Issue 735 - 4 Oct 2022

exeposé

University announces changes to student mitigation and extension policies

Livvy Mason-Myhill Deputy Editor

THE University of Exeter have changed their mitigation and extension policies for this aca demic year. The extension period, which previously gave students an extra week to complete their assignments, has now been changed to a 72-hour period. A spokesperson from the University has stated that “during the extraordinary circumstances of the COVID-19 pan demic, the University trialled giving stu dents four self-certified deadline extensi ons of up to one week. After discussing with a range of stakeholders, including the Students’ Guild and Students’ Uni on, we have decided to retain the be nefits of self-certification, whilst redu cing such extensions to three calendar days from this term.” This in turn gives students a shorter time frame to com plete their tasks than in the past. This could also potentially cause increased

stress for students, especially for those who struggle with mental health issues.

Exeposé asked students in a journo request what their attitudes were towards the changes to policies surrounding miti gation and extensions. When asked how students feel about the extension peri od changing from a one-week period to only 72 hours, the overall reaction was predominantly negative. Many students commented on how this change will gre atly increase their stress levels, especially with the number of assignments at the end of each term. The word most of ten used by students on this matter was that they felt very “stressed”. One stu dent suggested that they liked the week extension “because I tend to have a lot of assignments due at once, 72 hours isn’t enough to produce my best work”.

Other students felt “disappointed and confused” about the University’s choice to make these changes and that they didn’t “feel like this would benefit people as much, [it] slightly defeats the idea of having an extension”. Another

student also explained that they would “feel a great deal more stress and pres sure over my work that could be avoided.

I would be stressed also that my assign ments couldn’t be completed to my best ability with just a 72-hour extension”.

We also asked students whether this change in the extension periods would affect their mental health in a negative

way. All the students who came forward agreed that their mental health would be affected by these changes. Students hig hlighted how the previous one-week ex tension period gave them enough time to not only complete their academic work, but also to gather themselves mentally.

Police week of action in Exeter prompts Athletics Union warning to committee

Megan Ballantyne and Joshua Hughes Editors

DEVON and Cornwall Po lice’s week of action to protect women and girls at night, which took place during Freshers’ Week, prompted a warning from the University of Exeter’s Ath letics Union to AU society commit tee members to stay “extra vigilant.”

As part of what Devon and Corn wall Police describe as a “drive to safeguard young people,” officers carried out seven arrests and made nu merous vehicle stops around Exeter over the course of the week. Journa lists from the BBC and ITV were also spotted around the city by students.

On Wednesday 21st September, the unofficial ‘sports night’ for AU societies, when socials are traditional ly held, the Athletics Union issued an

email to society committee members, stating that they “heard that the police are going to be out in force in the city centre tonight (21st) and [that] they will be accompanied by filming journalists.”

It urged them to be “extra vigilant and make sure that there are no actions occurring in your socials which can reflect badly on the University and your club.”

The email went on to say: “Please also make sure that individuals are not walking home alone, especially when intoxicated, to ensure the safety of your members, as the journalists are focusing on safety during nights out.”

AU members who saw the email criticised its focus on the presence of police and journalists as motivation for good behaviour. One student told Exe posé: “It sounds like the AU only care because it will be on the news — really they should encourage this all the time.” Another student criticised the emphasis the message placed on the University ’s and AU’s public image, stating: “They

know that AU societies have an infamous reputation when it comes to sport soci ety socials, so are trying to mitigate any risks of it becoming exposed, or any at tention drawn to it in a negative light.”

Others highlighted that the mes sage was also simply intended to warn club members not to potentially em barrass themselves on television; a dif ferent student told Exeposé: “I feel as if the AU knows that during socials and nights out that it can get quite wild and people tend to act foolishly, hence they wanted AU committee members to be extra vigilant and not mess up in front of the BBC news crews or cameras.”

A spokesperson for the University of Exeter said: “The University is committed to supporting and encouraging all stu dents to settle in, experience and enjoy the wider Exeter community. This includes enjoying the night life within the city in a safe and respectable manner. All AU clubs are given training and asked to sign a code of conduct at the start of the academic

year, agreeing to behave responsibly. Sa fety messaging is also routinely provided to students and AU Clubs at the start of term, and regularly throughout the year.” The police operation was part of Operation Vigilant, a nationwide opera tion, which Devon and Cornwall Police state is “a strategy used in a bid to reduce sexual violence and predatory behaviour.” Exeter Sector Inspector Simon Arliss said: “The purpose of the action is also to reassure and safeguard the public, particu larly the night-time economy community and provide reassurance that my officers are on patrol and are approachable if needed. High visibility patrols have been increased around areas where we have re ceived reports or concerns about women being approached in suspicious circum stances or have been left feeling unsafe. We want to make Exeter a place where people can live their lives free from fear of violence and intimidation. This may seem like an idealistic aspiration; however, it is one that we continue to strive

Image: Joshua Hughes

Editorial

Devonshire

Editors

Print: Megan Ballantyne & Joshua Hughes

Online: Ana Anajuba & Clemence Smith

Deputies: Livvy Mason-Myhill editors@exepose.com

Executives

Social Media: Nancy Stitt

Finance: Oscar Young

Events: Georgia Balmer

Chief Photographers

Rachel Cunningham Kieran Moore

News Editors

Print: Amy Rushton

Online: Megan Haynes & Isabella Ankerson news@exepose.com

Features Editors

Print: Oliver Lamb & Austin Taylor

Online: Catherine Stone & Maggie John

International: Maeve Fitzpatrick & Ryan Gerrett features@exepose.com

Comment Editors

Print: Anabel Costa-Ferreira & Connor Goddard

Online: Izzy Langguth & Kristen Taylor comment@exepose.com

Satire Editor

Print: Cleo Gravett

Online: Archie Lockyer

Lifestyle Editors

Print: Pippa Bourne & Gracie Moore

Online: Ruth Hetherington & Charlie Nadin lifestyle@exepose.com

Arts + Lit Editors

Print: Ella Minty & Joshua Smith

Online: Gwenllian Page-Gibby artsandlit@exepose.com

Music Editors

Print: Megan Ballantyne, Joshua Hughes & Livvy Mason-Myhill

Online: Mahnoor Imam & Lauren Jones music@exepose.com

Screen Editors

Print: Pollyanna Roberts Online Matthew Bowden & Harvey Isitt screen@exepose.com

Tech Editor

Print: Harry Hawkins

Science Editors

Print: Daniel Pain & Hayley Power

Online: Daisy Scott & Imogen Poyntz-Wright sciandtech@exepose.com

Sport

Print: Rob Worthington

Online: Oliver Rickwood & Archie Rucker sport@exepose.com

Proofers

Megan Ballantyne, Roberta Falade, Jessica Harcup, Joshua Hughes, Oliver Lamb, Annabelle Law, Livvy Mason-Myhill, Myriam Page, Tiffany Sharpy, Amelie Thompson, Lauren Walsh, Shagnick Bhattacharya

HI everyone! Hope you’ve had all had a great first week of term! It’s been a busy few weeks for Exeposé with the Freshers' Fair and our Freshers Edition out but now that term has finally begun, things look to be settling into a good routine.

With economic and international turmoil, robotic radio interviews and the threat of recession, we hope at least that your first week has been a little more relaxing than the last.

We have a great range of articles in the paper this week. Features takes a look at the Russian regime and how conscription is affecting the Russian state’s domestic stability (page 8 ). In Comment the bank holiday for the day of the Queen’s funeral is debated (page 11 ) and our writers compare BeReal to other social media platforms (page 10 ). In Exhibit we have a wide range of articles covering all topics from Lifestyle to Tech. In Lifestyle , the new Revolution Bar gets a review and some of our writers highlight ways to deal with the stress of being a fresher ( page 15 ). Arts + Lit feature their author of the week along with picking out the best museums from around the world ( page 17 ). In Music we feature some local musicians from and around Exeter ( page 20 ) and review some new releases ( page 21 ).

In Screen we look at the subject of the Royal Family on the screen along with our screen writers describing their favourite films that remind them of autumn (page 22 ). In Tech there is a comprehensive list of some gadgets that could help in the cost of living crisis (page 24 ) and an interview about tracking online extremist forums (page 25 ). In Science we look at a game changing discovery (page 28 ) and explore the origins of Saturn’s famous rings ( page 29 ). In Sport we interview some society committee members on their sports and detail how people can get involved ( page 30 ), look at some incidents of rules being bent in sport ( page 31 ) and have a detailed assessment of England’s form going into the World Cup ( page 32 ).

We want to say a massive thank you to everyone that has joined the paper and all those who came along for our first days of proofing. We hope you enjoy this edition and hope your first week has been a good one! From us and everyone at Exeposé , have a great week.

University news home and abroad

ON 8th September, thousands of university employees, in cluding professors, lecturers, and students, demonstrated against the presence of police on Greek campuses in Constitution Square in Athens. Ac cording to Peoples Dispatch, partici pants in the mobilisation included activ ists from the Students Struggle Front (MAS) and Communist Youth of Greece (KNE). The four largest universities in Athens and Thessaloniki reportedly have University Institutions Protection Teams placed on them on a trial basis. This is a component of the govern ment's strategy to ostensibly defend colleges from anarchism and vandalism.

The MAS demanded that the uni versity police vacate the campuses in a statement released on 6th September. It stated that despite the lack of dormito ries, skyrocketing rents, and inadequate university funding, the government has allotted €50 million for the university po lice as well as for cameras and turnstiles inside campuses, even though thou sands of students are uncertain about their ability to continue their education.

WHEN at school, students were told that applying for and get ting accommodation at univer sity was easy and hassle-free. However, now students are struggling to find housing. With the rise of applications for uni versity, there is a shortage of accommodation and houses across the country. According to the UCAS uni versity admissions service, 320,000 sixth formers have applied for univer sity places so far, com pared with 306,000 in 2021. There have not been adequate arrangements to place so many students, with such few housing places available. Unfortunately for those who fail to secure halls or a house, they are left with no option but to live in neighbouring cities. At Manchester University, students are pushed out into cities such as Liverpool or Huddersfield. Incentives offered by institu tions, such as £100 a week for commuting costs, do not justify the detrimental impact that being so far from university could have on students' studies.

MILLIONS of Americans will have up to $10,000 wiped off their student debt. The policy, announced by President Joe Biden last month, applies to borrowers earning less than $125,000 a year. Recipients of a Pell Grant, which is given to students on low incomes, are eligi ble for debt for giveness worth up to $20,000. More than 45 million Americans hold stu dent debt, although almost a third owe less than $10,000. About a third of current undergraduates receive Pell Grants. Biden said the move was “about giving people a fair shot.” Democrats welcomed his announce ment, though campaign groups such as the Debt Collective called for forgive ness to go further. Mitch McConnell, the leading Republican Senator, branded the policy “astonishingly unfair” to those who have already paid off debts. The policy is likely to face legal challenges.

THE Taliban have announced plans to take over the Ameri can University of Afghanistan (AUAF), remodelling it into their own Afghan International University (AIU). The AUAF, established in 2006, was formed primarily with funding from the United States with the aim of cre ating an international quality education for Afghan students. The University has been run online from Qatar since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.

Whilst plans were in place to resume teaching at their campus in Kabul, these have been put on hold now the Taliban have repurposed the campus. In a state ment, the Taliban declared that the new AIU will provide postgraduate courses in medicine, agriculture, engineer ing and Islamic studies though it is unclear how they will recruit teaching staff as over 400 professors have left Afghanistan since the takeover. AUAF management have expressed concern for the welfare and future of their stu dents. Whilst many have fled to Qatar, some have been prevented by the Tali ban including at least one female AUAF student who was detained on her flight.

Caitlin Nagle, Oliver Lamb and Amy Rushton

Josh and Megan

Protestors call for police to leave Greek University campuses

University accomodation crisis forces students to live in neighbouring cities

Biden to cancel $10,000 in student loan debt Taliban take over American university in Afghansitan

“As an activist you can push yourself further than you might think”: Exeter student arrested in Just Stop Oil Protest

Lucy Kerr and Amy Rushton Contributor and News Editor

APROTEST staged outside Kingsbury Oil Terminal on 14th September, has result ed in the arrest on remand of 51 Just Stop Oil activists, including current Exeter student Edred Whittingham and former Exeter resident Julia Mer cer. The site was targeted by Just Stop Oil, a group of climate activists com mitted to ensuring a ban on new li cences for fossil fuels, as it is protected by a High Court Injunction, meaning protestors gathered there risk arrest.

The group blocked the terminal in Warwickshire as they challenged new oil and gas projects in the UK. The group were threatened with a maximum sentence of two years; however, they “accepted the consequences of their action,” believing in the urgency of the climate disaster. Supported by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which declared “code red for humanity”, five protestors, including former Exeter resident Julia, appeared before Her Honour Judge Kelly at Queen Elizabeth Court in Birmingham on 23rd September accused of breaking the North Warwickshire Injunction. A sentence of 19-24 days suspended for

two years and a £426 fine was given to the protestors. After previous block ades, the private injunction outlawed protests at Kingsbury Oil Terminal, increasing police powers to arrest. As a result, since 1st April, corresponding with the national 54 per cent energy price increase, there have been over 1,350 arrests. Julia states she is worried for her grandchildren’s futures, argu ing: “It’s the inertia and unholy power of business as usual that creates this future”. Antonio Guterres, the UN General Secretary, echoes these anxi eties, stating: “we are losing the race”.

Exeposé were able to speak to Whittingham, who was jailed for an entire week, about his experience.

Whittingham, a third year Exeter student, explains that the group inten tionally broke the High Court Injunc tion with the aim of ending up on re mand, stating: “If you protested here you had to see a High Court judge within 24 hours, you could get an un limited fine and serve time in prison, meaning we could get in front of a judge and be deliberately disobedient; the purpose was to raise awareness.”

Like many others who joined the pro test, Whittingham spent a week in jail for breaking the injunction. Describ ing the experience, he states, “Whilst it is difficult for people from more

marginalised backgrounds, in my case if that’s the worst the state can do to me as a protestor, it’s not a big deal.”

Whittingham’s involvement with the movement began with Extinction Rebellion, before joining Just Stop Oil protests. Whilst many students see uni versity as their focus point, for him it is time off from his “day job”, com ing second to climate activism, stating, “climate change is the defining issue of our time. If we don’t get this right nothing else that Exeter students are interested in will have any relevance.”

When asked the reason for his com mitment to climate activism, Whitting ham states that: “We all know climate change is a serious issue, but what peo ple don’t connect with is that it is an existential threat. Although it would hit the Global South first, we depend on a global economic system and for that we need a stable climate. Research by Uni versity of Exeter professors has shown if we exceed a certain amount of warm ing we can set off a series of tipping points and feedback loops that would become irreversible and we would be living in a hostile state in our lifetime.”

The Just Stop Oil protests are cur rently centred on drawing attention to the movement and placing pressure on the Government to respond. Whitting ham comments, “We should be treating

climate change with the same intensity as we did World War Two, but instead

Truss is greenlighting fossil fuel projects. They should be banning all new licenc es, which is what Just Stop Oil demands.

We want the government to say no to new oil and gas infrastructure as well as fund public research into geo-engineer ing and food security measures. Until we see that I’ll be doing this sort of thing.”

It is this commitment to fighting an existential threat he wishes to convey to the students of Exeter, claiming that “If you’re scared about the climate crisis and you want to do the right thing, then consider joining the movement”. This goes too for those unable to protest who want to broaden their knowledge

and involvement in the climate crisis. He adds that “there are support roles with in the movement. If you’re interested in the climate crisis go talk to some of the professors at Exeter because we’ve got some of the best in the world. They are very easy to get in contact with.”

The protests have received condem nation from members of the public. Whittingham claims “people who have changed history in the past were often hated at the time, but looking back ret rospectively people see that’s the right thing to do.” Though some see the pro tests as extreme, he claims they are nec essary: “It shows people what’s possi ble, and that as an activist you can push yourself further than you might think.”

National cost of living crisis hits Exeter students

Amy Rushton News Editor

NATIONAL and local con cerns about the effects of the cost of living crisis on students have been exacerbated in the wake of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Kwasi Kwarteng’s, minibudget. Its measures, such as income tax cuts for high earners and bank ers’ bonuses, fail to account for the needs of students, leading many to

express anxiety over how they will afford bills over the coming year. In response to the mini-budget, a spokesperson for Universities UK said: “Over recent weeks we have re peatedly asked the government to en sure that students are not overlooked in government measures to deal with the cost of living crisis. Tax cuts for high-earners will not benefit students struggling to manage their costs this autumn. These students include our next generation of teachers, nurses, scientists and engineers and we can’t

afford to see them drop out because they can’t make ends meet. This was not addressed in today’s budget.”

Emma de Saram, Exeter’s VP Liberation and Equality, states that “Students have always had to be wise with their money, but now more than ever, they may be feeling even more squeezed with inflation and energy bills at all-time highs. As one of your student representatives, I want to let you know we are working on short and long-term ways to let you love Exeter without having to spend a fortune. There are loads of ways you can get involved locally and nationally in the campaign for students’ justice, because everyone deserves to have an equal ly amazing university experience.”

Currently the Guild are working on making as many events as possible free for students to attend, opening Devonshire House for longer so there are warm places to study on campus, increasing the number of paid op portunities for students, and running weekly drop-in budgeting workshops.

In collaboration with the AU, the Guild are establishing a Societies and Clubs Hardship Fund to assist students wishing to join societies. They told Ex

eposé : “Other initiatives are in the works and will be shared on our Cost of Liv ing webpage and on our social media”.

Measures introduced by the gov ernment in order to lessen the im pact of energy bills, such as the En ergy Bills Support scheme, which provides a £400 payment per house hold towards energy bills, have been criticised for providing students, who have a higher than average rate of people per household, with less in dividual support. This adds to the fi nancial strain of full-time education, particularly in Exeter, where the cost of rent has risen in both on-campus and town-based accommodation.

This has prompted increasing concern that students who cannot afford the rising costs will be forced to drop out. The Student Loan Com pany has found that the number of students withdrawing from univer sity courses has increased by 23 per cent in 2021/22. With NUS research showing that a third of students have less than £50 a week to live on, the cost of living crisis is thought to be largely accountable for this increase.

NUS VP Higher Education, Chloe Field, said, “Students are telling us they

can’t afford to continue their studies; they’re having to choose between feed ing themselves and carrying on with their education. Many can no longer afford to travel to placements, they’re holding down multiple jobs to make ends meet. Inevitably, it is the students from the poorest backgrounds who are being disproportionately affect ed.” NUS have joined the criticism of Government action, which they claim prioritises “the needs of the richest in society”, adding: “The government needs to take control of this situation by tying student support with inflation and delivering urgent maintenance grants and bursaries, otherwise stu dent poverty will continue to grow”.

A spokesperson for the Guild commented that: “The cost of living is a key priority for The Guild, and your Officers this academic year and beyond. We know that many students already face financial challenges, which will be exacerbated by the cost of liv ing crisis. We understand that budg eting and cost-cutting can only go so far, we want to make sure we are providing practical and useful sup port so that you are still able to get the most out of your time here at Exeter.”

Image:

Image: Clémence Smith

Image: Angella Streluk, Wikimedia

Former Exeposé photographer Joshua Irwandi remembers Hilary Mantel

Megan Ballantyne Editor

FOLLOWING the death of Exeter alumnus and Booker prize-winning author Dame Hilary Mantel aged 70, tributes from university staff and Exeter alumni have poured in for the author, who was granted an honorary degree by the University in 2011.

Exeter alumnus and former Exeposé photographer Joshua Irwandi, who is now also a Pulitzer Prize finalist for his photography, took to his Instagram to share a story of his time photographing Hilary Mantel for the newspaper.

“My memory with Dame Hilary was a fleeting but

memorable one. At the time, in my final year at university, I was assigned by student paper Exeposé… to photograph Dame Hilary in her visit to Exeter.

Waiting in The Forum building, she finally came with broad smiles. But when I was about to photograph her, the university press officer stopped me. They had hired a photographer with studio lights ready to photograph her as well. The press officer told Tom, who came with me: ‘You could get the pictures later from the professional photographer.”

He details how Hilary Mantel made sure that he was able to take his photograph alongside the university press officers: “Dame Hilary stopped the press officer and told all present: ‘But we are

not going to forget this young man!’ I was given exactly ten seconds to photograph Dame Hilary. Five days later, Dame Hilary contacted Exeposé saying that she liked the photograph and would use it as an author portrait for her new book The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher.” Irwandi expressed gratitude for the opportunity in his post, and detailed his continued communication with the acclaimed author throughout the years. “I always wondered why Dame Hilary picked my portrait. In hindsight, I would have done hundreds of things differently. Later on, Hilary said of the portrait: “The picture you took is precious to me because I was myself recovering after a long period of ill health, and it was the first picture of me that showed a happier woman, one I recognised."

The picture you took is precious to me because... it was the first picture of me that showed a happier woman

Professor Helen Taylor, Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Exeter said of Dame Hilary Mantel’s passing: "Hilary Mantel, who died on 22nd September, was one of the greatest novelists and essayists of our time,

and in later years one of the most celebrated. She wrote 17 books, and was greatly admired for many years by critics and readers for her brilliantly witty, penetrating and inspirational writings on a range of themes and in many genres. In 2009, she published Wolf Hall , the first of a trilogy about Thomas Cromwell that would make her an international literary superstar and bring her a CBE, DBE and two Man Booker Prizes (the second for Bring Up the Bodies).

The University of Exeter was lucky to have a close relationship with Hilary Mantel. I knew her over many years, and was delighted when she moved to Budleigh Salterton. I was on the planning group of the Budleigh Salterton Literary Festival, and we persuaded her to become Festival President, in which role she played an active part until her death. In 2011 she accepted an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University, and in 2012 gave a splendid reading and 'in conversation' with me. She became Visiting Professor in the College of Humanities, and gave the inaugural lecture of the 2013-14 Arts and Culture Forum Series, 'Vacant Possession: The Houses Where the Dead Live.' The University was lucky to have such an internationally distinguished writer in our midst."

University of Exeter ranked second best in the South West

Elen Johnston

THE University of Exeter has ranked second best in the South West in The Times and Sunday Times

The Times recently released the Good University Guide for 2023, in which the University of Bath narrowly beat the University of Exeter in the rankings.

The University of Exeter moved up the rankings by eight places to 13th, compared 21st last year. The guide's university ratings took into account several factors such as 'student satisfaction' and 'teaching excellence' measured in the 2021 National Student Survey (NSS).

Professor Lisa Roberts, ViceChancellor of the University of Exeter stated: "We are absolutely thrilled that the University of Exeter has secured the runner-up position in this important ranking, as well as a significant rise in the overall league table position."

Continued from front page...

A student commented that having the one week extensions last year were a “lifeline for me,” elaborating that they “didn’t have the courage or mental capacity to contact wellbeing to set up an ILP or formal mitigation, so the one-week extensions were so helpful.” Another student also shared that they believe that the 72-hour extension period doesn’t give students enough time to ensure they can look after themselves

or to start their work on assignments when they are in a better state of mind.

Although students did share their concerns with these changes affecting their mental health negatively, one student expressed that the 72-hour extension period “would be better than nothing” and that they “don’t think it would make much difference.”

When asked whether the University’s changes to the mitigation and extension policies would affect their decision to take

on an extension, many students had similar reactions. Some students agreed that they would feel “more anxious to ask for an extension” as it causes “greater stress” as well as giving “no opportunity to take it slow”. Additionally, the stresses of deadlines was a common concern for most students, particularly as “most deadlines coincide with each other” thus causing further “panic and stress.” Several students also suggested that with the 72-hour extension period, “it would almost not be worth it” and that they “probably wouldn’t bother unless absolutely necessary, three days doesn’t make that much of a difference.”

Students agreed that they would feel “more anxious to ask for an extension”

Additionally, most students also reflected that they thought the University have made the wrong decision in considering changing the mitigation and extension

policies. One student pointed out that the University has taken “three steps backwards” with their recent decision. Other students commented that the change from a week to 72 hours for extensions was a “drastic change” and they “don’t think the 72 hours will benefit many.” However, one student did reflect that this change in a smaller period for extensions might “help people who tend to procrastinate their work, perhaps reducing further stress” and that “the limited time may help."

A spokesperson from the University elaborated on these policy changes: “This is so that we can ensure students receive feedback on their assessments in good time – which is crucial for their learning experience.

We are finalising the details of the new policy and information will be sent out to students next week, along with links to further information and FAQs. Any student experiencing extenuating circumstances can also apply for an additional extension through the standard mitigation process.”

She explained that: “this result is a testament to the partnership between our staff and students to continue to drive Exeter to continued success and enhancement of all that we do. As we mark a successful first year in the delivery of our new strategy, this achievement is one that we can celebrate within our university community, and also with our partners regionally, nationally and internationally, who play an integral role in achieving our ambitions to create a greener, heathier and fairer society for all."

“One week extensions last year were a lifeline for me”

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Features

Elen Johnston surveys the mounting pressure on Vladimir Putin Cracks show as Russia mobilises

AS the war in Ukraine drags on, pressure mounts on Vladimir Putin. Russia has called up as many as 300,000 military reserv ists in its ‘partial’ mobilisation for the war in Ukraine, prompting over 194,000 men of military age to flee to neighbouring countries. Meanwhile, referendums being held in occupied territories over their annexation have drawn condemnation from other world leaders. This all comes after Putin at tended a conference in Samarkand that revealed India and China’s discontent over the war’s disruption of markets.

Despite their previous hesitance to criticise the war, Indian prime min ister Narendra Modi told Putin that “Today’s era is not an era of war”, and China raised concerns over the war’s disruption to the energy market.

The BBC reported that soldiers have been knocking door-to-door in occupied territories to make people participate in the votes. The EU has promised further sanctions on Putin after referendums held in Russianoccupied parts of Ukraine were widely deemed illegitimate. The UK has prom ised 92 sanctions in their response to the referendums. British Foreign Sec retary James Cleverly stated: “Sham referendums held at the barrel of a gun cannot be free or fair and we will never recognise their results.” The

Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, has announced an increase in mili tary support to Ukraine and will also implement sanctions against Russia.

As Russia’s mobilisation starts, Kyiv says that Russian conscripts are being sent to the frontline. Peter Beaumont at the Guardian reported that the latest draft includes Crimean personnel and Luhansk conscripts. Russians are leaving for the Georgian border to avoid conscription. Opposi tion to the Russian mobilisation was also seen in a Siberian town where a Russian man shot the leader of a lo cal military draft committee, say ing he refuses to fight in Ukraine.

to a nuclear disaster in the region. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has reported that the power line is currently restored at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. The IAEA said: “While the ZNPP’s power status has improved over the past week — in sharp contrast to earlier this month when all the power lines at one stage were down and it de pended on its last operating reactor for vital electricity supplies — the general situation for the plant located in the mid

dle of a war zone remains precarious.”

The Ukrainian president, Volo dymyr Zelensky, has vowed to liber ate the whole of Ukraine, promising to throw out Russian forces and fight back against “every strike of the ag gressor”. BBC reporter Hugo Bachega reported that, despite the referendums, Ukraine’s counter-offensive aiming to reclaim Russian occupied territory will continue. In a Telegram video Zelensky said: “We will act to protect

our people in the Kherson region, in the Zaporizhzhia region, in Donbas, in the currently occupied areas of the Kharkiv region, and in Crimea.”

In response to the referendum Zelensky has told the UN Security Council it will not be able to negoti ate with Russia. Zelensky announced: “In front of the eyes of the whole world, Russia is conducting an out right farce called a ‘referendum’ on the occupied territory of Ukraine”.

SORROW etched the faces of mil lions around the country when the Queen passed away earlier this month. The only wrinkle? Young peo ple increasingly opposing the monarchy.

New figures reveal that discontent over the monarchy amongst young peo ple is growing. A YouGov poll from before the Queen’s death showed that just 33 per cent of 18-24 year olds think that the monarchy should continue in Britain. Back in 2011 that figure was 59 per cent. What is causing this de cline? Numerous scandals within the Royal Family or a jolt of disbelief that it can still exist in the modern world?

The conflict between republican ism and monarchism dates back to the English Civil War. But only re cently has republicanism become a hit.

Most significant were accusations that Prince Andrew had sexually assaulted Virginia Giuffre, and his secret connec tions with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell which were only revealed to the

An anonymous Western official told Gordon Corera at the BBC that the referendum and increasing nu clear rhetoric are signs of panic from Putin. President Biden’s national se curity advisor, Jake Sullivan, warned Russia of ‘catastrophic consequences’ if it decides to use nuclear weapons.

There have also been concerns that the shelling of Ukraine’s Zapor izhzhia nuclear power plant could lead

Young people vs the monarchy?

public in 2019. The rather abrupt end to the case, whereby a £12 million settlement will be paid to Giuffre, raised eyebrows.

Prince Andrew has become a poster boy for the abolition of the monarchy as a result. In fact, in 2019, after Andrew’s notorious Newsnight in terview, young people’s agreement that the monarchy should continue dropped significantly to 49 per cent.

There were also accusations that the then Prince Charles was accepting bags of cash worth three mil lion euros by Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani be tween 2011 and 2015.

They may just be accusations, but they do not reflect well on the private lives of the Royal Family.

Others believe that

the monarchy is out of touch in a mod ern society. They believe that the mon archy does not offer them anything, and does not reflect the experiences of many.

Meanwhile, anti-colonialists believe that British rule in colonies had no moral justification. When Queen Elizabeth II came to the throne, there were still 70 territories being controlled by the Brit ish Empire. They claim that British rule

was oppressive, and that the Royal Fam ily has ignored Britain’s colonial past.

Perhaps another reason is that Britain has become generally more secular dur ing Queen Elizabeth II’s reign. Church at tendance has been declining for some time now, decreasing to five per cent in 2022. As interest in Christianity lessens, the profound religious faith that accompanies the monarchy will too be undermined.

During the Queen’s fu neral, the future was prob ably the last thing on King Charles’ mind. But it was present. The future king, Prince George, attended, and William and Kate have been made Prince and Princess of Wales.

However, a YouGov survey of 1,014 people aged 16 and over shows that 34 per cent don’t want to see any investiture taking place to mark the prince’s new

title. 22 per cent are opposed to Prince William being titled Prince of Wales at all. With the soft echoes of melancholy hymns floating around the country now coming to an end, the monarchy will be tasked with appeasing certain parts of the UK. If the monarchy can embody those old-fashioned virtues that the Queen so highly valued — stoicism, kindness and a sense of humour — then there is no doubt that young people will appreciate it more.

According to the most recent polls — taken since the Queen’s death — 47 per cent of 18-24 year olds sup port the continuation of the monarchy. Will that number remain steady or fall back after the end of the mourning peri od? Will young people declare the monar chy victorious or not? Only time will tell.

Benedict Thompson analyses the drop in support for the monarchy among the young

The monarchy will be tasked with appeasing certain parts of the UK

Russians are leaving for the Georgian border to avoid conscription

Image: Presidential Executive Office of Russia, www.kremlin.ru, Wikimedia Commons

The University of Exeter and Students for Uyghurs

STUDENTS for Uyghurs, the stu dent wing of Stop Uyghur Geno cide, an activist organisation, recent ly spoke to Exeposé about the education, campaigning and lobbying that their group has been doing in and around Exeter to raise awareness of the Uyghur genocide. China is currently being accused of com mitting crimes against humanity including genocide against the Uyghur population and other mostly Muslim ethnic groups.

Although this may appear to be an international issue, Stop Uyghur Geno cide argues that the University of Exeter is complicit in this practice through its link to institutions like Tsinghua Uni versity through the Institute of Arab and Islamic studies. The institute hosts controversial academics like Hu Angang and Hu Lianhe, who have worked to de velop ‘second generation ethnic policy’, which argues for the forced assimila tion of minorities to form a ‘state race’.

Many student groups across the UK have argued that their universities should drop these links with the Chinese gov ernment and Chinese institutions associ ated with the genocide, but they proliferate across higher education institutions in this country. According to Palatinate, Durham University was found to have connections with 12 state-controlled Chinese universi ties linked to the People’s Liberation Army, nuclear weapons research and industrial espionage. Manchester University actively responded to protests and calls for change by shutting down a research project with a state-owned technology company alleg edly complicit in the Uyghur genocide, while the University of Exeter continues to maintain its links with Tsinghua University.

We were able to talk to three repre sentatives from Students for Uyghurs: John, Claire, and Flo (John’s and Claire’s names have been changed to maintain their anonymity) about their thoughts on this continued relationship, how the University responded to the event they ran last November entitled ‘‘How do we prevent Exeter University selling its ethics and reputation to authoritar ian states?” and the wider messages they

want to spread about the universities’ be ing complicit with authoritarian states.

É: Would you guys be able to tell us a little bit about Stop Uyghur Genocide and Students for Uyghurs?

J: Students for Uyghurs is the student wing of Stop Uyghur Genocide, which is a national lobby group which campaigns to stop Uyghur genocide, particularly in par liament. The most notable thing that Stop Uyghur Genocide has done in the past is the Genocide Amendment to the Trade Bill. This was meant to solve the problem of the way the current international court system works, where decisions can be ve toed by a powerful state that’s on the Se curity Council, so it’s impossible for those bodies to carry out investigations into countries like China or even the UK for invading Iraq. The international court sys tem is fundamentally broken, so what Stop Uyghur Genocide was trying to do with the Genocide Amendment was to get UK courts to, of their own volition, recognise that the Uyghur genocide was taking place, and then reflect in our trade policy that we don’t want to be having free trade deals with states that are complicit in genocide.

The most notable thing that Stop Uyghur Genocide has done in the past is the Genocide Amendment

Students for Uyghurs was founded lat er as the student wing of that, so there are different branches in different universities, so me and Flo were the first ones to start doing it, and then Claire joined us a bit later.

F: So from around January 2021 me and John worked on several investigative articles to do with the University of Exeter and Tsinghua, which is a university in China where President Xi went. This is also where some of the top scholars are involved in creating ethnic policy, which is linked to the foundations and the thinking behind the genocide which the Chinese government uses to determine how to deal with ethnic

tensions in the region. So we all wrote on that and followed it up with an event which was called: “How do we prevent Exeter University selling its ethics and reputation to authoritarian states?” That happened in November 2021 and went really, really well, and we had Mark Goodwin and Rich ard Ford from the senior leadership team, as well as several other academics who speak on this subject, and problematic institutional relationships such as the Ex eter-Tsinghua one. It was an online event organised with Students for Uyghurs and the Students’ Guild. After the event Ex eter Students for Uyghurs were featured in The Times newspaper about the event, and alongside other universities and their links.

É: What are some of the main messages you would like to con vey to students about this geno cide and the Uyghur people?

C: Something that is important to think about is that, obviously our main message is ‘stop Uyghur genocide’, but we also need to give agency to the Uyghur people. We need to make them more than just a hu man rights crisis happening in China. This is a people with a culture that’s being elimi nated. So it’s important to give agency back to a people who at the moment are primar ily known for the abuses against them.

J: I guess also we want people to un derstand that this isn’t just some distant land and some foreign people they’ve nev er heard of, you know, their daily lives are quite intimately connected to what’s hap pening in our own lives. People more often than not don’t realise this. The most cited case study of that is how 20 per cent of the world’s cotton comes from the Uyghur region, and it’s fair to assume that a large portion of that, if not the vast majority, has been extracted by slave labour, and so many other products, everything from Zara to Heinz Beans to solar panels, can be tied in many ways to forced labour, so its also about getting people to understand that even if it doesn’t feel relevant to them, it is.

C: It can be easy to separate yourself from it and just repost something on In stagram, which is still very important for helping people to learn what’s happen

ing, but what we would love for people to realise is you can have an impact in help ing people to stop it, and also, it’s more entwined with your life than you realise.

F: And also to add to that, I would say, it’s as much about trying to frame the genocide and what is happening there as a UK problem or even an Exeter problem in terms of institutional relationships.It’s also about less so presenting the Uyghurs as purely victims — they are those be ing attacked, but the power imbalance is so huge that, in terms of who the op pressor is, this Chinese Communist Party, their legislation, their policies, they still reach us in the UK, so it’s also about giv ing agency to Exeter students and saying you can do more, and you can hold your academic institution accountable at the very least. And so that’s something we’ve been working on in particular, and which is why we came up with several reforms for the uni, that we wanted the uni to put into practice. That is what our event in November 2021 was also about, about go ing through those reforms and hearing the senior leadership and what they thought.

J: We’re very keen to add that every thing we do is very anti-xenophobic, if you read our articles — for example, you’ll see that we never say things like China has done this, it’s always Chinese government and Chinese Communist Party, just be cause we want to emphasise that. It should go without saying but unfortunately it’s true that some people will equate the Chi nese government with the Chinese people and attack Chinese people as a result. That misunderstanding can occur partially be cause the Chinese Communist Party makes itself out to be the only representative of Chinese people, that it’s impossible to talk about China or Chinese people without also talking about the CCP, but we can’t feed that narrative and say “you’re right, Chi nese government does equal Chinese peo ple,” so it’s important to separate the two. So that’s a key pillar of everything we do.

É: What specific reforms did you suggest to the University?

F: The reforms we suggested to the University last year — it was primar ily that funding from authoritarian states who commit mass atrocity crimes should be limited. It’s ethically irresponsible and embarrassing for Exeter. As for informal relationships between individual scholars at both universities Exeter and Tsinghua, they should perhaps be more encouraged than the institutional link itself, because that’s when it becomes problematic. So through our FOIs we found out that Hu Angang, who is one of the problematic scholars in question, he’s not directly linked to the partnership Exeter has with Tsinghua, but just the fact that he’s at that institution, and that the deal is huge – it’s a £1.5 million partnership, that in itself is the issue. The rotten apples only fall so far from the tree.

And we also talked about how on the whole, Exeter needs to have a bet ter consultation process with students and staff from different departments be fore they enter into agreements with aca demic institutions in authoritarian states. The same goes with the UAE and Saudi.

C: We’ve had academics with in Exeter express concerns about

being twinned with Tsinghua.

We’ve had academics within Exeter express concerns about being twinned with Tsinghua

J: Yeah, and it was definitely notable that not a single academic, except one, and he was an academic who doesn’t actually work at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies [the department the partnership with Tsinghua is with], no one there was willing to go on the record, and they said that was because they were worried about how it would impact their job prospects, so as Flo says there needs to be more ability for the staff and students to have a say in whether or not they want the university they go to, which they pay their money to, to be entering into these sorts of relationships.

É: Were any of your suggest ed reforms made by the univerity?

F: They said that they made several changes, but overall the message from the University was, well they were talk ing about how much work they’re doing on climate change with Tsinghua Uni versity, and work to do with producing new mechanical equipment and medical equipment. They were basically saying that there’s so much good going on with this university that this issue you bring up is kind of small in comparison to that.

É: Do you collaborate with other campaigning groups on campus to spread your message?

F: Although we’re the society that is campaigning for Stop Uyghur Genocide, there are so many parallels in so many countries where genocides have taken place, but also there is that parallel be tween the oppressor and the oppressed and how then that in a globalised world has become global, and so we’re as much defenders of the Uyghurs as we would be of other ethnic groups who are facing persecution, which is why our society of ten partners with others, like the Friends of Palestine Society and stuff like that.

J: Friends of Palestine are great, they’ve been very supportive of us in the past, and yeah obviously the work they do has very close parallels to ours, as Exeter doesn’t only have problematic relationships with promi nent Chinese universities, it also takes a lot of money from the UAE and Israel as well.

C: Also Amnesty International should get some credit as well, because the Stu dents’ Guild didn’t let us have our own stall this year for the Freshers’ Fair, so Amnesty International invited us as guests to help us reach students who might be inter ested in helping out with Students for Uy ghurs, so they’ve been a great help as well.

F: With the fact that that the Students’ Guild didn’t allow us a stall, it was quite strange because the year before we were allowed a stall, and nothing has changed, we’re still non-affiliated. But it was great to see a lot of interest in what we’re do ing when we were at the Amnesty stall, a lot of people walking past and just pick ing up one of our leaflets, or coming over to talk to us, so yeah it was really good!

Megan Ballantyne, Editor, talks to Students for Uyghurs about UK universities’ links with the Chinese government

Comment

BeReal or BeFake?

BEREAL is a social media app that gives you a two minute notification at random times of the day to take a photo. This photo is in fact two photos, one from the front camera and one from the back camera. The French company BeReal’s motto ‘Your Friends for Real’ encompasses the app’s focus on creating a social media platform that allows you to see a more authentic perspective of your friends.

The Washington Post reported that BeReal’s factsheet for media states its company philosophy is “to create a candid and fun place for people to share their lives with friends... we want an alternative to addictive social networks fueling social comparison and portraying life with the goal of amassing influence”.

It’s questionable if any social media platform can claim to be entirely authentic. The notification feature certainly creates a sense of spontaneity and allows your friends

to see a less orchestrated view of your day-to-day life. However, even I have to admit that as soon as my BeReal notification appears I sit up straighter, adjust my hair and take multiple photos before the two minute timer runs out. Jo Ellison at the Financial Times reported that the app has been downloaded more than 28 million times and has over 15 million daily users. However, in Ellison’s article she concluded that “it’s among one of the weirder and more annoying phenomena of the modern age”.

[It] allows your friends to see a less orchestrated view of your day-to-day

Alternatively, the Guardian’s Jess Cartner-Moorely said: “No influencers, no filters - BeReal shows the beauty of the lives we actually lead.” She described how BeReal

reminded her that “beauty is not the same as perfection,” highlighting how even “if you adjust the angle of your phone to take a nice selfie, everyone can tell, because the other photo will be of the ceiling”.

BeReal reminded her that “beauty is not the same as perfection”

The app’s recent success has definitely made traction since its release. Will Oremus at the Washington Post reported the similarity between TikTok’s new feature release ‘TikTok Now,’ which prompts users to post photos and brief videos with their front and back camera, and the app BeReal. He also highlighted how Instagram has brought out their own similar feature “IG Candid Challenges”. He reports how BeReal posted the eye emoji on the day that TikTok

released their new feature but noted that BeReal declined to comment on the Washington Post’s story.

The app Bereal certainly recreates a sense of authenticity in the realm of social media that other apps have not. However, our ability to adapt to authenticity online is still questionable. I will

definitely not be posting when my BeReal notification goes off while I’m in bed or in the shower. Maybe different apps have different purposes. I love seeing my friends graduation pictures on Instagram but I also love seeing the BeReals of everyone’s spontaneous smiles at everyday happenings.

Lemon Grove fever — is it here to stay?

IN what was some of the biggest news of Freshers’ Week, I’m sure all our readers heard that after two years of closure due to lockdown, Exeter’s on-campus club the Lemon Grove has re-opened its doors. For all of us third year students who used the Lemon Grove only as a COVID testing centre the idea of an oncampus nightclub is a very foreign concept. But nonetheless, tickets were sold out and I even heard from some friends that they had sold one of their spare tickets for £50! I have fallen victim to some self-declared entrepreneurs on the odd TP Wednesday but this buyer must have had a chronic case of FOMO. The week after its grand re-opening was also a sell out with the Overheard rat race already beginning. Despite its great success during move-in and Freshers’ Week, cynics like me can’t help but question whether the Lemon Grove fever is going to burn out. Personally, I like the buzz of going into town for a night out but being able to go somewhere different close by if the vibe wasn’t right

in your original choice that night. However, I recognise that I’m speaking as someone who lives off campus and close to a lot of the clubs in town, so I can see the appeal to a fresher of having a club right on your doorstep where you can even run back into your flat and have another drink between songs if you want to. It can definitely be intimidating

entering an environment with a lot of people older than you, so if the Lemon Grove does become a hub for first years it could help make their daunting transition into university life a little bit less scary.

I can see the appeal to a fresher of having a club right on your doorstep

The re-opening of an oncampus club could also help ease the pressure on University societies, who normally have to pay very high prices in order to rent out venues to hold their socials.

On a more sombre note, we all remember last year becoming more aware of the massive problem of spiking in nightclubs in Exeter and all over the country, so having a

club on-campus means that, were something to happen, affected students could be much closer to on-campus services like security and medical help. To my knowledge, in other universities, especially Cardiff University, their student union club is the busiest and most popular one by far, so maybe the revival of the Lemon Grove will see a big change in Exeter nightlife.

Affected students could be much closer to on-campus security and medical help

Could it perhaps be that city universities like Cardiff lack an actual campus and therefore a university-run club provides the proper feeling of university life that we get every day when we visit our campus? It’s clear that on other campuses, universityrun nightclubs are still very much relevant and hold a special place in students’ hearts. Only time will tell whether the Lemmy will have the same appreciation in Exeter.

Elen Johnston discusses the popularity of the application whilst weighing it up against other social medias

Connor Goddard, Comment Editor, discusses the reopening of campus club ‘The Lemmy’

Image: Frank Schwichtenberg, Wikimedia Commons

Bank holiday funeral: Out of touch?

The bank holiday is recognition of 70 years of service

THE Queen’s death was a big surprise to all of us, de spite her many years on the throne and ever advancing age. Op eration Unicorn was enacted and on the day of her funeral many business es took the decision to close. Many people who popped out on Monday the 19th were confronted by a ghost town, with many news outlets de scribing the country being as quiet as it is normally on Christmas Day.

lation being born after her ascension in 1952 it is not something that we can even call a once in a generation event. There are a lot of people who do not support the monarchy at all, which is their prerogative, and may be the main reason of those saying that we should not be shutting up shop on the day of the Queen’s funeral.

As well as shops and restaurants closing there were also a lot of peo ple who had hospital procedures and other important appointments cancelled. These cases are of course unjustified, but I think it’s impor tant to try and understand why they would have been cancelled. The day of the Queen’s funeral was essentially an unplanned bank holiday and nor mally important appointments such as these would simply not be sched uled on Whitsun, Easter or any other bank holiday that we knew of in ad vance. Thus, hospitals and doctors more than likely just operated their normal bank holiday service which would entail a reduced number of workers on a very short notice period.

However, this could dramatically worsen the wellbeing of someone waiting for a surgery or consultation about a medical problem they’ve had for a long period of time. This is no excuse and hospitals should have been more sensitive to that fact, and to the increased anxiety and worry among its patients this decision would create.

On the question of whether shops, restaurants and other ‘non-essential’ services should have closed on the day of the Queen’s funeral, I think yes. The death of the Queen is something that is incomprehensibly unprecedented; with 90 per cent of the world’s popu

There are many, many problems facing modern day Britain; from skyrocketing energy bills to a cost-of-liv ing crisis that desperately need to be tackled head on by the government. However, to correlate these problems with one day of closures comparable to Christmas Day simply isn’t logical. State funerals are a tradition that go back hundreds of years and have taken place in years past when the British people faced much bigger plights than today; George VI’s state funeral in 1952 took place in a coun try still on rations, his father George V’s took place in 1936 at a time when Hitler was on the rise terror ising Europe and Brit ain was on the brink of war.

To highlight the problems of the past is not to diminish the seri ousness of the problems that peo ple face today, but merely to point out that for hundreds of years we have been able to celebrate and com memorate our deceased leaders in times of much greater difficulty.

Connor Goddard, Comment Editor

A shutdown is insensitive to the problems people are facing

WITH a cost of living crisis and healthcare waiting lists becom ing inaccessible, the question arises whether it is acceptable for food banks to close, for hospital appoint ments to be rescheduled and fu nerals to be cancelled this past bank holiday. Whilst families struggle between deciding whether to heat their homes or feed themselves, food banks across the UK shut as a sign of respect for the Queen’s passing. The needs of the poorest in our society, locked out to celebrate the life of a sovereign. Of course, Queen Elizabeth II has commendably devoted her life to this country, she was a univer sal icon, the longest reigning monarch; however, her love for this country and its people is undermined when we starve our most vulnerable of basic necessities, in a Britain where poverty is on the rise.

second-class citizens over a bank holiday, the sheer power that the monarchy has over modern Britain is felt overwhelmingly. Healthcare horror stories have also arisen from the bank holiday. From life saving treatment for cancer patients can celled to crucial surgeries rescheduled, the NHS seems to have reached its break ing point. With waiting lists seemingly endless combined with the battle to get a GP appointment — the bank holiday has disrupted things further creating ut ter chaos. It is fair to say that the funeral of the Queen has been put over the gen eral public’s health. This has reinforced the view that it is one rule for us, another for them. With all respect to those who have passed, royalty or not, it is disgusting to see the welfare of people living here and now being cast aside to honour the deceased.

It is laughable, that a bank holiday meant to pay respect to the Queen has dis respected so many other families who have also lost loved ones. In Britain’s national period of mourning for the Queen, the mourning of those who are not royal has been cast aside. By cancelling funerals as a result of the bank holiday, it is denying other fami lies time to mourn and undermining their own grief, their own sadness which is apparently not comparable with that of the Royal Family’s. The royal family has the right to mourn however they may choose, but why is it at the expense of families who have had that right taken away? Is their grief not equal to the grief felt for the Queen? These families are being treated as

With her years of service and love for her country, I am certain Queen Elizabeth II would not have wanted crucial services like foodbanks to close in a country where we are becoming more and more food bank dependent. The bank holiday could have been moved to a later date in order to accommodate for the cost of living cri sis and the already overworked NHS. The cancellation of funerals is a laugh in the face of working people, who have been gravely disrespected whilst the expecta tion remains that they must show respect for the deceased monarch in return. The Queen’s death has created shockwaves across not just the UK but the world, how ever as life continues, a bank holiday is not an excuse to forget our most vulnerable.

Connor

the national shutdown for the Queen’s funeral is out

State funerals are a tradition that go

Healthcare horror stories have also arisen from the bank holiday

The needs of the poorest in our society, locked out

Satire

Uni launches graphic design course after success of rebrand

ASTEP-UP from the original Comic Sans font and Microsoft Word clip-art, the University of Exeter rebrand could be described by some as a mesh be tween a Church of England primary school logo and an at tempt at something Hogwarts-esque. Trading a calm and subtle blue for a neon teal, the rebrand is hard to miss. The dazzling shade of green (can it be called green?) has appar ently blinded drivers near the bottom of Forum Hill, and has caused cyclists to crash while making their Just Eat deliver ies. McDonald’s orders have spilled out across pavements, and we regret to say that soggy nuggets have been reported.

It seems that the University has taken our Latin motto “we follow the light” too literally, with eye-sight loss oc curing campus-wide as a result of the beaming signs. In fact, it seems the University may have also blinded them selves in the implementation of the redesign, as they seem to have viewed the rebrand as a resounding success, and have launched a ‘Passion For Graphic Design’ course, wel coming new students from next academic year. Instead of asking students from the University of Exeter Art Soci ety to design the new logo, it is believed that the University decided to ask the Economics students instead. Who else could come up with something so bland yet so confident?

Cleo Gravett Satire EditorQueuphoria!

WITH the death of one iconic queue (and in deed, a monarch), comes the birth of an other. Following the devastating news that sandwich shop franchise Pret A Manger would cease their free coffee subscription service at the Streatham Campus Forum branch, the Pret A Manger Exeter High Street branch expected an immense increase in foot traf fic from those relocating for their free coffee fix… but it never came. “We doubled our coffee bean delivery to keep up with anticipated demand, but our footfall has stayed exactly the same! It’s almost like all those who used to queue around the Forum have just van ished”, a Pret employee who requested to stay anony mous told Exeposé. But where have these students gone?

Our investigative team, in collaboration with a team from the BA Human Geography course at the University of Exeter, followed the migration pattern of these missing students, and found a large gathering of them had congre gated in the queue to view the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II.

Though the Queen’s connection with the University of Exeter is long-established (who, of course, could for get the Open Day fact nugget regarding why we have a Student Guild rather than a Union), the question of how these students were getting their caffeine fix in this par ticular queue was more perplexing. When interviewed, one student replied, “Coffee? Oh no, I don’t drink cof fee.”, and when pressed about the queue as a display of unity and national significance responded, “Oh my good ness! The queen is dead? I was just here for the queue.”

While it is lazy to lean on British stereotypes, for the students of the University of Exeter, it really does seem as though the real joy lay within the queue itself.

THE eagle-eyed observer may have noticed a new dance craze that has been sweeping the streets of Exeter. Particu larly observed around the Sid well Street, Victoria Street, and the main high street areas of Exeter, it is most performed in the morning, by those hur

Saturday Night (in) Fever

rying on their way to work or other appointments. A combina tion of seemingly random jumps, hops and wide side steps, there seems to be no set choreography to be learned, with the delivery of the dance coming down to the discretion of the individual.

Needless to say, it has al ready taken TikTok by storm, with over nine million views and thousands of posts under the hashtag ‘#chachaexetah’. Even more excitingly, on account of

this dance phenomenon, it is re ported that a production team from BBC’s Strictly Come Danc ing has sent a scout to Exeter to gather intel on this boogie for potential incorporation into the current series of the show, as part of the Couple’s Choice section.

Image: Activedia, Pixabay

Exeposé approached esteemed dance historian Charles Tonne for comment on this dance craze.

“Throughout history, dance has acted as a physical expres sion of all kinds of emotions, as well as an artistic reaction to physical stimuli, and obstacles both societal and personal. In this case, though, I think people are just dodging the puddles of Fresher sick on the pavement.”

Joshua Hughes Editor

AS a result of a software patch by the Univer sity of Exeter, many students’ timetables have begun creating classes which simulta neously take place on both the Streatham and Penryn campuses. This has concerned many who believe it is not physically possi ble to be in two places at once.

In a rare appearance Barry Allen, aka The Flash, comment

ed that he was pleased that “a course is finally open that takes into account [his] remarkable abilities,” adding that he will cer tainly be applying to the Univer sity of Exeter in September 2023.

Students on the athletics team have also responded posi tively to the timetable mishap, believing that it will be possible to make both classes. Since it is only a 1hr 56min drive between campuses, making at least “one minute of both classes will be technically possible” stated ath letics captain Miles Sprinter.

Professor Mark Learner, who will be leading the lecture sug gested that students should sim ply send their identical twin to the other class in order to regis

ter attendance. When asked what students should do if they don’t have an identical twin, Learner looked puzzled and questioned: “If they don’t have an identi cal twin, then why are they studying quantwin mechanics?”

The timetable problems re ally have been the tip of the ice berg for the university, who are now facing several discrimina tion lawsuits from twinless indi viduals, who are seeking twice the payout for the damage the error has caused to their education.

Annabelle Law

Needless to say, [the dance] has taken TikTok by storm

As it is a 1hr 56min drive between campuses, making at least “one minute of both classes will be technically possible”

Timetable clashes leave students with simultaneous Streatham/Penryn classes

Skinny jeans: The return lifestyle

Gracie Moore, Lifestyle Editor, talks about the lesser anticipated comeback of skinny jeans

SKINNY jeans are back. Right or wrong, they are regaining popularity. It feels like a lifetime since we were in the late 2000s, squeezing ourselves hurriedly into Primark's finest, paired with overly thick eyeliner and brown Ugg boots.

It’s a trend we never saw coming back, we would laugh at ‘vintage’ photos of ourselves on our mums' Facebooks, pixelated and heavily filtered, where you could bet that your skinny jeans would make an appearance. As time went on, celebrities such as Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid were pictured online with bloggers writ ing posts such as “How to style skinny jeans like Kendall”. Truly frightening in hindsight. The issue with this is that these kind of posts, common pre-2014 are rearing their ugly heads today. Just three weeks ago, in fact, minor influencer Naomi Townsend wrote an article titled “How to style skinny jeans in 2022,” adding in phrases like “model off-duty” and “French girl style” to force feed us the skinny jeans content we didn’t ask for. The question is also raised as to how we let these 'influencers' dictate our lifestyles.

On a personal level, I would love to leave skinny jeans firmly in the past. They are unflat tering on most body types and the level of dis comfort is never worth it. There are no redeem

ing factors. As someone who is six feet tall with legs thicker than matchsticks, even finding the jeans that are long enough as well as forgiving in the stretch, is like searching for a needle in a haystack the size of the Primark sweat shop hell that the jeans originally came from.

On a se rious note, skinny jeans can be seen as one of the driv ing forces for body dysmor phia in young girls during the 2000s. With slender models being the tar get market for this style, girls with other natural body types often felt excluded — includ ing myself. This is why other styles of jeans, such as wide-leg jeans, feel more inclusive. There are

many other fashion trends that would be the preferred choice in terms making a comeback in place of skinny jeans. For example, an inclusive example of this would be the 90s trend of rhinestones and generally bejewelled items. It enhances the excitement of an out fit or accessory and is increasingly becoming an ac cepted genderneutral trend.

Rather than try ing to compress our bodies into restrictive skinny jeans, why can't we bring back trends that show off our freedom of expression?

Generally, there are many fashion trends that were popular in the past, but they should remain exactly as that — trends of the past. Skinny jeans are the prime example of this, but there are many other fashion statements

Forming healthy habits

IT'S the end of summer and the start of term. Starting on the right foot can be dif ficult but there are little steps you can take to kick the term off right. If you know you love a Timepiece Wednesday night out, but you have an 8:30 lecture on Thursday morning, you need to remember to leave a bottle of wa ter beside your bed for when you get back, to lessen your hangover the next morning. If you are more of an introvert like me, you need to kick the term off by finding the balance be tween putting yourself outside of your com fort zone and establishing time for yourself to rest. You might want to invest in self-care with candles, skin care, and treating yourself to nights in watching your favourite films.

If you are a little impulsive with mon ey, you could open a Monzo account and transfer the amount of money you don't want to spend over into the account to protect yourself from spending your en tire student loan in the first few weeks.

etables. If you happen to relate to this niche struggle, I recommend sitting down one day and chopping up your vegetables in one go and putting them in bags in the freezer. My ADHD executive dysfunction is pleased by the fact that on the day of cooking them, they are frying pan ready and freezing them re duces my food waste by the end of the week.

from the 80s, 90s and 2000s which are threaten ing to make a reappearance. Other examples which I fear are coming back into fashion are leop ard print everything, quiffs and tiny handbags.

The general consensus appears to be that people should be allowed to wear what makes them feel most comfortable as well as letting themselves express their own personal style at the same time. It's important that all body types have the same outlets to experiment with their clothes and decide on how they'd like to dress. With the gaining popularity of skinny jeans, this becomes more difficult, as not everyone feels included, since the sizing of skinny jeans is, more often than not, awkward.

The concept of certain trends from our pasts becoming popular again is nothing less than terrifying, but for now, I will cling on to my wide leg jeans with all my might and pray that these remain socially acceptable.

Everyone has different struggles and things they would like to change. Personally, I would like to get better at cooking. My ADHD makes cooking difficult, and I am ashamed to admit it results in wasted fruit and veg

We are all different, have different goals and know ourselves best. I'm afraid I don't have a fool proof guide to starting the term right. But I do challenge you to write down something you would like to do differently this term and one small thing you can do once a day to make that change. Remem ber a new term is a new start. It's an op

portunity to try and do things differently.

It's easy to get stuck in bad habits and hard to imagine not doing them. However, it's the optimism, honesty, and little things we do each day that help us figure out how we navigate them. The first step we take might look entirely different to how we figure out how to navigate better habits, but it's bet ter to start and learn than to not start at all.

Elen Johnston talks about the ways she formed good habits when starting university and how to stick to them

Image: PublicDomainArchive, Pixabay

ARE ALL DIFFERENT, HAVE DIFFERENT GOALS AND KNOW OURSELVES BEST

IT'S IMPORTANT THAT ALL BODY TYPES HAVE THE SAME OUTLETS TO EXPERIMENT

Pressured freshers

Annabelle Law and Joshua Hughes, Editor, discuss the ways they dealt with peer pressure during first year

WHEN it comes to Freshers’ Week, some big sister advice is always needed. Last year, my very first Freshers’ Week was one filled with tears, homesickness and the big one — loneli ness. I knew no one, I felt peer pressured to go out, talk to as many people as possible in my lectures and had a huge fear of miss ing out. This is something that many, if not

all, of you will feel at some point. You’ll be split between being miserably homesick and wanting to cry on the phone to your mum or going out because it feels like that’s what you’re “supposed to do”. I felt guilty at certain points that I wasn’t hav ing the full university experience or hav ing as much fun as my peers — the truth is, feeling isolated is part of the experience. Going out can be fun especially with a new group of friends, but you shouldn’t force yourself to — it might make you feel worse. If I could speak to my past self, I would say: take your time, not every day has to be a night out, shake off the con stant pressure to make as many friends as possible; some nights are probably better spent watching a film, having a cup of tea or cooking a nice meal. Taking care of your self should be your number one priority, not being peer pressured into having a 'perfect' freshers experience we all seem to be chasing after. If you still feel the pres sure, try communicating this to one of your friends, — perhaps you can plan a lovely night in. Know that the fear of missing out is truly a universal experience, but if you’re content with having time to yourself to re lax and unwind, you really aren’t missing anything. Have fun but take it slow, you re ally do have the whole year ahead of you.

THE first few weeks of Freshers are a daunting experience. A new home, new people and new work – you can be excused for feeling a little bit over whelmed. Peer pressure is absolutely some thing that you can encounter in your first year at university. From drinking, to spend ing money, to joining new societies, it is extremely difficult to strike a good balance between doing what you want to do and also feeling like you’re not throwing yourself into everything (like you’ve been told to do).

The best way of dealing with this is coming up with a list of what you want to achieve in your first year. Whether you want to go surfing or end the year with a First (easier said than done) it will help you get your pri orities straight and give you some direction and purpose. So, when you feel pressured to

get into a situation which you’re uncomfort able in, you can refer back to your list and do something you truly want to do. While setting in stone what you want to do is a dif ficult task, just getting your thoughts down on paper is a useful thing to do and will at least allow you to make sense of things in what is normally a stressful and busy pe riod. It must be said that in first year, you will be in situations that you might not have planned to be in, but learning about what you dislike is as useful — possibly more so — than finding out what you like. Hence, I would say that finding what you enjoy and what you want to do is what you should be doing, but you must remember this is not an easy task and will take time and effort.

Joshua Hughes, Editor

By nature or just by name?

THE new Revolution Bar that has re cently opened in Exeter, from my ex perience, is a great place for a fun night out. I went with my housemates for a cocktail night and we arrived before it got re ally busy. I had passed the outside of Revo lution before I went there, and I’ve always noticed how long the queues have been since its opening. Sometimes the queues have even led up to the outside of Cavern.

SOMETIMES THE QUEUES

Luckily, when we went, we had a book ing for a table and when we first walked in we noticed how vibrant and detailed the décor was. From multiple neon signs and hanging plants from the ceiling, the place certainly looked perfectly modern with in stagrammable features, which my house mates and I took full advantage of. As well as this, they played classic, upbeat tunes that perfectly matched the vibes of the bar.

We only went for drinks so unfortunately, we didn’t get to try any of the food that they

offer, but I look forward to trying some of the items on their menu in the future. There was a large variety of drinks, with many vod ka-based cocktails and creatively flavoured shots. For certain cocktails, they also offered a 2 for £10 deal during the happy hour, which was worth the money considering how large the drinks were. One of the drinks that I tried was the Mean Girl cocktail, inspired by the famous early 2000s chick flick. The drink was made up of vodka, pink gin, lime, cranberry juice, and lemonade and had a light pink ap pearance, decorated with a post-it note that had the iconic line from the film: “She doesn’t even go here". Another one I tried was the Sundown Spritz which was made up of Bac ardi raspberry, Aperol, rosé wine, grena dine, sugar syrup and pineapple soda. The Sundown Spritz was definitely my favourite drink of the night with a sweet moreish taste.

It's a drink I wish I could order at any bar.

The shots they offered also looked in triguing, with flavours varying from Very Cherry flavour to Birthday Cake flavour. With all these flavours of shots, I wouldn’t be sur prised if people would be getting tipsy very quickly. They also did a shot roulette, which myself and my housemates were too afraid to

attempt. The shot roulette consisted of five Gi ant Strawb flavour vodka shots and one Fiery Chili flavoured vodka shot. So, if you are look ing to make drinking a bit more interesting, I would recommend trying the shot roulette at Revolution. The bar also does events for socie ties and sponsors certain nights out. We were fortunate enough to get a green wristband for free entry at Fever until 11pm, where we of course ended up after leaving Revolution.

The only downside of Revolution would be that you have to arrive early or have a booking if you want to be able to get in. With its popu larity growing both locally and in the univer sity student sphere, the queue for Revolution, as previously mentioned, is rather long so it might not be great if you are quite impatient. I would recommend getting to Revolution early, getting a few cocktails down you and treating it as a great location for pre-drinks before going clubbing at Timepiece or Fever.

for a simple cocktail night with friends, espe cially since it is in a great spot in town. Overall, my experience at Revolution was really love ly. The aesthetics of the bar were funky and bright, giving the place an exciting atmos phere. It is the perfect place for nicely priced drinks and a tipsy night out with friends.

Alternatively, it is still an amazing location

Annabelle Law

Livvy Mason-Myhill,

Image: Carl Roett

Image: StockSnap, Pixabay

arts + lit

Moons, dunes, and socialism

Arts and Lit writers discuss their favourite sci-fi books

The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin The Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson

THIS book has stuck with me ever since I read it. It’s a fantastically immersive soft science fiction book about separated sister worlds: two centuries ago, a group of revolutionaries fled the planet Urras and its capitalist system for the satellite planet Anarres, where they founded their own isolated society organised around anarchist and socialist principles. Now, both worlds call the other their moon. When Shevek, a physicist from Anarres, is hindered from publishing his life‘s greatest scientific breakthrough, he finds that unjust hierarchies can form even in this anarchistic society. Although he has been taught to hate their sister planet, it has a certain allure for him — there he would finally receive recognition for his work. Perhaps he could even do some good as an ambassador to this alien world. Or perhaps he is being manipulated...

Joshua Cremer

The Black Cloud by Fred Hoyle

ONE of my favourite literary film adaptations would be the 2020 adaptation of Emma. Out of all the adaptations that I have seen of Jane Austen’s classic romance novel, the 2020 version is by far my favourite. Anya Taylor-Joy plays the “handsome, clever and rich” main character, Emma Woodhouse, as we see her try to find a suitable match for her best friend Harriet Smith. Filled with an all-star cast, with the likes of Bill Nighy playing Mr Woodhouse and Miranda Hart playing Miss Bates, the film perfectly captures the quirky and

I

N The Black Cloud astronomer Fred Hoyle blurs the lines between fiction and non-fiction. In this classic, Hoyle explores the interrelationship between large cosmic structures, extra-terrestrial life, intelligence, and humanity. The book involves a black cloud that blocks out the sun’s light from Earth, endangering the human race. What differentiates this classic from other sci-fi works is the author’s detailed account in scientific terms of how the black cloud appears in Earth’s solar system, with it only initially blocking out stars in the sky making them disappear to the human eye. Hoyle leaves few unexplained answers to the imagination, making the impossible seem almost credible. Without spoiling this classic for you, the ending of this book questions our understanding of life in the universe and the human brain’s capacity to understand it. This book will leave you feeling as small as an ant looking up at the cosmos

Elen Johnston

FOR a story that spans two centuries, the Mars trilogy is pretty light on plot. It’s also pretty heavy on scientific detail, but Kim Stanley Robinson makes it work. Red Mars opens with the first settlement of Mars in 2027. That volume and its sequels, Green Mars and Blue Mars, go on to chart the lives of select members of the ‘First Hundred’ and their descendants, alongside the development of Martian civilisation. Robinson’s socialism informs the world he creates, which is at once bleak and hopeful. Earth is overpopulated and ruled by giant corporations. As Mars is made physically more Earth-like by the terraforming process, its inhabitants seek to carve out an identity and a way of life separate from the mother planet — in doing so, stirring up conflict among themselves. Rather than expect to be whisked along, allow yourself to sink into, and marvel at, the stunning scale and detail of Robinson’s vision.

Oliver Lamb, Features Editor

comedic story that the novel describes.

Although the plotline of the film is not entirely accurate, the aesthetics of it certainly match how I would envisage the novel. The costumes in particular were modelled on the real fashion of the Regency era, which was one of my favourite details of the film. As well as this, the setting of the novel was incredibly detailed and beautiful, especially the portrayal of Hartfield,

which captures the grandness of the Woodhouses’ home. The scenes with Mr Woodhouse were some of my favourites, with his hilarious mannerisms and his constant fear of draughts carrying the comedy of the film.

Of course, the most essential plotline of the film would be the romance between Emma and Mr Knightly. Although the film did not use an older actor to play

Social media and books

Mr Knightly, which would have more accurately encapsulated the age difference between him and Emma that we see in the book, I felt more comfortable with the use of the younger actor, which is much more appropriate for today’s audiences. One of my favourite scenes is the well-known scene where Mr Knightly confesses his love for Emma and then Emma unfortunately gets a nosebleed. Even though the 2020 adaptation of Emma is not completely accurate to the book, I still enjoy the way it depicts the amazing aesthetics and certain characterisation details of the Austen novel.

Zoe Sperry explores the world of books, publishing, and social media

THE craze of BookTok and Bookstagram has taken the internet by storm, and a whole new audience of young scrollers has opened up to authors and publishers who have been reaping the benefits. Colleen Hoover’s infamous It Ends With Us was number one on The New York Times best sellers list in January 2022, and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid was on the New York Times bestseller list for 37 weeks by the end of 2021. Although these books were released in 2016 and 2017 respectively, it is now that they’ve experienced such a surge in popularity.

It is no surprise that this has happened since the pandemic — for two years people were locked in their homes, forced to spend mindless hours on social media, and away from the easy access of libraries and bookshops. TikTok and Instagram have created new communities that are not only

available to life-long bookworms, but also people who were never before avid readers.

IT IS NO SURPRISE THAT THIS HAS HAPPENED SINCE THE PANDEMIC — FOR TWO YEARS PEOPLE WERE LOCKED IN

For a long time, books have been perceived as a school task, or a niche interest reserved for the intellectuals. But since this rise in book publicity, more and more people are realizing that reading can be enjoyable for anyone and everyone.

I love spending hours in a bookshop, reading every back cover on the shelf. But not everyone is interested, nor has the time to do so.

has solved this dilemma; with its short 1560 second videos, one can easily share and discover new books without the hassle of having to do any research or leave the house. And the long caption format of Instagram has allowed for deeper book reviews and a wider exploration of literary genres to thrive. Indeed, there seems to be a select group of genres that have caught the eye of BookTok: “spicy romance, expansive fantasy, page-turning mystery, and emotional fiction are all categories seeing exponential growth because of the #BookTok community,” according to Barnes & Noble Director of Category Management Shannon DeVito.

undergone a lot of criticism for being basic or overrated. And one can also argue that it has pushed other books and genres to the side while these best-sellers dominate the internet. Publishing has always been a competitive scene, but even more now with the added element of social media.

PUBLISHING HAS ALWAYS BEEN A COMPETITIVE SCENE, BUT EVEN MORE NOW WITH... SOCIAL MEDIA

TikTok

These books, despite their enormous popularity, have naturally

But whether you’re a fan of Colleen Hoover or find these viral books too over-rated, there’s no denying that social media has formed a new community for people to come together. In an age where we are glued to our screens, it is good to remember that there are other forms of entertainment outside the phone.

Livvy Mason-Myhill, Deputy Editor, discusses one of her favourite recent literary film adaptations, Austen’s Emma

Literary film and TV

The best museums around the globe

Arts and Lit writers discuss the museums that they think our readers would love

The Museum of Broken Relationships Bristol Museums

WE all love to love. The relationships we hold with each other are arguably some of the most important things in life. And that’s what makes this museum, or rather collection, so important. The Museum of Broken Relationships is a crowd sourced, global project. With two permanent exhibits, one in Zagreb and one in LA, as well as other travelling ones around the globe. The collection hosts over two hundred items representing the enormity of human relationships, and the space created when they break apart. The form of the collection itself is unique. Anyone is free to send in an object or memento of their broken relationship. It holds everything from poems and jewellery to sex toys and old scabs. Each item comes with a short story attached and those are equally varied; some tell of summer flings, some of marriages ended after decades together. And of course, there are nonromantic relationships. Perhaps the most heart-wrenching items are those that represent the broken bonds between parents and children. For example, the wedding tape destroyed by a daughter after her parents split, or the origami cranes a woman made after her child miscarried. This collection is a real insight into human connection and how we attach it to physical objects.

BRISTOL Museum was a staple in my childhood; the hilly walk up Park Street in Bristol where the museum is situated, sitting grandly next to the university buildings, always reminds me of Saturday mornings with my Dad. It houses a plethora of delights: Egyptian mummies, artwork by Banksy, Alfred the Gorilla and Bristolian dinosaur remains. The top floor acts as an art gallery, one of the current exhibitions being and European Art: The Age of Enlightenment and the Birth of Romanticism great thing about this museum is that its content is constantly changing and evolving to showcase different time periods and new discoveries.

IT FEELS MORE LIKE AN ART EXHIBITION OR A SOCIAL EXPERIMENT

Whilst most museums aim to teach you about something else, you walk out of the Museum of Broken Relationships feeling like you’ve learnt something about yourself. It feels more like an art exhibition or a social experiment than a museum. Walking around and seeing all the stories of love and loss, with the majority still remaining hopeful and loving, is a bittersweet experience that leaves one pondering their own relationships with their loved ones. Unfortunately, there are no exhibitions coming to the UK any time soon, but many of the pieces can be viewed online and all can be found in their book. Additionally, you can always send in a token of your own broken relationship for the world to see.

Daisy Leason

Belonging to the same group of museums, the M-shed is another nostalgic Bristolian museum that I have visited with my grandparents on many occasions. It showcases film and photographs, partnering personal stories of Bristolians with historical events. In fact, last time I visited, we saw an old photograph of my Grandad in an exhibition about British cycling that he didn’t even realise had been taken! I love the location of the M-shed too; it is on the Bristol docks, just a short walk from artsy coffee shops and independent shops. I love the focus on stories, as Bristol is full of diverse people who deserve to have their stories told.

I’d also recommend the Red Lodge museum in Bristol. The museum has different rooms preserved from different periods in time, from the last complete Elizabethan room in Bristol to a room shown in its more recent purpose as a Victorian reform school. You are literally immersed in history; the recreation of an Elizabethan knot garden is a lovely touch and one I remember from my childhood. And the best thing about all three museums: they are free!

Women and the art world: Has anything changed?

Amy Rushton, News Editor, discusses feminist art and the art world’s treatment of women

IN 1984, the Museum of Modern formed a group show of international art portraying work by 165 different artists. The curator Kynaston McShine, declared any artist not in the exhibition should ‘re-think his career’. Only 13 featured artists were women.

This was a turning point in the history of feminist art: the Guerrilla Girls, a group of gorilla mask donning activists formed in protest. Their work has spawned recognition that women have been left out of a history of art which is incomplete without their inclusion. Recent books such as Kate Hessel’s The Story of Art Without Men , alongside major exhibitions centered on female artists, have begun to challenge this narrative. The profile of female artists such as Frida Kahlo, Tracy Emin and Yayoi Kusama, has rocketed in recent years, so it appears as though women are finally part of the story that they have been excluded from for too long. However, exhibitions are still skewed towards men, with attention towards female artists largely limited to a select few, whilst the majority remain overlooked. This is something which doesn’t go unnoticed by consumers of art, particularly women

and girls. My love for art was formed during childhood trips to art galleries but that came too with an early realisation that female artists weren’t frequently celebrated. Through this act of omission,

National Gallery had its first major exhibition of a female artist in 2020 with Artemisia Gentileschi, many of her contemporaries such as Elisabetta Sirani remain overlooked. Women were at the forefront of numerous

Moss, frequently forgotten by the art world, was a star of constructionism and their techniques were adopted by Piet Mondrian.

Similarly, despite being relegated to a ‘muse’, Dora Maar’s surrealist photography is far more important than the fact of her relationship to Picasso. The same goes for Elizabeth Siddal, who was not solely a model for Rossetti but an artist in her own right. Recently, the Tate Modern held an exhibition of Lubaina Himid, the first black woman to win the Turner Prize, a reminder that challenging and important work is still being created, and not just by men.

feminist art and artworks are presented as less important, and less talented, than their male counterparts. Instead, much of the art on display relegates women as sex objects. It’s impossible to overstate how damaging and dehumanising this can be.

Talented and successful female artists stretch back throughout history and they deserve increasing recognition. Whilst the

artistic movements, for instance, Hilma Af Klint’s role as an early abstractionist, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham’s position in the St Ives group, and Sophie TauberArp’s pioneering constructivism, but they have too often been written out of these movements. Despite their contributions being ignored, female and non-binary artists have revolutionised art; Marlow

The art world is less interesting, exciting and inclusive, if we focus solely on men. The work of feminist activists not only brings attention to overlooked artists, with an increased number of exhibitions and displays centred on them in recent years, but revolutionises how we see and experience art. The Guerrilla Girls themselves now have their posters and protest art displayed in major galleries such as the Tate Modern, proving that, if we pay attention to the work of all sects of society, art itself can be an act of feminist protest.

Author of the week: Shola von Reinhold

THIS week’s author of the week is Shola von Reinhold, an author who has recently come back into view with her 2020 debut LOTE, a gloriously phantasmagorical exploration into the forgotten voices of black and marginalised writers in the early twentieth century and throughout

history. A meditation upon both orientalism and queerness in literature and history, it manages to interweave deeply sensuous writing with a fresh, exciting theory of aesthetics. LOTE successfully questions history and its relation to ‘extra-ness’. The novel lacks a fixity; it doesn’t

allow itself to transfix onto any single idea, and this is one of the many joys of reading it.

LOTE is a novel for all the artists and writers subject to the active workings of obscurement throughout history, the voices which have spoken between the fixations of prejudiced culture and a

fight against the archetype of established order.

A skilled writer obsessed with creating mental-physical sensations, Von Reinhold weaves an elegant map of trans voices and personal reinvention in the throes of lost time.

Joshua Smith, Arts and Lit Editor

Ella Minty, Arts and Lit Print Editor

Image credit: Flickr

MUSIC

Local talent

Megan Ballantyne, Editor, interviews some Exeter based musicians about their lives and their music

Tazmin

É: How did you start off as a musician?

T: The first time I ever sang live to an actual au dience (not my mum, dad and brother...) was when I was 7 years old at my school’s talent show in Bei jing, China. I sang Mercy by Duffy because it was my favourite song on the Wii Console my brother and I had received for Christmas the year prior. I re member it vividly and I’ll never forget how excited I was to perform on stage. After this, I joined the school’s rock band called the Delinquent Aces, and we gigged all over Beijing at festivals and corpo rate events.

When I moved to England, I started my solo career after I came runner-up in a national sing ing competition called Teenstar UK. After this, I released two EPs which both made the iTunes Top 20 Pop Chart, and have continued releasing music and gigging ever since. When I arrived in Exeter, as it was during the pandemic, socialising and net working to meet other musicians was impossible, but luckily in my second year I managed to form a band with some incredibly talented individuals and we performed all over; Kennedy House, Eva de Mora, Dimitris Nasiakos, Hector Lea.

É: How would you describe your music to someone who hasn’t listened to it before?

T: My music is a blend of Dua Lipa, Becky Hill and Tate McRae, or at least I would like to think so!

É: Where have you performed in Exeter be fore?

T: My favourite places that I have performed at in Exeter are definitely the Cavern, where my band performed twice, MOVE club at the Quay, the Old Firehouse (obvs cause of the pizza !!), St Annes Well and also the Forum.

É: What do you like about performing in the Exeter/Devon area?

T: I love that my audiences are always really in

Witching Waves

É: How did you start off as musicians?

E: I started off playing the flute at school! But I really wanted to be in a band. I started playing guitar in my first band Weird Menace and I only started playing the drums when we formed Witching Waves.

M: I first got into music when I was 15 which I guess was quite late really. I wasn't re ally into music before then, and then suddenly it was all I could think about. I started to learn guitar and formed a band as soon as possible. Since then, music has been the only thing I have really wanted to do.

É: How would you describe your music to someone who hasn’t listened to it be fore?

E: I guess we're a post punk rock band.

M: I always say indie punk, but what does

volved with the music and will actively listen and interact — it makes all the difference to a perform er when they have an audience that cares! And I think uni students make some of the best audi ences because of their energy and general interest!

É: What’s been your favourite gig from the last year?

T: My band was chosen to perform at Mello Festival in May 2022, which was a huge opportu nity for us as RagnBone Man and Ella Henderson were performing. Even though our pianist couldn’t make it, my mum managed to jump in and play for us too, which was so much fun. We managed to fit three guitars, three amps, and five musi cians all into one little car and drove all the way to Gloucestershire from Exeter. Words cant express how much I enjoyed that weekend with the band!!

É: Have you got any upcoming gigs/ new releases that you would like to let people know about?

T: I may be releasing some new music this fall with a Dutch producer LoMalo. But for now, my music is available on all streaming platforms @tazmin and you can follow my ig @itstazmin

The Issues

É: How did you start off as musicians?

J: We’ve all definitely been musically in clined for most of our life to be honest. I was busking every weekend with my mate from the age of 14, and the other guys were super involved with all their school bands — Mike (drummer) was in a brass band throughout school and Ethan & Tom (guitarist and bassist) were in loads of bands together throughout school!

É: How would you describe your music to someone who hasn’t listened to it be fore?

J: It’s tough to describe exactly what music we make, just because we’re influenced by so much random stuff haha. I’d say we’re a bit of a mix of old school punk (such as the Clash/ Sex Pistols), combined with a load of the indie music we grew up with in the noughties (think Fratellis and Arctic Monkeys)!

É: Where have you performed in Exeter before?

J: We’ve played all over Exeter by now, but

our homebase is definitely Exeter Cavern. We all work and spend most of our free time there, so whenever we play there it feels very special.

É: What do you like about performing in the Exeter/Devon area?

J: Playing in Exeter feels really special at the moment. There’s a real scene growing down here (which is long overdue) and feel ing like we’re part of that is awesome. There’s so many cool DIY bands down here at the mo ment (take a listen to the Maisonettes and Poppyshow to name just a few), and we’re all working together to put Exeter back on the grassroots music map.

É: What’s been your favourite gig from the last year?

J: Our favourite gig of the year so far has got to be Fresh Fest (at Cavern)! A close sec ond would be O2 Academy Islington in early summer — playing on a stage that big felt im mense!

É: Have you got any upcoming gigs/ new releases that you would like to let people know about?

J: We’ve got some seriously cool gigs com ing up in the next few months which could definitely top those though (we’re supporting Courting next week which is INSANE)! We’ve just started an autumn tour, that’s taking us all over the UK which is seriously cool. As I’m writing this I’m packing the car for our Lon don gig tomorrow (supporting The Blams in Shoreditch)… the fact that we’re getting invit ed to play places like London and Manchester is mental to us! We’ve got a new single out in a few weeks called ‘Arancini’, so definitely look our for that one!

that mean? I like to think that our music, espe cially what we are writing now, is really per sonal. I also think it has a lot of energy.

É: Where have you performed in Exeter before?

E: Weirdly, we have never actually played here before. I grew up here and went to loads of gigs, especially at the Cavern, but didn't start playing in bands until I moved away. We moved back to Exeter a couple of months ago, and our upcoming Cavern gig is our first gig here, which feels like a big deal.

M: It's strange that we have never played here! It's such a great city and so much going on. I'm glad we're finally doing it!

É: What's been your favourite gig from the last year?

E: The Specialist Subject weekender (or ganised by our label), at the Exchange, which is a brilliant venue in Bristol. It was amazing to see so many friends after the last couple of

years. We had a baby in 2021, so we've been slow getting back to things. This was the per fect first gig back.

M: Yeah we've only played that gig so far this year! We needed time to get back to play ing shows. It takes a lot of work for us to get back into the swing of things!

É: Have you got any upcoming gigs/new releases that you would like to let people know about?

E: We are playing a few gigs this month — as well as the Cavern we have a gig at Cafe Oto in London with the legendary band, Come. We have a new album coming out next year and we can't wait to share it with everyone. We'll be playing some dates around its release which are currently in the works.

M: Yeah we're both really excited about Exeter and London! They're in the same week, so it's going to be pretty wild. We have spent a long time working on the new album, and we

are really, really excited about it. But it won't be out till next year, really can't wait to see what people think.

Reviewed: New releases

Music writers review new albums that have been recently released

5SOS5 — 5 Seconds of Summer

HAILED as one of the most active bands from most of Gen Z's Tum blr roots, 5 Seconds of Summer re leased their fifth album on 23rd Septem ber via BMG, less than two years after they released their fourth album, Calm, in 2020. Described as an accidentally “extremely in trospective” album, 5SOS5 is a stark differ ence from their rollercoaster days of being a pop-rock band on constant world tours.

Built on upbeat choruses, raw vocals and traditional quasi-pop melodies that the band is known and loved for, this album presents a new side to the band that fans have never seen before: the comedown after an intense rollercoaster throughout their teen years' and early twenties’ madness. The boys have come out to the greener side of the grass, now re flecting on life’s ups and downs through their introspective and stripped-back emotive lyr ical style. Vocally, 5SOS5 presents itself as an

album that features and showcases both Luke and Callum’s vocals at their best, highlighting their use of layered vocals and harmonies in the chorus of album opener, ‘Complete Mess’. While tapping into a more mature side of their music, where they go into exposing personal battles and struggles through the lyrics, this is still 5 Seconds of Summer at their best and most typical — capturing their signature quality of upbeat pop-rock melo dies infused throughout the song. All this doesn’t take away the slower, more airy tracks of the album — particularly a spotlight shines on Track 7, ‘Older’ featuring Sierra Deaton (who is also formerly part of the mu sical duo Alex and Sierra as well as being frontrunner, Luke Hemming’s fiancé). The track features soft, crooning vocals that makes it fan-loved and presents itself as one of the more romantic tracks the band has ever released. In contrast, the album also fea

MOSS — Maya Hawke

MAYA Hawke, known not only for her famous parents and her role as Robin in the iconic Stranger Things , has plunged back into her musical career with an album release. Her new album, MOSS , gives proof that her talents span far further than just her acting endeavours. The collation of 13 songs takes us into her calm, sometimes whimsical voice and is perfect to have in the background whilst you study. Her album begins with a soothing, and arguably addictive sound that seemingly melts your heart and weaves itself through out the rest of the album. With this album, Hawke finds her place amongst Clairo, Phoebe Bridgers, and Taylor Swift’s Folklore/ Evermore era, and so if you enjoy these art ists the songs on Hawke’s new album would make perfect additions to your playlists. When listening to and thinking about this album, it is impossible to ignore the TikTok sensation that is ‘Theresé’. This song

tures Track 2, ‘Easy for You to Say’ showcasing the more confessional lyrics of the album: “youth that was stolen and filled with mis takes” hints at the tumultuous teen years the band spent in fame and scandal.

Overall, 5 Seconds of Summer has once again proven to be a band that can remain

socially cohesive while evolving their musical sound to a degree that is simultaneously nos talgic and refreshing. With 5SOS5, they are at their core sound, perfectly equipped with confessional, intricate lyrics that are balanced alongside upbeat, groovy sound production. Mahnoor Imam, Online Music Editor

has gone viral for its celebration of imper fections within femininity by using the female persona of ‘Theresé’. In using her airy voice above the harsher, but still soft, acoustic guitar plucking, Hawke is able to capture the feminine in such a way that has connected with masses. The edits on TikTok that this trend has created shows the power of Hawke’s song to celebrate female beauty in others and in the self. In this aspect, the popularity is well deserved.

HAWKE IS ABLE TO CAPTURE THE FEMININE

Other songs of note include the final song, ‘Mermaid Bar’, which with its mytho logical allusions adds to this escapist Bed room-Pop vibe whilst heavily contrasting the horror sounds of the mythical monsters that she fights in the hit Netflix show. Her

collaboration with Will Graefe ‘Crazy Kid’ is also one to note. Graefe is an artist with currently 1,180 monthly listeners on Spo tify, and the song shows how she uses her fame, produced by both nepotism and her own talent, to celebrate other less known talents. His voice has Hozier-esque vibes in its soft tone that is equal to that of Hawke. In this way, their voices work in what some could describe as perfect harmony, mak ing for an incredibly peaceful listening ex perience. It is reminiscent of Taylor Swift and The National’s ‘Coney Island’ from her album Evermore which has the same transitional aspects that Moss embodies.

To summarise, I believe this album’s hype and popularity is in spite of her fame rather than because of it. With workloads getting more intense as we settle back into uni life, this is the perfect album to comfort us as we progress into the autumn term.

Scarlett Cracknell

Hold the Girl — Rina Sawayama

IN Rina Sawayama’s sophomore album, child hood experiences are reframed through a lens of maturity; she considers her experi ences with new found understanding — and anger — whilst cultivating a protective attitude towards her younger self. The title 'Hold The Girl' demonstrates the desire to provide conso lation for someone who is both gone and still existing within her. This album branches out stylistically, reviving her 2000s pop sound with tracks such as 'This Hell', but also exploring or chestral elements and even incorporating rave.

Opening on an acoustic song with what Sawayama has referred to as a “triple entendre” title — “Minor Feelings” — she refers both to the feelings of childhood and the way those feel ings are disregarded, as well as the minor key. This theme of dismissal and mistreatment in childhood pervades the album as a whole. Here, she is “dreaming of the day [she’s] tall enough to

save [her]self”; in this album, that day has come, with her ability to defend herself and the right she has to her own emotions — something she unapologetically explores lyrically, refusing to suppress so-called “minor feelings” any longer.

This wider theme of childhood and the ex periences therein narrows with 'Holy (Til You Let Me Go)', in which the church bells and reli gious imagery bring Sawayama’s days at an all girls’ Catholic school to the centre stage. These elements are juxtaposed with the influence of rave music — something that in itself seems rebellious and also represents adult freedom. She counters the declaration of her 'evil' by the institution with her protestations of innocence, taking on the role of a protective adult over her younger self. 'Frankenstein' also refers to this desire not “to be a monster anymore”, while 'Your Age' appears to build on this experience, recognising her own loss of autonomy with

the acknowledgement that her “decisions were not [hers]”. With repeating lines such as “not a villain, not a mistake, not in the eyes of God”, Sawayama declares an entitlement to her own existence and breaks free of the vices attribut ed to her as a child in the name of religion. The song overall holds the anger of someone who has realised that there was no reason for the way they were mistreated. By drawing a com parison between Sawayama, now “your age,” and the 'you' that she refers to, she highlights the needlessness of the mistreatment she faced.

Through the album, she also works on building empathy with her mother and rec onciling the differences in their perspectives. Tracks such as 'Send My Love to John' and 'Catch Me in the Air' take on a mother’s point of view, mirroring and sometimes referring to her own mother’s perspective in relation to her child hood. Contrary to her feelings towards the insti

tution that mistreated her without reason, this particular relationship formed in childhood is one she wants to heal — she believes they can “save each other in every way”, a far cry from her unwavering condemnation of the school.

The album comes to its conclusion with 'To Be Alive' an expression of liberation and eu phoria. In spite of all the pain woven through the previous tracks, Sawayama ends the album with a celebration of the life she has come to have, finally belonging entirely to herself.

Overall, this album takes on a thematic con sistency, and permits the listener an insight into Sawayama’s childhood and the retrospective thoughts and emotions she has encountered on her way through adulthood. She challenges what she was told, comforts her childhood self, allows herself to feel anger, and finds a way to move on.

Image: Wikimedia Commons, 5SOS

Image: Wikimedia Commons, Toglenn

Violet Berney

screen

The Royal Family, according to the screen

Joshua Hughes, Editor, discusses the dramatisation of the Royal Family in film and TV

THE subject of the Royal Family has been, over the past few weeks, dominating the news in the wake of the death of Queen Elizabeth II. While the tone and mood has been particularly sombre, the death of the Queen has led to many reminiscing on a long reign and the many events which occurred over the period of her reign. But what is extremely notable about British culture surrounding the Royal Family is the sheer number of dramati sations based on the lives and actions of the Royal Family. I have chosen three which focus on the Royal Family and will discuss the impact of the content on both the Royal Family and also the viewers.

The King’s Speech is a film starring Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush and covers the uncer tainty surrounding the Royal Family after the abdication of Edward VIII and the early stages of the Second World War. The film is undoubt edly a masterpiece. The performances of Rush and Firth are incredible, giving a unique insight into the personal struggles of King George VI with the role of King, specifically focusing on his stutter. I feel this film handles the King’s speech impediment with care and portrays an inspiring story of a man dealing with the trials of being King. Giving viewers an insight into this is important as it adds an important per

spective to the early war period. By focusing on the character of Lionel Logue, interesting parallels are drawn between his and the King’s families and personal lives. Along with a great soundtrack, the film is perfect. In terms of the Royal Family, while focusing on the King is possibly a sore subject area (when taking into account his early death), I think that The King’s Speech is probably viewed fondly by members of the Royal Family. While portraying a vulner ability of the monarch, it also allows viewers to connect with the King and empathise.

The Crown covers the personal lives of the Royal Family, taking place from the death of King George VI up until the separation of Prince Charles and Princess Diana (which season 5 will cover). The Crown is a very different portray al of the Royal Family to The King’s Speech, fo cusing significantly on the relationships and scandals in the Royal

Family over the years. It is a highly dramatised portrayal of the Royal Family, building tension between family members and other charac ters. It is fantastically well made, with music, cinematography and writing all working in tandem to arguably create one of Netflix’s best shows. For viewers, it presents the Royal Fam ily as interesting, emotional characters and sets out events and plotlines which are con venient for the overall narrative. In terms of reality, it is certainly not an accurate representa tion of events the re lationship between the Queen and Margaret Thatcher being a promi nent example. Because it is highly dramatised, it is likely that the Royal Family are not regular viewers. The Crown, cov ering several decades of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign, will certainly have questions raised over its viability and appropri ateness after the death of the Queen.

Falling for you

IT IS FANTASTICALLY WELL MADE WITH MUSIC, CINEMATOGRAPHY AND WRITING ALL WORKING IN TANDEM

The last dramatisation I will focus on is Spencer, focusing on the deteriorating rela tionship between Prince Charles and Princess Diana. Spencer extensively covers the sensitive topic of Diana’s mental health throughout the film, making it a personal and emotional film. The position of Princess Diana in reality was extremely difficult and for both Prince William and Prince Harry, is an unbelievably sore and delicate subject. Hence, the release of a film about her late days in the Royal Family before her separation is a risky subject area and must get it right. Spencer achieves this and impor tantly raises the issue of mental health, not just for a public figure but also in the Royal Fam ily. Again, it must be acknowledged that it is a dramatisation but the film itself portrays the events in a unique way not seen before.

Overall, the dramatization of the Royal Family’s private life ultimately makes the fam ily more accessible and relatable, which could support the monarchy for many years to come.

Screen writers discuss their favourite films and shows that remind them of autumn

GIRLS

WITHOUT a doubt, the go-to series when the nights start closing in and the hoodies start mak ing their annual appearance is Gilmore Girls. The show is abundant with the autumnal colour palette of browns, reds and oranges, adding to its cosy feel. Rory Gilmore is the human per sonification of autumn itself; she is always seen to be dressing for the cold weather with bobble hats and skirts paired with thick boots, potentially the sole inspiration for my wardrobe today. Her birthday is even during autumn! The stakes are pretty low for autumn based films and series and the small-town cosiness of Gilmore Girls feels oddly relatable no matter who you are.

Autumn can often feel dreary, depressing and slow-moving, with the beginning of the new school term, the inability to enjoy the outdoors as much and the biting cold. With this, Gilmore Girls offers an escape from the bleak outdoors and that is why the show is addictive. Rather than the focus being centred purely on the stress of starting a new academic year while the skies are inescapably grey, Rory’s new academic year in the first season begins with the rather romanticised meet-cute be tween her and Dean in the school hallway, arguably every teenage girl’s dream at some point or another.

This example of Rory’s experience during the autumn is a far cry from the reality of ours but the show offers us a way to escape the melee of everyday life. It’s easy to get lost in the watchable drama and the cute moments, which inspire excitement about winter’s approach, rather than dread. Irrefutably, these cute moments are perfectly exem plified by Lorelai Gilmore’s ability to “smell snow” just as it begins to fall. It shows that the least exciting parts of au tumn and winter are made to feel exciting for audiences, and I’m already looking forward to filling the kettle, climb ing into my bed with a mug of tea and watching Gilmore Girls for the fifth time over. Or maybe it’s actually the sixth…

Gracie Moore, Lifestyle Editor

WHEN HARRY MET SALLY

AFILM that I always find myself enjoying during the autumn months would definitely be the 1989 cult classic When Harry Met Sally . The film follows Harry Burns (played by Billy Crystal) and Sally Albright (played by Meg Ryan) who first meet at the University of Chicago when Sally has to drive Harry to New York as a favour to her college best friend. New York then becomes the central setting of the film, where Harry and Sally start their adult lives and where they consistently bump into each other at different stages of their lives.

The two of them initially don’t get along, as they both appear to have very different opin ions and outlooks on life. They particularly have different views on romantic relationships

— Harry tells Sally that he doesn’t believe that men and women can be friends, to which Sally disagrees. As the film progresses and the years go by, we see Harry and Sally bump into each other more and more until they decide to become friends, which then leads to them eventually falling in love with each other.

When Harry Met Sally to me perfectly encapsu lates an autumnal feeling. The costumes are made up of cosy jumpers that reflect the autumnal colours of burnt red, cream, and brown. As well as this, the most aesthetically pleasing scene to me would be when Harry and Sally are walking through Central Park with autumn leaves falling around them. It is certainly the best film to watch snuggled up in a blanket with a cup of tea. My favourite scene is the New Year’s Eve scene where Harry goes through all the reasons why he is in love with Sally, which set my own standards for romance incredibly high. It is a beautifully crafted friends to lovers rom-com which I watch throughout autumn and makes me feel warm and cosy especially during the colder months.

Livvy Mason-Myhill, Deputy Editor

The glorification of serial killers

Pollyanna Roberts, Screen Edtior, debates whether serial killer biopics cause more harm than good

ANOTHER slay, another serial killer bi opic. Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan have just released the spine-chilling Netflix show called Monster: The Jeffrey Dah mer Story , based on the life and crimes of notorious American serial killer Jeffrey Dah mer, hauntingly portrayed by Evan Peters. It is 2022, and with the growing obses sion with social media, there seems to be an insatiable appetite for true crime stories, of fering a profitable gap in the film industry. However, there is a boundary that needs to be discussed. With the release of Murphy and Brennan’s new show, and the previous release of the 2019 film Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile , we have famous ac tors playing horrific people. These actors are loved — as they should be, they are talented people. However, this love for the actor and his craft, sometimes blurs the line between fiction and reality. This is particularly perti nent with Zac Efron’s portrayal of Ted Bundy where some viewers were becoming far too drawn into his appearance and ‘charming’ smile, to the extent that people were post ing edits glamorising these characters. Of course, the reason for casting attractive ac tors, such as Efron, is to mirror how people during Bundy’s active years, thought he was handsome and charming – too charming to be a serial killer. One would hope that in this day and age, we would know better than to judge appearances and yet it seems like a

setback when people are crushing on these actors portraying such disgusting killers. What makes this any different to the people sending Bundy love letters in the 70s? These films and shows are meant to entertain, of course, but they are also meant to educate and highlight the lives of the victims, who all too often get lost in our obsession with discussing the killer.

THERE SEEMS TO BE AN INSATIABLE APPETITE FOR TRUE CRIME STORIES

While incredibly unsettling and at points mind-numbingly violent, Murphy and Brennan have managed to capture a

version that does not brush over the killer’s victims. Whole episodes are dedicated to these victims, and we know their names and some of their story. Yet, in Extremely Wicked , it seemed like Bundy’s victims were just numbers, a literal and creative body count without any substance. These productions should attempt to shine lights on the count less victims of such heinous crimes perpe trated by the likes of Bundy and Dahmer, rather than completely spotlight the killers themselves.

BUNDY’S VICITIMS WERE JUST NUMBERS, A LITERAL AND CREATIVE BODY COUNT WITHOUT ANY SUBSTANCE

Serial killer biopics are incredibly diffi cult to navigate. Does the creation of these films and series as ‘entertainment’ only lead to the glorification of these serial killers? Does it retraumatise the victim’s families, as another portrayal of their child’s killer is on their screens and all over their social media? Should productions just stick to fiction? We need to do justice to the victims’ story and we need to remember that the ‘characters’ on our screens were actual people, murder ers, that did awful, hideous things to real people.

Jordan Peele’s cinematic hat-trick

JORDAN Peele’s Nope , which hit cinemas 12th August, was one of the most highly anticipated films of the year, following the universal success of his 2017 debut fea ture length Get Out , and subsequent 2019 fea ture Us . The fan theories and hype surround ing the film amplified the general excitement of its release, and also exemplified the intelli gence and creativity of Peele’s audience. The trailers gave away very little, and fans took to Reddit to specu late on the ominous pres ence teased in the trailers

Get Out and Us , re spectively, deliver hor ror that drips with social commentary, whilst creating genu inely creepy, now infa mous, scenes. For me, the scenes that stick in my mind in Get Out are the gathering, where Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) walks upstairs and as he moves out of earshot, the people fall eerily silent as the façade drops and they listen intensely to his movements, as well as when Chris gets hypnotised and falls into the Sunken Place. The shot of Chris’ face with tears streaming down, is an image I will never forget. In Us , it’s the scene during Ade laide’s (Lupita Nyong’o) revelation, where the viewer sees the world of the ‘tethered’, mirror ing the real world. Nope does not disappoint in carrying on Peele’s unique and thought-

provoking direction. This time, he turns our attention to exploitation and consumerism.

GET OUT AND US, RESPECTIVELY, DELIVER HORROR THAT DRIPS WITH SOCIAL COMMENTARY

Some viewers criticise the lack of ‘horror’ in Nope. Whilst it is true that Nope con tains less jump scares and ‘traditional’ horror conventions than Get Out and Us , I would argue that it is more shocking and eerie be cause as viewers we see less.

Two or three scenes come to mind, where Peele frames events partially off screen. We are given just enough to piece together what is go ing on, but our imagination can fill in the gaps. Pair this with some truly bone-chilling sound design (distant screams in the sky that are suddenly cut off, for ex ample) and Peele has managed to create a psychologically distressing piece of cinema.

WE ARE GIVEN JUST ENOUGH TO PIECE TOGETHER WHAT IS GOING ON

Amidst the saturated film indus try, Peele’s three features run in surpris

ing, refreshing directions. All three are brushed with Peele’s deft attention to detail. Figuring out the easter eggs and foreshadowing after watching, rewatching, his films is part of the fun and genius of his directing and producing.

Another element of Peele’s works that I enjoy is his ability to spotlight up and coming acting talent. Get Out cata pulted Daniel Kaluuya, who I had known from Johnny English: Reborn (a little niche) and Skins (less niche), into Hollywood. In Nope , Keke Palmer is phenomenal; a si multaneously nuanced, entertaining and magnetic performance on screen. Her dynamic with Daniel Kaluuya, as his lit tle sister, is so true to a real-life sibling bond that they make the heart of the film.

KEKE PALMER IS PHENOMENAL; A SIMULATENOUSLY NUANCED, ENTERTAINING AND MAGICAL PERFORMANCE

Nope rounds off the trio of Peele’s films perfectly. Going into the cinema, I thought it would be very similar to the previous two, and wasn’t sure how Peele would surprise his audience again. I was proven wrong. I would suggest anyone who hasn’t given it a watch yet to put it on their list.

Holly Hanson compares Peele’s horror movie masterpieces

Image: Wikimedia Commons

Images: Wikimedia Commons, Gatitafresona

Image: Wikimedia Commons, Monkeypaw Productions

TECH

Tech’s answer to the cost of living

Joshua Hughes, Editor, gives an overview of some useful gadgets that could help with students’ energy bills

WITH the cost of living crisis upon us, along with colder temperatures and rising energy prices, it is now vital that people are aware of the ways they can save money while getting by. This is why in this article I aim to not just highlight how a kettle can save you £10 a year on bills (I’ll leave that to Mr Johnson), but suggest serious ways of saving money that could really help.

Firstly, before I get to any gadgets, I will go through the basics. These are small things that you can change in your daily routine that might help you save money on your bills. The first and probably the most obvious tip is to turn off your lights. Yes, winter is approach ing, and the nights are get ting darker, but there re ally is no need to leave your lights on when you are out of the room/house. Also, remember to keep your windows shut to keep the heat in. Don’t charge your phones for the entire night — the aver iPhone takes around two hours to charge so for at least three quarters of the night you are wasting energy. Finally, if you can help it, try to put off using your central heating for as long as possible (your bank account will thank you)!

THERE REALLY IS NO NEED TO LEAVE THE LIGHTS ON WHEN YOU ARE OUT OF THE ROOM/ HOUSE

Now the gadgets; to start off with I cannot recommend LED bulbs highly enough. They are energy efficient and not as expensive as you would think. For a one-off cost, they do save a decent amount of money over the year. It is also important to remember that the price of LED bulbs has fallen significantly since their first introduction, meaning that the one-off cost will likely not be extreme. For decorat ing your room, going for the colour-chang ing LED strips is sometimes very tempting. However, if you want to save money, buying a string of battery-operated lights will likely give you a similar effect (along with some thing to decorate the Christmas tree with).

Another useful piece of tech is the tum ble dryer egg. While this may sound like a bizarre device to anyone who hasn’t used one before, a tumble dryer egg could save you a lot of money over the year. The typical tumble dryer uses 4.5kWh per cycle, and un der the new price cap, the average cost for electricity is 28p per kWh, making the total cost for one tumble dryer cycle £1.26. Using the tumble dryer once a day will add up to £459.90 on your energy bill. However, a tum ble dryer egg helps to move your laundry around the dryer, making it dry quicker and

use less energy. This could end up saving you and your housemates around £100 a year.

WHILE THIS MAY SOUND LIKE A BIZARRE DEVICE TO ANYONE WHO HASN’T USED ONE BEFORE ... [IT] COULD SAVE YOU A LOT OF MONEY

A further extremely useful device which every house should invest in is a smart me ter. This can help you keep track of your daily and weekly bills, and how much energy and other utilities are costing you. This can help you to keep track of problems before they get out of hand (like a burst water pipe or malfunctioning boil er). Staying informed about your bills is key to making sure you don’t overspend.

Another gadget which could help you save money is a smart power strip. This is a power pack which can be controlled remote ly. Along with smart plugs, these devices are very useful in controlling your lights from a distance. If you have forgotten to turn some thing off or want to set up timers on a routine — smart plugs and smart strips are what you want to get. These can also be used for turning on your lights in advance or in the morning.

Smart plugs can be a good pairing with the next gadget, the electric blanket. Why bother putting your heating on when you can just heat up your bed for a fraction of the cost. Electric blankets are one of the best investments I have ever made. And with a smart plug, you can set your electric blan

ket to go on before you get home, in order to have a nice warm bed after a long night in the li brary. If an electric blanket isn’t for you, I suggest just in vesting in a normal blanket (the mas sive ones from IKEA are a great shout).

A major enemy to keeping your room and house warm is a draught. However, if you purchase a draught excluder, you will be able to miti gate against these and keep your house nice and toasty.

I SUGGEST INVESTING IN A NORMAL BLANKET (THE MASSIVE ONES FROM IKEA ARE A GREAT SHOUT)

In terms of the kitchen, there are two gadgets that I have to recommend. The first one is an air fryer, which ultimately will take up around half of the energy that an oven would when trying to cook something such as chicken. Then again, using an oven will ef fectively heat up your kitchen, meaning that could be a better option. The other gadget is an energy saving kettle. While many have listened to Boris Johnson advocate an energy saving kettle, it is also important to remember

that there is a significant difference between heating up water in a kettle and on the hob.

To summarise, there are hundreds of gadgets that will help you improve your lives in many different ways. What I have high lighted to you are not just gadgets but im portant bits of knowhow that will hopefully help you in the mid-winter, when things are looking bleak. It’s difficult to speculate how bad it will get, due to the fact we haven’t been in a situation of this severity for a very long time. The best of all the advice I can try to give is to stay informed, be it with your energy bill or a new government policy; keeping on top of things will help you in the future and hopefully save you some cash.

" It's all ideologies — online radicalisation as a phenomenon is increasing"

EXEPOSÉ sat down with Dr Lewys Brace to discuss the crucial research into posting trends on online forums undertaken by himself, Professor Stephane Baele, Dr Travis Coan and Dr Elahe Naserian from the Univer sity of Exeter. For this study they looked at 12,569,639 posts in extrem ist forums across different ideologies.

É: So what was the motivation for you guys to put this study together?

LB: So online radicalisation, which is how people get lured into extremist ideologies and buy into it to the extent that they go around and commit all these horrific acts of violence, is increasing in interest because it's increasing in frequency. So over the last few years we’ve had the Christchurch shooting in New Zealand, the Manchester Arena bombing, a number of far right attacks in the US, we’ve also had shootings in Hanau and the incel shooter in Plymouth last year it's increasing, and the examples I give there show how it's not just increasing on one line of ideology, it's all ideologies. Online radi calisation as a phenomenon is increasing. So we wanted to know how engagement with the on line sites can drive radicalisation. That’s the sort of the overarching approach to all of our research.

É: So would you be able to tell us about what this particular study is looking into?

LB: For this specific study we want to know how the dynamics of individuals interacting with one another control the content of these forums, so there had been a lot of previous work which sort of alluded through anecdotal evidence to wards what we call super-posters — so these are individuals who post at a disproportionate

rate to other users and so by default if that’s true they’re basically control ling the conversation by flooding the website with posts. There had been a lot of empirical work done on this along the same vein; however, all this previous empirical work was a good first step but it had three shortcomings. Firstly it only focussed on the same two far right forums all the time, secondly it was obviously only looking at the far right, and finally there was no counterfactual to it.

So I looked at this stuff, and being the data person I am, I went, it's very well saying, oh yeah this exists in these two far right websites, but what about other ideologies, and also is this really, this super-posters phenomenon, is this really an artifact of extremist sites or an ar tifact of how online forums work in general.

So what we did is we decided to build upon it, so we went out and we got data from seven dif ferent far right forums, eight different Salafi-Jihadi forums and two different incel forums, as well as four non-extremist sites, so one was some Chris tian fundamentalist site, the other one was the IGN gaming board, one was on cycling because my co-author really likes cycling, and the other was on Netmums, which is like this crazy parent ing site, and we did an analysis there. We did a couple of different analyses. First, we checked the gini coefficient, which is basically a measure of inequality, so we see it a lot in economics, and the idea here is that the gini coefficient is bound between zero and one; if the junior coefficient is zero we have complete equality, so in econom ics, you know, zero is everyone having the same amount of wealth, if it's closer to one it's one guy

having all of the money. In our study this trans lates to, if it's zero, then everyone’s posting an equal number of posts to the site. If it’s one, then it's just one person posting all the stuff. What we found was that every single site in our data set, re gardless of ideology or whether or not it was an extremist or non-extremist site, had a gini coeffi cient of over 0.8, so that means it's heavily skewed. That kind of supports our initial hypothesis that, yeah, this isn’t just due to the extremist nature of the site, this is just online forums in general.

What was important was to try to dig down into this more, because there are clearly more dynamics there. The previous work showed that there were basically two groups, the superposters and everyone else, and it felt like there should be a more nuanced approach to that. So we use a clever algorithm which basically takes a load of data points, and it's iterative, so it goes through the process time and time again. And what it tries to do is group all the data points to gether into a number of groups, so that the data points within the groups are as similar as possible, but that groups are as different as possible. What we found there was that the optimal number of groups was actually four, so it's clearly four dis tinct poster types, not two, which builds upon previous research and is useful for dynamics.

We then combine this with a social network analysis, which is the idea of looking at how peo ple are connected together. So in the university you might have someone who is a member of two of the sports teams and, say, a member of the newspaper, for example, so they would be quite well-connected because they know loads of different people in different social circles, so we call them a hub, because they connect large parts of the network together. Meanwhile, you

might have someone who isn’t a part of any societies, who just goes to their studies and they would be on the periphery of their net work because they don’t have any connections. What we found by using this network based ap proach is that sometimes the people who post the most frequently aren’t necessarily the most central hubs in the network. That translates to that the influence you have on the conversations isn’t purely about how much you post. Sometimes posting less but posting higher quality posts basically mean that more people listen to you. So, just to be clear, the reason we came to the distinction of the four groups was detailed by the algorithm, so they are mathematically dis tinct groups. So it's not based on any ideologi cal conceptual issue, it's purely mathematical.

É: How can understanding this re search and understanding these pat terns more help us deal with online ex tremism and online radicalisation?

LB: So it's important to understand the dy namics of these sites, because then you can un derstand how the content and messages that are contained within them that do have a radicalising impact on individuals, formulate, and how these ideas spread — not just within one site but across websites as well. And once you understand how these ideas formulate and spread you can de velop counter-messaging policies, so basically we can work out counter-narratives, so narratives that counter the messaging in their messages, and also how to spread these counter-narratives better.

So it's also about this idea of understand ing who’s saying what and how they’re saying it to people so you can develop 'preventing and countering violent extremism' (PCVE) proce dures to try and pull people away from these ideologies. And it's obviously important to un derstand the narratives in these sites to be able to develop effective policies around these issues.

É: Did you expect to see this pattern?

LB: I had a sneaking suspicion that we’d see this pattern across all the forums and also on the non-extremist sites as well as the extremist sites; what I wasn’t expecting was just how simi lar the pattern would be. But all patterns were incredibly uniform curves. Also the point that it's not just about the amount you post but the quality of your post was also pretty unexpected.

É: How would you like to build on this type of research in future?

LB: Because I’m a bit of a nerd there are some methodological things I want to explore more in the field of network analysis. Not just who is say ing what to who but what they’re actually talking about as well. I think that would be interesting for future research going forward. And also I would like to look at different types of platforms, so obvi ously this research only looked at online forums, so it would be nice to look at different types of plat forms do these results hold up if we look, at, say, social media groups, things like Facebook groups? I expect it would, as someone who’s a member of one of the local groups and sees so many posts from the same individual I should imagine we see the same pattern. So yeah, that’s also worth exploring.

Megan Ballantyne, Editor, talks to Dr Lewys Brace about his team's work tracking extremist forums

Image:

Science

Daniel Pain and Hayley Power

Humankind’s intelligence down to single mutation

THE theory behind human evolution is a fascinating and contested field. Scientists are working with limited data and making significant conclusions in our under standing of humanity’s exceptional ism. Key questions of study include how modern humans emerged over 500,000 years ago and how Homosapiens outcompeted their relatives to survive and populate the globe, while Neanderthals became extinct between 35,000 and 40,000 years ago. Biologi cal anthropology and palaeontology can tell us a great deal about the physi cal appearance, the way of life and the culture of our ancestors. Recent breakthroughs in paleoneurology are revealing more about past cognitive abilities widening our understanding further. It has long been proven that brain size is not the definitive distin guishing factor in differing intelligence between species — the cranial capacity of Homo Neanderthalensis was 150–200cm³ bigger than modern humans, revealed by endocasts of fossil skulls.

Many species have bigger brains, pro portionally to their body size, com pared to humans 2 per cent of body

mass. However, within the same taxo nomic group (mammals), humans are highest in the neuroanatomical meas ure of encephalization quotient.

mans had the high est proportion of neo corti

swer for the single crucial property that accounts for our unique intelligence.

disproven by a study of pilot whales in 2014, and the theory that the presence of spindle or von Econo mo neuron in humans was similarly disproven by the discovery of it in many other mammals. However, sci entists may have finally found the an

Max Planck Institute of Molec ular Cell Biology and Genetics in Germany led by Anneline Pinson, have

isolated a factor of slight difference in structure of the protein Transketo lase-like 1 (TKTL1), which generates the brain progenitor cells basal radial glia. These cells generate the majority of neurons in the developing neocortex of the foetal human brain. TKTL1 is one of a small number of proteins that differ in ami no acid structure from Neander thals and other extinct relatives, with the substitution from a lysine amino acid in apes and archaic hu mans to an arginine in modern humans. The signifi cance of this difference was tested by introducing the human and Neander thal variant of TKTL1 into the neo cortex of different mouse embryos.

It was observed that basal glial cells only increased in the mice with the human protein variant and there fore produced more neurons, spe cifically late-born upper-layer neurons.

This research reaffirms the like lihood that the volume of neurons does have a significant impact on cog nitive abilities. The mutation of the TKTL1 protein is one of the many different factors that, in combination, has gradually resulted in our unique evolutionary path. Greater cogni tive abilities have resulted in a greater range of complex behavioural pat terns and abilities to enable interac tion in large social groups, such as the development of language. The idea that a single mutation could have enabled this evolutionary path is an extraordinary conclusion.

Game-changing discovery in the form of insulin tablet

SCIENTIFIC research

ers are currently develop ing oral insulin tablets as a replacement for daily insulin injections, and have since made a revolutionary finding; rats used in studies have been observed to absorb insulin through their new

oral tablets identically to the way it is absorbed by injection.

Insulin is a peptide hormone, which is produced by beta cells in the pancreas, and promotes the absorption of glucose from the blood into multiple body cells to lower blood glucose. However, daily

insulin injections are uncomfortable and inconvenient for diabetes Type 1 patients. Dr. Anubhav PratapSingh says that his team are “on the right track in developing an insu lin formulation that will no longer need to be injected before every meal, improving the quality of life… of more than nine million Type 1 diabetics around the world.”

Improving the quality of life of more than nine million Type 1 diabetics around the world

The UBC team’s study of insulin nanoparticles has led to the success in their oral tablet’s design. By spray drying chitosan nanoparticles, with out the need for toxic cryoprotect ants, they have produced insulin nanoparticles with high loading

content. They found that the na noparticles dried without mannitol resulted in rapid release and the highest efficacy of insulin’s cellu lar uptake; this creates an economic advantage where fewer additives are required, and where operat ing costs to freeze dry, rather than spray dry, are now unnecessary. Interestingly, their lab has seen nearly 100 per cent of the insulin from their tablets go straight into the target organ (the liver). “Even af ter two hours of delivery, we did not find any insulin in the [rats’] stomachs,” states Yigong Guo, prov ing the fast-acting ability of the po tential drug. In line with the UBC team’s goal of designing a drug that provides a higher absorption rate, the tablet dissolves when placed between the gum and cheek, which uti lises the thin membrane found within the lining of the inner cheek and back of the lips (also known as the buccal mucosa). This ensured no in

sulin was wasted or decomposed on its deliverance to the liver. One researcher recalls that injected in sulin shots require 100iu per shot, whereas tablets would re quire 500iu, due to the previ ously ineffective absorption rate.

Nearly 100 per cent of the insulin from their tablets go straight into the target organ

Moreover, the team’s oral delivery tablet is much more eco nomically effective and combats the environmental damage of over 90,000 needles and plastic ob jects from injections going in land fills, which Dr. Pratap–Singh has expressed great excitement for, should the research find success.

Catherine Stone, Online Features Editor, explains new findings that suggest our unique intelligence could be the result of a single mutation

The significance of this difference was tested by introducing the human and Neanderthal variant of TKTL1

Eloise Shewring describes exciting research with the possibility to revolutionise healthcare for patients with Type 1 diabetes

Image: holdentrils, Pixabay

CAR-T cell treatment: A breakthrough for patients with Lupus

FIVE people no longer have any symptoms of Lupus fol lowing an experimental treat ment which was designed to stop autoimmune mechanisms.

It is estimated that between 161,000 and 322,000 people in the United States live with the most com mon form (called systemic Lupus erythematosus), but the global figure is unknown. Hence, no categoric conclusions can be made about the effectiveness of CAR-T cell therapy for worldwide Lupus sufferers as of yet. Interestingly, all five subjects had the common form of the disease and their symptoms resisted almost all commonly used Lupus drugs, such as hydroxychloroquine. Initial labo ratory studies in mice had previously hinted at CAR-T cells’ efficacy. As a result, immunologist Georg Schett and his team genetically modified T-cells from each patient during leukapher esis to destroy all antibody-producing cells, resulting in all five 18-24 year olds going into remission in as little as three months, without the need of any additional medications. The anti body-producing B-cells, an important defence against infectious diseases, disappeared from blood samples and returned without Lupus. The returning cells were no longer primed to attack the individuals’ healthy cells, but func tioned normally to attack viruses and bacteria. “In a way… we have reset

[their] immune systems,” Schett says.

Journal of Medicine that the first treated participant, a 20-year-old woman, was in remission after three months. As of September 2022, she remains healthy. The other four entered remission at a later stage, but all are currently still free of Lupus’ autoimmune symptoms.

find curative success in the new drug.

Suffering with Lupus involves in flammation of various organs such as the kidneys, skin and brain, which occurs following the body’s immune system recognising its own cells as ‘foreign’, and self-attacking. This ex perimental treatment, based on CART cell therapy, appears to have sent the subjects’ autoimmune disease into remission. However, it remains un certain how long the relief will last. Some would argue that these results cannot be relied upon due to the neg ligible sample size of five patients, but more subjects are yet to be tested.

It should be noted that CAR-T cell therapy is still in testing for autoim mune diseases such as Lupus, but the therapy has been used in treatments of multiple cancer types, so can be a sig nificantly beneficial mode of therapy despite uncertainties. The recorded results could be “revolutionary,” states Linrong Lu, immunologist at the Shanghai Immune Therapy Institute.

To be sure whether the Lupus has been eradicated by the CAR-T cells, the team needs more time examining the participants. In August 2021, the re searchers reported in the New England

Lupus symptoms and their sever ity vary from person to person, so it is unclear how many individuals will

‘Clinical Practice: chimeric antigen re ceptor (CAR) T cells: a major break through in the battle against cancer’ notes that there are “challenges associ ated with manufacturing a bespoke pa tient-specific product” as each CAR is produced from an individual’s specific Lupus type antigen. This means that intrinsic immune cell defects may lead to poor CAR-T cell function or tumour cell resistance resulting from loss or modulation of the targeted antigen. There are also some potential side effects: cytokine release syndrome can occur as CAR-T cells multiply.

This causes, in some instances, trou ble beating, joint pain, headaches and a high fever. Therefore, it may be most useful for patients who are in earlier stages of the disease.

ON the 15th of September, researchers found that a solitary, doomed moon could provide answers to a few puzzles surrounding Saturn. Chrysalis, the hypothetical missing moon, may have contributed to Sat urn’s rotation. The moon may have perished as a result of the ensuing or bital turmoil, being torn into the fa mous rings that now encircle the planet.

Saturn’s rings seem to be very youth ful, being only about 150 million years old. The gas giant’s almost 27-degree tilt in relation to its orbit around the sun is another enigmatic characteristic. The tilt is too great for the planet to have been knocked over by collisions or to have formed when Saturn did. Saturn’s spin axis was probably nearly straight up and down when it first formed. However, interactions be

planet’s tilt angle to somewhat relax to its current value of roughly 27 degrees.

Due to a match in timing between the movements of the two planets, planetary scientists have long assumed that the tilt is connected to Neptune. The axis of Saturn precesses, or wobbles, like a spin ning top. The entire orbit of Neptune around the sun also jiggles, much like a hula hoop. Resonance is a phenomenon that occurs when the periods of the two precessions are almost identical. Scien tists hypothesised that Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, and other moons’ gravi tational pull made the planets’ preces sions line up. However, several aspects of Saturn’s interior structure were not well enough understood to demonstrate a connection between the two dates.

leagues used to determine the specifics of the gas giant’s core structure. The group calculated Saturn’s moment of in ertia, which is a gauge of the amount of force required to topple the planet. The scientists discovered that the moment of inertia is nearly, but not quite, what it would be if Saturn’s spin were per fectly in resonance with Neptune’s orbit.

In any case, CAR-T cell therapy is potentially a beacon of hope to patients with the disease (should clinical trials successfully continue).

The study’s co-author, Jack Wisdom, who is a planetary scientist at MIT, de scribes the recent study as “a scenario that explains two or three different things that were previously not thought to be related”. He also highlighted how the rings are related to the tilt of Saturn.

tween the moon Titan, Chrysalis, and the planet Neptune, as Titan migrated away from Saturn, may have caused Saturn to tilt 36 degrees. Chrysalis was destroyed as a result of the ensuing chaos. The shreds of the moon created Saturn’s rings, and its absence caused the

The Cassini spacecraft, which crashed into Saturn in 2017 after spend ing 13 years orbiting the gas giant, pro vided precise measurements of Saturn’s gravitational field that Wisdom and col

After considering a variety of alter native theories, Wisdom and colleagues concluded that the addition of a second, relatively tiny moon’s gravitational tugs would have assisted Titan in bringing Saturn and Neptune into resonance. Ti tan slid away from Saturn until Chrysa lis’ orbit coincided with its own. The smaller moon was doomed, and the stronger gravitational pull from the larg er moon propelled it into a frantic dance. Eventually, Chrysalis flew by Saturn so quickly that it barely touched the tops of the planet’s clouds. The moon was shattered by Saturn, and its fragments were gradually crushed into the rings.

Eloise Shewring describes the “revolutionary” experimental treatment and reveals how it has cured five patients of all Lupus symptoms

Livvy Mason-Myhill, Print Deputy Editor, explains the recent conclusions drawn regarding the origin of Saturn’s iconic rings and tilt

Saturn’s rings and tilt might have come from one missing moon

Image: Nephrpon, Wikimedia Commons

Image:

Image: Kevin Gill, Wikimedia Commons

There are also some potential side effects...

All are currently still free of Lupus’... symptoms

In a way... we have reset [their] immune systems

The scientists discovered... in resonance with Neptune’s orbit

The axis of Saturn precesses, or wobbles, like a spinning top

Give it a go

Megan Ballantyne, Editor, highlights some sports societies that you might want to

Korfball

É: What’s your membership price?

EUKC: Our annual membership is £90, which entitles you to six hours of training, weekend matches and socials. We also have a social membership for £15!

É: If people want to get in volved in korfball as a begin ner, what do you guys offer?

EUKC: As korfball is such a new sport to all members, each year we start training with the basics. This year, we have an extra team giving new members the chance to play in our local league!

É: What’s your social side like?

EUKC: Our socials are very inclusive and relaxed, we host fortnightly socials with no pressure to drink. We also host an array of sober socials throughout the year such as beach trips and walks in Dartmoor.

É: Any big events or trips people can look forward to?

Muay-Thai

É:What’s your membership price?

EUMT: Our member ship price is just £30 for the year.

É: If people want to get in volved in Muay Thai as a be ginner, what do you guys offer?

EUMT: We offer ten hours of class es every week, with classes ranging from complete beginner all the way up to com petition level. Our classes accommodate people who want to progress and get better (we have three teams) or people who want to do it for fun and fitness.

É: What’s your social side like?

EUKC: Our top two teams play in BUCS and we are hosting prelims for the South West in De cember! We also host both a Christ mas and End of Season dinner!

É: What would you say makes you unique as a society?

EUKC: Firstly, there has to be an even split of genders on the pitch at all times, four girls and four boys per team! We are also a relatively un heard of sport making us very unique, as well as being extremely inclusive!

Climbing

É: What’s your membership price?

EUCC: For the year, it is £77 for new members and £67 for returning members. This includes discounted entry to climbing gyms in Exeter, free gear hire and lessons, exclusive access to socials and trips and so much more!

É: If people want to get in volved in climbing as a be ginner, what do you offer?

EUCC: We are open to all students — from freshers to final year students, international and UK, beginners or experienced climbers. Membership in cludes free climbing lessons to teach you how to belay and climb safely. All climbing gyms used by the club have a range of easy-to-follow routes, with varying difficulty levels to help you improve your climbing skills. Also, all our trips are designed to be accessible

to all so we are very beginner friendly!

É: What’s your social side like?

EUCC: We have incredible so cials! Usually once a week, we have drinking as well as sober socials. We also throw a Christmas and Spring ball every year where you can dress up and have a great time! A variety of venues around Exeter are used for our socials including The Exonian, The Monkeysuit, Revolution and Unit 1.

Our notorious social, ‘Climb the Mountain’, is always a high light of the year, where we throw a pub crawl with a twist — you’ll be tied to other members with rope!!

É: Any big events or trips that people can look forward to?

EUCC: There are lots of things to look forward to outside of so cials as well! We hold several trips

throughout the year in locations such as Dartmoor, Portland, Snow donia and Fontainebleau in France!

É: What would you say makes you unique as a society?

EUCC: What makes us unique is our incredibly friendly atmosphere! Everyone is so welcoming and inclusive of all students. It’s a really supportive community where you’ll make friends for life — a great addition to uni life!

Our club sessions are Monday night at the Hangar (bouldering) and the Wednesday/Friday afternoons for top-rope, lead and bouldering!

Follow our Instagram @eu_ climbing_club to keep updated with what’s going on around the club and to get involved! Hope to see you climbing with us soon!

EUMT: We have socials every Wednesday, with varying themes and ac tivities each week, but we are mainly based at Revs. we also offer a discount at Revo lution bars with an EUMT membership.

É: Any big events or trips people can look forward to?

EUMT: We keep in close contact with other unis for opportunities to compete, which happen all year round. We also have bigger events, like a Christ mas Dinner and an end of season ball. We also collaborate with other societies for special events throughout the year.

É: What would you say makes you unique as a society?

EUMT: Of course, the sport of Muay Thai is like no other, but we of fer incredible training, with world class coaches all year round. With 450 people signing up last year, and some of those going from a beginner level to a competitive level, it is a rapidly growing sport. It is also going to be new to the upcoming Paris Olympics.

Anyone who is scepti cal should give a class a try — we’re sure everyone will enjoy it!

É: What’s your membership price?

EUFC: This year we are offering dual options on memberships to enable as many people as possible to give fencing a stab! Our full year membership is £145 and our Term One membership is £85.

É: If people want to get in volved in fencing as a begin ner, what do you guys offer?

EUFC: For beginners we have an incredibly comprehensive offer, which includes two two-hour professionally coached sessions per week. These cover the basics of fencing and progresses you into our intermediates group (and of course some fencing related games). You'll also get access to our fabulous weekly socials (and any social discounts that we have including Revs), the opportunity to progress to BUCs fencing, free use of all club kit and facilities, and the chance to mix with our fantastic cohort of fencers and partake in our collaborative socials with other societies (such as the other le

thal weapons, riding, sci-fi and fantasy etc.)

É: What’s your social side like?

EUFC: Fencing has a super lively social side, with weekly so cials and two social secretaries there is never a dull moment at the club!

We run a mixture of drinking and sober socials, but there is nev er any pressure to drink alcohol and we have several fully sober members. From brunches at Boston Tea Party, to dress-up themed socials, to clubbing at Cavern Indie Night and TP Wednesday and amazing seasonal balls and dinners, EUFC really does cover every aspect of the university social scene. On top of our struc tured socials, we all go down to the Ram to rehydrate and catch up after every training, which is always a highlight and a really great way to get to know people from all dif

ferent experience levels and make some amazing friends within the society! We also have a superb welfare team behind our socials, meaning we will walk you back to your accommodation to ensure you get there safely and make sure you enjoy every aspect of the night from start to finish!

É: Any big events or trips people can look forward to?

EUFC: The Fencing Club always has something planned! Whether you are interested in engaging with sport

ing trips, such as our annual venture to the X-Systra competition in Paris, our homegrown national fencing competi tion, the Exeter Open, run from the Streatham Sports Park, or an amazing black tie Christmas Dinner, you will abso lutely find a trip or event that interests you!

É: What would you say makes you unique as a society?

EUFC: Fencing is a very unique sport full of incredibly unique people who like to stab each other and then go for curly fries.

We offer all three weapons and the oppor tunity for you to find the one that suits you best (as they are all slightly differ ent.) Fencing offers both physical and intellectual stimulation in a very equal environment (particularly for a combat sport) where men and women are able to face off against each-

other on the piste, with equal advantages to all genders. Despite the club being small, it is very diverse in terms of mem bers with representation from a huge range of year groups, nationalities and experi ence levels all melded together to create a very supportive, tight-knit group both on and off the piste. The smaller size of the club compared to some of the other sports societies gives us the opportunity to know everyone by name (almost im mediately) and create a really welcoming and flexible space to spend your free time!

É: Anything else you'd like to add?

EUFC: We would absolutely love for you to join us at fencing, we are offering a membership grace period until the 9th of October, so if you would like to have a go, please do come down to Studio 3 on Mondays and Fridays from 20.00-22.00 to give it a stab! All our information is on our Instagram @exeterunifence so please do give us a follow if you would like to know a little more about us beyond this article!

Image: Conor Béhard-Roberts

Image: Exeter University Korfball Club

Rules: Made to be broken?

Joshua Hughes, Editor, looks back at times in sport where the laws and conventions have been tested

THE rules of sport. The cen tral, key aspects of the games we love to play and watch. Without them, sport would just be a collection of people on a field with out purpose or direction. Rules exist in sport in many different formats, ranging from codified laws to ami cable agreements. The two come to gether to create games of not only rules but also respect. However, there is an inherent problem. When a law is broken, the punishment is handed out in accordance with that law. Whereas when a convention is broken and one team is able to gain advantage over another without repercussion, signifi cant questions are raised over the laws and the sport’s integrity as a whole. The recent Mankad in the England Women vs India Women ODI has raised the issue of convention in sport and has prompted me to give some different examples of when the rules of different sports can be manipulat ed to give another team an advantage.

match. To prevent this, Trevor Chap pell was instructed by captain (and older brother) Greg Chappell to bowl underarm in order to make it impos sible for New Zealand to score a six. Underarm bowling was subsequently removed from the laws of the game.

to waste time. The tactic paid off with Denmark winning the game 2-0 and with it the Euro 1992 tournament.

Rugby Football

dent occurred in the Toulouse leg of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series.

The highly controversial Mankad run-out from the England Women vs India Women third ODI has put the dubious nature of sporting conven tion in the spotlight. India’s captain, Harmanpreet Kaur stated “I don’t think it was any crime, it’s part of the game. I will back my players — she hasn’t done something outside the rules”. In response Kate Cross stat ed that “it is Deepti’s choice how she goes about that”. The use of the Mankad in the match over the weekend calls back to a 1981 Australia vs. New Zea land match. Australia were bowling and New Zealand batting. In the final ball of the final over of the match, New Zealand had to score a six to tie the

In football, one needs to look no further than the extraordinary display which occurred in a match between Aston Villa and Leeds in 2019. Villa’s striker Jonathan Kod jia went down injured with Leeds ap pearing to fol low the conven tion of stopping play when a player is injured. How ever, Leeds’ Tyler Roberts ran through and set up Ma teusz Klich for a goal. This led to an uproar from the Villa bench and an incredible moment in which Leeds allowed Villa to equalise. The game ended in 1-1 and the uncon ventional nature of the whole perfor mance was truly remarkable. The laws of the game had been tested before, in the 1992 Euros in the final between Denmark and Germany. The controversy surround ed the tactic of Denmark who, after an early goal from John Jensen, con tinued to pass the ball back to goal keeper Peter Schmeichel in an effort

Rugby too, is no stranger to rules and conventions being tested. The in famous ‘Ruckgate’ which occurred in the 2017 Six Nations match at Twick enham between England and Italy will stick in the minds of many for sev eral years to come. In this, Italy took advantage of a rule which meant that if a ruck was not formed, there was ef fectively no offside line, al lowing Italy to disrupt Eng land’s ball.

The inci dent led to an immedi ate rule change and Eddie Jones, the England Head Coach, famously stating that “we practiced for a game of rugby all week and we didn’t get it.” Another Six Na tions related incident occurred in the 2011 game between Wales and Ireland and was (creatively) dubbed ‘Ballgate.’ The controversy surrounded the use of a different ball than the one that had been kicked out in a quick lineout.

In a match between Argentina and England, England were able to wind the clock down by deliberately not grounding the ball. By keeping the scoreline as it was, both teams were able to progress to the quarterfinals. Instructions from both coaching staff was to stay put with even one Argentinian player sitting down wait ing for the clock to go into the red.

Formula 1

Formula One presents a signifi cant number of complicated examples of rule-bending to give teams and drivers an advantage. Qualifying for the 2007 Hungarian Grand Prix was a point of significant tension between drivers Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton took the lead and refused to let his McLaren teammate past, leading Alonso to retaliate. While Hamilton was leading at that stage of the qualifying, McLaren chose to stack both cars in the pits, holding Alonso for 20 seconds with Hamilton stuck in behind. With one minute and 48 seconds left in the session, more than enough time for both drivers to com plete low-fuel laps, Alonso refused to move once given the signal. Having held Hamilton up for 10 seconds and denying him a final flying lap, Alonso was able to grab pole by only 0.107

(See what I meant when I said com plicated?). Another crazy example of the rules being bent was during the British Grand Prix in 1998 when Michael Schumacher won under sus

took his penalty, and then went on to win the race. What compounded the extraordinary circumstances was that the finish line was located before the pit stop, meaning Schumacher crossed the finish line before pitting.

Overall, convention in sport is extremely important and its value must not be understated. The inci dents displayed here have given an insight into how rules can, and have been bent in order to give another an advantage. It must be acknowl edged that sport is professional, and the players are competitors which is why these examples exist. However, the majority of these examples are bad sportsmanship which is why they are not common occurrences. While these incidents may have ruined com petitions in the past, they allow the codified laws to adapt, creating better, fairer games and rules for the future.

Image: Ronnie Macdonald, Flickr

Image: eltpics, Flickr

Image: jeanfrancois beausejour, Wikimedia Commons

Image: lorenzo montagna, Wikimedia Commons

Rob Worthington

England: Any chance?

AND breathe. After the fi nal whistle at Wembley in the thriller between Eng land and Germany, England fans will have been left to wonder a few things on the long journey home.

Firstly, where has that England been? Will we see that England again?

And should we be worried, excited or feeling an emotion that has betrayed us so many times in the past: Hope?

In light of the latest round of Na tions League football, the national side has underperformed, with pressure on Manager Gareth Southgate at an alltime high. Team selection, poor tactics and a lack of innovation in the team have left people wondering whether the former defender is still worth per severing with going into the tourna ment, or whether a switch up at the top would improve the chances of ‘it com ing home’ for the first time since 1966.

England’s relegation from Group A of the Nations league last month summed up what has been a truly dis mal year for the Lions. A loss in Rome to an out-of-form Italy team and an

unconvincing recovery to secure a draw against Germany have only in creased the pressure on Southgate.

These poor results are hardly new for the England team, with this in stead continuing on a trend of shock ing summer results for the national team — epitomised by a 4-0 defeat to Hungary. Southgate blamed the poor summer results on fatigue from a long season of football, as well as the team being stretched by injuries. This was an excuse which was ac cepted at the time, but it now seems that the time for excuses is over.

One of the main questions fac ing Southgate surrounds his selection of the team. Despite the manager previously stating that he picks play ers based on their form rather than their reputation, the continued selec tion of players such as Luke Shaw and Harry Maguire certainly contradict this. The two are playing nowhere near the levels that they did in the Euros last summer, yet they seem to have cemented places in the starting lineup which are seemingly unbreakable.

out of the squad. This will concern those who truly feel that some fresh faces are really needed to bolster Eng land’s chances going into December.

ing, but recent performances, lack of creativity and poor leadership from Southgate are all leaving fans with lit tle hope that England will be able to better their 2018 Finals performance.

The season has just started and as a result, there are a trove of in-form players to choose from. Speaking after the defeat to Italy, Southgate stated that he “understands the reaction” of the fans and that it was “up to us to put that right”. These excuses have hardly quelled the anger of the fans.

Perhaps one of the most puzzling selections has been the continued faith put into struggling Man Utd defender Harry Maguire. He has played just 190 minutes of football this season and hasn’t started a game since late Au gust; nevertheless he was rewarded with starts in both recent international games. Maguire’s performances have been lacklustre and have left many to question what it would take for him not to be on the plane to Qatar this winter.

The selection woes don’t stop there, however, with players such as Ja don Sancho, Marcus Rashford and Ben White, all of whom have had strong starts to the season, having been left

Tactics have also been an is sue for England. Before the Ger many game, the Lions had failed to score a goal in open play for over 450 minutes. This is a far cry from the expansive passing football that England were playing last summer, when they came so close to winning only their second major tournament.

If England are going to have any chance of making it far this winter, then they are going to need their at tackers to rediscover their form and start firing in the goals again and play quick fire football once more.

England face Iran, the USA and Wales, with the latter taking part in their first World Cup since 1958. This group is hardly the most challeng

Countries such as Argentina, France as well as favourites (in my opinion) Brazil are all looking strong going into this tournament and if England are going to be able to com pete with the top dogs, then they are really going to need to buck up their ideas and get the fans behind them. Whether this happens or not is down to one man and the play ers he chooses to bring with him.

With the World Cup being so near, things such as a complete squad over haul or a full change in football ideol ogy seem unlikely, however, improve ments are desperately needed and newcomers are a must for the team.

Many recall the ‘magical summer’ of 2018 as a turning point for the national team after the dismal 2016 Euros. England fans will hope that, even in the cold months of November and December, the team can replicate their heroics from four years ago, and even go one or two better and win.

Toby Brisley

This will concern those who truly feel that some fresh faces are really needed

Continuing on a trend of shocking summer results for the national team

Image: ChrisSchweiger, Pixabay