By Tara E
Michelle Yeoh has become the first Asian woman to win best actress Oscar. On the 12th of March 2023, she won the Oscar for her performance in Everything Everywhere All At Once.
From Ballerina to Hollywood:
Michelle Yeoh was born Yeoh Chu August 6th, 1962, in Ipoh, Malaysia. At Yeoh moved to England to pursue her dream of ballet dancing and to train at London’s Royal Academy of Dance. After an unfortunate back injury meaning she could no longer pursue her dance career on stage, she returned to Malaysia to win the Miss Malaysia Competition in 1983. Shortly after this, she pursued a career as an actress – more specifically a stunt actress.
Stunt career:
Yeoh first began working with Jackie Chan after she was called up with a last-minute offer to work on a watch advert. Although she had no formal martial arts training, she asked to be given an action role and spent hours each day training. She worked alongside Jackie Chan and proved her worth as an action star, matching each of his stunts perfectly. However, in 1995, after a stunt gone wrong during the filming of The Stunt Woman , she ended up with fractured vertebra and several broken ribs, having to end her career.
Achievements:
Yeoh gained international recognition after making a name for herself in Asian cinema. She created a Bond girl who was James Bond’s equal in her role as Mai Lin in Tomorrow Never Dies, and has received a BAFTA nomination for her Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. We all remember her in Crazy Rich Asians, in 2018, which was one of the first Hollywood major studio film to include an all-Asian cast.
By Abi S
Everything Everywhere All at Once is an absurdist comedy-drama film written and directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert. The movie follows a middle-aged Chinese immigrant, Evelyn Quan Wang, who is swept on an adventure in which she could save existence by exploring other universes and connecting with the lives she could have led.
The movie premiered on March 11th 2022, and has since then gained popularity due to its original and fast-paced storyline, being nominated for many awards across multiple renowned institutions including the Academy Awards, Golden Globes, and the Critics’ Choice Awards. The Oscars took place on the 12th March 2023 and the movie took home seven Oscars (out of eleven nominations) from the night, beating other popular choices, such as Elvis, The Banshees of Inisherin, and All Quiet on the Western Front
Some awards won by Everything Everywhere All at Once on the night include Michelle Yeoh’s historic win of the Oscar for Best Actress, and Ke Huy Quan winning Best Supporting Actor, also a first, becoming the first Vietnam-born actor to ever win an Oscar. Quan once found himself shut out of Hollywood after the peak of his career as a child star in movies Indian Jones and The Goonies Everything Everywhere All at Once brought his name back into the limelight and his acceptance speech commented on the remarkable arc of his career. In it, his line “Mum, I just won an Oscar!” went viral on social media and he commented on how “stories like this only happen in the movies. I cannot believe this is happening to me.” Jamie Lee Curtis also won the award for Best Supporting Actress, and the writer-director pair Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert are only the third duo ever to win the Oscar for Best Director. Other awards the film won at the Oscars include Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. After the remarkable night, Everything Everywhere All at Once ended a groundbreaking awards season and became the mostawarded Best Picture winner since 2008’s Slumdog Millionaire.
Other major winners of the night include the recipient of the Best Actor award, going to Brendan Fraser for his leading role in The Whale Netflix’s German war film All Quiet on the Western Front also brought home multiple awards, including ones for international feature film and original score.
For avid football fans, ‘Match of the Day’ is a household name. Typically broadcasted Saturday nights on BBC One during the Premier League season, it is presented by former England international, Gary Lineker.
Recently Lineker was taken off air, sparking the show to be reduced to a 20-minute highlights programme, lacking commentators, pundits, and its iconic theme tune. This led to Alan Shearer, Ian Wright, Jermaine Jenas, and other presenters refusing to replace Lineker in the show as a form of protest.
So, why did the BBC remove Lineker from his position as host of what they call, “the world’s most famous football show”?
It was because of a tweet. Specifically, tweets Lineker made criticising the government’s new immigration and asylum policy where he compared the language used with language used in 1930s Germany. The policy proposes that refugees who arrive via small boats to the UK are detained and deported within weeks.
The BBC saw his tweets as a violation of their impartiality guidelines as they stated that he signed a five-year deal with them in 2020, where he agreed to adhere to these guidelines.
