February 2023

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Big News
Earthquake devastates Turkey–Syria. Early this month two earthquakes, magnitude 7.8 and 7.5, struck Turkey Syria. The quakes have caused widespread damage and as of writing over 51,100 deaths have been confirmed: over 44,300 in Turkey, and over 6,700 in Syria. The incident is thought to be one of the worst to hit the region in almost  80 years. Despite the fact the earthquake struck at the start of the month the situation is still developing, made worse by additional earthquakes and shockwaves which struck the region throughout February. Predictions are that they have impacted more than 23 million people living in Turkey and Syria. If you are able to donate there is no shortage of disaster relief being organised to support those who are suffering, this includes the disaster emergency committee and Red Cross. 

Bizarre balloons over the US! At the end of January and beginning of February there were strange things going on in the skies above North and South America. It began with an unidentified object appearing over North American air space, which was eventually identified as a Chinese-operated high-altitude weather balloon. The U.S, justifiably, suspected the balloon was on an intelligence gathering mission. In contrast, the Chinese government maintained that it was a civilian airship that had been blown off course. Despite these claims, on February 4 the U.S. Air Force shot down the balloon and the FBI recovered the wreckage for analysis. After this incident the U.S. began to closely scrutinise its airspace at high altitudes and in subsequent weeks there were a total of four high altitude objects identified. After shooting down these objects the US government announced that at least three high-altitude objects were likely private entities with no relation to China. Thus far there have been no confirmations as to whether the original balloon was an accident or intentional, but the relationship between the US and China has been tense since, and shows no  sign of cooling down.

Litte News
Four day working week a success! As February comes to a close the largest UK trial of a four-day working week has come to a close and early results released. Unsurprisingly, all of the outcomes that were measured showed improvement; workers suffered from less stress, productivity increased and retention rates improved. The majority of companies who tried the new working model have decided to continue with a reduced working hours model. These results reinforce previous research into the benefits of the four-day work week and after this success there have been more and more voices supporting campaigns to convince other companies to adopt the working strategy.

What I’ve been enjoying
Who doesn’t love board games? Board games are a regular occurrence in this newsletter, and this month is no different. I’ve been lucky enough to have a few gaming sessions with friends this month and have tried out a few new games. The first is a card game called Abandon All Artichokes where the aim of the game is, as the name suggests, to get rid of all the artichokes in your hand. It is a brilliant little game, and comes in an adorable tin making it a perfect game to play while travelling. The next game I’ve been playing is significantly bigger - The Adventures of Robin Hood. This game follows Robin Hood and his crew as they rebel against the vicious Prince John. It has elements of D&D mixed with the choose-your-own-adventure books from the 90’s, it also comes with a beautiful board that changes over the course of the game. Thus far the story has been amazing and the production value is incredible, making it a worthy investment if you ever have the opportunity.