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ITV News
a day ago
- Health
- ITV News
'I've been suffering for 10 years': Why are brain injuries still going undiagnosed in veterans?
Ian Huxley was fun and confident until he finished four tours in the Middle East. The ten years that have followed have seen him passed from "pillar to post," ITV News Correspondent Geraint Vincent reports To military medics, Ian Huxley's symptoms must have seemed all too familiar. After two tours of Iraq and two of Afghanistan, he had trouble sleeping, was drinking heavily and was quick to anger. He felt depressed and reported intrusive thoughts and emotions. The diagnosis was Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), a psychiatric condition that can occur in response to distressing or threatening experiences and affects 9% of veterans of the "War on Terror". But when Ian did not respond to normal treatments, he was discharged from the army into the care of the NHS. Still, his PTSD diagnosis stuck. Life since has been tough. Ian has tried to work but lost several jobs due to his symptoms. He has separated from his wife, been sectioned and attempted suicide. "I get panic attacks, I freeze and get hot and cold sweats. "Even doing something like going to the shops, I need to see the exit all the time... if I can't see it, I start flapping and freaking out and then the anxiety goes up and you get to the point like I'd rather not eat than do the shop," he said. "I get headaches, blurred vision, really severe headaches. I had one the other night and it wiped me out for five hours. "I just had to be in a dark room on my own. Really, really intense and painful... I'm always ill as well, from lack of sleep, always ill." "I've been suffering now for ten plus years. "I've been through the NHS, passed from pillar to post. I've been on a number of medications and nothing ever works. I still feel just as angry, just as got to the point like this feels normal to me now," he added. Over the last decade, Ian has seen 29 doctors and scores of other healthcare professionals; his medical records run to over 700 pages. But it was friends, not doctors, who suggested he might have blast-related mild Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI), a condition where repeated exposure to blast causes cumulative damage to the brain, resulting in severe neurological problems. Explosions create a wave of 'overpressure', a spike in the surrounding air pressure above normal atmospheric levels caused by a blast wave. Pound per square inch (PSI) is the unit of measurement used to quantify the amount of overpressure in a specific area. 1 PSI would be enough to cause window glass to shatter, whilst a PSI of 20 would likely cause a concrete building to collapse. Nato allies widely assume that any overpressure above 4 PSI can damage the brain. Several weapon systems used by the British Army appear to breach that threshold, meaning the soldiers who fire them are particularly at risk. Ian was never visibly injured in combat, but he was exposed to blasts throughout his service, particularly in Afghanistan. Symptoms of blast-related TBI overlap with those of PTSD, but there are other signs too, many of which Ian displayed: severe headaches, visual disturbances, sensitivity to noise and light, short-term memory loss and a sense of personality change. "Who I am today and who I was then are two completely different people. "Back then, I was fun, outgoing, I loved sport, loved running, I was just fun, young, confident, cocky, a typical squaddie, I suppose. "It upsets me because of who I was for my older ones, they remember daddy being fun, outgoing, quirky, laughing and joking all the time, full of energy. "My younger children... see an angry man at times, they feel 'why is daddy getting upset' or 'why can't he take me to the park today, it's not like he's doing anything' and you just, the lack of motivation, you are just constantly mentally exhausted and physically exhausted and the thoughts that go through your head, the constant self-doubt of am I good enough? " Ian contacted ITV News after seeing our previous reports on blast TBI and offered to undergo a brain scan to see if his PTSD diagnosis was responsible for his symptoms or whether there was something else his doctors had missed. The damage caused by repeated blasts is widespread, but so small that it does not show up on normal head scans. However, an innovative medical software company has now developed an algorithm that compares MRI scans to a database of thousands of "normal" brains, highlighting previously undetectable areas of damage. Innovision IP CEO, Peter Schwabach, told us: "A lot of the symptoms of psychological damage like PTSD are very similar to the ones of brain injury, and what tends to happen is in the absence of images which show damage, all patients are put into the psychological basket. "Some of them may have PTSD, but many people will have an organic injury... so this could really help doctors make an accurate diagnosis." When Ian's results came back, they were stark. His scan showed clear signs of physical trauma: damage to several of the brain's network connections, consistent with injury. Parts of his cortex were visibly thinned and many neurons had lost their vital insulation - changes that signal a loss of mental function. All this in a man just 39 years old, with no recorded head injury. To neurologist Dr Steven Allder, however, the scans tell a depressing but familiar story. Ian is the latest of several veterans he has seen with these patterns of damage. He described seeing each person as like "picking up the same set of notes every time" and said "there is a real problem." "They're all veterans, they've all been deployed in the same place, and now they've got this very consistent constellation of symptoms which is sufficiently complicated that someone needs to take ownership of it. "And until we do that, the patient and the families are going to just feel like they do, which is that they just get passed from pillar to post with no explanation. "A little bit of intervention here, potentially a drug there, but it doesn't make any difference really." The scale of the issue is hard to pin down, but Dr Allder said the people he works with are worried about hundreds of people. The Ministry of Defence has provided funding for research into the diagnosis and prognosis of blast-related TBI, and a variety of cutting-edge scientific studies are underway. It says it recognises the urgent clinical need to address the complexities of diagnosis arising from the overlapping symptoms of TBI and PTSD. Campaigners say all research is welcome, but there is already sufficient scientific knowledge to justify urgent action to help veterans who are suffering now and they also call for the government and NHS to do more.
