Pan-Africanism remains a dream - 4 key issues the African Union must tackle

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Pan-Africanism remains a dream - 4 key issues the African Union must tackle The African Union (AU) – made up of 55 member countries – has made significant progress with integrating the countries of the continent and giving them a voice in global politics. Over the past two decades it has developed meaningful policies on peace and security, and trade, like the African Continental Free Trade Area. The African Union Commission helps set the agenda and represent African interests in global forums alongside important partners like the United Nations and the European Union. Continued here

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User-Friendly Self-Deception: Philosopher Am “Life is a dream. ‘Tis waking that kills us. He who robs us of our dreams robs us of our life,” Virginia Woolf wrote as she considered how our illusions keep us alive, shining a sidewise gleam on an elemental fact of human nature: We are touchingly prone to mistaking our models of reality for reality itself, mistaking the strength of our certainty for the strength of the evidence, thus moving through a dream of our own making that we call life. It can only be so — given how many parallel truths comprise any given situation, given how multifarious the data points packed into any single experience, given that this very moment “you are missing the vast majority of what is happening around you,” we are simply not capable of processing the full scope of reality. Our minds cope by choosing fragments of it to the exclusion, and often to the erasure, of the rest. But what we choose and how we choose it defines the measure of our sanity, and how we go about choosing our adaptive delusions over the maladaptive ones defines our fitness for life. That is what philosopher Amélie Rorty (May 20, 1932–September 18, 2020) explores in a marvelous 1994 paper in the Journal of the Royal Institute of Philosophy, marvelously titled User-Friendly Self-Deception. Recognizing that “many varieties of self-deception are ineradicable and useful,” Rorty writes: Continued here

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9 Business Communication Tactics That Are High-Risk and Not Worth Taking You need to be courageous with your communications, but watch out for these pitfalls. Continued here

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5 Generations Are Now Working Under 1 Roof. This Is How Smart Leaders Are Making the Most of It As age-diversity in the workplace is becoming more pronounced, leaders should cultivate a mutual exchange of knowledge to bridge the generation gap. Continued here

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My Employees Tell Me What They're Doing, Rather Than Asking Permission Am I being too sensitive or is this a problem? Continued here

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To Be Happier in Your Work, it Might Be Time to Reevaluate Your Approach to Emotional Intelligence The overlooked key to building strong connections and improving relationships, both personal and professional. Continued here

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3 Things Apple Should Change Right Now to Fix Its Broken Relationship with Developers A little humility would go a long way. Continued here

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Stuck on a Tough Problem? Harvard Research Shows Changing Just 1 Word Can Help You Find a Solution A modest but meaningful improvement with zero effort Continued here

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7 Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make That Sabotage Their Success Entrepreneurs can learn to spot these mistakes in advance, and act to prevent them. Continued here

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The Best Leaders Never Ask This Question, but Mediocre Managers Always Do Asking it is "a management fail," according to a leadership advisor and Ph.D. Continued here

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Ask Sanyin: How Can I Shape My Legacy as a Leader? I feel that much of my leadership over the past few years has been crisis management. While I’m proud that we’ve achieved stability and growth in difficult times, that doesn’t feel like a lasting legacy. How can I make my mark here? The notion of building a legacy is daunting because we frame it in terms of what we leave behind: the final tally of our accomplishments netting out as the inheritance we pass to the next generation. From this perspective, the idea of legacy is inherently transactional and creates the illusion that building legacy is all about posting great results. Of course, creating new sources of value or transforming operations for greater sustainability may be part of the legacy you’ll be proud to leave behind. But this way of thinking about our legacies is also temporally disjunct. It makes our legacy appear far off, something that is manifest in the future. We forget that legacy is actually something we’re continually building in the present. And we do it in small moments, such as those monthly breakfasts you have with new hires to seek their perspectives, showing that they matter. It can be in the stories that you share, highlighting not only those who closed the deal but celebrating those whose assists enabled the win. It can happen when you mentor a colleague who’s experiencing a crisis of confidence. Continued here

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The workers finding silver linings in layoffs When Suki Lanh heard she was to be one of 20 staff laid off at a financial-tech start-up in July 2022, her first reaction was fear for what it could mean for her career. “I was initially scared because I had seen layoffs happening all across the tech industry, so I worried I wouldn’t be able to find another job for several months,” says the 31-year-old, from Tampa, Florida, who had been working with the firm as a copywriter and social media creative producer for a little more than a year. Continued here

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The last fisherman of Monaco It's often just past midnight when Eric Rinaldi unties the mooring lines and carefully manoeuvres his fishing boat Diego out of Monaco's harbour, Port Hercules. Contemplating the hours of inky darkness in front of him, he'll steer past rows of superyachts as he heads out into the open sea, their polished hulls and elaborate designs a stark contrast to the simple practicality of his fibreglass workboat. Onboard Diego – named for his young son – Rinaldi's biggest luxury is an old Nespresso machine, one of the few comforts among the jumble of nets, hooks, bright orange buoys and other tools of his trade.  Continued here

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Why Italian cheesemakers buried their pecorino Loreto Pacitti was stumped. He was desperate. The pecorino producer couldn't sell one of Italy's most famous cheeses. No one could. Covid had closed restaurants and public markets, skyrocketed production costs and curbed public spending. Worried his cheese would spoil, he did what his ancestors did hundreds of years ago. "During the lockdown I lost almost everything," said Pacitti, owner of La Caciosteria di Casa Lawrence in the village of Picinisco in the Lazio region. "But then because of this system [of burying cheese] I recovered everything." Continued here

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8 of the world's best forest homes Dwellings that offer different takes on the archetypal forest refuge are featured in a new book – "flanked by towering pines, enveloped by the jungle, built into a shoreline, or perched on a mountainside". Many of the designers in Living in the Forest (Phaidon) "have drawn from the past to build homes for the future… inspired by folklore, indigenous culture, vernacular architecture or the land itself". In doing so, they have broken new ground in green construction, "reframing the way we live in nature". Circle Wood, Mobius Architekci, 2020, Izabelin, Poland (Credit: Paweł Ulatowski / Przemek Olczyk) Continued here

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Alice Neel: Striking images of America's ignored Alice Neel was never one to bow to convention, neither in the way she lived her life nor in the manner in which she chose to paint. Born at the turn of the 20th Century, she grew up in a Pennsylvania town devoid of culture in a society riven with racism, homophobia and misogyny. Yet she escaped to study art and went on to create astonishingly innovative portraits of those generally ignored by society – her Puerto Rican neighbours in Spanish Harlem, black intellectuals, communist activists, pregnant women and sex workers. "I am a collector of souls… I paint my time using the people as evidence," said Neel. -        Unflinching images that confront injustice-        The 80s artists who predicted today-        The portraits that question history Continued here

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Prisoners donating organs to get time off raises thorny ethical questions In January 2023 two Democratic representatives, Judith Garcia and Carlos Gonzalez, proposed a bill that would offer prisoners in Massachusetts a new way to win reduction in their sentences: by donating their bone marrow or vital organs. The bill stated that the commissioner of the Department of Corrections should establish both a bone marrow and organ donation program within the department and a committee focused on bone marrow and organ donation that would set eligibility standards for inmates interested in the program. While forbidding commissions or monetary payments for donors, it stated that prisoners could “gain not less than 60 and not more than 365 day reduction in the length of their committed sentence” if they donated bone marrow or an organ. Continued here

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How records of life's milestones help solve cold cases, pinpoint health risks and allocate public resources After 65 years, Philadelphia police announced in December 2022 that they had identified the remains of Joseph Augustus Zarelli, a 4-year-old boy who was murdered in 1957. Because no one had ever come forward to reliably identify Joseph, he became “America’s Unknown Child,” a moniker that captured the tragic anonymity of his early death. Recent advances in DNA analysis and forensic genealogy provided the needed breakthrough to build a genetic profile that connected the boy to surviving members of his mother’s family. But linking that genetic profile to Joseph’s identity required finding his name, a piece of information stored alongside his mother’s on his nearly 70-year-old birth record in the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s vital records system. Continued here

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Super Bowl car ads sell Americans the idea that new tech will protect them Super Bowl ads tend to kick off trends, and it looks like the automotive industry will ramp up its pitch for electric vehicles after giving them center stage. Even Tesla, which has never run a Super Bowl ad, managed to sneak its Model Y into a Popeyes commercial, while Ram boasted that its new electric pickup truck’s smart technology solved the problems of “premature electrification” that left consumers unsatisfied. But it was an ad paid for by the Dawn Project, a safety advocacy group, that will likely trigger a fleet of ads this year to reassure consumers that EV technology is safe. Continued here

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A diverse Supreme Court grapples with affirmative action, with its justices of color split sharply on the meaning of 'equal protection' The United States Supreme Court is deciding a pair of cases that could end affirmative action programs that consider race in college admissions. Though the court is the most diverse in American history – with three justices of color and four women – the conservatives, who have historically opposed affirmative action programs, hold a 6-3 majority. And that majority has the power to ban the use of race when the court issues a decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina. A decision is expected in June 2023. Continued here

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Is it time for teachers to get a raise? In his 2023 State of the Union address, President Joe Biden called for public school teachers to get a raise but offered no specifics on how that could be done. Here, Michael Addonizio, an education policy expert at Wayne State University, provides insight on the current state of teacher salaries, whether a collective raise is in order and how one might be achieved. According to a 2022 study from the Economic Policy Institute – a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank that addresses low- and middle-income workers’ needs – the teacher “wage penalty” - that is, how much less teachers make than comparable workers - grew from 6.1% in 1996 to 23.5% in 2021. Put another way, the average weekly wages of public school teachers – adjusted for inflation – increased just US$29 from 1996 to 2021, from $1,319 to $1,348 in 2021 dollars. Meanwhile, inflation-adjusted weekly wages of other college graduates rose $445, from $1,564 to $2,009, over the same period. Continued here

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Seismologists can't predict an impending earthquake, but longer term forecasts and brief warnings after one starts are possible Almost like aftershocks, questions about earthquake prediction tend to follow disasters like the Feb. 6, 2023, Turkey-Syria quake. Could advance notice have prevented some of the devastation? Unfortunately, useful predictions are still in the realm of science fiction. University of Washington professor of seismology and geohazards Harold Tobin heads the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network. He explains the differences between predicting and forecasting earthquakes, as well as early warning systems that are currently in place in some areas. Continued here

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Hunger in South Africa: study shows one in five are at risk University of the Witwatersrand provides support as a hosting partner of The Conversation AFRICA. Everyone is vulnerable in some way, whether it’s to natural disasters, chronic diseases or hunger. But some are more at risk than others because of what they are exposed to socially, economically and environmentally. This phenomenon is known as social vulnerability. It refers to the attributes of society that make people and places susceptible to natural disasters, adverse health outcomes and social inequalities. Continued here

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Nigeria's election: six dangers of mixing religion with politics One of the issues that has generated great concern among voters in the run up to the Nigerian presidential elections is religion. Many Nigerians see the mixing of religion and politics as an impediment to progress and development. This idea can be traced to Europe. The Middle Ages were a time when religious authorities and political authorities clashed in European states, resulting in instability. The need to separate religion from politics thus became normalised in western political thought by the early 20th century. Over the years the idea found its way into other societies. Continued here

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Ukraine war: 'soccer plot' raises fears of fresh Russian attempts to destabilise neighbouring Moldova Moldova has been sliding into yet another crisis following the resignation of its prime minister, Natalia Gavrilita, and fears that Russia was plotting a coup to overthrow the pro-western president, Maia Sandu. At a press conference in the Moldovan capital Chisinau on February 13, Sandu confirmed earlier accusations made by the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, in his speech to the European Council that the Kremlin was about to execute a coup against Moldova. Continued here

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Why The Sims 4's new inclusion of transgender and disabled sims matters The Sims is one of the bestselling franchises in gaming history. But unlike most other AAA games (high budget and high profile games produced by leading publishers), this open world life simulation game has no clear end goal. Instead of following a quest format, the Sims offers gamers multiple possibilities for game play. Their simulated characters (known as “sims”) can work, socialise, develop skills and even age without being restricted to a linear path. Continued here

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Harry Kane is Tottenham's top goal scorer - sports scientists explain his brilliance It was only a matter of time before Tottenham Hotspur and England striker Harry Kane broke the record set by Jimmy Greaves to become the club’s all-time top scorer. On February 5 2023, he bagged his 267th goal for the club in a 1-0 victory over Manchester City, taking him clear of Greaves’s record. In doing so, Kane also joined an illustrious group – the men’s Premier League “200 club”. Few would put it past him surpassing Wayne Rooney’s 208 Premier League goals this season, then chasing down Alan Shearer’s 260 in the next few to take top spot. Continued here

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Antibiotics are being inappropriately prescribed for COVID, increasing the threat of antimicrobial resistance - research Antibiotics are drugs designed to treat infections caused by bacteria (for example, skin infections). They don’t work on infections caused by other microbes such as viruses (including COVID and flu) or fungi (for example, thrush). Beyond treating bacterial infections, antibiotics also have other important uses, like preventing infection during major surgery. Continued here

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Was Earth already heating up, or did global warming reverse a long-term cooling trend? Over the past century, the Earth’s average temperature has swiftly increased by about 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit). The evidence is hard to dispute. It comes from thermometers and other sensors around the world. But what about the thousands of years before the Industrial Revolution, before thermometers, and before humans warmed the climate by releasing heat-trapping carbon dioxide from fossil fuels? Continued here

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What is a UFO? The US shot down three mysterious objects as interest and concern increase over unidentified craft Wendy N. Whitman Cobb is affiliated with the US Air Force School of Advanced Air and Space Studies. Her views are her own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Defense or any of its components. On the heels of the Feb. 4, 2023, shooting down of a Chinese balloon suspected of spying on the U.S., American fighter jets have shot down three additional objects in or near U.S. airspace. Continued here

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Black holes may be the source of mysterious dark energy that makes up most of the universe Astronomy Group Lead, Space Operations Division at RAL Space, and Visiting Fellow, The Open University Black holes could explain a mysterious form of energy that makes up most of the universe, according to astronomers. The existence of “dark energy” has been inferred from observations of stars and galaxies, but no one has been able to explain what it is, or where it comes from. Continued here

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Debate: Sorry, British Museum, a loan of the Parthenon Marbles is not a repatriation In the last few weeks, we have been regularly reminded that secret talks have been taking place between the Greek government and the British Museum over the return of the Parthenon marbles to Greece. As soon the discussions became public knowledge, a wave of optimism swept the media, culminating in The London Times congratulating the former British chancellor and chair of the British Museum, George Osborne, on brokering the deal. But as accolades were prematurely showered on the British Museum, I watched in astonishment and bit my lip. As an international legal expert who spent the past two years working on the merits of the repatriation claim for my book The Parthenon Marbles and International Law, I had a sneaking suspicion that this was not it yet. Or was I missing something? The general euphoria must have been triggered by something grander than Osborne’s modest concession that “there’s a deal to be done” and his apparent willingness to loan the marbles to Greece? Surely by now we know better than to place our hopes in silky rhetoric of this kind that seems to make promises it has not made? Continued here

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Carlos Saura, the filmmaker who took Spanish identity all over the planet Profesor Ayudante Específico, Departamento de Comunicación, Facultad de Humanidades, Comunicación y Documentación (UC3M), Universidad Carlos III On more than one occasion he declared that if he stopped working, he would die. And, indeed, death caught up with him at work. Continued here

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Why a judicial inquiry into athlete abuse is not the right approach Bruce Kidd is a member of the Federal Provincial Territorial Sport Committee Work Group (FPTSC WG), comprised of F-P/T government officials and sport sector experts. The FPTSC WG provides recommendations to the FPTSC on initiatives aimed at increasing participation of women and girls in all facets of sport. It is heartening to see the recent open letter signed by so many Canadian academics calling on the federal government to address the long history of athlete abuse in sport. Continued here

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Nicola Sturgeon resignation: the unanswered questions for Scotland and the SNP she leaves behind When Jacinda Ardern resigned as New Zealand’s prime minister a few weeks ago, Nicola Sturgeon assured voters she still had plenty left in the tank. Yet apparently, Scotland’s first minister had been thinking about her own future for some time. She said so in her resignation speech on Wednesday, which came as a surprise to much of Scotland. Despite a recent and consistent wave of difficulty and controversy over the gender recognition reform bill, the quest for another independence referendum, a finance investigation into the SNP and an ongoing “ferry fiasco”, there was no clear indication that Sturgeon was going to quit. Continued here

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Ontario's private surgical clinics: Cheques but no balances when providing health care It’s critical to consider the trade-offs when surgeries are moved out of non-profit facilities, like hospitals and community clinics, and into for-profit clinics. Ontario’s private eye surgery clinics are an interesting case. They were the first in the province to perform surgeries outside hospitals. Some have been around for decades, doing for-profit cosmetic and laser eye surgeries for people who pay directly for procedures. Most are owned by ophthalmologists. Continued here

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Children can now report rights violations directly to the UN - it's progress, but Aotearoa New Zealand still needs to do more The latest report into the rights of children in Aotearoa New Zealand has painted a mixed picture of how the country treats young people. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child recently published its sixth review into how Aotearoa New Zealand is implementing its obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989. Continued here

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Trees can be weeds too - When we think of weeds, often what comes to mind are small, quick-growing plants such as the dandelions or couch grass we might find in our gardens. You may not think of trees as being weedy. But trees can be weeds too. They can spread quickly, showering an area in seeds and pushing out other species. Even species native to Australia can be a problem when they’re introduced to other areas. Continued here

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40 years on, does Australia need another Prices and Incomes Accord? The election of the Hawke Labor government on March 5 1983 began an era of once-in-a-century economic reforms that opened the Australian economy to the world. It floated the dollar, eliminated controls on international capital flows, and dismantled the high tariffs that protected local manufacturers from imports. It refocused Australia’s international trade and foreign policy on the Asia-Pacific region. But perhaps its most striking innovation was in place even before it was elected: a historic agreement with the Australian Council of Trade Unions, known as the Prices and Incomes Accord (or “the Accord”), announced on February 22 1983. Continued here

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How can publishers support the authors of trauma memoirs, as they unpack their pain for the public? New research investigates When Amani Haydar’s mother was murdered by her father in an act of domestic violence, writing helped process the pain. At first, she wrote in private, journalling as a way “to express frustrations and insecurities I feared couldn’t be spoken out loud at the time”. Haydar is a trained lawyer; the chance to write a Victim Impact Statement reminded her how important survivor voices are within justice settings. More broadly, she found herself inspired by acclaimed memoirs and public testimonies of gendered violence. Continued here

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The largest structures in the Universe are still glowing with the shock of their creation On the largest scales, the Universe is ordered into a web-like pattern: galaxies are pulled together into clusters, which are connected by filaments and separated by voids. These clusters and filaments contain dark matter, as well as regular matter like gas and galaxies. We call this the “cosmic web”, and we can see it by mapping the locations and densities of galaxies from large surveys made with optical telescopes. Continued here

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Buildings tumbling, survivors living in tents: medieval descriptions of an 1114 CE earthquake in present-day Turkey and Syria feel eerily familiar The catastrophic earthquakes of February 6 2023 in Turkey and Syria are so far known to have claimed the lives of over 41,000 people. This number will likely grow as rescue and recovery efforts continue. The region has known earthquakes before. In the past century alone, Turkey has seen nearly 20 earthquakes of a magnitude 7.0 or above. Continued here

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New national autism guideline will finally give families a roadmap for therapy decisions Bennett Chair of Autism, Telethon Kids Institute, The University of Western Australia Australian’s first national guideline outlining the best ways of providing clinical support to autistic children and their families will be launched in Canberra today. Continued here

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Young people may decide the outcome of the Voice referendum - here's why A referendum on a First Nations Voice to Parliament is set to be held in the second half of this year. Australians will be asked if they agree to a constitutional amendment to give First Nations people a voice in government decisions that directly affect them. This body aims to circumvent complicated bureaucracy, address consistently poor life outcomes, and improve the services and support of Indigenous communities in Australia. Given young Australians, mostly progressive and most engaged in issue-based politics, helped swing the 2022 election, it is likely their support will be crucial to the “yes” campaign. Continued here

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Emergencies Act inquiry report should tackle the racist origins of national security The Public Order Emergency Commission investigated the federal government’s use of the Emergencies Act in response to blockades by the so-called Freedom Convoy in Ottawa, Windsor and western Canada in February 2022. Justice Paul Rouleau will soon release a report on the inquiry’s findings. He will no doubt focus on whether the blockades were sufficiently serious to justify emergency measures. Continued here

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The New International Economic Order stumbled once before. Will it succeed a second time around? Calls for a new approach to the management of global affairs intensified after the curtain came down on this year’s World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting held at Davos, Switzerland. In the wake of the WEF’s headline-grabbing controversies about the legitimacy of WEF’s leadership and proposals for a new global economy, a movement seeking to renew the promise of global co-operation quietly re-emerged. Delegates from over 25 countries, organized by a group called Progressive International, assembled in Havana on Jan. 27 to declare their intent to build a New International Economic Order (NIEO) fit for the 21st century. Continued here

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Faster-than-reflexes robo-boots boost balance Robotic boots providing superhuman reflexes can help your balance. Our new study shows that the key to augmenting balance is to have boots that can act faster than human reaction times. When people slip or trip, their reactions to regain balance are far slower than some machines can act. For humans, and other animals with legs, it takes time for biological sensors to send signals to the nervous system and then turn on muscles. Robots can act much faster, using wires instead of nerves to send their signals. Continued here

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How dangerous was the Ohio chemical train derailment? An environmental engineer assesses the long-term risks Headaches and lingering chemical smells from a fiery train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, have left residents worried about their air and water – and misinformation on social media hasn’t helped. State officials offered more details of the cleanup process and a timeline of the environmental disaster during a news conference on Feb. 14, 2023. Nearly a dozen cars carrying chemicals, including vinyl chloride, a carcinogen, derailed on the evening of Feb. 3, and fire from the site sent up acrid black smoke. Officials said they had tested over 400 nearby homes for contamination and were tracking a plume of spilled chemicals that had killed 3,500 fish in streams and reached the Ohio River. Continued here

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To prepare for future pandemics, we can learn from the OECD's top two performers: New Zealand and Iceland A Royal Commission of Inquiry into New Zealand’s COVID response began work this month, with a goal to prepare the country for future pandemics. It will focus on lessons not only from New Zealand’s pandemic experience but also from other countries and jurisdictions. Continued here

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Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder is tragic but not new. How should fresh funding tackle it in the NT? The promised A$250 million adds to an earlier commitment of $48 million and aims to tackle problems faced by residents in Alice Springs and Central Australia from many angles, including strategies to reduce alcohol-related violence, harms and crime. Included is a commitment to “improve the response to fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) by the health and justice sectors”. Continued here

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Beyond roads, rates and rubbish: Australians now expect local councils to act on bigger issues, including climate change Yet councils still tend to find themselves on the receiving end of public criticism when they veer from delivering “services to property” to activities that fall under the “services to people” category. They attract headlines like The Guardian’s “Council of war: how much should local government stray from roads, rates and rubbish?” and the Courier Mail’s “Stick to collecting rubbish – not spreading it”. In one respect, it’s easy to understand why. The 537 local councils around Australia are creations of state and territory statutes. Until relatively recently, they were restricted to administering a select number of services to property. They are not mentioned in the Commonwealth Constitution and sit squarely at the bottom of our federal hierarchy. Continued here

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What kinds of people 'catfish'? Study finds they have higher psychopathy, sadism, and narcissism Online dating has revolutionised romance, creating more opportunities to meet potential partners than ever before. However, alongside the benefits is the risk of abuse, harassment, and exploitation. In late January this year, the Australian government convened a national roundtable on online dating to explore what could be done to improve safety. Continued here

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Blessed Union puts queer families centre stage, with hilarity and heartbreak Billed as “the lesbian break-up comedy you didn’t know you needed”, Blessed Union is a chaotic joyride, a rapid-fire feast of words, ideas and emotions laying bare what happens when love and family are politicised. The play is based partly on playwright Maeve Marsden’s experiences growing up with two lesbian mothers who eventually separated. Continued here

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AI can track bees on camera. Here's how that will help farmers Artificial intelligence (AI) offers a new way to track the insect pollinators essential to farming. In a new study, we installed miniature digital cameras and computers inside a greenhouse at a strawberry farm in Victoria, Australia, to track bees and other insects as they flew from plant to plant pollinating flowers. Continued here

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Stop tossing your spent vapes and e-cigs: you're breeding a new waste pandemic Vaping, or using electronic cigarettes, not only pollutes the surrounding air, it also creates a new contaminated e-waste stream. After years of battling the scourge of cigarette butts, Clean Up Australia’s latest National Rubbish Report, released today, reveals cigarette butts are no longer number one on the list of most commonly littered items. Soft plastics have become public enemy number one instead. Continued here

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How running can help you cope with stress at work If grabbing your trainers and heading out for a run is your way of coping with a stressful week at work, you’re not alone. According to England Athletics, more than six million adults in England ran at least once a week in 2021, and around two-thirds cite reducing stress as a reason for running. This article is part of Quarter Life, a series about issues affecting those of us in our twenties and thirties. From the challenges of beginning a career and taking care of our mental health, to the excitement of starting a family, adopting a pet or just making friends as an adult. The articles in this series explore the questions and bring answers as we navigate this turbulent period of life. Continued here

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At-home fertility tests: here's what they can actually tell you A growing number of us are waiting longer to become parents. In the UK, the average age of first-time parents is between 30 and 33 years old. Fifty years ago, the average age was 26. There are many reasons we’re choosing to have children later in life. On the one hand, waiting to have kids can allow us to create more stable lifestyles first, establishing a career and building our finances. But many of us also know that the longer we wait, the harder it can be to have children – with age being one of the biggest factors underlying infertility. Continued here

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Why young people in every sphere - not just business and politics - should learn to lead Reader in Leadership, School of Business and Creative Industries, University of the West of Scotland Leadership is most commonly held to be the ability to motivate others to achieve set goals. For some, this means being heroic and special. The world stood still when Nelson Mandela died. His achievements alone – the freedom fighter turned political prisoner, the first black president of South Africa, the Nobel peace prize winner – would qualify him as a great leader. Continued here

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COVID wasn't a 'bumper campaign' for right-wing extremists. But the threat from terror remains Chair in Global Islamic Politics, Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University Violent extremism remains a persistent and resilient threat, constantly adapting and evolving. It is an endlessly demanding problem and we can neither afford to ignore it nor allow it to disproportionately consume our finite resources. Continued here

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Politics with Michelle Grattan: Kate Chaney on life as a teal MP Kate Chaney was one of half a dozen new “teal” MPs elected to parliament last year, winning the previously solid Liberal seat of Curtin in Western Australia. “It’s been a fascinating and steep learning curve over the last eight months,” Chaney tells the podcast. “As a crossbencher, you really have to think very carefully about how you vote on every piece of legislation and try as much as possible to connect with community and ensure that those votes are informed by community.” Continued here

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Shake and divide: the cocktail formula for global consensus Para llevar a cabo esta investigación, M. Ángeles Serrano ha recibido fondos de la Agencia Estatal de Investigación de España, código de proyecto PID2019-106290GB- C22/AEI/10.13039/501100011033. For yet another year, the world’s conference on climate change – COP27 – concluded with few agreements and a clear division between North and South. Continued here

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Almost a year on, Russia's war against Ukraine could go in three different directions Secrétaire général du CEVIPOF. Enseignant à Sciences Po. Chercheur-associé au Centre HEC Paris de Géopolitique, Sciences Po The frontline may be frozen but the battle rages on in Ukraine. In Bakhmut, a town which Moscow views as key to gain control of the entire Eastern Donbas area, the past weeks have seen military stock shrink fast, and hundreds of troops killed and injured a day, according to U.S analysts. Continued here

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Grattan on Friday: Adam Bandt is wedged by Greens' overreach on emissions legislation If Peter Dutton is caught in a classic rock-and-hard-place dilemma over the Voice to Parliament, the same could be said for Greens leader Adam Bandt on the safeguard legislation to underpin the government’s climate policy. The Greens are putting as a condition of supporting the bill – now before parliament – that the government commits to a ban on new coal and gas projects. Continued here

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Will Shortz’s Life in Crosswords When Will Shortz took over as the crossword editor at the Times, in 1993, he set out to make the puzzle younger. He published more contributors in their twenties and thirties, and favored clues with a modern sensibility: Greek prefixes and musty arcana were largely swept away, replaced by sitcoms, snack-food brands, and sprightly wordplay. Now, at the age of seventy, and approaching his thirtieth anniversary at the paper, he is a member of the established cohort he once defined himself against. Part of his job, as he sees it, is to adjudicate what any puzzler should know. But he is a self-described "older white guy," and his judgments have drawn criticism, at times, for catering narrowly to his demographic. To a rising generation of crossword enthusiasts, he is at once a revered maestro and a frustrating embodiment of the Old Guard. Although he resists crossword-clue relativism, and maintains that some references are simply more significant than others, Shortz has changed with the times in certain ways. He now shares his duties with a team of associate editors, and he happily acknowledges that their array of backgrounds and habitus has made for a better crossword. Navigating these changes seems to have done nothing to dampen Shortz's enthusiasm for the job; the man was clearly put on this earth to puzzle. In our conversation, which has been edited and condensed, we talked about some non-puzzle things, too: his love of table tennis, his cameo on "The Simpsons," and the surprise of finding his first serious romance, late in life. Afterward, he sent me a few of his favorite crossword clues, which you can attempt to solve below. Continued here

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Super-Realistic Meat Alternatives Follow @newyorkercartoons on Instagram and sign up for the Daily Humor newsletter for more funny stuff. © 2023 Condé Nast. All rights reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. Ad Choices Continued here

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The Gustavo Dudamel Show Goes East No one wants to hear anything more about the purported rivalry between New York and Los Angeles—two self-fascinated metropolitan regions vying for control of the national psyche, to the irritation of the remainder of the country. Nonetheless, the dread topic resurfaced last week, when it was announced that Gustavo Dudamel, the current music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, would, in a few years’ time, go east to take the same job at the New York Philharmonic. The appointment was variously described as a “coup,” a “major coup,” a “total coup,” and an “East Coast coup.” Los Angeles was thought to be reeling from the blow. It was, according to a New York Times report from L.A., “a strike at the soul of this city.” To the extent that the broader population of Angelenos was distraught at the news—they were probably focussed more on LeBron James’s 38,388th point—they can take solace in the fact that the notional coup exemplifies what a recent Times article characterized as the Los Angelizing of New York, supposedly evident in such trends as mocktails, sound baths, early dining, and ketamine. Likewise, the N.Y. Phil has a habit of imitating the L.A. Phil, which, since the Esa-Pekka Salonen era of the nineties and two-thousands, has been the trendsetting heavyweight among American orchestras. Alan Gilbert, who led the N.Y. Phil from 2009 to 2017, initiated a new-music series along the lines of L.A.’s Green Umbrella concerts. After Gilbert’s departure, the N.Y. Phil considered approaching Salonen before settling, to widespread bafflement, on Jaap van Zweden, the Millard Fillmore of music directors. It then brought in Deborah Borda, the longtime chief executive of the L.A. Phil. Borda oversaw a renovation of Geffen Hall that borrows motifs, with mixed success, from Frank Gehry’s design for Disney Hall, the L.A. Phil’s home. With the advent of Dudamel, the putative L.A.-ification of New York is complete. Continued here

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A Historic Earthquake in Turkey, and the Saga of a Spy Balloon More than forty thousand people are dead after back-to-back earthquakes in Turkey and Syria last week. It’s a new level of disaster in a region that has been pummelled by violence and terrorism. As a Syrian refugee in Turkey told The New Yorker, “We’ve had eleven years of war in Syria . . . . But what happened in eleven years there happened in forty seconds here.” Meanwhile, a mysterious tale of espionage has been unfolding. After a Chinese spy balloon was seen over Montana, the United States identified several more floating bodies in its airspace. Are they proliferating, or have they been there for far longer than we realize? Ben Taub, a New Yorker staff writer, has reported extensively from the Turkish-Syrian border, but his most recent piece for the magazine was about a man who travelled around the world in a balloon. He joins Tyler Foggatt to unravel two of the biggest stories in the news. Continued here

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“Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” Is Prefab Marvel Just as the trouble with Bible-thumping is the thumping, not the Bible, the problem with superhero-franchise movies isn't the source material but the uses to which it's put. If some viewers and even some critics have given vent to feelings of superhero fatigue, it's not only because of the sheer number of such movies. If they were more consistently good, they'd be more consistently welcomed. What's fatiguing, in particular, is the formula—one of overproduced, corporate-dictated, eye-on-the-marketplace, focus-grouped, committee-created cinema. When the Marvel world was still being developed, many of the movies had the appealing overflow of loose ends, a delight in discovery unconstrained by formatting, because the program was yet to be figured out. Now the machine is humming, and it has been a while—specifically, since "Black Panther," in 2018—since a Marvel movie has felt as if it wasn't completely a package within a package, an unmitigated prefabrication. Another earlier Marvel movie, the first "Ant-Man" film, from 2015, was a giddy delight. I don't have factual knowledge of the creative leeway that the studio offered its director, Peyton Reed, but that filmmaker's loopy humor and exquisite style were on display there. The second film in the cycle, "Ant-Man and the Wasp," felt tethered—Reed unleashed intermittent flourishes of inspiration, but now they were completely bound by the M.C.U.'s gravitational field, pulled down to the franchise's established map, and sent forth to do their duty. Continued here

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The Man Behind India’s Controversial Global Blockbuster “RRR” S. S. Rajamouli was born in 1973, in the South Indian state of Karnataka, to a family from a dominant caste. He learned how to make movies from various odd jobs and apprenticeships, including a years-long stint working for his father, the successful screenwriter Koduri Viswa Vijayendra Prasad. In the past two decades, Rajamouli has earned a reputation among Indian moviegoers for a series of formally ambitious blockbusters, including the spectacular "Baahubali: The Beginning," from 2015, which inspired a new wave of Indian historic epics. But he has found a new level of global success with his latest film, the joyously over-the-top action-fantasy "RRR"—short for "Rise Roar Revolt"—which is among the highest-grossing Indian movies of all time. "RRR" was first released last March but caught on with American viewers over the summer, after an unusual U.S.-wide theatrical rerelease organized by the distributor Variance Films and the film consultant Josh Hurtado. The movie hasn't left U.S. theatres since. A Hindi-dubbed version on Netflix has furthered its word-of-mouth reputation. For many American viewers, "RRR" has provided an introduction not only to Indian cinema but to the Telugu-language film industry sometimes referred to as Tollywood, which operates separately from its more famous Hindi-language counterpart, Bollywood. In January, Rajamouli won Best Director at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards. His film is nominated for an Oscar in the category of Best Original Song, for the international viral hit "Naatu Naatu." Continued here

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Look! Gorgeous New Space Image is Your Valentine From the Universe With powerful stellar winds and blazing hot radiation, dozens of young stars have spent the last million years carving a vaguely heart-shaped bubble in surrounding clouds of interstellar dust — just in time for a sentient species to arise on a small planet 7,500 light years away, invent a celebration based on love and lots of chocolate, and develop the technology to look out into the cosmos and see a glowing red heart carved in a distant nebula. The Heart Nebula appears on the right of this photograph, with the Soul Nebula on the left. Continued here