[11/03/24-17/03/24]
Let’s see what happened this week…
1. Photoshopping Princess Flop
A photo of the Princess of Wales and her children, taken by Prince William for Mother's Day, was withdrawn by the UK news agency PA due to concerns about manipulation, making it the fifth such retraction. The picture, released by Kensington Palace, showed the princess with her children but was criticized for inconsistencies in Princess Charlotte's hand alignment. Other major photo agencies like Getty Images, AFP, Reuters, and Associated Press had already retracted the image for similar reasons. The photo was meant to reassure the public about the princess's recovery from surgery but ended up sparking more speculation due to doubts about its authenticity. The palace had been tight-lipped about the princess's condition, fuelling social media rumours. Despite attempts to maintain normalcy for her children, questions about her health persist. Royal photographers noted that while photo editing is common, retracting a photo is unusual, suggesting a misstep by the palace's social media team.
2. Glastonbury’s Line-up Announced
Early on Thursday morning the moment finally arrived that Glastonbury revealed their star-studded line-up. Rumours had been circulating for weeks online with patient fans trying to guess the festival’s next headliners and legacy act. It has now been confirmed that Dua Lipa, Coldplay, and SZA will headline the infamous Pyramid Stage and Shania Twain will take the “legends slot” on Sunday Afternoon.
With acts such as Little Simz, Cyndi Lauper, Janelle Monae, Camila Cabello, Avril Lavigne, Nia Archives and Peggy Gou on the bill alongside Lipa, SZA and Twain, it is a female-filled line-up and it’s the first time ever that two out of the three headline performers will be women. This comes after organisers were criticised for having all-male headliners last year with, Arctic Monkeys, Sir Elton John and Guns ‘N’ Roses topping the bill.
Other acts include Burna Boy, Paloma Faith, Olivia Dean, Idles, Anne-Marie, Jungle, Nothing but Thieves, Jessie Ware and many more. With its reputation for pulling off surprises, undoubtedly there will be several secret acts awaiting discovery during the festival. Tickets for Glastonbury this year sold out in less than an hour after they were made available in November. A resale for any tickets that are cancelled or returned is anticipated sometime in April.
The festival, accommodating over 3,000 acts and approximately 200,000 attendees on-site, is scheduled to run from June 26th to June 30th.
3. The Next Welsh First Minister
On Saturday 16th of March, it was declared that Vaughan Gething had won the Welsh Labour leadership election meaning he will succeed Mark Drakeford as the first minister of Wales. Mr Gething beat his only rival Jeremy Miles who achieved 48.3% of the vote compared to Vaughan Gething’s 51.7%. His victory means he will become the first Black leader of any nation in Europe.
In preparation for becoming First Minister on Wednesday, Mr Gething will have to consider how to overcome the many challenges facing him such as the long hospital waiting times, anger from farmers, struggling educational standards and the criticism against the 20mph policy.
4. The story of “Spider Nan”
Earlier this week Anne Hughes, 71, was waiting outside the Best One store in Tonteg when as luck would have it her coat got caught on the store shutters and she was lifted into the air, leaving her clutching onto her shopping trolley in total shock. An employee of Best One rushed to help her get down safely while another team member lowered the shutters. Ms Hughes was left slightly shaken but is healthy and well after the incident, even laughing it off by claiming she’s “proud” of what happened and that it’s lucky she has a good sense of humour.
The mishap was captured by a nearby security camera and has gone viral on social media. The owner of the Best One store now has a mural of the incident on his store shutters, the viral moment immortalised. The artist of the mural, Tee2Sugar was happy to create the artwork saying it was a great opportunity to “capture a funny moment in time”
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