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Category: Education

  • MIL-OSI China: AI-powered healthcare takes spotlight at medical conference

    Source: China State Council Information Office 2

    An elderly woman (L) tries an AI health detecting device with the assistance of a staff member at a nursing home in Binghu district of Wuxi, east China’s Jiangsu province, April 8, 2025. [Photo/Xinhua]
    Experts gathered in Beijing over the weekend for the 2025 China Medical Development Conference, where the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and healthcare has become the center of attention.
    The two-day event, held annually since 2021, brought together leading voices in mathematics, AI, medicine, public health and pharmacy to discuss innovation, interdisciplinary collaboration, and policy directions to drive the medicine sector forward in the AI age.
    Attendees emphasized AI’s transformative potential in reshaping medical research and the broader healthcare ecosystem.
    Wang Chen, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and president of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (CAMS), proposed a phased roadmap for integrating AI into medicine.
    According to Wang, in the short term, scenario-based pilot programs will take the lead. The medium term will focus on deeper applications and international collaboration, while the long term aims to establish an AI-driven ecosystem encompassing scientific research, clinical care, and healthcare management.
    Zheng Hairong, vice president of Nanjing University, stressed that breakthroughs in biomedical AI must be underpinned by standardized data and ethical governance. He pointed to fields such as medical imaging and brain-computer interfaces as areas where cross-disciplinary collaboration will be crucial in overcoming technological hurdles.
    In recent years, China has ramped up its “AI Plus” initiative in healthcare, promoting standardized infrastructure, cross-institutional data sharing, and the development of industry-specific AI models to improve the precision and efficiency of diagnostics and treatment.
    Ensuring the safe and responsible deployment of AI technologies in healthcare was a recurring theme throughout the conference. Participants underscored the importance of building a secure, well-regulated environment to maintain public trust.
    Shen Jianfeng, an official with the National Health Commission, called for the creation of high-quality medical datasets and AI language corpora. He also urged stronger policy coordination across disciplines and investment in talent development, with a focus on medical ethics.
    A highlight of the conference was the release of the “Top Medical Advances in China 2024” by the CAMS, a list of 13 breakthroughs selected from over 310,000 research projects — all seen as major steps forward in China’s disease prevention and treatment capabilities.
    Among the standout achievements were a method to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease up to 18 years before symptoms appear, and a gene therapy breakthrough for hereditary deafness.

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI China: China-ASEAN economic, trade cooperation in fast lane

    Source: China State Council Information Office 3

    From bustling ports brimming with goods to digital arenas buzzing with new opportunities, China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are increasingly coming together in a partnership that promises common prosperity and a shared future filled with boundless potential.

    Since establishing a dialogue relationship more than three decades ago, China and ASEAN have stood together and supported each other through thick and thin, developing a model featuring the most dynamic and fruitful cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region and the world.

    As the world’s second and fifth-largest economies, respectively, China and ASEAN represent a quarter of the global population, and their commitment to win-win cooperation could offer stability and growth for a world overshadowed by rising economic uncertainty and fragmentation.

    Win-win cooperation

    How fast can a Malaysian fresh durian reach Chinese consumers from its orchard of origin? This time may well be shorter than many can imagine.

    Thanks to an efficient logistics network as well as rapid inspection and expedited clearance procedures between China and the Southeast Asian country, this delicacy can be harvested and appear in a Chinese supermarket thousands of kilometers away within just 24 hours — a sprint that allows consumers to relish the fruit at its freshest.

    Grown across tropical Southeast Asia, durian is known as the “king of fruits,” cherished by consumers for its creamy texture and intense aroma.

    China’s appetite for this thorny fruit has soared in recent years, with its imports reaching a record of 1.56 million tonnes in 2024, according to customs data.

    The story of the durian is just one example of the fruitful outcomes resulting from win-win cooperation between China and ASEAN. Numbers and facts paint the picture of a partnership in full bloom.

    Notably, China and ASEAN have been each other’s largest trading partners for five consecutive years. Bilateral trade value has soared from less than 8 billion U.S. dollars in 1991 to nearly one trillion dollars in 2024. Accumulated two-way investment has also been booming — and it had surpassed 400 billion dollars as of July 2024.

    This vigorous growth has come amid the two sides’ continued efforts to enhance trade and investment facilitation, including upgrading of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (CAFTA).

    Officials and analysts have seen the CAFTA as a cornerstone of China-ASEAN economic and trade cooperation, and are expecting the upgraded CAFTA to take this role a step further, opening up more sectors for trade and investment, while promoting greater regulatory alignment.

    China and ASEAN have substantially concluded upgrade negotiations concerning Version 3.0 CAFTA, and “we believe that with the joint efforts of China and ASEAN countries, economic and trade cooperation between the two sides will surely achieve new and greater development,” Lyu Daliang, spokesperson of China’s General Administration of Customs, said this week.

    Closer bond

    About two hours’ drive from downtown Bangkok, near the Laem Chabang port in eastern Thailand, lies a well-planned industrial zone, known as the Thai-Chinese Rayong industrial zone.

    Jointly built by China’s Holley Group and Amata Group of Thailand in 2006, this industrial zone was one of the first Chinese overseas industrial sites, serving as a witness and contributor to the expanding industrial cooperation between China and ASEAN.

    Now home to 270 companies, most of which are Chinese-invested, the industrial zone has attracted a combined investment of more than 5.2 billion U.S. dollars and provided over 60,000 local jobs, said Zhao Bin, president of the Thai-Chinese Rayong Industrial Realty Development Co.

    Zhao sees Belt and Road cooperation and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) as catalysts for the industrial zone’s development, which not only helps Chinese companies to invest in Southeast Asia, but also facilitates technology transfer to Thailand and skills development in local workforce.

    Belt and Road cooperation, the RCEP and various other arrangements have enhanced partnership between China and ASEAN countries, with the two sides weaving a tighter economic fabric and unlocking new development potential, analysts said.

    Numerous infrastructure projects are having positive impacts across the region, enhancing connectivity and reducing logistics costs.

    In Laos, the over 1,000-km-long China-Laos Railway linking Vientiane, the capital of Laos, with Kunming, capital of southwest China’s Yunnan Province, has helped convert the landlocked country into a land-linked hub, and significantly facilitated cross-border movement of people and goods since it started operating in December 2021.

    On the financial front, ASEAN and China are also working to strengthen the regional safety net against financial risks. An ASEAN+3 meeting, featuring ASEAN, China, Japan and Republic of Korea, was held early this month in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, during which financial officials reached consensus on deepening policy coordination and strengthening regional financial safeguards.

    Moreover, collaborative efforts span a wide range of activities, with people-to-people and cultural exchanges, such as educational cooperation and visa-free travel arrangements, flourishing.

    Kheang Hong Kry, a Cambodian student studying electrical engineering at Guangxi University in Nanning, south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, was excited about the establishment of the China-ASEAN Institute of Energy last month. Calling it “a bridge” of learning and cooperation, he said the institute gives international students access to cutting-edge knowledge in China’s energy and power sectors, laying a foundation for their future career development.

    New cooperation frontiers

    Emerging fields such as digital economy, artificial intelligence, electric vehicles and clean energy are adding to the mutually beneficial cooperation between China and ASEAN.

    In Vietnam, Chinese-made agricultural drones are helping farmers spray pesticide, making their work easier and safer, while at Laem Chabang port in Thailand, China’s electric and self-driving trucks have become reliable partners of port workers. In addition, Malaysian national automaker Proton has launched its first electric vehicle model, which was co-developed with Chinese automaker Geely. In Indonesia, the Cirata floating solar power plant, constructed by a Chinese company, has boosted the country’s supply of renewable energy.

    Dato’ Abdul Majid Ahmad Khan, president of the Malaysia-China Friendship Association, told media that emerging fields such as green energy, electric vehicles and digital technology have provided new impetus for the expansion of cooperation between these two countries.

    Such cooperation will help Malaysia improve productivity, promote technology transfer and train talent, and contribute to Malaysia’s development and prosperity, he said.

    Zhou Mi, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, noted that the close ties between China and ASEAN are of great significance — not only to Asia but also to the broader international community.

    Zhou said deepening cooperation between the two sides will effectively facilitate the complementarity of their respective advantages. “It also provides a model for regional economic and trade rules integration, effectively boosting economic globalization.”

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-Evening Report: How a new ‘Fishheart’ project is combining science, community and Indigenous art to restore life in the Baaka-Darling River

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Claire Hooker, Senior Lecturer and Coordinator, Health and Medical Humanities, University of Sydney

    A new state-of-the-art tube fishway technology called the “Fishheart” has been launched at Menindee Lakes, located on the Baaka-Darling River, New South Wales.

    The technology – part of the NSW government’s Restoring the Darling-Baaka program – will allow native fish to move past large barriers, such as dams, weirs and regulators, when they need to. It’s hoped this will help the fish reproduce and survive, and reduce the risk of mass fish deaths in the Baaka.

    At the same time, meaningful policy reform and implementation can’t be achieved without input from First Nations communities. So how do we do this? One creative collaboration on the Fishheart project suggests art may have a big role to play.

    Distressing images

    Several deeply distressing mass fish death events have occurred in the river since 2018, with millions of native fish, including golden perch, silver perch and Murray cod, dying due to insufficient oxygen in the water.

    These events are the outcome of compounding challenges in managing the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia’s largest inland river system. The basin, which stretches from Southern Queensland to South Australia, is a water source for some three million people.

    But the construction of infrastructure such as dams, weirs and regulators has profoundly disrupted the natural processes that once sustained healthy river systems. This disruption has been made worse by ineffective and conflict-ridden governance.

    The Baaka is a source of life and wellbeing for numerous communities. It should be cared for with the same urgency and coordination as a critically ill patient. If too many doctors or nurses are involved without a clear shared treatment plan, the patient suffers. Likewise, when multiple agencies attempt to manage a sick river, the system can break down.

    So how can better care be achieved? For Barkindji Elder David Doyle the answer lies in doing it together.

    Seeking and listening to Aboriginal community

    Aboriginal peoples have been explaining the importance of Australia’s inland rivers for generations. The Aboriginal community at Menindee held protests about the health of the Baaka two years before the first mass fish deaths. Yet their voices and cultural knowledges have not reconfigured river policy.

    A report by the NSW Office of the Chief Scientist and Engineer into the March 2023 mass fish deaths on the Lower Baaka identified the importance of including Aboriginal cultural knowledges in strategies for fish species regeneration and management.

    However, according to Barkindji Ngnukuu elder Barbara Quayle, the community’s experience of “consultation” has been a tick-box activity. She says there is no trust that cultural knowledges or community perspectives will actually be listened to.

    The power of the arts

    Traditional cultural knowledges are often held and expressed through various artforms, from story, to dance, to gallery arts. Within rural and remote communities, the arts and art-making create conditions that can help people work together to address complex issues. In fact, there’s a long history of the arts being used to address social conflict.

    Can the Fishheart help prevent fish kills? We don’t know. But the Barkindji community’s artistic input in the project is enabling a more integrated approach to finding out.

    Elders and community members have come together with regional arts organisation, The Cad Factory, and the NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development’s Fisheries branch, to design traditional knowledge-inspired art for the Fishheart pipes.

    This art was painted onto the pipes by members of Barkindji community over the past month. Other community art, including collaborations with the local school, was also placed around the site.

    Making the art gave everyone involved the time, space and tools to consider and discuss the project. We learned how the Fishheart technology is inspired by the human heart, with tubes resembling “veins” and “arteries” that can take fish in and “pump” them over barriers through a siphon effect, letting them circulate throughout the river.

    We discussed important details on how this technology works, which includes using artificial intelligence used to detect fish in the pipes and collect real-time data and photos of the migration. We also considered how we might further care for the river, by potentially allowing the removal of invasive species, or monitoring for diseases.

    The project also provided fisheries managers with the opportunity to hear community concerns, such as whether the installation of fishways might be perceived in ways associated with colonisation, or eventually lead to fish removal from the waterways.

    Most importantly, seeing the pipes visually transformed by Barkindji art connected the Fishheart to place and Country. The art provides a tangible expression of uninterrupted Barkindji custodianship for the river and the species that depend on it.

    With art, there is hope for creating policy together – policy that might promote the health of the river as a whole, rather than treating the symptoms of the problem.

    Claire Hooker receives funding from the NHMRC, MRFF, ARC, and University of Sydney. She is affiliated with Arts Health Network NSW/ACT.

    Barbara Quayle is the Vice-president of the Menindee Aboriginal Elders Council, sits on the Barkindji Native Title Board and NSW Aboriginal Water Strategy Board and is a founding guide of Barkindji cultural immersion tour group, Wontanella Tours.

    Dave Doyle is a member of the Menindee Aboriginal Elders Council, a previous member of the Barkindji Native Title Board, sits on the NSW Aboriginal Water Strategy Board and is a founding guide of Barkindji cultural immersion tour group, Wontanella Tours.

    Reakeeta Smallwood has received funding from ARC and NHMRC, in partnership with University of Sydney, University of Newcastle and University of New England. These funding sources are not relevant to this article or project.

    – ref. How a new ‘Fishheart’ project is combining science, community and Indigenous art to restore life in the Baaka-Darling River – https://theconversation.com/how-a-new-fishheart-project-is-combining-science-community-and-indigenous-art-to-restore-life-in-the-baaka-darling-river-254594

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Low effort, high visibility: what bumper stickers say about our values and identity

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Harrison, Director, Master of Business Administration Program (MBA); Co-Director, Better Consumption Lab, Deakin University

    Justin Sullivan/Getty

    You may have seen them around town or in the news. Bumper stickers on Teslas broadcasting to anyone who looks: “I bought this before we knew Elon was crazy.”

    You might assume it’s there to prevent someone from keying the car or as an attempt to defuse potential hostility in a hyper-politicised landscape. But while it may signal disapproval to like-minded passersby, a sticker is unlikely to dissuade someone already intent on committing a crime (which keying is).

    What it does offer, though, is a form of symbolic insurance. You might call it a way to clarify identity in a hostile political environment.

    Equal parts apology, protest and cultural timestamp, the message can say more in eight words than a full-blown op-ed. But it’s not just about a car. It’s also about values, identity management and the evolving politics of consumption.

    A signal to others

    At their core, car bumper stickers function as a vehicle (literally and metaphorically) for identity projection. They are symbols of what psychologists call “low-cost identity displays”, used to project who we are or perhaps more accurately, how we want to be seen.

    Buying a Tesla may once have signalled innovation, environmental consciousness, or social progressivism. But Musk’s increasingly polarising public behaviour and political commentary have altered the cultural meaning of the brand.

    This creates a sense of cognitive dissonance for those consumers whose values no longer align with what the brand’s owner now represents. Enter the bumper sticker.

    Sales of Tesla have fallen sharply this year as Elon Musk has become more political.
    Shutterstock

    In an increasingly fragmented society, where people are eager to differentiate themselves, even a sticker can be a subtle form of moral positioning. But more than anything, it’s often a way to signal to the groups that matter most to us, “please like me”.

    Social identity theory suggests people derive part of their self-concept from their perceived membership in social groups. Bumper stickers make these group affiliations visible, projecting values, ideologies, affiliations, or even contrarian attitudes to the outside world.

    My tiny fading Richmond Tigers sticker on my car may not be performative in the same way a bold political slogan might be. But it still signals a form of identity and belonging.

    Bumper stickers can make affiliation with social groups visible.
    Shutterstock

    The North Face jacket

    Bumper stickers act as a form of “peacocking”. It’s similar to wearing branded clothing, like Dan Andrews’ The North Face jacket during COVID that made him appear more approachable than he would have in a formal suit. Or like even curating a bio on LinkedIn. This is a behavioural strategy where people communicate their traits to others without words.

    In marketing, this links closely to the theory of conspicuous consumption, which can include symbolic consumption, where we buy and display products not just for utility, but for what they say about us.

    Bumper stickers are a literal version of this. They are symbolic, declarative and public. They’re low-effort, high-visibility communicators of group affiliation, virtue, humour, rebellion or outrage.

    The intention might be to inform or persuade, but their actual influence is more complicated.

    Marketing class 101

    In introductory marketing classes, taught at pretty much every university, awareness is often presented as the first stage of the hierarchy of effects model. The model suggests consumer action progresses from awareness to knowledge, liking, preference, conviction, and finally, purchase.

    Stickers are unlikely to influence behaviour.
    Shutterstock

    But in practice, this progression is significantly more complicated. Bumper stickers may generate awareness, but there’s little evidence they influence behaviour – especially when considered in isolation.

    This is particularly relevant in areas such as tourism promotion. For example, an unofficial, but nevertheless provocative tourism slogan like the “CU in the NT” ad campaign might spark conversation and recognition, but recognition does not equate to conversion.

    Despite the hope that underpins the millions of dollars spent on slogans and taglines, awareness is necessary but not sufficient for behavioural change.

    Most marketing efforts fail not because people are unaware of the brand, but because they have no reason, opportunity, or inclination to act – that is, to buy the product or change behaviour.

    Culture has fragmented

    Contemporary consumer culture is increasingly tribal and fragmented. Social media algorithms reinforce echo chambers, while physical signals such as car stickers or even political corflute signs signal belonging and in-group and out-group boundaries.

    As a result, bumper stickers probably reinforce identity for the already converted, but are unlikely to persuade those outside the tribe.

    Visible preferences, however, can serve as a form of shorthand for identity, especially when they align with the symbols and language of the in-group. Although their direct influence on behaviour is limited, these signals, when repeated and reinforced within a receptive community, can shape and shift social norms over time.

    In the end, bumper stickers rarely change behaviour. But they do something more subtle. They allow people to express, perform and affirm identity. They act as signals to others, markers of tribe, values, humour or defiance. They help us say this is who I am, or maybe, this is what I am not.

    Paul Harrison has received research funding from Consumer Action Law Centre, Australian Securities and Investment Commission, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, and the Victorian Health Association.

    – ref. Low effort, high visibility: what bumper stickers say about our values and identity – https://theconversation.com/low-effort-high-visibility-what-bumper-stickers-say-about-our-values-and-identity-254581

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: A survey of Australian uni students suggests more than half are worried about food or don’t have enough to eat

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katherine Kent, Senior Lecturer in Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Wollongong

    StoryTime Studio/ Shutterstock

    Being a university student has long been associated with eating instant noodles, taking advantage of pub meal deals and generally living frugally.

    But for several years, researchers have been tracking how students are not getting enough food to eat. This can have an impact on their mental and physical health as well as their academic performance.

    In new research, we look at how the problem is getting worse.

    Our research

    In March 2022 and March 2024, we surveyed University of Tasmania students about their access to food.

    More than 1,200 students participated in the first survey and more than 1,600 participated in the second. Students were recruited through university-wide emails and social media and included both undergraduate and postgraduate students from a range of disciplines.

    We used an internationally recognised survey to assess food insecurity. It can tell us whether students are struggling and to what extent.

    It asked simple but revealing questions about financial barriers to food, such as “In the past 12 months, did you ever skip meals because there wasn’t enough money for food?” or “Did the food you bought just not last, and you didn’t have money to get more?”

    Students were then classified as “food secure” or as one of three levels of food insecurity:

    1. marginally food insecure: students were worried about running out of food

    2. moderately food insecure: students were compromising on the quality and variety of food they ate

    3. severely food insecure: students were often skipping meals or going without food altogether.

    We asked students if they regularly skipped meals or if they didn’t have money for food.
    Cottonbro Studio/ Pexels, CC BY

    Regularly going without food

    We found overall, food insecurity among students increased from 42% in 2022 to 53% in 2024.

    The proportions of those experiencing marginal or moderate levels of food insecurity was stable (at about 8% and 17–18% respectively). But the number of students experiencing severe food insecurity jumped from 17% to 27%.

    While food insecurity increased among most groups, younger students, those studying on campus and international students were the most at risk.

    Although our study focused on the University of Tasmania, similar rates of food insecurity have recently been reported at other regional and metropolitan universities across the country. This suggests it is a widespread issue.

    National data on food insecurity in the general Australian population is limited, with no regular government monitoring. The 2024 Foodbank Hunger Report estimates 32% of Australian households experienced food insecurity, including 19% with severe food insecurity.

    Why is this happening?

    While our study didn’t directly explore the causes of student hunger, rising inflation, high rents and limited student incomes are likely factors.

    The surveys happened during a time of sustained inflation and rising living costs. We know rents, groceries and other essentials have all gone up. But student support payments have not kept pace over the study period.

    Estimates suggest about 32% of Australian households in general do not have enough to eat.
    Armin Rimoldi/Pexels, CC BY

    What can we do?

    To address food insecurity among students, coordinated action is needed across universities and state and territory governments.

    Universities often run food pantries to provide students with basic supplies, but they also need more long-term supports for students.

    Institutions could expand subsidised meal programs, offer regular free or subsidised grocery boxes and ensure healthy, low-cost food is consistently available on campus.

    State governments can reduce the financial stress that contributes to food insecurity by expanding stipends and support for students on unpaid clinical placements in the state system. They could also expand public transport concessions to all students, including international students.

    The federal government can raise Youth Allowance and Austudy to reflect real living costs. The new Commonwealth Prac Payment could be expanded beyond teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work to cover all students undertaking mandatory unpaid placements. The government’s plan to raise HECS-HELP repayment thresholds could also ease the financial pressure on recent graduates.

    Katherine Kent 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 survey of Australian uni students suggests more than half are worried about food or don’t have enough to eat – https://theconversation.com/a-survey-of-australian-uni-students-suggests-more-than-half-are-worried-about-food-or-dont-have-enough-to-eat-254603

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: ‘Puppy blues’: how to cope with the exhaustion and stress of raising a puppy

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Susan Hazel, Associate Professor, School of Animal and Veterinary Science, University of Adelaide

    Lucigerma/Shutterstock

    Caring for a new puppy can be wonderful, but it can also bring feelings of depression, extreme stress and exhaustion. This is sometimes referred to as “the puppy blues”, and can begin anytime after the puppy arrives in the household.

    While researchers are still working on a way to officially diagnose puppy blues, symptoms generally include:

    • physical exhaustion, due to all the feeding, training, cleaning, walks, management and sleep disruptions
    • emotional exhaustion
    • feeling depressed or guilty for not “doing enough” for the puppy
    • self-imposed perfectionist stress and feeling pressure to raise a puppy “the right way”
    • feelings of regret and doubt
    • constantly wondering if the puppy would be better off with someone else or being returned.

    The good news is these feelings are generally temporary. Puppies have a number of difficult developmental states that need to be managed (each with their own unique challenges) – but these will pass as your puppy grows and settles in.

    The bad news? It can be really tough, and can last weeks or months.

    There is very little research into the puppy blues. But through interviews, surveys and longitudinal studies (where scholars track people’s experiences over time), researchers have begun piecing together what can help puppy owners survive these challenges.

    It’s not an easy time.
    Masarik/Shutterstock

    Get the help you need

    Much like rearing children, puppy raising is hardest as a solo journey. Researchers highly recommend building a team around you and your puppy to help decrease the stress.

    Seek help from parents, friends and family. Having people who you can call to puppysit and to lean on emotionally during tough times is a lifesaver for puppy owners.

    Having a great local vet you trust is crucial (bonus points if you also get yourself a vet with further qualifications in animal behaviour). Chat to your vet if you are worried about your puppy’s behaviour or want to know more about force-free training.

    Online communities have their place too. Seeing others go through (and survive!) similar challenges can be a great relief. These communities can also be a treasure trove of advice.

    That said, remember there’s almost just as much bad advice as good online. Check with your vet if you’re unsure. The use of aversive training methods, such as smacking or yelling, is associated with more behavioural problems by the time your puppy is a year old.

    And if you find yourself feeling really overwhelmed, don’t be afraid to chat to your GP about your mental health.

    Make sure you have the right resources

    Puppy care is full-time work. Working two full-time jobs leads to burnout. If possible, take time off work to help settle your new pet in. If your can’t, call on your village for help with puppysitting.

    Consider how you can make use of long-lasting toys and safe spaces to keep your puppy entertained for a while without your input.

    Long lasting chew toys, “snuffle mats” (which can be easily and cheaply made at home and can be used to hide food), and puzzle toys can also help your puppy learn to relax and settle on their own.

    Play pens are also a godsend and allow you to step away or rest while they nap, eat or play.

    Keep realistic expectations

    There is no such thing as “perfect” when it comes to raising a puppy; chasing perfection will only lead to misery.

    It can help to remember that puppies are babies. They are not supposed to know the cue to sit or stay yet, or to be able to focus on you for long during a training session.

    When their teeth hurt, they’re going to grab the nearest item to chew on – which might be your hand, your shoe or your favourite sunglasses. Either way, babies are going to make mistakes, not because you’ve failed, but because their brains are too underdeveloped to do any better right now.

    They’re just a baby.
    Pryimachuk Mariana/Shutterstock

    Training sometimes goes backwards – or out the window altogether. This is especially true when we hit new developmental periods. It’s normal and you’ve done nothing wrong (remember those underdeveloped brains!). If you’re concerned, seek professional advice from a vet.

    Remember, none of the challenges will last forever. Try to enjoy the good moments, because they won’t last forever either.

    Is kitten blues a thing?

    While kitten blues has not been researched as much as puppy blues, many kitten owners in online forums anecdotally report similar feelings of overwhelm and exhaustion.

    So it’s reasonable to assume this phenomenon exists and is likely very similar to its puppy counterpart. The advice in this article applies to both kittens and puppy owners.

    Caring for a kitten can be stressful too.
    rindwi99/Shutterstock

    Puppies and kittens are certainly not easy to raise.

    But when you’re staring into those adorable eyes, wondering how this tiny creature who brings you so much love can also make you cry with exhaustion, remember: you’ve got this.

    Susan Hazel has received funding from the Waltham Foundation. She is affiliated with the Dog and Cat Management Board of South Australia and the RSPCA South Australia.

    Ana Goncalves Costa is affiliated with the Delta Institute and South Australian veterinary behaviour clinic Pawly Understood.

    – ref. ‘Puppy blues’: how to cope with the exhaustion and stress of raising a puppy – https://theconversation.com/puppy-blues-how-to-cope-with-the-exhaustion-and-stress-of-raising-a-puppy-247328

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Security without submarines: the military strategy Australia should pursue instead of AUKUS

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Palazzo, Adjunct Professor in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at UNSW Canberra, UNSW Sydney

    For more than a century, Australia has followed the same defence policy: dependence on a great power. This was first the United Kingdom and then the United States.

    Without properly considering other options, successive federal governments have intensified this policy with the AUKUS agreement and locked Australia into dependency on the US for decades to come.

    A more imaginative and innovative government would have investigated different ways to achieve a strong and independent national defence policy.

    One that, for instance, didn’t require Australia to surrender its sovereignty to a foreign power. Nor require the acquisition of fabulously expensive nuclear-powered submarines and the building of overpriced, under-gunned surface warships, such as the Hunter frigates.

    In fact, in an age of rapidly improving uncrewed systems, Australia does not need any crewed warships or submarines at all.

    Instead, Australia should lean into a military philosophy that I describe in my upcoming book, The Big Fix: Rebuilding Australia’s National Security. This is known as the “strategic defensive”.

    What is the strategic defensive?

    The strategic defensive is a method of waging war employed throughout history, although the term’s use only dates to the early 19th century.

    It doesn’t require a state to defeat its attacker. Rather, the state must deny the aggressor the ability to achieve their objectives.

    The strategic defensive best suits “status quo states” like Australia. The people of status quo states are happy with what they have. Their needs can be met without recourse to intimidation or violence.

    These states also tend to be militarily weak relative to potential aggressors, and aren’t aggressors themselves.

    In short: if war eventuates, Australia’s only goal is to prevent a change to the status quo.

    In this way, strategic defensive would suit very well as the intellectual foundation of Australia’s security policy.

    Strong reasons for a strategic defensive approach

    There are also sound military and technological reasons why Australia should frame its security around the strategic defensive.

    First, defence is the naturally stronger position in war, compared to attack.

    It is harder to capture ground (including sea and airspace) than it is to hold it. All aggressors must attack into the unknown, bringing their support with them. Defenders, by contrast, can fall back onto a known space and the provisions it can supply.

    Military thinkers generally agree that to succeed in war, an attacker needs a three-to-one strength advantage over the defender.

    And the wide water moat surrounding the Australian continent greatly complicates and increases the cost of any aggressor’s effort to harm us.

    Australia could also use weapons now available to enhance the inherent power of being the defending side. Its task need only be making any attack prohibitively expensive, in terms of equipment and human life.

    Long-range strike missiles and drones, combined with sensors, provide the defending nation with the opportunity to create a lethal killing zone around it. This is what China has done in the East and South China Seas.

    Australia can do the same by integrating missiles, drones and uncrewed maritime vessels with a sensor network linked to a command-control-targeting system.

    Missiles and drones are a better buy when compared to the nuclear-powered submarines Australia hopes to acquire from the United States, as well as the warships – including more submarines – the government plans to build in the Osborn and Henderson shipyards.

    And most importantly, they are available now.

    A smarter strategy

    A defensive network also makes strategic sense for Australia, unlike the planned AUKUS nuclear-powered submarines. Australia has no need to operate in distant waters, such as those off the coast of China.

    In addition, Australia can afford so few vessels that their deterrence effect is not credible. Missiles and drones are vastly cheaper, meaning Australia can buy them in the thousands.

    Australia is making the mistake of focusing on the platform – expensive ships and planes – rather than the effect needed: the destruction of a potential enemy with swarms of weapons.

    In fact, the age of large crewed warships, both on and below the sea, is coming to an end. Long-range strike technology means the sea can now be controlled from the land. Rapidly improving sensors make it impossible for attackers to hide on, below or above the surface of the ocean.

    A better bet would be for Australia to invest in uncrewed surface and sub-surface maritime vessels to patrol its approaches, as well as large numbers of land-based launchers and missiles.

    For a small power such as Australia, investing in this makes more sense than a small, bespoke number of extremely expensive and vulnerable warships.

    It’s not too late to rethink

    It is clear Australian leaders have decided to intensify Australia’s dependence on the US rather than seeking to create a military capable of securing the nation on our own .

    The cost is nigh-on ruinous in terms of not just money, but also the entanglement in foreign-led wars and potential reputational loss.

    Perhaps worst of all, the nation is making itself into a target – possibly a nuclear target – if war between the US and China was to eventuate.

    This need not have been the outcome of the government’s recent defence reviews. But it’s not too late to rethink.

    By adopting a different military philosophy as the guide for its security decision-making, Australia could manage its security largely on its own.

    This only requires leaders with a willingness to think differently.

    This is the first piece in a series on the future of defence in Australia.

    Albert Palazzo is not a member of a political party but does occasional volunteer work for The Greens. In 2019, he retired from the Department of Defence. He was the long-serving Director of War Studies for the Australian Army.

    – ref. Security without submarines: the military strategy Australia should pursue instead of AUKUS – https://theconversation.com/security-without-submarines-the-military-strategy-australia-should-pursue-instead-of-aukus-253107

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: From the doable to the downright impossible: your guide to making sense of election promises

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Frank Rindert Algra-Maschio, PhD Candidate, Social and Political Sciences, Monash University

    Three weeks into the federal election campaign and both major parties have already pledged to spend billions in taxpayer dollars if elected on May 3.

    But with so many policies announced — and surely more to follow — sometimes it can be hard to make sense of exactly what is being promised.

    That ambiguity can come back to bite voters, and the government, during the next term.

    So, how do you sort the deliverable promises from the downright impossible?

    It’s a question we reckoned with while tracking Labor’s 2022 campaign promises over the last term through our Election Promise Tracker.

    Politicians can make it hard to hold them accountable for their commitments later, so it’s important to know when you’re being sold a pup. Here are our tips on what to look out for in the lead-up to polling day.

    Distant horizons

    Promise tracking relies on clearly defined actions that can be assessed against a specific timeline, and ideally by the end of a government’s term.

    But politicians have a habit of announcing policies that extend over much longer horizons, with no guarantee their party will be in government to see them through.

    This can happen with large infrastructure projects and other big spending announcements, such as Labor’s 2022 promise to bring investment in the Great Barrier Reef to $1.2 billion by 2030, or the Coalition’s 2025 plan to build its first nuclear reactors by the middle of next decade.

    Even five-year promises — whether to build 30,000 social and affordable homes or cut 41,000 public service jobs — aren’t particularly helpful when terms are three years long.

    Certainly, governments should set long-term priorities. But if pledges won’t be completely fulfilled, voters should at least know what to expect during the coming term.

    One way to gauge if parties are serious about promises is if they have outlined the shorter steps required to reach their longer-term goals.

    Can it be measured?

    The difference between concrete promises and mere rhetoric largely boils down to whether a pledge can be objectively measured.

    Sometimes a promise can seem measurable but still lack a reliable or definitive measure to assess it when the time comes.

    Jobs targets are a classic example of this, seen in the Coalition’s 2022 election pitch to create “1.3 million new jobs” and also Labor’s recent boast to have delivered “a million new jobs”.

    As experts have persistently pointed out, these numbers do not account for population growth or, importantly, the fact that governments cannot take credit for every new private sector job.

    Another example is Labor’s infamous promise to shave $275 off the average annual household electricity bill by 2025. While there is good data to track electricity bills, we won’t have the numbers necessary to assess the most recent term until mid-2026.

    When it comes to promises that depend on specific figures, voters should consider whether they will have reliable data to assess the final outcome.

    Lacking the details

    Parties regularly dole out promises at press conferences along the campaign trail, but these announcements can be vaguely worded, leaving voters to fill in the blanks.

    For example, Labor’s 2022 pledge to “get real wages growing” could have been understood several different ways, including as a promise to increase wages during just one quarter. (Our promise tracker took it to mean wages would be higher at the end of the government’s term than at the start.)

    In fairness, parties do often publish their policies online, but these documents can be light on specifics.

    During the current campaign, for example, Labor has promised to spend $1 billion in mental health support. Its policy says the funding will build or upgrade more than 100 mental health centres — but has so far neglected to say when that will happen in their policy documents.

    The finer details can sometimes be found in a party’s costing documents, which also show whether funding announcements are already budgeted or genuinely new, although the major parties often release these documents only days out from the election.

    This can leave little time for serious public scrutiny or analysis, especially for early voters, who in this election could account for half the electorate.

    So before you vote, it’s worth checking whether more details have been released about the promises that matter to you.

    The importance of keeping track

    Promise tracking helps voters hold their government to account by ensuring politicians don’t wriggle out of their commitments.

    Many will recall, for example, Labor’s 2022 pledge to “establish a Makarrata Commission with responsibility for truth-telling and treaty” — and, following the Voice referendum, the prime minister’s attempt to recast it as a general commitment to the “process” of Indigenous reconciliation.

    Equally, it’s important that governments aren’t held to promises they never made.

    In the case of Labor’s energy bills pledge, the Coalition has begun to claim that voters were promised a $275 “per year” saving but that household bills had instead increased by $1,300. That total appears to represent a tally of unconfirmed cumulative increases over each of the government’s three years, whereas Labor promised to deliver its $275 reduction “by 2025”.

    Despite popular opinion, governments in Australia and abroad typically deliver on the majority of their promises.

    But convincing voters of that fact requires giving them enough details to know what they are voting for and, ultimately, to assess whether it has been achieved.

    Lisa Waller receives funding from The Australian Research Council

    David Campbell, Eiddwen Jeffery, and Frank Rindert Algra-Maschio 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. From the doable to the downright impossible: your guide to making sense of election promises – https://theconversation.com/from-the-doable-to-the-downright-impossible-your-guide-to-making-sense-of-election-promises-253554

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Curious Kids: if heat rises, why does it get colder in the mountains?

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Renwick, Professor, Physical Geography (Climate Science), Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington

    Shutterstock/EvaL Miko

    If heat rises, why does it get colder as you climb up mountains?

    – Ollie, 8, Christchurch, New Zealand

    That is an excellent and thoughtful question Ollie – why indeed?

    You’re right, when air is warmed, it rises. This is what gives us the “thermals” gliders can use to soar upwards and large birds of prey like the South American condors use to help them stay aloft for hours at a time.

    But there are lots of other things influencing air temperature. When air rises, it expands because air pressure decreases with height. The energy in the air gets spread out over greater volumes and its temperature goes down.

    This effect wins out over warm air rising. The warm air in a thermal will cool as it rises, until it reaches the temperature of the air around it and is no longer buoyant.

    But why do we have rising air at all?

    That’s because the air around us is heated from below, from Earth’s surface.

    When the Sun is shining, it doesn’t heat the air in the lowest few kilometres of the atmosphere (the troposphere) as there are very few gases in that air to absorb sunlight.

    The Sun’s rays heat Earth, not the air. The air is then warmed from below, from the ground, just as water in a pot on a stove is warmed from the bottom of the pot.

    Earth’s greenhouse

    Earth mostly sends energy back to space in the form of heat or infrared radiation (with wavelengths longer than visible light but shorter than microwaves), and there are plenty of gases in the air that are good at absorbing this kind of radiation, even if they don’t feel the sun’s energy.

    These are what we call greenhouse gases – water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane and so on. Because we have these in the air, the absorption of infrared energy is the main way the air is warmed.

    Again, air near the ground is warmed the most by this absorption of energy.
    The warm air near Earth is buoyant so it often “bubbles up” into the atmosphere, just like the water in a pot on a stove.

    But in the atmosphere, the decrease of pressure with height dictates that temperatures decrease as you go up. This is what’s known in weather jargon as the “lapse rate” – how fast temperatures decrease with height. In dry air (no water vapour), that rate is just under 10°C per kilometre, or a little under 1°C cooler per 100 metres upwards.

    As warm and wet air cools as it rises, water vapour condenses to form clouds.
    Shutterstock/Klanarong Chitmung

    When we have water vapour in the air, it’s a different story. As the air rises and cools, it can’t hold so much water vapour, so some of the vapour has to condense back into liquid water. As it does that, it releases the energy it took to evaporate it in the first place.

    That heat warms the air and reduces the “lapse rate”. How big this effect is depends on how much moisture was in the air to start with. On average, the temperature decrease of about 10°C per kilometre goes down to around 6.5°C per kilometre.

    And what happens to that liquid water in the air? If forms tiny droplets that make clouds. If enough of those drops stick together and become heavy enough, they’ll fall back to Earth as rain.

    Clouds, rain and lightning

    We have clouds and rain because temperatures decrease with height. The clouds that form this way, through buoyant air rising in thermals, are known as cumulus clouds.

    Cumulus always have lumpy tops, looking a bit like a cauliflower. That’s because different parts of the rising air have different amounts out water vapour in them. So different amounts of energy are released, giving the air different buoyancy in different places. The moistest, most buoyant air rises the highest, while drier less buoyant air doesn’t make it so far up.

    If there is lots of moisture available, we can get a thunderstorm cloud, with thunder and lightning as well as plenty of rain. Not just rain either, but often hail (frozen rain).

    That happens because the temperature in the upper parts of such deep clouds is well below freezing, so it is made up of ice crystals rather than water drops. Those ice crystals can stick together to form hail, or snow.

    Lightning forms because of positive electrical charges at the top of clouds and negative charges at the bottom.
    Shutterstock/Athapet Piruksa

    Curiously, it’s the collisions between ice crystals and water drops as they go up and down in a deep cumulus cloud that gives rise to lightning, with a build-up of positive electrical charges at the top of the cloud and negative charges at the bottom.

    Getting back to your original question, why is it colder in the mountains? That’s because as we climb a mountain, we are moving into cooler layers of the atmosphere. We are getting above the surface layers of the atmosphere, going to lower pressures, and that causes the temperature to drop.

    Warm air can still rise from a mountaintop, but it’ll be cooler to start with than air down at sea level, just because it’s at a lower pressure. Climbers who tackle really high mountains, like Mount Everest, usually take oxygen cylinders with them as the air is so thin near the top of such high peaks.

    That’s also why snow and ice linger on mountain tops, as that’s where it is cold enough year-round to keep the ice frozen.

    Hello curious kids! Do you have a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.

    James Renwick receives funding from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE). He is a member of the Green Party.

    – ref. Curious Kids: if heat rises, why does it get colder in the mountains? – https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-if-heat-rises-why-does-it-get-colder-in-the-mountains-252911

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: A secret mathematical rule has shaped the beaks of birds and other dinosaurs for 200 million years

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathleen Garland, PhD Candidate, School of Biological Sciences, Monash University

    The faces of living and extinct theropod dinosaurs. Left: Riya Bidaye; right: Indian Roller model (NHMUK S1987) from TEMPO bird project – MorphoSource.

    Bird beaks come in almost every shape and size – from the straw-like beak of a hummingbird to the slicing, knife-like beak of an eagle.

    We have found, however, that this incredible diversity is underpinned by a hidden mathematical rule that governs the growth and shape of beaks in nearly all living birds.

    What’s more, this rule even describes beak shape in the long-gone ancestors of birds – the dinosaurs. We are excited to share our findings, now published in the journal iScience.

    By studying beaks in light of this mathematical rule, we can understand how the faces of birds and other dinosaurs evolved over 200 million years. We can also find out why, in rare instances, these rules can be broken.

    When nature follows the rules

    Finding universal rules in biology is rare and difficult – there seem to be few instances where physical laws are so pervasive across all organisms.

    But when we do find a rule, it’s a powerful way to explain the patterns we see in nature. Our team previously discovered a new rule of biology that explains the shape and growth of many pointed structures, including teeth, horns, hooves, shells and, of course, beaks.

    This simple mathematical rule captures how the width of a pointed structure, like a beak, expands from the tip to the base. We call this rule the “power cascade”.

    After this discovery, we were very interested in how the power cascade might explain the shape of bird and other dinosaur beaks.

    Dinosaurs got their beaks more than once

    Most dinosaurs, like Tyrannosaurus rex, have a robust snout with pointed teeth. But some dinosaurs (like the emu-like dinosaur Ornithomimus edmontonicus) did not have any teeth at all and instead had beaks.

    In theropods, the group of dinosaurs that T. rex belonged to, beaks evolved at least six times. Each time, the teeth were lost and the snout stretched to a beak shape over millions of years.

    But only one of these impeccable dinosaur groups survived the mass extinction event 66 million years ago. These survivors eventually became our modern-day birds.

    The early bird catches the rule

    To investigate the power cascade rule of growth, we researched 127 species of theropods. We found that 95% of theropod beaks and snouts follow this rule.

    Using state-of-the-art evolutionary analyses through computer modelling, we demonstrated that the ancestral theropod most likely had a toothed snout that followed the power cascade rule.

    Excitingly, this suggests that the power cascade describes the growth of not just theropod beaks and snouts, but perhaps the snouts of all vertebrates: mammals, reptiles and fish.

    An evolutionary tree showing how theropod beaks and snouts follow the power cascade throughout their evolution.
    Garland et al., iScience 2025

    The rule followers and breakers

    After surviving the mass extinction, birds underwent a period of incredible change. Birds now live all over the world and their beaks are adapted to each place in very special ways.

    We see beak shapes for eating fruit, netting insects, piercing and tearing meat, and even sipping nectar. The majority follow the power cascade growth rule.

    All these bird beaks follow the power cascade rule of growth, despite being used for very different purposes.
    Eastern osprey by Phill Wall (modified, CC BY 2.0), Eurasian hoopoe by Giles Laurent (modified, CC BY-SA 4.0), common ostrich by Diego Delso (modified, CC BY-SA 4.0) and bar-tailed godwit by JJ Harrison (modified, CC BY-SA 4.0).

    While rare, a few birds we studied were rule-breakers. One such rule-breaker is the Eurasian spoonbill, whose highly specialised beak shape helps it sift through the mud to capture aquatic life. Perhaps its unique feeding style led to it breaking this common rule.

    The beak of a Eurasian spoonbill does not follow the power cascade rule of growth.
    Eurasian spoonbill by Swardeepak (modified,CC BY-SA 4.0)

    We are not upset at all about rule-breakers like the spoonbill. On the contrary, this further highlights how informative the power cascade truly is. Most bird beaks grow according to our rule, and those beaks can cater to most feeding styles.

    But occasionally, oddballs like the spoonbill break the power cascade growth rule to catch their special “worms”.

    Now that we know that most bird and dinosaur beaks follow the power cascade, the next big step in our research is to study how bird beaks grow from chick to adult.

    If the power cascade is truly a foundational growth rule in bird beaks, we may expect to find it hiding in many other forms across the tree of life.

    Kathleen Garland receives funding from the Australian Government, Monash University and Museums Victoria.

    Alistair Evans receives funding from the Australian Research Council and Monash University, and is an Honorary Research Affiliate with Museums Victoria.

    – ref. A secret mathematical rule has shaped the beaks of birds and other dinosaurs for 200 million years – https://theconversation.com/a-secret-mathematical-rule-has-shaped-the-beaks-of-birds-and-other-dinosaurs-for-200-million-years-254481

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: International Academy of Astronautics to host workshop on asteroids

    Source: South Africa News Agency

    Sunday, April 20, 2025

    The International Academy of Astronautics (IAA), in collaboration with South African scientific institutions will host a workshop to introduce the Planetary Defense Conference and pioneering research being conducted by the African astronomical community on asteroids and Near-Earth Objects (NEOs).

    The workshop will be held on 3 May 2025 at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS) in the Western Cape.

    According to the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO), the workshop aims to introduce local communications professionals and science writers to the Planetary Defense Conference and the pioneering research being conducted by the African astronomical community on asteroids and NEOs.

    “Through this engagement, we seek to enhance public awareness and media coverage of Africa’s contributions to planetary defense,” the SAAO said.

    In addition, the workshop will serve as a platform to introduce the media to the 2029 International Year of Asteroid Awareness and Planetary Defense.

    “The public’s curiosity on the topic of NEOs could help drive discussion and collaborative efforts to celebrate and promote this global initiative,” the statement read. 

    Key speakers at the event will include Alex Karl, the Chair of the IAA organising committee, and Dr Nicolas Erasmus from the SAAO, where one of NASA’s Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS) asteroid alert system telescopes is located.

    The SAAO serves as the national centre for optical and infrared astronomy. – SAnews.gov.za

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi Condemns Antisemitic Graffiti at Northwestern University

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi (8th District of Illinois)

    SCHAUMBURG, IL – In response to reports of antisemitic graffiti discovered at Northwestern University this week during Passover, Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi issued the following statement: 

    “I condemn in the strongest terms the vile antisemitic graffiti discovered at Northwestern University earlier this week during Passover. Targeting Jewish students and the community during a sacred time of remembrance and resilience is especially hateful. We must stand united against antisemitism in all its forms and ensure those responsible are held fully accountable.”

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI China: Instant tax refunds give wings to China Travel

    Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News

    BEIJING, April 20 — At a bustling department store in Guangzhou, south China, a Singaporean surnamed Lee picked up more than just premium Chinese tea for friends and family — he also walked away with a tax refund, pocketed instantly at the point of purchase.

    “Super convenient,” said the tech entrepreneur, who was in town for a tech fair, applauding China’s new refund policy that spares international travelers the long queues at airports and puts money back in their accounts then and there.

    China is expanding the coverage of instant tax refunds to improve the experience for international travelers. In Shanghai, the service has been available in about half of the city’s tax refund partner stores.

    The policy, extended nationwide on April 8, builds on a slew of recent efforts by China to boost global exchanges and mobility, such as easing its visa policies, enhancing payment accessibility, and streamlining customs clearance.

    These shifts have made exploring the country easier than ever, fueling a surge in “China Travel” content on social media platforms. For example, U.S. content creator IShowSpeed documented his kung fu journey at the famous Shaolin Temple in central China, captivating global audiences.

    In 2024, China recorded 64.88 million border crossings by foreign nationals, an 82.9 percent increase year on year. In the first quarter of 2025, this number stood at 17.44 million, up 33.4 percent compared to the same period in 2024.

    During Lee’s ten-day stay in China, he zipped through industrial parks, financial centers, and high-tech hubs across the industrial powerhouse, bringing home not just souvenirs but also promising partnerships.

    Analysts believe that the recent expansion of the tax refund policy will increase spending by inbound travelers, spur growth in China’s tourism sector, and draw more visitors eager to explore the country.

    On the ground, the effects are already visible. At the Grand Pacific, a shopping mall in downtown Beijing, staff reported long queues at tax refund counters. “It’s now routine to see waves of foreign tourists lining up. Some leave with a few items, others with entire hauls,” one employee said.

    Qin Yi, manager of a porcelain shop in Shanghai, noted that foreign tourists who receive instant tax refunds in cash often make additional purchases on the spot — a trend that has helped drive up the store’s overall sales.

    Inbound consumption in China is expected to exceed 1.5 trillion yuan (around 205 billion U.S. dollars) over the next five years, said economist Hong Tao at Beijing Technology and Business University. In 2024, inbound travelers spent over 94.2 billion dollars in China, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

    As U.S. tariffs inflate the cost of Chinese imports, traveling to China makes more economic sense for savvy American shoppers.

    Thanks to the new transit policy for citizens from 54 countries, including the United States, Americans can now stay in the country for up to 240 hours without a visa. Pair that with the freshly expanded refund-upon-purchase policy, and travelers would get a compelling formula: travel, shop, save — and repeat.

    “There’s no middleman taking a cut,” as many put it. And the math checks out: with an 11 percent refund rate, spending 10,000 yuan gets people 1,100 yuan back. Though a service fee is charged, luxury goods, electronics, and other high-value items still look a lot more attractive.

    Far from dimming their allure, U.S. tariffs have thrown a new spotlight on Chinese products, long prized for both quality and affordability.

    “If the high U.S. tariffs persist, we may see the rise of a ‘daigou’ trade,” said Wang Huayu, an associate professor of fiscal and tax law at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, referring to a practice that Americans pay intermediaries to shop in China on their behalf.

    However, delivering a premium shopping experience to attract inbound travelers requires more than policy changes, said experts.

    It is important to bring more shops and a wider range of goods into the refund-upon-purchase program, said Hong.

    Wang Peng, a researcher at Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, pointed to the power of digital contracts to slash the tax refund process down to mere seconds.

    He also highlighted how artificial intelligence could step in to ease peak-hour pressure, standardize shopping services, and close infrastructure gaps across regions.

    In Guangzhou, where Singaporean visitor Lee explored, a commentary carried by a local newspaper on April 10 has called for more efforts to identify choke points to make shopping in China more enjoyable.

    “I’ll visit China again — and next time, I’m bringing my family and friends along,” said Lee.

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI Global: 80 years after atomic bombs devastated Japan, Donald Trump’s actions risk nuclear proliferation

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Jamie Levin, Associate Professor of Political Science, St. Francis Xavier University

    The policy of every American president since Harry S. Truman has been to limit the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

    They have not always been successful. The world’s most powerful weapons spread, with nine countries now possessing them. But no United States president has actively sought their further proliferation, as the belligerent policies of Donald Trump are now set to do.

    In 2018, during his first term as president, Trump tore up the Iran nuclear deal, which had successfully placed limits on the enrichment of weapons-grade materials in exchange for sanctions relief.

    Iran has since accelerated its nuclear weapons program. Estimates now put Iran within months or even weeks of producing several bombs.

    A short time later, after a series of escalating threats, Trump suggested that North Korea had agreed to denuclearize. Talks ensued, but a deal never materialized.

    In fact, Trump failed to stop, let alone roll back, North Korea’s ambitious nuclear weapons programs. North Korea is now said to possess at least 50 warheads as well as the means to deliver them.

    No longer an ally

    Under the second Trump administration, the world is facing a rapidly growing proliferation risk of a different kind, one that is found not only among the usual suspects in Iran and North Korea, but also among a long list of U.S. allies who once basked in American security guarantees.

    Merely two months into Trump’s second term, America’s European allies have grown increasingly concerned that the U.S. is no longer a reliable ally.

    That’s due to his suspension (and then reinstatement) of weapons transfers and intelligence sharing with Ukraine, an explicitly prioritized rapprochement with Russia, open denigration of its NATO allies, suggestions that the U.S. would not come to their defence if attacked, and his active and repeated threats to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Canada, Greenland and Panama.

    Against this backdrop, Trump’s guiding Project 2025 principles advocate escalating nuclear testing, breaking a long-held taboo.

    Once protected by its nuclear umbrella, America’s closest allies are now threatened by it. Europe’s loss of confidence in the U.S. is so severe that finding alternatives has now become part of serious discussions in capitals across the continent. France and the United Kingdom are poised to fill the void by extending their nuclear deterrence to the likes of Germany and Poland.

    The scene in Asia

    But the risk of proliferation is greatest in East Asia. On the campaign trail in 2016, Trump mused that Japan and South Korea might need to develop nuclear weapons. “It’s only a matter of time,” he said.

    That time is unfortunately now.

    While Trump has been busy burning bridges in Europe and North America, his allies in East Asia — South Korea and Japan — have been watching the implosion of the U.S.-led international order in dismay. They have no alternative to the American nuclear umbrella but to build their own deterrent capabilities.

    Polls now show that more than two-thirds of South Koreans support their country’s acquisition of nuclear weapons independent of the U.S. Key figures across the political spectrum as well as a growing chorus of academics and journalists have also openly floated the idea of nuclearization.

    To address South Korea’s growing anxiety and check its nascent nuclear ambitions, the previous Joe Biden administration launched a bilateral initiative called Nuclear Consultative Group in 2023.

    It established a regular mechanism between the two countries to discuss the state of the nuclear umbrella and perform joint defence exercises. This measure went a long way to quiet the voices calling for South Korean nuclearization — until Trump returned to the White House.

    South Korea

    Trump’s so-called America First foreign policy has given every reason for South Korea to once again question the reliability of U.S. security guarantees. If the Trump administration is willing to throw its oldest and closest allies in the North Atlantic under the bus, there is little reason for South Koreans to place their continued faith in the U.S.

    As important as South Korea has been to an American grand strategy, it has always been a second-tier ally and its bilateral alliance with the U.S. was never as important as NATO or as special as the Canada-U.S. relationship. South Korea is much more vulnerable to abandonment, and it now appears to be expandable in the second Trump administration.

    Going nuclear is not a question of means for South Korea. It has one of the most advanced civilian nuclear industries in the world, with 24 reactors in operation and more than enough scientific know-how to churn out weapons in a short time, estimated at six to 12 months.

    The question has always been one of political will, the absence of which has rested on American security assurances. With the Trump administration actively demolishing security guarantees to its closest allies, South Korea may conclude that the only viable path to its continued existence in the post-American world is acquiring nuclear weapons.

    Japan

    South Korea’s nuclearization would likely lead to a domino effect, triggering a new wave of nuclear proliferation across the region. If South Korea makes a dash for the bomb, Japan will have no choice but to follow suit.

    Japan has a full nuclear fuel cycle, including a uranium enrichment plant, spent-fuel reprocessing facilities, nine tons plutonium and 1.2 tons of enriched uranium that can be easily fashioned into thousands of nuclear bombs in as little as six months.

    While the tragedies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have long served as a guardrail against nuclearization in Japan, that moral taboo was sustained by a credible U.S. nuclear umbrella. And once the nuclear genie is out of the bottle, Taiwan will have every incentive to resurrect its earlier clandestine nuclear weapons program and seek its own deterrence capability.

    Catastrophic dangers

    While going nuclear may be individually rational for the East Asian countries, the collective outcome for the region and beyond is fraught with catastrophic risks.

    The world is now grappling with the most dangerous collective action problem because the solution that has worked so well for decades — credible American security assurance — is eroding.

    In upending the very international order that the U.S. established, the Trump administration is not merely chipping away at the global security architecture underpinned by myriad American security guarantees. It’s imploding the post-Second World War security order from within and the moral, political and institutional bulwark against nuclear proliferation.

    In this predatory, zero-sum world of Trumpian foreign policy, putting America First necessarily means putting everyone else last — and, along the way, inadvertently fuelling nuclear proliferation.

    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. 80 years after atomic bombs devastated Japan, Donald Trump’s actions risk nuclear proliferation – https://theconversation.com/80-years-after-atomic-bombs-devastated-japan-donald-trumps-actions-risk-nuclear-proliferation-254459

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Election Diary: Coalition makes ‘law-and-order’ pitch, with plan to invest proceeds of drug crime into communities

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

    As it seeks to gain some momentum for its campaign, the Coalition on Monday will focus on law and order, announcing $355 million for a National Drug Enforcement and Organised Crime Strike Team to fight the illicit drug trade.

    A Dutton government would put Australian Federal Police teams into the states and territories, which would be nationally led and supported by specialist financial investigative and prosecutorial teams.

    This would bring an anticipated “significant increase in the seizure of criminal assets and proceeds of crime, which we will reinvest into communities,” Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and shadow ministers said in a statement.

    “This means every dollar seized from drug dealers and criminal cartels will go towards helping the families and communities devastated by their crimes.”

    In what it dubs a crackdown on crime from “the border to the backyard” the opposition has brought together its various initiatives in a $750 million “Operation Safer Communities” package. Apart from the taskforce, other measures have been previously announced.

    The initiatives include:

    • new laws to disrupt organised criminal syndicates

    • upgrading border screening to intercept drugs and cracking down on the importation of date-rape drugs used in drink spiking

    • extra funding for Crime Stoppers

    • more money for the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation, and piloting a national child sex offenders disclosure scheme that would provide more information to parents about the risks in their communities

    • investment in e-safety education through the Alannah and Madeline Foundation

    • introducing national “post and boast” laws making it illegal to post social media material glamorising involvement in crime

    • working with other jurisdictions to standardise knife crime laws, and funding a national rollout of detector wands

    • restoring the Safer Communities Fund to support local projects to improve social cohesion

    • reintroducing fast track processes for visa appeals to deal with bad actors overstaying.

    The Coalition is also promising stronger action against antisemitism and against corruption and crime in the construction industry.

    Dutton said the community felt less safe than three years ago.

    “I have the experience and determination to stand up to the outlaw motor cycle gangs and organised crime syndicates which are wreaking havoc on our streets and in our communities.”

    Opposition defence spending announcement this week

    The Coalition this week will release its long-awaited defence policy.

    The Australian Financial Review is reporting it will be based on two stages. The first would be a target above Labor’s proposed spending over the forward estimates. A second stage would be a target of spending at least 2.5% of gross domestic product annually in the early 2030s.

    Greens say public service should prepare a brief on their policies too

    The major parties are always saying they don’t want to get ahead of themselves – being seen to assume the outcome before the election is decided. The Greens have no such inhibition.

    Greens leader Adam Bandt has written to the Secretary of the
    Prime Minister’s Department, Glyn Davis, declaring minority government looks probable.

    “It is increasingly clear that whoever forms government will likely rely on crossbench support, and in turn need to be in a position to discuss in detail the policy proposals put forward by members of the crossbench,” he said in his letter, sent on Thursday.

    So Bandt wants the public service to prepare a brief on Greens’ policies, to assist any such negotiations.

    The context is that the bureaucracy prepares so-called “red” (Labor) and “blue” (Coalition) books, which contain briefs on the policies of each side. The appropriate book is ready for whoever wins.

    Bandt wants a “green book” prepared. “This will enable an incoming government to discuss and begin to implement key policy priorities of the Australian Greens, should they agree to them during negotiations in relation to the formation of government.”

    Bandt said as a “top priority” in this exercise, the public service should prepare in-depth work on reforming negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount. This should cover reducing these concessions for investors owning more than one property, which the Greens support.

    Bandt referred the bureaucracy to work done by the Australia Institute, a progressive think tank, and to the views of various economic commentators who have advocated reform.

    He also pointed to Treasury advice on the subject, over which debate flared last week, when Anthony Albanese claimed the government had not asked for modelling. Treasurer Jim Chalmers said he had asked for a “view ” from Treasury. The government says it has no plans to change negative gearing arrangements.

    Albanese has repeatedly ruled out negotiating with the Greens if he was forced into minority government. But he wouldn’t need to – the Greens have said they would not have a bar of giving support to a Dutton minority government.

    How important the Greens were when it came to particular pieces of legislation in a hung parliament would depend on the actual numbers. including how many crossbenchers a minority government needed to pass bills and how big the crossbench was. The bigger the crossbench, potentially the more choice of dancing partners for the government.

    The importance of the lower house Greens if there was a minority government would also depend on how many of them there were. Bandt is safe in his seat of Melbourne, but the other three Greens, all from Queensland, won their seats in 2022 and these electorates are being strongly targeted by the major parties.

    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. Election Diary: Coalition makes ‘law-and-order’ pitch, with plan to invest proceeds of drug crime into communities – https://theconversation.com/election-diary-coalition-makes-law-and-order-pitch-with-plan-to-invest-proceeds-of-drug-crime-into-communities-254588

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Global: 150 years ago, the Metre Convention determined how we measure the world — a radical initiative for the time

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Jonathan Simone, Adjunct Professor of Biological Sciences, Brock University

    Unified systems of measurement are important for scientific progress. (Shutterstock)

    On May 20, 1875, delegates from a group of 17 countries gathered in Paris to sign what may be the most overlooked yet globally influential treaty in history: the Metre Convention.

    At a time when different countries (and even different cities defined weights and lengths based on local artifacts, royal body parts or grains of wheat, this rare agreement among nations offered something simple yet undeniably impactful: consistency.

    A radical initiative for its time, the Metre Convention ultimately birthed a system of measurement that would transcend language, politics and tradition, and lay the foundation for a new global era of scientific and technological advancement.

    Official engraved marble standard metre, at the Place Vendôme in Paris. The standard was promoted during the French Revolution to introduce the metric system to France.
    (Shutterstock)

    A world divided by measurement

    By the mid-19th century, the push for standardization had become increasingly urgent. Scientific discovery was accelerating, global trade was booming and industrial projects were growing in scale and complexity. But the world’s measurements were, frankly, a mess.

    France had introduced the metric system during its revolutionary years, but other nations were slow — or outright unwilling — to adopt it.

    Rivalries simmered not just among empires, but within the scientific community itself. Astronomers couldn’t compare celestial observations across borders because their units didn’t match. Engineers designing railway systems across Europe had to navigate conflicting standards for track gauges, load weights and even timekeeping.

    This wasn’t just inefficient. It was a barrier to progress, a strain on economies and a growing source of frustration or a scientific world that aimed to speak in universal truths.

    Faced with growing societal demands, the industrial world agreed it was time to act. The Metre Convention was the result.

    Scientists and diplomats representing the 17 participating countries collectively established the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM), headquartered just outside Paris, as the official keeper of measurement standards. Today, the BIPM is backed by 64 member states and governs the Système International d’Unités (SI), the measurement framework that underpins everything from bridges to smartphones.

    When standards fail

    Developing and agreeing on a system of units is the mandate of the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures.
    (Bureau International des Poids et Mesures), CC BY-ND

    And while by today’s standards, the SI may seem like a relic of old-school science bureaucracy, it’s anything but. Standardized measurement is the invisible infrastructure of the modern world. And when it fails, or more specifically when we ignore it, the consequences can be severe.

    Take the Gimli Glider incident. In 1983, an Air Canada flight from Montréal to Edmonton ran out of fuel midway through its journey. The cause was a miscalculation caused by confusion between metric and imperial units: the ground crew had used pounds instead of kilograms to measure fuel, and the pilots didn’t catch the error.

    The plane lost power at 41,000 feet (around 12,500 metres for those who prefer their near-death experiences in metric), and glided safely to an abandoned airstrip in Gimli, Man., and to the annals of history as a symbol of what happens when we take standards for granted.

    Or consider the Mars Climate Orbiter, a US$327 million NASA spacecraft that disintegrated upon entering Mars’ atmosphere in 1999. Engineers at Lockheed Martin had used imperial units, while NASA had assumed metric. The mismatch led to a critical navigation error and the failure of the mission, highlighting the importance of consistency in measurement, even far beyond the confines of Earth’s atmosphere.

    The Gimli Glider and Mars Orbiter failures show what happens when consistency breaks down, but they’re more than just cautionary tales. They reveal how much of modern life depends on the shared language of measurement, and how easily that foundation can be cracked.

    And therein lies the genius of the Metre Convention. It created a system that allows the world to communicate in the same terms. When someone says “kilogram,” “second” or “volt,” there is no ambiguity. That shared understanding is what makes global collaboration possible.

    The Mars Climate Orbiter at the Spacecraft Assembly and Encapsulation Facility in the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
    (NASA/KSC)

    From man-made objects to universal constants

    But as scientists are wont to do, good ideas are refined, and standards evolve. For much of its post-Metre Convention history, the kilogram was defined by a physical artifact — a hunk of platinum-iridium alloy stored in a vault in France. But in 2019, that changed. Now, the kilogram is defined by Planck’s constant, a fundamental feature of the universe. The shift marked the final step in a long journey: every base unit in the SI is now rooted in nature rather than arbitrary human artifacts.



    Read more:
    Redefining the kilogram means redefining how we measure wealth

    That change wasn’t just symbolic, it was necessary. Our ability to measure time, mass and distance with extreme precision affects nearly every aspect of modern life.

    GPS signals rely on time measurements accurate to the billionth of a second. Quantum computers and particle accelerators require calibration on mind-bendingly small scales. Even weather forecasting depends on standardized measurements of pressure, temperature and humidity.

    Shared standards in a divided world

    But perhaps the most underrated legacy of the Metre Convention is its role in building trust across borders.

    At a time when misinformation spreads quickly and even basic facts are contested, international standards offer a shared foundation that scientists, governments and industries can rely on. It’s a form of global co-operation that has quietly endured for 150 years.

    That co-operation becomes particularly apparent in moments of political strain. Although the United States appears uncompromising in its commitment to feet and inches, American scientists, engineers and manufacturers rely heavily on the metric system, especially when collaborating across borders.

    As tensions rise between close allies like the U.S. and Canada, metric standards remain a consistent point of harmony. The two countries may spar diplomatically, but when it comes to assembling a car in Windsor with parts made in Detroit, the bolts still fit.

    Looking ahead

    Still, like all institutions, BIPM and the SI reflect the times in which they were created. The original signatories were almost exclusively colonial powers. It took almost a century for other nations to gain an equal seat at the table, and even now, access to the tools and infrastructure that facilitate precision metrology — the act of taking extremely accurate measurements — remains unequal.

    If the next 150 years of the Metre Convention are to be as successful as the first, greater inclusivity and accessibility will need to be central to its mission.

    We live in a world held together by decimals, tolerances and agreed-upon constants that keep planes in the air, bridges from collapsing and scientific progress on track.

    The Metre Convention reminds us that science isn’t only about big breakthroughs and bold ideas. Sometimes it’s about consensus and agreeing, together, on what a metre actually is. And even after 150 years, the simple idea of agreeing how to measure the world remains one of humanity’s greatest achievements.

    So, what should we do with this anniversary? Maybe throw a party with metric-themed cocktails (may I suggest a 100mL Old Fashioned?). At the very least, we should take a moment to reflect on just how essential, and how easy to overlook, measurement really is.

    Jonathan Simone 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. 150 years ago, the Metre Convention determined how we measure the world — a radical initiative for the time – https://theconversation.com/150-years-ago-the-metre-convention-determined-how-we-measure-the-world-a-radical-initiative-for-the-time-252108

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Women are steadier leaders in times of crisis, but they are still being overlooked

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Ivona Hideg, Associate Professor and Ann Brown Chair in Organization Studies, York University, Canada

    One persistent gender stereotype is the belief that women are ‘too emotional’ to be effective leaders. This misconception continues to undermine their chances of being considered for leadership roles in the first place. (Shutterstock)

    Please fill out your disclosure statement (red button to the right under your name) when you have a chance

    As Canadians prepare to vote in a federal election during a period of global instability marked by trade disruptions, economic uncertainty, and armed conflict, the country’s political leadership remains notably traditional in one key respect: gender.

    All of Canada’s major political parties are currently led by men, and Canada has never elected a woman as prime minister. Kim Campbell briefly held the office in 1993 after Brian Mulroney’s resignation as leader of the Progressive Conservative Party. Her short tenure ended with a historic electoral defeat for the Conservatives.

    With global tensions rising and Canada facing unprecedented uncertainties, it may seem easy to overlook the lack of women on election ballots. But strong, inclusive leadership is a practical necessity in these uncertain times.

    A growing body of research and real-world examples are challenging longstanding assumptions about what makes an effective leader. In times of crisis, traditional leadership styles marked by dominance and rigidity — usually associated with men — often fall short.

    Instead, leadership styles marked by empathy, flexibility, and open communication — usually associated with women — are proving to be both effective and essential. This kind of leadership helps steady teams when emotions run high and the path forward is unclear — exactly the kind of qualities Canada may need in the near future.

    Leadership during COVID-19

    One persistent gender stereotype is the belief that women are “too emotional” to be effective leaders. This misconception continues to undermine women’s chances of being considered for leadership roles in the first place.

    However, our research findings challenge this assumption and suggest it’s actually men who are more likely to let emotions drive their behaviour during periods of uncertainty.



    Read more:
    The world needs more women leaders — during COVID-19 and beyond

    Our recently published research examined how gender influenced the behaviour of leaders during the COVID-19 pandemic. We analyzed survey responses from a sample of 137 supervisor-subordinate pairs working in the Netherlands during 2020.

    We focused on two dominant emotions during the pandemic — anxiety and hope — as they are both common responses to uncertainty. Anxiety reflects a sense of lost control, while hope suggests some belief in regaining it. These emotions, we predicted, would would shape leaders’ actions.

    Women less likely to be driven by emotion

    Our study found that men leaders who experienced higher levels of hope were more likely to engage in family friendly supervision, which refers to leaders providing support for employees’ non-work demands. This was especially critical during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    However, when men leaders experienced higher levels of anxiety, they were more likely to act out via abusive supervision. This included snapping at employees, making unreasonable demands, or behaving in a punitive way.

    In contrast, the behaviour of women leaders was not influenced by feelings of anxiety or hope. Regardless of how they felt, women were more likely to show consistent, family-supportive behaviours that helped staff manage work-life challenges. They also refrained from lashing out abusively when anxious.

    These findings aligned with our expectations. We anticipated women would be less likely to act on their emotions than men, as women are often conditioned to put the needs of others above their own, especially in times of stress.

    As a result, we expected — and observed — that women leaders would be less affected by their emotions and more likely to consider others.

    The danger of the glass cliff

    Our research highlights the importance of humanising leadership rooted in communal values. One particularly effective approach that does this is transformational leadership, which focuses on inspiring, supporting, and empowering others.

    Studies show that women are more likely to adopt this leadership style. Yet research also reveals a troubling gap: when women lead this way, they are less likely to be recognized or rewarded for it, compared to men. In many cases, women might behave the same as their men counterparts, yet they are judged differently — not based on what they do, but who they are.

    Women are also more likely to be appointed to leadership roles in times of crisis or decline. This phenomenon, known as the “glass cliff,” places women in precarious positions with limited chances of success.

    Consider the case of Campbell, who became party leader just months before an election her party was widely expected to lose. It could be argued she faced a glass cliff. Rather than a fair shot at leadership, she was handed a near-certain defeat.

    These patterns reflect how deeply embedded gender bias is, and how it continues to influence who gets to lead and under what conditions.



    Read more:
    The ‘glass cliff’ is steep for Canada’s female politicians

    The case for caring leadership

    In the face of ongoing U.S. tariffs, threats on Canada’s sovereignty, and other global issues, Canada needs effective leadership more than ever. But in times of crisis, reacting impulsively to strong emotions can be costly.

    The leadership style that appears most effective during turbulent times is based on communal values of care, rather than impulsively reacting to one’s emotions. As our research shows, this approach is more closely aligned with how women often lead, despite persistent stereotypes suggesting that women are overly emotional.



    Read more:
    Growing threats faced by women candidates undermine our democracy

    Yet, women remain underrepresented in leadership positions, especially in politics. Despite this gap, public conversation on the issue remain noticeably silent.

    Although we can’t rewrite the past, we can reflect on what might be missing from leadership today. When we consistently overlook those who lead with compassion, we risk losing out on exactly the kind of leadership that could help our country navigate the turbulent waters ahead.

    Ivona Hideg’s research has received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

    Winny Shen receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

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

    – ref. Women are steadier leaders in times of crisis, but they are still being overlooked – https://theconversation.com/women-are-steadier-leaders-in-times-of-crisis-but-they-are-still-being-overlooked-254676

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Service closures in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside leave sex workers without vital support

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Jennie Pearson, PhD Candidate, Interdisciplinary Studies Graduate Program, University of British Columbia

    In late February, the PACE Society, a long-standing pillar of support for sex workers in Vancouver, announced it was suspending services and programming and laying off most staff. For more than 30 years, PACE has provided peer support, counselling and basic services using a “by, for and with” sex workers approach.

    Now, amid a funding crisis that has led to layoffs of mostly staff with current or former experience of sex work, the future of vital support services for sex workers in Vancouver is uncertain.

    PACE’s announcement was another heavy loss following a string of closures and service reductions at organizations serving sex workers and other marginalized women in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

    February also marked the closure of the WISH Drop-in Centre. The centre provided essential lifeline for street-based sex workers in the Downtown Eastside, offering overnight respite and critical access to resources for over four decades.

    While PACE and WISH have described their closures as temporary, their eventual reopening remains uncertain. Both organizations intend to resume services with the renewal of the funding cycle in April 2025. In the meantime, sex workers face an urgent and growing void of essential support services and community spaces.

    Making sex workers more vulnerable

    As collaborators on the AESHA Project (An Evaluation of Sex Workers’ Health Access), we have worked in partnership with sex workers and community organizations to document how criminalization, policing and structural inequities impact sex workers’ health and safety.

    For over 14 years, the AESHA Project, based at the University of British Columbia, has highlighted the crucial role of community services in supporting sex workers’ health, safety and well-being and how a lack of funding undermines sex workers’ access to these vital services.

    The loss of safe spaces for sex workers, even temporarily, carries profound and far-reaching consequences. These impacts were thoroughly documented in the findings of the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry, led by former B.C. attorney general Wally Oppal. The inquiry examined systemic failures that contributed to the targeted violence and murders of sex workers in Vancouver.

    Among the commission’s key recommendations was the urgent need to enhance protections and expand access to critical supports for sex workers, recognizing that such services are fundamental to their safety and well-being.

    For years, front-line organizations such as WISH and PACE have been instrumental in advancing this mandate, providing basic necessities like hot meals and safe overnight spaces, as well as trauma-informed counselling, peer support networks and opportunities for community connection. The abrupt closure of these spaces severs support networks for sex workers.

    Chronic under-funding

    Such organizations are vital, and sex workers deserve to feel like these spaces matter and are worth keeping open. However, funding for community-led, rights-based approaches to sex work services has historically been limited in Canada. Federal governments have prioritized prohibitionist approaches and “exit programs” that do not meet community needs.

    Vancouver-based sex work services are not alone in experiencing funding shortfalls and closures. On March 7, SafeSpace London issued an urgent call for donations following the loss of city funding. This dynamic is also visible in Vancouver, where the closure of PACE and other similar organizations is occurring within the context of a broader “revitalization” agenda, which aims to prioritize development over community infrastructure.

    A leaked draft memo from October 2024 revealed Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim’s plan for reshaping the Downtown Eastside. Among these plans is an effort to expedite private development approvals, notably through the use of spot rezoning — a tool that allows municipal authorities to rezone individual outside the city’s established planning frameworks.

    The memo also outlines the Sim’s intention to conduct a comprehensive review of local non-profit organizations and to actively “track their funding envelope.” While framed as a step toward increased accountability, research highlights that heightened scrutiny of chronically under-funded community organizations often leads to greater instability and compromises service delivery.

    Non-profits are in crisis, but this cannot be solved by increased surveillance and funding cuts. Community organizers have critically examined the potential consequences of this development-driven approach, raising concerns that it will accelerate gentrification and undermine the availability of essential community services.

    Community organizations, often relied upon to fill the gaps left by government disinvestment, often face chronic funding shortages. Despite providing essential services, many are forced into cycles of short-term, unstable funding that limit their ability to plan for the long term or advocate for systemic change.

    This precarious situation is not incidental. It reflects a broader shift in recent decades of governments offloading responsibility for social welfare onto under-funded non-profits while maintaining the illusion of support with fragmented funding schemes.

    The closure of critical services is not a sign of individual organizational failure. Rather, it is a direct consequence of a system that prioritizes investments in policing and property development over sustained investment in community well-being and support for the most marginalized residents of Vancouver.

    Organizations that provide critical support to sex workers need stability and self-determination to cultivate meaningful, community-led approaches that meet immediate needs and work toward long-term change.

    Jennie Pearson receives funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and is a volunteer with PACE Society.

    Andrea Krüsi has received funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Vancouver Foundation, National Institutes of Health and Canada Foundation for Innovation. PACE and WISH staff are part of the community advisory board of the AESHA study.

    Melody Wise a Research Coordinator for the AESHA project, a position supported by funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. She is a volunteer with SWAN Vancouver, a non-profit providing support to im/migrant sex workers in Greater Vancouver.

    – ref. Service closures in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside leave sex workers without vital support – https://theconversation.com/service-closures-in-vancouvers-downtown-eastside-leave-sex-workers-without-vital-support-253710

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Newspoll steady as both leaders’ ratings fall; Labor surging in poll of marginal seats

    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 less than two weeks to go now until the federal election, the polls continue to favour the government being returned.

    Newspoll was steady at 52–48 to Labor, but primary vote changes indicated a gain for Labor as both leaders dropped on net approval. A Redbridge marginal seats poll had Labor gaining two points since the previous week for a 54.5–45.5 lead, a 3.5-point swing to Labor in those seats since the 2022 election.

    A national Newspoll, conducted April 14–17 from a sample of 1,263, gave Labor a 52–48 lead, unchanged on the April 7–10 Newspoll. Primary votes were 35% Coalition (steady), 34% Labor (up one), 12% Greens (steady), 7% One Nation (down one) and 12% for all Others (steady).

    In the last two Newspolls, Labor has been a little lucky to get a 52–48 lead as this would have been given by 2022 election preference flows, and Newspoll is making a pro-Coalition adjustment to One Nation preferences. This time the 2022 election flow method would give Labor about a 53–47 lead.

    This Newspoll is the only new national poll since Friday’s update. The fieldwork dates were nearly the same as for the Freshwater poll that had Labor ahead by just 50.3–49.7 (April 14–16 for Freshwater). Other polls indicate that Freshwater is likely the outlier. Here’s the Labor two-party vote chart.

    In-person early voting begins on Tuesday ahead of the May 3 election, so there isn’t much time for the Coalition to turn around their deficit, if the polls are accurate.

    Anthony Albanese’s net approval in Newspoll was down five points to -9, with 52% dissatified and 43% satisfied. Peter Dutton’s net approval was down three points to -22, a record low for him. Albanese led Dutton as better PM by 52–36 (49–38 previously). This is Albanese’s biggest lead since May 2024.

    Here’s the graph of Albanese’s net approval in Newspoll this term. The plus signs are data points and a smoothed line has been fitted.

    Albanese and Labor were preferred to Dutton and the Coalition on helping with the cost of living by 31–28. Labor also led on dealing with uncertainty caused by Donald Trump (39–32), lowering taxes (33–26) and helping Australians buy their first home (29–24). The Coalition led on growing our economy by 34–29.

    For so long, it had appeared that the cost of living issue would sink Labor at this election, so this result will please Labor.

    Labor surges further ahead in Redbridge marginal seats poll

    A poll of 20 marginal seats by Redbridge and Accent Research for the News Corp tabloids was conducted April 9–15 from a sample of 1,000. It gave Labor a 54.5–45.5 lead, a two-point gain for Labor since the April 4–9 marginal seats poll. Primary votes were 35% Labor (steady), 34% Coalition (down two), 14% Greens (up two) and 17% for all Others (steady).

    The overall 2022 vote in these 20 seats was 51–49 to Labor, so this poll implies a 3.5-point swing to Labor from the 2022 election. If applied to the national 2022 result of 52.1–47.9 to Labor, Labor would lead by about 55.5–44.5. Since the first wave of this marginal seats tracker in early February, Labor has gained 6.5 points.

    Albanese’s net favourability improved three points since last week to -5, while Dutton’s slumped six points to -22. By 36–26, voters thought Albanese and Labor had better election promises for them than Dutton and the Coalition.

    By 56–13, voters agreed with Labor’s attack line that Dutton’s nuclear plan will cost $600 billion, and he will need to make cuts to pay for it. By 42–16, voters agreed with the Coalition’s attack line that this is the highest spending government in the past 40 years.

    Additional Resolve questions and a right-wing poll of Wentworth

    I previously covered the April 9–13 Resolve poll for Nine newspapers that gave Labor a 53.5–46.5 lead. Asked their biggest concerns about voting Labor, 47% said cost of living (down five since February), 36% economic management (down nine), 31% lack of progress in their first term (steady), 27% union ties (up two) and 24% Albanese’s personality (down six).

    Asked their biggest concerns about voting for the Coalition, 45% said Dutton’s personality (up ten), 36% lack of policy detail (up eight), 34% that the Coalition would follow Donald Trump’s example (up six), 32% the performance of the Scott Morrison government (up four) and 31% their nuclear power plan (up five).

    The February Resolve poll was the 55–45 to Coalition outlier, so responses in the prior survey were probably too Coalition-friendly.

    The Poll Bludger reported Saturday that a seat poll of Wentworth, which teal Allegra Spender holds by a 55.9–44.1 margin over the Liberals after a redistribution, gave the Liberals a 47–28 primary vote lead over Spender with 15% for Labor and 10% for the Greens. This poll was taken by the right-wing pollster Compass.

    Canadian election and UK local elections

    I covered the April 28 Canadian election for The Poll Bludger on Saturday. The centre-left governing Liberals are down slightly since my previous Poll Bludger Canadian article on April 10, but are still likely to win a parliamentary majority. Debates between four party leaders occurred Wednesday (in French) and Thursday (in English), and we’re still waiting for post-debate polls.

    United Kingdom local elections and a parliamentary byelection will occur on May 1. Current national polls imply that the far-right Reform will gain massively, with the Conservatives and Labour both slumping. Two seat polls give Reform a narrow lead over Labour for the parliamentary byelection in a safe Labour seat.

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

    – ref. Newspoll steady as both leaders’ ratings fall; Labor surging in poll of marginal seats – https://theconversation.com/newspoll-steady-as-both-leaders-ratings-fall-labor-surging-in-poll-of-marginal-seats-254715

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: The government has approved an intersectoral program for the development of student sports until 2030

    Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –

    Source: Government of the Russian Federation – An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.

    Order dated April 10, 2025 No. 881-r

    Document

    Order dated April 10, 2025 No. 881-r

    Strengthening the role of student sports in the system of training the country’s sports reserve, forming a multi-level system of physical education and sports events for students, developing human resources – these are the main tasks of the inter-sectoral program for the development of student sports until 2030. The order approving it was signed by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.

    To further develop the student sports system in universities, it is planned to continue creating sports clubs, national teams and student sports development centers. In addition, the document notes the need to create student leagues for new sports and improve the efficiency of their work.

    The program implementation plan contains about 40 different events. Thus, starting from the fourth quarter of 2025, the Russian Student Sports Union, together with interested federal departments and regions, will monitor the development of student sports. The monitoring report will be submitted to the Ministry of Sports annually. In addition, the Ministry of Education and Science, together with public organizations, will annually update the register of university student sports clubs.

    One of the results of the program implementation should be an increase in the number of students who regularly play sports. In colleges, their share should grow by 12%, in universities – by 14%. In addition, the number of universities whose representatives and teams participate in various All-Russian competitions should increase. If today the share of such universities is 7%, then by 2030 it should grow to 25%. By the same date, the number of student sports leagues in the country should increase from 33 to 40.

    In addition, by 2030, 1,500 teachers and other university employees will have to undergo training in additional professional programs related to the development of student sports. In 2025, 200 specialists will undergo such training.

    “The implementation of the program will contribute to the strengthening of health, harmonious spiritual and moral education of young people, which is also determined by the national goals set by the President,” Mikhail Mishustin noted during Government meetings on April 18.

    The previous inter-sectoral program for the development of student sports was implemented in 2021-2024. One of its results was an increase in the number of students regularly involved in sports – it now stands at about 4 million people. In addition, there are currently more than 2.4 thousand student sports clubs in the country, with more than 1 million students involved. Student sports development programs and implementation plans have been approved in 76 regions.

    The work is being carried out within the framework of the Strategy for the Development of Physical Culture and Sports in the Russian Federation for the Period up to 2030.

    Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Dmitry Chernyshenko: Winners of the Student Design Bureau Competition Announced

    Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –

    Source: Government of the Russian Federation – An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.

    15 universities – winners of the competition of the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia will receive subsidies for the creation and development of student design bureaus (SDB).

    “At a meeting with students of the Bauman Moscow State Technical University, our President Vladimir Putin noted the potential of developments created by student design bureaus. Today, there are 676 such design bureaus in Russia, which employ more than 100 thousand students, postgraduates and young scientists. They have the opportunity to design their own solutions, register patents for inventions in priority areas of scientific and technological development, and also decide on employment,” said Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko.

    The competition was held in two areas: “Student Design Leadership” and “Creation and Development of a Student Design Bureau”. The winners will receive grants of 20 million and 5 million rubles, respectively.

    As the head of the Ministry of Education and Science, Valery Falkov, noted, the creation of a network of youth design bureaus based at universities is one of the effective tools for supporting engineering talent, launched on the instructions of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

    “Highly qualified engineers capable of contributing to the country’s technological leadership are trained at youth design bureaus. Students, postgraduates and young scientists develop competitive technologies, solve specific scientific, technical and engineering problems, and are widely involved in work on orders from industrial enterprises. It is important that the initiative has shown high demand – 178 universities from 81 regions of the country submitted applications for the competition. 15 winning universities will receive support for the creation of new and development of existing sites, including the purchase of modern equipment,” the minister said.

    On April 16, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with students of the Bauman Moscow State Technical University who are actively involved in the work of scientific centers and student design bureaus. The students told about their activities within the SKB and asked the head of state questions about the future of Russian cosmonautics, namely about the development of student initiative projects and Russia’s participation in large space projects.

    The areas of activity of the selected design bureaus cover key strategic areas for the country: unmanned systems, robotics, microelectronics, prototyping, cybersecurity, reverse engineering, electronics and electrical engineering, VR technologies, computer modeling and design, mechanical engineering and instrument making, bioengineering systems, engine building, nuclear and energy technologies, materials science, space technology, ground transport systems.

    The winners in the Student Design Leadership category were:

    ⁃ Moscow State Technical University named after N.E. Bauman;

    ⁃ National University of Science and Technology MISiS;

    ⁃ Samara National Research University named after academician S.P. Korolev;

    ⁃ Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University;

    ⁃ Kuban State Technological University.

    In the direction of “Creation and development of a student design bureau”:

    ⁃ Plekhanov Russian University of Economics;

    ⁃ Southern Federal University;

    ⁃ Donetsk National Technical University;

    ⁃ Kursk State University;

    ⁃ Northern (Arctic) Federal University named after M.V. Lomonosov;

    ⁃ North Caucasus Federal University;

    ⁃ State University of Management;

    ⁃ Penza State University;

    ⁃ Saratov National Research State University named after N.G. Chernyshevsky;

    ⁃ Chuvash State University named after. I.N. Ulyanova.

    Student design bureaus are aimed at developing and involving students in scientific and technical creativity and applied research and development work. They can act as platforms for developing new technical and technological solutions using advanced methods of mathematical and physical modeling. Work in them is based on principles close to real production.

    Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: To Vladimir Vasiliev, People’s Artist of the USSR

    Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –

    Source: Government of the Russian Federation – An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.

    Mikhail Mishustin congratulated the ballet dancer, ballet master, and choreographer on his 85th birthday.

    The telegram, in particular, notes:

    “You are a legend of Russian and world ballet, an outstanding dancer, choreographer and teacher. Your work has remained the standard of the highest skill, rare talent and devotion to art for many decades. The significant contribution you have made to the preservation and development of the best traditions of the Russian ballet school is difficult to overestimate.

    I wish you good health, happiness and prosperity.”

    Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman to leave tonight for an official visit to USA and Peru from 20th to 30th April 2025

    Source: Government of India

    Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman to leave tonight for an official visit to USA and Peru from 20th to 30th April 2025

    Union Finance Minister to attend Spring Meetings of the IMF-World Bank

    FM will also take part in G20 Finance Ministers & Central Bank Governors (FMCBG) meetings besides bilateral meetings with many countries and organisations

    Smt. Sitharaman will participate in multilateral dialogues on various fora to showcase India’s economic dynamism

    Posted On: 19 APR 2025 5:11PM by PIB Delhi

    Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman will embark on an official visit to USA and Peru beginning 20th April, 2025. During the visit to the USA, the Union Finance Minister will visit San Francisco and Washington D.C. from 20th to 25th April, 2025.

    In the course of her two-day visit to San Francisco beginning 20th April 2025, the Union Finance Minister will deliver a keynote address at the Hoover Institution at the Stanford University, San Francisco, on ‘Laying the foundations of Viksit Bharat 2047’ followed by a fireside chat session.

    Smt. Sitharaman will also interact with top CEOs from prominent fund management firms during a Roundtable meeting with investors, besides holding bilateral meetings with CEOs from top information technology (IT) firms based in San Francisco. Smt. Sitharaman will also participate in an event featuring Indian diaspora in San Francisco and interact with the Indian community settled there.

    During her visit to Washington D.C., USA, from 22nd to 25th April 2025, Smt. Sitharaman will participate in the Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, the 2ndG20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governor (FMCBG) Meetings, Development Committee Plenary, IMFC Plenary, and Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable (GSDR) meeting.

    On the sidelines of the Spring Meetings in Washington D.C., Smt. Sitharaman will hold bilateral meetings with her counterparts from several countries, including Argentina, Bahrain, Germany, France, Luxembourg, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, and USA; besides meeting EU Commissioner for Financial Services; President, Asian Development Bank (ADB); President, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB); United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Financial Health (UNSGSA); and First Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

    During her maiden visit to Peru from 26th to 30th April 2025, the Union Finance Minister will lead an Indian delegation of officials from the Ministry of Finance and business leaders, highlighting the strengthening bilateral economic and trade relations between the two nations.

    Beginning her visit in Lima, Union Finance Minister Smt. Sitharaman is expected to call on the President of Peru, H.E. Ms. Dina Boluarte, and Prime Minister of Peru, H.E. Mr. Gustavo Adrianzén, besides holding bilateral meetings with the Peruvian Ministers of Finance and Economy; Defence; Energy and Mines; and also holding interaction with local public representatives.

    In the course of her visit to Peru, the Union Finance Minister will chair the India-Peru Business Forum meeting with prominent business representatives in attendance from both India and Peru. Smt. Sitharaman will also hold an interaction with the Indian investors & businesses currently operating in Peru, as well as the Indian Business delegation visiting Peru.

    Given Peru’s importance in the global supply chain of critical minerals and precious metals, discussions during these engagements are also expected to explore avenues for greater collaboration in the mining sector, particularly to strengthen India’s resource security and facilitate value-chain linkages between the two economies.

    The Union Finance Minister will also participate in a community event at Lima, where she will interact with the Indian diaspora living in Peru.

     

    ****

    NB/KMN

    (Release ID: 2122913) Visitor Counter : 70

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Basic Law Quiz Competition Final and Prize Presentation Ceremony held today (with photos)

    Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

         The Basic Law Quiz Competition Final and Prize Presentation Ceremony was held today (April 19), which was jointly organised by the Home and Youth Affairs Bureau (HYAB), the Committee on the Promotion of Civic Education (CPCE) and the Local Community Sub-group under the Working Group on Constitution, Basic Law and Hong Kong National Security Law of the Constitution and Basic Law Promotion Steering Committee. This year’s competition received an overwhelming response, attracting over 37 000 participants.
     
    Speaking at the ceremony, the Under Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs, Mr Clarence Leung, said that the Constitution is the fundamental and supreme law of the state, an important symbol and sign of the nation, and holds the highest legal status. The Constitution gives the legislative backing and source of validity for the Basic Law. Without its authorisation, the Basic Law and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region would not have existed. The country has long supported and safeguarded Hong Kong’s interests across various domains. Being part of the country, it is imperative for Hong Kong to understand that upholding national sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity is the fundamental responsibility and due obligation of all Chinese people, including people in Hong Kong.
     
    He added that the promotion of the Constitution, the Basic Law, and safeguarding national security education is a long-term task that requires concerted efforts of all sectors of the community to create a conducive atmosphere. He encouraged participants to deepen their understanding of the Constitution, the Basic Law, and safeguarding national security throughout the competition, and expressed hope that young people can actively equip themselves and make contributions to building an even better Hong Kong and advancing national rejuvenation.
     
    The quiz competition covered the relationship between the Constitution and the Basic Law, the Basic Law and its history and safeguarding national security. The competition comprises the Family, Senior Primary School, Secondary School and Open categories. To tie in with the quiz competition, the organisers hosted five seminars from February to April to introduce the Constitution and the Basic Law to secondary and primary school students.
     
    The HYAB has long been working closely with the CPCE in promoting the Constitution, the Basic Law and safeguarding national security at the community level through various channels and diverse means, including publishing parent-child magazines, creating websites and social media pages, organising competitions, seminars and exhibitions, as well as sponsoring eligible organisations to organise various promotional and exchange activities on civic and national education.

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: HQ IDS to conduct second edition of Tri-services Future Warfare Course in New Delhi

    Source: Government of India

    Posted On: 19 APR 2025 10:45AM by PIB Delhi

    The second edition of the Tri-services Future Warfare Course will be held at Manekshaw Centre in New Delhi from April 21 to May 09, 2025. The course is being conducted under the aegis of Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff and coordinated by the Tri-services think-tank, Centre for Joint Warfare Studies (CENJOWS).  

    Building on the success of the first course held in September 2024, this expanded three-week program continues the vision of Chief of the Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan to prepare officers for the complex challenges of modern warfare. The course maintains its rank-agnostic approach, albeit with an enhanced and diverse participation. 

    This edition features an enhanced curriculum covering specialised subjects and domain-specific warfare developments in military operations. It focuses on developing an erudite understanding on how war fighting is being impacted by technology, necessitating a relook at the thinking, concepts, doctrines, strategies and Tactics, Techniques and Procedures. It will align operational priorities with the capabilities of the indigenous defence industry and enable a free-flowing discussion on the various facets of modern and futuristic war fighting.

     The attendees in the course range from Major Generals to Majors and their equivalent officers from other Services, along with representatives from other Departments under the Ministry of Defence, including DRDO, as well as the defence industry incorporating start-ups, MSMEs, DPSUs and private industry.  

    This second edition continues the larger mission of making the Armed Forces ‘future ready’ fostering Jointness and Integration among the Services and developing strategic leaders equipped to navigate the increasingly complex landscape of modern warfare.

     ***

    SR/Savvy

    (Release ID: 2122831) Visitor Counter : 38

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Planning for death: four things you can do to ease your family’s emotional and financial stress

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Amanda Craft, Associate Lecturer in Accounting and Financial Planning, Western Sydney University

    When someone dies, the people left behind face more than grief. They are often hit with a wave of decisions – emotional, logistical and financial – that must be made quickly and under pressure.

    You may not be able to control what happens after you’re gone. But you can make the process a lot easier for your family by doing a few simple things now. Financial therapy research shows that financial decisions made under stress or grief are more likely to lead to conflict or regret.

    Our work as researchers and practitioners in financial planning and financial therapy explores how money isn’t just about spreadsheets and savings – it’s also about identity, emotions, and relationships.

    Planning for death, as hard as it may be, is one of the kindest acts you can offer.

    Death is inevitable, but chaos doesn’t have to be. A few gentle conversations, a simple will, and a bit of planning can protect your family from unnecessary pain. You don’t need to have everything figured out – you just need to start. Even small steps taken now can have a ripple effect on your family’s financial and emotional wellbeing.

    We have identified four practical steps you can take: start the conversation; talk about what matters to you; get your paperwork in order; and make your funeral plans known.

    What to do

    Start the conversation. In many cultures, death is difficult to talk about. It can feel awkward, inappropriate, or even disrespectful to bring it up with loved ones. But avoiding the conversation doesn’t stop death from coming – it only makes it harder for those left behind.

    Financial therapy research shows that avoidance of money conversations is common, but can be damaging. People avoid these talks because of anxiety, cultural taboos, or fear of upsetting others, but they’re exactly the conversations that help reduce stress in the future. You don’t need to hold a formal family meeting.

    A softer approach often works best. For example, if someone in your community passes away, you could say, “It got me thinking about what you’d want for your funeral.” If they seem uncomfortable, try saying, “I know it’s not easy to talk about. I just care, and I’d rather know than have to guess.” If they still don’t want to talk, that’s okay. Sometimes planting the seed is enough.

    Talk about what matters to you. Every family and community has its own way of honouring the dead. Some prefer large, traditional funerals with extended family and religious rites. Others may want something smaller, more personal, or less expensive. When people know what matters most to you – and what doesn’t – they are more likely to carry out your wishes with peace of mind.

    Research has found that clarity around financial and emotional intentions helps reduce family tension and grief-related conflict.

    For example, you might not want money borrowed for your funeral. You might prefer cremation, or a specific cultural rite. Or you may want something symbolic, like a tree planted in your honour. Saying it now helps your loved ones later.

    Get your paperwork in order. A will helps ensure that your assets go where you want them to. It also helps reduce disputes among family members. But in South Africa, for example, only around 15% of people die with a valid will. In Nigeria, 70% of people die intestate and 80% of people in Ghana die without a valid will. That leaves families at the mercy of state rules – and that can create real problems.

    Make sure your will is clear, legally valid, and updated to reflect any life changes such as marriage, divorce, or the birth of a child. It’s also essential to review your nominated beneficiaries on life policies and pensions. If they are outdated or deceased, the payout may be delayed or go to someone you didn’t intend. Leaving financial matters unclear can also unsettle family roles and identities, especially when adult siblings or extended relatives feel overlooked.

    Make your funeral plans known. In many African households, funerals are deeply significant events, tied to culture, status, and family pride. But the cost of burying a loved one, and the weight of organising the ceremony, can fall heavily on those who remain.

    If you’ve taken out a funeral policy or belong to a burial society or stokvel (savings club), make sure someone knows. Funeral policies can pay out within 48 hours – but some take weeks, depending on the circumstances and paperwork. Write down the name of the provider, the expected payout, and who to contact.

    Keep documents in a safe place, and tell a trusted person where to find them. Even if you can’t afford a policy, having a clear conversation about what you would want – and what you wouldn’t – is a powerful gift. Not everyone wants a lavish send-off. Sometimes, what people want most is for their family to avoid debt and stay united.

    Planning ahead allows families to mourn, rather than scramble.

    – Planning for death: four things you can do to ease your family’s emotional and financial stress
    – https://theconversation.com/planning-for-death-four-things-you-can-do-to-ease-your-familys-emotional-and-financial-stress-254321

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Planning for death: four things you can do to ease your family’s emotional and financial stress

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Amanda Craft, Associate Lecturer in Accounting and Financial Planning, Western Sydney University

    When someone dies, the people left behind face more than grief. They are often hit with a wave of decisions – emotional, logistical and financial – that must be made quickly and under pressure.

    You may not be able to control what happens after you’re gone. But you can make the process a lot easier for your family by doing a few simple things now. Financial therapy research shows that financial decisions made under stress or grief are more likely to lead to conflict or regret.

    Our work as researchers and practitioners in financial planning and financial therapy explores how money isn’t just about spreadsheets and savings – it’s also about identity, emotions, and relationships.

    Planning for death, as hard as it may be, is one of the kindest acts you can offer.

    Death is inevitable, but chaos doesn’t have to be. A few gentle conversations, a simple will, and a bit of planning can protect your family from unnecessary pain. You don’t need to have everything figured out – you just need to start. Even small steps taken now can have a ripple effect on your family’s financial and emotional wellbeing.

    We have identified four practical steps you can take: start the conversation; talk about what matters to you; get your paperwork in order; and make your funeral plans known.

    What to do

    Start the conversation. In many cultures, death is difficult to talk about. It can feel awkward, inappropriate, or even disrespectful to bring it up with loved ones. But avoiding the conversation doesn’t stop death from coming – it only makes it harder for those left behind.

    Financial therapy research shows that avoidance of money conversations is common, but can be damaging. People avoid these talks because of anxiety, cultural taboos, or fear of upsetting others, but they’re exactly the conversations that help reduce stress in the future. You don’t need to hold a formal family meeting.

    A softer approach often works best. For example, if someone in your community passes away, you could say, “It got me thinking about what you’d want for your funeral.” If they seem uncomfortable, try saying, “I know it’s not easy to talk about. I just care, and I’d rather know than have to guess.” If they still don’t want to talk, that’s okay. Sometimes planting the seed is enough.

    Talk about what matters to you. Every family and community has its own way of honouring the dead. Some prefer large, traditional funerals with extended family and religious rites. Others may want something smaller, more personal, or less expensive. When people know what matters most to you – and what doesn’t – they are more likely to carry out your wishes with peace of mind.

    Research has found that clarity around financial and emotional intentions helps reduce family tension and grief-related conflict.

    For example, you might not want money borrowed for your funeral. You might prefer cremation, or a specific cultural rite. Or you may want something symbolic, like a tree planted in your honour. Saying it now helps your loved ones later.

    Get your paperwork in order. A will helps ensure that your assets go where you want them to. It also helps reduce disputes among family members. But in South Africa, for example, only around 15% of people die with a valid will. In Nigeria, 70% of people die intestate and 80% of people in Ghana die without a valid will. That leaves families at the mercy of state rules – and that can create real problems.

    Make sure your will is clear, legally valid, and updated to reflect any life changes such as marriage, divorce, or the birth of a child. It’s also essential to review your nominated beneficiaries on life policies and pensions. If they are outdated or deceased, the payout may be delayed or go to someone you didn’t intend. Leaving financial matters unclear can also unsettle family roles and identities, especially when adult siblings or extended relatives feel overlooked.

    Make your funeral plans known. In many African households, funerals are deeply significant events, tied to culture, status, and family pride. But the cost of burying a loved one, and the weight of organising the ceremony, can fall heavily on those who remain.

    If you’ve taken out a funeral policy or belong to a burial society or stokvel (savings club), make sure someone knows. Funeral policies can pay out within 48 hours – but some take weeks, depending on the circumstances and paperwork. Write down the name of the provider, the expected payout, and who to contact.

    Keep documents in a safe place, and tell a trusted person where to find them. Even if you can’t afford a policy, having a clear conversation about what you would want – and what you wouldn’t – is a powerful gift. Not everyone wants a lavish send-off. Sometimes, what people want most is for their family to avoid debt and stay united.

    Planning ahead allows families to mourn, rather than scramble.

    Amanda Craft is a shareholder of Auriavia Pty Ltd. She is affiliated with the Financial Therapy Association

    Bomikazi Zeka 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. Planning for death: four things you can do to ease your family’s emotional and financial stress – https://theconversation.com/planning-for-death-four-things-you-can-do-to-ease-your-familys-emotional-and-financial-stress-254321

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI China: 2025 Asian Forum on Human Rights opens in SW China

    Source: China State Council Information Office 2

    The 2025 Asian Forum on Human Rights opens in Chongqing, southwest China, April 19, 2025. [Photo courtesy of the Human Rights Institute of the Southwest University of Political Science and Law]
    The 2025 Asian Forum on Human Rights opened in Chongqing, southwest China, on April 19, bringing together scholars to explore the relationship between technological advancements and human rights.
    The forum, hosted by the Southwest University of Political Science and Law (SWUPL), was organized under the theme “Science & Technology and Human Rights.”
    Jiang Jianguo, executive vice president of the China Society for Human Rights Studies, said at the opening ceremony that Asian countries’ shared history, development realities and cultural traditions provide a foundation for human rights discussions. He emphasized continued efforts to build a community with a shared future for mankind, placing human survival and development at the center of technological innovation.
    He urged greater application of technological advances in climate, food security and health care, ensuring that innovation benefits all of humanity.
    SWUPL President Lin Wei, who also serves as dean of its Human Rights Institute, spoke about how technology redefines the human experience. Lin said that if human rights are understood as “the conditions that make one human,” then technology is significantly expanding those conditions.
    However, Lin warned that technological innovation poses new challenges to human rights protection. He highlighted emerging technologies such as gene editing and brain-computer interfaces, which, if misused, could create a “biological class divide,” undermining equality and human dignity.
    Lin stressed the need to harmonize technological progress with human rights, affirming that the non-transferable bottom line of human values must be upheld to ensure technology liberates humanity rather than dehumanizes it.
    In his keynote address, Jayanath Colombage, director general of the Institute of National Security Studies of Sri Lanka, discussed artificial intelligence’s influence on human rights, particularly autonomous weapon systems.
    Colombage expressed concerns about the risks of autonomous weapon systems, which could lead to wrongful killings and indiscriminate attacks, threatening the fundamental right to life. He stressed that without the right to life, no other rights can be enjoyed.
    He called for international governance and regulation to establish legal and ethical standards for autonomous weapons deployment.
    Zamir Ahmed Awan, founding chair of the Global Silk Road Research Alliance think tank, examined the relationship between technological competition and justice.
    Awan said access to advanced technologies is a key component of human rights and criticized the United States for limiting opportunities for international students. He condemned the U.S. government’s recent cancellation of visas or legal status for more than 1,000 international students, calling it a human rights violation.
    In contrast, Awan praised the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative and Global Development Initiative for promoting international cooperation, sharing economic development experiences and cultivating high-tech talent through partnerships.
    A key highlight of the forum was the participants’ consensus that technology must be fundamentally oriented toward the protection of human rights.
    Participants said Asia needs to lead regional collaboration on human rights issues in emerging technologies. They called for efforts to build an equitable and inclusive global science and technology framework that advances the fulfillment of human rights.
    The forum also included three parallel sessions on emerging human rights issues in Asia, technology for good and other topics.
    This year’s forum builds on the inaugural Asian Forum on Human Rights held at Renmin University of China in 2022. The first forum centered on the theme of “Environment & Climate Change and Human Rights,” underscoring the vital link between environmental challenges and human rights.

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Indicators of alien life may have been found – astrophysicist explains what the new research means

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Whittaker, Senior Lecturer in Physics, Nottingham Trent University

    Darryl Fonseka/Shutterstocl

    What do you think of when it comes to extra terrestrial life? Most popular sci-fi books and TV shows suggest humanoid beings could live on other planets. But when astronomers are searching for extra-terrestrial life, it is usually in the form of emissions from bacteria or other tiny organisms.

    A new research paper in the Astrophysical Journal suggests that Cambridge scientists have managed to find this type of emission with a certainty of 99.7% from a planet called K2-18b, 124 light years away. They used Nasa’s James Webb Space Telescope to analyse the chemical composition of the planet’s atmosphere and say they found promising evidence K2-18b could host life.

    It’s an exciting breakthrough but it doesn’t confirm alien life.

    Let’s look at why scientists largely do not accept the paper as proof of alien life.

    Why it’s so hard to detect to alien life

    Exoplanet hunting fell out of public interest quickly due to the staggering number of planets scientists are discovering. The first convincing exoplanet around a sun-like star was discovered in 1995 via radial velocity, where you don’t look at the planet but instead observe its effect on its nearest star. As the star wobbles back and forth it causes a tiny shift in the wavelength of the light it emits, which we can measure. We already know of roughly 7,500 planets.

    Only 43 (to date) have been observed directly (about 0.5% of them). Most are discovered through indirect means, such as radial velocity or the transit method. The transit method is where you look at how the brightness of the star decreases as the planet passes in front of it. It will block a tiny amount of the light.

    An exoplanet atmosphere

    Looking at the atmosphere of an exoplanet is even more difficult. Scientists use spectroscopy to do this. The light coming out of the star can be observed directly and a small amount of it will also pass through the atmosphere of the planet. Researchers can estimate what an exoplanet’s atmosphere is made of by studying which light from the star is emitted or absorbed in the atmosphere.

    Let’s try an analogy. You have a desk lamp at one end of a long table and you are standing at the other end, looking at the lamp. There is a glass of liquid in between you and the lamp. In very simple terms, the glass of liquid acting as the exoplanet and atmosphere, looks slightly blue, which allows you to identify it as water. In reality for scientists though, it’s more like the glass of water is a tiny glass bead which is rolling around while someone is messing around with a dimmer switch on the lamp. Then, freak weather results in a gentle mist forming on the table. The liquid is 99% pure water and 1% mineral water and the scientist is trying to see what minerals are in the water.

    You can see that the expertise required to be perform this work is incredible. They observed molecules with a 99.7% confidence rate, which is a remarkable achievement.

    The data from JWST and K2-18b

    The key data in this study is in a graph fitting light absorption rates to which kind of molecules could be there and working out how abundant they are. It features in this short film about the discovery.

    The graph produced by the study’s authors shows evidence for dimethyl sulphide and dimethyl disulphide (DMS).

    Some scientists think of DMS as a biomarker – a molecular indicator of life on Earth. However DMS is not only produced by bacteria, but has also been found on comet 67P and in the gas and dust of the interstellar medium, the space between stars. It can even be generated by shining UV light onto a simulated atmosphere. The authors acknowledge this and claim the amount they determined was present cannot be produced by any of these conditions.

    Similar to other claims of life?

    Multiple studies have shown indicators for DMS and life in general on K2-18b and there are many other claims for other exoplanets.

    The most recent is the idea that phosphine (another biomarker) was discovered in the Venusian atmosphere, so there must be bacteria in the clouds. This claim was quickly refuted by other researchers. Scientists pointed that a tiny error in the matching of data created results that showed a larger abundance of phosphine than was accurate. The Cambridge study is more rigorous and has more certainty in the result. But it is still not strong enough to convince the academic community, which needs 99.999% certainty.

    The study authors suggest their findings indicate liquid oceans and a hydrogen atmosphere but others have countered it could be a gas giant, or a volcanic planet full of magma.

    The Cambridge study is not proof of life, but it is an important step forward to characterising what other planets might be like and determining if we are alone or not. The study presented the best result yet and should inspire other scientists to take up the challenge.

    Ian Whittaker 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. Indicators of alien life may have been found – astrophysicist explains what the new research means – https://theconversation.com/indicators-of-alien-life-may-have-been-found-astrophysicist-explains-what-the-new-research-means-254843

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI China: 2025 Kuala Lumpur Dialogue envisions China-Malaysia future

    Source: China State Council Information Office

    More than 20 Chinese and Malaysian think tank experts and scholars gathered in the Malaysian capital on April 17 for the “Envisioning the Future: Kuala Lumpur Dialogue,” focusing on new opportunities for economic cooperation between the two nations.

    Yu Yunquan, vice president of China International Communications Group and president of the Academy of Contemporary China and World Studies, speaks at the “Envisioning the Future: Kuala Lumpur Dialogue” held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, April 17, 2025. [Photo courtesy of ACCWS]

    The event was co-organized by the Academy of Contemporary China and World Studies (ACCWS) and the Institute of Strategic Analysis and Policy Research, with support from the Fusion Institute, Malaysia-China Welfare Advisory Society and Bait Al-Amanah. About 200 participants from government agencies, think tanks, universities and businesses from both countries attended.

    Yu Yunquan, vice president of China International Communications Group (CICG) and president of the ACCWS, said in his opening speech that think tanks, as thought leaders, public opinion shapers and exchange facilitators, can strengthen China-Malaysia and China-ASEAN cooperation by researching practical approaches for development strategy alignment, guiding mutual public understanding between the two countries, and building multilateral dialogue platforms.

    “CICG is ready to work with its Malaysian partners to enhance information dissemination, knowledge sharing and youth exchanges, strengthening people-to-people bonds for building a China-Malaysia community with a shared future,” Yu said.

    Datuk Dr. Pamela Yong, chairwoman of the Institute of Strategic Analysis and Policy, speaks at the “Envisioning the Future: Kuala Lumpur Dialogue” held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, April 17, 2025. [Photo courtesy of ACCWS]

    Datuk Dr. Pamela Yong, chairwoman of the Institute of Strategic Analysis and Policy, said current protectionist trends and growing geopolitical competition among major powers highlight ASEAN’s urgent need for strategic reassessment.

    “Diversification serves as a shield against uncertainty, creating opportunities, stimulating growth and enhancing resilience,” she said. “China remains a crucial partner for Malaysia and ASEAN in pursuing strategic diversification. Both sides should fully explore cooperation potential in the digital economy, green development and connectivity to achieve inclusive regional prosperity.”

    YB Datuk Seri Ir. Dr. Wee Ka Siong, Malaysian lawmaker, Malaysian Chinese Association president and former transport minister, said China-Malaysia relations show rare clarity and predictability amid global geopolitical fragmentation and rising protectionism.

    “With the gradual alignment between the Belt and Road Initiative and Malaysia’s national development plans, I have confidence that both nations will continue working together as key anchors for regional peace and progress,” he said.

    He also proposed establishing the “Envisioning the Future” dialogue as a permanent annual platform for think tank cooperation and exchanges between the two countries.

    In his keynote speech, former Chinese Vice Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao said China and Malaysia are leveraging their digital and green economies as engines to jointly implement the strategic consensus between their leaders on building a community with a shared future, accelerating cooperation for a “new golden 50 years.”

    “China’s deepening trade with Malaysia and ASEAN reflects the inclusive, equitable and shared development path of economic globalization, proving that protectionist backpedaling cannot reverse the historical trend of globalization,” he said.

    Zhu suggested advancing the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area 3.0 and regional financial safety net, while steadily enhancing the Chiang Mai Initiative’s effectiveness in addressing potential liquidity shocks and maintaining regional economic growth momentum.

    Hu Zhengyue, former assistant minister of foreign affairs of China, said in his keynote speech that China-Malaysia trade has grown nearly twentyfold over the past two decades, now accounting for one-fifth of total China-ASEAN trade.

    “The achievements in China-Malaysia cooperation stem from four pillars, which are strong political relations as the foundation, robust people-to-people networks as the bridge, substantial market demand as the base, and regional collaboration as the driving force,” he said. “With certain major powers’ policies potentially causing severe global governance failures, China must coordinate responses with both ASEAN and Malaysia to maintain positive trade momentum, upgrade industrial cooperation, tap infrastructure and tourism potential, and better safeguard shared interests to expand our cooperation.”

    Participants listen to speeches during the “Envisioning the Future: Kuala Lumpur Dialogue” in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, April 17, 2025. [Photo courtesy of ACCWS]

    Experts also participated in two plenary sessions and a roundtable discussion. The sessions focused on regional cooperation and economic revitalization to advance ASEAN’s stability and prosperity, along with cultural integration and intellectual exchange through education and the arts. The roundtable discussion explored joint efforts toward peaceful development.

    Chinese and Malaysian experts agreed that strengthened China-Malaysia coordination and deeper regional cooperation would help ASEAN address geopolitical challenges while advancing economic integration and sustainable development.

    China and ASEAN can strengthen regional resilience and create mutual benefits by expanding their collaboration in digital technology, green economy and connectivity despite current global uncertainties, experts said.

    They stressed enhancing cultural-educational ties through resource-sharing, youth exchanges, university research and arts cooperation to strengthen regional cultural affinity. Multi-faceted people-to-people exchanges are crucial for building trust and supporting a united, inclusive Asian community with a shared future, they noted.

    Yu concluded the dialogue event by expressing hope that amid complex global changes, think tanks should uphold the principle of seeking common ground while shelving differences, finding consensus amid divergences and resolving disputes through shared understanding. He stated that China and Malaysia think tanks must deepen cooperation to inject certainty and new momentum into bilateral collaboration.

    MIL OSI China News –