Western images of black Africans in earlier centuries portrayed them as people without history, incapable of poetry, too intellectually retarded to philosophise and too mentally slow to be scientific. Ethiopia’s historical experience unequivocally disproves these misconceptions, according to the late, great Kenyan scholar, Ali Mazrui.

It is worth noting from the outset what Mazrui was taking issue with: the distorted Western images of black people in earlier centuries. From his point of view, there have been improvements in Western understanding of Africa in the 20th and 21st centuries. As Mazrui put it in his Cultural Forces in World Politics (1990): “Blatant racial discrimination is on the defensive. The language of racial abuse is looking around for euphemisms. The racists have never been more reluctant to proclaim their prejudice in public. Racism on the world scene is at best declining and is at worst in search of disguise and camouflage.” 

Sadly, the world today is quite different from the one Mazrui portrayed before he died in 2014. This is what adds greater significance and meaning to Mazrui’s reflection on this issue and makes it all the more timely and relevant for today.

Thomas Jefferson, president of the US from 1801 to 1809, should have known about Ethiopia, Mazrui suggested in his keynote address to a conference held at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, in 2007. I assisted Mazrui with research for that address, in which he grappled with the issue in question. I later drove him to Ithaca, where I listened to his presentation as he reflected on Ethiopia and Africa, and did so with his characteristic imagination and sensitivity to history.  

To allow the reader to take pleasure in the ease with which Mazrui clarified complicated concepts, qualities for which he had earned worldwide recognition, I present below an excerpt from his Cornell address, in his own words, with minimum adaptation. 

For a long time, Ethiopia was in reality the one black country, which could demonstrate to Europeans that it had a recorded history of many centuries, that it had a heritage of written as well as oral poetry, that it had centuries of recorded philosophy and theology, and that it had demonstrated feats of science and engineering in its monuments.  

Let us explore this remarkable story of cultural achievement in the context of the four intellectual charges, which Westerners have long levelled against the African people: lack of history, lack of poetry, lack of philosophy and lack of science and technology.

Does Africa have history?

The charge that Africans were a people without history goes back to German philosopher WG Hegel and beyond. There was no room for the African continent in Hegel’s Philosophy of History (1821).

This belief that black Africa was ahistorical continued well into the second half of the 20th century.  As late as 1968, the Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford University, Hugh Trevor-Roper, proclaimed his infamous dogma: “Maybe in the future there will be African history. But at the moment there is none. There is only the history of the European in Africa … The rest is darkness — and darkness is not a subject of history.”

Anybody with the remotest familiarity with Ethiopian history would surely not have made such a remark.  Even if Trevor-Roper knew nothing about Menelik I, or rejected the Solomonic credentials of the Royal Dynasty of Ethiopia or accepted that the Queen of Sheba was part of Yemeni history rather than Ethiopian, he should at least have known that the army of Menelik II defeated a European army from Italy at the Battle of Adowa in 1896. If Ethiopians were a people without history, would they have been strong enough to defeat a European army early in the 20th century?

Indeed, as an expert on European Nazism and fascism, Trevor-Roper should surely have been more familiar with the rich history of Ethiopia long before Italy invaded and occupied it from 1935 to 1941.

Are Africans capable of poetry?

With regard to the charge that black people were incapable of great poetry, perhaps the most eloquent witness against the black muse was Thomas Jefferson, the author of the phrase “all men are created equal” in the American Declaration of Independence, who later became the third president of the US.

In Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia (Paris, 1784), there occurs the following astonishing observation: “Never yet could I find that a black man had uttered a thought above the level of plain narration, never saw even an elementary trait of painting or sculpture. In music they are more generally gifted than the whites with accurate ears for tune and time, and they have been found capable of imagining a catch. Whether they will be equal to the composition of a more extensive rhyme or melody, or of complicated harmony, is yet to be proved.”

Jefferson goes on to make interesting observations about the link between pain and poetry. He argued that pain is often the mother of poetry — anguish a stimulant to the muse. In Jefferson’s own words: “… Love is the peculiar nostrum of the poet. [Black] love is ardent, but it kindles the senses only, not the imagination. Religion has indeed produced a Phyllis Wheatley; but it could not produce a poet. The compositions published under her name are below the dignity of criticism.”

He was referring to the enslaved woman who is considered the first African-American author of a published book of poetry.

Again, Jefferson knew almost nothing about Abyssinia-Ethiopia. While he was proclaiming that black people were a people without poetry, he seemed supremely ignorant of the historical fact that Ethiopians were writing poetry long before Jefferson’s ancestors in the British Isles were taught the Latin alphabet by their Roman conquerors.

And so enterprising is the poetic tradition in East Africa today that local newspapers receive not merely “letters to the editor” but also “poems to the editor” – from Dar es Salaam to Addis Ababa, from Mogadishu to Mombasa.

What about African philosophy?

The third European allegation against the African people is that they were a race devoid of philosophers. Less candid than Trevor-Roper there were Westerners who believed the following: “Maybe in the future there will be African philosophy, but at the moment there is none. We only have Europeans philosophising about Africa — the rest is ethnology, and ethnology is not really philosophy.”

Belgian Franciscan missionary in the Congo Father RP Tempels’ seminal book Bantu Philosophy (1949) was supposed to be a great revelation that the African cultural heritage included collective philosophy but not necessarily individual philosophers. Once again the debate about whether Africa had philosophers almost totally ignored Ethiopia as a source of great thinkers and great theologians across the centuries.

Technical innovations in Africa

The fourth basic European assumption was whether the African peoples were a pre-technological ethnicity, incapable of scientific feats. Indeed, negritude as a modern philosophical and literary movement virtually takes pride in Africa’s pre-technological innocence. As poet Aime Cesaire of Martinique put it: “Hooray for those who never invented anything, who never discovered anything, who never explored anything. Hooray for joy, hooray for love, hooray for the pain of incarnate tears. My negritude [my blackness] is no tower and no cathedral, It delves into the deep, red flesh of the soil.”

In reality, Ethiopia had built the equivalent of cathedrals. Its people had carved out the sunken churches of Lalibela, a major engineering achievement. They had built the castles of Gondar. They had built impressive obelisks that were attractive enough to be stolen by conquerors like Italy — at least for a while.

As compared with 19th century European industrialisation, Ethiopia was still technologically marginal. But, compared with earlier estimates of what black people were capable of achieving, Ethiopia had the credentials of a technological vanguard.

Ethiopians were thus a black people who could successfully refute racist allegations that black people were fundamentally ahistoric, non-poetic, pre-philosophical and pre-scientific.

Let us summarise. People of African ancestry worldwide have historically been accused of four congenital incapacities. Each of those alleged incapacities has, across the centuries, been contradicted by Ethiopia’s own demonstrated performance.

The ultimate refutation of the four alleged incapacities has been the achievements of Ethiopia. Are black Africans a people without history? Ethiopians have a recorded history across at least two millennia. 

Are black Africans a people capable of composing great poetry? Ethiopians have been dazzling each other with great poetic compositions even before some of them were Christianised in the fourth century of the Christian era. And when persecuted Arab Muslims sought asylum in Ethiopia in the seventh century, the refugees and their hosts probably recited to each other their respective sacred hymns. The Ethiopian legend of Solomon seducing Sheba was itself pure poetry.

Are black Africans a people capable of philosophising? Ethiopians philosophised about nature, God, the Ark of the Covenant, love, sex and family long before Western Europe was introduced to the ancient works of Plato and Aristotle.

Are black Africans capable of feats of science and engineering? Ethiopians have left us obelisks, which tempted the greed of Italian invaders, and inspired the Washington monument in the American capital. Ethiopians have also left us the miraculous sunken churches of Lalibela.  

May Ethiopians continue to inspire others.

Dr Seifudein Adem is a research fellow at JICA Ogata Research Institute for Peace and Development in Tokyo, Japan. He is also Ali Mazrui’s intellectual biographer.

Young children in South Africa live on the edge of both possibility and risk. If all of them were to grow up thriving, it would unlock opportunities for our country: a stronger economy and a safer, happier society. And yet, more than half (500 000) of the children who enter our schooling system every year are underprepared. 

To address this, we need to increase access to quality early childhood development (ECD) centres or playgroups. We also need to support the caregivers of our youngest children who are at home, where learning begins.

The science is clear. A baby’s brain is not fully developed at birth, it develops most rapidly in the first three years of life. Babies are born eager to connect: they babble, make facial expressions and reach out. When caregivers respond with warmth, smiles, eye contact, sounds or words, it strengthens brain development. This is the power of “serve and return” and responsive caregiving. A concept that may sound simple, but that has profound effects on brain development, how a child learns language and builds social-emotional skills. Language grows when we use everyday moments to respond to a child’s interests, add words, play and share stories and books.

But for too many caregivers, the odds are stacked against them.

There are nearly seven million children aged 0–5 in South Africa, and nearly two-thirds live in the poorest 40% of households. Caregivers, most often women, carry an enormous, often invisible burden. More than 80% of children live with their biological mothers, many of whom experience a lack of support, or daily survival stress because of poverty, with a third struggling with post-natal depression. 

Poor infrastructure, inefficient services, financial insecurity, fragmented support and enduring gender norms undermine their capacity to provide nurturing care. New research shows that not a single municipality provides the full range of adequate services to support caregivers in providing for young children’s development. Poor service delivery limits a caregiver’s ability to meet a child’s needs. 

Many also do not have confidence in their role as their children’s first teachers because “learning” is still viewed as something that happens in crèches or schools. Less than a third of caregivers read books with their children. Many homes don’t have age-appropriate books at all with just less than four in 10 households with children owning a children’s book.

If we want to break the cycle of poverty, inequality and poor learning outcomes, we must start with the people doing the work of care.

Across South Africa, organisations are doing this work, often with limited resources. These organisations recognise that for children to thrive, we must pay attention to the wellbeing of their caregivers. Organisations such as Dlalanathi put caregivers at the centre with their Ibhayi Lengane programme that supports caregivers’ psychosocial wellbeing, while also providing guidance on responsive caregiving, talking and playing. 

Programmes like Philani, Flourish and Eat, Play, Love, Talk also weave in nutrition, early learning and play, understanding the multi-faceted needs of caregivers. 

Organisations recognise the importance of shared care of young children. Among them is goGOGOgo, which supports grandmothers, who, in South Africa, are raising more than four million children. Initiatives such as Fathers Matter help to raise awareness of the importance of fathers in caregiver roles. Hope-Hear and Siyakwazi ensure that caregivers of young children with hearing loss and other disabilities aren’t left behind. They work with families to promote inclusive, responsive caregiving. There is also recognition of meeting caregivers where they are: organisations like Sikunye reach caregivers in their places of worship, through support to a network of leaders of churches and faith-based organisations. Others reach caregivers through clinics (Lebone Centre), community farming initiatives (Thanda), and ECD centres (Wordworks). 

Through programmes like Baby Boost, Every Word Counts, Family Literacy Project and Mikhulu Trust Book Sharing, caregivers learn about how to talk, play and share books with very young children. They also offer a supportive space for caregivers to connect, problem solve and celebrate successes. These programmes are often delivered in partnership with organisations that develop affordable, quality books (Book Dash), toys made from recycled materials (Singakwenza), and tech tools such as apps (Treehouse Kids) or WhatsApp groups or services (Parentline).

Hold My Hand, in support of the National Strategy to Accelerate Action for Children and Teenagers (NSAAC), and the South African Parenting Programme Implementors Network (SAPPIN), is conducting a national survey to better understand what support is out there, what’s working and what is needed to reach more caregivers. 

We must invest in learning from and expanding evidence-informed programmes, and strengthen partnerships between government, donors, NGOs and researchers to create scalable, sustainable systems.

The Hold My Hand Accelerator in partnership with SAPPIN, is conducting a survey of organisations and initiatives that support responsive caregiving and early learning. If you would like to know more about the survey or complete the survey please use this link.

Shelley O’Carroll is an early childhood development specialist and consultant for the Hold My Hand Accelerator for Children and Teens.

The constitutional court’s recent ruling in favour of Vodacom, effectively overturning a supreme court of appeal decision that would have awarded Nkosinathi Makate between 5% and 7.5% of the revenue generated from the Please Call Me innovation, is more than just a legal outcome. It reflects a deeper problem in South Africa — the widening gap between law and justice, black versus white, between corporate profit and the public good and ultimately, between the rich and the poor.

At its heart, this case symbolised the struggle of a young black innovator against a telecoms giant. Makate’s idea, born of necessity and intended to help the poor communicate without airtime, turned into a billion-rand revenue stream for Vodacom. That he will walk away without fair compensation sends a chilling message to many South Africans. A purely intellectual contribution from the bottom of society can be ignored, undervalued and erased.

The court might have ruled within the bounds of legal technicalities but the ethical and socio-economic implications are devastating. For the poor, particularly the millions in townships and rural areas who relied on Please Call Me to reach family members, employers or even emergency services, this ruling confirms a painful truth. Even when your ideas change the world, recognition and reward are still reserved for those with legal teams and boardroom access. 

But this case also strikes at the core of South Africa’s post-apartheid of inclusion, justice and transformation. The Constitution is meant to be a living document that not only protects legal rights but also upholds the dignity of all citizens. That a case like this could end in favour of a multibillion-rand corporation, after years of arbitration and negotiation, while Makate continues to fight for recognition, damages our national moral compass.

In practical terms, this ruling has broader implications for social welfare. It reinforces the dangerous perception that corporations can profit from ideas generated by the poor without meaningful accountability. It signals to future innovators from underprivileged backgrounds that their efforts could be appropriated without fair compensation. And it indirectly discourages creativity and entrepreneurship at a time when the country desperately needs new economic drivers to combat unemployment and stagnation.

It’s not just a legal setback, it’s a societal one. At a time when South Africa’s Gini coefficient remains one of the highest in the world, and when poverty continues to deepen despite marginal growth projections, this ruling throws away an opportunity to affirm the value of grassroots innovation and affirm the rights of the economically marginalised.

The ruling comes in the same week the South African Reserve Bank cut interest rates to a low not seen since 2022, signalling an attempt to stimulate consumer spending and reduce the cost of living. While this will offer minor relief to those in debt or on variable loans, it does little to address the structural inequality that the Makate case epitomises. If anything, the timing highlights the stark contrast between technocratic policy efforts to uplift the economy and the lived experience of injustice on the ground.

In a country that frequently speaks of transformation, empowerment and black excellence, the Makate decision is a sobering reminder of how far we still need to go. True transformation cannot happen when corporate power overrides individual rights. And social justice cannot exist when the legal system protects profits over people. Makate might have lost in court, but he has not lost in the court of public opinion. 

Mavimbela Awam is a PhD candidate at the University of the Free State, a registered social worker, columnist and a published author.

Almost 20 years ago, a black lesbian activist named Fezekile Kuzwayo (then only known by the pseudonym “Khwezi)” accused then South African deputy president (later president) Jacob Zuma of rape. Zuma claimed that he believed he had consensual sex with the complainant, based on his cultural interpretation that what she was wearing was a sign of her sexual desire. 

He asserted that his Zulu culture dictated that he could not leave a woman sexually unfulfilled. The court case revealed racial, gender and class fissures in the country. As a popular anti-apartheid figure, who went on to be the fourth black president of a black majority-ruled democratic South Africa, Zuma had crowds of predominantly black men and women supporters. The verbally attacked and physically threatened Kuzwayo had a dramatically smaller support base. 

In their respective books on rape in South Africa, African feminists Dr Mmatshilo Motsei (2007) and Professor Pumla Gqola (2015) provided a glimpse into the largely unpublicised tension between the activists supporting Kuzwayo. 

On one hand, black activists who had mobilised much of Kuzwayo’s support did not necessarily have the qualifications and education to have “gravitas” in the case itself, because of their race-based socio-economic and cultural marginalisation. On the other hand, mainly white activists did have the kind of qualifications and professional experience that made them eligible to apply to be amici curiae (“friends of the court”). 

At issue was the epistemic privileging of white women to speak on behalf of a black woman and, beyond the case, the privileging of white women in conceptualising sexual violence and in formulating strategies against it. 

Twenty years later, the South African public is watching the unfolding of the Mbenenge Judicial Conduct Tribunal. There, another prominent office-bearing black man, Judge President Selby Mbenenge of the Eastern Cape Division of the high court, stands accused of sexually harassing clerk Andiswa Mengo. 

As the details of the case have been documented in depth elsewhere, I merely summarise them here. Mengo has alleged that Mbenenge propositioned her sexually via WhatsApp texts. The case that her legal counsel has made is to the effect that, in responding to these texts, Mengo was unable to directly refuse Mbenenge because of his position as her superior. Mbenenge claims Mengo entertained his texts because they were involved in a mutual flirtation and courtship on which his status as her boss had no bearing. 

While the atmosphere around the tribunal is more subdued than that of the Zuma trial, members of the public have used social media to subject Mengo to name-calling and to question her moral integrity. Mengo’s legal counsel called on soon-to-be Dr Lisa Vetten, a renowned and experienced white gender-based violence expert, who argued that Mengo’s responses to Mbenenge were consistent with the unequal power relations between them. 

Judge Mbengenge’s defence counsel attacked Vetten’s analysis based (among other things) on what the defence argued was her bias and lack of knowledge of the nuances of Xhosa cultural courtship and the Xhosa language.

In the aftermath of Vetten’s cross-examination, I participated in informal conversations with two groups of black women about the implications of her expert testimony. One group, of which I am a member, is a South African-based, cross-disciplinary collective of doctoral and postdoctoral researchers called the Red Gown Stokvel, a reference to the red doctoral graduation gowns and the group’s purpose as a space for intellectual — rather than monetary — exchanges. 

The other group comprises lawyers and others doing gender-based violence research, who met through contact with the Institute for Strategic Litigation in Africa, a pan-African and feminist human rights organisation. 

Three interlinked key concerns have come to the fore from these conversations and my doctoral research on the different ways in which black women have been excluded from rape law reform. The first concern is that there is a possible overlooking of black women’s expertise when authoritative insights are sought on cases of rape, sexual harassment and other misconduct. The second concern is the framing of black men and women in black anti-racist rhetoric around sexual violence. The third concern is the use of African cultures as a trump card to mask or justify abusive behaviours. 

Who/where are the black women experts?

The historical dominance of white women in discourse on sexual harassment and violence can be linked to the theories on gender-based violence which arose during the second wave of feminism between the late 1960s and 1980s and the growth of women-focused international human rights regimes from the 1970s. 

These developments started during the apartheid era, a time when black women’s (especially black African women’s) participation in academia was restricted and civic engagement with the state was not an option for them. The post-1994 democratic dispensation provided the constitutional framework that gave all citizens the right to participate in the making and reform of polices and laws. However, the anti-rape and sexual harassment law and policy wheel was already in motion by the time that black women activists and researchers had a place at the metaphorical negotiating table. 

While some black women were already using black feminist socialist and intersectional lenses to explain convergences of sexual and other violence in black women’s lives, many ordinary black women were on the back foot regarding the major debates and processes around these issues. They also continued to face socio-economic and cultural barriers (such as the language barrier) to participation.

I, and some of the black women I engaged with, largely agreed with the analysis that Vetten provided. But more than three decades into democracy in a black majority country, why are decision-makers not calling on black women experts to explain black women’s experiences and circumstances of violence, specifically black African women experts in closer cultural and experiential proximity to black African opposing parties or research subjects? 

There are more black South African women involved in sexual violence research than there were in the past, although the proportion might still be far from ideal. I also acknowledge Dr Zakeera Docrat’s expert witness testimony as a forensic and legal linguist in this case. But are black African women experts still largely unknown, or are they being overlooked? Are black women not availing themselves to provide expert testimony? If so, why? Is the problem in how we identify what constitutes “real” knowledge?

Among those I interviewed in my doctoral research were black women who shared that they were overlooked as expert contributors to law and policymaking/reform because they were not involved in producing published research and opinion editorials. Donors, state representatives and other decision-makers did not view their provision of counselling, information, education and other support services for black victims in historically disadvantaged areas as a basis for their consideration as knowledgeable people or knowledge producers.

Are black African women’s voices then only valued insofar as they articulate experiences of suffering — but not their ability to provide authoritative interpretations thereof?

Black anti-racist rhetoric on sexual violence

While racist laws around sexual offences have been repealed, there has never been a national dialogue on the damage done to black communities by the laws’ racial and gendered prejudices and discrimination against black people. Black (especially African and coloured) men were constructed as hypersexual and predisposed to being rapists or sex pests. Black women were constructed as innately promiscuous and therefore, in the words of Gqola, “unrapable”. 

Black anti-racist rhetoric on sexual violence remembers the discrimination and victimisation inflicted on black men but is mostly silent on the sexual victimisation and discrimination inflicted on black women across and within racial and class divides. In 2016, Judge Mabel Jansen reportedly made statements on social media to the effect that black cultures condoned black men’s raping of women and children and that black women accepted this. The black anti-racist rhetoric tended to magnify what Jansen’s statements meant in terms of unfair discrimination against black men rape defendants and to treat as secondary the implications of the judge’s statements for discrimination against black women rape complainants. 

Sexual violence research’s focus on black communities has historically reinforced racial stereotypes. The black women I interviewed also elaborated that black women are often portrayed in contradictory ways as helpless victims and as complicit in the violence perpetrated against them, rather than as resistors and change initiators.

Some suggest that black women are happy to play the role of victim. A recent example of this comes from an opinion editorial authored by another well-known white woman writer, Gillian Schutte. Schutte suggested that Mengo subverted the power imbalance between herself and Mbenenge by flirting with him. Mengo was framed as allowing herself to be seen as a victim under a Western “liberal feminist” lens.

The editorial implies that all feminists who see merit in Mengo’s complaint are analysing it through this Western liberal feminist lens. It both conflates a broad spectrum of Western feminist thought and fails to fathom black women’s indigenous African and decolonial feminist explanations of the relationship between sexual violence and abuses of power. 

In contrast, the editorial framed Judge Mbengene as an Africanist decolonial hero. 

My intention is not to suggest that black women are victims in every situation. Just as political columnist Malaika Mahlatsi argued in another opinion editorial this year, the problem I want to highlight here is that there is a belief among many in black communities that prominent black men are accused of sexual violence as part of conspiracies to bring their leadership and achievements into disrepute. Many are unwilling to consider that at least some of these accusations might be warranted. This is something that black communities must confront and work against.

The use of culture as a trump 

The use of cultural claims to deflect accusations of sexual coercion and violence is not a novel strategy. Mbenenge’s counsel’s use of culture to argue that there was consent in the interactions between him and Mengo was thus something that her counsel could have foreseen. It could have been planned for by involving black gender-based violence experts with the appropriate experience and skill set. 

Not every black gender-based violence expert is necessarily an expert on African languages and cultures. However, as documented by African philosopher Professor Simphiwe Sesanti (2009), knowledgeable black women, such as Motsei and Professor Nomboniso Gasa, have in the past brilliantly challenged abusive patriarchal interpretations of African cultures. They respectively argued that Zuma’s tactics in his rape trial were contrary to what African values required of relations between elders and younger people and the maintenance of human decency even between adversaries. 

Phola Mabizela Mabaso, a Red Gown Stokvel member whose Nguni heritage has given her some knowledge and experience of Xhosa culture, also educated us that it is taboo in Xhosa culture for a man to sexually proposition a person young enough to be his child. Atonement may be required for the transgression.

It is more often black women who suffer the negative attributes of African customs and who seek to build on its positive aspects. It thus falls to black women and people to address the oppressive aspects of their cultures. Unfortunately, adversarial court and tribunal proceedings restrict constructive engagement. Furthermore, black women have sometimes suffered dire professional and personal consequences for publicly challenging patriarchal interpretations of African cultures.

This and the other mentioned concerns underscore the importance of centring black women’s voices and knowledge in national discourses on sexual violence, highlighting the need for black women to be supported when sharing their knowledge and experiences.

Nompumelelo Motlafi Francis is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute for Pan-African Thought and Conversation, University of Johannesburg.

In a world increasingly shaped by connectivity, digital platforms have become central to how we relax, engage, and express ourselves. From immersive social networks to AI-enhanced experiences, entertainment is no longer a passive activity—it’s an interactive, often personalized journey. As we navigate 2025, here are seven ways that online platforms are redefining what it means to escape, unwind, and explore in the digital age.

Online Casino Games with a Twist

Modern online casino games have evolved far beyond spinning wheels and basic slots. In 2025, these games offer story-driven narratives, multiplayer chat features, and dynamic tournaments. The line between traditional gaming and casino gaming continues to blur, with platforms incorporating collectible avatars, progression systems, and real-time events. Whether played casually or socially, these games now deliver fast-paced engagement that fits neatly into the broader world of interactive digital fun.

AI-Powered Entertainment Recommendations

Streaming services, music platforms, and gaming hubs now rely heavily on artificial intelligence to anticipate user interests. Algorithms no longer just suggest what’s popular—they curate content based on nuanced behavior like mood, time of day, and viewing history. This deep personalization has made digital escapes more tailored and satisfying, increasing user retention and reducing choice fatigue.

Virtual Reality Social Spaces

Virtual reality is quickly moving beyond niche gaming and into the mainstream of online leisure. Platforms like Horizon Worlds and VRChat let users attend virtual concerts, comedy shows, or simply hang out in custom-designed environments. These spaces provide a hybrid of gaming and social interaction, allowing people to connect in ways that feel more immersive and present than traditional text or video chats.

Creative Platforms for Expression

From TikTok’s editing tools to AI-assisted art generators like Midjourney or DALL·E, digital platforms have become powerful canvases for creativity. Users aren’t just consuming content—they’re producing short films, digital paintings, and interactive memes with tools that were once reserved for professionals. These platforms make content creation part of the entertainment itself, turning viewers into participants.

Streaming and Co-Watching Experiences

The rise of co-watching platforms has transformed streaming into a shared social activity. Whether it’s Netflix Party, Discord streaming, or built-in co-watch modes on platforms like Disney+, viewers can now sync their shows, chat live, and experience media together—even miles apart. These digital escapes simulate the social warmth of a movie night, all through a screen.

Music Discovery and Shared Playlists

Music platforms are redefining community through shared discovery. Services like Spotify and YouTube Music now offer group sessions, friend activity feeds, and collaborative playlists. Whether it’s discovering new artists through AI or vibing with friends in real-time listening sessions, music has become a digital social fabric, providing both solitude and connection.

Gamified Fitness and Wellness

Fitness is no longer confined to gyms or apps with pre-recorded workouts. Platforms now incorporate gamification and social elements to make staying healthy more entertaining. Apps like Strava, Apple Fitness+, and even yoga VR programs offer challenges, badges, and shared goals. The result is an experience that turns movement into motivation, and wellness into a rewarding, community-supported pursuit.

Final Thoughts Digital escapes in 2025 are about connection, creativity, and control. Entertainment is no longer just what we consume—it’s what we shape, share, and personalize. Whether you’re stepping into a virtual concert, spinning the reels of a narrative-driven casino game, or curating the perfect shared playlist, today’s online platforms offer endless ways to escape—and feel more present than ever before.

Next time you’re in your kitchen, go to the cupboard and look through your drinking glasses. Between the branded beer tankards and comically large gin goblets, how many of them did you actually buy?

Like an estimated 37 million Brits, you’ve probably got one or two pilfered pub glasses — but for 3 million people, stolen goods make up their entire collection.

While 27% of respondents to a recent Nisbet’s survey admit they’ve robbed restaurant or pub tableware at some point, the fact that 77% of pubs have experienced this type of theft suggests the actual total is likely far higher.

The price of a pint now averages £5.17 across the country (or more than £7 in some parts of the capital) so you may feel like you’re owed a freebie. And sneaking the odd glass into your bag is very unlikely to land you in trouble with the law.

But it’s not a victimless crime, especially in the current economic climate, where one UK pub permanently shuts its doors every day.

The cost to establishment can vary massively, although some have reported spending upwards of £2,000 a year on replacing stolen glassware. Considering the price of each one can range from £1 to £6, at £3.50 a pop, the 37 million figure above equates to a massive industry-wide loss of nearly £130 million.

Jeremy Clarkson weighed in on the issue last year, after a single day at his Oxfordshire pub, The Farmer’s Dog, saw the bar with 104 fewer glasses by last orders.

Listing the mounting costs of keeping the business going, the former Top Gear presenter described the situation as ‘worse than galling’, adding: ‘People seem to have it in their heads that if they come in for a pint they are entitled to go home with the glass in which it was served’.

And while they don’t have to deal with anywhere near the same scale of thefts, many other publicans agree with him.

Odette Gibson, co-owner of the Angel of Bow in East London, tells Metro: ‘I’ve been a publican for many years and the situation with light fingered Larrys and the disappearance – euphemistically put – of glassware and tableware makes me just incredulous.’

Aside from finding it ‘incredibly annoying’ when they run out in busy periods, she has less ire for those who rob branded glasses, since they’re often given to them free by the breweries.

But when it comes to replacing their own, Odette says ‘the financial implications can be extremely high,’ and ‘it’s quite easy to lose £500 worth of glasses in a little over six weeks.’

Once, she was forced to roll her wheelchair out into the street to chase a group of women who confidently walked out with their goblets — and even more brazenly, refused to give them back until Odette suggested they buy them. Punters have also made off with a number of more valuable items, from handpainted ashtrays to a memorial plaque.

‘Economically, it’s a nightmare,’ she adds. ‘Glasses and tableware are expensive and constantly having to replace them is a drain on our resources. It also leads to having to increase your prices to cover these losses… People will take anything, but someone has to pay.’

For Callum Murphy, founder of the Newman Arms in Fitzrovia and the Bull and Egret in Covent Garden, it’s an ongoing problem, to the point they factor in the cost of theft when purchasing cutlery, crockery and glassware.

At the Newman Arms, the Black Velvet is a best-selling cocktail — and the traditional metal receptacles they’re served in are a particular ‘favourite’ for light-fingered drinkers.

‘I really think people just don’t understand the cost implications to a business,’ Callum tells Metro.

‘Customers may love the novelty and taste of drinking a Black Velvet from a tankard — but it’s a jet‑black hole in the profit-and-loss ledger. Many simply don’t realise the hidden cost for a small business.’

Some owners have taken more drastic steps to try to deter thieves, including the Griet pub in Ghent, Belgium, which takes one shoe from each customer when they purchase a pint as a ‘deposit’.

Others have resigned themselves to eating the cost, with one landlord on Reddit joking: ‘Suppose it goes death, taxes, customers stealing glassware.’

Ultimately, it comes down to pub-goers’ behaviour. It’s easy to forget the industry-wide impact with a ‘one won’t matter’ mentality. But if people want to ensure their local stays open – and don’t want to pay more for their pints – leaving that glass at the bar is one small step.

Do you have a story to share?

Get in touch by emailing MetroLifestyleTeam@Metro.co.uk.

Christian Wilkins, the veteran defensive lineman who was released by the Las Vegas Raiders on Thursday, reportedly kissed a teammate on the forehead, who took offense to it. 

ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported the situation on Monday, adding that Wilkins’ incident with the teammate did not solely contribute to him being cut from the Raiders.

Wilkins is dealing with a Jones fracture in his left foot, which he suffered in October 2024. 

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The report states that the incident occurred in a team meeting room last week, with ESPN having one source say it was “playful.” However, the teammate in question did not view Wilkins’ interaction that way. 

A complaint was filed to the Raiders’ human resources department following the incident. 

RAIDERS CUT TIES WITH DEFENSIVE TACKLE CHRISTIAN WILKINS IN SHOCKING MOVE, IGNITING FEUD OVER BONUS MONEY

On the injury front, the Raiders are reportedly voiding the remaining $35.2 million left in guaranteed money on Wilkins’ contract due to how he treated his rehab assignment following the injury. Wilkins was released with the designation of terminated vested veteran, per Schefter. 

Wilkins has asked the NFL Players Association to file a grievance on his behalf due to the Raiders’ wanting to void his guaranteed money, and they did so on Thursday. 

Wilkins signed a four-year, $110 million deal, which included $84.75 million guaranteed, with Las Vegas in free agency last year. 

He was one of the league’s best defensive tackles with the Miami Dolphins, which included a career-high nine-sack season in 2023 before hitting free agency. Wilkins racked up 20.5 sacks and 355 combined tackles over 81 games with the Dolphins.

In five games before his injury in 2024, Wilkins tallied two sacks and 17 combined tackles for the Raiders. He required surgery for the Jones fracture, which ended his debut season in Las Vegas.

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CINCINNATI – A candidate for Cincinnati’s mayorship slammed city leadership Monday afternoon after a viral downtown beatdown that has reverberated across the nation. 

“People don’t even see the sense in calling 911 anymore,” said Cory Bowman, who is also Vice President JD Vance’s half-brother in addition to being a candidate for city mayor. 

Bowman placed second in a nonpartisan primary race in May. He will square off with incumbent Mayor Aftab Pureval in November. His thoughts on citizens seeing no sense in calling 911 came after Police Chief Teresa Theetge said in a press conference that only one person called police while the attack was ongoing. 

“That is unacceptable to not call the police,” she said during a Monday press conference. “Traffic was horrendous. People saw this. They were fighting in front of traffic. Why didn’t people call us?”

Bowman said that with police handcuffed by the current city leadership, he is not surprised by the events of early Saturday morning, which took place on the corner of Fourth and Elm Street outside a nightclub in the city’s downtown business district. 

POLICE IDENTIFY MULTIPLE SUSPECTS IN BRUTAL CINCINNATI STREET FIGHT: ‘CRUEL AND ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLE’

“There’s two aspects of it,” Bowman told Fox News Digital. “One, it’s a wake-up call. It’s a wake-up call that we’ve got to have better policy. We’ve got to be able to take immediate action to make sure that the residents and the businesses in our communities are safe. The nation is basically seeing what us in the city have already known to be true.” 

Despite the fact that the viral assault could stain his city’s reputation, Bowman said it’s important for the nation to see what’s really happening in cities, and that what happened in Cincinnati is a microcosm of what is happening in urban areas nationwide. 

“Now, I think this is important for the nation to see it, because the nation is seeing that multiple downtown areas in America are seeing failed policies ruin their cities,” he said. “And you’re seeing riots, you’re seen fights, you’re seeing crime rise, you’re seeing laws that aren’t enforced.”

He told Fox News Digital that crime in the city not only spikes during the summer months, but has increased over time as a whole, which he claims the local government and media deny.

BRUTAL DOWNTOWN BRAWL LEAVES VICTIMS BLOODIED AS CINCINNATI POLICE LAUNCH INVESTIGATION

“Whenever May and June was rolling around, there was all these press conferences and all these statements from the media that was stating that crime is down, crime is down,” he said. 

“Well, the reality of it is that anybody that lived downtown knew that because of snow and because of rain, that maybe some things were being prolonged, but once the warmer months came about, the policies … not enforcing the law is actually going to allow just a free-for-all in the city,” he continued. 

Bowman said police officers are voicing their concerns to him about not being able to do their jobs, and he noted that the Cincinnati Police Department (CPD) is understaffed to begin with. 

“And then what happens is that these police officers don’t see a point in actually booking the criminals, because there’s actually prosecutors in the city that have a revolving door mentality that the criminals go in, and then they’re released on the streets,” he said. 

“And so many of these officers don’t even book people because they know they’re just gonna be back on the street next week. So they sit in their cars, and they try to do the best they can. They have a heart for the city, but they’re being hindered by the policies that are in place.”

Ken Kober is a 25-year veteran of the Cincinnati Police Department. He echoed Bowman’s sentiments about the police department’s hands being tied, and told Fox News Digital that the beating is something that “as a society, we cannot accept.”

BLUE CITY MAYOR NEARLY KIDNAPPED AFTER CLAIMING CITY IS GETTING SAFER: POLICE

“It’s just nothing more than a savage attack on a couple of people. I mean you see somebody that’s completely defenseless, trying to cover their head in their face, and they’re just being stomped on by multiple individuals,” Kober said. 

Kober was upset that the positives of the weekend, the Cincinnati Reds winning three home games and the storied Cincinnati Jazz Festival, were overshadowed by the vicious viral video. 

He, too, blamed local officials for increasing crime. 

“We have a problem with judges that don’t wanna hold people accountable, and when they know that there aren’t gonna to be any consequences for their actions is when people are gonna go out and we’re gonna see incidents like what happened Saturday morning,” he said. 

“I hope that the court system actually holds these people to the fullest extent of the law. It would be nice to see headlines six or eight months from now saying that these people were convicted, and they’re now gonna get the maximum sentence for whatever crime they’ve been convicted of.”

On Monday afternoon, CPD said it charged five people in connection with the incident. The names of the individuals were not released.

Cincinnati Chief of Police Teresa Theetge added that there were over 100 witnesses to the attack, and some even filmed it. However, only one call was placed to 911. 

Police sources told Fox News earlier in the day that they are working to identify at least eight more suspects. 

People with information are asked to call the Cincinnati Police Department or Crime Stoppers at 513-352-3040.

Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, allegedly told The Atlantic she was “shutting down” its profile of her after learning the author had reached out to other Democrats without telling her.

Staff writer Elaine Godfrey described in an article on Sunday that Crockett called her four days before the piece was published “to express frustration that I had reached out to so many House members without telling her first.”

“She was, she told me, ‘shutting down the profile and revoking all permissions,’” Godfrey wrote.

JASMINE CROCKETT CLAIMS MOST PEOPLE VOTE THE ‘WRONG WAY’ DUE TO A LACK OF EDUCATION

Despite this assertion, the article was published and included comments from both Crockett and other Democratic figures.

Democrats quoted in the article included progressive strategist Max Burns, strategist James Carville, Texas state Rep. Toni Rose, and U.S. House Reps. Julie Johnson of Texas and Robert Garcia of California.

Godfrey added that she reached out to several other Democrats who “seemed uninterested” in commenting. 

“Thirteen of her colleagues on the Oversight and Judiciary committees, along with 20 other Democratic members I contacted for this story, either declined to talk with me on the record or didn’t respond to my interview requests,” Godfrey wrote. “Senior staffers for three Democratic members told me that some of Crockett’s colleagues see her as undisciplined but are reluctant to criticize her publicly.” 

Godfrey also added a comment from an anonymous staffer.

“She likes to talk,” the staffer said. “Is she a loose cannon? Sometimes. Does that cause headaches for other members? 100 percent.”

REP. JASMINE CROCKETT SAYS DEMOCRATS NEED TO BE ‘OK WITH PUNCHING’ IN RACES AGAINST TED CRUZ, REPUBLICANS

Crockett reportedly hoping to shut down a piece because Godfrey reached out to other Democrats was roundly mocked by reporters for not understanding basic journalism.

“That is not how any of this works,” NBC News political reporter Sahil Kapur wrote.

Reporter Jim Stinson commented, “Rep. Jasmine Crockett believes she can shut down a journalism profile. That’s how dumb she is.”

“Dang. That usually works, too!” National Review senior writer Noah Rothman joked.

Crooked Media podcast host Jane Coaston wrote, “if you are being profiled someone is going to reach out to other people about your profile, that’s how profiles work.”

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In the same article, Crockett was critical of her fellow leftists, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt.

“The national ‘Fighting Oligarchy’ tour featuring Senator Bernie Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez is a good idea, Crockett said, but it ‘kind of makes people be like, Oh, it’s about them, right? Instead of the team,’” Godfrey wrote.

Fox News Digital reached out to Crockett’s office for comment.

The Senate confirmed its first nominee of the week ahead of what is expected to be a jam-packed schedule to ram through as many of President Donald Trump’s picks as possible.

David A. Wright, Trump’s pick to lead the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for a five-year term, was confirmed in the upper chamber on a 50 to 39 vote on Monday. It’s not Wright’s first time as chair of the commission, having first served in the role beginning in 2020.

KEY TRUMP NOMINEES STALLED BY SENATE DEMS PUTS PRESSURE ON GOP LEADERS

Trump had previously tapped Wright during his first term, and again selected him to lead the NRC earlier this year. His new term is set to end in 2030.

The NRC is an independent regulatory agency tasked with regulating commercial nuclear power plants, reactor licensing and renewal and other elements related to protecting public health and safety when it comes to nuclear energy. Wright’s confirmation comes on the heels of Trump’s announcement that the U.S. and European Union were entering a trade deal that would see the bloc purchase $750 billion of U.S. energy over the next three years. 

While the commission is independent from other arms of the government, Senate Democrats have balked at recent attempts to make the regulatory body, in their view, more partisan.

‘ALL THE OPTIONS’: GOP EYES CUTTING AUGUST RECESS TO MOVE DOZENS OF TRUMP NOMINEES STALLED BY DEMS

Earlier this year, Trump signed an executive order that demanded the agency consider making its safety standards less stringent, shortening the timelines for environmental reviews and a quadrupling of the nation’s nuclear power capacity by 2050: all part of the president’s quest to ensure America’s energy dominance. 

Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chair Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.V., argued that over the last seven years that Wright has been a part of the commission, first as a commissioner beginning in 2018 and then as chair, he would fulfill the president’s wishes. 

“Achieving this will require experienced and highly qualified Commissioners who are empowered to lead the Agency through a period of high expectations,” she said in a statement. “Well, David Wright meets that mark.”

Then Trump fired a Democratic member of the commission last month, and a staffer from the president’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was reportedly detailed from the Department of Energy to the regulatory agency.  

That prompted Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, the top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, to warn of a “hostile takeover” of the commission by the Energy Department.

The move hurt what began as bipartisan support for Wright’s nomination — Whitehouse initially backed him but changed his position.

GOP LAWMAKERS CLASH OVER STRATEGY TO AVERT GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN CRISIS

“I hoped to see Chairman Wright rise to the occasion, but circumstances right now at the NRC continue to deteriorate,” he said in a statement. “I cannot presently support his renomination.”

Still, Wright’s confirmation is a win for both Senate Republicans and the White House after Trump called on the Senate GOP to ram his nominees through blockades set up by Senate Democrats.

There are now over 140 pending “civilian” nominations for positions across the gauntlet of federal agencies, ambassadorships and judgeships. The Senate has moved at a blistering clip over the last six months to confirm nominees—they’ve clocked nearly 100 so far — the president has called on Senate Republicans to consider canceling the forthcoming August break to get more done. 

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., warned that if his colleagues across the aisle continued to slow walk the process in the upper chamber for the slew of remaining “uncontroversial” nominees, or be prepared to stick around Washington. 

“Or they can rein in their reflexive anti-Trump sentiment and allow some of his rank-and-file nominees to proceed by unanimous consent or voice vote — just as Republicans did when the roles were reversed,” he said. “And I’d remind my colleagues about the dangerous and ugly precedent that they’re setting here. But the choice is theirs. But whether it’s the slow way or the fast way, we’re getting President Trump’s nominees confirmed.”