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Category: Academic Analysis

  • MIL-OSI Global: Why we need testosterone products designed for women

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By David Haddleton, Professor in Polymer Chemistry , University of Warwick

    Many women need testosterone during menopause — but most can’t get it Andrey_Popov/Shutterstock

    Menopause is something nearly every woman will go through. As fertility ends, levels of oestrogen and progesterone drop significantly – changes that can deeply affect physical health, emotional wellbeing and everyday life.

    For many, the effects of this hormonal shift are more than frustrating – they can be life altering. Symptoms like brain fog, hot flushes, night sweats, headaches, insomnia, fatigue, joint pain, low libido, anxiety, depression and even bone loss from osteoporosis are all common.



    Read more:
    Horrific, bizarre, lonely: how women going through the menopause describe their experiences

    Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) has helped many women manage these symptoms – but one key hormone is often overlooked in both treatment and conversation: testosterone.

    Testosterone is typically viewed as a “male hormone,” but it plays a crucial role in women’s health too. In fact, women have higher levels of testosterone than either oestrogen or progesterone for most of their adult lives. And like the other sex hormones, testosterone also declines with age – with consequences that are only now being fully explored.

    The testosterone gap

    Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is now widely used to replace oestrogen and progesterone during and after menopause. These treatments – available as tablets, patches, gels and implants – are regulated, evidence-based and increasingly accessible through the NHS.

    But when it comes to testosterone, the situation is entirely different.

    Currently, there are no testosterone products licensed for use by women in the UK or Europe. The only exception is in Australia, where a testosterone cream specifically designed for women is available. Europe once had its own option – a transdermal patch called Intrinsa, designed and approved by regulators based on clinical evidence to treat low libido in women with surgically induced menopause. But the manufacturer withdrew product in 2012, citing “commercial considerations” in their letter to the European Medicines Agency, the agency in charge of the evaluation and supervision of pharmaceutical products in Europe.

    Since then, women across Europe have been left without an approved option.

    In the absence of licensed treatments, some clinicians – mainly in private practice – are prescribing testosterone “off label”, often using products developed for men. These are typically gels or creams with dosages several times higher than most women need. While doctors may advise on how to adjust the dose, this kind of improvisation comes with risks: inaccurate dosing, inconsistent absorption and a lack of long-term safety data.

    Some women report significant improvements – not just in libido, but also in brain fog, mood, joint pain and energy levels. However, the only proven clinical benefit of testosterone in women is in improving sexual desire for those with hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD) following surgical menopause.

    Even so, interest is growing – fuelled by patient demand, celebrity use, social media buzz and a growing sense that testosterone may be a missing piece in midlife women’s care.

    While there is increasing consensus that testosterone can play a role in supporting women’s health, the current situation presents two serious problems:

    Safety and regulation: without licensed products, standardised dosing guidelines, or long-term safety data, off-label use puts both patients and clinicians in uncertain territory.

    Access and inequality: testosterone therapy is rarely available through the NHS and is often only accessible through private clinics, creating a two-tier system. Those who can pay hundreds of pounds for consultations and prescriptions can access care, while others are left behind.

    Innovation

    There are signs of change. For example, I founded Medherant, a University of Warwick spin-out company that is currently developing a testosterone patch designed specifically for women. It’s in clinical trials and, if approved, could become the first licensed testosterone product for women in the UK in over a decade. It’s a much-needed step – and one that could pave the way for further innovation and broader access.

    But the urgency remains. Millions of women are currently going without effective, evidence-based care. In the meantime, off-label prescribing should used with care and use based on the best available science – not hype or anecdote – and delivered through transparent, regulated healthcare channels.

    Women deserve more than workarounds. They deserve treatments that are developed for their bodies, rigorously tested, approved by regulators and accessible to all – not just the few who can afford private care.

    When half the population is affected, this isn’t a niche issue. It’s a priority.

    David Haddleton works for and owns shares in Medherant Ltd

    – ref. Why we need testosterone products designed for women – https://theconversation.com/why-we-need-testosterone-products-designed-for-women-256927

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Influencer Andrew Tate is charged with a raft of sex crimes. His followers will see him as the victim

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Roberts, Professor of Education and Social Justice, Monash University

    British prosecutors have this week charged social media influencer Andrew Tate with a string of serious sexual offences, including rape and human trafficking, alleged to have been committed in the United Kingdom between 2012 and 2015.

    This comes in the wake of an ongoing case in Romania. There, Tate and his brother Tristan face similar charges of coercing and exploiting women through what is sometimes described as the “loverboy method” of manipulation that is used to control and monetise women through webcam performances.

    A self-described misogynist, Tate is a widespread figure of notoriety for his views on women and his role in the internet “manosphere”. He has millions of followers globally, including ten million on X alone.

    This latest round of prosecutions will likely further entrench the loyalty of those followers: boys and young men who will see their leader as the victim of a corrupt system.

    Who is Andrew Tate?

    Tate is a British-American social media influencer and former kickboxer. He gained international notoriety for his violently misogynistic videos and pronouncements.

    He’s built a massive, loyal social media following through a brand that is part provocateur, part self-help guru and part conspiracy theorist.

    His rhetoric emphasises an aspirational masculinity geared towards extreme wealth and a physically fit body, combined with resentment towards women and so-called “feminised” societies. He has, for example, stated that women should “bear responsibility” for sexual assault.

    Tate is a leading ideological figurehead of what is often called the “manosphere” – a loose network of online communities and content creators who promote regressive ideas about masculinity, gender roles and male identity.

    Tate offers a template for many boys and young men to make sense of their place in the world, playing up ideas that boys are disenfranchised by social, economic, or cultural change.

    This is part of an emotional hook that provides belonging and clarity in a world his followers are told is stacked against them.

    Tate’s content involves both overt and, more often, insidious celebration of harmful gender norms and misogynistic ideologies.

    Research has found boys’ exposure to this content has contributed to a resurgence of a sense of male supremacy in classrooms. This then increases sexism and hostility towards women teachers and girl peers.

    Reinforcing the narrative

    Given this context, it is unlikely the new charges will erode his popularity.

    To be clear, he is not universally admired. In fact, the majority of boys reject what he stands for.

    However, for the significant minority who comprise his hardcore followers, these new charges will likely be used to reinforce a persecution narrative.

    In this way, Tate has paved the way for more violent and extreme misogyny to become standard, not rare.

    This was exactly the pattern when the Romanian charges first emerged. His followers flooded platforms with hashtags like #FreeTopG, reframing his arrest as proof that he was “telling the truth” and being punished for it.

    Figures like US President Donald Trump provide a relevant comparison. Trump has faced multiple criminal indictments and was found liable in a civil trial for sexually assaulting E. Jean Carroll.

    Yet, his popularity among his base has held firm.

    For many of his supporters, these legal challenges are not signs of wrongdoing, but evidence their champion is being unfairly targeted by corrupt institutions.

    Tate is similar in that his hypermasculine posturing and anti-establishment bravado ensures his audience see him the same way.

    Prompting more loyalty

    Given their previous responses, we can already predict how the Tate brothers will respond this time. They will deny the charges, of course, but more importantly, they will use the moment to deepen their mythos.

    We might expect to see talk of “the matrix” of shadowy elites, and the weaponisation of justice systems to silence truth-telling men.

    They will insist the charges are not about what they did, but about who they are: disruptors of a weak, feminised society. This victim-persecutor framing is central to their appeal and will remain so as this unfolds.

    Their followers will, then, likely respond with greater loyalty. For those already steeped in online misogyny and disillusionment, legal accusations such as these don’t raise doubt, but instead confirm the story they already buy into.

    This makes combating Tate’s influence a complex challenge. Simply “calling it out” is not enough.

    As our research shows, Tate’s brand thrives not in spite of controversy, but because of it.

    This is why we need a more strategic, long-term approach to address the harms Tate and other such figureheads represent.

    We need robust gender education in schools, stronger commitments to critical media literacy, and the elevation of alternative role models who can speak to the same emotional terrain without reinforcing misogyny.

    This can include other content creators, like Will Hitchins, but also youth workers or people of any gender from boy’s existing communities.

    A key lesson here is that, for the manosphere’s key figures, being charged or even found guilty of crimes (should that occur) might not signal their downfall or diminish their relevance.

    Steven Roberts receives funding from Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety, the Australian Research Council and the Australian Government. He is a Board Director at Respect Victoria, but this article is written wholly separate from and does not represent that role.

    Stephanie Wescott receives funding from Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety.

    – ref. Influencer Andrew Tate is charged with a raft of sex crimes. His followers will see him as the victim – https://theconversation.com/influencer-andrew-tate-is-charged-with-a-raft-of-sex-crimes-his-followers-will-see-him-as-the-victim-257805

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Labor gains Senate seats in Victoria and Queensland, and surges to a national 55.6–44.4 two-party margin

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne

    Buttons have been pressed to electronically distribute preferences for the Senate in Victoria, the ACT, Queensland and Western Australia. Labor gained a seat from the Liberals in Victoria, with the other two unchanged. I had a wrap of earlier button presses on Tuesday.

    Six of the 12 senators for each state and all four territory senators were up for election on May 3. Changes in state senate representation are measured against 2019, the last time these senators were up for election.

    Senators are elected by proportional representation in their jurisdictions with preferences. At a half-Senate election, with six senators in each state up for election, a quota is one-seventh of the vote, or 14.3%. For the territories, a quota is one-third or 33.3%.

    Labor has won three of the six Victorian senators, the Coalition two and the Greens one, a gain for Labor from the Coalition since 2019. That’s a 4–2 split from Victoria to the left.

    Final primary votes gave Labor 2.43 quotas, the Coalition 2.20, the Greens 0.87, One Nation 0.31, Legalise Cannabis 0.25, Trumpet of Patriots 0.18, Family First 0.13, Animal Justice 0.11 and Victorian Socialists 0.11.

    On the distribution of preferences, Labor’s third candidate defeated One Nation by 0.87 quotas to 0.81. Neither the third Liberal nor Legalise Cannabis were anywhere near One Nation at earlier exclusion points.

    On the exclusion of the Liberals, 50% of their preferences went to One Nation, 22% to Labor, 14% to Legalise Cannabis and the rest exhausted. At this point, One Nation led Labor by 0.73 quotas to 0.67 with 0.47 for Legalise Cannabis. On Legalise Cannabis’ exclusion, Labor won 42% of preferences, One Nation 19% and the rest exhausted, giving Labor its win.

    The third candidate on Labor’s Victorian Senate ticket was Michelle Ananda-Rajah, the former Labor member for Higgins before Higgins was abolished in a redistribution.

    Usually Labor only wins two Victorian senators with the Greens winning the third for the left. Ananda-Rajah would not have expected to be back in parliament, although in a different chamber.

    WA, Queensland and ACT Senate results

    The Western Australian Senate result is two Labor, two Liberals, one Green and one One Nation, a gain for One Nation from the Liberals. Final WA primary votes gave Labor 2.53 quotas, the Liberals 1.86, the Greens 0.90, One Nation 0.41, Legalise Cannabis 0.28, the Nationals 0.25 and Australian Christians 0.19.

    Until very late it had been expected that Labor would take the last seat instead of One Nation, but The Poll Bludger changed his model to give One Nation a slight lead owing to evidence of stronger Coalition flows to One Nation in other states.

    In Queensland, Labor won two seats, the Liberal National Party two, the Greens one and One Nation one. This was a gain for Labor from the LNP after Labor’s 2019 disaster, when they won just one Queensland senator.

    Final Queensland primary votes gave the LNP 2.17 quotas, Labor 2.13, the Greens 0.73, One Nation 0.50, Gerard Rennick 0.33, Trumpet of Patriots 0.26 and Legalise Cannabis 0.25.

    I will analyse the WA and Queensland preference distributions in a final Senate results wrap article that will be posted after the final state, New South Wales, has its button pressed. Labor is expected to gain a seat in NSW from the Coalition.

    Left-wing independent David Pocock and Labor were both re-elected in the ACT, with no change since 2022. Final primary votes were 1.17 quotas for Pocock, 0.95 Labor, 0.53 for the Liberals (just 17.8%) and 0.23 for the Greens. Labor crossed quota on the exclusion of second Pocock candidate with the Liberals and Greens still remaining.

    Labor’s national two party vote up to a 55.6–44.4 lead

    On May 5, two days after the election, I explained that we needed to wait for “non-classic” seats to have a special two-party count undertaken between the Labor and Coalition candidates. Non-classic seats are seats where the final two were not Labor and Coalition candidates.

    With the major party national primary votes so low at this election, 35 of the 150 House of Representatives seats were non-classics. Before the two-party counts in these seats started, The Poll Bludger’s national two-party estimate gave Labor a 54.6–45.4 margin and the ABC a 55.0–45.0 margin.

    This week the electoral commission has been counting the Labor vs Coalition two-party votes in the non-classic seats, and Labor currently leads by 55.6–44.4. The national two-party vote is still incomplete, but the large majority of non-classic seats have now had a two-party count undertaken.

    The remaining non-classic seats that are either uncounted or partially counted to two-party are favourable to the Coalition, so Labor will drop back a little, but will still win the national two party vote by about 55.4–44.6.

    Labor’s biggest wins on a Labor vs Coalition basis are seats where Labor and the Greens made the final two. For example in Wills, Labor defeated the Greens by 51.4–48.6, but the two-party count gives Labor a massive 80.9–19.1 win over the Liberals. Swings to Labor in non-classic seats have been bigger than swings in classic seats, so Labor’s two-party vote has increased.

    Labor’s big two-party win makes the pre-election polls look worse than they did on election night. Here’s the poll graph I was posting in all my pre-election articles updated with the estimated final two-party margin.

    Only one national poll was accurate: the Morgan poll published two weeks before the election that gave Labor a 55.5–44.5 lead. It’s a shame for Morgan that their final two polls “herded” back to a consensus that was wrong. I will have a full review of the federal polls once all results are finalised.

    Recounts in Bradfield and Goldstein

    A full recount is in progress in Liberal-held Bradfield, where the Liberal was ahead of Teal Nicolette Boele by eight votes after distribution of preferences. Four days into the recount, the Liberal leads by just five votes.

    A partial recount in Goldstein of the primary votes for Liberal Tim Wilson and Teal incumbent Zoe Daniel is also underway after Wilson led by 260 votes after distribution of preferences. Two days into this recount, Wilson leads by 259 votes and will win unless large errors are found that favour Daniel when corrected.

    Adrian Beaumont does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Labor gains Senate seats in Victoria and Queensland, and surges to a national 55.6–44.4 two-party margin – https://theconversation.com/labor-gains-senate-seats-in-victoria-and-queensland-and-surges-to-a-national-55-6-44-4-two-party-margin-257714

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: How the North West Shelf expansion risks further damage to Murujuga’s 50,000-year-old rock art

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Benjamin Smith, Professor of Archaeology (World Rock Art), School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia

    Yesterday, new environment minister Murray Watt approved an extension for the North West Shelf liquefied natural gas project. The gas plant at Karratha, Western Australia, will run until 2070.

    This expansion – and the pollution it will release – has led to a recommendation by the International Council on Monuments and Sites to defer UNESCO’s decision on the world heritage listing of the nearby Murujuga rock art.

    Two of the recommendations prior to renomination of the site are to “ensure the total removal of degrading acidic emissions” and “prevent any further industrial development adjacent to, and within, the Murujuga Cultural Landscape”.

    Murujuga has more than one million petroglyphs, some up to 50,000 years old.

    It has the oldest depictions of the human face in the world and records the lore and traditions of Aboriginal Australians since the first human settlement of this continent. It is strikingly beautiful and is of enormous cultural and spiritual importance to the Traditional Owners.

    Despite the immense significance of the site, a large industrial precinct has been built at its centre.



    Read more:
    Green light for gas: North West Shelf gas plant cleared to run until 2070

    Concerns about the Murujuga Rock Art report

    On Friday, the Western Australian Government released the long awaited Murujuga Rock Art Monitoring Program Year 2 report. This report examines the effect of industrial pollution upon one of the world’s most significant rock art sites.

    We have conducted our own independent project into the impact of industrial emissions on Murujuga since 2018. Many of our findings support the details in this report but the government’s report summary and subsequent political commentary downplays the ongoing impacts of acidic emissions from industry on the world unique rock art.

    The most significant findings are the Weathering Chamber results. These subjected all rock types from Murujuga to the air pollutants released by industry. The results showed that all were degraded, even with relatively low doses of sulphur dioxide (SO₂) and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂).

    The second highly significant finding is that “there is statistically significant evidence of elevated porosity of granophyre rock surfaces”. This is centred on the industrial precinct in Murujuga. The report acknowledges industrial pollution is the most likely cause.

    This degradation and elevated porosity of the rocks puts the survival of the petroglyphs at risk.

    On our research team, Jolam Neumann’s still to be published PhD thesis at the University of Bonn, Germany, considered the impacts of industrial pollution on Murujuga rocks.

    He used actual samples of gabbro and granophyre rock collected from Murujuga and simulated six years of weathering under current pollution conditions. He found elevated porosity in both rock surfaces. He also collected the residue to understand what was eroded from the rock and how.

    He found there was significant degradation of birnessite (manganese) and kaolinite (clay) from the surface. The dark red/brown surface of the rock became porous and started to break down.

    His work confirms industrial emissions are the cause of the elevated porosity in the report. His work shows the seriousness of the porosity: it is symptomatic of a process causing the rapid disintegration of the rock surface.

    Damage is ongoing

    With Murujuga Rock Art Monitoring Program report showing evidence of damage to the art from pollution, the state government chose to emphasise in their report summary that a defunct power plant from the 1970s and 1980s was likely the culprit.

    The report’s data suggests this power plant produced about 3,600 tonnes of NO₂ per year, and less than 400 tonnes of SO₂ per year. Current industry in the immediate area produces more than 13,000 tonnes of NO₂ per year and more than 6,500 tonnes of SO₂.

    If the old power plant damaged the art then contemporary industrial emissions will be damaging the rock art at least five times faster.

    Neumann also gained access to a piece of rock collected in 1994 by archaeological scientist Robert Bednarik, and stored in his office in Melbourne for the past 30 years.

    The area where this rock came from now has elevated porosity, but the Bendarik rock shows no signs of it. This means the bulk of the industrial damage is likely more recent than 1994 – and is ongoing.

    Losing 50,000 years of culture

    The rock art was formed by engraving into the outer thin red/brown/black surface of the rock, called rock varnish, exposing the blue-grey parent rock beneath.

    This rock varnish was made in a process that involved the actions of specialised microbes called cyanobacteria. They concentrate manganese and iron from the environment to form an outer sheath to protect themselves from the harsh desert environment.

    The rock varnish forms at an incredibly slow rate: 1 to 10 microns in 1,000 years (a human hair is about 100 microns).

