Weekly news

                                      

A major rescue effort by dozens of rescuers(the majority being the public) occurred along the beach of Western Australia as 150 short-finned pilot whales became stranded.  They were spotted by a fisherman on an early Friday, this species type is known to strand in masses.  Authorities had to issue a shark warning alert for people to stay away from the area, as the dead animals may attract the sharks.  These sharks are normally up to 16 feet long and normally found in tropical and sub-tropical waters.  The cause of the beaching is unknown, however it is said that whales normally beach themselves when they are sick, injured or make navigational errors, particularly along gentle sloping beaches.

Another case of this is when; 416 pilot whales had beached themselves overnight in which 70% had died, in which they tried to save the rest of the 100  whales. Also in 1918, over 1,000 whales had beached themselves on Chatham islands, in 1996 320 long-finned whales had beached themselves along the western side of Australia.  Since, 1840 more than 5,000 whales and dolphins had beached themselves on New Zealand shores according to records.

This is an unfortunate situation to occur, and can lead to a quicker extinct species, however could a cause of this be sea pollution, in which it has caused a lack of food for the creatures of a cause of their navigation being off, and after so many years of occurrences by now a reason for these "Strandings" should of at least been found by now, as well as the government should have ensure it has enough persons to send out to assist in such an issue. This story shows the lack of a plan when such issues arise, which not only harms the environment, the animals but can also affect the people.  As these situations are regularly occurring throughout the years, there needs to be a better system in place, which can be cost effective but efficient.

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Parents across England and Wales have been fined £24M in total for failing to send their children to school during the past three years.  Some councils have issued penalties five times higher than average.  However, this does not seem to be effective as parents now actively prepare so as to be able to afford the fine.

Between them, 155 authorities in the UK issued estimated 400,000 penalties over three years.  An average of 12 penalties were issued per 1,000 children, either for truancy or for parents taking children on holiday whilst term time is still occuring.

Starting from 2019, summer holidays are going to be cut from six to five weeks and the introduction of a two week autumn half term instead.

These changes would give island parents the chance to take a family break outside traditional holiday dates.

This does not seem like a relatively new implementation to attempt to stop parents from taking their children on vacation during term-times, but instead has taught the parents to either find a loophole or to have decided how to factor in the fine and just pay it off after returning from the vacation.

An example of this is; When Dave Brain's father passed away, he decided to use money left to him to pay for a family holiday to Florida.  Going on vacation during the holidays would have cost him £3,500 more than during the term time.  As they returned to the UK they received the fine of £60 for one of their children. Mr.Brain stated, "And I would do it again in an instant if the same opportunity arose".

This shows that the fines are not being taken seriously or being ignored all together therefore not having the desired effect.  They may either need to take a more serious approach or just allow persons to do as they please with their children.  However, this just may be based on the area.

For example; One authority watching the Platt case closely was Nottingham City Council, where the amount of fines issued dropped from 1,129 in 2014 to 2015 to just 282 in 2016 to 2017.  Parents in Nottinghamshire faced an increase in the number of fines issued in England - over ten times as much  from 370 in 2014 to 2015 to 3,771 in 2016 to 2017.  Based on past statistics, in comparison to some authorities, they have issued a smaller number of fines.

However, in Essex, the second largest education authority area in the country (after Kent), parents saw the number of penalties issued increase from 909 in 2014 to 2015 to 3,165 in 2016 to 2017 for unauthorised term time holidays.  At the other end of the spectrum in Southend Borough Council, the number of penalties issued dropped 98% from 52 in 2014 to 2015 to just 1 in 2016 to 17.

Music Video Analysis

The video connotes that of a broken relationship, it shows clips of the couple together having enjoyable moments, however the lyrics and the setting and product set up represents a broken and pain filled relationship.

The lyrics of the song coincides with the video itself, for example when he sings,"and my sins needs holy water" and then in the video it shows the main character being covered in rain in the destroyed and broken environment.

It gave a realistic and genuine vibe, because it showed interviews of the characters to show their input on the relationship and how they felt about it, therefore making it relatable based n whom was watching it.

The lighting used was quite dim-dark with some use of artificial lighting in most scenes while the actions were occurring to connote that they were trapped and lost and filled with pain while however, during the interviews they were in a lighter background to connote that they were no longer in a storm and in a better place.

The colours within the video are quite bland and casual, as well as the instrumental is quite low and a normal beat so as to not distract from the happenings in the video along with the actual lyrics of the video.  The lyrics actually have a meaning in which most videos the lyrics do not have a meaning and the focus is the beat or the video itself.

It has the element of flashbacks to add story and realism to the video, so as to help the viewers to understand the background of the song.  Most of the camera shots are of a low angle to show power and dominance in some scenes and high camera angles to represent submissiveness and vulnerability.

This music video seems to target more of the younger to middle age demographic, because this kind of situation would be mostly relatable to this age range.

Drake-God's plan

This music video contains drake giving money to persons that seem to be in need in some way or another.  Whether it in the form of a donation to the fire station, or to an orphanage or even to a few students for a scholarship.  There are close-ups and portrait shots of the persons receiving the money and their reactions to invoke emotion and show the importance of giving to those in need.

However, the lyrics of the song are quite contradictory, because in it Drake mainly refers to himself and how persons want to do him wrong and that he will succeed in life regardless.   As well as, in certain shots he is seen from a low angle shot as well as high up on a platform above others and constantly in a lighter background to connote a sense of "Godliness" or angelicness.

However, charitable and of a good deed this may seem to be, I have more of an oppositional reading to this.  I believe that although it was charitable, the money was still the label's and a form of promotion of their artist (Drake) so as to be able to make a profit, because I highly doubt that any of the money they spent caused a dent in their pockets.

Some others may read it as a charitable act out of the good of his heart just to benefit society, because he has seen how much the persons in some communities are struggling.

The demographic of this video are that of average to low class, and mainly of the African American race.  This portrays that most of the poor persons in certain areas of America are Black.

Overall, it was a heartwarming and emotional video, that showed how giving can really make a difference In someone's life.

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A daughter(Leanne) finds her dad(Stephen) and her step-mum(Karen) dead after he calls his wife "the devil" in a FB post at 3am in the morning.  He allegedly stabbed his wife to death in the chest and neck in which Stephen then committed suicide after.

He had allegedly been suffering from mental health issues such as depression and even possibly hallucinations.  Recently before the incident he had just come out of hospital from taking an overdose a few days before.

His family had tried to get him to stay in hospital, as well as attempted to get an inquest but no one had responded.  The daughter had even tried to contact support groups for her father to help ease his depression and anxiety.

His daughter describes him as guitar lover as well as a loveable person.  However, the situation could of been avoided completely if the services the family tried to contact had actually responded and offered the necessary assistance.

This is quite a tragic incident, in which although most situations may not be as severe it is quite a common situation in that of mental health.

This represents an issue of mental health and how it is viewed and the way in which it is handled which is obviously insufficient.

weekly news

The source is BBC News.

The company Brewdog's has made a "mock pink IPA" for females, which has caused a split opinion.  They have designed it with a pink label and offer it at a lower price to women than to men. Apparently, this was done as a sarcastic dig to address the gender pay gap and to have a dig at "lazy" marketing campaigns, with a percentage of the profits donated to organisations that empower women.  Some were in support of this while other were a little bit confused about the sentiment or the way it was executed.  They launched this a few weeks before women's day on March the 8th and women are able to purchase this drink for 20% less for the next four weeks.  Although thus far they are only receiving criticism, they are standing by the idea and believe they are reaching their goal of starting more of a conversation about the gender gap, and are tackling this issue in the best way they know how.

Although I believe this was a great Idea I do not think it was well thought out or executed.  They tried to spark a convo about the gender gap and stereotypes of women by doing it in a sarcastic way, but I  feel as if they added to it by making it "pink and sparkling because that is what women like".  It feels as if they like many other companies are just stereotyping women and saw an opportunity to get their brand more noticed and have more appeal in the public eye as well as to boost profits.  Yes it gets a convo started, but it does not exactly spark a convo about the gender pay gap but more or less their product/brand.

Most other companies seem to have done pay cuts on males or ensured that the women and men are paid equally.  Which is a more effective approach than a sarcastic statement made by a company that seems to want to attract more customers than make a statement.

This represents the issue of Gender pay gaps, and how women are stereotypes and treated inside and outside of different industries. Some examples of low pay gaps within industries are; a women's fashion chain(ironically) called phrase 8, the amount of women receiving the lower hour pay rate is 64.8%, EasyJet 51.7%, virgin money 32.5% and the list goes on.  Hopefully one day in our advance and modernised society, this will be rectified as situations like this should not be based on the gender of a person.