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Category: Analysis Assessment

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Appendix cancer rising among younger generation – new study

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Justin Stebbing, Professor of Biomedical Sciences, Anglia Ruskin University

    sasirin pamai/Shutterstock.com

    Appendix cancer is a condition that, until recently, was so rare that most people never gave it a second thought. For decades, it was the kind of disease that doctors might encounter only once or twice in a career, and it was almost always found in older adults.

    But now a surprising and concerning trend is emerging: appendix cancer is being diagnosed more often, and it’s increasingly affecting people in their 30s, 40s and even younger. This shift has left many experts puzzled and searching for answers.

    The appendix is a small, finger-shaped pouch attached to the large intestine. Its purpose in the body is still debated, but it’s best known for causing appendicitis, a painful inflammation that often requires emergency surgery. What’s less well known is that cancer can develop in the appendix, usually without any warning signs.

    A new study, published in Annals of Internal Medicine, has shown that the number of appendix cancer cases has increased dramatically among people born after the 1970s. In fact, the incidence has tripled or even quadrupled in younger generations compared with those born in the 1940s.

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    While the overall numbers are still small (appendix cancer affects just a handful of people per million each year) the rapid rise is striking. Even more notable is that about one in three cases now occurs in adults under 50, a much higher proportion than seen in other types of gastrointestinal cancers.

    So, what’s behind this surge? No one knows for sure, but one of the first suspects is the dramatic change in lifestyle and environment over the past several decades. Obesity rates have soared since the 1970s, and being overweight is a known risk factor for many cancers, including those of the digestive system.

    At the same time, diets have shifted toward more processed foods, sugary drinks, and red or processed meats, all of which have been linked to increased cancer risk in other parts of the gut.

    Physical activity has also declined, with more people spending long hours sitting at desks or in front of screens.

    Another possibility is that we are being exposed to new environmental factors that previous generations didn’t face. The industrialisation of food production, the widespread use of plastics and chemicals, and changes in water quality might all play a role. However, the evidence is still in its early stages.

    Hard to detect

    What makes appendix cancer especially challenging is how difficult it is to detect. Unlike colon cancer, which can sometimes be found early through screening colonoscopies, appendix cancer usually flies under the radar.

    The symptoms, if they appear at all, are vague and easy to dismiss. People might experience mild abdominal pain, bloating or changes in bowel habits, which are common complaints for many benign conditions. As a result, most cases are only discovered after surgery for suspected appendicitis, when it’s often too late for early intervention.

    Despite the rise in cases, there is no routine screening test for appendix cancer. The disease is simply too rare to justify widespread screening, and the appendix can be difficult to visualise with standard imaging or endoscopy. This means that both patients and doctors need to be extra vigilant.

    If someone experiences persistent or unusual abdominal symptoms, especially if they’re under 50, it’s important not to ignore them. Early investigation and prompt treatment can make a significant difference in outcomes.

    The increase in appendix cancer among younger adults is part of a broader trend seen in other gastrointestinal cancers, such as those of the colon and stomach. These cancers, too, are being diagnosed more often in people under 50, suggesting that shared risk factors may be at work.

    The reasons for this shift are complex and probably involve a mix of genetics, lifestyle, environment and perhaps even changes in our gut microbiome – the bacteria in our intestines that live with us.

    Over the past few decades, antibiotics have been used more frequently, both in medicine and in agriculture. This widespread use can alter the balance of bacteria in our guts, which might influence cancer risk. Some recent research suggests that early-life exposure to antibiotics could have long-term effects on the digestive system, but more studies are needed to confirm this link.

    Could early-life exposure to antibiotics have something to do with the rise in appendix cancer?
    luchschenF/Shutterstock.com

    For now, the best advice is to focus on prevention and awareness. Maintaining a healthy weight, eating a balanced diet rich in fruit, vegetables and whole grains, and staying physically active are all steps that can lower the risk of many types of cancer.

    Avoiding tobacco and limiting alcohol intake are also important. While these measures can’t guarantee protection against appendix cancer, they are proven strategies for overall health.

    Researchers are working hard to unravel the mystery of why appendix cancer is rising so rapidly among younger generations. Understanding the causes will be crucial for developing better ways to prevent, detect and treat this rare but increasingly important disease.

    In the meantime, raising awareness among healthcare providers and the public is essential. By recognising the signs and taking action when symptoms arise, we can improve the chances of catching appendix cancer early and giving patients the best possible outcomes.

    The story of appendix cancer’s rise is a reminder that even rare diseases can become more common when our environment and lifestyles change. It’s also a call to action for further research and for all of us to pay attention to our bodies, seek medical advice when something feels off, and support efforts to understand and combat this puzzling trend.

    Justin Stebbing 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. Appendix cancer rising among younger generation – new study – https://theconversation.com/appendix-cancer-rising-among-younger-generation-new-study-258607

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: A traffic-light system for dogwalkers could protect breeding birds, seal pups and other wildlife

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Sarah Crowley, Senior Lecturer in Human and Animal Geography, University of Exeter

    Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock

    Like millions of people, we have experienced the physical and mental health benefits, as well as the simple enjoyment, of a daily dog walk. However, amid the UK’s growing population of dogs (around 13.5 million at the latest estimate), recent reports have highlighted growing concern about how dogs affect wildlife and ecosystems.

    Potential issues include disturbance or active chasing of wildlife, spreading of diseases and parasites, and water pollution from flea and tick treatments.

    By collaborating with more than 40 organisations from the Wildlife Trusts to the Dogs Trust, we have created a new guide to explain and help manage the effects of dog walking on biodiversity, based on current evidence.

    The Renew programme, a research collaboration between the University of Exeter and the National Trust, takes a “people in nature” approach to address complex challenges like this. We reviewed the existing scientific literature and mapped the relationship between current dog densities and England’s protected habitats.

    We found that dog walking can have negative environmental consequences including substantial effects of disturbance, pollution and disease in some places.

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    We then discussed these findings in workshops with specialists in dog behaviour, biodiversity conservation and land management. We explored what dog walkers and landowners can do to minimise the disturbance of wildlife and ecosystems, while still enabling public access to natural spaces for people and their dogs.

    One of our key findings was that different organisations and landowners take very different approaches to managing dog walking on their sites, which is inconsistent and can be confusing for dog walkers. There are also multiple voluntary codes for responsible dog walking, including the countryside code, the Kennel Club’s canine code, the National Trust’s canine code, and Forestry England’s dog code.

    While these codes often share central principles, they differ in specific guidance and level of detail. To address this, land managers could take a more standardised approach to managing dog walking – based on a shared code for dog walkers, and different zones of access for land managers.

    A green pawprint sign would indicate where dogs don’t have to be kept on leads.
    Soloviova Liudmyla/Shutterstock

    We recommend such a zoning approach should employ a traffic-light system, highlighted by coloured pawprints. Green zones would welcome dogs without restriction and ideally provide dog-friendly facilities.

    Amber zones would require “paws on paths” (that is, keeping dogs on marked trails) and, in the presence of livestock, dogs on leads. Red zones would indicate sensitive sites in which dogs aren’t allowed, such as areas of lowland heath where birds nest on the ground or beaches where young seal pups are resting.

    Zone colours might change depending on the time of year – this is already common on beaches, which often have seasonal dog restrictions. As long as the signage is clear, our idea is that wherever a dog walker finds themselves, they will know what is expected of them.

    More zones, less disturbance

    Some organisations and sites, including Dorset Dogs and the Holkham Hall estate in Norfolk, already use zoning approaches to reduce incidences of wildlife disturbance. But as was recently demonstrated by the legal battle over wild camping on Dartmoor, public access to land is a sensitive topic in the UK. Restrictions meet resistance because they can impinge on what for many is considered a basic freedom – to access the outdoors with one’s dog.

    Consequently, meaningful engagement with dog owners and local communities when designing zoning is vital. Perhaps counterintuitively, simply increasing restrictions on access to land may actually exacerbate disturbance from dog walking, as people, dogs and protected areas become crowded together in the same landscapes.

    A zoning approach that also involves creating new green pawprint zones for off-lead dog walking, where access elsewhere is restricted, would ensure that no access to wild places is lost overall.

    The effects of dog walking on the environment are linked to broader social and cultural factors, including people’s knowledge and skills when it comes to managing their dogs’ behaviour. But other factors include the availability of facilities such as dog poo bins, and the widespread use of “spot-on” flea and tick treatments – pesticides that are applied directly to the fur and can contaminate the environment more than medication given orally.

    In our Paws for Thought workshops, the research team found that emphasising how the health of people, animals and ecosystems are all interconnected resonated with our participants more than focusing on wildlife protection alone.

    Dogs are vital companions for many of us – but unfortunately, their presence and behaviour can cause problems for other species. Rather than demonising dogs and their owners as environmental threats, collaborative, evidence-based approaches can help create accessible spaces for people, dogs and wildlife.

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    Sarah Crowley works at the University of Exeter and receives funding from the UKRI as part of the Renew programme.

    David Bavin receives funding from UKRI and National Trust.

    Professor Matthew Heard receives funding from UKRI and National Trust.

    – ref. A traffic-light system for dogwalkers could protect breeding birds, seal pups and other wildlife – https://theconversation.com/a-traffic-light-system-for-dogwalkers-could-protect-breeding-birds-seal-pups-and-other-wildlife-258035

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: South Korea is finally reckoning with its decades-long foreign adoption scandal

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Youngeun Koo, Assistant Professor, Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Lund University

    Kim Tak-un was four years old when he was adopted by a Swedish family in 1974. Originally from South Korea, Tak-un had lived with his single father, a labourer who moved frequently for work. One day in the summer of 1974, while staying with his aunt, Tak-un wandered outside and disappeared.

    Local police considered him abandoned and referred him to an adoption agency, which arranged his adoption to Sweden within five months. When his father realised his son was missing, he searched everywhere, only to discover – too late – that Tak-un had already been sent overseas. Devastated, he demanded Tak-un’s return. When the adoption agency failed to respond, he went public with the story.

    In March 2025, South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission released initial findings from its investigation into the country’s 72-year-old international adoption programme. The full report is expected in the next few weeks as the investigation is now completed.

    Based on more than 360 cases submitted by Korean adoptees from 11 countries, the commission uncovered widespread human rights violations, including falsified documents, lack of parental consent, and cases of child switching – shaking up adoptees and their families.

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    Since the end of the Korean War (1950–1953), South Korea has sent over 200,000 children abroad, becoming the world’s largest country for adoption, even as it grew into an advanced economy.

    Existing studies have shown that international adoption from South Korea began as a response to the large number of mixed-heritage children born to Korean mothers and US soldiers during the war.

    It is estimated that thousands of such children were born, and South Korea’s first president, Syngman Rhee, ordered their overseas placement on the grounds that they were “unfit” for a nation imagined as ethnically homogeneous.

    However, international adoption did not end once this perceived “emergency” was over. From the mid-1960s onward, it expanded to include children from other vulnerable backgrounds, including those affected by poverty, family breakdown, and out-of-wedlock births. This, and the role of international adoption, is explored in my upcoming book.

    This was closely tied to the policies pursued by South Korea’s military regimes. The most important figure was Park Chung Hee, a military general who came to power through a 1961 coup and ruled until his assassination in 1979.

    His regime prioritised rapid economic growth, relegating social welfare to the lowest priority. Childcare was treated as an individual, not a state, responsibility. As I point out in my earlier research, public systems to categorise and care for children – whether abandoned, lost, or runaway – were extremely limited, and authorities largely placed the burden on parents to retrieve their separated children. This is probably why, after only cursory checks, authorities referred Tak-un to an adoption agency.

    Tak-un’s case attracted media attention in Sweden as well. However, in an interview with Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, the Swedish national board of health and welfare – which oversaw the Korean adoption programme – dismissed the claims, stating they were “99 percent certain” the story was false and insisting that Korean social workers had followed proper procedures.

    The trust that Swedish authorities placed in South Korean adoption procedures may have been because of the way the Korean social workers presented their work. As the first generation of Koreans trained in US-style professional social work, they framed international adoption as being about the child, the importance of a family, and emotional wellbeing.

    The research for my upcoming book shows that while they may have genuinely believed in international adoption as a valid form of child welfare, there were also practical reasons why this happened. With virtually no public funding for child welfare, many saw international adoption – where adoptive parents covered the costs of care – as an ideal way to apply their training.

    In interviews with me, now-retired social workers acknowledged flaws in South Korea’s broader child welfare system, such as the inability to verify a child’s true status. Yet, without public resources to build a reliable system or prioritise family reunification, they often treated international adoption as a first, rather than a last, resort.

    Moreover, the prevailing belief at the time that “normal” middle-class families offered the most stable environment for a child’s development provided further moral justification for sending children abroad.

    Western authorities often interpreted Korean social workers’ professionalism as evidence of shared liberal child welfare values and placed strong trust in their procedures. When serious flaws surfaced – as in Tak-un’s case – they were frequently dismissed as exceptions rather than signs of deeper systemic problems.

    Even when the facts were confirmed in 1975, Swedish authorities still refused to return the child. The Swedish consul-general in Seoul at the time, Lars Berg, argued that it was in Tak-un’s “best interest” to remain in Sweden, rather than be sent back to “an uncertain fate of the father without work and residence”.

    This reflected, in part, Sweden’s domestic realities: like many western societies at the time, Sweden faced a shortage of adoptable children, and international adoption had become an important way to meet the wishes of prospective parents.

    In the early 1970s, nearly half of all internationally adopted children arriving in Sweden came from South Korea. Which meant that when issues like Tak-un’s emerged, Swedish authorities prioritised the rights of adoptive parents, framing their defence in the language of child welfare.

    Sweden’s Adoption Commission has just released its own report on June 2, examining the country’s international adoption practices, including those involving South Korea. Echoing my research findings, it recommended an end to allowing Swedes to adopt children from abroad.

    So, what became of Tak-un? Ultimately, South Korean officials acquiesced to the Swedish authorities, and the Korean adoption agency was cleared of any wrongdoing. Tak-un never returned. The last trace in the archives is his birth father’s plea to hear from him.

    I located Tak-un, who now goes by his Swedish name and lives in a small town in Sweden. Despite attempts to reach him, he didn’t respond. It remains uncertain whether his father’s message ever reached him or if he knows anything about his early life in Korea.

    This silence is not merely personal. A system that claimed to act for the child’s welfare instead routinely erased adopted children’s pasts, ignored their birth families and decided their futures for them. Tak-un’s story isn’t just a painful exception – it is a haunting reminder of what was lost in the name of care.

    This project has been supported by funding from the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service), the Korea Foundation, the Academy of Korean Studies, the Kyujanggak Institute for Korean Studies at Seoul National University, the Clarke Chambers Travel Fellowship at the University of Minnesota, and the Presbyterian Historical Society Research Fellowship.

    – ref. South Korea is finally reckoning with its decades-long foreign adoption scandal – https://theconversation.com/south-korea-is-finally-reckoning-with-its-decades-long-foreign-adoption-scandal-255135

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: How I uncovered a potential ancient Rome wine scam

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Conor Trainor, Ad Astra Research Fellow / Assistant Professor, University College Dublin

    Dan Henson/Shutterstock

    Before artificial sweeteners, people satisfied their cravings for sweetness with natural products, including honey or dried fruit. Raisin wines, made by drying grapes before fermentation, were particularly popular. Historical records show these wines, some known as passum, were enjoyed in the Roman Empire and throughout medieval Europe. The most famous of raisin wine of the period was Malmsey, with varities of this type produced across the Mediterranean.

    Today, the popularity of raisin wines has declined, although some still are held in very high esteem. The best-known of these are Italy’s appassimento (literally “withering”) wines, such as Amarone. High-quality modern raisin wines from the Veneto region of Italy are left to dry for three months before being pressed and undergoing fermentation, a time-consuming process.

    Ancient sources describe similar techniques for producing raisin wines. Columella, a Roman agricultural writer, noted that drying and fermentation together took at least a month. The Roman author, Pliny the Elder, mentioned a process in which grapes were partially dried on the vine, then further dried on racks before being pressed eight days later.

    For the past ten years, I have been studying the process of how this wine was created at the archaeological site of Knossos in Crete. While famous for its earlier, Minoan, remains, Crete was renowned throughout the Roman empire for producing high-end sweet raisin wine, which was traded far and wide.

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    High-quality raisin wines required patience and time but it seems as if Knossos’s wine producers might not have been following these traditional methods.

    What my archaeological investigations of a wine production site, as well as at wine shipping container (amphora) production sites at Knossos, is that Cretan wine-producers may have been deceiving their Roman-era customers with a knock-off version of passum.

    Crete’s winemaking legacy

    Remains of a wine production facility in Knossos present a picture of winemaking practices a generation or so before the Romans conquered Crete. More intriguingly, ongoing studies of excavated Roman-era pottery kilns revealed a repeated pattern of four key artefacts being produced in one region of Knossos: amphorae for transporting wine, amphora stands for filling them, large ceramic mixing bowls, and ceramic beehives.

    Crete, the largest Greek island, has been producing wine for thousands of years. Archaeological evidence from Myrtos suggests winemaking as early as 2170 BCE. Its strategic location between Greece and North Africa made it a valuable asset and in 67 BCE, after a brutal three-year campaign, the Romans conquered the island.

    Following the conquest, Crete’s economy underwent major changes. The Romans established a colony at Knossos, transformed the governance system, and significantly expanded wine production. Rural activity surged, and archaeologists have found large numbers of amphorae (clay jars used for transporting wine) suggesting that Cretan wine was exported in huge quantities.

    Romans bought so much Cretan wine partly because of shipping routes. Grain shipments that helped feed the people of Rome frequently stopped at Crete en route from Alexandria to Italy, allowing merchants to load additional cargo. But demand was also driven by the reputation of Cretan raisin wine, which was considered a luxury product, much like Italy’s appassimento wines today. Beyond taste, it was also valued for supposed medicinal properties. The Roman army physician Pedanius Dioscorides wrote in his famous five-volume medical work Materia Medica that the wine cured headaches, expelled worms and even promoted fertility.

    The sudden rise in demand for sweet Cretan wine in Rome and on the Bay of Naples in the early days of empire may have encouraged winemakers to speed up production.

    Pliny the Elder described one shortcut for making raisin wine – boiling grape juice in large pots. However, the mixing basins found at Knossos show no evidence of heating. This suggests another possibility: adding honey to wine before packaging. The beehives, excavated from Roman-era pottery kilns and identifiable by their rough interior surfaces designed for honeycomb attachment, hint at a connection between winemaking and honey. Similar discoveries at other Greek sites suggest that honey and wine may have been mixed before shipping.

    This method would have been quicker and cheaper than drying grapes for weeks. But if Cretan producers were substituting honey for traditional drying techniques, was this truly raisin wine? And, were Roman consumers aware? The vast quantities of Cretan wine imported into Rome suggest that buyers weren’t too concerned either way. Based on the sheer volume of now-empty wine amphoras from Crete that have been found in archaeological sites in Rome, I suspect that the populous of Rome likely cared less about authenticity than we do today.

    Conor Trainor receives funding from University College Dublin, the British School at Athens, and previously for this research, the University of Warwick.

    – ref. How I uncovered a potential ancient Rome wine scam – https://theconversation.com/how-i-uncovered-a-potential-ancient-rome-wine-scam-258215

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: No packaging, no problem? The potential drawbacks of bulk groceries

    Source: The Conversation – France – By Fanny Reniou, Maître de conférences HDR, Université de Rennes 1 – Université de Rennes

    High-income professionals over the age of 50 make up 70% of all consumers of bulk products.
     DCStudio/Shutterstock

    The bulk distribution model has been in the news again lately, with well-known brands such as The Laughing Cow making their way into French supermarkets. Stakeholders in the bulk sector are seeking to introduce innovations in order to expand and democratise the concept. But is the bulk model such a clear-cut approach to consuming in a sustainable way?

    Bulk can be described as a consumer practice with a lower impact on the environment, since it involves the sale of products with no packaging, plastic or unnecessary waste and the use of reusable containers by consumers. In this type of distribution, predetermined manufacturer packaging becomes a thing of the past.

    In this model, distributors and consumers take on the task of packaging the product themselves to ensure the continuity of the multiple logistical and marketing functions that packaging usually fulfils. Unaccustomed to this new role, stakeholders in the bulk sector may make mistakes or act in ways that run counter to the environmental benefits that are generally expected to result from this practice.

    Contrary to the usually positive discourse on bulk products, our research points to the perverse and harmful effects of bulk distribution. When bulk stakeholders are left to “cope with” this new task of packaging products, can bulk still be described as ecologically sound?

    A new approach to packaging

    Packaging has always played a key role. It performs multiple functions that are essential for product distribution and consumption:

    • Logistical functions to preserve, protect and store the product: packaging helps to limit damage and loss, particularly during transport.

    • Marketing functions for product or brand recognition, which is achieved by distinctive colours or shapes to create on-shelf appeal. Packaging also has a positioning function, visually conveying a particular range level, as well as an informative function, serving as a medium for communicating a number of key elements such as composition, best-before date, etc.

    • Environmental functions, such as limiting the size of packaging and promoting certain types of materials – in particular recycled and recyclable materials.

    In the bulk market, it is up to consumers and distributors to fulfil these various functions in their own way: they may give them greater or lesser importance, giving priority to some over others. Insofar as manufacturers no longer offer predetermined packaging for their products, consumers and distributors have to take on this task jointly.

    Assimilation or accommodation

    Our study of how consumers and retailers appropriate these packaging functions used a variety of data: 54 interviews with bulk aisle and store managers and consumers of bulk products, as well as 190 Instagram posts and 428 photos taken in people’s homes and in stores.

    The study shows that there are two modes of appropriating packaging functions:

    • by assimilation – when individuals find ways to imitate typical packaging and its attributes

    • by accommodation – when they imagine new packaging and new ways of working with it

    Bulk packaging can lead to hygiene problems if consumers reuse packaging for a new purpose.
    GaldricPS/Shutterstock

    Some consumers reuse industrial packaging, such as egg cartons and detergent cans, because of their proven practicality. But packaging may also mirror its owners’ identity. Some packaging is cobbled together, while other packaging is carefully chosen with an emphasis on certain materials like wax, a fabric popular in West Africa and used for reusable bags.


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    Once packaging disappears, so does relevant information

    Appropriating the functions of packaging is not always easy. There is a “dark side” to bulk, with possible harmful effects on health or the environment, and social exclusion. Bulk can lead, for example, to hygiene-related problems or misinformation when consumers fail to label their jars correctly, or use packaging for another purpose. For example, using a glass juice bottle to store detergent can be hazardous if a household member is unaware of its contents.

    Bulk shopping can also appear exclusive for people with less culinary education. (High-income professionals over the age of 50 make up 70% of all consumers of bulk products.) Once the packaging disappears, so does the relevant information. Some consumers actually do need packaging to recognize, store and know how to cook a product. Without this information, products may end up in the garbage can!

    Our study also shows the ambivalence of the so-called “environmental function” of bulk shopping – the initial idea being that bulk should reduce the amount of waste generated by packaging. In fact, this function is not always fulfilled, as many consumers tend to buy a great deal of containers along with other items, such as labels, pens and so on, to customise them.

    Some consumers’ priority is not so much to reuse old packaging, but to buy new storage containers, which are often manufactured in faraway lands! The result is the production of massive amounts of waste – the exact opposite of the original purpose of the bulk trade.

    Lack of consumer guidance

    After a period of strong growth, the bulk sector went through a difficult period during the Covid-19 pandemic, leading to closures for many specialist stores in France, according to a first survey on bulk and on reuse. In supermarkets though, some retailers invested to make their bulk aisles more attractive – though in the absence of any effective guidance, consumers failed to make them their own. Bulk aisles have become just one among a host of other aisles.

    Things seem to be improving however, and innovation is on the rise. In France, 58% of the members of the “Bulk and Reuse Network” (réseau Vrac et réemploi) reported an increase in daily traffic between January and May 2023 compared with 2022.

    Distributors need to adapt to changing regulations. These stipulate that, by 2030, stores of over 400 m2 will have to devote 20% of their FMCG (Fast-Moving Consumer Goods) sales areas to bulk sales. Moreover, bulk sales made their official entry into French legislation with the law on the fight against waste and the circular economy (loi relative à la lutte contre le gaspillage et à l’économie circulaire) published in the French official gazette on February 11, 2020.

    In this context, it is all the more necessary and urgent to support bulk stakeholders, so that they can successfully adopt the practice and develop it further.

    Fanny Reniou has received funding from Biocoop as part of a research partnership.

    Elisa Robert-Monnot has received funding from Biocoop as part of a research partnership and collaboration.

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

    – ref. No packaging, no problem? The potential drawbacks of bulk groceries – https://theconversation.com/no-packaging-no-problem-the-potential-drawbacks-of-bulk-groceries-258305

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-Evening Report: New Zealand’s ‘symbolic’ sanctions on Israel too little, too late, say opposition parties

    By Russell Palmer, RNZ News political reporter

    Opposition parties say Aotearoa New Zealand’s government should be going much further, much faster in sanctioning Israel.

    Foreign Minister Winston Peters overnight revealed New Zealand had joined Australia, Canada, the UK and Norway in imposing travel bans on Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

    Some of the partner countries went further, adding asset freezes and business restrictions on the far-right ministers.

    Peters said the pair had used their leadership positions to actively undermine peace and security and remove prospects for a two-state solution.

    Israel and the United States criticised the sanctions, with the US saying it undermined progress towards a ceasefire.

    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, attending Fieldays in Waikato, told reporters New Zealand still enjoyed a good relationship with the US administration, but would not be backing down.

    “We have a view that this is the right course of action for us,” he said.

    Behind the scenes job
    “We have differences in approach but the Americans are doing an excellent job of behind the scenes trying to get Israel and the Palestinians to the table to talk about a ceasefire.”

    Asked if there could be further sanctions, Luxon said the government was “monitoring the situation all the time”.

    Peters has been busy travelling in Europe and was unavailable to be interviewed. ACT — probably the most vocally pro-Israel party in Parliament — refused to comment on the situation.

    The opposition parties also backed the move, but argued the government should have gone much further.

    Greens co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick has since December been urging the coalition to back her bill imposing economic sanctions on Israel. With support from Labour and Te Pāti Māori it would need just six MPs to cross the floor to pass.

    Calling the Israeli actions in Gaza “genocide”, she told RNZ the government’s sanctions fell far short of those imposed on Russia.

    “This is symbolic, and it’s unfortunate that it’s taken so long to get to this point, nearly two years . . .  the Minister of Foreign Affairs also invoked the similarities with Russia in his statement this morning, yet we have seen far less harsh sanctions applied to Israel.

    “We’re well past the time for first steps.”

    ‘Cowardice’ by government
    The pushback from the US was “probably precisely part of the reason that our government has been so scared of doing the right thing”, she said, calling it “cowardice” on the government’s part.

    “What else are you supposed to call it at the end of the day?,” she said, saying at a bare minimum the Israeli ambassador should be expelled, Palestinian statehood should be recognised, and a special category of visas for Palestinians should be introduced.

    She rejected categorisation of her stance as anti-semitic, saying that made no sense.

    “If we are critiquing a government of a certain country, that is not the same thing as critiquing the people of that country. I think it’s actually far more anti-semitic to conflate the actions of the Israeli government with the entire Jewish peoples.”

    Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer . . . “It’s not a war, it’s an annihilation”. Image: RNZ/Samuel Rillstone

    Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said the sanctions were political hypocrisy.

    “When it comes to war, human rights and the extent of violence and genocide that we’re seeing, Palestine is its own independent nation . . .  why is this government sanctioning only two ministers? They should be sanctioning the whole of Israel,” she said.

    “These two Israel far right ministers don’t act alone. They belong to an entire Israel government which has used its military might and everything it can possibly do to bombard, to murder and to commit genocide and occupy Gaza and the West Bank.”

    Suspend diplomatic ties
    She also wanted all diplomatic ties with Israel suspended, along with sanctions against Israeli companies, military officials and additional support for the international courts — also saying the government should have done more.

    “This government has been doing everything to do nothing . . .  to appease allies that have dangerously overstepped unjustifiable marks, and they should not be silent.

    “It’s not a war, it’s an annihilation, it’s an absolute annihilation of human beings . . .  we’re way out there supporting those allies that are helping to weaponise Israel and the flattening and the continual cruel occupation of a nation, and it’s just nothing that I thought in my living days I’d be witnessing.”

    She said the government should be pushing back against “a very polarised, very Trump attitude” to the conflict.

    “Trumpism has arrived in Aotearoa . . .  and we continue to go down that line, that is a really frightening part for this beautiful nation of ours.

    “As a nation, we have a different set of values. We’re a Pacific-based country with a long history of going against the grain – the mainstream, easy grind. We’ve been a peaceful, loving nation that stood up against the big boys when it came to our anti nuclear stance and that’s our role in this, our role is not to follow blindly.”

    Undermining two-state solution
    In a statement, Labour’s foreign affairs spokesperson Peeni Henare said the actions of Smotrich and Ben-Gvir had attempted to undermine the two-state solution and international law, and described the situation in Gaza as horrific.

    “The travel bans echo the sanctions placed on Russian individuals and organisations that supported the illegal invasion of Ukraine,” he said.

    He called for further action.

    “Labour has been calling for stronger action from the government on Israel’s invasion of Gaza, including intervening in South Africa’s case against Israel in the International Court of Justice, creation of a special visa for family members of New Zealanders fleeing Gaza, and ending government procurement from companies operating illegally in the Occupied Territories.”

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

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: British dads are going ‘on strike’ for better parental leave

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Katherine Twamley, Professor of Sociology, UCL

    Prostock-studio/Shutterstock

    UK campaign group The Dad Shift is staging a “dad strike” on June 11, to protest the poor paternity leave available to fathers in the UK. Fathers and other parents are being asked to “picket or pickup” – to leave work and join protests at government buildings, or use this time to do the school or nursery run.

    My research suggests that a poor offer of leave for fathers means they do not believe either the UK government or their employers view their participation in childcare as important.

    UK fathers can take up to two weeks’ leave at the time of the birth of their child, but it is paid well below the living wage. This leave is also only eligible to fathers who have been continuously employed by their employer for at least 26 weeks up to the 15th week before the baby is due.

    Paternity leave was introduced in 2003, when maternity leave was extended from 18 to 26 and later 52 weeks. This has resulted in a stark inequality between mothers’ and fathers’ opportunity to take time with their new baby. The UK paternity leave offer also compares poorly against leave offered for fathers in other countries, ranking 40th out of 43 OECD countries

    And despite the small amount of leave offered to fathers in the UK, only 59% actually take it. This is mostly due to the poor pay, but fathers also report facing pressure from work that inhibits their use of the leave options available to them.

    Sharing leave

    Shared parental leave, introduced in 2015 throughout the UK, allows parents to share up to 50 weeks between them. But it has failed to alter parental leave patterns: only 5% of fathers take any shared parental leave.

    The low remuneration offered – currently £187.18 a week, if taken within the first nine months, or no pay at all thereafter – again has affected how many men make use of this scheme. They may also feel they are “stealing” the mother’s leave, because a father taking shared parental leave means the mother has to go back to work sooner.



    Read more:
    Shared parental leave has failed because it doesn’t make financial or emotional sense

    But it’s really important that fathers take time with their babies. When fathers take leave, there are multiple documented benefits for the family and beyond.

    Time with an involved father benefits children.
    Anna Kraynova/Shutterstock

    Dads’ time at home with their children can help establish a bond between father and child. Research has found that a father who spends time with his young baby, and does activities with them, is more likely to be an engaged parent as his child gets older. There are also potential improved developmental outcomes for children. These benefits are increased the more time fathers are able to spend with their children.

    Wider benefits

    Mothers also benefit from having their partner off work and with them, particularly during the first weeks and months after giving birth.

    I collected diary entries and held interviews with new parents about their parental leave. The difference that fathers taking extended paternity leave at the time of birth made to mothers was palpable. All these mothers reported a smoother and happier transition to parenthood.

    On the other hand, mothers whose partners returned to work at two weeks or earlier reported significant challenges. Some even said they felt “traumatised” when the paternity leave ended. “It’s harrowing when the father goes back to work,” one mother told me. “I was, like, hysterical from lack of sleep and not being able to breastfeed.”

    As more and more births are via caesarean section – an estimated 31% in the UK – it is even more important that mothers have a partner present at this time. Mothers who have a c-section have limited mobility and will generally require greater levels of support for longer than mothers who have a vaginal birth.

    Beyond the family, fathers’ participation in leave is also good for gender equality. Fathers who take leave are more likely to share parenting tasks later and demonstrate more understanding around what parenthood involves.

    These benefits are magnified when fathers take leave alone – whether through shared parental leave taken alone in the UK or, as in some European countries, an extended “daddy’s quota” of leave taken after the mother returns to work.

    This can also have knock-on benefits for gender equality in paid work. The gender pay gap in the UK is 7% – women working full-time earn 7% less per hour than men. As documented by Nobel prize winner Claudia Goldin, the biggest factor in the gender pay gap is the transition to parenthood. A greater uptake of leave by fathers can shift the established roles of mother-as-carer and father-as-breadwinner.



    Read more:
    Mothers are more likely to work worse jobs – while fathers thrive in careers

    Besides all these documented benefits of paternity leave, perhaps one of the most potent is that fathers too are part of a family. To deny them independent and well-supported access to parental leave, at least in a comparable way to mothers, is simply unjust. They shouldn’t miss out on this valuable time with their children – and nor should children miss out on time with their fathers.

    Katherine Twamley’s research on parental leave was funded by the British Academy and the Leverhulme Trust.

    – ref. British dads are going ‘on strike’ for better parental leave – https://theconversation.com/british-dads-are-going-on-strike-for-better-parental-leave-257379

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-Evening Report: More deaths reported out of Sugapa in West Papua clashes with military

    By Caleb Fotheringham, RNZ Pacific journalist

    Further reports of civilian casualties are coming out of West Papua, while clashes between Indonesia’s military and the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement continue.

    One of the most recent military operations took place in the early morning of May 14 in Sugapa District, Intan Jaya in Central Papua.

    Military spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Iwan Dwi Prihartono said in a video statement translated into English that 18 members of the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) had been killed.

    He claimed the military wanted to provide health services and education to residents in villages in Intan Jaya but they were confronted by the TPNPB.

    Colonel Prihartono said the military confiscated an AK47, homemade weapons, ammunition, bows and arrows and the Morning Star flag — used as a symbol for West Papuan independence.

    But, according to the TPNPB, only three of the group’s soldiers were killed with the rest being civilians.

    The United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) said civilians killed included a 75-year-old, two women and a child.

    Both women in shallow graves
    Both the women were allegedly found on May 23 in shallow graves.

    A spokesperson from the Indonesian Embassy in Wellington said all 18 people killed were part of the TPNPB, as declared by the military.

    “The local regent of Intan Jaya has checked for the victims at their home and hospitals; therefore, he can confirm that the 18 victims were in fact all members of the armed criminal group,” they said.

    “The difference in numbers of victim sometimes happens because the armed criminal group tried to downplay their casualties or to try to create confusion.”

    The spokesperson said the military operation was carried out because local authorities “followed up upon complaints and reports from local communities that were terrified and terrorised by the armed criminal group”.

    Jakarta-based Human Rights Watch researcher Andreas Harsono said it was part of the wider Operation Habema which started last year.

    “It is a military operation to ‘eliminate’ the Free Papua guerilla fighters, not only in Intan Jaya, but in several agencies along the central highlands,” Harsono said.

    ‘Military informers’
    He said it had been intensifying since the TPNPB killed 17 miners in April, which the armed group accused of being “military informers”.

    RNZ Pacific has been sent photos of people who have been allegedly killed or injured in the May 14 assault, while others have been shared by ULMWP.

    Harsono said despite the photos and videos it was hard to verify if civilians had been killed.

    He said Indonesia claimed civilian casualties — including of the women who were allegedly buried in shallow graves — were a result of the TPNPB.

    “The TPNPB says, ‘of course, it is a lie why should we kill an indigenous woman?’ Well, you know, it is difficult to verify which one is correct, because they’re fighting the battle [in a very remote area],” Harsono said.

    “It’s difficult to cross-check whatever information coming from there, including the fact that it is difficult to get big videos or big photos from the area with the metadata.”

    Harsono said Indonesia was now using drones to fight the TPNPB.

    “This is something new; I think it will change the security situation, the battle situation in West Papua.

    “So far the TPNPB has not used drones; they are still struggling. In fact, most of them are still using bows and arrows in the conflict with the Indonesian military.”

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

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Q+A follows The Project onto the scrap heap – so where to now for non-traditional current affairs?

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of Melbourne

    Two long-running television current affairs programs are coming to an end at the same time, driving home the fact that no matter what the format, they have a shelf life.

    The Project on Channel 10 will end this month after 16 years, and after 18 years on the ABC, Q+A will not return from its current hiatus.

    Each was innovative in very different ways.

    Q+A was designed specifically to generate public participation. Its format of five panellists, a host and a studio audience of up to 1,000 was a daring experiment, because the audience was invited to ask questions that were not vetted in advance.

    This live-to-air approach gave it an edgy atmosphere not often achieved on television. From time to time, the edginess was real.

    In 2022, an audience member made a statement supporting Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and repeated Russian propaganda to the effect that Ukraine’s Azov battalion was a Nazi group that had killed an estimated 13,000 people in the Donbas region.

    After a brief discussion of these allegations, the host Stan Grant asked the man to leave, saying other audience members had been talking about family members who were dying in the war, and he could not countenance the advocating of violence.

    In 2017 the Sudanese-Australian writer Yassmin Abdel-Magied was involved in a fiery exchange with Senator Jacqui Lambie over sharia law.

    They had been asked by an audience member if it was time to define new rules surrounding migration to avoid community conflict, to which Lambie replied: “Anyone that supports sharia law should be deported.”

    Abdel-Magied questioned if Lambie even knew what that meant, before getting into a heated defence of feminism and Islam.

    In 2024, an audience member listening to politicians on the panel debate family violence could not contain his frustration, calling out:

    How dare you go into politics, in an environment like this, when one woman is murdered every four days, and all you […] can do is immediately talk about politics? That is just disgraceful.

    His outburst went viral.

    He had put his finger on what was an increasing problem with the program. It became hostage to fixed political positions among those of its panellists drawn from party politics.

    As a result, it became predictable, and although the surprise element supplied by audience participation remained a strength, the panellists’ responses increasingly became echoes of their parties’ policies.

    While the objective no doubt was to achieve a range of perspectives, it began to look like stage-managed political controversy.

    This is not to criticise the established presenters – Tony Jones, who fronted the program for 11 years, Stan Grant and most recently Patricia Karvelas, all gifted journalists who adroitly managed the time bombs occasionally set off in their midst.

    Unfortunately, especially for Grant, the program was a lightning rod for attacks on the ABC by The Australian newspaper. ABC management’s abandonment of him, after a particularly vicious attack in 2023 over his commentary during coverage of the king’s coronation, was disgraceful.

    Resigning from the program, Grant said: “Since the king’s coronation, I have seen people in the media lie and distort my words. They have tried to depict me as hate filled. They have accused me of maligning Australia. Nothing could be further from the truth.”

    The ABC is promising to continue with audience-participation programming along the lines of Your Say, a kind of online questionnaire which the ABC says was successfully tried during the 2025 federal election.

    How such a format would translate to television is not clear.

    Meanwhile at Ten, there is promise of a new current affairs program, but details are scant.

    The Project will be a hard act to follow. It promised “news done differently” – and it delivered. News stories were given context and a touch of humanity by a combination of humour, accidents, slips of the tongue and the intellectual firepower of Waleed Aly.

    Aly is a Sunni Muslim, and his “ISIL is weak” speech in 2015 spoke directly and passionately to the fears of the public at the peak of one of the many panics over terrorism.

    Inevitably, much of the attention in the wake of the announced closure has been on the celebrated gaffes of long-time presenter Carrie Bickmore, a little rich to be reproduced in a sober article such as this, but findable here.

    It may not be an auspicious time for launching a new current affairs program at Ten. Its ultimate parent company, Paramount, in the United States, is in the process of negotiating a settlement with US President Donald Trump over a trumped-up court case in which the president is suing the company for US$20 billion (A$30.7 billion).

    He says an interview done by another Paramount company, CBS News, with the Democrats’ former presidential nominee Kamala Harris during the election campaign was “deceptively edited”.

    This is said to have no prospect of succeeding in court, but Paramount wishes to merge with Skydance Media and fears the Trump administration would block it if the company doesn’t come across. The Wall Street Journal is reporting it is proposing to settle for $15 million.

    Senior editorial staff at CBS have already resigned in protest at Paramount’s cowardice, so what price editorial independence at Ten?

    Denis Muller 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. Q+A follows The Project onto the scrap heap – so where to now for non-traditional current affairs? – https://theconversation.com/q-a-follows-the-project-onto-the-scrap-heap-so-where-to-now-for-non-traditional-current-affairs-258690

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Sanctioning extremist Israeli ministers is a start, but Australia and its allies must do more

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jessica Whyte, Scientia Associate Professor of Philosophy and ARC Future Fellow, UNSW Sydney

    The Australian government is imposing financial and travel sanctions on two far-right Israeli ministers: Itamar Ben-Gvir (the national security minister) and Bezalel Smotrich (finance minister).

    This is a significant development. While Australia has previously sanctioned seven individual Israeli settlers, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich are the most high-profile Israeli nationals to face such sanctions.

    Civil society organisations have long called for sanctions against these ministers and others in the Israeli cabinet.

    Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong previously rebuffed such calls by saying that “going it alone gets us nowhere”. These latest sanctions have been imposed by a coalition of five states: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway and the United Kingdom.

    A joint statement by the foreign ministers of these countries says Ben Gvir and Smotrich “have incited extremist violence and serious abuses of Palestinian human rights.”

    Explaining the sanctions further, Wong told ABC Smotrich and Ben-Gvir are the “most extreme proponents of the unlawful and violent Israeli settlement enterprise”.

    A history of violent statements

    There is no doubt both men are extremists.

    Ben-Gvir, who is responsible for Israel’s police force, was convicted of racist incitement in 2007.

    As national security minister, he has handed out thousands of assault rifles to West Bank settlers. He has also boasted he’s worsened the “abominable conditions” of Palestinian prisoners.

    Smotrich has overseen a dramatic expansion of unlawful settlements in the West Bank. He’s vowed to annex the occupied Palestinian territory, in violation of international law.

    He has also complained no one would allow Israel “to cause two million civilians to die of hunger, even though it might be justified and moral until our hostages are returned.”

    Last month, he argued that “until the last hostage is returned, we should not even be sending water” to Gaza.

    The joint statement by the foreign ministers explains Ben-Gvir and Smotrich have been sanctioned for “inciting violence against Palestinians in the West Bank”.

    The statement notes these measures “cannot be seen in isolation from the catastrophe in Gaza”. However, it also goes on to express “unwavering support for Israel’s security” and vows to “continue to work with the Israeli government”.

    It does not note that the International Court of Justice has found Palestinians in Gaza are facing a plausible risk of genocide.

    Nor does it make clear Ben-Gvir and Smotrich are not bad apples; they are integral members of the far-right Israeli government that is responsible for the destruction of Gaza and the starvation of its people.

    Indeed, just this week, a UN independent fact-finding commission report found Israel was committing the “crime against humanity of extermination” in Gaza, among other war crimes.

    What are Magnitsky sanctions?

    Smotrich and Ben-Gvir have been sanctioned under Australia’s Autonomous Sanctions Act 2011. This act grants the foreign minister broad discretionary powers to impose sanctions.

    In 2021, the Australian government amended this act to allow the government to impose sanctions on specific “themes”, such as:

    • serious violations or serious abuses of human rights
    • threats to international peace and security
    • activities undermining good governance or the rule of law, including serious corruption.

    These targeted sanctions on human rights abuses are often called “Magnitsky-style sanctions” after the Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in custody after exposing serious corruption in Russia. They enable a government to freeze the assets of and impose travel bans on individuals and specific entities, not just countries.

    Since coming into force, Australia has imposed the Magnitsky-style sanctions on numerous Russian military leaders, members of Myanmar’s junta, and the commander in chief of the Iranian Army.

    But Australia does not only sanction individuals from these countries. It also imposes country-wide sanctions on Russia, Myanmar and Iran.

    These broader sanctions restrict all trade in arms, including weapons, ammunition, military vehicles and equipment, as well as spare parts and accessories.

    Australia can – and should – do more

    The Australian Centre for International Justice, which had lobbied the government to sanction Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, welcomed the decision. It called it:

    an important demonstration of Australia’s commitment to upholding international law and human rights.

    But the centre’s acting executive director, Lara Khider, stressed the need for further concrete action. This includes “the imposition of a comprehensive two-way arms embargo on Israel”.

    Indeed, sanctions are not just political or diplomatic tools that states can apply at their discretion. International law can require states to apply sanctions, such as through a resolution of the UN Security Council.

    Last July, the International Court of Justice declared that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, including its imposition of a regime of racial segregation, is unlawful.

    In that advisory opinion, the court also clarified the legal obligations of all states concerning Israel’s occupation of Palestine. Such obligations include the duty on all states to “take steps to prevent trade or investment relations that assist in the maintenance of the illegal situation”.

    Nothing less than a two-way trade and arms embargo is adequate now. Just as Australia imposes such sanctions on Russia, Myanmar and Iran, it must do the same for Israel.

    Jessica Whyte receives funding from the Australian Research Council. With Sara Dehm, she co-authored a submission to the 2024 inquiry into Australia’s sanctions regime which criticised Australia’s failure to impose sanctions on the state of Israel.

    Sara Dehm receives funding from the Australian Research Council. With Jessica Whyte, she co-authored a submission to the 2024 inquiry into Australia’s sanctions regime which criticised Australia’s failure to impose sanctions on the state of Israel.

    – ref. Sanctioning extremist Israeli ministers is a start, but Australia and its allies must do more – https://theconversation.com/sanctioning-extremist-israeli-ministers-is-a-start-but-australia-and-its-allies-must-do-more-258688

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Malaria has returned to the Torres Strait. What does this mean for mainland Australia?

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cameron Webb, Clinical Associate Professor and Principal Hospital Scientist, University of Sydney

    Aspect Drones/Shutterstock

    Malaria is one of the deadliest diseases spread by mosquitoes. Each year, hundreds of millions of people worldwide are infected and half a million people die from the disease.

    While mainland Australia was declared malaria-free in 1981, from time to time travellers return to Australia with an infection.

    Infections from local mosquitoes are incredibly rare. However, last week two cases of locally acquired malaria were reported in the Torres Strait.

    So what does this mean for local communities? And is this a risk for mainland Australia?

    What is malaria?

    Unlike other mosquito-borne disease, malaria is caused by protozoan parasites, not viruses. These parasites belong to the Plasmodium genus. While five of these parasites are considered a human health concern, Plasmodium falciparum poses the most serious threat.

    Symptoms can be mild and include fever, chills and headache. But sometimes people develop severe symptoms, such as fatigue, confusion, seizures and difficulty breathing.

    Without appropriate medical care, the disease can be fatal. Those most at risk of life-threatening illness include infants, children under five years, pregnant women and patients with HIV and AIDS.

    How does it spread?

    Malaria parasites are spread by the bite of a mosquito carrying the malaria parasite.

    Not all mosquitoes can carry the parasite. The group of mosquitoes responsible for most malaria transmission is called Anopheles. Aedes and Culex mosquitoes, which are typically associated with the spread of viruses, don’t transmit malaria to people.

    The Anopheles group of mosquitoes play an important role in transmitting malaria parasites.
    Cameron Webb (NSW Health Pathology), CC BY-NC-ND

    While there are medications available to prevent malaria, and these are routinely recommended to travellers, this is not a sustainable approach for communities within regions at risk. The cost of medications, as well as the risk parasites may develop resistance to medications over time, are barriers for routine use in high risk countries.

    Alternative strategies include using insecticide-treated bed nets and controlling mosquitoes by spraying insecticide on and around homes. Early diagnosis and treatment of those suspected to have an infection is also crucial.

    ‘Imported’ versus ‘locally acquired’ infections

    There is an important distinction between “imported” and “locally acquired” cases of malaria.

    “Imported” cases mean the person has been infected overseas and returned to Australia, where they’ve been diagnosed and treated. These cases appear in official statistics but are not the result of local mosquito bites.

    “Locally acquired” cases are where a person is infected without any overseas travel. These cases often result from the parasites first introduced into Australia by infected travellers. The travellers are then bitten by local mosquitoes that go on to bite and spread the pathogens to people who haven’t travelled.

    The last locally acquired malaria outbreak in mainland Australia occurred in 2002, when ten people were infected in Far North Queensland.

    When this happens, it indicates local mosquitoes are carrying the malaria parasites and there is a significant risk further infections have occurred (but are not yet diagnosed) or may be diagnosed in the near future. Mosquito control or other initiatives are required to prevent larger outbreaks.

    In the case of the Torres Strait, there is also the risk infected mosquitoes are transported, either by wind or boats, from Papua New Guinea.

    So, what’s happening in the Torres Strait?

    Queensland Health is currently investigating two recent cases of locally acquired malaria on Saibai Island.

    But cases of locally acquired malaria aren’t unusual in the Torres Strait. They’re often suspected to be linked to movement of people into the islands from PNG, a country that reports more than a million suspected cases of malaria each year.

    Previous locally acquired malaria cases in the Torres Strait were reported in 2023. Before that, a single case was reported in 2013 and eight cases in 2011.

    The tropical climate of the Torres Strait and presence of Anopheles mosquitoes means conditions are right for local spread once the parasites are introduced, either through infected mosquitoes or people.



    Read more:
    Torres Strait Islanders face more than their fair share of health impacts from climate change

    Could malaria spread to mainland Australia?

    Since the 1980s, there have only been a small number of cases reported on mainland Australia. The majority are in travellers returning to Australia who were infected overseas.

    Historically, malaria cases were reported in many parts of the country, especially in the 1940s, including suburbs around Sydney when soldiers infected overseas returned to Australia.

    The mosquitoes capable of spreading the parasites then are still present today. While the most important malaria mosquito in Australia, Anopheles faurati, is limited to northern regions of coastal Australia, Anopheles annulipes is widespread across much of the country.

    But just because the mosquitoes are there, it doesn’t mean there will be an outbreak of malaria.

    The parasite needs to be introduced and it needs to be warm enough for it to complete its life cycle in local mosquitoes. The cooler it is, the less likely that is to happen, even if suitable mosquitoes are present.

    The parasites also face additional challenges. Infected people need to be bitten by local Anopheles mosquitoes, not just any mosquitoes. And with modern health-care systems in Australia, untreated sick people are less likely to be exposed to mosquito bites.

    Malaria is one of the mosquito-borne pathogens considered at risk of increasing as a result of climate change. But there are many other factors at play that will determine future outbreak risk in mainland Australia, especially outside the tropical north of the country, such as a changing climate and seasonal changes in numbers and types of mosquitoes.

    How to stay safe

    The most important way local communities and visitors to the Torres Strait can stay safe is to avoid mosquito bites.

    Cover up when possible with long-sleeved shirts, long pants and covered shoes and apply an insect repellent.

    Insect screens, whether on buildings or in the form of bed nets will also provide protection overnight.



    Read more:
    Mozzies biting? Here’s how to choose a repellent (and how to use it for the best protection)

    Cameron Webb and the Department of Medical Entomology, NSW Health Pathology and University of Sydney, have been engaged by a wide range of insect repellent and insecticide manufacturers to provide testing of products and provide expert advice on medically important arthropods, including mosquitoes. Cameron has also received funding from local, state and federal agencies to undertake research into various aspects of mosquito and mosquito-borne disease management.

    – ref. Malaria has returned to the Torres Strait. What does this mean for mainland Australia? – https://theconversation.com/malaria-has-returned-to-the-torres-strait-what-does-this-mean-for-mainland-australia-258289

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: NZ’s goal is to get smoking rates under 5% for all population groups this year – here’s why that’s highly unlikely

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Janet Hoek, Professor in Public Health, University of Otago

    Getty Images

    Next week is “scrutiny week” in parliament – one of two weeks each year when opposition MPs can hold ministers accountable for their actions, or lack thereof.

    For us, it’s a good time to take stock of whether New Zealand is on track to achieve its smokefree goal of reducing smoking prevalence to under 5% and as close to zero as possible, among all population groups, this year.

    The latest New Zealand Health Survey shows that, for the first time in a decade, smoking rates have flatlined rather than fallen. Stark inequities persist, with daily smoking prevalence among Māori at 14.7% (compared to 6.1% among European New Zealanders).

    To bring New Zealand’s overall smoking prevalence under 5% would require more than 80,000 people to quit this year. Achieving the goal equitably means more than 60,000 of those people would need to be Māori.

    The government’s repeal of earlier measures predicted to bring rapid and equitable reductions in smoking prevalence means achieving the Smokefree 2025 goal for all population groups is now highly unlikely.

    Ending the scourge of tobacco

    Proposed by the Māori Affairs Select Committee and adopted by the then National-led government in 2011, the Smokefree 2025 goal has always had equity at its heart.

    At that time, smoking prevalence among Māori was 37.7% and 14.7% among European New Zealanders. Reducing smoking rates to less than 5% for all population groups offered an opportunity to profoundly reduce health inequities burdening Māori.

    Early discussions recognised the large inequities in smoking rates. Speaking about his role in the select committee inquiry, former National Party leader Simon Bridges stated:

    The picture I had of smoking was quite wrong. Most of the time, smoking is not this idea of a free market with adults who freely consent to take up smoking […] but the more complex, difficult situation of children smoking as a result of parents and grandparents who smoked […]. That means that a more intense, stronger, more interventionist approach is called for.

    The first Smokefree Action Plan, only introduced a decade later in late 2021, included more intense measures and established a Māori and Pacific oversight committee to ensure all actions taken promoted equity.

    The action plan introduced three key initiatives: denicotinisation, a large reduction in outlets selling tobacco, and the smokefree generation strategy.

    All were expected to have strong pro-equity outcomes. Modelling predicted denicotinisation would bring unprecedented reductions in smoking prevalence, eliminating the gaps between Māori and non-Māori. Reducing tobacco availability would end the widespread access to tobacco in lower-income communities.

    The smokefree generation, a longer-term endgame strategy that would have meant anyone born after 2009 could no longer buy tobacco, was predicted to significantly reduce inequity, given the younger Māori (and Pacific) population structure.

    Then Minister of Health Ayesha Verrall noted:

    While smoking rates are heading in the right direction, we need to do more, faster, to reach our goal. If nothing changes, it would be decades till Māori smoking rates fall below 5%, and this government is not prepared to leave people behind.

    Is equity still the goal?

    The coalition government’s repeal of these measures in early 2024 left a void, but Associate Health Minister Casey Costello reaffirmed a commitment to the Smokefree 2025 goal. A January 2024 update to Cabinet stated:

    The government remains committed to further reducing smoking rates and achieving the Smokefree 2025 goal of daily smoking prevalence of less than 5% for all population groups.

    However, by late 2024 the narrative began changing. In November, Costello launched a new smokefree action plan in a final push to reach the headline 5% target. Her plan does not emphasise the structural changes (such as fewer outlets selling tobacco) called for by the Māori Affairs Select Committee.

    Instead, it relies on health promotion programmes to reduce smoking uptake and on increasing attempts to quit by “reinvigorating” stop-smoking messages and improving referral rates to support.

    We argue New Zealand will likely fall well short of its 2025 goal to bring smoking rates below 5% and reduce inequities, despite an ongoing commitment by Health New Zealand-Te Whatu Ora.

    During scrutiny week, we hope Associate Health Minister Costello will be asked how she explains the discrepancy between her earlier commitment to achieving the Smokefree 2025 goal among all population groups and more recent comments which appear to roll back the equity goal.

    More importantly, we hope questions will probe how she plans to reduce smoking prevalence among Māori to a third of its current level, and what evidence she has that the steps she proposes will work.

    Janet Hoek receives funding from the Health Research Council of New Zealand, the Marsden Fund, NZ Cancer Society and NZ Heart Foundation. She is a member of the Health Coalition Aotearoa’s smokefree expert advisory group and of the Ministry of Health’s smokefree advisory group, a member of the HRC’s Public Health Research Committee, and a Senior Editor at Tobacco Control (honorarium paid). She serves on several other government, NGO and community advisory groups.

    Jude Ball receives funding from the Health Research Council of New Zealand, the Marsden Fund, NZ Cancer Society, NIB Foundation, and the Health Promotion Agency. She is affiliated with the Public Health Association of New Zealand, a member of Health Coalition Aotearoa’s smokefree advisory group, and serves on other NGO and community advisory groups.

    – ref. NZ’s goal is to get smoking rates under 5% for all population groups this year – here’s why that’s highly unlikely – https://theconversation.com/nzs-goal-is-to-get-smoking-rates-under-5-for-all-population-groups-this-year-heres-why-thats-highly-unlikely-258592

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Is regulation really to blame for the housing affordability crisis?

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicole Gurran, Professor of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Sydney

    ymgerman/Shutterstock

    The Albanese government has a new mantra to describe the housing crisis, which is showing no signs of abating: homes have simply become “too hard to build” in Australia.

    The prime minister and senior ministers are taking aim at what they are calling a “thicket” of red tape and regulation, which is making it “uneconomic” to build affordable housing.

    Undoubtedly, the great Australian dream is further out of reach, with average house prices now above A$1 million for the first time.

    But will a war on excessive regulation be enough to address the affordability barriers keeping many people out of the market? Or does the answer lie in systemic change, including tax reform?

    Abundant housing agenda

    Assistant Minister for Productivity Andrew Leigh kick-started the assault on regulation when he recently took aim at local councils for holding back new housing developments:

    Approvals drag on. Rules multiply. Outcomes are inconsistent. They don’t say ‘no’ outright. They just make ‘yes’ harder than it needs to be.

    By lamenting rigid planning processes, Leigh was channelling the zeitgeist. The minister was drawing on the book Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson. The book – a smash hit in political circles – calls on progressives to adopt “YIMBY” policies (Yes In My Backyard) and remove the barriers that slow project delivery.

    Leigh was duly applauded by the housing industry, which promotes its own version of abundance as an “unabashed focus on supply-side housing policy mechanisms”.

    More than supply

    New housing construction is certainly critical, as reflected in the government promise to build 1.2 million homes over five years.

    The target is already out of reach, with the regulatory burden being blamed for a forecast shortfall of 262,000 homes by mid 2029.

    But by focusing on planning laws as the main barrier to new supply, Leigh risks diverting attention from the overarching systemic changes needed to improve access to affordable housing.

    While an overhaul of red tape is important, it won’t be enough to address current supply barriers, including market conditions and industry constraints. Nor will unleashing construction be sufficient to make housing affordable for first home buyers or low income renters.

    According to the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council, other priority areas for the government should include social housing, protection for renters and tax reform.

    Winding back tax breaks such as negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount, would free up resources for public investment in social housing. Targeting financial incentives to new, and preferably affordable homes, would also boost supply.

    Perhaps the size of Labor’s election victory and the calls for reform by a chorus of experts may convince the government to reconsider its refusal to curb these tax breaks.

    Blaming local councils

    Within a system-wide reform agenda, regulatory roadblocks to new land and housing supply should be assessed. But in doing so, accurate data and analysis is critical.

    Leigh singles out North Sydney Council to illustrate his argument that over-regulation is holding back housing starts. He claims just 44 dwelling were approved between July 2024 and February 2025, well short of its state-imposed target of 787 homes:

    This is not a small gap. It is structural failure, Even where planning targets exist, the systems to meet them often don’t.

    But the figures Leigh cites isn’t for development approvals. Instead, they refer to construction certificates issued when a development is ready to commence. According to the NSW Planning Portal, the actual number of new dwellings approved in North Sydney was 446, which was particularly notable given the economic conditions.

    Unfortunately, Leigh’s attack on local councils perpetuates many common misunderstandings about how planning systems operate in Australia. He seems to point the finger at local councils, when land use plans – zoning, height and density controls – are signed off by the states.

    Leigh also recalls a time when housing completions were flowing much more freely in his home town of Canberra, implying the key difference is one of over regulation and not underlying economic circumstances.

    The ACT is particularly prone to a slowdown in building approvals because of the shift from detached homes on greenfield sites towards medium density apartments. And there has been a near total retreat from public sector investment in new supply. For instance, in 1969-70, nearly a third of new homes in Canberra were delivered by the government. These days it’s just 5%.

    Political will

    The tired cliches about housing and zoning continue to circulate.

    The need to relax zoning restrictions to ease house prices was the media’s main takeaway from the OECD’s latest Economic Outlook Report.

    The 280-page document does mention “zoning” in the list of regulatory reforms Australian governments could undertake. But the OECD says the emphasis should be on public investment “to address the housing affordability crisis by boosting supply” especially in social housing.

    As our research has previously demonstrated, calling for zoning and planning reform is a popular technique for seeming concerned about housing while avoiding the systemic change that would deliver additional supply.

    Has housing really become too hard to build?

    Or does the difficultly lie in finding the political will to take the real steps needed to make housing more accessible to generations of Australians who risk missing out?

    Nicole Gurran receives funding from the Australian Housing & Urban Research Institute (AHURI) and has received funding from the Australian Research Council.

    Peter Phibbs receives funding from the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI)

    – ref. Is regulation really to blame for the housing affordability crisis? – https://theconversation.com/is-regulation-really-to-blame-for-the-housing-affordability-crisis-258077

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Australia-US rift over sanctions on Israeli ministers further complicates Albanese-Trump expected talks

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

    Australia, together with the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand and Norway, has imposed sanctions on two ministers in the Israeli government for “inciting violence against Palestinians in the West Bank”.

    Australia and the other countries were immediately condemned by the United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who called for them to be lifted.

    The move comes as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese prepares to leave on Friday for the G7 in Canada, where he is expected to meet UN President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the conference.

    Australia’s signing up for the sanctions is just another complication for the anticipated meeting. The Australian government is under pressure from the US administration to significantly boost its defence spending. Meanwhile, Australia is seeking a deal to get some exemption from the Trump tariffs.

    The sanctions are on National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

    They include bans on travel to Australia, a freeze on any assets they might have here, and a prohibition on anyone in Australia directly or indirectly making assets available to them.

    Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the two ministers “have been the most extremist and hard line of an extremist settler enterprise which is both unlawful and violent”.

    The Israeli ministers are accused of major violations of human rights, including escalating physical violence and abuse by Israeli settlers. A few days ago they marched through Jerusalem’s Muslim Quarter with a group that chanted “death to Arabs”.

    In a social media post, Rubio said the sanctions “do not advance US-led efforts to achieve a ceasefire, bring all hostages home, and end the war”.

    “We reject any notion of equivalence: Hamas is a terrorist organization that committed unspeakable atrocities, continues to hold innocent civilians hostage, and prevents the people of Gaza from living in peace. We remind our partners not to forget who the real enemy is.”

    Urging the reversal of the sanctions, Rubio said the US “stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Israel”.

    Asked whether he was concerned the sanctions would damage Australia’s relations with the US, Albanese told reporters he was not: “Australia makes its own decisions based upon the assessments that we make”. He pointed out the action was in concert with the Five Eyes countries of Canada, the UK and new Zealand.

    Shadow Foreign Minister Michaelia Cash  said sanctioning  democratically elected officials of a key ally was “very serious”.

    “Labor should be clear who initiated this process, on what basis they have done so and who made the decision”, Cash said. The government should also say what, if any, engagement it had had with the US on the matter, she said.

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

    – ref. Australia-US rift over sanctions on Israeli ministers further complicates Albanese-Trump expected talks – https://theconversation.com/australia-us-rift-over-sanctions-on-israeli-ministers-further-complicates-albanese-trump-expected-talks-258691

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: What are the ‘less lethal’ weapons being used in Los Angeles?

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samara McPhedran, Principal Research Fellow, Griffith University

    After United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested multiple people on alleged immigration violations, protests broke out in Los Angeles.

    In response, police and military personnel have been deployed around the greater LA area.

    Authorities have been using “less lethal” weapons against crowds of civilians, but these weapons can still cause serious harm.

    Footage of an Australian news reporter being shot by a rubber bullet fired by police – who appeared to deliberately target her – has been beamed around the world. And headlines this morning told of an ABC camera operator hit in the chest with a “less lethal” round.

    This has provoked debate about police and military use of force.



    Read more:
    In Trump’s America, the shooting of a journalist is not a one-off. Press freedom itself is under attack

    What are ‘less lethal’ weapons?

    As the term suggests, less lethal (also called non lethal or less-than-lethal) weapons are items that are less likely to result in death when compared with alternatives such as firearms.

    Less lethal weapons include weapons such as:

    • pepper spray
    • tear gas
    • tasers
    • batons
    • water cannons
    • acoustic weapons
    • bean-bag rounds
    • rubber bullets.

    They are designed and used to incapacitate people and disperse or control crowds.

    They are meant to have temporary and reversible effects that minimise the likelihood of fatalities or permanent injury as well as undesired damage to property, facilities, material and the environment.

    Fatalities can still occur but this does not necessarily mean the weapon itself caused those.

    In Australia in 2023, for example, 95-year-old aged care resident Clare Nowland was tasered, fell backwards, hit her head and died from her head injury.

    In 2012, responding to a mistaken report about an armed robbery, police physically restrained, tasered and pepper sprayed 21-year-old Roberto Curti multiple times. He died but his exact cause of death (and whether the use of less lethal weapons played a causal role) was not clear.

    Do these weapons work to quell unrest?

    The impetus for police and military use of less lethal force came about, in part, from backlash following the use of lethal force in situations where it was seen as a gross overreaction.

    One example was the 1960 Sharpeville massacre in South Africa, when police officers in a black township opened fire on an anti-apartheid protest, killing 69 civilians.

    In theory, less lethal force is meant to provide a graduated level of response to events such as riots or protests, where the use of lethal force would be disproportionate and counter-productive.

    It is sometimes described as the “next step” to use after de-escalation techniques (like negotiation or verbal commands) have failed.

    Less lethal weapons can be used when some degree of force is considered necessary to restore order, neutralise a threat, or avoid full-blown conflict.

    How well this works in practice is a different story.

    There can be unintended consequences and use of less lethal force can be seen as an act of aggression by a government against its people, heightening existing tensions.

    The availability of less lethal weapons may also change perceptions of risk and encourage the use of force in situations where it would otherwise be avoided. This in turn can provoke further escalation, conflict and distrust of authorities.

    Samara McPhedran 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 are the ‘less lethal’ weapons being used in Los Angeles? – https://theconversation.com/what-are-the-less-lethal-weapons-being-used-in-los-angeles-258687

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Labor’s win at the 2025 federal election was the biggest since 1943, with its largest swings in the cities

    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

    We now have the (almost!) final results from the 2025 federal election – with only Bradfield still to be completely resolved.

    Labor won 94 of the 150 House of Representatives seats (up 17 from 77 of 151 in 2022), the Coalition 43 (down 15) and all Others 13 (down three). It also won 62.7% of seats, its highest seat share since 1943, when it won 49 of 75 seats (65.3% of seats).

    Since the beginning of the two-party system in 1910, the 28.7% of seats for the Coalition is the lowest ever seat share for the Liberal and National parties combined, or their predecessors. The Coalition had won 23 of the 75 seats in 1943, its previous worst result (30.7% of seats).

    The Poll Bludger said on Wednesday the Liberals could lodge a court challenge to their 26-vote loss in Bradfield to Teal Nicolette Boele within 40 days of the official declaration of the poll (return of the writs).

    Owing to the possibility of a challenge in Bradfield, the Australian Electoral Commission does not want to disturb the ballot papers, which would be required for a Labor vs Liberal two-party count in Bradfield. A two-party count may not be completed until after the courts rule on any Liberal challenge.

    This article has two-party votes and swings nationally, in metropolitan and non-metropolitan seats and in every state and territory. I will report the current AEC figures, but the Bradfield issue means they will overstate Labor slightly nationally, in metropolitan seats and in New South Wales.

    Labor won the national two-party vote against the Coalition by 55.28–44.72, a 3.1% swing to Labor since the 2022 election. This is also Labor’s biggest two-party share since 1943, when they won by an estimated 58.2–41.8. Since the 2019 election, which the Coalition won by 51.5–48.5, Labor has had a swing to it of 6.8%.

    The last time either major party won a higher seat share than Labor at this election was in 1996, when the Coalition won 94 of the 148 seats (63.5% of seats) on a national two-party vote of 53.6–46.4. The last time a major party exceeded Labor’s two-party share at this election was in 1975, when the Coalition won by 55.7–44.3.

    Swing to Labor was bigger in cities

    The AEC has breakdowns for metropolitan and non-metropolitan seats. Metropolitan seats include seats in the six state capitals, Canberra and Darwin. In these seats, Labor won the two-party vote by 60.7–39.3, a 4.1% swing to Labor. In non-metropolitan seats, the Coalition won the two-party by 52.3–47.7, a 1.8% swing to Labor.

    In 2019, Labor won the two-party vote in metropolitan seats by 52.1–47.9, so the two-election swing to Labor in those seats was 8.6%. The Coalition won the two-party vote in non-metropolitan seats by 56.8–43.2, so the two-election swing to Labor was 4.5%.

    In April 2022, I wrote that Labor could do better in future elections because Australia’s big cities have a large share of the overall population. At this election, voters in metropolitan seats made up 58.3% of all voters. The Coalition will need to do much better in the cities to win future elections.

    In all the mainland states, the swing to Labor in the cities exceeded the swing in the regions. In global elections in the last ten years, support for left-wing parties has held up better in cities than elsewhere.

    Tasmania was the big exception to this rule. In non-metropolitan Tasmanian seats, Labor won the two-party vote by 59.0–41.0, an 11.8% swing to Labor. In metropolitan seats, Labor won by 70.1–29.9, a 4.7% swing to Labor.

    State and territory results

    The table below shows the number of seats in a state or territory and nationally, the number won by Labor, the Labor percent of the seats, the number of Labor gains, the Labor two-party vote share, the two-party swing to Labor since 2022, the number of Other seats, the change in Other seats and the number of Coalition seats.

    I have ignored redistributions, with Labor gains calculated as the number of seats Labor won in 2025 minus the number it won in 2022. Labor gained Aston at an April 2023 byelection, then held it at this election. As it was not won by Labor in 2022, it counts as a Labor gain.

    In Queensland, Labor gained seven seats, five from the Liberal National Party (including Peter Dutton’s Dickson) and two from the Greens. But these gains came from a low base, as Labor won just five of 30 Queensland seats in 2022. Queensland remains the only state where the Coalition won the two-party vote (by 50.6–49.4) and won a majority of the seats.

    In NSW, Teal independent-held North Sydney was abolished in the redistribution, but Teal Boele gained Bradfield from the Liberals, and the Nationals lost Calare to former Nationals MP turned independent Andrew Gee. Labor also gained two seats from the Liberals.

    In Victoria, Labor-held Higgins was abolished, but Labor gained three seats from the Liberals and one from the Greens (Adam Bandt’s Melbourne). The Coalition gained its one seat when Liberal Tim Wilson narrowly defeated Teal Zoe Daniel in Goldstein.

    In Western Australia, Bullwinkel was created as a notional Labor seat, and Labor held it. Labor also gained Moore from the Liberals. In South Australia and Tasmania, Labor gained three seats from the Liberals. Tasmania’s 9.0% swing to Labor was the biggest of any state or territory.

    Before the election, it was expected Victoria would be a drag on Labor owing to the unpopularity of the state Labor government. Labor took 71% of Victoria’s seats and had a 1.5% two-party swing to it.

    However, relative to the national swing, Victoria was poor for Labor, and it was only ahead of WA and the Northern Territory in swing terms at this election. In 2022, there was a huge 10.6% swing to Labor in WA, so Victoria’s two-election swing to Labor was much lower than anywhere else except the NT.

    The ACT’s two-party swing of 5.5% to Labor followed a 5.3% swing in 2022. With two senators, a quota for election is one-third or 33.3%. If the ACT’s two senators keep going to the left, it will be difficult for the Coalition to avoid a hostile Senate even if they win elections for the House.

    Other election results and a Morgan poll

    In the previous parliament, the 16 Others included four Greens, but the 13 Others at this election include only one Green. This will make the Others more right-wing than in the last parliament.

    Turnout at this election was 90.7% of enrolled voters, up 0.9% since 2022. But the informal rate rose 0.4% to 5.6%. The informal rate was 13% or higher in five western Sydney seats.

    A large share of non-English speakers, confusion with NSW’s optional preferential voting system at state elections and long candidate lists all contributed to the high informal vote rate at this election.

    A national Morgan poll, conducted May 5 to June 1 from a sample of 5,128, gave Labor a 58.5–41.5 lead, from primary votes of 37% Labor, 31% Coalition, 11.5% Greens, 6% One Nation and 14.5% for all Others. Labor led in all states including Queensland, the only state the Coalition won at the election.

    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. Labor’s win at the 2025 federal election was the biggest since 1943, with its largest swings in the cities – https://theconversation.com/labors-win-at-the-2025-federal-election-was-the-biggest-since-1943-with-its-largest-swings-in-the-cities-258402

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: ER Report: A Roundup of Significant Articles on EveningReport.nz for June 11, 2025

    ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on June 11, 2025.

    Former Congress staffer allowed to return to Kanaky New Caledonia
    By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk One of seven people transferred to mainland France almost a year ago, following the May 2024 riots in New Caledonia, has been allowed to return home, a French court has ruled. Frédérique Muliava, a former Congress staffer, was part of a group of six who were

    Jacaranda, black locust and London plane: common street trees show surprising resilience to growing heat in Australia
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Manuel Esperon-Rodriguez, Senior Lecturer in Ecology, Western Sydney University Kokkai Ng/Getty Images As Australian cities heat up and dry out, street trees are emerging as frontline defenders of urban liveability. Street trees make city life more bearable during heatwaves. They also improve human health and wellbeing, filter

    ‘Gutting the Ponsonby community’: Locals say post office should stay open
    By Aisha Campbell, RNZ News intern Ponsonby’s post office is shutting shop next month despite push back from the local community. A sign on the storefront, which is at the College Hill end of Ponsonby Road, said the closure would take place on 4 July but the post boxes would be “staying put”. Ponsonby local

    Fiji coup culture and political meddling in media education given airing
    Pacific Media Watch Taieri MP Ingrid Leary reflected on her years in Fiji as a television journalist and media educator at a Fiji Centre function in Auckland celebrating Fourth Estate values and independence at the weekend. It was a reunion with former journalism professor David Robie — they had worked together as a team at

    The AI hype is just like the blockchain frenzy – here’s what happens when the hype dies
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gediminas Lipnickas, Lecturer in Marketing, University of South Australia Izf/Shutterstock In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has taken centre stage across various industries. From AI-generated art to chatbots in customer service, every sector is seemingly poised for disruption. It’s not just in your news feed every day

    Why does the US still have a Level 1 travel advisory warning despite the chaos?
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samuel Cornell, PhD Candidate in Public Health & Community Medicine, School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney No travel can be considered completely safe. There are inherent risks from transportation, criminal activity, communicable diseases, injury and natural disasters. Still, global travel is booming — for those who can

    Those ‘what I eat in a day’ TikTok videos aren’t helpful. They might even be harmful
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Catherine Houlihan, Senior Lecturer in Clinical Psychology, University of the Sunshine Coast Iren_Geo/Shutterstock You may have come across those “what I eat in a day” videos on social media, where people – usually conventionally attractive influencers wearing activewear – list everything they consumed that day. They might

    The ASX is shrinking – a plan to get more companies to float does not go far enough
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Humphery-Jenner, Associate Professor of Finance, UNSW Sydney Whenever a high-profile company lists on the Australian stock market it attracts much excitement. Employees and founders enjoy some financial gains and investors get a chance to invest in a potentially exciting stock. For these reasons, fast-food chain Guzman

    NZ and Gaza – Peters appearing to do something, when doing nothing
    COMMENTARY: By Steven Cowan, editor of Against The Current The New Zealand Foreign Minster’s decision to issue a travel ban against two Israeli far-right politicians is little more than a tokenistic gesture in opposing Israel’s actions. It is an attempt to appease growing opposition to Israel’s war, but the fact that Israel has killed more

    US criticises allies as NZ bans two top far-right Israeli ministers
    RNZ News The United States has denounced sanctions by Britain and allies — including New Zealand and Australia — against Israeli far-right ministers, saying they should focus instead on the Palestinian armed group Hamas. New Zealand has banned two Israeli politicians from travelling to the country because of comments about the war in Gaza that

    The Project really did do news differently. Its demise is our loss
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dodd, Professor of Journalism, Director of the Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of Melbourne The most unsettling thing about the closure of Network Ten’s The Project is that it might come to be seen as the moment commercial network television gave up on young audiences

    Novelty, negativity and no politicians: research reveals what makes some images more engaging than others
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By T.J. Thomson, Senior Lecturer in Visual Communication & Digital Media, RMIT University T.J. Thomson We see hundreds or thousands of images each day – but not all of them stand out to us. Why are some visuals more engaging than others? In an attention economy, where creators

    Visual feature: Scanning Australia’s bones
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vera Weisbecker, Associate Professor in Evolutionary Biology, College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University ➡️ View the full interactive version of this article here. Vera Weisbecker receives funding from the Australian Research council. She is member of the Australian Greens Party and the Australian Mammal Society. Erin

    Family law changes will better protect domestic violence victims – and their pets
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meri Oakwood, Lecturer in Law, Southern Cross University Zivia Kerkez/Shutterstock Welcome changes to family law come into effect this week to better support victims of domestic violence in property settlements. Importantly, the Family Law Amendment Bill 2024 will provide a new framework for determining ownership of the

    Do you talk to AI when you’re feeling down? Here’s where chatbots get their therapy advice
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Centaine Snoswell, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Health Services Research, The University of Queensland Pexels/Mikoto As more and more people spend time chatting with artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots such as ChatGPT, the topic of mental health has naturally emerged. Some people have positive experiences that make AI

    Assessment in the age of AI – unis must do more than tell students what not to do
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thomas Corbin, Research fellow, Center for Research in Assessment and Digital Learning, Deakin University Matheus Bertelli/ Pexels , CC BY In less than three years, artificial intelligence technology has radically changed the assessment landscape. In this time, universities have taken various approaches, from outright banning the use

    Resisting Dependency: U.S. Hegemony, China’s Rise, and the Geopolitical Stakes in the Caribbean
    Source: Council on Hemispheric Affairs – Analysis-Reportage By Tamanisha J. John Toronto, Canada Introduction The Caribbean region is an important geostrategic location for the United States, not only due to regional proximity, but also due to the continued importance of securing sea routes for trade and military purposes. It is the geostrategic location of the

    With so many parties ‘ruling out’ working with other parties, is MMP losing its way?
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Shaw, Professor of Politics, Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa – Massey University There has been a lot of “ruling out” going on in New Zealand politics lately. In the most recent outbreak, both the incoming and outgoing deputy prime ministers, ACT’s David Seymour and NZ First’s Winston

    French Polynesia president announces huge highly protected marine area
    RNZ Pacific French Polynesia’s president has announced his administration will establish one of the world’s largest networks of highly protected marine areas (MPAs). The highly protected areas will safeguard 220,000 sq km of remote waters near the Society Islands and 680,000 sq km near the Gambier Islands. Speaking at the UN Ocean Conference in Nice,

    Te Pāti Māori condemns Israel for Gaza ‘horrific violence’ over Madleen arrest
    Asia Pacific Report Aotearoa New Zealand’s Te Pāti Māori has condemned the Israeli navy’s armed interception of the Madleen, a civilian aid vessel attempting to carry food, medical supplies, and international activists to Gaza, including Sweden’s climate activist Greta Thunberg. In a statement after the Madleen’s communications were cut, the indigenous political party said it

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Former Congress staffer allowed to return to Kanaky New Caledonia

    By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk

    One of seven people transferred to mainland France almost a year ago, following the May 2024 riots in New Caledonia, has been allowed to return home, a French court has ruled.

    Frédérique Muliava, a former Congress staffer, was part of a group of six who were charged in relation to the riots.

    Under her new judicial requirements, set out by the judge in charge of the case, Muliava, once she returns to New Caledonia, is allowed to return to work, but must not make any contact with other individuals related to her case and not take part in any public demonstration.

    Four days after their arrest in Nouméa in June 2024, Muliava and six others were transferred to mainland France aboard a chartered plane.

    They were charged with criminal-related offences (including being a party or being accomplice to murder attempts and thefts involving the use of weapons) and have since been remanded in several prisons across France pending their trial.

    In January 2025, the whole case was removed from the jurisdiction of New Caledonia-based judges and has since been transferred back to investigating judges in mainland France.

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

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Fiji coup culture and political meddling in media education given airing

    Pacific Media Watch

    Taieri MP Ingrid Leary reflected on her years in Fiji as a television journalist and media educator at a Fiji Centre function in Auckland celebrating Fourth Estate values and independence at the weekend.

    It was a reunion with former journalism professor David Robie — they had worked together as a team at the University of the South Pacific amid media and political controversy leading up to the George Speight coup in May 2000.

    Leary, a former British Council executive director and lawyer, was the guest speaker at a gathering of human rights activists, development advocates, academics and journalists hosted at the Whānau Community Centre and Hub, the umbrella base for the Fiji Centre, Auckland Rotuman Fellowship, Asia Pacific Media Network and other groups.

    She said she was delighted to meet “special people in David’s life” and to be speaking to a diverse group sharing “similar values of courage, freedom of expression, truth and tino rangatiratanga”.

    “I want to start this talanoa on Friday, 19 May 2000 — 13 years almost to the day of the first recognised military coup in Fiji in 1987 — when failed businessman George Speight tore off his balaclava to reveal his identity.

    She pointed out that there had actually been another “coup” 100 years earlier by Ratu Cakobau.

    “Speight had seized Parliament holding the elected government at gunpoint, including the politician mother, Lavinia Padarath, of one of my best friends — Anna Padarath.

    Hostage-taking report
    “Within minutes, the news of the hostage-taking was flashed on Radio Fiji’s 10 am bulletin by a student journalist on secondment there — Tamani Nair. He was a student of David Robie’s.”

    Nair had been dispatched to Parliament to find out what was happening and reported from a cassava patch.

    “Fiji TV was trashed . . . and transmission pulled for 48 hours.

    “The university shut down — including the student radio facilities, and journalism programme website — to avoid a similar fate, but the journalism school was able to keep broadcasting and publishing via a parallel website set up at the University of Technology Sydney.

    “The pictures were harrowing, showing street protests turning violent and the barbaric behaviour of Speight’s henchmen towards dissenters.

    “Thus began three months of heroic journalism by David’s student team — including through a period of martial law that began 10 days later and saw some of the most restrictive levels of censorship ever experienced in the South Pacific.”

    Leary paid tribute to some of the “brave satire” produced by senior Fiji Times reporters filling the newspaper with “non-news” (such as about haircuts, drinking kava) as an act of defiance.

    “My friend Anna Padarath returned from doing her masters in law in Australia on a scholarship to be closer to her Mum, whose hostage days within Parliament Grounds stretched into weeks and then months.

    Whanau Community Centre and Hub co-founder Nik Naidu speaking at the Asia Pacific Media Network event at the weekend. Image: Khairiah A. Rahman/APMN

    Invisible consequences
    “Anna would never return to her studies — one of the many invisible consequences of this profoundly destructive era in Fiji’s complex history.

    “Happily, she did go on to carve an incredible career as a women’s rights advocate.”

    “Meanwhile David’s so-called ‘barefoot student journalists’ — who snuck into Parliament the back way by bushtrack — were having their stories read and broadcast globally.

    “And those too shaken to even put their hands to keyboards on Day 1 emerged as journalism leaders who would go on to win prizes for their coverage.”

    Speight was sentenced to life in prison, but was pardoned in 2024.

    Taieri MP Ingrid Leary speaking at the Whānau Community Centre and Hub. Image: Nik Naidu/APMN

    Leary said that was just one chapter in the remarkable career of David Robie who had been an editor, news director, foreign news editor and freelance writer with a number of different agencies and news organisations — including Agence France-Presse, Rand Daily Mail, The Auckland Star, Insight Magazine, and New Outlook Magazine — “a family member to some, friend to many, mentor to most”.

    Reflecting on working with Dr Robie at USP, which she joined as television lecturer from Fiji Television, she said:

    “At the time, being a younger person, I thought he was a little bit crazy, because he was communicating with people all around the world when digital media was in its infancy in Fiji, always on email, always getting up on online platforms, and I didn’t appreciate the power of online media at the time.

    “And it was incredible to watch.”

    Ahead of his time
    She said he was an innovator and ahead of his time.

    Dr Robie viewed journalism as a tool for empowerment, aiming to provide communities with the information they needed to make informed decisions.

    “We all know that David has been a champion of social justice and for decolonisation, and for the values of an independent Fourth Estate.”

    She said she appreciated the freedom to develop independent media as an educator, adding that one of her highlights was producing the groundbreaking 1999 documentary Maire about Maire Bopp Du Pont, who was a Tahitian student journalist at USP and advocate for the Pacific community living with HIV/AIDs.

    She became a nuclear-free Pacific campaigner in Pape’ete and was also founding chief executive of  the Pacific Islands AIDS Foundation (PIAF).

    Leary presented Dr Robie with a “speaking stick” carved from an apricot tree branch by the husband of a Labour stalwart based in Cromwell — the event doubled as his 80th birthday.

    In response, Dr Robie said the occasion was a “golden opportunity” to thank many people who had encouraged and supported him over many years.

    Massive upheaval
    “We must have done something right,” he said about USP, “because in 2000, the year of George Speight’s coup, our students covered the massive upheaval which made headlines around the world when Mahendra Chaudhry’s Labour-led coalition government was held at gunpoint for 56 days.

    “The students courageously covered the coup with their website Pacific Journalism Online and their newspaper Wansolwara — “One Ocean”.  They won six Ossie Awards – unprecedented for a single university — in Australia that year and a standing ovation.”

    He said there was a video on YouTube of their exploits called Frontline Reporters and one of the students, Christine Gounder, wrote an article for a Commonwealth Press Union magazine entitled, “From trainees to professionals. And all it took was a coup”.

    Dr Robie said this Fiji experience was still one of the most standout experiences he had had as a journalist and educator.

    Along with similar coverage of the 1997 Sandline mercenary crisis by his students at the University of Papua New Guinea.

    He made some comments about the 1985 Rainbow Warrior voyage to Rongelap in the Marshall islands and the subsequent bombing by French secret agents in Auckland.

    But he added “you can read all about this adventure in my new book” being published in a few weeks.

    Taieri MP Ingrid Leary (right) with Dr David Robie and his wife Del Abcede at the Fiji Centre function. Image: Camille Nakhid

    Biggest 21st century crisis
    Dr Robie said the profession of journalism, truth telling and holding power to account, was vitally important to a healthy democracy.

    Although media did not succeed in telling people what to think, it did play a vital role in what to think about. However, the media world was undergoing massive change and fragmentation.

    “And public trust is declining in the face of fake news and disinformation,” he said

    “I think we are at a crossroads in society, both locally and globally. Both journalism and democracy are under an unprecedented threat in my lifetime.

    “When more than 230 journalists can be killed in 19 months in Gaza and there is barely a bleep from the global community, there is something savagely wrong.

    “The Gazan journalists won the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize collectively last year with the judges saying, “As humanity, we have a huge debt to their courage and commitment to freedom of expression.”

    “The carnage and genocide in Gaza is deeply disturbing, especially the failure of the world to act decisively to stop it. The fact that Israel can kill with impunity at least 54,000 people, mostly women and children, destroy hospitals and starve people to death and crush a people’s right to live is deeply shocking.

    “This is the biggest crisis of the 21st century. We see this relentless slaughter go on livestreamed day after day and yet our media and politicians behave as if this is just ‘normal’. It is shameful, horrendous. Have we lost our humanity?

    “Gaza has been our test. And we have failed.”

    Dr Robie praised the support of his wife, social justice activist Del Abcede, and family members.

    Other speakers included Whānau Hub co-founder Nik Naidu, one of the anti-coup Coalition for Democracy in Fiji (CDF) stalwarts; the Heritage New Zealand’s Antony Phillips; and Multimedia Investments and Evening Report director Selwyn Manning.

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: ‘Gutting the Ponsonby community’: Locals say post office should stay open

    By Aisha Campbell, RNZ News intern

    Ponsonby’s post office is shutting shop next month despite push back from the local community.

    A sign on the storefront, which is at the College Hill end of Ponsonby Road, said the closure would take place on 4 July but the post boxes would be “staying put”.

    Ponsonby local and author John Harris said New Zealand Post’s decision to close the store was “ill-considered” and it should “try harder” to cater for the people who use the shop’s services.

    “They’ve got to be mindful of the vital role that post shops like this one play in glueing the community together,” Harris said.

    “If you go down to the post shop you’ll see it’s buzzing with activity; people popping in to post parcels or to get forms filled out and so forth . . .  they’ve got to think about the effect on small communities and this is like gutting the Ponsonby community.”

    Viv Rosenberg, a spokesperson for the Ponsonby Business Association, said the group is saddened by the decision to close the shop.

    ”Our local post office has been part of the fabric of our community in Three Lamps for several years and we regard the team there as part of our Ponsonby family. We are working alongside others to try and keep it open.”

    Plan but no timeframe
    In 2018, NZ Post announced its plan to close its remaining 79 standalone post offices but did not give a timeframe on when the final store would be shut.

    NZ Post general manager consumer Sarah Sandoval said customer data and service patterns were analysed to determine where NZ Post services were best placed.

    “The Ponsonby area is well serviced by existing postal outlets, and to remove duplications of services, we’ve decided to make this change.”

    The Asia Pacific Report story about the impending Ponsonby post office shop closure published earlier this month. Image: Asia Pacific Report

    She also said that there were nearby options available, including on Hardinge Street 1.4km away, and NZ Post Herne Bay, 1km away.

    The NZ Post website said “store closures are given very careful consideration”.

    “[Reasons for closure] can include a decline in customer numbers or services which significantly affect the economic viability of the store,” NZ Post said.

    Harris emailed NZ Post CEO David Walsh expressing his disapproval of the decision to close the shop and requesting it be reconsidered.

    He said a response by the NZ Post general manager consumer stated the closure followed a close look at customer data and that there were other stores serving the Ponsonby community, which was an unsustainable way for the business to operate.

    “Herne Bay, Hardinge Street and Wellesley Street are either a challenging walk or you hop in the car and add to the grid,” Harris said.

    “They’re only thinking about the sustainability of the New Zealand Post itself not the community.”

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

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Jacaranda, black locust and London plane: common street trees show surprising resilience to growing heat in Australia

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Manuel Esperon-Rodriguez, Senior Lecturer in Ecology, Western Sydney University

    Kokkai Ng/Getty Images

    As Australian cities heat up and dry out, street trees are emerging as frontline defenders of urban liveability.

    Street trees make city life more bearable during heatwaves. They also improve human health and wellbeing, filter pollutants and support biodiversity.

    But as climate change intensifies droughts and dials up more extreme heat, can urban forests survive in a hotter, drier future?

    To find out, we studied how ten of Australia’s most common non-native street trees grow and tolerate drought across seven cities. The familiar species we chose are the well-loved jacaranda and widely planted London plane tree as well as box elder, European nettle tree, honey locust, sweetgum, southern magnolia, callery pear, black locust and Chinese elm.

    Unexpectedly, our new research shows several species tolerate drought better than predicted, including jacaranda and London plane. Some even put on growth spurts during droughts of unprecedented duration and heat. But others showed greater sensitivity than we had anticipated, including honey locust and black locust.

    As cities plan for a hotter future, our research will help urban planners choose the toughest, most resilient street trees.

    Penrith street trees faced the hottest conditions.
    Author provided

    What did we do?

    Street trees cool cities both through their shade and by giving off water through transpiration. These effects can lower local temperatures by several degrees, which helps offset the extra heat trapped by roads, rooftops and hard surfaces.

    But the trees we rely on for cooling are vulnerable to mounting pressures from climate change. Drought, heatwaves and limited soil and water availability in cities can all threaten tree health, growth and survival.

    To test how these species were coping, we chose over 570 street trees in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney, as well as Mildura in regional Victoria, Mandurah south of Perth and Parramatta and Penrith in Western Sydney.

    We extracted small cores of wood from the trunk, in a process that leaves the tree alive and largely unaffected. The oldest tree we sampled was a 70-year-old southern magnolia in Sydney.

    Growth rings in these cores let us reconstruct their growth histories and assess how they responded both to long-term climate patterns and extreme events such as the Black Summer of 2019–20 and the Millennium Drought from 1997–2009.

    How resilient are these trees?

    What we found was both reassuring and surprising.

    Across all seven cities, the fastest average growth for all species was recorded in Mildura in northern Victoria. Overall, the slowest growth was found in the warmest location – Penrith.

    Some species behaved predictably. The black locust grew faster in cooler, wetter cities such as Melbourne, as expected, while honey locust and Chinese elms grew more slowly in hotter cities.

    But others defied expectations. Species such as London plane and southern magnolia showed consistent growth trends across cities despite the difference in heat, while others varied depending on local conditions.

    Crucially, the growth records showed many street trees responded positively to wetter conditions during the warmest months, most likely due to the longer growing season and increased access to water.

    Surprisingly, species such as box elder and Callery pear actually increased their growth during the very hot periods over the Black Summer of 2019–20 as well as during wetter La Niña periods in 2021–22. This suggests these species have adapted to warm urban environments – or that care and watering was provided.

    Jacarandas have become popular street trees in warmer cities.
    Snowscat/Unsplash, CC BY-NC-ND

    What happened during drought?

    During drought, street trees generally demonstrated strong resistance. This means they maintained their growth during dry periods.

    But their resilience – measured by their ability to bounce back to pre-drought growth rates – was often limited, especially in drier cities.

    While many street trees can withstand short-term stress, this suggests repeated or prolonged droughts can still take a toll on their long-term health.

    Interestingly, species identified as vulnerable in climate models did not always show greater sensitivity to drought or climate extremes in our real-world study.

    Why? Local conditions and species-level characteristics such as leaf size, wood density and water use strategy may play a significant role in determining which individual trees will thrive as the climate changes.

    We also know care provided by council staff or local residents is extremely useful. When trees are irrigated during stressful conditions, they can help get the tree through tough times.

    Why no eucalypts?

    During their growing season each year, many northern hemisphere trees produce growth rings. These rings make it possible to reliably reconstruct their growth histories using our methods.

    But most eucalypts don’t form clear annual growth rings. This is why we didn’t include spotted gums and other common eucalypts seen on city streets.

    Eucalypts tend to grow whenever conditions are favourable rather than being constrained by a strict annual cycle. Only a few native species reliably produce datable annual rings, such as snow gums and alpine ash. This is because they live in cold, high elevation areas, where winter consistently limits growth each year. These conditions aren’t found in any major Australian city.

    What does this mean for city planners?

    Our research shows that species selection matters a great deal.

    Some street trees such as jacarandas, London plane and the European nettle tree can thrive even under extreme heat and drought, while honey locust and Chinese elms are more sensitive to local conditions.

    Authorities can maximise the benefits of urban forests and reduce tree decline or loss by choosing resilient species and matching them to the specific climate of each city or neighbourhood.

    As climate extremes become more common, even resilient species may face new challenges.

    Planting and maintaining diverse, climate-adapted urban forests will help ensure our cities remain liveable, healthy, and green in the decades to come.

    Mark G Tjoelker receives funding from The Australian Research Council.

    Manuel Esperon-Rodriguez, Matthew Brookhouse, and Sally Power 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. Jacaranda, black locust and London plane: common street trees show surprising resilience to growing heat in Australia – https://theconversation.com/jacaranda-black-locust-and-london-plane-common-street-trees-show-surprising-resilience-to-growing-heat-in-australia-257247

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: The ASX is shrinking – a plan to get more companies to float does not go far enough

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Humphery-Jenner, Associate Professor of Finance, UNSW Sydney

    Whenever a high-profile company lists on the Australian stock market it attracts much excitement. Employees and founders enjoy some financial gains and investors get a chance to invest in a potentially exciting stock.

    For these reasons, fast-food chain Guzman Y Gomez was one of the biggest financial events of 2024. It undertook an initial public offering which meant for the first time, its
    shares were available to the public and started being traded on the stock exchange.

    However, such public offerings have become rare with many companies remaining private instead of listing on the market.

    Indeed, the number of businesses in Australia listed on the stock exchange is declining. This has been described as the worst public offering drought “since the global financial crisis”.

    The number of initial public offerings since 2000

    In response, on Monday, the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) announced measures to encourage more listings by streamlining the initial public offering process.

    How do companies list on the stock exchange?

    Firms undertake an initial public offering by filing documents with ASIC. These includes a “prospectus”, which details the information investors might need to evaluate whether to buy shares.

    ASIC reviews the documentation and then decides if changes are necessary or whether to let the business list.

    Typically, this requires the business to use an investment bank to manage the process and a law firm to prepare the documentation. The business will also engage an underwriter to evaluate the offering and ensure it raises enough capital. All these services cost money.

    When they are trading, the business must comply with additional regulations imposed by ASIC and the Australian Securities Exchange. These include meeting corporate governance, continuous disclosure and other operating requirements.

    Why should a business lists its shares?

    There are many potential gains for a business and the public to list on the stock exchange.

    Companies can encourage employees by paying them with shares in the business. This gives workers buy-in to the company they help to build. This is much easier when it is listed because employees can identify the value of that incentive and sell shares when they choose.

    Being listed can also help raise capital. Having shares listed helps the business raise money to expand. In a direct sense, initial public offerings do this by enabling the firm to sell shares directly to the public rather than being restricted to the subset of investors who can invest in unlisted stocks.

    In an indirect sense, being publicly listed forces businesses to comply with even more stringent disclosure rules. This can give lenders and investors more confidence in the firm.

    Further, because the shares are now readily traded in the market, they can now be more easily used to acquire, or merge with, another company.

    What does ASIC intend to do?

    The commission believes one of the biggest barriers to listing on the market is the initial documentation and administrative requirements. They believe if they can slash red tape there will be more listings.

    The goal is to help them get their documents in order from the beginning, to reduce the potential number of changes that may be needed. ASIC believes it will make the process cheaper and quicker, and enable firms to better time the initial public offerings for periods of strong demand.

    The fast track process would only be open to businesses with a market capitalisation of at least A$100 million and firms that had no ASX escrow requirement.

    An escrow is a financial and legal agreement designed to protect buyers and sellers in a transaction. An independent third party holds payment for a fee, until everyone fulfils their transaction responsibilities.

    What else could ASIC do?

    ASIC’s plan to reduce red tape will help but there are other barriers to businesses listing on the sharemarket. These include:

    • share structures and control: founders are often psychologically invested in their companies and prefer to retain control over the business they built after listing.

    This is part of the reason “dual-class” share structures exist in the United States. These give some shareholders supernormal voting rights, enabling them to retain control. Singapore and Hong Kong also offer dual class structures.

    Australia doesn’t have a dual-class system, but enabling such structures could make the market more attractive

    • disclosure and expense: the initial public offering process is expensive. ASIC’s plan does partly address this, but only for larger businesses, which ironically have greater financial resources to pay the service providers.

    • governance requirements: the ASX imposes corporate governance requirements on businesses that publicly list on the market. These requirements take a one-size-fits-all to factors such as who should be on the board of directors. These requirements appear to cost extra with an unclear financial gain. And the ASX’s rules appear not to be evidence-backed.

    • escrows: ASIC’s fast track process is only available if the firm does not have to satisfy an escrow requirement. An escrow requirement typically applies when an early investor, or a founder, is involved. This is to stop such people from opportunistically selling shares at an inflated process, which then nosedives. It is not clear why ASIC excluded such businesses from fast track review. Smaller companies are some of the most likely to be subject to escrow. So they are the most likely to benefit from reducing the cost-barriers to listing.

    ASIC has tried to reduce red tape for larger businesses, but the changes don’t go far enough and more work is necessary to address the underlying factors that cause firms to stay private for longer.

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

    – ref. The ASX is shrinking – a plan to get more companies to float does not go far enough – https://theconversation.com/the-asx-is-shrinking-a-plan-to-get-more-companies-to-float-does-not-go-far-enough-258557

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Those ‘what I eat in a day’ TikTok videos aren’t helpful. They might even be harmful

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Catherine Houlihan, Senior Lecturer in Clinical Psychology, University of the Sunshine Coast

    Iren_Geo/Shutterstock

    You may have come across those “what I eat in a day” videos on social media, where people – usually conventionally attractive influencers wearing activewear – list everything they consumed that day.

    They might seem like harmless fun but in fact they can reinforce dangerous ideas about food, weight and body image.

    I’ve worked with people with eating disorders who watch these videos and have seen first hand how harmful this content can be.

    Here’s what the research says and what you need to know.

    Videos that promote ‘health’ can be unhealthy

    “What I eat in a day” videos have been popular for over a decade, with views reaching in the billions.

    They target both men and women and many claim to promote health and nutrition. Yet videos such as these can do more harm than good.

    Very few of these creators have formal qualifications in health or nutrition, increasing the potential for misinformation.

    They often depict low calorie diets, exclude entire food groups or promote “clean eating” (a problematic idea at best).

    Some even encourage dangerous behaviours such as skipping meals, eating very little or using laxatives to purge food.

    They can also send harmful messages about body image. Many such videos use beauty filters to create images promoting unrealistic body ideals.

    These videos often feature shots of how the person looks from the front, the side, in the gym, and in tight, form-fitting clothes. There may even be some “before and after” weight loss pics, sending the harmful message this should be everyone’s goal.

    The subtext is clear: “eat what I eat in a day and you can look like me”.

    But that’s not just a dangerous idea – it’s a totally false and erroneous one.

    Knowing what a certain person “eats in a day” doesn’t mean you’ll look like them if you follow their lead.

    In fact, a 24-hour rundown of one person’s food intake doesn’t even provide accurate information about that person’s nutritional health – let alone yours.

    These videos can target both men and women.
    Veja/Shutterstock

    You are not them

    Like our health, our nutritional needs are unique to us and can vary day to day.

    What constitutes a “healthy” choice for one person might be totally different for another depending on things such as:

    Links between health and diet are best examined over time, not in a single day.

    Basing our food intake on a brief snapshot of what someone else eats is unlikely to lead to better health. It might leave you worse off overall.

    5 ways these videos can affect mental health

    What we watch online can affect our mood, behaviour and body image.

    Alarm bells should ring if you frequently see these videos and notice you’re doing or experiencing these five things:

    1. disordered eating. Eating less than your body needs, skipping meals, cutting out entire food groups, binge eating and purging are all signs of disordered eating that can lead to serious mental health problems such as eating disorders

    2. low mood. Watching videos promoting low-calorie diets can worsen our mood; you might find yourself feeling deflated after comparing yourself to others (or rather, to the version of themselves they promote online)

    3. poor body image. Research shows watching “what I eat in a day” videos can leave people feeling worse about their bodies and appreciating them less

    4. obsessive thinking and anxiety. Obsessing over the “perfect” diet can increase anxiety about food and eating. Diets that encourage a very detailed approach to nutrition – including breaking meals down into components such as carbohydrates and proteins or weighing food – can further fuel obsessive thoughts

    5. narrow life focus. Having your social media feed filled with these types of videos can create an overemphasis on the importance of food, eating and body image on your self-worth. This ultimately affects your health and wellbeing.

    What we watch online can affect our mood, behaviour, and body image.
    GaudiLab/Shutterstock

    OK, so what can I do?

    If you’re encountering “what I eat in a day” videos often and find they’re affecting your mood, eating behaviour or sense of self-worth you can try to:

    • understand that these videos are not tailored to your individual health or nutritional needs and that many contain harmful messaging
    • avoid engaging with videos that promote disordered eating, idealised beauty standards or that make you feel bad after you watch them
    • unfollow accounts that regularly post such videos, or tap “not interested” on the TikTok video to stop the algorithm showing you more of them
    • balance your social media feed with content focused on other areas of life besides food and eating (such as art, design, animals, books, sports or travel). Fill your feed with interests that improve your personal sense of wellbeing
    • consider taking regular breaks from social media and seeing if you feel better overall.

    If you do want to view posts about food, seek out creators attempting to buck these negative trends by focusing more on fun and taste.

    And if you’re experiencing low mood, disordered eating or body image issues, seek help from your local GP. They can connect you with practitioners who provide evidence-based therapies such as cognitive behavioural therapy.

    If you have a history of an eating disorder or suspect you may have one, you can contact the Butterfly Foundation’s national helpline on 1800 334 673 (or via their online chat).

    Ultimately, “what I eat in a day” videos aren’t really helpful. They contain very little useful information to guide your health or nutritional goals.

    If you are considering making changes to your diet, it’s important to consult a qualified professional, such as an accredited practising dietitian, who can learn about your situation and monitor any risks.

    Catherine Houlihan consults with an eating disorders service owned and operated by the Butterfly Foundation.

    – ref. Those ‘what I eat in a day’ TikTok videos aren’t helpful. They might even be harmful – https://theconversation.com/those-what-i-eat-in-a-day-tiktok-videos-arent-helpful-they-might-even-be-harmful-257127

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Why does the US still have a Level 1 travel advisory warning despite the chaos?

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samuel Cornell, PhD Candidate in Public Health & Community Medicine, School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney

    No travel can be considered completely safe. There are inherent risks from transportation, criminal activity, communicable diseases, injury and natural disasters.

    Still, global travel is booming — for those who can afford it.

    To reduce the chances of things going wrong, governments issue official travel advisories: public warnings meant to help people make informed travel decisions.

    Sometimes these advisories seem puzzling – why, for example, does the US still have the “safest” rating despite the ongoing volatility in Los Angeles?

    How do governments assess where is safe for Australians to travel?

    A brief history of travel advisories

    The United States pioneered travel advisories in 1978, with other countries such as Canada, the United Kingdom and Ireland following.

    Australia started providing travel advisories in 1996 and now runs its system under the Smart Traveller platform.

    To determine the risk level, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) draws on diplomatic reporting, assessments from Australian missions overseas about local security conditions, threat assessments from the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) and advice from Five Eyes intelligence sharing partners (Australia, the US, United Kingdom, New Zealand and Canada).

    The goal is to create “smart, responsible informed travellers”, not to restrict tourism or damage foreign relationships.

    DFAT has stressed its system is not influenced by “commercial or political considerations”.

    Soft power and safety

    In theory, these advisories are meant to inform travellers, keep them safe and reduce the burden on consular services.

    However, they can also subtly reflect politics and alliances.

    While travel advisories are presented as neutral, fact-based risk assessments, they may not always be free from political bias.

    Research shows governments sometimes soften their warnings for countries they are close with and overstate risks in others.

    A detailed analysis of US State Department travel warnings from 2009 to 2016 found only a weak correlation between the number of American deaths in a country and the warnings issued.

    In some cases, destinations with no record of US fatalities received frequent warnings, while places with high death tolls had none.

    In early 2024, Australia issued a string of warnings about rising safety concerns in the US and extremely strict entry conditions even with an appropriate visa.

    Yet, the US kept its Level 1 rating – “exercise normal safety precautions” – the same advice given for places such as Japan or Denmark.

    Meanwhile, Australia’s warning for France was Level 2 — “exercise a high degree of caution” — due to the potential threat of terrorism.

    Experts have also criticised Australia’s travel warnings for being harsher toward developing countries.

    The UK, a country with lower crime rates than the US, also sits at Level 2 — putting it in the same risk level as Saudi Arabia, Nicaragua and South Africa.



    Read more:
    In Trump’s America, the shooting of a journalist is not a one-off. Press freedom itself is under attack

    Inconsistencies and grey areas

    The problem is, the advisory levels themselves are vague: a Level 2 warning can apply to countries with very different risk profiles.

    It’s used for places dealing with terrorism threats like France, or vastly different law and respect for human rights such as Saudi Arabia, or countries recovering from political unrest such as Sri Lanka.

    Until early June 2025, Sweden was also rated Level 2 due to localised gang violence, despite relatively low risks for tourists. Its rating has since been revised down to Level 1.

    Travel advisories often apply a blanket rating to an entire country, even when risks vary widely within its borders.

    For instance, Australia’s Level 1 rating for the US doesn’t distinguish between different regional threats.

    In June 2025, 15 people were injured in Boulder, Colorado after a man attacked a peaceful protest with Molotov cocktails.

    Earlier in 2025, a major measles outbreak in West Texas resulted in more than 700 cases reported in a single county.

    Despite this, Australia continues to classify the entire country as a low-risk destination.

    This can make it harder for travellers to make informed, location-specific decisions.

    Recent travel trends

    Recent data indicate a significant downturn in international travel to the US: in March 2025, overseas visits to the US fell by 11.6% compared to the previous year, with notable declines from Germany (28%), Spain (25%) and the UK (18%).

    Australian visitors to the US decreased by 7.8% compared to the same month in 2024, marking the steepest monthly drop since the COVID pandemic.

    This trend suggests travellers are reassessing risk on their own even when official advisories don’t reflect those concerns.

    The US case shows how politics can affect travel warnings: the country regularly experiences mass casualty incidents, violent protests and recently has been detaining and deporting people from many countries at the border including Australians, Germans and French nationals.

    Yet it remains at Level 1.

    What’s really going on has more to do with political alliances than safety: increasing the US travel risk level could create diplomatic friction.

    What travellers can do now

    If you’re a solo female traveller, identify as LGBTQIA+, are an academic, come from a visible minority or have spoken out online against the country you’re visiting, your experience might be very different from what the advice suggests.

    So, here are some tips to stay safe while travelling:

    • Check multiple sources: don’t rely solely on travel advisories – compare travel advice from other countries

    • Get on-the-ground updates: check local news for coverage of events. If possible, talk to people who’ve recently visited for their experiences

    • For broader safety trends, tools like the Global Peace Index offer data on crime, political stability and healthcare quality. If you’re concerned about how locals or police treat certain groups, consult Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, or country-specific reports from Freedom House

    • Consider identity-specific resources: there are travel guides and safety indexes for LGBTQIA+ travellers like Equaldex, women travellers (Solo Female Travelers Network) and others. These may highlight risks general advisories miss.

    Travel advisories often reflect whom your country trusts, not where you’re actually safe. If you’re relying on them, make sure you understand what they leave out.

    Samuel Cornell receives funding from an Australian Government Research Training Program
    Scholarship.

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

    – ref. Why does the US still have a Level 1 travel advisory warning despite the chaos? – https://theconversation.com/why-does-the-us-still-have-a-level-1-travel-advisory-warning-despite-the-chaos-258182

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: The AI hype is just like the blockchain frenzy – here’s what happens when the hype dies

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gediminas Lipnickas, Lecturer in Marketing, University of South Australia

    Izf/Shutterstock

    In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has taken centre stage across various industries. From AI-generated art to chatbots in customer service, every sector is seemingly poised for disruption.

    It’s not just in your news feed every day – venture capital is pouring in, while CEOs are eager to declare their companies “AI-first”. But for those who remember the lofty promises of other technologies that have since faded from memory, there’s an uncanny sense of déjà vu.

    In 2017, it was blockchain that promised to transform every industry. Companies added “blockchain” to their name and watched stock prices skyrocket, regardless of whether the technology was actually used, or how.

    Now, a similar trend is emerging with AI. What’s unfolding is not just a wave of innovation, but a textbook example of a tech hype cycle. We’ve been here many times before.

    Understanding the hype cycle

    The tech hype cycle, first defined by the research firm Gartner, describes how emerging technologies rise on a wave of inflated promises and expectations, crash into disillusionment and, eventually, find a more realistic and useful application.


    The Conversation, CC BY-ND

    Recognising the signs of this cycle is crucial. It helps in distinguishing between genuine technological shifts and passing fads driven by speculative investment and good marketing.

    It can also mean the difference between making a good business decision and a very costly mistake. Meta, for example, invested more than US$40 billion into the metaverse idea while seemingly chasing their own manufactured tech hype, only to abandon it later.



    Read more:
    Why the metaverse isn’t ready to be the future of work just yet

    When buzz outpaces reality

    In 2017, blockchain was everyone’s focus. Presented as a revolutionary technology, blockchain offered a decentralised way to record and verify transactions, unlike traditional systems that rely on central authorities or databases.

    US soft drinks company Long Island Iced Tea Corporation became Long Blockchain Corporation and saw its stock rise 400% overnight, despite having no blockchain product. Kodak launched a vague cryptocurrency called KodakCoin, sending its stock price soaring.

    These developments were less about innovation and more about speculation, chasing short-term gains driven by hype. Most blockchain projects never delivered real value. Companies rushed in, driven by fear of missing out and the promise of technological transformation.

    But the tech wasn’t ready, and the solutions it supposedly offered were often misaligned with real industry problems. Companies tried everything, from tracking pet food ingredients on blockchain, to launching loyalty programs with crypto tokens, often without clear benefits or better alternatives.

    In the end, about 90% of enterprise blockchain solutions failed by mid-2019.

    The generative AI déjà vu

    Fast-forward to 2023, and the same pattern started playing out with AI. Digital media company BuzzFeed saw its stock jump more than 100% after announcing it would use AI to generate quizzes and content. Financial services company Klarna replaced 700 workers with an AI chatbot, claiming it could handle millions of customer queries.

    The results were mostly negative. Klarna soon saw a decline in customer satisfaction and had to walk back its strategy, rehiring humans for customer support this year. BuzzFeed’s AI content push failed to save its struggling business, and its news division later shut down. Tech media company CNET published AI-generated articles riddled with errors, damaging its credibility.

    These are not isolated incidents. They’re signals that AI, like blockchain, was being over hyped.

    Why do companies chase tech hype?

    There are three main forces at play: inflated expectations, short-term view and flawed implementation. Tech companies, under pressure from investors and media narratives, overpromise what AI can do.

    Leaders pitch vague and utopian concepts of “transformation” without the infrastructure or planning to back them up. And many rush to implement, riding the hype wave.

    They are often hindered by a short-term view of what alignment with the new tech hype can do for their company, ignoring the potential downsides. They roll out untested systems, underestimate complexity or even the necessity, and hope that novelty alone will drive the return on investment.

    The result is often disappointment – not because the technology lacks potential, but because it’s applied too broadly, too soon, and with too little planning and oversight.

    Where to from here?

    Like blockchain, AI is a legitimate technological innovation with real, transformative potential.

    Often, these technologies simply need time to find the right application. While the initial blockchain hype has faded, the technology has found a practical niche in areas like “asset tokenization” within financial markets. This allows assets like real estate or company shares to be represented by digital tokens on the blockchain, enabling easier, faster and cheaper trading.

    The same pattern can be expected with generative AI. The current AI hype cycle appears to be tapering off, and the consequences of rushed or poorly thought-out implementations will likely become more visible in the coming years.

    However, this decline in hype doesn’t signal the end of generative AI’s relevance. Rather, it marks the beginning of a more grounded phase where the technology can find the most suitable applications.

    One of the clearest takeaways so far is that AI should be used to enhance human productivity, not replace it. From people pushing back against the use of AI to replace them, to AI making frequent and costly mistakes, human oversight paired with AI-enhanced productivity is increasingly seen as the most likely path forward.

    Recognising the patterns of tech hype is essential for making smarter decisions. Instead of rushing to adopt every new innovation based on inflated promises, a measured, problem-driven approach leads to more meaningful outcomes.

    Long-term success comes from thoughtful experimentation, implementation, and clear purpose, not from chasing trends or short-term gains. Hype should never dictate strategy; real value lies in solving real problems.

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

    – ref. The AI hype is just like the blockchain frenzy – here’s what happens when the hype dies – https://theconversation.com/the-ai-hype-is-just-like-the-blockchain-frenzy-heres-what-happens-when-the-hype-dies-258071

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: US criticises allies as NZ bans two top far-right Israeli ministers

    RNZ News

    The United States has denounced sanctions by Britain and allies — including New Zealand and Australia — against Israeli far-right ministers, saying they should focus instead on the Palestinian armed group Hamas.

    New Zealand has banned two Israeli politicians from travelling to the country because of comments about the war in Gaza that Foreign Minister Winston Peters says “actively undermine peace and security”.

    New Zealand joins Australia, Canada, the UK and Norway in imposing the sanctions on Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

    Peters said they were targeted towards two individuals, rather than the Israeli government.

    “Our action today is not against the Israeli people, who suffered immeasurably on October 7 [2023] and who have continued to suffer through Hamas’ ongoing refusal to release all hostages.

    “Nor is it designed to sanction the wider Israeli government.”

    The two ministers were “using their leadership positions to actively undermine peace and security and remove prospects for a two-state solution”, Peters said.

    ‘Severely and deliberately undermined’ peace
    “Ministers Smotrich and Ben-Gvir have severely and deliberately undermined that by personally advocating for the annexation of Palestinian land and the expansion of illegal settlements, while inciting violence and forced displacement.”

    The sanctions were consistent with New Zealand’s approach to other foreign policy issues, he said.

    Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir (left) and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich . . . sanctioned by Australia, Canada, the UK and Norway because they have “incited extremist violence and serious abuses of Palestinian human rights. These actions are not acceptable,” says British Foreign Minister David Lammy. Image: TRT screenshot APR

    “New Zealand has also targeted travel bans on politicians and military leaders advocating violence or undermining democracy in other countries in the past, including Russia, Belarus and Myanmar.”

    New Zealand had been a long-standing supporter of a two-state solution, Peters said, which the international community was also overwhelmingly in favour of.

    “New Zealand’s consistent and historic position has been that Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories are a violation of international law. Settlements and associated violence undermine the prospects for a viable two-state solution,” he said.

    “The crisis in Gaza has made returning to a meaningful political process all the more urgent. New Zealand will continue to advocate for an end to the current conflict and an urgent restart of the Middle East Peace Process.”

    ‘Outrageous’, says Israel
    Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said the move was “outrageous” and the government would hold a special meeting early next week to decide how to respond to the “unacceptable decision”.

    His comments were made while attending the inauguration of a new Israeli settlement on Palestinian land.

    Peters is currently in Europe for the sixth Pacific-France Summit hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron in Nice.

    US State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters: “We find that extremely unhelpful. It will do nothing to get us closer to a ceasefire in Gaza.”

    Britain, Canada, Norway, New Zealand and Australia “should focus on the real culprit, which is Hamas”, she said of the sanctions.

    “We remain concerned about any step that would further isolate Israel from the international community.”

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

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: NZ and Gaza – Peters appearing to do something, when doing nothing

    COMMENTARY: By Steven Cowan, editor of Against The Current

    The New Zealand Foreign Minster’s decision to issue a travel ban against two Israeli far-right politicians is little more than a tokenistic gesture in opposing Israel’s actions.

    It is an attempt to appease growing opposition to Israel’s war, but the fact that Israel has killed more than 54,000 innocent people in Gaza, a third under the age of 18, still leaves the New Zealand government unmoved.

    Foreign Minister Peters gave the game away when he commented that the sanctions were targeted towards two individuals, rather than the Israeli government.

    Issuing travel bans against two Israeli politicians, who are unlikely to visit New Zealand at any stage, is the easy option.

    It appears to be doing something to protest against Israel’s actions when actually doing nothing. And it doesn’t contradict the interests of the United States in the Middle East.

    Under the government of Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, New Zealand has become a vassal state of American imperialism.

    New Zealand has joined four other countries, the United States, Britain, Australia and Norway, in issuing a travel ban. But all four countries continue to supply Israel with arms.

    Unions demand stronger action
    Last week, the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions demanded that the New Zealand government take stronger action against Israel. In a letter to Winston Peters, CTU president Richard Wagstaff wrote:

    “For too long, the international community has allowed the state of Israel to act with impunity. It is now very clearly engaged in genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza.

    “All efforts must be made to put diplomatic and economic pressure on Israel to end this murderous campaign.”

    THE CTU has called for a series of sanctions to be imposed on Israel. They include “a ban on all imports of goods made in whole or in part in Israel” and “a rapid review of Crown investments and immediately divest from any financial interests in Israeli companies”.

    The CTU is also calling for the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador.

    This article was first published on Steven Cowan’s website Against The Current. Republished with permission.

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: The Project really did do news differently. Its demise is our loss

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dodd, Professor of Journalism, Director of the Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of Melbourne

    The most unsettling thing about the closure of Network Ten’s The Project is that it might come to be seen as the moment commercial network television gave up on young audiences for news programming.

    If that’s what’s happening, it’s a worrying thought. Bringing news and current affairs to young audiences is exactly what The Project has done so well over its 16-year lifespan, and it’s hard to imagine how the channel will replace it in ways that work for audiences already disengaged with mainstream media.

    The Project will be missed. Perhaps not by those such as a caller to ABC Melbourne’s Drive program yesterday afternoon, who described The Project as Behind the News for grown-ups.

    The caller’s tone signalled an insult but that discredits both the long-running ABC program for schoolchildren and the goal of engaging young adult audiences in news and current affairs.

    Declining numbers

    In 2010, a year after the program launched, it was rating 1.1 million in the country’s capital cities, which made it competitive with other commercial TV news services.

    By last weekend, the program was drawing an average national audience of 270,000 across the regions as well as the capital cities, according to media commentator, Tim Burrowes’, Unmade newsletter. Even allowing for the overall decline in the number of people watching television since 2010, those ratings figures are dismal.

    Burrowes, the author of Media Unmade: Australian Media’s Most Disruptive Decade, suggests the controversial hiring of former Nine Network star, Lisa Wilkinson, in 2017, to present the program’s Sunday edition may have unsettled The Project’s internal harmony after the Bruce Lehrmann defamation trial she was involved in.

    A winning format for younger audiences

    The Project’s formula of combining news with comedy emerged from the success of The Panel, the weekly show produced in the late 1990s by Working Dog and featuring the D-Generation team of Rob Sitch, Santo Cilauro and Tom Gleisner, along with Kate Langbroek, Glenn Robbins and, for a while, Jane Kennedy.

    The Panel opening theme song, Working Dog Productions.

    It was edgy and topical. It bounced off current events with short piss-take scene-setting video grabs, followed by wry observations and silly gags.

    It was just as much comedy as it was current affairs, and it was all about appealing to young and disenfranchised viewers.

    The Panel anticipated the exodus away from the po-faced solemnity of commercial terrestrial TV news well before streaming had taken hold.

    Rove McManus and his production company saw its potential, as did Ten, which knew it needed to try new things. It could not compete with Seven and Nine, who were then – and in many ways still are – locked in a perpetual ratings war while being almost identical to one another.

    The Project’s producers knew they had a winning format. They ensured the show was rarely boring and avoided the predictability of worthiness. They weren’t afraid to ask the non-PC question, or laugh at themselves, or debate or discuss or delve.

    But that didn’t mean they resorted to meanness or took pleasure in others’ misfortune. Admittedly, Steve Price did need to be reined in from time to time.

    The format encouraged audiences to stick with them and in the process they actually learnt stuff. Young, disengaged kids saw politicians discussing matters of substance, with the show challenging assumptions.

    News for the social media era

    As increasing numbers of young people stopped turning on TVs, The Project became consumable in bite-size chunks on social media.

    The show’s producers cottoned on to this earlier than most and began crafting segments that could be easily shared. Waleed Aly became an Instagram star for his impassioned, informed editorialising about racial issues, along the way earning nominations for several Logie awards, and winning the Gold Logie in 2016.

    Peter Helliar, Dave Hughes and Charlie Pickering made audiences laugh. And another Gold Logie winner, Carrie Bickmore, made them care, especially in 2013 when she broke the fourth wall of television to talk about the need to improve public awareness of brain cancer following a story about a potential cure for the disease in ten years’ time. A few years previously Bickmore’s husband had died of the disease.

    The loss of another media town square

    While The Project was on air, the network was at least making an effort to inform a section of the market that had long been under-served by the news media.

    With relatively recent entrants, like the Daily Aus, stepping in to that gap, perhaps Ten thought it was becoming too crowded?

    We’ll have to assess what the network does next to see if it thinks investing in current affairs is no longer worth the effort.

    With the ABC threatening to walk away from Q&A, it looks like commercial and public networks are coming to the same view: that panel-based current affairs programming is a turn-off for audiences, regardless of whether they’re young or old.

    This is especially troubling because the closure of each program means the loss of another media town square, where the capacity to listen to, and learn from one another, in civil ways also disappears.

    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. The Project really did do news differently. Its demise is our loss – https://theconversation.com/the-project-really-did-do-news-differently-its-demise-is-our-loss-258588

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Novelty, negativity and no politicians: research reveals what makes some images more engaging than others

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By T.J. Thomson, Senior Lecturer in Visual Communication & Digital Media, RMIT University

    T.J. Thomson

    We see hundreds or thousands of images each day – but not all of them stand out to us. Why are some visuals more engaging than others? In an attention economy, where creators and organisations battle for our eyeballs, knowing the answer has never been more important.

    To address this question, we asked about 100 people across three different communities in Australia to rank photos from least to most engaging. We analysed the rankings, and interviewed respondents to understand the “why” behind their choices.

    Our new research reveals three interrelated criteria that affect why audiences engage with some images more than others. These are: the content of an image, how the images is presented, and who is seeing and reacting to it.

    What content makes for an engaging image?

    Who or what is shown, and how, markedly affects how someone engages with an image.

    We found viewers generally considered images with other people in them – and particularly images with faces – as more engaging than those without.

    The number of people or objects in the frame also mattered. Fewer objects resulted in simpler compositions that were easier to parse and, as a result, more eye-catching.

    Along the same lines, images were generally more engaging when they had a focal point (which would ideally be offset from the centre of the frame), compared to those with a lack of a focal point and arbitrary framing.

    However, centring the focal point worked well in symmetrical compositions, or when the frame was square.

    Participants ranked posed photos as less engaging than seemingly candid shots – appreciating the authenticity of the latter. They also ranked text-heavy images, such as those with people standing by or holding signs, as less engaging than action shots.

    In terms of emotional tone, images that showed negativity, conflict, or drama were ranked as more engaging than those that showed positivity. In the words of one interviewee:

    People always have a weird interest in yucky things. You’re like, ‘Oh, is
    someone dead?’ or you’re interested in the ‘Why?’ It’s intriguing.

    Participants preferred images that showed something they didn’t see every day, such as a rare double rainbow, or a visit from a prominent figure to a community.

    Novel camera angles also generated interest. This is partly why drone shots are so popular. They provide a new perspective and tend to be less “cluttered” than vision captured from the ground.

    In terms of visual depth, images with a clear foreground, mid-ground, and background were found to be more visually interesting than those with just a mid-ground and background.

    Presentation factors

    If you’re always tempted to apply black and white or muted filters to your images, think again.

    Our participants regarded images with bright and bold colours as more engaging than drab ones. This was even true for photos with conventionally boring subject matter. Colour, we found, can make or break an image.

    Size mattered, too. Viewers generally regarded larger images as more engaging than their smaller counterparts. Larger images were more eye-catching and could accommodate “busier” compositions, compared to smaller images that might be viewed on smaller smartphone screens.

    Viewers also relied on captions or accompanying descriptions to determine whether an image was relevant, local, or produced by trustworthy or notable figures – all three of which played a role in how “engaging” they found a particular image.

    What you bring to the viewing

    Your personal attributes and experiences shape how you interact with visual media.

    For instance, seeing a photo of the Sydney Opera House when you’ve never been there is different to seeing a photo after you’ve seen it in person. In the latter case, you bring your own memories and experiences to the viewing, and these can positively or negatively affect your engagement.

    We found engagement with an image was likely to be higher if the image depicted faces or places that were “local” to the viewer. For most viewers, obviously posed stock images were forgettable.

    To a degree, engagement behaviours were also shaped by what was interesting to a viewer’s friends, families, and other people they deemed important. As one 70-year-old participant explained:

    My grandchildren play sport, so I’m always interested in [seeing photos of] that.

    Winning and losing themes

    On average, some topics were considered more engaging than others. For example, images related to health and crisis situations were more widely relevant and engaging than sports or education.

    That said, not all widely relevant topics were necessarily engaging. For example, our participants ranked photos of politicians as unengaging. Although they acknowledged politics is important, many said these photos were boring or off-putting.

    How to stand out with your images

    The above insights into engagement behaviours can be used by anyone looking to spruce up their photos.

    When you’re making, editing, or publishing an image, carefully consider its content, the presentation circumstances and your audience.

    One key piece of advice is to focus on the action rather than the outcome. For instance, rather than showing an award-winner with their trophy, show what they did to earn that trophy. Also remember to keep your audience’s attributes in mind, and try to cater for them.

    Doing so will give your images the best chance to stand out among the billions of others circulating online each day.

    T.J. Thomson receives funding from the Australian Research Council. He is an affiliated researcher with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making & Society.

    Rachael Anderson 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. Novelty, negativity and no politicians: research reveals what makes some images more engaging than others – https://theconversation.com/novelty-negativity-and-no-politicians-research-reveals-what-makes-some-images-more-engaging-than-others-255612

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Assessment in the age of AI – unis must do more than tell students what not to do

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thomas Corbin, Research fellow, Center for Research in Assessment and Digital Learning, Deakin University

    Matheus Bertelli/ Pexels , CC BY

    In less than three years, artificial intelligence technology has radically changed the assessment landscape. In this time, universities have taken various approaches, from outright banning the use of generative AI, to allowing it in some circumstances, to allowing AI by default.

    But some university teachers and students have reported they remain confused and anxious, unsure about what counts as “appropriate use” of AI. This has been accompanied by concerns AI is facilitating a rise in cheating.

    There is also a broader question about the value of university degrees today if AI is used in student assessments.

    In a new journal article, we examine current approaches to AI and assessment and ask: how should universities assess students in the age of AI?



    Read more:
    Researchers created a chatbot to help teach a university law class – but the AI kept messing up

    Why ‘assessment validity’ matters

    Universities have responded to the emergence of generative AI with various policies aimed at clarifying what is allowed and what is not.

    For example, the United Kingdom’s University of Leeds set up a “traffic light” framework of when AI tools can be used in assessment: red means no AI, orange allows limited use, green encourages it.

    For example, a “red” light on a traditional essay would indicate to students it should be written without any AI assistance at all. An “amber” marked essay would perhaps allow AI use for “idea generation” but not for writing elements. A “green” light would permit students to use AI in any way they choose.

    In order to help ensure students comply with these rules, many institutions, such as the University of Melbourne, require students to declare their use of AI in a statement attached to submitted assessments.

    The aim in these and similar cases is to preserve “assessment validity”. This refers to whether the assessment is measuring what we think it is measuring. Is it assessing students’ actual capabilities or learning? Or how well they use the AI? Or how much they paid to use it?

    But we argue setting clear rules is not enough to maintain assessment validity.

    Our paper

    In a new peer-reviewed paper, we present a conceptual argument for how universities and schools can better approach AI in assessments.

    We begin by making the distinction between two approaches to AI and assessment:

    • discursive changes: only modify the instructions or rules around an assessment. To work, they rely on students understanding and voluntarily following directions.

    • structural changes: modify the task itself. These constrain or enable behaviours by design, not by directives.

    For example, telling students “you may only use AI to edit your take-home essay” is a discursive change. Changing an assessment task to include a sequence of in-class writing tasks where development is observed over time is a structural change.

    Telling a student not to use AI tools when writing computer code is discursive. Developing a live, assessed conversation about the choices a student has made made is structural.

    A reliance on changing the rules

    In our paper, we argue most university responses to date (including traffic light frameworks and student declarations) have been discursive. They have only changed the rules around what is or isn’t allowed. They haven’t modified the assessments themselves.

    We suggest only structural changes can reliably protect validity in a world where AI use means rule-breaking is increasingly undetectable.

    So we need to change the task

    In the age of generative AI, if we want assessments to be valid and fair, we need structural change.

    Structural change means designing assessments where validity is embedded in the task itself, not outsourced to rules or student compliance.

    This won’t look the same in every discipline and it won’t be easy. In some cases, it may require assessing students in very different ways from the past. But we can’t avoid the challenge by just telling students what to do and hoping for the best.

    If assessment is to retain its function as a meaningful claim about student capability, it must be rethought at the level of design.

    Phillip Dawson receives funding from the Australian Research Council, and has in the past recieved funding from the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA), the Office for Learning and Teaching, and educational technology companies Turnitin, Inspera and NetSpot.

    Danny Liu and Thomas Corbin 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. Assessment in the age of AI – unis must do more than tell students what not to do – https://theconversation.com/assessment-in-the-age-of-ai-unis-must-do-more-than-tell-students-what-not-to-do-257469

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –