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Category: Analysis Assessment

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: A Philosopher Looks at Clothes by Kate Moran is engaging and unpretentious – we need more philosophy books like this

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Sarah Richmond, Honorary Associate Professor of Philosophy, UCL

    With a few exceptions, philosophers have had little to say about clothes. Maybe this is because the topic seems frivolous, or feminine, unworthy of the attention of a predominantly male collection of thinkers.

    Perhaps, too, the transience of fashion, and the fact that clothes belong – quite literally – to the domain of mere appearance, also has something to do with it. In A Philosopher Looks at Clothes, an engaging and informative book, Kate Moran, philosophy professor at Brandeis University in the US, urges us to think again.

    As Moran points out, clothing looms large in life. Every day we dress, deciding how many layers to wear and whether we need a coat – or might a cardigan suffice? We gaze critically at other people’s choices (“OMG, those shoes!”). We wonder how to rise to the challenge of an imminent Eurovision-themed party.

    From a historical point of view, also, our species-specific recourse to clothes stretches back to the earliest human society. In mythical time, it begins with Adam’s and Eve’s discovery, in shame, that they were naked. If fashion is transient, clothes, per se, are not.

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    Clothes, Moran tells us, serve three basic purposes: protection, modesty and decoration. At once, these introduce questions of deep philosophical interest. Are the purposes equally important? Why, throughout human history, have we refused to settle merely for protection, desiring for example that a hat should be of some favoured colour or shape? To what extent do our decorative choices express our personal identity? Do clothes ever qualify as works of art? Why is modesty an abiding concern, given that we all know the contours of the unclothed body?

    In many contexts, and especially today, clothes invite ethical and political assessment. Clothes communicate a great deal of information about us, including our social position and the causes we espouse.



    Read more:
    A brief history of the slogan T-shirt

    We may knowingly exploit this, choosing to flaunt an obviously expensive garment or to wear our football team’s scarf. In other cases the meanings are imposed. The uniforms forced on prisoners, for example, emphasise subordination and erase their individuality.

    Poignantly, research into textile history has uncovered a streak of resistance in even the most ill-treated captives. In concentration camps during the second world war some prisoners altered their uniforms, or mended them, or added pockets. As Moran remarks, these actions were not just practical; their aim, too, was to “recover some sense of identity and dignity”.

    Portrait of Friedrich Nietzsche by Edvard Munch (1906).
    Thiel Gallery, Stockholm

    In the brilliantly conceived series by Cambridge University Press to which this title belongs, each author discusses some general topic from a perspective that is philosophically informed and at the same time personal.

    We need more books like these, to counteract the entrenched pretence of disinterestedness in philosophy. (Nietzsche, exceptionally, saw through it, denouncing philosophers as “advocates who do not want to be seen as such … sly spokesmen for prejudices that they christen as ‘truths’”.)

    Knowledge of the significance, in an author’s life, of her subject-matter enriches the reader’s imaginative experience of a book. Describing herself as an “ardent hobbyist” who sews her own clothes, Moran provides an additional facet to her account of today’s fashion industry and its scandalous environmental costs.

    The reader knows that Moran herself has found an alternative. This lends a certain authority to her judgement that, however futile it may seem for any one person to step off the fast-fashion bus: “There is an important moral difference between being inefficacious and being innocent.”

    Moran shows how many areas of philosophy can illuminate the phenomenon of clothes: not only ethics and political thought, but also aesthetics, theories of communication, of personal identity, of gender and cultural appropriation.

    For readers unfamiliar with academic philosophy, these forays offer a path into a rich conceptual landscape. Along the way, we are offered a multitude of riveting facts. Who would have guessed that pink has not always been for girls, and blue for boys? And there are pictures, too. My highlight was the “revenge dress” that Princess Diana wore to a gala dinner in the midst of hostilities with Charles, in a successful bid to divert press attention from his appearance on TV.

    This article features references to books that have been included for editorial reasons, and may contain links to bookshop.org. If you click on one of the links and go on to buy something from bookshop.org The Conversation UK may earn a commission.

    Sarah Richmond 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. A Philosopher Looks at Clothes by Kate Moran is engaging and unpretentious – we need more philosophy books like this – https://theconversation.com/a-philosopher-looks-at-clothes-by-kate-moran-is-engaging-and-unpretentious-we-need-more-philosophy-books-like-this-260473

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Farewell to summer? ‘Haze’ and ‘trash’ among Earth’s new seasons as climate change and pollution play havoc

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Felicia Liu, Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Sustainability, University of York

    Throughout history, people have viewed seasons as relatively stable, recurrent blocks of time that neatly align farming, cultural celebrations and routines with nature’s cycles. But the seasons as we know them are changing. Human activity is rapidly transforming the Earth, and once reliable seasonal patterns are becoming unfamiliar.

    In our recent study, we argue that new seasons are surfacing. These emergent seasons are entirely novel and anthropogenic (in other words, made by humans).

    Examples include “haze seasons” in the northern and equatorial nations of south-east Asia, when the sky is filled with smoke for several weeks. This is caused by widespread burning of vegetation to clear forests and make way for agriculture during particularly dry times of year.

    Or there is the annual “trash season”, during which tidal patterns bring plastic to the shores of Bali, Indonesia, between November and March.

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    At the same time, some seasons are disappearing altogether, with profound consequences for ecosystems and cultures. These extinct seasons can encompass drastically altered or terminated migratory animal behaviour, such as the decline of seabird breeding seasons in northern England.

    Climate change is also calling time on traditional winter sport seasons by making snow scarcer in alpine regions.

    Nature’s new rhythms

    Perhaps more common are “syncopated seasons”. The changes are akin to new emphases on beats or off-beats in familiar music that capture the listener’s attention.

    Syncopated seasons include hotter summers and milder winters in temperate climates, with increasingly frequent and severe extreme weather that exposes more people and ecosystems to stress.

    The timings of key seasonal events, like when leaves fall or certain migratory species arrive, are becoming more unpredictable. We coined the term “arrhythmic seasons”, a concept borrowed from cardiology, to refer to abnormal rhythms which include earlier springs or breeding seasons, longer summers or growing seasons, and shorter winters or hibernating seasons.

    Changing seasonal patterns throw the interdependent life cycles of plants and animals out of sync with each other, and disrupt the communities that are economically, socially and culturally dependent on them.

    In northern Thailand, human activity has reshaped nature’s rhythms and affected the supply of water and food in turn. Communities along the Mekong river’s tributaries have relied on the seasonal flow of rivers to fish and farm for generations.

    At first, upstream dams disrupted these cycles by blocking fish migration and preventing the accumulation of sediment that farms need for soil. More recently, climate change has shifted rainfall patterns and made dry seasons longer and rainy seasons shorter but more intense, bringing fires and further uncertainty to farmers.

    Let’s rethink time

    How we react to changing seasonal patterns can either worsen or improve environmental conditions. In south-east Asia, public awareness of the “haze season” has led to better forecasting, the installation of air filters in homes and the establishment of public health initiatives.

    These efforts help communities adapt. But if society only uses adaptive fixes like these, it can make the haze worse over time by failing to tackle its root causes. By recognising this new season, societies might normalise the recurrence of haze and isolate anyone who demands the government and businesses deal with deforestation and burning.

    Powerful institutions like these shape narratives about seasonal crises to minimise their responsibility and shift blame elsewhere. Understanding these dynamics is crucial to fostering accountability and ensuring fair responses.

    The shifting seasons require us to rethink our relationship with time and the environment. Today, most of us think about time in terms of days, hours and minutes, which is a globalised standard used everywhere from smartphones to train timetables. But this way of keeping time forgets older and more local ways of understanding time – those that are shaped by natural rhythms, such as the arrival of the rainy season, or solar and lunar cycles, rooted in the lives and cultures of different communities.

    Diverse perspectives, especially those from Indigenous knowledge systems, can enhance our ability to respond to environmental changes. Integrating alternative time-keeping methods into mainstream practices could foster fairer and more effective solutions to environmental problems.

    Seasons are more than just divisions of time – they connect us with nature. Finding synchrony with changing seasonal rhythms is essential for building a sustainable future.

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

    Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead. Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. Join the 45,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far.

    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. Farewell to summer? ‘Haze’ and ‘trash’ among Earth’s new seasons as climate change and pollution play havoc – https://theconversation.com/farewell-to-summer-haze-and-trash-among-earths-new-seasons-as-climate-change-and-pollution-play-havoc-260765

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Popular Tunisian island’s cultural heritage at risk due to tourism, neglect and climate change

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Majdi Faleh, Academic Fellow & Lecturer in Architecture and Cultural Heritage, Nottingham Trent University

    The Sidi Yati mosque in Djerba, which dates back to the 10th century, has been damaged by coastal erosion. Mehdi Elouati, CC BY-NC-ND

    Nestled in the southern Mediterranean, off the south-east coast of Tunisia, lies the island of Djerba. With a rich cultural and religious history, it has been a crossroad of many civilisations, including the Phoenicians, Romans, Byzantines and Arabs, and is home to many unique architectural sites. These include the Sedouikech underground mosque, St Joseph’s Church and the El Ghriba Synagogue.

    But, for many years, Djerba’s cultural heritage has been in danger. This is due to a combination of over-tourism, environmental change and human neglect.

    An underground mosque on the island of Djerba.
    Mariana Delca / Shutterstock

    By the 1990s to early 2000s, when Djerba was at the height of its popularity, the island was attracting between 1 million and 1.5 million visitors each year. It is one of Tunisia’s most popular tourist areas, with more hotels than any other destination in the country.

    Tourism has resulted in excessive tourist traffic in Djerba, particularly during the summer. It has also contributed to other problems such as water stress and waste generation. According to figures from 2020, hotels alone generate between 35% and 40% of all the waste on the island.

    But the development of tourism has, above all, altered Djerba’s cultural landscape. In some areas of the island, Djerba’s traditional housing – houmas, menzels and houchs – have given way to more modern tourist infrastructure.

    This has accelerated since Tunisia’s 2011 revolution, when long-time dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was ousted. Weak institutional oversight has led to vandalism, illegal construction on archaeological sites and unauthorised demolitions.

    The development of tourism on Djerba has also eroded traditional ways of life. The island has experienced significant changes due to tourism, with the development of roads, ferries, an airport and the internet leading to a decline in traditional activity. Livelihoods like agriculture, fishing and artisanal crafts have declined and are often now showcased only in tourist areas.

    Life on Djerba has changed since it was opened up for tourism.
    BTWImages / Shutterstock

    Climate change has worsened Djerba’s problems. Rainfall patterns have changed across the island over recent decades, with models suggesting that annual precipitation rates could drop 20% by the end of the century. More frequent and prolonged droughts are expected.

    At the same time, rising sea levels and increasingly common storm surges are affecting the island. Research from 2022 found that 14% of Djerba’s beaches are now highly vulnerable to submersion and coastal erosion.

    Several historical monuments on Djerba have already experienced periodic flooding and saltwater intrusion. The ruins of Sidi Garous and the shrine of Sidi Bakour are now entirely underwater and have been replaced by memorials.

    Other archaeological sites located near the coast like Haribus, Meninx, Ghizene and Edzira, some of which date back to the Roman era (eighth century BC to fifth century AD), are now partially or fully submerged. Studies by Tunisia’s National Institute of Heritage suggest that many of these sites have been lost permanently to the encroaching sea.

    World heritage site

    Significant portions of Djerba’s cultural heritage have already been erased by sea-level rise and coastal erosion. Future losses could be even more severe. The island’s cultural heritage will only grow more precarious without meaningful preservation and climate adaptation efforts.

    However, many of Djerba’s monuments, historical buildings and traditional dwellings have suffered from years of neglect. A chronic lack of local and international funding, as well as weak institutional frameworks for heritage management, mean some of the island’s historic structures have been abandoned. Many other buildings have deteriorated due to a lack of protective measures and maintenance.

    Community organisations such as the Association for the Safeguarding of the Island of Djerba have tried to step in to fill the void left by weak institutional frameworks. Their work ranges from delivering public awareness campaigns to local young people to efforts like re-purposing ancient rainwater tanks to manage periods of drought.

    But these grassroots efforts alone are not enough to stop Djerba’s cultural heritage from deteriorating at its current pace.

    The ruins of a Housh, a traditional dwelling, on the island of Djerba.
    Ahmed Bedoui, CC BY-NC-ND

    In September 2023, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) announced that it was adding Djerba to its list of world heritage sites. Tunisia’s culture ministry welcomed the decision. It followed years of efforts by local groups and government officials to add Djerba to the list.

    Djerba’s inclusion offers hope for the long-term preservation of the island’s heritage. A world heritage site designation increases global recognition and enables improved access to sources of funding.

    And since Djerba’s classification, there has been some progress. The culture ministry has established a task force to monitor the construction of buildings and other infrastructure, collect data on designated protected areas, and prepare projects to preserve heritage sites.

    But Djerba’s cultural heritage remains in danger. Improved preservation of these sites will require continuous funding and stringent regulation of tourism and construction activities.

    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. Popular Tunisian island’s cultural heritage at risk due to tourism, neglect and climate change – https://theconversation.com/popular-tunisian-islands-cultural-heritage-at-risk-due-to-tourism-neglect-and-climate-change-223612

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: How falling vaccination rates are fuelling the antibiotic resistance crisis

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Ruchika Gupta, Assistant Professor and Medical Microbiologist, Department of Pathobiology and Lab Medicine, London Health Sciences Centre and Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University

    Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest health threats we face today. It’s often blamed on the overuse of antibiotics, and for a good reason. But there’s another major factor quietly driving this crisis that doesn’t get as much attention: low vaccination rates.

    In early 2025, Ontario had a measles outbreak with 2,200 cases as of mid-July, mostly in people who hadn’t been fully vaccinated. An outbreak in Alberta that began in March has expanded to more than 1,300 cases as of mid-July.

    Measles had been eliminated in Canada since 1998, but it’s now reappearing, largely due to missed or delayed vaccinations. On the surface, these might seem like a limited viral outbreak. But the ripple effects go much further, causing more illness, more complications and, ultimately, more antibiotic use.

    Why measles can lead to antibiotic use

    Measles itself is a viral infection, so antibiotics don’t treat it directly. But the virus weakens the immune system, leaving people vulnerable to bacterial infections like pneumonia or ear infections, conditions that do require antibiotics.

    Unsurprisingly, this pattern isn’t new. A 2019 study published in Pediatrics showed that many children hospitalized with measles in the United States developed secondary infections that required antibiotic treatment, especially pneumonia and ear infections.

    While data from the Ontario outbreak is still being analyzed, experts expect a similar surge in antibiotic prescriptions to treat these preventable complications.

    The antibiotic resistance chain reaction

    Every time we use antibiotics, we give bacteria a chance to adapt.
    (NIAID), CC BY

    Here’s where it gets dangerous. Every time we use antibiotics, we give bacteria a chance to adapt. The most vulnerable bacteria die, but tougher ones survive and spread. This leads to antibiotic resistance where treatments that used to work no longer do.

    Even appropriate use of antibiotics, like treating a bacterial infection after measles, adds to the problem. And the more often we need to prescribe antibiotics, the faster this resistance builds.

    A 2022 global study published in The Lancet estimated that antimicrobial resistance directly caused 1.27 million deaths in 2019 and contributed to many millions more. As resistance spreads, doctors are forced to use more toxic, expensive or last-resort drugs, and sometimes, no effective treatment exists at all.

    Antibiotic resistance means that treatments that used to work no longer do.
    (NIAID), CC BY

    How vaccines help fight resistance

    Vaccines are one of the most powerful tools we have not just to prevent disease, but to reduce antibiotic use and slow resistance. By stopping infections before they happen, vaccines reduce the need for antibiotics in the first place.

    Some vaccines protect directly against bacteria. Pneumococcal vaccines (PCV13, PCV15, PCV20) guard against a major cause of pneumonia, brain infections and ear infections. Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) and diphtheria vaccines prevent other respiratory bacterial diseases.

    Other vaccines protect against viruses, which can weaken the body and open the door to bacterial infections called as secondary bacterial infections.

    The MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccine not only prevents measles but also reduces the chance of bacterial pneumonias that often occur after measles due to immunosuppression.

    The seasonal flu and COVID-19 vaccines help prevent viral infections that can trigger secondary bacterial complications.

    The rotavirus vaccine that protects against diarrheal disease in children has also been shown to reduce antibiotic use by more than 20 per cent, according to a 2024 study in Vaccine.

    In fact, a 2020 study in Nature found that improving childhood vaccination coverage in low- and middle-income countries could reduce antibiotic-treated illnesses in kids under five by more than 20 per cent. That’s a massive step forward in the fight against antibiotic resistance.

    A wake-up call

    The measles outbreaks in Ontario and Alberta aren’t just local issues; they are a global warning. Each missed vaccine doesn’t just put one person at risk; it potentially means more infections, more complications and more antibiotics. That, in turn, means more antibiotic resistance for everyone.