    These organisms can only thrive when the rock surface acidity is near neutral (pH 6.5–7). Their manganese sheaths are crucial to the integrity of the rock varnish, it binds it together and holds it to the underlying rock.

    If you lose the manganese you lose the rock varnish and the rock art.

    Neumann found the proportion of manganese in the Bednarik rock sample was 18.4% by weight. In samples collected in the same area in 2021, the manganese content had fallen to 9.6%. The depth of the varnish was reduced, and the varnish layer was full of holes where the manganese had been degraded.

    The damage by industry over the last 26 years was clearly visible.

    Increased porosity is reducing the density of the rock varnish layer and leading to its eventual degradation. There is also an absence of cyanobacteria close to the industrial sites, but not at more distant sites, suggesting industrial emissions are eliminating the varnish-forming microbes.

    Where to next?

    Industrial pollution has degraded the rock art and will continue to do so until the industrial pollution levels at Murujuga are reduced to zero.

    There are two well-recognised ways to eliminate NO₂ emissions. One uses selective catalytic reduction to convert NO₂ to nitrogen and water. The second method is to replace all gas burning heat production processes with electricity.

    The use of such technologies should form part of the conditions to the ministerial approval of the North West Shelf extension.

    Benjamin Smith receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the National Foundation for Australia-China Relations. Neither of these funding bodies provided funding for the research discussed here and the views expressed here may not reflect those of these funding bodies. The research upon which this Conversation piece is based was funded solely by private donations from concerned citizens. We received no funding for this research from either industry or government.

    John Black is retired and receives no government or industry funding. The research upon which this Conversation piece is based was funded solely by private donations from concerned citizens. We received no funding for this research from either industry or government.

    – ref. How the North West Shelf expansion risks further damage to Murujuga’s 50,000-year-old rock art – https://theconversation.com/how-the-north-west-shelf-expansion-risks-further-damage-to-murujugas-50-000-year-old-rock-art-257615

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Trump’s global trade plans are in disarray, after a US court ruling on ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Susan Stone, Credit Union SA Chair of Economics, University of South Australia

    A US court has blocked the so-called “Liberation Day” tariffs that US President Donald Trump imposed on imported goods from around 90 nations. This puts implementation of Trump’s current trade policy in disarray.

    The Court of International Trade ruled the emergency authority Trump used to impose the tariffs could not override the role of Congress, which has the right to regulate commerce with other countries.

    Tariffs imposed via other legislative processes such as those dealing with cars, steel and aluminium continue to stand. But the broad-based “reciprocal” tariffs will need to be removed within 10 days of the court’s ruling. Trump administration officials have already filed plans to appeal.

    The ruling calls into question trade negotiations underway with more than 18 different nations that are trying to lower these tariffs. Do these countries continue to negotiate or do they wait for the judicial process to play out?

    The Trump administration still has other mechanisms through which it can impose tariffs, but these have limits on the amount that can be imposed, or entail processes which can take months or years. This undermines Trump’s preferred method of negotiation: throwing out large threats and backing down once a concession is reached.

    Emergency powers were a step too far

    The lawsuits were filed by United States importers of foreign products and some US states, challenging Trump’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977.

    The lawsuits argued the national emergencies cited in imposing the tariffs – the trade deficit and the fentanyl crisis – were not an emergency and not directly addressed by the tariff remedy. The court agreed, and said by imposing tariffs Trump had overstepped his authority.

    The ruling said the executive orders used were “declared to be invalid as contrary to law”.

    The act states the president is entitled to take economic action in the face of “an unusual and extraordinary threat”. It’s mainly been used to impose sanctions on terrorist groups or freeze assets from Russia. There’s nothing in the act that refers to tariffs.

    The decision means all the reciprocal tariffs – including the 10% tariffs on most countries, the 50% tariffs Trump was talking about putting on the EU, and some of the Chinese tariffs – are ruled by the court to be illegal. They must be removed within 10 days.

    The ruling was based on two separate lawsuits. One was brought by a group of small businesses that argued tariffs materially hurt their business. The other was brought by 12 individual states that argued the tariffs would materially impact their ability to provide public goods.

    Some industry tariffs will remain in place

    The ruling does not apply to tariffs applied under Section 201, known as safeguard tariffs. They are intended to protect industries from imports allegedly being sold in the US market at unfair prices or through unfair means. Tariffs on solar panels and washing machines were brought under this regulation.

    Also excluded are Section 232 tariffs, which are applied for national security reasons. Those are the steel and aluminium tariffs, the automobile and auto parts tariffs. Trump has declared all those as national security issues, so those tariffs will remain.

    Most of the tariffs against China are also excluded under Section 301. Those are put in place for unfair trade practices, such as intellectual property theft or forced technology transfer. They are meant to pressure countries to change their policies.

    Other trade investigations are still underway

    In addition, there are current investigations related to copper and the pharmaceuticals sector, which will continue. These investigations are part of a more traditional trade process and may lead to future tariffs, including on Australia.

    The Trump administration is still weighing possible sector-specific tariffs on pharmaceuticals.
    Planar/Shutterstock

    Now for the appeals

    The Trump administration has already filed its intention to appeal to the federal appeals court. This process will take some time. In the meantime, there are at least five other legal challenges to tariffs pending in the courts.

    If the appeals court provides a ruling the Trump administration or opponents don’t like, they can appeal to the Supreme Court.

    Alternatively, the White House could direct customs officials to ignore the court and continue to collect tariffs.

    The Trump administration has ignored court orders in the past, particularly on immigration rulings. So it remains to be seen if customs officials will release goods without the tariffs being paid in 10 days’ time.

    The administration is unlikely to lay down on this. In addition to its appeal process, officials complained about “unelected judges” and “judicial overreach” and may contest the whole process. The only thing that continues to be a certainty is that uncertainty will drive global markets for the foreseeable future.

    Susan Stone does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Trump’s global trade plans are in disarray, after a US court ruling on ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs – https://theconversation.com/trumps-global-trade-plans-are-in-disarray-after-a-us-court-ruling-on-liberation-day-tariffs-257812

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: UNESCO expresses ‘utmost concern’ at the state of the Great Barrier Reef

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jon C. Day, Adjunct Principal Research Fellow, College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University

    UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee has again raised grave fears for the future of the Great Barrier Reef, highlighting the problems of water pollution, climate change and unsustainable fishing.

    The committee this week released draft decisions regarding the conservation of 62 World Heritage properties. This included the Great Barrier Reef, for which it noted:

    Overall, while progress has been made, significant challenges remain in achieving water quality targets, managing extreme climate impacts, and ensuring the long-term resilience of the property.

    The comments confirm what experts already know too well: despite substantial investments from successive Australian governments, threats to the Great Barrier Reef remain.

    Climate change is the greatest threat to the Great Barrier Reef and other coral reefs around the world. But water pollution is the most significant local threat. That issue, along with unsustainable fishing, is entirely within Australia’s control.

    The World Heritage Committee will consider the draft decision at its next meeting in Paris in July. It may amend the decision, but the concerns are now on the public record.

    What’s all this about?

    The Great Barrier Reef has been on UNESCO’s World Heritage list for more than 40 years. The listing recognises outstanding natural and cultural places around the world.

    The reef is jointly managed by the Australian and Queensland governments. UNESCO’s draft decision expressed “utmost concern” at the findings of last year’s outlook report, published by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. It noted:

    the overall outlook for the property remains one of continued deterioration due largely to climate change, while the long-term outlook for the ecosystem of the property also remains ‘very poor’.

    Poor water quality persists

    Poor water quality is a major issue on the Great Barrier Reef. It is caused when sediment, nutrients, pesticides and pollution from land-based activities, such as land clearing, farming and coastal development, are carried into the ocean.

    In its draft decision, UNESCO noted with “regrets” that the latest water quality targets for sediment and nitrogen – a key component of fertilisers – were not achieved. UNESCO said the updated water quality plan should ensure targets and actions “are sufficiently ambitious and funded”.

    As the below graph shows, actions from 2009 to now have reduced pollution only by about half the desired amounts. At the existing rate of progress and funding commitments, the targets will not be met until 2047 (for sediment) and 2114 (for dissolved inorganic nitrogen).

    Huge gaps exist between current pollutants levels and the water quality targets. These and some other targets are well out of reach under existing funding levels.

    The draft decision also requests a halt to illegal land clearing while strengthening vegetation laws – both fundamental to reducing water pollution.

    Severe weather events exacerbate the water quality problem. In February this year, for example, floodwaters from ten major rivers merged to form extensive flood plumes along 700 kilometres of coastline from Cairns to Mackay, and up to 100 kilometres offshore.

    Such plumes can remain present for months after a flood. They can smother seagrass and corals, and cause damaging algal growth.

    Queensland’s floods in February discharged large plumes of sediment-laden floodwaters towards the Great Barrier Reef. This Sentinel 2 satellite image shows sediment from the Burdekin River estuary south of Townsville.
    Tropwater, CC BY-NC-ND

    The wicked problem of climate change

    UNESCO’s draft decision noted “the overall outlook for the property remains one of continued deterioration due largely to climate change”.

    Ocean heatwaves can lead to coral bleaching and potentially death. Mass bleaching occurred again this year on the Great Barrier Reef – the sixth such event since 2016.

    UNESCO described as “deeply concerning” preliminary results showing heat stress was the highest on record during the 2023–24 mass bleaching event.

    Climate change is also expected to produce more frequent and intense extreme weather events such as tropical cyclones, which can damage reefs and island ecosystems.

    UNESCO called on Australia to align its policies with the global goal of “limiting global temperature to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels”, and to take steps to mitigate negative impacts from extreme weather events.

    The challenges of fishing

    Unsustainable fishing practices damage the Great Barrier Reef. UNESCO’s draft decision noted progress in eliminating gillnet fishing, which is on track for the target of 2027.

    The fishing method involves mesh nets which can accidentally kill other wildlife, including threatened species such as dugongs, turtles, dolphins and sawfish.

    But smaller nets can still be used throughout much of the World Heritage area, so some threats to threatened species remain.

    UNESCO also urged Australia to expand electronic monitoring of commercial fishing vessels, and to ensure the targets in its Sustainable Fisheries Strategy are met. It also called for a comprehensive review of coral harvesting, which primarily supplies the global aquarium trade.

    What next?

    Despite the significant resources and management efforts Australia expends on the Great Barrier Reef, serious threats remain.

    The Great Barrier Reef is struggling under the cumulative impacts of a multitude of threats. The problems outlined above are not isolated challenges.

    Both the Queensland and Australian governments could do far more to boost the health of the reef. Clearly, more funding is needed. Without it, the future of the Great Barrier Reef is in jeopardy, and so too its tourism and fishing economies, and thousands of jobs.

    UNESCO has now asked Australia to provide more comprehensive results from the recent mass bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef, along with an updated plan to improve water quality. Its draft decision maintains the spotlight on conservation concerns for this precious natural asset.

    Jon Day previously worked for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority between 1986 and 2014, and was one of the Directors at GBRMPA between 1998 and 2014. He also represented Australia as one of the formal delegates to the World Heritage Committee between 2007-2011.

    Scott F. Heron is the co-developer of the Climate Vulnerability Index; he receives funding from Australian Research Council.

    – ref. UNESCO expresses ‘utmost concern’ at the state of the Great Barrier Reef – https://theconversation.com/unesco-expresses-utmost-concern-at-the-state-of-the-great-barrier-reef-257638

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Global: After a chaotic 6 months, South Koreans will elect a new president – and hope for bold leadership

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Alexander M. Hynd, Lecturer, Korean Politics/International Relations, The University of Melbourne

    On June 3, South Koreans will head to the polls to choose the country’s new president. The election may draw to a close one of the most chaotic and contentious periods in the country’s post-1987 democratic era.

    South Korea has been embroiled in a political crisis since December, when former President Yoon Suk Yeol disastrously declared martial law.

    Yoon ordered security forces to block lawmakers from entering the National Assembly, leading to a dramatic late night confrontation. His unconstitutional decree was overturned after just six hours.

    The fall-out was equally dramatic: Yoon was impeached and removed from office in a drawn-out process that was not finally resolved until April.

    This period coincided with massive street demonstrations both opposing and supporting Yoon, a far-right assault on a courthouse and a physical stand-off between investigators and Yoon’s personal security team.

    The country, meanwhile, has cycled through three short-lived caretaker leaders.

    With weak economic growth and high costs of living, in addition to an equally challenging security environment, South Korea is in desperate need of bold and effective leadership.

    Who are the candidates?

    The Democratic Party’s Lee Jae-myung is the clear frontrunner to be the next president, after finishing a close second in the previous 2022 election.

    Recent polling put the veteran left-leaning politician at around 49% support as the race entered the final week.

    This is a double-digit lead over his main conservative opponent, Kim Moon-soo, polling at 35%. Another conservative candidate, Lee Jun-seok, is polling at 11%. Notably, for the first time since 2007, there are no female candidates standing to be president.

    The high levels of support for Lee Jae-myung suggest a widespread desire among the public to repudiate Yoon’s martial law declaration.

    Kim, the labour minister in Yoon’s administration, has apologised for December’s declaration. But his opponents have continued to question him about it.

    Kim’s challenge has been to build a coalition of moderates and mainstream conservatives who firmly opposed the martial law declaration, while also winning support from those who believe far-right conspiracy theories around election fraud. Yoon, the former president, is continuing to promote these narratives.

    Lee’s compelling background

    Lee Jae-myung’s personal story has uplifting parallels with South Korea’s own history of economic and political development.

    Lee was born into poverty; the exact date of his birth is not known. He worked in factories from a very young age and permanently injured his left arm in an industrial accident when he was still a child.

    Lee went on to earn a scholarship to study law and, by the late 1980s, had established himself as a labour lawyer and activist.

    This activist image was highlighted when he live-streamed himself dramatically scaling a fence to enter the National Assembly and vote down Yoon’s martial law declaration in December. He has previously compared himself to populist, progressive US Senator Bernie Sanders.

    More recently, however, he has moderated his political rhetoric and policy platform to appeal to centrists and even some conservative voters.

    This shift may also help shield Lee from the “red-baiting” claims left-leaning South Korean candidates typically face from conservative opponents that they are “communists”, “pro-China”, or “pro-North Korea”.

    But Lee is also plagued by legal troubles, including corruption charges linked to a land development project. These charges, frequently highlighted by his opponents, risk derailing his administration if he wins the election.

    What are the main issues?

    Some international commentators have focused on how the next president will handle North Korea. South Koreans, however, are more interested in the candidates’ plans to fix the country’s troubled economy.

    Lee Jae-myung has pledged to immediately establish an emergency economic taskforce if he takes office.

    There has also been a vigorous debate over South Korea’s future energy policy. Kim favours expanding nuclear energy production to around 60% of the country’s energy mix. Lee has voiced safety concerns about nuclear power, arguing “the era of building more reactors should come to an end”.

    Additionally, questions remain over potential constitutional reform to end South Korea’s so-called “imperial presidency” system, which has been blamed for centralising too much power in the hands of the president.

    The system dates back to the rewriting of the constitution following mass protests in 1987. This established direct presidential elections and a single, five-year term.

    Both Lee and Kim support changing this to a four-year, two-term presidential system, similar to the United States.

    Big challenges lie ahead

    On the international stage, the new leader will face an uphill battle negotiating with US President Donald Trump over his punitive tariffs. Trump imposed 25% tariffs on South Korean goods in April, but lowered them temporarily to 10% until early July.

    Before his impeachment, Yoon was widely reported to be practising his golf skills to attempt to find common ground with Trump, much as former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe did.

    The new leader will also face massive challenges bringing South Korean society together in the current climate. Political polarisation and the spread of disinformation worsened under Yoon’s presidency – and these trends will be hard to reverse.

    Alexander M. Hynd does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. After a chaotic 6 months, South Koreans will elect a new president – and hope for bold leadership – https://theconversation.com/after-a-chaotic-6-months-south-koreans-will-elect-a-new-president-and-hope-for-bold-leadership-257348

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-Evening Report: 30 years ago Australia confronted its Stolen Generation past – then the Howard government blew it

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anne Maree Payne, Senior Research Fellow, Indigenous Land & Justice Research Group, UNSW Sydney

    May 2025 marks the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the national inquiry into the forcible removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families.

    Conducted by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, the inquiry’s final report was called Bringing Them Home. It demonstrated the extent and trauma of First Nations child removal practices across Australia over more than a century.

    Our archival research paints a dramatic picture of how the Howard government set out to minimise the impact of the report, despite the genuine outpouring of national grief.

    National reckoning

    The 1990s in Australia was marked by an unprecedented national focus on the impact of colonisation on Indigenous Australians. This was part of a global trend using truth-seeking models to examine contemporary and historical injustices.

    The decade included a number of landmark events:

    The establishment of a human rights inquiry investigating the Stolen Generations in 1995 promised a reckoning with this largely unknown history.

    Government resistance

    However, the election of the Howard government in 1996 had an immediate effect on the nation’s trajectory towards “coming to terms” with its past.

    After some early resistance, cabinet eventually agreed to make a whole-of-government submission, broadly outlining its Indigenous affairs priority:

    to address current disadvantage in health, housing, employment and education.

    It stressed compensation for Indigenous child removal was

    inappropriate and unacceptable.

    The Bringing Them Home report contained stories and a history that shocked many Australians. Nonetheless, then Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, John Herron argued in 2000 the inquiry was deeply flawed, and

    there was never a ‘generation’ of stolen children.

    No apology

    The government tried to discredit the final 1997 report, including its core finding the removal of Aboriginal children constituted genocide.

    Its formal response rejected the key recommendations of a commonwealth apology and compensation for members of the Stolen Generations.

    However, the government was willing to act on three areas that presented “opportunities for a positive response”:

    • access to records
    • reunion assistance
    • mental health strategies.

    Several of the report’s recommendations were designed to promote self-determination and establish minimum national standards in Indigenous child welfare, adoption and juvenile justice.

    One tactic employed by the Howard government was to push responsibility for implementing the recommendations onto the states and non-government organisations, such as churches, which had been involved in child removal.

    Therefore, a national legislative response was not forthcoming, with the government arguing this would represent a

    significant intrusion by the Commonwealth in state and territory responsibilities.

    Family reunion

    Herron had ministerial oversight of the government’s response to the report. The prime minister set the tone, saying it would be done in a “practical and realistic way”.

    Herron recommended to cabinet family reunion and counselling services should form the overarching theme of the government’s response. This focus left the broader systemic issues identified in Bringing Them Home unaddressed.

    While acknowledging “some of the disadvantages suffered by Indigenous people can be attributed to policies of child removal”, the background paper accompanying Herron’s cabinet submission also outlined some of the government’s early criticisms of the report, describing it as

    very emotive, and focused only on one view of the separation process.

