There is an emerging consensus that conspiracy theories are dangerous. They can fuel extremism, undermine democratic institutions, and be mobilized in the disinformation operations of adversary states. That framing fits comfortably within well-understood practices of elite securitization, which have recently framed conspiracy theories as a threat to national security. This article explores the securitization of conspiracy theory during the COVID-19 pandemic when misinformation proliferated, and elites identified the threat of an ‘infodemic’. While conspiracy theories were securitized by elites alongside the virus, conspiracy theories identified those same elites as the real peril. We argue that this dynamic can be best understood through the concept of counter-securitization, which shows how an initial securitization process can be resisted by reframing its progenitors as the actual threat. We illustrate this argument through a case study on the United Kingdom, where there was palpable resistance to lockdowns and vaccine mandates. We suggest that the securitization dynamic identified here reflects a wider relationship between elite and popular securitization that has been under examined in the securitization literature, despite recent efforts to theorize the main characteristics of populist securitizations.

The first Eodichromatidae (Odonata, Cephalozygoptera) specimens from the Ypresian Allenby Formation near Princeton, British Columbia, Canada, are described. They belong to the genus Labandeiraia Petrulevičius et al. (Eodichromatinae) based on the distinctive distal undulate curvature of the long veins and numerous intercalary veins, as seen in L. americaborealis Petrulevičius et al. from the coeval Green River Formation of Colorado, United States of America. Labandeiraia burlingameae n. sp. is described based on an almost complete hyaline forewing. It is distinct from L. americaborealis by its colouration and number of postnodal crossveins. A darkly infuscate forewing preserved in close proximity is similar but lacks its basal portion and has poorly preserved crossveins. Its preserved portions agree with both L. burlingameae and L. americaborealis. If this wing belongs to L. burlingameae, its colour difference might result from sexual dimorphism or polyphenism, which are not known in any eodichromatid. If the wing belongs to L. americaborealis, it has a forewing/hind wing colour difference, also not known in any Labandeiraia species, and would be its first known forewing. The specimen might also belong to a third, closely related, undescribed species. These possibilities cannot be distinguished, and we treat the species as Labandeiraia sp. A.

How does government partisanship affect strike intensity? While there is a strong emergent literature examining the consequences of labour strikes on political attitudes, how politics affects strikes is less well understood. This is despite the fact that strikes historically have been politically salient and have had political goals. In line with previous contributions, this research note shows that labour strikes in the OECD are generally less intense with higher representation of left-wing parties in government. However, this effect is conditional on levels of economic globalisation: as trade penetration increases, left-wing parties in government become less able to address the concerns of organised labour, and the effect of government partisanship on strike intensity attenuates. These findings matter for understanding the traditional alliance between labour movements and left-wing parties in advanced democracies with open economies.

Fasting during pregnancy is a widespread practice in Muslim communities, yet its health implications remain poorly understood. A lack of conceptual frameworks and limited understanding of the characteristics of women who fast during pregnancy have hindered research in this area. This study examines the differences in several nutritional biomarkers between women who fasted and those who did not and identifies factors associated with fasting behaviour. We analysed data from the Kuwait Birth Cohort in which information on fasting, sociodemographic characteristics and health behaviours was collected via structured interviews between 2017 and 2021. Clinical and laboratory data were extracted from medical records. Predictors of fasting were identified using Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) logistic regression with 5-fold cross-validation, followed by Poisson regression with robust standard errors. Among 1087 women with available data, 581 (53·4 %; 95 % CI 50·4 %, 56·4 %) reported fasting during pregnancy (19·5 % in the first trimester, 25·1 % in the second and 10·1 % in the third). Women who fasted had significantly lower levels of ferritin (P = 0·048), vitamin B12 (P = 0·001), erythrocytes folate (P < 0·001), 25-hydroxyvitamin D (P = 0·002) and vitamin D binding protein (P = 0·011), but higher parathyroid hormone (P = 0·011). Predictive models based on sociodemographic and clinical factors showed limited predictive ability. This study indicates that fasting during pregnancy is a common practice among women in Kuwait and is associated with lower levels of key nutrients such as vitamin D, RBC folate and vitamin B12. Fasting during pregnancy appears to be driven more by personal, religious and cultural influences than by identifiable clinical or sociodemographic characteristics.

Against the near-universal consensus that it was created by a pagan (non-Christian) in order to satirise Christian worship, this article contends that the Alexamenos graffito can plausibly be read as a Christian self-parody, created by the enslaved Alexamenos himself. It is the first full-length treatment of the authorial origins of the Alexamenos graffito. The article first provides an overview of the visual and scholarly histories of the image since the nineteenth century. Then it addresses evidence for and against reading the text as non-Christian or Christian in origin, focusing on the apparent sexualisation of Jesus, early Christian receptions of satirical depictions of Jesus, the graffito’s use of a titulus, the solidarity of the image with enslaved workers and the relevance of nearby Christian graffiti. Finally, it places the graffito in conversation with ancient self-parody practices from wider Greek, Roman and Christian sources. While it is impossible to argue definitively about the identity of the graffito’s creator, this article contends that scholarship cannot exclude the possibility and potential likelihood that it may be Christian in origin.

Using the fields of memory studies and digital humanities, this article argues that there has been a shift from more collective and social memory to more personalised and individual memory. This shift, it is argued here, can be conceptualised through the psychoanalytic concept of ‘psychosis’. While the causes of the changes in our patterns of memory have been located in capitalist and neoliberal principles, the effects of the changes in our memory habits might be found in psychosis. From falling in love with machinic AI replicas to indulging in conspiracy theories to acting as if we are social media influencers or backing ourselves to win out in impossible job markets, we are inclined towards personal fantasy, often at the expense of participating in social life. But why do we do this? Why is it easier to believe a farfetched conspiracy theory or wild personal dream than it is to participate socially and collectively in the world we live in? Part of the reason, at least, is found in our increasing habitual reliance on new and emergent technologies. Often presented to us as a brand-new form of Artificial Intelligence, these generative tools are the latest update to a longer pattern in our digital world: the trend of developing ‘relationships’ with algorithms that, to larger and smaller degrees, we come to rely on for habits of cognition and recognition. By affecting our patterns of memory, these technologies produce a kind of isolation that lends itself to individual and fantastical – rather than shared and realist – thinking.