FREE Take five: A news summary for anxious times
Lost your appetite for rolling news? These are the stories you need to know about this week…
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It’s Friday, and time for Take Five - my weekly attempt to summarise seven days of the news you need to know, thus sparing you a deep dive into the horror of the headlines.
As ever, below you’ll find five news stories impacting women and marginalised communities, five good news tales to lighten the load, and five longreads, interviews or columns that have got me thinking this week.
Ready? Let’s go…
The headlines
1. Britain’s winter of discontent warnings became a reality
The UK government is under mounting pressure to rethink its approach to public sector pay disputes amid fears Britain could grind to a halt as a result of industrial action over the festive period.
Border Force staff this week became the latest group to confirm strike action for December with an eight-day walkout threatening 30% of flights across the UK.
The announcement this week came amid a walkout by Abellio London bus workers and Scottish teachers, with the first in a wave of Royal Mail strikes also due to kick off today.
Royal College of Nursing and Ambulance Service staff, RMT and Eurostar workers, English highways staff in the north of England, driving examiners in northern England and Scotland and Heathrow baggage handlers are among those also set to take action later this month.
The government this week denied union claims it could prevent further action by negotiating fair pay packages for public sector workers, with Rishi Sunak vowing instead to introduce tough new laws to limit the effectiveness of strikes.
Read more here
2. Tory MP Julian Knight loses whip following sex assault complaint to Met Police
Tory MP Julian Knight has been suspended from the parliamentary party after allegations of serious sexual assault were made against him to the Metropolitan Police.
The office of Conservative chief whip, Simon Hart, confirmed a complaint was made to the force on Wednesday, leading him to remove the whip from Knight "with immediate effect".
Initially, Knight said he did not know what the complaint was about, suggesting it could be part of a blackmail ploy. However, the Met later released a statement saying: “On 28th October, police received allegations of serious sexual assault against un-named victims reported to have taken place on unknown dates at undisclosed locations.
“On 7th December a further referral relating to the incident[s] was made and an investigation was launched. Enquiries are ongoing. There have been no arrests.”
Knight, who is the chair of the Commons' Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, says he will remain in parliament as an independent MP.
Read more here
3. Iranian forces shooting at faces and genitals of female protesters, doctors claim
Female protesters taking part in anti-regime actions in Iran are being targeted by security forces and taking shotgun fire to their faces, breasts and genitals, an exclusive investigation by The Guardian has suggested.
Medics in the country – speaking under condition of anonymity – have reportedly told the newspaper that many women arriving in their clinics are suffering different wounds to men.
Images suggest a number of women have been targeted at close range by forces using so-called birdshot pellets.
Ten doctors told the paper they were treating patients in secret because of the regime’s ongoing threats to medical professionals who assist those joining the uprising.
Read more here
4. UK’s own climate advisors blast approval of country’s first new coal mine in 30 years
UK ministers have given the green light to the first new British coal mine in three decades, despite warnings the move will seriously undermine the country’s status as an environmental leader.
A year after the country hosted the COP26 gathering and argued for an end to coal reliance, Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove waved through plans for the new mine in Cumbria.
Gove says the facility, which will provide coal for steel-making rather than power generation, will create 500 new jobs in the region.
However, chair of the government’s own Climate Change Committee, Lord Deben, said members "condemn" the decision, which "runs counter to the UK's stated aims as COP26 President and sends entirely the wrong signal to other countries about the UK's climate priorities".
Read more here
5. ‘Unprecedented rise in violence’ greets refugees trying to reach Europe, report warns
Thousands of refugees are facing “an unprecedented rise in violence” at the EU’s borders, according to a new report on alleged illegal expulsions which details gruesome beatings, strip searches and sexual assaults.
Activists from the Border Violence Monitoring Network interviewed 733 people trying to reach Europe in 2021 and 22 about group pushbacks affecting an estimated 16,000 people.
The resulting report, published on Thursday, revealed that just 5% of refugees interviewed in 2021 said they had not experienced or witnessed “excessive force” while being expelled from Europe.
The work updates The Black Book of Pushbacks, which has detailed illegal expulsions affecting nearly 25,000 people since 2017.
Read more here
The good news
1. EU agrees landmark ban on imports linked to deforestation
The European Union this week agreed a new law to prevent the import of coffee, beef, cocoa, rubber and other commodities linked to deforestation around the world.
The new legislation will require companies targeting EU markets to prove their supply chains are not contributing to the destruction of forests, or face significant fines.
The agreement has been welcomed as a breakthrough by environmental campaigners, but some countries have warned it could harm international trade.
The EU, in turn, says it expects the change to protect around 278 square miles of forest annually.
Read more here
2. Cryptocurrency energy demand successfully slashed by Ethereum change
A recent change in the way the cryptocurrency Ethereum works has cut its power consumption by a staggering 99.84%, a new peer review suggests.
Work published in the data-science journal Patterns this week has found that the amount of electricity saved by Ethereum is similar to the annual useage of Ireland or Austria, while Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, continues to use more electricity annually than Finland.
However, researchers have warned Ethereum’s savings may have come from computers mining alternative currencies, meaning wider industry change is urgently needed.
Read more here
3. Five winners celebrated at second-ever Earthshot Prize
The Earthshot Prize, the global environmental innovation contest founded by Prince William, this week unveiled five winners in its second year of operation.
The group, selected for a host of projects aimed at protecting the environment or tackling climate change, will each receive £1m to fund their work.
The successful initiatives include Mukuru Clean Stoves, a start-up providing cleaner-burning stoves to women in Kenya to reduce unhealthy indoor pollution, and Indigenous Women of the Great Barrier Reef, a women-led programme aimed at utilising 60,000 years of indigenous knowledge alongside digital technology to protect both land and sea.
Speaking at the awards’ ceremony, Prince William said: “I believe that the Earthshot solutions you have seen this evening prove we can overcome our planet’s greatest challenges. And by supporting and scaling them we can change our future.”
Read more here
4. Peru’s first female president vows to tackle corruption
Dina Boluarte took office as the new President of Peru on Wednesday – the first woman to hold the office following a long battle for electoral equality.
Boluarte, a leftwing lawyer who had been serving as the country’s Vice President, took over the role after Congress ousted former president Pedro Castillo amid accusations of corruption and illegality.
In her first speech as President, Boluarte called for a “political truce to install a government of national unity” and said her first task was to fight the “cancer” of corruption.
Read more here
5. Four-day week study reveals significant benefits for staff and companies alike
Companies taking part in one of the world’s largest examinations of a four-day working week say they’ve uncovered significant benefits for both employers and employees.
The trial, organised by non-profit 4 Day Week Global, saw 33 companies and nearly 1,000 employees commit to cutting office hours by 20% while maintaining salaries.
Now, participating firms say their revenue has increased at the same time as resignations and staff absence have decreased and employee wellbeing has soared. None plans to return to a five-day week.
Read more here
The best of the rest
1. The Secret To The Perfect Rom-Com Plot? A Wildly Dysfunctional Family
’Tis the season… for rom-coms. As Vogue examines the good, the bad and the ugly elements of the eternally popular genre, writer Nell Frizzell argues that no love story is complete without an overbearing, emotionally chaotic family
2. Joanne Harris: Horribly low pay is pushing out my fellow authors – and yes, that really does matter
Writing books has been the great joy of my life, but I fear it’s becoming a career for the elite few
3. The women turning to sex work to make ends meet
As the cost of living crisis spreads, more women are starting to sell sex and many are taking greater risks
4. Who Deserves the New ‘Miracle’ Weight-Loss Drugs?
Injections meant to treat type 2 diabetes have been found to help people lose weight — now, TikTok has become a place of discussion and potential misinformation
5. Kanye, Elon, Trump: Why the news cycle is trapped in a narcissist vortex
Is there any way to escape the attention-seekers dining in Mar-a-Lago or the one heading to Mars?
How are you feeling about this past week? I’d love to hear your thoughts here…
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