If you’ve ever tried discussing medicines with friends or family and found yourself stumbling over the pronunciation — or even resorting to snapping a photo of the medicine’s packaging to show your pharmacist, instead of remembering the name — you’ve probably wondered: where do drug names come from, and why can’t they be easier to remember?
Occasionally, drug names are short and snappy. But more often, they seem more like something from Greek or Norse mythology. While these names may seem overwhelming at first, they’re chosen with purpose, not as a way for big pharma to show off.
Naming a new drug can resemble watching a yacht race or an American football game for the first time — chaotic and confusing, with rules and a structure that only those involved truly understand. To the untrained eye, it might seem random, but there’s a method to the madness. So, how are these names chosen?
Most drugs typically have three names: a chemical name, a generic name, and a brand name. Each serves a different purpose.
An example of this is the branded drug Viagra. Its generic name is sildenafil and its chemical name is 5-[2-ethoxy-5-(4-methylpiperazin-1-ylsulfonyl)phenyl]-1-methyl-3-propyl-1,6-dihydro-7H-pyrazolo[4,3-d]pyrimidin-7-one.
In this example, it is clear why the chemical name is not practical for everyday use. But why have a brand name and a generic name?
The brand name is assigned by the pharmaceutical company that develops, patents and markets the medicine. These names are chosen to be catchy and easy to remember, helping in marketing and recognition. They are usually easy to pronounce.
Once a patent expires, other manufacturers can market the same drug under a generic name, as long as it meets the same standards of quality, safety and effectiveness.
To avoid confusion
Generic names were introduced in the 1950s and are the official, non-proprietary names for the active drug. Each drug has only one generic name, which ensures clear communication and standardisation worldwide.
Pharmaceutical companies must follow strict guidelines when naming drugs, which are set by the World Health Organization’s (WHO) International Non-proprietary Names system.
In the US, the United States Adopted Names Council assigns generic drug names in collaboration with the WHO. This ensures that drugs with similar functions have similar-sounding names.
Generic drug names often incorporate stems or suffixes that denote the drug’s mechanism of action, chemical structure or target receptor, and a prefix that differentiates it from drugs in the same family.
This is why lots of drug names share the same ending. Examples include cholesterol medicines ending in -statin, Ace inhibitors for reducing blood pressure ending in -pril, monoclonal antibody drugs ending in -mab, and tyrosine kinase inhibitors (mainly used in cancer treatment) ending in -tinib.
Despite all of this, there are still lots of drugs that are easy to mix up. Medicines that look or sound alike (known in the field as “Lasa medicines”) are a leading contributor to medication errors. So, recognising where there is risk is important.
It is particularly important to consider the sound of the name and not just how it appears when written. Examples of Lasa medicines are Losec (omeprazole) and Lasix (furosemide), and Maprocin (ciprofloxacin) and Macrocin (erythromycin). To avoid confusion, prescriptions and labels include both the brand and generic names to help differentiate between similar-sounding medications.
Patients should be educated about their medicines and how to use them, including the importance of checking the name and appearance of the medication before taking it.
Protein intake dominates fitness advice. Whether you want to build muscle, improve your fitness or watch your weight, the common advice handed out by everyone from fitness influencers to doctors is that we need more protein.
But while protein does play an essential role in maintaining our muscle mass and overall health, all this increased attention on the importance of protein in the media and fitness circles has sparked a surge in products marketed specifically for their protein content. Some chocolate bars, ice cream, pizza, coffee and even alcoholic beverages now market themselves as protein foods.
But our enthusiasm for protein might have gone too far. While protein is certainly important for our health, most of us don’t need these protein-enhanced foods as a regular feature in our diet. Not to mention that this marketing may lead to a “halo effect,” where consumers mistakenly equate high protein content with overall nutritional value. This effect can lead to the perception of protein-rich foods being inherently nutritious – even though many may not be.
There’s also a strong body of evidence that suggests the amount of protein we need changes depending on our health. For instance, people need to eat more protein when they’re recovering from an illness. Research also shows that older adults should be aiming for at least 1.2g per kg of body weight in order to combat age-related muscle loss.
Athletes also need to eat a greater amount of protein to support their training and recovery. Moreover, with the rising popularity of weight-loss drugs, strategies increasingly emphasise protein intake to minimise muscle loss while losing weight.
But just because protein is good for maintaining muscle mass, that doesn’t mean more is better. In fact, it seems that even when we consume large amounts of protein, only a some of this is actually used by the body.
Most of us probably need a little more protein than current guidelines suggest, but less than is often promoted by wellness influencers on social media (with some even suggesting we need up to 3g of protein per kg of body weight).
Ironically, the necessary amount of protein suggested by emerging evidence (1.2g-1.6g per kg of body weight per day) is close to what the average protein consumption already is in most western countries.
Most people can probably benefit from being more protein aware – not about how much protein they’re consuming, but about the quality and frequency of their protein choices. Ideally, we should aim to consume small amounts of protein-rich foods more often during the day.
Current evidence suggests around 20g-30g of protein (around a handful of a protein source) at each meal supports muscle maintenance alongside physical activity.
In an ideal world, this protein would come from whole foods (such as nuts, seeds, milk, eggs and legumes). But fortified protein products may have their space as a quick and easy snack – especially for those who may struggle to eat this much protein at each meal. It’s important to eat these foods in moderation, however.
Ultra-processed products
Supermarkets are full of “protein-enhanced” products. But while these products may contain additional protein, they may also contain additional sugars or carbohydrates.
For example, protein milk often contains double the protein of regular milk. It does this by removing water or adding dried milk.
Protein bars are another example. But depending on the brand you choose, alongside their additional protein content they may also be high in sugar.
Many protein-fortified products share another common trait: they fall into the category of ultra-processed foods. Ultra-processed foods are commercially made products that include ingredients you wouldn’t typically find in your own kitchen.
Research shows regularly consuming ultra-processed foods is consistently linked with poorer health outcomes – such as cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. Current discussions around ultra-processed foods suggests uncertainty regarding whether it’s the processing itself, the poor nutritional quality of these foods or the combination of both of these factors that contribute to these negative health outcomes.
Another issue with protein-enhanced products is that while they do indeed contain extra protein, some products may lack fibre, vitamins and essential minerals. A lack of fibre in modern diets is currently one of the biggest contributors to population-wide ill-health.
All foods have their place within a balanced diet. But protein is only one component of overall nutritional health. The rise in protein-fortified foods as health foods is concerning.
Protein-enhanced products are occasional foods that might support meeting protein intake, but they should not be mistaken for universally healthy foods. For people looking to reach their protein goals, choose a variety of protein sources, consider the role of convenience foods within the context of whole diet and think about other nutrients like fibre to really maximise health.
Aisling Pigott receives funding from RCBC Wales (as part of Health Care Research Wales)
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Dale Pankhurst, PhD Candidate and Tutor in the School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics, Queen’s University Belfast
Colombia has experienced an upsurge in political and criminal violence over the past few months. In late February, the National Liberation Army (ELN) leftist guerrilla insurgent group carried out four bombings in Cúcuta, a city on the border with Venezuela. Several people were left injured by the attacks, and 1,200 soldiers were subsequently deployed across the city.
Then, in early March, dissidents from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) Marxist-Leninist rebel group captured 29 members of the security forces in the Cauca region, including a police lieutenant colonel and an army major. The renegade faction expressed anger at government efforts to eradicate 8,000 hectares of coca in the area.
Colombia’s fragile peace process, in which the government has sought to bring the country’s multiple armed groups to the negotiating table, looks to be in danger. Some leftist insurgent groups remain active, while drug cartels and offshoots of Colombia’s former right-wing paramilitaries, such as the Clan del Golfo, continue to expand their influence.
Colombia suffered Latin America’s longest-running insurgency. In the 1960s, Farc emerged with the goal of overthrowing the Colombian state and establishing a communist government.
It wasn’t until the late 1990s, when the drug trade emerged as a funding source, that the Farc insurgency became a serious threat to Colombia’s government. Farc took over large parts of rural Colombia, forcing state control to retreat to the urban centres of regional towns and cities. By 2001, Farc was operating in the periphery of Colombia’s capital, Bogotá.
At the same time, the Colombian security forces also battled other left-wing insurgent forces. These included the 19th of April Movement (M-19), the Popular Liberation Army (EPL) and the ELN, which is now Colombia’s largest active guerrilla insurgent group.
In response to the revolutionary Marxist threat, anti-insurgent paramilitaries coalesced under the banner of the United Self-Defense Forces. These paramilitary groups both collaborated and conflicted with the state, before the vast majority disbanded through a government demobilisation programme between 2002 and 2006.
It is estimated that the decades-long armed conflict in Colombia resulted in the deaths of over a quarter of a million people, with many more injured and displaced from their homes. Tens of thousands are still missing.
The insurgency was officially brought to an end in 2016, when the Colombian government signed a peace agreement with Farc. The group was to be demobilised, victims of the conflict would receive justice, and the government promised significant investment in rural areas previously under Farc control.
It also guaranteed seats for former Farc rebels in the Colombian Senate and House of Representatives for two terms, starting in 2018. In its new incarnation as a political party, Farc would then have to secure seats through engaging in elections.
Despite the peace agreement and demobilisation programmes, there are a variety of armed groups across Colombia still intent on collapsing the peace process. The ELN, for example, has rejected every peace deal since its inception in 1964.
It continues to carry out attacks and seeks to control territory throughout Colombia, particularly in regions where the drug trade proliferates. In 2019, the ELN carried out a suicide car bombing at the General Santander National Police Academy in Bogotá, killing 21 people as police cadets readied for their graduation ceremony.
Several Farc fronts also rejected the 2016 peace agreement and formed their own dissident factions, including the so-called Central General Staff and the Segunda Marquetalia. Farc dissidents and the ELN have clashed over the years, but have both used neighbouring Venezuela as a launch pad to conduct attacks into Colombia.
Demobilised Farc combatants face assassinations and threats from dissident rebel factions who view former militants that are now pro-peace as traitors. These threats may encourage some demobilised groups to rearm in the future.
Alongside the growing insurgent threat, Colombia’s security forces are also dealing with neo-paramilitary factions which are, like the remaining dissident guerrillas, heavily involved in drug trafficking.
Groups such as the Clan del Golfo seek to generate wealth and power through criminality while also attacking rebel groups such as the ELN and Farc dissidents. These neo-paramilitary groups have an estimated membership of 6,000 volunteers spread throughout Colombia.
Establishing ‘total peace’
Following the 2022 election of Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, a new peace strategy was announced that was designed to disarm and demobilise the remaining leftist insurgents, neo-paramilitary factions and organised crime cartels. Petro, himself a former M-19 guerrilla and the country’s first leftist president, sought to use his plan for “total peace” to end Colombia’s remaining violent campaigns.
It was hoped that peace talks between Petro’s government and rebel factions may have produced better outcomes than previous attempts due to Petro’s left-wing politics and his history as a rebel combatant in the 1980s. However, attempts at establishing peace have repeatedly collapsed.
The decision by the US president, Donald Trump, to cut foreign aid to Colombia has also heightened fears that groups such as the ELN will benefit as a result. The funding that has been slashed primarily focused on helping communities living in poverty and isolation as well as supporting anti-gang and pro-peace programmes.
Government initiatives to secure peace continue to stall. But community organisations at a regional and local level have achieved success in transitioning demobilised combatants back into civilian life.
Groups such as the Medellín-based Peace Classrooms Foundation have used the experiences of former paramilitary members and rebels to warn of the dangers of violence. These groups may hold the key to addressing some of the social injustices that encourage dissent and violence in Colombia.
The continued violence in Colombia should remind anyone with an interest in wanting peace to succeed that the internal armed conflict is far from settled.
Dale Pankhurst 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.
When we hear about immigration from politicians and media across Europe, the story is almost always negative. In some countries, this is old news. The UK tabloid press has printed thousands of anti-migrant articles over the last two decades. Anti-immigrant rhetoric has been a feature of Danish politics since the early 1990s. In contrast, Viktor Orban’s extreme, racist and Islamophobic rhetoric – adopted largely from 2015 – marks Hungary out as a relative newcomer.
Across Europe, refugees and other migrants are routinely represented as a problem or “crisis”. It would be natural to assume, then, that the public feels the same way – that attitudes to immigration are negative, possibly worsening. Politicians routinely imply this when they say they must introduce strict immigration rules in response to public concerns.
Opinion polls regularly show that the European public disapprove of the government’s handling of immigration and may see levels as too high. But long-term European Social Survey (ESS) data – the latest of which came out at the end of 2024 – shows positive trends.
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At ODI Europe, my colleagues and I have been studying public attitudes and political narratives around migration across Europe for five years. Our analysis has found that, compared to 20 years ago, more Europeans (in many, but not all countries) feel immigration makes their country a better place to live.
Positive attitudes have particularly increased in Ireland, the UK, Norway, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland. Similar positive trends emerge when the public is asked about the economic and cultural impacts of immigration.
The UK is among the countries with the least anti-immigration views in Europe. While in 2002-03 only 27% of the British public felt immigration had a positive impact on the economy, this has jumped to 66% in 2023-24. However, it is a drop from the 69% who felt immigration had a positive economic impact in the previous survey round (2020-22).
The UK also topped the table in the last World Values Survey as a country that is highly accepting of immigration and particularly welcoming of the cultural diversity it brings.
The Migration Observatory finds that a majority of the British public favours making immigration easier for workers coming into the NHS, care work and other jobs where there are shortages.
Researchers from the think tank British Future have found that most of the public would prefer current levels of international student migration to stay the same or increase. International students currently make up 40% of net migration to the country.
Why the differences?
The disparity between what we hear about public attitudes and what the data actually shows merits some explanation.
We know that people’s attitudes on migration are largely stable, based on deeply held values and mainly formed when young. People’s attitudes are relatively slow to change. Generational change is likely key to explaining the long-term positive trends in this area. On the other hand, the salience of immigration – whether the public see immigration as a top issue of concern – can fluctuate dramatically, driven by media attention and political narratives.
This sounds incongruous given the rise of the far right in some European countries. However, we know that austerity policies, economic insecurity and economic decline are key factors driving the far-right vote.
Researchers have also uncovered a “reverse backlash” effect. This is where greater success of populist radical right parties is actually accompanied by more citizens reporting positive attitudes on immigration, specifically because they want to distance themselves from radical right views.
Negative trends
What does stand out in the latest round of ESS data is that more negative trends are emerging across multiple countries simultaneously. This is most notable in Ireland, the UK, the Netherlands and Poland, but also in Iceland and France.
In Ireland, there is a substantial ten percentage point fall from the previous survey round (2020-22) in respondents reporting that immigration makes their country a better place to live. The UK sees a five percentage point fall (from 68% to 63%) on the same question – still a significant positive majority compared to only 17% who feel immigration makes the UK a worse place to live – but a notable shift nonetheless.
This could be a temporary fluctuation, like the kind seen in Sweden and Germany, between 2018-19 and 2020-22. Both countries took in high numbers of refugees during Europe’s so-called “refugee crisis”, which may have led to an uptick of concern around the impact of immigration. However, these fluctuations can be minor and short-lived.
Another possibility is that we are finally seeing public attitudes shift in line with the more hostile, anti-immigrant environment that has been nurtured by politicians and media. This could be the start of another generational shift – possibly a reflection of the fact that some far-right groups are proving to be particularly popular with younger voters.
These dips may prove temporary – if not, we risk squandering the public good of a positive European public precisely at a time when Europe needs immigration the most.
Claire Kumar via ODI Global – has received funding from IKEA Foundation for this research work.
If you’re getting ready to leave school or university and are trying to figure out your future career, you may well have been given the advice to start with some self-exploration. This means thinking about what you are like as a person and what you want from a job.
After this, you can identify a short list of possible options, research them in depth, and make a rational choice to pursue the one that best meets your needs. Once you have made a decision, then you can start applying for jobs.
But in my personal and professional experience as a career coach and researcher, this traditional approach to career choice is rarely how it works in practice. This is a normative model, meaning it shows us how decisions ought to be made and assumes that we are all completely logical, rational decision-makers.
No one’s 20s and 30s look the same. You might be saving for a mortgage or just struggling to pay rent. You could be swiping dating apps, or trying to understand childcare. No matter your current challenges, our Quarter Life series has articles to share in the group chat, or just to remind you that you’re not alone.
In practice, we know that people rarely make decisions logically and rationally, particularly when it comes to complex and significant decisions such as choosing a career path.
And while normative models can, in theory, help us to make better decisions, we know that normative models are only useful in practice if they are somewhat aligned with people’s natural instincts.
Figuring it out
I interviewed 40 recent graduates who are currently working. I asked them to think back to a time when they had no clue what they wanted to do. They talked me through how they went from having no idea at all about their future path to their current employment.
The graduates had studied different subjects and were now working in a wide range of positions and industries, but their career decision-making stories followed a surprisingly similar trajectory. Rather than considering what range of jobs might suit them, they started with a single appealing career idea.
Considering one occupation at a time reduces the amount of brain power required: it’s much easier to decide yes or no to a single option than to compare the pros and cons of a handful.
This approach also helps to allay career anxiety, as it allows people to do some fairly in-depth research before they commit. It downplays the significance of the first job they take, so they feel that it doesn’t really matter if they get it wrong and don’t enjoy the job after working there a while.
If this analysis suggested that the job seemed suitable enough, they would next do some in-depth research, often by actually applying for jobs. If not, they would go back and find another occupation to consider.
Through the application process they would learn more about the culture and the people within the sector and they would get some external feedback on whether their skills were a good match for the job (in the form of job offer or a rejection, for example).
Summaya, one of the graduates I spoke to, is now a recruitment consultant. “I studied psychology at university … I knew from the beginning that I didn’t want to go into psychology as a career, but I quite liked the idea of understanding people,” she said.
She explained that she decided to look into careers in HR, “because it’s quite well paid and obviously it’s not really psychology, but there are sort of hints of psychology within it”. Summaya found that she could get a job in recruitment with no need for additional qualifications beyond her degree. She said:
The moment I decided was probably when I applied to my current company, and I had my first interview with them and they explained the job to me. Before that point, I had no idea really … I think, at that moment where I kind of understood, and I was like, oh, I think I’d actually really like doing this job.
Bound by experience
This process – considering one career option at a time and using the application process as a way to find out more – capitalises on a gut instinct to identify one occupation from thousands, but relies on rational logic to make a final choice. The process of introspection takes place within the much easier, bounded context of one particular occupation. This helps make the whole process of choosing a career less demanding.
This approach has a couple of key limitations. First, if you’re young, your available options are constrained by your experiences. While some students might have been introduced to a wide range of career ideas, others, because their life experiences have been more limited, have a much narrower pool of options to choose from.
And while the apply-and-decide approach makes some logical sense, in practice it can lead to graduates devolving the responsibility of their career choice to recruiters.
Understanding this process can help young people make better career choices. It might prompt you to get more experience in the workplace, to broaden your horizons and to develop a realistic idea of different roles. It might help you to take a bit more ownership of the decision. Applying for a job may be a good way to find out more, but leaving the choice in the hands of the recruiters is risky.
We can downplay the significance of a first job. This generation of young people are going to be working for a long time. There’s no harm in trying a few things out before you make a longer-term commitment.
Julia Yates 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.
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Chee Meng Tan, Assistant Professor of Business Economics, University of Nottingham
China’s president Xi Jinping recently held a meeting with 40 leaders of multinational companies, including BMW and AstraZeneca.
In contrast to Donald Trump’s rhetoric, Xi told the top level executives that globalisation was not going away. Xi is attempting to boost foreign investment in China, which has dropped in the last few years, and build new relationships that will offset Trump’s tariffs on many Chinese goods.
Xi is hoping to build on an anti-Trump bounce and inspire businesses to back Beijing as some signs emerged that China’s economy was doing a little better than expected in early 2025. Industrial production went up by 5.9% in January and February. Credit growth, which measures the amount of loans banks give out, also appears to be picking up, suggesting that businesses might be growing in China.
Retail sales, which are a major economic marker indicating consumer spending, has risen by up to 4% in January and February this year, compared to last year.
Beijing is also willing to create further stimulus packages to sustain China’s economic growth, which might lift consumer confidence further.
The big question then is what are the factors that could lead to a more buoyant outlook in China’s economic fortunes?
Beijing’s policy resolve
According to a Bloomberg report, China has traditionally relied on cheap loans and subsidies to boost economic sectors in infrastructure, manufacturing, and the property market. However, those times are over.
The problem is China has produced more goods to sell than people are willing to buy. In the past, Beijing relied on the west to purchase its products, but with rising protectionism and looming tariffs stemming from a Donald Trump-led US, US consumption of Chinese goods is likely to fall.
And if another key market in the form of the EU were to take a cue from Trump’s economic playbook and impose more tariffs on China, then Chinese hope for sales in the west for economic growth may not materialise.
Beijing’s surest way of boosting sales is through domestic consumption. This isn’t easy as China’s domestic spending remains relatively low at 40% of the country’s GDP, which is about 20% lower than the global average. And if Beijing wants cautious consumers to spend amid a relatively weak economic outlook, it needs to do more to raise consumer confidence.
Although China did introduce a stimulus package in September 2024, it has resolved to do more. In an early March 2025 speech in the Chinese parliament, Chinese premier Li Qiang promised a “special action plan” to vigorously raise domestic consumption for 2025. Several weeks later Li reiterated in the China Development Forum that Beijing would roll out more stimulus packages when the need arose.
These assurances are likely to have helped improve market sentiment, and the fact that China’s GDP growth target was also set at an ambitious level of around 5%, might signal Beijing’s confidence and resolve that the economy will improve.
This is why experts thought China would struggle when the US decided to introduce restrictions on Chinese access semiconductor and AI technologies. However, despite these restrictions, China has managed to develop a highly capable AI model of its own in the form of DeepSeek, which was unveiled early this year, and immediately boosted China’s image as an innovator.
Unlike other AI models, DeepSeek was apparently made at a fraction of the cost of other traditional AI models such as ChatGPT, and may have a more efficient coding scheme that allows for quicker problem solving. This has prompted Donald Trump to coin DeepSeek’s development as a wake-up call for the US tech industry.
Many AI startups in China are now revamping their business models to compete with DeepSeek, following widespread adoption of the latter’s technology. As the AI revolution in China could potentially reduce costs and thereby boost efficiency in the financial sector.
Following Trump’s return to the Oval Office, investors across the globe have been trying to reduce their reliance on the US by looking for investment opportunities elsewhere. This isn’t entirely surprising given Trump’s knack for the unpredictable, and how new US tariffs have been applied to a host of US allies such as Mexico, Canada, and the European Union.
While Trump is striking an increasingly protectionist tone, China is taking the opposite approach. Trump’s penchant for tariffs and disregard for the economic interest of US allies may mean Beijing might not need to do too much to attract more nations and businesses to consider turning towards Chinese markets.
Chee Meng Tan 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.
“It’s always frustrated me that we can’t compost here – even though I get why. Tower blocks just aren’t built for it,” said Alexandra, a 42-year-old Tower Hamlets resident, living on the ninth floor. She gestures toward the tall buildings in her neighbourhood. Her frustration is shared by many, where food waste collection from blocks of flats remains a challenge.
For residents like Alexandra, the lack of options is disappointing. “When I first moved here, I looked into food waste disposal, but there weren’t many options for people in flats,” she says. Unfortunately, her experience reflects a wider problem.
According to the UK waste charity Wrap, nearly a quarter of the UK’s food production is wasted each year – that’s over 6.4 million tonnes of edible food worth £21 billion, enough to feed the country for nearly three months. Households contribute approximately 60% of this waste, which not only costs money but also fuels climate change.
London authorities have introduced reduction and recycling plans (RRPs) to tackle food waste and increase recycling. These efforts align with the mayor’s London-wide strategy to halve food waste by 2030. While these targets are ambitious, their implementation in high-rise boroughs such as Tower Hamlets remains a challenge.
The communal bins overflowing with rubbish and recycling waste in London Borough of Tower Hamlets, April 2024. I Wei Huang/Shutterstock
For many residents, food waste is both an environmental issue and a logistical nightmare. “We tried compost bins in our building, but rats and foxes loved them more than we did,” laughed Aisha, a resident I interviewed at a community centre in March 2023.
Limited space makes traditional composting methods such as wormeries (small-scale systems where worms break down organic waste into compost) unfeasible. The people I interviewed explained that community-led schemes often struggle due to limited participation in the first place, contamination from improper waste disposal and pest control issues including attracting rats and foxes.
In my work as a sustainability marketing researcher, I’m investigating alternatives and researching how best to maintain sustainable consumer behaviour.
Co-creation – in this case, designing solutions with the residents trying to tackle food waste – is so important, but often overlooked. By talking directly to the people involved, a plan will end up being much more effective because people trust it more and engage with it more willingly.
In 2023, I led a six-month behaviour change research project with East London Garden Society, a community-driven initiative focused on promoting gardening and environmental sustainability in east London. I interviewed 15 Tower Hamlets residents, listened to numerous community meetings and analysed community discussions to uncover the real barriers to food waste reduction.
My findings were clear: residents don’t just want tips – they want a voice.
As 64-year-old Maryam put it: “I really appreciate that you’re taking a resident-first approach, gathering feedback and understanding experiences. That’s how you’ll find what truly works.”
By placing residents at the centre, we can ensure that solutions are built to last. But co-creation alone is not enough – residents need systematic changes, such as better infrastructure.
The role of technology
A 2024 study shows how technology is reshaping the food system from production to consumption. Apps such as Olio help consumers share surplus food and reduce waste.
Some composting machines or food waste processors are compact enough for household kitchens, requiring no garden. Residents can use the resulting compost to grow small plants on their balconies or add it to their green waste bin – this process is made easier by the reduction in volume.
Larger compost machines can turn organic food waste into nutrient-rich soil in just 24 hours, reducing its volume by up to 80% – while these can handle organic waste from multiple high-rise buildings, they need to be installed in a bigger shared community space.
In Tower Hamlets, where space is limited, compact technology offers a convenient solution. But, as we found in our research, it’s not without its challenges.
As Frank, a man who lives on a top-floor flat, explained: “This machine is much quicker than traditional composting, but what about the cost and the electricity it uses?” While smart technologies offer convenience, some Tower Hamlets residents raised concerns about energy consumption and costs – so there is a trade-off between ease and energy efficiency.
Surprisingly, composting technology, often seen as the eco-friendly solution, may be worsening the food waste crisis. As a marketing expert, I spoke directly with many consumers at Tower Hamlets.
One told me that composting makes them feel “less guilty” about throwing out food. When composting serves as a licence to waste, it can increase the amount of food that is discarded.
Making composting easy diverts waste from landfills, but that doesn’t address root causes including simply buying too much food in the first place. To reduce food waste, technology must promote behavioural change such as better meal planning and waste monitoring. Knowing how much food waste they produce, compared to their neighbours, can encourage people to change their behaviour.
So many cities face the same problems, with densely populated communities living in flats without gardens. Without co-creating practical solutions with residents, achieving waste reduction goals will be tough.
Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?
Sayed Elhoushy received funding from the East London Garden Society (£3000) for the Food Waste Pilot Project (#10239808) (Nov 1, 2022 – Feb 28, 2023) and from the SBM Small Grant Fund (£2,500) (Apr 3 – Jul 14, 2023).
Source: The Conversation – UK – By David Bacci, Senior Research Fellow, Oxford Thermofluids Laboratory, University of Oxford
The most advanced fighter jets in the world are known as “fifth generation”. They contain technologies developed in the first part of the 21st century. Examples of fifth generation fighter jets include America’s F-35 Lightning II and F-22 Raptor, China’s Chengdu J-20 and Russia’s Sukhoi SU-57.
Now, however, nations are moving ahead with the sixth generation of combat jets. In the past few months, China has flown its J36 and J50 prototype jets. Meanwhile, the US has selected Boeing to build a new fighter aircraft called the F-47.
As with previous generations, the sixth will incorporate major advances in aircraft design, onboard electronics (avionics) and weapon systems.
But how will the new generation of jets stand out from the previous one? Future combat jets will not see dramatic increases in maximum speed, nor in flight performance. Instead, the true innovations will be in how these systems operate and achieve dominance in aerial combat.
Like the fifth generation, the sixth will be dominated by stealth technology. This helps fighters jets to reduce their chances of being detected by infrared and radar sensors, to the point that when their signatures are eventually picked up, the opponent has no time to act.
Stealth is achieved through particular shapes of airframe (such as diamond shapes) and coatings on the aircraft – called radar absorbing materials. The airframe is the fundamental structural framework of an aircraft, encompassing the fuselage, wings, tail assembly and landing gear.
The diamond-like shapes that already characterise fifth generation jets are likely to remain in the upcoming generation of fighter, but they will evolve.
A common feature we’re likely to see is the reduction or complete removal of vertical tails at the back of the aircraft and their control surfaces. In current aircraft, these tails provide directional stability and control in flight, allowing the aircraft to maintain its course and manoeuvre.
However, sixth generation jets could achieve this control with the help of thrust vectoring – the ability to manipulate the direction of engines and therefore the direction of thrust (the force that moves the jet through the air).
The role of vertical tails could also be partially replaced by devices called fluidic actuators. These apply forces to the the wing by blowing high speed and high pressure air on different parts of it.
F-35 Lightning II fighter aircraft. Vertical tails can be seen at the rear of this fifth generation jet. US Air Force / Paul Holcomb
The removal of the vertical tails would contribute to the fighter’s stealth. The new generation of fighters is also likely to see the use of novel radar absorbing materials with advanced capabilities.
We’ll see the introduction of what are known as adaptive cycle engines on sixth generation fighters. These engines will feature what’s known as a three stream design, which refers to the airstreams blowing through the engine. Current jets have two airstreams: one that passes through the core of the engine, and another that bypasses the core.
The development of a third stream provides an extra source of air flow to increase the engine’s fuel efficiency and performance. This will allow both the capability to cruise efficiently at supersonic speed and deliver a high thrust during combat.
It is likely that China and the US will build two separate fighters with different airframes. One will have a bigger airframe, designed for use in an area like the Pacific Ocean region. Here, the ability to fly further and carry a heavier payload will be key, because of the distances involved. Airframes designed for this region will therefore be larger.
Another fighter jet carrying a smaller airframe will be designed for use in areas such as Europe where agility and manoeuvrability will be more important.
The next wave of jets will have a system in the cockpit that gathers lots of information from other aircraft, ground surveillance stations and satellites. It would then integrate this data to give an enhanced situational awareness to the pilot. This system would also able to actively jam enemy sensors.
Another key feature will be the deployment of unmanned combat aerial vehicles (Ucavs), a form of drone aircraft. The piloted fighter jet would be able to control a variety of Ucavs, ranging from loyal wingmen to cheaper, unpiloted fighter jets that will assist the mission, including protecting the piloted fighter.
This will all be the responsibility of something called the advanced digital cockpit, a software-driven system that will use virtual reality and allow the pilot to effectively become a battle manager. Artificial intelligence (AI) will be a key feature of the support systems for the drones. This will allow them to be controlled with complete autonomy. The pilot will assign the main task – such as, “attack that enemy jet in that sector” – and the system will carry out the mission without any further input.
Another advancement will be the weapon systems, with the adoption of missiles that not only will be capable of travelling at hypersonic speeds, but will also incorporate stealth features. This will further reduce the reaction times of enemy forces. Directed energy weapons systems, such as laser weapons, could potentially appear in later stages, as this technology is under study.
Under America’s sixth generation fighter programme, the US Navy is working on a separate jet called the F/A-XX, complementing the F-47.
The UK, Italy and Japan are also working on a jet project known as the global combat air programme (GCAP). This will replace the Eurofighter Typhoon in service with the UK and Italy and the Mitsubishi F-2 in service with Japan.
Germany, Spain and France are working on a fighter programme called the future combat air system (FCAS). This could supersede Germany and Spain’s Typhoons and France’s Rafale.
The path for sixth generation fighter jets seems to have already been traced, but uncertainties remain. The feasibility of some of the characteristics described and development times and costs are not yet well defined. This interval of time was more than ten years for fifth generation fighter jets – and the sixth is going to be far more complex in terms of requirements and capability.
A new generation of fighter jet is expected to remain on active duty for something like 30 years. But warfare across the world evolves rapidly. It is unclear whether the design requirements we are fixing today remain relevant over the coming years.
