ROTTEN BRAINS

Di

The Oxford English Dictionary has announced “brain rot” as its word of year. The dictionary defines it as “the supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging”. But few people are aware of how literally technology is rotting our brains, and how decisively compulsive internet use is destroying our grey matter...





I've seen the whole world six times over
Sea of Japan to the Cliffs of Dover
Overkill Overview Over my dead body
Over me Over you Over everybody

Too much information running through my brain
Too much information driving me insane



"The first flood was of water, the second is the flood of information" 
Pierre Levy


The dream of the "collective intelligence" is over. In its place we have the collective "rotten brain".

We are all in the same cyber-boat, the same info-bath, in the same perennial flood of "rotting" communication.

Brain rot was portended almost 20 years ago when scientists studied the effects of a new invention called “email”, specifically the impact a relentless barrage of information would have on participants’ brains. The results? Constant cognitive overload had a more negative effect than taking cannabis, with IQs of participants dropping an average of 10 points. And this was prior to smartphones bringing the internet to our fingertips, which has resulted in the average adult now spending at least four hours a day online (with gen Z men spending five and a half hours a day online, and gen Z women six and a half).

In recent years, an abundance of academic research from institutions found evidence that the internet is shrinking our grey matter, shortening attention spans, weakening memory and distorting our cognitive processes. The areas of the brain found to be affected included “attentional capacities, as the constantly evolving stream of online information encourages our divided attention across multiple media sources”, “memory processes” and “social cognition”.

Paper after paper spells out how vulnerable we are to internet-induced brain rot. “High levels of internet usage and heavy media multitasking are associated with decreased grey matter in prefrontal regions”, finds one. People with internet addiction exhibit “structural brain changes” and “reduced grey matter”. Too much technology during brain developmental years has even been referred to by some academics as risking “digital dementia”.

We are now living in “a perfect storm of cognitive degradation”. Dr Gloria Mark, professor of informatics at the University of California and author of "Attention Span", has found evidence of how drastically our ability to focus is waning. 

Silicon Valley’s dirtiest design feature is the infinite scroll, likened to the “bottomless soup bowl” experiment, in which participants will keep mindlessly eating from a soup bowl if it keeps refilling. An online feed that constantly “refills” manipulates the brain’s dopaminergic reward system in a similar way. These powerful dopamine-driven loops of endless “seeking” can become addictive.

The former Google design ethicist Tristan Harris told US Congress in 2019 that billions of people – “a psychological footprint about the size of Christianity” – now receive their information from platforms whose business model “links their profit to how much attention they capture, creating a ‘race to the bottom of the brain stem’ to extract attention by hacking lower into our lizard brains – into dopamine, fear, outrage – to win”.

Is doom scrolling really rotting our brains? The evidence is getting harder to ignore

Siân Boyle The Guardian

Dall’anno scorso ad oggi, il New York Times ha riportato un incremento del 230% nell'uso del termine Brain Rot; un aumento alimentato dalla crescente diffusione del concetto su piattaforme social, in particolare TikTok e X.  Un segno evidente, questo, di quanto ormai sia «normale» essere travolti da stimoli digitali insignificanti, che rischiano di minare la nostra capacità di pensare in modo critico e di connetterci emotivamente con gli altri.

Brain Rot si riferisce al declino cognitivo causato dal consumo eccessivo e passivo di contenuti digitali. Immaginate di scorrere in modo compulsivo tra post, meme, video di pochi secondi e articoli dai titoli accattivanti, senza però mai fermarvi davvero a riflettere su ciò che si sta guardando o leggendo. Questi stimoli, seppur brevi, non esercitano una vera e propria attività mentale, ma la loro continua ripetizione porta a una «stanchezza cerebrale» che interferisce con la capacità di concentrarsi, pensare in profondità e prendere decisioni ponderate. E così, mentre il nostro cervello è impegnato in un continuo bombardamento di informazioni superflue, le nostre capacità cognitive si indeboliscono.

Il Brain Rot non è solo un risultato del consumo eccessivo di contenuti online, ma un riflesso delle nostre abitudini mentali sempre più passive. Il concetto di "information overload" ("sovraccarico informativo") non è nuovo. Brain Rot riunisce sotto un unico termine la somma dei problemi che comporta l’eccessivo consumo di informazione digitale: perdita della capacità di concentrazione, stanchezza,  stress, svuotamento intellettuale, dipendenza, frustrazione.

Un aspetto cruciale di questo fenomeno è la perdita di capacità critica. Come confermato dalla scienza, quando siamo abituati a ricevere informazioni pre-confezionate in formato breve e accattivante, non ci fermiamo più a riflettere su ciò che leggiamo. La nostra mente smette di porsi domande. Così facendo, diventiamo più vulnerabili alla  disinformazione e alla manipolazione.

Una delle prime azioni da intraprendere è quella del "digital detox", il distacco dai dispositivi elettronici, per consentire alla mente di riposare e ripulirsi. Inoltre, è essenziale dedicare più tempo alle relazioni vis-à-vis, alle connessioni reali, basate sulla condivisione di esperienze profonde e autentiche, la medicina migliore per contrastare la solitudine digitale e riportare la mente al suo stato naturale.


MIRIAM TAGINI Vanity Fair



Our attention spans have dropped significantly in recent years with the rise of digital technologies and screen-centric entertainment. A shorter attention span is simply one side effect of a recent explosion of screen distractions, as neurologist and author Richard E. Cytowic argues in his new book, "Your Stone Age Brain in the Screen Age: Coping with Digital Distraction and Sensory Overload".

Cytowic discusses how the human brain has not changed significantly since the Stone Age, which leaves us poorly equipped to handle the influence and allure of modern technologies — particularly those propagated by big tech companies. Cytowic highlights how our brains struggle to keep up with the lightning-fast pace at which modern technology, culture and society are changing.

Feeling overloaded leads to stress. Stress leads to distraction. Distraction then leads to error. The obvious solutions are either to staunch the incoming stream or alleviate the stress. Hans Selye, the Hungarian endocrinologist who developed the concept of stress, said that stress "is not what happens to you, but how you react to it". The trait that allows us to handle stress successfully is resilience. Resilience is a welcome trait to have because all demands that pull you away from homeostasis (the biological tendency in all organisms to maintain a stable internal milieu) lead to stress.



Screen distractions are a prime candidate for disturbing homeostatic equilibrium. Long before the advent of personal computers and the internet, Alvin Toffler popularized the term “information overload” in his 1970 bestseller, "Future Shock". He promoted the bleak idea of eventual human dependence on technology. By 2011, before most people had smartphones, Americans took in five times as much information on a typical day as they had twenty-five years earlier. And now even today’s digital natives complain how stressed their constantly present tech is making them.

The modern quandary into which we have engineered ourselves hinges on flux, the flow of radiant energy that bombards our senses from far and near. Our self-created digital glut hits us incessantly, and we cannot help but notice and be distracted by it. Our physical biology cannot possibly keep up with the breathtaking speed at which modern technology, culture, and society are changing. 

A much-cited study conducted by Microsoft Research Canada claims that attention spans have dwindled to below eight seconds — less than that of a goldfish — and this supposedly explains why our ability to focus has gone to hell. But that study has shortcomings, and “attention span” is a colloquial term rather than a scientific one. The drain on our switching is "like having a gas tank that leaks". 

We have hit the brain’s Stone Age limit. Exceeding it results in foggy thinking, reduced focus, thought blocking, memory lapse or precision calipers, any tool quickly comes to feel like an extension of oneself. The invention, proliferation, and evolution of digital technology have put the status quo in constant flux. We pay a price in terms of energy cost incurred by constantly shifting and refocusing attention.

It explains why our ability to focus has gone to hell': Screens are assaulting our Stone Age brains with more information than we can handle

Richard E. Cytowic LiveScience

A new survey has found that children in India are more aware of the adverse effects of smartphone usage than their own parents, with 8 out of 10 advocating for ‘parental controls’ to regulate their parents’ smartphone habits.

The report titled ‘Impact of Smartphones on Parent-Child Relationships’ was prepared by the Chinese smartphone maker Vivo in collaboration with Cyber Media Research (CMR). It surveyed over 1,543 smartphone owners across Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, and Pune.

According to the survey, Indian parents on average spend five hours every day on their smartphones while children spend four hours daily on their devices. “Over 73% of parents and 69% of children explicitly identify smartphone usage as a source of conflict between them”, the report read, adding that around two-thirds of both parents and children use their smartphones even during meaningful social moments such as outings, vacations, or celebrations.

Indian children want ‘controls’ for smartphone-addicted parents, vivo study finds

The Indian Express

Chinese authorities have banned the use of mobile phones in schools. The Ministry of Education said the ban, which applies to both primary and secondary schools, was designed to crack down on “internet and games addictions” and help students focus their attention on study.

The ban restricts students bringing mobile phones onto school grounds. A pupil will need parental approval, along with the school’s written permission, before the student is allowed to bring their device to campus. However, all phones must be relinquished during class time, the ministry said on its website.

Its directive, which is effective immediately, is aimed at “protecting the students’ eyesight, making them focus on study and preventing them from getting addicted to the internet and games”. It has the added goal of “enhancing students’ physical and psychological development”.

In 2019, China had 175 million internet users under the age of 18, with 74 per cent reportedly having their own mobile device, according to a report released by the China Internet Network Information Centre last year.

Mobile phone use in schools has ignited debate not only in China. In 2018, France passed a law banning the use of mobile phones on school grounds by children under the age of 15, and Greece prohibited the use of mobile phones in all nursery, primary and middle schools.

China orders mobile phone ban in schools to improve students’ focus on study, fight game addiction

Mandy Zuo, South China Morning Post



Hundreds of millions of people now use beauty filters to alter their appearance on apps including Snapchat, Instagram and TikTok. TikTok announced new worldwide restrictions on children’s access to those that ape the effects of cosmetic surgery. It came after an investigation into the feelings of nearly 200 teenagers and parents in the UK, US and several other countries found girls were “susceptible to feelings of low self-worth” as a result of their online experiences.

There is rising concern about the wellbeing impact of such rapidly advancing technology as generative artificial intelligence enables a new generation of what have been termed “micro-personality cults”. It is no small matter: TikTok has approximately 1 billion users. A forthcoming study by Prof Sonia Livingstone, a professor of social psychology at the London School of Economics, will argue that the pressures and social comparisons that result from using increasingly image-manipulated social media may even have a greater effect on mental health than seeing violence.

Hundreds of millions of people are using alternative reality filters on social media every day – from comic dog ears to beauty filters that reshape noses, whiten teeth and widen eyes. Dr Claire Pescott, an educationist at the University of South Wales who studied 10- and 11-year-olds, agreed the impact of online social comparison was being underestimated. A lot of education is on internet safety – keeping ourselves safe from paedophiles or catfishing [using a fake online persona to enable romance or fraud]”, she said. “But actually the dangers are with each other. Comparing ourselves with others is having more of an emotional effect”.

For many people [online] is a very competitive arena and it’s about Darwinism. Many people use social media not just for fun but as a place to lift them up in life, for the future, to earn money.nEither way, TikTok’s age-block on some filters is unlikely to solve the problem fast. One in five eight- to 16-year-olds lie to social media apps that they are over 18, research from the UK communications regulator Ofcom found. Rules to toughen up age verification will not become effective until next year.

A small study of Snapchat-using schoolgirls in Delhi found most reported “a reduction in self-esteem, experiencing feelings of inadequacy when juxtaposing their natural appearance with their filtered images”. A 2022 inquiry into the views of more than 300 Belgian adolescents found using face filters was linked to their likelihood to accept the idea of cosmetic surgery.

Jeremy Bailenson, the founding director of Stanford University’s virtual human interaction lab, helped coin “the Proteus effect” – a term to describe how people’s behaviour can change to conform with their online avatar. People who donned attractive virtual selves disclosed more about themselves than those with less attractive ones.

Meta is actively helping self-harm content to flourish on Instagram by failing to remove explicit images and encouraging those engaging with such content to befriend one another, according to a damning study that found its moderation “extremely inadequate”.

The aim of the study was to test Meta’s claim that it had significantly improved its processes for removing harmful content, which it says now uses artificial intelligence (AI). The tech company claims to remove about 99% of harmful content before it is reported. Digitalt Ansvar (Digital Accountability), an organisation that promotes responsible digital development, found that in the month-long experiment not a single image was removed.

When it created its own simple AI tool to analyse the content, it was able to automatically identify 38% of the self-harm images and 88% of the most severe. This, the company said, showed that Instagram had access to technology able to address the issue but “has chosen not to implement it effectively”.

The platform’s inadequate moderation, said Digitalt Ansvar, suggested that it was not complying with EU law.

The Digital Services Act requires large digital services to identify systemic risks, including foreseeable negative consequences on physical and mental wellbeing.

A Meta spokesperson said: “Content that encourages self-injury is against our policies and we remove this content when we detect it. In the first half of 2024, we removed more than 12m pieces related to suicide and self-injury on Instagram, 99% of which we proactively took down.

“Earlier this year, we launched Instagram Teen Accounts, which will place teenagers into the strictest setting of our sensitive content control, so they’re even less likely to be recommended sensitive content and in many cases we hide this content altogether.”

The Danish study, however, found that rather than attempt to shut down the self-harm network, Instagram’s algorithm was actively helping it to expand. The research suggested that 13-year-olds become friends with all members of the self-harm group after they were connected with one of its members.

This, the study said, “suggests that Instagram’s algorithm actively contributes to the formation and spread of self-harm networks”.



The youth are addicted to generative AI models — but their parents have no idea what their kids actually use them for.

A team of researchers interviewed seven teenagers and thirteen parents about their AI usage and perceptions of the tech, and also analyzed thousands of Reddit posts and comments from other teens. The teenagers primarily said they used chatbots for therapeutic purposes or for emotional support. When having a virtual friend wasn't enough, some even turned to the technology to fulfill romantic and even sexual desires. 

The epicenter of youth-oriented AI is Character.AI, an online service that hosts custom-made chatbots. Many of them imitate popular fandom characters from video games and anime, while others are explicitly geared towards romance. The service has been criticized for the poor moderation of its often racy chatbots that are popularly used by minors. In more serious cases, some of that chatbots promoted pro-anorexia eating behaviors, attempted to groom underaged users, and even encouraged suicide.

Three of the interviewed teens said they used Character.AI — only ChatGPT was cited more often — and the service was frequently brought up in Reddit discussions. Their prevailing concern about AI was addiction to these character-based chatbots. One teen worried that they wouldn't be able to cope with their suicidal thoughts without the help of Character.AI, while another sounded quite self-aware of their unhealthy dependency.

Parents didn't realize the extent of the personal and often intimate information that their kids share with AI chatbots.

To mitigate the risks that AI poses to minors, the researchers argue that the solutions shouldn't only be technical, like implementing stronger guard rails or parent controls. The onus also falls on the adults to proactively grasp what draws their kids to these chatbots — and that's an understanding that will take time to build.

TEENS ARE FORMING INTENSE RELATIONSHIPS WITH AI ENTITIES, AND PARENTS HAVE NO IDEA

FRANK LANDYMORE The Byte

Fact-checking organizations have for years engaged in a range of activities beyond correcting myths and falsehoods. Many have long worked towards a plurality of information sources known for accuracy, as well as engaging in media and information literacy initiatives so that members of the public know to pause before they click.  

In Europe, the Spanish fact-checking organization Maldita, for example, holds regular meetings with political groups in parliament to discuss the challenge of dis- and misinformation (as a result, the parliamentary leader of one party recently reported that they now require staff to provide footnotes for sources of any claims they make). Africa Check provides a service, known as Info Finder, that serves as an information helpdesk for under-resourced media, helping journalists find accurate information on important topics in half a dozen countries. In Latin America, the fact-checking organization Chequeado works in schools to ensure that students have the best skills to identify trustworthy sources of information. 

Fact-checkers can champion the availability and prominence of accurate journalism. And they can help the general public develop their own skills to navigate the ever-more complex landscape.  

“Countering information disorder” has served fact-checkers well for almost a decade. Updating it in favor of “fighting for information integrity” can help to position practitioners to embrace what’s coming up next.

The next chapter for fact-checking: information integrity

Peter Cunliffe-Jones Guy Berger Poynter


The digital archives of newspapers store the stories of millions of people, with information, details, personal data, even extremely sensitive, that cannot be licensed for use by third parties to train AI, without due precautions.

If the Gedi Group, by virtue of the agreement signed lwith OpenAI, communicated to the latter the personal data contained in its archive, it could violate the provisions of the EU Regulation, with all the consequences, including sanctions, provided for by the legislation.

This is, in short, the formal warning that the Privacy Guarantor has sent to Gedi and to all the companies (Gedi News Network Spa, Gedi Periodi e Servizi Spa, Gedi Digital Srl, Monet Srl, and Alfemminile Srl) that are part of the agreement for the communication of editorial content stipulated with OpenAI. The measure was adopted after the first feedback provided by the company, as part of the investigation recently launched by the Authority.

It's not the first time that the Italian DPA has taken pioneering enforcement measures against AI companies: Replika, OpenAI, and others have already been targeted in the past.

Italy vs. LLMs: Are They Unlawful?

LUIZA JAROVSKY Substack

According to this article by IBM, an AI agent: “(…) refers to a system or program that is capable of autonomously performing tasks on behalf of a user or another system by designing its workflow and utilizing available tools.

AI agents can encompass a wide range of functionalities beyond natural language processing including decision-making, problem-solving, interacting with external environments and executing actions”.

While Generative AI applications can, for example, answer questions, summarize text, and create synthetic images and videos, agentic AI applications would be able to execute more complex and multi-step tasks; they would not only create content but take additional steps such as implementing that content in a specific practical context.

Now, especially with the advent of Large Language Models (LLMs), AI agents: “have the potential to adapt to different scenarios in the same way that LLMs can respond intelligibly to prompts on which they have not been explicitly trained”.

How do we ensure that data protection principles are respected? How can we avoid personal data being leaked within an agentic AI system? Will users of AI agents be able to exercise data subjects’ rights, such as the right to be forgotten, if they decide to stop using the AI agent?

In the context of AI companions and anthropomorphized chatbots like Replika and Character AI, we are seeing, sadly, how quickly people can become deeply attached to and dependent on AI systems, leading to manipulation and harm. When we consider agentic AI systems, especially those coupled with anthropomorphic characteristics—including persuasive, emotionally charged, and “empathetic” language, as well as visual elements like avatars or a humanized appearance—their manipulative potential increases exponentially.

Legal Challenges of AI Agents

LUIZA JAROVSKY Substack



Palantir and Anduril, two leading defense technology firms, announced they’re creating an industry consortium to address what they see as hurtles impeding the Defense Department’s adoption of AI.

“Our goal is to deliver the technological infrastructure, from the edge to the enterprise, that can enable our government and industry partners to transform America’s world-leading AI advancements into next-generation military and national security capabilities”, the companies said in joint statement.

Both firms are key players in the Pentagon’s AI and software ecosystem. Palantir builds platforms to analyze and distill data and Anduril develops a range of advanced hardware and software systems largely centered on autonomy and AI. The companies are teamed on the Army’s Tactical Intelligence Targeting Access Node program, an integrated, AI-defined targeting system set to begin fielding over the next two years.

Anduri is providing hardware and software for the Pentagon’s Replicator initiative, which aims to field thousands of small, networked drones. For this new partnership, the companies will build on existing product lines, including Palantir’s AI Platform, AIP, and Anduril’s Menace, a software-defined command and control system.

They also plan to combine Palantir’s Maven Smart System with Anduril’s Lattice software to provide “a seamless operational capability” for developing and fielding new AI tools across the defense enterprise.

Defense tech firms establish AI-focused consortium

Courtney Albon Defence News




For 53 years, the Assad dynasty ruled Syria with savagery—and with internal family politics that resembled a toxic cross between a Mafia family and the court intrigues of a medieval monarchy, combined with a Stalinist cult of personality. 

Rifa'at al-Assad, the younger brother of the late President of Syria, Hafez al-Assad, uncle of the former President Bashar al-Assad, in 1982, carried out the massacre of the city of Hama, killing around 40,000 civilians in a few days—a slaughter that still ranks as the bloodiest killing of civilians in modern Arab history.

When Bashar gained control, he, too, struggled to control a wilder brother, Maher, who ultimately became the murderous enforcer of the regime. The Mafia parallel became even more striking in recent years as the dynasty degraded into an organized crime family selling Captagon - the drug of Jihad -  across the region.

When the dynasty was faced with the uprisings of the Arab Spring in 2011, the cruelty of the Assad reign changed to barbaric, nihilistic slaughter under the leadership of Bashar Assad, who held power only thanks to the backing of a murderous alliance of Iran, its vassal militia Hezbollah, and Russia. Around 600,000 Syrians were killed as Assad perpetrated by far the worst butchery in the Middle East in modern times, symbolized by the slogan: “Assad or the Country Burns!”.

The warlord Abu Mohammad al-Jolani—formerly of al-Qaeda, then al-Nusra, and now the leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, known as HTS—now rules Damascus and much of Syria. 

It is also yet to be seen what al-Jolani—a terrorist who fought the Americans in Iraq and was imprisoned, for a time, at Abu Ghraib—has in mind for Syria. What we know is that for decades, the fate of Syria has been in the hands of ruthless faraway contenders, chiefly the Iranian tyrant Ayatollah Khamenei, Hezbollah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah, and Russia’s president Vladimir Putin, whose airpower enabled Assad to survive. They long used the Syrian people as puppets in their anti-American, anti-Israeli resistance axis.

As for Bashar al-Assad? He will settle into his new Russian dacha far from the Syria he raped and ruined.

Simon Sebag Montefiore: After Assad

Simon Sebag Montefiore The Free Prees


Burkina Faso's ruling military leader Ibrahim Traoré has dismissed the country's prime minister and dissolved the government, according to a presidential decree obtained by AFP. The decree announced that "the prime minister’s official functions are terminated", and stated that members of the dissolved government would continue handling ongoing matters until a new government is formed.

The ousted prime minister, Apollinaire Joachim Kyelem de Tambela, had served as head of three successive governments, surviving multiple reshuffles. However, no official reason has been given for his removal. Kyelem de Tambela was appointed prime minister in October 2022 following the coup that brought Ibrahim Traoré to power.

Burkina Faso has faced significant instability since a January 2022 coup, when Lt. Col. Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba seized power. Less than a year later, Damiba was overthrown by Traoré, who is now leading the junta. Damiba, who had ousted elected president Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, is now in exile in neighbouring Togo.

Under the current junta, Burkina Faso has prioritised restoring national sovereignty and frequently criticises Western powers. The country has aligned itself with neighbouring Mali and Niger, both of which are also governed by military juntas following a wave of coups since 2020. In September, the three nations formed the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), severing ties with former colonial power France and shifting towards Russia.

Burkina Faso Prime Minister Sacked And Government Dissolved

Afrikanews




South Korean prosecutors have arrested ex-defence minister Kim Yong-hyun over his alleged role in President Yoon Suk Yeol’s declaration of martial law.

Later, South Korea’s interior minister resigned. Lee Sang-min said he was stepping down “in grave recognition of responsibility for failing to serve the public and the president well”. Lee and Yoon are among those being investigated for alleged insurrection following the declaration of martial law. 

Yoon shocked the nation when he gave the military sweeping emergency powers to root out what he called “anti-state forces” and obstructionist political opponents. He rescinded the order six hours later, after parliament defied military and police cordons to vote unanimously against the decree.




It is impossible to predict how this moment will end. The protesters maintain the “we shall overcome” mood, but the government has considerable resources to allow it to continue on. It also has the option of escalating repression to an even higher level by announcing a state of emergency. 

There has been speculation that the Russian military could get involved — as happened in Kazakhstan in January 2022, when the government requested forces from the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization to quell peaceful protests over fuel prices. 

If the opposition succeeds in pressing for new elections, the current government could be forced to appoint a transitional technical government that is acceptable to the public, which would prepare for the new vote, preferably with some international oversight. 

The nature of Georgian Dream’s rule is that everything depends on the will of one very secretive and paranoid man, Ivanishvili, and the instruments of repression at his disposal. As for the protesters, they have the will of hundreds of thousands of Georgians. Whichever side prevails, it will be a momentous change for the country.


Ghia Nodia Journal of Democracy

Călin Georgescu, the nationalist candidate who won the first round of the Romanian presidential elections, has claimed democracy has been cancelled in his country. His comments were in reference to the Constitutional Court’s earlier decision to suspend the electoral process, the final round of which should have been held on the same day.

“Today is Constitution Day, but there is nothing constitutional in Romania”, Georgescu told the media outside the polling station in Mogoșoaia, 20km north of the capital Bucharest, where he was due to vote. He said the annulment of the elections had “practically cancelled democracy but not freedom”.

Romania’s Constitutional Court had on December 6 declared the elections null and void, saying it wanted to “guarantee the impartiality and legality of the electoral process”. Romanian intelligence services claimed to have detected interference in the campaign by an unnamed “state actor”, which several media investigations and the US Government identified as Russia. “We have to take back our democracy”, Georgescu said amid cheers from his supporters, accusing the media of lying and the current President Klaus Iohannis of being a “traitor”.

On Constitution Day, December 8, the court issued a statement saying that there were currently “forces that threaten the fundamental values of democracy”. “Against manipulation and misinformation, we, as a nation, have a duty to promote the truth and reaffirm faith in the Fundamental Law as the indisputable pillar of unity, progress and national sovereignty”, it said.


Javier Villamor Brussells Signal


Lo scorso 10 dicembre l'anarco-capitalista Javier Milei diventava  presidente di un'Argentina lacerata da un'inflazione stellare e da una crisi economica profonda. Un anno dopo guadagna la prima pagina dell'Economist.

Il consenso elettorale di "el loco" ( "il pazzo") -  il Grillo argentino? - è dovuto alla crisi dei partiti politici tradizionali. La "motosega" impazzita colpisce le classi meno abbienti. Il tasso di povertà è schizzato dal 41,7 al 52,9 per cento. Sono aumentati drammaticamente i casi di persone che vivono in strada, senza lavoro, né casa.

Una delle prime misure è stata tagliare la sanità pubblica e la gratuità delle medicine oncologiche e croniche. Per questa scelta sono morte molte persone. Il prezzo è stato altissimo...


Daniele Tempera Today





The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced yet another milestone in the convoluted life span of the insecticide chlorpyrifos. Under the deceptive headline “EPA Proposes Rule to Revoke Most Food Uses of the Insecticide Chlorpyrifos”, EPA stated that it is improving environmental protection by revoking all usages of chlorpyrifos except for 11 food and feed crops. The proposal was deemed “unconscionable” by Beyond Pesticides executive director Jay Feldman.

EPA claims this plan would reduce annual chlorpyrifos application by 70% compared to “historical usage.” Chlorpyrifos is a known neurological and reproductive toxicant. EPA has been cutting back on approved uses for years but is far behind other environmental authorities—the European Food Safety Authority and Thailand have banned it altogether, and California has banned its agricultural use.

The trouble with EPA’s latest attempt is that it does nothing to clarify and rationalize EPA’s process, and it will not protect the public, because those 11 remaining products are among the most extensively grown and used in the world: soybeans, sugar beets, cotton, wheat, apples, citrus fruits, strawberries, alfalfa, cherries, peaches, and asparagus.

Chlorpyrifos is an organophosphate chemical. These compounds inhibit acetylcholinesterase (AChE), which regulates nerve signals in all invertebrates and vertebrates. Thus, there is no justification for the assumption that what harms insects will not harm humans. The lethal dose in newborn rats is 100 times lower than in adult animals. EPA has known for decades that chlorpyrifos (introduced in 1965) is a neurotoxicant, especially at crucial developmental stages, such as prenatal and infancy phases when the human brain is growing at its fastest rate. In 2016 EPA said children between one and two years old were being exposed via food to 14,000% of the risk concern level. There has also been evidence at least since the 1990s that chlorpyrifos also affects other neural pathways. For example, it can produce changes not just in the brain but in the digestive system.

EPA’s most recent move is clearly the result of industry pressure.

Reflection: Highly Neurotoxic Insecticide Chlorpyrifos To Continue on Major Crops, EPA Defers to Industry

Beyond Pesticide

The Arctic could experience its first summer with nearly all sea ice melted—a troubling milestone for the planet—as soon as 2027.

For the first time, an international research team, including University of Colorado Boulder climatologist Alexandra Jahn and Céline Heuzé from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, used computer models to predict when the first ice-free day could occur in the northernmost ocean. An ice-free Arctic could significantly impact the ecosystem and Earth’s climate by changing weather patterns.


As the climate warms from increasing greenhouse gas emissions, sea ice in the Arctic has disappeared at an unprecedented speed of more than 12% each decade. In September, the National Snow and Ice Data Center reported that this year’s Arctic sea ice minimum—the day with the least amount of frozen seawater in the Arctic—was one of the lowest on record since 1978.

When the Arctic Ocean has less than 1 million square kilometers of ice, scientists say the Arctic is ice free. A drastic cut in emissions could delay the timeline for an ice-free Arctic and reduce the time the ocean stays ice-free, according to the study.


77.6% of Earth's land has become drier in the last three decades compared to the 30 years prior, with drylands expanding by an area larger than India to cover 40.6% of the land on Earth, except for Antarctica.

The findings, released in a new report by the UN Convention to Combat Desertification ((UNCCD), warn that if the trend continues, up to five billion people could live in drylands by the century's end — causing soils to deplete, water resources to dwindle, and vital ecosystems to collapse.

"For the first time, the aridity crisis has been documented with scientific clarity, revealing an existential threat affecting billions around the globe", Ibrahim Thiaw, the UNCCD executive secretary, said in a statement. "Droughts end. When an area's climate becomes drier, however, the ability to return to previous conditions is lost. The drier climates now affecting vast lands across the globe will not return to how they were and this change is redefining life on Earth".

As climate change causes temperatures to rise around the globe, water evaporates more readily from its surfaces, and the atmosphere gains an ever increasing capacity to absorb it. This is pushing much of the planet into increasingly arid conditions — permanently transforming once verdant forests into arid grasslands and removing the moisture needed for life and agriculture. Aridity is now affecting 40% of the world's agricultural land and 2.3 billion people, causing intensified wildfires, agricultural collapse and spurring growing mass migrations. Areas particularly hard hit include almost all of Europe, the western United States, Brazil, eastern Asia, and central Africa.



VISIONI




In 2021, evidence of unmarked graves was discovered on the grounds of an Indian residential school run by the Catholic Church in Canada. After years of silence, the forced separation, assimilation and abuse many children experienced at these segregated boarding schools was brought to light, sparking a national outcry against a system designed to destroy Indigenous communities. 

Set amidst a groundbreaking investigation, the movie illuminates the beauty of a community breaking cycles of intergenerational trauma and finding the strength to persevere.

SUGARCANE Julian Brave NoiseCat Emily Kassie

National Geographic





Essayistic in form, “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat” is a furious, brilliant documentary. 

At its center are the events leading up to the assassination of Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo, said to have been orchestrated by the C.I.A. mere months after his election in May 1960. 

Grimonprez comes at it from every direction, exploring the ways truth can be exposed and ignored and shoved underground, all set to the driving rhythm of the Black jazz musicians who both protested and were, at times, unwittingly used by covert American government operations. It’s both a multimedia dissertation and a dizzying accomplishment. 

Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat’

Alissa Wilkinson New York Times


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