The money has already helped over 150 rural communities become cleaner and more sustainable by generating enough electricity to power the equivalent of nearly 30,000 homes.

Renewable projects that have received funding so far include solar panels on Salisbury Cathedral and Frome Town FC and hydroelectric turbines on the River Dane in Cheshire.

Frome Town FC installed enough solar capacity to power 2,000 light bulbs and strip 333 tonnes of CO2 being pumped into the local environment, and generating almost £70,000 for the local community by selling extra solar electricity back to the grid.

New community projects across England are now being encouraged to apply for feasibility grants of up to £40,000 for green initiatives, including solar battery storage, wind, hydro and geothermal heat projects.

Viable proposals will also be considered for further grants of up to £100,000 for business development and planning applications.

Energy and Clean Growth Minister Chris Skidmore said: “It will take all corners of the country and sections of society to help us to tackle climate change on our path to becoming a net zero emissions economy and communities are at the heart of our mission for a greener planet.

“This £10 million fund can help sports clubs, churches and schools not only save money and reduce emissions by creating their own clean energy but also make money by…

The process of dying in an assisted suicide after an initial approach to a doctor in Victoria state takes at least 10 days, so the first patient could die from swallowing a lethal cocktail of chemicals on June 29.

Strict rules are designed to prevent terminally ill patients from travelling from overseas or interstate to access the laws.

Health minister Jenny Mikakos said she expected as few as one patient a month would be helped to die in the first year.

“We anticipate that once the scheme has been in place for some time, we’ll see between 100 and 150 patients access this scheme every year,” Ms Mikakos told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

“In the first year, we do expect the number to be quite modest – maybe only as low as a dozen people,” she added.

Four Victorian Roman Catholic bishops have signed an open letter describing the move as a “new and troubling chapter of health care in Victoria”.

The letter said: “We cannot co-operate with the facilitation of suicide, even when it seems motivated by empathy or kindness.”

Any health practitioner can conscientiously object to taking part in the euthanasia process.

The euthanasia system has been implemented over 18 months since the state parliament passed the laws in 2017.

Australia’s sparsely populated Northern Territory in 1995 became the first jurisdiction in the world to legalise doctor-assisted suicide for terminally…

Benjamin Field, 28, admits he “gaslighted” Ann Moore-Martin, 83, as part of a plot to benefit from her will after her death.

He had declared his love for the retired head teacher in a series of letters, postcards and poems during a year-long seduction – even though she was 57 years his senior.

Field, the son of a Baptist minister, denies conspiring with his magician friend Martyn Smith, 32, to murder Miss Moore-Martin.

Prosecutors allege Field targeted the deeply religious spinster a few months after allegedly murdering her neighbour Peter Farquhar, 69.

Field, an English literature student at the University of Buckingham, also left messages written on mirrors in her home purporting to be from God, as part of his gaslighting campaign.

Oxford Crown Court heard that Miss Moore-Martin was admitted to hospital in February 2017, having suffered a seizure.

The following month she was readmitted to hospital after suffering a further seizure. In May she died from natural causes following a stroke.

Miss Moore-Martin changed her will to leave her home in Maids Moreton, Buckinghamshire to Field, but changed her mind shortly before she died and alleged Field had poisoned her by giving her “white powder”.

David Jeremy QC, defending Field, asked him: “Were you the cause of her illnesses?”

Field, who was giving evidence for a sixth day, replied: “No, no way at all.”

Mr Jeremy asked:…