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Category: Academic Analysis

  • MIL-Evening Report: Peter Dutton wants to deport criminal dual citizens. We already have laws for that

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Beck, Professor of Constitutional Law, Monash University

    Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has floated the idea of amending the Australian Constitution to allow government ministers to strip dual citizens of their Australian citizenship if they commit serious crimes related to terrorism.

    Almost immediately, Dutton’s coalition colleague and Shadow Attorney-General Michaelia Cash walked back the idea, saying the Coalition had “no plan” for a referendum.

    Dual citizens can already lose their Australian citizenship if they commit terrorism offences.

    So what does the Constitution say about the issue?

    Citizenship cessation

    Under the Australian Citizenship Act, there are three main ways an Australian citizen can cease their Australian citizenship.

    First, a dual citizen can voluntarily renounce their Australian citizenship. Some people choose to do this if they move overseas and don’t intend to return to Australia.

    Second, the government can revoke a dual citizen’s Australian citizenship if they obtained it by fraud. The logic here is that the person was never really eligible for Australian citizenship in the first place.



    Read more:
    View from The Hill: Dutton’s talk about a citizenship referendum is personal over-reach and political folly

    Third, and most seriously, a court can – if the government asks it to – strip a dual citizen of their Australian citizenship as part of the sentencing process for serious crimes such as terrorism and foreign incursions.

    In deciding whether to impose this punishment, the court must be satisfied the person’s crime was “so serious and significant that it demonstrates that the person has repudiated their allegiance to Australia”.

    In other words, dual citizen terrorists can already lose their Australian citizenship.

    What does the Constitution say?

    Federal parliament can make laws only on certain subject matters, as listed in the Constitution. One of those subject matters is “naturalisation and aliens”.

    In a 2022 case called Alexander, the High Court confirmed the naturalisation and aliens power allows the federal parliament to pass laws taking away a person’s citizenship if the person has done something that shows they had repudiated their allegiance to Australia.

    That case concerned an Australian-Turkish dual citizen who travelled to Syria to fight with the Islamic State militant group. That kind of voluntary conduct clearly repudiates allegiance to Australia.

    The High Court has made a series of rulings against government attempts to strip citizenship.
    Shutterstock

    But to be valid, a federal law must not only fall under one of the listed subject matters such as “naturalisation and aliens”, it also must not breach any limitation on the federal parliament’s power.

    An important limitation on the federal parliament’s lawmaking power is keeping federal judicial power separate from the power of the parliament and the executive. This is called the “separation of powers”.

    The separation of federal judicial power is an important constitutional concept. The idea is that it prevents the parliament or government ministers interfering in the role of the courts or usurping the role of the courts.

    Attempts at legislation

    Only courts can exercise federal judicial power. Judicial power includes things like imposing punishments on people for criminal conduct. This is where past citizenship stripping laws have run into trouble.

    The problem with the law in the Alexander case was that it allowed a government minister to take away the terrorist’s Australian citizenship, rather than a court, and even if the person had not been first convicted by a court.

    So while the High Court ruled the parliament could legislate under the aliens power, it found ministers cannot decide guilt or punishment.

    The government thought the problem with the law was simply the lack of criminal conviction. So the parliament passed a new law allowing a government minister to strip dual citizen terrorists of their Australian citizenship, but only if they had first been convicted by a court.

    But the High Court struck down that law in a 2023 case called Benbrika.



    Read more:
    Is a terrorist’s win in the High Court bad for national security? Not necessarily

    Benbrika had been convicted of terrorism offences in the courts, then a government minister made an order taking away his citizenship.

    The problem with the law, the High Court said, was that a government minister was imposing a punishment. Only courts can impose punishment under the separation of powers.

    So in response to that decision, the federal parliament passed another law. This time the new law allowed the courts to strip a dual citizen of their Australian citizenship as a punishment as part of the sentencing process for serious crimes like terrorism.

    This is the law that’s currently in place. It avoids the separation of powers issue. There is no constitutional problem with courts imposing punishment for crimes.

    So what does Peter Dutton want to do?

    Peter Dutton’s comments suggest he wants government ministers – rather than courts – to impose the punishment of removing citizenship. He hasn’t said why or what purpose this would serve, apart from “keeping our country safe”.

    The only way to allow federal ministers to impose punishments is to change the Constitution through a referendum that inserts a new provision overriding separation of powers rules.

    Given Australia’s long history of defeated referendums, such a vote is unlikely to succeed.

    That’s if it makes it out of the gate. Reported tensions within the Liberal party suggest it may not get off the ground to become official Coalition policy.

    Luke Beck is a rank and file member of the ALP. The views expressed in this piece are his own.

    – ref. Peter Dutton wants to deport criminal dual citizens. We already have laws for that – https://theconversation.com/peter-dutton-wants-to-deport-criminal-dual-citizens-we-already-have-laws-for-that-252507

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Putin makes self-serving concession to Ukraine as Trump tries unsuccessfully to become a statesman

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By James Horncastle, Assistant Professor and Edward and Emily McWhinney Professor in International Relations, Simon Fraser University

    Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to a proposal by United States President Donald Trump for Russia and Ukraine to stop attacking each other’s energy infrastructure for 30 days, according to statements by both the White House and the Kremlin.

    Yet within hours of a Trump-Putin phone call about the U.S. ceasefire proposal, Russia was reportedly attacking Ukrainian energy facilities again, leading Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy to accuse Putin of effectively rejecting the terms.

    The deal falls short of an unconditional 30-day ceasefire proposed by U.S. and Ukrainian officials earlier this month.

    In fact, Trump’s latest phone call with Putin seemingly didn’t amount to any substantive changes, except for Russia’s agreement to refrain from targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure — a concession that might actually benefit Russia.

    The winter, when Ukraine is most vulnerable to Russian attacks on its energy infrastructure, is almost done. Russia’s dependence on energy exports to support its war effort, however, remains constant, and any Ukrainian attacks on Russian energy facilities will be framed as a breach by Russian authorities.

    Russia exploiting Trump’s desire for peace at any cost will probably be an ongoing trend.

    Given the earlier proposal was highly vague, this leads to one conclusion. Russia is playing for time to maximize its negotiating position.

    Trump’s goal

    The U.S. is playing an important role in peace negotiations. Under former president Joe Biden, this was due to the fact that the U.S. provided Ukraine with arms and moral support.

    Like most aspects of American policy, however, Trump dramatically pivoted, even attacking Zelenskyy in an infamous White House meeting in February. Now Trump is seeking a ceasefire, no matter what form it takes, to build a reputation as a statesman and distract Americans from domestic policy issues.



    Read more:
    What the U.S. ceasefire proposal means for Ukraine, Russia, Europe – and Donald Trump

    This development places Zelenskyy in a political bind. The U.S. in the past provided most of the military aid to Ukraine and the relationship between the Ukrainian leader and Trump is acrimonious.

    As such, even if Zelenskyy doesn’t agree with American ceasefire proposals, he must give the appearance of agreement or risk permanently alienating the mercurial Trump. Putin, in the meantime, will exploit any Ukrainian-American tensions.

    Current military situation

    The first year of the current phase of the Ukraine-Russia war was marked by mobility as both Russia and Ukraine made considerable advances and counteroffensives.

    Since the start of 2023, however, the conflict is increasingly defined as a war of attrition and a stalemate.

    Many analysts argue that such a war favours Russia. Wars of attrition are defined by slow, grinding advances whereby large casualties are a necessary byproduct for success. Given Russia’s material and personnel advantages, it can afford to suffer higher casualties.

    For the past several months, Russian forces have been making slow, steady advances against Ukrainian positions. Russia has suffered significant casualties in these advances, and they may not be sustainable over the long term.

    Putin is gambling that Ukraine’s and the international community’s will to fight will be broken by the time this is an issue. Trump’s push for a ceasefire at any cost suggests Putin may have a point.

    Any immediate ceasefire agreement between Russia and Ukraine would leave Ukraine occupying Russian soil in the Kursk region, which Russia cannot accept.

    Russia’s immediate goal

    Ukraine’s 2024 incursion into the Kursk region provided the country and its people with a necessary respite from the war of attrition. Ukrainian forces, attacking an under-defended and unprepared part of the Russian front line, made significant advances into Russia.

    Ukraine’s ability to maintain territory around Kursk has also proven to be an embarrassment for Putin and the Russian establishment.

    Putin recently said Russian forces encircled Ukrainian forces in the salient, although Ukraine denies it. Regardless of the statement’s validity, it speaks to the importance both parties attach to the battle.

    Russia’s reputation

    This issue highlights a particular problem for the Russian leadership. Russia has done its utmost to frame its so-called “special military operation” in Ukraine as a success. An example is Russia’s formal annexation of four Ukrainian areas in 2022, despite not actually possessing the territory at the time.

    Any perception of the invasion of Ukraine as a failure is a non-starter for a Russian government concerned about its domestic standing.

    Ukraine possessing Russian territory, however, leads to questions in Russia about the war’s success. Ukraine, in exchange for relinquishing any Russian territory it seized during the war, would undoubtedly seek the return of Ukrainian territory.

    Russia has not even achieved its minimal goals of seizing the four Ukrainian regions it’s officially annexed. Therefore, it’s unlikely Putin would ever agree to the exchange of the territory it has actually already seized in exchange for the Kursk salient.

    Putin is following the Russian playbook of negotiating from strength. So long as Ukraine maintains Kursk, Russia will not negotiate in good faith.

    While Kursk is the most prominent area of Russia concern, there are other conditions that will become important in the future as Putin seeks to improve Russia’s negotiating position.

    It’s a lesson that Trump will soon learn, despite any and all efforts he or his administration make to frame things positively.

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

    – ref. Putin makes self-serving concession to Ukraine as Trump tries unsuccessfully to become a statesman – https://theconversation.com/putin-makes-self-serving-concession-to-ukraine-as-trump-tries-unsuccessfully-to-become-a-statesman-252368

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-Evening Report: A stronger neck can help young athletes reduce their risk of concussion

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chris Gaviglio, Lecturer Strength and Conditioning, University of Southern Queensland

    Dziurek/Shutterstock

    During Australia’s winter sports seasons, hundreds of thousands of children will take to the field in contact sports like rugby league, rugby union, Australian rules and soccer.

    With this comes the ever-present risk of concussions, which can have serious short and long-term effects – especially for younger athletes.

    While concussion protocols in professional sports are now common practice, with detailed return-to-play guidelines following head knocks, junior sports often lack comprehensive prevention strategies.

    Despite growing awareness and rule changes aimed at increasing safety, concussion rates in junior sport remain concerning.

    Despite growing awareness and rule changes in some sports, concussion is still a risk to many athletes.

    How bad is the problem?

    Sports-related concussions account for a significant portion of emergency department visits and hospitalisations.

    One in five concussion hospitalisations involve sport but this figure does not capture the full scope of concussions that are managed outside hospitals, such as those treated in general practice, by physiotherapists, or that go unreported.

    The 2021–22 Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report on concussions in Australia over the past decade highlighted:

    • children and adolescents are particularly vulnerable. Boys aged 5–14 had the highest rates of emergency department presentations for concussions, suggesting sports and recreational activities play a significant role in injury occurrence at these ages.

    • young men are at highest risk of severe concussion requiring hospitalisation. Males aged 15–24 had nearly double the hospitalisation rate for concussion compared to females in the same age group.

    • although men had more concussions, when adjusted for participation numbers, women had higher concussion rates in contact sports such as rugby and Australian rules football. This means women proportionally experience concussions at a higher rate than men.



    Read more:
    Should I get my child a baseline concussion test before they start junior sports?

    Why children are more vulnerable to concussions

    Children and adolescents are particularly susceptible to concussions as their brains are still developing. This makes them more vulnerable to the effects of head trauma.

    Most young athletes also have significantly lower neck strength compared to adults. This weakness, combined with a proportionally larger head size relative to their neck, leads to greater forces transmitted to the brain when an impact occurs.

    Youth athletes often also need longer recovery periods after concussions. Symptoms can affect their schoolwork, mental health and ability to return to sport.

    While many sports have tried to lower concussion risks by implementing simplified gameplay and modifications to player-to-player contact, these approaches don’t directly boost an athlete’s physical capacity to withstand impacts.

    Can neck strength reduce concussion risk?

    One crucial yet often overlooked protective factor is neck strength.

    Research suggests stronger necks can significantly reduce concussion risk by helping to stabilise the head during impact.

    The reason appears obvious: a stronger neck helps stabilise the head during impact, reducing the acceleration forces transmitted to the brain.

    Data from high school sports suggests athletes with stronger neck muscles can better control head movement during a collision. This essentially creates a more effective “shock absorber” system.

    In soccer players, adolescents who performed neuromuscular neck exercises reported fewer concussions and possible concussive events. They also had less pain when heading the ball compared to those who didn’t perform the exercises.

    A landmark study, which examined concussions in 6,662 high school athletes across multiple sports, discovered a direct relationship between neck strength and concussion risk. It found that if athletes developed stronger neck muscles, it reduced their risk of concussion.

    This finding suggests even modest improvements in neck strength could yield significant protective benefits.

    Why neck strength matters

    Strengthening junior athletes’ necks extends beyond injury prevention.

    Fewer concussions mean less time away from sport, potentially reducing dropout rates and encouraging long-term participation.

    This has implications not just for athletic development but for public health more broadly, as lifelong sport participation contributes to better physical and mental wellbeing.

    Cognitive protection is equally important.

    By reducing concussion risk, we help safeguard young athletes’ academic performance and cognitive development.

    For sporting organisations, implementing neck strength training represents a low-cost, effective intervention that demonstrates commitment to player welfare.

    How to develop a stronger neck

    Effective neck strengthening doesn’t require expensive equipment or extensive time commitments.

    Simple exercises can be easily integrated into training sessions or warm-ups.

    Isometric neck holds are a great starting point. Athletes place their hand against their forehead, temple, or the back of their head and push gently against resistance for 5–10 seconds. These exercises activate key neck muscles without requiring any equipment.

    Over time, these exercises can be progressed using minimal equipment to increase the complexity and better mimic sports-specific movements.

    The key is consistency. Performing these exercises two to four times weekly can produce meaningful improvements in neck strength and function.

    An easy win

    As the evidence mounts, one thing becomes increasingly clear: neck strength training represents a simple, effective strategy that may reduce the effects of concussion in junior athletes.

    The minimal time and equipment requirements make it an accessible option in sports where head and neck injuries are a concern.

    Parents, coaches and sporting bodies should consider making neck strengthening exercises a standard component of junior athlete training programs.

    By doing so, we can help ensure our young athletes enjoy safer sporting experiences and healthier futures both on and off the field.

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

    – ref. A stronger neck can help young athletes reduce their risk of concussion – https://theconversation.com/a-stronger-neck-can-help-young-athletes-reduce-their-risk-of-concussion-251250

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Married At First Sight should be a platform to talk about domestic violence – too much is left unsaid

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Toone, Lecturer in Social Work, University of South Australia

    Nine

    Married at First Sight Australia (colloquially known as “MAFS”) is one of Australia’s most popular reality TV shows, averaging two million viewers an episode. But this year’s season has come under fire for multiple narratives plagued by domestic violence.

    In particular, one episode brought up three troubling facets of violence: physical violence, coercive control, and expectations of male dominance. Parallels between these three relationships are evident to those of us who work with gendered violence.

    Disappointingly, the show has only directly addressed physical violence. By failing to address properly these other facets of violence, MAFS missed an opportunity to examine the way men’s violence against women exists on a continuum.

    How does the show work?

    The premise of the show is simple: individuals who are unlucky in love are matched by three relationship “experts”. The first time they meet is at the end of the aisle.

    The spouses move in together and are put through a series of exercises designed to “fast track” their connection – although success rates are quite low.

    In weekly commitment ceremonies, each couple, in front of the group, receives relationship therapy from the show’s expert panel: registered psychologist John Aiken, relationship coach Mel Schilling, and sexologist Alessandra Rampolla.

    Each week, each member of the couple chooses to stay or leave. If only one member of a couple wants to leave, both must stay.

    ‘This is deeply troubling’

    At the commitment ceremony in the episode that aired on March 2, groom Paul Antoine confessed he punched a hole in a door during an argument with his wife Carina Mirabile.

    The experts appear to take Antoine’s violence seriously. They threaten to expel him from the show. Other grooms speak directly to camera about the seriousness of physical violence.

    Mirabile downplays his behaviour. She says the incident happened after she talked about a previous relationship, and Antoine’s actions show “he does have strong feelings towards me” and it is “a real relationship”.

    Expert Schilling responds, saying:

    I cannot sit here and listen to this justification from you […] This is not normal behaviour, sweetheart […] This is deeply troubling.

    The incident is being investigated by New South Wales Police. At the time of writing, the couple remain in the series.

    A difficult relationship

    Before the season began airing, it came to light that a member of one couple, Adrian Araouzou, was previously charged with domestic assault, before being acquitted. At the time of writing, this history has not been addressed on screen.

    At the same commitment ceremony, Araouzou whispers requests to his wife, Awhina Rutene, that she not talk about an argument between his sisters and Rutene’s sister.

    Another groom, Dave Hand, criticises Araouzeou’s behaviour, saying

    let her say how she really feels […] She looks at you for permission to speak, mate.

    Aiken says this is a “serious statement”. Rutene says she doesn’t need permission, although she sometimes feels speaking will cause “a rift between us” and she does not want to “hurt Adrian’s feelings”.

    Rutene votes to leave. Because Araouzeou chooses to stay, she is also compelled to stay.

    Looking for ‘domination’

    In the same episode, bride Lauren Hall says she was horrified to come home and find her husband, Clint Rice, cleaning. Hall says she expects a husband to be “very dominating”.

    Sexologist Rampolla suggests Rice embracing domination could “grow the spark” within the relationship. The experts ask Rice whether he feels he can live up to Hall’s gendered expectations. He agrees to try.

    A national emergency

    Given the national platform of the show, and the “national emergency” of domestic and family violence, the failure to seize any opportunity to send a strong message about gender equality to the public is deeply disappointing.

    A 2021 survey found 23% of Australians believe domestic violence is a normal reaction to stress. This points to a mainstream acceptance of violence within intimate relationships. There is a need for further public discourse – and MAFS is very well positioned to contribute to it.

    When MAFS allows people to stay on the show after they have enacted violence, the show sends the message that violence is not enough of a reason to leave a relationship. A 2016 survey from the Australian Bureau of Statistics found that 46% of women who have experienced violence from their partner and have never separated have wanted to leave the relationship.

    People should be able to leave a relationship at any time, and for any reason. It is estimated it takes seven attempts for a woman to leave a relationship characterised by violence. In MAFS, one member of a couple can effectively force the other to stay. This suggests the ultimate goal of marriage is lasting commitment, rather than happiness, fulfilment and safety.

    While the experts openly addressed Antione’s violence in the March 2 episode, there has been no further discussion of the incident since. This sends the message intimate partner violence is easily solved, and not important enough for ongoing attention.

    When the experts supported the idea that Rice should be “dominant” in a relationship, they missed an opportunity to explore the intricate ways patriarchal expectations play out in intimate relationships. Research shows relationships characterised by dominant forms of masculinity are precursors for male violence against women.

    Had MAFS seized this opportunity to open up this discussion (perhaps in a group therapy session with all of the grooms, including with quietly supportive Rice, and strong and respectful Hand) they could have used their platform to push back on the idealised image of a dominating man.

    Research from 2020 found most representations of masculinity on Australian television show men as “inherently chauvinistic, sexist, and misogynist”. MAFS has an opportunity to delve into Australian masculinity and question these stereotypes. What a shame this opportunity has been missed.

    Kate Toone is a member of the Australian Association of Social Workers.

    – ref. Married At First Sight should be a platform to talk about domestic violence – too much is left unsaid – https://theconversation.com/married-at-first-sight-should-be-a-platform-to-talk-about-domestic-violence-too-much-is-left-unsaid-251485

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Dozens of surfers fell ill after swimming in seas that turned into a ‘bacterial smoothie’ of sea foam. What was in it?

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ipek Kurtböke, Associate Professor in Microbiology, University of the Sunshine Coast

    Anthony Rowland

    Two windswept beaches 80km south of Adelaide have been closed to the public after locals reported “more than 100” surfers fell ill on the weekend. Their symptoms included “a sore throat, dry cough and irritated eyes” or blurred vision. Dead sea dragons, fish and octopuses have also washed up on the beaches.

    Water samples have been taken for testing and health authorities suspect toxins from an algal bloom may be to blame.

    But the “mysterious foam” in the water is a health hazard in its own right.

    My research shows people should not go in the sea when it is foaming. These bacterial smoothies can contain more harmful pathogens than a sewage treatment plant – and you wouldn’t go swimming in sewage.

    Beware of sea foam

    Sea foam doesn’t look dangerous. But looks can be deceiving. This foam is likely to contain a mixture of many different types of microbes and pollutants.

    On beaches with lots of sea foam, people should avoid all contact with the water – and definitely avoid surfing or breathing in the contaminated water droplets in the air.

    I have been studying sea foams since 2003. In 2021, my PhD student Luke Wright and I published research on our discovery of infectious disease-causing microbes in the sea foams of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland.

    Named Nocardiae, these microbes are filamentous bacteria that can cause foaming in wastewater treatment plants, particularly when there’s a high load of fats, oils and greases. We now know the bacteria can cause foaming in the sea too.

    We detected 32 strains of Nocardiae in samples of sea foam from beaches at Noosa and south to Caloundra.

    Some of these species were new to science. So we named them Nocardia australiensis and Nocardia spumea (“spumea” meaning froth or foam).

    Nocardiae bacteria are known to cause skin, lung and central nervous system infections in both humans and animals. But the infection usually only takes hold in people with weakened immune systems. The bacteria can cause abscesses in the brain, lungs and liver.

    The incubation time can range between one and six months, depending on the strain of bacteria and the health status of the person involved.

    This means it will take some time for people to get infected and show symptoms. Long-term medical monitoring is required to detect the condition, as it can be masked by other disease-causing microbes such as the infectious agent that causes tuberculosis.

    Where is the sea foam coming from?

    During heavy winds, microbial spores from the soil can end up on the surface of the ocean.

    If the water is polluted with floating fats and grease as well as asphaltene, motor oil and hydrocarbons, these spores soon form bacterial colonies or biofilms that go forth and multiply.

    That’s because these microbes use pollution as a food source. Seawater is increasingly polluted by runoff from farmland or hard surfaces such as roads. Everything washed into the stormwater drains out to sea. During heavy storms accidental overflow from sewage systems can also occur, as Rockhampton has experienced in the past.

    Algae is another food source for these microbes, as they can crack open algae cells to access the nutritious oils inside. Sea foams have been observed in northern France during algal blooms.

    Warm water makes matters worse, as the warmth increases the survival rate for Nocardiae. In our laboratory on the Sunshine Coast, we were able to replicate a foaming event. We found foaming started at water temperatures of 24°C and above.

    What can be done about it?

    Reducing stormwater pollution will reduce the growth of sea foams. Any potential incident of infections of these surfers can raise awareness of the problem.

    But sea foam can also be found in pristine environments such as national parks, where it is mostly due to oils leached from trees. We proved this fact at Noosa National Park.

    In my experience on the Sunshine Coast, the council and other local authorities have been very receptive to advice on how to fix the problem. They have supported our research and also completed major upgrades at sewage treatment plants over the last 20 years.

    Once there’s an outbreak in the environment it is very difficult to control. That’s because ocean is an open system, as opposed to the closed system of a sewage treatment plant, where operators can use special chemicals or mechanical equipment to break the foam down. In open sea it’s impossible. So we just have to wait for it to go away.

    In this case, teams of researchers from different disciplines should come together to explore the issue. Microbiologists, marine scientists, meteorologists and chemists should team up to find out what’s going on. Ocean currents should be followed to determine where the pollutants end up.

    Sea foam is a global issue

    Earlier this month Tropical Cyclone Alfred whipped up sea foam all the way along the coast from South East Queensland to northern New South Wales. I was horrified to see footage of people playing in the thick, sticky sea foam, blissfully unaware of the dangers.

    But the problem is not confined to Australia, sea foam can be found at polluted beaches all over the world. Examples include India and Turkey.

    I have been telling this story ever since I first observed it on the Sunshine Coast in 2003. Every time there’s a major sea foam event, the media is interested. But research support is also needed in the gaps in between. We scientists need to monitor the shorelines continuously.

    As long as humanity continues to produce pollution, the problem will increase. It will also worsen as the world warms, because sea foams like it hot.

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

    – ref. Dozens of surfers fell ill after swimming in seas that turned into a ‘bacterial smoothie’ of sea foam. What was in it? – https://theconversation.com/dozens-of-surfers-fell-ill-after-swimming-in-seas-that-turned-into-a-bacterial-smoothie-of-sea-foam-what-was-in-it-252506

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Sand-sized fossils hold secrets to the history of climate change

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yuhao Dai, Research Fellow in Earth Sciences, Australian National University

    N-2-s/Shutterstock

    Between 18,000 and 11,000 years ago, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere suddenly shot up. This caused rapid global warming, the mass melting of glaciers, and the end of the last ice age.

    Much of this sudden influx of atmospheric CO₂ came from the Southern Ocean around Antarctica, highlighting the key role this body of water plays in regulating the global climate.

    However, we have a poor understanding of how and why CO₂ release from this region changed during periods such as the end of the last ice age. But our new study, published in Nature Communications, reveals how much CO₂ was released to the atmosphere from the polar Southern Ocean during this period – and what factors were responsible.

    We reached these conclusions by examining the chemistry of sand-sized fossils, called foraminifera, from the seafloor south of Tasmania.

    Tiny shells preserved in mud

    Foraminifera are tiny single-celled organisms, either floating in the ocean surface or living on the seabed. Most of them build shells made of calcium carbonate to protect themselves. After death, these foraminifera shells are preserved in the mud on the seabed.

    Newer generations of foraminifera shells stack over older ones, like adding new pages to a book. Over time, these foraminifera shells form a book on the seabed that can be dated back to millions of years ago.

    Even more fascinating, trace amounts of elements in the seawater are incorporated into the calcium carbonate shells of foraminifera. In some foraminifera species, the amount of these elements is sensitive to the environment they live in.

    For example, the amount of boron in a species called Cibicidoides wuellerstorfi is sensitive to carbonate ion concentrations, and the amount of cadmium in another species (Hoeglundina elegans) is sensitive to phosphate concentrations.

    By looking at trace elements in these foraminifera shells found in the sequence of mud on the seabed, we can decipher mysteries about the past seawater condition in the book left by foraminifera on the seabed.

    In some species of foraminifera, such as Cibicidoides wuellerstorfi (pictured here), the trace amount of elements found in their shells is sensitive to their environment.
    Le Coze, François/WoRMS, CC BY-SA

    A giant metal straw

    How do scientists do this? First we go out to the ocean to collect mud.

    In this process, a giant metal straw is dropped to the seabed and then raised to our research ships, fully filled with mud. We take these mud samples back to our lab. There, we slice them into pieces and examine them separately.

    This allows us to extract information from each page of the book in chronological order. Foraminifera shells are washed out of the mud, and specific shells are picked out under a microscope, cleaned, and finally analysed for their chemical composition.

    Foraminifera have lived almost everywhere in the ocean for millions of years. Based on their chemical composition, scientists have reconstructed a continuous record of seawater temperature during the past 66 million years in great detail.

    Among a few places in the ocean where you cannot find foraminifera is the polar Southern Ocean. Although some foraminifera live there, seawater in this region is often too corrosive for their shells to preserve on the seabed. The lack of foraminifera in the polar Southern Ocean brings a huge challenge for scientists eager to understand past changes in CO₂ exchanges between the ocean and the atmosphere.

    Among a few places in the ocean where you cannot find foraminifera is the polar Southern Ocean.
    Mathias Berlin/Shutterstock

    From Antarctica to Tasmania

    We decided to tackle the problem using mud on the seabed 3,300 metres below the surface just south of Tasmania.

    Seawater at that depth near Tasmania is ideal for studying the chemistry of the polar Southern Ocean. That’s because seawater from the polar Southern Ocean sinks to the bottom of the ocean, moves northwards, and eventually occupies the seabed south of Tasmania.

    Seawater chemistry – including concentrations of carbon, phosphate and oxygen – does change along its way at the bottom of the ocean.

    These changes are, however, generally proportional to each other. So if all these concentrations are known for seawater at depth near Tasmania, we can work out their concentrations in the polar Southern Ocean.

    Fortunately, there were plenty of foraminifera shells in the mud for all these reconstructions at the site we examined near Tasmania.

    Reconstructing ancient chemical concentrations

    Using the chemistry of foraminifera, we reconstructed changes in concentrations of carbonate ion (which is largely related to carbon), phosphate and oxygen at the bottom of the ocean near Tasmania during the end of the last ice age roughly 20,000–10,000 years ago. This period is known as the last deglaciation.

    Based on these reconstructions, we calculated the amount of CO₂ released from the polar Southern Ocean during the last deglaciation. Some of this CO₂ came from biological processes – changes in the amount of carbon used by microscopic organisms living near the ocean surface. The rest was from physical processes – CO₂ molecules escaping from seawater directly to the air.

    We found that biological processes were more important for CO₂ releases during the earlier stages of the deglaciation, while the physical processes contributed more during the later stages.

    From the polar Southern Ocean, seawater sinks to the bottom of the ocean and moves northwards to reach the seabed south of Tasmania.
    Steve Todd/Shutterstock

    So why is this important?

    Scientists use climate models to predict future climate and to reproduce past atmospheric CO₂ changes.

    Our results provide testing targets for climate models to reproduce.

    Better reproduction of past changes will improve climate model design for predicting future changes.

    This will help us understand how future changes in the polar Southern Ocean can affect atmospheric CO₂, contributing to making effective plans to mitigate CO₂ emissions.

    Yuhao Dai receives funding from the Australian Research Council Special Research Initiative, Australian Centre for Excellence in Antarctic Science.

    – ref. Sand-sized fossils hold secrets to the history of climate change – https://theconversation.com/sand-sized-fossils-hold-secrets-to-the-history-of-climate-change-250928

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: As the rescued astronauts return, space law is still in orbit over who’s responsible when missions go wrong

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anna Marie Brennan, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Waikato

    Getty Images

    Now back on Earth thanks to Space X’s Dragon capsule, astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore will be breathing fresh air again after a gruelling nine months onboard the International Space Station.

    Stranded in June 2024 after their experimental Boeing Starliner spacecraft malfunctioned and was deemed too risky to carry passengers back to Earth, their stay was further extended last week when the recovery mission was postponed due to launchpad problems.

    A successful rescue mission will be a relief to NASA, which had the unprecedented task of figuring out how to get the astronauts home. But the crisis has also raised difficult questions about space missions and what happens if they don’t go to plan.

    This is complicated by civilians now going into space, including actor William Shatner and business tycoons Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson. Later this year, pop star Katy Perry and talk show host Gayle King will blast off on board Blue Origin’s NS-31 Mission.

    Corporations such as SpaceX, Blue Origin, Rocket Lab and Virgin Galactic are increasingly at the forefront of the new space race, but they operate in a legal vacuum as well as an atmospheric one.

    With the law not keeping pace with this rapid rise in commercial space exploration and exploitation, just who has a duty to rescue so-called space tourists and astronauts is unclear. Urgent legal reform is needed.

    Privatisation of space

    International space law contains a special duty for countries to rescue astronauts, regardless of their nationality.

    According to the United Nations Agreement on the Rescue of Astronauts, all member countries of the treaty, not just the country that launched the mission, have a duty to take “all necessary steps” to assist spacecraft crew in distress.

    This includes missions still in space as well as spacecraft that crash land in another state’s territory or at sea. The state conducting the rescue mission must safely return the astronauts to Earth – and to the country they originally launched from.

    But it’s not clear whether private space companies will have a similar duty. Some experts worry space tourists may have no real legal protection.

    Space law dates from the 20th century, when the 1967 Outer Space Treaty was adopted. But the original space race involved superpowers, and the possibility of corporations one day crossing the “final frontier” wasn’t even considered.

    So, if space tourists become stranded like Williams and Wilmore have been, there’s a possibility – in law at least – they could be left to fend for themselves.

    NASA’s Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams on their way to the launch craft of the ill-fated mission in June 2024.
    Getty Images

    Who is an ‘astronaut’?

    Space policy experts are now calling on the international community to adopt a broad interpretation of the term “astronaut” to ensure anyone has a right to be rescued regardless of their legal status.

    They’re also calling for new rules to determine who is responsible for rescuing private citizens if they get into trouble. Despite the several treaties and conventions regulating space activity, none address space tourism.

    Currently, space tourism involves lower atmosphere travel, but SpaceX’s Elon Musk has talked about sending tourists to Mars. However realistic that is, space law is struggling to keep up with such ambitions.

    With the rise of private space missions, there is now a strong argument for the companies involved being required to shoulder or share the associated costs and responsibilities.

    Described by the UN Office of Outer Space Affairs as “envoys of humankind”, astronauts undergo years of arduous training before taking part in space missions. They are acutely aware of the risks of space travel – but have embraced it.

    The same can’t be said for civilians. Space tourism is still in its early days, but the companies promoting it will need to act responsibly and sustainably. This means making their customers aware of the dangers and implementing rescue procedures and protocols.

    Without proper regulatory oversight, however, space tourism companies could require prospective customers to sign legal agreements waiving their right to rescue if they are in danger.

    The challenge for space law now is to find a workable compromise between human safety and corporate profit motives.

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

    – ref. As the rescued astronauts return, space law is still in orbit over who’s responsible when missions go wrong – https://theconversation.com/as-the-rescued-astronauts-return-space-law-is-still-in-orbit-over-whos-responsible-when-missions-go-wrong-252594

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Putin makes paltry concession to Ukraine in Trump’s self-aggrandizing ceasefire effort

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By James Horncastle, Assistant Professor and Edward and Emily McWhinney Professor in International Relations, Simon Fraser University

    Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed to a proposal by United States President Donald Trump for Russia and Ukraine to stop attacking each other’s energy infrastructure for 30 days, according to statements by both the White House and the Kremlin.

    The deal, however, falls short of an unconditional 30-day ceasefire proposed by U.S. and Ukrainian officials earlier this month.

    Russia’s response to the initial U.S. ceasefire proposal has been predictable. Putin has argued that considerable changes need to be made to the original proposal, though he didn’t outright reject it.

    Given the earlier proposal is highly vague, this leads to one conclusion. Russia is playing for time to maximize its negotiating position.

    Trump’s latest phone call with Putin seemingly didn’t amount to any substantive changes, except for Russia’s agreement to refrain from targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure — a concession that might actually benefit Russia.

    The winter, when Ukraine is most vulnerable to Russian attacks on its energy infrastructure, is almost done. Russia’s dependence on energy exports to support its war effort, however, remains constant, and any Ukrainian attacks on Russian energy facilities will be framed as a breach by Russian authorities.

    Russia exploiting Trump’s desire for peace at any cost will probably be an ongoing trend.

    Trump’s goal

    The U.S. is playing an important role in peace negotiations. Under former president Joe Biden, this was due to the fact that the U.S. provided Ukraine with arms and moral support.

    Like most aspects of American policy, however, Trump dramatically pivoted, even attacking Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy in an infamous White House meeting in February. Now Trump is seeking a ceasefire, no matter what form it takes, to build a reputation as a statesman and distract Americans from domestic policy issues.



    Read more:
    What the U.S. ceasefire proposal means for Ukraine, Russia, Europe – and Donald Trump

    This development places Zelenskyy in a political bind. The U.S. in the past provided most of the military aid to Ukraine and the relationship between the Ukrainian leader and Trump is acrimonious.

    As such, even if Zelenskyy doesn’t agree with American ceasefire proposals, he must give the appearance of agreement or risk permanently alienating the mercurial Trump. Putin, in the meantime, will exploit any Ukrainian-American tensions.

    Current military situation

    The first year of the current phase of the Ukraine-Russia war was marked by mobility as both Russia and Ukraine made considerable advances and counteroffensives.

    Since the start of 2023, however, the conflict is increasingly defined as a war of attrition and a stalemate.

    Many analysts argue that such a war favours Russia. Wars of attrition are defined by slow, grinding advances whereby large casualties are a necessary byproduct for success. Given Russia’s material and personnel advantages, it can afford to suffer higher casualties.

    For the past several months, Russian forces have been making slow, steady advances against Ukrainian positions. Russia has suffered significant casualties in these advances, and they may not be sustainable over the long term.

    Putin is gambling that Ukraine’s and the international community’s will to fight will be broken by the time this is an issue. Trump’s push for a ceasefire at any cost suggests Putin may have a point.

    Any immediate ceasefire agreement between Russia and Ukraine would leave Ukraine occupying Russian soil in the Kursk region, which Russia cannot accept.

    Russia’s immediate goal

    Ukraine’s 2024 incursion into the Kursk region provided the country and its people with a necessary respite from the war of attrition. Ukrainian forces, attacking an under-defended and unprepared part of the Russian front line, made significant advances into Russia.

    Ukraine’s ability to maintain territory around Kursk has also proven to be an embarrassment for Putin and the Russian establishment.

    Putin recently said Russian forces encircled Ukrainian forces in the salient, although Ukraine denies it. Regardless of the statement’s validity, it speaks to the importance both parties attach to the battle.

    Russia’s reputation

    This issue highlights a particular problem for the Russian leadership. Russia has done its utmost to frame its so-called “special military operation” in Ukraine as a success. An example is Russia’s formal annexation of four Ukrainian areas in 2022, despite not actually possessing the territory at the time.

    Any perception of the invasion of Ukraine as a failure is a non-starter for a Russian government concerned about its domestic standing.

    Ukraine possessing Russian territory, however, leads to questions in Russia about the war’s success. Ukraine, in exchange for relinquishing any Russian territory it seized during the war, would undoubtedly seek the return of Ukrainian territory.

    Russia has not even achieved its minimal goals of seizing the four Ukrainian regions it’s officially annexed. Therefore, it’s unlikely Putin would ever agree to the exchange of the territory it has actually already seized in exchange for the Kursk salient.

    Putin is following the Russian playbook of negotiating from strength. So long as Ukraine maintains Kursk, Russia will not negotiate in good faith.

    While Kursk is the most prominent area of Russia concern, there are other conditions that will become important in the future as Putin seeks to improve Russia’s negotiating position.

    It’s a lesson that Trump will soon learn, despite any and all efforts he or his administration make to frame things positively.

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

    – ref. Putin makes paltry concession to Ukraine in Trump’s self-aggrandizing ceasefire effort – https://theconversation.com/putin-makes-paltry-concession-to-ukraine-in-trumps-self-aggrandizing-ceasefire-effort-252368

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Laws governing space are 50 years old. New ones are needed to prevent it becoming a ‘wild west’

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yucong Wang, Lecturer, School of Law and Justice, University of Newcastle

    In the first few months of 2025, there’s been a flurry of private venture space missions. Some have been successful, such as American company Firefly Aerospace landing its spacecraft Blue Ghost Mission 1 on the Moon. This was the first successful lunar landing of a privately owned spacecraft.

    But there have also been several recent failures. None have been more spectacular than the repeated explosions of tech billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starship rockets in January and March.

    In theory, there are a range of international laws governing these activities. However, most were established roughly half a century ago, before space was within reach of private companies eager to explore it and exploit its untapped resources.

    With this development, there is an urgent need to update laws governing what happens in space, in order to prevent it becoming a kind of “wild west” where tech billionaires and the companies they own can do as they please with little to no accountability, consequence or regard for the public good.

    Laws as old as the Cold War

    Space activities are mainly governed by United Nations treaties. These include the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, the 1972 Liability Convention, and the 1979 Moon Agreement.

    But these agreements were created during the Cold War, when space exploration was shaped by military sensitivities and mainly conducted by nation states.

    Yet private companies are now major players in space. They can bring the allure of space to the masses, for a pretty penny. For example, most of the roughly 11,000 active satellites orbiting Earth are privately owned.

    NASA now relies on partnerships with companies to combine expertise and save costs. The European Space Agency does the same, as do many of the 77 countries with space programs

    Elon Musk has expertly tapped into this trend, securing US$22.6 billion in United States government funding for SpaceX.

    Private spacecraft journeys may combine commercial and national goals. For example, the Blue Ghost Mission 1 was contracted by NASA through its Commercial Lunar Payloads initiative. It carried a suite of NASA science and technology instruments.

    Just days later, another company put a spacecraft on the Moon. Yet the Intuitive Machines Athena spacecraft landed awkwardly. It toppled over and was soon declared dead. It too was carrying expensive NASA cargo.

    National space agencies will continue to rely on company partners in more ambitious ventures. But what happens when things go wrong? How can private companies be held accountable if they damage the property of others, or cause environmental harm on celestial bodies?

    Space traffic

    There is an increasing risk of collisions among satellites, spacecrafts and space debris. And while there are some mechanisms for collision warnings, there is no global approach to assess the risk of collisions.

    The 1972 Liability Convention provides guidance about addressing liability after satellite collisions. However, it only directly applies to states, not private companies.

    If a private company’s spacecraft causes damage, the affected party can only initiate a claim via diplomatic channels against the launching state, not the company itself. The claims pathway can be complex, slow and subject to diplomatic negotiations.

    Also, some satellite operators purchase insurance to cover damage from collisions, wisely bypassing the convention. Insurance creates an efficient private mechanism to address damages, avoiding the need to involve states or navigate the diplomatic processes required under the Convention.

    But space insurance is incredibly expensive, so most satellites are not insured.

    The Outer Space Treaty says countries must avoid contamination of space. But it does not specifically address the problem of accumulated space debris.

    The long-term sustainablity of space activities, including the build up of debris, was not the pressing issue for the treaty’s drafters. Moreover, the treaty’s language is vague, requiring states to act with “due regard” for others’ interests and conduct “appropriate” consultation before undertaking potentially harmful activities. However, it does not define what these terms mean.

    Who owns the resources in space?

    The prospect that humans will be able to collect and sell mineral resources from astronomical objects is edging closer to reality. Initial focus is on the Moon. But who owns the resources on the Moon?

    There is no internationally agreed-upon property rights regime beyond Earth. The US is trying to achieve private ownership of space resources through its 2020 “Artemis Accords”.

    This effort is a big boost to the privatisation of space. But it contrasts with the “common heritage of mankind” concept – the cornerstone of the 1979 Moon Agreement.

    So far 53 countries have signed the Artemis Accords. But only 17 countries are parties to the Moon Agreement. Without clear rules applicable to all space players, lunar exploration and mining by private entities may run into trouble.

    There are many worrying scenarios. A private spacecraft might crash into a country’s lunar accommodation facility due to a lack of “rules of the road” on the Moon. Lunar traffic and mining might cause damage to the Moon’s surface.

    Can private entities be held accountable for this damage? The current space law regime does not address such hypothetical problems that may become real in coming years.

    NASA now relies on partnerships with private companies such as SpaceX to combine expertise and save costs.
    SpaceX/Flickr, CC BY-NC

    Safe and sustainable space exploration

    Space law must evolve to ensure safe and sustainable commercial space travel and lunar exploration. This can only be achieved by building international consensus on new rules for space missions.

    This requires many challenging discussions.

    What types of damage to the Moon should be remediated, and by who? What is the most suitable avenue for affected entities to apply for compensation? What rules should be in place to manage the increased traffic volume in outer space? How can countries be incentivised to strengthen their oversight of their private entity partners in joint missions?

    Perhaps the easiest issue to solve is which side of future lunar highways to drive on. With the US and China leading the way at the moment, it would be on the right side.

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

    – ref. Laws governing space are 50 years old. New ones are needed to prevent it becoming a ‘wild west’ – https://theconversation.com/laws-governing-space-are-50-years-old-new-ones-are-needed-to-prevent-it-becoming-a-wild-west-252014

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Adolescence is a technical masterpiece that exposes the darkest corners of incel culture and male rage

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Cantrell, Senior Lecturer – Writing, Editing, and Publishing, University of Southern Queensland

    Netflix

    Filmed in a one-take style, Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham’s new crime drama Adolescence is being hailed by critics as a technical masterpiece.

    Out now on Netflix, the four-part series follows the fallout surrounding 13-year-old Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper) after he is arrested and later charged for the murder of his classmate, Katie. Co-creator Stephen Graham stars as Jamie’s father, Eddie.

    Adolescence draws inspiration from the United Kingdom’s knife crime epidemic, the rise of incel culture and the brutality of online bullying. These malignant forces combine to create every parent’s worst nightmare.

    However, unlike true crime, where there is often a resolution, there is no escape from the horror.

    The show’s continuous filming style offers no reprieve, and the story itself provides no easy outs – refusing to provide a simple explanation for why an intelligent boy from an “ordinary” loving family would borrow a knife from a friend and, on a casual Sunday evening, stab another child to death.

    While Jamie’s motives remain murky, the show makes one thing clear: today’s teens inhabit an online world that adults, however well-intentioned, are incapable of understanding if they do not listen.

    Anxieties distorted by algorithms

    At the centre of the show’s broken heart is a devastating truth: the most dangerous place in the world for a teenager is alone in their bedroom.

    Trapped in the dark mirror of social media, Jamie – like a growing number of teenage boys – turns to the digital “manosphere” and the grim logic of online misogynists.



    Read more:
    The draw of the ‘manosphere’: understanding Andrew Tate’s appeal to lost men

    He subscribes to the “red pills” of incel culture, so-called truth groups and the 80/20 rule (the theory that 80% of women are attracted to 20% of men, and that women only seek out men who are physically and socially desirable).

    While Jamie is, for the most part, an outwardly “normal” and well-adjusted teen, his explosive rage and aggrieved entitlement is revealed in a climatic scene in episode three, when he intimidates and shouts down a female psychologist (Erin Doherty).

    “You do not control what I do!” he yells. “Get that in that fucking little head of yours!”

    Jamie is quick to apologise when a guard intervenes. “I shouted,” he says. “I’m sorry. Can I have another hot chocolate, please?”

    In one particularly unnerving moment, Jamie recalls his decision to ask Katie out after receiving a topless photo of her on Snapchat.

    “I thought she might be weak cause everyone was calling her a slag,” he says. “I just thought that when she was that weak, she might like me. It’s clever, don’t you think?”

    While the sinister child-teen killer trope has been a mainstay of horror, from Child’s Play (1988) to The Exorcist (1973), Adolescence out-scares its predecessors in its unflinching portrayal of a radicalised misogynist-turned murderer.

    A nightmare with no end

    The show’s most stunning achievement is without a doubt its one-take style. Each hour-long episode is filmed in a single take which, as director Philip Barantini explains, “basically means that we press record on the camera, and we don’t stop until the very end of the hour”.

    Tapping into today’s true crime zeitgeist, the series renders Jamie’s story more real than it actually is by imitating the cinéma vérité style of documentary filmmaking.

    Each episode creates an immersive fly-on-the wall experience that is deeply compelling and uncomfortable. The lack of breaks forces viewers to feel as trapped as the characters, in an unfathomable spiral through confusion, guilt and shame.

    This unease is heightened when the action is shot in claustrophobic spaces, such as inside the family van or a police interrogation room.

    The continuous shooting style makes the viewer feel as trapped as the characters as they spiral through confusion, guilt and shame.
    Netflix

    The soundtrack adds another layer of gritty true crime trauma, with random sirens, slamming doors and thumping discordant notes designed to mirror the inner turmoil of the characters.

    As the story unfolds, it charts the devastating impact of Jamie’s crime on those around him. While Katie’s school friends struggle to process their unfathomable grief, Jamie’s parents must also confront their son’s capacity for cruelty.

    “We made him,” despairs Jamie’s mother (Manda Miller).

    The unbroken style, in this regard, is important for understanding how broken this family is. Because there are no cuts, there is no escape from the nightmare.

    Indeed, Jamie seems to have fallen through the cracks of the social institutions we relied on in the pre-internet age: the schooling system, the judiciary and the family itself.

    Jamie has fallen through the cracks of the schooling system – a social institution that is supposed to help keep him and his peers safe.
    Netflix

    The generational chasm

    The show’s true sympathy lies not with its cast of troubled teens but with the baffled adults around them. Like Jamie’s parents, viewers must surrender to the sorrow and disbelief of never truly understanding what went wrong.

    Adolescence is a convincing portrayal of the widening chasm between parents and their teenage children in a savage, unregulated digital age.

    It is also a social commentary on how little we know about how to communicate with teens effectively.

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

    – ref. Adolescence is a technical masterpiece that exposes the darkest corners of incel culture and male rage – https://theconversation.com/adolescence-is-a-technical-masterpiece-that-exposes-the-darkest-corners-of-incel-culture-and-male-rage-252390

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: First Nations Australians are more likely to present to hospital with asthma and allergies – new research

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Desalegn Markos Shifti, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Child Health Research Centre, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Queensland

    Nils Versemann/Shutterstock

    Australia is often called the allergy capital of the world. Allergic diseases – such as allergic asthma, hay fever, eczema and food allergies – affect almost one in five people. And this figure is expected to rise in the years to come.

    An allergy happens when the body’s immune system mistakenly reacts to certain foods or other substances as if they were dangerous.

    But do allergies affect all Australians equally?

    In a recent study, we looked at emergency department (ED) presentations related to asthma and other allergic diseases in central Queensland. The region has a population of 228,246 according to the most recent Census data, and 7.2% of residents identify as First Nations.

    We found First Nations Australians were almost twice as likely to present to hospital with asthma or other allergy-related illnesses compared to other Australians.

    What we did and found

    We analysed 813,112 ED presentations from 12 public hospitals in central Queensland from 2018 to 2023. The hospitals were spread across regional and remote areas.

    Of the conditions we looked at, asthma was the most likely to bring patients to the ED. This was followed by unspecified allergies, atopic dermatitis (or eczema) and anaphylaxis (a severe, potentially life-threatening allergic reaction). First Nations people were more likely than other Australians to present with each of these conditions.

    Overall, we found First Nations people were almost twice as likely to visit an ED for asthma or allergic diseases compared to other Australians. It should be noted that asthma is not always caused by allergies, and in this study we looked at all presentations for asthma, regardless of the cause.

    Our study also found ED visits for allergic diseases among First Nations people increased over time. They were around 1.5 times more common in 2023 compared to 2018.

    Further, we found a notable peak in asthma-related visits to the ED among First Nations people in 2019. This increase may have been partly due to Australia’s Black Summer bushfires during 2019–20.

    Other research has shown ED visits and hospitalisations for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease increased during the Black Summer bushfires. Exposure to bushfire smoke significantly increases the risk of breathing problems and other health issues.

    The increase in asthma-related ED visits could also be linked to the severe flu season in 2019, as flu is known to trigger asthma attacks.

    We looked at ED presentations for allergic conditions such as eczema and anaphylaxis.
    Ternavskaia Olga Alibec/Shutterstock

    Are these findings surprising?

    National data shows asthma is one of the most commonly reported chronic illnesses for First Nations Australians. More than 16% of First Nations Australians reported they had asthma in 2022–23 compared to 10.8% of the general Australian population.

    So it’s not entirely surprising that hospital presentations for asthma were higher among First Nations people.

    However, we were surprised to find First Nations people visited the ED more often for other allergic diseases. Allergies have not necessarily been recognised as an important concern among First Nations people, particularly in remote areas.

    That said, international studies have reported a higher burden of allergic and atopic diseases (eczema, hay fever and asthma) among the Indigenous peoples of Canada.

    How about food allergies?

    Interestingly, we didn’t find any food allergy cases in our data. But some of the “unspecified” allergies could be linked to food allergies, as could some of the cases of anaphylaxis.

    Australian researchers have found differences in the prevalence of food allergies among different groups, but they lacked specific data on First Nations populations. We know little about how common food allergies are in First Nations Australians.

    In a recent national survey, 12% of First Nations people self-reported an allergy to a food, drug, or other substance (compared to 14% in the overall population). But some cases might go unrecognised or unreported, and these data were not broken down into different types of allergies.

    Allergies have not necessarily been recognised as an important concern among First Nations people.
    Bobbi Lockyer/Refinery29 Australia – We Are Many Image Gallery/Getty Images

    Some limitations

    This is the first comprehensive study, to our knowledge, that looks at asthma and allergic disease-related ED visits among both First Nations people and other Australians in an under-researched part of Australia.

    However, we only looked at asthma and allergic diseases treated in the ED, which doesn’t encompass all cases. For example, some people might visit other health services such as GPs when they’re having a less severe allergic episode.

    Ultimately, we need more research to better understand how common allergies and allergic diseases are among First Nations Australians.

    Why do these gaps exist?

    We don’t know exactly why there are disparities in ED presentations for allergic diseases between First Nations people and other Australians.

    One possibility is that asthma and allergic diseases might be more severe in First Nations people, leading to more hospital visits, even if they’re not more common.

    Another reason could be limited access to specialists, especially in rural and remote First Nations communities. Long wait lists to see allergy doctors and their limited availability in some areas could lead to delays in care and make it harder to get the right treatment. This can worsen asthma and allergic disease symptoms, causing patients to seek ED care instead.

    We want to learn more about how allergies affect First Nations people, especially in regional and remote areas, and whether people have unmet needs. In initial conversations with First Nations Australians living with a food allergy, we’ve heard allergies might not be well understood in rural areas. This could be because they’re rare or because traditional lifestyles offer some protection.

    We’re interested in finding out more, especially whether allergies are a concern for First Nations people, and, if so, how we can support communities to develop targeted and culturally respectful strategies to address them.

    Desalegn Markos Shifti is supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)-funded Centre for Food and Allergy Research (CFAR) Postdoctoral Funding.

    Jennifer Koplin receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia. She is a member of the Executive Committee for the National Allergy Centre of Excellence (NACE), which is supported by funding from the Australian government.

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

    – ref. First Nations Australians are more likely to present to hospital with asthma and allergies – new research – https://theconversation.com/first-nations-australians-are-more-likely-to-present-to-hospital-with-asthma-and-allergies-new-research-251720

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Women’s sexual pleasure is still taboo – but the Kamasutra tells a different story

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharha Sharha, PhD Candidate in Kamasutra Feminism, Cardiff Metropolitan University

    A carved erotic scene on the outer wall of temple in Khajuraho complex, India. Cortyn/Shutterstock

    For some people, the Kamasutra is little more than a name associated with condom brands, scented oils and chocolates shaped into erotic positions. In India, where sex remains a taboo subject, this ancient sex manual has often been reduced to merely a “dirty book”.

    But beneath this narrow view lies a deeper message: the Kamasutra is a treatise on sexual autonomy, one that could be revolutionary for women.

    In Indian society, women’s sexual pleasure is often invisible, buried beneath layers of cultural silence. Women are often taught to suppress their desires, their voices stifled by traditions that prioritise male needs. Yet, it was in this very country that the Kamasutra was written.

    Composed in the ancient Sanskrit language in the 3rd century by the Indian philosopher Vatsyayana, the Kamasutra is more than a book about sexual positions. The word “kama” means love, sex, desire and pleasure, while “sutra” translates to a treatise. The text explores relationships, ethics and social norms. It offers a framework for mutual respect and understanding between partners.

    In her 2016 book Redeeming the Kamasutra, scholar of Indian culture and society Wendy Doniger argues that Vatsyayana was an advocate of women’s pleasure as well as stressing their right to education and the freedom to express desire. Far from reinforcing male dominance, the Kamasutra originally emphasised the importance of mutual enjoyment and consent. It presents sex as a shared experience rather than a male conquest.

    Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821 – 1890).
    Rischgitz/Stringer/Wikimedia

    The perception of the Kamasutra as a male-centred sex manual can be traced back to its first English translation by Sir Richard Burton in 1883.

    Burton, a British soldier and explorer, omitted or altered passages that highlighted women’s autonomy. It shifted their role from active participants to passive recipients of male pleasure.

    In contrast, scholars such as Ganesh Saili have argued that the Kamasutra originally depicted women as equal partners in intimacy. According to the text, women communicated their needs through gestures, emotions and words, ensuring that their pleasure was just as valued as men’s. Importantly, conversation played a central role in intimacy, reinforcing the necessity of a woman’s consent before having sex.

    Despite this rich history, Indian society continues to largely suppress discussions around female sexuality. Indian sex educator and journalist Leeza Mangaldas argues that women’s sexual pleasure remains a taboo topic, policed by cultural expectations that dictate women must remain silent, subservient and sexually inactive before marriage.

    Social scientist, Deepa Narayan, argues that this suppression begins at home. Girls are often taught to deny their own bodies and prioritise male desires.

    The title page of the 1883 edition of Sir Richard Burton’s translation.
    Ms Sarah Welch/Wikimedia, CC BY

    This control extends to patriarchal social norms that uphold virginity as a virtue for women while imposing no such expectation on men. Sex is framed as something women “give” rather than something they experience. Pleasure is seen as a right for males but merely an afterthought for females. Sex is for men but for women, it is only for producing babies.

    Yet the Kamasutra itself tells a different story. In its original form, it described women as active participants in their pleasure and compared their sensuality to the delicacy of flowers – requiring care, attention and respect.

    My own research explores “Kamasutra feminism”. This is the idea that this ancient text is not just about sex but about sexual autonomy. It challenges patriarchal norms by promoting women’s freedom to articulate their desires and take control of their pleasure. The Kamasutra rejects the notion that women’s sexuality should be regulated or repressed. Instead, it advocates for mutual satisfaction and consent.

    Doniger describes the Kamasutra as a feminist text, citing its emphasis on women choosing their partners, expressing their desires freely and engaging in pleasurable sexual relationships. It recognises economic independence as a crucial factor in women’s sexual autonomy. Financial freedom is linked to the ability to make personal choices.

    An original Kamasutra manuscript page preserved in the vaults of the Raghunath Temple in Jammu & Kashmir.
    Ms Sarah Welch/Wikimedia, CC BY

    Patriarchy versus sexual liberty

    Ultimately, the Kamasutra represents a clash between patriarchy – where women’s sexuality is controlled – and a vision of sexual liberty. It offers an alternative narrative, one where seduction is about mutual enjoyment rather than male domination. Its teachings encourage open discussions about intimacy, allowing women to reclaim their voices in relationships.

    For more than a century, the Kamasutra has been misinterpreted, its radical message buried beneath layers of censorship and cultural shame. But if we look beyond its erotic reputation, we find a text that speaks to the importance of consent, equality and female agency.

    Reclaiming the Kamasutra as a guide for sexual empowerment could help dismantle deeply ingrained taboos and reshape the conversation around women’s pleasure. In a world where female desire is still widely policed, this ancient manuscript reminds us that women’s pleasure is not a luxury, but a right.

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

    – ref. Women’s sexual pleasure is still taboo – but the Kamasutra tells a different story – https://theconversation.com/womens-sexual-pleasure-is-still-taboo-but-the-kamasutra-tells-a-different-story-251987

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Police struggle to identify the riskiest domestic abuse perpetrators – here’s how they can do better

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Barry Godfrey, Professor of Social Justice, University of Liverpool

    Shutterstock

    The government cannot achieve its target to halve violence against women and girls if it doesn’t address the most serious perpetrators – and it isn’t anywhere near knowing how to identify them. Our new research shows where they are going wrong, and how they can do better.

    The most recent statistics show that violence against women and girls affects one in 12 women in England and Wales. A quarter of domestic abuse incidents reported to police involve known, repeat perpetrators. But despite being told by government to identify and control the most serious perpetrators, police do not currently have systems good enough to do that.

    Currently, police forces use an algorithm to determine which offenders pose the greatest risk to women and girls. This is known as the RFGV algorithm – perpetrators are propelled up or down a list based on the recency, frequency, gravity (seriousness) of reported incidents, and the vulnerability of the victim.

    The gap in this approach is that it largely treats incidents as isolated, when they should be looked at as a whole. Research has also found it is used inconsistently between forces.

    Most police perpetrator lists contain hundreds or even thousands of people, making them difficult tools to use. They also do not seem to be able to distinguish who the most serious offenders are, with men with very similar profiles near the top, middle and bottom of the lists.

    We propose an alternative method, which would assess the whole of a perpetrator’s record of incidents. This would allow police to identify not only the most dangerous perpetrators, but also opportunities to better address their offending earlier on. This might be with diversion to programmes designed to support better choices and rehabilitation, or arrest and incarceration to prevent them harming other people.

    By joining together incidents recorded by police for individual perpetrators, we constructed detailed case studies using police officer’s notes. Here is a summary of two people who appear in one force’s perpetrator list.

    1. Male born mid 1980s, involved in 340 incidents over 20 years

    His offending begins with an indecent assault on a young teenage girl when he is 19. He is increasingly involved in drug-related offending in his 20s. He is later sentenced to six years in jail for arson endangering life. Released on conditional licence, he is re-convicted of the harassment of his ex-partner and recalled to prison.

    Release is followed by further offences until the mid-2010s when he is imprisoned again. When released, his offending is erratic (low-level public order, violence, threats, drug-related offending).

    Throughout his 30s, he frequently victimises partners and ex-partners. He has no settled address and is homeless at various points of his life. He is still subject to frequent mental health episodes.

    2. Male born early 1980s, involved in 396 incidents over 25 years

    In his teens he was involved in low-level thefts, criminal damage and breaches of an antisocial behaviour order. He was also suspected of selling drugs to schoolchildren, and imprisoned, aged 18, for drug-related violence.

    In his 20s he “associates with” children and is found with a missing vulnerable schoolgirl hiding in his house. He continues to commit offences of criminal damage, drug dealing, and stealing vehicles. Another missing teenage girl is found to be living with him.

    In his early 20s he very violently assaults and harasses much younger partners. He continues to commit public order offences and to threaten, harass, and assault current and ex-partners, kicking his pregnant partner in the stomach.

    In the early 2020s, police attend his ex-partner’s house following abandoned 999 calls – they find him with his hand over her mouth to stop her calling out to the police. He continues to be violent to ex-partners and his involvement in drug-related offending deepens. He is currently in prison for a violent offence.

    Who is the danger?

    Both men pose a real and severe threat of violence to women and girls as well as the public. But the RFGV algorithm places the first man more than a thousand places higher than the second. Clearly treating the offences they commit in isolation is not sufficient to distinguish which man poses the greatest risk.

    A life-course approach, which takes into account the type and pattern of offending as it develops over time, is less susceptible to fluctuations which move an offender rapidly up or down the priority lists. Therefore, it more reliably reflects who poses the greatest risk.

    The current system looks at incidents in isolation.
    Vadim Kulikov/Shutterstock

    A better ranking system is clearly required. The RFGV algorithm provides a “score”, but a more sophisticated system would also evaluate the direction of offending of individuals – is it escalating, more frequent, more serious?

    A life-course approach could be used separately or together with RFGV to allow police analysts to identify the most serious perpetrators. It may also be possible to use artificial intelligence to identify trends in offending and escalation of risk through analysis of thousands of police incident reports in real time.

    The system could then identify opportunities for early intervention which have been shown to be effective in reducing re-offending against current and future victims. It could also automatically trigger warnings to neighbourhood officers, specialist domestic abuse-trained officers, mental health services and so on.

    We won’t really know the full capability until new systems are tried, and evaluated. This also means including the voices of survivors and focusing on the lives of persistent perpetrators – often substance use, homelessness, estrangement, imprisonment and mental health problems are at play. The possibilities of learning from artificial intelligence or other technology should not be privileged over the very sources of the data such intelligence relies upon: victims’ experiences.

    David Gadd currenty receives research grant funding, via the University of Manchester from the ESRC, NIHR, and Greater Manchester Combined Authority.

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

    – ref. Police struggle to identify the riskiest domestic abuse perpetrators – here’s how they can do better – https://theconversation.com/police-struggle-to-identify-the-riskiest-domestic-abuse-perpetrators-heres-how-they-can-do-better-247734

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: New report calls for return of human remains – but UK museums lack the resources to act

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By William Carruthers, Lecturer, School of Philosophical, Historical, and Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Essex

    Shutterstock/David Herraez Calzada

    The display of human remains in museums has long been a contentious issue. Last week, the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Afrikan Reparations (APPG-AR) published a report on the African human remains collected by British museums during, and due to, colonialism and the slave trade.

    Introduced by the MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy (the APPG-AR’s chair), and produced by Afford (The African Foundation for Development), the publication of the report, Laying Ancestors to Rest, is another high-profile and meaningful intervention in an area where developments now seem inevitable.

    The report makes a number of recommendations. First, that the sale of human remains should be made illegal in the UK. It also suggests that the Human Tissue Act of 2004 should be amended to make stipulations about remains older than 100 years.

    This would include banning their public display without consent from the Human Tissue Authority and ensuring that museums obtain a licence from the authority for their storage. It’s further recommended that the UK parliament’s culture, media and sport committee should launch an inquiry into restitution.

    Laying Ancestors to Rest should be welcomed. It seems likely to be successful in achieving at least one of its recommendations. Calling for a ban on the trade in human remains in Britain, as the report does, is not particularly controversial.

    However, the report’s blanket approach towards banning the display of human remains without consent is, in the present environment, unlikely to succeed.

    This article is part of our State of the Arts series. These articles tackle the challenges of the arts and heritage industry – and celebrate the wins, too.

    The report itself hints at the reasons for this. The success of its recommendations rests on the financial health of the UK’s museum landscape. Resources matter, not least in terms of the relationships which those resources allow museums to build.

    Instead of a blanket response, developments in this area are likely to be piecemeal – both due to the significant effort required to carry out the task effectively and the limited resources many museums have to do so. In that sense, it is unclear whether calling for a blanket ban now is all that useful, other than as a wake-up call.

    This point is not to absolve museums for their historical part in this situation. It is though, to argue that work in understanding the collections of human remains held by British museums – where they come from, who they might belong to – has, at times (and certainly not in all circumstances), been happening. It is also to clarify what the often slow-paced norms of effective understanding and restitution are.

    In 2020, for example, the University of Oxford’s Pitt-Rivers Museum removed its well-known collection of tsantsa (shrunken heads) from display. The removal happened with a view to working with Shuar and Achuar delegates to decide on the best way forward with regard to the care and display of the human remains. That work continues.

    In 2020 the Pitt-Rivers Museum removed its well-known collection of shrunken heads from display.
    Shutterstock/John Wreford

    A few years earlier, Laura Peers, then curator of the Americas collections at the museum, wrote about the slow, quiet and bureaucratic process of returning a single femur “collected by a missionary as a medical curiosity, from an Indigenous nation with whom I have longstanding professional and personal relationships”.

    Such work is, when it happens, painstaking and careful. Even with the best of intentions, it is not a fast process

    Funding restitution

    The often-halting nature of that work is likely to continue. Museum professionals – particularly newer museum professionals – know that this work has to happen and are, I would argue, in large part invested in doing it.

    In a contemporary funding environment marked by almost continuous cuts, even the most dedicated staff will find their actions curtailed. They may, in some cases, be able to remove remains from display, as the report recommends (and as the Pitt Rivers Museum has done).

    However, securing consent for the limited display of mummified Egyptian bodies, for instance, will be challenging. Without funding, it is difficult to build the relationships necessary for conversations about consent, ownership and restitution.

    In his afterword to the report, Dan Hicks of the University of Oxford writes that “this is a time of immense hope and optimism for British museums”. The problem is that that hope in part rests on the funding that he also admits has been subject to “austerity and swingeing cuts”.

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    The contradiction is not difficult to see – particularly when the report’s recommendations are similar to the 2018 one written for French collections by cultural researchers Felwine Sarr and Bénédicte Savoy.

    The Restitution of African Cultural Heritage: Toward a New Relational Ethics, which was commissioned by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, has been widely read. It has catalysed thinking beyond current international legal norms when it comes to restitution.

    Yet progress on the goal of restitution even in France has been slow, at least in part due to the time involved in building the new relationships that the report calls for. There is also the question of whether attitudes regarding restitution within African countries are consistent. By February 2024, France had returned only 26 objects to Benin and one (a sword) to Senegal.

    Worse still, the legislative picture across British collections remains complex. Collections such as the Pitt Rivers Museum have been able to move on restitution because they are university collections. As such, they are subject to different legislation than “national” collections such as the British Museum or the V&A, which were established by acts of parliament and are funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

    As the V&A’s director, Tristram Hunt, recently wrote, the UK’s national museums remain in “debilitating stasis” on restitution. Hunt argues that this is the case because these collections are hampered by the proscriptions of the 1983 National Heritage Act. That act – by rule or by choice, dependent on your view – effectively forbids such collections from disposing of objects, including human remains.

    As Laying Ancestors to Rest recommends, this situation needs to change. The likelihood is, however, that any change will come more slowly and with more deliberation even than the report itself acknowledges is necessary.

    Progress on this issue is by no means impossible. But without real political will and without the money to back it up, a blanket approach to the display and restitution of human remains in British museums remains difficult to enforce.

    William Carruthers works for the University of Essex as Lecturer in Heritage.

    – ref. New report calls for return of human remains – but UK museums lack the resources to act – https://theconversation.com/new-report-calls-for-return-of-human-remains-but-uk-museums-lack-the-resources-to-act-252547

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Why I’m training Colombian Amazonians to become archaeology tourist guides

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By José Iriarte, Professor of Archaeology, University of Exeter

    Professor Jamie Hampson discusses the interpretation of rock art with diploma students in front of the Tapirs rock art panel. Jose Iriarte, CC BY-NC-ND

    Diana Vera, a passionate local guide from Serranía de la Lindosa, Colombia, leads a group of sweaty and panting European tourists through the hot, lush Amazonian rainforest. Together, they climb the flattop hill (known as tepui) of Nuevo Tolima. Their destination? A vast, ancient painted wall perched at the very top of the tepui that whispers stories from a time long past.

    As the tourists reach the site, Vera brings history to life. She recounts how archaeology tells us that the first humans arrived here some 13,000 years ago.

    She explains how they left their mark on these landscapes by painting their stories, beliefs and visions of the world on the walls of these hills. Because archaeologists have closely analysed the paintings and their chemical signatures, she can explain how paintings were crafted with local ochre using their fingers and brushes.

    She gestures towards the intricate depictions of animals, plants and people, pausing at an especially intriguing image – a now-extinct ice age “palaeolama” or prehistoric llama.

    Then, she shows them a fascinating hybrid figure – a fusion of bird, deer and human. Much of this artwork is probably shamanic in nature – possibly representing spiritual transformations, most likely induced by hallucinogenic rituals or prolonged fasting.

    After Colombia’s peace process was signed in 2016 between participants in a violent civil war, the rock art of Serranía de la Lindosa became a major draw for research and tourism.

    As well as attracting visitors, this cultural and natural heritage has sparked positive social change in the region. Families of more than 100 tourist guides benefit because tourism provides an economic alternative for these communities.

    It’s a path away from illicit activities such as coca cultivation, destructive deforestation for cattle ranching or joining dissident factions of the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) guerrilla movement.

    Until now, these local guides have largely relied on self-taught knowledge. There are no universities in the region to provide formal education. Little archaeological research has been conducted in this area, so much of its history and heritage remains unexplored.

    To address this gap, my colleagues and I have co-created a diploma degree in cultural heritage management for local tourism guides.

    Our team at the University of Exeter worked closely with Colombian partners including the University of Antioquia, the Secretariat of Culture and Tourism of Guaviare Department and the Geographical Society of Colombia to make sure that the diploma met the needs of local people. This diploma is based on knowledge from our systematic study of archaeology and rock art of the region, as part of a European Research Council-funded project called the LastJourney project.

    A new cultural heritage diploma degree trains archaeology tourist guides in the Colombian Amazon.

    Local community archaeology tourism benefits the heritage, the people and the rainforest. As Colombian archaeologist Javier Aceituno states in The Painted Forest, the 2022 book we co-wrote: “The paintings need the people, and the people need the paintings.”

    The Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History, the national heritage authority, has officially designated la Lindosa as an archaeological protected area. However, like many national parks in the Amazon, there are very limited resources for enforcement and preservation of these large rural areas. Local communities can help protect these rock paintings by controlling access and providing guided visits to the sites.

    Forty people took part in the first iteration of this three-month-long diploma in 2023-2024. Each of three 30-hour modules are delivered in rural communities of Cerro Azul, Nuevo Tolima and Raudal del Guayabero in Guaviare department, Colombia.

    Alongside my colleagues from the University of Exeter and the University of Antioquia, I taught modules in communal village buildings, where we conducted experimental archaeology. This included manufacturing stone tools and recreating paint recipes from scratch, providing a practical, hands-on learning experience bringing archaeology to life.*

    This diploma has empowered communities to take a stronger role in managing their archaeological and bio-cultural heritage. By deepening their understanding of this unique history, communities can better protect and manage their heritage, ultimately enriching the tourist experience.

    Three graduates from the course also visited UK archaeological sites, including Stonehenge in Wiltshire, to explore how such sites are preserved and presented to tourists abroad. At the Ancient Technology Centre in Dorset they learnt how visitors can experience archaeology in creative ways through hands-on experiences and demonstrations of ancient crafts and sustainable building techniques.

    Archaeologists and rock art specialists aren’t just sharing their expertise. My colleagues and I are also learning from Indigenous participants. Victor Caycedo, of the Indigenous Amazonian Desana ethnicity, and Ismael Sierra, from the Tukano people of southern Colombia, bring invaluable ancestral knowledge to the diploma.

    They have shared insights into the shamanic and animistic worldviews that have shaped these landscapes for centuries. Their perspectives add a deeper, living dimension to the study of rock art, bridging past and present in a way that only those rooted in these traditions can reveal, as recently published in the journal Arts.

    For Diana Vera, this diploma represents “learning about heritage and the ancient lifeways of the people of La Lindosa”. She told me that she now better understands “the union of three villages with a single purpose of conservation and preservation” and has a greater sense of belonging to these ancestral places and nature. Most of all, this diploma marks the opportunity for “a new beginning” in this region by introducing more sustainable and responsible tourism, she said.

    Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?

    Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead. Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. Join the 40,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far.

    José Iriarte receives funding from the European Research Council, Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK), British Academy, National Geographic, Wenner Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, FAPESP (Brazil), and CAPES (Brazil).

    – ref. Why I’m training Colombian Amazonians to become archaeology tourist guides – https://theconversation.com/why-im-training-colombian-amazonians-to-become-archaeology-tourist-guides-251651

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Nuclear deterrence: can Britain and France take on America’s role in defending Europe against Russian aggression?

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Paul van Hooft, Research Leader, Defence and Security, RAND

    European doubts about deterrence predate the current US administration. Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and its growing reliance on nuclear coercion to ward off Nato support, brought the importance of nuclear weapons to the foreground again for the first time since the cold war.

    Even after the invasion, the US continued to prioritise the Indo-Pacific. It questioned the sufficiency of its nuclear arsenal as China’s weapon stockpile grew and delivery systems improved.

    A bipartisan US congressional commission concluded that the Chinese and Russian arsenals should be seen as a joint “two-nuclear-peer” problem, with North Korea an additional disrupting presence.

    Within this context, European leaders are floating alternatives for deterrence in Europe. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has again affirmed that the French nuclear deterrent has a “European dimension”.

    The Polish president, Andrzej Duda, registered his interest in the idea of the French deterrent being extended to include its European allies. But he also signalled that his country might want to develop its own deterrent.

    The incoming German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, has also noted the need to engage with the French and British deterrents. So, could French and British nuclear weapons be enough to deter Russia and reassure European allies?

    Russia has roughly as many weapons as the US. Its arsenal comprises approximately 1,700 deployed strategic weapons and 1,000-2,000 other lower-yield, “smaller” so-called “tactical” nuclear weapons, and another 2,500 non-deployed weapons.

    This is vastly more than France and the UK which have 290 and 225 respectively, or 515 in total.

    Yet, with those numbers both European states should have sufficient strategic weapons to cause unacceptable damage to Moscow and St Petersburg. Their weapons are carried by constantly patrolling nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines – which, are concealed in the ocean far away and are therefore highly likely to survive a first-strike attack. These weapons should be considered credible deterrents for existential threats to either France or the UK.

    Unlike the US, France and the UK are in Europe and cannot consider their security distinct from each other or from Europe. The US, meanwhile, had to have a large and flexible arsenal with tactical nuclear weapons, and a large conventional presence in Europe simply to mount a credible argument, not least to its European allies, that it would actually protect Europe, with nuclear weapons as a last resort.

    The importance of needing to convince Russia of how serious Nato is about deterrence is a matter of record. When they met in Paris in June 1961, the then French leader, General Charles de Gaulle, expressed doubts to the then US president, John F. Kennedy, as to how serious the US was about its defence of Europe, particularly given the uncertainty at the time of the future security of Berlin.

    De Gaulle asked asked Kennedy: “Would you trade New York for Paris?”. His point was that if he wasn’t convinced, would the Russians be? So it’s not just about numbers of warheads. It’s about the defensive posture overall.

    Likely scenarios

    The issue is not existential deterrence but scenarios where French and British survival are not directly threatened. Neither has the option to escalate with so-called “tactical” (or non-strategic) weapons when non-vital interests are at risk – though France could fire a Rafale-launched nuclear “warning shot”.

    Meanwhile, Russia has 1,000–2,000 “tactical” nuclear weapons, which, despite the misleading term, are still entirely capable of levelling a city.

    In case of a conflict in Europe, these could provide military and signalling options between doing nothing and catastrophic escalation. Rather than a full-scale invasion, Russia is more likely to test Nato’s unity by pressuring a Baltic state and using nuclear threats to deter any Nato allies intervening in support. France and the UK would struggle to credibly threaten use of strategic weapons in response.

    Europe’s solution may lie in advanced conventional weapons to deter Russian aggression by building the ability to raise the costs in early stages of a conflict through what is called a strategy of denial. Such capabilities include long-range precision strikes, fifth generation airpower – such as the American F-35 fighter and the French, German and UK alternatives presently being developed – and integrated air and missile defence.

    Given the poor performance of Russia’s own air and missile defence in Ukraine, they could target Russian military units attacking or operating within Nato territory, their reinforcements and their logistics, while denying Russia’s use of missiles. Europe is already investing in cruise missiles, as well as developing their own European long-range strike approach and missile defence.

    Through precision, stealth and low-altitude flight, these weapons could also threaten strategic targets deep in Russia – potentially a more viable, less destabilising alternative to expanding French and British nuclear arsenals, or adding a third nuclear power in Europe.

    No time to waste

    Politically, however, there is a need for more than hardware. European states should find an institutional forum to coordinate deterrence. This means either convincing France to return to Nato’s nuclear planning group or creating another council for European deterrence with France, the UK, and other key European states like Germany and Poland.

    Those and other European armed forces could also conduct conventional operations in support of nuclear operations exercises together with France and the UK, specifically the French air force with its air-launched warheads.

    Simply put, there are material and political solutions to European deterrence problems if the US turns out to be preoccupied by events in Asia. The real constraint that France and the UK, and the rest of Europe, now face is how to build both the hardware and habits of conventional and nuclear deterrence in Europe in little or no time at all.

    Paul van Hooft received a Stanton Nuclear Security Foundation research grant in 2018.

    – ref. Nuclear deterrence: can Britain and France take on America’s role in defending Europe against Russian aggression? – https://theconversation.com/nuclear-deterrence-can-britain-and-france-take-on-americas-role-in-defending-europe-against-russian-aggression-252338

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Can a daily nap do more harm than good? A sleep researcher explains

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Talar Moukhtarian, Assistant Professor in Mental Health, Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick

    Olga Rolenko/Shutterstock

    You’re in the middle of the afternoon, eyelids heavy, focus slipping. You close your eyes for half an hour and wake up feeling recharged. But later that night, you’re tossing and turning in bed, wondering why you can’t drift off. That midday snooze which felt so refreshing at the time might be the reason.

    Naps have long been praised as a tool for boosting alertness, enhancing mood, strengthening memory, and improving productivity. Yet for some, they can sabotage nighttime sleep.

    Napping is a double-edged sword. Done right, it’s a powerful way to recharge the brain, improve concentration, and support mental and physical health. Done wrong, it can leave you groggy, disoriented, and struggling to fall asleep later. The key lies in understanding how the body regulates sleep and wakefulness.

    Most people experience a natural dip in alertness in the early afternoon, typically between 1pm and 4pm. This isn’t just due to a heavy lunch – our internal body clock, or circadian rhythm, creates cycles of wakefulness and tiredness throughout the day. The early afternoon lull is part of this rhythm, which is why so many people feel drowsy at that time.

    Studies suggest that a short nap during this period – ideally followed by bright light exposure – can help counteract fatigue, boost alertness, and improve cognitive function without interfering with nighttime sleep. These “power naps” allow the brain to rest without slipping into deep sleep, making it easier to wake up feeling refreshed.

    But there’s a catch: napping too long may result in waking up feeling worse than before. This is due to “sleep inertia” – the grogginess and disorientation that comes from waking up during deeper sleep stages.

    Once a nap extends beyond 30 minutes, the brain transitions into slow-wave sleep, making it much harder to wake up. Studies show that waking from deep sleep can leave people feeling sluggish for up to an hour. This can have serious implications if they then try to perform safety-critical tasks, make important decisions or operate machinery, for example. And if a nap is taken too late in the day, it can eat away from the “sleep pressure build-up” – the body’s natural drive for sleep – making it harder to fall asleep at night.

    When napping is essential

    For some, napping is essential. Shift workers often struggle with fragmented sleep due to irregular schedules, and a well-timed nap before a night shift can boost alertness and reduce the risk of errors and accidents. Similarly, people who regularly struggle to get enough sleep at night – whether due to work, parenting or other demands – may benefit from naps to bank extra hours of sleep that compensate for their sleep loss.

    Nonetheless, relying on naps instead of improving nighttime sleep is a short-term fix rather than a sustainable solution. People with chronic insomnia are often advised to avoid naps entirely, as daytime sleep can weaken their drive to sleep at night.

    Certain groups use strategic napping as a performance-enhancing tool. Athletes incorporate napping into their training schedules to speed up muscle recovery and improve sports-related parameters such as reaction times and endurance. Research also suggests that people in high-focus jobs, such as healthcare workers and flight crews, benefit from brief planned naps to maintain concentration and reduce fatigue-related mistakes. Nasa has found that a 26-minute nap can improve performance of long-haul flight operational staff by 34%, and alertness by 54%.

    How to nap well

    To nap effectively, timing and environment matter. Keeping naps between ten and 20 minutes prevents grogginess. The ideal time is before 2pm – napping too late can push back the body’s natural sleep schedule.

    The best naps happen in a cool, dark and quiet environment, similar to nighttime sleep conditions. Eye masks and noise-cancelling headphones can help, particularly for those who nap in bright or noisy settings.

    Despite the benefits, napping isn’t for everyone. Age, lifestyle and underlying sleep patterns all influence whether naps help or hinder. A good nap is all about strategy – knowing when, how, and if one should nap at all.

    For some it’s a life hack, improving focus and energy. For others, it’s a slippery slope into sleep disruption. The key is to experiment and observe how naps affect your overall sleep quality.

    Done wisely, naps can be a valuable tool. Done poorly, they might be the reason you’re staring at the ceiling at midnight.

    Talar Moukhtarian previously received funding from UKRI Medical Research Council (MRC).

    – ref. Can a daily nap do more harm than good? A sleep researcher explains – https://theconversation.com/can-a-daily-nap-do-more-harm-than-good-a-sleep-researcher-explains-251630

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Women’s sexual pleasure is still taboo – but the Kamasutra tells a different story

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Sharha Sharha, PhD Candidate in Kamasutra Feminism, Cardiff Metropolitan University

    A carved erotic scene on the outer wall of temple in Khajuraho complex, India. Cortyn/Shutterstock

    For some people, the Kamasutra is little more than a name associated with condom brands, scented oils and chocolates shaped into erotic positions. In India, where sex remains a taboo subject, this ancient sex manual has often been reduced to merely a “dirty book”.

    But beneath this narrow view lies a deeper message: the Kamasutra is a treatise on sexual autonomy, one that could be revolutionary for women.

    In Indian society, women’s sexual pleasure is often invisible, buried beneath layers of cultural silence. Women are often taught to suppress their desires, their voices stifled by traditions that prioritise male needs. Yet, it was in this very country that the Kamasutra was written.

    Composed in the ancient Sanskrit language in the 3rd century by the Indian philosopher Vatsyayana, the Kamasutra is more than a book about sexual positions. The word “kama” means love, sex, desire and pleasure, while “sutra” translates to a treatise. The text explores relationships, ethics and social norms. It offers a framework for mutual respect and understanding between partners.

    In her 2016 book Redeeming the Kamasutra, scholar of Indian culture and society Wendy Doniger argues that Vatsyayana was an advocate of women’s pleasure as well as stressing their right to education and the freedom to express desire. Far from reinforcing male dominance, the Kamasutra originally emphasised the importance of mutual enjoyment and consent. It presents sex as a shared experience rather than a male conquest.

    Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821 – 1890).
    Rischgitz/Stringer/Wikimedia

    The perception of the Kamasutra as a male-centred sex manual can be traced back to its first English translation by Sir Richard Burton in 1883.

    Burton, a British soldier and explorer, omitted or altered passages that highlighted women’s autonomy. It shifted their role from active participants to passive recipients of male pleasure.

    In contrast, scholars such as Ganesh Saili have argued that the Kamasutra originally depicted women as equal partners in intimacy. According to the text, women communicated their needs through gestures, emotions and words, ensuring that their pleasure was just as valued as men’s. Importantly, conversation played a central role in intimacy, reinforcing the necessity of a woman’s consent before having sex.

    Despite this rich history, Indian society continues to largely suppress discussions around female sexuality. Indian sex educator and journalist Leeza Mangaldas argues that women’s sexual pleasure remains a taboo topic, policed by cultural expectations that dictate women must remain silent, subservient and sexually inactive before marriage.

    Social scientist, Deepa Narayan, argues that this suppression begins at home. Girls are often taught to deny their own bodies and prioritise male desires.

    The title page of the 1883 edition of Sir Richard Burton’s translation.
    Ms Sarah Welch/Wikimedia, CC BY

    This control extends to patriarchal social norms that uphold virginity as a virtue for women while imposing no such expectation on men. Sex is framed as something women “give” rather than something they experience. Pleasure is seen as a right for males but merely an afterthought for females. Sex is for men but for women, it is only for producing babies.

    Yet the Kamasutra itself tells a different story. In its original form, it described women as active participants in their pleasure and compared their sensuality to the delicacy of flowers – requiring care, attention and respect.

    My own research explores “Kamasutra feminism”. This is the idea that this ancient text is not just about sex but about sexual autonomy. It challenges patriarchal norms by promoting women’s freedom to articulate their desires and take control of their pleasure. The Kamasutra rejects the notion that women’s sexuality should be regulated or repressed. Instead, it advocates for mutual satisfaction and consent.

    Doniger describes the Kamasutra as a feminist text, citing its emphasis on women choosing their partners, expressing their desires freely and engaging in pleasurable sexual relationships. It recognises economic independence as a crucial factor in women’s sexual autonomy. Financial freedom is linked to the ability to make personal choices.

    An original Kamasutra manuscript page preserved in the vaults of the Raghunath Temple in Jammu & Kashmir.
    Ms Sarah Welch/Wikimedia, CC BY

    Patriarchy versus sexual liberty

    Ultimately, the Kamasutra represents a clash between patriarchy – where women’s sexuality is controlled – and a vision of sexual liberty. It offers an alternative narrative, one where seduction is about mutual enjoyment rather than male domination. Its teachings encourage open discussions about intimacy, allowing women to reclaim their voices in relationships.

    For more than a century, the Kamasutra has been misinterpreted, its radical message buried beneath layers of censorship and cultural shame. But if we look beyond its erotic reputation, we find a text that speaks to the importance of consent, equality and female agency.

    Reclaiming the Kamasutra as a guide for sexual empowerment could help dismantle deeply ingrained taboos and reshape the conversation around women’s pleasure. In a world where female desire is still widely policed, this ancient manuscript reminds us that women’s pleasure is not a luxury, but a right.

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

    – ref. Women’s sexual pleasure is still taboo – but the Kamasutra tells a different story – https://theconversation.com/womens-sexual-pleasure-is-still-taboo-but-the-kamasutra-tells-a-different-story-251987

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Argentina: despite the scandals, Milei’s politics are here to stay

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Juan Pablo Ferrero, Senior Lecturer in Latin American Politics, University of Bath

    The Argentinian president, Javier Milei, is going through the toughest moment of his short but remarkable political career. He is facing impeachment calls – as well as legal action – over his promotion of a cryptocurrency on social media.

    The cryptocoin $Libra, which Milei mentioned in a social media post on February 14, quickly rose in value before nosediving, causing severe losses for people who had invested in it. Milei has insisted that his post did not constitute an endorsement.

    “I’m a techno-optimist … and this was proposed to me as an instrument to help fund Argentine projects,” he said in a television interview. “It’s true that in trying to help out those Argentines, I took a slap in the face.”

    I doubt this is it for Milei. But even if it is the beginning of the end, Milei’s politics are here to stay. His leadership style, discourse and actions represent an emerging constituency with both a present and a future.

    This is because Milei is not, in my opinion, the effect of a crisis of representation. He is instead a faithful representative of a new reactive society emerging worldwide, which is largely sceptical of institutional mediation and values problem solvers and strong executives.

    People at the inauguration of Javier Milei in December 2023.
    Facundo Florit / Shutterstock

    To explore this phenomenon, imagine if you will, “Ricardo”, a fictitious yet representative member of a vulnerable segment of Argentina’s workforce. People like Ricardo returned to the labour market after the pandemic with precarious jobs and lower wages.

    He is a delivery worker who uses multiple digital platforms to earn a living. His life, characterised by the gig economy and labour informality, reflects a broader trend affecting around 50% of workers in Argentina.

    Ricardo had previously voted for Argentina’s left-wing leader, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. But he voted for Milei in the last election, as did many others, and says he would vote for Milei again today. His sympathy for Milei has grown over the year he has been in office.

    According to a recent poll put together by political consultancy firm Tendencias, 89.6% of those who voted for Milei in the 2023 general election were happy with their choice. A growing share of Argentina’s population seemingly approves of the Milei administration.

    During the pandemic, Ricardo’s ability to support his family was diminished by government-imposed restrictions on travel and movement. These restrictions, which were often violently enforced by security forces, pushed him into poverty. The rate of poverty in Argentina increased to over 40% during the pandemic.

    This experience led Ricardo to feel a sense of satisfaction when Milei began mass layoffs of public employees to cut public spending. He thought this was payback time for those in the public sector, with job security, who did not have to endure what he had to during the pandemic.

    For Ricardo, they were all ñoquis (gnocchi), a slang term widely used in Argentina to refer to public employees who receive a salary but allegedly do little work. These workers are called ñoquis because many Argentinians traditionally eat gnocchi on the 29th day of every month, around the time people receive their monthly paychecks.

    Ricardo consumes all of the short clips circulating online from television interviews and talks at international forums of Milei “destroying” career politicians, whom he calls la casta (the caste). Milei sees the main aim of the caste as the reproduction of themselves, so he advocates for a small state or no state at all. Milei believes that nearly everything should be privatised.

    While Ricardo thinks politicians should be compensated for their job, many from across Argentina’s political spectrum have become extremely wealthy, so he’s with Milei on this one too. He even wears a chainsaw as a key ring – a nod to Milei’s promise to slash the size of the state.

    Ricardo acknowledges that life has become very expensive in Argentina since Milei took office. This is because, while inflation has gone down, the Argentinian peso has gained value, making Argentina one of the most expensive countries in the world. However, he believes this remains a price worth paying for a stable and prosperous Argentina.

    The aforementioned poll suggests that many Argentinians feel that their economic situation is better than a year ago, and will improve over the course of the next six months. Inflation, which was the leading concern in most polls ahead of the election, has fallen to sixth place.

    Ricardo is persuaded by Milei’s mantra: “If printing money would end poverty, printing diplomas would end stupidity”. And in recent times, Ricardo has spent his scarce leisure moments watching videos on his phone where internet influencers teach him how to multiply his dwindling income by investing in cryptocurrencies that promise high returns in a short time.

    In Argentina, like many other areas of the world, the appetite for gambling or investing in highly risky ventures such as cryptocurrency has multiplied as a means to win money fast. This is especially true among young people, often with devastating consequences.

    Representation of a new society

    There is a new political subject emerging worldwide marked by the precariousness of new forms of work, whose socialisation occurs in the digital world dominated by influencers. These people see the state not only as unnecessary, but as an enemy to be destroyed and distrust all institutional political intermediaries. Milei represents this new society.

    The process by which an issue becomes a subject of political debate and action has also changed. Solutions to single issues have replaced political programmes with complex visions about the future as the main source of popular validation. Big personalities can carry this forward more successfully than bureaucratic political parties.

    Presidents have become more like city majors judged by their ability to provide solutions to a single issue. In the case of Milei, it’s inflation. For Nayib Bukele in El Salvador, it’s security. And for Donald Trump in the US, it’s China.

    The figureheads of new political formations might change, but the politics of these formations will not.

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

    – ref. Argentina: despite the scandals, Milei’s politics are here to stay – https://theconversation.com/argentina-despite-the-scandals-mileis-politics-are-here-to-stay-250183

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-Evening Report: ‘Politically weakened’ or ‘muddling through’ – Luxon and Hipkins ranked on their mid-term prospects

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Grant Duncan, Teaching Fellow in Politics and International Relations, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau

    Getty Images

    We’re roughly half way through this parliamentary term, and it looks as though the 2026 election could deliver “Christopher vs Chris: the sequel”.

    Neither leader is currently riding high, though. National’s Christopher Luxon and Labour’s Chris Hipkins are both scoring in the low 20s in the most recent preferred prime minister polls.

    Most voters, it seems, are ambivalent or unimpressed with them. And Luxon has been the subject of media speculation about a possible leadership change.

    But it pays to be cautious, especially this far from an election. Leadership is a complex mix of individual ability, career stage and political context.

    We can think of political leaders having a “stock” of leadership “capital” that fluctuates over time. They build up credit or authority, but they have to spend it. Former supporters can become bored, disappointed or disillusioned.

    Any assessment of a leader will involve some subjective judgements. But the Leadership Capital Index (LCI) was developed by three British and European political scientists as a framework for scoring leadership on a range of sliding measures.

    As this example using former British prime minister Tony Blair shows, the LCI accounts for a leader’s skills, support and reputation based on their performance, polling and prospects over time.

    I applied the LCI to Hipkins and Luxon. Ideally, this would be conducted by a panel, and more than once over a career. But readers are welcome to examine and comment below on my assessments – a virtual panel, if you like. You can see more detail about my reasoning here.

    The LCI’s ten factors are a mixture of the objective and subjective, adding up to an overall ranking of a leader’s political capital on a five-point scale:

    • depleted – “lame duck”

    • low – “politically weakened”

    • medium – “muddling through”

    • high – “momentum”

    • exceptional – “political weather maker”.

    Neither Luxon nor Hipkins performed very well: Luxon came out on the low-capital range looking “politically weakened”, while Hipkins was “muddling through” on medium capital.

    Leadership capital changes over time, and the LCI takes account of that. This assessment relates to mid-March 2025.

    The Leadership Capital Index

    1. Political/policy vision: (1. Completely absent. 2. Unclear/inconsistent. 3. Moderately clear/consistent. 4. Clear/consistent. 5. Very clear/consistent.)

    I’ve given both leaders 4 out of 5 here. Both have presented clear and consistent political and policy visions. Readers who disagree will see I take some relevant issues into account in the items below.

    2. Communication performance: (1. Very poor. 2. Poor. 3. Average. 4. Good. 5. Very good.)

    Luxon has been struggling here. His failure to give broadcaster Mike Hosking a straight answer about a cabinet sacking didn’t help, and he has been criticised for his corporate speaking style. Hipkins has performed better as a communicator (regardless of your views on his values). I’ve given Luxon 2/5 and Hipkins 4/5.

    3. Personal poll rating relative to the most recent election: (1. Very low (–15% or less), 2. Low (–5 to –15%), 3. Moderate (–5% to 5%), 4. High (5-15%), 5. Very High (15% or more).)

    This is an objective numerical measure based on preferred prime minister polls just before the 2023 election compared with the most recent ones. Both Luxon and Hipkins score 3/5.

    4. Longevity (time in office as prime minister): (1. less than 1 year. 2. 1-2 years. 3. 2-3 years. 4. 3-4 years. 5. More than 4.)

    At March 2025, Luxon gets 2/5 and Hipkins gets 1/5. If we included time in office as party leaders, the numbers would be higher.

    5. Selection margin for party leadership: (1. Very small (less than 1%). 2. Small (1-5%). 3. Moderate (5-10%). 4. Large (10-15%). 5. Very large (more than 15%).)

    Both leaders were elected as party leader by their respective caucuses. These votes are private, but it’s known Hipkins’ selection was unanimous. I believe Luxon also won by a large margin (greater than 15%). So they both get 5/5.

    6. Party polling relative to most recent election result: (1. –10% or lower. 2. –10% to –2.5%. 3. –2.5% to +2.5%. 4. +2.5% to 10%. 5. More than 10%.)

    In early March, Labour was polling in the low 30s, up from an election result of 26.9%. So Hipkins gets 4/5. National was also polling in the low 30s, down from 38.1%. So Luxon gets 2/5.

    7. Levels of public trust: (1. 0-20%. 2. 20-40%. 3. 40-60%. 4. 60-80%. 5. 80-100%.)

    Going back to a “trust” poll in early 2023 and a similar one in May that year, Luxon scored a lower trust level (37%) than Hipkins (53%). So Luxon gets 2/5 and Hipkins gets 3/5.

    8. Likelihood of credible leadership challenge within next 6 months: (1. Very high. 2. High. 3. Moderate. 4. Low. 5. Very low.)

    This relies on predictions, but Luxon is in greater danger than Hipkins. National’s polling is down, with some predicting a leadership change (although others acknowledge this could carry more costs than benefits). Hipkins lost the 2023 election but seems secure as Labour leader. Luxon gets 3/5 (moderate risk) and Hipkins gets 4/5 (low risk).

    9. Perceived ability to shape party’s policy platform: (1. Very low. 2. Low. 3. Moderate. 4. High. 5. Very high.)

    This is subjective but not about liking or disliking the policies. Both leaders perform moderately well here on 3/5. Luxon has put his own managerial style on policymaking, notably with quarterly targets. When Jacinda Ardern resigned as prime minister, Hipkins lit a “policy bonfire” to begin afresh. But he is taking time to announce new ones. We’d expect to see improvements for both leaders closer to the election.

    10. Perceived parliamentary effectiveness: (1. Very low. 2. Low. 3. Moderate. 4. High. 5. Very high.)

    Hipkins has an advantage, given his greater parliamentary experience. Luxon hasn’t dealt decisively with two attention-grabbing coalition partners, especially over ACT’s Treaty Principles Bill. Hipkins gets 4/5, Luxon 2/5.

    Final scores – now have your say

    The results add up to a ranking on the leadership capital index. Out of a possible 50, Luxon scores 28 and Hipkins 35. Neither is a great score; both careers look stalled.

    On the index, this defines Luxon as “politically weakened”. This could improve through better communication, sounder leadership of an ambitious team, and greater control over coalition dynamics.

    But Luxon’s leadership capital has never been particularly high. He didn’t enjoy a post-election “honeymoon” and may have peaked early – and low. More low polls may see National remove him, but there is also still time for his policies to pay off.

    The index has Hipkins “muddling through”. He needs to connect with voters, boost his reputation as a future leader (rather than election loser) and sharpen Labour’s policy platform.

    Hipkins’ leadership capital might have peaked in early 2023 when he became prime minister. Labour party polls are up a bit since the election, but his own preferred prime minister polling has stayed relatively low.

    Finally, neither leader has performed well compared with their predecessors John Key and Jacinda Ardern at their heights. But political fortunes can be unpredictable, and crises can even boost them, so the future remains unwritten.

    Is this assessment fair or unfair? Readers are welcome to critique my analysis and offer alternative ratings in the (moderated) comments section below.

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

    – ref. ‘Politically weakened’ or ‘muddling through’ – Luxon and Hipkins ranked on their mid-term prospects – https://theconversation.com/politically-weakened-or-muddling-through-luxon-and-hipkins-ranked-on-their-mid-term-prospects-252483

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Global: The 30,000 year old vulture that reveals a completely new type of fossilisation

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Valentina Rossi, Postdoctoral researcher, Palaeontology, University College Cork

    Fossilised feathers of the wing of a Pleistocene Vulture from central Italy. Edoardo Terranova, CC BY-SA

    A surprising discovery in the feathers of a fossil vulture from central Italy has revealed that volcanic deposits can preserve delicate tissue structures in unprecedented detail, offering new insights into the fossilisation process.

    In 1889 in the foothills of Mount Tuscolo, 25km south-east of Rome, farm workers discovered something extraordinary. While digging the ground for a new vineyard, they encountered a layer of bedrock with a strange void. This contained the skeleton of a large bird, including apparent imprints of its plumage on the surrounding rocks.

    The bizarre find prompted the landowner to call in the renowned Italian geologist Romolo Meli. By the time of Meli’s arrival on site, however, the workers had consigned most of the fossil blocks to the waste pile, and many were broken.

    After salvaging most of the rocks, Meli identified the specimen as a fossilised griffon vulture. He also noted that the preservation of the plumage was unusual considering the host rock was volcanic.



    Read more:
    Pompeii: ancient remains are helping scientists learn what happens to a body caught in a volcanic eruption

    Meli produced a report about the discovery later that year, and then the fossil vulture faded into obscurity and most of the rock samples were lost. All that remains today are blocks containing the plumage of one wing and the imprint of the bird’s head and neck.

    A few years ago, advances in analytical approaches to studying fossils prompted researchers to become more interested in the specimen, which probably dates from around 30,000 years ago. In 2014 one of us (Dawid Iurino) led a new study using CT scanning (computed tomography) of the imprint of the head and neck.

    This revealed three-dimensional details of the bird’s eyelids, tongue and the texture of its skin and neck (see the video below). Such fine preservation of biological features exceeds even that of the victims of Pompeii.

    In our new study, we then examined the feathers and it became clear that we were looking at something out of the ordinary. Our preliminary microscope analyses surprisingly revealed that the feathers, which have an orange colour that contrasts with the host rock, were preserved in three dimensions.

    Three-dimensional fossil feathers are more commonly found in amber, whereas those in rocks are normally two-dimensional thin layers of dark-coloured organic matter.

    Yet there were still important unanswered questions around how the feathers were preserved in a volcanic deposit, so we carried out some further investigations.

    A new way to fossilise

    The fossil feather.
    Edoardo Terranova, CC BY-SA

    A more detailed microscopic analysis revealed that this three-dimensional preservation extended to the delicate branches of the feathers. We could even see feather structures that were less than one micron (0.001mm) wide, specifically tiny cell organelles (part of a cell) called melanosomes whose pigments contribute to the colouration of feathers.

    Even stranger was the fact that the fossil feather was made of a mineral called zeolite. This mineral is not associated with any other fossil tissues, revealing a means of fossilisation that has never been recorded before. It came about because zeolite forms via the dissolution of volcanic ash and glass.

    The fossil’s level of tissue detail, plus the chemical composition of the feathers, indicates some important differences between the pyroclastic flows that entombed the vulture and the flow that buried Pompeii.

    The ancient residents of Pompeii were buried alive by hot fast-moving, turbulent flows of gas and ashes known as pyroclastic flows, at temperatures exceeding 500°C. At these temperatures, their soft tissues were vaporised, leaving only skeletons and charcoal.

    On the other hand, we do not know exactly how the vulture died. It may have been asphyxiated by toxic clouds of volcanic gas, or may have been killed directly by the pyroclastic flow. What we do know is that the flow was relatively cool because it was diluted with water or far from the volcanic source.

    The processes by which the volcanic sediment hardened into rock and formed zeolite happened relatively quickly (within days), which may explain why delicate structures such as feathers can preserve well in three dimensions. This opens up the possibility that many other ash-rich volcanic rocks may contain remarkable fossils, and are therefore exciting new targets for palaeontological research.

    Valentina Rossi received funding from The Palaeontological Association (UK) and The Paleontological Society (USA). She is currently receiving funding from the European Research Council (H2020-ERC-CoG-1010003293-PALAEOCHEM awarded to Prof. Maria Mcnamara).

    Maria McNamara receives funding from the European Research Council and Research Ireland.

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

    – ref. The 30,000 year old vulture that reveals a completely new type of fossilisation – https://theconversation.com/the-30-000-year-old-vulture-that-reveals-a-completely-new-type-of-fossilisation-252400

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: What Trump could learn from the British and Irish trade war of the 1930s

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Richard Carr, Lecturer in History and Politics, Anglia Ruskin University

    The Blue Water Bridge border crossing connects Michigan in the US with Ontario in Canada. ehrlif/Shutterstock

    During his election campaign, US president Donald Trump claimed the word tariff is “more beautiful than ‘love’”. Now in office, Trump has targeted his closest neighbours and trading partners with those self same policies. He initially concentrated his levies on Canada, China and Mexico – two of which share land borders with the US – before implementing blanket tariffs on all steel and aluminium imports.

    History shows us the impacts these policies can have. In 1932, during Neville Chamberlain’s time as British chancellor, the country slapped what became 40% levies on key exports (including cattle, butter and other agricultural products) from the then Irish Free State. These were promptly met by Irish retaliation on British goods including coal and steel.

    A trade war ensued – and lasted in some form for almost six years.

    As with Trump today, raising tariffs is often partly about some other policy goal. As far as the British-Irish trade war goes, I show in my new book Britain and Ireland From the Treaty to the Troubles that the initial beef (pun intended) was over a decades-long debt obligation. These annuities, as they were known, were predominantly owed by Irish farmers to Anglo-Irish landowners, and were widely disliked.

    In early 1932 Éamon de Valera secured electoral victory in Ireland for his Fianna Fáil party, partly on the basis of refusing to hand over this money. At £5 million, it was a significant sum for a government that took in around £25 million annually.

    Instead, de Valera planned to use the annuities for domestic purposes. He wanted to reward his agricultural and working-class electoral bases principally in Ireland’s west, as well as win over new voters with the nationalist and anti-English nature of his message.

    The legality of the annuities dispute was ambiguous. But de Valera withheld the money, and to recoup the missing millions the British imposed tariffs and punitive quotas. This was swiftly followed by retaliatory measures from Dublin – just as Trump’s moves have seen reaction from abroad.

    The stakes were high. A massive 92% of Irish exports went to the UK, and civil servants in Dublin fretted about the knock-on effects. In the short term, they were right to. Exports of cattle, bacon and other goods collapsed, and emergency domestic subsidy was needed to plug the gap.

    Irish attempts to land a major trade deal with the US by way of compensation went nowhere, and Britain remained its key customer for decades.

    Yet, unlike Trump, de Valera had a clear end goal into which the tariff war fitted rather well. He wanted to retool Irish farming away from livestock towards crops, and invest in Ireland’s nascent industry elsewhere. This included expanding the country’s energy independence and kick-starting its manufacturing sector.

    The retained annuities and the increased political capital his government gained from the trade war both helped with these objectives.

    It took until about 1937, after two more election wins and a referendum victory for de Valera, for British leaders to accept that the Irish public broadly backed their leader. They realised that a bilateral agreement was necessary.

    The dispute was finally ended in April 1938. As the ink dried on a deal that saw tariffs dropped in exchange for a one-off payment from Dublin and the return of three ports to Ireland, the British media hailed the achievement of Chamberlain – now prime minister.

    But this reaction also tells us something. Initially, Chamberlain was portrayed as a genius who had clearly won. But then critics pointed to it being a rather better deal for de Valera (the £10 million one-off sum was nowhere near the £100 million the British had a nominal claim for).

    In this new stance, it had been a great deal precisely because Chamberlain had been so magnanimous. A terrible deal was actually a great deal. Some of that mentality could be seen in reactions to the Munich Agreement with Adolf Hitler a few months later.

    All told, the consequences had been significant. Perhaps 3% of the Irish economy was lost.

    In the meantime, Irish immigration to Britain consequently ticked up as people looked for work. Smuggling at the Northern Irish border ballooned, leading to additional costs to police a frontier where cattle were hurried across unmanned fields and rivers to avoid the tariff.

    Guinness even moved production to London in order to avoid future tariffs.
    gabriel12/Shutterstock

    Major Irish-based industry, including Guinness and Ford, moved operations to the London periphery (Park Royal and Dagenham respectively) to avoid any future duties. Although Ford kept some tractor production in Cork in the south of Ireland, for large parts of its European and imperial business the only way was now Essex.

    All this meant economic dislocation and diplomatic animosity at a point where the geopolitical outlook was troubled – not an unfamiliar story. Although Ireland remained neutral during the second world war – the ultimate show for de Valera of its independence – intelligence cooperation and the service of Irish men and women in the Allied war effort illustrated that the two countries just about muddled through.

    But today, tariffs provoking wider turmoil remains a big worry. As former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau noted, Trump’s actions are “a very dumb thing to do” and could lead to “exactly what our opponents around the world want to see … a dispute between two friends and neighbours”.

    Trump may also be wise to note that de Valera’s position was bolstered when he could claim that he was being bullied by a more powerful neighbour. In the past few weeks, the Canadian Liberal Party has surged back in the polls, partly on the back of the same dynamics. The little guy sometimes swings back.

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

    – ref. What Trump could learn from the British and Irish trade war of the 1930s – https://theconversation.com/what-trump-could-learn-from-the-british-and-irish-trade-war-of-the-1930s-252128

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Why Canada must treat its food system as a matter of national defence

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Karen Foster, Associate Professor, Sociology and Social Anthropology and Canada Research Chair in Sustainable Rural Futures for Atlantic Canada, Dalhousie University

    Rising tensions between Canada and the United States have made increased military investment and a renewed focus on national defence all but inevitable.

    A recent Angus Reid poll found three in four Canadians want to see the country’s military strengthened in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to annex Canada as the 51st state. In early March, former prime minister Justin Trudeau committed publicly to increasing military spending.

    While it makes sense for a country feeling vulnerable to invasion to look at recruiting new soldiers and increasing its arsenal, there is an additional facet of national defence that is too often overlooked: food preparedness.

    Trump’s on-again, off-again tariffs are already “stoking a new nationalism” in Canadians and sparking interest in buying local, but food should be part of the national defence conversation, too.

    The double edge of globalization

    The globalization of food systems, in Canada and the rest of the world, has intensified since the Second World War. This has brought some benefits, such as year-round access to fresh produce, but it has also made Canada’s food systems vulnerable to the whims of its trading partners.

    Academics focused on food security and sovereignty have long raised concerns about import-dependence on key nutritious foods like fruits and vegetables.

    Even in 2021, when the COVID-19 pandemic shone a harsh light on food supply chains in Canada, research showed that the production of fresh produce was declining while imports were increasing.

    Now, faced with both a trade war and annexation threats, Canada must confront whether its domestic food systems can feed its population in a crisis — economic, political, environmental or otherwise.

    Food systems and national defence

    Trade-dependent countries worldwide are recognizing food security as a matter of national defence. Some, like Sweden, are making plans to take stock of the capacity and resilience of their food systems, and actively working toward a system that can sustain the lives of their citizens in a crisis.

    Sweden’s total goods trade accounted for 67 per cent of its GDP in 2023, compared to Canada’s 53 per cent. Despite its high level of trade dependence, Sweden has put food at the heart of the country’s total defence approach to national security.

    Total defence is a defence policy that emphasizes both traditional military activities and civilian activities, including their food systems.

    The Swedish government, in its defence resolution, states: “A well-functioning and robust food supply and personal preparedness of the civil population are ultimately a matter of survival and maintaining the will to defend.”

    This approach is not focused only on individual or household levels of preparedness — that is, whether people have enough in their pantries — but also includes the overall preparedness of the systems that produce, process and distribute food.

    Canada, with its heavy reliance on global trade and the U.S. as a primary trading partner, would do well to take note.

    Food sovereignty in Canada

    There are hundreds of scholars and thousands of community entities working to make Canada’s food systems more sustainable and resilient in the face of financialization, farmland consolidation and the globalization of supply chains.

    In Québec, for example, there is a growing movement to mobilize and empower producers, community entities, the agrifood sector, policymakers and additional stakeholders to build more resilient, territorial food systems across the province.



    Read more:
    Making our food fairer: Don’t Call Me Resilient EP 12

    Canadian experts play a key role in global discussions on food systems resilience, with scholars contributing to the United Nations Committee on World Food Security’s Building Resilient Food Systems draft report. This report is designed to help countries make their food systems more resilient, equitable and sustainable.

    Yet Canada’s efforts are not co-ordinated, empowered or moving fast enough in the push for greater food sovereignty. The point is not to abandon trade, but to manage it more strategically.

    Both international and domestic markets are crucial for Canadian farmers, and many local companies are devoted to importing everyday goods like coffee, tea and bananas under fair trade and agroecological conditions.

    Trade relations, however, are about more than economics; they involve building political partnerships with Mexico, the European Union, Asian countries and beyond — something Canada needs now more than ever.

    Sweden has already recognized this. Its food preparedness strategy involves deepening co-operation with like-minded Nordic countries and collaborating around the supply, transport, stockpiling and testing of food.

    Crisis-proofing Canada’s food systems

    To ensure Canada can feed itself in a crisis, the government must invest in domestic production, processing and distribution infrastructure. This would create more efficient, connected local markets that removes some of the burden of buying local from individuals.



    Read more:
    Boycotting U.S. products allows Canadians to take a rare political stand in their daily lives

    The Canadian government must also promote diversification in production and export. Canada needs to move away from monoculture farming and toward more regional networks and agroecological approaches. These approaches are more resilient to both crops themselves and the diverse markets they open up, reducing Canada’s dependence on single trading partners like the U.S.

    Key agricultural policies such as the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership need to go beyond the long-standing focus on prioritizing export markets. They must also invest in infrastructure and partnerships in Canada to strengthen their support of Canadian producers, ranchers, fisheries and food system players at home, to help them work together at a regional scale.

    Correcting power imbalances in our food systems is also critical. Greater local and regional autonomy over how food is produced, processed and distributed would help with this. These strategies would make Canada less vulnerable to supply chain disruption.

    Countries like Sweden recognize these efforts as part of national defence — an approach Canada should consider.

    But while we fight annexation from the kitchen table, we must recognize it doesn’t start there; it starts at a higher level. Only better policy, infrastructure and systemic change can prepare Canada to be more proactive and resilient in the face of world crises — economic or otherwise.

    Karen Foster receives research funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) as well as Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC). She is the director of the SSHRC/AAFC-funded Common Ground Canada Network.

    Alicia Martin is a Postdoctoral Fellow with the SSHRC/AAFC-funded Common Ground Canada Network.

    Gavin Fridell receives funding from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada. He is a member of the Trade and Investment Research Project at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

    Kathleen Kevany receives funding from The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, for the Food Impact Network research and knowledge mobilization for the handbook of sustainable diets; Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) for food waste prevention work, and Mitacs for internships on food procurement and food environment analysis.

    I am advised to Farm to Cafeteria Canada (F2CC) an NGO.

    – ref. Why Canada must treat its food system as a matter of national defence – https://theconversation.com/why-canada-must-treat-its-food-system-as-a-matter-of-national-defence-251118

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Can a virtual reality residential school, developed with Survivors, improve empathy toward Indigenous people?

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Iloradanon H. Efimoff, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Toronto Metropolitan University

    Virtual reality is a rapidly developing technology. As the technology expands, becoming more portable and affordable, the potential uses have expanded as well.

    One virtual reality creator calls virtual reality the “ultimate empathy machine.” Promising research shows that virtual reality can improve empathy toward groups such as people experiencing schizophrenia,
    children who are refugees and people who are unhoused.

    Working with an interdisciplinary research team, we put this statement to the test within the context of residential schools in Canada.

    Effective teaching about residential schools

    Residential schools were state-funded, church-run institutions that amounted to genocide. Teachers and other adults at these schools abused the children physically, emotionally and sexually.

    Knowledge of residential schools in Canada is relatively high. Recent national polls show that in 2022, 65 per cent of non-Indigenous respondents had read or heard about residential schools. This number increased to 90 per cent in 2023. This type of awareness, however, does not necessarily reflect a deep knowledge of residential schools.

    Given the apparent rise in residential school denialism and decreasing support for reconciliation initiatives, it is vital to find effective ways to teach about residential schools.

    Work with Survivors on virtual project

    Members of our interdisciplinary research team created a virtual rendering of Fort Alexander Residential School,
    working closely with a group of Survivors from that school. The school operated from 1905-1970 in Manitoba, near Winnipeg, and was run by the Roman Catholic Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate.

    The virtual rendering took years to develop, with critical relationships forming along the way. Members of this same team, and some new members, then tested the effects of the school.

    Overall, researchers with a range of approaches participated, including those who work in the areas of psychology, sociology, and computer science, or who are concerned with representation of war and genocide.

    One concern of those involved in the project was how participants would engage in the virtual school. In particular, we didn’t want the virtual school to be “gamified” (used like a video game). To this end, the virtual reality school is “on-the-tracks,” meaning viewers move through the school on a set path.

    This set path included visiting a classroom, a dormitory and a cellar, among other spaces that the Survivors described. The school was designed such that the viewers would feel physically small in the space — as if they were the size of a child. While moving through the various rooms in the school, viewers listened to recordings of Survivors’ stories of their experiences at the school.

    Would VR experience improve empathy?

    To test if a virtual reality residential school could improve empathy toward Indigenous people, we ran an experiment, as researchers do when they want to compare the impact of different experiences.

    All experiments include a group of people who receive some sort of intervention, such as our virtual reality school. In the simplest approach, researchers can compare the effects of the intervention group to an “empty control group,” which includes people who receive no intervention and often just respond to questions assessing key outcomes. Through comparisons like this, researchers can understand the effect of the intervention compared to doing nothing.

    We used a slightly more rigorous design by adding a third group who simply read the transcripts of the narration that accompanied the virtual school. This allowed us to test if the virtual reality school outperformed the transcripts, which were a different method of learning about residential schools.

    Powerful Survivor stories

    We tested how the virtual school, transcript and control groups affected four outcomes: empathy, warmth and political solidarity toward Indigenous people as well as perceptions that past events still cause suffering today — what we and often legal scholars call “privity.” We looked at the effects right after the experiment and then again weeks later.

    As we thought, compared to the control group, people who received either the transcript or virtual reality intervention responded more favourably toward Indigenous people; they reported more empathy, warmth, political solidarity and privity.

    But a surprising thing happened too: People in the transcript and virtual reality groups responded in the same way. Though we cannot be sure why, we suspect these two groups did not differ because the Survivors’ stories are powerful.

    Finally, over time, the differences among groups disappeared. The changes caused by reading a transcript or experiencing the virtual world went away.

    Need for ongoing education

    Our findings imply that a meaningful story does not require sophisticated technology like virtual reality to have impact. In cases where the story is captivating, the technology might not be necessary to engage people.

    Though trendy, virtual reality equipment is also more expensive and not as portable as written work. Of course, virtual reality might be just the right fit for audiences that would rather not or can’t read. It might also be a novel hook to get someone to engage with a topic they may otherwise avoid.

    Perhaps more clearly, our disappointing finding that the interventions did not last over time highlights the need for ongoing education about residential schools. A single learning opportunity is unlikely to cause long-lasting change in feelings and attitudes toward Indigenous people. There is more work to do.

    Katherine B. Starzyk holds funding from the Social Science and Humanities Council of Canada as well as Canadian Heritage / Patrimoine canadien. She is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Manitoba.

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

    – ref. Can a virtual reality residential school, developed with Survivors, improve empathy toward Indigenous people? – https://theconversation.com/can-a-virtual-reality-residential-school-developed-with-survivors-improve-empathy-toward-indigenous-people-249996

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Combatting the measles threat means examining the reasons for declining vaccination rates

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Catherine Carstairs, Professor, Department of History, University of Guelph

    To address anti-vaccine sentiment, we need to listen to parents’ concerns and make it easy for them to get their children vaccinated. (Shutterstock)

    Measles was supposedly eradicated in Canada more than a quarter century ago. But today, measles is surging.

    Public Health Ontario recently announced that there have been 195 cases in the province in the past two weeks and 372 cases since autumn 2024. Many cases have required hospitalization. Last year, a child died.

    The cause of this resurgence is declining vaccination rates.

    Measles is extremely infectious. One person with the measles is likely to infect nine out of 10 of their unvaccinated close contacts. To prevent its spread, we need 95 per cent of the population to be vaccinated.

    Anti-vaccine sentiments

    Our research examines why parents have hesitated or refused to vaccinate their children. Anti-vaccine sentiment is often linked to a now thoroughly discredited 1998 study that suggested a link between the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine and autism.

    But our research on the anti-vaccine movement in Canada from the 1970s to the early 2000s suggests that parents’ concerns about vaccines started much earlier than that study, and that parents worry about far more than autism.

    To address anti-vaccine sentiment, we need to listen to parents’ concerns and make it easy for them to get their children vaccinated. We also need to persuade them of the benefits of vaccination, not just for their own children, but for their family members, friends and fellow citizens.

    The anti-vaccine literature is not anti-science. It is filled with statistics and references to scientific studies, although the facts are often wrong. Parents who read this literature need more than the simple reassurance of experts that vaccines are safe and effective. They need to be shown evidence and have confidence that their concerns are being taken seriously.

    One argument that appeared frequently in the anti-vaccine literature is that rates of infectious disease had fallen before the introduction of vaccines.

    While mortality from infectious diseases declined well before vaccination, vaccines played a vital role in further diminishing the toll of infectious disease. Diphtheria is largely unknown today, but before the introduction of widespread vaccination in the years between the First and Second World Wars, it killed hundreds of Canadian children every year.

    Another common argument was that vaccines are ineffective. This argument was often used with respect to the measles vaccine. Because some people are inadequately vaccinated (receiving only one shot for example, instead of two), and because the vaccine is not perfect, there will be some cases of measles even in vaccinated people. Fortunately, these people tend to have milder cases.

    Anti-vaccine texts frequently contain long lists of scary-sounding ingredients in vaccines, similar to what we see for highly processed foods. Thimerosal (ethyl mercury used as a preservative) attracted the most attention. Thimerosal is no longer used in childhood vaccines in Canada.

    The anti-vaccine literature is deeply skeptical about the profit-making motivations of pharmaceutical companies and often mentions past disasters such as the thalidomide scandal that saw thousands of children born with shortened limbs.

    While this is not the only example of inadequate safety testing of new drugs, it is clear that the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine, used since the early 1970s, has a long safety record and has played a vital role in reducing deaths and illness from the measles in Canada and abroad.

    Anti-vaccine literature also stressed that there were natural ways of building immunity that could take the place of vaccination. We see this today with claims by United States Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

    Kennedy claims that poor eating habits are behind the spread of measles in the U.S. This is extremely dangerous. Even the healthiest, best-fed child can get extremely sick with the measles. Not all parents can afford nutritious food. And some children can’t be vaccinated because of medical conditions, leaving them extremely vulnerable.

    Tragedies of the past

    Anti-vaccine parents see vaccines as one of the dangers of our modern, polluted world, and worry that vaccines might have risks that have not yet been recognized. While there are risks with any medical technology, the benefits of vaccines far outweigh the possible dangers.

    A century ago, parents mourned the gruesome deaths of children with diphtheria, which caused a membrane to form across the child’s throat, slowly strangling them to death.

    Mortality from the measles declined in the first half of the 20th century, but in 1945, there was still one measles death for every 100,000 people in Ontario.

    Parents today have little memory of these tragedies, but sadly, they could return. Indeed, a powerful article recently published in the Atlantic Monthly profiled a father who had just lost his six-year-old child to the measles.

    Along with scholars like sociologist Jennifer Reich, who has studied contemporary anti-vaccine parents, we see anti-vaccination sentiment as part of a larger societal trend towards individualism. Parents think about what’s best for their own child, rather than thinking about what’s best for their community.

    At a time when Canadians are bonding together to fight the tariff threat from the U.S., it would be wonderful if we could also come together to fight the scourge of infectious diseases, including measles. The best way to do this is vaccination.

    Catherine Carstairs received funding from AMS Healthcare for this project.

    Kathryn Hughes receives funding from AMS Healthcare for this project.

    – ref. Combatting the measles threat means examining the reasons for declining vaccination rates – https://theconversation.com/combatting-the-measles-threat-means-examining-the-reasons-for-declining-vaccination-rates-252168

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Canadians are more patriotic than ever amid Trump’s trade war — but it’s important not to take national pride too far

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Susan Dieleman, Jarislowsky Chair in Trust and Political Leadership and Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Lethbridge

    Amid a trade war between Canada and the United States, there’s been a surge in Canadian patriotism over the past few weeks.

    A recent poll shows that, across the country, the number of Canadians who consider themselves “proud” or “very proud” has increased — including in Québec, where these numbers have increased from 45 to 58 per cent.



    Read more:
    Is Trump’s assault on Canada bringing Québec and the rest of the country closer together?

    Canadians have been showing their national pride in a variety of ways. Sports fans have been singing “O Canada” at the top of their lungs and booing the U.S. national anthem. Consumers have adjusted their purchasing priorities, buying more Canadian products and avoiding American ones where possible. Vacationers have even changed their travel plans, opting to stay in Canada rather than travel south of the border.

    Political leaders, too, have practically draped themselves in the Canadian flag to show their national pride. For example, Ontario Premier Doug Ford has been dubbed “Captain Canada” by the media for his response to the tariffs. Federal and provincial leaders have also adopted a so-called “Team Canada” approach — committing to presenting a united front in their response to tariff threats from the U.S.

    Former political leaders have penned opinion pieces proclaiming Canada to be the best country in the world — or, at least, a once-serious and proud country.

    But what does it mean to be patriotic — and are there good and bad ways of being patriotic? As an expert in the political thought of American philosopher Richard Rorty, I have found his reflections provide useful guidance for understanding the line between being a good patriot — and either taking things too far or not far enough.

    The virtuous response

    Rorty’s prophetic claims in his 1998 book Achieving Our Country: Leftist Thought in Twentieth-Century America about the likelihood that a “strongman” would be elected went viral after Donald Trump’s 2016 election. His insights can help us understand patriotism and why it might be important in the present moment.

    Rorty opens that book by providing an analogy:

    “National pride is to countries what self-respect is to individuals: a necessary condition for self-improvement. Too much national pride can produce bellicosity and imperialism, just as excessive self-respect can produce arrogance. But just as too little self-respect makes it difficult for a person to display moral courage, so insufficient national pride makes energetic and effective debate about national policy unlikely. Emotional involvement with one’s country […] is necessary if political deliberation is to be imaginative and productive. Such deliberation will probably not occur unless pride outweighs shame.”

    In this passage, Rorty invokes Aristotle’s notion of a “golden mean” — moderation between the excessive and deficient expression of a particular disposition. Very roughly put, to be virtuous is to feel and respond appropriately to any given situation. To exceed or fall short of the appropriate feeling and response is to be vicious.

    For example, to be courageous is to fear appropriately and to respond to that fear appropriately. The courageous person is not a person without fear. Rather, they fear what’s worthy of fear and don’t fear that which isn’t.

    The courageous person also responds appropriately to fear. What this response looks like will vary according to situation. Sometimes, courage calls one to stand and fight — while at other times, it calls one to turn and run. An inappropriate response is when one is reckless because they’re overly unafraid — or when one is cowardly because they’re overly afraid. As the wise fool character of Falstaff notes in Shakespeare’s Henry IV, the better part of valour is discretion.

    Virtuous patriotism

    Applying the same approach, we can understand patriotism as feeling and responding appropriately in a situation that calls for national shame. The person who takes pride in their country is not a person who never feels shame. Rather, they’re ashamed when something their country has done is worthy of shame — and not ashamed when there’s no reason to be.

    As a result, patriotism sometimes calls one to criticize their country. At other times, patriotism calls us to celebrate our country. The person who exhibits patriotism virtuously will know when criticism and celebration are appropriate. To respond inappropriately, according to Rorty, is to be either quarrelsome and imperialistic when one is overly unashamed, or to be apathetic and uninvolved when one is overly ashamed.

    Pride in one’s country is only a virtue when it’s well-deserved. But when it is well-deserved, pride is the virtuous response.

    In Achieving Our Country, Rorty was primarily concerned with the fracturing and consequent direction of the political left, worrying that it was veering off the virtuous track in the direction of vicious apathy. The political left, he said, emphasized the ways their country fell short — and of which they were rightly ashamed. But they didn’t look at the way the country had lived up to its promise, which should have made them proud.

    However, as I’ve written about previously, the political left wasn’t wrong to identify those aspects of a country’s history that are indeed shameful. And for Rorty, the left has played a vital role throughout history in helping countries become kinder, less shameful places than they otherwise might have been.

    In the current political climate, Rorty’s lesson for us is to make sure we don’t veer too far in the opposite direction, becoming quarrelsome or imperialistic. What true patriot love calls for is a more moderate stance — where we’re shameful of that which is worthy of shame, but also proud of that which is worthy of pride. Without a balance of shame and pride, efforts to continue improving what we stand on guard for is likely to falter and fall.

    As we Canadians wave our flags and support our Canadian producers, we would be well-served to remember the value of imaginative and productive deliberation — and to steer well clear of both bellicosity and apathy.

    Susan Dieleman receives funding as the Jarislowsky Chair in Trust and Political Leadership at the University of Lethbridge.

    – ref. Canadians are more patriotic than ever amid Trump’s trade war — but it’s important not to take national pride too far – https://theconversation.com/canadians-are-more-patriotic-than-ever-amid-trumps-trade-war-but-its-important-not-to-take-national-pride-too-far-250210

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Why has the Gaza ceasefire collapsed? Why has the US launched aistrikes in Yemen? Middle East expert Q&A

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Scott Lucas, Professor of International Politics, Clinton Institute, University College Dublin

    For the past few weeks, the world’s attention has been focused on the prospect of a ceasefire in Ukraine and the diplomatic manoeuvrings that has entailed. But while Donald Trump has been focusing on negotiations with Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky, the ceasefire deal in Gaza he had a hand in getting over the line appears to have fallen apart.

    After negotiations with Hamas broke down, Israel cut off all humanitarian aid to Gaza at the beginning of March, then cut off power, and overnight on March 17 launched massive airstrikes across the Strip, killing more than 400 people.

    Meanwhile, the US has responded to attacks on shipping in the Red Sea with massive airstrikes against the Iran-back Houthi rebels. This has been widely interpreted as a message to Iran’s leaders from Trump, who is putting pressure on the Iranian government to negotiate a new nuclear deal to replace the one struck in 2013 which was rejected by the US president in 2018.

    Scott Lucas, a Middle East expert at University College Dublin, addresses some of the key issues involved.

    Do the Israeli airstrikes on Gaza mean the ceasefire deal is officially dead?

    Yes. This is the end of the two-month ceasefire that paused Israel’s open-ended war on Gaza. The six-week phase one of the ceasefire officially ended on March 1, after some hostages held by Hamas were exchanged for some Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons.

    There never was a possibility of a phase two. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, facing pressure from hard-right groups inside and close to his government and still vowing to destroy Hamas, was never going to accept a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and Hamas remaining in the Strip. Hamas was never going to accept eviction – and there was no prospect of agreement on a successor Palestinian government for Gaza.

    So Netanyahu, also being pressed by families of the remaining 59 hostages, sought an extension of phase one with the return of all those dead or alive. Hamas, whose last leverage is retaining those hostages, demanded a phase two.

    Israel cut off humanitarian assistance earlier this month. Returning to the aerial assault was the next step. The renewal of ground attacks will be next.



    Read more:
    Gaza ceasefire deal looks doomed as Israel blockades Strip and bars entry of humanitarian aid

    What is Israel’s long-term plan for Gaza?

    There is no long-term plan at the moment. Netanyahu needs a short-term return of the hostages to escape his political bind, not to mention his ongoing bribery trial.

    Israel’s hard right – and Donald Trump – may envisage a depopulated Gaza under Israeli military rule. But all such ambitions will be suspended as the death and destruction continues.

    What has been overshadowed is the possibility of a long-term plan in the West Bank, where Israel has been stepping up military operations and violence is escalating. As the world watches Gaza, the Israelis may seek to expand and consolidate their de facto rule through settlements in a programme which will be tantamount to annexation.

    Donald Trump saw the Gaza ceasefire as his deal. How will he react to Netanyahu breaking it?

    Trump was happy to grab the immediate, self-proclaimed glory of “peacemaker” for phase one.

    Since there was no possibility of being a peacemaker for a phase two, Trump set this aside for the fantasy of Trump Gaza and his golden statue on the “Riviera of the Middle East”.

    Now he will be content to blame and bash Hamas.

    Meanwhile the US has been attacking the Houthis in Yemen. What is Trump’s strategy here?

    The airstrikes are, in part at least, Trump speaking to the American public. He poses as a “peacemaker” at times, but he enjoys playing the tough guy. And, at a time when economic issues and Musk-inflicted chaos may dent his approval rating, he could rally support with the bombing.

    At the same time, Trump has carried out his standard ploy with Iran’s leaders: give me a photo opportunity for the “art of the deal” or I’ll “rain hell on you”.

    A direct strike on Tehran would unleash repercussions throughout the Middle East. Even though Iran has been weakened in the past year, it still has the capability to strike Americans in the region.

    Sign up to receive our weekly World Affairs Briefing newsletter from The Conversation UK. Every Thursday we’ll bring you expert analysis of the big stories in international relations.

    So the low-cost option is to fire on Iran’s ally in Yemen. Some officials in the Trump administration will favour this as a way of putting pressure on the Iranians ahead of any potential talks on Tehran’s nuclear programme. Others will see this as part of backing for Israel amid the open-ended war in Gaza, and still others could endorse the step as a bolstering of Saudi Arabia and the UAE. And there is always the argument that the strikes could deter Houthi attacks on shipping in the Red Sea.

    The Iranian response has been fairly muted. Why is that?

    Iran’s leadership is embroiled in a combination of economic, social and regional problems, perhaps the most serious situation since the mass protests after the disputed 2009 presidential election.

    Tehran’s projection of power has been shaken by the fall of its ally Bashar al-Assad in Syria, the decimation of Hezbollah in Lebanon last year, and an eroding position in Iraq, where Iran’s influence over the government of prime minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani is looking increasingly tenuous.

    The economy is in a parlous state. In early 2018, the exchange rate was 45,000 Iranian rial to the dollar. Now it is approaching 1 million to the dollar.

    Inflation is officially at 36%, but is far higher in reality, particularly for food and other essentials. Unemployment is rising and infrastructure is crumbling. There are shortages of electricity in a country that is the world’s seventh-largest oil producer.

    Having faced the “Woman, life, freedom” protests since September 2022, the regime is caught between making accommodations to public discontent and cracking down on rights. Some political prisoners have been released, but authorities are pursuing a draconian campaign against women who dare not to wear the hijab.

    Hardliners are trying to curb the centrist government, forcing out the economy minister, Abdolnaser Hemmati, and the foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, who was central in the 2015 agreement that restricted Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Pursuing both that domestic campaign and confrontation abroad is a tall order.

    What does this mean for a new nuclear deal with Iran?

    Some Trump advisers may believe they can use the sledgehammer in Yemen to bludgeon Iran to the negotiating table and Trump’s photo opportunity with the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, or Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian.

    Good luck with that. Iran may be weakened, but Khamenei is not going to negotiate at the point of an American weapon. Responding to news of a Trump letter to Tehran that threatened, “There are two ways Iran can be handled: militarily, or you make a deal,” last week Khamenei dismissed the idea of talking with the Trump administration.

    He said: “When we know they won’t honour it, what’s the point of negotiating? Therefore, the invitation to negotiate … is a deception of public opinion.”

    Recent history is instructive. In 2013, Khamenei finally relented to nuclear deal talks when told by the then president, Hassan Rouhani, of an imminent economic collapse if Iran held out. More than five years later, however, the Iranian leadership was prepared to withstand Trump’s “maximum pressure” and withdrawal from the nuclear agreement.

    Iran’s idea for talks was based on a cautious process beginning with confidence-building measures on both sides. But a US approach predicated on bombing and bluster has effectively sidelined that.

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

    – ref. Why has the Gaza ceasefire collapsed? Why has the US launched aistrikes in Yemen? Middle East expert Q&A – https://theconversation.com/why-has-the-gaza-ceasefire-collapsed-why-has-the-us-launched-aistrikes-in-yemen-middle-east-expert-qanda-252532

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: British Rail wasn’t all bad. Sixty years after the brand launched we should remember its marketing successes

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Lewis Smith, Lecturer in Marketing, Brunel Business School, Brunel University of London

    Jon_Ritchie/Shutterstock

    In 2025 Britain is marking the 200th anniversary of the modern railway. Many will be quick to celebrate the legacy of steam engines and the old red lion railway logo, but there’s one bit of Britain’s railway that perhaps doesn’t get enough praise – British Rail. Abbreviated to BR, the brand is 60 this year.

    BR officially began trading in 1965 and ended with the privatisation of the railways in 1997. But despite the brand coming to the end of the line, many of its iconic elements remain on the railways today. These include the “double arrow” logo, the font known as Rail Alphabet and a whole palette of colours and styles.

    State-owned Great British Railways, which is replacing Network Rail as the operator of most of Britain’s rail infrastructure as well as taking over the privatised franchise system, will unveil a logo in May. This may well incorporate the double arrow. The messaging is about the hope of “restoring pride” in Britain’s rail network.

    BR as an organisation, on the other hand, has an often controversial legacy. Those who remember it are quick to complain of late-running trains, high fares and a poor standard of service – including the soggy British Rail sandwich. This legacy is often politicised. One could equally argue that it was a cutting-edge business that served the people in times of dire economic crises, with recessions in the 1970s and 80s as well as the decline in manufacturing that led to widespread unemployment.

    The railways were nationalised under the 1947 Transport Act and managed by “British Railways”. Back in the 1950s, the railway had a poor reputation. As one survey respondent described, the railway was a “big, monolithic institution, not at all concerned with the welfare of the individual”.

    Trains were often late and dirty, the result of a lack of investment combined with the dying days of the steam era. Coupled to this, British Railways was hesitant about outside intervention, whether from managers, government officials or even passengers. Efforts to improve the railway began with the 1955 modernisation plan, which made a number of strategic recommendations. But by 1960 it had failed to deliver any financial benefits.

    For all nationalised industries in Britain, the 1960s were different. With the release of a government white paper in 1961, all the state-owned industries including gas, electricity and airways were set financial targets.

    One of the outcomes of this for the railways was Dr Richard Beeching’s Reshaping of British Railways plan published in 1963. It included a number of changes, including slashing the number of unprofitable routes.

    My recent research has examined BR marketing in the 1960s and 1970s, and found that this period represented one of great change in the history of marketing the railways.

    This included the introduction of the “British Rail” brand, with the publication of a corporate identity manual in July 1965. This represented management slowly opening up to recruit marketing and PR experts from the private sector, including from consumer giants like L’Oréal.

    Compared to other operators in Europe, BR received one of the lowest government subsidies. Over its operational life, BR fought hard to innovate in the market with the support and resources it had.

    It used new methods to locate and identify consumers, targeted advertising and services, and teamed up with private-sector giants like Kellogg’s and Persil with offers for discounted tickets. It also created new pricing structures, including Awaydays, Weekend Returns and Railcards.

    A fierce competitor

    As a nationalised railway, it might be easy to assume that BR had a monopoly and therefore did not have to compete. But this couldn’t be further from the reality. The car business was booming, with cheaper, more reliable models on offer. And, thanks to government infrastructure policy, more roads, car parks and fuel stations were being built.

    Other domestic transport like coaches (the National Bus Company was formed in 1968) applied constant pressure. And British Airways launched its domestic “shuttle” services between London and other UK cities in 1975, promising passengers they could just “turn up and go” without the need to book.

    This also marked a point at which marketing experts shifted their focus from places to people, identifying not only who wanted to travel but why. This included focusing on specific market segments by gender.

    In the 1970s, BR’s InterCity launched a TV campaign with the slogan “Travel Inter-City Like the Men Do”, which focused efforts on middle-aged women looking to travel to get away from their domestic duties.

    Rail travel could be a feminist issue too.

    Similarly, messaging for business travellers tightened. Before the 1960s, business travel was about luxury. Now it was about economic efficiency, where businessmen could work, eat and sleep on the train in advance of their meetings (none of which you could do if you were driving to a meeting).

    In the 1980s, before his horrifying crimes came to light, BR brought in TV star Jimmy Savile as the face of rail travel. Although hard to believe today, given what the public now knows about Savile, it was a coup at the time because of his media and business profile.

    But today, the railways are at a turning point. The government’s plans to nationalise railway franchises has prompted excitement from organisations like passenger group Bring Back British Rail.

    Let’s be clear: nationalisation on its own is not a silver bullet, though the BR case shows that it should be possible to have a nationalised industry that can serve the public interest and compete within the wider economy. Crucially, BR was an innovative marketer. What follows next should endeavour to be the same.

    Lewis 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.

    – ref. British Rail wasn’t all bad. Sixty years after the brand launched we should remember its marketing successes – https://theconversation.com/british-rail-wasnt-all-bad-sixty-years-after-the-brand-launched-we-should-remember-its-marketing-successes-251759

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: The UK has closed its flagship sustainable farming scheme, choosing short-term cuts over long-term security

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Emma Burnett, Honorary Research Associate, TABLE, University of Oxford

    EMJAY SMITH / shutterstock

    The UK government’s decision to abruptly close all applications for its flagship nature-friendly farming scheme has shocked many of the country’s farmers and environmentalists.

    The sustainable farming incentive (SFI) is one of a series of schemes which pays farmers in England to nurture the soil and wildlife and improve water quality. It is far from perfect.

    People have criticised its complexity and lack of clarity, its financial viability or its impact on how farms operate and how this would change the balance between producing food and reaching environmental goals.

    It’s too early to tell if these critics were correct, but the SFI certainly provided some stability for British farmers after EU farm subsidies ended post-Brexit. It seemed poised to make some positive impact.

    The government says a revised version will be announced in the coming months, but it will be hard to regain the trust of farmers. The decision to close the scheme for now throws a stark light on a broader issue: the tendency to prioritise immediate financial needs over the long-term health of both the farming sector and the environment.

    This is a classic example of what economists call “future discounting”, and it’s a dangerous game to play when it comes to vital services.

    Essentially, future discounting means we value things more in the present than we do in the future. If you are promised £100 today, or £110 in two months, which would you take? Sometimes there’s no right or wrong answer – do what you think is right for you with that £100. But sometimes… well, sometimes there is a right answer.

    The value of now, the value of the future

    The SFI scheme offers vital support for sustainable practices that, while crucial, often require upfront investment. This includes cover cropping, for example, where a crop is grown simply to cover a field rather than to be harvested.

    Cover cropping can help rejuvenate soils and is good for insects, but there are costs attached to purchasing the seeds, sowing them, and missing out on income by not growing a commodity crop.

    Other investment examples might involve creating grassland or ponds and ditches to hold back rainwater and prevent floods. These things have an immediate impact on farm output and activities, but with an eye to longer-term benefit.

    Investment in soil health might lower yields in the short run, but should pay off in the long run.
    William Edge / shutterstock

    The sudden closure of the scheme creates an immediate financial vacuum for those who missed the (unannounced) window. Thankfully, farmers with existing agreements will continue within the scheme, and applications that had been submitted prior to the sudden closure will still be assessed.

    However, even for those who are currently enrolled, this about-face instils fear that support will be withdrawn in the years to come – long before something like an expanded woodland has come to fruition.

    The government says that it has run out of money for the current budget cycle. Rather than celebrating the fact that so many farmers want to be involved, want to do adopt better farming practices and act as custodians of nature, it instead panicked and shut people out.

    Too much demand for a nature-friendly future, not enough cold hard cash. And now we can see how the discounting works – the perceived urgency of cashflow today overshadows the long-term benefits of healthy soil, thriving biodiversity, and a resilient ecosystem.

    There are specific actions that SFIs are meant to support, including soil health, water quality, biodiversity and pest management. Each of these requires investment to manage, and to rectify when things go wrong (see the huge fines for water companies).

    For example, it is easier to address issues of water quality by supporting better land use – reduced agri-chemicals, more grassland, tree cover, and so on – than to treat poor water quality downstream.

    But farmers operate both within tight financial margins and on long time-scales. They need security of income to plan land use, including whether they can afford to implement alternative strategies. But they do want to. That’s why there’s been so much demand for SFIs.

    A false economy

    Sympathy could be rustled up for the government, trying to manage complex budgets in a complicated time. But it has made one misstep after another in relation to both food and farming (farmer protests over inheritance tax, for instance) and the environment (such as the planned Heathrow airport expansion)).

    So while immediate fiscal prudence is important, ignoring the long-term consequences of environmental degradation is a false economy. We have a responsibility to value the future as much as the present. Failing to do so will have serious consequences for our environment, our food security, and the well-being of future generations.

    Rather than discounting futures, we should be doing the opposite – negative futures discounting. It sounds upside-down, but it boils down to this: we should value the future more, not less.

    In particular, we should be focused on nurturing good farming and environmental protection. These should take centre stage as mission critical things that we need, and not just for now, but always.

    The sustainable farming incentive shutdown is another chance to reflect on the fact that farming and environmental sustainability are not luxuries, but necessities. We cannot afford to continually discount the future, sacrificing the future of farming and the environment for the sake of short-term finance. It’s time to re-evaluate our priorities.

    Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?

    Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead. Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. Join the 40,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far.

    Emma Burnett has previously received funding from sankalpa. She also works as a sustainability researcher for a whisky company.

    – ref. The UK has closed its flagship sustainable farming scheme, choosing short-term cuts over long-term security – https://theconversation.com/the-uk-has-closed-its-flagship-sustainable-farming-scheme-choosing-short-term-cuts-over-long-term-security-252326

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: The Winter’s Tale at The Tobacco Factory, Bristol – a marvellous production with much to say about the modern world

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Jo Lindsay Walton, Principal Research Fellow in Arts, Climate and Technology, University of Sussex

    The first half rips your heart out. The second attempts, tenderly, to put it back again. This is The Winter’s Tale, currently being performed at The Tobacco Factory, Bristol.

    In Shakespeare’s tragicomedy, King Leontes of Sicilia, in a fit of jealous paranoia, falsely accuses his wife Queen Hermione of adultery with their friend, King Polixenes of Bohemia. Quickfire catastrophe unfolds.

    Before you know it, the couple’s newborn daughter, Perdita, has been abandoned on a Bohemian hillside, left to the mercy of wolves and ravens. Sixteen years later, raised by the mercy of Bohemian shepherds instead, Perdita falls in love with Polixenes’ son. There are disguises. There are japes. And, astonishingly, there is reconciliation.

    It’s a marvellous production, directed by Heidi Vaughan, and it marks a welcome return of Shakespeare to The Tobacco Factory after a hiatus. With a cast drawn from Bristol’s deep talent pool, the connections on stage feel secure, energetic, and richly nuanced.

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    Hermione and Paulina are two of Shakespeare’s most intriguing roles for women, and Alice Barclay and Rose Wardlow do them justice. Barclay is stunning as the stunned Hermione, while Wardlow brings layers of vulnerability and sarkiness to Paulina’s righteous fury. Many of the smaller and medium roles shine. Amy Loughton (Perdita’s shepherdess mum) and Bill Ward (Polixenes) find organic situational comedy in moments that could easily have been merely functional.

    King Leontes’ tyranny, which dominates the first half, is played by Felix Hayes as a kind of psychotic episode. I’m torn. Hayes has a strong stage presence, with a whiplash switch from gentle loveliness to shuffling, brooding, whimpering monstrosity.

    It’s a spellbinding breakdown. But I was left wondering – might a less unhinged portrayal have better exposed the complicity of the court?

    The costume and set design also feel a little elusive. This ambiguity means the nature of Leontes’ authority is hard to pin down, as is the misogyny that shapes his tyranny. With androgynous-suited courtiers and soft furnishings, it’s hard to pin down the time or place, unless it’s the soft play area at Wacky Warehouse.

    The choice seems deliberate, leaning into that timeless fairytale quality. But The Winter’s Tale is specifically about time, including a particular time – now.

    What The Winter’s Tale can tell us in 2025

    The play celebrates the healing power of time, nature and the turn of the seasons. But the seasons themselves are not immune to tyranny. In other words, The Winter’s Tale is about responses to tyranny, as well as tyranny itself.

    Paulina (Wardlow) attempts to bloody well sort it out. She directly confronts both Leontes (“this most cruel usage of your queen, / not able to produce more accusation / than your own weak-hing’d fancy, something savours / of tyranny”) and the cowardly court (“such as you, /
    that creep like shadows by him, and do sigh / at each his needless heavings”).

    But how about the others? Camillo (Dorian Simpson) pragmatically scurries for the hills to bide his time. Cleomenes (Amy Loughton) musters some flustered bravery. Antigonus (Stu McLoughlin), let’s be frank, deserves to be eaten by a bear. It’s lucky there’s one handy.

    The Winter’s Tale can be tricky to stage in the round. It’s a story filled with centripetal forces – characters beg, vow, comfort, cling, smother – yet the space encourages just the opposite: centrifugal forces, outward motion, striding away, lobbing repartee over a shoulder, performers unfolding like a clockwork mechanism. The round staging comes into its own, however, in beautiful scenes of revelry, song, and dance, which are also scenes of healing.

    Someone once told me that boredom is an important part of healing. The lengthy pastoral scenes of the First Folio Winter’s Tale seem to bear that out. But for this production, Robin Belfield has given the script a tight edit, shortening many of these scenes.

    Ultimately, I’m grateful for the judicious cuts – people do, after all, need to leave the theatre eventually, and the two halves feel equally balanced.

    The Winter’s Tale proposes that real healing comes from remorse, time, and distance. It also comes from the company of those less wrapped up in the trauma. Your wounds will define you until you learn to relinquish the lead role in your own tragedy, and accept a supporting role in somebody else’s comedy.

    By the end of the play, Leontes feels remorse – but is it enough to provide healing for those he has hurt? Or is something more missing – some more explicit reckoning or reparative justice? I don’t know. The Winter’s Tale won’t resolve the question of whether healing is ever truly complete. It only asks whether we are willing to live with the weight of what cannot be undone.

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

    – ref. The Winter’s Tale at The Tobacco Factory, Bristol – a marvellous production with much to say about the modern world – https://theconversation.com/the-winters-tale-at-the-tobacco-factory-bristol-a-marvellous-production-with-much-to-say-about-the-modern-world-251944

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –