Almost all new homes in England will be fitted with solar panels during construction within two years. Under the plans, housebuilders will be legally required to install solar panels on the roofs of new properties by 2027. The policy is estimated to add between £3,000 and £4,000 to building a home, but homeowners would save more than £1,000 on their annual energy bills, according to the Times.
The announcement came as members of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group met at Nato’s headquarters in Brussels to pledge air defences, missiles, and other gear as Europe sought to fill the gap left by the changed priorities of the U.S. under Donald Trump. More than half of the aid – €11 billion over four years – is coming from Germany. Support also includes a $590m package from the U.K. and Norway to fund radar systems, anti-tank mines, vehicle repairs, and hundreds of thousands of drones as the nation faces a brutal, unlawful invasion from Russia.
Currently, women can get the emergency contraception pill for free from sexual health clinics run by the National Health Service (NHS). However, the pill can cost up to £30 ($62) at pharmacies in the UK. Starting this year, the pill will be available for free at pharmacies, aiming to “reduce inequalities”, according to a Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) statement. The move will also help free up general practitioners by reducing the need for women to make appointments to access the pill, the DHSC said.
A new form of prostate cancer surgery nearly doubles the chances of men retaining erectile function, according to a new trial conducted by University College London. Known as NeuroSafe, the procedure checks tissue removed during the operation. If the tumor appears to have been removed, the nerve-containing outer layer of the prostate is left intact. The trial assessed 344 men with prostate cancer and no history of erectile dysfunction. 56% of men who had standard surgery reported severe erectile dysfunction, compared with 38% who had NeuroSafe surgery.
In a major win for climate action, a new analysis from Carbon Brief has found that the country’s planet-warming emissions fell by 3.6% to 371 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2024, the lowest since Queen Victoria’s reign. Last year’s decrease was largely driven by a drop in coal use, led by the closure of the UK’s last coal-fired power station and one of its last blast furnaces. Other contributors included a drop in demand for oil and gas and a nearly 40% rise in electric vehicles on the road.
Two hundred U.K. companies have signed up for a permanent four-day working week for all their employees with no loss of pay, in the latest landmark in the campaign to reinvent Britain’s working week. Together, the companies employ more than 5,000 people, with charities, marketing, and technology firms among the best-represented. Supporters say the four-day week is a useful way of attracting and retaining employees while improving productivity by creating the same output over fewer hours and fostering a more fulfilled, happy, and engaged workforce.
While particularly windy periods have meant certain days in the last few years have been dominated by renewable power as turbines lit up the grid, this is the first time through an entire calendar year that renewable energy will be greater than power generated from burning oil, gas and coal. The shift is driven largely by a decline in production from coal, gas, and oil, as well as growing wind, solar, and biomass power, according to think tank Ember.
115 U.K. universities have now pledged to exclude fossil fuel companies from their investment portfolios, following Birmingham City University, Glasgow School of Art, Royal Northern College of Music, and the University of Bradford all incorporating fossil fuel industry exclusions into their Ethical Investment Policies. The divested universities represent 77% of the U.K. Higher Education sector and more than $22 billion USD worth of endowments.
A trial from King’s College London found offering patients a new injection was more effective than the current care of steroid tablets, and cuts the need for further treatment by 30%. The results, published in the Lancet Respiratory Medicine journal, could be transformative for millions of people with asthma and COPD around the world. Lead investigator Professor Mona Bafadhel said: “This could be a gamechanger for people with asthma and COPD. Treatment for asthma and COPD exacerbations have not changed in 50 years, despite causing 3.8 million deaths worldwide a year combined.”
Doctors are hailing a “remarkable” new treatment regime for cervical cancer developed by researchers at University College London that reduces the risk of dying by 40%, in the biggest advance against the disease in 25 years. The new treatment plan was tested in patients recruited over 10 years from the UK, Mexico, India, Italy, and Brazil. Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women globally, with about 660,000 new cases and 350,000 deaths every year, according to the World Health Organization.
