Issue 1167 - Monday 1 March

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rhifyn 1167 issue 1167

1 Mawrth 2021 1 March 2021

gair rhydd Cardiff University’s student paper | Established 1972

Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus gan pawb Gair Rhydd!

Happy St David's Day from everyone at Gair Rhydd!

Cardiff University to offer financial support Tirion Davies

Editor-in-Chief

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ardiff University Pro ViceChancellor Claire Morgan has announced further support for students.

The announcement includes information about financial support for students in private housing, rent rebates for students in Cardiff University Halls of Residences, and further changes to module evaluation.

It was announced last week by the UK Government that England would remove all COVID-19 restrictions on June 21. The Welsh Government is due to make further announcements to changes in restrictions in Wales in mid-March, but for the meantime Wales will continue under Tier 4 restrictions.

After an announcement in January that Cardiff University teaching would remain online until March 26, the recent news from the UK Government has given some hope that in-person teaching may soon resume.

Cardiff University has said it will support in-person teaching resuming after the Easter recess, though it will be subject to Welsh Government guidelines, and dependent on the requirements of different Schools. This will, however, be a relief to many who have felt they have suffered from a lack of in-person teaching.

Another announcement made by the Pro-Vice Chancellor is that Cardiff University is putting together a comprehensive support package to support students affected by the ongoing pandemic.

Much of the funding will come from the additional £40m of funding provided by the Welsh Government in January to aid Welsh university students. There will be long discussions with other universities in Wales to agree upon the distribution of funding and, once agreed, the University will contact students about how to access this funding.

It will be welcome news for students in private housing and halls of residences who have not had the option of rent rebates despite being unable to live in Cardiff. Although there is no definitive information

about how much will be available to students, this financial support has been anticipated since the Welsh Government funding announcement on January 18.

For students living in Cardiff University Halls of Residences, they will be able to receive rent rebates.

Students will be eligible for a rebate if they did not return to university accommodation after the Christmas break, due to the lack of in-person teaching.

If students have chosen Remote Study, and their programme allows it, there will be an option to be released from their Residences Agreement, meaning they will not be required to pay the third semesters’ rent.

If students are unsure as to whether they qualify for the rent rebates, it is recommended that they read the information provided by Cardiff University in an email from the ProVice Chancellor on February 25.

From the beginning of March, students will have the opportunity to apply for rent rebates via the SIMS portal. The rebate will be based on weekly rent and will be deducted from third term instalments.

It has been recommended that students get in touch with Unite directly if they live in Clodien House, but the University has noted that if students require evidence of dates they were not required on campus, students can email Registry Support.

Pro-Vice Chancellor Claire Morgan also noted the importance of the student voice, encouraging feedback from students on online teaching.

Feedback from students is going towards the Cardiff University Digital Education Steering group to improve the University's approach to blended learning.

During this period of uncertainty, the University announcement encoruaged students to use Student Connect to contact the University if they require support at any time.

Although the announcement does not yet offer too much information on how much student will receive in rent rebates and financial support, it will come as a relief to many that the financial support offered by the Welsh Government in January will soon become available.

COVID-19 lockdown: England have already announced their easing of lockdown measures, but only time will tell whether Wales will follow their lead. Sources: CPMR - Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions and Number 10 (both via Flickr)

Will Wales follow England in lockdown easing?

Zoe Kramer

Head of News

W

ith UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson last week announcing England will lift all restrictions by June 21, the question has risen as to whether Wales will follow suit?

The Prime Minister has unveiled a four-step plan to ease lockdown measures across England, with the hopes that England will not need to

go into another lockdown later this year. It is said the steps will be based on data, as opposed to fixed dates.

The Welsh Government has announced a cautious approach to the easing of restrictions, although has not yet released an official date for the end of the lockdown period in Wales.

Despite Wales having the lowest current level of COVID-19 rates in the UK, and being the nation to have made the most headway with vaccinations, First Minister Mark Drake-

ford has been reluctant to announce a clear date for the complete easing of restrictions.

Although more announcements are yet to come for Wales, it will be interesting to see whether the Welsh Government choose to follow England's phased easing of restrictions, or whether they will choose their own path as they have done throughout the pandemic.

To read more about the easing of restrictions in England and 3 Wales, turn to page 3.

Call for support for under 18 voters

Pwysigrwydd Celebrating St. David's Day Rhagenwau

Contributor

Golygydd Taf-od

Francesca Ionescu

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eople aged 16 and 17-years-old will be able to vote for the first time in Wales, in the upcoming Senedd election, which has led to calls for more support and resources about voting.

The importance and ‘crucial’ nature of the upcoming vote has led to an open letter, from 32 organisations and academics, asking party leaders to ‘ramp up’ their interaction with the first-time voters so that they are more informed, and ready and willing to vote.

To read more about the open letter calling for further support for under 18 voters, make sure to turn to page 10 10

Nel Richards

Tirion Davies

Editor in Chief

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ae’r drafodaeth agored ynglyn â rhywedd yn cael ei normaleiddio, a’r defnydd o unigolion sy’n arddangos eu rhagenwau ar broffil ddigidol yn cynyddu.

Beth yw pwysigrwydd hyn?

I bobl cisgender (person lle mae ei ryw yn cyd-fynd â’r rhyw a neilltuwyd iddynt adeg ei g/eni), mae rhannu eich rhagenwau ar eich proffil digidol yn hawdd, ac yn ddidrafferth.

Wrth ofyn i fwyfwy o bobl arwain y ffordd gan rannu eu rhagenwau, gallen ni greu amgylchedd diogel i bawb.

Mae’r drafodaeth yngylch rhagenwau yn fwy amlwg heddiw nag erioed.

I ddarllen yn fwy am ragenwau, trowch i dudalen 8.

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t David's Day is arguably the biggest celebration of Wales of the calendar year (other than when we beat England at rugby!).

But what do we really know about St. David's Day and its traditions?

Did you know that St David is the only native-born patron saint of the home nations of Britain?

As we celebrate St. David's Day this March 1, Gair Rhydd's @Caerdydd section explores the history and traditions associated with the day of celebration for all things Welsh.

To read more about St David's Day, its traditions, its history and its importance in 2021, turn to page 22.

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EDITORIAL

At Gair Rhydd we take seriously our responsibility to maintain the highest possible standards.

We may occasionally make mistakes, however if you believe we have fallen below the standards we seek to uphold, please email editor@gairrhydd.com.

Opinions expressed in editorials and opinion pieces are not reflective of Cardiff Student Media, who act as the publisher of Gair Rhydd in legal terms, and should not be considered official communications or the organisation’s stance.

Gair Rhydd is a Post Office registered newspaper.

THE TEAM Coordinator

Elaine Morgan

Editor-in-Chief Tirion Davies

Deputy Editors

Hallum Cowell Holly Giles Molly Govus

Head of Digital Media Tom Leaman

Video Editors

Lottie Draycott Sophia Grace Scarlett Griffith Ellis Lloyd-Jones Daniel O’Callaghan

Graphics Editor

Ellie Hutchings

Copy Editors

Megan Newberry Amy Saunders Elle Speer

IN THIS ISSUE

A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR The media obsession with the Duchess of Sussex

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t was announced this week that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will lose their patronages and officially cease working as senior members of the Royal Family. The news was preceded by the announcement that the pair were expecting their second child.

But amongst this news, a trend appeared; people on social media were noting they believed the British media were generally showing unfavourable bias against Meghan Markle.

There is the possibility that this has to do with the Duchess of Sussex winning a privacy lawsuit against British tabloid The Mail on Sunday, after it was found that they had breached her privacy by publishing extracts of a letter written by the Duchess to her father, Thomas Markle.

It has been speculated that the letters were given to The Mail on Sunday by Thomas Markle, though Mr Justice Mark Warby noted that “taken as a whole, the disclosures [meaning the extracts from the letters between the Duchess and her father] were manifestly excessive and hence unlawful”.The Duchess of Sussex’s lawsuit is not the only lawsuit against the media by the Royal Family but it is the most spoken of within the media.

Prince Charles, the Queen, and even the Duchess of Cambridge have all taken actions against publications in the past.

But we can speculate as to why the media have been obsessed with the Duchess of Sussex in recent years since her wedding to Prince Harry in 2018.

The Royal Family has an agreement with British tabloids called ‘The Royal Rota’, whereby a group of journalists from British media get exclusive access to Royal engagements and events.

Some of these media outlets include The Daily Mail, The Daily Express, The Daily Mirror, The Evening Standard, The Telegraph, and The Sun.It’s possible that due to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex deciding to step back from Royal duties, they were saying they no longer wanted any part in the Royal Rota.

We will, of course, never know if this is in fact the case, but there is a possibility that being denied access that would usually be offered freely as part of this agreement could cause a rift between the Royal Family and the British press.

The media do seem to scrutinise Markel’s every move, to the point it seems unfair. I’m sure if most of us were in a similar situation, we, too, would have followed Harry and Meghan’s lead and left the spotlight.

In a week with more pressing news such as the fact English Health Secretary Matt Hancock was found to have acted unlawfully over pandemic contracts, focusing on the Duchess of Sussex seems trivial.

NEWS

Will Wales follow England’s lockdown lead? (p.3)

Obsesiwn y cyfryngau gyda’r Duges Sussex

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TAF-OD

Pwysigrwydd defnyddio rhagenwau (t.8)

POLITICS

Plaid Cymru MS summoned on murder trial (p.10)

COMMENT

The importance of a no Olympic world in 2021 (p.14)

ADVICE

The best podcasts to offer advice (p.16)

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

NASA lands Perserverance Rover on Red Planet (p.20)

@CAERDYDD

Cardiff Blitz: 80 years on (p.22)

SPORT

Feature: the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the cancellation of Welsh football (p.24)

Meghan Markle: Mae’r Duges Sussex wedi bod yn domiwnyddu pennawdau ers iddi priodi’r Tywysog Harri yn 2018.

Tarddiad: Bruce Detorres (drwy Flickr)

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Meghan Markle: The Duchess of Sussex has been dominating tabloid headlines since her marriage to Prince Harry in 2018.

Source: Bruce Detorres (via Flickr)

yhoeddodd y Dug a Duges Sussex yr wythnos hon y bydden nhw’n gorffen gweithio fel aelodau hŷn y Teulu Brenhinol. Daeth y newyddion yn fuan wedi iddynt gyhoeddi eu bod yn disgwyl eu hail babi yn hwyrach y flwyddyn hon.

Ond, yng nghanol y newyddion yma daeth tuedd; roedd pobl ar gyfryngau cymdeithasol yn nodi eu bod yn teimlo bod y gwasg ym Mhrydain yn dangos tuedd yn erbyn y Dduges, Meghan. Nid yw hyn yn dopig newydd, er hyn. Ers i Meghan Markle cyhoeddi ei bod yn priodi’r Tywysog, mae’r gwasg wedi dangos anhoffter tuag ati.

Mae’n bosib bod yr obsesiwn drosti’n ddiweddar o ganlyniad i’r Dduges Sussex yn ennill ei hachos cyfreithiol yn erbyn The Mail on Sunday, wedi iddynt gael ei ddarganfod o fod wedi torri rheolau preifatrwydd dros gyhoeddi rhannau o lythyrau wedi’i ysgrifennu gan y Dduges at ei thad, Thomas Markle.

Mae rhai wedi cynnig mae’n bosib yr oedd Thomas Markle ei hun wedi cynnig y llythyrau i’r Mail on Sunday, ond ar y cyfan yr oedd y papur wedi torri rheolau preifatrwydd gan gyhoeddi’r llythyrau, ac felly wedi ymddwyn yn anghyfreithlon.

Nid achos cyfreithiol y Dduges Sussex yw’r unig achos cyfreithiol gan y Teulu Brenhinol dros y blynyddoedd, ond dyma’r un sydd

wedi achosi’r fwyaf sylw yn y wasg.

Yr oedd y Tywysog Charles, y Frenhines, a hyd yn oed Duges Cambridge wedi’i fod yn rhan o achosion cyfreithiol yn erbyn y wasg yn y gorffennol.

Ond, mae’n bosib y gallwn ni dyfalu pam bod y Dduges Sussex wedi derbyn ymateb negyddol yn y wasg ers iddi briodi i’r Teulu Brenhinol yn 2018.

Mae gan y Teulu Brenhinol cytundeb gyda nifer o bapurau newydd yn y wasg ym Mhrydain o’r enw ‘Royal Rota’, lle bod gan nifer o newyddiadurwyr mynediad i’r Teulu Brenhinol a’u hymrwymiadau.

Mae’n bosibl gan fod y Dug a’r Dduges Sussex wedi gadael y ei swyddi fel prif aelodau’r Teulu Brenhinol bod y wasg yn anhapus, gan fod hyn yn golygu nad ydynt bellach eisiau bod yn rhan o’r ‘Royal Rota’. Wrth gwrs, mae’n annhebygol y byddem ni’n derbyn esboniad os bod hyn yn wir neu’i beidio, ond mae’n bosibl bod gwrthod mynediad i’w bywydau wedi achosi rhwyg rhyngddynt a’r gwasg Prydeinig.

Mae’r gwasg yn aml yn craffu ar bob dim mae Meghan Markle yn ei gwneud, ac mae’n teimlo’n annheg.

Mae’n siŵr, os oeddem ni yn yr un sefyllfa, y byddem ni, yn ogystal, eisiau ffordd o ddianc y chwyddwydr.

Yng nghanol wythnos gyda newyddion mwy pwysig, megis hanes Matt Hancock yn torri rheolau dros gontractau’r pandemig, mae ffocysu ar y Dduges Sussex yn teimlo’n ddibwys.

NODYN GAN Y GOLYGYDD

NEWS

England to lift lockdown in 4 stages

England plans to reopen during the summer; will Wales follow suit?

Zoe Kramer

Head of News

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rime Minister Boris Johnson has unveiled a four-step plan to lift COVID-19 lockdown restrictions in England.

The lifting of restrictions will be based off of data rather than fixed dates. Wales may follow a similar path, or undergo a different process entirely.

Each stage of the lockdown will last a minimum of 5 weeks, allowing for enough time to collect data and then prepare for the next stage.

The first stage of step 1 will begin on March 8. During this stage, the stay-at-home order will remain in place; however it will be possible for students to return to school, for individuals to meet one person outside, and for care home residents to receive one regular visitor.

The second stage of step 1 will begin on March 29. During this stage, the stay-at-home order will no longer be in place; however, it is still encouraged to work remotely where possible.

End of lockdown: Johnson has set out a plan to reopen completely, possibly as soon as June 21. Source: Number 10 (via Flickr) This stage will allow for gatherings will be allowed 15. University stuof up to six people in parks and gar- dents will be allowed to resume facedens as well as participation in out- to-face teaching. door sport and swimming.

Step 3 will commence no earlier Step 2 will begin no earlier than than May 17. At this stage, most mixApril 12. This step will mark the ing rules will be lifted and outdoor opening of non-essential businesses, gatherings of up to 30 people will be including retail, hair and nail salons, allowed. Indoor mixing of up to six libraries, outdoor seating for pubs people or members of two houseand restaurants, zoos and theme holds will be allowed. Indoor venues parks, and gyms. such as pubs, restaurants, theatres, Funerals will be allowed up to 30 and cinemas will be reopened. attendees and weddings and wakes International holidays may be al-

lowed as well as sports events of up to 1000 spectators indoors or 4000 spectators outdoors.

Step 4 will start no earlier than June 21. This stage effectively lifts all restrictions, allowing for large events and for nightclubs to reopen.

The progression towards each stage is dependent on several factors: how successful vaccine rollout is, how effective the vaccine is at preventing the spread of the disease; and whether new variants are spreading and infection rates. It is expected that COVID-19 status certificates (test or vaccine documentation) will be used throughout.

Johnson said: “We cannot escape the fact that lifting lockdown will result in more cases, more hospitalisations and, sadly, more deaths. And this will happen whenever lockdown is lifted, whether that is now or in six or nine months.”

He continued: “We cannot persist indefinitely with restrictions that debilitate our economy, our physical and mental wellbeing, and the life chances of our children.”

MPs will vote on the roadmap in late March.

Staggered return for students in Wales and Scotland Luthien Evans News Editor

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ollowing Boris Johnson’s roadmap for the exiting of lockdown, the Welsh and Scottish governments have stated their own stances on the roadmap for each of the nations.

The English model has stated the return and reopening of all schools on March 8. Wales and Scotland have instead opted for phased returns for students.

Both nations’ governments have questioned the English roadmap for educational returns. Kirsty Williams, Welsh Education Minister, even stated that she has not personally seen any scientific evidence that would support the UK government’s plan for school returns in one lump sum instead of a staggered return.

It has been suggested that the reasoning for a staggered return would enable the governments to monitor COVID-19 infections, in order to prevent the escalation of cases.

As of the week beginning February 22, primary school students aged between three and seven are back at school. Williams further stated that this will be monitored and if conditions allow and improve over the next three weeks, then further primary age students could also return to school and education from March 15. This would also include older students, for example in secondary schools, who will be taking exams.

Williams further hopes that all students will be back in the school following the Easter holidays, in Wales this date will be set for April 12.

Williams, when asked about the comparison between the approach in Wales and England stated: ‘I haven’t received any new evidence or advice that supports a different approach to the one we are taking here in Wales. Our phased and very careful approach is in line with the public health advice and is consistent with the UK-wide advice.’

In Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon has

School days: The government has to balance students’ educational needs with their safety. Source: Pexels (via Pixabay) commented that keeping the infec- members. Neil Butler of the NAStion rate low is important as she UWT National office for Wales has claims “there is not enough head- stated in talks with The Guardian: room to allow greater relaxations”.

“We have made it clear that we She also commented on the fact that would want to see the educational this pandemic has been especially workforce vaccinated before returnhard on young students regarding ing to face-to-face teaching. their mental well-being.

“Our members are telling us that The return of pupils has been they will return, but they are terridisputed, however, by many union fied. This is unacceptable.”

on the new school builds, £234m in economic development initiatives, including the new arena, the international sports village and the Atlantic Wharf redevelopment.

Not only this but £61m to develop cycle routes and improve transport infrastructure and active travel routes. £54.7 investment in existing school infrastructure, £41.8m for disabled adaptations to help people continue to live in their homes, £41m investment in highway infrastructure, £32.7m for neighbourhood improvements and £25m for green energy sustainability.

Furthermore the budget proposes £18m to support recycling and build a new recycling facility in the north of the city, £18m to address flooding and coastal erosion, £9.7m investment in parks and playgrounds. £4.3m investment in children’s respite provision

and accommodation for Looked After Children. £3.2m investment in youth and wellbeing hubs and finally the Council will also provide support for its One Planet strategy to tackle climate change, making Cardiff a greener and cleaner place to live.

Cabinet member for Finance, Cllr Chris Weaver, said: “This council has always had high ambitions for our city. We always want the best for our residents and we are determined to ensure Cardiff makes a quick recovery from the effects of the pandemic.

“This will involve bringing together and supporting a broad range of measures designed to help renew Cardiff, delivering an economic landscape where jobs can be created as we recover after this incredibly difficult year. We believe our budget proposals set a clear route out of the pandemic which

News Editor

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post-pandemic budget has been proposed to boost Cardiff and safeguard vital services. The multi-million, post-pandemic recovery budget has been outlined to help create new jobs, deliver new council homes, build better schools and safeguard vital public services. This budget has been proposed and will go towards the city’s full council for approval on March 4.

These proposals are part of the 2021/22 budget report and will see millions spent helping to get the city up and running again as it looks to recover from the pandemic.

The five year budget is set to invest £378m in social housing including new council homes. £251m

YOUR NEWS DESK

Zoe Kramer

Luthien Evans

Sam Portillo

Cardiff five-year pandemic budget proposed Dominic Williams

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can benefit who lives here.’’

The Council’s Cabinet proposes bridging the £15.594m funding gap in two ways. These are: realising £10.244m in efficiency savings and raising council tax by 3.5% raising £5.35m.

This will involve...a broad range of measures designed to help renew Cardiff, delivering an economic landscape where jobs can be created as we recover after this incredibly difficult year.

Dominic Williams news@gairrhydd.com Cllr Weaver added: “Most of the money the council receives (72%) comes via grants from Welsh Government. The remaining 28% comes from Council Tax. The majority of our budget - around two thirds or 66% is spent on running schools and social services. Without council tax many of the other important services we deliver, services which have proven so valuable throughout the pandemic could be lost or face severe cuts”.

While going onto say: “Anyone who is struggling to pay and is eligible will of course have the opportunity to access support through the Council Tax reduction scheme.’’

As mentioned earlier, The proposals are part of the 2021/22 budget report which will go to Cabinet for approval on Thursday, February 25. Once agreed, Full Council will vote on the budget at a meeting on March 4.

