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Category: Analysis Assessment

  • MIL-Evening Report: In a world first, The Hague wants to arrest Taliban leaders over their treatment of women – what happens next?

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yvonne Breitwieser-Faria, Lecturer in Criminal Law and International Law, Curtin University

    Earlier this month, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants against the Taliban leadership in Afghanistan.

    The court’s Pre-Trial Chamber II cited reasonable grounds for believing supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada and chief justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani were guilty of “ordering, inducing or soliciting the crime against humanity of persecution on gender grounds.”

    The warrants – the first ever on charges of gender persecution – are being hailed as an “important vindication and acknowledgement of the rights of Afghan women and girls”.

    But will they improve the plight of women and girls in Afghanistan, given the Taliban does not recognise the court or its jurisdiction?

    The signs are not good with the Taliban denying the allegations and condemning the warrants as a “clear act of hostility [and an] insult to the beliefs of Muslims around the world”.

    Erased from public life

    Strict rules and prohibitions have been imposed on the Afghan people since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021.

    Women and girls have been singled out for even worse treatment by reason of their gender.

    According the warrants, the Taliban has

    severely deprived, through decrees and edicts, girls and women of the rights to education, privacy and family life and the freedoms of movement, expression, thought, conscience and religion.

    Women are banned from public places and girls from attending school once they turn 12.

    Zahra Nader is the editor-in-chief of newsroom Zan Times which investigates human rights violations in Afghanistan. She says Afghan women and girls are being silenced, restricted and stripped of their basic human rights.

    It is this discriminatory system of control of woman and girls in Afghanistan that is at the core of the court’s prosecution.

    The warrants also accuse the Taliban of persecuting

    other persons who don’t conform with the Taliban’s ideological expectations of gender, gender identity or expression; and on political grounds against persons perceived as ‘allies of girls and women.

    This is the first time an international tribunal or court has confirmed crimes against humanity involving LGBTQIA+ victims. This marks an important milestone in the protection of sexual minorities under international law.

    Crimes against humanity

    International law clearly spells put the offences which constitute crimes against humanity.

    The aim is to protect civilians from serious and widespread attacks on their fundamental rights. Different definitions of crimes against humanity have been included in the statutes of a handful of international tribunals and courts.

    The definition under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court is the most comprehensive. It includes severe deprivation of personal liberty, murder, enslavement, rape, torture, forced deportation or apartheid.

    Specifically, the Taliban leaders are accused under Article 7(1)(h) of the Rome Statute, which states:

    Persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender […] or other grounds that are universally recognised as impermissible under international law.

    Physical and direct violence is not necessary for persecution on “gender […] grounds” to be established. Systemic and institutionalised forms of harm, which can be the imposition of discriminatory societal norms, are sufficient.

    Women and girls are often disproportionately affected by Taliban policies and rules. But proving gender-based crimes have occurred is not enough. Discriminatory intent must also be established.

    The Taliban has been open about its religious beliefs and interpretations, suggesting a clear intention to persecute on the grounds of gender.

    Not just symbolic

    As with other cases, the court relies on the cooperation of states to execute and surrender those accused.

    The interim government in Kabul which was formed after the US-led invasion in 2001 became a party to the Rome Statute in 2003. Afghanistan remains legally obligated to prosecute perpetrators of these crimes – it must accept the Court’s jurisdiction in the matter.

    The Purple Saturdays Movement, an Afghan women-led protest group, is warning the arrest warrants must be more than just symbolic. Any failure to prosecute would likely result in an escalation of human rights violations:

    The Taliban has historically responded to international pressure not with reform, but by intensifying such repressive policies.

    Hopeful step

    It is important to note the strict policies and widespread abuses targeting women and girls in Afghanistan are ongoing, despite the intervention by the International Criminal Court.

    The court’s Office of the Prosecutor is stressing its commitment to pursuing “effective legal pathways” to bring the Taliban leadership to account. The Afghan Women’s Movement in Exile wants an independent international judicial committee established to monitor and accelerate the legal process.

    It is not yet clear if the warrants will actually lead to arrest and prosecution in The Hague. But we know this is possible. A prime example being the the arrest earlier this year of former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte.

    At the very least, the arrests warrants are a hopeful step towards accountability for the Taliban and justice for the women and girls of Afghanistan.

    Yvonne Breitwieser-Faria 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. In a world first, The Hague wants to arrest Taliban leaders over their treatment of women – what happens next? – https://theconversation.com/in-a-world-first-the-hague-wants-to-arrest-taliban-leaders-over-their-treatment-of-women-what-happens-next-261008

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: In a world first, The Hague wants to arrest Taliban leaders over their treatment of women – what happens next?

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Yvonne Breitwieser-Faria, Lecturer in Criminal Law and International Law, Curtin University

    Earlier this month, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants against the Taliban leadership in Afghanistan.

    The court’s Pre-Trial Chamber II cited reasonable grounds for believing supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada and chief justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani were guilty of “ordering, inducing or soliciting the crime against humanity of persecution on gender grounds.”

    The warrants – the first ever on charges of gender persecution – are being hailed as an “important vindication and acknowledgement of the rights of Afghan women and girls”.

    But will they improve the plight of women and girls in Afghanistan, given the Taliban does not recognise the court or its jurisdiction?

    The signs are not good with the Taliban denying the allegations and condemning the warrants as a “clear act of hostility [and an] insult to the beliefs of Muslims around the world”.

    Erased from public life

    Strict rules and prohibitions have been imposed on the Afghan people since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021.

    Women and girls have been singled out for even worse treatment by reason of their gender.

    According the warrants, the Taliban has

    severely deprived, through decrees and edicts, girls and women of the rights to education, privacy and family life and the freedoms of movement, expression, thought, conscience and religion.

    Women are banned from public places and girls from attending school once they turn 12.

    Zahra Nader is the editor-in-chief of newsroom Zan Times which investigates human rights violations in Afghanistan. She says Afghan women and girls are being silenced, restricted and stripped of their basic human rights.

    It is this discriminatory system of control of woman and girls in Afghanistan that is at the core of the court’s prosecution.

    The warrants also accuse the Taliban of persecuting

    other persons who don’t conform with the Taliban’s ideological expectations of gender, gender identity or expression; and on political grounds against persons perceived as ‘allies of girls and women.

    This is the first time an international tribunal or court has confirmed crimes against humanity involving LGBTQIA+ victims. This marks an important milestone in the protection of sexual minorities under international law.

    Crimes against humanity

    International law clearly spells put the offences which constitute crimes against humanity.

    The aim is to protect civilians from serious and widespread attacks on their fundamental rights. Different definitions of crimes against humanity have been included in the statutes of a handful of international tribunals and courts.

    The definition under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court is the most comprehensive. It includes severe deprivation of personal liberty, murder, enslavement, rape, torture, forced deportation or apartheid.

    Specifically, the Taliban leaders are accused under Article 7(1)(h) of the Rome Statute, which states:

    Persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender […] or other grounds that are universally recognised as impermissible under international law.

    Physical and direct violence is not necessary for persecution on “gender […] grounds” to be established. Systemic and institutionalised forms of harm, which can be the imposition of discriminatory societal norms, are sufficient.

    Women and girls are often disproportionately affected by Taliban policies and rules. But proving gender-based crimes have occurred is not enough. Discriminatory intent must also be established.

    The Taliban has been open about its religious beliefs and interpretations, suggesting a clear intention to persecute on the grounds of gender.

    Not just symbolic

    As with other cases, the court relies on the cooperation of states to execute and surrender those accused.

    The interim government in Kabul which was formed after the US-led invasion in 2001 became a party to the Rome Statute in 2003. Afghanistan remains legally obligated to prosecute perpetrators of these crimes – it must accept the Court’s jurisdiction in the matter.

    The Purple Saturdays Movement, an Afghan women-led protest group, is warning the arrest warrants must be more than just symbolic. Any failure to prosecute would likely result in an escalation of human rights violations:

    The Taliban has historically responded to international pressure not with reform, but by intensifying such repressive policies.

    Hopeful step

    It is important to note the strict policies and widespread abuses targeting women and girls in Afghanistan are ongoing, despite the intervention by the International Criminal Court.

    The court’s Office of the Prosecutor is stressing its commitment to pursuing “effective legal pathways” to bring the Taliban leadership to account. The Afghan Women’s Movement in Exile wants an independent international judicial committee established to monitor and accelerate the legal process.

    It is not yet clear if the warrants will actually lead to arrest and prosecution in The Hague. But we know this is possible. A prime example being the the arrest earlier this year of former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte.

    At the very least, the arrests warrants are a hopeful step towards accountability for the Taliban and justice for the women and girls of Afghanistan.

    Yvonne Breitwieser-Faria 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. In a world first, The Hague wants to arrest Taliban leaders over their treatment of women – what happens next? – https://theconversation.com/in-a-world-first-the-hague-wants-to-arrest-taliban-leaders-over-their-treatment-of-women-what-happens-next-261008

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-Evening Report: ER Report: A Roundup of Significant Articles on EveningReport.nz for July 21, 2025

    ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on July 21, 2025.

    What’s the difference between sperm and semen? And can pre-ejaculate get you pregnant?
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Theresa Larkin, Associate Professor of Medical Sciences, University of Wollongong priya kunkayan/Getty Semen, sperm, spunk, cum, ejaculate, pre-cum, seminal fluid. These are just some of the many words we use to describe what comes out of an erect penis. Some of these terms can be used interchangeably,

    What happens if I go over or under on my NDIS plan? And what do shorter funding periods mean for me?
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Helen Dickinson, Professor, Public Service Research, UNSW Sydney The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is undergoing another round of major reforms. One key change relates to the funding periods in which participants are allowed to spend their budgets. While these aim to improve the scheme’s sustainability, they

    Opera Australia gives us a rocking Carmen for the post-#metoo era
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ruben Perez-Hidalgo, Lecturer in Spanish Studies, University of Sydney Keith Saunders/Opera Australia The story of Carmen, in the 19th century opera by French composer George Bizet, is, at its simplest, the story of a developing tension between Carmen, a stereotypically racialised woman attempting to break free from

    New study peers beneath the skin of iconic lizards to find ‘chainmail’ bone plates – and lots of them
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Roy Ebel, PhD Candidate in Evolutionary Biology, Museums Victoria Research Institute Radiodensity heatmap of emerald tree monitors. Roy Ebel Monitor lizards, also known in Australia as goannas, are some of the most iconic reptiles on the continent. Their lineage not only survived the mass extinction that ended

    Cook Islanders flock from outer islands for 60th anniversary celebrations
    By Caleb Fotheringham, RNZ Pacific journalist The Cook Islands’ outer islands, or Pa Enua, are emptying as people make the pilgrimage to Rarotonga for constitution celebrations. This year is particularly significant, August 4 marks 60 years of the Cook Islands being in free association with New Zealand. Cook Islands Secretary of Culture Emile Kairua said

    Why has a bill to relax foreign investment rules had so little scrutiny?
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jane Kelsey, Emeritus Professor of Law, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images While public attention has been focused on the domestic fast-track consenting process for infrastructure and mining, Associate Minister of Finance David Seymour has been pushing through another fast-track process – this time for

    Federal election feel like ages ago? Parliament is now back. Here’s your political refresher
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jill Sheppard, Senior Lecturer, School of Politics and International Relations, Australian National University Tracey Nearmy/Getty Despite many pre-election predictions, the 48th Australian parliament looks quite similar to the 47th. The Labor Party has greater representation than before: 94 Members of the House of Representatives (up from 77)

    Federal election feel like ages ago? Parliament is now back. Here’s your political refresher
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jill Sheppard, Senior Lecturer, School of Politics and International Relations, Australian National University Tracey Nearmy/Getty Despite many pre-election predictions, the 48th Australian parliament looks quite similar to the 47th. The Labor Party has greater representation than before: 94 Members of the House of Representatives (up from 77)

    Is spinal cord stimulation safe? Does it work? Here’s what you need to know if you have back pain
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Caitlin Jones, Postdoctoral Research Associate in Musculoskeletal Health, University of Sydney AsiaVision/Getty Spinal cord stimulators are electrical devices that are surgically implanted in the body to treat long-term pain. They have a battery pack and leads that deliver electrical impulses directly to the spinal cord. The devices

    Is spinal cord stimulation safe? Does it work? Here’s what you need to know if you have back pain
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Caitlin Jones, Postdoctoral Research Associate in Musculoskeletal Health, University of Sydney AsiaVision/Getty Spinal cord stimulators are electrical devices that are surgically implanted in the body to treat long-term pain. They have a battery pack and leads that deliver electrical impulses directly to the spinal cord. The devices

    Hold up, humans. Ants figured out medicine, farming and engineering long before we did
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tanya Latty, Associate Professor in Entomology, University of Sydney Tambon Nong Chaeng/Pexels Think back to a time you helped someone move a heavy object, such as a couch. While at first the task may have appeared simple, it actually required a suite of advanced behaviours. The job

    Hold up, humans. Ants figured out medicine, farming and engineering long before we did
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tanya Latty, Associate Professor in Entomology, University of Sydney Tambon Nong Chaeng/Pexels Think back to a time you helped someone move a heavy object, such as a couch. While at first the task may have appeared simple, it actually required a suite of advanced behaviours. The job

    Does play belong in primary school? New research suggests teachers are not sure
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katy Meeuwissen, Lecturer in Early Childhood and Primary Education, University of Canberra Jon Challicom/ Getty Images Play is one of the most important parts of early childhood education in Australia. We know children learn about the world through play and it helps them build creativity and independence.

    Does play belong in primary school? New research suggests teachers are not sure
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katy Meeuwissen, Lecturer in Early Childhood and Primary Education, University of Canberra Jon Challicom/ Getty Images Play is one of the most important parts of early childhood education in Australia. We know children learn about the world through play and it helps them build creativity and independence.

    The first video of Earth’s surface lurching sideways in an earthquake offers new insights into this force of nature
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jesse Kearse, Postdoctoral Researcher, Geophysics, Kyoto University Sai Aung MAIN/AFP via Getty Images During the devastating magnitude 7.7 Myanmar earthquake on March 28 this year, a CCTV camera captured the moment the plate boundary moved, providing the first direct visual evidence of plate tectonics in action. Tectonic

    After yet another election, Tasmanians are left wondering what the point of it was
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Hortle, Deputy Director, Tasmanian Policy Exchange, University of Tasmania When the results firmed up a few hours after polling closed on Saturday, many Tasmanians would have been wondering, “what was the point of all that?”. A state election only 16 months after the last one looks

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Opera Australia gives us a rocking Carmen for the post-#metoo era

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ruben Perez-Hidalgo, Lecturer in Spanish Studies, University of Sydney


     Keith Saunders/Opera Australia

    The story of Carmen, in the 19th century opera by French composer George Bizet, is, at its simplest, the story of a developing tension between Carmen, a stereotypically racialised woman attempting to break free from society’s impositions and her already-written fate.

    Anne-Louise Sark’s adaptation takes that conflict much further.

    Carmen (Danielle de Niese at the performance I attended) is a gypsy who works in a cigarette factory. She catches the eye of Don José (Abraham Bretón), who obsessively falls in love with her.

    Don José’s love for Carmen devolves into what today would be succinctly called “toxic”. In a post-#metoo era, where we are all attuned to anti-racism teachings, Sarks gives us a contrast between the antiquated words sung in French, and the conscious effort to make those words exist in our contemporary world.

    This Carmen is defined by many degrees of contrast. This rocking feeling of contradiction keeps on growing until the climax in the very last act.

    A toxic love

    The opening act begins in a square of Seville. Marg Horwell’s design sees the stage strewn with fluorescent confetti spread all over the floor (as if the Sydney Mardi Gras parade had just ended), a chain link fence colourfully crowded with love locks and flashy ribbons, behind which peeks a monumental but austere cross typical of most squares in that part of Spain.

    There, a teenage couple – sporting polyester track suits – alongside a pair of young lovers similarly attired, and a string of children discordantly dressed stay in the background while one of the khaki-wearing guards begins to sing an aria to the protagonist, “La Carmencita”, also known as Carmen.

    The sensation of the contrast between this contemporary setting and Bizet’s original opera is deepened at the beginning of the second act at Lillas Pastia’s Tavern.

    Marg Horwell’s design plays into the contrast between this contemporary setting and Bizet’s original opera.
    Keith Saunders/Opera Australia

    The stage is crowded by a neon-filled atmosphere composed of camp portrayals of the Virgin Our Lady of Guadalupe and pop art images of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

    The charm of the background is enhanced by the stellar performances of not only the two main protagonists, Carmen and Don José, but by an array of supporting characters that truly elevate this second bout of the action.

    A string of smugglers are at the tavern of Lillas Pastias, plotting how to bring about their criminal deeds with the help of Carmen, her close friends (incredibly played by Helen Sherman and Jane Ede), and critically Don José, who has just joined them.

    Blinded by this “toxic” love, Don José cannot help but to increase the dramatic tension when he realises Carmen is losing interest in him in favour of the famous bullfighter from Granada, Escamillo (Andrii Kymach).

    The production sees stellar performances from an array of supporting characters.
    Keith Saunders/Opera Australia

    The tension is fortified by the visual conflict between the irreverent religious décor and the ongoing action, consisting of an unruly mob drinking and dancing until the early hours of the morning.

    By the end of this second act, there is another turn of the screw in the depiction of Don José’s progressive possessiveness of Carmen, who in parallel begins to assert ever more explicitly the signs of her indomitability.

    Exploding tension

    The plot picks up pace in the third act, set in the smugglers’ hideout.

    There, an Othello-like Don José spirals down, green with jealousy, in the face of an increasingly distant Carmen. The more Don José wants her, the more Carmen is filled with desires of freedom from her possessive lover.

    This tense dynamic explodes in the fourth act.

    Set in a little cottage right outside a bullring in Seville, it is at this point obvious Carmen and the matador Escamillo are lovers – anticipating Don José’s fatal deed.

    Although the audience must have expected Carmen’s death at the hands of the spirited Don José, witnessing the act of her killing on stage comes as more than just an awaited unpleasant surprise.

    It works to anchor the conflict at the core of Sark’s adaptation.

    The more Don José wants her, the more Carmen is filled with desires of freedom from her possessive lover.
    Keith Saunders/Opera Australia

    For a flash moment, we are pushed to peek beyond the fiction. Don José strangles with his bare hands the actress playing Carmen, her arm hopelessly punching her aggressor, her legs writhing in despair. Such an instant from our sad reality shocks through the stage, breaking the fourth wall.

    The theatricalisation of Carmen’s killing is also the realisation that male violence against women is anything but a fiction – least of all one left in the distant past.

    Paradoxically, the quick lowering of the curtain and the much-deserved long applause that follows serves to cut short the impact of the “real” death of Carmen shown on stage.

    Perhaps, for the next version, a new director will find a newer way to make Carmen’s reality last beyond the many pleasures of watching this multi-layered drama unfold.

    Carmen is at the Sydney Opera House for Opera Australia until September 19, then playing in Melbourne.

    Ruben Perez-Hidalgo 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. Opera Australia gives us a rocking Carmen for the post-#metoo era – https://theconversation.com/opera-australia-gives-us-a-rocking-carmen-for-the-post-metoo-era-261103

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: What happens if I go over or under on my NDIS plan? And what do shorter funding periods mean for me?

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Helen Dickinson, Professor, Public Service Research, UNSW Sydney

    The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is undergoing another round of major reforms.

    One key change relates to the funding periods in which participants are allowed to spend their budgets.

    While these aim to improve the scheme’s sustainability, they risk making an already complex system even harder to navigate.

    A common question participants ask is: what happens if they overspend or underspend on their NDIS budgets?

    There isn’t a simple answer. But let’s unpack the components of budgets and set out some practical tips for NDIS participants.

    What is driving this round of NDIS reforms?

    Concerns about the growing NDIS budget prompted the government to limit annual growth to a target of 8% a year by mid-2026.

    One cost pressure the government has identified is intra-plan inflation. This happens when NDIS participants spend their budget before the end of their plan, meaning they need to ask for extra funding within their plan timeframe.

    In the 12 months to February 2024, the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) – the body responsible for the NDIS – estimated intra-plan inflation costs more than A$3.3 billion. Around 15% of participants spend their budget before the end of their plan.

    Several changes are now in place to address this.

    What causes plans to be overspent (or underspent)?

    Overspending occurs when a participant runs out of funding before the end of their plan period.

    This can happen when a participant receives a plan that is insufficient to meet their needs, which is more common with first plans.

    It can also occur when a participant has a change in circumstances which means their support needs change, so they increase their spending before their plan can be reviewed.

    In both circumstances, participants must request additional funding so they can keep receiving supports.

    Participants might also find they underspend their budget.

    This can occur because of confusion over what is funded and how funds can be spent.

    But it can also be because of a lack of appropriate services near where the participant lives.

    Research shows Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people with psychosocial disability (from mental health issues such as schizophrenia or post-traumatic stress disorder) and people living in rural and remote areas are more likely to underspend.

    What an NDIS plan includes

    Each NDIS plan includes a total budget amount, which is the amount of funding allocated for all supports expected to last for the full duration of their plan.

    But this doesn’t mean participants can use this budget in whatever way they want.

    Participant spending needs to meet a set of criteria and can only be spent in the way the NDIA describes.

    NDIS supports are provided in plans using four support categories:

    • core supports – help with everyday activities such as personal care, household tasks and support to join in community activities

    • capacity-building supports – help to build or maintain skills and independence such as behaviour support, employment-related support and therapies

    • capital supports – high-cost assistive technologies, home modifications and specialist disability accommodation

    • recurring supports – regularly paid directly to a participant’s account and typically include costs for transport.

    In each category, supports are labelled either flexible or stated. Flexible supports allow for some discretion in how funds are used.

    “Assistance with daily life” can cover a range of tasks including household cleaning or meal preparation. These core support funds tend to be the most flexible.

    Stated supports, on the other hand, must be used exactly as the plan describes.

    Not all plans have funds in every category.

    Importantly, funds can’t be shifted from one category to another. You can’t, for example, use core funding for capacity building supports.

    New funding periods introduced

    In May, changes were introduced for new plans, meaning funds are released over set time periods.

    While the total value of the plan remains the same, there are now limits on when funds can be accessed and how long they need to last.

    Funding can be allocated over different periods:

    • quarterly – released in three-month blocks so spending is spread over the full length of the plan

    • monthly – for high-cost ongoing supports such as supported independent living

    • up-front – funding for one-off supports such as assistive technology can be released in full at the start of a plan.

    Participants may have different funding periods for different parts of their plan, although most funds will likely be released quarterly.

    If funds aren’t used in an allocated period they roll over into the next time block in the same plan.

    However, any funds left unused at the end of the full plan duration are returned to the NDIS funding pool.

    What’s the government trying to do?

    The change means participants can’t draw on future allocations if funds for a current period run out. Nor can funds be shifted between categories.

    If a plan is exhausted, participants may be left without support or face out-of-pocket costs, particularly if plans are self-managed.

    Service-providers may stop delivering support if they’re notified that a participant’s budget has run out.

    In some cases, the NDIS may consider persistent overspending as a sign the participant cannot effectively manage their plan. This could result in the NDIA taking over management of their plan.

    If a participant consistently finds their funds run out early, or if they need more funds because their circumstances change and they need more support, they can request a review of their plan to seek more funding.

    However, requesting a plan review can sometimes affect other areas of a participant’s plan. So some people may be reluctant to ask for a review and instead try to manage with less supports than they need.

    A number of disability rights organisations have spoken out against these changes, stating they have the potential to impact NDIS participants’ autonomy, safety and wellbeing.

    Tips for NDIS participants to manage their plans

    Ensure you understand your plan and how the funds are split between support categories and funding periods. It might be helpful to discuss this with a family member, friend or support coordinator.

    Remember, not everyone gets everything they ask for in their plan, so make sure you’re clear on the funding you received.

    If your plan seems insufficient for your needs, consider asking for a review.

    A good way to ensure your spending stays on track is to set budget goals for a plan. There are several different apps and software programs that can help with this.

    Finally, a range of websites offer advice and resources to help NDIS participants understand their budgets and spending. You can sometimes claim for these resources within your NDIS funding.

    Helen Dickinson receives funding from Australian Research Council., National Health and Medical Research Council. Medical Research Future Fund and Australian governments.

    Glenda Bishop receives funding from the Medical Research Future Fund.

    – ref. What happens if I go over or under on my NDIS plan? And what do shorter funding periods mean for me? – https://theconversation.com/what-happens-if-i-go-over-or-under-on-my-ndis-plan-and-what-do-shorter-funding-periods-mean-for-me-259386

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: What’s the difference between sperm and semen? And can pre-ejaculate get you pregnant?

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Theresa Larkin, Associate Professor of Medical Sciences, University of Wollongong

    priya kunkayan/Getty

    Semen, sperm, spunk, cum, ejaculate, pre-cum, seminal fluid. These are just some of the many words we use to describe what comes out of an erect penis.

    Some of these terms can be used interchangeably, but they’re not all the same. Do you know the difference?

    What is sperm?

    Sperm are male reproductive (sex) cells. The word “sperm” can refer to spermatozoon (singular) or spermatozoa (plural).

    Sperm are tiny cells with an oval-shaped body and a long tail. They measure just 1/20th of a millimetre in length and can only be seen with a microscope.

    Sperm are produced in the two testes (testicles). The testes are glands located inside the scrotum (the skin sac underneath where the penis is attached to the body).

    The testes begin producing sperm at puberty. Sperm production then continues throughout adult life, beginning to decline around age 40. The testes make about 200 million sperm every day.

    To develop, sperm need a temperature range of 34–35°C, which is lower than core body temperature (usually between 36 and 37°C). This is why the testes are located in the cooler scrotum and not in the abdomen or pelvis.

    Each sperm carries chromosomes, which are made up of DNA and genes. When a sperm cell fertilises a female reproductive cell (an ovum or egg), the genetic information of the sperm and ovum combines to form an embryo.

    What is semen?

    Ejaculated sperm has to reach the uterine (fallopian) tubes to fertilise an egg. This is a long journey, so sperm are carried in a fluid that nourishes and protects it (seminal fluid).

    Semen is the mix of sperm and seminal fluid together. It is Latin for “seed” from serere, “to sow”. Semen only exists outside the body, because sperm and seminal fluid only combine at the point of ejaculation.

    Seminal fluid is made in the sex glands. These are the seminal vesicles and prostate, which sit just behind and below the bladder, respectively.

    Semen is about 10% sperm.
    Alila Medical Media/Shutterstock

    The seminal vesicles produce a thick, gel-like substance. It clumps the sperm together immediately after ejaculation and provides the sperm with energy (fructose) to survive their journey.

    This fluid is alkaline – the opposite to acidic – which protects sperm in the more acidic vagina.

    The prostate secretes a thinner, milky fluid with acids that liquefy the semen. This helps the sperm to separate from the initial clump so they can travel through the cervix and uterus to the uterine tubes.

    The prostate also provides zinc, which is essential for sperm survival.

    Ejaculating secretes these fluids and sperm into the urethra, the narrow tube that runs through the penis and also transports urine. At this point, they combine as semen.

    Semen is about 10% sperm and 90% fluid from the seminal vesicles and prostate.

    What happens after ejaculation

    Ejaculating usually produces between 1.5 and 5 millilitres of semen, and each mL contains anywhere between 15 and 200 million sperm.

    If semen is ejaculated into a vagina, sperm have to travel around 15 centimetres to reach the uterine tubes, which is the most common site for fertilisation.

    The fastest and healthiest sperm travel this distance – about 3,000 times their body length – in only 30 minutes.

    For a human of average height, this equates to swimming about 5 kilometres in half an hour. That means sperm can swim twice as fast as the current world record for a 5km open water swim.

    Does ‘pre-cum’ have sperm in it?

    An aroused and erect penis can secrete up to 4mL of pre-ejaculate (pre-cum), which is completely different to semen.

    Pre-ejaculate is produced by different sex glands – the small bulbourethral glands that sit just under the prostate. It is a mucus fluid that lubricates and flushes out the urethra in the penis.

    Theoretically, pre-ejaculate doesn’t contain sperm. However, one small study found the pre-ejaculate of about 40% of men they studied contained sperm, though in very low numbers.

    The risk of getting pregnant from pre-ejaculate is very low – but not zero.

    What can semen say about your overall health?

    Semen is usually creamy-white or pale grey. It often has a faint ammonia or bleach smell, because of its alkaline pH.

    However its colour, consistency and smell can vary between people and even on different days for the same person.

    If semen has a foul odour, it may indicate an infection and should be checked by a doctor.

    Contraception and fertility

    A vasectomy is a form of male contraceptive. This involves cutting the two vas deferens – the tubes that carry sperm from the testes to the urethra. After a vasectomy, ejaculating will produce slightly less semen and it won’t contain sperm.

    Clinical trials have also started for a new potential male contraceptive pill that blocks sperm production in the testes.

    Oxidative stress – an imbalance of too many damaging chemicals and not enough antioxidants – has a negative impact on sperm health and strongly contributes to male infertility.

    The World Health Organization has published a range of values for semen volume and sperm number, concentration, movement and structure among fertile males. However, low sperm count does not always mean lower fertility.

    To keep sperm healthy, it’s recommended to eat a healthy diet rich in antioxidants, exercise regularly, maintain a healthy weight, and not smoke, use recreational drugs or drink a lot of alcohol.

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

    – ref. What’s the difference between sperm and semen? And can pre-ejaculate get you pregnant? – https://theconversation.com/whats-the-difference-between-sperm-and-semen-and-can-pre-ejaculate-get-you-pregnant-253212

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: New study peers beneath the skin of iconic lizards to find ‘chainmail’ bone plates – and lots of them

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Roy Ebel, PhD Candidate in Evolutionary Biology, Museums Victoria Research Institute

    Radiodensity heatmap of emerald tree monitors. Roy Ebel

    Monitor lizards, also known in Australia as goannas, are some of the most iconic reptiles on the continent. Their lineage not only survived the mass extinction that ended the reign of non-avian dinosaurs, but also gave rise to the largest living lizards on Earth.

    Today, these formidable creatures pace through forests and scrublands, flicking their tongues as they go.

    A new study published in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society looks beneath their skin. For the first time, it reveals hidden bone structures that may hold the key to the evolutionary success of goannas in Australia.

    An essential organ

    The skin is an organ essential for survival. In some animals, it includes a layer of bone plates embedded among the skin tissue. Think of the armour-like plates in crocodiles or armadillos: these are osteoderms.

    Their size ranges from microscopic to massive, with the back plates of the stegosaurus as the most impressive example.

    A mounted stegosaurus skeleton at the Natural History Museum, London.
    Jeremy Knight/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY

    We have only just started to understand these enigmatic structures. Osteoderms can be found in animal lineages that diverged up to 380 million years ago. This means these bone plates would have evolved independently, just like active flight did in birds, pterosaurs and bats.

    But what is their purpose? While the advantage of flight is undisputed, the case is not as clear for osteoderms.

    The most obvious potential would be for defence – protecting the animal from injuries. However, osteoderms may serve a far broader purpose.

    In crocodiles, for example, they help with heat regulation, play a part in movement, and even supply calcium during egg-laying. It is the interplay of these poorly understood functions that has long made it difficult to pinpoint how and why osteoderms evolved.

    Sand monitors, also known as sand goannas, are widespread through most of Australia.
    Ken Griffiths/Shutterstock

    A cutting-edge technique

    To help resolve this enigma, we had to go back to the beginning.

    Surprisingly, to date science has not even agreed on which species have osteoderms. Therefore, we assembled an international team of specialists to carry out the first large-scale study of osteoderms in lizards and snakes.

    We studied specimens from scientific collections at institutions such as the Florida Museum of Natural History, the Natural History Museum in Berlin, and Museums Victoria.

    However, we soon learnt that this came with challenges. Firstly, the presence of osteoderms can vary dramatically between individuals of the same species. Secondly, there is no guarantee that osteoderms are sufficiently preserved in all specimens.

    Most importantly, they are buried deep within skin tissue and invisible to the naked eye. Traditionally, finding them meant destroying the specimen.

    Instead, we turned to micro-computed tomography (micro-CT), an imaging technique similar to a medical CT scan, but with much higher resolution. This allowed us to study even the tiniest anatomical structures while keeping our specimens intact.

    Micro-CT-based, computer-generated 3D model of Rosenberg’s goanna (Varanus rosenbergi), with the left half showing osteoderms and endoskeleton.
    Roy Ebel

    Using computer-generated 3D models, we then digitally explored the bodies of lizards and snakes from all parts of the world. Incorporating data from prior literature, we processed almost 2,000 such samples in our search for osteoderms.

    To illustrate our results, we devised a technique called radiodensity heatmapping, which visually highlights the locations of bone structures in the body.

    For the first time, we now have a comprehensive catalogue showing where to find osteoderms in a large and diverse group; this will inform future studies.

    Radiodensity heatmapping shows newly discovered osteoderms (yellow to red) in the limbs and tail of the Mexican knob scaled lizard (Xenosaurus platyceps).
    Roy Ebel

    Not just anatomical curiosity

    What we found was unexpected. It was thought only a small number of lizard families had osteoderms. However, we encountered them nearly twice as often as anticipated.

    In fact, our results show nearly half of all lizards have osteoderms in one form or another.

    Our most astonishing finding concerned goannas. Scientists have been studying monitor lizards for more than 200 years. They were long thought to lack osteoderms, except in rare cases such as the Komodo dragon.

    So we were all the more surprised when we discovered previously undocumented osteoderms in 29 Australo-Papuan species, increasing their overall known prevalence five times.

    Examples of newly discovered osteoderms (magenta) in Australo-Papuan monitor lizards.
    Roy Ebel

    This isn’t just an anatomical curiosity. Now that we know Australian goannas have osteoderms, it opens up an exciting new avenue for further studies. This is because goannas have an interesting biogeographic history: when they first arrived in Australia about 20 million years ago, they had to adapt to a new, harsh environment.

    If osteoderms in goannas showed up around this time – possibly owing to new challenges from their environment – we’d gain crucial insights into the function and evolution of these enigmatic bone structures.

    Not only may we just have found the key to an untold chapter in the goanna story, our findings may also improve our understanding of the forces of evolution that shaped Australia’s unique reptiles as we know them today.

    Roy Ebel receives funding from the Australian Government’s Research Training Program.

    – ref. New study peers beneath the skin of iconic lizards to find ‘chainmail’ bone plates – and lots of them – https://theconversation.com/new-study-peers-beneath-the-skin-of-iconic-lizards-to-find-chainmail-bone-plates-and-lots-of-them-260700

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Is spinal cord stimulation safe? Does it work? Here’s what you need to know if you have back pain

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Caitlin Jones, Postdoctoral Research Associate in Musculoskeletal Health, University of Sydney

    AsiaVision/Getty

    Spinal cord stimulators are electrical devices that are surgically implanted in the body to treat long-term pain. They have a battery pack and leads that deliver electrical impulses directly to the spinal cord. The devices are thought to work by providing electrical impulses that interfere with how the brain senses pain.

    Spinal cord stimulators are mainly used to treat chronic back pain, especially when other less invasive treatments have not worked. They also aim to reduce people’s reliance on risky pain medicines. These include opioids, which research shows are ineffective and harmful for low-back pain.

    But research, including our own, shows spinal cord stimulators work no better than a placebo. And they can also carry risks.

    Do they work?

    In a 2023 Cochrane review, researchers reviewed data from 13 randomised controlled trials on low-back pain and found no benefits in the short and medium term. These international reviews draw together the most robust evidence to provide a detailed summary of what we know on a particular topic.

    Only one of the trials in the review tested efficacy in the longer term (six months). That trial found no benefits of spinal cord stimulation.

    An earlier Cochrane review looked at the evidence of spinal cord stimulation for chronic pain in general, including for neck pain. Reviewers looked at 15 randomised controlled trials and couldn’t be certain about its benefits, largely due to the quality and reliability of the available trials.

    Are there side effects?

    Aside from disappointing results for pain relief, there are risks and side effects to consider.

    We co-authored an analysis of 520 adverse events reported to Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA). We found 79% of reported events were rated as severe, with 13% life-threatening. The same research found 80% of events required surgery to correct.

    Our recent analysis in the Medical Journal of Australia looked at data from private health insurers. These cover 90% of spinal cord stimulation implants in Australia. Five major insurers, which covered 76% of privately insured people, contributed de-identified data.

    We found about one-quarter of people who had a spinal cord stimulator implanted needed corrective surgery afterwards. These surgeries occurred within a median of about 17 months. This indicates these surgeries are not routine or expected interventions, such as to replace batteries, which are meant to last five to ten years.

    Our previous research shows the sorts of reasons for corrective surgery. These include to replace a malfunctioning device, or the person was in more pain, had an infection, or a puncture of the delicate tissues covering the spinal cord.

    However, even our latest findings are likely to underestimate the risk of these devices.

    Sometimes the lead delivering the electrical current moves away from the spinal cord to elsewhere in the body. This requires surgery to reposition the lead, but does not necessarily require new hardware, such as a brand new lead. So this type of corrective surgery is not counted in the data from the private health insurance companies.

    How much does it cost?

    We found spinal cord stimulators cost about A$55,000 per patient, including the device, its insertion, and managing any associated additional surgeries.

    For people who only had a “trial” – where the leads are implanted temporarily but the battery pack remains outside the body – this cost was about $14,000 per patient.

    These figures do not include any out-of-pocket costs.

    What do regulators say about the devices?

    In 2022 the TGA began a review of spinal cord stimulators on the market because of safety and performance concerns.

    As a result, several devices were removed from the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods – that is, they were banned from use in Australia, but existing stock could still be used.

    The rest of the devices had conditions imposed, such as the manufacturers being required to collect and report safety data to the TGA at regular time points.

    Should I do my own online research?

    Yes, but be careful. Unfortunately not all online information about spinal cord stimulators is correct.

    Look for sites independent of those who manufacture or implant these devices.

    Government agencies, health departments and universities that have no financial interests in this area may be a better option.

    The Cochrane Library is also a reliable and independent source for trustworthy health information.

    What shall I ask my doctor?

    The Australian health department provides useful advice for consumers about medical implants.

    It says medical implants “are considered higher-risk therapeutic goods, and the decision to get one should not be taken lightly”. It recommends asking your health professional these questions:

    • do I really need this medical implant?

    • what are the risks/benefits?

    • is the medical implant approved?

    • where can I get more information?

    • what happens if I experience an adverse event?

    What else could I do for my back pain?

    There are other treatment options that are effective and have fewer risks than spinal cord stimulation.

    For example, education about how to manage your pain yourself, exercise, cognitive behavioural therapy (a type of psychological therapy), and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medicines (such as ibuprofen) all have solid evidence to back them. All offer benefits that are not outweighed by their potential risks.

    Australian research has shown other types of therapy – such as sensorimotor retraining and cognitive functional therapy – are also effective. You can discuss these and other options with your health professional.

    Spinal cord stimulation is a good example of a treatment that got ahead of the evidence. Although the devices have been around since the 1960s, we’ve only had reliable trials to test whether they work in recent years.

    Everyone wants to find ways to help people with chronic pain, but we must ensure medical care is grounded in reliable science.

    Christopher Maher holds a research fellowship funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council.

    Caitlin Jones 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. Is spinal cord stimulation safe? Does it work? Here’s what you need to know if you have back pain – https://theconversation.com/is-spinal-cord-stimulation-safe-does-it-work-heres-what-you-need-to-know-if-you-have-back-pain-261364

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: The first video of Earth’s surface lurching sideways in an earthquake offers new insights into this force of nature

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Jesse Kearse, Postdoctoral Researcher, Geophysics, Kyoto University

    Sai Aung MAIN/AFP via Getty Images

    During the devastating magnitude 7.7 Myanmar earthquake on March 28 this year, a CCTV camera captured the moment the plate boundary moved, providing the first direct visual evidence of plate tectonics in action.

    Tectonic plate boundaries are where chunks of Earth’s crust slide past each other – not smoothly, but in sudden, violent ruptures.

    The footage shows Earth’s surface lurching sideways, like a gigantic conveyor belt switched on for just a second, as the fault slips.

    What we’re seeing is the propagation of a large earthquake rupture – the primary mechanism that accommodates plate boundary motion at Earth’s surface. These shear fractures travel at several kilometres per second, making them notoriously difficult to observe.

    This video explains the moment Myanmar’s Sagaing Fault ruptured in a large earthquake, allowing the tectonic plate boundary to shift. Research: https://doi.org/10.1785/0320250024.

    These rare events, separated by centuries, have shaped our planet’s surface over millions of years, creating features such as Aotearoa New Zealand’s Alpine Fault and the Southern Alps.

    Until now, seismologists have relied on distant seismic instruments to infer how faults rupture during large earthquakes. This video sheds new light on the process that radiates seismic energy and causes the ground to shake.

    Analysis of the video

    In our new study, we analysed the video frame by frame. We used a technique called pixel cross-correlation to reveal that the fault slipped 2.5 metres sideways over a duration of just 1.3 seconds, with a maximum speed of 3.2 metres per second.

    The total sideways movement in this earthquake is typical of strike-slip fault ruptures, which move the land sideways (in contrast to faults that move land up and down).

    But the short duration is a major discovery.

    The timing of when a fault starts and stops slipping is especially difficult to measure from distant recordings, because the seismic signal becomes smeared as it travels through Earth.

    In this case, the short duration of motion reveals a pulse-like rupture – a concentrated burst of slip that propagates along the fault like a ripple travels down a rug when it’s flicked from one end.

    Capturing this kind of detail is fundamental to understanding how earthquakes work, and it helps us better anticipate the ground shaking likely to occur in future large events.

    Validation of the ‘slickenline’ hypothesis

    Our analysis also revealed something more subtle about the way the fault moved.

    We found the slip didn’t follow a straight path. Instead it curved. This subtle curvature mirrors patterns we’ve observed previously at fault outcrops.

    Called “slickenlines”, these geological scratch marks on the fault record the direction of slip.

    Our work shows the slickenlines we see on outcrops are curved in a manner similar to the curvature seen in the CCTV footage. Based on our video analysis, we can be certain that curved slip occurs, giving credence to our interpretations based on geological observations.

    In our earlier research, we used computer models to show that curved slickenlines could emerge naturally when an earthquake propagates in a particular direction. The Myanmar rupture, which is known to have travelled north to south, matches the direction predicted by our models.

    This alignment is important. It gives us confidence in using geological evidence to determine the rupture direction of past earthquakes, such as the curved slickenlines left behind after the New Zealand Alpine Fault’s 1717 earthquake.

    This first glimpse of a fault in motion shows the potential for video to become a powerful new tool in seismology. With more strategic deployments, future earthquakes could be documented with similar detail, offering further insight into the dynamics of fault rupture, potentially revolutionising our understanding of earthquake physics.

    Jesse Kearse receives funding from Royal Society Te Apārangi Marsden Fund.

    – ref. The first video of Earth’s surface lurching sideways in an earthquake offers new insights into this force of nature – https://theconversation.com/the-first-video-of-earths-surface-lurching-sideways-in-an-earthquake-offers-new-insights-into-this-force-of-nature-261004

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Hold up, humans. Ants figured out medicine, farming and engineering long before we did

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Tanya Latty, Associate Professor in Entomology, University of Sydney

    Tambon Nong Chaeng/Pexels

    Think back to a time you helped someone move a heavy object, such as a couch. While at first the task may have appeared simple, it actually required a suite of advanced behaviours.

    The job needed verbal commands for social coordination (“pivot!”) and anticipation of near-future events (moving other furniture out of the way). It also required a clear, shared vision of the final goal (which room to take the couch to).

    It’s a small but satisfying example of human cooperation. But before we all get too pleased with ourselves, consider that ants – creatures with tiny brains and no capacity for speech – routinely pull off feats that rival, and sometimes exceed, our own.

    Ants routinely pull off feats that rival, and sometimes exceed, our own.
    Andre Moura/Pexels

    Understanding ant intelligence

    Earth is literally crawling with ants. Scientists estimate there are at least 20 quadrillion ants on Earth. That’s 20 followed by 15 zeros – more ants than stars in our galaxy!

    These incredible insects are amongst the most successful organisms on the planet. Part of the success comes from an ability to form complex societies, ranging from a few individuals to millions. And those societies, or colonies, are remarkably co-operative.

    Take, for example, ants’ abilities to move large food items. To do it, they mobilise teams of dozens – or even hundreds – of fellow workers. Together, they efficiently work together to transport the load back to the nest.

    Longhorn crazy ants (Paratrechina longicornis) are even known to clear debris from a path before a heavy object arrives – seemingly anticipating its trajectory and preparing the way.

    One experiment pit longhorn crazy ants against humans, all tasked with moving T-shaped objects (scaled to body size) through tight spaces. In some trials, the human teams were not permitted to speak or use gestures.

    And the result? Ants performed better in larger groups compared to smaller ones, showing the clear benefits of collective action. In contrast, human performance did not improve with group size. And when communication was restricted, human performance declined as group size increased.

    All this highlights how ants rely on collective intelligence, without the need for central control or sophisticated cognition.

    Expert farmers

    Humanity’s invention of agriculture 12,000 years ago is understandably hailed as one of our greatest achievements.

    But leaf cutter ants beat us to it. These ants (from the species Atta and Acromyrmex) evolved to undertake large-scale agriculture about 55 million years ago.

    These ants cut and transport fresh leaves not to eat directly, but to feed a fungus that serves as their main food source.

    This evolutionary partnership allows the ants to feed colonies with populations in the millions.

    Remarkably, leaf cutter ants have also evolved a form of biological pest control to protect their crops from bacteria. Some worker ants patrol the gardens, detecting infected sections of the fungus. Then they apply antibiotics produced by bacteria that live on their bodies.

    What’s more, many ant species farm aphids and other sap-sucking insects.

    As these farmed insects feed on plant sap, they excrete a sugary liquid the ants eagerly collect. In return, ants serve as bodyguards, defending their tiny livestock from predators such as ladybirds and lacewings.

    In some species, queen ants gently carry sap-sucking insects in their jaws as they fly off to start new colonies. Fossilised ants preserved in amber suggest this behaviour evolved up to 20 million years ago, long before humans domesticated animals.

    Ant medicine

    Medical care may seem like a distinctly human innovation. But several ant species have evolved sophisticated ways to treat injuries.

    When a Florida carpenter ant (Camponotus floridanus) is injured during a battle between colonies, its nest-mates will amputate a damaged limb to prevent infection from spreading. Ants receiving this battlefield care are more likely to survive than ants left untreated.

    Some ants can also detect infection and treat infected wounds by cleaning them and applying antimicrobial secretions from specialised glands.

    Master builders

    Some ant species are known to literally put their bodies on the line for the colony.

    Army ants (Eciton burchellii) join their bodies together to form structures. These include bridges across gaps on the forest floor, and “scaffolds” across steep terrain to prevent other ants from slipping.

    Even the nest is made of hundreds of thousands of ants joined together, complete with tunnels and chambers housing the larvae and the queen. The entire structure is packed up and rebuilt each day, after the colony emigrates a few hundred metres into the forest.

    Army ants join their bodies together to form structures.
    Smartse/Wikimedia, CC BY

    Weaver ants (Oecophylla smaragdina), meanwhile, self-assemble into rope ladders to span vertical gaps.

    They also form a line of workers that pull leaves together in treetops to form nests. Once the leaves are winched into place, other ants arrive with ant larvae in their jaws. Each larva produces a tiny blob of silk which the ants use to glue the leaves together.

    Fire ants (Solenopsis invicta), a major pest species, owes its invasive success partly to a unique method of dispersal.

    When their underground nests are flooded by rain, the ants join together into a huge raft which floats on a layer of buoyant larvae. These rafts can ride floodwaters in safety for hundreds of kilometres, until the ants reach dry land.

    When their nests are flooded, fire ants join together into a huge raft.
    TheCoz/Wikimedia, CC BY

    Lessons for humanity?

    Humans rightly take pride in our greatest achievements – agriculture, medicine, engineering and building civilisations. But remarkably, ants mastered these innovations millions of years before we did.

    Ants may be tiny – but by working together they can build complex societies and solve many problems. They might even teach humans a thing or two.

    Tanya Latty co-founded and volunteers for conservation organisation Invertebrates Australia, is former president of the Australasian Society for the Study of Animal Behaviour and is on the education committee for the Australian Entomological Society. She receives funding from the Australian Research Council, NSW Saving our Species, and Agrifutures Australia

    Chris R. Reid receives funding from the Australian Research Council and Macquarie University. He is secretary of the Australasian Society for the Study of Animal Behaviour and is on the education committee for the Australasian Entomological Society.

    – ref. Hold up, humans. Ants figured out medicine, farming and engineering long before we did – https://theconversation.com/hold-up-humans-ants-figured-out-medicine-farming-and-engineering-long-before-we-did-258922

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Cook Islanders flock from outer islands for 60th anniversary celebrations

    By Caleb Fotheringham, RNZ Pacific journalist

    The Cook Islands’ outer islands, or Pa Enua, are emptying as people make the pilgrimage to Rarotonga for constitution celebrations.

    This year is particularly significant, August 4 marks 60 years of the Cook Islands being in free association with New Zealand.

    Cook Islands Secretary of Culture Emile Kairua said this year’s Te Maeva Nui, which is the name for the annual celebrations, is going to be huge.

    “For the first time in a long time, we are able to bring all our people together for a long-awaited reunion, from discussions with the teams that have already arrived, there’s only handful of people that’s been left on each of our outer islands,” Kairua said.

    “Basically, the outer islands have been emptied out.”

    According to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Management, more than 900 people are making the trip to Rarotonga from the Pa Enua which are spread across an area similar to the size of Mexico.

    Cook Islands News reports that the government has allocated $4.1 mllion for event transport.

    Biggest calendar event
    Kairua said Te Maeva Nui is the biggest event on the Cook Islands’ calendar.

    “Te Maeva Nui has become an iconic event for the Cook Islands, for the nation, as well as the diaspora.”

    A comparable event was in 2015 when 50 years was marked.

    Kairua said for many people it will be the first time visiting Rarotonga since the start of the covid-19 pandemic.

    “Sixty years looks like it’s going to be a lot bigger than 50 for a number of reasons, because we’ve had that big gap since covid hit. If we liken it to covid it’s like the borders being lifted, and everyone now has that freedom to come to Raro.”

    Two ships, one from Tonga and the other from Tuvalu, are tasked with transporting people from the Northern Group islands to Rarotonga.

    While, Air Rarotonga has the job of moving people from the Southern Group.

    Tourist season peak
    The airline’s general manager Sarah Moreland said Te Maeva Nui comes during the peak of the tourism season, making July a very busy month.

    “We’ve got about 73 people from Mauke, 76 passengers from Mangaia, 88 from Aitutaki, 77 from Atiu and even 50 coming from the small island of Mitiaro, Nukuroa,” Moreland said.

    She said transporting people for Te Maeva Nui is a highlight for staff.

    “They love it, I think it’s so cool that we get to bring the Pa Enua from the islands, they just come to Rarotonga, they bring a whole different vibe. They’re so energetic, they’re ready for the competition, it just adds to the buzz of the whole Te Maeva Nui, it’s actually awesome.”

    The executive officer of Atiu Taoro Brown said two months of preparation had gone into the performances which represents the growth of the nation over the past 60 years.

    “It’s an exciting time, we come together, we’re meeting all our cousins and all our families from all the other islands, our sister islands, it’s a special moment.”

    Brown said this year the island had given performance slots to people from Atiu living in Rarotonga, Australia and New Zealand.

    “We wanted everybody from around the region to participate in celebrations.”

    Friendly competition
    Food is another big part of the event, an area Brown said there’s a bit of friendly competition in between islands.

    Pigs, taro, and “organic chicken” had all been sent to Rarotonga from Atiu.

    “Everyone likes to think they’ve got this the best dish but the food I feel, it’s all the same, you know, the island foods, it’s about the time that you put in.”

    For Kairua and his team at the Ministry of Culture, he said they needed to mindful to not allow the event to pass in a blur.

    “Otherwise we end up organising the whole thing and not enjoying it.

    “This is not our first big rodeo, or mine. I was responsible for taking away probably the biggest contingency to Hawai’i for the FestPAC and because we got so busy with organising it and worrying about the minor details, many of us at the management desk forgot to enjoy it, but this time, we are aware.”

    Turbulent relationship
    In the backdrop of celebrations, the Cook Islands and New Zealand’s relationship is in turbulent period.

    Last month, New Zealand paused $18.2 million in development assistance funding to the nation, citing a lack of consultation over several controversial deals with China.

    Unlike for the 50th celebrations, New Zealand’s prime minister and foreign minister will not attend the celebrations, with the Governor-General representing New Zealand.

    A statement from the Cook Islands Office of the Prime Minister last week said officials from the country have reconfirmed their commitment to restore mutual trust with New Zealand in a meeting on 10 July.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Why has a bill to relax foreign investment rules had so little scrutiny?

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jane Kelsey, Emeritus Professor of Law, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau

    Getty Images

    While public attention has been focused on the domestic fast-track consenting process for infrastructure and mining, Associate Minister of Finance David Seymour has been pushing through another fast-track process – this time for foreign investment in New Zealand. But it has had almost no public scrutiny.

    If the Overseas Investment (National Interest Test and Other Matters) Amendment Bill becomes law, it could have far-reaching consequences. Public submissions on the bill close on July 23.

    A product of the ACT-National coalition agreement, the bill commits to amend the Overseas Investment Act 2005 “to limit ministerial decision making to national security concerns and make such decision making more timely”.

    There are valid concerns that piecemeal reforms to the current act have made it complex and unwieldy. But the new bill is equally convoluted and would significantly reduce effective scrutiny of foreign investments – especially in forestry.

    A three-step test

    Step one of a three-step process set out in the bill gives the regulator – the Overseas Investment Office which sits within Land Information NZ – 15 days to decide whether a proposed investment would be a risk to New Zealand’s “national interest”.

    If they don’t perceive a risk, or that initial assessment is not completed in time, the application is automatically approved.

    Transactions involving fisheries quotas and various land categories, or any other applications the regulator identifies, will require a “national interest” assessment under stage two.

    These would be assessed against a “ministerial letter” that sets out the government’s general policy and preferred approach to conducting the assessment, including any conditions on approvals.

    Other mandatory factors to be considered in the second stage include the act’s new “purpose” to increase economic opportunity through “timely consent” of less sensitive investments. The new test would allow scrutiny of the character and capability of the investor to be omitted altogether.

    If the regulator considers the national interest test is not met, or the transaction is “contrary to the national interest”, the minister of finance then makes a decision based on their assessment of those factors.

    Inadequate regulatory process

    Seymour has blamed the current screening regime for low volumes of foreign investment. But Treasury’s 2024 regulatory impact statement on the proposed changes to international investment screening acknowledges many other factors that influence investor decisions.

    Moreover, the Treasury statement acknowledges public views that foreign investment rules should “manage a wide range of risks” and “that there is inherent non-economic value in retaining domestic ownership of certain assets”.

    Treasury officials also recognised a range of other public concerns, including profits going offshore, loss of jobs, and foreign control of iconic businesses.

    The regulatory impact statement did not cover these factors because it was required to consider only the coalition commitment. The Treasury panel reported “notable limitations” on the bill’s quality assurance process.

    A fuller review was “infeasible” because it could not be completed in the time required, and would be broader than necessary to meet the coalition commitment to amend the act in the prescribed way.

    The requirement to implement the bill in this parliamentary term meant the options officials could consider, even within the scope of the coalition agreement, were further limited.

    Time constraints meant “users and key stakeholders have not been consulted”, according to the Treasury statement. Environmental and other risks would have to be managed through other regulations. There is no reference to te Tiriti o Waitangi or mana whenua engagement.

    Forestry ‘slash’ after Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023: no need to consider foreign investors’ track records.
    Getty Images

    No ‘benefit to NZ’ test

    While the bill largely retains a version of the current screening regime for residential and farm land, it removes existing forestry activities from that definition (but not new forestry on non-forest land). It also removes extraction of water for bottling, or other bulk extraction for human consumption, from special vetting.

    Where sensitive land (such as islands, coastal areas, conservation and wahi tapu land) is not residential or farm land, it would be removed from special screening rules currently applied for land.

    Repeal of the “special forestry test” – which in practice has seen most applications approved, albeit with conditions – means most forestry investments could be fast-tracked.

    There would no longer be a need to consider investors’ track records or apply a “benefit to New Zealand” test. Regulators may or may not be empowered to impose conditions such as replanting or cleaning up slash.

    The official documents don’t explain the rationale for this. But it looks like a win for Regional Development Minister Shane Jones, and was perhaps the price of NZ First’s support.

    It has potentially serious implications for forestry communities affected by climate-related disasters, however. Further weakening scrutiny and investment conditions risks intensifying the already devastating impacts of international forestry companies. Taxpayers and ratepayers pick up the costs while the companies can minimise their taxes and send profits offshore.

    Locked in forever?

    Finally, these changes could be locked in through New Zealand’s free trade agreements. Several such agreements say New Zealand’s investment regime cannot become more restrictive than the 2005 act and its regulations.

    A “ratchet clause” would lock in any further liberalisation through this bill, from which there is no going back.

    However, another annex in those free trade agreements could be interpreted as allowing some flexibility to alter the screening rules and criteria in the future. None of the official documents address this crucial question. As an academic expert in this area I am uncertain about the risk.

    But the lack of clarity underlines the problems exemplified in this bill. It is another example of coalition agreements bypassing democratic scrutiny and informed decision making. More public debate and broad analysis is needed on the bill and its implications.

    Jane Kelsey has received funding from the Marsden Fund for research related to New Zealand’s foreign investment regime and international agreements.

    – ref. Why has a bill to relax foreign investment rules had so little scrutiny? – https://theconversation.com/why-has-a-bill-to-relax-foreign-investment-rules-had-so-little-scrutiny-261370

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Does play belong in primary school? New research suggests teachers are not sure

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katy Meeuwissen, Lecturer in Early Childhood and Primary Education, University of Canberra

    Jon Challicom/ Getty Images

    Play is one of the most important parts of early childhood education in Australia.

    We know children learn about the world through play and it helps them build creativity and independence.

    There is also broad agreement among early childhood educators and policymakers about the importance of play from birth to five years.

    But once children start school, there is less certainty. Despite growing research about the importance of play in primary school, play is not often used for learning in these years.

    Our new study with Australian primary teachers highlights significant confusion about the role of play in their schools.

    Play can benefit older kids

    There is nothing to suggest the importance of play suddenly stops when children reach school age.

    Research shows play can support learning well into the primary years, helping students develop critical thinking, problem-solving and social skills.

    Recent studies even show play has learning benefits well beyond childhood. Young adults (aged 19–25) who engage in regular play have shown improved emotional intelligence and resilience.

    What do we mean by play?

    When we are talking about play in primary school, it is more than just playground time during recess and lunch.

    Play is what children do naturally, whereas play-based learning is when teachers use that natural playfulness as a teaching tool. Teachers will deliberately incorporate various types of play with specific learning goals and varying levels of adult guidance.

    For example, children might explore mathematical concepts such as geometry and spatial reasoning through LEGO construction. Teachers would guide discovery of patterns, measurements and problem-solving, and then step back to allow students to be creative.

    There is also evidence play can support literacy, numeracy and other academic goals, because it supports attention, memory and planning skills that underpin academic learning.

    Research shows it can also help maintain students’ enjoyment of and engagement in their studies.

    So when used effectively, it could be used across the school curriculum.

    Our research

    To better understand what teachers think about play and why they hold these views, we surveyed 238 teachers across Australia primary schools. Teachers ranged from those teaching the first year of primary school through to Year 6.

    Most of the teachers were from public schools. We used an online questionnaire and recruited participants through email and social media.

    Teachers’ different views on play

    The results revealed some inconsistencies in teachers’ views.

    Teachers strongly agreed play benefits children’s development. More than three-quarters (77%) strongly agreed students develop social skills through play, with similar numbers supporting play’s role in emotional, physical and language development.

    One teacher described play as “magic” and “where real learning happens”.

    However, only 52% strongly agreed students develop academic skills during play, revealing uncertainty about play’s educational value. As another teacher told us:

    Play is something that children do and it’s fun for them, however, [it] should be out of school. School is for learning.

    Some teachers still viewed play as separate from learning, with 61% agreeing that “play is a necessary break from learning” – suggesting they see play and learning as distinct entities rather than integrated.

    Adding to this confusion, teachers often used the terms “play” and “play-based learning” interchangeably, despite these being different concepts.

    How should play-based learning be structured?

    Even when teachers valued play in principle, they struggled to provide time for it in their classrooms. Teachers reported feeling caught between covering mandated content and providing meaningful play experiences. As one teacher told us:

    Play is fantastic for children but a challenge when there is so much limited time to cover such a huge curriculum.

    Teachers were also divided about their role in children’s play. Should they structure it? Leave kids alone? Supervise but not interfere?

    Our analysis revealed several distinct approaches, from hands-off supervision to active involvement. This reveals confusion about best practice (the research suggests different approaches can work, depending on the context).

    What can we do instead?

    Our research suggest there is missed opportunity when it comes to structuring play as part of learning in primary schools.

    To address this, we need several changes. Teacher education programs should include training in practical ways to use play as a teaching tool. For example, how to teach science concepts through games and experiments that feel like play to children.

    Professional development should also help existing teachers understand how to structure meaningful play that supports the curriculum.

    At a policy level, we also need better alignment between the early education and primary years, to ensure play does not disappear at the school gate.

    Katy Meeuwissen 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. Does play belong in primary school? New research suggests teachers are not sure – https://theconversation.com/does-play-belong-in-primary-school-new-research-suggests-teachers-are-not-sure-259800

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Hold up, humans. Ants figured out medicine, farming and engineering long before we did

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tanya Latty, Associate Professor in Entomology, University of Sydney

    Tambon Nong Chaeng/Pexels

    Think back to a time you helped someone move a heavy object, such as a couch. While at first the task may have appeared simple, it actually required a suite of advanced behaviours.

    The job needed verbal commands for social coordination (“pivot!”) and anticipation of near-future events (moving other furniture out of the way). It also required a clear, shared vision of the final goal (which room to take the couch to).

    It’s a small but satisfying example of human cooperation. But before we all get too pleased with ourselves, consider that ants – creatures with tiny brains and no capacity for speech – routinely pull off feats that rival, and sometimes exceed, our own.

    Ants routinely pull off feats that rival, and sometimes exceed, our own.
    Andre Moura/Pexels

    Understanding ant intelligence

    Earth is literally crawling with ants. Scientists estimate there are at least 20 quadrillion ants on Earth. That’s 20 followed by 15 zeros – more ants than stars in our galaxy!

    These incredible insects are amongst the most successful organisms on the planet. Part of the success comes from an ability to form complex societies, ranging from a few individuals to millions. And those societies, or colonies, are remarkably co-operative.

    Take, for example, ants’ abilities to move large food items. To do it, they mobilise teams of dozens – or even hundreds – of fellow workers. Together, they efficiently work together to transport the load back to the nest.

    Longhorn crazy ants (Paratrechina longicornis) are even known to clear debris from a path before a heavy object arrives – seemingly anticipating its trajectory and preparing the way.

    One experiment pit longhorn crazy ants against humans, all tasked with moving T-shaped objects (scaled to body size) through tight spaces. In some trials, the human teams were not permitted to speak or use gestures.

    And the result? Ants performed better in larger groups compared to smaller ones, showing the clear benefits of collective action. In contrast, human performance did not improve with group size. And when communication was restricted, human performance declined as group size increased.

    All this highlights how ants rely on collective intelligence, without the need for central control or sophisticated cognition.

    Expert farmers

    Humanity’s invention of agriculture 12,000 years ago is understandably hailed as one of our greatest achievements.

    But leaf cutter ants beat us to it. These ants (from the species Atta and Acromyrmex) evolved to undertake large-scale agriculture about 55 million years ago.

    These ants cut and transport fresh leaves not to eat directly, but to feed a fungus that serves as their main food source.

    This evolutionary partnership allows the ants to feed colonies with populations in the millions.

    Remarkably, leaf cutter ants have also evolved a form of biological pest control to protect their crops from bacteria. Some worker ants patrol the gardens, detecting infected sections of the fungus. Then they apply antibiotics produced by bacteria that live on their bodies.

    What’s more, many ant species farm aphids and other sap-sucking insects.

    As these farmed insects feed on plant sap, they excrete a sugary liquid the ants eagerly collect. In return, ants serve as bodyguards, defending their tiny livestock from predators such as ladybirds and lacewings.

    In some species, queen ants gently carry sap-sucking insects in their jaws as they fly off to start new colonies. Fossilised ants preserved in amber suggest this behaviour evolved up to 20 million years ago, long before humans domesticated animals.

    Ant medicine

    Medical care may seem like a distinctly human innovation. But several ant species have evolved sophisticated ways to treat injuries.

    When a Florida carpenter ant (Camponotus floridanus) is injured during a battle between colonies, its nest-mates will amputate a damaged limb to prevent infection from spreading. Ants receiving this battlefield care are more likely to survive than ants left untreated.

    Some ants can also detect infection and treat infected wounds by cleaning them and applying antimicrobial secretions from specialised glands.

    Master builders

    Some ant species are known to literally put their bodies on the line for the colony.

    Army ants (Eciton burchellii) join their bodies together to form structures. These include bridges across gaps on the forest floor, and “scaffolds” across steep terrain to prevent other ants from slipping.

    Even the nest is made of hundreds of thousands of ants joined together, complete with tunnels and chambers housing the larvae and the queen. The entire structure is packed up and rebuilt each day, after the colony emigrates a few hundred metres into the forest.

    Army ants join their bodies together to form structures.
    Smartse/Wikimedia, CC BY

    Weaver ants (Oecophylla smaragdina), meanwhile, self-assemble into rope ladders to span vertical gaps.

    They also form a line of workers that pull leaves together in treetops to form nests. Once the leaves are winched into place, other ants arrive with ant larvae in their jaws. Each larva produces a tiny blob of silk which the ants use to glue the leaves together.

    Fire ants (Solenopsis invicta), a major pest species, owes its invasive success partly to a unique method of dispersal.

    When their underground nests are flooded by rain, the ants join together into a huge raft which floats on a layer of buoyant larvae. These rafts can ride floodwaters in safety for hundreds of kilometres, until the ants reach dry land.

    When their nests are flooded, fire ants join together into a huge raft.
    TheCoz/Wikimedia, CC BY

    Lessons for humanity?

    Humans rightly take pride in our greatest achievements – agriculture, medicine, engineering and building civilisations. But remarkably, ants mastered these innovations millions of years before we did.

    Ants may be tiny – but by working together they can build complex societies and solve many problems. They might even teach humans a thing or two.

    Tanya Latty co-founded and volunteers for conservation organisation Invertebrates Australia, is former president of the Australasian Society for the Study of Animal Behaviour and is on the education committee for the Australian Entomological Society. She receives funding from the Australian Research Council, NSW Saving our Species, and Agrifutures Australia

    Chris R. Reid receives funding from the Australian Research Council and Macquarie University. He is secretary of the Australasian Society for the Study of Animal Behaviour and is on the education committee for the Australasian Entomological Society.

    – ref. Hold up, humans. Ants figured out medicine, farming and engineering long before we did – https://theconversation.com/hold-up-humans-ants-figured-out-medicine-farming-and-engineering-long-before-we-did-258922

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Is spinal cord stimulation safe? Does it work? Here’s what you need to know if you have back pain

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Caitlin Jones, Postdoctoral Research Associate in Musculoskeletal Health, University of Sydney

    AsiaVision/Getty

    Spinal cord stimulators are electrical devices that are surgically implanted in the body to treat long-term pain. They have a battery pack and leads that deliver electrical impulses directly to the spinal cord. The devices are thought to work by providing electrical impulses that interfere with how the brain senses pain.

    Spinal cord stimulators are mainly used to treat chronic back pain, especially when other less invasive treatments have not worked. They also aim to reduce people’s reliance on risky pain medicines. These include opioids, which research shows are ineffective and harmful for low-back pain.

    But research, including our own, shows spinal cord stimulators work no better than a placebo. And they can also carry risks.

    Do they work?

    In a 2023 Cochrane review, researchers reviewed data from 13 randomised controlled trials on low-back pain and found no benefits in the short and medium term. These international reviews draw together the most robust evidence to provide a detailed summary of what we know on a particular topic.

    Only one of the trials in the review tested efficacy in the longer term (six months). That trial found no benefits of spinal cord stimulation.

    An earlier Cochrane review looked at the evidence of spinal cord stimulation for chronic pain in general, including for neck pain. Reviewers looked at 15 randomised controlled trials and couldn’t be certain about its benefits, largely due to the quality and reliability of the available trials.

    Are there side effects?

    Aside from disappointing results for pain relief, there are risks and side effects to consider.

    We co-authored an analysis of 520 adverse events reported to Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA). We found 79% of reported events were rated as severe, with 13% life-threatening. The same research found 80% of events required surgery to correct.

    Our recent analysis in the Medical Journal of Australia looked at data from private health insurers. These cover 90% of spinal cord stimulation implants in Australia. Five major insurers, which covered 76% of privately insured people, contributed de-identified data.

    We found about one-quarter of people who had a spinal cord stimulator implanted needed corrective surgery afterwards. These surgeries occurred within a median of about 17 months. This indicates these surgeries are not routine or expected interventions, such as to replace batteries, which are meant to last five to ten years.

    Our previous research shows the sorts of reasons for corrective surgery. These include to replace a malfunctioning device, or the person was in more pain, had an infection, or a puncture of the delicate tissues covering the spinal cord.

    However, even our latest findings are likely to underestimate the risk of these devices.

    Sometimes the lead delivering the electrical current moves away from the spinal cord to elsewhere in the body. This requires surgery to reposition the lead, but does not necessarily require new hardware, such as a brand new lead. So this type of corrective surgery is not counted in the data from the private health insurance companies.

    How much does it cost?

    We found spinal cord stimulators cost about A$55,000 per patient, including the device, its insertion, and managing any associated additional surgeries.

    For people who only had a “trial” – where the leads are implanted temporarily but the battery pack remains outside the body – this cost was about $14,000 per patient.

    These figures do not include any out-of-pocket costs.

    What do regulators say about the devices?

    In 2022 the TGA began a review of spinal cord stimulators on the market because of safety and performance concerns.

    As a result, several devices were removed from the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods – that is, they were banned from use in Australia, but existing stock could still be used.

    The rest of the devices had conditions imposed, such as the manufacturers being required to collect and report safety data to the TGA at regular time points.

    Should I do my own online research?

    Yes, but be careful. Unfortunately not all online information about spinal cord stimulators is correct.

    Look for sites independent of those who manufacture or implant these devices.

    Government agencies, health departments and universities that have no financial interests in this area may be a better option.

    The Cochrane Library is also a reliable and independent source for trustworthy health information.

    What shall I ask my doctor?

    The Australian health department provides useful advice for consumers about medical implants.

    It says medical implants “are considered higher-risk therapeutic goods, and the decision to get one should not be taken lightly”. It recommends asking your health professional these questions:

    • do I really need this medical implant?

    • what are the risks/benefits?

    • is the medical implant approved?

    • where can I get more information?

    • what happens if I experience an adverse event?

    What else could I do for my back pain?

    There are other treatment options that are effective and have fewer risks than spinal cord stimulation.

    For example, education about how to manage your pain yourself, exercise, cognitive behavioural therapy (a type of psychological therapy), and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medicines (such as ibuprofen) all have solid evidence to back them. All offer benefits that are not outweighed by their potential risks.

    Australian research has shown other types of therapy – such as sensorimotor retraining and cognitive functional therapy – are also effective. You can discuss these and other options with your health professional.

    Spinal cord stimulation is a good example of a treatment that got ahead of the evidence. Although the devices have been around since the 1960s, we’ve only had reliable trials to test whether they work in recent years.

    Everyone wants to find ways to help people with chronic pain, but we must ensure medical care is grounded in reliable science.

    Christopher Maher holds a research fellowship funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council.

    Caitlin Jones 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. Is spinal cord stimulation safe? Does it work? Here’s what you need to know if you have back pain – https://theconversation.com/is-spinal-cord-stimulation-safe-does-it-work-heres-what-you-need-to-know-if-you-have-back-pain-261364

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Federal election feel like ages ago? Parliament is now back. Here’s your political refresher

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jill Sheppard, Senior Lecturer, School of Politics and International Relations, Australian National University

    Tracey Nearmy/Getty

    Despite many pre-election predictions, the 48th Australian parliament looks quite similar to the 47th. The Labor Party has greater representation than before: 94 Members of the House of Representatives (up from 77) and 29 Senators (up from 26).

    The Coalition’s numbers were famously smashed at the election, and will be represented by 43 Members and 27 Senators.

    Despite the landslide electoral victory, Labor’s parliamentary position is not materially improved. It retains a majority in the House of Representatives, but Prime Minister Anthony Albanese faces the problem of finding jobs to keep such a large backbench occupied. Restless politicians reliably create havoc for their leaders (just ask Keir Starmer).

    In the Senate, Labor has more possible paths to a majority, but none is particularly pretty. Pre-election, the government required 12 additional senators to support its legislation. Often this support came from the Coalition, with the crossbench bypassed entirely, as in the case of political donation reforms.

    Other reforms, including workplace relations, were passed by a combination of Greens and independent senators.

    Labor can achieve a majority (38 votes) in the new Senate by negotiating with either the Greens or the Coalition. If neither is forthcoming, Labor can then turn to a disparate group of crossbenchers: four One Nation Senators, plus Fatima Payman, Jacqui Lambie, Ralph Babet and David Pocock.



    Read more:
    Grattan on Friday: New parliament presents traps for Albanese and Ley

    Clearing the decks

    How the new Senate configuration affects Labor’s legislative agenda depends on what exactly that agenda looks like.

    Labor went into the 47th parliament emphasising the Voice referendum, COVID and rising inflation.

    At the end of that term, ten bills were listed for debate but were “timed out” by the constitutional requirement to hold an election.

    The most controversial of these is the proposal to add a new 15% tax on superannuation balances of more than $3 million. The Greens, under previous leader Adam Bandt, promised to support the bill in 2023 pending the government extending superannuation to paid parental leave (which was legislated in 2024 and came into effect on July 1 2025).



    Read more:
    Actually, Gen Z stand to be the biggest winners from the new $3 million super tax

    The Greens continue to support the tax proposal in principle, but want the threshold lowered to $2 million.

    One Nation is strongly opposed. The Coalition has expressed willingness to negotiate on the condition that unrealised gains are exempt from valuations.

    The government has also proposed cutting the number of overseas students at Australian universities, ostensibly due to concerns over exploitation of the student visa program. The Greens have called the proposal “disastrous for tertiary education”.

    Pocock and the Coalition have both called for key changes to the bill. Their primary concerns are about a ministerial power to decide appropriate student numbers without parliamentary approval.

    Despite opposing the bill for different reasons, the Greens and Coalition were willing to team up against the government – perhaps foreshadowing strategy in the new parliament.

    What’s on the horizon?

    Labor announced just 15 specific policy proposals before the election. Only two costed promises are registered with the Parliamentary Budget Office. This gives Labor a free hand to determine its policy agenda in the 48th parliament.

    Right out of the gate, the government promised to cut HECS debt by 20%. Given the Greens would wipe all current HECS debt, they seem likely to wave this through the Senate.

    Treasurer Jim Chalmers has since declared that while “the first term was primarily inflation without forgetting productivity, the second term will be primarily productivity without forgetting inflation”.

    In search of new thinking, the government has announced an economic reform roundtable comprising government, business and experts, and covering economic resilience, skills, new technologies, healthcare reform and clean energy.

    Productivity is notoriously difficult to measure and improve. Whether policies arising from the roundtable will pass the parliament remains to be seen.

    However, the government’s invitation to Shadow Treasurer Ted O’Brien was accompanied with commentary that Chalmers does not believe O’Brien or his leader Sussan Ley are “by their nature constructive, collaborative types”.

    Other election policies should be legislated with ease. The Coalition has already supported purchasing the Port of Darwin, promised instant asset write-offs for small business, and pledged to match Labor’s Medicare spending dollar for dollar.

    The Coalition is also likely to support new fast-track training for 6,000 tradies.

    The Greens will likely support pro-worker reforms. These include legislated weekend penalty rates and new mental health spending.

    In general, the government’s stated agenda is incremental and should be achievable in this parliament. If the Greens won’t play ball, the Coalition will be waiting in line.

    This will probably lead to quixotic policymaking as Labor bounces between two ideologically opposed partners.

    Elsewhere, as in the case of the government’s post-election approval of new licences for gas extraction, policy can happen without parliamentary approval at all.

    In such cases, meaningful opposition will come from the cross- and backbenches, full of politicians eager to make a name for themselves.

    Jill Sheppard receives funding from the Australian Research Council. She worked as an adviser to Coalition parliamentarians between 2003 and 2007.

    Patrick Leslie receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

    – ref. Federal election feel like ages ago? Parliament is now back. Here’s your political refresher – https://theconversation.com/federal-election-feel-like-ages-ago-parliament-is-now-back-heres-your-political-refresher-261360

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: South African university programmes to support black students aren’t working. What needs to be done

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Anthea Adams, Lecturer: Academic Staff Development, Rhodes University

    Most universities and colleges have formal and informal programmes and initiatives to support student and staff development. Their goal is to create learning experiences that help students succeed academically. Typically, academic development practitioners design and run these programmes. They are usually academics themselves. To help students, they use tools like data analytics to design tutoring and mentoring programmes. For staff, development might include formal courses, webinars, workshops and seminars. Education researchers Anthea Adams, Sandra Williams, Patricia Muhuro and Charlene Van Wyk-Geduld reflect on their recent paper on academic development in South African higher education.

    What is the role of academic development in South African higher education?

    It started in the early 1980s when black students were first allowed to register at universities that had previously been reserved for white students.

    After 1994 when South Africa became a democracy, the main aim of academic development was to help transform society by giving black students better opportunities to succeed at university.

    Research on whether these efforts were making a difference in improving student learning, and our reflections, show a mismatch between what academic development is supposed to achieve and how it is being carried out in practice.

    What is the mismatch between goals and practices?

    Academic development has come a long way, mainly thanks to government support and funding. There is evidence of this in research and annual progress reports submitted to the Department of Higher Education and Training. This evidence clearly shows the positive impact of academic development efforts over the years.

    But even with these strides, we can’t ignore a major concern: many black students drop out of university or do not progress with their studies as expected. This tells us that there’s a serious disconnect between what academic development aims to achieve and its actual practices.

    One of the biggest red flags is the ongoing gap in graduation rates across different population groups. For example, the Council on Higher Education’s 2022 review of higher education highlighted that in 2018, white students were six percentage points more likely to complete their studies than black students.



    Read more:
    Why South Africa’s universities are in the grip of a class struggle

    What’s also worrying is that South African curricula and learning approaches are not yet relevant to diverse learning contexts. Students, academic staff and professional organisations like the Higher Education Learning and Teaching Association of Southern Africa have all said that academic development practices may not sufficiently address the academic realities of the majority of students.

    What lessons can we learn?

    We propose that academic development work should be based on research that can genuinely support all students’ success.

    A number of scholars have argued that the quality of current research on academic development work contributes to the mismatch between its goals and actual practices. The research is not yet as theoretical, scholarly and critical as it needs to be to help us fully understand and improve academic development work.

    This critique helps us understand why academic development research often feels limited to one specific context. This is particularly true of research that looks into why some students are dropping out or struggling to complete their studies.
    This kind of research doesn’t offer insights that help practitioners and academics think more broadly about how to apply the findings in different learning contexts.

    Valuable work is being done by both veteran and less experienced academic development practitioners. Their efforts have influenced academic development work as we know it today. But we should respond to the observation that most academic development work is still, in practice, limited to one context.

    What is the way forward?

    Less experienced academic development practitioners and scholars may find it daunting to produce research rich in theory. Therefore, we propose working together in communities of practice to build networks and benefit from reciprocal mentorship opportunities.

    Mentors can be peers or seasoned academic development practitioners and researchers. They can help each other unpack what it means to produce rigorous research based on real-life teaching and learning contexts.

    Working alongside each other and sharing knowledge and expertise can be fulfilling. It can also be the catalyst for building theory that will advance an understanding of academic development work. Opportunities to form peer networks help academics develop confidence and competence as teachers and scholars.

    This kind of work can happen naturally as long as the context is supportive. However, we recognise opportunities for both formal and informal reciprocal mentoring relationships. This is based on our reflections on our teaching experiences and engagements in postgraduate diplomas in higher education.

    Several scholars support the proposal for national directives to develop academics as university teachers and scholars. Professional development initiatives, such as postgraduate diplomas, can be conducive learning spaces where academics can engage in the scholarship of teaching and learning.

    In other words, supported by experienced facilitators, academics can use research and evidence to interrogate how they teach and how students learn.

    Professional development initiatives are not a panacea for the mismatch between academic development goals and actual practices. However, they can be a place where academics help each other to build theory in academic development. Only then, by working together, can academics respond to challenges casting a shadow on academic development work.

    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. South African university programmes to support black students aren’t working. What needs to be done – https://theconversation.com/south-african-university-programmes-to-support-black-students-arent-working-what-needs-to-be-done-251954

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-Evening Report: The first video of Earth’s surface lurching sideways in an earthquake offers new insights into this force of nature

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jesse Kearse, Postdoctoral Researcher, Geophysics, Kyoto University

    Sai Aung MAIN/AFP via Getty Images

    During the devastating magnitude 7.7 Myanmar earthquake on March 28 this year, a CCTV camera captured the moment the plate boundary moved, providing the first direct visual evidence of plate tectonics in action.

    Tectonic plate boundaries are where chunks of Earth’s crust slide past each other – not smoothly, but in sudden, violent ruptures.

    The footage shows Earth’s surface lurching sideways, like a gigantic conveyor belt switched on for just a second, as the fault slips.

    What we’re seeing is the propagation of a large earthquake rupture – the primary mechanism that accommodates plate boundary motion at Earth’s surface. These shear fractures travel at several kilometres per second, making them notoriously difficult to observe.

    This video explains the moment Myanmar’s Sagaing Fault ruptured in a large earthquake, allowing the tectonic plate boundary to shift. Research: https://doi.org/10.1785/0320250024.

    These rare events, separated by centuries, have shaped our planet’s surface over millions of years, creating features such as Aotearoa New Zealand’s Alpine Fault and the Southern Alps.

    Until now, seismologists have relied on distant seismic instruments to infer how faults rupture during large earthquakes. This video sheds new light on the process that radiates seismic energy and causes the ground to shake.

    Analysis of the video

    In our new study, we analysed the video frame by frame. We used a technique called pixel cross-correlation to reveal that the fault slipped 2.5 metres sideways over a duration of just 1.3 seconds, with a maximum speed of 3.2 metres per second.

    The total sideways movement in this earthquake is typical of strike-slip fault ruptures, which move the land sideways (in contrast to faults that move land up and down).

    But the short duration is a major discovery.

    The timing of when a fault starts and stops slipping is especially difficult to measure from distant recordings, because the seismic signal becomes smeared as it travels through Earth.

    In this case, the short duration of motion reveals a pulse-like rupture – a concentrated burst of slip that propagates along the fault like a ripple travels down a rug when it’s flicked from one end.

    Capturing this kind of detail is fundamental to understanding how earthquakes work, and it helps us better anticipate the ground shaking likely to occur in future large events.

    Validation of the ‘slickenline’ hypothesis

    Our analysis also revealed something more subtle about the way the fault moved.

    We found the slip didn’t follow a straight path. Instead it curved. This subtle curvature mirrors patterns we’ve observed previously at fault outcrops.

    Called “slickenlines”, these geological scratch marks on the fault record the direction of slip.

    Our work shows the slickenlines we see on outcrops are curved in a manner similar to the curvature seen in the CCTV footage. Based on our video analysis, we can be certain that curved slip occurs, giving credence to our interpretations based on geological observations.

    In our earlier research, we used computer models to show that curved slickenlines could emerge naturally when an earthquake propagates in a particular direction. The Myanmar rupture, which is known to have travelled north to south, matches the direction predicted by our models.

    This alignment is important. It gives us confidence in using geological evidence to determine the rupture direction of past earthquakes, such as the curved slickenlines left behind after the New Zealand Alpine Fault’s 1717 earthquake.

    This first glimpse of a fault in motion shows the potential for video to become a powerful new tool in seismology. With more strategic deployments, future earthquakes could be documented with similar detail, offering further insight into the dynamics of fault rupture, potentially revolutionising our understanding of earthquake physics.

    Jesse Kearse receives funding from Royal Society Te Apārangi Marsden Fund.

    – ref. The first video of Earth’s surface lurching sideways in an earthquake offers new insights into this force of nature – https://theconversation.com/the-first-video-of-earths-surface-lurching-sideways-in-an-earthquake-offers-new-insights-into-this-force-of-nature-261004

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: After yet another election, Tasmanians are left wondering what the point of it was

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Hortle, Deputy Director, Tasmanian Policy Exchange, University of Tasmania

    When the results firmed up a few hours after polling closed on Saturday, many Tasmanians would have been wondering, “what was the point of all that?”.

    A state election only 16 months after the last one looks to have delivered a parliament with a broadly similar distribution of seats.



    Read more:
    Liberals easily win most seats at Tasmanian election, but Labor may form government

    The results

    By the time counting ceased last night, the ABC had the Liberals on 14 seats, Labor on nine, the Greens on five, and three confirmed independents.

    The ABC’s projections of the Tasmanian election, captured at 11:15am on July 20th.
    ABC News

    With 65.3% of the vote counted, four seats remained in doubt. There was a small positive swing to the Liberals (3.3%), while a swing against Labor of 3.1% has them on track for their worst primary vote in more than a hundred years. The final seats may not be confirmed for a couple of weeks.