    Vaccines are not just about individual protection. They are a public health strategy that keeps antibiotics effective for when we really need them, especially for vulnerable people like cancer patients, transplant recipients and the elderly, who rely on antibiotics to survive routine infections.

    Vaccines, in fact, do more than prevent disease. They protect our ability to treat infections by reducing the need for antibiotics and slowing the rise of resistant bacteria. With preventable diseases like measles making a comeback, now is the time to recognize the broader impact of vaccine hesitancy.

    Choosing to vaccinate is more than a personal decision. It’s a way to protect our communities and preserve the life-saving power of antibiotics for generations to come.

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

    – ref. How falling vaccination rates are fuelling the antibiotic resistance crisis – https://theconversation.com/how-falling-vaccination-rates-are-fuelling-the-antibiotic-resistance-crisis-259682

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: I research rip currents where ‘Cosby Show’ star Malcolm-Jamal Warner drowned. Here’s why they’re so deadly

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Chris Houser, Professor in Department of Earth and Environmental Science, and Dean of Science, University of Waterloo

    Malcolm-Jamal Warner, the actor who played Theo Huxtable on The Cosby Show, has drowned on Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast.

    It is reported that he was swimming at Playa Cocles in Limon province when a current pulled him offshore. This is a beach popular among surfers and one that’s known to have large waves and strong currents.

    It’s also a beach that I have taken students to in order to study the formation of rip currents and to better understand what beach users know about the hazard.

    What exactly are rip currents?

    Rip currents — commonly referred to as rips or colloquially as rip tides — are found on ocean beaches and some large lakes around the world.



    Read more:
    The Great Lakes are powerful. Learning about ‘rip currents’ can help prevent drowning

    The rips at Playa Cocles and along a large part of the Costa Rican Caribbean coast are known as channel or bathymetric rips that form as the nearshore sand bar moves toward the land through the summer. The water thrown towards the land by the breaking waves returns offshore as a concentrated and fast flowing current at gaps in the nearshore sand bar.

    During storm conditions, we have measured the rip currents at Playa Cocles at over two metres per second. These rips are known to increase rapidly (or pulse) in strength due to changes in wave breaking, leading to unsuspecting swimmers being taken far offshore and exiting beyond the zone of breaking waves.

    Rip current at Playa Cocles showing change in size and strength with surfers for scale. (Chris Houser)

    While it can be difficult to spot a rip from shore, they can be identified by an area of relatively calm water between breaking waves, a patch of darker water or the offshore flow of water, sediment and debris.

    Caught in a rip current

    A person caught in a rip is transported away from shore into deeper waters, but they aren’t pulled under the water. If they are a weak swimmer or try to fight the current, they may panic and fail to find a way out of the rip and back to shore. Survivor stories highlight panic, anxiety, distress and fear, a tendency to fight the current and an inability to make a decision on how to escape the rip.

    While it is possible to “break the grip of the rip” by swimming parallel to the beach or toward breaking waves at an angle to the beach, there is no single escape strategy due to the unique rip circulation pattern.

    It’s possible to escape a rip by flipping onto your back, floating to keep your head above the water and following the current until you’re returned to the shore by the current or able to swim safely toward the shore. If you are taken beyond where the waves break, or you’re unable to swim back to shore, continue to float and signal for help.

    Rip currents account for more than 50 deaths a year in Costa Rica; approximately 19 drownings a year involve foreign tourists from the United States, Nicaragua, Canada and Germany. While most drownings in the country occur on Pacific coast beaches that are a short distance to the city of San José, more than five drownings occur each year along the Caribbean coast.

    Playa Cocles was the site of five drownings that occurred over eight days in 2004, an event that prompted tourism-dependent business owners to establish a lifeguard station on the beach.

    Costa Rican drownings

    On average, each drowning in Costa Rica costs more than US$2 million (USD). This includes the direct costs of search and rescue, the costs of repatriation and the long-term economic burden of a lost life. This is in addition to the great personal loss experienced by family and friends.

    A survey at Playa Cocles and other beaches in Costa Rica revealed that a majority of beach users did not observe warning signs and that many were unable to interpret the warning and did not change their behaviour.

    The majority of foreign drowning victims in Costa Rica had limited knowledge of rips and were unable to avoid the times and locations that were most hazardous.

    In general, visitors to a beach often use simple visual cues when deciding to take risks. Recent studies suggest that tourists think beach access points and resorts are located adjacent to safe swimming areas, particularly when visual cues such as manicured paths and promotional posters that promote swimming at those locations.

    Visitors are a high-risk group for drownings. They’re generally unfamiliar with the beach and its safety measures and often have poor knowledge of beach hazards, such as rip currents and breaking waves. This lack of knowledge can be exacerbated by language barriers, an overconfidence in swimming ability and peer pressure.

    Rip current and beach users at Playa Cocles. The red flag was placed by lifeguards to mark the location of the rip for beach users. (Chris Houser)

    Playa Cocles is a beautiful beach, but it’s known to have dangerous rips depending on the size of the breaking waves and the position of the sand bar.

    When visiting any beach — from the Caribbean to the Great Lakes — it’s important to remember that there may be rip currents and to take serious precautions.

    Chris Houser receives funding from NSERC.

    – ref. I research rip currents where ‘Cosby Show’ star Malcolm-Jamal Warner drowned. Here’s why they’re so deadly – https://theconversation.com/i-research-rip-currents-where-cosby-show-star-malcolm-jamal-warner-drowned-heres-why-theyre-so-deadly-261653

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Ghana’s security strategy has kept terror attacks at bay: what other countries can learn from its approach

    Source: The Conversation – Africa (2) – By Paa Kwesi Wolseley Prah, Postdoctoral Fellow, Dublin City University

    Ghana stands out in west Africa as a nation that has not experienced terrorist attacks, even though it’s geographically close to countries that have. In Burkina Faso, Mali and Nigeria, extremist groups such as Boko Haram and Islamic State in West Africa (ISWAP) have wreaked havoc.

    This resilience is not accidental. It is the result of deliberate counter-terrorism strategies employed by Ghana’s security institutions.

    Ghana’s counter-terrorism framework was set out in 2020. It has four pillars: prevent, pre-empt, protect, and respond. The idea is to coordinate multiple agencies, including the Ghana Police Service, Ghana Immigration Service, Ghana Armed Forces and the National Intelligence Bureau.

    These pillars guide strategies to address both immediate threats and underlying vulnerabilities. Poverty, religious radicalism and porous borders are common drivers of terrorism in west Africa.

    I am an international security and global governance researcher. My co-author is a government and international studies scholar.

    Four years ago we wrote a paper examining Ghana’s resilience against terrorist attacks. Our findings are still relevant given the increasing activities of terror groups in the west African region.



    Read more:
    West Africa terror: why attacks on military bases are rising – and four ways to respond

    We wanted to identify what works as a potential model for other countries.

    Using a qualitative methodology, we interviewed stakeholders — including police officers, members of the armed forces, Muslim community leaders, and immigration officials. We also analysed the national framework for preventing and countering violent extremism and terrorism.

    Our findings showed that Ghana’s success is traceable to an approach that integrates community engagement with advanced border technology, inter-agency training, media collaboration and intelligence operations. And it addresses both immediate and underlying threats.

    We argue that Ghana’s ability to balance prevention with security offers solutions for stability in a geopolitically volatile region.



    Read more:
    Ghana’s new president faces tough regional security problems: why he’s well-placed to tackle them

    Community engagement

    One of the standout strategies is community engagement. This serves multiple purposes, from guiding people away from extremism to gathering intelligence.

    The Ghana Police Service, for instance, engages Muslim-dominated communities, known as “Zongos”, to counter radical Islamic ideologies that could be exploited by terrorist groups.

    By collaborating with local religious leaders, police make communities aware of the dangers of radicalisation. They foster trust and encourage residents to report suspicious activities. This approach also works in tackling illegal arms circulation.

    Ghana has an estimated 2.3 million small arms in circulation – 1.1 million of them illegally possessed. The availability of so many weapons fuels terrorist activities across west Africa.

    Community based de-radicalisation aligns with global best practices. In Norway, for instance, it was used to disengage youth from extremist groups.

    Technology at borders

    Ghana’s border control management is another part of its counter-terrorism strategy. Ghana Immigration Service uses advanced security software and integrated systems like the “Immigration 360” system, designed to fully automate passenger processing and data management.

    The system manages records of fingerprints and other data to improve reporting and intelligence sharing between Ghana Immigration and other security agencies.

    The technology makes it possible to quickly identity individuals on terrorist watchlists and detects concealed goods. This helps prevent illegal cross-border movements.

    There are gaps in Ghana’s defences, however. The influx of migrants fleeing extremist violence in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger in 2024 highlights the urgency of scaling up investments in the technology.



    Read more:
    West Africa could soon have a jihadist state – here’s why

    Training for preparedness

    Ghana combats new and varying forms of terrorism by uncovering trends and training personnel to deal with them.

    A notable example was the six-day joint training in 2022 involving the Ghana Immigration Service, Police Service, Customs, Economic and Organised Crime Office, and the National Intelligence Bureau.

    The country also works with regional neighbours like Burkina Faso, Togo and Benin, and partners such as the United States, through initiatives like “Operation Epic Guardian”.

    Media as a strategic partner

    Terrorists rely on media to amplify fear and publicise their causes. Ghana’s security agencies counter this tactic by actively engaging media houses to report accurately.

    The Ghana Armed Forces, for instance, works with media to debunk false reports, which can cause public panic and inadvertently aid terrorists.

    The Ghana Police Service emphasises regular dialogue with media to ensure sensitive information is verified before publication, reducing the risk of tipping off suspects. However, media competition for viewers poses a challenge.

    Surveillance and intelligence gathering

    Surveillance and intelligence gathering is critical. Plainclothes armed forces and immigration personnel blend into communities to monitor potential threats. The approach has worked but is constrained by resources.

    It can also risk human rights violations, such as wrongful profiling, and is less effective against multiple targets compared to technological solutions like facial recognition or CCTV.



    Read more:
    Funding terror: how west Africa’s deadly jihadists get the money they need to survive

    Challenges and regional implications

    Despite its successes, Ghana’s counter-terrorism framework faces challenges that could undermine its long-term efficacy:

    • logistical and financial constraints

    • the influx of migrants fleeing regional violence

    • a lack of harmonised security cultures within the regional body, Ecowas.

    In all, Ghana’s strategies offer lessons for west Africa, where terrorism is a growing threat.

    Its community engagement model could be followed in Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger to counter radicalisation and arms proliferation, provided it avoids religious stereotyping.

    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. Ghana’s security strategy has kept terror attacks at bay: what other countries can learn from its approach – https://theconversation.com/ghanas-security-strategy-has-kept-terror-attacks-at-bay-what-other-countries-can-learn-from-its-approach-260333

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Livestock and lions make uneasy neighbours: how a fence upgrade helped protect domestic and wild animals in Tanzania

    Source: The Conversation – Africa (2) – By Jonathan Salerno, Associate Professor, Colorado State University, Colorado State University

    Protecting livestock in areas where large carnivores (like lions) live is increasingly important as human land use expands, wildlife habitat shrinks, and climatic changes reshape the ways in which humans and wildlife interact. Protecting the carnivores from livestock owners is important too. Intact carnivore populations support more resilient food webs and the ecosystem services they provide.

    It’s not easy for people, livestock, and carnivores to live together without conflict, though. One of the best ways to reduce conflict is to protect livestock like cattle and sheep from being attacked by predators.

    There are various methods to do this, like guarding livestock or erecting fences. That’s all very well for the livestock inside the fences, but do predators simply turn to the nearest unprotected livestock for their meal instead? Are the neighbours’ cattle, sheep, and goats at greater risk? This question hasn’t been explored much by researchers.

    We’re a group of conservation practitioners and scientists who have studied the interactions of carnivores, livestock, and people in Tanzania and elsewhere for decades to try and find solutions to conflict problems.

    Our study area is next to a national park which protects important populations of lion, leopard, hyena, African wild dog, and cheetah. The people who live here have traditionally kept their livestock overnight in enclosures made of acacia-thorn branches. More recently, some of them have built pens, or corrals, from tall chain link fencing. We knew from years working with communities and from previous research that these fortified corrals were effective at keeping livestock safe from predators.

    Our next step was to find out whether this made other nearby livestock less safe.



    Read more:
    What’s behind the conflict between people and animals in Tanzania

    The results were intriguing. We found that the new enclosures made predation less likely in the nearby traditional enclosures too.

    This type of beneficial spillover effect had yet to be documented in other systems where interventions aim to protect livestock from large carnivores.

    Our results show that in conservation, it’s important to look closely at complex local dynamics. The findings may help explain why there’s so much uncertainty about the effectiveness of various human–wildlife conflict mitigation strategies.

    Beneficial spillover effects

    People who keep livestock in east Africa have long had strategies to keep their animals safe from large carnivores. Sometimes acacia-thorn night enclosures (known locally as bomas), intensive herding practices, and guarding dogs work well.

    Other times, and especially in communities within and adjacent to large, protected carnivore populations, traditional strategies fall short.

    This is the case in Tanzania’s Ruaha-Rungwa Landscape. In our study area adjacent to Ruaha National Park, any pastoralist or agropastoralist (herding and crop farming) household has about a 30% chance of losing one or more animals to predation each year. This is a serious economic loss on top of important cultural and emotional costs.



    Read more:
    Losing a calf to wolves in Sweden hurts. But if lions take one in Uganda, a farming family’s income is gone

    Lion Landscapes, an organisation that some of us have been running for over a decade, works to support human-carnivore coexistence. Adjacent to Ruaha, we have been partnering with households to build 1.8-metre chain-link corrals. We subsidise them. Households contribute 25% of the cost and some of the labour for construction.

    We analysed about 25,000 monthly reports of livestock predation in fenced and traditional enclosures, using statistical models. There were 846 predation events over nearly four years. Unexpectedly, while we did detect spillover effects, these appeared to be beneficial. Rather than displacing conflicts, fortified enclosures actually conferred protective effects on their traditional-enclosure neighbours.

    For example, households within 50 metres (the minimum observed distance) of a fortified enclosure were half as likely to experience predation compared with distant households 2 kilometres away. And these beneficial effects increased with the number of fortified enclosures in a neighbourhood. Finally, the effects appeared to be durable over time.

    The fortified enclosures were extremely effective. We showed that households could break even after paying for the fence in just a few years through avoided livestock losses. And we know that when domestic animals aren’t being killed, their owners are more tolerant of predators. We didn’t record carnivore killings in this study but it has happened fairly frequently in the area in the past.

    In a few of the world’s human-wildlife conflict systems, where data exist to assess spillover effects, there is evidence that detrimental spillovers do occur. For instance, beehive deterrents may redirect elephants to nearby crop fields, or lethal removal of individual wolves may redirect the surviving pack to prey on adjacent ranches. Nevertheless, these are very under-studied interactions.

    Livestock management and carnivore coexistence

    In systems where humans, livestock, and wildlife overlap and sometimes come into conflict, management strategies too often focus on wildlife. Another option is to reduce whatever attracts wildlife. In the case of large carnivores, this means managing livestock.



    Read more:
    Livestock are threatened by predators – but old-fashioned shepherding may be an effective solution

    Our results support this approach by demonstrating that management and protection of livestock is fundamental for reducing conflict, and can benefit not only livestock owners but landscape-level coexistence.

    Conservationists and policy-makers need to encourage these practices that benefit people, carnivores, and livestock in shared landscapes.

    Amy Dickman works for Lion Landscapes as the Joint CEO

    Jonathan Salerno, Kevin Crooks, Rekha Warrier, and Stewart Breck 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. Livestock and lions make uneasy neighbours: how a fence upgrade helped protect domestic and wild animals in Tanzania – https://theconversation.com/livestock-and-lions-make-uneasy-neighbours-how-a-fence-upgrade-helped-protect-domestic-and-wild-animals-in-tanzania-258113

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Learning statistics through story: students get creative with numbers

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Johan Ferreira, Professor, University of the Witwatersrand

    Photo by Markus Krisetya via Unsplash

    Statistics professor Johan Ferreira was feeling overwhelmed by the amount of “screen time” involved in online learning in 2021. He imagined students must be feeling the same way, and wondered what he could do to inspire them and make his subject matter more appealing.

    One of the topics in statistics is time series analysis: statistical methods to understand trend behaviour in data which is measured over time. There are lots of examples in daily life, from rainfall records to changes in commodity prices, import or exports, or temperature.

    Ferreira asked his students to write a short, fictional “bedtime” story using “characters” from time series analysis. The results were collected into a book that is freely available. He tells us more about it.

    Why use storytelling to learn about statistics?

    I’m fortunate to be something of a creative myself, being a professional oboe player with the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra. It’s a valuable outlet for self-expression. I reflected on what other activity could inspire creativity without compromising the essence of statistical thinking that was required in this particular course I was teaching.

    I invited my third-year science and commerce students at the University of Pretoria to take part in a voluntary storytelling exercise, using key concepts in time series analysis as characters. Students got some guidelines but were free to be creative. My colleague and co-editor, Dr Seite Makgai, and I then read, commented on and edited the stories and put them together into an anthology.

    Students gave their consent that their stories could be used for research purposes and might be published. Out of a class of over 200 students, over 30 contributions were received; 23 students permitted their work to be included in this volume.

    We curated submissions into two sections (Part I: Fables and Fairy Tales and Part II: Fantasy and Sci-Fi) based on the general style and gist of the work.

    The project aimed to develop a new teaching resource, inspire students to take ownership of their learning in a creative way, and support them through informal, project-based peer learning.

    This collection is written by students, for students. They used personal and cultural contexts relevant to their background and environment to create content that has a solid background in their direct academic interests. And the stories are available without a paywall!

    What are some of the characters and stories?

    Student Lebogang Malebati wrote Stationaryville and the Two Brothers, a tale about AR(1) and AR(2). In statistics, AR refers to processes in which numerical values are based on past values. The brothers “were both born with special powers, powers that could make them stationary…” and could trick an evil wizard.

    David Dodkins wrote Zt and the Shadow-spawn. In this story, Zt (common notation in time series analysis) has a magic amulet that reveals his character growth through a sequence of models and shows the hero’s victory in the face of adversity. He is a function of those that came before him (through an AR process).

    Then there’s Nelis Daniels’ story about a shepherd plagued by a wolf called Arma (autoregressive moving average) which kept making sheep disappear.

    And Dikelede Rose Motseleng’s modern fable about the love-hate relationship between AR(1) (“more of a linear guy” with a bad habit of predicting the future based on the past) and MA(1), “the type of girl who would always provide you with stationarity (stability).”

    What was the impact of the project?

    It was a deeply enriching experience for us to see how students see statistics in a context beyond that of the classroom, especially in cases where students reformulated their stories within their own cultural identities or niche interests.

    Three particular main impacts stand out for us:

    • students have a new additional reference and learning resource for the course content

    • new students can refer to the experiences and contextualisation of this content of former students, leading to informal peer learning

    • students engage in a cognitive skill (higher-order and creative thinking) that is not frequently considered and included in this field and at this level.

    In 2024, shortly after the book was published, we asked students in the time series analysis course of that year to read any one of four stories (related to concepts that were already covered in the course material at that point in time). We asked them to complete a short and informal survey to gauge their experience and insights regarding the potential of this book as a learning resource for them.

    The 53 responses we got indicated that most students saw the book as a useful contribution to their learning experience in time series analysis.

    One positive comment from a student was:

    I will always remember that the Random Walk is indeed not stationary but White Noise is. I already knew it, but now I won’t forget it.

    Will you build on this in future?

    It is definitely valuable to consider similar projects in other branches of statistics, but also, in other disciplines entirely, to develop content by students, for students.

    At this stage, we’re having the stories and book translated into languages beyond English. In large classes that are essential to data science (such as statistics and mathematics), many different home languages may be spoken. Students often have to learn in their second, third, or even fourth language. So, this project is proving valuable in making advanced statistical concepts tactile and “at home” via translations.

    Our publisher recently let us know that the Setswana translation is complete, with the Sepedi and Afrikaans translations following soon. To our knowledge, it’ll be the first such project not only in the discipline of statistics, but in four of the official languages in South Africa.

    Johan Ferreira receives funding from the Centre of Excellence in Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, based at the University of the Witwatersrand, towards this Scholarship of Learning and Teaching project.

    – ref. Learning statistics through story: students get creative with numbers – https://theconversation.com/learning-statistics-through-story-students-get-creative-with-numbers-261198

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: There is no known cure for ALS, but medical tourism exploits desperation for profit

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Judy Illes, Professor, Neurology, University of British Columbia

    Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating neurological disorder of unknown cause, in which motor nerve cells of the brain and spinal cord that transmit signals to muscles progressively degenerate. This weakens limbs and affects speech, swallowing and ultimately the ability to breathe, resulting in death, typically within just a few years.

    Each year in Canada, approximately two people per 100,000 are diagnosed with ALS, amounting to about 1,000 cases based on the current population. In British Columbia, where we are located, the rate is estimated at just over three per 100,000 or roughly 190 new cases per year.

    This equates to approximately 4,000 Canadians — and 400 British Columbians — living with ALS at any given time.

    Rigorous ALS research is underway locally, nationally and internationally to slow — and ideally reverse — the relentless progression of this disease. Significant advances in understanding the genetic and environmental drivers of ALS are providing genuine hope that motor neuron diseases will one day be defeated.

    As experts in neurology and ethics, we are committed to delivering the best available health care and information throughout B.C. and across Canada. Trust in science and informed hope are essential to achieving the best possible outcomes and the longest possible trajectories in enjoying life when facing the overwhelming odds of ALS.

    A disturbing case

    In June, CBC’s The National reported on the case of Geoff Sando, a person living with ALS who pursued an unproven intervention for his condition. Sando travelled to Moose Jaw, Sask., to seek treatment at a clinic that claims to provide a cure for ALS.

    CBC’s The National reports on a Saskatchewan clinic claiming to offer ALS treatments.

    The ALS Society of Saskatchewan and the provincial New Democrat Party allege the clinic attended by Sando and several other patients is a form of medical tourism — travelling elsewhere to seek treatment — that can prey on the most vulnerable in society: those whose quality of life is deteriorating, and whose futures are tragically cut short.

    Medical tourism for a wide variety of other health-related conditions is not new. For example, treatments for cancer, strokes and orthopedic conditions have been available abroad for decades.

    In the United States and Mexico, unfounded stem cell interventions for ALS have been advertised for years. But until recently, it had been unusual to find such offerings in Canada. Their emergence speaks to the need for Health Canada to revisit its guidance on both regulated health and unregulated wellness products, including all forms of treatments, medications and device-based approaches.



    Read more:
    Giving patients the ‘right to try’ experimental drugs is a political maneuver, not a lifesaver

    We understand the urgency and desire to pursue any thread of hope in the face of desperation, but claims of dramatic improvement or cures from ALS by unregulated clinics that seem too good to be true are likely just that.

    Before investing in alternative treatments, we recommend that patients conduct their due diligence by consulting with their health-care team and their provincial ALS society for guidance. Ineffective interventions can jeopardize not only recipients, but also caregivers, especially when financial resources are drained.

    Trusted sources

    Developing approved therapies for ALS has been painfully slow, as evidenced by the failure of more than 95 per cent of ALS clinical trials in the past 28 years. Only three drugs — riluzole, edaravone and tofersen — have been approved by Health Canada and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

    Although riluzole and edaravone are only modestly effective, they remain the only widely approved pharmacological options for all forms of ALS. Tofersen is the first gene therapy recently approved to treat hereditary ALS caused by SOD1 gene abnormalities. Other treatments are being evaluated worldwide.

    This marks only the beginning of such treatment approaches to not only hereditary ALS but also non-hereditary ALS, which makes up about 90 per cent of all cases.



    Read more:
    A promising new study could lead to a reduction in symptoms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)

    For those affected by ALS and their families, ample resources are provided by various organizations, including ALS Canada and related provincial organizations, including the ALS Society of BC.

    Future hope

    Canadians generally trust science and scientists more than citizens of other countries and, on the whole, value science and believe in our government’s support for the work that scientists do.

    But in this time of geopolitical upheaval, vast incursions of disinformation and reversals of prior evidence-based human and health rights abroad means keeping up this level of trust — trust that leads to hope — will only become more challenging.

    The disproportionate suffering and impact on people who are marginalized by serious health conditions will only grow if dubious treatment offerings become normalized in Canada.

    Erik P Pioro consults for MT Pharma, which manufactures edaravone (Radicava) and for Biogen, which manufactures tofersen (Qalsody). He has received funding support for ALS research from the ALS Association and the National Institutes of Health.

    Judy Illes 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. There is no known cure for ALS, but medical tourism exploits desperation for profit – https://theconversation.com/there-is-no-known-cure-for-als-but-medical-tourism-exploits-desperation-for-profit-261057

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Gaza not a religious issue – it’s a massive violation of international law, say accord critics

    Asia Pacific Report

    Groups that have declined to join the government-sponsored “harmony accord” signed yesterday by some Muslim and Jewish groups, say that the proposed new council is “misaligned” with its aims.

    The signed accord was presented at Government House in Auckland.

    About 70 people attended, including representatives of the New Zealand Jewish Council, His Highness the Aga Khan Council for Australia and New Zealand and the Jewish Community Security Group, reports RNZ News.

    The initiative originated with government recognition that the consequences of Israel’s actions in Gaza are impacting on Jewish and Muslim communities in Aotearoa, as well as the wider community.

    While agreeing with that statement of purpose, other Muslim and Jewish groups have chosen to decline the invitation, said some of the disagreeing groups in a joint statement.

    They believe that the council, as formulated, is misaligned with its aims.

    “Gaza is not a religious issue, and this has never been a conflict between our faiths,” Dr Abdul Monem, a co-founder of ICONZ said.

    ‘Horrifying humanitarian consequences’
    “In Gaza we see a massive violation of international law with horrifying humanitarian consequences.

    “We place Israel’s annihilating campaign against Gaza, the complicity of states and economies at the centre of our understanding — not religion.

    “The first action to address the suffering in Gaza and ameliorate its effects here in Aotearoa must be government action. Our government needs to comply with international courts and act on this humanitarian calamity.

    “That does not require a new council.”

    The impetus for this initiative clearly linked international events with their local impacts, but the document does not mention Gaza among the council’s priorities, said the statement.

    “Signatories are not required to acknowledge universal human rights, nor the courts which have ruled so decisively and created obligations for the New Zealand government. Social distress is disconnected from its immediate cause.”

    The council was open to parties which did not recognise the role of international humanitarian law in Palestine, nor the full human and political rights of their fellow New Zealanders.

    ‘Overlooks humanitarian law’
    Marilyn Garson, co-founder of Alternative Jewish Voices said: “It has broad implications to overlook our rights and international humanitarian law.

    “As currently formulated, the council includes no direct Palestinian representation. That’s not good enough.

    “How can there be credible discussion of Aotearoa’s ethnic safety — let alone advocacy for international action — without Palestinians?

    “Law, human rights and the dignity of every person’s life are not opinions. They are human entitlements and global agreements to which Aotearoa has bound itself.

    “No person in Aotearoa should have to enter a room — especially a council created under government auspices — knowing that their fundamental rights will not be upheld. No one should have to begin by asking for that which is theirs.”

    The groups outside this new council said they wished to live in a harmonious society, but for them it was unclear why a new council of Jews and Muslims should represent the path to harmony.

    “Advocacy that comes from faith can be a powerful force. We already work with numerous interfaith community initiatives, some formed at government initiative and waiting to really find their purpose,” said Dr Muhammad Sajjad Naqvi, president of ICONZ.

    Addressing local threats
    “Those existing channels include more of the parties needed to address local threats, including Christian nationalism like that of Destiny Church.

    “Perhaps government should resource those rather than starting something new.”

    The groups who declined to join the council said they had “warm and enduring relationships” with FIANZ and Dayenu, which would take seats at this council table.

    “All of the groups share common goals, but not this path,” the statement said.

    ICONZ is a national umbrella organisation for New Zealand Shia Muslims for a unified voice. It was established by Muslims who have been born in New Zealand or born to migrants who chose New Zealand to be their home.

    Alternative Jewish Voices is a collective of Aotearoa Jews working for Jewish pluralism and anti-racism. It supports the work of Palestinians who seek liberation grounded in law and our equal human rights.

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Imaginary athletes: Creating make-believe teammates, competitors and coaches during play

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Tracy Gleason, Professor of Psychology, Wellesley College

    What would an imaginary companion add to a child’s solo practice? Elkhophoto/iStock via Getty Images Plus

    The coach, the specialized equipment, the carefully tailored exercise regimen – they’re all key to athletic performance. But imagination might be an unexpected asset when it comes to playing sports.

    The idea that athletic achievement depends on the mind isn’t new. Sport psychologists have known for years that working with an athlete on their mental game – visualizing the skill, kinesthetically feeling the swing – has a positive impact on actual performance. But these mental simulations draw only upon mental imagery – seeing and feeling the physical goals in the mind’s eye. Imagination offers a much wider range of possibilities.

    What if your game could be helped by an imaginary friend?

    In a recent retrospective study of college students, we discovered that imagination comes in handy in athletics in ways that are surprisingly social. The creation of what we termed imaginary athletes – a person or being that a child imagined in the context of athletics – enabled and motivated athletic play, especially for children between the ages of about 6 and 12. Imaginary athletes also provided companionship during athletic play.

    An imaginary teammate or competitor might help improve a child’s game.
    NoSystem images/E+ via Getty Images

    Remembering childhood imaginary athletes

    The most basic form of an imaginary athlete might be a wall, fence or even tree that makes a good opponent in a pinch. For a child or adolescent practicing a sport alone, a surface that provides a ball return or a steady target for a throw gives opportunities for practice usually requiring other players.

    Is it any wonder, then, if the branches of the tree start to resemble a wide receiver’s arms, or an invisible goalie emerges in front of the fence? Solitary play might be a lot more fun if a make-believe teammate could provide an assist, or an invisible coach could appear and shout instructions during practice.

    The college students in our study reported that such support, even if imaginary, made them play a little longer or try a little harder as kids.

    About 41% of our sample of 225 college students reported creating at least one imaginary athlete at some point in middle childhood or early adolescence. Most, but not all, of these beings fell into three categories based on their characteristics.

    The first we called placeholders, such as ghost runners. They are typically generic, amorphous, imaginary teammates created by groups of children when not enough real players are available.

    The second type functioned as what we named athletic tools. They helped kids focus on their performance and improve their skills, usually by providing a worthy competitor, sometimes based on an admired professional athlete. The skills of athletic tools were often just above those of the child, drawing out the desire to be better, stronger, faster.

    Social relationships, our name for the third kind of imaginary athlete, primarily served emotional functions, relieving loneliness and providing the child or adolescent with a sense of belonging, safety or companionship as they engaged in their sport.

    Students who remembered imaginary athletes differed from their peers in two ways. First, more men than women reported creating these imaginary beings, possibly owing to the greater investment in and importance of athletics among boys versus girls. Second, people with imaginary athletes scored higher than those without on a current-day measure of predilection for imagination, but they were not more likely to report having created a make-believe friend or animal as a child.

    Imagination is a valuable power

    Creating an imaginary other might seem like a quirky, perhaps even childish, addition to sports practice. But actually, this behavior is entirely logical. After all, imagination is the core of human thought. Without it, we couldn’t conceptualize anything outside of the present moment that wasn’t already stored in memory. No thinking about the future, no consideration of multiple outcomes to a decision, no counterfactuals, daydreams, fantasies or plans.

    Why wouldn’t people apply such a fundamental tool of day-to-day thought in athletic contexts? Participation in sports is common, especially among school-age kids, and many college students in our study described drawing upon their imaginations frequently when playing sports, especially when doing so in their free time.

    Imagination is a core part of being human – it’s not a surprise it comes out on the sports field.
    Erik Isakson/Tetra images via Getty Images

    The creation of imaginary athletes is also unsurprising because it’s one of myriad ways that imagination enhances people’s social worlds throughout their lives. Above all else, social relationships are what matter most to people, and using imagination in thinking about them is common. For instance, people imagine conversations with others, particularly those close to them, sometimes practicing the delivery of bad news or envisioning the response to a proposal of marriage.

    In early childhood, kids create imaginary companions who help them learn about friendship and other’s perspectives. And in adolescence, when people focus on developing their autonomy and their own identities, they create parasocial relationships that let them identify with favorite celebrities, characters and media figures. Even in older age, some widows and widowers imagine continued relationships with their deceased spouses. These “continuing bonds” are efforts to cope with loss through imaginary narratives that are fed by and extrapolate upon years of interactions.

    At each point in their developmental trajectory, people might recruit imagination to help them understand, manage, regulate and enjoy the social aspects of life. Imaginary athletes are merely one manifestation of this habit.

    Because so many children and adolescents spend a lot of time engaged in sports, athletics can be a major environment for working on the developmental tasks of growing up. As children learn about functioning as part of a group, forming, maintaining and losing friendships, and mastering a range of skills and abilities, imaginary athletes provide teammates, coaches and competitors tailored to the needs of the moment.

    Of course, an imaginary athlete is but one tool that children and adolescents might use to address developmental tasks such as mastering skills or negotiating peer relationships. Children who aren’t fantasy-prone might create complex training regimens to practice their skills, and they might manage their friendships by talking through problems with others.

    But some report that turning inward generated real athletic and social benefits. “I got confidence out of my [imaginary athletes],” reported one participant. “If I could imagine beating someone, and [winning], then I felt like I could do anything.”

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

    – ref. Imaginary athletes: Creating make-believe teammates, competitors and coaches during play – https://theconversation.com/imaginary-athletes-creating-make-believe-teammates-competitors-and-coaches-during-play-254879

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-Evening Report: View from The Hill: How much can Jim Chalmers get out of the economic reform roundtable?

