Author: LSU Media

In a Christmas campaign named ‘Operation Jingle Bells’, Loughborough Students’ Union Action Section has collected over 944 gifts for the local charity, Toys on the Table, breaking previous records set. The annual campaign, established in 2018 by the Action Executive Officer 2018-19, Joel Brocklehurst, works with local charity Toys on the Table, which works to provide underprivileged children with Christmas presents and does so through donations by Loughborough students, staff, and members of the public. In 2018, over 700 toys and £300 of donations were collected by the campaign and gained regional press as a result. This year, LSU Action…

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Returning volunteer Label writer Leah Langley informs us about the protests currently unfolding in the French capital. On Saturday 28th of November, around 46,000 people lined the streets of Paris in protest of a new security bill that has been backed by the lower house of parliament and is awaiting senate approval. Demonstrations were also seen outside of the French capital in Bordeaux, Lille, Montpellier, Nantes, and many other cities in response to the news of the bill, which if passed would make it a criminal offence to film or take photos of police with “malevolent intent”.  Many of those…

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Entertainment Editor Sophie Alexander gives a rundown on the incoming President’s actions to begin his presidency, and the outgoing President’s attempts to thwart this 2020 has certainly been a tumultuous year; with a devastating pandemic and glaring social injustice, it certainly didn’t stop America’s political landscape. As the world saw Joe Biden take the reigns as the new President of the United States, many would have thought they’d seen the last of Donald Trump. No more false promises, conspiracy theories and Twitter rampages – but we were very wrong. It seems that Mr Trump has not taken his defeat lightly.…

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The mass testing of students here at Loughborough has to date only found 0.09% of those tested to be positive for Covid-19. Loughborough University opened an Asymptomatic Testing centre on the 27th November and have so far (up until 13/12/20) tested 4521 students for Covid-19 using lateral flow tests. Of these 4521 tests, 4 returned positive results, indicating that the prevalence of Covid-19 among students and staff being tested is extremely low at 0.09% of tests. Other universities have reported similarly low rates of infection during their asymptomatic testing, with the University of Portsmouth reporting 0.2% of students tested positive. The University…

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News Editor, Izzie Naish, explains what’s been happening with Britney Spears and the #FreeBritney movement As one of the most influential singers of the 90s / 00s, you could say the name ‘Britney Spears’ to anyone and they would know who she is. Throughout her time, Britney has been no stranger to the headlines, whether this be for her smash hits such as ‘…Baby one more time’, ‘Toxic’, or ‘Circus’ or for bringing a python on stage during her performance at the 2001 VMAs. Over the years Britney has gained a strong following, however, recently fans have become increasingly concerned…

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Volunteer Writer, Leah Langley, takes us through the Christmas films that’ll get you in the festive mood For a lot of people, Christmas is one of the best times of year for a variety of reasons. The food, the music and of course, the presents, but there is one aspect we cannot forget: the Christmas movies. But with such a wide selection, which film should we choose to get us in the festive spirit this Christmas? There’s some old classics that we could get started with that bring back memories of Christmas joy throughout the years and never seem to…

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Head of Lens and volunteer writer Helen Forrest, brings with her the Christmas spirit as she gives us some tips on how to shop small this Christmas! With the widespread impact of the COVID-19 pandemic this year, it is more important than ever to shop small and support local businesses this Christmas. Here is a quick gift guide to give you some inspiration on how you can shop locally this year! All photos used in this article are from the owners’ websites. To kick things off, LSU Rag has created a Virtual Christmas market this year where many students/alumni are…

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Volunteer writer Leah Langley outlines the achievements of the German Chancellor, and answers the question on the minds of many: who will succeed Angela Merkel? Angela Merkel has been the Chancellor of Germany since 2005. She is the first female chancellor, and the first chancellor since German reunification to have been brought up in the former East Germany. She has widely been described as the most powerful woman in the world by many onlookers and has gained much respect form her German citizens as well as many other people of the world. Since being in power, Merkel has been sure…

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A study by the University of Portsmouth has found that regular testing and support for isolating students has limited the spread of the pandemic to the wider public. The University of Portsmouth plotted infection numbers in the city of Portsmouth using publicly available data as well as their own. It found that the number of positive COVID-19 cases among students correlated with those in the general population until the 10th of October, since then, cases among students have been declining, whereas infections among the public continued to climb until mid-November. In Portsmouth, only 0.2% of those students tested came back…

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