Kategori: News in English

Many people when they “grow up” wonder when the penny will drop and they’ll finally feel like a fully fledged adult. There have been consistent studies and articles on this subject. In fact, one British study of 18 to 30 year olds this year found that attitudes to being an adult are shifting as traditional milestones become out of reach.

At 40, Eleanor Allard (aka Ellie) feels much the same and considers herself, to paraphrase the iconic words of Britney Spears, “not a girl, not yet a woman”. This is an enduring theme in the much-anticipated return of Jacqueline Wilson’s Girl’s in Love series.

Originally featuring four book, Girls in Love (1997), Girls under Pressure (1998), Girls out Late (1999) and Girls in Tears (2002), the series followed Ellie and her two best friends, Magda and Nadine, as they navigated their teens. These books were a hit with young girls and broached topics like boys, first sexual feelings and body images issues and changes.

So, when Wilson announced that, 22 years after the last books, she would be publishing a new one for the original fans of the series, British millennials rejoiced. Think Again is Wilson’s first book for an adult audience, but fans of the original series will be happy to see that a lot of what they loved remains. Think Again is a comforting and funny read about friendship, family and finding fulfilment as adults.

No one’s 20s and 30s look the same. You might be saving for a mortgage or just struggling to pay rent. You could be swiping dating apps, or trying to understand childcare. No matter your current challenges, our Quarter Life series has articles to share in the group chat, or just to remind you that you’re not alone.

Read more from Quarter Life:

Girls As Women

We are reintroduced to Ellie, about to celebrate her 40th birthday. She lives in a rented flat in London, has a daughter at university and is single. She has achieved her dreams of making a living from art, working as an art teacher and freelancing as an illustrator for The Guardian.

From the opening page, fans of Girls in Love will find that Ellie’s voice remains comfortingly consistent with the previous books – although with some (expected) added maturity.

Much like the original series, the narrative is told through Ellie’s compelling point of view. Wilson has done a good job of ageing her up, keeping threads from the originals and maintaining Ellie’s tone of voice, with an adult edge.

One example of this is through callbacks to the second book, Girls Under Pressure, which focused on mental health and body issues. In Think Again, these thoughts remain consistently present and primarily negative, as they were in the original. Yet, as an adult, she is able to put her perspective into a modern and grownup framework, helping the readers to do so too.

It’s refreshing to hear Ellie correcting herself and trying to focus on body positivity. Having insight into Ellie’s internal monologue while she tries to rewire her own thinking and challenge her biases is relatable for returning readers who grew up with the same, often fatphobic, messaging when they were younger. The books were published in a time when tiny body sizes were presented by the mainstream as the norm. These women, however, have come through this, emerging into a culture which is trying harder to represent and celebrate every body type.

Jacqueline Wilson surprises her grown up fans of Girls in Love with Think Again.

While she still grapples with some of the same issues, Ellie’s life has changed in many other ways, such as her success with her career. Readers will be satisfied and pleased for her, even if Ellie herself sometimes struggles to be. Many readers will relate to Ellie’s feelings of self-doubt; despite achieving a lot personally and professionally, she still worries about not having every part of their life in place. She symbolises the desire many Millennial women express to “have it all”. In Ellie’s case, this manifests through her anxiety at still being single at 40, but for readers, these feelings may be about other relationships, their careers or finances.

Although Ellie on her own remains compelling, the most dynamic scenes in the novel occur when she is reunited with best friends, Magda and Nadine. Again, Wilson has done a good job in depicting what these two would look like as adults, while maintaining much of what fans loved about their friendship, including the bickering.

Nadine is still the cool friend, working as a producer, has no plans or desire to be a mum, and is enjoying casual sex. Fans will be relieved that she hasn’t lost her gothic nature. On the surface, it is Magda who has evolved the most. Although she is twice-divorced and on the cusp of a third with her new partner, she is portrayed as softer while attempting to fulfill a stepmother role. Luckily, her friends are there to show her that motherhood doesn’t mean traditional; she can still parent while wearing her iconic red lipstick.

Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. Sign up here.

The differences between the three women allow Wilson to cover a lot of different joys and pains that their demographic may face. Notably, they all represent differing women’s attitudes to motherhood, with Ellie becoming a young, single mum while studying at university; Nadine knowing that motherhood isn’t for her (especially refreshing and pertinent to current women’s rights issues); and Madga not becoming a mother of any kind until 40. Despite these differences, they are consistently seen supporting each other’s choices throughout the narrative, offering guidance rather than judgement.

Although readers may wish Nadine and Magda featured more, the fact that they’re not has more realism, including the, all too familiar, group chat. While the girls can’t talk all the time like they did at school, they remain close, their friendship largely mediated through texts and calls.

The books is full of lovely nods and anecdotes from the original series. It can, however, be read as a standalone by those who are new to the Girls series, as Wilson does provide consistent context. It’s a treat to get to spend time with these characters again after so long. The narrative wraps up nicely, leaving open possibilities for a sequel. Läs mer…

Artificial intelligence (AI) makes important decisions that affect our everyday lives. These decisions are implemented by firms and institutions in the name of efficiency. They can help determine who gets into college, who lands a job, who receives medical treatment and who qualifies for government assistance.

As AI takes on these roles, there is a growing risk of unfair decisions – or the perception of them by those people affected. For example, in college admissions or hiring, these automated decisions can unintentionally favour certain groups of people or those with certain backgrounds, while equally qualified but underrepresented applicants get overlooked.

Or, when used by governments in benefit systems, AI may allocate resources in ways that worsen social inequality, leaving some people with less than they deserve and a sense of unfair treatment.

Together with an international team of researchers, we examined how unfair resource distribution – whether handled by AI or a human – influences people’s willingness to act against unfairness. The results have been published in the journal Cognition.

With AI becoming more embedded in daily life, governments are stepping in to protect citizens from biased or opaque AI systems. Examples of these efforts include the White House’s AI Bill of Rights, and the European parliament’s AI Act. These reflect a shared concern: people may feel wronged by AI’s decisions.

So how does experiencing unfairness from an AI system affect how people treat one another afterwards?

AI-induced indifference

Our paper in Cognition looked at people’s willingness to act against unfairness after experiencing unfair treatment by an AI. The behaviour we examined applied to subsequent, unrelated interactions by these individuals. A willingness to act in such situations, often called “prosocial punishment,” is seen as crucial for upholding social norms.

For example, whistleblowers may report unethical practices despite the risks, or consumers may boycott companies that they believe are acting in harmful ways. People who engage in these acts of prosocial punishment often do so to address injustices that affect others, which helps reinforce community standards.

Anggalih Prasetya / Shutterstock

We asked this question: could experiencing unfairness from AI, instead of a person, affect people’s willingness to stand up to human wrongdoers later on? For instance, if an AI unfairly assigns a shift or denies a benefit, does it make people less likely to report unethical behaviour by a co-worker afterwards?

Across a series of experiments, we found that people treated unfairly by an AI were less likely to punish human wrongdoers afterwards than participants who had been treated unfairly by a human. They showed a kind of desensitisation to others’ bad behaviour. We called this effect AI-induced indifference, to capture the idea that unfair treatment by AI can weaken people’s sense of accountability to others. This makes them less likely to address injustices in their community.

Reasons for inaction

This may be because people place less blame on AI for unfair treatment, and thus they feel less driven to act against injustice. This effect is consistent even when participants encountered only unfair behaviour by others or both fair and unfair behaviour. To look at whether the relationship we had uncovered was affected by familiarity with AI, we carried out the same experiments again, after the release of ChatGPT in 2022. We got the same results with the later series of tests as we had with the earlier ones.

These results suggest that people’s responses to unfairness depend not only on whether they were treated fairly but also on who treated them unfairly – an AI or a human.

In short, unfair treatment by an AI system can affect how people respond to each other, making them less attentive to each other’s unfair actions. This highlights AI’s potential ripple effects in human society, extending beyond an individual’s experience of a single unfair decision.

When AI systems act unfairly, the consequences extend to future interactions, influencing how people treat each other, even in situations unrelated to AI. We would suggest that developers of AI systems should focus on minimising biases in AI training data to prevent these important spillover effects.

Policymakers should also establish standards for transparency, requiring companies to disclose where AI might make unfair decisions. This would help users understand the limitations of AI systems, and how to challenge unfair outcomes. Increased awareness of these effects could also encourage people to stay alert to unfairness, especially after interacting with AI.

Feelings of outrage and blame for unfair treatment are essential for spotting injustice and holding wrongdoers accountable. By addressing AI’s unintended social effects, leaders can ensure AI supports rather than undermines the ethical and social standards needed for a society built on justice. Läs mer…

The weight-loss jab Wegovy made its debut on June 4 2021. It was the first new weight-loss drug to be approved by the US Food and Drug Administration since 2014.

There has been a lot of excitement since the launch. Not only is the drug extremely effective (people lose about 15% of their body weight in a year), it also appears to have many benefits beyond just weight loss.

It’s worth noting that the drug (generic name: semaglutide) was first used to treat diabetes, and indeed is still a blockbuster diabetes drug. So that’s two benefits already. Let’s look at some of the other potential benefits. Here are eight (and the list isn’t exhaustive).

1. Knee osteoarthritis

Knee cartilage is not designed for high stress loads. People who are overweight or obese are at a higher risk of developing osteoarthritis because of the extra stress on their knee joints, with many people eventually requiring knee-replacement surgery.

A recent study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, followed a group of 407 obese people with knee osteoarthritis for 68 weeks. Some of the group received semaglutide and some a placebo. Both groups also received counselling on physical activity and a reduced-calorie diet.

The group that received semaglutide (as opposed to a placebo), reported a huge decrease in pain from 71 to 42 points on a standard pain scale (zero to 100, where a larger number equals more pain). They also reported greater mobility. The same was not experienced in the placebo group.

The reasons for the improvement are probably due to the rapid weight loss combined with the anti-inflammatory properties of semaglutide. It’s not clear, though, if semaglutide would have the same effect on people with knee osteoarthritis who aren’t obese.

2. Fatty liver disease

About one in four people, globally, has fatty liver disease – a long-lasting liver condition that can progresses to cirrhosis (liver scarring). In the late stages, it can be fatal.

Initial clinical trial data has shown very promising results with semaglutide, with a significant reduction in liver fat of 31%. In another clinical study, fatty liver was completely resolved in a third of patients after just 24 weeks.

The next question is whether semaglutide can reverse the more severe forms of fatty liver disease, where scarring has begun. Several studies are underway to test this.

3. Parkinson’s

In studies using brain cells (neurons) in a Petri dish and in mouse models of Parkinson’s, semaglutide has been shown to have beneficial effects on several “pathological hallmarks” of the neurological disease.

There is even a hint that semaglutide may work at slowing the worsening of Parkinson’s in humans. A French study, published earlier this year, using a similar drug (called a GLP-1 receptor agonist), found that the motor skills of people with early-stage Parkinson’s given the treatment showed almost no worsening of symptoms compared with people given a placebo.

We will have to wait for the results of current trials to see if semaglutide has a similar effect.

4. Alzheimer’s

Semaglutide may provide some protection in people with Alzheimer’s as many people with the condition also have diabetes, suggesting that high glucose is involved.

In mouse studies and human organoid models of Alzheimer’s, semaglutide has been shown to reduce deposits of tau and amyloid (the two proteins that accumulate in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s). And a recent “meta-analysis” of seven clinical trials of people with type 2 diabetes but undiagnosed Alzheimer’s, showed that over three years, 40%-70% of patients on semaglutide had a lower risk of an Alzheimer’s diagnosis.

Given that there are currently no cures for Alzheimer’s disease, prevention seems to be the best option, especially for those at higher risk of the disease (that is, those with diabetes and obesity).

5. Chronic kidney disease

Chronic kidney disease is irreversible, so managing the cause is important. The leading cause of kidney failure is diabetes, where high glucose levels damage the small blood vessels in the kidneys.

Two recent randomised clinical trials studying semaglutide for three to five years were completed in 2024 and showed that a biomarker of kidney damage (microalbumin) was lower in patients taking semaglutide. Patients in the semaglutide group also had a lower risk of developing kidney failure (24%) and a lower risk of death (20%) over the study period.

6. Addictions

The GLP-1 system that semaglutide relies on for its effects is known to be involved in the neurobiology of addiction. Indeed, in studies of mice fed alcohol, semaglutide reduced binge drinking in the rodents.

And preliminary data in people with alcohol use disorder given semaglutide or a placebo, found that those on semaglutide had “greater reductions in drinking quantity and heavy drinking” compared with those in the placebo group.

And a new study from Sweden showed that people with alcohol dependence were must less likely to be hospitalised due to physical illness when using semaglutide.

These studies suggest semaglutide may provide an alternative treatment option for people with addiction problems.

7. Heart disease

As glucose-lowering drugs such as semaglutide lower a person’s cardiovascular risk by 14% in people with diabetes, the use of semaglutide has been studied in a range of heart disease conditions.

A clinical study showed that patients with existing cardiovascular disease who are obese or overweight, but without diabetes, taking semaglutide for up to four years showed lower rates of heart attack and stroke over a three and a half year period.

Also, in a study of over 4,000 people, weekly semaglutide significantly reduced heart failure, clogged arteries and death from any cause, compared with a placebo. As a result of these findings, the US Food and Drug Administration approved semaglutide to help prevent life-threatening cardiovascular events in people with existing heart disease who are either overweight or obese.

8. Lung disorders

Because of semaglutide’s wider protective properties, such as its anti-inflammatory features, it has been studied in various lung disorders.

In a mouse model of acute lung injury, where unregulated inflammation occurs leading to high death rates, semaglutide reduced lung swelling, inflammation, white blood cell infiltration and cell death.

A large review of 28 clinical studies showed that semaglutide treatment led to an 18% reduction in the development of respiratory diseases.

A clinical trial is underway to study the protection offered in patients with advanced interstitial lung disease, which comprises a large number of lung disorders (over 200) where there is damage to the tissues between the small air sacs in the lungs (alveoli) and the blood vessels around them, causing inflammation and scarring (fibrosis). Läs mer…

Since May this year, the aurora borealis, or northern lights, have at times been visible further south than usual over Britain, sparking amazement and fascination. Social media has been alive with images of the skies glowing with green, pink and red light.

Today, we know these lights happen during geomagnetic storms. This is when charged subatomic particles, primarily electrons, collide with Earth’s atmosphere. These particles are constantly released by the sun. But the frequency and intensity of auroras increase during periods of heightened solar activity.

The spectacle itself has long inspired cultural and spiritual interpretation. Centuries ago, people often regarded the aurora as a mysterious and ominous phenomenon.

Between the 14th and 19th century, a period known as the “little ice age”, weather and climate were generally cooler in the north Atlantic than today. Historical and literary sources from Wales reveal a lot about climate variability during this period. And these poems, songs, religious texts and personal diaries also tell us a lot about attitudes towards natural phenomena like the northern lights.

In an era when the night sky was largely free of artificial light, the aurora was an extraordinary sight. For many, it appeared as a divine sign.

Poet Robert Owen captured the sense of awe in 1749. He described the northern lights as a rhyfeddod hynod (strange wonder) and arwyddion cryfion Crist (Christ’s strong signs). His words echo the reverence with which these lights were regarded, symbolising mystery and divine power.

People often projected spiritual or political significance onto natural events, especially during periods of upheaval or uncertainty. In 1745, for instance, auroral displays coincided with the Jacobite rebellion. This was a period of political tension between the Protestant monarchy and supporters of the deposed Catholic Stuart line. Owen’s writings reflect the belief that the lights were a warning to uphold the Protestant faith.

Read more:
What causes the different colours of the aurora? An expert explains the electric rainbow

The balladeer Hugh Jones interpreted the aurora seen during the American war of independence (1775–83) as a divine reminder that Britain should uphold the Protestant faith and make peace with America.

Portrait of William Williams Pantycelyn.
Welsh Portrait Collection/National Library of Wales

As the 18th century progressed, scientific ideas began challenging traditional interpretations of natural phenomena like the northern lights. The religious leader and writer William Williams of Pantycelyn – best known for his hymn, Guide Me, O Thou Great Redeemer – captured both theological and scientific perspectives in his 1774 treatise on the northern lights.

It was published following spectacular auroral displays in 1770 which were seen across the globe from Japan to Spain. Williams presented the lights as evidence of the Gospel’s success. He also connected them to the legitimacy of the second wave of Methodist evangelical reformation in Wales from 1762 onwards.

In his treatise, Williams also acknowledged some contemporary theories, speculating that the aurora might be related to “the new art” of electricity.

Almanacs

Wales’ 18th-century almanacs were annual publications combining calendars, weather lore and astrological predictions. Despite being ridiculed by 18th-century literary figures, Wales’ popular almanacs were an important platform for bringing scientific knowledge to public attention.

They included explanations of astronomy, the ideas of Isaac Newton, and the discovery of Uranus in 1781. Almanacs also included explanations of natural phenomena like the northern lights.

The aurora borealis over Licswm in Flintshire, north Wales in October 2024.
DGDImages/Alamy

In 1717, John Jones, a Welsh almanac compiler, described the aurora as a tarth (vapour) rising from the earth. This echoed the broader scientific discourse of the time. His explanatory essays also represent a shift towards a scientific understanding of the natural world and the emergence of a new science of meteorology.

Historical records provide a bridge between past and present. They demonstrate ways in which natural phenomena were understood and valued centuries ago. They help chart the history of science and reconstruct patterns of past solar activity. In the range of traditional and scientific explanations that they cover, Welsh historical records demonstrate an enduring fascination with the aurora borealis. Läs mer…

In early 2022, thousands of Canadians descended on Ottawa as part of the so-called “Freedom Convoy” in protest of the government’s pandemic-related restrictions. Many were opposed to the government’s power to impose lockdowns, masking and vaccine mandates.

Wittingly or not, they were also taking part in a vast communications effort from various groups and individuals on the far right.

Our new book on the far right in Canada, The Great Right North, shows that events like the Freedom Convoy are representative of where the far right is going, how it is recruiting, how it is communicating internally and with Canadians at large, and how it is progressing in the national political discourse.

Historically, Canada has always had a few active far-right groups, including the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s and Nazis and fascists before the Second World War.

It also saw various semi-successful attempts at federating smaller formations during the 1980s and, in the 1990s, under the umbrella of the Heritage Front, which turned out to be co-founded and led by a CSIS operative.

But that was then. Now, the far right has a different strategy.

Ku Klux Klan members in Kingston, Ont. on July 31, 1927.
(National Archives of Canada/John Boyd)

The evolving far right

Inspired by the widespread Islamophobia that followed the 9/11 attacks, old and new groups, influencers and ideologues have started blending their narratives into broader popular concerns.

New and growing far-right groups have emerged: Pegida Canada, La Meute and others, with tens of thousands of followers. Alongside ordinary Canadians preoccupied with national security, identity and the country’s ability to effectively welcome an influx of immigrants, far-right propagandists were weaving their white-supremacist, anti-government and yes, their old hate for Jewish people, who are accused of being behind it all.

Today, these views are often spread through a relatively sanitized discourse, leaving behind the symbols and the language of the previous generation of extremists and adopting a new populist, average-Joe appearance.

The COVID-19 pandemic further served as a platform to peddle globalist conspiracy theories and cultivate contempt for governments, news media, science, racialized people and any form of speech that might contradict the white supremacist discourse of the far right.

The broad appeal of hard-working truckers, “freedom” and pandemic anxiety was successfully mobilized into a mass movement that inspired far-right groups around the world.

This inspiration is propagated online by ordinary people who like and share snippets of information without necessarily realizing their deeper meaning or their links to extremist groups. Some of the main sources of that inspiration are hyperactive, notorious influencers who carefully cultivate their status as far-right influencers. Others are old-school ideologues, often curating entire online libraries of hate literature.

Usually hidden under a more palatable discourse, sometimes in the form of apparently benign memes, their worldviews are making inroads in our political culture via massive dissemination. The continuous flow of propaganda makes few, if any, direct victims. However, it provides far more traction in public debates on issues such as immigration, security and identity.

A woman wears a Make Canada Great Again cap during a demonstration opposing the government’s immigration policy near the Canada-U.S. border in Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle, Que., Oct. 19, 2019.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

How the far right recruits

Far-right progression is taking place in broad daylight, against a backdrop where the far right is happily riding the wave of populism, geopolitical crises, economic uncertainty and the feeling of neglect that pervades the middle classes in most western countries.

As part of our research, we have interviewed active, deliberate recruiters seeking like-minded people in various sympathetic venues, who told us they approach likely candidates directly, unpack their ideological wares and wait for reactions. But this is not the most worrying form of recruitment; it is high in effort and low in results.

In our research, we found that today “recruitment” is not so much about adding members to groups. It’s about adding adherents to a worldview. Individuals who go from one political problem to the next, in an infinitely changing galaxy of groups, ideas, controversies and people constantly re-inventing themselves with new ideological nuances, special focus on sometimes arcane matters, and adapting as best they can to current events.

Within the general chaos, some overarching, common beliefs can be found. That the state and its institutions, as well as the democratic foundations of western societies, are corrupt, weak or desperately vulnerable to mismanagement. That white Canadians are threatened by replacement and disappearance by scheming elites.

Consequently, cultural, ethnic and social polarization are constantly underlined, and presented in a manner that justifies the repression of various populations deemed to be dangerous. Though very few will engage in physical violence, it is constantly legitimized, and often praised, when described, suggested or committed as the key to achieve political objectives.

Anyone searching online for information on almost any social or political topic is likely to come across multiple rabbit holes leading to the self-sufficient, airtight bubble of the far-right infosphere. This is the realm of incels, white supremacists, neo-nazis, Christian nationalists and the like.

Beside their far-right views, these entities have almost nothing in common, other than the conviction that accessing various public forums is a powerful way to attract public attention and, eventually, approval of their worldview.

This far-right infosphere is a massive supermarket of support groups, and is a powerful infrastructure of organic recruitment. It is led by gurus and influencers but also by ordinary individuals in discussion groups and chat rooms. It is propelled by digital platforms whose operating logic is not to favour quality information but rather content that is better at provoking engagement. One prime driver of engagement is controversy, a far-right specialty.

A CBC news report about the Québec-based far-right group La Meute.

Paths to the far right

We studied at length the various processes that lead people to engage with far-right rhetoric or with a specific group, and to eventual commitment, i.e. participation in some kind of action, whether illegal or not.

We found different paths for those who spread hate propaganda and symbolic violence, and those who engage in physical violence. Both include lone actors or very small groups.

We divide the physically violent into two categories: small groups who look for trouble as entertainment, often joining together for socializing and for protection; and the explosive, desperate violence of disorganized individuals, most of whom were already vulnerable, living with intense economic, familial, social or psychological stress. The latter, locked in echo chambers, use social media to confirm beliefs that crystallize and, in some cases, lead to violence.

Far-right sentiments are constantly evolving, and appear to be growing in Canada. It is important for governments, institutions and others seeking to address extremism to understand the ways people are being drawn to the far right and its online echo chambers. Läs mer…

The atmosphere is constantly changing. Its composition has varied regularly over the course of the planet’s climatic epochs, particularly with regard to its levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration, a crucial factor in determining Earth’s climate.

Analysis of air bubbles trapped in ice cores has made it possible to reconstruct these variations in composition over the last 500,000 years. This is shown by our study published in the journal Nature Geoscience, which shows recent “jumps” in CO2 that correspond to increases of around 10 parts per million (ppm) in less than a century in atmospheric CO2 concentrations.

Emilie Capron, co-author of the study, observing air bubbles trapped in Antarctic ice.
Sepp Kipfstuhl/Alfred Wegener Institute, Fourni par l’auteur

These “jumps”, which correspond to the most abrupt natural variations in atmospheric CO2 that have occurred in the climate’s past, remain much smaller in amplitude than the recent increase that is at the root of global warming.

The study shows that these jumps in CO2 occurred at times when the inclination of the Earth’s axis of rotation in relation to the plane of its orbit around the Sun, known as obliquity, was high. The Earth is currently in a period of high obliquity.

And that’s not all: these jumps are triggered by disturbances in the Atlantic Meridional Oceanic Circulation (AMOC), a major ocean current in the North Atlantic that plays a crucial role in regulating the climate and which is currently showing signs of slowing down.

This could lead to an additional CO2 jump on top of human-made emissions.

CO₂ “jumps”: what exactly are we talking about?

These jumps in atmospheric CO2 correspond to increases of around 10 parts per million (ppm), in the space of a century, in atmospheric concentrations over the last half-million years.

Although significant, these increases remain, on average, 10 to 20 times smaller than the increase in human-made emissions. Over the last approximately 100 years, the increase is estimated at 115 ppm, 10 times greater than the observed jumps in CO2.

Gregory Teste, co-author of the study, cutting an ice core at the Concordia Antarctic station.
Gregory Teste, IGE, Fourni par l’auteur

The analysis of this ice core, a long tube of ice around 10 centimetres in diameter taken from several kilometres deep in Antarctica, whose surface is almost entirely covered in ice, was carried out at the Grenoble Institute of Environmental Geosciences.

It identified seven new CO2 jumps during the period from 260,000 to 190,000 BC and 15 jumps already recorded in previous records.

Above all, it has shown that 18 of the 22 CO2 jumps studied occurred when the planet’s obliquity was high.

A coincidence of two phenomena

The CO2 jumps, which are abrupt phenomena, are in fact caused by the contingency of two phenomena.

The initial trigger for these jumps is the disruption of the AMOC, a major player in the regulation of the Earth’s climate. The cessation of the AMOC leads to a shake-up of precipitation and temperature on a global scale.
However, this necessary condition is not sufficient: every disruption to the AMOC does not systematically lead to a jump in CO2. This is where the second key parameter in the occurrence of CO2 jumps comes into play: the obliquity of the Earth, which corresponds to the Earth’s tilt in relation to the Sun as it rotates around it.

This obliquity is not constant: it varies regularly between around 22° and 25°, through cycles of 41,000 years.

This variation influences the distribution of the Sun’s energy at the Earth’s surface, which has a direct impact on regional climates and the geographical distribution of terrestrial environments, including the types of vegetation that store carbon. Our results suggest that these changes in the terrestrial distribution of vegetation, particularly in the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa, lead to the build-up of large stocks of CO2 in biomass, which can then be destocked during AMOC perturbation, causing CO2 jumps.

CO₂ jumps and climate change: a double whammy?

The Earth is currently in one of these periods of high obliquity. In the event of a major disruption to Atlantic Ocean circulation, in particular a slowdown in the AMOC, a quantity of carbon equivalent to four years of global anthropogenic emissions (at the rate of average emissions over the period 2010-2019) could thus be released in the space of a few decades, thus adding to current anthropogenic emissions.

Concordia Station, a French-Italian facility in the Dome C region of Antarctica, drilling site of the ice core used to identify the CO₂
Yves Frenot/IPEV/CNRS Images, Fourni par l’auteur

At present, there are still major uncertainties in the modelling associated with the AMOC, some of it suggesting that the oceanic circulation is slowing down as a result of climate change caused by human activities. In the event of a collapse of the AMOC, a new jump in CO2 could occur, leading to new CO2 emissions from natural sources destabilised by human activity, which would amplify climate change.

Created in 2007 to accelerate and share scientific knowledge on major societal issues, the Axa Research Fund has supported nearly 700 projects worldwide, led by researchers from 38 countries. To find out more, visit the Axa Research Fund website or follow us on X @AXAResearchFund. Läs mer…

Almost all of Donald Trump’s nominees for critical positions within his presidential administration have been non-traditional. Fox News presenter Pete Hegseth was just named as Trump’s possible defence secretary. Alongside Elon Musk, pharmaceutical company entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy has been tapped to lead a newly named Department of Government Efficiency.

With little background in border protection, South Dakota governor Kristi Noem has been nominated as the director of the Department of Homeland Security. Linda McMahon, World Wrestling Entertainment co-founder has been named Trump’s pick for secretary of commerce.

All of these people have been incredibly loyal to Trump. Few have experience of being elected and representing the public.

That makes the nomination of Florida senator Marco Rubio a little surprising. Rubio wasn’t an election denier, something that the other picks have been vocal about, and he has years of experience as a senator. Rubio also famously made fun of Trump’s hands when he was vying against him for the Republican nomination in 2016.

In Trump’s usual fashion, he responded by referring to Rubio as “Little Marco”. But these two have clearly buried the hatchet, which is unusual for Trump. Rubio ended up campaigning on behalf of Trump and became one of his biggest fans.

Read more:
How the Trump presidency might change the global economy

So what makes Rubio a surprising pick for Trump’s foreign policy leader? Rubio is seen as more of a traditional interventionist and isn’t a fan of Russia. He called Vladimir Putin a “killer”, although within the last two years, Rubio has moderated his position.

This month, Rubio said that though he supports Ukraine, the war has to end. Rubio reasoned the US was funding a stalemate and this was no longer in Ukraine or US interests. Although he added: “That doesn’t mean that we celebrate what Vladimir Putin did or are excited about it.”

However, Rubio was also one of the Republicans who voted against the Ukraine aid bill in April 2024. It is likely that Rubio will support Trump’s desire to make a deal with Russia, that would involve Ukraine capitulating and giving up significant territory.

Rubio on Nato

While Rubio has clearly changed his tune on Ukraine to align with Trump, he is not in lockstep with Trump on Nato. In fact, Rubio co-sponsored legislation alongside Democratic senator Tim Kaine, that would make it more difficult for Trump to withdraw from Nato by requiring two-thirds of the Senate to ratify withdrawal.

As Trump has notoriously been critical of Nato, this is likely to be an area of disagreement between the two, but might be seen as a hopeful sign by other Nato member nations.

Trump, however, seems to be willing to look past this because he agrees with Rubio’s hawkish approach to China and Iran. Rubio has proposed banning companies controlled by the Chinese Communist Party or the Chinese military from accessing US capital markets.

Donald Trump plans to appoint Marco Rubio as his secretary of state.

Rubio also advocated that electric cars that use Chinese technology not receive subsidies, and sponsored a law to prevent the import of Chinese products that were manufactured with forced labour.

Rubio on Iran

When it comes to Iran, Rubio sees no difference between the leadership of hardliner Iranian former president Ebrahim Raisi
and the more moderate current president, Masoud Pezeshkian. Rubio has advocated for tougher sanctions on Iran, and more pressure applied to curb the regime’s nuclear ambitions. A staunch supporter of Israel, Rubio has argued that Iran’s main goal is to make Israel unliveable.

If confirmed, Rubio would make history as the first Hispanic American secretary of state, and is fluent in Spanish. In Latin American politics, Trump has demonstrated blind faith in Rubio’s knowledge of the region.

During Trump’s first term, Rubio was certainly involved in US foreign policy towards Latin America, acting almost as a de facto secretary of state. Rubio worked to reverse the Obama administration’s softer stance on Cuba, and levy tougher sanctions against the Cuban military.

Rubio also was instrumental in cracking down on Venezuela. Rubio has made clear his position that Venezuela has become a “narco”state that cannot be negotiated with.

Rubio has clarified that all options should be on the table when dealing with Venezuela, and thus has not ruled out a military response to remove Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro from power. Though it’s unlikely that the US would invade Venezuela, Rubio will likely advocate for much harsher sanctions against the country.

So what best characterises Rubio’s foreign policy? He definitely wants to take a tough approach towards America’s adversaries, but wouldn’t advocate military invasions.

More importantly, Rubio is very transactional. He has made his peace with changing his mind on key foreign policy issues in order to be invited into Trump’s inner circle. Rubio was willing to turn his back on Ukraine in order to more closely mirror the Maga agenda, and in return will be given free rein to direct US foreign policy in Latin America and a plum secretary of state role.

While Trump’s main foreign policy agenda is to try to enforce an ”America first” agenda, where US national interests are always predominant, and be unpredictable, Rubio could bring some predictability to the role.

He might be closer in attitude to Rex Tillerson, Trump’s former secretary of state who was ousted in 2018. Tillerson claimed that Trump had almost no understanding of global events (behind closed doors Tillerson allegedly called Trump a moron). Or he might be more like former secretary of state Mike Pompeo who regularly sung Trump’s praises.

While Tillerson had no political aspirations beyond his tenure in the cabinet, Pompeo clearly did and Rubio certainly does. He might even challenge J.D. Vance for rising star status.

Though there are likely to be some tensions that will erupt between Trump and Rubio, given the dominance that Trump currently has over the Republican party, we might expect Rubio to hitch his wagon to Trump world. Once in place and in charge of international negotiations, his differences in position might become a little clearer. Läs mer…

For centuries, it has been held that the ideas and movement for the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade came from western abolitionists. No input from Africans has been acknowledged.

As a professor of African and Atlantic history, I challenge this notion in a book titled Lourenço da Silva Mendonça and the Black Atlantic Abolitionist Movement in the Seventeenth Century. The book is based on new material found in Portuguese, Spanish and Vatican archives. Its key argument is that the ideas and movement for ending transatlantic slavery began largely among Africans in the Portuguese empire in the 17th century. And not, as most accounts would have it, as a European idea in the 18th century.

Cambridge University Press

The book is based on two decades of research into abolition, universal freedom and justice. In it, I explore the role played by Angolan prince Lourenço da Silva Mendonça. He became a central figure in championing the abolition of slavery after he was exiled in 1671 to Brazil and then Portugal.

By exploring Mendonça’s life, and the detailed records surviving from an important court case in the 1680s, I offer a new perspective on the slave trade, the Black Atlantic, Catholicism, imperialism and abolition. These are all central to global history.

Lourenço da Silva Mendonça

The Atlantic slave trade began in 1415 and ran for four and a half centuries. During that time, more than 16 million Africans were kidnapped and transported to Europe, South and North America and the Caribbean.

Prince Lourenço da Silva Mendonça was born in the kingdom of Pedras of Pungo-AnDongo in 1649, in Angola. (His place of death remains unknown.) His birth coincided with Portugal tightening its grip on the slave trade in west central Africa. This trade’s brutal effects defined his early childhood and adulthood.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, Portugal was in the forefront of European maritime empires and of the Atlantic slave trade. In 1585 Luanda (modern Angola’s capital) was established as a port south of the Kongo kingdom, in the Pungo-AnDongo kingdom, serving this trade.

Angola was named after the title of its king. Portuguese influence gradually spread inland and Lourenço’s grandfather, Hari I, was made a king by Portugal in 1626. During his 38 years of service to Portugal, he was forced to pay 3,800 enslaved people to the crown, a tax known as baculamento.

Hari I had to fight wars alongside Portuguese troops stationed in Angola in which two of his sons, including Mendonça’s father, died. Two of Mendonça’s uncles, however, rebelled against Portugal and refused to pay tax in human persons. Hari II, who took the throne of Pungo-AnDongo, was executed. The Ndongo polity was finally conquered in 1671 and brought fully under Portuguese control. Members of the royal group were exiled.

Mendonça witnessed these processes and was part of this exile network in Brazil, which was colonised by Portugal at the time. By order of the Portuguese crown, Mendonça studied for four years at the Convent of Vilar de Frades in Braga, a city in Portugal. By the 1680s, he was elected as an international lawyer for Black Christians across Africa, Portugal, Brazil and Spain. He was allowed to practise “throughout the whole of Christendom in any kingdom or dominion” and “using the economic and political right which is conferred to him”.

In 1684, Mendonça presented a court case to Pope Innocent XI, petitioning the Vatican, Portugal, Italy and Spain to stop enslaving African people. He demanded abolition not only for Africans, but also for New Christians (Jews converted to Christianity) and Native Americans.

This petition was made more than a century before British abolitionist leaders William Wilberforce and Thomas Buxton fought for the passage of Great Britain’s Act of Abolition.

The Vatican was the leading court in the Catholic world. In the 15th and 16th centuries the Vatican had issued a series of papal bulls permitting the enslavement of Africans, meaning it also had the judicial authority to ban slavery under ecclesiastical law.

