Facebook and Twitter face growing scrutiny for their role in sparking France’s ‘Gilets Jaunes’ protests

Facebook and Twitter face growing scrutiny for their role in sparking France’s ‘Gilets Jaunes’ protests

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VentureBeat reports: The French government announced it is investigating the possibility that Russia manipulated social networking services such as Facebook and Twitter to foment discord that has inspired growing protests across the country. The Gilets Jaunes or “yellow vests,” appeared at first to be largely a spontaneous social movement of protestors angry about an impending tax on diesel that is aimed at fighting climate change. The original complaint that this fell disproportionately on the backs of poor and rural residents…

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Brexit: UK can unilaterally revoke article 50, says European Court of Justice

Brexit: UK can unilaterally revoke article 50, says European Court of Justice

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The Guardian reports: The UK can unilaterally stop the Brexit process, the European court of justice has said in a ruling that will boost demands for a second EU referendum. The court concluded that any EU member state can revoke an article 50 process without needing approval from every other member state, but only before its withdrawal comes into force. “The United Kingdom is free to revoke unilaterally the notification of its intention to withdraw from the EU,” the ECJ…

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How a powerful Russian propaganda machine chips away at Western notions of truth

How a powerful Russian propaganda machine chips away at Western notions of truth

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The Washington Post reports: The initial plan was a Cold War classic — brutal yet simple. Two Russian agents would slip onto the property of a turncoat spy in Britain and daub his front door with a rare military-grade poison designed to produce an agonizing and untraceable death. But when the attempted assassination of Sergei Skripal was botched, the mission quickly shifted. Within hours, according to British and U.S. officials who closely followed the events, a very different kind of…

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Vast ecosystem beneath the Earth’s surface discovered

Vast ecosystem beneath the Earth’s surface discovered

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The Guardian reports: The Earth is far more alive than previously thought, according to “deep life” studies that reveal a rich ecosystem beneath our feet that is almost twice the size of that found in all the world’s oceans. Despite extreme heat, no light, minuscule nutrition and intense pressure, scientists estimate this subterranean biosphere is teeming with between 15bn and 23bn tonnes of micro-organisms, hundreds of times the combined weight of every human on the planet. Researchers at the Deep…

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The steward of Middle-earth

The steward of Middle-earth

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Hannah Long writes: Around the time Christopher [Tolkien] was commissioned an officer in the RAF in 1945, [J.R.R.] Tolkien was calling his son “my chief critic and collaborator.” Christopher would return from flying missions to pore over another chapter of his father’s work. He also joined the informal literary club known as the Inklings. At 21, he was the youngest—and is now the last surviving—member. The band of friends—J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, Hugo Dyson, and Charles Williams, among…

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The planet has seen sudden warming before. It wiped out almost everything

The planet has seen sudden warming before. It wiped out almost everything

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Carl Zimmer writes: Some 252 million years ago, Earth almost died. In the oceans, 96 percent of all species became extinct. It’s harder to determine how many terrestrial species vanished, but the loss was comparable. This mass extinction, at the end of the Permian Period, was the worst in the planet’s history, and it happened over a few thousand years at most — the blink of a geological eye. On Thursday, a team of scientists offered a detailed accounting of…

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Trump ‘at the center of a massive fraud against the American people’

Trump ‘at the center of a massive fraud against the American people’

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The New York Times reports: The latest revelations by prosecutors investigating President Trump and his team draw a portrait of a candidate who personally directed an illegal scheme to manipulate the 2016 election and whose advisers had more contact with Russia than Mr. Trump has ever acknowledged. In the narrative that the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, and New York prosecutors are building, Mr. Trump continued to secretly seek to do business in Russia deep into his presidential campaign…

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U.S. and Russia ally with Saudi Arabia to water down climate pledge

U.S. and Russia ally with Saudi Arabia to water down climate pledge

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The Guardian reports: The US and Russia have thrown climate talks into disarray by allying with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to water down approval of a landmark report on the need to keep global warming below 1.5C. After a heated two-and-a-half-hour debate on Saturday night, the backwards step by the four major oil producers shocked delegates at the UN climate conference in Katowice as ministers flew in for the final week of high-level discussions. It has also raised fears among…

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Russians interacted with at least 14 Trump associates during the campaign and transition

Russians interacted with at least 14 Trump associates during the campaign and transition

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The Washington Post reports: The Russian ambassador. A deputy prime minister. A pop star, a weightlifter, a lawyer, a Soviet army veteran with alleged intelligence ties. Again and again and again, over the course of Donald Trump’s 18-month campaign for the presidency, Russian citizens made contact with his closest family and friends, as well as figures on the periphery of his orbit. Some offered to help his campaign and his real estate business. Some offered dirt on his Democratic opponent….

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Group led by Thomas Piketty presents plan for ‘a fairer Europe’

Group led by Thomas Piketty presents plan for ‘a fairer Europe’

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The Guardian reports: A group of progressive Europeans led by the economist and author Thomas Piketty has drawn up a bold new blueprint for a fairer Europe to address the division, disenchantment, inequality and rightwing populism sweeping the continent. The plan, crafted by more than 50 economists, historians and former politicians from half a dozen countries, includes huge levies on multinationals, millionaires and carbon emissions to generate funds to tackle the most urgent issues of the day, including poverty, migration,…

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How a chilling Saudi cyberwar ensnared Jamal Khashoggi

How a chilling Saudi cyberwar ensnared Jamal Khashoggi

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David Ignatius writes: When Jamal Khashoggi entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, he didn’t know he was walking into a killing zone. He had become the prime target in a 21st-century information war — one that involved hacking, kidnapping and ultimately murder — waged by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his courtiers against dissenters. How did a battle of ideas, triggered by Khashoggi’s outspoken journalism for The Post, become so deadly? That’s the riddle at…

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‘Siege warfare’: Republican anxiety spikes as Trump faces growing legal and political perils

‘Siege warfare’: Republican anxiety spikes as Trump faces growing legal and political perils

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The Washington Post reports: A growing number of Republicans fear that a battery of new revelations in the far-reaching Russia investigation has dramatically heightened the legal and political danger to Donald Trump’s presidency — and threatens to consume the rest of the party, as well. President Trump added to the tumult Saturday by announcing the abrupt exit of his chief of staff, John F. Kelly, whom he sees as lacking the political judgment and finesse to steer the White House…

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As good an attorney general as we’re likely to get

As good an attorney general as we’re likely to get

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Benjamin Wittes writes: It is better to have an attorney general nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate in an undoubtedly legal fashion than to have an acting attorney general serving in circumstances of dubious legality. It is better to have an attorney general who is steeped in the traditions and culture of the Justice Department than to have an acting attorney general who is understood at the department to be operating as the “eyes and ears” of…

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Is this the beginning of the end for Trump?

Is this the beginning of the end for Trump?

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Barry Berke, Noah Bookbinder and Norman Eisen write: On Friday, federal prosecutors in Manhattan and the special counsel, Robert Mueller, delivered a potentially devastating one-two punch against President Trump. Coming late in the day, they made for bracing end-of-the-week reading. Calling on the court to impose a sentence of substantial imprisonment against Michael Cohen, the president’s former personal attorney, prosecutors in the Southern District of New York stated that Mr. Trump, the Trump Organization and the campaign were all directly…

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