Latest news with #Britian
RTÉ News
a day ago
- Politics
- RTÉ News
FF TD Cathal Crowe clears up comparison of Israel to Britain
During a Dáil debate on Wednesday, Clare Fianna Fáil TD, Cathal Crowe criticised Israel's "eye-for-an-eye approach" in the aftermath of the Hamas-led 7 October 2023 attack on southern Israel, and compared it to Britian's approach to Ireland. Yesterday, after a wave of criticism, he apologised. He discusses the incident with Gavin Jennings.
Daily Mirror
3 days ago
- Daily Mirror
Rose West 'can barely walk and has no friends' behind bars
WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT Serial killer Rose West was convicted of ten murders back in 1995 and she is one of only four women in Britian to be given a whole life order New details about how notorious serial killer Rose West spends her days in prison has been revealed. West, now 71, raped, tortured and killed at least 12 women and girls with husband Fred at their Gloucester home of horrors between them, from 1967 to 1987. Their horrifying crimes didn't come to light untill 1992 when daughter Louise, then just 13, accused Fred of rape and Rose of cruelty. That case collapsed after eldest daughter Anne Marie — abused from age eight — refused to testify, but what the children told police raised red flags. Officers launched a huge investigation after learning the kids were constantly threatened with being buried 'under the patio like their sister Heather', who had vanished five years earlier. The full horror was soon uncovered, their youngest victim was Rose's stepdaughter Charmaine, just eight, and the eldest was Fred's ex-wife Catherine 'Reno' Costello, 27. In 1995, Rose West received a whole life order, for life, meaning she will die behind bars after police discovered a series of mutilated bodies buried in the garden, beneath a patio and even in a sex dungeon cellar. Fred never stood trial for the horror he helped unleash. He took his own life while on remand in HMP Birmingham agd 53. Since she abandoned her attempts to appeal her conviction in 2001, she is understood to be resigned to dying in prison, where sh has already spent nearly 30 years. Shehas regular transfers due to threats of violence from other inmates. She has been at New Hall for six years and enjoys a cushy life. But insiders said she sometimes lashes out at staff if she does not get her own way. A source told The Sun:"She's in a disabled room now because she can barely walk. She never really leaves the wing she's held on and is escorted all the time by prison officers if she goes anywhere. Sometimes she sits in the communal areas on her own. "No one talks to her because everyone knows who she is and what she did, even if she has changed her name. When I was there, she tried to make friends with the other women and gave them gifts, like vapes, but she was rejected. She likes to watch nature documentaries on the TV in her cell, especially ones about birds." In the hope of distancing herself from her evil crimes, West reportedly paid £36 to change her name to Jennifer Jones. It's understood she changed her name by deed poll in December last year and told friends it's her way of moving on. However, everyone knows her real identity at the women-only HMP New Hall near Wakefield in West Yorkshire. Some inmates spurn her attempts at friendship, and she often eats tomato soup in her cell alone for breakfast, before spending most of her time in her cell knitting and talking to the TV, because she can barely walk. West is now being held in a special unit at New Hall known as Rivendell House, where 30 prisoners each have an en-suite cell and are allocated a laptop which they can use to order food from. The communal areas are also said to be "more inviting" than other blocks in the prison, according to inspection reports. Netflix released a new documentary titled Fred and Rose West A British Horror Story earlier this month. It delves into the nightmarish deeds of the Wests from their unassuming home in Gloucester during the '80s and '90s. The three-part series, which utilises over 50 hours of previously unseen and unheard police interview tapes from 107 interrogations, promises to cast new light on the murders of at least 12 women by Fred and Rose West.
The Hill
21-05-2025
- Business
- The Hill
Looking back at election forecasts
Predicting future events is difficult. The Babylonians discovered this nearly 2,700 years ago, when they began trying to predict the weather. We have been working to improve those forecasts ever since. Lives, crops and more depended on them. It took until 1859 for a country (Britian) to offer its first official weather forecast (for shipping, the lifeblood of the maritime empire). After millennia of refinement, just how accurate are weather forecasts? The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tells us that five-day forecasts are accurate nearly 90 percent of the time. Ten-day forecasts and longer are only correct about half the time. When it comes to where hurricanes will make landfall, even a 48-hour forecast has a margin of error around 50 nautical miles. Humans can be even less predictable than weather patterns. Yet here, too, the stakes can be sky-high. Billions, if not trillions, of dollars are at stake in economic forecasts. Corporations, stock market investors and even the Federal Reserve rely on them to make consequential decisions. Two Berkeley business school researchers analyzed responses to the Survey of Professional Forecasters, conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia since 1968. They found forecasters were correct a mere 23 percent of the time. To take just one recent example, economists predicted U.S. gross domestic product would grow by 1.3 percent in 2024. In fact, the growth rate was more than twice the forecast. A dear friend who spent a few years working at a prominent econometric forecasting firm decades ago, reported their staff motto was 'we predicted 10 of the last three recessions.' Election forecasting has a shorter history. It is both more difficult and less consequential, since the forecasts have no effect on the real world. But it has grown into a cottage industry. Given the difficulties, it is surprising just how accurate these forecasts have proven to be, especially when they employ data collected many months prior to the event itself. The American Political Science Association recently published a journal with a dozen forecasts all completed well before the election, each of which used somewhat different data and varying methodologies. Most of them foresaw the close popular vote finish. The high-end prediction for Harris's share of the popular vote was 54.5 percent and the low-end was 45 percent — the first based on online betting data, the second on the expectations of ordinary people, techniques that I would caution against. Still, most of the predictions clustered within a few points of the actual results. Of the 11 entrants who forecast the popular vote, five foresaw victory for President Trump and six a win for Kamala Harris. Five predicted an Electoral College victory for Trump, whereas three wrongly anticipated that Harris would win the electoral vote. As regular readers would expect, the predictions based on fundamentals (the economy, partisanship, presidential approval) tended to be the most accurate. As I have described before, Ray Fair's model, the longest running such forecast (but not included in the American Political Science Association collection), and based largely on hard economic indicators, was within a quarter point of the actual result. Charles Tien and Michael Lewis-Beck added presidential approval to a smaller array of economic variables, producing a forecast also less than a point off the mark. Models employing poll data tended to be slightly farther off. I have previously quoted statistician George Box saying that 'all models are wrong. Some are useful.' Models are (over-) simplifications of the world. To be wholly right, they'd have to be as rich, complex, and confusing as the world itself. But these simplifications can tell us something about the 'whys' of this and other presidential elections. For example, despite the conventional wisdom asserting elections are about the future, most of the accurate models use retrospective information about the past, not data about future expectations. None of these models use information about the candidates' personalities, abilities or issue positions. Which is to say, the 2024 election was destined to be close, but any Democrat would have had a difficult time winning it. The situational deck was stacked against us, and neither candidate had a secret formula for greatly exceeding expectations. An exceptional candidate backed by an exceptional campaign may have been able to overcome the odds, but that's exactly what would have been required — beating the odds. Would a different candidate, or one who had faced a primary, have done better? We have no way of knowing, but there is no evidence or suggestion Vice President Kamala Harris blew a race that was hers to lose. Would former President Joe Biden have done better or worse? Again, we cannot know, though one of the American Political Science Association modelers claims evidence that Biden himself would have done slightly worse than Harris did. It is no longer fashionable to quote Karl Marx, but he was right in saying that individual people 'make history, but not in circumstances of their own choosing.' Psychology teaches us that humans put too much weight on personal factors while underrating the power of circumstances and situations in shaping behavior. These models remind us that circumstances count for a lot and that the new science of presidential election forecasting stacks up pretty well, as predictions go. Mark Mellman is president of The Mellman Group a consultancy that has helped elect 30 U.S. senators, 12 governors and dozens of House members. He served as pollster to Senate Democratic leaders for over 30 years and is a member of the American Association of Political Consultants' Hall of Fame.
Irish Examiner
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Irish Examiner
Irish Examiner view: How did we let the situation in Gaza come to this?
How did it come to this? To where the people of Gaza are no longer on the brink, but well beyond it and falling into the precipice? To where thousands of babies could die in days because vital aid has been kept away from them? And yet even the most casual observer could have predicted this once the scale of the Israeli retaliation became apparent, and certainly after most of Gaza's 2.3m people became displaced. Deaths are north of 53,000 confirmed but we may never know the full toll, or how many bodies are buried under the rubble. Why has it taken so long for countries friendly to Gaza's starving civilians to marshal real political pressure on Israel? Has it just been because of America's staunch support for Israel overall? Did they think the Israeli government, held together by an alliance with hardliners who want all Gazans gone, would see reason in time? Gaza has had plenty of aid sent to it by the UN, but almost all of it — 3,000 trucks or so — has been parked at the border. Even the few trucks that have made their way into the besieged region can't even come close to meeting demand. Efforts by EU governments to review trade agreements with Israel, and Britain to suspend talks with Israel seem, at this stage, to be behind the curve (and indeed Ireland was one of the countries suggesting the EU deal was