14 NEWS Best articles: Britain
THE WEEK3August 2019 2019
Bosom buddies
who threaten
our security
Simon Tisdall
The Guardian
Something ominous took place over the Sea of Japan last week,
says Simon Tisdall. For the first time ever, “China and Russia
joined forces to mount an air patrol using long-range bombers
and spy planes”. This was alarming militarily, because both Japan
and South Korea accused the intruders of violating their sovereign
airspace and scrambled fighter jets to intercept them. But it’s even
more alarming fromageopolitical point of view: the growing
collaboration between the two military powers–both convinced
liberal democracy is obsolete–could spell the end of American
supremacy. And Donald Trump’s clumsy and belligerent policy
initiatives–his ego-trip summitry in Korea; his punitive trade war
–have only served to cement the alliance. President Xi, who now
calls Vladimir Putin his “best and bosom friend”, has met Russia’s
president 28 times since 2013; and Moscow has just sold Beijing
its state-of-the-art S400 ground-to-air missiles and SU-35 jets. The
main hope for the West is that as China flexes its muscles, Russia
will start to feel overshadowed by its economically stronger neigh-
bour and “rebuff the embrace of its domineering new bedfellow”.Down in the
valley they’re
aiming too low
Henry Mance
Financial Times
Living in Silicon Valley insulates you from many of the world’s
problems, says Henry Mance. But not from climate change. Water
shortages and wildfires areagrowing problem in the summer; in
the longer term, if sea levels rise by two metres, many of its offices
will be flooded. Strange, then, how little attention the world’s most
innovative region has paid to the world’s biggest problem. Google,
Facebook and the rest have done little to tackle it beyond reining
in their own CO 2 emissions. Aside from electric-car pioneer Elon
Musk and the odd firm like Impossible Foods (which is developing
eco-friendly alternatives to meat), no one seems interested in
pioneering the clean energy and sustainable transport solutions
the world so badly needs. But then clean technologies require far
more capitaland engineering than do the software developments
venture capitalists areso keen to invest in. Silicon Valley gives us
endless food-delivery apps, millions of car-hire drivers and
“cryptocurrenciesthat use as much electricity as Argentina”, but
nothing to stop the world getting warmer. Can’t it aim any higher?Power to the
people: is that
abad thing?
Kenan Malik
The Observer
Can you have too much democracy? Many people–not least the
biologist Richard Dawkins and the philosopher Jason Brennan –
are beginning to think so, says Kenan Malik. They’re alarmed at
how the rapid and indiscriminate sharing of information on social
media is polarising opinion and leading to online mobs and fake
news, and are calling for the vote to be confined to the better
informed. Even the boffins who developed the software that trans-
formed the social media landscape are having misgivings. Chris
Wetherell, the developer who devised Twitter’s retweet button a
decade ago, now rues the day he invented this easy way for people
to pass on information without digesting it: he wants steps to be
taken to stop large groups of Twitter users collectively retweeting
provocative posts. But if fake news and hate speech isaproblem,
so too is restricting people’s ability to share information. It’s the
“technological equivalent of restricting the franchise”. For good
or ill, almost 50% of people now get their news through social
media. Are we now going to stop them sharing it? “Retweeting
won’t ruin the world. Constraining democracy may well do.”You can’t hide:
Elon Musk has
his eye on you
Peter Franklin
UnHerd
More than 100 people
gathered last week for the
annual World Nettle Eating
Championship in Dorset. Last
year’s winner ate the leaves
from 104ft of stems; but he
has since retired, leaving
Tony Jeyes to be crowned
by eating just 58ft. Although
nettles are often used in
cooking, contestants at the
30-year-old event near
Bridport must eat the plant
raw. Their hands get stung,
their lips swell, and their
tongues turn black. “You
wouldn’t catch me doing it,”
said Michael Wareing, an ear,
nose and throat specialist.
“But ifIwere to take part, I
would take painkillers first.”The crime-writer Patricia
Highsmith was so attached
to her garden snails she once
took 100 of them in her bag
to aparty so that she’d have
someone to talk to, and she
was known to smuggle them
through airports in her bra.
In Poland, Magdalena Dusza
has only one snail–but hers
is very large. She bought the
giant African snail from a
pet shop in Kraków six years
ago, and is now so devoted
to it, she takes it out of its
tank and cuddles it on the
sofa while watching TV.
She insists that snails make
great pets, though there are
downsides. “There are some
negative reactions, like
people being disgusted.”An Indian man who was
bitten byasnake took his
revenge by biting it back, and
chewing it into pieces. At the
hospital to which Raj Kumar
was taken in Uttar Pradesh,
the reptile was identified as
arat snake. “This is weird,”
adoctor told the press. “I’ve
seen people coming in with
snakebites, but never some-
body who bitasnake and
brought it with him inabag.”IT MUST BE TRUE...
Iread it in the tabloidsWorried about CCTV cameras invading your privacy? Then you
haven’t been keeping up with Elon Musk’s latest venture, said
Peter Franklin. The irrepressible entrepreneur has just launched
a“train” of 60 satellites into space with authorisation to launch
thousands more. He wants nearly 12,000 in all for his SpaceX
Starlink fleet,SpaceX being one of nine companies nowaimingto
provide “space-based internet services anywhere on Earth”. Great
news, you might say, for remote parts of the world; but there are
major downsides. Swarms of satellites will change the look of the
night sky and make life hell for astronomers. Worse still, they will
take the intensity of space-based surveillance toawhole new level.
Today, US federal regulations restrict the availability of espionage-
grade satellite images, but with whole fleets of satellites in space
that’ll be impossible. Using the new imagery, tech-savvy criminals
will then analyse light patterns and vehicle movements to chart
exactly when you’re out of the house. And how will we stop them?
We’ll have to cover the Earth with millions more CCTV cameras. ©CATERS NEWS AGENCY