UBIQUITOUS

Microplastics found in coral skeletons

Researchers find that all coral components—including its skeleton—contain microplastics

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Kyushu University

 

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A variety of microplastics extracted from corals off the coast of Si Chang Island in the Gulf of Thailand. As seen by the color, shape, and size, coral will consume a wide range of microplastics, with many of them thinner than a strand of human hair.

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Credit: Kyushu University/Isobe lab

Fukuoka, Japan—Researchers from Japan and Thailand investigating microplastics in coral have found that all three parts of the coral anatomy—surface mucus, tissue, and skeleton—contain microplastics. The findings were made possible thanks to a new microplastic detection technique developed by the team and applied to coral for the first time.

These findings may also explain the ‘missing plastic problem’ that has puzzled scientists, where about 70% of the plastic litter that has entered the oceans cannot be found. The team hypothesizes that coral may be acting as a ‘sink’ for microplastics by absorbing it from the oceans. Their findings were published in the journal Science of the Total Environment.

Humanity’s dependence on plastics has brought unprecedented convenience to our lives but has caused untold damage to our ecosystem in ways researchers are still beginning to understand. In the oceans alone, it is estimated that 4.8–12.7 million tons of plastics flow into the marine environment annually.

“In Southeast Asia, plastic pollution has become a significant issue. Collectively, nearly 10 million tons of plastic waste are dumped annually, equivalent to 1/3 of the world’s total,” explains Assistant Professor Suppakarn Jandang from Kyushu University’s Research Institute for Applied Mechanics (RIAM) and first author of the study. “Some of this plastic is discharged into the ocean, where it degrades into microplastics.”

To study the plastic pollution problem in Southeast Asia, RIAM partnered with Thailand's Chulalongkorn University in 2022 to establish the Center for Ocean Plastic Studies. The international institute is led by Professor Atsuhiko Isobe, who also led the research team behind these latest findings.

The team wanted to examine the impact of microplastics to local coral reefs, so they focused their field work on the coast of Si Chang Island in the Gulf of Thailand. The area is known for its small reef flats as well as being a common area for anthropological studies.

“Coral has three main anatomical parts: the surface mucus, the outside of the coral body; the tissue, which is the inner parts of the coral; and the skeleton, the hard deposits of calcium carbonate they produce. Our first step was to develop a way to extract and identify microplastics from our coral samples,” continues Jandang. “We put our samples through a series of simple chemical washes designed to break apart each anatomical layer. After each subsequent layer was dissolved, we would filter out the content and then work on the next layer.”

In total, they collected and studied 27 coral samples across four species. 174 microplastic particles were found in their samples, mostly ranging from 101–200 μm in size, close to the width of a human hair. Of the detected microplastics 38% were distributed on the surface mucus, 25% in the tissue, and 37% were found in the skeleton. As for types of microplastics, the team found that nylon, polyacetylene, and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) were the three most prevalent, accounting for 20.11%, 14.37%, and 9.77%, respectively, of the identified samples.

These new findings also indicate that coral may act as a marine plastic ‘sink’, sequestering plastic waste from the ocean, like how trees sequester CO2 from the air.

“The ‘missing plastic problem’ has been troubling scientists who track marine plastic waste, but this evidence suggests that corals could account for that missing plastic,” says Jandang. “Since coral skeletons remain intact after they die, these deposited microplastics can potentially be preserved for hundreds of years. Similar to mosquitos in amber.”

Further study is still necessary to understand the full impact of these findings on coral reefs and the global ecosystem.

“The corals that we studied this time are distributed all around the world. To get a more accurate picture of the situation we must conduct extensive studies globally across an array of coral species,” concludes Isobe. “We also do not know the health effects of microplastics on coral and the larger reef community. There is still much to be done to accurately evaluate the impact of microplastics on our ecosystem.”

Assistant Professor Suppakarn Jandang (right) and team are preparing to collect coral samples for microplastic analysis.

Credit

Kyushu University/Isobe Lab

For more information about this research, see "Possible sink of missing ocean plastic: Accumulation patterns in reef-building corals in the Gulf of Thailand," Suppakarn Jandang, María Belén Alfonso, Haruka Nakano, Nopphawit Phinchan, Udomsak Darumas, Voranop Viyakarn, Suchana Chavanich, and Atsuhiko Isobe, Science of the Total Environment, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.176210

About Kyushu University 
Founded in 1911, Kyushu University is one of Japan's leading research-oriented institutes of higher education, consistently ranking as one of the top ten Japanese universities in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings and the QS World Rankings. The university is one of the seven national universities in Japan, located in Fukuoka, on the island of Kyushu—the most southwestern of Japan’s four main islands with a population and land size slightly larger than Belgium. Kyushu U’s multiple campuses—home to around 19,000 students and 8000 faculty and staff—are located around Fukuoka City, a coastal metropolis that is frequently ranked among the world's most livable cities and historically known as Japan's gateway to Asia. Through its VISION 2030, Kyushu U will “drive social change with integrative knowledge.” By fusing the spectrum of knowledge, from the humanities and arts to engineering and medical sciences, Kyushu U will strengthen its research in the key areas of decarbonization, medicine and health, and environment and food, to tackle society’s most pressing issues.

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Journal

Science of The Total Environment

DOI

10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.176210 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Possible sink of missing ocean plastic: Accumulation patterns in reef-building corals in the Gulf of Thailand

Article Publication Date

18-Sep-2024

 

Highly-sensitive beaks could help albatrosses and penguins find their food

University of Cambridge

 

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Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross (Thalassarche chlororhynchos) feeding on the surface of the ocean on fishery bycatch.

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Credit: Carla du Toit

Researchers have discovered that seabirds, including penguins and albatrosses, have highly-sensitive regions in their beaks that could be used to help them find food. This is the first time this ability has been identified in seabirds.

An international team of researchers, led by the University of Cambridge, studied over 350 species of modern birds and found that seabirds have a high density of sensory receptors and nerves at the tip of their beaks, which has been previously identified in specialised tactile foragers such as ducks.

The researchers say this touch-sensitive region could have come from a common ancestor, and further work is needed to determine whether it serves a specific function in modern birds. Further study of their beaks and food-gathering behaviour could help conserve some of these birds, many of which are at threat of extinction. The results are reported in the journal Biology Letters.

In the same way as humans and other primates use their hands, birds use their beaks to interact with the world around them. Some birds have specialised touch-sensitive areas at the tips of their beaks to help them find food, but since this ability has not been widely studied, it’s not known how the phenomenon evolved or how widespread it is.

“Many scientists had assumed most birds had touch-sensitive beaks, but we hadn’t investigated it enough to know whether it’s a common ability, or whether it’s limited to particular families of birds,” said lead author Dr Carla du Toit from Cambridge’s Department of Earth Sciences.

One group that hasn’t been well studied is the large group of seabirds called Austrodyptornithes, which includes albatrosses, petrels, and penguins. Since many of the bird species in this group are critically endangered, understanding how they find their food using their beaks could be a valuable tool to aid in their conservation.

Du Toit and her colleagues from the UK and South Africa conducted a study of 361 modern bird species, based on fossil and skeletal records, as well as birds that had been accidentally killed by fishing lines and nets. The team focused on the beaks of these birds, how they are constructed and connected to their nerves and blood vessels.

The researchers found that albatrosses and penguins have organs with high density sensory receptors and high concentrations of nerves in their beaks, which is more common in specialised foragers such as ducks. This is the first time that this functionality has been observed in seabirds.

“Seabirds aren’t known to be tactile foragers, so it’s surprising to find that they have this organ,” said du Toit. “It’s really exciting when you get to be the first to see something.”

These touch-sensitive beaks might help seabirds find food at night or underwater, as they might enable the birds to detect tiny vibrations from potential prey. Some birds that are already known to have touch-sensitive beaks use them to detect tiny underground vibrations from worms, for example.

However, these sensitive areas could also be a ‘leftover’ trait from a common ancestor that doesn’t have a specific function in modern birds, like the beaks of ostriches and emus. Further studies in live birds will be needed to establish the exact purpose of these touch-sensitive areas, which may also help determine how the ability evolved.

“In humans and other primates, our sensitive hands and fingers allowed us to master a huge range of environments,” said du Toit. “Beaks are analogous to hands in a way, but this is the first time we’ve seen touch-sensitive beaks in seabirds. It’s remarkable that no one has ever really studied this in detail, considering that we all learn about evolution from the beaks of Darwin’s finches in school.”

The researchers say their findings could potentially play a role in conserving some of these birds. Of the 22 known species of albatross, 15 are threatened with extinction and two are listed as critically endangered. One of the big threats to albatrosses is commercial longline fishing, which kills an estimated 100,000 of the birds per year, when they get tangled in the lines and drown. According to du Toit, if scientists can better understand how these birds get their food, it could be used to help protect them.

“Much further work is needed, but if albatrosses and other seabirds are able to detect vibrations from potential prey via their beaks, it could be possible to attach some sort of device to longlines that could repel them, so they are less likely to get caught,” said du Toit. “Of course, the bigger threats to birds like albatrosses are climate change, rising ocean temperatures, plastic pollution and falling fish stocks, but if there’s a way to reduce the risks to seabirds in even a small way, then that’s incredibly valuable. These are such special birds and I’ve been interested in them for as long as I can remember.”

The research was supported in part by the Royal Society, the Newton International Fellowship, and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

Birds use their beaks for a diverse range of tactile functions (much as primates use their hands), including building nests, finding food, caring for young and during courtship or social interactions.

Credit

Grace Kinney-Broderick

A pair of African Penguins (Spheniscus demersus) touching beaks.

Credit

Carla du Toit

The beaks of albatrosses and penguins, compared to other, “normal” beaks (examples shown of a petrel and a gull) and a bird with a tactile bill-tip organ (a tinamou, close relative of ostriches and emus and which has an ancestral bill-tip organ). The photographs show the underside of the beak bones, and the red struictures on the right show the neurovascular tissue (nerves and blood vessels) within the bone. Note the high numbers of neurovascular pits or “holes” on the bone of the beak and high density of neurovascular canals in albatrosses and penguins, similar to that of the birds with known bill-tip organs.

Credit

Carla du Toit

Journal

Biology Letters

DOI

10.1098/rsbl.2024.0259 

Article Title

Tactile bill-tip organs in seabirds suggests conservation of a deep avian symplesiomorphy

Article Publication Date

18-Sep-2024

 

Research shows finger counting may help improve math skills in kindergarten

Q&A with Child Development author

WE WERE DISCOURAGED FROM USING OUR FINGERS, INCLUDING  CORPORAL PUNISHMENT 

Society for Research in Child Development

Preschool teachers have different views on finger counting. Some teachers consider finger counting use in children to signal that they are struggling with math, while others associate its use as advanced numerical knowledge. In a new Child Development study, researchers at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland and Lea.fr, Editions Nathan in Paris, France, explored whether a finger counting strategy can help kindergarten-aged children solve arithmetic problems. 

Adults rarely use their fingers to calculate a small sum (e.g., 3+2) as such behaviors could be attributed to pathological difficulties in mathematics or cognitive impairments. However, young children between the ages of four and six who use their fingers to solve such problems are recognized as intelligent, probably because they have already reached the level of abstraction allowing them to understand that a quantity can be represented by different means. It is only from the age of eight that using finger counting to solve very simple problems can indicate math difficulties.

The current study aimed to determine whether children who do not count on their fingers can be trained to do so and whether this training would result in enhanced arithmetic performance. The study focused on 328 five and six-year-old kindergarteners (mainly White European living in France) and tested their abilities to solve simple addition problems. Participating children were recruited through their teachers who voluntarily took part in the experiment. Teachers were required to register through a digital pedagogical and collaborative network, Lea.fr which was used to provide them with the materials and procedure details to implement the intervention program in their classrooms. The study included a pre-test, a training held over two weeks, a post-test closely after the training's end, and a delayed post-test. 

The results show an important increase in performance between pre- and post-test for the trained children who did not count on their fingers originally (from 37% to 77% of correct responses) compared to non-finger users in the control group (from 40% to 48%). These results were replicated in an experiment with an active control group instead of a passive control group. This is the first study to show that children's performance in arithmetic can be improved through explicit teaching of a finger counting strategy.

Researchers suggest that since children who use their fingers to help solve math problems outperform those who do not, teaching a finger counting strategy could help reduce inequity among children in mathematics. However, whether children who use finger counting are using it as an arithmetic procedure or understand something deeper about numbers will still need to be determined with future research. 

The Society for Research in Child Development had the opportunity to discuss this research with Dr. Catherine Thevenot from the Institute of Psychology at the University of Lausanne.

SRCD: What led you to study finger counting in kindergartners?  

Dr. Thevenot: The idea originated from conversations with primary school teachers. They often asked me whether they should encourage or discourage children from using their fingers to solve calculations. Surprisingly, the existing research didn’t offer a clear answer, which left teachers understandably frustrated with my frequent response of “I don’t know.” This recurring question, coupled with the lack of concrete evidence, inspired me to investigate the issue myself. The best way to provide a meaningful answer was through experimental studies—so that’s exactly what I set out to do.

SRCD: How can these findings be useful for teachers, practitioners and caregivers?

Dr. Thevenot: Our findings are highly valuable because, for the first time, we provide a concrete answer to the long-standing question of whether teachers should explicitly teach children to use their fingers for solving addition problems—especially those who don’t do so naturally. The answer is yes. Our study demonstrates that finger calculation training is effective for over 75% of kindergartners. The next step is to explore how we can support the remaining 25% of children who didn’t respond as well to the intervention. 

SRCD: Were you surprised by any of the findings? 

Dr. Thevenot: Absolutely. When I first saw the results, I was amazed by the huge improvement in performance among children who didn’t initially use their fingers to solve the problems. Before our intervention, these children were only able to solve about one-third of the addition problems at pre-test. After training, however, they were solving over three-quarters of them! The difference was striking, especially compared to the control groups, where gains were insignificant. The extent of this improvement truly exceeded my expectations. 

SRCD: What’s next in this field of research? 

Dr. Thevenot: An important question now is to determine whether what we taught to children goes beyond a mere procedure to solve the problems. In other words, we want to know whether our intervention led to a deeper conceptual understanding of numbers, specifically whether children better grasp how to manipulate the quantities represented by their fingers. In fact, we have already started addressing this question and the initial results are very promising. However, we still need to carry out additional experiments to confirm that these improvements are indeed a direct result of our training program.

This work was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (Schweizerischer Nationalfonds).

Summarized from an article in Child Development, “Finger counting training enhances addition performance in kindergarteners,” by Poletti, C., Krenger, M. (Institute of Psychology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland),Létang, M., Hennequin, B. (Lea.fr, Editions Nathan, Paris, France) and Thevenot, C. (Institute of Psychology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland), Copyright 2024 The Society for Research in Child Development. All rights reserved. 

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Journal

Child Development

DOI

10.1111/cdev.14146 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Finger counting training enhances addition performance in kindergarteners

Article Publication Date

18-Sep-2024

 

‘Scuba-diving’ lizards use bubble to breathe underwater and avoid predators

Experiment shows bubble serves a functional role for water anoles

Binghamton University

 

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A species of semi-aquatic lizard produces a special bubble over its nostrils to breathe underwater

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Credit: Lindsey Swierk

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. -- Presenting the world’s smallest (and scrappiest) scuba diver: A species of semi-aquatic lizard produces a special bubble over its nostrils to breathe underwater and avoid predators, according to new research from Binghamton University, State University of New York. 

Lindsey Swerk, an assistant research professor of biological sciences at Binghamton University, studies water anoles, a type of semi-aquatic lizard found in the tropical forests of southern Costa Rica. She had previously documented the lizards using a bubble underwater. When these lizards feel threatened by a predator, they dive underwater and breathe a bubble over their heads. 

“We know that they can stay underwater for a really long time. We also know that they're pulling oxygen from this bubble of air,” said Swierk. “We didn’t know whether there was actually any functional role for this bubble in respiration. Is it something that lizards do that is just a side effect of their skin’s properties or a respiratory reflex, or is this bubble actually allowing them to stay underwater longer than they would, say, without a bubble?”

To investigate whether the bubble serves a functional role in respiration or is merely a byproduct, Swierk applied a substance to the lizards’ skin surface that would prevent bubble formation.

“Lizard skin is hydrophobic. Typically, that allows air to stick very tightly to the skin and permits this bubble to form. But when you cover the skin with an emollient, air no longer sticks to the skin surface, so the bubbles can't form,” said Swierk.

Swierk recorded the number of bubbles that the lizards could produce and how long they could stay underwater, and compared them to lizards in a control group that were allowed to breathe normally. She found that the lizards in the control group could stay underwater 32% longer than those with impaired bubble formation.

“This is really significant because this is the first experiment that truly shows adaptive significance of bubbles. Rebreathing bubbles allow lizards to stay underwater longer. Before, we suspected it – we saw a pattern – but we didn't actually test if it served a functional role,” said Swierk.

The study confirmed that the bubble helps lizards stay underwater for longer periods, providing them with a refuge from predators.

“Anoles are kind of like the chicken nuggets of the forest. Birds eat them, snakes eat them,” said Swiek. “So by jumping in the water, they can escape a lot of their predators, and they remain very still underwater. They're pretty well camouflaged underwater as well, and they just stay underwater until that danger passes. We know that they can stay underwater at least about 20 minutes, but probably longer.”

Going forward, Swierk wants to figure out whether lizards are using the bubble as something called a physical gill. A physical gill occurs in insects that use bubbles to breathe underwater. Insects have smaller oxygen requirements, and the amount of oxygen that diffuses from the water into the air of the bubble is enough to sustain them. Water anoles are likely too big to be supported merely by the oxygen that's diffusing into a bubble. One of Swierk’s graduate students, Alexandra Martin, is testing whether a physical gill-type action is allowing lizards to spend even more time underwater by changing the oxygenation of the water and measuring its effects on lizards’ dive time.

Swierk said that the research is exciting because scientists don't know much about vertebrate bubble use, which can open the door to bioinspired materials It’s also just interesting to learn about a new animal behavior.

“I've had people talk to me about how much they love scuba diving and freediving, and how they're interested in how animals might do the same thing,” said Swierk. “So there's a great opportunity to get people excited about science by having this relationship between what they love to do and what’s evolved in nature. Even in animals that seem commonplace – you're always finding new things.”

The paper, “Novel rebreathing adaptation extends dive time in a semi-aquatic lizard,” was published in Biology Letters.

A species of semi-aquatic lizard produces a special bubble over its nostrils to breathe underwater

Credit

Lindsey Swierk

“Scuba-diving” lizard can stay underwater for 16 minutes (VIDEO)

Water anole leaps in water (VIDEO)

Water anole breathing with bubble underwater (VIDEO)

Water anole breathing underwater (VIDEO)

Lindsey Swierk researched the water anole in the triopical forests of southern Coata Rica. 

Credit

Lindsey Swierk

Journal

Biology Letters

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Novel rebreathing adaptation extends dive time in a semi-aquatic lizard

Article Publication Date

17-Sep-2024

2021

"Scuba-diving" lizards use bubble attached to snout to breathe underwater

Shock new study reveals 1.5m Brits stake up to £4.3bn on illegal gambling black market each year


Betting And Gaming Council

19 September

Partner content

Black market gambling online has “high awareness, is easy to find, and is already commonly used”, says new report

£2.7bn staked on illegal, unregulated gambling black market sites online
Up to £1.6bn staked in underground gambling venues

One in five 18-24 year olds who bet have gambled with the black market, survey says
Black market aggressively advertising to young people and problem gamblers

Standards body representing 90 per cent of regulated betting and gaming sector says balanced regulations best defence against the black market

A major new study has found 1.5m Brits stake up to £4.3bn on the growing, unsafe gambling black market each year.

The report published today by leading consultants Frontier Economics, and commissioned by standards body the Betting and Gaming Council, is the first major study on the black market since the publication of the previous Government’s White Paper on gambling reform.

It found illegal operators are aggressively targeting UK customers, significantly undermining player protections, while sucking millions from sport and the Treasury.

According to the research more than one in five 18-24 year olds who bet already use the unsafe, unregulated gambling black market online, and via secure online messaging apps.

Meanwhile, outfits based overseas aggressively target customers who have self-excluded from regulated betting operators.

Researchers found the vast sums bet on the gambling black market online and offline could deprive the Treasury of up to £335m over the course of a five-year Parliament, if action is not taken.

Annually, that is the equivalent of up to 1,700 nurses salaries, or up to 1.2m extra GP consultations or up to 1,500 teacher salaries.

While £2.7bn is staked on illegal sites online – impacting every area of betting and gaming from online poker to horse racing - the study suggested up to a further £1.6bn could be being staked in-person at illegal gambling dens.

Standards body the BGC said balanced regulations and stable taxation is the best defence against the black market.

Betting and Gaming Council CEO Grainne Hurst, said: “This shocking report exposes the unnerving true scale of the growing, unsafe, unregulated gambling black market.

“From online gaming, to betting on sports like horse racing, millions of customers are being driven into the arms of pernicious black market operators. These people don’t care about player safety, don’t want to pay their fair share to support sport and don’t pay a penny in tax.

“By failing to adhere to the stringent standards set by the Gambling Commission, unregulated operators in the unsafe black market can make bigger offers, grant customers total anonymity, and promise the freedom to gamble without any controls or safety measures, unlike BGC members.

“Worst of all, these sites are making a mockery of the rules set up to protect the most vulnerable by aggressively advertising their services to those who have self-excluded.

“The Government and the regulator risk sleepwalking into this issue. Simply giving the GC more powers and more resources to tackle the black market won’t, in itself, work. Enforcement is only part of the solution.

“The fact is onerous and ill-judged regulations drive customers from the regulated sector to the unsafe, unregulated gambling black market.

“Proposals by anti-gambling prohibitionists like advertising bans or intrusive, blanket, low level affordability checks will not protect customers, in fact they will give another leg up to unscrupulous black market operators, the last thing anyone wants.

“Every comparable market in the world tells us the same thing. The best defence against this growing illegal, gambling black market is getting the balance of regulations right.”

Andrew Leicester, Associate Director at Frontier Economics and one of the report’s authors, said: “This report shows that most gambling today is done through regulated, visible channels. That is good news.

“But there are warning signs. The landscape is evolving quickly in ways that suggest black market gambling is getting easier to find and access.

“This report provides timely new evidence on the scale of the black market. Efforts to make gambling safer are important, but must avoid the risk of simply pushing more players and spend into unregulated providers who do not need to comply with regulations around safer play.”

Separate studies have shown European countries which deploy draconian regulations on betting, see a surge in unregulated gambling.

Restrictions in Norway resulted in a black market that now accounts for over 66 per cent of all money staked.

Another report found that in Bulgaria 47 per cent of money staked goes to unregulated gambling, in Portugal it is 31 per cent. Both countries face high rates of gambling taxes.

Last year’s White Paper urged the Gambling Commission (GC) to improve its knowledge on the black market, so more could be done to limit its reach.

In total, the research revealed 15 per cent of those who regularly bet – around 2.8m people – had heard of at least one online black market site.

The BGC has previously called on internet giants to cooperate with our members in the regulated market to prevent the growth of online black market gambling.

Illegal sites peddle crypto gambling and gambling with credit cards, and even mimic regulated sites to the point that over half of players (54 per cent) were unaware they were even using unregulated operators.

The report also uncovered the wide use of VPNs – or Virtual Private Networks – used to mask a customer’s true location so they can access unregulated gambling outfits operating overseas.

Meanwhile, a worrying number of customers “multi-home”, conducting betting on regulated and unregulated sites, posing more risk to the regulated market.

Current attempts to prevent the growth of the online black market have proved unsuccessful as illegal operators can easily rebrand or create new identities to evade detection and continue operating.

All BGC members are regulated by the Gambling Commission, meaning they meet stringent standards.

They offer player protection measures and safer gambling tools as standard, including deposit limits, time-outs and self-exclusion through GAMSTOP.

They must also meet strict data protection rules, comply with anti-money laundering regulations, meet fair play requirements, abide by strict advertising rules and pay tax.

In addition, BGC members and GC regulated licensees have voluntarily donated £172.5m over four years to tackle problem gambling and gambling related harm.

This is on top of their significant economic contribution.

According to a separate report, BGC members contribute £7.1bn to the economy and generate £4.2bn in tax while supporting 110,000 jobs.

The regulated betting and gaming industry also provides some of the country’s most popular sport with vital funding.

Horse racing benefits to the tune of £350m a year, while the English Football League and its clubs receive £40m, and snooker, darts and rugby league receive more than £12.5m.

Each month around 22.5 million people in Britain enjoy a bet and the overwhelming majority do so safely and responsibly.

The most recent NHS Health Survey for England estimated that 0.4 per cent of the adult population are problem gamblers.

Frontier Economics’ study was based on a large-scale survey of more than 6,000 people plus additional data supplied by BGC members.

The full report can be read here.

 

World’s oldest Jewish newspaper rocked by accusations and walkouts

The Catholic Herald

September 19, 2024 

The 180-year-old Jewish Chronicle finds itself trying to cover one of the most serious crises in modern times for Israel and the Jewish people while also accused of journalistic misconduct, shifting ideologically too far to the Right and becoming a mouthpiece for the Israeli government.

The turmoil has resulted in a number of contributors and columnists refusing to write for the publication, which in addition to being the longest continuously published Jewish newspaper in the world, plays a significant role serving the Jewish community in Britain.

The problems for the weekly paper, which also has a website, came to a head after it had run a number of dramatic stories and “scoops” about the war in Gaza written by the freelance journalist Elon Perry. The stories seemingly involved access to top-level intelligence sources who revealed “eye-opening details about the conflict”, reports the Daily Telegraph, resulting in, as it is known in the trade, the most compelling copy that is likely to be gobbled up by readers.

Questions, however, began to be raised about the validity of the sensational stories and their sources, ultimately leading to the JC conducting an investigation into Perry, followed by it cutting all ties with him and removing the previously published stories.

Despite the paper’s actions to rectify the situation, four of its star columnists stood down in protest: Hadley Freeman, Jonathan Freedland, David Baddiel and David Aaranovitch made it clear that the Perry scandal was, for them, the last straw following ongoing concerns about the paper’s general editorial tone and direction.

“The latest scandal brings great disgrace on the paper – publishing fabricated stories and showing the thinnest form of contrition – but it is only the latest,” Freedland commented in a letter to the paper’s editor, Jake Wallis Simons.

Critics have argued that the paper has become more right-wing and ideological under the editorship of Wallis Simons, and also increasingly aligned with the policies of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Those writers who stood down were known to be liberal/left-leaning in their stances.

“Ever since its founding in 1841, the JC has published an idiosyncratic mix of community trivia and weighty geopolitics, but its crown jewel is (or was) its roster of columnists, some of Fleet Street’s finest,” writes Josh Glancy in The New Statesman. “The recent resignations are a blow to the paper’s claim to represent the full gamut of mainstream British Jewry.”

He notes that Freedland is a second-generation JC writer who “embodies a long tradition of high-minded liberal Jewish thought”.

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, Hadley Freeman said: “The Jewish Chronicle is the mainstream national newspaper for Jews in this country, and Jews represent barely half a per cent of the British population. So it is important that it represents the plurality of views of British Jews, not the Israeli government.”

Other columnists, however, have not seen it fit to resign.

“This incident is not reason enough to give up on a paper that has been a powerful and essential voice for our Jewish community for 180 years,” Naomi Greenaway, deputy editor of the Telegraph Magazine and a JC columnist, told the Telegraph. “But I have a lot of respect for the journalists who have resigned, and I’m glad it triggered the Jewish Chronicle to interrogate their editing processes.”

Wallis Simons has said he takes “full responsibility for the mistakes that have been made and I will take equal responsibility for the task of making sure nothing like this can happen again.”

Wallis Simons became editor of the paper in 2021. In addition to his editor duties, he has been an frequent contributor to news programs regarding Israel and Jewish concerns, especially since the 7 October attack by Hamas, and he often writes for the Daily Telegraph and the Spectator on such matters too.

While often arguing Israel’s case, he has also been critical of Netanyahu and the Israeli government. He has also focused on highlighting and calling out anti-Semitism, particularly its resurgence in the UK.

A major concern and ongoing issue for many in regards to the paper’s future, and which relates to editorial disagreements, is the lack of knowledge about who actually owns and is backing the JC.

Various individuals are known as acting as directors and shareholders, but when it comes to who is bank rolling the media operation – which included a recent £3.5 million loan to cover the loss-making paper, the Telegraph notes – that continues to remain unknown, and a source of continuing tension.

Josh Glancy notes he had written for the paper on and off for his entire journalistic career, and that from 2020 he wrote a regular column for the JC until he took umbrage at the “increasingly belligerent editorial direction and, more importantly, found the idea of being paid by a secret ownership increasingly unsettling”.

He concludes that the Elon Perry scandal “has upset the balance of Anglo-Jewry at a fraught moment”, explaining:

“Britain’s Jewish community is one of the country’s oldest and most successful ethnic minorities, and it has flourished, in part, thanks to its strong institutions, including the Board of Deputies, the United Synagogue, and, of course, the Jewish Chronicle.

“The paper has a critical role to play in what is sure to be a turbulent few years for British Jews.”