Latest news with #BathUniversity
Metro
3 days ago
- Politics
- Metro
Ukraine's 'Pearl Harbour' strike on Putin 'may have breached nuclear doctrine'
Putin could use 'game-changing' nuclear weapons in a show of strength hours after Ukraine's drone strikes, an expert has warned. The Russian leader could deploy deploying nuclear weapons, Dr Stephen Hall told Metro. Ukraine blew up scores of Russian nuclear bombers in a mass drone attack on Sunday. Codenamed 'Operation Spiderweb', at least 40 war planes were hit by drones which were smuggled into Russia and then launched remotely off the back of trucks. It represented a huge security failure for the Kremlin, after it emerged the operations 'office' was right next to a branch of Russia's secret service. The Bath University lecturer told Metro: 'The response will be a large attack. Putin cannot be seen to look weak. 'They will target whatever they can and claim they are military targets. We can expect to see missiles and drones.' However, the Russian leader is currently 'in hiding' and many vocal members of the Kremlin are silent as Russia weighs up its full response to the crisis. One thing they will be considering is how to respond to the attacks on their nuclear bombers. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video According to Russia's new nuclear doctrine, published in 2024, any attacks on military infrastructure which 'disrupt response actions by nuclear forces' could lead to nuke strikes in return. Dr Hall added: 'Technically, this fits inside what could lead Russia to engage in nuclear war. 'The nuclear doctrine is incredibly vague, and I suspect that is not a path the Kremlin will go down. Primarily because that will be significant overkill. 'If they did use nuclear weapons, that would be game-changing.' Prof. Hall also argued that any use of nuclear weapons would damage Russia's relationship with China, India and President Trump in the US. Russia has already begun its retaliation, launching more strikes on Ukraine overnight. Sunday also saw Russia hit its adversary with the largest drone attack since the full-scale invasion in February 2022. Another possible Russian Response could be deploying depleted uranium, a toxic chemical and radiation health hazard when inside the body. The metal is put on the tips of shells and can better penetrate targets and was previously used in conflicts in Kosovo and the Iraq War. Russia's nuclear doctrine sets out under what condition the Kremlin would launch nuclear strikes on its enemies. In November 2024, Russia adopted new red lines for when they would press the big red button. The new policy states that Russia could launch nuclear weapons in response to an attack on its territory by a non-nuclear-armed state backed by a nuclear-armed one. Under the vaguely worded guidelines, a large attack on Russia with conventional missiles, drones or aircraft could trigger nuclear response. Assaults on Belarus or any critical threat to Russia's sovereignty could also meet the threshold. Dr Hall doubts the Kremlin would choose to turn to this right now. He explained: 'It would lead to a significant escalation of the war and would finally push a lot of European countries to go all in, in support of Ukraine. Germany's defence chief said Russia is rapidly building up its reserve of battle tanks, to as many as 1,500 each year. General Carsten Breuer told the BBC these could be used against NATO members. But Dr Hall said at the moment, the Russian army does not have the capacity to fight two wars at once. He told Metro: 'Putin believes he is winning, whether he has the right information is another matter.' More Trending Ukraine's strikes on Russian airfields came a day before Russia and Ukraine were due to sit down for more peace talks. Dr Hall believes Ukraine's attack on Russia won't change the future of the negotiations because Putin wants the war to continue regardless. The Russia expert said: 'The President doesn't want peace. That's quite clear. 'Both sides have very different opinions about what they want to achieve in terms of peace. I suspect we are not going to see peace any time soon.' Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Britain to spend £1,500,000,000 on new weapons factories in 'message' to Putin MORE: Seven dead in train crash after 'explosions' destroy bridges on Ukraine border MORE: Schoolgirl, 13, killed after javelin went through her eye in PE lesson pictured
Wales Online
29-05-2025
- Health
- Wales Online
Teenager says he nearly died after having nuts delivered to his hospital ward
Teenager says he nearly died after having nuts delivered to his hospital ward Jacob Robertson has lodged complaints against his local health board in Swansea Jacob Robertson in happier times before he fell ill (Image: Rebekah Robertson ) A teenager with a life threatening nut allergy said he almost died after he ordered nuts that were delivered to him on his hospital ward. Jacob Robertson, 18, said he was able to have the brazil nuts delivered and eat them even though staff knew the risks. He was first admitted to the ward at Neath Port Talbot Hospital after attempting to take his own life when he became unwell in February. He then tried again with the nuts on the ward, but his life was saved by medics, he said. The teenager has now been moved to a different hospital but three months later says he still isn't getting the care he needs. Jacob has lodged formal complaints against his GP as well as against Swansea Bay University Health Board for the quality of care he says he recieved in community health teams and hospital. The board said it can't comment on individual patients in its care, but hopes to better understand Jacob's concerns. Jacob with his mum Rebekah Robertson (Image: Rebekah Robertson ) Sign up for our free daily briefing on the biggest issues facing the nation sign up to the Wales Matters newsletter here. The sixth form student, who should be sitting his A levels at Olchfa School, where he passed his AS with straight As last summer, said eating the brazil nuts on the ward sent him into anaphylactic shock. He said medics managed to save him but the life threatening crisis left him with PTSD on top of his other mental health diagnoses Jacob said he should never have been allowed to order and take delivery of nuts on the ward and that his threats that he was suicidal were brushed aside as "attention seeking" by at least one nurse. His mother Rebekah Jacobson said there has been a lack of continuity of care. Community mental health teams don't seem to communicate, they claim. They said Jacob has had as many as five or six different psychiatrists in four months. At other times Jacob said he was sent home from Port Talbot Hospital hospital when he was too unwell and on one occasion tried to take his life jumping from a tall building. "It is very frightening and I don't feel safe," said Jacob, who has a place to start a pharmacy degree at Bath University and is upset that he is too ill to sit his A levels now. He said the nightmare began when he started feeling "low" and went to his GP earlier this year. He and his mother claim the GP prescribed him too high a dose of the anti depressant, sertraline. Side effects of the medication can spark suicidal thoughts and when they went to hospital for an emergency appointment were told Jacob had been prescribed 100g of sertraline, twice the dose a young person should have been. "I think because I am young I was not taken seriously on the first hospital ward I was admitted on," said Jacob, "They told me that my fears I would attempt to take my life were "attention seeking" which upset me and made me feel even more unsafe. "It feels like a battle. I am 18 and struggling. My intention is to go back to school one day and take my A levels. I want to be alive and it is very frightening when I feel overwhelmed and suicidal," he said. Jacob said when he has a crisis at Olchfa School just before he was admitted to hospital his school had been "very supportive". He said it was a different matter with the NHS. "I usually enjoy cycling and hiking and being active. I have got good mates. But I don't have the motivation to go back to school at the moment because I am unwell." The teenager said he wants an investigation by the health board and feels that mental health services are broken. He said he is still waiting for a full-time care coordinator and confirmation that he'll receive Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) a type of talk therapy designed to help individuals manage intense emotion. Fighting back tears his mother Rebekah said she could not believe how her son had suddenly become so unwell. She is terrified he will do himself harm. "You feel you are banging your head against a wall," said Rebekah, "things are promised and taken away and professionals don't agree with each other. We are four months in and battling for help, it's exhausting." Jacob and Rebekah said he is getting far better treatment now at Cefn Coed Hospital, which is run by the same health authority and their complaints are about Port Talbot Hospital, the GP and community health care teams. But they are still concerned he is not getting the therapy he needs and his mother fears he may harm himself. "When he was sent home once (from Port Talbot Hospital) he ended up on top of a multi storey car park. He had put himself in crisis to get help," said Rebekah, who runs her own business, Mumbles Podiatry. "I was shouted at and dismissed (by mental health staff). They kept letting Jake out and once he also ended up on railway tracks. "He has been in Cefn Coed three weeks and staff there seem lovely but the problem is there is no continuity. He is on his fith or sixth psychiatrist. "As a mother I feel desperate and devastated that he is suicidal. A few months ago he had his whole life ahead of him. We just want help. "I am so scared something will happen to him. They had the police helicopter out once looking for him. We are not asking for the world. We just want him to get treated." Rebekah is heartbroken seeing her son's empty bedroom at home while he is in hospital and fears what might happen next without the help he needs. "I am terrified that when he comes home he won't be safe." Article continues below She became so run down during the last few months battling for her son to get the care he needed that she was hospitalised herself when a tooth abscess became infected. Jacob has also started a petition asking for support for his demands for mental health care provision.
Time of India
14-05-2025
- Automotive
- Time of India
Can public transport ever replace cars?
Representative Image (AI) Scattered among the ever-moving traffic of Indonesia's capital, Jakarta, are a couple of thousand blue and white minibuses. They travel to every corner of the city, carrying an endless stream of people who hop on and off without having to worry about the hassle of parking. The network is a vital part of this 11-million-strong megacity's answer to a big problem. Too much motorized traffic. Jakarta is not alone. Globally, air pollution and road accidents caused by cars, vans and motorbikes kill around two million people each year, and combustion engine vehicles account for around 10% of the global carbon emissions causing climate change. For decades, the response to a growth in traffic has been to build more lanes, flyovers and parking. But this only attracts more cars and greater potential for congestion. Now in a bid to for safer, decongested roads and cleaner air, some cities and countries are trying to get their citizens to ditch cars in favor of public transport. Their approaches are as varied as the results. How enticing is free public transport? Some cities, such as the Estonian capital Tallinn, have opted for a seemingly simple solution. In a 2012 referendum, residents of the almost half a million-strong city voted to make trains, trams and buses free for locals. Since 2013, the cost of public transport has fallen to the city government, to the tune of around €40 ($45) per person annually — with mixed results, according to Merlin Rehema, a sustainable city researcher with the nonprofit research group, Stockholm Environment Institute. "Ridership has fallen dramatically, from 42% to now like 30%," Rehema said, adding that car use has gone up by about 5%. "People who were using public transport anyways, are now using it more often. And to some extent, short walks and bicycle trips that were taken before also became bus trips." Other places — such as Luxembourg, the island of Malta and the US city of Kansas City — that have also made their public transportation fare-free, report similar outcomes. Researchers attribute this in part to Covid-era restrictions, but that is not all that's at play. For the love of the automobile Pete Dyson, a behavioral scientist at the UK's Bath University, says decisions around how people choose to travel also come down to psychology. "When people look at the psychological aspects of car ownership, they typically look at areas of status and of pride," Dyson said, adding that cars also meet a fundamental human need for safety and comfort in a way that delayed and crowded buses do not. He adds that this need can be addressed by giving buses priority over cars to make journeys smoother, punctual, and more reliable. And by making public transport "a safer environment, a more comfortable environment." Ensuring other benefits like "access to a seat or a table, or the ability to do useful or meaningful things while travelling," would help too. Riding the bus with TransJakarta That's the way things are moving in Jakarta. Buses are air-conditioned, have a separate seating area for women, and staff are on hand for any assistance and information required. Buses painted pink are women-only. Each trip costs the equivalent of €0.20. Around 10% of trips in the city are currently made by bus and train, a number the government wants to increase that number sixfold by 2030. But car and motorcycle traffic are growing. "The major challenge here, or the major homework here, is to push people to use public transport," said Gonggomtua Sitanggang, the Southeast Asia Director of the non-profit Institute for Transportation and Development Policy. So far, Jakarta has established what is known as a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system, which repurposed existing lanes to create 14 bus-only corridors. The TransJarkarta network, as it is called, covers 250 kilometers or 155 miles and is connected to the 2,200 blue and white minibuses that can be caught within 500 meters of most places across the city. "And these minibuses are free of charge to incentivize people to use public transport," said Sitanggang, adding that this kind of first and last-mile connectivity is important to create access to public transport. Discouraging car ownership Some cities are taking a different approach and are trying to make driving less appealing, such as through levies. From this year, car owners in Estonia will have to pay both an initial registration fee and an annual vehicle tax. Meanwhile, London established a congestion charge zone that saw car traffic fall and bus and tube usage go up. But Merlin Rehema says there are other ways to disincentivize driving, such as "really redesigning your cities in order to favor public transport use." This is what Paris has been doing by removing tens of thousands of parking lots, closing entire roads to cars and tripling parking fees for big and polluting SUVs. Jakarta is also starting to redesign infrastructure in the central zone of Dukuh Atas, which has tens of thousands of parking spaces but also sits at a major public transport hub with bus and rail connections. "We start by improving the connectivity, the pedestrian and cycling facilities, and then we develop a strategy of how to reduce the parking space within the area," said Sitanggang. Even cities that cannot quickly transform infrastructure can take action, Dyson said. "Some quick fixes to an existing network would be improving the quality of information about routes and wayfinding and making tickets and fares simpler."
BBC News
06-05-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
The first Sikh woman to play rugby for England
The first Sikh woman to represent England at rugby says she wants to break down the cultural barriers that may prevent others accessing the Nagra, from Hove, East Sussex, started playing at Bath University in the 1990s where she was then selected to play for England Students."When I went home, unfortunately, the expectation for me was to stop playing rugby, to start looking for a job, to think about getting married and have children," she dream of a senior England call-up ended and she pursued a career in law, but she continued to be involved in the game and, 10 years ago, set up Hove Girls Rugby. She said: "I suppose my life was like a rugby version of Bend It Like Beckham I often say."Quite often when I played, I was the only person of Asian heritage on the pitch, and that was in my 30 years of play."People need reminding that we are a community that is engaged in sport, we're good at sport. We just need the chance and the opportunities, and people to reach out to us."When Manjinder founded Hove Girls Rugby, the team had just six players, but now have about 80 girls playing across four different age says the Women's Rugby World Cup coming to England later this year will have a "phenomenal" impact on attracting players from all backgrounds into the sport. Brighton & Hove is one of eight cities hosting said: "I didn't have role models when I was growing up, but if these girls can see the change, see their role models, it will encourage them to think about a sport that they may not have otherwise a thought of."Mark Ward is the head coach of the U12 girls at Hove Girls Rugby and says they are looking forward to watching international rugby at the home of Brighton & Hove Albion."There's already a buzz in the club about it," he said."We've already planned the events around it. Loads of the girls have already got tickets for the games at the Amex and the final at Twickenham as well."England are hosting the Women's Rugby World Cup starting in Red Roses will face Australia in Brighton on 6 September with the match being shown live on BBC Sport.
Telegraph
05-04-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Elderly British man says Taliban jail is ‘nearest thing to hell'
A 79-year-old British man imprisoned by the Taliban alongside rapists and murderers has described his situation as 'the nearest thing to hell.' Peter Reynolds, and his wife, Barbie, 75, were captured by the Taliban in February while returning to their home in central Afghanistan. In a voice note provided to The Telegraph by his family, Mr Reynolds, speaking from the notorious Pul-e-Charkhi prison in Kabul, described his situation as 'the nearest thing to hell'. He said: 'I am learning a lot about the belly, the underbelly of Afghanistan. The prison guards shout all the time and beat people. We just witnessed a guy being beaten just now by one of the wardens outside in the exercise yard. 'It's a horrible atmosphere, the nearest thing to hell I can imagine.' The Reynolds, who have lived in Afghanistan for 18 years and have joint UK-Afghan citizenship, are being held separately in the Afghan capital. The couple were married in Kabul in 1970, before war ravaged the capital, and later set up Rebuild, a company that provides education and training programmes for government and non-government organisations. Mr Reynolds said: 'The other thing is, I've been joined up with rapists - by my ankles, ankle-cuffs, handcuffs - murderers and just even before this call, there is a guy here who killed his wife and three children, shouting away, a demon-possessed man. 'These things are an utter disgrace and shame so I'm appalled.' Their family urged David Lammy last week to publicly condemn the Taliban and demand the couple's release. Their relationship began at Bath University in 1968, when Mrs Reynolds, who grew up in India and spent summers in Afghanistan, first set foot in England. Since the couple's arrest, their home has been ransacked and their house staff interrogated. The Telegraph has learnt, however, that they are victims of a deepening internal power struggle within the Islamist regime. Their arrest was ordered by a commander linked to the Haqqani network, a powerful Taliban faction led by Sirajuddin Haqqani, the interior minister. The arrests have triggered intense disagreements between Taliban factions in Kabul and Kandahar, with 'heated phone calls' between the two power centres. The couple decided to remain in the country when the Taliban took power in 2021. Their company's workshops focus on project-based learning and cover communication skills, emotional and social intelligence and conflict resolution. Sarah Entwistle, the couple's daughter, told The Telegraph that the hardest part for her parents is being separated from each other - the longest they've gone without speaking since becoming sweethearts in the 1960s. She said: 'We are able to talk to Dad several times a week, and he keeps insisting that his (locked and barred cell) is the VIP suite - because he only has to share a toilet with his interpreter, and they have a bunk bed. 'He says they are given one meal a day, but he's given extra food from the commander's table. He's lost weight, and has had some health scares, but Dad can find light in the darkest of places.' She explained that her father and his interpreter are allowed to make family calls when 'the rapists, murderers and out of control prisoners are back in their cells.' She said: 'While the guards scream at the other prisoners, they don't ever shout at Dad. This is because he's earned respect in a system that is terrifying and unpredictable.' As for her mother, Ms Entwistle said: 'Mum too has found a way to help those around her. She's creating an informal programme for the women in prison to help them with spoken English. While they can read and write, they don't know how to speak it. She's showing a group how to instruct others when she's not around any more.' 'This is who our parents are,' Ms Entwistle added. 'Mum and Dad are still true to themselves in the middle of this—loving people, keeping peace, and creating solutions in one of the very darkest, violent and most hopeless places in the world. 'They understand the power of the Taliban, and the shocking stories around them. But they are literally prepared to sacrifice their lives for the welfare of these people.' Faye Hall, an American citizen who was detained alongside them, was released last week in a deal cut with senior US officials. Ms Entwistle told The Telegraph that if American officials were able to free Ms Hall, the Government should be able to free her parents. She said: 'We will continue to wait in hope that the Taliban will not only release them, but choose to work with them for the good of the country.'
