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Severe drought declared in parts of southern and south-west England

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Coverage spectrum

Covered by 3 outlets, mostly center (67%).

5 articles in total. The spectrum counts each outlet once and leaves opinion out. How we measure bias

Sky News, BBC News and The Guardian report that a severe drought has been declared in parts of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, East Sussex and West Sussex, with some reservoirs at low levels. According to the government, customer water supplies will not be interrupted, and ministers have told water companies to monitor reservoir and river levels daily. BBC News reports that the declaration followed a meeting of the National Drought Group and that the Wimbleball Reservoir on Exmoor stood at 14.9% capacity. The Guardian reports that water companies have asked to extend restrictions on non-essential business use, such as at golf clubs and car washes, and that the environment secretary has yet to approve the requests.

Headline and summary written by Mantle’s AI from the coverage below, under published rules. How this works

What happened

Key points

Each point shows who reports it, from Far Left to Far Right.

  1. A severe drought has been declared in parts of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, East Sussex and West Sussex.

    Reported byLeft1Center2See the outletsHide the outlets
    Left
    The Guardian
    Center
    Sky News, BBC News

  2. Some reservoirs are at critically low levels, with Wimbleball Reservoir on Exmoor at 14.9% capacity.

    Reported byLeft1Center1See the outletsHide the outlets
    Left
    The Guardian
    Center
    BBC News

  3. The UK experienced its hottest summer on record, and the drought follows a hot summer with less rain than normal.

    Reported byLeft1Center1See the outletsHide the outlets
    Left
    The Guardian
    Center
    BBC News

  4. The government said customer water supplies would not be interrupted.

    One outletBBC News· Center

  5. Water companies have asked to extend restrictions on non-essential business use, such as at golf clubs and car washes, and the environment secretary has not yet approved the requests.

    One outletThe Guardian· Left

How each side tells it

Compare views

All three outlets report a severe drought in parts of six southern and south-western areas of England. BBC News stresses the government's assurance that customer supplies will be uninterrupted, while The Guardian stresses threats to public supplies and pending business restrictions.

  • the left

    1 outlet

    Headline leads with the threat to public water supplies and the number of areas, presenting the drought as an urgent public risk.

    Severe drought declared in six areas of England as public water supplies under threat
    The GuardianLeftAll left-leaning headlines

  • the center

    2 outlets

    Headlines state the declaration plainly, naming the areas affected, with no added judgement.

    Severe drought declared in parts of southern England
    Sky NewsCenterAll center headlines

  • the right

    No coverage yet

    No right-leaning outlet that Mantle follows has covered this story yet. That absence is part of the picture.

The words they chose

Language to notice

Words that carry a judgement beyond the facts. Tap a highlighted word anywhere on the page to see why.

Mantle found no loaded language in this coverage. Every headline and opening was checked against Mantle’s published word list, and Mantle’s AI read 3 of the 5 articles in context when it wrote the analysis. Straight reporting often has none.

See for yourself

Side by side

What each side leads with and what it leaves out. Open a side to read its headlines.

From the left

1 outlet

Leads with

  • threat to public water supplies
  • critically low reservoirs
  • requests to restrict business water use

Leaves out

  • government assurance that customer supplies will not be interrupted

Reported by other sides, not found in this side’s coverage.

See the headline from the leftHide the headlines
  • The GuardianLeft

    Severe drought declared in six areas of England as public water supplies under threat

    Some reservoirs in south-east and south-west at critically low levels as water companies call for non-essential user bans on businesses A severe drought has been declared in six areas of England with some reservoirs at critically low levels, threatening public supplies. …

    Read at The Guardian (opens in a new tab)

From the center

2 outlets

Leads with

  • hot summer and low rainfall as causes
  • government assurance on customer supplies
  • government monitoring and compliance plans

Leaves out

  • water companies' requests to restrict business water use
  • environment secretary's pending decision on those requests

Reported by other sides, not found in this side’s coverage.

See the 2 headlines from the centerHide the headlines

From the right

0 outlets

No right-leaning outlet that Mantle follows has covered this story yet. That absence is part of the picture.

Articles you open from here build My Mix, a private picture of how your reading spreads across the spectrum, kept on this device. What is My Mix?

The left is Far Left and Left together. The right is Right and Far Right together. Every outlet keeps its own five-point rating.

Who reported it when

How the coverage built up

  • Left

    13 hr 17 min later

    Its first report, Oct 15, 8:18 AM EDT

  • Center

    First to report

    Sky News, Oct 14, 7:01 PM EDT

  • Right

    No report yet

    From the outlets Mantle follows

See the order the outlets reported inHide the order
  1. Sky NewsCenterOct 14, 7:01 PM EDT
  2. BBC NewsCenterOct 15, 7:28 AM EDT
  3. The GuardianLeftOct 15, 8:18 AM EDT

Times are the ones the outlets published in their own feeds, in Eastern time. Opinion is left out.

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