parts of the Midlands on the River Trent and in Gloucester, as well as areas of the South West on the River Avon.

Disruption elsewhere in England could last for the next five days because the ground is “completely saturated”.

Almost every river in England is at an exceptionally high level, with some rivers reaching their highest flow on record.

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Alex McDonald, an Environment Agency spokeswoman, said: “We’re seeing a large number of big events, and this winter has been particularly bad since October onwards.

“We are feeling the effects of climate change in the East Midlands, and as a nation we need to be more resilient to flooding.”

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Aerial footage shows extent of flooding

What cold weather alert means

The UK Health Security Agency’s warning will be in place until 12pm on 12 January, with forecasters warning of icy conditions as temperatures plunge below freezing.

While colder conditions increase risks to the most vulnerable, with “significant impacts possible” in the health sector, there are hopes that river levels will start to go down as rainfall eases.

The agency said: “Temperatures are likely to be a few degrees below average, across much of the UK, especially overnight, with more widespread frosts than of late.

“Ice is likely to be an issue for many given the very wet ground in most areas. It is probable this cold spell may last well into the following week.”

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Floodwaters rage around home

Meanwhile, Met Office forecaster Oli Claydon said conditions are turning “considerably drier” – with no rain warnings in force for the first time in a while.

“We’re heading to a more settled spell of weather, which will be very welcome for many people across the UK after what’s been a very wet start to 2024,” he added.

Sky meteorologist Steff Gaulter added: ” Flooding issues should gradually subside as the weather begins to change. The change to colder and brighter conditions will be welcome, but it won’t happen instantly.”

Check the forecast where you are

Sunday afternoon weather
Monday afternoon weather

Govt ‘asleep at the wheel’ during flooding crisis

Rishi Sunak’s government has been criticised by rival parties for its handling of the flooding, with the prime minister urged to visit affected areas.

Labour accused the government of being “asleep at the wheel” over flood warnings, and said Mr Sunak should convene a “COBRA-style taskforce” to protect homes from further damage.

Sir Keir Starmer has said “people’s lives shouldn’t be upended by extreme rain”, and vowed to make flood defences “fit for purpose” if he wins the next election.

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A pint in waist-high floodwater

But floods minister Robbie Moore has insisted that the government has “absolutely” provided enough money for flood prevention, with £5.2bn pledged to better protect homes.

Travel disruption is set to continue this weekend, with flooding across the Great Western Railway network meaning trains may be cancelled at short notice.

There are set to be fewer services on long-distance routes, and customers are being urged to check before they travel.

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What women in prison miss most, the prison schemes helping them rebuild their lives and why fewer may end up going to jail

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What women in prison miss most, the prison schemes helping them rebuild their lives and why fewer may end up going to jail

In a workshop in the far corner of the Styal prison estate, glass, plastic and metal are being smashed to the beat of pumping music.

Women at workstations are dismantling electronics with the energy of gym enthusiasts.

TVs and laptops, discarded at local recycling centres across England, have ended up here, on the edge of Wilmslow, Cheshire.

But amid the whiz of drills, the crunch of screens being separated from their plastic casings and the clatter of electronic boards ripped out and chucked in big bins, something else is being recycled – women’s lives.

“You get a lot of frustration out, because obviously a lot of girls have got a lot of anger, you know,” says Joanne*, who is serving time for drug offences.

She has joined this activity not for the £10 per 70 TVs she breaks apart, but because the programme – called Recycling Lives – could give her the skills and the support to keep her out of jail in the future.

Only 12% of women are employed six months after leaving prison, compared to 25% of men. In the general population employment levels between men and women are 78% to 72%.

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Ex-prisoners with a job are far less likely to re-offend. So, women prisoners are at a disadvantage. Often a man is connected to the crime they committed.

“For 90% of the women in prison, there’s always a male involved in why they’ve committed crime, it is the case with me as well,” says Joanne, who tells me she was pressured into dealing drugs by her partner.

A Recycling Lives workshop in Styal Prison and Young Offender Institution, Wilmslow, Cheshire

Official Ministry of Justice statistics say that at least 60% of women in prison are victims of domestic violence and most will have experienced some form of abuse as a child.

Many, too, are mothers and they feel the guilt of separation every day. Joanne says of her son: “It’s my sister picking him up from school, not me.

“It’s my sister there on Christmas day, not me. Birthdays, all the special occasions. It’s heart-breaking.

“People think prison is easy. You are ripped away from your family and your children. It’s not easy.”

As if in illustration, the glass cracks on an iPad, as she peels it away with her screwdriver.

