Wednesday briefing: Why was the UK so poorly prepared for extreme flooding?

In today’s newsletter: Our environment reporter on what went wrong following Storm Bert and whether widespread flooding might make the government to face up to the country’s leaky defences

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Good morning.

Storm Bert brought heavy rain, gale-force winds and snow across the country last weekend, overwhelming flood defences already described as being in disrepair. Parts of south Wales and south-west England, where a month of rain pummelled sodden towns and villages, fared particularly badly.

Middle East | A highly anticipated ceasefire aimed at ending the 14-month-old war between Israel and Hezbollah officially came into effect early on Wednesday morning, hours after Joe Biden hailed the “historic” agreement. The ceasefire officially began at 4am in Lebanon after the heaviest day of raids on Beirut by Israel including a series of strikes in the city centre.

Health | Plans to end the deepening crisis in access to NHS dental care are failing, leaving patients unable to get treatment, according to a warning from the National Audit Office. A pledge to provide an extra 1.5m treatments in England this year is in disarray amid falls in both the number of dentists doing NHS work and people receiving help from them.

Russia | Russia said it was expelling a British diplomat for alleged spying as tensions between London and Moscow rose after Ukraine starting using British weapons to strike deeper into Russia. The Kremlin has also banned cabinet ministers including Angela Rayner, Yvette Cooper and Rachel Reeves from entering the country under sanctions announced by Moscow’s foreign affairs ministry.

World | Keir Starmer’s national security adviser is to travel to Washington as the UK government tries to persuade Donald Trump not to rip up the Chagos Islands agreement.

Business | The owner of Vauxhall has plans to close its van factory at Luton, in a decision that will put 1,100 jobs at risk of cuts or moving location. Stellantis will shift van production to another factory at Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, blaming the UK’s economic conditions and the government’s zero-emission vehicle mandate.