Category Archives: News

Love island as a influencer green card

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Social media is rampant in today’s society with more and more young people aspiring to lead a professional career on a social media platform. So where does Love Island come into this? 

The dating show first aired on ITV in 2015, where a group of singletons live in luxury villa for 8 weeks in the hopes of finding love as well as wining a cash prize. The show is known for making contestants “famous” and popular due to their time on the show, but their popularity is mostly on social media. 

With their audiences starting from 16-30 years old, young people are at the forefront of culture that perpetuates having a perfect body image as well as the need to have a large following on social media. Although this may not be the intention behind the show, it is what is being shown on mainstream TV repeatedly with no type of body inclusivity. 

 

Photo by camilo jimenez on Unsplash

Statistics show that as of 2021, Instagram users in the UK had reached 28.89 million with the individuals aged 25-34 dominating with 31.8%, followed by users aged 18-24 at 23.8%.  

Past contestants from the show have made a name for themselves on social media, blogs, and even fashion deals with big named brands such as Boohoo and Misguided just to name a few. This glamourous and lavish lifestyle has appealed to young people and the traditional career paths are no longer desirable. With millions of viewers tuning in to the show, Love Island is a hotspot for kick starting your presence as a ‘social media influencer’ and the term alone has amounted more than 2,600 searches a month. 

Amber Gill
Molly-Mae Hague

Monetising on social media popularity is now a newfound way of establishing a career in so many different areas through networking and social media marketing. Social media or influencer marketing is a good way of promoting your brand by reaching a large audience and through understanding the media platform and its algorithms, your following and engagements will increase on your feed. 

Popularity, however, has damaging effects on people especially on social media where thousands of people have an everlasting opinion of you whether you are an influencer or not. Cyberbullying and mental health issues has tainted Love Island entirely as stars from the show have been victim to online trolls and have even committed suicide.  

Former host Caroline Flack had committed suicide in February of last year and during this time, she was receiving heavy amounts of social media backlash that could have contributed to her death. In April 2019, former contestant Gradon had also committed suicide and only two months later, contestant Mike Thalassitis had met the same fate. 

It’s important to recognise the impact social media has on people’s lives both positively and negatively but also the strong hold it has on young people aspiring to be social media influencers. 

At the age of four, she decided to stop being a girl and become Britain’s youngest transgender.

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Nowadays, sex trans is nothing new,

Doncaster dad of trans boy, 4, speaks out after son knew he was born the wrong gender when he was just 3 - YorkshireLive
(Photo: Matthew Stubbings/LinkedIn/)

But recently, Matthew Stubbings, 44, from Doncaster, South Yorkshire, UK, posted a post that attracted a lot of attention. He told the story of his child’s transsexuality. In particular, the child is only four years old.

翻攝自DailyMail

Matthew and his wife Klara Jeynes have twins.

Among them, the boy’s name is Arlo and the girl’s name is Emerald.

翻攝自DailyMail
翻攝自DailyMail
(Photo: Matthew Stubbings/LinkedIn/)

Like most parents, the boy Arlo was given blue and green clothes for men, while the girl’s emerald was given a pink skirt, long hair and a ponytail. By the time the twins were 18 months old, emerald had become uneasy about gender, hated braids, long skirts and beautiful shoes, longed to be as masculine as her brother Arlo, and loved firemen and police toys. She always thought she was a boy, not a girl.

Doncaster dad of trans boy, 4, speaks out after son knew he was born the wrong gender when he was just 3 - YorkshireLive
(Photo: Matthew Stubbings/LinkedIn/)

The parents also accepted the fact that they cut off their daughter’s long hair and changed it into the boy’s clothes. They changed Emerald’s name to Stormy and lived as a boy. Father Matthew said, “maybe from birth, Stormy is not a girl.”

翻攝自DailyMail
(Photo: Matthew Stubbings/LinkedIn/)

Now, Stormy is four years old, but his parents have started consulting him for sex trans surgery ahead of time.
They contacted the Tavistock Clinic, the largest cross-gender clinic for children in the UK. But because Stormy has to be 10 years old, or at the beginning of puberty, to do the next step.

Now, his parents have to raise Stormy like a boy until he grows up.

His father worried that as he grew up, Stormy would encounter more and more difficulties. For example, after he went to school as a male, how to solve the problem of going to the bathroom or having sports lessons in the dressing room? The reason why dad made the family situation public this time is not to discuss cross gender issues, but to make the public accept and tolerate the minority.

Matthew said: “This is one of my sons. A bright, happy boy who loves his life. “What many people don’t know is that when he was born he was ‘sexed’ as a girl. His gender identity, what’s in his head, doesn’t match his physical sex.

“I am so proud that he knows who he is and isn’t constrained by societal norms and prejudices. “We can all learn something from this small boy and I learn every day. Everyone is different. “We all need accept that people are different and not try to force those around us to fit into a box that suits us. “Accepting people for who they are is the only way to encourage innovation, embrace growth and harness the best in everyone. “I have permission from my son to post this. He is proud of who he is.

East London fire: 125 firefighters on scene at tower block

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A residential tower block in East London has caught fire, according to London Fire Brigade. There are more than 100 firefighters at the scene, tackling fires on the 8th, 9th and 10th floors.

According to Pete Apps, the Deputy Editor of the journal Inside Housing, the ACM cladding used in this building is the same as that in Grenfell Tower, which caught fire in 2017, leading to 72 deaths.

Incidentally, the New Providence Wharf building has caught fire two days after Jonathan Sakula, a facades expert with three decades of experience, presented evidence on May 5th to the Grenfell Inquiry that the combustibility of building like Grenfell were well known to the contractors. You can view the full evidence here.

However, on the burning site right now, residents are still trying to reach safety, as you can see in the clip filmed by a neighbour helping another below.

Apsana Begum is the MP for Poplar and Limehouse and raised the issue of the dangerous cladding in the Polar tower block, including the building New Providence Wharf, to the Parliament earlier this year.

Featured image credit to Ben Sutherland.

Can the majority of Poland’s population be fully vaccinated by the end of summer 2021?

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The Ministry of Health has announced today that Poland for the first time has vaccinated over 400 000 within 24 hours and the numbers keep growing.

In total, 13,034,348 vaccinations for COVID-19 were carried out in Poland (according to data as of 10:30 on May 7).

Photo by Mat Napo on Unsplash

As United Kingdom’s Covid-19 vaccination is slowing down, Poland at the end of April released the plan with the dates of when each age group will be able to register to get the Covid-19 vaccine.

Almost 40% of the population received the vaccine and 9,735,602 people got vaccinated with the first dose in Poland.

3,298,739 people have received two doses.

By the end of this week, all adults are going to be able to book a date for their vaccine.

However, in some cities, it is possible to get vaccinated even before your scheduled date and you can get your first dose the next day after booking your visit.

Photo by Mat Napo on Unsplash

Wioletta, 21 years old who got her first dose of Pfizer before her scheduled date said “I believe that the accelerated vaccination system in Poland was a great idea. It will allow vaccinating as many people as possible in a short amount of time. The ability to get vaccinated faster, and before our turn, also allows us to return to our normal lives sooner.”

All you have to do to get the first dose of the vaccine before your age group is allowed to register is to keep an eye on your online patient profile and see if there is any date available and you can even choose the vaccine you want to be vaccinated with.

As some people are not unable to make their appointments for unseen reasons, others are able to take earlier slots, allowing for society to reach normality earlier than initially expected it.

Featured photo by Steven Cornfield on Unsplash

Hong Kong’s latest policy to domestic helpers sparked controversy

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photo published by chinanews.com

First local cases of Covid-19 variant infection is found in Tung Chung community

From the conference of Food and Health Bureau of the Government of Hong Kong on April 30, Secretary Mr Chan Siu-chee revealed that certain cases of the virus have shown a chain of transmission of the mutated virus in the community.

She pointed out that in order to step up testing and combat this, all 370,000 foreign domestic helpers in Hong Kong are now required to undergo mandatory testing by May 9. (reported by wenweipo.com)

This is a result of the first case of infection with two mutated strains of the virus was identified in a community in Hong Kong on the 29th April 2021.

The infected is a foreign home servant, who had no travel history nor contact with confirmed cases, as the authorities said. A 11-month-old girl in her care was also confirmed to be infected.

Hong Kong Food and Health Bureau on April 15 held a press conference to announce the current situation of covid-19 and said that the proportion of imported cases was quite high, at nearly 80%, up considerably from about 67% back in March. (reported by sznews.com – Hong Kong Government’s latest measures on COVID-19 )

(video Link: http://t.cn/A6cn8XJg reported by ifeng.com)

Helpers required to get tests

The infection of the helper, 39, was forced on Thursday evening to be evacuated from the residential block in Tung Chung where she lives.

About 400 households of Tower 11 at Caribbean Coast are to be put under 21-day quarantine.

Conference – Food and Health Bureau, The Govemment of the Hong Kong Secial Administrative Region
https://ww2.sinaimg.cn/bmiddle/9ce4bf2fgy1gq1x7d44qnj21900u0qvg.jpg

Testing is now ongoing and the goverment’s measure sparks alarm

With many complaints of discrimination. It is disputed that the government enforce the foreign domestic helpers to take vaccination before their contracts could be renewed.

The Chief Secretary for Administration Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, said in his blog on May 2 that the purpose of requiring mandatory testing of all FDHs is to protect people. He hopes that FDHs and employers working in Hong Kong would understand the Government’s concern.

The mandatory testing measure is also applicable to other high-risk sectors and does not involve any racial or identity discrimination. (see https://www.cso.gov.hk/eng/blog/blog20210502.htm)

Chater Road, Central, Hong Kong – domestic helpers, “half of them line up for testing, half of them gathering as usual” – wenweipo.com
“Crowds of FDHs still gathered as usual, with some not wearing masks correctly” – wenweipo.com

Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor on Tuesday, said the policy would be reviewed. She said the government had not decided yet on pushing ahead with its plan announced last week to have Hong Kong’s 370,000 foreign domestic workers vaccinated.

According to South China Morning Post (4 May 2021), she highlighted, “Mandatory testing is a key point of fighting against the epidemic.”

She mentioned that more than 100,000 FDHs had been tested over last weekend. In addition, tens of thousands of FDHs have take the vaccination.

The government have faith in accomplishing the mandatory testing to all FDHs in Hong Kong by May 9. (According to Chinanews.com, 4 May 2021)

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The Indian Variant likely to be declared ‘Variant of Concern’

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The Indian Variant (B.1.617) that was first detected within the UK on the 22nd February 2021, is likely to be considered a ‘Variant of Concern’ according to reports.

Currently, The Indian Variant has over 400 cases across the UK, and makes up 10% of Covid cases in London and despite numbers being relatively low, its status as ‘Variant under Investigation’ is highly likely to be changed on Friday

If changed to a ‘Variant of Concern’, a response from PHE (Public Health England) would suggest ordering surge testing, similar to the South African variant.

The strain – B1.617.2 – is one of three related variants first seen in India which have been detected in the UK and designated “under investigation” by PHE.

Photo by Fusion Medical Animation on Unsplash

The other two are the B1.617.1 and B1.617.3.

The most recent data by PHE, confirm 193 cases of the B1617.1 variant, up by 61 since the last update on April 21.

The B1.617.2 variant shows 202 cases, and the B1.617.3 variant shows just five cases.

According to internal documents from PHE, dated to May 5 and seen by The Guardian, the ongoing risk to public health from the variant subtype B1617.2 is “high”.

Dr Deepti Gurdasani, a clinical epidemiologist and senior lecturer at Queen Mary University of London, told The Guardian that “at the current doubling rate (B1617.2) could easily become dominant in London by the end of May or early June”.

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Featured image: Photo by Giacomo Carra on Unsplash

India COVID-19 CRISIS: ONE NATION, Two worlds.

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Indian hospitals turn away patients in Covid-19 'tsunami' - World - DAWN.COM
Photo from Dawm news

Data show that as of April 30, there were 3790308 new confirmed cases and more than 200000 deaths in India.


The second deadly wave of COVID-19 in India has destroyed the big city of Delhi, Mumbai, Lucknow and Pune. In those places, hospitals and crematoria have run out of space, and funerals even take place in parking lots. But now, the epidemic has been firmly controlled in many small cities, towns and villages, and the reports of the new coronavirus damage in these places are generally lower than the truth.

At least 13 killed in Indian hospital fire as country gripped by new coronavirus variant | South China Morning Post
Photo from Dawm news

The world of the underprivileged

An Indian old man’s wife got a new crown and died. In order to prevent the spread of the new crown, the village chased them out. In order to find the crematorium, the old man rode with the body for several hours. When he was tired, he didn’t know how to stop the car, his old companion didn’t know how to put it, and he didn’t know when he would arrive. Is this the last step of life?

Photo from Twitter

The world of the high class

India’s major private aircraft rental, charter service companies ushered in their busiest time.

Every day, I received 80 inquiries about charter flights to Dubai, and took off 12 charter flights a day. Every time it was almost full, the price of air tickets continued to rise, and the supply still exceeded the demand.

India's rich and famous flee country's COVID-19 outbreak on private jets
Photo from Facebook

Some Bollywood stars, such as Ranbir Kapoor and Disha Patani, have fled India to enjoy exotic food and views.

Indian actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui criticized the sharing of holiday photos by thousands of compatriots as they struggled for their lives. He said: “These entertainment celebrities posting vacation pictures at a time when the world is reeling under the worst recession…. Logon ke paas khana nahin hai aur aap paise phenk rahe ho. Kuch toh sharam karo. (People don’t have food to eat and you are spending money like water. Have some shame.)”

The distinct gap between the rich and the poor makes India two different worlds.

The rich fled India long before the Indian government issued a ban on air travel. The poor are still in disaster.

Compared with the celebrities who fled, Bollywood star Akshay Kumar deserves praise.

Photo from unsplash.com

Deeply disturbed by the surge in Covid-19 cases, scarce oxygen supply and short-staffed hospitals during India battle with Covid, Bollywood star Akshay Kumar has donated INR 10 million to the Gautam Gambhir Foundation.

Rows of Funeral Pyres: Delhi is a Collage of Death and Despair as Covid-19 Ravages Lives
Photo from unsplash.com

Nowadays, India’s funeral industry is collapsing. As a result, the dead are not buried in time, resulting in the accumulation of bodies. If we do not find a way to deal with the corpse, then the corpse will rot, causing a plague, India next faces a double blow. If we want to deal with it, then the possible ways are burial and water burial. Next, the number of floating corpses in the Ganges may increase dramatically. In addition, when the living see that the dead can not be buried and the corpses are piled up like mountains, their spirits may be greatly impacted. Indians will completely lose confidence in life. It is estimated that the suicide rate will rise a lot. It seems that the impact on the epidemic prevention itself is not great. But it will add to the horror of hell in India.

The whole society is crumbling, and the Indian people and government are facing many difficulties.

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How restaurants and cafes in England are affected by the Covid-19 pandemic

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Covid-19 pandemic made restaurants to stop their activities for a long time globally. Here you will find out how the catering services had been impacted in England.

According to the official government’s website, since the 12 of April, restaurants, pubs and bars can operate outside.

Laura, 24, who works at the 108 Brasserie restaurant of the Marylebone hotel in London as a waitress, said that crowds of people are constantly visiting the restaurant.

According to Laura, at the moment clients can only book tables to eat outside of the restaurant.

A waitress Laura pointed out that the 108 Brasserie had to change their drink options, as suppliers do not have their beverages, for example, beer or wine.

Another 108 Brasserie restaurant’s issue is that some products, such as food and drinks like wines have expired and had to be thrown away.

“A lot of food and drinks wastage as the date of packed products has expired.”

Food navigator revealed at the end of 2019, before the pandemic, restaurants wasted 9% of all food they bought, which cost individual businesses £111 every week, according to data collected by the Sustainable Restaurant Association and Just Eat.

“This cost the entire sector a ‘staggering’ £16.7 million during lockdown, the report said.”

Laura has also shared some of her personal struggles at the workplace.

“Some days we have a work of two or three people, since we don’t have big team anymore,” she tells me. “But the demand of being professional is still here, we can’t show to guests that we can’t keep up with it.”

The restaurant Magnolia Cafe, located in Scunthorpe, did not agree to reveal how their business has been affected by the pandemic.

Magnolia Cafe restaurant. Personal picture

Two women, Lauren and Heidi shared their opinions about the pandemic.

“It’s a nightmare, I don’t know how we are gonna recover,” says Lauren. “It’s just… messing with people’s lives,” says Heidi.

However, women feel happy that the restaurants are working again as they used to before the lockdowns.

“I’m excited, as pubs function again,” says Lauren. “I think it’s good, as businesses need get back to normal,” tells Heidi.

Larger scale food chains also have experienced a tough time. One of them is Pizza Hut, which in 2020 closed 1,745 restaurants worldwide, according to QSR magazine.

“Pizza Hut ended 2020 with 17,639 stores, representing a unit decline of 6 percent—it’s the lowest global number since Q3 2018.“

A person who works at the King Kebab in Scunthorpe, also did not reveal anything, and said “come later, now I’m busy.”

King Kebab Scunthorpe. Personal picture

Garry, who is a manager of Scunthorpe’s Costa Cafe, said that his job personally has not been impacted by the pandemic, but his employees experienced changes.

“My team, employees, went on furlough.”

Costa Cafe Scunthorpe. Personal picture

According to the Guardian, Office for National Statistics discovered that 8 in 10 employees in the UK who worked in accommodation and food services, were put on furlough.

Even though the pandemic had been a challenging time for restaurants, catering industry is slowly going back to normal. Both employees and clients cannot wait to have fantastic experiences.

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Featured image belongs to Rod Long on Unsplash

Public asking for 20 year “Thames hero” Jimi to be honoured by the UK government.

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FolaJimi died in the river Thames whilst trying to save a woman in need.

Folajimi Olubunmi-Adewole 20 years

A petition online has been started by the public to get the attention of the government to honour young Jimi for his heroic act. The public is asking the government for a memorial plaque on London Bridge.

Petition for memorial plaque in honour of Jimi

Jimi was on his way home, coming back from work with a friend when they heard a woman calling for help from the water. Jimi bravely jumped in, in an attempt to save her along with another man, before emergency services arrived on the scene.

The coastguard and police marine units arrived at the scene and were able to rescue the woman and the other man who had jumped in, but Jimi’s body was found later on at 6am in the morning.

A fundraiser was set up to honour Jimi’s bravery with the target of raising £25,000. This is to support his family with funeral arrangements. The target quickly surpassed the target to over £100,000 from over 6000 donations. The organisers took down the GoFundMe after they had noticed that they raised a lot of money. The support from the public can only be described as an outpouring love, gratitude, respect and support for young Jimi who showed bravery and selflessness by trying to save the life of a woman who had fallen from London Bridge into the River Thames on the 24th of April.

GoFundMe surpassed the £25,000 target

Jimi’s, Michael Adewole told The Sun: “Jimi was a very nice, kind young man, he was the heart of our family.

“He was full of life, he had his life to live, he was ambitious, and he was so gifted.”

Mr Adewola believes his son should be recognised for his bravery. “We want justice for him,” he said.

Many in the country have been leaving tributes for the brave young man, as the city is rocked by the tragic news.

There are now calls for Jimi to receive a posthumous award and a Gallantry Award for his act of selflessness and Bravery.

“We want his life to mean something, it will always mean something to us, but he should be rewarded for the bravery he showed, he deserves a medal for what he did.”

Is it the end of lockdown for Poland?

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As England already started lifting restrictions, Poland went into another big lockdown on March 27 when the 3rd wave of coronavirus hit. At first, the new restrictions were supposed to apply only for two weeks but were quickly stretched until the end of April.

On Wednesday Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Health Minister Adam Niedzielski held a live conference where they announced the reopening plan for May. It looks like by the end of the next month Poland will be fully out of lockdown.

The first stage of restarting the economy begins on May 4 as museums, art galleries, malls and elementary schools classes 1-3 will be reopening. On May 8th hotels in Poland will be finally reopened with an occupancy rate of 50%.

However, restaurant, wellness and spa zones in these places will stay closed.

A week later, from May 15, people are going to be able to go out and enjoy their time in the restaurant gardens. And from May 29th the opening of the restaurant under a strict sanitary regime will be possible.

From that day on, it will also be possible to go to the cinema and theater. It is important to mention that from May 15 elementary school classes 4-8 will be reopened and high schools will follow on May 29.

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

As most people are happy about lifting the restrictions we cannot say the same about students and teachers, as all schools are reopening 4 weeks before the end of the school year. Most people believe that there is not a point in reopening school this close to the end and are afraid that it will only increase Covid-19 cases which would cause a 4th wave.

Headmaster Ewelina Bober of Sport school SMS Rzeszów said “In my opinion reopening schools on May 29 wasn’t the best decision. Schools should have stayed closed as we still have around 8,000 new cases per day. In addiction, the end of the school year is on June 25 and we have to announce final grades on June 10 and there is nothing we can really do in schools after that. I believe that reopening schools for 4 week will bring more harm than good.”

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