The Year Unwrapped: White refugees, Aegean islands and celebrity gossip

Olly Mann and The Week debate the big changes that didn’t necessarily make headlines this year but began slowly affecting our lives. With Jamie Timson, Abdulwahab Tahhan and Julia Macfarlane.

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In this end-of-year episode, we discuss:

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White refugees

When Russia invaded Ukraine in February, nearly eight million people were forced to flee the country, with many crossing over into neighbouring Poland, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Moldova. At the time, many media commentators pointed out that the majority of these refugees were white and positioned them in opposition to migrants from Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan. What is the impact of the rise of white refugees on the migrant crisis as a whole – and did Ukrainians receive preferential treatment from European countries?

Aegean islands

For years now, tension has been growing between neighbouring countries Turkey and Greece over the Greek-owned Aegean islands which can be found within miles of Turkey’s coastline. Turkey has accused Greece of attempting to militarise these islands but Athens has denied provoking its neighbour and violating the long-standing agreement between the two countries. But what is actually going on in the Aegean sea and could this issue impact next year’s Turkish presidential election?

Celebrity gossip

2022 was the year we got back into celebrity gossip – in a big way. From the behind-the-scenes furore which engulfed the Florence Pugh movie Don’t Worry Darling, to James Corden and his restaurant etiquette, there was a myriad of A-lister misdemeanours that people couldn’t wait to dish the dirt on. Even new media jumped on the bandwagon with the incredible success of Deux Moi, an anonymous social media account detailing normal people’s interactions with celebrities. But has our rediscovered gossip obsession merely come about as a result of returning to social settings following the pandemic – or does it indicate something more sinister?