Frank Brennan

In the shadow of the Bondi massacre, Christmas and Hanukkah sit side by side this year. Acts of courage and faith remind us how light is kept alive in dark times.

Christmas is a time when even the most secular Australians turn their thoughts to family, peace, justice and the hope that life can be changed permanently for those who suffer loneliness, war, injustice and despair. For those of a secular mindset, these changes can be wrought only by human effort, and are limited by same. Some people with no religious faith or sensibility spend their lives seeking such changes – with herculean effort, courage, and hope against all odds.

Those with religious beliefs can find energy, hope and direction seeking these changes by reflecting on their religious traditions and praying to their God. Christians on Christmas night, just like the shepherds in the field on that first Christmas night, rejoice at the birth of Jesus, the one who embodies these hopes. On Christmas night, it is customary for Christians to read from the prophet Isaiah in the Jewish scriptures:

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone. You have brought them abundant joy and great rejoicing, as they rejoice before you as at the harvest, as people make merry when dividing spoils. For the yoke that burdened them, the pole on their shoulder, and the rod of their taskmaster you have smashed, as on the day of Midian. For every boot that tramped in battle, every cloak rolled in blood, will be burned as fuel for flames. For a child is born to us, a son is given us; upon his shoulder dominion rests. They name him Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace.

This Christmas night, many Australian Christians will be fumbling to hold together the contrasting images of the first night of Hanukkah, the festival of lights, celebrated at Bondi Beach on 14 December, first with the lighting of the menorah – light driving out the darkness, and a public gathering driving out fear. Then the lighting of the lamps was followed by the devastating massacre with the deliberate targeting of Jews celebrating publicly their religious faith, culture and traditions.

It’s 50 years since Rabbi Chaim Itche Drizin first displayed a 25 foot menorah in Union Square, San Francisco. The UK’s longtime chief rabbi Jonathan Sacks described the festival of lights which has come to be so publicly celebrated in these terms: ‘Judaism and its culture of hope survived, and the Hanukkah lights are the symbol of that survival, of Judaism’s refusal to jettison its values for the glamour and prestige of a secular culture, then or now. A candle of hope may seem a small thing, but on it the very survival of a civilisation may depend.’

On 14 December at Bondi Beach, candles of hope were those individuals who risked and gave their lives so that others might be saved. One such candle of hope was unarmed Ahmed al Ahmed who tackled one of the two gunmen. Ahmed’s cousin who was with him later recalled: “He was very scared and was saying “I’m gonna die, please stay with me, please tell my family”.” A recent migrant, Ahmed wanted to do all he could to quell violence and evil and to help fellow Australians under fire. His religious beliefs could well have helped him in that split second of crisis, putting his life on the line, espousing the universality of the precondition for human existence – that every human being has an innate dignity and is destined for something more than loneliness, war, injustice and despair, culminating in death.

In secular Australia, religious ritual and belief are often seen to be of marginal relevance – contributing neither meaning nor purpose to life in the public square. But at times and places such as the massacre at Bondi Beach on the first night of Hanukkah, even the most secular amongst us is able to give thanks for the diverse religious commitments of our fellow Australians who constantly light a candle, rather than cursing the darkness.

For those of us who are Christian, the baby in the manger on Christmas night is the light of the world – the light which will never be quenched by the darkness, and the light which will always provide a pointer to true north in the darkest of times and places, including Gaza, Ukraine, Myanmar and South Sudan, in the newest of times when a multi-lateral rules based order underwritten by the US is no longer assured.

On Easter day, the day before he died, Pope Francis said: “We cannot settle for the fleeting things of this world or give in to sadness; we must run, filled with joy.” In his homily at the commencement of his papacy, the new Pope Leo said: “In this our time, we still see too much discord, too many wounds caused by hatred, violence, prejudice, the fear of difference, and an economic paradigm that exploits the Earth’s resources and marginalises the poorest. For our part, we want to be a small leaven of unity, communion and fraternity within the world. We want to say to the world, with humility and joy: Look to Christ!”

If only all of us, whatever our religion or none, could be like Ahmed al Ahmed, ‘a small leaven of unity, communion and fraternity within the world’. This Christmas, together, we can all commit ourselves afresh as small flickering lights which can drive out the darkness. Let’s remember those who were killed on Bondi Beach and their loved ones who miss them so desperately at this time.

May the people who have walked in darkness see a great light, for ‘those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone’. Let’s hope we can all run again, filled with joy.

Happy Christmas.

https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/12/holding-on-to-hope-a-christmas-reflection/

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Can Santa Claus survive in a melting world?

Martin Kuebler

As climate change warms the planet, snowy winters are becoming less certain in Europe. Those looking for classic Christmas traditions are learning to adapt.

When Erika Lundell moved south from Stockholm a decade ago, it struck her how much Christmas decorations in her new home of Malmo — and indeed the world over — featured ice and snow.

"All of a sudden, they stood out in another way," said Lundell, an ethnographer and senior lecturer at Malmo University in Sweden, adding that the emphasis was clearer than when she had been living in the Swedish capital, where real snow is more common. "There are so many Christmas decorations that have an element of snow in it."

Whether it's white fleece decorating store windows, icicle lights hanging from a pine tree or even the baby Jesus incongruously bundled up for a cold, snowy night in a Middle Eastern manger, decorative snow is omnipresent at this time of year. In Sweden, Lundell said the idea of a "real" Nordic winter, complete with a thick blanket of snow, is seen by many as part of the national identity.

Lundell, who studies the cultural aspects of snow and winter, has spoken with dozens of Swedes of all ages about their experience with winter weather — and how that's changing as winters get warmer in the Northern Hemisphere. Most live in southern Sweden, where snowfall has become rarer in recent decades. And with just a few days to go until Christmas in Malmo, it isn't looking likely this year either.

"The older generations, they have much more detailed stories of living with snow — snow forts, sledges, [skiing] to school," said Lundell. But for the younger Swedes, she said, it's not part of their everyday lives in the winter months — they're more used to dirty, icy snow and slush.

A majority told Lundell that "they miss snow," that classic winter popularized by several centuries of songs, stories and imagery, especially during the Christmas season. "You can see it [in their] descriptions of snow that are very poetic, very romantic," she said, highlighting the connection between snow and "the Christmas spirit."

"There is this extremely strong idea in this part of the world that there has to be snow for it be the perfect Christmas."

That link between snow and Christmas has spread around the world, helped by colonialism and capitalism. Even in places like New Zealand, where the holiday falls in the summer and is often celebrated with barbecues on the beach, tourism and sustainability scholar C. Michael Hall said homes are festooned with fake Christmas trees, inflatable plastic snowmen and reindeer.

"I've been in Singapore and in Kuala Lumpur at Christmastime. And they've got Santa in his suit […] they've got massive pine trees with artificial snow on them. The iconography is there, and that's clearly going to be with us for a very long time," said Hall, speaking to DW from Auckland.

Both Hall and Lundell expect that the familiar Christmas symbols and traditions won't disappear any time soon — even if we have to go to greater lengths to maintain it. Pine trees, also struggling to adapt to the warming climate, are still a key part of the Christmas scene. A recent survey conducted by Ipsos in the US showed that some 83% of Americans were opting for a convenient artificial tree this year.

"The culture connected to Christmas and snow, I think it will continue to be very strong. But the distance between the object and what it stands for will become much wider," said Lundell.

Europe, as the fastest-warming continent, has seen a drop in the average number of snow days over the last 40 years, with two of the warmest winters on record happening in the last five years. In North America, traditionally frozen areas like the Great Lakes region along the US-Canadian border are also experiencing a thaw. The relatively balmy winter of 2019/2020, for example, saw very little ice on the inland seas, which typically freeze over 40% of their surface area.

"Culturally, [that loss] will be a huge shock," said Hall. That absence will be especially felt in Rovaniemi, the self-proclaimed "official hometown of Santa Claus" in northern Finland. When people visit Rovaniemi, they're expecting the full package: sleigh rides, St. Nick and, of course, fun in the snow.

Hall, currently a professor at the Massey Business School, has spent many years at the University of Oulu, south of Rovaniemi, where he observed how climate change is affecting "the imagined country of Christmas."

"In terms of visitor numbers, for Rovaniemi, Christmas is the peak," he said. "That's how they positioned themselves for many years, and that's how they've got themselves into people's imagination. And […] it's very hard to move away from that."

But in a sign that this perception may be shifting, Hall said he noticed during his most recent visit to Rovaniemi that some tourists weren't so concerned about the lack of snow. "They were keen on just making sure they had the photograph with the reindeer," he said, despite being surrounded by slush and mud.

Iceland-based travel agency Nordic Visitor, which has been operating Christmas and winter holiday tours in northern Europe since 2002, hasn't needed to change its destinations for climate reasons. But it has modified some of its activities and "become more transparent with guests about what to expect."

"Fifteen years ago, we leaned heavily on traditional snowy imagery, which reflected what travellers expected at the time. Nearly all our tours featured winter activities like dog sledding, reindeer sledding, snowmobiling and glacier experiences," a company spokesperson told DW.

Now, when faced with a lack of snow, suppliers have adapted to carry their husky sleds on wheels. Santa Claus Village in Rovaniemi stays open year-round, with Santa welcoming visitors "whether there's rain, snow, or sunshine."

Other tour operators are also choosing to focus more on activities that don't depend on the weather. "You've got some places which are already doing that, particularly [with] the aurora borealis, the northern lights," said Hall. "You're already getting that kind of shift."

For Nordic Visitor, that also means tours "highlighting local cultural experiences that aren't snow-dependent" and welcoming the new year with bonfires and fireworks. "We have often been told by our guests that it's more about the complete experience — the culture, the lights, the landscape — not just checking the box on a white Christmas."

"[With climate change] wintertime will lose one of its components, the snow, but not the darkness," said Lundell, adding that we may begin to see less of an emphasis on snow and cold, and more on another important symbol of the season: "the interplay between light and darkness."

"Maybe in the future, winter will be known more as the dark season rather than the cold season," she said. The idea of snow and winter would then fade into our shared cultural memory, "like something from a fairy tale."

