Each week, Ben Hopkinson looks back at a serious, crazy, and happy news story from the past week.
Serious News
The Mayor of London has announced a price hike of 4.6% for using the London Underground.
All single zone 1 fares have gone up by 10p, off-peak fares in a zone are now £2, while a 40p rise sees the new cap for zones 1-2 at £8.90.
A weekly pay-as-you go cap is now £64.20 for those travelling in zones 1-4 (an increase of £2.80), and monthly travelcards across zones 1-6 have surpassed £300 for the first time at £313.40.
Uber Boat single fares rise between 30p and 55p but cross-river fares are frozen at £4.10.
If you use the bus, you still have unlimited bus travel within an hour at the same price of £1.75, but if you use the cable car an adult fare has increased by 16.7% to £7.
A full breakdown of the new fares can be found on the TfL website.
Crazy News
The woolly mammoths went extinct around 10,000 years ago, but that hasn’t stopped a group of scientists from attempting to bring them back.
Colossal Biosciences spoke of their plans in 2021 to bring back the giant animals alongside the dodo bird, but their latest breakthrough has created a woolly mouse. The biotech company from Texas are finding key traits of animals which are extinct and aim to engineer them into living animals – both to bring them back and help with conservation efforts.
The next step is to give Asian elephants the woolly mammoth traits, but it has raised the question – does this really bring a species back from extinction?
However, Asian elephants are an endangered species so there is a lot of red tape to pass before things move forward any more.
Happy News
A long-serving fire dog for the London Fire Brigade is set to retire.
Joining the force at only 10 weeks old and now in his 12th year of service, the cocker spaniel aptly named Sherlock was its longest-serving fire investigation dog.
He attended the Grenfell Tower fire and even met royalty after he passed his training which involves being able to identify flammable liquids including acetone and petrol. He has recently been working within the community for fire safety and prevention.
New recruits have already been found in Simba (eight) and Smokey (three).
His handler, Paul Osborne, says: “As Sherlock embarks on this new chapter of his life, his contribution and achievements during his time within London Fire Brigade are testament to his dedication, expertise and unwavering service”.
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