Sydney Morning Herald
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Thirty books we'll be talking about for the rest of 2025
The Mission: The CIA in the 21st Century by Tim Weiner (July 17) From the War on Terror to Russian interference, disinformation, cyber ops and moral quagmires, The Mission promises a deep dive into how the CIA has (and hasn't) adapted to a world far messier than the Cold War chessboard. Drawing on interviews with former CIA directors, station chiefs, and scores of top spies it asks: What does intelligence look like when truth itself is contested? Mark Twain by Ron Chernow (August 19) Ron Chernow, the biographer whose Alexander Hamilton launched a Broadway juggernaut, turns to America's original literary celebrity: Mark Twain. Expect the same sweeping research that defined Chernow's work on Grant and Washington, and fresh insight into Twain as the first modern superstar – a man who shaped how writers could court fame while skewering it. Loading Baldwin: A Love Story by Nicholas Boggs (August 19) Scholar Nicholas Boggs gives readers an intimate new portrait of James Baldwin – not just as an icon of American letters, but as a man who loved, grieved and changed the lives of those around him. This hybrid work braids biography, memoir and cultural history into a tender reckoning with Baldwin's enduring power. All the Way to the River: Love, Loss, and Liberation by Elizabeth Gilbert (September 9) In her first non-fiction book in a decade, Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert charts the messy aftermath of grief, transformation and desire. All the Way to the River is billed as an unflinching reckoning with heartbreak, spiritual seeking and the deep currents that carry us where we least expect. Waiting for Britney Spears by Jeff Weiss (September 16) Journalist Jeff Weiss dives headlong into the fever dream of 2000s celebrity culture with this bracing cultural study of Britney Spears and the paparazzi machine that consumed her and of which she was a part. Part tabloid archaeology, part drug-fuelled noir, Weiss lays bare how complicity, obsession and profit worked in concert to devour a pop star in real time. Fly, Wild Swans by Jung Chang (September 16) Jung Chang, whose Wild Swans remains a landmark of twentieth-century memoir, returns with a sweeping new personal history that traces the echoes of her family's story across the changing face of modern China. Fly, Wild Swans is set to be a searching look at what it means to witness – and survive – generational upheaval. Softly, as I Leave You by Priscilla Presley (September 23) Decades after Elvis and Me, Priscilla Presley returns with a memoir that promises new insights about her life alongside – and beyond – the King of Rock and Roll. Expect reflections on her role as guardian of Elvis's legacy, but also her path to independence and the woman she became after Graceland's gates closed behind her. Good Things by Samin Nosrat (September 23) Nearly a decade after Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat became an instant classic, Samin Nosrat returns with Good Things, a joyful collection of more than 125 new recipes and kitchen rituals she cooks for herself and the people she loves. Expect simple, delicious dishes, gorgeously photographed and brought to life with playful infographics. Generous, precise and warm-hearted, this book feels like an invitation to savour the everyday moments that make good food truly good. Elizabeth Harrower: The Woman in the Watch Tower by Susan Wyndham (October 1) This much-awaited biography peels back the layers on Australian literary legend Elizabeth Harrower, who died in 2020 after decades as an enigmatic figure. The former Sydney Morning Herald literary editor explores Harrower's fiercely private life, complicated friendships and searingly sharp fiction. It's one of two biographies set to hit shelves this year, with Helen Trinca's Looking for Elizabeth out now. Surviving Climate Anxiety by Thomas Doherty (October 7) A leading voice in environmental psychology, Dr Thomas Doherty addresses the escalating mental health crisis fuelled by climate change. In Surviving Climate Anxiety, he presents a timely psychological framework for confronting eco-anxiety, offering readers practical strategies to process environmental distress, cultivate resilience, and engage constructively with our climate-altered world. Paper Girl by Beth Macy (October 7) Beth Macy, acclaimed for Dopesick and Raising Lazarus, turns her trademark blend of deep reporting and narrative compassion on her own past. Paper Girl chronicles the changes in Urbana, Ohio, where Macy grew up as a paper girl, delivering the local newspaper. Expect vivid storytelling from one of America's fiercest chroniclers of inequality, addiction and resilience. Unapologetically Ita by Ita Buttrose (October 28) Pioneering editor and former ABC chair Ita Buttrose reflects on her time in Australia's media from battling sexism in boardrooms, fronting the ABC through controversies and refusing, in her 80s, to fade quietly from Australia's cultural conversation. Publishers are promising the memoir is frank, intimate and razor-sharp. Cue the next Asher Keddie miniseries. The Mushroom Tapes by Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper and Sarah Krasnostein (November 4) Loading Three of Australia's sharpest non-fiction writers collaborate to tackle the murder case that has gripped the nation. The Mushroom Tapes sees Helen Garner (This House of Grief), Chloe Hooper (The Tall Man) and Sarah Krasnostein (The Trauma Cleaner) join forces in the Latrobe Valley courtroom – and in conversation. Fungi fever doesn't end there – Greg Haddrick's Mushroom Murders and Duncan McNab's Recipe for Murder will also sprout on shelves this spring. Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts by Margaret Atwood (November 4) The literary legend's mind roams free in Book of Lives, a playful, elliptical memoir that refuses the conventional timeline. Instead, the grand dame of speculative fiction is set to offer fragments – dreams, diaries, mini-essays – that explore mortality, mischief and the many selves she's inhabited as poet, novelist, critic and constant observer of our species. Joy Ride by Susan Orlean (November 4) Beloved New Yorker writer and author of The Orchid Thief and The Library Book, Susan Orlean is often called a national treasure for good reason. In Joy Ride, her most personal work yet, Orlean turns her sharp eye and boundless curiosity inward, charting a life spent chasing stories — from tiger owners to ten-year-olds, Saturday nights to Mt. Fuji. Part memoir, part masterclass in living a creative life, it promises to be a warm, witty reminder to find wonder in the everyday.
The Age
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Age
Thirty books we'll be talking about for the rest of 2025
The Mission: The CIA in the 21st Century by Tim Weiner (July 17) From the War on Terror to Russian interference, disinformation, cyber ops and moral quagmires, The Mission promises a deep dive into how the CIA has (and hasn't) adapted to a world far messier than the Cold War chessboard. Drawing on interviews with former CIA directors, station chiefs, and scores of top spies it asks: What does intelligence look like when truth itself is contested? Mark Twain by Ron Chernow (August 19) Ron Chernow, the biographer whose Alexander Hamilton launched a Broadway juggernaut, turns to America's original literary celebrity: Mark Twain. Expect the same sweeping research that defined Chernow's work on Grant and Washington, and fresh insight into Twain as the first modern superstar – a man who shaped how writers could court fame while skewering it. Loading Baldwin: A Love Story by Nicholas Boggs (August 19) Scholar Nicholas Boggs gives readers an intimate new portrait of James Baldwin – not just as an icon of American letters, but as a man who loved, grieved and changed the lives of those around him. This hybrid work braids biography, memoir and cultural history into a tender reckoning with Baldwin's enduring power. All the Way to the River: Love, Loss, and Liberation by Elizabeth Gilbert (September 9) In her first non-fiction book in a decade, Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert charts the messy aftermath of grief, transformation and desire. All the Way to the River is billed as an unflinching reckoning with heartbreak, spiritual seeking and the deep currents that carry us where we least expect. Waiting for Britney Spears by Jeff Weiss (September 16) Journalist Jeff Weiss dives headlong into the fever dream of 2000s celebrity culture with this bracing cultural study of Britney Spears and the paparazzi machine that consumed her and of which she was a part. Part tabloid archaeology, part drug-fuelled noir, Weiss lays bare how complicity, obsession and profit worked in concert to devour a pop star in real time. Fly, Wild Swans by Jung Chang (September 16) Jung Chang, whose Wild Swans remains a landmark of twentieth-century memoir, returns with a sweeping new personal history that traces the echoes of her family's story across the changing face of modern China. Fly, Wild Swans is set to be a searching look at what it means to witness – and survive – generational upheaval. Softly, as I Leave You by Priscilla Presley (September 23) Decades after Elvis and Me, Priscilla Presley returns with a memoir that promises new insights about her life alongside – and beyond – the King of Rock and Roll. Expect reflections on her role as guardian of Elvis's legacy, but also her path to independence and the woman she became after Graceland's gates closed behind her. Good Things by Samin Nosrat (September 23) Nearly a decade after Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat became an instant classic, Samin Nosrat returns with Good Things, a joyful collection of more than 125 new recipes and kitchen rituals she cooks for herself and the people she loves. Expect simple, delicious dishes, gorgeously photographed and brought to life with playful infographics. Generous, precise and warm-hearted, this book feels like an invitation to savour the everyday moments that make good food truly good. Elizabeth Harrower: The Woman in the Watch Tower by Susan Wyndham (October 1) This much-awaited biography peels back the layers on Australian literary legend Elizabeth Harrower, who died in 2020 after decades as an enigmatic figure. The former Sydney Morning Herald literary editor explores Harrower's fiercely private life, complicated friendships and searingly sharp fiction. It's one of two biographies set to hit shelves this year, with Helen Trinca's Looking for Elizabeth out now. Surviving Climate Anxiety by Thomas Doherty (October 7) A leading voice in environmental psychology, Dr Thomas Doherty addresses the escalating mental health crisis fuelled by climate change. In Surviving Climate Anxiety, he presents a timely psychological framework for confronting eco-anxiety, offering readers practical strategies to process environmental distress, cultivate resilience, and engage constructively with our climate-altered world. Paper Girl by Beth Macy (October 7) Beth Macy, acclaimed for Dopesick and Raising Lazarus, turns her trademark blend of deep reporting and narrative compassion on her own past. Paper Girl chronicles the changes in Urbana, Ohio, where Macy grew up as a paper girl, delivering the local newspaper. Expect vivid storytelling from one of America's fiercest chroniclers of inequality, addiction and resilience. Unapologetically Ita by Ita Buttrose (October 28) Pioneering editor and former ABC chair Ita Buttrose reflects on her time in Australia's media from battling sexism in boardrooms, fronting the ABC through controversies and refusing, in her 80s, to fade quietly from Australia's cultural conversation. Publishers are promising the memoir is frank, intimate and razor-sharp. Cue the next Asher Keddie miniseries. The Mushroom Tapes by Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper and Sarah Krasnostein (November 4) Loading Three of Australia's sharpest non-fiction writers collaborate to tackle the murder case that has gripped the nation. The Mushroom Tapes sees Helen Garner (This House of Grief), Chloe Hooper (The Tall Man) and Sarah Krasnostein (The Trauma Cleaner) join forces in the Latrobe Valley courtroom – and in conversation. Fungi fever doesn't end there – Greg Haddrick's Mushroom Murders and Duncan McNab's Recipe for Murder will also sprout on shelves this spring. Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts by Margaret Atwood (November 4) The literary legend's mind roams free in Book of Lives, a playful, elliptical memoir that refuses the conventional timeline. Instead, the grand dame of speculative fiction is set to offer fragments – dreams, diaries, mini-essays – that explore mortality, mischief and the many selves she's inhabited as poet, novelist, critic and constant observer of our species. Joy Ride by Susan Orlean (November 4) Beloved New Yorker writer and author of The Orchid Thief and The Library Book, Susan Orlean is often called a national treasure for good reason. In Joy Ride, her most personal work yet, Orlean turns her sharp eye and boundless curiosity inward, charting a life spent chasing stories — from tiger owners to ten-year-olds, Saturday nights to Mt. Fuji. Part memoir, part masterclass in living a creative life, it promises to be a warm, witty reminder to find wonder in the everyday.
