“Since summer 2020, orcas near the Strait of Gibraltar and around the Iberian Peninsula have been interfering with boats. Sailing boats are the most common target, and the whales use significant force on them: approaching from the stern, a group of orcas will inspect the boat carefully, swimming alongside it and turning upside down to look at the hull and steering gear, before starting to push the craft around. Sometimes they ram the hull with their heads. They take particular interest in the rudder, which they push with their bodies or grip with their teeth to control the boat. In some cases, the rudder is bent at the stock, split apart or snapped off completely, disabling the craft. A handful of boats have sunk after these encounters, though this does not seem to be the aim, and the whales tend to depart once the boat stops moving or they have damaged it; perhaps the game is then finished. No one has yet been harmed. It isn’t clear exactly how many whales are involved, but at least eleven individuals of a small population of around forty have been identified as taking part. All the individuals known to have engaged in the behaviour are given the code name ‘Gladis’ by the marine biologists studying the interactions: Gladis Gris, Gladis Negra, Gladis Lamari and so on; juveniles often take the lead but an older female, Gladis Blanca, has participated in the greatest number of incidents. The yachting community now refers to the area as ‘Orca Alley’; a Facebook group set up in 2021, Orca Attack Reports, has attracted 54,000 members, and there are two dedicated apps for reporting sightings or interactions.” (Francis Gooding/LRB)
“Work together. Go it alone. The apocalypse is at hand. But the future can be bright. The squabbles never cease, yet here are human beings from all across the world — hashing out conflicts with words and processes, convening under one roof, trying to write the next chapter of a common dream. At the United Nations, ‘multilateralism’ is always the goal. Yet so is the quest for a coherent storyline that unites all 193 member states and their ideas. Those two holy grails often find themselves at odds when leaders gather each September at the United Nations — a construct whose very name can be a two-word contradiction. You hear a lot about ‘the narrative’ these days in politics (and everywhere else). It’s a way to punch through the static and make sure people are absorbing your message — and, ultimately, doing what you want them to do. But how to establish a coherent storyline when the very notion of many nations with many voices is baked into the pie to begin with?” (Ted Anthony/APNews)
“When Jacinda Ardern brought her baby Neve to the United Nations for the 2018 General Assembly, then-New Zealand Prime Minister became an emblematic figure of modern women in politics. Her initiative was not only a photo opportunity, she also walked the walk: A few years later, her progressive government helped fund new lactation rooms at the UN headquarters in New York to make it easier for other new mothers to work. But women attending the annual top rendezvous of diplomacy have remained a minority, and the UN General Assembly this year is no different. Out of about 145 leaders set to speak, only ten women heads of state and governments are expected to address the assembly this year, alongside a few women foreign ministers. ‘This perpetuates the cycle,’ Susana Malcorra, a former foreign minister of Argentina and president of Global Women Leaders Voices, said. ‘The number ten is about the magic number, in recent years it has gone up a little bit and then magically has come down again.’” (Stephanie Fillion/CNN)
“Archaeologists have unearthed the oldest known wooden structure, and it’s almost half a million years old. The simple structure — found along a riverbank in Zambia — is made up of two interlocking logs, with a notch deliberately crafted into the upper piece to allow them to fit together at right angles, according to a new study of cut marks made by stone tools. Geoff Duller, a professor of geography and Earth sciences at the University of Aberystwyth in the United Kingdom, was part of the team that made the discovery in 2019. He said the structure, excavated upstream of Kalambo Falls near Zambia’s border with Tanzania, probably would have been part of a wooden platform used as a walkway, to keep food or firewood dry or perhaps as a base on which to build a dwelling. A digging stick and other wooden tools were found at the same site.” (Katie Hunt/CNN)
“On Jan. 25, 2018, dozens of private jets descended on Palm Springs International Airport. Some of the richest people in the country were arriving for the annual winter donor summit of the Koch network, the political organization founded by libertarian billionaires Charles and David Koch. A long weekend of strategizing, relaxation in the California sun and high-dollar fundraising lay ahead. Just after 6 p.m., a Gulfstream G200 jet touched down on the tarmac. One of the Koch network’s most powerful allies was on board: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.” (ProPublica)
“But others who worked closely with Murdoch said his change of role marked a watershed and an acknowledgment that the pressures of age had caught up with him. The announcement ‘means that he recognises it’ and that ‘is very difficult’, said one old associate. ‘Rupert has always been clear eyed. If anyone was to realise they needed to step back, it would be him.’ Operationally, not much is expected to change. Robert Thomson will continue running News Corp and Lachlan Murdoch will preside over Fox. Rupert will continue to advise. Symbolically, however, the move made Murdoch’s wishes crystal clear: he has chosen Lachlan as his successor. ‘This is a big moment for the handing on of the torch,’ said David Yelland, a former editor of The Sun. Even so, there is still a looming question: when Rupert dies and his children gain control over the Murdoch family trust, will Lachlan’s siblings let him run the show?” (Anna Nicolaou /FT)
“Murdoch’s memo to employees sent contradictory signals about the 92-year-old mogul’s decision to retire. On the one hand, Murdoch wrote that ‘the time is right for me to take on different roles, knowing that we have truly talented teams.’ But he also indicated he wasn’t really going away: ‘I will be watching our broadcasts with a critical eye, reading our newspapers and websites and books with much interest, and reaching out to you with thoughts, ideas, and advice. When I visit your countries and companies, you can expect to see me in the office late on a Friday afternoon.’” (Gabriel Sherman/VF)
“Like many media moguls before him, and like countless contemporary corporate plutocrats, Murdoch wielded the levers of power in ways that enshrined his own wealth and influence first and foremost. His professional life has been an exercise in asymmetrical symbiosis, where every hand somehow ends up scratching Rupert Murdoch’s back. His voracious U.K. tabloids struck fear into the royals and the posh, while demonstrating that Murdoch’s reach was on par with their own; his alliance with Margaret Thatcher helped sustain her brand of free-market conservatism, which in turn allowed him to expand his own Fleet Street monopoly. His New York Post peddled lurid tales of a city in dangerous decline—a proven tabloid newsstand-sales tactic, and one that also helped convince Gotham voters to elect tough-on-crime mayors who took office fully aware of the importance of staying on Murdoch’s good side.” (Justin Peters/Slate)
“I’ve chronicled the way Murdoch forced some of his loyalest perpetrators of hate and division—men like the late former Fox head Roger Ailes, disgraced former anchor Bill O’Reilly, and toxic masculinity victim and purveyor Tucker Carlson—to end their careers in disgrace. It almost makes me feel sorry for those monsters. Why should their careers have ended in shame when the man who enabled them gets to end his on his own terms? Naming mediocre Kendall—I mean, loyal Lachlan—his immediate successor to boot.” (Joan Walsh/The Nation)
“The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission later found that most money center banks were literally insolvent. Had government not come to the rescue with even more bailouts, the collapse would have triggered another Great Depression. Yet these bailouts left existing executives in place and did not break up a single large bank. Presumably, Congress acted to head off another repeat of speculative meltdown when it passed the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010. But 13 years later, old abuses are repeating themselves in new forms. Dodd-Frank was supposed to put an end to banks that were ‘too big to fail.’ But today the system is more highly concentrated than ever. The Treasury and the Fed were up to their old tricks when they encouraged the largest of the banks, JPMorgan Chase, to bail out the failed First Republic Bank, making JPMorgan even bigger. The latest banking crisis involves regional banks that are overexposed to commercial real estate that keeps losing value.” (Robert Kuttner/TAP)
“It is worth noting that only a small number of Chinese diplomats are referred to as ‘wolf warriors’ – a term that Chinese officials strongly dislike. These diplomats’ controversial comments and actions usually relate to sensitive issues such as Xinjiang, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, which are termed China’s ‘core interests’ in the official discourse … Another salient feature of wolf warrior diplomacy has been the defense of China’s COVID-19 pandemic control policies, outside of China’s traditional geostrategic interests. How China and Western states variously handled the pandemic has been described as ‘a contest among states with different regimes, national powers, governing capabilities, and even civilizations’ (制度之争, 国力之争, 治理能力之争, 甚至是文明之争). In this sense, Chinese diplomats have been proactive in defending China, for example, when Western states insisted on an investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 virus or criticized the efficacy of China’s ‘zero COVID’ policy. China’s wolf warrior diplomacy has domestic sources that are important to consider, with three major factors at play: individual incentives; institutional changes in China’s waixuan (外宣, external propaganda) system; and China’s use of strategic diversion.” (Duan Xiaolin and Liu Yitong/The Diplomat)
“The Writers Guild of America and Hollywood’s major studios will meet for a third day of bargaining Friday as Hollywood wrestles with growing hopes of a deal balanced with concerns that key issues in the nearly five-month strike battle remain in contention. ‘The WGA and [Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers] met for bargaining today and will meet again tomorrow,’ the WGA said in a negotiations update message sent to members late Thursday. ‘Your Negotiating Committee appreciates all the messages of solidarity and support we have received the last few days, and ask as many of you as possible to come out to the picket lines tomorrow.’” (Variety)
“I recently read Michael Wolff’s new book on Fox to write a review that The New Republic will shortly publish. Henry Holt required me to sign an embargo NDA agreement so stringent that I would almost have to hand off my first born, so I can’t share any details. I think I can say it is a descent into a swinish hell that deserves its own Hieronymous Bosch painting. The grotesque figure of founder Roger Ailes was the tumor. His 2017 death did not cure the metastasized cancer that is Fox inside the American political system. Rupert Murdoch is the environmental toxin that created both Ailes and Fox.” (Nina Burleigh/American Political Freakshow)
“Hundreds of ancient obelisks and stelas are strewn across fields on the outskirts of Aksum, a city in the highlands of northern Ethiopia’s Tigray region. The largest of these monuments, which lies toppled and broken into sections, was carved with doors and windows to mimic a 13-story building, and once stood around 100 feet high. Weighing more than 570 tons, the Great Stela, as it is known, was hewn from a single block of granite-like rock cut from a quarry two and half miles away. At more than three times the height of the biggest of Easter Island’s moai statues and nearly 20 times heavier than the mightiest of Stonehenge’s sarsens, it is among the largest monolithic sculptures ever created and transported. These monuments, which date to the third and fourth century A.D., once marked the tombs of kings and high-ranking officials.” (Jason Urbanus/Archaeology)
“Rupert Murdoch's reign over the insidious right-wing media kingdom he forged into existence over a decades-long career spanning the world is finally coming to a close. The 92-year-old right-wing media mogul, who announced Thursday that he will step down as chairman of Fox Corporation and News Corporation, will leave behind a monstrous legacy, a stain that cannot be erased and will far outlive the time he spent on the throne of his global media empire. Through a hazardous cocktail of mis- and disinformation, conspiracy theories, and outright propaganda, Murdoch profited off of fear and division with little apparent regard for warping the public discourse, disfiguring American politics, and imperiling Western democracy.” (Oliver Darcy/CNN)
“Earlier this week, New York magazine unveiled its latest cover, which splashed a close-up illustration of Rupert Murdoch’s face. If this was not Murdoch’s first magazine cover in his long career of media moguldom, the occasion, this time, was the first excerpt from a forthcoming book making the case that his career is ending: The Fall: The End of Fox News and the Murdoch Dynasty, by Michael Wolff (of Trump-book-and-attendant-controversy fame). Salacious tales from the book, several attesting to recent Murdoch misjudgments, have circulated in the press, as have calls to take them with a grain of salt since Wolff may not be the most reliable narrator. Wolff, for his part, has been insistent about his book and its thesis. Asked by Vanity Fair whether ‘transformational change’ was around the bend for Murdoch’s businesses, Wolff countered, ‘We’re here. This is unfolding now.’ On Wednesday, at a tony book party, Wolff mounted a staircase and offered ‘good news’ to those who fear the permanence of Fox: ‘The one man who holds it all together,’ Wolff said, ‘is ninety-two years old and on a slippery slope.’” (Jon Allsop/CJR)