DARK SECRETS: 22 - The Real Truth

Russia fines Wikimedia Foundation over Ukraine war entries

A Russian court on Tuesday fined Wikipedia owner Wikimedia Foundation 2 million roubles ($32,600) over articles relating to the Ukraine war, the head of the foundation's Russia chapter told Reuters.

Reuters · Nov 1, 2022

Cruelty, pettiness and real estate: in Confidence Man, Maggie Haberman wields eye popping anecdotes to plumb the Trump phenomenon

Donald Trump has been colonising the world’s attention for years, via television, on social media and in books. Ironically, given Trump likes books about as much as he does germs, more than 100 books about him are listed on Wikipedia, ranging from biographies and exposés to paeans of praise (think…

The Conversation · Oct 26, 2022

Oscar-tipped drama Tár thrillingly captures digital and cancel culture

Todd Field’s first film in 15 years is a surprising triumph, one of the few to take on the knottiness of so-called ‘cancel culture’ and succeed

The Guardian - US · Oct 26, 2022

Ales Bialiatski, a life of peaceful struggle for human rights in Belarus

A co-laureate of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, the human rights activist Ales Bialiatski is the fourth person in the history of the Nobel to receive this award while in prison. With this symbolic yet powerful gesture, the Nobel committee recognised Bialiatski’s 35 years of work upholding human rights in…

The Conversation · Oct 18, 2022

Climate change must be a catalyst for reform of the World Heritage system

Over the last few years, many parts of the world have been devastated by extreme droughts, floods, wild fires and heatwaves linked to climate change. But climate change is not only influencing our weather: it also poses an existential threat to the outstanding universal value (OUV) of many of the…

The Conversation · Oct 16, 2022

Why many Ukrainians speak Russian as their first language

The issue of the Ukrainian language and who speaks it has become highly politicised during the Russian invasion. Vladimir Putin has even used it as a cover to annex some occupied areas of Ukraine with large numbers of Russian speakers.

The Conversation · Oct 12, 2022

Popular websites: Where we’re hanging out online

You don’t have to look far to find a story about the toxic influence of the World Wide Web. But we keep coming back.

The New Daily · Oct 10, 2022

Nobel Prizes, election outcomes and sports championships – prediction markets try to foresee the future

Who will win Nobel Prizes in 2022? Wikipedia posits a handful of contenders for Physiology or Medicine, about 20 different possible winners for the Peace Prize and several dozen potential winners of the Literature Prize. But since the Swedish Academy never announces nominees in advance, there are few insights indicating…

The Conversation · Sep 28, 2022

Women artists: the belated craze for blockbuster shows is welcome – but it's not enough

The Barbican’s boldly curated exhibiton of abstract expressionist Lee Krasner (1908-1984) – who was routinely referred to as Jackson Pollock’s wife, despite being a well-established artist long before meeting him – transferred to the Guggenheim Bilbao in 2018. Before it opened, a Spanish newspaper invited me to introduce this “little…

The Conversation · Sep 20, 2022

How did the patriarchy start – and will evolution get rid of it?

READER QUESTION: Many people assume the patriarchy has always been there, but surely this isn’t the case? How did it really originate? Matt, 48, London.

The Conversation · Sep 20, 2022