In his address to the Vatican, Mendonça exposed the hypocrisy of the institution of Atlantic slavery, using four core principles of law to argue his case: human, natural, divine, and civil laws. He argued for the abolition of slavery and included Black Brotherhoods and interest groups of men, women and young people of African descent in Spain, Portugal, Brazil and Africa. The scale of this international initiative led by Africans in the Atlantic region has not been fully researched.

Mendonça’s thinking developed in part because of his legal role for the Black Christian Brotherhood, a role conferred on him by the king of the Christian Kingdom (Spain), Carlos II, and the archbishop of Toledo, Luis Manuel Fernández de Portocarrero y de Guzman.

His argument for abolition included non-Iberian empires in Africa, the Americas and Europe, and enabled him to take his criminal court case to the Supreme Court of Christendom in an attempt to overturn Pope Nicholas V’s bull, which was the foundation of perpetual Atlantic slavery.

Misunderstood history

Proponents of slavery at the time argued that Africans enslaved their own people and that this practice was embedded in their socio-political, economic, religious and legal systems.

The abolition of Atlantic slavery has subsequently been told mainly as a narrative in which morally superior European Christians rescued Africans both from their own and subsequent imperial systems of slavery. Both the slave trade itself, and colonialism after British abolition, were justified by these linked, usually Christian, narratives.

Mendonça regarded the narratives about African slavery as treacherous tales aimed at justifying the unjustifiable. The records of the case not only reveal the role taken by Africans in the early abolition movement but also their sophisticated development of arguments to connect divine, natural, civil and human law.

Read more:
African leaders in Sierra Leone played a key role in ending the transatlantic slave trade

They also show the political nous of Mendonça and his networks in attempting to unite oppressed constituencies within the Atlantic and the broader Catholic world.

Mendonça’s relationship with new Christians, Native Brazilians and other Africans was central to the case he made for universal human rights, liberty, reparation and humanity. It is striking that the Vatican court’s verdict on Mendonça’s case in 1686 was a universal condemnation of the Atlantic slave trade. But the Christian states of Europe failed to honour it. It would take another 200 years before slavery was finally abolished, first in 1834 in the British Empire, and then in 1888 in Brazil. Läs mer…

The realities of climate change are hitting home for many people living in the global south. Food security, water access and health have been jeopardised by the increased temperatures, extreme weather events and sea level rise.

In many places women are the primary caregivers for children, the sick or the elderly, as well as being responsible for cooking and cleaning in the household. This kind of work can be described as care work, which is often unpaid or underpaid.

The impacts of climate change will add to the required care work. This will put a strain on those who are responsible for these vital tasks. While women often do this work, it is also performed by children and other family members who can all take strain in these circumstances.

Read more:
Water scarcity on Nigeria’s coast is hardest on women: 6 steps to ease the burden

We are a group of gender equality and climate change and inequality researchers and economists who, in a recent working paper, proposed a set of principles that should be used for a “gender just transition”. These are based on a review of empirical literature mainly from the global south on some of the unjust transitions already underway, as well as contributions by feminist scholars.

The transition to a low-carbon economy is underway across the world. However, gender justice is often neglected – and there is a risk that the transition won’t be just at all.

In our paper we argue that a just transition requires a reckoning with power dynamics in climate policymaking.

The just transition

A just transition refers to the way in which a low- or zero-carbon economy is achieved. It should take economic and social justice concerns into account.

But there has been a lack of serious engagement with the gendered dimensions of justice in policies being developed for the just transition. This raises the risk that transition policies sustain or worsen gender (and other) inequalities.

This is particularly true in the global south, which is facing the greatest threats due to climate change and transition impacts.

Gender equality

Evidence suggests that the shift to renewable energy does not necessarily improve gender equity. Improved access to electricity can reduce the time needed for much housework. However, one case study in Zambia found that men often benefited from the increase in leisure time afforded by efficiencies in housework whereas women’s labour was shifted to other tasks.

In India, a large renewable energy development led to land used for agriculture being sold or rented for renewable energy plants so the agricultural workers – most of whom were women – suffered loss of income.

In Zambia, electrification did not necessarily reduce the workload for cooking. This was mainly because solar minigrids did not have enough capacity to power electric cookstoves. While the minigrid increased incomes for local businesses, these benefits were mostly enjoyed by men who were the business owners.

In the case of a large solar power project in Morocco, women did not benefit because they were not landowners who could earn rental income. They did not participate in decision-making either.

Renewable electrification cannot be assumed to improve gender relations. If the energy transition ignores these inequalities, they could grow.

A just transition and gender justice

We combined insights on the gendered impacts of transition with feminist theory. This allowed us to expand on the key principles for just transition in a way that supports gender equality. These principles include:

Participatory justice: taking an equal part in decision-making and having accountable governance.
Distributive justice: the equal distribution of positive and negative impacts of transition.
Recognitional justice: recognising existing inequalities and contributions, and aiming to incorporate diverse knowledges and values.
Restorative justice: Acknowledging existing harms of environmental degradation and climate change which must be redressed and remediated.

We incorporated feminist perspectives to provide new interpretations of these principles:

Distributive justice: Equal access to resources and employment for all genders is central to feminist thought. The transition to a low-carbon economy is expected to benefit some and disadvantage others. Those who don’t have access to water, land or livelihoods are at greater risk in the transition.

Therefore, a gender just transition requires public and affordable provision of social goods. This includes education, healthcare, child and elderly care, energy and water infrastructure, and social protection – to relieve and redistribute care work.

Read more:
Climate change is hitting women the hardest. What to do about it — economists

A feminist approach to distributive justice requires thinking about how the economy is organised, what types of labour are valued, and how economic resources are distributed.

Participatory justice: Feminist theories focus attention on inequality, whether based on gender, race, class, ethnicity, or other categories. Feminists highlight the role of power in knowledge creation and who is called an “expert”. Participatory justice for a gender just transition should shift the focus of participation in policymaking from elites to excluded groups, whose input should be valued as experts in their own contexts.

Recognitional justice: Feminist theory promotes a view of climate change and just transition as complex social problems. This recognises that humans are embedded in nature and acknowledges the important work that many groups are doing for sustainability and climate change. Recognitional justice should therefore acknowledge existing inequalities and contributions, and aim to incorporate diverse knowledge systems and values.

Restorative justice: Restorative justice should acknowledge, compensate and repair harms which are gendered. For example, industries such as coal mining have affected men and women in different ways. The environment also needs repair. Options for climate reparations must be explored at the local and global level.

Exploring the evidence of the gendered impacts of climate change and transition in the global south, and using feminist theory to extract key lessons which can be applied to the commonly used pillars of justice, allows for a more expansive and radical view of justice for a gender just transition.

A gender just transition requires a reckoning with power dynamics in climate policymaking.

Governments, development banks and all stakeholders working on efforts to achieve a just transition should use an expansive view of justice in order to address inequality of all kinds. Läs mer…

In Zimbabwe’s Shona language, mental illness is known as chirwere chepfungwa or kupenga. Before British colonial settlers arrived in 1890, traditional healers (n’anga) played an important role in helping people to manage their mental as well as their physical health.

But, from the late 19th to the mid 20th century, the British colonisers, particularly Christian missionaries, cracked down on the work of the n’anga. They insisted that communities should abandon their traditional beliefs and healing practices. Instead, people were cajoled and threatened to embrace western biomedicine, relying on its psychiatric and psychological methods to treat mental illness.

The British government of what was then Rhodesia introduced the Witchcraft Suppression Act in 1899. It also used the colonial education system to push people away from what the British perceived as “superstitious” ways of understanding and healing illnesses.

The colonial crackdown succeeded only in driving healing practices underground. Shona people no longer openly expressed their interest in using traditional rituals. Unfortunately, they did not always receive the help they needed from western biomedicine, since there were only a limited number of nurses, medical doctors, psychiatrists or psychologists available to treat those with mental illnesses. The system favoured white “Rhodesians” and Shona people weren’t given priority.

In the 1980s, in the early post-colonial Zimbabwe, the government introduced several strategies to try to restore the respect and function of cultural beliefs and traditional healing practices. It created Zinatha (the Zimbabwe Traditional Healers Association) and later amended the witchcraft suppression law, so that traditional healers were no longer viewed as witches or “witch-doctors” or their healing practices as witchcraft.

I am a researcher who focuses on traditional healing, mental health and neo-liberal regimes in north-eastern Zimbabwe. I wanted to know what role n’anga play in helping the Korekore (a sub-group of Shona people) in the country’s Rushinga district manage their mental health. I also wanted to know how people think about mental illness and what factors they believe influence it. In a recent study I did just that.

The Korekore strongly believe that mental illness is largely caused by sorcery, witchcraft, the breaking of cultural taboos, or aggrieved or avenging spirits. They acknowledge that other psychosocial and physical factors can play a role, too, but largely see kupenga as a social and cultural issue.

This means that traditional healers are key to managing mental illness. I argue that the public health system, which still values western biomedicine over other approaches to healing, needs to take the role of traditional healers more seriously and work towards helping patients holistically, in a way those patients value and recognise.

Traditional healers at work

I must point out that people in Rushinga district also consult with psychiatrists, psychologists and medical doctors. But many do so in conjunction with the guidance, advice and interventions offered to them by traditional healers.

A traditional healer, Ambuya Faustina, and her assistant in Chanjira, Rushinga district.
Maja Jakarasi, Author provided (no reuse)

While individual interactions will differ, the healers’ approach follows an overall pattern.

Firstly, healers divine the causes of kupenga and suggest healing methods. These proposed methods differ from individual to individual, even if their challenges appear to be the same. They include exorcising bad spirits (mweya yakaipa or mamhepo), witchcraft and sorcery, through inducing vomiting (kurutsisa), and the use of spiritualised (ritually prepared) and non-spiritualised herbs.

Read more:
Traditional versus contemporary medicine: mental illness in Zimbabwe

These herbs are ingested into the body in various ways: via incisions into the skin, smoking, sniffing, steaming, applying animal fats, and conducting traditional healing rituals (bira/mizva).

The study

Rushinga is a district in the Mashonaland Central province, home to about 77,000 people. My study focused on people living in Katevera, a rural area in the district. I spoke to traditional healers, faith healers, people who had previously been treated for mental illness and were considered cured, and relatives of mentally ill people.

The Korekore do not see mental illness as residing only in the human body, but also outside it, in social and cultural environments. The human body is believed to take in and leak out various spiritual and ancestral influences. This is why most healing seeks to make the body flush out bad things and to make it more resistant to evil spirits, witchcraft and sorcery.

Read more:
God and illness: for some South Africans, there’s more to healing than medicine

The respondents told me about their experiences of mental illness. One, Jada, explained what had caused his illness.

I saw two very small “goblins” (zvidhoma) coming to fight me. This was the last time I knew what was happening. I was later told that I had been carried to Chimhanda Hospital. The traditional healer later told me that I was bewitched by the zvidhoma. They were sent by one of my jealous family members. Somebody in our family has money-making goblins and wants political power. The zvidhoma thrive on using other people through mental illness. They suck blood. This is how their business or political power is strengthened. They usually cause mental illness in a family.

Jada consulted with a traditional healer, doing so at night to avoid public scrutiny – he said he didn’t want to be judged by his colleagues for working with n’anga. He made a full recovery, returned to work, and was even recently promoted. He was very pleased with the traditional healer’s methods.

A number of people I spoke with insisted that traditional healing methods were efficacious in treating mental illness. The n’anga I interviewed, meanwhile, said they offered lasting healing because they tackled the root causes of mental illness.

Strong beliefs

It is clear from this study that the Korekore people in the Rushinga district have not wavered in their beliefs about and ways of healing mental illnesses. This is despite colonial attitudes that persist in hospitals, clinics and schools, where only western and colonial knowledge is valued. People told me that nurses and psychiatrists openly denigrated traditional healers.

Public health staff need to recognise that social and cultural factors can cause mental distress and that, in some cases, traditional healing could complement their work or even be a better way to treat a particular patient.

I recommend that schools in the district begin to teach learners about the importance of local understandings of mental illness. Textbooks, too, could feature content about traditional healing alongside information about biomedical treatments. Läs mer…