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

    We’re now less than a month away from the start of the Albanese government’s “economic reform” (aka “productivity”) roundtable, but it has become quite hard to get a fix on exactly what this gathering will amount to.

    The guest list for the August 19-21 summit is obviously tight, given the government decided it wanted the meeting to fit into the cabinet room (so avoiding a more extensive “talkfest”).

    But excluding the states and territories from a meeting that discusses deregulation and taxation means major players in these policy areas are not in the room (the NSW treasurer, Daniel Mookhey, chair of the board of treasurers, is the only state government representative invited). Treasurer Jim Chalmers says he will meet state treasurers beforehand, but that doesn’t quite cover their omission.

    The government has flagged that industrial relations isn’t on the table, although the unions will be at that table. Yet IR is a major issue in productivity, so that excludes a central area from discussion. The unions are being given a level of protection other players potentially do not have.

    Tax reform is a central topic at the roundtable, the themes of which are productivity, budget sustainability and economic resilience. But the scope of what is up for serious consideration is limited.

    The government is not willing to consider changing the GST, even if it is not formally ruling out it being canvassed.

    When it was put to him that he opposed altering the GST, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told the ABC this week what he would not do was “go to an election and secure a majority because our government concentrated on cost-of-living measures in our first term […] and immediately we get elected and we say, we’re going to put up the price of everything that you buy.

    “That is not something that’s tenable. That’s something which would have represented a breach of trust upon which we were elected on May 3rd.”

    Rejecting an overhaul of the GST kyboshes, for better or worse, a major tax switch from our over-reliance on personal income tax to putting more of the tax burden on indirect tax. This is a change many tax experts advocate.

    Despite the hype around the pre-roundtable discussion of broad tax reform, what appears likely to find favour with the government are tax changes affecting wealth (but excluding the family home) and the resources sector.

    It remains unclear to what extent Chalmers will seek to define the outcome beforehand. That is: will he, after reviewing the submissions, go into the roundtable with a firm idea of what he wants to get out of it, and then see how much he can get over the “consensus” line?

    Helpfully for everyone at the roundtable, the Productivity Commission is about to release a series of reports on various aspects of productivity, which will provide data and ideas.

    These cover economic resilience, improving workforce skills and adaptability, harnessing digital technology, improving care delivery, and investing in the net zero transformation.

    Meanwhile business, which felt it was made something of a patsy in the 2022 jobs and skills summit, with the government using that meeting to gain traction for what it already wanted to do, is being cautious this time.

    Even before the formal announcement of the roundtable, it set up a group following the government’s nomination of productivity as a central priority for this term. The umbrella body’s first meeting was attended by more than 20 groups representing businesses of all sizes, universities and the investment community. This body is ongoing. It includes the Business Council of Australia, the Australian Industry Group, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Minerals Council of Australia and the Council of Small Business Organisations.

    The umbrella body will put forward a suite of recommendations for the roundtable including on investment, innovation, reducing red tape, planning and approval processes, tax, education and employment.

    We now have the full list of roundtable participants. It’s interesting for who’s there and who’s not. Ken Henry, of the seminal Henry taxation report – of which Chalmers has vivid memories from his days as a staffer of former treasurer Wayne Swan – will be present. Henry last week gave a strong presentation at the National Press Club about the pressing need for reform of the environment protection regime.

    Also scoring an invitation is teal crossbencher Allegra Spender, who made tax reform one of her core issues last term. Spender is holding her own “tax reform roundtable” on Friday, with a who’s who of experts.

    But left off the Treasurer’s invitation list list was the Minerals Council of Australia. This despite the fact that tax changes in the resources area seem a ripe area for discussion.

    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. View from The Hill: How much can Jim Chalmers get out of the economic reform roundtable? – https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-how-much-can-jim-chalmers-get-out-of-the-economic-reform-roundtable-261095

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: South Africa’s police serve the ANC insiders, not the people: here’s how it happened

    Source: The Conversation – Africa (2) – By Ivor Chipkin, Professional Professor, GIBS, University of Pretoria

    After South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994, there was significant optimism about police reform in the country. Impressive steps were taken to bring the South African Police Service under civilian control and to create a service responsive to calls for assistance from the public.

    During the apartheid period, South Africa’s police worked to preserve the political order and pursue political opponents. It did not focus on dealing with crime. This is why the achievements of the 1990s are so important. For the first time, black South Africans could call upon officers to respond to personal emergencies. This period also saw a drop in crime levels.

    However, this promising early transformation was interrupted. The appointment of Jackie Selebi as national police commissioner in 2000 heralded a new era. Selebi was an African National Congress (ANC) insider. The ANC originated as a liberation movement and has governed the country since 1994.

    Selebi had served as the head of the ANC’s Youth League in the 1980s, when it was banned. In 1987 he was appointed to the organisation’s national executive committee, its highest decision-making organ.

    His appointment as police commissioner was the start of significant change in the purpose of policing. It marked the end of the focus on civilian control of the police force and prosecuting authorities. As an ANC insider, Selebi led efforts to establish party control over the police.

    This politicisation gained momentum over the next two decades. In the early years it was exemplified by the suspension of the head of the National Prosecuting Authority, Advocate Vusi Pikoli,, by then president Thabo Mbeki, amid corruption allegations against Selebi himself.

    Other telling developments ensued. The Scorpions were disbanded in 2009 by acting president Kgalema Motlanthe. The unit’s job was to pursue high-profile cases against senior ANC politicians (among others).

    The police became increasingly entangled in the ANC’s internal political conflicts. At the same time the office of the national police commissioner experienced high turnover due to intense political manoeuvring. Between 2009 and 2022, there were seven national commissioners.

    Recent developments have once again brought the intermingling of police work and power battles in the ANC to the fore. In early July 2025, Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, the commissioner of police in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, made some startling claims. He called a press conference and, wearing camouflage uniform, he implicated the minister of police, Senzo Mchunu, together with the deputy national commissioner for crime detection, in a scheme to close down investigations into political assassinations in the province.

    President Cyril Ramaphosa rushed back from a meeting of the Brics countries in Brazil to attend to the matter. He announced that the police minister had been placed on leave with immediate effect. He also announced a judicial inquiry into the allegations.

    I have conducted research into South Africa’s security apparatus over the last decade. Based on this work, and new research forthcoming in the Journal of Southern African Studies done with Jelena Vidojevic, co-founder of the New South Institute, it is clear that elite contestation in the ANC is intensifying.

    In other words, the ability of internal party structures to manage gatekeeping is declining. Many of the people involved are indifferent or even hostile to South Africa’s democratic and constitutional order.

    As the ability of some political elites to access state resources through the party declines, some are linked with organised criminal networks. Organised crime has been on the edges of South African politics. It now risks taking a more central role.

    In this environment, the police service will often be the thin (blue) line between multiparty contestation according to constitutional rules and the criminalisation of politics in South Africa.

    The shift

    Large organisational changes within the police vividly illustrate this shift away from its core function.

    The Visible Policing programme was meant to meant to deter crime through patrols, checkpoints and roadblocks. But, instead, there was a steady decline in resource allocation. Employee numbers dropped between 2015 and 2021.

    Detective services and crime intelligence also experienced such declines.

    Conversely, employee numbers in the Protection and Security Services programme, responsible for providing bodyguards to politicians, increased sharply between 2014 and 2016.

    Evidence heard by the commission of inquiry into state capture suggested that some officers and budgets in the service were even used to supply President Jacob Zuma and other politicians with what amounted to a private militia.

    This reorientation of resources coincided with a rise in crime across the country, a decline in arrests by 24.5%, and a drop in the police’s efficacy in solving crimes.

    Furthermore, a politicised police leadership effectively stopped policing various categories of crime. This was particularly true of offences like fraud, corruption, and certain types of theft, and particularly when politically connected persons were involved.

    The state capture commission heard extensive evidence about the failure of the police to pursue politically sensitive investigations. Investigations into senior officials were frequently frustrated or impeded, and cases at state-owned enterprises were abandoned.

    This shows how police resources were actively redirected as weapons of elite competition, pursuing political enemies and protecting allies within the ruling party.

    Mkhwanazi’s claims, if substantiated, suggest that this political policing remains entrenched.

    What now?

    Ramaphosa has announced the appointment of Firoz Cachalia as the acting minister of police. Cachalia, a well regarded legal academic, served as ANC minister for community safety. Between 2019 and 2022 he was part of the ANC’s national executive committee.

    His appointment raises serious questions.

    If the core problem with the police is that it has become embroiled in ANC internal politics, having an ANC insider head the ministry of police (even if only on an acting basis) threatens only to compound the problem.

    Moreover, South Africans have already witnessed a long and expensive judicial inquiry into state capture. And despite extensive evidence of police failure to pursue politically sensitive investigations, nothing concrete has come of it.

    How likely is it that this new initiative will be any different, especially if those investigating it and presiding over key institutions are themselves ANC insiders?

    To depoliticise the police service and redirect its attention and activities towards crime and emergencies, a crucial first step is to reconsider the appointment processes for the national police commissioner and other top managers.

    Under the current system the president has sole discretion. This bakes party-political considerations into the decision-making process.

    Without structural changes, genuine democratic policing will remain an elusive ideal.

    In 2024/25 the murder rate in South Africa stood at 42 per 100,000, among the highest in the world and close to levels not seen since the early 2000s.

    At the very least, the minister of police must not be an ANC insider. Democratic renewal in South Africa requires bringing the police firmly under parliamentary control.

    Ivor Chipkin teaches public policy at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) at the University of Pretoria. He is the director of the New South Institute.

    – ref. South Africa’s police serve the ANC insiders, not the people: here’s how it happened – https://theconversation.com/south-africas-police-serve-the-anc-insiders-not-the-people-heres-how-it-happened-261301

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Israeli settlers beat to death 2 Palestinians in latest lynchings

    BEARING WITNESS: By Cole Martin in occupied West Bank

    Two young Palestinians were beaten to death on their land by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank on Friday.

    A funeral was held on Sunday for Sayfollah “Saif” Mussalet, 20, and Muhammad Shalabi, 23, who were brutally killed by a large group of settlers in an attack that left more than 30 other Palestinians injured.

    Mussalet died from his wounds as settlers attacked medical responders, and Shalabi’s body was recovered later that evening, having reportedly bled to death from a gunshot wound while ambulances and rescuers were blocked by Israeli military.

    Settlers continued to roam the Palestinian farmland freely for hours.

    Both young men were from the neighbouring Mazra’a Sharqiya village, and Saif was an American citizen visiting loved ones and friends over summer. His family released a statement calling his death an “unimaginable nightmare and an injustice that no family should ever have to face”.

    They said he was a “beloved member of his community . . . a brother and a son [and] a kind, hard-working, and deeply-respected young man.”

    Saif built a widely-loved business in Tampa, Florida, and was known for his generosity, ambition, and connection to his Palestinian heritage.

    Following news of his death an overwhelming number of locals gathered at his store to share their grief and anger.

    Frequent atrocities
    Such lynchings have become a frequent atrocity across the West Bank, as settler gangs are repeatedly emboldened by the Israeli government, police, and military who protect and often facilitate violence against Palestinian communities.

    Two settlers were reportedly detained following the attacks, but released again within hours.

    Between 2005-2020, 91 percent of Palestinian cases filed with police were closed without indictment, according to the Israeli human rights organisation B’tselem, and settlers undergo trial with full legal rights and higher lenience in Israeli civil courts.

    By contrast, Palestinians are tried in Israeli military courts, established in violation of the fourth Geneva Convention and largely considered corrupt for maintaining a 95 percent conviction rate (Military Court Watch).

    Additionally, more than 3600 Palestinians are currently held in Israeli captivity without charge or trial, with all detainees facing an increase in documented physical, psychological, and sexual abuse — including children.

    A funeral was held for the young men on Sunday in Mazra’a Sharqiya village, with thousands in attendance. The killings continue a systemic pattern which alongside military incursions, has seen 153 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank since the beginning of 2025 (OCHA).

    UN resolution
    A UN resolution last September reaffirmed the illegality of Israel’s presence in the occupied Palestinian territories, demanding a total and unconditional withdrawal within a year.

    Ten months on, settler attacks have escalated in frequency and severity, settlement expansion has rapidly increased, and numerous Palestinian villages have been forcibly displaced after months of sustained violence.

    Communities across the West Bank are facing erasure, and as the death toll climbs pressure continues to grow for the New Zealand government to enforce stronger political sanctions, including the entire opposition uniting behind the Green Party’s Unlawful Occupation of Palestine Sanctions Bill.

    Cole Martin is an independent New Zealand photojournalist based in the Middle East and a contributor to Asia Pacific Report.

    Mourners pay their respects to the two young Palestinians killed by illegal settlers. Image: Cole Martin

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Gaza: Empty rhetoric from New Zealand and other Western countries

    In a joint statement, more than two dozen Western countries, including New Zealand, have called for an immediate end to the war on Gaza. But the statement is merely empty rhetoric that declines to take any concrete action against Israel, and which Israel will duly ignore. 

    AGAINST THE CURRENT: By Steven Cowan

    The New Zealand government has joined 27 other countries calling for an “immediate end” to the war in Gaza. The joint statement says  “the suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths”.

    It goes on to say that the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food.

    But many of the countries that have signed this statement stand condemned for actively enabling Israel to pursue its genocidal assault on Gaza. Countries like Britain, Canada and Australia, continue to supply Israel with arms, have continued to trade with Israel, and have turned a blind eye to the atrocities and war crimes Israel continues to commit in Gaza.

    It’s more than ironic that while Western countries like Britain and New Zealand are calling for an end to the war in Gaza, they continue to be hostile toward the anti-war protest movements in their own countries.

    The British government recently classified the protest group Palestine Action as a “terrorist” group.

    In New Zealand, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Winston Peters, has denounced pro-Palestine protesters as “left wing fascists” and “communist, fascist and anti-democratic losers”. He has pushed back against the growing demands that the New Zealand government take direct action against Israel, including the cutting of all diplomatic ties.

    The New Zealand government, which contains a number of Zionists within its cabinet, including Act leader David Seymour and co-leader Brooke van Velden, will be more than comfortable with a statement that proposes to do nothing.

    ‘Statement lacks leadership’
    Its call for an end to the war is empty rhetoric, and which Israel will duly ignore — as it has ignored other calls for its genocidal war to end.  As Amnesty International has said, ‘the statement lacks any resolve, leadership, or action to help end the genocide in Gaza.’

    “This is cruelty – this is not a war,” says this young girl’s placard quoting the late Pope Francis in an Auckland march last Saturday . . . this featured in an earlier report. Image: Asia Pacific Report

    New Zealand has declined to join The Hague Group alliance of countries that recently met in Colombia.

    It announced six immediate steps it would be taking against Israel. But since The Hague Group has already been attacked by the United States, it’s never been likely that New Zealand would join it.

    The National-led coalition government has surrendered New Zealand’s independent foreign policy in favour of supporting the interests of a declining American Empire.

    Republished from Steven Cowan’s blog Against The Current with permission.

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: COVID, flu, RSV: how these common viruses are tracking this winter – and how to protect yourself

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Esterman, Professor of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, University of South Australia

    nimis69/Getty Images

    Winter is here, and with it come higher rates of respiratory illnesses. If you’ve been struck down recently with a sore throat, runny nose and a cough, or perhaps even a fever, you’re not alone.

    Last week, non-urgent surgeries were paused in several Queensland hospitals due to a surge of influenza and COVID cases filling up hospital beds.

    Meanwhile, more than 200 aged care facilities around Australia are reportedly facing COVID outbreaks.

    So, just how bad are respiratory infections this year, and which viruses are causing the biggest problems?

    COVID

    Until May, COVID case numbers were about half last year’s level, but June’s 32,348 notifications are closing the gap (compared with 45,634 in June 2024). That said, we know far fewer people test now than they did earlier in the pandemic, so these numbers are likely to be an underestimate.

    According to the latest Australian Respiratory Surveillance Report, Australia now appears to be emerging from a winter wave of COVID cases driven largely by the NB.1.8.1 subvariant, known as “Nimbus”.

    Besides classic cold-like symptoms, this Omicron offshoot can reportedly cause particularly painful sore throats as well as gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea and diarrhoea.

    While some people who catch COVID have no symptoms or just mild ones, for many people the virus can be serious. Older adults and those with chronic health issues remain at greatest risk of experiencing severe illness and dying from COVID.

    Some 138 aged care residents have died from COVID since the beginning of June.

    The COVID booster currently available is based on the JN.1 subvariant. Nimbus is a direct descendant of JN.1 – as is another subvariant in circulation, XFG or “Stratus” – which means the vaccine should remain effective against current variants.

    Free boosters are available to most people annually, while those aged 75 and older are advised to get one every six months.

    Vaccination, as well as early treatment with antivirals, lowers the risk of severe illness and long COVID. People aged 70 and older, as well as younger people with certain risk factors, are eligible for antivirals if they test positive.

    Influenza

    The 2025 flu season has been unusually severe. From January to May, total case numbers were 30% higher than last year, increasing pressure on health systems.

    More recent case numbers seem to be trending lower than 2024, however we don’t appear to have reached the peak yet.

    Flu symptoms are generally more severe than the common cold and may include high fever, chills, muscle aches, fatigue, sore throat and a runny or blocked nose.

    Most people recover in under a week, but the flu can be more severe (and even fatal) in groups including older people, young children and pregnant women.

    An annual vaccination is available for free to children aged 6 months to 4 years, pregnant women, those aged 65+, and other higher-risk groups.

    Queensland and Western Australia provide a free flu vaccine for all people aged 6 months and older, but in other states and territories, people not eligible for a free vaccine can pay (usually A$30 or less) to receive one.

    RSV

    The third significant respiratory virus, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), only became a notifiable disease in 2021 (before this doctors didn’t need to record infections, meaning data is sparse).

    Last year saw Australia’s highest case numbers since RSV reporting began. By May, cases in 2025 were lower than 2024, but by June, they had caught up: 27,243 cases this June versus 26,596 in June 2024. However it looks as though we may have just passed the peak.

    RSV’s symptoms are usually mild and cold-like, but it can cause serious illness such as bronchiolitis and pneumonia. Infants, older people, and people with chronic health conditions are among those at highest risk. In young children, RSV is a leading cause of hospitalisation.

    A free vaccine is now available for pregnant women, protecting infants for up to six months. A monoclonal antibody (different to a vaccine but also given as an injection) is also available for at-risk children up to age two, especially if their mothers didn’t receive the RSV vaccine during pregnancy.

    For older adults, two RSV vaccines (Arexvy and Abrysvo) are available, with a single dose recommended for everyone aged 75+, those over 60 at higher risk due to medical conditions, and all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 60+.

    Unfortunately, these are not currently subsidised and cost about $300. Protection lasts at least three years.

    The common cold

    While viruses including COVID, RSV and influenza dominate headlines, we often overlook one of the most widespread – the common cold.

    The common cold can be caused by more than 200 different viruses – mainly rhinoviruses but also some coronaviruses, adenoviruses and enteroviruses.

    Typical symptoms include a runny or blocked nose, sore throat, coughing, sneezing, headache, tiredness and sometimes a mild fever.

    Children get about 6–8 colds per year while adults average 2–4, and symptoms usually resolve in a week. Most recover with rest, fluids, and possibly over-the-counter medications.

    Because so many different viruses cause the common cold, and because these constantly mutate, developing a vaccine has been extremely challenging. Researchers continue to explore solutions, but a universal cold vaccine remains elusive.

    How do I protect myself and others?

    The precautions we learned during the COVID pandemic remain valid. These are all airborne viruses which can be spread by coughing, sneezing and touching contaminated surfaces.

    Practise good hygiene, teach children proper cough etiquette, wear a high-quality mask if you’re at high risk, and stay home to rest if unwell.

    You can now buy rapid antigen tests (called panel tests) that test for influenza (A or B), COVID and RSV. So, if you’re unwell with a respiratory infection, consider testing yourself at home.

    While many winter lurgies can be trivial, this is not always the case. We can all do our bit to reduce the impact.

    Adrian Esterman receives funding from the Medical Research Future Fund.

    – ref. COVID, flu, RSV: how these common viruses are tracking this winter – and how to protect yourself – https://theconversation.com/covid-flu-rsv-how-these-common-viruses-are-tracking-this-winter-and-how-to-protect-yourself-261383

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: South Australia’s algal bloom may shrink over winter – but this model suggests it will spread to new areas in summer

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jochen Kaempf, Associate Professor of Natural Sciences (Oceanography), Flinders University

    South Australia is desperate for help to tackle an unprecedented harmful algal bloom that has decimated marine life up and down the coast. While the extent of the damage is still unknown, my preliminary research suggests there’s no end in sight. It may just get better over winter before it gets worse next summer.

    The Karenia mikimotoi bloom first appeared in March on two surf beaches outside Gulf St Vincent, about an hour south of Adelaide. It has since spread, killing all kinds of marine organisms – from crabs and small fish to sharks and rays. Only the neighbouring Spencer Gulf, far west coast and southeast coasts have been spared. For now.

    In preliminary research now undergoing peer review, I have predicted the bloom’s future spread using a new computer model. In the worst-case scenario, the harmful algal bloom would reach the Spencer Gulf and spread – from Port Lincoln to Whyalla and across to Port Pirie – next summer and autumn. That would be extremely bad news for the thriving seafood, aquaculture and tourism industries. They may need help to prepare.

    Some help is on the way. Federal Environment Minister Murray Watt yesterday announced A$14 million in federal funding. SA Premier Peter Malinauskas convened an Emergency Management Cabinet Committee meeting today and signed off on a $28 million support package.

    The worst-case scenario forecasts high concentrations of K. mikimotoi in both South Australian gulfs next April.
    Jochen Kaempf

    A rolling disaster

    The algal bloom was first noticed when dozens of surfers and beachgoers on the southern coast of the Fleurieu Peninsula fell ill after exposure to seawater in March.

    Soon, dangerous sea foam appeared. Then the killing began in earnest. Many marine species started washing up dead or dying.

    The bloom began to spread. In mid-April, K. mikimotoi was detected in water samples from Edithburgh and Coobowie on the southeastern corner of Yorke Peninsula.

    In early May, the Kangaroo Island Council announced the bloom had spread across the Investigator Strait affecting the island’s northern coastline.

    Wild weather in June pushed the bloom through the Murray Mouth into the Coorong.

    By July, the state government had detected K. mikimotoi along Adelaide’s metropolitan coastline. Videos of fish kills near the Ardrossan Jetty in the northern Gulf St Vincent also emerged.

    So far, the bloom has not been detected in Spencer Gulf. But my modelling suggests it’s only a matter of time.

    Predicting the future

    I was the first to discover the seasonal upwelling of nutrients in several regions along SA’s southern coastal shelf. This nutrient source fuels the marine food chain. It’s a big part of the reason why the marine life in our Great Southern Australian Coastal Upwelling System is so diverse.

    I also simulated the ocean currents in South Australian gulfs using computer models as early as 2009.

    I have now developed a computer model to predict where the algae will spread next.

    Preliminary results from this research have been submitted to the journal Continental Shelf Research and are being reviewed. But given the speed at which this situation is developing, it’s worth sharing a preprint of this manuscript.

    My model matches what’s known about the early spread of the bloom. It began in the coastal waters of the southern Fleurieu Peninsula. It then invaded Investigator Strait, between the Yorke Peninsula and Kangaroo Island, before slowly spreading in a clockwise circulation across the wider Gulf St Vincent.

    When the model is used to forecast how the algae bloom will evolve, the story becomes deeply concerning.

    It predicts the algal bloom will weaken over this winter, as the growth rate will slow in cooler water. In my model, the algae had already invaded the lower Spencer Gulf in May 2025 but at very low concentrations.

    Then, in the worst-case scenario of high growth rates and nothing stopping it, the model predicts the bloom will affect both gulfs – Gulf St Vincent and Spencer Gulf – and Investigator Strait, with severe conditions predicted for the coming summer.

    A bloom in the Spencer Gulf could decimate stocks of Australian sardine in the lower gulf, and potentially also western king prawns and the giant Australian cuttlefish in the upper Spencer Gulf. Some research suggests algal growth may be limited in the hypersaline upper reaches of the gulfs, but the spread of the algae as far as Ardrossan indicates otherwise.

    Under the best-case scenario, the algae’s natural predator, zooplankton, would eat more of the algae, suppressing future flare-ups. So there is some hope, but more research is needed to better understand how zooplankton could control these algae.

    SA also needs to make continuous efforts to monitor K. mikimotoi concentrations. This includes analysis of water samples in both gulfs. It’s important to note satellite images only show the peak phase of the toxic algal bloom, and can be misleading as they also display other species including blooms of “good” algae.

    Fortunately, the $28 million support package includes $8.5 million for early detection and monitoring of harmful algal bloom species. This will involve real-time sensors (buoys), satellite imagery and oceanographic modelling. A new $2 million national testing laboratory will check for toxins, while $3 million will be spent on a rapid assessment of fish stocks and fisheries.

    But if the algae stick around, there may be little anyone can do to protect our marine environment.

    Jochen Kaempf 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. South Australia’s algal bloom may shrink over winter – but this model suggests it will spread to new areas in summer – https://theconversation.com/south-australias-algal-bloom-may-shrink-over-winter-but-this-model-suggests-it-will-spread-to-new-areas-in-summer-261549

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Here’s why 3-person embryos are a breakthrough for science – but not LGBTQ+ families

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jennifer Power, Principal Research Fellow, Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University

    Last week, scientists announced the birth of eight healthy babies in the United Kingdom conceived with DNA from three people. Some headlines have called it “three-person IVF”.

    The embryo uses the DNA from the egg and sperm of the intended father and mother, as well as cells from the egg of a second woman (the donor).

    This process – known as mitochondrial replacement therapy – allows women with certain genetic disorders to conceive a child without passing on their condition.

    While it’s raised broader questions about “three-parent” babies, it’s not so simple. Here’s why it’s unlikely this development will transform the diverse ways LGBTQ+ people are already making families.

    What this technology is – and isn’t

    The UK became the first country in the world to allow mitochondrial donation for three-person embryos ten years ago, in 2015.

    In other countries, such donations are banned or strictly controlled. In Australia, a staged approach to allow mitochondrial donation was introduced in 2022. Stage one will involve clinical trials to determine safety and effectiveness, and establish clear ethical guidelines for donations.

    These restrictions are based on political and ethical concerns about the use of human embryos for research, the unknown health impact on children, and the broader implications of allowing genetic modification of human embryos.

    There are also concerns about the ethical or legal implications of creating babies with “three parents”.

    Carefully and slowly considering these ethical issues is clearly important. But it’s inaccurate to suggest this process creates three parents.

    First, the amount of DNA the donor provides is tiny, only 0.1% of the baby’s DNA. The baby will not share any physical characteristics with the donor.

    While it is significant that two women’s DNA has been used in creating an embryo, it doesn’t mean lesbian couples will be rushing to access this particular in vitro fertilisation (IVF) technology.

    This technique is only used for people affected by mitochondrial disease and is closely regulated. It is not available more widely and in Australia, is not yet available even for this use.

    Second, while biological lineage is an important part of many people’s identity and sense of self, DNA alone does not make a parent.

    As many adoptive, foster and LGBTQ+ parents will attest, parenting is about love, connection and everyday acts of care for a child.

    How do rainbow families use IVF?

    Existing IVF is already expensive and medically invasive. Many fertility services offer a range of additional treatments purported to aid fertility, but extra interventions add more costs and are not universally recommended by doctors.

    While many lesbian couples and single women use fertility services to access donor sperm, not everyone will need to use IVF.

    Less invasive fertilisation techniques, such as intrauterine insemination, may be available for women without fertility problems. This means inserting sperm directly into the uterus, rather than fertilising an egg in a clinic and then implanting that embryo.

    Same-sex couples who have the option to create a baby with a sperm donor they know – rather than from a register – may also choose home-based insemination, the proverbial turkey baster. This is a cheaper and more intimate way to conceive and many women prefer a donor who will have some involvement in their child’s life.

    In recent years, “reciprocal” IVF has also grown in popularity among lesbian couples. This means an embryo is created using one partner’s egg, and the other partner carries it.

    Reciprocal IVF’s popularity suggests biology does play a role for LGBTQ+ women in conceiving a baby. When both mothers share a biological connection to the child, it may help overcome stigmatisation of “non-birth” mothers as less legitimate.

    But biology is by no means the defining feature of rainbow families.

    LGBTQ+ people are already parents

    The 2021 census showed 17% of same-sex couples had children living with them; among female same-sex couples it was 28%. This is likely an underestimate, as the census only collects data on couples that live together.

    Same-sex couples often conceive children using donor sperm or eggs, and this may involve surrogacy. But across the LGBTQ+ community, there are diverse ways people become parents.

    Same-sex couples are one part of the LGBTQ+ community. Growing numbers of trans and non-binary people are choosing to carry a baby (as gestational parents), as well as single parents who use donors or fertility services. Many others conceive children through sex, including bi+ people or others who conceive within a relationship.

    While LGBTQ+ people can legally adopt children in Australia, adoption is not common. However, many foster parents are LGBTQ+.

    When they donate eggs or sperm to others, some LGBTQ+ people may stay involved in the child’s life as a close family friend or co-parent.

    Connection and care, not DNA

    While mitochondrial replacement therapy is a remarkable advance in gene technology, it is unlikely to open new pathways to parenthood for LGBTQ+ people in Australia.

    Asserting the importance of families based on choice – not biology or what technology is available – has been crucial to the LGBTQ+ community’s story and to rainbow families’ fight to be recognised.

    Decades of research now shows children raised by same-sex couples do just as well as any other child. What matters is parents’ consistency, love and quality of care.

    Jennifer Power receives funding from the Australian Department of Health, Disability and Aged Care and the Australian Research Council.

    – ref. Here’s why 3-person embryos are a breakthrough for science – but not LGBTQ+ families – https://theconversation.com/heres-why-3-person-embryos-are-a-breakthrough-for-science-but-not-lgbtq-families-261462

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Eugene Doyle: Nagasaki now a celebration of Israeli genocide

    Report by Dr David Robie – Café Pacific. –

    COMMENTARY: By Eugene Doyle

    Israel’s key enablers, the G7, plus Australia and New Zealand, have succeeded in muscling Israel back onto the invite list for the commemorations in Nagasaki on August 9.

    Last year Israel was excluded, triggering a refusal by these countries to attend in 2024.

    Does the “personal” invitation that Nagasaki has just sent to Israel represent a triumph of Western diplomacy or a sick joke?

    You know who your mates are when you’re committing genocide
     As I wrote at the time, the boycott by the powerful white-dominated Western nations was a stunning “Fuck you” to the Hibakusha, the last few survivors of the US’s 1945 nuclear attack.

    More importantly it was as clear a statement of collective commitment to Israel’s war on Palestine as you could possibly wish for.  You really find out who your true mates are when you’re committing genocide.

    At the time, Shigemitsu Tanaka, the 83-year-old head of the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Survivors Council, said he supported the move to keep the Israelis away from the commemorations, saying it was inappropriate to invite representatives from countries waging armed conflicts in defiance of calls from the international community.

    Israel’s invitation is a triumph of Western pressure
     A year later, the City buckled under pressure and has personally invited the Israelis.

    “After Israel was excluded last year over the Gaza war, Nagasaki’s mayor is avoiding renewed diplomatic tensions — especially following a clear message from the US,” Israel’s influential news site Ynet reported this month.

    It is a triumph for Netanyahu and his government, cause for celebration in Tel Aviv, but diminishes the nobility of an event that was created with the explicit intention to say Never Again and to remind the world of the indefensible criminality of attacks on defenceless civilian populations.

    Nagasaki and the Boycott Israel campaign
     Israel goes to incredible lengths to break efforts to impose BDS (Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions) and so Nagasaki had to be brought to heel.  July 2025 marked the 20th anniversary of the founding of BDS, a non-violent campaign designed to hold Israel accountable for its crimes and apply real-world pressure for the state to change course.

    BDS is potentially a game-changer which is why Israeli government ministers routinely make threats of physical violence against leading BDS activists.

    Israel Katz, currently the Israeli Defence Minister, is on record as calling for Israel to engage in “targeted civil eliminations” of BDS leaders with the help of Israeli intelligence.

    70,000 tons of bombs on Gaza – and Israel is invited to a peace ceremony
     Think for a moment what the presence of Israel at this year’s event represents as an astonishing piece of semiology.  A state that is actively committing the crime of crimes, genocide, sitting alongside the Hibakusha.

    They won’t be the only war criminals in attendance. American, German, and British bombs have levelled the tiny enclave of Gaza.  More of their bombs — 70,000 tons and climbing — have been used to massacre Palestinians in Gaza than were used in the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (36,000 tons), the fire bombings of Tokyo (1,665 tons) and Dresden (3,900 tons), and the London Blitz (19,000 tons) combined. And it is happening on our watch.

    Another piece of astonishing optics: less than two months ago the US and Israel bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities, doing so with no UN mandate but only their position as powerful, lawless states.

    Their actions dramatically raise the prospect of Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and others deciding they need nuclear weapons as deterrence.  What look will the US and Israeli ambassadors cast over their faces as the Mayor of Nagasaki delivers the message of “Nagasaki’s wish for the establishment of lasting world peace and the abolition of nuclear weapons?”

    Is the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize the next to be trashed?
     Talking of tone deaf and morally repellent, Donald Trump has been openly lobbying to receive the Nobel Peace Prize despite having killed thousands of people and bombed multiple countries this year.

    Interestingly, the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize winner was Nihon Hidankyo (Japan’s Atomic Bomb Survivors Organisation).

    In his acceptance speech last year, Terumi Tanaka, one of the co-chairpersons of Nihon Hidankyo, said that the organisation was created in 1956 “to demand the immediate abolition of nuclear weapons, as extremely inhumane weapons of mass killing, which must not be allowed to coexist with humanity”.

    New Zealand is a genocide enabler.  What happened to our soft power?
     As a New Zealander I am deeply ashamed of my country for having refused to attend last year’s ceremony and for its criminal complicity with Israel today. New Zealand’s tragic trajectory from humanitarian champions and nuclear-free pioneers to racist genocide enablers is captured in all its horror in this month’s Nagasaki commemorations.

    New Zealand, the country that went to the brink of civil war in 1981 to stop sporting contact with Apartheid South Africa is now a fully-paid up member of Apartheid Israel’s war on Palestine.

    Everywhere our government is tearing down the pillars built by decades of struggle in New Zealand. The anti-nuclear policy, the anti-apartheid victories, the non-aligned foreign policies, the sacred principles of partnership between indigenous Māori and the Pākehā (those who settled from Europe and elsewhere) are all being shredded.

    We refuse to recognise Palestine, we refuse to join South Africa’s case against Israel at the ICJ, we refuse to join the Hague Group which is mobilising countries to make those responsible for the genocide accountable and to shoulder state-level responsibility for forcing the end to it.

    But we mobilise to get Israel invited to the Nagasaki peace events.

    From Auschwitz to Nagasaki to Gaza: whatever happened to Never Again? Whatever happened to our decency?

    The Australian journalist Caitlin Johnstone wrote this month “If you’re still supporting Israel in the year 2025, there’s something seriously wrong with you as a person.”  That goes triple for governments.

    Eugene Doyle is a writer based in Wellington. He has written extensively on the Middle East, as well as peace and security issues in the Asia Pacific region. He contributes to Asia Pacific Report and Café Pacific, and hosts the public policy platform solidarity.co.nz

    This article was first published on Café Pacific.

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: ER Report: A Roundup of Significant Articles on EveningReport.nz for July 22, 2025

    ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on July 22, 2025.

    New study finds the gender earnings gap could be halved if we reined in the long hours often worked by men
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lyndall Strazdins, Professor, Australian National University asylun/Shutterstock There are lots of reasons why people work extra hours. In some jobs, it’s the only way to cover the workload. In others, the pay is poor, so people need to work extra time. And in others still, working back

    New study finds the gender earnings gap could be halved if we reined in the long hours often worked by men
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lyndall Strazdins, Professor, Australian National University asylun/Shutterstock There are lots of reasons why people work extra hours. In some jobs, it’s the only way to cover the workload. In others, the pay is poor, so people need to work extra time. And in others still, working back

    Sky TV to buy channel Three owner Discovery NZ for $1
    By Anan Zaki, RNZ News business reporter Sky TV has agreed to fully acquire TV3 owner Discovery New Zealand for $1. Discovery NZ is a part of US media giant Warner Bros Discovery, and operates channel Three and online streaming platform ThreeNow. NZX-listed Sky said the deal would be completed on a cash-free, debt-free basis,

    Suffering in Gaza reaches ‘new depths’ – Australia condemns ‘inhumane killing’ of Palestinians
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amra Lee, PhD candidate in Protection of Civilians, Australian National University Australia has joined 28 international partners in calling for an immediate end to the war in Gaza and a lifting of all restrictions on food and medical supplies. Foreign Minister Penny Wong, along with counterparts from

    As female independent MPs descend on parliament, they’re fulfilling the dreams of women across history
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Chappell, Post Doctoral Research, University of New England Australia’s 48th parliament has a record 112 women members. Ten of those women are independents. As they take their seats in the chamber, they’ll be realising the aspirations of some of Australia’s first suffragists who, more than a

    Are screenwriters paid for a product or a service? The definition matters for their workplace rights
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Goodwin, Lecturer in Arts Management and Human Resources, The University of Melbourne Vitaly Gariev/Unsplash The film and television sector in Australia employs over 26,000 workers and generated more than A$4.5 billion in income in 2021–22. TV dramas generate a large part of this revenue. Australian screen

    NZ and allies condemn ‘inhumane’, ‘horrifying’ killings in Gaza and ‘drip feeding’ of aid
    RNZ News New Zealand has joined 24 other countries in calling for an end to the war in Gaza, and criticising what they call the inhumane killing of Palestinians. The countries — including Britain, France, Canada and Australia plus the European Union — also condemed the Israeli government’s aid delivery model in Gaza as “dangerous”.

    Everyone’s talking about the Perseid meteor shower – but don’t bother trying to see it in Australia or NZ
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland View of the 2023 Perseid meteor shower from the southernmost part of Sequoia National Forest, US. NASA/Preston Dyches In recent days, you may have seen articles claiming the “best meteor shower of the year” is about to start. Unfortunately,

    Pumped up with poison: new research shows many anabolic steroids contain toxic metals
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Piatkowski, Lecturer in Psychology, Griffith University MilosStankovic/Getty Images Eighteen-year-old Mark scrolls Instagram late at night, watching videos of fitness influencers showing off muscle gains and lifting the equivalent of a baby elephant off the gym floor. Spurred on by hashtags and usernames indicating these feats involve

    How EVs and electric water heaters are turning cities into giant batteries
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bin Lu, Senior Research Fellow in Renewable Energy, Australian National University Leonid Andronov/Shutterstock As the electrification of transport and heating accelerates, many worry the increased demand could overload national power grids. In Australia, electricity consumption is expected to double by 2050. If everyone charges their car and

    The end of open-plan classrooms: how school design reflects changing ideas in education
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Leon Benade, Professor in the School of Education of Edith Cowan University (ECU), Perth, WA, Edith Cowan University skynesher/Getty Imaged The end of open-plan classrooms in New Zealand, recently announced by Education Minister Erica Stanford, marks yet another swing of the pendulum in school design. Depending on

    Could Rupert Murdoch bring down Donald Trump? A court case threatens more than just their relationship
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dodd, Professor of Journalism, Director of the Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of Melbourne If Rupert Murdoch becomes a white knight standing up to a rampantly bullying US president, the world has moved into the upside-down. This is, after all, the media mogul whose US

    PBS and NPR are generally unbiased, independent of government propaganda and provide key benefits to US democracy
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephanie A. (Sam) Martin, Frank and Bethine Church Endowed Chair of Public Affairs, Boise State University Congress’ cuts to public broadcasting will diminish the range and volume of the free press and the independent reporting it provides. MicroStockHub-iStock/Getty Images Plus Champions of the almost entirely party-line vote

    Africa’s minerals are being bartered for security: why it’s a bad idea
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hanri Mostert, SARChI Chair for Mineral Law in Africa, University of Cape Town A US-brokered peace deal between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda binds the two African nations to a worrying arrangement: one where a country signs away its mineral resources to a superpower

    A popular sweetener could be damaging your brain’s defences, says recent study
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Havovi Chichger, Professor, Biomedical Science, Anglia Ruskin University Found in everything from protein bars to energy drinks, erythritol has long been considered a safe alternative to sugar. But new research suggests this widely used sweetener may be quietly undermining one of the body’s most crucial protective barriers

    Why has a bill to relax NZ foreign investment rules had so little scrutiny?
    ANALYSIS: By Jane Kelsey, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau While public attention has been focused on the domestic fast-track consenting process for infrastructure and mining, Associate Minister of Finance David Seymour has been pushing through another fast-track process — this time for foreign investment in New Zealand. But it has had almost no public

    PSNA calls on NZ to urgently condemn Israeli weaponisation of starvation
    Asia Pacific Report The Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa has called on the New Zealand government to immediately condemn Israel’s weaponisation of starvation and demand an end to the siege of Gaza. It has also called for a permanent ceasefire and unrestricted humanitarian access to the besieged enclave. “All political parties and elected officials must break

    Labor to put disclaimer under Mark Latham’s caucus room picture
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The picture of Mark Latham on the caucus room gallery of Labor leaders will have an annotation under it saying he was expelled for life and his actions do not accord with Labor values. The first meeting of the new

    Pacific leaders demand respectful involvement in memorial for unmarked graves
    By Mary Afemata, of PMN News and RNZ Pacific Porirua City Council is set to create a memorial for more than 1800 former patients of the local hospital buried in unmarked graves. But Pacific leaders are asking to be “meaningfully involved” in the process, including incorporating prayer, language, and ceremonial practices. More than 50 people

    Newspoll and Resolve give Labor big leads as parliament resumes after the election
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne With federal parliament to sit for the first time since the election on Tuesday, Newspoll gives Labor a 57–43 lead and Resolve a 56–44 lead. In Tasmania,

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Sky TV to buy channel Three owner Discovery NZ for $1

    By Anan Zaki, RNZ News business reporter

    Sky TV has agreed to fully acquire TV3 owner Discovery New Zealand for $1.

    Discovery NZ is a part of US media giant Warner Bros Discovery, and operates channel Three and online streaming platform ThreeNow.

    NZX-listed Sky said the deal would be completed on a cash-free, debt-free basis, with completion expected on August 1.

    Sky expected the deal to deliver revenue diversification and uplift of around $95 million a year.

    Sky expected Discovery NZ’s operations to deliver sustainable underlying earnings growth of at least $10 million from the 2028 financial year.

    Sky chief executive Sophie Moloney said it was a compelling opportunity for the company, with net integration costs of about $6.5 million.

    “This is a compelling opportunity for Sky that directly supports our ambition to be Aotearoa New Zealand’s most engaging and essential media company,” she said.

    Confidential advance notice
    Sky said it gave the Commerce Commission confidential advance notice of the transaction, and the commission did not intend to consider the acquisition further.

    Warner Bros Discovery Australia and NZ managing director Michael Brooks said it was a “fantastic outcome” for both companies.

    “The continued challenges faced by the New Zealand media industry are well documented, and over the past 12 months, the Discovery NZ team has worked to deliver a new, more sustainable business model following a significant restructure in 2024,” Brooks said.

    “While this business is not commercially viable as a standalone asset in WBD’s New Zealand portfolio, we see the value Three and ThreeNow can bring to Sky’s existing offering of complementary assets.”

    Sky said on completion, Discovery NZ’s balance sheet would be clear of some long-term obligations, including property leases and content commitments, and would include assets such as the ThreeNow platform.

    Sky said irrespective of the transaction, the company was confident of achieving its 30 cents a share dividend target for 2026.

    ‘Massive change’ for NZ media – ThreeNews to continue
     Founder of The Spinoff and media commentator Duncan Greive said the deal would give Sky more reach and was a “massive change” in New Zealand’s media landscape.

    He noted Sky’s existing free-to-air presence via Sky Open (formerly Prime), but said acquiring Three gave it the second-most popular audience outlet on TV.

    “Because of the inertia of how people use television, Three is just a much more accessible channel and one that’s been around longer,” Greive said.

    “To have basically the second-most popular channel in the country as part of their stable just means they’ve got a lot more ad inventory, much bigger audiences.”

    It also gave Sky another outlet for their content, and would allow it to compete further against TVNZ, both linear and online, Greive said.

    He said there may be a question mark around the long-term future of Three’s news service, which was produced by Stuff.

    No reference to ThreeNews
    Sky made no reference to ThreeNews in its announcement. However, Stuff confirmed ThreeNews would continue for now.

    “Stuff’s delivery of ThreeNews is part of the deal but there are also now lots of new opportunities ahead that we are excited to explore together,” Stuff owner Sinead Boucher said in a statement.

    On the deal itself, Boucher said she was “delighted” to see Three back in New Zealand ownership under Sky.

    “And who doesn’t love a $1 deal!” Boucher said, referring to her own $1 deal to buy Stuff from Australia’s Nine Entertainment in 2020.

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

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: New study finds the gender earnings gap could be halved if we reined in the long hours often worked by men

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lyndall Strazdins, Professor, Australian National University

    asylun/Shutterstock

    There are lots of reasons why people work extra hours. In some jobs, it’s the only way to cover the workload. In others, the pay is poor, so people need to work extra time. And in others still, working back late or on weekends is encouraged and rewarded, explicitly and implicitly.

    Those employees who do the extra hours, willingly and without complaint, are seen as hungry and ambitious. A view expressed in some workplaces is simply “that’s what everyone does”.

    But what if we discovered that people – at least in heterosexual couple households – can only work long hours at their partner’s expense? Would it still be OK for workplaces to expect people to work longer than our standard full time week, and incentivise them for doing so?

    Our study, published this month in the journal Social Indicators Research, found in Australian couple households where both partners had jobs, men earned on average $536 more than women every week. In Germany, the weekly gender earnings gap was €400.

    About half of that income gap in both Australia and Germany was due to men working long hours and women effectively subsidising them to do this by cutting back their own work hours.

    It’s tough to combine a job with running a household, but one person working extra hours makes this almost impossible. In households, a job with long work hours means someone else must pick up the rest. This includes caring for kids, running the house, walking the dog, cooking dinner and more.

    What happens when one partner has to pick up the rest

    One in three Australian employees care for children, and 13% of part-time and 11% of all full-time employees give care to someone else, often an ageing parent. This has knock-on effects which are impacting many people in our workforce. The extra hours don’t come out of nowhere, but they have been invisible in what we think of as fair.

    In our study, we costed this knock-on in terms of earnings and work hours gaps in households, and what this could mean for equality of income.

    We studied between 3,000 and 6,000 heterosexual couples from 2002 to 2019 in Australia and in Germany, estimating their weekly earnings and work hour gaps.

    To understand the dynamics in the household, we used a two-stage instrumental variable Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition – a method that allowed us to model earnings gaps as a function of both partners’ paid and unpaid hours. This helped us estimate what the gender gap in hours and earnings would look like if time weren’t being “borrowed” or “subsidised” within the home.

    Changing the hours men and women work

    The results were striking. We showed how one partner’s paid work hours can increase when the other partner does more unpaid (household) work. This ability for partners to “trade” hours was one of the most important drivers of the work hour (and earning) gap.

    So we re-ran models and recalculated what hours a woman and a man would work if one partner wasn’t “subsidising” the other’s work hours. The model showed women would work more hours and men would work fewer when there was a more even split of home duties. The weekly work hour gap shrank to 5.1 hours in Australia (a 58% reduction) and 6.9 hours in Germany (a 47% reduction).

    The impact on earnings was just as significant. The gender earnings gap would shrink by 43% in Australia and 25% in Germany.

    The gender earnings and work hours gaps are well known, and these are not the only countries facing this problem. What hasn’t been shown before is how it works in households to drive gender inequality across the nation.

    The rest of the earnings gap is largely due to differences in pay across male and female industries and jobs, and the persistent gender pay gap in hourly pay.

    According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the average gender gap in hourly pay is 11.1%. This gap reflects the fact, hour for hour, women are generally paid less. The average weekly earnings gap is much larger at 26.4%.

    As things currently stand in Australia, women earn only three-quarters of what men do, a shortfall similar to that in (Germany).

    One part of the earnings gap is the gap in the hourly pay rate, but the other is the gap in how many hours are worked. We show how this would shrink if men worked hours that were closer to Australia’s legislated 38-hour week, and workplaces encouraged them to do so.

    Closing the gap

    If we stopped the time-shifting to partners that our culture of long working hours relies upon, we estimate that in a heterosexual couple, men’s hours would average closer to 41 a week, and women’s would increase to 36.

    We could change the long and short hour compromise that so many households have to face. This change could make a huge difference to gender inequality, and women would no longer carry such a large economic cost from their partner’s work.

    Maybe reining in excess hours should be the new focus for gender equality.

    Lyndall Strazdins has received funding from the Australian Research Council to undertake research on this topic.
    She has served as an expert witness on work hours and well-being for the State and Federal Court.

    Liana Leach receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the Medical Research Future Fund. She is a member of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU).

    Tinh Doan receives funding from the Australia ComCare and the Department of Health and Aged Care for other works that are not related to this article.

    – ref. New study finds the gender earnings gap could be halved if we reined in the long hours often worked by men – https://theconversation.com/new-study-finds-the-gender-earnings-gap-could-be-halved-if-we-reined-in-the-long-hours-often-worked-by-men-260815

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Could Rupert Murdoch bring down Donald Trump? A court case threatens more than just their relationship

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Andrew Dodd, Professor of Journalism, Director of the Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of Melbourne

    If Rupert Murdoch becomes a white knight standing up to a rampantly bullying US president, the world has moved into the upside-down.

    This is, after all, the media mogul whose US television network, Fox News, actively supported Donald Trump’s Big Lie about the 2020 presidential election result and paid out a US$787 million (about A$1.2 billion) lawsuit for doing so.

    It is also the network that supplied several members of Trump’s inner circle, including former Fox host, now controversial Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth.

    But that is where we are after Trump filed a writ on July 18 after Murdoch’s financial newspaper, The Wall Street Journal, published an article about a hand-drawn card Trump is alleged to have sent to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in 2003. The newspaper reported:

    A pair of small arcs denotes the woman’s breasts, and the future president’s signature is a squiggly “Donald” below her waist, mimicking pubic hair.

    The Journal said it has seen the letter but did not republish it. The letter allegedly concluded:

    Happy Birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret.

    The card was apparently Trump’s contribution to a birthday album compiled for Epstein by the latter’s partner Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence after being found guilty of sex trafficking in 2021.

    Trump was furious. He told his Truth Social audience he had warned Murdoch the letter was fake. He wrote, “Mr Murdoch stated that he would take care of it but obviously did not have the power to do so,” referring to Murdoch handing leadership of News Corporation to his eldest son Lachlan in 2023.



    Read more:
    How Rupert Murdoch helped create a monster – the era of Trumpism – and then lost control of it

    Trump is being pincered. On one side, The Wall Street Journal is a respected newspaper that speaks to literate, wealthy Americans who remain deeply sceptical about Trump’s radical initiative on tariffs, which it described in an editorial as “the dumbest trade war in history”.

    On the other side is the conspiracy theory-thirsty MAGA base who have been told for years that there was a massive conspiracy around Epstein’s apparent suicide in 2019 that included the so-called deep state, Democrat elites and, no doubt, the Clintons.

    Trump, who loves pro wrestling as well as adopting its garish theatrics, might characterise his lawsuit against Murdoch as a smackdown to rival Hulk Hogan vs Andre the Giant in the 1980s.

    To adopt wrestling argot, though, it is a rare battle between two heels.

    A friendship of powerful convenience

    Murdoch and Trump’s relationship is longstanding but convoluted. The key to understanding it is that both men are ruthlessly transactional.

    Exposure in Murdoch’s New York Post in the 1980s and ‘90s was crucial to building Trump’s reputation.

    Not that Murdoch particularly likes Trump. Yes, Murdoch attended his second inauguration, albeit in a back row behind the newly favoured big tech media moguls. He was also seen sitting in the Oval Office a few days later looking quite at home.

    But this was pure power-display politics, not the behaviour of a friend.

    Murdoch joined Trump in the Oval Office in February 2025.
    Anna Moneymaker/Getty

    Remember Murdoch’s derision on hearing Trump was considering standing for office before the 2016 election, and his promotion of Ron De Santis in the primaries before Trump’s second term. Murdoch’s political hero has always been Ronald Reagan. Trump has laid waste to the Republican Party of Reagan.

    Murdoch knows what the rest of sane America knows: Trump is downright weird, if not dangerous. This, of course, only makes Murdoch’s complicity in Trump’s rise to power, and Fox News’ continued boosterism of Trump, all the more appalling.

    But, in keeping with Murdoch’s relationship to power throughout his career, what he helps make, he also helps destroy. Perhaps now it’s Trump’s turn to be unmade. As a former Murdoch lieutenant told The Financial Times over the weekend:

    he’s testing out: Is Trump losing his base? And where do I need to be to stay in the heart of the base?

    And here is Murdoch’s great advantage, and his looming threat.

    A double-edged sword

    The advantage comes with the scope of Murdoch’s media empire, which operates like a federation of different mastheads, each with their own market and aspirations. While Fox News panders to the MAGA base, and The New York Post juices its New York audience, The Wall Street Journal speaks, and listens, to business. Each audience has different needs, meaning they’re often presented with the same news in very different ways, or sometimes different news entirely.

    Like a federation, though, News Corp uses its various operations to drive the type of change that affects all its markets.

    It might work like this. The Wall Street Journal breaks a story that’s so shocking it begins to chip away at MAGA’s unquestioning loyalty of Trump. This process is, of course, willingly aided by the rest of the media. The resulting groundswell eventually allows Fox News and the Post to tentatively follow their audiences into questioning, and then perhaps criticising, Trump.

    Fox News audiences could slowly begin to question Trump, or abandon the network entirely.
    NurPhoto/Getty

    The threat is that before that groundswell builds, Murdoch is seriously vulnerable to criticism from a still dominant Trump, who can turn conspiracy-prone audiences away from Fox News with just a social media post. Trump has already been busy doing just that, saying he is looking forward to getting Murdoch onto the witness stand for his lawsuit.

    If the Fox audience decides it’s the proprietor who’s behind this denigration of Trump, they may decide to boycott their own favoured media channel, even though Fox’s programming hasn’t yet started questioning Trump.

    The Murdochs’ fear of audience backlash was a major factor in Fox’s promulgation of the Big Lie after Trump’s defeat in 2020. The fear their audience might defect to Newsmax or some other right-wing media outfit is just as real today.

    History littered with fakery

    We also need to consider that Trump might be right. What if the letter is a fake?

    Murdoch has form when it comes to high-profile exposés that turn out to be fiction. Who can forget the Hitler Diaries in 1983, which we now know Murdoch knew were fake before he published.

    Think also of the Pauline Hanson photos, allegedly of her posing in lingerie, all of which were quickly proved to be fake after they were published by Murdoch’s Australian tabloids in 2009.

    There was also The Sun’s despicable and wilfully wrong campaign against Elton John in 1987 and the same paper’s continued denigration of the people of Liverpool following the Hillsborough stadium disaster in 1989.

    But while Murdoch’s News Corp has a history of confection and fakery, the Wall Street Journal has a reputation for straight reportage, albeit through a conservative lens. Since Murdoch bought it in 2007, it has been engaged in its own internal battle for editorial standards.

    Media rolling over

    What Trump won’t get from Murdoch is the same acquiescence he’s enjoyed from America’s ABC and CBS networks, which have both handed over tens of millions of dollars in defamation settlements following dubious claims by Trump about the nature of their coverage.



    Read more:
    ABC’s and CBS’s settlements with Trump are a dangerous step toward the commander in chief becoming the editor-in-chief

    In December 2024, ABC’s owner Disney settled and agreed to pay US$15 million (A$23 million) to Trump’s presidential library. The president sued after a presenter said Trump was found guilty of raping E. Jean Carroll.

    Trump had actually been found guilty by a jury in a civil trial of sexually abusing and defaming Carroll and was ordered to pay her US$5 million (A$7.6 million).

    CBS’ parent company, Paramount, did similarly after being sued by the president, agreeing in early July to settle and pay US$16 million (A$24.5 million) to Trump’s library. This was despite earlier saying the case was “completely without merit”.

    Beware the legal microscope

    From Trump’s viewpoint, two prominent media companies have been cowed. But his campaign against critical media doesn’t stop there.

    Last week, congress passed a bill cancelling federal funding for the country’s two public-service media outlets, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and National Public Radio (NPR).

    Also last week, CBS announced the cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s stridently critical comedy show, although CBS claims this is just a cost-cutting exercise and not about appeasing a bully in the White House.

    Presuming the reported birthday letter is real, Murdoch will not bend so easily. And that’s when it will be important to pay attention, because at some point Trump’s lawyers will advise him about the dangers of depositions and discovery: the legal processes that force parties to a dispute to reveal what they have and what they know.

    If the Epstein files do implicate Trump, the legal fight won’t last long and the media campaign against him will only intensify.

    Right now we have the spectre of Murdoch joining that other disaffected mogul, Elon Musk, in a moral crusade against Trump, the man they both helped make. The implications are head-spinning.

    As global bullies, the three of them probably deserve each other. But we, the public, surely deserve better than any of them.

    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. Could Rupert Murdoch bring down Donald Trump? A court case threatens more than just their relationship – https://theconversation.com/could-rupert-murdoch-bring-down-donald-trump-a-court-case-threatens-more-than-just-their-relationship-261532

    MIL OSI Analysis –

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

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Roy Ebel, PhD Candidate in Evolutionary Biology, Museums Victoria Research Institute

    Radiodensity heatmap of emerald tree monitors. Roy Ebel

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

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

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

    An essential organ

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    A cutting-edge technique

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Not just anatomical curiosity

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Pumped up with poison: new research shows many anabolic steroids contain toxic metals

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Timothy Piatkowski, Lecturer in Psychology, Griffith University

    MilosStankovic/Getty Images

    Eighteen-year-old Mark scrolls Instagram late at night, watching videos of fitness influencers showing off muscle gains and lifting the equivalent of a baby elephant off the gym floor.

    Spurred on by hashtags and usernames indicating these feats involve steroids, soon Mark is online, ordering his first “steroid cycle”. No script, no warnings, just vials in the mail and the promise of “gains”.

    A few weeks later, he’s posting progress shots and getting tagged as #MegaMark. He’s pleased. But what if I told you Mark was unknowingly injecting toxic chemicals?

    In our new research we tested products sold in Australia’s underground steroid market and found many were mislabelled or missing the expected steroid entirely.

    Even more concerning, several contained heavy metals such as lead, arsenic and cadmium. These substances are known to cause cancer, heart disease and organ failure.

    What are anabolic steroids, and who is using them?

    Anabolic steroids are synthetic drugs designed to mimic the effects of testosterone. Medical professionals sometimes prescribe them for specific health conditions (for example, hypogonadism, where the body isn’t making enough sex hormones). But they are more commonly taken by people looking to increase muscle size, improve athletic performance, or elevate feelings of wellbeing.

    In Australia, it’s illegal to possess steroids without a prescription. This offence can attract large fines and prison terms (up to 25 years in Queensland).

    Despite this, they’re widely available online and from your local “gym bro”. So it’s not surprising we’re seeing escalating use, particularly among young men and women.

    People usually take steroids as pills and capsules or injectable oil- or water-based products. But while many people assume these products are safe if used correctly, they’re made outside regulated settings, with no official quality checks.



    Read more:
    Get big or die trying: social media is driving men’s use of steroids. Here’s how to mitigate the risks

    Our research

    For this new study, we analysed 28 steroid products acquired from people all over Australia which they’d purchased either online or from peers in the gym. These included 16 injectable oils, ten varieties of oral tablets, and two “raw” powders.

    An independent forensic lab tested the samples for active ingredients, contaminants and heavy metals. We then compared the results against what people thought they were taking.

    More than half of the samples were mislabelled or contained the wrong drug. For example, one product labelled as testosterone enanthate (200mg/mL) contained 159mg/mL of trenbolone (a potent type of steroid) and no detectable testosterone. Oxandrolone (also known as “Anavar”, another type of steroid) tablets were sold claiming a strength of 10mg but actually contained 6.8mg, showing a disparity in purity.

    Just four products matched their expected compound and purity within a 5% margin.

    But the biggest concern was that all steroids we analysed were contaminated with some level of heavy metals, including lead, arsenic and cadmium.

    While all of the concentrations we detected were within daily exposure limits regarded as safe by health authorities, more frequent and heavier use of these drugs would quickly see people who use steroids exceed safe thresholds. And we know this happens.

    If consumed above safe limits, research suggests lead can damage the brain and heart. Arsenic is a proven carcinogen, having been linked to the development of skin, liver and lung cancers.

    People who use steroids often dose for weeks or months, and sometimes stack multiple drugs, so these metals would build up. This means long‑term steroid use could be quietly fuelling cognitive decline, organ failure, and even cancer.

    What needs to happen next?

    Heavy metals such as lead, arsenic and cadmium often contaminate anabolic steroid products because raw powders sourced from some manufacturers, particularly those in China, may be produced with poor quality control and impure starting materials. These metals can enter the supply chain during synthesis, handling, or from contaminated equipment and solvents, leading to their presence in the final products.

    Steroid use isn’t going away, so we need to address the potential health harms from these contaminants.

    While pill testing is now common at festivals for drugs such as ecstasy, testing anabolic steroids requires more complex chemical analysis that cannot be conducted on-site. Current steroid testing relies on advanced laboratory techniques, which limits availability mostly to specialised research programs such as those in Australia and Switzerland.

    We need to invest properly in a national steroid surveillance and testing network, which will give us data‑driven insights to inform targeted interventions.

    This should involve nationwide steroid testing programs integrated with needle‑and‑syringe programs and community health services which steroid-using communities are aware of and engage with.

    We also need to see peer‑led support through trusted programs to educate people who use steroids around the risks. The programs should be based in real evidence, and developed by people with lived experience of steroid use, in partnership with researchers and clinicians.

    Timothy Piatkowski receives funding from Queensland Mental Health Commission. He is affiliated with Queensland Injectors Voice for Advocacy and Action as the Vice President. He is affiliated with The Loop Australia as the research lead (Queensland).

    – ref. Pumped up with poison: new research shows many anabolic steroids contain toxic metals – https://theconversation.com/pumped-up-with-poison-new-research-shows-many-anabolic-steroids-contain-toxic-metals-261470

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Suffering in Gaza reaches ‘new depths’ – Australia condemns ‘inhumane killing’ of Palestinians

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Amra Lee, PhD candidate in Protection of Civilians, Australian National University

    Australia has joined 28 international partners in calling for an immediate end to the war in Gaza and a lifting of all restrictions on food and medical supplies.

    Foreign Minister Penny Wong, along with counterparts from countries including the United Kingdom, France and Canada, has signed a joint statement demanding Israel complies with its obligations under international humanitarian law.

    The statement condemns Israel for what it calls “the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians” seeking “their most basic need” of water and food, saying:

    The suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths. The Israeli government’s aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity […] It is horrifying that over 800 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid.

    Weapon of war

    Gazans, including malnourished mothers denied baby formula, face impossible choices as Israel intensifies its use of starvation as a weapon of war.

    In Gaza, survival requires negotiating what the United Nations calls aid “death traps”.

    According to the UN, 875 Gazans have been killed – many of them shot – while seeking food since the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation began operating in late May. Another 4,000 have been injured.

    More than 170 humanitarian groups have called for the food hubs to be shut down.

    Gaza has been described as the “hungriest place on Earth”, with aid trucks being held at the border and the United States destroying around 500 tonnes of emergency food because it was just out of date.

    More than two million people are at critical risk of famine. The World Food Programme estimates 90,000 women and children require urgent treatment for malnutrition.

    Nineteen Palestinians have starved to death in recent days, according to local health authorities.

    We can’t say we didn’t know

    After the breakdown of the January ceasefire, Israel implemented a humanitarian blockade on the Gaza Strip. Following mounting international pressure, limited aid was permitted and the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation began operations.

    As anticipated, only a fraction of the aid has been distributed.

    About 1,600 trucks entered Gaza between May 19 and July 14, well below the 630 trucks needed every day to feed the population.

    Israeli ministers have publicly called for food and fuel reserves to be bombed to starve the Palestinian people – a clear war crime – to pressure Hamas to release Israeli hostages.

    Famine expert Alex De Waal says Israel’s starvation strategy constitutes a dangerous weakening of international law. It also disrupts norms aimed at preventing hunger being used as a weapon of war:

    operations like the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation are a big crack in these principles [that is] not going to save Gaza from mass starvation.

    Palestinian organisations were the first to raise the alarm over Israel’s plans to impose controls over aid distribution.

    UN Relief Chief Tom Fletcher briefed the UN Security Council in May, warning of the world’s collective failure to call out the scale of violations of international law as they were being committed:

    Israel is deliberately and unashamedly imposing inhumane conditions on civilians in the occupied Palestinian territory.

    Tom Fletcher briefing the United Nations on the ‘atrocity’ being committed in Gaza.

    Since then, clear and unequivocal warnings of the compounding risks of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing have intensified from the UN, member states and international law experts.

    Weaponising aid

    The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation claims it has handed out millions of meals since it began operating in the strip in May. But the UN has called the distribution model “inherently unsafe”.

    Near-daily shootings have occurred since the militarised aid hubs began operating. Malnourished Palestinians risking death to feed their families are trekking long distances to reach the small number of distribution sites.

    While the foundation denies people are being shot, the UN has called the aid delivery mechanism a “deliberate attempt to weaponise aid” that fails to comply with humanitarian principles and risks further war crimes.

    Jewish Physicians for Human Rights has rejected the aid’s “humanitarian” characterisation, stating it “is what systematic harm to human beings looks like”.

    Human rights and legal organisations are calling for all involved to be held accountable for complicity in war crimes that “exposes all those who enable or profit from it to real risk of prosecution”.

    Mounting world action

    Today’s joint statement follows growing anger and frustration in Western countries over the lack of political pressure on Israel to end the suffering in Gaza.

    Polling in May showed more than 80% of Australians opposed Israel’s denial of aid as unjustifiable and wanted to see Australia doing more to support civilians in Gaza.

    Last week’s meeting of the Hague Group of nations shows more collective concrete action is being taken to exert pressure and uphold international law.

    Th 12 member states agreed to a range of diplomatic, legal and economic measures, including a ban on ships transporting arms to Israel.

    The time for humanity is now

    States will continue to face increased international and domestic pressure to take stronger action to influence Israel’s conduct as more Gazans are killed, injured and stripped of their dignity in an engineered famine.

    This moment in Gaza is unprecedented in terms of our knowledge of the scale and gravity of violations being perpetrated and what failing to act means for Palestinians and our shared humanity.

    Now is the time to exert diplomatic, legal and economic pressure on Israel to change course.

    History tells us we need to act now – international law and our collective moral conscience requires it.

    Amra Lee 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. Suffering in Gaza reaches ‘new depths’ – Australia condemns ‘inhumane killing’ of Palestinians – https://theconversation.com/suffering-in-gaza-reaches-new-depths-australia-condemns-inhumane-killing-of-palestinians-261547

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-Evening Report: As female independent MPs descend on parliament, they’re fulfilling the dreams of women across history

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Chappell, Post Doctoral Research, University of New England

    Australia’s 48th parliament has a record 112 women members. Ten of those women are independents.

    As they take their seats in the chamber, they’ll be realising the aspirations of some of Australia’s first suffragists who, more than a century ago, staunchly supported independent representation, but failed to gain traction at the ballot box.

    Our earliest female political aspirants, Catherine Spence in Adelaide, Rose Scott in Sydney and Vida Goldstein in Melbourne, eschewed party politics, believing significant social issues should transcend political boundaries.

    Recent close contests in the electorates of Bradfield and the eponymous Goldstein echoed the challenges of female independent candidates across time.

    Australia’ first female candidate

    Spence had been declined preselection for the nascent Labor Party in 1896. This was when women in South Australia, including Aboriginal women, became the first in Australia to have the right not only to vote, but also to stand for parliament.

    Spence believed issues of social justice and electoral reform should override party allegiance.

    Catherine Spence turned down preselection from the Labor party to run as an independent.
    State Library of South Australia

    The following year, Spence nominated for the federal convention to draft a Constitution for the new Australian parliament. Her strongest commitment was to proportional voting based on the Hare system of the single transferable vote, which was ultimately introduced to the Australian Senate in 1948. Spence believed this was the fairest electoral system to give voice to minority concerns.

    She was the only woman to nominate. Although not elected, she won her place in history as Australia’s first female political candidate.

    Acknowledging her defeat, Spence reflected:

    I stood or fell on a question which both parties thought it expedient to ignore […] I look on my position in the poll as very satisfactory.

    Similarly, Goldstein, the first woman to stand for Australia’s federal parliament in 1903, viewed her loss as “virtually a victory”. She explained to her supporters:

    I stood as a protest against press domination and the creation of the vicious system of machine politics. I had the prejudice of ages to fight, and yet I secured more than half of the votes of the candidate heading the polls.

    ‘Women do not vote as women’

    Scott was a political powerbroker of her day.

    Although she did not stand for office, she brought together politicians across the divide with people of influence from the judiciary, publishing and the arts at her Friday evening salons.

    Despite her privileged background and private income, Scott’s political leanings were towards socialism.

    For more than 20 years she corresponded regularly with both Spence and Goldstein. Their extant letters reveal shared concerns for equal pay and education for women and child welfare.

    Significant NSW legislation was reputedly drafted on Scott’s rosewood dining table. She remained staunchly opposed to party politics, scrawling her endorsement across a copy of The Inebriates Act 1900 “non-party and non-sectarian”.

    Scott joined Goldstein on the hustings and furnished letters of support in Goldstein’s campaign pamphlets.

    Spence, however, recalling the bitter lesson of her own candidature, wrote:

    I am not at all sure that Vida Goldstein is wise in standing for the Senate. Women do not vote as women for women.

    Successive, but unsuccessful attempts

    Like Spence, Goldstein was hampered by misinformation, with questions asked about her eligibility to stand for parliament. Both lacked the financial support available to their opponents backed by party organisations.

    Goldstein was attacked in the conservative press for her views on home and marriage. Comments on her dress and appearance trivialised reporting of her political message. Labor newspapers proclaimed that support for Goldstein would split the vote and result in a defeat of Labor’s candidates.

    Vida Goldstein tried to enter politics numerous times, but faced many obstacles.
    Museums Vcitoria

    Spence escaped similar attention because she was short, stout and in her seventies when she campaigned.

    Goldstein nominated for the Senate again in 1910, campaigning for equal pay and federal reform of marriage and divorce laws.

    Although she polled higher than in 1903, her campaign was hampered by lack of funds and negative press coverage.

    Party politics had become more polarised. Many women were now actively joining the Labor Party or supporting the conservative Australian Women’s National League.

    Between 1910 and her final tilt for the Senate in 1917, Goldstein stood twice for the seat of Kooyong, currently held for a second term by independent MP Monique Ryan.

    Goldstein stood as a progressive independent for Kooyong in 1912. Labor did not field a candidate. She polled around half the votes of her male opponent. She stood again in 1915, remaining frank and uncompromising on her independent status:

    as a non-party candidate I had difficulties to face that confronted no other candidate. The non-party candidate does not get the support of the party press. And the other special prejudice I have to fight is that of sex.

    While their work towards women’s suffrage is acknowledged, the broader social and political contributions of our early feminists are often overlooked. When the right to vote still seemed unobtainable, they were lobbying for fairer divorce, child welfare, prevention of domestic violence and equal pay. Political representation seemed a step too far.

    “None of these women could have imagined a Julia Gillard. It would have made their heads spin to think that a woman could be prime minister,” says historian Clare Wright.

    An Australian parliament with majority of cabinet positions held by women, with women leading both the opposition in the House of Representatives and the government in the Senate, would leave them stunned, but triumphant.

    Elizabeth Chappell previously received funding from the Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) scholarship 2021-2024

    – ref. As female independent MPs descend on parliament, they’re fulfilling the dreams of women across history – https://theconversation.com/as-female-independent-mps-descend-on-parliament-theyre-fulfilling-the-dreams-of-women-across-history-252634

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Suffering in Gaza reaches ‘new depths’ – Australia condemns ‘inhumane killing’ of Palestinians

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amra Lee, PhD candidate in Protection of Civilians, Australian National University

    Australia has joined 28 international partners in calling for an immediate end to the war in Gaza and a lifting of all restrictions on food and medical supplies.

    Foreign Minister Penny Wong, along with counterparts from countries including the United Kingdom, France and Canada, has signed a joint statement demanding Israel complies with its obligations under international humanitarian law.

    The statement condemns Israel for what it calls “the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians” seeking “their most basic need” of water and food, saying:

    The suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths. The Israeli government’s aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity […] It is horrifying that over 800 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid.

    Weapon of war

    Gazans, including malnourished mothers denied baby formula, face impossible choices as Israel intensifies its use of starvation as a weapon of war.

    In Gaza, survival requires negotiating what the United Nations calls aid “death traps”.

    According to the UN, 875 Gazans have been killed – many of them shot – while seeking food since the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation began operating in late May. Another 4,000 have been injured.

    More than 170 humanitarian groups have called for the food hubs to be shut down.

    Gaza has been described as the “hungriest place on Earth”, with aid trucks being held at the border and the United States destroying around 500 tonnes of emergency food because it was just out of date.

    More than two million people are at critical risk of famine. The World Food Programme estimates 90,000 women and children require urgent treatment for malnutrition.

    Nineteen Palestinians have starved to death in recent days, according to local health authorities.

    We can’t say we didn’t know

    After the breakdown of the January ceasefire, Israel implemented a humanitarian blockade on the Gaza Strip. Following mounting international pressure, limited aid was permitted and the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation began operations.

    As anticipated, only a fraction of the aid has been distributed.

    About 1,600 trucks entered Gaza between May 19 and July 14, well below the 630 trucks needed every day to feed the population.

    Israeli ministers have publicly called for food and fuel reserves to be bombed to starve the Palestinian people – a clear war crime – to pressure Hamas to release Israeli hostages.

    Famine expert Alex De Waal says Israel’s starvation strategy constitutes a dangerous weakening of international law. It also disrupts norms aimed at preventing hunger being used as a weapon of war:

    operations like the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation are a big crack in these principles [that is] not going to save Gaza from mass starvation.

    Palestinian organisations were the first to raise the alarm over Israel’s plans to impose controls over aid distribution.

    UN Relief Chief Tom Fletcher briefed the UN Security Council in May, warning of the world’s collective failure to call out the scale of violations of international law as they were being committed:

    Israel is deliberately and unashamedly imposing inhumane conditions on civilians in the occupied Palestinian territory.

    Tom Fletcher briefing the United Nations on the ‘atrocity’ being committed in Gaza.

    Since then, clear and unequivocal warnings of the compounding risks of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing have intensified from the UN, member states and international law experts.

    Weaponising aid

    The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation claims it has handed out millions of meals since it began operating in the strip in May. But the UN has called the distribution model “inherently unsafe”.

    Near-daily shootings have occurred since the militarised aid hubs began operating. Malnourished Palestinians risking death to feed their families are trekking long distances to reach the small number of distribution sites.

    While the foundation denies people are being shot, the UN has called the aid delivery mechanism a “deliberate attempt to weaponise aid” that fails to comply with humanitarian principles and risks further war crimes.

    Jewish Physicians for Human Rights has rejected the aid’s “humanitarian” characterisation, stating it “is what systematic harm to human beings looks like”.

    Human rights and legal organisations are calling for all involved to be held accountable for complicity in war crimes that “exposes all those who enable or profit from it to real risk of prosecution”.

    Mounting world action

    Today’s joint statement follows growing anger and frustration in Western countries over the lack of political pressure on Israel to end the suffering in Gaza.

    Polling in May showed more than 80% of Australians opposed Israel’s denial of aid as unjustifiable and wanted to see Australia doing more to support civilians in Gaza.

    Last week’s meeting of the Hague Group of nations shows more collective concrete action is being taken to exert pressure and uphold international law.

    Th 12 member states agreed to a range of diplomatic, legal and economic measures, including a ban on ships transporting arms to Israel.

    The time for humanity is now

    States will continue to face increased international and domestic pressure to take stronger action to influence Israel’s conduct as more Gazans are killed, injured and stripped of their dignity in an engineered famine.

    This moment in Gaza is unprecedented in terms of our knowledge of the scale and gravity of violations being perpetrated and what failing to act means for Palestinians and our shared humanity.

    Now is the time to exert diplomatic, legal and economic pressure on Israel to change course.

    History tells us we need to act now – international law and our collective moral conscience requires it.

    Amra Lee 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. Suffering in Gaza reaches ‘new depths’ – Australia condemns ‘inhumane killing’ of Palestinians – https://theconversation.com/suffering-in-gaza-reaches-new-depths-australia-condemns-inhumane-killing-of-palestinians-261547

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Are screenwriters paid for a product or a service? The definition matters for their workplace rights

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Goodwin, Lecturer in Arts Management and Human Resources, The University of Melbourne

    Vitaly Gariev/Unsplash

    The film and television sector in Australia employs over 26,000 workers and generated more than A$4.5 billion in income in 2021–22. TV dramas generate a large part of this revenue.

    Australian screen workers, including screenwriters, have traditionally been classified by productions as freelancers or contractors. In many cases, this means they have not been paid entitlements most other workers in Australia have access to.

    A December ruling by the Australian Taxation Office defined many Australian screenwriters as employees, and therefore they should be paid superannuation. Now, the Australian Writers Guild and Screen Producers Australia are each “seeking legal advice” on what this ruling could mean for scriptwriters and Australia’s screen sector.

    Mandated superannuation

    The superannuation guarantee mandates employers make superannuation contributions for eligible employees in line with the minimum contribution rate (now 12%).

    Historically, scriptwriters, like other arts workers, have been mainly engaged as freelancers, not employees. This means they are not always paid superannuation and other legal entitlements that come from being an employee.

    But a December 2024 tax office ruling specifically defined many screen workers as employees.

    This ruling advises that someone who sells an existing script (such as someone who wrote a film at their own initiative, and then sold the script to a producer) is not an employee, but “selling property”. These writers are not eligible for super payments.

    But the ruling found people who are regularly working scriptwriters (such as those working in a writers’ room for a TV series) may be legally considered employees, and are eligible for payments and protections offered to employees.

    Screen Producers Australia sees things differently. Information provided to their members argues scriptwriters are paid for the intellectual property rights associated with their product – meaning they are selling property.

    Opposing this, the Australian Writers Guild argue scriptwriters on long-running TV programs or in writers’ rooms are performing services and are employees of the production companies.

    If the screen production companies do not fall in line with the tax office ruling, the Australian Writers Guild have not ruled out undertaking legal action through a class action suit, or a strike.

    As the guild is not a union, they cannot undertake protected industrial action. But the guild could encourage a “wildcat strike”: a spontaneous work stoppage without union leadership. They recognise, however, this would have the impact on member livelihoods.

    What does this mean for scriptwriters?

    The ruling from the tax office outlines how it would apply the legislation, but it has not yet been tested legally. If the ruling is tested legally – by, say, legal action from scriptwriters seeking superannuation payments – and scriptwriters are found to be employees, it could greatly affect their work and pay.

    Not only could this lead to mandated superannuation contributions, but access to other entitlements such as parental leave, holiday pay and redundancy provisions.

    Australian artists earn on average 26% below the workforce norm, with incomes decreasing in real terms.

    Working conditions for Australians in the screen industries are difficult. Those working in the sector suffer from high levels of burnout and face systemic barriers when not white, male and able-bodied.

    Scriptwriters in Australia often struggle to achieve sustainable careers.
    Aman Upadhyay/Unsplash

    Scriptwriters in Australia often struggle to achieve sustainable careers. Scriptwriting fees often don’t fully cover the research and writing involved in script development, and the rise of streaming services has seen residuals – money made from licence fees of past work – all but disappear.

    Secure work in writers’ rooms for television series is also diminishing as these shrink in both team size and duration, limiting opportunities for emerging writers.

    Freelance scriptwriters may lack basic worker rights like minimum wage, job security, union bargaining and workers’ compensation insurance.

    For those lucky enough to secure work, superannuation and other entitlements can be negotiated into individual contracts. Until now, this has relied on individuals having the power and ability to engage in contract negotiation.

    Creative Workplaces – the division of Creative Australia formed in 2023 to address issues of pay, safety and welfare across the arts – recently launched a website. It offers industrial resources for arts organisations and workers to understand their rights and obligations.

    This is an important tool for all in the creative industries to ensure they receive the minimums under the law. But it is not a regulatory body. The onus is on organisations and workers to put into practice the relevant contracts and employment relationships.

    As the writers guild argues, it should not be up to individual workers to negotiate for basic worker entitlements. The recent tax office ruling, they say, means entitlements should include superannuation for many scriptwriters.

    A sustainable screen career

    As with other workplace issues impacting artists in recent years, scriptwriters deserve basic legal protections. They also deserve the safety and security that comes from being recognised as employees.

    TV drama provides a valuable training ground for Australian creatives. Fostering talent includes the creation of liveable working conditions.

    Initiatives such as Creative Workplaces can provide information, but leaders within creative organisations, production companies and other decision makers must act.

    Producers may choose now to pay super, in line with the tax office ruling, or they may wait for legal precedent to be set. And while they must adhere to legal minimums, production companies must also consider whether those working with them can earn a sustainable living on these minimums, or if they should offer better employment terms.

    If we want a future for screen stories in Australia, support for those working in the sector to build an enduring career is essential.

    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. Are screenwriters paid for a product or a service? The definition matters for their workplace rights – https://theconversation.com/are-screenwriters-paid-for-a-product-or-a-service-the-definition-matters-for-their-workplace-rights-261463

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: NZ and allies condemn ‘inhumane’, ‘horrifying’ killings in Gaza and ‘drip feeding’ of aid

    RNZ News

    New Zealand has joined 24 other countries in calling for an end to the war in Gaza, and criticising what they call the inhumane killing of Palestinians.

    The countries — including Britain, France, Canada and Australia plus the European Union — also condemed the Israeli government’s aid delivery model in Gaza as “dangerous”.

    “We condemn the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food.”

    They said it was “horrifying” that more than 800 civilians had been killed while seeking aid, the majority at food distribution sites run by a US- and Israeli-backed foundation.

    “We call on the Israeli government to immediately lift restrictions on the flow of aid and to urgently enable the UN and humanitarian NGOs to do their life saving work safely and effectively,” it said.

    Foreign Minister Winston Peters . . . “The tipping point was some time ago . . . it’s gotten to the stage where we’ve just lost our patience.” Image: RN/Mark Papalii

    “Proposals to remove the Palestinian population into a ‘humanitarian city’ are completely unacceptable. Permanent forced displacement is a violation of international humanitarian law.”

    The statement said the countries were “prepared to take further action” to support an immediate ceasefire.

    Reuters reported Israel’s foreign ministry said the statement was “disconnected from reality” and it would send the wrong message to Hamas.

    “The statement fails to focus the pressure on Hamas and fails to recognise Hamas’s role and responsibility for the situation,” the Israeli statement said.

    Having NZ voice heard
    Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters told RNZ Morning Report, New Zealand had chosen to be part of the statement as a way to have its voice heard on the “dire” humanitarian situation in Gaza.

    “The tipping point was some time ago . . .  it’s gotten to the stage where we’ve just lost our patience . . . ”

    Peters said he wanted to see what the response to the condemnation was.

    “The conflict in the Middle East goes on and on . . .  It’s gone from a situation where it was excusable, due to the October 7 conflict, to inexcusable as innocent people are being swept into it,” he said.

    “I do think there has to be change. It must happen now.”

    The war in Gaza was triggered when Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

    Israel’s subsequent air and ground war in Gaza has killed more than 59,000 Palestinians — including at least 17,400 children, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry, while displacing almost the entire population of more than 2 million and spreading a hunger crisis.

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

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –