Texas Pulls an Ugly Stunt on the Border

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Texas Pulls an Ugly Stunt on the Border     National leaders left an immigration-policy vacuum that the Lone Star State is eager to fill.The Texas National Guard has taken hostage a 2.5-mile stretch of the U.S. border with Mexico. According to a shocking Supreme Court filing by the Justice Department early yesterday morning, armed soldiers and vehicles deployed by the state have repeatedly denied U.S. Border Patrol agents access to the Shelby Park area in Eagle Pass, Texas. The state did not immediately deny this; a spokesperson for Governor Greg Abbott said the state will keep “utilizing every tool and strategy to respond to President Biden’s ongoing border crisis.” Continued here

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How Ecuador went from being Latin America's model of stability to a nation in crisis     Ecuador was until relatively recently seen as one of the safest countries in Latin America.On Jan. 9, 2024, images of hooded gunmen storming a TV studio were broadcast around the world. It was one of a number of violent incidents that took place that day, including prison riots, widespread hostage-taking, the kidnapping of several police officers and a series of car explosions. Continued here

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The Houthis: four things you will want to know about the Yemeni militia targeted by UK and US military strikes     The Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah (or “supporters of God”), are a violent militia group that currently exercise de facto control over much of northern Yemen. Formed in the 1990s, the group was named after its founder, Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi, and they follow the Zaidi branch of Shia Islam which represents 20-30% of Yemen’s population. The group’s leadership has been drawn from the Houthi tribe, which is part of one of the three major tribal confederations in Yemen: the Hashid, the Madhaj and the Bakil. The Houthis are part of the Bakil confederation, the largest tribal group in Yemen. As the UK and US launch military strikes on the Yemeni group, after a spate of attacks by the Iran-backed militia on Red Sea shipping, here’s four things that you need to know about them. Continued here

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How Donald Trump Broke the Iowa Caucuses and Owns the G.O.P.     This time last year, Republicans were reeling from a poorer-than-expected performance in the 2022 midterm elections; many questioned, again, whether it was time to move on from their two-time Presidential standard-bearer. But Donald Trump is so far ahead in the polls that it would be shocking if he did not clinch the first 2024 contest, in Iowa. Three New Yorker political writers—Susan B. Glasser, Robert Samuels, and Benjamin Wallace-Wells—explain why Trump is still the top dog, and why his legal troubles enhance his standing among Republicans. Plus, the actress Danielle Brooks talks about filling Oprah Winfrey’s shoes in a new adaptation of “The Color Purple,” and how the film’s millennial cast and director reimagined the feel of the story.Whether he wins as expected or somehow underperforms, Donald Trump has upended the state’s Republican caucuses without participating in a single debate and barely campaigning on the ground. Continued here

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South Africa's legal team in the genocide case against Israel has won praise. Who are they?     South African justice minister Ronald Lamola led a top legal team to argue the country’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on 11 January. South Africa argues that Israel’s indiscriminate retaliatory bombing and siege of Gaza contravenes the Genocide Convention. More than 23,000 Palestinians, including at least 10,000 children, have been killed. Narnia Bohler-Muller, an international law and human rights law expert, says the South African legal team argued soundly that Israel’s actions in Gaza are genocidal, and tells us who is who in the team. Continued here

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Former Post Office boss Paula Vennells says she'll hand back her CBE - but it may not be that simple     Paula Vennells, former chief executive of the Post Office, has said she will hand back her CBE, following the outrage over the Horizon scandal that left hundreds of people prosecuted for crimes they didn’t commit. Craig Prescott, lecturer in law at Royal Holloway, University of London, answers this and other questions about the UK’s honours system.Once it has been awarded, there is no formal process to renounce an honour. However, a recipient may choose to return the physical insignia to the Central Chancery of the Orders of the Knighthood and no longer use the honour. Formally, the award of the honour still stands. Continued here

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Weird, twisted, powerful films - what you should watch this week     This article was first published in our email newsletter Something Good, which every fortnight brings you a summary of the best things to watch, visit and read, as recommended and analysed by academic experts. Click here to receive the newsletter direct to your inboxI love Yorgos Llanithmos’s films. They are wonderfully weird (Dogtooth) and have a unique visceral quality that leaves me feeling all odd (Killing of a Sacred Deer). He has this way of digging into the mire of the human psyche and showing us its ugliest (The Favourite) and most peculiar (The Lobster) parts. So, I was very excited when I heard he had a new film out called Poor Things. Continued here

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How Israel's Inspection Process Is Obstructing Aid Delivery     Last week, the Democratic senators Jeff Merkley and Chris Van Hollen travelled to the Rafah border crossing in Egypt, the entry point for many of the aid trucks into the Gaza Strip. The humanitarian situation in Gaza, where more than twenty-three thousand people are estimated to have been killed in Israel's military campaign, is extremely dire, and the number of trucks full of food and medicine and other vital goods is insufficient. As recently as Thursday, the United Nations reported that only a hundred and forty-five trucks entered Gaza through Rafah and Israel's Kerem Shalom crossing, which is close to Rafah, but on the Israeli side; human-rights groups have stated that more than three times that many are required. Israel contends that aid trucks have to be closely scrutinized to insure that weapons are not being smuggled into Gaza, but after watching the inspection process at Rafah, Merkley and Van Hollen called the Israeli approach "arbitrary."I recently spoke by phone with Senator Van Hollen, of Maryland, who was elected to the position in 2016, after serving seven terms in the House of Representatives. During our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, we discussed his view of the problems with the American-Israeli relationship, why so little aid is reaching Gazans, and whether Israel is concerned with the humanitarian situation in Gaza. Continued here

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Post Office scandal: why thousands of victims are yet to see justice     Following the ITV drama Mr Bates vs the Post Office, which aired on January 1 2024, UK prime minister Rishi Sunak stated he intends to introduce legislation to ensure those convicted as a result of the Post Office scandal are “swiftly exonerated and compensated”.Meanwhile, a petition calling for former Post Office boss Paula Vennells to be stripped of the CBE awarded in 2019 – for services to the Post Office – reached more than a million signatures in the days after the documentary aired. Continued here

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What delays to the Artemis II and III missions mean for Canada     On Jan. 9, NASA announced it would be shifting the launch of Artemis II to September 2025. Artemis III — the first mission to land humans on the surface of the moon since 1972 — was moved to September 2026. I am a professor, an explorer and a planetary geologist. For the past decade, I have been helping to train Canadian and U.S. astronauts in geology. I am also the principal investigator for Canada’s first ever rover mission, and a member of the Artemis III Geology Team. Continued here

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Working with Joan Acocella     Not long ago, I became a kind of undertaker. I was a fact checker at this magazine until recently and, in the final months of my tenure, it felt as if death was pouring in. I fielded the obituaries of some cherished colleagues—Roger Angell, Martin Baron, John Bennet, each one of them a braid in a rope pulling us back to the past. When they died, I got the copy. I called the families and the old acquaintances and asked this and that, trying, as best I could, to comfort them or make them laugh, while making sure that our facts were straight. Now another braid in the rope is gone: Joan Acocella.Joan lived in a big, woody loft north of Union Square, in an old building where the elevator opened into the living room. When you arrived, Joan displayed the unyielding generosity of the Ghost of Christmas Present. She promptly asked you what you wanted to drink, unscrewed the bottle cap, and didn’t stop pouring. As well read and impressively educated as she was, she wore her learning lightly, a baseball cap tipped back so far it might tumble away in a strong wind. Continued here

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Gen Z and millennials have an unlikely love affair with their local libraries     A phone fixation may seem at odds with an attraction to books. But the latter may offer a much-needed reprieve from the former.In our recent study of American Gen Z and millennials, we discovered that 92% of them check social media daily; 25% of them check multiple times per hour. Continued here

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Afcon: everything you need to know about a record year for Africa's biggest football event     Africa’s biggest football festival – the men’s Africa Cup of Nations 2023 – is being hosted by Côte d'Ivoire in west Africa and will culminate in its final match on 11 February 2024.More than ever before, the world will be watching the action at the 34th edition of the cup, given that some of football’s greatest athletes will be participating. Add to this the fact that the tournament takes place in the European winter and so it doesn’t face competition from any other major international tournaments except the AFC Asian Cup. Continued here

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Don't Fire People for Making Pornography in Their Free Time     Eight years ago, a middle-aged husband and wife in Wisconsin published their first book, Monogamy With Benefits, under pseudonyms. “We couldn’t be more entrenched in the local establishment,” they wrote, noting their jobs as executives at respected organizations and their nonprofit work and appearances on the local news. “So we’re not exactly the kind of couple you’d expect to be engaged in adventurous sex with others. But we have a highly erotic collection of video files on our home computers that proves otherwise.”Just imagine what would happen, they speculated, if they were to post their videos of “the full carnal process” online. “We think our sex is beautiful and have no qualms at all about other people watching us make love,” they wrote. “But our establishment colleagues likely would be shocked … and we’re fairly certain we’d be shunned in our community. Our careers likely would be ruined.” Continued here

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An international body will need to oversee AI regulation, but we need to think carefully about what it looks like     Artificial intelligence (AI) will have serious societal impact globally. So it is more urgent than ever that state leaders cooperate to regulate the technology.There have been various calls already: the Bletchley Declaration at a recent UK summit and the 11 AI principles and code of conduct agreed on by G7 leaders, for example. But these largely state the obvious. The real question is not whether international cooperation on AI is needed, but how can it be realised? Continued here

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Smersh: why Putin has reinstated Stalin's notorious and much-feared anti-spy unit     A man under arrest by Russian internal security forces was seen confessing to a “crime”, in a video posted on January 2. He had been apprehended after allegedly posting a video on social media that purportedly showed air defences near the Russian city of Belgorod. This city, on the border with Ukraine, was the target of Ukrainian missile attacks on the same day. What was notable, though, about this confessional was that the man was flanked by two internal security officers who had the word Smersh emblazoned on the backs of their jackets. Continued here

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Four street drugs that could pose the biggest threat to UK public health in 2024     As with fashion and music, illicit drugs go through peaks and troughs of popularity. There are popular staples, such as cannabis, and more disruptive and transient substances, such as mephedrone. As with clothing fashion, the drugs that most people are able to buy are determined by the choices of designers, manufacturers and logistical operations, rather than consumers. Predicting how the UK drug market may change in 2024 relies not only on recent trends in drug use but also on international developments. Geopolitical events in south-east Asia or South America are just as important as organised crime activity in cities such as London or Liverpool. We suggest that there are four types of drugs that will be of increasing concern in 2024. Continued here

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US-UK airstrikes risk strengthening Houthi rebels' position in Yemen and the region     The U.S.- and U.K.-led strikes on the rebel Houthi group in Yemen represent a dramatic new turn in the Middle East conflict – one that could have implications throughout the region.The attacks of Jan. 11, 2024, hit around 60 targets at 16 sites, according to the U.S. Air Force’s Mideast command, including in Yemen’s capital Sanaa, the main port of Hodeida and Saada, the birthplace of the Houthis in the country’s northwest. Continued here

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Paraguay's Ciudad del Este: Efforts to force a busy informal commercial hub to follow global trade rules have only made life harder for those eking out a living     Paraguay’s Ciudad del Este is a busy South American contraband hub where scrappy Paraguayan vendors and Brazilian traders mix with businessmen from places as far away as Lebanon and South Korea. This hive of activity moves billions of dollars’ worth of consumer goods – everything from smartphones to whiskey. The city was built as a commercial hub around low taxes and tariffs, benefiting both well-to-do traders and poor workers. In its bustling main market – eight square blocks packed with street vendors, brick-and-mortar businesses and cavernous shopping galleries – thousands of Paraguayans eke out a living selling fake Gucci handbags, fishing poles and even contact lenses. Continued here

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Laundry is a top source of microplastic pollution - here's how to clean your clothes more sustainably     Microplastics are turning up everywhere, from remote mountain tops to deep ocean trenches. They also are in many animals, including humans. The most common microplastics in the environment are microfibers – plastic fragments shaped like tiny threads or filaments. Microfibers come from many sources, including cigarette butts, fishing nets and ropes, but the biggest source is synthetic fabrics, which constantly shed them. Continued here

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BBC's The Traitors: how unconscious biases can impact who you think is guilty     Subterfuge, betrayal, murder and money abound in the BBC hit series The Traitor’s, now in it’s second season. It’s no surprise that it has become a huge hit. The basic premise of the show is that you have “the faithful” and “the traitors”. The game hinges on everyone presenting themselves as a faithful, but with the knowledge that there will be at least one traitor among them. Continued here

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Natalie Portman says method acting is a 'luxury women can't afford' - but my research shows how it can empower them     As an actor and teacher of method acting, as well as a mother, I was surprised by Natalie Portman saying in a recent interview that method acting is a “luxury women cannot afford”. The actor was questioning how acting processes – most of which have been created by men – clash with parts of the female experience, such as motherhood. Referencing her experience with the 2016 film Jackie (for which she was Oscar-nominated), Portman explained: “I don’t think that children or partners would be very understanding of, you know, me making everyone call me ‘Jackie Kennedy’ all the time.” However, having used the method style successfully for more than 15 years, I believe there is a way to make it work for women. Continued here

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Donald Trump's Victim Shtick Is Getting Old     Four days before Iowa's Republican caucuses, and the beginning of the 2024 Presidential election cycle, Donald Trump's New York civil fraud trial ended in much the same manner it began last October—with the former President of the United States crying witch hunt. "We have a situation where I'm an innocent man. I've been persecuted by someone running for office," Trump told the court, on Thursday, from his seat at the defense table. He was referring to Letitia James, the Democratic New York attorney general, who brought charges against Trump in September, 2022, when James was seeking reëlection. (The investigation began long before then.) Addressing Judge Arthur F. Engoron, Trump went on, "What's happened here, sir, is a fraud on me. They want to make sure that I don't win again, and this is partially election interference."Trump hadn't been expected to speak during closing arguments, which took place on Thursday. Earlier this week, his lawyers refused to agree to a stipulation from Engoron, another septuagenarian product of Queens, that Trump confine his remarks to the substance of the case against him, which centers on the question of whether the Trump Organization knowingly inflated the value of its assets in order to obtain favorable terms on loans and insurance. When Trump's lawyers didn't agree to the restrictions, Engoron barred Trump from talking during the defense's closing statements. But, just before the court went on a lunch break, Trump's lead lawyer, Chris Kise, asked Engoron to reconsider, and to allow his client to speak for a few minutes. Engoron, who has presided over the trial with patience and good humor despite being the target of various insults and threats—the latest of which was a fake bomb threat at his house on Thursday morning—asked that Trump stick to the facts and the law. Continued here

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Canada is being hypocritical by failing to support South Africa's genocide case against Israel     South Africa has made submissions at the International Court of Justice in its genocide case against Israel. It’s requesting the court order provisional measures to safeguard the rights of Palestinians in Gaza that would protect them from genocide until the case is heard.South Africa alleges that Israel is engaging in genocidal acts violating the United Nations’ 1948 Genocide Convention. It accuses Israel of engaging in killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of the Palestinian people in Gaza in whole or in part, and imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group. Continued here

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Wayne LaPierre leaves a financial mess behind at the NRA - on top of the legal one that landed him in court     Wayne LaPierre, the National Rifle Association’s longtime leader, plans to retire by the end of January 2024. He cited “health reasons” when he announced his departure three days before the organization’s civil fraud trial got underway in Manhattan.New York authorities have accused the NRA, LaPierre and three of his current or former colleagues of squandering millions of dollars the gun group had obtained from its members. Continued here

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Why olive oil prices are soaring and what to do about it     The image of a celebrity chef dousing their Caprese salad, gazpacho or dolmas with extra-virgin olive oil is incredibly ambitious at the moment, with most Europeans facing record prices in the supermarket aisle. But why have olive oil prices risen so sharply?For the past decade, the oldest cultivated trees on Earth have been showing their vulnerability with many of the Mediterranean's olive groves drying up due to increasingly difficult weather conditions such as droughts and severe hailstorms leading to floods. And in 2023, the region – as well as the whole planet – experienced the hottest summer on record. Continued here

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The US once withheld syphilis treatment from hundreds of Black men in the name of science. Newly public records are helping us understand how it could happen     In 1972, a whistleblower revealed that the United States Public Health Service (USPHS) had withheld syphilis treatment from hundreds of Black men as part of a 40-year study observing the natural course of the disease. The experiment’s subjects – the majority of whom were sharecroppers from rural Alabama – believed they were undergoing treatment for “bad blood”, a colloquial name then used for a host of conditions, including venereal diseases. Instead, they received placebos and inadequate medical care, even after penicillin emerged as an effective, readily available treatment for syphilis in the mid-1940s.The Tuskegee syphilis study, as the experiment is often called today, began in 1932 with the recruitment of 600 Black men, 399 with syphilis and 201 without, to serve as the control group. Initially intended to run for six months, the study continued for decades. Unwitting participants lured in by the promise of free medical care, hot meals and burial insurance returned regularly for aspirin, tonics, blood draws and the occasional spinal tap. But none of these treatments do any good for syphilis, and 128 of the men ultimately died of the disease or complications related to it. Continued here

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The Expansive Musical Range of Ryuichi Sakamoto     If your first thought, as we ushered in the New Year, was not of fresh starts and resolutions but of the crises looming in 2024 and beyond, the best antidote, culturally speaking, might be to lean into catastrophe. Metrograph has catered to the pessimists among us by curating a series entitled “The Future Looks Bright from Afar” (through Feb. 4), which promises a suite of sci-fi films marked by “grim prognostications” about mankind’s trajectory. (The options are not limited to the obvious dystopias: the final night of the program features a rare showing of “Alphaville,” Jean-Luc Godard’s 1965 neo-noir take on the threat of a fascist A.I.) This weekend’s offerings include the gorgeously animated cult classic “Ghost in the Shell,” which grapples with questions of sentience and selfhood in a high-tech society; later in the month, they’ll screen “Snowpiercer,” Bong Joon-ho’s wildly entertaining, climate-crisis-inflected thriller.As it happens, the great new crowd-pleaser of the moment is also a disaster story, albeit one set firmly in the past. “Godzilla Minus One” follows a kamikaze pilot who shirks his duty in the final days of the Second World War—a decision that puts him in the path of the eponymous monster and, years later, leaves him uniquely motivated to stop its rampage through postwar Tokyo. Elevated by emotional and historical specificity as well as set pieces that belie its modest fifteen-million-dollar budget, Takashi Yamazaki’s contribution to the Godzilla canon is simultaneously a study in survivor’s guilt and a “Jaws”-style blockbuster, complete with the revelation that our protagonists are going to need a bigger boat. The movie, which opened in the U.S. in December, became a word-of-mouth phenomenon whose twists had audiences shouting at the screen; it’s now one of the highest-grossing foreign-language films of all time. A little catharsis, it seems, goes a long way. Continued here

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I wrote a play for children about integrating the arts into STEM fields - here's what I learned about encouraging creative, interdisciplinary thinking     Often, science and art are described as starkly different things. That narrative can start early on, with kids encouraged to pursue a STEM – short for science, technology, engineering and math – education that may or may not include an arts education. As a professor of acting, I’d never thought much about the STEM fields until I received a fellowship to integrate the arts into STEM educational models. I used the opportunity to write and direct a play for elementary schoolers that showed how the arts can improve upon and extend work in STEM fields when properly integrated – but it wasn’t an easy process. Continued here

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Why the world is turning away from the US dollar     The invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 prompted the US Treasury Department to impose unprecedented sanctions on Russia, to hold it “accountable for its premeditated and unprovoked invasion”.The aim was to prevent Russia from “prop[ing] up its rapidly depreciating currency by restricting global supplies of the ruble and access to reserves that Russia may try to exchange to support the ruble”. In other words, Russia wouldn’t be able to sell enough US dollars in the foreign exchange market to buy up Russian currency and bolster its value. Continued here

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US election: how a Trump victory could embolden Russia, China and Israel     A potential second term as president for Donald Trump is likely to result in an America-first, America-alone foreign policy. The ramifications for the rest of the world could be huge, potentially endangering international security around the globe. So it’s no wonder that the result of the November vote seems of more interest than normal to non-Americans. Continued here

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Sunak's plan to overrule courts on Post Office scandal could set a dangerous precedent - but other options would mean stumping up cash     In response to the outcry over what he described as “one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in our nation’s history”, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has promised to overturn the criminal convictions of more than 700 sub-postmasters falsely accused of theft or false accounting between 2000 and 2014. In doing so, he vowed he would deliver “justice and compensation”.This will involve introducing emergency primary legislation in the form of a new act of parliament. The Labour party has committed to supporting the move “if it meets the test of justice”. Continued here

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'Gold' hydrogen: natural deposits are turning up all over the world - but how useful is it in our move away from fossil fuels?     David Waltham is Director of the Centre for Energy and Resources (CERes) at Royal Holloway, University of London.Hydrogen will play a role in weaning us off fossil fuels. It can be used to power trains, planes and HGVs, as well as being a low-carbon alternative to coke in steelmaking and a way to warm our homes. Continued here

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A 'giant' of Canadian politics: Ed Broadbent's mixed legacy on social democracy and free trade     News of his death at age 87, announced on Jan. 11, has inspired a wave of tributes, including from former political opponents. Brian Mulroney called Broadbent a “giant in the Canadian political scene” and rightly said he would have been prime minister had he led any other party. I still smile thinking about a photograph taken during the 1988 election when Broadbent gamely had the Vachon brothers, beloved wrestlers from Québec who were NDP candidates, in a double headlock. It was silly, and great political theatre. Continued here

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Not all carbon-capture projects pay off for the climate - we mapped the pros and cons of each and found clear winners and losers     Capturing carbon dioxide from the air or industries and recycling it can sound like a win-win climate solution. The greenhouse gas stays out of the atmosphere where it can warm the planet, and it avoids the use of more fossil fuels.But not all carbon-capture projects offer the same economic and environmental benefits. In fact, some can actually worsen climate change. Continued here

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Biden, like Trump, sidesteps Congress to get things done     With two presidents – one current and one former – running against each other for the first time since 1912, the 2024 election presents voters with the unique opportunity to compare how Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Donald Trump, who are each likely to get their party’s nomination, actually used the authority of the presidency. Examining Biden and Trump from this perspective, it’s clear that while they pursued vastly different policies, they often used presidential power in remarkably similar ways. Continued here

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What One Life gets wrong about Nicholas Winton and the Kindertransport story     Barbara Winton self-published a biography of her father, Nicholas Winton, in 2014, which has now become a new major biopic, One Life. Already dubbed “the British Schindler” for his role in the rescue of 669, mainly Jewish, children from Czechoslovakia in 1939, with this new film Nicholas Winton’s fame is firmly established.The film has a quality cast, including Anthony Hopkins as an aged Winton (the humanitarian died in 2015 aged 106), Helena Bonham Carter as his impressive mother, Babette, and Johnny Flynn as the young Winton. Romola Garai and Alex Sharp star as Doreen Warriner and Trevor Chadwick, the workers for the Czech Refugee Committee, who did all the dangerous and extensive rescue work in Prague. Continued here

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Red Sea crisis: expert unpacks Houthi attacks and other security threats     Recent attacks on commercial vessels by Houthi militia in the Red Sea have put the vital shipping region in the spotlight. The Yemen-based rebels claim to be targeting Israeli-linked vessels, in protest at Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. The UN Security Council recently passed a resolution demanding an immediate end to the Houthi attacks, while the US and UK have launched a series of strikes on Yemen against the rebels.Burak Şakir Şeker, who has studied security issues in the Red Sea, shares his insights on the global importance of the region, the security issues that exist and how these must be addressed. Continued here

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What Boredom Actually Means     This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Sign up here to get it every Saturday morning.In 1933, the writer James Norman Hall had a bone to pick with the concise nature of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary. It defined boredom as “being bored; ennui.” “To define [boredom] merely as ‘being bored,’ appallingly true though this may be, is only to aggravate the misery of the sufferer who, as a last desperate resource, has gone to the dictionary for enlightenment as to the nature of his complaint,” Hall wrote in The Atlantic. Continued here

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A Surprising Success Story for Humpback Whales     In November 1904, the Norwegian explorer Carl Anton Larsen landed in South Georgia. It was his second visit to the remote island, roughly 1,800 kilometers east of the tip of South America, where the waters of the South Atlantic Ocean were home to huge numbers of whales—and he’d returned with a whaling ship and crew to catch them.Just a few weeks after establishing a camp in Cumberland Bay, a deep, two-pronged fjord in the rugged island, Larsen’s men killed their first humpback. So many whales foraged in the bay that the mariners didn’t need to venture to the open ocean. By mid-April 1905, they’d killed 91 whales—67 of them humpbacks. Continued here

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The 2024 Primaries That Weren't     With former President Donald Trump dominating the polls in Iowa and other early-primary states, this primary season looks like it may be brief and uncompetitive. "We'll see what happens when the voters actually get a say, but it's fair to say already that the political story of 2023 was Donald Trump's consolidation of the Republican Party behind him," the New Yorker staff writer Susan B. Glasser says. Meanwhile, President Biden, despite his low approval ratings, has had only "token" opposition inside the Democratic Party, Glasser says, referring to Dean Phillips of Minnesota, whose Presidential campaign has not gained traction. The New Yorker staff writers Jane Mayer and Evan Osnos join Glasser to discuss the absence of a competitive 2024 primary, the effort by some Democrats to test the waters rather than declare a campaign, and what the coming months may bring in this historic race for the Presidency.By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Continued here

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Data brokers know everything about you - what FTC case against ad tech giant Kochava reveals     Kochava, the self-proclaimed industry leader in mobile app data analytics, is locked in a legal battle with the Federal Trade Commission in a case that could lead to big changes in the global data marketplace and in Congress’ approach to artificial intelligence and data privacy.The stakes are high because Kochava’s secretive data acquisition and AI-aided analytics practices are commonplace in the global location data market. In addition to numerous lesser-known data brokers, the mobile data market includes larger players like Foursquare and data market exchanges like Amazon’s AWS Data Exchange. The FTC’s recently unsealed amended complaint against Kochava makes clear that there’s truth to what Kochava advertises: it can provide data for “Any Channel, Any Device, Any Audience,” and buyers can “Measure Everything with Kochava.” Continued here

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Did The 'Monarch' Finale Actually Change Godzilla Canon?     In the finale of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, three generations of monster hunters were united and two famous monsters made surprising appearances. After all the globe-spanning adventures and time-skipping shenanigans, has the canon of Godzilla, King Kong, and the “Monsterverse” films been altered?At the end of the Monarch Season 1 finale, “Beyond Logic,” the answer is... kind of. In its 10 episodes, Monarch redefined the history of its titular monster-hunting organization, while delivering a twist ending that dropped a Kong-sized bomb. But how much did the show actually change? Let’s dig in. Continued here

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2024's Wildest Action Thriller Could Launch an Epic Franchise, Director Says     While the director might be best known by some as the director of DC’s infamous supervillain movie The Suicide Squad, Ayer feels more comfortable writing and directing gritty crime thrillers like Training Day. With his latest movie, The Beekeeper, he’s treading new waters again with a gonzo action flick starring tough-guy actor Jason Statham and his legendary Cockney growl.“Normally, I make more serious dramas,” Ayer says. “This is just a fun, escapist thrill ride.” Continued here

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Trump on Trial--And on the Trail     Just days before the Republican caucuses in Iowa officially kick off the presidential nominating process, the GOP field narrowed after former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie exited the race. Meanwhile, Donald Trump, the former president and current front-runner for the Republican nomination, spent the week campaigning in Iowa and appearing in courts in Washington, D.C., and New York City.Joining the editor in chief of The Atlantic and moderator, Jeffrey Goldberg, this week to discuss this and more are Josh Gerstein, a senior legal-affairs reporter at Politico; Steve Inskeep, the host of Morning Edition on NPR; Nikole Killion, a congressional correspondent for CBS News; and Adrienne LaFrance, the executive editor of The Atlantic. Continued here

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Boeing needs to get real: the 737 Max should probably be scrapped     The Boeing 737 Max is in the news again, this time because the door plug on a brand-new plane came off soon after take-off. The pilots of the Alaska Airlines flight from Portland, Oregon, managed to return the Max 9 safely to Portland International Airport, but the consequences would have been far more serious had the incident occurred at cruising height a few minutes later. Alaska Airlines and fellow US carrier United Airlines have also discovered loose hardware and connections on their fleets of 737 Max planes. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has now grounded 171 Boeing aircraft, mostly operated by Alaska Airlines and United Airlines, pending inspections. Continued here

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Mr Bates vs The Post Office: How a TV drama shook up Britain - in just a week     The impact of a hit TV show has always been difficult to define. Should it be judged on viewership? The critics' response to it, or how many awards it wins? What about how often it's been memed, or the themes that resonated with social media users? This month, a UK TV show went far beyond all of this, when a dramatisation of a real-life British scandal was so effective in portraying a lesser-known miscarriage of justice to the public, that in just a week it moved more than a million people to sign a petition calling for justice for the accused, and prompted the British government to announce a new law.That TV show is Mr Bates vs The Post Office, a four-part drama that was broadcast for four consecutive nights from 1 January. As the BBC's political editor Chris Mason put it on Wednesday, "Just a week ago the ITV drama … was still on. Here we are, seven days later, and the prime minister stands in front of a packed House of Commons, and says the government will put forward a new law… How extraordinary. The power of drama. The momentum it has generated, the public opinion it has shifted, the government it has galvanised." Continued here

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5 Years Ago, Nintendo Broke the Most Important Mario Rule -- And Redefined an Iconic Character     Look, friends, there are a lot of RPGs out there. So many, in fact, that it’s difficult to stand out amongst the rest of the pack. Whether it be the longstanding Final Fantasy franchise or the Elder Scrolls and Fallout juggernauts from Bethesda studios, choosing the appropriate realm of RPGs to dive into is not for the faint of heart. Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story is a dark horse candidate, not for how it embodies the classical, hardcore RPG mold, but because of how it subverts expectations with its uncanny sense of humor and genuine joy protruding from every nook and cranny of the experience.Developed by the now-defunct AlphaDream and originally released for the Nintendo DS in 2009, Bowser’s Inside Story was the third game in the developer’s Mario & Luigi series that first started on the Gameboy Advance in 2003. Best described as an action-RPG, this particular title stood out thanks to its large focus on Bowser — not just for the story or myriad of comedic possibilities, but for the gameplay, too. Continued here

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Krautrock: The 1970s bands which helped post-war Germany overcome its dark history     In West Germany in the early 1970s, a collection of experimental rock bands revolutionised music. Born out of a radical time in the history of post-war Germany, this loosely connected group of artists – including Neu!, Can, Kraftwerk, Faust, Tangerine Dream and Amon Düül II – created a sound that became known as "krautrock".More like this:–      The cult singer rediscovered on TikTok–      The forgotten 'godfathers' of hip-hop–      'The most violent band in the world'The social and musical trailblazing of the bands has a lasting legacy. Together, they influenced artists like David Bowie, Sex Pistols, Talking Heads, Joy Division, Radiohead and Bjork; over 50 years later, their impact lives on in hip hop and techno, alternative rock groups and modern jazz.  Continued here

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How a Classic Sci-Fi Movie Inspired HBO's Best Noir Thriller     With True Detective Season 4, writer and director Issa López isn’t shying away from The Thing comparisons. In fact, with the supernatural horror-tinged season of the crime anthology show, she’s embracing it.“The Thing is a huge [inspiration], and I’m not shy about it,” López tells Inverse ahead of the show’s January premiere. “I’m super proud about it.” Continued here

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10 Years Ago, a Creepy Noir Thriller Became a Phenomenon -- And Changed TV Forever     Nowadays, the thought of a major movie star appearing in an ongoing TV show or limited series doesn’t seem strange. We’re currently living in a time when Tom Hanks will make a cameo appearance in 1883, Gary Oldman will star as the lead of his own Apple TV+ drama, and Oscar winners like Michelle Yeoh and Jessica Chastain will regularly appear in their own streaming shows. Ten years ago, though, the line between TV and film wasn’t one that was routinely crossed by movie stars.That all changed when True Detective premiered on HBO in 2014. The show’s first season, led by Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey, debuted when the latter was in the midst of an Oscar campaign that would prove successful less than two full months later. Outside of a few cameo appearances on Eastbound & Down, True Detective marked the first TV show that McConaughey had ever starred in, and it was the first in nearly 15 years that Harrelson had worked on. McConaughey’s participation in True Detective, in particular, made an impact that cannot be overstated. Continued here

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The Entrepreneur's Guide to Better Vacation Habits in the New Year     Essential strategies for entrepreneurs to recharge and rejuvenate while on vacation. Continued here

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In 4 Words, GMA Co-Host and NFL Star Michael Strahan Told His Daughter Isabella Something We All Need to Hear     Most parents never say it. Continued here

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Beware of 1 Red-Flag Personality Trait When Interviewing Job Candidates     There is another personality trait hiring managers should look for instead. Continued here

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Keep Forgetting Things? Neuroscience Says This Sleep Habit 'Matters Most'     'Quality rather than the quantity ...' Continued here

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Why Change Is So Hard and What Really Stops You From Taking Action     'Meatloaf syndrome' could be holding you back from making a much needed change. Continued here

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40 Years Ago, Francis Ford Coppola Exposed the Problem With Chasing Success. It's a Remarkable Lesson in Leadership     The paradox of caring what others think and being true to yourself -- no matter what. Continued here

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Biden stops by Pennsylvania stores to talk up his record on small business creation     In campaign mode, President touts the 16 million new business applications filed in his term. Continued here

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Tools and Strategies for the Most Productive Tech Teams     These resources can save your company time and money. Continued here

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With 1 Short Post on Instagram, Tom Brady Just Taught a Leadership Masterclass     You don't have to be loved as a leader. But it helps to be gracious. Continued here

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Taupo: The super volcano under New Zealand's largest lake     Located in the centre of New Zealand's North Island, the town of Taupo sits sublimely in the shadow of the snow-capped peaks of Tongariro National Park. Fittingly, this 40,000-person lakeside town has recently become one of New Zealand's most popular tourist destinations, as hikers, trout fishers, water sports enthusiasts and adrenaline junkies have started descending upon it.The namesake of this tidy town is the Singapore-sized lake that kisses its western border. Stretching 623sq km wide and 160m deep with several magma chambers submerged at its base, Lake Taupo isn't only New Zealand's largest lake; it's also an incredibly active geothermal hotspot. Every summer, tourists flock to bathe in its bubbling hot springs and sail through its emerald-green waters. Yet, the lake is the crater of a giant super volcano, and within its depths lies the unsettling history of this picturesque marvel. Continued here

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Message sticks: Australia's ancient unwritten language     The continent of Australia is home to more than 250 spoken Indigenous languages and 800 dialects. Yet, one of its linguistic cornerstones wasn't spoken, but carved.Known as message sticks, these flat, rounded and oblong pieces of wood were etched with ornate images on both sides that conveyed important messages and held the stories of the continent's Aboriginal people – considered the world's oldest continuous living culture. Message sticks are believed to be thousands of years old and were typically carried by messengers over long distances to reinforce oral histories or deliver news between Aboriginal nations or language groups. Continued here

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Did Australia's boomerangs pave the way for flight?     The aircraft is one of the most significant developments of modern society, enabling people, goods and ideas to fly around the world far more efficiently than ever before. The first successful piloted flight took off in 1903 in North Carolina, but a 10,000-year-old hunting tool likely developed by Aboriginal Australians may have held the key to its lift-off. As early aviators discovered, the secret to flight is balancing the flow of air. Therefore, an aircraft's wings, tail or propeller blades are often shaped in a specially designed, curved manner called an aerofoil that lifts the plane up and allows it to drag or turn to the side as it moves through the air.   Continued here

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What the 'future histories' of the 1920s can teach us about hope     From Hunger Games to Squid Games, from Black Mirror to Blade Runner, the appetite for dystopia seems higher than ever. Perhaps this is because the cliches of the genre are seeping beyond fiction. Both Elon Musk's Neuralink and Mark Zuckerberg's Metaverse seem lifted straight from cautionary tales. Meanwhile, AI poises unprecedented challenges, and human-made climate change threatens to destabilise our fragile world order.Dystopian fiction can be vitally important. It can contain important warnings: raising alarms on social issues through extrapolating troubling trajectories. But in relentlessly imagining the future as already lost to dystopia in our fiction, it's possible we risk giving up on it in reality too. Continued here

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A Mountain of Used Clothes Appeared in Chile's Desert. Then It Went Up in Flames     This story originally appeared on Grist and was copublished with El País. It's reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. A Spanish-language version can be read here. Reporting was supported by the Joan Konner Program in the Journalism of Ideas.On the morning of June 12, 2022, Ángela Astudillo, then a law student in her mid-twenties, grabbed her water bottle and hopped into her red Nissan Juke. The cofounder of Dress Desert, or Desierto Vestido, a textile recycling advocacy nonprofit, and the daughter of tree farmers, Astudillo lives in a gated apartment complex in Alto Hospicio, a dusty city at the edge of the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, with her husband, daughter, bunny, and three aquatic turtles. Continued here

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A Bloody Pig Mask Is Just Part of a Wild New Criminal Charge Against eBay     After the security firm Mandiant had its X account compromised earlier this month, the US Securities and Exchange Commission dealt with a similar intrusion this week. Attackers wrested control of the agency’s account for more than half an hour and posted false information during that time about a highly anticipated SEC regulatory decision on a Bitcoin financial product. The incident was concerning, given that it indicated a lack of adequate security protections on the SEC’s account, but also because attackers may have intended to manipulate markets, and their fake post led to fluctuations in the price of Bitcoin.If you want to avoid these shenanigans on your own X account, we’ve got tips for locking everything down as much as possible. Continued here

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We tested the most advanced haptic gloves in the world     For all the incredible advances in virtual reality devices, the worlds they generate still feel more virtual than real. That’s because much of the current development has focused on how those worlds look and sound. But humans experience the real world through many other senses — importantly touch.“What if you want to realistically simulate something like cracking an egg?” Linda Jacobson, director of marketing at HaptX, asked Freethink. “It’s one thing to do it visually and to create a sound. But it’s a whole other thing if you want to simulate the rigidity of the eggshell and then couple that with the collapse of the breaking shell and the liquidy yolk spilling out. How do you do that in a way that doesn’t break the suspension of disbelief?” Continued here

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Would Luddites find the gig economy familiar?     The term Luddite is usually used as an insult. It suggests someone who is backward-looking, averse to progress, afraid of new technology, and frankly, not that bright. But Brian Merchant claims that that is not who the Luddites were at all. They were organized, articulate in their demands, very much understood how factory owners were using machinery to supplant them, and highly targeted in their destruction of that machinery. Continued here

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What Conversations About DEI Are Missing     Welcome to Up for Debate. Each week, Conor Friedersdorf rounds up timely conversations and solicits reader responses to one thought-provoking question. Later, he publishes some thoughtful replies. Sign up for the newsletter here.What is a belief or position you hold that you feel to be misunderstood or misrepresented by many people who disagree with you? Continued here