The Friday Round-Up, Week 7

Hello, and welcome to this week's edition of The Friday Round-Up!

In the news this week:

UK


GEORGE Osborne has set out a plan for economic growth in the Chancellor's annual Budget which was announced on Wednesday.

Motorists were celebrating when the Budget revealed the planned increase in fuel duty would be scrapped and instead fuel duty would be cut by 1p a litre. However, experts soon discovered that duty would then increase by 3p a litre from January 1st 2012, and by 6p a litre from August 2012. On top of this, the new VAT rate of 20% means that fuel prices are still set to rise.

Oil companies face a £2 million windfall tax to pay for the temporary cuts to fuel duty.

SCOTLAND Yard's detectives made basic errors that left Night Stalker, Delroy Grant, free to sexually attack his elderly victims.

Grant was convicted of 29 counts of rape, sexual assault and burglary on Thursday. The Metropolitan Police released a statement saying they were "deeply sorry" for not arresting the rapist, known as the Night Stalker, in 1999 when his car was seen outside a victim's house.

SIAN O'Callaghan's body was found on Thursday after she went missing from her home last weekend. Police are now hunting for a second murder victim after suspect Chris Halliwell, who was arrested yesterday, told officers the location of Sian's and another victim's body.

World


TWENTY people have died after Syrian police opened fire on protesters in Deraa. President Bashar al-Assad has promised to make serious reforms as pro-democracy demonstrators continue to rise up against the repressive regime.

ELIZABETH Taylor has died after a long history of heart troubles and ill health. The actress passed away on Wednesday. She was being treated for congestive heart failure.

Also in the news


KNUT, the polar bear famously raised by humans, has died aged only four years old.

That's all from this week's Friday Round-Up! Keep watching the blog for updates.

IB

Cancelled

This week's edition of The Friday Round-Up is cancelled. Apologies!

My workload for this term has now been cleared so from Friday onwards, the Round-Up will be back to normal - and this time I mean it!

Keep watching the blog for updates!

IB

The Friday Round-Up, Week 6... Posted on Saturday

Hello, and welcome to this week's edition of The Friday Round-Up.

Apologies once again that this edition comes on a Saturday! I was on campus 9.30am - 7.30pm yesterday and couldn't fit it in. Hopefully the posting of the Round-Up should be back to normal in a couple of weeks' time. 

I'm afraid I'll only be able to post some World news today. Apologies!

In the news this week:

World

JAPAN is in mourning after an earthquake measuring around 8.8 magnitude struck near the coast of Honshu Island, bringing with it a series of tsunamis that have devastated the country's north-east coastline.

Over 1,000 are feared dead, most having drowned in the torrent of 10m waves which flooded the region around Sendai city.

The tremor shook buildings in Tokyo, 230 miles from the epicentre of the 'super-quake'. It was thought that tsunamis would reach Hawaii, Australia and even as far as the west coast of the United States and South America but these coastlines were spared the devastation that has hit Japan.

Japanese nuclear plants were also affected and there is now fear of nuclear meltdown at a power plant in Fukushima. Radiation at the plant is currently at 1,000 times its normal level and there is a real possibility of a radiation leak, according to Japanese officials. People have been evacuated within a twelve-mile radius of the nuclear plant in Fukushima after cooling systems in the plant failed.

GADDAFI'S forces have recaptured Zawiya from rebel troops after weeks of warfare.

Apologies for the lack of coverage - I have an essay to write!

IB

Comment: Exeter University's Powderham Ball - Doomed to Fail?

This is a Comment article I wrote for my university newspaper, Exeposé, which unfortunately didn't make it into the paper because of a lack of space. Nevertheless, here it is for your enjoyment! I apologise in advance to anyone who happens to be reading this and is not a student at the University of Exeter; this probably won't make a lot of sense to you.

Not even the promise of swirly rainbows
enticed Exeter students...

FIREWORKS, free drinks, carnival-themed entertainment, a live performance from Radio 1 DJ Greg James... All these features would have made Powderham Ball 2011 the highlight of Exeter’s social calendar. Unfortunately, a lack of demand has seen the ball cancelled for the second time in three years. Powderham Ball represents a fantastic opportunity to raise money for charities through Raising and Giving (RAG), as well as an excuse to enjoy an “unforgettable event” at the end of a busy term. So why was the Powderham Ball doomed to fail?  

It's a simple answer; the ticket price was a staggering £60. Although the sum is much cheaper than an Oxford or Cambridge bi-annual ball, the figure is still too high-priced for anyone who does not enjoy unlimited access to Daddy’s credit card. The post-Christmas slump of January and February may have also contributed to poor ticket sales.

The counter-argument to these points would be that the spectacles and the entertainment offered at the Powderham Ball are expensive to hire and purchase. Without a costly ticket price, the event would have made a loss and the Ball could not have raised a satisfactory amount of money for charity. Since it was necessary to cancel the Ball on these grounds anyway, the Powderham Committee were overly ambitious to plan such a wide range of extravagant activities.

The Powderham Ball has been missing from student’s diaries since 2008 and consequently cannot be considered a 'must-go' event for the Exeter student anymore. Without a regular slot and a status as a well-established event, the Ball’s only hope of attracting a larger clientele and raising enough money for charity is to lower ticket prices and organise a more toned-down affair in future. If the Powderham Ball becomes a regular fixture of the Exeter Spring term a few years down the line, only then can the Ball raise its prices and hold a truly “unforgettable event”.

IB

Music: One to Watch - First Aid Kit

Photo by Josefin Klavus

This spotlight feature on upcoming band, First Aid Kit, was published in my university newspaper, Exeposé, on Monday.

ARMED with only an acoustic guitar, their own exquisite voices and a handheld camera, sister duo First Aid Kit recorded their cover of Fleet Foxes’ ‘Tiger Mountain Peasant Song’ surrounded by pine trees in the summer of 2008.

Swedish sisters Klara and Johanna have mature and soulful voices, as well as an ability to harmonise perfectly with one another. These would be qualities celebrated regardless of age but First Aid Kit become something remarkable when you consider they recorded their cover version of the Fleet Foxes’ song when Johanna was 18 and Klara only 15.

It was not until early 2009 with the UK release of the folk duo’s first EP, Drunken Trees, that the folk duo gained any recognition in Britain. The EP is a strange mix of unoriginal and insipid lyrics, such as ‘Pervigilo’’s “I lie awake at night/Picturing me and you,” and mature themes of adultery, mundane domestic life, and tired marriages in ‘Tangerine’ and ‘You’re Not Coming Home Tonight’. Despite the EP’s inconsistency, Klara and Johanna’s hauntingly beautiful harmonies more than make up for the uneven tone of Drunken Trees.

A more sophisticated and focused offering arrived in the form of their 2010 debut album, The Big Black and the Blue. The 11-track disc opens with a cappella harmonies that are so carefully synchronised the cliché of sending shivers down your spine becomes a reality. The duo’s vocals are never overshadowed by instrumentation and remain centre stage for the entirety of the album. The strength of First Aid Kit’s vocal lines is best exemplified by standout track, ‘Ghost Town’, which was released as a single in September 2010.

Despite releasing an internationally acclaimed album, First Aid Kit are still relatively unknown to mainstream UK audiences, although they have gained a large following in folk circles. After admiring First Aid Kit’s music for over a year, I was lucky enough to see them play at Latitude festival in the summer of 2010. Live, the duo often improvised which added a light-hearted touch that was missing from the album. The harmonies were flawless and as the band made its way through song after song, the sisters didn’t compromise on quality and gave a stunning live performance.

Critics predict the Swedish duo will become future stars of the folk-pop scene. If the band can fine-tune their song writing skills, First Aid Kit will no doubt match the successes of Fleet Foxes, Mumford and Sons and Band of Horses a few years down the line. After all, folk is trendy at the moment.

First Aid Kit’s cover versions of ‘Universal Soldier’ and ‘It Hurts Me Too’, recorded as part of Third Man Records’ Blues Series, are now available on 7” vinyl.

Photo by Angel Ceballos

IB

The Friday Round-Up, Week 5... Posted on Saturday

Hello, and welcome to this week's edition of The Friday Round-Up.

Firstly, apologies for the fact that it is now Saturday. It was a very hectic Friday! I also apologise because this edition will be rather brief - university life is very busy at the moment!

In the news this week:

World

NATO allies are split over armed intervention in Libya. David Cameron proposed a no-fly zone over the country but met strong opposition from a senior NATO official and Defense Secretary, Robert Gates. President Obama accepted that a no-fly zone was an option, but warned against invasion.

He said: "One of the reasons we did not see any anti-American protests was because they didn't see that we tried to engineer an outcome."

COLONEL Gaddafi spoke out against the West at a conference in Tripoli on Wednesday. His speech threatened that the West would be met with "hell and a bloodbath" if foreign forces invaded Libya. The 68 year-old leader also offered amnesty to rebels who laid down arms. The dictator arrived at the conference in a golf buggy and spoke for almost three hours to a room of 1,000 supporters of Gaddafi's regime.

UK

JOHN GALLIANO was suspended from his position as head designer for Christian Dior after making a series of racist and anti-Semitic slurs in a French bar last week. Although Galliano denied making the alleged remarks, The Sun published a video showing an incident in December in which Galliano declared he loved Hitler. He then proceeded to verbally assault a group of people sitting at the table beside him. The insults carry a maximum sentence of six months in prison and a £19,000 fine.

DIRECTOR of the London School of Economics, Sir Howard Davies, has resigned after the university demanded an independent inquiry into its financial ties with Libya. Earlier this week, Sir Howard apologised for accepting £1.5 million from Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of the Libyan leader, after he was awarded his PHD. The thesis is currently being investigated for plagiarism.

INSURANCE companies can no longer quote different prices for men and women, the European Court of Justice has ruled.

On A Lighter Note

THE KING'S SPEECH came away with four Oscars at the 83rd annual Academy Awards on Sunday evening, including Best Picture, Best Director for Tom Hooper and Best Actor for Colin Firth.

Thanks for reading this week's edition of The Friday Round-Up on Saturday! Remember to check the blog throughout the week for upcoming updates and next Friday for the (on-time) Round-Up.

IB