Hi ,

Donald Trump is assembling a new team after his convincing victory at the US presidential election.

The highest profile appointment is 53-year-old Trump backer, billionaire and X owner Elon Musk, who will lead a new initiative called the Department of Government Efficiency.

Quite how Musk, who is 53, will be utilised in this maverick role is yet to be revealed.

What we do know is 53-year-old Musk has been floating the name of the department for some time, because the initials spell DOGE - slang for Dog - which is the same as a popular internet meme turned crypto-currency. 

Musk, 53, regularly posts AI-generated idealised art of himself as a muscle-bound figure in charge of the DOGE department.

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In these troubled and bewildering times, The Ferret is organising an Open Newsroom event in our Glasgow space to discuss how we got here.

On Friday, November 29 from 9.30 to 11am, we'll be discussing what its like to live in the age of polarisation. How do we keep our communities safe from its damaging effects? How do we hold tech giants and billionaire media owners to account? Can we re-learn to talk to people with different views?

Free tickets are available here. 

Yours,

Ali

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Story of the week

An in-depth look at a Ferret investigation

It’s more than 30 years since Phyllis Corish – who had just lost her 29-year-old brother and 34-year-old sister to drugs within weeks of each other – walked into the newly opened Rialto Community Drug Team in Dublin looking for help. 

Heroin flooded the Irish capital back in the eighties. Hotspots including the housing schemes of Fatima Mansions, where Phyllis lived, and nearby Dolphin House, were both served by Rialto’s community team. The kingpin behind the flow of drugs, Larry Dunne, was brought up less than a ten-minute walk away.

Spiralling inflation and high unemployment across the city made people susceptible to heroin’s dark draw. By the time tragedy struck Phyllis’s family, people had been dying for years, while others contracted HIV from infected needles.

What did we dig up this week?

A round up of our investigations in the last seven days

UK approves carbon storage drilling in nature sanctuaries

The UK Government has sold licences to oil giants to drill on the seabed in marine protected areas to store carbon dioxide.

FFS Explains: Scotland’s drug crisis

Scotland’s drugs crisis is often in the news, as the government grapples with high rates of drug deaths and enduring poverty-linked drug misuse.

Question of the week

 Are people struggling with drug use being failed by the Scottish Government?

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Create an account here to get access.

Best of the rest

Investigations we've enjoyed from around the world

Ex-Trump official and abstinence advocate strikes secretive health deal in Uganda

Key documents relating to Valerie Huber’s Protego project are being kept away from the public eye. (Bureau)

The small Bulgarian streetwear shop designing clothes for the far-right ‘Active Club’ movement

A far-right fashion brand affiliated with the white supremacist Active Club movement has its products designed by a shop in the Bulgarian city of Stara Zagora. (Bellingcat)

The real problem with banning masks at protests

Privacy advocates worry banning masks at protests will encourage harassment, while cops’ high-tech tools render the rules unnecessary. (Wired)

Any comments? Have you seen something we could include? Email us at contact@theferret.scot.

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