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Fact-checkers have examined Donald Trump’s public utterances and discovered that he made more than 30,000 false or misleading claims during his presidency. Yet many millions of (mainly Republican) voters still consider him to be an honest man. This is not as daft as it sounds. It’s possible to think of honesty as having two components. One is that what you say is objectively and demonstrably true. But the other, crucially, is that you are seen to believe in what
you are saying. So the former US president could spout utter nonsense and still appear – to his supporters, certainly – to be an honest man.
This doesn’t just apply to Donald Trump, of course. Our researchers have analysed more than 4 million tweets from Republican and Democrat members of the US Congress since 2016 and found that while there has been a rise in both “truth-speaking” and “belief-speaking”, the quality of the information used to back up the facts has fallen when people are merely saying what they believe, especially among Republicans. The moral of the story? Even if someone appears convinced they are right about something, look at where they got their information from and make your own judgement.
I’ve always been fascinated by the life of Will Somers, Henry VIII’s court fool who managed to keep his head while all around were losing theirs. We review a new biography of Somers here. Meanwhile as the war in Ukraine nears day 600, there are worrying signs of conflict fatigue among Kyiv’s allies.
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Jonathan Este
Senior International Affairs Editor, Associate Editor
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Does Donald Trump believe every word he says? Plenty of others do.
EPA-EFE/Michael Reynolds
Stephan Lewandowsky, University of Bristol; Jana Lasser, Graz University of Technology
When sincerity counts as honesty, accuracy no longer matters.
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Wikimedia
Alec Ryrie, Durham University
The court would laugh at rather than with the fool.
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Don’t lose faith with Ukraine: Volodymyr Zelensky makes his case at the United Nations.
EPA-EFE/Justin Lane
Stefan Wolff, University of Birmingham; Tetyana Malyarenko, National University Odesa Law Academy
As the war nears 600 days, there are signs that support for Ukraine could be beginning to waver in some parts.
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Politics + Society
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Fiona Woollard, University of Southampton
Young parents and others who don’t fit the ‘ideal’ of parenthood are especially vulnerable.
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Arts + Culture
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Olympia Nelson, University of Sydney
I was drawn to Mary as a saint, an ascetic, a highly sexual individual navigating her own redemption. Is there something edifying about her story – or does it go into the feminist shame file?
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Business + Economy
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Phil McNally, UCL
The government wants offshore wind to form the backbone of the UK’s future electricity system – but a key auction has delivered no new projects.
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Costas Milas, University of Liverpool
The bank’s review into its failure to predict the inflation surge misses a second equally important blunder a few months later.
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Philip Newall, University of Bristol; Jamie Torrance, University of Chester
Artificial intelligence and augmented reality tools are upping the stakes when it comes to online sports betting.
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Environment
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Abigail McQuatters-Gollop, University of Plymouth
UK is home to a diverse range of jellyfish species – encounters with them may become more frequent as the ocean warms.
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Renée M Prokopavicius, Western Sydney University; Belinda Medlyn, Western Sydney University; David S Ellsworth, Western Sydney University; Mark G Tjoelker, Western Sydney University
New research reveals how trees respond to extreme heat. Most trees lose more water than models predict. Some species cope better than others. Access to water will be critical for the hot summer ahead.
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Health
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Mark Maslin, UCL; João Lino, Universidade do Porto
A new generation of auto-inflation devices helps children relieve glue ear. And they look like toys.
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Colin Davidson, University of Central Lancashire
Nitazenes were developed as a powerful class of painkiller in the 1950s, but they were abandoned – until now.
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Evangeline Mantzioris, University of South Australia
Fish oil has been promised to provide all sorts of health benefits – from boosting our heart health, protecting our brain and easing arthritis. Here’s how the claims stack up for fish and supplements.
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Science + Technology
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Benjamin Dowling, University of Sheffield
The online safety bill contains measures that appear to compel messaging services to break encryption.
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Jonathan R Goodman, University of Cambridge
Ancient religious customs have accelerated the evolutionary process of humans becoming more cooperative.
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Dipuo Winnie Kgotleng, University of Johannesburg; Robyn Pickering, University of Cape Town
Experts insist there is no scientific reason for allowing these fossils to travel to space.
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