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Category: Academic Analysis

  • MIL-OSI Global: A federal policy expert weighs in on Trump’s efforts to stifle gender-affirming care for Americans under 19

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Elana Redfield, Federal Policy Director at the Williams Institute, University of California, Los Angeles

    President Donald Trump signs an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House on Jan. 23, 2025. AP Photo/Ben Curtis

    Amid a flurry of executive orders affecting transgender Americans, the Trump administration ordered restrictions on gender-affirming care for minors. Calling it “a stain on our Nation’s history,” the Jan. 28, 2025, order seeks to “end” this form of treatment for Americans under 19 years old.

    The Conversation U.S. interviewed Elana Redfield, federal policy director at the Williams Institute, an independent research center at the UCLA School of Law dedicated to studying sexual orientation and gender identity law. She describes the aims of the executive order, how much weight it carries, and how it should be understood in the broader context of legal battles over access to gender-affirming care.

    What’s the scope of the executive order?

    Twenty-six states have already restricted gender-affirming care for minors or banned it outright. So the order seeks to extend restrictions to the rest of the country using the weight of the executive branch.

    However, it’s not a national ban on gender-affirming care for minors. Instead, it’s directing federal agencies to regulate and restrict this form of care.

    That being said, federal agencies have a tremendous impact on American life. Trans kids rely on publicly funded health insurance programs such as Medicaid and TRICARE, which is administered to the children of active duty service members via the Department of Defense. And a big part of the executive order is directing the federal agencies that administer these programs to review their own policies to ensure that they are not supporting gender-affirming care for minors.

    So what we’re really seeing is the federal government trying to erect barriers to kids accessing this care.

    Does the executive branch have the authority to unilaterally ban federal funding of certain medical treatments?

    The answer is a little mixed. A president might be able to suspend or put a temporary pause on funding a particular type of treatment or service. But the actual parameters of a program – and how agencies should implement them – are determined by Congress and, to some extent, by the courts.

    Ultimately, the president can only take actions in ways that are designated by the Constitution, or through some specific power that Congress has granted to the executive branch. I don’t see that authority granted for a lot of what’s contained in this executive order. But many of these directives will probably be litigated in court, where the president will likely argue that he has the power to direct agencies to do all they can to put a halt to gender-affirming care for minors.

    Do private health insurers fall outside the scope of this executive order?

    On the surface, yes. But it’s easy to see how directives from the executive branch can touch broader components of the country’s health care system, including private hospitals and private health insurance.

    For example, Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act is a nondiscrimination provision. It says there can be no sex discrimination when it comes to approving health care treatments. This has been interpreted to mean that health insurance plans receiving federal funding cannot deny a policyholder gender-affirming care. However, this interpretation has been blocked by a federal court.

    The question of whether this definition of sex discrimination encompasses gender identity is currently playing out in the courts. For example, there’s a pending U.S. Supreme Court decision regarding a Tennessee law banning gender-affirming care for minors. Should the Supreme Court determine that Tennessee is able to ban gender-affirming care for minors, it’s possible to see how this could impact private health insurance coverage for gender-affirming care.

    Transgender rights supporters and opponents rally outside of the U.S. Supreme Court as the high court hears arguments in a case about Tennessee’s law banning gender-affirming care for minors on Dec. 4, 2024.
    Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

    What else stood out to you from the executive order?

    The executive order directs the Department of Justice to discourage doctors and hospitals from administering gender-affirming care to minors, characterizing it as genital mutilation, which is a heinous-sounding offense. Even though this is an inaccurate comparison, it could have a chilling effect even in states where this form of care is legal.

    The order also contains a provision that asks Congress to extend the statute of limitations for gender-affirming care, so that someone who received gender-affirming care as a minor and decides they’re not happy with it decades later can sue their doctor. Some states have already extended the statute of limitations to 30 years for gender-affirming care.

    Again, this could have a chilling effect in states where the care is legal. What doctor or hospital would want to expose themselves to this risk?

    Of course, these two elements constitute directives from the executive branch, but we don’t know how they’ll be enforced. They do reveal, however, some of the ways in which the administration plans to direct its efforts.

    Before Roe v. Wade was overturned, federal funding of elective abortion had been restricted for decades under the Hyde Amendment. You can’t receive coverage for an abortion under a Medicaid plan, for example. Do you see this executive order as Trump trying to simply enact – via fiat, of course – his own version of the Hyde Amendment, but instead applied to gender-affirming care for minors?

    I think there’s a key difference between the two. The Hyde Amendment, which has been repeatedly reenacted by Congress, prohibits federal funding of abortion care, but it doesn’t prohibit states from allowing or permitting abortion. It’s always operated as a sort of compromise: It says providers can’t use federal funding for an abortion, but they can use their own funding to administer abortions – and oh, by the way, they can still receive federal funding for other health services.

    This executive order, on the other hand, takes a much more uncompromising position: It tells agency heads to stop directing any and all federal funds to institutions that research or provide gender-affirming care.

    Again, it’s important to remember that executive orders aren’t established policy. They’re simply directing agencies to craft certain policies and encouraging lawmakers to enact legislation.

    So far, much of the legislation restricting gender-affirming care – whether it’s at the state level or in the executive branch – has centered on minors, or individuals under 19. Are there any threats to gender-affirming care for adults?

    Only one state, Florida, has enacted a law that specifically regulates gender-affirming care for adults. That law basically sets some compliance standards and restricts who can prescribe the care. Florida also banned the use of state funds for gender-affirming care for everyone, adults and children. So that means, for example, those who are incarcerated in state prisons can’t receive gender-affirming care.

    Florida isn’t the only state that has enacted a state funding ban. Depending on your insurance, this could mean you’re forced to pay out of pocket for your procedures and treatment, which can be prohibitively expensive.

    What are you going to be watching for in the coming weeks?

    I’m sure someone’s going to sue to challenge the order. The problem, though, is that an executive order is an expression of policy ideas. You need something to actually happen before lawyers and activists can react to it. So I’ll be tracking federal agencies to see how they specifically try to enact some of these directives.

    Is there anything else you’d like to add?

    This executive order contains language that characterizes the science around gender-affirming care as junk science. It’s repeatedly described as chemical and surgical mutilation, or as maiming and sterilizing kids. There’s talk of rapid-onset gender dysphoria, which has been discredited.

    So it rejects the idea that gender-affirming care has health benefits, even though there’s robust, extensive evidence supporting access to gender-affirming care. Self-reporting by transgender individuals is overwhelmingly positive: 98% of trans people who had hormone therapy said it made their lives better, according to the 2022 U.S. Transgender Survey.

    There are also rigorous standards of practice, including for how you support and treat minors, that are intended to prevent overprescription or overutilization of services.

    In other words, there are already barriers in place and checks and balances for minors if they want to access gender-affirming care.

    Elana Redfield works at an organization that has received private, state or federal research grants.

    – ref. A federal policy expert weighs in on Trump’s efforts to stifle gender-affirming care for Americans under 19 – https://theconversation.com/a-federal-policy-expert-weighs-in-on-trumps-efforts-to-stifle-gender-affirming-care-for-americans-under-19-248646

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: How satellites and AI help fight wildfires today

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By John W. Daily, Research Professor in Thermo Fluid Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder

    The wind and terrain can quickly change how a fire, like this one near Los Angeles in January 2025, behaves. AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez

    As wind-driven wildfires spread through the Los Angeles area in January 2025, fire-spotting technology and computer models were helping firefighters understand the rapidly changing environment they were facing.

    That technology has evolved over the years, yet some techniques are very similar to those used over 100 years ago.

    I have spent several decades studying combustion, including wildfire behavior and the technology used to track fires and predict where wildfires might turn. Here’s a quick tour of the key technologies used today.

    Spotting fires faster

    First, the fire must be discovered.

    Often wildfires are reported by people seeing smoke. That hasn’t changed, but other ways fires are spotted have evolved.

    In the early part of the 20th century, the newly established U.S. Forest Service built fire lookout towers around the country. The towers were topped by cabins with windows on all four walls and provided living space for the fire lookouts. The system was motivated by the Great Fire of 1910 that burned 3 million acres in Washington, Idaho and Montana and killed 87 people.

    Before satellites, fire crews watched for smoke from fire towers across the national forests.
    K. D. Swan, U.S. Forest Service

    Today, cameras watch over many high-risk areas. California has more than 1,100 cameras watching for signs of smoke. Artificial intelligence systems continuously analyze the images to provide data for firefighters to quickly respond. AI is a way to train a computer program to recognize repetitive patterns: smoke plumes in the case of fire.

    NOAA satellites paired with AI data analysis also generate alerts but over a wider area. They can detect heat signatures, map fire perimeters and burned areas, and track smoke and pollutants to assess air quality and health risks.

    Forecasting fire behavior

    Once a fire is spotted, one immediate task for firefighting teams is to estimate how the fire is going to behave so they can deploy their limited firefighting resources most effectively.

    Fire managers have seen many fires and have a sense of the risks their regions face. Today, they also have computer simulations that combine data about the terrain, the materials burning and the weather to help predict how a fire is likely to spread.

    Fuel models

    Fuel models are based on the ecosystem involved, using fire history and laboratory testing. In Southern California, for example, much of the wildland fuel is chaparral, a type of shrubland with dense, rocky soil and highly flammable plants in a Mediterranean climate. Chaparral is one of the fastest-burning fuel types, and fires can spread quickly in that terrain.

    For human-made structures, things are a bit more complex. The materials a house is made of – if it has wood siding, for example – and the environment around it, such as how close it is to trees or wooden fences, play an important role in how likely it is to burn and how it burns.

    How scientists study fire behavior in a lab.

    Weather and terrain

    Terrain is also important because it influences local winds and because fire tends to run faster uphill than down. Terrain data is well known thanks to satellite imagery and can easily be incorporated into computer codes.

    Weather plays another critical role in fire behavior. Fires need oxygen to burn, and the windier it is, the more oxygen is available to the fire. High winds also tend to generate embers from burning vegetation that can be blown up to 5 miles in the highest winds, starting spot fires that can quickly spread.

    Today, large computer simulations can forecast the weather. There are global models that cover the entire Earth and local models that cover smaller areas but with better resolution that provides greater detail.

    Both provide real-time data on the weather for creating fire behavior simulations.

    Modeling how flames spread

    Flame-spread models can then estimate the likely movement of a fire.

    Scientists build these models by studying past fires and conducting laboratory experiments, combined with mathematical models that incorporate the physics of fire. With local terrain, fuel and real-time weather information, these simulations can help fire managers predict a fire’s likely behavior.

    Examples of how computer modeling can forecast a fire’s spread. American Physical Society.

    Advanced modeling can account for fuel details such as ground-level plant growth and tree canopies, including amount of cover, tree height and tree density. These models can estimate when a fire will reach the tree canopy and how that will affect the fire’s spread.

    Forecasting helps, but wind can change fast

    All these tools are made available to firefighters in computer applications and can help fire crews as they respond to wildfires.

    However, wind can rapidly change speed or direction, and new fires can start in unexpected places, meaning fire managers know they have to be prepared for many possible outcomes – not just the likely outcomes they see on their computer screens.

    Ultimately, during a fire, firefighting strategy is based on human judgment informed by experience, as well as science and technology.

    John W. Daily receives funding from the Department of Defense for wildland fire research. He is affiliated with the Combustion Institute and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He is a Fellow of both organizations.

    – ref. How satellites and AI help fight wildfires today – https://theconversation.com/how-satellites-and-ai-help-fight-wildfires-today-248420

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Stricter abortion laws may cause increased infant deaths − 2 maternal and child health researchers explain the data

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Almut Winterstein, Distinguished Professor of Pharmaceutical Outcomes & Policy, University of Florida

    Many babies born with severe birth defects die within the first few days or weeks of life. shironosov/iStock via Getty Images Plus

    Infant mortality in the U.S. has increased by 7% since the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson U.S. Supreme Court decision overturned the constitutional right to abortion, according to an October 2024 study.

    Those findings followed another study that reported a 12.7% rise in infant mortality in Texas after the implementation of Senate Bill 8, which bans abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected. Except for medical emergencies, the law effectively makes abortions illegal in the state after about five to six weeks’ gestation.

    Both studies noted larger increases in deaths among infants born with birth defects. This suggests women are delivering more babies with severe congenital malformations who have no hope of survival beyond a few hours, days or, at most, a few weeks.

    But even before this new research substantiated such a link, clinicians who specialize in care for high-risk pregnancies warned about the potential consequences of the new abortion laws.

    We are researchers focused on maternal and child health who evaluate the safety of medications during pregnancy. We identify medications that might raise the risk for birth defects or pregnancy loss.

    We also evaluate the effectiveness of policies and initiatives aimed at improving pregnancy outcomes, including whether stricter abortion laws could result in more infant deaths.

    Birth defects: A leading cause of infant mortality

    Birth defects affect 3% of pregnancies in the U.S.

    They can be caused by exposures to certain medications, infections, maternal diseases or genetics. For many, causes are unknown.

    While birth defects can develop at any time during pregnancy, most occur during the first three months of pregnancy, a critical time for organ development. More than 5% of pregnancies are exposed to about 200 medications with the potential to cause birth defects.

    After its new abortion law went into effect, Texas saw an increase in infant mortality that was seven times higher than the rest of the U.S.

    Many birth defects are treatable; orofacial clefts and some heart defects, for example, can be corrected with surgery. Some cause lifelong disability and some are fatal, resulting in babies who are stillborn or die shortly after birth. Birth defects are a leading cause of infant mortality, accounting for about 20% of deaths in the first year of life.

    Among anomalies considered lethal, not all result in pregnancy loss or immediate death at delivery. For example, more than half of infants with trisomy 18, a chromosomal abnormality that causes severe heart defects or breathing problems, die within the first week of life. Only 13% survive until their first birthday.

    Anencephaly, a birth defect that affects the development of the skull and brain, results in either stillbirth or death within the first weeks of life. But there is one case report of an infant who survived to her second birthday.

    More than 80% of women will choose to terminate a pregnancy with anencephaly when detected before 24 weeks’ gestation, according to data from before the Dobbs decision. Given the profound effects on parents’ lives, this choice is very personal. But in many states, these women may no longer have a choice. Because of abortion laws with limited or no exceptions, women who carry a fetus with a fatal condition have no legal option other than to carry their pregnancy to term.

    Legal landscape of abortion laws

    As of January 2025, 16 states have total abortion bans in effect or restrictions that do not permit abortions after six weeks. In nine of these states, lethal birth defects are not considered an exception.

    But even in states with those exceptions, the legal wording used to craft the legislation is often confusing to health care providers. Statutory language does not always use medical terms and may assume a certainty about pregnancy outcomes that does not exist. For example, even anencephaly does not meet the commonly used statutory definition of “no viability outside the uterus.”

    Such uncertainty adds to hesitation – and fear – on the part of doctors and nurses who may face steep penalties, including criminal charges and prison time, should they provide an abortion that is later deemed illegal in a court of law.

    Prenatal care too late

    In 2023, prenatal care began after the first trimester for about 24% of pregnancies in the U.S.

    In our February 2024 study of a national sample of nearly 640,000 privately insured pregnant women, the median time to prenatal care was eight weeks. In other words, for more than half of women living in a state with a six-week abortion ban, obstetric assessments would likely commence too late to consider an abortion if a birth defect were detected.

    More than 6,000 women in our study were exposed to medications that can cause birth defects within the first six weeks of pregnancy. These include medications used to treat common yeast or urinary tract infections, drugs used for migraine or weight loss, and blood pressure medications, to name a few. Nearly all of those women – 96% – had no prenatal care prior to taking the medication, and many may not have been aware they were pregnant. For more than 80% of these pregnancies, prenatal care started after six weeks, too late to prevent exposure to unsafe medications or to screen for potential birth defects and to consider pregnancy termination in states with stricter abortion bans.

    Importantly, prenatal identification methods of birth defects range from screening maternal blood for chromosome abnormalities, which is done at 10 weeks’ gestation, to a second-trimester ultrasound to look for fetal structural defects, to procedures such as chorionic villus sampling or amniocentesis to evaluate for genetic conditions. These are all performed after six weeks of pregnancy.

    Even if screening might still fall within abortion cutoffs, the probability to detect adverse outcomes in utero varies substantially.

    For example, valproic acid is a medication that treats epilepsy, migraine and some mental health disorders. About 1% to 2% of women taking valproic acid become pregnant each year. Valproic acid causes birth defects that can be detected in utero such as oral clefts or spina bifida. But it also increases the risk for autism and adverse cognitive defects, which may be diagnosed years after delivery.

    Currently, there is no law addressing instances when an adverse outcome is probable but cannot be confirmed before delivery. Hence, stricter abortion laws are expected to not only increase inevitable infant deaths but also births of infants with severe disability.

    Almut Winterstein receives funding from NIH, FDA, CDC, AHRQ, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the state of Florida, and Merck, Sharp and Dohme. She has received consulting honoraria from Novo Nordisk, Bayer, Syneos, Ipsen and Lykos. She has chaired the FDA Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee and now serves as consultant for similar FDA committees.

    Dr. Rasmussen receives funding from NIH, FDA, and CDC. She also serves on scientific advisory committees for several pregnancy registries, including registries for Harmony Biosciences, Axsome Pharmaceuticals, Biohaven Pharmaceuticals (recently acquired by Pfizer), Myovant Sciences, and Novo Nordisk.

    – ref. Stricter abortion laws may cause increased infant deaths − 2 maternal and child health researchers explain the data – https://theconversation.com/stricter-abortion-laws-may-cause-increased-infant-deaths-2-maternal-and-child-health-researchers-explain-the-data-243881

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Gen Z seeks safety above all else as the generation grows up amid constant crisis and existential threat

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Yalda T. Uhls, Founder and Executive Director of the Center for Scholars & Storytellers and Assistant Adjunct Professor in Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles

    Asked to rate the importance of 14 personal goals, Gen Z reported ‘to be safe’ as the top goal. Darya Komarova/Getty Images

    After many years of partisan politics, increasingly divisive language, finger-pointing and inflammatory speech have contributed to an environment of fear and uncertainty, affecting not just political dynamics but also the priorities and perceptions of young people.

    As a developmental psychologist who studies the intersection of media and adolescent mental health, and as a mother of two Gen Z kids, I have seen firsthand how external societal factors can profoundly shape young people’s emotional well-being.

    This was brought into sharp relief through the results of a recent survey my colleagues and I conducted with 1,644 young people across the U.S., ages 10 to 24. The study was not designed as a political poll but rather as a window into what truly matters to adolescents. We asked participants to rate the importance of 14 personal goals. These included classic teenage desires such as “being popular,” “having fun” and “being kind.”

    None of these ranked as the top priority. Instead, the No. 1 answer was “to be safe.”

    It lurks everywhere: Gen Z’s perception of danger is further shaped by events like the recent fires devastating Los Angeles.
    Agustin Paullier/AFP via Getty Images

    What was once taken for granted

    The findings are both illuminating and heartbreaking. As a teenager, I did countless unsafe things. My peers and I didn’t dwell on harm; we chased fun and freedom.

    Whereas previous generations may have taken safety for granted, today’s youth are growing up in an era of compounded crises — school shootings, a worsening climate crisis, financial uncertainty and the lingering trauma of a global pandemic. Even though our research did not pinpoint the specific causes of adolescent fears, the constant exposure to crises, amplified by social media, likely plays a significant role in fostering a pervasive sense of worry.

    Despite data showing that many aspects of life are safer now than in previous generations, young people just don’t feel it. Their perception of danger is further shaped by events like the recent fires that devastated Los Angeles, reinforcing a belief that danger, possibly caused by global crises like climate change, lurks everywhere.

    This shift in perspective has profound implications for the future of this generation and those to come.

    Especially vulnerable time

    Adolescence, like early childhood, is a pivotal period for brain development. Young people are particularly sensitive to their surroundings as their brains evaluate the environment to prepare them for independence.

    This developmental stage – when the capacity to regulate emotions and critically assess information is still maturing – makes them especially vulnerable to enduring impacts.

    Studies show that adolescents are more likely to overestimate risks and struggle to put threats in context. This makes them particularly vulnerable to fear-driven messaging prevalent in both traditional and social media, which is further amplified by political rhetoric and blame-shifting. This vulnerability has implications for their mental health, as prolonged exposure to fear and uncertainty has been linked to increased rates of anxiety, depression and even physical health issues.

    So when the media that Gen Z consumes are dominated by fear – be it through headlines, social media posts, political rhetoric or even storylines in movies and TV – it could shape their worldview in ways that may reverberate for generations to come.

    Enduring generational impact

    Historical events have long been shown to shape the worldview of entire generations.

    For instance, the Great Depression primarily impacted the daily lives of the Silent Generation, those born between 1928 and 1945. Moreover, its long-term effects on financial attitudes and security concerns echoed into the Baby Boomer generation, influencing how those born between 1946 and 1964 approached money, stability and risk throughout their lives.

    Similarly, today’s adolescents, growing up amid a series of compounded global crises, will likely carry the imprint of this period of heightened fear and uncertainty well into adulthood. This formative experience could shape their mental health, decision-making and even their collective identity and values for decades to come.

    In addition, feelings of insecurity and instability can make people more responsive to fear-based messaging, which could potentially influence their political and social choices. In an era marked by the rise of authoritarian governments, this susceptibility could have far-reaching implications because fear often drives individuals to prioritize immediate safety over moral or ideological ideals.

    As such, these dynamics may profoundly shape how this generation engages with the world, the causes they champion and the leaders they choose to follow.

    Room for optimism?

    Interestingly, “being kind” was rated No. 2 in our survey, irrespective of other demographics. While safety dominates their priorities, adolescents still value qualities that foster connection and community.

    This finding indicates a duality in their aspirations: While they feel a pervasive sense of danger, they also recognize the importance of interpersonal relationships and emotional well-being.

    Our findings are a call to look at the broader societal context shaping adolescent development. For instance, the rise in school-based safety drills, while intended to provide a sense of preparedness, may unintentionally reinforce feelings of insecurity. Similarly, the apocalyptic narrative around climate change may create a sense of powerlessness that could further compound their fears and leave them wanting to bury their heads in the sand.

    Understanding how these perceptions are formed and their implications for mental health, decision-making and behavior is essential for parents, storytellers, policymakers and researchers.

    I believe we must also consider how societal systems contribute to the pervasive sense of uncertainty and fear among youth. Further research can help untangle the complex relationship between external stressors, media consumption and youth well-being, shedding light on how to best support adolescents during this formative stage of life.

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

    – ref. Gen Z seeks safety above all else as the generation grows up amid constant crisis and existential threat – https://theconversation.com/gen-z-seeks-safety-above-all-else-as-the-generation-grows-up-amid-constant-crisis-and-existential-threat-245455

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Biden targeted the online right-wing terrorism threat − now it’s up to Trump

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Jason M. Blazakis, Professor of Practice and Director of Center on Terrorism, Extremism and Counterterrorism, Middlebury

    U.S. officials say the right-wing terrorism threat is significant. Farion_O/iStock via Getty Images

    In the waning days of the Biden administration, the U.S. Department of State took its first major step against terrorism groups primarily focused on what is called “accelerationism” – the effort to inspire independent followers to engage in violence in ways that broadly destabilize society. The U.S. government has long targeted actively violent terrorist organizations such as al-Qaida – the group behind the 9/11 attacks – and the Islamic State group, which carried out beheadings of innocent civilians in Iraq and Syria.

    Then-FBI Director Christopher Wray repeatedly warned Congress about the threat to national security from far-right accelerationist groups. In a move to respond to those warnings, the Biden administration labeled the online-only “Terrorgram Collective” and three of its leaders as specially designated global terrorists, which means their financial assets are frozen and anyone who tries to support them can be arrested.

    The Terrorgram Collective aims to destroy the current global economic and political structure and spark a war between white people and people of other racial and ethnic backgrounds. To accomplish that, it maintains an online forum on the Telegram social media platform. The forum’s posts, from leaders and followers alike, are characterized by people spouting violent rhetoric and incitement to violence against minorities, Jewish people and governments.

    Widespread radicalization

    The State Department’s action also specifically targets two U.S. citizens: Dallas Humber of California and Matthew Allison of Idaho, who allegedly played leading roles in the Terrorgram Collective and are facing federal charges for soliciting the murder of government officials.

    As my colleagues at Middlebury’s Center on Terrorism, Extremism and Counterterrorism wrote in a 2022 report, Terrorgram’s danger is primarily in its ability to spread far-right propaganda to radicalize almost anyone active on Telegram or elsewhere online.

    The State Department has not attributed specific attacks to the Terrorgram Collective but rather warns of its influence and potential to inspire attacks by people who encounter the ideas it spreads. For instance, Terrorgram material was reportedly used as the basis for writings by a 17-year-old high school student who killed two fellow students and injured a third in a Jan. 22, 2025, school shooting in Nashville, Tennessee.

    The Telegram app icon on a smartphone screen.
    Nikolas Kokovlis/NurPhoto via Getty Images

    Little targeting of fascist groups

    The Terrorgram action came seven months after the Biden administration’s labeling of a Scandinavia-based far-right extremist group, the Nordic Resistance Movement, as terrorists as well.

    These were two of just three times fascist extremist groups anywhere in the world were labeled terrorists by the U.S. government. Early in his first term, President Donald Trump’s State Department did label one far-right group as a specially designated global terrorist organization: the Russian Imperial Movement, based in Russia.

    But as the former head of the State Department office that sanctions terrorists, I know that neither Trump nor Biden marshaled the full force of the nation’s anti-terrorism efforts against these groups.

    There’s a hierarchy in the U.S. government’s labels for these organizations. That hierarchy reflects the degree of danger an organization poses as well as the strength of the U.S. response to it.

    The highest-level designation and the most significant sanctions the U.S. government can impose come from placing a group on the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations. That list includes groups such as al-Qaida and the Islamic State group – also called ISIS or ISIL – which are subject to asset freezes and extended prison sentences and are barred from entering the U.S.

    The second-tier list covers what are called specially designated global terrorists, which carries similar, but less severe, restrictions.

    It’s easier to prove someone did something to support a group on the foreign terrorist organization list than to prove support for a group on the specially designated list. And jail time for foreign terrorist organization backers is typically longer.

    All three right-wing groups are on the specially designated list, though the Trump administration could upgrade them to the top-level list, as Trump has asked the State Department to do with the Houthi militants in Yemen.

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

    – ref. Biden targeted the online right-wing terrorism threat − now it’s up to Trump – https://theconversation.com/biden-targeted-the-online-right-wing-terrorism-threat-now-its-up-to-trump-247977

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Land seizure and South Africa’s new expropriation bill: scholar weighs up the new act

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Zsa-Zsa Temmers Boggenpoel, Academic, Stellenbosch University

    South Africa has a new law to govern the expropriation (or compulsory acquisition) of private property by government for public purposes or in the public interest.

    The passing of the Expropriation Act 13 of 2024 followed a parliamentary process that began in 2020.

    The act repeals the apartheid-era Expropriation Act 63 of 1975, and aims to align expropriation law with the constitution. It sets out the procedures, rules and regulations for expropriation. Besides setting out in quite a detailed fashion how expropriations are to take place, the act also provides an outline regarding how compensation is to be determined.

    In South Africa’s colonial and apartheid past, land distribution was grossly unequal on the basis of race. The country is still suffering the effects of this. So expropriation of property is a potential tool to reduce land inequality. This has become a matter of increasing urgency. South Africans have expressed impatience with the slow pace of land reform.

    Property rights and land reform

    There is much debate in the country about the provisions of the new act. The debate is mostly about the extent to which it affects existing private property rights. Some argue the act is unconstitutional. Others welcome it as a necessary step in the right direction.

    I’m a professor of law with a keen interest in this area of the law, and recently edited a book on land expropriation in South Africa by leading experts. My view is that an expropriation act that is aligned with the constitution should be welcomed, to enable land reform to work effectively.



    Read more:
    Land reform in South Africa: what the real debate should be about

    Land reform also needs a capable and proactive state that implements the legal framework in such a manner that prioritises expropriation as a mechanism to ensure land reform.

    So far, expropriation has not been used effectively to redistribute land more equitably, as part of land reform.

    I am not convinced that the act, in its current form, is the silver bullet to effect large-scale land reform – at least not the type of radical land reform that South Africa urgently needs.

    Understandably, the act will have a severe impact on property rights. But it still substantially protects landowners affected by expropriation. Only in very limited cases would they not be compensated.

    Protections for land owners

    The act says that property must not be expropriated arbitrarily or for a purpose other than a public purpose or in the public interest.

    Public purpose means by or for the benefit of the public. For example, expropriating property to build roads, schools and hospitals. Public interest is broader and includes the nation’s commitment to land reform.

    “Arbitrary” would usually mean without reason or justification.



    Read more:
    South Africa has another go at an expropriation law. What it’s all about

    The act further requires that an expropriating authority – an organ of state or person empowered by the act or any other legislation – must first try to reach an agreement with the owner to acquire the property on reasonable terms before considering expropriation.

    This gives some power to a landowner, even though expropriation does not normally require consent. The act also says a specific expropriation must always be authorised by a law.

    No compensation?

    Section 12 of the act deals with compensation for expropriation. It is arguably the most controversial part of the new legislation. Section 12(1) does not appear to be problematic and is largely the same wording as section 25(3) of the constitution. This part of the property clause sets out what must be taken into account when compensation for expropriation is determined.

    Section 12(3) of the act refers to “nil compensation” – when nil rand (monetary) compensation may be paid. There is no explicit reference to nil compensation in the current wording of section 25 of the constitution. It’s a new thing in the Expropriation Act.

    However, courts have toyed with the idea that section 25 of the constitution already provides room for a reduction in compensation.

    The circumstances in which nil compensation could be granted in terms of the new act are in fact very limited. Section 12(3) leaves the discretion to the expropriating authority to determine when it may be just and equitable to pay nil compensation. However, the act lacks guidelines on how such a discretion must be exercised.



    Read more:
    Land is a heated issue in South Africa – the print media are presenting only one side of the story

    The scope of section 12(3) is also limited in some respects. For one, it is restricted to land. Only where land is expropriated would nil compensation be an option. Therefore, not all forms of property can be expropriated without compensation. The notion of property under section 25(1) of the constitution is generally wide and includes various rights and interests, which are broader than just land. For instance, personal rights, mineral rights and licences are included under the section 25(1) notion of property.

    This wide understanding of property is not applicable to section 12(3), which refers to “land” being expropriated.

    Section 12(3) is also limited to the expropriation of land “in the public interest”. Nil compensation is therefore envisaged only in the context of expropriation of land undertaken in the public interest, and not also for a public purpose.

    Three of the four categories listed in section 12(3), where nil compensation is envisaged, are linked to the way in which the property was being used prior to the expropriation. Land used in a productive manner is therefore not evidently envisaged under section 12(3).

    Nil compensation is not necessarily limited to the instances listed. Still, the amount of compensation must – in all instances – be just and equitable.

    Novel approach

    The act forces South Africans to engage with the idea of nil compensation in a much more direct manner.

    The presence of a clause dedicated to nil compensation provides new clarity on when this could apply.

    It is hard to determine whether this act will pass constitutional muster without seeing how expropriation under it will work in practice. It remains to be seen whether it will have the far-reaching consequences that many fear, or call for.

    Zsa-Zsa Temmers Boggenpoel 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. Land seizure and South Africa’s new expropriation bill: scholar weighs up the new act – https://theconversation.com/land-seizure-and-south-africas-new-expropriation-bill-scholar-weighs-up-the-new-act-244697

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: From YMCA to MAGA: why Trump plays Village People at his rallies

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By William Rees, University of Exeter

    It was a bizarre sight watching a huge gay 1970s disco hit being performed at Donald Trump’s 2025 pre-inauguration rally. Many prominent artists from Beyoncé to Bruce Springsteen prohibit Trump from using their music. So why do Village People – a band synonymous with the 1970s gay liberation movement – allow their music to be associated with a political movement that has fixed and repressive ideas about sexual identity and morality?

    Village People’s recent incarnation has had a complicated relationship with the “make America great again” movement (Maga). In 2020, their song YMCA began featuring at Maga anti-lockdown rallies and soon became a prominent song in Trump’s re-election campaign.

    At the time, the band asked Trump not to use its music and later supported Kamala Harris for the presidency in 2024. Since then Village People have dramatically changed tack.

    To be clear, of the group that performed at Trump’s pre-inauguration rally, only one of the original Village People remains. The band, put together by the gay producers Jacques Morali and Henri Belolo in 1978, was named after New York’s Greenwich Village gay scene.

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    In the 1970s, the group was mostly gay-fronted except the first recruit, lead singer and co-songwriter Victor Willis (sometimes the policeman, sometimes the admiral figure). Willis took control of the name and the hits in 2017 after an out-of-court settlement with co-owner Henri Belolo.

    Willis is now the only member of the original line up still performing under the official band name. Perhaps to ensure mainstream popularity, he has tried to move Village People away from its gay associations – the biography on the band’s website makes no mention of the act’s significance to queer audiences. He recently wrote on Facebook that he will sue every news organisation that suggests “YMCA is somehow a gay anthem”.

    Victor Willis, the last remaining original member of Village People in a 1978 video for Just A Gigolo.

    But it’s difficult to untangle Village People from queer history as it was the trendsetting gay community of underground disco culture that made them famous. Record companies selected the songs and artists to promote based on how DJs reported their popularity in the hottest clubs. Many of these clubs were gay dominated, and disco itself was tied up with the growing confidence of the gay liberation movement in America and the era of sexual liberalisation that followed the 1960s.

    Jacques Morali put together Village People knowing the band could offer influential gay clubbers something they had always been denied: cultural representation, and with it, acknowledgement of their existence.

    It worked. One self-proclaimed “disco doll” writing to LGBTQ+ newspaper The Advocate in 1978 recalled first hearing Village People: “The music was very hot … and the words were about us, about our scene. I couldn’t believe it.”

    Village People’s innuendos and knowing references to gay culture often went over the heads of many straight listeners. Songs like Macho Man and the group’s hypermasculine image epitomised the “clone” movement in 1970s gay culture.

    Queer men, long derided for being effeminate, would bulk up at the gym and dress in leathers like bikers, effectively becoming more of an embodiment of masculinity than straight men. Go West was a reference to San Francisco’s more liberal environment for gay men. The YMCA was a place to “hang out with all the boys”.

    But skyrocketing into the mainstream made Village People an awkward fit for gay disco culture. This vibrant community wanted their own scene that was not part of the mainstream. They felt betrayed by a band publicly denying their gayness as they juggled the hardcore homosexual audience that had made them famous alongside a family-friendly audience.

    The backlash was fierce. A 1978 letter to gay lib magazine The Body Politic declared: “The commercial exploiters are disguising it to gain the commercially lucrative straight audience”, describing Village People as “traitors of the worst kind”.

    But even if they became momentarily unpopular in the hottest gay clubs, for many LGBTQ+ people, Village People’s hits have endured as anthems played at queer nights and Pride events. In their sound, appearance and sheer 1970-ness, they are undeniably camp icons.

    Which of course leads many to question why people attending Trump’s rallies – hardly famous for their inclusivity – would embrace their music. One explanation is that Maga audiences simply do not care about past gay associations as the music is simple, catchy and positive.

    Another is that just like the 1970s, the queer messaging of Village People’s music still goes over the heads of straight Maga audiences. Perhaps despite its past gay associations, they are consciously trying to culturally repurpose disco for their own movement. Or they’re trying to be ironic.

    Most likely, though, the music might have a particular meaning to LGBTQ+ audiences, it has other meanings depending on the context in which it is played. To many, Village People are the epitome of a novelty, apolitical pop group. Their hits are associated with weddings, children’s parties and good-time disco. The prosaic truth may be that Trump fans just enjoy a really catchy tune.

    But for Trump’s team, the use of these songs is politically calculated toward their core supporters who have changed the lyrics of YMCA to “MAGA”. And don’t forget Village People were joined at the pre-inauguration rally by WWE wrestling’s Hulk Hogan. Both are nostalgic late 20th-century acts that revel in blatant performances of muscled masculinity.

    They seem to be the embodiment of that imagined past of American virility that Trump vaguely refers to when he promises to make the nation “great again”. It’s not difficult to work out what Trump’s message is, especially when he dances along to Macho Man at rallies.

    Both these acts are carnivalesque, like Trump himself. They indicate an era of politics as spectacle, but beneath the surface messages, we must carefully pay attention to what is actually being said and done.

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

    – ref. From YMCA to MAGA: why Trump plays Village People at his rallies – https://theconversation.com/from-ymca-to-maga-why-trump-plays-village-people-at-his-rallies-248457

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: How close are quantum computers to being really useful? Podcast

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Gemma Ware, Host, The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The Conversation

    Audio und verbung/Shutterstock

    Quantum computers have the potential to solve big scientific problems that are beyond the reach of today’s most powerful supercomputers, such as discovering new antibiotics or developing new materials.

    But to achieve these breakthroughs, quantum computers will need to perform better than today’s best classical computers at solving real-world problems. And they’re not quite there yet. So what is still holding quantum computing back from becoming useful?

    In this episode of The Conversation Weekly podcast, we speak to quantum computing expert Daniel Lidar at the University of Southern California in the US about what problems scientists are still wrestling with when it comes to scaling up quantum computing, and how close they are to overcoming them.

    Quantum computers harness the power of quantum mechanics, the laws that govern subatomic particles. Instead of the classical bits of information used by microchips inside traditional computers, which are either a 0 or a 1, the chips in quantum computers use qubits, which can be both 0 and 1 at the same time or anywhere in between. Daniel Lidar explains:

    “Put a lot of these qubits together and all of a sudden you have a computer that can simultaneously represent many, many different possibilities …  and that is the starting point for the speed up that we can get from quantum computing.”

    Faulty qubits

    One of the biggest problems scientist face is how to scale up quantum computing power. Qubits are notoriously prone to errors – which means that they can quickly revert to being either a 0 or a 1, and so lose their advantage over classical computers.

    Scientists have focused on trying to solve these errors through the concept of redundancy – linking strings of physical qubits together into what’s called a “logical qubit” to try and maximise the number of steps in a computation. And, little by little, they’re getting there.

    In December 2024, Google announced that its new quantum chip, Willow, had demonstrated what’s called “beyond breakeven”, when its logical qubits worked better than the constituent parts and even kept on improving as it scaled up.

    Lidar says right now the development of this technology is happening very fast:

    “For quantum computing to scale and to take off is going to still take some real science breakthroughs, some real engineering breakthroughs, and probably overcoming some yet unforeseen surprises before we get to the point of true quantum utility. With that caution in mind, I think it’s still very fair to say that we are going to see truly functional, practical quantum computers kicking into gear, helping us solve real-life problems, within the next decade or so.”

    Listen to Lidar explain more about how quantum computers and quantum error correction works on The Conversation Weekly podcast.

    This episode of The Conversation Weekly was written and produced by Gemma Ware with assistance from Katie Flood and Mend Mariwany. Sound design was by Michelle Macklem, and theme music by Neeta Sarl.

    Clips in this episode from Google Quantum AI and 10 Hours Channel.

    You can find us on Instagram at theconversationdotcom or via e-mail. You can also subscribe to The Conversation’s free daily e-mail here.

    Listen to The Conversation Weekly via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our RSS feed or find out how else to listen here.

    Daniel Lidar receives funding from the NSF, DARPA, ARO, and DOE.

    – ref. How close are quantum computers to being really useful? Podcast – https://theconversation.com/how-close-are-quantum-computers-to-being-really-useful-podcast-248574

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Anti-immigration policies: why harsh new rules put in place by Trump and other rich countries won’t last

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Alan Hirsch, Research Fellow New South Institute, Emeritus Professor at The Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance, University of Cape Town

    Donald Trump, America’s new president, has cut back massively on US commitments to asylum seekers, blocked all asylum processes and started to remove irregular immigrants.

    Trump’s new measures are far reaching. They include the suspension of the US refugee admissions programme. Flights booked for refugees to the US have been cancelled. Arrests and deportations have begun.

    Strongly anti-immigrant policies were also pursued under the Biden administration, though Trump’s dramatic steps take them much further. Other countries in the global north have also introduced tougher policies. The 2024 EU Pact on Migration and Asylum sets out tougher border controls, quicker assessment of asylum seekers and swifter removal of those who did not qualify. In the UK, Labour prime minister Keir Starmer has promised to bring down the net migration rate and treat people-smugglers like terrorists.

    Based on my research into migration over the past 30 years I believe that these measures are unlikely to last. There are two linked trends that make closing the borders of the global north impractical and destined for revision.

    The first is that populations in most of the global north are ageing fast (on average) and the fertility rate, or natural population growth rate, has plummeted. There are many more older people as a percentage of the population.

    Secondly, with a workforce shrinking and the dependency ratio (the proportion of non-working to working people) rising rapidly, closing borders to potential labourers from other countries, without any other change, would lead to declining living standards in the global north. Economic growth and government revenues would slow or stagnate, undermining infrastructure maintenance and social service provision.

    There are several possible strategies that could be alternatives to anti-immigration measures. Some older people could migrate south, robots and AI could do more work, workers in the global south could perform remote work for the north, and arrangements could be made to allow migrants into the north either permanently or as circulating migrants.

    All these strategies are already in use, if modestly. Their application would have to expand considerably.

    Misplaced panic

    The responses of governments in the global north are exaggerated. Governments putting in place tough anti-immigrant measures have done so on the back of a narrative that there’s been a significant rise in the number of migrants worldwide.

    This isn’t true. Some countries, such as the US, Germany and Colombia, have seen a spike in refugees and other migrants. But for the rest of the world the picture remains much the same as it has done for decades.

    Foreign-born residents (the most widely used definition of migrants) rose as a proportion of residents worldwide from 2.3% in 1970 to 3.6% in 2020. But in 1960 the number was over 3%, and in the late 1800s migrants made up somewhere between 3% and 5% of the global population.

    So, 3.6% is nothing new.

    As for refugees, in 2023 there were about 38 million, of whom 69% sought refuge in neighbouring countries and 75% in middle- and low-income countries.

    In general, therefore, rich countries have not been carrying the greatest burden.

    The real reason behind these tougher measures is that living standards have stagnated in many countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The cost and availability of housing have worsened; inequality has grown since the 1980s; the quality and availability of public services have deteriorated since the global financial crisis of 2008 and COVID-19; and the quality of employment has shifted to precarious work and poorly paid service sector occupations.

    This has contributed to the rise of populism, including anti-foreigner sentiment and even xenophobia.

    Trump’s actions are the most extreme yet. They include an order to block “aliens involved in the invasion” using “appropriate measures” that give the security forces further powers. The prohibition of southern border asylum hearings in the US and the instruction to “remain in Mexico” means that prospective asylum seekers from third countries may not cross the border to make their applications at the port of entry. They must apply remotely.

    Trump has also ordered that birthright citizenship must be limited to the children of certain categories of residents, essentially citizens or those with residence rights in the form of a “green card”. This move has been temporarily blocked in some states by judges as unconstitutional.

    In addition, the acting head of the Homeland Security Department gave Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials the power to deport migrants admitted temporarily into the US under several programmes of the Biden administration, targeting refugees from Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Haiti, and possibly Afghan and Ukrainian refugees too.

    The very first bill to receive final approval from the US Congress under Trump’s second term, the Laken-Riley Act, would require the detention and deportation of migrants who enter the country without authorisation and are charged with certain crimes. This bill was passed with 263 votes and 156 votes against, meaning that 46 House Democrats supported the Republican bill.

    In contrast, in the global south, as I have discussed elsewhere, the trend has been in the opposite direction. South American regional communities liberalised migration most extensively in recent decades, but African regional communities have made progress too, as has the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

    The way forward

    Some alternative strategies are leading the way.

    In Canada, the Temporary Foreign Worker programme has expanded steadily since 1973, increasingly including long-term circulating migrating lower-skilled workers for key occupations like catering, care, construction and agriculture. Though it is currently under political scrutiny because of the panic in the north over migration, and because of housing shortages in Canada, it is likely to survive and evolve. Similar systems are emerging across the global north.

    In the EU, Talent Partnerships are now encouraged. Germany, for example, has talent partnerships with Kenya and Morocco, where they train health workers and IT technicians in those countries to work and live in Germany. Spain has various partnerships in Latin America and Africa. Prime minister Pedro Sanchez has chosen to be upfront on the choices. In October last year he told the Spanish people:

    Spain needs to choose between being an open and prosperous country or a closed off poor country.

    The current fashion for population protectionism in the global north is increasingly nasty, but it is unlikely to stand the test of time. Several constructive responses to the rising dependency ratio are feasible, but being open to more migration, possibly in new forms and through new channels. is an inevitable part of the solution.

    New formal pathways for working migrants and reasonable systems for asylum seekers, along with full enforcement of rules against irregular migrants, could be the combination that works politically and economically.

    Alan Hirsch receives funding from the New South Institute for research and the University of Cape Town for advice and supervision.

    – ref. Anti-immigration policies: why harsh new rules put in place by Trump and other rich countries won’t last – https://theconversation.com/anti-immigration-policies-why-harsh-new-rules-put-in-place-by-trump-and-other-rich-countries-wont-last-248359

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: ‘Sustainable’ aviation fuel and other myths about green airport expansion debunked

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Jack Marley, Environment + Energy Editor, UK edition

    Taking off: emissions from the aviation sector. WildSnap/Shutterstock

    Environmentalists and locals have resisted a third runway at London’s Heathrow, Europe’s busiest airport, for more than two decades. Today, their efforts took a major setback.

    The UK government has announced it will give the green light to airport expansion. This is not guaranteed to increase growth in the national economy as Chancellor Rachel Reeves hopes. More flights and more emissions are certain, however, at a time when experts are practically screaming at governments to rein them in.

    This roundup of The Conversation’s climate coverage comes from our award-winning weekly climate action newsletter. 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.

    “No airport expansions should proceed” without a UK-wide plan to annually assess and control the sector’s climate impact said the government’s watchdog, the Climate Change Committee, in 2023. Aeroplanes are 8% of UK emissions and 2% of the world’s, but they also release gases that seed heat-trapping clouds in the upper atmosphere, which triples air travel’s greenhouse effect.

    While the government’s own advisers have effectively ruled out new runways for the sake of net zero, airport and airline bosses play a different tune. So what does the sector propose to manage its own pollution?

    Not enough cooking oil to save us

    Aviation is a notoriously difficult sector to decarbonise says Richard Sulley, a senior research fellow in sustainability policy at the University of Sheffield: “If electric or hydrogen-powered planes are possible, it won’t be for many years yet.”

    To justify air travel emissions ballooning in the meantime, the aviation sector has promised a mix of “supply-side” measures, like replacing kerosene with so-called “sustainable aviation fuel” (SAF), which Reeves described as “a game changer”, and making planes lighter and more fuel-efficient.

    Efficiency, in this context, is a slippery path to decarbonisation. When a high-emitting activity is reformed so that it consumes less energy, the efficiency savings are generally eclipsed by the increasing demand it drives.



    Read more:
    Expanding Heathrow is incompatible with net zero – here’s the evidence

    “Indeed, the sector’s own plans for growth will outstrip efforts to decarbonise through synthetic fuel, delivering a neutral effect at best,” Sulley says.

    Fuel consumption is the biggest emissions source in aviation.
    Sergey Ginak/Shutterstock

    “Demand-side” measures like fewer flights, taxes on frequent flying and domestic flight bans (see France) could cut emissions, he notes, but are seldom mentioned.

    The UK has set a target for airline fuel to be 10% SAF by 2030. So far we’re at 1.2% – and Sulley reports that the industry has not said how it will scale up in time.

    Even if airlines start taking their commitment to SAF seriously very soon, it’s a dubious solution to aviation’s climate impact according to political economists Gareth Dale (Brunel University) and Josh Moos (Leeds Beckett University).



    Read more:
    Why the world’s first flight powered entirely by sustainable aviation fuel is a green mirage

    Earlier SAF test flights burned coconut oil – 3 million coconuts to power a journey from London to Amsterdam, as Dale and Moos calculate it. At that rate, they argue Heathrow would exhaust the world’s entire crop in a few weeks (there are 18,000 commercial airports worldwide).

    Modern SAF is blended with waste products from farms and kitchens. But the pair argue that the market for used cooking oil is “notoriously unregulated”. SAF may in fact be relabelled palm oil from plantations that are erasing orangutan habitat in the tropics. Again, Dale and Moos argue there is not enough used cooking oil to meet existing, let alone future, demand.

    Transport for the rich, by the rich

    At least the hype around SAF addresses the main problem, albeit misleadingly. Policy experts David Howarth (University of Essex) and Steven Griggs (De Montfort University) marvel at how often “carbon-neutral airports” in aviation sustainability strategies simply mean terminals powered by renewable energy.

    “A terminal’s heating or lighting is, of course, largely irrelevant when its core business is as emissions-intensive as flying,” says Sulley.



    Read more:
    Heathrow 2.0: a ‘sustainable airport’ that pretends no one has to choose between planes and pollution

    Unfortunately for Rachel Reeves, a 2023 report by the New Economics Foundation found that any economic benefits of airport expansion will be largely confined to the airports themselves. Meanwhile, a wealthy subset of UK society can be expected to capture the biggest share of any new flight capacity. Each year, around half of British residents do not fly at all, Sulley points out.

    At the stratospheric heights of that subset are the private jet passengers who are served by “more or less dedicated airports” that are more obscure to the general public, says Raymond Woessner, a geographer at Sorbonne Université. A study published in November found that emissions from these flights rose by 46% between 2019 and 2023. The lead author described wealthy passengers using jets “like taxis”.



    Read more:
    L’insolent succès des jets privés, entre empreinte carbone et controverses

    “Discretion and anonymity” is what one airport nestled in the Oxfordshire countryside promises for “routine celebrity, head of state and royal visits”. Without state direction or regulation, it is these people who are setting the agenda for air travel.

    Woessner notes that the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, successfully lobbied to derail a high-speed rail project in California in 2013. Instead of an option that has shown its ability to cut flight demand, the US will be offered intercontinental rocket travel.



    Read more:
    With planning, high speed rail could reduce flight demand

    Musk’s company SpaceX says that rockets could ferry passengers between New York and Shanghai in under an hour. Rockets would burn “vastly more fuel per trip than conventional aircraft”, says aerospace engineer Angadh Nanjangud of Queen Mary University of London, but this might “drive critical research into carbon-neutral” methane-based rocket fuel.

    It would not be the first time an industry seeking to grow has used an as yet fantastical fuel to justify more carbon in Earth’s atmosphere.



    Read more:
    New York to Paris in 30 mins? How to achieve Elon Musk’s vision of rockets replacing long haul

    “There is the potential to create a good life for all within planetary boundaries,” say Dale and Moos.

    “But getting there requires clipping the wings of the aviation industry.”

    – ref. ‘Sustainable’ aviation fuel and other myths about green airport expansion debunked – https://theconversation.com/sustainable-aviation-fuel-and-other-myths-about-green-airport-expansion-debunked-248483

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Grattan on Friday: Dutton walks more softly on China, with election in mind

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

    When Peter Dutton was asked this week  whether a Coalition government would continue  to foster trade relations with China, he declared unequivocally that “the relationship with China will be much stronger  than it is under the Albanese government”.

    Two points stood out: Dutton’s own positive rhetoric, and his apparent confidence about the future of Australia-China relations.

    It’s not unusual for opposition leaders to undertake a makeover, to their person or policy, as an election approaches. Anthony Albanese lost weight and acquired new glasses. Earlier, he’d made Labor a small policy target.

    Dutton is simultaneously attempting a softening on some fronts – while retaining the “hard man” image on others.

    Mid-last year Dutton said: “I’m pro-China and the relationship that we have with them. I want that trading relationship to increase. […] We need to make sure we strengthen the trading relationship because there are many businesses here who rely on it. But we have to be realistic about working to keep peace […] we live in a very uncertain time. The Prime Minister also says that we live in the most precarious period since the Second World War, and he’s right, and we need to work hard at peace as well.”

    Contrast Dutton as defence minister in 2021. “Does the Chinese government wish to occupy other countries? Not in my judgement. But they do see us as tributary states. And that surrender of sovereignty and abandonment of any adherence to the international rule of law is what our country has fought against since Federation.”

    It’s not that Dutton has changed his views on China. Rather, he’s camouflaged them with a softer tone, and in what he chooses to emphasise. Of course circumstances have changed – Australia now has a much better relationship with China. But significantly, Dutton needs to appeal to the local Chinese-Australian voters.

    At the 2022 election, the Liberals took a big hit among voters of Chinese heritage.

    The party’s review of its election performance, undertaken by former party director Brian Loughnane and frontbencher Jane Hume, said: “In the top 15 seats by Chinese ancestry the swing against the Party (on a 2PP basis) was 6.6%, compared to 3.7% in other seats. There are more than 1.2 million people of Chinese heritage living in Australia today. Rebuilding the Party’s relationship with the Chinese community must be a priority during this term of Parliament.”

    Marginal Labor seats that are targets for the Liberals, where the Chinese vote is significant, include Reid and Bennelong in NSW and Chisholm and Aston in Victoria.

    Dutton (and the PM) will attend a Lunar New Year celebration in Box Hill in Melbourne this weekend.

    It’s notable that David Coleman, named by Dutton last weekend as the opposition’s new spokesman on foreign affairs, has worked extensively with the Chinese community. One of the contenders for the post was the high-performing James Paterson. There may have been stronger arguments for keeping Paterson in home affairs, but his very hawkish stand on China might have been in the mix.

    Talking up the positive side of the Coalition’s record on China, Dutton harked back to the signing of the free trade agreement under the Abbott government, and said “we want there to be mutual respect in the relationship”.

    Over its years in government the Coalition’s relationship with China has varied between pragmatic friendship and suspicious negativity. After relatively smooth sailing in the Abbott period, things soured when the Turnbull government called China out over foreign interference, introducing legislation, and banned Huawei from the 5G network. Then relations plunged dramatically when the Morrison government demanded an inquiry into the origins and handling of the outbreak of COVID in Wuhan.

    Despite Dutton’s confidence, it’s more than possible that managing the China relationship after the election could be trickier than it has been during this one, no matter who is in power.

    The Albanese government can claim the greatly-improved bilateral relationship as one of its major foreign policy achievements. China has brought Australia out of the deep freeze, lifting the $20 billion worth of trade barriers it had imposed. Dialogue and ministerial exchanges have resumed. Anthony Albanese has been welcomed in China.

    But this week’s speculation relating to the new Chinese artificial intelligence platform DeepSeek is just the latest reminder of perennial security suspicions about the penetration of Chinese technology.(Incidentally, Dutton has an account on the Chinese-owned TikTok – despite it being banned from official government devices – in part to engage with the local Chinese community, as well as with younger people generally.)

    Australia’s minerals industry is potentially vulnerable to Chinese displeasure. The Senate in the next fortnight will consider the government’s Future Made in Australia legislation, that provides a tax incentive for processing critical minerals. The Chinese have a global stranglehold on this processing – and have shown a willingness to weaponise it, for example against Japan. China’s multi-billion dollar funding of nickel processing in Indonesia has had a dire impact on producers here in Australia.

    The change of government in Australia certainly facilitated the improvement in the bilateral relationship, but that improvement was also strongly driven by China’s own interests. Similarly, the future of the relationship is more in China’s hands than in Australia’s.

    China expert Richard McGregor, from the Lowy Institute, says:“ Relations with China are inherently volatile.

    “The day-by-day relationships have returned to  a degree of normality. But all of the structural stresses which created antagonism are still there.”

    These include China’s “military assertiveness in the region, competition between  the US and China, Australia’s concern about foreign interference and hacking, China’s efforts to build their power in the Pacific at the expense of Australia. None of that has gone away,” McGregor says. The single biggest change of recent years “is that “China has become much more powerful and is far more willing to throw its weight around”.

    Separate to any hiccups in the bilateral relationship, Australia could find itself caught in the crossfire if there is a serious deterioration in the US-China relationship under Donald Trump – notably if his tariff policy leads to a trade war. Simon Jackman, from the University of Sydney, warns that if US policy hit the (already struggling) Chinese economy, that would affect Australian exporters.

    “US tariffs or import bans that slowed China’s economy would cause some short to medium headaches for Australian exporters,” Jackman says. “As in Trump Mark 1 and COVID, Australian export industries would find themselves looking for opportunities elsewhere, if global supply chains had to re-equilibrate in response to an upheaval in the US-China trade relationship.”

    Ironically, the earlier search for diversified markets when the Chinese imposed their restrictions on Australian producers would have helped prepare exporters for such a contingency.

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

    – ref. Grattan on Friday: Dutton walks more softly on China, with election in mind – https://theconversation.com/grattan-on-friday-dutton-walks-more-softly-on-china-with-election-in-mind-248561

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Corporate transparency is a step toward a greener economy, but further change is needed

    Source: The Conversation – France – By Madlen Sobkowiak, Associate Professor in Social and Environmental Accounting, EDHEC Business School

    Could corporate transparency be one of the solutions to climate change? Or, at the very least, could it be a way to hold businesses accountable for their environmental impacts? Not by itself, according to our paper, “Shaping nature outcomes in corporate settings”, recently published by The Royal Society.

    Ninety-four percent of investors are doubtful of the validity of corporate sustainability reporting, citing unsupported claims, according to PwC’s Global Investor Survey 2023. And their skepticism is not unfounded.

    Indeed, our paper shows that while corporate transparency is a crucial first step toward a more sustainable economy, it alone will not be enough to drive positive corporate nature outcomes. For change to actually happen, three critical steps are needed: linking corporate actions to their environmental impact, embedding nature outcomes into daily operations and aligning financial incentives with ecological goals.

    The risk of greenwashing

    Even if there is a growing push for nature-related regulation, and especially nature-related disclosures, companies have only started to provide information about their nature-related performance, impacts and risks. This is the essence of the European Union’s Sustainable Finance Disclosures Regulation (SFDR) that came into effect in 2021 and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) that came into effect in 2023. Both initiatives aim to strengthen transparency obligations on environmental, sustainable and governance (ESG) issues within the bloc. This is characteristic of a certain kind of governance, which uses mandated information disclosure as a way of regulating behaviour.

    Does it work? Not on its own, as companies still struggle to fully understand their impacts on nature or the impacts of their supply chain. And they often lack the knowledge and expertise to navigate the evolving and complex landscape of national and international sustainability reporting requirements, let alone take meaningful action. This could result in the dilution of the concept of transparency and a rise in greenwashing, the process of making false or misleading environmental claims.

    Greenwashing might distort relevant information that investors require to make decisions and, in the end, erode their trust in sustainability-related products and/or practices. A study commissioned by the European Union in 2023 found that 53% of green claims on products and services make vague, misleading or even unfounded claims, and 40% have no supporting evidence. In the United States, 68% of executives admitted to being guilty of greenwashing. In this context, the standardisation of sustainability reporting in the EU is necessary and overdue.

    Three key factors for corporate accountability

    My co-authors and I identify three conditions for information disclosures to positively impact nature outcomes: linking companies and ecosystems, translating aspiration into operations and shaping financial-system responsiveness.

    Our current approach, which uses disclosure requirements to drive company behaviour, may be limited, because providing information does not in itself encourage companies to fully achieve nature-positive impacts.

    Linking companies and ecosystems

    This first condition means putting in place radical traceability that links company actions to outcomes in particular settings. This would create the potential for companies to be held accountable regardless of whether they publish data, as well as incentives for them to produce their own data rather than having to respond to requirements created by third parties.

    One example is Cargill, a supplier for the food sector. In the company’s “South American Soy Sustainability Report”, it traces the soy it produces and purchases through its supply chain with locations in several South American countries. The sites are geospatially located with data on the degree of deforestation in each polygon obtained from satellite images. In this respect, traceability creates the possibility for nature accounts.

    Translating aspirations into operations

    This approach is about developing routines and tools that translate strategic intent into on-the-ground behaviour: in other words, linking knowledge and action. Even if companies are well informed about their impacts on nature, translating strategies to reduce impacts and restore nature into operational targets might be difficult. In this regard, it might be useful to translate ambitions into specific metrics that, once embedded in companies, create visibilities and routines that focus on making a change.

    For example, Holcim Spain, an aggregates and cement producer, has developed a monitoring system to evaluate restoration processes by studying nature assets. It has also studied resources based on field samples by cataloguing flora, identifying vegetation, establishing the distribution of birds and insects, assessing the status of biodiversity in the quarry and developing strategies and action plans. Monitoring of activities has been undertaken using a biodiversity index developed in collaboration with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)‘s Biodiversity Indicator and Reporting System.

    Shaping financial-system responsiveness

    The final requirement relates to identifying how financial-system actors can enable company actions. To put it another way, it is about aligning financial incentives with environmental goals.

    Company owners and those who fund companies are the most powerful financial actors in this context. Financial stability relies on well-functioning ecosystems; indeed, recent studies have shown that climate change threatens it. Information governance could be used to draw investor attention to nature impacts, mirroring more developed interventions. An example of such a mechanism is the EU’s SFDR, which requires banks, insurers and asset managers to provide information about how they address sustainability risks.

    Another example comes from ASN Bank, which specialises in sustainability banking products and has developed a biodiversity footprinting tool for financial institutions to estimate the impacts of an investment portfolio and identify hotspots therein.

    Better information, less greenwashing

    The more solid, standardised and transparent corporate sustainability information is shared, the better we can combat the greenwashing that undermines the credibility of sustainability efforts. But, while disclosure is key, it is time we take its limits into account. For businesses, this implies adopting governance approaches that shape action and ceasing to rely solely on reporting.

    Madlen Sobkowiak ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d’une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n’a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.

    – ref. Corporate transparency is a step toward a greener economy, but further change is needed – https://theconversation.com/corporate-transparency-is-a-step-toward-a-greener-economy-but-further-change-is-needed-243215

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Will new $10,000 apprentice payments help solve job shortages in construction? Not anytime soon

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Pi-Shen Seet, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Edith Cowan University

    In an election pitch last week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced new incentive payments of $10,000 for eligible apprentices in residential construction.

    The federal government has committed to an ambitious target of building 1.2 million new homes over the next five years through the National Housing Accord. That means it urgently needs to boost Australia’s construction workforce.

    But a recent strategic review into incentives for Australian apprentices and trainees found cost-of-living pressures were a major barrier to apprenticeship entry and completion.

    Only about half of apprentices currently finish their apprenticeships.

    The new program has been touted as the federal government’s initial response. It will target 62,690 apprentices and cost $627 million.

    But previous attempts to attract new apprentices with cash payments have had mixed results. A similar 2023 scheme to get more tradies into “green jobs” only attracted about 2,200 sign-ups in the first year.

    There are also concerns the new scheme may have unintended consequences, such as diverting talent from important sectors of the new economy – including the previous “green jobs” scheme.



    Read more:
    There may not be enough skilled workers in Australia’s pipeline for a post-COVID-19 recovery

    How will it work?

    From July 1, eligible apprentices in the new Housing Construction Apprenticeship Program will receive five payments of $2,000 each: after six, 12, 24 and 36 months, and upon completion. The payments are staged to encourage apprentices to complete their training.

    Cash payments won’t be the only new financial incentive. There’ll also be a boost to the Living Away From Home Allowance to help cover the costs of relocating, while an increase in the Disability Australian Apprentice Wage Support payment provides financial support to employers who hire apprentices with disability.



    Read more:
    Albanese to promise $10,000 for apprentices in housing construction

    Will the scheme succeed?

    The government’s previous attempts to address chronic labour shortages through cash incentives have had mixed results.

    Introduced in 2023, the New Energy Apprenticeships Program also offers $10,000 in staged payments to apprentices in priority green roles, such as electric vehicle technicians.

    Despite 2,200 apprentices joining in the first year, the program was deemed too restrictive by the industry. That was despite employers themselves receiving $15,000 per apprentice (which is also what is proposed for the construction scheme).



    Read more:
    Yes, we know there is a ‘skills shortage’. Here are 3 jobs summit ideas to start fixing it right away

    As part of the strategic review, the Centre for International Economics was commissioned to conduct an international literature review. It found that financial incentives such as wage or training subsidies and incentives were only “somewhat relevant” to the Australian context, and there was mixed support, at best, for their effectiveness.

    A major factor behind the mixed results may be the crowding-out effect in economic theory.

    This suggests that increasing public spending (by giving financial incentives) could undermine the intended effect by reducing or even eliminating private-sector investment. And it does not address apprehension among employers, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, about taking on more apprentices.

    More than six months after the government expanded eligibility for clean energy work, the green energy sector continues to face significant skills shortages.

    While these payments may help in the long run, their staggered nature over three years won’t provide immediate relief.

    The plan will likely only contribute to the government’s home-building targets by 2029, if and when more Australians enrol and complete their apprenticeships in the construction sector.

    Will this have effects outside the construction industry?

    More strategically, by shifting the focus from “new economy” industries outlined in the Future Made in Australia policy, this scheme risks weakening efforts to transform Australia’s economy.



    Read more:
    Australia has a new National Skills Agreement. What does this mean for vocational education?

    The cash incentive for apprentices in home-building comes at a time when there is intense global competition for skills in “new industries”.

    However, despite the many state and federal government initiatives for fee-free TAFE courses since the COVID pandemic, recently released data indicates a continued trend of long-term decline in Vocational Education and Training (VET) enrolments.

    Albanese was asked about the government’s commitment to technology and digital innovation, with increasing global competition in artificial intelligence.

    He responded by discussing the government’s commitment to the “new economy”.

    However, the construction sector has until now not been identified as an essential part of the new economy’s priority industries by the government.

    Instead, expanding incentives to construction apprentices marks a shift away from the priorities on green energy and new industries, and towards more traditional trades.

    The cash incentives could divert school leavers from considering apprenticeships in key future industries. That is something that schemes such as the new energy program were specifically designed to do in response to multiple skills and training reviews over the past two decades.

    So, despite the lack of evidence that cash incentives work, and the fact they may cause unintended effects, the proposed incentive payments appear to be a pitch addressing cost-of-living/cost-of-building concerns for the upcoming election.

    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. Will new $10,000 apprentice payments help solve job shortages in construction? Not anytime soon – https://theconversation.com/will-new-10-000-apprentice-payments-help-solve-job-shortages-in-construction-not-anytime-soon-248446

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: As antisemitic attacks reach ‘disturbing’ levels, is strengthening hate crime laws the answer?

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Keiran Hardy, Associate Professor, Griffith Criminology Institute, Griffith University

    Mike Burgess, head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, has issued a stark warning following the discovery of explosives in a caravan in northwest Sydney, alongside a note bearing the address of a Sydney synagogue.

    We have seen a disturbing escalation in the targeting of Jewish interests, and a disturbing escalation in the severity and recklessness of the targeting.

    In response to the recent spate of antisemitic incidents in Sydney – which include a childcare centre being set alight and graffitied – NSW Premier Chris Minns has also pledged to strengthen the state’s hate laws.

    Changes to these laws would bring NSW in line with other states. However, they will have limited impact on a serious social problem. Both nationally and in the states, many existing laws can be used to prosecute people for these crimes, including incitement to violence on the basis of religion, race or ethnicity.

    Responding quickly to the growing crisis around antisemitic attacks is understandable, but greater long-term investments must also be made to prevent extreme, hateful beliefs from developing in our communities in the first place.

    What crimes are being committed?

    Different laws can be triggered depending on the nature of a particular offence.

    The firebombing of a Melbourne synagogue late last year was treated as an act of terrorism, while a joint counter-terrorism team is investigating the caravan explosives.

    Other hateful acts can be charged as arson, property damage or serious vilification.

    For conduct to be treated as terrorism, it must be done for the purpose of advancing a political, religious or ideological cause.

    Extreme right-wing or neo-Nazi beliefs can certainly satisfy this. But whether an individual case will be treated as terrorism depends on whether there is enough evidence of an underlying ideological motive.

    Serious vilification offences apply when someone incites others to cause harm on the basis of race, religion, sexuality or gender identity.

    Both nationally and in the states, new offences also apply for displaying Nazi symbols. Neo-Nazis who were arrested after a march in Adelaide this month, for example, were charged with various offences, including failing to cease loitering and displaying a Nazi symbol.



    Read more:
    Legal in one state, a crime in another: laws banning hate symbols are a mixed bag

    What is NSW considering changing?

    The biggest change would be to section 93Z of the NSW Crimes Act.

    Section 93Z is a serious vilification offence, but it applies only to the incitement of violence. Equivalent offences in other states are broader because they also include incitement to hatred, serious contempt or severe ridicule.

    In Queensland, this requires threats or inciting threats of physical harm. In Victoria, changes likely to pass in parliament soon would remove a similar harm requirement.

    In NSW, vilification on broader grounds is still unlawful, but it falls under civil law. Complaints can be made to Anti-Discrimination NSW and this may lead to lawsuits and potential compensation – but not criminal prosecution.

    It makes sense for NSW to match section 93Z to equivalent laws in other states. But this would go against the very recent recommendations of the NSW Law Reform Commission.

    In its report last November, the commission concluded that strengthening laws is not always the best way to address underlying social issues. It said the low prosecution rate for section 93Z could be explained by police preferring other, more serious offences for these types of crimes.

    Still, it appears Minns may go ahead with the reforms, saying an antisemitic attack “begins with hateful, racist language”.

    If I can stop it at its source with changes to the law, that’s exactly what we’ll do.

    Would these changes make a difference?

    The proposed changes are quite technical and are unlikely to have a significant impact on the growing threat of antisemitism.

    Widening section 93Z could generate some additional prosecutions for hate speech that falls below inciting violence. But in most cases, other, more serious offences are already available to prosecutors.

    Ultimately, in addition to the ongoing investigations, there needs to be greater investment in efforts to understand extremism in Australian society. This includes developing clearer answers to these questions:

    • why extreme, hateful beliefs are thriving in our communities
    • who is most likely to develop these beliefs and act on them, and
    • how extremist narratives can best be countered, in our communities and online.

    Countering violent extremism programs are improving over time. These include interventions for at-risk youth and broader efforts to educate communities. But investments in these approaches have never kept pace with changes to the criminal law.

    Antisemitism has no place in Australian society, and changing the law in NSW will send a quick message that the government is taking the problem seriously. But taking it seriously also means doing whatever else we can as a society to ensure no one experiences hate or violence for who they are or what they believe.

    Keiran Hardy receives funding from the Australian Research Council for a Discovery Project on conspiracy-fuelled extremism.

    – ref. As antisemitic attacks reach ‘disturbing’ levels, is strengthening hate crime laws the answer? – https://theconversation.com/as-antisemitic-attacks-reach-disturbing-levels-is-strengthening-hate-crime-laws-the-answer-248549

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Why the WHO has recommended switching to a healthier salt alternative

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Xiaoyue (Luna) Xu, Scientia Lecturer, School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney

    goodbishop/Shutterstock

    This week the World Health Organization (WHO) released new guidelines recommending people switch the regular salt they use at home for substitutes containing less sodium.

    But what exactly are these salt alternatives? And why is the WHO recommending this? Let’s take a look.

    A new solution to an old problem

    Advice to eat less salt (sodium chloride) is not new. It has been part of international and Australian guidelines for decades. This is because evidence clearly shows the sodium in salt can harm our health when we eat too much of it.

    Excess sodium increases the risk of high blood pressure, which affects millions of Australians (around one in three adults). High blood pressure (hypertension) in turn increases the risk of heart disease, stroke and kidney disease, among other conditions.

    The WHO estimates 1.9 million deaths globally each year can be attributed to eating too much salt.

    The WHO recommends consuming no more than 2g of sodium daily. However people eat on average more than double this, around 4.3g a day.

    In 2013, WHO member states committed to reducing population sodium intake by 30% by 2025. But cutting salt intake has proved very hard. Most countries, including Australia, will not meet the WHO’s goal for reducing sodium intake by 2025. They WHO has since set the same target for 2030.

    The difficulty is that eating less salt means accepting a less salty taste. It also requires changes to established ways of preparing food. This has proved too much to ask of people making food at home, and too much for the food industry.

    There’s been little progress on efforts to cut sodium intake.
    snezhana k/Shutterstock

    Enter potassium-enriched salt

    The main lower-sodium salt substitute is called potassium-enriched salt. This is salt where some of the sodium chloride has been replaced with potassium chloride.

    Potassium is an essential mineral, playing a key role in all the body’s functions. The high potassium content of fresh fruit and vegetables is one of the main reasons they’re so good for you. While people are eating more sodium than they should, many don’t get enough potassium.

    The WHO recommends a daily potassium intake of 3.5g, but on the whole, people in most countries consume significantly less than this.

    Potassium-enriched salt benefits our health by cutting the amount of sodium we consume, and increasing the amount of potassium in our diets. Both help to lower blood pressure.

    Switching regular salt for potassium-enriched salt has been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke and premature death in large trials around the world.

    Modelling studies have projected that population-wide switches to potassium-enriched salt use would prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths from cardiovascular disease (such as heart attack and stroke) each year in China and India alone.

    The key advantage of switching rather than cutting salt intake is that potassium-enriched salt can be used as a direct one-for-one swap for regular salt. It looks the same, works for seasoning and in recipes, and most people don’t notice any important difference in taste.

    In the largest trial of potassium-enriched salt to date, more than 90% of people were still using the product after five years.

    Excess sodium intake increases the risk of high blood pressure, which can cause a range of health problems.
    PeopleImages.com – Yuri A/Shutterstock

    Making the switch: some challenges

    If fully implemented, this could be one of the most consequential pieces of advice the WHO has ever provided.

    Millions of strokes and heart attacks could be prevented worldwide each year with a simple switch to the way we prepare foods. But there are some obstacles to overcome before we get to this point.

    First, it will be important to balance the benefits and the risks. For example, people with advanced kidney disease don’t handle potassium well and so these products are not suitable for them. This is only a small proportion of the population, but we need to ensure potassium-enriched salt products are labelled with appropriate warnings.

    A key challenge will be making potassium-enriched salt more affordable and accessible. Potassium chloride is more expensive to produce than sodium chloride, and at present, potassium-enriched salt is mostly sold as a niche health product at a premium price.

    If you’re looking for it, salt substitutes may also be called low-sodium salt, potassium salt, heart salt, mineral salt, or sodium-reduced salt.

    A review published in 2021 found low sodium salts were marketed in only 47 countries, mostly high-income ones. Prices ranged from the same as regular salt to almost 15 times higher.

    An expanded supply chain that produces much more food-grade potassium chloride will be needed to enable wider availability of the product. And we’ll need to see potassium-enriched salt on the shelves next to regular salt so it’s easy for people to find.

    In countries like Australia, about 80% of the salt we eat comes from processed foods. The WHO guideline falls short by not explicitly prioritising a switch for the salt used in food manufacturing.

    Stakeholders working with government to encourage food industry uptake will be essential for maximising the health benefits.

    Bruce Neal receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia and MTP Connect, for research on potassium-enriched salts. All funds are administered by UNSW Sydney and The George Institute for Global Health.

    Xiaoyue (Luna) Xu 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 the WHO has recommended switching to a healthier salt alternative – https://theconversation.com/why-the-who-has-recommended-switching-to-a-healthier-salt-alternative-248436

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Even as the tide turned for fur, crocodile leather kept selling in high-end fashion. But for how much longer?

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel Lamarche-Beauchesne, Senior Lecturer in Fashion Enterprise, Torrens University Australia

    apple2499/Shutterstock

    Dotted across northern Australia are 21 saltwater crocodile farms, home to around 130,000 crocodiles. Their skins are turned into crocodile leather, long sought for use in luxury handbags, belts and other items.

    While fur lost favour due to welfare concerns about animals such as mink, chinchillas and arctic foxes raised for their skins, crocodile leather has kept selling. Australia dominates the global market of saltwater crocodile skins, producing almost 60% of all such skins traded internationally.

    But the industry now faces real headwinds. Major retailers and fashion events in Australia and internationally are phasing out or banning crocodile and other exotic skins due to growing concerns over animal welfare.

    The Northern Territory government’s crocodile farming plan acknowledges shifting consumer demand and increasing scrutiny as the industry’s largest threat.

    Most of the world’s crocodile leather comes from Australian farms.
    Venus Angel/Shutterstock

    Feathers, fur and now skins

    Early animal rights activists in the 19th century focused on feathers due to concern about the enormous environmental damage done by plume hunters killing ostriches and egrets. Only later did activists turn their focus to fur.

    In the early 20th century, countries such as the United States and Britain enacted bans or restrictions on feathers. In this century, sentiment has largely turned against wearing real fur, though faux fur and vintage fur are still popular.

    But even as feathers went out of fashion, new animal products were arriving. By 1928, exotic skins such as crocodile, alligator and snake began commercialisation in Europe and the US. By the 1970s, they were widely used in fashion.

    That looks to be changing.

    By 2026, department store David Jones will phase out all exotic skins, including ostrich, crocodile, alligator, lizard and snake. The move builds on the company’s existing animal welfare policies, which already prohibit the sale of fur, angora rabbit wool and foie gras (duck or goose liver).

    The 2025 Melbourne Fashion Festival will also ban exotic leathers, while London Fashion Week will be the first of the “Big Four” fashion weeks to follow suit.

    In recent years, the kangaroo leather industry has also come under pressure due to concerns over animal welfare. California banned it altogether, and a full US ban is under consideration.

    Feathers are also under increasing scrutiny, with fashion weeks in Copenhagen, Helsinki and Melbourne announcing feather bans starting this year.

    These decisions reflect a growing shift toward ethical fashion, driven by consumer demand and rising awareness of animal welfare.

    Fur has lost its appeal for many consumers.
    ChiccoDodiFC/Shutterstock

    Exotic leather, native species

    Crocodile leather is described as an “exotic” skin, even though saltwater crocodiles are native to Australia.

    Two-thirds of Australia’s skins come from the Northern Territory, while Queensland and Western Australia have smaller industries.

    Crocodile farms operate by harvesting eggs from the wild and raising the animals in captivity. In the wild, they are protected from hunting. But in farms, they are legally considered stock or production animals, which means they lose these protections.

    When we farm animals, it’s common to think of them as resources waiting to be used for our purposes.

    But the fashion backlash suggests another way of thinking is emerging. My research points to a more animal-centric perspective on how animal-derived materials are produced for fashion.

    Crocodile farms emerged as a way to protect these reptiles from being hunted to extinction. But the industry is now under increasing scrutiny.
    RWK007/Shutterstock

    From unregulated hunting to farmed crocodiles

    Skin hunters nearly drove the saltwater crocodile to extinction in Australia. An estimated 300,000 animals were killed for their skins between 1945 and 1970. Saltie populations fell as low as 3,000 animals before authorities acted.

    Freshwater crocodiles, too, were hunted for their skins from 1959. After both species were protected in the 1970s, their populations rebounded.

    Crocodile farming started in Queensland in 1972, and in the Northern Territory in 1979.

    In 1975, the international Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora on trading endangered animals came into effect, in part to regulate the trade of exotic animals in luxury products.

    But this agreement doesn’t rule out uses for fashion. As crocodile experts at the International Union for Conservation of Nature write:

    […] crocodile farming was seen not only as a way to reduce pressure on the wild populations, but also as a means through which commercial incentives for the conservation of crocodilians could be generated.

    As the website of one Australian crocodile farm states, crocodiles are a “natural renewable resource with considerable potential for sustainable commercial use”.

    By 2018, the crocodile farming industry was worth A$26.7 million to the Northern Territory’s economy. Around 100,000 juvenile crocodiles are raised annually on farms. The NT industry plans to expand in coming years, with a target of 50,000 skins annually.

    Trends in fashion heavily influence how crocodiles are farmed. While saltwater crocodiles can live up to 70 years in the wild, it takes three to four years for a crocodile to reach 1.5 metres, at which point their skins can make larger fashion items.

    But in recent years, crocodiles have been slaughtered at around two years. Their smaller skins are used for smaller accessories.

    Welfare concerns

    The crocodile farming industry promotes its sustainability and positive economic impacts on First Nations communities. But this has come under question in recent years, with the release of documentaries featuring ex-crocodile farm workers, while activists from the Farm Transparency Project flew drones over crocodile farms and released footage of slaughtering practices in an effort to increase scrutiny and draw media coverage.

    This image of a crocodile in a Northern Territory farm was taken by activists using a drone.
    Farm Transparency Project, CC BY

    Animal welfare organisations such as the RSPCA have long opposed the practice.

    In 2023, the federal government announced an update of the code of humane treatment of wild and farmed crocodiles to incorporate new science and techniques, according to Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek. The updated code was expected late last year but has not been released.

    In response, NT Crocodile Farmers Association chief Jodi Truman said the industry “supports independent audits to ensure humane treatment”. She added:

    […] animal rights activists have made clear that they are against all farms and the farming of all animals.

    This drone image taken by animal activists shows the slaughter of crocodiles at a NT farm.
    Farm Transparency Project, CC BY

    What’s likely to happen?

    While commercial operators and governments plan to expand, there are now real barriers to the industry’s growth.

    For decades, animal derived products such as fur, feathers and leather have been prized in fashion. But consumers are increasingly less comfortable with how these products are made. That’s the thing about fashion – it changes.

    The author has previously been a member and lower-house candidate for the Animal Justice Party in Victoria.

    – ref. Even as the tide turned for fur, crocodile leather kept selling in high-end fashion. But for how much longer? – https://theconversation.com/even-as-the-tide-turned-for-fur-crocodile-leather-kept-selling-in-high-end-fashion-but-for-how-much-longer-245471

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: What is a ‘vaginal birth after caesarean’ or VBAC?

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hannah Dahlen, Professor of Midwifery, Associate Dean Research and HDR, Midwifery Discipline Leader, Western Sydney University

    MVelishchuk/Shutterstock

    A vaginal birth after caesarean (known as a VBAC) is when a woman who has had a caesarean has a vaginal birth down the track.

    In Australia, about 12% of women have a vaginal birth for a subsequent baby after a caesarean. A VBAC is much more common in some other countries, including in several Scandinavian ones, where 45-55% of women have one.

    So what’s involved? What are the risks? And who’s most likely to give birth vaginally the next time round?

    What happens? What are the risks?

    When a woman chooses a VBAC she is cared for much like she would during a planned vaginal birth.

    However, an induction of labour is avoided as much as possible, due to the slightly increased risk of the caesarean scar opening up (known as uterine rupture). This is because the medication used in inductions can stimulate strong contractions that put a greater strain on the scar.

    In fact, one of the main reasons women may be recommended to have a repeat caesarean over a vaginal birth is due to an increased chance of her caesarean scar rupturing.

    This is when layers of the uterus (womb) separate and an emergency caesarean is needed to deliver the baby and repair the uterus.

    Uterine rupture is rare. It occurs in about 0.2-0.7% of women with a history of a previous caesarean. A uterine rupture can also happen without a previous caesarean, but this is even rarer.

    However, uterine rupture is a medical emergency. A large European study found 13% of babies died after a uterine rupture and 10% of women needed to have their uterus removed.

    The risk of uterine rupture increases if women have what’s known as
    complicated or classical caesarean scars, and for women who have had more than two previous caesareans.

    Most care providers recommend you avoid getting pregnant again for around 12 months after a caesarean, to allow full healing of the scar and to reduce the risk of the scar rupturing.

    National guidelines recommend women attempt a VBAC in hospital in case emergency care is needed after uterine rupture.

    During a VBAC, recommendations are for closer monitoring of the baby’s heart rate and vigilance for abnormal pain that could indicate a rupture is happening.

    If labour is not progressing, a caesarean would then usually be advised.

    Giving birth in hospital is recommended for a vaginal birth after a caesarean.
    christinarosepix/Shutterstock

    Why avoid multiple caesareans?

    There are also risks with repeat caesareans. These include slower recovery, increased risks of the placenta growing abnormally in subsequent pregnancies (placenta accreta), or low in front of the cervix (placenta praevia), and being readmitted to hospital for infection.

    Women reported birth trauma and post-traumatic stress more commonly after a caesarean than a vaginal birth, especially if the caesarean was not planned.

    Women who had a traumatic caesarean or disrespectful care in their previous birth may choose a VBAC to prevent re-traumatisation and to try to regain control over their birth.

    We looked at what happened to women

    The most common reason for a caesarean section in Australia is a repeat caesarean. Our new research looked at what this means for VBAC.

    We analysed data about 172,000 low-risk women who gave birth for the first time in New South Wales between 2001 and 2016.

    We found women who had an initial spontaneous vaginal birth had a 91.3% chance of having subsequent vaginal births. However, if they had a caesarean, their probability of having a VBAC was 4.6% after an elective caesarean and 9% after an emergency one.

    We also confirmed what national data and previous studies have shown – there are lower VBAC rates (meaning higher rates of repeat caesareans) in private hospitals compared to public hospitals.

    We found the probability of subsequent elective caesarean births was higher in private hospitals (84.9%) compared to public hospitals (76.9%).

    Our study did not specifically address why this might be the case. However, we know that in private hospitals women access private obstetric care and experience higher caesarean rates overall.

    What increases the chance of success?

    When women plan a VBAC there is a 60-80% chance of having a vaginal birth in the next birth.

    The success rates are higher for women who are younger, have a lower body mass index, have had a previous vaginal birth, give birth in a home-like environment or with midwife-led care.

    For instance, an Australian study found women who accessed continuity of care with a midwife were more likely to have a successful VBAC compared to having no continuity of care and seeing different care providers each time.

    An Australian national survey we conducted found having continuity of care with a midwife when planning a VBAC can increase women’s sense of control and confidence, increase their chance to be upright and active in labour and result in a better relationship with their health-care provider.

    Seeing the same midwife throughout your maternity care can help.
    Tyler Olson/Shutterstock

    Why is this important?

    With the rise of caesareans globally, including in Australia, it is more important than ever to value vaginal birth and support women to have a VBAC if this is what they choose.

    Our research is also a reminder that how a woman gives birth the first time greatly influences how she gives birth after that. For too many women, this can lead to multiple caesareans, not all of them needed.

    Hannah Dahlen receives funding from NHMRC, ARC and MRFF.

    Hazel Keedle and Lilian Peters 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. What is a ‘vaginal birth after caesarean’ or VBAC? – https://theconversation.com/what-is-a-vaginal-birth-after-caesarean-or-vbac-247572

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: ‘Digital doppelgangers’ are helping scientists tackle everyday problems – and showing what makes us human

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alicia (Lucy) Cameron, Principal Research Consultant & Team Leader, Data61, CSIRO

    cybermagician/Shutterstock

    As rising seas lap at its shore, Tuvalu faces an existential threat. In an effort to preserve the tiny island nation in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, its government has been building a “digital twin” of the entire country.

    Digital twins are exactly what they sound like – a virtual double or replica of a physical, real-world entity. Scientists have been creating digital twins of everything from molecules, to infrastructure, and even entire planets.

    It’s also now possible to construct a digital twin of an individual person. In other words, a “digital doppelganger”.

    A doppelganger is someone who looks spookily like you but isn’t. The word originated in German, and literally means a “double walker”. A number of industries are now using digital doppelgangers for a range of reasons. These include enhancing athletic performance, offering more personalised healthcare and improving workplace safety.

    But although there are benefits to this technology, there are significant risks associated with its development. Having digital doppelgangers also forces us to reflect on which of our human attributes can’t be digitally replicated.

    Modelling complex systems

    The development of digital twins has been enabled by advances in environmental sensors, camera vision, augmented reality and virtual reality, as well as machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI).

    A digital twin allows us to build and test things in cyberspace – cheaply and without risk – before deploying in the real world.

    For example, we can build and stress-test infrastructure such as bridges or water supply pipes under a variety of conditions. Once built, we can use digital models to maintain the infrastructure proactively and prevent disastrous and costly structural breakdowns. This technology is a game-changer for planning and engineering, not only saving billions of dollars, but also supporting sustainability efforts.

    Of course, replicating individual humans requires much more complex modelling than when building digital twins of bridges or buildings.

    For a start, humans don’t live in a structured world, but rather inhabit complex social and physical environments. We are variable, moody and motivated by any number of factors, from hunger to tiredness, love to anger. We can change our past patterns with conscious thought, as well as act spontaneously and with creativity, challenging the status quo if needed.

    Because of this, creating perfect digital twins of humans is incredibly challenging – if not impossible. Nevertheless, digital doppelgangers are still useful for a number of purposes.

    The digital patient

    Clinicians increasingly use scans to create virtual models of the human body, with which to plan operations or create artificial body parts.

    By adding extra biometric information (for example, blood chemistry, biomechanics and physiological responses), digital models can also mirror real-world bodies, live and in real time.

    Creating digital patients can optimise treatment responses in a move away from one-size-treats-all healthcare. This means drugs, dosages and rehabilitation plans can be personalised, as well as being thoroughly tested before being applied to real people.

    Digital patients can also increase the accessibility of medical expertise to people living in remote locations. And what’s more, using multiple digital humans means some clinical trials can now be performed virtually.

    Scaled up further, this technology allows for societal-level simulations with which to better manage public health events, such as air pollution, pandemics or tsunamis.

    The digital athlete

    Imagine being able to train against a digital replica of an upcoming opponent.

    Sports scientists are increasingly working with digital athletes to trial and optimise strength and conditioning regimes, as well as test competitive play. This helps to increase the chances of winning as well as prevent injuries.

    Researchers at Griffith University have been pioneers in this space, creating models of real athletes. They have also trialled wearable sensors in patches or smart clothing that can measure a range of biomarkers: blood pressure and chemistry, temperature, and sweat composition.

    CSIRO and the Australian Sports Commission have also used digital humans to improve the performance of divers, swimmers and rowers.

    The digital worker

    As well as building virtual replicas of sports people, scientists at CSIRO have also being building virtual simulations of employees in various workplaces, including offices and construction sites.

    This is helping them analyse movements, workflows and productivity – with the broader aim of preventing workplace injuries. For example, scientists can use a model of a digital worker to assess how heavy items are lifted in order to better understand how this puts strain on different parts of the body.

    With 6.1 million Australians impacted by musculoskeletal conditions, preventing workplace injuries can not only improve lives, but save the economy billions of dollars.

    Digital dopplegangers can help prevent workplace injuries.
    Rose Marinelli/Shutterstock

    Responsible development of digital doppelgangers

    Building a digital doppelgangers requires a lot of very personal data. This can include scans, voice and video recordings, or performance and health data.

    Personal data can also be harvested from an array of other sources. These include as cars, mobile phones, and internet-connected smart devices.

    The creation of data-hungry digital replicas is forcing us to redefine legal rights. Think copyright, deepfakes and identity theft or online scams.

    The power of this technology is inspiring. But ensuring a future in which we live happily alongside our digital doppelgangers will require governments, technology developers and end-users to think hard about issues of consent, ethical data management and the potential for misuse of this technology.

    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. ‘Digital doppelgangers’ are helping scientists tackle everyday problems – and showing what makes us human – https://theconversation.com/digital-doppelgangers-are-helping-scientists-tackle-everyday-problems-and-showing-what-makes-us-human-247574

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Argentina’s president is vowing to repeal ‘woke’ femicide law. It could have ripple effects across Latin America

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Fitz-Gibbon, Professor (Practice), Faculty of Business and Economics, Monash University, Monash University

    In a major setback in the fight against gender-based violence, Argentinian President Javier Milei’s government has announced it will repeal the crime of femicide from the penal code.

    In a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week, Milei dismissed femicide laws as a product of “woke” culture and called “radical feminism” a distortion of the concept of equality.

    Repealing the law could have a ripple effect across the region, encouraging other countries to weaken their legal protections. This would be devastating for women and girls across Latin America.

    Efforts to end violence against women and girls must remain a priority — in Argentina and around the world.

    In 2023 alone, an estimated 85,000 women and girls were intentionally killed worldwide. Of these, 60% were murdered by an intimate partner or family members.

    This equates to one woman or girl killed every ten minutes at the hands of someone they know and likely trusted.

    Why femicide laws are important

    Femicide is broadly defined as the gender-based killing of women or girls, typically due to misogyny, discrimination or intimate partner violence. It differs from other homicides due to its roots in systemic gender inequality and the intent to exert control or punishment over women.

    At least 18 of the 33 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have adopted femicide laws since 2007.

    Before these laws were enacted, the killing of women and girls were treated under the broad category of homicide in many of these countries, with a focus on intent rather than the gendered nature of the crime.

    These broader laws fail to recognise how inequality, abuse and power dynamics often fuel violence against women. They often render patterns of abuse invisible.

    Femicide laws sought to change that. They explicitly recognise when women are killed because of their gender and acknowledge these crimes as part of a broader pattern of violence rooted in inequality.

    These laws have often been introduced in response to public outrage following the killing of women and an acknowledgement of widespread inaction by authorities.

    This has been seen a vital step toward justice, particularly in a region where violence against women has long been treated with relative impunity.

    What countries have a femicide law?

    The laws vary significantly across Latin America.

    In Chile, for example, femicide applies to killings by a current or former partner.

    In Costa Rica, it is similarly limited to only include killings involving a victim and perpetrator who are married or related by common law.

    Ecuador, by contrast, defines femicide more broadly, focusing on power dynamics and the gendered nature of the crime, regardless of the relationship between the victim and perpetrator.

    In Argentina, femicide is an aggravated form of homicide, defined as a murder committed by a man against a woman in the context of gender-based violence.

    Countries beyond Latin America have been slower to adopt specific femicide laws, despite advocacy efforts for them to follow suit. In recent years, Croatia, Malta and Cyprus have all introduced specific femicide laws.

    The effectiveness of femicide laws continues to be the subject of debate. There have been few comprehensive evaluations of their impact.

    A 2024 report on Mexico’s femicide law highlighted that legislation alone will not prevent gender-related killings.

    The report also noted that, in practice, femicide laws often focus predominantly on killings committed by intimate partners or family members. While this focus is critical, it has inadvertently led to the under-reporting and invisibility of femicides occurring in other contexts.

    These include the killing of older women and deaths linked to female genital mutilation and organised crime. The killing of Indigenous women also continues to be unreported and under-investigated.

    Such recognised limits do not support the repeal of femicide laws but rather underline the need for more effective implementation and embedding of these laws in society.

    The benefit of femicide laws

    While challenges remain in implementation and enforcement, femicide laws have brought critical change in countries where violence against women has long been ignored. By explicitly acknowledging gender, power and control as a factor in these killings, the laws send a powerful message this violence requires targeted solutions.

    In several countries, for example, the introduction of femicide laws has led to the creation of specialised police units, judicial training programs and harsher penalties for these acts of violence.

    Femicide laws have also improved data collection. With these laws in place, governments can better understand the scope of the issue and direct resources towards evidence-based prevention, early intervention and response mechanisms.

    Without such laws, these crimes are not tracked or are misclassified.

    Beyond the legal and systemic benefits, femicide laws have driven cultural change and public awareness. They have elevated the discourse on gender-related killings and reinforced the urgent need for systemic change to protect women and girls.

    A step backward

    Repealing Argentina’s femicide law would risk undoing years of progress. It would make these crimes less visible and send a message that tackling the crisis of violence against women and girls is not a priority. This can have a direct impact on dissuading victims from seeking justice and emboldening perpetrators.

    Femicide laws represent more than legal protections. They are a commitment to accountability in societies where women’s lives have too often been disregarded.

    This is not “woke”. It is a matter of justice, safety and human rights.



    Read more:
    What Australia can learn from Latin America when it comes to tackling violence against women

    Kate has received funding for family violence and femicide-related research from the Australian Research Council, Australian Institute of Criminology, Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety, the Victorian, Queensland and ACT governments, the Commonwealth Department of Social Services and the Victorian Women’s Trust. This piece is written by Kate Fitz-Gibbon in her role at Monash University and is wholly independent of Kate Fitz-Gibbon’s role as chair of Respect Victoria.

    – ref. Argentina’s president is vowing to repeal ‘woke’ femicide law. It could have ripple effects across Latin America – https://theconversation.com/argentinas-president-is-vowing-to-repeal-woke-femicide-law-it-could-have-ripple-effects-across-latin-america-248435

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: If the government wants science to have an economic impact it has to put its money where its mouth is

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicola Gaston, Director of the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau

    jittawit21/Shutterstock

    Billed as the most significant change to the science system in 30 years, last week’s announcement of major structural changes to scientific research institutions was objectively a big deal.

    But the devil will be in the details. The proposed reforms are focused on the economic impact of the science sector and are based on the first of two reports from the Science System Advisory Group (SSAG).

    Success will depend on how they are implemented and, most of all, on the sector receiving sufficient funding.

    The government’s reforms include:

    • the merger of seven public Crown Research Institutes to create three larger Public Research Organisations (PROs)

    • the creation of a fourth new PRO focused on “advanced technology” such as artificial intelligence, synthetic biology and potentially cleantech

    • the disestablishment of Callaghan Innovation and the creation of a new agency called “Invest New Zealand” to target international investment

    • the creation of a new national intellectual property policy, meaning scientists working in PROs and in the university system are on a level playing field when it comes to commercialisation

    • the establishment of a Prime Minister’s Science, Innovation and Technology Advisory Council to provide strategic direction and oversight.

    As the reforms move forward, the government will have to answer several questions. For example, how will the expertise relating to advanced technologies, much of which currently sits within our university sector, be moved into the new PRO?

    And how will the funding model be changed as these new PROs are established?

    Long running issues

    Overall, the higher level changes are positive. Reforms have been a long time coming and are based on years of discussion within the crown research sector.

    But we need to look at the reforms in the context of the science advisory group’s first report.

    The report is strongly and deliberately focused on the potential economic impact of science and research. The authors outline how this must be supported by a properly functioning system.

    According to the authors, a lack of strategy from the highest level of government is a barrier for the sector.

    It is clear the advisory group recommends structural change (such as the PRO model). But it is also explicit that sufficient research funding is a necessary condition for these reforms to work:

    The SSAG stands firmly of the view that our parsimonious attitude to research funding is a core reason that New Zealand has become an outlier in performance on productivity growth.

    Barriers to progress

    The advisory group identified certain cultural attitudes, such as New Zealand’s “number-eight wire” thinking, as a reason the country doesn’t value research as it should. The group also strongly advocated for bipartisan agreement on funding systems and investment levels.

    The group had strongly positive things to say about research in the social sciences and mātauranga Māori through the lens of economic growth.

    There is no debate that research into Māori culture and knowledge is an obligation of the New Zealand research system and that this should be largely determined by experts in mātauranga Māori. We will be recommending a distinct funding stream in the proposed National Research Foundation.

    Unfortunately, this government’s defunding of the social sciences and humanities, announced in December, suggests it has already made its mind up on the value of these disciplines.

    Missing the bigger picture

    Reading the full report, there is the sense that while the government announcement has taken the most visible recommendations for change, it has missed the bigger picture: the need for sufficient funding to strengthen the sector as a whole and help New Zealand become internationally competitive.

    This means we need to benchmark ourselves against other countries and their economic and scientific performance. According to the report:

    The international analysis is clear: we are spending significantly less than comparable countries spend from the public purse on [research and development].

    The authors emphasise that for countries with low expenditure, improved research and development activity is especially important for GDP growth. New Zealand should take note – it is an outlier both as a low investor and a poor economic performer.

    These messages are not new.

    Steven Joyce, science minister in the National-led government between 2011 and 2016, advocated for the National Science Challenges as a way to justify increased government investment to the sector. But issues with the implementation costs effectively killed off his promise of increased funding.

    Labour’s science minister between 2022 and 2023, Ayesha Verrall, had a similar argument about needing to establish research “priorities” in order to justify increased spending. Again, it never happened.

    It is possible the current reforms will be more effective in providing justification for increased investment.

    But this time we need to put the horse before the cart by investing money in the system – one that has been underfunded for years and which has only recently seen further funding cuts and job losses.

    And this has to happen before the system absorbs the implementation costs of these reforms.

    Nicola Gaston receives funding from TEC as Director of the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, and from the Marsden fund administered by the Royal Society Te Apārangi.

    – ref. If the government wants science to have an economic impact it has to put its money where its mouth is – https://theconversation.com/if-the-government-wants-science-to-have-an-economic-impact-it-has-to-put-its-money-where-its-mouth-is-248299

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Meditation and mindfulness at work are welcome, but do they help avoid accountability for toxic culture?

    Source: The Conversation – France (in French) – By Raysa Geaquinto Rocha, Assistant Professor at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and lecturer, University of Essex

    In an age when home offices, hybrid work arrangements and blurred boundaries between work and personal life are the norm, a recently established narrative is intensifying: the integration of spirituality into business.

    This idea involves deliberately incorporating personal values and meaningful purpose into all aspects of organisational life – from individual expression to workplace practices and corporate identity. It’s an approach that seeks to cultivate environments where employees can find deeper meaning in their work while contributing to both economic and social progress, as my past research in the Journal of Business Ethics shows.

    Spirituality in business transcends traditional management methods by acknowledging the inner lives of workers, promoting their personal growth and fostering genuine community connections. According to a 2016 interview with Eileen Fisher, the founder and then CEO of a $450-million fashion brand, company meetings opened with the ring of a meditation bell followed by a minute of silence. Fisher said the practice allows employees “to get in touch with what they’re there for and what matters to them and show up a little differently” and has contributed to the company’s recognised leadership in sustainability and women’s advocacy.

    But are all corporate efforts like these genuine attempts to foster well-being, or can they instead be strategies to rebrand productivity demands?

    Spiritual well-being in business

    The incorporation of spirituality into the workplace represents a shift in how businesses approach leadership, employee wellbeing and corporate culture.

    Take ice-cream maker Ben & Jerry’s partnership with Greyston Bakery, a leader in social enterprise. Under their “linked prosperity” model, Ben & Jerry’s sources all brownies for its Chocolate Fudge Brownie flavour from Greyston, which operates with an “open hiring” policy that does not require a background check for applicants and provides “help with child care, housing and ESL (English as a second language) classes”. The partnership shows how valuing human dignity and community empowerment can reshape conventional business practices into drivers of social change.

    Spiritual integration manifests in plenty of other ways, too. Morning gatherings can become spaces for shared reflection rather than mere status updates. Dedicated quiet rooms can offer sanctuary for contemplation or prayer. Through mentorship relationships and community service initiatives, workplaces can evolve into environments where individuals can explore deeper questions about purpose. US outdoor clothing company Patagonia describes how it offers paid environmental internships and flexible policies that enable employees to align their work lives with how they see their authentic selves. These offerings reflect the idea that while people come to work to earn a living, they stay and thrive when work nourishes their spirit.

    The trend of integrating spirituality into the workplace taps into the practical wisdom of spiritual traditions, honed over millennia, to foster attributes like mindfulness, compassion and interconnectedness. But despite its benefits, integration – or lip service to it – risks becoming a convenient excuse for businesses to shift the responsibility for stress and burn-out onto employees instead of addressing systemic issues.

    The rise and fall of WeWork illustrates this phenomenon. As documented in both Hulu’s “WeWork: or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn” and Apple TV+’s dramatic series “WeCrashed”, the workspace company masterfully leveraged spiritual rhetoric to attract young professionals. While the company promoted meditation spaces and wellness initiatives, these benefits masked issues including unsustainable work expectations, questionable management practices and a sexual assault claim. The disconnect between WeWork’s offerings and operational reality demonstrates how companies can appropriate spiritual practices only as a veneer.

    When suits start talking spirit

    When McKinsey & Company, a US management consulting firm that epitomizes corporate pragmatism, releases a podcast titled “Beyond 9 to 5: The power of spiritual health in the workplace”, it is clear that spirituality in business has moved beyond the fringe.

    McKinsey’s global survey of 41,000 respondents, detailed in their May 2024 report “In search of self and something bigger: A spiritual health exploration”, found that spiritual health matters deeply to employees. But does this data reflect a genuine commitment to spirituality, or is it just a reflection of its currency in the corporate world?

    After almost half a century of research on spirituality in business, it has become a mature field. The Academy of Management, “an association for management and organizational scholars”, recognised Management, Spirituality, and Religion as a Division, [“reflecting”] a broad range of member interests”. Still, the corporate world’s interest is raising eyebrows: the suspicion remains that spirituality is merely being repackaged as a tool for enhancing productivity. In his 2019 book “McMindfulness: How Mindfulness Became the New Capitalist Spirituality”, Ronald Purser illustrates this concern through Google’s “Search Inside Yourself” programme. While marketed as a path to employee wellness, the initiative exemplifies how meditation and mindfulness can be transformed into performance-enhancement tools, asking workers to develop “resilience” rather than addressing the root causes of workplace stress.

    The whole self at work

    The concept of bringing one’s “whole self” to work – a cornerstone of the Industry 5.0 concept promoted by the European Commission – emphasises employee authenticity. The idea of spirituality in the workplace intertwines with the idea of authentic self-expression, encompassing the recognition of one’s beliefs, values and quest for deeper meaning. These are dimensions historically excluded from professional settings. The idea is to create an environment where people can align their deepest motivations with their work.

    While this ideal is noble in concept, it also raises complex questions about which aspects of our “whole selves” are appropriate to bring into the workplace. In 2015, the US Supreme Court ruled in favour of a job applicant whom the clothing company Abercrombie & Fitch refused to hire because her hijab conflicted with its dress code. Delta Airlines’ uniform policy revision last July illuminates the ongoing complexity of the issue. Following a controversy that began when a passenger made a social media post describing two flight attendants’ Palestinian flag pins – which were permitted under existing policy – as “Hamas badges”, the airline banned all national flag pins except US ones.

    Juggling multiple selves

    The promise of integrating our identities more seamlessly instead of compartmentalizing them features in the Apple TV series Severance. The show presents a dystopian take on work-life balance in which employees surgically separate their work and personal memories, inviting us to reflect on the identities we balance in our professional and personal lives. The character of Mark Scout, whose “innie” (work self) develops genuine connections with colleagues like Helly, demonstrates how even artificially separated selves seek authentic relationships and meaning. However, when these connections begin to flourish, employer Lumon Industries’ harsh punishments and control mechanisms kick in – suggesting that true workplace innovation and collaboration can only emerge when we’re allowed to bring our whole, unsevered selves to work.

    By acknowledging and nurturing the various aspects of our personalities, we might attain new levels of connection in the workplace. But could the integration of spirituality and work lead to an environment where employees are perpetually “on”? A risk lies in creating a culture where work infiltrates every aspect of life, leaving no true respite. The very practices meant to nurture the spirit could paradoxically become tools that further blur the boundaries between professional obligations and personal renewal. A constant connection to work erodes personal boundaries, which can lead to stress and dissatisfaction that spills over into personal life. Addressing this “shadow side” is essential if we are to answer the question “Do you believe in life after work?” with a resounding yes.

    A balanced approach

    The integration of spirituality into business requires genuine commitment. While spiritual practices can bring multiple benefits, they must emerge from authentic values rather than serving as a quick fix for systemic issues.

    Since the 1980s, when major corporations first explored Eastern spirituality, workplace spirituality has evolved into a $7.9 billion meditation market. But as companies invest in meditation apps and mindfulness programmes, they often fail to address the root causes of workplace stress and burn-out. Today, well-intentioned apps like CHILL Anywhere risk functioning as band-aids that place the burden of stress management on employees, instead of examining issues like unrealistic workloads, inadequate compensation, toxic leadership or prejudice.

    Instrumentalizing spiritual practices into productivity tools fundamentally misses the point: true spirituality in business requires organizations to critically examine and transform the structural conditions that create employee suffering in the first place. Until companies commit to addressing these foundational issues, meditation rooms and mindfulness apps will remain superficial solutions that enable rather than challenge harmful workplace dynamics.

    The future workplace should aim to harmonise profit and purpose, recognising that employee well-being is integral to long-term success. Spirituality in business manifests when organisations commit to both business excellence and human flourishing – addressing foundational concerns while nurturing deeper meaning and purpose. Only then can the promise of bringing our whole selves to work become a reality worth believing in.

    Raysa Geaquinto Rocha ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d’une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n’a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.

    – ref. Meditation and mindfulness at work are welcome, but do they help avoid accountability for toxic culture? – https://theconversation.com/meditation-and-mindfulness-at-work-are-welcome-but-do-they-help-avoid-accountability-for-toxic-culture-244587

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-Evening Report: ABC’s Optics is a clever, believable comedy that will make you second-guess what you see in the media

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Edith Jennifer Hill, Associate Lecturer, Learning & Teaching Innovation, Flinders University

    ABC

    What does it mean to tell the truth? And how do we, as consumers of media, differentiate truth from fabrication? Optics, a new comedy series from the ABC, asks these questions through the setting of a public relations firm.

    The show expertly balances humour with quick-wit, social media vernacular, and a level of marketing wordsmithing that make you question if the news has ever told you a true story.

    The show is based in the PR firm Fritz & Randell and opens with the death of its aging CEO Frank Fritz (Peter Carroll), in a men-only board meeting no less.

    After Frank’s death, the son of the cofounder, Ian Randell (Charles Firth) makes a bid for top spot. But the owner of the firm, Bobby Bahl (Claude Jabbour) is concerned with “optics”, so he puts two young women in charge instead.

    Each episode follows a PR scandal, and we watch as the new heads of the company – Greta Goldman (Vic Zerbst) and Nicole Kidman (Jenna Owen) – grapple with difficult clients and, occasionally, even more difficult coworkers.

    Greta and Nicole are put in charge in every way, other than with the official promotion attached.

    Their young, spunky attitude and social media prowess is seen as a massive advantage. And it is. But it soon becomes apparent this move is much more than a feminist fresh-take for the firm – and is rather a bid to push some skeletons further back in the closet.

    With outrageous lines such as “is there an emoji for miscarriage”, you are guaranteed an entertaining watch.

    A familar cast

    You will probably recognise the show’s characters, either from your own office experiences, or your friend’s stories: the ageing CEO, people who act like they know more than they actually do, and young people talking about trends who may as well be speaking a different language.

    Ian, who wants to appear as if he has all the answers, seems to have no idea how to say a politically correct sentence. Greta and Nicole have such a deep knowledge of social media trends and memes that their quick banter leaves Ian with whiplash.

    The PR scandals that form the basis of each episode will feel relatable to a broad Australian audience. These characters – and the bizarre situations they find themselves in – effectively parody Australian contemporary media.

    Perfect timing

    It should be no surprise Vic Zerbst (playing Greta), Jenna Owen (playing Nicole) and Charles Firth (playing Ian) put on a consistently convincing and funny performance.

    The release of the show is also poetically timed with global conversations around online censorship, content moderation, algorithms and reliable news sources.

    While focusing on a variety of PR emergencies, Optics takes us on a riveting exploration of marketing and language. For instance, one crisis involving an AFL player who drunkenly punches a priest is flipped into him learning a lesson about toxic masculinity.

    We see Greta and Nicole craft apology video scripts and find convenient medical explanations for workplace outbursts.

    As a social media researcher and user, their approach to an apology video felt particularity familiar to me. Their redemption strategy is one I have seen used a thousand times by social media stars and celebrities.

    Two sides to each story

    The show’s writers balance ideas of truth and fabrication in a way that’s not only hilarious, but also very believable. When Greta and Nicole meet with Qualitus, an airline accused of scamming their customers, the Qualitus team presents them with an alternate story of clever marketing.

    In the captain’s lounge, surrounding by celebrities and the elite, Greta and Nicole negotiate deals and flip the narrative on Qualitus’ scams, helping the airline evade public scrutiny.

    Optics pays homage to the work PR professionals do everyday to save reputations and negotiate what information is shared with the public and what never sees the light of day.

    The show will have you questioning the stories you yourself are presented through news outlets. Further still, it will make you wonder how many hands those stories passed through before they hit the papers and screens.

    Optics is streaming now on ABC iView.

    Edith Jennifer Hill 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. ABC’s Optics is a clever, believable comedy that will make you second-guess what you see in the media – https://theconversation.com/abcs-optics-is-a-clever-believable-comedy-that-will-make-you-second-guess-what-you-see-in-the-media-247802

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: How can you tell if your child is ready for a smartphone? What are the alternatives?

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joanne Orlando, Researcher, Digital Literacy and Digital Wellbeing, Western Sydney University

    Don Pablo/ Shutterstock

    The start of the school year means some parents will asking a big question: is it time for a child’s first phone?

    Safety concerns, particularly around travel to and from school, or being home after school without a parent, often drive this decision. There can also be huge social pressure if many of a child’s friends have a phone.

    But it doesn’t have to be inevitable. How can you tell if your child is ready for a smartphone? What are the alternatives? And how do you set achievable, healthy boundaries if your child does get a phone?

    Why a phone is a big decision

    Many parents will be aware of the concerns about children’s wellbeing around technology, including potential harms to mental health, if they are exposed to inappropriate content, bullying or simply use the phone too much.

    Studies also show it can lead to dependence on the phone and distraction or lack of focus at school and in general. So it’s important to make good choices and provide family support alongside this.

    Having a phone can pose risks to your child if they are not ready for it.
    Body Stock/ Shutterstock

    How do you know if your child is ready for a phone?

    Appropriate phone ownership does not necessarily depend on a child’s age but on a child’s readiness and family circumstances.

    Recent studies show children who receive phones based on readiness rather than age show better long-term digital habits. These include managing the constant distraction of phones and good judgement around the content they regularly browse and engage with.

    You can look at a child’s child’s readiness for a phone in several ways:

    • how responsible are they with the technology they already use?

    • do they follow family guidelines around screen time?

    • how willing are they to discuss their online experiences with you? Do they come to you if there is a problem or something they don’t understand?

    • do they have a basic understanding of digital privacy and security?

    • what’s their decision-making like offline? What are they like with family, friends and other responsibilities?

    Non-phone options

    If you decide yes, your child is ready, they don’t necessarily have to go straight to a smartphone with all the bells, whistles and apps.

    For basic safety requirements, such as travel to school, a smartwatch or basic phone can allow your child to receive and make calls and texts, but without accessing the internet.

    If you want to prioritise social connection (so a child isn’t left out with friends), you could might start with a shared family tablet featuring supervised messaging apps. This allows children to maintain friendships within set boundaries.

    Instead of a smart phone for your child you could start with a smart watch.
    NADKI/ Shutterstock

    How to manage the transition to a phone

    As children demonstrate growing independence and digital maturity, they can progress to restricted smartphones with parental controls, gradually earning more privileges through demonstrated responsibility.

    Or your child you have a smartphone with regular “check ins”. Here parents and the child discuss and review common challenges such as managing notifications, apps the child is permitted to use and where the phone can be used.

    This approach acknowledges full smartphone access isn’t an immediate necessity but rather the final stage in a thoughtful digital progression.

    Research indicates families who implement this graduated approach report fewer conflicts around technology as well as better long-term digital habits in their children.

    The key lies in matching technology access to genuine needs rather than perceived social pressure, while maintaining clear boundaries and open communication.

    3 vital ‘new phone’ conversations to have

    Even though many schools now have phone restrictions during school hours, planning for healthy use outside of school is extremely important.

    There are three vital “new phone” conversations to have with your child, to make sure things get off to the right start.

    1. Friend requests: these can be over the top and often overwhelm children and parents. You do not have to say yes to all of them. Decide how to manage the continuous stream of requests and how to cull unnecessary contacts.

    2. Screen time: there will likely be a “screentime spike” when your child gets their own device. This is exacerbated by the constant temptation to just zone out and browse content. Decide together on workable “no-tech” times and zones in the home. For example, no phones in the car and no phones after 9pm, or restrictions on browsable content such as YouTube or Tiktok. Parents can assist children to use in-built screentime features in the phone that shut down such apps during restriction times.

    3. Notifications: because of multiple group chats and new friends, there will be never-ending pings and notifications. This will encourage even more screen time, sometimes well into the night. Go into the phone settings with your child and together decide which notifications to turn off (ideally, most of them). This will mean children have fewer distractions and more sleep, and the entire household will be more peaceful.

    Joanne Orlando receives funding from eSafety Commissioner.

    – ref. How can you tell if your child is ready for a smartphone? What are the alternatives? – https://theconversation.com/how-can-you-tell-if-your-child-is-ready-for-a-smartphone-what-are-the-alternatives-248224

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: ‘I was shocked’: a scientist tracking koalas films startling behaviour between young males

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Darcy Watchorn, Threatened Species Biologist, Wildlife Conservation & Science Department, Zoos Victoria, and Visiting Scholar, School of Life & Environmental Science, Deakin University

    Darcy Watchorn

    It’s a cold, drizzly night in a forest west of Melbourne. I’m sitting on a damp log, clutching a thermos of lukewarm tea and watching a koala snooze on a branch above me. Suddenly, it lifts its head. I sit up straight, pen poised to record what happens. But the koala simply yawns and resumes the blob position. I sigh and take another sip of tea.

    Why am I doing this? To research the social behaviour of koalas and hopefully learn more about what they do at night, when they are most active.

    After many nights, and many sips of tea, I witness something truly unexpected: male koalas engaging in affectionate behaviours with each other, such as play and grooming. I was shocked. Adult koalas are normally solitary, so observations such as this are exceedingly rare.

    My new research paper presents these findings. It provides the most detailed account of these behaviours to date, and offers a unique glimpse into how social dynamics between koalas may change when they are forced to live in close quarters.

    An adult female koala (right) and her very large joey (left) on a tree in Cape Otway, Victoria
    Darcy Watchorn

    Why are these behaviours so surprising?

    Most animals exhibit some type of social behaviour. These can include mating, vocalising to communicate, or defending their territory. But some highly social, group-living animals – such as wolves, primates and dolphins – will also display friendly and peaceful acts between individuals, such as grooming each other and playing.

    These are known as “affiliative” behaviours, and they are key to social relationships between animals, and to maintaining complex social hierarchies.

    Adult koalas, though, are generally solitary (except, obviously, when mating). They are usually widely spread over an area and rarely come face-to-face, instead interacting over long distances by vocalising and leaving their scent.

    And when male koalas do physically interact, it is usually a violent affair. More than once, I’ve seen male koalas scratched and bloodied — missing chunks of fur and even a claw — after fighting with a rival male.

    That’s why my observations of affection between young male koalas were so surprising.

    What I saw after dark

    Over three painstaking weeks, I studied a koala population in the woodlands of Cape Otway, southern Victoria. Each night, I went out between 9pm and 2am to track and observe the males. I used a red-light spotlight to avoid disturbing them. If I saw something interesting, I filmed it. You can watch the video below.

    After two weeks, I observed three males engaging in unexpected “affiliative” behaviours. They were grooming each other, sniffing each other’s genitals and vocalising to each other in soft, high-pitched calls, similar to the sounds baby koalas make.

    They also appeared to be playing. They would gently — but perhaps provocatively — bite one another on the arm and ear, a bit like cheeky puppies do.

    These interactions weren’t brief, either. I watched the koalas for two hours before finally giving in to sleep. When I went back at lunchtime the next day, they were still at it.

    What’s behind these affectionate behaviours?

    This type of social interaction between wild koalas had only been observed once before, more than 30 years ago, in a high-density koala population on French Island off Victoria.

    Like that earlier observation, the koalas I recorded were young adult males, roughly aged between three and five years. Hormonal activity can surge at this life stage, leading to an increase in social behaviours such as play and boldness.

    But if the affectionate behaviours were solely the result of teenage hormones, you’d expect it to be observed more often in many koalas in this age group. But that’s not the case.

    Instead, these behaviours are most likely a result of the large koala populations.

    Typically, fewer than two koalas are found per hectare. At Cape Otway, there were 15 koalas per hectare. This number can reach up to 20 in parts of South Australia and Victoria.

    This high density means the home ranges of koalas are more likely to overlap and their interactions will be more frequent. It also means competition for food, space and mates can be especially high.

    So young males might use affectionate behaviours — such as grooming and playing — to reduce conflict and manage stress. It may help individuals become familiar with their neighbours, establish hierarchies and avoid aggressive encounters.

    Genetics may also play a role. Like many high-density koala populations, this population had low genetic diversity, meaning there was a high degree of relatedness among individuals.

    Low genetic diversity can be a big problem for species overall. But it does mean some animals might identify their relatives, and tolerate being close to them.

    The causes of low genetic diversity in high-density koala populations are complex. The species was almost hunted to extinction. This meant a vastly reduced number of koalas could pass on their genes to the next generation. To make matters worse, habitat destruction can prevent koalas from dispersing over a wide area.

    This truckload of koala pelts was taken during the 1927 open season in Queensland.
    State Library of Queensland, CC BY-ND

    The complex reality of koala conservation

    Koalas are listed as endangered in New South Wales, Queensland and the ACT. But high-density koala populations, such as the one I observed in Cape Otway, also present major conservation challenges.

    Too many koalas feeding in an area puts pressure on preferred tree species. This can result in mass tree death, and habitat loss for koalas and other species. In some cases, koalas can starve.

    Unfortunately, there are no quick and easy solutions to this issue. Moving koalas from crowded areas to places where they are endangered often isn’t possible, due to differences in climate and the unique gut bacteria koalas need for their local food trees.

    Other interventions, such as fertility control, can be effective. But this takes many years of intensive effort and significant funding, making it vulnerable to budget cuts and shifting priorities.

    Some experts say culling could be used to control koala numbers and conserve the surrounding habitat, as it is for kangaroos. However, this is likely to draw widespread public opposition.

    These complex challenges offer an unexpected silver lining, however. As my experience shows, high-density koala populations provide unique opportunities to observe rare social behaviours in this iconic species. All you need is curiosity, a big cup of tea, and patience.

    Darcy Watchorn works for Zoos Victoria, a not-for-profit zoo-based conservation organisation. He is a member of the Ecological Society of Australia, the Australian Mammal Society, and the Society for Conservation Biology.

    – ref. ‘I was shocked’: a scientist tracking koalas films startling behaviour between young males – https://theconversation.com/i-was-shocked-a-scientist-tracking-koalas-films-startling-behaviour-between-young-males-247339

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Gene pools are getting dangerously shallow for many species. We found 5 ways to help

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn Shaw, Research Fellow in Conservation Genomics, University of Canberra

    A golden bandicoot (_Isoodon auratus_) Colleen Sims/Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, CC BY-SA

    Before species go extinct, their populations often shrink and become isolated. Healthy populations tend to have a large gene pool with many genetic variants circulating. But the path to extinction erodes genetic diversity, because a species’ gene pool shrinks as the population declines. Losing genetic diversity limits the ability of populations to adapt to threats such as disease and climate change.

    So, what is the state of genetic diversity in animals, plants, fungi and algae worldwide? And how could focusing on this crucial level of biodiversity help build resilience in the face of global change? We explore these questions in our new study, published today in Nature.

    Our team of 57 scientists from 20 countries trawled through more than 80,000 scientific articles across three decades to summarise evidence of genetic change in populations in 141 countries.

    Alarmingly, we found genetic diversity is being lost globally across many species, especially birds and mammals. This loss was most severe in studies reporting changes in habitat, new diseases, natural disasters, and human activities such as hunting or logging.

    But there’s hope. Our study suggests conservation strategies can help maintain or even increase genetic diversity.

    Isolated populations of the endangered Scandinavian arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus) have become inbred.
    Jonatan Pie, Unsplash

    What is genetic diversity and why does it matter?

    At the core of every cell lies a copy of the instruction manual for living things. This is the genetic code, made up of DNA molecules. But its sequence varies enormously, separating a moth from a tree from a bacterium. Even within a species, we see distinct genetic differences between individuals. These genetic differences contribute to differences in their traits, which is why we get individuals who are taller or shorter, faster or slower, bolder or more cautious.

    This genetic diversity stems from mutations. Often, these mutations are not helpful. But at times, they can enable populations to adapt to change.

    For example, golden kelp (Ecklonia radiata) likes colder water. But in a population, some individuals will have mutations suited for warm water. When a devastating marine heatwave hit the West Australian coast in 2011, individuals with warm-water mutations were more likely to survive and reproduce. This genetic diversity enabled the kelp population to adapt to the warmer conditions.

    This is why genetic diversity is so important – it gives species more resilience in a rapidly changing world. This priority has been recognised in Australia’s Strategy for Nature, and in goals and targets discussed at the United Nations biodiversity summit COP16.

    How can we safeguard or restore genetic diversity for threatened species?

    To answer this question, we used a technique called meta-analysis to look for patterns. From more than 80,000 published articles, we identified 882 studies which measured changes in genetic diversity over time. These studies came from right around the globe and across the entire “tree of life”.

    They show there are many ways to conserve genetic diversity. Here are five promising strategies to help keep species resilient.

    Scientists from 20 countries came together to read thousands of papers and collect data on genetic diversity during in-person and online workshops.
    Robyn Shaw

    Action 1: Adding individuals

    Adding individuals to an existing population is known as supplementation. Our research found supplementation was the only action linked to a significant increase in genetic diversity, especially in birds.

    Supplementation can help reduce the harmful effects of inbreeding, which is common in small, isolated populations. For example, conservationists working to safeguard New Zealand’s South Island robins (Petroica australis) moved female birds between isolated islands. The offspring of parents from different islands had stronger immune systems, higher survival rates, and improved reproductive health compared to their inbred counterparts.

    Supplementation is key for boosting genetic diversity, improving population health and building resilience.

    Action 2: Population control

    Doing the opposite – removing individuals – can actually improve outcomes for the population as a whole in some circumstances, by, for instance, reducing competition.

    But genetic diversity results varied a lot in studies using population control. So how can this strategy be used effectively?

    In one case, conservationists in the United States used population control of coaster brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) in a hatchery to prevent any single family from breeding too much. This meant multiple genetic lineages were maintained, increasing genetic diversity.

    Action 3: Restoration

    Ecosystem restoration can include planting trees, rehabilitating wetlands or restoring natural patterns of fire and water. We found genetic diversity was often maintained over time when ecological restoration was used.

    Restoration efforts, alongside supplementation, are important to the survival of the greater prairie-chicken (Tympanuchus cupido), which had lost much habitat. Researchers report restoring and expanding suitable habitat is proving crucial to sustain genetic diversity and achieving long-term recovery.

    Found in the US and Canada, greater prairie-chickens are known for their courtship dance.
    Danita Delimont/Shutterstock

    Action 4: Control of other species

    Feral, pest or overabundant species can outcompete, eat, or graze on species under threat. Controlling these species was linked to maintenance of genetic diversity in the studies we analysed overall.

    For example, control of red fox numbers helped the Arctic fox(Vulpes lagopu) recover in Sweden. The technique reduced competition over resources such as food while new foxes from Norway were added to the wild population. Inbreeding was reduced, and survival improved.

    Action 5: Conservation introductions and reintroductions

    Establishing new populations at new sites is known as a conservation introduction, while a reintroduction means restoring populations where they previously existed.

    We found mixed results for genetic diversity when these actions were reported. So, what factors contribute to success?

    In Western Australia, a large number of golden bandicoots (Isoodon auratus) from a robust island population were reintroduced to three sites. After six generations, genetic diversity at these sites remained similar to the original source population. Success came from careful planning to ensure the new populations had a large gene pool to start from.

    Overall, our study revealed many cases of genetic diversity loss. But we also found evidence that conservation action – especially supplementation – can improve the genetic health of a species.

    Researchers, conservation managers and volunteers helped grow seedlings and establish new populations of the critically endangered feather-leaved banksia near Albany in Western Australia.
    David Coates

    What can you do?

    Supporting genetic diversity can be done at home.

    If you have a garden, you can plant native species to support habitat connectivity.

    Growing heirloom vegetables and rare fruit trees, or breeding heritage chooks can maintain genetic diversity in our food system.

    Join community or botanic garden groups, or work with conservation groups to improve habitat or bolster numbers of threatened species.

    While enjoying nature, avoid accidentally moving plants, seeds, or soil to new areas to reduce the spread of pests and diseases.

    These small actions add up, helping to safeguard biodiversity at all levels – including genetic diversity.

    Robyn Shaw was supported during the study by funding from the Australian Research Council. The project workshop was sponsored by the European Cooperation in Science and Technology Action ‘Genomic Biodiversity Knowledge for Resilient Ecosystems’. She is a member of the Coalition for Conservation Genetics and the IUCN Conservation Genetics Specialist Group.

    Catherine Grueber’s research into the conservation genetics of threatened species receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the University of Sydney (Robinson Fellowship). She is a member of the Coalition for Conservation Genetics, and the IUCN Conservation Genetics Specialist Group.

    Katherine Farquharson was supported during the study by funding from the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Innovations in Peptide and Protein Science. She is affiliated with Koala Conservation Australia.

    – ref. Gene pools are getting dangerously shallow for many species. We found 5 ways to help – https://theconversation.com/gene-pools-are-getting-dangerously-shallow-for-many-species-we-found-5-ways-to-help-242708

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Women don’t have a ‘surge’ in fertility before menopause – but surprise pregnancies can happen, even after 45

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Karin Hammarberg, Adjunct Senior Research Fellow, Global and Women’s Health, School of Public Health & Preventive Medicine, Monash University

    IKO-studio/Shutterstock

    Every now and then we see media reports about celebrities in their mid 40s having surprise pregnancies. Or you might hear stories like these from friends or relatives, or see them on TV.

    Menopause signals the end of a woman’s reproductive years and happens naturally between age 45 and 55 (the average is 51). After 12 months with no periods, a woman is considered postmenopausal.

    While the chance of pregnancy is very low in the years leading up to menopause – the so called menopausal transition or perimenopause – the chance is not zero.

    So, what do we know about the chance of conceiving naturally after age 45? And what are the risks?

    Is there a spike in fertility before menopause?

    The hormonal changes that accompany perimenopause cause changes to the menstrual cycle pattern, and some have suggested there can be a “surge” in fertility at perimenopause. But there’s no evidence this exists.

    In the years leading up to menopause, a woman’s periods often become irregular, and she might have some of the common symptoms of menopause such as hot flushes and night sweats.

    This might lead women to think they have hit menopause and can’t get pregnant anymore. But while pregnancy in a woman in her mid 40s is significantly less likely compared to a woman in her 20s or 30s, it’s still possible.

    The stats for natural pregnancies after age 45

    Although women in their mid- to late 40s sometimes have “miracle babies”, the chance of pregnancy is minimal in the five to ten years leading up to menopause.

    The monthly chance of pregnancy in a woman aged 30 is about 20%. By age 40 it’s less than 5% and by age 45 the chance is negligible.

    We don’t know exactly how many women become pregnant in their mid to late 40s, as many pregnancies at this age miscarry. The risk of miscarriage increases from 10% in women in their 20s to more than 50% in women aged 45 years or older. Also, for personal or medical reasons some pregnancies are terminated.

    According to a review of demographic data on age when women had their final birth across several countries, the median age was 38.6 years. But the range of ages reported for last birth in the reviewed studies showed a small proportion of women give birth after age 45.

    Having had many children before seems to increase the odds of giving birth after age 45. A study of 209 women in Israel who had conceived spontaneously and given birth after age 45 found 81% had already had six or more deliveries and almost half had had 11 or more previous deliveries.

    Conceiving naturally at age 45 plus is not unheard of.
    pixelheadphoto digitalskillet/Shutterstock

    There’s no reliable data on how common births after age 45 are in Australia. The most recent report on births in Australia show that about 5% of babies are born to women aged 40 years or older.

    However, most of those were likely born to women aged between 40 and 45. Also, the data includes women who conceive with assisted reproductive technologies, including with the use of donor eggs. For women in their 40s, using eggs donated by a younger woman significantly increases their chance of having a baby with IVF.

    What to be aware of if you experience a late unexpected pregnancy

    A surprise pregnancy late in life often comes as a shock and deciding what to do can be difficult.

    Depending on their personal circumstances, some women decide to terminate the pregnancy. Contrary to the stereotype that abortions are most common among very young women, women aged 40–44 are more likely to have an abortion than women aged 15–19.

    This may in part be explained by the fact older women are up to ten times more likely to have a fetus with chromosomal abnormalities.

    There are some extra risks involved in pregnancy when the mother is older. More than half of pregnancies in women aged 45 and older end in miscarriage and some are terminated if prenatal testing shows the fetus has the wrong number of chromosomes.

    This is because at that age, most eggs have chromosomal abnormalities. For example, the risk of having a pregnancy affected by Down syndrome is one in 86 at age 40 compared to one in 1,250 at age 20.

    There are some added risks associated with pregnancy when the mother is older.
    Natalia Deriabina/Shutterstock

    Apart from the increased risk of chromosomal abnormalities, advanced maternal age also increases the risk of stillbirth, fetal growth restriction (when the unborn baby doesn’t grow properly), preterm birth, pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes and caesarean section.

    However, it’s important to remember that since the overall risk of all these things is small, even with an increase, the risk is still small and most babies born to older mothers are born healthy.

    Multiple births are also more common in older women than in younger women. This is because older women are more likely to release more than one egg if and when they ovulate.

    A study of all births in England and Wales found women aged 45 and over were the most likely to have a multiple birth.

    The risks of babies being born prematurely and having health complications are higher in twin than singleton pregnancies, and the risks are highest in women of advanced maternal age.

    What if you want to become pregnant in your 40s?

    If you’re keen to avoid pregnancy during perimenopause, it’s recommended you use contraception.

    But if you want to get pregnant in your 40s, there are some things you can do to boost your chance of conceiving and having a healthy baby.

    These include preparing for pregnancy by seeing a GP for a preconception health check, taking folic acid and iodine supplements, not smoking, limiting alcohol consumption, maintaining a healthy weight, exercising regularly and having a nutritious diet.

    If you get good news, talking to a doctor about what to expect and how to best manage a pregnancy in your 40s can help you be prepared and will allow you to get personalised advice based on your health and circumstances.

    Karin Hammarberg 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 don’t have a ‘surge’ in fertility before menopause – but surprise pregnancies can happen, even after 45 – https://theconversation.com/women-dont-have-a-surge-in-fertility-before-menopause-but-surprise-pregnancies-can-happen-even-after-45-247454

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Australian democracy is not dead, but needs help to ensure its survival

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Evans, Deputy Vice-chancellor Research, Charles Sturt University

    Democracies worldwide are suffering from legitimacy problems. This is reflected in low levels of public trust in key political institutions, the polarisation of politics, and the erosion of public confidence in the capacity of governments to address societal concerns.

    According to the 2024 Edelman Trust Barometer, only 50% of people worldwide trust their government, and the tally is even lower in many developed countries such as the United States and United Kingdom. A study by the Pew Research Center found only 20% of Americans trust their national government to do what is right “just about always” or “most of the time”.

    Citizens almost everywhere view their elected officials and public institutions with suspicion. They believe decisions are made to serve special interests rather than the common good. This culture of discontentment is leading to reduced civic engagement, increased polarisation, the rise of identity politics, and a general sense of disillusionment with the political process. It has also sparked an upsurge in speculation as to whether democracy is dying, in recession or crisis.

    So how does Australia compare with this global pattern?

    The Australian context

    The findings of the New Democratic Audit of Australia have just been published. They provide a timely and comprehensive evaluation of the current state of Australian democratic life.

    The audit promises to bridge significant gaps in our understanding of Australia’s democracy.

    A team of leading academics from universities in every state and territory deploys an audit approach to assess the democratic performance of federal, state and territory-level political institutions. It then examines how they have enabled or undermined Australian political life.

    For instance, the monopoly of Australian governance by Coalition and Labor parties has only just begun to adjust to growing disillusionment with the two-party system.

    To date, Australia has successfully avoided both rancorous populist politics (as in the US) and serious governance decline (as in the UK). However, the Voice to Parliament referendum and continued pandering to regressive immigration policies suggests populism could well be on the rise.

    So what did the New Democratic Audit find?

    Democracy under stress

    1. Declining public trust in government. Trust in Australian political institutions is in decline. Only 30% of Australians report trust in government officials, according to the Australian Election Study.

    The main concerns driving the decline in trust are lack of transparency in decision-making, perceptions of public sector inefficiency, political corruption, and the disconnection between politicians and citizens. Australians also express concerns about poor communication of policies. Furthermore, they believe governments have failed to deliver solutions to pressing issues such as the cost of living, wage stagnation and climate action.

    A significant proportion of the population believes the country has become more divided. Major sources of division are the perception of the rich and powerful as a major dividing force (72%), followed by hostile foreign governments (69%), journalists (51%), and government leaders (49%).

    2. Strong public satisfaction with democracy. Despite low trust in government, the 2024 World Values Survey shows that support for democratic values in Australia — such as free and fair elections, the rule of law, and representative democracy — remains strong. There is also a growing emphasis post-pandemic on the need for governments to address long-term challenges such as climate change and income inequality.

    3. Australia is viewed internationally as a leading liberal democracy. Despite the challenges, Australia is assessed in most global rankings as one of the leading liberal democracies, with continuous economic growth, a strong federal system, and competitive elections. Its institutions have generally performed well, even in the face of global challenges such as the COVID pandemic. Australia is classed as one of only 24 “full democracies”.

    4. The “protective power of democracy” is under pressure. The audit emphasises economist Amartya Sen’s concept of the “protective power of democracy as critical to achieving high quality democratic governance”. This relies on four components: electoral integrity, participatory opportunities, liberal values and good democratic governance.

    5. Electoral integrity. Australia’s elections are free and fair, thanks to an independent election commission. However, concerns about government advertising and political donations undermine the fairness of elections, giving incumbent governments an advantage.

    6. Public participation. Australia performs poorly in facilitating citizen participation beyond voting. Opportunities for civil society engagement, through localism, citizen juries or assemblies, are limited. Parliaments at various levels are not adequately representative in terms of gender and ethnicity, and regional policy concerns are often ignored.

    7. Liberal values. Australia has made improvements in protecting civil rights, especially concerning LGBTQ+ issues and gender equality. But there remain significant gaps in protecting the rights of the most vulnerable groups, including Indigenous communities, differently abled people, and refugees. Australia lacks a comprehensive charter of human rights, and there are ongoing issues with the erosion of civil liberties.

    8. Good democratic governance. This component refers to the instrumental importance of governments being responsible and accountable, responsive to the needs of the citizenry in service terms, and free from corruption. This is where the performance or supply of government matters most.

    The audit finds Australia’s institutions are generally effective and adaptive, as seen in responses to the bushfires and the COVID pandemic. However, the federal government wields disproportionate power, which undermines traditional checks and balances. Public perception of corruption in politics and the public sector is also a growing public concern.

    Reimagining Australian democracy

    The audit concludes that Australia remains a full democracy, but faces critical challenges that require reflection and reinvention.

    To renew its democracy, Australia must make its system of government more representative, accountable and responsive to the needs of citizens. There is a need for a stronger focus on integrity in politics, ensuring governments act transparently, empathetically and in ways that deliver tangible outcomes for the public. Public dissatisfaction with political corruption, inefficiency and a lack of responsiveness must be addressed to restore trust in political institutions.

    While Australia continues to be a leading democracy, it faces pressing challenges that could undermine the sustainability of its democratic institutions if not addressed. The audit calls for a period of democratic reinvention, with an emphasis on improving governance to better serve citizens and maintain public trust in democracy.

    The New Democratic Audit is free for download at: https://press.lse.ac.uk/site/books/e/10.31389/lsepress.ada/

    Mark Evans has received funding and in-kind support to complete democratic audits in the United Kingdom (Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust) and Australia (Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House, Canberra).

    – ref. Australian democracy is not dead, but needs help to ensure its survival – https://theconversation.com/australian-democracy-is-not-dead-but-needs-help-to-ensure-its-survival-235638

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: New analysis of asteroid dust reveals evidence of salty water in the early Solar System

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nick Timms, Associate Professor, School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Curtin University

    A view of eight sample trays containing the final sample material from asteroid Bennu. Erika Blumenfeld & Joseph Aebers/JSC

    In October 2020, a van-sized robotic spacecraft briefly touched down on the surface of Bennu, a 525-metre-wide asteroid 320 million kilometres from Earth.

    As part of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, the spacecraft not only spent two years orbiting and imaging the asteroid, it also collected a precious sample of dust and small rocks from Bennu’s rubbly surface.

    In September 2023, a capsule containing the pristine asteroid sample returned to Earth, landing in the Utah desert in the United States.

    Since then, an international team of scientists – of which we are members – have been busy studying the roughly 120 grams of material collected from Bennu.

    Our findings are revealed in two new papers published in Nature and Nature Astronomy today. They indicate that water may have once been present on Bennu’s parent body, and offer new insights into the chemistry of the early Solar System.

    Pristine remnants of rocks from deep time

    Asteroids are fragmentary remnants of pre-existing parent bodies from early in our Solar System’s history that have since been destroyed by collisions with other objects. They orbit the Sun and come in many different shapes, sizes and chemical compositions.

    Asteroid Bennu was targeted for the OSIRIS-REx mission because remote sensing observations from Earth indicated it as a B-type asteroid. These asteroids are rich in carbon and hydrated clay minerals, possibly sharing similarities to the most primitive group of meteorites on Earth, known as carbonaceous chondrites.

    Unlike meteorite samples, samples collected from asteroids have not been physically or chemically modified by Earth’s atmosphere and biosphere. This allows us to tackle key questions about the evolution of the early Solar System, planet formation, and the ingredients for life.

    Another aim of the OSIRIS-REx mission is to link findings from samples in the laboratory to those from remote sensing techniques. This helps us corroborate astronomical observations of asteroids to improve our surveys of the Solar System.

    Curation teams process the sample return capsule from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission in a cleanroom.
    Keegan Barber/NASA

    Tiny crystals of salt minerals

    To prevent contamination, the sealed capsule containing the sample was stored and handled in a huge glass box when it was returned to Earth. This tank had rubber gloves feeding into it from the side so scientists could handle the samples without directly touching them. It had also been purged with nitrogen to keep out moisture and oxygen from Earth’s atmosphere.

    When we analysed the interior of Bennu’s dust particles, we were surprised to find tiny crystals of the salt minerals known as halite and sylvite.

    This was a breakthrough discovery.

    Halite is extremely rare in meteorites. It has only been found in three out of hundreds of thousands of known meteorites on Earth. We also know that halite is highly soluble. It can degrade quickly when exposed to air or water on Earth.

    Other members of the OSIRIS-REx sample analysis team identified a variety of other salt minerals in the Bennu sample. These included sodium carbonates, phosphates, sulphates and fluorides.

    These minerals can form by the evaporation of brines – similar to deposits that form in Earth’s salt lakes.

    By comparing these results with the chemical makeup of salt lakes on Earth, a picture began to emerge of brines evaporating on the parent body of asteroid Bennu, leaving behind salts as evidence.

    Tiny crystals of several minerals including sodium carbonate (pictured here) were found in samples of the asteroid Bennu.
    Timothy McCoy/Smithsonian

    A variety of organic compounds

    This discovery provides a new insight into water activity during the earliest times in our Solar System. But the presence of salt minerals is significant for another reason.

    On Earth, these minerals are a catalyst for the formation of organic compounds such as nucleobases and nucleosides – the prebiotic building blocks of terrestrial biology.

    And indeed, in a separate analysis of the Bennu sample, other colleagues on the OSIRIS-REx mission identified a wide variety of organic compounds present on the carbon- and nitrogen-rich asteroid.

    These compounds include 14 of the 20 amino acids we also find in Earth’s biological processes. They also include several amino acids that are absent in known biology, ammonia, and all five nucleobases found in RNA and DNA.

    Even though no life was detected on Bennu, the two new studies show that a briny, carbon-rich environment on Bennu’s parent body was suitable for assembling the building blocks of life.

    In September 2023, a capsule containing the pristine sample from Bennu returned to Earth, landing in the Utah desert in the United States.
    Keegan Barber/NASA

    Ongoing investigations

    The findings from returned samples of asteroid Bennu may provide researchers insight into what happens on distant icy bodies in our Solar System.

    Some of these bodies include Saturn’s moon Enceladus and the dwarf planet Ceres in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

    Both Enceladus and Ceres have subsurface brine oceans. Could they possibly harbour life?

    We are continuing to investigate Bennu using the pristine samples collected back in 2020. We are currently researching the timing of the Bennu parent body breakup event and looking for evidence of impacts recorded by various minerals in the samples.

    The authors of this article acknowledge the contribution of the following people to the research at Curtin University: Fred Jourdan, Steven Reddy, David Saxey, Celia Mayers, and Xiao Sun, as well as the entire OSIRIS-REx team.

    William Rickard receives funding from the Australian Research Council, Australia Government

    Nick Timms and Phil Bland 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. New analysis of asteroid dust reveals evidence of salty water in the early Solar System – https://theconversation.com/new-analysis-of-asteroid-dust-reveals-evidence-of-salty-water-in-the-early-solar-system-248439

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: How do workers cope in no-win situations? Midwives found out the hard way during the pandemic

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Greenslade-Yeats, Research Fellow in Management, Auckland University of Technology

    Eldar Nurkovic/Shutterstock

    During the pandemic, midwives faced what researchers call a “pragmatic paradox” – a situation where contradictory demands are imposed on individuals who can neither refuse nor fulfil the demands.

    Midwives needed to care for women and babies despite the risk of infecting them with the virus. Their experiences shed important light on how we can think about no-win situations in the workplace.

    In our recently published research, we surveyed 215 New Zealand midwives about their experiences of working through COVID lockdowns and how they coped with what felt at times like a no-win situation.

    The absurdity of contradictory demands

    Pragmatic paradoxes place workers in absurd, no-win situations. They can occur simply because of leadership issues or glitches in management bureaucracies. They can also happen during unique crises – such as the pandemic.

    But many workers are so used to feeling powerless that they may not recognise – much less question – the absurdity of contradictory demands.

    This is especially true in situations where workers lack opportunities to discuss or challenge the directives they receive from above.

    When the pandemic struck, midwives’ professional roles suddenly entailed an inherent contradiction they had no opportunity to question.

    They were contractually obligated to protect societal wellbeing by providing ongoing maternity services. Yet due to the fast evolving situation and initial shortages of safety equipment, providing those services entailed risking public wellbeing by exposing themselves and their clients to the virus.

    As one of our research participants explained:

    I felt that I was in a very difficult situation. I was connecting with multiple “bubbles” on a daily basis. I was scared that I could be in a position to pass COVID on to vulnerable people.

    As expected, most midwives in our study felt disempowered by the tensions of this situation:

    I felt extremely vulnerable. As a lead maternity carer midwife, considered an essential service, I had no control over whether I could just not work.

    But surprisingly, a small number of midwives were seemingly motivated by it. As one explained,

    [My family] thought I was “brave” and “courageous” to keep working – but this was simply my job! I felt like I had a duty to pregnant women to front up and continue as per normal.

    During the pandemic, midwives faced a pragmatic paradox – they were expected to enter multiple people’s homes while also preventing the spread of COVID-19.
    metamorworks/Shutterstock

    Recognised and supported?

    Why would some midwives feel motivated by their contractual obligations to fulfil contradictory demands?

    The crux, we found, was not whether they were aware of the contradiction inherent in their situation, but whether that awareness was accompanied by a sense of professional recognition and support.

    If midwives felt like they were recognised and supported in their ongoing efforts – like valuable members in the “team of five million” – they framed and accepted their contradictory situation as part of a societal duty.

    Midwives placed particular importance on recognition and support from the government and the public. As one explained,

    I felt the love. Heading out on the motorway I would see the sign thanking essential workers. And the government was always mentioning us and thanking us.

    In contrast, if they felt like health system leaders and the public were oblivious to their situation, they interpreted contradictory work demands as stressful and disempowering.

    Another midwife said,

    I became very angry and felt midwives were like lambs to the slaughter – we had no PPE, we were being told to carry on working, in the media we were invisible. Our professional body seemed to put the women we cared for ahead of our wellbeing.

    Managing pragmatic paradoxes

    There are two ways to look at the implications of our findings. One is to suggest pragmatic paradoxes are not as bad as they initially seem.

    Contradictions abound in contemporary society, so it may be inevitable people face conflicting yet unrefusable demands in their jobs. But if leaders and managers can motivate workers to embrace those demands – or at least recognise the difficulty of the tasks – the outcome can be positive.

    An alternative reading is workers who feel motivated by pragmatic paradoxes are casualties of something akin to gaslighting. According to this logic, contradictory demands are imposed by those at the top of their respective organisations and societies, so that’s where the demands ought to be dealt with.

    For example, the government could have minimised the risks midwives faced during the pandemic by better access to protective equipment, thereby resolving their contradictory situation. Suggesting contradictory demands should be passed down to lower-level workers is therefore equivalent to accepting a certain level of oppression.

    Whichever interpretation resonates more, our research underscores the importance of communication as a means of ensuring workers are not disempowered by pragmatic paradoxes.

    Over the course of the pandemic, healthcare workers worldwide eventually improved their contradictory situation by posting on social media and talking to the press. Political leaders and health management recognised the workforce needed greater support to navigate the contradictory demands of risking wellbeing to protect wellbeing.

    The broader lesson is when people face contradictory directives, they should be able to discuss and challenge them.

    Research suggests that in interpersonal situations, humour may be an effective means of doing so without directly threatening the power or competence of those in charge.

    Of course, this brings us to one final paradox: that encouraging humour and employee voice requires fostering the type of environment where pragmatic paradoxes are unlikely to thrive in the first place.

    Tago Mharapara receives funding from Auckland University of Technology

    James Greenslade-Yeats 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. How do workers cope in no-win situations? Midwives found out the hard way during the pandemic – https://theconversation.com/how-do-workers-cope-in-no-win-situations-midwives-found-out-the-hard-way-during-the-pandemic-247679

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Is no amount of alcohol safe? Understanding risks and public health guidelines

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Scott Lear, Professor of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University

    While it may be true that there is no safe level of alcohol consumption, are alarmist statements a good motivator for health messaging, or is there danger to using them? (Shutterstock)

    The United States surgeon general recently called for a warning of cancer risk on alcohol labels. And I agree. But the discourse that has come out in the media, by health professionals and health influencers, has been alarmist and a disservice to informing the public on the real cancer risks associated with alcohol.

    I’m a professor in Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University and I study how behaviours relate to the disease. I also write a blog on the role health behaviours play in your health.

    Alcohol and cancer risk

    The surgeon general’s comments follow reports from the World Health Organization and Canada’s Guidance on Alcohol and Health, both of which state there is no safe amount of alcohol you can consume.

    This has been repeated by health professionals, those in public health and on social media, where health influencers have described alcohol as a toxin.

    But are these alarmist statements a good motivator for health messaging, or is there danger to using them?

    Statistically, your risk for cancer goes up from the very first sip of alcohol. That doesn’t mean you will get cancer from drinking alcohol, it just means your chances increase. And as you drink more alcohol, your chances further increase. It’s like betting in roulette: the more numbers you bet on, the more likely you are to win. Or in this case, lose.

    Out of 800 women, one drink per week will result in two additional women getting breast cancer.
    (Shutterstock)

    However, what’s lost in this messaging is how much this risk is. Based on Canada’s Guidance on Alcohol and Health, having one drink per week increases a women’s risk for breast cancer by 1.8 per cent. Approximately one in eight women will develop breast cancer in their life. Therefore, out of 800 women, one drink per week will result in two additional women getting breast cancer. Having one drink per day increases the risk seven-fold. These are real people who might otherwise not get breast cancer if they abstained from alcohol.

    While saying no amount of alcohol is safe is true, this can apply to a lot of common activities. In Canada, there are approximately 300 pedestrian deaths per year. Each day, on average, five Canadians die in motor vehicle accidents.

    While these numbers are much lower than the number of people who die from cancer each year, it would also be accurate to say there is no amount of walking or driving that is safe. Despite this, people will continue to cross the street and people will continue to drive. But this illustrates the challenge in informing the public about risks and changing behaviour.

    Fear in public health messaging

    The use of fear in public health messaging should only be used if there’s an effective solution. In the case of alcohol, there is: abstinence.
    (Shutterstock)

    The use of fear in public health has a long history. But measuring the effect of these campaigns is hard. Graphic images are used on tobacco products to scare people away from smoking. Carefully controlled studies indicate they increase health awareness but may have limited effect on smoking. However, similar graphic images on bottles of sugar-sweetened beverages in controlled studies has been shown to reduce consumption.

    During the COVID-19 pandemic, fear was at the forefront of public health efforts to control the spread of SARS-CoV-2. Indeed, the use of fear in public health messaging seemed to be quite an effective tool in ensuring behavioural compliance in pandemic measures. Community interviews of parents showed fear was at the root of both getting their children vaccinated (fear of the disease) or not (fear of the vaccination).

    The use of fear in public health messaging should only be used if there’s an effective solution. In the case of alcohol, there is: abstinence. But the use of fear should also be commensurate with the risk, otherwise it risks having people tune out.

    This may be particularly problematic when previous guidelines stated beneficial effects of moderate drinking and current guidelines on alcohol state one to two drinks per day is acceptable. Instead, the public may be best served by communicating the risk in terms the public understands, such as how many more people will get cancer from drinking.

    Alcohol should have a warning label on it

    Alcohol consumption in Canada is on the decline. In 2022, alcohol consumption decreased by 1.2 per cent compared to 2021. And in 2023, 54 per cent of Canadians reported having no alcohol over the previous week, with younger Canadians drinking less than their older counterparts. These trends are similar in the United States.

    More than 40 countries have a warning label on alcohol (although far fewer mention cancer), but Canada and many European countries are not included. They should be. Alcohol is a highly addictive substance that can destroy the lives of those addicted to it and those around them. It impairs judgment and accounts for dozens of deaths per year from drinking and driving.

    Pregnant women drinking alcohol also increase their risk of their child having fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Alcohol is also a drug you can overdose from.

    Warning labels on alcohol are a good step to reduce health risks, as long as they are clear and informative.

    Scott Lear receives funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and Hamilton Health Sciences, and has received funding from the Heart and Stroke Foundation, Novo Nordisk, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

    – ref. Is no amount of alcohol safe? Understanding risks and public health guidelines – https://theconversation.com/is-no-amount-of-alcohol-safe-understanding-risks-and-public-health-guidelines-247883

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –