Latest news with #RichardDavis
BBC News
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
'It feels like a betrayal'
Lifelong Liverpool fan Carl Duffy, 41, was at Sunday's game with his daughter in the main stand, and said both of them booed Trent Alexander-Arnold's introduction."The reason we booed comes down to a number of things, some of which in isolation would make this scenario different but combined it was always going to lead to this," Duffy explained."Trent claims to be a local lad whose dreams came true, always talking about watching the 2005 Champions League trophy coming home from his house on Queens Drive. His idol was Steven Gerrard. Everything about him screamed 'he's just the same as us'."We identified with him, he was living our dream. To us it gets no bigger than Liverpool being on top and being part of that."In our minds nothing is bigger than Liverpool, that's how it is here. It feels like a betrayal, a backstab, like everything that was said before wasn't really true, or at least not as true as was portrayed."Richard Davis, 50, was at the game against Arsenal and also condoned the booing from some supporters."Alexander-Arnold is widely known as a local lad that is a Liverpool fan," he said. "I, and most fans, can't even begin to imagine how amazing it would be to be in his place so where's the respect to 'his' club?"If you genuinely love the club, and care, why would you run your contract down for the last year or so, to make sure that the club gets absolutely nothing to replace you after they have invested for the last 20 years in turning you into the superstar that you've become?"No-one begrudges any Liverpool player wanting to change their lives and go elsewhere if they want to, but go the right way. Go with respect and some class. Be honest and straight with the club, and don't play this 'will I, won't I?' game that he's been playing with them."I am a fan, and this does mean more. Alexander-Arnold would have been a legend of the club had he stayed. He would probably been in most fans' top 10 Liverpool players of all time - but I think that legacy has all gone now and he's really tarnished how he's left so badly."Read more on the debate around the reaction to Alexander-Arnold's exit
Business Mayor
04-05-2025
- Science
- Business Mayor
Greasing the wheels of the energy transition to address climate change and fossil fuels phase out
The global energy system may be faced with an inescapable trade-off between urgently addressing climate change versus avoiding an energy shortfall, according to a new energy scenario tool developed by University of South Australia researchers and published in the open access journal Energies . The Global Renewable Energy and Sectoral Electrification model, dubbed 'GREaSE', has been developed by UniSA Associate Professor James Hopeward with three civil engineering graduates. 'In essence, it's an exploratory tool, designed to be simple and easy for anyone to use, to test what-if scenarios that aren't covered by conventional energy and climate models,' Assoc Prof Hopeward says. Three Honours students — Shannon O'Connor, Richard Davis and Peter Akiki — started working on the model in 2023, hoping to answer a critical gap in the energy and climate debate. 'When we hear about climate change, we're typically presented with two opposing scenario archetypes,' Assoc Prof Hopeward says. 'On the one hand, there are scenarios of unchecked growth in fossil fuels, leading to climate disaster, while on the other hand there are utopian scenarios of renewable energy abundance.' The students posed the question: what if the more likely reality is somewhere in between the two extremes? And if it is, what might we be missing in terms of risks to people and the planet? After graduating, the team continued to work with Assoc Prof Hopeward to develop and refine the model, culminating in the publication of 'GREaSE' in Energies . Using the model, the researchers have simulated a range of plausible future scenarios including rapid curtailment of fossil fuels, high and low per-capita demand, and different scenarios of electrification. According to Richard Davis, 'a striking similarity across scenarios is the inevitable transition to renewable energy — whether it's proactive to address carbon emissions, or reactive because fossil fuels start running short.' But achieving the rapid cuts necessary to meet the 1.5°C targets set out in the Paris Agreement presents a serious challenge. As Ms O'Connor points out, 'even with today's rapid expansion of renewable energy, the modelling suggests it can't expand fast enough to fill the gap left by the phase-out of fossil fuels, creating a 20 to 30-year gap between demand and supply. 'By 2050 or so, we could potentially expect renewable supply to catch up, meaning future demand could largely be met by renewables, but while we're building that new system, we might need to rebalance our expectations around how much energy we're going to have to power our economies.' The modelling does not show that emissions targets should be abandoned in favour of scaling up fossil fuels. The researchers say this would 'push the transition a few more years down the road.' Assoc Prof Hopeward says it is also unlikely that nuclear power could fill the gap, due to its small global potential. 'Even if the world's recoverable uranium resources were much larger, it would scale up even more slowly than renewables like solar and wind,' he says. 'We have to face facts: our long-term energy future is dominated by renewables. We could transition now and take the hit in terms of energy supply, or we could transition later, once we've burned the last of the fossil fuel. We would still have to deal with essentially the same transformation, just in the midst of potentially catastrophic climate change. 'It's a bit like being told by your doctor to eat healthier and start exercising. You've got the choice to avoid making the tough changes now, and just take your chances with surviving the heart attack later, or you get on with what you know you need to do. We would argue that we really need to put our global energy consumption on a diet, ASAP.' The researchers have designed the model to be simple, free and open source, in the hope that it sparks a wider conversation around energy and climate futures.
BBC News
22-04-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Shrewsbury business to 'lose thousands' as flower show cancelled
The owner of a restaurant and hotel has said the cancellation of Shrewsbury Flower Show means they will lose out on "thousands" of Ditella runs The Loopy Shrew and bed-and-breakfast Darwin's Townhouse in the event, which was due to take place in August, was called off on Wednesday, with the organisers blaming rising costs, including National Insurance Ditella told BBC Radio Shropshire her businesses could lose as much as £10,000 in cancelled bookings as a result. Both the restaurant - with 12 rooms above it - and the B&B are popular with people travelling to Shrewsbury for the event, she said."All of our accommodation was fully booked as a direct result of the flower show," she said, adding that many guests returned every Ditella said she expected many of those reservations to be cancelled, which she said would have "a huge financial impact". But not everyone is expecting to lose out - one cafe even believes it might increase takings. Richard Davis, manager of the Quarry Kitchen Cafe, said security barriers for the flower show last year blocked one of its entrances. "We only had access from inside the leisure centre, which meant our trade dropped drastically from what we could have had," Mr Davis said. "We probably only took about a hundred-and-something [pounds] for the day," he added, estimating that most weekends the cafe earned closer to £1,000 each day. "Now we can have that trade, and see what we would have taken last year." Established in 1875, Shrewsbury Flower Show was for a time listed as the longest-running event of its kind in the world, but has faced a number of issues in recent was cancelled in 2020 and 2021, during the pandemic, while the popular fireworks were cancelled in 2022 due to a following year, a security alert saw the site evacuated in the evening and the event cancelled for the rest of the day. In a statement on Wednesday, Shropshire Horticultural Society, which organises the event, said it had spent more than £150,000 on security and barriers for the 2024 show and had faced other rising also blamed a hike in National Insurance contributions and the minimum Maelor Owen, chairman of the horticultural society, said the team had "struggled to put on a show that was financially viable for several years". 'In shock' He added that organisers were "looking very carefully at the long-term viability of the Shrewsbury Flower Show".Nineteen-year-old Maddie Hards said she went to Shrewsbury Flower Show "all the time" as a child and was "in shock" when it was called off. "I think it's a big thing for Shrewsbury to not have it, you think of Shrewsbury and you think of the flower show," she said, adding that "it's always been such a big part of the town.""I thought [the cancellation] was some fake news thing originally, and then I saw the statement from the horticultural society."It's unreal, it's mad." Follow BBC Shropshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
Yahoo
29-01-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Congestion Pricing makes getting into Manhattan faster, if pricier: new data
Drive times into Manhattan have dropped dramatically since the institution of New York's congestion tolling program, according to data released Wednesday by the MTA — with the most significant improvements at the Holland Tunnel. Average morning travel times at all eight river crossings into the congestion zone have gone down significantly, Juliette Michaelson, MTA's congestion pricing czar, said in a briefing to the agency's board. 'Trip times have fallen by 10% to 30% on average,' she said. 'These are just transformative improvements.' The largest single decrease in travel time, consistently, has been at the Holland Tunnel, where the average time of a trans-Hudson morning jaunt has been cut by 48% — nearly in half. Average morning rush commutes at the Williamsburg and Queensboro bridges have sped up by 30%. Travel through the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel sped up 18%, Lincoln Tunnel commutes got quicker by 17%, and those traversing the Queens-Midtown Tunnel got to Manhattan 15% more quickly. Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridge travel times fell by 10%. Michaelson said the speedier commutes are due, in part, to fewer drivers, but also because drivers are choosing a wider range of times to enter the city. In all, an average weekday saw 553,000 vehicles enter Manhattan south of 60th St. so far since tolling began on Jan. 5 — a 5% drop in traffic compared to historic traffic in the month of January. Of those, 63,000 entered the zone and immediately got on the FDR drive or West Side Highway and left the congestion zone, leaving an average of 490,000 vehicles within the tolling zone per weekday. So far, the reduction is less than the 13% reduction officials had predicted the phased-in toll would bring. But MTA chair Janno Lieber said Wednesday he was satisfied with the results so far. 'The most relevant statistics are the ones about the time savings that are being demonstrably experienced,' Lieber said. 'You're seeing such dramatic time savings and dramatic a increase in speeds.' 'I'm not disappointed at all,' he added. Transportation | MTA: Ousted transit union boss Richard Davis will be suspended if he returns to work Transportation | MTA revives Brooklyn's State St. subway power room after December explosion Transportation | Worker outside Victoria's Secret in Manhattan falls to death when MTA bus hits bucket lift Transportation | With Richard Davis set to resign, NYC transit union to name new president in February Transportation | Transit workers union head Richard Davis stepping down amid sexual misconduct claims The MTA plans to publish its data to a public dashboard Thursday — and will update it weekly, officials said. The plurality of vehicles entering the tolling zone — 44% — come from points north. Another 40% come across the East River crossings from Queens or Brooklyn. Just 17% of those driving into the tolling zone so far come in from New Jersey. The majority of vehicles entering the surface streets of the congestion pricing zone —57%— are ordinary passenger vehicles: the cars, pickup trucks or SUVs that get charged the base $9 toll. Taxis, Ubers, Lyfts and other for-hire vehicles make up 36% of the traffic entering the tolling zone. The toll, which gets higher for larger vehicles like trucks, is required by law to raise enough money to back $15 billion in MTA bonds. Those bonds, in turn, will back a long list of MTA capital projects from the 2020-2024 budget. Lieber and Michaelson said Wednesday that they were not yet ready to publish any revenue data from the tolls, since Taxi, Uber and Lyft revenue — which is paid through a passenger surcharge — had yet to be compiled. 'Broadly speaking, the level of traffic is in the ballpark of what we projected,' Lieber said when pushed. 'Very, very preliminary, it looks, ballpark, like what we thought it would be.' The first batch of revenue data is expected to be presented to the MTA's board in February.
