Losing my wisdom (teeth) 🦷
Still got plenty of wisdom for the newsy though!!
My angels! Thank you for all ur kind responses (and comments - we can do that now) on yesterday’s newsy!! So glad to have had a bunch of you say it’s easier to read now, and that the option to listen to it made it feel more accessible already - that’s all we want!!
In much less exciting news, I’m about to head out the door to get my wisdom teeth out, so if this is the last smart newsy you ever get - that’s why!! As much as I can’t be bothered with it, I’m glad I won’t be burdening you with infected wisdom teeth chat any longer, so love that for us.
I’m trying to corroborate a story about Iran that’s been going around on Instagram
Win tickets to The 1975!!
Amazon Is Said to Plan to Lay Off Thousands of Employees
Rats enjoy a bit of Lady Gaga too
Are you the natural wine person, or the cheetos person?
I’m trying to corroborate this story about protesters in Iran
I really want to talk about this story, but I cannot for the life of me corroborate it outside of smaller newsrooms/ Twitter/ Instagram/ Reddit, so if you know anything about this, let me know!
Someone pointed me to this article from Newsweek which seems to be one of the only outlets willing to confirm it (or lead with the 15,000 people figure):
Nationwide protests continue in Iran for the 53rd straight day, despite nearly 15,000 Iranians having been arrested in connection to the demonstrations and who are now facing the death penalty. As thousands continue to rally across Iran's capital city of Tehran, defying a brutal crackdown by Iranian forces, on Tuesday, the country's parliament overwhelmingly voted in favor of the death penalty for protesters.
The decision came after recent calls from within the Iranian government to punish protesters in a way that would quell the demonstrations. In a letter signed by 227 out of 290 members of parliament cited by Iran's state-run Press TV on Sunday, lawmakers asked to teach those arrested "a good lesson" so as to deter others from joining them.
And then other people pointed me in the direction of Tina Yazdani, a reporter for City News Toronto, who has been tweeting about it (though she hasn’t reported on it officially):
I did find this in The Washington Post on November 12th:
Protesters arrested in Iran face a justice system stacked against them
More than 15,000 Iranians have been arrested and several hundred killed in nearly two months of protests, the activist news agency Hrana estimates. The demonstrations that began in response to the alleged police killing of Amini have cascaded into a broad movement against the country’s clerical leaders. Authorities have demanded harsh punishments for protesters, whom they call “rioters,” and have sought to blame the unrest on foreign powers.
This tension broke through on Nov. 5 when hard-line lawmakers, who dominate Iran’s parliament, issued a statement calling on the judiciary to “deal decisively” with the “instigators of recent riots” and punish “enemies of God” — a legal charge that can carry the death penalty.
Iranians were outraged. Three days later, the parliamentary spokesperson backtracked, claiming that “Western media” had misconstrued the lawmakers’ words; the harshest punishments — which could include the death penalty — would be reserved for those who “spilled blood,” he said.
The Wall Street Journal also confirmed yesterday that Iran has issued its first known death sentence to a protester.
So it seems that the 15,000 figure is referring to the number of people arrested during the protests, and based on that vote by officials, could be punished “in a way that would quell the demonstrations.” But one thing I can confirm, is that the Iranian government are one of the biggest users of the death penalty in the world, second only to China (they put 333 people to death last year) and they have been asked by the UN to stop using the death penalty as a means of quashing peaceful demonstrations. I’ll keep you in the loop with this story if I find out/ can confirm anything else!
Win tickets to The 1975!!
Ok so first of all I am still DEEP in Matty Healy/ The 1975 obsession (only exacerbated by the fact that Ross follows us on Instagram 🥺🥺🥺🥺) and thanks to our literal besties at Live Nation (who support me in all my obsessions) we have a double pass to their Wellington (April 19th 2023) AND their Auckland (April 21st 2023) show to give away!!!
All you have to do is reply to this email telling me your NUMBER ONE fave 1975 song, and why, and you’ll be in the draw!!
Amazon Is Said to Plan to Lay Off Thousands of Employees
What a headline from The New York Times eh? As I’ve said before - tis’ the season for tech layoffs, and the latest to get in the holiday spirit? Amazon, apparently. According to The New York Times “people with knowledge of the matter” said that Amazon plans to lay of 10,000 people in corporate and technology jobs.
Don’t worry though, Jeff Bezos has also just pledged to give away most of his wealth during his lifetime, and will put it towards “fighting climate change and reducing inequality.” So there’s that.
Rats enjoy a bit of Lady Gaga too
Ah rats, they’re just like us. Scientists have just discovered that rats can (and will) bop along to a musical beat - something that was thought to be uniquely human.
Researchers at the University of Tokyo played music for 10 rats fitted with wireless accelerometers to measure their head movements, according to the study.
"Rats displayed innate — that is, without any training or prior exposure to music — beat synchronisation," Hirokazu Takahashi of the University of Tokyo said.
The playlist:
K. 448, Mozart
Born This Way, Lady Gaga
Another One Bites the Dust, Queen
Beat It, Michael Jackson
Sugar, Maroon 5
You might be wondering (as was I) why test this out on rats in the first place - who cares if they bop? WELL - scientists said that this discovery “provided insights into the animal mind and the origins of music and dance.” Personally, I’d love to see what happened if they played the rats ‘Love it if we made it’ by The 1975. I think they’d melt.
Saw this tweet and naturally had to poll you all about it:
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SYSCA playlists (✨Supporters only✨)
Our HUGE SYSCA reading list! (✨Supporters only✨)
Imagining a bunch of rats bopping their heads in unison to Another One Bites the Dust is giving me so much serotonin
Can I just say how much I appreciate the fact that you don’t give us news without fact checking and making sure you understand what you tell us?? Literally thank you so much, because I need someone to make sense of shit for me