    Partial response

    The government’s response package was initially costed at A$54 million over four years. It included:

    • an oral history project to provide some form of acknowledgement
    • funding for indexing of archival records
    • enhanced family reunion services
    • Indigenous mental health workers.

    These measures undoubtedly addressed real needs identified in Bringing Them Home. However, they were a partial response to the broad-ranging findings of the report.

    Herron argued facilitating family reunion was the “most pressing” issue identified by the inquiry, which had indeed noted that

    assisting family reunions is the most significant and urgent need of separated families.

    But it is an oversimplification to single out this issue as “the most pressing”.

    ATSIC was unequivocal in its feedback, saying the response would “severely disappoint Indigenous people”. It accused the government of not giving the report “serious attention”.

    Herron insisted the government had “listened to Indigenous people”. However, we were unable to identify any archival evidence of consultation with Indigenous communities in formulating the response package.

    Legacy

    The Healing Foundation commissioned a recent report on the unfinished business of Bringing Them Home. It identified the lack of a whole-of-government policy response that centred on the needs and rights of Stolen Generations survivors and descendants, as a key failing.

    This is unsurprising given the approach by the Howard government was carefully designed to limit the impact of Bringing Them Home.

    Despite this, the inquiry achieved a significant legacy. This includes greater public awareness of the Stolen Generations, apologies from all Australian parliaments, and the establishment of compensation schemes, now in place in most Australian states and territories.

    This was despite the Howard government’s sustained rejection of such measures 30 years ago when the nation was first seeking to come to terms with the wrongs of the past.

    .

    Anne Maree Payne received seed funding from the School of Humanities & Languages, UNSW Sydney, to undertake the archival research on which this article is based.

    Heidi Norman receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

    – ref. 30 years ago Australia confronted its Stolen Generation past – then the Howard government blew it – https://theconversation.com/30-years-ago-australia-confronted-its-stolen-generation-past-then-the-howard-government-blew-it-257447

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Parents of autistic children are stressed. Here’s what they want you to know

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Trevor Mazzucchelli, Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology, Curtin University

    ErsinTekkol/Shutterstock

    If you’re a parent or carer of a child who’s autistic, the odds are you’re spinning more plates than the average person. The emotional, physical and logistical demands stack up, often without the kind of support you need. It can leave you exhausted and wondering if things will ever improve.

    Every child is different, and every day can bring new challenges. Some moments are beautiful. Some are overwhelming. Some end in tears and frustration. Just when you think you’re in a routine that works or made some headway, everything can change again.

    As a clinical psychologist, this is what parents of autistic children tell me. As a parent of an autistic child, I too experience some of these stresses.

    In fact, parents of autistic children have much higher levels of stress than parents of children with other disabilities.

    What is autism?

    Autism, or autism spectrum disorder, is a developmental condition that affects how a person communicates, interacts with others, and makes sense of the world around them.

    It involves a wide range of traits and abilities. But it often involves difficulties with interacting and communicating socially, such as understanding body language or holding a conversation, as well as patterns of restricted or repetitive behaviour.

    Autism is usually diagnosed in early childhood. While every child’s experience is unique, it can influence their behaviour, learning and daily routines in ways that affect the whole family.

    For parents, the impact is often intense. This is not just about managing meltdowns or navigating therapy waitlists. The stress can affect everything from mental health, relationships, finances and the ability to cope day-to-day.

    It’s an incredibly tough gig for many parents and carers.

    Why the stress?

    Many parents tell me and research confirms that the hardest part isn’t autism itself – it’s everything around it. The long waits for a diagnosis. The out-of-pocket costs to see specialists, or for therapy or educational supports. The endless phone calls and paperwork. Trying to get help, only to hit another wall.

    Funding cuts to programs such as the National Disability Insurance Scheme (or NDIS) have removed crucial supports and added to the pressure.

    Parents often spend extra time coordinating appointments, supporting school engagement, and advocating for their child. That invisible workload can take a toll, especially when combined with social isolation, lack of respite and little time to care for their own wellbeing.

    Chronic stress and burnout are real risks for many parents, especially when the level of support required just isn’t there.

    What can parents and carers do?

    A few approaches can help lighten the load:

    • be kind to yourself, especially on the hard days. Even a short break and some deep breathing to release tension can take the edge off and help you reset. It might not solve everything, but it can give you a small window to regroup and keep going

    • ask for help if you’re struggling. Whether it’s from your GP, a psychologist, a parenting helpline or something else. Reaching out is a strength, not a weakness. Informal help can be just as important, for instance from other parents with similar experiences, who just get it. You can find them in online support groups

    • research shows evidence-based parenting programs can help families of children with disability feel more confident and less stressed. They can also make it easier to manage tough times and strengthen the parent-child bond. The Australian government offers a free, online, self-paced program, which I co-wrote, to help parents cope.

    When it’s tough going, it’s important to take a moment to reset.
    KieferPix/Shutterstock

    How friends, family and schools can help

    Many parents and carers carry a huge emotional load trying to help their autistic child feel supported in educational settings, such as childcare and schools.

    They often become the case manager, counsellor and advocate to make sure their child is included, safe and seen.

    If you’re a friend, family member, or part of the school community, try to understand how challenging this can be. The struggle is often ongoing. Parents and carers aren’t being difficult – they’re doing what they can to give their child their best chance.

    Compassion, a listening ear, or stepping in to help can make a real difference.

    Ongoing support, even small things such as dropping off a meal, helping with school pick-ups, or sending a kind message, can ease the load more than you might realise.

    Information and support for parents of autistic children is available. If this article has raised issues for you, or if you’re concerned about someone you know, call Lifeline on 13 11 14.

    Trevor Mazzucchelli is a co-author of Stepping Stones Triple P – Positive Parenting Program and a consultant to Triple P International. The Parenting and Family Support Centre is partly funded by royalties stemming from published resources of the Triple P – Positive Parenting Program, which is developed and owned by The University of Queensland (UQ). Royalties are also distributed to the Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences at UQ and contributory authors of published Triple P resources. Triple P International (TPI) Pty Ltd is a private company licensed by UniQuest Pty Ltd on behalf of UQ, to publish and disseminate Triple P worldwide. Trevor has no share or ownership of TPI, but has received and may in the future receive royalties and/or consultancy fees from TPI. Trevor has a child with autism and accesses support through the National Disability Insurance Scheme. He is also a member of the Parenting and Family Research Alliance (PAFRA), a multidisciplinary research collaboration of experts from leading Australian universities and research centres. The alliance is actively involved in conducting research, communication, and advocacy pertaining to parenting, families, and evidence-based parenting support. PAFRA is supported by the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course.

    – ref. Parents of autistic children are stressed. Here’s what they want you to know – https://theconversation.com/parents-of-autistic-children-are-stressed-heres-what-they-want-you-to-know-256871

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: After a chaotic 6 months, South Koreans will elect a new president – and hope for bold leadership

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander M. Hynd, Lecturer, Korean Politics/International Relations, The University of Melbourne

    On June 3, South Koreans will head to the polls to choose the country’s new president. The election may draw to a close one of the most chaotic and contentious periods in the country’s post-1987 democratic era.

    South Korea has been embroiled in a political crisis since December, when former President Yoon Suk Yeol disastrously declared martial law.

    Yoon ordered security forces to block lawmakers from entering the National Assembly, leading to a dramatic late night confrontation. His unconstitutional decree was overturned after just six hours.

    The fall-out was equally dramatic: Yoon was impeached and removed from office in a drawn-out process that was not finally resolved until April.

    This period coincided with massive street demonstrations both opposing and supporting Yoon, a far-right assault on a courthouse and a physical stand-off between investigators and Yoon’s personal security team.

    The country, meanwhile, has cycled through three short-lived caretaker leaders.

    With weak economic growth and high costs of living, in addition to an equally challenging security environment, South Korea is in desperate need of bold and effective leadership.

    Who are the candidates?

    The Democratic Party’s Lee Jae-myung is the clear frontrunner to be the next president, after finishing a close second in the previous 2022 election.

    Recent polling put the veteran left-leaning politician at around 49% support as the race entered the final week.

    This is a double-digit lead over his main conservative opponent, Kim Moon-soo, polling at 35%. Another conservative candidate, Lee Jun-seok, is polling at 11%. Notably, for the first time since 2007, there are no female candidates standing to be president.

    The high levels of support for Lee Jae-myung suggest a widespread desire among the public to repudiate Yoon’s martial law declaration.

    Kim, the labour minister in Yoon’s administration, has apologised for December’s declaration. But his opponents have continued to question him about it.

    Kim’s challenge has been to build a coalition of moderates and mainstream conservatives who firmly opposed the martial law declaration, while also winning support from those who believe far-right conspiracy theories around election fraud. Yoon, the former president, is continuing to promote these narratives.

    Lee’s compelling background

    Lee Jae-myung’s personal story has uplifting parallels with South Korea’s own history of economic and political development.

    Lee was born into poverty; the exact date of his birth is not known. He worked in factories from a very young age and permanently injured his left arm in an industrial accident when he was still a child.

    Lee went on to earn a scholarship to study law and, by the late 1980s, had established himself as a labour lawyer and activist.

    This activist image was highlighted when he live-streamed himself dramatically scaling a fence to enter the National Assembly and vote down Yoon’s martial law declaration in December. He has previously compared himself to populist, progressive US Senator Bernie Sanders.

    More recently, however, he has moderated his political rhetoric and policy platform to appeal to centrists and even some conservative voters.

    This shift may also help shield Lee from the “red-baiting” claims left-leaning South Korean candidates typically face from conservative opponents that they are “communists”, “pro-China”, or “pro-North Korea”.

    But Lee is also plagued by legal troubles, including corruption charges linked to a land development project. These charges, frequently highlighted by his opponents, risk derailing his administration if he wins the election.

    What are the main issues?

    Some international commentators have focused on how the next president will handle North Korea. South Koreans, however, are more interested in the candidates’ plans to fix the country’s troubled economy.

    Lee Jae-myung has pledged to immediately establish an emergency economic taskforce if he takes office.

    There has also been a vigorous debate over South Korea’s future energy policy. Kim favours expanding nuclear energy production to around 60% of the country’s energy mix. Lee has voiced safety concerns about nuclear power, arguing “the era of building more reactors should come to an end”.

    Additionally, questions remain over potential constitutional reform to end South Korea’s so-called “imperial presidency” system, which has been blamed for centralising too much power in the hands of the president.

    The system dates back to the rewriting of the constitution following mass protests in 1987. This established direct presidential elections and a single, five-year term.

    Both Lee and Kim support changing this to a four-year, two-term presidential system, similar to the United States.

    Big challenges lie ahead

    On the international stage, the new leader will face an uphill battle negotiating with US President Donald Trump over his punitive tariffs. Trump imposed 25% tariffs on South Korean goods in April, but lowered them temporarily to 10% until early July.

    Before his impeachment, Yoon was widely reported to be practising his golf skills to attempt to find common ground with Trump, much as former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe did.

    The new leader will also face massive challenges bringing South Korean society together in the current climate. Political polarisation and the spread of disinformation worsened under Yoon’s presidency – and these trends will be hard to reverse.

    Alexander M. Hynd does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. After a chaotic 6 months, South Koreans will elect a new president – and hope for bold leadership – https://theconversation.com/after-a-chaotic-6-months-south-koreans-will-elect-a-new-president-and-hope-for-bold-leadership-257348

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Politics with Michelle Grattan: Zoe McKenzie on everything that went wrong and whether a gender quota could help the Liberals

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra

    The Liberals, still reeling from their crushing 2025 election defeat and following with brief split in the Coalition, have a new frontbench and their eyes turning to the long road of rebuilding.

    New leader Sussan Ley stresses the importance of the Liberals “meeting people where they are” and the party represents modern Australia.

    But what that will actually look like for the party is still an open question. To talk about this uncertain future we’re joined by the newly-minted Shadow Assistant Minister for Education, Early Learning and Mental Health, Zoe McKenzie.

    McKenzie was elected to the Melbourne electorate of Flinders in 2022. Her seat encompasses the Mornington Peninsula, mixing urban and rural areas. At the May election she held off a Climate 200-funded teal challenger.

    On the Liberal Party’s commitment to net-zero by 2050 – which is likely to come up for debate this term – McKenzie says she thinks net-zero is “a given”.

    It’s where the markets are heading. It’s our responsibility as a developed economy to contribute to the decarbonisation of the planet. I went to COP-27 a few years back, and you can see that the world’s markets, investment markets, research and development markets have all moved into preparing for a net-zero environment and Australia will be part of that. I do think, though, people are right to say, please don’t take away our manufacturing base.

    I am confident that net zero is here to stay. But you cannot disconnect it from what it says about the energy market, energy security, and the future of Australian industry. We’ve got to keep this as an investment rich country.

    On the party’s issues with the women’s vote, while McKenzie says the Liberals should look at “all options” she still has some concerns with the idea of quota’s,

    I am reluctantly coming to the conclusion that we must look at all options. I am fearful for what happens if a woman is selected by the operation of a quota and whether she will feel she has deserved her place there and or whether it will be asserted that she only got there because of a quota.

    Asked if Labor’s introduction of quotas is proof they can work, McKenzie says,

    Labor sacrificed a generation of talented Labor men to get to 50-50.

    That sacrificed generation coincided with our many years of successful leadership of this nation. They are now though, because of that decision and because of the sacrifice that was made, and because of the way they went about it, they are in the enviable position of attracting talented, capable women for election, routinely, for each and every seat.

    The Liberal Party, it tends, by its very nature, to preference people who have been able to devote a significant amount of time, often while in your 20s or 30s, to both party and community events. […] It will favour men. It will favour women who don’t have their own biological children, or it will favour women who can afford high quality in-home help. So we are not getting the breadth of women we need presenting for pre-selection and we are going to have to think out of the box.

    On the rise of the teals, McKenzie’s looks to global examples to explain why two-party systems are changing,

    I’m not sure yet whether teal is here to stay but what I do know is that we have moved well beyond the paradigm when I was a kid, which is when it was a 40-40-20 voting bloc. We all fought over that 20 in the middle. It now looks like the 30-30-40 pattern is here to stay.

    That’s a message for all of us, in fact, to do better. So I should say, though, this is not unique to Australia. The demise of the two-party system can be observed worldwide.

    If you look at the United States, the Republicans and the Democrats remain, but some would say they remain in name only. They have both morphed significantly as political movements. The Labour and Tory parties in the UK have both evolved over time.

    On the Liberal’s lack of appeal to younger Australians McKenzie highlights what went wrong and why the party must do better with those voters,

    We hadn’t explained to them the basics of home ownership, let alone what a tax deduction on your interest payments on your first mortgage might look and feel like. If you’re 18, 19, 20, your first mortgage still feels 10 to 15 years away.

    We didn’t do enough, I think, to talk about their lives, to understand their lives and their aspirations and how Liberal policy was going to make their life easier. We must do a better job of that […] because the average voter now is either Gen Z or a millennial, no longer Gen X, which is my generation, or boomers above.

    Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Politics with Michelle Grattan: Zoe McKenzie on everything that went wrong and whether a gender quota could help the Liberals – https://theconversation.com/politics-with-michelle-grattan-zoe-mckenzie-on-everything-that-went-wrong-and-whether-a-gender-quota-could-help-the-liberals-257729

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Sexual health info online is crucial for teens. Australia’s new tech codes may threaten their access

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Giselle Woodley, Lecturer and Research Fellow, Edith Cowan University

    CarlosDavid / Getty

    Last week, organisations from Australia’s online industries submitted a final draft of new industry codes aimed at protecting children from “age-inappropriate content” to the eSafety commissioner.

    The commissioner will now decide if the codes are appropriate to be implemented under the Online Safety Act.

    The codes aim to address young people’s access to pornography, high-impact violence, and material relating to self-harm, suicide and disordered eating.

    However, the draft codes may have unintended consequences. There is a real risk they may further restrict access to materials about sex education, sexual health information, harm reduction and health promotion.

    Social media can operate as a powerful medium to teach teens and young people sexual information.

    Social media campaigns (some government funded) target rising rates of sexual violence. They also disseminate important sexual health information.

    What are the industry codes?

    The eSafety commissioner is in the process of introducing codes of practice for the online industry “to protect Australians from illegal and restricted online content”. The Phase 1 codes, aimed at illegal content such as child sexual exploitation material, came into effect last year.

    Now the commissioner is looking at Phase 2. These are designed to prevent young people from accessing “inappropriate” but not illegal content. They will do this via age-assurance mechanisms and by filtering, de-prioritising, downranking and suppressing content.

    The codes will apply to operating systems, various internet services, search engines and hardware, such as smartphones and tablets.

    Tech companies will have more power (and responsibility) to remove content and suspend users. Companies that don’t follow the codes risk fines of up to US$49.5 million (around A$77 million).

    Suppression of sexual health content

    The idea of using technology to restrict online content by age is problematic. The Australian government itself has deemed that age-assurance technologies are not ready to be used. State-of-the-art software has shown racial and gendered bias.

    And digital platforms have a poor track record of governing sexual media.

    International human rights organisations, including the United Nations, have warned that automated content moderation is being used to censor sex education and consensual sexual expression.

    Research shows many platforms tend to remove or suppress content about drag queens, trans rights, sexual racism, body positivity and sex worker safety.

    At the same time, they allow health misinformation and hate speech directed at LGBTQ+ people.

    Sexual health organisations and educators already face challenges using social media to communicate with key audiences, including LGBTQ+ communities. These include having their content made less visible (“shadowbanning”) or outright removed.

    Unintended consequences

    Content moderation policies are already very restrictive. To enforce them, platforms use nudity and pornography detection software that is often biased toward heteronormative standards.

    For example, Google’s computer vision software has previously relied on word databases that link “bisexuality” with “pornography”, “sodomy” with “bestiality”, and “masturbation” with “self-abuse”.

    Many users currently use “algospeak”. This is language designed to avoid the notice of the algorithms that may flag content as inappropriate, often involving tweaks such as using emojis or “seggs” or “s&x” instead of “sex”.

    The government recognises the power of social media. It has committed more than A$100 million towards Our Watch (a leading organisation advocating against violence against women) and its teen-focused social media initiative The Line.

    Another A$3.5 million has gone to the Teach Us Consent organisation. This group creates social media content for teens and young people about consent, healthy relationships, pornography and sex.

    Like the looming youth social media ban, the proposed industry codes may undermine the government’s own efforts to reduce gender-based violence.

    Sex education and health promotion

    Social media platforms try to separate health information from general sexual content. For example, they may aim to allow nudity in cases like childbirth, breastfeeding, medical care or protests.

    However, evidence suggests these exceptions are currently almost impossible to moderate accurately. They rely on a distinction between sex education and sexual media that is blurry at best.

    In reality, sexuality education is not simply technical information about infections, sexual dysfunction or medical care. Sexual imagery plays an important role in sexual health promotion. Young people respond well to visual methods of communication and learning.

    Likewise, the importance of pleasure has been long recognised in HIV prevention, safer sex and violence prevention efforts. Industry codes should recognise sexual media as a potential medium for conducting sex education and promoting sexual and reproductive rights.

    Governments in many countries are moving to restrict sexual information and health services. This includes efforts to criminalise abortion, limit access to trans health care and prevent comprehensive sex education.

    In this context, access to online health promotion and sex education content is even more vital.

    Ensuring access to sexual health material

    The industry codes are intended to protect. However, they risk endangering the ability of Australians to access essential information.

    This is especially important for the many young people who do not have access to comprehensive sexuality and reproductive health information at home or school.

    To uphold sexual rights to information, privacy and expression, the codes must shift away from simply giving platforms an incentive to detect and suppress all sexual content.

    Instead, the codes should ensure non-discriminatory access and require platforms to promote material that supports sexual health, rights and justice. In practice, this necessitates careful consideration of content in context.

    This task might seem time consuming, resource heavy and difficult for regulators and platforms alike. But the implications of content suppression are too dire to overlook.

    In our view, the codes should be paused until they are able to balance protection with rights to information.

    Giselle Woodley has previously received funding from the Australian Research Council via Discovery Project DP190102435 ‘Adolescents’ perceptions of harm from accessing online sexual content’ and the ARC’s Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child. She currently receives funding under Discovery Project ID: DP250102379: Teen-informed strategies to counter sexual image abuse and sextortion. She is a co-founder of Bloom-Ed, a Relationships and Sexuality Education advocacy group, whose views are not expressed here. Giselle would like to thank Dr Elena Jeffreys and Professor Paul Haskell-Dowland for their contributions to this article.

    Kath Albury receives funding from the Australian Research Council Future Fellowship scheme, the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making + Society; and FORTE, the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare. She has previously received funding from the Office of the eSafety Commissioner. She is a current member of pro-bono advisory groups for ASHM, Scarlet Alliance and UNESCO.

    Zahra Stardust has previously received funding from the QUT Digital Media Research Centre (for a project on Rainbow Capitalism, Pinkwashing and Targeted Advertising); FORTE, the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare (for a project on LGBTQ Digital Sexual Health); from Google Asia Pacific (for a project on AI-related Image-Based Abuse); and from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making + Society (for projects on Alternative Sexual Content Moderation, Sexual Surveillance and the Political Economy of Sextech). She previously worked as a policy advisor for ACON (NSW’s leading HIV and LGBTI health organisation) and Scarlet Alliance, Australian Sex Workers Association.

    – ref. Sexual health info online is crucial for teens. Australia’s new tech codes may threaten their access – https://theconversation.com/sexual-health-info-online-is-crucial-for-teens-australias-new-tech-codes-may-threaten-their-access-257645

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Global: RFK Jr. says annual COVID-19 shots no longer advised for healthy children and pregnant women – a public health expert explains the new guidance

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Libby Richards, Professor of Nursing, Purdue University

    Until now, the CDC has recommended that everyone ages 6 months and older get a yearly COVID-19 vaccine. Asiaselects via Getty Images

    On May 27, 2025, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will no longer include the COVID-19 vaccine on the list of immunizations it recommends for healthy children and pregnant women.

    The announcement, made in a video posted on the social platform X, comes on the heels of another announcement, made on May 20, in which the Food and Drug Administration revealed that it will approve new versions of the vaccine only for adults 65 years of age and older and for people with one or more risk factors for severe COVID-19 outcomes. The agency will require vaccine manufacturers to conduct clinical trials to demonstrate that the vaccine benefits low-risk groups.

    The Conversation U.S. asked Libby Richards, a nursing professor from Purdue University involved in public health promotion, to explain what these announcements mean for the general public.

    Why are HHS and FDA diverging from past practice?

    Currently, getting a yearly COVID-19 vaccine is recommended for everyone ages 6 months and older, regardless of their health risk.

    In the video announcing the plan to remove the vaccine from the CDC’s recommended immunization schedule for healthy children and healthy pregnant women, Kennedy spoke alongside National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya and FDA Commissioner Marty Makary. The trio cited a lack of evidence to support vaccinating healthy children. They did not explain the reason for the change to the vaccine schedule for pregnant people, who have previously been considered at high-risk for severe COVID-19.

    Similarly, in the FDA announcement made a week prior, Makary and the agency’s head of vaccines, Vinay Prasad, said that public health trends now support limiting vaccines to people at high risk of serious illness instead of a universal COVID-19 vaccination strategy.

    Was this a controversial decision or a clear consensus?

    Many public health experts and professional health care associations have raised concerns about Kennedy’s latest announcement, saying it contradicts studies showing that COVID-19 vaccination benefits pregnant people and children. The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, considered the premier professional organization for that medical specialty, reinforced the importance of COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy, especially to protect infants after birth. Likewise, the American Academy of Pediatrics pointed to the data on hospitalizations of children with COVID-19 during the 2024-to-2025 respiratory virus season as evidence for the importance of vaccination.

    Kennedy’s announcement on children and pregnant women comes roughly a month ahead of a planned meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a panel of vaccine experts that offers guidance to the CDC on vaccine policy. The meeting was set to review guidance for the 2025-to-2026 COVID-19 vaccines. It’s not typical for the CDC to alter its recommendations without input from the committee.

    Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has removed COVID-19 vaccines from the vaccine schedule for healthy children and pregnant people.

    FDA officials Makary and Prasad also strayed from past established vaccine regulatory processes in announcing the FDA’s new stance on recommendations for healthy people under age 65. Usually, the FDA broadly approves a vaccine based on whether it is safe and effective, and decisions on who should be eligible to receive it are left to the CDC, which bases its decision on the advisory committee’s research-based guidance.

    The advisory committee was expected to recommend a risk-based approach for the COVID-19 vaccine, but it was also expected to recommend allowing low-risk people to get annual COVID-19 vaccines if they want to. The CDC’s and FDA’s new policies on the vaccine will likely make it difficult for healthy people to get the vaccine.

    What conditions count as risk factors?

    The CDC lists several medical conditions and other factors that increase peoples’ risk for severe COVID-19. These conditions include cancer, diabetes, heart disease, obesity, chronic kidney disease and some lung conditions like COPD and asthma. Pregnancy is also on the list.

    The article authored by Makary and Prasad describing the FDA’s new stance on the vaccine also contain a lengthy list of risk factors and notes that about 100 million to 200 million people will fall into this category and will thus be eligible to get the vaccine. Pregnancy is included. Reversing the recommendation for vaccinating healthy pregnant women thus contradicts the new framework described by the FDA.

    Studies have documented that COVID-19 vaccines are safe during pregnancy and may reduce the risk of stillbirth. A study published in May 2025 using data from 26,783 pregnancies found a link between COVID-19 infection before and during pregnancy and an increased risk for spontaneous abortions.

    Importantly, a 2024 analysis of 120 studies including a total of 168,444 pregnant women with COVID-19 infections did not find enough evidence to suggest the infections are a direct cause of early pregnancy loss. Nonetheless, the authors did state that COVID-19 vaccination remains a crucial preventive measure for pregnant women to reduce the overall risk of serious complications in pregnancy due to infection.

    Immune changes during pregnancy increase the risk of severe illness from respiratory viruses. Vaccination during pregnancy also provides protection to the fetus that lasts into the first few months of life and is associated with a lower risk of COVID-19 related hospitalization among infants.

    Change is coming to COVID-19 vaccine policy.
    Rick Obst, CC BY-SA

    The changes to the CDC’s and the FDA’s plan for COVID-19 vaccines also leave out an important group – caregivers and household members of people at high risk of severe illness from infection. This omission leaves high-risk people more vulnerable to exposure to COVID-19 from healthy people they regularly interact with. Multiple countries with risk-based vaccination policies do include this group.

    What about vaccines for children?

    High-risk children age 6 months and older who have conditions that increase the risk of severe COVID-19 are still eligible for the vaccine. Existing vaccines already on the market will remain available, but it is unclear how long they will stay authorized and how the change in vaccine policy will affect childhood vaccination overall.

    To date, millions of children have safely received the COVID-19 vaccine. Data on whether children benefit from annual COVD-19 vaccines is less clear. Parents and clinicians make vaccination decisions by weighing potential risks with potential benefits.

    Will low-risk people be able to get a COVID-19 shot?

    Not automatically. Kennedy’s announcement does not broadly address healthy adults, but under the new FDA framework, healthy adults who wish to receive the fall COVID-19 vaccine will likely face obstacles. Health care providers can administer vaccines “off-label”, but insurance coverage is widely based on FDA recommendations. The new, narrower FDA approval will likely reduce both access to COVID-19 vaccines for the general public and insurance coverage for COVID-19 vaccines.

    Under the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance providers are required to fully cover the cost of any vaccine endorsed by the CDC. Kennedy’s announcement will likely limit insurance coverage for COVID-19 vaccination.

    Overall, the move to focus on individual risks and benefits may overlook broader public health benefits. Communities with higher vaccination rates have fewer opportunities to spread the virus.

    This is an updated version of an article originally published on May 22, 2025.

    Libby Richards has received funding from the American Nurses Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute.

    – ref. RFK Jr. says annual COVID-19 shots no longer advised for healthy children and pregnant women – a public health expert explains the new guidance – https://theconversation.com/rfk-jr-says-annual-covid-19-shots-no-longer-advised-for-healthy-children-and-pregnant-women-a-public-health-expert-explains-the-new-guidance-257705

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-Evening Report: From working class pubs to sold-out stadiums: how darts has become a major international sport

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joshua McLeod, Senior Lecturer in Sport Management, Deakin University

    Few sports have witnessed a transformation as dramatic as darts in recent years.

    From its origins as a pub game stereotypically played with cigarette and beer in hand, darts is now serious business.

    With surging television ratings and huge demand for live events, the growth of darts continues to leave many sports looking on in envy.

    There has been a combination of factors at play – not least one exceptionally prodigious teenager. Before discussing those factors, it’s worth taking a closer look at the numbers.

    Becoming big business

    Darts sits alongside a select few sports to have achieved significant commercial growth over the past decade.

    While not at the scale of sports such as the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and Formula 1, the rise of darts has been prolific.

    In the United Kingdom, a record-breaking peak of 3.7 million viewers watched the 2024 Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) World Championship final. It was Sky Sports’ highest-ever non-soccer broadcast.

    In addition to the PDC World Championship – the sport’s premier knockout event – viewership records were also broken across the 2024 Premier League Darts season, a league-format competition featuring weekly fixtures between top-ranked players.

    On the UK’s Sky Sports, the 15 most-watched nights in the competition’s history all occurred that year.

    The PDC World Championship and Premier League Darts sit alongside the World Matchplay as the “Triple Crown” of most important darts events.

    Outside the UK, darts viewership also continues to grow.

    The Netherlands remains a strong and expanding heartland, while in Germany, viewership for the World Championship final has increased eightfold since 2008.

    In Australia, precise viewing figures are not widely available, but the Foxtel Group’s landmark four-year deal with the PDC in 2023 suggests rising demand.

    Surging audiences are translating into significantly larger broadcast deals.

    In 2025, Sky Sports reportedly outbid Netflix to secure a new £125 million (A$260.3 million) deal for exclusive UK coverage of the PDC for 2026–30. That was double the size of the previous deal.

    In contrast, many other sports face stagnation or even sharp declines in media rights value.

    For instance, the UK Super League rugby’s rights on Sky Sports fell from £40 million (A$83.3 million) per season in 2021 to £21.5 million (A$44.5 million) in 2024.

    Similarly, in soccer, the French Ligue 1’s TV deal with DAZN collapsed due to underwhelming subscriber numbers. Meanwhile, ESPN walked away from its long-standing agreement with Major League Baseball after unsuccessfully trying to cut its US$550 million (A$848 million) annual payment down to $200 million (A$309 million).

    Prize money in darts has also exploded.

    Next year, the winner of the two-week long World Championship will bank £1 million (A$2.08 million) – doubling this year’s purse.

    The prize money was £60,000 (A$124,960) in 2005, representing a 1,567% increase over 20 years.

    Tickets are also hot property. Premier League and World Championship sessions often sell out within minutes worldwide: the UK, Bahrain, New York and even Wollongong have become key stops in darts’ international calendar.

    The recipe for success

    Like Formula 1 and the UFC, darts benefits from being privately operated.

    Without the typical bureaucracy and conflicting interests seen in many traditional sport governing bodies, the PDC can respond more quickly to audience preferences and market opportunities.

    This streamlined, commercially driven approach has been key to darts’ growth.

    The sport has been expertly tailored to modern audiences.

    One of darts’ best-known selling points is the live event experience. The entertainment-first approach is known for loud music, the showmanship of player walk-ons, fancy dress from the crowd and yes, often plenty of alcohol.

    The lines are blurred between sport and party and fans love it.

    Culturally, darts is seen by many as fun, relatable, and rooted in working-class culture. After all, its heritage is in the pub.

    Darts is ideally suited to modern sport media consumption habits: PLD matches last only 20–30 minutes and the up-close TV product works perfectly for social media highlight clips.

    It is also one of the few sports where women compete directly against men.

    This adds another layer of interest for fans and has helped elevate stars such as Fallon Sherrock, who made headlines in 2019 by becoming the first woman to win a match at the PDC World Championship, eventually reaching the final 32.

    A prodigy emerges

    The so-called “Littler Effect” has given darts’ profile a significant boost.

    The emergence of talented teenager Luke Littler has broken new ground for the sport and drawn global interest.

    The English prodigy, who has quickly risen to fame, is by far the sport’s biggest star, but it would be unfair to say darts is a one-man band.

    Luke Humphries and Michael van Gerwen enjoy significant profiles while Phil Taylor is regarded as the sport’s greatest player. Australia’s Simon “The Wizard” Whitlock also forged a successful career.

    There is also colourful two-time world champion Peter Wright.

    Where to from here?

    The success of darts reveals much about modern sports audiences and their preferences.

    Darts does not rely on traditional ideas of athletic excellence, nor does it fit the Olympic ideal.

    Yet, darts is thriving while many traditional sports are stagnating.

    Darts’ success stems from remaining authentic to its working-class roots while evolving into an engaging commercial product suited for television, short-form content and digital media.

    For darts to fully achieve its global potential, the next step has to be continued international growth. Although it has grown steadily in markets like Australia and throughout Asia, the UK remains darts’ dominant base.

    As the global sports marketplace becomes more fragmented and competitive, darts is well positioned to continue growing.

    The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. From working class pubs to sold-out stadiums: how darts has become a major international sport – https://theconversation.com/from-working-class-pubs-to-sold-out-stadiums-how-darts-has-become-a-major-international-sport-254807

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Sudden arrivals: NZ ambulance crews describe what it’s like when babies are born out of the blue

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vinuli Withanarachchie, PhD candidate, College of Health, Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa – Massey University

    WOWstockfootage/Getty Images

    It doesn’t happen very often, but every now and then expectant mothers don’t quite make it to the delivery suite on time – requiring specialised care from emergency medical services (EMS).

    This can happen when babies come early, when the mother-to-be is in denial, or when they simply don’t know they are pregnant. These out-of-hospital births can increase the risks for both mother and child.

    While there haven’t been any New Zealand-specific studies, data from Norway and Ireland show infant mortality rates are two to three times higher for unplanned out-of-hospital births compared to those in medical facilities.

    In 2024, Hato Hone St John, Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest ambulance service, responded to 2,745 obstetric emergencies. This accounted for 0.9% of all ambulance patients – similar to comparable countries such as Australia and the United States.

    In our new research, we surveyed Hato Hone St John ambulance personnel to better understand their experiences attending unplanned out-of-hospital births. Although such events are rare, personnel must be prepared to provide care for mothers and newborns during any clinical shift.

    The 147 responses we received highlighted the need for ongoing and targeted training for staff as they balance supporting the safe arrival of a newborn with patient and whānau-centered care.

    Navigating the unknown

    EMS personnel reported being dispatched for reports of abdominal or back pain in female patients, only to encounter an unanticipated imminent birth upon arrival.

    In many of these cases, patients were unaware of their pregnancies and had received no prior antenatal care. This left EMS personnel to lead labour and birth care without crucial information about gestational age or potential complications. As one paramedic explained:

    The call was for non-traumatic back pain. The patient had a cryptic pregnancy and was not aware she was pregnant until I informed her that she was in labour. I was the senior clinician in attendance, we were 25 minutes to a maternity unit that didn’t have surgical facilities and a [neonatal unit].

    In some situations, EMS personnel attended teenage patients who were in denial of their pregnancies or fearful it would be discovered by their families.

    Attending to the mother’s emotional needs, respecting her dignity and navigating family dynamics compounded existing challenges to providing care. Another paramedic explained:

    Attended an 18-year-old that did not know or was in denial that she was pregnant. She had the baby on her own in the bathroom. The parents came home during the birth, and she was too scared to tell them and kept the baby quiet by nursing her. She called an ambulance from the bathroom and told them she didn’t want the parents to know.

    Unplanned out-of-hospital birts can test the skills of ambulance staff.
    hedgehog94/Shutterstock

    Practical challenges

    Complex births, medical emergencies and limited specialised neonatal equipment required EMS to improvise in such cases. While some focused on skin-to-skin contact between mother and baby, others prepared makeshift blankets using things such as plastic clingfilm to keep their newborn patients warm. An intensive care paramedic said:

    I needed to “chew” through the cord with the scissors provided, which was frustrating given the patient was under CPR. Also, I wanted to keep the patient warm as the house was cold and it was winter, so I used the Gladwrap in the ambulance. The roll I had was a new one and very difficult to start up as it shredded. I ended up using the patient’s industrial size wrap with a plastic blade attached.

    The distance to a specialised newborn care facility, as well as rules around who could be transported and when, meant mothers and babies sometimes needed separate transport. This distressed mothers and added pressure to already stressful situations. One North Island-based paramedic explained:

    The baby was flown to [a tertiary hospital] – great for the baby but very distressing for mum as she had to be transported by road.

    Detailed accounts emerged of EMS providing labour and birth care in remote and poorer areas, such as homes with no electricity or heating, far away from hospital facilities and with no back up readily available. Another South Island-based paramedic said:

    It was 2 degrees outside and the front door was open. The house was cold, and the mother was standing in the bathroom with the [newborn] lying on the cold floor. I called for backup as the mother had a severe postpartum haemorrhage, and the [newborn] required resuscitation. I was not sent assistance and had to manage the mother and [newborn] by myself during a 15-minute drive to the birth suite at hospital.

    The stories shared by New Zealand ambulance personnel not only described their critical role in providing care during labour and birth, but also highlighted a gap in care for women not accessing routine antenatal and birth services.

    Training and support needed

    Studies from Norway, Australia, the US and the United Kingdom have previously highlighted the need for dedicated EMS training and equipment to support out-of-hospital births.

    Change is happening in New Zealand. Recent updates to Hato Hone St John guidelines, resources and training, including education on cultural considerations related to birth, aim to prepare EMS personnel for these unpredictable and high-risk scenarios.

    Ongoing training and education will be critical to support clinicians to confidently address birth emergencies while continuing to deliver patient and whānau-centered care.

    Vinuli Withanarachchie works for Hato Hone St John.

    Bridget Dicker is an employee of Hato Hone St John.

    Sarah Maessen works for Hato Hone St John.

    Verity Todd receives funding from the Heart Foundation NZ and Health Research Council NZ. She is affiliated with Hato Hone St John.

    – ref. Sudden arrivals: NZ ambulance crews describe what it’s like when babies are born out of the blue – https://theconversation.com/sudden-arrivals-nz-ambulance-crews-describe-what-its-like-when-babies-are-born-out-of-the-blue-255965

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Can your cat recognise you by scent? New study shows it’s likely

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julia Henning, PhD Candidate in Feline Behaviour, School of Animal and Veterinary Science, University of Adelaide

    Ever wonder if your cat could pick you out of a line up?

    New research suggests they could … but maybe not in the way you would expect.

    Previous research has found that only 54% of cats could recognise humans by their face alone.

    So how does your cat know it’s you?

    Studying the sniff

    A new study published today in PLOS One suggests your cat can recognise you by your smell. This feat has not been studied before and may reveal another layer of depth within cat-human bonds.

    Cats often get a bad rap for being aloof or uncaring about the people in their lives, but a growing number of studies are finding the opposite to be true. We now know that cats learn the names we give them, cats and their guardians form their own communication style, and most cats will pick human social interaction over food, a choice even dogs struggle with.

    And now, thanks to this most recent study, we know that cats can identify their people by smell, something they also rely on to identify their close feline social groups.

    The study, by Yutaro Miyairi and colleagues at Tokyo University of Agriculture, investigated the ability of 30 cats to differentiate between their guardian and an unknown person based on scent alone.

    Cats in the study were presented with a plastic tube containing swab samples from under the armpit, behind the ear and between the toes of either the cat’s guardian or of a human they had never met. As a control, cats were also presented with an empty plastic tube.

    The results?

    Cats in the study spent longer sniffing the scent of an unknown person compared to the scent of their guardian or the empty tube.

    A shorter sniffing time suggests that when cats came across the smell of their guardian, they recognised it quickly and moved along. But when they came to the swabs from an unknown person, the cat sniffed longer, using their superior sense of smell to gather information about the scent.

    Similar patterns have been observed previously, with kittens sniffing the odour of unknown female cats longer than the odour of their own mother, and adult cats sniffing the faeces of unfamiliar cats longer than those within their social group.

    The findings of this new study may indicate that we, too, are in our cats’ social circle.

    Cats do use their sense of smell to tell apart familiar and unfamiliar cats.
    Chris Boyer/Unsplash

    The brain and the nose

    The study also found a tendency for cats to sniff familiar scents with their left nostril, while unknown scents were more often sniffed using their right. But when cats became familiar with a scent after sniffing for a while, they switched nostrils from the right to the left.

    While this may sound like an odd finding, it’s a pattern that has also been observed in dogs. Current research suggests this nostril preference may indicate that cats process and classify new information using their right brain hemisphere, while the left hemisphere takes over when a routine response is established.

    Cats will sniff things with different nostrils depending on whether the information is familiar or not.
    Kevin Knezic/Unsplash

    Why scent?

    Cats rely on scent to gather information about the world around them and to communicate.

    Scent exchange (through cheek-to-cheek rubbing and grooming each other) is used as a way to recognise cats in the same social circle, maintain group cohesion, and identify unfamiliar cats or other animals that may pose a threat or need to be avoided.

    Familiar scents can also be comforting to cats, reducing stress and anxiety and creating a sense of security within their environment.

    When you come back from a holiday, if you notice your cat being distant and acting like you’re a total stranger, it might be because you smell like one. Try taking a shower using your usual home products and put on some of your regular home clothing. The familiar scents should help you and your cat settle back into your old dynamic sooner.

    And remember, if your cat spends a lot of time sniffing someone else, it’s not because they prefer them. It’s likely because your scent is familiar and requires less work. Instead of being new and interesting, it might do something even better: help your cat feel at home.

    Julia Henning does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Can your cat recognise you by scent? New study shows it’s likely – https://theconversation.com/can-your-cat-recognise-you-by-scent-new-study-shows-its-likely-257614

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Knife crime is common but difficult to investigate. Robots can help

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paola A. Magni, Associate Professor of Forensic Science, Murdoch University

    The following article contains material that some readers might find distressing.

    Around the world, knives are a popular weapon of choice among criminals. In Australia, for example, they are the most common weapon used in homicides. And in countries such as the United Kingdom and Canada, knife crime has recently been on the rise.

    As common as they are, stabbings are also difficult to investigate. Our new study, published this week in WIREs Forensic Science, presents the most comprehensive review to date of the methods used by forensic investigators for the reconstruction of knife crimes. It also highlights the limitations of these methods and introduces mechanical and robotic stabbing machines as a solution.

    These technologies could significantly enhance forensic science and criminal investigations in the pursuit of justice.

    An intensely personal act of violence

    Stabbing is an intensely personal act of violence, carefully planned or opportunistic. It reflects not just an intent to harm but also a direct, physical engagement with the victim.

    Stabbings are also typically associated with high levels of aggression and frenzied attacks. For example, Joel Cauchi fatally stabbed six people and injured ten more in just three minutes during an attack at a Sydney shopping centre on November 13, 2024.

    Forensic investigators will rely on a range of evidence to investigate a stabbing. For example, they will gather statements from any witnesses. But witnesses’ memory can be affected by issues such as shock, lighting conditions or their vantage point.

    Forensic investigators will also gather physical evidence left behind after a stabbing. This can include bloodstain patterns, sharp-force damage in wounds and clothing, and impression evidence. It can also include trace evidence such as DNA, fibres, soil, glass and pollen from the victims clothing or suspected weapon.

    This physical evidence is crucial for the next step of a criminal investigation: reconstructing a crime scene.

    Knife cuts from a blunt blade (left) and a sharp blade (right) in cotton fabric reveal distinct yarn and fibre patterns, which forensic experts analyse to help identify the weapon used.
    Stevie Ziogos

    A forensic puzzle

    Investigators reconstruct a crime scene to determine the type of weapon used, estimate whether the stabbing was intentional or not and how forceful it was. But many variables complicate the analysis.

    For example, the attacker’s (or attackers’) physical characteristics such as their size, strength or preferred hand, their familiarity and experience in handling knives can all influence the stabbing motion. So too can the characteristics of a knife.

    The victim’s build, positioning, area of impact, and even the number of clothing layers they have on can also affect how a blade enters the body. For example, stabbing with a kitchen knife and slashing with a machete leave vastly different injuries, just as a thick jacket can slow or deflect a blade.

    Reconstructing a stabbing is a forensic puzzle. It requires a combination of scientific analysis, investigative techniques and the collaborative effort of experts. Each specialist provides a comprehensive perspective on the victim, the weapon, the manner in which it was used, and the impact of the surrounding environment.

    An accurate simulated stabbing

    In many stabbing investigations, it is necessary to confirm evidence through simulation.

    Our new research focuses on the different ways stabbing simulations are conducted. It provides an overview of current methodologies used to reconstruct sharp-force events, especially considering the role of clothing in the reconstruction.

    A well-planned simulation must account for key variables affecting damage to the body and textiles. These factors fall into three categories:

    1. Pre-impact (garment type, weapon and assailant-victim characteristics)
    2. Impact (stabbing method, force and angle)
    3. Post-impact (body decomposition, manipulation, contamination and environmental effects).

    While adding more parameters can improve the realism of a simulation, it may also introduce complexity that reduces accuracy. Because of this, careful planning is pivotal.

    A mix of methods is best

    The choice of simulation method depends on available personnel, tools and funding. Approaches are typically categorised as manual or mechanical, with emerging research exploring the potential of robotic systems.

    Manual simulations rely on human effort to replicate stabbing motions. They remain widely used in forensic testing and provide valuable insights into wound characteristics, biomechanics, and protective materials. But they can be subjective, particularly in force estimation and motion consistency.

    Mechanical simulations address this issue by using devices for controlled, repeatable tests. While they reduce variability, they are often limited by restricted motion, force constraints, and a lack of standardisation in forensic protocols.

    Robotic simulations offer a promising alternative. They combine the adaptability of manual approaches with the precision and repeatability of mechanical systems.

    However, their forensic application is still being developed. They also face challenges such as cost, accessibility, professional expertise and the need for validation in real-world casework.

    Our research suggests that combining manual simulations with robotic and mechanical systems can enhance the accuracy and reliability of stabbing simulations. The manual approach can be used to train robotic systems that replicate human actions while ensuring consistent and controlled measurements.

    By adopting this combined approach, forensic science can bridge crucial gaps in crime scene reconstruction. In turn, this would improve the interpretation of stabbing incidents and the pursuit of justice.

    We acknowledge that the research discussed in this article was conducted in collaboration with Dr. Kari Pitts, ChemCentre.

    Alasdair Dempsey, Ian Dadour, and Stevie Ziogos do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Knife crime is common but difficult to investigate. Robots can help – https://theconversation.com/knife-crime-is-common-but-difficult-to-investigate-robots-can-help-248892

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Vladimir Putin’s bombing of Ukrainian civilians won’t end the war any faster. So, why is he doing it?

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Mark Edele, Hansen Professor in History and Deputy Dean, The University of Melbourne

    United States President Donald Trump was “not happy” with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, this week.

    For three consecutive nights, from Friday to Sunday, Russia launched about 900 drones and scores of missiles at Ukraine. At least 18 people were killed, including three children.

    “We’re in the middle of talking and he’s shooting rockets into Kyiv and other cities,” Trump told reporters on Sunday, after Putin ordered the largest air assault on Ukraine’s civilians in its three-year war.

    Following up on his remarks, Trump posted on social media that Putin had “gone absolutely CRAZY!”

    Putin is not crazy. He is a tactician with a long-term goal: to make Russia a great power again and secure his place in the history books as the re-builder of Russia’s imperial might.

    Trump announced after a phone call with Putin on May 19 that Russia and Ukraine would “immediately start negotiations” towards a ceasefire.

    With his latest air campaign on Ukraine, however, Putin is threatening to destroy the goodwill he’s built up in Washington, where Trump has been consistently soft on Russia and tough on his allies.

    So, what is Putin’s strategy? Why is he launching these massive air bombardments on Ukrainian civilians now?

    Putin sees weakness in the West

    One theory is these attacks are somehow preparations for a major offensive. That makes little sense.

    Attacking military facilities, weapons depots or even frontline troops are useful preparations for an impending attack. Indiscriminate bombing of civilians, meanwhile, is a sign of either desperation or impatience.

    Britain and the US bombed German cities during the second world war because they had no alternatives until they built up enough capacity to transport land forces across the sea to invade the continent.

    The US also sent bombers to Japan in the final stages of the war because the American public became tired of seeing their sons, husbands, brothers and fathers die on Pacific islands they had never heard of. The war had dragged on forever by this point, and there seemed no end in sight.

    Is Putin desperate or impatient? Likely the latter.

    From the perspective of the Kremlin, Russia’s strategic situation is as good as it has been for years.

    The US is trying to destroy itself through trade wars and boorish diplomacy. Trump clearly dislikes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and hopes the war will somehow end if he just demands it.

    Europe is continuing to back Ukraine. However, for the time being, it still needs US support because its entire security structure is built around NATO and US strength, both economic and military.

    What Putin sees when he surveys the international scene is weakness. In his thinking, such weakness needs to be exploited – now is the time to hurt Ukraine as much as possible, and hope it will crack. Analysts call this a “cognitive warfare effort”.

    Indiscriminate air war on civilians is the only means Putin currently has to pressure Ukraine. His army has been advancing, but painfully slowly. There is no breakthrough in sight, even once the spring muds dry and the summer fighting season starts in earnest.

    Russia has gradually advanced in Ukraine throughout 2024, but with no perceivable change in the overall situation. Putin does not command precision weapons or super spies, which he could use to take out Ukraine’s leadership.

    All he can do is rain death on women, children and the elderly from relatively cheap, unsophisticated weapons, such as drones. He now has these in large supply, thanks to ramping up military production at home.

    Bombing campaigns do not end wars

    A strategic air war on civilians seldom works, however.

    Japan’s surrender in 1945 is an exception, but it is misleading in many ways. The Americans had flattened Japan’s cities for a while already, just not using their new atomic weapons. Japan had already lost the war and the real question was if there would be a bloody US invasion or surrender.

    And as the US dropped its two nuclear bombs in August of that year, the Red Army joined the fight, racing across Manchuria to help occupy Japanese territories.

    In Germany, the British-American bombings from 1942 onwards certainly had an effect on war production, as they killed workers and destroyed factories. But they did not incapacitate the German army and certainly did not break morale.

    Instead, the bombings led to embitterment and a closing of ranks around the regime. German society fought to the last moment. It did so not just despite, but because of the air war. The German army was eventually defeated by the ground troops of the Red Army, who took Berlin in an incredibly bloody fight.

    Other historical failures are even more spectacular. The US air force dropped 864,000 tons of bombs on North Vietnam during an air campaign of more than 300,000 sorties lasting from 1965 to late 1968. The North Vietnamese lost maybe 29,000 people (dead and wounded), more than half of them civilians. The Americans and their South Vietnamese allies still lost the war.

    Putin’s air war will likely follow the historical pattern: it has further embittered the Ukrainians, who know very well that what comes from the east is not liberation.

    Another summer of fighting lies ahead. Ukraine’s friends in the democratic world need to urgently redouble their efforts to support Ukraine. The misguided hopes that Putin would somehow “make a deal” lie under the rubble his drones leave behind in Ukraine’s cities.

    Mark Edele receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

    – ref. Vladimir Putin’s bombing of Ukrainian civilians won’t end the war any faster. So, why is he doing it? – https://theconversation.com/vladimir-putins-bombing-of-ukrainian-civilians-wont-end-the-war-any-faster-so-why-is-he-doing-it-257630

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Behind the wellness industry’s scented oils and soothing music are often underpaid, exploited workers

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rawan Nimri, Lecturer in Tourism and Hospitality, Griffith University

    Prostock Studio/Shutterstock

    Wellness tourism is booming. Think yoga retreats in Bali, digital detox weekends in a rainforest, or a break on a luxury island to “find yourself”.

    It’s no longer just about taking selfies at the beach or in front of Instagrammable landmarks. Travellers today want to invest in activities aimed at improving their mental, spiritual and physical wellbeing. And, they’re willing to pay for these experiences.

    Global spending on wellness tourism is projected to hit US$8.5 trillion by 2027. Rather than being a passing fad, spending in this sector is forecast to nearly triple by 2035. This is big business.

    The Wellness Tourism Association says 90% of travellers report wellness activities are an essential part of their travel itineraries.

    Behind the luxe retreat

    But, while holidaymakers pursue their zen, the workforce is largely overlooked. The massage therapists, spa staff, yoga instructors and retreat hosts – often women, migrants and workers from the Global South – frequently experience substandard, undignified working conditions.

    Our new report, In Decent or Dirty Work?, examines an often overlooked part of the wellness industry. We propose a model to shift the industry from “dirty to decent” in line with the United Nations’ sustainable development goal eight supporting “decent work and economic growth”.

    The 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) were adopted by all UN member states in 2015. They support ending poverty and other deprivations as part of improving health and education, reducing inequality and encouraging economic growth – while tackling climate change and protecting the environment. These goals are designed to help businesses and governments develop sustainable and inclusive economies.

    Progress towards decent work in wellness tourism is undermined by workers in some cases facing low pay, insecure employment and poor working conditions.

    Wellness is often viewed as feminised work, rather than skilled or professional. Workers are expected to be calm, warm and nurturing, as well as emotionally available while juggling demanding workloads and unpredictable hours.

    Weak regulation

    Gaps in standards and regulation leave workers vulnerable. For example, Massage and Myotherapy Australia has raised concerns about exploitative contracting and loose employment arrangements. Without regulated certification, enforcement of fair contracts, and professional recognition, many workers experience underemployment or unsafe conditions.

    Wellness workers are often underpaid and sometimes treated with disrespect by clients.
    Shellygraphy/Shutterstock

    Research shows workers at some spas even describe their roles as feeling uncomfortably close to sex work, especially in settings where the boundaries are blurred and expectations can cross a moral line.

    The case of the Melbourne business penalised for underpaying migrant workers and reports of Asian massage therapists being asked regularly for “happy endings” reflect the devaluation and gendered risks for this workforce.

    Sociologists call this “dirty work” – jobs that are not physically messy but carry an emotional or moral burden. And while these roles are pivotal to customers’ experiences, the people doing them are often invisible. This makes it even harder to push for better training or fairer conditions.

    Proposed changes

    To improve the wellness industry’s sustainability and fairness, our research proposes three key changes.

    On an individual level, workers need to be empowered. Workers who have a connection with their job will gain personal fulfilment from helping clients with their health and relaxation. Satisfied workers means happier customers and superior work quality.

    However, workers should also receive external support to help improve job satisfaction.

    For example, management regularly reinforcing the value of staff to a business can enhance a worker’s sense of dignity. Additionally, protecting workers from such threats as immoral requests by customers, is key to cultivating the sense of a safe and dignified workplace.

    At the macro-level, policies, social structures and public perceptions shape how wellness work is valued. Without professional accreditation or recognition, these jobs will remain undervalued. Broader changes, like government reforms and public campaigns, would lift professional recognition and support dignity.

    Employees’ working conditions should be examined. Decent work – as per the UN sustainable development goals – means providing fair pay, safe environments, recognition and genuine opportunities for employees to develop and thrive at work.

    Also, investing in better training and standards benefits everyone, whether workers, businesses or customers.

    As Andrew Gibson, co-founder of the Wellness Tourism Association, said: “I don’t think wellness is a fad, but rather it’s a change in society, and what society now expects”.

    Leonie Lockstone-Binney receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

    Liz Simmons, Rawan Nimri, and Tom Baum do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Behind the wellness industry’s scented oils and soothing music are often underpaid, exploited workers – https://theconversation.com/behind-the-wellness-industrys-scented-oils-and-soothing-music-are-often-underpaid-exploited-workers-257455

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: PCOS affects 1 in 8 women worldwide, yet it’s often misunderstood. A name change might help

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Helena Teede, Director of Monash Centre for Health Research Implementation, Monash University

    LightField Studios/Shutterstock

    Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) affects one in eight women globally. However, this complex hormonal condition is under-researched and often misunderstood.

