Arsenal’s all-white kit is fighting youth knife crime
The North London football team sported an all-white kit this week as part of their annual ‘No More Red’ campaign. When Arsenal players stepped out on their home pitch last Sunday, something was different. Instead of their usual red kit, they wore an all-white get-up, complete with a clean, minimalist...
Current in Change
Opinion – It’s time we stopped lying about the housing crisis
Gen Z and Millennials are continuously told that buying a house is as simple as saving money. But this out-of-touch approach needs the boot. Everywhere you look, statistics about the housing market are as dire as the next. Between a cost-of-living crisis and the economic vestiges of a pandemic, the...
Why is Norway’s deep-sea mining plan so controversial?
This week, Norway became the world’s first country to give commercial-scale deep-sea mining the green light. Although some purport the practice will be essential to bolstering clean energy in the future, is this a major environmental disaster waiting to happen? On Tuesday, Norway’s parliament voted to open its waters for...
Opinion – AFCON’s fossil fuel affiliation will further damage Africa
As the Africa Cup of Nations kicks off in the Ivory Coast, yet another tournament will ultimately serve to fill the pockets of those already destroying the continent. While the self-confessed obsessed (like myself) will happily take all the football we can get, at times there is a bigger picture...
Bottled water contains as many as 250,000 plastic nanoparticles
Scanning bottled water with a newly invented electron microscope, scientists have discovered an alarming number of plastic nanoparticles floating inside. These virtually invisible particles pose a risk to human health once ingested. Plastic is here, plastic is there, plastic is everywhere. Yep, even inside you. Those startled by the recent news...
Women added to committee for COP29 after gender bias backlash
Last week, Azerbaijan’s president announced an all-male panel for the global climate summit, which the country will host in December. This decision was immediately condemned by campaigners as regressive, sparking an inclusivity U-turn. On January 15, the president of Azerbaijan announced that the organising committee for the COP29 global...
EU Commission reintroduces wolf hunting following farmer pressure
A proposal to lower the conservation status of wolves in the EU has ignited questions on the equilibrium between environmental preservation and economic considerations. In mid-December, the European Union proposed to demote the wolf's status from ‘strictly protected’ to ‘protected’ under the Berne Convention. Many criticized this decision for its reversal of Europe’s environmental conservation efforts. The Berne Convention, known in full as the Berne Convention on the Conservation of...
Camera manufacturer Canon donates equipment to coral reef lab
Leveraging the mission to save coral reef species, Canon has donated high-end image capturing equipment to London-based Coral Spawning Lab. Though virtually all life on Earth is under threat from climate change, the most fragile ecosystems by far are coral reefs. Hoping to ensure their future survival, laboratories around the world are growing and breeding a diverse range of heat-resistant corals inside environmentally controlled tanks. In these labs, scientists closely monitor and...
Scientists believe they have discovered the age ceiling for humans
Though human life expectancy has risen – and some people are attempting to ‘live forever’ – Dutch scientists believe they have figured out the ultimate ‘ceiling’ of the human lifespan. Radical improvements to medical care, nutrition, and overall living conditions have all contributed to lengthening the average human lifespan. During the 1950s, humans in North America and Europe who lived beyond 70 years of age were considered lucky. In Latin America...
African bishops stand against Pope Francis’ same-sex blessings
Last month, Pope Francis allowed priests to bless same-sex couples, signaling a move towards inclusivity within the Roman Catholic Church. However, African bishops' strong opposition highlights a clash between the Vatican's evolving stance and entrenched cultural norms on the continent. In December, Pope Francis made an announcement on the highly controversial topic of LGBTQ+ blessings in church through an official statement released by the Vatican. The historic decision to allow...