Edited by: Sarah Steffen

https://www.dw.com/en/end-of-white-christmas-global-warming-no-snow-missing-spirit-reindeer-blues/a-75229759

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AI language models duped by poems

Petra Lambeck

A new study has shown that prompts in the form of poems confuse AI models like ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude — to the point where sometimes, security mechanisms don't kick in. Are poets the new hackers?

The result came as a surprise to researchers at the Icaro Lab in Italy. They set out to examine whether different language styles — in this case prompts in the form of poems — influence AI models' ability to recognize banned or harmful content. And the answer was a resounding yes. 

Using poetry, researchers were able to get around safety guardrails — and it's not entirely clear why. 

For their study titled "Adversarial Poetry as a Universal Single-Turn Jailbreak Mechanism in Large Language Models," the researchers took 1,200 potentially harmful prompts from a database normally used to test the security of AI language models and rewrote them as poems.

Known as "adversarial prompts" — generally written in prose and not rhyme form — these are queries deliberately formulated to cause AI models to output harmful or undesirable content that they would normally block, such as specific instructions for an illegal act.

In poetic form, the manipulative inputs had a surprisingly high success rate, Federico Pierucci, one of the authors of the study, told DW. However, why poetry is so effective as a "jailbreak" technique — i.e. as an way to circumvent the protective mechanisms of AI — remains unclear and is undergoing further research, he says.

What prompted the Icaro Lab's research was the observation that AI models get confused when a manipulative, mathematically-calculated piece of text is appended to a prompt — known as an "adversarial suffix," a kind of interference signal that can cause the AI to circumvent its own security rules. These are created using complex mathematical procedures. Major AI developers regularly test their models using precisely these types of attack methods to train and protect their models.

"We asked ourselves, what happens if we give the AI a text or prompt that is deliberately manipulated, like an adversarial suffix?" says Federico Pierucci. But not with the help of complex mathematics, but quite simply with poetry — to "surprise" the AI, he continues. He explains the thinking behind this: "Perhaps an adversarial suffix is a bit like the poetry of AI. It surprises the AI in the same way that poetry — especially very experimental poetry — surprises us," says Pierucci.

The researchers personally crafted the first 20 prompts into poems, says Pierucci, who also has a background in philosophy. These were the most effective, he adds. They wrote the rest with the help of AI. The AI-generated poems were also quite successful at circumventing the safety guardrails, but not as much as the first batch. Humans are apparently still better at writing poetry, says Pierucci.

"We had no specialized author writing the prompts. It was just us — with our limited literary ability. Maybe we were terrible poets. Maybe if we had been better poets, we would have achieved a 100% jailbreak success," he says.

For security reasons, the study did not publish specific examples.

The big surprise coming out of this study is that it identified a thus-far unknown weakness in AI models that allows relatively straightforward jailbreaks.

It also raises questions that beg further research: What exactly is it about poetry that circumvents the safety mechanisms?

Pierucci and his colleagues have various theories, but they can't say for certain yet. "We are conducting this type of very, very precise scientific study to try to understand: Is it the verse, the rhyme, or the metaphor that really does all the heavy lifting in this process?" explains Pierucci.

They also aim to find out if other forms of expression would yield similar results. "We have now covered one type of linguistic variation — namely poetic variation. The question is whether there are any other literary forms, such as fairy tales that work. Perhaps an attack based on fairy tales could also be systematized," says Pierucci.

Generally speaking, the range of human expression is extremely diverse and creative, which could make it more difficult to train the machines' responses. "You take a text and rewrite it in infinitely many ways and not all rewritten versions will be as alarming as the original," says the researcher. "This means that, in principle, one could create countless variations of a harmful prompt or request that might not trigger an AI system's safety mechanisms."

The study also highlights the fact that many disciplines are cooperating in research into artificial intelligence — like at the Icaro Lab, where teams work together with scholars from the University of Rome on topics such as the security and behavior of AI systems. The project brings together researchers from the fields of engineering and computer science, linguistics and philosophy. Poets haven't been part of the team so far, but who knows what the future will bring.

Federico Pierucci is definitely very keen to pursue his research. "What we showed, at least in this study, is that there are forms of cultural expressions, forms of human expressions, which are incredibly powerful, surprisingly powerful as jailbreak techniques, and maybe we discovered just one of them," he says.

Incidentally, the name of the lab is a nod to the story of Icarus: a figure from Greek mythology who dons wings made of wax and feathers and, despite all warnings, flies too close to the Sun. When the wax melts, Icarus plunges into the sea and drowns — a symbol of overconfidence and the transgression of natural boundaries.

The researchers therefore see themselves as a warning that we should exercise more caution when it comes to trying to fully understand the risks and limitations of AI.

This article was originally written in German.

https://www.dw.com/en/ai-language-models-duped-by-poems/a-75180648

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.

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ALTHOUGH AI IS NOW 99.9 PER CENT ACCURATE ON TRANSLATING BETWEEN VARIOUS LANGUAGES, SOME FORMS OF LANGUAGE CAN BE A CHALLENGE, EVEN FOR HUMANS.....