Brook and McCullum have also kept spirits high on this trip, an impressive feat given what had come before.

The tour began with Brook standing up in front of the group in a Colombo hotel and apologising to his team-mates for his Wellington escapades.

In the end he took the blame again, but this time for a dropped catch rather than any trip into the night.

Brook’s drop of Sanju Samson should not distract from a definite improvement in fielding during this tournament, under the eyes of rehired fielding coach Carl Hopkinson.

A slapdash approach to training was another accusation made in Australia but here England have trained hard, often longer into the night than expected.

And while that should be seen as par for the course, McCullum and Brook also deserve credit for their tactical calls on this trip.

Liam Dawson and Sam Curran were recalled to relative success, while Will Jacks excelled in a new role as a finisher.

Brook played the innings of his T20 career after McCullum suggested moving to number three.

But doubt clearly remains whether that is enough to save McCullum, having taken England to a point viewed as the bare minimum before a ball was bowled.

Having your future hinge on a World Cup semi-final against India in Mumbai is the toughest of schools but this was a situation of McCullum’s making.

It was he who oversaw the Ashes planning that did not include a warm-up game, and allowed the mid-series trip to Noosa.

It was on McCullum’s watch Brook, Jacob Bethell and Josh Tongue felt able to visit a nightclub the night before an international fixture.

Just how bad the Ashes were should not and can not be forgotten.

Other key stakeholders are managing director Rob Key and Test captain Ben Stokes, who are both back in the UK after beginning the week stranded in the United Arab Emirates with England Lions.

Key spent time around the squad during this tournament and his position will also be discussed by those above.

Stokes is the most secure, though he and McCullum appeared conflicted in their messaging at times in Australia.

Stokes batted 152 balls for 50 runs in Brisbane and called for his team to “show a bit of dog” in Adelaide but when another defeat came five days later, thus confirming Australia would hold onto the urn, McCullum spoke of his disappointment that England had drifted from their attacking style of play.

Despite that, Stokes backed McCullum before and after the fifth Test in Sydney when he could have been more vague.

Brook was also steadfast in his defence of McCullum on Thursday night, saying the former New Zealand captain was “125%” the man to continue.

“The things he’s done over the four years since he took over has changed English cricket for hopefully the best,” Brook said.

“He’s the best head coach I’ve ever had.”

Critics would say it is no surprise players would back a coach whose key philosophy is a relaxed environment.

There is plenty to be considered over the weeks ahead.

McCullum wants to stay and his players still believe in him. Will that be enough?

Ards North Down to trial bins at Ward Park in Bangor and bowling alleys

A Northern Ireland council is to erect public recycling street bins for the very first time.

Elected representatives at Ards and North Down Borough Council this week agreed to trial recycling litter bins at selected spots in the borough, after councillors admitted its lack of public recycling street bins sent out a “poor message”.

Councillors at the March meeting of the local authority’s Environment Committee this week approved a trial in the borough called “Recycling on the Go.” The £45K trial will commence later in the year for six months, and will focus on plastic drinks bottles and metal drinks cans at Ward Park in Bangor and at bowling greens owned by the council.

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A Notice of Motion was agreed at the Environment Committee last summer stating the council was “pleased” with the recycling rates for waste that had been achieved in the borough, but admitted there were “limited” facilities to recycle litter. The motion stated: “This sends out a poor message to our residents and visitors”.

The council resolved to have a trial designed to “extend recycling opportunities to residents and visitors of Ards and North Down’s public parks and to measure the effectiveness of the scheme infrastructure, communications, and user satisfaction.”

A budget of £45,000 has been set aside for the pilot. This includes £15K for new recycling bins and £30K revenue for communications, operations, and project evaluation.

The official’s report on the trial proposal states: “We propose a phased introduction of new recycling bins, with a pilot exercise in Ward Park and council-managed bowling greens. The containers will be co-located with litter bins in areas of high footfall so that visitors can dispose of rubbish and recycling conveniently at one location.”

It adds: “The scheme will target two key materials streams: plastic drinks bottles and metal drinks cans. These two material streams are recyclable at the kerbside and commonly used by people when out and about.”

It states: “A recent successful pilot by Belfast City Council and environmental charity, Hubbub, found that the recycling comprised almost 50 percent by weight of target material. The trial found that contamination levels were low enough that the recycling could be sent for reprocessing.

“The Ards and North Down pilot will follow the same approach as the Belfast pilot. It will ensure that the containers are clearly labelled with both materials iconography and wording to make targeted recyclable materials clear. This will reduce confusion and contamination.”

DUP Councillor Alistair Cathcart said at the committee meeting: “The key question is whether this will work, and unfortunately when they have been trailed before they havent worked. It is interesting that Belfast has had positive results, which is encouraging.

“I think that starting in the parks is the best thing, and hopefully the behaviour will change around it. The reports show people recycle well at the kerbside, and in their own homes.

“But obviously there are consequences at home: they will not get their bins collected (otherwise). There are no consequences to this (trial), but hopefully changing behaviour and messaging (will get through) that it saves money, as well as being good for the environment.”

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The unofficial soundtrack of every basketball, squash or hard-court tennis match is the constant high-pitched squeak or shreak of the players’ shoes. But can this squeak be designed out of them while retaining the grip?

That’s the question an international team of engineers and applied physicists, including me, have been investigating. It sounds like a small design tweak. In fact, it cuts to a deep physics problem: how a soft body slides against a rigid one.

Perhaps surprisingly, the mechanism that produces sound when a soft solid slides against a stiffer one has long been the subject of scientific debate. Most theories are linked to the concept of “stick-slip”: when, instead of sliding smoothly, the sliding object rapidly alternates between sticking and slipping.

While it sticks, the soft body (such as a rubber sole) deforms and stores elastic energy. Then it suddenly slips, turning much of that energy into heat through friction – while also releasing rapid vibrations that radiate out as sound.

But this is not exactly what we observed in our experiments.

After Leonardo da Vinci

Our recently published study took inspiration from the simple-but-effective setup used by Leonardo da Vinci in his studies of friction from the late 15th century.

Leonardo used a wooden block resting on a flat surface. The block was subjected to two forces: a normal force (its own weight) and a tangential force which was applied using an additional weight attached to a cable.

By stacking and combining multiple blocks, Leonardo discovered the two fundamental laws of friction: that friction is proportional with how hard the surfaces are pressed together, and largely independent of the size of the contact area.

But Leonardo never published these findings, which were finally rediscovered and made public in the 19th century in notebooks scattered throughout Europe. In the meantime, the laws of friction had only been formally enunciated by French physicist Guillaume Amontons in 1699 – two centuries after Leonardo’s studies.

Furthermore, these laws are empirical rather than fundamental, and in extreme cases they break down. This led us to the question of what makes a shoe squeak.

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Leonardo da Vinci’s early work on friction founded the modern science of tribology

A surprising result

One of the biggest difficulties in friction studies is that the interface being tested (where a shoe sole meets a hardwood floor, for example) is hard to get at, and comes under a lot of pressure while slipping at high speed. Placing sensors at the interface is almost impossible – and even if it were, this would probably alter the frictional response.

Our solution was to use an optical trick: we replaced the hardwood floor with a transparent acrylic plate and mounted an array of LED lights along its sides. When each test object – including multiple rubber blocks – made contact with the plate, light would leak into the contact region, brightening up this area alone. That allowed us to visualise exactly which parts of the soft-rigid interface were in contact.

We used a high-speed camera, capable of capturing up to 1 million frames per second, to film how the contact patches evolved while the “sole” was skidding, and recorded the sounds being emitted with a microphone.

We found that at the point of contact, tiny wrinkles in the surface of the rubber block – known as “opening slip pulses” – were created, which then raced along the interface at nearly 100 metres per second. While most of the block remained stuck in place, these rapidly moving wrinkles created the sound in each friction test.

Surprisingly, even tiny geometrical features at the frictional interface had profound effects on the sound generated. When it was perfectly flat and smooth, the pulses were messy and generated a scratch-like noise of many different frequencies – closer to the sound of peeling adhesive tape than a clean squeak.

But when ridges were present, like those on the soles of sport shoes, the pulses were confined by the width of these ridges, making them very regular (not messy any more). This turned the sound into a more musical tone akin to the squeaks heard on a basketball court.

We were also able to determine what decides the precise pitch of a shoe squeak. In each test, it was largely unaffected by either the speed of sliding or magnitude of the force applied (which relates to the weight of a player).

Rather, the clearest link was with the height of the rubber block – or the thickness of a shoe’s sole. Using this knowledge, we created a series of blocks of different heights in order to play a familiar melody, as shown in this video.

Our research lays the groundwork for controlling or suppressing squeaking in many mechanical systems involving soft-on-rigid friction. These range from brakes and tyres to hip and knee replacements, where polymer liners slide against polished metal or ceramic heads.

And yes, it could even lead to the development of squeakless sneakers. Designing intricate patterns that keep plenty of rubber in contact (so the grip stays high) but break the sliding into lots of tiny, out-of-sync microevents could kill the clean note of the squeak, and leave only a soft hush.

Table-top earthquakes

Beyond the realm of sports, this work also relates to much larger geophysical questions. Similar experimental approaches to ours have served as table-top models for studying earthquakes, during which ruptures and slip pulses spread along tectonic faults at extremely high speed.

If we can reproduce earthquake-like slip pulses in the lab, the next challenge is scaling – working out how those centimetre-scale measurements translate to what happens inside real faults in the Earth.

Achieving this could help interpret seismic signals more confidently: using waves recorded far from a fault to infer what has actually happened at the source. Better physics-based models could improve seismic hazard estimates and lead to more reliable hazard maps.

Meanwhile, we’ll keep thinking about squeakless sneakers too.

“It’s been five years of constant upheaval. It was the judicial reform [plans by the government to limit the powers of the Constitutional court which led to huge protests], then 7 October, then Iran a year ago. Now we have this, and we’ve had Lebanon in the middle,” Tom Dan said after leaving a bomb shelter.

What was life like for Scotland pre-Russell, pre the outrageous skill with hand and boot, pre the vision and the execution, the confidence and the personality that gets you off your seat and, yes, the risk-taking that can make you hide behind it at times when it goes wrong?

Scotland’s attack was largely barren in the Six Nations from 2000 to 2015, when Russell turned up in earnest. In 16 consecutive seasons Scotland never made double figures in tries scored in a five-game championship.

They averaged fewer than six tries per tournament. Crossing the line was a Herculean task.

Then, Russell. In his second Six Nations, Scotland scored 11 tries, then 14, then 11, then 14 again. That number slumped to seven in 2000 – the year Russell and his coach, Gregor Townsend, were estranged. The following year, with Russell restored, the try count rose to 18. They average around 14.5 per Six Nations nowadays.

They have 10 in their first three games this time around. This is not all on Russell. He’s had Darcy Graham, Van der Merwe and Steyn out wide, he’s had Huw Jones and Sione Tuipulotu in the midfield. He’s had Blair Kinghorn at full-back and Ben White and George Horne at scrum-half.

But Russell controls it all and for the best part of a decade he’s been the focus of opposition coaches in every game that he’s played. It’s made life harder, but it’s illustrative of the respect he’s earned.

The Easter Liliy launch will happen at City Hall on March 24

The TUV has failed in an attempt to prevent this year’s Easter Lily launch happening at Belfast City Hall.

The campaign launch has been held in Belfast City Hall previously in 2024 and 2025 by the Belfast National Graves Association. The event commemorates Irish republicans who died in conflict for Irish sovereign independence. The Easter Lily is worn as a symbol of remembrance for those who died in the 1916 Easter Rising.

At the March meeting of the full Belfast City Council at City Hall, elected representatives by a majority vote approved the event for City Hall on March 24. The committee document says the event amounts to “a reception and speeches focusing on local history” and will accommodate up to 80 people.

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In the City Hall vote on a TUV proposal not to hold the event, 17 elected representatives voted in favour, from the unionist parties, while 26 voted against the proposal from Sinn Féin, the SDLP and People Before Profit. The Alliance Party and the Green Party abstained from the vote.

TUV Councillor Ron McDowell said at the council meeting: “This is an annual event that commemorates active service members of the IRA, and I don’t believe it is something we should be facilitating on Section 75 and Good Relations grounds, within Belfast City Council.

“When I think of the IRA, and I can think of many things, but what I think is about the disappeared, those who were abducted from their homes and tortured, and buried in a shallow grave. I think of Jean McConville, who was dragged screaming from her home, and atrocities on the Shankill, where Thomas Begley killed those innocent civilians, and the Bayardo bomb attack in my own constituency.”

Listing a further series of atrocities from the Troubles period, he said: “I reiterate I don’t think this is an event that we should be holding within this council.”

Sinn Féin group leader Councillor Ciarán Beattie replied at the meeting: “You have listed people killed by the IRA, you haven’t mentioned the other several thousand people that were killed. A lot of them were killed by loyalists, the British Army, the RUC.

“All people have their dead who they remember. Every year outside this building there are commemorations for the RUC and the British Army, the same organisation that murdered people in the streets of Ballymurphy and New Lodge and shot children in the face with plastic bullets. That is the experience in this city.

“If you have a problem with one particular group, then have a problem with them all because if you don’t, you are being selective.

“If you look at other events (that we will be hosting) – the Belfast Bands Forum wouldn’t be our cup of tea, or one we would like to support. But we recognise that is the culture and history for one section of society in this city. We have to recognise there are also other communities in this city, and we have to welcome them all.”

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Electricity North West (ENW) has reported that 148 properties in Bromley Cross are currently experiencing a power cut.

They said they’re on site and investigating the issue – estimating that it will be restored by 10.58pm tonight (March 5).

This power cut affects these postcodes: BL7 9AA, BL2 3DU, BL7 9AE, BL7 9AF, BL7 9AB, BL2 3EF, BL7 9BG, BL2 3DW, BL7 9BJ, BL7 9GB, BL7 9GE.

A spokesperson said: “This power cut has been caused by an unexpected incident on the high voltage cable that provides electricity to your home or business. 

“We didn’t know before your electricity went off that this was going to happen but now we know, rest assured we will get your power back on safely and as quickly as possible.

“Please be aware that all our timescales are estimated based on previous experience and may change if new information becomes available while our engineers are fixing the issue. 

“With high voltage power cuts, we’re often able to get many of the homes involved back on before our estimated time of restoration.”

A further 55 properties in Bromley Cross are out of power because of another “unexpected incident with the underground cable”.

ENW are preparing to send a team, but estimate these properties won’t have their power restored until 2.45am.

The following postcodes are affected by this cut: BL7 9JL, BL7 9JJ, BL7 9LS, BL7 9BQ, BL7 9BG.

A spokesperson said: “With underground power cuts, we may need to dig to repair the cable and this can sometimes extend the length of time you are without power.”

Four houses in Blackrod are also without supply because of an unexpected incident with the overhead cable, expected to be restored by half 10pm.

The two postcodes BL6 5RS and BL6 5JF are affected.

A different incident with the overhead cable providing power in Ramsbottom has also left six properties in the BL0 0PR postcode without supply.

ENW estimate these will have power restored by midnight.

Blake House, run by an all-female team, has launched the competition to give one York-based woman the environment and community to help accelerate her business.

The winner will receive a dedicated desk for six months in Blake House’s tranquil 13-desk coworking studio – an intentionally small workspace designed to create a genuine business community, promising a calm and focused alternative to the large, impersonal workspaces that many entrepreneurs reportedly experience.

Since opening its doors on Blake Street in 2011, Blake House has consistently attracted a higher-than-average number of female founders, freelancers and business owners. It has since become home to a vibrant community of women building businesses across a wide range of sectors.

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Wendy Tunnicliffe, founder of Blake House, said: “We’ve always had an incredible number of women building their businesses at Blake House. And we love the fact we are an all-female team here. International Women’s Day felt like the perfect opportunity to give one local entrepreneur a genuine boost.”

“Running a business can feel isolating. The right environment makes a huge difference. Keeping things small, independent and local – people really get to know each other..”

“We hope this opportunity gives one woman the space and confidence to take her next step.”

Wendy Tunnicliffe and manager Jessica Boyes

The competition is open to York-based female entrepreneurs, freelancers and start-ups – whether newly launched or already established, who would benefit from a professional workspace and supportive business community.

The winner will receive:

• A dedicated private desk in Blake House’s design-led studio (worth £1,500)

• Access to a supportive business community

• Promotion of their business through Blake House’s network and social media

Entries open ahead of International Women’s Day and close on March 27.Apply via: blakehouse.co.uk/IWD

From the weird and the wacky to the downright scary, lets take a look back at some of the best costumes we saw this World Book Day.

The spookiest

First in our list of spooky costumes is this Wednesday Addams from Lillie-Louise, aged 6.

Lillie-Louise, 6, looking spooky as Wednesday Addams from The Addams Family (Image: Rebecca Leigh)

We had several submissions from characters playing villains this year – for example this menacing Ms. Trunchbull from Roald Dahl’s Matilda.

Aria-Rose, 7, as Ms. Trunchbull from the legendary Roald Dahl book/film Matilda (Image: Laura Roscoe)

Then there was this incredible face-paint job from Lennox McCarthy, 9, who adopted the role as the monster from Stranger Things.

Lennox McCarthy, 9, looking scary as the monster from Stranger Things (Image: Gill Ramsden)

Wizard of Oz

Wizard of Oz costumes were a popular choice this year, with Dorothys and Tin Men galore.

Joshua, 10, Jaxson, 6, Lila, 4 as Lion, Dorothy, and Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz (Image: Laura Satti)

Diellza Elara, 4, also dressed as Dorothy, with a little Toto in her basket.

Diellza Elara, 4, as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz (Image: Chesca Cristina Marone)

And Willow, 10, as Glinda the Good.

Willow, 10, sparkling as Glinda The Good from The Wizard of Oz (Image: Elizabeth Gannon)

Harry Potter

As always, Harry Potter was a popular theme for this year’s World Book Day.

Lula-Rae Boardman, 8, as Ginny Weasley from Harry Potter (Image: Shauny Gregory)

Fellow wand-wielder Charlotte, aged 4, went as Hermione.

Charlotte, 4, as Hermione Granger with knitted owl and wand (Image: Hayley Beys)

Modern

While many youngsters stuck to the tried-and-true classics, some dressed up as characters of a more modern stripe.

Patrick, 6, as Donut from Donut Squad (Image: Red Arsc)

Stickman was a popular character this year, from the popular book by Julia Donaldson.

Reggie, 5, as the popular Stickman character from the book by Julia Donaldson (Image: Cerise Campbell)

A were the Gangster Grandparents from David Walliams’ smash hit book series’.

Alfie, 8, in his fantastic ‘Gangster Grandpa’ costume (Image: Katie Smith)

Classics

But this isn’t to say the classics of children’s fiction and fairytale – Roald Dahl, Dr Seuss – weren’t also well represented

Ralph,7, in his very detailed Cat in the Hat costume (Image: Alex McKeown)

TWO Willy Wonkas here from Freddie, 6, and Junior, 4.

Freddie aged 6 and junior aged 4 both dressed up as Willy Wonka (Image: Brogan Grundy)

And an Orphan Annie from the classic musical.

Harmony-Grace as Orphan Annie (Image: Anne Kendall)

Or the fairytale Red Riding Hood.

Freya, 8, as Little Red Riding Hood (Image: Laura Sheehy)

Or William Neagle here as perennial children’s favourite Mr Bean.

William Neagle, 5, as Mr Bean, complete with sharpie-drawn mole and teddy bear (Image: Steff Marie Owen)

Creative

Some outfits were especially creative – either in theme or in execution.

Like this Lewis Hamilton, which came with its very own car.

Albie, 5, as Lewis Hamilton (Image: Chloe Atherton)

Or Imogen Allen’s Alice from Alice in Wonderland combined with the Mad Hatter’s tea party.

Imogen Allen, 9, as Alice AND the Mad Hatter’s tea party all in one! (Image: Charlotte Allen)

Or Daisy, who chose to dress up not as a fictional character but as legendary fashion icon Coco Chanel.

Daisy, 7, looking chic as Coco Chanel (Image: Vicky Alice)

Even the adults got involved!

Alissa, Grace & Isabell age 7 & their teachers from Tonge Moor Academy (Image: Demi Morris)

Markwayne Mullin’s first inkling that he was about to be offered a Cabinet post came with a call from the White House switchboard that the first-term Oklahoma senator was not at all expecting.

Speaking to reporters outside the U.S. Capitol on Thursday just minutes after President Donald Trump announced that he’d be tapped to lead the Department of Homeland Security, the MAGA loyalist called the news “a little bit of a surprise” but then said he wasn’t headed directly to the White House.

“Need to talk to my wife first,” the hulking one-time MMA fighter told reporters.

Mullin added that he and Trump “have a really good relationship” and “talk all the time,” and said he was “super excited” to get the massive department “working for the American people.”

“The Department of Homeland Security very broad jurisdiction, and Ithink there is a lot of work that we need to do and I am excited,” he said.

The president’s choice of Mullin to replace the embattled Noem will put a first-term senator with just an associate’s degree in charge of a sprawling bureaucracy encompassing everything from airport security to disaster response to the United States Coast Guard.

Mullin, 48, has served in the upper chamber since 2023 after a decade-long career representing the Sooner State’s first Congressional district in the House of Representatives. His committee assignments include the Armed Services Committee, the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, the Committee on Indian Affairs and the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee.

He is currently the only sitting senator who lacks a Bachelor’s degree and he has no meaningful experience with the labyrinthine department he will soon lead. And while he is known to be a full-throated supporter of Trump’s immigration policies, he is not from a border state and has no real experience dealing with immigration issues.

open image in gallery

His political career began when he successfully ran for a House seat left open by the retirement of former Representative Dan Boren in 2012.

At the time, he hosted a syndicated home improvement show on a Tulsa radio station and ran an eponymous plumbing company, Mullin Plumbing, as well as other family-owned real estate and farm operations.

An enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation, Mullin also had a brief but undefeated career as a mixed martial arts professional in the Xtreme Fighting League, recording one technical knockout victory in 2007 and two victories by submission in 2006 and 2007.

He spent his House career as a backbencher but gained a measure of attention during the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol when he and two other House members helped police barricade the House chamber doors against a riotous mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters.

When he and other members were leaving the chamber to shelter at a secure location during the attack, he witnessed a U.S. Capitol Police lieutenant shoot a pro-Trump rioter, Ashli Babbit, as she tried to climb through a locked door into a secure portion of the Capitol near the chamber.

open image in gallery

He later told ABC News that the officer “didn’t have a choice” to shoot her.

“The mob was going to come through the door, there was a lot of members and staff that were in danger at the time. And when he [drew] his weapon, that’s a decision that’s very hard for anyone to make and, once you draw your weapon like that, you have to defend yourself with deadly force,” he said.

Mullin later added that the officer’s actions “saved people’s lives.”

When then-Senator Jim Inhofe announced his retirement in February 2022, Mullin entered and won a special election to serve out the remaining three years of his term starting in January 2023.

He quickly made his mark in the upper chamber as a full-throated supporter of Trump’s MAGA movement who wasn’t afraid to tangle with detractors — rhetorically or otherwise.

In one now-infamous exchange, he accused Teamsters president Sean O’Brien of “intimidation” during a Senate Health, Labor, Education and Pensions Committee hearing on a Democratic-backed labor organizing bill.

He claimed the Teamsters forced union members to pay dues and complained about an attempt by union organizers to establish a union at his former plumbing business.

After Mullin pressed O’Brien about his salary compared to that of a UPS driver, O’Brien called the query “out of line” to which Mullin replied: “Shut your mouth.”

The Teamsters boss called Mullin a “greedy CEO” and mock him as a “tough guy.”

Months later, Mullin clashed with O’Brien again during a second appearance before the HELP panel when he challenged the Teamsters leader to a fight after reading a tweet in which O’Brien had called him a “cowboy” and invited him to find him “anyplace, anytime.”

Mullin said: “You want to run your mouth? We can be two consenting adults, we can finish it here.”

The confrontation ended when then-HELP Committee Chair Bernie Sanders told him to “sit down” and reminded him that he was a United States Senator.

In the years since, Mullin has maintained his reputation as a rhetorical brawler with frequent appearances on cable news, even on channels which most Republicans tend to avoid.

His constant presence on television as a defender of Trump endeared him to the president, who according to White House officials “loves” watching him on cable news.