Conspiracy theories can psychologically give an immense sense of self-security but can also result in severe consequences – in the case of the recent 5G conspiracy, it’s caused mass damage to the UK’s mobile network, and due to the health crisis, meant a loss in hospital signal. Justin Waddy explores issue at the centre of the pandemic: misinformation, and what a pattern it may set for issues that are current but sit out of the spotlight.
Trump
Donald Trump stoking racism amid Covid-19 pandemic
Amy Butterworth reports on President Trump’s labelling of Covid-19 and the implications of his racist language A photographer for the Washington Post recently captured that US President Donald Trump had specifically crossed out “coronavirus” in his notes for the press conference, in order to replace it with the racist phrase “Chinese virus”, all in quintessential […]
Smoking Gun: Will America Dump Trump?
Jordan Andrews reports on the controversial phone call between Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and explains the impeachment process that it has set in motion . “I would like you to do us a favour” said Donald Trump, responding to a question about the acquisition of US military aid. He was speaking on […]
Testing Times for Trump
As of the 8th March 2019, Paul Manafort, Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, has been sentenced to 47 months in prison, after charges for tax and bank fraud crimes were pressed. Manafort’s conviction arises following accusations that he hid millions of dollars from the taxman that he had earned as a consultant for Ukraine’s former […]
Venezuela: How the Media Got It Wrong
Venezuela is a topic on which our media has failed us. A dramatic claim, yes, but something which has become abundantly clear in recent weeks. The country is currently in financial and social crisis after an oil price crash, five years of Nicolás Maduro’s administration, US sanctions and a contested election last year. From the […]
US Election Profile: Best of the Rest
Unusually for an election against a sitting Republican president, there could be a wide number of Democratic candidates who make a run for the presidency. Indeed, some of the more promising candidates may be the lesser known ones. Among the more interesting potential candidates are Cory Booker, the Junior Senator from New Jersey, a younger […]
Bird Box – Review
Could this be the front-runner for most memed movie of the year? Bird Box, Netflix’s latest viral hit, is a clunky mish-mash of a film that is barely redeemed by Sandra Bullock’s occasionally strong performance as a woman facing the transition to maternal commitment. Set in an apocalyptic scenario akin to A Quiet Place, the monsters […]
US Government Shutdown Continues
The United States has broken their national record for the longest government shutdown in history, lasting over six weeks since the 22nd December 2018, with no end to the crisis seeming imminent. The polarisation of the Democrats and the Republicans has reached a climax as the opposing sides of the house are unwilling to cede […]
Album Review: The 1975 – A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships
Shortly after the release of The 1975’s second record in 2016, I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful, yet so unaware of it, eclectic frontman Matty Healy described the group to MTV as being “the biggest band in the world that nobody’s ever heard of”. Two years on, perhaps only the first half […]
Wanted: Modern- Day Dickens
If there’s one thing that’s on everybody’s mind these days – it’s politics. Who said what, who did what, who trumped who (ha), who’s bad and who’s good. This is a good thing. More people than ever are now beginning to get involved with political affairs, activism and voting and are generally committed to making […]