The Joy of Six 1313

"With Meta’s recent speech policy changes regarding immigration, in which the company will allow people to call immigrants pieces of trash, Mark Zuckerberg is laying the narrative groundwork for President-elect Trump’s planned mass deportations of people from the United States." Joseph Cox points to parallels between these changes and events in Myanmar in 2017, when Facebook was used to spread anti-Rohingya hate, and the military ultimately led a campaign of murder, torture and rape against the Muslim minority population. 

Eliza Mackintosh has better news from Finland, which is winning the war on fake news - a war it sees as crucial to safeguarding its democracy.

The Ferret fears that farmers' protests are being hijacked by conspiracist groups: " One farmer has described being added to a campaign WhatsApp chat after an invite by [James] Melville. He claimed the group was 'toxic' with members 'fighting amongst each other' about Covid-19 vaccines and discussing 'uprisings' against the WEF."

"There are over a thousand beavers living in the Tayside region of Scotland, for instance, widely thought to descend from beavers deliberately, and illegally, released in the early 2000s. In England, the New Forest population of pine martens are similarly thought to originate from illegal releases in the early 1990s." George Holmes, Darragh Hare and Hanna Pettersson report that illegal attempts to reintroduce lost species are surprisingly common.

Joel Morris explains how its producers make The Traitors such compelling viewing: "The first edit is of the round table scene at the end of each show (the climactic confrontation between the contestants, where they level accusations at each other and attempt to root out the rats in the nest). The editors cut together this part first, even though it’s the end of the show. Once that sequence is 'locked', they go back and make the events of that round table scene seem inevitable, by editing the day’s footage to set up the dramatic payoff that you see at the end."

"Aside from being a deliciously dark and humorous noir-tinged thrilled with some wicked one-liners, especially from Walker, Strangers on a Train is rich in Surrealist symbolism. Bruno is a madman, and the Surrealists were fascinated by madness." Sabina Stent argues that  Hitchcock's film is a truly Surrealist piece of art.