Latest news with #WW3
Scottish Sun
4 hours ago
- Lifestyle
- Scottish Sun
I built £50k doomsday bunker after being inspired by iconic film – now I'm forking out another £10k in case of WW3
TAKING STOCK I built £50k doomsday bunker after being inspired by iconic film – now I'm forking out another £10k in case of WW3 Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) A DAD with a £50k underground bunker has splashed out an extra £10k on upgrades in case World War Three breaks out. Dave Billings, 44, began the bizarre project at his Derbyshire home more than a decade ago. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 8 A 35 ft tunnel extends under Dave's garden leading into a 140 ft room Credit: SWNS 8 Dave's latest plans will see food supply, air filtration, water supply and blast doors installed. Credit: SWNS He was inspired to build the underground bunker by the iconic film The Great Escape. With rising global tensions Dave has since decided to spend an eye watering £10,000 to prep the shelter to become a "survival place." While the bonkers dad-of-one has admitted that the project will not be "nuclear proof" he has installed blast doors. Dave lives with his wife Beth, and seven-year-old son Oliver, his goal is to have a secure underground space for his family if things take a turn for the worse. He said: "With the way things are changing, I'm prepping it to be more of a survival place. It won't necessarily be nuclear-proof, but if you need to hide away, you'll be able to survive." Dave, an engineer and content creator, estimated that the bunker has so far cost him a whopping £50,000. Starting life as a disused well, the bunker now consists of a 35 ft tunnel leading into a room that measures 140 ft in total. The underground hideout features a handcrafted Great Escape tunnel, gym, toilet, sink - and even a beer lift disguised as a keg to carry drinks down to the bunker. Dave's latest upgrades to the bunker will see food supply, air filtration, water supply and blast doors installed. Dave said: "I'm going to have to have emergency supplies of food. I'm going to guarantee a source of water. I think the idea is to make a water filtration unit so we can safely use the well water. World's most luxurious apocalypse-proof bunkers "I want to make blast doors in the bunker so if a big explosion went off outside, it would hold the door shut better. "As long as you've got food, you can stay here indefinitely. "If it starts getting bad outside, you've got somewhere to hide away, kind of like what they used to have in World War Two with Anderson shelters. "People think we're going to get a direct hit, but I'm in the middle of nowhere, it's not really somewhere you get a bomb, is it?" 8 The mad dad has spent an estimated £50,000 on the bunker Credit: SWNS 8 He has decked out the interior as a "survival place" Credit: SWNS 8 The bunker is an ongoing project Credit: SWNS Dave doesn't claim to be a 'prepper' - people who stockpile in case of disasters or wars - but said the recent government warnings made him realise how far ahead he is in terms of readiness. He said: "When I saw it on the news and it said you've got to be prepared for war, I thought, 'what are you preparing for?' "Because having somewhere underground with a food supply where you can lock yourself in is quite prepared, really. "I don't think anyone could really be more prepared than I am." Despite the extensive and seemingly well planned work Dave has put into his bunker, he claims he is making it up as he goes. He said: "I'm winging it myself really. None of us have got a big plan here of what's going to happen. No one can see into the future." Adding: "You've got to keep some basic supplies around in your house. When things go wrong there isn't going to be a shop to go to for a start. "So people should at least get some basic foods and stuff that lasts a long time that will keep them going. Food and water supply, that's the main thing you need. "If people have got to stay in their houses, you've got to be prepared. Have enough stuff in your house to last you two or three weeks if you can't go out the door. It's always better to be a bit prepared." Offering advice to others Dave has suggested prepping a supply of food to keep in your house. Updates on Dave's progress can be found on his social media channels (@Tornado_Dave). 8 The tunnel extends 35 ft under Dave's garden Credit: SWNS 8 Dave was inspired by The Great Escape Credit: SWNS
RNZ News
20 hours ago
- Politics
- RNZ News
OMG! Is it WW3?, AI telling us what we want to hear
It was hard for media all around the world to work out what happened in the Middle East. But claims that WW3 and global recession might be upon us here were rolled back within a day. Also: Chat GPT's been accused of lying, making stuff up and gaslighting a UK journalist while Google's AI seems to be telling us what we want to hear. Is AI human after all?
Buzz Feed
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
Gen Z's WW3 Fashion Trends Taking Over TikTok
Hot Topic 🔥 Full coverage and conversation on Politics While President Donald Trump realizes that his Israel-Iran ceasefire agreement may not be as binding as he suspected ― both countries continue to fire missiles at each other ― Gen Z isn't wasting any time: On TikTok, 'WW3 fits' has been trending for days, with teens and twenty-somethings sharing the camo-heavy looks they jokingly say they'll wear in the event of a nuclear world war. Fun? 'First war kinda nervous,' Avery, a content creator, captioned a clip featuring her WW3 wardrobe, which includes a camouflage miniskirt and a bomber jacket. A few TikTokkers who are enlisted in the US Army joked that they already had their WWIII look picked out for them, flashing to closets full of fatigues. Ethan Hillis, 26, showed off his potential World War III looks in a video he was careful to caption: 'just a coping mechanism.' There's combat chic (a green trench coat), spy (a fedora and coat) and political ex-wife (basically MAGA mom cosplay). 'My WWIII fit is a bit of satire and a bit of style, think something like combat but make it couture,' Hillis told HuffPost in an email interview. 'I wanted to play with the idea of absurd preparedness while still looking fabulous,' he said. 'It felt like a funny and fashion-forward way to comment on the state of the world without diving into doom.' The videos are all soundtracked to Kesha's 2010 hit 'Blow' (Sample lyric: 'This place about to blow, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh'), which only adds to the absurdity. Most people joke along in the comment sections of the videos: 'This generation is so unserious. I love it,' one person wrote. 'This generation is only afraid of pregnancy,' another joked. Others found the brand of humor distasteful, as the conflict between Israel and Iran continues to unfold and airstrikes have left at least 28 people dead in Israel and hundreds in Iran. 'Lives are at stake,' one person wrote in the comments of Avery's video. 'The future of our world is unfolding in front of us, and YOU POST THIS.' Gen Z-ers we spoke to say they recognize the severity of what's happening and aren't trying to downplay it with their videos. 'The jokes are coming from a place of real exhaustion and awareness,' Hillis said. 'I don't think people realize how tuned in Gen Z is. All the irony and outfits are just the packaging. Underneath is real fear, and real care.' Christina Spah, a 26-year-old who posted a video of her WW3 fits ― looks that are ''apocalyptic chic' meets 'functional mom,'' she told HuffPost ― sees the jokes as a coping mechanism. 'As a military spouse and stay-at-home mom, I don't have much time to cry or panic in difficult times. I have to hold my head high and pretend everything is fine until I put my daughters to bed at night,' she said. 'In the meantime, finding humor about the prospect of another war in the Middle East allows me to feel any form of control in this awful situation.' Gen Z is used to using dark humor to get through hard times and trauma. There's little that Gen Z ― the demographic born between the late 1990s and the early 2010s ― won't meme-ify: On social media, everything from the the 2023 Titan submersible fiasco, to the 9/11 terror attacks, and celebrities' deaths and suicides (or being 'unalived,' as they prefer to say) ― have gotten the meme treatment. (Gen Z wasn't even alive when the twin towers fell. To be, though, comedians were cracking jokes about 9/11 no less than a few weeks later ― at least Gilbert Gottfried was.) They haven't experienced any comparable terrorist attacks but Gen Z has been through a lot themselves: A pandemic and lockdowns, the Great Recession for the older ones, school shootings and subsequent active shooter drills, protests over police brutality and political polarization that's damaged friendships and splintered families. Gen Z's supposed 'unseriousness' on social media may actually be a deeply layered response to chronic exposure to the news cycle, said Rana Bull, a therapist who works primarily with Gen Z, and the owner of Burrow and Bloom Therapy in Arizona. 'They've experienced a constant stream of secondhand trauma through social media,' Bull said. That affects us all, but Gen Z experienced it in their formative years. Secondhand trauma, or indirect exposure to distressing events, can desensitize people over time, especially when it's experienced repeatedly and without resolution, she said. 'For Gen Z, this has resulted in a sort of emotional callus; they're rarely surprised by negative news because, for them, it's not a rarity — it's the norm,' she said. There's also a neurological explanation for why Gen Z may appear disengaged. The brain's threat-response system is activated differently when a stressor is experienced directly versus indirectly, Bull explained. Social media creates a layer of emotional distance — what psychologists call psychological distancing — which makes it easier to compartmentalize what they're seeing. 'Humor, irony and absurdity become coping tools that help them regain a sense of control or reduce emotional overload,' she said. It's the same kind of dark humor used among first responders or health care workers, Bull said ― when something is too overwhelming to fully process, laughter is tension-breaking. 'So what might appear as flippancy or being 'unserious' is actually a form of emotional regulation and resilience, albeit one that can be easily misunderstood.' the therapist said. Sage Grazer, a therapist in Los Angeles, doesn't see Gen Z as particularly 'unserious' as a generation. Gen Z came of age online (three quarters of Gen Z spend most of their free time online, and many get their news from it, too), so it's little surprise they process their emotions there as well. But making arguably stupid jokes about incomprehensible geopolitical issues is a long tradition; consider how Charlie Chaplin used satire to defuse and address the looming threat of Adolf Hitler in 'The Great Dictator' in 1940. There's limitations to treating things glibly all the time, or without much reflection on why it's your reflex, Grazer noted. 'Humor can lighten the mood or offer a more positive perspective but it can also become a defense mechanism to shield yourself from harsh realities,'the therapist told HuffPost. 'While we're not meant to bear the emotional burden of all of the world's tragedy constantly, leaning on humor can encourage people to be complacent or callous,' she explained. 'I also see exposure to all of the jokes as contributing to a numbing or disconnection from the reality of what's going on in the world.' But given the unwieldy way President Trump and his war cabinet have communicated operations to the American public, an argument could be made that this conflict has an air of unseriousness, even if that's gravely not the case. And unlike millennials, who grew up seeing friends and family enlist for US invasions in Iraq and Afghanistan, Gen Z has yet to fully experience the political culture of the US at war. (Granted, the US didn't end combat operations in Afghanistan until 2014, and the last United States military forces to depart the country did so on August 30, 2021.) An earnest question on Reddit's No Stupid Questions subreddit over the weekend is a testament to how unfamiliar Gen Z is with the prospect of warfare: 'What are you supposed to do if a war actually starts?' a person ― one who was clearly either not alive or else very young at the height of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars ― asked. 'Like, are we just supposed to keep going to work as normal and live like nothing is happening? Do jobs give time off if you're city is targeted?'
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Daily Mail
WW3 fears grow as ALL phones to blast out 'emergency alarm' in system test
As fears mount over the potential of WW3, the UK will test its emergency alarm system for the first time in two years. All UK devices will blast out an alarm tone later this year in a new test of the 'Emergency Alert System'. First launched in 2023, this system is designed to warn the public if there is a danger to life nearby. This latest test comes as the government's security strategy warns that the UK homeland could come under 'direct threat' in a 'wartime scenario'. The renewed testing of the emergency system also comes at a time when escalating conflict in the Middle East has sparked concerns of a wider war between nuclear powers. When it was first tested, the emergency system sent a message to phones which read: 'Severe Alert. This is a test of Emergency Alerts, a new UK government service that will warn you if there's a life-threatening emergency nearby. 'In a real emergency, follow the instructions in the alert to keep yourself and others safe. 'Visit for more information. This is a test. You do not need to take any action.' The Emergency Alert System was designed to quickly inform the public of an impending threat. According to the Government, this could include severe flooding, wildfires, or extreme weather events. Once the alert is sent, all phones in the affected area will make a loud siren-like sound, vibrate, and read out the warning. The sound and vibration will trigger even if your phone is set to silent. The government does not need to know your phone number in order to send the message, and all phones will automatically trigger the alert. The next nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System will occur at some point in the coming year. However, the exact date is yet to be announced. After this year's test, the Emergency Alert System will continue to be tested once every two years. Similar systems are already widely used across a number of other countries, primarily for natural disaster preparation. Japan has one of the world's most sophisticated systems, which combines satellite and cell broadcast technology. This system forms part of a wider scheme called J-ALERT that informs the public in case of earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic activity, or missile threats. South Korea frequently uses its national cell broadcast system to alert citizens about issues ranging from weather alerts and civil emergencies to local missing persons cases. The US has a similar system to the UK that utilises 'wireless emergency alerts' to send messages that look like texts with a unique sound and vibration pattern. The announcement of the UK's upcoming emergency alert test comes at a time when more people are growing worried about the threat of war. The latest version of the government's defence strategy, published earlier this week, lays out a chilling warning that the UK is no longer safe from military threats. The report states: 'For the first time in many years, we have to actively prepare for the possibility of the UK homeland coming under direct threat, potentially in a wartime scenario.' In a foreword to the report, Prime Minister Keir Starmer adds: 'The world has changed. Russian aggression menaces our continent. Strategic competition is intensifying. Extremist ideologies are on the rise. Technology is transforming the nature of both war and domestic security.' At the same time, the world has been carefully watching the escalating conflict between Iran and Israel in the Middle East. After US forces bombed Iran's primary nuclear weapons development facility, the nation's leadership has vowed to strike back if there are further attacks. Amid mounting concerns, a number of European countries have taken measures to improve their citizens' readiness. Earlier this year, the EU issued advice to its nearly 450 million residents to stockpile emergency supplies to last 72 hours. The warning told people across 27 countries to build up a store of bottled water, energy bars, torches, and waterproof pouches for IDs. Citizens could also access a handbook to help prepare against 'various crises, from potential conflict to climate disasters, pandemics and cyber threats.' Likewise, the French government released a 20-page survival manual detailing how to protect yourself during armed conflict, natural disasters, and industrial accidents such as nuclear leaks. What is the Doomsday clock and what does it mean? What is the Doomsday Clock? The Doomsday Clock was created by the Bulletin, an independent non-profit organization run by some of the world's most eminent scientists. It was founded by concerned US scientists involved in the Manhattan Project, which developed the world's first nuclear weapons during World War II. In 1947, they established the clock to provide a simple way of demonstrating the danger to the Earth and humanity posed by nuclear war. The Doomsday Clock not only takes into account the likelihood of nuclear Armageddon but also other emerging threats such as climate change and advances in biotechnology and artificial intelligence. It is symbolic and represents a countdown to possible global catastrophe. The decision to move, or leave the clock alone, is made by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, in consultation with the bulletin's Board of Sponsors, which includes 16 Nobel laureates. The clock has become a universally recognised indicator of the world's vulnerability to catastrophe from nuclear weapons, climate change, and emerging technologies in life sciences. In 2020, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, an expert group formed in 1945, adjusted the Doomsday Clock 100 seconds to midnight, the closest we've ever come to total destruction - and it remained there in 2021. That sent a message that the Earth was closer to oblivion than any time since the early days of hydrogen bomb testing and 1984, when US-Soviet relations reached 'their iciest point in decades.' The Bulletin also considered world leaders response to the coronavirus pandemic, feeling it was so poor that the clock needed to remain in its perilously close to midnight position. The closer to midnight the clock moves the closer to annihilation humanity is. How has the clock changed since 1947? 1947 - 48: 7 minutes 1949 - 52: 3 minutes 1953 - 59: 2 minutes 1960 - 62: 7 minutes 1963 - 67: 12 minutes 1968: 7 minutes 1969 - 71: 10 minutes 1972 - 73: 12 minutes 1974 - 79: 9 minutes 1980: 7 minutes 1981 - 83: 4 minutes 1984 - 87: 3 minutes 1988 - 89: 6 minutes 1990: 10 minutes 1991 - 94: 17 minutes 1995 - 97: 14 minutes 1998 - 2001: 9 minutes 2002 - 06: 7 minutes 2007 - 09: 5 minutes 2010 - 11: 6 minutes 2012 - 14: 5 minutes 2015 - 16: 3 minutes 2017 - 2.5 minutes 2018 - 2 minutes 2019 - 2 minutes 2020 - 100 seconds 2021 - 100 seconds 2022 - 100 seconds 2023 - 90 seconds 2024 - 90 seconds
NDTV
3 days ago
- NDTV
Not Phones, Not Laptops: This Old-School Device Could Be Your Ultimate War Survival Tool
In earlier days, radio was a crucial source of information and entertainment in India, connecting remote villages with news, music, and cultural programmes. During wartime in Western countries, it spread government messages, boosted morale, and delivered frontline updates. Even today, in the digital age, radio remains a vital survival tool during wars, disasters, and blackouts, proving its enduring role in communication, resilience, and public unity across generations and geographies. According to The Metro, when internet and mobile networks fail, as seen in Spain and Portugal's 2024 blackout or during the Russia-Ukraine war, radio remains functional. In Ukraine, when TV towers were destroyed and signals jammed, citizens turned to crank radios to access life-saving updates and coded escape routes. Similarly, Palestinians in Gaza have relied on radio for news amid telecommunications blackouts. Experts say radio's dependability lies in its simplicity. It doesn't rely on expensive devices, data plans, or fragile digital infrastructure. Emergency radios powered by cranks or solar energy can continue broadcasting even when electricity is down. During crises, radio becomes more than just a tool; it's a symbol of hope and survival. In Syria, Radio Fresh won global acclaim for its role in challenging propaganda and spreading truth. Governments, including the EU, now urge citizens to include battery-powered or wind-up radios in emergency kits alongside food, water, and medicine, as per the news article. With over 44,000 radio stations serving billions globally, radio remains unmatched in accessibility and resilience. It proves that even in a world dominated by AI and smartphones, a simple radio can still be the most critical tool in times of chaos. TikTok Sparks Radio Buying Frenzy Amid WW3 Fears Fears of World War 3 have triggered a surge in radio purchases, fuelled by TikTok influencers in Europe and US urging users to include radios in survival kits. They warn that if the power grid fails, people may miss vital government alerts without access to traditional radio broadcasts. How Does Radio Work? Radio waves, a type of light, are created by accelerating electrons in an electric circuit. By altering their amplitude (AM) or frequency (FM), these waves carry information. A radio receiver decodes the waves into sound. Shortwave radio, useful for long distances, remains vital for aircraft and rescue operations. Its evolution owes much to physicist Edward Appleton, who proved the ionosphere's role in bouncing signals.
