The Know Daily - Friday 17 November 2023

_{Read in 5m 54s ∙ Listening to Madness}

Happy Friday, readers!

Here at The Know, we’re getting into the festive spirit - even if it does still feel a little early for it. Last night, we all headed down to The Great Christmas Feast (more on that below!) for a team catch-up where we ate delicious food and laughed a lot, which - in my opinion - is what this time of year is all about.

I’ve recently started enjoying the gift-giving side of celebrations, too. While in the past I used to feel only cynicism at the commercialism of Christmas, I now appreciate that picking out a thoughtful present for someone is a nice way of showing them what they mean to you. That’s why I’m really excited to bring you The Know’s 2023 gift guide, which is packed full of inspiration to (hopefully!) make your festive shopping that bit easier.

And, as always, you’ll find a roundup of the week’s biggest global headlines, our Friday quiz and culture recs from the team to see you through this wintery weekend.

Have a great one!

Esther x
Staff Writer

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POLITICS & GLOBAL AFFAIRS

🇬🇧 It was a big week for British politics: On Monday, PM Rishi Sunak sacked Suella Braverman as home secretary and made former PM David Cameron foreign secretary; the Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that the government’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda is unlawful; and 10 Labour frontbenchers resigned or were sacked from Keir Starmer’s team after after backing calls for a ceasefire in Gaza.

🤝 US President Joe Biden and China’s President Xi Jinping agreed to restore military-to-military communications between the two nations for the first time in more than a year, following a face-to-face meeting in California.

🇪🇸 Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez secured a new term, ending four months of uncertainty and a political deadlock which began after an inconclusive general election in July.

CULTURE

🎅 Mariah Carey and Wham! set a new record for the earliest chart appearance of a Christmas song, with both All I Want For Christmas Is You and Last Christmas re-entering the Official UK Singles Chart before mid-November. 

🫂 The World Health Organization launched an international commission on loneliness, declaring it to be a pressing global health threat and as bad for a person’s health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.

📺 Netflix’s The Crown returned to the small screen on Thursday, kicking off with what The Hollywood Reporter described as a “wobbly take on the Diana/Dodi romance”. The final few episodes will drop in December.

WORK & INNOVATION

🍫 The US confectionery giant Mars is acquiring Hotel Chocolat for £534m. Following the announcement of the deal, the luxury chocolate brand’s share price soared by more than 160%.

👁️ Surgeons in New York performed the first-ever whole-eye transplant in a human, an accomplishment that has been “hailed as a breakthrough”, said Reuters.

📱 Threads users will now be able to delete their account without losing access to their linked Instagram account, Meta announced on Tuesday. Initially hailed as a “Twitter-killer”, Threads has “struggled to sustain” its early growth, said the BBC.

UPLIFTING STUFF

🌱 Kenyans enjoyed an extra public holiday on Monday for a nationwide tree-planting day, as part of a wider government plan to plant 15 billion trees in a decade.

🏳️‍🌈 Latvia voted to allow same-sex couples to establish civil unions, marking a historic first for the Baltic country.

🐋 Dominica announced plans to create the world’s first marine protected area for the endangered sperm whale. “We want to ensure these majestic and highly intelligent animals are safe from harm,” said the island’s PM. 

📰 Read: What my grandmother’s lipstick taught me about the past. In this reflective piece for The Guardian, author and historian Annabelle Hirsch explores how objects can build an almost “sensory bridge” between us and our ancestors, and offer a unique insight into women’s experiences over time.

📺 Watch: Anatomy of a Fall and The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (out in cinemas now), The Crown S6 (Netflix), A Murder at the End of the World (Disney+), Boat Story (BBC iPlayer), David Holmes: The Boy Who Lived (Sky/Now TV).

🎧 Listen to: Life Changing, the moving BBC Radio 4 podcast which is back for its third season. Guests chat to host Dr Sian Williams about extraordinary events that have set their lives on an entirely different course - and hope weaves its way through every 30-minute episode.

🎭 Do: Book your tickets to The Great Christmas Feast! For readers based in London, this spellbinding, immersive retelling of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol - accompanied by a delicious three-course dinner and live music - is an absolute must. The Know team headed there last night for our own festive gathering and had a lot of fun.

We list jobs with qualities we know our readers are looking for: purpose-driven opportunities, flexible and female-founded environments, and employers who champion mental health.

Our top jobs include roles at the Barbican cultural centre in London, certified B Corp Pip & Nut and Lightful, a tech company on a mission to help non-profits and social enterprises.
 
Want to reach 200,000+ women with your latest roles? Email [email protected] if you’d like to list a job with us.

In our Wednesday email (sign up to our daily edition here!), we asked our readers whether they’d feel comfortable discussing their mental health at work. This was the response:

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ Definitely (63)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Maybe as a one-off (77)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ No way (41)

181 Votes

It was really interesting reading your range of views and experiences. “I’m open about my mental illness and talk about it whenever I need support, or even just when I’m not feeling great when someone asks me how I am,” said one reader. Another had a different view, writing: “[I’d only discuss my mental health] if there were protections against being fired or demoted.”

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