Official figures say there are around 3,500 women in prison and it is estimated that about half are mothers.

‘I’m trying to give them a future’

The workshop manager Yvonne Grime knows this all too well. A former serial offender herself, she’s the first former inmate at Styal to now hold a set of keys to the prison.

“The biggest thing for me [as a prisoner] was leaving my children,” she says, “and I still carry that guilt round, but I have come through it.”

A Recycling Lives workshop in Styal Prison and Young Offender Institution, Wilmslow, Cheshire

Part of her redemption is to help the women in her workshop. The Recycling Lives programme transformed her life, and she wants to give back.

She says: “I’m trying to give them a future. I’m trying to give you some hope that they can that they can change.

“Get the children back, find a job, find a home. There is light at the end of the tunnel.”

Her work is part manager and part mentor. “When I first started, I thought I’m just going to come in and run this workshop,” she said.

“I didn’t realise I had to be their mum, their dad, their brother, their sister, the doctor, the nurse, the everything that comes with it.

“If I had a salary for every one of those professions, I’d be absolutely minted.”

Read more:
Justice secretary’s ‘ultimate ambition’ to close women’s prisons
Ex-prisoner shares what life’s like in a women’s jail

Recycling Lives workshop manager Yvonne Grime speaks to Jason Farrell
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Yvonne Grime says ‘there is light at the end of the tunnel’ for female prisoners

Styal isn’t what you expect a prison to look like.

Inside the high fences and barbed wire are sixteen austere red-brick Victorian houses.

Once an orphanage, they’re now the prison’s accommodation blocks.

Ted the prison cat, wanders from block to block, and has already served several of his nine lives in the compound.

Ted the cat at Styal Prison and Young Offender Institution

Along with recycling TV sets, women can learn to guide and drive forklift trucks.

They are quick with their tools, spinning through one appliance after another with remarkable and methodical destructive pace.

But the real advantage of the programme is that it continues on the outside. Only 6% of people who go through Recycling Lives go on to commit further crime. The general reoffending rate is 25%.

In a warehouse in Preston, former inmates are involved in recycling food from supermarkets and farms, then sent to foodbanks.

A Recycling Lives depot in Preston

Here we meet Naomi Winter, who – three years since being released from jail – is now a manager at the food distribution depot.

The hardest thing about prison for her too was being separated from a child.

“I was put in prison when my baby is only three months old,” she said.

“So, it was like losing an arm, like losing a piece of my DNA.

“I still woke up for night feeds in the night and stuff like that.”

She says there wasn’t the mental health provision inside of prison to help her deal with post-natal depression, and she spent way too much time alone with her thoughts.

She was in and out of prison for drug offences and violence eight times by the age of 30 and first jailed aged 15, for breaching an anti-social behaviour order (ASBO).

She feels even short prison sentences can ruin lives, and says: “You take women who’s robbed a block of cheese to feed the child.

“They put them in prison for 28 days. They take the home, take the kids, they lose the family, and they get out with nothing. You just create a criminal right there.

“You’ve just created a woman who’s got nothing to lose. You’re also releasing them with a sleeping bag in a tent and telling them to go and sleep in the woods.”

Recycling Lives' Naomi Winter speaks to Jason Farrell
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Naomi Winter feels even short prison sentences can ruin women’s lives

Alternatives to custody

The government recognises that prison isn’t working for many of the women who end up there.

It’s why, with women being mostly non-violent offenders and serving short sentences, the government is setting up a Women’s Justice Board to look at reducing the number who go into prison with alternatives such as community sentences and intervention projects tackling the root causes of re-offending.

The Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, told Sky News: “For many women, prison isn’t working. Most women in prisons are victims themselves. Over half are mothers, with a prison sentence separating parent and child.

“That’s why I am establishing a new Women’s Justice Board, tasked with reducing the number of women in prison by exploring alternatives to custody for female offenders.”

Styal Prison and Young Offender Institution, Wilmslow, Cheshire

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Chief Executive of Recycling Lives, Alasdair Jackson says: “There are certain things we all need as human beings: One is a place to live, one is a job to be able to pay for that place to live and then a support network.

“But there are a lot more factors that women have to contend with; there’s children, there is maybe domestic abuse, there’s everything that goes on around that, but when you give people a chance, when you give people the skills that they need, it is life-changing.

“And when you change a woman’s life, you are often changing the family’s life and the children’s life.”

Chief Executive of Recycling Lives Alasdair Jackson OBE speaks to Jason Farrell
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Alasdair Jackson says ‘when you change a woman’s life, you are often changing the family’s life’

Prison is supposed to be part punishment, part repair job. But there are limited programmes like Recycling Lives, and for many women entering jail currently, the only recycling is back into criminality.

* names have been changed

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World’s oldest man John Tinniswood dies aged 112, Guinness World Records says

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World's oldest man John Tinniswood dies aged 112, Guinness World Records says

The world’s oldest man has died at the age of 112, the Guinness World Records has announced.

John Tinniswood was born in Liverpool on 26 August 1912, the year the Titanic sank. He was a lifelong Liverpool FC fan, born just 20 years after the club was founded.

He died on Monday at a care home in Southport, Guinness World Records said.

In a statement, his family said: “His last day was surrounded by music and love.

“John always liked to say thank you. So on his behalf, thanks to all those who cared for him over the years, including his carers at the Hollies Care Home, his GPs, district nurses, occupational therapist and other NHS staff.”

In April 2024, aged 111, he became the world’s oldest living man, following the death of 114-year-old Juan Vicente Perez from Venezuela.

Mr Tinniswood as a younger man. Pic: Guinness World Records
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Mr Tinniswood was born in Liverpool on 26 August 1912, the year the Titanic sank. Pic: Guinness World Records

Mr Tinniswood’s key advice for staying healthy was to practice moderation. “If you drink too much or you eat too much or you walk too much; if you do too much of anything, you’re going to suffer eventually.”

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But when asked the secret to his longevity after turning 112 in August, Mr Tinniswood put it all down to “just luck”.

“I can’t think of any special secrets I have,” he said. “I was quite active as a youngster, I did a lot of walking.

“Whether that had something to do with it, I don’t know. But to me, I’m no different [to anyone]. No different at all.

“I just take it in my stride like anything else, why I’ve lived that long I have no idea at all.”

John Alfred Tinniswood 
Pic: Guinness World Records
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Mr Tinniswood was named the world’s oldest man in April this year.
Pic: Guinness World Records

Apart from a portion of battered fish and chips every Friday, Mr Tinniswood did not follow any particular diet, and said earlier this year he felt “no different” turning 112.

“I don’t feel that age, I don’t get excited over it. That’s probably why I’ve reached it.

“I just take it in my stride like anything else, why I’ve lived that long I have no idea at all.”

He lived through both world wars and was a Second World War veteran – having worked in an administrative role for the Army Pay Corps.

In addition to accounts and auditing, his work involved logistical tasks such as locating stranded soldiers and organising food supplies. He went on to work as an accountant for Shell and BP before retiring in 1972.

He met his wife, Blodwen, at a dance in Liverpool. They were together for 44 years before Blodwen died in 1986.

John Alfred Tinniswood  
Pic: Guinness World Records
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Mr Tinniswood was the oldest surviving male Second World War veteran.
Pic: Guinness World Records

Mr Tinniswood is survived by his daughter Susan, four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, and lived to be the fourth-oldest British man in recorded history.

His family added: “John had many fine qualities. He was intelligent, decisive, brave, calm in any crisis, talented at maths and a great conversationalist.

“John moved to the Hollies rest home just before his 100th birthday and his kindness and enthusiasm for life were an inspiration to the care home staff and his fellow residents.”

The oldest ever man was Jiroemon Kimura from Japan, who lived to the age of 116 years 54 days and died in 2013.

The world’s oldest living woman, and oldest living person, is Japan’s 116-year-old Tomiko Itooka.

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Barry Island: Two boys arrested after 12-year-old girl injured in ‘serious assault’

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Barry Island: Two boys arrested after 12-year-old girl injured in 'serious assault'

Two teenage boys have been arrested after the suspected stabbing of a 12-year-old girl.

South Wales Police were called to Barry Island in the Vale of Glamorgan at around 5pm on Sunday to a report of an assault near the Harbour Road car park in the seaside resort.

The girl, whose condition is described as not life-threatening, was taken to the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff with serious injuries.

Police say they have arrested two local boys, aged 13 and 15, on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm and they both remain in custody.

The younger of the two has also been arrested on suspicion of possession of a bladed article.

Detective Inspector Phil Marchant from South Wales Police said the incident and “the ages of those involved” would “cause worry within the community”.

He said the two suspects are “known to the victim” and were arrested within an hour.

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“At this stage we are not looking for anyone else in connection with the assault,” he added.

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South Wales Police said tackling knife crime was a priority for the force and it was providing support to parents, teachers and community groups.

The police investigation into the alleged assault is ongoing.

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