Wales head to Dublin as underdogs again, having not won a Six Nations match in almost three years

Wales great Jamie Roberts says Steve Tandy’s side are working towards claiming a major scalp and believes they could run Ireland close in Dublin on Friday night.

Despite a much-improved performance against Scotland last time out, Tandy’s men head to the Aviva Stadium as major underdogs, having not won a Six Nations match in three years. Ireland, meanwhile, come into the game off the back of a record 42-21 away win against England, with Andy Farrell’s side running riot in a superb display at Twickenham.

As a result, Wales – who suffered heavy defeats to England and France before running Scotland close in Cardiff – have been widely written off ahead of Friday’s clash.

But Roberts has been encouraged by what he has seen from Tandy’s side and, while he can’t quite see Wales pulling off a major upset, he doesn’t expect there to be much in it come the full-time whistle in Dublin.

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“I think it’s going to be a one-score game,” the 94-cap international told the Ireland Rugby Social podcast. “I think Ireland sneak it, 2012 is the last time Wales won there.

“I want to see Wales improve on their performance against Scotland and I’m confident they will.

“But I just think Ireland now, because they’ve got a sniff of silverware [the Triple Crown], they are going to be super motivated for this. I’m going to go Ireland 26-20 Wales.”

Former Ireland scrum-half Conor Murray, on co-hosting duties with Gavin Andrews, plumped for a slightly more convincing margin of victory for Farrell’s side, predicting a 36-24 win for the hosts.

Roberts added that he was confident that Wales would be able to end their dismal losing run before too long, claiming that “the scalp is coming”.

However, with an impressive Italy side last up for Wales, whether that result comes during the Six Nations or not remains to be seen.

“We’ve seen the way Wales are going to play moving forward, especially coming up to the World Cup next year,” the former British & Irish Lions centre said.

“A bit like the great Ireland sides of recent years, a lot of ball movement, running lines, decoy shape, quick ball and trying to go multi-phase. They showed some great stuff against Scotland and deserved to win it.

“The scalp is coming,” he added. “It’s just a question of when and if it’s going to be in this tournament.”

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The US Secretary of War claimed “President Trump got the last laugh”

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The head of an alleged Iranian operation to ‘kill Donald Trump’ has been ‘hunted down and killed’ according to the U.S the Secretary of War.

U.S. military action on Tuesday (March 3) located and eliminated the head of the mission, Pete Hegseth described, adding that President Donald Trump ‘got the last laugh’. “Also yesterday, the leader of the unit who attempted to assassinate President Trump has been hunted down and killed,” he told reporters.

“Iran tried to kill President Trump. And President Trump got the last laugh,” he added before asserting that the U.S. was winning its military operation against Iran “decisively, devastatingly and without mercy.”

Joint airstrikes conducted by the U.S. and Israel killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Saturday (February 28) with the deceased ayatollah’s son Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei primed to replace him. In response to the strikes, Iran has hit multiple Gulf nations, such as Saudi Arabia, Oman and the UAE.

Sec. Hegseth says more forces including jet fighters and bombers soon will arrive in the Middle East to assist U.S. operations and that the country “will take all the time we need to make sure that we succeed”. Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff insisted American forces have adequate munitions for ongoing operations against Iran.

Referring to drones Hegseth said: “We have pushed every counter-UAS system possible forward, sparing no expense or capability. Like I said, this does not mean we stop everything.” Meanwhile, Hegseth confirmed a torpedo from a US submarine sank an Iranian warship and that the Tuesday night strike was the first such attack by the U.S. on an enemy since the Second World War.

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“An American submarine sunk an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters,” Hegseth said. “Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo.”

The last wartime sinking of a ship by a submarine took place during the Falklands War when Argentine cruiser ARA General Belgrano was torpedoed by the British nuclear submarine HMS Conqueror.

Authorities report 32 people were rescued from the Iranian ship that was reported in distress off the coast of Sri Lanka, with 140 people believed to be missing. It was not immediately clear what happened to the ship or how many people were on board. The US military said previously it had already destroyed 17 Iranian vessels, and that its goal was sinking “the entire navy”.

Police were called to Denton Road, Newcastle, at 5.30pm on Tuesday (March 3) after the boy was hit an electric Sur-Ron-style motorcycle, the rider of which had fled the scene.

He remains in hospital for treatment as an investigation into the incident is launched, and police appeal for witnesses.

A Northumbria Police spokesperson said: “[Officers] are especially keen to hear from witnesses who saw what happened or witnessed the vehicles in the area.

“They would also like to speak with anyone who may have CCTV, dashcam or mobile phone footage of the incident or the moments leading up to it.

“Members of the public can get in touch by sending a direct message on social media, or by using the live chat function or report forms on the Force’s website.

“For those unable to get in touch in those ways, call 101. Please quote reference number: NP-20260303-0798.”

South West Water has pleaded guilty to supplying water unfit for human consumption after an outbreak of cryptosporidiosis in a Devon seaside town.

A total of 143 people were confirmed to have caught the waterborne disease, which causes sickness and diarrhoea, after it entered the water network in Brixham almost two years ago, due to a damaged valve in the network.

Following reports of people falling ill and finding traces of the cryptosporidiosis in the water network, the company told residents in areas of Brixham to boil their water before using it. At the same time, water bottle collections were set up across the area.

At Exeter Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, the water company pleaded guilty to supplying water unfit for human consumption within the Littlehempston Water Supply Zone between 31 March and 1 June 2024.

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The prosecution was brought by the Drinking Water Inspectorate, which has asked the chairman of the bench to send the case to the crown court to “send a message that the criminal justice system will treat cases like this with the utmost seriousness”.

Following the outbreak, South West Water chief executive Susan Davy, who stepped down last year, said she was “truly sorry”.

Locals had complained over a lack of communication from the company and the knock-on impact of the incident on tourism for the town.

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She said: “To those in the affected area and our customers across the South West, I am truly sorry for the disruption and wider anxiety this has caused. While incidents like these are thankfully very rare, our customers expect a safe, clean, and reliable source of drinking water.”

The incident was investigated by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and the Drinking Water Inspectorate.

This is a breaking story, more to follow

February 24 marked the anniversary of the Russian invasion four years ago – with Perth twinned alongside the Ukrainian city of Nikopol.

Perth and Kinross councillors have this week voiced support for those suffering in the council’s twin city of Nikopol and others in Ukraine.

February 24 marked the four-year anniversary since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Since then, Perth and Kinross has welcomed over 350 Ukrainian refugees into the area and Tayside and Strathearn Help for Ukraine (TASH) has sent out over 100 lorries of humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

Perth and Kinross Provost Xander McDade opened Wednesday’s meeting of the full council by praising the continued efforts of TASH and others in Perth and Kinross in their support to the people of Ukraine.

Before councillors discussed items on the packed agenda on Wednesday, February 25, Provost McDade said: “I would just like to reflect that yesterday marked four years since the most recent invasion of Ukraine by Russia. Shortly after that invasion, this council resolved to do everything we could – in this small part of the world – to support Ukraine and since that time have done significantly more than your average local authority, it is fair to say.

“We have taken symbolic action such as twinning with Nikopol. But we’ve also had enormous amounts of support sent out to Ukraine through Tayside and Strathearn Help for Ukraine (TASH), based out in the Carse of Gowrie.

“They have sent over 100 lorries of humanitarian aid to Ukraine over the last four years, which is an incredible amount and they are one of the last centres sending stuff to Ukraine, based in Scotland. I think that is a testament to how strong the support has been here in Perth and Kinross.

“We have also welcomed over 300 Ukrainian refugees which amounts to 150 families who have integrated into our schools and wider community.”

Strathallan ward councillor Steven Carr is heavily involved in supporting Ukrainians settle in Perth and Kinross and across Scotland. He is the founder and chairman of Dnipro Kids. In 2022 he travelled to Ukraine and ran an evacuation effort bringing families out of Ukraine in coaches to Poland.

Cllr Carr said: “I’d like to thank the Provost for highlighting the fourth anniversary of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

“As we enter this fifth year of Russian occupation, Ukraine continues to stand resilient in the face of the ongoing aggression, despite the many hardships currently encountered by the Ukrainian people.

“My friends in Ukraine tell me that due to the current heightened level of missile and drone attacks on the Ukrainian infrastructure and the need to conserve energy for the most important needs such as hospitals and critical industry, they currently have just one and a half hour of electricity in the morning and one and a half hour of electricity in the evening.

“And at a time when many Ukrainian cities are still encountering sub-zero temperatures, it is unfathomable to imagine how hard life is at this current time for the Ukrainian people.

“Thoughts go to those in our twinned city of Nikopol who, as well as facing these hardships, also face shelling on a daily basis from Russian troops based on the opposite side of the Dnipro River.

“I think this is good opportunity for council to voice our support for those suffering in our twin city of Nikopol, for those in Ukraine and for the many displaced Ukrainians that we continue to support within Perth and Kinross, who still have the worry for the safety of family and friends within Ukraine.

“Hope still remains that a solution can be found to end this war and bring peace back to the people of Ukraine.

“Slava Ukrainii.”

Concerns about living in a “post-truth” society – where evidence struggles to compete with misinformation, ideology and emotion – are now familiar. From vaccine hesitancy to climate change denial, public debates increasingly hinge not on a lack of information, but on how people judge evidence, expertise and uncertainty.

These concerns are often framed as a problem of facts. But a deeper issue may be at play – whether people have the skills to weigh competing claims, understand uncertainty and decide what counts as good evidence. Our new research suggests that science education could play a far bigger role in shaping those skills than is usually recognised.

Many philosophers and educationalists have argued that education plays a central role in preparing citizens to navigate an uncertain world. Today, organisations such as Unesco, the UN body for education, science and culture, are grappling with how schools and universities can respond to rising misinformation and declining trust in expertise. Higher education institutions and academics are attempting to find practical solutions to this challenge. Public concern often focuses on people rejecting scientific conclusions outright.

But the deeper challenge is epistemic: difficulty judging what counts as good evidence, how confident we should be in claims and when disagreement is legitimate rather than conspiratorial.

Our findings suggest science education – even for students who go on to study non-science subjects – may be crucial in shaping these abilities.

Using linked administrative data from more than 8,000 pupils in the UK, we examined achievement in GCSE science at age 15. We then looked at how this related to outcomes in the six most popular post-16 subjects: maths, biology, history, chemistry, English literature and physics.

Some results were expected. Students who achieved the equivalent of an A or A* in GCSE science were significantly more likely to go on to gain strong grades in science A-levels. But what surprised us was how far this effect extended beyond science.

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Post-truth politics and why the antidote isn’t simply ‘fact-checking’ and truth

High-achieving GCSE science students were more likely to achieve higher grades in every one of the six subjects we studied, including humanities. Even more strikingly, GCSE science turned out to be a stronger predictor of later success in history and English literature than GCSE maths. It was also a stronger predictor of success in history than GCSE English language (or Welsh language in Wales).

That matters because GCSE English language and maths are routinely used as determinants for post-16 education. Science rarely is. For decades, maths and English have been treated as the foundations of academic progress and employability. Science, by contrast, has often been justified mainly in economic terms – as a way to produce future scientists and fuel innovation.

Our findings suggest something broader is going on.

What is science education really doing?

Science education appears to be doing more than teaching just subject knowledge. It seems to help develop transferable ways of thinking that support learning across disciplines.

Educational researchers have long argued that science classrooms cultivate skills such as evaluating evidence, reasoning about cause and effect, handling uncertainty and distinguishing claims from data. In a world shaped by science and technology, these abilities increasingly matter in almost every career, and in everyday civic life.

Success in science at age 15 seems to signal – or help build – forms of reasoning that support later achievement. These skills matter in subjects like history and English, where students must weigh sources, construct arguments and interpret complex information.

This fits with wider research showing that scientific reasoning is linked to better judgement of misinformation. It is also associated with a stronger grasp of risk and probability, and a more nuanced engagement with expert disagreement. In a post-truth context, these skills may be just as important as subject-specific knowledge.

Implications for a post-truth society

This has implications for how science is taught and defended. If science education really does foster transferable ways of reasoning, curricula that prioritise experimentation, argumentation and uncertainty may matter more.

So too does teaching the nature of scientific knowledge, rather than relying on rote learning. Reducing science to memorisation risks stripping away precisely the features that seem to deliver long-term benefits.

Our findings also raise broader questions. How explicitly are these forms of reasoning made visible to students? Are assessments capturing them? And could non-science subjects draw more directly on the epistemic practices that science helps to cultivate?

Science education may need to do more to articulate its connections to other disciplines. History, English and other subjects may benefit from making shared ways of thinking more explicit.

In an increasingly polarised, misinformation-rich public sphere, the value of science education should not be judged solely by how many future scientists it produces. Our research suggests its influence is wider and longer-lasting: helping young people develop tools for thinking that support learning and judgement across many areas of life.

If we are serious about addressing the challenges of a post-truth society, science classrooms may be one of our most important – and underappreciated – starting points.

Bridgerton season 4 saw Hyacinth Bridgerton (Florence Hunt) come to the fore as she prepared to make her debut in society

Bridgerton season four is now available on Netflix and whilst the season featured Benedict Bridgerton (played by Luke Thompson) and Sophie Baek (Yerin Ha) in the limelight, it did devote particular attention to the other Bridgerton siblings. From Francesca’s (Hannah Dodd) distressing storyline to Eloise’s (Claudia Jessie) opposing views on marriage, the latest instalment delivered a number of revelations and sparked plenty of questions about the characters’ future romantic narratives.

One of the younger siblings, Hyacinth (Florence Hunt), also captured the spotlight this season as she conveyed her excitement to enter the marriage mart. She was seen eagerly planning events and attending recitals in an attempt to make a good first impression.

Netflix has confirmed all of the Bridgerton siblings will have their love stories from Julia Quinn’s novels adapted for the screen. With this in mind, fans will see young Hyacinth getting married in a few years’ time. Hyacinth’s love story is told in the novel It’s In His Kiss, and fans have been pondering how old the character is supposed to be in the latest season.

How old is Hyacinth in Bridgerton season 4?

In the latest Bridgerton episodes, Hyacinth underwent some considerable changes which signified her maturing into a young woman. Not only were her hems lowered on her dresses, she also displayed enthusiasm to debut in the near future. Whilst she is beginning to prepare for her marriage mart debut, she remains full of youth, innocence and naivety, leaving fans wondering about her age.

Hyacinth is understood to be 13 years old during season four, as Ok_Help_9587 explained on Reddit: “In the script for the first episode of season one it says that Gregory is 12 and Hyacinth is 10. If this stayed true, that makes them 15 and 13 in season four.”

Ok-Culture3841 added: “Gregory is 15 and Hyacinth is 13. Gregory could have an early birthday making him one of the ‘older’ kids at Eton. Hyacinth having her gowns altered also makes sense now that she’s a teenager. Whilst most girls did when they came out in society it wasn’t uncommon for them to do so as early as 12-13. Particularly if they had a large growth spurt.”

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How old is Hyacinth Bridgerton actress Florence Hunt?

In real life, Hyacinth actress Florence Hunt is 19 years old, meaning there is a six-year age difference between herself and her character. Hunt is roughly the same age as the character Francesca Bridgerton is in season four, which may come as a surprise to some viewers.

The English actress was born in February 2007 and she attended acting classes at the Television Workshop in Nottingham. She made her television debut in 2020 in the Netflix Arthurian fantasy series Cursed.

She would have been approximately 13 years old when Bridgerton first premiered on Netflix and she has since undertaken other roles in Mix Tape and Queen at Sea. Fans have been speculating whether Hunt would be recast in future series of Bridgerton as they felt she appeared too young to partake in sex scenes.

However, showrunner Jess Brownell stated she hadn’t contemplated recasting that deeply, telling The Wrap: “We’re obviously several years away, if not more… from Hyacinth and Gregory’s seasons.

“It takes a few years to film, so by the time we get to Hyacinth and Gregory, the actors are going to be well into their 20s,” author Julia Quinn added in an interview with Us Magazine. “I think it’ll probably be OK. Will it be weird that we knew them when they were 12? We see child stars grow up all the time.”

It will be a long time before fans witness Hyacinth’s love story play out on-screen.

Bridgerton season 4 is on Netflix

Organised jointly with Terra Sarda Wines, a local sustainable wines startup, co-founded by Sue Scott, it will feature a roster of business ladies sharing their experience and insight – with compassion for those juggling and struggling!

Drop-in sessions include a spotlight on ‘What do investors really want?’ from founders looking to raise cash, which is particularly relevant given that successful pitches for investment by all-female-led teams are consistently in the low single digits, compared to an 80% success rate among men.

‘Growing a Business Without Burn-out’ will look at the competing demands of a business and family life.

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An interactive mini workshop, ‘Challenging Limiting Beliefs’, is designed to demonstrate how listening and understanding the inner voice in business can lead to breakthroughs, and York entrepreneur Emma Lindsay will lead a fireside chat on ‘One year on…’ with contributions from those who’ve survived their first 12 months at the helm.

Claire Turner Leads Building A Business Without Burnout (Image: Pic supplied)

To round off the event, Terra Sarda Wines and Marion Owens will lead ‘Boss the Bottles’ for women who enjoy wine, but feel they just don’t know enough about it to choose with confidence.

A special collaborative project that weaves women’s stories into a large fabric art piece will run throughout to mark the event.

Wendy O’Brien Leads You Got This! Challenging Limiting Beliefs (Image: Pic supplied)

Organiser Sue Scott said: “Whatever stage they are at on their business journey – established leader, aspiring self-starter, or currently bootstrapping – this is an opportunity for everyone to share, support, chill and chat as we mark this year’s International Women’s Week.

Marion Owens leads Boss The Bottles (Image: Pic supplied)

“If you want to be supported, curious, entertained and challenged, this is for you!”

Celebrate Collaborate Connect runs from 12noon – 6pm at Patch York, The Bonding House, Terry Avenue, York, on Saturday March 7. All-day tickets, including food and wine/soft drink are £15 (two for one offer available). Go to https://CelebrateCollaborateConnect.eventbrite.co.uk

One of the most beautiful indie games of recent years gets a sequel that’s even more stunning to look at, as it tries to follow in the footsteps of Inside and Limbo.

Considering the state of the world, it’s odd how many games choose to focus on freshly synthesised horror. Even puzzle games do it. Classics like Limbo and Inside, both of which used a deliberately dark aesthetic, their protagonists mere shadows against a desolate backdrop, have been joined more recently by the Little Nightmares franchise and Reanimal, all building worlds you would never want to visit in real life.

They also feature children as their main characters, whose small size and vulnerability lends additional poignancy to the grotesque dangers they encounter. It wasn’t always like this. In the early days of video games a great many titles framed their gameplay with brightly optimistic ‘Sega blue skies’ and a cheerful primary colour palette. Perhaps today’s lurch into squalid ruination is a reaction against all that, but games like Planet Of Lana remind you that there is another way.

Released three years ago, it was a charming if mildly insipid puzzle game set in pastoral, 2D scrolling landscapes. It also had child protagonists and, like ICO before it, gave them an invented language you couldn’t understand, and then didn’t provide subtitles, letting you weave your own meaning out of its characters’ situations and tone of voice. While very little lives up to Sony’s early masterpiece, Planet Of Lana certainly delivered in terms of atmosphere.

This sequel is in almost every respect the equal of the original. There’s much to like about that, from its beautiful, painterly landscapes with towering cloud formations in the background, to its multiple layers of parallax scrolling that bring its lush green forests to life. Ethereal music and judiciously light sound effects infuse its world with bird song and deep, gloopy sub-aquatic sound effects when you’re underwater.

The set design and animation is similarly delightful, from the motion capture of its young hero, to the way your pet, Mui, moves and interacts with the world. Mui is fundamentally cat-like, in that it purrs when you pet it, has pointed ears, and hates water, but distinctly un-cat-like in that it responds accurately and consistently to your commands. For some reason it can also now release an electromagnetic pulse, juicing nearby doors or machinery with electricity.

To add to the sense of being an organic Swiss Army knife, you later discover Mui can suppress the radiation that comes from chunks of waste product, mined by the game’s new baddies. In the original your village’s bucolic idyll was interrupted by robotic alien invaders. By the end you’d already seen them off, their spidery metal carcasses used for riding, farming or housing.

Unfortunately, fellow humans are now harnessing the extraterrestrial technology to mine polluting poisons from the Earth, and when a little girl falls ill because of it, you set off looking for the ingredients for a cure, which naturally reside in four contrasting biomes. To find them you’ll need to solve the game’s undemanding 2D puzzles, quite a number of which are recycled from the previous game.

The first Planet Of Lana was criticised for its simplicity, with puzzles that never quite felt taxing enough, even though some took a while to work your way through because of fiddly controls. That was partly thanks to a perceptible lag between control inputs and your character’s motion, a bit like the original 1980s Prince Of Persia, whose pre-canned rotoscoped animation meant every action he undertook had to complete before he could do anything else.

Planet Of Lana 2’s hero is similarly afflicted. The game also shares a tendency to repeat puzzle mechanics without layering them or adding complexity. For example, in one of its underwater sections featuring an elegantly designed mini-submarine, you need to nudge open a heavy metal door by barging into it. That exact same interaction is needed four more times in the ensuing minutes, none of which adds a twist, disguises itself, or does anything differently.

There are other parts of the game that play almost like a 2D walking simulator, leaving you to gambol through the gloriously realised landscapes without the need to stop, think, or fool around with the controls. The problem is that when even the puzzles don’t detain you for long, everything can start to feel a little too insubstantial, your enjoyment marred not by distractions, but by the lack of them.

Unlike films, games often improve radically in their sequels. That’s to be expected in a more nascent medium, and one underpinned by the steady march of technology, but it’s also more noticeable when it’s absent. If you loved Planet Of Lana, its follow up offers precisely the same mix of hand-drawn charm and lacklustre puzzle design. But it’s a great shame that it doesn’t offer anything at all new or different.

Formats: PlayStation 5 (reviewed), PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC
Price: £16.99
Publisher: Thunderful
Developer: Wishfully
Release Date: 5th March 2026
Age Rating: 12

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