Latest news with #Bev
Irish Times
3 days ago
- Automotive
- Irish Times
Climate Council calls for €10,000 EV grants as transport emissions cuts ‘unlikely to be achieved'
Supports for purchasing electric vehicles need to be ramped up by the Government with grants of up to €10,000 for low-income households purchasing smaller vehicles, the Climate Change Advisory Council (CCAC) has told the Government. This measure is one of a series of interventions required to ensure the transport sector does not exceed legally binding limits on carbon emissions , it said. With emissions falling by an estimated 1.3 per cent last year, 'urgent Government intervention [is needed] to support sustained emissions reductions and people making the switch to public transport', it added. The Republic has a national target of a 51 per cent reduction in carbon emissions by 2030. Key to delivering transport emissions reductions 'is ending reliance on harmful and expensive fossil fuels', the independent advisory body said in its latest review of the sector published on Wednesday. READ MORE 'An increase in new battery electric vehicle (Bev) registrations and the achievement of targets for Bev adoption under the Climate Action Plan must be realised.' To drive this forward, the council has recommended grants of up to €10,000 (for Bevs less than €35,000) for lower-income households, particularly in places with limited access to public transport, including rural areas. EV grants have been pared back in recent years. A grant of up to €3,500 is available for new Bevs with a price of between €14,000 and €60,000. In parallel, there needs to be accelerated roll-out of publicly accessible EV charging infrastructure alongside ambitious electricity network reinforcement. That is 'a measure which is critical to support access to charging for those without off-street parking and decarbonisation of commercial vehicles', the CCAC said. With only 18 per cent (172,000 out of 945,000) of primary and post-primary pupils accessing the School Transport Scheme, it strongly supports expanded eligibility criteria and greater integration of school and public transport services. Expansion of the safe routes to school programme, which aims to encourage as many students as possible to safely walk, cycle and wheel to school, was also needed to support the required shift in the sector. 'Transport is Ireland's biggest source of energy demand, and emissions from the sector must reduce by half if the sector is to meet its target,' Marie Donnelly, chair of the CCAC, said. 'Urgent and decisive action must now be taken by Government to end our reliance on fossil fuels and deliver the kind of transformative change that is required in this sector.' There were signs of progress in public transport, she said, with more than half of the redesigned BusConnects network in Dublin implemented; a 48 per cent increase in passenger boardings on redesigned routes, and a significant growth in the number of EV and hybrid buses on Irish roads. The review also highlighted the potential benefits of 'vehicle to everything charging' that can increase resilience in rural areas during power outages by providing temporary grid support for households while the main grid is restored. 'Bidirectional charging' and 'vehicle-to-grid' technology are increasingly available in EVs, which can provide home backup power for a number of days but also helps stabilise grids and decrease costs for electric vehicle owners. 'There is a significant opportunity for bidirectional charging, in tandem with solar photovoltaic and battery storage systems, to increase resilience to storm events,' the review finds. Highlighting learning from storms Darragh and Éowyn, Ms Donnelly said the Government must 'scale up investment to enhance the climate resilience of vulnerable and critical transport infrastructure' including road, rail and aviation. Ports are particularly vulnerable to extreme weather events and it is 'crucial that the National Ports Policy is updated to reflect these risks'.
Sydney Morning Herald
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
This moody Australian crime thriller is utterly absorbing
CRIME The Name of the Sister Gail Jones Text, $34.99 A new novel from award-winner Gail Jones is always a cause for celebration. The Name of the Sister is a suspenseful, sombre tale, spun with an unwavering grace, a crime thriller presented in a moody literary tone. It opens with a fleeting scene of modern tragedy shown on a television screen. A man in a war-torn country is weeping beside the ruin of his house where his family lies entombed. Soldiers appear, and it begins to snow. But it is the next news item that provides the material for the novel's main plot. Here is the story of the appearance of a mute and traumatised woman on a lonely road 30 kilometres outside Broken Hill. Angie, a freelance journalist, is watching the screen in Sydney, and she is captivated by the image of the silent woman. Her best friend from childhood is Bev, a police officer, and they begin to discuss the case. They have always loved to go into the grim details of life, including the grief of 'dark churning thoughts' that 'turn in the night like sticky clay, like the cling of the earth itself, like the sightless underground world'. Events unfold in Sydney and Broken Hill, both of which are vividly brought to life in the text. Two main plots are interwoven. There is the matter of the gradual failure of Angie's marriage to schoolmaster Sam, alongside her journalistic investigation of the case of the unknown woman on the road, her life 'a puzzle waiting to be solved'. Bev is at first reluctant to reveal police details of the case to Angie, but as time goes on, she cannot resist disclosure. They become more or less partners in the investigation, Bev sometimes risking her job in the process. Many strangers claim the woman as a long-lost relative, and Angie talks to a wide range of these, taking the narrative into the dramas of many other lives. But in fact it is the life of Angie herself, and how the case has the power to influence it, that is the focus of the novel. The reader needs to know the identity of the unknown one, but at the same time is carried deep into the identity of Angie. There is a dark and terrible secret about the death of her father which she reveals to no one. As a child, Angie was enchanted by the ancient Egyptians and their origin myth in which male ibis Thoth, born from the lips of Ra, the sun god, 'laid an egg which contained the world'. He was also, incidentally, the inventor of writing. Angie recalls this childhood fascination when Merle, a Wilyakali woman, tells her the tale of the bronze-wing pigeon, Marnpi, 'older than the Great Pyramid of Giza'. This bird was injured and came to rest on what is now known as Broken Hill, forming the shape of the land, and dropping his coloured feathers 'which became gold, silver, copper and lead'. The presence of Merle and her Indigenous wisdom breathes into the narrative a human softness and gentleness. As part of her story on the identity of the unknown woman, Angie visits Berlin, for the life of the stranger has links to the Holocaust. The mystery is resolved and the purpose of the novel's title is finally revealed. Between the abjection of the introductory scene on the TV screen and memories of the Holocaust, the narrative contains, as a key part of its design, Angie's participation in the bloody horror of a confrontation with an armed man in a disused Broken Hill mine.
The Age
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Age
This moody Australian crime thriller is utterly absorbing
CRIME The Name of the Sister Gail Jones Text, $34.99 A new novel from award-winner Gail Jones is always a cause for celebration. The Name of the Sister is a suspenseful, sombre tale, spun with an unwavering grace, a crime thriller presented in a moody literary tone. It opens with a fleeting scene of modern tragedy shown on a television screen. A man in a war-torn country is weeping beside the ruin of his house where his family lies entombed. Soldiers appear, and it begins to snow. But it is the next news item that provides the material for the novel's main plot. Here is the story of the appearance of a mute and traumatised woman on a lonely road 30 kilometres outside Broken Hill. Angie, a freelance journalist, is watching the screen in Sydney, and she is captivated by the image of the silent woman. Her best friend from childhood is Bev, a police officer, and they begin to discuss the case. They have always loved to go into the grim details of life, including the grief of 'dark churning thoughts' that 'turn in the night like sticky clay, like the cling of the earth itself, like the sightless underground world'. Events unfold in Sydney and Broken Hill, both of which are vividly brought to life in the text. Two main plots are interwoven. There is the matter of the gradual failure of Angie's marriage to schoolmaster Sam, alongside her journalistic investigation of the case of the unknown woman on the road, her life 'a puzzle waiting to be solved'. Bev is at first reluctant to reveal police details of the case to Angie, but as time goes on, she cannot resist disclosure. They become more or less partners in the investigation, Bev sometimes risking her job in the process. Many strangers claim the woman as a long-lost relative, and Angie talks to a wide range of these, taking the narrative into the dramas of many other lives. But in fact it is the life of Angie herself, and how the case has the power to influence it, that is the focus of the novel. The reader needs to know the identity of the unknown one, but at the same time is carried deep into the identity of Angie. There is a dark and terrible secret about the death of her father which she reveals to no one. As a child, Angie was enchanted by the ancient Egyptians and their origin myth in which male ibis Thoth, born from the lips of Ra, the sun god, 'laid an egg which contained the world'. He was also, incidentally, the inventor of writing. Angie recalls this childhood fascination when Merle, a Wilyakali woman, tells her the tale of the bronze-wing pigeon, Marnpi, 'older than the Great Pyramid of Giza'. This bird was injured and came to rest on what is now known as Broken Hill, forming the shape of the land, and dropping his coloured feathers 'which became gold, silver, copper and lead'. The presence of Merle and her Indigenous wisdom breathes into the narrative a human softness and gentleness. As part of her story on the identity of the unknown woman, Angie visits Berlin, for the life of the stranger has links to the Holocaust. The mystery is resolved and the purpose of the novel's title is finally revealed. Between the abjection of the introductory scene on the TV screen and memories of the Holocaust, the narrative contains, as a key part of its design, Angie's participation in the bloody horror of a confrontation with an armed man in a disused Broken Hill mine.
The Sun
6 days ago
- Lifestyle
- The Sun
We paid £11k for a tiny house on Facebook – it costs just £8.86 a day to run, we have an en-suite & stunning views too
As I chop wood for the fire, my friends are out clubbing and eating in restaurants, but I'm looking forward to an evening in my tiny home, eating a meal I've prepared with one of my two pots on my little stove. It may be a squeeze for my boyfriend Ollie and me, but our tiny home saves us thousands of pounds a year. 5 5 5 I met Ollie in March 2019 on a night out with friends when we were both 20, and I was living with my mum Bev, 52, and dad Matthew, 53. Three years later, I was working in a medical lab and Ollie was an agricultural mechanic, and I moved in with him and his dad Terry, 60, on their family farm in West Yorkshire. Farm life I loved farm life – I had two goats as pets and used their milk to make soap, which I sold at local markets, along with honey from my dad's bees. Ollie and I dreamed of turning my hobby into a full-time business and finding our own rural home, but with neither of us earning enough to cover the £1,000 a month to rent somewhere, it felt impossible. Then Terry made us an amazing offer – he suggested we rent some land from him for our goats and, as we were agricultural workers, we'd have planning permission to create a home on the land. However, there were restrictions set by the local authority. It would have to be a very small home, no larger than 40 x 20ft, and it would be off-grid, with no mains electricity, water, gas or sewage pipes. Undeterred, we used our £11,000 savings to buy a tiny house we found on Facebook. It has a bedroom and en-suite, plus minuscule kitchen and living room. Our families were supportive, but friends thought we were mad. Living Tiny: Bresha Jeanae's Experience Why would we want to spend our time chopping logs, and how could we live without a TV? But our house was delivered by trailer, and in September 2023 we moved in. Waking up that first morning, with the sun shining in and views of the moors, I was thrilled. We did squabble as we adjusted to living in such a small, basic space together – we argued about whose turn it was to fetch wood or tidy up – but going for a stomp around the fields usually cleared the air! Our only water source is rain collected in a tank, which we use for the shower and to flush the toilet. It's connected to a septic tank that Ollie dug into the ground, and we also filter the water to drink. Six months after moving in, we got a generator, which we use for an hour a day to heat water for a shower and turn the lights on for our evening meal, otherwise we rely on solar lights. I use my phone for accessing the internet, and we don't have a TV, which I missed at first, but now I love reading books more. We gather wood, whatever the weather, for the wood-burning stove and I have thick pyjamas and hot-water bottles for colder nights. We don't have a fridge and instead use a cool box to keep milk and butter fresh and buy food daily, often from farm shops. A normal house would cost £12,000 a year just in rent. Instead, we pay £2,000 to Terry to rent the land We do need to be careful with everything we buy. We have only a few cups and small saucepans, but the kitchen is full. Our dining table only seats two, so we can't have dinner parties – a friend did stay over once, but they had to sleep on the floor as the sofa wasn't big enough. Without the financial pressure of a mortgage or monthly utilities, we were able to quit our jobs in December 2023 and commit to our business, Herd & Hive, selling goat's milk soap, raw honey and beeswax products. A normal house would cost £12,000 a year just in rent. Instead, we pay £2,000 to Terry to rent the land, and being in the lowest council tax band costs £1,000 a year. With the cost of gas for the cooking hob and the generator factored in, we live on £8.86 a day, excluding food. What I love most about living in a tiny house is the simplicity. No TV, no washing machine to load and unload – we use a launderette nearby – and peaceful fields around us. It's allowed us to follow our dreams. That's worth the wood-chopping and cold showers any day.' Visit 5 5
Daily Record
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
'Meghan Markle will always be victim' as GB News star makes brutal dig at royals on air
GB News star Bev Turner made a massive prediction for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex as they celebrate a major milestone. Speaking on the People's Channel on the news broadcaster, Bev hit out at Meghan Markle's podcast calling it "painful" and "self-indulgent" in a brutal takedown. The presenter also predicted that Meghan will eventually "turn on Prince Harry," as the couple celebrate their seventh wedding anniversary, the Express reports. She stated: "They are so saccharine and sentimental and self-indulgent, narcissistic, belly-button gazing and all about me, me, me and she gets to tears." "The issue is going to be when she turns on him. Someone like that who is always casting herself as the victim, as soon as she thinks she's the victim of him, it's going to go horribly wrong for Harry." Reflecting on their extravagant wedding at Windsor Castle, Bev continued: "It's just tragic. I feel so sad because I remember that wedding day. The British public were so pleased." Speaking about Meghan's previous acting career, Bev continued: "She was a fantastic actress in Suits. I don't care what anyone says, she is really good. She's beautiful on camera." However, Bev stated that she had concerns about Meghan joining the royals from the beginning when she gave up her career in acting. She said: "When she gave up acting, I sat at home and thought, 'that's it, she's given up her identity and now she's going to be a pain in his backside for however many years'." The couple celebrated their anniversary in style with a "very fun date night" at a Beyoncé concert earlier this month. The 43-year-old royal attended the pop superstar's Cowboy Carter Tour gig in Los Angeles on Friday (May 9) and took to social media to share snaps of her and Prince Harry enjoying themselves at the concert. Meghan captioned the post: "About last night... Thank you @beyonce and team for an amazing concert (and a very fun date night)! All love." The Instagram post included a video of her sharing a kiss with the 40-year-old Prince, along with a snap of her husband's cowboy hat, which featured the names of their children - Prince Archie, six and Princess Lilibet, three - on it, as well as his nickname for Meghan - 'My Love.' Meghan also posted a special wedding anniversary tribute on social media with a nod to Scotland , as she showed off her relationship with Prince Harry throughout the years. The Duchess of Sussex took to instagram sharing a sweet collage of intimate pictures from over the years with The Proclaimers I'm Gonna Be (500 miles) playing in the background. Alongside the collage, Meghan wrote: "Seven years of marriage. A lifetime of stories. "Thanks to all of you (whether by our side, or from afar) who have loved and supported us throughout our love story - we appreciate you. Happy anniversary!"
