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''Ecocides'' can be read on a large banner in front of the Repsol headquarters.
💡 SPOTLIGHT
The shortage of politicians from the sciences is a threat to democracy
It's not just the specifics of issues such as climate change, cybersecurity and COVID-19, but rather democracy itself and being able to dialogue with those who have lost trust in the facts that the governments are giving us, writes Rozena Crossman:
Ahead of the upcoming French national election, Paris-based daily Les Échos published a tally of the educational background of past presidents. Writer and economist Jean Peyrelevade found that in the post-War period, only one head of state (Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, a 1951 graduate of the École Polytechnique) claimed a math or science degree. Every other past president had studied law, political science, philosophy and the like — just like all the major candidates on the ballot this spring.
“Is it serious, doctor?” Peyrelevade asks rhetorically. “In my opinion, yes, very serious. The decline of the scientific spirit weakens our democracy enormously.”
A similar count was conducted two years ago in the United States, where a total of only 14 science and math majors were sworn into the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, out of the 535 total members of Congress. The most pressing issues in 2019 already included STEM-related topics like climate change and cybersecurity. Now, two years into a global pandemic, we might appear even more unequipped to push ahead with informed public decisions that will impact our future for decades.
It’s worth noting that China’s President Xi Jinping studied chemical engineering and that chemistry accounts for over 50% of China’s natural-sciences research, according to the Nature Index. Yes, the global race for the future, both to pursue solutions and respond to crises, requires the best technical minds.
Still, French President Emmanuel Macron didn’t need a degree in machine learning to realize a $1.85 billion investment in AI would keep his country — and, as an EU state, Europe — competitive with the US and China. Yet Macron is up for reelection in a country where coronavirus and anti-vaxxers are raging. A few weeks ago, he was so frustrated with the backlash against his proposed vaccine mandate that he openly insulted citizens who refused to get injected. Protests subsequently erupted all over the country, with signs that read confiance rompue, or “broken trust.”
Would the 105,000 dissenters who took to the streets trust Macron’s protocol if he’d possessed a medical degree? Perhaps not, but it is worth pondering the vast gap in educational pursuits of the West’s political leaders and the current nature of discourse.
Back in the States, eschewing evidence-based policy is just as much a matter of dogma as it is trust. In September 2020, when Trump’s controversial leadership during the coronavirus and America’s anti-vax movement were peaking, a report by the Pew Research Center found 7 in 10 Americans felt it was a priority for the United States to be a world leader in scientific achievements. Even as allegations of fake news abound, it seems Americans don’t look down on science itself, but rather question the sources of the government’s facts.
Is there still space for debate? What do we do about both the conspiracy theorists on the one hand, and the pressing need to compete on the frontiers of science and technology? Perhaps it can only start by opening a dialogue between empirically-minded politicians with true technical experience and those skeptics of government who still believe in the value of science. And that requires we have more opportunities to vote for science in flesh and bones.
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• U.S. rejects Moscow demand on Ukraine and NATO: The United States has formally rejected Moscow's demand to bar Ukraine from ever entering NATO, amid warnings that Russia might invade its neighbor. Meanwhile, in a phone call late Wednesday, China told the U.S. it wants to see all sides involved in Ukraine remain calm and avoid increasing tension.
• U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer to retire, Biden set to choose Black woman: United States Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, 83, will retire later this year after three decades on the job, providing President Joe Biden a chance to honor his pledge to nominate the first Black woman to the Supreme Court.
• COVID update: Moderna has started a mid-stage study to test a booster dose of its COVID-19 vaccine specifically designed to target the Omicron coronavirus variant in adults aged 18 years and older. Meanwhile, the first “human challenging” medical trial authorized to deliberately expose participants to COVID-19 is seeking more volunteers, in an effort to develop better vaccines.
• Jordanian army says it killed 27 drug smugglers from Syria: Jordanian troops have killed 27 suspected smugglers attempting to enter the kingdom from Syria under the cover of heavy snow. A report on the Jordanian army’s website on Thursday said the smugglers were backed by "armed groups", adding that some fled back to Syrian territory.
• Six sue Fukushima nuclear plant operator over thyroid cancer: Six young Japanese people who have developed thyroid cancer, blame the illness on their exposure to radiation from the 2011 meltdown of the Fukushima nuclear power plant, and are suing its operators. The plaintiffs are seeking nearly $5.4 million from the Tokyo Electric Power Company.
• Yemeni civilians suffer at the hands of escalating conflict: The escalation of tensions between Yemen’s Houthi rebels and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) pushed humanitarian organizations on the ground to sound the alarm on the risk to life. The United Nations says January will likely mark the highest number of civilian casualties in Yemen in one month since the war began in 2014.
• Astronomers detect "spooky" cosmic object in the Milky Way: Australian astronomers have discovered a mysterious spinning object in the Milky Way that releases a huge burst of radio energy every 18 minutes, and is unlike anything seen before. Researchers estimate that it is around 4,000 light years away and could be a new class of slowly rotating neutron star.
🗞️ FRONT PAGE
The Washington Post devotes its front page to Justice Stephen G. Breyer, who announced his planned retirement later this year, putting a renewed spotlight on several Black female jurists who are positioned to be chosen by U.S. President Joe Biden for the Supreme Court.
💬 LEXICON
Puerta
According to local reports, Moroccan authorities have removed the word “frontera” (border) from buildings and signs next to the border with the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla and replaced it with “puerta” (meaning door or gate in Spanish). A symbolic change that illustrates unsettled tensions between Spain and Morocco over the sovereignty of the two cities.
📰 STORY OF THE DAY
Putin must also face the gulag question
Even while embroiled in the biggest foreign policy standoff of his reign, the Russian leader has been forced to acknowledge accusations of torture after leaked videos of violent abuse in prisons. Yet proposed new legislation to stem torture risks challenging a regime built on corruption and state-sponsored repression.
⚖️ Russian news outlet Kommersant reported that lawmakers in the State Duma, the lower house of Russia’s Federal Assembly, have introduced a new bill that seeks to define by law the very concept of “torture,” as well as increase the penalty accorded to abusive officials from four to 12 years. The presidential administration proposes that by the second reading, the law should provide punishment for torture both government officials as well as cellmates who torture victims at the behest of officials.
🤐 Torture is, of course, not a new concept in Russia. Yet even though the episodes of the 20th century are public record, dating back to the famous denunciation of Stalin by his Soviet successor, Nikita Khrushchev in 1956, the Russian state has refused to fully acknowledge the past. Failing to condemn the sins of the past means they become unconsciously condoned in the present. In Russia, we are witnessing the long term consequences of an unconfronted past. Vladimir Putin has integrated his own oppressive tactics within the political system.
👉 Vladimir Putin acknowledged that torture was becoming more common in Russia, but that “as far as torture and cruel treatment of convicts in penitentiaries are concerned, they are not only Russia’s problem, but also the world’s.” Of course, such international finger-pointing and blame-shifting is part of Putin’s leadership style. Where does this leave the new focus on confronting torture? Does it not place the blame on individual officials rather than grasping the heart of the issue: a corrupt state?
➡️ Read more on Worldcrunch.com
📣 VERBATIM
"Please leave the word 'Holocaust' for the Holocaust — and nothing but it."
— Former Israeli Chief Rabbi Israel Meir Lau said during a Reuters interview, criticizing certain protesters against coronavirus restrictions who’d compared themselves to Jews under Nazi persecution. The comment comes as a report was published today to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
💼♀️ IN OTHER NEWS
Female CEOs v. Peter CEOs? Dutch women protest stunning gender disparity
Logging onto Dutch LinkedIn earlier this week, you may have blinked twice. “Why are there so many people named ‘Peter’ on my timeline?”And why are they all women?”
Hundreds of Dutch women have changed their LinkedIn name to Peter since Monday to denounce gender bias in business — especially in senior leadership roles.
The initiative was launched by Women Inc. and BrandedU, two organizations campaigning for more inclusion of women in the business world, — and zeroed in on the name Peter for good reason: with 93 listed companies in the Netherlands (and a total of 94 CEOs), five of those CEOs are named Peter, and four are women. Yes, more Peter CEOs than women CEOs …
On January 1, a Dutch law came into force with the goal of ensuring a better ratio of men to women in the top ranks of the business world. At least one-third of the supervisory boards of listed companies (with more than 250 employees) must consist of women. “But we must do more!” the organizations stated.
Yeliz Çiçek, editor-in-chief of the Dutch edition of Vogue, was one of the first women to join the campaign and changed her name. “I think it’s brilliant. Everyone immediately understands what this is about!”, NOS reports.
Although they support the cause, others are less enthusiastic about this campaign and argue that changing one’s name erases one’s identity, according to RTL nieuws. “Once again, the burden of proof and effort for the campaign lies with women and not men,” one woman said.
At the same time, some men have changed their name to Petra in solidarity.
“We think this spontaneous action is really great,” another spokesperson of Women INC said according to Het Parool. “This shows that it’s not just a women’s problem, but that we have to do it together.”
The Peter (and Petra) campaign runs until January 28.
📸 PHOTO DU JOUR
An “Ecocides'' banner displayed by demonstrators in front of the Repsol offices in Lima to protest the Spanish energy company’s recent oil spill that polluted 1.7 million square meters of soil and 1.2 million square meters of ocean, tarring 21 beaches and killing a vast variety of marine wildlife along the Pacific coast of Peru. — Photo: Carlos Garcia Granthon/ZUMA
✍️ Newsletter by Jane Herbelin and Anne-Sophie Goninet
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- Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.
- Stories from the best international journalists.
- Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries
