Tag Archives: devastating

PacifiCorp could be on the hook for billions after jury verdict in devastating Oregon wildfires – The Associated Press

  1. PacifiCorp could be on the hook for billions after jury verdict in devastating Oregon wildfires The Associated Press
  2. Jury finds PacifiCorp owes more than $73 million for causing 2020 Oregon wildfires Oregon Public Broadcasting
  3. Oregon jury finds PacifiCorp utility responsible for causing devastating 2020 wildfires in civil law KOIN 6
  4. PacifiCorp verdict finds utility negligent in four Labor Day wildfires; jury awards victims nearly $72 million OregonLive
  5. Berkshire Unit’s Payout for Oregon Fires Could Grow to Billions Yahoo Finance
  6. View Full Coverage on Google News

Read original article here

Mum who ‘got on with the pain’ received devastating phone call at work – Liverpool Echo

  1. Mum who ‘got on with the pain’ received devastating phone call at work Liverpool Echo
  2. Woman, 39, Thought Constant Bloating Was Lactose Intolerance. But It Was Colorectal Cancer – More Young People Are Getting the Disease SurvivorNet
  3. I fell into the trap of thinking my extreme bloating was a food intolerance – now I’m fighting for my lif… The Sun
  4. Woman diagnosed with colon cancer after being ‘fobbed off’ with anorexia The Telegraph
  5. Bowel cancer symptoms: ‘Fit and healthy’ Aussie shares the early warning signs that led to agonising diagnosis 7NEWS
  6. View Full Coverage on Google News

Read original article here

18 dead, dozens injured in 6 states after Arkansas tornado outbreak, devastating storms across US – WABC-TV

  1. 18 dead, dozens injured in 6 states after Arkansas tornado outbreak, devastating storms across US WABC-TV
  2. Severe weather in South, Midwest leaves at least 14 dead; ‘catastrophic’ tornado tears through Little Rock Fox News
  3. ‘It Slammed Me Up Against The Wall’: Wynne, AR Resident Thankful To Be Alive After Violent Tornado FOX Weather
  4. National Weather Service confirms EF-3 tornado touched down in Little Rock Friday KARK
  5. Tornadoes kill at least 11 people across Midwest and the South, rips through Illinois music venue where Boston metal band among lineup Boston Herald

Read original article here

In pictures: A look back at 12 years of Syria’s devastating civil war – Euronews

  1. In pictures: A look back at 12 years of Syria’s devastating civil war Euronews
  2. After 12 years of civil war, the last thing Syrians needed was an earthquake CBS News
  3. On the 12th Anniversary of the Popular Uprising: A Total of 230224 Civilians Documented as Dead, including 15275 Who Died due to Torture, 154871 Arrested and/or Forcibly Disappeared, and Roughly 14 Million Syrians Displaced – Syrian Arab Republic ReliefWeb
  4. Twelve years on from the beginning of Syria’s war Al Jazeera English
  5. Analysis: Syria rebuilding hopes dim as war enters year 13 The Associated Press
  6. View Full Coverage on Google News

Read original article here

‘Reality’ Review: Sydney Sweeney Is Devastating as Reality Winner in Taut Thriller Shaped from FBI Transcript – Hollywood Reporter

  1. ‘Reality’ Review: Sydney Sweeney Is Devastating as Reality Winner in Taut Thriller Shaped from FBI Transcript Hollywood Reporter
  2. ‘Reality’ Review: Sydney Sweeney Is Outstanding as Whistleblower Reality Winner in a Clever, Gripping Docudrama Variety
  3. ‘Euphoria,’ ‘White Lotus’ Star Sydney Sweeney Consulted Real Life Whistleblower for Berlinale Title ‘Reality’: ‘This Is a Dream for an Actor’ Yahoo Entertainment
  4. ‘Reality’ Review: Sydney Sweeney Stuns in Fact-Based Single-Room Whistleblower Thriller IndieWire
  5. Sydney Sweeney On The “Honor” Of Speaking To Real Whistleblower For ‘Reality’ Role — Berlin Film Festival Deadline

Read original article here

Man rushed to hospital with insect bite given devastating diagnosis

A man who was rushed to hospital with an ear infection has been told he has just months to live after his illness turned out to be a terminal brain tumour.

Dave Whitford, 49, first realised something was not right when he became dizzy and started vomiting while sitting in his garden.

The next day he was rushed to hospital where doctors told him he was suffering from an inner ear infection that had been caused by an insect bite.

Because Dave was still feeling sick and struggling to balance, doctors performed a scan on his head, which revealed a small growth on his brain.

The mass was monitored for two years and as it began to grow, doctors decided to remove it. They then discovered the mass was actually an incurable brain tumour.

Dave was left devastated when he was told he has between one year and 18 months left to live.

He said: “When they removed it, it took them a month to find out how bad it actually was.

“They thought it might have been a grade two tumour to start with, but it got examined and came back as a grade four which is the worst one.

“I’ve got 12 to 18 months to live but I might live longer, I just don’t know.

“When I found out, I just cried. I was just devastated.”

The father-of-one said he would love to tour the US and even had an early 50th birthday party in case he doesn’t reach the milestone.

Dave, of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, said: “My 50th birthday is this May so I had a birthday party last year incase I don’t make it to being 50.

“So I invited around 60 people round including all of my family and friends to just celebrate.”




© Provided by The Independent
(Dave Whitford / SWNS)






© Provided by The Independent
(Dave Whitford / SWNS)

Alongside having the mass removed, Dave has also had chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

But because he has had so much treatment and part of his brain removed, he is now suffering from debilitating side affects such as short-term memory loss and fatigue.

He said: “I have no energy and I get cold really easily so I have to have special sheets to warm me up.

“They operated on the left side, so I have ringing in my ear which is quite annoying, especially when I’m trying to get to sleep.






© Provided by The Independent
(Dave Whitford / SWNS)

“It does affect people differently and it’s affected my short term memory so I forget a lot of things.”

Dave worked as a bus driver until he fell ill, as he had his driving licence taken off him as soon as doctors found the mass on his brain.

He has been able to work in various roles doing odd-jobs for people over the last three years but now due to the severity of his symptoms, he’s had to stop working.

Dave has set up a Go Fund Me page to help with expenses while he is unable to work.

From news to politics, travel to sport, culture to climate – The Independent has a host of free newsletters to suit your interests. To find the stories you want to read, and more, in your inbox, click here.

Continue Reading

Read original article here

Man rushed to hospital with insect bite given devastating diagnosis

A man who was rushed to hospital with an ear infection has been told he has just months to live after his illness turned out to be a terminal brain tumour.

Dave Whitford, 49, first realised something was not right when he became dizzy and started vomiting while sitting in his garden.

The next day he was rushed to hospital where doctors told him he was suffering from an inner ear infection that had been caused by an insect bite.

Because Dave was still feeling sick and struggling to balance, doctors performed a scan on his head, which revealed a small growth on his brain.

The mass was monitored for two years and as it began to grow, doctors decided to remove it. They then discovered the mass was actually an incurable brain tumour.

Dave was left devastated when he was told he has between one year and 18 months left to live.

He said: “When they removed it, it took them a month to find out how bad it actually was.

“They thought it might have been a grade two tumour to start with, but it got examined and came back as a grade four which is the worst one.

“I’ve got 12 to 18 months to live but I might live longer, I just don’t know.

“When I found out, I just cried. I was just devastated.”

The father-of-one said he would love to tour the US and even had an early 50th birthday party in case he doesn’t reach the milestone.

Dave, of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, said: “My 50th birthday is this May so I had a birthday party last year incase I don’t make it to being 50.

“So I invited around 60 people round including all of my family and friends to just celebrate.”




© Provided by The Independent
(Dave Whitford / SWNS)






© Provided by The Independent
(Dave Whitford / SWNS)

Alongside having the mass removed, Dave has also had chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

But because he has had so much treatment and part of his brain removed, he is now suffering from debilitating side affects such as short-term memory loss and fatigue.

He said: “I have no energy and I get cold really easily so I have to have special sheets to warm me up.

“They operated on the left side, so I have ringing in my ear which is quite annoying, especially when I’m trying to get to sleep.






© Provided by The Independent
(Dave Whitford / SWNS)

“It does affect people differently and it’s affected my short term memory so I forget a lot of things.”

Dave worked as a bus driver until he fell ill, as he had his driving licence taken off him as soon as doctors found the mass on his brain.

He has been able to work in various roles doing odd-jobs for people over the last three years but now due to the severity of his symptoms, he’s had to stop working.

Dave has set up a Go Fund Me page to help with expenses while he is unable to work.

From news to politics, travel to sport, culture to climate – The Independent has a host of free newsletters to suit your interests. To find the stories you want to read, and more, in your inbox, click here.

Continue Reading

Read original article here

‘Do not let Wy come to my funeral. She’s mentally ill’: Naomi Judd’s devastating suicide note

Naomi Judd left a suicide note insisting her daughter Wynonna was barred from her funeral – and claimed she was mentally ill.

The Post-it-style paper was found near the 76-year-old’s body after she shot herself dead at her Tennessee mansion in April.

It said: ‘Do not let Wy come to my funeral. She’s mentally ill.’ The word ‘not’ appeared to have been underlined.

The note was among a series of documents released by Williamson County Sheriff’s Department this week.

Wynnona did attend the funeral, a source told Radar Online, and believes the note was written when her mother was not in her right mind.

The cops also shared images of the country music star’s blood-stained bedding as well as a photograph of a gun on her nightstand.

Meanwhile they made public a series of notes written by a deputy who attended the crime scene, saying Naomi had threatened to kill herself ‘half a dozen times’.

The Judds – daughters Wynonna, 58, Ashley, 54, and husband Larry Strickland – tried to prevent the police report being made public, but dropped the case in December.

Naomi Judd left a suicide note beside her bed, insisting her daughter Wynonna should not attend her funeral

Naomi Judd (right) is seen with her daughter Wynonna (left), in one of their final appearances in public. She is pictured waving at crowds at the CMT Music Awards on April 11, 2022

Sheriffs released photos of the scene where Judd took her own life

The startling images from the scene showed the Post-it-style note stuck to what appeared to be a magazine.

It also showed her grand bed covered in blood that had stained her sheets and pillow after the tragedy.

Meanwhile a deputy’s notes shed more light on what happened the day she died, including conversations cops had with the family.

Strickland, her husband of 33 years, was in Europe at the time of her death and the police report noted she did not like being alone.

‘Didn’t like being alone/Larry in Europe,’ a sheriff’s deputy wrote, in a handwritten note from the scene.

‘She threatened to kill herself a half a dozen times, guns were involved. She locked herself in her bedroom. She would threaten to shoot the people who took her (illegible.)’

The police report also details how Ashley found her mother and comforted her as they waited 30 minutes for an ambulance to arrive at the Leipers Fork home, 25 miles south of downtown Nashville.

Ashley found her mother in a manic state and called the family doctor, Dr Ted Klontz. The actress told police her mom screamed: ‘Kill me, kill me now. I don’t want to live!’

She said she replied: ‘Now, mom, you know I’m not going to do that.’

Ashley texted Klontz, writing: ‘She’s having an episode. Yelling and crying and pacing … Emergency … Please come to mom’s … Now.’

When Klontz arrived, she told him: ‘She was screaming and speaking in tongues.’ Ashley said her mother calmed down when the doctor arrived, and later left them alone to discuss her condition.

When she returned to the room, she found her mother with a bullet wound to the head. She told the doctor: ‘She did it. She finally did it.’

Ashley Judd (left)  with her mother Naomi  Judd (center) and her sister Wynonna Judd (right)

Naomi Judd’s home in Tennessee where she was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head

In a harrowing essay in The New York Times, Ashley in August described how discovering her mother was ‘the most shattering day of my life.’

‘The trauma of discovering and then holding her laboring body haunts my nights,’ she wrote.

But instead of being able to comfort her mother in her dying moments, Ashley said police officers harshly interrogated her and kept her from her mother.

‘I felt cornered and powerless as law enforcement officers began questioning me while the last of my mother’s life was fading,’ she wrote.

‘I wanted to be comforting her, telling her how she was about to see her daddy and younger brother as she ‘went away home,’ as we say in Appalachia.’

Ashley said she was in such a state of shock after she found her dying mother that she answered questions from police she did not want to.

She said: ‘I would never have answered on any other day’ and never thought to consider whether the public would later have access to it.

‘In the immediate aftermath of a life-altering tragedy, when we are in a state of acute shock, trauma, panic and distress, the authorities show up to talk to us,’ she wrote.

‘Because many of us are socially conditioned to cooperate with law enforcement, we are utterly unguarded in what we say.

‘I never thought to ask my own questions, including: Is your body camera on? Am I being audio recorded again? Where and how will what I am sharing be stored, used and made available to the public?”

According to the report, the gunshot that killed Judd ‘perforated through the right side of the scalp and entered the skull through an entrance-type gunshot wound’ 

The country superstar died of a self-inflicted bullet wound in April 2022 at the age of 76

Ashley Judd (left) with her mother Naomi Judd (right). Ashley and her family filed a petition to seal police records of interviews taken in the moments after Naomi’s suicide last April. The family dropped their efforts in December

Both Ashley and Wynonna were written out of their mother’s will, with it left to Strickland to make decisions over her estate and assets.

The Judd family said in a statement confirming her death: ‘Our beloved mother and wife succumbed to mental illness. 

‘Everyone who has gone through this tragedy understands that in the depths of a mental health crisis, thinking is profoundly distorted.

‘Moreover, the worst days are never representative of the comforts and pleasures of the days free from the disease.

‘In the aftermath of this tragedy, our family has tried to grieve, together, with our community, and importantly, with the privacy that everyone who loses a family member deserves. 

‘We have always been a forthright and open family about both our hardships and the depth of our love for each other.

‘In this particular matter, however, we ask for privacy, because a death with privacy is a death with more dignity.’ 

The Judds were the most successful country singers of the 80s, winning five Grammys, nine CMAs, and selling 20million records.

In the immediate aftermath of their mother’s death Ashley and Wynonna supported each other in their loss, attending her induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame, May 1 – the day after their mother’s suicide.

Naomi and Wynonna Judd pictured in their heyday

 On May 29, one month after her mother’s death, Wynonna wrote an emotional Instagram post in which she spoke of her unbearable grief and her fear that she would never be able to ‘surrender to the truth’ of the way her mother left this life

Naomi had a tumultuous upbringing – and in part she attributed her depression to the sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of an uncle when she was just three.

When she was 22, Naomi was raped and beaten by an ex-boyfriend, a trauma that saw her flee Los Angeles for rural Kentucky, where she lived with her children on welfare while training to become a nurse.

They lived in a home with no electricity, phone, television or indoor plumbing.

Naomi moved to Nashville when she qualified and ultimately became head nurse in an intensive care unit.

It was there that she learned a patient’s father was in the music industry. She made a tape of herself singing with Wynonna, gave it to him and ‘The Judds’ career in music was launched.

On May 29, one month after her mother’s death, Wynonna wrote an emotional Instagram post in which she spoke of her unbearable grief and her fear that she would never be able to ‘surrender to the truth’ of the way her mother left this life.

She wrote about ‘personal healing,’ her sense of being ‘helpless’ and the few things she knew in the face of such despair and drama.

She said she would continue to fight for her faith, herself and her family, to continue to ‘show up & sing.’

And she vowed to ‘break the cycle’ of addiction and dysfunction that has stalked the Judd women.

Read original article here

Putin’s ‘Fierce’ Navy Stranded in Hiding After Devastating Attack

Erin O’Flynn/The Daily Beast/Getty and Wikimedia Commons

The Russian Navy is still sheltering in its base in Crimea after a sweeping Ukrainian drone attack last week.

On Oct. 29, Ukraine launched 16 air and naval drones at Russian ships in the bay of Sevastopol, causing damage to at least one ship and leading Russia to temporarily pull out of the lauded grain export deal in retaliation. According to a recent analysis by the U.S. Naval Institute, Russia’s fleet in the Black Sea has been timid since the attack, which is the latest in a series of setbacks since the invasion in February.

Russia’s Black Sea Fleet dwarfs the remnants of the Ukrainian Navy and should by all accounts be able to launch missiles and amphibious landings off Ukrainian shores with relative impunity. But for all their strength on paper, the Russian navy has gone from disaster to disaster since the start of the war.

In March, Ukraine hit a Russian landing ship in the port of Berdyansk with a ballistic missile, forcing the crew to scuttle the vessel. Ukrainian forces also sank the Russian flagship Moskva with two anti-ship missiles in mid-April. While not as spectacular as sinking a flagship, Ukrainian missiles and drones destroyed smaller Russian naval vessels throughout the conflict.

Russia has a large navy, but its losses in the Black Sea are difficult to replace.

Moscow cannot simply send more ships to the Black Sea, since Turkey controls the straits leading from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean and has the legal right to restrict access during wartime. Turkey’s refusal to let naval vessels through means that the vessels currently there are all Russia has in the short term, and is why the Oct. 29 drone attack was so detrimental. Ukraine was able to put a large number of explosive drones near Russia’s prized vessels, including one Kilo-class submarine. While it isn’t clear how much damage was inflicted, that any of the drones were able to penetrate Russian defenses makes it uncertain if Russia’s ships are truly safe when not in port.

That drone attack was the first time air and sea drones attacked simultaneously in this conflict, but both had been used in the area separately. Ukraine’s one-way attack drones, which have seen infrequent use since June against Russian military and oil facilities, targeted the Russian Black Sea Fleet headquarters in mid-August. In September, a previously unseen Ukrainian Unmanned Surface Vessel (USV) washed up on a Crimean beach. Using both at once was an attempt to overwhelm Russian defenses and complicate future efforts to defend Crimea.

USVs, even if they don’t end up doing much damage, are a tricky problem for navies to deal with. In the Red Sea, Saudi Arabia has struggled to prevent USVs operated by Houthi rebels from reaching their ports. The need to defend ships and ports from cheap USVs and other fast-attack craft is part of the reason the U.S. Navy has invested so heavily in directed energy weapons and why the U.K. procured Martlet missiles for its ships and helicopters.

To make matters worse for Russia, Ukraine’s Navy is slowly starting to grow again. Ukraine is receiving patrol boats from the United States and the Royal Navy is training Ukrainian sailors. The patrol boats are small and lightly armed, but they can still help Ukrainian naval and Special Operations forces along Ukraine’s rivers and coastline. Given Ukraine’s unexpected successes at sea, its partners are likely to continue and increase their support. And considering Russia’s struggles to adjust to new threats on land and sea, Moscow will struggle to cope with the growing threat of Ukraine’s missiles, drones, and new vessels.

Ukraine’s innovative use of missiles and drones to fight the Russian Navy has made it challenging for Russia to operate at sea. The strategy has helped Ukrainian soldiers and civilians on land while keeping the grain export deal alive. Without good options for preventing future attacks and an eroding grip on the Black Sea, the Russian Navy will likely stay cautious.

The U.S. Naval Institute analysis notes that Russia’s smaller patrol boats have recently been replaced by larger vessels more capable of stopping attacks, and some vessels have been moved from Sevastopol to Novorossiysk, which is further from the fighting.

The naval war is nowhere near won. Russia still has a much larger navy and can still launch missiles such as the Kalibr at Ukrainian cities from its vessels. Ukrainian missiles and drones might be able to seriously damage Russian ships, but sinking Russian ships will be difficult if Moscow decides to keep them out of range of Ukraine’s missiles at sea, and defended from drones when in port.

Still, for all Russia’s advantages, it’s unlikely that Putin and his admirals will find an easy answer to Ukraine’s strikes any time soon.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Get the Daily Beast’s biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now.

Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast’s unmatched reporting. Subscribe now.

Read original article here

Tree Rings Offer Insight Into Mysterious, Devastating Radiation Storms

A composite image showing a tree ring and flames – UQ researchers used tree ring data to model the global carbon cycle to challenge the common theory about Miyake Events. Credit: The University of Queensland

New light has been shed on a mysterious, unpredictable, and potentially devastating kind of astrophysical event, thanks to a University of Queensland (UQ) study.

A team of researchers, led by Dr. Benjamin Pope from UQ’s School of Mathematics and Physics, applied cutting-edge statistics to data from millennia-old trees, to find out more about radiation ‘storms’.

“These huge bursts of cosmic radiation, known as Miyake Events, have occurred approximately once every thousand years but what causes them is unclear,” Dr. Pope said.

“The leading theory is that they are huge solar flares. We need to know more, because if one of these happened today, it would destroy technology including satellites, internet cables, long-distance power lines, and transformers.

“The effect on global infrastructure would be unimaginable.”

“Rather than a single instantaneous explosion or flare, what we may be looking at is a kind of astrophysical ‘storm’ or outburst.” — Qingyuan Zhang

Enter the humble tree ring.

First author Qingyuan Zhang, a UQ undergraduate mathematics student, developed software to analyze every available piece of data on tree rings.

“Because you can count a tree’s rings to identify its age, you can also observe historical cosmic events going back thousands of years,” Mr Zhang said.

“When radiation strikes the atmosphere it produces radioactive carbon-14, which filters through the air, oceans, plants, and animals, and produces an annual record of radiation in tree rings.

“We modeled the global carbon cycle to reconstruct the process over a 10,000-year period, to gain insight into the scale and nature of the Miyake Events.”

The common theory until now has been that Miyake Events are giant solar flares.

“But our results challenge this,” Mr. Zhang said. “We’ve shown they’re not correlated with sunspot activity, and some actually last one or two years.

“Rather than a single instantaneous explosion or flare, what we may be looking at is a kind of astrophysical ‘storm’ or outburst.”

“The effect on global infrastructure would be unimaginable.” — Dr. Benjamin Pope

Dr. Pope said the fact scientists don’t know exactly what Miyake Events are, or how to predict their occurrence is very disturbing.

“Based on available data, there’s roughly a one percent chance of seeing another one within the next decade. But we don’t know how to predict it or what harms it may cause.

“These odds are quite alarming, and lay the foundation for further research.”

The research is published in Proceedings of the Royal Society A.

Reference: “Modelling cosmic radiation events in the tree-ring radiocarbon record” by Qingyuan Zhang, Utkarsh Sharma, Jordan A. Dennis, Andrea Scifo, Margot Kuitems, Ulf Büntgen, Mathew J. Owens, Michael W. Dee and Benjamin J. S. Pope , Proceedings of the Royal Society A Mathematical Physical and Engineering Sciences.
DOI: 10.1098/rspa.2022.0497

The study was also completed with undergraduate maths and physics students Utkarsh Sharma and Jordan Dennis.

The work was supported by a philanthropic donation to UQ from the Big Questions Institut.



Read original article here