    Love, Labor’s lost

    At this stage, it looks like Labor’s gambit – instigating the no confidence motion that led to this election – has utterly failed. The party will now need to engage in some sober self-reflection on two fronts.

    First, there is the one-dimensional strategy that brought on the election and allowed the Liberals to blame Labor – and leader Dean Winter in particular – for dragging Tasmanians to the polls again.

    Labor had hoped that targeting the no confidence motion specifically at Premier Jeremy Rockliff would encourage the conservative-leaning Liberal cabinet to turf out their moderate leader.

    It was a near thing. Rockliff’s rivals apparently had almost enough votes to depose him by the time the Governor called the election.

    But did anyone at Labor HQ plan for what would happen if their gamble failed and the Liberals held firm under Rockliff? As Labor’s woefully under-prepared campaign stumbled into motion, it seemed the answer was “no”.

    Second, there will be questions asked about that lacklustre campaign, just as there were in 2024. An opposition could not ask for more favourable conditions: an 11-year incumbent government suffering a string of high profile policy failures; a looming mountain of debt; and ongoing health, education, housing, cost of living and sustainability challenges.

    And yet, Labor suffered negative swings in every seat, and they are battling to match their 2024 result of 10 seats.

    Liberals and Greens hold firm

    The Liberals will be pleased with the result. In the face of the dire circumstances outlined above, they have secured a positive swing in their primary vote and may pick up one or (at an outside chance) two additional seats.

    It doesn’t seem like their pro-stadium stance lost them votes in the north – where the proposal is unpopular – in part because Labor denied themselves a point of difference by also supporting the stadium.

    Another important factor in the north was the recruitment of two former federal Liberal MPs in Bass and Braddon, who are both polling well so far. However, their success may come at the expense of sitting Liberal members.

    The Greens’ vote held steady, with a projected 0.2% increase in their primary vote. All of their MPs had been returned before the close of counting on Saturday night, and they will be hoping one more can scrape through in Braddon.

    The crossbench zoo

    As expected, ex-Labor MP David O’Byrne, centre-left Kristie Johnston, and maverick Northwester Craig Garland were all returned. Johnston and Garland, in particlar, seem to have strongly increased their vote shares.

    There will be at least one new independent, with anti-salmon farm advocate Peter George securing a very strong primary vote in Franklin off the back of his recent federal campaign.

    There is a chance that this broadly progressive crossbench will be joined by climate change denier and pro-gun rights candidate Carlo di Falco (Lyons) from the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers.

    Where to now?

    So how are the major party leaders approaching the looming period of wheeling and dealing? Who’s forming minority government?

    Rockliff was the first to address the tally room on election night. He boldly claimed that the voters had re-endorsed his Liberal government – based on their increased vote share – and said he will ask the Governor to recommission him as premier.

    However, with only 14 or 15 seats, it will be challenging for the Liberals to implement their agenda in a parliament featuring a crossbench that is, for the most part, solidly progressive and vehemently anti-stadium.

    The Greens’ leader, Rosalie Woodruff, also spoke and again extended an offer of cooperation to Labor.

    Finally, as election night drew to a close, Labor Leader Dean Winter stepped up to speak. His tonally confused speech began with a tribute to murdered Tasmanian Police Constable Keith Smith, then shifted to the need for a more collaborative approach to politics. Winter left things on a cliffhanger, essentially saying “let’s wait and see”.

    Observers in the room noted the speech was strikingly similar to that given by former leader Rebecca White following the 2024 election – shortly before she was replaced by Winter.

    Will Labor have a crack at forming government? There would be a few obstacles to this. First, Winter would have to negotiate support from the diverse crossbench, including the Greens, with whom he has previously vowed not to collaborate.

    He and Labor have ignored previous opportunities to seize government in this way, the most recent being just five weeks ago. A change in tack at this stage could be difficult to sell.

    And if Rockliff forges ahead with his stated plan, Labor and the crossbench would need to vote down a new Liberal minority government on the floor of parliament. Labor would need to be very certain of their ability to govern before doing this – or risk another election.

    So while all of the party leaders spoke of maturity and collaboration in their speeches, until actions match words, Tasmanians will be forced to watch the parliamentary shenanigans continue.

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

    – ref. After yet another election, Tasmanians are left wondering what the point of it was – https://theconversation.com/after-yet-another-election-tasmanians-are-left-wondering-what-the-point-of-it-was-260505

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: ER Report: A Roundup of Significant Articles on EveningReport.nz for July 20, 2025

    ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on July 20, 2025.

    Liberals easily win most seats at Tasmanian election, but Labor may form government
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne With 63% of enrolled voters counted in today’s Tasmanian state election, The Poll Bludger is projecting that the final results will give the Liberals 39.7% of the

    Palestine solidarity rally greeted by Rainbow Warrior Gaza protest
    Asia Pacific Report Palestinian supporters and protesters against the 21 months of Israeli genocide in Gaza marched after a rally in downtown Auckland today across the Viaduct to the Greenpeace environmental flagship Rainbow Warrior — and met a display of solidarity. Several people on board the campaign ship, which has been holding open days over

    ICE deportation action lands Marshallese, Micronesians in Guantánamo ‘terror’ base
    By Giff Johnson, editor, Marshall Islands Journal/RNZ Pacific correspondent United States immigration and deportation enforcement continues to ramp up, impacting on Marshallese and Micronesians in new and unprecedented ways. The Trump administration’s directive to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to arrest and deport massive numbers of potentially illegal aliens, including those with convictions from decades

    ER Report: A Roundup of Significant Articles on EveningReport.nz for July 19, 2025
    ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on July 19, 2025.

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Liberals easily win most seats at Tasmanian election, but Labor may form government

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

    With 63% of enrolled voters counted in today’s Tasmanian state election, The Poll Bludger is projecting that the final results will give the Liberals 39.7% of the statewide vote (up 3.0% since the March 2024 election), Labor just 25.7% (down 3.1%), the Greens 14.1% (up 0.2%), the Shooters 3.2% (up 0.9%), the Nationals 1.7% and independents 15.4%.

    Tasmania uses the proportional Hare-Clark system for its lower house elections. As described previously, the five seats Tasmania has at federal elections each return seven members for a total of 35 MPs. A quota for election is one-eighth of the vote, or 12.5%.

    The main Poll Bludger page gives projected quotas for each electorate for the Liberals, Labor and the Greens. The Liberals have just under four quotas in Braddon, over three in Bass and Lyons and over two in Clark and Franklin, suggesting 14 definite seats with more possible.

    Labor is just above or just below two quotas in all five seats, and should win ten seats. The Greens have 1.8 quotas in Clark, over one in each of Franklin, Bass and Lyons and 0.6 in Braddon, so they should win at least five seats.

    Of the independents, environmental campaigner Craig Garland has 0.8 quotas in Braddon and will be re-elected. Left-wing independent Kristie Johnston has 1.3 quotas in Clark, and will also be re-elected. In Franklin, both former Labor leader David O’Byrne and Teal Peter George (0.9 and 1.3 quotas respectively) have been elected.

    In Lyons, the Shooters candidate, with 0.6 quotas, is well positioned to win the final seat. In Bass, it appears more complex, but the final seat is likely to go to either the Liberals or the Shooters. None of the three former Jacqui Lambie Network MPs who won seats at the March 2024 election have been re-elected.

    Overall, the right-wing parties (Liberals and Shooters) are likely to win 16 of the 35 seats, but Labor, the Greens and left-wing independents are likely to win 19 seats. So even though the Liberals will win the most seats, Labor may be able to cobble together a government, but only if they cooperate with the Greens.

    This overall result assumes a 4–3 right split in Bass, Braddon and Lyons, but a 5–2 left split in both Clark and Franklin. In Franklin, the Liberals would be unlucky not to win three with 2.7 quotas, but Labor has 1.8 quotas and preferences from George should assist Labor.

    Many pre-poll votes have not yet been counted, and postals won’t be counted until next week. Postals are likely to assist the Liberals. The postal effect should be accounted for by The Poll Bludger’s projections.

    YouGov poll badly understated Liberals

    A late YouGov poll, conducted July 7–18 from a sample of 931, gave the Liberals 31% of the statewide vote (steady since June), Labor 30% (down four), the Greens 16% (up three), the Nationals 2%, the Shooters 1% and independents 20% (up two).

    A two-party vote is not applicable in Tasmania’s proportional system, but this poll gave Labor a 55–45 lead over the Liberals. Labor leader Dean Winter also led Liberal incumbent Jeremy Rockliff as better premier by 55–45. Rockliff was at -19 net approval and Winter at -13.

    The only other public Tasmanian polls were conducted by DemosAU. The final DemosAU poll, which I covered on Tuesday, gave the Liberals 34.9%, Labor 24.7%, the Greens 15.6%, the Nationals 2.7%, the Shooters 1.8% and independents 20.3%.

    The results show the Liberals headed for about a 14-point vote share win over Labor, so YouGov badly understated them.

    Federal Bradfield legal challenge

    Last Monday the Liberals challenged Teal Nicolette Boele’s 26-vote win in Bradfield at the May 3 federal election to the High Court, acting as the Court of Disputed Returns. Boele will be seated until the court resolves the case.

    The court can either confirm Boele’s win, void the election for this seat and order a byelection in Bradfield, or overturn the result and declare the Liberal candidate elected.

    After the official declaration of the election on June 12, the 40-day period for legal challenges to the results expires on Tuesday. Tuesday will also be the first sitting of federal parliament since the election, though it could have sat at any time after June 12.

    The Bradfield challenge will delay a Labor vs Liberal two-party count in that seat until the challenge is resolved. It’s likely the Australian Electoral Commission’s (AEC) current estimate in Bradfield is understating Labor, and therefore Labor is being very slightly understated nationally.

    DemosAU polls on democracy in Australia and Queensland federal

    DemosAU has emailed me a poll on democracy and voting systems in Australia. This poll was conducted in two waves in May and June from a total sample of 1,713.

    By 69–12, respondents thought Australian democracy is something to be proud of, and by 71–19 they did not think Australia needs a PM like Donald Trump. By 67–15, respondents trusted the AEC. By 53–23, they did not want the number of MPs increased.

    Asked for preferred voting system in the House of Representatives, 36% selected compulsory preferential voting (CPV), 27% first past the post (FPTP), 25% optional preferential voting (OPV) and 12% proportional representation (PR).

    Head to head, CPV and OPV both beat FPTP by 53–47, while CPV beat OPV by 54–46. All single-member systems were much preferred to PR.

    I previously covered the Queensland state DemosAU poll. In the federal Queensland poll, Labor led by 53–47 (50.6–49.4 to the Coalition at the election). Primary votes were 35% Labor, 31% Coalition, 13% One Nation, 12% Greens and 9% for all Others.

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

    – ref. Liberals easily win most seats at Tasmanian election, but Labor may form government – https://theconversation.com/liberals-easily-win-most-seats-at-tasmanian-election-but-labor-may-form-government-261255

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Palestine solidarity rally greeted by Rainbow Warrior Gaza protest

    Asia Pacific Report

    Palestinian supporters and protesters against the 21 months of Israeli genocide in Gaza marched after a rally in downtown Auckland today across the Viaduct to the Greenpeace environmental flagship Rainbow Warrior — and met a display of solidarity.

    Several people on board the campaign ship, which has been holding open days over last weekend and this weekend, held up Palestinian flags and displayed a large banner declaring “Sanction Israel — Stop the genocide”.

    About 300 people were in the vibrant rally and Greenpeace Aotearoa oceans campaigner Juan Parada came out on Halsey Wharf to speak to the protesters in solidarity over Gaza.

    “Greenpeace stands for peace and justice, and environmental justice, not only for the environmental damage, but for the lives of the people,” said Parada, a former media practitioner.

    Global environmental campaigners have stepped up their condemnation of the devastation in Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territories as well as the protests over the genocide, which has so far killed almost 59,000 people, most of them women and children, according to the Gaza Health Department, although some researchers say the actual death toll is far higher.

    Greenpeace campaigner Juan Parada (left) and one of the Palestine rally facilitators, Youssef Sammour, at today’s rally as it reached Halsey Wharf. Image: Asia Pacific Report

    Gaza war emissions condemned
    New research recently revealed that the carbon footprint of the first 15 months of Israel’s war on Gaza would be greater than the annual planet-warming emissions of 100 individual countries, worsening the global climate emergency on top of the huge civilian death toll.

    The report cited by The Guardian indicated that Israel’s relentless bombardment, blockade and refusal to comply with international court rulings had “underscored the asymmetry of each side’s war machine, as well as almost unconditional military, energy and diplomatic support Israel enjoys from allies, including the US and UK”.

    The Israeli war machine has been primarily blamed.

    The report, titled “War on the Climate: A Multitemporal Study of Greenhouse Gas Emissions of the Israel-Gaza Conflict” and published by the Social Science Research Network, is part of a growing movement to hold states and businesses accountable for the climate and environmental costs of war and occupation.

    “This is cruelty – this is not a war”, says the young girl’s placard on the Viaduct today. Image: Asia Pacific Report

    Greenpeace open letter
    Greenpeace Aotearoa recently came out with strong statements about the genocidal war on Gaza with executive director Russel Norman earlier this month writing an open letter to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters, expressing his grave concerns about the “ongoing genocide in Gaza being carried out by Israeli forces” — and the ongoing failure of the New Zealand Government to impose meaningful sanctions on Israel.

    He referred to the mounting death toll of starving Palestinians being deliberately shot at the notorious Israeli-US backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) food distribution sites.

    Norman also cited an Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz report that Israeli soldiers had been ordered to deliberately shoot unarmed Palestinians seeking aid, quoting one Israeli soldier saying: “It’s a killing field.”

    Today’s rally featured many Palestinians wearing thobe costumes in advance of Palestinian Traditional Dress Day on July 25.

    This is a day to showcase and celebrate the rich Palestinian cultural heritage through traditional clothing that is intricately embroidered.

    Traditional thobes are a symbol of Palestinian resilience.

    “Israel-USA – blood on your hands” banner at today’s rally in Auckland. Image: Asia Pacific Report

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Palestine solidarity rally greeted by Rainbow Warrior Gaza protest

    Asia Pacific Report

    Palestinian supporters and protesters against the 21 months of Israeli genocide in Gaza marched after a rally in downtown Auckland today across the Viaduct to the Greenpeace environmental flagship Rainbow Warrior — and met a display of solidarity.

    Several people on board the campaign ship, which has been holding open days over last weekend and this weekend, held up Palestinian flags and displayed a large banner declaring “Sanction Israel — Stop the genocide”.

    About 300 people were in the vibrant rally and Greenpeace Aotearoa oceans campaigner Juan Parada came out on Halsey Wharf to speak to the protesters in solidarity over Gaza.

    “Greenpeace stands for peace and justice, and environmental justice, not only for the environmental damage, but for the lives of the people,” said Parada, a former media practitioner.

    Global environmental campaigners have stepped up their condemnation of the devastation in Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territories as well as the protests over the genocide, which has so far killed almost 59,000 people, most of them women and children, according to the Gaza Health Department, although some researchers say the actual death toll is far higher.

    Greenpeace campaigner Juan Parada (left) and one of the Palestine rally facilitators, Youssef Sammour, at today’s rally as it reached Halsey Wharf. Image: Asia Pacific Report

    Gaza war emissions condemned
    New research recently revealed that the carbon footprint of the first 15 months of Israel’s war on Gaza would be greater than the annual planet-warming emissions of 100 individual countries, worsening the global climate emergency on top of the huge civilian death toll.

    The report cited by The Guardian indicated that Israel’s relentless bombardment, blockade and refusal to comply with international court rulings had “underscored the asymmetry of each side’s war machine, as well as almost unconditional military, energy and diplomatic support Israel enjoys from allies, including the US and UK”.

    The Israeli war machine has been primarily blamed.

    The report, titled “War on the Climate: A Multitemporal Study of Greenhouse Gas Emissions of the Israel-Gaza Conflict” and published by the Social Science Research Network, is part of a growing movement to hold states and businesses accountable for the climate and environmental costs of war and occupation.

    “This is cruelty – this is not a war”, says the young girl’s placard on the Viaduct today. Image: Asia Pacific Report

    Greenpeace open letter
    Greenpeace Aotearoa recently came out with strong statements about the genocidal war on Gaza with executive director Russel Norman earlier this month writing an open letter to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters, expressing his grave concerns about the “ongoing genocide in Gaza being carried out by Israeli forces” — and the ongoing failure of the New Zealand Government to impose meaningful sanctions on Israel.

    He referred to the mounting death toll of starving Palestinians being deliberately shot at the notorious Israeli-US backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) food distribution sites.

    Norman also cited an Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz report that Israeli soldiers had been ordered to deliberately shoot unarmed Palestinians seeking aid, quoting one Israeli soldier saying: “It’s a killing field.”

    Today’s rally featured many Palestinians wearing thobe costumes in advance of Palestinian Traditional Dress Day on July 25.

    This is a day to showcase and celebrate the rich Palestinian cultural heritage through traditional clothing that is intricately embroidered.

    Traditional thobes are a symbol of Palestinian resilience.

    “Israel-USA – blood on your hands” banner at today’s rally in Auckland. Image: Asia Pacific Report

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Palestine solidarity rally greeted by Rainbow Warrior Gaza protest

    Asia Pacific Report

    Palestinian supporters and protesters against the 21 months of Israeli genocide in Gaza marched after a rally in downtown Auckland today across the Viaduct to the Greenpeace environmental flagship Rainbow Warrior — and met a display of solidarity.

    Several people on board the campaign ship, which has been holding open days over last weekend and this weekend, held up Palestinian flags and displayed a large banner declaring “Sanction Israel — Stop the genocide”.

    About 300 people were in the vibrant rally and Greenpeace Aotearoa oceans campaigner Juan Parada came out on Halsey Wharf to speak to the protesters in solidarity over Gaza.

    “Greenpeace stands for peace and justice, and environmental justice, not only for the environmental damage, but for the lives of the people,” said Parada, a former media practitioner.

    Global environmental campaigners have stepped up their condemnation of the devastation in Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territories as well as the protests over the genocide, which has so far killed almost 59,000 people, most of them women and children, according to the Gaza Health Department, although some researchers say the actual death toll is far higher.

    Greenpeace campaigner Juan Parada (left) and one of the Palestine rally facilitators, Youssef Sammour, at today’s rally as it reached Halsey Wharf. Image: Asia Pacific Report

    Gaza war emissions condemned
    New research recently revealed that the carbon footprint of the first 15 months of Israel’s war on Gaza would be greater than the annual planet-warming emissions of 100 individual countries, worsening the global climate emergency on top of the huge civilian death toll.

    The report cited by The Guardian indicated that Israel’s relentless bombardment, blockade and refusal to comply with international court rulings had “underscored the asymmetry of each side’s war machine, as well as almost unconditional military, energy and diplomatic support Israel enjoys from allies, including the US and UK”.

    The Israeli war machine has been primarily blamed.

    The report, titled “War on the Climate: A Multitemporal Study of Greenhouse Gas Emissions of the Israel-Gaza Conflict” and published by the Social Science Research Network, is part of a growing movement to hold states and businesses accountable for the climate and environmental costs of war and occupation.

    “This is cruelty – this is not a war”, says the young girl’s placard on the Viaduct today. Image: Asia Pacific Report

    Greenpeace open letter
    Greenpeace Aotearoa recently came out with strong statements about the genocidal war on Gaza with executive director Russel Norman earlier this month writing an open letter to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters, expressing his grave concerns about the “ongoing genocide in Gaza being carried out by Israeli forces” — and the ongoing failure of the New Zealand Government to impose meaningful sanctions on Israel.

    He referred to the mounting death toll of starving Palestinians being deliberately shot at the notorious Israeli-US backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) food distribution sites.

    Norman also cited an Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz report that Israeli soldiers had been ordered to deliberately shoot unarmed Palestinians seeking aid, quoting one Israeli soldier saying: “It’s a killing field.”

    Today’s rally featured many Palestinians wearing thobe costumes in advance of Palestinian Traditional Dress Day on July 25.

    This is a day to showcase and celebrate the rich Palestinian cultural heritage through traditional clothing that is intricately embroidered.

    Traditional thobes are a symbol of Palestinian resilience.

    “Israel-USA – blood on your hands” banner at today’s rally in Auckland. Image: Asia Pacific Report

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: How the QAnon movement entered mainstream politics – and why the silence on Epstein files matters

    Source: The Conversation – USA (3) – By Art Jipson, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Dayton

    QAnon supporters wait for Donald Trump to speak at a campaign rally at Atlantic Aviation on September 22, 2020, in Moon Township, Pennsylvania. eff Swensen/Getty Images

    The Justice Department asked a federal court on July 18, 2025, to unseal grand jury transcripts in Jeffrey Epstein’s case. The direction from President Donald Trump came after weeks of frustration among some far-right groups over his administration’s refusal to release the complete and unredacted “Epstein files.”

    Epstein, a wealthy financier with high-profile connections, was arrested in 2019 on sex trafficking charges and later died by suicide in a Manhattan jail awaiting trial.

    In early 2025, a federal court unsealed portions of the court documents. While names of some of the alleged clients and victims were released, many were redacted or withheld.

    Epstein’s arrest and death became a central focus for QAnon followers, who saw them as proof of a hidden global elite engaged in child trafficking and protected by powerful institutions. The release – or withholding – of the Epstein files is often cited within QAnon movement circles as evidence of a broader cover-up by the so-called “deep state.”

    Some followers of the MAGA – Make America Great Again – movement and the Republican Party believe in the false claim that the United States is secretly controlled by a cabal of elites who are pedophiles, sex traffickers and satanists.

    Over time, what started as a baseless conspiracy on obscure platforms has migrated into the mainstream. It has influenced rhetoric and policy debates, and even reshaped the American political landscape. The foundational belief of many of the QAnon followers is that Trump is a heroic figure fighting the elite pedophile ring.

    Trump’s attempts at downplaying or obstructing the very disclosures they believe would validate their worldview has led to confusion. To some, the delay in the release of the files feels like a betrayal, or even the possibility of his wrongdoing. Others are trying to reinterpret Trump’s actions through increasingly baseless conspiracy logic.

    Trump has publicly dismissed demands for the full release of the Epstein Files as a “hoax.” He has also made false claims. On July 15, 2025, Trump said: “And I would say that, you know, these files were made up by Comey. They were made up by Obama.”

    As a scholar who studies extremism, I know that the movement views Trump as a mythological figure and it interprets Trump’s actions to fit this overarching narrative – an elasticity which makes the movement both durable and dangerous.

    From Pizzagate to QAnon

    The QAnon movement began with the Pizzagate conspiracy theory in 2016, which falsely claimed that high-ranking Democrats were operating a child sex trafficking ring out of a Washington, D.C., pizzeria. The baseless theory gained enough online momentum that a man armed with an assault rifle stormed the restaurant, seeking to “free the children.”

    In 2017, an anonymous figure called “Q” began posting cryptic messages on message boards like 4chan and 8kun. The baseless accusations of a global network of elites involved in controlling global institutions, including governments, businesses, and the media, as well as operating a child trafficking and ritual abuse, were central to the QAnon movement’s narrative.

    Supporters of President Donald Trump with messages referring to the QAnon conspiracy theory at a campaign rally at Las Vegas Convention Center on February 21, 2020.
    Mario Tama/Getty Images

    The movement has recruited followers through language like “Save the Children,” to mobilize around issues of child trafficking.

    The QAnon movement recruits new followers through appeals to stop child trafficking.
    Hollie Adams/Getty Images

    Many QAnon adherents, particularly women, were drawn to the movement through such appeals to child protection. According to psychologists Sophia Moskalenko and Mia Bloom, this type of appeal taps into powerful emotional instincts, making conspiracy theories like QAnon more persuasive and harder to dislodge, even in the face of contradictory evidence.

    QAnon movement’s rise

    QAnon followers perceived Trump as a messianic figure working to expose this cabal in a climactic reckoning known as “The Storm” – a moment when mass arrests would finally bring justice.

    They claimed that this moment would eventually bring about a “Great Awakening,” a reference to the religious revivalist movements of the 18th and 19th centuries. In this context the phrase described the supposed political and spiritual enlightenment that would follow “The Storm” – a moment of mass realization when people would “wake up” to the truth about the “deep state.”

    Trump reposted an image of himself wearing a Q lapel pin overlaid with the words ‘The Storm is Coming.’
    Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images

    In 2019, the FBI identified QAnon as a domestic terrorism threat, and major social media platforms began banning related content, but by then, QAnon had bled into mainstream conservative politics. Q-endorsing candidates, such as Marjorie Taylor Greene, ran for and won elected office a year later.

    Trump and QAnon

    During Trump’s first administration – from 2017 to 2021 – the QAnon movement flourished. The posts from Q claimed to reveal insider knowledge of a secret war being waged by the president, often in coordination with the military, against the powerful elite.

    Trump never explicitly endorsed the movement, but he did little to distance himself from it.

    His administration also included figures, like former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who openly interacted with Q content online.

    Trump’s rhetoric, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 election, gave new life to QAnon narratives. When he questioned the integrity of the electoral process, QAnon followers interpreted it as confirmation of the deep state’s meddling.

    However, after Trump’s loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential race, QAnon followers revised their original prophecy to maintain belief in “The Storm” and “The Great Awakening.” Some claimed the defeat was part of a larger secret plan, with Biden’s presidency serving as a cover for exposing the deep state. Some believed Trump remained the true president behind the scenes, while others reframed the awakening as a spiritual rather than political event.

    Indeed, by 2020, several congressional candidates openly embraced or showed sympathy for the QAnon movement.

    At various campaign rallies in 2022 and after Trump used the movement’s symbolism. On Truth Social, his social media platform, he retweeted Q-affiliated accounts, and praised QAnon supporters as “people who love our country.” That same year he reposted an image of himself wearing a Q lapel pin overlaid with the words “The Storm is Coming.”

    After the 2020 elections

    Trump’s departure from the White House in January 2021 created an existential crisis for the QAnon movement. Predictions that he would declare martial law or arrest Joe Biden and other Democrats on Inauguration Day failed to materialize. Q’s posts also stopped, leaving many followers adrift.

    Some abandoned the theory. Others rationalized the failed predictions or embraced new conspiracy narratives, such as the belief that Trump was still secretly in charge or that the military would soon act to reinstate him.

    Some QAnon communities merged with or were absorbed into broader anti-vaccine, anti-globalist, and Christian nationalist movements.

    How big is the movement?

    Estimating the number of QAnon believers is difficult because many individuals do not openly identify with the movement, and those who do often hold a range of loosely connected or partial beliefs rather than adhering to a consistent or uniform ideology. Not everyone who shares a Q meme or echoes a Q talking point identifies as being part of the movement.

    That said, surveys by groups like the 2024 Public Religion Research Institute and the Associated Press have found that 15–20% of Americans believe in some of QAnon’s core claims, such as the existence of a secret group of Satan-worshipping elites controlling the government.

    Among Republican voters, the number is often higher.

    This does not mean all these people are hardcore QAnon adherents, but it does show how far the narrative, or parts of it, has seeped into mainstream thinking.

    Epstein as evidence of ‘the cabal’

    The Trump administration’s failure to disclose the information in Epstein files has fueled internal confusion, disillusionment and even radicalization within the movement.

    For some QAnon believers, this failure was a turning point: if Trump – once seen as the hero in the conspiracy narrative – would not or could not reveal the truth, then the “deep state” must be more entrenched than imagined.

    At the same time, frustrations have grown within MAGA and the QAnon movement’s spaces. Some see it as a failure to fulfill one of his most important promises: exposing elite pedophiles. Others believe the delay is strategic, another example of “the plan” requiring more patience.

    The QAnon movement continues to evolve, even as its central figure hedges and hesitates, showing how potent myths can be in times of uncertainty. In my view, understanding why this belief continues to gain traction is essential for understanding the current state of American democracy.

    Art Jipson 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. How the QAnon movement entered mainstream politics – and why the silence on Epstein files matters – https://theconversation.com/how-the-qanon-movement-entered-mainstream-politics-and-why-the-silence-on-epstein-files-matters-261316

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-Evening Report: ICE deportation action lands Marshallese, Micronesians in Guantánamo ‘terror’ base

    By Giff Johnson, editor, Marshall Islands Journal/RNZ Pacific correspondent

    United States immigration and deportation enforcement continues to ramp up, impacting on Marshallese and Micronesians in new and unprecedented ways.

    The Trump administration’s directive to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to arrest and deport massive numbers of potentially illegal aliens, including those with convictions from decades past, is seeing Marshallese and Micronesians swept up by ICE.

    The latest unprecedented development is Marshallese and Micronesians being removed from the United States to the offshore detention facility at the US Navy base in Guantánamo Bay — a facility set up to jail terrorists suspected of involvement in the 9/11 airplane attacks in the US in 2001.

    Marshall Islands Ambassador to the US Charles Paul this week confirmed a media report that one Marshallese was currently incarcerated at Guantánamo, which is also known as “GTMO”.

    The same report from nationnews.com said 72 detainees from 26 countries had been sent to GTMO last week, including from the Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia.

    A statement issued by the US Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE operations, concerning detention of foreigners with criminal records at GTMO said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was using “every tool available to get criminal illegal aliens off our streets and out of our country.”

    But the action was criticised by a Marshallese advocate for citizens from the Compact countries in the US.

    ‘Legal, ethical concerns’
    “As a Compact of Free Association (COFA) advocate and ordinary indigenous citizen of the Marshallese Islands, I strongly condemn the detention of COFA migrants — including citizens from the Republic of the Marshall Islands — at the US Naval Base in Guantánamo Bay,” Benson Gideon said in a social media post this week.

    “This action raises urgent legal, constitutional, and ethical concerns that must be addressed without delay.”

    Since seeing the news about detention of a Marshallese in this US facility used to hold suspected terrorists, Ambassador Paul said he had “been in touch with ICE to repatriate one Marshallese being detained.”

    Paul said he was “awaiting all the documents pertaining to the criminal charges, but we were informed that the individual has several felony and misdemeanor convictions. We are working closely with ICE to expedite this process.”

    Gideon said bluntly the detention of the Marshallese was a breach of Compact treaty obligations.

    “The COFA agreement guarantees fair treatment. Military detention undermines this commitment,” he said.

    Gideon listed the strong Marshallese links with the US — service in high numbers in the US military, hosting of the Kwajalein missile range, US military control of Marshall Islands ocean and air space — as examples of Marshallese contributions to the US.

    ‘Treated as criminals’
    “Despite these sacrifices, our people are being treated as criminals and confined in a facility historically associated with terrorism suspects,” he said.

    “I call on the US Embassy in Majuro to publicly address this injustice and work with federal agencies to ensure COFA Marshallese residents are treated with dignity and fairness.

    “If we are good enough to host your missile ranges, fight in your military, and support your defence strategy, then we are good enough to be protected — not punished. Let justice, transparency, and respect prevail.”

    There were 72 immigration detainees at Guantánamo Bay, 58 of them classified as high-risk and 14 in the low-risk category, reported nationnews.com.

    The report added that the criminal records of the detainees include convictions for homicide; sexual offences, including against children; child pornography; assault with a weapon; kidnapping; drug smuggling; and robbery.

    Civil rights advocates have called the detention of immigration detainees at Guantanamo Bay punitive and unlawful, arguing in an active lawsuit that federal law does not allow the government to hold those awaiting deportation outside of US territory.

    In other US immigration and deportation developments:

    • The delivery last month by US military aircraft of 18 Marshallese deported from the US and escorted by armed ICE agents is another example of the ramped-up deportation focus of the Trump administration. Since the early 2000s more than 300 Marshall Islanders have been deported from the US. Prior to the Trump administration, past deportations were managed by US Marshals escorting deportees individually on commercial flights.
    • According to Marshall Islands authorities, there have not been any deportations since the June 10 military flight to Majuro, suggesting that group deportations may be the way the Trump administration handles further deportations.
    • Individual travellers flying into Honolulu whose passports note place of birth as Kiribati are reportedly now being refused entry. This reportedly happened to a Marshallese passport holder late last month who had previously travel
    • led in and out of the US without issue.

    Most Marshallese passport holders enjoy visa-free travel to the US, though there are different levels of access to the US based on if citizenship was gained through naturalisation or a passport sales programme in the 1980s and 1990s.

    US Ambassador to the Marshall Islands Laura Stone said, however, that “the visa-free travel rules have not changed.”

    She said she could not speak to any individual traveller’s situation without adequate information to evaluate the situation.

    She pointed out that citizenship “acquired through naturalisation, marriage, investment, adoption” have different rules. Stone urged all travellers to examine the rules carefully and determine their eligibility for visa-free travel.

    “If they have a question, we would be happy to answer their enquiry at ConsMajuro@state.gov,” she added.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: ICE deportation action lands Marshallese, Micronesians in Guantánamo ‘terror’ base

    By Giff Johnson, editor, Marshall Islands Journal/RNZ Pacific correspondent

    United States immigration and deportation enforcement continues to ramp up, impacting on Marshallese and Micronesians in new and unprecedented ways.

    The Trump administration’s directive to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to arrest and deport massive numbers of potentially illegal aliens, including those with convictions from decades past, is seeing Marshallese and Micronesians swept up by ICE.

    The latest unprecedented development is Marshallese and Micronesians being removed from the United States to the offshore detention facility at the US Navy base in Guantánamo Bay — a facility set up to jail terrorists suspected of involvement in the 9/11 airplane attacks in the US in 2001.

    Marshall Islands Ambassador to the US Charles Paul this week confirmed a media report that one Marshallese was currently incarcerated at Guantánamo, which is also known as “GTMO”.

    The same report from nationnews.com said 72 detainees from 26 countries had been sent to GTMO last week, including from the Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia.

    A statement issued by the US Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE operations, concerning detention of foreigners with criminal records at GTMO said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was using “every tool available to get criminal illegal aliens off our streets and out of our country.”

    But the action was criticised by a Marshallese advocate for citizens from the Compact countries in the US.

    ‘Legal, ethical concerns’
    “As a Compact of Free Association (COFA) advocate and ordinary indigenous citizen of the Marshallese Islands, I strongly condemn the detention of COFA migrants — including citizens from the Republic of the Marshall Islands — at the US Naval Base in Guantánamo Bay,” Benson Gideon said in a social media post this week.

    “This action raises urgent legal, constitutional, and ethical concerns that must be addressed without delay.”

    Since seeing the news about detention of a Marshallese in this US facility used to hold suspected terrorists, Ambassador Paul said he had “been in touch with ICE to repatriate one Marshallese being detained.”

    Paul said he was “awaiting all the documents pertaining to the criminal charges, but we were informed that the individual has several felony and misdemeanor convictions. We are working closely with ICE to expedite this process.”

    Gideon said bluntly the detention of the Marshallese was a breach of Compact treaty obligations.

    “The COFA agreement guarantees fair treatment. Military detention undermines this commitment,” he said.

    Gideon listed the strong Marshallese links with the US — service in high numbers in the US military, hosting of the Kwajalein missile range, US military control of Marshall Islands ocean and air space — as examples of Marshallese contributions to the US.

    ‘Treated as criminals’
    “Despite these sacrifices, our people are being treated as criminals and confined in a facility historically associated with terrorism suspects,” he said.

    “I call on the US Embassy in Majuro to publicly address this injustice and work with federal agencies to ensure COFA Marshallese residents are treated with dignity and fairness.

    “If we are good enough to host your missile ranges, fight in your military, and support your defence strategy, then we are good enough to be protected — not punished. Let justice, transparency, and respect prevail.”

    There were 72 immigration detainees at Guantánamo Bay, 58 of them classified as high-risk and 14 in the low-risk category, reported nationnews.com.

    The report added that the criminal records of the detainees include convictions for homicide; sexual offences, including against children; child pornography; assault with a weapon; kidnapping; drug smuggling; and robbery.

    Civil rights advocates have called the detention of immigration detainees at Guantanamo Bay punitive and unlawful, arguing in an active lawsuit that federal law does not allow the government to hold those awaiting deportation outside of US territory.

    In other US immigration and deportation developments:

    • The delivery last month by US military aircraft of 18 Marshallese deported from the US and escorted by armed ICE agents is another example of the ramped-up deportation focus of the Trump administration. Since the early 2000s more than 300 Marshall Islanders have been deported from the US. Prior to the Trump administration, past deportations were managed by US Marshals escorting deportees individually on commercial flights.
    • According to Marshall Islands authorities, there have not been any deportations since the June 10 military flight to Majuro, suggesting that group deportations may be the way the Trump administration handles further deportations.
    • Individual travellers flying into Honolulu whose passports note place of birth as Kiribati are reportedly now being refused entry. This reportedly happened to a Marshallese passport holder late last month who had previously travel
    • led in and out of the US without issue.

    Most Marshallese passport holders enjoy visa-free travel to the US, though there are different levels of access to the US based on if citizenship was gained through naturalisation or a passport sales programme in the 1980s and 1990s.

    US Ambassador to the Marshall Islands Laura Stone said, however, that “the visa-free travel rules have not changed.”

    She said she could not speak to any individual traveller’s situation without adequate information to evaluate the situation.

    She pointed out that citizenship “acquired through naturalisation, marriage, investment, adoption” have different rules. Stone urged all travellers to examine the rules carefully and determine their eligibility for visa-free travel.

    “If they have a question, we would be happy to answer their enquiry at ConsMajuro@state.gov,” she added.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: ER Report: A Roundup of Significant Articles on EveningReport.nz for July 19, 2025

    ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on July 19, 2025.

    Systematic bias: how Western media reproduces the Israeli narrative
    COMMENTARY: By Refaat Ibrahim “If words shape our consciousness, then the media holds the keys to minds.” This sentence is not merely a metaphor, but a reality we live daily in the coverage of the Israeli aggression on Gaza, where the crimes of the occupation are turned into “acts of violence”, the siege targeting civilians

    From ‘Stone Age’ treasury boss to National Party Senator: John Stone 1929-2025
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Head, Canberra School of Government, University of Canberra AUSPIC John Owen Stone AO was a legendary leader of the Commonwealth Treasury. He was secretary (departmental head) from January 1979 to September 1984 but was an intellectual driving force before then as deputy secretary from 1971

    Mark Latham’s portrait may come off federal caucus wall
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Labor caucus tolerates having the odd “rat” among the photos of ALP leaders on the party room wall, but Mark Latham may have now pushed it too far. After the latest bizarre scandal surrounding the one-time federal Labor leader,

    Connie Francis was the voice of a generation and the soundtrack of post-war America
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Leigh Carriage, Senior Lecturer in Music, Southern Cross University Hulton Archive/Getty Images Connie Francis dominated the music charts in the late 1950s and early 1960s with hits like Stupid Cupid, Pretty Little Baby and Don’t Break the Heart That Loves You. The pop star, author and actor

    Trump has ‘chronic venous insufficiency’. Is it dangerous? Can it be treated?
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Theresa Larkin, Associate Professor of Medical Sciences, University of Wollongong Anna Moneymaker/Staff/Getty US President Donald Trump has been diagnosed with “chronic venous insufficiency” after experiencing some mild swelling in his lower legs. According to a letter the White House published from the president’s doctor, the condition is

    ER Report: A Roundup of Significant Articles on EveningReport.nz for July 18, 2025
    ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on July 18, 2025.

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Systematic bias: how Western media reproduces the Israeli narrative

    COMMENTARY: By Refaat Ibrahim

    “If words shape our consciousness, then the media holds the keys to minds.”

    This sentence is not merely a metaphor, but a reality we live daily in the coverage of the Israeli aggression on Gaza, where the crimes of the occupation are turned into “acts of violence”, the siege targeting civilians into “security measures”, and the legitimate resistance into “terrorist acts”.

    This linguistic distortion is not innocent; it is part of a “systematic mechanism” practised by major Western media outlets, through which they perpetuate a false image of a “conflict between two equal sides”, ignoring the fact that one is an occupier armed with the latest military technology, and the other is a people besieged in their land for decades.

    Here, the ethical question becomes urgent: how does the media shift from conveying truth to becoming a tool for justifying oppression?

    Western media institutions promote a colonial narrative that reproduces the discourse of Israeli superiority, using linguistic and legal mechanisms to justify genocide.

    But the rise of global awareness through social media platforms and documentaries like We Are Not Numbers, produced by youth in Gaza, exposes this bias and brings the Palestinian narrative back to the forefront.

    Selective coverage . . .  when injustice becomes an opinion
     “Terrorism”, “self-defence”, “conflict” . . . are all terms that place the responsibility for violence on Palestinians while presenting Israel as the perpetual victim. This linguistic shift contradicts international law, which considers settlements a war crime (according to Article 8 of the Rome Statute), yet most reports avoid even describing the West Bank as “occupied territory”.

    More dangerously, the issue is reduced to “violent events” without mentioning their contexts: how can the Palestinian people’s resistance be understood without addressing 75 years of displacement and the siege of Gaza since 2007? The media is like someone commenting on the flames without mentioning who ignited them.

    The Western media coverage of the Israeli war on Gaza represents a blatant model of systematic bias that reproduces the Israeli narrative and justifies war crimes through precise linguistic and media mechanisms. Below is a breakdown of the most prominent practices:

    Stripping historical context and portraying Palestinians as aggressor

    Ignoring the occupation: Media outlets like the BBC and The New York Times ignored the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories since 1948 and focused on the 7 October 2023 attack as an isolated event, without linking it to the daily oppression such as home demolitions and arrests in Jerusalem and the West Bank.

    Misleading terms: The war has often been described as a “conflict between Israel and Hamas”, while Gaza is considered the largest open-air prison in the world under Israeli siege since 2007. Example: The Economist described Hamas’s attacks as “bloody”, while Israeli attacks were called “military operations”.

    Dehumanising Palestinians
     Language of abstraction: The BBC used terms like “died” for Palestinians versus “killed” for Israelis, according to a quantitative study by The Intercept, weakening sympathy for Palestinian victims.

    Victim portrayal: While Israeli death reports included names and family ties (like “mother” or “grandmother”), Palestinians were shown as anonymous numbers, as seen in the coverage of Le Monde and Le Figaro.

    Israeli political rhetoric: Media outlets reported statements by Israeli leaders such as dismissed defence minister Yoav Gallant, who described Palestinians as “human animals”, and Benjamin Netanyahu, who called them “children of darkness”, without critically analysing this rhetoric that strips them of their humanity.

    Distorting resistance and linking it to terrorism
     Misleading comparisons: The October 7 attack was compared to “9/11” and described as a “terrorist attack” in The Washington Post and CNN, reinforcing the “war on terror” narrative and justifying Israel’s excessive response.

    Fake news: Papers like The Sun and Daily Mail promoted the story of “beheaded Israeli babies” without evidence, a story even adopted by US president Joe Biden, only to be disproven later by videos showing Hamas’ humane treatment of captives.

    Selective coverage and suppression of the Palestinian narrative
     Silencing journalists: Journalists such as Zahraa Al-Akhras (Global News) and Bassam Bounni (BBC) were dismissed for criticising Israel or supporting Palestine, while others were pressured to adopt the Israeli narrative.

    Defaming Palestinian institutions: The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal claimed the Palestinian death toll figures were “exaggerated”, ignoring UN and human rights organisations’ reports that confirmed their accuracy.

    Manipulating legal and ethical terms
     Denying war crimes: Deutsche Welle stated that Israeli attacks are “not considered war crimes”, despite the destruction of hospitals and the killing of tens of thousands of civilians.

    Legal misinformation: The BBC referred to Israeli settlements in the West Bank as “disputed territories”, despite the UN declaring them illegal.

    Double standards in conflict coverage
     Comparison with Ukraine: Western media linked support for Ukraine and Israel as “victims of aggression”, while ignoring that Israel is an occupying power under international law. Terminology shifted immediately: “invasion”, “war crimes”, “occupation” were used for Ukraine but omitted when speaking of Palestine.

    According to a 2022 study by the Arab Media Monitoring Project, 90 percent of Western reports on Ukraine used language blaming Russia for the violence, compared to only 30 percent in the Palestinian case.

    This contradiction exposes the underlying “racist bias”: how is killing in Europe called “genocide”, while in Gaza it is termed a “complicated conflict”? The answer lies in the statement of journalist Mika Brzezinski: “The only red line in Western media is criticising Israel.”

    False neutrality: Sky News claimed it “could not verify” the Baptist Hospital massacre, despite video documentation, yet quickly adopted the Israeli narrative.

    Consequences: legitimising genocide and marginalising Palestinian rights
     Western media practices have contributed to normalising Israeli violence by portraying it as “legitimate defence”, while resistance is labelled as “terrorism.”

    Deepening Palestinian isolation: By stripping them of the right to narrate, as shown in an academic study by Mike Berry (Cardiff University), which found emotional terms used exclusively to describe Israeli victims.

    Undermining international law: By ignoring reports from organisations like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, which confirm Israel’s commission of war crimes.

    Violating journalistic ethics . . .  when the journalist becomes the occupation’s lawyer
     Journalistic codes of ethics — such as the charter of the “International Federation of Journalists” — unanimously agree that the media’s primary task is “to expose the facts without fear”. But the reality proves the opposite:

    In 2023, CNN deleted an interview with a Palestinian survivor of the Jenin massacre after pressure from the Israeli lobby (according to an investigation by Middle East Eye).

    The Guardian was forced to edit the headline of an article that described settlements as “apartheid” after threats of legal action.

    This self-censorship turns journalism into a “copier of official statements”, abandoning the principle of “not compromising with ruling powers” emphasised by the “International Journalists’ Network”.

    Toward human-centred journalism
     Fixing this flaw requires dismantling biased language: replacing “conflict” with “military occupation”, and “settlements” with “illegal colonies”.

    Relying on international law: such as mentioning Articles 49 and 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention when discussing the displacement of Palestinians.

    Giving space to victims’ voices: According to an Amnesty report, 80% of guests on Western TV channels discussing the conflict were either Israeli or Western.

    Holding media institutions accountable: through pressure campaigns to enforce their ethical charters (such as obligating the BBC to mention “apartheid” after the HRW report).

    Conclusion
     The war on Gaza has become a stark test of media ethics. While platforms like Al Jazeera and Middle East Eye have helped expose violations, major Western media outlets continue to reproduce a colonial discourse that enables Israel. The greatest challenge today is to break the silence surrounding the crimes of genocide and impose a human narrative that restores the stolen humanity of the victims.

    “Occupation doesn’t just need tanks, it needs media to justify its existence.” These were the words of journalist Gideon Levy after witnessing how his camera turned war crimes into “normal news”.

    If Western media is serious about its claim of neutrality, it must start with a simple step: call things by their names. Words are not lifeless letters, they are ticking bombs that shape the consciousness of generations.

    Refaat Ibrahim is the editor and creator of The Resistant Palestinian Pens website, where you can find all his articles. He is a Palestinian writer living in Gaza, where he studied English language and literature at the Islamic University. He has been passionate about writing since childhood, and is interested in political, social, economic, and cultural matters concerning his homeland, Palestine. This article was first published at Pearls and Irritations social policy journal in Australia.

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Automatic voter registration: a huge step forward for democracy – and a chance to bring missing millions into elections

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Toby James, Professor of Politics and Public Policy, University of East Anglia

    Shutterstock/Melinda Nagy

    The UK government has announced planned changes to elections which it claims to be “the boldest and most ambitious change to our democracy for decades”. This includes extending the franchise to 16- and 17-year-olds at parliamentary elections – but also other important reforms such as automatic voter registration.

    At the moment, everyone needs to fill in an individual voter registration application at least 12 days before an election. Automatic registration would enable electoral officials to update the electoral rolls without people having to make an application to register to vote. They could use other reliable data to make the electoral register as accurate and complete as possible.

    Electoral officials would then write to the potential voter to inform them that they had been added to the register. They would have the opportunity to make any corrections needed.

    The details are still to be worked out and the change would not come overnight. The process may be semi-automated to begin with – with the individual process sitting alongside some automation.

    Why is automatic registration needed?

    Many people don’t register in time for elections. Some don’t intend to vote, but others assume that they’re already registered. Some are also just busy.

    The result is that there are around 7-8 million people who are not correctly registered when the polling stations open on election day. A significant number are then turned away. The problem is getting worse as the number of people who are not registered is also rising at an alarming rate.

    Estimated number of people missing from the electoral register at UK general elections, 1945-2024.

    The number of people missing from the voter .
    James, Bernal and Berry, CC BY-ND

    What is especially troubling is that there are large gaps in registrations by age, gender, ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Nearly all over-65-year-olds are on the register, but younger people are increasingly missing. Only 60% of 18-to-19-year-olds are on the electoral rolls – and 16% of the soon-to-be-enfranchised 16- to 17-year-olds (you can currently register to vote at 16).

    Automatic registration will therefore be crucial to making votes at 16 a success. Asking and reminding young people to register would inevitably involve an enormous administrative effort. But if data could be transferred from schools and government departments to election officials to put them straight onto the roll, it would save both time and money – and bring about a higher participation rate.

    Does automatic voter registration work?

    Roughly half of countries around the around the world use automatic voter registration – including Germany, the Netherlands, Iceland and Finland. Countries which have historically not had automatic registration, such as the US, Malta, Canada and Australia, have all moved to at least partially implement it over recent years.

    The UK is thought have one of the more difficult voter registration systems compared to other countries. The evidence is that automatic voter registration leads to more accurate and complete electoral registers. It can therefore reduce the opportunity for fraud and increase convenience for citizens.

    What data might be used?

    In a recent report with colleagues, I set out how this can be implemented and suggested a range of datasets that could be securely used.

    Electoral rolls could be updated when people apply for a passport, register to pay council tax, update their driving licence details, register at university or claim benefits. Electoral officials could also be authorised to update the electoral rolls with data such as council tax data and information held by the Department for Work and Pensions.

    One option would be to register people to vote when they apply for a passport.
    Shutterstock/ClimbWhenReady

    Data sharing is already used in electoral registration. Every time a voter registration application is made, it is checked against another government dataset. There is therefore already the data infrastructure to enable automatic registration to work.

    Electoral officials already use such data to register, remove or re-register people. This has enabled a lot of savings and less administrative hassle for many people.

    Voter identification changes

    The government’s election bill proposals will also extend the forms of identification that voters can present at polling stations to include bank cards. It clears the path for future digital forms of ID to be accepted.

    The last government introduced a requirement for everyone to provide photographic identification at polling stations at UK general elections and some local elections. Accepted forms of identification include passports and driving licences but also a range of other options. If citizens don’t have identification, then they can apply for a free voter authority certificate, provided that they do so before the deadline.

    However, our research found that many people were turned away in polling stations as they did not have required identification. Poll workers reported that the impact particularly affected some groups, such as students and women.

    The UK is now ranked in the bottom half of countries in the UK by election quality. The proposed changes to electoral law are therefore urgent, important and will strengthen elections in areas where they are weak.

    They may not, however, go far enough. The previous government restricted the independence of the Electoral Commission and these changes have not been reversed by the Labour government. The Electoral Commission will play an important role in automatic registration, so the government could renew its independence to help build confidence and trust in elections.

    Nonetheless, the move to automatic registration would be a major step forward for a changing democracy – as long as the government now puts on the afterburners to power the effort needed to make these changes work effectively in time for the next election.

    Toby James has previously received funding from the AHRC, ESRC, Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust, British Academy, Leverhulme Trust, Electoral Commission, Nuffield Foundation, the McDougall Trust, Unlock Democracy, International IDEA and the Canadian SSHRC.

    – ref. Automatic voter registration: a huge step forward for democracy – and a chance to bring missing millions into elections – https://theconversation.com/automatic-voter-registration-a-huge-step-forward-for-democracy-and-a-chance-to-bring-missing-millions-into-elections-261489

    MIL OSI Analysis –