Western Australia is sweltering through a record-breaking heatwave which looks set to blanket the rest of the country next week. Perth recorded its second day in a row above 40C on Saturday - only the third time that has happened in December since 1974. Searing temperatures are forecast for Melbourne by next Wednesday - as the mercury hits 39C and the city sweats under what meteorologists have described as a 'dome of heat parked over southern Australia'. Scroll down for video Beach weather will be the standard across Australia next week as Perth's record-breaking December heatwave spreads across Australia (pictured a reveller at Melbourne's St Kilda beach) Some climate models are also predicting the thermostat in South Australia - which is at the heart of a low pressure system hovering over the country - will hit 50C on Thursday (pictured Australian temperatures on December 13) Some climate models are also predicting the thermostat in South Australia - which is at the … [Read more...] about Prepare for a scorching summer! Perth braces for record 40C heatwave while Melbourne hits 39C and South Australia reaches FIFTY degrees as Sydney suffocates under more smoke haze next week when fires rage on
World record for 1600m
Boris Johnson admits London’s Oxford Street is one of world’s most polluted
Boris Johnson has been forced to accept that London’s Oxford Street has some of the worst air pollution in the world. In an exchange of letters with the Environment Audit Committee (EAC) of MPs, the mayor said he now accepts scientific evidence from Britain’s leading air research group that the street has some of the world’s highest recorded levels of nitrogen dioxide. The mayor of London had said in a Twitter exchange in July that it was a “ludicrous urban myth” that Britain’s premier shopping street was one of the world’s most polluted thoroughfares, saying that the capital’s air quality was “better than Paris and other European cities”. This followed a presentation in June by King’s College London air researcher David Carslaw which questioned whether the hourly and annual average levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution – mainly caused by diesel traffic – were the highest in the world. Carslaw’s … [Read more...] about Boris Johnson admits London’s Oxford Street is one of world’s most polluted
England 37-21 Australia: Red Rose cap sublime 2016 in style but Jones demands World Cup improvement
Eddie Jones watched his side make the history books – then gave them a kick up the backside as he claimed none of them would make a World XV. Jones is a hard man to satisfy – this was England’s 14th win on the spin, and their 13th in a row on the Aussie’s watch and he still had the hump. There really is no pleasing some people. The run of 14 puts them up with Martin Johnson’s heroes of 2002 and 2003 and this is their first undefeated calendar year since 1992 when Will Carling’s mob played just six games. Ben Youngs did his best to get into a global team with a stunning performance from scrum-half and Courtney Lawes and Jonathan Joseph put in huge shifts but it was still not enough for the boss. England were under the pump for half an hour and Twickenham was fearing the worst but they pulled it back and by the end were running away with the game. By the finish they had racked up their most points against the Aussies at HQ and made it 4-0 over the … [Read more...] about England 37-21 Australia: Red Rose cap sublime 2016 in style but Jones demands World Cup improvement
DBN disburses N31bn to MSMEs, gets World Bank’s backing
By Emeka Anaeto, Emma Ujah & Peter Egwuatu in Washington Managing Director of the bank, Mr. Tony Okpanachi, disclosed this at the on-going Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank in Washington DC, USA. He said DBN has changed the landscape of MSMEs funding in the country with its innovative lending and focus on long-term loans to that sector of the economy. In a presentation to a team of the World Bank Group and international investors on the achievements of DBN and its plans for the future, Okpanachi said that his team was working assiduously to achieve a disbursement level of about N100 billion at the end of this year, which could be scaled up to N389 billion at the end of 2023, when the bank marks five years in active lending operations. According to him, the Partnering Finance Institutions (PFIs) had grown from two in 2017, when DBN started operations to 22 at the end of 2018, adding that the target for 2019 was to raise the … [Read more...] about DBN disburses N31bn to MSMEs, gets World Bank’s backing
Orlando world premiere review – a feast for ears and eyes
Once a punk, always a punk. This is the Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth’s description of herself, growing up “in a charming but xenophobic region near the Slovenian border”. An angry teenager, she rebelled, finding inspiration and solace in Patti Smith, Siouxsie Sioux, John Waters’s movie Hairspray and Spitting Image. Soon, too, her talent as a composer was recognised by Pierre Boulez, one of the most important musical brains of the late 20th century. All these preoccupations, and an encyclopaedic array of others, from the atom bomb to flower power, the women’s movement, sexual abuse and climate change, burst to expansive, sprawling life in Neuwirth’s Orlando – the first full-length, main-stage work by a woman in the Vienna State Opera’s 150-year history – which had its world premiere last weekend. The capacity audience engaged attentively – as far as anyone can judge – with few walkouts and a solid 10 minutes of … [Read more...] about Orlando world premiere review – a feast for ears and eyes