reviewed in 2024). Still, better late than never. Ultimately, money talks. Netanyahu has been bombastic in his response to international criticism, saying his country is involved in 'a war of civilisation over barbarism' and will 'continue to defend itself by just means until total victory'. Such othering of opponents can be found in almost every colonial power, with Rome claiming it was civilised against the Gauls, Britian over everybody, America and Canada against their indigenous populations. Netanyahu's policy should be seen in the same vein. Similarly, his claim that Israel is fighting with 'just means' is laughable. There is nothing just about restricting humanitarian aid, about occupying farmland, about levelling hospitals. Israel reportedly struck a medical supplies warehouse in southern Gaza in the early hours of yesterday morning. It is telling, though, that Netanyahu has said he's allowed food aid in because his country's allies — an ever-thinning number — 'cannot handle images of mass starvation'. Nobody should. But it should never have come to this, and our grandchildren will wonder how we, as an international community, let it come to pass. Young people pushing back against life online Like scrolling down ever further to find your year of birth in an online form, remembering a world before the internet seems like a trip back in time just a little bit further than most of us would like. And yet, in a 24/7 world, filled with people who are terminally online for professional as well as personal reasons, it might be a surprise to see that the push back against a life online is coming from younger people. A survey of more than 1,200 people aged 16-21 by the British Standards Institution found that 70% felt worse about themselves after being on social media. Meanwhile, 50% supported the idea of a 'digital curfew' to limit access to some sites and apps after 10pm, while 46% would rather be young in a world without the internet. The irony that many readers will be reading this on a device or at is not lost on us, and yet the idea of resisting the allure of Big Tech is intriguing. Social media companies, after all, design their apps in such a way that they continually fuel dopamine hits, with the novelty of a new video in an endless doomscroll then conflicting with personal feelings that you should be doing something else, or wasting time (even when you're on a break). It's impossible to prevent people of any age from tumbling down a rabbit hole where they may be exposed to ever more bizarre or sometimes ever more damaging or disturbing content. However, there is plenty of merit in setting up guardrails. Parents, already fighting fires on multiple fronts even before trying to restrict or monitor children's online lives, would surely support digital curfews for themselves, let alone their offspring. In a world where digital barrage is constant, perhaps the ultimate act of rebellion would be putting the phone down and walking away. Solving loneliness There is something to be said for a low-tech solution to a Big Tech problem, as our columnist Colman Noctor noted this week when he wrote about youth clubs. Technology has never really bridged the gap between people, even if it's made communication easier. There's the old adage that, because of television, a comedian can tell a joke on a stage in New York and the whole world can laugh alone. Indeed, as Noctor said: 'Young people have never been more connected, yet paradoxically more isolated.' There has always been some air of alienation associated with growing up. Different children have different interests, some of which might be widespread among their age group but niche in their social circle. A child interested in science and technology may become isolated from peers in an area or school where sport is the be all and end all, for example. Disabled children — and adults — may feel this more keenly. Loneliness is a health problem, as Noctor points out, though he cites figures from the No Name Club showing that 81% of members report improved mental wellbeing and 95% had made friends. Other European countries such as Denmark, Norway, and Germany have well-developed and well funded state youth club systems. Here, Foróige does fine work in many communities across the country and should be heralded — but there's enormous scope for more. A little bit of money here and there as an investment in our country's future could pay high dividends. After all, these are the ones we'll be bequeathing Irish society to. They deserve to feel part of the wider community fabric. Read More Irish Examiner view: Irish know all too well of Gazan plight
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Huge Boost For Rachel Reeves As Economic Growth Soars
Britian's economic growth soared in the first three months of this year, new figures have revealed. In a major boost for Rachel Reeves, the Office for National Statistics confirmed that the UK's national income (GDP) increased by 0.7% between January and March. By contrast, the economy only grew by 0.1% in the final three months of 2024. The higher-than-expected figure for the first quarter of 2025 comes despite intense criticism from opposition parties of the chancellor's economic policies, most notably the increase to employers' National Insurance. Reeves said: 'Today's growth figures show the strength and potential of the UK economy. 'In the first three months of the year, the UK economy has grown faster than the US, Canada, France, Italy and Germany. 'Up against a backdrop of global uncertainty we are making the right choices now in the national interest. Since the election we have already had four interest rate cuts, signed two trade deals, saved British Steel and given a pay rise to millions by increasing the minimum wage. 'Our plan for change is working. But I know there is more to do and that is why I'm determined we go further and faster to make working people better off.' GDP grew 0.7% in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) (+0.7%) and production (+1.1%) both grew, while construction (0.0%) was the full article ➡️ — Office for National Statistics (ONS) (@ONS) May 15, 2025 Liz McKeown, the ONS's director economic statistics, said: 'The economy grew strongly in the first quarter of the year, largely driven by services, though production also grew significantly, after a period of decline.' But shadow chancellor Mel Stride warns tough times could still lie ahead. He said: 'While it's welcome the economy is growing, both the OBR and IMF have downgraded the UK's growth. 'Labour inherited the fastest-growing economy in the G7, but their decisions have put that progress at risk.' Lib Dem Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper said: 'This is positive news for the economy but this is no time for complacency. 'These figures are from before the chancellor's jobs tax came into force and Trump's trade war began. 'The government needs to use the UK-EU summit on Monday to boost businesses and cut red tape, including by immediately starting talks on a bespoke customs union.' Rachel Reeves Sends Message To Labour MPs Unhappy About Welfare Cuts Exclusive: Rachel Reeves Has Been Involved In Talks On Changing Labour's Winter Fuel Payment Policy Blow For Rachel Reeves As Trump Tariffs Blamed For UK Economic Slowdown
