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guardianworldnews_feedWCL updates from Germany; kick-off 5.45pm GMT
4 min: … Zigotti’s ball in finds the safe hands of Johannes. United have begun well, though, taking control of possession.
3 min: Malard drops deep to get involved in United’s build-up play before Sandberg finds space to dribble down the left. Corner to the visitors …
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feedThe government wants major social networks to be less attractive for foreign agents after MPs faced ‘covert and calculated’ attempts
The government is holding talks with LinkedIn on how it can clamp down on prolific Chinese espionage activity after a rare interference alert was issued by MI5.
The National Protective Security Authority, which is part of the UK’s security services, is speaking to major social media platforms about making them less attractive for foreign agents, a government official told the Guardian.
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feedPam Bondi speaks after US Senate passes bill to release files – but agency may hold back material that could affect a Trump-ordered investigation
One quick note, there haven’t been any changes to Donald Trump’s schedule today, per the press pool. Which means, as of now, the president doesn’t have any time allotted to sign the bill forcing the justice department to release the full batch of Jeffrey Epstein files.
We’ll keep you updated if things change throughout the day.
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feedUnclear if Trump administration backs deal that would mean Kyiv giving up territory and slashing size of military
US and Russian officials have quietly drafted a new plan to end the war in Ukraine that would require Kyiv to surrender territory and severely limit the size of its military, it was reported on Wednesday as Russian drone and missile strikes killed at least 25 people in the city of Ternopil.
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Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feedThe rollout of reporter Olivia Nuzzi’s memoir has led to Ryan Lizza airing out her alleged affairs – and is fueling a dangerous stereotype about journalists
This week, Olivia Nuzzi – the US star political reporter known for her cozy access to top Republican figures – dropped an excerpt of her memoir, American Canto. In it, she detailed what she describes as an emotional affair with Robert F Kennedy Jr, who she calls “the politician”.
Not to be outdone, Nuzzi’s ex-fiance and former Politico correspondent Ryan Lizza self-published an essay dishing on the day he found out Nuzzi was cheating on him, he claims – not with RFK Jr, as one might have expected, but with another former presidential candidate, Mark Sanford.
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feedAlert says Beijing trying to recruit British sources in parliament, even if potential gains may be unclear
An unexpected connection on LinkedIn. An offer of work from a headhunter, most likely a young woman, based in China. The chance to earn perhaps £20,000 part-time writing a handful of geopolitical reports for a Chinese company peppered with “non-public” or “insider” insights. Payment in cryptocurrency or cash preferred.
It may seem obvious, on this telling, that something about this approach would be amiss. Nevertheless, China’s powerful ministry of state security (MSS) still considers it worthwhile to deploy recruitment consultants to try it – leading MI5 to warn repeatedly about their activity online.
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feedUsually raucous backbenchers snoozed through the session as Keir and Kemi’s exchanges descended into a slanging match
It’s like watching dead men walking. Or, to be accurate, a dead man and a dead woman walking. Ghosts of Christmas parties past, haunting the dispatch box. Cast your mind forward to a year from now. It’s more than likely that prime minister’s questions will look very different. A change of cast. If not a change of fortune.
Keir Starmer may not even make it much further than the end of May. The budget chaos and No 10’s curious briefings against itself have left many Labour MPs in despair. The government can’t even get the basics right these days. Cabinet ministers can barely be trusted to dress themselves.
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feedUnsealed indictment says Ryan Wedding tracked down witness who was then murdered before he could testify
US authorities have charged a fugitive former Canadian Olympic snowboarder turned drug kingpin with the murder of a witness who was prepared to testify against him.
The attorney general, Pam Bondi, said on Wednesday that Ryan Wedding was accused in a newly unsealed indictment of tracking down a witness in Colombia who was then murdered before he could give evidence.
Continue reading...damninteresting_link_feed
etymologynerd_feedLast month, Dictionary.com chose “67” as its word of the year, and I’m not surprised in the slightest.
The “Word of the Year” is primarily a marketing stunt, and Dictionary.com knows that it will go more viral if it chooses a “brainrot” word. Every dictionary is currently playing this game: the Oxford University Press previously chose “rizz” and the laughing-crying emoji for the same reason. They’re ragebaiting people into arguing about whether these are actually words, but secretly tricking you into buying their dictionaries (or, more realistically, visiting their dictionary websites).
This is all fine and well—I’d rather get manipulated by Big Lexicography than someone else—but I don’t think even Dictionary.com recognizes the irony of what it just did.
If you’ve been living under a rock, “67” is the latest meme gripping Gen Alpha culture. The joke began with the song “Doot Doot (6 7)” by Skrilla, which was initially used in TikTok edits of the popular NBA player LaMelo Ball. Eventually, other basketball players discovered that they could get turned into viral edits if they said the numbers “six seven” in interviews, and then Gen Alpha kids also started saying it on camera in hopes of going viral.
Importantly, the meme depends on the implicit presence of the algorithm. The NBA players and Gen Alpha kids aren’t saying “67” for the interviewer or a live audience. Rather, there’s an underlying knowledge that the phrase will get “clipped” and turned into a meme on social media.
It’s kind of like how, in the 1960s and 70s, advertisers and politicians began optimizing their real-life speeches for television “sound bites.” The understanding was that this other, invisible medium was more important than the present one. Distribution mattered more than product.
Now we’ve abstracted another layer. Most politicians have yet to catch up, but “clips” are the new sound bites. People will say things in person, to get it captured on film, to get it turned into an algorithmically friendly snippet later on.
This has been happening for a while now, but “67” is the logical endpoint. The meme satirizes how memes are made by turning “clipping” into a nonsensical act. The number doesn’t have to be said on camera anymore; in fact, it draws absurdity from the fact that it’s not said on camera. The absence of the “clip” creates a humorous dissonance that still points back to clip farming as the butt of the joke. When we say “67,” we are ironically performing for the algorithm.
Aidan Walker has already brilliantly outlined how the popularity of “skibidi” was a cultural reaction to our hypermediated reality. I think “67” takes that idea a step further by highlighting our own complicity in the constant churn of online content. It is uttered with a knowing wink: someone could record this and then it could be turned into a TikTok meme, and I could go viral.
Indeed, now that the joke has breached containment, it’s no longer as funny in the original basketball edits. The context has to feel increasingly dissonant: a dictionary officially recognizing the word, a Connecticut lawmaker saying it on the House floor, a reference in a Broadway musical. When the moment is inevitably captured on film, it feeds the beast—drawing attention to the person who says it, but also pushing “67” further in the engagement treadmill.
I’m also guilty of this. I’ve gotten over a million views for talking about the number, and I just appeared in this CBS Evening News segment explaining the phenomenon:
Halfway through the interview, I had the strange realization that neither the host nor I were actually talking to each other, but to another, online audience. CBS was doing this interview because they wanted to go viral. I was doing this interview because I wanted to go viral. And Dictionary.com picked the word because they wanted to go viral.
At the end of the day, we’re all clip farming, and “67” is the ridiculous, self-referential culmination of it all.
bbcnewsworld_feedbbcnewsworld_feedguardianworldnews_feedWCL updates from Germany; kick-off 5.45pm GMT
4 min: … Zigotti’s ball in finds the safe hands of Johannes. United have begun well, though, taking control of possession.
3 min: Malard drops deep to get involved in United’s build-up play before Sandberg finds space to dribble down the left. Corner to the visitors …
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feedPam Bondi speaks after US Senate passes bill to release files – but agency may hold back material that could affect a Trump-ordered investigation
One quick note, there haven’t been any changes to Donald Trump’s schedule today, per the press pool. Which means, as of now, the president doesn’t have any time allotted to sign the bill forcing the justice department to release the full batch of Jeffrey Epstein files.
We’ll keep you updated if things change throughout the day.
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feedThese old-school presents, from Polaroid cameras to poetry diaries, are the ultimate antidote to digital overload
• The best 90s Christmas gifts: 15 nostalgic picks
All I want for Christmas is … to reclaim my attention span. Granted, it’s not the sexiest-sounding new year resolution, but for those who are addicted to scrolling, it’s basically the equivalent of 75 Hard.
The daily average for watching all types of screen is now almost 7.5 hours in the UK; almost 70% of young people have said social media makes them feel worse about themselves; and since I sat down to write this, I’ve checked my phone upwards of five times. So what to do?
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feedCampaigners call for urgent reform of redress scheme and say they plan to launch ‘people’s inquiry’ into failings
The Windrush scandal remains “a stain on British society”, Floella Benjamin has said at an emotional House of Lords event where campaigners called for the government to commission a statutory inquiry into continuing Home Office errors.
Despite seven years of promises from ministers to rectify the mistakes caused by the Home Office scandal, Lady Benjamin said the injustices remained unresolved, with many of those affected still caught up in an ongoing nightmare.
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feedLords say culture department has mishandled process and suggest CMA or Cabinet Office oversee new auction
The government has been urged to take control of the sale of the Telegraph through an auction run by a body such as the UK competition regulator or the Cabinet Office.
Peers called on the culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, to wrest the sale process from RedBird IMI, which is majority funded by the United Arab Emirates, in questions put to Labour minister Fiona Twycross in the House of Lords on Wednesday.
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feedBeijing still trying to recruit British sources in parliament through LinkedIn regardless of provocation
An unexpected connection on LinkedIn. An offer of work from a headhunter, most likely a young woman, based in China. The chance to earn perhaps £20,000 part-time writing a handful of geopolitical reports for a Chinese company peppered with “non-public” or “insider” insights. Payment in cryptocurrency or cash preferred.
It may seem obvious, on this telling, that something about this approach would be amiss. Nevertheless, China’s powerful Ministry of State Security (MSS) still considers it worthwhile to deploy recruitment consultants to try it – leading MI5 to warn repeatedly about their activity online.
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feedUsually raucous backbenchers have the fight beaten out of them by Starmer and Badenoch’s energy-free blows
It’s like watching dead men walking. Or, to be accurate, a dead man and a dead woman walking. Ghosts of Christmas parties past, haunting the dispatch box. Cast your mind forward to a year from now. It’s more than likely that prime minister’s questions will look very different. A change of cast. If not a change of fortune.
Keir Starmer might not even make it much further than the end of May. The budget chaos and No 10’s curious briefings against itself have left many Labour MPs in despair. The government can’t even get the basics right these days. Cabinet ministers can barely be trusted to dress themselves.
Continue reading...guardianworldnews_feedWCL updates from Germany; kick-off 5.45pm GMT
4 min: … Zigotti’s ball in finds the safe hands of Johannes. United have begun well, though, taking control of possession.
3 min: Malard drops deep to get involved in United’s build-up play before Sandberg finds space to dribble down the left. Corner to the visitors …
Continue reading...