Analysis: Here is a summary of significant articles published on ForeignAffairs.co.nz on July 1, 2025.
MIL-Evening Report: Aamir Khan’s big screen comeback, Sitaare Zameen Par, features an all-star neurodivergent cast – a Bollywood first
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yanyan Hong, PhD Candidate in Communication, Media and Film Studies, University of Adelaide Bharti Dubey/X Bollywood star Aamir Khan’s return to the big screen after a three-year hiatus has been far from ordinary. Sitaare Zameen Par (2025) which translates to “stars on Earth”, is the first major […]
MIL-OSI Submissions: Climate change is making it harder for people to get the care they need
Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Maria S. Floro, Professor Emerita of Economics, American University The world is witnessing the consequences of climate change: long-lasting changes in temperature and rainfall, and more intense and frequent extreme weather events such as heat waves, hurricanes, typhoons, flooding and drought. All make it harder for families and […]
MIL-OSI Submissions: South Africa’s 36.1% electricity price hike for 2025: why the power utility Eskom’s request is unrealistic
Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Steven Matome Mathetsa, Senior Lecturer at the African Energy Leadership Centre, Wits Business School, University of the Witwatersrand South Africa’s state-owned electricity company, Eskom, has applied to the National Energy Regulator of South Africa to approve a 36.1% electricity price hike from April 2025, a 11.8% price increase […]
MIL-OSI Submissions: Post-flood recovery: lessons from Germany and Nigeria on how to help people cope with loss and build resilience
Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Olasunkanmi Habeeb Okunola, Senior Research Associate, United Nations University – Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS), United Nations University Extreme climate events — floods, droughts and heatwaves — are not just becoming more frequent; they are also more severe. It’s important to understand how communities can recover […]
MIL-OSI Submissions: New discoveries: three tiny species added to South Africa’s spectacular marine life
Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Jannes Landschoff, Marine biologist at Sea Change and Research Associate at Stellenbosch University’s Department of Botany and Zoology., Stellenbosch University South Africa’s marine realm is globally unique because of the two major ocean currents that meet here. The cold, slow-moving Benguela and the warm, fast-flowing Agulhas currents create […]
MIL-OSI Submissions: Discovery of a 4,000-year-old Bronze Age settlement in Morocco rewrites history
Source: The Conversation – Africa (2) – By Hamza Benattia, Prehistory, Universitat de Barcelona A new archaeological discovery at Kach Kouch in Morocco challenges the long-held belief that the Maghreb (north-west Africa) was an empty land before the arrival of the Phoenicians from the Middle East in around 800 BCE. It reveals a much richer […]
MIL-OSI Submissions: Why your holiday flight is still not being powered by sustainable aviation fuel
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Salman Ahmad, Lecturer in Operations and Supply Chain Management, University of the West of Scotland Fahroni/Shutterstock As you wait in the departure lounge for your flight this summer, you may notice your aeroplane being pumped full of fuel ahead of takeoff. And then you may start to wonder […]
MIL-OSI Submissions: First fossil hyena tracks found in South Africa – how expert animal trackers helped
Source: The Conversation – Africa (2) – By Charles Helm, Research Associate, African Centre for Coastal Palaeoscience, Nelson Mandela University “The art of tracking may well be the origin of science.” This is the departure point for a 2013 book by Louis Liebenberg, co-founder of an organisation devoted to environmental monitoring. The connection between tracking […]
MIL-OSI Submissions: Labour is divided over disability cuts – here’s what the public thinks
Source: The Conversation – UK – By John Curtice, Professor of Politics, University of Strathclyde and Senior Research Fellow, National Centre for Social Research Keir Starmer’s MPs are rebelling en masse against cuts to the benefits system. Flickr/UK Parliament, CC BY-NC-ND Keir Starmer has been dealing with his most serious parliamentary challenge since he became […]
MIL-OSI Submissions: 1.5 million-year-old bone tools discovered in Tanzania rewrite the history of human evolution
Source: The Conversation – Africa (2) – By Jackson K. Njau, Associate professor, Indiana University The ancestors of humans started making tools about 3.3 million years ago. First they made them out of stone, then they switched to bone as a raw material. Until recently, the earliest clear evidence of bone tool making was from […]
MIL-OSI Submissions: African countries need more PhD graduates but students are held back by a lack of money and support
Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Oluwatomilayo Omoya, Lecturer in Nursing (Teaching and Reseach), Flinders University Moyo Studio/Getty Images Over the past 15 years there’s been an increasing demand from within and outside the higher education sector for African countries to produce more PhD graduates. For this to happen, it’s important to know what’s […]
MIL-OSI Submissions: How huge migrating animal puppets captivate in ways that climate news can’t
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Matt Smith, Reader in Applied Theatre and Puppetry, University of Portsmouth A herd of puppet animals is migrating north from Africa. This 12,000 mile journey represents wildlife’s response to the climate crisis as species are forced to move north due to rising temperatures. As The Herds travels through […]
MIL-OSI Submissions: Scientists in Antarctica: why they’re there and what they’ve found
Source: The Conversation – Africa (2) – By David William Hedding, Professor in Geography, University of South Africa A media storm blew up in mid-March 2025 when a researcher at South Africa’s isolated Sanae IV base in Antarctica accused one of its nine team members of becoming violent. The Conversation Africa asked geomorphologist David William […]
MIL-OSI Submissions: What one university’s 30-year transformation reveals about Afrikaans and language planning in South Africa
Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Lloyd Hill, Lecturer, Stellenbosch University Rodger Bosch/AFP via Getty Images When South Africa became a democracy in 1994, five of the country’s universities used Afrikaans as a medium of instruction. There were also two bilingual universities teaching in Afrikaans and English. Stellenbosch University, about 50km from Cape Town, […]
MIL-OSI Submissions: Five ways you can use mantra meditation every day to boost your wellbeing
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Jennifer Donnelly, Doctoral Researcher, Meditation-based Interventions in Clinical Settings, Centre of Positive Health Sciences, RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences Andrii Iemelianenko/Shutterstock Meditation has become a popular subject on self-improvement podcasts, corporate strategy days and health campaigns. But beyond the buzz, there’s a growing scientific and clinical […]
MIL-OSI Submissions: Who owns digital data about you? South African legal scholar weighs up property and privacy rights
Source: The Conversation – Africa (2) – By Donrich Thaldar, Professor, University of KwaZulu-Natal alexsl In the digital economy, data is more than just information – it is an asset with immense economic and strategic value. Yet, despite its significance, a fundamental legal question remains unresolved: Can data be owned? While privacy laws worldwide focus […]
MIL-OSI Submissions: Kids should be encouraged to talk back – 5 tips for teaching them critical thinking skills
Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Heidi Matisonn, Senior Lecturer in Bioethics, The EthicsLab, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town Teaching kids to think critically sets them up well for life. eli_asenova Whenever school holidays loom, many parents find themselves caught in an emotional tug-of-war: on the one hand, […]
MIL-OSI Submissions: For Jane Austen and her heroines, walking was more than a pastime – it was a form of resistance
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Nada Saadaoui, PhD Candidate in English Literature, University of Cumbria In Pride and Prejudice (1813), when heroine Elizabeth Bennet arrives at Netherfield Park with “her petticoat six inches deep in mud”, she walks not only through the fields of Hertfordshire, but into one of literature’s most memorable images […]
MIL-OSI Submissions: Moroccan schools are fuller thanks to cash grants. The problem now is the quality of their education – study
Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Jules Gazeaud, Chargé de recherche CNRS, Université Clermont Auvergne (UCA) Reprinted by permission from VoxDev The spread of conditional cash transfer programmes in low- and middle-income countries has been described as perhaps the most remarkable innovation of recent decades in welfare programmes. These programmes provide regular cash transfers […]
MIL-OSI Submissions: Universities must teach students what freedom is – a South African course is trying to do just that
Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Pedro Tabensky, Director, Allan Gray Centre for Leadership Ethics, Rhodes University A typical student wants a university degree as a ticket to a salary. For this young person, education is a journey towards “having”. And the way to complete the journey is mainly to remember, repeat or reproduce […]