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Category: Evening Report

  • MIL-Evening Report: ER Report: A Roundup of Significant Articles on EveningReport.nz for June 17, 2025

    ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on June 17, 2025.

    In view of Trump’s review of AUKUS, should Australia cancel the subs deal? We asked 5 experts
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Andrews, Senior Manager, Policy & Engagement, Australian National University Speculation is swirling around the future of the A$368 billion AUKUS agreement, following Washington’s decision to review the nuclear submarine deal to ensure it meets President Donald Trump’s “America first” agenda. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was planning

    Australians in the bush want tougher penalties on crime. Here’s why – and what’s needed now
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Caitlin Davey, Lecturer of Criminology, Griffith University New research has found that while Australians generally support strong punishments, people living in the bush are significantly more likely than city dwellers to want to punish more harshly those who break the law. It means Australians living in rural

    Judy Davis gives a singularly vivid performance in The Spare Room – but the play falls short
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Moya Costello, Adjunct Lecturer in Creative Writing, Southern Cross University Brett Boardman/Belvoir In The Spare Room, Judy Davis lights up the stage with a singularly vivid performance. Adapted by Eamon Flack from Helen Garner’s 2008 novel of the same name, Davis plays sharp-tongued Helen (or Hel) to

    US travel ban on Pacific 3 – countries have right to decide over borders, Peters says
    RNZ Pacific New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Winston Peters says countries have the right to choose who enters their borders in response to reports that the Trump administration is planning to impose travel restrictions on three dozen nations, including three in the Pacific. But opposition Labour’s deputy leader Carmel Sepuloni says the foreign minister should push

    Attack on Iran’s state media – Israel bombs IRIB building in new war crime
    Pacific Media Watch Israel targeted one of the buildings of the state-run Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) in Tehran on the fourth day of attacks on Iran, interrupting a live news broadcast, reports Press TV. The attack, involving at least four bombs, struck the central building housing IRIB’s news department, while a live news

    What is ‘cognitive shuffling’ and does it really help you get to sleep? Two sleep scientists explain
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Melinda Jackson, Associate Professor at Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, School of Psychological Sciences, Monash University Ursula Ferrara/Shutterstock If you’ve been on social media lately – perhaps scrolling in the middle of the night, when you know you shouldn’t but you just can’t sleep –

    New research shows Australians see influencers as major sources of misinformation
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sora Park, Professor of Communication, News & Media Research Centre, University of Canberra As consumption of traditional news continues to fall, audiences are turning to social media personalities and influencers for their information. These figures are increasingly shaping public debates. But Australian news audiences are sceptical. More

    Why does my phone sometimes not ring when people call? A communications expert explains
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jairo Gutierrez, Professor, Department of Computer and Information Sciences, Auckland University of Technology Tada Images There’s a certain feeling I get in the pit of my stomach when I’m waiting for an important call to come through. You know the type – maybe a call from your

    Wetland restoration is seen as sunk cost – but new research shows why it should be considered an investment
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Wei Yang, Senior Scientist in Environmental Economics, Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa – Massey University Shutterstock/Wirestock Creators As extreme weather intensifies globally, governments are seeking nature-based solutions that deliver both climate and economic benefits. The restoration of wetlands is an often overlooked opportunity. As our recent study shows,

    Jaws at 50: a cinematic masterpiece – and an incredible piece of propaganda
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Colin Alexander, Senior Lecturer in Political Communications, Nottingham Trent University Jaws turns 50 on June 20. Last year, Quentin Tarantino called Stephen Spielberg’s film “possibly the greatest movie ever made”. Though he was quick to add that it isn’t the best film in terms of script, cinematography

    Ancient termite poo reveals 120 million-year-old secrets of Australia’s polar forests
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alistair Evans, Professor, School of Biological Sciences, Monash University Witsawat.S/Shutterstock Imagine a lush forest with tree-ferns, their trunks capped by ribbon-like fronds. Conifers tower overhead, bearing triangular leaves almost sharp enough to pierce skin. Flowering plants are both small and rare. You’re standing in what is now

    When new dads struggle, their kids’ health can suffer. Tackling mental distress early can help
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Delyse Hutchinson, Associate Professor, Clinical Psychologist, and NHMRC Leadership Fellow, SEED Centre for Lifespan Research, School of Psychology, Deakin University D-BASE/Getty In Australia, an estimated one in ten men experience mental health issues such as anxiety and depression before and after their child is born (the perinatal

    A weird group of boronias puzzled botanists for decades. Now we’ve solved the pollination mystery
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Douglas Hilton, Chief Executive, CSIRO Andy Young Boronias, known for their showy flowers and strong scent, are a quintessential part of the Australian bush. They led Traditional Owners to the best water sources and inspired Australian children’s author and illustrator May Gibbs to pen one of her

    Some students learning English can take at least 6 years to catch up to their peers. How can we support them better?
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lucy Lu, Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney Rawpixel/ Getty Images About one quarter of Australian school students are learning English as an additional language or dialect. This means their first language or dialect is something other than English and they

    Ice Age shelter high up in the Blue Mountains reveals Aboriginal heritage from 20,000 years ago
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Erin Wilkins, Aboriginal Cultural Educator, Trainer and Facilitator, Indigenous Knowledge Artist’s impression of Dargan Shelter as it would have looked during the last Ice Age. Painting by Leanne Watson Redpath Travel back 20,000 years into the last Ice Age, to a time when the upper reaches of

    ‘Be brave’ warning to nations against deepsea mining from UNOC
    By Laura Bergamo in Nice, France The UN Ocean Conference (UNOC) concluded today with significant progress made towards the ratification of the High Seas Treaty and a strong statement on a new plastics treaty signed by 95 governments. Once ratified, it will be the only legal tool that can create protected areas in international waters,

    Samoan fashion designer fatally shot at Salt Lake City ‘no kings’ protest
    RNZ Pacific A renowned Samoan fashion designer was fatally shot at the “No Kings” protest in Salt Lake City on Saturday, the Salt Lake City Police Department (SLCPD) has confirmed. Arthur Folasa Ah Loo, known as Afa Ah Loo, an “innocent bystander” at the protest, died despite efforts by paramedics to save his life, police

    Israelis ‘now realise’ what Palestinians and Lebanese have been suffering, says analyst
    Asia Pacific Report A Paris-based military and political analyst, Elijah Magnier, says he believes the hostilities between Israel and Iran will only get worse, but that Israeli support for the war may wane if the destruction continues. “I think it’s going to continue escalating because we are just in the first days of the war

    What is uranium enrichment and how is it used for nuclear bombs? A scientist explains
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kaitlin Cook, DECRA Fellow, Department of Nuclear Physics and Accelerator Applications, Australian National University Uranium ore. RHJPhtotos/Shutterstock Late last week, Israel targeted three of Iran’s key nuclear facilities – Natanz, Isfahan and Fordow, killing several Iranian nuclear scientists. The facilities are heavily fortified and largely underground, and

    Issa Amro: Youth Against Settlements – ‘life is very hard, the Israeli soldiers act like militia’
    RNZ News Palestinian advocate Issa Amro has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize this year for his decades of work advocating for peaceful resistance against Israel’s illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. The settlements are illegal under international law — and a record 45 were established last year under cover of the war

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Attack on Iran’s state media – Israel bombs IRIB building in new war crime

    Pacific Media Watch

    Israel targeted one of the buildings of the state-run Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) in Tehran on the fourth day of attacks on Iran, interrupting a live news broadcast, reports Press TV.

    The attack, involving at least four bombs, struck the central building housing IRIB’s news department, while a live news broadcast was underway.

    The transmission was briefly interrupted before Hassan Abedini, IRIB’s news director and deputy for political affairs, appeared on air to condemn the “terrorist crime”.

    At the time of the attack, news anchor Sahar Emami was presenting the news. Despite the building trembling under the first strike, she stood her ground and continued the broadcast.

    “Allah o Akbar” (God is Great), she proclaimed, drawing global attention to the war crime committed by Israel against Iran’s national broadcaster.

    Moments later, another blast filled the studio with smoke and dust, forcing her to evacuate. She returned shortly after to join Abedini and share her harrowing experience.

    “If I die, others will take my place and expose your crimes to the world,” she declared, looking straight into the camera with courage and composure.

    Casualties unconfirmed
    While the number of casualties remains unconfirmed, insiders reported that several journalists inside the building had been injured in the bombing.

    Israel’s war ministry promptly claimed responsibility for the attack.

    Iran’s foreign ministry condemned the aggression on the state broadcaster as a “war crime” and called on the United Nations to take immediate action against the regime.

    . . . But after a brief interruption on screen as debris fell from a bomb strike, Sahar Emami was back courageously presenting the news and denouncing the attack. Image: AJ screenshot APR

    Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei denounced the attack and urged the international community to hold the regime accountable for its assault on the media.

    “The world is watching: targeting Iran’s news agency #IRIB’s office during a live broadcast is a wicked act of war crime,” Baghaei wrote on X.

    The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) also condemned the bombing of the IRIB news building, labeling it an “inhuman, criminal, and a terrorist act.”

    CPJ ‘appalled’ by Israeli attack
    The Committee to Protect Journalists said it was “appalled by Israel’s bombing of Iran’s state TV channel while live on air.”

    “Israel’s killing, with impunity, of almost 200 journalists in Gaza has emboldened it to target media elsewhere in the region,” Sara Qudah, the West Asia representative for CPJ, said in a statement after the attack on an IRIB building.

    The Israeli regime has a documented history of targeting journalists globally. Since October 2023, it has killed more than 250 Palestinian journalists in the besieged Gaza Strip.

    The regime launched its aggression against the Islamic Republic, including Tehran, early on Friday, leading to the assassination of several high-ranking military officials, nuclear scientists, and civilians, including women and children.

    In response, Iran launched a barrage of missiles and drones late Friday night, followed by more retaliatory operations on Saturday and Sunday as part of Operation True Promise III.

    In Israel, 24 people have been killed and hundreds wounded since hostilities began. In Iran, 224 people have been killed.

    Plumes of black smoke billowing after an Israeli attack against Iran’s state broadcaster yesterday. Image: PressTV

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: US travel ban on Pacific 3 – countries have right to decide over borders, Peters says

    RNZ Pacific

    New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Winston Peters says countries have the right to choose who enters their borders in response to reports that the Trump administration is planning to impose travel restrictions on three dozen nations, including three in the Pacific.

    But opposition Labour’s deputy leader Carmel Sepuloni says the foreign minister should push back on the US proposal.

    Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu have reportedly been included in an expanded proposal of 36 additional countries for which the Trump administration is considering travel restrictions.

    The plan was first reported by The Washington Post. A State Department spokesperson told the outlet that the agency would not comment on internal deliberations or communications.

    The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    Peters said countries had the right to decide who could cross their borders.

    “Before we all get offended, we’ve got the right to decide in New Zealand who comes to our country. So has Australia, so has . . . China, so has the United States,” Peters said.

    US security concerns
    He said New Zealand would do its best to address the US security concerns.

    “We need to do our best to ensure there are no misunderstandings.”

    Peters said US concerns could be over selling citizenship or citizenship-by-investment schemes.

    Vanuatu runs a “golden passport” scheme where applicants can be granted Vanuatu citizenship for a minimum investment of US$130,000.

    Peters says citizenship programmes, such as the citizenship-by-investment schemes which allow people to purchase passports, could have concerned the Trump administration. Image: 123rf/RNZ Pacific

    Peters said programmes like that could have concerned the Trump administration.

    “There are certain decisions that have been made, which look innocent, but when they come to an international capacity do not have that effect.

    “Tuvalu has been selling passports. You see where an innocent . . . decision made in Tuvalu can lead to the concerns in the United States when it comes to security.”

    Sepuloni wants push back
    However, Sepuloni wants Peters to push back on the US considering travel restrictions for Pacific nations.

    Labour Party Deputy Leader Carmel Sepuloni . . . “I would expect [Peters] to be pushing back on the US and supporting our Pacific nations to be taken off that list.” Image: RNZ/Angus Dreaver

    Sepuloni said she wanted the foreign minister to get a full explanation on the proposed restrictions.

    “From there, I would expect him to be pushing back on the US and supporting our Pacific nations to be taken off that list,” she said.

    “Their response is, ‘why us? We’re so tiny — what risk do we pose?’”

    Wait to see how this unfolds – expert
     Massey University associate professor in defence and security studies Anna Powles said Vanuatu has appeared on the US’ bad side in the past.

    “Back in March Vanuatu was one of over 40 countries that was reported to be on the immigration watchlist and that related to Vanuatu’s golden passport scheme,” Dr Powles said.

    However, a US spokesperson denied the existence of such a list.

    “What people are looking at . . . is not a list that exists here that is being acted on,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said, according to a transcript of her press briefing.

    “There is a review, as we know, through the president’s executive order, for us to look at the nature of what’s going to help keep America safer in dealing with the issue of visas and who’s allowed into the country.”

    Dr Powles said it was the first time Tonga had been included.

    “That certainly has raised some concern among Tongans because there’s a large Tongan diaspora in the United States.”

    She said students studying in the US could be affected; but while there was a degree of bemusement and concern over the issue, there was also a degree of waiting to see how this unfolded.

    Trump signed a proclamation on June 4 banning the nationals of 12 countries from entering the United States, saying the move was needed to protect against “foreign terrorists” and other security threats.

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

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Judy Davis gives a singularly vivid performance in The Spare Room – but the play falls short

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Moya Costello, Adjunct Lecturer in Creative Writing, Southern Cross University

    Brett Boardman/Belvoir

    In The Spare Room, Judy Davis lights up the stage with a singularly vivid performance.

    Adapted by Eamon Flack from Helen Garner’s 2008 novel of the same name, Davis plays sharp-tongued Helen (or Hel) to the irrational Nicola (Elizabeth Alexander), who visits seeking alternative treatments for her cancer-ridden body.

    But unfortunately, the production does not match Davis’ star performance.

    A shaky reality

    Set and costume, by Mel Page, echo Garner tropes: bed linen, windows, back door onto shared backyard with family as neighbours, curtains, lounge, kitchen, vodka, music, bicycle and miniature pink backpack.

    But I’m increasingly unable to suspend belief in stage designs whose purpose is to mimic reality. A curtain is used inconsistently to indicate a change of space. The kitchen table is appropriated for medical professionals’ desks and magician’s table without any change of lighting or further demarcation of space and time.

    Kitchens and cooking are important to Garner’s domestic settings. There’s a brief smashing of apricot kernels. Bananas, licorice bullets and lemonade get a mention. But Hel’s chopping of a limp celery comes out of nowhere, and means very little.

    Garner’s writing captures the minutiae of the home. This is echoed on stage.
    Brett Boardman/Belvoir

    If the adaptation is going to use food, meal preparation and cooking, then use it substantially as a motif.

    For time changes, Hel yells out the day. The pace is speedy, with Davis firing off dialogue and scampering across stage. We get no sense of the dragging time that Hel experiences as carer.

    The same actors playing multiple characters without much change of physical appearance lacks credulity. Nicola, in particular, is presented as a cliché of an older, suburban woman – not Garner’s wealthy bohemian. Nicola is based on Jenya Osborne – a friend of Garner and her third husband, Murray Bail, who described Osborne as “alternative virtually everything”.

    Garner is the queen of sustained metaphor. In the novel, a broken mirror and a creature scuttling in dried leaves are early images of death.

    In Flack’s adaptation, the mirror is only spoken of, accompanied by a strum across the cello by Anthea Cottee (music composed by Steve Francis).

    A live cello, played by Anthea Cottee, accompanies the play.
    Brett Boardman/Belvoir

    There may have been a flourish of flamenco on the cello as Hel prances in imitation of the liveliness of her granddaughter, Bess (who is only referred to once), but it is too unimpactful to recall.

    At one point, Hel plays on a toy piano accompanying the cello, a comedic reference to Garner’s most acclaimed novel The Children’s Bach (1984).

    On death and dying

    The clearest image of dying and death is central in the play: a magician’s show that Hel has to review. “The most beautiful things happen secretly and privately”, the magician (Alan Dukes) says, as he whisks away then recovers various objects.

    A failure of both Garner’s book and the stage adaptation is that Hel complains of exhaustion after only a few weeks caring for Nicola. But many people spend years caring for a sick loved one, giving up another possible trajectory of their own lives.

    Hel complains of exhaustion after only a few weeks caring for Nicola.
    Brett Boardman/Belvoir

    The balance is wrong, too, between the humanity of Hel and Nicola: the audience guffawed at Hel’s exasperated wit and Nicola’s investment in fraudulent therapies. This, perhaps, is a feature of Garner’s work. While Garner is self-critical in her writing, she also consistently exposes others.

    Bail is critical of Garner’s use of their friend’s life as fodder for a novel. He writes:

    [Osbourne] was all kindness and consideration, which was rewarded as she was dying by being portrayed in [Garner’s book], where her harmless foolishness was pitied and scorned.

    In Garner’s novel, Nicola and Hel “[dissect] with cheerful meanness the latest escapades” of her ex-husband. But in the play, Hel recounts her acts of revenge against him in their Sydney flat, drawing on Garner’s third diary, How to End a Story: Diaries 1995–1998, published in 2021. Bail is not named in either play or novel, but fans of Garner’s work know of whom she speaks.

    The play is part monologue by Davis. Monologues and choruses effectively give oversight and insight to the narrative, but here it only further spotlights Hel’s story, not Nicola’s who is the one dying in pain.

    With some details in the dialogue of Nicola’s dying processes – and with her plan to take an entourage for residency in an expensive hotel – Hel then “handed her over”.

    As the play opens with a reference to the life-filled antics of Hel’s granddaughter, we know that the granddaughter, now assumed to be recovered from a cold, can be handed over to her. It is a rational ending, but lacking vitality.

    The Spare Room is at Belvoir, Sydney, until July 13.

    Moya Costello 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. Judy Davis gives a singularly vivid performance in The Spare Room – but the play falls short – https://theconversation.com/judy-davis-gives-a-singularly-vivid-performance-in-the-spare-room-but-the-play-falls-short-257244

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Australians in the bush want tougher penalties on crime. Here’s why – and what’s needed now

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Caitlin Davey, Lecturer of Criminology, Griffith University

    New research has found that while Australians generally support strong punishments, people living in the bush are significantly more likely than city dwellers to want to punish more harshly those who break the law.

    It means Australians living in rural and regional areas are more likely to support tougher penalties for crime than those in the cities.

    However, it’s not for the reasons you might expect.

    So, what drives this divide?

    In short: fear of crime and a lack of confidence in the justice system.

    Our research, published today in the Journal of Rural Studies, surveyed a representative sample of Australians to better understand their views on punishment and what shaped their views.

    We found city residents with tough attitudes toward crime tend to focus on the individual and personal blame, thinking offenders commit crime due to internal attributes (such as having “a poor moral compass”). They tended to see lawbreakers as lacking the capacity to redeem themselves.

    But in rural areas, people are more likely to focus on what’s happening around them. Specifically, we found support for tougher penalties for crime was related to wider concerns about rising crime rates and a general lack of confidence in the criminal justice system.

    Consider the role of ‘rurality’

    To understand these differences, we thought about how living in rural areas may shape punitive attitudes.

    Contrary to popular belief, crimes occur at higher rates in many rural communities than in some urban areas.

    Crime may also be more visible and more confronting because towns are smaller. Personal relationships are denser, meaning people often know the victims or the offenders.

    This closeness creates a stronger emotional response and a heightened sense of risk at the local level – even if the actual chances of being victimised are statistically low.

    There’s also the issue of access to the criminal justice system. Courts may sit infrequently, meaning it can take a long time to get a case heard in court. In some cases, victims and offenders are forced to share courtroom space due to limited facilities.

    Police stations might not be staffed around the clock.

    Add to this long wait times for justice, and it’s no wonder rural Australians may feel the system isn’t working for them.

    The power of perception

    It’s important to understand perception doesn’t always match reality.

    Urban areas often have more total crime, but rural areas may have higher rates of certain offences, especially violent ones.

    But what really matters in shaping public opinion is not necessarily the total numbers, but how close, immediate and personal crime feels.

    Other research has found people who feel crime is psychologically “close” – meaning, that’s likely to happen to them or someone they know – are much more worried about it.

    That worry can translate into calls for tougher sentencing, stricter laws, and less tolerance for rehabilitation.

    This fear is made worse by a lack of confidence in the justice system. Many rural residents feel the system is too slow, too distant, or simply doesn’t understand local issues.

    Some research shows that rural residents may not have confidence in the police ability or capacity to solve certain crimes and that courts in general are too soft on crime.

    When people feel justice won’t be done, they’re more likely to demand punishment that feels immediate and severe.

    Why it matters

    These findings are more than just a snapshot of attitudes; they have real implications for public policy.

    Politicians often draw on public opinion when shaping criminal justice policies.

    If rural voters are more likely to support tough-on-crime platforms, that can influence laws that affect the whole country.

    But one-size-fits-all solutions won’t work.

    The factors shaping crime perceptions in Brisbane or Sydney are very different from those in Longreach or Wagga Wagga.

    To build trust and improve safety, we need justice strategies that take into account local realities, especially in rural areas.

    This means investing in better access to police and courts, improving communication between justice systems and rural communities, and helping the public understand what crime is really happening and what’s not.

    Australians in rural areas aren’t more punitive because they’re harsher people. Our research shows they are more worried, feel less supported, and have less confidence in the system designed to protect them.

    Understanding this difference is key to building smarter, fairer justice policies because when people feel seen, heard, and safe, they’re less likely to demand punishment to solve feelings of insecurity and more likely to support holistic solutions.

    What’s needed now

    Rural communities need tailored strategies that improve access to justice, rebuild trust, and respond to their unique experiences of crime.

    That means policymakers need to go beyond reactive, headline-driven responses.

    Rural justice strategies should include mobile court services, better resourcing for regional police and victim support, and culturally appropriate services for Indigenous communities.

    Community education campaigns can also help close the gap between crime perception and reality.

    Importantly, involving local voices in justice reform, through consultation and community partnerships, can help rebuild trust and ensure policies reflect rural realities, not just urban assumptions.

    As political debate over law and order grows, especially in rural communities, leaders must address the divide in how city and country Australians view crime and punishment.

    Kyle Mulrooney is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology and co-director of the Centre for Rural Criminology at the University of New England.

    Caitlin Davey and Sue Watt 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. Australians in the bush want tougher penalties on crime. Here’s why – and what’s needed now – https://theconversation.com/australians-in-the-bush-want-tougher-penalties-on-crime-heres-why-and-whats-needed-now-259131

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: In view of Trump’s review of AUKUS, should Australia cancel the subs deal? We asked 5 experts

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Andrews, Senior Manager, Policy & Engagement, Australian National University

    Speculation is swirling around the future of the A$368 billion AUKUS agreement, following Washington’s decision to review the nuclear submarine deal to ensure it meets President Donald Trump’s “America first” agenda.

    Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was planning to use talks with Trump at the G7 to demand the US continue to back the deal – but the meeting has been cancelled.

    With the Pentagon taking another look at AUKUS, we ask five experts whether the government should rethink Australia’s own commitment to the pact.

    Jennifer Parker

    Expert Associate, National Security College, Australian National University

    Absolutely not. Another review would consume time and capacity better spent delivering AUKUS on its tight timelines.

    To understand why, we must put the decision in context.

    The leaked details of the US Department of Defense review does not alter the position of any of the three AUKUS partners. Much of the commentary has missed the broader picture: Washington is undertaking its regular review of defence strategy.

    Normally conducted every four years, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth recently announced the 2026 version would be brought forward to August 2025, with Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby leading the process.

    It makes sense the Pentagon would also assess AUKUS – a central element of its Indo-Pacific posture.

    While some have fixated on Colby’s supposed scepticism, the reality is different. In March, Colby told the US Senate Armed Services Committee the US should do everything in its power to make AUKUS work.

    Why now? Because the strategy review is being accelerated under the new administration. As for the leak, it is plausible it was designed to apply pressure to Australia over its defence spending commitments.

    The more important question is: what is the likely outcome? While nothing is certain, AUKUS enjoys strong bipartisan support in the US, as it does in Australia. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has called it a “blueprint” for cooperation, echoed by other senior officials.

    Crucially, the real driver of this so-called “America First” review is what the US gets out of AUKUS. The answer is quite a lot. It secures access to Southeast and Northeast Asia from a location beyond the range of most Chinese missiles, adds a fourth maintenance site for Virginia-class submarines, and delivers an ally with an independent nuclear-powered submarine industrial base.

    Beyond AUKUS, Australia has expanded its support for Marine and bomber rotations and other posture initiatives. Australia is central to US strategy in the Indo-Pacific. They need us as much as we need them. All signs point to a constructive outcome from this short, sharp review.

    While AUKUS carries risks and Australia must remain clear-eyed, alarmism is unhelpful. Much of the public debate has taken that tone. Nothing fundamental has changed since the optimal pathway was announced in 2023. The risks we face now were known then.

    There is no basis for an Australian review at this point. It would only distract from delivering this ambitious program. If core assumptions materially change, then a review may be warranted. But until then, such talk is a distraction.

    Albert Palazzo

    Adjunct Professor in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at UNSW Canberra, UNSW Sydney

    The AUKUS review should be welcomed by all Australians as an opportunity for the Albanese government to scrap the agreement and wean itself off US dependency.

    The review is a chance for our political leaders to exercise their most important responsibility: asserting the nation’s sovereignty and equipping Australia to provide for its national security on its own.

    Since AUKUS already contains clauses the US could use to cancel the pact, a termination now would benefit Australia. It would save the nation huge sums of money, and force the government to formulate a more useful and appropriate security policy.

    Elbridge Colby has previously questioned the logic of “giving away” America’s “crown jewels”, namely its nuclear-powered submarines, and argued the US will need all its boats against China.

    Elbridge Colby is in charge of the AUKUS review.

    More alarmingly, in his book The Strategy of Denial, Colby concludes the ideal way for the US to deny China regional hegemony is to use its allies to minimise its own “risks, commitment and expense”. Additionally, he says the US needs to retain the opportunity to walk away from a China conflict if that proves to be in America’s best interest.

    Colby’s track record suggests he will recommend Australia make a larger military contribution to the alliance — as his boss Pete Hegseth demanded at the Shangri-La Dialogue. This is even as the US reserves its right to desert us at a time of its own choosing, as the United Kingdom did during the second world war with the Singapore Strategy.

    At one time, the existing defence policy of reliance on the US made a degree of sense. But that is no longer the case. Instead, Australia’s leaders have an opportunity to recalibrate defence policy from one of dependency to one of self-defence.

    As I outline in my forthcoming book, The Big Fix, Australia should adopt the philosophy of “strategic defensive”. This is a method of waging war in which the defender only needs to prevent an aggressor from achieving its objectives.

    This would eliminate the risks and enormous cost of AUKUS while securing the nation’s future. A strategic defensive approach is well within Australia’s capabilities to implement on its own.

    While it would be an ironic act of dependency if the US was to save Australia from itself by either cancelling AUKUS or by making it too unpalatable to swallow, the chance to reconsider should not be missed.

    AUKUS remains an affront to Australian sovereignty.

    Ian Langford

    Executive Director, Security & Defence PLuS and Professor, UNSW Sydney

    Australia should not walk away from AUKUS in light of the Pentagon’s newly announced review. However, it should seize the moment to increase defence spending to meet short-term challenges not addressed by the submarine deal.

    Despite the noise, AUKUS remains Australia’s most straightforward path to acquiring nuclear-powered submarines, deepening strategic interoperability with the United States and United Kingdom, and embedding itself in the advanced defence technology ecosystems of its closest allies.

    But clinging to AUKUS without confronting the deeper risks it now exposes would be a strategic mistake. From an Australian perspective, the submarine pathway is on a slow fuse: first deliveries are not expected until the early 2030s.

    Meanwhile, the risk of major power conflict in the Indo-Pacific is accelerating, with a potential flashpoint involving China and the US as early as 2027. Naval brinkmanship in the Taiwan Strait and the South and East China Seas is already routine.

    Submarines that arrive too late do little to shape the strategic balance in the next five years. Canberra must therefore confront a hard truth: AUKUS may enhance Australia’s deterrence posture in the 2030s, but it does little to prepare the ADF for a near-term fight.

    That fight, should it come, will demand capabilities the ADF currently lacks in sufficient quantity: long-range missiles, deployable air defence, survivable command and control, and more surface combatants.

    Yet under current spending plans, Australia is trying to fund both the AUKUS build and short-term deterrence within a constrained budget. It will not work. Even after recent increases, defence spending remains around 2% of GDP. This is well below the level needed to fund both long-term deterrence and immediate readiness.

    Without a step change – closer to 2.5–3% of GDP – or a major reprioritisation of big-ticket programs, the ADF faces a dangerous capability gap through the second half of this decade.

    Nor can Australia afford to ignore its underinvestment in the asymmetric tools of modern warfare, including cyber capabilities and space-based surveillance.

    Australia should hold firm on AUKUS. The strategic upside is real, and the alliance commitments it reinforces are indispensable. But we should not pretend it is cost-free.

    Unless the defence budget is significantly expanded, AUKUS risks hollowing out the rest of the Defence Force. The result would be a future submarine fleet paired with an underpowered ADF, unready to meet the threats of today.

    In reaffirming AUKUS, Australia must confront the complex reality that it won’t address the threats of this decade, and should plan accordingly.

    Maria Rost Rublee

    Professor, International Relations Social and Political Sciences, The University of Melbourne

    Let’s be honest – Australia is not going to withdraw from AUKUS.

    The United States is our most important military and diplomatic partner; in the words of the 2024 National Defence Strategy, “our alliance with the US remains fundamental to Australia’s national security”.

    Unilaterally extracting ourselves from AUKUS would significantly damage our relationship with the US. Given the bipartisan and public support for the alliance within Australia, it simply won’t happen.

    As we navigate the complexities of AUKUS under Trump 2.0, we should remember that as a defence industrial agreement, AUKUS creates numerous benefits for Australia. In both Pillar I (nuclear submarines) and Pillar II (advanced defence capabilities), Australia is developing deep partnerships, collaboration and even integration with both the US and the UK in shipbuilding, advanced technology, and stronger supply chains.

    In addition, a rarely discussed benefit of AUKUS is the total life-cycle climate impacts, given nuclear submarines are superior to diesel alternatives. Diesel is a non-renewable energy source with significant global warming potential, while nuclear power is generally acknowledged to be low-carbon.

    However, AUKUS does offer very significant risks for Australia.
    Flexibility is baked into the arrangement for the three partner nations – leading to the very situation we are in today. There are significant concerns Washington may not sell nuclear Virginia-class submarines to Australia in the 2030s, as agreed.

    We have known for years the US is not producing enough nuclear attack submarines for its own domestic use, but we seem to have hoped this would change or the US would sell us the subs anyway.

    The current US review of AUKUS makes it clear Australia needs to think seriously about other options for submarines. Without the Virginia-class, we will be without any subs at all, at least until the SSN-AUKUS submarines are delivered by the mid-2040s.

    Our current ageing Collins-class subs, already beset with operational problems, will not be fit for purpose much past mid-2030. At this point, the most likely viable option is off-the-shelf conventional submarines from Japan or South Korea.

    The fact is, while Australia is unlikely to withdraw from AUKUS, the US may force the issue by refusing to sell us its nuclear-powered submarines. Refusing to acknowledge this does not change the risks.

    President Donald Trumps wants US allies to lift their defence spending.
    Rawpixel/Shutterstock

    David Andrews

    Senior Manager, Policy & Engagement, Australian National University

    I want AUKUS to succeed. It offers a unique opportunity to substantially upgrade Australia’s maritime capabilities with access to world-leading submarine technology and a suite of advanced and emerging technologies.

    However, we cannot realistically pursue “AUKUS at any cost”. There must be an upper limit to how much time, effort and resources are committed before the costs – financial, political and strategic – outweigh the potential long-term benefits.

    Of course, the government must not be hasty. Any decision should wait until the completion of the US review. Likewise, AUKUS should not be abandoned merely because it is being reviewed.

    Reviews are not inherently negative processes. A review after four years of a project of this size and significance is not a particularly surprising development. As seen in the UK, reviews can refocus efforts and commit greater resources, if needed.

    However, it doesn’t look like that’s what the US review is setting out to do. Rather, it’s focused on ensuring AUKUS is aligned with the America First agenda. That indicates an altogether different set of considerations.

    People often describe Trump as a “dealmaker” or “transactional”, but these are misleading euphemisms. This review, and recent language from senior US officials, gives the impression of a shakedown – of coercion, not partnership.

    As with tariffs, this does not feel like “the act of a friend”.

    The need to “win” and extract money from alliances is antithetical to their purpose. It misunderstands their nature and the fundamental importance of trust between partners. AUKUS is not an ATM.

    Past behaviour suggests no deal Trump makes will last without further demands being imposed. No amount of money is likely to be satisfactory. Even if Australia’s defence spending was lifted to 3.5% of GDP, the question would be “why isn’t it 5%?” For AUKUS, there is no such thing as an offer he cannot refuse.

    I do not say this lightly, but if the outcome of this process is a series of gratuitous or untenable demands by the US, the Albanese government should strongly consider walking away from AUKUS.

    The consequences would be significant, so the threshold of such a decision would need to be similarly calibrated. But no single project should be put above the integrity of our wider defence enterprise and the sovereign decision-making of our government.

    David Andrews has not personally received funding from any relevant external bodies, but he has previously worked on projects funded by the Australian Departments of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Home Affairs, and Defence. David is a member of the Australian Labor Party and Australian Institute of International Affairs, and previously worked for the Australian Department of Defence.

    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.

    Ian Langford is affiliated with Security & Defence PLuS, a collaboration between the University of New South Wales, Arizona State University and Kings College, London.

    Maria Rost Rublee has received grant funding from the Australian Department of Defence and the US Institute of Peace. She is affiliated with Women in International Security-Australia and Women in Nuclear-Australia.

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

    – ref. In view of Trump’s review of AUKUS, should Australia cancel the subs deal? We asked 5 experts – https://theconversation.com/in-view-of-trumps-review-of-aukus-should-australia-cancel-the-subs-deal-we-asked-5-experts-258921

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: What is ‘cognitive shuffling’ and does it really help you get to sleep? Two sleep scientists explain

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Melinda Jackson, Associate Professor at Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, School of Psychological Sciences, Monash University

    Ursula Ferrara/Shutterstock

    If you’ve been on social media lately – perhaps scrolling in the middle of the night, when you know you shouldn’t but you just can’t sleep – you might have seen those videos promoting a get-to-sleep technique called “cognitive shuffling”.

    The idea, proponents say, is to engage your mind with random ideas and images via a special formula:

    1. pick a random word (such as “cake”)
    2. focus on the first letter of the word (in this case, C) and list a bunch of words starting with that letter: cat, carrot, calendar and so on
    3. visualise each word as you go along
    4. when you feel ready, move onto the next letter (A) and repeat the process
    5. continue with each letter of the original word (so, in this case, K and then E) until you feel ready to switch to a new word or until you drift off to sleep.

    It’s popular on Instagram and TikTok, but does “cognitive shuffling” have any basis in science?

    Where did this idea come from?

    The cognitive shuffling technique was made famous by Canada-based researcher Luc P. Beaudoin more than a decade ago, when he published a paper about how what he called “serial diverse imagining” could help with sleep.

    One of Beaudoin’s hypothetical examples involved a woman thinking of the word “blanket”, then thinking bicycle (and imagining a bicycle), buying (imagining buying shoes), banana (visualising a banana tree) and so on.

    Soon, Beaudoin writes, she moves onto the letter L, thinking about her friend Larry, the word “like” (imagining her son hugging his dog). She soon transitions to the letter A, thinking of the word “Amsterdam”:

    and she might very vaguely imagine the large hand of a sailor gesturing for another order of fries in an Amsterdam pub while a rancid accordion plays in the background.

    Sleep soon ensues. The goal, according to Beaudoin, is to think briefly about:

    a neutral or pleasant target and frequently [switch] to unrelated targets (normally every 5-15 seconds).

    Don’t try to relate one word with another or find a link between the words; resist the mind’s natural tendency toward sense-making.

    While the research into this technique is still in its infancy, the idea is grounded in science. That’s because we know from other research good sleepers tend to have different kinds of thoughts in bed to bad sleepers.

    People with insomnia are more focused on worries, problems, or noises in the environment, and are often preoccupied with not sleeping.

    Good sleepers, on the other hand, typically have dream-like, hallucinatory, less ordered thoughts before nodding off.

    Good sleepers typically have dream-like, hallucinatory, less ordered thoughts before nodding off.
    fran_kie/Shutterstock

    Sorting the pro-somnolent wheat from the insomnolent chaff

    Cognitive shuffling attempts to mimic the thinking patterns of good sleepers by simulating the dream-like and random thought patterns they generally have before drifting off to sleep.

    In particular, Beaudoin’s research describes two types of sleep-related thoughts: insomnolent (or anti-sleep) and pro-somnolent (sleep-promoting) thoughts.

    Insomnolent thoughts include things such as worrying, planning, rehearsing, and ruminating on perceived problems or failings.

    Pro-somnolent thoughts on the other hand involve thoughts that can help you fall asleep, such as dream-like imagery or having a calm, relaxed state of mind.

    Cognitive shuffling aims to distract from or interfere with insomnolent thought. It offers a calm, neutral path for your racing mind, and can reduce the stress associated with not sleeping.

    Cognitive shuffling also helps tell your brain you are ready for sleep.

    In fact, the process of “shuffling” between different thoughts is similar to the way your brain naturally drifts off to sleep. During the transition to sleep, brain activity slows. Your brain starts to generate disconnected images and fleeting scenes, known as hypnagogic hallucinations, without a conscious effort to make sense of them.

    By mimicking these scattered, disconnected, and random thought patterns, cognitive shuffling may help you transition from wakefulness to sleep.

    And the preliminary research into this is promising. Beaudoin and his team have found serial diverse imagining helps to lower arousal before sleep, improve sleep quality and reduce the effort involved in falling asleep.

    However, with only a small number of research studies, more work is needed here.

    It didn’t work. Now what?

    As with every new strategy, however, practise makes perfect. Don’t be disheartened if you don’t see an improvement straight away; these things take time.

    Stay consistent and be kind to yourself.

    And what works for some won’t work for others. Different people benefit from different types of strategies depending on how they relate to and experience stress or stressful thoughts.

    Other strategies to help create the right conditions for sleep include:

    If, despite all your best efforts, night time thoughts continue to impact your sleep or overall wellbeing, consider seeking professional help from your doctor or a trained sleep specialist.

    Melinda Jackson has received funding from the Medical Research Future Fund, the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), Aged Care Research & Industry Innovation Australia (ARIIA) and Dementia Australia. She a board member of the Australasian Sleep Association.

    Eleni Kavaliotis has previously received funding from an Australian government Research Training Program (RTP) scholarship. She is a member of the Australasian Sleep Association’s Insomnia and Sleep Health Council.

    – ref. What is ‘cognitive shuffling’ and does it really help you get to sleep? Two sleep scientists explain – https://theconversation.com/what-is-cognitive-shuffling-and-does-it-really-help-you-get-to-sleep-two-sleep-scientists-explain-256444

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: What is ‘cognitive shuffling’ and does it really help you get to sleep? Two sleep scientists explain

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Melinda Jackson, Associate Professor at Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, School of Psychological Sciences, Monash University

    Ursula Ferrara/Shutterstock

    If you’ve been on social media lately – perhaps scrolling in the middle of the night, when you know you shouldn’t but you just can’t sleep – you might have seen those videos promoting a get-to-sleep technique called “cognitive shuffling”.

    The idea, proponents say, is to engage your mind with random ideas and images via a special formula:

    1. pick a random word (such as “cake”)
    2. focus on the first letter of the word (in this case, C) and list a bunch of words starting with that letter: cat, carrot, calendar and so on
    3. visualise each word as you go along
    4. when you feel ready, move onto the next letter (A) and repeat the process
    5. continue with each letter of the original word (so, in this case, K and then E) until you feel ready to switch to a new word or until you drift off to sleep.

    It’s popular on Instagram and TikTok, but does “cognitive shuffling” have any basis in science?

    Where did this idea come from?

    The cognitive shuffling technique was made famous by Canada-based researcher Luc P. Beaudoin more than a decade ago, when he published a paper about how what he called “serial diverse imagining” could help with sleep.

    One of Beaudoin’s hypothetical examples involved a woman thinking of the word “blanket”, then thinking bicycle (and imagining a bicycle), buying (imagining buying shoes), banana (visualising a banana tree) and so on.

    Soon, Beaudoin writes, she moves onto the letter L, thinking about her friend Larry, the word “like” (imagining her son hugging his dog). She soon transitions to the letter A, thinking of the word “Amsterdam”:

    and she might very vaguely imagine the large hand of a sailor gesturing for another order of fries in an Amsterdam pub while a rancid accordion plays in the background.

    Sleep soon ensues. The goal, according to Beaudoin, is to think briefly about:

    a neutral or pleasant target and frequently [switch] to unrelated targets (normally every 5-15 seconds).

    Don’t try to relate one word with another or find a link between the words; resist the mind’s natural tendency toward sense-making.

    While the research into this technique is still in its infancy, the idea is grounded in science. That’s because we know from other research good sleepers tend to have different kinds of thoughts in bed to bad sleepers.

    People with insomnia are more focused on worries, problems, or noises in the environment, and are often preoccupied with not sleeping.

    Good sleepers, on the other hand, typically have dream-like, hallucinatory, less ordered thoughts before nodding off.

    Good sleepers typically have dream-like, hallucinatory, less ordered thoughts before nodding off.
    fran_kie/Shutterstock

    Sorting the pro-somnolent wheat from the insomnolent chaff

    Cognitive shuffling attempts to mimic the thinking patterns of good sleepers by simulating the dream-like and random thought patterns they generally have before drifting off to sleep.

    In particular, Beaudoin’s research describes two types of sleep-related thoughts: insomnolent (or anti-sleep) and pro-somnolent (sleep-promoting) thoughts.

    Insomnolent thoughts include things such as worrying, planning, rehearsing, and ruminating on perceived problems or failings.

    Pro-somnolent thoughts on the other hand involve thoughts that can help you fall asleep, such as dream-like imagery or having a calm, relaxed state of mind.

    Cognitive shuffling aims to distract from or interfere with insomnolent thought. It offers a calm, neutral path for your racing mind, and can reduce the stress associated with not sleeping.

    Cognitive shuffling also helps tell your brain you are ready for sleep.

    In fact, the process of “shuffling” between different thoughts is similar to the way your brain naturally drifts off to sleep. During the transition to sleep, brain activity slows. Your brain starts to generate disconnected images and fleeting scenes, known as hypnagogic hallucinations, without a conscious effort to make sense of them.

    By mimicking these scattered, disconnected, and random thought patterns, cognitive shuffling may help you transition from wakefulness to sleep.

    And the preliminary research into this is promising. Beaudoin and his team have found serial diverse imagining helps to lower arousal before sleep, improve sleep quality and reduce the effort involved in falling asleep.

    However, with only a small number of research studies, more work is needed here.

    It didn’t work. Now what?

    As with every new strategy, however, practise makes perfect. Don’t be disheartened if you don’t see an improvement straight away; these things take time.

    Stay consistent and be kind to yourself.

    And what works for some won’t work for others. Different people benefit from different types of strategies depending on how they relate to and experience stress or stressful thoughts.

    Other strategies to help create the right conditions for sleep include:

    If, despite all your best efforts, night time thoughts continue to impact your sleep or overall wellbeing, consider seeking professional help from your doctor or a trained sleep specialist.

    Melinda Jackson has received funding from the Medical Research Future Fund, the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), Aged Care Research & Industry Innovation Australia (ARIIA) and Dementia Australia. She a board member of the Australasian Sleep Association.

    Eleni Kavaliotis has previously received funding from an Australian government Research Training Program (RTP) scholarship. She is a member of the Australasian Sleep Association’s Insomnia and Sleep Health Council.

    – ref. What is ‘cognitive shuffling’ and does it really help you get to sleep? Two sleep scientists explain – https://theconversation.com/what-is-cognitive-shuffling-and-does-it-really-help-you-get-to-sleep-two-sleep-scientists-explain-256444

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: New research shows Australians see influencers as major sources of misinformation

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sora Park, Professor of Communication, News & Media Research Centre, University of Canberra

    As consumption of traditional news continues to fall, audiences are turning to social media personalities and influencers for their information. These figures are increasingly shaping public debates.

    But Australian news audiences are sceptical. More Australians believe social media influencers are a major misinformation threat than other sources, according to new research.

    The Digital News Report: Australia 2025, released today, also reveals general news avoidance remains high, with 69% of people saying they try not to engage with it. This is particularly the case among women, young people and those in regional areas.

    So if people don’t want to engage with traditional news, but are suspicious of influencers, how can we ensure they get reliable information when they need it? There are some solutions.

    Suspicious of influencers

    The Digital News Report: Australia is part of a global annual survey of digital news consumption in 48 countries, commissioned by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford.

    The survey was conducted by YouGov in January and February 2025. The data are weighted for age, gender and region. Education and political quotas were also applied.

    For the 11th iteration of this study in Australia, we surveyed 2,006 online Australian adults. We asked people about sources and platforms they believe to be major misinformation threats.

    More than half of participants said online influencers/personalities are the major risk (57%), followed by activists (51%), foreign governments (49%), Australian political actors (48%), and the news media (43%).

    This is in stark contrast to the United States, where national politicians are seen as posing the biggest threat of misleading information (57%) and is ten percentage points higher than the global average of 42 countries in the survey (47%).

    Navigating truth online

    The report also finds Australians continue to be the most concerned about what is real or fake online, with 74% saying they are worried about it.

    This is especially true on social media, where Australians see Facebook (59%) and TikTok (57%) as the two platforms that are the biggest threat of spreading misinformation.

    Given the proportion of people using social media as their main source of news has increased (26%, up eight percentage points since 2016) and TikTok is the fastest growing social media platform for news (14%, up 13 percentage points since 2020), concern about misinformation will likely remain an issue in Australia.

    This problem is not necessarily with the platform itself, but who audiences pay attention to when they are on it.

    On TikTok, Australians are more likely to turn to information shared by influencers, particularly younger audiences.

    Less or more intervention?

    Deciding what is true or fake online is a complex issue. This was highlighted during the political debate over the federal government’s controversial Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation Bill, which was eventually withdrawn late last year.

    Much hinged on questions around who gets to decide what the truth is, and who might be responsible for tackling it. Is it the job of digital platforms to remove harmful and misleading content? Or do audiences need more media literacy education? Or both?

    As debate over how to reduce harm while balancing free speech continues, we asked people about the removal of harmful and offensive social media content.

    One third (33%) say social media and video networks like TikTok and YouTube are not removing enough harmful or offensive content.

    Fewer people (21%) think platforms are removing too much.

    This indicates Australians want more action from social media companies.

    Boosting media literacy

    The data also tell us improving news literacy across the community may be key to tackling the problem.

    We asked people what they do when they come across suspicious information. Thirty-nine percent said they fact-check using trusted news sources, official websites and search engines.

    But there were important differences in fact-checking behaviours between those who had received some kind of news literacy education and those who had not.

    People who had received training about how the news works were much more likely to use a reputable news source or go to an official website to verify information.

    However, few people have had such education, with only 24% of those surveyed saying they had received some.

    The data show not only are people with news literacy education more likely to fact-check, they also avoid news less, have higher interest in it, are more likely to trust the news, and more inclined to pay for it.

    This suggests increasing news literacy can help users navigate the complex online environment, and could also have both civic and economic benefits.

    While there is no single solution to reducing misinformation online, this year’s data points to two key areas for further action: increasing access to media literacy training for all Australians, and compelling digital platforms to remove more misleading and harmful content.

    Sora Park receives funding from the Australian Research Council, SBS, Creative Australia and Boundless Earth.

    Ashleigh Haw has received funding from the Australian National University’s Herbert and Valmae Freilich Project for the Study of Bigotry, and The Australian Sociological Association (TASA).

    Caroline Fisher has received funding from Australian Research Council, Google News Initiative, the Australian Communication and Media Authority, former Dept of Communication and Infrastructure, and Judith Neilsen Institute for Journalism and Ideas.

    Kieran McGuinness has received funding from Google News Initiative and the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

    – ref. New research shows Australians see influencers as major sources of misinformation – https://theconversation.com/new-research-shows-australians-see-influencers-as-major-sources-of-misinformation-257803

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Wetland restoration is seen as sunk cost – but new research shows why it should be considered an investment

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Wei Yang, Senior Scientist in Environmental Economics, Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa – Massey University

    Shutterstock/Wirestock Creators

    As extreme weather intensifies globally, governments are seeking nature-based solutions that deliver both climate and economic benefits.

    The restoration of wetlands is an often overlooked opportunity. As our recent study shows, wetlands have long been treated as environmental “add-ons” but are in fact rising economic assets, delivering more value as they mature.

    Restored coastal wetlands, particularly mangroves and saltmarshes, offer growing returns in the form of carbon sequestration, biodiversity protection and storm buffering. These benefits build up gradually, sometimes exponentially, over time.

    But planning frameworks treat restorations as static costs, rather than compounding investments.

    Using international data and economic modelling, we developed a framework to capture how wetland benefits evolve over decades. While we draw on global datasets, this approach can be applied in New Zealand to understand the value of local restoration projects.

    Timing matters for wetland investment

    Traditional cost-benefit analyses treat wetland restoration as a one-off expense with fixed returns. Our research shows this misses the bigger, long-term picture.

    For example, coastal mangroves initially store a modest amount of carbon while seedlings develop. But as root systems establish and capture sediment, there is a critical threshold when carbon sequestration accelerates dramatically. Mature restored mangroves can store three times more carbon annually than during early years.

    Saltmarshes follow a similar pattern. They develop from basic habitat into complex networks that buffer storm surges, filter nutrients and support productive fisheries.

    For New Zealand, where many wetlands were historically drained or degraded, the implication is clear. Early investment in restoration is critical and will deliver increasing returns over time.

    Our study highlights mangroves and saltmarshes as priority systems, but also points to peatlands and freshwater marshes as promising candidates.

    Early investment in wetland restoration can deliver long-term returns.
    Shutterstock/Wirestock Creators

    Risk from resource management reform

    As part of a major reform of the Resource Management Act, the government is reviewing the environmental rules governing the work of local and regional councils, including policies on freshwater.

    The law review and freshwater policy consultations present both opportunities and challenges for wetland valuation.

    The amendment to the Resource Management Act regarding freshwater proposes:

    quick, targeted changes which will reduce the regulatory burden on key sectors, including farming, mining and other primary industries.

    While this may reduce the regulatory burden, it highlight the need for robust valuation tools that can weigh long-term benefits against immediate development returns.

    The current consultation outlines specific changes, including clarifying the definition of a wetland. The amended definition would exclude wetlands “unintentionally created” through activities such as irrigation, while constructed wetlands would have a new set of objectives and consent pathways.

    Councils would also no longer need to map wetlands by 2030, while restrictions on non-intensive grazing of beef cattle and deer in wetlands would be removed.

    These definition changes could exclude wetlands that accumulate significant climate and biodiversity benefits over time, regardless of their origin. As our research suggests, the ecological and economic value of wetlands often increases substantially as systems mature.

    The valuation gap

    Despite growing international recognition of “blue carbon” initiatives (which store carbon in coastal and marine ecosystems), New Zealand lacks frameworks to capture the dynamic value of wetlands.

    Earlier research shows coastal ecosystems contribute about US$190 billion annually to global blue carbon wealth, with wetlands storing about half of all carbon buried in ocean sediments despite occupying less than 2% of the ocean.

    New Zealand has no wetland-specific financial instruments to attract private investment and wetlands are not integrated into the Emissions Trading Scheme, the government’s main tool for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

    This creates a fundamental mismatch. Policy frameworks treat restoration as static costs while science reveals appreciating assets.

    Our modelling framework offers a pathway to bridge this gap. By tracking how different wetland types accumulate benefits over time, decision makers can better understand long-term returns on restoration investment.

    Australia is already developing wetland carbon markets. International blue carbon financial initiatives are emerging and recognising that today’s restoration investment delivers tomorrow’s climate benefits.

    For New Zealand, this could mean:

    • integrating wetland valuation into environmental assessments, moving beyond upfront costs to consider decades of accumulating benefits across different wetland types

    • aligning finance with restoration timelines and developing funding mechanisms that capture growing value rather than treating restoration as sunk costs

    • building regional datasets and generating location-specific data on how New Zealand’s diverse wetlands develop benefits over time, reducing investment uncertainty.

    With sea-level rise accelerating and extreme weather becoming more frequent, wetlands represent critical infrastructure for climate adaptation. Unlike built infrastructure (stop banks, for example) that depreciates, wetlands appreciate, becoming more valuable as they mature.

    The current policy consultation period offers an opportunity to embed this thinking into New Zealand’s environmental frameworks. Rather than viewing wetlands as regulatory constraints, dynamic valuation could reveal them as appreciating assets that increase resilience for coastal communities.

    Restoring coastal wetlands is not just about repairing nature. It’s about investing in a living, compounding asset that ameliorates climate impacts and protects our coasts and communities.

    Wei Yang was funded by a Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment Endeavour grant.

    – ref. Wetland restoration is seen as sunk cost – but new research shows why it should be considered an investment – https://theconversation.com/wetland-restoration-is-seen-as-sunk-cost-but-new-research-shows-why-it-should-be-considered-an-investment-258281

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Why does my phone sometimes not ring when people call? A communications expert explains

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jairo Gutierrez, Professor, Department of Computer and Information Sciences, Auckland University of Technology

    Tada Images

    There’s a certain feeling I get in the pit of my stomach when I’m waiting for an important call to come through. You know the type – maybe a call from your boss, a potential new employer or news of a loved one who’s due to give birth.

    In these situations, I usually stare at my phone, willing it to ring. I make sure – over and again – it’s not on silent or “do not disturb” mode. When the screen is out of my sight, I imagine I can hear the familiar ringtone.

    Then it pops up – the missed call notification. But the phone never rang. What happened?

    How do mobile calls work?

    When making a mobile call using 4G or 5G networks, the caller dials a number and their network operator (Telstra or OneNZ, for example) routes the request to the recipient’s device.

    For this to work, both phones must be registered with an IP Multimedia Subsystem – or IMS – which automatically happens when you turn on your phone. IMS is the system that allows the combination of voice calls, messages and video communications.

    Both phones must also be connected to a 4G or 5G cell phone tower. The caller’s network sends an invite to the recipient’s device, which will then start to ring.

    This process is usually very fast. But as generations of cellular networks have evolved (remember 3G?), becoming faster and with greater capacity, they have also become more complex, with new potential points of failure.

    From phone failures to ‘dead zones’

    Mobile phones use Voice over LTE (VoLTE) for 4G networks or Voice over New Radio (VoNR) for 5G. These are technologies that enable voice calls over those two types of networks and they use the above mentioned IMS.

    In some countries such as New Zealand, if either of these aren’t enabled or supported on your device (some phones have VoLTE disabled by default), it may attempt to fall back to the 3G network, which was switched off in Australia in 2024 and is currently being phased out in New Zealand.

    If this fallback fails or is delayed, the recipient’s phone may not ring or may go straight to voicemail.

    Another possibility is that your phone may have failed to register with the IMS network. If this happens – due to something like a software glitch, SIM issue, or network problem – a phone won’t receive the call signal and won’t ring.

    Then there are handover issues. Each cell phone tower covers a particular area, and if you are moving, your call will be handed over to the tower that provides the best coverage. Sometimes your phone uses 5G for data but 4G for voice; if the handover between 5G and 4G is slow or fails, the call might not ring. If 5G is used for both data and voice, VoNR is used, which is still not widely supported and may fail.

    Mobile apps introduce other potential problems. For example, on Android, aggressive battery-saving features can restrict background processes, including the phone app, preventing it from responding to incoming calls. Third-party apps such as call blockers, antivirus tools, or even messaging apps can also interfere with call notifications.

    Finally, if your phone is in an area with poor reception, it may not receive the call signal in time to ring. These so-called “dead zones” are more common than telcos would like to admit. I live at the end of a long driveway in a well-covered suburb of Auckland in New Zealand. But, depending on where I am in the house, I still experience dead zones and often the WiFi-enabled phone apps will more reliably cause the phone to ring.

    Battery-saving features on phones can restrict background processes, including the phone app, preventing it from responding to incoming calls.
    ymgerman/Shutterstock

    What can I do to fix it?

    If your phone frequently doesn’t ring on 4G or 5G there are a few things you can do:

    • make sure VolTE/VoNR is enabled in your network settings
    • restart your phone and toggle airplane mode to refresh network registration
    • check battery optimisation settings and exclude the phone app you are using
    • contact your carrier to confirm VoLTE/VoNR support and provisioning.

    But ultimately, sometimes a call will just fail – and there’s very little an everyday person can do about it. Which yes, is annoying. But it also means you have a failsafe, expert-approved excuse for missing a call from your boss.

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

    – ref. Why does my phone sometimes not ring when people call? A communications expert explains – https://theconversation.com/why-does-my-phone-sometimes-not-ring-when-people-call-a-communications-expert-explains-258400

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Ice Age shelter high up in the Blue Mountains reveals Aboriginal heritage from 20,000 years ago

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Erin Wilkins, Aboriginal Cultural Educator, Trainer and Facilitator, Indigenous Knowledge

    Artist’s impression of Dargan Shelter as it would have looked during the last Ice Age. Painting by Leanne Watson Redpath

    Travel back 20,000 years into the last Ice Age, to a time when the upper reaches of the Blue Mountains were treeless and the ridgelines and mountain peaks laden in snow and ice.

    At an elevation of 1,073 metres, you will find Dargan Shelter, an ancient rock shelter resembling a large amphitheatre. Looking around, you could easily assume this cold and barren high country was too difficult for people to spend time in.

    But our new research, published today in Nature Human Behaviour, indicates Dargan Shelter was occupied as early as the last Ice Age and repeatedly visited during this cold period.

    Our excavation results provide the earliest known evidence of high-altitude occupation in Australia, establishing the Blue Mountains as Australia’s most archaeologically significant periglacial landscape – that is, an area which goes through seasonal freezing and thawing.

    Cultural perspectives

    This is a highly significant landscape concentrated with tangible and intangible cultural values for Aboriginal people.

    For millennia, Aboriginal people have passed down the knowledge and stories of Country.

    Knowing our Ancestors have lived here, in this Country, for thousands of years was on our minds as the team headed down into the site where we would sit alongside our Ancestors of yesterday.

    We chose this site because of its location on a known Aboriginal travelling route, high elevation and its potential to hold deep deposits.

    Archaeologically, a deep and undisturbed deposit is one of the most important things to look for. The sediment buildup over time preserves cultural material, and allows us to reconstruct past activities by associating cultural objects within distinct layers or bands of time.

    Members of the season 3 team at Dargan Shelter. Back to front, left to right: Tyrone Pal, Rodney Lawson, Wayne Brennan, Duncan Wright, Eitan Harris, Juliet Schofield, Michael Spate, Wayne Logue, Lauren Roach, Rebecca Chalker, Dominic Wilkins, Phil Piper, Amy Way, Imogen Williams.
    Amy Way

    When we enter the site, we pay respects to the Country and Ancestors before us. As part of the opening of the site for the archaeological works, a lyrebird song and dance were performed and, magically, a handful of lyrebirds began approaching the cave and singing out as if they were communicating between the current and old worlds through song.

    We do not know who exactly the Aboriginal people who moved through the Blue Mountains in the deep past were, nor where they came from. But Dargan Shelter was probably an important stopover point for people to attend gatherings and ceremonies that could have included people from the western interior, the Cumberland coastal plains, and Country to the north and south.

    Finds from the Dargan Shelter excavation

    New evidence provides definitive proof of repeated occupation in this once frozen high-altitude landscape. It is now believed to be the oldest occupied site in Australia at high elevation.

    We unearthed 693 stone artefacts, including 117 flakes from stratigraphic layers older than 16,000 years, and documented a small amount of faded rock art, including a child-sized hand stencil and two forearm stencils.

    Charcoal from hearths (campfires) underwent radiocarbon dating, indicating Dargan Shelter had been continuously occupied since 22,000 to 19,000 years ago.

    Stone artefacts excavated at Dargan shelter dating to the last ice-age, showing the range of non-quartz raw material used during that time. (A) hornfels; (B) black quartzite hammerstone from the Hunter region; (C) exotic coarse grained unidentified siliceous stone possibly from Jenolan; (D) Local Burragorang claystone; (E) exotic fine grained siliceous stone possibly from Jenolan;
    Amy Way

    Among the findings, most of the stone tools were locally sourced and made. But, very interestingly some stones from the Jenolan Caves area, approximately 50 kilometres to the south-west, and the Hunter Valley region, 150 km to the north, were also found. This indicates people were travelling into this mountainous region from both the north and south.

    We found a sandstone grinding slab, dated to 13,000 years ago, consistent with shaping bone or wooden artefacts such as needles, awls, bone points and nose points. A basalt anvil with impact marks consistent with cracking hard woody nuts and seed shells was dated to 8,800 years ago.

    Greater Blue Mountains and world heritage

    The Blue Mountains was listed as a UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) World Heritage area in 2000 for its outstanding biodiversity values.

    Although the cultural heritage is remarkably intact and connected with an environmental system and natural features, the parallel nomination for cultural values listing failed due to a paucity of archaeological and cultural heritage information.

    Our new research should be considered in a nomination for the UNESCO World Heritage area to also encompass cultural heritage alongside biodiversity.

    The Blue Mountains landscape shrouds a silent yet rich tapestry of Aboriginal heritage.

    Our people have walked, lived and thrived in the Blue Mountains for thousands of years. The mountains are a tangible connection to our Ancestors who used them as a meeting place for sharing, storytelling and survival. They are a part of our cultural identity.

    We need to respect and protect our heritage for the benefit of all Australians.

    Archaeological works in progress: Imogen Williams, Rebecca Chalker and Tyrone Pal excavating the Ice Age layers.
    Amy Way

    Our results align Australia for the first time with ice age data from the world’s other inhabited continents, including sites in other places not traditionally thought of as cold climates, such as Mexico and Spain.

    We now have a truly global story of people entering and living in high-altitude landscapes during the last ice age.

    The continuation of research projects like this one, and the invaluable evidence it provides across the region, will allow Aboriginal people with connections to the Blue Mountains to begin to stitch back together much of the history and many of the stories that until now have had gaps.

    The more we discover and piece together the movements, ceremonies and stories, the stronger we are as a community.

    Amy Mosig Way receives funding from the Australian Museum Foundation and is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Sydney.

    Erin Wilkins, Leanne Watson, and Wayne Brennan 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. Ice Age shelter high up in the Blue Mountains reveals Aboriginal heritage from 20,000 years ago – https://theconversation.com/ice-age-shelter-high-up-in-the-blue-mountains-reveals-aboriginal-heritage-from-20-000-years-ago-247358

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Ice Age shelter high up in the Blue Mountains reveals Aboriginal heritage from 20,000 years ago

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Erin Wilkins, Aboriginal Cultural Educator, Trainer and Facilitator, Indigenous Knowledge

    Artist’s impression of Dargan Shelter as it would have looked during the last Ice Age. Painting by Leanne Watson Redpath

    Travel back 20,000 years into the last Ice Age, to a time when the upper reaches of the Blue Mountains were treeless and the ridgelines and mountain peaks laden in snow and ice.

    At an elevation of 1,073 metres, you will find Dargan Shelter, an ancient rock shelter resembling a large amphitheatre. Looking around, you could easily assume this cold and barren high country was too difficult for people to spend time in.

    But our new research, published today in Nature Human Behaviour, indicates Dargan Shelter was occupied as early as the last Ice Age and repeatedly visited during this cold period.

    Our excavation results provide the earliest known evidence of high-altitude occupation in Australia, establishing the Blue Mountains as Australia’s most archaeologically significant periglacial landscape – that is, an area which goes through seasonal freezing and thawing.

    Cultural perspectives

    This is a highly significant landscape concentrated with tangible and intangible cultural values for Aboriginal people.

    For millennia, Aboriginal people have passed down the knowledge and stories of Country.

    Knowing our Ancestors have lived here, in this Country, for thousands of years was on our minds as the team headed down into the site where we would sit alongside our Ancestors of yesterday.

    We chose this site because of its location on a known Aboriginal travelling route, high elevation and its potential to hold deep deposits.

    Archaeologically, a deep and undisturbed deposit is one of the most important things to look for. The sediment buildup over time preserves cultural material, and allows us to reconstruct past activities by associating cultural objects within distinct layers or bands of time.

    Members of the season 3 team at Dargan Shelter. Back to front, left to right: Tyrone Pal, Rodney Lawson, Wayne Brennan, Duncan Wright, Eitan Harris, Juliet Schofield, Michael Spate, Wayne Logue, Lauren Roach, Rebecca Chalker, Dominic Wilkins, Phil Piper, Amy Way, Imogen Williams.
    Amy Way

    When we enter the site, we pay respects to the Country and Ancestors before us. As part of the opening of the site for the archaeological works, a lyrebird song and dance were performed and, magically, a handful of lyrebirds began approaching the cave and singing out as if they were communicating between the current and old worlds through song.

    We do not know who exactly the Aboriginal people who moved through the Blue Mountains in the deep past were, nor where they came from. But Dargan Shelter was probably an important stopover point for people to attend gatherings and ceremonies that could have included people from the western interior, the Cumberland coastal plains, and Country to the north and south.

    Finds from the Dargan Shelter excavation

    New evidence provides definitive proof of repeated occupation in this once frozen high-altitude landscape. It is now believed to be the oldest occupied site in Australia at high elevation.

    We unearthed 693 stone artefacts, including 117 flakes from stratigraphic layers older than 16,000 years, and documented a small amount of faded rock art, including a child-sized hand stencil and two forearm stencils.

    Charcoal from hearths (campfires) underwent radiocarbon dating, indicating Dargan Shelter had been continuously occupied since 22,000 to 19,000 years ago.

    Stone artefacts excavated at Dargan shelter dating to the last ice-age, showing the range of non-quartz raw material used during that time. (A) hornfels; (B) black quartzite hammerstone from the Hunter region; (C) exotic coarse grained unidentified siliceous stone possibly from Jenolan; (D) Local Burragorang claystone; (E) exotic fine grained siliceous stone possibly from Jenolan;
    Amy Way

    Among the findings, most of the stone tools were locally sourced and made. But, very interestingly some stones from the Jenolan Caves area, approximately 50 kilometres to the south-west, and the Hunter Valley region, 150 km to the north, were also found. This indicates people were travelling into this mountainous region from both the north and south.

    We found a sandstone grinding slab, dated to 13,000 years ago, consistent with shaping bone or wooden artefacts such as needles, awls, bone points and nose points. A basalt anvil with impact marks consistent with cracking hard woody nuts and seed shells was dated to 8,800 years ago.

    Greater Blue Mountains and world heritage

    The Blue Mountains was listed as a UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) World Heritage area in 2000 for its outstanding biodiversity values.

    Although the cultural heritage is remarkably intact and connected with an environmental system and natural features, the parallel nomination for cultural values listing failed due to a paucity of archaeological and cultural heritage information.

    Our new research should be considered in a nomination for the UNESCO World Heritage area to also encompass cultural heritage alongside biodiversity.

    The Blue Mountains landscape shrouds a silent yet rich tapestry of Aboriginal heritage.

    Our people have walked, lived and thrived in the Blue Mountains for thousands of years. The mountains are a tangible connection to our Ancestors who used them as a meeting place for sharing, storytelling and survival. They are a part of our cultural identity.

    We need to respect and protect our heritage for the benefit of all Australians.

    Archaeological works in progress: Imogen Williams, Rebecca Chalker and Tyrone Pal excavating the Ice Age layers.
    Amy Way

    Our results align Australia for the first time with ice age data from the world’s other inhabited continents, including sites in other places not traditionally thought of as cold climates, such as Mexico and Spain.

    We now have a truly global story of people entering and living in high-altitude landscapes during the last ice age.

    The continuation of research projects like this one, and the invaluable evidence it provides across the region, will allow Aboriginal people with connections to the Blue Mountains to begin to stitch back together much of the history and many of the stories that until now have had gaps.

    The more we discover and piece together the movements, ceremonies and stories, the stronger we are as a community.

    Amy Mosig Way receives funding from the Australian Museum Foundation and is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Sydney.

    Erin Wilkins, Leanne Watson, and Wayne Brennan 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. Ice Age shelter high up in the Blue Mountains reveals Aboriginal heritage from 20,000 years ago – https://theconversation.com/ice-age-shelter-high-up-in-the-blue-mountains-reveals-aboriginal-heritage-from-20-000-years-ago-247358

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Some students learning English can take at least 6 years to catch up to their peers. How can we support them better?

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lucy Lu, Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney

    Rawpixel/ Getty Images

    About one quarter of Australian school students are learning English as an additional language or dialect.

    This means their first language or dialect is something other than English and they need extra support to develop proficiency in what we call standard Australian English.

    This group of students includes immigrants and refugees from non-English speaking countries, children of migrant heritage where English is not spoken at home and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.

    But the level and duration of support they receive varies across schools. This is an issue because these students risk underachieving or being labelled as having learning difficulties without adequate help.

    Until now, little was known about how long these students take to learn English.

    Our new research published today by the Australian Education Research Organisation, found it can take many years for students to develop the English language skills they need. This suggests students need ongoing and targeted support to learn English as an additional language.

    Our study

    We looked at more than 110,000 primary and high school students in New South Wales public schools over a nine-year period.

    The students were learning English as an additional language from 2014 to 2022. Our research used two methods.

    First, we analysed how long it took these students to achieve the same scores in their NAPLAN reading and writing tests as their English-speaking peers with the same background characteristics. That is, students were matched for characteristics such as gender, student socio-educational advantage and school location.

    Second, we analysed how long it took students learning English as an additional language to reach certain phases of language proficiency. There is a national learning progression resource for schools supporting students learning English as an additional language. It has four phases: beginning, emerging, developing and consolidating.


    Source: The EAL/D Learning Progression: Foundation to Year 10, ACARA, 2015., CC BY

    It can take many years to learn English

    Combining both methods, we found students need considerable time to learn English as an additional language.

    For students who were assessed as “beginning” when they started school, it takes an average of six years to reach the final “consolidating” phase.

    This means those students starting in kindergarten (the first year of school in NSW) are likely to need English language support throughout primary school.

    For “beginning” students who start in later years, they may need continued English language support in high school.

    Students who started school at the “emerging” and “developing” phases take, on average, four and three years, respectively to have English skills on par with their peers.

    Learning English takes longer as you go along

    We also found as students learned English, each phase in their progression took longer to achieve than the one before:

    • the average time from beginning to emerging was one year and one month

    • from emerging to developing was one year and eight months

    • from developing to consolidating was two years and seven months.

    What can impact learning?

    But learning English is complex and can be impacted by many factors.

    We found students with socio-educational disadvantage progressed 22% slower than advantaged students, students with refugee experiences progressed 14% slower than those without. Male students took 6% longer than their female peers.

    We also found students starting school in kindergarten progressed about 9% slower, compared to starting school in Australia in later primary year levels.

    But we found students who started school already at the final, “consolidating” phase of English outperformed monolingual peers in NAPLAN. This suggests these students, who are arguably bilingual, were at an educational advantage.

    Average NAPLAN reading performance of students learning English as an additional language and their matched peers.
    Source: NSW Department of Education National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy 2014 to 2022, CC BY

    Targeted support is needed

    Our findings have a number of implications.

    Firstly, they help us understand the nature and length of support needed for students learning English students in schools.

    Secondly, they highlight the importance of ongoing, targeted support for students.

    This also suggests we need to make effective professional support available for teachers working with students who are learning English as an additional language.

    The academic advantage of bilingual students also points to a need to encourage and support students using and developing their first and other languages, alongside English.

    Lucy Lu is the Senior Manager, Analytics and Strategic Projects in the Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO). AERO is jointly funded by the Commonwealth, state and territory governments.

    Jennifer Hammond has previously received funding from the Australian Research Council and the NSW Department of Education. All projects funded from these sources were completed more than six years ago.

    – ref. Some students learning English can take at least 6 years to catch up to their peers. How can we support them better? – https://theconversation.com/some-students-learning-english-can-take-at-least-6-years-to-catch-up-to-their-peers-how-can-we-support-them-better-258819

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Some students learning English can take at least 6 years to catch up to their peers. How can we support them better?

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lucy Lu, Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney

    Rawpixel/ Getty Images

    About one quarter of Australian school students are learning English as an additional language or dialect.

    This means their first language or dialect is something other than English and they need extra support to develop proficiency in what we call standard Australian English.

    This group of students includes immigrants and refugees from non-English speaking countries, children of migrant heritage where English is not spoken at home and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.

    But the level and duration of support they receive varies across schools. This is an issue because these students risk underachieving or being labelled as having learning difficulties without adequate help.

    Until now, little was known about how long these students take to learn English.

    Our new research published today by the Australian Education Research Organisation, found it can take many years for students to develop the English language skills they need. This suggests students need ongoing and targeted support to learn English as an additional language.

    Our study

    We looked at more than 110,000 primary and high school students in New South Wales public schools over a nine-year period.

    The students were learning English as an additional language from 2014 to 2022. Our research used two methods.

    First, we analysed how long it took these students to achieve the same scores in their NAPLAN reading and writing tests as their English-speaking peers with the same background characteristics. That is, students were matched for characteristics such as gender, student socio-educational advantage and school location.

    Second, we analysed how long it took students learning English as an additional language to reach certain phases of language proficiency. There is a national learning progression resource for schools supporting students learning English as an additional language. It has four phases: beginning, emerging, developing and consolidating.


    Source: The EAL/D Learning Progression: Foundation to Year 10, ACARA, 2015., CC BY

    It can take many years to learn English

    Combining both methods, we found students need considerable time to learn English as an additional language.

    For students who were assessed as “beginning” when they started school, it takes an average of six years to reach the final “consolidating” phase.

    This means those students starting in kindergarten (the first year of school in NSW) are likely to need English language support throughout primary school.

    For “beginning” students who start in later years, they may need continued English language support in high school.

    Students who started school at the “emerging” and “developing” phases take, on average, four and three years, respectively to have English skills on par with their peers.

    Learning English takes longer as you go along

    We also found as students learned English, each phase in their progression took longer to achieve than the one before:

    • the average time from beginning to emerging was one year and one month

    • from emerging to developing was one year and eight months

    • from developing to consolidating was two years and seven months.

    What can impact learning?

    But learning English is complex and can be impacted by many factors.

    We found students with socio-educational disadvantage progressed 22% slower than advantaged students, students with refugee experiences progressed 14% slower than those without. Male students took 6% longer than their female peers.

    We also found students starting school in kindergarten progressed about 9% slower, compared to starting school in Australia in later primary year levels.

    But we found students who started school already at the final, “consolidating” phase of English outperformed monolingual peers in NAPLAN. This suggests these students, who are arguably bilingual, were at an educational advantage.

    Average NAPLAN reading performance of students learning English as an additional language and their matched peers.
    Source: NSW Department of Education National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy 2014 to 2022, CC BY

    Targeted support is needed

    Our findings have a number of implications.

    Firstly, they help us understand the nature and length of support needed for students learning English students in schools.

    Secondly, they highlight the importance of ongoing, targeted support for students.

    This also suggests we need to make effective professional support available for teachers working with students who are learning English as an additional language.

    The academic advantage of bilingual students also points to a need to encourage and support students using and developing their first and other languages, alongside English.

    Lucy Lu is the Senior Manager, Analytics and Strategic Projects in the Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO). AERO is jointly funded by the Commonwealth, state and territory governments.

    Jennifer Hammond has previously received funding from the Australian Research Council and the NSW Department of Education. All projects funded from these sources were completed more than six years ago.

    – ref. Some students learning English can take at least 6 years to catch up to their peers. How can we support them better? – https://theconversation.com/some-students-learning-english-can-take-at-least-6-years-to-catch-up-to-their-peers-how-can-we-support-them-better-258819

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: A weird group of boronias puzzled botanists for decades. Now we’ve solved the pollination mystery

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Douglas Hilton, Chief Executive, CSIRO

    Andy Young

    Boronias, known for their showy flowers and strong scent, are a quintessential part of the Australian bush. They led Traditional Owners to the best water sources and inspired Australian children’s author and illustrator May Gibbs to pen one of her earliest books, Boronia Babies.

    But a weird group of boronias has puzzled botanists for decades. They have closed flowers that thwart most insect visitors. Those that do gain entry may encounter alternating sterile and fertile anthers (the male part that produces pollen) and sometimes, an enlarged stigma (the female part that receives pollen).

    Since the early 1960s, scientists speculated this group of boronias relied on an “unusual agent for effective pollination”. Moths were occasionally mentioned in the botanical literature as potential pollinators, but the full story remained elusive – until now.

    As my colleagues and I detail in our new research, moths are indeed the mystery pollinators of this strange group of flowers. This knowledge is crucial to ensuring their long-term survival.

    May Gibbs pictured a Boronia Baby hiding inside a Boronia megastigma flower.
    2025 © The Northcott Society and the Cerebral Palsy Alliance.

    Sweeping plants, far and wide

    My interest in the boronia pollinators began 15 years ago. I was studying a family of moths in my spare time, with a group of friends.

    These moths, called Heliozelidae, are tiny. Their wings are just a few millimetres long, smaller than a grain of rice.

    They fly during the day and are seldom attracted to lights, so they are poorly represented in museum collections. The best way to find them is to sweep plants with a butterfly net then look inside it.

    The author searching for moths in Western Australia.
    Douglas Hilton

    After sweeping plants all over Australia, we discovered this country is a hotspot for Heliozelidae. Hundreds – if not thousands – of these species are new to science and yet to be described. In comparison, only 90 species of Heliozelidae have been described from the rest of the world.

    We consistently found one group of 15 moth species on the boronias with the weird flowers in the biodiversity hotspot of Western Australia’s South West. Each moth species was found only on a specific boronia species.

    When we took a closer look, we found each of the 15 Heliozelidae has an intricate structure at the tip of its abdomen that collects pollen. There’s nothing else quite like this in the 150,000 known species of moths and butterflies. At last, the mystery of the boronia pollinators was solved.

    Pollen-collecting structure, replete with pollen, on the dorsal tip of the abdomen of the moth that pollinates Boronia crenulata.
    Dr Qike Wang

    The process of pollinating boronias

    In spring, female moths lay many eggs inside flowers. While moving about inside the flower, she collects pollen in the little structure on her abdomen. She enters and exits multiple flowers, pollinating as she goes.

    When the eggs hatch, the caterpillars eat some of the flowers’ developing seeds. When they are fully grown, they leave the flower and burrow into the soil to pupate in a cocoon. When they emerge in spring as moths, the flowers are blooming again and the life cycle repeats.

    For some species, such as brown boronia, the moths may be the only visitor the flowers ever receive. This suggests the moth and the plant have a reciprocal relationship, depending on each other for reproduction and ultimately, survival.

    This is unusual in nature. The poster-child for this type of relationship is the figs and fig wasps.

    Tiny metallic day-flying moths are the boronia pollinators.
    Andy Young

    What’s in a name?

    When a scientist discovers and officially describes a new species in the academic literature, they have to name it. Scientific names have two parts. The first part is the genus or group of closely related species and the second identifies the individual species.

    We built a family tree which included the new pollinating moths using their DNA sequences. We showed the pollinators belong to the genus Prophylactis meaning “to guard before”, which previously contained four non-pollinating species. This gives us the first part of the name.

    For the second part, we used the name of the plant each moth pollinates and added the suffix -allax, meaning “alternately” or “in exchange”. This shows their close relationship to the plant.

    So, the moth that pollinates Boronia megastigma is called Prophylactis megastigmallax. The moth that pollinates the endangered Boronia clavata is Prophylactis clavatallax – and so on.

    Much to learn

    The pollinating moths are more closely related to each other than to other species in the Prophylactis genus. This suggests they inherited their pollen-collecting structure from a long-gone common ancestor.

    As with all good science, this research leads to new questions. For example, we are now studying which moth-plant pairs fully depend on each other.

    Other Australian plant species may also have intimate relationships with moths.
    Current field work is exploring which of Australia’s 486 plant species in the citrus-family (Rutaceae) are linked to moths and how often moths have evolved to pollinate them.

    Bush secrets brought to life

    Our research shows just how much of Australia’s biodiversity is yet to be understood and protected.

    As climate change and land-clearing drive biodiversity loss at an unprecedented rate, this is a challenge we must tackle with renewed urgency. Otherwise our children and grandchildren may only experience the full glory of Gibb’s characters on a page, and not in the natural world.

    Boronia Babies on Boronia megastigma
    2025 © The Northcott Society and the Cerebral Palsy Alliance.

    Douglas Hilton works for CSIRO. The work highlighted in this article received funding from The Hermon Slade Foundation, which supports high quality biological research by scientists in Australian universities and research institutes. The research was made possible through a group of generous collaborators and co-authors including Andy Young, Liz Milla, Mengjie Jin, Stephen Wilcox, Qike Wang, Verena Wimmer, Jinny Chang, Henning Kallies, Andie Hall, Marina Watowich, Carly Busch, Jordan Wilcox, Aileen Swarbrick, Marlene Walter, Don Sands, Davina Paterson, David Lees, Marco Duretto, Adnan Moussalli, Mike Halsey and Axel Kallies.

    – ref. A weird group of boronias puzzled botanists for decades. Now we’ve solved the pollination mystery – https://theconversation.com/a-weird-group-of-boronias-puzzled-botanists-for-decades-now-weve-solved-the-pollination-mystery-258393

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: When new dads struggle, their kids’ health can suffer. Tackling mental distress early can help

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Delyse Hutchinson, Associate Professor, Clinical Psychologist, and NHMRC Leadership Fellow, SEED Centre for Lifespan Research, School of Psychology, Deakin University

    D-BASE/Getty

    In Australia, an estimated one in ten men experience mental health issues such as anxiety and depression before and after their child is born (the perinatal period).

    Alongside emotional ups and downs and exhaustion, new dads may also be facing greater practical demands, such as caring for the baby, supporting their partner, and providing financially.

    It’s not surprising, then, that becoming a dad may be linked to increased psychological distress. But it’s concerning because many men don’t access help. There’s also growing evidence a father’s mental state may affect his developing child in the short and long term.

    Our new review brings together the international evidence about the relationship between fathers’ mental health and children’s development for the first time.

    We found consistent associations between dads’ psychological distress before and after birth and poorer outcomes in children’s social, emotional, cognitive, language and physical development, from birth until the early teens.

    The good news? There are effective ways to intervene early.

    Barriers to getting help

    There are complex reasons why new fathers might not access help for mental distress.

    Notably, a 2024 review of Australian and international research found fathers are not routinely asked in health-care settings about their wellbeing at any point before the birth of a child, or after – when support is often most needed.

    Men may also feel they need to be strong and push past tough emotions to “get on” with looking after the family.

    They may be reluctant to acknowledge their own difficulties, and instead avoid the issue, through strategies such as working excessively, or using alcohol or other drugs.

    Working hours can also make accessing services difficult.

    As a result, men may have trouble recognising mental distress and it may go undetected by the people around them and in the wider health-care system.

    We don’t know the true impact

    Research on early risk factors for poorer child development is around 17 times more likely to focus on mothers’ health and lifestyle, compared to fathers.

    This focus is understandable, given up to one in five women experience perinatal anxiety or depression in the transition to motherhood.

    Strong evidence links mothers’ mental distress to poorer child outcomes. For example, mothers experiencing perinatal anxiety or depression may withdraw and find it difficult to interact with their child. This may be linked to delays in children’s developing social and emotional skills.

    Yet similar research on fathers has been lacking.

    This imbalance affects health policy and clinical practice, leaving many fathers feeling excluded from family health care. The impact on their children has also been poorly understood.

    What we looked at

    Our new research aimed to understand how men’s mental health before and after birth is related to their child’s development, from birth through adolescence.

    We looked at the findings from 84 longitudinal studies which track people over long periods of time, including from Australia, Europe, Asia and North America.

    The review included any study that measured an association between perinatal depression, anxiety or stress in fathers (biological or adoptive) and child development. These included social and emotional skills, thinking and problem-solving, language, physical development and motor skills.

    Our study had three main findings

    First, mental distress in fathers during pregnancy and after birth was consistently linked to poorer development in their children.

    Specifically, this included lower ratings on social, emotional, cognitive, and language skills, such as the capacity to interact with others, understand feelings, process information and communicate. It also affected physical health outcomes, such as body weight, sleep and eating patterns.

    Second, associations were evident from early development (infancy) through to the early teens (13 years). This suggests that, without support, a father’s perinatal mental distress may be related to child development well beyond infancy.

    Third, fathers’ mental distress after birth was more strongly related to how children developed than their mental distress during pregnancy.

    This is not surprising, because it’s when fathers begin to interact with infants and may more directly influence their development.

    So, what should change?

    Our findings underscore that getting in early to support dads – both before and soon after the arrival of a new child – is crucial.

    Routine screening for signs of mental distress is effective in identifying mothers who might benefit from help. This could be extended to all parents, through family planning, antenatal and postpartum clinics, and GP check-ups.

    Research shows 80% of men see a GP or allied health practitioner in the year before having a baby. Asking about other aspects of wellbeing – such as sleep quality – can be an effective and non-stigmatising way to ease into conversations about mental health.

    This can help connect men with support services earlier, to improve their health and their children’s.

    What should men look out for?

    Studies suggest men may often express their distress through relationship strain, rather than sadness. They may also report self-harm, suicidal ideation and feeling isolated.

    Common signs a new dad might be struggling with mental health include:

    • fatigue
    • sleep problems
    • difficulty concentrating
    • racing heart
    • sweating
    • muscle tension
    • changes in appetite
    • feeling worried or out of control
    • irritability
    • anger
    • increased use of alcohol or other drugs.

    Is there support?

    Options for men who want more support include counselling, peer group support and online apps that use mindfulness and cognitive behaviour therapy to help manage moods.

    For fathers needing more immediate support, crisis support services offer 24/7 live counselling via chat, telephone or video:

    If this article has raised issues for you, or if you’re concerned about someone you know, call Lifeline on 13 11 14. In an emergency in Australia, call triple 0.

    Delyse Hutchinson receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).

    Jacqui Macdonald receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council’s Medical Research Future Fund and the Australian Research Council. She convenes the Australian Fatherhood Research Consortium and she is on the Movember Global Men’s Health Advisory Committee.

    Samantha Teague receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).

    Genevieve Le Bas and Stephanie Aarsman 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. When new dads struggle, their kids’ health can suffer. Tackling mental distress early can help – https://theconversation.com/when-new-dads-struggle-their-kids-health-can-suffer-tackling-mental-distress-early-can-help-253024

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Ancient termite poo reveals 120 million-year-old secrets of Australia’s polar forests

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alistair Evans, Professor, School of Biological Sciences, Monash University

    Witsawat.S/Shutterstock

    Imagine a lush forest with tree-ferns, their trunks capped by ribbon-like fronds. Conifers tower overhead, bearing triangular leaves almost sharp enough to pierce skin. Flowering plants are both small and rare.

    You’re standing in what is now Victoria, Australia, about 127 million years ago during the Early Cretaceous Period. Slightly to your south, a massive river – more than a kilometre wide – separates you from Tasmania. This river flows along the valley forming between Australia and Antarctica as the two continents begin to split apart.

    During the Early Cretaceous, southeastern Australia was some of the closest land to the South Pole. Here, the night lasted for three months in winter, contrasting with three months of daytime in summer. Despite this extreme day-night cycle, various kinds of dinosaurs still thrived here, as did flies, wasps and dragonflies.

    And, as our recently published research in Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology reveals, termites also chewed through the decaying wood of fallen trees. This is the first record of termites living in a polar region – and their presence provides key insights into what these ancient forests were like.

    Home makers, not homewreckers

    Termites might have a public reputation as homewreckers.

    But these wood-eating bugs are a key part of many environments, freeing up nutrients contained in dead plants. They are one of the best organisms at breaking down large amounts of wood, and significantly speed up the decay of fallen wood in forests.

    Ancient polar forests roughly 120 million years ago in southeastern Australia were dominated by conifer trees.
    Bob Nicholls

    The breakdown of wood by termites makes it easier for further consumption by other animals and fungi.

    Their role in ancient Victoria’s polar forests would have been just as important, as the natural decay of wood is very slow in cold conditions.

    Although the cold winters would have slowed termites too, they may have thrived during long periods of darkness, just as modern termites are more active during the night.

    The oldest termite nest in Australia

    Our new paper, led by Monash University palaeontology research associate Jonathan Edwards, reports the discovery of an ancient termite nest near the coastal town of Inverloch in southeastern Victoria. Preserved in a 80-centimetre-long piece of fossilised log, the nest tunnels carved out by termites were first spotted by local fossil-hunter extraordinaire Melissa Lowery.

    Without its discoverers knowing what it was then, the log was brought into the lab and we began investigating the origins of its structures.

    Understanding the nest was challenging at first: the tunnels exposed on the surface were filled with what looked like tiny grains of rice, each around 2 millimetres long. We suspected they were most likely the coprolites (fossilised poo) of the nest-makers. Once we took a look under the microscope we noticed something very interesting: this poo was hexagonal.

    Termite poo has a distinct hexagonal shape, as seen in these thin sections of the fossilised log we examined.
    Jonathan Edwards & William Parker

    How did this shape point to termites as the “poopetrators”?

    Modern termites have a gut with three sets of muscle bands. Just before excretion, their waste is squeezed to save as much water as possible, giving an almost perfect hexagonal shape to the pellets.

    The size, shape, distribution and quantity of coprolites meant we had just discovered the oldest termite nest in Australia – and perhaps the largest termite wood nest from dinosaur times.

    A global distribution

    We continued to investigate the nest with more specific methods.

    For example, we scanned parts of it with the Australian Synchrotron – a research facility that uses X-rays and infrared radiation to see the structure and composition of materials. This showed us what the unweathered coprolites inside the log looked like.

    MicroCT imagery of termite coprolites within the nest.
    Jonathan Edwards

    We also made very thin slices of the nest and looked at these slices with high-powered microscopes. And we analysed the chemistry of the log, which further supported our original theory of the nest’s identity.

    The oldest fossilised termites have been found in the northern hemisphere about 150 million years ago, during the Late Jurassic Period.

    What is exciting is that our trace fossils show they had reached the southernmost landmasses by 127 million years ago. This presence means they had likely spread all over Earth by this point.

    The termites weren’t alone

    Surprisingly, these termites also had smaller wood-eating companions.

    During our investigation, we also noticed coprolites more than ten times smaller than those made by termites. These pellets likely belonged to wood-eating oribatid mites – minuscule arachnids with fossils dating back almost 400 million years. Many of their tunnels ring those left by the termites, telling us they inhabited this nest after the termites abandoned it.

    CT reconstructions of termite and mite coprolites show the huge difference in size between them.
    Jonathan Edwards

    Termite tunnels may have acted as mite highways, taking them deeper into the log. Moreover, because both groups ate the toughest parts of wood, these two invertebrates might have directly competed at the time. Modern oribatid mites only eat wood affected by fungi.

    Regardless, our study documents the first known interaction of wood-nesting termites and oribatid mites in the fossil record.

    This nest also provides important support for the idea that Australia’s polar forests weren’t dominated by ice, as modern termites can’t tolerate prolonged freezing.

    This is the first record of termites living in a polar region, and their presence suggests relatively mild polar winters — something like 6°C on average. Termites would’ve been key players in these ecosystems, kickstarting wood breakdown and nutrient cycling in an otherwise slow environment.

    So maybe next time you spot a termite nest, you’ll see a builder, not a bulldozer.

    The authors would like to acknowledge the work of Jonathan Edwards who led the research and helped prepare this article.

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

    Anthony J. Martin 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. Ancient termite poo reveals 120 million-year-old secrets of Australia’s polar forests – https://theconversation.com/ancient-termite-poo-reveals-120-million-year-old-secrets-of-australias-polar-forests-258399

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Jaws at 50: a cinematic masterpiece – and an incredible piece of propaganda

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Colin Alexander, Senior Lecturer in Political Communications, Nottingham Trent University

    Jaws turns 50 on June 20. Last year, Quentin Tarantino called Stephen Spielberg’s film “possibly the greatest movie ever made”. Though he was quick to add that it isn’t the best film in terms of script, cinematography or acting, he was convinced that its overall quality as a movie remains unmatched.

    I’m not so sure if Jaws is the best movie ever made – but it’s certainly the movie that I like to watch the most. It is as fascinating and multilayered as it is entertaining and depressing. As a researcher of political propaganda, I believe that Jaws had political purpose.

    I have watched Jaws well over 50 times and still, with every viewing, I spot a new detail. Just last week I noticed that when police chief Brody (Roy Scheider) leaves his office after the first shark attack, he opens a gate in a white picket fence.

    The white picket fence is often used to symbolise the American dream and Brody’s actions are likely intended to symbolise the disruption to the dream’s pursuit of capitalism as he seeks to close the beaches and potentially ruin the town’s tourism season.

    Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. Sign up here.

    The film was released in June 1975. Just in time for summer holidays spent splashing in the waves (or not!). However, despite its continued acclaim, it didn’t win any of the big Academy Awards in 1976. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest dominated that year. Composer John Williams did, however, win the Oscar for best original score, which I assume you are now humming in your head.



    Read more:
    One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest: 50 years on Jack Nicholson’s greatest performance is as fresh as ever

    The film is based on the book by Peter Benchley, published a year earlier in 1974. The book’s plot is somewhat different to the film. For example, Matt Hooper – the shark specialist played by Richard Dreyfuss in the film – is eaten by the shark, possibly as an act of retribution for his sins on land. He survives in the film.

    Benchley was US president Lyndon Johnson’s (1963-1969) communications advisor before he became an author and so knew Washington’s priorities well. The film was then commissioned before the book had time to become a commercial success, which is somewhat unusual.

    The trailer for Jaws.

    The shark – powerful, mysterious, dark eyed, stalking the American people and killing without emotion – represents the threat posed by communism. The defeat of this “menace” will require the reunification of American society following its disastrous and fractious involvement in the Vietnam war and political scandals like Watergate.

    Hence, the white public sector worker (Brody), the scientist (Hooper) and the military veteran (Quint), put their differences aside to band together on a rickety and ill-equipped boat – the Orca – which was possibly meant to symbolise the wobbling US of its time.

    So while Jaws is a parable of societal repair, it is also a story of exclusively white unification amid external threats. The civil rights movement and Vietnam are inextricably linked through the service of young black men to the cause, and yet black characters are conspicuous by their absence from the book and the film. The only black presence in the book is an anonymous gardener who rapes wealthy white women.

    Human will to dominate the natural world

    In the book, the horror focuses upon human, rather than animal, behaviour. This comes in the form of political corruption, mafia influence, adultery, snobbery, racial prejudice, community disconnect and dishonest journalism. And it occurs as much on land as it does at sea. There is a large section midway through the book where the shark plays no part in the, at times, highly sexual plot.

    Spielberg removed many of the undercurrents and insinuations of the book for his adaptation. The film gives less attention to life in the town of Amity and focuses largely on the shark and the horror of its actions.

    The irony is that so many characters feel personally offended by an animal capable of instinct alone, when they as humans – capable of reason and choice – behave so badly towards each other. Indeed, the lack of an eco-centric character to defend the shark in both the book or the film is telling.

    Brody yells for people to ‘get out of the water’.

    The overwhelming horror is instead found in the treatment of the shark and the assertion that it must be killed rather than respected and left alone. Indeed, Jaws represents a parable of the modern human perception of battle against nature. Wherein Brody, Hooper and Quint, despite their differences, are united in their assumption of human superiority and their perspective that the problem ought to be dealt with using violence.

    The story of Jaws also speaks to George Orwell’s essay Shooting an Elephant from 1936. It captured the author’s dilemma while working as a police officer in colonial Burma when an elephant disrupted the regular process of capitalism by trampling through a local market.

    The philosophers Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno referred to the enlightenment as having created a “new barbarity” wherein humans are engaged in a project of destruction. Here then, a shark has had the audacity to behave in an inconvenient way to man’s profiteering from tourism and must be killed.

    Indeed, one of the biggest criticisms of the film, which Spielberg has subsequently acknowledged, is its inaccurate representation of shark behaviour and the extent to which the film’s success contributed to the decline of the species.

    Ultimately then, Jaws – the book, the film and the reaction of audiences to it – serves as a testimony to the role played by fear within human decision-making. The fear of “others”. Fear of the unknown. Fear of the natural world. Fear of loss of status or reputation.

    It’s a testament to the susceptibility of humans to become insular and violent when they are scared, but also to the distorting influence of propagandists in determining what they ought to be afraid of.

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

    Colin Alexander 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. Jaws at 50: a cinematic masterpiece – and an incredible piece of propaganda – https://theconversation.com/jaws-at-50-a-cinematic-masterpiece-and-an-incredible-piece-of-propaganda-253498

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: ‘Be brave’ warning to nations against deepsea mining from UNOC

    By Laura Bergamo in Nice, France

    The UN Ocean Conference (UNOC) concluded today with significant progress made towards the ratification of the High Seas Treaty and a strong statement on a new plastics treaty signed by 95 governments.

    Once ratified, it will be the only legal tool that can create protected areas in international waters, making it fundamental to protecting 30 percent of the world’s oceans by 2030.

    Fifty countries, plus the European Union, have now ratified the Treaty.

    New Zealand has signed but is yet to ratify.

    Deep sea mining rose up the agenda in the conference debates, demonstrating the urgency of opposing this industry.

    The expectation from civil society and a large group of states, including both co-hosts of UNOC, was that governments would make progress towards stopping deep sea mining in Nice.

    UN Secretary-General Guterres said the deep sea should not become the “wild west“.

    Four new pledges
    French President Emmanuel Macron said a deep sea mining moratorium is an international necessity. Four new countries pledged their support for a moratorium at UNOC, bringing the total to 37.

    Attention now turns to what actions governments will take in July to stop this industry from starting.

    Megan Randles, Greenpeace head of delegation regarding the High Seas Treaty and progress towards stopping deep sea mining, said: “High Seas Treaty ratification is within touching distance, but the progress made here in Nice feels hollow as this UN Ocean Conference ends without more tangible commitments to stopping deep sea mining.

    “We’ve heard lots of fine words here in Nice, but these need to turn into tangible action.

    “Countries must be brave, stand up for global cooperation and make history by stopping deep sea mining this year.

    “They can do this by committing to a moratorium on deep sea mining at next month’s International Seabed Authority meeting.

    “We applaud those who have already taken a stand, and urge all others to be on the right side of history by stopping deep sea mining.”

    Attention on ISA meeting
    Following this UNOC, attention now turns to the International Seabed Authority (ISA) meetings in July. In the face of The Metals Company teaming up with US President Donald Trump to mine the global oceans, the upcoming ISA provides a space where governments can come together to defend the deep ocean by adopting a moratorium to stop this destructive industry.

    Negotiations on a Global Plastics Treaty resume in August.

    John Hocevar, oceans campaign director, Greenpeace USA said: “The majority of countries have spoken when they signed on to the Nice Call for an Ambitious Plastics Treaty that they want an agreement that will reduce plastic production. Now, as we end the UN Ocean Conference and head on to the Global Plastics Treaty negotiations in Geneva this August, they must act.

    “The world cannot afford a weak treaty dictated by oil-soaked obstructionists.

    “The ambitious majority must rise to this moment, firmly hold the line and ensure that we will have a Global Plastic Treaty that cuts plastic production, protects human health, and delivers justice for Indigenous Peoples and communities on the frontlines.

    “Governments need to show that multilateralism still works for people and the planet, not the profits of a greedy few.”

    Driving ecological collapse
    Nichanan Thantanwit, project leader, Ocean Justice Project, said: “Coastal and Indigenous communities, including small-scale fishers, have protected the ocean for generations. Now they are being pushed aside by industries driving ecological collapse and human rights violations.

    “As the UN Ocean Conference ends, governments must recognise small-scale fishers and Indigenous Peoples as rights-holders, secure their access and role in marine governance, and stop destructive practices such as bottom trawling and harmful aquaculture.

    “There is no ocean protection without the people who have protected it all along.”

    The anticipated Nice Ocean Action Plan, which consists of a political declaration and a series of voluntary commitments, will be announced later today at the end of the conference.

    None will be legally binding, so governments need to act strongly during the next ISA meeting in July and at plastic treaty negotiations in August.

    Republished from Greenpeace Aotearoa with permission.

    Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: ‘Be brave’ warning to nations against deepsea mining from UNOC

    By Laura Bergamo in Nice, France

    The UN Ocean Conference (UNOC) concluded today with significant progress made towards the ratification of the High Seas Treaty and a strong statement on a new plastics treaty signed by 95 governments.

    Once ratified, it will be the only legal tool that can create protected areas in international waters, making it fundamental to protecting 30 percent of the world’s oceans by 2030.

    Fifty countries, plus the European Union, have now ratified the Treaty.

    New Zealand has signed but is yet to ratify.

    Deep sea mining rose up the agenda in the conference debates, demonstrating the urgency of opposing this industry.

    The expectation from civil society and a large group of states, including both co-hosts of UNOC, was that governments would make progress towards stopping deep sea mining in Nice.

    UN Secretary-General Guterres said the deep sea should not become the “wild west“.

    Four new pledges
    French President Emmanuel Macron said a deep sea mining moratorium is an international necessity. Four new countries pledged their support for a moratorium at UNOC, bringing the total to 37.

    Attention now turns to what actions governments will take in July to stop this industry from starting.

    Megan Randles, Greenpeace head of delegation regarding the High Seas Treaty and progress towards stopping deep sea mining, said: “High Seas Treaty ratification is within touching distance, but the progress made here in Nice feels hollow as this UN Ocean Conference ends without more tangible commitments to stopping deep sea mining.

    “We’ve heard lots of fine words here in Nice, but these need to turn into tangible action.

    “Countries must be brave, stand up for global cooperation and make history by stopping deep sea mining this year.

    “They can do this by committing to a moratorium on deep sea mining at next month’s International Seabed Authority meeting.

    “We applaud those who have already taken a stand, and urge all others to be on the right side of history by stopping deep sea mining.”

    Attention on ISA meeting
    Following this UNOC, attention now turns to the International Seabed Authority (ISA) meetings in July. In the face of The Metals Company teaming up with US President Donald Trump to mine the global oceans, the upcoming ISA provides a space where governments can come together to defend the deep ocean by adopting a moratorium to stop this destructive industry.

    Negotiations on a Global Plastics Treaty resume in August.

    John Hocevar, oceans campaign director, Greenpeace USA said: “The majority of countries have spoken when they signed on to the Nice Call for an Ambitious Plastics Treaty that they want an agreement that will reduce plastic production. Now, as we end the UN Ocean Conference and head on to the Global Plastics Treaty negotiations in Geneva this August, they must act.

    “The world cannot afford a weak treaty dictated by oil-soaked obstructionists.

    “The ambitious majority must rise to this moment, firmly hold the line and ensure that we will have a Global Plastic Treaty that cuts plastic production, protects human health, and delivers justice for Indigenous Peoples and communities on the frontlines.

    “Governments need to show that multilateralism still works for people and the planet, not the profits of a greedy few.”

    Driving ecological collapse
    Nichanan Thantanwit, project leader, Ocean Justice Project, said: “Coastal and Indigenous communities, including small-scale fishers, have protected the ocean for generations. Now they are being pushed aside by industries driving ecological collapse and human rights violations.

    “As the UN Ocean Conference ends, governments must recognise small-scale fishers and Indigenous Peoples as rights-holders, secure their access and role in marine governance, and stop destructive practices such as bottom trawling and harmful aquaculture.

    “There is no ocean protection without the people who have protected it all along.”

    The anticipated Nice Ocean Action Plan, which consists of a political declaration and a series of voluntary commitments, will be announced later today at the end of the conference.

    None will be legally binding, so governments need to act strongly during the next ISA meeting in July and at plastic treaty negotiations in August.

    Republished from Greenpeace Aotearoa with permission.

    Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Samoan fashion designer fatally shot at Salt Lake City ‘no kings’ protest

    RNZ Pacific

    A renowned Samoan fashion designer was fatally shot at the “No Kings” protest in Salt Lake City on Saturday, the Salt Lake City Police Department (SLCPD) has confirmed.

    Arthur Folasa Ah Loo, known as Afa Ah Loo, an “innocent bystander” at the protest, died despite efforts by paramedics to save his life, police said.

    Ah Loo, a Utah resident, died at the hospital. The Utah Office of the Medical Examiner will determine the official cause and manner of death.

    The SLPCD said the incident began about 7.56pm local time when a sergeant assigned to the SLCPD Motor Squad reported hearing gunfire near 151 South State Street.

    It said the sergeant and his squad were working to facilitate traffic and help to ensure public safety during a permitted demonstration that drew an estimated 10,000 participants.

    “As panic spread throughout the area, hundreds of people ran for safety, hiding in parking garages, behind barriers, and going into nearby businesses.

    “The first officers on scene notified SLCPD’s incident management team using their police radios.”

    The SLCPD said officers quickly moved in to secure the scene and search for any active threats and found a man who had been shot and immediately began life-saving efforts.

    “Our thoughts are with the family and friends of the 39-year-old man who was killed, and with the many community members who were impacted by this traumatic incident,” Salt Lake City police chief Brian Redd said.

    “When this shooting happened, the response of our officers and detectives was fast, brave, and highly coordinated. It speaks to the calibre of this great department and our law enforcement partners.”

    Detectives working to thoroughly investigate
     The SLCPD said about 8pm, members of its Violent Criminal Apprehension Team (VCAT) and Gang Unit were flagged down near 102 South 200 East, where officers found a man crouching among a group of people with a gunshot wound.

    The man is identified as 24-year-old Arturo Gamboa, who was dressed in all black clothing and wearing a black mask.

    “As officers approached, community members pointed out a nearby firearm, which was described as an AR15-style rifle.

    “Officers also located a gas mask, black clothing, and a backpack in close proximity. The items were collected and processed by the SLCPD Crime Lab.

    “Paramedics took Gamboa to the hospital. Detectives later booked Gamboa into the Salt Lake County Metro Jail on a charge of murder.

    Police said officers also detained two men who were wearing high-visibility neon green vests and carrying handguns.

    Peacekeeping team
    These men were apparently part of the event’s peacekeeping team.

    According to the police, detectives learned during interviews that the two peacekeepers saw Gamboa move away from the crowd and move into a secluded area behind a wall — behavior they found suspicious.

    “One of the peacekeepers told detectives he saw Gamboa pull out an AR15-style rifle from a backpack and begin manipulating it.

    “The peacekeepers drew their firearms and ordered Gamboa to drop the weapon.

    “Witnesses reported Gamboa instead lifted the rifle and began running toward the crowd gathered on State Street, holding the weapon in a firing position.

    “In response, one of the peacekeepers fired three rounds. One round struck Gamboa, while another tragically wounded Mr Ah Loo.”

    “Our detectives are now working to thoroughly investigate the circumstances surrounding this incident,” Redd said.

    “We will not allow this individual act to create fear in our community.”

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

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Samoan fashion designer fatally shot at Salt Lake City ‘no kings’ protest

    RNZ Pacific

    A renowned Samoan fashion designer was fatally shot at the “No Kings” protest in Salt Lake City on Saturday, the Salt Lake City Police Department (SLCPD) has confirmed.

    Arthur Folasa Ah Loo, known as Afa Ah Loo, an “innocent bystander” at the protest, died despite efforts by paramedics to save his life, police said.

    Ah Loo, a Utah resident, died at the hospital. The Utah Office of the Medical Examiner will determine the official cause and manner of death.

    The SLPCD said the incident began about 7.56pm local time when a sergeant assigned to the SLCPD Motor Squad reported hearing gunfire near 151 South State Street.

    It said the sergeant and his squad were working to facilitate traffic and help to ensure public safety during a permitted demonstration that drew an estimated 10,000 participants.

    “As panic spread throughout the area, hundreds of people ran for safety, hiding in parking garages, behind barriers, and going into nearby businesses.

    “The first officers on scene notified SLCPD’s incident management team using their police radios.”

    The SLCPD said officers quickly moved in to secure the scene and search for any active threats and found a man who had been shot and immediately began life-saving efforts.

    “Our thoughts are with the family and friends of the 39-year-old man who was killed, and with the many community members who were impacted by this traumatic incident,” Salt Lake City police chief Brian Redd said.

    “When this shooting happened, the response of our officers and detectives was fast, brave, and highly coordinated. It speaks to the calibre of this great department and our law enforcement partners.”

    Detectives working to thoroughly investigate
     The SLCPD said about 8pm, members of its Violent Criminal Apprehension Team (VCAT) and Gang Unit were flagged down near 102 South 200 East, where officers found a man crouching among a group of people with a gunshot wound.

    The man is identified as 24-year-old Arturo Gamboa, who was dressed in all black clothing and wearing a black mask.

    “As officers approached, community members pointed out a nearby firearm, which was described as an AR15-style rifle.

    “Officers also located a gas mask, black clothing, and a backpack in close proximity. The items were collected and processed by the SLCPD Crime Lab.

    “Paramedics took Gamboa to the hospital. Detectives later booked Gamboa into the Salt Lake County Metro Jail on a charge of murder.

    Police said officers also detained two men who were wearing high-visibility neon green vests and carrying handguns.

    Peacekeeping team
    These men were apparently part of the event’s peacekeeping team.

    According to the police, detectives learned during interviews that the two peacekeepers saw Gamboa move away from the crowd and move into a secluded area behind a wall — behavior they found suspicious.

    “One of the peacekeepers told detectives he saw Gamboa pull out an AR15-style rifle from a backpack and begin manipulating it.

    “The peacekeepers drew their firearms and ordered Gamboa to drop the weapon.

    “Witnesses reported Gamboa instead lifted the rifle and began running toward the crowd gathered on State Street, holding the weapon in a firing position.

    “In response, one of the peacekeepers fired three rounds. One round struck Gamboa, while another tragically wounded Mr Ah Loo.”

    “Our detectives are now working to thoroughly investigate the circumstances surrounding this incident,” Redd said.

    “We will not allow this individual act to create fear in our community.”

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

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Israelis ‘now realise’ what Palestinians and Lebanese have been suffering, says analyst

    Asia Pacific Report

    A Paris-based military and political analyst, Elijah Magnier, says he believes the hostilities between Israel and Iran will only get worse, but that Israeli support for the war may wane if the destruction continues.

    “I think it’s going to continue escalating because we are just in the first days of the war that Israel declared on Iran,” he told Al Jazeera in an interview.

    “And also the Israeli officials, the prime minister and the army, have all warned Israeli society that this war is going to be heavy and . . .  the price is going to be extremely high.

    “But the society that stands behind [Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu and supports the war on Iran did not expect this level of destruction because, since 1973, Israel has not waged a war on a country and never been attacked on this scale, right in the heart of Tel Aviv,” Magnier said.

    “So now they are realising what the Palestinians have been suffering, what the Lebanese have been suffering, and they see the destruction in front of them — buildings in Tel Aviv, in Haifa destroyed, fire everywhere.

    “The properties no longer exist. Eight people killed, 250 wounded in one day.

    “That’s unheard of since a very long time in Israel. So, all that is not something that the Israeli society has been ready for,” added Magnier, veteran war correspondent and political analyst with more than 35 years of experience covering decades of war in the Middle East and North Africa.

    Peters criticised over ‘craven’ statement
    Meanwhile, in Auckland, the Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA) criticised New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters for “refusing to condemn Israel for its egregious war crimes of industrial-scale killing and mass starvation of civilians in Gaza”.

    It also said that Peters had “outdone himself with the most craven of tweets on Israel’s massive attack on Iran”.


    Iran missiles strikes on Israel for third day in retaliation to the surprise attack. Video: Al Jazeera

    Co-chair Maher Nazzal said in a statement that minister Peters had said he was “gravely concerned by the escalation in tensions between Israel and Iran” and that “all actors” must “prioritise de-escalation”.

    But there was no mention of Israel as the aggressor and no condemnation of Israel’s attack launched in the middle of negotiations between Iran and the US on Iran’s nuclear programme, said Maher.

    “It’s Mr Peters’ most obsequious tweet yet which leaves a cloud of shame hanging over the country.

    “Appeasement of this rogue state, as our government and other Western countries have done over 20 months, have led Israel to believe it can attack any country it likes with absolute impunity.”

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: What is uranium enrichment and how is it used for nuclear bombs? A scientist explains

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kaitlin Cook, DECRA Fellow, Department of Nuclear Physics and Accelerator Applications, Australian National University

    Uranium ore. RHJPhtotos/Shutterstock

    Late last week, Israel targeted three of Iran’s key nuclear facilities – Natanz, Isfahan and Fordow, killing several Iranian nuclear scientists. The facilities are heavily fortified and largely underground, and there are conflicting reports of how much damage has been done.

    Natanz and Fordow are Iran’s uranium enrichment sites, and Isfahan provides the raw materials, so any damage to these sites would limit Iran’s ability to produce nuclear weapons.

    But what exactly is uranium enrichment and why does it raise concerns?

    To understand what it means to “enrich” uranium, you need to know a little about uranium isotopes and about splitting the atom in a nuclear fission reaction.

    What is an isotope?

    All matter is made of atoms, which in turn are made up of protons, neutrons and electrons. The number of protons is what gives atoms their chemical properties, setting apart the various chemical elements.

    Atoms have equal numbers of protons and electrons. Uranium has 92 protons, for example, while carbon has six. However, the same element can have different numbers of neutrons, forming versions of the element called isotopes.

    This hardly matters for chemical reactions, but their nuclear reactions can be wildly different.

    The difference between uranium-238 and uranium-235

    When we dig uranium out of the ground, 99.27% of it is uranium-238, which has 92 protons and 146 neutrons. Only 0.72% of it is uranium-235 with 92 protons and 143 neutrons (the remaining 0.01% are other isotopes).

    For nuclear power reactors or weapons, we need to change the isotope proportions. That’s because of the two main uranium isotopes, only uranium-235 can support a fission chain reaction: one neutron causes an atom to fission, which produces energy and some more neutrons, causing more fission, and so on.

    This chain reaction releases a tremendous amount of energy. In a nuclear weapon, the goal is to have this chain reaction occur in a fraction of a second, producing a nuclear explosion.

    In a civilian nuclear power plant, the chain reaction is controlled. Nuclear power plants currently produce 9% of the world’s power. Another vital civilian use of nuclear reactions is for producing isotopes used in nuclear medicine for the diagnosis and treatment of various diseases.

    What is uranium enrichment, then?

    To “enrich” uranium means taking the naturally found element and increasing the proportion of uranium-235 while removing uranium-238.

    There are a few ways to do this (including new inventions from Australia), but commercially, enrichment is currently done with a centrifuge. This is also the case in Iran’s facilities.

    Centrifuges exploit the fact that uranium-238 is about 1% heavier than uranium-235. They take uranium (in gas form) and use rotors to spin it at 50,000 to 70,000 rotations per minute, with the outer walls of the centrifuges moving at 400 to 500 metres per second.

    This works much like a salad spinner that throws water to the sides while the salad leaves stay in the centre. The heavier uranium-238 moves to the edges of the centrifuge, leaving the uranium-235 in the middle.

    This is only so effective, so the spinning process is done over and over again, building up the percentage of the uranium-235.

    Most civilian nuclear reactors use “low enriched uranium” that’s been enriched to between 3% and 5%. This means that 3–5% of the total uranium in the sample is now uranium-235. That’s enough to sustain a chain reaction and make electricity.

    What level of enrichment do nuclear weapons need?

    To get an explosive chain reaction, uranium-235 needs to be concentrated significantly more than the levels we use in nuclear reactors for making power or medicines.

    Technically, a nuclear weapon can be made with as little as 20% uranium-235 (known as “highly enriched uranium”), but the more the uranium is enriched, the smaller and lighter the weapon can be. Countries with nuclear weapons tend to use about 90% enriched, “weapons-grade” uranium.

    According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran has enriched large quantities of uranium to 60%. It’s actually easier to go from an enrichment of 60% to 90% than it is to get to that initial 60%. That’s because there’s less and less uranium-238 to get rid of.

    This is why Iran is considered to be at extreme risk of producing nuclear weapons, and why centrifuge technology for enrichment is kept secret.

    Ultimately, the exact same centrifuge technology that produces fuel for civilian reactors can be used to produce nuclear weapons.

    Inspectors from the IAEA monitor nuclear facilities worldwide to ensure countries are abiding by the rules set out in the global nuclear non-proliferation treaty. While Iran maintains it’s only enriching uranium for “peaceful purposes”, late last week the IAEA board ruled Iran was in breach of its obligations under the treaty.

    Kaitlin Cook receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

    – ref. What is uranium enrichment and how is it used for nuclear bombs? A scientist explains – https://theconversation.com/what-is-uranium-enrichment-and-how-is-it-used-for-nuclear-bombs-a-scientist-explains-259031

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Issa Amro: Youth Against Settlements – ‘life is very hard, the Israeli soldiers act like militia’

    RNZ News

    Palestinian advocate Issa Amro has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize this year for his decades of work advocating for peaceful resistance against Israel’s illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.

    The settlements are illegal under international law — and a record 45 were established last year under cover of the war on Gaza,

    Advocacy against the settlements has seen Amro become a target.

    He is based in the occupied West Bank, in Hebron — a city of about 250,000 mostly Palestinian people. He founded Youth Against Settlements.

    He paints a picture about what daily life is like.

    “Our life in West Bank was very hard and difficult before October 7 [2023 – the date of the Hamas resistance movement attack on southern Israel]. And after October 7, life became much harder. . . .

    ‘Daily harassment, violence’
    “So there are hard conditions. No jobs. No work. No movement in the West Bank. Schools are affected . . . There is daily harassment and violence — they attack the Palestinian villages, they attack the Palestinian cities, they attack the Palestinian roads.

    “In my city Hebron, it has got much, much harder. People are not able to leave their homes because of the closure of the checkpoints. The [Israeli] soldiers are very mean and adversarial . . .

    “The soldiers close the checkpoints whenever they want. In fact, the soldiers act like militia, not like a regular army.

    “My house was attacked in the last 20 months . . . ”

    • At least 55,104 people, including at least 17,400 children, have been killed in Israel’s war on Gaza. At least 943 Palestinians, more than 200 of them minors, have been killed in the occupied West Bank.

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

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Iran war: from the Middle East to America, history shows you cannot assassinate your way to peace

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matt Fitzpatrick, Professor in International History, Flinders University

    In the late 1960s, the prevailing opinion among Israeli Shin Bet intelligence officers was that the key to defeating the Palestinian Liberation Organisation was to assassinate its then-leader Yasser Arafat.

    The elimination of Arafat, the Shin Bet commander Yehuda Arbel wrote in his diary, was “a precondition to finding a solution to the Palestinian problem.”

    For other, even more radical Israelis – such as the ultra-nationalist assassin Yigal Amir – the answer lay elsewhere. They sought the assassination of Israeli leaders such as Yitzak Rabin who wanted peace with the Palestinians.

    Despite Rabin’s long personal history as a famed and often ruthless military commander in the 1948 and 1967 Arab-Israeli Wars, Amir stalked and shot Rabin dead in 1995. He believed Rabin had betrayed Israel by signing the Oslo Accords peace deal with Arafat.

    It’s been 20 years since Arafat died as possibly the victim of polonium poisoning, and 30 years after the shooting of Rabin. Peace between Israelis and the Palestinians has never been further away.

    What Amnesty International and a United Nations Special Committee have called genocidal attacks on Palestinians in Gaza have spilled over into Israeli attacks on the prominent leaders of its enemies in Lebanon and, most recently, Iran.

    Since its attacks on Iran began on Friday, Israel has killed numerous military and intelligence leaders, including Iran’s intelligence chief, Mohammad Kazemi; the chief of the armed forces, Mohammad Bagheri; and the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hossein Salami. At least nine Iranian nuclear scientists have also been killed.

    Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly said:

    We got their chief intelligence officer and his deputy in Tehran.

    Iran, predictably, has responded with deadly missile attacks on Israel.

    Far from having solved the issue of Middle East peace, assassinations continue to pour oil on the flames.

    A long history of extra-judicial killings

    Israeli journalist Ronen Bergman’s book Rise and Kill First argues assassinations have long sat at the heart of Israeli politics.

    In the past 75 years, there have been more than 2,700 assassination operations undertaken by Israel. These have, in Bergman’s words, attempted to “stop history” and bypass “statesmanship and political discourse”.

    This normalisation of assassinations has been codified in the Israeli expression of “mowing the grass”. This is, as historian Nadim Rouhana has shown, a metaphor for a politics of constant assassination. Enemy “leadership and military facilities must regularly be hit in order to keep them weak.”

    The point is not to solve the underlying political questions at issue. Instead, this approach aims to sow fear, dissent and confusion among enemies.

    Thousands of assassination operations have not, however, proved sufficient to resolve the long-running conflict between Israel, its neighbours and the Palestinians. The tactic itself is surely overdue for retirement.

    Targeted assassinations elsewhere

    Israel has been far from alone in this strategy of assassination and killing.

    Former US President Barack Obama oversaw the extra-judicial killing of Osama Bin Laden, for instance.

    After what Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch denounced as a flawed trial, former US President George W. Bush welcomed the hanging of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein as “an important milestone on Iraq’s course to becoming a democracy”.

    Current US President Donald Trump oversaw the assassination of Iran’s leader of clandestine military operations, Qassem Soleimani, in 2020.

    More recently, however, Trump appears to have baulked at granting Netanyahu permission to kill Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

    And it’s worth noting the US Department of Justice last year brought charges against an Iranian man who said he’d been tasked with killing Trump.

    Elsewhere, in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, it’s common for senior political and media opponents to be shot in the streets. Frequently they also “fall” out of high windows, are killed in plane crashes or succumb to mystery “illnesses”.

    A poor record

    Extra-judicial killings, however, have a poor record as a mechanism for solving political problems.

    Cutting off the hydra’s head has generally led to its often immediate replacement by another equally or more ideologically committed person, as has already happened in Iran. Perhaps they too await the next round of “mowing the grass”.

    But as the latest Israeli strikes in Iran and elsewhere show, solving the underlying issue is rarely the point.

    In situations where finding a lasting negotiated settlement would mean painful concessions or strategic risks, assassinations prove simply too tempting. They circumvent the difficulties and complexities of diplomacy while avoiding the need to concede power or territory.

    As many have concluded, however, assassinations have never killed resistance. They have never killed the ideas and experiences that give birth to resistance in the first place.

    Nor have they offered lasting security to those who have ordered the lethal strike.

    Enduring security requires that, at some point, someone grasp the nettle and look to the underlying issues.

    The alternative is the continuation of the brutal pattern of strike and counter-strike for generations to come.

    The Conversation

    Matt Fitzpatrick receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

    – ref. Iran war: from the Middle East to America, history shows you cannot assassinate your way to peace – https://theconversation.com/iran-war-from-the-middle-east-to-america-history-shows-you-cannot-assassinate-your-way-to-peace-259038

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: How does Israel’s famous air defence work? It’s not just the ‘Iron Dome’

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Dwyer, Lecturer, School of Social Sciences, University of Tasmania

    Israeli defence systems intercept Iranian missiles over the city of Haifa Ahmad Gharabli / AFP via Getty Images

    Late last week, Israel began a wave of attacks on Iran under the banner of Operation Rising Lion, with the stated goal of crippling the Islamic republic’s nuclear program and long-range strike capabilities. At the outset, Israel claimed Iran would soon be able to build nine nuclear weapons, a situation Israel regarded as completely unacceptable.

    Following Israeli strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities, and targeted assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists and key members of the Iranian armed forces, Iran retaliated with a large barrage of ballistic missiles and drones against Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. The first wave consisted of some 200 ballistic missiles and 200 drones.

    The conflict continues to escalate, with population centres increasingly being targeted. Israel’s missile defence systems (including the vaunted Iron Dome) have so far staved off most of Iran’s attacks, but the future is uncertain.

    Ballistic missiles and how to stop them

    Iran possesses a large arsenal of ballistic missiles and long-range drones, alongside other long-range weapons such as cruise missiles. Ballistic missiles travel on a largely fixed path steered by gravity, while cruise missiles can adjust their course as they fly.

    Iran is approximately 1,000km from Israel, so the current strikes mostly involve what are classified as medium-range ballistic missiles, alongside long-range drones. It is not clear exactly what type of missile Iran has used in its latest strikes, but the country has several including the Fattah-1 and Emad.

    It is very difficult to defend against ballistic missiles. There is not much time between launch and impact, and they come down at very high speed. The longer the missile’s range, the faster and higher it flies.

    An incoming missile presents a small, fast-moving target – and defenders may have little time to react.

    Israel’s missile defence and the Iron Dome

    Israel possesses arguably one of the most effective, battle-tested air defence systems in service today. The system is often described in the media as the “Iron Dome”, but this is not quite correct.

    Israel’s defences have several layers, each designed to address threats coming from different ranges.

    Iron Dome is just one of these layers: a short range, anti-artillery defence system, designed to intercept short-range artillery shells and rockets.

    In essence, Iron Dome consists of a network of radar emitters, command and control facilities, and the interceptors (special surface-to-air missiles). The radar quickly detects incoming threats, the command and control elements decide which are most pressing, and the interceptors are sent to destroy the incoming shells or rockets.

    Ballistic defence systems

    The other layers of Israel’s defence system include David’s Sling, and the Arrow 2 and Arrow 3 interceptors. These are specifically designed to engage longer-range ballistic missiles, both within the atmosphere and at very high altitudes above it (known as exoatmospheric interception).

    Spectacular footage has been captured of what are likely exoatmospheric interceptions taking place during this latest conflict, demonstrating Israel’s capacity to engage longer-range missiles.

    The US military has comparable missile defence systems. The US Army has the Patriot PAC-3 (comparable to David’s Sling) and THAAD (comparable to Arrow 2), while the US Navy has the Aegis and the SM-3 (comparable to Arrow 3) and the SM-6 (comparable again to Arrow 2).

    The US deployed Aegis-equipped warships to support Israel’s defence against missile attacks in 2024, and appears to be preparing to do the same now.

    Iran possesses some air defence systems such as the Russian S300 which has some (very limited) ballistic missile defence capabilities, but only against shorter range (and thus slower) ballistic missiles. Further, Israel has been focusing on degrading Iran’s air defences, so it is not clear how many are still operational.

    Iran has been focusing on developing technology such as maneuverable warheads, which are harder to defend against. However, it is not clear whether these are yet operational and in Iranian service.

    Can missile defences last forever?

    Missile defences are finite. The defender is always limited by the number of interceptors it possesses.

    The attacker is also limited by the number of missiles it possesses. However, the defender must often assign multiple interceptors to each attacking missile, in case the first misses or otherwise fails.

    The attacker will plan for some losses to interceptors (or mechanical failures) and send what it determines to be enough missiles for at least some to penetrate the defences.

    When it comes to ballistic missiles, the advantage lies with the attacker. Ballistic missiles can carry large explosive payloads (or even nuclear warheads), so even a handful of missiles “leaking” past defensive systems can still wreak significant damage.

    What now?

    Israel’s missile defences are unlikely to stop working completely. However, as attacks deplete its stocks of interceptors, the system may become less effective.

    As the conflict continues, it may become a race to see who runs out of weapons first. Will it be Iran’s stocks of ballistic missiles and drones, or the interceptors and anti-air munitions of Israel, the US and any other supporters?

    It is impossible to say who would prevail in such a race of stockpile attrition. Some reports suggest Iran has fired approximately 1,000 ballistic missiles of an estimated 3,000. However, this still leaves it with an enormous stockpile to use, and it is unclear how fast Iran can make new missiles to replenish its resources.

    But we should hope it doesn’t come to that. Beyond the tit-for-tat exchange of missiles, the latest conflict between Israel and Iran risks escalating. If it is not resolved soon, and if the US is drawn into the conflict more directly, we may see broader conflict in the Middle East.

    The Conversation

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

    – ref. How does Israel’s famous air defence work? It’s not just the ‘Iron Dome’ – https://theconversation.com/how-does-israels-famous-air-defence-work-its-not-just-the-iron-dome-259029

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: The historic High Seas Treaty is almost reality. Here’s what it would mean for ocean conservation

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Lothian, Senior Lecturer in Maritime Law and Academic Barrister, University of Wollongong

    J Nel/Shutterstock

    The high seas are set to gain a greater level of protection when a long-sought after treaty finally enters into force.

    For almost 20 years, nations have debated the need for the High Seas Treaty, intended to protect marine life in the high seas and the international seabed. These marine areas together account for nearly two-thirds of the world’s ocean and harbour a rich array of unique species and ecosystems. The treaty is formally known as the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Agreement.

    Many hoped last week’s United Nations Oceans Conference would result in enough nations ratifying the treaty to bring it into force. As of today, 50 states of the 60 required have done so, while another 19 have promised to do so by the year’s end. A greater level of protection for our high seas is well and truly in sight.

    By United Nations standards, this is a cracking pace. The treaty-making process itself can take years, particularly as states need to incorporate the treaty into their domestic laws. This speaks to the urgency of the moment. Researchers and authorities have warned that the world’s oceans are now in deep trouble, threatened by climate change effects, overfishing, plastic pollution and other human-caused issues.

    Once the treaty enters into force, nations can begin to propose high seas marine protected areas, which could limit fishing and other activities. The question then will be how to police these marine protected areas.

    How did we get here?

    In June 2023, the High Seas Treaty was adopted by consensus at the UN Headquarters in New York. It was a long time coming.

    For decades, nations argued and negotiated over what this treaty might look like. How could the marine genetic resources of this global commons be shared fairly and equitably? How could protected areas be designated and managed? What was eventually thrashed out was a comprehensive international legal framework able to better protect and safeguard the rich and diverse web of life inhabiting the deep sea.

    Getting to this point was a real achievement.

    But for this treaty to enter into force, 60 countries have to ratify it. This means their governments must consent to be legally bound by the terms of the treaty.

    While Australia has pledged to ratify the treaty, it is still working through the ratification and domestic legal process. On a positive note, Environment Minister Murray Watt has indicated this will happen before the end of the year.

    What will the treaty actually do?

    At present, the high seas are regulated by a patchwork of global, regional and sectoral frameworks, instruments and bodies. However, none of these have a core mandate of protecting the biodiversity of the oceans.

    In 1982, the Law of the Sea Convention was adopted, giving every coastal nation rights over the waters extending to 200 nautical miles (370 kilometres) from their coastline.

    Once you are past this, you’re in the high seas – the swathes of ocean not controlled by any one nation.

    If and when it comes into effect, the High Seas Treaty would give the world a way to set up large marine protected areas in the high seas. It would also apply to the international seabed – the seabed, subsoils and ocean floor lying beyond the continental shelf of a coastal state.

    Any new protected areas would likely have restrictions on activities such as fishing and shipping. But this will need to be done in consultation with relevant international bodies such as the International Maritime Organisation and regional fisheries management organisations.

    The treaty would go a long way to reaching key conservation goals set under the 2022 Kunming-Montreal Biodiversity Pact, which calls for protection of at least 30% of the world’s marine and coastal habitats by 2030.

    The treaty also sets up a mechanism for the sharing of benefits from marine genetic resources, financial and otherwise. Bacteria living in deep-sea ecosystems have attracted much scientific and commercial attention for potential use in medical research or pharmaceutical, cosmetics and food industries. Genetic resources from sea sponges have given rise to antiviral drugs targeting COVID and HIV as well as anti-cancer drugs.

    These resources were a major sticking point during the long negotiations.

    Many coastal countries lack the ability to participate in high seas research. As a result, they can miss out on these and other benefits. The High Seas Treaty recognises this and sets up a strong framework for capacity-building, technology transfer and technical assistance for developing nations.

    As nations fish out their territorial waters, some send fishing boats into the unregulated high seas.
    Richard Whitcombe/Shutterstock

    When will the oceans get a reprieve?

    Once the 60th nation ratifies the High Seas Treaty, it will enter into force 120 days later. This date could be as soon as May 1 next year, if the threshold is reached on January 1.

    Once this happens, this will be the date upon which the treaty gains legal force, meaning nations will have to comply with its obligations.

    That doesn’t mean huge new marine parks will come into being. There’s still much work to do to hash out the mechanics of how the treaty would actually work, how it would be overseen and how it would work with the International Seabed Authority which oversees deep-sea mining and the Antarctic Treaty System, among others. Negotiators face more work ahead to solve these outstanding issues before the real work can begin.

    That’s not to diminish this achievement. The progress on this treaty has been very hard won. Once it’s in effect, it will make a concrete difference.

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

    – ref. The historic High Seas Treaty is almost reality. Here’s what it would mean for ocean conservation – https://theconversation.com/the-historic-high-seas-treaty-is-almost-reality-heres-what-it-would-mean-for-ocean-conservation-258710

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: The Australian government has launched a new strategy to boost vaccination rates. Will it work?

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jessica Kaufman, Research Fellow, Vaccine Uptake Group, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute

    South_agency/Getty Images

    Last week, the Australian government announced a new National Immunisation Strategy for 2025–30. This strategy sets out the government’s priorities for improving vaccine uptake for children, adolescents and adults over the next five years.

    It comes at an important moment. Childhood vaccination coverage has been declining consistently since 2020.

    So what are the key goals of this new strategy, and will it be able to reverse the drop in vaccination rates among Australian children?

    Declining vaccination coverage since the pandemic

    While overall vaccination coverage remains high by global standards – at 92% for one-year-olds – this is down from a high of nearly 95% in 2020. The reasons for the drop include access challenges and concerns among some parents about vaccine safety and effectiveness.

    Many children are missing out on timely vaccines that prevent diseases such as whooping cough and meningitis. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, who also have lower vaccination coverage rates at one and two years old, bear a disproportionate burden of these diseases.

    And it’s not just children missing out. Among adolescents, HPV coverage at age 15 has dropped by 5% in girls (down to 81%) and 7% in boys (down to 78%) since 2020.

    Influenza vaccination coverage has declined year on year since 2022 and remains at very low levels. Coverage in 2024 was 62% for people aged 65 and older, and under 30% for the rest of the population.

    Across six key priority areas, the new immunisation strategy seeks to reduce vaccine hesitancy and improve access to vaccinations, particularly in priority groups such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. A few key points stood out to us.

    The National Immunisation Strategy has six key priority areas.
    CC BY

    1. Emphasis on trust and community engagement

    We need to strengthen trust in vaccines and the people and systems that deliver them because low levels of trust are associated with vaccine scepticism and refusal. Even though Australians’ trust in childhood vaccines is generally high, there have been some bumps in recent years.

    The pandemic left some people with lingering questions and misperceptions about vaccines, supercharged by misinformation and increasing political polarisation of vaccination.

    The strategy rightly emphasises the need to engage with communities and build trust in vaccination and the health system.

    However, relationships with communities can’t be stood up at a moment’s notice – they take time and effort to sustain. State and federal governments invested in these relationships with diverse communities during the COVID vaccine rollout, but many of these initiatives have since been dissolved due to lack of sustained funding and commitment.

    Recently, there have been positive indications some governments are reinvesting in these efforts. Hopefully this strategy will encourage more to do the same.

    2. Addressing equity and access

    Too often government leaders and media headlines blame individual laziness or hesitancy for our uptake problems, failing to acknowledge the very real problems with service convenience and access that are also present.

    The strategy makes clear that the government and immunisation service providers should make vaccination accessible and equitable. As a part of this commitment, it highlights the importance of ensuring all health-care professionals who are able to deliver vaccines are being utilised to their full potential.

    Pharmacists are specifically mentioned, but there is no reference to the largest group of immunisation providers: nurses. They should be better recognised and we need reform to enable nurses to vaccinate more independently.

    3. Recognising the importance of data

    When vaccination rates are low, it’s essential to know why. This comes from both talking with communities and collecting robust data.

    We are part of the National Vaccination Insights project, which carries out yearly monitoring using surveys and interviews with the public to better understand the drivers of vaccine uptake.

    The strategy proposes a live dashboard of vaccine uptake data, which would be valuable, but we also encourage the addition of social and behavioural data. The dashboard should also report rates of vaccination in pregnancy. This information is newly available, thanks to the recent addition of a field to record pregnancy status in the Australian Immunisation Register.

    4. Commitment to consider vaccine injury compensation

    Maintaining trust in vaccination means being able to acknowledge when vaccines can very occasionally cause harm. People tend to be more confident in vaccines when you tell them what to expect, what the common minor side effects are, as well as the rare serious ones.

    When those rare serious side effects become a reality for a handful of people, they may have to take time off work, incur medical expenses, and very occasionally, manage long-term complications. So it’s essential these people are financially compensated by government.

    We had such a compensation scheme during the pandemic for COVID vaccines, but this ended in September 2024. We welcome the government’s plan to explore whether establishing a compensation scheme is feasible for all vaccines on the national program.

    A comprehensive no-fault vaccine injury compensation scheme is overdue and, with thoughtful and consultative planning, would make our already robust vaccination system more trustworthy.

    Where to from here?

    The new national immunisation strategy is comprehensive and informed by evidence. But its impact will ultimately come down to its funding and implementation, which are not described in this document. Finalising these key plans and putting them into action must happen soon to arrest declining vaccination coverage and keep people well protected from serious diseases.

    Jessica Kaufman receives funding from the NHMRC, MRFF, Australian government, Victorian government, and UNICEF. She is a member of the Collaboration on Social Science and Immunisation (COSSI).

    Julie Leask receives funding from NHMRC, WHO, US CDC, NSW Ministry of Health. She received funding from Sanofi for travel to an overseas meeting in 2024.

    – ref. The Australian government has launched a new strategy to boost vaccination rates. Will it work? – https://theconversation.com/the-australian-government-has-launched-a-new-strategy-to-boost-vaccination-rates-will-it-work-258808

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –