Category: Academic Analysis

Source: ForeignAffairs4

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Maria Strack, Professor, Department of Geography and Environmental Management, University of Waterloo

Though Canada is often known as a land of lakes, it is also a country of wetlands. Stretching like a necklace of emeralds, sapphires and rubies across the Canadian landscape, wetlands cover 14 per cent of the Canadian land mass, accounting for almost twice as much area as lakes.

Canada is home to a quarter of the world’s remaining wetlands, yet they remain like hidden treasures that most Canadians rarely pay a second thought.

The importance of wetlands to a sustainable future has been recognized internationally. Signed in 1971 in the Iranian city of Ramsar, the Convention on Wetlands — often called the Ramsar Convention — supports international collaboration and national action for the conservation of wetlands.

This week, delegations from contracting parties to the convention, including Canada, have come together in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, for the 15th Conference of the Parties.

Despite decades of efforts, wetlands continue to be under threat around the world. Delegates will work this week to chart a path forward that further elevates wetlands in the global consciousness, highlighting the need to protect these ecosystems and meet international goals to safeguard biodiversity and slow climate warming.

Canada currently has 37 Wetlands of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention, covering more than 13 million hectares. Yet many of Canada’s wetlands remain unprotected.

Canada’s wetlands

The term “wetland” usually conjures an image of a shallow pond bordered by cattails. In fact, Canadian wetlands come in a range of shapes and sizes, all of which provide valuable services. Those reedy marshes provide critically important habitat and water storage, particularly in the Prairies, southern Ontario and Québec.

The vast majority of Canada’s wetlands are made up of swamps, fens and bogs, most of which also hold deep deposits of organic soils called peat. Bogs and fens can resemble vast mossy carpets. But they can also look a lot like forests, hiding their soggy soils beneath a canopy of trees.

This wetland diversity contributes to their value. At the interface of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, wetlands are often biodiversity hotspots.

They are home to weird and wonderful species, including carnivorous plants like sundews, pitcher plants and bladderworts. And if you’re hungry, peatlands are a great place for berry picking.

Interwoven in our boreal landscape, wetlands also support iconic Canadian species like beavers, moose and woodland caribou and are key habitats for waterfowl and other migratory birds.

Preserving wetlands is also a key flood mitigation strategy. Storm water can fill up pore spaces in mossy peat soils, or spread out across the flat expanse of swamps and marshes, reducing peak flows and helping to protect downstream infrastructure. As the water slows, water quality can also be improved. Sediments have time to settle, while plants and microbes can remove excess nutrients.

Carbon storage

In recent decades, wetlands have gained international attention for their role in carbon storage. Waterlogged sediment and soil lead to slow rates of decomposition. When plant litter falls in a wetland, it builds up over time, creating a bank of carbon that can be stored for millennia.

Peatlands are particularly good at accumulating carbon, as they are home to plants that inherently decompose slowly. Because of this, peatlands store twice the carbon of the world’s forests. Keeping this carbon stored in wetland soils, and out of the atmosphere, is important to climate change mitigation.

Yet, the buildup of carbon in wetlands is slow. Many of these ecosystems have been adding to this carbon bank since the last ice age; digging through metres of peat is like travelling back through time, with the deposits at the bottom often thousands of years old.

This means that the carbon stored in wetlands is irrecoverable within human lifetimes. Once lost, it will be many generations before the full value of this treasure can be returned.

The economic value of the water-filtering and carbon storage that Canadian wetlands provide has been estimated at $225 billion per year. It’s clear: healthy wetlands contribute to our society’s well-being.

But just as important, they are an integral component of the Canadian landscape. Wetlands are interwoven with our forests, fields, lakes and now even our cities. They link us to the land and water. They are places of wonder and spiritual connection.

Impact of climate change

Despite their value, wetlands in Canada face many threats. In southern regions of Canada, most wetlands have already been lost to drainage for agriculture and urban development. Further north, up to 98 per cent of Canadian peatlands remain intact.

However, climate change and resource development are already exacerbating wetland disturbance and loss. Warming temperatures have contributed to larger and more severe wildfire that also impact peatlands and lead to large carbon emissions.

Thawing permafrost is further changing wetland landscapes and how they function. Warming also allows for northward expansion of agriculture with the potential for loss of even more wetland area to drainage.

Natural resource extraction further contributes to wetland disturbance, often with unexpected consequences. Geologic exploration used to map oil and gas reserves has left a network of over one million kilometres of linear forest clearing across the boreal forest, much of which crosses peatlands.

Read more:
How climate change is impacting the Hudson Bay Lowlands — Canada’s largest wetland

This has contributed to declines in woodland caribou populations and led to increases in methane emissions from these ecosystems.

Mining often involves regional drainage or excavation of peatlands, resulting in the loss of their services. The recent push to fast-track production of critical minerals in Canada is putting vast areas of our wetlands at risk.

Wetland restoration research is ongoing, with some promising results. However, given the long time-scale of wetland development, avoiding disturbances in the first place is the best way to safeguard wetlands.

As stewards of a quarter of world’s wetland treasures, policymakers and everyday Canadians need to ensure wetlands are safeguarded and preserved for a prosperous future.

Maria Strack receives funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Environment and Climate Change Canada, the Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss Association, Ducks Unlimited Canada, Imperial Oil Ltd., Alberta Pacific Forest Industries Inc., Cenovus Energy, Canadian Natural Resources Limited, ConocoPhillips Canada, Natural Resources Canada, and the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute.

– ref. Canadian wetlands are treasures that deserve protection – https://theconversation.com/canadian-wetlands-are-treasures-that-deserve-protection-261433

Source: ForeignAffairs4

Source: The Conversation – Africa (2) – By Songbo Hu, PhD Candidate, University of Cambridge

Language technologies like generative artificial intelligence (AI) hold significant potential for public health. From outbreak detection systems that scan global news in real time, to chatbots providing mental health support and conversational diagnostic tools improving access to primary care, these innovations are helping address health challenges.

At the heart of these developments is natural language processing, an interdisciplinary field within AI research. It enables computers to interpret, understand and generate human language, bridging the gap between humans and machines. Natural language processing can process and analyse enormous volumes of health data, far more than humans could ever handle manually. This is especially valuable in regions with a stretched healthcare workforce or limited public health surveillance infrastructure, because it enables faster, data-driven responses to public health needs.

Recently, our interdisciplinary team, combining expertise from computer science, human geography and health sciences, conducted a review of studies on how language AI is being used for public health in African countries. Almost a decade’s worth of academic research was analysed, to understand how this powerful technology is being applied to pressing human needs.

Out of 54 research publications, we found that evidence of real-world effects of the technology was still rare. Only 4% of these studies (two out of 54) showed measurable improvements in public health, such as boosting people’s mood or increasing vaccine intentions.

Most projects stop at technology development and publication. Very few advance to real-world use or impact. Opportunities to improve health and well-being across the continent could be missed as a result.

Current limitations

In recent years, AI language technologies for public health have increased rapidly. This wave of technology development really took off as the COVID-19 pandemic renewed attention to public health. Health chatbots and sentiment analysis tools were developed in Africa and beyond.

Health chatbots “talk” to people and provide reliable health information in a friendly, conversational way. Sentiment analysis tools scan social media posts to understand what people are feeling and talking about. Together they can identify misinformation or changes in public opinion and then provide accurate information.

Of course, new technologies come with imperfections. We found that most technologies for public health in Africa exist in just a few languages whose dominance can be traced to colonial times, namely English and French.

The consequences are clear: key health messages fail to reach many communities, leaving millions unable to access or act on essential information.

We also found that few projects have gone beyond the laboratory development stage. Our study found only one system in operation that had a measurable public health effect.

A successful model

This standout example comes from a team at the Center for Global Development and the University of Chicago, in partnership with the Busara Center for Behavioral Economics. Their chatbot, deployed on Facebook Messenger, was designed for people in Kenya and Nigeria who were hesitant about COVID-19 vaccines. It was only available in English.

More than 22,000 social media users used this app, sharing vaccine-related questions and concerns. The chatbot provided tailored, evidence-based responses to topics ranging from vaccine effectiveness and safety to misinformation. Its effect was notable. The intervention boosted users’ intention and willingness to get vaccinated by 4%-5%. The strongest effects were seen among those most hesitant to begin with.

Behind this success was the researchers’ commitment to understanding the local context. Before launching the chatbot, in-depth discussions were held with focus groups and social media users in Kenya and Nigeria. The aim was to learn about the specific worries and cultural factors shaping attitudes toward vaccination.

The chatbot was designed to address these concerns. This user-centred, locally adapted approach enabled the chatbot’s messages to address real barriers. As this example demonstrates, language technologies for public health are most effective when responding to the concerns and needs of the intended users.

From lab to life

These technologies take time and money to be put into practice. The COVID-19 pandemic jump-started development but public health language AI technologies are very new. It could be that a future survey would find a very different situation.

At the same time, advances in large language models such as GPT-4 are rapidly lowering the technical barriers to developing language technologies. These models can often be adapted to new applications with far less data and effort than previous methods. Recent advances could enable small teams of researchers or even individual developers to build tools tailored to the specific needs of their own communities. The path from lab to real-world effects may become much shorter and easier.

Investors, accelerators and state support could help make this transition from lab to life happen.

Technology developers can also contribute by rooting their work in community-driven, multi-disciplinary and cross-sector collaboration. Social science and public health research knowledge and skills can inform the design and development of new technologies.

To maximise the potential of language technologies for public health, the following needs to happen:

• involving communities and health workers in natural language processing design

• expanding provision in indigenous African languages

• integrating language technologies into existing health systems.

Future research and development must move beyond technical prototypes and laboratory tests to rigorous real-world evaluations that measure health outcomes.

The other co-authors behind this research are: Abigail Oppong, Ebele Mogo, Charlotte Collins, and Giulia Occhini.

Songbo Hu currently receives funding from the Cambridge Trust.

Anna Barford currently receives funding from UKRI and the Mastercard Foundation. She has previously received funding from the the British Aacdemy, ESRC, Leverhulme Trust, CPEST, the University of Cambridge, Unilever (via a philanthropic donation to the University) and the Asian Development Bank. Anna is the Co-Director of the Business Fights Poverty Institute and a consultant to the International Labour Organization.

Anna Korhonen receives funding from UKRI, and has previously received funding from MRC, EPSRC, NERC, Royal Society, ERC, and philantrophic donations to the University of Cambridge.

– ref. AI chatbots can boost public health in Africa – why language inclusion matters – https://theconversation.com/ai-chatbots-can-boost-public-health-in-africa-why-language-inclusion-matters-260861

Source: ForeignAffairs4

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Fidele B. Ebia, Postdoctoral fellow, Duke Africa Initiative, Duke University

The manufacturing of African print textiles has shifted to China in the 21st century. While they are widely consumed in African countries – and symbolic of the continent – the rise of “made in China” has undermined the African women traders who have long shaped the retail and distribution of this cloth.

For many decades Vlisco, the Dutch textile group which traces its origins to 1846 and whose products had been supplied to west Africa by European trading houses since the late 19th century, dominated manufacture of the cloth. But in the last 25 years dozens of factories in China have begun to supply African print textiles to west African markets. Qingdao Phoenix Hitarget Ltd, Sanhe Linqing Textile Group and Waxhaux Ltd are among the best known.

We conducted research to establish how the rise of Chinese-made cloth has affected the African print textiles trade. We focused on Togo. Though it’s a tiny country with a population of only 9.7 million, the capital city, Lomé, is the trading hub in west Africa for the textiles.

We conducted over 100 interviews with traders, street sellers, port agents or brokers, government officials and representatives of manufacturing companies to learn about how their activities have changed.

“Made in China” African print textiles are substantially cheaper and more accessible to a wider population than Vlisco fabric. Our market observations in Lomé’s famous Assigamé market found that Chinese African print textiles cost about 9,000 CFA (US$16) for six yards – one complete outfit. Wax Hollandais (50,000 CFA or US$87) cost over five times more.

Data is hard to come by, but our estimates suggest that 90% of imports of these textiles to Lomé port in 2019 came from China.

One Togolese trader summed up the attraction:

Who could resist a cloth that looked similar, but that cost much less than real Vlisco?

Our research shows how the rise of China manufactured cloth has undermined Vlisco’s once dominant market share as well as the monopoly on the trade of Dutch African print textiles that Togolese traders once enjoyed.

The traders, known as Nana-Benz because of the expensive cars they drove, once enjoyed an economic and political significance disproportionate to their small numbers. Their political influence was such that they were key backers of Togo’s first president, Sylvanus Olympio – himself a former director of the United Africa Company, which distributed Dutch cloth.

In turn, Olympio and long-term leader General Gnassingbé Eyadéma provided policy favours – such as low taxes – to support trading activity. In the 1970s, African print textile trade was considered as significant as the phosphate industry – the country’s primary export.

Nana-Benz have since been displaced – their numbers falling from 50 to about 20. Newer Togolese traders – known as Nanettes or “little Nanas” – have taken their place. While they have carved out a niche in mediating the textiles trade with China, they have lower economic and political stature. In turn, they too are increasingly threatened by Chinese competition, more recently within trading and distribution as well.

China displaces the Dutch

Dating back to the colonial period, African women traders have played essential roles in the wholesale and distribution of Dutch cloth in west African markets. As many countries in the region attained independence from the 1950s onwards, Grand Marché – or Assigamé – in Lomé became the hub for African print textile trade.

While neighbouring countries such as Ghana limited imports as part of efforts to promote domestic industrialisation, Togolese traders secured favourable conditions. These included low taxes and use of the port.

Togolese women traders knew the taste of predominantly female, west African customers better than their mostly male, Dutch designers. The Nana-Benz were brought into the African print textile production and design process, selecting patterns and giving names to designs they knew would sell.

They acquired such wealth from this trade that they earned the Nana-Benz nickname from the cars they purchased and which they used to collect and move merchandise.

Nana-Benz exclusivity of trading and retailing of African print textiles cloth in west African markets has been disrupted. As Vlisco has responded to falling revenues – over 30% in the first five years of the 21st century – due to its Chinese competition, Togolese traders’ role in the supply chain of Dutch cloth has been downgraded.

In response to the flood of Chinese imports, the Dutch manufacturer re-positioned itself as a luxury fashion brand and placed greater focus on the marketing and distribution of the textiles.

Vlisco has opened several boutique stores in west and central Africa, starting with Cotonou (2008), Lomé (2008) and Abidjan (2009). The surviving Nana-Benz – an estimated 20 of the original 50 – operate under contract as retailers rather than traders and must follow strict rules of sale and pricing.

While newer Togolese traders known as Nanettes are involved in the sourcing of textiles from China, they have lower economic and political stature. Up to 60 are involved in the trade.

Former street sellers of textiles and other petty commodities, Nanettes began travelling to China in the early to mid-2000s to source African print textiles. They are involved in commissioning and advising on the manufacturing of African print textiles in China and the distribution in Africa.

While many Nanettes order the common Chinese brands, some own and market their own. These include what are now well-known designs in Lomé and west Africa such as “Femme de Caractère”, “Binta”, “Prestige”, “Rebecca Wax”, “GMG” and “Homeland”.

Compared to their Nana-Benz predecessors, the Nanettes carve out their business from the smaller pie available from the sale of cheaper Chinese cloth. Though the volumes traded are large, the margins are smaller due to the much lower final retail price compared to Dutch cloth.

After procuring African print textiles from China, Nanettes sell wholesale to independent local traders or “sellers” as well as traders from neighbouring countries. These sellers in turn break down the bulk they have purchased and sell it in smaller quantities to independent street vendors.

All African print textiles from China arrive in west Africa as an incomplete product – as six-yard or 12-yard segments of cloth, not as finished garments. Local tailors and seamstresses then make clothes according to consumer taste. Some fashion designers have also opened shops where they sell prêt-à-porter (ready-to-wear) garments made from bolts of African print and tailored to local taste. Thus, even though the monopoly of the Nana-Benz has been eroded, value is still added and captured locally.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Chinese actors have become more involved in trading activity – and not just manufacturing. The further evolution of Chinese presence risks an even greater marginalisation of locals, already excluded from manufacturing, from the trading and distribution end of the value chain. Maintaining their role – tailoring products to local culture and trends and linking the formal and informal economy – is vital not just for Togolese traders, but also the wider economy.

Rory Horner receives funding from the British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship. He is also a Research Associate at the Department of Geography, Environmental Management and Energy Studies at the University of Johannesburg.

Fidele B. Ebia 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. Togo’s ‘Nana-Benz’: how cheap Chinese imports of African fabrics has hurt the famous women traders – https://theconversation.com/togos-nana-benz-how-cheap-chinese-imports-of-african-fabrics-has-hurt-the-famous-women-traders-260924

Source: ForeignAffairs4

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Alexander Carpenter, Professor, Musicology, University of Alberta

In 2023, Forbes published an article about Taylor Swift that included the following mind-boggling statistic: 55 per cent of adults in the United States identify themselves as Swift fans.

In the wake of her recent epic world tour — which drew 10 million attendees and earned billions of dollars — Swift has clearly emerged as a modern singer-songwriter whose success and renown has no equal.

The same article reports that 73 per cent of those surveyed insisted that “Swift’s music is a driving force of their support of her.” But the abundant discourse surrounding Taylor Swift in the popular press, academia and online seems to be about everything but her songs.

In place of critical engagement with her musical work, Swift is credited for creating her own economic ecosystem wherever she goes, lauded for being a shrewd and powerful businessperson, described as an empowered and empowering feminist icon or branded a quintessential entertainer.

At this moment, Swift resides at the very apex of modern celebrity culture. Ironically, this makes it especially tricky to engage with Swift as a musician, which is the very basis of her fame.

As a musicologist, music critic and musician who studies and teaches popular music, there are ways to examine the musical meaning of pop songs. These approaches provide useful insights; after all, wasn’t it the music that drew audiences to Swift in the first place?

Studying Swift

Swift is increasingly taken seriously in the halls of academia. A number of universities offer courses dedicated to Swift, but typically not to her music as such: rather, many of these courses take a literary approach to her songs or a broadly sociological approach to her as a pop culture phenomenon, or they foreground her business model.

In his book There’s Nothing Like This, Kevin Evers, senior editor of the Harvard Business Review, regards Swift as a “strategic genius.” He examines how she identifies and exploits untapped markets, making creative and marketing pivots at key moments while protecting her image as a self-made, authentic singer-songwriter.

Evers focuses on non-musical elements when discussing Swift’s songs. He claims that Swift’s fans interpret her lyrics in a manner akin to the literary analysis of complex poems. Swift’s songs intrigue fans, Evers insists, primarily because they offer insight into her personal life, romantic travails and struggles with fame.

Of course, words are an important element of pop songs, and for many fans, the words of a song constitute its “about-ness.” But a pop song is a sonic object, not simply a delivery system for words.

Lyrical discourse analysis

Song lyrics are not poems, although they may be “like poetry,” as musicologist Dai Griffiths has argued. He points out that when we insist on thinking of lyrics as poetry, we lose a systematic understanding of how words function in songs. The placement and sound of words, and how they relate to the music, are key elements of a song’s musical structure and sense.

It is this discussion of the musical sense and meaning of Swift’s songs that is largely neglected.

The academic study of classical music offers a wealth of analytic methodologies; there are ways to examine the musical meaning of pop songs that do not over-analyze the song. These include looking at elements like form, orchestration, melody, harmony and rhythm.

A song creates space: its formal layout and the rhythm of musical phrases provide the space for words — what Griffiths calls the “verbal space” — which have their own rhythms and structures and work within but also push against the boundaries of this space.

Form and space

Consider Swift’s chart-topping 2014 single, “Shake it Off,” re-released as “Shake it Off (Taylor’s Version)” in 2023. This song, while popular, was criticized for its repetitiveness and lack of emotional depth.

“Shake it Off” doesn’t seem to have much lyrical content: the verses are short, rounded off with simple slant rhymes, and much of the created space seems to be filled with repetition: “I’m just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake/Shake it off, shake it off.”

Likewise, the song is built musically on some very basic and limited material, namely three chords, a short, unvaried drum loop and a spare bass line provided by a baritone saxophone.

The lyrics touch lightly on Swift’s response to fame and her critics, but it is their syllabic density that contributes to the song’s development and momentum. This gradually and sytematically increases over the first two verses and pre-chorus, until arriving at the chorus, where the space is filled almost completely.

The density of the music also increases in the choruses, with a thicker bass part, added vocals and a brass fanfare.

While “Shake it Off” is repetitive with little harmonic and melodic variety, it is also quite subtly counterbalanced with a variety of sounds, textures and densities. These move the song forward and importantly, help mark off the song’s formal sections.

These compositional and production details contribute to the song’s overall meaning. But how the words participate in the unfolding of the song-as-music, or the creation and shaping of the musical space, is also meaningful. The thrust of the lyrics emphasize Swift’s detachment from gossip and criticism: “I never miss a beat/I’m lightnin’ on my feet” and “But I keep cruisin’/Can’t stop, won’t stop groovin’”.

These lyrics are reinforced by the propulsive musical momentum of the song created by the gradual thickening of the text and music. Even with this thickening, the song still remains quite light, emphasizing the lyrical claims of detachment and distance from negativity.

The chorus, by contrast, with its deeply resonant bass, layers of background vocals and added brass, is musically the heaviest part of the song, underwriting Swift’s assertive claim that she will “shake off” the lies and gossip that plague her as a celebrity pop star.

Understanding Swift’s success

Collecting some musical information about Swift’s songs is not an abstract or intellectual activity; rather, it is essential information if we want to better understand Swift and her success in terms of her song writing.

I’m not making an argument here for or against Swift’s music; I’m neither a “Swiftie” nor a detractor. Nor have I offered anything like a comprehensive or definitive analysis of a song in this short article.

But I do think we should be curious and better understand Swift’s success, especially the popularity of her music across generations and demographics. How her songs are actually put together — how they work as music, in tandem with words, to tell stories — is an essential part of that understanding.

Alexander Carpenter 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. Understanding how Taylor Swift constructs her songs helps explain her phenomenal popularity – https://theconversation.com/understanding-how-taylor-swift-constructs-her-songs-helps-explain-her-phenomenal-popularity-247855

Source: ForeignAffairs4

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Sean Spence, Security Risk Management Pracitioner & Researcher, Royal Military College of Canada

In April 2025, a man drove an SUV through a crowd of people attending a Filipino cultural festival in Vancouver, killing 11 people and injuring dozens more. In response, the British Columbia government immediately commissioned an inquiry to examine the systemic causes of the incident and whether any lessons could be learned from the tragedy.

Read more:
Vancouver SUV attack exposes crowd management falldowns and casts a pall on Canada’s election

The commission came up with six recommendations based on gaps in the current municipal application and approval system for public events across the province.

One key recommendation was that all public events should be required to complete a risk assessment. This isn’t currently happening across the province. The absence of such analysis poses a risk for public safety.

Another recommendation was the creation of local knowledge capacity to support event organizers, particularly for small and rural events, where the expertise to conduct a basic security risk assessment is lacking.

Forseeable tragedy?

As I argued in August 2022, the live events industry lacks the same level of professionalism as other occupations. Many of these small event organizers are amateurs who lack the resources to properly deal with the security risks involved in holding their events.

Read more:
Canada could have its own Fyre Festival fiasco if it doesn’t amp up event regulations

These factors, combined with emerging security risks, meant that the tragedy at the Lapu Lapu festival could be considered a foreseeable event given the risk realities associated with modern mass gatherings.

The inquiry report highlighted how B.C. is lagging behind other international jurisdictions in terms of legislative pro-activeness in securing public events. This policy deficiency is actually a Canada-wide problem; the country is woefully behind other western nations when it comes to securing public events.

My doctoral thesis examined this very issue when I compared the regulation and application process to host public events in Canada and Australia’s largest cities.

Australia vs. Canada

Firstly, it’s important to note that Canada is a less safe country in terms of security than Australia, all things considered equal. Canada’s porous border with the United States means more illegal firearms are entering the country, resulting in more gun violence than in Australia, where there are more restrictive gun ownership laws.

The Lapu Lapu attack was not investigated as an act of terrorism, but in a related concern, Canada’s intelligence-gathering and national security laws place it at a counter-terrorism disadvantage compared to Australia.

Relatively speaking, research suggests Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms hinders its security services from being able to detect and investigate terrorism-related offences given the greater importance placed on individual rights compared to Australia, where there is no such Charter equivalent.

Australia also has pro-active foreign intelligence collection capabilities to aid in its counter-terrorism efforts, while Canada’s CSIS agency only has domestic capabilities. That essentially requires it to import intelligence from its allies.

Given these facts, it would seem plausible that Canada would be at greater risk for security threats at public events — including terrorist attacks, active shooters, etc. — than Australia.

When I compared the data between both countries in my research, it suggested Australia has more public event regulation than Canada.

It was quantitatively shown that Australian officials require risk assessments and other proactive measures from event organizers, including for risk mitigation, while Canadian officials are mostly concerned with reactive security response plans — in other words, determining how organizers would respond to attacks after they occurred.

An analysis of event application documents in both countries reveal that Australian municipalities disproportionately emphasize “risk management” in approving events compared to Canadian municipalities.

Three ways the B.C. report falls short

The B.C. report missed out on examining several important elements.

Firstly, it did not take a holistic, deep dive into just how vulnerable public events are to myriad security threats — like active shooters, crowd crushing and terrorist attacks — but instead focused solely on the hostile vehicle threat.

It also failed to consider the urgency of governments to adopt policy changes in the face of emerging threats on public spaces, like drone attacks.

Secondly, the report made no mention of the need for law enforcement to develop stronger ties to share intelligence with event organizers as a proactive measure to protect mass gathering events from violence. The Hamas attacks at a music festival in Israel in October 2023 highlight the worst outcome of such failures.

Read more:
How Israel underestimated Hamas’s intelligence capabilities – an expert reviews the evidence

Lastly, there was no call for action or recommendation for the federal government to play a greater role in providing guidance to the industry and lower levels of government.

National security is a federal issue as well as the regulation of airspace for drones. In countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States, the national government provides guidance on protecting public spaces. There is no such policy leadership in Canada.

The B.C. findings show Canadian authorities have a lot of work to do to make public events safer for Canadians. With the FIFA World Cup coming to Canada next year, Canadian governments still have time to implement corrective actions to ensure soccer fans stay safe.

Sean Spence provides security consulting services within the hospitality industry.

– ref. What Canada can learn from Australia on adequately protecting citizens at live events – https://theconversation.com/what-canada-can-learn-from-australia-on-adequately-protecting-citizens-at-live-events-261161

Source: ForeignAffairs4

Source: The Conversation – USA (3) – By Güneş Murat Tezcür, Professor and Director of the School of Politics and Global Studies, Arizona State University

In July 2025, clashes between the Druze religious minority and Sunni Arabs backed by government-affiliated forces led to hundreds of deaths in Sweida province in southern Syria. Israel later launched dozens of airstrikes in support of the Druze.

This eruption of violence was an eerie reminder of what had unfolded in March 2025 when supporters of the fallen regime led by Bashar Assad, an Alawite, targeted security units. In retaliation, militias affiliated with the newly formed government in Damascus carried out indiscriminate killings of Alawites.

While exact figures remain difficult to verify, more than 1,300 individuals, most of them Alawites, lost their lives. In some cases, entire families were summarily executed.

Although the Syrian government promised an investigation into the atrocities, home invasions, kidnappings of Alawite women and extrajudicial executions of Alawite men continue.

The violence in Sweida also bore a sectarian dimension, pitting members of a religious minority against armed groups aligned with the country’s Sunni majority.

A key difference, however, involved the active Israeli support for the Druze and the U.S. efforts to broker a ceasefire.

Post-Assad Syria has seen promising developments, including the lifting of international sanctions, a resurgence of civil society and the end of diplomatic isolation. There was even a limited rapprochement with the main Kurdish political party controlling northeastern Syria.

The persistent violence targeting the Alawites and, to a more limited extent, the Druze, starkly contrasts with these trends. As a scholar of religious minorities and the Middle East, I argue that the current political situation reflects their historical persecution and marginalization.

History of the Alawites

The Alawites emerged as a distinct religious community in the 10th century in the region of the Latakia coastal mountains, which today make up northwestern Syria.

Although their beliefs have some commonalities with Shiite Islam, the Alawites maintain their own unique religious leadership and rituals. Under the Ottoman regime in the late 19th century, they benefited from reforms such as the expansion of educational opportunities and economic modernization, while gaining geographical and social mobility.

After Hafez Assad, the father of Bashar, came to power in a coup in 1970, he drew upon his Alawite base to reinforce his regime. Consequently, Alawites became disproportionately represented in the officer corps and intelligence services.

Prior to the civil war, which began in 2011, their population was estimated at around 2 million, constituting roughly 10% of Syria’s population. During the civil war, Alawite young men fighting for the regime suffered heavy casualties. However, most Alawites remained in Syria, while Sunni Arabs and Kurds were disproportionately displaced or became refugees.

Among Syria’s minorities, two key factors make the Alawites most vulnerable to mass violence in post-Assad Syria. The first factor is that, like the Druze, Alawites have their own distinct beliefs that deviate from Sunni Islam. Their religious practices and teachings are often described as “esoteric” and remain mostly inaccessible to outsiders.

In my 2024 book “Liminal Minorities: Religious Difference and Mass Violence in Muslim Societies,” I categorize the Alawites and Druze in Syria alongside Yezidis in Iraq, Alevis in Turkey and Baha’is in Iran as “liminal minorities” – religious groups subject to deep-seated stigmas transmitted across generations.

These groups are often treated as heretics who split from Islam and whose beliefs and rituals are deemed beyond the pale of acceptance. For instance, according to Alawite beliefs, Ali, the son-in-law of Prophet Muhammad, is a divine manifestation of God, which challenges the idea of strict monotheism central to Sunni Islam.

From the perspective of Sunni orthodoxy, these groups’ beliefs have been a source of suspicion and disdain. A series of fatwas by prominent Sunni clerics from the 14th to the 19th century declared Alawites heretics.

Resentment against the Alawites

The second factor contributing to the Alawites’ vulnerability is the widespread perception that they were the main beneficiaries of the Assad regime, which engaged in mass murder against its own citizens. Although power remained narrowly concentrated under Assad, many Alawites occupied key positions in the security apparatus as well as the government.

In today’s political landscape where the central government remains weak and its control over various armed groups is limited, religious stigmatization and political resentment create fertile ground for mass violence targeting the Alawites.

The massacres of March 2025 were accompanied by sectarian hate speech, including open calls for the extermination of the Alawites, both in the streets and on social media.

While many Sunni Muslims in Syria also perceive the Druze as heretics, they maintained a greater degree of distance from the Assad regime and were less integrated into its security apparatus.

Nonetheless, in recent months the situation deteriorated rapidly in the Druze heartland. The Druze militias and local Bedouin tribes engaged in heavy fighting in July 2025. Unlike the Alawites, the Druze received direct military assistance from Israel, which has its small but influential Druze population. This further complicates peaceful coexistence among religious groups in post-Assad Syria.

A sober future

Sunni Arab identity is central to the newly formed government in Damascus, which can come at the expense of religious and ethnic pluralism. However, it has incentives to rein in arbitrary violence against the Alawites and Druze. Projecting itself as a source of order and national unity helps the government internationally, both diplomatically and economically.

Internally, however, the new government remains fractured and lacks effective control over vast swaths of territory. While it pays lip service to transitional justice, it is also cautious about being perceived as overly lenient toward individuals associated with the Assad regime and its crimes. Meanwhile, Alawite and Druze demands for regional autonomy continue to stoke popular Sunni resentments and risk triggering further cycles of instability and violence.

I believe that in a post-Assad Syria defined by fractured governance and episodic retribution, the Alawites as well as Druze are likely to face deepening marginalization.

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

– ref. Understanding the violence against Alawites and Druze in Syria after Assad – https://theconversation.com/understanding-the-violence-against-alawites-and-druze-in-syria-after-assad-255292

Source: ForeignAffairs4

Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Corey Hutchins, Manager, Colorado College Journalism Institute, Colorado College

Over the years, the crisis facing local news has meant the disappearance of reporting on the arts, politics, sports and local government.

Newspapers have disappeared from many local communities, and the ranks of individual local journalists have plummeted over the past two decades.

The retrenchment has also led to a loss of something else: reporters and columnists at local news organizations who decades ago regularly focused on their local media as a beat.

There are very few of them left.

I’m an instructor at Colorado College, where I manage the Journalism Institute. I also compulsively keep track of our state’s shifting media landscape.

Recently, I produced a nationwide study called “Local News as a Public Good: Increasing Visibility Through University-Led Statewide Newsletters.”

The Center for Community News at the University of Vermont solicited and published the report. The goal was to find out who is doing similar work and where.

The Center for Community News is interested in fostering partnerships between academic programs and local newsrooms. The center is also seeking to find other ways higher-ed institutions are supporting their state’s media ecosystem — so they were especially interested in media newsletters being produced at a college or university.

Few state-based newsletters

The problem is, there weren’t many to track. I found just six, including my own, while researching for the report.

Very few states, it turns out, “have a dedicated publication, site, or newsletter that regularly and independently reports on and analyzes ongoing developments in the local media scene,” the report found.

My own weekly Substack newsletter is called “Inside the News in Colorado.” Each week, I report on, comment on and analyze the goings on in Colorado’s media scene. I connect local developments to what’s happening nationally, and I explore what makes the state’s local news ecosystem unique.

My newsletter also pokes and prods, critiques and uplifts, and seeks to spark debate and a better understanding about the practice of local journalism. And it maintains a weekly running tab on the health of the state’s media landscape.

Other newsletters across the country include NC Local, authored by Catherine Komp. The Newsroom Digest, out of the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University in New Jersey, is another. Gateway Journalism Review from Southern Illinois University Carbondale’s School of Journalism, in the College of Arts and Media made the list. And Media Nation by Northeastern University professor Dan Kennedy in Massachusetts is another.

Kennedy has been producing Media Nation for more than 20 years and writes more about national media issues. But he mixes it with plenty of local and regional happenings.

If someone were to, say, leak an internal email from The Boston Globe, it is likely they would do so with Media Nation.

The NC Local newsletter’s format is a mix of digestible roundups and some original reporting.

A recurring item titled “Well Done” offers “noteworthy work from the NC news & information ecosystem.” The most-clicked links each week tend to come from a bulletin board section where Komp rounds up job postings and opportunities.

The chunky Newsroom Digest newsletter highlights notable local journalism in New Jersey. It comes with a “Media Moves” section that introduces its audience to new local journalists and tracks newsroom personnel changes.

While they differ in style and delivery, each is filling a gap in coverage in their state or region by reporting on an important industry: their own.

“When I was at the (Boston) Phoenix, I think all of us at the alternative press thought big local media were a powerful local institution that ought to be held to account just like big business and everything else,” Media Nation’s Kennedy said for the report.

Where to house the news about the news?

I believe colleges and universities make good places to produce these kinds of state-based media newsletters.

Journalism departments in particular are likely equipped to run them, especially if they have practitioners on the faculty. They are outside of a state’s established media organizations but also adjacent to them.

Richard Watts, the director of the Center for Community News, commissioned the “Local News as a Public Good” study. He says there are important reasons for more newsletters consistently reporting on local media in individual states.

“They draw attention to the key role local news plays by writing about the stories and the impact of those stories,” he said. “They help amplify and they showcase the importance of the media ecosystem for a vibrant democracy.”

Furthermore, such newsletters can serve as the “canary in the coal mine to draw attention to media platforms in trouble, or actions by unscrupulous owners,” Watts added. “And they can share ideas and best practices across the system to help strengthen individual media platforms. And, lastly, they help create a community of stakeholders committed to the importance of a free press.”

To that end, the Center for Community News at the University of Vermont is looking to help anyone in a higher-ed program who might be interested in launching a state-based media newsletter.

“I think a really good person to do something like this is, first, someone who is doing more than just reporting on the industry or ecosystem,” said Komp of NC Local in the Center for Community News study.

“It does need to be somebody who is engaging with journalists, with publishers, with journalism educators, with students, with funders, in ways that are not just reporting on what’s happening but in ways that are looking to always find solutions and address challenges.”

Read more of our stories about Colorado.

Corey Hutchins consults for the Center for Community News at the University of Vermont where he is working on a project to help colleges and universities create state-based media newsletters.

– ref. I teach college and report on Colorado media — there should be more professors doing the same in other states – https://theconversation.com/i-teach-college-and-report-on-colorado-media-there-should-be-more-professors-doing-the-same-in-other-states-260891

Source: ForeignAffairs4

Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Erran Carmel, Professor of Business, American University Kogod School of Business

In the first months of Donald Trump’s second term as president, his policies – from sweeping tariffs and aggressive immigration enforcement to attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion – have thrown U.S. businesses into turmoil, leading to a 26-point decline in CEO confidence.

Yet despite this volatility, many American corporations have remained notably restrained in their public responses.

This might come as a surprise. After all, in recent decades, CEOs have become increasingly willing to speak out about social and political issues. But while some universities and law firms have publicly pushed back against the Trump administration, business leaders are seemingly opting for caution.

What would it take for these titans of corporate America to speak out against Trump’s policies? We are a professor and a graduate student who study business, and back in 2018, one of us – Dr. Carmel – conducted an analysis asking this very question. More recently, we gathered new data looking at how business leaders are responding to Trump’s second term.

The 2018 analysis, involving data from about 200 leading U.S. CEOs, found that most business leaders remained publicly neutral on Trump, and only a handful expressed strong opposition. Silence was often a strategic choice, with many leaders staying mum due to fear of retaliation. The evidence also suggested that Trump could one day cross a line that would prompt a broader CEO backlash.

Seven years later, that line hasn’t yet appeared, even as Trump’s footprint on corporate America is now far more direct and substantial.

Most notable are Trump’s tariffs, first announced in April 2025, which have roiled global markets and unnerved CEOs. And there are many other ripples: Some companies, such as CBS’ parent company, Paramount – which is seeking the Trump administration’s approval for a merger – have decided to self-censor. Others, including Disney and Meta, gave in to Trump’s lawsuits and paid multimillion-dollar settlements, against the counsel of many outside experts. CEOs also have to deal with the threat of backlash from both the right and left.

Against this backdrop, we collected new public data to see how corporate leaders are responding to the second Trump administration. Just as in 2018, we examined the 232 companies that make up the Business Roundtable – a club of the most powerful American businesses.

We assessed the actions that these companies took regarding DEI and whether they experienced any backlash. We focused on these criteria as a way to assess whether CEOs are seeking either to support or placate Trump, or to stand on other principles. We also collected other data, including public statements from CEOs and campaign donations.

DEI as a bellwether

Corporate DEI actions were an early, useful way to gauge a business’s stances, since, from the outset, the Trump administration identified DEI as a “scourge” to be eliminated. Although the White House’s anti-DEI directives have applied to the executive branch and federal contractors, some private businesses rushed to make changes as well.

By May, just a bit over 100 days into Trump’s second term, a significant number of companies had decided to go along with Trump’s preferences. Sixty-nine of the 232 companies in the Business Roundtable rolled back their DEI initiatives in some way, while just 20 companies announced that they kept their DEI programs in place. There’s no information either way on the remaining 61% – likely because they decided it’s better to stay out of the news.

DEI-related actions have tapered off since May, but there’s still an impact. For example, the Federal Communications Commission pressured T-Mobile to eliminate DEI. Only then was its merger approved.

Companies that scaled back their DEI initiatives sometimes pointed to the political environment as a factor. Meta, for example, said in an internal memo that it was ending its DEI efforts due to a “shifting legal and policy landscape.” Other companies, including Verizon and Comcast, reportedly rolled back DEI programs because they feared legal action by the federal government.

Some corporations announced changes through internal announcements, legal filings or quiet updates to their websites, suggesting they want to stay out of the media spotlight.

A small number of Business Roundtable companies stood firm on their DEI policies – to mixed results. When Marriott’s CEO voiced support for DEI at a corporate leadership event, he reportedly received 40,000 appreciative emails from employees. On the other hand, after Coca-Cola reiterated its “commitment to sponsoring an inclusive workplace,” the right-wing activist Robby Starbuck — who The New York Times has described as “the anti-DEI agitator that companies fear most” – said Coca-Cola “should be very nervous about continuing with its woke policies.”

Bracing for backlash

Overall, 22% of Business Roundtable companies saw some sort of backlash to their actions. Most came from the political right: 36 companies were called out by conservatives, another eight by progressives, and eight more faced bipartisan backlash.

With more than three years left in Trump’s second term, it’s worth asking what lies ahead. We think the most likely scenario is that companies will continue to try to stay off the president’s radar and placate him when they must. After all, following the split with Elon Musk, Trump quite explicitly threatened to use presidential powers to hurt Musk’s businesses. Any CEO gets the implications.

While our analysis primarily focused on social issues, policies at the business core may push U.S. companies to confront Trump. Tariff policy is a prime example. Back in April, major retailers like Walmart quietly warned Trump that tariffs could lead to empty shelves and higher prices. More recently, the CEO of Goldman Sachs publicly warned that tariffs “have raised the level of uncertainty to a degree I do not think is healthy for investment and growth.”

These are voices of criticism – but worded quite softly.

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

– ref. Caution in the C-suite: How business leaders are navigating Trump 2.0 – https://theconversation.com/caution-in-the-c-suite-how-business-leaders-are-navigating-trump-2-0-260557