4 NEWS North Wales Storm Christoph: was Wales ready for flooding this year? street names Sam Portillo to be printed News Editor only in Welsh H Luthien Evans News Editor

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n the Welsh county of Denbighshire, North Wales, senior councillors have decided that streets in the county will no longer be named after or inspired by public figures, celebrities or any other individuals.This is for safeguarding measures against the possibility of these individuals becoming controversial in the future.

The lead member for corporate services, Richard Mainon, has spoken on this decision stating that as ‘times and attitudes change, some names did not stand the test of time and could be divisive’.

The council decided that street names will instead be used to ‘describe the area and signify the cultural and historical significance of the place’. Ultimately concluding with the fact that street names should be focused on the place rather than an individual like a celebrity.

The county council will only make an exception to this decision for those people who have achieved ‘once in a generation’ feats.

These exceptions will help to ease the burden that many council offices have felt in the county, as many relatives of fallen military personnel have asked for them to name the street on their behalf. Armed services bodies have previously mentioned that this may not be a good idea, unless as previously mentioned, they have done ‘something truly exceptional’.

This policy has therefore made it easier on counsellors who felt burdened by the prospect of saying no to these grieving relatives. Furthermore, it was hard for those members who were tasked with the job of naming streets, as they had to prioritise who they thought warranted this honour. Emma Jones, the senior council officer, even stated that the ‘normalisation of naming streets after individuals should be removed’.

Debates on this topic have been common. Many places that were once named after Jimmy Savile have since been renamed following the emergence of information of Savile being a serial sexual predator. Patterns of glorification followed by a rebuttal of said celebrity have become ever more common.

Many have shown the other side of the debate, claiming that the socalled ‘blanket ban’ on street names should not prevent those worthy of being given the privilege. Many of those in opposition to the blanket ban state Captain Tom Moore as one who should have his fundraising work recognised in such a manner; it may not occur if a blanket ban is imposed.

Further changes to the process of street naming in this county have been rectified. The council have announced that new street names should have Welsh only names; this was greeted warmly by Welsh language campaigners and pressure groups such as the Welsh Language Society, also known as Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg.

A member of the Welsh Language Society also stated “I think that having our street names in Welsh is an important way of remembering that the Welsh language belongs to all of us”.

eavy rainfall brought about by Storm Christoph last month reignited questions over the capability of Welsh Government and local authorities to defend against destructive flooding, with the Met Office issuing flood warnings in 58 areas.

A period of sustained heavy rain saw the River Dee near Wrexham reach record levels, inciting a severe flood warning and evacuation of residents from their homes.

In South Wales – Pentre in Rhondda Cynon Taf – heavy wind and rain caused a ‘minor’ landslip. In the aftermath of the rain, a Natural Resources Wales official warned residents in affected areas to “remain vigilant” as rivers continue to be at abnormal levels.

Multiple travel routes were rendered unusable as rain water breached river banks and covered rail tracks and roads.

Experienced meteorologist Marco Petagna reported that Treherbert in the South Wales Valleys received 115mm of rain in just over 24 hours, while the typical average for the whole month of February is 98mm. “They’ve had more than a month’s worth of rain

in 24 hours,” he said.

Natural Resources Wales said that the River Usk peaked at 3.9 metres – the equivalent of two average adult men standing on top of one another.

There are communities in Wales still reeling from the devastation of Storm Ciara and Storm Dennis at the front end of last year when areas in the Brecon Beacons and South Wales Valleys received 160mm rainfall in one day. Data from insurance firms valued the flood damage at £81 million, with homes and businesses alike both infiltrated by the water.

A review from October found that Natural Resource Wales had been “stretched”, impairing their ability to handle “unforeseen events on the ground”.

In relation to Storms Ciara and Dennis last winter, the report found that NRW issued six flood warnings later than they should have, and misjudged the timing of a further twelve.

“Quite clearly, the weather instances were exceptional,” the leader of Rhondda Cynon Taf council said.

“Storm Dennis was classed as a 1 in 290 year weather event.”

But meteorologists and other scientists widely recognise that the UK is shifting towards a warmer and wetter climate that lends itself more readily to

Flooding: Flooding is not an uncommon occurrence in Wales, but has enough been done to safeguard against damages? Source: Alan Bowring (via Geograph) ‘freak’ weather.

In the Senedd, opposition parties continue to push the Welsh Government to improve NRW’s ability to respond to such challenges.

Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price said that the events raised “serious questions” about the administration’s ability to handle crisis situations, while Labour First Minister Mark Drakeford accused his opponent of making “political capital out of misery”.

NRW Chief Executive Clare Pill-

man however argues that the fallout from such exceptional weather would have been “unavoidable” even with enhanced funding and resources.

In a similar vein of thought, the Welsh Government aims to bolster against future flooding crises by preparing communities ‘on the ground’, reinforcing homes and giving residents in vulnerable areas tools that will hopefully allow them to warn others against intruding water and evacuate early.

Cardiff Council’s ‘No Going Back’ approach to homelessness Dominic Williams News Editor

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ardiff Council’s ‘No Going Back’ approach to the delivery of homelessness services in the city will take another stride forward next week if plans to buy a new facility are agreed.

At its next meeting on Thursday, February 25, Cabinet will consider a proposal to purchase the YHA hostel on East Tyndall Street, accommodation the Council has been using since last Spring when extra spaces were needed to keep clients safe during the pandemic.

For example, the Cardiff Rough sleeper Strategy from 2017-2020 was developed in response to the pressing issue of rough sleeping in Cardiff. in line with the rest of Wales, has experienced an upward trend in rough sleeping in recent years. Since the introduction of the Strategy in 2017, numbers of rough sleepers in Cardiff have stabilised but remain an issue.

Not only this, but the impact of welfare reform including the implementation to Universal Credit, along with inwork poverty and zero hour contracts are leading to more people experiencing financial difficulties in Cardiff. Alongside the further difficulties that COVID-19 has had financially on people, Cardiff’s ‘No Going Back’ approach is more important than ever.

In an increasing number of cases this is impacting on their ability to pay their rent. Benefit changes may continue to impact on homeless services particularly as benefits become more conditional and complex. For the period April 2015 to March 2018 Cardiff Council has seen a 762% increase in the number of clients experiencing difficulties with paying their rent or mortgage. The number of cases rose from 82 in 2015/16 to 707 in 2017/18.

However more people than ever before are engaging with life-changing support services, such as therapeutic counselling, mental health support and substance misuse treatment.

A Fresh Start: The YHA hostel will provide accomodation to help curb homelessness during the pandemic. Source: James Emmans (via Geograph) The YHA hostel provided 80 of the lives.

182 additional units of supported acPermanently acquiring the 80 bed commodation that were established hostel will ensure the continuity of acacross a number of sites to address commodation and support for single homelessness during the health cri- homeless people, and together with sis, and its good quality accommoda- other improved provision and changtion and on-site support services have es to the way services are delivered, played an integral role in achieving will further support the Council’s new real change in vulnerable people’s vision for homelessness services.

Grangetown redevelopment plan sparks controversy Zoe Kramer

Head of News

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here are plans for a £60m redevelopment in Grangetown, replacing approximately 180 houses and flats with the new Channel View scheme. Some fear, however, that this move may lead to gentrification.

The plan for demolition is partially due to the fact that the block of flats has combustible cladding, the same material responsible for the Grenfell Tower fire. The reconstruction will unfortunately require residents to leave homes they have lived in for, in some cases, decades.

The council maintains that residents of the area will be able to move from their old property to one of the 360 newly built properties. Consultations with the residents have been in progress since 2016.

The first phase of the plan will be the construction of 78 flats for senior residents, replacing the current tower

The Master Plan: Hamadryad park is where the bridge will be built should the plan proceed. Source: M J Roscoe (via Geograph) block. likely be destroyed “so a bus can turn Part of the masterplan for the area around”. involves joining up Channel View Other residents worry that the payRoad and South Clive Street at their ment they will receive for their houses southern ends. This move will be will not be sufficient to afford one of made to improve the bus network; the newly built properties. however, it will require the destrucUnder the plan, houses will also be tion of six houses. demolished to make way for a path Helen Brito of South Clive Street between Beecher Avenue and Ferry claims her house, which has been Road Park, essentially in order to creher residence for 27 years, will most ate more green space.

According to a council spokesperson: “All South Clive Street residents were written to in September. Cardiff Council has been directly consulting with residents since 2016, including five face-to-face consultation events for residents living on the Channel View estate, residents written to over 20 times, written directly to all private owners affected by the proposals to seek views, understand concerns and discuss options.”

About £9m of the budget will go towards the construction of a pedestrian bridge across the Taff from the Marl to Hamadryad Park.

Councillor Lynda Thorne said, “Channel View is a strong and vibrant community within Grangetown, but there are a number of issues with the condition of the current estate. This is a fantastic opportunity for us to not only address those issues, but to breathe new life into the wider area by creating the type of good quality homes and attractive neighbourhoods we want to see in a modern city.”

GO GREEN WEEK 1ST-5TH MARCH Small lifestyle changes that can help us save the planet.

6

TAF-OD

taf od

Barn y Bobol

Yn ddiweddar, mae gorsaf radio BBC Radio Cymru wedi bod yn chwarae caneuon Saesneg. Gyda’r orsaf yn un sydd yn darlledu cynnwys Cymreig mae hyn wedi bod yn syndod i nifer o wrandawyr.

Oes lle i ganeuon Saesneg ar orsaf radio Cymraeg, neu ydy’r defnydd ohonynt y gyfiawn?

Dyma farn Ifan, Sali a Deio.

Ifan Price

Myfiriwr yr ail flwyddyn, Hanes Gorsaf Gymraeg ydi Radio Cymru.

Heblaw bod cysylltiad amlwg rhwng yr artistiaid a Chymru, chwithig yw cynnwys eu caneuon. Y cysylltiad hwn sy’n angenrheidiol cyn ystyried chwarae caneuon Saesneg.

Wrth chwarae artistiaid o Gymru, rydym yn rhoi’r platfform i Gymry lwyddo. Cerddoriaeth Gymraeg ddylai fod wrth wraidd Radio Cymru. Ond byddai chwarae cerddoriaeth Saesneg-Cymreig yn cyfoethogi ein celfyddydau a chyfryngau yng Nghymru. Wrth chwarae caneuon Saesneg ehangach bu’n pwysleisio grym yr iaith a chelfyddydau Saesneg ar Gymru. Gweler ddigon o sianeli yn chwarae The Weeknd a Taylor Swift, ond diffyg o sianeli yn chwarae Mellt, Adwaith, Nia Wyn a Codewalkers.

Sali Wheway

Myfyrwraig yr ail flwyddyn, Cymraeg a Newyddiaduraeth Er bod Radio Cymru yn sianel sy’n dathlu Cymreictod, ac mae cerddoriaeth gyfrwng y Gymraeg yn rhan bwysig o’n diwyliant, credaf fod hi’n bwysig cael amrywiaeth o ganeuon Cymraeg a Saesneg. Yn fy marn i, drwy gael amrywiaeth o ganeuon mi fydd Radio Cymru yn creu cynuleidfa fwy eang oherwydd bod galw am gerddoriaeth boblogaidd, a cherddoriaeth sydd yn y siartiau. Drwy gynnwys caneuon Cymraeg a Saesneg, mae Radio Cymru yn dangos eu bod nhw’n cefnogi artistiaid Cymraeg, ond hefyd yn llwydd chwarae caneuon poblogaidd fel bod miwsig i weddu pawb sy’n gwrando.

Diwylliant: Pwysigrwydd defnyddio Rhagenwau cywir heddiw (tudalen 8)

NEWYDDION

Dathlu Diwrnod Rhyngwladol Mamiaith Siaradwyr Cymraeg daeth ynghyd i berfformio ‘Cenedl mewn Cân’ Alaw Fflur Jones Golygydd Taf-od

R

oedd hi’n Ddiwrnod Rhyngwladol Mamiaith ddydd Sul, Chwefror 21. Caiff Diwrnod Rhyngwladol Mamiaith ei ddathlu’n flynyddol er mwyn codi ymwybyddiaeth o iaith, amrywiaeth ddiwylliannol ac amlieithrwydd ledled y byd.

Penodwyd Ddiwrnod Rhyngwladol Mamiaith ar Chwefror 21 yn 1999 gan Sefydliad Gwyddonol a Diwylliannol Addysgol y Cenhedloedd Unedig (UNESCO) mewn teyrnged i 4 myfyriwr ifanc o Brifysgol Dhaka a laddwyd ym Mangladesh yn ystod protest yn 1952 rhwng yr iaith Bengaleg ac Wrdw.

Wedi’r protest iaith yn 1952 a blynyddoedd lawer o aflonyddwch, mae Diwrnod Rhyngwladol Mamiaith yn ddathliad cenedlaethol o amgylch y byd.

Mae Diwrnod Rhyngwladol Mamiaith yn cael ei ystyried fel diwrnod o falchder tuag at iaith. O ganlyniad i globaleiddio, mae nifer o ieithoedd, sy’n cyfrannu tuag at ddiwylliannau ledled y byd dan fygythiad o gael eu colli.

Mae dathlu Diwrnod Rhyngwladol Mamiaith yn bwysig wrth sicrhau parhad ieithoedd ledled y byd, yn ogystal â’r diwylliannau, treftadaeth a’r hanes yn eu sgil.

Daeth siaradwyr Cymraeg ledled

y byd ynghyd i berfformio ‘Cenedl mewn Cân’ er mwyn dathlu diwrnod Mamiaith Rhyngwladol UNESCO. Pwrpas creu ‘Cenedl mewn Cân’ oedd i hyrwyddo Cymru, ei diwylliant, a’r iaith Gymraeg i weddill y byd.

Roedd ‘Cenedl mewn Cân’ yn drefniant newydd gan y cerddor Osian Huw Williams o’r gân ‘Ysbryd y Nos’, a berfformiwyd gan Cleif Harpwood, Bryn Fôn, Eädyth, Mared Williams a disgyblion ysgolion uwchradd. Mae’r disgyblion syddd wedi cyfrannu wedi recordio eu hunain o’u cynefinoedd yng Nghymru, Dubai, Patagonia a Lloegr.

‘Mae’r brwdfrydedd gan y disgyblion, rhieni ac athrawon wedi bod yn wych,’ meddai Elin Evans, cydlynydd y prosiect.

‘Mae’r angerdd i fod yn rhan o Cenedl mewn Cân wedi dangos pwysigrwydd ein hiaith ymysg ein pobl ifanc a’r balchder sydd gennym i’w rhannu a gweddill y byd’.

Cafodd y gân ei chwarae yn gyntaf ar raglen Lisa Gwilym ar BBC Radio Cymru. Ond mae’r gân a’r fideo nawr ar gael ar You-tube. Cafodd y fideo sy’n cyd-fynd â’r gân ei gynhyrchu gan gwmni Amcan, ac mae’n cynnwys perfformiadau gan yr artistiaid, y disgyblion a delweddau trawiadol o Gymru.

‘Mae cerddoriaeth yn fodd naturiol i ni rannu a dathlu ein hiaith.

Dwi’n edrych ymlaen at glywed

fersiwn Osian yn ei holl ogoniant’.

Yn ôl Gareth Thomas, Aelod Cabi net Datblygu’r Economi a Chymuned Cyngor Gwynedd, mae ‘Cenedl mewn Cân’ yn gynllun sydd wedi eu sefydlu ar y cyd gan Gyngor Gwynedd ac awdurdodau lleol eraill sy’n ‘credu mewn gwerth a phwysigrwydd defnyddio iaith er budd ein cymunedau, mewn busnes a chreu naws am le unigryw’.

Mae’r awdurdodau eraill yn cynnwys Cyngor Sir Ceredigion, Cyngor Sir Benfro, Cyngor Sir Ynys Môn, Cyngor Bwrdeistrefol Sirol Conwy, Cyngor Sir Ddinbych, Cyngor Sir y

Fflint a Chyngor Bwrdeistrefol Sirol Wrecsam.

Mae cyngor Gwynedd yn aros am benderfyniad gan UNESCO eleni ar gais Treftadaeth Byd i Dirlun Llechi Gogledd Orllewin Cymru.

Ac felly, yn ogystal â rhoi cyfle i bobl ifanc gynorthwyo ‘i godi ymwybyddiaeth ryngwladol yn y Gymraeg a’n diwylliant Cymreig’, mae ‘Cenedl mewn Cân’ yng ngheriau Gareth Thomas, ‘yn amserol iawn ac yn atgyfnerthu ein nod o ddathlu ein diwylliant a’n iaith a chyfraniad pwysig y tirlun Llechi a’i phobl i’r byd.’

Dileu cynnwys ‘hiliol’ ar sianel Youtube Gymreig Aled Biston

Pennaeth Taf-od

M

a Stan Robinson, ac mae eu cynnwys wedi cofnodi cyfanswm o 350,000 o sesiynau gwylio hyd yma. Yn sgil ymchwiliad Newyddion S4C, mae YouTube wedi dileu peth cynnwys lle mae Voice of Wales yn ymddangos a rhwystro hysbysebion rhag ymddangos ar fideos eraill. Ond beth yn union yw cynnwys y sianel hon?

Mae Dan Morgan a Stan Robinson yn aelodau o’r blaid UKIP, a dywed nhw eu bod yn rhoi llais i’r rhai sydd ddim yn cael eu cynrychioli gan gyfryngau prif ffrwd. Mae’r ddau yn gwahodd gwesteion gwaharddedig ar eu sianel hefyd, gan gyn-

Deio Owen

ae sianel YouTube Gymreig wedi ei labelu’n ‘hiliol’ a’i chyhuddo o ddarlledu iaith a syniadaeth ‘ffiaidd’ ac ‘annerbyniol’ wedi ymchwiliad gan raglen Newyddion S4C. Enw’r sianel yw ‘Voice of Wales’ a dechreuodd y sianel darlledu ym mis Gorffennaf y llynedd, ac mae dros 5,000 o bobl yn tanysgrifio i’r sianel. Cyflwynwyd cynnwys y sianel gan ddau ddyn o ardal Abertawe- Dan Morgan

Os yn gwrando mewn car neu i glywed cyfarch penblwydd, mae Radio Cymru heb os yn gartref i gerddoriaeth Gymraeg. Ers ei sefydliad, mae Radio Cymru wedi chwarae caneuon Cymraeg gan greu ethos Gymreig poblogaidd. Pe tasai’r orsaf yn newd i chwarae mwy o gerddoriaeth Saesneg, dwi’n meddwl na fydd cymaint o wrandawyr wrth iddo debygu i orsafoedd eraill.

Mae’n briodol chwarae cerddoriaeth Saesneg gan gantorion Cymreig, heb fod yn ormodol. Mae angen cartref i gerddoriaeth Cyrmreig ar yr awyr yn genedlaethol a dylid Radio Cymru parhau gyda’r un patrwm.

YouTube: Ceir brwydr yn ddiweddar dros cynnwys ‘hiliol’ ar sianel Cymraeg.

Tarddiad: (via FreeIMG.net)

Myfyriwr y flwyddyn gyntaf, Cymraeg a Gwleidyddiaeth

Dathlu: Diwrnod Rhyngwladol Mamiaith. Tarddiad: UNESCO Bangkok

nwys y grŵp ‘Proud Boys’ o ogledd America sydd wedi cael eu gwahardd gan Facebook, Twitter ac Instagram. Yng Nghanada, maen nhw wedi cael eu gwahardd yn llwyr wedi i’r llywodraeth yno farnu eu bod nhw’n fudiad terfysgol.

Mae Tommy Robinson a Katie Hopkins hefyd wedi ymddangos ar y sianel, mae’r ddau ohonynt wedi’u gwahardd gan Twitter am dorri canllawiau’r wefan honno o ran casineb. Mae rhai gwleidyddion Cymreig amlwg wedi ymddangos ar y sianel hefyd, gan gynnwys unig Aelod Seneddol UKIP, Neil Hamilton a chyn-ymgeisydd etholiadol Ceidwadol Felix Aubel.

Bu’r sianel hefyd yn bresennol mewn protestiadau dadleuol, gan ddarlledu sylw sydd yn ymddangos yn ffafriol i’r rheiny sydd wedi bod yn ceisio tarfu ar chwaraewyr pêl-droed Abertawe wrth iddyn nhw benglinio i gefnogi mudiad Black Lives Matter, yn ogystal â rhai oedd yn dangos gwrthwynebiad i gartrefi ceiswyr lloches mewn gwersyll hyfforddi milwrol yn Sir Benfro. Yn ogystal â darlledu cynnwys dadleuol, mae iaith y ddau (Dan Morgan a Stan Robinson) wedi codi pryderon.

Mewn un fideo, mae Mr Robinson yn dweud nad yw eisiau

clywed am newyddion India, a bydd ef yn ‘mynd ar jet ac yn mynd i eisiau’ os oedd eisiau gwybod am newyddion y wlad.

Ategodd at ei sylwadau gan ddweud bod ‘’mob’ Fwslimaidd Pacistan yn broblematig’. Tra’n darlledu’n fyw o Fae Caerdydd mewn fideo arall, mae Mr Morgan yn gwneud y sylw canlynol wrth weld posteri o bobl ddu amlwg yn y ffenestri: ‘Beth yw’r adeilad yma?... Cyngor Celfyddydau Cymru… achos ni gyd yn gwybod dyma beth sydd ar ddod yng Nghymru. Cyngor Celfyddydau Affricanaidd Cymru. Oedd e’n ddweud hynny?Nag oedd. Ond mi ddylai wneud’. Mae Mr Morgan a Mr Robinson yn dweud nad ydynt wedi gwneud unrhyw beth oi le, ac yn gadarn yn y safiad hynny. Mae Youtube yn meddwl yn wahanol.

Mewn datganiad, dywedodd YouTube bod eu canllawiau yn gwahardd defnyddio iaith casineb a’u bod nhw’n cael gwared ag unrhyw fideos a sylwadau sydd yn torri’r polisïau yma. Erbyn hyn, mae YouTube wedi dileu tri fideo yn cynnwys Voice of Wales ac wedi rhwystro hysbysebion ar chwe fideo pellach. Yn sicr mae cynnwys y sianel wedi peri gofid i lawer, ac nid oes amau bydd YouTube yn cadw llygaid ar y cyfrif yn y dyfodol agos wedi ymchiliad gan Newyddion S4C.

TAF-OD

Pryd o Daf-od: Nel Richards Golygydd Taf-od, Nel Richards sydd yn trafod ei phrofiad o drial dorri plastig allan o’i bywyd, yr wythnos hon Roedd Nel yn ceisio torri lawr ar ei defnydd hi o blastig am bythefnos, er lles yr amgylchedd.

Darllenwch wrth i Nel trafod ei phrofiad hi, wrth drafod nifer y plastig sydd yn cael eu defnyddio ym mywyd pob dydd, sut mae Marchnad Caerdydd yn lleihau ar ei ddefnydd o blastig a mwy.

A

stâd naturiol y byd. Wrth gerdded o Lidl, a Tesco draw i Aldi a nol i Asda – archfarchnadoedd amlwg ein trefi, anodd iawn oedd dewis bwydydd oedd mewn pecynnau di-blastig.

Mae Marchnad Caerdydd yn le perffaith ar gyfer bwydydd ffres ac iach a chefnogi busnesau bach lleol, sydd angen ein cefnogaethyn y cyfnod anodd yma.

Yn ystod y pythefnos llenwais fy magiau papur â thomatos, tatws a thanjerins. Roedd digon o amrywiaeth o fwydydd gwahanol ar gael.

Es i a llond dwrn o fagiau papur yr oeddwn yn gallu eu hailddefnyddio gyda mi i’r archfarchnadoedd yn ogystal, a llenwi’r bagiau gyda ffrwythau a llysiau ffres.

Es i’r Deli i gasglu nwyddau, megis caws a’r Becws i brynu bara.

Roeddent ychydig yn ddrutach, ond rhaid talu’r pris am newid brys.

yw’n rhy hwyr i ni ddad-wneud y niwed?

Es i ati i geisio torri plastig allan o fy mywyd, yn gyfangwbl, am bythefnos.

Ers y 1950au, mae tua 8.3 biliwn tunell o blastig wedi eu cynhyrchu ledled y byd – a dim ond 9% ohono sy’n cael ei ailgylchu.

Eisoes, rwy’n barod yn defnyddio trugareddau ail-ddefnyddiadwy er mwyn lleihau ar blastig - megis potel ddŵr metel, bag defnydd i fynd i siopa, brwsh dannedd bambŵ, past dannedd mewn pot gwydr, a deunydd golchi, megis cotton padsmae modd eu golchi, barau o sebon ar gyfer y corff a’r gwallt.

Mae’r holl bethau hyn ar gael mewn siopau ym mhob man.

Mae’r diwydiant bwyd yn ffactor enfawr sy’n ychwanegu pwysau ar

A yw troi’n ddi-blastig yn ormod o her?

Fel myfyrwraig, roedd llawer o bryderon gyda mi ynglŷn ag ochr ariannol yr arbrawf yma: o brynu nwyddau megis bag defnydd, potel ddŵr, lle rydw’n eu hailddefnyddio, mae’r arbedion ariannol yn amlwg yn amlwg yn yr hirdymor.

Yr un modd, mae’r bwyd organig yn iachach, ac yn gymorth i’r amgylchedd.

Mae siopau ddi-wastraff yn caniatáu i gwsmeriaid ddod â’u cynwysyddion y gellir eu hailddefny-

ddio eu hunain a’u llenwi eu hunain, gan arbed ar yr angen am becynnu newyddau - sydd naill ai’n cael ei daflu, neu y mae’n rhaid ei hailgylchu (gan gostio ynni ac adnoddau y gellid eu defnyddio ar gyfer rhywbeth mwy pwysig na chyfleustra).

Manteisiais ar siopau diwastraff lleol Caerdydd: Ripple yn ardal y Rhath, a Viva Organic ym Mhontcanna.

Annell Dyfri Llygredd: Plastig ar y traethau. Tarddiad: Muntaka Chasant (drwy Wikimedia Commons)

Iwan Kellett

Prosecco.

9. Beth oedd y diwrnod gorau iti ei gael erioed?

2. Beth yw’r digwyddiad sy’n codi’r mwyaf o embaras arnat?

Dyweddio efo ‘nghariad.

Dyweddio efo ‘nghariad mewn bwyty Indian

Bara.

Cwac Cwac.

4. Pe fyddet ti ar yr X-Factor, pa gân byddet ti’n ei chanu a pham?

Byswn i’n ddweud bysai’n hoffi neud rhywbeth gan Freddie Mercury tasa gennai’r llais.

10. Beth yw dy gas beth?

taf-od

Alaw Fflur Jones

Catrin Lewis

11. Beth fyddet ti’n gwneud yn ystod dy noson ddelfrydol?

Bach o karaoke, bach o ddawnsio a wedyn chippy.

12. Pe taset ti’n gallu bod yn unrhyw anifail am ddiwrnod, pa un fyddet ti’n ei ddewis, a pham?

5. Beth fyddet ti’n ei archebu o’r bwyty Indiaidd lleol?

Canada Goose am bo fi isio deifio mewn i llyn Rhath heb edrach yn od.

Chicken Tikka Masala, Keema Naan a Veg Samosas.

13. Disgrifia dy hun mewn 3 gair.

6. Pwy oeddet ti’n ffansio pan oeddet ti’n iau?

Ffrwydrad o Fônwysyn.

Pili Pala Pentre Bach.

14. Pwy fydd yn trafod ‘da’r Taf-od wythnos nesaf?

7. Pwy yw dy hoff fand/artist?

Luke Rees.Elliw Williams

Billy Joel.

Trafod gyda’r

8. Prosecco neu champagne?

Fi yw Iwan Kellett, a dwi’n astudio Cemeg

3. Beth oedd dy air cyntaf?

EICH TÎM TAF-OD

Aled Biston

Yn Trafod gyda’r Taf-od wythnos yma mae...

1. Pwy wyt ti a beth wyt ti’n astudio?

Agorwyd y ddwy siop yn 2018 , ceir amrywiaeth o nwyddau i’r cartref, harddwch, dillad a bwydydd, mewn pecynnau diblastig, neu heb becynnau o gwbl.

Mi fyddaf yn sicr yn torri i lawr ar fy nefnydd o blastig, gan ganolbwyntio ar y nwyddau angenrheidiol a sicrhau nad oeddwn yn gwastraffu.

Yn bendant, roeddwn yn fodlon wrth fyw ar lai.

7

.

taf od Nel Richards

Cwmni da: Iwan yn mwynhau gyda’i ffreindiau a gyda’i gariad.

Tarddiad: Iwan Kellett

tafod@gairrhydd.com www.gairrhydd.com/tafod

8 TAF-OD Cefnogaeth DIWYLLIANT llywodraethol Pwysigrwydd Defnyddio Rhagenwau heddiw i Urdd Gob- Nel Richards sydd yn nodi pwysigrwydd defnydio rhagenwau aith Cymru Nel Richards

Annell Dyfri

Golygydd Taf-od

Y

n anffodus, yn sgil y pandemig a’i effeithiau hir dymor, mae’r Urdd wedi gorfod cwtogi nifer o sywddi yn sgil y dirwyiad economaidd diweddar.

Nododd yr Urdd mewn datganiad eu bod wedi colli 49% o’i weithlu oherwydd y pandemig, mae hyn yn ffigur hynod o uchel. Mae sgil effeithiau’r panedmig wedi bod y enfawr is awl mudiad gan gynnwys yr Urdd, yn enweidg gan bod yr Urdd wedi bod yn rhan annatod o blemtyndod cynifer o Gymry.

Cynnigir yr Urdd blatfform ar gyfer pobl ifanc i ddangos eu doniau ar y cae chwarae ac ar lwyfan cenedlaethol a hynny drwy gyfrwng y Gymraeg.

Yn sgil hyn, mae Llywodraeth Cymru wedi cyhoeddi eu bod am roi £1.3m yn ychwanegol i’r Urdd er mwyn iddynt allu adeiladu yn sgil y dirywiad economaidd diweddar. Mae hyn yn newyddion i godi calon cenedl wrth sicrhau dyfodol sefydlog i’r mudiad cenedlaethol.

Nododd Eluned Morgan, Gweinidog Iechyd Meddwl, Llesiant a’r Gymraeg, yng Nghynhadledd Llywodraeth Cymru fod yr Urdd yn ‘yn un o brif gyflogwyr trydydd sector Cymru sy’n cynnig ystod eang o brofiadau trwy gyfrwng y Gymraeg i bobl ifanc’. Atega hyn bwysigrwydd yr Urdd o fewn ein diwylliant Cymraeg a Chymreig.

Sut y mae’r arian yn helpu?

Gyda’r Urdd yn sicrhau swyddi i bobl ifanc, a chymorth i gymunedau, mae’r arian am sicrhau parhad i’w gwasnaeth. Nododd Eluned Morgan “Bydd dros 60 o staff ychwanegol yn cael eu cyflogi, ac mae gan yr Urdd gynlluniau i greu hyd at 300 o brentisiaethau cyfrwng Cymraeg newydd dros y tair blynedd nesaf.”

Yn amlwg, bu’n rhaid gohirio Eisteddfod Genedlaethol yr Urdd eleni yn sgil effeithiau parhaol y Coronafeirws yng Nghymru a led-led y byd, ymatebodd Alaw Mair Williams, unigolyn sydd wedi bod yn cystadlu’n frwd dros y blynyddoedd, i’r ‘Dwi’n falch bod arian yn mynd tuag at cefnogaeth a swyddi o fewn yr Urdd.

Fel rhywun sydd wedi cystadlu llawer efo’r Urdd yn y gorffennol dw i’n hapus bod y llywodraeth sydd mor bwysig i gymunedau ac ysgolion ledled Cymru’.

Unigolyn arall sydd wedi bod ynghlwm â’r Urdd mewn sawl agwedd yw Bethany Pierce. Treuliodd Bethany gyfnod allan ym Mhatagonia gyda’r Urdd yn ymweld â’r ardal ac yn cynorthwyo mewn ysgolion a chymunedau lleol. Nododd ‘Mae’n braf gweld mudiad fel yr Urdd yn derbyn cefnogaeth ariannol ychwanegol er mwyn sicrhau bod y cenedlaethau i ddod yn derbyn yr un fath o brofiadau ac yr ydw i wedi’i dderbyn’.

Mae’n amlwg bod y genfogaeth ariannol gan Lywodraeth Cymru am fod o fudd mawr i’r mudiad.

Gobeithio’n fawr y bydd modd gweld y sefydliad yn ail-adeiladu ac yn ffynu yn y dyfodol agos er mwyn sicrhau y bydd y cenedlaethau i ddod yn derbyn y cyfleoedd a’r profiadau anhygoel y mae nifer ohonom wedi profi ar hyd y blynyddoedd.

Golygydd Taf-od

M

ae’r drafodaeth agored ynglyn â rhywedd yn cael ei normaleiddio, a’r defnydd o unigolion sy’n arddangos eu rhagenwau ar broffil ddigidol yn cynyddu.

Beth yw pwysigrwydd hyn?

Beth yw rhagenwau personol a pham ydynt o bwys?

Yn yr iaith Gymraeg, os ydym yn sylwi neu beidio, mae pobl yn gyson yn cyfeirio at ei gilydd drwy ddefnyddio rhagenwau. Yn aml, mae hyn yn digwydd yn y trydydd person, ac mae’r rhagenwau yn dueddol o gyfeirio at ryw’r person, megis ‘fe/ fo’ i gyfeirio at fachgen/ddyn, neu ‘hi’ wrth gyfeirio at ferch/menyw.

Ond nid yw’r cysylltiadau yma bob tro’n gywir neu’n ddefnyddiol.

Yn aml, mae pobl yn creu rhagdybiaethau o rywioldeb unigolion eraill yn seiliedig ar eu golwg. Nid yw’r rhagdybiaethau yma, bob amser, yn gywir. Mae’r weithred o osod rhagdybiaeth (hyd yn oes os yn gywir) yn gallu bod yn niweidiol, yn enwedig wrth ddyfalu rhywedd unigolyn.

Mae defnyddio rhagenwau personol unigolyn yn dangos parch at berson, gan greu amgylchedd cynhwysol, lle ddangosir ystyriaeth at bawb. Yn yr un modd gall fod yn sarhaus neu hyd yn oed aflonyddu ar berson i greu llysenw anffafriol ar rywun a hwnnw yn erbyn eu hewyllys. Yn waeth, gall ddewis anwybyddu’r rhagenwau y mae

rhywun wedi nodi fod yn niweidiol i’r gymuned drawsrywiol ac anneuaidd.

Gweithredoedd bach, effaith fawr Dyma restr o dermau defnyddiol a ellir gwneud gwahaniaeth : Rhyw– hedlu

a’r

swyddogaeth atgenorganau cenhedlu.

Rhywedd– cael ei ddiffinio drwy ddiwylliant a chymdeithas.

Rhagenw– cyfeirio at rywedd pobl wrth siarad ac ysgrifennu.

Fe/Fo–

gwrywaidd.

Hi–

benywaidd.

Nhw–

niwtral/anneuaidd.

Anneuaidd (non-binary) – pobl nad ydynt yn gweld eu hunain yn ffitio i ddewis o ‘ddyn’ neu ‘fenyw’.

Traws– term ymbarél sy’n cynrychioli pobl nad yw eu rhywedd yr un peth â’r categori rhyw y rhoddwyd iddynt pan gawsant eu geni (anneuaidd/ genderqueer/trawsr yweddol).

Un sydd yn rhoi ei ragenwau yn ei broffil ddigidol yw Dafydd Orritt (fe/fo), myfyriwr trydedd flwyddyn ym Mhrifysgol Caerdydd; “Dwi wedi rhoi fy rhagenwau yn fy bio Instagram er mwyn normaleiddio’r drafodaeth ynglyn â rhywedd, yn enwedig i’r gymuned draws rywiol a non-binary. Mae’n

Pawb yn gyfartal: Rhaid sicrhau ein bod yn defnyddio rhagenwau cywir pobl.

Tarddiad: Feewiki (drwy Wikimedia Commons) rhywbeth mor syml i’w wneud ond yn I bobl cisgender (person lle mae ei rhywbeth sydd yn hwb mawr i’r gy- ryw yn cyd-fynd â’r rhyw a neilltumuned drawsrywiol. Drwy rhoi eich wyd iddynt adeg ei g/eni), mae rhagenwau yn eich bio maeo’n creu rhannu eich rhagenwau ar eich cymuned diogel i’r gymuned draw- proffil digidol yn hawdd, ac yn srywiol a non-binary i siarad am eu ddidrafferth. Wrth ofyn i fwyfwy o rhagenwau heb deimlo ofn cael eu bobl arwain y ffordd gan rannu eu barnu. rhagenwau, normaleiddia’r broses, Yn fy marn bersonol dylai pawb gan greu amgylchedd diogel i bawb. boed yn rhan o’r gymuned LHDT neu Mae’r drafodaeth yngylch rhagenddim fod yn cynnwys ei rhagenwau yn wau yn fwy amlwg heddiw nag erioed. eu bio Instagram er mwyn arddangos Wrth ddechrau’r sgwrs, ac wrth weld y gefnogaeth i’r gymuned drawsry- cynnydd yn y defnydd o ragenwau, wiol, sydd wedi ac yn parhau i dder- daw yn amlwg taw Cymru gynhwysol byn nifer fawr o heriau yn eu herbyn.” bydd y dyfodol.

Y GIG a Chymru ar y blaen gyda’r rhaglen frechu Catrin Lewis

Golygydd Taf-od

C

ymru oedd y wlad gyntaf yn y Deyrnas Unedig i frechu traean o’i phoblogaeth gyda’r brechlyn Covid-19. Daw hyn yn dilyn cyhoeddiad ar yr 19eg o Chwefror bod 839,065 o boblogaeth Cymru wedi derbyn eu dos cyntaf o’r brechlyn erbyn hyn, ffigwr sy’n cyfateb i 33.3% o’r boblogaeth.

Mae hyn yn uwch na’r ffigyrau ar draws gweddill y Deyrnas Unedig sef 32.1% yn Lloegr, 31.3% yn yr Alban a 29.4% yng Ngogledd Iwerddon.

Yn ogystal â hynny, mae’r ail ddos wedi cychwyn cael ei ddosrannu i raiunigolion gyda 25,433 wedi derbyn

eu hail ddos erbyn y 19eg o Chwefror.

Mewn cynhadledd i’r wasg dywedodd y Prif Weinidog Mark Drakeford: “Yr wythnos hon, fe ddechreuon ni gynnig apwyntiadau i bobol ar gyfer yr ail ddos ac mae mwy na 25,000 o bobl eisoes wedi cael eu rhai nhw.”

“Rydym ar y trywydd iawn i gyrraedd y garreg filltir nesaf, i gynnig brechiad i bawb mewn grwpiau blaenoriaeth pump i naw erbyn diwedd mis Ebrill, ar yr amod bod cyflenwadau brechlynnau hefyd yn parhau ar y trywydd iawn.”

Yn sicr, er bod Cymru ar y blaen hyd yn hyn mae dal llawer o ymdrech i’w wneud er mwyn sicrhau bod llwyddiant y rhaglen frechu yn parhau.

Amlygodd y prif weinidog y pwynt yma yn ystod y gynhadledd ble cyhoed-

Brechu: Cymru sydd ar y blaen allan o wledydd y DU i gyd.

Tarddiad: Asian Development Bank (drwy Flickr)

dodd y byddai’r cyfyngiadau aros adref yn aros mewn lle am o leiaf tair wythnos arall tra bod y brechu yn parhau.

Dywedodd nad yw’n disgwyl y bydd llacio sylweddol yn y cyfyngiadau nes gwyliau’r Pasg yn y man cynharaf.

Bydd y cyfyngiadau’n cael eu hailasesu ar Ebrill yr 2il, cyn y Pasg sy’n disgyn ar benwythnos cyntaf mis Ebrill.

Ar hyn o bryd mae tua 100 o bobl i bob 100,000. Mae hyn yn ostyngiad sylweddol o’r 600 ym mhob 100,000 oedd yn dioddef o’r feirws ar gychwyn y cyfnod clo ym mis Rhagfyr.

Mae’n amlwg, felly, bod y cyfnod clo ynghyd a’r rhaglen frechu wedi bod yn llwyddiannus yn gostwng yr achosion o’r coronafeirws yng Nghymru.

Dywedodd y prif weinidog y canlynol am gychwyn llacio’r cyfyngiadau: “Os gallwn ni fwrw ymlaen i adeiladau ar y llwyddiant yna… galla i weld llwybr tan y Pasg ble gallwn ni ddechrau yn ofalus i lacio’r cyfyngiadau sydd gennym ni ar hyn o bryd.”

Ymateb Andrew RT Davies, arweinydd y Ceidwadwyr Cymreig, i hyn oedd “Er bod dull gofalus o ddod allan o’r cyfyngiadau symud yn synhwyrol, mae angen i ni hefyd darparu map a llwybr clir i adferiad i bobl” Tra dywedodd Adam Price, arweinydd Plaid Cymru: “Er bod dull gofalus o ddod allan o’r cyfyngiadau symud yn synhwyrol, mae angen i ni hefyd darparu map a llwybr clir i adferiad i bobl ledled Cymru,” ” “Dylid llacio’r cyfyngiadau yn ofalus mewn modd synhwyrol – byddai’n dda ailgyflwyno’r neges ‘aros yn lleol’ cyhyd ag y bo angen.”

Mae Cymru o flaen y targed gwreiddiol oedd wedi ei osod ar gyfer y rhaglen frechu.

Erbyn hyn maent yn anelu i gynnig y dos cyntaf o’r brechiad i bob oedolyn yng Nghymru erbyn y 31ain o Orffennaf.

Mae hyn cwpl o fisoedd yn gyflymach

na’r targed gwreiddiol sef i gynnig y dos gyntaf i bob oedolyn erbyn yr Hydref.

Ar hyn o bryd mae’r brechlyn yn cael ei roi i’r grwpiau blaenoriaeth 5 i 9 meddai’r swyddog iechyd Vaughan Gething mewn cynhadledd.

Mae’r grwpiau hyn yn cynnwys pobl rhwng 50 a 69 oed, pobl dros 16 oed gyda chyflwr iechyd sylfaenol sy’n cynyddu’r risg iddyn nhw o gael salwch difrifol petaent nhw’n dal coronafeirws a gofalwyr di-dâl sy’n gofalu am berson sy’n fregus yn glinigol.

Y gobaith yw brechu’r grwpiau hyn erbyn canol mis Ebrill.

Dywedodd Vaughan Gething: “Yn ddibynnol ar gyflenwad y brechlyn, byddwn wedi cyrraedd yr holl bobl hyn erbyn canol Ebrill.”

Yn y gynhadledd cyhoeddodd hefyd y bydd profion rheolaidd yn cael eu cynnal i weithwyr mewn gweithleoedd risg uchel ble bydd canlyniadau’n cael eu rhoi mewn hanner awr. Mae hyn yn berthnasol i weithleoedd o fewn cyrff cyhoeddus a phreifat sy’n cyflogi dros 50 o unigolion.

Mae hyn yn dilyn y penderfyniad i beidio â chynnwys athrawon a staff ysgol fel grŵp sy’n cael eu blaenoriaethu yn y rhaglen frechu.

Mae mwy o bwyslais wedi ei rhoi ar brofi mewn ysgolion yn hytrach na brechu ar hyn o bryd.

Mae tystiolaeth sylweddol felly bod y cyfnod clo a’r rhaglen frechu wedi llwyddo i ostwng y nifer o achosion yng Nghymru.

Fodd bynnag, mae’n rhaid cymryd gofal gan fod posibilrwydd i’r achosion coronafeirws newid yn gyflym.

Er hynny, ar hyn o bryd mae hanner olaf 2021 yn edrych yn lawer fwy gobeithiol o gymharu â llynedd.

Dim ond amser gall ddangos ai fydd yr achosion yn parhau i ostwng digon i alluogi i’r wlad fynd yn ôl i normalrwydd.

CelEBraTE sT daVId’S daY

in StYle

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Welsh and Bilingual Clothing Offer available for a limited time only

10

POLITICS

YOUR Plaid MS summoned over murder trial POLITICS DESK H Morgan Perry Politics Editor

Hallum Cowell

Tom Kingsbury

elen Mary Jones was summoned to court after Judge Paul Thomas told she had shared a “highly inappropriate” tweet regarding an ongoing murder trial.

The tweet was originally posted by a domestic violence campaigner and retweeted by the Member of the Senedd for Mid and West Wales.

Posted by campaigner Rachel Williams, the tweet expressed “hope” that a man would be found guilty of murdering his wife.

The case in question is that of Anthony Williams, who killed his wife, Ruth, during the lockdown in March 2020.

Part of the tweet read: “As so many of us will know, there would have been history of domestic abuse. I hope this jury finds him guilty of murder.”

Williams was shot by her estranged husband in 2011. She later went on to become an anti-domestic violence campaigner after her husband and then her son both took their lives following the attack. The tweet was later deleted, after Williams was contacted by police.

In what has been seen by some as a controversial decision, Anthony Williams was found not guilty of the murder of his wife, Ruth, at their home in March last year.

Ruth was strangled just two weeks into the first UK coronavirus lockdown.

The court was told that Mr Williams was “out of control” with worry over the COVID-19 pandemic and money; his daughter said that he feared “people would never leave the house again” after entering lockdown.

After being found not guilty of murder, the defendant was sentenced to five years in prison, and admitted manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility, with the judge arguing that his mental state was “severely affected at the time” of the attack. The short sentence, and the fact that Mr Williams avoided a sentence for murder, has been seen as unjustified by some.

Harriet Harman, a Labour MP, said, according to the BBC, that she would be writing to the Attorney General, Suella Braverman, to ask for the case to be referred for a review, on account of the lenient sentence.

“If he had killed his neighbour, or his neighbour’s wife, it’s inconceivable that he would have got five years,” she told the BBC at the time.

Domestic violence charities are also concerned. Welsh Women’s Aid, a Cardiff-based domestic violence charity, said they had seen an increase in demand for their services since lockdown started.

“We are shocked by the leniency in this case and a precedent must

not be set that allows domestic homicide to be an inevitable result of the current restrictions,” a spokesperson for the charity told the BBC. Helen Mary Jones and Rachel Williams were summoned to court on Thursday, February 18, where judge Paul Thomas said the tweet “ran the risk of influencing a jury”.

“On the face of it, it amounts to a clear contempt of court. You both abused your social media, political influences and high profiles,” he said.

Jurors in England and Wales are told to deliver verdicts solely based on the evidence heard in court, and so information or commentary from external sources such as social media can jeopardise a trial. Jones claimed that she had not read the tweet from Ms Williams “carefully” but accepted her responsibility in the matter.

Judge Thomas decided that no further action needed to be taken against either of the women, adding that only “admonishment is appropriate”.

Tweets and Courts: Helen Mary Jones was summoned in front of courts last week after an ill-advised retweeted tweet came to the surface.

Source: Ham (via.Wikimedia Commons)

Senedd parties demand action on flooding ollowing flooding in parts of Wales parties within the Senedd have ciriticised the government’s handling of the situation.

Last week saw 24 hours of rain in some parts of Wales.

Plaid Cymru has said that they don’t think that enough money is being inevested in flood defences and that the “severity and frequency “ of the floods “should convince us all that flooding needs to become a strategic nationla priority.“ The Welsh government responded by saying that they had spent over £390m on “managing flood risk“ between 2016 and 2021.

Last year saw similar issues as storm Dennis swept across Wales. A review by Natural Resources Wales (NRW) found that the Welsh Government’s response to last winter’s

floods “fell short”. The review points to a lack of staffing and equipment as well as missing flood warnings.

The winter of 2019/2020 saw NRW issue a record 242 flood alerts, 1818 warning and six severe flood warnings.

The Met Office has since classified February 2020 as the wettest February on record and the fifth wettest month on records began in 1862.

Storms Ciara, Jorge and Dennis led to the worst flooding in Wales since 1979.

NRW is the largest Welsh government sponsored body with 1,900 staff and a budget of £180m.

The NRW is calling for an additional 60-70 full-time staff which would equate to additional funding from the Welsh Government.

Flooding seems to be becoming a more regular part of Welsh life in parts of the devolved nation and parties are keen to press for more funding.

Flooding: Flooding is a constant problem in parts of Wales and parties in the Senedd are calling for more to be done. Source: Keith Moseley (via. Flickr)

derstanding of Welsh politics.

In a study by Beaufort Research, it was found that some participants did not understand the difference between the Government and the Welsh Assembly (now the Senedd Cymru), as well as struggling to explain the duties of the government.

This has, however, been corrected by introducing educational resources in schools, and newer studies, especially post pandemic have found otherwise.

A new poll by YouGov and the ERS (Electoral Reform Society) found that 16 to 24-year-olds thought – more than any other age group, other than the over 65s – the Senedd elections were important.

77% of the 16 to 24-year-olds age group was found to have engaged in political activity in the last 12 months,

as opposed to the approximately 50% of other age groups.

The peer leader of Llais Ifanc, part of Youth Cymru, Nirushan Sudarsan said: “As we see the devastating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on communities, health and the economy, we need to ensure young people’s worries and concerns are heard by people in power”.

Director of ERS Cymru, Jess Blair added: “With so many new voters, parties must pull out all the stops to ensure they are reaching out to every community and help create voting habits that last a lifetime.

This has the potential to build a new generation of active citizens. Parties must not miss this chance, and we all have a role to play in making the May elections the accessible, democratic

success they can be.”

The importance and ‘crucial’ nature of the upcoming vote has led to an open letter, from 32 organisations and academics, asking party leaders to ‘ramp up’ their interaction with the first-time voters.

The letter urges parties to publish manifestos and policies that are easily understandable and targeted towards young people as an incentive to vote, as well as hosting events dedicated to this.

The signatories - including Mr. Sudarsan - consist of Youth Cymru, National Union of Students, Urdd Gobaith Cymru, Race Council Cymru and the Children’s Commissioner.

The Senedd has already taken action to ensure first-time voters are more involved and aware by holding a Vote 16 week, which kicks off a longer initiative

Hallum Cowell Head of Politics

Dewi Morris

Morgan Perry politics@gairrhydd.com

F

Calls for more support as under 18s vote for first time Francesca Ionescu Contributor

P

eople aged 16 and 17-years-old will be able to vote for the first time in Wales, in the upcoming Senedd election, which has led to calls for more support and resources about voting.

The move comes after a new law was passed in 2019, which also gave foreign nationals the right to vote in Welsh elections.

The first time 16-year-olds could vote in the United Kingdom was during the 2014 Scottish Independence Referendum.

Prior to lowering the voting age, researchers were concerned that young voters in Wales do not have a wide un-

to encourage eligible people to vote.

The responses from political parties have been vague, and other than resources on the Senedd website, there’s very little engagement with the younger votes.

Plaid Cymru’s Shadow Minister for the Future, Delyth Jewell said that “it’s crucial that young people take this rare opportunity they’ve been given to vote for radical change in May.” Welsh Conservative Leader, Andrew RT Davies MS has called the decision “the most important Senedd election since 1999” and has re-stated how important it is to listen to “our next generation”.

The question remains whether Welsh political parties will try to actively engage with the first-time voters in the way the open letter requests.

GWLEIDYDDIAETH

11

Hancock finds himself in hot No. 10 water over COVID-19 contracts Union Hallum Cowell Head of Politics

U

K health Secretary Matt Hancock broke the law when he delayed the publication of contract award notices, according to a recent court case. The case was brought before the court by campaign ground The Good Law Project and supported by one MP each from the Green Party, Labour Party and Liberal Democrats.

According to UK law the UK Government has to publish a document called a “contract award notice” within 30 days of awarding a public goods or services contract to a company which is worth more than £120,000. This paperwork effectively acts as a receipt and acts a public record of who the government is hiring to do what jobs.

The court ruled that Hancock had not published these award notices within the 30-day requirement. The judge noted, as reported by the BBC; “There is now no dispute that, in a substantial number of cases, the secretary of state breached his legal obligation to publish contract award notices within 30 days of the award of contracts.

“There is also no dispute that the secretary of state failed to publish redacted contracts in accordance with the transparency policy.”

He also added that this was a “historic failure” from Hancock’s department and that “The public were entitled see who this money

was going to, what it was being spent on and how the relevant contracts were awarded.”

Hancock responded to the ruling saying that his department had; “spent all of their time buying lifesaving equipment, even if the paperwork was a little bit late” He went on to say that he apologised about the lateness of the paperwork, the contract award notices were published roughly two weeks late, and that the agreed with the judges’ comments about ensuring transparency.

Adding that “People can make up their own view about whether I should have told my team to stop buying PPE and spend the time bringing forward those transparency returns by just over a fortnight or whether I was right to buy the PPE and get it to the frontline.

“You tell me that that’s wrong.

You can’t and the reason you can’t is because it was the right thing to do and legal cases about timings of transparency returns are completely second order compared to saving lives.”

Caroline Lucas, the Green Party’s MP in Parliament responded angrily to Hancock’s comments on Twitter writing, “How dare Hancock suggest he broke law to prevent shortages of PPE on the frontline?”

“Health workers died for lack of [the] right PPE at [the] right time because of incompetence, cronyism and waste - does he think our memories are so short?”

Advisor resigns

Morgan Perry Politics Editor

J

Matt Hancock: The UK Health Secreatry has found himself in hot water after a series of controversies invlolving COVID-19 contracts. Source: Number 10 (via.Flickr) A number of Labour MPs have stead telling Sky News that this kind called for Hancock to resign over of incident was “not what the public the ruling with MP Nadia Whittome really want to see.” tweeting, “In what other job could The Labour Leader added that you break the law and be let off?” there have been “a lot of problems…

However, party leader Keir Starm- on transparency and on who the er stopped short of this demand, in- contracts went to.”

Legal challenge launched against Johnson’s choice to defend Priti Patel Dewi Morris

Politics Editor

L

ast November, an official report into mounting claims concluded that Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, was guilty of bullying civil servants. It stated that Patel had breached the ministerial code, whether this was unintentional or

otherwise.

The Prime Minister chose to disregard these findings and defended Patel claiming that she had not broken the ministerial code. On February 19, The FDA (a union representing civil servants), launched a legal challenge against Boris Johnson’s decision.

The FDA do not wish to intervene on whether Patel should be made to

Priti Patel: . A report into allegations that Home Secutary Priti Patel bullied members of the CivilNumber was concluded late last year, but the Civil Servents union doesn’t feel that there were adequate consequences. 10 (via.Flickr)

resign, however they aim to overturn Johnson’s decision and for him to recognise that the ministerial code was broken.

The report on Patel’s behaviour defined bullying as “intimidating or insulting behaviour that makes an individual feel uncomfortable, frightened, less respected or put down”. Criteria found in instances of Patel’s behaviour.

Standards chief Sir Alex Allan, who was the Prime Minister’s independent adviser on the ministerial code, resigned after Johnson decided to go against his advice and the report’s findings. The report, which the Prime Minister did not allow to be published in full, cited examples of “shouting and swearing”, failiure to consistantly treat civil servants “with consideration and respect”, and crucially, Patel’s behaviour was deemed as “bullying in terms of the impact felt by individuals.”

Boris Johnson asked for a report to be conducted back in March last year, after the top civil servant at the Home Office, Sir Philip Rutnam resigned over Patel’s behaviour. Sir Rutman claimed staff had alleged Patel “created fear”. While the official report stated that there was “no evidence [Patel] was aware of the impact of her behaviour, and no feedback was given to her at the time”, Sir Rutnam told the BBC that “as early as August 2019, the month after her appointment, she was advised that she must not shout and swear at staff… I advised her on a number of further occasions between Septem-

ber 2019 and February 2020 about the need to treat staff with respect.”

Sir Rutnam is suing the government for constructive dismissal.

Previous accusations against Patel include from officials at the Department for International Development who claim she humiliated civil servants in front of others while she was a minister there in 2017.

Following the Prime Minister’s decision to defend Patel back in November, the head of the FDA, Dave Penman argued: “What is the point of the investigation if actually what we’re saying is it doesn’t matter what evidence has been found, it doesn’t matter what the PM’s own adviser on the ministerial code says, if it’s politically convenient for the PM to ignore it, he will ignore it.”

The FDA aims to “overturn” Johnson’s claim that the ministerial code was not boken. Penman justified this by arguing: “Civil servants should expect to work with ministers without fear of being bullied or harassed.

Warm words from the prime minister have no meaning if the process for addressing those behaviours has been fundamentally undermined by his actions.”

Penman claimed the Prime Minister’s ruling has damaged confidence in the Ministerial Code, (ministers who break the code are normally expected to resign). A survey by the FDA found that nearly 90 per cent of its members had no confidence in the code “as a mechanism for dealing with bullying and harassment by ministers.”

ust two weeks after taking up his new role, Downing Street’s advisor on the Union, Oliver Lewis, has resigned.

Oliver Lewis was brought in by the Prime Minister to replace Luke Graham, the former Conservative MP for Ochil and South Perthshire, who resigned at the end of January.

Lewis is a former associate of former advisor to the government, Dominic Cummings.

He was also instrumental in the Vote Leave campaign to leave the European Union and was previously a government advisor on Brexit. At the time of his appointment, Lewis was tasked with taking on the responsibility for a “beefed up” union taskforce, designed to tackle cries for Scottish independence from the Scottish National Party.

He took up his role just two weeks ago and resigned on February 19.

The BBC reports that Downing Street refused to comment on what they called “staffing matters”. Oliver Lewis’ appointment and subsequent resignation comes at a time of growing tension between the UK Government in Westminster, and the SNP-led Scottish Government in Edinburgh.

Support for independence has continued to grow since the 2014 referendum. Cries from nationalists have since been bolstered

by Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s promises to hold another referendum if her SNP is successful at the Scottish parliamentary election in May. In response to the resignation of Number 10’s second advisor on the Union in as many weeks, Sturgeon highlighted “disunity in the Union unit. Or maybe just despair at realising how threadbare the case for it is”.

There are signs of growing support for independence in Wales, too; the latest opinion polls put support at around 22%. Leader of Plaid Cymru, Adam Price has already promised an independence referendum in Wales, should the party be elected to government in Wales in May. Since returning to the role of leader of the Welsh Conservatives, and in opposition to Plaid, Andrew RT Davies has been keen to stress the importance of the Union in Wales, and elsewhere.

Number 10: Downing Street’s Union Advisor, Oliver Lewis has resigned last week. Source: Number 10 (via.

Flickr)

12 POLITICS In other news Colombia

peace court finds army killed thousands of civilians during civil war Tom Kingsbury Politics Editor

India and Pakistan have agreed to a strict ceasefire along the Line of Control - a de facto border between India-administered and Pakistanadministered Kashmir.

The Kashmir region is long disputed and claimed by both India and Pakistan.

The two nuclear-armed countries have fought two wars over the region which they now administer a part of each.

Along with soldier casulties, civillians are frequently caught in the crossfire; last year India is alleged to have killed 28 civillians and Pakistan 22.

A statement from Pakistan’s military promises: “Both sides agreed for strict observance of all agreements, understandings and cease firing.”

In a world-first, Australia has passed a law which ensures that Google and Facebook pay for the news content hosted on their platforms.

The law ensures that tech companies and news corporations are able to negotiate payment for content shared online; if not, cases can be independently adjudicated. Last week, in protest, Facebook blocked all news content on the site in Australia, a move that was met with condemnation in Australia and elsewhere.

Amendments were made to the law following Facebook’s news blackout, but both companies have since committed to paying large sums to publishers in what has been seen by many as a compromise on behalf of the tech giants.

Nikola Pashinyan, the Armenian Prime Minister, described criticism and calls for resignation from the army as an “attempted military coup”.

The PM’s standing has dropped significantly since a six-week conflict with Azerbaijan last year over the disputed region of NagornoKarabakh, which resulted in Azerbaijan retaining control of the region.

Pashinyan has sacked a number of senior military officials after both sides criticised statements made by the other.

A

n inquiry by a special court in Colombia has found that the military killed 6,402 civilians between 2002 and 2008, passing them off falsely as enemy combatants.

The Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) was set up as part of the 2016 peace deal between the Colombian Government and the rebel group FARC. The peace deal brought an end to a 52-year war, in which 260,000 people were killed and millions displaced.

Eight former commanders of FARC were charged with war crimes by the JEP, including FARC’s former leader Rodrigo Londoño (also known as Timochenko).

Former FARC commanders issued an apology for the first time last year, for the thousands of kidnappings carried out by FARC. The JEP is now investigating crimes committed by government forces.

This includes ‘false positive’ killings, in which the Colombian army would attempt to pass off young men they had killed as FARC members in order to raise its ‘kill rate’, giving the impression it was doing better in the conflict than it actually was.

Members of the military have testified that they were pressured to drive the rate of killings up, and would be rewarded for doing so, including with days off.

The figure of ‘false positive’ killings found by the JEP is much higher than originally thought – the Colombian public prosecutor’s office had previously acknowledged just 2,249 ‘false positives’ between the years 1998 and 2014.

Now at 6,402, the JEP has said it is not ruling out an even higher total as the investigation continues.

More than 1,700 people have been sentenced so far for playing a role in the ‘false positives’.

Despite FARC officially accepting the peace deal, some former rebels were against the 2016 peace deal, and have since formed dissident groups, continuing the process of drug trafficking and killing.

The second largest rebel group in Colombia, the National Liberation Army (ELN) is still active despite talks with the government, along with other criminal and paramilitary groups.

The conflict between guerilla groups and the Colombian Government started in 1964, with FARC founded two years later.

Decades of warfare eventually led to peace talks in the early 2000s, with FARC being given a demilitarized haven the size of Switzerland in south-east Colombia as part of an

effort to facilitate the talks.

However the initial peace talks stalled in 2002, and the Colombian Government declared a war zone in the south.

Later that year Alvaro Uribe was elected after campaigning on the platform of a harsh crackdown on rebel groups. It was during this time that the ‘false positives’ were most prevalent.

In 2007, the government released dozens of FARC guerillas from jail, hoping to encourage FARC to release some of its hostages, though FARC rejected this move.

Soon after, hundreds of thousands of Colombians took to the streets in the capital, Bogotá, protesting the

widespread kidnappings and the decades-long conflict.

Juan Manuel Santos was elected as Colombian President in 2010, and after preliminary ceasefires and peace talks, the government and FARC agreed to set up the JEP peace court in 2015.

One year later, a peace deal was made, formally ending the 52-year conflict. The first agreement was rejected narrowly in a referendum put to the Colombian people, but Santos said he would continue to push for peace.

Santos was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2016 for his efforts.

Later that year, a revised deal was finally signed.

Colombian Civil War: .Colombia has been fighting a civil war for over 50 years, modern courts in the country are now looking back on the crimes of those involved in the conflict Source: Alejoturola (via. Pixabay)

Afghan Future looks Uncertain as foreign powers depart Malgorzata Rudnicka Contributor

A

shraf Ghani, the president of Afghanistan, noted a “window of opportunity to accelerate the peace process”, as NATO is yet to make its final decisions about the withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan. Under Trump’s

administration, NATO planned on withdrawing 10,000 troops from the war-torn country by May 1, 2021.

With the start of Joe Biden’s administration, there is an intention to review the deal between the United States and the Taliban.

The presence of the United States in Afghanistan spans back to 2001.

However, Afghanistan had been at

Looking back at Afganistan: The war in Afganistan became one of the defining events of the early 21st century, but now as NATO troops leave, what does the future hold for the country. Source: DVIDSHUB (via. Flickr)

war years before the US invasion in 2001. The conflict dates back to 1979 when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in support of the country’s communist government.

Soviet troops’ withdrawal ten years later indicates the time of the emergence of the radical Islamic movement, the Taliban.

At the end of the 1990s’, the Taliban controlled 90% of Afghanistan.

The hardline Islamic movement introduced different forms of punishment like public executions and amputations. Men were required to wear a beard and women, a burka.

Furthermore, television, music, and cinema were banned and girls over 10 years old were deprived of the right to study.

In the wake of 9/11, the Taliban were blamed for providing shelter to Osama Bin Laden and the al-Qaeda movement responsible for the attacks. On October 7, 2001, President George W. Bush announced the first strikes against Afghanistan.

Since then, the world has been a witness to “America’s unwinnable war”.

It has been argued that the United States’ actions have been lacking political clarity and effectiveness.

BBC international correspondent Lyse Doucet suggests that, for Donald Trump, the Taliban were more trustworthy associates than the Afghan government. With the new administration in the United States, the nature of its relations with Afghanistan seems to be shifting. Ghani says he is delighted with Biden’s government as well as international coherence towards the future of Afghanistan.

Although the Taliban have expressed their demand for NATO’s troops leaving, the question ofw whether the timing is appropriate

arises. Donald Trump’s administration prioritised the pull-out of the troops from Afghanistan, provided that the Taliban sustains its commitments. The United States kept its side of the deal by cutting the number of its troops to 2,500. The Taliban, however, remain a threat to the Afghan government.

The president of Afghanistan does not specify how many foreign troops are needed, as it depends on the intensity of the war. With the talks stalling between the Taliban and the Afghan government as well as the surging violence, there is a threat of civil war in sight. Ashraf Ghani acknowledges both sides preparing for warfare and claims a need for a political settlement.

Nevertheless, he clarifies his confidence in the Afghan government by comparing the situation to the one in Vietnam. According to Ghani, in the Afghan case, the government is not collapsing and there is no fear of a Taliban military takeover.

Many fear that a full pull-out of the troops from Afghanistan would create a threat of terrorist attacks in the West. The Taliban are rising in power and they continuously seem to be close to al-Qaeda.

At the same time, Afghanistan and its people keep bearing the burden of endless conflict, facing the peril of civil war.

Afghanistan is arguably one of the most dangerous places in the world and the tense situation seems to be unresolvable solely by military means.

With the new administration in the United States, the world is going to witness a continuation of the “forever war”. Regardless, the prospects of the nation led by Ghani are uncertain.

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14

COMMENT Gen-Z: The ‘death-positive A lack of media coverage: Matt Hancock under scrutiny generation’ of will-writers

YOUR COMMENT DESK T

he UK Government’s Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Matt Hancock, has become subject to scrutiny regarding his dismissal of a court ruling which stated that he had acted unlawfully by hiding the details of lucrative Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) contracts.

A judge said that Hancock had “breached his legal obligation” by not publishing details within 30 days of contracts being signed.

The Conservative Party politician insisted that the reasoning encompassing his failure to publish contracts was a delay in paperwork, despite having refused to publish numerous contracts which were distributed to the friends of senior conservative members.

He also appeared to deflect responsibility onto his officials in an attempt to navigate through the abundance of criticism directed his way.

The Good Law Project campaign group, alongside three MP’s – Labour’s Debbie Abrahams, Green Caroline Lucas, and Lib Dem Layla Moran, took legal action against the Department for Health and Social Care over its “wholesome failure” to disclose details of the contracts agreed.

The British Government is legally required to publish all contracts with a value of more than £10,000 within 30 days of them being awarded.

Despite this obligation, research revealed that by the beginning of October 2020, the deals for only £2.6 billion spend on PPE had been released into the public domain, despite the government having spent approximately £15 billion on personal protective items.

The court ruled that the failure to publish the required contracts breached the “vital public function” of transparency over the spending of “vast quantities” of the money of taxpayers. In his ruling, Mr. Justice Chamberlain said: “There is now no dispute that, in a substantial number of cases, the secretary of state breached his legal obligation to publish contract award notices within 30 days of the award of contracts”, to which he followed: “There is also no dispute that the secretary of state failed to publish redacted contracts in accordance with the transparency policy.”

The judge also stated that publishing the details allowed public bodies such as the National Audit Office, as well as Parliament and the public, to “scrutinise and ask questions about this expenditure”.

Product firms offering to supply PPE were organised and processed following a prioritised “VIP lane” determined by the political connections of MPs to such companies.

Research conducted by the National Audit Office revealed that PPE suppliers were 10 times more likely to be awarded a government contract if they had existing links to the Conservative party thereby revealing a classist agenda.

A company that was awarded a contract to produce COVID-19 test vials for the NHS is under investigation by the UK’s medical regulator consequent to the reports received by the local South Cambridge council relating to hygiene and safety standards.

The owner of the company, Alex Bourne is an acquaintance of the health secretary, who converted his business from making food cartons to COVID-19 test vials.

It was widely reported following the release of the contract that Bourne had messaged Hancock to offer his company’s services preceding obtaining the health secretary’s number from a mutual friend.

Bourne has previously acknowledged the exchange of WhatsApp messages with Hancock but has denied any impropriety.

The judge dismissed the Good Law Project’s argument that there had been a department-wide “policy of de-prioritising compliance” with the law. This outcome is troubling for fair democratic practice.

Labour’s shadow Cabinet Office minister, Rachel. Reeves regarded the judgement as “troubling and unsurprising, and a perfect example of how this government believes it is one rule for them another for the rest of us”.

The British media failed to fulfil their fourth estate role during this scandal, as headlines predominantly encompassed Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were stripped of their royal titles.

The failure to report on crucial governmental information directly impacts the notion of democracy within British society. The BBC’s headline also encompassed the royal couple, thereby reducing its credibility as the world’s leading public service broadcaster.

The British media should function to serve the public interest through holding the government to account, therefore, government information that should be pervasive in the public domain should be reported on more widely, despite being owned by right-wing supporters.

also been the victims of revenge pron, as well as speaking to former partners who have shared her photos, and discussing what happened with her parents for the first time.

Under section 33 of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015, it is a criminal offence to ‘disclose a private sexual photograph or film if the disclosure is made (a) without the consent of the individual who appears and (b) with the intention of causing that individual distress.’ Essentially, this law carries a prison sentence of up to two years.Zara admits that she felt pressured at school by a boy to send intimate pictures of herself. She was bullied and tried to fit in amongst her peers, but the boy shared the pictures around the school.

This all happened during her adolescent years, a time for growth and

becoming an adult. She had even felt feelings of suicide, due to the constant bullying which she admits, still affects her to this day.

In the documentary, she states “I can’t even tell you the feeling, feeling like your parents are ashamed of you,” Zara says tearfully, recalling the incident in the documentary.

“How will they look at me the same ever again? It was so embarrassing.

I just wanted to die.”People have even come in to fire with Zara, for advocating and raising awareness of revenge porn, despite her rise on Instagram as a ‘bikini’ model.

It has become too common that people will openly criticise others for sharing nudes, especially those in the pictures, instead of the criminal injustice and the consequences that this so harshly imposes on the victim

Cerys Ann Jones Comment Editor

Molly Govus

Sian Hopkins

Cerys Ann Jones

Izzy Morgan comment@gairrhydd.com

Source: dotmatchbox (via. Flickr)

conversation; it is no longer an unspoken taboo. Death, and the risk of it, is around us everyday when we turn on our TV’s or unlock our phones to endless death tolls. It cannot be escaped, so we may as well take it within our grasp and into our control by writing our wills.

Data from Aura also found that Gen-Z is driving this shift in attitude towards death – results showed that Gen-Z respondents were four times more likely than Boomers to make a bucket list.

Findings also showed that Millennials are making more structured financial plans and are also more open to discussing death with their children, as opposed to their parents’ generation.

Our generation are taking control of the legal keystone for facing death.

The Will outlines finance and property inheritance, alongside health instructions for family left behind. In normal circumstances, the writing of wills are usually reserved for older generations, but, these are not normal circumstances.

We are now taking the initiative into our own hands as a generation.

Simon, a 28-year-old from the UK, told HuckMag that: ‘I always thought a will was ‘nice to have’ and not that important, but life has felt much more fragile now, which has made me feel like I should be responsible’.

Last year, Gen-Z saw 465% more people writing a will than in 2019, and millennials saw an increase of 298%. It is clear that life’s fragility at the moment is a key driving factor in creating a will.

Researching a will in our generation may sound daunting; we haven’t got many assets, we haven’t got much money, or much of anything, in all honesty.

What is most prominent is having the control over what happens after our lives and building some of the fragility that has overtaken us in this past year.

It may be perceived as a morbid practice, but it is, overall, a completely sensible one.

We have been dubbed the ‘deathpositive generation’, and I genuinely don’t believe that it is a bad thing at all.

We’re taking back control, and we’re setting down boundaries for life after death.

Inherently, our wills will not fix COVID-19, but it does show our progression and prosperity in the face of it.

themselves.

Revenge porn needs to be taken much more seriously within the media as this act can have such devastating impacts on a victim’s mental health. In a world where coronavirus has transported our lives and livelihoods, it is crucial for us to unite and make those feel safe and secure, and to prevent these anxiety fuelled feelings.

The increase of social media use within lockdowns has made the ease of sharing images amongst peers much simpler, which is worrying because that means if images are shared across social networking sites, these can circulate and stay online for large periods of time. The feeling of not being in control of what could appear online if explicit images are shared, can cause so much devastation, and

create a huge impact on livelihoods.

In 2020, the Revenge Porn Helpline saw a staggering 87% increase in the number of adults that are seeking support for intimate image abuse, and over half were signposted to mental health services.

They have also stated that they are investing a further £40 million in specialist services, to give adequate funding for Revenge Porn Hotline.

This is such important news, as this shows that there are large steps being taken to ensure that victims of this horrific crime can feel supported.

With this new documentary being aired on TV, Zara has made it in her best efforts as well as thousands of others, to speak publicly about these issues and to protect others from the devastating impacts it can cause in the future.

Molly Govus

Comment Editor

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OVID-19 has opened our eyes to the harsh reality of how temporary our lives are, and there is no doubt that the daily influx of coronavirus-related deaths has had a significant impact on the way our generation perceives loss and how we deal with it.

Studies from end-of-life online platform, Aura, suggest that a third of Brits believe their attitude towards death has changed as a result of COVID-19.

As a society, we went from being carefree and risk-free in many situations without a bat of an eyelid, to living in a protective bubble, quite literally.

Looking back at pictures of Wednesday nights in the SU, I find it hard to believe that we were ever really in such close proximity to one another.

The thought makes me recoil, as much as I may miss it.

We have been forever changed in our perspective towards life, so it doesn’t come to much of a surprise that Gen-Z have been thinking more about what happens at the end.

Without many material possessions, our generation have started writing their wills.

Death is now a standard topic of

Zara McDermott opens up after being a victim of revenge porn Megan Evans Advice Editor

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he Instagram influencer has had naked photos of herself leaked without her consent on a couple of occasions, and she is the host of a new upcoming BBC Three documentary about revenge porn, which is the name of an act where intimate photos and videos are shared without the victim’s consent.

This occurred when she was just 14 years old, and another time whilst she was on Love Island, with this circulating via messaging service WhatsApp, before making their way to Twitter, as well as the tabloid press.

Within this documentary, Zara speaks to other women who have

SYLWADAU

15

The Olympic Games in a post-pandemic 2021

Meghan and Has the impact of COVID-19 changed the course of the Olympic Games forever? Harry’s life away from the Crown ID-19 has hit the world in unprecDarshan Dalal Contributor

T

he world came to a grinding halt in March last year after the inception of the Coronavirus pandemic. Within a matter of days, the lives of people were radically altered as people had to adapt to the new normal of living life.

With every sphere of life being adversely affected by the accelerating pandemic, it was beyond doubt that Japan’s second summer Olympic Games to be held in Tokyo had to be postponed. Olympic games were never postponed or cancelled before for something other than war.

In 1916, 1940, and 1944, the Games were cancelled because of the world wars.

International Olympic Committee (IOC) and local Organizing Committee officially confirmed on 30th March 2020 that the Olympics will now take place from 23rd July to 8th August 2021 which were originally scheduled for 24th July to 9th August 2020.

A lot has changed since last year, especially the development of vaccines in a record time from concept to regulatory approval which is proving to be a gamechanger in this global fight against the pandemic. It is to be hoped that in the next 150 days, for 17 days, the world will again be briefly arrested by the captivating and thrilling spectacle of athleticism, ambition, pride, patriotism, and celebration on display at the Summer Olympic Games.

A study done by the University of Oxford notes this as the most expensive summer Olympics ever recorded. In 2013, when Tokyo was given the games by the IOC, the country said it would cost around $7.5 billion.

Both the IOC and Tokyo 2020 organizers did highlight last year that postponing the Olympics that have a budget of £10.8bn ($12.6bn/1.35trillion Yen) comes with “many, many challenges”. According to the local organizing committee, the official cost of the event is up by 22% as a result of the postponement. This brings the cost from $12.6 billion to $15.4 billion.

The pandemic outbreak of COV-

edented ways. Also, falling economies and rising environmental concerns do provoke and rather dig out the old debate: “Are the Olympics really necessary?”

To begin with, let’s understand the application process of the Olympic extravaganza. The bid for hosting the Olympics alone sets the cities back by about $20 million and while officially bidding only takes 2 years, most cities can exhaust a decade working on their bids from the moment it is initiated to the announcement of voting results from the International Olympic Committee members.

Bidding costs do not compare to the exorbitant bills that come with hosting the games themselves. Los Angelinos have only recently finished paying off their budget-breaking 1984 Olympics; Montreal is still in debt for its 1976 games (to rub salt on the wound, Canada is the only host country to have failed to win a single gold medal during its own Olympics).

London Olympics managers have admitted their 2012 costs increased 10 times over their initial projections, leaving taxpayers £20 Billion in the red.

The official cost estimate of the Rio Olympics was $12 Billion. The final tally exceeded $20 Billion for Brazil, the first South American country to host the Olympics with the city of Rio alone shouldering at least $13 billion.

Rio cut spending on healthcare and education; the police went unpaid for weeks during the run-up to show of shows.As mentioned earlier, the host cities are often left awash in high debts and costly infrastructure maintenance after the competitors and spectators return home.

Many argue that the insurmountable expenses are mitigated by tourist revenues and an increase in local employment, but in reality, the host cities are little changed and the taxpayers for generations to come are settling the debt.

Another major concern is when civic infrastructure developments are undertaken in preparation for hosting the Olympics, these benefits converge to a single metropolitan centre. Since the Interna-

Sophia Grace Digital Editor

A A lot has changed in the world of sport: Source: freeimg (via. FreeIMG)

tional Olympic Committee favours prosperous “global” centres, the improvement of public transport, roads, and communication lines tend to concentrate in places already equipped with world-class infrastructures.

Result of which is that minor cities never get an injection of capital.

The extensive demands of Olympic sports include aquatic complexes, equestrian circuits, shooting ranges, beach volleyball courts, and an obvious 80,000 seat athletic stadium intended for a brief influx of athletes around the world for 17 days, these complexes typically fall into disuse after the Olympic fever wanes.

Maintenance of such vacant complexes is just the tip of the iceberg, to say the least.

Despite the postponement, the Summer Olympics, when they eventually happen, will still be called the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020. The Olympic flame will also remain stored and displayed in Fukushima. In announcing the postponement last year, the IOC statement said: “The leaders agreed that the Olympic Games in Tokyo could stand as a beacon of hope to the world during these troubled times and that the Olympic flame could become the light at the end of the tunnel in which the world finds itself at present.”

This “Feel Good” factor is a rational consideration as the land of the rising sun has handled the virus well. Although, there is still the

question of fans, as many would-be travelling.

Limited fan attendance would also impact the money coming in, as ticket sales are the main source of income for the games.

There is no substitute to the ephemeral thrill and even the years of disruptive construction projects and security threats or the decades of debt repayments which follow seem little or insignificant in front of the epic, ecstatic and patriotic emotions during the 17 days outcourse which the world encounters.

In spite of all this, there is no guarantee that an Olympics will be a popular success. Feasible alternatives should also be looked at once in a while. One popular option is to designate a permanent host city, another would be to extend the duration of the Olympics so that local businesses would enjoy the extra spending and congestion which seems a distant dream as scientists and experts have hinted that Coronavirus is never going away.

The strong opinion would be to scrap Tokyo 2020 (now 2021), Paris 2024, and Los Angeles 2028 Olympics and further games altogether.

International competition could still be maintained through world championships in each discipline.

Most of these events are already held on non-Olympic years which would keep the world-class competition and zeal alive without requiring Olympic-sized expenses.

‘A lot of things to be ‘The best approach hopeful for in 2021’ right now is caution’ Kat Wheeler Contributor

T

here’s a lot of things to be hopeful for in 2021. For a start, lockdown is likely to come to an end in summer and by the end of the year, we could see pre-pandemic life come back in full swing.

On Monday, Boris Johnson announced an easing of restrictions in England but Wales is yet to catch up. Going forward, both centralised and devolved governments need to be cautious. Getting people’s hopes up about the 21st of June is dangerous. It risks triggering fears about a fourth national lockdown and worse, disrupting plans and wellneeded holidays.

As we come out of this crisis, I think balancing the benefits of

lockdown versus the benefits of normal life will be really important.

It’s easy to forget that being in contact with people and helping out in person can save lives too.

Don’t try and force things back to how they were before either, giving up masks and sanitation entirely can be tempting but there are still very vulnerable people that need to be shielded. This group of people need to become the NHS’ priority after lockdown, alongside nonessential operations and cancer screenings. It is people who might not need to visit hospitals as often that need to take responsibility for their safety- not just that of their immediate family.

For now, I’ll keep myself as fit and healthy as I possibly can. So that when things truly are better, I can do those things I’ve been missing so badly.

Francesca Ionescu Contributor

I

did not feel doubtful about the new lockdown plan until my friends asked whether I’d like to book a festival with them for July. Do I book the festival and risk it getting cancelled or do I not book it and risk being the only one to not be doing anything if the government’s plan goes as it should?

On one side you want to be excited, finally having something to look forward to and a view of how the next months could go. But on the other hand, how much can you trust that there will not be another spike or Uturn or that the lockdown won’t be extended?

I’ve been feeling very confused

about whether to join in making big plans for Easter and summer, as realistically, there is no guarantee that everything will go as planned. I have decided that the best approach right now is caution.

While the government is saying this lockdown will be the last one, England, for example, was meant to have 5 days off at Christmas - admittedly that was never a good idea - so there is no harm in taking everything with a pinch of salt. Make sure everything you book and plan will be refunded if there is (fingerscrossed there is not) another spike.Focus more on staying safe now and take it slow until we have a clear path to the normal that we’ve all missed so much. It is definitely within sight.

bout a year ago, Prince Harry and his wife Meghan announced that they would be stepping away from their royal duties.

A year on, and the Queen has decided that this will cost them their HRH titles.

After this, they became financially independent and moved to California. Although this bold move away from the ties to the Royal Family could be admired, it has not been short of media controversy. Speculation has implied that Harry stepped away from the Royal Family to protect Meghan and his son Archie who was born in 2019.

Furthermore, Meghan has been plagued by the British media and her whole life has been followed and monitored since she became a part of the family. Harry and Meghan’s decision to step down and live a more independent life is one that I personally admire, especially due to the importance of the Royal Family to the British public.

Harry has had an incredibly public life since he was born and therefore has dealt with the positives and of course negatives of his role in the public eye. A notable negative is the death of his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, when he was 12, an attempt to escape a media frenzy ultimately caused her death after a car crash.

This most likely painted the media in a bad light for Harry and he has definitely carried this burden with him into adulthood. For Meghan, the British media only became a part of her life very recently when her relationship with Harry became public.

However short-lived her experience with British media has been, it hasn’t been particularly pleasant, resulting in a Privacy Lawsuit against the Mail on Sunday who published private extracts from a letter she wrote to her father, which she won earlier this month.

Harry and Meghan’s decision to step away from royal duties opens them up to a life of more freedom. A biography of the two ex-royals titled ‘Finding Freedom’ has revealed things about the couple that they previously would’ve kept to themselves, including information about fallouts between family members that went on in the palace. This book, alongside the couples decision to lead a more independent life, is admirable and highlights the importance of being real and down to earth, even if you’re a royal by blood.

Harry has previously spoken candidly about his emotions and has actively advocated for mental health awareness, so the decision to step away from the scrutiny of the media and the Royal Family is not surprising especially with his past experiences.

With regards to the monarchy, although Harry and Meghan have stepped away Harry is still in line for the throne, but I think it opens up a conversation about the pressures of being a Royal not only in the public eye but within the family itself.

I hope that their decision is respected and that it encourages positive change. Meghan and Harry are, in my opinion, the most down to earth Royals and I admire them greatly for their huge and incredibly hard decision to put themselves and their family first over the agenda of the public and the crown.

16

ADVICE

YOUR How to become a more outgoing person?

What can you do to become more confident and positive in social situations?

ADVICE DESK W Vicky Witts

Head of Advice

Vicky Witts

Megan Evans advice@gairrhydd.com

ith the UK government announcement that many of the English and Welsh lockdown restrictions will soon potentially be beginning to be lifted, many of us have begun to imagine what life will be like when we can do more of the things that we have not been able to.

However, for some people, the prospect of large social gatherings and an obligation to be more outgoing creates more of a sense of dread than joy. If you find yourself relating to such anxieties, it may be helpful to learn how to become more outgoing and confident, so that future social interactions feel less terrifying.

Start with something small The idea of throwing yourself into large social situations with people that you do not know can sound frightening, and that is because, for most people, it is. Becoming more outgoing and confident in social situations does not mean that you should be able to talk to anyone and everyone like you have known them for year. Although it may be true of

some people, it is important to know that most of us would feel nervous in such a large-scale social situation, and so, you should focus on getting more confident in smaller scale situations before working up to larger things such as public speaking.

A good way to begin gaining confidence in these situations is by establishing what you consider to be your current boundaries or comfort level and try to implement circumstances into your day to push these slightly and help you to extend your comfort zone. For example, if you feel that you are happy within your own close friend group but feel anxiety at meeting new people, you could ask your friend to introduce you to some of their friends that you have never met before, when coronavirus restrictions are reduced. By doing this, you can learn to get more comfortable at introductions, whilst also being in a situation that is more comfortable than meeting a complete stranger, as you can ask your friend to tell you a bit about them before you meet and work out what things you may have in common to talk about.

Utilize your seminars Whilst many of us hate the prospect of being in an online

seminar and having to join a dreaded breakout room, there may actually be some benefits to using them, if you are able to overcome any initial awkwardness. For example, you are able to practice talking to people that you may not know very well, whilst also having a specific topic to discuss so you do not have to think as much about finding things to talk about. Additionally, if you find it hard to maintain eye-contact when talking to people, or find that it makes you feel uneasy, these forms of online

interaction may be initially easier for you, as there is less expectation to maintain many of the physical aspects of conversation such as eye-contact than in an in-person meeting.

Mentally rehearse It may be helpful to mentally rehearse if you find that you are constantly worried about saying the ‘wrong’ thing. This is because, you could choose to plan what you roughly want to say, if it is possible for the situation. Doing this may make you feel more confident in yourself.

Becoming outgoing: The possible easing of lockdown restrictions may not feel positive for many introverted people. Source: Richard Foster (via: Flickr)

Websites for sustainable Podcasts that may benefit your mental health gift-giving Megan Evans Megan Evans Advice Editor

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latforms such as Etsy and Depop have been booming, ever since lockdown restrictions were implemented, and shopping has been transported to online instead of in person. In 2020 there were 60.27 buyers.

With Mother’s Day around the corner, there are many sites and stores with intricate gifting, which is not only sustainable, but also aiding the many independent retailers within a crowded market, but also conscious of the planet and are environmentally friendly.

Etsy has so many gifting options, from letterbox brownies, to handmade cards. You can find endless listings from independent businesses, which is a popular choice for many that want to grab something personal, such as household items, and jewellery.

They have some great sustainable listings, such as Dirty Hippie Cosmetics for body care, Earth Market for food, Naturaleza Organic Jewelry for jewellery.

Bloom & Wild have the best bright broquets, which are the perfect gift for Mothers Day. The boxes are designed specifically so that you can get creative, and have florists arranging tips inside too.

Wearth have thoughtful sustainable gifts, which not only supports independent UK brands, but are ranging from ethically sourced and are environmentally friendly. They are also zero waste and use a plastic-free filter.

Advice Editor

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odcasts are becoming a much more easily accessible and an integrated method of passing on information. Particular topics that are inspiring young people to better themselves and those around them, such as fitness and mental well-being are becoming huge. Whether you are about to embark on a long walk, or you are sitting doing some work, but need something light in the background to keep your brain set in tone, I find podcasts extremely beneficial to listen to, and you can find almost any topic on a podcast. Ofcom.com reported that there were around 7.1 million listeners tuning in to podcasts every week, and that increased to 15.6 million within 2020.

During these times where some may be hard hit by the feelings of loneliness, having a podcast on in the background can make your home setting, whether you are currently studying remotely or if you are at university a lot more beneficial. The pandemic has triggered such a mental health catastrophe, that the rise of online support is vital.

I recently stumbled upon a podcast called Hey It Gets Better, created by Katie Watson, a recent graduate who interviews a whole host of creators and members of society, from authors, managing directors, CEOs of companies, and other fellow podcasters. She provides a space for these people to open up about their lives, their drives and inspirations for taking dif-

Podcast popularity: Podcasts are getting more and more popular, with 15.6 million listeners tuning in every week according to Ofcom. Source: Patrick Breitenbach (via Flickr) ferent routes to where they are, thing from sexuality, to mental and I find it hugely motivating health, race and religion. Not to see that these people who only are hugely important issues have struggled at various parts discussed with the insightfulness of their careers, but managing to it deserves, but it offers a place feel stable and find fulfillment in to learn more. their lives.

How to Fail by Elizabeth Day, Happy Place is very simi- is great as it gives insights into lar to the above, and is hosted reassuring anecdotes and methby Fearne Cotton, who talks to ods of day to day failures that people such as Mary Berry and shapes us. This is a really easy Hillary Clinton, on what happi- listen, as not only does it cover ness means to them. It highlights personal challenges and anxiethe obstacles that even top ce- ties, but what it really takes to lebrities have to face, which is be a success. This is a personal quite interesting and effective, account of guests’ vulnerabilities and also incredibly engaging. and it does make you feel good, TED Radio Hour podcast is because honest conversations also great, as TED talks from about life’s challenges are the world-renowned stages covers best podcasts in my opinion, to so many thought-provoking top- help gratify and undermine the ics such as forgiveness and fail- insignificant worries that we are ure, and is hugely recommended all guilty of letting pose a threat for those who want to delve into to our own happiness. unique topics.

There are also podcasts that The Gurls Talk podcast is also are great if you are finding difa great listen, as Adwoa Aboah, ficulties sleeping, such as Get an activist, talks about every- Sleepy which is meditative and

deeply reassuring and uses soundscapes and mindfulness techniques whilst you are trying to sleep. BBC Radio 3’s Slow Radio has episodes that are dedicated to bring listeners around the planet, through its soundscapes.

There are even some great podcasts that you can listen to whilst you are exercising.

Trained is a great podcast to tackle holistic fitness, such as movement, nutrition, mindset, through personal trainers.

The Art of Charm is also a great motivational and self-improvement podcast, which has so many episodes to help dig into the roots of habits and muscle movements. You can learn so many ways to not only improve your lifestyle, but also confidence boosts from top experts in various fields.

Home Cooking is a really relaxing podcast, where the hosts discuss the meals that they’ve been making, even the most simple of recipes. They also interview celebrities about food and the role that it has played in their lives and also in their work.

You can gage so many interesting tricks and techniques from listening to this.

I also find comedy podcasts really satisfying if you are feeling down, and need an instant pick me up, such as The Radio 1’s Scott Mills podcast.

There are still so many that have not been mentioned, right at your fingertips. Instead of aimlessly scrolling through your phone, utilise the Podcast app and find something that may change your perspective, and help your well-being.

Got questions about Academic We Issues? visited Student Advice cardiffstudents.com/advice

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SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

to run human challenge trial for COVID-19 YOUR UK with young people in a world first for coronavirus SCIENCE DESK T Holly Giles

Head of Science & Technology

Holly Giles

Rowenna Hoskin

Mili Jayadeep

Jack Robert Stacey science@gairrhydd.com

he UK was the first country in the world to licence a vaccine for COVID-19 and this week it has made another milestone by gaining approval for the first human challenge trials for the virus.

They have previously been used for a number of diseases, including malaria, typhoid, cholera and flu, but this is the first time COVID-19 will join the list.

Human challenge trials involve healthy volunteers being deliberately infected with coronavirus in order to answer key questions about the virus such as: what is the smallest dose needed to start an infection? How does the immune system respond to infection? How can you tell which people will develop symptoms?

The study has received £33.6 million in investment from the UK government and is expected to start within a month of receiving approval, meaning it will start during March.

Chief investigator, Dr Chris Chiu, said: “We are asking for volunteers aged between 18 and 30 to join this research endeavour and help us to understand how the virus infects people and how it passes so successfully between us”.

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwartend, added: “Whilst there has been very positive progress in vaccine development, we want to find the best and most effective vaccines for use over the longer term. These human challenge studies will take place here in the UK and will help accelerate scientists’ knowledge of how coronavirus affects people and could eventually further the rapid development of vaccines”.

With thousands of people being vaccinated every day it may seem unnecessary to perform these tests but as Clive Dix from the Vaccines Taskforce explains, these insights are still crucial to fighting the virus: “We have secured a number of safe and effective vaccines for the UK, but it is essential that we continue to develop new vaccines and treatments for COVID-19. We expect these studies to offer unique insights into how the virus works and help us understand which promising vaccines offer the best change of preventing the infection.”

The trials will include 90 healthy volunteers aged 18-30 who will be screened for the virus before

The next stage: With vaccination rates increasing daily, it is hoped this study will increase knowledge of the virus and help guide future efforts. Source: Unknown (via Cardiff University) starting the program to check they haven’t been exposed to COVID-19 previously.

They will then have a small dose of the virus squirted up their nose before being monitored for 14 days of isolation in a hospital and undergoing a number of tests. The follow-up will then continue for a year so the researchers can monitor long-lasting symptoms.

The main aims of the study are to find out how the virus grows in the nose and analysing the initial stages of infection before symptoms develop.

It is hoped this increased understanding about carriers of the infection could help stop the transmission of the virus.

Whilst this study will use the main UK variant which has been present in the country since the first lockdown, it has been suggested future trials could look at other variants. Other future studies could include giving participants a vaccine and then exposing them to new variants to check which vaccinations are the most effective, but this is yet to be approved.

This possibly was explained by

Professor Robert Read from Southampton Biomedical Research Centre: “A human challenge allows you to vaccinate volunteers and then infect them in a controlled way with the virus to compare perhaps new vaccines with first-generation vaccines to provide information to the regulatory authorities so that they can understand the potential of novel vaccines head to head with the established vaccines that already exist”.

It is not known when these additional studies will receive approval but means this first human challenge study is unlikely to be a stand-alone, and more likely to be the first of many.

Whilst this is a big undertaking for volunteers and a big decision to make, it is worth noting they will be given £4500 during the year for their participation in the study.

The Human Challenge study is being delivered by a partnership between the government’s Vaccines Taskforce, Imperial College London, the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust and the industryleading clinical company hVIVO,

which has pioneered viral human challenge models.

With the COVID-19 pandemic entering its eleventh month and still seeing over 12,000 new cases a day in the UK, increased understanding of the virus is paramount for returning to “normal” life in the near future. This human challenge study will add to an increasing field of knowledge about the virus and help researchers find more ways to tackle it effectively.

It will be some time before the results of the human challenge study are seen, but with it expected to recruit participants this month, the COVID-19 human challenge study is well underway.

We expect these studies to offer unique insights into how the virus works and help us understand which promising vaccines offer the best change of preventing the infection.”

Clive Dix

Vaccines Taskforce

European Space Agency to have greater diversity in latest recruitment Shivika Singh Contributor

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he European Space Agency announced its first recruitment drive for new astronauts in eleven years and emphasised on its commitment to ensure greater diversity and inclusion in the recruitment process.

The application process begins on March 31 and is expected to last till October 2022, putting candidates through a six-stage selection process.

The European Space Agency is seen as the European equivalent of American space agency NASA. This highly prestigious Space Agency aims to recruit up to twenty-six new astronauts and commits to be as diverse as possible, recruiting scientists across gender,

sexual orientation, ethnicity, and physical disability.

In a bid to ensure inclusivity, the Agency also asked the International Paralympic Committee to advise it on selection.

In an interview given to the BBC news, Dr. David Parker, the director of ESA’s robotics and human spaceflight programme, stated: “It is not about tokenism. We have to be able to justify to all the people who fund us - which is everybody, including people who happen to be disabled-that what we’re doing is somehow meaningful to everybody”.

The Agency hopes that the time has come to put disabled people into space as part of an initiative called the Parastronaut Feasibility Project, making the dream of a parastronaut, a reality.

According to ESA, this is the first time that a space agency has opened the application process up to people with disabilities. Addressing the matter, Dr David Parker, added:“To be absolutely clear, we are not looking for a space tourist that happens to also have a disability”. He explained that this individual would carry out a meaningful space mission, efficiently participating in all the normal operations of The International Space Station.

It is noteworthy that ESA has seriously lagged behind on matters of gender diversity as well. Samantha Cristoforetti is the only female in ESA’s current crop of astronauts while Elodie Viau is the only senior director who is a female.

The ESA has only sent two women into the space and aims to redress the

balance.

In the last recruitment call by ESA in 2008, only 16% of the total applicants were women. The Agency is set on a big diversity drive and expects to see greater participation of women this time than in previous years.

Applications for ESA are being accepted from 31st March to 28th May. The candidates must have a masters degree in Natural Sciences, Medicine, Engineering, Mathematics or Computer Sciences, in order to qualify for the recruitment process. The candidates must also be fluent in English and possess a good knowledge of any other subject, including a compulsory second language.

This decision by ESA was warmly welcomed all across the world. Helen Sharman, the UK’s first astronaut, also

welcomed the ESA’s decision to redress diversity and inclusion. She called it an ‘exciting time for human space flight expansion’.

It is hoped that this decision will help balance the landscape of science and space agencies, creating a welcoming environment for people, irrespective of disability, gender and race.

We have to be able to justify to all the people who fund us - which is everybody, including people who happen to be disabled-that what we’re doing is somehow meaningful to everybody”.

Dr David Parker

ESA’s robotics and human spaceflight programme

GWYDDONIAETH A THECHNOLEG

Astronomers may have potentially found a new planet Mia Becker-Hansen Contributor

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stronomers may have glimpsed what appears to be a previously unknown planet circling one of the closest stars to Earth.

Alpha Centauri is the closest star system to the Earth at 4.37 light years (25 trillion miles) away, which is considered very local in cosmic terms. It is made up of three stars, two of which (Alpha Centauri A and B) form a binary star system that orbit around a common centre point.

These two stars appear to the naked eye as a single star in our night sky.

The international team observed the star as a part of the “New Earths in the Alpha Centauri Region” experiment run by Breakthrough Watch. The experiment aims to locate and study Earth-sized rocky planets around Alpha Centauri and other local stars. Chief engineer of the Breakthrough Initiatives, Pete Klupar, said “we detected something. It could be an artefact in the machine, or it could be a planet, or it could be asteroids or dust”.

The scientists were using a new coronagraph on the Very Large Telescope instrument. It aided in

the search by blocking out the light from Alpha Centauri, which makes it easier to spot any orbiting planets.

Klupar describes the instrument as being similar to blotting out the Sun with a thumb at arm’s reach on the Earth. “We’re trying to see a flashlight right next to a lighthouse,” he said. It allows for extraordinary sensitivity to directly image planets beyond those of our Solar System.

If proven to be a planet after further investigations, the sighting would be the first to directly image an exoplanet around a nearby star.

“A lot of people say planets can’t form in this kind of binary and that’s one reason we are cautious about claiming it is actually a planet. But if it is, it would be about the size of Neptune,” Klupar added.

The planet would lie in the stars habitable zone, also known as the ‘goldilocks zone’, where the temperatures would allow liquid water to form, and would take about a decade to complete an orbit.

Professor Beth Biller, who studies exoplanets at the Institute of Astronomy at Edinburgh University, said the researchers had an “interesting candidate”, but are right to be cautious.

“It will require a separate, inde-

C Alpha and Beta Centuri: Scientists have glimpsed a dot circling Alpha Centuri. Source: Skatebiker (via Wikimedia Commons) pendent detection to really confirm this one,” she said. “If confirmed, it could be a detection of the dust disc around the star or an actual planet.

Both would be very interesting outcomes.”

Klupar said the team want another look at the planet later in the year to see if it has moved to the location it is predicted to be in at the time.

This could further confirm its identity as an exoplanet. However, new

observations may not be possible soon with the coronavirus pandemic still going on.

This discovery could be very exciting news if it is indeed a new planet, it remains ambiguous for now but scientific observation will continue. Hopefully the pandemic will not hinder observations, if it does then the potential planet may remain shrouded in mystery for longer than scientists expect.

Rowenna Hoskin Science Editor

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• • • •

Melting Icebergs: As ice bergs melt and temperatures increase, cold air is pushed from the north to the south.

Source: Marco Ottobelli (via Wikimedia Commons)

gue that this is a symptom of Arctic heating which is disrupting long-established climactic systems.

Cold air is normally concentrated around the north pole in the polar vortex, an area of low pressure that circulates in a tight formation in the stratosphere during winter. If interfered with, the rotation of the low pressure can move which alters the entire meteorological system.

Researchers say that this interference is occurring through changes to the jet stream, a band of strong winds that wraps around the globe at lower elevations than the polar vortex. They argue that the warming of the Arctic is causing the jet stream to shift.

“The energy escaping from the jet stream bangs into the polar vortex so it starts to wobble and move all over the place,” said Cohen. “Where the polar vortex goes, so goes the cold air.”

Indeed, this phenomenon has demonstrated itself dramatically over the

Cardiff University shows women are better at mind reading than men Francesca Ionescu Contributor

Heating Arctic could be the cause of the Texan winter storm winter storm in the US has brought death and destruction to Texas, with record breaking low temperatures freezing pipes and turbines creating blackouts across the state.

The state which has always prided itself on its electrical independence from the rest of the nation is now helpless as 5 million people are left without power.

Just as climate change disproportionately affects lower-income countries than western superpowers, the poor Texans are more affected by this storm than the rich. Many inhabit poorly insulated houses, other live in trailers, tents or camp out in their cars.

Texas is energy-independent from other states and as such, if households cannot pay when the energy bills spike due to demand – they are cut off. The rich, however; have private generators and have the income to travel to other countries to escape (Senator Ted Cruz flew to Cancun, Mexico for a family vacation for example).

“The current conditions in Texas are historical, certainly generational,” said Judah Cohen, the director of seasonal forecasting at Atmospheric and Environmental Research. “But this can’t be hand-waved away as if it’s entirely natural. This is happening not in spite of climate change, it’s in part due to climate change.”

Associating climate change with freezing temperatures may seem counterintuitive but scientists say that there is evidence that the rapid heating of the Arctic pushes cold air from the north pole further south.

Cohen co-authored a paper that discovered an increase in winter storms in the US north-east in the decade leading to 2018. Scientists ar-

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past month: the polar vortex split has caused large snow storms to be driven across Europe as well as record cold temperatures in parts of the US which is more accustomed to milder winters.

“I’d say the situation this winter is consistent with research that has connected what’s happening in the Arctic with extreme weather patterns in the mid latitudes,” said Jennifer Francis, a senior scientist at Woodwell Climate Research Center who has studied the issue. “The polar vortex can elongate, stretch into different shapes and even split. We have seen a very big disruption this year.”

Scientists cannot agree over the interaction between Arctic heat and cold weather patterns in the south; Francis calls it an “active area of research.”

Global heating is causing warming winters, but record cold temperatures are now being clearly surpassed by re-

Word of the week: Polar vortex

cord hot temperatures. The complexity of the climatic conditions needs further scrutiny to be determined.

While an area of disagreement, climate change is undeniably causing a disturbance in weather conditions.

With hotter summers and colder winters, extreme weather conditions are also causing a major problem to human civilization.

The Texas storm has caused many deaths; people have burnt to death in fires they lit to keep warm, at least 10 people have died from hypothermia, while hundred more have suffered carbon monoxide poisoning. Whatever the cause of the unusual storm, it is clear that America is not prepared for the climate emergency.

The problems are not limited to just a lack of water, food and heat for the Texans – what will happen when the ice melts? The state will see mass floodings, with people being left homeless and financially vulnerable.

The polar vortex is a circulation of winds high up in the stratosphere The winds regularly exceed 155 miles per hour (250 km per hour) - a category 5 hurricane A strong polar vortex favours a strong jet stream, while a weak polar vortex causes a weak distorted jet stream Sometimes it breaks down, called a ‘Sudden Stratospheric Warming’, it can cause cold winter weather

ardiff University and the Universities of Bath and London have conducted a study to find a new approach to ‘mind-reading’ called the FIMI (Four-Item Mentalising Index). The study has found that women are better at reading minds than men, it also confirmed that autistic people lack mind reading skills which adds to their social challenges.

The new test consisted of a fouritem questionnaire, scored between four and sixteen; four indicated low reading minds skills and sixteen indicated excellent skills. The average score was between twelve and thirteen. The study used a new and easy test, used on more than 4,000 people in the UK and US, both autistic and non-autistic. The test statistically measured the same thing in men and women and reported that women are better at ‘mentalising,’ also known as the ‘Theory of the Mind,’ or more commonly ‘reading someone’s mind’.

Dr Punit Shah, co-senior author from the University of Bath, said: “We needed to separate mind-reading from empathy. Mind-reading refers to understanding what other people are thinking, whereas empathy is all about understanding what others are feeling.

“By focusing carefully on measuring mind-reading, without confusing it with empathy, we are confident that we have just measured mindreading. And, when doing this, we consistently find that females reported greater mind-reading abilities than their male counterparts.”

Senior author Dr Lucy Livingston, from Cardiff University’s School of Psychology said that the test could potentially be used to identify people who have trouble reading social cues, as previous tests have relied on complex tasks to measure ‘mindreading’ in autistic people. Dr Livingston also said that “the ability to understand other people’s minds is really important for successful social interaction among humans” while also admitting that there is still no scientific explanation as to why some people are excellent at mind reading and some the opposite. The test however could be used in large-scale research to find the reasoning behind the difference in mind-reading skills.

Dr Livingston said the freely available tool had potential clinical utility to identify people who have mindreading difficulties and provide them with appropriate extra support.

She stated that the results do not mean “that autistic people are not motivated to understand and interact with other people.”

“Typically, researchers have relied on complex experimental tasks to measure this ability in autistic people. However, our new test takes into account the lived experiences of autistic people, as it relies on them self-reporting their social abilities and difficulties,” she said.

In essence, the tool could be instrumental in providing autistic people with better and more personal help when interacting with the world around them.

Evidently ‘mind reading’ is an important part of socialising and it differs from person to person. The tri-university effort has made an influential discovery which will impact the lives of many.

20

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

NHS COVID-19

app estimated to

have prevented over 600,000 cases Emilie Collins Contributor

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evelopers of the NHS contacttracing app have revealed this week that the app has prevented an estimated 600,000 cases so far, giving some of the first insights into the long-term effectiveness of the app.

After months of delays to the availability of the app, it first became accessible to the general public on 24th September last year, becoming an integral part of the NHS Test and Trace service. It has since been downloaded by just over a third of the population of England and Wales, with Scotland, Northern Ireland, Jersey and Gibraltar all having separate versions of a contact-tracing app.

The app alerts users as to when they have been in contact with somebody who has later tested positive for COVID-19.

Alongside this, the app can also be used to check symptoms, book a test and enter positive or negative test results. At time of press, around 1.7 million users have been told to self-isolate by the app since its introduction, with over 3.1 million test results having been entered indicating that it may have had a huge effect on controlling the virus.

Naturally, the more people who have the app downloaded, the more effective it will have been. The scientists at The Alan Turing Institute and Oxford University, who developed the app, have shown that the numbers of COVID-19 cases in the population drops by 2.3% for ever 1% increase in app users.

However, a quarter of those who initially downloaded it have since uninstalled the app, partly due to fears of being told to self-isolate unnecessarily.

These fears may not have been entirely imagined, as during the initial stages of the app’s public release, users encountered confusing phantom notifications alerting them to self-isolate which then disappeared when clicked on. Equally, in another early error with the app, it may have failed to alert thousands of users that they should selfisolate after the government admitted it was set at the wrong sensitivity.

However, despite the trials and tribulations that the app has faced, it has ultimately played a vital role in averting hundreds of thousands of cases and will have prevented the loss of many lives.

The NHS has also announced that it plans to continue developing its ‘Track and Trace’ app until the UK returns back to normal life.

Following the English government’s recently released four-step roadmap to easing restrictions, the app will continue to see use as social contact and gatherings become more common.

Specifically, the app itself is likely to play an integral role in the steady removal of COVID-19 restrictions across the whole of the UK with new suggestions for to expand its features to confirm vaccine or test result status, when international borders can reopen.

We’ve implemented [filters] and that has improved the accuracy very considerably of that contact tracing,” Wolfgang Emmerich CEO of Zuhlke UK

NASA’s Mars mission successfully lands Perseverance Rover on the distant red planet Jack Robert Stacey Technology Editor

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ollowing the end of its sevenmonth-long voyage through space, NASA has just successfully landed its Perseverance rover on Mars.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has just successfully landed its six-wheeled rover, named ‘Perseverance’, on the surface of Mars at 20:55 (GMT). As the single most sophisticated rover NASA has ever sent to the red planet, Perseverance will be used to “seek signs of ancient life and collect samples of rock and regolith (broken rock and soil) for possible return to Earth.”

NASA launched Perseverance into space from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida back on the 30th of July (2020), beginning the rover’s seven-month-long, 470-million-km journey towards the distant, red planet.

Equipped with state-of-the-art artificial intelligence, Perseverance continually scanned the surface of Mars before touching down in the Jezero Crater.

In addition to this, the rover was independently aided by a variety of computer-directed landing software and made several calculated adjustments to its trajectory to mitigate against the planet’s potentially hazardous terrain.

This, therefore, marks the first time that ‘terrain-relative navigation’ (or ‘TRN’) has been employed in an interplanetary mission as, due to the light speed between the Earth and Mars, NASA were previously unable to manually control the rover’s landing by hand before changes were made.

Matthew Wallace, the Deputy Project Manager overseeing NASA’s Mars Mission, noted that any landing on the red planet “is always a challenging feat” and that, whilst designated ‘controllers’ were on standby to assist its “entry, descent and landing”, Perseverance was fully capable of landing itself “without any more help”.

Continuing in reference to the “difficult manoeuvres” required to make the successful landing, Wallace highlighted that “almost 50% of the spacecraft sent to the surface of Mars have failed” so it was critical to develop “a new hazard avoidance capac-

Perseverance, Leading the Way through Space: An artist’s impression of the Perseverance Rover’s successful landing onto the red planet at 20:55 GMT on Thursday, February 18. Credit: NASA. ity” before undertaking the mission.

NASA’s rover touched down 2km away from a delta in the Jezero Crater, a 500m-deep bowl composed of clay and carbonate rocks that is named after a town in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Previously captured satellite data of the region suggests that the crater may have once been filled with large quantities of water and, as such, the ‘bathtub ring’ of sediments around the edge of the depression are likely to contain several rocky deposits.

Scientists at NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) reason that, assuming that the Jezero Crater had once been filled with enough water, investigations into the crater could yield evidence towards signs of former biological life.

Specifically, the region’s clusters of layered rock are considered to be similar to Earth’s own ‘stromatolites’, formations which may have been created by the activity of ancient microbacteria – Perseverance is planned to make excavations into these deposits as part of its mission on Mars.

The rover itself is equipped with over 20 cameras, all of which will be transmitting raw images back to Earth in colour.

As part of a recent briefing on the rover’s design, NASA has also announced plans to allow the public to experience the sounds received by the rover through two onboard microphones.

In addition to this, NASA’s rover is currently accompanied by a 2400 RPM, self-controlled miniature helicopter which has been specially designed

for use in Mars’ thinner atmosphere (100 times thinner than on Earth).

Over the course of approximately five short flights, the experimental drone will be used to collect visual data of the surrounding areas.

Allen Chen, a systems engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), confirmed that the Perseverance rover is now located “in a nice flat spot” on the surface of Mars, and that the vehicle itself “is only titled by about 1.2. degrees”.

Speaking on the significance NASA’s fifth successful landing of a Mars rover, Chen attested that the rover had managed to find its “parking lot” independently and gave thanks to the entire team at JPL: “I couldn’t be more proud of my team for doing that.”

This recent landing represents another sizeable step forwards for space exploration and, over the course of its operating time, the Perseverance rover will undoubtedly make several discoveries that can also be brought back to Earth for extensive analysis.

created by Harvard University, however, provides a fresh perspective on this widely debated occurrence.

The new research, published in the journal ‘Scientific Reports’, hypothesises that the object that caused the mass extinction of the dinosaurs originated in the Oort Cloud which, according to NASA, is an assumed collection of “icy objects” at “the most distant region of our solar system”.

The vast quantities of debris located within this region (thought to be in the millions or even trillions) could have therefore become knocked from their orbit by the gravitational forces of planets. As a result of this, these objects may have then shattered into several, smaller pieces that diverge from the original orbit – An event known as ‘sungrazing’ to astronomers.

Amir Sirag, an undergraduate student who assisted in the paper, compared the series of events to “a kind of pinball machine” and noted that, due to the immense gravitational force of Jupiter, “these incoming long-period conventions” may have been drawn dangerously close to the

Earth and Sun. Sirag recognised that although this scientific explanation (along with other popular theories) is currently lacking any substantial evidence, there is still a very clear “statistical chance that these smaller comets hit the Earth” and caused the worldwide extinction event.

Whilst there are several different theories on the specific nature of dinosaur extinction, the majority of scientific figures have historically agreed that the asteroid or other space object that impacted the Earth 66 million years ago was the ‘Chicxulub impactor’. Located off the Eastern shore of Mexico, the 12 mile deep crater is widely regarded as the object’s impact site and the point in which the collision resulted in the extinction of between 50% and 75% of all animal and plant life on Earth at the time.

Building on these previous findings, the scientists from Harvard University are due to continue their research well into 2022 and, providing that international travel restrictions are eased or lifted, intend to utilise the Vera Ru-

bin Observatory in Chile to deepen their understanding of the behavior of these distant ‘long-period comets’.

Professor Avi Loeb from Harvard University’s astrology department spoke on the conclusion reached by his team of scientists and attested that, in theory, “if you break up an object as it comes close to the sun, it could give rise to the appropriate event rate and also the kind of impact that killed the dinosaurs.”

Although the paper already “provides a basis for explaining the occurrence of this event”, Professor Loeb expressed his intentions to continue working with his group of scientists to “test the theory by having more data on long-period comets, get better statistics, and perhaps see evidence for some fragments.”

As proposed by the team of scientists at Harvard University, the new theory offers a new interpretation on the dinosaur extinction event and, alongside the continued research of other significant ‘long-period comets’, could also broaden our understanding of this distant area of space.

There is something special about the first few days because we have just landed a representative of Planet Earth on a place on Mars that no-one has ever been to.”

Mike Watkins Director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Scientists at Harvard University propose new theory on dinosaur extinction Jack Robert Stacey Technology Editor

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sing new theoretical thinking, scientists from Harvard University have outlined a potential explanation for the dinosaur extinction event that occurred around 66 million years ago.

Although it is generally understood that the impact of a sizable space object with the Earth was responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs, many key details of this event (including, what the particular object was, and additionally where it came from) are still unknown to scientists. Recent theoretical research If you break up an object as it comes close to the sun, it could give rise to [...] the kind of impact that killed the dinosaurs.”

Avi Loeb Frank B. Baird, Jr., Professor of Science at Harvard University

Don’t Ovary Act

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@CAERDYDD

Celebrating a traditional Welsh St David’s Day YOUR @CAERDYDD The history of St David’s Day, its traditions and its importance in 2021 DESK S Tirion Davies

Editor in Chief

Natalie Graham

Fflur Trevor caerdydd@gairrhydd.com

Apartment tower planned for Gwdihŵ site Tirion Davies

Editor in Chief

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evelopers are planning to build a 29-storey apartment tower in the place where Gwdihŵ once stood on Guildford Crescent.

The Guildford Crescent side was mostly demolished in 2019 after a long battle to protect its legacy. There is now a shadow over the site where Gwdihŵ used to stand.

The small street was home to restaurants Madeira and Thai House as well as the music venue Gwdihŵ.

A fierce battle to protect Gwdihŵ saw more than 1,000 people march on Guildford Crescent after plans to demolish the street were first revealed, the march also included a petition signed by 20,000 people.

The campaign was long, and it was hoped Gwdihŵ could be saved, but demolition occurred in 2019, to much dismay.

The company Galford Try is now attempting to apply for planning permission to build a 29-storey apartment tower on the street where the music venue once stood.

It was suggested that Galford Try may need an environmental impact assessment on the area before they were to go ahead with the planning permission, but in a letter which, according to the Wales Online, has since been made public, there is no requirement for one necessary.

Although an application for planning permission has yet to begin, a 29-storey building would be one of Cardiff’s tallest buildings, casting a shadow over the rest of the city.

This new building will become part of Cardiff Council’s work to revamp the city.

t. David’s Day is the biggest celebration of Wales in the calendar year. It is a day in celebration of our Patront Saint, St David.

Full of parades, eisteddfodau, flags, brandishing a leek or daffodil pin, and screaming the national anthem through the streets, St David’s Day is anticipated by everyone in Wales.

But what do we know about St David’s Day, and what kinds of traditions are celebrated each year on March 1?

A Brief History St David is widely considered to be the greatest figure in the Welsh Age of Saints. Born to his mother St Non during a storm in the year 500, he became a renowned preacher.

Founding monastic settlements and churches across Wales, Brittany and southwest England, he is the only native-born patron saint of the home countries of Britain.

An 11th century scholar, Rhygyfarch, is responsible for most of what we know of St David. Amongst the writings, it’s noted St David allegedly made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where he became an archbishop, and established the religious community which persists to this day in St. David’s in Pembrokeshire.

It’s said St David lived on leeks and water, and he is most known for his alleged ability to perform miracles.

While preaching in Llanddewi Brefi, it’s noted he caused the ground to rise up beneath his feet so that the whole congregation could hear his sermon.

Although he died on March 1 589, his life is celebrated in Wales on what is now known as St David’s Day. St David’s in Pembrokeshire St David’s, with a population of around 2,000 people, is the UK’s

St David’s Day: Wales celebrates its Patron Saint on March 1.

Source: Senedd Cymru/National Assembly Wales (via Flickr)

smallest city, and is noted to be the religious centre of Wales, with two trips to the city said to be worth one pilgrimage to Rome.

Established by St David in the 12th century, the scenic St David’s in Pembrokeshire is one of the biggest parts of St David’s Day in Wales for some.

There’s an annual Dragon Parade from Oriel y Parc (part of the National Museums Wales found across the nation), and Rhas Dewi Sant, a marathon, is run on one of the most gorgeous courses in the world.

Welsh Parades Cardiff City Centre is at the heart of the Welsh celebrations on St. David’s Day. As the Welsh capital, it’s no surprise the National St David’s Day Parade is a celebration of heritage and culture.

A parade which brings together Welsh people from all kinds of backgrounds, it’s usually a flush of colour, with not only the iconic Welsh flag waving freely, but also the flag of St David - a black flag with a yellow cross – and the red-and-yellow lions of the Welsh princes.

The procession usually heads down the Hayes, and crowds join to-

gether to belt our national anthem.

Swansea also have their own celebrations, including Croeso, a twoday festival of music, food and entertainment.

Unfortunately, the curse of COVID-19 has meant Welsh celebrations won’t play out as we’d normally expect.

The Hayes may remain quiet this year, and a sea of red will need to take a backseat for a while, but as we begin to see a change, many are hopeful we can celebrate a strong St. David’s Day in 2022.

Traditional Welsh dress Many of us in Wales have embarrassing photos of ourselves at children in the traditional Welsh dress on St. David’s Day. Our traditional dress includes a black hat with white trim, long skirts and shawls with Welsh fabrics resembling tartan.

Men will usually wear rugby shirts, although a waistcoat with a similar fabric to the womens’ shawls is often worn by young boys.

Although traditional Welsh dress isn’t worn as often by people older than seven these days, it is still an integral part of our culture and her-

itage.

It’s one of the only traditions we can continue in 2021, with very few options of being able to celebrate St. David’s Day in other ways.

Eisteddfodau Eisteddfodau are integral parts of Welsh culture.

Traditional festivals of music, poetry and culture, a National Eisteddfod is held each year in the final week of August, although smaller Eisteddfodau are held across Wales in communities, including on St. David’s Day. Most often, small Eisteddfodau are held in schools across Wales - regardless of whether or not the schools are Welsh-speaking - on St. David’s Day, including choir competitions and poetry reciting.

Learning some Welsh What better way to celebrate St. David’s Day 2021 than by learning a bit of Welsh?

With nowhere to go, and with Wales the fastest growing language in Britain being learned on Duolingo, now is the best time to learn some Welsh if you’ve been interested for a while!

You can even start with some of the basics you may need on St. David’s Day, including ‘Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus!’, which means ‘Happy St. David’s Day’!

One of the biggest parts of our culture is the Welsh language, and with the Welsh Government aiming to have a million Welsh speakers by 2050, just learning a bit of Welsh while you’re studying at Cardiff could help the language thrive further.

Whether you’re celebrating St. David’s Day in Wales, or feeling the Welsh passion elsewhere, it’s important to remember the words of St. David in 2021 - “Gwnewch y pethau bychain” (“Do the little things”). It’s important to do the small, considerate things.

From all of us at Gair Rhydd, Dydd Gwyl Dewi Hapus!

The Blitz in Cardiff 80 years on: how has Cardiff coped?

Fflur Trevor

@Caerdydd Editor

D

uring World War Two, cities in the UK were relentlessly bombed by the Nazis in a period known as the Blitz.

Although, many children from these cities, called evacuees were moved to safe rural areas including Wales.

However, two major Welsh cities, Cardiff and Swansea were also subjected to German Bombs.

When war broke out in Europe in September 1939, Cardiff docks constituted the biggest coal exporting port in the United Kingdom.

Therefore, it was inevitable that Cardiff would become a target.

The period of the Blitz lasted between July 1940 and 1941. The damage to the City of Cardiff during this time was extensive.

February 1941 had one particularly horrific night in Cardiff and Swansea.

The raid lasted 10 hours in total and left 167 people dead in just one night.

During the Blitz bombs fell heavily on residential areas of Grangetown, Riverside and Llandaff Cathedral which was badly bombed and was left shattered.

Although no one was killed on the site of the Cathedral there is now a garden of remembrance of those who

Cardiff Blitz memorial: The memorial to those lost lies in Cathays.

Source: No Swan So Fine (via Wikimedia Commons)

died during the blitz, which is marked by a stone memorial.

In Grangetown, the Hollyman Brothers Bakery suffered a horrific tragedy.

The bakery’s cellar was being used as a bunker but took a direct hit with the bomb ending up on the floor of the cellar.

The 32 people in the shelter, including members of the Hollyman family,

were unfortunately killed.

Strangely, there was also an air attack on Cork in neutral Ireland at this time.

As, the pilot and navigator mistook the Irish town for Cardiff.

Although, the final attacks of the Blitz are said to have finished around May 1941, bombs continued to fall on cities across the UK in subsequent months and years.

The final attack on Cardiff came in March 1944, during this raid Cardiff Station was hit.

Cardiff resident, Trevor Tucker, who was six at the time of the bombing , had been offered a place in the shelter, along with his mother and brother.

He said “My father’s job took him away from home a lot and the baker was very helpful offering us shelter if we were alone during a raid, especially at night.

“But there was no electricity and the only light was from hand torches or candles, so I found it spooky and I told my mother, ‘please don’t take me there’.”

He also remembers the next day, watching a body being removed from the debris.

However, censorship by the Government meant restrictions in details of air raids in the newspapers and radio, which gave vague details of the bombings and lacked death notices.

Within the period of the blitz, approximately 1,000 people across Wales lost their lives in air raids.

The majority of these deaths came from Cardiff and Swansea but some came from smaller communities as well.

The Blitz is remembered by those who lived through it as a horrific experience and the dreadful memories of that time will linger forever.

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SPORT

YOUR SPORT DESK

Tom Walker

Freddie Bennett

Ella Fenwick

Ben Lovell-Smith sport@gairrhydd.com

Have Non-League football clubs in Wales been left behind in the pandemic?

We investigate how non-league teams in Wales have been affected by the pandemic Tom Walker

Head of Sport

O

n February 4, the Football Association of Wales (FAW) released a much-anticipated statement regarding the near future of football in Wales.

The surface decision was no surprise, but delving deeper into the intricacies there emerges some uncomfortable reading for many lower league clubs and the players across the country.

The statement explained that the top two tiers of the Welsh football pyramid will be completed whilst the Ardal Leagues and all leagues at recreational level are cancelled.

The JD Cymru Premier season will aim to get going from March 5 to May 31, while the Orchard Welsh Women’s Premier League season will look to resume on March 5 and end on May 23 all depending on Welsh Government guidelines.

Good news for all those involved, including locally based side Barry Town United, but teams the lower divisions of Wales have been made to set their sights towards the 2021-22 campaign.

The Welsh football league system recently underwent a reconstruction, with the introduction of the Ardal (translated as district) leagues for the 2020-21 season. The leagues are split into two divisions, covering North and South Wales. Both Northern and Southern leagues have two regionallybased sections of sixteen clubs each, with the winners of each league being promoted to either the Cymru North or the Cymru South.

The 2020-21 league campaigns had yet to get off the ground before the recent news of its cancellation.

“The FAW fully understands the frustrations felt by many throughout the country of not being able to play, volunteer and support their clubs.”

The FAW statement read, “However, these are unprecedented times and the FAW is not responsible for the national COVID-19 policies and guidelines, which are in place to keep the nation as safe as possible.”

I spoke to the Treasurer of Ardal South West (SW) side Cardiff Draconians, David Harding, and the first team manager of Ardal South East (SE) side Monmouth Town, Scott Russell, to discuss their reaction to the decision and the effect of the pandemic at large.

All opinions from David and Scott are representative of their individual views and not that of their respective

Grassroots: Lydstep Park is based in the heart of Gabalfa in Cardiff.

Credit: Nick Driscoll

Community: Like many non-league teams around the country, when Monmouth Town play at home it always draws a good number of locals. Credit: Scott Russell clubs.

Cardiff Draconians finished runnersup in the South Wales Alliance League Premier Division in 2019–20 on a points-per-game formulation following its pandemic-enforced cancellation.

The club initially failed to gain a place in the new league system, despite being granted a Tier 3 licence by the FAW. There was much frustration about this from many at the club who had worked hard throughout the pandemic to ensure the Tier 3 requirements were met, including several renovations to their ground and on-site facilities. However, the withdrawal of STM Sports opened a space in the SW Ardal League, and to much delight the Draconians were admitted.

The eagerness to compete in Welsh football’s third tier was clear, but the cancelation was no surprise. “I thought that this was the correct decision to make given the circumstances of a global pandemic and the requirement to follow Welsh Assembly and FAW guidelines.” David explained that, “This would be the clubs first ever season in what was the old Welsh League and we want to give it our best shot over a full season.”

Similarly, Monmouth Town are in the process of building a new 250-seater stand to meet the FAW ‘s Tier 3 requirements and maintain their place in their current division. The club was relegated from Division One of the Welsh League in 2018 because of their inability to offer seating for supporters and visitors, but a recent rallying from the community to the council ensured the stand could be built and further demotion was not on the cards.

On the league being cancelled, manager Scott Russell said, “Obviously we are disappointed the season ended but as time went on the writing was on the wall, as a club we were saying back in December we could not see it actually starting sadly. As much as we love football, people’s safety and wellbeing is far more important.”

It was evident that plans to resume the season were in place heading into the new year, but rising COVID-19 cases brought the whole nation to a standstill once again, and with that football, too.

“We had been contacted about a shortened season of 16 games.” David explained, “At the time we supported this but as we moved through the ear-

ly part of 2021, we could see that this shortened season was not going to happen.”

Similarly, Monmouth were informed of a potential restart come 2021: “We were told that our league was to be 15 games instead of 30, but that was basically it, there were a few emails that were sent out which did not really give any updates or future plans.” Scott explained. “As time went on you did not need a degree to understand that we were running out of dates to play these fixtures.”

One of the points of contention, particularly on social media was that of registration fees. The statement explained that teams that entered into the 2020/21 season would be automatically entered into the equivalent competition next season, and that player and referee registration fees would not be refunded and offered at a discounted price for the next season.

It states the player registration fees paid by clubs to the FAW have been used to pay the respective leagues, and the FAW’s Personal Accident Insurance Scheme.

I asked both David and Scott their opinions on the rolling over of the registration fees: “I am a little disappointed as the 2020/2021 season registration fees were paid on time.” said David, the Draconians Treasurer. He continued, “The current registrations should be rolled over and clubs should only pay for any changes.”

Scott, the Monmouth Town manager meanwhile stated, “We can see why so many clubs, including us, are upset that they are still having to pay for something we have had no return on.

“It seems very harsh for all Tier 3 and lower league teams, who are not after all elite. If they have any common decency, they will simply defer payments until 2021/22 season. We have lost money over the last 12 months as our outgoings have not stopped.”

I wanted to find out how the communication from the FAW to it’s clubs had been over the course of this difficult period, and whether the clubs themselves felt neglected in favour of teams in the higher divisions.

“Lower league teams can see the process that the FAW are following through the FAW website just as we did during the start of the pandemic.”

Observed David, “I know that our local league, Cardiff and District, have had communication with our club over this period, so in terms of understanding what is happening with grass roots football, in my opinion they have not been neglected.”

Scott had another view on the issue: “Firstly, the FAW have been put in an extremely difficult position as the pandemic was new for everyone, however, communication is key and I know a few times I was left frustrated that we did not get more regular updates, but understand that they are at the hands of the Welsh Government about what can and cannot happen.”

“It’s important for certain people of power within Welsh football to remember that football is nothing without grassroots teams and the hundreds of volunteers that keep those clubs alive.

It’s hard not to feel slightly bitter, but it has felt at times, over the last 12 months the teams at our level have felt like a second thought.”

“It would have been nice to have potential dates of a return to playing with a view to review those dates nearer the time instead of no interaction, we were left guessing for months” He finished.

On the issue of receiving any sort of financial assistance in the future, the Dracionians Treasurer said: “I would anticipate that all clubs would welcome some form of financial assistance. It has been difficult for all the clubs, but I can also appreciate it has also been a difficult period for the FAW.” Scott also echoed a similar sentiment but cast doubt over its actuality: “We have worked extremely hard to keep cost down to a minimum over the last 12 months, whilst a financial package would be warmly welcomed for Tier 3 teams and lower, we would be surprised if that happened.”

Gair Rhydd reached out to Football Association Wales for a comment, though they declined to comment any further on the situation.

By no means is football the be all and end all, but local teams are often the beating heart of communities and towns across the country, let alone the mental and physical beneficiaries to those playing.

It is incredibly important grassroot football and non-league clubs receive the help and guidance they need to get back off the ground when the new season begins.

CHWARAEON Djokovic and Osaka victorious in Victoria despite tournament marred by political complications and anti-vaxxer sentiment We take a look at an intriguing Austrailian Open that saw both number world number victorius antine restrictions, meaning the tournament had to be pushed back two weeks in order for the successful qualifiers to have time to travel and quarantine upon arrival. However, the tournament had to be delayed further when on February 4, someone who was working at the hotel where players were quarantining tested positive for coronavirus. All of the scheduled day’s events leading up to the tournament, including the ATP Cup and warm-ups, had to be suspended.

Consequently, the enforcement of a hard quarantine by the Australian government and the irregular preparation had an undoubted influence on results.

Who else?: This was Novak Djokovic’s ninth Australian Open title and his third one in a row Source: Carine06 (via Wikimedia Commons)

Ben Lovell-Smith Sport Editor

T

he coronavirus pandemic and sporting events have never been a fairy tale match. For the majority of the past year we have all been locked in our own versions of Rapunzel’s tower. Despite the hope and promise of a return to normal life, the vaccine has been the closest we have got to being saved by Prince Charming.

However, many people remain highly sceptical of the vaccine, including Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic and the Rod Laver arena crowd which overlooked his victory. With the announcement of plans to ease lockdown in Britain, and the possibility of full capacity crowds at Wimbledon and Euro 2020, hopefully this marks the end

of such a politically charged sporting year.

The 2021 Australian Open was an awkward romance. Though whilst watching both world number ones Osaka and Djokovic lift the famous trophy, there seemed a somewhat comforting feeling of equilibrium about the events. Women’s champion, Osaka had achieved her fourth Grand Slam title, second in Australia, whilst this was Djokovic’s eighteenth Grand Slam win, his ninth Australian Open title and his third one the spin.

The overall result was more of a Sunday night Antiques Roadshow than a Disney Princess classic, but the tournament itself was more like something that befitted an episode of South Park.

Qualifying matches were played outside of Australia due to the quar-

The 2021 Australian Open was an awkward romance. Though whilst watching both world number ones Osaka and Djokovic lift the famous trophy, there seemed a somewhat comforting feeling of equilibrium about the events.

In the women’s singles, 26 players were quarantined, with 12 of them seeded. Nine of the quarantined players, including four seeded players, lost in the first round against competitors who had not had to quarantine. Only eight quarantined women made it past the second round. The exception to the rule was the American Jennifer Brady, who despite having to quarantine, made

it all the way to the final before being defeated by Osaka.

Amongst the 29 quarantined male singles players, the only seeded player who had to quarantine was Frenchman Benoît Paire. Not a single quarantined male competitor made it past the second round.

Inevitably, this left the whole tournament open for a whole heap of criticism but overall winner Djokovic’s concerns around the quarantine were vindicated. His pre-tournament list of so-called quarantine demands had been criticised heavily in the media, portraying him as selfish and petulant, while fellow competitor Nick Kyrgios had called him a “tool”.

The world number one had already attracted criticism for his actions surrounding his infamous Adria tour last year and criticism continued throughout the tournament. Djokovic was accused of exaggerating an abdominal injury during his five-set third-round win over Taylor Fritz, but his open criticism of vaccinations had clearly been able to resonate with the Victoria crowd.

This bizarre series of events reached a grand finale, after the conclusion of Djokovic’s straight sets victory in the final, when the crowd inside the Rod Laver Arena decided to boo Tennis Australia’s president Jayne Hrdlicka as she mentioned the vaccine rollout.

“With vaccinations on the way, rolling out in many countries around the world, it’s now a time for optimism and hope for the future”. How bizarre.

So I say cheers to that Jayne, let’s look to the future. No one wins in this loveless romance.

UFC 259 preview: three titles up for grabs Dominic Williams News Editor

O

n Sunday March 7, one of the most anticipated UFC cards of the year comes to blow, offering 3 title fights and the chance for Israel Adesanya to become a double weight champion against Light heavyweight Jan Blachowicz.

The UFC 259 Main Event sees Adesanya move up from Middleweight to Light Heavyweight in his quest to become a double weight champion.

Adesnya arrived in the UFC in 2018, coming from an illusive kickboxing career, and quickly made the Middleweight division his own, cleaning out the division and holding wins against the likes of Anderson Silva, Yoel Romero, Robert Whittaker and Paulo Costa.

This bout brings a much-needed injection into the Light Heavyweight division, after Jon Jones vacated the belt back in 2020 moving to the Heavyweight division.

Since then, Blachowicz fully took advantage of the circumstances and was crowned champion by beating Dominick Reyes on the same card as Adesanya successfully defended his belt against the then undefeated Paulo Costa.

Adesanya comes into this fight as a heavy favourite with his perfect 20-0 record, but Blachowicz should not be counted out for numerous reasons. Blachowicz is comfortable

at this weight and is in the best form of his fighting career coming off back-to-back knockouts.

However, Adesanya has his eyes firmly set on becoming UFC’s 5th double champion, and a win here could potentially persuade Jon Jones to return to the Light Heavyweight division for a mega-fight.

On the topic of double champions, Amanda Nunes returns to defend her Featherweight title against Megan Anderson.

Since 2016, Nunes has been the one to beat and nobody has yet to find the tools to beat the ’Lioness.’

Nunes is arguably pound for pound one of the best fighters in the whole of UFC, and Megan Anderson is looking for a huge upset if she wants to claim the title.

Anderson stands at six-feet tall, so should look to use the height and reach advantage to stop the aggressive striking combinations of Nunes.

With a dominant win against Felica Spencer at UFC 250 Nunes continued to cement her legacy as one of the greatest female fighters in MMA history, therefore a win over Anderson at UFC 259 further adds to the conversation of Nunes being the best female fighter to step into the octagon.

UFC 259 also boasts another title fight between Petr Yan and Aljamain Sterling for the Bantamweight title. This is set to be Yan’s first title defence after his TKO of Jose Aldo at UFC 251.

On the other hand, for Aljamain

A night to remember: Three titles are on the line in UFC 259.

Source: Andrius Petrucenia (via Wikimedia Commons) Sterling this title fight has been a long time coming with a five-win streak and a first-round rear naked choke victory against Cory Sandhagen.

Both fighters have been going back-and-forth on Twitter with Yan, and Sterling both claiming the fight will not go to decision.

Sterling has also spoken highly of his wrestling for his fight against Yan, foreshadowing a fight that could potentially head to the ground.

While Yan is a highly rated boxer, he will be relying on his takedown defence so that the fight can remain standing. This fight has been a long time coming after being cancelled at UFC 256, due to Yan pulling out.

Therefore, this is a fight that should not be slept on and is a great matchup for Yan’s first title defence.

UFC 259 has a stacked card, and has the potential for title changes, elite MMA and the potential for massive upsets. UFC 259 takes place March 9, at the UFC Apex Arena.

25

TEAM TALK

A

fter being the dominant force in British Ice Hockey during the 1990’s, the Cardiff Devils have faltered in recent years. Nevertheless, with the appointment of former Canadian professional player Jarrod Skalde as coach in September of last year, there is a renewed excitement for the Cardiff Devils.

The story of the Welsh Ice Hockey powerhouses began in the late 1980’s when the company Sports Nationwide built the national ice rink in the centre of Cardiff. The company then placed the retired Canadian hockey professional John Lawless in charge of constructing a Cardiff side.

The lawless side achieved great success in their early years. Throughout the late 1980’s and 90’s, Cardiff Devils won seven league titles. With this success so early in their infancy, the more money enabled them to bring in better players from across the game. Fyfe Flyers star Steve Moria was signed in the 1988/89 season, as well as Durham Wasps brother partnership Steve and Ian Cooper. Much of this success continued throughout the 1990s.

Unfortunately, the 1997 Superleague won by the Devils kickstarted a period of hardship for the club. In 2001, as a result of money troubles the side was declared bankrupt.

Nevertheless, the side managed to reform swiftly, and the Devils were able to compete in the British National League.

The financial instability meant they were unable to hold onto much of their best talent. They resorted to using many of their youth players in order to make up the numbers. The lack of team success and star players resulted in the attendance at the Viola Arena suffered, attracting not many more than fifty supporters to games.

Outside the arena was a different story. While games were going on at many of the home games there would be supporter-led protests outside the arena at what they felt was the profound mismanagement of the club, mainly directed at the then owner Bob Phillips. From being one of the most stable and successful teams in British Ice Hockey, the Devils were struggling.

Amid rumors that the stadium was to be demolished in 2006, many felt that the 2005 season could be the last for the Cardiff Devils. However, due to a delay in the construction of a new ice rink which was to be near Sophia Gardens, the team were able to continue.

This appeared to motivate the team to victory as they won their first bit of silverware in the newly reformed Elite Ice Hockey League (EIHL) in 2006.

They beat long term nemesis Coventry Blaze in a shootout 1-0 after the two games amassed the aggregate score of 4-4.

In the years that followed, the side had some steady seasons until new General Manager Andrew Lord took over. In his first season in charge in 2015, he guided his side to Challenge Cup triumph. This cup victory led to more success under Lord who took them to a League and play-off double in 2017/18. Nevertheless, in what was to be the last season in charge for Lord, the 2019/20 season was curtailed by the coronavirus pandemic.

As this following season has been cancelled as a result of the pandemic, the Devils have been looking to build a strong side ready for the return to the rink when it is safe to do so. With the announcement of Skalde as new manager, hopefully the Cardiff Devils can get back to the winning ways of their early years.

Reporting by Freddie Bennett

Have non-league teams in Wales been treated unfairly? We deep dive into how lower division clubs in Wales have coped with the pandemic - Page 24

SPORT CHWARAEON UFC 259 preview: three titles up for grabs MMA

Dominic Williams News Editor

O

n Saturday March 6 into the late hours of Sunday morning, one of the most anticipated UFC cards of the year comes to blow, with three title fights all on the card. We get to see the always fascinating Israel Adesanya get the chance to become a double weight champion against Light Heavyweight Jan Blachowicz. We are also treated to seeing Manda Nunes defend her Featherweight title against Megan Anderson and an interesting fight between Petr Yan and Aljamain Sterling for the Bantamweight title.

Continued on page 25

Australian Open marred by political complications and antivaxxer sentiment TENNIS Ben Lovell-Smith Sports Editor

5 km in 28 days: Shreshth Goel is running 5km in 28 days in a call for an end to period poverty in the ‘Safe Periods for You’ campaign. Credit: Shreshth Goel

Shreshth Goel calls for an end to period poverty: ‘We have got to change that’ Ella Fenwick Sports Editor

R

unning five kilometres every day for 28 days doesn’t sound too strenuous. For any other person though throwing in some unpredictable snow days while running in a DIY sanitary pad costume might have made February seem a little tougher than usual. Not for second year law student Shreshth Goel however as he took on the conquest with his positive, can-do attitude.

While researching and working alongside the current VP of Welfare, Georgie, in creating period dignity campaigns for Cardiff University, Goel found himself coming across some rather shocking figures but two in particular ignited a fire inside.

He found that 27 % of women and girls across the UK overuse their sanitary products because they can’t afford new ones. 40% of women in the UK have admitted to resorting to using tissue roll instead of sanitary products because they can’t afford

them.

With the knowledge of these staggering numbers, Goel couldn’t sit around another moment and said; “We have got to change that.”

Goel started his campaign ‘Safe Periods for You’ with immediate effect, setting himself a target of £500 he began his journey to raise money for Freedom for Girls. The charity aims to educate women and provide reusable sanitary products to girls not just in the UK but across the world.

Over the 28 days of February Goel had challenged himself to run a total of five kilometres around Cardiff a day but somehow that didn’t seem like enough. So back to the drawing board it was for Goel, who admittedly had bounced around many ideas until he reached his light bulb moment.

Sanitary product costumes were harder to find than Goel had originally expected and soon enough found himself on the DIY side of things, handmaking his own costume ready to deliver his message.

“I was very scared to do this at first.

What if no one understood the idea?

People will think ‘why does it have to be a used pad’. So many things were running through my head,” said Goel.

Even though Goel has received lots of support in his mission on raising awareness, some of the feedback has not been so positive; “There are people who actually do say things under my Facebook posts and on Instagram.”

“One comment said; “Someone needs to throw this entire pad in the dustbin’, referring to me as well.

I thought this isn’t safe, so I always run in areas that are not secluded.

Sadly, there have been people who have stopped me to just give me verbal abuse.”

Remaining positive, Goel hasn’t let the haters get him down and said he would always be happy to educate individuals on the surrounding matter even those who stop to question him while running.

“I just want people to be able to talk about it more freely. When I am out running there are some people

who stop me and ask me what is going on.”

Despite some of the negative reception, Goel didn’t let it put him off but is thankful for the support and has continued to work on his next project for his Safe Periods for You campaign.

“After February finishes, although it is still in the works right now and I haven’t really put it out there yet, I will probably be doing a bonus week to celebrate those who have irregularities in their periods. There are people out there who have complications too.”

Period poverty is still a big problem in the UK and is very prominent in today’s society, yet a very taboo subject that remains largely unspoken about. Cardiff University are currently in the process of launching new campaigns to spark more open and positive conversations surrounding this issue.

So hopefully we will see Goel running across the city again very soon to continue raising awareness on such an important matter.

For more breaking sports news, visit www.gairhydd.com/sport

B

oth world number ones Novak Djokovic and Naomi Oskaka concluded the 2021 Australian Open with straight sets victories in their respective finals. Off the court, however, events were a little less straightforward.

Setbacks regarding qualifying, an outbreak of coronavirus, questions over the impact of the quarantine period and Djokovic’s personal tendency to be susceptible to sudden outbreaks of opinion, all overshadowed what was mostly a good spectacle. It was the conclusion that was most curious though, as Tennis Australia president Jayne Hrdlicka was booed as she made her speech during the trophy ceremony. Overall, a rather extraordinary start to the 2021 grand slam tennis season.

Continued on page 25

Team Talk: Cardiff Devils Ice Hockey

TEAM TALK

Freddie Bennett Sport Editor

T

he Cardiff Devils Ice Hockey side have faltered in recent years following their success of the late 1980’s and 1990’s. The team got off to a flying start when they won seven league titles throughout that decade. However, amid money trouble starting in 1997, the side overcame bankruptcy at the turn of the century. But since then they have looked to get back to their winning ways. With some silverware in the last five years, hopefully Cardiff Devils can stay on this winning trajectory when they get back on the rink.

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