    This is partly due to its name, which overemphasises “cysts” and the ovaries. In fact, you can have PCOS without cysts.

    It can affect many parts of the body, not just the ovaries, leading to acne, excess body hair, changes in metabolism and even mental health issues.

    Our new research, published today, shows that changing the name would help better reflect the complexity of PCOS and improve awareness about this condition. We surveyed 7,700 health professionals and people with PCOS and found the majority supported a name change.

    What is PCOS?

    PCOS is a chronic condition caused by an imbalance of multiple hormones – the body’s chemical messengers – that circulate through the body.

    Genes and environment play a role. Lifestyle factors, such as diet (especially ultraprocessed foods) and activity, can also lead to weight gain and worsen its severity.

    In PCOS, the “cysts” are actually partially developed eggs that, due to underlying hormonal imbalance, remain dormant. This means they are less likely to be released (ovulation).

    Unlike conventional ovarian cysts, these dormant eggs will generally not grow larger, cause pain, require surgery or burst. Instead, they are slowly reabsorbed over time back into the ovary.

    Having dormant eggs in your ovaries is not, by itself, enough to be diagnosed with PCOS – and you can have PCOS without any dormant eggs.

    So, what’s needed to diagnose PCOS?

    For adults, a diagnosis requires two of three features:

    1) irregular periods (due to limited ovulation)

    2) high levels of certain hormones (androgens), such as testosterone, which is evident either in blood tests or symptoms (excess facial and body hair, acne, and thinning/balding scalp)

    3) excess dormant eggs detected either on an ultrasound or ovarian hormone blood test

    In adolescents, only the first two criteria are needed for a diagnosis. Ovary tests (ultrasound or blood tests) are not recommended until after age 20, as changes in the ovaries are common during normal adolescent development.

    However, these criteria focus heavily on the ovaries and menstrual cycles, neglecting the condition’s broader impacts.

    Widespread health effects

    In fact, hormonal imbalances in PCOS affect multiple systems in the body. This can include:

    metabolism – higher blood pressure and cholesterol, and greater risk of heart disease and diabetes.

    reproductive system – irregular menstrual cycles, reduced fertility and pregnancy complications and increased endometrial cancer risk.

    skin – excess facial/body hair, acne, scalp hair thinning and dark skin patches.

    mental health – anxiety, depression, disordered eating and body image concerns.

    PCOS has also been linked to sleep apnoea (a sleep disorder involving irregular breathing, snoring and fatigue) and inflammatory conditions such as asthma.

    PCOS affects one in eight women globally.
    Brothers91/Getty

    Widespread confusion

    It’s not uncommon for women with PCOS to see two or three doctors and wait years for a diagnosis. Many types of doctors, including GPs and hormone, skin and fertility specialists, may be involved in care.

    Often, health-care providers focus on reproductive concerns, overlooking other health impacts.

    Common but problematic approaches include not informing women of the diagnosis, telling them not to “worry” about their PCOS until they wish to conceive, providing inadequate information or only addressing the problem in their speciality area, such as infertility.

    This fragmentation creates a troubling paradox. Some are told they’ll face infertility. Yet without proper education they may be unaware they can still occasionally ovulate and may experience unexpected pregnancies.

    Conversely, others planning for families often face unforeseen fertility difficulties that early comprehensive care – such as reproductive life planning, healthy lifestyle and early treatment – could have addressed.

    The case to change the name

    In our new study, we surveyed 3,462 health professionals and 4,246 people with PCOS across six continents.

    We wanted to find out what health-care professionals, doctors and those affected by the condition understood about PCOS, and whether understanding has improved over time.

    We also wanted to understand whether changing the name – for example, to include “endocrine” or “metabolic” – could have a positive impact, given frequent confusion and misdiagnosis.

    Support for a name change was widespread: 86% of women with PCOS and 76% of health professionals said renaming PCOS would better reflect the condition, reduce confusion and likely lead to better outcomes.

    We are now leading an international process to find a consensus on a new name and formally change it in the International Classification of Diseases. This involves engaging widely with health professionals and people with PCOS.

    By reframing PCOS beyond a purely reproductive disorder, a name change can support
    broader research funding, education and advocacy. It may lead to better recognition and improved diagnosis, care and outcomes for people with PCOS.

    Combating misinformation with evidence

    Accurate information is critical for proper PCOS management. Yet misinformation about the condition – for example, that PCOS can be cured through diet or exacerbated by the oral contraceptive pill – is rife on social media.

    We have also co-designed and developed evidence-based guidelines and free resources for people with PCOS to find out more about the condition, including the free “Ask PCOS” app.

    Renaming PCOS is another key step in improving knowledge about this understudied condition – and care for the 170 million women affected worldwide.

    Helena Teede receives funding from the Australian Government and the NHMRC

    Chau Thien Tay (Jillian) receives funding from NHMRC supported Centre for Research Excellence in Women’s Health in Reproductive Life. She is affiliated with Endocrine Society of Australia.

    Lorna is employed by MCHRI Monash Uni as consumer lead for women with PCOS.

    – ref. PCOS affects 1 in 8 women worldwide, yet it’s often misunderstood. A name change might help – https://theconversation.com/pcos-affects-1-in-8-women-worldwide-yet-its-often-misunderstood-a-name-change-might-help-256872

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: The body as landscape: how post-war Japanese dance and theatre shaped performance in Australia

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan W. Marshall, Associate Professor & Postgraduate Research Coordinator, Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, Edith Cowan University

    “Tamaokoshi (たまおこし-) – Evocation” (2013) by Yumi Umiumare. Performers: Umiumare, Felix Ching Ching Ho, Fina
    Po, Helen Smith, Willow Conway, Sevastian Peters-Lazaro, Takashi Takiguchi.     Photo by Vikk Shayen, reproduced courtesy of Umiumare and Shayen.

    Post-war Japan was home to exciting new theatrical forms. These included the often grotesque and contorted, but at times flowing, dance style “butoh”, created by dancer/choreographer Hijikata Tatsumi – and the intensely focused, sometimes militaristic, sometimes dreamy theatre of Suzuki Tadashi.

    Both Hijikata’s and Suzuki’s work attracted followers in Australia, and continue to have influence today. They often exchanged ideas, and several of Hijikata’s former dancers performed in Suzuki’s productions.

    Here’s a brief history of how these two helped bring Japanese performance to Australia – and how local artists made it their own.

    Suzuki’s training method

    Visits by Japanese performing artists to Australia increased during the 1990s, with Melbourne’s Playbox Theatre commissioning Suzuki Tadashi to direct an Australian cast in The Chronicle of Macbeth (1992). But even before he came here, several Australians visited his training institution in the Japanese mountains.

    Suzuki is best known for his training method, in which performers stomp up and down in a line, or swiftly move from one physical position to another.

    Suzuki claims this generates an actor who, even when standing still, is full of suppressed energy like a “Boeing 747, its brakes on and engines full-throttle just before take-off”.

    The performances themselves often have a dreamlike quality, similar to the Japanese noh theatre that inspired Suzuki.

    Tanaka brings butoh to Australia

    The first of Hijikata’s students to reach Australia was Japanese performer Tanaka Min. Tanaka appeared at the 1982 Sydney Biennale, showcasing his dance style of “Body Weather”.

    The Sydney Morning Herald described it as “the relationship between body and place […] improvisation and […] textures” – viewed as a shifting microclimate of impulses moving between the dancer’s body and their surroundings.

    Tanaka claimed Hijikata and his principal dancer Ashikawa Yoko taught him 1,000 embodied states that were prompted or described by poetic images or motifs. He passed these on to several Australian performers through his own training.

    Although similar to Hijikata’s approach, Tanaka’s focus on the body as an interactive landscape was unique to his version of butoh.

    Yumi Umiumare

    Japanese choreographer-director Maro Akaji had the greatest influence on Australian physical performance. His butoh company, Dairakudakan, appeared at the 1992 Melbourne Festival and left behind dancer Yumi Umiumare, who settled in the city. Dairakudakan established some of the key motifs recognisable in early Australian butoh.

    Maro’s Tale of the Sea-Dappled Horse (1991), opens with a group of almost-naked dancers in white makeup performing a grotesque group dance, coming together in a pulsating mass. As author Bruce Baird describes it, “on their hands and knees […] they convulse progressively energetically”.

    Umiumare’s Japanese heritage gives her the most direct link to butoh’s origins. After performing solos, duets and character roles, she developed what she calls “butoh cabaret”. This often surrealistically funny style is similar to Melbourne’s zanier comedy shows, as well as Dairakudakan’s own “grand seminarrative spectacles”.

    Umiumare says even her serious works in Melbourne were aimed at “audiences [who] really wanted a laugh”. In a 1995 cabaret skit, she parodied Madonna’s famous pointed cone bra costume. She pulled out accordian-style tubes placed over her breasts to render herself a phallic woman, before threatening and flirting with spectators.

    Umiumare continues to train and direct ensembles.

    Tess de Quincey

    Choreographer-dancer Tess de Quincey was the first non-Japanese, Australian-based artist to focus on Japanese physical theatre. She trained with Tanaka in Japan from 1985, before returning to performing in Sydney in 1988.

    De Quincey’s early Australian shows of 1988 and 1989 featured her naked body, all white like the Japanese butoh dancers, twisting and shifting in semi darkness.

    She later produced introspective multimedia works such as Nerve 9 (2001-05), structured around the slow unfolding of dissociated bodily gestures.

    Zen Zen Zo Physical Theatre

    Hijikata’s butoh style was further explored by the Brisbane-based Zen Zen Zo Physical Theatre, founded by performer/director/trainer Lynne Bradley and director/trainer Simon Woods. The pair also witnessed Suzuki’s training in Japan.

    Zen Zen Zo’s fusion of butoh, Suzuki’s method, and Jacques Lecoq’s approach to clowning culminated in the 1996 production The Cult of Dionysus, performed at the Brisbane Festival.

    Audiences described a “glamorously grotesque” chorus, attired in “ragged skirts of rich reds, oranges and pinks, and strings of beads across their […] bare torsos,” “smeared” with ochre.

    Although Zen Zen Zo’s work became increasingly varied during the 2000s, it still trains in Suzuki’s method.

    Frank Theatre

    Another pair dedicated to Suzuki’s theatre and training were former contemporary dancers Jacqui Carroll and John Nobbs. The pair founded Frank Theatre in Brisbane in 1992, drawing on many of the same performers as Zen Zen Zo.

    Nobbs rejected any dilution of Suzuki’s method, going on to develop what he characterises as an unsullied “regional variant”. Carroll and Nobbs also retained the often riotous grotesquerie and absurdism of Suzuki’s productions.

    Frank Theatre’s masterpiece was Carroll’s Doll Seventeen (2002), an adaptation of Ray Lawler’s Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (1955). Very similar to a Japanese noh play in its sense of inevitability, the characters intoned their words as though trapped in a slowly unfolding nightmare.

    Crisscrossing the Pacific

    Hijikata and Suzuki have also inspired performance-makers more distant from Japanese tradition.

    Australian dance company Marrugeku combines certain elements of Japanese theatre with First Nations performance.

    Similarly, multidisiplinary Māori–Australian artist Victoria Hunt combines butoh influences with her own whakapapa, or Māori genealogy.

    And Tony Yap, of Malaysian Chinese descent, has developed what he calls “trance dance”, drawing on Hijikata’s writings, Polish theatre director Jerzy Grotowski’s’s theatre of bodily and spiritual transfiguration, and Yap’s own background in Southeast Asian possession rituals.

    In these, and other exchanges, performance practices crisscross the Pacific, from Japan to Aotearoa New Zealand, to Australia, to Malaysia, and back.

    Some of Jonathan W. Marshall’s research into butoh was supported by an ARC-LIEF grant.

    – ref. The body as landscape: how post-war Japanese dance and theatre shaped performance in Australia – https://theconversation.com/the-body-as-landscape-how-post-war-japanese-dance-and-theatre-shaped-performance-in-australia-254814

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Antarctica’s sea ice is changing, and so is a vital part of the marine food web that lives within it

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jacqui Stuart, Postdoctoral Researcher in Marine Ecology, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington

    Jacqui Stuart, VUW, CC BY-NC-ND

    Antarctica is the world’s great cooling unit. This vital part of Earth’s climate system is largely powered by the annual freeze and melt of millions of square kilometres of sea ice around the continent.

    Our research shows changes to this annual freeze cycle in McMurdo Sound can lead to shifts in the diversity of algal communities that live within the sea ice.

    At the start of the southern winter, as sea water begins to freeze, it expels salt and forms heavy and very cold brine. This sinks to the seafloor, ultimately forming what’s known as Antarctic Bottom Water. This is then pumped out to the rest of the world through several major oceanic currents.

    Historically, this cycle meant that Antarctica effectively doubled in size and the continent was surrounded by an enormous apron of sea ice at the peak of winter. But the changing climate is shifting this annual cycle.

    Major ocean currents transport cold Antarctic Bottom Water out to the rest of the world.
    Jacqui Stuart, VUW, CC BY-NC-ND

    For the past decade, Antarctic sea ice has been in decline. It hasn’t been a steady trend, but each year since 2016 less sea ice has formed compared to historic averages.

    Antarctica’s annual maximum sea ice extent in September 2023 was the lowest on record, with approximately 1.75 million square kilometres less sea ice than normal – an area equivalent to about 6.5 times the land area of Aotearoa.

    Change happening at the continental scale is usually well documented and publicised. However, smaller, more local changes are also occurring in places such as McMurdo Sound, the home of Aotearoa New Zealand’s only Antarctic outpost.

    For four of the last seven years, unseasonable winter southerly storms have been associated with significant delays in the timing of sea-ice formation within McMurdo Sound.

    Where measurements were taken during these “unusual” years, the sea ice that formed later was thinner (1.5 metres compared to 2.5 metres) and had less snow cover (about 5 centimetres versus 15-30 centimetres) compared to the same locations during “typical” years.

    Ken Ryan and Jacqui Stuart measuring the depth of sea ice and the sub-ice platelet layer in McMurdo Sound in 2022.
    Svenja Halfter, NIWA, CC BY-NC-ND

    Icy reefs and algal meadows

    Another type of ice, known as “platelet ice”, also appears to be affected by the later formation of sea ice.

    A layer of platelet ice extends into the ocean below the sea ice in some regions around Antarctica, including McMurdo Sound. It is a fragile lattice structure made up of loosely consolidated plate-shaped ice crystals, creating an upside-down reef-like structure.

    The resulting protective environment is a hot spot for primary productivity – microscopic algae that support the base of the marine food web. When sea ice forms later, the platelet ice doesn’t have as much time to accumulate beneath and can be metres thinner than beneath older ice (down to about 1 metre from more than 3 metres).

    Scientist collecting cores of sea ice in McMurdo Sound.
    Jacqui Stuart, VUW, CC BY-NC-ND

    Why should we care about sea ice? Because, it isn’t just a frozen, lifeless sheet expanding out from the continent, broken by the odd silhouette of a seal or a gathering of penguins on the top.

    Beneath the desolate surface, where ice meets water, green meadows of microalgae can spread out as far as the eye can see.

    View from under the sea ice in McMurdo Sound, with the sub-ice platelet layer extending down into the water. The green-yellow tinge shows thriving microalgae living within the reef-like structure.
    Leigh Tate, NIWA, CC BY-NC-ND

    Microalgae are single-cell, plant-like organisms that use sunlight to create energy. Similar to land-based meadows, they provide food for many other creatures. In winter, when other sources of food can be scarce, this sea-ice superstore plays a crucial role in feeding other inhabitants of McMurdo Sound.

    Diminishing algal diversity under thinner sea ice

    Our research indicates that when the sea ice forms later, microalgal communities living within the ice are also different. In later-forming sea ice, these vital communities are less diverse and dominated by fewer species.

    Some species usually abundant in earlier-forming sea ice are absent or in low numbers when the sea ice forms later. Interestingly, though, it appears the quantity of microalgae in later-forming ice conditions is similar to “typical” ice. However, instead of being spread out through almost three metres depth of the platelet layer, they are crammed into a metre-thick habitat instead.

    These microscopic snacks are diverse in shape, size and the roles they play in the ecosystem. It can help to think of microalgal communities as the produce section in the supermarket. Each type has preferred growing conditions and different nutritional values, producing varied quantities of important resources such as proteins, carbohydrates and fatty acids.

    Microalgae come in different shapes, sizes and nutritional content, like fruits and vegetables.
    Jacqui Stuart, VUW, CC BY-NC-ND

    Imagine, one winter the weather is different and all that grows are cabbages and sweet peas. These won’t provide you with all the nutrients you need. This mirrors the problem when there is less diversity at the base of the food web. As the microalgal communities shift in the ways our research has observed, the quantity and quality of resources they provide are likely to change, too.

    These early signals matter. They foreshadow wider ecological impacts, especially, if Antarctic sea ice continues to thin, retreat or form later each year.

    We need more research to establish the nuances of these changes and the extent of their impact. But it is worth remembering that what happens at the base of the food web in Antarctica doesn’t necessarily stay there. These changes could ripple through ecosystems further afield with the potential to affect key fisheries in the Southern Ocean.

    By paying close attention now, we have a chance to understand and adapt, to ensure ecosystems stay resilient in a changing world.

    Natalie Robinson receives funding from the Marsden Fund and Antarctic Science Platform. She is affiliated with New Zealand Antarctic Society.

    Jacqui Stuart does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Antarctica’s sea ice is changing, and so is a vital part of the marine food web that lives within it – https://theconversation.com/antarcticas-sea-ice-is-changing-and-so-is-a-vital-part-of-the-marine-food-web-that-lives-within-it-255606

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: X-rays have revealed a mysterious cosmic object never before seen in our galaxy

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ziteng Wang, Associate Lecturer, Curtin Institute of Radio Astronomy (CIRA), Curtin University

    Author provided

    In a new study published today in Nature, we report the discovery of a new long-period transient – and, for the first time, one that also emits regular bursts of X-rays.

    Long-period transients are a recently identified class of cosmic objects that emit bright flashes of radio waves every few minutes to several hours. This is much longer than the rapid pulses we typically detect from dead stars such as pulsars.

    What these objects are, and how they generate their unusual signals, remains a mystery.

    Our discovery opens up a new window into the study of these puzzling sources. But it also deepens the mystery: the object we found doesn’t resemble any known type of star or system in our galaxy – or beyond.

    An image of the sky showing the region around ASKAP J1832-0911. The yellow circle marks the position of the newly discovered source. This image shows X-rays from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, radio data from the South African MeerKAT radio telescope, and infrared data from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope.
    Author provided

    Watching the radio sky for flickers

    There’s much in the night sky that we can’t see with human eyes but can detect when we look at other wavelengths, such as radio emissions.

    Our research team regularly scans the radio sky using the Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP), operated by CSIRO on Wajarri Yamaji Country in Western Australia. Our goal is to find cosmic objects that appear and disappear (known as transients).

    Transients are often linked to some of the most powerful and dramatic events in the universe, such as the explosive deaths of stars.

    In late 2023, we spotted an extremely bright source, named ASKAP J1832-0911 (based on its position in the sky), in the direction of the galactic plane. This object is located about 15,000 light years away. This is far, but still within the Milky Way.

    Some of the ASKAP antennas, located at Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara, the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory in Western Australia.
    CSIRO

    A dramatic event

    After the initial discovery, we began follow-up observations using telescopes around the world, hoping to catch more pulses. With continued monitoring, we found the radio pulses from ASKAPJ1832 arrive regularly – every 44 minutes. This confirmed it as a new member of the rare long-period transient group.

    But we did not just look forward in time – we also looked back. We searched through older telescope data from the same part of the sky. We found no trace of the object before the discovery.

    This suggests something dramatic happened shortly before we first detected it – something powerful enough to suddenly switch the object “on”.

    Then, in February 2024, ASKAPJ1832 became extremely active. After a quieter period in January, the source brightened dramatically. Fewer than 30 objects in the sky have ever reached such brightness in radio waves.

    For comparison, most stars we detect in radio are about 10,000 times fainter than ASKAPJ1832 during that flare-up.

    A lucky break

    X-rays are a form of light that we can’t see with our eyes. They usually come from extremely hot and energetic environments. Although about ten similar radio-emitting objects have been found so far, none had ever shown X-ray signals.

    In March, we tried to observe ASKAPJ1832 in X-rays. However, due to technical issues with the telescope, the observation could not go ahead.

    Then came a stroke of luck. In June, I reached out to my friend Tong Bao, a postdoctoral researcher at the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics, to check if any previous X-ray observations had captured the source. To our surprise, we found two past observations from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, although the data were still under a proprietary period (not yet public).

    We contacted Kaya Mori, a research scientist at Columbia University and the principal investigator of those observations. He generously shared the data with us. To our amazement, we discovered clear X-ray signals coming from ASKAPJ1832. Even more remarkable: the X-rays followed the same 44-minute cycle as the radio pulses.

    It was a truly lucky break. Chandra had been pointed at a different target entirely, but by pure coincidence, it caught ASKAPJ1832 during its unusually bright and active phase.

    A chance alignment like that is incredibly rare – like finding a needle in a cosmic haystack.

    NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory is the world’s most powerful X-ray telescope, in orbit around Earth since 1999.
    NASA/CXC & J. Vaughan

    Still a mystery

    Having both radio and X-ray bursts is a common trait of dead stars with extremely strong magnetic fields, such as neutron stars (high-mass dead stars) and white dwarf (low-mass dead stars).

    Our discovery suggests that at least some long-period transients may come from these kinds of stellar remnants.

    But ASKAPJ1832 does not quite fit into any known category of object in our galaxy. Its behaviour, while similar in some ways, still breaks the mould.

    We need more observations to truly understand what is going on. It is possible that ASKAPJ1832 is something entirely new, or it could be emitting radio waves in a way we have never seen before.

    Ziteng Wang does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. X-rays have revealed a mysterious cosmic object never before seen in our galaxy – https://theconversation.com/x-rays-have-revealed-a-mysterious-cosmic-object-never-before-seen-in-our-galaxy-256797

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Anxious over AI? One way to cope is by building your uniquely human skills

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Nitin Deckha, Lecturer in Justice Studies, Early Childhood Studies, Community and Social Services and Electives, University of Guelph-Humber

    The concern over the loss and transformation of work by generative AI is well-founded and widely documented. (Shutterstock)

    We live in a time of growing anxiety and fear, where the disruptive forces of artificial intelligence (AI), automation, Big Data, virtual reality and augmented reality loom ominously over people’s lives.

    In a recent Scientific American article, psychologist Mary Alvord described how these anxieties are manifesting in her clients. Their concerns ranged from the increase in students cheating with generative AI to the erosion of online data privacy, to more existential fears of job loss and even the “possibility of overall human obsolescence.”

    These aren’t abstract concerns. Beyond the psychologist’s chair, the concern over the loss and transformation of work by generative AI is well-founded and widely documented by academic research studies and reports. As AI becomes more capable and embedded in daily routines, anxieties surrounding it are likely to intensify.

    The future of work

    The World Economic Forum’s (WEF) 2025 Future of Jobs Report found that 85.7 per cent of employers surveyed see AI, information processing, Big Data, virtual reality and augmented reality as the biggest technological driver of business transformation. Robots and automation follow at 57.8 per cent.

    While the report notes that long-term productivity gains from these technologies remain uncertain, it found that certain jobs are being impacted more than others. Roles where generative AI can mimic human capacities — like data entry, administration, legal and executive secretaries, claim adjusters and examiners, and graphic designers — are declining the fastest.

    These findings are corroborated by a recent joint report from the International Labour Organization (ILO) and Poland’s National Research Institute. It found that 25 per cent of jobs are at risk of being changed by generative AI, a number that jumps to 34 per cent in higher-income countries.

    Roles where generative AI can mimic human capacities, like administration, are most at risk of job loss.
    (Shutterstock)

    The report also noted a gendered impact: in high-income countries, 9.6 per cent of jobs held by women are at high risk of automation, compared to just 3.5 per cent of jobs held by men.

    The impact on clerical jobs noted by the WEF is supported by ILO’s data as well. Joining these roles are what the ILO describes as “highly digitized cognitive jobs in media, software, and finance-related” fields.

    The significant exposure of jobs such as securities and finance dealers and brokers, software developers, financial advisers, authors and writers, translators, interpreters and journalists underscores the encroachment of generative AI onto all sorts of “thinking” and creative work.

    It is no wonder psychologists like Alvord suggest some humans are questioning what role they will have in the future world of work.

    Work in a time of disruption

    The COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on work — including the “great resignation” which saw record numbers of employees quitting their jobs — encouraged workers to reflect on their relationship to work.

    Although workplace trends like remote work, flexible hours and employees re-evaluating their job expectations were already underway before the pandemic, COVID-19 accelerated these shifts.

    According to futurists at Policy Horizons Canada, there are a number of “game changers” transforming the future of work. Disruptive technologies like generative AI and automation are just one driver.



    Read more:
    Generative AI can boost innovation – but only when humans are in control

    Another major force is the fraying of the social contract between employers and employees. This shift speaks to larger currents of anxiety, fear and employee disengagement and low morale. Put simply, employers and employees are no longer investing in each other as much as before.

    With the erosion of benefits, the rise of the gig economy and the increasing cost of living, employees were already feeling vulnerable and anxious about their work before the launch of ChatGPT in 2023.

    How can we cope with AI anxiety?

    As with any form of anxiety, it’s important to acknowledge your feelings and take steps to avoid becoming overwhelmed.

    Psychologists suggest several specific strategies for managing anxiety about generative AI. These include: trying out AI tools to figure out how and where they can be useful; taking breaks from technology to restore and revitalize; building new skills; and pursuing activities that activate human creativity and imagination.

    I would like to expand on the third strategy — building new skills. In a recent research study, my colleagues and I investigated the skills that are required to succeed in the future of work. We reviewed six research studies from around the world and created a skills inventory of future of work skills.

    One of the most effective responses to anxiety about AI is focusing on developing our own human capacities.
    (Shutterstock)

    We identified 10 skills that were most frequently identified as key for the future of work: collaboration, communication, creativity and innovation, critical thinking, cross-cultural competency, decision-making and judgment, learning/willingness to learn, problem-solving and social intelligence/perceptiveness.

    For those concerned about remaining employable in the face of AI disruption, focusing on these skills is a practical starting point, as they are likely to remain in demand as workplaces evolve.

    Importantly, all these skills are “human” skills, meaning not digital or technological. In this context, perhaps one of the most effective responses to anxiety about AI is focusing on developing our own human capacities.

    Rethinking our relationship with AI and work

    Researchers argue that the disruptive potential of AI in the workplace involves one of three channels: replacing aspects of human work; complementing or augmenting human workers and their skills; and creating new tasks for workers.

    Of these, the second — complementing or augmenting human work — might be the best path forward. Rather than viewing generative AI solely as a threat, it can be seen as a tool that enhances human abilities.

    Exploring how our own cognitive and creative capacities could be augmented through “collaborative intelligence” with generative AI, might be a useful antidote to being anxious about it.

    Such collaboration may also catalyze our re-imagining of our relationship to work and enhance our sense of purpose in a rapidly changing world.

    Nitin Deckha does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Anxious over AI? One way to cope is by building your uniquely human skills – https://theconversation.com/anxious-over-ai-one-way-to-cope-is-by-building-your-uniquely-human-skills-256213

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: The Phoenician Scheme: a fun watch even though it’s the same journey in a different vehicle

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Daniel O’Brien, Lecturer, Department of Literature Film and Theatre Studies, University of Essex

    As someone attuned to the distinct styles of auteur filmmakers, I came to Wes Anderson’s latest offering The Phoenician Scheme intrigued, feeling a mix of distance and familiarity.

    My appreciation for other auteur directors like Stanley Kubrick, Spike Lee and Alfred Hitchcock may have sometimes inadvertently pushed Anderson’s work to the periphery of my viewing habits, but The Phoenician Scheme (his 13th directorial film) provides an opportunity to reassess that omission.

    The cinematic trademarks were all there: deadpan performances, meticulous symmetry, whip-pan camera work (when the camera whips round so fast, everything blurs), ice-cream colour palettes and trains, frequently present in some form throughout Anderson’s
    filmography.

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    And a Bill Murray cameo? Of course – along with other minor roles from Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Scarlett Johansson, Richard Ayoade, Riz Ahmed and Benedict Cumberbatch (as well as many others), all appearing briefly across the film’s brisk 90-minute runtime – a fairly typical length for an Anderson feature.

    Although I found The Phoenician Scheme a fairly enjoyable film and one that ardent fans will surely embrace, my issue was perhaps precisely within the formulaic nature of this work. This sense of familiarity makes the viewing simultaneously comfortable, but also a little predictable.

    Aside from a genuinely unexpected explosion in the film’s opening moments, there was little that caught me off guard, making it difficult to gauge just how memorable The Phoenician Scheme will be in the long run. It entertains but rarely surprises and despite the litany of cameos, each one is fairly unmemorable. In fact, while writing this, I’ve only just remembered that Willem Dafoe is in a scene or two as well.

    It’s not that anyone is necessarily giving a bad performance but rather each iteration of wry whimsy results in a kind of stylistic uniformity that renders them indistinct from one another. By contrast, the film’s three leading roles benefit from sustained screen time, allowing for a little more nuance.

    Benicio del Toro leads the cast as Zsa-Zsa Korda, a rich and morally ambiguous industrialist, set within the fictional Middle Eastern nation of Phoenicia during the 1950s. Korda is on the point of political and personal ruin. His life is constantly in danger with ongoing visual and verbal gags from the beginning about his nonchalance towards assassination.

    Korda faces execution threats from shadowy agencies and members of his own board to the extent that his suspiciousness has become a comfortable characteristic. Newcomer Mia Threapleton (daughter of Kate Winslet) stars as Liesl Korda, his estranged daughter who has spent years in quiet devotion as a nun in a remote convent.

    Her sudden appointment as her father’s heir thrusts her back into a world she had long abandoned, continuing Anderson’s other fascination with fractured, complex familial dynamics, as the rest of her siblings look on. Michael Cera portrays Bjorn Lund, a docile yet quietly astute tutor with a fascination for insects, who is brought in to help Liesl adjust to her new responsibilities.

    Without revealing too much, Lund turns out to be more than he initially seems, giving Cera the chance to slip back into that awkward, mock-cool persona –reminiscent of his Twin Peaks: The Return role, in which he channels a Marlon Brando–style rebel straight out of The Wild One.

    In typical Anderson style, visual gags (here in the form of props) propel the film along, from Lund’s bugs to Liesl’s jewel-encrusted rosary and Korda’s weapons, which include grenades that he politely offers to other diplomats as a formal greeting.

    The visually rich and symmetrical arrangement of characters, against a static or sideways moving camera reminded me of how much Anderson is inspired by Peter Greenaway’s work, particularly The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989).

    Anderson draws on this auteur aesthetically and thematically but also through absurdity. While Greenaway’s films take inspiration from canvas painting, the closing credit sequence of The Phoenician Scheme also features well known artworks, serving as inspiration for the content.

    The visuals, which are rich throughout, are also interestingly compacted to a 1.50 aspect ratio, making the frame of the screen quite box like. This is perhaps also relevant to the structure of the film in which most of the events and visitations of external characters are pre-organised into a range of numbered shoeboxes, which is afforded a lengthy sequence, with plenty of overview shots of the boxes neatly arranged.

    Each section of the film that follows pertains to a certain box. Viewers are reminded as to which box they are in through a range of title cards which divides the film into a series of vignettes, not unlike Anderson’s chapter structure in The Royal Tenenbaums.

    This earlier film is perhaps his better-known one about the estrangement and reconnection of dysfunctional family members. This trait can also be found in The Darjeeling Limited aboard a train, or in a submarine in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. The Phoenician Scheme echoes these familiar tropes (domestic dysfunction wrapped in whimsical packaging) aboard a number of private plane journeys (with a token train scene in the middle).

    While it may feel like a familiar journey aboard a new vessel, that familiarity will probably be either the reason you enjoy the ride – or the very thing that makes it feel like an exhausting commute, one where you’re tempted to pull the emergency cord.

    While there is much to enjoy, I doubt The Phoenician Scheme will be remembered as one of Anderson’s most essential works. At times, it teeters on the edge of parodying its own auteur style. Despite this I found it compelling enough to spark a renewed interest in his earlier films.

    And any work that can reignite curiosity, even while treading familiar ground, is worth your time, even if it’s only for a chance to play cameo bingo.

    Daniel O’Brien does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. The Phoenician Scheme: a fun watch even though it’s the same journey in a different vehicle – https://theconversation.com/the-phoenician-scheme-a-fun-watch-even-though-its-the-same-journey-in-a-different-vehicle-257658

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Have sanctions against Russia backfired? What apartheid-era South Africa tells us about who may be profiting

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By John Luiz, Professor of International Management and Strategy, University of Sussex

    There are no longer any golden arches logos in Russia, but is the firm hoping for a return? forden/Shutterstock

    Even as the war in Ukraine grinds on, some multinational companies are quietly positioning themselves for a thaw in relations with Russia.

    Many of those who rushed to divest from the country, selling off assets after the full-scale invasion in 2022, may now be reassessing their options. It’s also becoming clear that some of these companies never completely left to begin with.

    What is apparent is that divestment was, in many cases, provisional rather than permanent – with firms embedding “buy-back” clauses in their sales contracts, or structuring their exits in ways that would make future re-entry simple.

    This should not come as a surprise. Our research into foreign divestment from apartheid-era South Africa shows this is a well-trodden business path.

    In South Africa, sanctions inadvertently strengthened local white business elites aligned with the ruling regime. Multinationals sold their assets under pressure – often at discounts, often to the local companies of politically connected elites – and later bought them back at a premium.

    Today, the same dynamic could be playing out in Russia.

    When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, more than 1,600 multinational enterprises announced they were pulling out of the country. However, reports last year suggested that 2,175 foreign companies, including some who had announced they were pulling out, remained in Russia – and were becoming increasingly open about their operations.

    One CEO stated that investors did not “morally care” about doing business in Russia, and that if they pulled out, rivals would simply take their place.

    Even for those companies that did leave, many of these exits were more symbolic than substantial. Research has shown that even companies that claimed to have fully divested left behind options to return.

    Carmaker Nissan, for example, appears to have sold its Russian subsidiary to state-owned NAMI in 2022 with a six-year buy-back clause. In a statement at the time, the company said the terms allowed it “the option to buy back the entity and its operations within the next six years”.

    And fast-food giant McDonald’s can reportedly reacquire its Russian business within 15 years. A statement from McDonald’s in 2022 said that, for the first time in its history, it was “de-Arching” a major market – but suggested it hoped to return eventually.

    Such arrangements, often quietly written into exit contracts, allow multinationals to comply with sanctions in the short term – while keeping the door open for a future comeback.

    In many cases, the operations have continued seamlessly under new ownership. While the brand names may have changed in Russia, the staff and product designs remain almost identical. And sometimes, the foreign supply chains and intellectual property are still in play too.

    Who profits?

    The South African precedent is instructive. During the 1980s, foreign companies divested under pressure from shareholders, activists and governments over apartheid. But very few truly left. Most sold their operations to local elites – powerful business groups aligned with the ruling regime. They then continued to supply products, license trademarks and support operations through quiet back channels.

    The intention of sanctions is to weaken the sanctioned state. However, our study shows that the economic value created by foreign multinationals in South Africa did not disappear.

    The aim of sanctions against Russia is to weaken the economic position of the Kremlin.
    E.O./Shutterstock

    In Russia, foreign companies have sold assets at big discounts to Russian oligarchs and state-linked entities since 2022. In some cases, the buyers were longstanding local partners or franchisees. In others, they were entities unknown to consumers but which were thought to have close ties to the Kremlin.

    The consequences are predictable. Rather than weakening the regime’s economic base, sanctions may have consolidated it. As in South Africa, the departure of foreign firms appears to have strengthened domestic elites and allowed them to accumulate new assets and market power.

    Some companies that left Russia are reported to be reconsidering their decisions. Negotiations are taking place behind the scenes about how to ree-stablish operations should conditions shift. Their re-entry may be smoothed by structures – buy-back clauses, licensing deals or local partnerships – that firms put in place on their way out.

    This strategy mirrors what we found in South Africa. In the 1990s, once apartheid ended, foreign multinationals returned in large numbers. But they didn’t start from scratch. They repurchased their former assets, often at a much higher price, from the local elites.

    In short, in the case of South Africa at least, the period of supposed withdrawal was often one of careful preparation for re-entry. Meanwhile, our study also found that South African conglomerates used their windfalls to fund international expansion and entrench their power in the new economy.

    Unintended results

    Sanctions remain a key tool of international diplomacy. But our research shows their effectiveness depends heavily on how firms implement them – and who ends up with the assets that are divested. If those assets are consistently transferred to politically connected insiders, the long-term outcome may be to reinforce the very regimes the sanctions were intended to pressure.

    Sanctions policy should not just consider whether firms have divested, but how and to whom. Without that, even the most well-intentioned measures may end up producing unintended results.

    This means that governments should go beyond imposing sanctions and develop mechanisms to ensure transparency, monitoring and accountability in how corporate exits are structured.

    South African sanctions are generally seen as having played a useful role in ending apartheid. But as unemployment and inequality continue to plague the country along old institutional lines, the South African experience offers a clear historical warning. If sanctions are meant to promote accountability and change, it’s vital to pay close attention to what happens after the headlines fade.

    The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Have sanctions against Russia backfired? What apartheid-era South Africa tells us about who may be profiting – https://theconversation.com/have-sanctions-against-russia-backfired-what-apartheid-era-south-africa-tells-us-about-who-may-be-profiting-257422

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: From soil to slugs to songbirds – how plastic is moving through ecosystems

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Emily Thrift, PhD Candidate and Doctoral Tutor in Ecology, University of Sussex

    Philippe Clement / shutterstock

    For many people, “plastic pollution” calls to mind pictures of turtles and other marine life drowning in single-use plastic bottles and discarded fishing nets. My own research looks at how the same story is playing out on land.

    Plastics are increasingly found in small mammals, insects and the soil. But how it moves through these ecosystems – and the damage it might be doing – is still poorly understood.

    My own research into this started during my masters degree. I wanted to find out if plastic pollution was affecting UK mammals – and the results were startling.

    Colleagues and I first looked at the faeces of a range of small UK mammals. We then used a special machine that detects infrared light to identify different types of plastic.

    We found plastics in the faeces of European hedgehogs, wood mice, field vole, and brown rats. Of the 189 hedgehog samples, 19% contained plastics. In one sample alone I was shocked to find a total of 12 pink and clear fibres of polyester. This is the UK’s most popular wild mammal, and no one knew they were ingesting plastic.

    Where the microplastics came from

    As part of my ongoing PhD, the next step was figuring out how this plastic was getting into the hedgehogs in the first place. Hedgehogs feed on invertebrates like beetles, snails, slugs, earthworms, caterpillars and woodlice. We wanted to see if those creatures could themselves be contaminated by plastic.

    We collected over 2,000 invertebrates and soil samples from 51 sites in Sussex, England. The sites covered farmland, grassland and suburban areas.

    To trace how plastic might move through the food web, we sampled creatures at various different points in the food web (known as “trophic levels”). This meant plant-eaters, like peacock butterfly caterpillars, and earthworms and other animals that feed on dead plants. We sampled omnivores who will eat all sorts, like the red-footed soldier beetle, and carnivores like ladybirds and ground beetles, who eat other animals and are found higher up the food web.

    After we had grouped the invertebrates by both species and location, we had 530 samples to analyse. We recently published our results in the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.

    Overall, plastic showed up in 12% of the invertebrate samples. Earthworms had the highest rate at 29%, followed by snails & slugs at 24%. Interestingly, the types of plastic found in carnivores didn’t match those in herbivores and dead plant-eaters. That suggests the carnivores are not just getting it from eating contaminated prey – they might also be picking up plastic as they move through the soil or even from airborne particles that land on their next meal.

    Earthworms are particularly plastic pollution-prone.
    VaskePro / shutterstock

    We also found the first evidence of plastic in species of caterpillar like the peacock, powder blue and red admiral butterflies, and in beetles such as ladybirds.

    The most common plastic we found was polyester, probably from clothing and furniture. Other common plastics were those used in single-use packaging, agricultural materials (such as fleece, mulch film, greenhouse films and silage wrap), and even paint.

    So, does it matter if a few slugs or worms are ingesting plastic? Absolutely.

    Invertebrates play important roles within their ecosystems. Earthworms, for example, add air to the soil and help cycle nutrients. Therefore, when they consume plastic, it affects the animals that prey on them, the soil they live in, and even the food we grow.

    In fact, plants grown in plastic-contaminated soil have been shown to take microplastics into their cells. This can stunt their growth and limit the water they can retain, and ultimately reduce our ability to grow the food we need.

    Insect-eating birds like swifts,thrushes and blackbirds are also ingesting similar plastic, likely from their prey. This can stunt their growth, damage organs, and make them less fertile.

    It is too easy to place the responsibility solely on individuals to avoid single-use packaging, recycle more, and avoid synthetic materials. These things make a difference, of course, but big polluters must be held accountable. That means fast fashion companies, drinks giants, supermarket chains and the agriculture sector, which all produce a huge amount of plastic waste and have failed to take responsibility for the damage this causes.

    If we want to protect ecosystems from plastic – on land as well as at sea – we need more than personal action. We need serious accountability, better waste management, and real investment in truly sustainable alternatives.

    Emily Thrift does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. From soil to slugs to songbirds – how plastic is moving through ecosystems – https://theconversation.com/from-soil-to-slugs-to-songbirds-how-plastic-is-moving-through-ecosystems-257685

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Why Islamic State is expanding its operations in north-eastern Nigeria

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Folahanmi Aina, Lecturer in Political Economy of Violence, Conflict and Development, SOAS, University of London

    Islamic State West Africa Province (Iswap), one of the most powerful global affiliates of the Islamic State jihadist organisation, is in the middle of its largest offensive against the Nigerian military in years.

    The group has overrun security positions in Borno state, a region of north-east Nigeria, a dozen times in the past few months. Borno state has been the epicentre of a conflict between the Nigerian army and jihadist insurgents for 15 years. The UN Development Programme said in 2021 that the violence had killed more than 35,000 people there directly.

    The latest offensive began in March with a string of attacks. This included an improvised explosive device planted underneath a commercial vehicle in Biu, a town in southern Borno state, which killed four people and injured four others.

    Iswap then launched several more attacks the following month, including an operation on a Nigerian army barracks in Yamtage town. It claimed to have killed three soldiers. The group sustained its campaign into May, with the launch of one of its most sophisticated attacks in recent memory.

    On May 12, suspected Iswap militants stormed the town of Marte, capturing several soldiers and forcing others to retreat. A coordinated dual strike on nearby Rann and Dikwa towns followed hours later. The insurgents now have a strong presence in Marte, which holds immense strategic value due to its access to Lake Chad smuggling corridors.

    Iswap, which was originally formed in 2015 as an offshoot of Boko Haram and has around 5,000 fighters, appears to be adapting to the Nigerian army’s military strategy. Since 2019, the Nigerian army has consolidated its forces in a heavily fortified “super camp” in key towns and cities in the north-east, from which they can respond to reported insurgent activity.

    However, Iswap militants have launched several attacks on some of these camps by using tactics such as nighttime raids. They have also targeted bridges and roads between the camps, as well as launching attacks on nearby positions as a diversion, to prevent reinforcements from reaching targeted bases.

    Iswap has been carrying out a sustained offensive against the Nigerian army since March.
    Institute for the Study of War

    There are several factors that could explain Iswap’s resurgence. The first is that there have been strategic shifts on the ground, including a lull in fighting between Iswap and rival faction Boko Haram over territorial control.

    Niger also withdrew its troops from the region’s counter-terrorism joint task force in March. The security vacuum created by this withdrawal may have further emboldened Iswap to carry out its offensive.

    Nigeria and Niger share a long border, so the reduction in military patrols could have led to an increase in the number of weapons and militants supplied to Iswap from its regional network.

    The second factor is that the authorities have relied too heavily on responding militarily to the threat posed by Boko Haram and Iswap. The joint task force has launched several major offensives against the two groups in recent years, helping to contain the insurgency. This has led to the return of refugees to some parts of the Lake Chad basin.

    But the reliance on military offensives has only prolonged the conflict, allowing the terrorist groups to evolve. Iswap, for instance, is now using sophisticated weaponry including armed drones to stage attacks.

    A recent assault on a military base in Wajikoro in north-eastern Borno state began with the use of four drones armed with grenades. The group had previously used drones almost entirely to conduct surveillance and gather intelligence.

    Dismantling and ultimately defeating terrorist groups such as Iswap in the region will require addressing the root causes and drivers of insecurity. These include poverty, inequality, unemployment, poor governance and weak institutions. Poverty rates in north-eastern Nigeria are estimated at over 70%, almost double the rate in the rest of the country.

    The third factor that could explain Iswap’s resurgence is that it has been using technology effectively to expand its appeal, particularly among young people, and drive recruitment.

    It has intensified its presence on social media, using TikTok to post videos justifying killings, lecture young audiences about extremist ideologies and spreading jihadist propaganda. It is also deploying AI tools to edit videos and written communications.

    At the same time, it is making use of new satellite-based internet services such as Starlink to record footage of prayers and sermons. Starlink launched in 2019 with the aim of providing high-speed broadband internet to people all over the world, especially in remote areas.

    Another factor is that Iswap has expanded its sources of funding. The group collects tax revenue from local populations in areas where it has a strong presence, with farmers in some parts of Borno state reportedly paying about ₦10,000 (£5) per hectare.

    But Iswap is also allegedly tapping into Nigeria’s fast-growing cryptocurrency markets and earns considerable revenue from black market operations. The groups’s ability to rely on multiple revenue sources has ensured its supremacy over other terrorist groups in the region, while enabling it to plan and execute more sophisticated attacks.

    The growing strength of Iswap will undoubtedly have dire consequences for peace and security in Nigeria. It could help coordinate Islamic State’s activity in west Africa, giving it a stronger foothold in the region.

    Emphasis should be placed on addressing the root causes of the insurgency in Nigeria, as well as implementing tighter measures to constrain Iswap’s sources of funding.

    Folahanmi Aina does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Why Islamic State is expanding its operations in north-eastern Nigeria – https://theconversation.com/why-islamic-state-is-expanding-its-operations-in-north-eastern-nigeria-256935

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: What is AI slop? Why you are seeing more fake photos and videos in your social media feeds

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Jon Roozenbeek, Lecturer in Psychology, University of Cambridge

    Pikselstock/Shutterstock

    In May 2025, a post asking “[Am I the asshole] for telling my husband’s affair partner’s fiancé about their relationship?” quickly received 6,200 upvotes and more than 900 comments on Reddit. This popularity earned the post a spot on Reddit’s front page of trending posts. The problem? It was (very likely) written by artificial intelligence (AI).

    The post contained some telltale signs of AI, such as using stock phrases (“[my husband’s] family is furious”) and excessive quotation marks, and sketching an unrealistic scenario designed to generate outrage rather than reflect a genuine dilemma.

    While this post has since been removed by the forum’s moderators, Reddit users have repeatedly expressed their frustration with the proliferation of this kind of content.

    High-engagement, AI-generated posts on Reddit are an example of what is known as “AI slop” – cheap, low-quality AI-generated content, created and shared by anyone from low-level influencers to coordinated political influence operations.

    Estimates suggest that over half of longer English-language posts on LinkedIn are written by AI. In response to that report, Adam Walkiewicz, a director of product at LinkedIn, told Wired it has “robust defenses in place to proactively identify low-quality and exact or near-exact duplicate content. When we detect such content, we take action to ensure it is not broadly promoted.”

    But AI-generated low-quality news sites are popping up all over the place, and AI images are also flooding social media platforms such as Facebook. You may have come across images like “shrimp Jesus” in your own feeds.

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    AI-generated content is cheap. A report by the Nato StratCom Center of Excellence from 2023 found that for a mere €10 (about £8), you can buy tens of thousands of fake views and likes, and hundreds of AI-generated comments, on almost all major social media platforms.

    While much of it is seemingly innocent entertainment, one study from 2024 found that about a quarter of all internet traffic is made up of “bad bots”. These bots, which seek to spread disinformation, scalp event tickets or steal personal data, are also becoming much better at masking as humans.

    In short, the world is dealing with the “enshittification” of the web: online services have become gradually worse over time as tech companies prioritise profits over user experience. AI-generated content is just one aspect of this.

    From Reddit posts that enrage readers to tearjerking cat videos, this content is extremely attention-grabbing and thus lucrative for both slop-creators and platforms.

    This is known as engagement bait – a tactic to get people to like, comment and share, regardless of the quality of the post. And you don’t need to seek out the content to be exposed to it.

    AI-generated images like this one are designed to get as much engagement (likes, comments and shares) as possible.
    Microsoft Copilot, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

    One study explored how engagement bait, such as images of cute babies wrapped in cabbage, is recommended to social media users even when they do not follow any AI-slop pages or accounts. These pages, which often link to low-quality sources and promote real or made-up products, may be designed to boost their follower base in order to sell the account later for profit.

    Meta (Facebook’s parent company) said in April that it is cracking down on “spammy” content that tries to “game the Facebook algorithm to increase views”, but did not specify AI-generated content. Meta has used its own AI-generated profiles on Facebook, but has since removed some of these accounts.

    What the risks are

    This may all have serious consequences for democracy and political communication. AI can cheaply and efficiently create misinformation about elections that is indiscernible from human-generated content. Ahead of the 2024 US presidential elections, researchers identified a large influence campaign designed to advocate for Republican issues and attack political adversaries.

    And before you think it’s only Republicans doing it, think again: these bots are as biased as humans of all perspectives. A report by Rutgers University found that Americans on all sides of the political spectrum rely on bots to promote their preferred candidates.

    Researchers aren’t innocent either: scientists at the University of Zurich were recently caught using AI-powered bots to post on Reddit as part of a research project on whether inauthentic comments can change people’s minds. But they failed to disclose that these comments were fake to Reddit moderators.

    Reddit is now considering taking legal action against the university. The company’s chief legal officer said: “What this University of Zurich team did is deeply wrong on both a moral and legal level.”

    Political operatives, including from authoritarian countries such as Russia, China and Iran, invest considerable sums in AI-driven operations to influence elections around the democratic world.

    How effective these operations are is up for debate. One study found that Russia’s attempts to interfere in the 2016 US elections through social media were a dud, while another found it predicted polling figures for Trump. Regardless, these campaigns are becoming much more sophisticated and well-organised.

    And even seemingly apolitical AI-generated content can have consequences. The sheer volume of it makes accessing real news and human-generated content difficult.

    What’s to be done?

    Malign AI content is proving to be extremely hard to spot by humans and computers alike. Computer scientists recently identified a bot network of about 1,100 fake X accounts posting machine-generated content (mostly about cryptocurrency) and interacting with each other through likes and retweets. Problematically, the Botometer (a tool they developed to detect bots) failed to identify these accounts as fake.

    The use of AI is relatively easy to spot if you know what to look for, particularly when content is formulaic or unapologetically fake. But it’s much harder when it comes to short-form content (for example, Instagram comments) or high-quality fake images. And the technology used to create AI slop is quickly improving.

    One of these days, these bots are gonna walk all over you.
    Summit Art Creations/Shutterstock

    As close observers of AI trends and the spread of misinformation, we would love to end on a positive note and offer practical remedies to spot AI slop or reduce its potency. But in reality, many people are simply jumping ship.

    Dissatisfied with the amount of AI slop, social media users are escaping traditional platforms and joining invite-only online communities. This may lead to further fracturing of our public sphere and exacerbate polarisation, as the communities we seek out are often comprised of like-minded individuals.

    As this sorting intensifies, social media risks devolving into mindless entertainment, produced and consumed mostly by bots who interact with other bots while us humans spectate. Of course, platforms don’t want to lose users, but they might push as much AI slop as the public can tolerate.

    Some potential technical solutions include labelling AI-generated content through improved bot detection and disclosure regulation, although it’s unclear how well warnings like these work in practice.

    Some research also shows promise in helping people to better identify deepfakes, but research is in its early stages.

    Overall, we are just starting to realise the scale of the problem. Soberingly, if humans drown in AI slop, so does AI: AI models trained on the “enshittified” internet are likely to produce garbage.

    Jon Roozenbeek has received funding from the UK Cabinet Office, the US State Department, the ESRC, Google, the American Psychological Association, the US Centers for Disease Control, EU Horizon 2020, the Templeton World Charity Foundation, and the Alfred Landecker Foundation.

    Sander van der Linden has received funding from the UK Cabinet Office, Google, the American Psychological Association, the US Centers for Disease Control, EU Horizon 2020, the Templeton World Charity Foundation, and the Alfred Landecker Foundation.

    Yara Kyrychenko receives funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and is supported by the Alan Turing Institute’s Enrichment Scheme.

    – ref. What is AI slop? Why you are seeing more fake photos and videos in your social media feeds – https://theconversation.com/what-is-ai-slop-why-you-are-seeing-more-fake-photos-and-videos-in-your-social-media-feeds-255538

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Trump’s West Point speech brought partisanship to the home of the US military − 2 essential reads

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Jeff Inglis, Environment + Energy Editor, The Conversation US

    President Donald Trump delivers the commencement address at West Point on May 24, 2025. AP Photo/Adam Gray

    President Donald Trump’s speech at the graduation of the class of 2025 from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point included segments that were clearly scripted and portions that were obviously not.

    During the unscripted portions, Trump, who wore a bright red “Make America Great Again” campaign hat during his entire appearance on May 24, 2025, delivered remarks that hit many of his frequent partisan political talking points. That included attacking presidential predecessors Barack Obama and Joe Biden, describing immigrants to the U.S. as “criminals” and trumpeting other policy accomplishments in his first and second terms.

    That level of partisanship in a military setting – on the campus of the nation’s first military academy, and before an audience of cadets and their families, many of whom are veterans – is unusual in the United States.

    The Conversation U.S. has published several articles discussing the importance to democracy of keeping the military and partisan politics separate. Here are two highlights from that coverage.

    1. Cadets focus on the Constitution

    During the West Point ceremony, the graduates themselves took an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” And all of them had studied the significance of that oath, including in classes like those taught by Joseph G. Amoroso and Lee Robinson, active-duty Army officers who graduated from West Point and later served as professors there.

    As Amoroso and Robinson wrote, those classes teach cadets that, like all military personnel, they serve the Constitution and the American people, not a particular person or political party:

    “(O)ur oath forms the basis of a nonpartisan ethic. In the U.S., unlike in many other countries, the oath implies military leaders should be trusted for their expertise and judgment, not for their loyalty to an individual or political party. We emphasize to cadets the rules and professional expectations associated with this profound responsibility.”



    Read more:
    Military personnel swear allegiance to the Constitution and serve the American people – not one leader or party

    2. A tradition of nonpartisanship

    Retired U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Samuel C. Mahaney, who teaches history, national security and constitutional law at Missouri University of Science and Technology, observed:

    “(S)ince the days of George Washington, the military has been dedicated to serving the nation, not a specific person or political agenda. … (N)onpartisanship is central to the military’s primary mission of defending the country.”

    Mahaney wrote that if Trump’s actions during his second term meant a change from the centuries of precedent, “military personnel at all levels would face a crucial question: Would they stand up for the military’s independent role in maintaining the integrity and stability of American democracy or follow the president’s orders – even if those orders crossed a line that made them illegal or unconstitutional?”

    Presenting a key question for military personnel.



    Read more:
    Trump’s firings of military leaders pose a crucial question to service members of all ranks

    This story was updated to highlight two articles from The Conversation’s archives.

    – ref. Trump’s West Point speech brought partisanship to the home of the US military − 2 essential reads – https://theconversation.com/trumps-west-point-speech-brought-partisanship-to-the-home-of-the-us-military-2-essential-reads-257673

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –