to clear the site by the end of 2017, but
its plans were delayed when the boiler
house collapsed, killing the four
workers.
RWE said it had planned today’s
demolition over several months with
its contractor, Brown and Mason.
A plea went out to sightseers not to
take “selfie” photographs when the
towers were blown up. RWE urged
people to show some respect for the
dead and not to gather near the site.
In 2003, Country Life readers voted
the landmark Britain’s third worst
eyesore.
The 2,000 megawatt station oper-ated until 2013, when RWE Power
moved to decommission it when new
EU reduced emissions rules were
brought in.
SSEN said in a statement: “Shortly af-
ter 7am this morning, SSEN received
reports of damage to its network at Sut-
ton Courtenay, following the demoli-
tion of the nearby Didcot Power
Station. SSEN engineers attended site
to make the situation safe and power
was fully restored to the 40,000 cus-
tomers affected by 8.20am. An investi-
gation is under way as to the cause of
the incident and SSEN is working with
all relevant authorities.”Towers tumble – and cut power to thousands
By Callum Adams
TENS of thousands of homes were left
without power yesterday moments af-
ter the demolition of the Didcot power
station in Oxfordshire.
Up to 49,000 homes in towns and
villages across a wide area were blacked
out when explosives were detonated to
send the 375ft-tall towers crumbling in
clouds of rubble and dust at 7am.
An electricity pylon near the site, at
Sutton Courtenay, was seen on fire af-
ter the blast.
Initial reports from the scene, where
crowds of spectators had gathered to
film the blast, suggested a drone may
have hit a power line, causing a fire.
However, Scottish and Southern
Electricity Networks (SSEN) said: “Ini-
tial investigations have confirmed that
this morning’s power cut was caused
by material related to the demolition of
Didcot Power Station striking our over-
head electricity network.”
A substation that serves Didcot and
Abingdon, as well as Wantage, Walling-
ford and parts of the Chilterns, blew. In
the chaos, traffic lights went out and ca-
fés had to turn customers away. The
power was restored by 8.20am.
Scottish and Southern Electricity in-
itially insisted that the power-cut was
unrelated to the demolition but said
later the two were “probably linked”.
Video circulating on social media
showed an electricity pylon erupting
into flames and people who had gath-
ered to watch the blast running away.
They had been there to witness engi-
neers blow up the three remaining Did-
cot “death towers” where four workers
were killed three years ago.
Ken Cresswell, 57, John Shaw, 61, Mi-
chael Collings, 53, and Christopher
Huxtable, 34, died in the major inci-
dent in February 2016.
The coal-fired station, commis-
sioned in 1968, was turned off in 2013.
Owners, RWE Npower, had planned
Millennials struggle to change light bulb
Millennials are even more useless at
basic DIY jobs than younger
generations, a study has found.
Millennials came rock bottom in a
test of basic DIY jobs, including
changing a light bulb, fixing wobbly
furniture or stopping a hinge from
squeaking. They fared even worse
than those in Generation Z, aged
between 18 and 24, the study by the
Water Regulations Advisory Scheme
(WRAS) found.
With nine relatively simple tasks
given to five age groups, millennials
came bottom in five, while Generation
Z were bottom in four, the poll of
2,000 Britons found. Those over the
age of 55 were top in eight tasks.
However, millennials trumped all
age groups when it came to being able
to fix a leaky loo.
A spokesman for WRAS said young
Britons had “low basic home-repair
skills”. Julie Spinks, its managing
director, said: “Generation Rent seems
to have created a nation of people who
aren’t confident in dealing with
straightforward tasks.”Social worker ‘groped’ female colleague
A social worker has been suspended
after he “groped” a junior colleague
and told her he liked a “good pair of
baps” as he squeezed a pack of bread
rolls. Robert Robertson developed an
“attachment” to the woman, taking
her to a small first-aid room in their
office and “touching her breast and
backside inappropriately”, a
disciplinary hearing was told.
The panel heard that Robertson
mentioned enjoying porn featuring
women “of [his colleague’s] size” and
made the “bad taste joke” about likingbaps when looking through some food
shopping the woman had bought. He
also got “aroused” in another incident,
when he touched her breasts again
and told her they “didn’t disappoint”.
Suspending Robertson for 12
months, the Health and Care
Professions tribunal said his sexual
misconduct was “too serious” to ignore.
It heard Robertson had been a social
worker for more than three decades
and was a senior manager at Kent
County Council when the incidents
took place.Dealer sold drugs
as a way to make
friends, court hears
A judge spared a drug dealer from
jail after hearing his alopecia had led
to a life of ridicule and that selling
drugs was a way of making friends.
Cameron Bridges started selling
drugs after being frozen out by his
peers for much of his school life and to
support his £150-a-day cocaine habit.
Bridges, of Polperro, Cornwall,
admitted possession of cocaine,
ketamine and cannabis with intent to
supply, as well as possession charges
and assaulting an emergency worker.
Truro Crown Court heard the
20-year-old’s life spiralled out of
control until his arrest in May when he
sought help and is now drug-free.
Judge Simon Carr jailed him for two
years, suspended for two years, and
issued a six-month drug rehabilitation
order, a curfew and 150 hours of
unpaid work.Sound of typing could be key for hackers
Hackers are able to work out your
passwords just from the sound of your
keystrokes, a new study has revealed.
The latest cyber threat involves
criminals eavesdropping on their
victim’s keyboard strokes. In tests,
researchers were able to detect what
was being typed with remarkable
accuracy using just a smartphone.
It could be a major threat to people
who use laptops in public places such
as cafes, libraries and on trains.
Cybersecurity experts from
Southern Methodist University inTexas found that soundwaves
produced when we type can be picked
up by a smartphone.
The acoustic signals intercepted by
the phone can then be processed,
allowing a skilled hacker to decipher
which keys were struck.
The researchers were able to decode
much of what was being typed using
common keyboards and smartphones- even in a noisy conference room.
The study was published in science
journal Interactive, Mobile, Wearable
and Ubiquitous Technologies.
Javid branded a
coward by parents
of ‘Jihadi Jack’
The parents of the Muslim convert
dubbed Jihadi Jack have accused Sajid
Javid, the former home secretary, of
being a “coward” for stripping their
son of his British citizenship and
leaving him in a “legal black hole”.
Jack Letts was 18 when he left his
Oxfordshire home to join the Islamic
State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) terror
group in Syria in 2014. The 24-year-old,
who held dual UK-Canadian nationality,
was jailed after he was captured while
trying to flee to Turkey in May 2017.
His parents, John Letts and Sally
Lane, said the Government was
“passing the buck off to the
Canadians”. Mr Letts, 58, told Channel
4 News: “I thought British citizens had
certain rights ... I think it’s maybe Sajid
that’s a bit of a coward.”
A spokesman for the Home Office
said: “Decisions on depriving a dual
national of citizenship are based on
substantial advice from officials ... and
all available information.”News
Didcot demolition leaves
nearly 50,000 homes
without electricity after
debris hits power line
The demolition of
the Didcot cooling
towers caused
debris to hit power
lines near the site,
said SSEN, resulting
in a blackout that
affected up to
49,000 homesTOM WREN/SWNS10 ***^ Monday 19 August 2019 The Daily Telegraph
RELEASED BY "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws