Suella Braverman: why the home secretary can't force the police to cancel a pro-Palestine march

S22

Suella Braverman: why the home secretary can't force the police to cancel a pro-Palestine march     The UK home secretary, Suella Braverman, has reached new heights with her criticism of the Metropolitan police over its handling of pro-Palestinian marches. In an op-ed for the Times, reportedly not cleared by Number 10, Braverman accused police of a double standard, treating left-wing marches more leniently than right-wing ones.In recent weeks, hundreds of thousands of people have marched through London in a generally orderly way to protest what they consider to be indiscriminate harm being done to civilians in Gaza by the Israeli military. Continued here

S3

Three big reasons Americans haven't rapidly adopted EVs     Throughout the past few years, analysts have touted electric vehicles as the future of transport – one Americans would dive into, eagerly and rapidly. The EV market is indeed expanding, but the US's electric vehicle 'revolution' appears to be happening much slower than some analysts and car manufacturers expected.Since 2016, sales of EVs in the US have grown – from nearly 65,000 vehicles sold in 2017, to more than 800,000 vehicles in 2022. Data from auto analytics firm Motor Intelligence showed EV sales rose 51% in the first half of 2023, following the upwards trend. However, those gains are still a drop from last year's 71% growth in the same timeframe. And Tesla, which leads the market with more than half of all EV sales, recently reported its lowest quarterly earnings in two years, leading to a $138bn (£111.4bn) drop in the company's stock value. Continued here

S14

Tourists are returning to South Africa - but the sector will need to go green to deal with the country's electricity crisis     Irma Booyens is affiliated with the School of Tourism and Hospitality, University of Johannesburg, South AfricaUniversity of Johannesburg provides support as an endorsing partner of The Conversation AFRICA. Continued here

S40

SUV and ute sales slowed due to NZ's Clean Car Discount - expect that to reverse under a new government     With National, ACT and NZ First locked in coalition negotiations, various urgent and climate-related transport challenges hang in the balance.Based on pre-election rhetoric, the Clean Car Discount (CCD) scheme may soon be gone. While popular with the public, National has criticised the electric vehicle rebate portion as a “Tesla subsidy”, and the fees charged for high-emissions vehicles as a “ute tax”. Continued here

S32

A new theory linking evolution and physics has scientists baffled - but is it solving a problem that doesn't exist?     In October, a paper titled “Assembly theory explains and quantifies selection and evolution” appeared in the top science journal Nature. The authors – a team led by Lee Cronin at the University of Glasgow and Sara Walker at Arizona State University – claim their theory is an “interface between physics and biology” which explains how complex biological forms can evolve.The paper provoked strong responses. On the one hand were headlines like “Bold New ‘Theory of Everything’ Could Unite Physics And Evolution”. Continued here

S35

Friday essay: if the world's systems are 'already cracking' due to climate change, is there a post-doom silver lining?     Heard about the guy who fell off a skyscraper? On his way down past each floor, he kept saying to reassure himself: So far so good … so far so good … so far so good …If it felt to you like things started going off the rails around the year 2016, you’re not alone. Symbolically, the double blow of Britain voting for Brexit, then the United States voting for Donald Trump, seemed like the “end” of something. (The postwar liberal consensus? The Anglo-American order?) Continued here

S20

State of Georgia using extreme legal measures to quell 'Cop City' dissenters     Earlier this week, nearly five dozen people appeared in a courtroom near Atlanta to answer criminal racketeering and domestic terrorism charges brought against them by the state. The charges are related to what’s commonly known as “Cop City,” a $90-million paramilitary police and firefighter training facility planned for 85 acres of forest near Atlanta.The Atlanta Police Association saw a need for such a facility at the start of the 2020 Black Lives Matter uprisings and started to fund raise. Many corporations have contributed to the plans for a world-class police training facility. Continued here

S34

Overwhelmed by group chat messages? You're not alone     For many of us, group chats are part of the texture of our social lives. These groups, formed on apps like Messenger or Whatsapp, can be as large as a hundred people or as small as three. We use them for organising one-off tasks or events, managing recurring coordination between groups like sports clubs or work teams, and keeping in touch with family and friends. Continued here

S30

5 Aussie musicals you might not have heard of - but really should see     When you think of great Aussie musicals, some key films from the 1990s and 2000s come to mind: Strictly Ballroom, Muriel’s Wedding, Moulin Rouge!, Bran Nue Dae and The Sapphires. These films are often framed as “reviving” the musical genre for Australian audiences, due in large part to their box-office success. While certainly fantastic films, there is actually a long history of Aussie musicals that have been popular with cinema audiences since the 1930s. Continued here

S39

The experiences of older drivers can help design cleaner and safer cars     The current pace of technological change in automobile technology rivals the period about a century ago when cars were moving from the exotic fringes of transportation into the lives of ordinary people. The automobile has reshaped the world, giving rise to new freedoms and greater access to distant places, creating jobs and wealth and changing the physical landscape with roads, service stations, dealerships and suburbs. Continued here

S46

Why are dead and dying seabirds washing up on our beaches in their hundreds?     ARC DECRA Fellow, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania In October and November, horrified beachgoers often find dead and dying muttonbirds washing up in an event called a seabird “wreck”. Continued here

S24

Trade unions in the UK and US have become more powerful despite political interference and falling memberships     In September 2023, Joe Biden became the first sitting US president to join strikers on a picket line. He told car workers that they “deserve a significant raise and other benefits”.Even more surprisingly perhaps, those same workers – in a dispute with three of America’s biggest car manufacturers – were later praised by Donald Trump. Meanwhile in the UK, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to repeal anti-strike laws, and “unequivocally” support the right to strike. Continued here

S44

Will Saturn's rings really 'disappear' by 2025? An astronomer explains     If you can get your hands on a telescope, there are few sights more spectacular than the magnificent ringed planet – Saturn.Currently, Saturn is clearly visible in the evening sky, at its highest just after sunset. It’s the ideal time to use a telescope or binoculars to get a good view of the Solar System’s sixth planet and its famous rings. Continued here

S37

Smashing the 'concrete ceiling': Black women are still missing from corporate leadership     Doctoral Candidate, Peter A. Allard School of Law, University of British Columbia While white women may speak of breaking through the “glass ceiling,” for many Black women, it’s more like a “concrete ceiling.” Black women experience unique and formidable barriers in the workforce that are not only difficult to break, but also obscure their view of career advancement opportunities. Continued here

S70

Bored Ape creator says UV lights at ApeFest burned attendees' eyes and skin     Lamps emitting ultraviolet light in the corner of a Bored Ape NFT event in Hong Kong last Saturday are the likely cause of severe eye and skin injuries among attendees, according to Yuga Labs, the creator of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and host of the event. Continued here

S18

Narges Mohammadi: 2023 Nobel peace laureate on hunger strike after being denied medical treatment over hijab ban     Narges Mohammadi, the recipient of the 2023 Nobel peace prize for her long fight against the oppression of women in Iran, is reported to have started a hunger strike. Her family told CNN this week that she began refusing food on Monday in protest over what she said was the jail’s refusal to provide her with medical treatment.Mohammadi is serving multiple sentences in Iran’s infamous Evin prison on charges that include spreading propaganda against the state. Her rights campaigns were characterised by the Nobel prize committee as a “brave struggle [that] has come with tremendous personal costs”. Continued here

S38

New law sidesteps British culpability in Northern Ireland's Troubles     Doctoral Candidate, Department of Political Studies, Queen's University, Ontario The Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act became law in the United Kingdom on Sept. 18. It is an attempt to resolve the many open investigations into murders committed during the 30-year armed conflict in Northern Ireland known as the Troubles. Continued here

S36

The war in Gaza opens up new opportunities for China in the Middle East     Shaun Narine contributes to Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East and Jewish Voice for Peace. The western world’s support for Israel as it attacks Gaza has provoked fury across the Arab world and much of the Global South. Continued here

S43

Perimenopause usually begins in your 40s. How do you know if it has started?     More than half our population (50.7%) are born with ovaries and will experience perimenopause in midlife. This occurs as hormone levels decrease and ovaries slow their release of eggs. Perimenopause usually begins in the early to mid-40s. Some people even begin perimenopause earlier, due to premature ovarian insufficiency or medical treatments such as chemotherapy or surgical oophorectomy (ovary removal). Continued here

S41

Maine voters don't like their electric utilities, but they balked at paying billions to buy them out     Frustration with electric utilities is universal today. Whether it’s concerns over high rates, poor service or a combination of both, people are constantly looking for a better answer to the systems that serve them.In the Nov. 7, 2023, election, voters in Maine had a chance to consider a new model for electricity service that would replace the state’s two widely unpopular private utilities, but they balked in the face of multibillion-dollar cost projections. Continued here

S19

For All Mankind: space drama's alternate history constructs a better vision of Nasa     Great art is often difficult to quantify. Apple TV’s series For All Mankind is a case in point, running the risk of being too sci-fi for drama fans (rockets, moon bases, Mars) and having too much naturalistic drama for sci-fi aficionados (jealousy, divorce, institutional politics). Nonetheless, the show consistently rewards both sets of viewers by brilliantly blurring the line between reality and alternate history. It tells a compelling story wherein the Soviet Union beat the US to land on the Moon and, consequently, the space race never ended. Continued here

S33

'Thank you for making me feel smart': will a new campaign to raise the status of teaching work?     Senior Marketing Scientist, Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science, University of South Australia Federal and state governments have just launched a A$10 million advertising campaign to “raise the status” of teachers in Australia and encourage people to consider a career in school education. Continued here

S57

The Man Who Invented Fifteen Hundred Necktie Knots     Boris Mocka believes that, at one point, he had invented more necktie knots than anyone else on the planet—so many that he started to call himself a “tieknotologist.” Most people who wear ties are familiar with the four-in-hand knot, and perhaps the Windsor and the half-Windsor. But there are many others: the Plattsburgh, the Cavendish, the Hanover. In 1999, two physicists published a book titled “The 85 Ways to Tie a Tie.” Their tally, however, was far from comprehensive. Mocka alone has created more than fifteen hundred knots. The Gardenia looks like a flower; the Wicker and the Mockatonic look like origami. The Riddler looks like a question mark, and the Exousia requires more than one tie. “I’m very obsessed with being original,” Mocka told me.Mocka is not a physicist, or a menswear designer, but a doorman in my apartment building. His path to sartorial invention is as winding as his silken creations. He was born in Martinique in 1969 and was raised in Paris. His father died when he was two, and his mother moved to New York without him. He was adopted by a man who painted in his free time, and who inspired Mocka to pick up drawing. By the time Mocka turned ten, people were telling him that his artistic skills were a gift from God. “We knew better, because it’s called practice,” he said. Continued here

S23

'Bluewashing': how ecotourism can be used against indigenous communities     When the notion of “ecotourism” was introduced in the late 1970s, it was intended to be ecologically responsible, promote conservation, benefit local populations and help travellers foster a “reconnection with biocultural diversity”. It’s now more of a marketing term, used to give mass adventure-tourism packages a more “responsible” sheen. Visitors might get a nature walk, but interactions with local residents are limited to souvenir sellers at best, and international consortiums arrange everything and keep the profits for themselves.While it’s no surprise that the original concept of ecotourism has been obscured by less virtuous projects, they become more problematic when they block local communities from ancestral lands or even involve their forced relocation. A recent case on the eviction of 16 villages on Rempang Island, Indonesia to build a solar panel factory and “eco-city” illustrates this. While the need to increase renewable energy production is urgent, it’s harder to justify when it comes at the expense of local residents’ lives and territorial sovereignty. Continued here

S56

The Warnings About Trump in 2024 Are Getting Louder     Donald Trump often takes the breath away with his defiance of the basic norms of American public life. (See: January 6th.) But sometimes it’s the smaller encroachments on decency that serve as a reminder of how far outside the bounds he operates. “Can you control your client?” Judge Arthur Engoron demanded of Trump’s lawyer, during the former President’s testimony on Monday in Manhattan, where he stands accused of running a fraudulent business in the state of New York. “This is not a political rally. This is a courtroom.” Later, after yet another Trump soliloquy in response to a yes-or-no question, Engoron repeated his entreaty. “I beseech you,” the judge said, “to control him if you can.”Of course, seven years and five months into Trump’s political career, we know by now that there is no controlling Trump. And yet, exactly a year before Election Day, that rogue defendant in the dock is not only the presumptive Republican nominee but running in a dead heat with Joe Biden nationally and, if the shock poll that came out in the Times a day before Trump’s testimony is to be believed, ahead of him in five of six must-win battleground states. Trump’s lawyer Christopher Kise even bragged about this in Engoron’s courtroom, citing the poll as he referred to his client as “the future President of the United States.” The poll’s release quickly sent Democratic Washington into a vaporous state of preëmptive blame-gaming about the status of the race: It’s Biden’s age. It’s his campaign. It’s the media’s fault. It’s all of the above. One anonymous sniper told NBC News that the campaign needed a “defibrillator.” The former Obama adviser David Axelrod even kinda, sorta, maybe suggested that Biden should consider stepping aside as the Party’s 2024 standard-bearer. The White House sought to downplay the fuss as the inevitable outcry from the Party’s large class of professional “bed wetters.” Perhaps, one Democratic strategist insisted, albeit anonymously, to the Washington Post, some bed-wetting was in order: “We should be terrified about what might happen.” Continued here

S17

Many physicists assume we must live in a multiverse - but their basic maths may be wrong     One of the most startling scientific discoveries of recent decades is that physics appears to be fine-tuned for life. This means that for life to be possible, certain numbers in physics had to fall within a certain, very narrow range. One of the examples of fine-tuning which has most baffled physicists is the strength of dark energy, the force that powers the accelerating expansion of the universe. If that force had been just a little stronger, matter couldn’t clump together. No two particles would have ever combined, meaning no stars, planets, or any kind of structural complexity, and therefore no life. Continued here

S25

Sunak's climate shift is out of touch with the demands of the UK's workforce - here's why     Prime Minister Rishi Sunak plans to introduce a bill aimed at granting new oil and gas drilling licences in the North Sea. The proposal was outlined in the 2023 king’s speech to parliament, where he set out the government’s priorities ahead of the next general election. This development comes less than two months after Sunak made a series of controversial announcements setting out the government’s revised strategy for achieving net zero emissions – a move that many argue has diluted its commitment to the UK’s climate objectives. Continued here

S47

The High Court has decided indefinite detention is unlawful. What happens now?     This week, the High Court of Australia ordered the release of a Rohingya man from immigration detention where he had been for the last five and a half years. Commentators and human rights groups have been celebrating this decision, which indicates the court will overturn a 20-year-old precedent. Continued here

S26

Earth has many objects in orbit but definitely only one Moon - despite what some people think     Big Brother has always chosen its contestants for entertainment value rather than for intellectual debate. This was recently highlighted in a discussion started on the programme by dental therapist Chantelle, who suggested there must be more than one moon in the sky because it changes size and can be seen around the world. Chantelle had trouble believing that the Moon can be seen in the UK and Australia at the same time, when it takes almost a whole day and night to fly between the countries. Some of the other housemates tried to dissuade her of this view, while others decided not to get involved in the discussion. Continued here

S52

Ivanka Trump's Shockingly Smooth Case of Selective Amnesia     On Wednesday afternoon, Judge Arthur F. Engoron dismissed Ivanka Trump from the witness stand, and the New York attorney general's office rested its civil fraud case against Donald Trump, his two eldest sons, and the Trump Organization. Ivanka, who was once a Trump Organization executive herself, as well as a White House official and the owner of an apparel business, strode out of the courtroom, and, soon after, cheers and jeers could be heard coming from outside the New York County Courthouse, where a small crowd of onlookers had gathered.In September, 2022, when the state attorney general, Letitia James, first brought the civil charges against the Trumps, Ivanka was a co-defendant. In June of this year, however, an appeals court dismissed her from the case on the ground that the claims against her were barred by the state's statute of limitations. (She left the Trump Organization in 2017 to serve as an aide in the White House, alongside her husband, Jared Kushner.) After making repeated efforts to avoid testifying, or to delay her appearance, she appeared at the trial as a reluctant witness for the government. In many ways, her nearly five hours of testimony encapsulated the entire trial so far, in substance if not in style. Continued here

S29

Abortion rights victories show this issue is unlikely to fade in 2024 elections - 3 things to know     Abortion rights advocates won major victories in several state elections on Nov. 7, 2023, signaling that abortion laws are likely to continue to play an important role in the 2024 elections. In Ohio, the only state where abortion was directly on the ballot, more than 56% of voters in the conservative-leaning state approved a measure called Issue 1. Continued here

S51

"The Marvels" and the Paradox of the Superhero Franchise     When the best part of a superhero movie is the screenplay, you know you're in trouble. There's enough going on in "The Marvels"—enough situations with dramatic potential, enough twists with imaginative power—to develop several decent movies. Unfortunately, they're snipped and clipped, jammed and rammed, dropped into the movie (and swept out of it) with an informational indifference that doesn't even have the virtue of speed. The heedless rush to splash the story onto the screen leads to an appalling waste of the formidable talents marshalled to depict it.There are so many undeveloped elements here, but one of the most fundamental is dramatic morality: one mode of tragedy is a conflict of virtues, but there's hardly any villainy in "The Marvels," and everyone, more or less, has their reasons. The movie, directed by Nia DaCosta (who co-wrote the script with Megan McDonnell and Elissa Karasik), is a follow-up to the 2019 film "Captain Marvel." There, Carol Danvers (Brie Larson), a U.S. Air Force pilot who has gained superpowers (and the moniker of the title), was caught in a war between two space peoples, the Kree and the Skrulls. In the follow-up, Danvers, accused of accidentally extinguishing the sun that made the Kree and Skrulls' planet habitable, is living in a guilt-ridden, self-imposed space exile. She's called back into action by the Avengers' handler Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) to repair a so-called "jump point," a kind of space portal. She's joined in this mission by an astronaut named Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris), who was a child in the earlier movie. Their work brings them into contact, via a strange intergalactic connection, with a Jersey City teen-ager, Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani), a big fan of Captain Marvel comic books who also has secret superpowers and has a special glowing gauntlet to prove it. The gauntlet is one of a pair, the other of which is in the possession of a Kree warrior named Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton). She hates Captain Marvel for the destruction of her planet and seeks to maximize her powers by capturing Kamala's gauntlet. Meanwhile, when Monica and Captain Marvel meet at the jump point, they and Kamala all switch places with each other, thus making one another's battles suddenly their own as well. Continued here

S68

'Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes' Review: Hunger Games Prequel Fails to Justify Its Existence     The Hunger Games: A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes has a far too clunky and long name. But it’s a name that is necessary for that coveted brand recognition, one of the few lifelines for any major release in an IP-saturated movie landscape. And yet, funnily enough, too clunky, too long, and too obviously a bid to bring back a major IP is the perfect way to describe A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.Based on the novel by Suzanne Collins, A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is a textbook example of a prequel that struggles to justify its existence. All of the elements that made the Hunger Games franchise a success are there — the dark political metaphors, the horrifying dystopian premise, the beautiful young actors in beautiful gowns who make the whole bitter pill easier to swallow — but Songbirds and Snakes feels simply like a rehash of what made the original films great, just in a different shade. It doesn’t do anything wrong, per se, but neither does it make enough of an impact to lure us back to the world of Panem nearly a decade after the last Hunger Games installment. Continued here

S27

Ukraine recap: with winter closing in Zelensky resists calls to negotiate - but Gaza war adds to pressure     For the past month, the world’s attention has reeled at the violence in Israel and Gaza. Meanwhile, the war in Ukraine has ground on, day by day, metre by metre. Fierce fighting has continued in the north-eastern Donetsk region as a Russian offensive has attempted – thus far unsuccessfully – to consolidate its control by capturing the key town of Avdiivka, 20kms from the city of Donetsk. Avdiivka was occupied briefly in 2014 by Vladimir Putin’s “little green men” (Russian troops fighting without insignia), but was swiftly retaken by Ukraine which has heavily fortified the town. Reports from the frontline are that Russia has committed significant forces to the offensive, and suffered heavy losses. Continued here

S42

Perth's Optus Stadium has drawn more consumer anger after the outage. Another case of the 'stadium curse'?     Looming over the Swan River in Perth, a shiny sporting structure boldly declares “OPTUS STADIUM Yes”. After the disastrously prolonged communication outage this week, many will have shouted “No”, or other words requiring asterisks in respectable media. Sport stadium naming rights are controversial at the best of times – so why do corporates pay so much for them? And what are the risks? Continued here

S70

Humane Finally Reveals Everything About Its $699 Phone-Killing Ai Pin     Humane’s hype train has reached its final stop. After lots of teasers and vague marketing ops, Humane finally debuted its Ai Pin (pronounced like you would say AI and not “eye”), a clothing-based wearable device that is definitely, undoubtedly, for sure, not a smartphone.First thing’s first: the Ai Pin costs $699. Yes, that’s a lot of money, but Humane is clearly positioning this as a smartphone replacement and not as something you’d use in addition to a glass slab. Continued here

S31

Farmers or foragers? Pre-colonial Aboriginal food production was hardly that simple     Director, Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, The University of Queensland Rodney Carter is the CEO of the Dja Dja Wurrung Corporate Group, the Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aborginal Corporation and Dja Dja Wurrung Enterprises. Continued here

S66

This Quest 3 Demo Will Make You a Believer in AR Smart Homes     Mixed reality is making a lot of cases. There’s gaming, working, learning — just about anything you can think of. A lot of it is compelling, but if you’re more into the practical side of mixed reality, we may have found something just for you. Developer Thomas Ratliff showed off a short demo of a concept that controls smart lights while wearing the Quest 3 headset. It may be a simple app that just turns the light on and off or adjusts intensity, but what it lacks in “fun” it makes up for in practicality and polish. All that combined makes it feel like magic, especially to those not seeing it through the headset. Continued here

S45

We're in a new COVID wave. What can we expect this time?     Australia is now into its next COVID wave. We’ve seen hints of this for a while. Case numbers and indicators of severe disease began rising in Victoria in August. But it has taken several months for a consistent pattern to emerge across Australia. Now we see evidence of this new wave via wastewater surveillance for traces of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID. We also see rises in COVID-related hospital admissions and antiviral prescriptions. Compared to past waves, this one has built up slowly and over a longer period. Continued here

S21

How To Have Sex: landmark film wants to change how we talk about consent     Written and directed by Molly Manning Walker, How to Have Sex is a powerful rites-of-passage drama that follows the tale of three 16-year-old girls on a post-GCSE bender in the party resort of Malia, on the Greek island of Crete.I sat through most of this film feeling painfully uncomfortable. It authentically captures, in documentary fly-on-the-wall style, the riotous, noisy mayhem of my own teen years, partying on cheap booze and obsessing over boys. But now I am also watching as the mother of Gen Z teenagers. Continued here