Today’s News: Monday, April 30.
The latest news stories from Edinburgh, Scotland, the UK and
around the world.
Calls for music venue to be included in Leith Walk overhaul
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| Leith Depot on Leith Walk. Image Source. |
DEVELOPERS have been urged to include a new live music venue
as part of a controversial overhaul of a prominent part of Leith Walk.
The Drum
Property Group will submit proposals to knock down the existing building at
Stead’s Place and construct a development for affordable housing, student
accommodation, a hotel and retail space.
Music venue the Leith Depot is currently under threat from
the proposals– with residents and public figures, including Trainspotting
creator Irvine Welsh, calling for the venue to be saved. Leith Depot’s lease is
set to run out in 2019. Leith Depot, which is also a bar and restaurant, hosts
gigs on most nights of the week.
Members of the City of Edinburgh Council’s development
management sub-committee have raised concerns and put together a wish list
ahead of a formal planning application being submitted.
Cllr Alex Staniforth called on developers to try and provide
a new live music venue in their Leith Walk proposals. He said: “One of the
concerns I know some of the local people have about this development is that
the area contains one of our dwindling live music venues in the city, the Leith
Depot.
“What I would be looking for in a planning application
personally – is there space for an equivalent or better live music venue?
“If the planning proposal can enhance cultural life in the area and beyond that, that would be fantastic. Obviously, we are looking for planning applications that increase the cultural life of an area rather than diminish them.”
Sainsbury’s and Asda reveal details of £12bn merger
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| Sainsbury's and Asda merge causing concern for employees. Image source. |
Sainsbury’s has confirmed it has agreed terms for a £12 billion merger with Walmart-owned Asda, setting the stage for one of the most audacious deals in British retail history.
The duo - the UK’s number two and three supermarkets - said
on Monday that the unified group would have combined revenues of £51 billion
and boast a network of 2,800 Sainsbury’s, Asda and Argos stores.
It will aim to generate £500 million in cost savings but
Sainsbury’s insisted there are no planned store closures as part of the merger,
with both brands to operate side by side.
The combined supermarket expects to lower prices by around
10% on products customers buy regularly.
Read the article in full: https://www.scotsman.com/business/management/sainsbury-s-and-asda-reveal-details-of-12bn-merger-1-4732255.
Prostitution is not a job. The inside of a woman’s body is not a workplace
By Julie Bindel
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| Image source. |
New Zealand has added ‘sex work’ to its list of skills for migrants, adding to the normalisation of the use of vulnerable women’s bodies.
One of the most persuasive myths about prostitution is that
it is “the oldest profession”. Feminist abolitionists, who wish to see an end
to the sex trade, call it “the oldest oppression” and resist the notion that
prostitution is merely “a job like any other”.
Now it would appear that the New Zealand immigration service
has added “sex work” (as prostitution is increasingly described) to the list of
“employment skills” for those wishing to migrate. According to information on
Immigration NZ’s (INZ) website, prostitution appears on the “skilled
employment” list, but not the “skill shortage” list.
My research on the sex trade has taken me to a number of countries around the world, including New Zealand. Its sex trade was decriminalised in 2003, and has since been hailed by pro-prostitution campaigners as the gold standard model in regulating prostitution.
My research on the sex trade has taken me to a number of countries around the world, including New Zealand. Its sex trade was decriminalised in 2003, and has since been hailed by pro-prostitution campaigners as the gold standard model in regulating prostitution.
Read more at: https://www.scotsman.com/business/management/sainsbury-s-and-asda-reveal-details-of-12bn-merger-1-4732255.
Weedkiller found in granola and crackers, internal FDA emails show
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| More than 200m pounds of weedkiller are used annually by US farmers on their fields. It is sprayed directly over some crops, including corn, soybeans, wheat and oats. Photograph: Marvin Dembinsky Photo Associate/Alamy. Source. |
The FDA has been testing food samples for traces of
glyphosate for two years, but the agency has not yet released any official
results.
US government scientists have detected a weedkiller linked
to cancer in an array of commonly consumed foods, emails obtained through a
freedom of information request show.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been testing food
samples for residues of glyphosate, the active ingredient in hundreds of widely
used herbicide products, for two years, but has not yet released any official
results.
But the internal documents obtained by the Guardian show the
FDA has had trouble finding any food that does not carry traces of the
pesticide.
“I have brought wheat crackers, granola cereal and corn meal from home and there’s a fair amount in all of them,” FDA chemist Richard Thompson wrote to colleagues in an email last year regarding glyphosate.
Thompson, who is based in an FDA regional laboratory in Arkansas, wrote that
broccoli was the only food he had “on hand” that he found to be
glyphosate-free.
Read the full article: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/apr/30/fda-weedkiller-glyphosate-in-food-internal-emails?CMP=fb_gu.
Sajid Javid replaces Amber Rudd as home secretary
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| Sajid Javid is new home secretary. Image source. |
Sajid Javid has promised to "do whatever it takes"
to put right problems faced by the Windrush generation after he succeeded Amber
Rudd as home secretary.
Mr Javid said as a second generation migrant he was
"angry" at the treatment of those caught up in the saga.
He also disowned the "hostile environment" tag
attached to the government's migration policy.
Labour said he would be judged on getting
"justice" for people affected.
Facing MPs' questions for the first time as home secretary,
just a few hours after getting the job, Mr Javid said the difficulties faced by
"longstanding pillars of the community" should never have happened,
adding: "I thought that it could be my mum, my brother, my uncle or even
me."
He told MPs: "I want to start by making a pledge, a
pledge to those from the Windrush generation who have been in this country for
decades and yet have struggled to navigate through the immigration system. This
never should have been the case and I will do whatever it takes to put it
right."
Loneliness isn't inevitable – a guide to making new friends as an adult
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| Juliana Nabinger (right): ‘You have to actively search for friends.’ Image source. |
Striking up friendships can be tricky – and studies show millions of us are lonely. Here, four people who forged new connections explain how they did it. Plus: psychologist Linda Blair gives her tips.
When you are a child in the playground it is pretty simple,
but “Do you want to be my friend?” isn’t a line you hear from adults. Teenage
years are filled with friendships easily made (and some easily forgotten), when
you are feeling keen, sociable and energetic. Then there are engagements,
marriage, relocation, career changes, families: life comes calling with its
multiple demands, and friendships evolve as a result. I have been happy to see
my friends move through these huge life moments, but as much as I value my
friendships, I have found myself lonely at times. Some friends are physically
far away, while others are time-poor and, with the best will in the world, it
isn’t simple to see each other as often as we would like.
According to a recent study by the Red Cross in partnership
with Co-op, more than nine million adults in the UK are often or always lonely.
We are facing a loneliness epidemic, with Theresa May taking the step earlier
this year of appointing Tracey Crouch as what some have dubbed the “minister
for loneliness” to try to tackle the issue.
Loneliness is something we all feel at times and to varying
degrees, but it can also be something that we feel uneasy about admitting to.
Another study, published in the journal Personal
Relationships, found that investing in close relationships was associated with
better health, happiness and wellbeing in adulthood.
Still, making friends as an adult can be hard, and takes time – last week a study from the University of Kansas found that two people need to spend 90 hours together to become friends, or 200 hours to qualify as close friends.
Read the full article: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/apr/30/how-to-make-new-friends-adult-lonely-leap-of-faith?CMP=fb_gu.
Brazilian surfer Rodrigo Koxa breaks wave world record
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| Rodrigo Koxa. Image source. |
Surf officials have confirmed that a Brazilian surfer broke
the world record for the world's biggest wave last year.
Rodrigo Koxa surfed an 80ft (24.4-metre) wave at Nazaré in
Portugal on 8 November 2017.
Koxa was awarded the Guinness World Record for the biggest
wave ever surfed at the World Surf League's Big Wave Awards on Saturday night.
Winning the award for breaking the record was "the best
day of my life," he said.
See Koxa ride the wave at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-europe-43942906/brazilian-surfer-rodrigo-koxa-breaks-wave-world-record.
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