NDTV
11-07-2025
- Politics
- NDTV
US Appeals Court Scraps 9/11 Mastermind's Plea Deal
Washington: A US appeals court on Friday scrapped 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's plea agreement that would have taken the death penalty off the table and helped conclude the long-running legal saga surrounding his case. The agreement had sparked anger among some relatives of victims of the 2001 attacks, and then-US defense secretary Lloyd Austin moved to cancel it last year, saying that both they and the American public deserved to see the defendants stand trial. Austin "acted within the bounds of his legal authority, and we decline to second-guess his judgment," judges Patricia Millett and Neomi Rao wrote. Plea deals with Mohammed as well as two alleged accomplices -- Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi -- were announced in late July last year. The decision appeared to have moved their cases toward resolution after years of being bogged down in pre-trial maneuverings while the defendants remained held at the Guantanamo Bay military base in Cuba. But Austin withdrew the agreements two days after they were announced, saying the decision should be up to him, given its significance. He subsequently said that "the families of the victims, our service members and the American public deserve the opportunity to see military commission trials carried out in this case." A military judge ruled in November that the deals were valid and binding, but the government appealed that decision. The appeals court judges on Friday vacated "the military judge's order of November 6, 2024, preventing the secretary of defense's withdrawal from the pretrial agreements." And they prohibited the military judge "from conducting hearings in which respondents would enter guilty pleas or take any other action pursuant to the withdrawn pretrial agreements." Much of the legal jousting surrounding the 9/11 defendants' cases has focused on whether they could be tried fairly after having undergone torture at the hands of the CIA -- a thorny issue that the plea agreements would have avoided. Mohammed was regarded as one of Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden's most trusted lieutenants before his March 2003 capture in Pakistan. He then spent three years in secret CIA prisons before arriving at Guantanamo in 2006. The trained engineer -- who has said he masterminded the 9/11 attacks "from A to Z" -- was involved in a string of major plots against the United States, where he attended university. The United States used Guantanamo, an isolated naval base, to hold militants captured during the "War on Terror" that followed the September 11 attacks in a bid to keep the defendants from claiming rights under US law. The facility held roughly 800 prisoners at its peak, but they have since slowly been sent to other countries. A small fraction of that number remain.
RTÉ News
11-07-2025
- Politics
- RTÉ News
US appeals court scraps 9/11 mastermind's plea deal
A US appeals court has scrapped 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's plea agreement that would have taken the death penalty off the table. The decision brings to an end the long-running legal saga surrounding his case. The agreement had sparked anger among some relatives of victims of the 2001 attacks, which saw former US defence secretary Lloyd Austin move to cancel it last year, saying that both they and the American public deserved to see the defendants stand trial. Mr Austin "acted within the bounds of his legal authority, and we decline to second-guess his judgment," judges Patricia Millett and Neomi Rao wrote. The plea deals with Mr Mohammed and two alleged accomplices - Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi - were announced in late July last year. The decision appeared to have moved their cases toward resolution after years of being bogged down in pre-trial maneuverings while the defendants remained held at the Guantanamo Bay military base in Cuba. But Mr Austin withdrew the agreements two days after they were announced, saying the decision should be up to him, given its significance. He subsequently told journalists that "the families of the victims, our service members and the American public deserve the opportunity to see military commission trials carried out in this case". A military judge ruled in November that the deals were valid and binding, but the government appealed that decision. Much of the legal jousting surrounding the 9/11 defendants' cases has focused on whether they could be tried fairly after having undergone torture at the hands of the CIA - a thorny issue that the plea agreements would have avoided. Mr Mohammed was regarded as one of Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden's most trusted lieutenants before his March 2003 capture in Pakistan. He then spent three years in secret CIA prisons before arriving at Guantanamo in 2006. The trained engineer - who has said he masterminded the 9/11 attacks "from A to Z" - was involved in a string of major plots against the United States, where he attended university. The United States used Guantanamo, an isolated naval base, to hold militants captured during the "War on Terror" that followed the 11 September attacks in a bid to keep the defendants from claiming rights under US law. The facility held roughly 800 prisoners at its peak, but they have since slowly been sent to other countries. A small fraction of that number remain.
