Lifestyle topics
The British ferry operator P&O, carrying cars and their owners across the Channel, has summarily and instantaneously sacked 800 of its workers, apparently without even ten minutes of notice, and has replaced them with cheaper agency staff. The Mirror describes the “despicable billionaire chiefs” behind the sackings as “scum,” while The Guardian says ministers and …
A Washington state lawmaker has introduced a bill requiring life jackets in canoes and kayaks, but wants to exempt Native Americans due to their “eons” of experience. Native Americans have the highest drowning rate of any racial demographic, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Nevertheless, State Rep. Cindy Ryu said that her bill exempts …
Up to 70% of 10-year-olds in low-and middle-income countries cannot read or understand a simple text, up from 53% pre-Covid, the research suggests. Classroom closures continue to affect more than 635 million children globally, with younger and more marginalised children facing the greatest loss in learning after almost two years of Covid, according to the …
This week, the ultra-rich are making headlines for how they’ve gone about spending the billions that they’ve made over the pandemic. Many of them have purchased superyachts, driving sales for the mega-ships to record-highs in 2021. Jeff Bezos, the world’s most notorious superyacht customer, has a new ship, Y721, that is so large that a …
The US economic sanctions against Russian oligarchs will have some effect, but unfortunately probably won’t go far enough to stop Putin in his tracks. Most of the richest Russians – like Roman Abramovich and Alisher Usmanov – who famously hold assets in the West will go largely unaffected by sanctions. Most oligarch wealth (both Russian …
Education experts have found that grammar lessons may help children construct sentences, but not their ability to write stories. The team behind the study, which is believed to be the first of its kind, told The Times that their findings challenged the idea that primary school children should be taught about grammatical constructs such as …
The reasons: – 1. The manufacturing sector has lost more than 5 million jobs since 2000. Traditionally, more than two-thirds of manufacturing workers are men. 2. Research shows that one significant factor women look for in a partner is a steady job. As men’s unemployment has risen so their romantic prospects have declined. Between 1960 …
Georgetown Law students recently requested a designated place to “break down and cry” after a lecturer questioned why President Biden has vowed to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court. In a meeting with the school’s dean, Black students said the suspension of lecturer Ilya Shapiro was insufficient, and that “reparations should include a …
The reason why President Biden’s Build Back Better Act has failed to pass is because it raises taxes on the rich. Other budget bills like the CARES Act, the American Rescue Plan, and the bipartisan infrastructure bill all passed with support from all 50 Senate Democrats. The difference between these bills and the Build Back …
Continue reading ‘Millionaires: the other side of the coin’ »
It’s nearly ten years since the most extensive European survey yet attempted on the extent of violence against women. The conclusion was basically: “every day and everywhere”. Has anything improved? The killing of a young woman has convulsed Ireland in recent days, and reignited a broader debate about male violence. The Irish prime minister and …
A man who “never thought he would find love” has revealed he plans to marry a robot woman. Geoff Gallagher, from Queensland, Australia, had given up all hope of finding a partner until he read an article about AI robots and decided to splash out £3,000 on a synthetic girlfriend. He told 7 News: “The …
Moments after robbing a Delaware bank, a man stopped to deposit stolen cash in an ATM by the bank’s front door. Police say that McRoberts Williams, 44, approached a teller at a Wells Fargo in Wilmington and handed her a note reading “This is a robbery. I need 150 dollars”. After the teller handed over …
Speaking at a corporate event last week, Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk lamented that too many “good, smart people” were worried about the global population growing out of control. The real problem, he insisted, was quite the opposite: “There are not enough people. I can’t emphasise this enough, there are not enough people.” “Please …
Continue reading ‘Declining births: is civilisation going to crumble?’ »
The Trump administration created a regulation that vastly expanded religious exemptions for taxpayer-funded contractors in two ways: (1) it expanded the type of organization that can claim a religious exemption to even include for-profit businesses, and (2) it expanded who can be discriminated against in hiring. What this means is that a much larger swath …
Continue reading ‘Discrimination under the guise of religion’ »
More than half (57%) of child psychiatrists in England are seeing children and young people distressed by the climate emergency, as experts warn that eco-anxiety is growing among under-25s. Although not yet considered a diagnosable condition,levels of “chronic fear of environmental doom” are likely to be underestimated, while international research has found anxiety is “profoundly …
