The Martlet - Issue 17 by THE MARTLET

COMMENT

Cambridge Analytica: “A Grossly Unethical Experiment”

SUMMER ISSUE

POLITICS

Media Attacks on Trump Ineffective?

GAMING

The Rise of Battle Royale Games

FOOTBALL

What Can We Expect From This Year’s World Cup?

Abingdon School’s Leading Newspaper

ISSUE 17

Which Way After Windrush? Kofo Braithwaite examines the implications of the Windrush scandal

he Windrush scandal is one of the biggest immigration scandals in recent political history. Members of the Windrush generation African-Caribbean people that arrived in Britain on the ship HMT Empire Windrush in 1948 and were granted British citizenship thanks to the 1948 British Nationality Act - were threatened with deportation and imprisonment on the basis that they were here illegally by the Home Office, often called ‘The Dark Department’ (a fitting nickname after this scandal). This was ultimately due to the hostile environment policy instituted by Theresa May when she was home secretary, which requires individuals to have the necessary paperwork to prove that they have legal status. However, the issue with this seemingly appropriate policy was that many members of the Windrush generation, through absolutely no fault of their own, do not have the necessary paperwork as landing cards recording their arrival dates had been destroyed by the Home Office. As such, legitimate British citizens were being threatened with deportation to countries they didn’t know; some were prohibited from travelling outside the country and missed funerals of

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loved ones abroad. The appalling treatment of the Windrush generation is no surprise, and is due to the fundamentally flawed hostile environment policy instituted by Theresa May. The hostile environment policy is essentially a policy designed to make staying in the United Kingdom as difficult as possible for people without leave to remain, in the hope that they may self deport. In 2012, the then Home Secretary Theresa May stated that “The aim is to create, here in Britain, a really hostile environment for illegal immigrants”. The stated aim of the policy is to reduce immigration figures to the levels promised in the 2010 Conservative Party Election Manifesto. The policy consisted of vans with “go home or face arrest” written on the side driving around areas with a high immigrant population, requirements for landlords, the NHS, charities etc. to carry out ID checks, and a deport first, appeal later philosophy. So, the Windrush scandal really shouldn’t take us by surprise. It is the natural consequence of a system that has as its default position an assumption that you are here illegally and the onus is upon the applicant to prove that they are here legally.

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As such, it is necessary to have a radical rehaul of these immigration policies so that we shift the onus back on the state to prove that someone does not have the right to be here. I don’t think the Windrush scandal should be treated in isolation, and the government should now use it to address the fundamental issues in our immigration system. One thing the government can do is get rid of its ridiculous, broad, arbitrary migration targets. It was these targets that led to the scandal in the first place: if the Home Office was more flexible, members of the Windrush generation would not have needed to be targeted as aggressively as they were. Whilst it is true that in general the public want to see harsher policies on illegal immigration, we must have a fairer, more humane system; a system that treats people as people and not numbers on a computer screen. Further to that, the toxic conversation around immigration also needs to be changed. But most fundamentally, the Home Office, which has not been fit for purpose for a long time, needs a radical rehaul: Amber Rudd has gone, but more heads still need to roll.

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A letter from the Editors Ben Ffrench Editor-in-Chief It is with great sadness and after years at the top of school publications that we hand over our much loved journalistic legacy at The Martlet to the next generation. In this time, the rise of Trump, Brexit and more have come, all of which have been covered with passionate aplomb by myself and our dedicated writing staff. As editor, I have accepted awards for the paper and seen its pride of place in the Head’s office - Words and That didn’t stand a chance! But in the chaotic heat of a Thursday Greening Wing meeting, we have seen what was a budget Daily Mail rise to a professional looking newspaper reviled and revered by rivals and critics alike. I have no doubts that this paper’s ascendancy will only continue. So, for the last time, dear reader, enjoy the issue!

Will Stewart Deputy Editor I really can’t believe my time at The Martlet has finally drawn to a close. The three and a half years that I have been a member of this newspaper have been thoroughly well spent. My highlights would be writing my very first article about José Mourinho and waiting in anticipation to see my own article in print, and also being appointed to the position of Deputy Editor. I have really enjoyed the chance to write about all sorts of different topic areas across different sections of the paper, from the rise of populism in European politics to the lack of integrity in professional sport surrounding the state-sponsored doping scandal relating to Russia. My main piece of advice to anyone reading this would be to get involved in The Martlet in any way you can and write about whatever takes your interest.

Kofo Braithwaite News Editor I feel that over my multiple years and some eight issues at this publication I have established myself as a Martlet monolith, and have left an indelible mark. Whether that mark is a positive or negative one, however, is up for debate… If I were to use one word to describe my time at The Martlet, that word would be ‘volatile’. This is due to the ever-changing and often unpredictable nature of our weekly meetings, and general incompetence of the editorial team, myself included. But despite all the behind-the-scenes drama (often caused by me - I think I threatened my resignation more than once…) we, and our brilliant writers, have managed to produce a very high level of journalism worthy of national recognition, albeit somewhat sporadically. It is with a heavy heart that I hand over the mantle to the next generation of The Martlet, and I wish them the best of luck.

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Sam Fenton Features Editor My two years at The Martlet have been fruitful, to say the least. The production of each and every issue having been characterised by a false sense of security at the beginning, followed by a fast and frantic burst of proofreading, editing, general drama, and Kofo screeching “Resign!” at Ben Ffrench in an abnormally high pitch. If anything, this organised chaos is a testament to just how much people can get done in 50 minutes if they put their minds to it. The end product, of seeing your words printed on paper, is worth every second of the episode that is the production process of a Martlet article, even if the subject matter is two months out of date. Overall, I would describe my experience of being an editor at The Martlet as being tumultuous yet rewarding, having greatly contributed to the launch of my interest in journalism as well as allowing me to develop my passion for current affairs. I wish the best of luck to The Martlet team over the coming years as they continue to contribute and build upon Abingdon School’s leading newspaper.

Ben Hutchison Sports Editor The end of an era. These past two years writing for The Martlet have been a true pleasure, in spite of - or perhaps because of the chaos it has entailed. The responsibility of editing has been a new fence to hurdle, but, as with production of most issues, it has been accomplished against the odds. The scoops may not have all been groundbreaking, but what they have lacked in novelty they have easily made up for in care, passion, and individuality. ‘A little dry’ @ Shine Media Awards? I don’t think so, not with this bunch.

Weihan Huang Publications Director Since joining The Martlet, I have thoroughly enjoyed working together with my fellow editors and writers to contribute to Abingdon’s leading publication. Writing and designing for The Martlet has broadened my intellectual horizon by exposing me to a wide range of current affairs and the variety of content within the features section never ceases to amaze me. I will definitely miss the sense of satisfaction and relief that washes over me as I pick up freshly printed copies of The Martlet from Ms Williamson to distribute (I definitely do not have ten copies of Issue 13 in my room).

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News

Reeling in Russia: COMMENT

Countering Russian Aggression Sam Fenton proposes ways in which the West can offer a feasible response to Russian aggression.

Vladimir Putin: The former KGB agent remains unfazed by international condemnation.

rime Minister Theresa May has been the recipient of widespread praise and acclaim for the austere and steely way in which she has handled the poisoning of former Russian military intelligence officer, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter, Yulia Skripal. Indeed, in comparison to the befuddled, indecisive, and mealy-mouthed reaction from the Labour frontbench, who currently remained engulfed with their ongoing antisemitism quandary, she could be seen to look positively Thatcherite. This isn’t to say that the government’s response has been perfect - far from it. Both the Foreign and Defence secretaries managed to score what could be seen as tremendous own goals against Britain’s attempts to convince allies of Russia’s guilt, with Boris Johnson comparing the Russian hosting of the 2018 World Cup to the 1936 Olympics in a Nazi-controlled Berlin and Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson proposing that Russia should “shut up and go away”. Not only is this a gift

for the Russian media, who have collectively responded in a rather snide and sarcastic manner, it also undermines the British government by making it look rather infantile on the world stage. Despite this palaver, the govern-

unity. This action came days after the UK, US, Germany, and France united to condemn the poisoning in a joint statement, where they collectively deplored what they saw as an “assault on UK sovereignty”. EU leaders also con-

The West must hit Putin and his fellow oligarchs where it hurts; their wallets ment’s call to arms of allies in defiance of Moscow’s actions has been answered. More than 20 western allies have expelled over 100 Russian diplomats, the biggest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officials in history and a tremendous show of western

cluded that it was “highly likely Russia is responsible” for the poisoning of Mr Skripal and his daughter Yulia. It is important to note that President Trump, a self-admitted admirer of Putin who has remained reluctant acknowledge Russian meddling in the US election, has

allowed his administration to act decisively, expelling 60 Russian diplomats and closing the Russian Consulate in Seattle. However, this symbolic gesture aimed at showing Russia and Putin that the West will only allow itself to be pushed and prodded so far, is just that: symbolic. Indeed, many have questioned whether the usage of such measures is the best course of action the West can take. These questions are grounded in two concerns. Firstly, the cost of such actions to the West. Once the British government announced the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats, the Russian Embassy in the UK sent out a tweet regarding Newton’s Third Law: if object A exerts a force on object B, object B will exert an equal and opposite force on object A, hinting at a potential tit-for-tat Russian response to the expulsion of Russian diplomats. Unsurprisingly, Russia went on to expel nearly 60 US diplomats and 23 UK diplomats. This response has meant that already limited diplomatic channels

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between Russia and the West are going to be limited even further. It would be right to question the propriety of such an action, given the need for collaboration with Russia on numerous issues, whether it be Syria or North Korea. Secondly, the effectiveness of this grandstanding strategy may also be called into question. President Putin’s actions and words over the past few years have proven that he cares little for the concerns and opinions of the rest of the world. He and his kleptocracy may be seen in a largely negative light abroad, but domestically they are becoming increasingly popular, as seen in the recent election. As a result of this large domestic support for the Russian government, the cult of personality surrounding Vladimir Putin and the drip-feeding of pro-Russia propaganda by much of the news-media, which claims that Russia is subject to unfair Russophobia by the international community, few in Russia appear to believe Moscow to be responsible for the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, alongside other things, such as links to the shooting down of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 in 2014 or involvement in the US election in 2016. In any case, much of the Russian public, at the time of writing, is far more preoccupied with the news of the horrific fire in Siberia, which has claimed the lives of more than 60 people. It may seem as though the West’s hands are tied, dealing with a man who seemingly does not care to what extent Russia is ostracised by the international community and who sees international sanctions as a chance to further increase his vast reserves of domestic popularity and political capital. However, the West still has some feasible options which could be tried to properly respond to Russia and Putin. Firstly, some engagement with the Russian public must be made if the West is ever to begin to counter the popularity that Putin holds amongst

most Russians. The failure of the UK government to make public any corroborating evidence regarding the Salisbury poisoning has enabled the Russian media to mercilessly ridicule the British government, stating that the lack of proof from Britain is yet another example of Russophobia by the West. On top of the demands for evidence, Russian media, as well as some diplomats, have hinted at the fact that the poisoning of Skripal was in fact carried out by the British government in an iniquitous plan to boost the government’s popularity as it trudges through Brexit negotiations. By withholding such information, the government is making it much easier for Moscow-based TV channels to subserviently tow the Kremlin line. As mentioned earlier, Boris Johnson made it much easier for news channels to portray Britain as Russophobic when he compared Putin to Hitler, an indefensible remark in the minds of most Russians, who take great pride in their role in the demise of the Third Reich. Whilst Russian authorities would most likely go out of their way to try and disprove any findings by British intelli-

The small cathedral cirt of Salisbury has seen itself at the heart of an international furore. that Russia needs the West far more than the vice versa. Russia’s oligarchy, Putin included, require that vast wealth to stay in power, the irony is that they have utilised this power to undermine property rights in Russia and as as a result they must preserve much of their

Anonymous ownership is now seen as a clear threat to national security

gence should they be sent any evidence, the West could simply counter the accusations as was done over the shooting down of MH17 - this would be a far better display than a staunch refusal to cooperate. The West must also hit Putin and his fellow oligarchs where it hurts; their wallets. The West must prove to them

Opinion polling for the Russian presidential election, 2018.

savings and wealth abroad in countries that enjoy the rule of law and allow anonymous ownership. These tend to be countries with Anglo-American law, as they allow large scale anonymous ownership, the ability to conceal the ownership of property or company in order to operate without scrutiny from law enforcement or the public. The two countries which meet this criteria and which have sufficient financial depth (size of the financial sector relative to the economy) are the United States and the United Kingdom. As a result of this, these two countries enable anonymous investment in real estate on a large scale, which makes them the perfect harbour of most offshore Russian wealth. Many countries have already passed laws that demand full disclosure of beneficial owners of property or firms, due to their conclusion that anonymous ownership is now seen as a clear threat to national security. Putin himself is said to hold a vast reserve of wealth overseas, and many have estimated his personal wealth to be anywhere from $20bn - $400 Billion, easily making him the wealthiest individual in the world. Anonymous ownership, as it currently stands, allows vast amounts of money to be laundered, much of it is thought to be done by pow-

erful Russian oligarchs. In 2015, the US treasury believed that as much as $300 billion a year is laundered in the United states, yet due to anonymous ownership allowing anonymous companies to invest in the US, the US government is only able to detect about 0.1% of the money. In Britain, this figure stands at $125 billion being laundered annually (National Crime Agency). The government must put a damper on this at the very least. Putin himself has stated that personal sanctions on his fellow elites hurt him the most as he has notably complained about something called the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012 as well as various sanctions on St.Petersburg oligarchs due to their role in the Russian occupation of Crimea. These collectively prohibit specified individuals from the United States, as well as freezing their assets. Unfortunately, they haven’t gone far enough, as anonymous ownership has meant that the U.S government has detected only a few million dollars of their assets. It is clear that anonymous ownership is a significant barrier and handicap in the US and UK’s ability to punish Russia, or more appropriately Putin. In the May 2016, David Cameron promised to demand full disclosure in much the same way many EU countries do, regarding ownership and beneficiaries, unfortunately he went and lost a referendum two months later. Theresa May has shown little interest in carrying on what Cameron started. I’m usually the last person to argue for more government regulation, more surveillance, less anonymity and more bureaucracy, yet something has to be done about such a grave national security threat. We know that, whilst it is by no means a silver bullet to the question of Russian aggression, taking action on anonymous ownership, alongside countering the Russian government and Russian medias war of misinformation, will send a clear message to Putin, don’t mess with the West.

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News

“A Grossly Unethical Experiment” COMMENT

Ben Ffrench discovers the story of how western democracy was hijacked.

Alexander Nix masterminded and still masterminds arguably the greatest threat to our democracy. ow much do we truly value our democracy? The question has been asked by many through the ages, but never has that conundrum been so pressing as now. Though we in the western world take our right to vote and to determine our country’s direction for granted, recent revelations have thrown this power into jeopardy. In arguably the two biggest democratic decisions of the last two years - the EU referendum and the US presidential election - shocking new evidence has cast doubts onto the legitimacy of these decisions in discoveries that could end the political landscape as we know it. It all boils down to two, or rather three companies: two subsidiaries of the notorious data company SCL (Strategic Communications Limited) group’s elections division, Cambridge Analytica, and its partner company Aggregate IQ have been implicated in manipulating the voters in two of the world’s biggest elections through profiling on Facebook, in an operation that has links to Farage, Trump, and Russia. How much do we value our democratic rights? The time has come to find out and fight for them. The news of what he has deemed a “grossly unethical experiment” came from a whistleblower named Christopher Wylie, a former research director for Cambridge Analytica. He alleged that up to 87 million Facebook profiles had been obtained by the Russian academic Aleksandr Kogan, 50 million of whom were US voters. Kogan allegedly had Russian state funding, though nothing has been proven. The authorisation Facebook gave to

Kogan was purely for academic purposes. However, little known to the company he was actually collating data for commercial purposes. The quiz app ThisIsMyDigitalLife was launched for an online survey of citizens, and users had to be US citizens. A personality test of 260,000 citizens was used to determine all sorts of preferences: sleep patterns would give clues to sexuality, and liking Peppa Pig indicated strong political opinions, determining personality with “disturbing accuracy”. Using a Facebook loophole, data was then able to be obtained by Kogan not only for the

group, a data analytics company spearheaded by Alexander Nix, who, according to Wylie, is “an upper class Etonian who expects you to follow him wherever he goes”. The drive of this company was influencing elections, a morally questionable business. The project caught the attention of a certain Steve Bannon, particularly interested in harvesting data, in the principle of the ‘Breitbart doctrine’. This, according to Wylie, is the idea that to change politics, one must change the culture around it, via SCL’s favourite methods, of data analysis and targeting. This would be used to fight

If you want to fundamentally change society, you first have to break it test takers themselves, but their friends as well; psychological profiling and data was obtained for, according to Wylie, “upwards of 50, 60 million” people, based on access to “status updates, likes and even private messaging” according to Wylie, a chilling thought. This information was then used and passed on to Cambridge Analytica and connected company Aggregate IQ, and used on US voters. The story starts when Christopher Wylie took a new job in 2013, working for SCL

the US presidential election. The pitch to Bannon: conventional ‘microtargeting’ using data of an individual to manipulate their voting choices, would be combined with the latest psychological research: personality modelling would feed into targeting. The money was to come from Robert Mercer, a billionaire who had made his own money in this business, a significant figure at the head of allegations. At a meeting in Cambridge, where “workers were brought down from the London office” to

resemble respectable academia, Bannon was so sold he even suggested the name for a new venture: Cambridge Analytica. But there was one problem: how to acquire the data to change elections? Step forward Alexander Kogan. So the US was ripe for influencing, and Donald Trump was on his way to the White House. Across the channel, the story was replicated. This time another subsidiary of SCL group, using the exact same model and technology known as Aggregate IQ was assisting the Vote Leave campaign, who were staffing a secret youth campaign known as BeLeave. The campaign, funded and backed by the main Brexit campaign was denied by Vote Leave to have any connection. Meanwhile, Arron Banks and Nigel Farage had enlisted the services of Cambridge Analytica in their targeting of voters, which proved successful. Years on, and recent Guardian revelations have forced the closure of Cambridge Analytica and its slippery reformation as a new Westminster based company known as Emerdata (again led by Nix). But the chilling words of Christopher Wylie, in an age of post truth politics and polarised social media debate bear a strong warning to politicians of all hues to wake up to the problem of interference in our elections before it is too late. As Wylie says: “If you want to fundamentally change society, you first have to break it”. Only inspiring politicians and platforms will remove the isolation that data targeting feeds on, and a stronger community is needed. We need action now to protect our valued democracy, before it is too late. Too much is at stake.

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News EUROPE

La Mafia: a Fight Worth Fighting Johan Nerlov brings to light the intricate and widespread power of the Mafia.

Via Roma in Palermo Sicily, considered the birth place of the Mafia.

he world has long had a somewhat strange fascination with crime and, most of all, organised crime. Within this category comes out something that is synonymous with both sheer style and cunning but also the brutal realities of humanity at its most evil and demonic. I am, of course, referring to the Mafia. The Mafia has long been synonymous with Italy and, for a long time, a byword for anything Italian and the New York of the early 20s. It is also worth noting at this point that ‘la Mafia’ is not all the organised crime in Italy, or the world, but only and exclusively organised crime families originating from Sicily, ‘la terra madre’ (the motherland) for mafiosi. Be it in ‘The Godfather’ or one of the countless Hollywood, or even Bollywood movies, the Mafia cannot escape the public’s fascination. It is here though that the problem arises with how we deal with the real threat the Mafia poses and how we all view it in everyday life - we see it as some distant and surreal fantasy that does little to affect the daily lives of most in the world, something that we have nothing to do with or worry about. This could not be any further from the truth. The Mafia is a far more intricate, well connected, and influential body that anyone could possibly comprehend. Take, as a small example, that Italy’s ‘dark’ economy (not included in official GDP figures) is estimated at around 1/4 the value of its actual GDP, by far the highest in Europe, and amounting to over seven hundred and fifty billion euros. Of this, the Mafia is thought to control over twenty percent - already now their clout on society seems larger than one might have thought, and yet this is only touching the very top of the mountain of secrets lying beneath. The fact of the matter is that the Mafia

does act and does do all the horrid things we imagine every single day, it’s just even better at concealing the truth. The horrid news stories we hear are simply the few, and rare, occasions that a little slimmer of truth makes an escape from ‘il sotterraneo’ (the underground) and into the mainstream world. Perhaps the most recent and best exposed of the Mafia’s dealings is the recent murder of journalist Jan Kuchak, a single shot to the chest, and his fiancee, Martina

Far Left: Piersanto Mattarella, murdered regional President of Sicily and brother of the current President of Italy. be seen closer to the Mafia’s home turf in Italian politics. Not only is it evident in the fact the Italian press has recently been rated less free than Burkina Faso’s, but most clearly in the way electoral campaigns are run and publicised. If one looks at any manifestos of any major political force, be it il Movimento 5 Stelle or even Lega Nord, the Mafia is not mentioned in any way, shape or form. This isn’t some strange omission but rather a safeguard against the backlash that

The fact of the matter is that the Mafia does act and does do all the horrid things we imagine every single day, it’s just even better at concealing the truth Kusnirova, shot in the head. His crime, a story exposing the Slovak government’s dealing with the Italian Mafia bosses, her crime, bad timing. If there is one thing that this crime exposes, as Kuchak exposed, it is that the Mafia managed to influence the makeup of the Slovakian PM’s office, the direction of his policy and ensured their freedom to act free of the law in Slovakia with threats and bribes. However, perhaps more importantly, it proves and shows in full light that the Mafia’s network and influence spreads far beyond their home territory and that they are not afraid to make their aims and interests heard the understood. Another example of this very thing can

will follow - if the political party stands in their way, they can, and will be removed. A testimony to this fear can be seen in how the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, for a long time a strong advocate against organised crime in Italy (his brother Piersanti Mattarella murdered in January 1980 while cracking down on the Mafia in Sicily, he was the President of Sicily’s regional government), goes about his work of removing the Mafia. He keeps away from the media and is shy of ever mentioning the Mafia in any official or even private capacity. Both the fight to expand the influence of and remove the Mafia are conducted ‘nel sotterraneo’ (underground). The other problem

is also that many are simply scared of ever speaking out. After several high profile and brutal murders throughout the 70s and 80s, what some in Italy call ‘la caduta’ (the fall), many did exactly what the Mafia wanted them to and kept shut. Those who didn’t, and still don’t, meet the brutal end of Mattarella or Kuchak. It must also be recognised that having the Mafia on one’s side does and has brought some benefits. Not only are you less likely to die (a general aim for most) but, as Silvio Berlusconi shows most eloquently, you can control the media and, as some still say to this day, the ballot boxes (2001 and 2006 elections). Where does that leave us then? In my opinion in a rather difficult, yet not entirely hopeless position. It is vital that we understand and comprehend the level of complexity and control involved in the Mafioso system and also that simply putting them aside only aids them in there work. On the contrary, we should be, despite the dangers involved, shouting from every turret and at the top of our voices that we see them, we know what they are doing and we will never stop seeking them out until they cease. It is here the hope comes in. Several young and energetic people, many of whom I have the privilege of knowing, are fighting the good fight and doing all they can to bring those who deserve punishment to justice. Even though I do not ask you to suddenly become an activist against organised crime and everyday injustice, I do hope we can all spare a thought and lend our support to this fight, spanning the length and breadth of every corner of the international community, against the injustice, crime and suffering many must go through every day of their lives.

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News

Media Attacks on Trump Ineffective? POLITICS

Samuel King picks apart Trump’s new approach to the media.

onald Trump has managed a contradictory but ultimately skilful relationship with the media. On the one hand he has been the object of fierce criticism and scrutiny by newspapers and online publications. On the other hand, certain news outlets such as Fox News and CNN have benefitted with increased viewership from covering the president and have been largely positive about him. In addition, President Trump has been immensely successful in using social media, including Twitter, to set the political agenda and to express his opinions directly to his loyal voters and supporters. Newspapers have been in terminal decline for the last two decades as social media and online outlets replace them as sources of information for many Americans. Because newspapers sell fewer and fewer copies, they have been unable to attract advertisers which provided their main source of revenue. However, interest in and anger towards President Trump has fanned a surge in interest in newspapers, particularly The New York Times and The Washington Post. President Trump tweets regularly about the The Times, calling it the failing NYT. But interest in investigation about the president and analysis of his policies has

reinvigorated these newspapers which have developed highly successful new subscription models to complement selling hard copies. Online readers have to pay for a subscription to access the newspapers – as I do for the NYT – and this has proved lucrative for the papers. In a recent talk in Oxford, the editor of The Washington Post, Marty Barron (and previously editor of the Boston Globe when its Spotlight team exposed child abuse in the Boston Catholic hierarchy), said this new subscription model was proving highly successful as a means of raising revenues. Other online periodicals such as The Atlantic, The Nation, The New Yorker and New Republic are doing well too as Americans have a hunger to learn about and understand the Trump era. Both newspapers and periodicals have undertaken massive investigation work about various aspects of the Trump presidency. They have tried to learn about contacts between members of the administration and the Russian government and also to learn about the business interests of the president and his family. Since the special investigation by the Justice Department under Robert Mueller was set up, the papers have benefitted from a string of leaks and ‘off the record’ comments about what the investigators

are finding. Democratic accountability is the first way the media interacts with President Trump: it tries to hold the president and his policies to account and to exercise the freedom of the press guaranteed under the American Constitution. Another set of media outlets both newspapers (including The Washington Times and to some extent the Wall Street Journal ),

Newspapers have been in terminal decline online sources and especially some television stations such as Fox News and the local news channels owned by the Sinclair Company see their job as supporting President Trump and his policies. During the presidential campaign in 2016, the media discovered that Trump was good for business and that having him appear on shows was good for business too. Since tv hosts are often paid a

performance bonus for higher ratings many presenters had a strong incentive to include him on their shows. These programmes do not see their job as criticising the president, his Cabinet or his policies. They support his policies such as tougher trade rules (including imposing tariffs on steel and aluminium imports), criticising China for unfair trading, attacking the Iran nuclear deal, turning up the heat on North Korea, and refusing to grant an amnesty to illegal immigrants. These are the policies Trump’s voters wanted and conservative news outlets are happy to praise him for pursuing them. The same conservative media believe the Mueller investigation is of less importance and that the charge of Russian collusion in the 2016 election is exaggerated and of little interest to many core Trump voters. All news media love big stories and dramatic political developments. President Trump continuously delivers big stories, and if any of the investigations result in major findings with constitutional implications this will be extensively covered and closely analysed by all the media. Thus the different strands of the media, liberal and conservative, have a shared interest in beaming in closely on the Republican occupant of the White House and his activities.

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News LAW

Is Jersey Being Fair With How It Issues Its Fines? J

Peter Leeson uncovers the problems behind Jersey laws.

ersey is the largest of the Channel Islands, situated between Britain and France, which is famous for its beautiful beaches, tax free status and relaxing atmosphere for visitors. Since it is a British Crown Dependency, it is independently administered and does not form part of the United Kingdom even though it is a territory that the UK is held responsible for. This means that it has control of its own laws, which in some cases are quite different to those in the UK. The Channel Island of Jersey is split up into twelve different districts, more commonly known as parish-

The actions were thoughtless and distressing A group of honary police checking trees against the Branchage Law.

es, which hold the names of the ancient parish churches that were once or still reside there. When certain laws are breached, the procedure in which the penalties are carried out can differ in each of these parishes. Sometimes the penalty is delivered by post, while in others they are

A view of a beach in Jersey.

given out by hand. This does not sound problematic and usually these procedures are usually carried out without any difficulty, though there have been examples of these parishes not being sufficiently careful when approaching people with these fines. A recent complaint arose when an elderly couple received a penalty notice, by hand, from one of the members of the parish in St Ouen. This concerned a law which

regulated overgrown borders between plots of land, called the Branchage law. This law was put in place to make sure that no hedges, grass or weeds in a certain household would affect any neighbouring residents’ homes. It is also used to protect the roads from overgrown bushes which could affect the safety of passing drivers. Though the reasons for this law are sound, it can be a problem for people living beside busy roads since they cannot easily cut back their hedges. This was the exact problem a couple from the Parish of St Ouen were faced with. This elderly family’s hedge hung over slightly onto the neighbouring road, but they could not easily access it due to the cars crossing it. This led to the couple being given an unexpected visit late in the evening by the parish’s Vingtenaire, and were asked to sign a paper agreeing to pay the fine. Usually there is at least a one week period in which the people occupying the house, land or property are told they must cut their borders and they will be given a maximum £100 fine if they refuse to comply. However in this incident, no previous warning was given. Obviously, the couple were cautious of opening the door to a stranger, especially late in the evening, and then be served with a legal notice by someone demand-

ing their signature. Not only was this thoughtless but the parish wardens had also inspected the ‘branchage’ on a previous occasion, late at night using torches, which was threatening for the elderly couple. These incidents were very distressing for them and caused a great deal of unnecessary stress, which could have been avoided by a more thoughtful and measured approach. A concerned relative wrote a letter to the Jersey Parish Constable and asked for the penalty notice to be delivered by post, like it is in six other parishes, however there was no reply. A letter was also sent to the equivalent of ‘Age UK’ for the Jersey Channel Island, however it was also left unanswered. It seems very strange that such a small island can have such inconsistent regulations about how they serve penalty notices and it is disappointing that the people in power refuse to comment on these issues. However small the issue may appear, this treatment of parishioners can be very distressing and it should change. Hopefully, the Parish of St Ouen will wake up and make the necessary changes to ensure that such an incident will not happen again and be more careful with how they issue their penalties.

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Features GAMING

The Rise of Battle Royale Games Piers Mucklejohn explains the reasons behind Fortnite’s rapid rise to the top.

he concept of battle royale is nothing new to popular culture, the film Battle Royale was released in 2000 and featured forty-two 9th graders (15-16 year-olds) battling it out to be the last one standing. What’s new is implementing this into a game. H1Z1: King of The Kill was released on the 18th of February 2016, as a follow-up to the base Just Survive game. The game quickly grew in popularity, seeing a regular concurrent player base of over 100,000 and reaching a peak of 150k concurrent players on the 26th of June 2017. H1Z1’s success was, however, short-lived, as the game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds was released to the public on the 23rd of March 2017 and, following extreme coverage from various big twitch streamers, quickly gained the title of most popular battle royale game. Streamers such as Summit1g, who has amassed a large following on Twitch, and DrDisrespect, whose wacky online persona has gained him hundreds of thousands of fans, have become online superstars, boasting impressive viewer numbers and earning thousands upon thousands from donations alone, with sponsors further contributing to their income. These Twitch streamers have created a positive feedback loop by which they advertise the game, increase its player base, then gain more viewers due to its increased popularity, which in turn gives the game free publicity. Interestingly, in the last few weeks there have been radical changes in

the Battle Royale category, with PUBG losing over 190,000 players in February and a new game rising to claim the spot of most popular: Fortnite. This may come as a shock, given that one big factor which propelled PUBG to surpass H1Z1 was its realism and better graphics. So, how can it be that Fortnite, a game which is designed in a cartoon style with fantastical laws of motion, can overtake a game which boasted quite the opposite? The answer is simple; whilst H1Z1 aimed to be like PUBG but fell shot in terms of graphics and bugs, Fortnite is made with the deliberate aim of being unrealistic. Whilst PUBG’s movement often seems clunky and slow, Fortnite allows the player to jump around and move as much as they want, in fact this kind of play is encouraged. Moreover, Fortnite offers a much more complex style of play and is less luck-orientated. In PUBG, there are attachments ranging from scopes to barrel-types, whereas Fortnite’s armoury is much more simple. You find a gun, which will have a rarity which is related to its overall usefulness, and that’s that. No scopes or barrels to give you a slight advantage. In this sense, Fortnite is less about how lucky a player can get early on, by finding the right attachments, and more about the way in which a player uses the smaller arsenery available to them. In addition to this, Fortnite’s vivid style means that player visibility is rarely an issue and this combined with its smaller map

size makes for much more compact gameplay with games that are much shorter than in PUBG but feel just as, if not more, rewarding. In PUBG, a player might spend 10 minutes seeing no one, only to be sniped from behind and killed. In Fortnite, it is very uncommon for a player to go more than 5 minutes without seeing an enemy. As a result of these things, Fortnite has launched ahead of PUBG in player-count (reaching a reported 3.4 million concurrent players in February), with all signs indicating the Fortnite’s growth is not stopping any time soon. Although a specific and regular player-count is not easily accessible, one needs only look at the Twitch viewership of popular streamer “Ninja”, who has amassed over 100,000 concurrent viewers in the past, to get an idea of Fortnite’s massive community. Arguably the most unique feature of Fortnite is its building mechanic which allows players not only to utilise raw materials (wood, brick, and metal) to build defenses and create routes to certain positions, but allows players to destroy all man-made structures on the map to expose players’ positions or give suppressing fire. In Fortnite we see a massive change from PUBG gone are the days of getting sniped at from a small window you can barely see by a player that blends in with the shadows, in Fortnite you can easily see the opposition and utilise the environment to eliminate them. In this sense, Fortnite has a much higher skill-ceiling and is much more suitable for

high-level competitive play. This being said, there is much debate surrounding Fortnite and PUBG in terms of competitive competitions, or Esports (sometimes referred to as “eSports”, “e-Sports” or “E-sports”). The ESL (Electronic Sports League) PUBG tournament in Cologne, Germany, in November of 2017 was a testament to the game’s uncompetitive nature. The game was not only still in early access, but its asymmetrical nature made for lackluster games which often rewarded players for letting others fight rather than getting involved themselves. The same can be said of Fortnite, as a competitive game it may have a higher skill-ceiling, but it’s still open to the same criticism fundamentally as PUBG. Unlike games like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2, or League of Legends, Fortnite and PUBG don’t feature two teams fighting on an equal playing ground and so both are fundamentally flawed as competitive games. Overall, it’s hard to predict how long the craze will last. Neither games have a foundation in previous iterations and neither come from companies that have made successful games in the same genre (although PUBG’s creator was linked to the creation of H1Z1). Even if Fortnite’s player base starts to fall, its current enormity means that it would still likely dwarf games like Dota 2 and CS:GO, therefore, from all current indications, it seems as though the Battle Royale genre is here to stay.

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Features

Alexander Thulin investigates the exploitation of the Digital Milenium Copyright Act.

opyright is a protection offered by law that ensures that creators of ‘original works of authorship’ are listed as the owners of their creation and thus their product cannot be reproduced without their consent. Copyright law certainly serves an important role in our society, without it, creating products would mean almost nothing. However, issues can arise when copyright law is seen as an easy way to take down any negative press on your product or other activities that hurt your profits. In January the major Esports event ESL Genting, managed by one of the largest Esports broadcasters the Electronic Sports League, was hit with a wave of controversy as ESL started issuing takedown notices under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to third parties that were streaming the events games perfectly legally. ESL had received a large sum of money from Facebook in return for exclusive streaming rights of the ELS coverage on the relatively new Facebook live streaming service. Almost as soon as the event began viewers noticed glaring issues with Facebook’s streaming service which was clearly unready for such an event especially with no official alternative. The stream frequently cut out and stuttered making it almost impossible to watch gameplay and viewers complained about the oppressive advertising and overlays that cluttered the screen and obscured what viewers actually wanted to watch.

Further issues arose when due to the backlash third party streamers began to stream their own coverage of the games, something which, according to Valve, the company that makes the game being streamed, is perfectly legal as long as they do not stream for profit and do not use the production of the official event. ESL, clearly annoyed that some of these

by wanting the money from their deal and the high viewership they would get on other platforms. Most of the streamers affected by the DMCA takedowns have now been restored, however the damage has been done, this action by the ESL sets a worrying precedent for the use of copyright law going into the future, as the ESL were able to get away

No matter how controversial it is, its supporters will allways be more powerful

streams were receiving more viewers than their own official stream, started to issue DMCA takedowns to forcibly shut down these streams and remove their competition. ESL then exacerbated things further as the Vice President took to twitter to complain through a series of tweets that Esports fans wanted to ‘Have [their] cake and eat it’ by demanding tournaments that required high funding and not wanting exclusivity deals. However, the Vice President failed to notice that this was never the issue and that ESL was doing just that,

with only a damaged reputation after taking down perfectly legal streams. This issue is made worse by the fact that this isn’t just some loophole corporations are abusing, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, signed in 1998, makes it extremely easy for businesses to remove anything that they consider damaging to their business. When a DMCA notice is launched, the website or internet service provider that hosts the offending content is required by law to immediately take down the content without having to notify the creator.

Any creators of content that believe their content is not in breach of copyright have no way to get it back up other than filing a DMCA counterclaim which can either lead to the business allowing your content which takes a minimum of 10-14 days or take the copyright holder to court. These court cases are frequently lengthy and costly and often favour the larger copyright holders over smaller ones. This system of appeal makes it very easy for companies to censor content such as reviews as most people are not willing to or cannot afford a lengthy legal battle they are unlikely to win. These legal cases are such an issue because the definition for ‘Fair Use’ is so vague, the system of ‘fair use’ allows for the use of copyrighted content in certain cases such as for parody or criticism however it is extremely difficult to objectively prove that content is within fair use, meaning in many cases the system put in place to protect content creators is rendered useless. Unfortunately it is almost impossible for any change to be made to the DMCA as no matter how controversial it is its supporters, the businesses that benefit from the ability to remove content that offends them, will always be more powerful that those who are against it. In a world where lobbying power is one of the only ways to make change, it seems likely that this system will continue to allow business to censor negative reviews and block out competition.

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Features

National Service: a Necessity or a Nuisance? MILITARY

Weihan Huang explores compulsory conscription in Singapore.

Recruits gearing up for their 24 km route march that signifies the end of BMT.

n Singapore, National Service (commonly known as NS) is a period of service that all male citizens and second-generation male permanent residents have to complete for the duration of 2 years in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), Singapore Civil Defence Force or Singapore Police Force. Hence, the sight of military personnel, known as NSFs (National Servicemen Full-time), donning the various uniforms of each branch of defence is very common in Singapore. Compulsory enlistment was introduced by the National Service Amendment Bill passed on 14 March 1967. The colonial government present before 1963, when Singapore became a part of Malaysia, had previously tried to introduce NS in 1953 in an attempt to counter the rise of Communism in Malaya. However, this was met with fierce resistance and several fatal riots broke out, resulting in the rise of the anti-colonial movement too. There was some resistance to the National Service Amendment Bill introduced in 1967, but on a much smaller scale, as the people of Singapore recognised the need

for the development of a significant defence force following the separation of Singapore from Malaysia in 1965 and the impending withdrawal of British troops. As an independent sovereign state, Singapore took inspiration from conscription models in place in Switzerland and Israel at that time. Israel

engagement in business, trade and military affairs. Today, the intention behind NS remains the same as Singapore currently has a population of 5.6 million, thus a military comprised solely of regulars would not be sufficient to defend the country in the event of a conflict.

A military comprised solely of regulars would not be sufficient to defend the country in the event of a conflict

was particularly instrumental in the establishment of the Singapore Armed Forces as they not only sold arms to Singapore, but also sent over instructors to train the pioneer batch of NSFs. Israel-Singapore relations have blossomed ever since, with a high level of

Hence, it is definitely a necessity when concerning the security of Singapore. In addition, NS has the added benefit of promoting racial harmony between the three majority races in Singapore (Chinese, Malay, Indian), as the camaraderie that develops between recruits

transcends their racial allegiances. Despite this, discrimination against the Malays has existed since the inception of NS, as they were initially exempted from the draft until 1977 due to the tension between Singapore and Malaysia at that time. Currently, Malays are often assigned vocations outside of the military within the Civil Defence Force and Police Force, so as to prevent a conflict of loyalties in the event that war breaks out between Singapore and Malaysia. Prior to the 2 years of compulsory service, eligible males are required to register for NS upon reaching 16.5 years old whilst undergoing a medical examination, known as PULHHEEMS, used by the British Armed Forces and several other Commonwealth countries. The PULHHEEMS is extremely comprehensive in terms of assessing an individualâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s physical condition. The results of this test determine your Physical Employment Standards status (PES), which in turn regulates the vocations that you are physically qualified for. However, one glaring flaw within this examination is the lack of a formal psychological assessment, as the discovery of any psychological illnesses is entirely dependent

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on your declaration and your medical history. This flaw can have particularly disastrous consequences given that an individual is often placed in potentially life-threatening situations during the course of his military service. The only way in which an individual can be legally exempt from NS is if he were classified PES F, indicating that he is medically unfit for any form of service. Meanwhile, pre-enlistees who are in PES A or B1, signifying that they are suitable for combat vocations, are given the opportunity to reduce the duration of their military service by taking the Individual Physical Proficiency Test (IPPT). In the IPPT, individuals are tested on how many push-ups and sit-ups they can complete in a minute followed by a 2.4 km run. If the pre-enlistee passes the IPPT, his Basic Military Training (BMT) is cut down from 4 to 2 months. On the other end of the spectrum, obese pre-enlistees with a BMI over 27 classified under PES BP have to undergo a 5 month BMT programme designed to help them lose weight. During BMT, the reality of joining the army dawns upon recruits as they shave their head. This along with the frequent use of profanities by drill sergeants serves as a rite of passage for the recruits as they are torn away from the comforts and familiarity of civilian life. Training takes place on an island known as Pulau Tekong that is only accessible by ferry, again developing a sense of detachment within them. Recruits are pushed to their limits physically as they perform various exercises under the sweltering heat on Tekong in order to improve their IPPT score and build up the necessary stamina for the 24 km route march at the end of their BMT. Recruits also have to learn a lot of new information on how to assemble and disassemble a SAR-21 rifle, and respond to various threats as a platoon. Despite the difficulties of adjusting to such unfamiliar surroundings and practices, the excite-

Recruits training for their IPPT.

Recruits face the challenging task of digging their own shellscrapes during the field camp. ment of firing live rounds and throwing grenades can help alleviate the monotony of the repetitive drills and exercises conducted. However, the penultimate experience during BMT is undoubtedly the field camp, where recruits stay in the jungle to learn basic survival skills and specialised jungle warfare tactics. As part of the field camp, recruits face the daunting task of digging a shell scrape, a hole in the ground that offers protection from enemy fire. Recruits often liken this physically intensive experience to digging their own grave, as having to dig it whilst dressed in full military attire is a torturous process. This process is arguably made intentionally harder as recruits are given a hoe with a small blade and a short shaft to test their resilience. On top of proving their physical capabilities, the field camp is also a great way for individuals to demonstrate their leadership skills

during the Situational Test conducted that allows each recruit to take charge of their platoon for a short duration of time to navigate them through various obstacles. At the end of the field camp, recruits receive letters from their loved ones, in what proves to be an extremely emotional experience, with the majority of recruits breaking down into tears upon reading them. The reassurance and encouragement encapsulated within those letters provides recruits with the motivation they need to overcome the final hurdles of BMT. After BMT, recruits are assigned vocations based on their strengths and weaknesses and subsequently undergo specialised vocational training. Those who demonstrated their leadership potential during the field camp and their physical aptitude through achieving a high IPPT score are sent to command school (either Officer Cadet School or Specialist Cadet School). During this phase of NS, many NSFs have the opportunity to go overseas. For example, infantry troopers travel to Taiwan and Thailand, Officer Cadets travel to Brunei to complete their Jungle Confidence Course, and members of the armoured regiment go to Germany to familiarise themselves with a larger variety of vehicles. After completing their vocational/ leadership training courses, individuals are ready for active duty and fulfil their vocational responsibilities for the remainder of the two years. Following the completion of their National Service, NSFs are certified to be operationally-ready (ORD). Afterwards, they are still required to serve reservist duties till the age of 50 for commissioned officers and 40 for all other ranks. During reservist duties, individuals have to pass the IPPT or will be subject to extra training. The obligation to reservist duties can potentially be very disruptive, especially to those who are already working. However, the government compensates an

individual for any income lost during the duration of his reservist obligations, minimising the economic impact through such an arrangement. Overall, the importance of reservist duties should not be underestimated, as it is important that skills NSFs learn during NS are refreshed in the event that they are required to defend Singapore. In the future, NS will undoubtedly experience significant changes, as the number of NSFs is expected to decrease by 30% by 2030 due to falling birth rates. Defence Minister, Ng Eng Hen, labelled this worrying statistic as the SAFs “greatest challenge” and said that it would “further increase our dependence on technology”. Hence, the incorporation of advanced systems is very much on the horizon, as seen through the recent establishment of the Defence Cyber Organisation to protect Singapore from cyber attacks. Regardless of any future developments, NS will always be an intrinsic part of Singapore’s national identity. Many parents regard it as a coming-ofage moment for their sons who learn to shoulder the responsibility of defending their country. This important responsibility naturally develops a sense of maturity within them as they endure the physically and mentally challenging task of temporarily leaving behind the comforts of civilian life. Culturally, NS also plays a big part in Singapore, with various films and TV series dedicated to giving the public a realistic depiction of the experience that all Singaporean males go through. As a whole, NS is a defining characteristic of Singapore, with the unique sight of shops offering NSF discounts alongside student discounts to hawkers offering larger portions to NSFs acting as a few of the many examples that Singaporean society has wholeheartedly embraced the need for its citizens to play an active role in establishing order within its borders.

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Features

Esports - Are You Game? GAMING

Joshua Li documents the growth of the competitive gaming industry.

Live audience was just a fraction of the 60 million online viewers.

n 2009, a small boy with big dreams sat in front of a small screen in a small house in North Georgia. His fingers flicked over his chipped playstation controller, eyes squinted at the colours on the television in front of him as he scored a goal in the then-popular game, Super-Sonic Acrobatic Rocket Powered Battle cars. 9 years later, he is known as Kronovi, the golden boy of Rocket League. He is arguably the best player in the world and he has earned 54,000 USD in his professional career over 36 Rocket League tournaments. Cameron ‘Kronovi’ Bills had never fathomed that he would ever have a full time career playing his favourite game but neither had Jonathan ‘Fatal1ty’ Wendel, Lee ‘Faker’ Sang-Hyeok, Niclas ‘Pengu’ Mouritzen and thousands of top professionals across different games. The competitive gaming scene, also known as ‘Esports’ has never been bigger and according to current trends, it is only going to grow bigger as we go into the future. The Esports scene has grown exponentially. On a micro level, an increasing number of people prefer to stay home

and play videogames, simply because it requires less effort and there is no risk of injury. This trend has become more and more prevalent in certain countries over

exposure to video games. Furthermore, the generally cold climate of Sweden encourages indoor activities. Although the specifics vary, the advance in technolo-

The Esports scene has grown quickly over the past few years, and it’s not stopping anytime soon

the years. For example, Sweden is one of the best countries in Esports in general, fielding elite teams in Dota 2, Counter Strike: Global Offensive and many more. In the 1980s, when personal computers became affordable, the Swedish Government offered a lot of subsidies to families who bought one, giving more children

gy and its accessibility has helped push many youngsters to video games in other countries. On a Macro level, the level of investment and endowment into the Esports industry is incredible. Now, owning an Esports team is no small feat. Although generally unknown, the owner of the

New England Patriots, one of the most beloved teams in the NFL, owns Boston Uprising in the Overwatch League. Shaquille O’Neal, a famous retired basketball player, owns multiple Esports teams. He owns San Francisco Shock in the Overwatch League and NRG, a popular team with rosters across a variety of games. According to Newzoo, Esports revenues were to reach 696 million USD by 2017 and 1.5 billion by 2020. The Esports industry completely smashed these milestones, with the total industry revenue hitting an astonishing 1.5 billion in 2017. What are the causes of this amazing growth in the industry? It can be argued that this growth is owed to the amount of money poured into it. Amazon invested 1bn USD into Twitch, a streaming platform that allows viewers to watch their favourite gamers live and interact with them. The average Esports company is worth at least millions of dollars, and the money comes from companies that you’d think would be completely outside the Esports scene. Audi motors, Gillette shaving and Arby’s fast food are all investing, advertising to young people aged between 21-35 who

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are increasingly hard to reach by traditional means. “If you are a CMO and you are not in Esports in 2017, you are at risk of getting fired.” says Tobias Sherman, global head of esports in a talent agency. The growth in Esports has been evident throughout the years and it will only continue. However, with such growth, the impacts and implications of the industry are getting more and more prevalent today. Esports have affected a lot of people. From the average, casual gamer like me to senior officers in the external affairs of multinational companies, Esports has definitely played a part to shape the daily lives of young people. However, as the industry as a whole has appeared to be booming, there are a lot of stories that have been overshadowed by its massive success. The Esports scene is growing more and more competitive by the day. The fact that the industry is so big right now means that there is a lot of competition to enter it. The cynical stereotype of Esports players is that they are kids playing games in their mothers’ basements until they get picked up, a cruel statement that is actually not far from the truth. The illusion of the easiness of videogames and the Esports scene in general has attracted many players. I myself have over 700 hours on Rocket League over 2 years. I joined a tournament with some friends, the sign ups were easy and no qualifications were needed. You just had to log in on time and play. Technically, I was already part of the Esports scene. This goes to show how easy the Esports Scene is to be a part of. The illusion of the easiness of videogames and the Esports scene in general has attracted many players. However, just like in other jobs, if you don’t have the connections or the finances, it is infinitely more difficult to break into the industry, as the Esports scene adopts an unspoken “All in or all out” policy for young gamers trying to break into the scene. Gamers have to support themselves financially before they get picked up by a team, but even then, it is still a long way to go. Most young gamers find it difficult to balance gaming and school, often opting to drop out and start gaming full time. The BBC has documented the journey of James ‘Greensheep’ Luo, an aspiring Hearthstone player, who has had reasonable amounts of success, winning small regional tournaments in Spain and England. He had dropped out of University to pursue his gaming career, and although his dedication is commendable, the same cannot be said for his Hearthstone record. A string of losses had discouraged scouts looking out for fresh talent. ‘Greensheep’ was eventually picked up by the team Gosucrew, a lucky break considering that in most cases, players would have to work their way up on the competitive ladder all over again. In fact, most aspiring games don’t even make it there. According to a recent survey, over 60% of gamers stopped pursuing Esports

careers because of financial troubles, with 30% saying that it was because of school. Moreover, almost 90% of aspiring gamers have parents that discourage them from pursuing this career. Ian ‘Crimsix’ Porter’s parents had almost caused him to drop gaming altogether, but now he is part of one of the world’s most famous Call of Duty teams, OpTic Gaming, and earning more than his parents do combined. Despite these amaz-

Fortunately for the gamers of the future, there are ways to get past these barriers to establish your name onto the scene. Organizations such as SCOGA, Nordic Gaming Academy (NGA) and Xsolla are academies that aim to find the stars of tomorrow and fresh talent in the masses of aspiring gamers. They offer scholarships to the talented who can’t afford to pursue their careers by themselves and they also have rigorous train-

It is truly a force to be reckoned with

ing success stories, there are hundreds of thousands of gamers stuck in limbo, unable to drop out due to overcommitment and unable to advance simply because they aren’t good enough to.

ing programs, logging countless hours of training to get the best out of the young gamers. It’s paradoxical but true when I say that while it is more difficult than ever to break into the esports scene to-

Venues of competitions now rival those of concerts and sports events.

day, it is also more possible than ever to break into the esports scene today. The social stigma against this job that isn’t “real” is fading rapidly. Not only does it have an impact on gamers, viewers and people affiliated with the industry. It is also helping to shape the financial world, the global esports market having grown to $1.7bn USD. It is an industry, a job and even a hobby to take seriously at the present simply because it will not stop growing in the near future. The Esports industry is a high risk, high reward scene. At the very best, your name will be easily recognized by the young population in the world, you will be earning more than the average adult by miles and your life will be glamorous. You could have worldwide fans and do what you like all day, every day. At the very worst, you can be one of the millions who have been forgotten, trapped between a rock and a hard place and not knowing whether to pursue it, or forget it. Ultimately, of the many, many people who pursue Esports as a career, only the talented, lucky few will rise above the ashes and be crowned the kings of tomorrow.

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Features

Is Poaching Killing Africa? COMMENT

Luca Frauenfeld gives an insight into the past of poaching and its future.

oaching has been present in various countries for decades however the issues surrounding it have only recently come to light in the global climate. Africa has not had a smooth run through its development highway and poaching has undoubtedly been a large pothole on this road. Rates of poaching have risen dramatically, especially in the last decade, as a result of several civil wars and rising poverty rates. As the world begins to realise the reality of poaching, movements have been made to try and combat these exponentially rising rates. The definition of the verb ‘to poach’ is: “To illegally hunt that is not one’s own or in contravention of official protection”. Africa has been plagued with new poachers and even poaching gangs whereby groups of poachers combine forces to carry out organised attacks. In the last decade 7,245 African rhinos have been killed in order to harvest their horns mainly destined for the East Asian market, totalling 20 rhinos killed every day. These horns are normally transported into China where they are distributed. Countries such as Kenya and Tanzania have begun to acknowledge the issues surrounding poaching and the harm it does and subsequently the authorities have begun to put in place counter-poaching measures. One question remains: have they acted fast enough to save the remaining population? There has been a 9000% increase in the rates of poaching from 2007-2014, so is it too late to save these creatures from their extinction? According to Sean Willmore, president of the International Ranger Federation, two rangers are killed everyday in their fight against poaching. These deaths and the growing international trade of these forbidden goods has brought the issue to light in the global climate. This has stimulated the establishment of various NGOs fighting the ever growing trade. Examples include the International Anti-Poaching Foundation and the Humanitarian Operations Protecting Elephants. These groups run

Tanzanian rangers in action.

A product of elephant poaching in Kenya. various operations to combat the poaching taking place mainly in Africa, whether that be through fundraising or direct physical intervention. The IAPF has militarily trained poachers patrolling various parks in the African continent, whereas H.O.P.E focus their efforts more centrally on fundraising and awareness. African states have begun to realise how much they can profit from tourism and how much it accounts for their economies. This has meant they have become aware of the fact that losing their animals will mean losing that revenue. So many of these nations rely almost solely on their tourism industries to bolster their economies, and without the wildlife this will no longer be able to continue and the countries will slide back into the vicious cycle of poverty. The recent rise in affluence in Eastern Asia has lead to an increase in expendable income, this wealth has contributed to the rise in poaching figures considerably. Efforts have been made to try and decrease the demand, however they are largely in vain as if anything the demand

has increased. This significant surge in demand has led to more organised poaching; the stereotypical image of one lone poacher with a rifle is completely outdated, the reality is an organised operation of four or

In the last year, 7,245 African rhinocerous have been killed

five people. The operation is slick and extremely fast, the rangers normally have no time to react before the poachers are out of the conservancy. The attacks are run more like burglaries than killings. The supply side of the issue is extremely difficult to control as it involves national economic issues including poverty and unemployment. These problems are impossible to solve on a caseby-case basis, as this approach will never solve the inherent cause of the problem and it will continue to happen. Many believe the answer to this recurrent problem is to eliminate the demand, something most efficiently done through education and the development of awareness. Certain campaigns including WildAid, Save The Elephants, and the African Wildlife Foundation promote this in European countries, as well as the eastern

countries that form the huge market. This has been achieved by repetitive advertising through billboards, subway stations, and public service announcements featuring huge Chinese celebrities. These have been proved to have an effect, through public surveys conducted by these organisations, which show the percentage of people who believe that the rhino horn possess medicinal effects has nearly halved. Chinese state media has also been involved and they have produced various adverts and videos to promote the cause. This has been largely due to the effect of the UN and other countries encouraging China to put measures in place to combat the trade. This has had a huge effect on the demand end of the issue, however the supply problem still remains and is perhaps the more troubling end. There are limited options to reduce the supply concern, as it a means of survival for the poachers and their families, meaning that education campaigns are no longer of use, as people will continue to commit these crimes if it means their survival. Obvious measures such as apprehending suspects and treating the issue with policing, is doable however too slow to keep up with the rates of animals being slaughtered. The problem of poaching is not easily solvable and requires very careful treatment. The problem ultimately lies in the demand and the livelihoods of the poachers. These two things are very difficult to fix immediately and can only be dealt with delicately, so as not to form more issues as a result. Poaching has been a problem historically and will continue to be one for the foreseeable future, however with statistics marking a decline in poaching in the last six months, will this be the final chapter in the saga?

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Features

What Went Wrong for the West in Iran? POLITICS

Lachlan Jones examines the incidents between Iran and Western powers.

n an increasingly politicised Middle East, Iran has traditionally been seen as a strict Islamic and government influenced society.With a chequered political history, particularly since the 1979 Revolution, it has long been the assumption that this, once seemingly uncooperative, nation holds anti-Western government policies and views, in response to a number of incidents. This has, in most cases, been true. However, with the rise of globalisation, change is coming to Iran, although its controversial history with the West may be too broken to fix. Iran, or Persia, is a country rich in resources, both natural and strategic. Its most notable natural resources deposits are oil and gas and it benefits from its enviable position on the Silk Road, connecting Europe to the Far East. Despite the boons of natural wealth, Iran’s relationship with the West, particularly the US and UK, has been strained. The British first had designs over Iran with the formation of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC), which would later be renamed as British Petroleum (BP), in 1909. There was much controversy over ownership and profits, with public discontent over ownership of the biggest industry resulting in the 1951 election of Mohammad Mosaddegh as Prime Minister, an anti-British communist who wanted to nationalise Iranian oil assets and cease British control in the Gulf. With emergency powers he expelled the APOC from Iran, and began reducing the powers of the King, or Shah, who at the time was Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Seeing that the control of oil in the Middle East was under threat, MI6 and the CIA engineered the overthrow of Mossadegh in 1953, following the cutting of diplomatic ties on his orders. The result of this was increased powers of the Shah, increased funding for the military and the secret police, the SAVAK, to enable the Shah to maintain strict control. In return the US and UK were given a large stake in Iranian oil rights, which was promised to ‘flow to world markets in substantial quantities’. This coup d’etat angered many working class Iranians, who felt as though foreign powers were degrading their country, their leaders and their living conditions, which remained low, especially so in the early years of Mohammad Reza Shah’s rule. These events were crucial in his eventual downfall. The Western-imposed Shah brought about relatively liberal reforms during a period known as the ‘White Revolution’, which began to change Iran’s governmental and social appearance. This included reform of land ownership rights, the granting of greater religious freedoms and the en-

franchisement of women. However, his rule was characterised by his autocracy, refusal to accept proposals by parliament and the brutality of the SAVAK. Land reforms in the White Revolution distanced himself from peasants, due the expansion of land-owning middle classes buying up their land. Farmers were often also in more traditional, conservative communities in which the Shah’s progressive view was not popular. This combined rise in anti-Western opinion due to the overthrow of Mossadegh and decreasing support for the Shah culminated at breaking point. An outlawed cleric, Ruhollah Khomeini, began gaining popularity with his policy of rejecting both capitalism and communism, instead focusing on the Islamic clergy’s ability to lead. This was popular with traditionalists and the poverty-stricken working class, who were often bombarded with images of opulence from their monarchy, with the Shah rumoured to have his lunches flown from Paris by Concorde. Discontent was at unprecedented levels, and by 1977 the army was utilised to fire on protesters, which led to public denouncement of the government. Triggers such as a fire at a cinema in Abadan, in which 422 people died and was widely blamed on the SAVAK, resulted in martial law being declared in September 1979. Following the collapse of the Army’s faith in him, the Shah and his family fled to New York. Ayatollah Khomeini established a revolutionary government, and crackdowns began against opponents of the Revolution. The repeated demands of the Iranian government to return the Shah to Iran were rejected by the US, igniting an-

Ayatollah Khomeini London also was shaken by incidents in the early years of Revolution; the Iranian Embassy in London was besieged for six days after gunmen entered and took 26

Ayatollah Khomeini established a revolutionary government ger amongst the government and people. Another key event in US-Iranian relations was the American Embassy Hostage Crisis. The US embassy in Tehran was stormed by protesters and members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, 52 diplomats and embassy workers were taken hostage. Following a 444 day diplomatic incident that shocked the world, they were released, yet the demands of the Iranian government regarding the release of the Shah were not met.

hostages. The Iraqi nationals demanded the return of land that had been invaded by Iran prior to the Revolution, demands that the Iranian government did not agree to. While the SAS Operation Nimrod brought the siege to a relatively bloodless end, British public opinion towards Iran declined even further, opinions that were furthered worsened by its imminent invasion of Iraq, an event in which over 500,000 soldiers died and was characterised in the media by ‘human wave’ tactics.

Yet another incident pushed the US and Iranian relationship to breaking point; the shooting down of Iran Air flight 655 by USS Vincennes in July 1988. This resulted in the death of all 290 people on board, and created a huge diplomatic incident as it was found the Vincennes was in Iranian territorial waters illegally. Claiming the crew mistook the plane for a fighter jet, US President Bush refused to publicly apologise for the Navy’s involvement in the incident, resulting in outrage in Iran. Looking to the future, there is hope for improved relations between the West and Iran. Developments such as the removal of many monetary sanctions in 2014 and mass investment in the country’s industry have helped to revive the economy. However, the structure of government in the country, with the all powerful Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei appointing the presidential candidates and in command of the political military Revolutionary Guard, seems to show that Iran is yet to receive the major shift towards modern democracy that is employed in the West any time soon. The anti-Western philosophy dictated by the Revolution will likely remain hard to iron out of government in the coming decades.

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Features

Chechnya: The State of Hate POLITICS

Joshua Jackson and German Baraev investigate the ‘gay purge’ and the history of Chechnya.

he Chechen Republic, better known as Chechnya, is a Russian federal subject, situated in the northern Caucasus, and has often drawn international attention for numerous human rights abuses. Chechen people have always had a warrior-esque image amongst ethnic white Russians. This may have its origins in the fact that the region was heavily fought over by the Russian Empire and finally brought under Russian sovereignty in the 19th century. After the Russian Revolution in the early 20th century, Chechnya, along with other Caucasus nations seceded from Russia, all but fell to Communist forces and was made a Soviet Republic in 1921. Although Soviet rule was peaceful, Islam, the main religion, was suppressed by Soviet laws, and cultural whitewashing was prevalent under Stalin. The dream of independence was evident throughout Soviet states under Russia during the 1990s. When the Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991, states such as Ukraine, Belarus and Uzbekistan left the newly formed Russian Federation. The Russian economy was sent into a free-fall after the crash-course in capitalism that Russia went through under President Yeltsin. The Chechen hope for an independent state was led by their future first Presi-

tions against Chechen President Dudayev, Moscow began a bombardment of Chechnya in December 1994. This was quickly followed up with a hushed and overly ambitious, three pronged attack on Chechnya. The plan for the Russian perspective was to take the capital, Grozny, and in quick succession destroy any insurgents left in the rogue state. What Yeltsin didn’t consider was the tenacity of the Chechen people, who for generations were left to scrounge underneath Moscow’s feet, unable to have any proper influence in their region. Even though the Russian Federation was much greater than Chechnya in both economic and military terms, its lack of preparations and economic depravity meant there was no support for Yeltsin’s campaign from the people. Yeltsin himself was wildly unpopular, with the Russians seeing how dire the state of their country was and humbled by Western powers whom they had despised since the days of Lenin. To add insult to injury, Yeltsin was known not only as an alcoholic, but also an avid supporter of the U.S and NATO. The three pronged attack was a tactical failure with a lack of aerial support, and the forces of Russia were suddenly delayed by a sudden retraction of one of its generals, who considered it inhumane to send an army against its own people. Despite this, the Russian force over-

tered 103 unarmed civilians while seizing the border village of Samashki on 7th April. By summer 1995, Chechnya was all but overrun with the only hold-out being high in mountains where Russian tanks couldn’t proceed. To shift public opinion on the war, Chechen forces began abducting and holding hostages in Southern Russia and Moscow. Chechnya’s Grand Mufti Akhmad Kadyrov declared that Chechnya was waging a jihad (struggle) against Russia, this opened the possibility that jihadists from other states would join the war. The war concluded after further skirmishes in rural Chechnya, and a final battle for the capital, with a treaty between Moscow and

Grozny. Years later, the Second Chechen War began and it was little different to the first. However, the Russian Federation was now led by the iron fist of Putin. Fresh from the 2000 elections, he was keen to prove his dominance in the region and cement his position as the unchallenged ruler of Russia. The war went in Russia’s favour, with the promise of erasing Islamist extremists and Chechen terrorism, and Russian heavy artillery, ground units and air support rolled into the ravaged state of Chechnya. The Russian forces leveled Grozny and destroyed any insurgency. After the war, the former Grand Mufti Akhmad Kadyrov returned

In April 2017, the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta reported that hundreds of homosexual males were being kidnapped and tortured in gay camps across the state

dent Dudayev, who formed the Chechen National Congress that advocated for the Chechens to secede the Russian Federation. This proposition was rejected by Moscow, seeing the movement as illegal under the former Soviet constitution. After supporting separatist fac-

came the Chechens in urban warfare and took Grozny with disproportionate losses. Eventually, Russia took nearly all of the lowlands and mountains, where the Chechen rebels retreated to. In what was dubbed as the worst massacre of the war, the OMON (special forces) slaugh-

Ramzan Kadyrov, President of Chechnya, pictured in 2014.

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to the ruined throne of Chechnya after he provided information to Russia about other Chechen leaders and their strategies. Kadyrov’s life was cut short when he was assassinated in 2004 and his son, Ramzan, ascended to the post in 2007. As of January 2018 , Chechnya’s government is still led by Ramzan Kadyrov. His official title is the Head of the Chechen Republic but many refer to him as the prime minister or president of Chechnya, and he was referred to as “Putin’s closest ally - and his biggest liability” by Oliver

across the independent Russian press. Reports of 30 to 40 men being held in the same room, and being beaten to death in some cases, are difficult to stomach. The location of the camp is suspected to be an old military headquarters in the town of Argun, and although there are confirmed satellite images of these camps, Kadyrov and the Kremlin still continue to dismiss these claims. Indeed, Kadyrov’s response is always flat out denial. In an interview with Interfax news agency, he stated that “you can-

Kadyrov promotes a cult of personality that is akin to a 21st century Stalin

Bullough in a article on the Guardian. His Instagram is infamous for being the place to find a confusing mix of official Chechen government statements, death threats against critics, animal pictures and videos of him working out, replete with sweatdrenched beard. He even posted a plea to find his lost cat last year. Using Instagram as a platform for propaganda, Kadyrov promotes a cult of personality that is akin to a 21st century Stalin. Recently, his Instagram and Facebook pages have peaked in popularity thanks to the recent controversy of them being blocked by Facebook. Kadyrov has accused the US government of pressuring the social network into doing this due to this coinciding with new sanctions against Chechnya. In late November 2017, Kadyrov released an official statement in which he decreed that he was “ready to step down”. This came amid accusations of arbitrary arrests and torturing of opponents, intolerance of sexual minorities and tough political statements made by human rights bodies that have embarrassed the Kremlin. In April 2017, the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta reported that hundreds of homosexual males were being kidnapped and tortured in gay camps across the state. In the article, Elena Milashina stated that there were reports of homosexual men being kidnapped and incarcerated in internment camps, where torture was commonplace. Many of the interviewees escaped and reported from a safehouse in central Moscow, and at least 100 men from these camps have spoken out about the brutal conditions that these people have been subjected to. One victim reported being subject to violent ‘interrogations’ in the camps in order to gain information of the names and locations of more gay men. Reports of electric shockings, beatings and even ransoms to extort families have circulated more widely

not detain and persecute people who simply do not exist in the republic.” He further elaborated that “If there were such people in Chechnya, the law-enforcement organs wouldn’t need to have anything to do with them because their relatives would send

them somewhere from which there is no returning.” Then, he decreed in an interview with HBO that “If there are any gays...take them away from us. To purify our blood, if there are any, take them.” This is clearly infuriating to anyone who isn’t as ignorant as him, yet no real action has been taken against this man, despite having been pressured by human rights agencies. Angela Merkel has even pressured Putin, face to face, to investigate these claims. In a press conference she has stated that she has “asked President Putin to use his influence to protect these minority rights,” but she later stated that “unfortunately we are not making much headway here.” This tactic of defiance and denial has infuriated NGOs, governments and the media alike. And this anger seems to be justified based on the evidence. Although Putin made an official statement in May 2017 that Russian officials were actively investigating these claims, since then little information has been released about this case by the Kremlin. Many Russians are beginning to believe that the Kremlin’s involvement in this controversy is minimal at best and that Kadyrov is acting on his own sovereignty. After all, the intense media scrutiny brought to Putin’s porch is damaging, especially leading up to election season. The first reports of these atrocities such as those in Novya Gazeta were

A child’s drawing of the Battle of Grozny, 1995.

packed with eye grabbing claims that gay men in Chechnya were kidnapped and abused. This caused media outrage for about a week. Evidence was found, then more outrage broke out. But now the story is seen as dead news, no leeway was made and people have lost interest. There are occasional updates, such as when the BBC interviewed Kadyrov in January 2018 and he stated that the accusations were made up for money. But that is all. No longer are there outspoken protests online or in the streets of Moscow. But abuses are still happening, more and more witnesses are coming out, and yet the media looks elsewhere. The future? The recent Russian election has curbed any opposition to Putin’s regime for the next 6 years. With Putin’s victory in the election, his close ally Kadyrov is sure to continue ruling Chechnya with an iron fist. However, the accusations of human rights abuses have brought about a resurgence in media and international attention to the already highly criticised republic. Regardless of Kadyrov’s previous statements of intent to leave the office of president, any political commentator, in Russia and Chechnya especially, knows that a political reversal like that is all for show, existing only to quieten and distract media scrutiny.

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Features

The City of Darkness COMMENT

Jeremy Salkeld tells the story of the world’s most densely populated urban area.

magine, just for a moment, a cobbled street, perhaps six feet wide, littered with waste paper and glistening with water, dripping from leaking pipes many stories above. Day and night are indistinguishable – the only illumination comes from the odd electric light, fed by a web of cables just high enough to walk normally under, siphoning electricity from the grid. The enclosure reverberates with the sound of machinery. Criminal syndicates have members behind every wall, and hold everyone in their debt. For over three decades, such a place was a reality in the form of the Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong. The existence of the Walled City in effect resulted from bureaucratic oversight. The Convention of Peking in 1860 had granted Britain the Kowloon Peninsula save for a small Chinese fort, which remained Chinese territory. Following the fort’s demolition by Japan in the Second World War, its status as a Chinese exclave was seized upon by those on the run from the law, who began building an increasingly taller series of apartment blocks on the land, immune to British law whilst on Chinese soil but unassailable by Chinese law thanks to the British territory around it. By the 1980s it had become the most densely-populated place to have ever existed, with 33,000 people crammed into a mere 2.6 hectares. If Birmingham had the

same population density, it would occupy just over one square kilometre of land. Although there was an agreement between the authorities of the exclave and the city proper that the height of the buildings would not exceed 14 storeys, life was otherwise unregulated. Despite its nominal illegality and comparatively tiny population (in 1987, it contained only 33,000 of Hong Kong’s over 5.5 million residents), the Walled City made a surprising contribution to the Hong Kong economy, being a source of cheap, unregulated manual labour. Some workshops were devoted to the preparation of fish and noodles for the city’s restaurants, others counterfeited luxury watches for undiscerning consumers, and still others produced fabrics for Hong Kong’s famously inexpensive tailors. Surprisingly, a large number of occupants dealt primarily in medicine. Lacking officially recognised training, the outside ‘walls’ of the city were dotted with illicit dentists’ clinics, providing an alternative to the almost exorbitantly costly legitimate facilities in the city proper, a problem not rectified until the establishment of specialist dental training centres in the 1980s. Unlicensed medicine sellers proliferated generally, with the space in between the dentists’ shops more often than not filled by chemists. To say that they were cranks, however, would be grossly unfair. Much of the Walled City’s population consisted

The Walled City as it appeared in 1989, with then British-held Kowloon surrounding.

of refugees from Maoist China, and those whose qualifications were unrecognised by the British government in Hong Kong were left with no alternative but to operate outside the law. The most recognisable feature of life in the Walled City was the extremity of both poverty and crime. Running water was a luxury for a select few – many had to carry buckets of water from pumps at ground level back to their flats up as many as fourteen flights of stairs. A lack of sanitation meant that rats and roaches were almost ubiquitous – particularly in the food preparation workshops. Worst of all, virtually everything that occurred in the city did so with the consent of the Triads – once a secret society devoted to the overthrow of the Qing dynasty, now a criminal syndicate equivalent to the Yakuza of Japan or the Mafia of Italy. Drug abuse and prostitution were rife, and the efforts of a few outsiders to try and resolve these problems was often met with hostility from Triad drug dealers, threatened by this reduction of their customer base. In spite of this constant criminal presence,

the Walled City nonetheless managed to maintain a strong sense of community. Although the Walled City itself is long gone, it does have some lessons for us today. We often hear of cities being the place to go for anonymity, yet the Kowloon Walled City contained many tightly-knit communities, with the cramped indoor spaces to improvised community centres and the rooftops used as gathering places for the population. In some ways the common hardship of the extreme environment brought people together in a similar fashion to the limited amenities of village life. Even in the absence of high living standards, there is still a great fondness for their old homes among many of those who once lived there, with many former residents still lamenting the loss of the sense of community that they once shared. In an age in which many of us are ironically driving ourselves further apart through the filter of the Internet, perhaps the sort of community spirit that flourished in the most extreme expression of urban density serves as a great reminder of what we have left behind.

One of the many labyrinthine streets of the Walled City.

THE MARTLET SUMMER ISSUE 17

Sport

What Can We Expect From This Year’s World Cup? FOOTBALL

s Russia prepares to host the World Cup in the summer, I will be talking about what we can expect from this year’s World Cup. This tournament is not just about the football, as this will be a big opportunity for Russia to show itself in a positive light after everything that has been going on, including doping scandals. We will see the powerhouses like Germany, Belgium, Brazil, France and Argentina, who only just scraped through the qualifying rounds. However, Italy won’t be there, the first time they haven’t been at the tournament since 1958, meaning legendary goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon won’t get the perfect send off at a World Cup. Iceland will be making their World Cup debut after they shocked everyone two years ago. The less said about that the better for England fans. England… Well, England will be there too. Firstly let’s take a look at the groups and who the favourites look to be. Group A sees hosts Russia go up against Uruguay who will be looking to comfortably progress out of a group that also sees the in form Mo Salah playing for Egypt. Cristiano Ronaldo looks to lead Portugal to a World Cup victory two years after they won the European Championships. However, they come up in a tough group against Spain, the winners of the competition eight years ago, in group B. France look to be clear favourites from group C with their young and exciting team boasting players like Kylian Mbappé and Paul Pogba playing it looks to be a promising

Ben Lisemore looks ahead to this year’s world cup in Russia. four years ago losing 7-1 to Germany in the semi-finals. They are the clear favourites in their group looking like they will have a comfortable run. Germany also have a comfortable group with Sweden being the most obvious competition, overcoming Italy in the play-offs. Next we have England, with every football fan hoping for anything better than finishing bottom of a group that also consists of Costa Rica, like four years ago. Harry Kane has been scoring for fun and everyone will be hoping he can continue his brilliant form into this summer’s competition, despite his injury. Belgium look to be the biggest competition with Premier League talents like Kevin De Bruyne, Eden Hazard and Romelu Lukaku. Apart from that English fans would hope we should be able to beat countries like Panama and Tunisia in group G. Finally, group H has Columbia and Poland battling out for top spot. We will see James Rodríguez, who burst onto the scene four years ago in Brazil, battle against Robert Lewandowski, one of Europe’s most prolific strikers, of Poland. What can we expect from Russia, the hosts, after lots of controversy about their sporting system? This is all down to their doping scandal, meaning a lot of Russian athletes were banned from the recent Winter Olympics. This has got a lot of people talking about whether they are a suitable nation to host the tournament. As well as this, people are also concerned about whether Russia’s politics will have an effect on the tournament. Protests are also expected as people will see it as a big

England...well, England will be there

tournament for them. Group D sees arguably the best player in the world try and guide Argentina to the final they lost four years ago to Germany. This could be Messi’s last shot to win it as he will be 34 at the next competition. Iceland also appear in group D after their amazing run at the Euros two years ago. Croatia and Nigeria make up what looks to be a very exciting group. Brazil will be looking to bounce back after their embarrassment in Rio

opportunity to show off their views about the country. This has people going to the tournament slightly concerned for their safety as they think things might get out of hand. One of the biggest things in the football world moving forwards will be the use of Video Assistant Referee, or V.A.R. FIFA have confirmed it will be used at the tournament for the first time. There are certain perks of this but also a few down-

sides. As we have seen in this year’s FA Cup, it has not been the quickest system in the world. So should we be using this system at such a major tournament if we are still learning the most effective way to use it? However, if used correctly it could be a very useful piece of technology as we move forward. As it could be the difference between a country’s success or failure. Hopefully FIFA will work everything

out and make sure it is used effectively. As the whole world looks on this summer to Russia, football fans everywhere will be hoping their country can go all the way. We won’t see Italy but we will see some teams’ World Cup debut. No matter what controversies go on, everyone will want to watch their country do them proud, after all it is ‘the beautiful game’.

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Sport CRICKET

Six Nations: Success and Failure Will Stewart reflects on what improvements teams must make ahead of the World Cup.

his year’s Six Nations tournament lived up to expectations and was as exciting as ever. Ireland won the Grand Slam by beating England convincingly at Twickenham and for England, it proved to be a very disappointing tournament this year with Eddie Jones’ side picking up just two wins. DI will review how each team fared in this year’s tournament and briefly look ahead to the home nations’ summer tours and their chances against some of the best sides in the world. Ireland won this year’s Six Nations convincingly, beating each side they played with an exciting brand of rugby. Jacob Stockdale was Ireland’s star, winning the Player of the Tournament award having scored a record seven tries. Rory Best led the team very well and no side looked like posing a significant threat to their unbeaten run. However, their tournament nearly got off to the worst possible start against France in Paris and it took a last minute Johnny Sexton drop goal to seal the narrowest of victories against the Six Nations’ most unpredictable side. Ireland is now the Northern Hemisphere’s best chance of winning the World Cup in Japan in 2020, and, if they can continue their fine form and ensure all their key players stay fit, then they are certainly in with a very good chance of winning the World Cup in a few years time. Wales came runners up in the competition this year and given that they were missing a number of their key players, such as Sam Warburton and Jonathan Davies, they will be pleased with a second place

finish. This year’s tournament allowed Warren Gatland to try out new players and whilst they will be disappointed that they lost to England in a game they definitely could have won; Warren Gatland will certainly take encouragement from a number of players’ performances, such as Rhys Patchell and Hadleigh Parkes. In the summer they will play South Africa and Argentina, both of which are very strong sides. Overall, whilst the team may be disappointed that they did not come closer to winning the tournament they dominated in 2012 and 2013, the team did play well despite missing some of their most important players. Scotland threw the tournament wide open when they beat England at Murrayfield and no one expected Scotland to beat Eddie Jones’ England side that has been so successful over the last few years. The team was dominated by Glasgow players, who have had a lot of success in the last few years both domestically and in European competition. They will be disappointed that they were on the losing end of a 28-8 loss but will be extremely pleased that they managed to win the Calcutta Cup, something they had not achieved for ten years. France, surprisingly, finished higher than their old rivals England this year and at times during the competition they played some very attractive rugby. France’s problem for years has been their inconsistency, with a key factor being the amount of foreign players in the Top 14 league. The French players occasionally look like they have never played with

Ireland beat Scotland 28-8 in this year’s competition.

each other before, and this is no surprise given that most of the domestic sides contain more players from South Africa, New Zealand and Australia than French players. Nonetheless, you would still expect the national team to play better and so for a French fan you would probably still be disappointed with this year’s tournament even though the team beat England, who are their oldest rivals. England’s tournament this year was very strange because we have become accustomed in recent years to seeing the team beat nearly every team they face. The problem may be a lack of younger players in the team and Eddie Jones has largely stuck to the same group of players throughout his time as head coach. The likes of Dylan Hartley, James Haskell and Chris Robshaw did not play well this year and their time in the England starting fifteen may well be drawing to an end, given that players such as Jamie George and Sam Underhill are pushing for starting places. This year’s tournament is probably just a minor setback in what has been so far a very successful few years under the coaching of Eddie Jones. After a disappointing Six Nations, England face the tough prospect of playing three tests against South Africa this summer. Last and unfortunately least is Italy, who once again finished in last place. There have been calls for a relegation system to be introduced and after yet another disappointing set of losses for Italy, we may well see a new team feature in next year’s tournament. This could be Georgia, Romania or Russia. However

Italy did play well at times and managed to score tries against England and Wales, but on reflection they have been very poor in nearly every Six Nations that I can remember and so maybe it is now the time

This year’s tournament is probably just a minor setback

for a change. In the lead up to the World Cup in Japan in 2020, all the Six Nations sides will be looking to get into some good form in their upcoming games. For some this will require wholesale changes in their personnel, while for others it may just mean maintaining the impressive string of performances they had put together over the course of the Six Nations. Each side has summer tours to look forward to and it will be imperative for England and Ireland to lay down a marker by winning against the very best teams ahead of the World Cup.

THE MARTLET SUMMER ISSUE 17

Sport CRICKET

Does Steve Smith Deserve Our Sympathy? A

Ben Hutchison explores the implications of the Australian ball tampering scandal.

cricketing scandal to rock the world of sport. Sandpaper being rubbed on a ball may not sound a deplorable crime, but the actions of Australia’s Cameron Bancroft in March represent a rot at the heart of the nation’s cricket and a stain on a sport so associated with honour and integrity. A fault of the Australian team’s leadership group, this ball tampering scandal has signified the end of coach Darren Lehmann’s tenure and the banning of Bancroft, David Warner and, significantly, once-golden boy Steve Smith. Condemned by the world media, the offence saw a scorching Australian summer end on a bitterly frosty note, but were the criticism and sanctions justified? Steve Smith is currently the best batsman in the world. His remarkable Test batting average of 63.55 is the second highest ever, inferior only to the great Don Bradman, while his masterclasses against England in the recent Ashes rendered him player of the series. Australia’s hero, the people’s idol, a role model for young cricketers and the ruin of all other teams he faced, Smith’s cricketing reign collapsed over the course of but a few days. In the third Test of a fiery series between South Africa and Australia, Aussie opening batsman Cameron Bancroft was caught on television rubbing the cricket ball with a small piece of sandpaper. He immediately hid the

This will be the end of the formidable batsman we know and admire

sandpaper down the front of his trousers and play continued, but later that day he admitted, alongside Captain Smith, that he had been ball-tampering, though not without the false claim that the tool was in fact simply sticky tape. Smith’s concession that the plan

had been devised by what he ambiguously referred to as Australia’s ‘leadership group’ was the most shocking of all. Not only had senior figures been implicated in the cheating, they had assigned the task of carrying it out to junior player Bancroft. Cricketers know tampering is illegal, yet they do it anyway to help the bowlers achieve reverse swing. That is, if one side of the ball is rougher than the other, the ball will swing in the opposite direction to conventional swing, thus rendering it harder to bat against. Tampering has been in the game for years: Imran Khan famously scratched the ball with a bottle top; players also like to gouge the ball with their nails. The irony is that even the Aussies’ attempt to cheat was unsuccessful - Bancroft’s scuffing of the ball was so ineffective that the umpires didn’t feel the need to change it. Nonetheless, Cricket Australia liberally handed out the sanctions: a nine month ban from playing international and domestic cricket for Bancroft, the complicit fool, and one year for both Smith and his vice-captain David Warner. None of the three contested the punishment. Perhaps harder for the players to face would have been the ubiquitous condemnation from the international press, with even Australia’s Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull denouncing the event as a “shocking disappointment”. Smith said that as captain of the Australian cricket team, he took full responsibility, and that he had made a serious error in judgement: “It was a failure of leadership, my leadership.” More harrowing, however were the emotional breakdowns in front of the cameras. All three players, previously seen as macho Australians, poignantly expressed dismay, regret and remorse at their press conferences. Warner fought back the tears as he conceded that he may never play for his country again. Smith’s was the most heart-wrenching, as he mentioned his parents’ disappointment and tearfully added, “I know I will regret this for the rest of my life”. The disgraced captain seemed a broken man; no longer his country’s saviour, Steve Smith has been universally demonized. At first, English cricket fans were jubilant that their infallible adversary this Winter was shown at last to be mortal: Steve Smith had a vice. Quite probably, the tampering was occurring during the Ashes tour, and so, we

Steve Smith has been banned for a year. wondered, who could blame our national team for their chastening failure down-under? Not only is the reality very different - England’s test team were outplayed, regardless of the condition of the cricket ball - but also as the scandal snowballed, any glee or anger quickly amalgamated into a sense of sorrow. The Aussie trio were enemies on the field, perhaps, but undisputedly brilliant cricketers, particularly Smith, and his fall from grace is saddening for all. Without doubt, criticism is a necessity. Cheating in any sport must be frowned upon, and as such the global condemnation of Smith and the others’ actions has to be deemed justifiable. Nevertheless, the sanctions imposed by Cricket Australia, with the view of sending a message out there, seem superfluous. The cricket team is in tatters - they went on to lose the South Africa series 3-1 - while the rest of nation is still reeling from a disgrace they had never before contemplated. Should we pity Smith and the others? I would argue that we must. His mistake was a big one, a huge one, and it has been accordingly punished, but one tragic consequence of the scandal is that in all probability this will be the end of the formidable batsman we know and

admire. Put simply, cricket is a sport that requires mental clarity more than most, and I fear that, on his return to the game in 2019, Smith will be an altogether different player, a shadow of his former self. Jonathan Trott, one of England’s finest batsmen in the 21st Century, saw his international career end dismally as his return from an 18 month stress-induced hiatus garnered just 72 runs in six innings, and provoked his premature retirement. Trott was an exceptional batsman, perhaps to a lesser extent than Smith, but he demonstrated the effect of mental instability on your Test game. Smith is characterised by his mental strength, as any batsman who has made 23 international Test centuries would be, but the fierce criticism he has suffered will not leave his game unaffected. If not showing him leniency, at least show Steve Smith some sympathy; one mistake should not devastate a sparkling career. Ultimately, a country crazy for cricket saw their cherished team pay too high a price for success, one that culminated in disaster, and regardless of how Smith and the others bounce back, the tampering scandal will remain a shameful stain on the squad for years to come.

THE MARTLET SUMMER ISSUE 17

Sport

What’s the Problem with Video Assistant Referees? FOOTBALL

Marc Tuazon explores the controversy surrounding the implemention of V.A.R in football and what can be done to resolve this.

he introduction of Video Assistant Referees (or V.A.R) in football has been a polarising topic among fans, with the intended purpose of correcting “clear and obvious errors”. However, despite the staunch support from FIFA president Gianni Infantino and other figures within football, who have said that the use of V.A.R is necessary to cut out the incorrect decisions that can cost games, many figures such as Alan Shearer and Gianluigi Buffon have been strong critics of it, citing that the flow of the game has been ruined, the fans are left in the dark over the de-

and after the emergence of Hawkeye in tennis and video assistance for referees in rugby, it seemed only a matter of time before the FA would follow suit. However, it is only recently that change has actually come into fruition in football, with the use of goal-line technology in the form of Hawkeye being deployed in the Premier League in 2013, but it is only at the start of 2017-18 season, where V.A.R has been deployed in the top leagues in Europe, most notably in the Serie A (Italy) and the Bundesliga (Germany), with England trialling V.A.R in the FA Cup and in the latter stages of the EFL Carabao Cup.

They believe that now the game “has lost its flow” and that there is “no more passion” cisions, and that often the final decision has been incorrect. All of the debate surrounding the use of V.A.R has ultimately posed the question: Does V.A.R have a future in football? The debate for more technology in football has been prevalent for some time

FIFA President Gianni Infantino has remained a staunch supporter of V.A.R.

Supposedly, the hope that fans, players, and managers alike would no longer be left aggrieved by harsh decisions ranging from red cards to penalties, goals and mistaken identity, was the main driving force for the implementation of V.A.R. However, one must acknowledge that with every new technological advancement made in sport, there would be a high chance of mistakes being made and V.A.R has not been an exception. Fundamentally, Video Assistant Referees have been implemented with the aim of overturning clear and obvious errors in scenarios concerning goals, red cards, penalties, and cases of mistaken identity. Even if the referee does not consult V.A.R, all decisions made by the referee are monitored. In the event that a referee or another official has made a mistake, then the referee can consult V.A.R through their earpieces. Following this, video officials stationed in a remote location judge, with the use of real time and slow motion replays shown on several screens, decide if any action must be taken. If the video official decides that an error has been made, the video official will inform the referee of this and if there is still further ambiguity, the referee can also check a pitch-

A notable high-profile error was in 2014 when Kieran Gibbs was sent off for a handball in the penalty area committed by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. side monitor (on-field review), in order to come a decision. V.A.R is not permitted in the events a player is handed a second yellow card and also if a referee is unsure on what decision to make, they cannot immediately call for V.A.R - they must make a decision first and then V.A.R can be used to verify in the likelihood they have made a “clear and obvious error”. It must be acknowledged that of course V.A.R is still in its early stages and many changes will undoubtedly be made to improve the system, but despite this numerous controversies have already occurred, which have led some, most notably the likes of Alan Shearer, Gianluigi Buffon and Sami Khedira, to believe that V.A.R is having a negative effect on football and should be discontinued. But why has this been the case?

One such problem is the fact that in matches where V.A.R has been trialled so far, often fans are left in confusion for several minutes while the referees and video officials consult their decision. This was significantly noted in the FA Cup sixth round replay between Tottenham and Rochdale, where the referee added an additional five minutes of stoppage time due to consultation with V.A.R, resulting in boos from fans. This is further hindered by the fact that replays are not broadcasted on any large screens within the stadium, prolonging the delays further, and as certain figures have mentioned previously, they believe that now the game “has lost its flow” and that there is “no more passion”, and would drive away potential fans. However, this problem seems largely inferior in the light of the events in the FA

THE MARTLET SUMMER ISSUE 17

Cup fourth round tie between Chelsea and Norwich City. Despite the fact that Chelsea eventually won on penalties against a determined Norwich side, they ended the game with nine men, leaving manager Antonio Conte reeling after several key decisions had gone against them. One such case was the tackle on Chelsea midfielder Willian in the penalty area in extra time, which was judged, with the use of V.A.R, as a dive and this resulted in Willian being given a yellow card. Despite the fact super-slow motion replays showed that Willian was caught late in a tackle, the video official had only reviewed the tackle at real-time and slow motion speed, resulting in the ruling that Willian had committed simulation (a dive). Controversies have continued to beset V.A.R, with Liverpool’s fourth round match in the FA Cup against West Brom containing several controversial decisions made with the use of V.A.R, as well as Manchester United’s match against Huddersfield also controversially disallowing a goal and, as mentioned previously, Spurs’ game against Rochdale contained a flurry of questionable decisions which included a disallowed goal and the awarding of a penalty after the initial decision to award a free kick. These controversies highlight a fundamental problem which is that the final decision is often made by the video official, not the referee. There has yet to be a case in English football where the video official has instructed the referee to inspect the challenge through an on-pitch review. As

it so often is, a second opinion can make a decision go either way, which was proven all too well by the questionable decision to disallow Spurs midfielder Érik Lamela’s goal against Rochdale, which had been proven later to be a mistake. Outside of English football, the reaction has not been far too dissimilar. In the German Bundesliga, a January survey by the Kicker magazine had discovered that 47% of players wanted to end the use of V.A.R, as a result of the delays, technical problems and incorrect decisions. This is made further clear by the knowledge that out of the 46 decisions in Bundesliga matches that have been overturned, 11 of them have actually been incorrect. The situation is also the same in Italy and the Serie A, with Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport describing a recent string of controversial V.A.R decisions, as a “black Sunday for referees and V.A.R”. This has undoubtedly thrown into question the future of V.A.R. It has been announced that V.A.R will not be featuring next season in the Champions League, with UEFA chief Alexander Čeferin saying “[V.A.R] might be a good project but we shouldn’t rush it”. Moreover, given that the Premier League is not expected to permanently implement V.A.R, it is clearly evident that V.A.R will have to be improved significantly in order to satisfy the disgruntled fans, players, and managers who have been left bereaved as a result of the long duration of time taken during a decision and the fact that the decision still

may often be incorrect. Despite the harsh reaction to V.A.R, numerous other figures have jumped to the defence of V.A.R, including FIFA

as broadcasters and commentators” about the reason and outcome of a review. Despite all the controversies V.A.R has brought into football, I believe FIFA

It is merely a small price to pay to cut out the mistakes that aggrieve fans and plague football

president Gianni Infantino, who said that “you only lose an average of 90 seconds per game… But we lose an average of seven minutes per game due to throw-ins. If we lose seven minutes on throw-ins, we can lose 90 seconds to get decisions right.” And following the news that V.A.R is set to be used in this year’s World Cup in Russia, as a result of the International Football Association Board’s unanimous decision to permanently install V.A.R in football, clearly highlights the unwavering faith FIFA has for V.A.R, amidst the numerous complaints of the system made. In addition, in order to reduce the amount of fans being left in the dark over several contested decisions, FIFA says it is working on a system that will provide information to the “giant screen operators as well

There have been many critics of V.A.R with one such person being Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon.

is right to reaffirm its support for V.A.R, because fundamentally V.A.R was designed to cut out the mistakes in football. Thierry Henry’s handball in the build-up to the crucial goal against the Republic of Ireland in the World Cup playoffs, the case of mistaken identity which occurred in the sending off of Kieran Gibbs in Chelsea’s 6-0 win against Arsenal, and Diego Maradona’s infamous Hand of God goal against England. All of these incidents could have been avoided with the use of V.A.R. I know that in its current state decisions take several minutes and the flow of the game is interrupted as a result, but as many others have said, it is merely a small price to pay to cut out the mistakes that aggrieve fans and plague football.

THE MARTLET SUMMER ISSUE 17

General Knowledge

Crossword

Test your general knowledge with the ďŹ rst ever Martlet crossword. By Rory Bishop

Answers on back cover...

Across

Down

4. Displacement of a person/people 5. A zoom lens for a camera 6. The princess of Delphi 7. An enclosure for birds 8. Simian 9. Something that is beyond debate 14. The first Roman emperor 16. To obstruct or waste time 17. The first name of an Oscar winning Mexican director 18. The act of respecting and looking up to someone 20. The supreme god of ancient Persia

1. To bounce off 2. The twin brother of Viola 3. Neotropic big billed bird 10. Synonym for shortened 11. A group of foxes 12. To reduce danger 13. A flower of dark purple hue 15. Chemical element with the odour of old eggs 19. A way to control the movement of liquids 21. A one millionth 22. Mother of the Virgin Mary

THE MARTLET SUMMER ISSUE 17

Humour

Maggie’s Muddles ADVICE

Maggie once again solves readers’ problems, assisted by a multitude of Fourth Years.

Dearest Maggie, Time is running out. The Abingdon grapevine says that the confusions of summer dress are fast approaching. I have been warned that things are rather austere here compared to my previous educational environment, and I am fretful concerning the future. Rumours of white posters around the school bearing the news are all the rage recently, and I am terribly worried about what it may entail. I assume shorts are mandatory? Surely I cannot be wrong? The idea of grey trousers in summertime is positively frightening. I assume chinos at the very least. Are boaters compulsory? Will I have to wear knee-high socks? I have heard some substantiated claims that one is liable for scarring punishment without suncream. A fine idea. Apparently these rules are strenuously enforced by a certain member of the Senior Leadership Team. Is it true that the cupboard in B15 is used to detain those who have broken this moral code? I long for your help in my hour of plight. Unnamed Third Year

Dear Unnamed Third Year, The idea of summer dress is inevitably daunting in the eyes of a newcomer to the school, especially for someone with predetermined allusions due to a history at a prep school. The easiest way to absolve oneself is to follow a quick guide. The first warning of the forthcoming summer dress is inevitably the hot weather. This sounds painfully obvious, however, it is only truly summer dress if it is initiated once the weather starts to return to typical British drab once more. Following on from this, your aforementioned white posters will start to sporadically appear but only in the most desperate of places such as Franklin’s or wherever any straggling Words and That contributors congregate. Make sure not to mistake these for any debating society posters warning of the frantic arguments that consume the CMR every Friday. To overcome the lack of postering, one will have to do the dreaded and ‘follow the crowd.’ Sadly, this school does not run on a boater and shorts policy, and one’s knee-high socks have to be firmly hidden beneath the everpresent long grey trousers. This is a harsh reality and one that has to one day be grasped by all former prep school students. The concepts of chinos was likely just a lie brought upon you by a disinterested sixth form mentor, who has expended all forms of interesting conversation. The matter of suncream is vastly different however. For those of you wasting away your time smashing a cricket ball, it is advised, but for the majority of who just turn up to some occasional tennis lessons, you should be fine, albeit a bit red. The matter of the cupboard outside of B15 is a vicious rumour circulating around the school, but if it comforts you, only the most frantic of MFL teachers are discarded into that dark abyss of storage. The only apt punishment for disobeying the school’s moral code is actually banishment to B10. I hope I have been of assistance and that you understand summer dress as a concept and see the subtle differences from your former ‘educational environment.’ Sincerest regards, Maggie

Photography Club In the past year, members of The Abingdon School Photography Club have been capturing a diverse range of images, while learning a lot about the different areas of photography. This has included how lighting and depth can be used in photos for various effects, and how to use digital editing software to enhance images. The selection of pictures below show some of these talents in action.

By Peter Leeson

Photo by Will Tibbs

Photo by Peter Leeson

Answers to crossword...

PUBLISHER Emma Williamson EDITOR Ben Ffrench DEPUTY EDITOR Will Stewart COPY EDITORS Weihan Huang Piers Mucklejohn

Photo by Will Tibbs

STAFF WRITERS Rory Bishop Peter Leeson Luca Frauenfeld Lachlan Jones Sam Fenton Will Stewart Kofo Braithwaite German Baraev Ben Ffrench Johan Nerlov Sam King

Piers Mucklejohn Alex Thulin Freddie Marshall Weihan Huang Jeremy Salkeld Ben Hutchison Marc Tuazon Joshua Li Josh Jackson Jeremy Salkeld Ben Lisemore

MANAGING DIRECTOR ONLINE SUPERVISORS ILLUSTRATORS Samuel King Michael Man Weihan Huang Freddie Marshall Gianluca Cau Tait Printed by the Newspaper Club

Initial design by Asten Yeo

FEATURES EDITOR Sam Fenton SPORTS EDITOR Ben Hutchison DESIGN EDITORS Sam Penrose Weihan Huang Rory Bishop Jate Jaturanpinyo NEWS EDITOR Kofo Braithwaite