DES ABEND NEWS

  Migrants are piled in at the Border Force migrant centre after facing a fire attack yesterday, which authorities refuse to label as terrorism. Credit: Express.Co.Uk By: Derry Salter. Yesterday morning, police were called to The Viaduct, after two petrol bombs were thrown by a suspect and started a fire. Surrounding fences were burnt and petrol marks stained the floor. Two people were injured in the fire.   Police have increased security in the local area, but most police cordons have been lifted.   The Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit later found a further device in the suspect’s car. The suspect, 66, was found dead in his car in a petrol station with self inflicted injuries. The motivation of the perpetrator is being described as ‘unknown’.  The suspect was from High Wycombe, over 100 miles away from the site of the attack.   The migrant centre is located near Kent’s port, a key location in migration to the UK.   Residents of the area...

With the FIFA World Cup starting in just a number of days, football fans and pundits are eagerly discussing how the tournament will play out. There are plenty of questions heading into the tournament, but what are the key talking points?   Photo: The Evening Standard. By: Sam Feierabend. 1. Will Lionel Messi finally take glory? Lionel Messi will undoubtedly go down as one of the finest players to ever grace a football pitch. Yet, for all the major tournaments and personal accolades he has won, one major trophy alludes him; the FIFA World Cup.  The closest he came to victory with Argentina was the agonising loss in the 2014 final to Germany. Now 35-years-old, this could be Messi’s last shot at the trophy. In qualifying, Argentina finished second behind Brazil in the South American system and should expect to go far in this tournament with a favourable group pitting them against Poland, Mexico and Saudi Arabia. Talent surrounds Messi in this team, with Rodrigo de Paul and Giovan...

Jamaica’s broadcasting authority has placed a ban on content that ‘glorifies illegal activity’ and swearing. Credit: EuroNews. By: Derry Salter. The record-breaking change put in place two weeks ago will see the ban cover all TV, radio and music. It lists specific topics that are off-limits including drug use and abuse, the use of firearms, or any swearing. The last is arguably the most controversial as any ‘near-sounding’ replacements have been banned too. The move comes after Jamaica had one of the highest murder rates across Latin America and the Caribbean in 2021, with levels of violent crime growing.   The Jamaican Broadcasting Commission stated that using public airwaves to broadcast any illegal content could give ‘the wrong impression that criminality is an accepted feature of Jamaican culture and society’.   However, some artists have spoken out against the new ban, arguing that such music that is being restricted only seeks to reflect daily life in Jamaica. Grammy aw...

Streaming platform Netflix has announced an updated tiered membership system in an attempt to combat falling subscriber numbers over the last year. Credit: chromegeek.com. By:  Sam Feierabend. The company claim that the main reason driving a loss of memberships is the ability to share account details with multiple people and devices. This means families and couples can split the cost of a monthly subscription. Currently, people are paying £6.99 a month for the service, and within that each person that holds the account details can create their own profile. Within this you can create your own watchlists and recommendations. As people move away from families, or even break up as a couple, a lot are seeing their accounts stay with them with no worry of having to shell out for a separate membership. This is what Netflix are aiming to clamp down on. Starting in November, a whole new membership structure will be in place. The initiative has been trialled in South America over the...

American broadcaster Alex Jones has been ordered to pay almost $1b in damages to families of victims of the Sandy Hook mass shooting. Photo: New York Daily News. By:  Sam Feierabend. Jones broadcasts on his own Infowars talk show, where he landed himself in hot water for pushing a conspiracy theory that the Sandy Hook school shooting was ‘a hoax’ and that money donated to victims’ families was being used for their financial gain. The shooting occurred in 2012 in Newtown, Connecticut, where 26 people, including 20 children, where killed. It was in 2018 that Jones made his controversial comments saying that the shooting perpetrated by opponents of the Second Amendment – the right to bear arms. As a result of this, Jones was sued for defamation by multiple families of the victims on the grounds that their public reputation had been harmed by his claims. They had been receiving multiple threats of abuse from fellow theorists. In April this year, Jones declared bankruptcy f...

Teachers in Wales are undertaking anti-racism training in the 'biggest reform to Welsh education in decades' as shocking figures show lack of diversity.    Credit: Wales Online. By: Derry Salter. Across schools in Wales, only 35 teachers are Black. 25,915 are White. Education Minister Jeremy Miles has recognised that more needs to be done to bridge this gap. Now, Wales is set to become the first UK nation to make the history of Britain’s colonial past mandatory in school. Learning about ethnic minorities histories and experiences is now mandatory and the new curriculum, based on six areas of learning and experience, will enforce this. However, the curriculum does not wholly set out what schools should be teaching, but it is a great step towards recognising colonial oppression. The legacy of Betty Campbell, Wales’ first Black head teacher, carries on fifty years later through her granddaughter Rachel Clarke. Rachel said her grandmother would be happy with the change, ...

* This article deals with topics of suicide which may be triggering to some readers* Last week, Universities UK announced new “information sharing” guidance for universities concerning suicidal students following pressure from petitions. Credit: Getty Images. By: Derry Salter. New guidance from Universities UK (UUK), a group representing 140 universities, provided update to universities last week informing them to contact key family members or friends if they have serious concerns about a student’s mental health. This step even recommends universities contact these people even without the student’s permission in a bid to lower suicide rates. Most universities see students register “trusted contacts” at the beginning of the year, which can be contacted if the student is in danger or it is an emergency, even without the student’s consent.   UUK reiterated that staff “should make every reasonable effort to secure consent”, but also recognised that “there are some circumstances...

Formula One’s (F1) governing body, the FIA, have found the current world champions Red Bull, and Aston Martin, guilty of breaching the sport’s budget cap. Photo: worldnewsera.org. By Sam Feierabend. While the extent of the breach has not been revealed, the FIA have disclosed that it was ‘minor’, meaning that the $145m (£114m) budget was exceeded by less than 5%, or $7.25m in the 2021 season. The punishment for this has not yet been announced. The importance of this is the potential punishment that could be handed out. Aside from financial penalties, Red Bull could be punished with a constructor and/or drivers’ points deduction for the season in question. Max Verstappen won the 2021 Driver’s Championship in controversial fashion, following a last lap shootout with title rival Lewis Hamilton, winning by one point. Any points deduction would see Verstappen stripped of his title, and Hamilton being crowned World Champion for an unprecedented eighth time. While Red Bull can appeal any punis...

Former Spain and Real Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas has apologised to the LGBTQ+ community, blaming a ‘hacked account’ for a tweet which announced he was gay. Credit: Pinterest. By Sam Feierabend. The tweet read, ‘I hope you respect me: I’m gay’, which was initially met with mostly praise and acceptance across the globe. Such a high profile coming out would have been a huge step for the footballing world, which has grappled with a homophobia problem for decades. Just hours later however, the tweet had been deleted. Spanish media initially reported that, in response to a divorce earlier this year, Casillas was rumoured to be dating a number of women since this. They claimed that it was an ill-judged joke to poke fun at the media for interfering personally with his love life. Seemingly embroiled in the saga is Casillas’ former Spain teammate, Carles Puyol, who replied to the original tweet with, ‘It’s time to tell our story Iker.’ The pair were instrumental in Spain’s triumph at ...

Since the COVID pandemic began, over 93,000 pupils have vanished from the school register. These so-called “ghost children” were investigated last month after going under the radar for nearly two years. The cost-of-living crisis will only make this worse. Credit: Schools Week. By:  Derry Salter. Over 1,000 schools in disadvantaged areas have an entire class of children missing; with the academic year only one month in, the number is predicted to rise. School Standards Minister Will Quince admitted that work needs to be done in order to get children back in school. Children missing school is not being treated as a priority however, but more as a money-making scheme. Fines for missing school begin at £60, but can rise if they are not paid on time – something many disadvantaged families cannot do, especially during the cost-of-living crisis. Last year, more than 100,000 children missed over half of the autumn term. With the economy crippling, children from disadvantaged areas are ...

Iran’s Supreme Leader has blamed the US and Israel for unrest in the country following the death of a woman in police custody.   Photo: atalayer.com By Sam Feierabend Ayatollah Ali Khamenei claims that riots had been engineered by enemies of Iran and their allies. The current protests are the biggest challenge for those ruling Iran in over a decade. They started following the detaining of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini who fell into a coma just hours after arrest on 13 September.    Her arrest came for allegedly breaking the strict law requiring women to cover their hair with hijab. She died just three days later. Her family allege that her death came as a result of police brutality, banging her head against their vehicles.   Since her funeral, women have led the protests, waving their headscarves aloft with some even setting theirs on fire and chanting “Women, life, freedom”. This went further for many even going as far as to chant “Death to the dictator”.   The Ayat...

  * This article deals with topics of suicide and self-harm which may be triggering to some readers* The tragic death of Molly Russell, 14, in 2017 has proved to be a ‘watershed moment’ after inquest  rules  social media  contributed  to her suicide. Credit: BBC News. By: Derry Salter. Molly Russell took her life in 2017. After her death, her family looked into her Instagram and Pinterest accounts and uncovered distressing material concerning depression and suicide. In the last six months of her life, Molly used her Inst a gram account more than 120 times a day. Her father stated that Instagram “helped kill my daughter. ” In a record move, the coroner investigating Molly’s death called for her social media in f o r mation to be handed over in November 2019. Jess Elliott, family barrister, first told the courts of social media’s involvement in Molly’s death in 2019 stating that the platforms provided a c cess to “a self-supplying world of self-harm and suicide.”...