When digging a pit, one way to prevent the walls from collapsing inward under pressure is to make them less steep, so they slant outward like the sides of a cone. A good rule of thumb is to make the hole three times wider than its depth.

[...]

Suppose you were to try digging through the Earth, and that the planet was all solid. (We know that it’s not, but this is the simplest scenario.) The depth of a hole all the way through the planet would be equivalent to Earth’s diameter, which is just a name for a line that passes straight through the center of a circle. So your hole would need to be about three times as wide as the diameter of the Earth in order for it to be stable.

Clearly, this is an impossible task that would completely alter the planet’s shape.

[...]

Archived version

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis on Tuesday called on NATO to draw strict red lines for Russia over hybrid attacks and to send a unified message about the alliance’s response to such actions.

[...]

Lithuania’s top diplomat noted that an investigation is underway into Monday’s crash of a DHL cargo plane in Vilnius and that “no option has been excluded so far”, adding that the incident “is definitely worrying”.

Landsbergis said that, in this context, allies must send a message both to Russian President Vladimir Putin and their own citizens that attempts by the aggressor to intimidate must stop, or else concrete action will be taken.

[...]

A Spanish national was killed, three other crew members, a Spaniard, a German and a Lithuanian, were injured when the DHL cargo plane crashed near Vilnius Airport on Monday morning.

The Boeing 737-476(SF), which was coming from the German city of Leipzig, was owned by Spain’s Swiftair and used for transporting DHL parcels.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Monday that the crash could have been an accident or a “hybrid incident” involving outside actors.

...

Archived version

Even before Gabbard left the Democratic Party, ingratiated herself with Donald Trump and secured his nomination to become director of National Intelligence (DNI), she was known as a prolific peddler of Russian propaganda.

In almost every foreign conflict in which Russia had a hand, Gabbard backed Moscow and railed against the US. Her past promotion of Kremlin propaganda has provoked significant opposition on both sides of the aisle to her nomination.

Her journey from anti-war Democrat to Moscow-friendly Maga warrior began in Syria.

[...]

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based monitoring group with a network of sources on the ground, documented the deaths of 503,064 people by March 2023. It said at least 162,390 civilians had died in that same time, with the Syrian government and its allies responsible for 139,609 of those deaths.

But Gabbard, a veteran of the Iraq War, viewed it all as a “regime-change war” fueled by the West and aimed at removing the dictator from power. She saw Assad – and Russia, when it entered the conflict – as legitimate defenders of the state against an extremist uprising.

[...]

Charles Lister, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute who testified twice on Syria to the House Foreign Affairs Committee when Gabbard was a member, spent years debunking her various conspiracy theories about the war.

“Her consistent denial of the Syrian regime’s crimes is so wildly fringe that her potential appointment as DNI is genuinely alarming,” he said.

[...]

They included a suggestion that Syrian rebels staged a false-flag chemical weapons attack against their supporters to provoke Western intervention against Assad — something the US intelligence agencies she will soon lead had concluded was false. She declined to call Assad a war criminal when pressed, despite masses of evidence, and used a video of Syrian government bombings to criticize US involvement in the war.

[...]

When Russia invaded Ukraine, Gabbard again defended Russian aggression.

“This war and suffering could have easily been avoided if Biden Admin/Nato had simply acknowledged Russia’s legitimate security concerns,” she posted on Twitter in 2022.

Gabbard appeared to fall for various conspiracy theories about the conflict that were promoted by Russia, as she had done in Syria. One of those conspiracy theories was a Russian claim about the existence of dozens of US-funded biolabs in Ukraine that were supposedly producing deadly pathogens.

She later walked back on those remarks, suggesting that there might have been some “miscommunication and misunderstanding.”

Gabbard’s frequent echoing of Kremlin talking points has earned her praise in Russian state media. Indeed, an article published on 15 November in the Russian-state controlled outlet RIA Novosti went so far as to call Gabbard a “superwoman.”

[...]

Larry Pfeiffer, the director of George Mason University’s Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy, and International Security, said Gabbard’s apparent susceptibility to foreign disinformation and her affinity for strongmen will give pause to American allies with whom the US routinely shares intelligence on common threats. [...] "I think they wouldn’t feel like they’ve got an American confidant that they can deal with on a mature level,” he said. “I can guarantee you that the foreign intelligence services of Europe, including the Brits, are all having little side conversations right now about … what is this going to mean, and how are we going to operate, and what are we going to do now.”

[...]

"She is, hook, line and sinker, a Russian puppet.”

Archived version

A paradox has settled across California’s velvet green fields and orchards. California farmers, who are some of the most ardent supporters of Donald Trump, would seem to be on a collision course with one of the president-elect’s most important campaign promises.

Trump has pledged to carry out mass deportations of undocumented immigrants across the country, including, he has said in recent days, rounding up people and putting them in newly built detention camps.

If any such effort penetrated California’s heartland — where half the fruits and vegetables consumed in the U.S. are grown — it almost surely would decimate the workforce that farmers rely on to plant and harvest their crops. At least half of the state’s 162,000 farmworkers are undocumented, according to estimates from the federal Department of Labor and research conducted by UC Merced. Without sufficient workers, food would rot in the fields, sending grocery prices skyrocketing.

[...]

Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for the Trump-Vance transition team, did not respond to questions about agricultural workers specifically, but said: “The American people reelected President Trump by a resounding margin, giving him a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail, like deporting migrant criminals and restoring our economic greatness. He will deliver.”

[...]

Fresno County farmer Joe Del Bosque says it’s still unclear what the Trump administration has planned for undocumented farmworkers. But he said he has concerns.

[...]

In the past, Del Bosque has been active in advocating for immigration reform, including the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, which would have revised the H-2A visa program and created a certified agricultural worker status, to provide eligible laborers with employment authorization and an optional path to residency.

This time around, Del Bosque wants to send a message directly to Trump.

“A country can’t be strong if it doesn’t have a reliable food supply,” Del Bosque said, “and we can’t do that without a reliable workforce.”

Democracy 2025, resourced by Democracy Forward, includes a growing roster of 280+ legal, expert, and advocacy organizations and 800+ individuals representing millions of people and communities across the country. Members include litigators, strategists, advocates, academics and policy experts, and faith leaders who are prepared to challenge expected governmental actions that will harm people, communities, and our democracy. The actions the groups are prepared to respond to include efforts to purge and target our nation’s civil service, roll back health care access, harm immigrant communities, undermine labor protections, and dismantle core functions of the U.S. government.

Members of the coalition have built a multimillion-dollar war chest across organizations to support Democracy 2025 members taking legal action, representing people and communities pro bono, and creating resources for the broad pro-democracy community.

The United States presents a paradox: Though the media and public opinion suggest it is a nation deeply divided along partisan lines, surveys reveal that Americans share significant common ground on many core values and political issues.

[...]

For instance, there is widespread support for high-quality health care that is accessible to all and for stronger gun-control regulations.

[...]

There is strong support for fundamental democratic principles, including equal protection under the law, voting rights, religious freedoms, freedom of assembly and speech, and a free press.

On critical issues such as climate change, a majority of citizens acknowledge the reality of human-caused climate change and endorse the development of renewable energy. Similarly, support for women’s reproductive rights, including the right to an abortion, is widespread.

[...]

The perception of division itself can fuel distrust where common ground might otherwise be found among citizens.

Even with substantial consensus on many issues, the perception of polarization often drives public discourse. This misalignment can be exacerbated by partisans with something to gain.

Research shows that when people are told that experts are divided on an issue, such as climate change, it can lead to increased polarization. Conversely, emphasizing the fact of scientific consensus tends to unify public concern and action.

[...]

"If we Americans don’t find ways to recognize our shared values, and even our shared humanity, we won’t be able to defend those values when they are challenged," writes Lawrence Torcello, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Rochester Institute of Technology.

Russia is ready to carry out cyber attacks on the United Kingdom and other allies in a bid to weaken support for Ukraine, a senior minister will warn later.

Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden, whose role includes responsibility for national security, is set to tell a Nato meeting that the Kremlin could target British businesses and leave millions without power. It is the latest in a series of warnings about the cyber-warfare capabilities of Russia, which McFadden is to call a "hidden war" being waged against Ukraine.

He is also expected to single-out Russia's Unit 29155, which the government says has carried out a number of attacks in the UK and Europe.

[...]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces arrest if he travels to the UK, after an international arrest warrant was issued for him, Downing Street has indicated.

A No 10 spokesman refused to comment on the specific case but said the government would fulfil its "legal obligations".

On Thursday the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu, along with Israel's former defence minister Yoav Gallant, over alleged war crimes in Gaza.

The court's member countries, including the UK, have signed a treaty that obliges them to act on arrest warrants.

Thanks to bestselling authors like Jonathan Haidt and Jean Twenge, the public has become increasingly aware of the rapid rise in mental health issues among younger people [...] Their warnings about the destructive impact of social media have had an effect, reflected not least in a wave of schools across Europe banning smartphones.

While it’s good to draw attention to the rising rates of depression and anxiety, there’s a risk of becoming fixated on simplistic explanations that reduce the issue to technical variables like “screen time”.

[...]

A hallmark of Twenge and Haidt’s arguments is their use of trend lines for various types of psychological distress, showing increases after 2012, which Haidt calls the start of the “great rewiring” when smartphones became widespread. This method has been criticised for overemphasising correlations that may say little about causality.

[...]

Numerous academics [...] have pointed to factors such as an increasing intolerance for uncertainty in modernity, a fixation – both individual and collective – on avoiding risk, intensifying feelings of meaninglessness in work and life more broadly and rising national inequality accompanied by growing status anxiety. However, it’s important to emphasise that social science has so far failed to provide definitive answers.

[...]

It seems unlikely that the political and social challenges we face wouldn’t influence our wellbeing. Reducing the issue to isolated variables [such as the use of smartphones], where the solution might appear to be to introduce a new policy (like banning smartphones) follows a technocratic logic that could turn good health into a matter for experts.

The risk with this approach is that society as a whole is excluded from the analysis. Another risk is that politics is drained of meaning. If political questions such as structural discrimination, economic precarity, exposure to violence and opioid use are not regarded as shaping our wellbeing, what motivation remains for taking action on these matters?

Archived version

[Original version is behind a paywall.]

Elon Musk [who promised to fire government employees en masse through DOGE, the new Department of Government Efficiency to be created by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump] has taken his animus to another level by cruelly singling out an individual federal employee named Ashley Thomas, who works a relatively obscure job at the US International Development Finance Corporation, to be harassed online.

[...]

Things kicked off when a popular right wing account ridiculed Thomas in a tweet, writing, "I don't think the US Taxpayer should pay for the employment of a 'Director of Climate Diversification (she/her).'"

Musk quoted the post with a dunk of his own, effectively inviting his hundreds of millions of followers to join in on harassing this random government worker.

"So many fake jobs," Musk wrote in the tweet, which now has over 200,000 likes.

Seemingly, the billionaire culture warrior saw the word "diversification" and thought "diversity," "DEI," or some other form of "wokeness" — his favorite punching bags — as did his many followers.

"You aren't getting rid of all the good jobs are you?" replied one of his courtiers. "I just applied for Chief Climate Gender Diversification Administrator."

[...]

Aside from the harassment and the abhorrent massacring of comedy on display here, this is a truly bizarre job to single out.

The work of climate diversification, a subset of economic diversification, does not involve sitting around at the office and inventing pronouns or whatever Musk is imagining, but to develop strategies to reduce the impact of climate change on various sectors of the economy, especially agriculture. If certain food crops end up failing, for example, diversifying what we grow ensures that we don't all literally starve. But Musk and his cronies clearly heard the job and thought it sounded like out-of-control wokeness.

[...]

At any rate, Musk clearly knows what he's doing here by making that tweet. And if he doesn't, he's an idiot.

In the past, Musk disparaged Twitter's former head of trust and safety Yoel Roth by more or less implying that he was pedophile, which his followers capitalized on by sending him death threats. So intense was the onslaught of hate that followed that Yoel felt forced to flee his home.

That, and this latest episode, are a testament to the power of even just one tossed-off post by Musk — who now tweets as if it's his job.

Archived version

In the first half of 2024, Russia's federal statistics agency, Rosstat, reported 13.3 million people living in poverty across the country. Although this is an increase from 2023, it drastically underestimates the actual scale of poverty.

For years, the Russian government has manipulated statistics, with Rosstat revising its methods to meet presidential mandates aimed at lowering poverty rates.

However, evaluating current data by using the previous methodology reveals a much grimmer picture: by the end of 2023, the number of poor people in Russia was 1.5 times higher than officially acknowledged — ranging from 14.6 to 18 million (up to 12.5% of the population), according to The Insider. Many of those classified as “not poor” struggle to afford basic necessities like clothing and food. Poverty levels surged after the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and despite enormous government spending, the situation has yet to return to pre-war levels.

The Australian government’s proposed social media ban for under-16s has sparked widespread debate, affecting millions of young Australians, their families and educators. But will it actually work?

While the aim behind this ban is to protect children from online harm, it appears to be more of a kneejerk reaction to win votes.

In a world where technological advancement is accelerating and online communication is part of our everyday lives, teaching children about safe online use, rather than imposing bans, is a more effective way to protect them from harm while still allowing them to be technologically savvy.

[...]

The Finnish approach

Finland’s approach to digital literacy education is comprehensive and integrated. It aims to equip citizens of all ages with the skills to navigate the digital world effectively.

Finland’s education system embeds digital literacy as a fundamental component of its curriculum, integrating technology across all grade levels to prepare students for the digital age.

From preschool education, students are introduced to digital tools, safety and technology to learn responsible online behaviour. As Finnish academics Sirkku Lähdesmäki and Minna Maunula highlight:

creating a secure and empowering connection with media is a shared educational responsibility that necessitates the active participation of both schools and families.

Integrating digital literacy into the education system ensures skills are not taught in isolation, but embedded across the system.

Digital literacy in Finland extends beyond formal schooling. Public libraries and community centres offer programs to improve skills among adults, ensuring that digital literacy is a lifelong pursuit. As they say, digital competencies are civic skills.

[...]

In addition, the education system was reformed to emphasise critical thinking. This taught students to identify bots, understand image and video manipulations, and recognise half-truths and false profiles. The approach has been practical, with Finland ranking first out of 35 countries in a digital media literacy index measuring resilience six times in a row.