News – Page 11 of 37

Halloween Costumes: Sexually Objectifying or Empowering to Women

2Nov

By Elena-Teodora ChiujdeaNo Comments

News, Opinion

Halloween Costumes: Sexually Objectifying or Empowering to Women

After Fresher’s week, a highly anticipated time for first years starting off at university, Halloween marks the second most awaited celebration. Royal Holloway had organised a chain of events, from pumpkin carving to horror movie nights, but the majority look forward to all the Halloween parties. Like every year, students scattered the campus in elaborate or last-minute costumes and as usual there were an overwhelming number of girls stereotypically dressed. The sexy police officer, sexy schoolgirl, sexy nurse – you get the idea. So, the unavoidable question stands. Are girls peer pressured into choosing these costumes, in the hopes of fitting in, or is it empowering to know you can be anything you want for a night? For students and young people in general, Halloween celebrations...

Mark Zuckerberg and the Metaverse: science fiction or (virtual) reality?

31Oct

By Hannah ArmourNo Comments

News, Science & Technology

Mark Zuckerberg and the Metaverse: science fiction or (virtual) reality?

Mark Zuckerberg, no stranger to controversy, has announced a change in the branding of the parent organization of his media technologies empire. Facebook, originally designed as a social networking website where Harvard students would rate each other’s attractiveness, is now universally recognisable and impossible to escape. Its namesake company Facebook, Inc. is a social media giant owning Facebook (surprise, surprise), Instagram, Messenger and Whatsapp. And now they will be attempting to digitally extend the physical world, through social media involving virtual and augmented reality - with a name change to Meta Platforms. Inc. to boot. This rebrand accompanies a series of recent public relations crises including the revelations brought by whistleblower Frances Haugen about Fac...

Orbital’s Madelaine Gray Covers Royal Holloway’s XR Protest: How It Happened & What Next?

30Oct

By Madelaine GrayNo Comments

Features, News

Orbital’s Madelaine Gray Covers Royal Holloway’s XR Protest: How It Happened & What Next?

“Climate change isn’t stopping,” says one of today’s protesters on location at Royal Holloway. “It isn’t slowing down for anyone. There’s no time to delay.” And so it would seem. It’s a chilly day on campus, one of the first on which you’d be hard pressed to find a student without a coat or scarf. There’s been the threat of rain all morning, from both the forecast and the ominous-looking clouds. But the protesters are undeterred. After all, with climate change comes the promise of more rainy days, even in perpetually sodden Britain. Since launching three years ago, Extinction Rebellion has been catapulted to the forefront of British media coverage of climate change. Their bold statements and radical approach, based on the historic practice of civil disobedience, has caused both a hu...

The Future of Afghanistan and its Women under Taliban Rule

18Oct

By Courtney BridgesNo Comments

Features, News

The Future of Afghanistan and its Women under Taliban Rule

‘The women in this part of Kabul were a different breed from the women in the poorer neighbourhoods’, Khalid Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns In A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khalid Hosseini an Afghan-born American novelist, outlines a mother-daughter story within the context of a contemporary Afghan society when published in 2007. As the above quote demonstrates, Hosseini tries to reflect what he recognised as a 'thriving city' that ‘by the standards of a conservative religious country… was quite liberal’ in his memory of living in Afghanistan in his early years. Like the rest of the world, Hosseini saw the gradual reclaiming of Afghanistan; as ‘Kabul had fallen’, he watched woefully. Hosseini now comments that he has ‘no idea what the future holds’. That he is 'deeply sc...

The Emphasis On Drinking During Freshers’ Week

18Oct

By Ilayda KaplankiranNo Comments

News, Opinion

The Emphasis On Drinking During Freshers’ Week

With COVID-19 restrictions lifted and a gradual return to normality, Freshers’ Week will be going ahead as planned. While some will be enjoying the social opportunities that the legendary week has to offer, others might have a less than satisfactory experience; especially when we consider the pressure being placed upon students to consume excessive amounts of alcohol during the week. Either way, there will be a mixture of responses, but nevertheless it is integral that we normalise the inability to make friends in the first couple of weeks, and the stress that resonates with joining a new community. It’s easy to forget as a second or third year how isolating the first term of first year can be. All too often, university life has been circumscribed to the pervasive stereotype that...

Marginalisation Of The Kurdish Identity: a human rights violation

18Oct

By Ilayda KaplankiranNo Comments

News

Marginalisation Of The Kurdish Identity: a human rights violation

Amongst all these humanitarian agencies who seek to protect and aid those suffering or victims of mistreatments, it is unbelievable to think that there are still constitutional restrictions entrenched to eradicate a cultural identity. Especially when it comes to a sensitive issue such as the Kurdish Question; a minority ethnicity that has fought endlessly to protect their rights, with many activists, politicians and lawyers currently imprisoned as a result. The spiralling political crisis that the question elicits today stems from nothing more than a backlash from the past. Following the break-up of the Ottoman empire in 1922, the many different ethnic groups living in the newly formed Republic of Turkey were forced to comply with ‘Turkification’ policies: a homogenising stance t...

Let the “bodies pile high”- What Dominic Cummings’ testimony tells us about the Government’s Covid response after the first lockdown was enacted

1Jun

By Jordan ThorneNo Comments

News

Let the “bodies pile high”- What Dominic Cummings’ testimony tells us about the Government’s Covid response after the first lockdown was enacted

Whilst a large part of Dominic Cumming's explosive testimony centred around the early stages of the pandemic, as the main purpose of the select committee was essentially focused around what we can learn for future prevention of pandemics, there were other parts of the pandemic response that came under scrutiny. The person that came in for the most brutal criticism was Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary. Cumming's claimed that he should have been fired for "15 to 20 things" including "lying" to people "on multiple occasions". He allegedly lied about everyone getting the treatment they required, about the supply of PPE, and lied about the government’s test-and-trace planning by misdirecting resources for an arbitrary 100,000 testing target. The most damaging lie was the one he tol...

Hit Me With Your Best Shot: is the COVID-19 vaccine the best ‘shot’ at reviving live music?

1Jun

By Courtney BridgesNo Comments

News

Hit Me With Your Best Shot: is the COVID-19 vaccine the best ‘shot’ at reviving live music?

The Eurovision Song Contest 2021, Rotterdam, marked the 65th edition of the Eurovision Song contest. Markedly, with 39 entries, this was the first large-scale, global, live music event the world has seen so far in what appears to be the hopeful, post-COVID-19 era. Although a sad loss for the UK, James Newman focused on the experience and atmosphere in comments about the night, mentioning that he ‘loved the crowd’s reaction… and everyone cheering’. This was not reflected in the United Kingdom’s final score – but what can be focused on here is the joy of the crowd as live music seems to be making a return. The question now being asked is, is the COVID-19 vaccine the best shot at continuing what appears to be the revival of the live music industry? Over the c...

George Floyd: A Year Later, What Has Actually Changed?

1Jun

By Charis OwenNo Comments

News

George Floyd: A Year Later, What Has Actually Changed?

The Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 were sparked by the unlawful murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis last year, May 25th; from this came worldwide demonstrations against the racial violence against Black men and women. Political and legal change has been made in small increments towards a real and permanent change but have these protests only really brought to light the injustices and have yet to fix a broken system? From his murder many came forward and more cases were found proving that this is really worse than it seems. Police violence against Black people has not decreased; in fact since the protests more people are aware of the threat and it has made the lack of a change in attitude more obvious. Derek Chauvin, the police officer that murdered Floyd, has however since be...

“We are absolutely f****d!”- What Dominic Cummings’ testimony tells us about the Government’s early Covid response

1Jun

By Jordan ThorneNo Comments

News

“We are absolutely f****d!”- What Dominic Cummings’ testimony tells us about the Government’s early Covid response

I was planning to write about Covid, Government corruption and the Greensill scandal; but after my exams were finished and my dissertation was submitted I couldn't help but be glued to my laptop listening to Dominic Cummings’ testimony to a select committee. It only feels right to cover what was alleged and what it reveals about the government and our country. In this short piece, I cannot cover the full breadth of the allegations that emerged from Dominic Cummings' many hours of testimony, so I would encourage you to read about the allegations in full somewhere else. Some would argue that we haven't learnt anything; these are allegations from a man who has seemingly shown little regard for the importance of the truth in the past, so how can we trust him now? It was a stark image to se...