The Know Daily - Tuesday 18 April 2023

_{Read in 5m 25s ∙ Listening to Sister Sledge}

Chester Zoo has welcomed the arrival of a rare baby giant anteater, describing the birth as “incredibly positive news for the species”. The 60cm-long pup (who is yet to be named) will cling to its mum’s back for 10 months until it’s ready to walk and find food independently. When fully grown, it will use its sticky tongue to feed on up to 30,000 ants or termites a day.

📝 A new report on racism in maternity care

The findings of a new report have led MPs to call for faster progress to tackle the “appalling” disparity in maternity outcomes for black women, saying that racism plays a key role.

What are the key takeaways?
The Women and Equalities Committee report, out today, urges the government to do much more to tackle the disparity in deaths during pregnancy and childbirth between black, Asian and white women. According to figures from 2018-20, black women are nearly four times more likely than white women to die within six weeks of childbirth, while Asian women are nearly twice as likely.

The report stresses that the government and NHS have underestimated the role that racism plays in creating these inequalities. Caroline Nokes, who chairs the committee, pointed out that NHS births are “among the safest in the world”, but described the disparities in outcomes as “shocking”.

What does the report recommend?
The report says that staff shortages are the biggest concern, and that more money to expand the workforce is needed to deliver safe, personalised care. It also calls for better data collection to understand why these disparities exist in the first place.

How has the government responded?
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson reiterated that the NHS births are among the safest in the world, but added that maternity care must be of the same high standard “regardless of race”.

The government also said that it has invested £165 million into the maternity workforce, and that a task force has been set up to identify how those in power can tackle disparities and improve outcomes.

❓ From Wordle to Heardle - and five more guessing games

Spotify is dropping Heardle - the name-that-tune game inspired by Wordle - after acquiring it last July. While Heardle became a daily habit for many players, it never reached the dizzying heights of Wordle, which counted two million daily players at its peak in January last year.

Although it’s curtains for Heardle, there’s still a Wordle spin-off to suit almost every interest. So if you’re looking to incorporate a new daily puzzle into your routine, here are five of the quirkiest:

Framed
Described by IndieWire as “the Wordle for movie fans”, Framed invites players to guess the film from a series of screenshots, revealing also a new frame after each wrong answer.

Nerdle
Essentially Wordle for maths lovers, Nerdle gets players to use different numbers to solve an eight-character calculation in just six guesses. This game has been labelled both “super hard” and “surprisingly doable” by Metro.

Worldle
The premise of Worldle (not a typo!) is simple: players are given the silhouette of any country and asked to guess which one it is. It’s an essential game for any geography fan.

Lewdle
Unlike Wordle, this is probably not the sort of game you’d want to play with family. Described by Mashable as the “NSFW Wordle”, Lewdle invites players to guess obscene five-letter words. This game is “surprisingly hard”, adds the news site, which suggests that players might find the four-letter word guesses required by Sweardle a bit easier.

Housle
One of the more recent Wordle-inspired games, Housle lets real estate lovers guess the asking price of homes for sale in the US. Players are given a photo of the house to begin with, with more pics and details revealed with each incorrect guess.

🍳 Sunny side up: Free-range eggs will start returning to our supermarket shelves within the next couple of days, thanks to the easing of bird flu restrictions across most of the country today.

💇‍♀️ Salon squeeze: Fresh findings indicate that more than a quarter of hairdressers are considering downsizing their salon or shutting down their business entirely, with independently owned salons the worst affected by rising energy costs.

⚡ Ofgem update: The forced installation of prepayment meters has been banned for those aged 85 and over, as well as for people with conditions worsened by cold. Updated guidelines mean energy films must try to contact customers 10 times or more before going ahead.

🇮🇹 Cocaine haul: Italian police seized two tonnes of cocaine worth more than £353m floating off the coast of Sicily. Around 70 waterproof packages containing the powder were spotted by a navy surveillance plane.

📸 AI photo row: A photographer turned down a prestigious award after admitting that he generated his prize-winning image using AI. German artist Boris Eldagsen won the creative open category at the Sony World Photography Award - then revealed that he created the image to test the system.

Trivia answer: C) A new species of frog was discovered which appears to mimic the appearance of bird poo, however “glass frogs” and frogs which sound like squeaky toys also exist in the wild.

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