Build a conspiracy theory from scratch.
The best way to learn to spot a conspiracy theory is to make one yourself.
Pick a real news story. On the next step you'll choose who's behind it and why. Then walk through the four moves real conspiracists use, with a debunk on every step.
- Hunt anomalies — turn coincidence into evidence of a secret plot.
- Fabricate connections — draw lines between unrelated dots until they look meaningful.
- Dismiss counter-evidence — if a fact disagrees, make the fact part of the cover-up.
- Discredit the critics — dismiss people who point out flaws in your theory.
Pick the event.
Choose whichever real-feeling headline your imagination will run wildest with. Don't overthink it.
Wealthy Nations Urged to Contribute
A new international nature fund set up under the Global Environment Facility aims to help developing countries meet the biodiversity targets agreed at the COP15 summit in Montreal. The fund’s creation was one of the most-contentious issues at those talks, prompting walkouts and repeated negotiations between wealthy and poorer nations. So far, only Canada and the United Kingdom have pledged money, leaving roughly $40 million still needed to capitalise the fund ahead of COP16 next year.
More work on domestic women's rights
A YouGov–Cambridge Globalism Project survey asked people in many Western countries whether more should be done to improve women’s rights at home. In several nations a clear majority or near-majority said yes. Italians topped the list at 62%, followed by Spaniards at 60%, Hungarians at 57% and Swedes at 56%. Other countries where roughly half of respondents expressed concern included Poland, France, Canada, Australia and Greece.
1,300 languages ranked by complexity
Linguists have long thought that social context shapes grammar: communities with many non-native speakers, like trade hubs, were believed to favor simpler, easier-to-learn systems, while isolated, homogenous groups develop dense, specialized grammatical rules. A new study compiled measurements across about 1,300 languages to test whether languages used mainly by “societies of strangers” indeed show reduced grammatical complexity compared with languages used in more stable, insider communities.
Google Search Update: UI Revamp
Google is expanding a tool called "Results about you," first introduced last year to help people remove personal information from Search results. The new version will actively scan the public web for instances of a user’s personal data and send alerts so they can request removal. Google says the feature is currently available in the United States in English and will be rolled out to more regions over time.