Latest Stories from Sofia
The popularity of vapes is an environmental nightmare
New research has identified that two vapes are thrown away every second in the UK alone, ending up in landfill despite the fact they contain lithium, a valuable and increasingly scarce metal on which much of the high-tech economy depends. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll know that vapes are all the rage. Replacing one of the leading cause of preventable death worldwide, the small,...
Is the UK finally poised to close the gender health gap?
With the publication of the first ever government-led women’s health strategy, ministers have vowed to tackle decades of ‘systemic’ and ‘entrenched’ inequality in England. While women’s health has undergone a generational culture shift in recent years, prompting more open discourse around historically stigmatised concerns regarding our wombs, tales of dismissal by both male and female physicians remain rife. This issue is known as the gender health gap, whereby women are...
How a forensic spray is keeping women safe
SmartWater – a technology that was originally designed to catch burglars and thieves – is being used by victims of domestic abuse, allowing police to prosecute harassers for restraining order breaches. In the last year, around 2.3 million people in England and Wales have experienced domestic abuse, with around one in five of the UK’s reported homicides during that time allegedly related to this form of violence specifically. The issue...
Sharing ‘deepfake porn’ could soon be illegal in the UK
A government-backed review has warned that current laws do not go far enough to cover ‘disturbing and abusive new behaviours born in the smartphone era.’ During the past decade, numerous steps have been taken to confront the threat of sexual harassment online posed by evolving digital trends. In 2015, revenge porn – the distribution of sexually explicit images or videos of someone without their consent – was made...
Chile unveils its proposed new constitution
Intended to replace the charter imposed by Pinochet during his military dictatorship over four decades ago, the new text would be one of the most progressive in the world, enshrining Indigenous rights and putting environmental protection at its core. Chile has unveiled the final draft of a constitution born from a wave of protests two years ago, when millions of people poured on to the streets to...
How smartphone dependence is harming our memories
‘Digital amnesia’ is on the rise, a concerning phenomenon that’s seeing our ingrained reliance on tech take a toll on our ability to remember important information. For those of us fortunate enough to own a smartphone, they play an integral role in our day-to-day lives. We use them to communicate, for entertainment, and to capture the moments we deem worthy of sharing on social media. Though it would certainly come as...
YouTube apologises for hitting Lofi Girl with a DMCA takedown
Two of the platforms’ most popular livestreaming music videos were removed after users abusively reported the channel with false copyright claims. One of the internet’s most beloved livestreams – which provided more than two years of non-stop lo-fi background music for hundreds of millions of people studying or trying to wind down – was removed by YouTube on Sunday night after users lodged a bogus copyright dispute. Up there with the...
Why Beyoncé is vetting potential collaborators for her upcoming album
The megastar is said to be running #MeToo background checks on everyone involved in Renaissance and has reportedly already rejected two ‘high-profile’ artists from appearing on the record. Committed to keeping her upcoming album release scandal-free, Beyoncé is said to be vetting everyone involved in its production, including her own team. She allegedly made the decision following news that her former collaborator, Noel Fisher, who co-wrote the Grammy award-winning hit ‘Drunk...
You can now buy hangover prevention pills
A Swedish pharmaceutical company has developed a supplement that claims to reduce alcohol concentration in the blood by half within 30 minutes of having a drink. Unless you’re superhuman – or, of course, underage – likelihood is you’ve experienced a hangover before. Enjoying a beveragino (or five) often leaves us bedridden, craving carbohydrates, and crippled by anxiety over how we vaguely recall behaving the night prior. In worst case scenarios, the throbbing...
Supreme Court limits the E.P.A’s power to control pollution
After stripping away constitutional protections for abortion and expanding gun rights, justices have issued yet another momentous ruling – one that jeopardises the federal government’s ability to regulate emissions. On Thursday, the US Supreme Court sharply limited the E.P.A’s ability to regulate carbon pollution from fossil fuel-fired power plants, making it much harder for President Biden to achieve his goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030. The 6-3...










