Analysis: Here is a summary of significant articles published on ForeignAffairs.co.nz on May 20, 2025.
MIL-Evening Report: Speight’s Fiji coup had more to do with power, greed than iTaukei rights, says Chaudhry
Today marks the 25th anniversary of the May 19, 2000, coup led by renegade businessman George Speight. The deposed Prime Minister, Mahendra Chaudhry, says Speight’s motive had less to do with indigenous rights and a lot more to do with power, greed, and access to the millions likely to accrue from Fiji’s mahogany plantation. On […]
MIL-Evening Report: The federal government wants to boost productivity. Science can help
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deanna D’Alessandro, Professor & Director, Net Zero Institute, University of Sydney Daniel Sone/National Cancer Institute In the wake of Labor’s resounding victory in Australia’s federal election earlier this month, there has been much talk about flailing productivity in Australia. In fact, last week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese […]
MIL-Evening Report: Fish driving cars and chimps doing maths: what teaching animals ‘irrelevant’ skills reveals about our own minds
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Scarlett Howard, Research Fellow, School of Biological Sciences, Monash University VixtorPhoto / Shutterstock Did you know goldfish can learn to drive cars? Have you heard bumblebees can learn to pull on a string? Would you believe some primates can perform calculations with Arabic numerals? These tasks seem […]
MIL-Evening Report: Surviving swamps on South Australia’s parched Fleurieu Peninsula are a lifeline to wildlife – and farmers
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Auricht, Visiting Research Fellow in Natural Resources Management, University of Adelaide Yundi Nature Conservancy, CC BY-NC-ND South Australia is famously the driest state on the driest inhabited continent. But even for South Australia, the current drought is extreme. Rainfall has been the lowest on record across […]
MIL-Evening Report: NZ Budget 2025: anything less than a 5% increase in health funding amounts to merely standing still
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Tenbensel, Professor of Health Policy, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Health Minister Simeon Brown. Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images Minister of Health Simeon Brown claimed earlier this year that health funding in New Zealand has never been higher and that suggestions of underfunding are “fake news”. On […]
MIL-Evening Report: ‘No pain, no gain’: why some primary students are following intense study routines
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christina Ho, Associate professor in Social and Political Sciences, University of Technology Sydney MNStudio/ Shutterstock Every year, thousands of New South Wales students sit a test to determine places for highly sought-after selective high schools. These are academically selective public schools often associated with high Year 12 […]
MIL-Evening Report: From the Liver King to ultramarathons, fitness influencers are glorifying extreme masculinity where ‘pain is the point’
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samuel Cornell, PhD Candidate in Public Health & Community Medicine, School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney Netflix/Untold: The Liver King A new Netflix documentary about a shirtless supplement salesman who claimed to be “natural” and was exposed as a fraud might seem like a punchline. But Untold: […]
MIL-OSI Global: Batteries that absorb carbon emissions move a step closer to reality – new study
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Daniel Commandeur, Surrey Future Fellow, School of Chemistry & Chemical Engineering, University of Surrey Future power. Sweetie Khatun What if there were a battery that could release energy while trapping carbon dioxide? This isn’t science fiction; it’s the promise of lithium-carbon dioxide (Li-CO₂) batteries, which are currently a […]
MIL-OSI Global: Are independent vets really better? The real issue isn’t necessarily who owns them
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Rachel Williams, Reader in Human Resource Management, Cardiff University maxbelchenko/Shutterstock Taking your pet to the vet might feel different these days, and there’s a reason for that. About 60% of UK practices are now owned by just six big companies, raising concerns about cost, care and competition. But […]
MIL-OSI Global: Overshooting 1.5°C: even temporary warming above globally agreed temperature limit could have permanent consequences
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Paul Dodds, Professor of Energy Systems, UCL Earth’s surface temperature has been 1.5°C hotter than the pre-industrial average for 21 of the last 22 months. The 2015 Paris agreement committed countries to keeping the global temperature increase “well below 2°C”, which is widely interpreted as an average of […]
MIL-OSI Global: Britain is already becoming an ‘island of strangers’ – but immigration isn’t the driver
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Michael Skey, Lecturer in Media and Communications, Loughborough University Matthew Troke/Shutterstock Keir Starmer’s recent speech on immigration has generated a good deal of controversy. In announcing a government white paper to cut legal migration, the prime minister said: “Nations depend on rules – fair rules. Sometimes they’re written […]
MIL-OSI Global: Is it better to shower in the morning or at night? Here’s what a microbiologist says
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Primrose Freestone, Senior Lecturer in Clinical Microbiology, University of Leicester Showering is an important part of an good hygiene routine. Valerii_k/ Shutterstock It’s a question that’s long been the cause of debate: is it better to shower in the morning or at night? Morning shower enthusiasts will say […]
MIL-OSI Global: Do we see colour the same way? What scientists can learn from artists
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Sasha Rakovich, Senior Lecturer in Physics, King’s College London TSViPhoto/Shutterstock As many people sit at the wheel of their car, they are certain they know what colour is. It’s the red traffic light in front of them, the garish yellow hatchback in the next lane, or the green […]
MIL-OSI Global: Disaster authoritarianism: how autocratic regimes deal with earthquakes
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Nimesh Dhungana, Lecturer in Disasters and Global Health, Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute, University of Manchester An earthquake that struck south-east Asia in late March is thought to have killed more than 3,000 people in Myanmar, a country ruled by a military junta that has blocked humanitarian aid […]
MIL-OSI Global: What the strength of your grip can tell you about your overall health
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Lawrence Hayes, Lecturer in Physiology, Lancaster University A strong grip can tell you many things about your health. XArtProduction/ Shutterstock Predicting your risk of a range of health outcomes – from type 2 diabetes to depression and even your longevity – is as simple as testing how tight […]
MIL-OSI Global: UK and EU sign new trade, fishing and defence deal – what do economists think?
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Maria Garcia, Senior Lecturer in International Relations, University of Bath The UK and EU have announced a range of historic and wide-ranging new agreements touching on trade, defence and borders. Since the 2016 Brexit vote, COVID and conflict have changed the global economic landscape dramatically – with consumers […]
MIL-OSI Global: Governors are leading the fight against climate change and deforestation around the world, filling a void left by presidents
Source: The Conversation – USA – By Mary Nichols, Distinguished Counsel for the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, University of California, Los Angeles Forests like the Amazon play vital roles in balancing the environment, from storing carbon to releasing oxygen. Silvestre Garcia-IntuitivoFilms/Stone/Getty Images When the annual U.N. climate conference descends on the […]
MIL-OSI Global: Covid-19 death tolls in Europe highlight stark regional differences in 2020 and 2021
Source: The Conversation – France – By Florian Bonnet, Démographe et économiste, spécialiste des inégalités territoriales, Ined (Institut national d’études démographiques) The political decisions made during 2020 and 2021 to combat the Covid-19 pandemic profoundly altered daily life. Professionally, societies faced partial unemployment and widespread adoption of remote work; personally, individuals endured lockdowns and social […]
MIL-OSI Global: Trump’s lifting of Syria sanctions is a win for Turkey, too – pointing to outsized role middle powers can play in regional affairs
Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Hyeran Jo, Associate Professor of Political Science, Texas A&M University Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa meet in Turkey on April 11, 2025. TUR Presidency/ Murat Cetinmuhurdar/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images President Donald Trump announced while in Saudi Arabia on May 14, 2025, that […]
MIL-OSI Global: Joe Biden has prostate cancer with bone spread – an oncologist explains what you need to know
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Justin Stebbing, Professor of Biomedical Sciences, Anglia Ruskin University ArChe1993/Shutterstock Former US President Joe Biden, aged 82, has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that has spread to his bones, marking a serious escalation in the disease. The diagnosis was made after he sought medical […]