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Monday
30th January 2023
UK Housing Market Fluctuations: How will it affect you?
Amidst the current economic crisis in the UK, house prices have rapidly increased disproportionally with the average salary. According to recent studies, the average house price has increased 974% since 1983, with the current price tag at about £281,272. Even estate agents themselves are struggling, with recent reports that online agent Purplebricks is considering changing ownership or,more precisely, selling the company. They are set to lose between £15-£20 million this year alone.
However, as of February 2023, the market has begin to see a steady decline, with average house price at around £258,000. Potential causes could be post-pandemic recovery and dwindling demand as buyers struggle with cost of living. Robert Gardener, the chief economist at Nationwide, added that whilst 'economic headwinds are set to remain strong', affordability with mortgage rates would remain 'challenging' for the average citizen.
Arts and Culture
The Concert Call
A recent study has shown that the number of independent concert halls and spaces has declined by over 30% in the UK. As owners call for support, how will this struggling industry prevail?
We spoke to the owner of the Sheffield Leadmill, an iconic venue that has recently been revealed to be forced under new management due to a landlord's eviction notice, to do a deep dive into the cause of this issue.
More on independent businesses and their growing importance in the age of financial and social freedom
Spotlight
Lifestyle
BeReal: New Selfie Culture Sweeping the Nation
'Be Real' is a French social media app founded in 2020 by Alexis Barreyat and Kevin Perreau. The new app shot to fame around mid-2022, when a trend circulated around TikTok. The trend promoted 'BeReal' as a way of posting candidly, daily. It connects you with friends and family without the posed, saturated facade of other social media apps. Each day, the app owner will receive a notification at a random time (changes daily) prompting them to open the app and take a photo of whatever they're doing at the immediate moment, The recipient has a two minute timer to take and post the photo before being
classed as a 'late poster', encouraging the person to keep up a daily streak. The app will take the photo utilising the front and back camera, so their friends on the app will see their whole environment. The photos will disappear for everyone, except the photographer, after twenty-four hours and the poster will be notified if anyone screenshots or saves their post. This removes the majority of the 'fear' of people sharing or their content without their consent. The poster can also view all the 'BeReal' posts they have made in their 'memories', which shows them the photo they shared and the day and time it was shared.
Whilst many are still criticising the app, believing it to be the antithesis of it's purpose since many are still rushing to pose their daily selfie, it has somewhat created a breakthrough in 'Gen-Z's' mentality. Many teens reportedly believe that it's encouraging them to believe the 'reality' of their acquaintances lives, and often helping to combat 'FOMO' as they realise the people they know aren't necessarily gliding from exciting event to social occasion constantly, as social media apps like Instagram may lead them to believe. This could be entirely beneficial in aiding the mental health of young minds in tech-savvy generations.
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Opinions
Arts and Culture - Celebrity and Cinema
Sport
BAFTA Winners are in: Is it what we expected?
Public Questions West Ham Boss' Future at the Club
The British Academy for Film and Television Arts Awards of 2023 are over: here is a summary of what happened. World War 1 film 'All Quiet on the Western Front' swept an astonishing 7 BAFTA awards for 'Best Film', 'Best Film not in the English Language', 'Best Director', 'Best Adapted Screenplay', and best 'Original Score', 'Cinematography, and 'Sound'. This was widely predicted as a favourite, but the amount of categories it domineered was fairly surprising. Closely following this dramatic win, Baz Luhrmann's 'Elvis' swept 3 film awards ('Casting, 'Hair and Makeup and 'Costume') and also earned star Austin Butler the award for 'Best Leading Actor'. Notably, the highly acclaimed tragicomedy 'The Banshees of Inisherin' also picked up two awards for 'Original Screenplay' and 'Outstanding British Film', as well as cast members Barry Keoghan and Kerry Condon picking up the awards for 'Supporting Actor' and 'Supporting Actress'. Other awards went to Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio,Charlotte Wells' Aftersun, Paul Rogers' Everything Everywhere all at once and more... (continue here to find out more).
After Sunday's loss to Tottenham (0-2), West Ham dropped to 18th place on the Premier League Table.Whilst the club's support has been unyielding, the public have not been so sure with their recent performance.
David Moyes commented that although the team have been 'challenged' as of recently, they are determined to 'keep going' and they 'know how to handle it'.
Their upcoming game with Nottingham Forest seems to have become a decider in the opinion of the club going forward. It seems only time with tell: will West Ham sink or swim when faced with this challenge?
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