NEW: 🇬🇧 The UK is planning how to withstand a "Black Sky" — a multi-day power cut that can also take out water, shops and communications — with a recent resilience summit focused on lasting at least 72 hours, per the BBC. When floods cut power to 61,500 people in Lancaster in 2015, all of these failed: 1. Lights and heating 2. Some water supplies, which relied on electric pumps 3. The railway station 4. Petrol stations and shops 5. Traffic lights 6. Most cash machines The communication systems that kept working were copper landlines and FM radio. The issue climbed the agenda after the April 2025 blackout across Spain, Portugal and southwestern France. Backup plans include about 100 BBC staff ready to run an emergency studio with fuel, food and water for at least three days, emergency broadcast scripts already online (including how to dispose of toilet waste without flushing), and £70 million of government spending to develop high-altitude aircraft that could provide at least a week of emergency phone and internet. On 31 January 2027, the UK switches off its copper landlines. The government says there is no specific threat to the grid, which has never had a complete outage in its 75-year history. Cash, cards or crypto: what would you rely on if the power went out for three days? h/t @coinbureau