However, since Lineker is a freelance broadcaster for BBC Sport, and not a permanent staff member responsible for news or political content, he is not required to obey the same rules as others working for the BBC. While he has more freedom to express his own views online, the guidelines state that he must still “avoid bringing the BBC into disrepute” (BBC).
While Lineker has been allowed back on air after pressure was placed on the BBC during the dispute, his disagreement has inspired them to announce a review on their social media guidelines, which would be led by an independent expert, and Lineker has agreed in support of this.
By Ilora
These are the heart-wrenching words of an (unnamed) Afghan woman whose life has been uprooted by the Taliban. She used to be a footballer. In 2021, after the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, the Taliban took over the country. With their renewed rise to power, an infringement on women’s rights has been exacerbated. As such, a high-profile evacuation to the UK of Afghan female footballers fleeing the Taliban was executed. The catch? Including women who were not the top-tier players, they were claimed to be.
In November 2021, thirty-five female footballers and their families were flown to the UK from Pakistan. Their lives were seen to be at risk due to the strict regime of the Taliban. In addition, fears emerged concerning punishments for women due to the Taliban’s view of female participation in sports as unIslamic.
The Home Office in the months granted the women visas after the fall of Kabul, and the home secretary, at the time Priti Patel, championed their evacuation. The Home Office emphasised their pride in bringing “members of the Afghan Girls Development Squad…to safety in the UK.” However, despite authentic names and details regarding identity, the claim that many of the evacuees were national players appears to be inaccurate. Former Afghan players, coaches, and officials identified 13 individuals believed not to be team members. Several evacuees claimed to be members of the Herat Youth Team. However, Najibullah Nowroozi, the team’s former coach, stated that he was unsure if some of the women on the list of those evacuated had ever even visited the Herat football ground. Sabriah Nawrouzi, former team captain, disclosed that she met some women allegedly part of her team for the first time in a hotel in Pakistan en route to the UK.
Image Sources: Daily Mail, BBC News
Despite the importance of protecting the rights of all Afghan women unjustly persecuted by the Taliban’s regime, resentment and fear have built in those left behind. Several genuine players continue to live under Taliban rule in Afghanistan. One, who wished to maintain anonymity, told the BBC she felt “very neglected and unfortunate because…real players [were] not some of those that got evacuated.”
The Rokit Foundation Charity, run by Siu Anne Gill, brought footballers to the UK. However, it stated the Home Office was at fault for failing to check the women’s credentials on the flight and relying instead on the claims of former Afghan international player and campaigner Khalida Popal, who runs a nonprofit organisation called Girl Power. Popal claims she didn’t intentionally aid non-footballers. She highlighted that the Rokit Foundation had removed and added names to the list, which the foundation accepted they had done in agreement with Ms Popal. Ms Popal has “categorically den[ied] allegations directed at” her. A Home Office spokesman stated, “Should there be evidence that the information provided…was incorrect, the Home Office will investigate.”
According to the Telegraph, the BBC has been attacked for calling these female footballers’ false.’
As the clock struck twelve here in the UK last Monday morning, the prestigious 95th Oscars ceremony began in Los Angeles. The night of glitz, glamour, and champagne-coloured carpets saw Ke Huy Quan receive the award for Best Supporting Actor. His acceptance speech was a testament to his journey, as he said “My journey started on a boat. I spent a year in a refugee camp and somehow ended up here on Hollywood’s biggest stage.”
Ke Huy Quan was born in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, in 1971, during the Vietnam War. Upon unification in 1975 by the Northern Communist group, the Viet Cong, Quan fled from Vietnam with his family. He moved to the USA in 1979 under the Refugee Admissions Program and has since spent his life in California.
Quan is considered a ‘boatperson’ – a term referring to refugees who fled Vietnam by boat after the close of the Vietnam War 1.5 million people fled Vietnam in this way, and reports say between 200,000 – 400,000 people died in the process.
His victory at the Academy Awards marks the first time a person of Vietnamese origin has won, however the reaction in Vietnam has been muted. Many have credited the strong antiChinese sentiment in Vietnam as the reason that some are trying to alienate Quan from the term ‘Vietnamese’.
Quan is of Chinese ethnicity but spent the first eight years of his life in Vietnam. The mass exodus of ‘boatpeople’ from Vietnam in the late 1970s was motivated by the frayed tensions between the two Communist powers of China
Image taken from HuffPost UK Vietnamese Boatpeople. Image taken from BBC
*Quote at the beginning by Ke Huy Quan was taken directly from his Oscar’s acceptance speech.
and Vietnam. After the alliance between China and the then Soviet Union ended in 1960, Vietnam allied with the USSR. The antiChinese attitude spread across Vietnam, hence spurring the humanitarian crisis that Quan’s family was caught up in.
Vietnam often glaze over this part of their history. Their troubled relationship with China continues, and Quan’s Oscar win has shed light on this forgotten part of their history.
Since his win, many have been debating his identity online, with one user taking to Facebook to say, “They should write clearly that he is Chinese-American, that he used to have Vietnamese nationality!” Another user wrote, “We should say he is Vietnamese, as he was born in Vietnam and is of Chinese descent.”
What next?
The dispute is ongoing, but as Nguyen Van Tuan, a professor of medicine in Sydney, Australia and former boatperson said, “Today’s generation in Vietnam cannot imagine the hardships of refugees at that time, partly because they have not been taught about that sad and painful period of our history.” These woefully accurate words illustrate that the story of the ‘boatpeople’ has never attained the attention it deserves; however, with Quan’s story circulating in the media, more people can be educated on this part of Vietnamese history.
By Imani K
Usually when we make comments, we have an idea of what the consequences will be. We are taught to think before we speak, and definitely think, before we post anything on the internet for all to see. So when JK Rowling’s tweet in 2019 received huge backlash, she had to have known that it was coming. And finally, she’s admitted that she “absolutely knew” that her views on transgender issues would make some fans “deeply unhappy”.
In 2019, Maya Forstater lost her work contract over transphobic tweets, and at the time, Rowling tweeted in support of her. Since then, she has stated in various interviews and even more tweets that she believes that transgender activism is a “powerful, insidious misogynistic movement”, and that it has to be stopped. According to Rowling, this message was in all of the Harry Potter books and further franchises, and that the activism movement “echoes the very thing [she] was warning against in Harry Potter”.
Some arguments against transgender activism movements stem from allegations of trans women being a dangerous threat to girls, specifically in women’s bathrooms. There have been instances of men posing as trans women and assaulting girls in bathrooms, which is where Rowling’s fears and comments seem to have come from. Movie stars Rupert Grint, Daniel Radcliffe, and Emma Watson have all
publicly spoken out against the author’s views in the past.
However, her views and comments seem to extend past bathrooms, and into more generalised views against transgender people. Despite her initial denials of transphobia, she later published an article under a tweet titled ‘TERF Wars’. TERF stands for TransExclusionary Radical Feminist and is usually used to describe women who intentionally alienate trans women from gender activism. After this admission of transphobia, Rowling’s words became bolder and more harmful.
Most recently, on the podcast ‘The Witching Trials of JK Rowling’, Rowling’s words not only landed painfully on the ears of transgender people, but also created division within the Harry Potter fan base, with instances of cyberbullying of people who backed Rowling’s comments. These comments have had a large impact on a lot of people, and we need to think about how we react to them.
JK Rowling certainly has created a series that many people love and is still a staple in all primary school libraries. But she has left her legacy in more ways than one, and this way has been viewed in a largely negative light by her fans. We need to remember to still appreciate the work she has done for the literary world, but also bear in mind the views of the author behind it, and always treat everyone with respect, no matter their gender or sexuality.
All quotes are sourced from Sky News.
Image sourced from Variety and The Hollywood reporter
If you think you haven’t heard one of her songs, think again (or scroll on your For You Page for two seconds)
In June last year, twenty-one-year-old Pink Pantheress cancelled her performance at Spain’s Primavera Festival due to “partial hearing loss”. In October, she posted that because of years of exposure to loud music, she was eighty per cent deaf in her right ear.
“To state the obvious, making music has gotten harder," she says. "But I honestly did all my mourning already. Like, I've really done that."
The deterioration "happened gradually", she explains. "I told myself that, whatever happens, you still have another good working ear. As long as you protect that, you're going to be fine. So I just try not to think about it."
Despite this, the popstar has seen some incredible success.
Pink Pantheress has cracked the top ten for the first time with her catchy single, “The Boy’s a Liar, Pt 2”. She already plans to celebrate if she manages to overtake Miley Cyrus’ current number one “Flowers”- "You know what? I'm gonna go to a theme park!" she declares. "I'm like, I want to go quick!"
Born in Bath and raised in Kent, the artist has already made her mark in the music industry. After sampling Michael Jackson’s “Just a Waste” in Christmas 2020, she began to gain internet traction by sharing fifteen-second snippets of her songs in progress.
Hiding behind her pseudonym and mysteriously obscuring her face in videos, her secrecy and allure added to fans’ fascination when she went viral with “Just For Me”.
She was quickly signed and released her debut mixtape- 10 tracks, 19 minutes, short and sweet (perfect for the shortened attention spans of the TikTok generation).
With her songs creeping up the charts and every other person singing “Did you ever want me, was I ever good enough…?”, I think we’re all excited to see what Pink Pantheress does next.
All quotes and photos from BBC
Last year, the government set out the foundation for long-term economic growth in the Autumn Statement. On the 15th of March last week, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt delivered his Spring Budget, and focused on delivering the government’s growth plans. Here is a summary of the main announcements.
Government debt, inflation, and economic growth:
- Office for Budget Responsibility predicts the UK will avoid recession in 2023, however the economy will shrink by 0.2%.
- Predicted growth of 1.8% for next year, 2.5% in 2025, and 2.1% in 2026.
- Inflation rate predicted to fall to 2.9% by the end of this year- down from 10.7% at the beginning of the year!
- Underlying debt forecasted to be 92.4% of GDP this year.
Fuel, alcohol, pensions, and wages:
- £1 million lifetime limit on tax-free pensions savings to be abolished. Sincethiswasaimedatkeeping doctorsinwork,Labourleadersaiditshouldnothavebeengiventoall.Itwillheavilybenefittherichest 1%intheeconomy.
- Tax-free yearly allowance for pension savings to rise from £40,000 to £60,000.
- Fuel duty frozen- due to end in April, the 5p cut to petrol and diesel prices is kept for another year.
- Alcohol taxes are going to rise in line with inflation from August.
- Tax on tobacco increasing by 2% above inflation, and 6% above for hand-rolling tobacco. Energy bills, prepayment meter, and nuclear power:
- Household energy bills limited to £2,500 a year will be extended for three months, until the end of June. By this time, the price of energy should have dropped enough for the price cap to be needed.
- Affecting four million people, £200 million will be spent bringing energy bills for prepayment meters into line with prices for customers paying by direct debit. Those who pay quarterly by cash or cheque will still pay more (typically those on lower incomes).
- Investing £20 billion over the next 2 decades on low-carbon energy projects- with a focus of carbon capture and storage.
- Nuclear energy to be classed as environmentally stable for investment purposes. However,generating nuclear power produces hazardous radioactive waste, that needs to be safely managed and stored for hundredsofyears.
- £63 million to help leisure centres with rising swimming pool heating costs.
Childcare, universal credit, and back to work plans:
- 30 hours of free childcare for working parents expanded to cover one- and two-year-olds, to be rolled out in stages from April 2024. Many say thatthisdoesnotgofarenough,givenhowhigh childcarecostsareintheUK.
- £600 “incentive payments” for those becoming childminders.
- New voluntary employment scheme for disabled people in England and Wales- called Universal Support.
- Tougher requirements to look for work, and increased job support for lead child carers on universal credit.
- £63 million for programmes to encourage retirees 50 and above to go back to work.
TikTok, the worlds newest social media platform, has taken the world by storm, with more than 3.5 billion worldwide downloads, and with 23.38 million downloads in the UK. However, recently, security concerns have risen about the Chinese developed app, and as a measure of safety, the social media platform will be banned from UK government phones.
TikTok has strongly denied allegations of data sharing, although many other nations have taken similar security measures. The US banned TikTok on official devices in December, and Canada, Belgium, and India have followed. China retaliated by accusing the US of spreading misinformation and suppressing TikTok. Many of the governmental departments have TikTok accounts, such as the Ministry of Defence(@ukgovministryofdefense), which recently posted a video of a Challenger 2 tank, a type supplied in Ukraine on the morning of the 16th of March 2023. The UK parliament closed its TikTok account last August, and the Downing Street TikTok page has not been updated since Boris Johnson left office in September last year, but others such as the MoD and Energy Secretary Grant Shapps have updated their pages more recently.
TikTok has had 3.5 billion downloads worldwide, and can be seen as an international success
The video app has claimed that bans are due to ‘misplaced fear and seemingly driven by wider geopolitics’. TikTok said its not sharing data with any Chinese officials, although it is bound by Chinese intelligence laws as a firm to supply the Communist Party with help when requested. The Chinese state demands loyalty from all businesses, and no one knows what extent the TikTok platform will be pushed to comply with demands.
Since February 2022, a war sparked by Russian invasion has ravaged the country of Ukraine. Sixteen thousand children have been unlawfully deported. Thirty thousand civilians have died. On the 17th of March 2023, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for the Russian president Vladimir Putin. A question now circulates in many people’s minds: will Putin be put in prison?
What happened?
The ICC has claimed that Vladimir Putin is responsible for war crimes focused in particular on the unlawful deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia. The crimes are said to have been committed on the 24th of February 2022 when Russia initiated its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The ICC made a statement arguing it had reasonable grounds to believe Putin both directly committed the criminal acts and failed to employ his power as president to prevent the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia. Although initially intending to keep the warrant quiet, the ICC ultimately decided to publicise it to aid the prevention of further crimes being committed. ICC prosecutor Karim Khan shared his disgust for the situation with the BBC saying: “This type of crime doesn’t need one to be a lawyer, one needs to be [a] human being to know how egregious it is.”
Russia has denied allegations and termed the arrest warrants as “outrageous.” Immediately after the release of the warrants, came dissent from Kremlin officials. Former Russian President Dmitry compared the warrant to toilet paper, whilst Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov dismissed the court’s announcement as “null and void.”
For many, this warrant was vital in illustrating the iniquitous nature of Putin’s actions. Russian opposition leader Ivan Zhdanov, a close ally of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, embraced the arrest, tweeting that it was a “symbolic step.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that he was grateful to Mr. Khan and the ICC for their decision to press charges against "state evil". Ukraine's Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin said the decision was "historic for Ukraine", and the country's presidential chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, applauded the decision as "only the beginning".
It is unlikely that things will progress further due to the ICC’s limited power with regard to arresting suspects and exercising its jurisdiction in country’s which are not within its members, which Russia is not. The warrant could, however, significantly affect the president in several ways such as preventing him from travelling internationally
These warrants have also created a level of embarrassment for the Kremlin, who continue to deny allegations of Russian war crimes. A pan-national body as influential as the ICC has failed to accept Russia’s refutation. From the perspective of the ICC, Putin should be put in a cell.
Image Sources: BBC, Getty Images, The Guardian
Video footage of a Russian jet crashing into a US drone has recently been released. Based on the footage and damage to the drone, it is speculated to have been brought down over the Black Sea. Russia denies allegations that its Su27 fighter jet clipped the propeller of the drone, even though the video seems to back up the American version of events.
A drone camera captured a Russian Su-27 plane flying extremely close by it twice, whilst releasing what seemed to be fuel. The first time, it passed overhead, but the second time it flew even closer and completely disrupted the video feed from the drone. The confrontation was said to have lasted 30-40 minutes, so there is no knowing what actually happened from the short 42 second clip.
When the video feed returned, a blade of the drone’s propeller was bent out of shape.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said it was not clear whether the drone’s actions were deliberate or accidental, but that it did not matter, because the incident was “completely inappropriate, unsafe and unprofessional”.
Russia blames the crash on a “sharp manoeuvre” by the drone and said that it was approaching its territory. However, this seems to contradict the video, which shows only sea and sky. Anatoly Antonov, the Russian Ambassador to the US said the drone “violated boundaries of the temporary airspace regime established for the special military operation”. Conversely, Mr Kirby said the airspace was international and therefore not restricted.
Russia confirmed that attempts were being made to find the drone, and Russian ships were in fact seen at the site of the drowned drone. US General Mark Milley said that they have taken “mitigating measures” to ensure that there was no sensitive data on the drone.
Image source: CNN
Joe Biden, the President of the United States, has faced severe backlash from climate change activists after approving a major oil and gas drilling project in Alaska.
The Willow Project, funded by the company ConocoPhillips, endorses the plan, arguing it will encourage local investment and create thousands of jobs. “This was the right decision for Alaska and our nation”, stated the company CEO, Ryan Lance. Three members of Congress, who represent Alaska, pushed for the project’s approval, presenting it as an excellent opportunity to invest in Alaska and grow the region’s communities.
However, many are strongly advocating against the Willow Project, highlighting the adverse environmental impacts it will cause. The US Bureau of Land Management estimates that this project will generate up to 278 million metric tonnes of CO2 over the next thirty years. This is equivalent to adding two million cars to US roads annually.
More than a million letters protesting against the project were written to the White House. “It’s the wrong move and will be a disaster for wildlife, land, communities and our climate”, said environmental charity Sierra Club.
A young activist from Alaska claimed that though out-of-states will reap the benefits of the project, “local residents are left to contend with the detrimental impacts of being surrounded by massive drilling operations”.
Even Biden’s Democratic allies, such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, condemned the decision. They claimed that it ignored the voices of “the people of Nuiqsut, our frontline communities, and the irrefutable science that says we must stop building projects like this to slow the ever more devastating impacts of climate change”.
Want or Waffle?
Biden is often praised as a being politician who voices his deep concerns for the environment and has previously embraced strong action on climate change. Why then has he approved this project, which has been nicknamed ‘a carbon bomb’?
Despite being hailed as the US’s first “climate president” and promising “no more drilling on federal lands, period”, data shows that the administration has approved nearly 100 more oil and gas leases than Trump had at the same point in his presidency. What’s more, oil and gas production are forecast to hit record levels.
Pressure from the court and a closely divided Congress might have prompted Biden to approve this project. All members of Alaska’s representation in Congress called for Willow to be approved, pointing to the current energy gap in the US.
Biden himself admits this, saying “we’re going to need oil for at least another decade… and beyond that” But his administration still firmly holds the belief that this project will not hinder the ambitious clean energy goals Biden has set.
Although Biden might have his reasons to approve this project and is trying to balance it with new bans on oil and gas leasing in the Artic Ocean, most environmentalists are still infuriated by this decision.
Ex-Vice President, Al Gore, told the Guardian, “We don’t need to prop up the fossil fuel industry with new multi-year projects that are a recipe for climate chaos. Instead, we must end the expansion of oil, gas, and coal, and embrace the abundant climate solutions at our fingertips”
The global production of cocaine has now reached an all-time high in the rebound after Covid lockdowns.
New report findings suggest that new hubs for trafficking have been set up in West and Central Africa. It also mentions how international postal services are being used more often to get drugs to customers. The UN office for Drugs and Crime said that coca farming has risen by 35% between 2020 and 2021, reaching recordhigh levels of production.
increased significantly during the Covid-related lockdown due to restrictions on passenger flights,".
The outbreak of Covid-19 disrupted the market for drugs (due to international travel being put to a halt and distribution slumping due to closure of nightclubs). But, a new production increase is a result of the expansion in the cultivation of coca bush as well as improvement in converting coca into powdered cocaine, the report found.
In the UK, the report says there has been a "significant increase" in seizures of cocaine in the mentioned "fast parcel and postal modes".
The report has suggested the following key findings:
• Colombia is still the dominating region for trafficking routes, with Europe quickly evolving
The report has found that the biggest market for cocaine exists in Europe and North America with South and Central America. The Caribbean follows closely behind. Shortly before this the markets in Africa and Asia were described as “still limited”, yet the UN said the potential for the market to expand was an imminent reality.
The ‘Global Report on Cocaine’ said, "Globally, the use of parcel and courier services
• Mexican and Balkan criminal groups are both moving closer to the centre of production to gain access to supplies
• The use of crack cocaine is on the steady increasing in many western European countries including the UK, Belgium, France and Spain
• In Ukraine, the market had been expanding, but since Russia's invasion last February the demand has been disrupted drastically What implications could this have?
By Clem
Concerns surrounding the welfare of octopuses have emerged as plans have been made to build the world’s first octopus farm.
Read on to find out how Nueva Pescanova, the company behind these proposals, has responded to the criticisms they have recently been facing from scientists.
Octopuses are widely known as incredibly intelligent animals, and over three hundred studies (reviewed by Jonathan Birch, associate professor at the London School of Economics) have revealed that they feel both pain and pleasure. Following Nueva Pescanova’s announcement of a new breakthrough in 2019, plans were put forward suggesting a new method of slaughtering octopuses for human consumption: killing them by placing them in containers of icy water kept at -3C, with around ten to fifteen animals living in each cubic metre of tank to produce the three thousand tonnes of octopus (one million animals) that the company wants to reach.
been shown that this way of killing the animals leads to a much slower, stressful death than the more commonly accepted method of clubbing the octopuses over the head.
Despite these serious worries put forward by animal welfare experts, Nueva Pescanova has reported achieving some “domestication” among the species, which doesn’t show “important signs of cannibalism or competition for food”.
Before the practice has even started, US lawmakers in Washington want to ban the production method, whilst UK supermarkets, like Tesco and Morrisons, have already stopped selling fish killed using this ‘ice slurry’ method. The World Organisation for Animal Health has said that it “results in poor fish welfare”. It has
CiWF (Compassion in World Farming) has also entered the debate, with Elena Lara asking for construction of the farm to be blocked to prevent the infliction of unnecessary “suffering on these intelligent, sentient and fascinating creatures”. Along with welfare concerns, the organisation has noted the potential issues around the wastewater produced by the octopuses, comprised of nitrogen and phosphates. This water would then be pumped back into the ocean. Nueva Pescanova responded to this by telling the BBC that water would be “filtered” upon entering or leaving the plant, so it would have “no impact on the environment”.
Image source: BBC
Last Monday was the 95th Oscars award ceremony, which celebrated the achievement of many movies and people this year. A notable winner is Michelle Yeoh, the first Asian woman to win Best Actress. India was also represented with their first win in the Best Song category with the song ‘Naatu Naatu’ from the South Indian film RRR, which was also performed during the ceremony!
The famous stylist Law Roach recently announced that he is retiring after having styled some of the biggest names in the industry, including Zendaya, Tom Holland, Ariana Grande, Tiffany Haddish, Anya TaylorJoy, Halle Berry, Demi Lovato, Priyanka Chopra, Anne Hathaway, and Celine Dion! On Instagram, he posted a picture with just the word “Retired.” The caption “The politics, the lies and the false narratives finally got me.” Black people in the fashion industry have suffered so much discrimination from their peers, but Roach has paved the way for many as the first black stylist working with A-list white celebrities. His career has been remarkable; however, he reports that he has been feeling “miserable”, and now being retired, he finally feels “alive”.
When asked what her spirit animal was, Madame Aubic said that she would be a black cat because black goes with anything, and she wants to sleep 20 hours a day and go out at night.
Ms Young’s spirit animal is a sheep - mostly calm and chill but when upset they have a temper.
Miss Taberner chose a horse! They can be quite calm and independent, as well as intuitive and kind when they need to be.
True to her love of swimming Miss Doole said that her spirit animal is a dolphin due to their friendliness and, of course, because they spend all their time in water.
Mr Dave’s spirit animal is a capybara! They’re extremely social creatures, which Mr Dave thinks is really cool, and a plus is that their fur is extremely soft.
The Team:
Executive editor and layout editor: Zarah
Head editor: Ai Yi
Head reporter: Dakshka
Head re-searcher: Lana L
Editors: Alana, Amber, Antara, Aryn, Dakshka, Dara, Fran, Imani, Karina, Lina, Mahi, Sania, Sophia M, Sophia P
Reporters: Sophia, Anya, Kat, Aryn, Tara, Daksha, Aiyi, Zarah, Imani
Re-searchers: Finn, Imani, Aryn, Zarah, Ai yi, Selin, Zara
This week’s journalists: Tara E, Zahra, Abi, Kavya, Ilora, Anya, Imani, Antara, Aryn, Mahi S, Siya S, Clem