UK

NOT THE PERFORMANCE OF A GOVERNMENT THAT IS GOING TO BE RE-ELECTED

21/2/2024  TSE 

 

When Sunak sees this polling he will rule out a May election because

 he thinks he will need more time to turn the polling around.

TSE

UK

Matthew Vallender: Driving consumers towards heat pumps should be a Conservative priority

February 21, 2024

Cllr Matthew Vallender is a Swindon Councillor

Prior to the early 2020s, when debate has become focused on the seemingly impossible task of generating growth in the UK, in 2010 the then-shadow chancellor George Osborne set out his ‘New Economic Model’.

The model was built on promoting long-term saving and investment, shaped not just by support to increase exports or even welfare reform, but to invest directly in green technology. He recognised that not only was this about restarting the UK economy after the Great Recession, but also about ‘not burdening the future to pay for today’.

Thirteen years after that speech, there is no greater, more rewarding task for this Government to undertake than to drive forward with reforms on how Britons heat their homes. Specifically, that means transitioning from old gas boilers (the sale of which will be banned from 2035) to innovative heat pumps, home-grown here in the UK.

The Conservative case for heat pumps is strong. British homes remain the oldest and leakiest in Europe. They cool three times faster than houses in comparator countries like Norway and Germany. As fuel poverty continues to grow in this country, subsidies for domestic energy have now become widely accepted as suitable levels of government intervention despite the £25 billion bill in 2023. In the same year, 55.8 per cent of the population was in fuel poverty (spending more than 10 per cent of household income on energy).

The merits of promoting heat pumps as the valid, logical alternative to gas boilers are two-fold: the moral argument of creating warmer, more liveable homes for Britons at a cheaper price, while also providing the green growth Osborne articulated over a decade ago, but which has yet to be fully realised.

The Government has a key role to play in promoting uptake and actively supporting the private sector to deliver a consumer-led shift. It is fighting an uphill battle. Currently, in the UK, there are 564 heat pumps per 100,000 households, while in Norway the ratio is one heat pump per 3.4 people. Polling in The Times showed that 68 per cent of people do not plan to get a heat pump in the next five years.

The Conservative response to consumer inertia should be three-fold.

Firstly, the Government needs to drive an information campaign, that clarifies the benefits of heat pumps, explains how they work, and sets out which properties can benefit from them. This has worked well in Scotland where the funding and information campaign are delivered in tandem. In one year, they have driven a three-fold increase in the number of heat pumps installed domestically.

In 2023, the UK’s Chief Scientific Adviser to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero highlighted the lack of trusted voices and narratives while public engagement and trust remains low. This must change to meet the current target of 600,000 heat pumps installed per year.

Secondly, the Government needs to safeguard domestic production, which can act as a significant boost for the Union, by clarifying its policy. Octopus Energy, one of the largest energy companies in the UK, has already commenced manufacturing heat pumps in Northern Ireland, a significant boost for their economy.

However, manufacturing companies, like Vaillant, have highlighted the need for the Government to deliver a stable energy policy, an attractive tax regime, and more developed incentives for training so that Government can facilitate the private sector growth needed to deliver on targets. From zero VAT of all installation costs to a larger training grant that covers the paid leave needed to undertake the learning, these small changes could deliver massive reform to a sector that is having to balance the challenge of unconfident consumers.

Finally, the Government should form a trade board with key industry partners who can advise and facilitate policymakers. We need to shift away from a “Government knows best” approach and recognise, again, that growth comes from enabling the private sector to deliver its aims, not adding additional bureaucracy which further hinders enterprise.

As with Cameron and Osborne’s new grant scheme for electric vehicles in 2011, which opened the door to EVs becoming more normalised in society, we need big bang-style policy measures that will deliver meaningful societal change. The children who now grow up in cleaner air as a result of that measure will now thank us for a warmer home in the future.

William Blake’s artwork to be displayed in new exhibition


Sam Russell


The Ancient of Days. Frontispiece to ‘Europe A Prophecy’ (Handout/PA)



More than 90 works by the artist William Blake are to be displayed in an exhibition which aims to shed new light on the British poet and printmaker.

The exhibition at Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam Museum, called William Blake’s Universe, will explore Blake’s connections with contemporary European artists and draw parallels with the work of his peers, mentors and followers.

Blake, who died in 1827 aged 69, is characterised as part of the Romantic movement.

The exhibition looks at Blake’s peers, including Philipp Otto Runge (Handout/PA)

The exhibition has been organised in connection with the German art museum the Hamburger Kunsthalle and will feature a number of loaned works.

Visitors will be able to view pieces by the German Romantic artist Philipp Otto Runge, whose art has rarely been seen in the UK.

Among the exhibits on loan from the Hamburger Kunsthalle will be Runge’s The Large Morning (1808-1809), a fragmentary oil painting widely considered to be one of his most important works, before his death aged 33.


Blake is seen as a key figure of the Romantic movement, but his work also took in mystical themes (Handout/PA)

The exhibition’s curators, David Bindman and Esther Chadwick, said in a statement: “This is the first exhibition to show William Blake not as an isolated figure but as part of European-wide attempts to find a new spirituality in face of the revolutions and wars of his time.

“We are excited to be able to shed new light on Blake by placing his works in dialogue with wider trends and themes in European art of the Romantic period, including transformations of classical tradition, fascination with Christian mysticism, belief in the coming apocalypse, spiritual regeneration and national revival.”

William Blake’s Universe opens to the public from Friday, and runs until May 19.

UK

Women’s Pay Day reveals ‘shameful’ gender pay gap

Today is when the average woman stops working for free this year compared to the average man

Today, Wednesday 21st February, is the day when the average woman stops working for free compared to the average man.

According to the Trades Union Congress (TUC), the average woman in the UK effectively works for free nearly two months of the year due to gender wage disparity, which currently stands at 14.3%.

More disheartening perhaps is the fact the trade union body has calculated it would take 20 years to close the gender pay gap, based on the current rates of progress.

This has emphasised the importance of Labour’s New Deal for Working People, the TUC said, which would provide a “huge boost” for working women with the introduction of fair pay agreements in social care, banning zero-hour contracts and mandatory action plans to close the gender pay gap.

“It’s shameful that working women don’t have pay parity in 2024,” said TUC general secretary Paul Nowak. “That’s not right. We can’t consign yet another generation of women to pay inequality.”

Nowak warned the Labour Party to ignore “corporate scaremongering” this week after reports that business lobbyists were pushing the party to scale back on its promised, transformative new deal for workers.

Trade union leaders have hailed the new deal as a potential turning point in the future of workers’ rights in the UK, as Nowak said it “stands in stark contrast to the Conservative’s dire record”.

The gender pay gap varies largely by industry, with women in finance and insurance suffering the widest disparity of 27.9% pay gap, translating into working for free compared to their male colleagues until the 10th April.

In industries where women workers are more prevalent, like education and care, the gender pay gap remains, which the TUC attributed to women being more likely to work part-time and because women tend to be employed in lower-paid roles than men.

As women get older the pay gap widens. For middle aged women between 50 and 59 the pay gap is widest at nearly 20%. The TUC puts this down to older women being more likely to take on caring responsibilities and thus a bigger financial hit.

Over the past five years the gender pay gap has fallen by just 0.7% a year, with data on annual hours and earnings from the Office for National Statistics used to calculate the results of the research. Reporting on gender pay first started in 2017.

Last year the Women’s Pay Day fell on Thursday 23 February.

(Image credit: Samwalton9 / wikimedia)

Hannah Davenport is news reporter at Left Foot Forward, focusing on trade unions and environmental issues

London’s beloved and futuristic BT tower sold for $347 million to be turned into a hotel


- View of the BT Tower from Primrose Hill, in London, Sunday, March 29, 2020. The BT Tower, a futuristic landmark on the London skyline for 60 years, is to become a hotel, owner BT Group PLC said Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2024.

 (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali, File)

February 21, 2024Share

LONDON (AP) — The BT Tower, a futuristic landmark on the London skyline for 60 years, is to become a hotel, owner BT Group PLC said Wednesday.

The company, formerly known as British Telecom, said it has agreed to sell the tower to U.S. company MCR Hotels for 275 million pounds (about $347 million).

The 581-foot (177-meter) structure, originally called the Post Office Tower, was completed in 1964 and was London’s tallest building until 1980. A further section of aerial rigging brought the total height to 620 feet (189 meters).

The tower was covered in microwave aerials that carried communications across the U.K. and also housed a rotating restaurant with panoramic views across London. 

The restaurant was closed after a 1971 bombing, claimed both by anarchists and the Irish Republican Army. It never fully reopened to the public, apart from special events and occasional tours.

Technological changes have gradually rendered the tower’s original role in Britain’s telecommunications network obsolete. Its microwave aerials were removed more than a decade ago.

“It’s played a vital role in carrying the nation’s calls, messages and TV signals, but increasingly we’re delivering content and communication via other means,” said Brent Mathews, property director at BT Group. “This deal with MCR will enable BT Tower to take on a new purpose, preserving this iconic building for decades to come.”

MCR Hotels owns about 150 hotels, including the New Yorker Hotel and the modernist TWA Hotel at New York’s JFK airport. The company said it would work with British architect Thomas Heatherwick on the hotel’s design.

However, travelers shouldn’t plan on making reservations just yet. The hotel firm said it will “take a number of years” for BT to move out due to the complex equipment on site.

The BT Tower, a Once-Futuristic London Landmark, Will Become a Hotel

The tower, once used to send telecom traffic, has been sold and will be transformed by the company that turned the TWA terminal at Kennedy Airport into a hotel.

The BT Tower, which once carried telecommunications traffic between London and the rest of Britain, was sold to an American hotel group on Wednesday.

Credit...Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Image


By Victor Mather
Feb. 21, 2024


St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Tower of London and the London Eye are all important landmarks in Britain’s capital. Yet you can’t spend the night in any of them.

But after another staple of the city’s skyline, the BT Tower, was sold to an American group on Wednesday, plans are afoot to turn it into a hotel: one that rises 581 feet (177 meters) above the ground.

“We will take our time to carefully develop proposals that respect the London landmark’s rich history and open the building for everyone to enjoy,” Tyler Morse, the chief executive of MCR Hotels, which bought the tower, said in a statement. The sale price was 275 million pounds ($346 million), the seller, BT Group, said in a statement.

MCR owns several notable hotels, including the TWA Hotel, which occupies the Eero Saarinen-designed former TWA terminal at Kennedy Airport, and the High Line Hotel in New York City, which was formerly a dormitory for the General Theological Seminary.

“We see many parallels between the TWA Hotel and the BT Tower,” Mr. Morse said. “Both are world-renowned, groundbreaking pieces of architecture.”

Reginald Bevins, Britain’s postmaster general, with a model of the Post Office Tower, as it was initially known, in 1964, the year it was completed.

Credit...George Freston/Hulton Archive, via Getty Images

The structure, initially known as the Post Office Tower, was completed in 1964 in central London, just south of Regent’s Park. Standing 620 feet including its spire, it surpassed the Milbank Tower as the tallest building in London, though it was overtaken in 1980 by the NatWest Tower. (The Shard, at 1,016 feet, currently holds that title.)

It was designed to hold microwave aerials to carry telecommunications traffic between London and the rest of the country. The public could also visit Britain’s first revolving restaurant at the top.

Not everyone believed that the tower was a beautiful addition to London’s skyline

Credit...David Cairns/Hulton Archive, via Getty Images

The tower was the target of a suspected I.R.A. bombing in 1971, although no one was hurt. It was closed to the public for security reasons starting in 1981.

Advances in technology eventually began to make elements of the tower obsolete. In 2011, the microwave dishes at the top, a distinctive aspect of the tower’s look, were removed.

“A number of network operations that were traditionally provided from BT Tower are now delivered via BT Group’s fixed and mobile networks,” BT Group said in its statement.

Don’t book a room just yet. “BT Group will take a number of years to vacate the premises, due to the scale and complexity of the work to move technical equipment, and there will be significant time for design development and engagement with local communities before proposals are revealed,” MCR said in a statement.

Although immediately recognizable to Londoners as well as frequent visitors, the tower was not necessarily a favorite for many. It was cited as one of the world’s “most hated buildings” alongside the Tour Montparnasse in Paris and the Empire State Plaza in Albany, N.Y., in a 2015 T Magazine article.

A display atop the BT Tower announced the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022.Credit..

.Tristan Fewings/Getty Images

But the architect Amanda Levete defended it, saying: “It was the first building with an observation deck — that way of engaging with the city was actually pioneered by the tower. It had a restaurant that wasn’t particularly expensive. High rises today are about exploiting the skyline for private gain.”

“It holds so much meaning in an elegant slender cylinder.”

Victor Mather covers sports as well as breaking news for The Times. More about Victor Mather

In defence of Aung San Suu Kyi

Many in Myanmar have condemned what they perceive as
seriously flawed Western criticism of the Burmese ex-leader.

Many of Aung San Suu Kyi’s closest collaborators have condemned what they see as seriously flawed Western criticism of her policies 

(Peerapon Boonyakiat/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Published 22 Feb 2024

DEREK TONKIN

LOWY INSTITUTE

AUSTRALIA

On 18 October 2023, the Brighton and Hove City Council in the United Kingdom revoked the Freedom of the City awarded to Burmese politician Aung San Suu Kyi in 2011. Their special meeting lasted only 18 minutes, with Councillor Bella Sankey, the Labour leader of the Council, stating that it was not right to honour a person who “presided over the ethnic cleansing and genocide of the Muslim Rohingya community” and was “an enabler to racial and religious discrimination and ethnic cleansing”. Sankey was supported by all 50 or so of the Council members present.

This revocation was the latest act by Western institutions and human rights groups, at times inclined to zealotry and intolerance, to humiliate and punish Suu Kyi for her perceived failure to “speak out” against the persecution of the Rohingya Muslim ethnic minority in Myanmar. Yet not one of her critics has ever attempted to say why she supposedly did not speak out, nor offered any word of explanation other than, like Bob Geldof, to denigrate her as a “handmaiden to genocide”.

Their main concern has been to topple her from the pedestal on which they put her, and not to seek to understand her fraught and fragile relationship with the military, which has led to her detention and imprisonment for more than three years.

This year, an invaluable compendium of documents was published by the American Buddhist scholar Alan Clements and his British colleague Fergus Harlow entitled “Burma’s Voices of Freedom”, which includes interviews, articles and speeches by Suu Kyi and several of her Burmese associates. The four-volume set offers a clear and persuasive narrative of her policies from a Burmese perspective, which would come as a complete surprise to many of her Western critics.

Suu Kyi indeed acknowledged that she had not “spoken out” on the Rohingya crisis because to do so would only make matters worse.

Suu Kyi’s consistent approach over the years to the Rohingya – as on all issues – is inspired by the Buddhist virtues of loving kindness (mettā), compassion (karunā), empathetic joy (muditā) and equanimity (upekkhā). In practical terms it is based on:Reconciliation, not condemnation. A refusal to take sides in the communal disturbances between Muslims and Buddhists in Rakhine State.
Cooperation with the military at all costs. A refusal to condemn publicly, but to search for a modus vivendi with the aim of securing their understanding and support for the country’s political transition.

Determination not to endanger the prospects for democratic change after so many years of military rule, even at the risk of being seriously misunderstood in the West.

Suu Kyi had discussions with a considerable number of Western politicians and personalities once she began to travel overseas in 2012. To some, she would undoubtedly have explained in confidence how fragile was her position, but publicly she did not dare make reference to this. Her spokesman, U Win Htein, confided to Clements on 10 April 2015 that Suu Kyi “did clearly express her position about the Rohingya, but what she expressed was that, if she spoke up for the Rohingya or advocated too heavily on their behalf, it would have unfavourable repercussions among the Burmese … It might help the international community understand the situation, but it won’t help Burma.”

Suu Kyi indeed acknowledged that she had not “spoken out” on the Rohingya crisis because to do so would only make matters worse, sully her relations with the military, and endanger her very political existence. Yet this is what human rights organisations pressed her to do. Instead, Suu Kyi put the interests of her country before her personal reputation. In an interview with NHK World (Japan) on 6 October 2018, she stated, “I don’t care about prizes and honours as such. I am sorry that friends are not as steadfast as they might be. Because I think friendship means understanding, basically, trying to understand rather than to just make your own judgement. But prizes come and prizes go.”

Aung San Suu Kyi (L), representing Myanmar, during 2019 proceedings at the International Court of Justice (ICJ)

On her decision to represent Myanmar at the International Court of Justice on 11 December 2019, Suu Kyi’s Burmese associates are unanimous that she did not go to The Hague to defend the military, but to appear as a representative of her country in their dispute with The Gambia, and to defend Myanmar’s honour and dignity. The human rights activist and Harvard graduate Ma Thida Sanchuang said in January 2020: “But for the eyes of the general public, Aung San Suu Kyi took the lead to defend our country’s image … The general public’s stand with her on the ICJ case was the signal … to show how much they are still against the military and its party.”

This is entirely opposite to most Western interpretations. Not surprisingly, many of Suu Kyi’s closest collaborators have condemned what they see as seriously flawed Western criticism of her policies, especially on the Rohingya. U Win Htein commented: “They are false judgements. They are misperceptions. They are from the uninformed and misguided … Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is one of the most compassionate people I have ever met.” A senior Buddhist monk, the late Myawaddy Sayadaw Abbot of Mingyi Monastery, was even blunter in December 2017: “Wait and see. Only those who revoked the awards will lose their dignity in the end.” And as Myanmar’s version of Lady Gaga, Phyu Phyu Kyaw Thein, a Christian, noted in January 2020: “But one thing for sure is Daw Suu, as a devout Buddhist, forgives them for she knows that ‘they know not what they say’.”

One day soon, Suu Kyi may be free to put the record straight. Her detractors can then eat humble pie, if they have the moral courage.

GUT BACTERIA MAY EXPLAIN WHY GREY SQUIRRELS OUTCOMPETE REDS – NEW RESEARCH

Across large parts of the UK, the native red squirrel has been replaced by the grey squirrel, a North American species. As well as endangering reds, grey squirrels pose a threat to our woodlands because of the damage they cause to trees.

New research from my colleagues and I compared the gut bacteria of red and grey squirrels. We found that differences between the two may explain their competition and red squirrel decline, as well as why grey squirrels are so destructive to woodland.

Grey squirrels were introduced to the UK between 1876 and 1929 and have displaced reds in most areas of the UK. Greys carry a virus called “squirrelpox”, which doesn’t affect them but leads to sickness and often death in red squirrels.

Grey squirrels are bigger than red squirrels and compete with them for food and habitat. Acorns, a widespread food source, contain tannins, which are hard for red squirrels to digest. But greys can digest acorns easily, giving them an extra edge in competing for resources.

Grey squirrels frequently strip the bark from deciduous trees. In commercial plantations, the damage can lead to fungal infection and result in the tree producing low quality timber. The annual cost is an estimated £37 million. with sycamore, oak, birch and beech frequently targeted.

The grey squirrels select the strongest growing trees as these have bark containing the largest volume of sap. Intriguingly, grey squirrels do not select trees with the highest sugar content. This observation has led scientists to posit that the squirrels consume bark to obtain certain micro-nutrients.

Gut bacteria

All mammals have microorganisms living in their intestines. For example, the typical human colon is host to at least 160 bacterial species, while in birds, research has found thousands of different bacterial species in chicken intestines.

The bacteria break down foods and help synthesise vitamins, complementing the enzymes secreted by the body. The diversity of these microorganisms, known as the “microbiota”, can reflect the level of health and also the diet of an individual. But we don’t know enough about the microbiota living in squirrel intestines.

The types of microbes present vary between species, yet the extent to which they differ between grey and red squirrels is unclear. We explored this and investigated the potential for any differences to affect competition between the two squirrel species. We also examined whether gut bacteria might be playing a role in bark stripping behaviour.

We sampled bacterial DNA from red and grey squirrel intestinal contents and performed gene sequencing to identify the range of bacteria present in the samples. The results were analysed to compare any important differences between the two.

Ynys Môn off the north Wales coast is one of the few places in the UK where greys have been eradicated in favour of red squirrels. Gail Johnson/Shutterstock

Calcium

Calcium is an important nutrient in the body and is required for healthy bones, muscles and nerves. It is especially needed by lactating animals and ones that are young and growing.

We found that grey squirrels may have the capacity to obtain the calcium that exists in tree bark thanks to the presence of a bacteria called “oxalobacter” in their gut. The calcium in tree bark comes in an insoluble form and is hard for an animal to digest. But oxalobacter would be able to change this into a form that could be more digestible.

Calcium levels increase in trees as active growth resumes after winter dormancy. This happens immediately before the main squirrel bark-stripping season of May to July. Our research may therefore help to explain the destructive behaviour of grey squirrels and why red squirrels appear to strip bark much less frequently.

Our research also identified a significantly higher diversity of bacteria in the intestines of grey squirrels compared to red squirrels. This could hold the key to further understanding why grey squirrels outcompete red squirrels in the UK.

A more diverse range of bacteria being sustained in the gut means that grey squirrels potentially may be able to access a broader range of resources than red squirrels in addition to acorns.

Adenovirus

The grey squirrel harbours not just the squirrelpox virus, but also another potential threat – adenovirus. While this virus causes severe intestinal lesions in some red squirrels, curiously, grey squirrels never exhibit the same symptoms.

This discrepancy underscores the fascinating and complex potential role of gut microbiota. Research increasingly reveals their influence on everything from digestion to immune response, and even susceptibility to disease.

In the context of red squirrels, understanding how variations in their gut bacteria might predispose them to adenovirus becomes crucial. This is especially pertinent for captive breeding programs, where adenovirus infections pose a hurdle to successful reintroductions of red squirrels into the wild.

Given we only sampled red and grey squirrels from north Wales, we hope that future studies will map the gut microbiota of other European populations too. Such future research will continue to improve our knowledge of the competition between red and grey squirrels.

Craig Shuttleworth, Honorary Visiting Research Fellow, Bangor University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Scientists discover secret to how baleen whales sing under water


A humpback whale – which is a type of baleen whale – near Bering Island, located off the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Bering Sea (Olga Filatova/University of Southern Denmark)

By Nilima Marshall, 

PA Science Reporter

The secret to how baleen whales – the largest mammals to have ever lived – sing to each other underwater lies in their unique voice box, scientists have found.

Researchers have discovered these creatures, which include the blue whale, have unusual structures in their larynx that enables them to make sounds in a way never seen before by experts.

It is thought that baleen whales use songs – in the form of moans, grunts, thumps and knocks – to speak to each other, orient themselves and find mates.

These songs are produced at very low frequencies, of up to 300Hz, allowing them to communicate in vast oceans as low-frequency sounds are absorbed less rapidly in the marine environment than high-frequency ones.

But the team said having a unique voice box designed to make low-frequency sounds also poses a challenge for these whales, particularly when it comes to human-made noises in the ocean, which typically range between 30-300 Hz.

Now we show that despite their amazing physiology they (baleen whales) literally cannot escape the noise humans make in the oceansProf Coen Elemans

Researchers said that baleen whales can only communicate at a maximum depth of 100 metres below surface, which means they are likely being drowned out by the noises generated by maritime traffic.

Coen Elemans a professor at the University of Southern Denmark’s department of biology, said: “Regrettably, the frequency range and maximum communication depth of 100 meters we predict, overlaps completely with the dominant frequency range and depth of human-made noise caused by shipping traffic.”

Based on their findings, published in the journal Nature, the researchers are calling for better regulation to protect the species.

Prof Elemans added: “Compared to the seventies, our oceans are now even more filled with human-made noise from shipping lanes, drilling activity and seismic guns.

“We need strict regulations for such noise, because these whales are dependent on sound for communication.

“Now we show that despite their amazing physiology they literally cannot escape the noise humans make in the oceans.”

Baleen whales are some of the largest animals on Earth, including the blue whale, which can grow up to 30 metres (100ft) and weigh as much as 200 tonnes.

These whales have baleen plates made of keratin – the same material found in human fingernails and hair – in their mouths instead of teeth.


A minke whale at Larne Lough in Northern Ireland (Niall Carson/PA)

Since whale songs were first discovered more than 50 years ago, scientists have been trying to figure out how baleen whales produce their complex vocalisations.

For the study, the researchers researchers analysed the voice boxes of sei whales and humpback whales in the lab.

They were able to simulate how air would flow within this organ to produce sounds.

The researchers found these whales to have a large U-shaped structure made up of long cylinder-shaped tissues called arytenoids that are fused at the base.

This structure, which only exists in baleen whales, allows them to use air to generate low-frequency sounds in the ocean as well help with their “explosive” surface breathing.

Prof Elemans said: “We found that this U-shaped structure pushes against a big fatty cushion on the inside of the larynx.

“When the whales push air from their lungs past this cushion, it starts to vibrate and this generates very low frequency underwater sounds.”

He added: “Our experiments showed for the first time how the whales make their very low frequency vocalisations.”

SPACE
Cosmic ‘necklace’ of stars may have formed after powerful black hole outburst


This composite image shows a pattern of stars that resemble beads on a string at the centre of two merging galaxies (Nasa/PA)

By Nilima Marshall, PA Science Reporter

A “necklace” of young star clusters around 3.8 billion light years from Earth may have formed following an extremely powerful outburst from a “monster” black hole, scientists say.

The intergalactic bling, with a pattern of stars that resemble beads on a string, is located in a massive galaxy cluster known as SDSS J1531.

At the heart of this gigantic cluster, two of its largest galaxies are merging, surrounded by a collection of 19 large clusters of blazing infant stars.

Images of this celestial jewellery was first revealed in 2014 by Nasa’s Hubble Space Telescope.




Beads on a string in SDSS J1531, a massive galaxy cluster located 3.8 billion light years from Earth (Nasa/PA)

Astronomers now believe it was formed following an extremely powerful jet – equivalent to the energy produced by a billion stars like the sun exploding all together – from a supermassive black hole around four billion years ago.

This jet pushed the hot gas surrounding SDSS J1531 away to create a gigantic cavity, much like a bubble.

Dr Timothy Davis, a reader at Cardiff University’s School of Physics and Astronomy, said: “Just like a bubble in water, that cavity rises through the hot gas.

“The beads (of star clusters) are formed as gas is compressed in front of the bubble, allowing material to cool and form star clusters that are regularly spaced.”

The team said its work, published in The Astrophysical Journal, could also shed light on how black holes act as “cosmic thermostats” to keep the gas in galaxy clusters from collapsing.

Dr Davis said: “Black hole eruptions, like the one that helped create the superclusters in SDSS J1531, are predicted to be very important in keeping the gas in galaxy clusters hot.

“Finding such clear evidence of this process ongoing allows us to understand the impact of monster black holes on their environments.”


For the study, the team analysed data from X-ray, optical radio telescopes and reconstructed the sequence of cosmic events.

Osase Omoruyi, a graduate student who led the study at the Centre for Astrophysics – a collaboration between the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and Harvard College Observatory in the US, said: “We are already looking at this system as it existed four billion years ago, not long after the Earth formed.

This system clearly has a very active black hole, which repeatedly eruptsDr Timothy Davis

“This ancient cavity, a fossil of the black hole, tells us about a key event that happened nearly 200 million years earlier in the cluster’s history.”

The jet produced radio and X-ray waves that were detected by Nasa’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR), a radio telescope.

The team said it tracked the dense gas near the centre of SDSS J1531 revealing “wings” of bright X-ray emission at the edge of the cavity.

Dr Davis said: “This system clearly has a very active black hole, which repeatedly erupts, and is strongly affecting the gas around it.

“Here we detect the smoking gun, and see its impact all at once.”

The researchers said the team has only detected one jet so far but black holes usually fire two – in opposite directions.

They believe the radio and X-ray signals observed further afield might be the leftovers from the second jet.

The team said more observations are needed to confirm the outburst although the “evidence for this huge eruption is strong”.

Ms Omoruyi said: “We hope to learn more about the origin of the cavity we’ve already detected, and find the one expected on the other side of the black hole.”

Minister says Afghan commandos described 'horrific' SAS war crimes

By Joel Gunter and Hannah O'Grady

BBC News

PA Media

Johnny Mercer, who served alongside UK Special Forces in Afghanistan, giving evidence to the inquiry.

Veterans minister Johnny Mercer has told a public inquiry he heard "horrific" accounts from former members of Afghan special forces of the SAS killing unarmed detainees and children.

Asked by the chair of the inquiry to clarify that he was describing "allegations of straight murder" by the SAS, Mr Mercer replied, "Yes."

BBC Panorama reported this week that UK Special Forces had blocked Afghan special forces, known as the "Triples", from relocating to the UK after the Taliban swept back to power in 2021.

Former members of the SAS told Panorama that there was a clear conflict of interest in UK Special Forces being able to veto Triples applications, because the Afghan commandos could be potential witnesses to the public inquiry.

The Independent Inquiry relating to Afghanistan, launched in the wake of reporting by the BBC and other media outlets, is investigating whether British special forces killed civilians and unarmed people on night raids in Afghanistan between 2010 and 2013.

The Triples - from Afghan units CF 333 and ATF 444 - accompanied the SAS on many of the raids being scrutinised.Special forces blocked applications from Afghan troops

Referring to conversations with several former members of the Triples, Mr Mercer told the inquiry that the allegations presented to him were "horrific" and had "confirmed my worst fears".

He said they included accounts of the SAS executing detainees, including children, who had already been restrained and posed no threat. He added there was "no reason why a person under control should lose their life".

The BBC revealed in 2022 that one SAS squadron had killed at least 54 people, including detainees and children, in suspicious circumstances in one six-month tour of Afghanistan.

Mr Mercer told the inquiry on Wednesday the way the way the SAS was operating and the injuries suffered by children in particular had provoked Triples units into refusing to accompany the elite British force on missions.

The minister said there should have been cause for concern if "Tier 1 Afghan special forces are refusing to go out the door with you".Minister 'tried and failed' to disprove alleged SAS war crimes
How a British special forces raid went wrong

Mr Mercer also said that if the allegations presented to him by former members of Afghan special forces, as well as by serving members of UK Special Forces, were true, the responsible members of the SAS were "criminals".

"If true I have absolutely nothing in common with these individuals and I totally reject their behaviour," he said.

During his first day of testimony to the inquiry on Tuesday, Mr Mercer repeatedly refused to provide the names of members of UK Special Forces who had given him first and second-hand accounts of alleged SAS war crimes.

Returning to the matter on Wednesday, the inquiry chairman Lord Justice Haddon-Cave called the minister's refusal "completely unacceptable".

"You need to decide which side you are really on, Mr Mercer," Lord Justice Haddon-Cavesaid. "Is it assisting the inquiry fully, and the public interest and the national interest in getting to the truth of these allegations quickly, for everyone's sake?

"Or is it being part of what is in effect an 'omerta', a wall of silence."

The chairman went on to tell Mr Mercer that his refusal gave rise to "potentially serious legal consequences which I may need to put in train". The inquiry can legally compel Mr Mercer to hand over information if he were to continue to refuse to provide the names.

Mr Mercer also told the inquiry the Ministry of Defence had "failed in their basic duty" to get to the bottom of what took place and even misled him about the extent of the evidence that war crimes may have taken place.

When attempting to seek assurances about the conduct of the SAS, Mr Mercer said he was told that no full motion video (FMV) was available for operations being scrutinised by the Royal Military Police - a claim he told the inquiry he regarded as completely implausible.

He said that when he challenged the head of UK Special Forces, General Sir Roland Walker, about the apparent lack of footage, Gen Walker simply leant back on his chair and shrugged.

Mr Mercer told the inquiry he was angry at Gen Walker, as well as the then-head of the head of the British Army, General Sir Mark Carlton-Smith, for apparently misleading him.

"I don't disguise the fact that I am angry with these people," he said. "The fact that I'm sat here today is because those people, with their rank and privileges, have not done their job."