David Bacci is affiliated with Cranfeild Defence & Security (CRanfield University) – Visiting Research Fellow
The term “lore” has, well, a whole lot of lore. Now essential online slang, the word can be traced back to Old English, where it referred primarily to learning, as in the act of teaching or being taught.
Over time, lore came to be associated with more informal knowledge, passed on through word of mouth. The term “folklore,” the “lore of the people”, was coined by the British writer William J. Thoms in 1846. As a result, lore largely slipped out of common usage. By 2024, however, it had made the shortlist for the Oxford word of the year (the title was taken by “brainrot”).
So, how did “lore” come to hold such contemporary relevance? And what does it mean today? The answer can be found, at least in part, in fandom, where “lore” is used to refer to the body of knowledge that exists around a person, fictional universe or character.
Fandom has long facilitated deep dives into media in which fans analyse, discuss and track their favourite storylines and character arcs. This has been particularly true of the science fiction and fantasy genres, due to their complex and expansive narrative universes.
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In 1969, science fiction fan and writer Bjo Trimble self-published the first edition of Star Trek Concordance. It was an unofficial reference book for the television series featuring timelines, plot summaries, character biographies and more – information that might now be described as Star Trek lore.
Since then, fans of Star Trek and countless other television shows have continued to create zines, write fan fiction, organise conventions and develop vast and ongoing archives of fan-works. Through such practices, fans develop what media expert Henry Jenkins has described as collective intelligence, as each fan contributes small parts of knowledge to a whole – or, to the lore.
Fandom has, of course, come a long way since the early days of Star Trek. Fan activities have now moved online, where their reach and visibility has significantly increased. Television has changed too, shifting towards the narrative complexity and innovation made possible, in part, by the active engagements of fandoms.
Where fandom was once a niche (and often derided) activity, in recent years fan culture has gone mainstream. From direct communication between fans and producers to the creative possibilities of transmedia storytelling (where productions circulate official content across platforms in ways that echo fan-ish expansions of narrative worlds) media is increasingly inviting audiences to participate in the investigating, cataloguing and circulating of lore.
Pop lore – from K-pop to Gaylor Swift
A powerful example of lore inspiring transmedia storytelling can be found in K-pop.
Well known South Korean bands engage with their fans not only through their music, but also with “concepts” (themes that span styling, music and other media) and ever-expanding storytelling universes.
Take, for example, mega-boyband BTS’s meta narrative of the Bangtan Universe. It’s a fictional alternate universe which spans music videos, webtoons (digital comics), short films, mobile games, books and more. This kind of cross-platform storytelling encourages BTS fans to piece together the “lore” of the respective universe.
Storytelling is also central to the popularity of singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, described by Teen Vogue as “the queen of easter eggs”. These hidden messages and inter-textual references can be found in the star’s lyrics, videos, fashion, interviews and even manicures, and produce an expansive archive of Swift lore.
A subsection of Swift lore is known as Gaylor – where fans collate “evidence” that they believe shows that Swift is queer. It is, in part, an example of the expansive possibilities of fandom for queer audiences. But it also speaks to the ethical tensions of fandom and parasocial relationships, as fan-created lore can develop into [invasive expectations](https://www.them.us/story/taylor-swift-end-of-gaylorism](https://www.them.us/story/taylor-swift-end-of-gaylorism) of celebrities.
Dropping lore on TikTok
As digital media has grown to become part of our daily lives, “lore” has grown too. Today it goes beyond fictional universes and celebrities to also include everyday people and their online stories.
YouTube first invited users to “broadcast yourself” in 2005, and opportunities to do so have only expanded since then, notably with the rise of TikTok.
On TikTok, some users tell stories about their lives and experiences, or their “lore”. In these short videos, lore is “dropped” (revealed) about notable events, defining experiences, relationships (such as ex-lore) and family stories (such as dad lore).
These playful retellings remake real life through narrative conventions of heroism, romance and comic misadventure, while other videos offer ironic commentary on lore-dropping itself.
There is at once authenticity, performance and play here. Stories are, in part, ephemeral, as lore comes and goes in the fast-paced flow of digital content. Circulating via hashtags, however, stories are connected, responded to and remade, facilitating digital intimacies.
The circulation of lore is, at once, user generated and algorithmically curated. In the context of what researchers have described as the datalogical turn (where big data and adaptive algorithms become increasingly central to shaping and understanding society) and the rise of affective capitalism (in which feelings, desires and experiences are capitalised on for economic gain), personal lore also becomes valuable data to be commodified.
Lore then, is an old word with a distinctly contemporary iteration. It’s representative of the ever-expanding convergences of digital media, identity and intimacy.
Kate McNicholas Smith 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.
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Danielle Mariann Dove, Surrey Future Fellow and Lecturer in English Literature, University of Surrey
The tiered ‘polonaise’ style dress would have been popular with women like Cathy Earnshaw during the period the book was set. Wikimedia, CC BY
The upcoming Wuthering Heights adaptation by Saltburn director Emerald Fennell has courted controversy since it was first announced, with Fennell’s choice of leading lady and man drawing internet critics.
Playing tragic heroine Catherine Earnshaw is the 34-year-old blonde Margot Robbie, and as tortured Heathcliff will be fellow Aussie, the 27-year-old Jacob Elordi. If you’re familiar with Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel then you know the ages, vibes and looks are just off.
Now online fans of the book are aghast in response to a series of leaked photographs of Margot Robbie wearing an elaborate white wedding gown.
Some were quick to point out the historical inaccuracy of the wedding gown, while others argued that “the tradition of a white wedding dress wouldn’t have come around until after the story took place”.
But is that really true? And what would Catherine Earnshaw have actually worn on her wedding day in the late-18th century?
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Most 18th-century brides would have probably worn their Sunday best on their wedding day. This was their finest day dress in the current fashion.
While it may have been an expensive dress, it wouldn’t necessarily have been a purpose-made wedding gown – unless the bride was very wealthy. Significantly, and unlike most wedding dresses today, the gown would also have been worn again on other social occasions.
Brontë tells us nothing about Cathy’s wedding clothes and very little about Cathy and Edgar Linton’s wedding day, which takes place in 1783. However, as the bride of a wealthy landowner she would likely have chosen to have a wedding gown specially made for the occasion in rich silk or satin.
The dress would have been a testament to her new family’s social standing. It would likely have featured a tightly fitted bodice with a low, round neckline characteristic of the period, a sash, and close-fitting, three-quarter length sleeves with a frill.
The wide skirts would have been open to reveal a longer petticoat underneath, or they might have been looped up with ribbons to form three layers in the popular “polonaise” style of the day.
By contrast, the wedding dress that Margot Robbie has been pictured wearing is much more reminiscent of the silhouette in vogue in 1840.
In fact, it appears to take direct inspiration from Queen Victoria’s wedding gown which she wore to marry Albert in February of that year – almost six decades after Cathy’s fictional wedding takes place. Like Queen Victoria’s wedding gown, Robbie’s features a similar off-the-shoulder neckline, short, puffed sleeves and a deep V-shaped bodice.
A white dress?
Queen Victoria is often credited with having started the trend for wearing a white wedding dress. But while she certainly helped to popularise the white gown in the 1840s, she was by no means the sole originator of the tradition. Women were married wearing white long before she chose to do so and they continued to marry wearing dresses of other colours long after.
In 1875, for example, the magazine Beeton’s Young Englishwoman advised one of its readers who wrote in asking for bridal fashion advice, that a grey wedding dress of “Japanese silk would be pretty”, and suggested a silk gown of “pale blue or pale mauve” which “would be useful afterwards”.
Contrary to popular belief that white wedding dresses were not in vogue until the Victorian period, white and silver were in fact the preferred colours for wedding gowns in the 18th century.
The preference for a white or silver wedding dress over a coloured gown can be seen in Oliver Goldsmith’s 1768 comedy play, The Good Natur’d Man, when Garnet, a lady’s maid, tells the soon-to-be married Olivia: “I wish you could take the white and silver [gown] to be married in. It’s the worst luck in the world, in anything but white.”
The historical inaccuracy of Robbie’s Wuthering Heights wedding dress stems not from its colour, then, but primarily from its problematic silhouette.
Of course, historical accuracy is not necessarily the end goal for film directors. Rather, Robbie’s anachronistic wedding gown appears to exemplify a broader trend in historical drama (think Bridgerton) towards a kind of strategic inaccuracy, in which producers and costume designers prioritise experimentation over strict fidelity to period detail.
For all we know, Fennell might have decided to set the adaptation around the time of the novel’s publication rather than its original late-18th and early-19th century setting. Even more intriguingly, she might be using the wedding dress to signal the adaptation’s more modern inflections.
Robbie’s wedding dress and cathedral-length veil wouldn’t look out of place at a contemporary wedding. Basque, or drop waist, wedding dresses dominated New York bridal fashion week in October 2024 and are poised to become a major trend in 2025 having been adopted by celebrities such as actor Millie Bobby Brown and podcaster Alex Cooper. Perhaps Fennell’s Cathy is just extremely fashion forward.
Danielle Mariann Dove 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.
The album features covers of 10 pop and classic rock songs, including the Rolling Stones’s “Wild Horses” and Metallica’s “The Unforgiven,” re-imagined in Inuktitut. Inuktitut is the first language of 33,790 Inuit in Canada, according to the 2021 Census.
Elisapie’s nomination offers a good opportunity to reflect on the situation of Inuktitut and how creative work, including music, helps promote it.
Our work touches on the inter-generational transmission of Inuktitut. We share perspectives as a Qallunaaq (non-Inuk) linguist (Richard) and as an Inuk school teacher (Sarah) in Nunavik, with Sarah’s personal experiences in the community highlighted.
Elisapie’s ‘Isumagijunnaitaungituq’ (The Unforgiven)
Music in Inuktitut
Sarah notes that:
I was amazed that [Elisapie] could make the long words in Inuktitut fit with the rhythm of the music; she did it so precisely. It took me back to the 1980s, when I was growing up. It would have been nice if songs like these had been interpreted back then. It’s been a long time coming, but it shows that nothing is impossible. The songs sound so natural in Inuktitut.
On the day we talked about this story, Sarah remembered:
I was at the Snow Festival yesterday [in Puvirnituq], and some of the teenagers knew all the words to her songs and were singing along. We didn’t have that when I was growing up.
She remembers first seeing Elisapie sing in the early 1990s at one of the first snow festivals in Puvirnituq.
Elisapie’s album has also sparked interest outside of Canada, with stories in such venues as Rolling Stone, Vogue and Le Monde.
Beyond how Elisapie beautifully interprets the songs, creative choices like using throat singing on the first track, “Isumagijunnaitaungituq (The Unforgiven),” and stunning music videos showcasing life in the North brings the language to a wider audience.
The album’s cover art features the word Inuktitut, ᐃᓄᒃᑎᑐᑦ, in syllabics — a writing system originally use for Cree and adapted to Inuktitut, where the individual symbols represent consonants and the way they point represents vowels.
Elisapie’s ‘Taimangalimaaq’ (Time After Time)
Diversity of the Inuit language
The word Inuktitut itself means “like the Inuit,” and is the name for part of a wider language continuum spoken across the North American Arctic. This language continuum includes Iñupiaq in Alaska, Uummarmiutun, Sallirmiutun and Inuinnaqtun in the Western Canadian Arctic, Inuktitut in the Eastern Arctic, Inuttut in Labrador and Kalaallisut in Greenland.
This abundance of names reflects a diversity of varieties, each with their own pronunciations and differences in grammar and vocabulary stretching across Inuit Nunangat, the Inuit homeland.
Speakers in each community look to their Elders as models of how the language should be spoken. While this multiplicity of dialects poses challenges for translation and creating teaching materials, each variety marks local identity and links generations.
This diversity also fascinates linguists, as each variety attests to a different way of organizing the unconscious rules of grammar in the human mind.
For instance, Inuktitut has a rich system of tense markers on verbs, signalling events that just happened, happened earlier today, before today or long ago. Inuinnaqtun, to the west, lacks most of these tense markers, but instead allows more complex combinations of sounds.
A role model for youth
Sarah stresses the importance of Elisapie’s music for the language:
It’s so impressive that people like Elisapie are doing such amazing things with the language. She grew up around the same time as me and when I was in school there were so few teaching materials in Inuktitut, and we focused more on speaking than reading and writing. Even if her main goal might not have been to promote the language, she’s doing it, because kids listen to her. More teenagers are willing to sing in Inuktitut now because they have role models like her and Beatrice Deer.
In Canada, all levels of government have failed to provide adequate access to education in Indigenous languages, even in regions where Indigenous Peoples form the majority.
In Nunavik, where Elisapie is from, 90 per cent of the population (12,590 out of 14,050) identifies as Inuit and 87 per cent (12,245 out of 14,050) report Inuktitut as their first language. And yet Inuktitut is only the primary language of instruction up until Grade 3.
About promoting Inuktitut, Sarah says:
We’re lucky that in most of the villages in Nunavik, the language is still strong. But it’s still concerning that some people have started speaking in English to their kids. What we really need to promote it is to have school in Inuktitut from kindergarten to the end of high school [secondary 5 in Québec]. That’s why a group of Inuit teachers, including me, visited Greenland to learn more about their education system. They’ve had schools in their language for almost 200 years. We just started in the ‘50s.
While bilingualism may bring economic benefits, the lack of support for Indigenous languages often results in a situation where bilingualism robs children of the chance to fully develop in their first language.
UNESCO recommends that Indigenous minority languages be taught as the primary language in school for the first six to eight years, as this has been shown to contribute to children’s well-being and self-esteem.
New challenges have also emerged for maintaining and extending the domains in which Inuktitut is used. Once cut off from high-speed internet, new satellite technology has brought access to more Inuit communities, along with new economic opportunities.
However, this connectivity also brings an avalanche of English content, from viral videos and streaming platforms to social networks and mobile games.
Vital for promoting Inuktitut
It is in this changing linguistic and media landscape where Inuktitut language and cultural production, like Elisapie’s album, are vital for promoting Inuktitut.
Children and teenagers need content that speaks to them — things they see as new, fun, cool and representing their generation. This includes music, comic books, novels, video games and even Hockey Night in Canada in Inuktitut.
So whether Elisapie’s music is being played in community radio stations, featured in an episode of CBC’s North of North or streamed as a music video on social media, it serves the added role of taking up a little more space for Inuktitut in people’s daily lives.
This is an updated version of a story originally published on March 28, 2025. It clarifies Elisapie was nominated for two awards and won best adult alternative.
Richard Compton receives funding in the form of research grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. He holds the Canada Research Chair in Transmission and Knowledge of the Inuit Language.
Sarah Angiyou 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.
Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Heather Aldersey, Professor and Canada Research Chair (Disability Inclusive Development), Queen’s University, Ontario
People with disabilities and their families often have an even greater need for support over time, especially if a disability is progressive or family members experience their own health challenges. (Shutterstock)
April 1 marks National Caregivers Day in Canada. The day is meant to recognize the carers who provide vital care and support to those in need.
We all need care and support to navigate challenges in life. Help can come from formal support (paid professionals and government programs), and from natural support networks (family, friends and neighbours).
People with disabilities and their families often have an even greater need for support over time, especially if a disability is progressive or family members experience their own health challenges due to aging.
The Canadian Centre for Caregiving Excellence (CCCE) released its National Caregiving Strategy on Feb. 18, stating that caregiving is the next frontier in Canadian public policy. As the CCCE’s executive director, Liv Mendelsohn, said: “Millions of Canadians are navigating caregiving with minimal support, and it’s simply unacceptable.”
This article’s co-author, Donna Thomson, is a caregiver, author and educator. She is the mother of two grown children, one who has severe cerebral palsy and medical complexity. Thomson also helped care for her mother who lived with dementia until she passed away in the summer of 2018 at the age of 96.
Family caregivers often need support themselves in order to keep working both inside and outside of the home. Parents of adult children with developmental disabilities in Canada are hardly ever asked: “What do you do for your son or daughter that paid helpers cannot?” Even less often, that question might be followed by: “Wow, that’s a lot. Would you like some support to continue doing those things?”
With a federal election on the horizon, Canadians can call on their governments to improve support for caregivers. (Shutterstock)
Importance of natural caregivers
Our research recognizes that both formal and informal supports are essential in enabling people with disabilities and their families to live their best lives. We want to understand how individuals, families, organizations and communities can best come together to get people with disabilities and their families the types of supports they need and want, when they need and want them.
Over the course of our research, we conducted a document and literature review, alongside interviews and focus groups with people with disabilities, family members and formal disability support providers. We identified that family or friend caregivers often support a person they care for with a sense of love and commitment to a depth that is rare in formal support relationships.
However, sometimes finding and sustaining natural support in the community doesn’t come easily for people with disabilities and their families. In those instances, organizations and facilitators (formal supports), can help broker the creation and maintenance of natural support networks.
Community organizations offering formal supports and supporting the creation and maintenance of natural supports can sometimes be beholden to funder obligations. This can limit the flexibility and adaptability required to best meet the needs of those they support.
Additionally, organizations are often constrained by safety considerations, aversion to risk or the challenges posed by overly bureaucratic systems. Sometimes, this can mean the support provided to a person or family does not directly respond to what the individual or family needs. Even more frustrating is that waiting times can be so long to access formal supports that identified needs or priorities change in the meantime.
Sometimes, finding and sustaining natural support in the community doesn’t come easily for people with disabilities and their families. (Shutterstock)
CCCE’s caregiving strategy
The CCCE strategy is a recognition that care work makes all other work possible. It echoes our research findings that both paid and unpaid caregivers need financial support as well as targeted programs and services.
The strategy calls upon the Canadian government to make caregiving a priority while ensuring a sustainable care provider workforce.
Supports are also a provincial issue. For example, in Ontario, the Ministry for Children, Community and Social Services has published a framework that offers a long-term vision for transforming developmental services so people with developmental disabilities fully participate in their communities and are supported to live their lives.
Care and support can also be a gender issue, given that in Canada and around the world the majority of both formal and informal support is being provided by women and girls.
Missing perspectives
Our research also highlighted a notable gap in the research landscape. Research on natural support in Canada is often not explicit about or does not incorporate understandings of natural support from the perspectives of Indigenous, Black, rural, LGBTQ+ and other marginalized groups.
People belonging to these groups may have their own needs and experiences that relate to navigating natural and formal support systems in Canada. Future-focused research agendas into natural supports, such as those proposed in the CCCE strategy’s recommendations, must intentionally seek to understand support and care experiences from these perspectives.
At the Global Disability Summit taking place this week in Berlin from April 2-3, we will join voices from around the world to call on national leaders and decision-makers to ensure disability policies translate into tangible actions and inclusive practices.
Our research shows the deep, important impact of federal and provincial policy and funding both for formal and natural supports to flourish. With a federal election on the horizon, Canadians can call on their governments to improve support for caregivers, ensure support systems are in place and flexible enough to respond to individual and family needs, and enable natural support networks to flourish.
This is important, because the care we give to each other, regardless of age or ability, is what will sustain us as families.
This article was co-authored by Donna Thomson, a caregiver, author and educator.
Heather Aldersey receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Universities Canada, and the Mastercard Foundation.
The National Council of Canadian Muslims’ senior advocacy officer Fatema Abdalla read the survivor’s statement about what happened at a news conference last week. ‘I don’t feel safe for my daughters,’ the statement reads, ‘all of whom wear hijab.’NCCM/Instagram
Afterwards, the survivor provided a statement, which was read for her at a news conference. In it, she described her visit to her “favourite quiet corner of the library” as ordinary and routine. This ordinary moment, however, turned nightmarish and extraordinary in an instant.
According to the survivor, the attacker attempted to yank her hijab off. She hurled objects at her head, including scissors and a metal object. The attacker then poured an unknown liquid on her hijab and flicked her lighter several times, allegedly attempting to light the fabric ablaze. Library staff and security intervened before any more harm could take place.
Afterwards, the survivor, a mother of two girls, explained that she’s unable to quell her terror. She said: “I can’t stop thinking: what if the lighter had worked? What if my hijab had caught fire?” But most of all, she’s terrified for her hijab-wearing daughters’ safety in public spaces.
This incident is not an isolated act of violence. It is situated within a broader social climate that normalizes the policing of how racialized people “should” enter and occupy public spaces.
We are two scholars and community organizers who have long been working on issues related to Islamophobia and racism. The traumatic event in Ajax highlights the persistent and deeply ingrained nature of gendered Islamophobia in Canada and beyond.
While we don’t yet know the attacker’s affiliations or what inspired her to commit this act of terror, this incident echoes racist aspirations for “purity.”
Racial anxiety about the inflow of multiple generations of Muslims is integral to the way Islamophobia channels white supremacist panic over the growing population of Muslims in Canada — and the attack in Ajax is no exception.
White supremacist anxieties about demographic changes are articulated most clearly and directly in the “Great Replacement Theory” (and variations of it) that vilifies racialized people, asserting a drive to preserve “white innocence,” tied to eugenic fantasies of purifying North America and Europe.
The new population has infused new life to Ajax, and the Durham region more broadly. It seems, however, that not everyone is happy about this growth.
Gendered Islamophobia
The bodies of Muslim women have long been objectified, serving as a site where white racial anxieties are projected and enacted. Taken up as a sort of Trojan horse, their perceived ability to give birth and reproduce culture is weaponized against them. After all, they hold the power to propagate this “dangerous other,” and dislodge the order of whiteness.
Jasmin Zine, a critical Muslim studies scholar, has used and developed the term “gendered Islamophobia” to explain the way the bodies and practices of Muslim women are produced as racial problems. Muslim women in public spaces are constructed as hazardous cultural contaminants, polluting the public square and threatening the purity of the (white) nation with their very existence.
The responses to this perception of contamination take multiple forms. In Québec, for instance, Muslim women are being aggressively foreclosed from participation in public spaces and institutions with laws like Bill 21 and Bill 94.
‘Unprovoked attack:’ Racism in public life
The Durham Police are calling this an “unprovoked attack.” But the provocation is precisely what needs to be named. Of course, the victim did not actively provoke the attacker. But it’s important to ask how our social arrangements prime and sustain the currents that produce Muslim women as provocations on sight.
This phenomenon of “unprovoked” attacks on visibly Muslim women in public spaces is far too common in Canada. These have ranged from a devastating physical assault in a mall parking lot in Edmonton to a knife attack on the TTC in Toronto, the fatal act of terror in London, Ont. against a family simply taking a walk together to this recent attack in Ajax. Muslim women around the country are rightly asking if public spaces are safe for them.
For instance, the frame of “disorderly conduct” often serves as a common tool to mark the “wrong ways” in which racialized individuals assert their presence in public settings. This includes the regulation of what foods are deemed appropriate for public consumption, the enforcement of norms around personal space, noise and loitering.
The catch, however, is that when you are already racialized as a “cultural pollutant,” “conduct” merely fuels the racist climate that already marks you as an improper subject by sheer existence.
Have another samosa?
Standard sociological contact theory says greater exposure to diversity breeds opportunity for intergroup contact, which is presumed to foster tolerance.
Canadians like to believe in our multicultural country — that another samosa party or heritage night is all we need to confront intolerance and prejudice.
However, what contact theory frames get wrong is the assumption of the public as a neutral site of engagement where people all have equal access to participation.
Until we confront the entrenched racialized ideas that govern public space, creating a landscape where some are seen as natural occupants while others are made alien, true inclusivity and safety will remain out of reach.
While this political climate brings uncertainty at an international level, it comes with fear of job loss for many Canadians at a time when the cost of living is already straining many families’ finances.
These topics may appear to be concerns for adults, but children may also feel the effects. As psychology researchers studying parent-child relationships and child mental health, we believe it is important to consider children’s potential fears and anxiety in the current political climate.
Here, we explain why it’s important to address this topic with children, and how parents can do so in a reassuring and informative manner.
Children’s concerns and emotions
While the economy and politics could seem like topics that children would not really care about, recent research suggests that many children and youth actually worry about these topics.
Studies suggest children worry about issues affecting their families. (Shutterstock)
Similarly, studies elsewhere suggest children and youth worry about issues affecting their families. Based on these numbers, we can assume that many Canadian children also worry about the current Canada-U.S. political climate.
Of course, it’s worth remembering not all families experience political and economic events in the same way. For example, children whose families face economic precarity are likely already living with stressors affecting their households like unemployment or food insecurity. Current tensions may also exacerbate children’s existing concerns.
When children are able to talk about what concerns them with their parents, they learn important emotional regulation and coping skills. For example, they learn how to identify and understand their emotions, and how to regulate those emotions. Discussions between parents and children also help foster a climate of trust, in which children feel like they can rely on their parents in moments of need.
Noticing, tackling children’s anxiety and fears
Children may not always have the words to articulate their concerns in the same way that adults do. Parents should watch for anxiety symptoms in their children, which may manifest in various ways, including having mood changes, being more irritable or sad, having difficulty sleeping, being more clingy than usual, or withdrawing from activities. There are also signs that may be harder to spot.
We present five ways to address the situation with your children:
1. Use direct questions to understand how children feel. Direct questions can help understand how children feel. For example, you may ask: “What have you heard about what’s happening?” or “How do you feel about it?” These questions can help understand what specifically is scary to them.
Children could be worried about no longer seeing family in the U.S., or some may even fear a military clash. (Shutterstock)
This is especially important given that children tend to worry about different things than adults. For example, younger children with family in the U.S. may worry they will no longer be able to see their family members anymore. Older children may be worried about a parent losing a job, the country’s economic instability or environmental impacts. Some children may even fear a military clash.
2. Be sensitive to how the conflict is presented. In the media, it is common to refer to the diplomatic and economic tensions as a “trade war.” While adults understand that trade wars do not involve military attacks, this concept is much more abstract for children.
It’s important to reframe the conflict in ways that children can understand. For example, parents can compare the conflict between two children. Parents might say: “You know when there are two children upset with each other at school, and they have a big disagreement. Sometimes it can take a lot of time to find a solution that works for everyone. The conflict between Canada and the U.S. is a bit like that. It could take a lot of time and trouble to find a solution.”
3. Avoid misinformation. When discussing these topics, parents should seek to clarify any misinformation and provide reassurance. They should also help ensure children receive information from credible sources rather than social media or peers, who may sensationalize or misinterpret events. Providing factual but age-appropriate explanations is a key ingredient in mitigating fear and uncertainty.
4. Focus on co-operation and opportunities instead of boycotting.
Many Canadian families are choosing to boycott American products. In order to ease the emotional burden on children, it can be helpful to reframe the boycott as an opportunity for co-operation. For instance, parents can highlight how they are trying to support local businesses.
Similarly, for families with resources to travel, changes in travel plans can be framed as a way to discover new places. A parent might frame it as: “This year, instead of going to the beach, we’re going to be exploring some incredible places closer to home. We’re going to have so much fun trying new things!” This approach creates curiosity and control, not anxiety. It can also be beneficial for children’s development to learn to be more flexible with change.
5. Create a sense of normalcy and routine. As important as it is to validate children’s fears, it is equally important to help them maintain a sense of normalcy. Families should strive to balance discussions about the trade war and its potential ramifications with more light, mundane topics. Similarly, limiting the time that children watch the news or when it is audible can help limit further concerns from developing.
Routines are also beneficial for children’s development and well-being. Maintaining a predictable schedule, such as a bedtime routine, can help children feel safe and less anxious. Focus on adding fun and soothing activities to the daily routine. This lets children know life goes on.
Navigating turbulent times
As the trade war with the U.S. plays out, parents should consider how it may impact their children’s emotions and sense of safety. Even serious conflicts such as this one don’t last forever, and solutions will come.
In the meantime, parents can help children cope with these challenging times by offering age-appropriate explanations and encouraging resilience.
Jean-François Bureau receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the Consortium National de Formation en Santé.
Audrey-Ann Deneault receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the Centre de recherche universitaire sur les jeunes et les familles.
When people talk about the coronavirus, they sometimes describe this invisible entity as if it has a personality and even a conscience. If you ask a biology or medical student what a virus is, they will tell you that a virus is not a living organism, or at most that it exists at the border between living and dead – a kind of walking dead.
For biologists who specialise in virology, however, this view is not clear-cut. Scientists still disagree on whether viruses are truly alive or not.
What scientists can agree on is that a virus adapts to new conditions, evolves and sometimes harms humans. It is also an infectious agent that can only replicate within a host organism such as bacteria, plants or animals.
The boundary between being alive and dead is a concept with no specific criteria. So to help you think about whether viruses are alive, I will talk you through some of the different definitions of life in science.
Throughout history, scientists have debated the definition of life and researchers from different fields still disagree. This debate shapes scientific understanding and influences public health decisions – for example, defining whether viruses are “alive” affects how we design vaccines and strategies to stop their spread.
Biologists may refer you to Erwin Schrödinger’s definition of life. Schrödinger was an Austrian Nobel-prize winning physicist who published a book in 1944 called What is Life? He was one of the first scientists to try to define life and is perhaps better known in popular culture for his “Schrödinger’s cat” thought experiment.
He proposed that life is a form of negative “entropy”, a scientific concept that explains how disordered something is. A physical system will always increase in entropy/disorder unless we insert energy to change this process. Schrödinger thought living things create and maintain order by using energy.
For example, a messy bedroom doesn’t clean itself, but a person can tidy it. Organisms do something similar at the molecular level. DNA is highly structured, allowing it to store genetic information. Proteins fold into specific shapes to function properly. In contrast, after an organism dies, its molecules break down, increasing disorder.
Schrödinger later revised his view – around the 1950s – suggesting that life depends on free energy. Free energy is the energy that drives chemical reactions in living things. This marked a shift from focusing on order (negative entropy) to emphasising energy as essential for life.
Rather than seeking a single definition, researchers classify entities based on these traits. To decide whether a virus is alive, researchers assess how well it meets these criteria.
According to biology, the smallest unit of life is the cell. A cell is an independent unit which makes functional molecules (such as proteins and enzymes). Cells can use their own molecules to replicate genetic material independently. A virus also has genetic material but needs to use the host cell’s enzymes to make functional molecules or replicate its genetic material.
Put simply, a virus does not replicate or function independently. So by the biological definition, a virus cannot be categorised as a living organism.
But from a genetic and evolutionary point of view a living organism is defined by its ability to reproduce. A person who does not have children is still considered to be alive as they are part of the gene pool and descended from people who did have children. From this view a virus is alive, since it can produce similar offspring.
Some scientists also focus on metabolism and energy production as criteria for life. Metabolism includes catabolism (breaking down molecules like sugars during digestion) and anabolism (building molecules like muscle tissue), linking energy and material. These reactions require molecular structures to generate or use energy – structures viruses lack.
Does that mean viruses aren’t alive? An amoeba, for instance, uses nutrients and enzymes to sustain itself, while viruses rely entirely on a host. From this perspective, viruses don’t meet the metabolic criteria for life. However, some argue that since viruses hijack a host’s metabolism to replicate, they show life-like behaviour.
If we consider nutrients to be sources of free energy, a cell uses energy from the environment to build what it needs. As the cell absorbs energy from the environment, it builds and maintains its internal structures – like proteins and membranes.
It also releases a byproduct – carbon dioxide – that contributes to disorder in the external environment. Viruses also do this. They make their structures by using the external environment, a host cell in this case. The viruses’ byproducts may be what makes us sick.
As we explore the complexities of biology, it becomes clear that defining life itself is anything but straightforward. Viruses display both life-like and non-living traits, which influences how we approach treatments like antiviral drugs designed to block their replication inside host cells.
Heshmat Borhani 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.
Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Ryan M. Katz-Rosene, Associate Professor, School of Political Studies, with Cross-Appointment to Geography, Environment and Geomatics, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa
In his very first act as prime minister, Mark Carney did what critics had long demanded — he axed the federal carbon tax. Yet while Carney was the one who dealt the final blow, there were many who aided and abetted in its death.
The axing of the consumer carbon tax marks a major turning point in Canadian climate policy. It shifts the discussion from the effects of the fuel charge on household budgets to how to best compel large industrial emitters to reduce their climate impact in a swiftly evolving global trade context.
The Liberals now propose instead a system of financial incentives for household-level purchases, while expanding the existing industrial pricing mechanism and potentially applying a carbon adjustment levy on imports from countries with lax environmental standards.
The Conservatives, on the other hand, are vowing to do away with the industrial carbon pricing system, promoting clean tech innovation and manufacturing through financial incentives at the producer level, and offering greater autonomy to the provinces to set their own climate policies.
Cost-effective, regressive
The death of the consumer carbon tax serves as a predictable political tragedy in the Shakespearean sense of the word: widely regarded by scholars and other experts as a cost-effective and non-regressive tool to further reduce the carbon emissions, the tax ultimately fell to relentless populist attacks when its original proponents and supporters caved to this pressure.
It’s useful to break down the various layers of support for — and opposition to — the tax to examine the role each played in its death.
The most obvious contributors involved the political opponents of the Liberal Party and critics of former prime minister Justin Trudeau. This included not only the federal Conservative Party and provincial Conservative premiers, but also the rising anti-Trudeau populism that manifested early on, even before the tax’s introduction.
These sentiments were seen in the Canadian Yellow Vests movement; “Wexit” and subsequently the so-called Freedom Convoy, which started as an anti-COVID-19 vaccine, anti-lockdown movement but morphed into a “carbon tax convoy” in the post-lockdown years.
The role of inflation
These populist movements were in part nourished by the Conservative Party under Pierre Poilievre after he became leader in 2022, and helped drive further support for the party in the years to follow.
Circumstantial factors — such as the global inflation crisis — played a key role too. By 2023, Poilievre capitalized on the first annual carbon tax rate increase to associate it with ongoing inflation, launching the widely popular “Axe the Tax” campaign.
In responding to this rising popular discontent, some of the federal Liberals’ allies and original supporters of carbon pricing also played a role in further weakening the policy.
For instance, sympathetic provincial premiers who in principle supported federal climate policy began to distance themselves from the carbon tax. In 2024, Manitoba’s NDP Premier Wab Kinew, British Columbia’s NDP Premier David Eby, Newfoundland and Labrador’s Liberal Premier Andrew Furey and New Brunswick’s Liberal Premier Susan Holt all made public comments seeking an end (or an alternative) to the carbon levy.
Yet the most significant loss of support from a former ally came when NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh withdrew the federal NDP from the supply-and-confidence agreement it made with the Liberals, citing concerns that the carbon tax was placing a burden on everyday working Canadians.
This withdrawal of support put the government on track for either a non-confidence vote or prorogation, which in turn fuelled an even further slide in voter support for the carbon tax.
It was the Liberal Party’s own inside leadership circle that dealt the final blows to the tax.
Chrystia Freeland’s surprise resignation late in 2024 hastened Trudeau’s political downfall earlier this year. Both leading candidates to replace Trudeau — including Freeland herself and the eventual winner, Carney — centred their campaigns around bringing an end to the tax, noting how the policy was too divisive.
Yet the Liberal leadership also made several strategic missteps in recent years that contributed to the demise of the tax.
For one, the party’s 2023 exemption for heating oil undermined the credibility of the policy and gave rise to charges of regional favouritism. Similarly, the party’s consistently poor communications around the carbon tax rebate — including difficulties in properly labelling the reimbursement cheques sent to Canadians — was yet another self-inflicted wound.
Policy death
Six years after its introduction, the federal consumer carbon tax was scrapped — ironically by the very party that had championed it for years.
Yet the list of those who aided and abetted includes a secondary group of previous allies and other entities who in recent years publicly turned their backs on the carbon tax. That eroded public support for a policy that was already facing concerted attacks from Conservative political opponents and growing anti-Trudeau populism.
While the tax could conceivably be replaced by an equally effective tool, its repeal increases uncertainty about Canada’s ability to meet its already faltering international commitments to support climate change mitigation.
Ryan M. Katz-Rosene receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
At a time of heightened geopolitical tensions between Russia and Ukraine, intensified by strategic dynamics involving the US, Nato and Russia over Europe’s security, nuclear weapons are back on the agenda.
In recent times, Russia has openly threatened to use nuclear weapons. The UK and France are considering ways to rapidly increase their nuclear weapons stockpiles.
Even a limited nuclear war in Europe would lead to catastrophic global climatic effects. Huge amounts of debris thrown high into the atmosphere would block sunlight, causing global temperatures to drop sharply. It would be much harder to grow food around the world.
This would severely threaten Africa’s food security, exacerbating mass migration, disrupting supply chains and potentially collapsing public order systems.
How should African countries respond to this growing threat?
Based on my experience in nuclear non-proliferation and politics, I argue that African leaders need to proactively confront the risks, while there is still time.
All African states, except for South Sudan, abide by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. This is an international agreement which limits the spread of nuclear weapons. And 43 African states have gone further to join the African Nuclear Weapons Free Zone Treaty (Treaty of Pelindaba). This was negotiated in the belief that it would “protect African states against possible nuclear attacks on their territories”.
As conflict and uncertainty pushes many western leaders to support the madness of nuclear weapons proliferation, African leaders are in a unique position to push back against this.
Africa’s strength in numbers in the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, also known as the Nuclear Ban Treaty, is a vehicle the continent can use to address nuclear weapons risks, head-on.
Global divide
On one side, nuclear-armed states cling to deterrence for their national security. They insist that possessing nuclear arsenals keeps them safe.
At present, there are nine nuclear-armed states: the US, Russia, the UK, China, France, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea. These countries possess around 12,331 nuclear warheads (as of 2025).
The use of only 10% of these weapons could disrupt the global climate and threaten the lives of up to 2 billion people.
On the other side, African countries and other non-nuclear-weapon states such as Ireland, Austria, New Zealand and Mexico highlight how deterrence creates unacceptable risks for the entire international community.
This global majority – the 93 countries that have signed the Nuclear Ban Treaty and 73 that are party to it – argue that real safety comes from eliminating nuclear threats.
The Nuclear Ban Treaty became international law on 22 January 2021. It is the first instance of international law challenging the legality and morality of nuclear deterrence.
Since 2022, states parties to the Nuclear Ban Treaty have held formal meetings to address current nuclear risks. In March 2025, at their third meeting, 17 African states officially recognised nuclear deterrence as a critical security concern. They called on nuclear armed states to end deterrence.
The deterioration of the international security environment is so palpable that there has been a noticeable shift in nuclear ban states’ perception of nuclear threats. Nuclear disarmament is no longer just a humanitarian or moral concern to these states, it is now a national security concern.
any use of nuclear weapons would result in catastrophic humanitarian consequences that would have a global impact.
Ghana likewise stressed that Africa is not immune to nuclear war’s fallout:
Africa, despite its geographic distance from the immediate hotspots of nuclear conflict, is not immune to the repercussions of nuclear weapons.
Africa bears a unique historical connection to nuclear issues. Nuclear testing in the Sahara Desert in the 1960s, when France detonated nuclear bombs in Algeria, had devastating consequences. Widespread radioactive contamination harmed local communities, caused long-lasting health problems, displaced populations, and left large areas environmentally damaged and unsafe for generations.
For its part, Nigeria recalled that Africa had “long acknowledged the existential threat nuclear weapons posed to human existence.”
The meeting determined that it is unacceptable that states parties are exposed to nuclear risks, “created without their control and without accountability”. It stressed that eliminating nuclear risks “is a prime and legitimate concern and national responsibility” of states.
Next steps
Delegates effectively asked whether their own national security concerns had less value than those of nuclear-armed states. I think this is a valid question.
Africa’s leaders and their allies in the Nuclear Ban Treaty are reframing what “national security” means in the nuclear age.
Rather than accepting a world perpetually held hostage by the madness of nuclear deterrence, they are asserting that the security of nations – and of peoples – is best served by dismantling this threat to humanity.
They are prioritising human life, development and international law over the threat of overwhelming force.
The outcome of this contest will have profound implications, not just for Africa but for the entire globe.
Olamide Samuel is affiliated with the Open Nuclear Network.
Rwanda’s foreign affairs ministry suspended all diplomatic relations with Belgium in March 2025. Soon afterwards, Belgium expelled Rwandan diplomats. This came weeks after Belgium had suspended foreign aid to Rwanda. At the root of this diplomatic fallout is the resurgence of the rebel group, March 23 Movement (M23), which has made recent military gains in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
Prior to Rwanda suspending diplomatic relations, President Paul Kagame accused Belgium of continually undermining Rwanda. This deterioration in Rwanda-Belgium relations illustrates decades of the Kagame regime’s lack of trust in Brussels since the 1994 genocide. Jonathan Beloff, who has studied Rwanda’s political, security and foreign policies for nearly two decades, explains.
What is the historical relationship between Rwanda and Belgium?
Belgium is perhaps better known for having colonised the Congo. However, it also colonised present-day Rwanda and neighbouring Burundi.
Belgian forces conquered Rwanda, a former German colony, in 1916 during the first world war. They got help from nearby British forces in Uganda. The Treaty of Versailles, which brought an end to the world war, officially transferred Rwanda and Burundi to Belgium’s colonial holdings.
While Rwanda was never a significant interest for the Belgian colonial authorities compared to neighbouring Congo, Brussels nevertheless helped shape Rwandan politics, economy and society for decades.
Rwanda’s current government claims that ethnic divisions of Hutu, Tutsi and Twa only came to the foreground during Belgian colonial rule, which ended in 1962. Before German and Belgian colonisation, Rwandan officials described these communities as socio-economic groupings rather than ethnicities. It was only with the introduction of ethnic identification cards in 1933 that these groups became intractable ethnicities.
During much of its rule, Belgium used the existing political structures of kings, called Mwami, to carry out colonial policies.
While a majority of Tutsis and Hutus suffered under these policies, Belgian officials often blamed the Mwami and his courts. The Mwami was often a Tutsi based on the number of cattle he owned. This led to a growing anti-Tutsi sentiment within the majority Hutu population.
Eventually, it boiled over and led to the 1959 Hutu Revolution and the 1961 Coup of Gitarama. This anti-Tutsi sentiment established much of the political order following Rwandan independence in July 1962.
What key moments have shaped the relationship?
Prior to Rwandan independence, Belgium’s political allegiance shifted away from the mostly Tutsi Mwami and their power base to the growing Hutu movement. Under Rwanda’s Hutu leader and later first post-independence president Grégoire Kayibanda, Belgium began favouring Hutus. The community got increased education opportunities. Its leaders were given more say over post-colonial political events than the Mwami and his court.
Rwanda-Belgium relations focused on promoting the majority Hutu population, despite some discontent from conservative, mostly Tutsi, actors. With independence, Belgium played an important but diminishing role. It did not provide the financial support Kigali wanted. In response, Kigali turned to France, whose influence grew significantly under President Juvénal Habyarimana (1973-1994).
Despite their diminished state, relations between Rwanda and Belgium were still important. Belgium became the primary western nation to help provide stability in Rwanda during the waning years of the Rwandan Civil War (1990-1994), known locally as the Liberation War.
A peace deal in 1993, called the Arusha Accords, between the Rwandan Patriotic Front and the Habyarimana regime paved the way for a UN mission. However, getting western nations to send soldiers for the mission proved difficult. This was after a peacekeeping disaster in Somalia (the Battle of Mogadishu) earlier that year. As a result, Belgium ended up providing the bulk of troops for the Rwanda mission.
The assassination of Habyarimana on 6 April 1994 triggered the Genocide against the Tutsi. The UN mission’s commander sent a platoon to guard the home of prime minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana. The platoon had 10 Belgian and five Ghanaian soldiers. They were captured when Rwandan Presidential Guard officers stormed Uwilingiyimana’s home and killed her.
The Ghanaian soldiers were released relatively unharmed, while the Belgian soldiers were killed at the Camp Kigali military base. The murders were intended to provoke the UN mission’s withdrawal from Rwanda. Belgian troops departed within the genocide’s first week. This allowed Rwanda’s genocide to run uninterrupted for 100 days until the Rwandan Patriotic Front stopped it in July 1994.
Since the genocide, the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front has had a sceptical view of Belgium. In 2000, former prime minister Guy Verhofstadt apologised for Belgium’s failure to stop the genocide and for fostering ethnic divisions during the colonial period.
Nevertheless, many Rwandan officials still believe Brussels hasn’t done enough to acknowledge its colonial record.
What’s behind the current fallout?
The current diplomatic crisis erupted because of accusations of Rwandan involvement in eastern DRC. UN experts’ reports have accused Rwanda of supporting the reanimated M23. The rebel group has captured large swathes of eastern DRC.
Belgium has been leading calls for European sanctions against Rwanda for this involvement. However, Rwanda – which denies supporting the M23 – claims that Belgium’s accusations are aimed at gaining favourable mining rights in the DRC.
Relations between the two countries have been deteriorating steadily in 2025. In February, Rwanda suspended a five-year (2024-2029) €95 million (US$102.8 million) deal. This was one of the largest aid deals between the two countries. In March, in addition to the suspension of diplomatic ties, the Rwanda Governance Board, which registers and monitors non-governmental organisations, placed restrictions on NGOs receiving financial support from Belgium.
What’s the impact of this diplomatic falling out?
Rwanda-Belgium relations have never broken down to the current level.
It is unlikely to last in the long term. Like many other donor nations, Belgium needs Rwanda as a case study for proper aid utilisation and for its contribution to African peacekeeping.
Rwanda is Africa’s most active troop-contributing country to UN missions and the fourth most active worldwide. Its primary political, security and economic allies remain the United States and the United Kingdom. While relations with these two nations are strained, they’re not at the level reached with Belgium.
Nevertheless, the current state of affairs will continue in the near future unless the M23 is defeated. The only available avenues for quick restoration of relations are if Belgium apologises for seemingly siding with the DRC over Rwanda in the conflict in eastern Congo and repeats its apology for its colonial legacy. Neither of these options seems likely in the short term.
Jonathan Beloff received funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AH/W001217/1).
Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Mohammad Amir Anwar, Senior Lecturer in African Studies and International Development, University of Edinburgh
Data workers in Africa often have a hard time. They face job insecurities – including temporary contracts, low pay, arbitrary dismissal and worker surveillance – and alarming physical and psychological health risks. The consequences of their work can include exhaustion, burnout, mental health strain, chronic stress, vertigo and weakening of eyesight.
Data work includes text prediction, image and video annotation, speech to text validation and content moderation.
The world of data work is built on labour arbitrage – exploiting the fact that workers earn less and have less protection in some countries than in others.
Workers and researchers have issued many warnings about data workers’ health. Despite numerous court cases in multiple jurisdictions, nothing much has been done to address these issues either by tech companies or by regulators.
Still, the news of the death of a Nigerian content moderator, Ladi Anzaki Olubunmi, who was found dead in her apartment in Nairobi, Kenya on 7 March 2025, came as a shock. While the circumstances of her death are still unclear, it has renewed calls for wider systemic change. Her death has sparked condemnation from the Kenyan Union of Gig Workers, which demanded an investigation.
Since 2015, we have been studying the central role of African data workers in building and maintaining artificial intelligence (AI) systems, acting as “data janitors”. Our research found that companies rarely acknowledge the use of human workers in AI value chains, thus they remain “hidden” from the public eye. In other words, the world of AI is built on the toil of human workers most people are unaware of.
In this article, we outline key steps needed to protect these data workers in Africa. They include business process outsourcing regulations, ensuring quality rather than quantity of jobs, and providing social protection. There is also a need to name and shame companies that maltreat data workers.
Business process outsourcing is the practice of procuring various processes or operations from external suppliers or vendors. Firms that do this are sometimes trying to evade local regulations (like minimum wages) and responsibility towards workers’ welfare (via sub-contracting and the use of temporary employment agencies).
Nonetheless, new regulations have been proposed lately, like the Kenyan government’s Business Law (Amendment) Bill, 2024 targeting the wider business process outsourcing and IT-enabled services sector. Particularly, it makes business process outsourcing firms responsible for any claim raised by employees. It ensures some accountability for firms bringing data work to Africa.
Other governments should follow with similar measures ensuring worker rights are enforceable. Some data workers are hired on contracts as short as five days and get paid less than the local minimum wage. Firms found violating labour standards should be penalised.
In fact, there is an urgent need to create regional or continent-wide regulatory frameworks covering the business process outsourcing sector, limiting the space for firms to exploit workers.
It’s possible, however, that jobs might be lost as firms relocate to places with favourable laws, an everyday reality in the outsourcing networks.
African governments should prioritise the quality of jobs and not quantity. Policymakers should think about wider national economic development plans, particularly structural diversification and upgrading of their economies.
Historically, these strategies have resulted in success in some states, addressing social and economic issues such as unemployment, poverty and inequality.
Another option for African governments is to enhance social protection among data workers. Financing this is a serious issue, so proper taxation and compliance among workers and employers is urgently needed.
Finally, there is a role for naming and shaming firms that treat their data workers poorly. There is evidence that such efforts improve compliance and firms’ behaviour.
African data workers have taken risks in openly speaking about their experiences. But these kinds of approaches work well when combined with collective bargaining.
Workers have historically won their labour and civil rights after long and hard-fought struggles. There is a long history of African worker movements and trade unions resisting the apartheid and colonial regimes across the continent.
While the freedom of association is enshrined in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and most governments have legislation committed to collective bargaining, it is rarely implemented in the new outsourcing sectors, particularly data work.
It is also difficult to organise workers in the industry, because of the high churn rate. For instance, data training firms like Sama offer short-term contracts to employees, often as short as five days.
Some firms are hostile to workers’ organising activities.
These initiatives are crucial to ensure workers have decent remuneration, work-life balance, adequate working hours, protection against arbitrary dismissal, safe working environments, and contributions towards their health and welfare.
AI-dependent tools such as ChatGPT or driverless cars would not exist without African data workers. They are tired of being “hidden”. They deserve to be treated with respect and dignity.
Mophat Okinyi, Kauna Malgwi, Sonia Kgomo and Richard Mathenge co-authored this article.
Mohammad Amir Anwar receives funding from United Kingdom Research and Innovation, Royal Society of Edinburgh, and British Academy.
A 2024 Unicef report found that 23% of South African children experience severe food poverty, eating less than two of the recommended five food groups per day. Unemployment, food insecurity, limited access to basic services and a lack of knowledge about nutrition all contribute to this. The lead researcher of this multidisciplinary study, Leila Patel, and collaborating researchers Matshidiso Sello and Sadiyya Haffejee suggest ways to tackle this dire situation.
What’s in place to protect children from poverty?
Since a call for prioritising the needs of children was adopted by the Mandela government in 1994, much progress has been made in expanding access to education, to immunisations, other primary healthcare services and social grants. Just over 13 million children now receive a child support grant. This has reduced child hunger rates from the high levels seen during the apartheid and immediate post-apartheid eras.
But the grant doesn’t get to all the children who qualify for it. Around 17.5% of eligible children still don’t receive it. Reasons include a lack of proper documentation, lack of awareness of eligibility criteria and insufficient outreach by government agencies to reach vulnerable populations.
Also, the grant isn’t close enough to the food poverty line, which is R796 (about US$43) per month per person based on the daily energy intake that a person needs. From 1 April 2025, the child support grant will increase to R560 (about US$30) per month per child.
Secondly, although school feeding schemes are in place, many children fall outside the net. Close to 10 million children in low income communities in South Africa have access to a school lunch via the National School Nutrition Programme. This programme is an excellent intervention which improves the health of children. However, in 2024, about a quarter of the children who are eligible did not receive school meals. Some of the reasons are procurement issues, funding delays, problems with provisioning, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, when school feeding ceased. Uptake has recovered to some extent but there is a need to improve the quality and effectiveness of the school feeding programme to improve nutritional outcomes.
You designed a system to help alleviate child poverty: what did it involve?
The South African Research Chairs Initiative and the Centre for Social Development in Africa at the University of Johannesburg implemented a study to strengthen social and care systems across health, education and social development. The project, which was started in 2020, involved tracking early grade learners and their caregivers in Johannesburg over a three-year period, looking at their health, material circumstances, food security, educational performance and mental health. Our research revealed a concerning picture of child hunger in Johannesburg, Africa’s wealthiest city.
The number of children in our study who went to bed hungry in the past week decreased from 13.7% in 2020 to 4.9% in 2022. Zero hunger was achieved in 2021 but it increased again in 2022 due to broader economic pressures like rising food prices and unemployment. While stunting rates showed a slight downward trend over the three years (from 13.5% in 2020 to 11.1% in 2022), we observed worrying increases in wasting, a severe form of malnutrition (from 5.6% in 2020 to 20.3% in 2022), and underweight (from 5.6% in 2020 to 11.4% in 2022).
Increases in wasting may be due to the COVID-19 pandemic and slow economic recovery. Nevertheless, the fluctuating figures underscore the complex interplay of factors contributing to severe child hunger.
The teams who worked on the project – called the Community of Practice intervention – set about creating a tighter, more supportive net around children experiencing severe and moderate risk. This integrated approach brought together government agencies, NGOs, schools, social workers, families and community leaders, to build sustainable solutions for child wellbeing.
The focus was on strengthening existing systems and fostering collaboration to ensure that children’s needs were identified and addressed effectively. On average, 157 children were reached each year over a three year period.
Several promising practices emerged from the collaborations, demonstrating the potential for positive change. These included:
Strengthening school nutrition programmes by improving the quality and consistency of meals received and providing nutrition education through radio and WhatsApp messaging. More children had access to school meals.
Tailored interventions: The team conducted screenings to assess the needs of children and their families. Children requiring specific interventions were referred to appropriate services such as child protection services and grants. Caregivers facing mental health challenges were connected to psychosocial support services, and families experiencing hunger were provided with food parcels by NGOs. Providing food top-ups for children resulted in zero hunger in the second year of the pandemic.
The number of children experiencing learning and social and emotional difficulties decreased between 2020 and 2022. Access to food and nutrition improved, higher vaccination rates were achieved and caregivers were more responsive to their health needs.
What does this tell you about what needs to change?
A significant barrier in addressing severe child poverty is the fragmentation of services across the Departments of Health, Basic Education and Social Development. Since the departments run standalone programmes, the synergies between the different social systems are not optimised. Children and their families who need additional support are often referred to the appropriate services, but there is poor follow-up.
The Integrated School Health Policy of 2012 makes provision for better coordination between these departments. But implementation has been uneven and poor in some instances. Improving and strengthening these inter-connected social systems of service provision across government departments is critical to improving child food poverty outcomes.
While managing food inflation, economic growth, job creation, and reduced inequality are important longer-term goals, immediate interventions are essential to address severe child food poverty. Failure to do so will compromise school progression and delay their overall health and social wellbeing. Simply improving economic indicators will not automatically translate to food on the table for every child; targeted interventions are vital.
Ending severe child hunger in South Africa demands a comprehensive and coordinated response, involving government, NGOs, community organisations, schools, and families themselves.
Leila Patel receives funding from the National Research Foundation for the Communities of Practice (CoP) study for social systems strengthening for better child wellbeing outcomes.
Matshidiso Valeria Sello receives funding from the Centre of Excellence in Human Development for a project on Household Economic Shocks.
Sadiyya Haffejee receives funding from the National Research Foundation.
The Panama Canal is one of the most important waterways in the world, with about 7% of global trade passing through. It also relies heavily on rainfall. Without enough freshwater flowing in, the canal’s locks can’t raise and lower ships traveling between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Droughts mean fewer ships per day, and that can quickly affect Panama’s finances and economies around the world.
But the same freshwater is also essential for Panama’s many other needs, including drinking water for about 2 million Panamanians, use by Indigenous people and farmers in the watershed, as well as hydropower.
When the region experiences droughts, as it did in 2023-2024, the resulting water shortages can lead to increasing water conflicts.
One of those conflicts involves a new dam the Panama Canal Authority plans to begin building in 2027. It would be designed to secure enough water to keep the canal, which contributes about 4.2% to the country’s gross domestic product,, operating into the future, but it would also submerge farming communities and displace over 2,000 people from their homes.
The Panama Canal Authority plans to build a new dam and reservoir that would submerge the village of Limon and hundreds of homes in the region. AP Photo/Matias Delacroix
This recent drought wasn’t an anomaly. As an academic who studies the effects of rising temperatures on water availability and sea level rise, I’m aware that as the climate warms, Panama will likely face more extremes, both long dry spells and also periods of too much rain. That will force more trade-offs between residential needs and the canal over water use.
Complex engineering remade the landscape
The Panama Canal was built over a century ago at the narrowest point of the country and in the heart of its population center. The route was historically used by the Spanish colonies and later for a rail line between the oceans.
The idea of a canal connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans began as a French endeavor, led by architect Ferdinand D. Lesseps, designer of the Suez Canal in Egypt. After the French effort failed, the U.S. government signed a treaty with newly independent Panama in 1903 to take over the project.
One week of shipping on the Panama Canal. Source: Maps.com using World Economic Forum data.
The canal project was designed to take advantage of the region’s tropical climate and abundant average rainfall.
It harnessed the water of the Chagres River basin to run three sets of locks – chambers that, filled with fresh water, act like elevators, lifting or lowering ships to compensate for the difference in water levels between the two oceans.
To ensure enough water would be available for the locks, the canal’s designers changed the shapes of the region’s mountains and rivers to create a large watershed – over 1,325 square miles (3,435 square kilometers) – that drains toward the canal’s human-made lakes, Gatun and Alajuela.
About 65% of the water that flows from the watershed today goes to operate the locks. The majority of that water is quickly lost to the oceans.
Panama’s wet tropical weather is predominantly influenced by its location near the equator, the trade winds and the oceans. Most of its rain falls during the wet season, from May to November. However, weather records show a drop in average precipitation starting around 1950.
The driest years resulted in dangerously low water levels in Gatun Lake that made canal operations difficult, including in 1998, 2016 and most recently 2023-2024. El Niño weather patterns can mean particularly low rainfall.
Water levels at Gatun Lake since 1965 show how low 2023 and 2024 were. EIA
In December 2023, the Panama Canal Authority was forced to limit the number of daily transits to 22, compared with 36 to 38 usual crossings, because too little freshwater was available.
To avoid steep financial losses, the Panama Canal Authority raised prices and auctioned transit opportunities to the highest bidders. Without those measures, the authority estimated it would lose $100 million a month from reduced ship traffic because of the water shortage.
Ecosystems also need enough water, and changes in forest tree composition have become evident on Barro Colorado Island in Gatun Lake in response to rising temperatures and more frequent droughts.
Temporary measures for saving water have been already implemented. The Panama Canal Authority shortened the chamber size in some of its locks to use less water for smaller vessels and minimized direction changes.
However, it also illustrates the country’s water conflicts. Once filled, the dam’s reservoir will submerge over 1,200 homes by some counts, and more people in the region will lose access to land and travel routes. The Panama Canal Authority promises that residents will be relocated, but some of those living in the region fear they will lose their livelihoods, along with the communities their families have lived in for generations.
Panama Canal representatives explain to community members in El Jobo in 2024 how a planned dam on the Indio River would affect the future of their community. AP Photo/Matias Delacroix
Residents across Panama, meanwhile, regularly hear media campaigns that encourage them to save water. An Environmental Economic Incentives Program promotes forest conservation and sustainable family agriculture to conserve water resources.
The Panama Canal is a crucial part of international trade, and it will face more periods of water stress. I believe responding to those future changes, as well as market and societal demands, will require innovative solutions that respect ecosystem limits and the needs of the population.
Karina Garcia 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.
An individual’s “right to die” is becoming more accepted across the globe. Polls show that most Americans support allowing doctors to end a patient’s life upon their request. Assisted suicide is now permitted in 10 U.S. states and in Washington. In 2025,five more states are set to consider “right to die” legislation.
The “right to die” can refer to several means of dying. In “euthanasia,” death can either be “voluntary” – when a physician administers lethal drugs with the patient’s consent – or “nonvoluntary,” without a person’s consent, as when a person is in a vegetative state. In such cases, consent is usually given by a legal guardian or relative.
By contrast “assisted suicide” refers to a person being aided in ending their life by being given lethal drugs and then administering the dose themselves. This practice is sometimes called “assisted dying.” These terms make crucial distinctions between who carries out the final act of ending life.
In 2023, almost 1 in 20 deaths in Canada were from assisted dying; in the Netherlands, the number reached 5.4% from assisted dying and euthanasia. The Netherlands has also legalized assisted dying related to mental disorders, not just terminal illnesses.
In November 2024, an assisted dying bill passed the British parliament, with a similar bill now pending in Scotland. Assisted suicide and euthanasia are already legal in Spain, Belgium and Luxembourg, among other countries in Europe and Latin America.
The right-to-die debate
Advocates of a person’s right to die argue that individuals should make their own end-of-life decisions because it is their life – and their death. Advocates also maintain that euthanasia and assisted suicide not only prevent further suffering, but also safeguard an individual’s dignity by avoiding senseless pain and severely diminished quality of life.
However, right-to-die advocates have critics; among the more forceful ones is the Roman Catholic Church. For example, speaking about the potential legalization of euthanasia in France in 2022, Pope Francis argued that euthanasia, in all its forms, only leads to “more killing.”
The fullest, most recent explanation of the Catholic view on the right to die can be found in the 2020 Vatican letter “The Good Samaritan,” a title that refers to the biblical story of a stranger who was the only one to assist a man beaten and stripped by robbers.
Agreeing with many other Christian denominations, “The Good Samaritan” letter makes the point that our lives are not our own but belong to God. As God’s creations, we do not have the right to end our own lives. Euthanasia also involves a doctor actively killing their own patient. Euthanasia and assisted suicide thus violate the biblical commandment “thou shalt not kill.”
Beyond this basic point, the letter maintains that euthanasia undermines society because the right to life is the basis of all other rights. Also, debates about “quality of life” can lead to the idea that “poor-quality” lives have no right to continue.
A failure of love
“The Good Samaritan” letter observes that human beings are joined together by compassion – a word that literally means “co-suffering.” In the letter’s words, which have been repeated by Francis many times, euthanasia is “false compassion” because it ignores the “spiritual and interpersonal aspects” of human life such as accompanying – or simply being with – someone in and through their suffering.
Connected to this opposition to euthanasia and assisted suicide is a point that Francis often makes about “throwaway culture,” which “discards” the poor, needy and dependent. In Francis’ words, euthanasia is “a failure of love.”
End-of-life care
Given the Catholic church’s stand against assisted suicide and euthanasia, it might seem surprising that the church does allow refusing “overzealous” treatments that prolong suffering in the face of unavoidable death. Such procedures could include mechanical ventilation or dialysis, for example.
Catholic ethics would point out that killing is a basic part of the act of assisted suicide and euthanasia. Killing is also the intent behind the action.
But declining disproportionate treatment is not intended to kill the patient, although death is the foreseeable outcome. Death is the result of the disease, not the result of a method that actively ends the patient’s life. Also, even in terminal cases, normal care, such as providing nutrition and hydration, should be continued unless it causes additional pain.
A difference that matters
In the Catholic Church’s view, it matters that there is a difference between assisted suicide and euthanasia, on the one hand, and discontinuing disproportionate care, on the other. The difference lies in the nature of particular actions and the intent behind them.
And the difference also matters in a broader sense. In the debate between right-to-die advocates and those who, like Francis, oppose them, there are very different understandings of how society should respond to those who suffer.
Mathew Schmalz is a Roman Catholic and registered as an Independent.
Workers who are in frequent contact with potentially sick animals are at high risk of bird flu infection.Costfoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Disease forecasts are like weather forecasts: We cannot predict the finer details of a particular outbreak or a particular storm, but we can often identify when these threats are emerging and prepare accordingly.
The viruses that cause avian influenza are potential threats to global health. Recent animal outbreaks from a subtype called H5N1 have been especially troubling to scientists. Although human infections from H5N1 have been relatively rare, there have been a little more than 900 known cases globally since 2003 – nearly 50% of these cases have been fatal – a mortality rate about 20 times higher than that of the 1918 flu pandemic. If the worst of these rare infections ever became common among people, the results could be devastating.
Viewed from this deep time perspective, it becomes evident that H5N1 is displaying a common pattern of stepwise invasion from animal to human populations. Like many emerging viruses, H5N1 is making incremental evolutionary changes that could allow it to transmit between people. The periods between these evolutionary steps present opportunities to slow this process and possibly avert a global disaster.
Spillover and viral chatter
When a disease-causing pathogen such as a flu virus is already adapted to infect a particular animal species, it may eventually evolve the ability to infect a new species, such as humans, through a process called spillover.
Spillover is a tricky enterprise. To be successful, the pathogen must have the right set of molecular “keys” compatible with the host’s molecular “locks” so it can break in and out of host cells and hijack their replication machinery. Because these locks often vary between species, the pathogen may have to try many different keys before it can infect an entirely new host species. For instance, the keys a virus successfully uses to infect chickens and ducks may not work on cattle and humans. And because new keys can be made only through random mutation, the odds of obtaining all the right ones are very slim.
Given these evolutionary challenges, it is not surprising that pathogens often get stuck partway into the spillover process. A new variant of the pathogen might be transmissible from an animal only to a person who is either more susceptible due to preexisting illness or more likely to be infected because of extended exposure to the pathogen.
Even then, the pathogen might not be able to break out of its human host and transmit to another person. This is the current situation with H5N1. For the past year, there have been many animal outbreaks in a variety of wild and domestic animals, especially among birds and cattle. But there have also been a small number of human cases, most of which have occurred among poultry and dairy workers who worked closely with large numbers of infected animals.
Pathogen transmission can be modeled in three stages. In Stage 1, the pathogen can be transmitted only between nonhuman animals. In stage 2, the pathogen can also be transmitted to humans, but it is not yet adapted for human-to-human transmission. In Stage 3, the pathogen is fully capable of human-to-human transmission. Ron Barrett, CC BY-SA
Epidemiologists call this situation viral chatter: when human infections occur only in small, sporadic outbreaks that appear like the chattering signals of coded radio communications – tiny bursts of unclear information that may add up to a very ominous message. In the case of viral chatter, the message would be a human pandemic.
Sporadic, individual cases of H5N1 among people suggest that human-to-human transmission may likely occur at some point. But even so, no one knows how long or how many steps it would take for this to happen.
Influenza viruses evolve rapidly. This is partly because two or more flu varieties can infect the same host simultaneously, allowing them to reshuffle their genetic material with one another to produce entirely new varieties.
Genetic reshuffling – aka antigenic shift – between a highly pathogenic strain of avian influenza and a strain of human influenza could create a new strain that’s even more infectious among people. Eunsun Yoo/Biomolecules & Therapeutics, CC BY-NC
These reshuffling events are more likely to occur when there is a diverse range of host species. So it is particularly concerning that H5N1 is known to have infected at least 450 different animal species. It may not be long before the viral chatter gives way to larger human epidemics.
Reshaping the trajectory
The good news is that people can take basic measures to slow down the evolution of H5N1 and potentially reduce the lethality of avian influenza should it ever become a common human infection. But governments and businesses will need to act.
People can start by taking better care of food animals. The total weight of the world’s poultry is greater than all wild bird species combined. So it is not surprising that the geography of most H5N1 outbreaks track more closely with large-scale housing and international transfers of live poultry than with the nesting and migration patterns of wild aquatic birds. Reducing these agricultural practices could help curb the evolution and spread of H5N1.
Large-scale commercial transport of domesticated animals is associated with the evolution and spread of new influenza varieties. ben/Flickr, CC BY-SA
People can also take better care of themselves. At the individual level, most people can vaccinate against the common, seasonal influenza viruses that circulate every year. At first glance this practice may not seem connected to the emergence of avian influenza. But in addition to preventing seasonal illness, vaccination against common human varieties of the virus will reduce the odds of it mixing with avian varieties and giving them the traits they need for human-to-human transmission.
At the population level, societies can work together to improve nutrition and sanitation in the world’s poorest populations. History has shown that better nutrition increases overall resistance to new infections, and better sanitation reduces how much and how often people are exposed to new pathogens. And in today’s interconnected world, the disease problems of any society will eventually spread to every society.
For more than 10,000 years, human behaviors have shaped the evolutionary trajectories of infectious diseases. Knowing this, people can reshape these trajectories for the better.
Ron Barrett 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.
Measles infections can be extremely serious. So far in 2025, 14% of the people who got measles had to be hospitalized. Last year, that number was 40%. Measles can damage the lungs and immune system, and also inflict permanent brain damage. Three in 1,000 people who get the disease die. But because measles vaccination programs in the U.S. over the past 60 years have been highly successful, few Americans under 50 have experienced measles directly, making it easy to think of the infection as a mere childhood rash with fever.
When the measles virus infects a person, it binds to specific proteins on the surface of cells. It then inserts its genome and replicates, destroying the cells in the process. This first happens in the upper respiratory tract and the lungs, where the virus can damage the person’s ability to breathe well. In both places, the virus also infects immune cells that carry it to the lymph nodes, and from there, throughout the body.
Measles can wipe out immune cells’ ability to recognize pathogens.
What generally lands people with measles in the hospital is the disease’s effects on the lungs. As the virus destroys lung cells, patients can develop viral pneumonia, which is characterized by severe coughing and difficulty breathing. Measles pneumonia afflicts about 1 in 20 children who get measles and is the most common cause of death from measles in young children.
An especially alarming but still poorly understood effect of measles infection is that it can reduce the immune system’s ability to recognize pathogens it has previously encountered. Researchers had long suspected that children who get the measles vaccine also tend to have better immunity to other diseases, but they were not sure why. A study published in 2019 found that having a measles infection destroyed between 11% and 75% of their antibodies, leaving them vulnerable to many of the infections to which they previously had immunity. This effect, called immune amnesia, lasts until people are reinfected or revaccinated against each disease their immune system forgot.
There is still much to learn about the measles virus. For example, researchers are exploring antibody therapies to treat severe measles. However, even if such treatments work, the best way to prevent the serious effects of measles is to avoid infection by getting vaccinated.
Peter Kasson receives funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, and the Swedish Research Council for research on other emerging viruses.
On March 27, 2025, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. announced plans to dramatically transform the department. HHS is the umbrella agency responsible for pandemic preparedness, biomedical research, food safety and many other health-related activities.
In a video posted that afternoon, Kennedy said the cuts and reorganization to HHS aim to “streamline our agency” and “radically improve our quality of service” by eliminating rampant waste and inefficiency. “No American is going to be left behind,” the health secretary told the nation.
Combined with previous reductions, these cuts may achieve some limited short-term savings. However, the proposed changes dramatically alter U.S. health policy and research, and they may endanger important benefits and protections for many Americans. They may also have severe consequences for scientific progress. And as some policy experts have suggested, the poorly targeted cuts may increase inefficiencies and waste down the line.
From a policy perspective, the changes initiated at HHS by the second-term Trump administration are far-reaching. They involve both staffing cuts and substantial reorganization.
Prior to the March 27 announcement, the administration had already cut thousands of positions from HHS by letting go probationary employees and offering buyouts for employees to voluntarily leave.
Now, HHS is slated to lose another 10,000 workers. The latest cuts focus most heavily on a handful of agencies. The FDA will lose an additional 3,500 employees, and the NIH will lose 1,200. The CDC, where cuts are steepest, will lose 2,400 positions.
Along with these cuts comes a major reorganization that will eliminate 13 out of 28 offices and agencies, close five of the 10 regional offices, reshuffle existing divisions and establish a new division called the Administration for a Healthy America.
The plan to restructure HHS will trim its budget by 0.1%.
In his announcement, the health secretary highlighted cuts to HHS support functions, such as information technology and human resources, as a way to reduce redundancies and inefficiencies. But scaling down and reorganizing these capacities will inevitably have implications for how well HHS employees will be able to fulfill their duties – at least temporarily. Kennedy acknowledged this as a “painful period” for HHS.
However, large-scale reductions and reorganizations inevitably lead to more systemic disruptions, delays and denials. It seems implausible that Americans seeking access to health care, help with HIV prevention or early education benefits such as Head Start, which are also administered by HHS, will not be affected. This is particularly the case when conceived rapidly and without transparent long-term planning.
These new cuts are also further exacerbated by the administration’s previous slashes to public health funding for state and local governments. Given the crucial functions of HHS – from health coverage for vulnerable populations to pandemic preparedness and response – the American Public Health Association predicts the cuts will result in a rise in rates of disease and death.
Already, previous cuts at the FDA – the agency responsible for safe foods and drugs – have led to delays in product reviews.
The HHS restructuring should be viewed in a broader context. Since coming to office, the Trump administration has aggressively sought to reshape the U.S. public health agenda. This has included vast cuts to research funding as well as funding for state and local governments. The most recent cuts at HHS fit into the mold of rolling back protections and reshaping science.
The HHS reorganization also revamps two bodies within HHS, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, that are instrumental in improving U.S. health care and providing policy research. This change further diminishes the likelihood that health policy will be based on scientific evidence and raises the risk for more politicized decision-making about health.
More cuts are likely still to come. Medicaid, the program providing health coverage for low-income Americans, will be a particular target. The House of Representatives passed a budget resolution on Feb. 25 that allows up to $880 billion in cuts to the program.
All told, plans already announced and those expected to emerge in the future dramatically alter U.S. health policy and roll back substantial protections for Americans.
A vision for deregulation
Regulation has emerged as the most prolific source of policymaking over the last five decades, particularly for health policy. Given its vast responsibilities, HHS is one of the federal government’s most prolific regulators. Vast cuts to the HHS workforce will likely curtail this capability, resulting in fewer regulatory protections for Americans.
At the same time, with fewer experienced administrators on staff, industry influence over regulatory decisions will likely only grow stronger. HHS will simply lack the substance and procedural expertise to act independently. More industry influence and fewer independent regulators to counter it will also further reduce attention to disparities and underserved populations.
Ultimately, the Trump administration’s efforts may lead to a vastly different federal health policy – with fewer benefits, services and protections – than what Americans have become accustomed to in modern times.
Dr. Simon F. Haeder has previously received funding from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) .
Source: The Conversation – USA – By Rochelle Walensky, Bayer Fellow in Health and Biotech, American Academy in Berlin, Senior Fellow in the Women and Public Policy Program, Harvard Kennedy School
This delay comes at a time when the population of aging adults is rising dramatically. By 2050, the number of adults over 85 is expected to triple, which will intensify the strain on an already stretched health care system. We wrote about this worsening challenge and its implications for the health care workforce in a January 2025 report in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Even before the pandemic, 80% of U.S. counties lacked a single infectious disease physician. Before going to the CDC, I – Dr. Walensky – was chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital. When COVID-19 hit our hospitals, we were in desperate need of more infectious disease expertise. I was just one of them.
At the local level, these infectious disease-trained subspecialists provide essential services when it comes to preventing and controlling transmissible outbreaks, carrying out diagnostic testing, developing treatment guidelines, informing hospital capacity planning and offering resources for community outreach. Each of these experts plays a vital role at the bedside and in systems management toward effective clinical, hospital and community responses to infectious disease outbreaks.
Now, Americans across all regions, specialties and socioeconomic backgrounds are experiencing that decline firsthand or personally.
The National Center for Health Workforce Analysis projects a national shortage of 140,000 physicians by 2036, with that shortfall spanning multiple specialties, including primary care, obstetrics, cardiology and geriatrics.
However, some geographic areas in the country – especially some of those with the poorest health – are disproportionately affected. The brunt of the effect will be felt in rural areas: An estimated 56% shortage is predicted in nonmetro areas, versus only 6% in metro areas.
States such as Massachusetts, New York and Maryland boast the highest density of physicians per 100,000 people, while states such as Idaho, Mississippi and Oklahoma rank among those with the lowest. And even in states with the highest physician density, demand may still overwhelm access.
Although doctor shortages do not necessarily cause poor health outcomes, regions with fewer physicians tend to have lower life expectancy. The mean life expectancy in Mississippi is six years lower than that of Hawaii and more than four years below the national average. This underscores the substantial differences in health outcomes depending on where you live in the U.S.
Notably, areas with fewer doctors also see higher rates of chronic conditions such as chronic pulmonary disease, diabetes and poor mental health. This crisis is further exacerbated by the aging baby boomer population, which places increasing demand on an already strained health care system due to rising rates – especially among those over 85 – of multiple chronic diseases, complex health care needs and the concurrent use of multiple medications.
Rural areas have always had lower access to medical care compared with urban centers, and this divide could get far worse with the looming physician shortage. Chalabala/iStock via Getty Images Plus
How the US reached this point
Some of these workforce challenges stem from the unintended consequences of policy changes that were originally aimed at improving the rigor of medical education or curtailing a once-anticipated physician glut.
For example, the 1910 Flexner Report was commissioned to restructure American medical education with the goals of standardizing curricula and improving quality. While the report succeeded at those goals, it was shortsighted in important ways. For instance, it recommended closing rather than strengthening 89 of the 155 existing medical schools at the time. This created medical school deserts that persist in some U.S. regions to this day.
Decades after the Flexner Report, in 1980, policymakers anticipated a physician oversupply based on medical school enrollment projections and government investments in the medical workforce. In response, funding constraints were introduced by Congress to limit residency and fellowship training slots available after medical school.
But by the early 2000s, discussions shifted to concerns about physician shortages. Despite the calls for reforms to address the issues more than a decade ago, the funding and training constraints have remained largely unchanged. These have created a persistent bottleneck in postgraduate medical training that requires acts of Congress to reverse.
Primary care doctors provide continuity for patients; without them, people tend to experience more complex health care needs and poorer outcomes.
Forces shaping the physician bottleneck
In the wake of the Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, states with restrictive abortion policies are now facing an emerging and troubling workforce challenge: It may get more difficult to recruit and retain tomorrow’s medical school grads.
Research surveys suggest that 82% of future physicians, not just obstetricians, prefer to train and work in states that uphold abortion access. While it may seem obvious that obstetricians would want to avoid the increasing liabilities associated with the Dobbs decision, another point is less obvious: Most medical trainees are between the ages of 25 and 35, prime childbearing years, and may themselves want access to a full range of obstetric care.
And given that 20% of physicians are married to other physicians and an additional 25% to other health professionals, marriage within the health care workforce may also play a substantial role. A physician choosing not to practice in one of the 14 states with limited abortion access, many of which already rank among the poorest in health outcomes and lowest in physician densities, may not only take their expertise but also their partner’s elsewhere.
Shifting the trajectory
The doctor shortage requires a combination of solutions, starting with addressing the high cost of medical education and training. Medical school enrollment has increased by only 10% over the past decade, far insufficient to address both the shortage today and the projected growth of the aging population needing care.
In addition, many students carry large amounts of debt, which frequently limits who can pursue the profession. And existing scholarship and compensation programs have been only modestly effective in incentivizing providers to work in high-need areas.
In our New England Journal of Medicine report, we laid out several specific strategies that could help address the shortages and the potential workforce crisis. For instance:
Rather than the traditional medical education model – four years of broad medical training followed by three to seven years of residency – medical schools could offer more specialized training pathways. These streamlined programs would focus on the skills needed for specific medical specialties, potentially reducing training duration and costs.
Reforming physician compensation could also help address imbalances in the health care system. Specialists and subspecialists typically earn substantially more than primary care doctors, despite the high demand for primary care. Raising primary care salaries and offering incentives, such as student loan forgiveness for physicians in high-need areas, could encourage more doctors to practice where they are needed most.
Additionally, addressing physician burnout is crucial, particularly in primary care, where administrative burdens such as billing and charting contribute to stress and attrition. Reducing these burdens, potentially through novel AI-driven solutions, could allow doctors to focus more on patient care and less on paperwork.
These are just an assortment of strategies we propose, and time is of the essence. One thing is certain: The U.S. urgently needs more doctors, and everyone’s health depends on it.
Dr Rochelle P. Walensky is the Bayer Fellow in Health and Biotech, American Academy in Berlin. She reported receiving personal fees from Madryn Asset Management for serving as a senior policy advisor, Consonance Capital for serving as a senior advisory board member, and Doris Duke Foundation for serving as a trustee; consulting fees from Infectious Diseases Society of America; and nonfinancial support from The Carter Center for being a member of the board of directors outside the submitted work.
Nicole McCann 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.
Prisoners stand in a cell as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks during a tour of the Terrorist Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, on March 26, 2025.AP Photo/Alex Brandon
A federal appeals court on March 26, 2025, upheld a temporary block on President Donald Trump’s deportation of hundreds of Venezuelan immigrants, including alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, to a maximum security prison in El Salvador.
The court was skeptical of Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to defend the deportations. The act, passed in 1798, gives the president the power to detain and remove people from the United States in times of war.
Those who are challenging Trump’s actions in court say the administration has violated constitutional principles of due process. That’s because it gave the migrants no opportunity to refute the government’s claims that they were gang members.
But what is due process? And how does the government balance this important right against national security?
As a constitutional law professor who studies government institutions, I recognize the delicate balance government must strike in protecting civil rights and liberties while allowing presidential administrations to preserve national security and foreign policy interests.
Ultimately, the U.S. Constitution’s framers left it to the courts to determine this balance.
Due process explained
The phrase “due process of law” goes back to at least 1215. That’s when England’s Magna Carta established the principle that government is not above the law.
This principle guided the framers of the U.S. Constitution. The Fifth Amendment and 14th Amendment, for example, prohibit federal and state governments from depriving people of their “life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”
Government officials see the limits of their power from one lens. People affected by the exercise of that power view it differently.
To combat this problem, the Constitution’s framers placed the judiciary in charge of determining what due process means and when people’s due process rights have been violated.
Court decisions on the issue traditionally weigh the government’s interests in taking specific actions against claims that those actions violate people’s civil rights and liberties.
Even when the law authorizes the president to detain people, historically the Supreme Court has held that those people should receive notice of the reason for their detention, and they should have a fair opportunity to rebut the government’s claims.
One of the important considerations in legal analysis of the procedures the government must follow when depriving people of their liberty is the risk that the government will make a mistake in its decision-making.
For example, some representatives of the deported Venezuelan migrants argue that they have been falsely accused of having ties to Tren de Aragua based on their country of origin and tattoos. They claim that without more investigation, including an opportunity for the migrants to present their evidence refuting the government’s claims, there is a large risk that government will mistakenly deport people.
When can the president avoid due process?
In some cases, the president can skirt traditional due process considerations in pursuit of broader policy concerns.
As put by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in his initial order blocking the deportations, the president’s action in this area implicate “a host of complicated legal issues, including fundamental and sensitive questions about the often-circumscribed extent of judicial power in matters of foreign policy and national security.”
Before Trump took executive action using the Alien Enemies Act, the measure had only been used three times – all during times of war.
The act was part of a series of four laws passed in 1798 known as the Alien and Sedition Acts. These laws, among other things, gave the president the power to deport any noncitizen thought to be dangerous.
A woman holds a sign during a rally on March 18, 2025, in Caracas, Venezuela, to protest the deportation from the U.S. of alleged members of a Venezuelan gang, who were transferred to an El Salvador prison. AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos
President Thomas Jefferson allowed most of the acts to expire. But Jefferson and subsequent presidents kept in place the provisions that empowered the president to detain or deport noncitizens in times of war, “invasion” or “predatory incursion” by foreign powers.
Today, the law authorizes the president to apprehend and remove people over the age of 14 that the administration determines to be “alien enemies.” However, it places procedural requirements on the president.
Notably, the president’s ability to act requires a declared war against or an “invasion or predatory excursion” by a foreign nation. In such an event, the president must issue a proclamation saying he plans on using the act against perceived enemies.
To justify the Venezuelan deportations, Trump issued a proclamation on March 15 claiming Tren de Aragua is perpetrating and threatening an invasion against the U.S.
But the act also says people considered alien enemies must be given reasonable time to settle their affairs and voluntarily depart from the country. And it gives the courts power to regulate whether such persons even fall within the definition of “alien enemies.”
The Venezuelan migrants claim Trump has violated these parts of the act.
The current fight
This is where things become complicated.
All parties in the case acknowledge that the Alien Enemies Act grants the president authority to act. However, the argument is whether the government has given people the opportunity to challenge the government’s decision to classify them as “alien enemies.”
His administration argues that it doesn’t have to tell migrants it considers them alien enemies. And the administration says it’s not required to give them time to ask the courts to step in before they are deported.
In a March 24 hearing on the issue, D.C. Circuit Court Judge Patricia A. Millet noted that during World War II, even the “Nazis got better treatment under the Alien Enemies Act.”
The dispute has prompted international questions about the legality of the U.S. government’s deportation procedures and its treatment of the migrants.
And Democratic members of Congress have called for an investigation into the administration’s deportation practices.
The case will most likely head to the Supreme Court to determine what due process means and when the president can act in the name of national security to limit people’s due process rights. That’s just as the framers of the Constitution intended.
Jennifer L. Selin has received funding and/or support for her research on the executive branch from the Administrative Conference of the United States. The views in this piece are those of the author and do not represent the position of the Administrative Conference or the federal government.
One of the most powerful objects in the universe is a radio quasar – a spinning black hole spraying out highly energetic particles. Come too close to one, and you’d get sucked in by its gravitational pull, or burn up from the intense heat surrounding it. But ironically, studying black holes and their jets can give researchers insight into where potentially habitable worlds might be in the universe.
As an astrophysicist, I’ve spent two decades modeling how black holes spin, how that creates jets, and how they affect the environment of space around them.
What are black holes?
Black holes are massive, astrophysical objects that use gravity to pull surrounding objects into them. Active black holes have a pancake-shaped structure around them called an accretion disk, which contains hot, electrically charged gas.
The plasma that makes up the accretion disk comes from farther out in the galaxy. When two galaxies collide and merge, gas is funneled into the central region of that merger. Some of that gas ends up getting close to the newly merged black hole and forms the accretion disk.
Black holes and their disks can rotate, and when they do, they drag space and time with them – a concept that’s mind-boggling and very hard to grasp conceptually. But black holes are important to study because they produce enormous amounts of energy that can influence galaxies.
How energetic a black hole is depends on different factors, such as the mass of the black hole, whether it rotates rapidly, and whether lots of material falls onto it. Mergers fuel the most energetic black holes, but not all black holes are fed by gas from a merger. In spiral galaxies, for example, less gas tends to fall into the center, and the central black hole tends to have less energy.
One of the ways they generate energy is through what scientists call “jets” of highly energetic particles. A black hole can pull in magnetic fields and energetic particles surrounding it, and then as the black hole rotates, the magnetic fields twist into a jet that sprays out highly energetic particles.
Magnetic fields twist around the black hole as it rotates to store energy – kind of like when you pull and twist a rubber band. When you release the rubber band, it snaps forward. Similarly, the magnetic fields release their energy by producing these jets.
The accretion disk around a black hole can form a jet of hot, energetic particles surrounded by magnetic field lines. NASA, ESA, and A. Feild (STScI), CC BY
These jets can speed up or suppress the formation of stars in a galaxy, depending on how the energy is released into the black hole’s host galaxy.
Rotating black holes
Some black holes, however, rotate in a different direction than the accretion disk around them. This phenomenon is called counterrotation, and some studies my colleagues and I have conducted suggest that it’s a key feature governing the behavior of one of the most powerful kinds of objects in the universe: the radio quasar.
You can imagine the black hole as a rotating sphere, and the accretion disk as a disk with a hole in the center. The black hole sits in that center hole and rotates one way, while the accretion disk rotates the other way.
This counterrotation forces the black hole to spin down and eventually up again in the other direction, called corotation. Imagine a basketball that spins one way, but you keep tapping it to rotate in the other. The tapping will spin the basketball down. If you continue to tap in the opposite direction, it will eventually spin up and rotate in the other direction. The accretion disk does the same thing.
Since the jets tap into the black hole’s rotational energy, they are powerful only when the black hole is spinning rapidly. The change from counterrotation to corotation takes at least 100 million years. Many initially counterrotating black holes take billions of years to become rapidly spinning corotating black holes.
So, these black holes would produce powerful jets both early and later in their lifetimes, with an interlude in the middle where the jets are either weak or nonexistent.
When the black hole spins in counterrotation with respect to its accretion disk, that motion produces strong jets that push molecules in the surrounding gas close together, which leads to the formation of stars.
But later, in corotation, the jet tilts. This tilt makes it so that the jet impinges directly on the gas, heating it up and inhibiting star formation. In addition to that, the jet also sprays X-rays across the galaxy. Cosmic X-rays are bad for life because they can harm organic tissue.
For life to thrive, it most likely needs a planet with a habitable ecosystem, and clouds of hot gas saturated with X-rays don’t contain such planets. So, astronomers can instead look for galaxies without a tilted jet coming from its black hole. This idea is key to understanding where intelligence could potentially have emerged and matured in the universe.
Black holes as a guide
By early 2022, I had built a black hole model to use as a guide. It could point out environments with the right kind of black holes to produce the greatest number of planets without spraying them with X-rays. Life in such environments could emerge to its full potential.
Looking at black holes and their role in star formation could help scientists predict when and where life was most likely to form.
Where are such conditions present? The answer is low-density environments where galaxies had merged about 11 billion years ago.
These environments had black holes whose powerful jets enhanced the rate of star formation, but they never experienced a bout of tilted jets in corotation. In short, my model suggested that theoretically, the most advanced extraterrestrial civilization would have likely emerged on the cosmic scene far away and billions of years ago.
David Garofalo 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.
Why do dogs love to play with trash? – Sarah G٫ age 11٫ Seguin٫ Texas
When I think about why dogs do something, I try to imagine what motivates them. What does a dog get out of playing with trash? As a veterinarian and a professor who teaches college students about companion animals, I believe there’s an easy answer: Garbage smells delicious and tastes good to dogs.
Dogs have an amazing sense of smell. They have 300 million receptors for smell in their noses, while humans have only 6 million. People can make use of this sniffing ability to train dogs to detect illegal drugs, explosives and endangered species, and to help locate people lost in the woods.
While you might not like how your trash smells, to your dog it is an appealing buffet brimming with apple cores, banana peels, meat scraps and stale bread. Even used napkins and paper towels are tempting to dogs, when they are smeared with and carry the smell of yesterday’s lunch.
Because dogs can find trace amounts of explosives or a person buried under 6 feet (1.8 meters) of snow after an avalanche, they are certainly capable of locating last night’s pizza crust and chicken bones in the kitchen garbage can.
Sometimes it’s hard to see what the attraction is. My Australian cattle dog mix, Sparky, loves to eat used tissues – gross, right?
Even empty cans smell inviting to dogs. Trash cans in kitchens and bathrooms are often at their nose level, too, making for easy access. Add to that the fact that if the dog got into the garbage once and found something tasty, they will likely keep searching with the hope of being rewarded again.
A Colombian police officer uses a drug-sniffing dog to search packages of flowers prior to export at El Dorado International Airport in Bogota on Feb. 5, 2025. Raul Arboleda/AFP via Getty Images
Thrill of the hunt
Searching and digging around for food is natural for dogs because it provides some of the thrill of the hunt, even if they just ate and aren’t hungry.
The most successful prehistoric dogs ate the bones and scraps that humans left behind more than 10,000 years ago. Hanging around humans and their garbage was a way they could get plenty to eat. Even your pup today has some of those same old searching instincts.
While our trash has changed from the days of hunting and gathering, the discarded paper napkins, plastic wrappers and food scraps we throw away all still smell like food to dogs. And this scavenging behavior is still hardwired in our pampered pets. Although it may look to us like they’re playing, our dogs’ sniffing out and tearing things up from the trash and tossing them around mimics what their ancestors did when they tugged on and tore up an animal carcass they had found.
Many people take advantage of this instinct and use “snuffle mats” – cloth or paper where food is hidden – or puzzle feeding toys to keep their pups’ minds active. Having to hunt for and find their food helps them use their noses and sharpens their skills.
Annoying or even dangerous
While spreading trash all over the home may be natural for dogs, cleaning it up is no fun for the people they live with. And if your dog pokes its nose in a garbage can, it could be in danger. Eating plastic bags, string, chicken bones, chemicals or rotten food can cause blockages, diarrhea and poisoning. Commonly referred to as “garbage gut,” garbage poisoning can be life-threatening.
I’ve treated dogs that cut their tongues and mouths on cans or broken glass. I once performed surgery to remove a corncob from the intestines of a dog that had eaten it a month earlier. He was certainly relieved when he woke up.
How can you keep your dogs away from the trash?
It can be hard to train a dog to leave garbage alone, especially if they have found a tasty morsel or two by raiding the trash can in the past. I recommend that you invest in a garbage can with a lid closed by a latch that they can’t open. If that fails, you can put garbage – especially food scraps – out of reach in a closet, cupboard or behind a closed door.
My trash cans are all behind closed doors, and the bathroom doors are always shut, which also keeps my cat, Penny, from unrolling the toilet tissue. But that’s another story. Our kitchen trash is in a latched cupboard.
No one knows exactly what goes through dogs’ minds. And yet looking at what motivates your canine companion and how dog behaviors have evolved may help explain why these animals do the things they do.
Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.
And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you’re wondering, too. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.
Nancy Dreschel 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.
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Becky Alexis-Martin, Peace Studies and International Development, University of Bradford
Keir Starmer aboard one of the UK’s Vanguard class submarines.CC BY-NC-ND
Prime Minister Keir Starmer recently boarded one of the UK’s four nuclear-armed submarines for a photo call as part of his attempts to demonstrate the UK’s defence capabilities as tensions with Russia continue.
However, Starmer faces a problem. The submarine, and the rest of the UK’s nuclear fleet, is heavily reliant on the US as an operating partner. And at a time when the US becomes an increasingly unreliable partner under the leadership of an entirely transactional president, this is not ideal. The US can, if it chooses, effectively switch off the UK’s nuclear deterrent.
British and US nuclear history is irrevocably interwoven. The US and UK cooperated on the Manhattan project, under the 1943 Quebec agreements and the 1944 Hyde Park aide memoire. This work generated the world’s first nuclear weapons, which were deployed on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
It also led to the first rupture. In 1946, the US classified UK citizens as “foreign” and prevented them from engaging in secret nuclear work. Collaboration with the UK immediately ceased.
The UK decided to develop its own arsenal of nuclear weapons. The successful detonation of the “Grapple Y” hydrogen bomb in April 1958 cemented its position as a thermonuclear power.
In the meantime, however, Russia’s launch of the Sputnik satellite in 1957 had demonstrated the lethal reach of Soviet nuclear technology. This brought the US and UK back together as nuclear partners.
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Talks on how to counter the Russian threat became the foundation of an atomic partnership that endures to the present day. This mutual defence agreement, signed in 1958, has provided the UK with affordable access to the latest nuclear technology and a reliable western ally. The treaty has been amended and adapted over time to reflect changes in the US-UK working relationship and the two are now so entangled that it is very hard to leave the co-dependent relationship.
Both sides have benefited from security and protection, especially during the cold war. However, Trump’s new “special relationship” with Russia’s Vladimir Putin has reconfigured the global order of geopolitics.
Serious concerns are now being raised about the UK’s nuclear capacity, given the unpredictability and potential unreliability of the new US administration. Trump could ignore or threaten to terminate the agreement in a show of power or contempt.
The UK’s nuclear subs
The UK’s Trident nuclear deterrence programme consists of four Vanguard nuclear-powered and armed submarines. The UK has some autonomy, as it is operationally independent and controls the decision to launch.
However, it remains dependent on the US because the nuclear technologies at the heart of the Trident system are US designed and leased by Lockheed Martin – and there is no suitable alternative. The Trident system therefore relies on the US for support and maintenance.
The UK is currently in the process of upgrading the current system. But its options seem limited. If the US were to renege on its commitments, the UK would either have to produce its own weapons domestically, collaborate with France or Europe or disarm. Each scenario creates new issues for the UK. Manufacturing nuclear weapons from scratch in the UK, for example, would be a costly and protracted activity.
Technical collaboration with France seems the most plausible back-up option at the moment. The two countries already have a nuclear collaboration treaty in place. France has taken a similar submarine-based approach to deterrence as the UK and French president Emmanuel Macron has suggested its deterrent could be used to protect other European countries. Another alternative would be to spread the cost across Europe and create a European deterrence – but both strategies just re-embed the UK’s current nuclear reliance.
While these weapons may deter a hostile nuclear strike, they have failed to prevent broader acts of aggression. Nuclear weapons have not been used in warfare for 80 years. Perhaps it is time to completely and permanently unshackle the UK from nuclear deterrence, and consider alternative forms of defence.
The UK’s nuclear arsenal is expensive to maintain. The cost of replacing Trident is £205 billion. In 2023, the Ministry of Defence reported that the anticipated costs for supporting the nuclear deterrent would exceed its budget by £7.9 billion over the next ten years. This funding could be channelled into more pressing security threats, such as cybersecurity, terrorism or climate change.
Nuclear weapons will become strategically redundant if the UK cannot act independently. As Nato and the US dominate the global nuclear stage, the UK’s capacity to respond has become contested. The time has come to decide whether the US is really our friend – or a new foe.
Becky Alexis-Martin 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.
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