Week #40 {11 October '21}
- The Bulletin Buzz
- Oct 11, 2021
- 11 min read
Good Morning Readers! Here is your weekly news summary, we hope you have a great week!
Articles Written By Ananya Nayar and Misaki Tomiyama
Articles of the Week:
Kids Corner:
Other:
The Nobel Prizes
Article by Ananya Nayar
The Nobel Prizes are awarded to individuals who have worked and achieved something that has benefited the world- whether the field is physics, chemistry, psychology, medicine, literature or peace.
This year, the Nobel prize for Physics was split between three laureates for “groundbreaking contributions to our understanding of complex systems" with half divided between Syukuro Manabe (he/him) and Klaus Hasselmann (he/him) "for the physical modelling of Earth's climate, quantifying variability and reliably predicting global warming" and the other half to Giorgio Parisi (he/him) "for the discovery of the interplay of disorder and fluctuations in physical systems from atomic to planetary scales."
Next, the Nobel Peace prizes went to the deserving Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov. Ressa (she/her), of the Philippines and co-founder of Rappler, which is a company for investigative journalism and Muratov (he/him) who co-founded Russia’s most popular newspaper (Novaya Gazeta) were celebrated "for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace…. They are representatives of all journalists who stand up for this ideal in a world in which democracy and freedom of the press face increasingly adverse conditions.”
Malaria Vaccines in Africa
By Misaki Tomiyama
Malaria has been one of the biggest threats to humanity, especially for infants and small children. Malaria, which is spread by mosquitoes, kills approximately 3000 children every day, according to the WHO. Last week, a vaccine called RTS,S was approved and recommended by the WHO as the first ever Malaria vaccine.
There were immunisation programmes prior to this decision, and WHO announced that the vaccines will be provided in sub Saharan Africa, where malaria cases are high.
Malaria however, is a deadly disease, and has many types. The RTS,S vaccine targets the malaria type Plasmodium falciparum, which is said to be the deadliest of the types. Studies show that this vaccine can prevent 4 in 10 cases of malaria, and is said to be one of the biggest milestones in the fight against this deadly disease.
The Pandora Papers
Article by Ananya Nayar
In the past week, you may have heard about the Pandora Papers Case.
Well, the papers are a huge accumulation of private documents talking about how global, super-rich people hide their wealth and use loopholes to avoid paying their taxes.
The 12 million records provided an insight into the scandals of former politicians and the world’s wealthiest figures, and how they avoid tax authorities by cleverly placing assets into tax havens along with the financial histories of politicians from countries around the world.
To summarise, the findings highlight the secret ‘squirrelled’ hidings of the wealthiest, and how they used overseas accounts to safeguard holdings that together can be worth trillions of dollars. Tax avoidance, money laundering, hidden wealth have all been uncovered.
Some of the biggest scandals revealed from the files talk about how the King of Jordan spent 70 million GBP on properties through other companies in the US and UK, how the Kenyan president owned networks of companies across the world. On top of this, the exposée unravelled the dirty lies behind some better-known people like singer Shakira, ex-cricket captain Sachin Tendulkar, Prime Minister Najib Mikati of Lebanon, Ringo Starr, Julio Iglesias.
The 10,000-page papers are the world’s largest journalistic collaboration in history.
So, how did they do it? Most set up offshore companies in places like the British Virgin Islands where tax rates are minimum or nothing and where their identities are concealed from the public, the process is relatively cheap and usually legal too. Investments like yachts, real estate etc kept aside lots of money. When totalled, all the finances kept offshore sum up to the wealthiest potentially saving millions of USD of taxes.
With the money offshore, many celebrities, for example, Ringo Starr- ex-Beatles, built two companies in the Bahamas and dwellings in LA, along with this, he set up trusts in Panama that hold revenue.
This may be the biggest scandal for a while! To finish, as the powerful slyly find loopholes in the system to avoid taxes, the burden shifts on ordinary citizens who pay heavier taxes for public services like schools, roads and airports for example. The capital overseas that has been hidden deprives many countries of billions of tax revenue a year.
Facebook Secrets Revealed by a Whistleblower
Article by Ananya Nayar
Last week, some of Facebook’s biggest secrets were uncovered and revealed when Frances Haugen, ex-facebook product manager disclosed thousands of the huge app’s scandals to the public through an hour long interview with 60 minutes Sunday. She describes herself as ‘an advocate for public oversight of social media.’
One of the biggest things uncovered in this exclusive discussion that we’ll report here was how Haugen said that Facebook, Instagram etc are extremely aware of the fact that Instagram’s content is deteriorating and magnifies eating disorders or health issues especially for teenage girls who can be prey to beauty standards and body image on platforms like such and that they still refuse to help solve the issue as it directly benefited the company. She said, “What’s super tragic is Facebook’s own research says as these young women begin to consume this eating-disorder content they get more and more depressed, and it actually makes them use the app more.” She continued to say "It is clear that Facebook prioritizes profit over the well-being of children and all users," she said.
The statistics in studies said almost 14% of UK teen girls said their suicidal thoughts because of my intense and 17% of young girls said their eating disorders worsened simply due to their usage of Instagram- which is used by 95% of teens worldwide.
The scandal, which was brought to court on Tuesday, can possibly make or break Facebook, and the documents she provided supported the serious allegations.
The continued detailed account told us how Facebook harms children’s health and safety and can cause political issues “it is causing teenagers to be exposed to more anorexia content. It is pulling families apart. And in places like Ethiopia, it's literally fanning ethnic violence.”
Harmful ads were in fact approved by the company and fake ads promoting drug use, anorexia etc were shown.
In response to the supported accusations, Facebook responded by holding strong to the principle that Haugen’s statements were ‘misleading and insists there is no evidence to support the premise that it is the primary cause of social polarisation.’
In Mark Zuckerberg’s personal note to employees the same Tuesday, he dismissed the claims and said at the most “basic level, I think most of us just don’t recognise the false picture of the company that is being painted,” however, he seemed to agree on the requirement for updated regulations.
Frances Haugen also resolved by saying that Congress must be involved as the ‘crisis’ cannot be solved without its help. She also conveyed her opinion saying that Facebook breaking up or shutting down wouldn’t technically resolve any issues, it’d simply shift problems onto Instagram and there are ‘not enough resources to address problematic content on the platform.’
If anything, this situation teaches us to stand up for the things that need to be addressed, no matter the consequences and we should admire Haugen for coming through with the allegations and it’s assumed that she will hold these companies accountable. As a young teenage girl also seeing the images of ‘perfect bodies’ every day I too am aware and vulnerable to the effects of such damaging images, and it’d be a lie to say I and many of my friends aren’t victims of the mental health issues of Instagram and similar platforms.
People worldwide are commending the efforts to hold the companies liable and make a difference with their systems to prevent more damage.
World Mental Health Day!
We have posted our first IGTV on our Instagram page! (@the_bulletin_buzz)
On the video, we talk about the World Mental Health Day, the importance of our mental health, statistics regarding fundings on mental health in our country, and on the theme for this year's world mental health day, which is ‘Mental Health in an Unequal World.’
You can watch our IGTV by visiting our Instagram, or from the video below! Here is the transcript for those of you wishing to read what we have spoken about in the video.
Kid's Article- Will Covid Vaccines be Available for Children Below 12?
By Misaki Tomiyama
The COVID-19 has impacted a lot of us, and the vaccines have, and still are playing an important role in bringing back the kind of world we used to live in prior to the pandemic. At first, vaccines were only available for the elderly and doctors, but now, in most countries, it is available for people 18+, and in some countries, vaccines are available for children who are 12+ as well!
Last week, Pfizer sent a request to the F.D.A to authorise the covid vaccine for children 5 years and above. F.D.A stands for the Food and Drug Administration, and they are responsible for the public safety of citizens and are also in charge of the covid vaccine. If things go well, the vaccines are expected to be available for the age group sometime around November.
Many believe that children are less likely to become severely ill because of the virus, but approximately 30,000 children got hospitalised as a result of the virus according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Since there is also an increasing concern for the Delta variant, many want vaccines available for children below 12.
However, some show hesitation, as the second dose of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines gave rise to myocarditis in some people, which results in the inflammation of the heart. However, the cases of this are extremely low.
Kids'-Apps Down of Monday
By Misaki Tomiyama
On Monday last week, Facebook and its apps, including Instagram and Whatsapp were not accessible, and the outage lasted for around 6 hours. More than 3.5 billion people around the world use Facebook, Whatsapp, Messenger and Instagram, and people especially in India and Myanmar were affected by this outage, where many people use these apps for businesses and communication purposes.
The main cause of this were some technical issues in the DNS in Facebook. DNS stands for ‘Domain Name System,” and this converts domain names (like www.google.com) into IP addresses (like 173.194.39.78). DNS is extremely important on the internet, and without it, the whole internet would collapse. If you want to know more about this, you can visit this website.
After the incident, Facebook posted an apology on twitter, saying “We apologize for any inconvenience.”
This Week in History
By Ananya Nayar
On the 4th of October 1957, the Sputnik 1- the first artificial Earth satellite was launched by the Soviet Union into a low orbit. The launch made it possible to test satellite pressurisation and study radio wave transmission along with the density of the atmosphere. During this time, there was tension between the USA and the Soviet Union, and the fact that the Sputnik orbited Earth every hour and a half, and passed over the US 7 times a day made some people fearful. In fact, less than a year after the launch of Sputnik, the US created NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Act.) So, the space race between rival countries began.
On October 5th 2011, Steve Jobs, who co-founded Apple inc. passed away due to pancreatic cancer complications. Alongside Steve Wozniak, Apple was founded in 1976 and the company became the King in telecommunications. He was considered a visionary and genius, and he even oversaw the launch of revolutionary products like the ones we use today- iPhones etc.
2001, October 7th was when the US began to first attack Afghanistan. If you read our article on the Taliban in Afghanistan, we talked a little about this too. The American and British bombing campaign began, supported by France, Canada, Germany and Australia too.
Prior to this, the UN Security Council, as well as the US, demanded the Taliban turn over Osama bin Laden for prosecution as he was accused of igniting the 9/11 attacks. However, the Taliban sheltered him. The accusations that the Taliban was training terrorists were the main factors that caused the (arguably justified) bombing of Afghanistan.
Did You Know? October 11 is International Day of the Girl Child!
By Misaki Tomiyama
Every year, on the 11th of October, the world celebrates the international day of the girl child. It is a day celebrated in order to spread awareness of the several problems girls face, and find solutions to them.
The Internal Day of the Girl Child is a global day observed by the UN to empower girls and advocate for gender equality. The main idea that is to be spread is that girls are capable of becoming anything they want, be it doctors, pilots, teachers, engineers, politicians, authors and anything else!
Girls all over the world face different challenges, which can be in the form of gender discrimination, violence, education inequality and child marriage. So it is especially important for us to celebrate this day. Here are a few things you can do to show your support-
Spread Awareness! If you are a girl/female, you may open up about your experiences, and talk about a few problems you face as a female, but only if you are ready. Even if you are not a female, you can show your support by spreading awareness about this day. You can use the hashtag #BrighterFutureForGirls when using social media!
Participate in an online webinar, an event that advocates gender equality.
Book and Movie Reviews
Book of the Week- All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
By Ananya Nayar
This adult novel is probably one of the best books I’ve ever read. It took me a few tries to get through the first few chapters because the dual perspective was confusing first, but I analysed the text on the side and began to really enjoy it. Set during World War 2, the story follows two main characters who are entirely opposite from each other. Werner is a young orphan, and when he is fourteen he leaves his orphanage and sister Jutta to begin to train as a soldier for the German army- in fact, he’s a perfect candidate and his natural engineering skills take him places. From his perspective, we see his shock and how the Nazi youth training goes which is a really interesting take. Then there’s Marie-Laure, who is a blind French girl living with her father in Paris, when the war strikes, they must leave and seek refuge with Marie-Laure’s ‘crazy’ great-uncle, her father eventually tries to go back to the museum where he worked in Paris, but is arrested and held in a German camp. Along with this, things start to go wrong for Marie-Laure which takes us back to the Sea of Flames. A small stone that is cursed to make bad things happen. In the book’s journey, the main focus is on the clear, cursed diamond which Marie-Laure’s father was entrusted with and what Von Rumpel is after, Werner and Marie-Laure’s friendship and it contains so many exciting themes. I, for one enjoyed this book as the characters were so well-developed and Werner and Marie-Laure were both so intelligent and crafty. All in all, the plot was so intricate and there was really amazing imagery.
Age Recommendation- 12+
Rating out of 5 Stars- 5/5
Movie of the Week- Kiki's Delivery Service
By Misaki Tomiyama
The main character of this movie is Kiki, a 13-year-old born between a witch and a human. Kiki decides to live as a witch instead of a human girl, so as part of her training into becoming a witch, she decides to leave her home town on the day she turns 13. Kiki chooses to live in a city near the sea, and she faces various challenges living in a city which is completely different from the loving town she used to live in. This heart-warming movie depicts Kiki’s journey in this new town, where she meets friends, and decides to live in an attic of a bakery, where she starts her business, and calls it Kiki’s delivery service. This movie is directed by the famous Japanese Director, Miyazaki Hayao, and is available on Netflix.
Age Recommendation- All ages
Rating out of 5 stars- 5/5
Comments