Each week, Ben Hopkinson looks back at a serious, crazy, and happy news story from the past week.
Serious News
A new report has found that London remains the world’s most congested city.
More time is spent stuck in traffic jams, an average of 156 hours in 2022 according to traffic information supplier Inrix. Looking at 1,000 cities across 50 countries, London has bagged the top spot for the second year in a row, with the A219 southbound from Fulham to Morden the most congested.
Elsewhere in the UK, Bristol was the second most congested city, followed by Manchester, Birmingham and Belfast.
Crazy News
A university in the United States compiles a list of words and phrases to its banished list.
Since 1976, more than 1,000 words have been added to the list created by Lake Superior State University in Michigan – some more than once.
This year, GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) topped the poll, while the other nine were:
- Inflection point
- Gaslighting
- Quiet quitting
- Moving forward
- Amazing
- Absolutely
- Does that make sense?
- Irregardless
- It is what it is
Happy News
A new legal requirement has been passed across England which will help connectivity.
Ultrafast fibre internet speeds in new builds is now a legal requirement, which in turn will make it easier to install faster broadband into apartments, houses and flats.
Amendments were made to the Building Regulations 2010 to help make this new regulation a possibility, however connection costs will be capped at £2,000 per property. Developers will need to install the infrastructure needed to allow the speeds.
The new legislation was introduced on Boxing Day, as approximately 12% of 171,190 new homes did not have the gigabit broadband speeds upon completion. The current coverage rate is 72%, but is now targeting fully nationwide coverage by 2030.
